Faefrost

We virtually never know the length or breadth of a license. I think the only major exceptions have been the Harry Potter license, which we knew the hard end date because the unexpected 8th film left product on the shelves up to the actual date, and Sponge Bob which we learned of by MegaBloks picking it up. But we can assume certain things. It is likely that the license came into effect at the beginning of 2011, with product released 8-12 months following. Based on that, and the expected and final release cycle of the movies chances are the hard end date of the license is late 2015. That would be a 5 year license, which is pretty typical for TLG dipping into a multi film property. And if we are talking about licenses lets not ignore the elephant in the room, CURRENT MOVIES. Here is the simple fact, a license which has a current movie in theaters will do an order of magnitude more sales for Lego than a property that is no longer producing new media. (This is true across the boards and even applies to Star Wars. It's just Star Wars without a movie is about equal to everything else with. Star Wars with a movie is consumer insanity. ) So for most licenses once the movies stop the sales drop off is huge enough to make it not worth extending the license. This was true for Harry Potter, Indiana Jones, Batman (round 1) Spiderman (round 1) and PotC. And yes it applies to the Middle Earth properties. Add to this that the license does not simply encompass producing new sets. It also encompasses how long the manufacturer can sell those sets. So a manufacturer like TLG will not produce any new sets once the license time drops to the point where it equals the typical retail shelf life of a product wave. (most often one year for retail sets two years for D2C exclusive sets.). Remember they have to leave time to sell what they make. Which brings us back to this likely schedule. early to mid 2011 license begins. end 2011, beginning 2012 initial product hits shelves. End 2014, beginning 2015 final products hit shelves. End 2015, license ends remaining product leaves shelves. Now this is pure speculation on my part, based on some fairly common practices and what we know of Lego's production schedules. But I would call it a well educated guess. Might the license be something different? Sure, who knows what was negotiated? But that seems the best guess based on how the movies bounced around. (and yes for these purposes The Hobbit movies = LotR movies. One feeds into and supports the other.) as far as Lego allowing the projects. The only time they pull a project is if it is of an "impossible license". Mainly one that is already under contract to a competitor for the foreseeable future, or ones in which their competitors outright own the IP in question. (Hence no Barbie, G I Joe or Transformers projects. Lego can never ever get those. Or at least cannot initiate that conversation.) LotR and The Hobbit do not fall into those categories. They are either an open license as far as Ideas is concerned or they are a Pre-Existing Lego license, which while not impossible for Ideas, is very very complicated.

That might not be real lego. It might be from a clone or bootleg brand. Avoid the minifig patents by driving the head post straight up from the legs through a hole in the top of the torso. It might also simply be a never to be used test experiment. Those parts look very rough, they don't look to be in ABS, the sheen looks more like styrene and they have what look like some stress marks in places. Plus red like that is typically test parts. (I'm not sure why but they generally use red for testing and validation. ) So I would not be putting to much excitement behind these pics yet. They could be anything up to and including factory floor sweepings or recycled medical waste.

I think the Olaf head would have looked better on a traditional minifig torso with short legs. At least that way it could hold things and have a bit more interactive ability.

Very nice. Although hiding the toilet behind a secret door is gonna get messy if you ever have company. Also Piano in Bedroom = very very tolerant spouse. I love the house itself. The rooflines are very distinct, and between them and the Palm tree it has a very "Pacific" feel to it.

A few of the Superhero buildings are likely candidates. I wish I could find an online pic of it, but there was a full page ad in a Lego Club magazine a year or so ago that showed that little bank from the last Batman 2 Face chase set expanded out and up to a 3 story corner modular. It looked fantastic! Other likely candidates are the Daily Bugle building from the Spider-Man Dailly Bugle set. And the Arkham Assylum set.

I think if/when we get a new UCS Falcon, it will be wildly amusing to hear the AFOL howls of outrage when they finally figure out that a new Ep VII based UCS MF will not have in fact have that Holy Grail of pieces the obscenely expensive printed radar dish. Remember it got knocked off in RotJ? Well it's been replaced with a big spare radar by ep VII. Upgrades! Or rather to quote Yogurt...

