Faefrost

Are we sure that $300 price rumor was USD? Because just looking at that pic I could easily see that as a $180 set baring any off the wall features like Power Functions.

And it is a picture of a CGI model from the video game, which may or may not bear any relation or resemblance to anything the Lego eventually produces in the real world. Sometimes the game matches, sometimes it doesn't. And there really is no discern able pattern to it.

So Disney has stepped in to cross the streams as it were? And is blending Marvel with Cars? Peter Quill is an F150? Edit: and as soon as I typed it I realized that yes this exact thing is going to show up in a DisneyWorld gift shop by late summer.../shudder

I dunno, I kinda think both Lego and WB were definitely disparagingly poking fun at Speed Racer in that one?

I agree. That's the only one that struck me as truly reasonable and well executed. It's both sad and hilarious that there are now 2 -3 pages of new CuuSoo projects all blue cubes of some form or the other. Let's all jump on the bandwagon why don't we?

The size would not matter. The very existence of it as a "Western Theme" set would have given Disney veto power under the license contract. Do we know this for 100% certainty? No, no one ever discusses precise business contracts. But it is such a common license contract requirement that it would be more shocking for its absence. TLG entered into an agreement for a licensed western theme tied to a big budget movie. This, like most licenses, had certain exclusive no compete clauses. Disney is particularly well known for them. That contract and the movie related sales is worth far far more to TLG than a 20,000 piece CuuSoo run. Even if the movie flopped the numbers are still way better. So they made the only decision that could. Reject the CuuSoo project. Could they resurrect the MWT? Yes. Will they? Heck no! Once again it is a 20,000 piece D2C unlicensed CuuSoo set? In a Theme that probably didn't blow the doors off anybody when it just had a license backing it. Bringing it back would cause far far more issues than it would be worth to them. Aside from a small niche fan base there really is no reason for them to even consider it. As I said above, it fell victim to bad timing, but businesses will almost never revisit bad timing projects.

Sending it back through CuuSoo again would be great for MWT and it's fans. But it would be horrible for CuuSoo as a whole, and the design review team. Look at the CuuSoo rules lawyers around here, fighting for any hope to resurrect a project that did not pass review? Now replace the MWT fans with the somewhat more dedicated and intense Nintendo or Zelda fan base. Just imagine what happens if they are told that you can continually resubmit rejected proposals until you get a result you like? Yes the MWT was a victim of timing. Those sadly happen all the time in business. But often trying to undo them causes a ton more problems than simply moving on.

Actually I don't think Lego's LR line bombed per se. If anything I think it did better and probably turned more profit than the movie it was based on. It actually flew off the shelves before the movie came out. which was strange. PoP however...

Really the only problem area in this is in the war for shelf space. Mattel can demand much more product and prominant display positions in stores than Megabloks ever could on their own. But unless Mattel is prepared to radically strip and redo Megabloks by fully recapitalizing their factories around ABS, it will continue to be a non issue long term. megablok's long time quality issue revolves around their choice of plastic. Polystyrene. It is cheaper to make, cast and make tooling for. But it's quality for this type of product is appallingly bad. It warps, it breacks, it is too soft to hold precision for long, etc. Until that is corrected for they will not be challenging Lego. Before this badly damages Lego it will have serious implications for KreO and Hasbro. TRU and Target will strip and sacrifice Kre-O shelf space long before they touch Lego. Lego is too much of a cash cow. Which leaves open another interesting possibility... Given that TLG is fully privately held, and has a very high degree of cash on hand, how might TLG react to this action by Mattel? Given that the main threat stems not so much from the Megabloks product itself, but from Mattel's ability to leverage its large #1 market share at the retailer level, how could Lego effectively counter that? One way would be by displacing Mattel as #1 by acquisition. There were rumors floating around late last year that Hasbro might have been in talks to sell to Disney. Which didn't make a lot of sense as Disney has been divesting the oddball side businesses in favor of contract partners (see Lucasarts closed and all game contracts given to EA), but might Lego not be considering buying Hasbro? That would put Bilund dead square in the middle of Mattel's turf. And give them more than enough leverage to brikblok Mattel and Megabloks.

