MAB

Yeah, clever use of limited bricks. It is quite like a movie set - brilliant view from the camera, but don't peek round the sides!

I imagine it will be a section, so quite a bit of greys with some foliage around.

I can't. Sales would depend on people buying another set, which is supposedly random blind bagged. Also, I doubt most people would care enough to buy a display case for something like the policeman on his own. He is not exactly an attractive figure, only really interesting as he was one of the first minifigures. Most kids won't care about that.

They do look superb. Probably one small improvement would be to use 2x4 tiles for where you have stickered the decoration, just so there are not decorations over multiple parts. Although there is no 2x6 tile if you want consistency on the other panels, so you'd need to stick with either the two 1x6 tiles vertically, or go with three 2x2 tiles here (to keep them 2 wide).

I've not seen the cuffs done like that but various custom parts makers do vambraces in a similar way, plus I did see some frilly cuffs once to match the S8 actor's ruff.

Might as well add a Witch King to the wish list. It'll never happen though. It's been so long since the sets of they ever do LOTR again, they'd probably redo the core characters.

Yep, either would have worked although a full CMF of vintage figures would have probably bombed unless they put in some decent ones, not just plain torsos and boring police uniforms (boring compared to the multitude of today's police minifigures). A set of vintage space in all the different colours would be nice for AFOLs but probably not so much for kids.

There were so many stickers like that, there was an acronym for it: STAMPS - STickers Across Multiple PartS.

I found The Simpsons were useful for parts, but not so much with Batman and Disney. For example, most of the torso and legs are essentially non-licensed, in that you wouldn't necessarily think of the character if s/he didn't have the head. I'm hoping many of the HP CMF will be the same. Outside of the school uniform characters, the torsos, legs and heads might be very useful. For example, last time around I bought a load of Forbidden Forest at a discount, the parts were great for historic builds anyway, but the minifigures were also useful. Hagrid and Harry are both too licensed for all their parts, whereas Voldemort and Narcissa have useful hair, heads, torsos and legs that when apart are generic enough not to be the character.

I would have preferred it if that old truck had old style wheels. Either the old dually type smooth tyres or better still, the wheels with four studs on. Those were what I remember playing with as a kid. As it is, it just doesn't look like a set from yesteryear. The design does, but the wheels don't. I still wouldn't have bought at $20 though.

I know. But as the first CMF to use the classic style face, it doesn't fit in with the rest of the series. So presumably if the costume is fancy dress (like in the comment I replied to), then it is a mask not a real face. That said, I don't think the policeman is fancy dress. It looks like a last minute shove-in to celebrate 40 years of minifigures and is very out of place with the rest of this series (and in fact, all the other CMF series). It shows how far minifigures have come since the very simple original prints (or in this case, stickers).

And 88585 but this tends to be the CMF and licensed parts, but does include some purchasable ones.

I found this chart interesting: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=2010-01-01 2018-01-29&q=Lego Ninjago,lego star wars,lego chima Ninjago was as popular a term as Chima throughout Chima's run. Maybe not so surprising. But the interesting thing is most themes have very seasonal peaks in December. Yet Ninjago seems to remain popular throughout the year, with little evidence of a Christmas spike.

Those CMF series were not that limited. The Team GB was sold throughout the UK (I think including Northern Ireland, but may be wrong), not just restricted to England. Similar the DFB series was also available in Austria and possibly Switzerland. But this is nothing new. LEGO has done region specific sets in the past - the Chinese New Year type sets (Year of the Snake, etc) were region specific. I guess they have no financial reason to make them available in the US or Europe. I have no doubt they would sell to collectors, but it is another competing product against the rest of the line-up and probably not of interest to the more general buyer. Similarly there have been even more specific limited sets (Marina Bay Sands, etc). Again, I doubt they have the widespread appeal from general LEGO buyers to make it worthwhile to sell them, even online, elsewhere in Europe and the US even if AFOLs would want them. As noted already, that is what happened with the older style one year themes such as MF, PQ, AC, GS, etc. Maybe the financials don't work for series like that any more. A three year theme is going to need less advertising year-on-year than a one year theme once there is customer buy in. I don't know about the design aspect, but I also imagine it is easier to continue a theme than it is to come up with a completely new one each year. I think also consumers like to have a period of time to buy products from a theme, rather than have to buy everything for a theme in one year, then never see it again. As for advertising / promotion, I don't think that will work in all countries. For example, in the UK we have strict rules about toy advertising and shows that are primarily designed to sell toys (essentially the show is a long advert) are not allowed on regular TV. They are allowed on streaming services like amazon and netflix and on DVD though, but here they will not get the adverts for the other series in.