Not quite. It isn't simply that Disney did not want their characters in a movie made by a rival studio. It's that just as Disney wholly owns Marvel these days Warner Brothers, the films makers, wholly own DC. But even then some agreements were reached. Note that we did get Star Wars and the appearance of some Marvel characters. It's just that those things can be absolutely brutal and very very hard to do. For fun go look up all the back end dealing and contractual minutiae that went on between the same two studios to actually put classic Walt Disney and Warner Brothers characters on screen together in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. It isn't that the studios were playing any sort of deliberate pissing matches. Heck both studios loved the idea, it's just that it gets so overwhelmingly complex to do because t=of the complexity of the IP's and the rights (and yes some minor rivalry's. Case in point in Roger Rabbit Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse appear on screen at the same moment side by side during a falling scene. This was both a sneaky and a snarky way that the films production team got around the annoying requirement that neither character could have any more or less screen time or focus than the other.) Heck this stuff is complex even when it does not seemingly need to be so. Marvel and Sony have actually been on pretty good terms lately. And rumor is they would have both loved to throw an MCU cameo the others way, with Spiderman showing up in the Avengers somewhere and an MCU character in an AMS film. But the shear complexity of it all once it hits the lawyers just left them walking away drooling. That's why we got the little teases of the Oscorp tower in Avengers and Stark Tower in AMS instead. They could write those off as Easter Eggs and not get the lawyers involved. we got mostly DC heros in TLM because WB is DC and that is their familiar ground. They don't have to ask to use them. And yes characters crossing studio lines gets weird and hard. I mean what happens to the licensing for theme park rides and shows if you stick Spiderman vs Batman in a movie? There is a whole trickle down of potential consequences if you are not careful. But weirdly Disney and Marvel seem to be figuring out a key piece of what has led to the comic movie renaissance. Cross brand Synergy. The old mean nasty rivalries of the past are being shoulved aside by a newer younger team who grew up with these characters and love all of them. and they understand that whoever goes to see Cap 3, WILL go see Sup v Bats the next week. No question. And you can help drive people into those two films by cooperation on a Cap + Sup Lego silly movie. As long as the movies remain strong well written and engaging they build from each other regardless of studio. It is only when absolute dreck (Ghost Rider? etc) starts hitting screen that both studios take hits. That is the large part of why Marvel is being such a classical style bastard to Fox regarding the Fantastic Four. They fear that movie is so awful that it can do collateral brand damage all across the 4 color funny pages.They do not want it associated with them, not that it will help when it goes down in flames. Lego favored DC for TLM because it stemmed from a long standing succesful production relationship. Lego had been working with Cartoon Network for a long time. CN is wholly owned Warner Brothers. Between Ninjago and the success of the Star Wars stuff pre disney they had a good working relationship. That is not to say that Lego does not have superb ties to Lucasfilms, Disney and Marvel. Just not quite as familiar with the environment as things were transitioning over there. (Although Lego just got a huge boost of confidence and support from Disney last week when word leaked that Hasbro was considering buying Dreamworks. Disney walked up told the Hasbro board that they would then be considered chief rivals and all Star Wars, Disney, Princess, etc contracts would immediately end. That is often over quoted and poorly understood. For a period Sony did have near total rights over Spiderman. After SM3 and the problems they were reverting back to Marvel and SONY renegotiated. Sony has a bigger and better cut of the movies. But SONY has none of the merchandising, no character rights to third parties etc. It all goes through and to Marvel. So SONY cannot issue a toy license based on an AMS movie any longer. That has reverted to the IP owner. The X-Men movies and FF are in a bit of a bind. Marvel does not have all the rights back, but they do have absolute right to veto any and all merchandise. Thus denying Fox their cut. Hence why no directly attributable X-Men merchandise out of the last 2 movies.

