MAB

If Amazon keep pumping money into it, people will keep watching it. Many popular series tail off in popularity as they go on - look at the complaints about the last series of Game of Thrones or Lost. But they still had huge viewing figures and many people enjoyed them despite vocal online rants about them. If viewing figures did get terrible, no doubt amazon would just ruthlessly kill it but with the advertising they put into it, I doubt it will happen. As for the (hypothetical) sets for Rings of Power,I don't think it is kids that are watching it. Apparently 71% of the audience is aged 35 and above. If LEGO was thinking about making kid aimed sets and they see a statistic like that I doubt they'd go ahead. It is no Harry Potter. It is not even Stranger Things. The audience profile is way older. If they are going to make sets, they will be adult ones. I also doubt Amazon (and Lego) care about people that are so deeply into the lore that they complain about plot lines. The complainers will still watch it just so they can show their superior knowledge of the books while complaining about how bad the TV show is, while others that enjoy it as a TV show will keep enjoying it without caring about the books as they never even read The Hobbit let alone anything deeper. The amazon ratings are pretty much all 5s or 1s - 5 (46%), 1 (31%). Polarised, yes. But all count towards viewing figures. Same with any associated LEGO sets. LEGO won't care if people don't like them or the scenes they are based on, so long as they are bought. Will die hard LOTR book fans and AFOLs refuse to buy ROP sets because they didn't like the plotline in the show?

Nobody can. It has not been announced.

It will, but by such a tiny amount that you probably wouldn't notice. This is in the sense that someone wanting a perfect opened box might not want one that has been flattened, so is out of the market if you have opened both ends and flattened it.If you can reglue one end of the box, it is back to being close to a normal opened box. Buyers tend to fall into three camps: ones that want new and sealed, ones that want the used set to build and don't care about the box, and ones that want a used set and the box. The latter is usually the smallest market for most sets. On some higher end sets, it is good to have the box for a used set but it is opened anyway, so flattened is not a big deal. Better flattened than creased or dented or with holes.

The minifigure parts could also be useful for those that already have all the original LOTR figures. Could be good for generic elves, dwarfs, men, hobbits and orcs.

Yeah the backorder problem is an issue, but I can understand why in terms of processing speed. If a part is not coming back in stock for another month, then there is a chance that other parts in the order will go out of stock in that time. If that happens, then they have to wait until that part comes back into stock, and there is a chance the other part goes out of stock. OR they pick part an order, then store it - very unlikely as very inefficient especially for handpicked orders. OR they send part of an order, then other parts as they come into stock - again very unlikely as postage costs increase linearly with the number of envelopes sent.

I guess that depends how you define horror. They look like just another iteration of fairly standard Ninjago skeleton warriors to me, rather than horror.

Like many sets, probably so buyers think they are getting a good deal when it is discounted by 20 or 30%.

I think it is more like 25-30. I rarely go in these days. In summer, the queues can be very long. Although even the Harry Potter stores are now small queues compared to the ghost shop. And they get long queues in the rain too!

I don't see the problem with army builders. If they want to use 200, let them buy 200. That is also far more efficient for picking too, so probablyfavourablefor LEGO. LEGO sells 200 in one go. Much better than locating then picking 200 different parts. For me the system was at its peak about 2014-15. Loads of licensed heads and torsos and other parts like Saruman's skirt piece and the palantir, and torsos were about 60% of the price now. Plus easy to buy capes in any number you wanted. And pricing errors meaning you could fairly frequently get parts for free or very low cost. The number of licensed parts that slip through is minimal now.

I was very keen to watch it when advertised, but only recently started, as I had netflix and had other series to finish watching first. I think part of it is watching in your own home compared to the cinema. I started watching RoP and got bored and started using my phone or tablet to play a game or look things up. I left it a week, then started again but made sure I had no other distractions. If I had paid to see something in a cinema, I wouldn't have been as distracted. That said, it is still pretty boring and very slow. It makes The Hobbit movies look like a work of genius. It does feel like I am watching a slow drawn out TV series as compared to watching a film trilogy, even though overall timing is about the same for both. I think Galadriel is one of the best characters in it so far, although I quite like Durin too. Some of the dialogue is terrible though. And so far I'm not a fan of the harfoots, especially their dodgy Irish accents.

