Faefrost

I think they must have a sketch model of a Yoda v Palpatine duel in the Senate chamber set somewhere. It shows up in a picture in one of the DK books. (Yoda Chronicles?) Every other picture is built on sets but that one. It's very simple and looks like it would be a $12 or $20 set. Just Yoda, Siddeous and 1 or 2 brick built senate pods.

There are some good or at least interesting ideas there. I think there is a good chance of a UCS Venator at some point. That is probably the absolute favorite PT ship among modeling fans, and tends to sell well in whatever medium it is offered. Likewise a UCS Arc 170. TLG probably considers the last Podracer release and the current Repulic Gunship near enough in size and scope that they would not do a UCS any time soon. The UCS Naboo Fighter was not exactly a fan fav last go round. They will not revisit it. Nor will they touch the Genoshan or Droid fighters in UCS scale. Not enough people actually like them. If anything from the PT will show up as UCS, my bet would be Venator, ARC 170 and HAVw A6 Juggernaut. Unfortunately I don't think we will be seeing a lot of clone any things any time soon. All merchandising will be directed at OT, Rebels and the new movies for the foreseeable future.

In release order Grand Emporium would be next. Although there are rumors that Town Hall may be the next in line to retire as it does not sell as well as GE.

The odd orientation of the brick may have been intentional, either on the part of the artist or the client, to simply better illustrate that it was Lego the child was playing with, and not simply toy building blocks. Seeing the studs was most likely what they were going for.

Read ShaydeGrai's explanation higher up in this very thread. It is probably a dead on analysis of why part choices sometimes seem counter intuitive to us. And one thing to keep in mind. Piece count probably means less to TLG then it does to we AFOL's. Only US or North American sets display piece count. Lego themselves prices less based on piece count and more on plastic weight or more likely "costs associated with individual parts". Piece count as a metric of value is something that has been pretty much developed by and for AFOL's. Lego probably views it differently. Piece count reflects the build difficulty and complexity in their world. So an AFOL targeted set will intentionally use more smaller parts. Because AFOL's like that, whereas a Juniors set uses fewer big parts. It helps them design for and target sets at a specific audience, but it isn't really an assignment of value or a marketing hook quite the way we might think.

If we go with the standard assumption that anything Lucas specifically filmed himself is the authoritative cannon, then Shaak-Ti died at General Grievouses hand aboard the Invisible Hand at the start if Ep III. It's a deleted scene. Similarly there is a deleted scene of Anakin cutting down Jocasta Nu in the Jedi Temple during Order 66.

In speaking with some staff it's confirmed. It's not just that it's a policy. The inventory control and distribution systems for the bulk brick store stock have changed such that if they sell you a whole box of something good the in store PAB wall will have to go without. The stores are basically getting what they need without a substantial surplus.

Wasn't there a scene in RotS where Padme tells Anakin she is pregnant? So there may be a bit more time in the actual movie than we are accounting for. Either that or Anakin is an even bigger idiot than we have long thought? "Hey Pad's you puttin' on some weight?"

Based on the wise casting choices, and clear well thought out decisions that they have made up until this point? I'm gonna have to go with G'norrt. Cause after Marvel goes over the top and makes a billion $$$ again using a talking Racoon, something is gonna snap. Some head of something deep in the bowels of WB will scream for a furry! Cause Furries make money! And thus we will get G'norrt'ed.

Fox had Punisher and Daredevil. They reverted to Marvel back in October. That should include among other things Punisher, Daredevil, Electra, Bullseye and Kingpin. I think Blade and Ghost Rider may have also returned to Marvels control. Rumor is Marvel was willing or offering to extend Fox's Hold on all of them in exchange for the cosmic villains from Fantastic Four being returned. Galactus, Silver Surfer and possibly Annihilus. Fox didn't go for it. I think SONY's ownership of Spider-Man has been wildly overblown. Right now they just have the movie rights. Even the merchandising rights from SONY's movies are in Marvel's hands. (Hence why Lego released a set with the Jamie Fox style Electro.)

