Faefrost

As long as the parts that the prints were on are still viable then I would imagine no reason not to use them. The Exo Suit uses classic space logos on the torsos. A lot of it will depend more on what the prints are and if licensing is involved. But I can't think of anything where an older print would be truly core to the set, and could not be replaced with new art or stickers if needed for production. Art is easy and reasonably cheap in the scheme of things. So long as it is not some weird complex surface.

It looks like the Hun and the Battle Goddess maybe have softer headpieces. Maybe the Princess if there is a long fragile braid in the back.

It doesn't make sense today. But Summer 2015 when Avengers hits do you think they might want a little more shelf space and need a bit more factory capacity? How about Fall 2015 with Episode VII looming. That's going to increase the footprint of the SW line some. No? And yeah there might very well be some other new product or project waiting in the wings. At the end of the day the Middle Earth fans have had 5 waves and a D2C UCS set. A 6th wave would be a delight. It's just the business analyst in me cannot see a reasonable and clear path to it unless there is some as yet unrevealed element to the equation.

I think we have generally seen that Lego does try as much as possible to please their fans. But we here are a fairly small niche group. Ultimately what Lego has to do is make the best use of their resources. It isn't that Lego competes with SW or City or Castle. It's that they all compete for shelf space and factory time. Lego's two most precious commodities. And the two factors that are hardest for them to change. Here is the simple truth. A licensed theme with an current associated movie will in most cases do an order of magnitude better sales than a similar unlicensed theme. And there is a sharp drop off when the movie is out of the public eye. That's the elephant in the room. Is it greedy for Lego to direct their limited production resources to projects that have a greater pool of customers wanting to buy them?

I think our only hope of a close out set would be a nice D2C set. Which I believe Lego would honestly do in a heartbeat if they did not have license considerations. One last finishing set will not be worth extending or continuing a license for. We may yet get lucky, but I assume the clock and calendar work against this more and more every day. As for some of the decisions. Never forget that there are often things going on that we are not privy to. And the decision is often not entirely Lego's. Let's use the Pirate Ship as an example. On paper it makes perfect sense in numerous ways. It means the second wave top end retail set was something other than another big wall. It was a vehicle. There basic options for that set would have been another good guy Castle, Minas Tirith, which would have felt just like Helm's Deep and they would be hesitant to do with Helms Deep still in the retail channel. Something like the Oliphant, which was probably superseded as Chima had one similar in the pipeline. An evil Castle or Wizards Tower, which was already in the pipeline with Orthanc. Or finally the ship, which had a ton of positives. It was different, yet it was something Lego had done before, both in Pirates and in Castle to good results. It was not just a LotR set but effectively a Lego crossover set that could bring other theme fans to LotR. And finally it was a set that the licensor would love and pretty much insist on. Don't forget the boat represents Peter Jackson's scene, and he appears as a minifig in the set. Why make it? Because the IP holder wants it. And the same sort of calculations run through many of the other decisions. We know they created sketch models of Lothlorien and the Balrog. Why not make them? Who knows? Play tested poorly? Something in the design was problematic? Lothlorien too much like Endor? Some other set or theme having a greater need of key parts at that production moment? I'm betting the Witch King ultimately comes down to the Fel Beast, and what Smaug would look like. They did not want to dance close to Smaug in terms of size and appearance. There are a million ways that these things all interrelate and can effect the decision making process that we cannot begin to imagine. And never forget we got a council of Elrond set because we demanded it. We wanted Elrond. We wanted Rivendell. Collectively we do not always know what is in our best interests.

Help! I think my copy of the book is missing a few pages! I can't seem to find the "Chariot race on ice while surrounded by rabid wolves" anywhere. Is it only in some UK unabridged edition?

