Faefrost

Am I being weird? I was looking at this one yesterday and thinking that they seem to be getting a little too close to model quality with these? And the finished product is looking less and less recognizable as Lego.

I agree and what Talos did is more in line with how I was considering expanding it. Backwards to the baseplate. Moving the stairs is the easy part. Rather than extending back from the back wall, pull the back half of the building rearward and fill between the front and rear. This way the stairs get pushed to the back.

One noteworthy thing I noticed in my local Lego Store yesterday. All of the TMNT sets had been moved to the far back corner next to the stock room, where they typically put the sets and themes that are being discontinued. (Last major occupant was Galaxy Squad). I wish they had stuck with the TV show sets. The movie sets seemed to drain the line of momentum and consistency. At least the next movie has a new director and writer, so there is some hope. Plus they absolutely promised BeeBop and Rocksteady in it. So if Lego returns to the theme there is hope for BigFigs of them.

Not exactly surprising. Figure the designs have to be finalized by now to hit production and distribution targets. It's the same patern that we have seen with Marvel and The Hobbit. And no one should get their hopes or expectation wound up over the first Ep VII wave. That teaser trailer that we have all seen? Yeah safe money is that every one of those 7 initial sets will have been glimpsed either in that trailer or in related leaked pictures. And expect lots of the context and characters to be off from the final movie (hey everyone look at the awesome final showdown of Iron Man and the Mandarin!)

You never know. The Batman and Robin Batmobile is a somewhat interesting subject, and would eat up a ton of trans blue parts that they have made for Ultra Agents. Just so long as they avoid any BatNipples...

Looking at my response I realized I forgot one thing. I do have to confess to on rare occasion cutting, modifying and using "Kragle" on Lego parts. But it was when not using them as Lego parts. When modeling I always hate hand making hinges. I never get them right. So I have on rare occasions modified Lego hinges for use in plastic modeling projects. Although on those occasions I will confess that I always found actual Kraggle pretty much worthless for bonding Lego and would always secure the parts using screws or brass rod, and just use the glue as gap filler.

Yeah you don't need to make the outer ship minifig scale. That just gets crazy. Heck the basic design of that ship is probably not that bad if you scale it to be about the same size as some of the Star Wars ships.

it says we do not have permission to see your pics.

Damn! So my hopes of a Squid Tribe vs a Moose Tribe are dashed...

There is no affirmative that there will be more UA. Simply no comment that it is only a 2 shot line. Although it would not surprise me to see it go to three waves especially with what would otherwise be in house action themes Adventurers and Monsters being covered by licensed themes and Undersea stuff looming in City. In modern times it is almost unheard of however for a TLG sub theme to go beyond 3 unless it is one of their massive multimedia themes like Chima or Ninjago. Granted they have invested some interesting development tech into Ultra Agents with those new app bricks. So maybe one more release cycle to work the bugs out? But those are fully portable that can be used for any theme eventually.

Oh lord I hope not. Given the sexual assault elements of that story I would assume that Lego would likely steer clear of it.

A helmet on Deathstroke? He's always been a more or less full face stocking mask, save for Arrow and some very recent appearences. A helmet just would be too bulky on him as a minifig.

While I can't speak to why they all have weapons, the new "elite" Galaxy Trooper is not a rehash. He has an all new armor piece. He actually reminds me quite a bit of the Hero's Duty soldiers from Wreck It Ralph.

I think any embarrassment I might have had died a few weeks ago when I wandered into the Lego store around lunchtime and found it packed with AFOLs. At least a dozen. Not a kid in sight. The clerk was having a VERY good day. By my estimates I was the cheap customer... Only spending $250 or so.

I would not worry too much about color choices. Ideas sets do get redesigned by actual Lego designers and they all make the effort to improve the accent colors, working with the original designers. See some of the Interviews with Mark Stafford regarding the Exosuit.

