Deathleech

To each his own I guess, but that's not really what I would consider "fun". Trying to go to special events hundreds or thousands of miles away, fighting crowds for a chance to get an exclusive minifigure, trying to win a contest where your chances of winning are abysmally small, or paying hundreds of dollars in after market prices for a piece of plastic that is really only worth a few cents... Yup, not my idea of fun. It's actually one of the reasons I got out of collecting action figures and into Lego. As for this particular promotion, I don't think it's that bad. You can get all the pieces yourself and make your own Bat-Pod. If Lego is going to do contests I would MUCH rather they be like this where the only thing exclusive about it is the packaging, but not the actual pieces. That's much better than exclusive figure prints you can't make yourself.

Not to be rude, but how exactly does that show any hope? Lego basically just told you sorry and confirmed the line was over. And that's coming from a rep we know has no more insider info than your average Lego fan.

So you basically just want to use the idea of a cat and unicorn combined to create a new animal? Unless it's made out of Lego or has similar characteristics to Unikitty, I can't imagine it would be an issue. People have been combining and creating animals from existing ones for decades. I probably would call it something vastly different than "Unikitty" to make sure you are in the clear though.

Yes, but Star Wars has new cartoons being produced and aired on tv all the time. When a kid watches them I am sure it gets them interested in the older movies. What is getting kids interested in Ghostbusters or BttF though? Other than the off chance they see it replayed on tv (which is once or twice a year?), or their parents show them it, there really is nothing. I'm not saying there are no kids watching Ghostbusters or BttF, I am just saying it's not really hot among kids and seems more geared towards adults. The Idea sets are released in much more limited quantities than normal Lego's themes, which are mass produced, so it makes sense they can be more geared towards adults. I don't think the new Big Bang Theory Lego set will have much if any appeal to younger kids that are in the 6-10 year old range.

I don't really feel like Ideas projects are kid friendly in general though. How many kids want to buy a birds set, or land rover, or a set about a movie that is 30 years old (Ghostbusters, BttF) that has absolutely no current media or tie ins?

If you are a purist, your only real option is using tiles on the feet. Pretty much everything else involves some sort of cutting or painting since Woody's legs only come in blue.

That's pretty much exactly how I feel. Any dwarves, elves, and humans will be yellow so they will take a little modifying to fit in with the LotR or Hobbit theme, but that's fine. It's pretty easy to find flesh heads and hands. We could get lots of new hair, beard, helmet, torso, and leg prints to supplement existing Castle OR LotR themes. Any orcs or goblins could easily fit in with existing LotR figures without the need for any modifying considering their skin color. I just hope the figures are a little more detailed. The Moria Orcs look so much more detailed compared to the S13 CMF Goblin, to the point I don't even want to mix them.

I dunno, it seems like when sets get some publicity or they are featured on the front page of Ideas they start to gather steam. Minas Tirith reached 10,000 votes and Lothlorien is well on it's way with less 1,500 votes to go. I would be anxious to see how a really well polished $40-70 dollar Ideas set did if it got some decent publicity. Well a large Minas Tirith set could give us new prints of Aragorn (king attire), Pippin (Gondor attire), and Merry (Rohan attire), but it would still be missing Frodo, Sam, and Boromir at the very least. It could also have Gandalf the White, Gimli, and Legolas, though the last two will be purchasable in the upcoming Dimension sets. Realistically I agree though, the time has come and past for a huge D2C Minas Tirith. I don't think we will ever get one. In all honesty I don't think we will see Gondor Soldiers either. I think our best bet now is a Team or Fun pack featuring Eowyn and the Witch King, and maybe a brick built set featuring a Balrog or something if Lego releases actual significant brick built sets like that for their Dimensions game.

I was going to say it looks very Greek or mythological, but after seeing some of the other new pieces it definitely looks like it might be some sort of elvish theme... EDIT: Nevermind. It's in two of the 2015 Friends sets (the normal ones, not the elvish variety: Heartlake Grand Hotel and Emma's Tourist Kiosk)

I don't think spare parts are usually included when someone sells a "complete" used set. They aren't even listed in any of the official material like the instructions. About the only way to find out what parts are spares and should be in the set is the find a review and hope it has them listed. I doubt most people selling a set are going to go through this trouble, especially when the parts aren't essential to building a set. I could be wrong though.

