HawkLord

As mentioned, I would suggest breaking up the green ground with another color, such as brown and adding slight slopes or hill sections to create texture on the ground. Also some type of plant material, such as leaves or trees.

The Target stores around here are just bare on all Legos in general. I think there must have been some "day after Christmas" sale because I don't remember Target being that cleared out at this time last year. Or maybe they just really gauged their sales well. TRU still has a lot of the DoS sets in stock, though that is mostly attributed to their higher prices.

I actually don't need this item, so It's not like I'm personally interested in acquiring it from him. I'm merely suggesting that in an ideal dynamic people here would help people with retail items that are generally limited in nature, like polybags. No need to sell it to a fellow collector at twice the MSRP. Sure, it's a capitalistic society and people have every right to make money, but I just expect that this board (like others I've been on) should hold to the idea that people selling product should not be scalping. I cannot tell you how many other boards I'm on or have been on where people come out of no where during the holidays to inquire about hot items or flip hot items. Simply put - it is preying on the uninformed or desperate in order to make a buck. That's all... I won't continue to beat this dead horse...

Very cool. Boba has Han in carbonite, the One Ring, the Holy Grail, and C-3PO's head. It's a merry Christmas for him!

That's just not the type of board help I'm used to. I've worked on toy boards where "hot" toys are sold to other collectors at cost, even when those toys could have been flipped on Ebay for 400% their MSRP.

I think the concept of expectation is being confused with entitlement. People feel that everytime a product is released that it should meet or exceed their expectations and should include all the characters or features they require, but that is not the case. LOTR was only ever acquired by TLG to help supplement The Hobbit material - it was never intended to be a stand-alone product. It filled in the gap left by the Harry Potter (fantasy) license material and maybe bridged the gap alittle when the Kingdoms line fell off and TLG worked on the next evergreen fantasy/medieval line. LOTR isn't like Star War, which has been in the public eye for decades and has maintained successful product lines for the last 19 years. The LOTR merchandise has never lasted longer than the movies - the action figure line cancelled out, the high end stuff disappeared, even WETA dropped their statue lines. Anything LOTR related now is only in play because of The Hobbit.

I don't understand the mentality that if a given theme ended that people would just stop buying any additional sets from the theme. It almost seems petty, like people feel it's their way of getting back at Lego or something. Why stop enjoying something just because Lego makes a marketing decision to discontinue a line?

No new SW sets at my local Lego store. In general, the place looked like they were still reeling from the post-Christmas aftermath...

I don't mind if a theme or series is "incomplete". Really, as long as I have the Fellowship (which we already do), then I feel like it's complete enough for me. TLG could have just one-shotted the Fellowship in one expensive large set and not released anything else and I still would have been happy. I could always make-up missing stuff material from other lines. I guess my point is that I'm happy with what we got and even though I'm hopeful of the future of this line, if it all ends tomorrow it will have been a great ride for this long-time Tolkien fan. And if t did end tomorrow, I would definitely stock up on LOTR/Hobbit sets, even so far as cracking into my SW Lego money for it.

When people sell older bricks because they no longer need/want them that's one thing. When someone sells a brand new, limited (only available at TRU) item during the holidays, that's another thing. Most people tend to call that scalping...

Why make a profit on a "community" board? This site isn't Ebay and shouldn't be used as such...

Very nicely done. I like the little Lego set present in the back. Though, I don't keep up with it, it's nice to see the Old Republic stuff still carrying on.

Granted, I mostly collect licensed sets, but for me, I can't go by brick count or weight - there's too many other abstract variables.

I'd like to see Mos Eisley approached the same way Lego recently approached Jabba's Palace in the sense of having a number of sets related to one section of the movie. This way, Lego could do a large Cantina set (like the Jabba Palace set), maybe a small Stormtrooper on Dewback patrol set, and maybe a small Uncle Owen / Aunt Beru moisture farmer set.

Santa Jabba. What? You know that'd be pretty cool... (and he'd be fat like Santa)

Your auction is for double the retail price ($10 instead of $5). If you want to help the Lego collectors out there offer them at retail price.

I'm in WA state. I'm not sure if there's a pattern to how these things sweep, if it's west coast to east coast like some other toys; but given that I checked three TRUs regularly last year for the Mirkwood Elf and only one had five (ad I'm pretty sure these were a found stash someone hid in-store) that I was able to get, the abundance of Laketown Guards both in this TRU and on TRU's site should be optimistic.

Local TRU had probably around 50+ Laketown Guards hanging on a side endcap wing. Wish they had that many of the Mirkwood Elf last year. I'm not crazy about the Laketown look overall, so I passed.

The Electro design makes me optimistic for a SW ghost Kenobi and/or Yoda. And, of course Iceman. I'm also really liking the brighter blue on Cap A.

No polybags at Walmart lately... Target still has lots of the TMNT Krang bag. And no polys at TRU.

This is definitely on my radar for next year. Maybe not right away, but eventually. I like the look and box art presentation and the set is very recognizable.

I'm very glad I didn't get the Avengers set with the large Hulk now... Granted, I'm sure the one with MODOK will be more expensive, I think the minifigure list is way more worth it.

I think from a merchandising standpoint, The Hobbit will go down in history as one of the biggest missed opportunities because of splitting the movie into three from the original two. Having seen the DoS, I feel like these sets have elements of both DoS and what TaBA will offer. The DoS sets also feel somewhat incomplete, like maybe they were designs for what would have been part 2/2 of The Hobbit, but have now been tweaked to accommodate was is now part 2/3.

If it were me, I wouldn't hinge an entire theme on just one set. For example, I love Tolkien stuff, but have few of The Hobbit AUJ sets and will probably only buy a couple of The Hobbit DoS sets. This doesn't mean my collection would feel incomplete or that it's no worth continuing, I just means I have to pick and choose.

I found a copy copies at my local Lego store before Black Friday on clearance. Otherwise, I haven't seen them in the usual stores - Walmart, Target, TRU, Fred Meyers, etc in quite some time. I could suggest trying unusual locations, like smaller toy stores and whatnot.