MAB

It (Lester) was available for purchase a couple of days ago. I guess they have have spotted their error, or maybe someone bought 200 and they were alerted to it. Just to confirm, both Legolas and Superman / Hyperion heads are available. I already have enough of both though. If anyone spots other fleshie heads, please update!

Presumably, this means that they have sold not as well as previously though, as it is not one of the top selling themes. It seems to be a case of saying one thing but probably meaning something else. After all, they could have expected their SW sets to remain a top selling theme, or they could have expected them to do less well this year as it seems many SW toys, not just Lego ones, are not selling so well now. The phrase they used tells the reader nothing. I agree there. TLBM has too many sets. I doubt many kids get them all. All those sets are in competition with each other for the same fanbase. They could half the number and probably still sell as much, while making other sets that appeal to other fanbases, although of course there will probably still be some overlap. Also sometimes you just see TLBM sets everywhere in a supermarket aisle, and walk past everything, even though there might be other theme sets there.

So now not only do the themes need to be original, they need to be evergreen too? Personally, I would much prefer to see original themes that last a single year, back to the days of Atlantis, Pharoah's Quest, Alien Conquest, Monster Fighters, etc. They come and go before they get too stale. But what are Creator, Modulars / Creator Expert, Architecture, Friends, Technic? They are all non-licensed (maybe pushing the definition slightly with the architecture range) and evergreen. Then there are original but not necessarily evergreen themes like NK and Elves. And when a theme like Ninjago becomes so popular to get a movie, people complain it is now licensed and not original. There are plenty of original non-licensed themes. The problem seems to be not that they don't make original sets, but that they no longer make specific themes from the past.

Does anyone have a list of currently available light flesh heads?

For Popeye, I think I'd want them to go down the Simpsons / Mickey Mouse route of moulded heads. Dick Tracy would be fine as normal heads. But are either popular worldwide? In UK, I don't think I've seen either for years.

Agree on both counts.

Option your right not to buy. There are plenty of other sets available to purchase. The prequel trilogy films were not very good (to people that grew up with the original trilogy) yet kids that grew up with the PT enjoyed them and the sets. The same happens with the new sequels. People that grew up with OT and PT will see them as derivative, yet today's kids will enjoy their era movies (and sets). You may get SW fatigue but there are plenty of new fans ready to watch the movies and buy the sets.

What does this mean? They put lots of thought into all designs, thought about what will sell, what will sell at a particular price point, what is age appropriate, what techniques to use for that age range, what colours to use, how long it will take to build for that age range, what play features there are, how does it fit into the theme, can it still be played with as a stand alone set, ... Even an apparently simple design can have a lot of thought behind it.

Money can buy classic space sets, minifigs and parts though.

Still available on bricklink.

They will taste and feel the same. It doesn't matter what the source of the components are, the properties of the polythene from bio-sources will be the same as those from oil-based sources.

The opposite but the same solution. I hate yellow neck-lines on minifigures, but would welcome clothes that go all the way up with no flesh showing, where appropriate (it won't work for all torsos). My biggest forum pet peeve - the view that being a "loyal" "real" long term AFOL means that lego should cater to your wishes more than those of children.

Yes, I'm not saying it is a bad thing. In fact I prefer yours! I have seen the instructions for it, it is just a crank and a pulley wheel inside.

Loads of kids have tablets, so they can use the tablet with lego at the same time. Kids do play with things like this, look at things like wedo and boost.

You sit across a room from an eight year old, each with a cross bow stud shooter and a pile of 1x1 round plates and tell me it is not fun.

Nice, I love the use of the barrel. There is this existing set, that was a brand manager retail conference giveaway that is a similar idea but not quite such a sleek design.

One problem with changing eras is that things do not necessarily go together well, which can affect subsequent sales. If a kid gets into future city, then present city items don't go well with it. If future city stops for three years until it comes back, what happens to the interest in it? Whereas forest police, swamp police, mountain police and regular old city police can all work together seamlessly. Most kids probably wouldn't notice much difference anyway and those that do will appreciate that a swamp may be next to a forest or mountain or city. So sets from one year can easily be played alongside sets from another. Whereas a hover police car next to a regular police car will look odd.

LEGO doesn't care what adult collectors think of their child-focused sets. When a kid wants a police set, and they can't have one because LEGO made one three years ago and won't make one for another three years, it is a problem. When it is the child's fault that they weren't into LEGO back then and any "real" loyal LEGO fan would have bought it and now want something different, it is a problem. And the world isn't changing that much, there are still police cars and police stations. Kids want this type of set. One of the biggest surprises for me is that they haven't yet done a police modular. They are doing this all the time, frequently changing one aspect of City. The core police type sets are always there, but they've recently done for example, Mountain Police, Forest Police, Swamp Police, ... In a sense, it doesn't really matter what the police type is, as they have similar aspects that appeal to kids each time, there will be cops and robbers, there will be a helicopter, etc. As to monorails and steam trains in City, I'd hope they don't go there. How many kids go on a monorail or steam train, or are knowledgeable or care about them? Sales of even normal trains are slow, those would be worse. Monorails used to have a certain futurism about them, now they are just theme park or airport transfer systems. I'd hope they keep the kids sets for kids, keep out what adults want in them and keep in what kids like (helicopters are more fun to play with than trains according to my kids and are cheaper as less parts, plus they don't need loads of track to set up before playing, using up their play time).

It will be good for Gandalf too, better than the old one. And doesn't need to be cut like the cat-lady hair from the CMF to fit about the beard.

They've already done Wiggum, Snake and the police car so this would be covering old ground again. I cannot see the theme happening again somehow. Your pricing seems way off too. $200 for a 2500 piece set, with 14 minifigures (school) and 15+ minifigures (Blockoland), depending on what you include in the families. Seems very low compared to other licensed sets.

Yes there were. The coastline of North Africa (the Barbary Coast) had many pirates operating along it - arab pirates robbing / slaving from European ships. Just search for Barbary Pirates and you will see. Of course, these are different to the classic pirates of literature, but then so were the pirates operating in the Carribean.

I do something similar, it's much cheaper than PF lights plus you can get colour too! The resistor calculation shouldn't be too big a deal, as there are many calculators to work out the value you need if you know the forward voltage, for example: https://www.kitronik.co.uk/blog/led-resistor-value-calculator/ http://ledcalc.com/ I also found some 5mm LEDs are bigger than others, and need a little fine sanding around the edges before they fit into a technic hole. This doesn't make any difference as you don't see the sides.

It could be their future based on our current view / technology. Last time we saw castle, there were still kings and knights, so it may not need to revert back to the feudal system if that never went away.

No. Sometimes it is better to let small markets die if they are not cost effective compared to your other ranges. Remember putting production capacity into one area removes production capacity from another. Especially when those die hard fans are likely to complain anyway, no matter what you put out.

That is true of many in-house themes. Atlantis, Alien Conquest, Galaxy Squad, Monster Fighters, Pharaoh's Quest ... who would take the heroes over the villains?