MAB

Sell the set you no longer want, add some cash and buy the set you want, or something new. There are still sealed 60097 sets available for not much more than RRP from a decade ago.

For unique parts, I don't really blame them. The availability of certain parts has meant I no longer need to buy the set, and reasonable prices for in-demand parts also fuels reselling.

A lot of the torsos are coming in at under £1 instead of about £1.30 or so.

Or they could do it side on, so you see the sides of both the Balrog and Gandalf.

Unless they are planning to be buried/ cremated with them! Now I wonder if anyone has ever done that.

Have you built or even just seen Lion Knights' Castle?

I cannot see LEGO doing such a figure and calling it Eostre. They don't do modern religion and she is a goddess of neo-paganism. Even calling a minifig "May Queen" might be a step too far, especially after the movie Midsommar. Using a name such as "Spring girl" is far more likely, and could be any girl with some flowers in her hair or handheld and a bunny.

It is, SW has been fantastic for providing cheap, and often free, grey and tan bricks over the years if you don't mind pulling out the minifigures and selling them on. BUT only if you are creative and don't have to follow official instructions to build something. Whereas if you are not creative and you can only build what is pictured on the box, then it is true that a Star Wars set is not good for Castle. All LEGO sets can be parts packs if they contain the right combination of parts and colours. Star Wars ones just happen to be particularly cheap parts packs due to the high value of the minifigures in them. Yet they aren't. LEGO's financial statements show that they are not being killed.

SW sets are great for Castle (and LOTR) MOC builders as they also tend to be grey. And the figures tend to be valuable as LEGO SW minifigure fans want them so you can sell them individually for about the same as the set price, especially if bought at discount, and get lots of free building parts.

I doubt most kids link hot cross buns and the crucifiction, or the spices with the embalming of Jesus' body.

That is a really good idea especially for broken strings. I've got a couple where the ends have come off. They are good for climbing ropes where only one end needs to be attached at the top but I had never though of cutting them up even more.

Remember as well that animal moulds need far less tolerance than bricks and other system parts. It doesn't really matter if an animal mould becomes slightly worn so long as any connection points work well enough. If single connections on an accessory become slightly loose or slightly stiff, it doesn't matter too much compared to on building parts. Similarly if the animal grew in size by even 1% due to wear in the mould, it is not a big deal.

The link between hot cross buns and religion is probably no stronger these days than the link between Santa and Saint Nicholas.

I think they know minifigures sell larger sets like this, and also necessary for scene type sets. I doubt a Castle or a Viking village would sell well without them. I see quite a difference between these and the more traditional 3 in 1 smaller animal or vehicle type builds. And there are now loads of recreation type 3in1 Creator sets with figures. Sets like 7346 beach house (2012) had a figure, when it's neighbours 7345 and 7347 didn’t. It is hard to play with a house without a figure, whereas it is easier to play with a vehicle or a buildable creature like a dinosaur or monkey.

I cannot really think of anything that is non-religious but associated with Easter outside of the bunny and an egg. So bunny suit and egg suit. I guess they could do a lamb / sheep suit. But do people decorate their houses for Easter like they do at Christmas?

Same here.

They obviously wanted a side build to do the Bilbo disappearing feature.

Yes, it has poor part out value and I would never invest in a set like that for parting out these days as the minifigures will be on PAB so available cheap and in huge quantities.

I thought it was to reduce thickness of the thickest part to allow quicker cooling and hence higher production.

I remember the advert for it on brickset but it didn't seem to offer anything new at the time and not as useful as rebrickable. I guess others feel the same if it hasn't taken off.

There are also the 'Christmas jumper' characters in the SW advent calendars (and Marvel) to help parody what they get up to when not at work being a Jedi or Sith, a bit like the Star Wars Holiday Special. And the holiday diorama set they did in the same way.

They are not so important if there are subthemes though. For example, City is often characterised as a lot of subthemes, so Police, Fire, Harbour, Jungle, Volcano, etc. LEGO does have a films section under Interests rather than Themes (might be called movies on other national sites): https://www.lego.com/en-gb/categories/movies There, they do put SW with HP, LOTR, Jaws, JP, Avengers, Home Alone, Snow White, and so on as well as Orient Express, D&D and some others. Personally, I don't think it matters how many themes there are but it seems to upset a number of people here. It comes up every six months or so, and it is nearly always a complaint about the number of licensed themes rather than then number of licensed sets. Gabby's Dollhouse does not compare to Friends when it comes to numbers of sets, but they both count equally as one theme. And it always seems to be the argument that unlicensed themes have been cut at the expense of unlicensed themes which have grown in number. But of course the reality is different when looking at numbers of sets.

It does become messy. There is currently no Lord of the Rings theme as it is ICONS and Brickheadz even though LEGO has a LOTR tab in the menu. But I don't think LOTR fans mind that much although obviously having a theme of kid focused sets would mean cheaper and more variety in sets. It is the human need to classify everything in a hierarchical way that puts one badge before another. There has been a space sub-theme of City, with Space written on boxes along with the Classic Space logo. Yet the marketing badge for City trumps the Space badge so there is no Space theme. Last year (and still in stock this year) was very good for space sets and was essentially the year of space, yet not a single Space theme set was issued. While there is no Space theme on the website, there is a Space entry under interests leading to https://www.lego.com/en-gb/space, similar for dragons, trains, films, fantasy, gaming, etc. This is why I think people should concentrate on actual sets rather than themes. The thread is complaining about too many licensed themes and comparing themes as if they are equal. An easy way to reduce the number of licensed themes is to put an ICONS badge on the Zelda set, and that instantly reduces the number of licensed themes by 1 without actually changing any availability of sets. I doubt Zelda fans would care if the box had an ICONS label too. This could be repeated a number of times to further reduce themes. But what really matters is availability of sets.

It is definitely luck when they put them out, especially in stores that only have one box on the shelves at once. The point was more that it is now less likely that people buying them all (whatever they are doing with them) and visiting stores specifically to do so are less likely to be doing it compared to the start. So if you see a box now even with some missing it is worth checking. That said, I just emptied my local Waitrose of wolfpack guys! Until their next box comes out. Stores here seem to have two models for selling. One store near me put probably 8 boxes out right at the start and I think they were all plundered on day 1 and I don't think they have restocked since. Another couple of stores only ever have at most about one and a half boxes on the shelf at any time and bring one out as needed. Whether these restock, or just have them stored out back, I don't know. Their shelves are definitely tidier than the first type!