Deathleech

Genuine ones with no print and no brasso? what were they, ones from the factory that were mistakes and missing the print?

Well since it looks like the LotR line is officially done, since there are no interesting LotR Dimension sets coming out (by that I mean containing new parts), and since no other Lego themes currently interest me I decided to go on an army massing spree. I have gotten the following sets in the last few weeks: 1x Wizard Battle 1x Witch King Battle 1x The Lonely Mountain As well as BrickLinked the crap out of the following 2x Cave Troll 2x Goblin King 2x Gray Wargs 20x White Forehead paint Gundabad Orcs 20x Regular Gundabad Orcs 60x Mordor Orcs

I wonder if that was because it was a decent seller though, or because there were so few produced initially? Literally the only major retailers that sold The Lonely Mountain around me were TRU and the Lego Store. It was available online at Target and Wal-Mart as well, but not in their brick and mortar stores.

Yup, a huge D2C Minas Tirith set with a smaller Gondor Soldier Army builder set would have been a great conclusion to the theme. We could have gotten most of the main things we were still missing. Sure there wouldn't be a Balrog or what have you, but it would have at least given us the Witch King, Eowyn, Gondor Soldiers, and maybe a few other exclusive characters as well as a super iconic build. Oh what could have been... With that said, I am starting to wonder why Lego Ideas even allows those huge sets to pass into review. I mean if Lego has no intention of ever creating a big $100+ set like that, why keep letting so many projects of that size get into the review stage? Are they actually open to making a huge set and just waiting for a specific idea, or what? So far it seems like they have an unspoken rule that Ideas sets can't exceed the $100 price point. Every one of them gets shut down despite half a dozen or more being present in almost every review phase.

I would say the worst seller was the Battle of the Five Armies set. Almost every Target around me still has one or two sitting on their shelves collecting dust. The Lake-town Attack sets, and especially the Witch King Battle ones all sold out months ago (well, what few there were to begin with...). It's hard to say where The Lonely Mountain set stands since most stores like Wal-Mart and Target never even got them in.

He seems to be losing ground. He needed what, around $5,000 or 5,500 per day before to make it in the remaining 22 days? Now he needs $5,800 per day and that's with it being advertised on two of the bigger Lego sites (Brickset and Eurobricks). I think it's a really cool idea and I would love to see it get made, but unless it starts getting a lot more support it doesn't look like it's going to happen

Nope. It was already announced the Ferrari will be available mid-July to VIP members and August 1st to everyone else.

I sent you a PM

No one knows except Lego themselves. I would expect a few more, but you never know...

Whoops, wasn't paying attention, my bad

They already do have a 1x2 olive green tile though?

I dunno. I think it will be hit and miss. If you look now, only a few of the LotR sets are going up any significant amount in price even after being retired for a few years. They are the more popular sets like Uruk-hai Army and Battle of Helm's Deep. Other than An Unexpected Gathering though, none of the Hobbit sets have really increased much in price. Heck, some you can still get for under MSR, even a few years later (like with Goblin King Battle). Like I said, I think it will be hit and miss. I think Helm's Deep, UHA, Unexpected Gathering, and Tower of Orthanc will all steady rise while the rest of the sets will only go up a little bit over the years.

What about instead of orcs/goblins/trolls as the main bad guy faction, they had something a little more obscure like gnolls or satyrs?

I think that's only because it's a Juniors set. It has pieces and things that you wouldn't normally see in other sets such as 21361 or 19000. And as BrickMario points out, they only got away with it because Spidey is masked and Green Goblin is not a typical human color. Look at other Super Hero sets: Not in most Super Hero sets. Arkham Asylum Breakout and Two-Face Chase have a flesh colored police officer, and the aforementioned Two-Face Chase and Batwing Battle Over Gotham have flesh colored human henchmen. That's just to name a few normal people that are flesh colored in Super Hero sets. Not to mention in most of these sets you also have flesh colored human super heroes, such as Batman, Robin, Superman, and/or Wonder Woman. I don't really see Lego putting yellow minifigures in sets when they are alongside flesh super heroes. It would look odd.

