JeanGreyForever

It was the opposite for me. I skipped Thunderbolts, especially after hearing how bad BNW was. Then I watched FF, which I wasn't particularly blown away with but it did make me want to check out Thunderbolts to see which movie was better and I'm definitely Team Thunderbolts. Unfortunately, I really don't see Doomsday doing this team justice, especially considering how disconnected the characters are from everyone else. Hopefully they get some good scenes. I like the idea of a dark red Daredevil. It would probably fit the darker tones of Oscorp. I know Luna Snow has taken off as a character so I could see some Lego set in the future potentially featuring her. If we do get a Kingpin minifigure, I have a strong feeling he's going to be built out of purely recycled parts. He's an easy one to MOC as I see a lot of custom minifigures for him. Maybe Lego will make the extra effort to try and depict his paunch on his torso, like they did with Winnie the Pooh. Minifigure Rhino also works for me and you're right that he's been done before that way. Shocker is another fairly popular villain who surprisingly hasn't ever appeared in a set so I wonder if he might finally get his day. Probably not though. Gwen was excluded from the bridge set, probably because it was too closely linked to her death. I'm hoping that Green Goblin killing her doesn't preclude her from appearing in Oscorp, especially considering how central she is to the ASM movies. I've noticed Marvel has mostly tried to distance themselves from the classic Gwen Stacy iteration, ever since Spider-Gwen took off in popularity. I think they're too afraid to acknowledge the original version since she's considered too controversial now for being "fridged" or outdated.

Had no idea the original Thunderbolts was like that. Sounds completely awful between John Walker being the villain and turning into the Hulk (two films in a row with a Hulk villain) and Taskmaster being alive. I feel like Ghost was already a stretch in terms of minor characters the audiences would accept on the team so to have Taskmaster alongside her would have been even worse. Yeah, there's definitely a quality control issue in the MCU if those ideas were actually considered good. Daredevil seems like an easy character to bring back, maybe in a new costume. His original yellow/red costume from the 60s? His black Shadowland costume? Maybe his black training outfit with the blindfold that he wore for S1 of the Netflix show? Or even a regular Matthew Murdock minifigure seems likely. I think the Marvel Knights characters from the Daily Bugle set (Blade, Punisher, Daredevil) make it likely that we can see more in an Oscorp set. Like Moon Knight as you mentioned, and maybe Elektra and Ghost Rider too. Ghost Rider's coming back in a new set so he could be easily reused and would synergize with Hobgoblin, since they first appeared together in a set. Kaine might not be a lock but I think he has a decent chance of getting a minifigure. Luna Snow might be the most unlikely of your selections. I know she's popular in the video games now but does she have any real connection to Spider-Man? I feel she'd be more likely in a regular Marvel set than an Oscorp one, since the theme doesn't fit her, although I'm not super familiar with her history. With the Thing, I'm positive that the lack of bigfig for him wasn't because he's smaller in stature in the FF movie but just Lego not wanting to make more bigfigs. Especially when their Lego Marvel movies/shorts still feature a bigfig Thing where price clearly isn't an issue when it comes to making digital models of their minifigs. So that along with everything you said about the Red Hulk situation makes me think it's unlikely we'll get another bigfig anytime soon which may cross out Kingpin. But they're still many Daredevil-affiliated characters who could show up without him. Rhino might be an issue for that reason too, if they don't opt to make him a regular minifig. Your choices seem pretty accurate. I think Doc Ock will be in the set, not just because of his popularity, but because he's connected to Oscorp in the Insomniac games, the Ultimate universe (from what I remember since it's been a while since I read those comics), and the ASM Garfield movies hinted at him too at the end of the second movie. Even in the Raimi films, he's a former friend of Osborn and he overall fits a lab setting. I do think, if we're lucky, that we can get a proper 616 civilian Gwen (and one that actually looks like her rather than the mix of random parts we got for the Daily Bugle's Gwen). Partly because she's such a major part of the ASM Garfield movies where she works at Oscorp, since I'd imagine any Oscorp set would be heavily themed towards those movies which have the most popular depiction of Oscorp. Also because she's linked to the Goblin between her 616 comic death and the infamous Sins Past storyline. If Miles Warren is also in the set, since the Daily Bugle teased him, it would be even more unusual to exclude a civilian Gwen. While I don't think they're likely, I'd like to see Mayday Parker as Spider-Girl and a Spinneret version of Mary Jane. But the main female Spider character I'd like to see is the long overdue Jessica Drew/classic Spider-Woman. She was also supposed to be in the Daily Bugle set according to the Lego designers but they weren't allowed to include her. She's been long overdue for a remake since the SDCC exclusive figure but I also think Marvel's been mostly phasing her out in favor of Spider-Gwen as the definitive Spider-Woman. Which may explain why they refuse to market her anymore, like how the Daily Bugle wasn't allowed to feature MJ because she clashed with the synergy of the MCU Michelle Jones. That's a good idea to wait for the apartment since those minifigs will probably pop up again.