I think we will be slowly getting that in the Creative Expert line. Just not as Modulars. We just got the Carnival Mixer and rumor is next up is a Ferris Wheel. Well if someone was to do up a"Flynn's" it is surprisingly well documented. Arcade on the ground floor. Kevin Flynn's mangy apartment above and looking down on the Arcade. Back room/basement with the "zap people into the grid" machine (in "Tron Legacy") etc.

After setting up the wife's Winter Village, having a ton of the CMF type figure stand pieces in white would be incredibly useful.

A garage would be fantastic. Although I think it would work better as a front facing building, not a corner. An Arcade I would absolutely love, although I think it is a little too late 20th century to be grabbed as part of the regular Modular line. Which seems to mainly fall between 1932 and 1955 or so. But a certain Arcade would make for a near perfect corner modular Ideas project if presented well. "Flynn's Arcade" anyone?

Hmmm? Next Modular? Probably a corner? A lot will depend on designer and who had a great deal of input? My first guess still leans towards a classic Pharmacy (Apothocary? chemist? If you will.) Jamie is from New England, and that does color a lot of his designs and inspiration, and one of the classics in that area is every small town had the corner Drug Store with the soda and ice cream counter. It would also be a great place to put a doctor or dentists office above, thereby adding non scary health care to the city, without the complexity of trying to cram a hospital into 32x32. My second guess is a Bank. I lean against this one just a hair as Banks tend to be single purpose buildings without a lot of interest going on. "Look kids! Accountants!". On the positive they tend to feature a ton of fantastic fake classical style architecture, so a bank building would be an interesting build.

I'm going to counter that the "goofy ball droid" that by all reports Disney insisted on for marketing reasons pretty much blows a hole in the theory of "function over Wow it looks cool!" Being mandated by the Mouse.

Some interesting things in there... especially re Max Von Sydow

There are actually a number of names on this list that have apparently moved from highly unlikely to "would be surprised if we don't get" as movies TV and other properties have advanced. I mean we got TWO Rocket Racoon figs! Who would ha imagined that in 2013? Squirrel Girl - has become something of a wink and nod joke between DC and Marvel. The Internet meme of Marvel will get Squirrel Girl on screen before DC gets Wonder Woman has been taken as a dare. Rumors are SG may be an end credits scene in AoU. I can see someone in Marvel Marketing thinking a Squirrel Girl minifig would be a trip. Either in a set or as an SDCC fig. Howard the Duck - appears in GotG believe it or not. Cosmo - appears in GotG. We will likely see him again as the Infinity stuff plays out. Too cute not to consider a fig if the GotG franchise takes off. Mantis - once again the rise of GotG to the top of Marvels heap combined with the otherwise lack of potential female Guardians and Avengers elevate her chances of making an appearance.

Both the big and small CoD Helicopters are surprisingly good quality and really creative builds. Megabloks has never really slouched in the set design standpoint. They have always had product and plastic quality issues. Which as of the 2014 releases they finally seem to be getting under control. The big Blackhawk has some amazing snot usage and is one of the most fun builds I have sat down to all year. It still is not Lego with the weak point remaining occasionally missing pieces from the box and instructions that are just too dark to differentiate the part colors in black, dark grey and dark green sets (in other words in Halo and CoD sets). Pulling up the online instructions helps a bit with this I have found. About the only other compaint is some of their design is closer to a complex MOC than a well engineered Lego build, so often it is more geared towards the advanced builder. I would not give one of the CoD sets to an 8 year old to build without (a lot) help. Just a lot of finicky part determination and orientation, and a great deal of frailty while building and getting it all together. It can be more frustrating. I would say that CoD Blackhawk is roughly the equivalent of a small inexpensive Lego UCS set in terms of difficulty. I think I got three nights of building out of it. But one of those was mostly sorting. (MegBloks does not do numbered bags. Well they do, but they don't actually mean anything to us.) In my experience (and your mileage may vary) Kre-O seems to have near Lego part quality, but set designs seem to be stuck somewhere around Lego early to mid 80's.

Town Hall is on its last run and what is left on shelves is it. The Tumbler is only just getting out into the store shelves so you will be able to get it later still. TH will not last past Christmas if it is not already gone.