"Heavily westernized for someone born in China"? You mean kinda like the actress who plays her? Chloe "Bennett" Wang? Think this one through a little bit. You are coming down on the one major network show in western television history that has 2 Chinese lead actresses, in what are essentially non ethnic specific roles, because one of them is too stereotypically Asian? And the other is not stereotypically Asian enough? You are actually falling into a trap Wheedon and the show runners deliberately set for you with the characters. It is a form of character misdirection that Wheedon is particularly skilled at. Mae is supposed to seem a little bit of that stereotypical badass Asian chick in part to misdirect away from the other Asian in the room who is not what the viewer expects. As far as the Jan thing. I understand your love for the character. And believe it or not she is one of my favorite Avengers. Especially in the last 10 years when they actually started giving her something to do. But that doesn't change the fact that for most of the books run she was generally written as more than a tad shallow. For most of her run she had 2 main character defining traits. "Founding member of the Avengers" and " bad taste in men". ( And don't get me wrong, that isn't always a bad thing. Heck over in Thunderbolts they took a character that began in roughly the same place and way and built her into the books most defining and heroic character. ) but you can't help but get the feeling that many of the Avengers writers were intimidated by personally accomplished woman and bundled in flaws and ways to limit them. Whereas the less accomplished more "like mom" females seemed to get the better treatment from them. The ladies who happily follow the men and are just part of the gang. And really this is not truly limited to the women. They have a bit of this going on over with the men to. Here's a fun mental exercise when thinking of the Avengers. They are Earths Mightiest Heroes. They bring down super criminals. And then what? Is there any rule of Law in the Marvel universe? And if so which members of the Avengers would be qualified to take the stand in court and give credible testimony? Which Avengers are actually backed by the Rule of Law? When you look at it through that filter the results are kind of fascinating. The three accomplished ladies I mentioned above. Yeah they are the key members of the team that a court would recognize and believe. Add to them Monica Rambeau /Spectrum who was a New Orleans Harbor Police Lieutenant (I lost track of her hero name somewhere around Photon). Dr. Druid who was a court recognized forensic psychiatrist, and US Agent who technically is a Federal Marshall. Maybe add Captain America to the list as Federal Law Enforcement of some sort? (It's vague). But the rest? It's a fun little list when you think about it; Millionaire Heiress Fashion Designer. Barely Literate Gypsy daughter of worlds greatest terrorist and a history of mental illness. Her brother. An Android built by an Evil Robot that wants to destroy humanity. Ex-Con Carney with a history of jailbreaks and who effectively led the Masters of Evil at one point. (But we swear they were good then). An international arms merchant with a known drinking problem a personal WMD and rather mixed conflicts of interest with his personal business. Hank Pym, who once attacked a court with killer robots while on the stand. Thor, a mythological god, for which it would take 10 years of court decisions just to prove his existence enough to swear him in. Another Mythological God with a history of violence against women. Another Mythological God with a history of violence against everybody and deep anger management issues. Speaking of Anger Managment issues I don't think we need to go into Hulk or Namor. Which brings us to the parade of assorted illegal aliens, including at least one who is a sex offender proven in court. Isn't this a fun game? It will be fascinating to see if any of these make the big screen, and how much they will change in doing so. Is Wasp or Jan interchangeable when the character hits the movies. Well yes. They all are in one way or another. How close or far they hew to their original often has more to do with how well known the character is in pop culture. Personally I would have much rather seen the take on Wasp that Joss Wheedon wanted for Avengers. Given what we know of the Ant Man movie making Wasp Jan and Hanks daughter actually might work better than attempting to shoehorn Jan in as the lead opposite an older Creepy Michael Douglas Pym. Otherwise there is the risk of falling into that Movie Sue Storm or Gwen Stacey weirdness where the only thing they kept of the original character is the name. Because don't you know they are now brilliant scientists and stuff. ( I don't know about you all but Jessica Alba really sold the whole "hot brilliant scientist" thing to me...). As soon as Ant Man wanted to do the multi generational thing this became what is arguably the best way to do it. It allows for a potential bit of romance between the leads without any holdover ick factor from pre existing comic relationships in people minds. It organically allows the character to both have the characteristics of the classic Wasp and be modernized as the brilliant daughter of a brilliant scientist. It sheds a lot of baggage, leaves the good parts, and still leaves room for Janet Van Dyne and Hank Pym to be in the story, but to not need to play out some of the more horrible or uncomfortable bits of their stories on screen. Granted there is a lot of open ended speculation from that scene at the end of Winter Soldier. But Strucker does not refer to Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver as his children. He simply refers to them as the Twins and part of The Children. My take is that they were a part of a larger group of children that were subjected to Hydra's experiments to create miracles. They were the only ones that were deemed a success. The rest either died or suffered horribly and were then discarded (killed) by Strucker's order. If Hydra is in Europe and has been harvesting children to experiment on, then it would logically follow that the Roma are probably the group or one of the main groups being preyed on. They exist below and mainly outside the law and disappearances of them would rarely if ever be followed up on by authorities.

