MAB

Presumably, as the recent output has all been LOTR and nothing from The Hobbit for about a decade.

Yes. It was also why the S2 Spartan was relatively hard to find or expensive to buy on the secondary market early on, as the barcodes meant you could scan a box of 60 in 10 minutes or less.

Do they? I would have thought that most people wanting a minifigure based Minas Tirith set would want buildings that represent some of the city. I think they could do a gate at ground level off to the side with a wall , a platform maybe 8 studs high for the main build of the city as a second level, then the beacon on a rocky outcrop another 8 studs higher. The geography would be wrong but you'd get the main scenes in.

It depends what you call Minas Tirith, and depends what you call microscale. Minas Tirith will mean different things to different people. It can mean the entire city, the Pelennor Fields and the City, or just part of the city where a scene takes place. Similarly, some people call Barad-Dur microscale as its overall heigt no way scales with that of a minifigure, whereas others call it minifigure scale as it is designed to have minifigures inside it. So it is completely possible to do a minifigure scale version of Minas Tirith and do it well, depending on how you define the two terms. I'd take a part of the 7th level including the courtyard, tree and some background scenery such as a facade of the hall and citadel if it is done with a decent selection of minifigures over a minifigure-less white 40x40x40cm inverted cone shaped object representing a multiple level city with a grey bit sticking out the side. But no doubt others would prefer the latter.

Yeah, S2 Spartans were expensive from day 1 and quite hard to find in stores, same with S1 Zombie. The S3 elves were relatively easy to get and relatively cheap at the start, and I found similar with S6 Romans. There were plenty of people swapping elves and Romans. I used to trade 3 regular CMFs for 2 elves or Romans.

The reveal on brickset looks pretty good to me. I'm not sure if I would have preferred 1 character plus a car or house and the tree, or the four characters. No doubt someone will release other heads sone in a similar way so the whole crew can be made. It would be fun to see some scaled up brick built fabuland parts too.

There are various other options though - no minifigures but just typical builds of things that used to be in Fabuland, or brick built maxi-figures or larger figures to go alongside scaled up builds, or they might be reintroducing Fabuland and this is a teaser of the theme (unlikely). For example, I could see them doing a fairly large brick built 'holey' tree alongside a larger than original brick built Fabuland style car and possibly a brick built character to go with it. So a bit like they have done in the past, such as the Classic Pirate was not a minifigure at all but a much larger brick built version of a classic. I just don't think they would try to do Fabuland with the licensed heads as they are not really right for the theme. The Fabuland vibe was not just the characters heads, but a number of long retired parts such as the car chassis, windows and doors, the weird car doors, the trees. To get the vibe right at minifigure scale, they'd need to reproduce the accessories / architecture. I think it is more likely that this will be scaled up and brick built than trying to reproduce a long retired theme at the same scale with existing parts. I don't think a minifigure with an animal head in a City style car would remind me much of Fabuland.

OK. Doing it probably wouldn't make sense to have them as blind collectables any more. They would need to have each one as an individual set for sale on their site, plus a further numbered set for the random ones to be sold elsewhere. If they are doing that, why not just make them all identifiable through the set number no matter where they are sold rather than one type of set for LEGO and blind boxes for general retailers. Anyway, they would still be cleared out online by resellers with multiple accounts or family accounts, etc. Plus it weakens the idea of being a collectable series. What can help is if they sell something similar but not necessarily the same. For example, in the past they have done sets like the caveman, the bunny etc, using similar parts but not quite the same but usually after the event. If done at the same time, that is likely to reduce pressure due to army building. If there was a slightly different wolfpack figure in a small set with a different cloak and maybe a different colour or print wolf, that would reduce the demand from the army builders. There will still be demand for variation, but people would be less likely to pay way over the odds for the cmf if a very similar figure is available elsewhere. And at the same time, it keeps the cmf special/ unique to those that care about exclusivity in that series. I still find it a bit surprising that they don't do such combination sets like the Halloween and rock stars they did a decade or so ago. It seems there is money on the table for something like a warrior pack of similar print but not quite the same figures to recent castle style figures, or ancient warriors, and so on. But for whatever reason, they seem not to do it. I remember buying the Halloween pack with zombie, witch and ghost back in 2012. It was £10 for three figs plus some parts at a time cmf were £2. I would imagine now that a four pack of popular figres plus a few parts would sell well for £20 or $25. Even if it came out a year later, if done regularly so people get used to knowing similar figures will come, it could help keep down demand for specific cmf.

