Faefrost

It will be interesting to see some of the uses that people will come up with for that piece. It can be effectively used as an opposite or negative version of the classic 1x1 with stud on 1 side. So it will allow for some interesting geometries. But it is still kind of oddly positioned for much common use.

The regular character Droids don't really break the stylings or illusion. Most people are familiar enough with the minifig type R2D2 and C3PO. Heck, Lego has a highly successful series of minifig based TV shows and games utilizing them. So they work within the illusion. The Battledroids are a grey area. But once again they have been used enough in animation in conjunction with the minifigs that it would typically work. The Droids can look a little different because they are robots. Which works in context. But the minidolls are people. And that means more than anything else they are the point that shatters the suspension of disbelief. It's a weird subtle thing. The human mind flags more on small things than it does on large. It's what forms what we call the Uncanny Valley, when designing animation or video games. The closer to a depiction of a person something is, the more its minor flaws become evident. In this context a BigFig like Hulk or a LotR troll is less illusion breaking than a minidoll, because you expect it to be over the top different. But the minidolls face just seems weird compared to the minifigs. And that's what shatters the illusion.

In tone Cap2 will be different from Cap1. But story wise, a lot of both key and some subtle elements will come directly from the first movie. Not the least of which being that Cap is simply a man out of time. He's experienced a jarring shift from 1943 or 44 to the present day. But there will be a few other things there that have more direct critical story ties to the first one. Just as a minor (non spoiler) example. We know that Cap2 revolves around SHIELD. What it is, what it stands for, what it is becoming, and who the players are. What we somewhat subtly know from Cap1, IM2 and AoS is that we saw SHIELD form in CAP1. It literally formed for and around Captain America. And as hinted at by Skye reading the memorial plaque. Bucky Barnes was their first loss. So yeah lots of important stuff there.

Remember TLG's calculations aren't so much "number of licenses" as they are "square meters of retail shelf space." If Superheroes has in fact been designated as "Evergreen", it means it is moving up into the territory and shelf space currently occupied by lines like City and Star Wars. We will probably see a steady increase in the volume of those sets, and some shrinkages elsewhere. If TLG does have LotR for 2015, than we might have some hope of another wave. You never know. But that could also simply be the blocking of the license. It would be nice to know how LotR and Hobbit wave 2 sales have been? I think increase or drop off would be a better indicator of another wave than anything else?

It is probably in the high 90% of certainty that the conflict with the MWT was LR. It's a licensed theme, and they will carry non compete clauses. Disney especially seems to bundle them in. And the non compete is not simply a specific comparative product. It is also one that can be viewed as sideways related or synergistic to the licensed product. Because the side product would be effectively pulling from marketing and interest from the licensed IP and source materials. It's why Lego can't release a Pirate ship or any sort of Pirate set while PotC license is active (at least not without Disney's approval). License holders get real nasty about this sort of thing. They want their IP supporting the licensed products, not un licensed add ons that they don't get a piece of. And Disney would view the MWT as an unlicensed add on for their LR IP. No way around it. And chances are the LR license is not "over". The theme is over. But it is un likely that the calendar span of the effective license and its non compete periods have expired yet. We may have a year or so before Lego can make a new unlicensed Western theme. The LR license is most likely a reason why the Creative Ambush set does not have a conversion back to a Western building of some sort. And as far as the MWT, chances are that it is dead. Lego cannot release plans for the set, but it's creator can. (As happened with the Winchester.) once Lego rejects a project it is released back to its creator.

It depends on what you are looking for with regards to worse? Megablok's biggest issue is their choice of material. Polystyrene, while cheap and easy to work with for injection plastic, is the root cause of their quality issues. Warping, variable clutch power, part breakage, excessive flash and mold lines gate and pour marks etc. ABS is a much better material. But it requires much more expensive, higher temperature, higher pressure molds. I think Oxford and by extension Kre-O uses mostly ABS.

