Proximo

That's exactly my point. I don't get what the no-official-statement-means-more-sets-guys do expect here. Should there be an announcement on the lego-website? Or should lego post a video on youtube? Is the absence of new sets in the retailer catalogue not official enough? For me it is.

Back to the future was just one single set an based on a cuuso, so not comparable to standard licensed theme. And for star wars: come on, are you serious? We both know that star wars is always a special thing. We are in a forum here, a forum is there to speculate and for discussion. Nobody who is no lego insider knows something for sure, but then every armchair expert (how you call it) could go back to his armchair and stop talking here, because we don't know aything. And then we could also close this thread.

There is a reason: TLG never released licensed sets without any supporting media in the background, nor they had ever released a licensed wave AFTER a movie came out.

1. I don't see any reason why it should be like that. 2011 is not far away from now. By the way: As far as i know there wasn't any official announcement for the end of LR too and this was 2013... 3. No. Thats sounds like wishful thinking of someone who don't want to see the signs. If you compare the situation with other licensed themes you will see that the number of waves has nothing to do with the number of movies. I have to admit: 4 PotC waves would have been very nice... 4. I bet you will. 5. So then we agree at least in one point. 6. Err... there aren't any new LotR sets in the trade catalogue compared to new hobbit sets. If that isn't a hint for you i don't know what you consider as one. Why not? There is always a first time....

I don't know for Ninjago but not for HP for example. So far so true... I can't find any law which stated this but maybe you know more than I haha. I guess you will wait a very long time. Beside the fact that we are in the Lord of the Rings thread here, these figures are ugly anyway. Even printed legs don't change anything. We don't talk about the lack of pictures, but about the more and more obvious hints that there isn't a third wave at all. We already know the setnumbers and boxsizes of the new Hobbit sets, they will be released in October or even later. It's now January so... I don't see your logic here.

This ugly pieces of ABS must be Lego's revenge for bad sale figures. Why is Lego punishing us with this? Compared to these heads even figs from Megablocks look quite well....

Not at all, i guess. Lego never says officially that a line ends now. They simply stop selling at some point. Following your logic, we could also still hope for new Harry Potter sets. Well, some people here might still hope for a UCS Hogwarts. But for those who live in reality it's apparent that this will never happen.

I never said something different. It should be clear that the whole LOTR line is mainly aimed at a older audience or even adults, but this applies for expensive exclusives even more. Therefore it's very very unlikely that we will get another set like Orthanc, because i think the market for that is to small. The decisions which sets were produced and which not are often confusing (for me). I call it "Lego-logic", it would be interesting who exactly makes this decisions. In any case, it ever was and still is very difficult to forecast which sets we will see. Well, i think nobody here will disagree with you by saying that there are a lot of missing characters. The problem for me is, that there will be always some characters which will be missing. Even after 4,5,6 waves there will be still some figures left which could be made. And even if all characters became minifigures, than you will observe the same thing which could be easy observed for Star Wars: Some people pop up and argue: "but we need X in Y" or "we still need X with another print/face/armor and because of this there has to be another wave". In my opinion this arguments are insignificant for Lego. The most important question will be, if the released sets are profitable enough or not. Since we get no information about sale figures of specific lines we could only speculate and this is quite mindless for me. But i think if the first wave would have sold like hot cake, the second wave would have been bigger. I'm still not saying that a third wave is impossible, but with the points i already make in my upper post, it becomes more unlikely for me. At least nobody can complain about the fact that we don't get a big (last) set, because we simply get one, even if this set was not the most wanted one. At last, i still hope Lego will prove me wrong.

Maybe you could do that, but firstly that would not be the "last big set" because Orthanc is simply larger, and secondly a Minas Tirith like this would be absolutely dissatisfying for most people here (including me). Overall if there isn't a third wave at all we won't see Minas Tirith either way. As for cuusso: For me this whole thing is more a marketing gag than a real chance for Lego fans to get thier own sets. Motto: Look, we are interested in you! But as far as i can remember there is not one single cuusso set with more than 500 pieces. It seems that smaller and cheaper sets have far better chances to become real sets. And a Minas Tirith which contains only 500 pieces may be to optimistic. I would order it, but not for my kids.

