Phyre

Almost all of my LEGO budget this year is going to be spent on Monster Fighters and LotR. This theme is awesome already, and I think it's the best non-licensed action theme LEGO has done in several years. Hopefully we can all spend enough money on it that they'll do another wave in 2013. I definitely see a potential for at least one more wave, with several monsters not yet featured (witches, pumpkinheads, ghouls, banshees, goblins, etc.) in the line. Just because the storyline so far revolves around the vampire, I don't think that necessarily means we'll only see one wave. The theme is called "Monster Fighters," so as long as there are monsters to fight, I think this theme has the potential to last a while. Once Dracula is defeated, they could make one of the other characters the main villain, like the mad scientist, werewolf, maybe even the currently nonexistent voodoo doctor, or they could just introduce a whole new set of monsters. But the first wave has to sell well, and that's where we come in. As for the Zombies set, it looks pretty great. I just wish it had more zombies, or at the very least a different one instead of the driver. But the bride and groom look fantastic. I will likely be getting at least two Zombies sets, depending on the price.

There's not really many different shades of yellow though.

Well, we already know there will for sure be a Series 8, so therefore the series is not over, which means that can't be the reason why we haven't seen any news yet.

Last year, Series 5 was at the German Toy Fair in February when Series 3 was out. And we got pics of Series 7 over six months ago, when Series 5 was out. So I think it's really strange we haven't heard anything on Series 8 by now, except that they'll be in black bags. Makes me wonder if they've got something really big planned for it.

I will try to take some by the end of the week and post them. Yeah, my idea is that it's a fantasy medieval world, so it doesn't have to be historically accurate. I have some limits, like no modern technology (although I may end up bringing a little of that into my village's story soon with the idea of a time portal). But yeah, I have ninjas, pharaohs, spartans, knights, skeletons, elves, imperial soldiers, and all sorts of other people and creatures incorporated. Well, since a few people seem interested in my setup, I'll try and get some pictures taken soon and post a topic.

I'm curious as to how those of you that mentioned the Winter Village sets are planning on modifying them. I have all three sets, but I haven't really thought of good ways to modify them to fit in with my medieval village (I'm not that great at MOCing yet). I've incorporated all the 2009 Pirates sets into my village, as well as the majority of the Pharaoh's Quest theme (minus the vehicles of course), and some Ninjago sets. I also modified the old Jabba's Palace so it would fit in, and used pieces from the two white Creator houses released around 2006-2007 to build more medieval looking houses. One part of my medieval LEGO word is a haunted village, so I have alo included the Harry Potter Graveyard Duel set from 2005, and all of the old Halloween Studios sets. And so I also plan on somehow incorporating all of the Monster Fighters sets (even the train - I'll figure out some way to explain it) as well as the haunted house. And of course all the LotR sets, which are technically castle sets anyway. Oh, and if I get any more PotC sets besides Queen Anne's Revenge, they'll be included too.

As someone who puts on a haunted hayride in his back yard every year and as a lifelong fan of Halloween and monsters, I can think of plenty of ideas they could use to keep this theme going for at least one more wave. One monster that has never been done as an official minifigure is a pumpkinhead. There's also the headless horseman, which could utilize the concept of a pumpkinhead but doesn't have to. There could be a larger mad scientist lab that includes an Igor figure. There could be goblins. There could be trolls (small, bearded ones rather than the tall warriors that we got in Fantasy Era Castle). There could be banshees. There could of course be witches, as you mentioned. So right there are ideas for as many as seven additional sets without even considering the unlikely possibilities of aliens (which don't really fit in with classic monsters anyway) or demons. So if it sells well, I could easily foresee them doing a second wave in summer 2013.

I imagine they will be, although I seem to remember last year they had Series 3, 4, and 5 at the German Toy Fair, and this year they only had Series 6. I was surprised they didn't at least have Series 7 this year. But hopefully they'll have both 7 and 8 at the New York Toy Fair.

