Dorayaki

The inclusion of licensed themes means that nothing can restrict how we play Lego, even when playing crossovers between licenses and non-licenses. But indeed I'd like to see other licesnes highlighted next time when DC heroes better take some rest. Uh, the girls-oriented theme sounds like another unsolved issue, for whether TLM really devoted to combine all Lego materials and themes. Generally the Ninjago movie is an extension of the original TV show, not a side story of the TLM series. Unless this movie is made to be a different canon from the TV show and previous Lego sets, and it is open to the new audience and moviegoers from TLM1. Still, suppose that TLC would like to leave some room for future crossovers or make the story more realistic, Lloyd can briefly mention the moments from TLM1 in his own movie, I guess.

Sorry, you're missing the point. The topic is about both how to make a project pass and whether the projects were rejected for clear and legal reasons. As already mentioned, both projects you said can be directly rejected for "too large/theme-like project", which is already a guideline we knew. We don't know if the Ghostbuster creator really wanted to make the station, or just added a background. I guess he's not that dumb. In TLM's case, just like you said, TLC can still make a convertible saloon or a Western building that features a fantasy scene of this movie. I didn't say there must be something between TLM and LR, maybe it's just that TLC didn't plan to do it. In the cases you mentioned, they don't conflict with any long/shortterm projects with TLC so this is a clear difference. Although I can't tell the license reasons for sure, the fact is that LR is over and there is no other conflict possiblity can be found. Well, the best result would be that LR2 is chasing after PotC5 and MWT would eventually come, but I don't think TLG can ensure this happen ("maybe later") since they didn't really admit that LR made the conflict.

It should could have been nice, if there aren't things that we should see they come but they didn't.

No promotional minifigures in TW, though these weekends 7-11 have been giving promotional file folders which use the poster images. I'd wait for Wyldstyle's.

Okay, though not perfect, it now looks closer to their original alteregos. Not sure if I'll be able to make another improvement, maybe when I have time to deal with the Disney characters.

What about Education Death Star? Seriously, I don't expect to get another bunch of the protagonists, so regardless of asking for GL, I expect to other returnees from old themes to be included in this set. But it has to be based on the movie canon so I guess there are not many choices of characters left here, if TLC is still willing to make it. The submarine is an obvious choice as an iconic building in this movie. The only issue might be how to redesign it if it has to be in the scale as same as the Sea Cow. Many details would have to be omitted as a commercial product.

I guess you're right about that. The Western theme has been discontinued for a longer time than Pirate (though the Cuusoo projects was made in the hope of it's revival ), which could be a different commericial case with licenses. Still as said, there is also difference between LR and PotC. PotC is a film series (at least confirmed to have the fifth movie.), and it can still be brought back to Lego. For LR, its future potential is still vague as a one-time movie story. If it does stop TLC to make original Lego sets (I don't think so) but they can't come up with other LR sets, it doesn't sound profitable for both Disney and TLC. If MWT would possibly conflict with LR, then the Sea Cow conflicts more with PotC. Personally, I don't oppose to the "invasion" of licenses, but as a fact the license doesn't help FOLs get more Lego sets. As mentioned, the project itself still has some other problems, and I'd be glad to see the project be converted into other forms. What I meant is TLC could have come up with the legit guidelines instead of the super-vague project conflicts in their rejection. Unless TLC can clearly confirm that the license would continue so the conflict won't cease, I think there's no reason why a Cuusoo project can't postpone. I agree with that each project has to be reviewed before conclusion, but still, since license conflicts are vague and have nothing to do with product design, it should be clearly noted in the guidelines.

So far MMO is not assumed to relate to series 12 if MMO represents another series. The real issue is that adding special series doesn't increase yearly productions, which could relatively decrease the amount of regular minifigures. Unless series 12 is "postponed" but series 13 would still make debut in December. If there is the MMO series, it would had been declared in this toy fair along with Simpsons and series 12, so it looks like MMO series wouldn't be made. Or TLC added the tag just to declare that they won't disctontinue CMF series, while MMO series is still a secret.

