MAB

I believe this is because they need the spaces in the warehouse for other new parts. The new stuff for sale has to go somewhere so any remaining old stock of sales parts will presumably get sold off in bulk through those European warehouse type outlets. How they handle the replacement parts (as opposed to sales), I don't know. It could be that they now keep the parts in stock for X number of months past the set retirement date and assume that anyone purchasing the set will have opened them by then, and reported any missing parts. Or maybe they keep a smaller stock of replacement parts where the standard parts were kept and so can fulfill missing or broken parts for a longer time.

So instead of passing on F1 I'll be passing on Spiderman. No difference to me. I don't think that is true. Lots of kids do have electronic toys but LEGO still sells well. I sell quite a lot of City and Minecraft sets and I don't think those are going to adults. Whereas Star Wars, LOTR, larger Creator and Modulars, and most of the Technic I sell, I'm fairly sure they are going to adults or older teens.

It is perfectly fine to give up a hobby you no longer enjoy, or maybe never really enjoyed. What you say about LEGO could be written about any hobby, whether it is buying loads of sports equipment but rarely playing that sport, buying loads of books and never reading them, buying high end camera gear but never taking photos, buying kitchen equipment but never cooking, and so on. I get a lot of pleasure out of building with my LEGO and haven’t really spent that much money on it in the past ten years. I still buy LEGO, mainly to have new figures or new parts that I want to make new MOCs around and I sell on the parts I don't want, and I also buy sealed sets to sell on to cover costs of the hobby so i dont feel the need to think about how much I'm spending or what else i could have bought with that money. I spend time on it, especially in colder months, but I consider it time well spent as I enjoy it. I cannot really spend that 'LEGO time' on other hobbies, especially in winter, as I prefer building compared to other activities. Whereas in summer I can go for weeks without building something as other hobbies take preference.

Ah, I hadn't seen that list. Bizarrely, the Nazgul torso is a bestseller part again.

Is this a fact? It is still available just not as a bestseller. It could be restocked. It might also come back as a non LOTR part. Pippin's torso has been available for ages on PAB and has now shown up in the lifeboat GWP. There often seems to be no reason behind some decisions. Just when we think we understand things, they do something strange.

Interestingly, for Europe they are also no longer a bestseller part. Very few of the new torsos are not bestseller, just the Nazgul and one other on the first few pages. I imagine this means that they are out of stock in the bestseller warehouse in Europe, so badge them as standard and will ship them once replenished or ship them from the 'standard' warehouse. It will be interesting to see if this is how they handle parts in demand for us in Europe, as it keeps them in stock and available to order but on a slower delivery schedule.

The nice thing about the moulded dragons and Smaug is that the have the smooth organic shapes but a lot of articulation. Whereas big figs like Hulk and cave trolls are much more rigid and less posable. The new brick built Creator dragon looks good as a Creator set but I don't think that such sets fit so well with what has gone before. Another possibility might be like Jun-Chi from Orient Expedition, to create a large figure with molded head and possibly part of the torso but with wings and fire attached to the body.

"Old Luke" hair is quite reasonable too.

Most of the uninteresting ones are expensive too!

There are always exceptions. Pippin's torso from Rivendell has been on PAB for ages and now is appearing in the lifeboat GWP.

For me it is a very weak series with just one interesting figure. I'm also not a fan of the Cupid figure. However, given the timing of the set, it wouldn't surprise me if that figure is sought after on the secondary market in early February only for demand to drop off again, then pick up again on a yearly cycle. Something similar happened back in 2011 with the Graduate CMF. I bought the dregs of packets left in boxes on shelves at 50p a piece. I bought just over 200 packets and got over 40 Graduates with a similar number of Fitness Instructors with only a couple each of the Dwarf, Royal Soldier and Gladiator. I put the Graduates into storage for a few years, then come May and June, put a few on ebay and Bricklink each year. They peak in value at graduation time and easily sell for £18-20 now. The way CMF production and reselling has gone, I doubt Cupid will be that good but I imagine it will still be popular outside of hard-core LEGO fans.

I don't think sets like that are for train fans. We got 40138 Christmas Train as a GWP back in 2015, and it has been used as a Christmas decoration every year since then.

That looks great. It appears to be the new(ish) 'open' hood, Good for Nazgul and the torso is much nice than the one in the set that has the printed fur and belt over the insignia and the pouch that looks a bit silly if you have multiple figures. I just hope the new torso doesn't have a similar pouch. In the picture I saw, the shield was in the way and I couldn't see the side of the torso.

