MAB

Nothing new. This is partly so they can say it is a family run company and blah blah blah ... I wonder if the use of DUPLO was meant to send any subliminal messages.

I guess that's the thing here though. Classic doesn't mean old style sets, it just means "bucket sets" (or really cardboard box sets) of modern basic bricks in modern colours.

I am a bit surprised that Classic is there, when you consider that 2019 Classic was five sets: 11001-11005. Although I guess they shift a lot of these in supermarkets and they are good value when considering price per piece. City, Friends, Technic and Star Wars are always there these days, and Creator is often there. I guess there are not many slots they can fill in without just listing all their themes.

This was my impression as well - that they are not really kids' toys. They are excellent quality and detail but it seems almost too good for a kid. And of course the price to match. When my kids were small and playing with farmyard type animals, you could buy a whole flock from another brand for the price of one animal.

If you don't return it, they will ignore your report as you didn't complete the complaint.

I find it simple, you ask the seller if it is complete. Even easier on bricklink where sellers can sell as complete or incomplete.

They also did something similar with the rogue, but no actual cape. But he got a bit of red arm too, and back print to make it look like a small shoulder cape. Customers willing to pay $5 for a minifigure.

I am not doubting that they sell, because stores continue to stock them. If they didn't sell, stores would not stock them. However, the question was do kids play with them, or are they toys for adults? I believe the reason they were brought up is because they do a range of medieval knights, and this was used as proof that kids like medieval knights with the implication that LEGO should bring back castle.

I would also return. It is very rare that this happens on amazon (they sell customer returns through warehouse, not their main site), so I would not worry about being blocked. Was it actually amazon you bought from, and not a marketplace seller or amazon warehouse?

You can pick up 4643 quite cheap second hand on ebay / BL. Or just download the instructions and change the colours for variation. Or mix and match parts from both to make other but similar cabs.

Ecto-1 also brought along a single set (GBHQ) that was 10x the part count. So here's looking at a castle set to complete the blacksmith's house with 10x the part count. Dreaming over ...

Regarding Schleich toys, do children actually buy / ask for and play with them? I don't think I have ever seen a kid interested in them in stores and if they want farm animals and so on, there are often other brands that give you 10x the amount for the same price although clearly lower quality. The detail and painting quality seems to make them look more like adult display models rather than kids' toys.

I'm in the UK. Quite a few stores near me try to sell Playmobil :-), I don't know how much they succeed. Especially after the movie bombed, there was loads of Playmobil Movie stuff sitting at 50% off, even in a store that rarely discounts anything.

LEGO did not set up CUUSOO. It was an existing company that ran crowd funding in Japan. They partnered in the early days of LEGO CUUSOO, first only in Japan then worldwide. However, I don't really know what you mean by it didn't really work out. Look at the sets produced once it went global: Minecraft, Back to the Future, Ghostbusters ECTO-1 and the Mars Rover.

They have always experimented. Introduction of maxi-figs in Homemaker type sets, minifigures, light and sound bricks, Bionicle, Galidor, doing licensed sets. Even doing plastic bricks instead of wooden toys was an experiment. Some experiments take off, others don't.I The problem with app based toys is that they are superseded very quickly as technology is fast changing.

She is essentially the female equivalent of the Swashbuckler, being a movie style pirate - something like Geena Davis in Cutthroat Island. Same coloured shirt, same coloured trousers, same coloured hat plume. I cannot tell whether her hat is black or dark brown. They look like they will pair well.

LEGO doesn't really care about LEGO fans, they care about LEGO customers. That is, fans that are currently buying their products. You said a year or so ago that you haven't really bought anything new since Bionicle Generation 2 and what you had bought had been a disappointment. You are clearly not a LEGO customer, even though your are a LEGO fan. And here that you have discovered old sets that keep you being a LEGO fan as you have quit buying new sets. LEGO has moved on, and so has its audience, from the 1970s, 80s and 90s. It moved on through the 00s and the 10s. It will continue to move on releasing what a majority of LEGO customers want and they will draw in new customers too. You can of course remain a LEGO fan without being a LEGO customer, as you have classic sets of the past available on the secondary market or you can just play with your existing LEGO collection. Similarly LEGO can keep moving on and you will continue to not buy their sets.

There were also Harry Potter sets that overlapped with 2011 Castle. Same in 2010, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, ... Then there are years with neither Castle nor a licensed castle-like theme. Together, this is why I don't think that there is a definitive castle slot that can be taken by only one of Castle or a licensed competitor branding.

Do you know how many people were downloading instructions/ designs before the change? For licensed MOCs of popular subjects I imagine it is quite high. For alternate builds of smaller sets I imagine less so.

Not at all what I expected when I clicked but very nicely done. And not a minifigure in sight!

I remember the days it was three regular ones a year. But then, they also were shelf-warming / peg-warming sets and recent non-licensed CMFs have been the same. Loads left over and then discounted to sell. I doubt it matters too much if the retailers made enough sales at full price, whether licensed or not.

Stone Clay, General Glarg, Lord Krakenskull.

There are Nexo Knights characters that are coveted collectors items too.

Another important resource is customers to buy it. If LEGO did Castle or Pirates in their own way like Ninjago, it would most likely overlap with Ninjago. And why take away Ninjago (again) to let something else in that has not been tested? After all, Ninjago is more about the characters than about real ninjas. Plus they very recently did Castle like they did Ninjago. Ninjago took traditional ninjas, made them kids/teens and put them in a less traditional feudal but more modern and kid friendly setting and made up a story about them and their interactions with baddies. This is similar to Nexo Knights, they took knights and removed them from the traditional feudal setting and put them into a futistic / sci-fi one, made it more kid friendly and made up a story about them and their interactions with baddies. They probably know that it was not as successful as Ninjago.

Playmobil have had Ghostbusters sets on the shelves for three years already, so it is not really recent. I don't know how long their products last at retail, but I imagine they might be on their way out and it might also be that their license period is coming to an end. Or of course, it might be that neither company has an exclusive license although that would seem strange given what happens with other IPs. Whereas the Scooby Doo Playmobil sets have only just been released (at least, in the UK, at Argos), and are not for sale at Amazon (UK) yet. I will be really surprised if Playmobil and LEGO have Scooby Doo sets out at the same time, released within months of each other.