Blondie-Wan

Ooh, that is cool. Mind you, given that, I think what would be even cooler would be if Woody were an analogue clock (with hands that move around a dial), and you wound him up by pulling the string in his back that makes him talk. :D That would be lovely, though if they also kept the theme it would be lovelier still. I don't expect it to happen, though.

I'm not sure what you mean by "true or accurate compared to their respective themes," but I find the distinction between useful minifigures and useful minifigure pieces an extremely subtle one; to me, the one usually implies the other anyway. The inclusion of things like the dark tan pith helmets and so on makes this set even more attractive to me than I initially thought it would be. I'm particularly pleased by the one-piece animals (frog, snakes, spiders, crab, clam), which aren't available in Pick-A-Brick often, and at least a few of which are kind of hard to come by, in my experience. I'm just concerned this set won't come to the US. The inclusion of the chimney sweep and bride seems to suggest this might be a Europe-only release a la the '08 Castle and '09 Pirates Advent Calendars, since I don't think the chimney sweep / wedding tradition is particularly well-known in the US (I don't remember having heard of it before seeing it mentioned in the EB forums in relation to this set). I was also at the LEGO Store in Lawrenceville, GA just yesterday, and they did have this set's companion set (the City Community one, replacing the old Community Workers set), but not this one, and I'd think they'd get both in at the same time if they were getting them at all. But let's hope...

Thankfully, it was just a rumor, which has been disproven. Indeed, everything he's previously said indicates Harrison is fond of playing Indy (in fact, he's one of only four characters he's played more than once, and he's been Indy more times than any other character). Besides, Indy has already been shown alive and kicking in his early 90s, long after the timeframe of the movies (though granted, the canon status of the "old Indy" sequences is kind of ambiguous now). At any rate, there's no real indication the character will die in a future movie (and I think it's safe to say there's no way there'll be a "passing of the torch" movie based around Mutt with an off-screen death, at least not anytime soon). Oh, I should have mentioned earlier that there actually won't be 3-d versions of the movies (at least not soon); that was another rumor. I overlooked that in your post the first time I read it.

You know, my local TRU still had this set as recently as a month or so ago, though they finally sold out. You might check TRUs around you. It's even one of the few sets they didn't / don't mark up substantially above list price (at least from what I've seen).

Good grief, there's just no pleasing some people. This set is clearly the latest iteration of the concept behind the Community Workers sets - a large assortment of City minifigures of various roles, intended to help fill out a city population. Just what do you expect from such a set? To me, this set looks like a veritable gold mine - and an improvement over the previous Community Workers sets, since the ratio of civilian townsfolk to cops and firefighters is much, much greater than before. The only minus is that it has fewer people overall, but it does have more in the way of regular bricks to help fill it out, and still has a pretty high number of minifigures.

Whoa! That is marvelous. I hope it comes to the US. Killjoy. You might be right about it being a way to dispose of overstocked parts, but wow, what parts! A great many of us mere mortals haven't been able to get all the Castle, Kingdoms and/or Pirates sets (among others) these figures come from (among others; I see elements from City stuff in there, too), and it's quite cool to be able to get them all at once. Actually, another thing this looks like to me is a fantasy / historical equivalent of 9247 Community Workers. It has more "regular bricks" and fewer minifigure elements and accessories, but on the whole it looks pretty much like the same kind of thing. You could still be right about it being just a way to dump inventory on parts they don't need as many of right now, but whether it is or not it seems quite cool to me. I just hope I can get it...

I agree with you and Fugazi. I think this would be the way to go.

Oh, I knew about that; my comment was more a tangent along the lines of "OMG, Community Workers is sold out now??"

That's the same way I went, and I'd bet lots of other people did the same. My wish list started with the $399.99 Death Star and went down to $4.99 baseplates. My full list: 10188 Death Star ($399.99) 10198 Tantive IV ($149.99) 10210 Imperial Flagship ($179.99) 10193 Medieval Market Village ($99.99) 10194 Emerald Night ($99.99) 9247 Community Workers ($49.99) 7305 Scarab Attack ($4.99) 7976 Ocean Speeder ($4.99) 626 Large Green Baseplate ($4.99) 620 Blue Building Plate ($4.99) I somehow suspect a great many of the wishlists will total $999.90. (Hrm - looking at Shop at Home just now to confirm the set numbers and prices, I notice Community Workers is listed as Sold Out. I wonder whether it's one of their "temporary" sell-outs, or whether this really is the end of the set. I'd suspected for a while that it would be coming, what with the "classic smiley" head having been dropped from Pick-A-Brick, but we'll see...)

Oh, I certainly think that if a new movie materializes the theme will resume; for me, the big questions are a) whether or not another movie will actually happen (this of course is a point of great interest well beyond its implications for the LEGO theme, obviously), and b) whether TLG would do any more sets without a new movie (such as doing some for the anniversary). The Indy filmmakers actually are interested in doing another movie and are currently developing an idea, but of course there's no guarantee it'll pan out and give us a fifth feature; we'll just have to see how it goes. So long as it does happen, it seems to me all but certain that it would reignite the LEGO theme, but whether TLG would go back to the theme without having new movies to help drive it is another matter. Personally, I'm sure they could do well with some more sets whether there were more movies or not, but TLG may not be convinced, and/or probably wants expected sales above a certain threshold to justify further set development.