Dear Lord why are we arguing Marvel vs DC or demanding separate threads or forums? For the first time in almost 40 years we have the to comic properties literally playing nice together, and sharing a toy line that is fully interplay able. We have not seen that since the old days of Mego. We have Batman and Spider-Man and the X Men and Justice League all together. At the same size in the same style! And we want to go back to the tired old arguments? Relish this moment in time! We have 3 major comic properties all from the same vendor and all in the same core toy line, on actual retail shelves. Kids can play with these. Together. This is where new fans of the things we love come from. And that in turn is what gets us more of those nice things. Also here is a little secret that so few of the "vs" minded fanboys forever seem to miss. The senior creators of this stuff. The Marvel and DC CEOs and Editors in Chief love each other's stuff. Marvel reads Batman religiously. DC loves the Avengers movie. And all of them, Marvel, DC, Disney and Warner Brothers hopes that whatever Justice League movie comes out, that it will be awesome. It's because after 50 years of rivalry they have finally realized that it is not a zero sum game, and that they as content providers are less competing with each other as they are competing for the general populations attention. They have figured out that the people who liked Man of Steel will absolutely also go see Captain America. One does not take away from the other. In fact the better on is, the greater the profits to the other as well. And it goes across the boards for the most part. People who watch Arrow will also watch Agents of Shield. People who read Spider-Man will more often than not also read Batman or some other DC product. Kids who play with Batman Lego will also want Iron Man, etc. there individual businesses are better served by serving the entire genre and not just their subset. (This is also why there have long been rumors of a Spider-Man cameo in Avengers 2) So remind me? Why would we want to segregate the much smaller specific fan bases? Doesn't it serve both ourselves and the properties we love more to talk about them and share them as a single theme? After all just because you don't read DC or know the characters today, doesn't mean you won't tomorrow. Heck that freebie Martian Manhunter may prompt a Marvel only fan to look him up and see what his story is. And start reading from there.

I just got this one as well. It's a fun little set. As you said its all about the figs. The Cobra... I mean Hydra tank is decent enough. No flaws to it. My only complaint on the set is the Hydra guy. The yellow printing does not work well over the bright green and comes out looking a little dull and translucent. This is a problem they often have when pad printing a light color onto a bright colored surface. Spider-Man figs are notorious for it. Cap has a few issues with this as well. Mainly the small portion of face. The red skull is great.

Kai Fighter vs Cloud Cuckoo. That will really depend a lot on what you do and what you like. Overall I think Kai fighter is the stronger, unless you really desire Unikitty and the Lego movie main cast in a cheap set. The Cloud Cuckoo Palace is interesting, and has some neat and rare parts. But it isn't a good display or play piece. And it uses some strange Friends colors. Which are great, but if you are a system builder, you probably have nothing else of, and get nowhere near enough of to do anything interesting with. The Kai Fighter is a small set. It's a decent plane with a lot of swoosh ability. Not anywhere near the league of Jays Stormfighter or some of the Star Wars stuff. But still real fun as a toy.

Arkham by far. Every part of it is a win. The others have some interesting figs. Namely Batgirl, Damien Wayne Robin, Doc Oc, and the more classic caped crusaders. But the builds in them are mostly awful. The only thing even mildly interesting of the bunch is the Jokers Steamroller. The rest, BLEAH!

Also http://www.bricklink.com I believe there is also aniOS app that is a pretty good catalo of them all as well.

There will be four 10-12 episode series based around some of Marvel's street level characters. The project is being made for Netflix. Daredevil, Iron Fist, Luke Cage, and (oddly enough) Jessica Jones. Which will all lead into a fifth series Defenders. It was just announced yesterday that they are to be filmed in NYC in Hell's Kitchen. I figure it will be something along the lines of WB's Arrow series. As you said there is also talk of an ABC or ABCFamily 'Agent Carter" based on Peggy Carter during WW2. I'm not sure on that one. I can't really see the appeal unless they use it as a vehicle to introduce the Invaders.

Yes DC and Marvel both select or at the least approve the art versions used. But they are not simply pulling from the new 52 or matching everything to it. Some characters yes. Some no. Some a sort of hybrid blending. Flash is close to his new 52 design, but it is also a very clearly recognizable flash design. Wonder Woman us classic. As is Harley Quinn. Because the general public does not recognize the new designs as the expected character. The key is how familiar is the design used. Not necessarily whether it is new 52. Marvel actually seems a little tighter in this regard with the focus on some Ultimate Spider-Man designs used.

I think the last human civilian group would have been Mars Mission. Who mainly seemed to be a kind of corporate resource acquisition group. Somewhat akin to the Power Miners or Atlantis teams. The civilian opposing force to SPIII were the crime gangs and the alien space mob led by Brickdaddy.

The fact that they made the statement on CuuSoo permitting Dr. Who CuuSoo submissions pretty much 100% means that the regular TLG licensing group is not in any way talking with the BBC or currently planning on pursuing the Dr. Who license for a full theme. It may seem counterintuitive, but if they were interested in getting the license to release a series of Dr. Who sets, they would never have said anything on CuuSoo, and would have simply left Dr. Who on the not allowed list.