The color complaint is one that still leaves me baffled? Contrary to the minds eye most buildings, especially commercial properties are quite colorful and eye catching. Blue is a not uncommon color for a painted narrow storefront building. And lighter blues tend to be the norm? Further the blue would be the correct and artistic color to use to offset the dark orange bricks on the Detctive Office and Pool Hall. That whole color wheel thing. Or "why are all modern movies teal and orange?". The color scheme on this looks perfectly ok for the time period and geography that it is representative of.

Trans red is by far the easiest colored cannopy to find these days. They have a somewhat broader selection having shown up in Alpha Team, Galaxy Squad, Star Wars, and a host of others in fairly recent times.

Yes the Green Ninja is exclusive. It is Lloyd in the second season DX outfit, which he never wore in the show (the green Ninja not showing up until later). That is awesome.

Thank you WhiteFang. Truly a wonderful review as always. I think I look forward to these more than almost anything else on the site. And the interview is fantastic. As for the figs? overall I am pleased an excited. A lot of figs that play into my interests this go round, and a ton of neat parts. 1. The King - A great looking new King, finally with a different crown. I love the ermine cape. While I am not crazy about the modern style hair and crown molded piece, it looks way to cool not to love it. Here's hoping we get it in blonde soon as well. 2. The Sheriff - A not unexpected figure after we got his Robot version in TLM series. He looks great. Nice to get another mustache and a printed 10 gallon hat. Lot's of uses for him and all the Western characters. (One of these days I really need to map out a full "Westworld" MOC with the three zones. "Westworld", Futureworld" and "Medievalworld". Let the Robot Revolution begin! 3. Unicorn Girl - OK? I can see this one being insanely popular amongs the population of small female lego fans and bronies. It is kind of neat. I like the headpiece. I just fear that a certain portion of my modular town is starting to look disturbingly like some sort of Furry convention? 4. Snake Charmer - I am mixed on this one. I like the figure. I like the parts. But it is kind of dull, and a little will go a long way. I can see lots of interesting uses for the face torso and turban however. And the snake just begs for an Indiana Jones scene. 5. Goblin - :wub: A near perfect figure. I need an army of these guys. 6. Paleontologist - A nice little figure. You can practically hear her voice in your head already. Heck unless I am mistaken between her, the cave girl, some of the previous offerings and a few characters from the adventurers line we have just about the full cast of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "Lost World" stories. Once again, do not need many of these. The hair hat combo makes using the parts broadly tough, although it is a great female torso and legs. 7. Alien Trooper - I love this guy, and I think WhiteFang is wrong about him. His armor color is more in line with Alien Conquests EDF or even Classic Space. I think we have just found Galaxy Commands quirky alien co pilot and sidekick. And he's a cute little C'thulu. Forget that whole "God is My Co Pilot" thing. We're flying with one of the "Old Ones". Seriously I love this figure. I'll take a dozen please. The uses are enormous. Besides the obvious Classic and Modern Space and Army building, you have a great head for horror type C'thullu MOC's, or a Dungeons and Dragons Mindflayer. Or an Atlantis MOC. Simply wonderful. 8. Egyptian Warrior - I am thrilled at another historical character. And the parts are great. But I am not sure why but this one just doesn't grab me the way it should. I can see some great army building potential, I just can't work up the need for an Egyptian Army I guess. Some cool pieces and I want a dozen of those shields. 9. The Carpenter - I will have a hard time keeping any of these. My father in Law is a master carpenter. So everyone in the family will immediately steal them. But I love this fig. He just has such nice simple character. One of the best they have done. 10. Evil Wizard - Oh yeah can I find a home for him. And stupid question, am I remembering it, or is this guy real close to the villain from Clutch Powers? I also love that the printed robe pieces have a slight almost asian feel to them, so this guy will work well not just with Castle, but with Ninjago. For some reason he keeps making me think of the bad guy from Big Trouble in Little China? The printed cape and collar is amazing. 11. The Fencer - A neat helmet. But otherwise probably my least favorite fig of the series. Just kind of dull. And I even have a Modular Dojo in my city that I can stage a fencing class in. Maybe he will grow on me. 12. Female Samurai - I love the concept of this figure. I love the torso and legs. I have always kind of hated that classic Samurai Armor piece, and I really wish they had taken this as an opportunity to update it. At least they nicely printed it this time. I just hate that much like the Nya / Samurai X figures they ugly armor obscures the much better printing. The armor also never looks right without having the matching helmet sloping down to those broad flat shoulders. The same old "asian girl" hair piece just looks out of place with the armor. I seem to remember that somewhere in the parts catalog there used to be a version of this armor without the shoulders. printing on that piece with some minor arm printing would have looked much much better on her. I'm also not crazy about the face on this one. Why does she seem to be snarling? A double sided face with a more neutral or happy expression would have really helped. 13. Disco Diva - Wow! That's ummm... well that certainly is a look. It's like every possible 70's stereotype wrapped up in one tiny minifig. All at once. And it is oddly glorious for it. A little of this fig goes a long way. But just a few are marvelous. 14. Hot Dog Man - Sooo apparently weed is legal in Denmark? Because that is by far the most likely explanation for this fig. The art department is stoned and has the munchies at 3am. And yet it is glorious. You almost want an army of these things. Just Lego design folks, if you are reading this. Someone please publish the minutes from the design meeting where somebody pitched "Giant Hot Dog Man" because that has got to be a fascinating conversation. 15. Lady Cyclops - So now we know where baby Cyclopses come from? An interesting figure that honestly I don't think anybody ever asked for, and would not have been upset to have ever known about. Obviously Lego re using the head mold. and "hey look it counts as diversity!". I am so proud that Lego is putting forth more "women of color" minifigs. Really the most (ok only) interesting thing about this fig is the head with the giant eyeball with eyelashes. That will find some very very bizarre uses. The torso and legs might be useful as a twileck in a MOC. 16. Elite Galaxy Trooper - I WANT THEM ALL! Just gimme! Yeah this will be my Army Builder target this go round. I love the armor mold. Although I am not crazy about the silver printing on it. It looks a bit grainy. (silver never prints well). Also slightly disappointing is the blank torso under the armor. But still the Master Chief is in the building. Lock and Load people! :wub: Overall this series seems a bit more genre and theme specific, and not quite as generic or of more broad city use than the last few. Since I mostly dable in genres and fantasy themes I kind of like that, but I can see where the City and Civilian fans will not be as thrilled this go round.