And then also a mask too. CMFs don't have faces like the old smiley.

I thought there were just 17 in the series (from the pdf catalogue that was doing the rounds), and 17 figures were shown in the pictures.

Haven't they always tried to make the most money they can? Toy sales have changed from the 60s and 70s. Licensing tie-ins for toys really took off in the 80s and has increased ever since. Kids want licenses, sometimes. Imagine what would happen if LEGO didn't have SW or other popular brands. Other companies would snap them up. Megaconstrux / Megabloks would probably be the ones making buildable SW spaceships and minifigs. LEGO wouldn't have that share of the market. That would hit both their sales and their image/reputation. If people were used to seeing famous franchises like SW with MB, then MB sales would soar. In some cases, that might be true. But not in all. My kid has loads of Batman minifigures, for example, but he still wants sets with Batman in. Even though he has no need of the minifigure. Then take a set like an X-wing. Are people really buying that for the Luke and R2-D2 (or Poe and BB-8)? In my view, no.

It is good they are putting "limited edition" on those, to make people think that they are collectables and worth having. If they were in regular packaging, I cannot see the house and windmill being very popular, even if it was $5. At $20 each, not at all. $20 each for those is an absolute joke.

The 17 is a funny number for a regular series. Even the hidden highwayman was part of a series of 16. So if one is a rarer chase figure, which one will it be? If they go for the Mr Gold route and it turns out to be the policeman who is rare, who here will be paying out $500 for him? It'll be time to dig out those old stickered torsos.

I don't think so, as you can see legs coming out the bottom. But the cake could well be a dress piece (without legs) as you cannot see the legs on this one.

I like the dragon, but the rest won't fit for me in my city. But nice if you are MOCing a fancy dress party. I like the suits when they are a one off, but loads together is too much.

Look in the history forum.

That is not what I meant. If you have a generic knight, it is a knight. It is not a policeman or a spaceman. You are told it is a knight by the costume. Is that any worse than telling you that the name of the knight is Clay? There was a story as defined by Lego. If you were able to play with MF without adhering to the story (whether you knew of it or not), then why can you not play with NK without adhering to the story? Or POTC? Or SW? Even if you know (or decide) these guys are good and these guys are bad, you can still make up stories. And that is what many kids do, even if there is a cartoon with a story. They don't have to only act out what they saw on screen, they can use their imagination and make stories up. Just because there is a story doesn't mean there cannot be other stories or that kids are wrong if they use their imaginations.

Looks good as usual. However, I'm not sure I agree that minidolls are equal to minifigs this time around, when it comes to building custom avatars of yourself. The contest seems to ignore the massive selection of parts / prints available for minifigures compared to those for minidolls - eg. for torsos over 3500 compared to 177 for minidolls (according to BL); and for heads almost 2400 (not including modified heads) compared to 60. For example, if you want to make an avatar for a policeman (or policewoman) it cannot be done with minidolls as there is no police outfit. Plus when considering legs, it says there are only the basic styles (standard, short, skirt, Queen's skirt (plus there is the new one coming)) for minifigs but completely ignores the fact that you can make brick built legs for minifigs, to make them appear like they are sitting down with knees. This is something not possible for minidolls.

Classic Castle, SPace, Pirates and current City sets are just as defined as characters. A knight is a knight. A spaceman is a spaceman. A pirate is a pirate. A firefighter is a firefighter. Just because they are not named somewhere doesn't mean their "job" role is not already clear from the detailing. Similarly, just because a minifig has a name, it doesn't mean he has to be played with in the same way as a character acts in a cartoon. For example, In Monster Fighters, LEGO told us the monsters were bad and the humans good. That the monsters were after the moonstones to unleash doom by taking out the sun. Yet it was perfectly possible to play such that the monsters (whose basic appearance was defined, but not their nature) were the good guys and the bad humans were attacking them to steal the moonstones, that the monsters believed gave them special powers from their forefathers.