That's a really good idea, for the Daily Bugle to be themed towards the Raimi films. Or at least have some minifigs that are from the Raimi films like Bully Maguire or Hoffman. I can see Eddie Brock getting reused for this set as well then.

Sandman set could be promising if it's based on Raimi. Although the low price makes me think they wouldn't give us a much requested character like black suit Spider-Man in a $25 set. Daily Bugle makes perfect sense with the modular retiring and it would fit with the new mini-modular sets they've been making. Like how the Harry Potter theme has a D2C Diagon Alley but playscale versions as well for people who want cheaper alternatives. I'm torn between wanting the Daily Bugle set to have 1-2 new minifigures or having all reused minifigures so I don't feel any temptation to buy it.

A lot of the latest movies have suffered from extensive reshoots, which is evident in the pacing. FF is a good example of that because the opening of the movie was heavily cut down. BNW probably had the most reshoots of any MCU movie. I haven't heard anything about Thunderbolts going through any major reshoots but maybe that affected the opening vault scenes. I think Marvel felt that for Black Widow, they needed a female villain. And they somehow thought it would be good to make it a twist villain by using the Taskmaster ensemble to mask her gender as audiences would be expecting a male villain based on the comics. Your comparison to Deadpool is pretty apt because in both cases, we have a popular wisecracking character who is more or less rendered silent in their respective debut movies (Wolverine Origins and Black Widow). Both depictions were badly received by fans so I wouldn't be surprised if one day a more comic accurate Taskmaster ends up in the movies (a bit like how Mandarin's MCU depiction in Iron Man 3 was also polarizing). Marvel seemed to realize their mistake since they set the Taskmaster we did end up getting to die almost immediately. I'm leaning towards Oscorp too. There's a lot of new characters who would work who've been appearing in recent sets like you listed. The Daily Bugle also reused a lot of minifigs who appeared in sets before, so any influx of new minifigs is usually a sign towards a modular that will encompass many of those figs. Oscorp could easily feature Anti-Venom, Harry Osborn/Ultimate Green Goblin, Norman Osborn, and Hobgoblin, to name a few examples. Since the comic-based modular sets take inspiration from a variety of sources, including the comics, different movies, video games, etc., I feel Oscorp could take advantage of all the different Spider-Man media, especially the Andrew Garfield movies where Oscorp is featured most heavily. Would be nice to finally see comic accurate versions of Electro, Rhino, Lizard, Dr. Curt Connors, Miles Warren, and Gwen Stacy, since they all have some sort of connection to the Osborns in either the comics or the movies. The Daily Bugle set teased a Norman Osborn with comic accurate hair which we still haven't seen to this day. Would be a great new piece especially since it also works for Harry and Sandman. Would also like to see the characters you listed at the end. Wondering if we could expect more Daredevil characters in general, like an official Matt Murdock minifigure or Elektra, Bullseye, and Kingpin. I feel like Marvel is really reluctant to make bigfigs now (Red Hulk aside) and Kingpin is one of those characters who really doesn't work as a regular minifig so maybe that hurts his chances. Sentry is such a powerful character that him appearing in Doomsday means he'll have to be relevant to the plot, likely moreso than the rest of the team. I think he's the most likely to receive a minifigure. But John Walker is also the one I'd like to see the most, since I find him the best written character. Depending on how the Thunderbolts are grouped together in Doomsday, I wonder if we might get one set that features them all rather than just a scattering of members. HP does have some issues, but I feel it's not nearly a bad as Marvel. For Marvel, most of the Spider-Man sets give us the same minifigures we always get like Spidey, Miles, Gwen, Venom, or a Venomized version of some other character. A lot of the easter egg characters from the Daily Bugle still haven't shown up in future sets and the same is true for the X-Mansion set. We get an Endgame final battle set every other year, and it's usually a worse version of its predecessor. Yet, despite the surplus of Endgame sets, we still don't have core characters like Hawkeye as Ronin. Characters rarely have dual molding or leg printing and the X-Mansion is the worst example of this with Cyclops' printed hips. The X-Mansion came out after the Natural Museum set but isn't anywhere near its scale or size. FF minifigs were widely anticipated but were mostly a bust too, reusing widely used heads and not enough detail. Disney sets have also gotten a lot worse. Characters who need dual molding don't get it, colors are mismatched, and some of the same awkward leg printing that characters like Cyclops got are also present in characters like Nani and David from Lilo & Stitch. So I think the lack of quality might be a Disney IP thing overall but I don't follow Lego Star Wars anymore so don't know if the same has been happening over in that theme. But I saw the Death Star and the polarizing reactions to the price and quality of the final set so I can definitely see it being a Disney IP pattern, which might be why HP still seems better off in comparison.

