MAB

Although it is a nice idea, I'm not so sure they'd sell very well especially when you consider the sales of full ranges. Stick this up against Star Wars and the multitude of what seems to be barely recognizable ships and a few nice minifigs, and SW will still sell 10x more. Kids won't want it, would AFOLs display the builds? The Fell Beast is the highlight for me, the others although you can see what they are, I don't think I would display them. With Legolas, Eomer, Gollum, Uruk-hai, Nazgul it is also a lot of repetition of what is past. Do you intend a new print for Gandalf, or just the now regular Santa with Gandalf's head and beard? Otherwise it is only really old Bilbo that is new. Even if it did get to 10K in three months, timing is against it too. It wouldn't be done until Xmas 2015, missing the regular sets on the shelves, and possibly the end of the license too. Sorry it sounds so negative, but I cannot see it going anywhere.

They are brickwarriors torches... http://www.brickwarr...om/metal-torch/ Same with the kite shield up the top.

Why would they put the Bo5A Bard in this set? It would still be another Bard, just in different clothes - the wrong clothes for the scene. There would also be people complaining that we have already got Thranduil, and this is just another version. Legolas is there because he sells sets. Not everyone gets every set. It is a shadow, from the flick of hair in that hairpiece.

You didn't support the Research Institute. You supported the Female Minifigure Set. There were a number of different scenes in the original submission, three of them happened to be science based. The whole point of the submission was not the Research Institute, it was the female minifigs.

If they name it right, yes. They already have Elven helmets, Dwarven helmets, etc. And Goblin shields with white hand print... Of course, they wouldn't call them Gondor helmets, but come up with a generic name.

The Eagles played a fairly important role though. And they got there before Beorn, didn't they? Plus the important thing is how it is portrayed in the PJ film, as that is what the set is based on.

After seeing the new Hobbit wave, I also think Lego has given up on Hobbit/LOTR, and just fulfilling their contracts. It is time for brickforge or brickwarriors or one of the other custom parts companies to step in and create a Gondor style helmet and a Witch King mask. I'm glad I bought a load of BF dwarf helmets when they were cheap.

How many people would buy lego sets if they were just different sized boxes of primary colour bricks (bricks, not parts, but I'll let you include a few windows and doors). How many of those would buy the same or a similar box again the next year, and the next year, and so on. Lego needs sets to inspire children to build and to survive as a company. As for collectable minifigs, there are different ways of using them. Personally, I don't have the collect-them-all mentality. I collect the ones I like, often in large numbers to army build, for MOCs. I also use single characters to inspire smaller MOCs. There are a number of them that I don't like, so I don't feel the need to keep them if I happen to get them.

I don't think you should expect a fair and objective assessment, though. At least, not from Lego. They will do a business focused assessment. If stopping exclusives hits their bottom line at events like SDCC, and they lose advertising deals / discounts because of drawing in less people, then they won't stop.

I doubt it. Probably just a regular slope, a cape and a bit of artist license in the box art.

Remember if you do want LEGO to keep doing exclusives for comic cons and other events, then you can also write to them and tell them how much you enjoy that they make these figures that would otherwise not make it into more general retail sets.

That is what is happening more and more on lego ideas now. For example, this idea ... https://ideas.lego.com/projects/74539 has been featured on a number of blogs recently, for example: http://thefamilybric...ry-exploration/ http://nerdapproved....xploration-set/ There is very little discussion about the set. The whole focus of it seems to be a female in a non-confrontational space role, although she is about to mine alien planets for their minerals. I reckon it would have only half that number of votes if the head was a male one.

Brickmap is a LEGO CEE team idea, to collect resources together, from custom parts to film makers to jewellery makers. You might be able to find someone in the database that does what she needs. http://brickmap.info/index.php

I would imagine it is down to the truck looking like modern warfare. The difference between allowed violence and not allowed violence seems to be a very fine line, and only lego knows where it is.

If that is Lego's stance on who this product is for, then they should simply refuse to sell it to anyone that doesn't have a young female with them in store. However, I don't believe that is their view. I also don't think it is aimed exclusively at young females. I have also heard many are going to older females in science.

