Faefrost

It's not a Phobia. It is actual planning of market segments and age ranges. At what Age ranges will kids seek and play with toys based on Mickie or Pooh? Duplo is designed to cover those ranges. AFOLs do not factor much into this sort of equation, except in rare special cases. I can see them doing something like a D2C captain Hook's Jolly Roger Pirate ship as a big AFOL bait 2000+ piece set. But not a whole minifig based system scale Peter Pan theme. The target audience does not match up with the product.

That was my take on it. It looks kind of boring. Just a typical. Rime procedural with a ton of "see who this guy will eventually be!" Wink wink nudge nudge bits of unfulfilling fan service. I mean there is a reason this is the least covered period in Bruce Wayne's life. "Watch the one who will one day be the Dark Knight fail his Math homework" isn't exactly something we crave or have ever asked for.

Of the stuff that came over from CuuSoo there are a few such as the Marble Maze that have a good shot. Of the newer stuff added since it became ideas, none. The only set from that group so far that will hit 10k within the year is that good original Jaws set. Otherwise it's been a 2 week parade of bad LDD. This assumes that the projects are just left to slowly climb naturally with no marketing or action from their creator. Under the new system you will need to actively push for your project and find its fan base. Use social media. Flickr, etc. go outside the immediate AFOL community. For those older projects they gain the benefit of keeping their vote totals over the past few years, but the downside is if the creator does not take active steps to promote them they will once again get lost in the vast database of projects. Now this will change next year, when the vast database gets cleaned out, and finding projects gets a lot easier. But this certainly doesn't benefit the ones we are talking about. The staff picks on the front page can be a huge boon for any older project.

"Define Unlicensed" By that I mean it isn't quite as simple as you might think. There is more than a binary license/no license going on. At least as it regards our assumptions. At one end you have the clear uni=equivocal pop culture licenses with active independent fan bases. At the other far end you have those truly unique pieces or projects. Not something with no third party ties, but something that has not been seen before (for good or ill) Sculptures, Little billy's "RED CAR", Some weird robot from a bit of personal fan fiction or the story in the creators head. etc. In between those two binary states there are some median stages. Not licensed but familiar. Things like Famous Buildings, Pirate Ships, Real World Models like specific and well detailed cars, etc. Or things that relate back to Themes or Things that they like. Lego Licenses if you will. A nice new Pirate Ship, A Nice Castle, etc. The only things that probably have no chance of making the one year deadline are those truly unique with not just a license tie, but no pre existing familiarity of the subject, type of subject etc. And to be honest as we have seen during CuuSoo's run, 6 years wouldn't make a difference for these. The clearly licensed stuff with fanbases to call on will hit 10k fastest. But the more basic Familiar stuff will have a good chance of finding its audience and making the cutoff, if presented and marketed well.

Isn't there something weird with the licensing of the Daleks?

Did anyone catch the subtle info about Skye in last nights AoS? If it means what it seems to then something major has just been added to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Don't think Chinese. Think Himalayan. And once you connect Himalayan with "Monster's giving birth to a human infant" there is only one thing in the Marvel Universe it can be. See the spoiler above.

That's fantastic, and looks perfect.

I think Brotherhood Workshop did the stop motion for it. They are truly amazing.