AFOLs are a minority. but they are a high margin niche. So while you cannot completely cater to them (see: Character Builder, Dr. who) you can factor them into your plans and cater to them so long as it does not cause conflict with your brand or your other lines. And Lego has rather steadily been increasing this over the past few years. Most of the D2C sets are targeted squarely at AFOLs. UCS, Creator Expert etc. AFOLs in particular help drive a lot of traffic via the Lego branded stores. But Lego still draws the vast majority of its business from product targeted at kids. They will not risk their branding or brand confusion on Adult Only sets. So Game of Thrones will not happen. The complete Quentin Tarantino theme is rather unlikely. There is just no real business benefit for going in this direction, and the stronger possibility for harm. These are the sorts of risks and undertakings that a new player in the industry or a lower tier one might try in order to strike out a distinctive niche for themselves. Like Todd McFarlanes rather horrid horror sets that are planned. But Lego is the big dog in the room they have no reason to play around with an Adults Only niche. They command the broader market.

What I am saying is "what we need to complete our collections" or as you say "complete the line" probably does not factor into it. It is a simple equation. How much will it drop off once the movies end? Does that drop off fall below the viability of the license? Do we have enough remaining time on the license after all the third hobbit movie changes to even launch a third LotR wave with sufficient shelf life? These are all key and legitimate business questions. Any discussions regarding filling out the movies critical scenes will not even begin until those questions have first been answered. The product line is in service to the business case. The business case does not service the product line. It's a lesson to many companies fail to learn to their detriment and downfall. And at the end of the day it is all about the business case. This is not some greedy capitalist quest for money. It is about informed proper decisions on how and where a company to apply its limited resources in order to properly service it's customers. It is how the whole thing works. Sigh! It's comments like this that make me weep for the future. Lego's goals are to grow and make a profit. They have an obligation, like any business, to do this for their employees, their families and their customers. Profit is how they put bread on the table to feed their workers. Growth is how they give their customers the new and better things they have been asking for. In order to do this they must be careful and responsible conservative gardeners. Those products that are now longer providing towards growth or profit must be carefully pruned to make way for new growth. Yes there are exceptions but those exceptions will always go back to core business cases. We want Lego to make a profit. We want them to keep growing. Look at their releases this year. Just look at them. Now compare them to the dark years of the early 90's or 2003. Growth is good. Higher return on investment is good. It leads to better product, better paid employees and happier customers. As long as it is achieved in a carefully managed way. Your George Lucas comment shows a particular degree of sadly quite common ignorance about key elements of business. Without GL seeking profit we never would have had Empire or Return of the Jedi. He gave up all of his pay and compensation from Star Wars and kept only the merchandising. He grew that merchandising well in a manner that satisfied the customers (the products are still selling to happy buyers and the original stuff is obscenely desirable aftermarket.) and permitted enough growth and profit that he was able to self finance ESB and ROTJ. Proper managing of his business gave us his fans and customers what we wanted. And that is all Lego is doing here with LotR's. They are making decisions in order to properly manage their business. Contrary to what certain educational institutions and clueless politicians teach, such proper management is not evil or unethical. It is in fact the exact opposite. It is how you provide steady stable well paying jobs and bring a host of goods and services into the community. And thus help grow your community. It is how you as a business owner do what you set out to do.

I was first introduced to her in some of her earlier stories, both her actual origin from The Cat to Tigra and he follow up FF appearances. She played a major part in the rather long early 1970's Frightful Four / Brute story arc (yes I'm showing my age.) in those stories she was well depicted as sharp quick thinking and bold. With a good intelligence and good instincts. Then they added her to the Avengers as Beasts replacement... And incompetent twit began... Then came West Coast Avengers were we can add Feral Nymphomaniac and "getting between Hank and Jan" to the list, making her seem or implied to be a comic team home wrecker. Then came Brian Michael Bendis's run and the Crimson Cowl. Yeah. At that point the Ms. Marvel Puppet-master sex slave story arc was just par for the course. Sadly she wasn't the most creepy or out of line thing in that story (that would be underage Spider-Girl in the same mind controlled harem. Remember this was Ms. Marvel's solo book. Girl Power!) Some days I really think the writing staff at Marvel needs to be medicated. Maybe those chemical castration drugs?

