Blakstone

It is hard to count your roosters before they hatch. I believe we will likely get a Castle line in 2016, but despite rumors from LEGO Store employees, I wouldn't guarantee it. So it is way to early for me to think there would be two waves in a year. Chima is retiring this year. If LEGO was to use Castle as a replacement AND they had a TV show tie-in, then I could see multiple waves in a year. I just would worry that the prints would be <insert that tiresome argument>. I don't care if the builds are since I will scrap the builds shortly after building them.

While I would prefer a molded fellbeast, I just cannot see LEGO creating a new mold for an exclusive set. The change budget is just too small. I suspect that TLG designed a fellbeast mold. But they probably didn't complete it to be production ready.

The appearance of Smaug changed during the production of the movie. Likely there wasn't time for LEGO to change their work until after they had to have wave 2 complete.

Answered in the third post.

Vikings is missing on the poll in the top 5 factions. It is also missing for the least favorite faction, but I don't want to vote for it there.

Then I shouldn't try it on my iPhone. When I use Chrome on the laptop: I enter code, click Redeem Code, then there is a green check box. Once I click that, I am back on the account page. https://register.pla...m/subscription/

I just started entering the codes, once a day, yesterday. What are the "couple more clicks" that you need to do? I enter the code and there is only a green check box. Once I click that, I don't see an option to enter the contest.

I hope i get a chicken box too... as well as the minifigs.

Sure. You can have stag and wolf coat of arms to attract the GoT fans sinc we have had a wide variety of Lion and dragon already. Still the Pirates line gives me hope. I didn't like the torso prints for Castle 2013. But despite how <insert that tiresome argument> AFOLs find the builds, all the Pirates 2015 look great to me.

Not only that, but LEGO has an internal process similar to Ideas where their designers. It appears that LEGO designed more sets than we ever got, but whether all of them were slated to be produced or not is anyone's guess. But the brand managers have to work under more constrains than we realize. Also designers move from project to project. So perhaps the best designers of LotR wave one moved to the Orthanc and were not involved in the other sets in wave 2. LEGO Movie also pulled a lot of resources and designers with it. I read in an interview that LEGO wanted to satisfy an employee's daughter by having Arwen in a set. I know the AFOLs will say that Eowyn is a better female representation. But most kids do not research 10 year old movies and might not catch that Eowyn was a girl. The sells decision for most kids is the front of the box. So having Arwen in a blue dress is very recognizable to kids. Each wave gets a Change budget. This budget is not only used for new molds but also for new prints and at a much cheaper level producing existing molds in additional colors. Wave 3 of the Hobbit obviously spent a lot of their change budget on Smaug. When I read designer interviews I am amazed at how constricting these change budgets are. For example, the spacemen in the Ideas set could have been in black or green as they need legs, torsos, arms, and hands all in the same color. Black pieces are available because of Darth Vader and green because of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. LEGO does not contain even successful licenses after the source material is over. A LEGO Shareholders Report listed Pirates of the Caribbean as exceeding expectations after the line ended. Even Star Wars cannot endure without source material. It nearly bankrupted LEGO when they tried. Fortunately Lucas and LEGO discovered that and they quickly had something on air whether it was Clone Wars, Rebels, or LEGO Stars Wars Yoda Chronicles.

CopMike mailed a bunch out yesterday and today. Steampunk Soc, I will PM you with my addess.

I don't but there are a lot of users here. All reports show that Walmart didn't carry Series 3 Hobbit and Target didn't carry The Loney Mountain. That may have driven more business to the retailers that did carry it. But Walmart and Target made those decisions based on the sells of the prior Series. As final film may have driven more interest, the final Series may have done better than the first two. But we can safely infer poor sells for at least Hobbit Series 2.

The unprinted shields were last produced in 2013 with the Town Square set. But anything is possible.After all, the green magic hat was last produced in 2011 according to Brickset but is a staple in Build a Minifigure.

The rehashes don't bother me. I agree with MAB on that. I enjoyed the first CMF witch and I don't hate this one. It just doesn't appeal to me. The businessman and cheerleader zombies are really the best part of this series for me. It is just that this series does not appear to be very versatile. I had hoped for a detailed Gothic print on some minifigures such as a Headless Horseman. I could swap out heads and add him to a Victorian scene or leave him for a Halloween MOC. Regular CMF series generally has some goofy and some more serious minifigs. This one just seems to have goofy ones. Can we have CMF Series 15 now?

I am up to six Egyptian warriors and I found CMF Viking shields in the Build a Minifigure station in Woodland Hills last night. Three of those will go great for a new Viking themed MOC.

We just have our first LUG meeting since 2012 today and one of the confusions is that our names says AFOL. The current members don't mind some TFOLs joining us. Before seriously considering a name change from AFOLOKC to something else, some members thought it might be good to check with the Ambassors. Is there any hurdles or concerns with a LUG changing their name? I was thinking of going from AFOLOKC to Red Brick, the LEGO User Group of Oklahoma City... or Red Brick for short.

I go for either the hat or sword. That bag can confuse people.

I hope not. I sat out Simpsons Series 1 and will sit out Simpsons Series 2 and might only get a few of the Halloween series. We really need a mix of serious and silly, historic, modern, and futuristic for a successful series. In the Series 13 thread this is talk about people hating Lady Cyclops and not understanding the popularity of Hot Dog Guy. But there are plenty of people that like them. I think for a Series to be successful the characters have to appeal to a broad range of people. You don't need everyone to love every character though. If Series 14 had five or six Halloween themed characters but then covered other ground, I think that would be a success. After all, Series 11 had three strongly Christmas themed characters and a few that might stretch for it.

The most interesting is that this will still be considered CMF Series 14 instead of CMF Halloween.

There are a couple of definitions for modular that LEGO uses. All the many of the Pirates sets are considered modular because they are made to connect to each other without modifications. However when we talk about Modulars, there seems to be a much more specific requirements. The sidewalks and pins line up so that for nine sets, you can put them into any order and the buildings flow into each other. There is much love for the Victorian Haunted House. It matched the size and detail of this line, but since it did not connect, it wasn't a Modular. I think LEGO might make a gas station that is in the same scale as the Modular line but that would not be enough for me to call it a Modular.

Helmets... hmmm... as much as heraldry is important to me. I want a new helmet mold that would work as a Viking helmet. Vikings did not have any horns on their helmets. But I doubt we would get any new helmet molds.

I hate the Lady Cyclops but my feel method failed me three times this wave. I got two of her and a second carpenter. I am arm building the samuri, goblins, and especially the Egyptian warrior.

At one local Walmart, the Goblins were unpopular. There was only carpenters and goblins. But there of the goblins were tore open and left. That was the only time I bought such packs. Who would like such great army builders behind?

Yes, but LEGO is focusing on girl style play in the minidoll lines such as the Sleeping Beauty line that Etzel posted. By dividing their focus between boy themes and girl themes, it actually drives more conflict into the boy sets. I agree that I wish it was the other way though. And LEGO develops a wide range of sets for the play testing. That is why I linked to an entire interview from a Castle theme developer. The Medieval Market Village has interiors as well as the Kingdom Joust set. Those are D2C and appealed to older kids and adults. But they could barely interest kids with a blacksmith set even after they included an enemy soldier.

I especially love the blossoms on the cherry tree. Excellent build.