MAB

I buy most of my Lego online too rather than in store. It doesn't stop me checking out stores when doing my weekly shop though. The good thing about online is that you often know exactly how much stock a store has, and how fast it sells. By looking at stock levels you know sales speeds and also when they restock. I can tell you that Hobbit sales on amazon UK (direct from amazon) have not be good, much slower than wave 1 Hobbit, and slower than both LOTR waves.

You don't need to blend or break parts. Just pop the parts into a very small amount of acetone in a jar and leave them. Even if they are large duplo bricks in a tiny amount of acetone, they will slowly dissolve and as they dissolve, the upper ends fall into the solvent. If you want a decent thickness paint, keep adding lego parts until no more dissolves. You should leave it (with a lid on) for a few days to make sure they have fully dissolved. Then just pull out any undissolved parts and use the remaining thick paint. You'll be surprised how much lego you can dissolve in acetone. The first time I tried it I physically covered the parts in solvent, and the paint was much too weak. You probably only need 10% of that amount to dissolve it all and end up with a nice thick paint. Also the more acetone in it, the more that will evaporate off later, meaning longer drying time but also more shrinkage. Thsi is definitely a problem if you try to use it to mold parts. I did this even with the really thick stuff, and they still shrunk afterwards why they started drying.

Of course it is. Search for Smaug brick built and there are MOCs of Smaug. Not recreations of the official LEGO molded Smaug, but MOCs.

So far, not so good from what I've seen. But it is still available at retail, and hasn't gone on discount yet.

Sure, Lego knows their own sales figures better than anyone else. But many fans, and especially resellers, have quite a good idea about how sales are going. This is especially true online, where it is normally easy to monitor how fast items are selling. PS I can estimate 1cm without using a ruler. Hence the use of the word about.

You cannot get replacements for CMF from Lego. Lego sends a new random bag. They say they have no access to the parts.

Thanks copmike, I can only imagine the fun of posting that many parcels in one day. :-)

No, but when you combine it with discussions with afols, other parents of kids, an interest in what others are buying, or even picking up off the shelf, stock numbers available during sale periods and how fast that stock sells, levels of discounts needed before something sells in any quantity, whether a store stocks further waves, and so on gives a reasonable impression.

Why should these be based on Mary's Shelley's story? That type of monster has already been done. This one is more in the style of the Groovie Goolies ( .)Similarly, we already have a number of crazy scientists, so they have gone more in the director of an even more cartoonish crazy scientist. I have nto seen any claim by Lego that they are meant to be representations of the characters in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. They don't need to be true to them. They need to appeal to kids. You cannot, because the body would not be zombiefied just the head. Although if you want to use that argument, then it is an argument against any updated soldiers, etc. We already have two roman soliders, if you want more just replace the heads. If you want more spartans, just replace the heads. And so on.

It's also available in silver too.

If a store took wave 1 and 2, then doesn't take wave 3, then it is a fairly good indication that wave 1 was not a good seller for them. They would probably already have signed order contracts to get wave 2 while 1 was out, but not yet placed orders for wave 3. If you visit a store enough, you can often tell if stock is shifting. I once aligned a load of sets (this was SW, not Hobbit) so that they were staggered by about 1cm left and right. The same pattern of boxes was there a week later. I assume that none of them had been touched, by customer or staff.

^ Sex in the City. Probably. I'm male so don't watch stuff like that.

The warriors are not the same, but then neither are any of the new ones in S14. But if the zombies all count as the same idea / concept, then so should the ancient warriors. The fact that we may have a zombie businessman and a zombie pirate and a cheerleader zombie is no different to having a spartan warrior and a roman warrior and an egyptian warrior. The fact that we get more than one businessman zombie is also no different to getting more than one type of roman soldier. People that like a subject often like variation in that subject. People outside of it will just see yet another rehash, even though it is different.

I'd say a zombie cheerleader is a different concept to all the other zombies that have come in the past, and the cheerleaders that have come in the past. I'd put that on par with a Roman soldier following a Spartan. They are different but sort of the same idea - soldier from ancient times in different clothes / armour, zombie in different clothes. The werewolves are totally different too. The CMF one was a regular head with hairpiece, the MF one a molded head. This one appears to be a new molded head in a new colour. So that is similar to the Roman Soldier being followed by the Roman Commander. Very slightly different but essentially the same to someone that doesn't care about it, yet important for those who want that difference. I'm looking forward to the new werewolf head, it looks like a perfect match for Grandma Visitor / Red Riding Hood, better than the brown one. How many prospective buyers of these were collecting when Studios was out? How many were even born? I don't see that they are redundant, any more than another police station, another technic truck, another X-wing, another Luke Skywalker, all of which sell well for lego. People buy pocket money toys at halloween, these are likely to sell well. Lego doesn't care too much what has gone before, they care about what will sell now. I wonder if the same logic holds for other characters. Lego should never do a new Spartan or other Greek warrior, no more Romans (already has a rehash), no more Highlanders or knights (multiple rehashes), no more mythological creatues / gods (multiple counterparts already), no more Asian or African or Pacific warriors, no more female "Amazon" warriors from Greek history... all those concepts have been done. If lego sees the complaints and decides they should act* they won't change this set, it is coming no matter what. But maybe they will not do another themed set. A new ancient warriors CMF series (or pirates or castle or city or whatever takes your fancy)? No chance, the people don't want it. * I don't believe they will care too much what people say about it. If it sells, it is a success. That is all that matters to them. Personally, I would like to see many more rehashes (or counterparts) of other Greek warriors, Romans, Vikings, as well as Norman Conquerors and Saxon battlers. I'd like more mythology too. I'd even like a single themed CMF series ... It wouldn't worry me if the CMF series all became themed. Sure, sometimes I'd have to miss an entire theme due to lack of my interest in it rather than skipping probably 50%-75% of the minifigs in each series, but then I do that with other lego anyway. Sometimes I skip entire themes as they hold little interest for me. There are benefits and cons to having themed series. A big benefit for this one is that it is going to be out at the right time of year. Maybe past series haven't sold so well, and lego wants to try out having time sensitive themes like this to boost sales. It seems to work with the poly bags.

