Faefrost

That's the same exact robot generated form response that they send to anyone regarding any question over new or upcoming releases. It doesn't mean anything. It is literally a form letter. You would get the same response if you had asked about any future Star Wars set. It's just a polite and enthusiastic way of saying "We never ever talk about unanounced products!" It means nothing and certainly is no indication that whatever you are asking about is anywhere in consideration of being made. The only human contact your e-mail may have had was a CS rep might have selected which one of the specific form letters to send. ("OK this one is Star Wars")

The boxes don't surprise me as much as the shear scale of the parts. If you haven't built one of these beasts, I must warn you. While they do "number the bags", it's not like the numbering on the regular retail sets. The Modulars typically have 3 numbers. 1, 2 and 3 (rarely 4). These correspond to the floors and roof. So you will have 7 or 8 #1 bags, 8 or 9 #2 bags etc. It is a massive amount of parts to have in place at once, and quite daunting if you aren't used to it. Granted it could be worse. Some of the older 2k piece sets were from before the numbered bag system so you are dealing with the full set at once...

Probably because they are still evolving his appearance in the show. Right now he's just a hockey playing kid. He's not quite the hockey mask wearing vigilante we all know and love.

No one mentioned Edna Krabappel? It would be a nice tribute. The voice actress Marcia Wallace just passed away recently.

Oh wow! A wonderfully stylized Asian Restaurant and the elusive Inside Corner. Well done!

I love it. That signage is fantastic.

My old bosses once got arrested by the FBI for importing bootleg "Go Bots" from China. After that they decided to take a different path and start making PC's.

One other element of the scheduling changes and the unexpected split of 2 movies into 3. We don't know the actual length of the license. Did the third movie extend the overall length of the license? Or did it simply change the priorities where a third LotR wave becomes a third Hobbit wave instead? Will there be enough time left remaining on the license to make it worth TLG's while to make another LotR wave and have it out there on shelves long enough, before the end of license forces everything off the shelves (Remember the hard end date for HP)? Bridge Direct didn't have a "little slip up". They got completely bent over by New Line and PJ when they changed from one movie to two at the last minute. They produced product based on information and scheduling provided by PJ's people. They then ended up losing a ton of money on tons of unsold bargain bin Tauriel figures because the character did not appear in the promised tie in movie. Imagine how well those figs would have sold if her DoS scenes had been in TUJ where they were planned? At this point I don't think any toy companies are going far out of their way to accommodate any of PJ's last minute changes or further developments. Heck has anyone noticed the utter dearth of DoS based tie in toys this summer? This is why. It's also part of why I suspect that TLG is probably not going to be all that anxious to dive back into a license extension. Licenses are often just as much about the partners you are working with as they are about the specific subject of the license. TLG is the big dog in the room for these sorts of things. They are well used to working with partners that have their licensing and merchandising mechanisms down to a science. Lucasfilms, Disney, Marvel and DC are utter masters at dealing with their licenses and their license holders. They manage their IP well and make it easy (mostly) for their partners. Even when change happens. Whereas I am not getting that same sort of vibe off of any of New Lines Middle Earth license holders. (As a comparison, note that when J J Abrams asked to push back SW VII Disney said no, because of all of the interrelated business partners. Whereas New Line has been more than encouraging PJ's ever evolving changes and schedules. Maybe good for the movies, but lousy for the contracted partners.)

We've never had any indication or evidence that LotR had anything to do with Kingdoms. Kingdoms ran for what has become the fairly common modern length of run and total number of sets. No indications that it was cut short. 2 waves over 2 years. Plus it finished up with a very nice D2C set and Chess set. Whereas LotRs was really the replacement for Harry Potter in the line up and market niche. The fact that there was obviously no non compete clause in the license that affected the Castle theme is proof of that. ( whereas the in house Pirate line had to end when they got PotC, and the CuuSoo MWT failed review because it had a direct conflict with the LR no compete clause. This shows that neither TLG nor New Line view LotR and Castle as similar or competing.)

I really think the only ghost we would ever reasonably get would be Obi Wan, as he is a recurring character that drives the story. He could easily show up either in a new Wampa cave or a new Dagobah set. Artistically he would probably look 100x better as a powder blue opaque figure, like the LotR army of the dead or Ninjago NRG Zane. Trans clear is gimmicky and honestly would probably look like megablocks. Besides if you watch the movie they really aren't that transparent. It's more they are surrounded by a blue glow.

I think it's scheduled to release in the US. But I don't think that wave of Friends sets has arrived here yet?

I don't think there is any set limit for a year, and heck they certainly exceeded 4 last year. There are some predictable patterns to the D2C sets, they normally do 2 Star Wars UCS sets, 1 modular building, 1 Winter Village, etc. but beyond that I think the only real limits come from their internal design capacity. We tend to probably think of a limit more because most D2C sets tend to come from what we now think of as the Creator Expert group and the SW group. So there are probably functional limits to how many such large sets these teams can process in a given year. But we have started to see D2C sets from other themes, so probably a broader mix of internal groups. Orthanc from the Hobbit/LotR team, Arkham for the Superheroes team, Haunted House from the MF team etc. I think there is a rumor of a looming Ninjago one? I'm sure their marketing departments have concerns about how many very expensive sets they want sitting on shelves at once to avoid canibalizing their own sales. But given that the number keeps growing every year I don't think they have hit their threshold yet. What Smaug set? Has someone posted a legitimate list of set names? Or is this just wishful thinking? (In which case it's probably in the wrong thread) And how does a huge picture of a blue van connect to Middle Earth?

