Deathleech

So it looks like the figures are: 1. Marty McFly 2. Homer 3. 4. 5. 6. Scooby Doo 7. Shaggy 8. 9. The Flash 10. 11. 12. 13. The Joker 14. Harley quinn 15. 16. Superman 17. Aquaman 18. 19. Wonder Woman 20. Cyborg 21. Bart 22. Emmet 23. WyldStyle 24. 25. Jay 26. Nya 27. Zane 28. Golum 29. Legolas 30. Gimli 31. 32. Laval 33. Cragger 34. Krusty the Clown 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42.

Below is my collection of minifigures and how I store them in my closet. Not exactly the best for displaying.. but it keeps them safe and dust free. I collect the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit themes exclusively so you will notice that is what they all are. The Fellowship and Thorin and Company, plus some other secondary "good" characters (and doubles, triples, quadruples, etc.): Rohirrim: Mikrwood Elf Soldiers, Lake-town Guards, and Undead: Lurtz, Gundabad Orcs (10 more Gunadabard Orcs coming along with 20 more Hunters from Attack on Lake-town set), and "some" Uruk-hai: More Uruk-hai: Mordor Orcs, Orc Hunters, and Goblins (note the space, I have 20 more Mordor Orcs on the way...): All the rest of the named bad guys, plus Moria Orcs: The 9 Nazgul, Necromancer, and Wargs: I also have a bin full of un-assembled minifigures. They are mostly extras.

Whachu talking about? One of the first Lego Castles was yellow! In all seriousness though, history sets seem to stick primarily to grays, browns, and blacks. Basically a lot of neutral colors. Of course they usually have splashes of colors here and there like red, blue, and sand green. Really anything works though. I have seen some amazing MOCs that use colors generally not associated with history.

If Lego offered nothing but licensed sets, I might be more inclined to agree with the article. Lego still offers their Classic sets though, which are boxes full of bricks with some small model ideas to spark creativity. They inspire kids to create whatever they can think up. Lego has been making sets with instructions for decades. When I was a kid in the 80s and early 90s all the sets I had included instructions. that didn't stop me from making whatever I wanted. When I was younger I didn't even follow the instructions at all. When I got older I would usually build the model in them only to take it apart and make something else, or add on to it after it was completed. Even now, with licensed sets, I see kids doing the same. A few weeks ago I was helping my friends six year old and three year old build the Avengers Hydra Showdown set. The smallest one was just building totally random things with the bricks. The six year old was trying to build the dune buggy, but he was adding his own twists. By the end he had taken parts from his Lego bin and made it into a three seat, dune buggy plane with firing lasers.

There is very little incentive to buy directly from Lego as is. Why would I buy from Lego and get 5% back in VIP points for a future purchase when I can get a RedCard or Toys R Us card and get 5% off every purchase (RedCard), or 10% off on Thursdays (TRU)? Those give you immediate discounts too, not future ones. On top of that, those stores often have decent sales while Lego S@H rarely has any, and they are fairly insignificant when they do. The VIP are the only thing Lego has going for them, along with the polybag promos. If Lego offered VIP at other Stores there would literally be no reason to ever shop at Lego S@H or a Lego store again. If anything I think they need to up their own offers. A lower threshold for free shipping would be a good start. $75 is kind of rediculous when other places offer it for $25 or $50 spent. 10% VIP back and/or more theme specific polybag offers at $50 spent would be great options too.

