Clone OPatra

You're right; they are definitely System pieces. I love this little scene Legostein! Very well executed in a fun way.

It's all hearsay, and on top of that it's all hearsay that is very likely to be wrong. We don't actually know what's successful and what's not, but I could tell you the factors and signs that make me think one way or another. The clearance thing is one; if an entire theme ends up on clearance, and the amount of clearance stock is quite large, that sort of says something. The amount of waves a theme has and the strength of each wave also say something, but they don't always need to be together. Spongebob has tiny waves, but it's lasted for 6 years! That makes it strong. Indiana Jones had three strong waves and one small one in the middle, and Batman had a similar life; those themes seem successful to me. Then there are specific things that make themes seem unsuccessful (like clearance, already mentioned). If a theme is a one-off, it isn't necessarily unsuccessful, but it feels that way. It especially feels that way when it's a property that could easily be made into multiple waves because of the amount of material, like Pirates or Avatar. The fact that these themes only had one wave despite all of the unmade source material makes them seem unsuccessful. And finally, there are themes that feel like they die off. Harry Potter started out with lots of sets, but they only made four for the fourth film, and just one for the fifth. That made it seem like the theme was getting unsuccessful to me (although ultimately, it came back with a bunch more sets). We'll have to see where LotR goes. It will certainly have more than one wave (if it doesn't, then it's definitely unsuccessful). But will each wave be strong (five sets or more, IMO)? And more importantly, will the last wave be strong (since they often release small ones in the middle)?

Hey, no need to apologize! The more I think about these, they actually are really clever. It still seems like pooling a lot of different things and putting them all together into Star Wars, which is the one part that makes it a little weaker than the others. Each character separately, though, is really good.

I do not find your post to be a rant at all, Fives. All of your points are good ones, and worded well. I'd just like to respond to this one point, since I might have been one who has compared it to PotC. The reason you give here for not comparing the two is a good with you, but it is not the reason for which I compared and continue to compare the two themes. I am looking at them purely in terms of their sets. I will say, though, that just what's in a set is by far not the only reason why someone, child and adult alike, would by it. Even kids who like LotR would get LotR sets just because they like LotR. The way in which I compare the two is that the structures themselves in the sets in each theme are sort of in a similar style. For the most part, they are just geographical scenery, or bare bones of structures. I love a lot of the Pirates minifigures, just as I'm sure I'd like LotR minifigures, but I feel like the 'set' parts of many of these LotR sets are similar to the 'set' parts of the PotC sets that I felt so underwhelmed by. That's my only point of comparison. You are completely correct, though, that comparing the two themes by the source material or anything like that is absurd. LotR has an enormous (and quite deserved) advantage in that department. I'm still not sure exactly what that means when it comes to a LEGO theme, though. LotR will be a successful line. I have no doubt of that. It will have multiple waves as well, at least three or four. I would be very surprised if it performed so poorly that LEGO pulls the plugs on it. I can't see that happening. This theme is primed to last a while, but I don't see it being carried on much after the second Hobbit film just because of the types of sets. Nothing has that sort of staying power (besides Spongebob, crazily enough), but I think especially since this theme is mostly scenery it can't be carried on for more than a few years. But that's also just a thought from the current sets. Later ones, and Hobbit ones, might have more defined structures. We'll see.

What he said was that Oky made a few villians into heroes; namely, Riddler as Yoda and Freeze as R2-D2. Personally, the Riddle as Yoda makes a lot of sense, but I don't understand Freeze as R2. I guess it's because Freeze has a dome.

You sound as if people cannot have an unfavorable disposition towards sets before they are released. If that is the case, why are you allowed to think they are all great and wonderful? You can't know; they haven't been released. I cannot understand what's wrong with some healthy discussion about the upcoming sets. I am more than allowed to form opinions about sets I do not own; that's part of how I decide which sets I wish to buy. Sure, sometimes I think I want a set and then end up not liking it very much (happened for all three of the PotC sets I got), but I always form an opinion. You also just seem to be ranting. I am neither just a classic castle nor SW fan, I dabble in pretty much everything. I am not voicing my opinions to attack you or to attack Lord of the Rings or to attack anything. I am not even making any strong claims. I qualify just about everything in one way or another. Please take a second and breathe, and voice your opinions in something other than a rant. Ranting is not very constructive.

Yes, for kids, but I have trouble feeling that LEGO can successfully have a Licensed playtheme that is mostly attractive to older buyers (and since I have a personal taste for sets that are nice sets). We'll see, though. I by no means think this line will be a failure, but I wanted to articulate why I think that there's no way it will be even close to as successful as the likes of Star Wars, as some people seem to have been saying.