Although I liked Yelena's portrayal in Thunderbolts, I also think it felt off how quickly she gravitated towards Bob and took him under her wing. It felt not fleshed out enough. But she also has extreme abandonment issues from Black Widow and was dealing with the trauma of losing her sister. Right after they're reunited, Natasha dies and Yelena's all alone again. So based on her emotional headspace at the start of Thunderbolts, I can sorta buy her seeing someone else isolated and attaching herself to him because he reminds her of herself, but it does feel a tad forced. If you ever watch Black Widow, you might have a better understanding of the Yelena character that can explain her arc in Thunderbolts. Honestly, even as someone who saw Black Widow once, I can barely remember Taskmaster and what her deal was. Part of why I was happy she was killed off so quickly was because it meant I didn't need to waste time getting to know this character again. While Ghost was also a generic MCU villain, I had a better memory of what she was about unlike Taskmaster. Not even a Marvel Studios thing so much as a Marvel Comics thing. You can't have two teams meet without having some fight first. That was the case whenever two teams crossed over in one book back in the 60s and Marvel doubled down on it the last decade or two with constant events of two teams clashing. The MCU heavily bases itself on the modern Marvel comics so it's not surprising they've followed suit (first meeting of Cap, Iron Man, and Thor in Avengers has them fighting, Civil War, etc.) Just as there's likely going to be a fight between the New Avengers vs Sam's Avengers, I'm sure we'll get a fight between the X-Men and some group of Avengers. Yeah, the Daily Bugle has been the flagship Marvel modular set. I guess Avengers Tower can take over that spot now but even that will probably get retired in a few years. I can also see Avengers Tower maybe being remade with characters based on the last few MCU phases, to reflect the new Avengers teams. But then again, probably not since the modular consumer base wouldn't be happy with a set remake wasting up a spot for the year, plus I don't think there's any real interest in any of the new "Avengers" characters, most of whom the public wouldn't even associate as Avengers. With the Baxter Building, the FF is just too isolated a property right now for it to really work as a standalone set for all the reasons you listed. That's true. It's also why I think a modular of the Avengers Mansion from the comics is unlikely to come anytime soon because it overlaps with Avengers Tower and the aesthetics of the X-Mansion. Not to mention, there wouldn't really be any existing minifigures to populate the set since we rarely get comic minifigs.

I think Nightcrawler and Mystique are likely to get minifigures. Too bad they won't really match the X-Men minifigs we have already.