It looks like Glenbrickers set will easily be the first to the finish line. 9100 votes in about a week. Making it one of the faster projects to climb the charts.

We shall see what the future holds. The patents on SLS printing expired last month, making the tech fair game for innovation and consumerization. And that will be the equivalent of 3d "laser printing" vs FDM's inkjet. I think we will need to see several major innovations in 3d printing before it has any direct home impact for us. Strength, speed, color injection not requiring multiple heads or material spools. Long before we see any "at home" benefits we will probably see TLG working to use newer faster devices not just in prototyping, but in production. At least in small scale production. Custom small run headpieces, etc. 3d printing will finally be the trick that will permit some new parts in CuuSoo. If they can get it where it can spit out 20,000 Legend of Zelda hairpieces in a fairly compact time frame, precolored, then we may see some evolutionary changes.

In theory he should at some point be wearing the Mithril shirt in TABA. It would be nice to get a torso with that at some point.

Nothing if you just want to have fun dreaming things up with friends. But Lego will not even look at unsolicited theme proposals. (Pretty much no business will). They have always been pretty up front about that. Nothing you would send in or give to an Ambassador would or could ever be seen by a designer. Right now there are only 2 paths for a fan idea to ever see production. 1. CuuSoo and 2. Get hired by Lego as a designer. Otherwise the best hope would be a marketing survey asking what themes you want to see again.

Mattel has had a few deals with MB. Most notably Barbie and Hot Wheels. Megabloks is a weirdly positioned product. They really aren't "cheap" bricks. They are a mid level product. Which means they are losing out to Lego on quality and to the cheaper horrid generic brands with the price driven. Their entire business at this point requires the licensing. Think about it. When was the last time you saw a succesful unlicensed MB product line. And in spite of some of our prejudices, MB is actually one of the better well engineered products. Their only true failing is their choice of materials. Lego has long worried that if MB were to ever start using ABS they would be able to compete on quality. MBs other big failing is their production chain and logistics. Mattel may be able to straighten that out. I'm really not to worried. I suspect that the MB Mattel merger is something that had to happen, but neither were particularly seeking the other. They were the last two single folks at the dance. MAttel was the only major toy player with no presense in the high growth brick arena. MB was the best of the still standalone brick companies that looked viable for acquisition. MB carries the number 2 brand recognition. Which is high value in itself. The alternatives probably would have been Character Builder, which has no North American brand recognition or infrastructure, or Ionix, which is a bit of a rising star, and to broad with all the figures etc. they would end up paying to much for mostly capacities they already have. It will be interesting to see how it plays out. Don't expect anything soon. For the near term MB will be tanking and strangling itself. Everything will suffer for the next year. If it doesn't than it means Mattel really isn't bothering much with MB. But there is no way that there is no corporate conflict. Mattel is a huge corporate behemoth, with lots of Injection Plastic experience, but none really in the construction product or marketing area. MB is a well experienced brick maker with a mall small private company structure and no experience of corporate overlords. It's gonna be spectacular to watch.

They are AIM scientist goons. Soemtimes referred to as AIM Beekeepers because of the suits.

I always thought that Hydra mini sub from the first Captain America movie would make a great small set. Give it a T shirt wearing Steve Rogers, Peggy Carter and the Hydra spy chasing a blue bottle. Give Steve a Shield that is a trash can lid. That and I don't know about you all, but I could see Lego doing a really nuts Red Skulls car set. If Lego really wants to silence the feminist crowd than a Birds or Prey set would be perfect. Oracle, Huntress, Black Canary. (At that point who cares what villains they stick in there?) And on the list of pop culture classic things that we will sadly never see. Batman Beyond Batmobile with Terry, Bruce and Ace vs some Jokers on bikes.

