HawkLord

UCS for detail and design or 6212 for design and nice minifigures. I might be alittle biased because 6212 was my first Star Wars set coming back to Lego...

@ Themadpatter - the heads aren't that weird. The only thing that really throws them off is eyes (or more accurately the eyelids). If the pupils were positioned more in the center, each one would be perfect. Otherwise, the paint and plastic are both good. I was surprised that it was a hard plastic. I would say the set is still completely worth getting.

The eyes are perfect on Homer. Having just got the Simpson's house, I'm in for a full set.

Eowyn vs Witch King. Add in Merry in armor and a Fell Beast. This would be the last set I would need if I could only choose one.

I think DC would have to make a big push to force Lego to include one of their IPs with Lego's own blu-ray movie. This is Lego's moment and they're going to take advantage of it.

These Goblin builds are outstanding! All the little details, like the spear as an arrow are very creative.

I use Plano 3700 adjustable storage cases for bricks and minifigures. Being adjustable, they allow for most types of bricks and they're deep enough to store some plates. I have some with organized sets and can usually fit maybe 4-6 sets depending on the size of each. They're stackable, but don't lock in place or anything.

My girlfriend and I finished building the set this past Sunday. We both loved it. There are tons of little extras and hidden gems in the rooms and not having any City/Creator experience, loved all the little furniture items, like the beds and piano. It's as close to a dollhouse as I'll ever get, but it's very misleading when you look at all the beige bricks from outside. Then crack the wall and open it up and there's a near whole complete world inside (that reminds, I love the toilet in it). My only complaint would be lack of printed plates - I like the Radioactive Man comic and Lisa's A+ paper, but felt more elements should have been printed. Oh, and the faces needed more animation - this was particularly noticeable when looking at the faces on the box. They should smile more and maybe the pupils should be centered. Otherwise, an amazing set that I recommend getting.

Alderwood Mall TRU had about 20-30 of the Hobbit Lake Town Guard polybag...

I picked this up at the Bellevue Lego store, which had it on display and on the shelf. Meanwhile the Alderwood store did not have it on display or on the shelf.

Council of Elrond... is it bad I just bought it for the terrain?

Hmm... I guess I have to wonder just how long this license will last and if we'll see a time with multiple versions or costumes of the same character. That will make a big difference to me on the X-Men set. I don't care for the Astonishing version of Cyclop's costume. And whereas a masked Wolverine is nice, I doubt it will be the last time we see him regardless. So, now I'm buying into a set for the Storm and maybe the alternate Magneto? I'll have to think about this one alittle more...

I have a question that may be more or less off-topic, but does anyone have a definitive list of what types of material are still made in China? I know CMFs are and I think someone mentioned Chima, but what else?

I've never "changed" themes... just added new ones. Since Technics and MF are very different, I would suggest collecting both. If anyone was interested in the MF line, I'd also recommend acting soon because I can't see it being around much longer.

I'm perplexed as to the why TLC is going so big on this one. The Simpsons is a pretty old show and some would argue past it's prime. But to give it a $199 set and $3.99 CMF line is a risky play. The Simpsons have nothing coming out that would warrant such attention - no movie or anything like that. I also don’t know why both items won’t launch at the same time. Don't get me wrong, I really like the idea, I'm just surprised at the execution. Maybe a couple smaller of smaller sets and no CMF line would have been a safer bet. As it is, I do understand the price point of the CMF line given that it should help offset the cost of the new molds both in the CMF line and the larger Simpson house.

This is going to be exciting to watch from a distribution and marketing standpoint. I mean, we've all seen how Hasbro or Mattel handles their own licensed product movie launches, but this is Lego handling their very own product tied to a movie launch of their own IP. This should be very interesting...

I don't mind the move to March, as I was toying (pun intended) of getting into the Lego Movie stuff. At least I can space out purchases to some degree.

Local Target had a side-wing of the minifigures down one aisle and they were working on an endcap the next aisle over.

I think technically, if you’re going to call a set an “army-builder” it should not have a named or unique character in it. Army-builders should be regulated to infantry or even elite army figures in order to boost ranks of infantry from other sets. However, I don’t find anything inherently wrong with named or unique characters in army-builders,but then those sets lose some of their army-builder nature and become sets that just happened to have alittle more infantry style minifigures than usual.

Wow, TC-14 was such a lesser known droid and from a movie that some SW fans hate and now it seems we're getting an even lesser known droid. I honestly had to look this character up because I had never heard of them. I guess it was too much to hope for one the updated Wookies...

I think minifigures are more important than they used to be due to the increase in promenence of the “collectible” concept. When I was a kid playing with Castle sets, I would make up my characters from the figures I had, sinceeither the figures did not have names or I did not bother to remember them. For the most part, named or important minifigures were the ones with additional armor or other noteworthy markings. These minifigures played a huge role in my Lego play, because they allowed me to better interact with sets or designs that I had created in scale. I could pretend to walk around that town or castle I made as a minifigure. And, of course, my minifigures always had action and adventure when interacting in those worlds. I feel that especially with the development of licensed sets that Lego has realized they can maximize sales by offering special or unique minifigures as a way to promote what may be otherwise perceived as bland sets. I could probably point to many sets licensed and non-licensed that I would feel have a heavier push with minifigures as maybe Lego needed to add more to those sets to make them more marketable. Essentially, minifigures have become anothermethod by which TLG can market sets to a wider audience. Surely, with the SW license, many people (including myself) buy sets just for specific minifigures. To me this is a win-win, since it still promotes Lego sales.

Even if that was the finalized version of Storm, I'd be pretty happy. I'm hoping the set is comparable in size and cost to the Quinjet Aerial Battle set, with maybe three other X-Men (in addition to Storm) and Magneto.

That's a great looking set, though it would have to be released before the LOTR line ends, as that's how these licenses work. TLG would not spend the money to re-up the license from WB just for one set in the future.

Admittedly, I was not a huge fan of the second wave. The Wizard's battle was great just for Saruman and the palantir. The council of Elrond was great for the elves and some of the terrain pieces. The battle at the Black Gates felt lacking compared to Helm's Deep and could have been a great opportunity to touch on Gondor soldiers. The pirate ship felt like a good attempt, but nothing really needed as pirates/ghosts did not play into any other sets - no Pelannor fields battle... Orthanc was priced right for the brick count but failed to have mass appeal because it was mostly (as appropriate) just a ton of black bricks. If the LOTR line fails, it will be because of the lackluster second wave. Sales of the first wave locally were very good, with some sets like Weathertop even selling out despite brick count. There was buzz, there no competition (at least until The Hobbit sets came out), and the overall momentum was there. With the second wave I can tell the buzz was not there, I couldn’t help but see competition with Lego’s own Hobbit and (newly introduced) Castle lines, and I feel like the momentum died out. Had wave two incorporated something like a Pelannor fields battle, eagles, Gondor material, or something that pushed the paceand also held back the Castle line, I think the community would not have these gloom and doom conversations.

Picked up the Dul Guldur Ambush. I'm not crazy about the look of Beorn, but I'm hopeful of his role in TABA.