Here is the key quote regarding Harry Potter going away and returning, from Professor David Robertson's book Brick by Brick and his lecture on the same materials ( ) "In 2003 they found that the only lines they had that were making a profit were Star Wars and Harry Potter. And Harry Potter was only profitable in years in which there was a movie released." So they gave HP a pause in the off years, and brought it back to correspond with the further movies. Does anyone else see the problem with applying this to LotR? Show of hands? Similarly PotC ended after On Stranger Tides. It may and we hope it will resume when Dead Men Tell No Tales hits the screen. But there is no guarantee of that. We don't know the terms of the license. It's a safe bet that the PoTC license is on hold long enough for the non compete clause to end allowing Lego to put out a Pirate ship in 2015. The big question is quite simply, with no more Middle Earth movies coming out is the LotR and Hobbit license profitable enough to warrant continuing without the built in marketing push. I hate to tell you all this, but in 99% of the cases the answer will be no. (among the many other causes of the financial crisis of 2003 was themes and licenses overstaying their welcome and their profit point.) The decision on whether to make more will be made by the business people. Those forecasting future sales. Those gauging interest from TRU, Walmart etc. Whether or not they have fully covered every major scene will play no part in it. Missing main characters will have no bearing. It will all be numbers and projections. And on that basis I don't think there is much of a chance. In order to break past these accounting and marketing limitations the theme subject has to literally be not just a movie or book sensation, but a full blown self sustaining multi media juggernaut. To date we have been blessed to see 2 licensed themes that qualify as this. Star Wars and Super Heroes. (Which effectively encapsulates Batman, Spiderman, Marvel, DC and for our discussion purposes TMNT). LotR has never quite been able to make that last jump to be fully self sustaining outside of the literary world. Nor has Harry Potter although it came closer. Disney Princesses is perhaps the only other current theme that effectively is its own independent merchandising juggernaut. (although I am not sure how it has done for Lego?)

The Customer Service Department knows NOTHING about upcoming releases. Because they directly touch the public (us) they are never ever given any information that could be viewed as proprietary or partner only. They do not get to see the upcoming retailer catalogs. They don't find out about new releases until we tell them. They do not know that lines are ending or releasing or continuing. At best they get a briefing a week or two before release. They are deliberately and specifically kept isolated from any of this sort of information as a matter of business practice. And we as the general public will almost never have any direct contact with any other members of the Lego staff outside of controlled product release announcements. Those few of us who might be lucky enough to actually learn real info would typically be under strict NDA's.

The new one will probably go up in value, largely because of some bizarre controversy involving a Turkish Muslim Group in Austria (please dear lord don't ask me to explain, just Google it) lego has sworn that when the set is retired they will never again revisit the subject. of course that might not mean much as there are a lot of those sets out there, and a lot of them have been kept sealed. So there might be a bit of a glut aftermarket for quite awhile.

That's actually a "good" clearance price for TRU. Heck the Sith Fury is on clearance at $99 by me... only $10 more than the normal MSRP. What a savings!

We pretty much never had any hope of seeing Cassie in it ala Young Avengers. At best she would or will just be what she originally was. The young child hostage that inspires Lang to become a hero. All she might be is a plot device. Also I know you will hate me for this. But I kind of like the idea of the new movie Wasp being Jan and Hanks daughter. I understand your love of the character as she is the only female founding member of the team. But honestly? The character as written and presented for much of her history was very much a product of the Sixties. And is easily one of the more shallow female characters in the Avengers books. It's one of the little things that always has bothered me about some of the female story arcs and character development in the Avengers books. Jan is somehow held as this saint. But if you actually look at the character... She really is Paris Hilton. A little twit of a millionaire heiress who skipped school and on her best day likes to make pretty close and hang around the superhero men. Compare that with the actual "back stories" of the other major women on the team and how they are presented. Carol Danvers, USAF Major and F15 combat pilot. Former NASA Security director Air Force academy graduate, safe implication several Masters Degrees. aka Ms. Marvel. Until very very recently mostly depicted as a boozy slut with her tits hanging out., plagued with personal issues. Jennifer Walters, Ivy League JD, celebrated and highly successful defense attorney. She Hulk, mostly depicted as slutty drunk with her green tits hanging out, also having many deep personal issues. Greer Nelson NYPD Officer and Academy Graduate. Policemans Widow who followed in her husbands footsteps and wears his badge. Licensed PI. Tigra. Mostly depicted as incompetent twit. Fetish Porn in a bikini. When she does get any characterization it seems to involve mood swings and female issues. Up until they rape her... Twice! (But look! She's the sober one!) the list just goes on from there. And then look at the well accomplished women that Marvel's writers pretty much elevated to Madonna status in the Avengers for a good portion of its run. Jan, home schooled heiress defined by her man. Literally Paris Hilton 20 years before Paris Hilton. Yet she is the "mother" of the team. Wanda Maximoff, the Scarlett Witch, literally raised by gypsy's before being hauled off on Magneto's terrorist crusade. It is doubtful if she could even read until she started getting tutoring from Agatha Harkness 100 issues into her Avengers run. No apparent actual life or life skills outside of being the Scarlet Witch. I think she can play Cello? Yet she was for so long held up as the teams delicate Princess. Desired by all. Until she went crazy and killed everybody. Since then the teams opinions seem mixed and she is only desired by some. (Hawkeye... Most vile comic scene ever). And then we come to Mantis... (Granted Mantis evolved into a fantastic character in Silver a Surfer and GotG, but we speak here of Avengers) mantis in the Avengers was an underaged Vietnamese street orphan and prostitute who was hauled around the world by the Thug Mercenary that more or less owned her (deceased Avenger and Hawkeye mentor Swordsman) and in Avengers Lore she IS the Celestial Madonna. Yeah some days the thought of wiping much of this clean and starting over in the MCU and redefining some of these characters a bit seems like a good one.