So far, all the superhero modulars have gotten at least 1-2 regular playline sets before getting a modular set, with the exception of the X-Mansion. The X-Men were always a bigger brand which is why we got X-Men Lego sets even before the Fox ban, unlike the FF. The FF are not that big of a brand and the film not doing all that well at the box office, either critically or commercially, makes me think there won't be much faith in the FF having their own modular set. FF might have done better than the other two MCU movies this year, but that's a rather low bar and this is the first year DC has beaten Marvel at the box office in more than a decade. Even the Sanctum Sanctorum modular we didn't get until after the first movie, Infinity War, and NWH. I don't see it being practical to release a Baxter Building modular immediately after one FF movie came out, when there's not even a sure promise of future films in the franchise. I think Lego will be more careful and wait to see if the FF take off in popularity after Doomsday/Secret Wars, the way Doctor Strange was boosted by Infinity War/Endgame. The MCU landscape is very different now and I don't see Lego blindly having faith in the new movies when they ignored Thunderbolts and only gave FF one set. In terms of figures too, there's a problem. The Baxter Building will need to be in scale with the Daily Bugle and Avengers Tower. Those sets had 20+ figures to justify the size of the sets. There aren't even 20 minifigures that could fit a MCU Baxter Building. Even if we double up on each of the core team (fiery Johnny, human Ben, stretchy Reed, invisible Sue), and add baby Franklin, Herbie, Surfer, Doom, and some Doombots, we still end up with a set with very few minifigures and closer to the Sanctum Sanctorum and X-Mansion in terms of quantity. Those sets were smaller in scale but also criticized for the lack of minifigures. Making an FF set that costs more but offers even less than that, with a less successful and less relevant brand that isn't popular or timely enough to overcome all those shortcomings, could be rather disastrous. I think it's more likely that next year's modular set will be another DC one, since we only have 1 DC set and 4 Marvel sets and this will make things more even. Or if it's a Marvel set, then it'll be a Spider-Man one. Spider-Man is the face of Lego Marvel and the biggest franchise. With the Daily Bugle retiring this year, they'll probably want a replacement so that there's always some Spider-Man modular set available. Oscorp just had a playline set so maybe we'll get a D2C modular Oscorp by next year. It would also be more timely with the next Spider-Man movie coming out, which also seems more anticipated by the public than Doomsday. If the Baxter Building is appearing in Doomsday, we don't know how major a setting it'll be in the movie. Also we know the script has been in flux and toys for Doomsday are already being leaked, so whatever Lego sets we get might not even match up with the final film we get. It probably wouldn't be wise to base a modular off of only one movie and concepts for another movie. Better to wait until both Doomsday and Secret Wars come out, not only to see if the FF are a viable brand after that, but also because that'll give more minifigures, rooms, and easter eggs to flesh out a potential Baxter Building modular set that can encompass 2-3 films instead of 1.5 films.

I enjoyed Thunderbolts too. Skipped it in theaters because I rarely watch MCU movies in theaters anymore. Brave New World seemed so bad that I had zero interest in the follow-up movie (still haven't seen BNW and have no real desire to). Yelena's been one of the few bright spots in the MCU post-Endgame and centering the film around her really worked for me. Killing off Taskmaster almost immediately was also a good decision. Didn't like her character in Black Widow and barely remembered anything about her. I hated the Falcon and Winter Soldier show, especially since neither lead has ever appealed to me. John Walker was one of the few enjoyable characters in that show so I enjoyed him having a bigger role in this movie. He's extremely flawed but fun to watch for precisely that reason. Sam and Bucky, particularly Sam, have never worked except as sidekicks to the real Captain America, or in Bucky's case, as past trauma. Even the Valentina character, who I detested in the Falcon and Winter Soldier show, was tolerable in Thunderbolts. As a film, it felt rather fresh compared to the generic drab MCU installments we've been getting every year. I do think it's a big issue that we have no idea who is on Sam's Avengers team. Doomsday is going to focus on Doom and the multiverse characters, like the FoX-Men, so I don't see how they can also cram in the first meeting and inevitable battle between the New Avengers and Sam's Avengers. Feels like that should have been the plot for its own film, sorta like Captain America: Civil War. Maybe BNW should have come after Thunderbolts and focused on the battle between these two teams. Like you said, the Thunderbolts characters seem outclassed and also too minor to be of much importance in Doomsday. They have basically zero connections to anyone else, outside of Yelena/Kate (assuming Kate is in the movie, she's also rather minor) and John/Sam. And considering nobody cares about Sam, having that be the biggest connection for the team is hardly a selling point. Sentry will probably just be a plot device for Doom so at least he has some promising relevance. Even as a microscale set, I feel it wouldn't be all that popular. Asgard isn't nearly as iconic as Gotham and the Gotham City skyline was based on the 90s show, which has a lot of nostalgia. Not even considering that Batman is DC's biggest character and seller, while Thor isn't anywhere near that level. And as mentioned, the Thor brand is at an all-time low. The minifigures would probably be the biggest draw.

Do modulars usually get expansion sets? Would love to see the Daily Planet though. For a comic-inspired Baxter Building, I wonder if we'd get actual comic minifigures for the team. At least the Oswald minifigure exists with dual molded blue/black legs since we know any potential FF minifigures won't get any.

It's probably a reference to the firing of Jimmy Kimmel due to pressure from the Trump administration.

