Faefrost

In an interview one of the Lego designers (I think it was either Mark Stafford or Jamie Berard, they tend to be the most talkative in English) basically said, up front, yes they often use stickers because kids view them as a play feature. They determined this through focus groups and play testing. And by all accounts TLG is normally pretty thorough in their research on these sorts of things. Like you I personally mostly hate stickers. But I accept that I am not the target market. PS those printed classic space logo slopes are intriguing, just for the thought that Lego would have added a healthy stock of such parts to inventory as a result. So maybe they were not planning on them being single set/single use? We can hope.

It might end up destroyed or pulled back into production, broken down and returned to inventory. It is most likely that TLG can no longer make or sell new product, but product that is already in the retail channel (in other words has left Lego's control and is in the retailers warehouses) may remain until sold or clearance'd out. This is sort of why they try and give enough lead time on any license to insure that waves have sufficient shelf life remaining. So if we are nearing the end of a given license contract, such as LotR they will not put out one last wave just to finish it up, or one last massive hurrah, etc. Why make a pricey set that can only sit on shelves for a few months? So if the license is nearing its end the key item to grab will be Orthanc, as that is a D2C that has mainly not left TLG's direct channels, so the set would vanish instantly. Other sets would probably be quickly blown out from chains like TRU etc. (although note how long some PoP sets sat on TRU shelves.)

You are making Apples and Oranges comparisons. It is not whether or not they have made a limited use animal in the past. It is the business case surrounding that tooling. Also keep in mind that TLG's entire process and view on this changed after the 2003 near bankruptcy. The root cause of the financial crisis was they simply lost track of how much things were costing vs what the return on them was. They had far too many unique or low use molds that ate up funding and produced no revenue. They were selling major sets with expensive parts at a loss. starting around 2005 they retired almost half their old molds and put in much more stringent guidelines and reviews for new tooling. -foal, 2 sets - this depends on which Foal you are talking about? The Friends one? If so that was made mainly as part of the Friends line, which is all retail product, so high production volume. Further it was mainly used in a higher volume higher margin small "impulse buy" set . All of that makes the math favorable for it. -elephant, 2 sets (3 unique moulds I believe) - This was a pre 2003 set of tooling that they lost money on. Safe bet is it has been retired. (Unless you are talking about the Duplo Elephant, which has a higher product lifecycle, higher volumes etc than normal Lego System sets) -goat, 1 set - The Goat is an outlier and probably a bad gamble on their part. It at least was made for a regular retail set. Part of the second or third wave for a well selling product line. I am kind of surprised we have not seen it again. Maybe a mold failure? -ostrich, 1 set - Was made for a Licensed Retail set with a direct current movie tie in. This is a part that was made specifically for that and had the underlying financing to do it. -camel, 2 sets - See above Ostrich. Licensed Movie Tie In used for regular retail sets. They probably made 4 million Camels. -big shark, 2 sets - 2 Regular retail sets. In those two sets they had enough use to justify creation of the part and amortization of costs. -seagull, 1 set - It is used in a CMF fig. The economics of those are wildly different than other Lego products. Typically a new mold or special item such as a big fig cannot add more than 5% to 10% of the retail price to the cost of the set. (We all see how people scream at a high price per piece ratio). Anything above that quickly deflates the perceived value of the product unless it is something really obvious and special, like a floating boat hull or train with motors. The CMF's however? These are probably TLG's highest margin product line. They have a huge revenue return on roughly a 1 foot cube of shipping, warehouse and retail display space. New parts for them can run up to 25% to 50% of the retail price. And they are made in extremely high volume. You cannot compare tooling for CMF with tooling costs for anything else. They operate on entirely different business models. -Chihuahua, 1 set - Once again a CMF piece. CMF economics apply. Now once a part is created for CMF's City and D2C does frequently benefit from it. But a molded Reindeer would probably be a little big for inclusion in a CMF packet.

I can't believe it is that simple. And looks like it works amazing. Well done!!!!

My Lego store had the new Trains and some of the Arctic sets. They said they should have most of the Arctic available later in the week. But they did not know if the Icebreaker would be with the delivery. They have not seen that one yet. Have any Icebreakers or Cargo planes been spotted in the wild?