It will depend a great deal on what type of plastic you are painting on, and if you are over spraying everything with a base primer and starting from scratch, or just seeking to add details to existing printing. Most Lego parts are made of ABS, which is a very hardy and resistant plastic. It does not take paint well. You can use any type of paint on it for effect. But some will eventually wear off with handling. There are three main types of paint. 1. Acrylic - acrylic paints are a mainly water based paint that is pretty much toxin free and easy to work with. Lower quality Acrylics will be horrid, but some of the high end fine grain ones such as the above mentioned Citadel paints are a breeze to work with and give magnificent results. The downside, Acrylic paint does not bond with ABS. So it will wear off with handling. If you are planning on just making detailed figures for display this is a good choice. It cleans up with water until it fully cures. After which water will not effect it. 2. Enamel - traditional plastic model paints such as Testors. Good all around stuff. Not as easy to work with as Acrylic, but good results a finer grain and better color, and a touch more permanent. It may stick better to ABS than Acrylic. It cleans up with Mineral Spirits such as Turpentine. You may also think of these as oil based paints. An important rule is do not mix the use of Acrylic and Enamel paints. They react to each other and fail to dry properly creating a sticky mess. 3. Lacquer - ok now this is the nasty one. Lacquer based paints can be incredible to use. But you need to know what you are doing. The fumes with them can be quite toxic. The advantages, they have the finest grain and truest color. The cons, so toxic that importing many of them is banned for hobby or model paints. This stuff is Auto body paint. Now it will do true chrome sand metallics, but is best sprayed on (remember the toxic if breathed, yeah it gets complicated). Now the reason for using it. Lacquer bonds to ABS. So a Lacquer painted fig is permanent. But if done wrong it can also melt the plastic. Clean up is Lacquer Thinner, which will melt the fig. Think Nail Polish Remover. If you are just looking to add some detailing by hand then Acrylics like Citadel are probably best. Stay away from Lacquers unless you are seeking to do something like a true metal finish Star Wars Droid or Silver Surfer. Then something like Alclad II works well.

I think it's more you are starting to be able to pick up on some of the design aesthetics of certain designers. And also the designers themselves will save and evolve design ideas. As an example Mark Stafford has worked on a lot of the recent Space and Action theme stuff over the past 6 or 7 years, starting with Agents or Space Police 3. If you look at a list of the sets he has designed or worked on you can easily start to recognize his design stylings. Not to say this is bad he designed some of the all time best modern sets. But you can see where he carries forward and evolves ideas. And yeah sometimes you do see things recycled in different ways. They had a second wave of Alien Conquest planned out and we have seen some concept art. Many of those ideas were rolled into Galaxy Squad and other themes. (That big blue squad tank drop ship clearly evolved from an AC design. The latest Ninjago waves always remind me a bit of Agents with a touch of AC.)

Dick's age seemed to vary in the comics between Golden Ages, Silver Age, Bronze Age, dark Age and modern. And Dick's span of Robin sort of exceeds the current lore on how long Bruce Wayne has been Batman. If you go by the early books Dick started at a young boyish age. Maybe 11 or 12, and finished up and became Nightwing somewhere in his early 20's. Call it 22 or 23. Definitely legal to drink in the US ;) Jason is the big unknown as his characterization shifted around a bit before the fans finally forced them to give it up and start over. Best guess 14-16 maybe? Right in those real annoying and obnoxious teenage years. Tim very clearly started on or around 16. He can drive and is in his later years of High School. Pre new 52 Tim was portrayed as being biologically a hair younger than Superboy and a hair older than Impulse/kid Flash. Bart was pretty clearly tagged as 15-16 ish, so you can do the math from there. (Ok technically Bart and Superboy were each only 3 years old, but you get what I mean... Comics are weird.) Damien would seem to be the youngest to don the Robin identity. Maybe 10-12? For completists, Stephanie Brown is Tim's Age and grade so probably 17 when she put on the suit briefly. The Dark Knight Returns Carrie Kelly is probably 14 or 15. Streetwise and mid teens but not yet legal to drive. Did I miss any? Not exactly. Dick Grayson wears the classic costume including green shorts for his entire run.(except the Golden Age Earth 2 version who eventually goes with long pants). Note worthy with the Dick outfit are the red tunic, short sleeves, green shorts and boots, bare legs and fully yellow cape both sides. Jason Todd wears the same basic outfit as Dick until his death. (Well his presumed comic book death) there have been minor detail changes with Dick and Jason's outfits depending on year, fashion and artist, such as size of collar etc, but it's was pretty stable. Tim Drake wore the Dick / Jason outfit once, during the Lonely Place For Dying story arch that pretty much introduced him as Robin. That was without Batman's permission. Every time since Batman insisted he wear a new more heavily armored and protected suit that is more akin to the bat suit. His suit is a red torso (body armor) with short sleeves, full green leggings or pants (later evolving to red with no green), heavier gauntlets, and most distinctively a 2 color cape. Yellow on the inside, black on the outside, and made of a heavy Nomex and Kevlar mix to be wrapped around the wearer to protect from fire, bullets and most importantly explosions. Damien Wayne's suit was basically an adaption of Tim's later full red outfit. Red Torso and boots, and a fully yellow cape with oddly a black hood. These are the main "comic" versions of the suits. There have been some differences and changes in various animated shows and movies. (I believe in Batman TAS Dick started wore full green pants and Tim started with the full red outfit.) For the two girls Stephanie Brown wore Tim's red/green outfit, Carrie Kelly wore the original Dick outfit. Ok so what does this have to do with actual Lego Minifigs? In a nutshell. None of them match any specific Robin. (Except that rare older Earth 2 Robin. The red and green figs are a good match for him). They all give the impressions of being a certain Robin without quite matching up perfectly. The closest are probably the Arkham Asylum one which mostly matches with a late career Tim Drake, lacking only the 2 color cape, and the short one from the Joker Steamroller that is really an almost dead on Damian Wayne. If you want to make him accurate you could probably do it easily using the down Hoodie piece from a Lego Movie Wyldstyle.