I don't think the Baxter Building is likely. We've never gotten a playline set for it yet and most of the modular buildings had at least one (if not more) regular versions available first. The FF movie was not huge at the box office and we only got one regular set for it. If Lego couldn't justify making more than one set for the FF movie, I can't see them dedicating a whole modular to the FF just to promote a movie where they're four of 50 or so characters. With the FF coming to the main MCU reality in Doomsday, it's likely the Baxter Building won't even appear in the movie. A modular version would have to be as tall as the Avengers Tower but it wouldn't have anywhere near the amount of minifigures. Who would they even include in an MCU Baxter Building set outside of the main team, Franklin, HERBIE, Doom, and Surfer? I think with DC only having one modular set, it would make more sense for next year's modular to be another DC set, since Marvel already has four. Might not be the Daily Planet though. If it's a Marvel set, I think Oscorp makes the most sense. We just got a regular version of the set, there'll be a Spidey gap with the modular Daily Bugle retiring this year, and next year is also when the next Spidey movie comes out which seems more anticipated than Doomsday. Spidey sets always sell. The DC equivalent is Batman so if the DC modular isn't the Daily Planet, I think it could be Wayne Manor.

I'm hoping the SM2 subway set will be successful enough for Lego to make at least one set for the first Raimi film and one set for SM3 so each film in the trilogy is represented. If they can keep churning out Endgame sets over and over, I don't think it would be unfeasible to get sets from the Raimi films every so often. They're even getting re-released in theaters (again) in a month, so clearly they still have commercial appeal. My Target app shows me which Lego sets get purchased the most in the last month and out of the Marvel ones, the subway set is one of the top ranking with 11K bought in the last month. The only Marvel set that beats it is the Spider-Man Mech vs Anti-Venom set which sold 16K in the last month. And that's only a $10 set. The lack of Ronin to this day is why I feel we're probably only going to see a fraction of the Doomsday/Secret Wars cast in minifigure form if we can't even get one Endgame character more than half a decade later despite regularly getting Endgame sets. I'd be curious how they'd make Kingpin, like if he'd be a bigfig or a regular figure. After the Thing, I feel they'd make Kingpin a regular minifig too. I wouldn't mind the repeat of the same heroes and villains if we got more variety with the civilian characters like Peter's friends from the classic comics: Flash Thompson, a non-Goblin Harry, Liz Allan, 616 Gwen Stacy, etc. The Marvel Legends leak claims that Cyclops' Doomsday outfit will be his 90s one, which has been heavily speculated since Wolverine & Deadpool. Something tells me even if we get a new Cyclops minifig, he still won't get dual molded legs or even yellow hips.

I'm wondering if it isn't for Doomsday, since they're not hiding Nightcrawler's part in the movie. I read there was a leaked Marvel Legends action figure wave for Doomsday and Cyclops is one of the reported figures. That might make him a likely candidate for a Doomsday Lego set too. And if Cyclops is likely, Nightcrawler probably would be too.

Hope it's comic-based and features new characters or rare characters rather than the usual Green Goblin, Venom, Miles, or Gwen. A 616 Gwen would be nice. Amazing Fantasy #15's cover is up there in terms of being iconic. Would also be a good choice for a book nook.

I think he mentioned a certain actor he shared a scene with. But this is par for the course when it comes to Marvel. An example is the funeral scene for Endgame. The actors weren't told that they were filming Tony's funeral. They thought they were filming a wedding scene. And in MoM, you can clearly tell that the Illuminati actors didn't film anything together. This is why all their scenes have the actors spaced out. Particularly with an unfinished script that's in flux, they would need to film everyone separately so they can put the pieces together however they see fit later on. I imagine Alan's experience is what the other actors are going through as well. Anthony Hopkins was very vocal about this when filming the Thor movies and how awful the experience was because it was just greenscreen acting. Andrew Garfield's case was very special and most everyone, at least who kept up with the leaks, knew he was in it and was just hiding his involvement. NWH was marketed on hiding the other two Spideys. That's set an annoying precedent now where actors are upfront about not being in movies and people don't believe them, because they think of the Andrew situation. I remember Famke Janssen (Jean Grey) was asked if she was appearing in Deadpool & Wolverine and she said no, she hasn't been asked. But people thought she was lying to cover up her involvement. We have a similar case with Shawn Ashmore (Iceman) now. People have been asking him if he's in Secret Wars with the other FoX-Men cast. He's said no, he's not in it, and in fact that if he was in it, then he wouldn't be allowed to say, anything at all, so him saying he's not in it means he's really not in it. He also said that he'd love to come back but nobody's asked him.