So if the rumors turn out to be true that the next Castle theme is indeed Fantasy, what are people hoping for? Are you guys wanting a straight continuation/reboot from the last Fantasy Era stuff, or something totally different? What I mean is do you guys want to see sand green trolls again, for instance, with the same style as from the 2007-2009 series? Maybe even called trolls again? And similar human, dwarf, and skeleton factions? Or would you rather see something totally new, such as olive green goblins with ears similar to the CMF goblin? What about something more out there like a light blue orc/goblin faction that is more steam punk (just an example)?

Exactly. Most of the super heroes are still human, they just have super powers of some sort. Why would Lego put yellow and flesh colored minifigs in the same set?

Not sure if this is a misprint since it came in a large order on BrickLink, but I can't imagine the seller would remove the paint. It wouldn't really add any value and in fact would detract. Luckily he sent it as an extra so I have no issues with it. It's the LotR/Hobbit orc hair piece with the paint missing from the ears:

But what if those bricks want to be kept sealed away... safe from UV rays discoloring them, children's teeth chewing them, and other such harmful aspects of the world? Me. I bought The Lonely Mountain set and took out Smaug and all the minifigures. I don't want a second set worth of bricks, just the figs and Smaug. To buy them all individually would cost nearly $100 after you figure in buying from a few different sellers and paying shipping. Instead of that I figured I would just get all the pieces I want in one fell swoop and sell the unwanted bricks so I am not paying as much for the figs. This is kind of a fear I have. I imagine myself opening all my sealed sets in several years only to find out a number of them have misprints on the minifigures or deformed and/or missing pieces.

Just wanted to point out in the video it shows him moving the light bricks around about a foot away from the base plate and they still seem to work fine. You don't need the light brick actually be touching the power source for it to be on.

Extremely limited initial runs probably contributed to this heavily. Here in the US only a few stores have had them in stock for the past few months. Target, Amazon, and of course Lego S@H.

*but not in the U.S.

Smaug comes in right around 19 inches all stretched out, but 8 1/2 of it's from his long thin tail alone and another 5 or so is his neck and head. I dunno if the mosasaurus would work because it is much thicker throughout it's entire body. Smaug also ate up most of the Lonely Mountain set's budget. It only had 5 minifigures and a little over 850 pieces for $130. If Lego were to do a mosasaurus set they would probably need to shrink the dino down, the stadium or brick built part of the set would be small, and the set would cost at least $130 (if not much more). Seems like a lot of compromises just to make a set for the mosasaurus that wouldn't have a ton of play features and would be weird since it's a water dino?

Yup, and I know a lot of promotions and other exclusives seem to do the same thing. Just look at the SDCC exclusives. They are supposed to be a fun little give away bonus for attendees but they have turned into something else entirely. Now you have people not even interested in Lego trying to snatch them up because they know they can get a few hundred bucks per minifigure off eBay in the second hand market. Or look at the newspaper promotions in the UK. People will go to several stores in their area and get dozens, if not hundreds of polybags for dirt cheap. I remember a few years ago hearing about people getting 100 of the Uruk-hai polybags by going to several stores early in the morning and cleaning places out of stock. It's one thing if you wait a few days and no one picks these things up, it's a whole nother story when you rush out and buy em all leaving none for other kids or AFOLs. I'm not really sure if pre-orders would help this problem or make it worse.

What about if you collect Lego sets and leave them in the box, but also have all the same sets that you open and play with? Kind of a gray area huh? Just for the record, I don't keep them in their boxes for sale later on necessarily. I keep them more as a pristine back up in case I lose or damage any rare parts or minifigures. There is also the option to display them or sell them if I ever get bored with a theme though.

I'm surprised there aren't more people posting their licensed army pictures. I know licensed sets generally aren't as suited for army building as other themes such as Star Wars or Castle, but there is still tons of potential. Chitauri, Sakaarans, Ultron Sentries, Hydra Henchemen (or any super hero henchmen for that matter!), and Lone Ranger Cavalry to name a few. I would love to see some of these armies!