The whole idea of CMF has changed massively from the early days. I was a regular collector up to about series 15, owning every character aside from Mr Gold. The early days seemed to be much more about the collecting aspect. I regularly used to buy CMFs and trade duplicare figures with other collectors, all trying to complete their series or army build specific characters. I imagine I did at least 400 trades worldwide from 2011-2018, arranged through brickset forums or swapfig and other similar routes. That aspect of collecting seems to be dead. Now it is more that you buy a box, have three sets, and keep one and sell two. Or you buy a set from a seller doing that. Or you scan figures and aim to buy 12 (or army build). The concept of schoolyard style trading seems to have gone completely. For me, the trading with others was just as much if not more of the fun of these compared to owning the lot. Now it is so simple to just buy the lot without the fun of the chase. There is no sense of achievement when you open the 12 you bought in a box of 36. That was a big reason I stopped collecting them all, alongside introducing too many licensed series that I had no interest in.

If they are going to do Fabuland again and include figures, they need to have new moulds for the heads. I wouldn't mind them using regular minifig legs and torsos but the heads are pretty special. They shouldn't just be recoloured versions of existing licensed parts because they are a bit similar.

It wouldn't be a very good map of Middle Earth if it didn't have the iconic locations of Middle Earth on it. We have also had Bag End, just under The Hobbit branding. Will they do other iconic locations in future? Probably, but because they are iconic locations rather than because LEGO is hiding future releases in plain sight in an existing set.

I cannot see retailers accepting such terms from LEGO though. LEGO can place limits if they want but customers will just buy elsewhere.

I think they messed up displays of anyone that had been collecting the 16 figure series. Although it didn't bother me too much as I stopped collecting them all before the change.

Personally, I wouldn't want limitations on how many someone can buy, and I doubt most retail stores would either. Stock is for selling and they don't care who buys it and it is significantly cheaper for them to sell 100 to one person than 1 to 100 people. Plus the extra staff time to deal with one particular product would push the prices up further. Even if kept blind behind the counter, they'd also need to have a no returns policy even if unopened as there is always some way of examing the contents. They would also need to stop online sales where there is a legal right to change your mind as again there is a way to return unwanted ones after identifying them. The bagged solution without barcode or bumpcode was probably the fairest, as at least it made it harder (slower) to examine each one. Selling sets of 16 or 12 also appears to be fair, but it is only fair to those that want a complete series in one purchase and not army builders or people that want an impulse buy toy. But they could sell both sets and singles but that is extra product lines. Similarly selling boxes appears to be fair, but has a very high entry price.

If you could buy as many as you want online to build an army, then resellers could also buy as many as they want to do with whatever they want to do with them. As supply is limited, then eventually (and presumably quite quickly) they will run out of the desirable figures. I really doubt it would change behaviour as the desirable ones will still disappear from stores as well as online. The only way to combat it is to have unlimited supply of the in-demand figures, but that is something that LEGO does not appear to want to do.

There is always the possibility. This is where 'fan' type figures can sometimes help. For example, the Space Fan from series 20 has a nice torso that can be used for space, same with Blacktron Fan from TLM, and of course even better the rocket boy with the LBG classic space torso. I wouldn't mind a modern figure with a classic castle faction torso or a kid dressed up as a knight, for example, if it gave us other useful parts even if not the full figure. They almost did it with the Unicorn Boy, although for me the torso (and shield) was not particularly good.

Star Wars has the benefit that there are plenty of smaller sets available for regular buyers so the $1000 set doesn't lead to fans feeling alienated or disappointed. Whereas I think a single $1000 LOTR set would be a huge mistake, alienating fans that might have bought into LEGO LOTR. The prices of ~$400-500 are already doing that to some extent. But a $1000 set, I doubt they would sell anywhere near as many as a $500 set.

I guess their view is why should they sell them as blind boxes at retail price, when the first customer to get to the box is going to scan them and remove the valuable ones so they can sell them for a much higher price, leaving the store with the less desirable figures. The series might be available at stores, but as we have seen in comments here, finding the desirable figures is not that easy.