I have to agree, I think I like the pig more than I like Dain.. but together, they are by far my favorites you have done so far. Very nice job once again!

August 1st

This will probably be the first Ideas project I pick up on day one. As nice looking as sets like the Mars Land Rover and Birds projects are, they just don't have that much appeal to me. Plus I can fairly easily buy the bricks and make them myself. I know a lot of people complain about Ideas being clogged with licensed products, but I am kind of glad they are. It's a way to get exclusive prints we may otherwise never get. The Big Bang Theory license doesn't really support more than one set. I mean sure we could get a comic shop with the gang in super hero uniforms, or a hut with them in paintball gear, but really one set is more than enough to cover the license. Ideas is a perfect outlet for things like this. Overall I think the set looks fairly good. Sure it's not perfect, and sure the minifigures could use some more fitting hair pieces or more detailed prints, but overall it seems like a fairly good set. I will get it and display it in my office.

There are two reasons I (and possibly others?) don't want a brick built Fel Beast though. First off I can build it myself. Secondly, all the other large creatures in the LotR and Hobbit line are molded save the Ent and Shelob. I would want a molded Fel Beast seeing as the eagles and Smaug are both molded creatures. It would look weird having them molded then having a Fel Beast brick built (which would be as large or larger than Smaug...). Not only that, none of the Balrog or Fel Beast/Witch King sets on Ideas really look that polished imo. This goes a long ways to making people vote for a project. It's true not many people are going to Lego Ideas and searching for Lego Lord of the Rings sets and then voting, but that's to be expected. You have to be a Lego fan, AND a LotR fan, AND be active on Ideas to even possibly vote for any of these sets. Most of the sets that pass get some sort of HUGE publicity to help them from my understanding. The Purdue Pete got 10,000 votes in a few days because it was promoted throughout the campus and thousands of people rushed on to vote for it (despite most prolly not spending the money to buy the finished product). Big Bang was promoted on twitter by one of the producers. As wesker points out, the Minas Tirith was around 4-5k votes until it became a staff pick, then it got the last 5k votes it needed in just a few short months.

I was thinking the same thing. Right now they are only available in certain sets and individually for sale through Lego. Really Lego should have them in every store that sells their product though. They could be in a box like the CMFs so kids can easily get one. Then Lego could remove them from sets. I am sure this would make Lego much more money than they are now seeing as separator probably doesn't cost them anywhere near $2.50 to make and lots of people would pick them up if they weren't in specific sets. This wouldn't require kids to buy certain sets to get them either. Of course if Lego stopped putting them in sets I doubt they would reduce the price any to compensate, but it would be nice if they did.

Very nice! The design is really clean and looks like an official set. I love the little details like the air holes. I take it the top can pop off allowing for easy placement of the raptors inside?

People keep saying that they are in so many sets so kids have a better chance of getting them... but they are also available for individual sale. If a kid really wants one they can spend the $2.50 and get one on it's own? As is it seems like they are given out way too much. I don't even buy that many big sets and I have around 20, plus another 10 or so in sets I still need to get around to opening. Instead of offering them in so many sets I think Lego should only have them in maybe $80+, or even $100+ sets? These things aren't free and just add to the cost of sets. Sure it may only be a few cents, but I like the option of choosing what I get rather than being forced to get another separator if I want a bigger Lego set.

They are supposed to be releasing the image of the entire set tomorrow as well as the remaining two characters (no doubt Amy and Bernadette). I think these are the finished figs we are getting... Also, according to Brickset the set is supposed to retail for £49.99/$59.99 and be released in August.

I totally agree. I also think Sheldon and Howard's hair look off. I think they should have used Leonard's hair on Sheldon, and maybe this hair on Howard? It's not perfect, but the hair they used doesn't look quite right... Also Penny really should have had some cheek detailing on her face:

They already do, apparently...

