Blondie-Wan

Well, I've finally gotten my first eight minifigures - random packets, courtesy of Shop at Home. They arrived the day before yesterday, but I didn't open them until today. My initial mix: two Gingerbread Men, one Constable, one Yeti and four Barbarians (!). It's a good thing I kind of wanted multiples of that figure anyway. I do now have probably all the Barbarians I'll want, though, or close to it, and I'll probably get all my other S11's in brick-and-mortar stores, feeling the packets to get exactly what I want. I must admit I'd have liked to have gotten a somewhat more diverse mix in my initial batch of eight... but since I do want at least two of every one of them anyway, and more of some of them, I'm still happy. That said, I still need to pick up some more S9 and S10. Trying to keep up with these things is getting rather difficult!

I'm on the fence about this. On the one hand, the old one really is quite plain for the lack of printing, but on the other hand I think it would have been fine without quite so much printing as the new one; moreover I have several of the old ones, while I can get only two by buying one copy apiece of this set and the Rancor pit, and I'm not sure from looking at the photos whether I want to mix them - do I use everything and have oddly different-looking Gamorreans, use the somewhat plainer-looking old ones exclusively, or use exclusively the new ones (and consequently have hardly any)? Decisions, decisions... Anyway, kudos to the original reviewer for the comparisons; it's appreciated! Whoops, just noticed I'd already replied to this review on a different page some time ago. I'd completely forgotten.

And that's really too bad. They're nifty little sets. I do get that everybody perceives them to be overpriced, and they may well be overseas, but I don't think they are here (so one would think the US would be where they'd sell better, and thus where they'd be kept going, but apparently not). Blast it, it's going to be frustrating trying to get those last three...

Argh! Any of them official LEGO reps? Never mind; I've just asked TLG's customer service. I'm hoping to hear a "sure, they're just delayed" -type answer, but I'm not terribly optimistic. Blast it, I know someone who just returned from a visit to the UK, too. I'd have asked her to pick some up for me if I'd thought they weren't going to be released here...

Argh! How reliable is that information? I'd like to be able to hope it's erroneous, but if it's not I'd rather know sooner than later so I can act accordingly.

I'm trying to get caught up on all the stuff I want, and placed a Shop at Home order a few days ago made up mostly of smaller Star Wars sets I hadn't gotten around to yet despite their prices. My order arrived today, and included one of each of the following: 9490 Droid Escape 9679 AT-ST & Endor 75007 Republic Assault Ship & Coruscant 75008 TIE Bomber & Asteroid Field 850634 R2-D2 Keychain 5001709 Clone Lieutenant

So have I! I was wondering when/if we would get one; they've been using images of one for the stores and Shop at Home for quite a while, alongside images of other minifigures that have been made available in the Minifigures line or in other sets. I'd long hoped that meant they would indeed make official LEGO Store associate minifigures, but of course I'd like for them to be available here in the US...

BTW, I hadn't seen it actually mentioned in this thread yet, but that Macross VF-1 Valkyrie project finally hit 10,000 votes a few days ago, securing it the first spot in the Winter 2013 review period (unless it's declined in advance of that, of course).

What 10% off coupon is this? I don't remember seeing one in the catalog, and couldn't find one just now when I looked. Do you mean the Fall 2013 catalog, or something else?

You mean on the marquee, in the upper right corner of the image? Yes! Before I saw the actual sticker I was hoping it would be another sticker on the sheet, and that you could peel it off and put it on the building, but it's just part of the larger picture and not a sticker of its own. You could cut it out with scissors, but because of how it is in the photo it's at an angle, and it wouldn't fit squarely on the marquee on the model.

I'd rather think of what those people feel who didn't have the hundreds of dollars to bid on a single minifigure on eBay and now have another chance to get it much more reasonably from S@H.

I also just found them for the first time locally at a Target here (Tallahassee, Florida, USA) a few days ago. I didn't buy any then, but yesterday morning I included some in a Shop at Home order, so I should have my first several S11 minifigures within a few days.