So back to what the topic is, if TLC regard marketing as the most important, that only means minidolls shouldn't have been introduced since they wouldn't appeal to both kids and parents, contrary to what the interview said. I don't think the interview was completely wrong, but obviously there isn't a solution coming to for the issue. There could be a possible sequel or other crossover media. I don't think the future of Lego media would success if using the same excuse. Another assumption is that the issue of "different figures" would be discussed in future crossovers, though it's not proven yet.

Congrats for your hard work. Hope that you'll make it better.

Yes, not sure I'm happy about it. If this rule is undeniable, it is the very major reason why Peter defends hair loss can't maintain his hairstyle. Here is the issue: would it make all licensed Cuusoo characters doomed to be "incomplete" while TLC is still able to make other licensed characters perfect? Suppose that Iron Man was achieved as a Cuusoo project at first, I bet TLG would have just printed the mask on his face .

Well, maybe MJ is less exciting for no exclusive hairpiece. The problem is there's no set based on the upcoming movie where GS has an important role (though it's another debatable issue).

Uhmm.... I have mixed feelings about this wave. I wasn't very impressed by the mall, even though there are still some useful parts, or maybe TLC would like to make the stores more modular rather than a complete large building. The jungle "adventures" are very decent and creative, but I hope there could a at least one set with only buildable landscape with some large animals, no bridge and no arbor. Oh, and, Seems like TLG finally remembered someone. Troy's "new" face looks familiar. Is it from Prince Eric?

I suppose Modular buildings are still too far for a starter. It seems like Creator small houses are good choices. Then, if you're interested in other medium sets from City or Friends, you may choose one before challenging large Modular houses. Town Square and Town Plan are also very different choices from Modular houses. Depends on what scale of city you want to build and how much you can afford in total.

I miss Spongebob, but to me it's difficult to tell whether this series still has potential in Lego lines. Compared to Simpsons or Avatar, Lego Spongebob have provided many iconic buildings from this show. The exception might be Sandy's Treedome, though I don't know how to design it. So, if this show is still popular after five years, TLC can consider to redesign this theme again. Or if the Spongebob Movie 2 have enough new iconic scenes, they could also be a subtheme that new Lego sets can base on. Oh, but if MB makes the movie sets, TLC would really suck. The major complaint I have is there are still many characters I really wanted to see, such as Pearl, Karen and Mermaid Man etc. Unless TLC is able to make a CMF Spongebob series. But from the leaks, I'm not very impressed by MB's choice of characters from the blind bags. For MegaBloks, I'm no MB hater, but it's a big pity that they don't own an iconic figure to market with. Even though they've got so many cool licenses, most of them isolate from each other and the nonlicensed themes. I don't think there could be The MB Movie that have Pokemon, Kitty and Call of Duty crossover even if TMBC want to.

Not sure if it's true. If western sets weren't made due to conflicts with LR, then same for PotC conflicting with Pirate. However, Sea Cow is made this time, and ironically PotC has announced a sequel, so I guess it's just that TLC didn't want to make any western buildings under this theme, not they're in conflicts with LR. Offtopic: I'm actually curious to know if the ships featured in Little Mermaid could be made, but there are no news for more Disney sets this summer. I'm not sure if it has something to do with this rule: This rule only mentioned that we can submit projects which have repetitive ideas with existed Lego sets. Now, the MWT idea is still not used in any other new Lego sets. So resubmitting this project doesn't violate this rule. After all, "bad timing" is definitely not what the projects have to be responsible for. So what if we can't resubmit a project that has achieved but failed? It's not actually written in the guidelines. If the project was rejected for inappropriate content like religions or competitor brands, it doesn't work for sure. However, the reason why it was rejected for a so-called "ongoing project" so we don't even know how to start. Maybe mb_bricks have resubmitted this project but failed? It's better to directly ask him for answer. So here's the thing: if the MWT project is made in a further future, it wouldn't have any conflict with LR or TLM (if they're the so-called official project). It's actually nice for movie fans if LR or TLM were going to be a longterm theme so that we may see more western themes, but as a fact it's not guaranteed, and I guess we're not seeing any new western things in this year. It seems like that Cuusoo projects are immediately designed and produced after the they pass. But if any conflict could happen in this situation, there should be another guideline that allows Cuusoo projects to postpone in order to protect project creators.