I'm fine with the weird Steampunk vibe and the taller than it is long construction. It's those sails that keep giving me pause. I would love this a lot more, even at its steep price, if those were real cloth sails and not those technic fenders.

I'm saying the minifigures is "the Flash" nothing more nothing less. It uses markings and designs common to most versions of the Flash and easily recognizable for almost the past 15 years. We nerd types argue about which Flash it is or which Robin or is Cyclops the Astonishing one or a classic one etc. Honestly Lego really does not care for such specifics nor should they. Their goal is to create an easily recognizable version of the base super hero character. This will often be a bit of blending between various artists comic interpretations or animated versions or even a touch of live action. The Minifigs that we have gotten that precisely line up with a specific version and medium of a given character are few and far between. We tend to miss the point when we read too much into it all or get too detail focused on minutae.

No it would not. The MWT was given a full review and rejected at that time. It was rejected for clear legitimate and business reasons. In order for CuuSoo to work, without opening up a literal Megablokstorm of legal squabbles over designs, ideas, etc, The end result of a review must be a binary yes or no. Any word or action that hints at a "maybe" or a "we may re examine this later" has the potential to give the CuuSoo designer leverage over an ever broader swath of internal design work. What if Lego chooses to do an unlicensed Western theme once the contracts from LR end? They have all of the nice new molds. Any vague action on their part with CuuSoo could give a third party designer an argument for a piece of that next theme. Which is a situation that no manufacturer will tolerate. If a project makes it to review, and is fully reviewed, if it passes it becomes the property of TLG and proceeds to production. If it is failed for any reason all rights are transferred back to the creator. TLG relinquishes all designs, rights, etc with the understanding that they will not use his designs and he may do as he wishes with them. TLG holds nothing at that point. They take steps to insure that there can be no legitimate question of using those designs at a later date or for a different project sort of thing. If they even once go back to a failed project to bring it back for production at a later date, it opens the door that all others may be under consideration, and in turn may have a claim against some later product line that dances close to their subject matter. Toss in existing or ongoing licenses and it quickly is a nightmare. Really, practically, the only way to bring back that MWT set would probably be for Lego to literally hire Marshall. Bring him in house even as a work for hire contractor. But it would have to be wholly outside the CuuSoo system. The Dr. Who projects can be re submited because they have never gotten 10k votes or been sent for review. It's a wholly different set of problems, and much easier ones to work around.

It depends on what you are looking to do, but many myself included, tend to use the Modular Standard, which puts the buildings on a 32x32 or 16x32 baseplate, so your layout is effectively a grid of 32x32 plates.

The one thing I am liking with most of these new Marvel and Batman sets. I think the characters come off much much better as minifigs in their more traditional and colorful comic book stylings, than they do as conversions from the live action movies. There are a few exceptions (Iron Man being the big one), but otherwise the more colorful ones are generally more visually appealing and seem to have cleaner designs and artwork. Granted I am not crazy about some of the animated series designs, especially the Ultimate Spiderman ones or DC's new 52 designs (Hate red Nightwing), but still preferable to some of the more drab movie figs. (Bane, Hawkeye, Black Widow, Movie Cap). and I think the kids might actually prefer that too. I think most will be thrilled to be playing with the Falcon, and not really care that he isn't yet another guy in black tactical gear. It actually predates the new 52. The lightning bolt belt was the major difference between Barry's costume and Wally Wests version of it starting somewhere around 2000 or so. The Wally version had the tapered lightning design around the waist.

That is wonderful. And includes the best realized Lego Wheelchair that I have ever seen. So simple yet effective.

The other way to view that is the very fact that CuuSoo has openly said the license is available is almost a certain sign that TLG is NOT in any discussions with the BBC regarding a full Dr. Who license, and has no intentions of doing so. If they thought there was even a chance of another LR vs MWT type conflict they would not have publicly mentioned that the license was now open. If any discussions were going on, or if there was any larger scale internal interest in the license they would have simply kept it on the not allowed list until they were ready to make an announcement. The other nasty side effect of this is that by CuuSoo making this public statement they have probably had a detrimental effect on any negotiations they may have in the future to aquire a license for CuuSoo or otherwise. After Character Builders line essentially fell flat the cost to anyone else to acquire the license would have probably been at a nice low price. But now CuuSoo has effectively said Lego is willing to entertain the idea of a Dr Who license. Lego's even mild interest in it from this simple public statement and fan chatter will greatly increase the cost to actually get the license. The BBC are not fools and are notorious for squeezing blood from a stone with regards to their licenses. (just look at the US costs for Dr. Who DVD's)