Dorayaki

Early Town sets had some hairpieces in "pure red", but I guess it was that TLG weren't able to make natura; mixed colors. Now a more natural dark red hair would be like Mia's, while the red ones are for specific characters. We're indeed getting more types of hairpieces, though the problem is still that some are over/underused. Well, many hairpieces of the CMFs were meant to show a specific culture or personality so they were not originated from City and they won't be there too. For example, the mohawk of Punk Rocker can be hardly used for others. Don't know if TLG would really make a City citizen in mohawk. (Maybe good for a criminal? But that would be criticized by real mohawk people.) Sleepyhead is also a potential male hairpiece, but if it was designed to be "messy" for those who excercise, sleep or fight, would it be a natural hairstyle? I think the second section might be very close to the truth. The reason why Chase and Elsa's hairpieces are overused is that they can typically represent a man or a woman. Umbridge's hairpiece can be use for women, but not a hairstyle that girls love to see (in other words, "unpopulor"). Well, however, I don't think everyone wants the same hairpiece in every set.

A horse riding theme for boxes looks better than previous boxes that simply include horses. Still, I wonder if City sets would feature horse riding or TLC would just leave it to Friends (no guys ride horses?). The princess one is also something Castle theme doesn't really focus on. All the other sets are what we can see in regular sets.

Johnny Thunder was a parody character derived from familiar action movies with treasure huntings, for that TLC didn't target at getting licenses, but now they do. And therefore, Orient Expedition isn't unique enough or exclusive to Lego. I think as more and more licensed themes appear, the return of Orient Expedition would be less possible. Unless TLG can come up with a story that is more powerful than Hollywood movies and heavily features Lego's playablity. Agree. If the star is exotic elements, the action part would be less important. A historical theme is more useful for lovers of cultures. It's become boring to see more generic mediebal army in Castle sets.

So far most Creator single houses are for living or staying. The only exception was the Light House, and one of the Family House alternative was "Family Factory". Though not a really new idea, still it's another step to teach KFOLs how to mod their own Lego City. It feels like that TLC would just make City feature police stations public buildings. Not sure it's good or not. I wonder where the "bicycles" would be, if they're the "bikes" we knew and would be included in other models. If there are no ideas, it could possibly result in another family house with bikes.Or maybe model A is the cafeteria with bikes in parking lot, model B would be a bike shop.

I never thought a specific color would be licensed. Maybe if TLG has a product that has too many features similar with real brands (eg, a cafeteria set has colors are as same as Starbucks), those company owners may ask them to change it. I didn't talk about hair colors, because Bricklink can't provide color statistics (can they?) so there is no knowing which colors are in the top five. Yes, having more different colors is interesting though it could be a different story. I believe many people agree that Elsa's hairpieces are not useful for all Superheroines. As for Lego's original brands, TLG should be able to create characters in weird hair colors such as the blue of Queen Marsha. If I have to choose between many hairpieces in one color or one kind of hairpiece in many colors, I might choose the former .

Really? I just found these terms are familiar. Whatever, so it is the very first store in Creator single houses? From the price suggested, it isn't likely to be a small Modular building but it would be bigger than the Family House of 2013.

I respect people's opinions that have no interests in Simpsons. Still, if TLG could make the designs more compatible with generic minifigures such as hairpieces or exclusive clothes, this series should be able to appeal all CMF fans.

It's good to see these real deals coming. I think it should also be what other licensed themes do too: if they want to release products before the movie, there should be some sets based on spoilers that can only be released after the movie premiere.

I do want to see it again, but by today's standards the classic pigtails piece looks "unpolished". I'm afraid TLG might just make another double ponytail hairpices when they have needs for girls. In theory, some hairpieces are obviously exclusive to certain characters and we don't expect to see them being reused even if the license owners have no opinions. For example, a firefighter reuses Nori's piece. Leia's hairstyle is alittle debatable since it is between "unique" and "generic". I mentioned that Leia's buns is redesigned in 2011 so maybe the old one can be free-to-use if Lucasfilm is okay with it. Well, in this topic, we still focus on hairpieces which already made appearances in generic themes.