Right, which is why I said it MIGHT sell more. Quite honestly I am not sure. A higher price point and having to be shrunk down so much might hurt sales, but on the other hand any exclusive minifigures (especially Eowyn, the Witch King, or Gondor Soldiers) could more than make up for that. Plus it is Minas Tirith, which in itself would make it highly sought after. I'm not saying that Nuju's MT was perfect. I think it could use some tweaking, especially with the huge trebuchets being shrunk down and other parts added to like the walls to make them higher. I think it's a good starting point though. I don't know why people complain about Minas Tirith having to be shrunk down when Helm's Deep was shrunk down a ton itself? I mean look at it.. the walls are barely 2 minifigures high where as in the movie they are over 50 feet. The front ramp is a few inches high and minifigures can climb up it. There is no mountain backing, no Glittering Caves, nothing for interior barely. The side walls only extend a few inches out unless you buy tons of Uruk-hai Army sets and add to it, in the movies they are thousands of feet long. I understand Minas Tirith would need to be shrunk down even more than this possibly (depending on the price point), but I would rather have something than nothing. None of the Lego LotR or Hobbit sets are really to scale anyways so it doesn't bother me much. In all honesty though, I don't even want a Minas Tirith as much as I want Eowyn vs the Witch King on a Fel Beast and a way to fairly easily amass Gondor Soldiers. Minas Tirith is the only set that could encompass both outside a Pelennor Fields set. I mean Lego could make an Osgiliath set and just throw Eowyn in despite her never being seen there in the movies, but ya...

Ya, it's 10 dollars for 3 minifigurues here in the U.S. That's pretty crazy you could get 6 minifigures for 10 euros in Germany. That's less than $2 per minifigure... maybe they limited it because it was such a good deal and people were emptying stock too fast? Would you rather have them limit the amount you can purchase or have a price increase more in line with other countries (doubling to over $3 per fig)?

Actually MSRP wise it is supposed to be $50 more, not 25. However, Amazon currently has the Cargo Train discounted down to $157 vs the $142 of the Passengar Train, making the cargo one a MUCH better deal imo.

I dunno about that. Avengers: AoU has made over a billion dollars just at the box offices alone and is the 6th highest grossing film of all time. Like the article said, Cinderella made over 500 million. Live action movies definitely can be big money makes. I think Disney just has too many other properties they are focusing on right now. They have all those Marvel superhero movies coming out as well as the new Star Wars films. Those are huge.

I just know with video games, after the first few months sales drop off the face of the earth. Obviously Lego sets aren't video games and their sales will continue much longer and not have as sharp of a decline, but I still think there WILL be a decline as time goes on. More and more people who want the set will save up and buy it and it will eventually peter out till it's selling next to nothing. I'm not really sure where you are getting your data from so a link would be great so I can analyze it a little more month to month. Right, but then you have to take into account discounts that cut into sales figures and such. Also do we have data for Orthanc sales when a double VIP month was going on? Do we earlier in it's life cycle? Lego sells all their big D2C and UCS sets for around 2 years for a reason. I would venture to guess that is when the sales really start to go down and most people who want the set have already bought it. Orthanc should literally be a few months away from being retired since it's coming up on 2 years. This is why I feel like it's unfair to compare the two, but you seem to totally be neglecting that fact. You are making it sound like Orthanc came out a month or two before the Sandcrawler so their sales should be in the same ballpark if they had equal popularity. That simply is not the case. Nearly a year is a long time. For it to only be selling roughly 15% less a month than the Sandcrawler seems like it would have been more popular if they had been released side by side. I would expect a 25-50% difference in sales considering the Sandcrawler has only seen half it's retail life cycle while Orthanc has seen nearly all of it. Why not compare the Sandcrawler to the Simpson House? Both were released almost exactly the same time yet the Simpson House is selling almost 60% more month to month (excluding promo). Of course there are other things to take into account like the SC is $100 more making it even harder or impossible to obtain for people than the cheaper Orthanc. On the other hand the SC also has way more exclusive prints making it more appealing so all of these things play a factor as well.