Blondie-Wan

You think so? I wouldn't have thought so, but I don't profess to know. I will note that judging from LEGO's own product minisites for both Minifigures and The LEGO Movie, they obviously consider these figures part of their The LEGO Movie line and not the Minifigures line. While it's also clear this batch of minifigures does take the place of a regular Minifigures release in their release schedule (i.e., they're releasing The LEGO Movie minifigures at the time when one would normally expect Series 12 to come out, so Series 12 will be delayed; The Simpsons minifigures will probably delay Series 12 again), I don't see any indication that it will offset the numbering, any more than the Team GB minifigures had any effect on Series 8, 9, and 10. It also seems to me that if they were going to abandon the numbering, they'd have done it one series earlier; it just feels a little odd to go to Series 11 rather than ending it after Series 10 (possible Spinal Tap allusions notwithstanding). I can totally see a Series 12 following The Simpsons, one year after its official predecessor Series 11 came out. It also seems to me that having a greater amount of time pass between the numbered series, even if it's just between S11 and S12, allows the retail environment to "catch up" with releases. When the first series came out, they mostly flew off the shelves so quickly that it was nearly impossible to find any stock from the preceeding series anywhere by the time a new series came out (well, at least here in the US). Lately, though, it's not uncommon for there to still be lingering stock from one series still around when another comes out. I suspect retailers would rather not have to deal with having two or three of the regular numbered series on their shelves at the same time; having this long stretch between S11 and S12 will help ensure nearly all the old stuff is finally cleared away everywhere by the time 12 comes out, and it can have sort of a "clean slate" retail environment. The minifigures for The LEGO Movie and The Simpsons may still be around, but it shouldn't matter, since they'd be considered separate products.

His body print is also updated.

It's not the snazziest-looking SW vehicle, true, but it's a memorable one important to the story of the first movie, and also appearing in the prequels and the EU, and the last time one was done in LEGO was quite a few years ago. It's also the only set in which Jawas appear, even though they appear in most of the movies (and again have story importance in at least the original), and it features only three of them, and furthermore it's also the only set in which Owen Lars appears, despite his story significance. And Beru Lars has yet to appear in a single set. I think there's plenty of call for another Sandcrawler now.

Actually, it's the 11th, since Series 10 had 17.

A finch might be a better fit for Darwin.

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by "Technically yes, but if the piece still appears with Emmet in regular sets, it's still not allowed." What exactly wouldn't be allowed, and why wouldn't it be? The Detective is an obvious homage to the fictional character Sherlock Holmes (and perhaps certain specific cinematic portrayals of him), but not a historical figure per se, and the Hollywood Starlet seems to be more of an archetypal starlet than a representation of any specific actress. I would say the Egyptian Queen does seem to be clearly inspired by Cleopatra, however, even if she's not formally referred to by that name. Come to think of it, though... back when Series 2 was in the works, wasn't there some leaked internal memo from TLG that informally referred to the Disco Dude as "Disco Stu"? Signs and portents of things to come, one might now think...

I don't think so, since the Licensed forum is for sets and themes for which LEGO licensed the rights from outside IP holders, hence the name. LEGO didn't seek a license from itself for this theme, though; if anything, this is more like a theme Warner Bros. licensed from LEGO, rather than the other way around (though of course the movie does involve characters LEGO licensed from Warner, i.e. all those DC Comics characters). This theme is essentially a mishmash of LEGO's own homegrown themes, and if it were broken down into those then sets from this line (or parts of sets from this line) would really belong in Historic Themes, Action Themes, Pirates, Sci-Fi, Town, etc. Nope, it's a usual occurrence with the early Bionicle sets. Here are some subthemes from 2001 to 2004 where 3 sets can be combined into a larger figure with the instructions spit between the sets: http://ww.brickset.c...btheme=Toa Mata http://ww.brickset.c...subtheme=Bohrok http://ww.brickset.c...btheme=Toa Nuva http://ww.brickset.c...heme=Bohrok-Kal http://ww.brickset.c...ubtheme=Rahkshi http://ww.brickset.c...theme=Toa Metru http://ww.brickset.c...&subtheme=Vahki And here are a couple of subthemes from 2005 where 2 sets can be combined into a larger figure with the instructions spit between the sets: http://ww.brickset.c...eme=Toa Hordika http://ww.brickset.c...ubtheme=Visorak After that, the practice is stopped altogether... Actually, there've been some more recent sets in other themes that did that, including such current sets as the Legends of CHIMA constraction figures. Additionally, the first Star Wars minis sets from 2003 also included additional parts to make portions of additional vehicles. Each of the four sets from the first wave came with the parts to make two vehicles (Anakin and Sebulba's pod racers, for example, or Luke's X-wing and Vader's TIE Fighter), plus roughly one-fourth of a TIE Bomber; with all four sets you could make the eight main vehicles, plus the TIE Bomber with parts from all four. The second wave similarly had parts for a Y-wing fighter distributed amongst the four sets, so those four sets combined would make five vehicles, one from each set plus the Y-wing from parts from all four. Didn't the Exo-Force line also include provisions for combining parts from pairs of sets into larger models?