Alan Cumming (Nightcrawler) shared his experience working on Doomsday. Doesn't bode well for the final product imo. “I did the entire film in isolation. Lots of green screen, face replacement. They even gave characters fake names. I don’t know who I was acting with half the time.”

Even moreso than Toy Story, Winnie the Pooh is very book-themed. Both from originating from a storybook but also because the original shorts/movie have a narrator flipping through the pages and reading. With the characters even interacting with the narrator and sometimes requesting small changes in the text. The original Winnie the Pooh set had a lot of original molds which haven't been used since so I'm sure they've been retired.

Now that we have an Anti-Venom minifigure, they're just going to keep reusing him over and over, until he's as prolific as the regular Venom, Green Goblin, Miles, and Gwen. Still waiting on a comic accurate Electro and Lizard. Even just a regular Dr. Curt Connors would be nice.

I've wanted this for a while but I think it wasn't a very popular idea here. Considering how iconic Quidditch is, I'm surprised we haven't seen a D2C version of this yet. I hope we get a version of the Grey Lady from the first two movies. The Kelly Macdonald version we got from Deathly Hallows has a much more simplified dress and I'd like to have the original version with the more ornate dress with detailings. Honestly, compared to Marvel and Disney, I think Harry Potter has done a really good job with keeping up their minifigure quality. I wonder if Lego would actually depict this scene, particularly with the Inferi. Have they ever indicated if this scene is off-limits or not?

MinaLima publishes interactive pop-up books for different classic literature. They're best known for all the visual design and prints in the Harry Potter movies, but they've branched out beyond Harry Potter. Some MinaLima books that would fit your fairy tale theme would be Pinocchio, Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz, Beauty and the Beast, Hans Christian Anderson's Fairy Tales (themed after The Little Mermaid), and Grimm Fairy Tales (themed after Snow White). The Jungle Book is also available, even if that isn't viewed as a fairy tale. Barnes and Nobles also releases leatherbound editions of classic literature. They have a lot more options including most of the ones listed above plus others like King Arthur, Treasure Island, the Arabian Nights, The Wind in the Willows, The Snow Queen, Winnie the Pooh, etc. etc. They have a sale going on right now (buy 1, get 1 50% off) if you'd like to take advantage of that. I'll post two links. The first one is for the child-sized versions and the second one is for the larger books and collections. https://www.barnesandnoble.com/b/barnes-noble-collectible-editions/kids/_/N-2cnbZ15Ztu1 https://www.barnesandnoble.com/b/buy-one-get-one-50-off-bn-collectible-editions/_/N-2y1f?Nrpp=20&page=2 If your focus is on illustrations, the MinaLima books have an emphasis on the art because of the interactive pop-up elements. But the Barnes and Nobles books also feature some art, usually the original illustrations.

So excited about Winnie the Pooh! Lego talked about wanting to do future sets with more of the character houses and more minifigures but the long gap in-between made me worried the original set didn't sell well enough to justify more expansions. I'd love to see Rabbit's House and Garden too! Also would be happy to see Piglet's house or Owl's treehouse. Really hope all the characters you listed end up in the set. Eeyore's small house of sticks would also be an easy build that could be thrown in, no matter what the set depicts. Wonder if the character of Lumpy could ever have a chance to show up. Toy Story and Winnie the Pooh are two of my favorite franchises so I'm so psyched for them both! Also interesting to see some TNBC characters ending up as minidolls. That's nice but I hope we can get more TNBC minifigure sets to expand onto the Lego Ideas set. Would love to see Oogie Boogie, Jack as Sandy Claws, Dr. Finkelstein and his house. A sleigh with the skeleton reindeer would be perfect for Sandy Claws. If that's the case then I'm a little disappointed. But your theory seems the most likely since Lego's been whipping out a lot of these buildable figures for the classic Disney characters.

Very happy to hear about Slinky Dog. He's been long overdue and I figured there wouldn't be a licensing issue anymore since he's one of the rides in Toy Story Land. Wonder if he'll be minifigure scale or not. Will we see brickbuilt Toy Story characters in the set? I would love to get Bo Peep's full lamp, the toy chest, or some replica of Andy's bedroom.

