Faefrost

Well one of the better known of the original classic Scooby Doo Episodes was the Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow. Which is what I suspect we will see that pumpkin mask used for in one way or another. Heck I think the Headless Horseman appears in one of the Zscooby Doo opening titles?

That looks fantastic. Nicely done. Although it is somewhat interesting to note your monochrome color choices, which a lot of people seem to make. Everyone assumes that Police Stations or Precinct houses from that mid century time period are imposing stone edifices of grey's. But here's the thing. They actually aren't. They can be quite varied in color. We just tend to think of them as grey and imposing because we mostly mentally picture them from older movies and television. older Black and White movies. While in truth they more often than not can be quite colorful. And note this same thing happened when we got the first pictures of the Detectives Office. Everyone complained because of the bright colors. But the bright colors are actually real world accurate. Everyone thought it was wrong because we all are so ingrained to think of Detective Offices from Black and White Film Noir movies that the real appearance seems strange to us. or how about this? (I think a modular of this would be so off the wall cool) This is just one of those fascinating ways in which everybodies perceptions of the world tend to be universally wrong. One of the best books on Model Railroading I ever read encouraged the modeler to go out into their town, step back and actually look at the buildings. To actually look up, as they tended to simply fill in the space with their mental preconceptions. Instead look at what is really there, and you end up amazed. Humans are very weird animals.

Color me somewhat disinterested. Even as a child growing up in the 70's heyday of Hanna Barbera I never liked Scooby Doo. On the positive side, for those who were hoping for more Monster Fighters instead, there is also a report that the fall CMF line will be "Monsters" for Halloween. So we may see more classic Lego MF type monsters as well as goofy weird Scooby Doo old man Caruthers type monsters.

There's a Friends or Star Wars promotion this month? I thought the Flower Cart was the only giveaway? The Star Wars one is in May. I think there may be a Friends in the next month or two(I could be wrong on that one I don't pay much attention to friends giveaways)? Also I am pretty sure my US calender only had one minifigure voucher thingy?

I don't see anything even vaguely resembling a misprint there? You said that you have requested "replacement parts" 5 times in the past year? Were these all replacement licensed minifig torso's? Because yeah, I suspect you have found your way into the special file where requests must be manually investigated and validated. Some of what you perceive as "misprints" are probably flaws or the human element in the actual graphic art, such as how perfectly centered spines are etc. These are drawn by artists and often little shifts make things look more alive. Plus the art is done by hand and is simply using eyeball judgement. But to my eye those look like perfect or near perfectly printed figures. Also just a suggestion for general internet safety. You might want to create a secondary flickr account using a screen name or avatar name to avoid accidentally giving out too much personal info when linking pictures to public forums.

Nicely made. I'm having Kenner flashbacks.

It's a perfectly sane and logical choice once you realize and accept that Lego is not Bridge Direct. They make toys, not "collectibles for adults" (at least more or less, not counting UCS). From a toy seller/buyers perspective Gondor would have honestly been essentially a retread of Helm's Deep in a different color. The Pirate Ship offered a different play experience in a different setting and it had cross theme appeal as it lured in some of the Pirate and Historical builders. The Pirate Ship is a great product. It would not surprise me to find out it was among the top 5 sellers of the two lines. Yes a Gondor set would have been nice to have. And yes I truly agree that Black Gate should have had a pair of Gondor soldiers. But that does not diminish the fact that the Pirate Ship was easily the better play related product. Whereas any Gondor set would have been yet another set of orcs attacking walls.

Sadly unlikely, for one of those funny truths of marketing that so many adults fail to appreciate about developing children. The book in question is very very much targeted at young 8-14 year old boys. The minifig is an incentive to get them to want the book. And unlike we AFOL's for the most part at those ages they are less "character collectors" and more "Minifigs as toys and playthings". To sell a Star Wars book to young boys they will stick one of the male characters in it. This is not to say that young boys do not play with female figs. But that the female figs are not the lure or the primary draw for them at those ages. The same holds true for the other side of things. When DK puts out a Friends or Elves guidebook it will not be packaged with "Juan Pablo the Cabana Boy". It will have one of the girl figs.

