MAB

Although they split up Legolas and Gimli!

If they do any of them, I hope they don't waste a space on Denethor. A purist version is easy as he doesn't really need any specific prints or parts. + +++ with a change of the hands to flesh.

Maybe lego know that many people buy for the minifigs and so are not interested in the bricks so much - which means that the sets (minus minifigs) were available quite cheaply on ebay and bricklink. More likely that they didn't think a much smaller version of the gate looked right and they had to hit the right price point. They have done similar things with trains (Horizon Express). It gets the set at the right price point, but also allows people to go bigger if they want to. No Wizard Battle would mean no Saruman for many, without purchasing a very expensive set. No Elrond's Council set would have meant no third age Elrond at the time and no Arwen. Of course they could have filled the Wizard Battle slot with Eowyn and the Witch King (and called it Witch King Battle) but maybe they thought that it would clash with the Hobbit one that they had planned. Maybe they thought people wanted Saruman. Maybe they thought they needn't do it as Eowyn and the Witch King were coming in wave 3. It is quite easy to look back and say what they should have done, but we don't know what the plans were or what the sales data were and whether the distribution of the Hobbit film caused changes.

Or the people above the designers that approve what is going forward to retail. I think the designers did a good job, even in wave 2. Wizard Battle is a wonderful little play set, also giving a cheap Saruman. Elrond Council hits a cheap set spot, using some nice elements especially the arches and leaves. The Black Gate again hits a price point and is easily doubled in size to be more movie like - I'd prefer what they did and have to buy two, then to have a full gate at a much smaller scale. And even the ship is nicely designed and reasonably movie accurate.

There's nothing worse than Lego not doing a specific piece ... apart from them doing it and making it rare in an expensive set!

I hope not, as they will lose functionality. They don't really need such character accuracy. They are minifigs, not detailed action dolls / toys. Then consider the width / height ratio or the depth / width ratio, they are completely wrong. We don't need them changing these hings just to look like a real character, or else we will just end up with a whole range of Friends style minidolls. They have their place, but hopefully not in the majority of mainstream sets.

Not really. There is a distribution of heights in real life that get mapped onto the standard minifig, then characters that are necessarily smaller get the short legs. So Harry Potter is the same height as Voldemort in minifig form. If HP was shorter, then there would be a problem with Dobby. Plus she is not significantly shorter than Howard or Leonard.

I don't think we will see a Classic Castle figure next year. We might well see a Classic Castle set, but take a look at the pirates one. There is nothing classic about it. If we get a Classic Castle promo it will likely contain a modern castle figure and modern bricks to make a small build with modern techniques.

Especially if you don't open the windows while doing it.

Buy the torsos for the cavalry soldier, rather than as minifigs, especially if you want yellow skins instead of fleshies. You can pick legs up fairly cheaply too, especially if you want a range of colours. Also start buying the revolutionary soldier now, before he goes up too much.

1) people indicated they would buy it and because they think it will make money 2) you can move the figures around and role play them, etc, or just display it, like many sets.

It might help to have an outline in the first post in every rumors and discussion thread of what can and cannot be discussed in the thread. The thread title is "rumors and discussion" but the 4th July post says "This is a thread for rumors" and doesn't use the word discussion. What discussion is allowed? General discussion of the sets or only discussion about rumors? Looking back at the posts seems to suggest general discussion of the sets has been allowed to go on (hardly any of it is rumors), yet the 4th July post says otherwise.

I wouldn't use dichloroethane, it is carcinogenic. The plastic will always be softer than real lego afterwards, as some solvent remains in it and also you have swollen the polymer. If it is very soft, you have used too much solvent. You really want the smallest amount (which is much less than you think). It needs to dissolve slowly. A couple of drops on a brick, give it a day, then another drop, and so on. That way, the minimal amount of solvent is in the "paint".

I like the build. However, for the presentation, it gives the impression that this is in a large piazza when of course there is only a narrow walkway before you are in the canal.

Disney CMF? Shouldn't this be in Star Wars :-)

With all their pre-planning, I would imagine they knew they could reuse the eagle molds for The Hobbit.

Will they do CMF series for Ninjago and Batman though? TLM2 I can understand them doing it as for TLM. But for two already existing themes, I'm not so sure doing CMF would necessarily follow. For example, there are already loads of versions of the Ninjago figures. Unless there are a lot of new figures in the movie, then they are going to want to save the movie versions of the important characters for the movie tie-in sets, not a CMF line.

Yes, I agree. But then that is also the reason to make some changes. Ideas has moved on from cuusoo, it seems to get votes you really need to think about not only the subject, but also the photography / rendering, making sure everything is thought out well before submitting and so on. I don't necessarily mean changes to the models, but changes to the way they are portrayed.

I didn't bother with Riddles for the Ring, as I already had the minifigs but every other set I bought was 50% off (this is in the UK). Some of them were 50% off even within a month of release (Dol Guldur Battle). I think there was a combination of discounts for the previous LOTR sets that people were used to (33% off was very common) and some supermarkets in the UK trying to partly out-battle each other in a bad climate and partly reduce toy stock that lead to discounts of 50% off for most Hobbit sets. Once that precedent was set, people knew they could wait for discounts and wouldn't purchase at retail price. For the investors in this scenario, staying at RRP will probably be fine as this represents a doubling of their money (before fees, etc).

They might be waiting for one that they think will sell well. Sure Minas Tirith got there, but they may be looking at sales for Orthanc and decide that such a large set is not going to make as much money as a smaller more unique offering. Development costs for the build are presumably very low for things like the Big Bang Theory set, it is really a minifig pack in a scene. Design the minifigs, and you have the set, with little play testing or stability testing problems.

I can't see them going after the Chinese based companies selling knock-off minifigs that flood ebay.

Completely different article, from more than a year ago.

As for the poor head clutch, wrap a piece of sticky tape around the neck or paint it with nail varnish (or paint the inside of the head with nail varnish - as that way the torso can still be used with other heads). It won't solve the much bigger problem of lose heads in the CMF line, but it will solve the problem for your particular minifig.

This is the licensed section, so my answer here is fleshie. In town, my answer would be yellow. In historic, I have more of a problem. Fleshie for licensed historic, yellow for non-licensed. I don't find it too big a deal these days, as there is a good mix of heads in both yellow and fleshie. And more brown heads are becoming available too. It's the torsos that are difficult. Lego seems to put the slightest bit of yellow or flesh on where it really isn't needed, and that rules out the torso from crossing over to the other side. For example, this guy would be so much more useful if he was wearing a white shirt under his jacket, with no yellow showing at the neck line.

That is just plain false, the article does not say that at all. They are not replacing plastic. They are looking at reducing the environmental impact of ABS and possibly alternative plastics.