Nice to see a fairly good gender ratio as usual (or maybe it's just because that this series don't have an animation advertising targeting at boys ). New hair colors are interesting, but I hope that the agents can also have some distinctive use of colors and designs since weird colors are mostly for "bad guys".

No other series before series 12? A price increase looks like making it worse. Suppose that you mean MMO won't stop before series 13, we don't know if game codes would be just a one-time strategy. I personally think it's not since TLC obviously want to draw on the CMF series in order to market and revive the online game.

The reason why TLM was made to be a mixed theme world might be that it's many AFOL's dream, or after all TLC want to know if they can enter the film industry with TLM. Maybe there would be more Lego films that only focus on a single theme, such as Ninjago, if TLM is successful enough. If not, it's a safe move to make all themes appear in one story, along with the story concept "free play". Still, I'm sure many AFOLs have no problem with a crossover theme. And yes, unless an original minidoll character directly joins the prota/antigonists like Unikitty did, even that minidolls and other characters weren't absent, their existence would still be negligible (litereally, all minor characters don't have too much significance). But still, Friends' position (and maybe the others') is a sensitive topic since it's been an issue in marketing, and TLM is also important with TLM's strategy in marketing. Their existence might have more effects than Simpsons or Ninjago representives.

Yes, it's an issue. The Friends TV animation simply had the human characters interacts with brick-like buildings, rather than portraying an image of minidolls' world, so the problem of minidoll functionality such as unposable legs didn't show up there. Still, it wouldn't be the only reason for not making minidolls appear in this movie. Maybe the film would have "forced" the minidolls to open and bend their legs. Not even to think about making them into minifigures. Sorry, it's been mentioned in previous replies. If you re-watch the movie, you may find some characters introduced in 2013/14. Not sure if the lack of "professionality" is the reason. If we consider "The Man Upstairs" has to be responsible for this, it wouldn't correspond to the spirit of "a generalized and open Lego world" from the very beginning of the story, which could disappoint audience. So IMO, "The Man Upstairs" and the plot writers have to provide a complete collection of Lego lines as far as possible. As Aanchir mentioned, there is a professional team who support the official stories of Lego. Obviously we can still see many commercial elements from this movie, such as the master builders or TLM-themed products, these were not just added by one plot writer who lacks knowledge of Lego. In a commercial view, it's beneficial for TLC to have audience see all current Lego lines, so that they can run to toy stores and remember what they saw from the movie.

Each of previous Disney themes are only based on a single story ,as you said. While "Disney" sounds like a collection of themes like DC/Marvel Superheroes, if added "Princess" it's more like a brand of "specific characters", not "stories". Usually doll brands work better since they're not responsible for making a whole collection of characters from the same story (even though some weird villain dolls come out sometimes), and single princess doll can easily target at girls But for Lego toys, they're more about "story" than "character" so they probably don't fit in this idea, unless TLC released a Disney Princess CMF series, which can only focus on "characters". Likewise, I don't think Superheroes really provide no villains but superheroes. And there is Merryweather, and probably more Disney stories would be made, it's difficult to predict other possibilities. Whatever, if TLC and Disney expect to have a longterm cooperation rather than just stop here, the rule of princess doesn't work

