MAB

I doubt it will change LEGO forever, and I don't think LEGO needs to be changed. The accelerometer may make them a little more interesting for AFOLs although that tech already exists in fairly miniature form if you don't mind a little bit of electronics tinkering.

Modern minifigures, especially fairly generic City ones, are dirt cheap. Even for nostalgic themes many figures are still reasonably cheap, even if some hard to get ones are expensive. Vintage ones in good condition are expensive because so many nostalgic people want them so they are really collectables rather than just an old toy and so are priced differently to unwanted old stuff.

Very. I bet the hat will be expensive though.

The problems I have with them are (1) not being able to switch arms, (2) not being able to pose legs and (3) even worse not be able to move wrists. Every castle soldier having to hold a sword or bow at the same angle is not good.

You've probably made a mistake when building it.

Kids do that with licenses too. There really isn't much difference between making up a story involving Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader compared to making up a story about a generic forest man in green (called Robin in some locations) stealing treasure from the rich, or pirates hiding treasure on a deserted island, and so on. Classic sets were essentially unlicensed versions of common and well known stories that kids already knew how to play with, and knew the character types. I think that is partly why it is hard these days to come up with something truly imaginative without having associated media. Without a storyline from LEGO, whether from cartoons or comics, games or online media, I imagine kids have a much harder time playing Dreamzzz, Nexo Knights or Chima than Classic Castle, Space and Pirates. And then there is little difference between unlicensed and licensed when it comes to story telling and imagination.

Speed Champions Simpsons car, and The Homer. :-) Personally I hope for a decent CMF line again, especially if they can fill in some of the missing characters.

More to the point, why should they get into in-house themes? If a kid or adult likes a particular license and they buy a licensed set, it is no different to when they buy an in-house set. They build it, they play with it, they make up stories based on others they have previously experienced.

Presumably they wanted the logo on the wheel hub and as there is space for a stud, why not use it and keep the uniform design of a stud with logo. Plus keeping the compatibility means those wheels can now be enhanced with a stud with a hole with a knife stuck in it if you want to make post-apolcalyse type vehicles, even if not at the time.

Barad-Dur is a tower, and I expect there to be rooms inside. The scale is different and they make it feel like Barad-Dur is smaller than it is by including figures and a few rooms inside but it still kind of works. Whereas Minas Tirith has buildings on the mountain and I don't expect a secret lair hidden inside a hollowed out mountain. That is why combining both scales in this case doesn't work for me. The minifigure scenes I want to see for Minas Tirith are pretty much all outside. Very little of interest happens inside the buildings, and definitely not inside the mountain. Whereas Barad-Dur is only seen from a distance in the movies so the interior is unknown and they are relatively free to make stuff up. Very little happens just outside either so they don't miss anything. I dontbthink Minas Turuth and Barad-Dur are really comparable when it comes to creating LEGO sets. Rivendell and Minas Tirith are more comparable.

I would. GBC are one popular fan creation especially at exhibitions that LEGO hasn't made 'theirs'. I like that they are all purely fan creations and not official. As soon as LEGO decide to release their own, these displays will become less interesting as official modules start to replace fan creations. Also I don't think they make very good home displays, as even a few units take up a lot of space. Displaying a whole circuit would surely be impossible for most people.

Indeed. If they want a microscale city, then do a microscale city. If they want minifigures then either do them on a display stand or do minifigure scale instead of microscale. Adding in minifigure scale play features to the back of a microscale set will end up the worst of both worlds.

Magnificent Maleficent.

If the exterior is shaped as the city but the interior is a room, then it will be poor compared to a minifigure based set without the constraint that it has to fit into an upturned cone.

I placed a PAB order during the Insiders weekend (week before Black Friday), it is still 'in warehouse' whereas one I placed last week has been dispatched. There are pieces in the first order that are now out of stock. Hopefully they get dispatched at some stage. I complained earlier today and was told mid January, but kept the chat open without saying anything and got 2000 Insiders points. What was particularly bad though was I emailed last week, and yesterday got an email saying they hope my order has arrived. It hasn't even been dispatched yet their automated email response makes out it is the postal service rather than them being slow. Especially for PAB, seasonal workers might make more mistakes than getting the orders dispatched is worth. Make sure you complain and just sit quiet on the chat until they offer points.

This is my worry too. But also that a mnifigure scale interior won't work in this case as there are not rooms inside the city. If they have to go microscale for the city, I'd prefer minifigures on a display stand like the Star Trek set rather than using a lot more pieces to create a poor minifigure scale interior in the mountain.

I'm hoping the Witch King is left out to appear in another set, as a microscale Minas Tirith is not interesting for me especially if it is hollow and turns into an interior play set by rotating it. If they are doing that, it also makes sense to include minimal Gondor soldiers in Minas Tirith if the minifigure scale side is interior and keep them instead for a Battle of Pelennor Fields set. Although chances are, they will leave the Witch King out, minimise the number of soldiers and not do a Battle set. I'm glad there are already decent third party options for both. I doubt the helmets or armour would be available on PAB unless they use generic parts, and if they use generic parts then we already have them.

Series 18 had the extra vintage police officer. OK, this series was actually badged as a 40th anniversary set, but if a selection of figures from that series were looked at without knowing it was badged as an anniversary set then I guess most people would assume it was just a regular random set. I doubt they would do a chase figure again given how unpopular the reaction to them seems to be and the change to complete sets in a box but I could see them adding a throwback character to the roster of 12, whether they are specifically named or not. Even more so if they reproduce the style of the first Ninjago figures.

I imagine release in the next six months. And presumably it will be available for a couple of years. So even if it is $500, putting away $20 a month will be enough to buy it during its shelf life, and better still allows the buyer to look for offers or deals.

I think it is even more difficult than that. Even if they don't try to revamp a character from the past but try to do a new figure representing a person from a specific real-life culture, they have to rely on some stereotypical ideas otherwise they cannot really convey what that character is meant to be. The "see our heritage" tourist shows often do this, but it is usually seen as OK if they are the ones doing it (and profiting from it). Whereas, if a company makes a toy or a fancy dress outfit it is seen as exploitation to make money from a minority culture, and obviously put in a more negative light. Especially as a lot of their ceremonial dress is related to religion, it is different to doing a stereotypical businessman, a bagpiper or someone wearing lederhosen or selling a pretzel.

They could do what they did with the remake of the UCS Millennium Falcon and issue UCS wheels for the boxes.

It might be that when teens are into that semi-rebellious phase then they are also starting to rebel against their 'little kid' toys too, and where they are still into their toys then there is too much difference into what they might be into. There have been some smaller sets and especially CMFs in the past that touch on themes like the skater boys and girls, the trendsetter, various gamers and DJ characters, a few goth-like figures, k-pop style fashion, and so on.

Windmills, and any build where you want something to spin or swing.

So Ninjago can never replace realistic sci-fi, but City is "poor" because it is too realistic? This type of set doesn't look very NASA like to me. This looks like a direct descendent of earlier fantasy-based Space themes. Ninjago (along with City) can replace Castle, Pirates and Space. We know that because it has literally replaced them. Times move on, and kids' interests change. Classic Castle, Pirates and Space are now just nostalgia based ideas primarily for adults covered by ICONS.

It doesn't need to replace realistic space / sci-fi, as City does that. And Ninjago covers much of fantasy. Then there is the shorter lived 'guest' theme of Monkie Kidd, Nexo Knights, Hidden Side. That is LEGO's current unlicensed arrangement, with no need for one year themes.