So they are all fairly close in weight? Interesting.

It would make sense. If they give us any minifigs with the Helicarrier (which they are pretty much guaranteed to do these days as they cheaply sweeten the pot.) we know the first one on the list has to be Fury. It's his ship after all.

And absolutely nothing would give them cause to have any such conversation. Lego had the license and the clear expectation to do the Helicarrier with Marvel Disney. Someone stacking 40,000 bricks in LDD has no relationship or impact on that. It is unlikely they would have a side conversation do such a thing as cut a side deal as it diminishes the rules and the market draw of their Ideas project and products. If they felt it was appropriate to do they would have done so with several prior creators with closer relations to TLG and a greater body of work, such as Marshall Banana. The moment we had a hint that there was a large UCS Batman Tumbler in the works is the moment we knew that it was likly TLG had a corresponding Marvel set in planning and design stages. Knowing the MCU, and knowing the general tendencies of the UCS design capabilities made some version of Helicarrier the likely candidate as Marvel does not have a vehicle heavy "Batman" type character. The UCS Helicarrier entered into the planning and design stages probably 18 months ago, given its size, complexity (based on the brief partial glimpse we have seen) and how much feedback and approval would be needed from Marvel. Also remember that office politics does play a role. While the various Lego design teams will fall all over themselves in admiration of a well presented well designed Ideas project that is something striking and different, they will not really be seeking to borrow or poach anything from Ideas that already falls clearly within their direct department mandate and personal to do lists.

It will seem even bigger still MMV does not have numbered bags. So it's old school sorting. My most enjoyable? Either 10197, my first Modular, or the recent 75059 Sandcrawler which is the largest I have ever sat down to. Both have that feeling of deflation when you realize it is done.

I don't think they will. Between LR and TLM they built up a good new stock of Western tooling. Each of the recent CMF offerings has had Western Characters. And while LR did awful in theaters the Lego sets sold well. Heck they sold extremely well before anyone saw the movie.

While not completely impossible it is extremely unlikely. A licensed set of that scale and complexity takes almost 2 years to bring to retail. The glimpse we got of Marcos in the designer title was of a polished product. They never EVER(!) would have allowed images of an ideas project to leak out that had not even formally entered the review period. They may pre emptively discuss and examine business case and brand fit issues of looming projects. They would not begin preliminary design work, and they absolutely positively would never show images or photography of any such preliminary work in the unlikely event that they were to pursue it. Lego generally has very very strong process and information control. They maintain good predictable business practices. That image in the Lego Designer intro might have been an accidental leak, but it was a minor leak at best spoiling a few weeks. Rumor is the product hits shelves in March. There is no way this is in any way connected to Ideas. Given how Lego likes to keep their Marvel and DC offerings rather balanced chances are this started development around or partway into the development of the Tumbler to maintain said balance.

There is no ethical reason for them not to. But business wise it isn't something that they would find a compelling need or benefit from. Aside from something very very specific such as a UCS Air Force One or Concorde Lego themselves gets no real benefit from paying for the licensing to use real world markings. The costs of the licenses exceed the benefits of branding the sets as such. They make toys. The pool of kids who care whether it is Luftehanse or Delta vs made up Lego markings is so small as to be unmeasurable. And where you do find those customers their preferences for favorites are so varied and split between multiple brands as to be unmanageable. The only business path to it is some sort of subsidized promotion on the part of the airlines.

Plus that version shows up both in the Yoda chronicles and The Lego Movie. You would think they would give him to us somewhere?