(bumping this thread since I'd like to resume discussion of the overall IJ theme, and I know the moderators tend to favor existing topics over new ones) My local TRU still has copies of Venice Canal Chase, and still has them at $5 above list price (which probably has something to do with the sets still being there, of course). I intend to pick up one or two more of them soon. ____________________________________________ Whither LEGO Indiana Jones? As I originally understood it, the theme was placed on hiatus to make room in TLG's product lineup for the Prince of Persia theme (which was apparently considered to be thematically similar to Indy), raising the possibility LEGO Indy would return as soon as the PoP theme ran its course. As I write this, though, plenty is now known about TLG's releases for next year, and there's no sign of any new sets, so the theme's future looks dim. As I've noted before, next year is the 30th anniversary of the Indiana Jones franchise, which would make for a good opportunity for TLG to do one last, large "exclusive" set, aimed at the fans - something which could send the theme out with a "bang," in the manner of the Imperial Flagship putting a wonderful cap on the (non-licensed version of the) Pirates theme. If so, such a set would certainly be more likely to be kept a secret until closer to its release, so I still hold out some hope, but I'm not wildly optimistic. Still, though, if it has indeed ended for good, it's already had a great run (if not quite as extensive as one would like), and must certainly be one of the greatest licensed themes TLG has done - seventeen sets, including a Brickmaster set plus fifteen general retail sets and one vendor-semi-exclusive spread across four waves over a two-year period, representing characters and scenes from all four feature films, including all four female leads and several other important characters, lots of vehicles (no fewer than five planes, plus numerous motorcycles, military and civilian cars, trucks and motorcycles, boats, etc.), various temples, and even several things many people were sure TLG would never do (Nazi-era German soldiers, machine guns, Mola Ram and the Temple of Doom, etc.). Some glaring omissions remain (Marcus, Sallah, Oxley, Mac, Toht, Lao Che Air Freight's Ford Trimotor, the elephant caravan, the tank, the Grail Temple, and the entirety of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles / The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones, to name a few), but what we got was - is - pretty choice. We even got not one but two video games out of it. Not too shabby, all things considered. While I'd love to think they'll actually resume the whole theme on an ongoing basis and introduce lots of new sets over the years to come, I know there's little reason to assume they'll actually do that, but I do think doing at least one big, final set for LEGO Direct (to give the theme a bit of an encore for the franchise's anniversary, or perhaps a "send-off" for the theme) is at least somewhat more likely. Just for kicks, let's imagine TLG is indeed releasing such a set sometime in the middle of next year; what should the set be? I think an ideal candidate would be one of the various Indy trains - particularly the circus train, since that's the best-known one in the series. But the tank scene from Last Crusade would also represent not only a great, memorable scene with lots of opportunity for action features in an impressive model, but also an opportunity to finally grace us with minifigures of Marcus and Sallah... (What I'd really love most of all would be sets from the Young Indy TV series, but I do know better than to ever expect those, at least unless and until the whole theme is resumed on an ongoing basis...)

I went to the demo at my own local TRU, but it was somewhat disorganized; the TRU employees didn't seem to know much about it (as opposed to the Bricktober racing promo a couple months ago, when they were actively engaged). A nice woman from some promotion agency hired by TLG was there to do the demo, but she got only one small-ish table to use from the store, and it was just large enough to hold the materials - there wasn't any place to actually do the demo, so I never saw any NinjaGo ninjas in action (or even out of the package). Only a limited number of customers seemed to notice her and the table, so a lot of the promo materials went unclaimed. That said, TRU did have some copies of a NinjaGo starter set out on the shelves in the LEGO section in addition to a few copies of the same plus some single packs on the demo table, so I was able to check out the packages, at least. I took some over to the customer service desk and got a price check - $19.99 and $9.99 - but later the demo person and I learned they apparently weren't supposed to actually be sold until next month. However, one of the people who stopped by did wind up taking a single and a starter pack to purchase, and as far as I know she was able to do so; I didn't see those two sets make their way back to the table. Oops. At least one lucky young fan of LEGO ninjas is sure to be pleased this Christmas. As for the promo materials, the demo person was only too happy to give me several copies of each item, possibly because the general turnout wasn't as hoped-for / expected; I got four complete "sets" of the promo items (sword holder polybag set, headband, decal, and promo code paper for a free NinjaGo card if one returns to TRU with it in January) - one of each of the four items for myself, one of each for my girlfriend, and two of each for her niece and nephew, plus two more copies of just the polybagged set for myself. Perhaps I was greedy, but she wasn't about to run out; I'm afraid half or more of her supply might've wound up just getting thrown away, though I really don't know what happened to those leftovers. At any rate, I was certainly glad to score some free sets, even just tiny 11-piece promos such as these. I put together one of my three copies of the set, and it's a pretty neat freebie, though of course there isn't much to it. As noted, the decoration on the 4x6 tile with studs on three edges is a sticker, not a print, but it's pre-applied, something I'm not sure I've ever seen in a LEGO set before. This is also the first set I can remember getting that uses the ubiquitous 1x1 round plates and doesn't include an extra one (I've noted a lack of extra pieces is common with promo sets; the LEGO Universe astronaut minifigure offered for preorders of the game didn't come with an extra visor, for example, even though most sets with helmet visors include extra ones). Still, though, it was free, so I'm not complaining! I do plan to find ways to use it (and the extra copies)...