Kids love castles, so far, so true. But that doesn't mean that it is necessary to release a second "King's Castle". There is already a new castle line. By the way: Kids also love pirate ships. This was the reason why they release such a set (most likely), although the corsairships play only a tiny role in the films. As you can see, its more important for Lego to release sets which can be sold instead of release sets which iconic scenes. Generally: A minas tirith which most people here want to see has to be a set in the 300$/€-league. How many parents out there buy their kids such sets? So your kids-argument doesn't count here anyway. The main target for such expensive sets are AFOL's, but this market is limited.(this is a fact which Lego really knows of) Two sets like 10237 seem to be to much for a line which contains 2, maybe 3 waves. At least for me, it sticks to the fact that we never will see a minas tirith, at least not as a second D2C. (i know it's sad) Again, Lego isn't about "wrong feelings", it's just business (as many other people stated out before). We don't know why they choose this set to be the "great finale set". Maybe just because of lower production costs? Maybe some managers at Lego don't like minas tirith? There could be millions of reasons. For me there are just some serious analogies to other lines. Just a few examples: 10210 for 2009 pirates line 10217 for Harry Potter 10223 for Kingdoms 10193 for last Castle line ... As far as i see, Lord of the Rings would be not the first line which were ended by a 10XXX-set. In conclusion, for me Orthanc is a indication that there will be no third wave. The none-promotion of 2014-LOTR's sets in the new Hobbit wave is another. Of course just indications, so it's not completelly impossible, but i don't think there is much hope for that. I would love to see a third wave as you do.

We have already got such a set with 10237.

Do we really need more policeman? I personally would have rather another skateboarder . But the mermaid is awesome.

In fact these "mystical" 30 boxes have become more or less the new standard boxes, at least in austria and south germany. You will see more shops here which only have the 30 boxes than the "normal" 60 boxes.

I don't know much about the tools or machines which Lego use for their figures. But always when it comes to that transparent-fig-issue, you get the impression, that it's technically impossible to produce transparent figures due to the lack of adequate materials. But that's NOT the case. Maybe there will be some investments necessary but investments which would be profitable after all. At least it would open new ways to design complete new minifigures

Maybe polycarbonate won't work. But nobody says that you have to use polycarbonate, there are enough transparent plastics on the market from which you easily could make transparent minifigs if you are willing to do so. But beside that: Even if they weren't any other materials they could have made at least the parts transparent which are possible, like head or arms. This sand-green looks totally awful in my opinion too. Not to mention that it is absolutely inaccurate.

where the heck do you see any flesh there? Maybe you need new glasses.... Regarding the tricorn issue: the "doubts" if there is a tricorn included are more wishful thinking than serious doubts. There will be no tricorn.

Well, technically the fig is wearing the tricorn ON it's hand and not holding it IN it's hand. So the statement that a minifig can't hold a tricorn in it's hand is still true. Just my opinion.

Why does everbody think that the golden figure will be chrome? For me it seems more likely that the fig will be just pearl, because since the CMF-line existet, there never has been any chrome part in it.

we did not get loads from the cmf-line, ok. but that was not the point. the point was, that there where already tons of police-officers in nearly all city lines. i think nobody will really deny this. considering that, a fire-fighter seems not so unlikely, because obviously the fact that there where already tons of a specific character in other lines does not prevent lego from making another one in the cmf-line.

really? and what about the policeman in series 2?

you may call me a pessimist, but i highly doubt that there will be a third wave at all. i think we will get this orthanc set and this it how it ends. unfortunately. but if anyone from lego can hear me: do us a favor and make a wtich king set! i dont care about a fell beast or another pippin, but iam desperate for that helmet!