Just tell the wife its a new Cofee table and park it in the living room

I suspect that anything involving pre-existing licenses is nowhere near as cut and dry as they will simply never do something from an existing license. I think GlenBricker is overstating things just a hair with his concept of inevitable discovery. But as TLG themselves say, pre-existing licenses are vastly more complicated than simply getting a new license for an Ideas set. And we keep for some reason assuming that the decisions regarding the Ideas sets is wholly Lego's to make. The key thing is any licensor with a pre-existing arrangement with TLG will have absolute veto power. Their sets get made by the people and the team they wish, and present the subjects that they agree with. In most cases the licensors will not allow a third party free agent to be involved. Certainly not with any sort of design or product "royalty". But you never know. The folks at Warner Brothers may fall in love with that Minas Tirith, or someone from the studio may think the JP set would compliment the new stuff. Stranger things have happened. But by far the most common default will be one of IP protection. The best example I can think of is the Star Wars license. The likely cut point for what will or will not pass as an Ideas set is probably "has it appeared on screen?" Is the project an ILM design from the movies? If yes, then no it will not pass. But something from an obscure corner of the SW universe, such as a novel, video game, or long forgotten TV show might pass. A UCS set of Chewbacca's house and family from the Star Wars Holiday Special has a greater chance of passing than a UCS Luke's Landspeeder. Because the Landspeeder is already a likely and expected subject. The problem of course is the proposed set must skim a fine line between being already enshrined on the to do list, and being popular enough that people will buy it.

Well we know two of the projects are DOA because TLG already has similar in production from the internal licensing groups. The Helicarrier and the Jurrasic Park set. So that prunes the list a bit. Of the rest a number of large movie focused sets. 2 Pirate Ships and a Castle as it were. A large modular building, the long watched Marble Maze and the Piano. Of those I think Piano and Marble Maze are safe bets. Educational, simple and classic. I think the Flying Dutchman will not pass. Too large and complex mixed with a weird point in the license. When Lego does a huge Ideas set it will not be on a license that struggled to sell its large ships. I don't think Goonies will pass either. While a fondly remembered nostalgic property it lacks the shear gravitas of Ghostbusters or BttF. Minas Tirith and the Museum are the wild cards. Unlikely, but if Lego will take a long shot it might be on one of those two. Minas Tirith will depend on some very complex licensing issues, not to mention Lego's own internal business case for ending the line. But they do have very good relations with WB, so it just might happen. For the Museum, if Lego is going to bet on a large Ideas set, the most likely candidate will be a nice Modular Building. They have insanely good data on their modular line. They not only know how many they can sell, but precisely who buys them down to our street addresses. Plus their previous most succesful fan designed set was in this style or theme. I don't think either Minas Tirith or the Museum will see production, but you never know.

Yeah between naked Raiden and Quiet (seriously Google up an image of her, it will answer all questions of why it ain't gonna happen.) I think this will be well on the list of never ever ever.

There are two reasons why they do that. One is as said, to minimize the possible confusion of hard to differentiate parts in similar colors. (If you want an example of how frustrating it can be to not do that in design, look at some of Megabloks most recent offerings and understand why a few of them are recommended 16+. It's because this sort of thing would enrage younger builders). The second reason has to do with how sets are packaged. Each bag is filled automatically via a number of stations on the production line. Each specific part type used in the set occupies one station. By combining similar part needs to a single common element they reduce one of the production stations needed or free it up for something else.

I think there are technically a few TCW "Felucia" sets. The 501st was extensively on Felucia during the series. I just don't think any of them are specifically named as such, or show the landscape. Just as an example isn't the first real appearance of the Republic Attack Shuttle delivering Ashoka to Felucia?

We often blame Lego for the lack of more Middle Earth sets. But the sad truth is it is the intermediate customers, the big box stores, who really were not that interested in the product line. Target and Walmart got burned badly by a lot of the Hobbit TUJ merchandise (not so much Lego, but everything else.) even with the stuff that they did not end up bargain bin blowing out on clearance, it was hitting outside their desired target market for that shelf space. The Middle Earth sets tended to trend older, which becomes a problem for the merchant as something younger trending such as Chima generates more repeat and growth sales. In other words even when the Hobbit sets are selling, it is the wrong people who are buying them. Target and Walmart expect those people to be across the store in the video games and consumer electronics aisle. They expect the young uns to be buying from the shelf space that the Hobbit is sitting in. Retail can be complicated and often seemingly insane.

Modulars, as it is the main theme that I not only buy, but also do complex MOC'ing. Star Wars is what got me out of my dark ages so that's up there too.

Oh I expect more than the three that I am sure they would include. I would think it is somewhere in the 5-7 fig range.