I think you are not realizing how licenses work. No Lego and MB did not share or concurrently have the same license. MB had the Spider-Man license as issued by Sony for the original movies. They also had a general Marvel license for a short while, and an Iron Man movie license for IM2. Those licenses have all since ended, and in the case of Spiderman and Iron Man the merchandising rights no longer reside with the movie producers and now are 100% Marvel/Disney. Marvel/Disney then entered into a relationship with Lego to produce licensed sets. Much the same happened in the other direction with Spongebob. Lego had the license for a number of years, and for whatever business reason the license was not continued or extended this year. Megabloks has since picked up the license and begun to produce their own sets. Now technically these sets should not co-exist on the shelves. Stores are supposed to pull unsold merchandise and send it back or clearance it out at the end of a license. What you are seeing is an inventory control problem at your local Target. Which honestly happen quite frequently. Merchandise gets buried back in a stockroom only to get dumped onto store shelves years later. In most cases it is not that big of a deal and the major players will not raise a big stink about it, leaving that to the local reps. (I guarantee you the local Lego rep for your Target would pitch a fit if she found those MD Spiderman sets and the Mattel rep will pitch a fit over any remaining Lego Spongebob.) All of the above really only applies to the direct distribution merchants. The big box stores. Relationships with smaller third party outfits that acquire product through non manufacturer distributors may vary. In many cases they have outright bought the product with no required return clause and can technically sell it until the boxes decay from age. The classic example of one of these in the US is non toy merchants such as Barnes and Noble (still overflowing with CB/Cobi Dr. Who even though they lost the license months ago) and Frye's. Target buys direct from Lego and Mattel, get much much better pricing and have some obligations as a result. Cobi's Scooby Doo is still out there. Likely they are in the tail end of their license. They cannot produce anymore but can finish selling off what product they have for a few more months. This will end before Lego products start hitting store shelves. when you start seeing those deep deep discounts on licensed sets, this is what is going on. There is a great example this week from TRU and Kre-O. The combined Starship ENterprise and Klingon D7 set for $19.99 in store pickup. Assuming your local store still has one. They are blowing out the product to get it off the shelves before the license ends.