I'd agree with that. There are some really nice quality fakes / customs available now, but you can tell they are fake if you have them in hand if you know what the original looks like. Some designs, to me, are as good as the originals (just without the lego logo), but not identical to the originals. I have ... They target Marvel, but also DC, SW, LOTR/Hobbit, TMNT, CMFs, City, Ninjago, Chima, ...

You group all of the werewolves together as if they are the same minifigure. Same with the zombies. Now think of it from the point of view of someone that doesn't like historical CMFs. Spartan, Roman Soldier, Roman Commander, Hun, Egyptian Warrior. That's 5 "ancient warriors", just rehashes of each other. I like historical CMFs, so I can appreciate the differences, but to someone that doesn't they are just rehashes, like all the werewolves and zombies are just rehashes to you.

Yeah, I guess if a collector only wants one Riddler for example, they can choose a cheaper one of the two recent ones available. I wonder how many buy one, then decide they should probably get the alternative versions anyway.

The casual buyer is unlikely to pay $60 or whatever for a figure anyway, so the fact that they can buy one for probably $10 with a book won't change the price of the original.

It is normally down to supply and demand. In most cases, I don't think the price drop is due to counterfeits, it is more availability - eg. the same Joker has now appeared in a numebr of sets so his value is likely to drop. More modern alternatives don't necessarily affect the prices of older figures, if the older ones still have some demand because they are different. Although prices of yellow skin SW characters were hit, since most people want fleshie to tie in with modern ones. If you are happy owning a fake, then get the cheaper fake. If not, you will need to pay the higher asking price. For white Boba, I don't see the price of the old one dropping much with the new one coming out. They are so different, many collectors will still want them both. In fact, the new white one coming out may make some collectors want both, and could even push up the price a little.

And I don't understand why people don't like the series. The monsters look great, even better if you don't already have the S4 monster. If you don't like the series, then don't buy it. Same as anything else in life. If you are a completist that buys them only to make sure you have every one, then you have to buy them, or stop being a completist. After all, this is a numbered series and cannot be skipped like Simpsons or TLM or Team GB. But if that is your situation, then I'm willing to bet that you already have some figures that you don't really like, but got them anyway to be complete.

I have cut parts in the past (especially minifig parts), and have no problem doing it if a purist solution doesn't exist. I've used - Stanley knife (thin bladed craft knife), good for thin parts and either straight or curved cuts. Bench grinder, good for larger parts, where you want a flat surface. Dremel type sander with a small circular head, for smaller parts where you want a curved surface. Dremel cutter, good for cutting off excess, a few mm away from the final surface to be finished with sandpaper / grinder as above. Hot wire cutter (thin tensioned wire with an electrical current running through it to heat it) - very good for getting concave straight and angular holes / grooves. You can get perfect 90 degree cut outs, which is often difficult with other tools. If you want to cut a groove, I'd consider the hot wire.

It might also be that they cannot get the license for it and give that as a generic reason.

Yes, but as I said, I don't see them as rehashes. I like the fact that the pirate captain doesn't change much, he is the same character after being transformed into a zombie. If they changed the colour of his coat, or a completely different outfit, then that would not be possible. Same with the lumberjack, it's great that he is wearing the same shirt. He is the same person, just after transformation into a werewolf. For the same reason, I would have preferred the zombie cheerleader to be wearing the blue vest rather than the new one. The rock monster is a pretty clear rehash - essentially just another monster but with a guitar. Same for the witch, it is just another witch (even though new). To me, the transformation characters offer much more than the rehashes.

My worst ones ... S1 - diver - bearing in mind this series was out at the same time as Atlantis, and the CMF got the worst diving gear. S2 - none, all fine S3 - tennis girl and baseball player - I'm not a fan of ball sports figures, especially as they don't even get the ball. S4 - possibly soccer player, although not as bad as above S5 - fitness instructor, for me this is the worst CMF ever produced S6 - none S7 - none, but close with the bride. There should have been a groom in the same series. If done now, he'd just be a top hat guy. But they both go a bit too close to regular city figures. S8 - none S9 - roller derby girl, I never use it and not very interesting parts for me S10 - none, but close with the baseball player (see S3 above) S11 - lady robot, just stupid design to me S12 - none S13 - samurai, lady cyclops, galaxy trooper, all because they are too similar to previous ones S14 - too early to say until I see them in hand, but probably rock monster, although I'll still get a few of him for parts Lego Movie - most of them: I only liked Shakespeare, Mrs Scratchen-Post, barista and panda suit - all for parts Team GB - none Simpsons - none, although I would have preferred different characters first time around, the ones they did were fine. If they miss out key characters though (Barney, Moe, Skinner), it will seem a loss. So for me, the worst series by far is The Lego Movie.

It's not just inspired by Robin Hood, but Errol Flynn's Robin Hood. It's quite different to the old forest man.