Cool! But as it happens, The LEGO Movie itself will have multiple DC Comics superheroes, including both Superman and Batman - their minifigure versions, at least! - so it's the "DC Comics movie team-up" I'm most looking forward to anyway. Thanks for the links to those pictures. You do have some gorgeous buildings there.

Well no, I bought it months ago myself... Well, despite what it says in the offer text quoted by GRogall, it turns out it's possible to get it for a previous purchase after all - at least, I was able to! I called TLG's customer service to ask about it on September 1st, the day after I got the catalog (I tried calling the evening before, but the offices were already closed by that time), and it turned out they had one loose one there in the office; the customer service person I spoke to promised to send it out Tuesday (since the day I called was Sunday, and Monday was a holiday here in the US, meaning no postal service that day). This was before GRogall updated his post with the image I've quoted below and the promotional terms; if I had already seen that, I probably wouldn't have tried, since it does specifically say "Cannot be applied to previous purchases." I'm guessing the individual I spoke to hadn't been briefed on that or something. After seeing GRogall's post I was afraid I wouldn't get it after all, but it arrived yesterday! I don't know whether they would do this again, though; it might be that I only got one because the CS rep had already promised me one before finding out they weren't supposed to give them away without purchases. In short, I consider myself very lucky to have been able to get the sticker for a copy of the set purchased more than two months ago. But you never know; it might still be worth trying for those of you who also got the set "too early"... About the sticker itself: It turns out the image here isn't just a promotional image for the sticker; this whole picture is what the full sticker sheet actually looks like. It's about the size of a regular postcard, and has this exact same pic with the minifigures on the sidewalk, and the LEGO Movie poster is just die-cut on the sheet so you can peel it away from the rest of the image.

New character molds aren't the biggest obstacle to LEGO Sesame Street; this one is the major issue, and it completely precludes the possibility for the time being, I'd say. It's too bad; I think Sesame Street would be a good fit for LEGO, too.

(*snip*) Wow, that's amazing. Thanks for sharing that story. I knew LEGO was expensive outside the US, but I had no idea it was regarded like that in Hong Kong. Just astounding.

As it happens, I actually do have a use for it (that has nothing to do with Galidor), but I don't have the part (or anything else from the Galidor theme), alas. I wish I'd foreseen my current "need" several years ago, when Galidor was around, but of course I didn't. Argh.

It looks like a hybrid of the final Mon Calamari cruiser designs that debuted in Star Wars - Episode VI: Return of the Jedi and some of the preliminary ship designs Colin Cantwell did for the original movie. Nifty!

My Peeron inventory currently shows 139,490 parts, but it's not quite up-to-date. I'd guess it's somewhere a bit over 150,000 now.

Sure, but the license agreement may have barred them from doing anything that even gives the appearance of considering a competing project (also, the decision was made well before the movie was released).

Indeed, and it wouldn't be the first time they've handled this particular IP, for that matter. If they ever did reacquire the JP rights, it'd be notable as a licensed theme they'd had once, allowed to run its course and go to a competitor, then gotten back after said competitor had done their own version between TLG's first and second runs with it. The only other property I can remember this happening with is Spider-Man, done by TLG for the first two live-action movies in the Raimi / Maguire trilogy, then taken over by Mega Bloks for the third movie and other media, and now back to TLG again as part of the larger general Marvel theme. Oh, don't get me wrong - I don't think its chances are good, just that they're somewhat better than the mock-up in the proposal would let one believe. I agree a set using exactly the same build shown on the project page would be pretty much completely unmovable (except perhaps as a pure parts pack if it were cheap enough). I actually think a set of the larger model would sell better than this, even though it would have to cost many times as much. But I do think some clever product designers at our favorite toymaker could look at the proposal model and envision a broadly similar but much more compelling model in their minds, and it's that possibility that gives this project a (slim) fighting chance. If CUUSOO sets were forced to use the exact same builds as shown in the project proposals, of course, this one would be absolutely DOA.

