MAB

Take a look at this thread. It has been going six years now. This is exactly what many people do. They create their own versions of characters using existing, and for the most part common, parts. I doubt there is a character that people have not come up with a reasonable version, especially one that LEGO has done as an exclusive. You want a "The Collector"? Make one, there are loads of ways of doing it. Some of them pre-date the official LEGO version. You can then play with The Collector. Does it change how you play with it if it turns out that someone else has a different (and "official") version with different printing on the parts that is an exclusive giveaway that they keep in the protective packaging?

This is purely speculation. You do not know this. For all you know, there could have been the idea to have the Lester polybag all along, but they were not able to produce enough to start selling at the opening, or maybe they wanted to keep it exclusive for a while for the people that attended the opening. That $3000 one is not worth $6. It is still worth more than $6 (but not $3000). The packaging differentiates it from the polybag one, and some people are willing to pay a premium for the packaging still. It happened with some comic con figures too - Bilbo, Azog, Bard - they all came out in regular sets but the ones in the special packaging hold value over those that do not have the packaging. And LEGO didn't create a $3000 figure. They created a giveaway. The market created the $3000 figure.

Yes, I would prefer a series with 16 different teams, rather than 16 from the same team. But how could they do the Round of 16? They need to know months in advance who progresses if they are to be out at the time of the competition. And guessing wouldn't work (eg. Germany). Plus licensing is an issue, as they'd need to negotiate with all the different football associations. Why? There have been Friends football / soccer sets. They didn't need movable legs / feet. I doubt many people actually play out action games with the DFB series, and just display them standing still instead.

They also appeal to kids, not just collectors, and many kids will want the core HP characters.

It seems lots of people have to have them now. They will be back in stock. Just wait. LEGO aren't stupid, they are not going to stop selling them so fast.

I don't mind comic con ones at all. They are there as an incentive for people to go to the comic con (not cheap) and engage with LEGO there. If it was a figure that was just going to be put in a set six months later (Bilbo, Azog, Bard, etc) then there is little incentive to get it aside from the packaging. Maybe having them as a variant of an existing figure is better, but then ones like the Deadpool ones are not going to appear in sets anyway due to the nature of the recent movies but will appeal to the type of adults that attend comic cons. Does it anger me that someone has something that I don't? Not really. There are plenty more minifigures to collect. Similarly, chase figures don't bother me. I think it would be better if the packaging were more tamper-proof / harder to feel the figures but that is another matter. How many people would actually want the Classic Policeman if he was 6 to a box?

Yep, the only ones that are likely to disappear fast are the CMFs.

I was going off their website. Going to Historical > Weapons brings up five items for me. Three pistols, a rifle and a baseball bat. I'm more into medieval / ancient history, which is why brickforge and brickwarriors get my money! I like my customs to come from as few a places as possible, so they have a consistent look / design. Hence I tend to prefer customs where they do a number of designs of similar weapons / accessories of the right period. I did just take a look at brickmania. The only thing I saw that looked vaguely historical to me was the claymore. And LEGO already do a decent longsword, so I wouldn't need a custom there anyway.

So now you can probably see why the official LEGO sets are "awful". To do something like you want would cost $1000s and such a set is completely unfeasible from a sales perspective. It is better to have an affordable playset than an unaffordable large scale model at the same scale. Plus play value is not so different. The large one may look great as a one piece set, but ask a kid if they would want one large $2000 HP set or ten decent $200 playsets, and I imagine most would chose the ten playsets. Although for many kids that is unrealistic as even one $200 is still quite expensive.

I doubt any of the sets will be hard to find. The initial runs might sell out, but I cannot see LEGO limiting stocks of them. I expect they (the boxed sets) will all be available for at least a year, so anyone wanting to wait for their favourite store to discount them in a regular sale can probably wait without fear. For example, most toy stores in the UK have sales where you can get 20-40% off or 3 for the price of 2, and amazon will often price match with a similar discount. I'm sure sales volume will be high, but I expect production will be too. They wouldn't have brought HP back if they were not expecting decent sales volume.

Yes, he gave it up but did offer the source for anyone wanting to take it up. https://github.com/dwalton76/wallofbricks

It was mentioned a couple of weeks ago, but I don't think anyone really showed much interest at the time... The downside is that Harry's (similar) short legs are printed with his bare feet - showing that they are just as likely to keep printing them for "shoes" (here feet) which doesn't look as good as they don't print the top of the foot (or the inside).

Possibly, possibly not. We will never know. It may just be that they made more plain ones than were needed for printed variations. From the locations of the bulk sellers (Hungary and Poland) it is likely that the unprinted stock come not from B+P but from "factory sources". What we do know for sure is that the game was never released and hence it doesn't exist, so the unprinted ones do not come from that set even if they were made for it.

I find 10/10 for design too high, when you consider that none of the skirted characters have any back printing. All three would have been improved with some back printing. Similarly, Harry's feet are printed on the front, outside and back only and not two colour molded - again a design issue - so don't look anywhere near as good as Dobby's.

WHS is quite famous for it, partly as they never really have very good prices for sets. Part of the reason they sit around for so long is that those prices aren't RRP, but above it. For example, that arctic helicopter had RRP of £24.99 not £29.99.

Is that an issue? Simpsons, Batman - I don't think either was labelled as Series 1 but they both got Series 2. Of course, Disney, Ninjago Movie had the same and didn't get Series 2.

or (3) LEGO didn't produce as many or the stores near you didn't order as many as the regular sets don't sell so well. Plus it is highly regional. In the UK many stores still have stocks and have needed to discount them to get rid of them.

So just replace them with plain legs. Hardly a big deal. It is becoming quite common to have side printing on legs where the source material requires it.

There are a number of techniques using curved slopes that look good for women wearing big skirts sitting down, and these would probably work fine for riding horses too, if the figure is riding side-saddle.

Speculation is not rumour though. There is speculation that Castle will also come back after NK has gone.

They don't come from that game, they cannot come from it, since it was not released. They can come through other channels though. Just because a part doesn't come from a released set or gear doesn't mean it doesn't exist. LEGO has other ways of releasing parts. From what I understand there are two reasons they don't want people adding sets and gear that do not exist to the database. (1) So they don't condone theft of items that LEGO have chosen not to release. (2) Accuracy of the inventories. If something doesn't exist, it cannot be checked as nobody has it in hand.

There are often sellers on amazon and ebay. However, you might end up paying over RRP for them as these ones will be popular. I expect people will also be selling complete sets of HP and FB on ebay too.

I wonder if they would still give the up to $500 reward if they have a lot of similar entries in review or multiple from one person. For example, if the SpaceX fans get behind all those projects and half a dozen similar projects make review at the same time or the fishing store style ones in the last review.

If modern day minifigures are hunting dinosaurs in vehicles, it's "Action". If licensed minifigures are hunting (or being hunted by) licensed dinosaurs in licensed vehicles, it's "Licensed". So I guess that leaves pre-historic dioramas (with or without cavemen style minifigures) for us here!

Believe what you want.