Faefrost

Have you ever looked at the order that Star Wars sets and minifigs were released? some stuff took a surprisingly long time to appear. I think Han, Leia and the Millennium Falcon did not appear until around the 3rd wave.

There are a lot of things that we don't know. Key among them is length of the licenses. Is it 3 year? 5 year? I think we can safely guess it isn't 10 year, we have only ever seen that with HP and SW. I think the only other ones that they would strongly consider that for (assuming they have not already arranged them) are the Super Heroes. As for why not do 3 LotR waves? My gut suspicion is the constantly evolving and changing Hobbit movies. They don't want the two sub licenses directly competing. Rather they want them at best coming and going on opposite cycles to enhance each other. But the Hobbit will always take priority as it has direct movie tie ins, which always guarantee a bigger return (well ok excepting maybe PoP, and granted LR Lego did better than LR the movie. ) So the change from 2 hobbit movies to three and changing release dates meant they had to change plans to maximize the movie tie ins. Plus while probably on the positive side of the equation, none of the LotR or Hobbit stuff has really been driving the crowds the way some of their other properties do.

They could actually do a few "Simpsons Great Vehicle" sets. The School Bus, the Homer, Mr. Plow, Krusty and his Canyonairo, chief Wiggums Squad Car, Snakes muscle car. The RV.

Often the initial pictures we see are of prototypes and placeholders. They will use stickers for the demo models, before they go and do a run of printed parts. But with that said Lego does tend to like stickers for a variety of perfectly valid reasons. Not the least of which us the kids really really like them, and they are the target audience.

Actually Dino, Alien Conquest, Power Miners, Pharoahs Quest and Atlantis all interwove. At least in the little Lego Club stories. As far as Solomon Blaze. I would chalk that more up to Lego reusing a character name that they really like, then there being a direct connection, such as it being the same character. Of course I could be wrong on this. This Solomon Blaze may be the same as the "old sarge" from AC, and GS would be the logical end point of AC, no?

Sometimes. Normally when they are replacing a theme with something else, or if something is forcing a theme to be retired or locking it out. Examples would be Pirates retiring and withdrawing from shelves when they got the PotC license, Harry Potter having an announced hard retirement date as the 10 year license expired while sets were still on shelves (because HP had an unexpected 8th movie. We may face a similar Hobbit situation). And they had originally announced or at least admitted to Ninjago retiring and being replaced with Chima. At which point they were overwhelmed by angry parents calling and letter writing. I think we all know how that went. Otherwise the big telling thing is when Lego stores start putting the entire line on clearance and not just say the first wave or a specific set. Such as we are seeing now with Galaxy Squad, and just recently saw with Monster Fighters.

Bah! You think Dark Forces are primitive? We grew up playing the Star Wars Arcade cabinet. X-Wing was advanced graphics for us

The Batman Assault on Wayne Manor set has hit 10k, so first of the new review period. It looks like the Invisible Hand will be there within 2-3 days as well. Both fantastic huge detailed set proposals. It will be interesting to see how they fair in review? My gut instinct is neither will pass just from shear size and restrictions with pre existing licenses. But you never know. If those don't kill them in review then the edge goes to the Batman set. That fold out modular to play set mechanism is brilliant. The Invisible Hand will be badly impacted in review by how poorly the Malevolence did on the shelves. Further compounded by its own time from creation to 10k, which reinforces a soft market for the big Separatist ships.

I just say Microwave because it's the first time we have ever seen a TV without a picture on the screen.

If it wasn't for the antennae I would think the TV is actually a Microwave oven.

Too much on my list this year. Especially the back half. Ultra Agents, particularly the big Mobile Command Center Star Wars Sandcrawler, AT-AT, ghost and Phantom, Jedi Recon, mos Eisley, Arctic Icebreaker Benny's Soaceship, and the Secret Swat Gunship Whatever remains in The Hobbit

The TRU by me had all of the Ultra Agents sets and about half of the Arctic ones. No signs of Ninjago yet. Up close most of the Agents sets look great. The only one a little disapointing is the Mobile Command Center. It's a great set. But looks a bit awkward when folded up. It lacks the complete cohesion of the original. It reminds me more of the World Racers Dessert of Desolation sets truck.

My take is Megabloks more or less has the best designs. Mostly marred by poor quality plastic and tooling. KreO has far better quality parts and plastic. Their Kreons figs are interesting, but their overall set designs always feel lacking and very basic.

Disney can be strange with the licensing. The same character can appear in multiple licenses. But each license has very very strict rules. The Disney Princess line is more or less a romance IP and not an action or conflict based one. Typically it is the designated Princesses, their Prince if and where appropriate, and accessories animal companions and such. It's meant to be the "happily ever after" part of the story if you will. The conflict or action or full story part of the IP is covered in the individual movie licenses. And then there can be strange other combinations, such as Disney Villains, or Disney Infinity. The licenses get complicated, and Disney spells out every specific detail of what is allowed. Packaging, presentation etc. Lego went with Disney Princesses over specific movies in part because it is both an extremely popular one, and it allows for a great breadth of desired protagonists.

I think Johnny Quick and Jessie Quick always had Goggles in their outfits. I think Jesse also had them incorporated into her feminized Flash outfit when she briefly took over from Wally during Waid's run. And the Kingdom Come kid Flash, Iris Allen West also wore them. The general aesthetic for speedsters seems to be " if the hair is exposed, goggles! If the scalp is covered no goggles!" The only exceptions to that seem to be the Wally West Yellow Kid Flash outfit and Jay Garret's original Golden Age pie tin. (And dear lord why do I know this? I read way to many comic books. PS the danger of having a photographic memory is that you really don't have a lot of control over what it remembers. But once remembered you can never get rid of it. You end up knowing a lot of useless info.)

