MAB

I don't mind yellow figures in generic themes and fleshie colours in licensed. I tend to prefer fleshie figures and so the vast majority of mine are fleshie. I do have some displays that are yellow skins. I always keep the two apart. Some people prefer fleshies, some people prefer yellow skins. I think it good that both exist, and neither should be got rid of. I also don't like dual sided heads, especially as the expressions are often very similar anyway. If I have a head where I like the expression but the rear print shows, I wipe off the offending print. I prefer (fleshie) heads with pupils. Mixing and matching torsos / legs from yellow/fleshie is getting better, but I'd prefer if they wiped out all of those little bits of yellow or flesh tones to represent necks from torsos, unless it is really necessary to have them. For example, on a bare chest for a male figure or a bikini torso or off the shoulder style dress for a female where the skin colour needs to be shown. But when it is just a little, is it really necessary? Similarly, I'd prefer most torsos are gender neutral as it gives them wider use, again unless it makes sense for them not to be gender neutral.

Yes, lego didn't invent dual molding, but then the question wasn't who invented it. Their introduction of it improved minifigs for me, which was the question I was answering. They could go further and do completely posable miniatures but I think that would ruin them.

Yes, they are for show when finished but they are also for building. Some sets make great display pieces, great conversation pieces (wow, you can do that with lego!) and also inspire people to build something similar. I'm glad they exist even if I don't buy them all, just ones I like. It is not like if they didn't make them they'd bring back a long dead theme instead. Their existence does no harm.

For me, dual moulding of legs is a huge deal and a massive step forwards for displaying figures in poses. If you like to display minifigures perfectly straight, all in a side-by-side row, all facing forwards then it doesn't matter too much what is on the sides or backs of the legs. But if you like to use minifigures that are posed in a scene then you see the sides and backs of the legs of some of them. Side printing addressed this a little bit but it still looks odd if a figure is wearing a garment on the front and sides but not over their backside. I tend to stay away from legs that are front printed but that don't work so well from behind, instead preferring plain unprinted legs or using a cape to cover the sides and back. The dual molding allows the colour to wrap around the whole figure so I'd go for unprinted but dual molded legs over front printed legs most of the time. Plus as soon as you pose the legs, the print usually does not line up anyway. Compare something like the Rogue from S16 with the Actor from S8. They have similar colour schemes for the legs but unless you cover up the backside, the actor one looks poor in comparison. It does have licensed pieces. I still see quite a few licensed heads, for example.

Just about any light bluish grey helmet will work with the minifigure. But these hoods might also go well with the colour scheme of her legs and torso.

They could easily use one of the couple of different hoods for Wolfpack and I'd be fine with it, if it means they do an updated torso like for Black Falcons. Strictly it is LEGO that doesn't count skeletons as minifigures, much like droids, as they don't contain minifigure parts. Take a look at the 3-in-1 Pirate description, they only mention three minifigures. So AFOLs not counting them is not that surprising. Although I like my skeleton army! That depends what you mean by a kid's set. The Death Star and Cloud City is 14+ and richer kids have them. The microscale Hogwarts is 16+ but again richer kids have it. The Disney train is $330 so almost there (and probably would be if it was released today).

Very uninspiring. It's just a standard Classic "bucket set" with a name change.

I'm imagining Elves-like dragons for the flying creatures and they have to do some of the military hardware for the humans. Longer term, there are another four movies planned. So I guess between Avatar and SW, that is sci-fi covered until at least 2029.

Not only are price comparisons with sets from a decade ago a bit dodgy, also are parts counts and types. LEGO has changed so much in the last decade. It wouldn't surprise me if this set is significantly smaller in volume than $350 worth of LEGO from a decade ago. Unless they really go for a vintage style build and use lots of larger parts in a 1980s style build, I imagine it will be lots of intricate details from small parts compared to 1980s and even 2010s sets. Worst of all for me would be a straight re-release (with minor substitutions as necessary) of three decade old sets (such as Joust, MMV and one other), all to be displayed together as a single set. That would be a real lost opportunity.

