MAB

The UK checkout process marks them as separate handling fees. As standard and bestseller are dealt with in separate locations, it makes sense that there are separate handling fees if you place small orders.

Different people are allowed to enjoy different things. For some sets I display the built set in front of the box, or use the boxes for display. They are part of the product. Plus a damaged box could mean a damaged instruction book.

If they came back, there would be a lot of repeats before they get round to the missing figures. I'd prefer molded shaped heads again. I still can't understand why they did Edna Krabappel and Willie but not Skinner. I can understand leaving out Moe and Barney due to alcohol, even though they could be done in other outfits, but the omission of Skinner is very strange.

Think of the size of the Battle of Five Armies, and what we got with that set. I know bigger sets are common now but anything bigger than Rivendell is probably unrealistic.

Their broken parts replacement policy is for parts from new sets only though, isn't it? If you break a part, I don't think they have a policy that they will guarantee to replace it. They often do it as a gesture of goodwill but it will of course depend on how many parts you break and ask for replacements of.

LOTR got one large icons set and three sets in the Brickheadz theme. That is not a huge range of prices and styles.

They don't stock arms, which is probably why they couldn't replace them. However, I cannot remember any of the arms being printed so they can all be replaced easily. If they are cheap common parts, then personally I wouldn't bother. LEGO keep records of people requesting (free) replacements parts and if you order too often then they can ban you even if the requests are genuine.

You are a LEGO fan that has joined a LEGO fan site and is actively engaging in it. You are not really the type of customer they are trying to draw with the box designs for 18+ sets, as they already have you. Other customers do need labels and need to be told what goes with what. That is also why logos/labels for themes have existed for years. Why put a Castle logo on a box when it is obvious to the viewer from the picture of the set (with or without a background)? Labels have always helped customers.

Part of the reason is to differentiate the adult sets from kid sets. In the past lots of adults weren't into LEGO and didn't buy kid sets. But make them look different to kid sets and they become a product for adults. I also like to see what you are getting and not distracted by artwork although that could be done with plain white backgrounds.

I hope not, as I like them. Plus they make it easier to quickly identify 18+ sets for customers and staff in stores.

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You are probably better off using a sheet of wood/MDF if you want to move it around.

I have quite a few including non-purist adapted parts. The purist ones include CMF S3 elves with various hoods and they also look good with elf hair, Eowyn (and another with helmet), Rohan soldiers can be made from any scruffy clothes and get tied together with common helmets, the Necromancer from The Hobbit, Frodo and Sam in orc outfits (also good with helmets), Denethor (this one has a custom cape but also looks good with a plain black cape ) and Frodo in Mithril armour. I also have Sting with a painted blue blade that looks good with the last one.

Canned compressed "air" might be bad for the environment but using an air compressor isn’t. Although sucking is better than blowing.

Standard or bestseller? As the UK site states that standard parts now take 40 business days - so 8 weeks / 2 months to arrive.

It isnt a fact, even if the post exists. Just because someone posts something does not mean it is true.

IDEAS staff and the panels are different people. Being a staff pick does not mean an idea won't be rejected. Many staff picks that made it to 10K have been rejected.

I mean charging less for Marvel and Star Wars than they would otherwise do compared to City, not compared to Europe. Marvel and Star Wars LEGO themes both have to compete with many other Marvel and Star Wars toys from other brands, so it might be those that keep the prices of LEGO down.

Everything on reddit, facebook, etc is fact, truth, widely accepted. :-)

Presumably only a benefit if you can still get the ones you want at cost price though. Currently there is the hurdle that you need to feel for them so there is a time cost to stripping out the valuable ones. If they were in clear packs, I doubt the really popular ones would make it to the shelves and if they did, they'd be gone instantly. For series 1 and 2 you could scan the barcodes. Even though there were few collectors compared to now and the market price hadn't gone crazy, the popular ones were still reasonably hard to find on shelves because customers or in some cases the shops were taking out the Forestmen, Zombies, Nurses and Spartans. Now it is a totally different time to those days. Prices for the popular ones are insane even when the packs are on the shelves. You can make about £10 profit for each popular one you can find. Those will be impossible to find on shelves if they are in clear packaging. If you wanted one of those you would either need to get to a store as they open a box (unless the employees already take them out to sell on) or ask for a fresh box, or buy from a reseller, or buy a whole box, or buy random ones from LEGO online. In my view, clear packaging would actually make it harder to get what you want unless you are the guy that can get to a box first.