You say yourself right here why I don't like these sets and why I don't think the theme will be all that sustainable. It's not about kids not being able to relate to the source material as much as it is a lack of interesting sets. These sets are entirely about the minifigures, with, as you say, some 'scenery.' These sets having no 'set' part to them. Even Helms Deep, which will make a fine display piece, is basically just a big wall and a single room... for 140 bucks (more in Europe). Mines of Moria is just a bunch of grey. Weathertop is a big pile of bricks making a hill, for 60 bucks. I'm sorry, but these are not impressive sets. The minifigures are impressive, and to an older crowd who is into Lord of the Rings the sets themselves might be fun, but I feel like to a kid a lump of grey is not a spectacular set when one can get neat ships in Star Wars and Superheroes, all sorts of cool structures in the likes of Ninjago, and nice vehicles and fully realized buildings in city. Lumps of grey and dark green and brown just don't compare, despite awesome minifigures.

It's just a render on a LEGO-ized movie poster, which signifies nothing. However, since Fury is a very important character in the film, I think LEGO probably will release him at some point. I just can't see why they wouldn't.

Looking through all the minifigure heads would be a tedious task. Here's a BL search for angry minifig head, which turns up a bunch. Also, look through the collectible minifigures BL category. There aren't too many to look through, and there are a bunch of angry faces there. If you don't mind flesh-colored heads, many recent licensed themes have characters with angry expressions. Wolverine and Magneto both have snarling faces to name a couple, but many others like Harry Potter have pissed-off frowny faces, though not quite as intense as the anger in your example.

I do like your mashups, but I think this one is a bit of a stretch. The other two work so well because there are a limited number of characters in each property being mashed with Star Wars and they all have clearly defined roles. I'm not saying there isn't room for maneuverability for who gets matched with who in Toy Story, but the way you did it certainly seemed natural and fun. You've definitely made a good effort to pair sort-of similar characters here, but since there are just so many different super-heroes it doesn't quite work out, in my mind. Your choices are of course not completely arbitrary by any means; still, it doesn't all feel as natural as your previous two mashups. Why not try Pirates? I think with the limited number of characters, Pirates could blend with Star Wars quite well.

This notion is completely false. There has never been such a thing as 10 cents per piece, not in Licensed themes, and not in any other themes. Browse Brickest's Star Wars listings. Pick any year and you'll see that there have always been sets that don't make the 10 cents per piece standard. In the beginning, nearly none of them did.

No, by Lego's system Exlusives are sets only sold by Lego and at Lego retail stores (and sometimes Legoland parks). Hard to Find sets are released at certain retailers.

It's not going to be a Lego exclusive no matter what. I imagine it will be a Lego Hard to Find, which means in some countries it is only sold at a certain retailer. I'm also skeptical that it will actually come out at such a later time. Nobody really knew about the Funhouse, but it popped up with the rest. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

That's how I feel about George Lucas and The Clone Wars all the time There's so much EU writing that not all of it can be good, but every so often it's fun. What do you mean by "the rule of two?" Are you just talking about it as it relates to Plagueis, or are you talking about the Darth Bane novel with that name?

These are based on Ultimate Spider-Man, and Iron Fist appears to be one of the SHIELD's team of recruits and a main character in the show. Chose the wrong hair for who, Ock? I think it matches the show version well enough, although I find the whole look fairly ugly.

I was only talking about the head.

For a Cyclops in civilian clothing with special-treated glasses, possibly. It's not perfect, but it would do.

They don't always do preorder, just sometimes. Just because they are not up for preorder doesn't mean that they won't come out on the 1st. They said it explicitly on the Facebook page, and I don't think that Facebook page is just for UK LEGO stores.

I agree with K-Nut about the water. This MOC is well built, but it's hard to feel that water is really getting everywhere without any on the floor. You didn't have to make real-water puddles; you could've built them.

Well if you saw the first one, you might say that they did quite an effective job. I thought so anyway. I felt Hunger Games was a perfect example of how in film we don't need to explicitly see things happen to know what's going on. I found the violence even more effective and mind-numbing than it might have been if they'd gone the route of excessive blood and goriness on screen. We don't need to see huge amounts of blood, decapitations, and intestines flying to know and feel what is going on.

It's in a reply on the Marvel Superheroes website post. Look at the comments.

You might as well read the Wookiepedia article. Just make sure to hold on to your soul; I've found myself reading about Star Wars things for hours on end on the site.

CW is stylized 2D animation. You may like the 3D cg animation in TCW better, but you just can't compare the two on any basis other than your personal preference. I find the stylized 2D more fun, but I wouldn't say it's better. It's just different and I prefer it.

Loki is still a terribly boring minifigure. His torso and legs aren't very exciting, but it's really the face that ruins it. It's so dull, looking just about exactly like Bruce Wayne or Lex Luthor. Since this one is actually based on an actor, though, it shouldn't be like that. This looks nothing like Tom Hiddleston.