I don't know, just something about the picture of the werewolf makes me picture a new mold. Everything about Lord Garmadon in that picture is posed unrealistically - legs, arms, torso, and even his head is looking up. Legs are the most commonly unrealistically posed part of a minifigure, and so it makes sense that the monsters in that picture all have posed legs. But Dracula and the Monster both look like normal minifigures aside from the legs. And so does the werewolf, aside from the legs and possibly the arms. And also, in the picture of Garmadon you can't see the ball joints of the arms where they attach to the torso, whereas you can with the werewolf (maybe it means nothing, but to me it makes the CGI werewolf look more like an actual figure; again, aside from the legs). You're probably right, but like I said, there's just something about the werewolf that makes me think the arms really will be able to move back. And also, a piece like that would give the bat-people's arms better articulation. If their only new mold is the arms, then the way they look like they're attached seems like the only movement you would be able to achieve is spinning them around in the sockets, and most poses achieved that way would look awkward. I don't know, it's just a hunch I had and thought I'd share.

This sounds like a good idea.

Now that we have a finalized picture of some of the monsters, I have to say that I've changed my mind (mostly) about the werewolf. I think it looks pretty good. Still not as good as the Series 4 Werewolf, but still good. The only thing I don't like are the claws. If they wanted him to have claws, I think they should have made a new mold for the hands like they did for the Series 5 Boxer. Looking at the picture, I'm also going to chance a guess that the new werewolf (and probably the bat-people) has a new torso piece that allows greater articulation for the arms. I know the image is CGI, but I don't remember seeing any other CGI minifigs with their arms in that position (and the bat-people from the preliminary Dracula's Castle picture looked like their arms were attached in a different manner, or at least had a larger range of movement). If it is indeed a new piece, it would allow the arms to move not only up and down like they always have, but backwards as well. Not a huge fan of the robotic limbs on the humans, but I was really only interested in the monsters from to begin with. Can't wait to see the other figs, especially the zombies...

Okay, since we may be not too far away from finding out what the minifigures are, I'm going to post my guesses now. I put some serious thought into this, trying to think of what LEGO might make next and looking at patterns in the previous series (such as we only get a animal suit figure every two series, and therefore the Bunny Suit Guy in S7 most likely rules out an animal suit figure in S8). 1. Golem 2. Cyclops 3. Golfer 4. American Football Player 5. Beekeeper 6. Santa (with a new hat mold that actually looks like a Santa hat) 7. Teacher/Professor 8. Pirate 9. Groom 10. Construction Worker 11. Waitress 12. Pumpkinhead 13. Snake Charmer 14. Scarecrow (just a normal scarecrow that could be used in a LEGO farmer's garden or perhaps in a Wizard of Oz MOC) 15. European King (with a new multi-colored crown mold) The last spot was hard for me to decide, but since there aren't any in the summer batch of LotR sets, and it seems to be a popular guess, I'm going to go with... 16. Female Elf Okay Angeli, now tell us what the figures are.