I don't think that's the case. I think people are just trying to be realist and not get their hopes up. You have to realize a lot of us were here when the LotR license was first announced. We had such high hopes. We saw the line going for three, four, or even more waves. We thought for sure we would get some Gondor related sets and definitely would get main characters like Eowyn and the Witch King. People wanted to see army builders, the Balrog, Oliphants, Fel Beasts, Treebeard, etc. Just look at all the wish lists early on. Then reality hit. We are still missing a good amount of content. Some of it's pretty major stuff. As much fun as it is to hope the Minas Tirith Ideas project will get made, you also have to look at it from a realistic perspective. So far no Ideas or Cussoo project has been made that cost more than $100. Usually they are around $30-50. Why would Lego suddenly go from that to a $250 set? As for the license, it's probably not the same as the original license Lego had with WB. It doesn't appear the Hobbit is included with it at all. The original license was to create sets based on the LotR and Hobbit movies. The current license has most likely been revamped so Lego can only create LotR sets based on stuff seen in the Dimensions game. That means we MIGHT see a Balrog, but it will probably come with the Riddler or something and be in a wave with BttF, Wizard of Oz, Ninjago, and Lego Movie sets. The chances of us seeing a normal LotR wave are slim to none. Now is this speculation? Sure, but it's like with the sales debate we had awhile back.. it's educated speculation. It's not unfounded. It's how Lego operates and has handled other licenses. I would absolutely love to be wrong and see a Minas Tirith Ideas set get made and a whole nother 4 or 5 set LotR wave. Do I think it will actually happen though? No, and that's based on everything I have seen and heard.

When I was younger my favorites were always Castle and Pirates, and to a lesser extent Space and City. After coming out of my dark ages it's been Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit though. I like those themes mostly for the characters/minifigures as I don't find the builds all that impressive (save a few gems like An Unexpected Gathering or Helm's Deep. The Hobbit line is probably the worse of the two in terms of builds). It looks like I am going to have to find a new theme to get into with the LotR/Hobbit themes presumably done. That is, unless the Minas Tirith project gets made and Dimensions starts offering something more than fun packs with characters already released. I will most likely get into the next Castle theme depending how good it is, or Super Heroes. I also wouldn't mind Star Wars, but seeing as I am a completionist and army builder that theme could be really hard on my wallet so I have tried to steer clear.

Now it is cheaper. The price increase on the 32x32 base plates is fairly recent though. They got a 60% increase in price in a single swoop. They use to be $4.99 and were for a long time while the gray 48x48 base plate was $14.99. The large gray ones use to cost 3x as much but they were no where near 3x as big.

Probably around a year, give or take a few months, like most other Lego waves.

I think this topic being in the "Licensed" section of the forums has a lot to do with that. Licensed sets are almost all flesh color nowadays.

Ehh, why wouldn't Lego have gotten the domain name regardless? I mean I could see not doing it years or even several months in advance, but they didn't a day before the announcement...? It's not exactly like legodimensions.com gives away much anyways. Ok, so we know they are coming out with some new Dimensions theme, but other than that nothing is really revealed. It could have been a totally new theme for all we know like Time Cruisers.

Flesh for sure. Oddly enough I grew up with nothing but yellow, but I just feel like flesh looks so much better now. Red or blond haired people work much better with flesh color. Flesh is also more realistic (obviously), and I feel like yellow looks almost cheaper, if that makes any sense.

I tend to stay away from used sets. I just feel like missing pieces, scratch or damaged pieces, etc. are not something I want to deal with. I have bought used stuff before on eBay and it can be such hit and miss. Then again after coming out of my dark ages, all the sets I have bought were readily available and new in store for MSRP or below. If It was an older set no longer in production and a new one was significantly more expensive second hand (at least double in price), I probably would consider buying used.

Have you ever thought about buying third party accessories? I know it's kind of late sinnce you already have the Atlantic ones and have already cut and modded them... but it might be cheaper and look better in the long run? I know Brick Warriors has the Jousting Helmet and Brick Forge has the Hoplite Helmet. I've seen other people use them on their elf armies and they seem to match the pearly gold on the official figures fairly well from what I can see?

It's probably too thick for the acetone to really break it down quickly. At least that would be my guess. You should try to leave it in much longer (24 hours+) and see if you notice any melting, or shave/cut down the part into smaller, thinner pieces so it breaks down easier.

How long did you leave the piece(s) in for? Is it 100% acetone or watered down with something else?

Didn't they remove all the Jurassic Park projects from Ideas a while back because another toy company had the license? Maybe that is why they made the licensing comment? To let people know there is no longer a license conflict and it has a shot at becoming a real set.