I know Dorayaki and Oki will probably be disappointed, but the main reason for the omission of Friends has nothing to do with cannon or story or marketing or even a desire to seperate friends. It comes from visual design of the movie. The core movie is built around the highly recognizable visual styling of the Lego Minifigs. In crafting the visual style and art direction of a film there are certain limitations that come into play in order to avoid shattering the viewers suspension of disbelief. You want to avoid that jarring "one of these things doesn't belong" visual moment And I hate to say it, but yeah Friends and Bionicle would create one of those moments of visual dissonance that would have a high risk of taking the viewer out of the movie. The Minifigs form a comfortable and cohesive platform by which the viewer is drawn in. They are the central gimmick by which the audience is tricked into accepting animation as real. And this isn't something Lego specific. All animation works this way. In order to craft the illusion in animation very tight art direction must be maintained. If you have ever seen an animated show where the style shifts throughout the presentation you will know just how jarring it can be. You can't mix Disney Princesses and Anime stylings and have it hold up. And dropping Minidolls or Bionicle into the Lego Movies Minifig centric art direction would feel like that. And it would be enough to shatter the illusion. It would be the difference between TLM's 95+ rotten tomatoes score or a much lower "toy story clone". I suspect we might see some subtle references or homages to Friends etc, but in most cases they will try to avoid anything too pronounced on screen.

Extremely addictive in a number of ways. They are big fulfilling builds with lots of little interesting tricks and sub builds. They are superb models and look better than anything else on display in a home. They just feel more complete than most other sets and play sets, and they are extremely addictive to MOC yourself. The standardized modular footprint provides a good starting point.

What do you mean lack of overarching theme for the villains? You have to defeat all the villains of water, fire earth abd air before finally facing the ultimate madman seeking world domination...

The question is more that Walmart and Lego need each other far more than Walmart particularly needs that specific local or regional Walmart manager. The Lego rep will typically have far more sway at HQ than the locals will. The buyers deal with Lego all day every day. They only deal with a store manager when there is a problem like this.

Oh boy... another Jedi... just before the OT... /sigh :ugh: Is anyone else old enough to remember how cool the Star Wars universe was when Force users were few and far between, and the great mystery of the place, and instead we had to make do with how cool everyone else was? Like the Smugglers and Rebels and Bounty Hunters etc? How it had evil characters and heroes that didn't actually hold a lightsaber?

It's because the movie was made by Warner Brothers, which owns DC. So any superheroes featured prominently would be DC's.

This basic sub theme has always been vehicle heavy. Alpha Team and Agents were all mainly vehicles. The only non vehicle sets tended to be the big villain HQ's. Volcano base and Ogel's lairs. And I don't think they were in the initial release waves?

I can't think of anything that stands out as distinctive on the arms or sleeves for most of the Hobbit or LotR characters? At least nothing that would make it worth going all the way for arm printing?

Many of the big media companies are starting to grasp the concept of synergy among their properties. It was a good deal for Fox as it showed off the new Simpsons Lego stuff. It was a cute little Easter Egg for WB that did more good than harm. Much the same as

Look a little closer at the Licensed characters and a few others

Yeah, but that has more of a highly stylized westernized anime'ish take on a pop culture show with some Japanese (and Chinese etc) elements. I somehow think the Japanese buildings is kinda targeting a slightly different market. At least unless the roof pops open and launches a cyborg ninja dragon on wheels. As I said above. It's some great MOC's. I am just thinking it might be dancing on the border as a retail product. It isn't a downright "never ever gonna make it" fail. It may actually be viable. But it is a narrower margin than say the Ghostbusters set. It may benefit from being a somewhat strong contender in an otherwise weak review period. Probably the most commercially viable of the sets in that group would be the Macross one. But baring some legal miracle, I still think the licensing will be fatal on that one. Which brings up one of those other subjects that we have never quite had a handle on. Is each review period limited to 1 winner? Must each period have a winner? Etc. I think the truth is a little more convoluted. Is there an official policy of one winner per period? Or a limit of such? No! BUT There are two factors that may tend to negate that in practice if not policy. The first is they obviously have a hard limit on production slots for CuuSoo per year. And that seems to pretty much be 3, on a 4 month cycle. So the review team will be doing their level headed best to avoid generating much if not any backlog in that production chain. They don't want to let production get too far behind fan enthusiasm. By the same token, with now 3 review periods a year CuuSoo probably does not want to let a review cycle pass with nothing but bad news. That has a huge negative impact on the whole project and concept. Letting the fans go 8 months + without an announcement when they have stuff in for review can get ugly. So in practical effect they will probably try and pick one and only one project per review cycle. They may shift some things in some ways, like do 2 one cycle and maybe none the next. So I would expect that if they don't like any of the current ones under review the Female Minifigs project may suddenly be revealed as a winner. To keep the positive going but not backlog the system. (It would be a clever if sneaky approach if on strong cycles they take a real close runner up and keep it "in review" some extra time to hold it in reserve in case the next entire wave is impractical for production.) In the long run it is probably a safe bet that we will not see much more than 3 projects pass review per year. Even if they say that each review block is not technically going head to head. (yeah yeah your job interviews claim that you are being evaluated solely on your own merits with no comparison to the other candidates that day as well... I don't think any of us believe it there either.)

