MAB

Probably some girls in bikinis standing next to it, if you believe all the trashy movies...

I doubt the figures were ever going to be unique, as BL is not printing the parts. They are just getting a basic palette of parts from LEGO, then selling them on as these MOCs. LEGO isn't doing any special prints for them or anything like that. It looks like they've sold quite well though.

Very few have one. Going backwards... Y-wing: 1 minifig plus a droid Snowspeeder: 2 minifigs MF: 8 minifigs Slave 1: 4 minifigs plus carbonite piece Tie Fighter: 1 minifigure Sandcrawler: 14 minifigures X-wing: 0 minifigs (but 1 droid) B-wing: none SSD: 5 minifigs

I don't see your point. Those were the release dates. Sets were still available to purchase in 2012. Yes, good spot. A very bizarre post.

Atlantis finished in 2011/2012.

It does. But anyone in Europe will get hit with VAT plus other fees. For example, in the UK it currently translates to £153, but on top of that there will be another £30 VAT plus £8 for Royal Mail to collect the VAT. So about £190 all in. Compare that to the Corner Garage, £160 for 2500+ parts, and you can see that BL has probably overpriced them for EU buyers. Plus there was a fairly limited palette of parts that could be used, and the parts tend to be mainly quite basic ones.

Yep, my kids knew most Star Wars characters before they saw the movies. I regularly got Darth Vader cards for father's day, and Darth Vader PJs or T-shirts for presents, and so on. Similarly, they knew of Batman and Robin, the Joker, Superman, etc before seeing any of those movies. And I made sure the first movie they watched was the Adam West Batman. These characters are now, like it or not, part of western culture.

Because when they did exact re-releases, apparently sales volumes were poor, and also people complained that LEGO were just bringing out old stuff and not designing new sets. Which I imagine is partly why now they re-imagine sets or designs into new themes. That way, everything is new even if it is rehashing old ideas.

$200 for the castle. It looks like BL has gone with 10c per part across all builds.

How does LEGO try to make you believe they are accurate? And of course they are not accurate. These ones are toys, much smaller than the original cars, made of plastic building blocks. They also don't have engines. Anywhere that a minifigure is involved, the scale is off. Minifigures are not humans, their proportions are all wrong. This is true across all non-licensed ranges too. Have you ever seen passenger train carriages that take about 6-8 people, or houses or buildings that look like the modulars inside? Non-licensed cars are also inaccurate, to fit two people side by side, the cars have to be very wide compared to their length. It does happen with original themes. For example: 2018 2014 Both are even named the same: Arctic Supply Plane It happens very frequently in City, a fire truck goes and another comes. In Castle: 2010 2013 Both called King's Castle. And this one led to loads of complaints here about rehashes in Castle and how this shouldn't be done. And guess what happens when LEGO stops doing it, people complain they no longer do Castle. The set you complain about, Thunder Driller: It has also be done again, in non-licensed sets, such as: Of course, you will probably argue they are not the same, as they are not Power Miners, but Power Miners is dead. However, what was a popular vehicle in a non-licensed theme is reimagined in other non-licensed themes such as Ninjago and City. While in SW and other licenses, when they bring back vehicles, they tend to look very similar it is because they are following the same source material. For in-house themes, there is not that restriction so even though they may bring back a style to something that worked in a past theme, it can be reimagined in another theme. In fact, they took it to another level in NK: although really this was just a re-imagined vehicle from Ulta Agents: To a kid, these are all essentially the same set: a big drilling machine. Different themes, but the same set re-imagined to fit in with the current theme. That is why they don't redo the exact Power Miners set, they don't need to. If kids want a big drilling machine, they can have one in the current theme of the day.

Normally all the CMF torsos have the 88585 number, but it seems the WoO scarecrow one (6255817) is under the normal 76382 number and usually these torsos come in regular sets. So I wonder if that torso is going to appear elsewhere.

And what if the zoo had lots of marketing data and this showed that the majority of their possible customers wanted to see a rhino, but some wanted to see the hippo as it reminded them of the days they used to come to the zoo as kids, back in the days before the zoo had a rhino. And then if it was still available. LEGO dropping Star Wars would be huge news and a massive snub to Disney. If LEGO decided to drop a major license from Disney, chances are Disney would hit back and stop licensing all their brands with LEGO and move to another building block company, whose product quality is significantly better than they used to be. You would then have LEGO's attempt at in-house space up against an alternative brand's official Star Wars. LEGO would look like the cheap imposter and an alternative brand's SW may well keep LEGO's space off the shelves.

I doubt they set a price then translate it, but instead price the sets based on the market they are going to. For example, that 60240 set won't sell well for £10 in the UK. No doubt some people will buy it at that price, but that is a typical supermarket shelf set that will sell OK when it hits 33% off. It is likely to be discounted by about 20% for most of its life on amazon and in supermarkets. People want discounts so they over-inflate the RRP so when it is discounted they still make their money. Whereas the larger sets are not stocked by supermarkets but are stocked by some department stores and toy stores. They will sell OK at RRP but some people will wait for the typical 33% discounts that occur a few times per year. These don't need to be shifted quite as fast as supermarkets clearing the cheap sets. But as for the Shuttle set, space is not as popular here as in the US. The Mars Rover IDEAS set, for example, was very short lived in the US, but lasted about 3-4 months in the UK. So presumably they think they can charge a premium on things like the shuttle in the US, as it will still sell at that price.