No doubt that would require a new system to be developed. They currently have a 200 limit on every part, per order. To start to implement different limits on different items would mean that they have to introduce a limit variable for every part, and that needs to be set and maintained if it is to change with time. They would also need to track parts quantities ordered in the past to make a lifetime limit have any sense. Otherwise, people would just place multiple orders one after the other with 25 of multiple parts. While it might make sense to do limits for sets, doing it across multiple 1000s of parts seems overkill, especially as it is not really a problem for most parts. I had to wait for BF torsos to come back in stock at a reasonable time of day for me to order them, but eventually they did. I'm happy with that arrangement, as I'm happy to wait and get them when I can rather than expect to get them straight away or not get them at all. If they can predict which ones would sell out fast and hence impose limits on them, then there are alternatives they could use - they could price them much higher or they could choose not to list them at all, forcing people to buy the sets instead. The limit is also debatable. Why does anyone need 25 of an animal or torso? [Obviously the answer is "army" building, where army could mean an army, or flock, or any multiple use.] Why not go lower at 10. And if it is OK for them to have 25, why should someone else not have 50 for a build twice as big. And if it is OK for them, then why not 100, and so on. I need to hit £50 for free shipping. That is quite easy for expensive parts - it is about 60 torsos. If there is a limit of 25 per torso, I'd order 25 of three torsos, or 25 of two and some heads. Then I'd place the same order again. Then again. And again. Even their current set ordering system cannot tell how many you have ordered in the past at the time of placing an order. Orders are checked after being placed. If they are going to implement such limits, they are going to need to automate those checks somehow, or the imposed limits would have no effect. People that know how to get around them will, and the people that abide by them will feel hard done by. When they did those 2p gold parts, one day I placed five orders for 400 of each part using the 200+200 trick, then added about £15 worth of torsos or other parts and a CMF to get free shipping at the £50 threshold. Even with limits in place, that was 2000 of each part ordered in a day. Smaug got a nice pile of gold to sit on. Unless they implement some way of checking past orders, limits mean nothing.

Harry Potter merchandise still sells very well. I don't think the controversies surrounding JK Rowling's views have anywhere near as big an effect on the Harry Potter franchise as those that have opposite views to her want to make out. Go to Kings Cross Station. Go to The Shambles in York. Go anywhere where there is a HP attraction. People are willing to queue to take a photo or buy overpriced merch from a HP store. Potter is huge still. Kids that read it first time around are now adults and their kids will be or soon be of the age to read the books and watch the movies. LEGO knows this. I can't see them dropping the franchise any time soon.

There is a difference in that Fantastic Beasts and Harry Potter are owned by the same company so much easier where one of them gets many sets and the other far fewer.

Doesn't it get destroyed at the end of the second age anyway? So it would be different to the one in ROTK even if they were allowed to use the design of the tower from the PJ movies.

The difference with the Modulars is that there is no licence there. Are they going to have an exclusive licence then use it for one set a year but keep it going for ten years? It seems unlikely.

Just half? Lightweights!

1x3 or 1x4 plates or plate plus tile. Stack pairs of them with thread sandwiched between them.

I am happy with existing Bag End and Helm's Deep, they were not D2C. I prefer to get a general retail size set and decide myself whether I want to buy two or more to go for size, rather than getting an oversized D2C for everything.

I guess it depends who the boxes are aimed at. I'd like greys, tans, B&W, greens, browns, etc but would kids? When I watch my daughter build she is like an anti-Batman. She'll build anything so long as it is a shade of pink or purple. Houses, cars, animals, boats, castles. Everything is pink.

I'm not surprised if a lego store employee had never heard of it. They seem to turn over staff quite quickly, and so wouldn't know about items from 10 years before.

That is one of the good things about Minecraft if you are after traditional bricks. The blocky nature means they have plenty.

They do. 200 per order!

Those are hard to sticker neatly as they curve both ways. Waterslide decals just about work if you decorate them in quarters, as the curve is not such an issue then. But it requires neat cutting to look good. Or can you paint neatly?

I tend to use 91884 types. If you mix up the colours, the undecorated ones don't look so bad. I'm not a fan of the traditional style circular ones.

The date they used to turn the old replacement parts service back on varied a bit, but typically end of Jan into Feb.