I'm not sure whether girls' natural building ablility is better or worse than boys, but I can say that Ninjago and Chima are more like a TV animation commercial product. Friends only have several short episodes and special long stories that show how the physical products relate to the girls in Heartlake City. I hope that TLG can come up more new stories for Friends, though sadly in theory their story wouldn't be as long as action themes. Friends is to be a different kind of "Lego City", and the theme still has generic elements as same as City. I think the story of five protagonists is simply a showcase to tell little consumers about how can we develop own interests and personalities instead of being bounded by stereotypes. I'm not sure the princess from the starter sets works very well. For adults, these minifigures are no new design or new part, and I'm not sure girls would be interested in such kind of a "generic princess". Uh, other police officers and knights are also nothing new, but they're just what they in the regular sets, while "Princess" isn't an important role element Lego System Castle (though there have been some princess minifigures). At least I want to see a really distinctive minifigure princess design that is able to attract girls.

Oh, should we be surprised? Sen Bao also copied many other toys from different brands. Well, If they are willing to produce characters that TLC have made non-physical design but just don't actually produce, maybe TLC have to be responsible for this even though copy is illegal. For Decool, they're.... uh..... really shameless. They have no rights to copy the works created by TLG themeselves at all!! I really want to say that since these companies have that kind of copy techniques, why not designing even cooler things to beat TLG down? It's really a waste of their capabilities and I'm sad because we're all Asian. The LEGO Movie might be something useful. Once those Chinese kids have heard "LEGO" enough times in theaters, they might start to wonder what is Lego? Are they different form Decool and Sen Bao? Why the original creator is valuable? Then they would stop buying those fakes when they understand. Unless the copycats would even put the "LEGO" mark on their products and we can't differentiate them from real Lego products. For Sluban..... uh...... can't you at least be a good copycat? Those inaccurate fake faces are really horrible .

Though I'm not sure of the details of movie, isn't this horse a Bot? It could be interesting if we can get a machine-printed gray horse.

Just cute! It would have been another good idea for Winter Market(Themepark?).

