HawkLord

Question - where does Lego get all these pieces for the Build-A-Minifig? I mean, are these used parts from the store or does Lego just produce a number of "extras" to use specifically for these?

Dancing Oola and the bowling are my favorite. Very well done.

Barnes and Nobles also has a Sept release listed and the book is not on the Lego site - makes me think it's not out in the US yet.

That is amazing, man! Portal 2 is in my top five favorite games of all time and you totally captured it. The orange portal, the level button, GLaDOS, the slightly ruined test chamber all look perfect. The lighting is just like Portal 2 when you encounter GLaDOS again. :thumbup:

More of a sales report really, but I found the Knigth Bus at Walmart for $15 today. It had just been marked down on July 1st according to the sticker.

A local Walmart just put out a nearly fresh case on a side-wing. I grabbed Space Marine x6, Black Knight x7, and Bagpiper x2. They still had a side-wing of Series 6, but those had been picked over already.

It's alittle ironic to post on the optimism of seeing new posts in this thread when your posts themselves offer nothing new. The last three people pointed out the lack of pics, yet offer nothing themselves...

Picked HP Knight Bus clearanced from Walmart for $15. Best deal I've had lately.

Can't wait to get this one. I never picked up the recent Slave 1, so I only have an older Boba Fett figure and I don't have a ROTJ Luke, so that is also welcome. Great review! The pics are crisp and solid and you covered everything possible.

Iron Man and Whiplash look great. If the race car was alittle bit more complex, I could see that actually being a Lego set in the $12-20 range.

When I read the title, I thought this would be a mosiac piece, but I'm pleasantly surprised. Nice job, funny stuff.

That's a very clever and fluid way of putting all the sets together. The scenes blend into each other well.

The best thing to do would be to compile all the recorded errors so far in the first post and look for trends. I get this alot in IT - people state they've found an error, but if they're the only ones who have found it (and it can't be reproduced), then it's too inconclusive to determine if it's a legitimate error. For example, if several people report in of a mis-printed Merry figure, then we might have a substantial case. If no one else reports in a mis-printed Merry, then it's not an issue. QC issues exist in a number of products, but identifying which products is key.

I'm not at all suggesting that HP was dropped for LOTR, merely that when the license for HP expired that LOTR picked up where it left off in that similiar genre. It was a entirely "timing" based issue. If HP had another movie or two left in it, then I'm sure Lego would have ran both HP and LOTR. As it is, one license ended and another began. That's a point of view that is already biased - you don't like LOTR in the first place and because of that you think Lego can't do enough with it? The LOTR movies came out ten years ago and people still buy collectibles from it. Sure, you can say it has all been done, but tell that to Sideshow, WETA, etc who are still putting out LOTR products.

Very good review, thank you for posting it. I'm trying not to get into the MF line, but this is making it pretty hard...

Again, I think it's fine that you took the time to calculate this, but it's not a very good "real world" example. Unless you see that store employee open the sealed box right in front of you, it's scienticially inaccurate to assume the box has not been picked thru. If there's even the slightest chance that it has been, then the data is contaminated. I have to admit, this really feels like more of a math exercise than a Lego product exercise, as poeple buying packs one-by-one to get a complete set from a freshly opened box is not at all a common practice.

I have to doubt that. If Lego really had the license, we'd have seen something by now. It's never a good idea to hold onto a license and not have soemthing coming out or in the works. Lego paid for that license, so they always need to be recovering that loss - they can't afford lapses. I really think that Lego planned it all out this way. With HP ending, it gives them time focus on LOTR/Hobbit, which is a very similiar genre. In a way this means they won't be competing with themselves.

It's just too good...

Let's just say that if I was an enemy tank commander looking to cause some damage, I would aim for those Mega Blocks, as obviously they're the weak spots in the armor. Really, though it looks pretty cool. Nice job.

Well, I think Lego should only really put out something to celebrate every ten years (and possibly the 75 year mark). Every five years might be a bit much and could pull resources from other great lines of the time. Personally, next year is going to have so much great stuff, I'd probably have to pass on a commemorative set anyway.

My picks in no particular order: UCS Star Wars R2-D2 Star Wars Desert Skiff Sopwith Camel LOTR Mines of Moria LOTR Attack on Weathertop Monster Hunters The Vampyre Hearse Marvel Quinjet Aerial Battle

My pick would be Series 6 Grey Alien because I love that sort of stereotypical Alien look and the Series 7 Bagpiper because that figure is just so well done.

I'd have to agree with the earlier post that the action figure license issue probably has more to do with who holds the license in question. It's not so much Hasbro's decision as they make the action figures, it's more the decision of who owns the intellectual property. We all know that Lucas is pretty tight about the Star Wars license and I can see where he would want stipulations in place to get the most amount of profit he could. Meanwhile, Disney seems less concerned about such restrictions and might be fine with Marvel Lego battle packs. I mean, right now we have Diamond Select Marvel Minimates that are basically block style figures being sold in two-packs, while Hasbro sells action figures in the same toy aisle. If those two can co-exist, then so can Lego.

I'd say the "Golden Age" would have been the early-mid '90s. Just seems like alot of themes then were really doing well - Castle, Pirates, etc. Plus, you can tell from the sets and packaging alone that Lego was making more money then ever and felt more successful. Right now, I feel like we're in the "Modern License Age", which feels obviously license heavy. Granted, licenses are good for Lego, but they do make alittle less money having to pay for the rights to use such licenses. Now, you won't ever catch me complaining about licenses (I love my Star Wars Legos), but in a way it represents a new chapter of Lego in that we're seeing almost half of their sets related to a license. So, when we talk about the best of times for Lego, it's almost relative to what is being offered around that time.

Lego definitely needs to make a set similiar to this one. Great size (sure it might have been a bigger area in the book, but this works really well), nice figures (Bilbo, Gollum, and a Skellie), and a well designed scene. I could see Lego putting this out as a set in the $25 range. Very cool!