It probably doesn't have a hard retirement date. Rather it has received its last factory run, and whatever is in the supply chain is it. When it sells out it is officially retired.

I can tell you without having to see a box. The Hera minifig uses the Twi'leck headpiece, which comes separately bagged and is from China. So China will be listed as a source no matter what other parts come from where.

Goggles aren't really an element of the traditional Flash outfit. I can't remember if the New 52 version has them, but none of the others do. The only main Flash speedster that routinely wore them was Bart Allen, Impulse / Kid Flash.

I think a lot of that in the movies is not so much the character Dori as the actor Mark Hadlow, who by all accounts seems very charming and personable and possibly has the most history and longest standing relationship with Peter Jackson than anyone else in the main cast. You might notice that Hadlow is pretty much the go to guide on all of the assorted behind the scenes videos included as bonus materials. Especially the stuff about the actors learning to be dwarves.

My takeaway from the movie was her husband was probably one of the howling commando's. For some reason it gave me the impression that it was Dum Dum Dugan, but I can't remember exactly what made me think that? Something in the room? A picture? Granted them showing such a romance on screen in the TV show would be problematic as Neal McDonnough does not do that. (He does not do intimate scenes and does not kiss anyone but his actual wife.)

Well it's not a landing ship, and we can guess that where it goes probably doesn't have a dock, so chances are the small helicopter and the bigger sky crane heli are how they load and unload from the ship.

Once again, what exactly do you consider "original unlicensed" projects? The problem is not whether or not something is licensed. The problem is whether the subject is known. Whether it is familiar to a large enough group such that they would seek to purchase and support it. Star Wars or Statue of Liberty make no difference. It is people will support as a factor of how familiar they feel with the project. Yes there are other factors such as quality of presentation, reasonable aspirations of designer etc. but at heart the more people are familiar with something. The more they themselves know and like its story, the more likely it is to hit 10k and to pass review. License doesn't have much to do with it. Even licenses require a large group of people familiar with the subject. Most licensed projects fail as well. This is why the MWT hit 10k. This is why the Curiosity Rover hit 10k.

Nikolodean owns the TMNT franchise outright these days. No 3rd parties involved save possibly some pre existing movie rights that had to be accommodated. The IP is Nik's. I still doubt we will see any Fabuland, Friends, Duplo or Bionacle in the next movie just because of how jarring and immersion breaking they would be to the movies visual style and world building. For new or more obvious female roles I think Wonder Woman would be the best and honestly only real option of the pre existing minifig characters. She is unique enough to stand out from Wyldstyle while being familiar and instantly recognizable. Of the other female Lego protagonists, most like Pippin Reed, Helena Skvaling etc come a little too close to Wyldstyle. Nya is further complicated by being part of another media property (note Lloyd was unnamed and unvoiced.) there are probably a few interesting possibilities in the CMFs. The Cheerleaders being the obvious ones. Or maybe the scientist. Among non humans or non protagonists? Alien Queen? Vampye's Bride?

Wrath of Khan was a near perfect Star Trek story and it was a phenomenal movie on its own, standing apart from simply being Star Trek. It had deep layers of structure and story. At it's heart it was a story about the end of the Star Trek Journey. Of facing age and retirement. Of your sins catching up with you. It was a tale of veterans and old soldiers. and it was wonderfully done. Every scene, every line, every cut and every queue served not just the immediate scene but those overarching layers of allegory and story. It was a brilliantly crafted piece of cinema. It gets better with further viewings. Whereas Into Darkness was a hamhanded attempt to shoehorn that story of old soldiers into a young tweenage crews first adventure. You have the shallow surface story beats. But you have none of the layering that makes the original work. Kahn only works because he and Kirk had faced each other before. They had history. They had enmity. They had both sinned in the past. And you didn't need to have seen that prior encounter. Wrath of Khan simply let you know that it had occurred and Khan had been bad, and Kirk had in turn wronged Khan. without that connection things start to go flat. And perhaps the greatest sin was there was no reason to call back to Wrath of Khan. That was the single worst decision they could have made. That forced comparisons to the original, and honestly no filmaker would want to do that as it rarely if ever ends favorably. (John Carpenter succeeded with the Thing, I can't think of many other positive examples). If Abrahms had just started from one of the early TOS episodes instead he would have been golden. Heck the "Where No Man Has Gone Before" second pilot and first Kirk episode would have been perfect. Cumberbach would have been perfect as Gary Mitchell, Kirks friend given godlike powers and driven mad. Alice Eve looks so much like a young Sally Kellerman that she could be her daughter. It would have worked and it would have been both comfortably familiar and startlingly new. Instead of that "been there seen that" feel that Into Darkness leaves you. I am actually a bit more hopeful with Abrahms regarding Star Wars. The franchise seems a better fit for his stylings. (when in doubt throw in bigger and bigger ships and things exploding!) plus the studio seems to be keeping him on a much much shorter leash. Disney knows that it was lack of proper editing and oversight that was the main cause of the awfullness that is the PT. Thats why they glued Lawrence Kasdan to him. Plus they have one of Hollywoods best script doctors in the primary cast. I would not be surprised if they were throwing her some extra work.

While not official yet it is reported that both sides (studio and actors) want Dominic Carter in it as Howard Stark and Neal McDonnough as Dum Dum Dugan. Figure Gabe Jones would give them a nice direct tie to AoS as well.