So they should just melt down any old stock as soon as they get a new mold online? They will use up what stock they have in a variety of ways. The Advent Calenders are a fairly good one. They normally mix some new figs and some old ones in them. And some figs may be a mix of old and new parts, such as minor details on face printing. Plus when new parts come online, initially they will be limited to sets they were specifically meant for. Until production stock can reach levels where the parts can be more broadly spread around. Case in point those new Chima/Mixels ball joints. When Marcos Bessos was designing the CuuSoo Exo Suit he has said that he was not able to use those pieces. At that time they were limited to just the Mixels and Chima Legend Beasts. So these new Snowtrooper molds were probably limited to just the ATAT and Snowspeeder. They know they will have sufficient parts for those sets, and reruns as needed.

One other thing to keep in mind, especially if you have been procrastinating about any particular LotR or Hobbit sets. The third Hobbit movie may cause a situation similar to the 8th Harry Potter film. Where the last Lego waves was limited in part because the theme had a very hard end date. Normally TLG keeps a healthy buffer between the last released wave of a theme and the end of contract date for the license. In the case of HP they tacked on an extra movie, which then ate up TLGs buffer. Such that the last HP wave didn't really get its full life cycle on the shelves, and it all disappeared suddenly on the end of contract date. If TLG does not announce a new LotR wave with the next Hobbit release, get whatever you really want. Because I don't think sets like Orthanc will then make it past Spring.

Pictures are your best friend obviously. Especially of the main front facing, Alot of how to do it will depend exactly on what you are trying to do. Do you want an exact perfect scale model of the building? If so at what scale? Minifig scale? Or do you want a recognizable version of the building to interact with minifigures? There is a difference between simply creating a true exact scale model of the building or using selective compression and visual tricks to capture the recognizable essence of it but still keeping the project viable for scale, cost and the limitations of the medium. The best guides and publications on how to look at a building and scale it down to something workable for a display layout can often be found for Model Railroading. (Obviously Model Railroaders do this a lot.) I then just transfer the visual tricks to the medium we have, Lego, and then work around the limitations of its geometries. (ie you may not have space for 3 pane windows, use 2, etc) Once you decide what your goal in it all is, LDD becomes a great friend. You can play with colors, builds, etc. It has a little bit of a learning curve, but it isn't that steep. If you have the computing power and time to let it churn occasionally then a little program called LDD2POV is also a boon as it lets you render an LDD design into a near photographic approximation of your build. The EB Digital forum will have lots of useful tips for that.

There are apparently some interesting SW rumors circulating the Internet today. The first wonderfully believable, the second not so much, but we can dream. -the first rumor is that Disney wants to release a blu-Ray set of the original non special edition trilogy. I think we would all jump for joy if that were to happen. Granted they probably have to do it in partnership with 20th Century Fox. -the second, less likely, rumor is that Disney has given serious consideration to adding the PT to the list of "Legacy" cannon alongside the EU. I think that one might just be wishful thinking on someone's part.

I'm not real sure what to make of the Flash yet going by that trailer. I like the coloring and design of the costume, but it still looks a bit awkward, like it doesn't fit quite right. Too loose or baggy in places. I also can't quite get a handle on the tone they are going for. It seems lighter than Arrow, but with some much darker undercurrents. Hopefully it starts getting all dialed in a bit better by the time it airs. I think part of the problem is this hit within a few days of the Constantine trailer, which is just dead on perfect. Everything we could have asked for in a live action Hellblazer, save that it not be on ?NBC. The Flash does not feel perfectly refined yet.

The pizza slices springing up comes from a slight misalignment of the clip pieces on the bottom. If they aren't quite straight or fully seated you will get a little tension that causes the lift.

For current and reasonably recent sets you can get the sticker sheet from Lego as a replacement part. As an example lots of people ordered extras for the UCS Red 5 XWing. For older long out of production sets you can generally find them on Bricklink.

I think we will see Human Torch before Ghost Rider. But either way the parts existence makes me hopeful for a good supply of fiery or energy headed comic heroes.