Recently I'm not sure I'm happy with the minifigures included in the upcoming The Lego Movie products, mostly because many of they come with repetitive hairpiece with known colors. Hairpirces have been an important element for minifigures, in the use of MOCs, licensed and specific characters and many other things. When we need to create a MOC character, a unique hairpiece is what we often come up with in the first place. In order to think better, here is a brief flashback of Lego minifigure hairpiece history. You may also check Brickipedia for hairpieces. Town The original theme of Lego, which brought the very first hairpiece-- for girls-- Classc Doctress's hair (Part x103) in 1978. Then a one for guys (Part 3901) in 1979. The two hairpiecs were almost the Eve and Adam to the Lego World. Later, a mid-length hairpiece (part 4530) appeared in 1983, and it was later used to be the very first hairpiece for uni-sex. After almost a decade, the classic Paradisa ponytail (part 6093) appeared in 1992. After that, Town/City doesn't actively introduce new hairpieces, but mostly reused hairpieces introduced from other themes. Licensed themes Licensd themes later become an important source of new hairpieces. Star Wars, the very first Lego's longterm licensed is unsurprisingly important. The very first licensed original hairpieces were Padme's long ponytail (part 30475) and Qui-gon Jinn's (part 30410). Leia's double bun hairpiece (part 30409) was invented soon after that. However, there wasn't any other newer hairpiece until the premiere of Clone Wars. The second license is more important than Star Wars--- Harry Potter, whose new hairpieces are all modern style and we can easily reuse in a City canon. Hermione, Ron, Harry and Hagrid's hairpieces were all new. But not until Hermione got an update in 2007 (part 59363), there was no new licensed hairpiece. Now almost every theme introduces new hairpieces, but some have many and others have few. For example, dwarves from Hobbit have many different kinds of hair-beard pieces, but the Superhero characters only come with one or two. In dwarves' case, many of the pieces can hardly be reused in a City canon. Action themes and the others They occasionally introduce new hairpeces, though not every theme does so. The very first action theme with new hairpieces was Exo-force in 2006. Later in 2008, Agent Trace (part 62696) and Agent Chase (part 62810) from Agent both brought useful modern hairpiece that now becomes popular in both City and licensed themes. Other subthemes of Castle and Pirate also occasionally bring new pieces for their own need. For example, Islanders' hair (part 6025), Indians' hair (part 30114) and Crown Queen's hair (part 64807). Collectible Minifigures Currently CMF series is the very new and exciting source of hairpieces. In order to make unique characters, creativities have forced TLG to introduce more hairpieces, and some of them eventually be reused in its own later series or other themes. Friends and Minidolls A little debatable source, because their hairpieces are all made of soft rubber instead of standard minifigures' plastic ones in order to put accessories in their holes. So far these hairpieces are frequently reused in their own theme but not in othere City or licesed themes. IMO, if there is a licensed minifigure character that is perfect with a minidoll hairpiece, she should use it. The most-used hairpieces Just according to Bricklink, here are some possibly the most-used hairpieces by the end of 2013: From old era: First male hairpiece (part 3901): 445 times. First unisex hairpiece (part 4530): 127 times. Paradisa ponytail (part 6093): 141 times. First female hairpiece (part 3901): 57 times. Form recent era: Agent Chase (part 62810): 95 times. Hermione's redesign (part 59363) 42 times. Agent Trace (part 62696): 35 times. Elsa Schneider (part 85974): 30 times. Dastan (part 88283): 28 times. Fenrir Greyback (part 85974): 21 times. Nurse from CMF (part 87990): 21 times. Polished update? Some new hairpieces seem to replace old ones in their timeline because of their similarity. Excluding Princess Leia's case, here are other comparisons in City theme. Paradisa ponytail (part 6093) v.s. Nurse's ponytail (part 87990): both are short ponytails. There was a overlap, but recently the Paradisa ponytail dissappeared from City while Nurse's took its place. First male hairpiece (part 3901) v.s. Fenrir Greyback (part 92081) v.s. Obi-wan (part 99930): these are similar in a slicked hairstyle businessman way. The first male hairpiece was a strong one, but recently decreases and now is still for Han Solo (would Han Solo get a new hairpiece?) First unisex hairpiece (part 4530) v.s. Dastan (part 88283): both are mid-length hairstyle. The old one is neatly trimmed, while Dastan's looks more natural. As the statistics shown, classic hairpieces indeed have much more appearances than the current ones over the past few decades. However, if these new hairpieces are just born to inherit their places, that's just the same story happening and other new hairpieces are still wasted. Honestly I don't mind see the old ones coming back sometimes. Underused hairpieces Here are some hairpieces that are not frequently used, but they have potential to be more frequently used for City and other gneric minifigures IMO. Leia Organa's double buns (part 30409): Unless TLG want to keep it as Leia's exclusive piece, it is a nice choice for little generic girls. Harry Potter (part 40233): There are lots of minifigures using this hairpices--- but most of them are for Harry himself. It can be a nice hairpiece for young boys or teenagers. Ron Wesley's old design (part 40240): I can understand why Ron wants to change to the much-cooler Max's hairstyle, but the old one is still very useful for young boys compared with Agent Chase's. Hermione's old design (part 40251): It is still a nice piece for women besides her new one. Dumbledore (part 40239): So far it is mostly restricted to aged wizards rather than modern women. Professor Umbridge (part 59362): Useful for aged ladies or tomboys. Ice Skater (part 93562): A nice hairpiece for all businesswomen in Lego City, such as a police officer. Wyldstyle's piece would also be a good one for girls without hair streaks, if TLG won't make it exclusive to her.

Uhm...... like a map? Sticker haters can be fewer if future stickers can be enhanced and improved so that we don't worry about wearing out.

Interesting. I'm personally inclined to unique characters and I'm no army builder, but others would have that need and "we" can solve via trading. Mostly army builders that appear in physical sets would be blamed for no other unique character that fans want (mine is Eowyn). Generally, if each individual of the army can have some differences in prints, that's okay to me.

Nice review . As others mentioned, I guess it was probably one of their 2-in-1 plans, but it didn't turn out very well. There are too many trival pieces and long airfoil that can hardly rebuild into a kaboob stand and a saloon, so as result these planes are just "inspired" by those buildings and not useful. Therefore, even though fighting planes would be very important to the Movie, I'd rather see a real saloon instead. The planes are not that bad, maybe the use of colors could have been smarter.