The lack of sold merchandise is a dead giveaway. Eternals toys are still rotting away on shelves. Black Panther: WF technically did well at the box office, but its merchandise can still be found everywhere too. We also have to keep in mind that Disney is bleeding financially, not just with the MCU but with all their studios. The have the occasional gigantic hit, like Inside Out 2, Moana 2, and Lilo & Stitch's remake, but most everything else they've been making is flopping hard. And you can see the pattern that all their successes (the aforementioned three movies plus GOTG3 and Deadpool & Wolverine) all rely heavily on nostalgia and are sequels/remakes of their earlier hits. Their original films are all failing. NWH is a special case since Disney only gets Spider-Man merchandise profits. Sony puts up the money for the actual movie and they get all the money the movie makes. So NWH doing as well as it did actually doesn't benefit Disney, since Sony is recouping the profit. If anything, it shows that audiences will show up for Spider-Man but not for most other Marvel characters. After ASM2 failed to meet expectations, Sony was in dire straits, which is why they agreed to team up with Marvel for the MCU. Now the reverse has happened. The MCU is failing and Sony can see they don't need to rely on the MCU for Spider-Man. You can see this with the Lego sets too and how most of the ones we're getting are all Spider-Man related (whether from the movies or comics), although Disney does benefit from this since they get the merchandise profits. The concept art that was leaked a few months back and posted here only focused on MCU characters. I see that massively changing especially since the first cast announcement had an emphasis on the FoX-Men. There were only a few names there like Professor X, Magneto, Mystique, Nightcrawler, Beast, Gambit, and Cyclops, but it's safe to say there will probably be a few more added to this list over time (Wolverine, Jean, and Storm come to mind as the most likely contenders). Will they only be cameos, meant to be killed off for shock value, or will they have actual supporting roles like Tobey and Andrew did in NWH, I don't know. But Kevin Feige's career at Marvel started with the original X-Men movie trilogy, so he feels quite connected to the cast and that makes me think their roles could be more than just cameos, especially with Rebecca Romijn (Mystique) saying the script is in flux and everything's being made up as it goes. This means rewrites and rewrites and based on the failures of the last three MCU movies, it seems Doomsday would be set up for failure if they focus primarily on Sam's Avengers, the Thunderbolts, and FF. There were rumors too that Monica was going to be one of the most pivotal characters, due to her ending up in the FoX-Men universe, but I think centering a film around her would be the best way to tank Doomsday. She's a Disney+ character, not even the lead, who co-starred in the biggest flop of all time. As soon as The Marvels flopped, I'm sure there was damage control to limit her role down to the bare minimum. The weird thing about Doom is that apparently Feige said Robert Downey Jr. actually played Doom in that FF scene. It wasn't a stunt double. The fact that they went ahead and used Robert Downey Jr. but didn't show his face or give him any lines, tells me that they didn't want to establish his character yet because they still don't know what they're doing with him in Doomsday. Anything he might do in that end-credits scene might not match up with what he does in Doomsday, so that's why they kept him hidden. Like people are saying the FF end credits scene in Thunderbolts doesn't match up with the final FF movie but with the original FF movie, before reshoots, where Galactus would have succeeded in destroying their world/universe and the FF escaped to the 616 reality. BNW was an abysmal failure but even the amount of money it did somehow make hinged on the Captain America IP brand plus the Red Hulk promotion. There were always going to be some audience members who just see the name and watch it, expecting Steve. Ironically enough, I think that hurt The Marvels (one of many, many numerous factors) because it's not an explicit Captain Marvel sequel. Honestly, I didn't. I'm a huge FF fan especially since they were my intro to Marvel back when the 2005 film came out. I didn't like the new movie at all. Felt like a remake of Rise of the Silver Surfer and I had mixed feelings on the cast. There were some good things but overall, the film was boring and felt like a sequel to an FF movie that should have come out immediately after Endgame. Thunderbolts I did enjoy and that felt fresh, but it also lacked any big names or IP brand to back it up. Hence why before the opening weekend was even over, Marvel was promoting it as the New Avengers on social media. Is Deadpool confirmed? I know some articles are saying he's in the movie and Ryan Reynolds keeps hinting at it, but I haven't seen Marvel officially confirm it. Which I think is more just Marvel not wanting to confirm it just yet. But if Deadpool is 100% in the movie, there's no way he's included without Wolverine. Tobey I'm less sure of. I do think he'll show up in Secret Wars, because audiences have wanted to see Tobey, Hugh Jackman, Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans all together, but I don't know how likely it is he'll pop up in Doomsday. The thing to keep in mind is that technically even Doom isn't from our main universe that we've been following. It seems like he's from the FF universe and he'll need Franklin to give him the power to travel to different universes, but it's still ambiguous. But whatever universe he ends up in, it probably won't be from the 616 reality, especially if he's a Tony variant. And Deadpool & Wolverine featured a Wolverine variant, rather than the version audiences have seen for more than two decades, so I think it's not that big a risk for our heroes to come from different realities to fight a villain also from a different reality. And just to be clear, I don't think this means that all the MCU characters (Sam's Avengers, FF, Thunderbolts) will be cut out or diminished completely. But the original rumors were that Sam would be the lead of the movie, since he's the Avengers leader, and characters like Carol and Reed might also be central. I see that being less likely now, particularly in terms of Sam. He's a dud of a character and is no Chris Evans or Robert Downey Jr. And the script is constantly being rewritten anyway, so it could be used to decrease the roles of the MCU characters to focus on whoever might be capable of attracting more viewers.