The eagle and the bear were specifically also used in planned regular retail sets. The Dragon Smaug will be in a regular retail set that will be found in every big box store such as Walmart, TRU, Target, etc. for D2C the production runs start at around 20,000 pieces and seem to top off around 100,000 or so. For retail sets the minimum production runs are somewhere around 250,000 pieces and runs of 1-2 million for sets are common. It's all economies of scale and amortizing and financing the new molds. The numbers for new tooling for D2C sets will virtually never line up. I think the only new part that the designers ever managed to get made for a D2C set were the large train wheels for the Emerald Night. And they had to literally sell their souls to get them. Only the fact that it was a perceived general use part, and the shear longevity of Trains let them take that risk. Typically for a "non construction element" mold they need to show a certain volume of part use within a fairly fixed time period. If I had to guess I would say between 12 and 24 months. Molds are capital items. They are at heart the core of TLG's business. And like all manufacturing capital expenses they are financed. Basically TLG takes out a mortgage on each mold (or each group of molds for a new theme.) each theme or mold thereby becomes a separate business case. Each needs to qualify for the loans based on the business plan, expected returns, etc for the theme. So a license contract counts well against a loan (why we see more new molds in licensed themes). A licensed theme tied to a current movie is even better for the bank (note how many new molds Man of Steel and Lone Ranger got). Without a license the business plan has to show guaranteed use at expected return per part. So for the eagle mold they could show exactly which sets they planned to use it in within a certain time frame. How many sets, pricing, expected part costs, etc. The final case would be a replacement mold for an existing part. Those are the easy loans to get typically. They can show precisely how many of this part they used at what pricing over time. Either the math lines up and the part lives on, or it doesn't and it gets retired. Best known example of that would be the monorail track. Here end etch the business math lesson :)

I have the same feeling. It's like they took every problem with the Keaton Batsuit and made it worse. While I didn't like the Nolan cowl, I liked the balistic fabric and feel to the suit. Plus I would think that would coexist better with the new Supersuit than more black rubber? He looks like a cheap badly articulated Chinese action figure in that suit. The Keaton suit didn't allow for moving the head. This looks like he can't even move his arms.

By this point he is probably 45 with 3 kids a mortgage and an ulcer.

I would think the Maggia would either come in through the Netflix Daredevil show, or possibly via Iron Man by way of Courtney Frost / Madame Masque. Not really a good fit for AoS. I would expect to see more classic SHIELD related villains. Or ones with one off relationships. We already have Hydra, and really Centipede is just AIM renamed to avoid confusion with Iron Man. But it sits in AIMs traditional place, an independent and not entirely on board sub creation of Hydra. I would expect to see foes like The Yellow Claw, the Serpent Squad/Society, Roxxon. Just a ton of B list stuff from the old Marvel Team Up and Marvel Two in One books. Etc. not so much the street level or organized crime stuff. That will be kept in reserve for Netflix.

You are overthinking I think. I think it is simply a designer or staffer showcasing a project that they like. Pre review they make no determination regarding already existing licenses they have. The only thing they screen pre review, which would also apply to fan favorites, is impossible licenses. IP that is already licensed or outright owned by competitors. They still have a forthcoming Hobbit wave. Saying that they do not plan more LotR would negatively impact that. They will keep silent either way until next year.

It seems to vary wildly and somewhat randomly. The Minifigures Year by year book had them assembled in form fitting slots. The previous Ninjago was disassembled in a round space. The Blue Jacket Bilbo was assembled etc.

The Creator Expert line is always D2C. They have much much smaller production runs than retail sets. As a result they will virtually never get new custom tooling. Plus the creator line tends to prefer brick built solutions over task specific parts. Overall it's a nice set, but it really doesn't set my heart a flutter if you will. And it am not sure why? It just feels a little off from the previous Winter Village entries.

My thoughts

So present it a little differently and put it up there. Use a different angle or presentation in pictures (look at all of the Jaws clone projects that suddenly popped up using the same camera angles, presentation colors etc as the first to start getting votes. Take that as a "how not to do it" guideline.)

