MAB

LEGO have long seen the community value of forums, which is why they supported them in the past. However their financual / product support is shifting to where they can make money when they donate product, and I doubt Eurobricks does add much or any value there.

I think there have always been fans of LEGO IPs too. There are fans of Classic Castle, Space, Pirates, and fans of LEGO Trains that do little else but their chosen in-house IP. And I understand that they get upset when their (in-house) theme is no longer made, but they are not really any different to a fan of an external IP in that they enjoy LEGO product but only if it is within that theme. There would also be uproar - and probably far bigger uproar - if LEGO discontinued doing an external IP Star Wars (which has lasted longer than most in-house themes and so is a part of many people's childhood). The difference that if they do, another brick company will soon snap up the license and take significant market share away from LEGO. It is even more complicated now it is a Disney product, if Disney decided to pull all their brands away from LEGO. And that is how new licenses work too. If LEGO don't make them, then another company will make them and will take market share because of those products. Those are the products that LEGO is trying to sell. Much of the traditional product will continue to sell to the traditional buyers, whereas the new products need pushing to new buyers. And I guess that is why they don't send sets of Nike shoes or that popular singer to be reviewed here, as they'd be ridiculed. Similarly they don't need to send Minas Tirith to be reviewed here as anyone here that is likely to buy it knew about it months before release, will see reviews elsewhere and won't be influenced by a review here. Eurobricks users are not the target market for LEGO advertising any more, even if they are the market for at least some of the product.

LEGO have always been interested in selling stuff to as many people as they can. They have realised over the past couple of decades that there was a big market ready to buy their product, if only they made stuff for them. Slow moves in those two decades have got us to where we are - lots of children's sets, more than in the past, but also lots more licensed and adult aimed sets. The long term fan group are probably nowhere near as big as they think they are, but feel they have more importance because of their 'time served'. When the reality is LEGO is going to concentrate its advertising spend where it is going to help sell new sets, and not in places where giving freebies will make little difference to new sales, whether that is because those people will already be buying some product or whether those people are negative about current products.

There are similar ones but not identical bricklink. Search for tote instead of handbag, and make sure you look in "gear" and not the parts section.

Before 18+ sets were made, AFOLs used to buy children's sets and there are still plenty of sets for children. There are cheaper sets (under £50) aimed at adults but mainly in Botanicals, Star Wars, IDEAS, Speed Champions. And of course Brickheadz. I guess they decide that if a City or other theme is going to be cheap, they might as make it appeal to kids and adults that like to play. There are also CMFs that seem to attract many adults.

Gear like this rarely appeared in catalogues, and was mainly sold at LEGOLAND or other resort type locations. Is it rare to find them new with tags? Yes, because they were that popular at the time and tended to be used if bought as a souvenir. Are they valuable now? Not really, as they aren't popular now with adults and there are plenty of alternatives if a kid wants a LEGO bag.

Luckily the only parts I had break from the original LOTR and Hobbit sets are one horse (LEGO replaced it) and a few plates. There were a lot of yellow-skin "racists" at the time that bought the sets for the parts and didn’t want the minifigs, and it was great for people like me. I bought about 150 LOTR minifigures, wargs, etc for £150 back in 2014 and slowly sold off the named characters once they became popular. I also bought lots of Eomers and Sarumans at £2.50, Theodens and Haldirs at £5, as people didn't want them or possibly multiples of them if they went big with multiple sets.

They did it in the original sets too, in the Pirate Ship Ambush.

No, there isn't. Sometimes designers will sell instructions if they have built it digitally. But otherwise, take inspiration from it and build something similar.

I'll switch the arms out for lime and then use flesh (or others can use yellow) hands. Then it looks like part of the dress design or a sleeveless dress over an undershirt. Whereas others will love it if it gives variation to existing armies / factions.

When it comes to MOCs, I've changed my mind to "do whatever you want, and see if it works for you". This is for a number of reasons: - I can't remember the last time I commented on a MOC. - I also cannot remember the last time I really looked that deeply at a MOC, like I used to. - The MOCs that really interest me, chances are I've already seen them on whatever site the images are hosted on as I already follow the designers I like (including many that have stopped posting here too). And if I am really honest here, there are better sites for seeing and scrolling through many MOCs rather than needing to click into each thread - again this is an issue with traditional forums vs more modern* social media type sites. [Although not really that modern, just not ancient]. - It seems like half of the MOCs here are just posted as the poster is after IDEAS votes, so they should be 100% LEGO anyway. And the posters never come back to respond to comments. At least until their next IDEAS submission. The problem I see is how you decide to handle the LEGO licensed IPs and their sets and MOCs. If MOCs are mixed across brands but there are discussion areas for LEGO sets only by themes/sub-forums as now, then where do the associated MOCs go? So if someone makes a LEGO Star Wars MOC or a LEGO LOTR MOC, will it go into the LEGO Star Wars sub-forum or the LEGO Historic sub-forum like it would now. Or will there be a LEGO Star Wars *sets* sub-forum for discussing only LEGO Star Wars sets (and no MOC discussion), and a Star Wars MOCs sub-forum where MOCs using both LEGO and non-LEGO parts can be posted. Or would it remain a single Star Wars sub-forum where official LEGO sets can be discussed and MOCs using any brands can be discussed? Then there are licenses like Marvel, Doctor Who, POTC, etc where another brick company has had the license, as presumably both LEGO sets and other brand sets could then be discussed but would they be in the same sub-forum? And presumably you will also allow non-compatible bricks such as nanoblocks?

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The "have to buy" was in the context of if the solution to a building problem is only possible by buying another company's product then I'd prefer not to see that solution as it is not a solution that I would use. Hence keeping some way of only seeing purist LEGO builds.

I don't think Eurobricks is the world. When Eurobricks becomes a brick-fan site instead of a LEGO-fan site then I imagine the number of LEGO purists here will drop and the number of LEGO MOCs will drop as they will tend to hang out in other LEGO-fan sites instead. And when some switch, the problem gets slightly worse (or better if you have the opposite viewpoint) and that leads more LEGO-fans to come here less often and so on. Even if no LEGO-only MOCs were posted here then I don't really expect it to be a big deal, as LEGO-fans will be posting and viewing LEGO MOCs elsewhere. I don't know what user numbers are like these days, but I know of quite a few MOC builders that used to post here that don't now but remain active on other sites. I think traditional forum style sites have been slowly dying for years and that is probably why they no longer post. The site I post MOCs on gets way more interest than here. Whereas here gets more deep discussion about general and vintage LEGO, and other sites still get better discussion of modern sets.