Scale isnt particularly good anyway, when you compare hobbits to Legolas or Aragorn. I imagine a big fig would be too bulky, especially around the arms, to look good and would also be problematic to get the fiery look with a solid body and they can really attach much to those big fig bodies. Whereas if brick built, then they can make it look much more fire like even if this results in being a bit big. Or they could go the other way in scale and make it a large minifigure, a bit like they did with Lord Business in TLM, increasing height through leg attachments, allowing fire attachments to come off a brick on a neck bracket and off the legs. I think I'd go for the brick built solution.

Of course, if there is one. A lot of things appeared to sell poorly 10 years ago. Aside from Orthanc, I was able to purchase every LOTR and Hobbit set at at least 30% off, commonly 50% off and for some sets just over 60% off. Most of my series 1 to 10 CMF were bought for about £1.20 when released due to common discounts although I used to buy up boxes at clearance for 50p a figure at the end of their run. I think part of the reason for weaker sales of Simpsons S2 was the choice of characters and people realising they were not going to do important characters. And partly due to lower numbers of collectors at the time. Harry Potter sets were also really heavily discounted in 2011/12 but LEGO brought that theme back to obvious success. Café Corner and Emerald Night were also discounted suggesting they weren't selling well at the end of their shelf time. A lot has changed in 10 years. Minifig collecting is more popular. LEGO is more popular. Adults are more likely to sets and minifigs for themselves. I rarely see heavily discounted LEGO or CMF these days when 10 years ago it was common. I don't think poor sales then correlate with what would happen now.

If he is the only one, I'd skip it. Sideshow Bob and/or Mel, then I'd buy just the minifigs on BL. I think the only way I'd buy into The Simpsons sets again is if they did Moe, Barney, Skinner etc in an early new set. If they aren't going to do characters I like and I have all the originals, I'll stick with what I have.

I don't think so. Usually when these offers go out of stock, that is it. But it might be different for sets compared to the coins, keychains, etc.

Using the same moulds or same shaped heads if they need new moulds is fine for the same characters. They were good the first time. But if there are no new characters, then I'm out already. Hopefully it causes some new interest in LEGO Simpsons as I still have loads of the two previous CMF series to sell on.

Buy when there is a good GWP from LEGO or when there is a good discount from another retailer if it is not an exclusive. If you don't buy often, then I wouldn't prioritise getting Insiders points, as you have to place further orders to use them.

You'll be surprised. It depends on what the adverts are, but I recently saw a video of someone saying that they got about $800 for per 100,000 views, so that would be $8 per 1000 views. I can understand it if they are getting paid or even in the case of a product, as a pseudo-validation that their decision to spend their money a certain brand was the right one and everyone else is wrong. But when it comes to free content, it costs nothing to watch creator A and creator B aside from time. Personally, when I watch videos I do it with an adblocker, and watch at double speed so I doubt creators like my viewing stats as they don't get the watchtime on the video or any ads delivered. Even for people I watch a lot, I am not going to watch adverts just to make them money.

LEGO doesn't need to make those c-list characters if your customs are good enough for b-list, just make custom versions of those too.

My daughter had a couple of Elves dragons and they got played with a lot. They are very cartoony, too cutesy for Castle, but they fit perfectly with the Elves style. I think they held together pretty well even during heavy play with all their flying around her bedroom.

The head and jaw maybe, but the rest of the body (without the printing) is pretty generic and as it is buildable, they could easily swap out some parts such as the spiked neck for a smooth neck. Some of the parts have been used in other themes. Although even a green version of the non-IP Kingdoms dragon would be nice. They almost got there in the troll ships years ago.

Even sweeter as by reviewing it, you get another 100 euros or whatever from youtube for that video if you have enough clicks. There is little wonder content creators are protective of their accounts and asking for subscribers and continually feed the youtube algorithm whether they have something new or useful to say, or just recycle ideas from the past. On the other hand, I find it strange and actually a little creepy that followers become so defensive of their favourite content creators, and also so aggressive towards rival content creators, like they owe a debt to their idols and have to help "support the channel".

For you (and me) building may be the main step, but look at how many kids (and adults) these days build their LEGO once then keep it as a set and not use the building aspect again. As to scale, they are similar in that they are small handheld dolls that are played with in a similar way. Most toys are role playing or story telling but the style of play is different depending on their size. A lego minifigure holding a sword (or proton pack) is very similar to a playmobil doll holding a sword (or proton pack) and the play style is similar. Whereas a child holding a life-sized sword (or proton pack) will play with that toy in a very different way even if they are basing play on the same storyline. The latter is also more immersive in that the child is the character, whereas when using dolls they are outside of the play even if they project their feelings onto the doll. So I'd say LEGO and Playmobil have much more in common than a toy from the same franchise made at life size.