General Magma

Indeed. I fully realize that this is not an opinion that is going to be popular around here, but there's a certain unwavering brand loyalty to LEGO paired with perhaps not knowing that LEGO, too, started out by copying another company's brick system (and hiding it for decades). Regardless of that, the competition will push LEGO to level up, but it doesn't seem like they're prepared yet to lower their prices.

I've had them for about 7 years and they still look the same as they did before.

There is no proof for it because their statements largely aren't true. I don't know as for the extent to which they may or may not cut corners, but calling them all "clone brands" isn't quite right because Lumibricks makes their own sets and, as you said, LEGO wasn't even the first to come up with the bricks as we know them. There are clone brands that just copy sets, yes, but these other ones like Lumibricks are just competitors if anything.

There are no "original Lego counterparts" for those armor pieces, and the quality of the figures is actually quite good. Lego wouldn't even bother to print the sides of the figures let alone go all 360 like they did on these, and calling them cheap when Lego's solution to silver is this dull pearl grey color is a bit ironic. At least we can agree about modern Lego's greedy practices.

Surely not perfect, the armor is a bit bulky and would benefit from a separation or belt print on the hip area, but they look like their movie counterparts and are actually properly silver. better image

They're still initially forking over thousands just for a handful of figures, all while the Koruit Gondorians are better than the Lego ones. It really is Lego that has been cheapening out on things across the board, so the overblown brand loyalty seems more senseless than ever.

I saw someone spend thousands to buy multiple Minas Tirith sets just for the Gondor soldiers, at that point you're better off just finding good 3D printed custom pieces and going the custom route.

I'm surprised people are still putting up with modern Lego's greed. Plenty of good third party figures out there without having to beg for battlepacks for years or figures being locked away behind GWPs.

Found it.

An extra printed piece in a $650 set, you would ask this of LEGO? No, those are some sky-high demands, mate...

That's not the sheriff's hat, it's an entirely different hat that LEGO never made physically.

I wonder if they'll ever actually make a Western figure with a hat similar to this one they were using around The Lego Movie days.

This hat is exactly what I'm looking for but so far I haven't been able to track down where it comes from, where to get it or who made it. The figure seems to be a custom of The Ghoul.

I agree with the printing issue being lazy on LEGO's part, similar issues existed well over a decade ago and they still haven't bothered to do much about it. I think the printing would look a lot better if the white were actually proper white.

It's definitely grown on me and makes more sense than a regular one.

The ultimate troll move would be if it has no buildings and the whole set is another continuation to the classics with the fortress reduced to rubble by the BSB's cannons

Could be a placeholder date. What does access mean here, reveal? Wouldn't make sense to reveal it six months prior.

I do wonder how the red bricks on the white walls will be done, I'd be fine with either tiles or printing.

I also hope the fortress is fully enclosed rather than having an open section in the back like a lot of sets tend to have nowadays. I think the ramp will be studded so it can actually be used for something, I've seen some MOC remakes of the set that tackle this quite well with slanted plates.

Signs are pointing towards it being a direct remake of Eldorado Fortress.

Since the Barracuda Bay set is meant to be a continuation to the pirates line and supposedly aged up some of the characters, shown by adding some gray to Redbeard's beard, might they do yet another slightly different version of him in this one, as this is an actual remake?

I decided to run a little experiment to see if it would work to use classic style heads on otherwise modern figures, also to see my preference and it's actually a pretty tough call. Going fully modern definitely allows for a wider range of variety in terms of head options, but the classic style heads also work well it seems like. What do you guys think?

The one thing here that makes me wonder is the fact that it's double sided, so if it is indeed in the set, then perhaps the figure using it will have a hat with hairpiece attached to it. The head seems to be a good fit for the governor, what with the moustache and stubble.

I wouldn't be surprised if that head turns up in the Eldorado Fortress set.

Has anybody tried swapping the brick bricks out for something more akin to the printed dark gray bricks they used to do in the actual classic sets? I think that would be one of the best visual mods for this set.