You know, as, ah... unlovely as the prototype ATLAS mini model is, I think it actually has some potential to be a more appealing set. Certainly the substantially larger, more minifigure-scaled version linked from this model's page is quite a bit more compelling. While obviously any model this size would be compromised compared to the larger one, I think an attractive model could be made from this project; it's just that the model shown here isn't it. I imagine TLG's designers and CUUSOO team members will probably consider this when evaluating the project... though I'd agree that even with a substantially more compelling build, the ATLAS project is probably still the least likely out of this review batch to get produced. But one never knows...

I don't know, but I think that as long as they're sure they can sell 10k or more units, where they can sell them doesn't matter entirely. They've certainly done limited runs for specific regions (and for that matter, specific LEGO Store openings) before. Even within the CUUSOO theme, the first set was (and remains) Japan-exclusive, and the second was initially released that way and only made available internationally after a while. If they did a run of 10,000 Petes they could send about, oh... let's say 9000 of them to the university and/or the region generally, while holding the remaining 1000 to be sold through Shop at Home (and I wouldn't ever suggest they'd bother sending any to Amsterdam or Munich). I think that would work well for them. As you suggest, the question / issue of limited production slots is probably a potential sticking point, but note that this particular model is actually made of basic bricks that TLG probably keeps on hand anyway; it could well be that one or more limited production runs of this set really wouldn't tax their production capacities. This is a set with no printing, no stickers, no funky colors... just basic, ordinary bricks and plates. It's possible they could produce this set with a minimal impact on the rest of their production capacity - possibly this set could be made alongside some other CUUSOO project, when others couldn't. Furthermore, this set could serve as a "test market" set for a whole untapped market area, specialty sets for colleges and universities. If it's as successful as I suspect it has the potential to be, TLG could then launch a whole theme of similar collegiate mascot sets for other universities that express interest. At least for the biggest schools, there's probably more than ample market potential for sets based on mascots, and if Pete were successful TLG might then be emboldened to try selling sets for, say, a dozen or so of the major school mascots, in much the same way the initial Minecraft set demonstrated a hitherto unknown and untapped market for a sort of specialty theme. Seen this way, TLG might see this set as even more worthy of a trial than many / most of the other projects on CUUSOO.

I know, it's incredibly cheap - the same price minifigures pay for a pizza or even a cup of coffee. These sets are lovely. I'm going to try for both of them, as always!

Well, it's a pretty well-known university with lots of students, faculty, boosters, etc. As I understand it, there was a concerted effort at the university to garner votes; kiosks were set up with iPads on which Purdue people could register and cast their votes for the project: http://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/releases/2012/Q4/purdue-pete-model-seeks-boiler-fans-backing-in-lego-competition.html http://www.purdueexponent.org/features/article_0d1516cb-7f71-5f1e-82d7-62811700277b.html http://www.brickset.com/news/article/?ID=4555 Seems simple enough to me. And I must say, I don't know why it would be so cut-and-dried that it would never happen. Obviously there are a ton of Purdue fans, and I suspect TLG would have absolutely no trouble selling 10,000 Purdue Pete sets to them, even if the overwhelming majority of them would otherwise have no particular interest in buying LEGO sets for themselves. Judging from the fact the campaign was held across the campus and got covered in the university's paper, I suspect the university is enthusiastic about the project, meaning the licensing shouldn't be an obstacle. Brand fit? The mascot doesn't represent anything offensive or objectionable. Perhaps TLG might not want to tie itself to a real-world sports team, but they've done so in the past, multiple times. Honestly, I could see this one happening. The only thing that gives me pause is the fact that it has indeed taken them so long to review just two sets, which as Faefrost notes may suggest they're waiting until they have some more positive news, suggesting that neither of the Winter '12 projects got approved but one or more of the Spring '13 ones has. But who knows? (And personally, even though my interest in football and Purdue university is pretty much zero, I think Purdue Pete is a fine project and I wouldn't mind seeing it get approved. It would mean LEGO sales to people who don't normally buy LEGO, and that's a good thing. I also think it would be a nice reward for a LEGO fan who happened to have a particular good idea before anyone else.)