Disney is infamous for underreporting their budgets. Not just for Marvel, but for every film studio they have in their clutches. No one's ever taken the $180 million dollar budget at face value, especially since BNW is probably the most reshot MCU movie of all time. Sources say the real budget could have been anywhere from $300-380 million. https://www.ign.com/articles/captain-america-brave-new-world-real-budget-box-office The Avengers brand was only strong because of the individual Avengers like Cap, Iron Man, Thor, etc. Doomsday's Avengers will be a completely different group of people, most of whom are polarizing at best and have not had strong box office success. The one classic Avenger will be Thor and even he's considered damaged goods now. This is why Robert Downey Jr. was asked back, because it's the easiest way to bring back Iron Man without actually bringing him back. And I can see Marvel being desperate enough to claim that Doctor Doom is really just a Tony variant, especially since MoM established that most Doctor Strange variants go bad. Strange was meant to be this generation's Iron Man, so it would be easy enough to depict Doom as evil Iron Man. This is also why it's plausible that Chris Evans will be back with a big role, since Marvel must realize that most of the films (and TV shows) after Endgame were barely seen by anyone. Doomsday will have to structure itself as a direct sequel to Endgame to be relevant, and Anthony Mackie has basically hinted at this too. Anthony Mackie says 'AVENGERS: DOOMSDAY' picks up the emotional end of Endgame and turns it into chaos. “I think this is a lot of carrying over and feel and depth of [Avengers: Endgame] coming into a new universe. Because from my movie, we were building on top of that to this just being a chaotic destruction of the world.” Highest grossing FF movie isn't saying much, especially since it's not accounting for inflation. Looking at what the box office experts are saying, the 2005 movie will probably still be more successful if you adjust for inflation. There is also a big problem that kids are not interested in Marvel anymore. The MCU is catered towards millennials and older Gen Z. Younger Gen Z and Gen Alpha (the kids born after 2010, so basically when the MCU started) are tuned out. This is why the MCU hasn't been able to grow and expand its audience. You can even see this with the Lego sets we're getting for Marvel. The vast majority of them are for Endgame or Civil War, and more geared towards collectors who are millennials or older Gen Z. The new movies are getting one set at best, if they get any at all (like Thunderbolts getting no new sets) because there's no nostalgia for older audiences and younger kids aren't buying. Marvel thought they could get young people interested again by replacing or recasting the original cast with younger versions (which also has the benefit of meaning they can afford to pay these new actors less, since they're less established) but that's backfired. Nobody cares about the Young Avengers characters. I think Florence Pugh's Yelena, Iman Vellani's Ms. Marvel, and Hailee Steinfeld's Kate Bishop have been well-received but they're not necessarily money-makers, as Thunderbolts showed with Yelena and The Marvels showed with Ms. Marvel. Marvel saying they plan on rebooting the X-Men with a younger cast after Secret Wars is also ominous. The X-Men's most successful films have Hugh Jackman and the original Fox cast (the attempt to reboot with First Class failed). The only billion dollar movie in the X-Men franchise is a team-up of Deadpool and Jackman's Wolverine. Remove Hugh Jackman and I don't see the X-Men being a feasible franchise. Movies like Apocalypse and Dark Phoenix tried to introduce a young, unknown cast and that failed miserably so just like the FF's constant reboots have failed, I see the X-Men falling in the same trap.