The family room is great, but I think I like the little details best such as the trapdoor in Burns' office.

In this case it isn't just for the minifigures. It is for the scenery too. If you don't want that type of set, then don't buy it. As already noted, that type of set is not at all unique to Star Wars, or to licensed sets in general. There are plenty of non-licensed sets that are essentially scenery plus some characters that come with it that look a bit odd if displayed without minifigures and conversely there are many Star Wars sets that look great when displayed without minifigures. Star Wars at least has the benefit of a lot of vehicles and spaceships, compared to other themes such as Lord of the Rings, Marvel and DC, most Disney, where characters are the key parts of many sets.

Yes, that looks very effective. Much better than using a quiver on a neck bracket. That tiny bit of paint on the arrow tip looks great too.

Some people collect City boxed sets and don't open them. Does that mean these sets should be discontinued as they are not being used by everyone for their intended purpose? The answer is clearly no. In the case of the SW set, some people (both AFOLs and kids) will want the minifigures only as they just collect SW minifigures, some will buy it and display it as it is with the minifigures in a vignette, some will buy it and create a much larger display or integrate those bricks and minifigures into a larger MOC. Whereas some (probably the majority of kids) will open it, throw away the box, build it, act out that scene, play with it. Different people will do different things with it. What do LEGO care about? They care that they are making sets that people buy. Compare that to a Friends or City set that are similar, so a bit of scenery and some minifigures. There, it is less likely that people will buy it just for the minifigures as they are not really that collectable. No doubt there are some City minifigure / Friends minidoll collectors but they are likely to be rarer than for a licensed theme. However, the sets are similar - they are a bit of scenery for the characters to interact in / with. The difference is that some people buy the licensed set because they want the minfiigures as they are into that license. That doesn't mean that it is a bad set, just that licensed themes attract some minifigure collectors, but the sets are still designed as playsets. Personally I see no difference between a kid playing with a set where Luke and Leia are escaping to two Friends characters in a cafe. They are both sets that enable the kid to act out a story. The difference is that less people are likely to want to collect the minifigures in the unlicensed Friends set than in the licensed SW set because of who they are representing.

No. I placed one before Christmas for five different parts (but large multiples of each). Only 1 from 5 showed up, but all on the dispatch note. Complained. And now the same 1/5 of the order shows up again - all on the dispatch note, and all parts should have been in the order. Second complaint. I'll see how it goes this time.

No, because having figures is essential for play for that type of set. But then, that is not limited to Star Wars. Would people buy any set where the action is focussed on the characters if the characters were not there. So the ski set, or the cafe above. Would people play with that type of set if there were no minifigures or dolls? I used to play with LEGO in the 1970s (pre-minifigures) and guess what we did when we built a house or a room. We used other, non-LEGO figures to be creative and act out our stories. For other builds such as vehicles, the character is almost incidental. You can still push the vehicle around to play with it. Whether or not it has a driver, the play is almost the same - which is why many toy (LEGO and non-LEGO) cars don't have drivers. They aren't strictly necessary for play. But have a cafe without people and what else do you do with it? It is no different to the scenery type sets in Star Wars. Of course, other Star Wars sets that are vehicles are more similar to the truck. It doesn't really matter if you have a pilot for an X-wing. You can play with it by flying it around. It is nice to have a pilot, but not essential.

They don't know. They ask questions but people buying sets for themselves will say it is for kids, especially the smaller sets.

It has been for a few months prior to Christmas, but I think this was one of the last fleshies to be added. So few fleshie heads are these days.

There were also some other historic looking sets that may be of interest. It will be interesting to see what Bricklink charges for these. Plus of course EU buyers will be hit with VAT and a handling fee for collecting the VAT, so I imagine they will be very expensive to import.

Journalists don't let details get in the way of a good story.

"Endor Assault" 75238 is coming, but it is a mid range price so not going to be a base.

OK, there is different pricing in different regions, but I can compare by asking which one has most play value. I chose them as they have the same USD value, but pricing is irrelevant really. They are mid range sets. They could all be improved by having more parts (and being more expensive). Which has the most play value? The answer is that it depends on who is doing the playing. The Death Star escape set is a nice little vignette set that captures a scene in a movie and it meets a price point. They could have vastly improved the build of the section of the Death Star and made it much more substantial, included 10 stormtroopers and charged $200. But it wouldn't sell. It probably wouldn't increase play value. Plus they have other sets at that price point. You regularly see sets like this in City: Is this a good build? Clearly, the answer is no. However, it is a great little set for a kid wanting a couple of minifigures. Has anyone bought it for the build? I reckon the answer is no. They are buying it for the minifigures and the bike, not the build. Do people complain about the quality of the build in these cheap sets made to sell minfiigures? Discontinue City now, as the cheap sets are insubstantial and are sold just to sell minfiigures. Or this (back up to $35) from Creator ($35, 374 parts, 2 minifigures) An insubstantial build for a house (but made to fit a price point) but one that has play value. It is longer and thinner than the SW one, but footprint is similar. Or Friends: Again a fairly insubstantial build nothing like a real store, but made to hit the $30 price point, 2 minifigures with 294 pieces. Again a similar footprint to the SW one. There is this type of set in every range, made for a particular price point. A couple of figures, a small amount of scenery in which to act out stories. There is still play value even though a real house or store should be bigger. Should Creator and Friends be discontinued because they contain sets at about $30 that contain 300ish parts that create a small part of scenery and contain a couple of minifigures?