You know, looking at the costume on the actor, I almost hope or wish that if we do get an armored Thorin it would be the normal Castle Breastplate, but with the banding and color printed on. Just printed on the fig the way it is in that picture looks too flat and lifeless.

The Genie Girl also looks like a superb city fig if you simply swap on a pair of legs. Her torso is a nice crop top. She has useful city hair and an expressive face.

Shazam has a movie in production, so chances are we will see him in a set one way or another.

Exo Suit

Wow some good ones in here Gamer - I'm mixed on him. At first glance he just seems kind of lazy and recycled. But the more I look the more I like the details. Plus he is nice and generic for City stuff. The headphones confuse me a bit however? He is kind of mixing and matching gamer time periods oddly. Prospector - useful parts. Not much you can do with him MOC wise. One goes a long way. Although his face makes for a useful village idiot in any setting from historical to redneck to space. Rocker - kind of feels like a recolor retread. But still some useful parts. Great getting that hair more widespread in black. Swashbuckler - ummm? How to put this delicately. Is he a pirate or a refugee from a pride parade? The Swishbuckler? He brings to mind some horrific caricature of a gay pirate. Dude! Button your shirt! Nobody wants to see that! Harlequin - fantastic fig. Color choices make it a little odd in most castle factions but great prints. Princess - nice Castle fig. I really want to see the back of that headpiece, and would love to see it in more colors. Spooky Girl - one of my absolute favorite figs. Just perfection. Pizza Guy - nicely generic yet useful. Great parts. Looking at him makes me hungry. Hun - shear awesome army builder! I'll take a dozen please. So many uses. Hogun's the Grim from Thor comes immediately to mind. Hmmm might be able to MOC up the other two as well. Genie - what a great figure. While pink would have been perfection, she looks great in blue. Plus a nicely expressive face and a great useful torso. Male Lifeguard - BORING! Haven't we been here before? Repeatedly? Just yet another shirtless surfer dude. Wizard - possibly the best fig of the set. Everything is gorgeous. Katnis I mean Dino Girl - a really cool fig, but has some very specific limited uses. As others pointed out, a great heroine for an Alien MOC. Space Miner - I know others aren't crazy about him. But he has so many great space parts. The armor. The helmet. The drill. The printing. I want as many as I can get. Battle Goddess - see Hun. Awesome Army Builder. I want to see a legion of these facing off in MOCs. Pig Dude - adorable but kind of weird. A little goes a long way. No real use for him besides advertising a Barbecue joint. This is one of those "just one is enough" type figs.

Now now. Joan Jett's chest really isn't that hairy. Especially since she started waxing.

As far as I know no sets were released with a mix of old and new colors. If you are seeing both could you have mixed the set with 8129?

I suspect that the truth lies somewhere in the middle. While the Iron Hills Dwarves will appear in the movie, we most likely will not see much information, exposition or dialogue from or about them until Jackson releases the extended editions. We have become so used to the LotR Extended Editions that we tend to forget just how little of Faramir there was in the Theatrical releases. The Iron Hills dwarves can easily be in the same situation. Especially after all the criticism of how long TUJ ran.

They probably worked from digital or printed PDF's of the set instructions only. None of the marketing art. Printed stuff like booklets and packaging is normally the last piece to be completed in production (just because it has the greatest chance to change late in the game.) I hate to say it, but I figure there is exactly 0% chance of a big LotR D2C at this point. How much license do you think Lego bought? How much do you think is left? Retail product normally has a 1 year expected shelf life minimally. D2C seems to be typically 2 year. How much time past the end of the last movie do you think they arranged for? Did the addition of the 3rd Hobbit movie and it getting pushed back eat into that license run time? No matter how I think on it the math does not work out to us getting a D2C set or another wave. At best the license flexed to reflect the changes to the last movie. Which probably ends it Dec 14. At worst the license was fixed and it probably ends Summer 15. And they will not give us any new sets inside of a certain window remaining on the license. Remember the license is not for how long they can make the sets. It's for how long they can sell them.

Have you seen the wonderful Ice Mammoth Mark Stafford designed for Chima? It probably would not take much to skin it as an Oliphant.