It's actually interesting, though you may doubt the attitude how this question began. It depends on what kind of thing you're suggesting. Do you mean "Frineds" the nominal title of theme would retire? The Minidolls would retire? Or girl-oriented themes would retire? These are very different things. 1) When girl-oriented themes retire: For sure, not only Friends disappear but all themes related to girls won't be there. It could mean that all future Lego sets would be for uni-sex, or just totally for boys only. 2) When minidolls retire: You may think about the Scala and Belville cases. Their dolls could not cater to market needs so they can only result in retirement. Maybe minidolls would retire when they don't appeal girsl anymore, then TLG would invent another kind of dolls or just use minifigures in a new girl-oriented theme. Or in the worst case, minifigures retire too... 3) When "Frineds" the nominal title of theme retire: Just summarize what I was talking, the end of "Friends" means that another girl-orientd minidolls' theme would appear, just like Ninjago comes after Agent. When the Friends scenario isn't fresh anymore, TLG can give us another story: Olivia has a cousin, Sylvia, who stays in their hometown, Soulcanyon. The cultures there are very different from Heartlake City, but they also have lots of fun things. Besides, Sylvia also has a bunch of very interesting friends.... and it's another beginning of Friends. It doesn't have to be simple rehearsal, but could be a theme of new characters, parts, building styles. It can even be compatible with previous series so we don't have to afraid it'll end. IMO, Friends is a theme that can compete with City. As long as City can live, Friends can, too. Unless girls would be more easily bored than boys, or there is a more powerful competer in this market that eventually beats Friends down. BTW, I don't know if you're joking or not, don't ask TLG to focus on only several things. It could bring a negative effect that bores people with massive products of the same theme. The more are always the better.

What I could hate even more is there is a brave heroine who is often forced to be a "damsel in distress". I mean, for example, Nya should be very capable (at least better than some rival minions), but she is often the target of kidnapping while the boys aren't. I think if there are multiple female characters, some of them can play the superheroine role, and the others be brain trusters or weak damsel-in-distress (eg, a princess with a female knight), and they can even switch sometimes. I do agree that if each tribe has more than three variations of characters, it shouldn''t be difficult to make a female representive for each tribe. Or actually TLG have unexpectedly advanced to same-sex marriage. I'll wait for Laval's. But for a lioness, I'm not quite sure since biologically lioness don't have "mane" in real word, and the design of lion minifigures do look very masculine, so a lioness can't share the same head mold with them. There are only two posiblities: (1), A lioness character would be introduced to be Laval's long-lost relative or love interest in season 3, so TLG would make a new mold for her. (2), Tiger Tribe would be introduced in season 3 so that a lioness character can share the same head (but different prints) with tigers. Speaking of the importance of female characters, it's sad to see that fewer girls can own Spinners or Speedorz (though the reason is obviously that no boys would use female characters in action toys). It's also sad to see that Crooler doesn't actually have important role in the finale of season 1. For now, season 2 would focus on the outlands and we won't see new addtions to these tribes (unless more exiled ones.

I'm actually alittle curious about how the Juniour/Young Builder sets work (including some pink boxes). Those sets are obviously targeted at young starter girls, but TLG, who thought Friends can do a better job in appealing more girls, didn't make any Friends starter set in their plans, If the pinky starter sets work, I don't see why TLG can't add such kind of things to regular City or Castle sets. (eg, a pink bedroom for the princess in King's Castle Obviously 4+ didn't target at starter girls. This theme is composed of typical action and police elements as they usually do, while Tina, the only female 4+ character was included in Creator sets. Belville was the theme for girls, but was it able to be for starters?

Isn't it too lazy that there are no new clothes designs for boys? The difference between Robert and Matthew from Heartlake High is merely the hairpiece. At least it shouldn't be that difficult to make Jacob from the animated series physical. Honestly I don't quite like the previous birds that appeared in Friends set. The new parrot has a better print which I can accept.

The problem of Happy meal toys would be their production cost and price. Suppose that the happy meals are going to provide "figures", the official price of one minifigure is same as one collectible blind bag ($2.99). I don't know how much a Happy Meal cost in USA (did it say it would be worldwide?), but if one costs between $1~2, there wouldn't be any real minifigure.

Nothing to discuss with this topic I think.... deteriorated copycat. . There is going to be a new ice cream truck for Lego Movie (and there was one for Joker). A truck that sells lunch and sandwiches would be neat for both City and Friends. I'm not really sure of the news van since it possibly fits in a City theme more.

I'm not really sure how it works. Yes, it's happy to see their cooperation and a McDonalds' reastaurant set would be more possible in the future. However, judging from the Batman plastic figures from 2008, I doubt McDonalds and TLC would really give us real bricks in any meal.

Uh, since you're not sure, why not give this thread a vague name in order to avoid suspicions?