I know I'm going to end up repeating myself here, but here goes. Based on some of the CuuSoo and Ideas blog posts over the years, size is a squirrels thing. Yes size matters, and plays a big part in the review process. But size is not a binary. Nor is it equal accross the boards. At least not beyond a few simple rules. 1. There is an effective minimum build. Ideas has the requirement that the project must be a brick building project. No minifig projects. So safe guesstimate is probably a minimal build similar to a Star Wars Battlepack. 2. There is an effective maximum size. Ideas will not approve "the largest Lego set ever released". At the end of the day size must be in line with what we see on store shelves. And yes some size/price points will increase your chances at review. But these are not universal accross all proposals. They are structured based on estimated target audience. Predictability of market behavior etc. the more data they have, the more they can dial it in. The effective range for an Ideas set probably sits in a range between 50 and 2500 pieces, with the market sweet spot of minimal review resistance somewhere around 500 pieces. Lego is not likely to do a 3000 piece Ideas Friends set. They have no data on it. It is not a target market that does well at that size and price point. The same with things like Super Heroes or City. They surely would never go that big on an unknown untried license. But They do have certain lines that thrive in those price points. Cases in point Modular Buildings and Technic. Not only do both lines have a very stable or growing adult based hobbiest target audience at the $100-$250 price points. But they both also have good data on previous succesful fan designed limited edition releases. This is not saying that Lego ever will decide to release a large Ideas set. Simply that if or when they do, chances are it will be from one of those lines. (I would include Star Wars UCS, but pre existing licensing throws another issue that makes it unlikely we will ever see an Ideas UCS.) I think the Natural History Museum has the best chance we have yet seen for a large set passing the business case. Not guaranteed, but probably a better chance then we think (with a somewhat reduced piece count. Trust me it is easy to trim 500 pieces off a modular. Just don't tile the upper floors. )

I'm not sure it reached it's official EOL / Retirement date. But it is almost certain that as it sells out that will be it. It is likely not going back for any further production runs. So it is sold out in some regions already. Although it may pop up on S@H briefly from time to time as stock moves around and returns from stores etc.

If they do it would probably be by shortening the cycle slightly. Say reduce from 12 months between them to 10 months. I don't think we will see the rigid Summer/Winter waves we see with retail sets.

Is that price point confirmed? I thought it was just some bodies speculation?

Any imperials included would almost be guaranteed to be Scout Troopers. They have a new scout mold to use and they are more closely associated with the scenes.

Looking at the blow up still photo of Marcus Besos and the Helicarrier nose from the designer video titles, I think we all may be over estimating the scale a little. The ships nose as seen makes me think the size may be closer to 10198 Tantive IV than the 10221 SSD. Probably ~ 2 1/2 feet long.

If I am going to do a short form personal opinion type review I am more prone to do it on Brickset or Amazon, as those have a better interface and mechanism, and I think even if people don't read the specific review they at least easily get the aggregate of everyone's feelings. The S@H site I always found very clunky. How come I can write reviews for some sets but not others? Even being able to see the reviews seems random from product page to product page. And I only allow a site to devour what I have written while attempting to post, twice before I say the hell with it.

Yeah I saw Black Widow, Falcon, Winter Soldier, black Panther and Iron Man all confirmed for Cap 3 Civil War. So it's almost a full blown Avengers flick by itself.

Oh gods no! I came out of my Dark Ages to get away from the Kraggle. I was a regular plastic modeler and scratchbuilder and model railroader. Kragle Kragle everywhere along with paint and nasty paint and Kragle fumes. Hence the wife threatened my into a quiet hobby that did not change the carpet colors or permafix the furniture and pets to the floor. I model with Lego to take on the challenge of no Kraggle, no cutting, etc.

Oh dear... I have a tower of 80 of these sitting on my desk!?! Oh and BTW, if you do any tech servicing, I find these suckers are way better at popping open laptops than those flimsy little manufacturers wedges.