As an Asian I actually can't feel anything from the terms. Still, both Oriental and IJ are intepretted by the view of foreigners, which could make Asian consumers uncomfortable sometimes. Maybe the theme doesn't have to highlight a group of foreign heroes (as an action theme), but simply the culture itself. For licenses, unless there is going to be another treasue hunting film series where foreigners have a China adventure, most ancient Chinese history films are filmed by Chinese companies themselves. TLC wouldn't ask them for licenses because it lacks a global market potential. If "Oriential" means "Asian", I believe the mostly used Asian cultural theme in Lego is Japan, more precisely, ninja. But as others mentioned, both ninja and mediaval culture themes don't focus on a specific history, so 3K wouldn't be one of the generic themes that TLG is going to design. The Dragon Foretress building is okay to me, it's not too far from common Chinese building types. The characters are alittle weird: Jing Lee's prints was very rough. Chang Wu and his soldiers don't look like Chinese villains. Contrarily, the Everest and Indian characters look more natural. I'd say that I expect to see future Castle themes focus on army from other different cultures rather than just using the same mid-age things. More different countries like the Vikings and Ninja would be very nice.

I only pointed to droids, because usually such kind of licensed characters wouldn't be reluctantly converted into a real "minifigure", and as you said there have been droids in Lego world for a long time. I'm not sure if Bionicle/HF characters can directly enter this movie in their mini-droid-figure from or their original action figure form in this case. For Friends characters, their birth was controversial simply because the characters are also based on humankind, not a droid or Fishface, and they were designd as minidolls for commercial reasons. In this case if we need a total minifig-illusion, the Friends characters can directly appear as minifigures. Half-agreed. The concept of this film is still to build a complete world of the Lego brand, so what average filmgoers know can't represent the whole view of Lego world (at least what current Lego lines produce). Perhaps some people don't even know Green Latern or Johnny when they watch this movie or other starring ones. With a good way of advertising, I don't think it's hard to briefly mentioned minidolls or other figures even though there is the "illusion issue". After all, this movie also target at non-AFOL/KFOL audience or potential consumers. They can find it out by themselves if they don't know there's such kind of Lego product, which is what the movie was for. Contrarily, if consumers would only accept the products they're familiar with, that means TLC shouldn't have introduced other kinds of figures. The production reason is vague, but I guess it could be mentioned in official interviews, so far I've not seen this information. But if girls-oriented themes are the major concern, we could have seen Scala/Belville in cameo appearances instead, same for Bionicle which was already created before Ninjago. As Oky said, they have time to put other characters from very new lines, so why not advertising characters from other current themes? I agree that it does make sense if TLC introduce other figures in the sequel, for that they just want to make the first story simple enough to guide audience and leave more discussion room for the sequel. But it's hasn't been proved yet. In the DC comics' case, many of the crossovers are based on a different canon, while the original stories are still independent with each other. I don't think Friends(Heartlake City) is a self-enclosed story structure since the backstory is simple enough and wouldn't be destroyed if there is a communication with other themes (being invaded by Lord Business). If Friends is a self-enclosed story, so for the themes that appeared in this movie. Thanks for information. I kinda feel that "Ninjago City" is weird because it's not why this theme was called for. Maybe calling it "Kyosaka City" with more modern Japanese building features would be better.

Okay, but it makes the topic kinda vogue. Maybe maknig it clear that we can give offiicla/unofficial list together.

I guess I'm not very willing to answer this topic, because in my heart many of my favorite characters weren't chosen to be building masters. Maybe "dream master roster" could be discussed in another topic, not in this one? Or it's actually the plot writer's dream roster? I'm sure I have all CMF ones (except the TLM series which hasn't appeared in TW ), Michelangelo, Dumbledore and Mr. O'Neal. I remembered there was Cardio, but it's kinda weird that a character that has no current or past important experience is regarded as important as Wyldstyle and Dumbledore. I guess TLC could have made the Cuckoo hall as one of the official sets. Then the audience would crazily collect the "master builders" and put them there .