I'd have thought so too, but I think they're probably rethinking some of the business model for LEGO Universe and applying what they've learned to this; it may very well also reuse some of that game's material, and even be something of a "LEGO Universe 2.0" (note that the LEGO Minifigures Online trailer actually uses some of composer Brian Tyler's music score from LEGO Universe). I imagine this game will indeed be free-to-play, and thus avoid some of the resistance to the subscription model that may have stymied parents unfamiliar with MMOs and kept LEGO Universe from gaining the audience it really deserved. Thanks for the heads-up, Rexworth. I've just gone and registered for the beta.

There are quite a few existing minifigures based on real-life people, although many or most of them don't fit the pre-1950 qualifier of "historic" found in the initial post, and many of the ones listed here appear so far only in videogames and animation; moreover, this list also has some duplication and some arguable omissions. Nevertheless, I think any discussion of this topic is incomplete without this: http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Minifigures_that_are_based_on_real_people

Oh, wow. WOW. I want multiples of everything! Oh, and... Well, ask and ye shall receive, as they say, and right after I made my post - and way more sets than we'd already seen, to boot! What timing! But I do notice the initial post still lacks the Minifigures shot. I know they have their own dedicated thread, of course, but surely it wouldn't hurt to add that one pic to the initial post, and that series is part of this theme, after all... Also, speaking of the Minifigures series... it looks like Emmet has a scream face in most of these sets in which he appears, and a fear face in the Uni-Kitty Cloud Cuckoo one, with no hint of a "normal" / happy face anywhere save the Minifigures one. Presumably lots or all of these Emmets have double-sided heads, but could it be that the S12 Minifigures Emmet is the only one with an option to express something other than unease or abject terror? Other thoughts: Lots of official LEGO NPU here, with great re-purposing of supposedly highly specialized parts such as the Rock Raiders / Power Miners big drill bit as an ice cream cone, and an overall spirit of free-form creativity and genre-mashing that I think will make for not only some great sets but a very entertaining movie as well. I can't wait! Also, this theme looks like it'll be one of the richest themes yet for lots of great detail elements that'll go well in other themes, plus lots of new colors for existing parts. I think even those curmudgeonly old AFOLs who don't have an interest in the movie itself or in the official models it begets will still be pleased with everything it brings to the parts catalog.

How long will it be before the initial post in this thread gets updated with all the images we've seen so far? We now have images of the TLM Minifigures, the bike chase, the villain's lair and the sunny land with Uni-Kitty. I know they're all individually posted throughout this thread and the Series 12 Minifigures one, but it'd be great to have them all in one place... (Ooh, and will we get forum smileys of Emmet and Wyldstyle? I think we should!)

The second "Mexican" was in Series 2; he was the Maraca Man (the first overtly Mexican-themed character was the "Super Wrestler" luchador from Series 1, and the Aztec Warrior from Series 7 was the third). I'm guessing you're equating the guy here with the Maraca Man because of his sombrero. These two aren't even doing the same things; one's playing music while the other's serving food. The color schemes and hand accessories are totally different.

Minecraft might well be the licensed theme requiring the fewest theme-specific molds ever. From what I know of the game, they could probably make no more custom elements beyond the sword, and still produce official sets with greater fidelity to the likenesses of everything in the game than almost any other licensed thing they've done.

Yeah, and and this series doesn't have another. We'll apparently have to wait until Series 14 for a second mariachi, at the earliest.

Actually, the stuff I've bolded here probably isn't much of a concern. All proposal models are expected to be revised, and may even be revised quite heavily (as has happened with all four CUUSOO proposals turned into released sets so far), so models with weird connections or convoluted assemblies aren't an issue; if a model passes the other review criteria, TLG's designer(s) will simply find an alternative build, if necessary. And new colors don't appear to have been a problem so far - the existing CUUSOO releases among them feature a number of parts in colors in which they appear nowhere else so far, and there have even been a number of custom, set-specific prints. The only real parts issues for CUUSOO are actual new parts, requiring new molds (or reissues of older, discontinued elements, which may also require new molds), and even then it might be possible, so long as the parts can be used elsewhere and not just in the CUUSOO project (but yes, a set has a much much better chance of getting through if it just doesn't need new molds at all).

Wow, Minecraft must really be doing well if they're not just expanding the line beyond that initial set but actually embracing multiple scales and styles, the way they've done for a handful of other licenses. I second this. I know discussions of various licensed sets and themes are scattered hither and yon all over EB already, but still.