Glue is probably the easy answer to keep the round bricks in. Or if you don't want a permanent connection, then a rubber band around the brick before inserting it. Obviously a LEGO branded band if you want to be purist.

It is also good for Annatar if you want to do custom minifigs for Rings of Power.

Like them, yes. But not the same as. A different colour bandana and a new torso print would be good for a CMF. New parts that form a recognisable figure for the series, but also add parts variety that are generally useful for other themes is the perfect combination. Past performance for other figures suggests it won't happen. There are so many good things about the Wolfpack CMF, that even if they put the torso or wolf or shield in another set or on PAB, it is likely to hold value. People must be buying them at those high prices or sellers would drop them. It only takes a few to sell at high price for sellers to decide to hold tight and sit on stock to get their price, plus they are easy to store for long term. I've been there as both a reseller and buyer.

It is unlikely, but I'd love to see something derived from the S7 Evil Knight. A torso with the boar, a new boar shield and a boar as an accessory would be fantastic. Alternatively a shift slightly towards fantasy and an update of / similar character to the S3 elf or S5 dwarf.

Just about every part is highly useful. It has the combination of the wolf itself, the shield, the torso, the legs, and the hood. The cape is also quite nice and the sword is OK. The legs will look great on other figures, the torso can army build wolfpack guys varying other parts and doesn't have that fur print like the one on PAB, the hood has been mainly licensed sets so is expensive. The only bit that isn't so useful to me is the head but yellow skin builders will use them. Just a couple of wolves will do me. But I'd go for many more figure parts if I could get them.

I would have preferred maybe a white blouse and probably a bandana with hair or a hat with hair rather than the hair they went with, but its not too bad for one figure. But the problem I don't think she needs to have a patch, hook hand and wooden leg to be a pirate. Many 'movie style' female pirates tend not to have such disfigurements. The bird and sword help identify her as a pirate and I think I'd prefer it without the skull and crossbones. I find with most pirates though the problem that once you get one, that is all you can use as the outfits need to be different. Even the red and white stripy top torso gets a bit much when you have too many. Similarly with the pirate captain CMF, one is enough and even if you mix up the bits into other figures they don't look right. ... and LEGO investing being at an all time high (whether the seller is into LEGO or not), and it being easier and quicker than ever to scan through 100s of packets. I picked up one wolfpack at a local shop (WHSmiths) who had about half a box left behind the tills. I asked the guy serving if I could scan them and he said fine, and was it the wolf man I was after. I think it is so well known that you can profit from it and the value has been inflated from the start, much like what happened with Viking and Tournament Knight back in S20. It is very different from 'back in the old days' - I used to buy Roman soldiers for army building on ebay for £3-4, presumably from people that were collecting the series and didn't want duplicates. I also bought a lot direct from shops by feeling as they were still there as they were not worth spending time to pick out and sell on a quick flip. Very different times now.

I scanned a couple of stores' stock yesterday and earlier today (in different cities). Both had 5 boxes out on a stand and they had obviously been gone through by scanners before me as the contents were very messy and not ordered. One store had about 80 left, the other about 90. While some are obvious, I was a little surprised as to what was gone. Hamster - loads left. Wolfpack - all gone. Space - about 50% gone. Telescope - loads left. Plushie collector - loads left. Dinosaur - loads left. Skateboard - loads left. Boogeyman- loads left. Cupid - loads left. Pirate - loads left. Cat owner - nearly all gone. Steampunk - nearly all gone. The ones that surprised me are: Dinosaur, as I thought there was a positive reaction to this one but it seems it is not being used as an army builder. I guess the head doesn't help much as unlike some others the hole doesn't work so well as a mouth if used with a red head or a toothed head. Plushie - again, I thought there was a reasonably positive reaction but loads were left. Boogeyman - Another one were I thought there was a positive reaction. I guess it is not really an army builder, but I think I saw more of this and the dinosaur than anything else. Cupid - with Valentine's Day coming up, I'm surprised that this one doesn't seem very popular. I thought this one would sell well, but it seems not. And it will surely be even less popular next week. Pirate - so many left when it fits well with Pirates, but I guess the outfits are a bit too samey if you have more than one. Cat owner - I thought there was quite a lot of negatively against this one, but it seems to be one of the more popular ones here.