I still find this hard to believe as the reason why the Spartan and Zombie were not included. Apparently the turkey leg and shovel molds included with the Zombie were unique molds, but aren't there extremely common substitutes to those pieces? And even if not, just throw in the Zombie without any accessories. The Spartan's helmet mold was featured in an Atlantis set this summer, a modified version of his spear has appeared with two subsequent minifigures, and his shield has appeared with three subsequent minifigures. I just don't buy that LEGO couldn't rerelease these figures because of the molds. Personally, I believe the poor results to this poll are due to the fact that it was probably mostly kids voting. The e-mail even specifically said "your little VIPs". From what I've read here, those of us who received the e-mail seem to have voted primarily for the Spartan or Zombie (I voted for the Zombie myself). If this poll was given to AFOLs only, I am 100% positive that the top five figures would have included the Zombie, Spartan, Elf, probably the Forestman, and one other high demand figure (Robot, Caveman, Cheerleader, etc.). But the fact is that most of the votes were from kids. I was curious, so I tested this theory by asking my 8 year old cousin, who has recently developed an interest in LEGO, which 5 minifigures he liked most from Series 1-3. I placed all 48 figures on a table and asked him to choose. His favorite of all of them was the S1 Skater. The other four he picked were the Gorilla Suit Guy, Spaceman, Space Villain, and Witch. Two of these were apparently among the top vote-getters from LEGO's poll. And the general consensus from AFOLs on the five figures he picked is probably that they aren't that great of figures. Personally, I was a fan of the witch, and I know many people were fans of the Space Villain. But generally, the five figures he picked would not be very high on an AFOL's list. I also questioned him about my five favorites (Zombie, Spartan, Elf, Forestman, and Caveman). He like the Zombie and Forestman, but had a negative reaction to the Spartan (specifically callng it stupid and ugly), the Elf (said it did not look like a Santa's elf; which is understandable considering he's never seen LotR), and the Caveman (also calling it stupid). I then questioned him about the remaining two figures that are in this set. He said he liked the Fisherman because the beard made him look like Santa, but he didn't like the Mummy because of the color and the scorpion. So, to summarize, two of LEGO's top five were in his top five, he had a positive reaction to the Fisherman, and negative reactions to the Mummy and Elf. Out of the 3 unquestionable AFOL favorites, he only liked one (the Zombie). Considering these results I got from just one KFOL, with a 60% favorable reaction to LEGO's top five, and only a 33% favorable reaction to AFOL's top three, I could see where LEGO's top five might actually be the top five and our favorites wouldn't be included. I'm not saying this is case, it's just my theory. But the point is KFOLs and AFOLs think differently. When we're asked for our favorite minifigure, we immediately think of the so-called "army builder" figures. When a kid is asked for their favorite minifigure, army building is not on their mind and they just pick the one they think looks the coolest. In addition, think of our favorites - Zombie, Spartan, and Elf. Now obviously the Elf was a favorite even among the kids (although not my cousin), largely due to the fact that most older kids have probably seen LotR. But with my cousin, only 8 years old, he didn't like it because in his mind an elf should look like Santa's elves. But as far as the Zombie and the Spartan, I'm not so sure that too many kids are watching movies like 300 and Zombieland, or TV shows like The Walking Dead. I think the Spartan would generally not be a kid's favorite, with the Zombie probably having mixed reactions. Just my two cents.

I was excited for this set... but now that the winners are revealed, I'm thoroughly dissapointed. Only 1 good figure, the Elf, and I already have more elves than any other army builder (plus we've got LotR on the way). Still baffled that the Zombie and Spartan are not in this set. Definitely not wasting my money on this set. And I would have bought 50 of them if they had put the Zombie and Spartan in along with the Elf. At least if they do this poll again for Series 4-6, there's only a couple bad figures in those series and we might get somewhat better results. And I also agree with the common thought that Series 3 is by far the worst series, with only one truly good figure, the Elf. If they wanted to use five figures from the same series, they should have picked Series 1, which a lot of people missed out on.

I'm also anxious to find out the results... I'm really hoping the Zombie, Spartan, and Elf were among the top-vote getters.

Both. I'm excited that the theme will continue, but disappointed because that means I'll have to spend money on it.

In my opinion, the CMF Werewolf is a much better alternative to the ugly thing they put in that preliminary picture. The old Studios/Harry Potter style werewolf would have even been better than that thing. So I disagree with your reasoning there. However, I do think that the CMFs are temporary stand-ins and will get new prints for the final version. And actually, it looks to me like the mummy already does have a new print. Look at a picture of the CMF Mummy (or the actual fig if you have one nearby) and compare it to the Monster Fighters mummy. The most noticeable difference is the bandages on the torso; they have a different pattern than the CMF Mummy.