A more unpopular opinion is that you can make a ton of money selling instructions for other people's MOCs!

You only need to swallow two (separately) to possibly do damage. Or one and other ferrous material. It's especially weird when people actually put them in their mouths for decorative purposes: https://www.england.nhs.uk/2021/05/urgent-assessment-treatment-following-ingestion-of-super-strong-magnets/

I would build the design flat on a plate, then angle the plate to create the hill afterwards.

There is an extra hurdle with IDEAS sets in that there are royalties paid to and an agreement with a third party and possibly others too (such as the Mars Rover). Can they just make another 5K sets of those without going for new contracts and what if the designer felt they should make a larger amount such as 50K or nothing. And yes, they didn't clarify what they meant, leading to all the discussion about what they meant. I still think it means existing unsold stock. The time they take to do small runs of the bricklink sets suggests it would be difficult to do small runs of all sets that VIPs request, from the 1000s they might choose from.

I doubt it, as they have individual contracts with each designer over humbers produced and also might not have licenses any more where they are licensed properties. Plus making new copies of old sets might undermine their own current product range, for example if they remade the IDEAS BTTF set when trying to sell the new version.

Driving down secondary market prices doesn't really help customers of LEGO, only those buying LEGO from third parties that LEGO receives no payment for. Remember that they are likely to sell more of a new set than they are of a re-release. That is not to say they don't do re-releases as some models will continue to sell well for many years. However, I am sure many people into steam trains, for example, would prefer a new steam train than a copy of Emerald Night.

The original reason they did the Replacement Parts service was so people could buy replacement parts if they had lost or broken them. It became more popular when people realised you could buy multiple parts for MOCs or other uses that were otherwise hard to get. That's pretty poor compared to most hand picked bricklink orders I've both received and fulfilled.

I doubt we will ever see anything from the books that are not in the movies again. LEGO has made it very clear that their contract is with Warner Bros and not JK Rowling. I cannot see Warner agreeing to characters being produced that are not in their movies.

That was 'talk' not involving LEGO. Another phrase for it would be unfounded speculation. There is nothing wrong with people saying what they hope LEGO would do, but frequently we have seen that expectation and the eventual reality don't match.

It could well be that Disney do not care too much about the grills but do care about their iconic character heads. I doubt people are buying grills so they don't need to buy the set, whereas the minifig heads are probably the most sought after parts and people won't need to buy the set if they can get Mickey and friends in another way. Some licensed printed parts slip through, not so often these days (it's been a long time since the sold all the Ghostbusters torsos at 5p/5c each and heads at 19p/25c or so), but usually get removed. It may be that some minifig heads are not restricted especially when they are used in multiple themes for generic characters rather than designed for a specific character in one theme. Sometimes it still sticks, even if you change the url. You need to delete the lego cookies to completely reset it. I got stuck in the Czech site last week and had to do that.

Yes, I know as I filled it in. Some people read it as they would be able to buy Cafe Corners and Emerald Nights. And others that are used to LEGO marketing are more skeptical.

I highly doubt you would get much choice of old sets through VIP rewards. More likely just unsold polybags and other small sets they did not get rid of first time around. I cannot see them producing new retired flagship sets just for VIP giveaways.

There is a significant difference in that Cosby is the major star in the Cosby show. JK Rowling is not in the Harry Potter movies and so is not likely to be in a LEGO set. There are also many positive role models for boys and girls in the series. Plus if LEGO dropped it, it would be picked up in an instant by another brand so would not go away. How can people just go and watch Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, or Working Girl, or Shakespeare in Love, knowing what we know now. How can anyone join the Boy Scouts? It is quite easy to separate the person from the work.

I imagine it is more down to it being Lord of The Rings rather than the piece count.

So you can pay a bootlegger to have a part made in a specific colour and then pay again for exclusivity so that nobody else can have that colour? What a strange world.

Maybe we watched different movies to you. Quidditch is iconic. Doesn't the game appear in five of the movies. Lots of screen time is devoted to it and it is hardly niche. Ask people to name five things about Harry Potter (except character names) and I reckon most people will say Quidditch.