MAB

That is essentially what happened with series 1 and 2, with scanable barcodes. Spartans were very hard to find unless you got to a box first.

I would use a stack of 1x1 bricks with a stud on the side, then use a tile for each sign.

Even though the set is marketed at adults, it is still a LEGO toy. If (somehow) someone injured themselves with it, it is a bad look for them so presumably they apply the same reasoning to parts in adult sets as for kid sets.

I can understand it. Europe has a similar safety standard for toys. Since Brexit, the UK has allowed in anything with the European CE mark and has said it will do so indefinitely. I wonder if your government will do something similar where the toys are already certified to a high standard that they agree with. The problem with amazon is so many independent sellers sell stuff on there, so the fake (untested) LEGO clones can easily get through.

I want to ignore a particular user. When I try to add them to my ignore list, I am told "You are not allowed to ignore that member". They are not a mod. Why would this be?

I don't mind the rubber moulds, at least now. However, in 30 years time, will they still be rubbery or will they crack and dry out like 1970/80s toys did.

Presumably they don't have the budget to print all the helmet parts with gold so wanted something that will look like a helmet rather than hair when being compared to other BH?

I somehow cannot see them doing 15 battlepacks. Even if they paired them up doing two from each faction, that would still be 8 battle packs, and 4 packs if they did just one figure of each type and put four in a pack. But the bigger issue is who would buy and, just as importantly, sell them? Retail stores would not want them if there were no other LOTR sets to sell alongside them, as buyers that cannot afford the ICONS sets would have little interest if they cannot get the core figures. LOTR is being marketed in such a different way to Star Wars, Harry Potter and Marvel, that what works when it comes to distribution for those themes would not work for LOTR. They would need to change the approach completely if they wanted to sell battle packs to the more general LEGO buyer. Of course, they could do them as LEGO exclusives and sell them only from LEGO stores and online, but that would restrict the volume of sales compared to battle packs from other themes.

I doubt many AFOLs care about it either, whether they identify as being in an AFOL community or not.

For me, some of the best battle packs Pirates and Castle had were the chess sets. I've never really had a problem getting enough generic minifigures after those were released and went to clearance. But I guess that it helps to be collecting the right stuff at the right time. Rather than battle packs, I think I'd prefer to see a few polybags or small boxed sets with one minifigure, some building stuff (a boat, shark, or bit of island, cannon, etc). In the past, I always found those to be more flexible than battle packs, especially if the battle packs contained a named (for SW, LOTR, etc) or senior type minifigure that you do not want to army build. Plus the builds tend not to be great in battle packs, so go in the parts bins anyway.

Maybe the designer thought he was making SW's Kithaba ...

I doubt it is that well known outside of certain communities. I had to look up the meaning of 420. If I see a set has 420 pieces written on the box, I'd assume it is because it contains 420 pieces rather than some tenuous link to drug culture. Many numbers have meaning. If they left one piece out of the 420 piece set, is it a statement about Nigerian scammers? If it was a 418 piece set, check if it has a teapot.

White! Although they could do red for the baddies too. I wouldn't mind a fleur de lis, a bit like the musketeer. Although I'd really like the boar head from the CMF Evil Knight.

You don't have to buy a second to do it. However, if you buy a second set, you can. These are two different things. You can also buy just the parts you need to create extension sections, like you can extend many sets that are built by floor. It is unlikely that they would do exclusive desireable figures in a GWP locked to a specific set, especially ones needing new parts. A downside of them selling GWPs is that there is less incentive to buy the set they are paired with. So if they felt forced to do that, it might just be that they give up with more original and niche GWP and just do a regular retail set as the GWP like Rivendell plus BH. They do have that functionality, sort of. You bring up the set, and select the parts you need. Of course, there is no guarantee they have all the parts you need. It could be improved if they did specific floors through PAB so you have less work to do, but I don't think that is their intention for PAB. The downside of extension packs is judging demands. With sets like that they will always get it wrong, producing too few and having people complain about availability and that they should have included the necessary parts in the main set, or produce too many and end up needing to discount them. Gothmog. I doubt you can read anything into it. They could reuse him, or focus on different aspects of Minas Tirith.

LEGO knows some people buy multiple sets. It is good to know parts of the tower are modular so that it is easy to extend the height easily either by using parts from another copy of the set of by buying them on bricklink. They can't really say buy extra parts on bricklink to extend the height, when there won't be extension packs available for those that are not used to using bricklink. I prefer the set to be slightly shorter with the option to go higher than to have it at a higher price.

It is because at the time, some people thought we'd get a set to match that in the game.

I have nine of he original Nazgul, so maybe I am biased but getting extra Nazgul is not that big a deal for me. I'd prefer to see new figures with new parts that are hard to make with existing parts. It is really easy to make variations of Nazgul by using either a traditional hood or the newer SW open hood, a plain black head, a plain black torso or pretty much any black SW torso with robe patterns (or maybe the reverse side), black legs, and a black cape. If you are not purist, it is simple to make a tattered cape, or cut a LEGO cape, or recolour a tattered cape made in a different colour.

It's funny what people see. For me, I am almost the opposite. The tower is pretty much exactly as I expected. It is very similar to Orthanc, good looking exterior and out of scale to the exterior but minifigure scale interiors. The top section with the eye looks particularly good. I'm not that impressed by the figures. Mouth of Sauron, Gollum, Sam and Frodo, I already have and these don't look any better. Sauron looks great. Gothmog is also good. The orcs are so-so. Nice new torsos but the thick groomed hair looks more like goblins from Harry Potter than LOTR orcs, but nice new helmet. I know some people are unhappy with the height of Sauron. I wonder if this is in part due to the height of rooms in the interior, and that having him a little higher caused issues with scale.

I imagine finding them is the difficult bit, as the suggested videos nearly always point to the creators that have "fed the algorithm".

I tend to avoid reading comments on such speculation but after the event, some can be quite funny. People saying they are going to flip it for $200 to get 40% off Barad-Dur, how LEGO know exactly what they are doing putting sought after figures in a price-locked GWP, so much hate for scalpers charging too much for it, why people are going to be at tge store early to secure it, etc. All based on someone making something up.

Why not build the original one? The eyes are expensive but there are similar other eyes such as those from the T-rex or Sanctum/elves available at much lower prices. The build is a bit random, so vary with whatever leaf parts you want.

And this shows he is not reliable.

It is not just LEGO, it is youtube content in general now. Most of it seems to be produced for "feeding the algorithm" to generate revenue. I wish there was a way to block certain creators permanently when viewing. There are plenty of third party individuals selling complete sets for not much than their retail price.

There was this MOC from years ago. I reverse engineered some if it and used ball and sockets to give it a bit more motion, and he was not a bad little Gollum action figure. It might be that LEGO finds that a $400 set sells just as well as a $250 set. $250 is expensive and if someone is willing to drop that much on a set, they will probably be willing to drop $400 on an even nicer one.

Same here. I am a long term collector and have all the original sets, so smaller sets don't interest me too much if they don't add anything new. Looking at what has happened to HP, they repeat so many small sets, even if they are not necessarily repeats. A bit of Hogwarts plus a Harry/Ron/Hermione and someone else. That works where many smaller sets are bought by/for kids. Then the more adult oriented high end sets. Without the large kid fan baselike for HP or SW, I cannot really see a similar model working for LOTR. Hence keeping the adult focused sets but not the kid ones. Yet we possibly would not have got LOTR at all if it had not been for The Hobbit.