Faefrost

One thing that keeps rattling around in my head. What would be something a bit different for a Castle or Castle seeming theme? We know that Lego has had a partnership with Warner Brothers for 15-20 years now, with the Harry Potter movies, LotR and Hobbit, the Lego Movie and their Cartoon Network stuff. and much like Harry Potter before it, The Tolkien stuff is probably nearing its end. So Lego has had a great deal of success in teaming with WB for what are best described as "Literary Fantasy" subjects. Is there anything looming anywhere that might seem to continue that trend? It would seem WB has the movie rights to Anne McCaffreys Dragonriders of Pern books and has put a series of movies into production. Now THAT could be something interesting for Lego and for Castle fans. (And yes I know that technically the Pern books are sort of kind of in reality science fiction, but you don't even learn that until the later ones. Otherwise it is people riding Dragons living in Castles and Aeries and such.) If there is a regular in house Castle release in 2015 I suspect it will be a D2C replacement for kingdoms Joust (Maybe a nice Inn? A update to the Guarded Inn sort of thing? Or a Forrestmen set?) Basically just one really nice set to hold everyone over until the next Castl'ish license kicks in. Sort of like what they appear to be doing with Pirates and PotC. Pure speculation on my part. But it feels at least reasonable. Between how to train your Dragon, the Final Hobbit film and the now looming Pern movies I think Dragons and Dragonriders will be a thing that will be around for a bit. And Lego is fairly good at exploiting that sort of thing one way or another.

A March date? They dropped Batman v Superman into March? Holy crp! No you're not Kidding. Marvel wins. February and March are where studios dump stuff or drop semi interesting stuff that they are cautious about how it will do. But what should be the studios biggest Summer tent pole ever? Oh my. That is truly shocking. They are probably seeking to do a repeat of Winter Soldier. Nobody expected that to do well in April, instead it blew away pretty much all of the Summer blockbusters running unopposed it sat on top of the charts for weeks. But yeah the takeaway of this is marvel opens when and where they want. Everyone else gets out of the way. Even Superman and Batman.

Actually there was a posting somewhere that indicated that the issue there is the classic robot arms. The test builds were all fine, but the production ones don't have quite the same clutch power. At some point After they made the ExoSuit they ended up having to replace the original 30 year old mold for that part.

I am going to speculate that simply based on the amount of mainstream press and chatter the set is getting, and how it is driving some first time traffic to Lego stores, that the set will get another production run.

It will in theory give them a little better protection and it will at the least damage the clone makers. Lego is building a factory in China expressly for the purpose of selling their legit product into the Growing Chinese market. Right now the cheap bootleggers thrive in markets that Lego does not well reach. The bootleggers do surprisingly little business in the US and Canada (robust IP protections there also help but at heart there is little market for the cheap crp. Heck there is minimal market for even the decent clone brands.) The factory in China also gives Lego a ton more leverage in enforcing their IP rights in China. Currently China will not recognize any IP claims on imported products. They will however act in domestic disputes to some degree.

When Lego did that they were very very careful to keep the sets seperate so there was never even a hint of Indian vs Fort Legorado. You had some sets with Indians. Some with Cavalry and some with a Western Town. Never the three shall meet except in the child's hands. And even then that was 20 years ago, when worldwide hypersensitivity to everyone's feelings had not yet become a thing. But this would be harder to do with what is clearly a direct conflict war of North vs South subject. But the real point is, it's not that they have any policy that clearly spells out that they won't do a US Civil War era theme, or against confederate figs. It's just that they have no compelling reason to even lightly wander in that direction. There is no compelling business case behind such things, so they can quietly ignore the subject, and thus not risk stirring up controversy. Traditionally interest in the US civil war is not displayed by a high percentage of their core customer market. (Civil war being mainly 40+ year old men! Lego being 6-16 year old children.)

Alien Conquest, Agents and Ultra Agents all have some good options for not too over the top future terrestrial vehicles. Some of the Superhero sets as well. The Quinjet and the XMen plane are good examples you could use for a near future airport scene. With no inherent silliness or spacey ness.

Read Dr. Robinsons quotes near the end of that article. It pretty much sums up the difference between the real world that actually exists and the ideological world that exists in people heads. Somehow Lego got dragged into the great debate about gender roles in toys. But nobody notices that Lego started out gender neutral, and only shifted to more boy toys when it became apparent that 90% of their customers were boys. They tried to entice or grow a female customer base for over 40 years. Friends was the first time they succeeded.

