MAB

There have been recent(ish) problems. The reddish brown issue of a decade ago still occasionally crops up if old new stick is opened. I had a horse fall apart in my hands about a year ago and some plates I sold on BL apparently cracked on first use. Aside from that, the only part I get fairly regular issues with still is the 1x1 cheese slope. Every colour seems to crack easily, although unless you look closely, it doesn't notice.

This is guaranteed to damage the boxes and will do more damage than a few insects. Why not take it further and destroy or throw the cardboard boxes away. That way, they cannot get infested by insects.

Yes, and no doubt most people would identify the Mariachi figure as Mexican. I don't believe dressing as a Mariachi is offensive, as many people (whether Mexican or not) dress up like that for employment or touristic reasons. The comment I was responding to was "Lego is not able to represent a Mexican guy without falling in stereotypes like the moustache and the big hat". I disagree with that. Doing a Mariachi is not saying that all Mexicans are Mariachis. Like Karalora's comment above, the only way you can unambiguously represent a national character is to use a stereotype or to include some accessory to identify their nationality (maybe a typical sports shirt, or a flag). It is the stereotype that unambiguously identifies them. If they did a Mexican mechanic, it would look similar to an Afghan or Zimbabwean mechanic, and everything in between, otherwise it wouldn't look like a mechanic. The stereotype is that it is a mechanic and not the nationality. But that doesn't mean they don't represent Mexicans as mechanics, scientists, plumbers, etc. as they don't say this is definitely a Mexican mechanic, just a mechanic.

That depends .... it could be "Our plans for LOTR are to have one big set and a few brickheadz."

Surely it depends on the situation. I can imagine Germans in other situations or doing other jobs where they are not wearing Lederhosen, just as I can imagine not every Mexican wears a Mariachi outfit. I imagine it would be quite offensive if an international news agency went to, for example, a BASF lab to do a segment on them and asked all the researchers to dress in traditional dress and had oompah music playing to make it clear that they are in Germany. Whereas if they went to an Oktoberfest event, it would be expected.

For decades now, merchandising has tended to concentrate on producing toys for new and current movies as they advertise the movie and the movie advertises the toy. There are very few movie franchises that outlive the original release and can continue to sell toys way past the dates of the original movies.

Yes, of course it depends on the perspective you have. The images show that anyone wanting to get into Castle (in terms of sets) has been served rather well over the past few years, but only if you are wanting to buy larger sets. For smaller or kid focused sets, it has been poor.

LEGO are not representing all Mexicans when they do that. This guy, ... He is not meant to represent all Mexicans. He is a person dressed as a Mariachi, just like these guys. That does not mean all Mexicans dress that way. These guys could also be Mexican, as could many others. They could of course be from any country, as could many other minifigures. They just happen to be dressed as a carpenter and a baseball player, like the other figure is dressed in a traditional Mariachi outfit. The only way you would definitely know they were Mexican is if LEGO added enough stereotypical accessories to point to them being Mexican. Take away all the stereotypical clothing and accessories of anyone and they are just an anonymous person. There are many other minifigures in stereotypical national or regional dress from around the world. There is a danger that if people complain that a figure is too stereotypical and not representing a whole population, those sort of figures would not be produced in future. Would we be any better off losing this type of figure in favour of much plainer figures?

It is the only new one. But others are still available on the shelves. Personally, I don't mind sets being available for more than a year, so count available sets rather than new ones.

It wouldn't work for City. If they do a police set with a light nougat cop and a reddish brown crook, there will be negative press and rioters attacking LEGO stores. And if they don't do brown crooks and only white ones, they'd be racist for not daring to do it. I think people make money by stirring up controversial subjects on youtube.

Another thread for this? You already had an answer ...

That is correct. It was advertised as ending on Sunday, and was going to be replaced by the two polybags on the Monday.

I remember it differently. I remember there being the idea of a subscription service and I remember mention of sets from the archive, but not necessarily these being the same thing. I know some people took the latter to mean that you could get any set from the past, but I highly doubt that would be possible. Whereas the recent GWPs are sort of sets from the archive, reimagined / updated. I believe this is what they meant when discussing past sets - new versions of past sets. I imagine that instead of the subscription service, they have gone down the route of offering sets only available through the VIP centre for points and the more normal GWPs. That gives both exclusivity for VIPs (for the redeemable sets) and also more orders for them. I cannot really see a subscription service working. It would need to be costly to justify the postage price, but then needs to be decent builds to keep interest. I wouldn't want to pay £8-10, for example, to be posted a polybag set worth £4-5 every month. I also would want to pay £50 to get a £50 RRP random set of their choice every month. They are probably better off doing the GWPs the way they do to generate orders. If they were to do the recent GWPs such as the Blacktron, Forest Hideout, Pirate Island, Houses, Botanicals, etc, as a subscription I imagine they'd need to charge £30/$35 for the set to include shipping. At that type of price, I think I'd prefer to choose what I buy and add it to an order, rather than use a blind subscription package.

There are still many bricks produced that can be used for pirates, castle, etc. if you are imaginative about where to look. And the last few years have brought some excellent sets for all three Classic themes. Of course, they are big and somewhat expensive, but then they are aimed at nostalgic adults rather than kids.

The modern sets sold under the name Classic are very different to Classic themes. Someone wanting Classic Castle, Space or Pirates typically has a very strong preference for what they want.

There are cases where the height is fine, such as when used for Saruman.

You can get three maximum at the discounted price.

Very nice, wonderfully smooth curves there.

I haven't built it, but ut doesn't look too bad for a 14+ child to cope with. Some people like sets marketed towards older teens and adults to be more complex and challenging than those designed for younger children. The alternative view is that some 18+ sets from LEGO are too childish, and the 18+ badge is really for marketing over complexity.

I like Abracus and Eilrys, although I think Dragos is my favourite. I'm not a fan of Majisto, for me there are just too many stars on him. I've never been a fan of that wand, but when combined with all the other stars, he seems too Disneyfied or like a fairy compared to the others.

I think this is a case of the grass is always greener on the other side (for everyone).

Yes, when I said I see very little merchandise for The Hobbit I meant for the The Hobbit movie not the book, as LEGO has (or had) the agreement with Warner Bros for the movies and not with the publishers of the books. And of course, that is why the dwarves all look like their movie characters. And personally, I don't mind Tauriel too much.

What deals do you think we get in Europe? Recent investigations (across many product types and retailers) indicate that many BF offers are not as good as prices at other times of the year. And LEGO deals often only match discounts other retailers give.

Maybe it is a political statement reflecting modern times. Santa spent too much on his LEGO collection and also has been forced to pay the elves minimum wage. Now he has to work more than one day a year to pay off his debts, and so he has needed to take extra jobs as a wizard, carriage driver, professor, viking, etc. :-)

It was already done in the Princess CMF ... I would also prefer a truncated one, or maybe a double cone one.