I would need to see the movie before I know for sure. It mostly depends on if any crucial scenes were missed by Lego, but my initial reaction from the trailer and not seeing many herbivores is yes. I would like to see another new dinosaur or two at the very least.

You know, I have been in love with theme ever since seeing the first wave. If Lego were to do another fantasy line even remotely like this, I would be ALL over it. As much as I love your dragon designs, I am glad you focused a little less on them this time around compared to your second wave. I also really like you added a new faction this time around. The war bee set is so simple, yet so effective and one of my favorites!

But in return we get a Batmobile with Sauron, or Faramir in a ninja mech

Yup, that is what I plan on doing. I am just picking up some more orcs and such here and there off BrickLink to round out my armies, then I am going to save until the next Castle theme comes out and go from there. If it's not to my liking, I might get into Super Heroes or another theme and focus on them.

It's nice to see some other LotR/Hobbit armies besides just Uruk-hai. That was all we saw for awhile there. I just ordered another 30 Hobbit Orcs (10 from the Bo5A set and 20 braided ponytail ones from Attack on Lake-town). When I get them I will have to post some updated pictures.

Are you sure it's glued and not just stuck in there? I would try soaking it in some warm soap and water for awhile and see if that helps at all. If not you could try something else. If you use acetone, you would have to be careful that it doesn't start eating away at the print or plastic?

That's probably the hardest part for me. There haven't been any new LotR or Hobbit sets released in some time and I was itching to buy something new. A few months ago I picked up a couple Star Wars battle packs that were BOGO 40% off. At first I was going to pass them up as I do all the Lego Star Wars sales, but then I decided to get four. Well by the time I actually got to the store and checked out I had eight of the same set. When I got home I started looking at more Star Wars sets and was planning future purchases. I went from not getting any Lego SW products to suddenly spending nearly $100 in one day and planning purchases for hundreds more. It was at that point I returned them and went back to my original plan of only buying one theme. It's hard to stick to, but it helps keep things in line.

Don't be silly. Of course no one is going to charge for the electricity used, it's mere cents and would be used regardless in most cases. Why would I pay out of pocket and take a hit on shipping and materials though? It's not a few cents, its a few dollars and I actually DO take a small hit on most shipping regardless. I can't even find small boxes for under 50 cents each, packing tape is another $2 or so a roll, and a bag of peanuts is like 10 bucks. Gas is also currently nearly $3 a gallon and that's half a gallon per trip to the post office and back. All in all I am prolly spending $1-4 per package on all of this depending on the box needed. That's not even including the actual shipping charge, just for the materials. If you are making a huge profit off something then I can maybe see eating the shipping and handling fees. Usually people offer free shipping in those cases. But if you are only making a few dollars off something, why on earth would you totally negate that profit by paying for all the shipping materials out of pocket? You act like everyone is making 20 dollars or more off each transaction when in reality the profit it usually only a few dollars at best. Don't forget it takes time and energy to make any said profit and most eBay and Bricklink sellers aren't rolling in dough just from re-selling items. Most do it on the side for a little extra income. There also are seller fees from these places which charge 10-15% final value fee, a fee on shipping, and a processing fee when you are paid. If I buy a polybag for $5 and sell it for $7 I am making very little profit as is. It takes a good 15 minutes to photograph the item, write up a description, upload the photos, and list the item. Then you take out the 15% in fees and my 2 dollar profit suddenly becomes 0.95, Then if I eat shipping cost I could actually come out LOSING money. In all honesty I would be better off taking a second job at McDonals and working minumum wage if all I cared about was making money. It would be more profitable. You don't seem like someone who has actually sold much on Bricklink or eBay so I am guessing it's hard for you to understand all the work that goes into it and all the fees you pay as a seller. I forgot to mention with the guy complaining about the extra dollar he paid for shipping (not even a full dollar, it was like 78 cents), I took a best offer of 5 less dollars on the item than I had it listed for. People absolutely astonish me. I came off 25% of my price and only made a few dollars profit, but he complains about shipping when I still was probably eating about 50 cents of the shipping cost.