An FBI "Party Van" to go along with the Detectives Office bootleggers? Maybe a CSI scene of murder and mayhem? Rocco and Vinnie shaking down a pushcart pretzel pusher for protection? What? Nobody else's modular cities have scenes like this? Bah! You people are boring. Proper Lego urban planning should resemble Mickey Spillaine helping Frank Miller write Batman... While drunk.

They are great! Although the X Wing canopy, while a delight to have in classic trans yellow is a bit of a bitch to MOC with.

Sadly my experiences with the Asscreed sets have been less Call of Duty and more World of Warcraft. As in they are mostly dumping the leftover WoW styrene parts. The Pirate Ship while not the worst MB set I have ever built, certainly was an exercise in frustration and frailty. The AssCreed figures are decent (although like all MB figures slightly out of scale to all other lines. So AssCreed is a different scale from CoD and from Halo and from WoW.) in short I would consider the Assassins Creed sets to be less an AFOL must have and more a niche gamer collectable. The only exception is the not yet released French Revolution Battlepack, which i k,now a number of historical Modelers that are drooling over the figures from. You just don't get a lot of colonial French Troop figs.

I figured I would drop this in here, partly because I noticed that Target and Target.com are running a Mega Bloks BOGO50 this week, so if ever you wanted to investigate, now is the time to do it cheaply. Anyway, my main question is what if any non Lego brand building sets have you all found that while not perfectly up to Lego standards are good enough to offer a deep and rewarding AFOL experience with good value, minimal hassles and result in something distinct and different? Recently I have been messing a bit with one of the unmentionable brands. Mega Bloks, and honestly some (not all) of their 2014 sets are amazing. They use good quality tooling and new ABS plastic. Complex builds with few specialized parts. Just not what we are used to from this brand. The AFOL targeted highlight is clearly the Call of Duty line, which stands head and shoulders above any other Canadian block product. These would be my top picks for AFOL must haves from them. 1. Mega Bloks Call of Duty Signature Series 6859 Hovercraft. MB's equivalent to the Lego UCS line. This beast is amazing. A US Military style LCAC. Almost 2 feet long and 14" wide. And all of it brick built. Wonderfully teeny tiny brick built. They recommend ages 16+. They are not joking. One of the longer yet more satisfying brick builds I have yet encountered. Well worth a look from any AFOL. 2. Mega Bloks Call of Duty set 6822 Heavy Armor Firebase. More commonly thought of as the Abrahm's Tank. A wonderful build. A fantastic display model. And your Hovercraft needs something to chain down on the cargo deck. 3. Mego Bloks Call of Duty set 6858 Ghosts Tactical Helicopter. Also known as the Black Hawk. I and I am sure many AFOLs dismiss this one initially as typical classic MB with what at first glance looks to be too many specialized parts. I would encourage you to take a second look. Outside of the windshield everything is pure standard MB construction elements. Mated to some quite impressive complex curve and SNOT techniques. The finished product is a true monster in size, easily being worthy of public display. ( just as well since it can be a little frail in places as a play set.) plus it has a doggie! 4. Mega Bloks Halo Signature Series 97117 Forward Unto Dawn. A slightly older vintage than the CoD stuff, so part quality is not as good. But shear awesome factor makes up for a lot. The MB equivalent to a Lego UCS capital ship like the ISD or SSD. Just a super detailed fully greeblied display piece. So those are my take on the best offerings of the honorable competition, what does everyone else have to recommend?