I know that's just speculation, but what you're saying would involve Kingdoms merging into a new Castle theme by way of the Black Falcons... I don't think that's ever happened in a theme before, where a new faction was introduced and then it became a different theme altogether (there were no Knight's Kingdom characters appearing in the Fantasy Era sets, and no "Crownies" appeared in any Kingdoms sets). That said, I do think a new Castle theme might be a possibility, since the reply did say "Castle" and not "Kingdoms". That could also explain the rumors that Kingdoms is finished. But I guess we'll just have to wait and see. That guy posting the summer pics on youtube said that there were no castle sets besides LotR, but he also doesn't have any Marvel Superheroes pics. So perhaps LEGO is trying really hard to keep the new Castle sets a secret like they are with the Marvel sets.

That seems odd, but coming directly from LEGO, it seems promising. And they said "LEGO Castle returns", not "LEGO will have castles", so I don't think they mean the castles in LotR and Monster Fighters. But if this is true... I need to make some money fast. LotR, Monster Fighters, more Kingdoms, some Ninjago sets, possibly some Superheroes sets, not to mention Collectible Minifigures... I don't know how I'm going to afford it all.

That is the best news ever. I hope it has at least four or five (or more) zombies. That would really make my day. But either way, I will probably buy multiples of that set.

First Lord of the Rings and now this? LEGO is releasing all of the themes I've always wanted! While this is awesome, I'm going to have to somehow find a way to pay for all of this. But these sets look great. A couple of them look like redesigns of the old Studios sets, but some of them like Dracula's Castle and the hearse are brand new ideas. And all of them, even the redesigns, look great in my opinion. There isn’t a single one I won’t buy. The hearse looks like it has a zombie driver, which is awesome. The fish-monster looks pretty cool too, as do the new ghosts. The only disappointment is the awful werewolf. I really hope they improve on it before it comes out. And like others have said, I'm sure the CMFs are just stand-ins. By the looks of it, Dracula's bride has the same face as Dracula, which just doesn't look right and I imagine they'll change before the sets come out.

Honestly, I'm quite impressed with these preliminary set images. They all look like they'll end up being pretty cool sets (minus maybe the Shelob Attacks set). And if this LotR theme sells well, which based on this topic it seems like it will (at least for AFOLs), I expect it may eventually expand to the size of Star Wars. That means we'll eventually get UCS castles and such. But even if it only has a one or two year run before LEGO returns to a classic Castle theme, it will still be worth it. I'd love to see it have a longer run though, because there are endless set possibilities.

^^I love all this LEGO math. ^^ But for me, I just use the "touch and feel" method. I usually can't afford to buy more than a few minifigs in one trip to the store, so I never buy a full series all at once. But when I completed my Series 5 collection, I went to the store to try and get the six figures I was missing plus an extra gladiator, and got them all right using the touch and feel method. Obviously if you're buying them online, like from LEGO directly, what you get is most likely completely random. But if you buy a full sealed box of 60, you are ensured to get three complete series. If you buy random figs out of a box in a store, then you have to take into account how many of each fig were originally in a sealed box, how many are missing from that box, and if there are any other open boxes nearby that figs could have been moved to or from. So the probabilities change depending on what method you use to get your figs. Let's see some calculations for that. Yeah, all of the "army builders" that collectors labeled beforehand seem to be the ones they put three of in a box - Zombie, Spartan, Elf, Dwarf, Gladiator, and now Roman. It stinks, but that's the way it goes.

I don't get it. LEGO had Belville before, and I don't remember that being a big problem... And like one of the first posters in this topic said, walk down any girl aisle in a store and all you see is pink. So whatever the people's arguments are for opposing Friends, they don't really make sense. I'm a guy, and so not interested in the theme at all, and I mostly buy castle related LEGOs, so they aren't going to be that useful for me for parts either, but I have nothing against the theme in general. I'm sure many girls enjoy having a "girly" theme like Belville or Friends, and those that don't can buy other sets.

LEGO seems determined to make me go broke. But glad to see this theme is official now. Can't wait to see what the sets and minifigs will look like. And it looks like there will be an actual ring piece, which is awesome!