MAB

I guess it depends on whether they break their "rules" for new parts in an Ideas set that may be high volume, or if they allow a long time between the first use of a new mould and the second use. If they know they will reuse moulds a year or two later then they might still offset the costs of them for an Ideas set.

Playmobil are currently doing Scooby Doo sets that have only recently hit shelves. I doubt both companies would have Scooby Doo toys out at the same time.

Town space selling well and the NASA sets selling well suggests that todays kids like realistic space rather than futuristic space (especially futuristic views from 30-40 years ago.) Star Wars is still a popular license, even if merchandising is not as exceptional as it used to be for the recent movies. Harry Potter sells well because it is Harry Potter, not because it is a fantasy / castle theme that also happens to be licensed. You can put a Harry Potter logo on a stick and it will sell well at $30.

You are posting models with parts lists that can be bought through LEGO's bricklink. So if LEGO allow you to post a third party IP MOC with instructions and parts lists, then both LEGO and a BL seller profit from the sale of parts if someone creates it. Similarly if they allow you to post a LEGO IP, then it send the message that it is OK for other third parties to make money from LEGO's IP in a form that LEGO have not approved. I imagine that is their lawyers' stance, and they are just strong handed when it comes to removing anything that looks like it might infringe. Personally, I don't see why they don't just remove all possibilities to download and let other sites do that.

And what if the thing that made them successful was just because they were good for the time / all there was at the time. People also change. Exactly the same product 40 years later may bomb now, not because the product is suddenly worse but because the target audience has moved on. Prawn cocktails used to be seen as an exotic starter in the 1970s. In the UK, a glass of orange juice was often served as a starter in restaurants and was fashionable at the time. These days the same offering would be a bit crap. Even though the product hadn't changed, the audience has.

I wouldn't mask the area at all. I'd do it this way: 1. Get the base colour painted. 2. Put the wheel on an axle. 3. Put the axle in a holder. 4. Hold a paintbrush off centre and slowly twist the axle / turn the wheel. Let the rotation create a perfect circle instead of trying to cut perfect circular curves at that scale. You might even want to create a jog that holds the brush in the right place, so you can move the part to the brush.

It was you that made loads of wearables when the Mixels ball joints were new, wasn't it? I look forward to see what unconventional designs you come up with for these parts.

This one is snowy.

For the past couple of days they have been protecting us by having dreadful access speeds, especially for anyone trying to add stock or process orders.

I find this series very boring. So many already done figures, or ones in similar type costumes. The viking and knight are OK, but other than that I'm out. It comes to something when I find the licensed CMF more interesting than the non-licensed.

This puts it perfectly. If they think new themes will sell better than redoing old ideas, then they will go with new.

Yes, they are removing any fan designed sets that mention a license, even if LEGO already make / have made something from that license. This also includes LEGO's own IP. They will not allow anyone else to sell sets based on their IP, including BL sellers. So you cannot sel MOCS based on Friends, City, Forestmen, Classic Space, etc and mention the license in the title, description or tags.

While "real" AFOLs might not class one-off buyers of LEGO sets as AFOLs, I imagine they are high up on the types of adults LEGO wants to target. As a "real" AFOL (in the sense that I already buy LEGO for myself) my spend is fairly consistent from year to year. There probably isn't much LEGO can do to make me spend more. If they do something I like, I'll buy it but it will be at the expense of something else. Whereas the person that doesn't buy much LEGO already, they are a fairly untapped resource. LEGO targeting more casual buyers (that may become "real" AFOLs) with licensed or other adult focused sets makes sense.

If you don't like the subject then don't get it. The figures are not that great outside of the set. There are four regular City style ones, one that looks similar to a Ninjago Movie character, then two lots of five that look very similar to each other. Unless you have need for these two squads of five for something that is not Dragon Boats, then what is the point of getting them?

