MAB

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Indiana Jones, Batman, Harry Potter, Spiderman, Spongebob Squarepants, Ferrari and more Most of those themes are a bit out of date.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.

You also need to remember about how well parts will sell. Generic parts (such as a Gondor helmet) will sell in vast numbers. Specific parts (such as Witch King's helmet) will sell far less, as people won't be making armies of them. Yet production costs for molds will be similar for both (probably more for Witch King, given the design).

I'd say both. Many current two year olds are not fans of lego, but will start to be in 2-5 years time. Plus people keep having children, replenishing the source of new lego fans. And kids getting lego often brings back parents, which creates new AFOLs. And new licenses do bring in new fans. Lego sales are up for the first half year, which is attributed to The Lego Movie. So bringing in a licensed product like that, and no doubt products such as the Super Hero, LOTR and SW range, does attract fans of the license rather than just fans of lego. I know LOTR fans that have no interest in lego that have collections of LOTR minifigs for example. To the last point, I think there is a lot of lego out there now. I probably wouldn't keep buying lego if they were not coming up with new parts. I have enough to MOC with, but I will buy more if there are new parts to buy and use. If they just did general boxes of primary colours, then I would have stopped buying many years ago. The new parts / ranges don't have to be licensed - I particularly liked Atlantis and Monster Fighters for example - and again I know of a few B-movie / horror fans that have the MF minifigs displayed. However, the license comes with an instant fan base, which is clearly a big bonus when it comes to selling toys.

Yes, but would lego fans still go if they were not able to get exclusives? Would lego still get the rates they pay for their stalls if they lost getting their share of the fanbase through the doors? If it was noticed by the organisers that lego didn't have lots of people around their stall (due to nothing worth getting), then maybe they would end up having to pay more as they are not attracting the fans like other companies. There is so much that none of us know about the financing of the event, so what may seem like an unwise business decision to do exclusives is not the point. If we had all the facts (which we never will), there is probably a clear financial reason why they do it.

Another thing to bear in mind is that sometimes it is advantageous to build in any random colour first, to learn about the techniques you want to use in the castle / build. You do not need to start building the final model from the start. There is no point buying loads of parts in a specific colour only to find they don't really work as well as you thought they would.

You can get aluminium ones. Dennis Lillee used one as a marketing stunt in 1979. But now for official matches they have to be willow.

That depends on who does the cutting. :-) I see it as how lego would have made the piece, if they made it. A combined helmet and hair piece, much like the Friends style horse rider ones. Of course, the alternative is to go without what you want and have her with hair and a separate helmet that cannot be worn without removing her hair.

I never use 60808 in my castles. Why use a large part like that, when you can use bricks, arches and arched windows. That way, you do not get the ugly recesses behind the castle walls. The masonry bricks are nice for a little detail, so long as they are not overused. Especially as the brick patterns don't line up properly if you stagger the bricks.

Probably not.

For this one, it is not too bad. You just need a straight cut on a hairpiece. The Witch King is a very different story ...

Minifig collector and MOC'er. I rarely bother building sets I buy. They are normally just for parts.

A hairpiece, a dremel and some glue fix that. I use those helmets for half my Rohan warriors too, mixed in with the official one.

Eowyn's helmet can be done quite well with the existing brickforge viking helmet in bronze...

I have one. My son removed the head with his teeth. :-)

This does sound sensible. Both brickforge and brickwarriors have had some of their popular parts "copied" by lego in official form and it of course dents their sales. I would have bought loads more Roman shields from BW if lego had not released their CMF Roman Soldier. But the unofficial BW one now looks like a fake next to the official one, even though it came first. Same with the goblin shield with hand print from BF. Once it is clear lego has finally finished with the theme, I hope a lot of customisable gaps are filled.