Ooo! One of the GotG sets. Looks like Gamora at the helm.

I think you missed the most important takeaway...

we already have a screen perfect Abomination... they just call him the Green Goblin for some bizarre reason.

It looks like the Apple Store hit 10k. So congrats to the designers.

It probably turns a winch to hoist supplies up. That seems to be pretty standard in most Lego tree houses. The only thing that really detracts from the set for me is that huge pointless pink slide? It just doesn't make any sense? And doesn't seem like a particularly fun play feature? I mean the slide made sense in the pool and boat set. It added to the rube goldberg'ish mine action over in the LR silver mine... But here? "OMG a baby panda has the sniffles! Quick Robinette...to the bat slide..?" It just has the stench of some of the more idiotic "girl focused" play features that Barbie is infamous for.

Umm a few minir points. Possibly where reality may in some ways clash with your world view. 1. Would this be a bad time to mention that Nick Fury, Samuel L Jackson has shown up in AoS? 2. You have the Star Wars films horribly backwards. Episode I is the one that tends to be underrated and bombarded with misplaced outrage. It actually isn't a bad movie. Just a very disappointing Star Wars movie. Episode II is the "teribad" one as at fails at every objective test for a good movie irregardless of its Star Wars pedigree. The low point being "sand". Episode III is generally moderately well regarded except for the ending. In which a ton of poorly explained things happen because they have to have happened to support the OT, and in spite of no valid lead up in the overall plot. (Order 66, Padme's death from "despair" or whatever, Anakin turning child killer. Etc.) Comparing comics to the SW EU is a poor comparison. In comics the shared universe is where the source material has lived and thrived. It is what has kept the stories and the characters rich and vibrant. It isn't something tacked on as an afterthought. And comic book movies aren't the only movies made that exist in such shared universes. Kevin Smith? Quentin Tarantino? There are a few others as well. Is their storytelling diluted or made worse as a result? And I really can't understand what exactly you are complaining about regarding AoS and Arrow. In AoS you complain that it doesn't use anything from the movies, which takes away from it. Whereas Arrow does virtually everything you complain AoS doesn't do, by being deeply invested in the overall DC universe with tons of cameos crossovers, named characters, etc. and you bemoan that it would make any connection to the movies. OMG what if Superman shows up? As opposed to Flash showing up? Or Deathstroke the Terminator? Or Deadshot or Ras Al Ghul? If you can't grasp shared universes and the various intricacies, and occasional contradictions and sometimes compartmentalizations that come along with them, then I would suggest that you most likely are not the target consumer that comic books and comic based movies are made for. There's plenty of other stuff out there to enjoy. But please do not begrudge those of us that grew up and enjoy the broader concept the 6 movies we have finally gotten after almost 50 years. We've tried it your way. We got one good movie out of it. The Dark Knight. And about 100+ hours of formula drek that has all the same problems as the shared universe stuff, while not even vaguely resembling our beloved source properties because some Hollywood types must remake everything into their own personal vision, to the complete and utter detriment of the property.

I think we got the Kunoichi you describe back in the Ninja series. The Ninja Princess minifig. The Warlock sounds cool.

Ed and Edna's Jalopy! Complete with old school classic spoked wheels and chrome parts. The Mojo Dojo with Brown Ninja and students.