MAB

I thought the Witch King set was the best value of the whole wave.

Does that mean that if someone builds a MOC with the intention that it looks like something out of Jurassic Park / World, but to everyone else it looks nothing like anything from the films, then it still goes into Licensed and will not be moved into Action? Is it the intention of the builder that is important, or the actual result? And how will you determine intention? That advice gives the user the say as to where it should be posted (as it is based on their intention) so maybe it would be good to add that Mods will move posts based on their own interpretation of the MOC/content, not based on the original intention of the MOCer. That is, Mods' views outweigh those of the MOCer when it comes to placement. It hopefully doesn't happen too much but we occasionally see MOCs moved into History, even though they could probably fit in more than one place.

I'm not sure lego would do a Persian army, especially not Persian vs Greeks sets. Even though those wars were 2500 years ago, having an Arab-style warrior vs a Western warrior is probably no-go for them.

How many people would really want those characters though? Regular CMFs sell in very large quantities. They are pocket money toys often sold as impulse buys for kids. A Cantina CMF set if advertised as such would probably only sell to people that already own a Cantina, and then only die hard fans, not normal kids. Most kids won't want to have to check a website or encyclopedia to know who they have got. If they were advertised as Star Wars CMF, then kids or parents might buy a couple and then not recognize anyone in them. And not buy lego again as they were advertised as Star Wars, and didn't even contain any of the popular SW characters such as Luke, Han or Vader. CMFs are sold to the masses, licensed ones need to be identifiable characters.

Dino themes may not be ongoing, but they are clearly stated in the tag lines of Action. Although of course the tag line only covers very old themes "Dino 2010/Dino Attack (from 2005)", and misses out the 2012 Dino theme. I remember when the JW rumours first started I wanted to have a look, and expected to see them there, as that is where Dino stuff goes and couldn't find anything. It seems that many things are special cases which are exceptions to the rules. Not that that matters too much, but it may just be better to say that something goes there because it goes there, rather than it goes there to follow a particular rule.

So why is Jurassic World in Licensed? There are not any current Dino sets, so it could be said that JW is replacing generic Dino.

If the numbers available are similar to his BL store, then they could be 3D printed rather than molded.

Only one of those has managed to get over 1000 votes though. Lego will only take a hint when it gets to 10000.

All the licensing details aside, I think the reason that the Simpsons were done as CMF with one flagship set is that LEGO couldn't come up with enough building sets that would sell. They probably didn't think regular people were willing to drop £400 on Simpsons sets to get them all, and that they would make more money as CMF. It'll be interesting to see if they include any alcohol related characters in the next series - Barney, Moe, (and Lenny and Carl).

Although if you look front on rather than from the side, then I find the tree quite visible. Plus it would also be a good piece for an armoured Boromir. Not that it matter much, as we aren't going to get either in purist form.

The tree is important for me as it clearly shows the soldiers are Gondor soldiers. The existing standard castle helmet is not the correct shape, but it is better than nothing. The correct shape helmet with no torso print, for me, is not as good as an acceptable helmet with the correct torso print. Also many official (unique) parts are not the correct shape anyway. For example, the official Rohan soldiers helmet is not the correct shape for many of the soldiers, they just reused the mold for Eomer's helmet. However, it is acceptable.

You need to read the sentence after. Gondor soldiers are easy to MOC and many people did it before Lego did LOTR. They don't look so good now though, as many of the other characters have so much detail - the lack of the Gondor tree symbol is probably the most important identifier, the regular helmet I could live with.

This is where the contradiction is. History describes an architectural style rather than whether something is in a licensed theme or not, or actually history or complete fiction. Whereas a dinosaur MOC based on the JP movies needs to go in licensed, but exactly the same MOC (so long as there is no JP logo) could fit into the Action theme as an unlicensed dino MOC. There is not one placed for dinosaur MOCs, it is split in two categories.

I don't think it matters too much, both flying buttresses look good so long as you are consistent with the design. The simpler one is slightly cleaner to look at, whereas the double looks much more intricate. I guess it depends on what you want people to look at. If you are having a lot of intricate details elsewhere, maybe go for the simpler design. Beautiful work.

I'd quite like Denethor too, especially if we had Faramir. And Rosie too. Fortunately both are quite easy to MOC in a purist way and look convincing. It is the specialist parts that make some characters instantly recognizable (Eowyn's helmet and hair, Witch King's Helmet, Faramir's armour, Sauron's helmet) that we are really lacking. Gondor armies are relatively easy to make from standard armour and helmets and look fairly reasonable - which is exactly what people did before Lego did LOTR. But of course, since the sets came out with so much detail in the minifigs, they no longer look as good as they did five years ago.

If you have Orthanc, then the Orc Forge looks really good displayed below it. Especially if you have a glass shelf.

I'd like the boxer shorts guy too. Especially if this series was out around Valentine's day, he could be a big draw for purchasers. The mix of parts in the girl with the lunch box is awful though. The jacket doesn't finish, and the robes from Lady Liberty don't look like a skirt.

It would be good to update the tag lines, especially for Licensed: Prince of Persia, Toy Story 3, Indiana Jones, Batman, Harry Potter, Spiderman, Spongebob Squarepants, Ferrari and more Most of those themes are a bit out of date. A LOTR MOC is similar in style to historical MOCs, so LOTR as a whole goes into History. Even though LOTR is fiction and not historical at all. Yet a LR MOC which is similar in style to a generic Old West MOC (which is History), goes into Licensed. So LR fans don't see generic MOCs, and Wild West fans don't see LR MOCs, even though they could be very similar. That is where I see the inconsistency.

I'd prefer them to make D2C sets where they are appropriate, rather than saying every theme should have one. I wouldn't want them to come up with a large Hobbit D2C set just for the sake of it.

I like the fell beast, although I'd probably find the build boring. It is essentially an empty box built twice with a gate between. Nice looking, but a bit boring. For the build itself, I'd prefer something like a smaller wall part that the fell beast can attack and maybe a small rock part with the beacon on it for the lighting of the beacons.

These looked great individually. As a company, stunning.

I doubt they will do a viking helmet (with hair) any different to this one... (S6 viking woman) I don't mind other brands doing novel items that are compatible with lego. It is when they do direct copies of existing lego parts that they become bad.

Indeed, the parts tend to be generic but visibly acceptable. Brickforge already do a dwarf beard and a dwarf helmet. I doubt they would do anything closer to the film version than these generic ones.

Before the growth of comic con, they used to do giveaways that were exclusive in packaging only (eg the 2009 SDCC SW presentation packs, cube dudes of 2010 ), but the minifigs /parts were available to all. They got discussed a bit in lego fan discussions, but not much. Most minifig collectors weren't that bothered about them as they knew they could get the figures in sets anyway. How much discussion is there (both back then and now) about sw224 Dooku for example? Bilbo and Azog went the same way, as has Bard. There was discussion at the time (both positive about the figures, and negative that they were at comic con), but it quickly died down when people knew that they were generally available. Whereas truly exclusive ones now do get discussed and remain discussed even after a few years, again there is both positive discussion about the figures and negative that they are rare/expensive. What is financially better (for lego and SDCC)? That people discuss the figures, and know of the Holy Grail type ones, and possibly have an aspiration to someday attend SDCC to get something special, or that they are not really any different to every other superhero (or other theme) one, and are not actually any more special than say getting the Penguin in a $13 set.

What is the head? It is just a plain black one with paint, or official? I'm not a fan of cloth coverings, so would prefer plain torso and legs, but it is quite effective in yours and I can see why it appeals.