Faefrost

Its been coming and going for me all day.

That looks like a much loved, much played with and much enjoyed little friend. Let him wear his battle scars with pride. Give him a place of pride in your collection. He truly deserves it.

Oh and best line of the movie Weirdest thing about the Movie. Half the crowd in my Theater walked out literally singing "Everything is Awesome" all the way out into the parking lot. It was wild to see. The Movie definitely connected with them. Not just the kids.

Simply amazing. Words fail me. The windows alone are staggering.

I think I would much prefer a UCS or creator scale Barris Batmobile. Part of it might be that a Marvel DC or SO CMF blind bag line would require a separate license. So TLG might calculate that it would not be worth the costs of a second license for a given property.

Nah! Much like the Hulk, if Marvel was to regain Spider-man at this oint they really would not need to reboot anything. Just throw him up on screen in a familiar situation. Who here doesn't know the basics of Spider-Man and his origin at this point? Radioactive Spider? Check. "With Great Power comes Great Responsibility"? Check. Blue and Red pajamas? Check. OK we're good to go. You could swap out actors, villains, whatever. If you were to simply throw a Peter Parker of the right age and feel into an Avengers movie wearing a proper looking Spider-Man outfit. Nobody would blink.

Based on that interview with the EVP of design, it's pretty clear we can rule out ever seeing Duffman.

Episode IV by far. Saw it in the theater on release weekend back when it was still simply Star Wars. No Ep IV a new hope crp. Simply Star Wars. I was 11. It changed everything about the movies. Least liked? Tough call between Ep I and II. Ep I commits the cardinal sin of an adventure movie. It's mostly boring. Outside of the Pod Race and the music there is virtually nothing memorable about it that isn't groan inducing. I mean we remember Liam Neeson was in the movie, but as side from his interactions with Jar Jar, remembered because we hate Jar Jar, what else comes to mind? Ep 2 has better high points. But the low points are just so awful as to almost overwhelm them completely. "Sand! I hate sand!" "I killed them all!" Whine whine groan.

Oh and one more less than thrilling bit of Marvel news from over in the madhouse that is Fox's Fantastic Four production. Apparently Dr. Doom might be (drum roll please)... A woman! /sigh Because nobody is making money off comic properties by sticking closely to the look feel and soul of the source materials. You only bring in the viewers if you abandon story, design, tradition etc and just try and make everything as edgy as possible. Case in point. Race swapping the Human Torch. Now normally I have no problem with mixing up the skin color of Super Heroes, so long as it can be done without messing or completely altering the actual source stories and changing the character. It can work well for some, case in point Spider-Man would have no problems being cast as black or Latino. In fact it works very very well into his story and setting. Whereas Captain America, given the whole WW2 and man out of time aspects of his character does not really work well as anything other than the whitest white boy. At least not without creating an entirely new character and story that is not what we would be paying to see. And this brings us back to the Human Torch and Dr. Doom. In the comics, the classic Johnny Storm is not simply a white character. He is a literal caricature of a white character. He is the embodiment of that clueless white frat boy oblivious stupidity, carelessness and irresponsibility. That "White Priviledge" if you will. He is like Justin Bieber. It works as a gag and caricature but when you race swap it becomes a caricature of something else. Suddenly Johnny Storm is a "playa", and the racially progressive casting starts to take on a rather insensitive or downright insulting context. If they were to race swap anyone in the FF, the absolute best would be Reed Richards, Mr. Fantastic. He carries no baggage other than being a super genius nerd and husband to Sue. (The Thing could work but would raise outrage for replacing one of the few openly and identifiably Jewish characters in comics.) And then we have Doom as a female. Dear gods why? The entire center of Dooms character is a brilliant mind bundled to a very male centric sense of personal arrogance and self import. Dooms failings are supposed to be very male failings. Once again almost a caricature of such. Trading that for "hot chick in armor" seems more an attempt at spectacle and not in any way attempting to make use of the actual classic underlying character. Anyway just my long winded 2c.

An interesting real world story to keep an eye on. Sony today revealed a $1.1 Billion loss for last year and announced 5000 layoffs. A lot of their board and their investors have been urging them to split apart the entertainment business and the electronics one. Sony has already sold the Spider-Man movie merchandising back to Marvel. What are the odds Marvel might come in and make them an offer to good to refuse on returning it all to them?