Lego has an actual mechanism to do this. http://lego.cuusoo.com

OK I really am liking the new Sandcrawler. My only nitpik with it is that it lacks a 3B6 droid, when they just created a new mold for that droids head? I mean they but it in the Yoda chronicles ship? and not in the massive set about the scene it was in? But other than that it looks great. It looks better proportioned than the original. I love the front hatch controlled by the chain winch. I'm shocked at 4 Jawas and multiple Jawa prints. I love C3PO. I'm a little confused with the green R2 Unit? I don't remember another R2 in the Sandcrawler? Is this just a fig they had a surplus in and tossed him in to pad out the Droids some more? Aesthetically it's not perfect. I'm not crazy about the plates as walls, but its pretty common with SW ships. At least it looks 1000x better than the Twilight. I don't think they have ever gotten the weathering to look quite right in either version. I love the expanded cockpit. The rest of the interior looks a bit technic heavy like any SW plate sided vehicle. My one petty wish is that they would have designed it with the intention for adding Power Functions like they do with some Technic sets and Trains. Now that would have been awesome.

So those aren't burns on Shredders face? It's some sort of horrible creeping skin condition? I think Lego Shredder really needs to find a good Lego dermatologist and some topical ointment.

My thoughts would be maybe a more 1950's ish Vintage SciFi feel? I know AC was trying to go there a bit, but I was thinking more an early atomic age tale of Men in Black and Scientists and Giant Mutant Ants and such. Maybe figure out a way to do a classic Kaiju type theme in minifig? Brickzilla vs MechaBrickzilla? Give it some period cars, a giant MASER cannon or two. Lots of fleeing screaming townfolk. A clean cut scientist hero etc.

I got real lucky today. My local Lego store had the # 4,5,6 Action Designer set as an open box/crushed/damaged special for $39. At that price I couldn't resist. And the books really are wonderful. I just wish these weren't so expensive.

The GH may simply be a play on the well known MGH from the marvel universe. (Mutant Growth Hormone). The two best theories I have seen regarding the blue alien are; 1. The Alien is Kree. Skye is part Kree or in some way related to the Kree. And among other things it jump starts her abilities whatever they may be. Ms. Marvel? Mantis? Something involving the Inhumans? (The T in T.A.H.I.T.I. might stand for Terrigen.) This is the most likely as it allows for AoS to somewhat easily connect to Guardians of the Galaxy. 2. The Alien might be Atlantian. Which opens up all sorts of other potential. Is he in some way tied to Skye (she did turn a bit bluish for a moment). Namorita? That's an obscure enough character for AoS.

It has all the new Spring sets. The last Hobbit wave was out with the movie. The next will not be out until fall. I wouldn't read anything into it. We already know no LotR sets in 2014.

Just looking at it in terms of the product released I think 2014, particularly the back half of 2014 will be noted as one of the best ever Lego release years. With many sets having long term classic potential. I understand the shift to more licensed stuff and less classic stuff etc. the reasons behind that are very basic. Lego doesn't really release basic building sets anymore because they are no longer unique or distinctive in doing so. Any competitor can release a near identicle set. The core patents have expired. So the value being sold has shifted to the IP and the stories. Be it licensed, such as SW or SH, or in house like Ninjago or TLM, or Friends. As far as pricing, what can we do? We all have known pricing will be creeping up. We have seen the world economies. Plastic comes from oil. Petroleum products. There was news a week or two ago that TLG is starting to look for a long term replacement for ABS. You can safely assume that the essential "green" component of that search will be to get them out from under the volatile oil markets. They have mainly done a good job at controlling product and product line growth. Contrary to what we sometimes think they have not over saturated the shelves like they did in the late 80's where they began essentially competing with themselves. Part of that seems to be that they are giving most individual products shorter life cycles and replacing them with something new faster. That of course is a blessing and a curse for fans like us. They don't target their product lines with the true complete collector in mind. Really the only outright expansion of their retail shelf profile has been Friends. Which looks to have paid off well. Set design continues to refine and advance. And while pricing is going up, there does seem to be a concerted effort to do lots of interesting things at lower price points. And they still are offering AFOLs some amazing large complex and fun sets. The Parisian Restaraunt already stands out as one of the best ever. Best ever? I dunno. I'd have to do some deep comparisons with 2008-2010 or so. But absolutely looking to be one of the best. Having trouble deciding where to put your budget because there is too much good stuff is NOT a bad year.