MAB

You gave up a hobby because they are no longer producing LOTR sets? Surely you should have held on to the main characters of the Fellowship.

That is kind of my point. Lego has said they will not extend a contract with Shell, and made that as a direct statement as a reply to Greenpeace's action. Yet the have now made a statement that they are bringing out new sets that will promote Mobil (and also Shell on the Ferrari one). They are doing this by signing deals with non-oil companies, that also have Mobil and Shell as their sponsors. Lego hasn't made a public statement about no longer having a relationship with Bridgestone, Pirelli, etc.

The display stand looks pretty much the same as it has done (in the UK) for multiple series now. Three tiers, each containing a box.

That monk is very nice. But how does cutting the head help? Isn't the hood still in the same place so in the way of the cloak?

In the wake of the Greenpeace campaign and after LEGO decided not to extend the contract with Shell, it looks like lego have signed a new deal with three automobile manufacturers: Ferrari, McLaren and Porsche. The sneak peak shows some very nice sets. But a closer look at the stickers on them shows that the other companies' sponsors are also on the LEGO sets - so we are going from Shell to ExxonMobil, another company that Greenpeace has had conflict with about arctic drilling (this time in the Russian arctic). And also this is the day that the UK gets the new Shell sponsored sets in petrol stations. LEGO press article is here: http://aboutus.lego.com/en-us/news-room/2014/november/lego-speed-champions

I hope the paleontologist is not female. The research scientist was female. All the minifigs in the Research Institute are female. Whereas the crazy scientist is male, the MF crazy scientist is male. Will lego do a "normal" male scientist? The only ones so far seem to be old space engineers or the arctic ones. Really? Loads of hot dog vendors are female in the UK.

Do they? It seems to me many people want the minifigs. I'd prefer a small Minas Tirith set, including a Gondor soldier and white bricks, that would allow for army building much more than a large set. I cannot see lego doing a decent Minas Tirith anyway, so I'd MOC the build itself.

That's great, my favourite parts are the cacti too.

I doubt it is the designer that make the decision as to whether a video is put out. I also doubt the designers of the sets that purposely make something substandard (in the fans' eyes).

It is enough, depending on the scene you want to capture - more than one thing happens at Minas Tirith. For example, there is the fell beast attack, the large battle, the crowning, the funeral / death pyre, the lighting of the beacon, ... $10-$50 was enough to capure a scene in Rivendell, enough for a scene in Hobbitton, enough for a scene inside Orthanc, etc. Obviously not enough to capture an accurate representation of the buildings / village, but enough for a scene.

It may be that the videos don't help sales much, and that community engagement can be done in other ways. For exampe, sending out review sets to the multitude of lego bloggers and youtube users that they already use to spread user reviews rather than official views of the sets.

I have now placed votes for most Minas Tirith sets, but I have also told Lego what I would pay for them - $10 to $50. I cannot see them doing a $400 ideas set. I cannot really see them doing a $100 ideas set, not for an existing theme. If there are not going to be new molds used, then it might as well be a cheap set to get a few missing minifigs with existing parts in a new print. Not that I think it will happen anyway.

Adults shold also stop playing computer games, reading kids books like Harry Potter, watching kids movies, drawing, painting, making models, doing any craft, riding bikes for fun (transportation to from / work is fine, so long as you don't pull a wheelie), ...

Awful set but .... re-releasing the Batmobile dragon wings. Excellent. A pair of them new on bricklink is currently about half the value of the set or more.

If they made a fell beast (with a Witch King on his back) the same size as Smaug, I'd buy it. Have you ever placed Frodo or Bilbo next to Gandalf and realised the scale is not quite right? That happens with Lego, but for the most part looks fine.

Quite a few of the existing LOTR minifig parts were made in China.

That was a licensed set, so they called them what they are known as in Toy Story. The other modern soldiers that lego have made are also licensed - in Indiana Jones. They are integral to the story, so are in the Lego sets. It is still a jump for them to do modern warfare in their own lines. Why is he dressed as a clown?

Sometimes it seems they staff pick things for a laugh. After all, they are currently featuring the Imperial Hot Tub too.

The Council of Elrond is a fairly significant movie scene, as it is the creation of the Fellowship. They always have a range of set sizes, so one of them has to be small. Of course, we could have done without Gimli as he is in other sets, same with Frodo but he is a key character, but otherwise I find it a nice little set.

This is how it happened: Design group meeting: We should have a Witch King in this wave. Designer 1: OK, I'll do him. Unfortunately the designer couldn't be bothered to sit through nine hours and watched the films on 30x speed, mistaking Mouth of Sauron for Witch King. Designer 1: here he is. Design team: Perfect (also not having sat through nine hours). Designer 2: And here is a pirate ship from the film (also having skipped through at 30x, randomly stopping on one scene with a ship in it). Design team: that's us done on LOTR, let's get busy redesigning Azog's face for a major update.

Not much use to lego fans though.

That was the awful "First Knight".

I doubt it will be adult builders. It will probably be a kids show featuring kids.

LOTR is alive and well. It is just Lego LOTR that is dead. You are not the first person to say that MegaBloks completely outplayed lego this year either. Both fans and non-fans of lego seem to be saying the same.

Not only bricks are useful - I regularly use castle walls under mountains. If you get two sets of walls and put a 16x8 duplo plate on top, then you have a 32x16 equivalent lego studs mountain top to build off, which is strong but light.