Blondie-Wan

Hm, I don't think I ever followed up on this. I did wind up managing to get each of the summer 2011 Kingdoms sets (Blacksmith Attack, Escape from Dragon's Prison, King's Carriage Ambush, Mill Village Raid), albeit just one of each; I wish I'd gotten more of all of them (fortunately, I may have a few more opportunities to do so). Latest acquisitions: I've been frantically trying to get as many Minifigures Series 6 Roman Soldiers as I can. I haven't picked up many Series 7 figures yet since I'm still concentrating on "catching up" with where I want to be on the previous series, so I have only about half of S7 (I try to get at least two of each minifigure from each series, with appropriate additional copies of those figures I'll find useful for any and all themes - so, plenty of all sorts of uniformed army-builders, sports teams, and even things like the S5 Graduates, as I'm particularly looking forward to having a huge commencement ceremony in my LEGO City one day, since it's going to be a college town ). So, after the post-Christmas Kingdoms clearances, my Historical theme acquisitions are mainly Minifigures (the collectible line), plus my first Lord of the Rings set, Gandalf Arrives. I hope to keep up with the entire theme, but we'll see how that goes...

Hear, hear! Not to mention the slew of trains already seen in numerous actual stories. The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles / The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones, in particular, is abundant with them; there were entire stories revolving around adventures dealing with trains. Of course, even when the LEGO Indy theme was active TLG did sets based only on the four feature films, not the TV show or the expanded adventures. Even so, trains were still seen in the movies, most prominently in the Utah 1912 segment at the beginning of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. I'd actually hoped that if they were going to finish off the line, they might do it with the Dunn & Duffy Circus Train from that original "Young Indy" segment as one of the big "send-off" sets they occasionally do (a la Imperial Flagship, Medieval Market Village, Diagon Alley, etc.). It could have been a fantastic set - a great train, and new animals to boot.

Glad to hear it. I was merely responding to your statement "So you could use it to restore a set and sell it on bricklink without anybody ever raising an eyebrow," which I believe would be dishonest, but of course you merely presented it as a possibility to illustrate the close match between TLG's string and the replacement, not to say you'd actually done it, and I simply noted I'd be dishonest to actually do it myself. I do hope you don't perceive me to have flat-out stated you were in fact dishonest yourself.

Now, I have seen a lot of contempt for the Mars Mission aliens. I personally don't feel it - I kind of like them, myself, though I don't think they were really necessary - but I'm definitely aware they're generally held in the same regard by many here as Knights Kingdom (2) and flick-fire missiles. But I never did notice the criticism of the MM tubes, though that was probably winding up around the time I joined or a little earlier.

Does this mean you'd have been Ok with the current listed price if it had been in the original press release, and they hadn't raised it? Not that I necessarily blame you if that's the case; I'm just wondering. I certainly agree the prices are high for you guys (speaking as an American who'll have a hard time affording even our much lower pricing for this set), and I don't envy you guys for having to pay so much for LEGO (though I do wish we could get some of the Europe-only sets you guys get)...

I know this is tangential, but since it came up here... Oh? I don't remember seeing criticism of those elements of either of those themes. Was it really substantial? Back to the subject at hand... I wasn't talking about "rushing" out a second wave, exactly; I was thinking more in terms of years.

I'd do that, but how would someone necessarily know if they'd gotten fake LEGO elements, if they were sufficiently well-done to be indistinguishable from the genuine articles? Mostly from sets, with some PAB.

I could, if I were dishonest. This sort of possibility is why I don't trust Bricklink, and regrettably will probably never buy parts through it. I wish I could bring myself to do so, but I'd always have that nagging uncertainty some of my parts weren't genuine LEGO.

Oh, I know they have huge lead times on sets; I just can't help but wonder whether they might be willing or able to follow up on something if it proves popular enough. If Monster Fighters (or any other theme initially planned for a single wave) were to sell well for some sustained period, perhaps they'd be willing to just keep that first wave of sets (or some of them, anyway) in production long enough to keep the theme active for a couple years, while they got together a belated second wave. They have had themes that have sometimes gone long enough between waves that more than a year would pass between releases, leading us to think the themes were dropped, until out of the blue they come up with more material (Spongebob Squarepants being one example). I'm not saying it happens often, and I don't profess to know whether the reason for it is a scenario like the one I've described, but perhaps it's a slim possibility.

With all due respect, I don't think you're going to get anywhere with such an antagonistic, accusatory tone. I also think it's just plain silly to try to compare this to the Apple story; we're talking about not something generally regarded as essential for contemporary living as computers, but a toy, and in this specific instance we're talking about something of a specialty item sold to adult collectors.