Nope that is the real deal. We are getting Vision in Avengers 2, and he is the voice of Jarvis. Which pretty much confirms and cements the ties between Tony Stark, Ultron and the Jarvis AI. During the John Byrne run on Avengers they turned Vison entirely white for reasons that still seem strange. He is currently back to his more classic look. If anything I would think we might see a classic Green Red and Yellow Vision as a set minifig and a all white one as an SDCC type exclusive (/shudder). I am sure they will do something different with his coloring for the movie. I can't see his traditional bright primary colors working well in real life, and his red face might look like a burn victim. So maybe they are going for a very pale look? Something ala Data from Star Trek? They may avoid it. Technically Ultron didn't get his Adamantium shell until his second or third encounter with the Avengers. They blew him to pieces the first few times. They may also avoid the whole "Adamantium" name just to avoid conflict with X Men. Maybe make Ultron from the ramains of the Destroyer from Thor? I mean you need a foe that can stand up to Iron Man and Thor. I just hope we get a minifig Ultron and not a Big Fig. I like Bigfigs, but I think Ultron would work better as a regular minifig, maybe just with an armor and shoulder piece to bulk him up a little. Something like the silver Power Miners. Oh and one other piece of news that probably guarantees we will be seeing more GotG sets going forward. Disney has already green lit GotG 2, with an expected Spring 2016 release (much closer than expected) AND they have begun production on a GotG animated show for Disney XD in 2015.

Yes normally something like 10,000 or 20,000 depending on anticipated demand. It is likely that in this case the initial production run sold out very quickly and a delivery date of a new production run has not yet been set.

Moviebob loved it. A rather surprisingly deep and positive review. http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/escape-to-the-movies/8771-The-Lego-Movie?utm_source=latest&utm_medium=index_carousel&utm_campaign=all

I have seen more issues with missing parts in recent times. Normally stuff like 1 missing 1x2 etc. Just enough to be annoying. I chalk it up to more of the packaging being done via automation and weight controls and less human contact at that end invariably leads to someone having to go find a part and stick it in an envelope at the back end. I would be curious to know what the actual error rates are as they go to more and more automation?

Bag End is perhaps the best set of the entire Middle Earth lines. Only Helms Deep is in its category. Lake Town Chase is nice. Black Gate is some good figures with a black wall.

As others have pointed out in many other threads around here, there is more to designing Lego sets than we can even begin to imagine. Manufacturing is is rather complex beast. Product trade offs are often made. And often we the end user would never be able to predict or understand why. Take that Castle Evil Helm as an example? Yes it would have worked well for the Mordor Orcs. BUT there are a lot of potential design and production factors that we will rarely think of. Here is a possible scenario regarding the helm decision; The Castle Evil Helm would work well for the orcs, but there was a Castle theme in production at the same time as the second LotR wave. It was also using that helm in a different color. There was probably only one set of tooling for that helm, the themes were coming from different factories and the tooling would only be available for use on one theme as a result. The LotR factory had the tooling for the Uruk Hai Orc helm on site and some stock of those parts. So the decision was made to use the known Orc helm piece for LotR and use the Evil Helm for the Castle line as that would use the piece in more sets. Remember design and production is 4 dimensional. Time factors in. It is not simply being able to do something, but can it be done at x point in time without conflicting with y? Granted the above is pure speculation on my part, but it reflects a reasonable scenario that would probably be the most likely example of why the helm changed from the prototype Castle one to the Uruk Hai. I hate to break it to you all, but the level of intensity over LotR accuracy around here tends to be just a bit more past the last stop on the crazy train, than tends to be the norm. The number of Lego customers that really care which helm they chose to use probably numbers in the low 4 figures. At best. Yes would others "prefer" an exact helm? Or even a correct helm? Sure. But it's not a key decision point around which their purchasing decisions revolve. It is more important that the minifig be quickly visually identifiable as an Orc, than it is that it be identifiable as a specific make or model of Orc from a specific scene doing a specific action. The Uruk Hai helm while not perfect, is sufficient for communicating "Orc". As far as new Orc prints vs other new torso prints. The orcs are probably last on the print list. Besides the reasons I said above, the orcs can also easily be differentiated with armor, helms, hair and shoulders, etc. the Goblins and undead could not. (Well the undead could, but that becomes more complicated than simply doing it with print.) The decision path that gave us the Mouth of Sauron instead of something like the Witch King is as much a mystery to me as it is to you? I like the fig. He is wonderfully cool and creepy. But yeah, Lego's tendency to do the unexpected leads one to suspect they stopped corporate drug testing back in the 70's and currently operate on a perpetual low level buzz.

I think Nikolodean actually owns the entire property lock stock and barrel these days. While the new movie was not made by Nik, and I think the license for the movie was issued before Nik bought out the IP, they are now the ultimate owners of the property. Much like Spider-man is still a Marvel property and Marvel appears on the movies, regardless of Sony's license.

This is why it is best to vote on the presentation and project, and not simply the idea.

Hmmm? Interesting? If the rumors are true and the CW's Arrow is in fact part of the new DC Cinematic Universe and the lead up to Justice League, than tonights episode may have taken a big step towards removing the "Nolan'verse" from the equation. I remain stunned at how liberally they are letting this show use major Batman and Teen Titans villains. (Oh and did anyone else catch the potential to a Suicide Squad spinoff in the last episode.)

Accounting? To further amortize the cost of the Uruk Hai Orc helms. The Castle Evil helms have been used enough that they are already paid for? Plus possibly the idea that the Uruk Hai helm, while not right for that scene or group of Orcs, is however more recognizable as an Orc helm to the general viewer. So even if not accurate it looks more right to most buyers.