There is a reason that the set is on sale. It is because it is not selling. People don't want it at the RRP. Plus there is not much point selling the set to fund MOCing. Open it up, and sell the minifigs. That is where the value is. And you have the bricks left for MOCing.

90 viracocha 3 32 yatkuu 2 252 minoton 1 151 greg3 1 143 moctown 2

It lasted over three months at most European S@H sites. It was definitely three months for UK S@H.

My preference is for more gender neutral parts. Not because I don't want female torsos, I do. I want a decent selection of male only torsos, a decent selection of female only torsos and where appropriate a selection of torsos that could be used for either. So for example, a pirate torso for a man with his shirt unbuttoned, will be for a man. A woman in a dress will be a woman. But a train guard or a lab-coat wearing scientist, why not use a neutral torso? Especially where we are likely to only ever get one of a torso, it helps customisers if that torso is gender neutral if at all possible. It also has the bigger effect of helping to increase the number of female characters in sets, without putting off boys by including more / too many female minifigs in sets. If a character can be either sex by a simple change of a head (and possibly hair, depending on headgear), then sets could contain for example: 1 male figure 1 female figure 2 of choice of the user. So the ratios there are as low as 25% female, or as high as 75% female, depending on the choice of the user. It's nothing to do with morals, or not liking big breasted minifigs, it is down to wanting better gender balance in sets without wanting to put off the main target group, and wider choices of generic rather than specific parts. Part of this is down to when I grew up, lego was much less specific than it is now. Fewer specialised parts meant more need for imagination. Minifig printing has followed the same pathway as parts, we have highly specialised parts that can be used for one thing and little else, the same is starting to be true of minifigs too. With increased detail, we loose flexibility. I would still use that as a male torso. The buttons cannot even be seen (although I'd still use it if they were seen) and so the detail is only down to what way the collar overlaps. We give enough leeway to the design due to the minifig shape, that for me, minor details are not so important. It wouldn't bother me if for example, in Lego City, men had clothes that button up either way. After all, due to their body shape, buildings are all the wrong shape (wide and stumpy), cars are often single seated with the driver in the centre, and so on. Older torsos managed it - they had buttons down the middle, without representing the button holes.

You don't have to. You can paint the pupils on the head with tiny spots of paint, then apply the waterslide decal over the top. Depending on the size of the eye around the pupil, you can cover up any dodgy paint job with the decal print. That way, the eyes are nice and punchy, and you get the benefits of the clear waterslide decal for the rest of the face.

What do you mean by technically bigger? For number of parts, yes. But for weight, no. Box size, no. Largest dimension, no. I doubt it would ever be a re-release. A newer version maybe, but that is not a re-release and wouldn't affect the secondary market pricing of the original.

Yes it is. Does a minifigure collector that frames and displays their minifigs enjoy them? Does a polybag collector that displays their unopened polybags enjoy them any less? Does a MISB collector that displays the unopened boxes enjoy them any less? Different people enjoy things in different ways.

I have the problem going both ways. Sometimes I want fleshie and sometime yellow skin. I wish they would do away with the little neck line in yellow / flesh that rules this out for most minifig torsos. Clearly for some they need flesh / yellow printing, but when it is so small it is annoying (like the CMF British Police Constable). I so wanted that torso without the yellow print.

While they have reused some parts / molds, there are plenty that have not been reused. I'm mainly looking at you Roman shield and helmet. Yes, I do. I mentioned it before here http://www.eurobrick...00#entry1945230. A large pirate ship, for me, rules out a large castle set. Whether they bring out another pirate series with POTC coming again is a matter of debate. So it might well be the large pirate ship and more small junior-part castle sets like this year.

It doesn't have to be built to be enjoyed. For example, for polybags I nearly always get two. One to build and display one to keep sealed. I like the fact that I have a product that is exactly as it left the factory. I have my own small version of the lego vault. Plus I don't think lego cares too much about how often the products are played with, they care about how many are sold.