MAB

I don't think they are necessarily being ignored, just not commented on. You mention wanting feedback but also being welcoming. Welcoming can mean two different things - actually commenting, and commenting only positively. Some people ask for comments but then get angry if you suggest any improvements or alternatives. I think if you really want feedback, you should ask. Better still if there are specific parts of the build you want improved then specifically ask about those. It is also somewhat circular. I used to comment in what I hope was a productive way, but very rarely did I see the MOC improved and reposted. And if feedback is not acted on by the builder, then there is little point in giving feedback. I think that is partly why feedback tends to be minimal. I also find a lot of posts are now adverts for Ideas projects. I tend to stop reading / looking at the MOC at the first mention of Ideas. Sometimes I don't get past the first line.

When I was a kid, the 1x1 round plates came on a sprue. They definitely had sprue marks.

I agree here. Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tweety Pie, Sylvester, Porky Pig, Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, Marvin the Martian, Roadrunner (I'm not sure how as a minifigure), Wile E. Coyote, Taz, Speedy Gonzales. Maybe Grannie, Mad Scientist, Foghorn Leghorn, Buzzards? I think nearly every one needs a new mould to be done right.

OK, comparatively, I doubt many richer people will be losing jobs compared to poorer people. If a significant number of people in middle classes cannot afford to buy LEGO, then LEGO prices will drop. LEGO only really does two things - make bricks and sell bricks - and those two are strongly linked. If they cannot sell bricks as now, then they will have to come up with ways of selling them. If cost is prohibitive, then they will need to cut the prices.

I thought I recognized the crusader, I have a number of those sticker sheets. The three lions one is very nice.

And those Goblins are little! It is a shame they printed the hat. Having a patch in the same place on all looks a bit odd, whereas a plain one would look better for an army.

I think it makes sense to limit the licensed ones to 12, where there are only a small number of popular characters. They have already done this with the very similar Unikitty line - that was a series of 12. Both Looney Tunes and Universal Monsters, I can think of about 12 in each that I would want done (and for Monsters, that already includes a number (nearly all) that will duplicate what has gone before).

Great! I'd love to see you take on the moose/deer head scene.

Yes, it deviates from the traditional village again which is why some people have stopped collecting the series. As a one off set it looks nice. But it has no real connection to the original series. But then they've done it with the workshop and the Gingerbread House. It has turned from a traditional winter village into a theme park / fantasy series.

I used to be a die hard cmf collector. But it wasn't expensive or hard to do. Up to about series 14 or so, you could regularly buy them here for £1.00-£1.50 each, then trade with others to complete a series. Occasionally I had to pay a higher price to get more sought after ones. I used to pay up to £4 including postage to buy S6 Romans. As well as the complete series I also bought just over 100 Roman soldiers but have long since sold them once their value rocketed. I stopped collecting when too many similar ones were getting done, then soon after the retail prices went higher so I rarely buy them even for parts. Then the dominance of licensed sets. I also collect monofigs, I have done for years. I "invented" them for myself before I found out others were collecting the same thing. But I only do it with normal released parts. I understand why people buy and collect what they like. They enjoy it, and have the money for it. That is what I do with my collection. Hoever, I don't feel the need to try to rationalise why other people buy specific things. They are collectors and spend what they can afford on what they want.

More sets means more choice, which is good. The only people that will find a problem with this are the ones that think they must buy all of them and cannot choose for themselves.

If you screw brick separators into a strip of wood, they make good coat hooks. l glued a few tiles onto the bottom of a kitchen table leg to stop the table wobbling. Perfect thickness.

I have most winter village sets but won't be buying this. It is yet another North Pole fantasy setting, rather than a winter village, very similar to the Gingerbread House and incredibly boring minifigs if you have older sets, especially the workshop. I can see the appeal if someone is new to the series but otherwise it doesn't add much. The reindeer is nice, but will clash horribly with the brick built ones they already did.

