MAB

Lego S@H (UK) very briefly had Lonely Mountain and the other Hobbit sets at a 25-30% discount this morning, and they have now all moved to "retired product", except for Lake Town. So if you are after one and see it somewhere, your last chance is probably imminent.

If you use black or brown RIT dye you will be able to darken the stems, but I doubt you will get either consistency or be able to match the official colour. RIT is great for making things go black. Any other shade is tough. It does work OK on some soft parts like stems but not handcuffs.

Make a jig, and polish off 20 at a time.

I think you've thrown down the gauntlet there, so the daily posts will never end. With this post, I've just done my bit for another day :-) Indeed, goodbye official sets and a continued hello to MOCs.

It's going to be monster fitness instructor, isn't it? :-) I'm also fine with them, if they have parts I can use. For example, your "Ocean Warrior" in the signature tab. To me that is just a rehash of the Ocean King and the Roman Soldier. Yet it would give another fish tail, probably another bare chested torso and a new colour Roman helmet. Which would be perfect.

Wave after wave of LOTR? I guess you are strictly correct. It was wave 2 after wave 1. Then it stopped.

I don't really see the point of resubmitting with no changes. If it took two years to get 500 votes, it won't do any better submitting it again.

Actually the physics (or chemistry) could well be different there, as they can be in different factories in Europe or in the US. ABS is a polymer, not a well defined small molecule, and the actual polymer made (both in the composition and in the distribution of the polymer molecule sizes) will depend on the manufacturing process. If the conditions are not the same, then ABS from different sources can have slightly different physical properties.

There is also the Eccentric Party http://eccentricparty.org/ along a similar line, and many one man (or woman) type single issue parties. They have a fairly sensible policy ... fluorescent dog food so you can see poo in the dark. There is of course a fictional one in Blackadder III - the "Standing at the Back Dressed Stupidly and Looking Stupid" Party

I'm a fan of the "hole" too. Did you buy the brown Rohan helmets from Jimmy's store on bricklink?

It could really do with some texture adding on the walls, such as the grille or log bricks or some snot bricks with tiles on the sides.

LEGO were not the first by a long way ... https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=caticorn

And if they give you Zamor spheres instead?

Go miniland style instead?

And there's the problem - who is going to give it publicity? LOTR has been done, so media is unlikely. It is owned by a large corporation, and they already have a license with lego, so WB are unlikely to promote it. The actors and crew don't seem to care (like Simon Pegg with the Shaun of the Dead project). LOTR fan sites don't seem to be that bothered. Lego staff might give it staff picks again, although now Minas Tirith failed and if Lothlorien gets there and fails then their behaviour may change.

On Bricklink, the definition is ... Complete - Set contains all parts necessary to build all of the models (including alternate models) in the instructions but does not have to contain the original box/packaging and/or extra parts I think it is fairly standard not to include extra parts, since they are not in the instruction list.

Or just more architecture.

In some countries it is still available for below RRP. For example, £35 from ASDA in UK.

Probably. But aren't they normally more expensive than the equivalent blank pieces?

Nice! Now make the body. :-)

I agree. It seems that there is no LOTR fanbase that is clamoring to get these sets made by getting the members of the fanbase to vote, compared to Purdue Pete or Big Bang or Golden Girls or any of the others. That suggests that the fanbase is not that bothered. If LOTR fans have not bought into LOTR lego already, then having a fell beast set is fairly meaningless to them. What's the point of it if they cannot get the Fellowship? Whereas a Big Bang Theory set containing the main cast makes perfect sense for a Big Bang Theory fan to vote for it.

An alternative view is that they need people to want them. It is clear people are not going to ideas, searching for Witch King, and voting for projects. Of course, we know that is not how ideas projects get to 10,000. Yet the massive existing fan base does not seem to be giving these smaller projects a boost like Dr Who fans have done, same for Golden Girls, BBT, Zelda, Minecraft, etc.

Or they both saw this two weeks ago and though "I can do better" https://ideas.lego.com/projects/103214

And there is the ideas problem, these sort of things are not making it. Lego didn't make them in the previous line-up and people are not voting for them on ideas. There is another Fell Beast project on ideas, let's see how this one does https://ideas.lego.com/projects/103959 although it is similar to the one https://ideas.lego.com/projects/41453 that didn't make it 1/3 of the way.

BL cuusoo started mid December, and the piano reached 10,000 end of December. I cannot remember the exact date that the deisgner decide to try to sell the piano through the BL cuusoo platform, it would have been close and probably soon after the goal was reached on ideas. It would have been strange for lego to delete the project once it was announced to be in the review. Probably easier to just not pass it.