I'm confused? I assume the picture is of Ship, so is that the $20 set? And the $80 is a larger Nova cruiser or similar? I kind of hope they just basically do a recolor of Furty with short legs for Rocket. That way he is fully playable and can wield all sorts of brick built heavy artillery. I know it would make him a little too big, but tis probably a fair trade to be able to actively play with him. Not that I dislike the Rock, but I think he would be much better as Hawkman than as John Stewart? Plus they have all the fixings for a good Hawkman or Hawkgirl minifig these days, they just need a reason to give us one.

That's the built in downside of crowd sourcing. The crowd can be kind of shotgun like. I think the Ghostbusters question was a very rare case of two very similarly designed depictions of the same subject hitting review at the same time. Same form factor, same minifig subjects, just very unusual. Barring a major difference in scale or features I think TLG's decision to use the first to 10k as a primary determinant is the only reasonable way to do it. In probably better than 90% of any such conflicts it's probably the case of one projects marketing efforts dragging the other up as well. All said I doubt if we will see such a side by side conflict again any time soon.

Let's not forget; - Birds - Actually I think this has one of the better chances. It's unique, colorful, something totally different, and amazingly crafted yet of a good set size. I see no downside for this one. Likely to be made. And the stuff that sits in the top 10 or so upcoming; Apple Store - May run afoul of TLG's hesitance to promote someone else's brand at their own expense. Without the Apple branding it is really a kind of featureless grey and trans clear box. They might surprise, but I'm leaning no. BttF train - I think that any further BttF sets will be done internally between TLG and Universal. With no further CuuSoo sets. Much like Minecraft. Invisible Hand - too big. Appeared on screen in SW movies so Lucas probably already considers it likely without CuuSoo. Plus a somewhat similar Malevolence set did horribly. Too many failure points. No chance. Light sabers - a really neat and different take on the Star Wars license. Might actually pass. So long as Disney/ Lucas doesn't veto. Labyrinth Marble Maze - Very clever design. Very unusual. I would not be surprised to see this as a winner. Warsaw City Bus - hard to tell, but leaning just barely towards no. It's a wonderful build, but a little dull and might conflict with City sets. Piano - anyone's guess. A strange yet oddly compelling little set. I'd buy one. Batman Wayne Manor - Ugh! Perhaps my all time favorite project. Just gorgeous. I so want one. Yet I think it will slam against already active licensing issues. DC-3 - Stunning. I would buy two, one for my father who has never even looked at Lego. But all that chrome? To close to call. Minecraft, Too Many Items - Too many CuuSoo Minecraft sets. None further will be made through CuuSoo. Minecraft is an active internal license now.

So we haven't done one of these in awhile. Let's play prognostication on the in review and upcoming projects. Amazingly as the CuuSoo rules tighten up I think it becomes much easier to guess how things will go. First up in review; Sherlock - Sadly as we discussed, I don't see this one passing the review. I think a classic book 221B would have been a slam dunk. But the modern era TV show is too dark and adult, and will follow The Winchester and Serenity projects into too adult for brand fit. A shame it's a great little display set. Macross VF-1 Valkyrie - Would be a slam dunk if it wasn't for the legally messy and weirdly split license. Sadly I think Lego's Licensing Lawyer will take one look at the Macross license and quit on the spot in horror. He will then wander the earth seeking a place where they have never heard of IP law. Legend of Zelda - How many of these have we had so far? Will fail for the same reason as the others. It would have been eliminated in the rule change if it wasn't already in review. New parts. Japanese Architecture - the real wildcard in this group. I can't see where the creator ever specified which of the three sets to take precedence? Gut says no, too big and too niche. But you never know? Adventure Time - A well sized and topical set. Cons, a popular new show on the rise. May not want a small CuuSoo license. May be overpriced as a license. A lot of strange printing to avoid new parts. R/C BttF DeLorean - as cool as it is, I doubt they will do two deLorean's. Like Minecraft the winning BttF set will probably preclude the IP at least for a time.

The lack of diversity in Orc prints might not be an oversight. It may be by design. More or less targeted at the Army builders. When trying to present an Orc horde you really either need an awful lot of variation, or you need them to all be pretty much the same in order to make to sell the look to your eye. In that case having two variants of Orc prints can actually look worse to the eye than just one. Or it is more likely that as a simple nameless generic foe, orcs fall into the same general category as henchmen in other lines. The "generic baddies" tend not to get a lot of detail print love. And it is generally not felt as necessary. Remember these are toys not models. To the average customer who uses the sets for their designed purpose, play, it is doubtful that they would even notice a difference in Orc prints, let alone get excited by them. It is the protagonist side that generally wants the variety. Just look at the last Castle line. Notice how many Lion/Crown torsos there are vs how many Red Dragons? Same deal. Just like they don't give a lot of torso variety to the Jokers Henchmen.