Before the pandemic, they weren't selling 300 - 400 Euro sets to poorer people. I doubt that many richer people will be losing jobs after the pandemic.

I'm not going to squirrel any away, and definitely not now. Maybe towards the end if they have decent discounts. But not now. That's a good tip about templates. I know in the past I've had to remove 100s of plates due to a 1 plate shift error that propagated before I realised. I think many LEGO collectors/investors are midway between extremes. I'll invest medium term (1-2 years) when there are discounts on sets I like and I think will sell. But then I'll also invest - and scalp - on items that I am sure will do well at Christmas, or that I can take from one country and sell in another.

Nice. What are the two on the far right? Are they LEGO or custom prints/stickers?

That is superb.

Plus many sets don't smoothly rise. There is typically a step in price just after retirement and then either a long plateau or more likely a slow increase and then, depending on the set, severe drops where sets are re-released or better or just new versions come out. I would never hold a set released now for a decade. It is better to take the money after the initial fast increase and re-invest than hold for the long term. This is where 30 or 50% after retirement is better than 100% after ten. Especially if you got a significant discount just before the set is retired. It will be interesting to see what LEGO does with the mosaics in the long term. If they continue doing them, then these ones could well rise in value after retirement, at least as complete sets. There will be collectors that get into them late and want the boxes and instructions to go with the common parts they are made from, and some that want sealed copies never to open. If they do a Star Wars heroes set, that makes Luke, Han, Leia and Rey or similar, then some people will want the Sith set and it will be too much hassle to order the 1000s of parts on BL so they will be after the complete set. I think a number of LEGO collectors (as opposed to full on re-sellers) also do it with twos. That is buy two, sell one at double price. Or even buy three, sell two at 1.5x price. Those are still reasonably feasible with many but not all LEGO sets. They are do a little work, get my set for free. They are not strictly investments for profit, more investments to get a free set. Being able to sell current sets at 3x in future is quite unlikely these days, even though it was relatively easy in the past, so the rule of threes is not going to work for most sets.

And Cantina, sets are coming though now.

One problem then is how to hang it. Of course, DIY/MOCers have made loads of solutions for it but not ones using official LEGO parts. When covered in plates a 48x48 baseplate is heavy and is easily detached from a hanging plate if you only use a couple of plates with hole in. Plus working on a 48x48 baseplate one stud at a time is quite hard, and very easy to make errors. Whereas working on smaller sections that attach together is less likely to lead to errors. I imagine play testing taught them that. Again mosaic MOCers have been able to do this fine in the past, but for people new to LEGO, I imagine they would find it hard to complete a 48x48 mosaic on one piece, but find it much easier to do 9 16x16 ones. It also gives natural break points. But I agree about being able to build something similar for less money.

LEGO investing isn't really safe. There are some sets that if you buy at the wrong time or price will not make a profit once sold after accounting for fees. Similarly some sets, if parted out, will not completely sell.

Prices vary across Europe. It was 299 Euro in some countries. And remember that this price includes VAT / tax, whereas US prices do not.

I'm guessing a regular 32x32 baseplate, so his 16 will be 4x4 or 8x2 baseplates. In the picture, you can just about see a join in the line of tiles, possibly where the baseplates butt up against each other. I can't wait to see the whole collaboration set up.

And they already did non-IP related versions of an Amazon and Atlantean king ... And along with all the other relevant CMFs then I imagine that is as close as we will get to a mythology line. Plus they also overlap with existing LEGO / Disney too (Hercules and Hades, plus a weaker link to Ursula)

Plus Ninjago City has only been off the shelves for a little over six months. The Taj Mahal had a break of about 7-8 years. Nearly everyone that is willing to spend the $300 on Ninjago City will already have bought it. Better to have something new at a similar price that appeals to both people that have Ninjago City and to people that don't have Ninjago City, rather than people that didn't buy Ninjago City during the 2+ years it was available but have decided that in the last six months they do want it.