There are some nice MOCs, but let's face it, they are nearly all $400 designs. So many have aimed for 3800-4000 parts. I really hope they have some extra limits imposed, so that out of the five chosen there is least one small set and one medium. It is also surprising (although not really surprising) how little variation there is. So many Castle and Modular entries. Maybe they should also only allow a maximum of one of each of those in the final five.

The negative is that doing away with blind boxes probably means not doing CMF at all. Given that they are introducing a change to make them properly unknown items before they are opened, they clearly have an issue with them being a not-blind blind packet. I'm guessing they are getting enough complaints from both consumers and retailers that they feel the need to change. Otherwise, they wouldn't be making the change. The real problem stems from different people wanting different things out of them. Some want them as a pocket money toy, some want them as a collectable series (collect one of each), some want to amass large numbers of the single item. LEGO presumably want them (at least partially) to be an incentive to buy until you complete a set. LEGO already produces loads of other toys (including small ones) where you know what you are getting. Making them identifiable really changes what the product is. First, it doesn't solve whatever problem they are presumably trying to overcome by making this change. Second, if they go as far as individually boxing them so that they are different sets, then instead of being one product per series, they become 12 or 16 or 18 different products that the retailer needs to have on their system (of course the counter is keep one SKU but have clear packaging, but that still fails on the previous problem). Then, if they can identify ones that are going to be more or less favoured, presumably that would mean they don't produce as many of the least favored. But would that also mean not producing those more often unique ones that you wouldn't normally find in a set at all? If in clear packaging, they also become less of a collectable series, and more of a buy one of everything in one go type collectable (although I'd say they are already there). And if they can identify the popular ones, and especially army building ones, why not just remove those completely too. Instead, just stick 10 in a box and sell it for $40 or whatever. Or 3 or 4 in a box with a selection of parts to make a small build (in other words, a battle pack). Either way, less stock volume for retailers to handle. If they remove the high demand ones because they can sell them in an alternative way and the weaker ones because they won't sell as well, then there is not much left to keep the series going. The comparison with playmobil is interesting since they produce both small identifiable characters in individual boxes and also blind bags. So they presumably think both types of products can exist side by side. I wouldn't mind totally blind packs, if there was some sort of theme like they did with the Monsters S14. They could do a modern day series, where you get a farmer, a business man, a police officer, etc, something that fits neatly with City, a space theme, where you get aliens and space outfits, historical where you might get a Viking, a Roman, a Musketeer or a Conquistador, a sports theme, etc. So you know roughly what you will get but not specifically. I really wonder how popular CMF would still be if they also did for example, a space battle pack, a history battle pack and a fantasy battle pack, and it was possible to army build the Brown Spaceman, the Black Falcon and the Orc in another way, or even left them out of the CMF altogether in favour of three other random (but not too popular) figures.

Some City sets do seem to be crazy prices in the USA, but then some other themes seem to be quite cheap in comparison. It seems strange that LEGO would think they can get away with charging such high prices for City in the USA, or is it that they are just charging less for Marvel and Star Wars, as those themes are competing with other brand toys that are cheaper than LEGO whereas City has no major rival and they can charge what they like?

Last year's annual results have been published: https://www.lego.com/en-my/aboutus/news/2023/march/2022-annual-results They specifically mention Harry Potter as a "top theme". I cannot see them dropping it for a competitor to take it up, and it is hardly tired or unpopular if it continues to outsell Marvel and every other license except Star Wars.

Kids still watch Harry Potter movies, read the books, go to theme parks, etc and play with HP LEGO. It was World Book Day last week, and here it seems to be more about dressing up than reading books. When dropping my youngest off at school, I think I saw at least six Harry Potters, two Hermiones, a Dumbledore, a Ron and a Voldemort.