Aside from the facial problems that they all share Leonardo's design isn't bad. It seems cleaner and leaner than the others. If they had stuck more in line with him I would probably like them all more.

Having built one Modular MOC from scratch and slowly working my way through another I can tell you with certainty that TheLegoDr is 100% correct about plates for roofing and flooring. You do not need big expensive hard to find plates. A good mix of 4x8, 4x6 and a ton of underlying 2x whatever's will do the job better and cheaper. If you need some good templates look at the instructions for the Fire Brigade and the Grand Emporium. They do a lot with smaller plates. It is much much cheaper. Big plates are expensive, hard to find and even harder to find in new or even decent condition. Tiling floors gets expensive as well. I will suggest you not get hung up on a specific floor color scheme unless it is a specific mosaic type effect you are looking for. Lately I tend to just buy random tiles to fluff out an order when I order other stuff. This way I have a selection of cheap options. (I'm also lazy. If I don't have tiles on hand to finish a projects flooring I will tend to wander off and forget to order more, so it will sit on my shelf forever with the interior half tiled.) For the arches, have you tried experimenting with the new Gothic to create an effect similar to what you are going for? They are available in white and should be dirt cheap. There were 4 in the LotR Council of Elrond set that has been getting blown out at discount pricing. As you are discovering, no LDD color scheme survives contact with Bricklink.

I think Donnie suffers horribly from a tremendous over abundance of nice touches and character details. The glasses, the goggles, the tape. The tech gear. The microphone. Etc etch etc. it all comes together to just scream TOO MUCH. Like they gave design duties to a hyperactive 13 year old and told him "he's a nerd, but a cool nerd! Draw him!"

Right now my money is on the first Dr. Who project, barring license issues. Of the others; Bird Project would be the first runner up. But will probably fail on its long slow climb to 10k. It can go either way. It's a distinctly niche set and subject. But TLG has a certain fondness for organics. BTTF Jules Verne Train - will probably fail as an subsequent follow up to an existing CuuSoo derived license. If they want more BTTF they will do like Minecraft and open up a broader internal theme. Modular Apple Store - Fail, Lego does not pay to do advertising or marketing for other brands like this. The only way Lego would offer an Apple store would be if Apple paid them to do it. Granted you never know, Apple might, or they might reach some back end charity deal. But still unlikely. Plus it's not a great compelling set. Kind of just a flat grey box. Big Bang Theory - fail. It's sort of a North American only subject. Plus Dr. who is far more well known and universal nerd porn. Why make a set about Dr. Who fans when you can make a Dr. Who set? Other Dr. Who set - will not even enter full review unless the first one fails in a way that doesn't invalidate the subject or IP. So if the first project requires new parts or non Lego parts it might get called up. Otherwise it's Dead Jim.

I think the PR has done quite well. It is a great fascinating building and build. But FB was still the principle entry point for new fans of the series. It was a full working real looking Fire House. Which drew people in on a lot of levels. PR does well because it is a fantastic modular. But I am not sure it has quite the casual hook that FB had. I'm betting the vast majority of its fans and purchasers are folks who already have or even started with the FB. And that's the niche Lego needs to replace in the line. That entry hook. That set that calls out to you not just because it was a great modular, but because it was a great stand alone. And once you build it you crave more. I also think that Lego's "near modular" Haunted House did a great deal to soften the blow from retiring FB, and in many ways acted as a gateway to the Modulars. I don't think the Simpsons set will do as well at that.