Pretty nifty! That said, to be perfectly blunt, I kind of doubt TLG would do a model whose most interesting details are mainly on the inside and whose exterior is largely just featureless expanses of flat gray surfaces (occasional exceptions matching this exact description notwithstanding). I didn't notice an indication on the page of whether or not this opens up to let one see the interior, and I have to say this would need that feature to have even the remotest chance of consideration. There's also no shortage at this point of CUUSOO proposals revolving around large, detailed models derived from TV / movie properties for which TLG doesn't currently have active licenses, and if they were to do this one they'd have to not only deem it worthy and suitable, but do so above / in addition to all those others. I hate to rain on your parade. If it's any consolation, it's still a lovely model. Incidentally, though, Jurassic Park actually has been an official LEGO theme in the past (Jurassic Park III as a subtheme of LEGO Studios, to be precise), so JP MOCs and CUUSOO suggestions probably ought to go in the Licensed forum.

How would you fix this?

Well, that makes sense as to why they'd sell it, but what I meant was: if that's the case, then why are they calling it "cancelled" at all? What's the difference between this and, say, the other Advent Calendars for this year?

Actually, Indiana Jones got a whole second year with two more waves the year after the movie came out. I think that, if anything, there'll be more waves of Middle-earth sets than there were of Indiana Jones ones (which would mean at least 5 waves of Middle-earth sets), for a variety of reasons: The Middle-earth series will have one more movie than the Indy series (Indy also has a TV show, but kids don't know it and TLG didn't use it) The Lord of the Rings movies are all much larger and longer, and thus arguably providing even more material for sets All the Middle-earth movies were released more than a decade more recently than three of the four Indy ones The Lord of the Rings movies have been even better received both critically and commercially than the Indiana Jones ones If Indy can have a second wave released more or less alongside the new movie in Spring of 2008 and then get another wave in January of 2009, and another wave six months after that, I can't help but think there'd be at least two Middle-earth waves released after the December 2013 release of the second Hobbit movie. That'd be one for summer 2014, and one for winter 2014/2015. That looks to me like a minimum of six waves: Spring / summer 2012 - launch wave (classic Lord of the Rings - the sets we have now) Winter 2012 - The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey new movie launch wave Spring / summer 2013 - summer wave (second rounds of sets from LotR, presumably more Hobbit as well) Winter 2013 - The Hobbit: There and Back Again new movie launch wave Spring / summer 2014 - summer wave (more sets from both parts of The Hobbit, perhaps more LotR) Winter 2014/2015 - winter wave (more from any/all of the five movies, released around the holidays) ... and if it proves successful enough (no guarantee, but if any theme other than Star Wars has the potential to do so, it surely must be this one), they could continue a little farther.

To me, the theme feels like one of these (planned) single-wave action themes, but I could always see TLG deciding to do one or more additional waves for a theme, beyond their initial plans, if it sells substantially better than expected. A few things I'm seeing suggest that it is indeed doing very well, so perhaps we'll get lucky...

I do think it's a lovely theme in and of itself, and I agree that it simply does seem to fall into a different category from pretty much all the other original LEGO Space themes, from the "Classic" era right on up through Space Police III. One might as well ask whether Wild West, Aqua Raiders or Pharaohs Quest is up to LEGO Space standards. But of course it does have a Space connection, and I can easily see its appeal to most Space fans. I don't know how strong you thought it was, but it looks pretty strong to me now, anyway. The top answer alone has slightly over half the total votes as of this writing, and when you consider there doesn't seem to be a huge difference between the top two poll options, it seems to me the overwhelming majority of respondents believe AC essentially meets the "standards" of LEGO Space.

Whoa, that Brickmaster book is awesome. Chloe will be a welcome addition to the circle of Friends. I wonder whether she'll be added to "regular" sets down the line - none of the previous DK Brickmaster books have had exclusive figures or anything like that, have they? Hrm? I don't understand what "technically cancelled" means, if they've already been produced and will be made available. Does it just mean they cut production short, and that there'll be fewer of them than were originally planned? It sounds like it could become a pretty sought-after item, if it's produced in even lower quantities than most other Advent Calendars and has those cool accessory elements in like skis in distinctive colors...

I concur. Additionally, I doubt TLG would be interested in Blizzard's franchises even if they didn't have Star Wars; the audiences for those skew a bit older than the market TLG aims for (Star Wars of course also has plenty of adult fans, but it's really more of an "all ages" franchise than StarCraft or WarCraft).