This would be a newly numbered set. They need a number to keep track of the items they sell. This is different to the old set, so they need a new number. LEGO factories supposedly run at capacity anyway, so any diversion to make new "old" bricks will hit sales of modern sets. And personally, they make enough new product to keep me busy.

They probably don't do the colours you are after but brickforge had an interesting take on dual molding: https://brickforge.com/collections/figure-parts They do upper and lower arms and legs, which means you can choose the colour combinations in the dual parts.

Interesting, thanks I had never seen that page. So that makes me wonder why they don't use subthemes on the boxes or on the shop website. It seems strange to define them but not actually use them on product boxes or as filters for when people are shopping. I guess I am not the only one, as looking at that they do put all the police under one subtheme so this question here is somewhat irrelevant. They are not separate subthemes, they are one subtheme called Police. Not in all countries. Ambulance and Fire are completely different services in the UK and most of Europe.

YOU label it, not LEGO. BL do the same, Brickset does the same. It is convenient to have labels for similar sets from different years. It is the same with modern sets, there are no labels to say that Police is a separate subtheme from Fire, or that Mountain Police is a separate subtheme from Arctic. It is because one City set can be played with alongside another City set. For example, what subtheme is set 60225? Brickset files it under City > Space BL files it under Town > City > Space Port LEGO files it under City If there is an officially defined sub-theme, then why do two different fan sites catalogue it in different ways, and different again to LEGO who do not classify it as anything other than City.

I don't get how they are separated. They are all labelled as LEGO City sets. Where do these subthemes come from though? Take a look at one of the "Turbo Wheels" sets, 60255: https://www.lego.com/en-gb/product/stunt-team-60255 Nowhere on LEGO's web page is the term Turbo Wheels used. Lots of retailers (but not LEGO) use it in the title of the set, so this is presumably just a way of indicating where to put them on shelves. I cannot see anything on the box or official descriptions that indicates that they are a distinct subtheme though.

The webchat is fine. Also they reply by email, but they are busy now due to fallout from the Christmas period, I think it is something like a 5-6 day wait for a reply to an email about orders. I think it probably depends on what you are emailing them about. If it is an order, then it is important to them. If it is about an idea you have, then they have IDEAS for that. And so on.

If it was a regular build, you can use the 10 US cents / 10 p / 10 Euro cents per part. However, trains use a number of non-regular parts in the wheels, bogies, etc. Windows can also be costly, depending on what you go for.

That looks great. Can it collect bricks as well or do they just slide instead. I imagine sports balls / Zamor spheres would be quite difficult to collect.

Very nice. Could you not have used a brickforge helmet or sticker just to make it six! A record surely. :-) Is the crossbow from the Koruit Orcs range? I have some on order but am still waiting for them.

There is no Police theme, so they cannot go under Police. And if you look at the boxes, the police sets are not subthemed either. They are all just City. I don't think City has subthemes. You cannot filter based on subthemes on the website for example. Many have the location in the title but that is not a subtheme. For example, a number are called things like Swamp Police Station. The "Swamp" in the name is just describing where the Police work. It is not a subtheme. This one came out at the same time as other "Swamp" sets but it is not called "Swamp Police Crooks' Hideout", it is just "Crooks' Hideout". There is no Swamp Police subtheme branding on it. There is no formal subtheme. Of course, people tend to lump together similar things that came out at similar times and so talk of subthemes. But these are all just City sets. Swamp Police sets can be played with alongside Sky Police sets and alongside standard Police sets and alongside all other City sets.

Yeah, but you cannot exclude Jack Sparrow and still do POTC! It seems to me that LEGO will make something if they will make money from it. Modern weapons bad, unless they are in a licensed theme. I've seen where the "rule" is, it is on the IDEAS website. But then, when LEGO themselves do the waiter with his bottle of wine grape juice: then surely any depiction of a bottle or can in a modern context can be explained away by saying it contains non-alcoholic contents, so long as there are not other elements to the set design that would highlight alcohol use.