My interpretation would be that the best chance would be something that they have never ever done in System Scale, nor would it seem likely they would plan on doing so. Best example I can give. In Star Wars it is pretty clear what is clearly covered under the absolute contract. Any shio shown on screen in the 6 movies will probably fail review. But something like that wonderful EU K Wing fighter posted last week might be doable. It isn't something Lego or Lucas would ever plan to make. It's something that would match up to a short run limited set. and still maintain high fan interest. Comic properties get a little weirder. Rule 1 would remain, nothing seen in any of the movies TV shows or current animated series. But a classic scene or place from the comics? Maybe something of a more Silver or Bronze Age origin? Or based off a classic comic cover? That might pass. Or something like a system scale 60's TV Adam West Batman Batcave or Batmobile. Or the classic Batman / Green Hornet crossover episodes. (My idea, although I will never have time to develop it is a Birds of Prey Clocktower setting. Oracle, Black Canary, Huntress, maybe Nightwing in Blue suit? Just make it as off beat and strange as possible. Something like the classic Human Torch teaching or failing to teach Spiderman to drive the briefly lived "Spider Buggy" Where your Titans Idea might run into trouble is it is still a broadcast show, with an ongoing spinoff. And some of the main characters are being used for things like the Justice League movie. Regardless it can't hurt to try. The worst they can do is say no.

I have some heartbreaking news for you then. As of today Electronic Arts is shutting down the Star Wars Battlefront 1 and 2 servers (and a ton of other game servers) on June 30. so online play of SWBF 1 and 2 will no longer be possible. EA is opting not to migrate the older games off Gamespy.

The two Anihilation series and most of their sub series are utterly fantastic. This might be a better list as it put some of the key players on the map. [Keith Geffen writing] - Thanos 1-12 Asside from introducing Thanos and giving some background to a few others, it really re-introduces Peter Quill Starlord. - Drax the Destroyer limited series Turns Drax from the classic purple caped idiot to the more thoughtful knife wielding maniac you will see in the movie. - Anihilation gives you the Nova Corp (including Glen Closes character) Gamora, Starlord, Ronan, Drax, plus a bevy of others. Utterly fantastic main series. the Nova mini is great. Silver Surfer is decent. Super Skrull is meh. Ronan is not my favorite, but really introduces him and some others in the movie. - Heralds of Galactus, just some clean up from Anihilation, 2 issues [Dan Abnett and Andy Lansing writing] - Nova ongoing (optional for GotG but the core of the then cosmic books) - Anihilation Conquest, The best of the bunch. creates the new Guardians of the Galaxy. Just great in every way possible. Main series is amazing, the issues of Nova that crossover are utterly fantastic, the Starlord mini is where Guardians begins and is just perfect. The Wraith mini is... meh. Quasar is more or less ok. (main characters insufferably whiny, but great art and supporting cast) This is also a major Ultron story so it is useful to prep for Avengers. - Anihilation Classic, Just reprints of the First appearance / origins of Rocket Raccoon, Nova, Quasar, Adam Warlock. not critical. - Guardians of the Galaxy ongoing series volume 1 begins. (it also runs parallel to Nova ongoing) - some minor crossovers into "Civil War", "Secret Invasion" only real item of interest is the Inhumans Secret War mini, which sets up them returning to the Kree. - War of Kings, Kree vs Shiar at war. GotG involved. (for backstory see "XMen Rise and Fall of the Shiar") - Realm of Kings (no main Realm of Kings series, rather it sis a crossover running through cosmic books and minis. Nova, GotG, Inhumans, Darkhawk, etc) - Thanos Imperitive (major GotG story. GotG ongoing ends here.) - Annihilators, Annihilators: earth-fall (2 meh miniseries about a galactics badass teamup. Rocket Raccoon and Groot backup story. Will be incomprehensible if you have not read RR origin in Annihilation Classic) [brian Michael Bendis begins writing] - Guardians of the Galaxy, new ongoing series To put this in terms of the main movie characters Peter Quill, Starlord - Thanos 7-12 -> Annihilation 1-6 -> Annihilation: Conquest Prologue -> Starlord -> Anihilation Conquest -> GotG ongoing series Gamora - Ronan the Accuser -> Annihilation 1-6 -> Annihilation Conquest Prologue -> Nova (A:C issues I forget the numbers) -> Annihilation Conquest 1-6 -> GotG ongoing Drax - Drax the Destroyer 1-4 -> Annihilation prologue -> Nova 1-4 -> Anihilation 1-6 -> Nova (A:C issues) -> Annihilation : Conquest 1-6 -> GotG ongoing Rocket Raccoon - Starlord 1-4 -> Annihilation : Conquest 1-6 -> GotG ongoing Groot - Starlord 1-4 -> Annihilation : Conquest 1-6 -> GotG ongoing Hope that helps even if it is a bit late.