Hm... Looking at this, it appears I was wrong about the printed wall elements, at least in part; the decoration on that 2x1x5 brick just beside the door appears to be a sticker. Oh, well. I agree about the hairpiece. Merida certainly could have used a new one, more than pretty much any other character except Rapunzel. I think this one will still be ok, and certainly better than the Minifigures Forest Maiden (which probably was actually designed principally for Leia Organa in the then-upcoming Ewok Village, even if the Minifigures line got to actually use it before Star Wars), but I would think (and hope) that this is one of those cases of the earliest sets of a licensed theme (in which fidelity to a established look is important) using a standard part on hand for some notable visual aspect, but eventually replaced by a specially-created part later on (such as Squidward's head in Spongebob Squarepants). Hopefully, we'll get a more "proper" Merida hair element in a Disney Princess set in 2015, '16 or, '17, say (which of course assumes the overall line endures a while, as one might also hope). Perhaps, but then they're hardly different from traditional (non-LEGO) dolls (I don't remember seeing many scowling Barbies, for example), and I'm guessing TLG is just trying to appeal to girls the same way Mattel might, as far as this goes. Alternately, we might keep in mind all LEGO minifigures had exactly the same face print for over a decade, and even after 1989 we continued to see many of the same faces with the same expressions used and reused for long, long times, sometimes even among different themes and between sexes. Friends is still quite young, and not yet venturing far outside that heavily-researched and focus-grouped comfort zone; perhaps over time we'll come to see a greater variety in minidoll facial expressions. Or so one might hope, anyway.

This might be more of a "production oddity" / "error" than a regular part variation, but since your post reminded me of it... A couple years ago I saw some large green baseplates (32 x32) in a store that had the LEGO logos on some of the studs rotated at odd angles. I'm not sure how this could even have happened; it was as if each stud was individually molded, and some of the molds were rotated in place rather than being perfectly aligned. The text on all the studs I looked at was still perfectly legible and all, but it wasn't all going in the same direction.

Surprisingly few have, but there have indeed been some, such as the boxer, the Viking woman, the sleepyhead, and Medusa.

Thanks once again for your many informational contributions. I like the title of this thread. It sounds like it could be discussing ancient stone bricks recovered at an archaeological site, as might have been used by Neanderthal FOLs.

Yep. Many of them fit into pretty much any regular City milieu, while we also have a couple more historical figures, another fantasy/mythological figure, another person in an animal costume, and so on - all of which is fairly typical of Minifigures series. The only ones who would never have come out in "regular" waves, as they're seen here, are President Business (and then mostly just because of the hair and possibly the unibrow face print; the rest of the figure could easily have turned up as part of a "regular" businessman-type figure, either in Minifigures or City), the three robots-in-disguise, and Wild West Wyldstyle (again just because of the hair; with different hair it could easily have been part of any other wave of Minifigures, or part of a Wild West set if that theme were active). Those are robots, actually, but as a matter of fact I'm thinking of using them with different heads to be zombies, and for that purpose these figures are very much appreciated - if one has any interest in zombies at all (which I recognize not everyone will), one would naturally tend to want a great variety of zombies, as much as one might have amongst regular Cityfolk, and far beyond what's available with the comparatively paltry six extant official LEGO zombies. LEGO cops are, well, LEGO cops - they're always turning up anyway, whether one wants them or not. The mermaid? Again, one might reasonably want a greater variety of merfolk than the relatively small number of official LEGO mermaids allows for, so again it's appreciated; it's not like they're appearing in consecutive waves, or as numerous as skateboarders or anything like that. Well, a bad wave for you then indeed, unfortunately, but that doesn't mean it's flat-out bad, period. It just means this is one of the waves with less stuff in it that appeals to your particular interests than some others. We all have some waves we like more or less than others. But that doesn't mean a wave is worthless.

2, or 3, or 18, depending upon how one counts the Series 12 Minifigures. But that said, it's still early. The movie itself isn't out until February. We only got to see most of this year's sets for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug just weeks ago, and that movie's coming out a couple months before The LEGO Movie. I could see getting the rest of the (initial wave of?) TLM sets being revealed any time from now until late January.

Whoa! I thought I was the only one who first thought that upon seeing that helmet. It's the principal reason I'd want that cop, actually. Actually, to me most of this wave looks like something we'd have gotten in a "regular" wave, anyway. Only a handful of them really seem "movie character-specific," as it were, and two or three figures here (including Emmett himself) actually look pretty much like figures from regular City sets.

Ooh, those are great! So many cool things, as always - and yes, there are indeed lots of whole figures and parts here that will be very useful for people making things besides scenes from The LEGO Movie. Take that, naysayers!

Oh, that's hilarious. I have to love any theme that would combine such wildly stylistically disparate elements such as the Executron and Uni-Kitty figures together in the same set. And what we've seen in the trailer and the promo spots so far makes me think that this movie's portrayal of Batman is going to be my all-time favorite version of the character. I'm seriously jonesing for both the movie and the sets.