(edit: changed my mind; please ignore this post)

I had a lot to say about Star Wars because the conversation was diverted that way; I spent a lot of what I had to say trying to get it back to the original topic. I also wasn't trying to be condescending, and I'm sorry you perceived it that way. I certainly don't see anywhere in my post where I suggested you didn't know anything about LEGO, but if it reads that way to you, my regrets. I, too, have opinions, and was simply trying to express them - specifically, my opinions that a) Friends has the potential to be a long-running, successful theme; b) Lord of the Rings has comparable potential to be a long-running, successful theme; and c) it's really too early to tell which, if either, will be more successful in the long run. My posts were written to support those ideas, not to belittle or insult others here, and I'm really sorry you read it otherwise. While the movies are relatively new compared to the original Star Wars movies (as I pointed out myself), I don't know that movies released a decade ago and toys based on them are exactly a "fad."

Sure, and who's to say the Middle-earth line can't have set revisions if it lasts long enough? Moreover, we're still talking about Lord of the Rings "versus" Friends, not Star Wars. The Star Wars comparison was brought up simply to show a licensed theme can in fact be more than just a quick "fad"-like theme. I don't think even the poster who mentioned it actually expects LEGO LotR to have quite the same success and longevity of LEGO SW, but merely to illustrate that LEGO LotR doesn't have to be over and done in a scant two years or so. I think "Middle-earth" is the better name for the collective Lord of the Rings / The Hobbit line, but never mind. LotR may be just three movies now, but they're huge, long movies - the running time of the extended editions in particular is comparable to six other movies of average length. With the two Hobbit movies (from which LEGO will also be making sets, we already know), the total running time of the film series will be comparable to and likely greater than that of all seven theatrically-released Star Wars movies combined - and all five of them will still have been relatively recent, with the oldest having come out just twelve or thirteen years ago (by comparison, the earliest Star Wars movie was released twenty-two years before LEGO's first Star Wars sets). Oh, you must not know much about LEGO if you think that! There's always another way of doing something, and they certainly could revisit Weathertop or Balin's Tomb if the line were to last many years, just as they've revisited lots of Star Wars things over the years. Now, I do agree LotR doesn't have the same legs when it comes to licensed merchandise (such as LEGO sets), but that doesn't mean it can't still be a big theme - Harry Potter isn't as big as Star Wars either, yet it's been another huge LEGO theme, with more than half a hundred sets released over the years since it began just over a decade ago, and is only now winding up. Look at it this way - do you expect LotR to be at least as big as Indiana Jones? It certainly ought to be - by the time it's done, it'll have five movies to Indy's four, and they're more popular and more acclaimed on average, and the first three LotR are all considerably more recent than the first three Indy movies. Indy was still a successful theme - a solid four waves in two years, including one whole year (two waves) of sets released the year after the wave released alongside the newest movie. That's for a theme with fewer movies than LotR, with the first three movies substantially older than any of the LotR movies, and with a smaller fanbase than LotR. (I am of course well aware of the Young Indiana Jones TV show, but it probably doesn't count for the purposes of this discussion since TLG never made any sets from it and relatively few people in TLG's customer base have seen it). I love and adore Indy, but for all these reasons I'd expect LotR to be even more successful, which should mean three years with five or six waves at a bare minimum, and given the popularity of the theme could go a bit beyond that. But anyway, we're talking about LotR and Friends. The two are more different and it's really hard to call. And really, why bother? Many of us love both, and they're not in direct competition with one another. Surely there will even be fans of either franchise who will also pick up a few sets from the other, to supplement their parts inventories, just as with any other pair of themes.

Well, there are lots of ways to look at it. The Lord of the Rings is a hugely popular, well-established franchise, to be sure - but then, Friends isn't targeting fans of any particular franchise, but rather an entire sex (more or less, in a manner of speaking). And yes, LotR has the most expensive sets right now, and Friends the least expensive - but Friends also has a lot more sets (and the ranges of prices for both themes mostly overlap anyway). You might be entirely right about LotR being bigger, but I think it's really too early to call.

