MAB

It is up to them how many they do. The 90th anniversary is not that important. Presumably they will do something better for 100th. It isn't based on longest wait though. If it was, Fabuland, or Homemaker, or Town, and so on beat Adventurers. Plus the last time we saw (named) Johnny Thunder was 2014. If you count callbacks to Castle in Space in TLM, then you should also include TLM Johnny Thunder.

bricklink.com brickowl.com

I'd hope for updated versions of old factions similar to the Black Falcons.

Yes, but it does make you wonder is the market for a non-functioning model typewriter than same as that for a (obviously non-functioning) model rocket.

I am talking about the second poll, once combined together. Your list removed rather than combined all the castle themes except Classic Castle. If you think Classic Castle (or the same for Classic Space) does include Forestmen, Wolfpack, Black Falcons, etc then it is no clearer than LEGOs poll what people are voting for. If you think Classic Castle does not include them, then why leave them out?

LEGO made it clear that there is a difference between Classic Castle and Castle. So Forestmen, Black Falcons, Wolfpack, etc are not Classic Castle. Classic Castle = Yellow Castle.

I also find them boring, and quite poor representations of what they are meant to be. They are probably about as good as you can do in LEGO form at the scale, but I'd prefer a realistic globe or a decent print over the LEGO form, at a fraction of the cost. But then, I have enough LEGO in my life that I don't need such common display-and-no-play objects made out of LEGO, so I don't think I am the sort of person that most of this style of set is aimed at (Maze, Ship in a Bottle, Typewriter, Piano, Globe, Nintendo, etc). But I guess they must sell as LEGO keeps pumping them out. I guess the same could be said of Saturn V. It is really just a display object, but it feels somehow different to displaying a globe built from LEGO. I think there is a fourth option, blurred between 1 and 3. That is the 4) here is a non-IP but common object made from LEGO. Desktop computer, mobile phone, iron, camera, pencil pot, storage box, non-functioning keyboard, calculator, globe, bonsai, ship in a bottle, etc ... they are not really any more creative than someone building a model based on a TV or movie franchise. The main difference is there is no franchise vote behind it. I think there are very few original concepts submitted as per (1). It used to be that IDEAS (well, cuusoo) was for ideas and you didn't need a fleshed out build to enter.

They didn't put Classic Castle though, they put Castle.

When I check out it is clear VAT has been paid (UK), so any second charge can be refused or charged back to lego.

Nice. The black cone a little way behind the cockpit. Is that part of the ship, or is it an R2-D2 inspired unlicensed astromech?

I totally agree, and that is my point and also the point of the somewhat absurd comparison of Mixels to Bionicle. People heavily into a theme know what fits their theme much better than outsiders. I'm not a Pirates fan. I have IF and a BSB and a few smaller sets, as I like the ships but not really the land based stuff. To me, POBB is a pretty decent representation of what you would get if you sum up Pirates in one set (whereas the Blacksmith is not) and so to me POBB is closer to Pirates than Blacksmith is to Castle. To real Pirates fans, it may not. I don't know. I know a lot of them make modifications to it. Although both are IDEAS sets. Mixels look a bit like Bionicle characters to people who don't know what they are looking at (and comparing them was purposely absurd). Of course, to a Bionicle fan they are completely different. The Blacksmith looks like a Castle set, until you put it with Castle sets. It is equivalent of putting a Modular in a City line up. It just doesn't fit even though the subject is similar.

LEGO can do market research about what has sold on BL if they want to change B+P stock levels, they could always do that before the takeover. However B+P customers don't need to worry about their details being shared with bricklink or vice versa.

I didn't say I didn't want it, just that it does not fit with existing castle sets. Also the fact that it exists should not mean other castle-like sets should be passed over in favour of other themes, as has been suggested. Themes do not play turns.

It is an IDEAS set now, and will remain so in the future. If people choose to dwarf existing castle sets with it, or place it next to any future castle sets, it will still be an IDEAS set.

For me, the new ones are the nicest but when paired with plain black legs. Maybe even replacing the arms for black would be even nicer.

^ It looks like it is in the injection point, so stopped as soon as it hit the back of the mould, rather than flowing round the mould with the plastic.

There is a good reason they cannot. They are different companies for legal purposes and cannot share customers' personal data in that way. They also said they would not do that at the time of the purchase. I think you have to be careful when making large number of concerted complaints about the same thing to LEGO, it wouldn't surprise me that if they got a lot of complaints about bricks and pieces then they just close it down or make it purchase limit of 1 or 2 across everything, or however many are in a set, or something restrictive like that.

Where do they clearly state this? I didn't think designers were allowed to comment on set sales and future sets.

That is my issue with it too. It just doesn't fit well with previous Castle sets. Why would the Blacksmith have what is more equivalent to a huge manor house, more opulent than the King's castle? Whereas POBB feels much more Pirates if you had to sum up a theme in a single set - well, it needs Imperials too to really sum up Pirates, but you know what I mean. To me, it doesn't fit at all well with Castle, unless we get other larger Castle builds to go with it. This is more like Cafe Corner compared to what was in City.

I doubt very much, as things like this can be easily faked. Heat up a thin wire and poke it into a brick and you have a wire sticking out of the brick.

I think it is more that they have the POBB set on shelves now (with the alternate design being a complete ship) and if they want to follow it up with another ship, then they will do it themselves. Like what they did with Ghostbusters ECTO-1 and the subsequent Firehouse.

It has probably come to the point now that this this is split into two. Niche as it is anyway, it has become two niches. Monochromes that can be made from officially released parts (whether wiped or not, or maybe that is a third strand) and monochromes made from parts manufactured out of hours and unofficially. The latter is then just what people are willing to pay high prices for with no limits to colours and just down to what workers are liberating from the factory, whereas the former is still only what LEGO has released.

I'd go the bricklink route. Get 16x curves (part 53400) and maybe four or six straights to create an oval. The curves are typically 50p or so each, straights you are looking at £1.50-£2.00 each. Or maybe one box of 60205 from amazon or wherever, then get the extra curves you need from BL. I'd avoid the flexi track, especially if a younger kid is pushing the train around.

You missed out this guy, perhaps the funniest of all: https://imgur.com/a/WIBLRPN

Many castle figs are cheap enough on bricklink or ebay, probably better prices than etsy.