Vision is a full on Android. An artificial human built from, or in the same way as the original "artificial human" WW2 era Human Torch. He is somewhat organic and uses artificial muscle materials etc instead of overt robotics. Omega Sentinal is a cyborg. A living human in a robot body.

I think we will see a major lull in PT and TCW era subjects. (Although clones remain very popular so you never know.) I don't think we will see a substantial change to how Lego does things with regards to Star Wars. They have long had a good working relationship with both Lucasfilms and Disney. And they have a long history of supporting Lucasfilms specific marketing goals with their product line. Case in point 2008 http://www.brickset.com/browse/themes/?theme=Star%20Wars&year=2008 Notice how focused on PT and even more, the new Clone Wars series, the year was? The only OT set was the Deathstar. I think we are now moving towards the opposite. Disney's marketing goals will be to focus attention on their new products, using the OT as the leaping off point. So they will be seeking to downplay or cleanse the fan pallet of the PT for a bit. The only things I see coming directly out of the Marvel side of things is maybe one or two comic tie in sets? Maybe we will see Minifigs of a green rabbit man smuggler and his partner a nearly naked platinum blonde? Other than that TLG probably already has a product matrix plan starting with OT and Rebels this summer, with Rebels peaking in the next winter 2015 wave followed by a huge Ep VII push to begin teasing early that summer and hit full force with an early winter 2016 wave landing in Q3 2015.

Jake Lloyd minifig? BURN THE HERETIC!!! No seriously, I still think "Lando in Han's clothes" from the very end of Empire would be a good candidate. It's an unusual variant of a main character that would never otherwise see production. If they do go PT, maybe something like a "naked C3po"?

TABA was supposed to release in August, which is probably when these sets will be out in the US. TLG does not always shift their release dates if a movie schedule changes late in the process. As an example look at LR.

Right now I'm leaning towards the Parisian Restaurant. Granted I have that one in hand and the build and details are simply superb. Simpsons looks like a simpler less detailed building. But its a close call either way.

One semi random thought concerning the now ban on new parts requests. As we have talked about this isn't an arbitrary thing. It is in place because of the realities of volume and production costs, and just what is capable or practical for a limited or small run line. But with that said, keep an eye on technology. That ban might not be forever. Just looking at today's designer video about the Simpsons house you can see where they are employing some new production tech on the Minifigs. And a lot in the figure design processes. At some point 3d printing will advance to where they can not only use it for much faster prototyping, but can instead effectively use it for short run actual production pieces. Such as a couple of thousand custom heads or hairpieces. We're not at that point yet or in the immediate future. But I would not be surprised to see it in 2-3 years.

I think it's more the Simpsons are benefitting from some newer tech and tooling. The short legs I think were always an issue because they pretty much required the printing to be done on a deeper point than the topmost plane of the piece. (I'm probably not describing what I mean well.) Lego rarely seemed to be able to print well in a sharp or narrow valley between 2 raised sections. They may have newer tech that lets them better or more efficiently do this now. The same with the arms. The Simpsons I believe are using some new arm molding, with the shirt sleeves molded in. Along with that they seem to have improved the capabilities for printing all the way around the cylander of the arm. The arm printing trick probably would be neat to use for the Dwarves. Many of them could use those chain mail armored short sleeves. Who knows maybe we will see some of it in the next Hobbit wave. Especially it they give us armored Dwarves for TABA. All new production tech eventually spreads throughout the lines. And it's staggering at how quickly we have been getting new and better looking figures recently. It looks like they have really really benefitted from things like 3d printing for prototyping. (Figure that must have shaved hundreds of man hours off minifig part development. No longer needing to do molding for test prototypes. Just keep printing them up and adjusting until they get it right, then straight to a production mold design?)

The problem, from what they are saying, is this version of the sets never legitimately left their factory. At best you purchased grey market. Part of why they are looking for receipts is to back track the supply chain. Did these sets accidentally get shipped from a warehouse? Or did they walk off on their own? The fact that they all seem to be showing up on E-Bay or similar and no at normal retailers kinda of lends one to suspect which it is.

That's definately a promo give away item of some sort. No build with it and no set number. Just a single fig. It is probably the freebie with the video game. or a S@H dealie next month. I think we would have heard about a movie ticket giveaway by now, and promo figs with DVD's are normally bundled into the retail box.

Technically we have theoretically already seen the Vision, or his "earlier form" in Captain America. Phineas Horton's Artificial Man in the giant test tube. (yeah yeah I know they retconned out Vision being built from the torch. But its still the better known origin of him.) As for Peterson. Between all the Centipede stuff. Burns, Cyborg stuff etc. I'm starting to think MCU version of Deathlok maybe? I can't see them using A list comic characters for AoS. Where we get them they will probably be delightfully obscure. Deathlok seems to sorta fit the bill.

The house is really growing on me. And now I'm kinda curious about Bart's room, which can't be seen in the photos? Also sleeves molded on minifig arms. WooHoo! Oh don't tease me so. I would kill for a Planet Express building done in this manner.

Rebels will be out on Disney XD later this year. Ahsoka was a Padawan not a full Jedi Knight, so she didn't generally command large numbers of troops. I think she held the effective rank of "Commander" and was most associated with Anakin's 501st. In the Police gunship set she is not leading the clones, she is fleeing or fighting them. They are seeking to kill or arrest her.

Had that happen with Ninjago. I dismissed it at first. But I grabbed the Stormfighter to convert into an AQ EDF jet and slipped rapidly downhill from there.