Chewbacca famously stole one in RotJ.

OK James Gunn just earned my respect. Apparently there is a big reveal in that end trailer scene. One that probably heralds another character entering the Thanos mix. But everyone missed it because they were distracted by the obvious gag.

It tells me that as we suspected they are basically just cribbing whole sections of Frank Millers "The Dark Knight Returns" for this next movie. Because that's what all them cool kids were really into back in 1988, and that's what inspired comics in the 90's when they were selling gazillions. Ummm yeah! I'm thinking this might not be the best approach, but what do I know?

I would imagine it involves some modern political and racial minfields that Lego would prefer not to step into. At it's most basic a blue vs grey theme seems simple. But some of the iconography is still being used today to very conflicting and very argumentative purpose. While it isn't something that Lego would probably have any strong opinions on, child play interest in the subject is most likely low enough that they can effectively quietly ignore the whole subject. Like a Napoleanic theme it would be more of a niche product attracting mainly older history buffs and not so much the modern children.

It's "girl power" in a box. In terms of a Lego playset or display piece? Honestly? It's kind of dull. You could use it to flesh out some existing themes various labs or maybe populate a modular museum.

Apparently it is something that shows up in Lego's play testing. Lego designers have said that kids seem to view the stickers as an important part of the build.

Exactly. Nostalgia is great, to a point. You want some of the feel of the old stuff. But presented in an evolved, updated way that reflects that it isn't 1982. Set 70816 Benny's SSS was near perfect for this. Any return to classic space themes would also still require including much of what came after. Distinct detailed Minifigs with expressive faces. New parts and build techniques. Stickers ( remember we hate em, kids love em). Adversarial conflict of some sort. Or at a minimum competion or differing factions. And if they do dip into the well of classic or older space themes one modern advantage is they no longer have many of the restrictions they once had. As we saw with GS and Chima and Ninjago, color pallets can now be dialed in to not simply be theme wide, but to be character or faction specific within the same production cycle. In the old days classic space was blue and grey because they made a ton of blue and grey parts for the line and thus had to use them. These days they can do shorter runs of more colors per set. So a modern Lego Space theme could have a nice blue and grey cruiser. An Mtrons type ground vehicle. A Blacktron raider ship to fight, etc.

To quote one of my earlier TLDR posts on the QC slipping thread. (Just to avoid typing it all out again) The greater variation in color is not because of slipping QC. It is a small sacrifice deliberately made in support of a much broader and much more beneficial production innovation. This happens all the time in manufacturing. Yes something may not be exactly the same as it was. But the change is because the new process lets them do so much more. With greater flexibility, greater volume, and a broader more feature rich range of product. Your old daisy wheel printers provided a much sharper typeset than modern ink jets. The ink jets are 20% of the cost of the older ones. Faster. Quieter. And can do things never even dreamed of before like true color photo printing. But the Daisy wheels are better because they have a sharper letter K. They never should have rolled out or allowed the ink jets to go forward until they could produce a K as sharp as the Daisy Wheel. This is basically the sort if thing we are talking about here.

As others have said, it's not that uncommon. The stuff to heat seal is dirt cheap these days and can be bought at Walmart. A lot of Bricklink sellers have discovered it as it is much cheaper than using zip lock bags ans provides as good protection.

I'm wondering if the story isn't that she was pulled from the line, investigated and imprisoned after Bariss Offee went on her little murder spree. Since Clone Wars is cannon, she might have already been quietly under lock and key, and Palpatines control, when Order 66 was given.

Well the targeted fan base has changed. Back in the day these were mostly impulse buys for 6-12 year old small children or pocket money purchases from early teen fans. But now they have access to a ton of salaried 30 something fans who have already proved they are willing to shell out a hundred a pop for ultimate retro editions of He Man, Transformers and pretty much anything even marginally related to Darth Vader.