Actually in many locales churches are categorized similarly to hospitals. They are not government owned or operated but they are viewed as community service infrastructure. Basically they are considered un taxable land for the benefit of the community. Much as a "community center" would be. Just as a school or University is considered such regardless of whether it is a government owned or private. It's really just minor semantics either way.

Lego is operating off of the Disney Princesses license for this line. That means 11 very very specific characters and some of their non villainous supporting cast. Villains are a separate license. Tinkerbell and the Faeries is a separate license. And Frozen is currently a separate license. Elsa and Anna have not been added to the official Disney Princess list yet, although you can be sure it will happen. They only just added the characters to the theme parks (resulting in 4-5 hour lines for pictures) in April. Neither Disney nor Lego were quite prepared for the juggernaut that Frozen has become. TLG was probably expecting movie earnings similar to Tangled, which justified a set or two under the Princess line, but would not warrant a full theme all it's own.

They are both Slave 1, just with different paint schemes. Slave 2 was an ugly EU ship that just got vaporized with the rest of the EU. Any UCS set they do will probably be an ESB Boba Fett version. In part because it hits a broader audience, and in part because it allows for the more interesting heavily weathered coloring. I do think a regular system scale Jango Fett Slave 1 is at the top of the list of PT subjects that we are likely to see Lego still doing in the next few years. I think the main focus will be OT and new stuff. But they will see do some PT subjects. Slave 1 probably tops that list.

In all seriousness. Whatever comes next will need to be something to fill the entry level void left by retiring the Fire Brigade. Somethingthat acts like it, as a hook between City and Modulars and gets the whole family interested. If we give any credence to pattern recognition, It seems to go; Corner - Commercial Building - Government or service Building - Corner - repeat So what comes next could conceivably be some sort of governmental or civic building. Basic choices are Police, School, Hospital, Church, Post Office. Fire and Town Hall they already did. They will not do a church anymore. (Such a shame I so want a nice little church) Hospital may be tough to do. Post Office would be great, but I don't think it is the kid and family magnet that they would want. Which leads me to suspect either a Police Precinct House, complete with period squad car. Or a School with School Bus.Something instantly familiar to all, but done really really well. I know a few people mention museums. It would be fantastic to get one. But I think it would not be that distinct of a build or building. It would be the GE's interior with some frontage similar to TH.

A fair point. And one that we probably don't think on much. How much has the review process payed attention to not simply the projects but the rates of voting as a gauge of interest? (Granted not the exclusive gauge. Ie it didn't help ol Purdue Pete.) I would guess within certain parameters speed does count a bit. For example 2 weeks may not be better than 12 weeks in review, but it's better than 24 months. We also often forget that our goals for reviews are different than TLG's. We like lots of projects hitting review. It's news. It's exciting. It means something we like might get made. Whereas TLG wants or better benefits from fewer better quality sets hitting review within a finite period of time. The review process is people intensive and time consuming. In other words it's expensive. Each set in review costs them. So they seek ways to screen out those that would be known or certain failures. A set that took 6 years to get 10k votes will not be a successful product. It will not pass the business review. There just isn't a driving support or fan base. The one year threshold is reasonable. Some argument may be made for giving an extra 6 months if it hits 5k. But the boundaries make perfect sense when you look at it from the point of view of what happens when a set enters review. How much effort and resources each review takes. It's in the review teams interest to put the time limit. Oh and speaking of Purdue Pete. It looks like there is another one looming. This time cleverly masked as an Architecture set and a thousand cries of "go bears". /sigh!

I don't think it will be quite that complex. We already have 2, possibly 3 AI's on the table.

A trolley would offer the same issues as the old monorail. Expensive to produce. Limited market. And would probably need newer track pieces to interface with streets better. (Most people will not go for 1000 pieces of a $150 set going to tile over train tracks. I think we would have a better chance of a trolley in either Trains or Winter Village.

The problem with dinosaurs is the target market skews young and peters off quick. In other words we will not see regular action theme sets anytime soon. But the subject is almost tailor made for their new juniors line.

There is just so much wrong in that image. I mean what studio in there right mind would approve that image or character design to get out?