Hi there! I've been a member of EB for a while, but I just noticed there was this dedicated "hello" topic for this one forum, and since I am still largely new to this forum I thought I'd post here... I always liked trains as a little kid, even if I never developed quite the full-blown passion for them I know others here have. At various times in my childhood, back in the '70s, I had HO-scale electric trains - nothing fancy, but even simple ovals of track were lots of fun for me then. I also loved LEGO ever since I discovered it, and though I would enter the "dark ages" familiar to many of us I did play with LEGO extensively for a number of years in the '70s and '80s. Back in the day, I had at least one of the older LEGO trains, from the "blue rails" era - pretty simple, of course, but it was still lots of fun all the same. As noted, I did eventually have my own dark ages, and only came out in the early 2000s, thanks to Star Wars, another lifelong passion. Though I started getting LEGO again with Star Wars, I soon branched out into all sorts of other themes, and today I'm pretty much crazy about most LEGO in general, albeit some themes even more than others. Naturally I quickly fell in love with LEGO's trains along with everything else, but of course LEGO trains are perhaps uniquely demanding of money and space even above and beyond LEGO in general, and since I've been impoverished and living in a tiny apartment for most of the past several years, I just never managed to get into trains; I couldn't even keep up with the other themes to begin with. Even so, I always was interested, and looked forward to a future in which I'd be able to one day have a bit more money, space and time to devote to LEGO, and trains have always been a big part of that future dream. I was a bit dismayed to realize I'd missed out completely on electric tracks , even though I came out of my dark ages when 9v trains were still around, but the RC/PF era appears to offer its own advantages and appeal, and I'm determined to enjoy it as fully as I'm able. Though I'm no train expert, all sorts of trains in all sorts of geographic and historical milieus appeal to me - European, American, rural, city, passenger, freight, Old West, contemporary, futuristic, steam, diesel - they're all lovely in all their own ways, and I'd like eventually to try my hand in layouts in each of these (along with all the landscapes, buildings, etc. to accompany them). I do have one particular area of interest with regard to LEGO rail, though. As noted earlier I'm big Star Wars fan, but it's actually more accurate to say I'm a lifelong fan of Lucasfilm in general, and in particular I'm a huge fan of Indiana Jones. I was therefore delighted when TLG picked up the Indy license and launched the theme, and saddened when it was put on hiatus with so many wonderful scenes and characters and vehicles still unexplored and unrepresented in official sets - not that I intend to let them go unrepresented in my own personal LEGO Indy universe, of course! While I really would like to do MOC treatments of pretty much the character's entire biography and adventures, I've actually particularly wanted to do all the rail vehicles seen in the series (not just the four movies, but the entire Young Indiana Jones TV series as well, including numerous trains, as well as the odd mine car or rocket sled ;) ). Hopefully I'll get around to this pet project sometime... In the meantime, though, I'm pretty limited in what I have, but I've made sure to get certain desirable train-related sets in recent years, and hope to get a lot more (to say nothing, of course, of parts and other sets to combine with trains in my own creations). Aside from the basic bricks, minifigures, etc. from any number of sets that can always be incorporated into any sort of LEGO creation, here are most of the more train-specific / train-related sets I have so far (lots of licensed stuff, mostly from being fans of most of those franchises, but also just wanting some of the parts for use in trains and other things): 10194 Emerald Night x2 7597 Toy Story Western Train Chase x3 4855 Spider-Man's Train Rescue x1 4841 Harry Potter Hogwarts Express x1 7599 Indiana Jones The Temple of Doom x4 7936 Level Crossing x1 7065 Alien Mothership x2 Obviously, the Alien Conquest set isn't exactly train-specific, but it arguably does qualify as the closest thing to a narrow-guage track expansion pack , so I figured I'd go ahead and mention it (I may pick up a third copy, in fact, since they've been clearanced). I feel very fortunate to have been able to get not one but two Emerald Nights; I had been forced to keep putting them off for a couple years, until finally they swiftly sold out after being discounted for last year's Black Friday specials, and they instantly began increasing in price on the secondary market. As soon as I found myself with some money, a good couple weeks after they sold out nearly everywhere, I began systematically calling all the US LEGO Stores until I found one that not only still had some left but had them still discounted, and ordered two for almost exactly what I'd probably have paid on eBay for just one. Currently I have my eye on all the LEGO City trains, both passenger and freight, and also really love the Maersk train; I hope to be able to get it (or better yet, two or three copies) before it's gone. I don't know how long it'll be before I try to do a substantial layout of my own creation, but hopefully not too long. In the meantime, while I haven't posted in the Trains forum often if at all, I've very much enjoyed browsing and lurking here from time to time, and definitely plan to eventually become more of a contributor.

Ooh, I love that! It's my favorite of the ones posted so far. I hope I can come up with one of my own I like as much. I do have one little suggestion, though - you might think about cropping your photo a little more closely to the edges of your creation, so that it's a little larger in your avatar.

Hear, hear! I still hope it returns at some point.