Volume 1 looks to be in stores tomorrow

Let's see for me Best 1. Captain America The Winter Soldier - not just a good comic movie, a great movie. 2. The Avengers - the culmination of childhood dreams. They nailed it. 3. Guardians of the Galaxy - just pure fun 4. The Dark Knight - a truly great movie. A so so Batman movie. 5. Iron Man - the beginning of the MCU and rDJ's wonderful Stark. 6. Batman - Michael Keaton v Jack Nicholson. The one that made all the rest possible. 7. Superman 2 - kneel before Zod!!! 8. The Rocketeer - if you like Captain America first Avenger, check this one out. Utterly charming and an amazing score. 9. Men in Black - forgot this was from a comic didn't yah? 10. Tied between Hellboy and Dredd Honorable mentions; captain America First Avenger, Batman The Movie ( Adam West), And Worst; 1. The Spirit - frank Miller directed. Oh dear gods words cannot describe just how bad and beyond the pale offensive this thing is. 2. Howard the Duck - words fail me for how bad it is on every level. 3. Ghost Rider Spirit of Vengeance - I'm not sure exactly how bad it is as I have only ever made it halfway through. 4. Barb Wire - if you don't know what this is, consider yourself lucky 5. Casper - "the Friendly Ghost". The movie is Casper's origin story, about how a small child died horribly. Not making this up. 6. Catwoman - the phrase "you'll never work in this town again" should apply to Halle Berry. 7. Supergirl - as I said above they were literally shooting different scripts. It makes no sense. None. I think half the cast is drunk. Music is worth a listen on YouTube. Some of Jerry Goldsmiths best. 8. Tank Girl - Lori Petty is just awful 9. Steel - Shaquille O'Neil in a rubber suit that is supposed to look like Iron Mans Armor. With a hammergun. The Roger Corman Fantastic Four is better than this. 10. Captain America (1990) - oh gods it's bad! Honorable mentions; The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Man of Steel, Green Lantern, Green Hornet And then we have "awful yet oddly entertaining for the wrong reasons" 1. Batman and Robin - bad, but not as bad as legend says. Pure campy cheese fest. Great to get drunk to. 2. Superman 3 - not that bad a movie. Just a bad Superman movie. It's a Richard Prior comedy. 3. Superman 4 - watch it in sequence with it's simultaneous brother "Masters of the Universe" to watch Cannon Pictures actually go bankrupt right there in screen. Good fun. 4. Captain America (1979 TV movie 1 and 2) - everything bad about the 70's in one place, and it is hilarious. 5. Judge Dredd - "I AM DA LAW!" 6. Doctor Strange (1978 TV movie. Same people as Captain America above) - strange is the word for it. 7. Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD (1990) - perhaps "The Hoff's" finest work. Friends I give you David Hasselhoff as Nick Fury. I suggest a robust alcohol with a fruity bouquet. Perhaps something stolen from a hobo and mixed with Sterno or aftershave. Your mileage may vary. (And I am truly embarrassed to admit that yeah, I've seen all of these. Apparently I have seen a disturbingly large percentage of what are considered English language comic movies including "The Perils of Gwendoline in the Land of the Yik Yak" which only avoided this list by stint of being essentially soft core porn. )

Of the ones you haven't seen, the Spirit is arguably the absolutely worst comic movie ever. No comparison to the rest of your list. It isn't just awful it is openly offensive in every way possible. The Phantom actually isn't that bad. It's certainly not good, but nowhere near the top of a worst list. Superman 3 and 4 are bad in much the same way as Batman and Robin. They are a fun kind of bad. We make fun of them, but there are much much worse. Some cases in point. Howard the Duck, Catwoman, Ghost Rider 2, the Shadow, Green Hornet, Green Lantern, the Dolph Lundgren Punisher, the 1990 Captain America, Supergirl (they actually shot two different scripts and edited them together after Christopher Reeve backed out. The only redeeming thing in it is the Jerry Goldsmith score)

Neither Lego nor Chris Pratt have much say in who licenses out toys based on one of their movie characters. Especially given that KreO announced the license long before any casting announcements. (Although question there? Was KreO's announced license Jurassic Park or Jurassic World? Because if they are distinct and separate licenses that could get weird on the toy shelves.)

We don't have leaks of the catalogs yet. We normally don't start getting those until September or October. The retailers have not seen it yet. It is still primarily internal to TLG. What supposed and completely unverified rumors we have reportedly come from regional Lego product management, distribution and retailer facing people who if believable might be seeing the 2015 set lists as part of their job.

My prediction? Ninjago city will be invaded by an army of carnivorous animal headed monsters with powerful elemental powers fueled by a dangerous and highly addictive narcotic. The Ninja's will have to use all of their power and abilities to combat the flesh eating monstrosities of a nature gone mad, or risk going the way of the fluffy bunny people of antiquity. The final solution will be recruiting or repurposing all of their previous non edible enemies. The Skeletons, the Stone Warriors and the Nindroids into an army to push the beasts into the sea.