I'd been meaning to post more in the LU forum myself; I hadn't yet because I so far I haven't been able to do more than dip my toes into LU, so to speak - I can't actually run it on my own 8-year-old computer. I bought it with the intention of playing it on my girlfriend's computer whenever I could until I finally get a new computer of my own, but it turns out her comp's optical drive can't read the game disc, for some reason. I definitely intend to get back into the game as soon as circumstances permit, though! That said, I know my experience isn't typical. I'm really surprised there isn't more discussion around here of LEGO Universe; I'd have thought surely there'd be more Eurobrickers posting about it than there have been...

I wasn't aware of any such consensus until just recently, with so many posts in the Minifigure Series 4 thread mentioning things along the lines of "after the disappointment of Series 3" or "what an improvement Series 4 is over the previous series," but I still don't personally feel that way. I personally am as excited for Series 3 as for the series before and after, and want to get at least two of each figure. That said, I do anticipate Series 3 staying around quite a bit longer because of the reportedly much greater production run. I could also see the removal of the barcodes and the resulting increased difficulty in "cherry-picking" minifigures having an effect on the availability, though I could see it affecting it either way (people buying them more slowly because they're less sure of what they're getting, or buying more at once to be sure they get the ones they want) - does anyone else have any idea which is more likely? Indeed. Around here, Series 2 is gone from the big-box, mass-market retailers that carried them, but a couple of local smaller, independent toy / hobby stores still have quite a few.

And I think McQueen looks cute as-is. I don't care what anyone else thinks, I plan to get some Cars sets. So there.

There's always the astronaut from the preorder promo... Does it? I thought that was a promotional price reduction to take advantage of the Christmas shopping season (and possibly temporary), but perhaps not. Certainly I don't get the impression it's burning up the charts, but... How many people play World of Warcraft?

Following up on my earlier post, I went to the local TRU here in Tallahassee a little while ago and they do indeed have them - two opened boxes on the shelf, and they're $3.99 per figure. Gahh. I decided I should wait for an opportunity to get them at slightly less outrageous prices, and didn't get any; I may get some tomorrow with a BOGO coupon, but completing a set (to say nothing of multiples) will almost certainly have to wait until next payday. It's going to be a long nine days...

I have at least two of everything from Series 1 & 2, but not nearly as many of everything as I'd like, and I know it's going to be tough to get lots of them. I do wish I had more cavemen and ninjas, certainly (particularly cavemen, as well as forestmen, robots, spacemen, tribal hunters and zombies), but then I wouldn't mind at least one or two more of each one. I've gotten a lot more of Series 2, but even there I could really use a lot more. I'm particularly worried about the price increases. At TRU it's pretty much expected, but even Target starting marking them up 50% above MSRP a few weeks into the Series 2 release, and TRU's prices seem to soar ever upward. It's going to be terribly expensive to get multiples of everything, especially those like baseball players for whom one might want a slew of copies...

In many places, it already has. Best plan is to keep checking those stores in hopes of finding the figs. No idea how long they'll last this time around. Yikes! I need to get cracking. I haven't seen any of them near me yet, but it can't be too long now. At least they should be a lot easier to get starting with this series, now that TLG has ramped up production to better meet demand. Now I just need to find a way to afford them all...

I've wanted to do some Star Wars behind-the-scenes MOCs for quite some time, myself. I'm a bit surprised to see so many others saying they hadn't thought of them before; I thought they'd been done a lot, but now that I think about it I don't really remember seeing many (any?) posted before (wow, could this really be the first one posted here?)... Since most of the live-action shooting (such as the awards ceremony at Yavin IV, shot in a studio in London) and visual effects work (such as the Death Star surface, shot in miniature at the very first ILM facility in California) weren't even done on the same continents, I think this is meant more as a artistic interpretation rather than an attempt to accurately recreate a specific day of shooting (though interestingly, Mark Hamill did visit the ILM facilities and check out the effects miniatures). Yatkuu didn't say it wasn't, only that A New Hope is his / her favorite, which of course is not the same thing as the best, and I'm going to go out on a limb and assume Yatkuu is the world's foremost expert authority on what movies are Yatkuu's favorites. I personally agree Star Wars - Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back is the best movie in the series, but Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope remains my own personal favorite, like Yatkuu's (it's also the one I personally would pick as the greatest, even while selecting Empire as the best, since I also draw a distinction between "greatest" and "best").

I've never heard Irvin Kershner was asked to begin with. As I (perhaps erroneously?) understood it, Lucas always intended to direct the first movie in the new trilogy to kick it off (much as he'd directed the original movie before turning the directorial reins over to others for Episode V and Episode VI), with the possibility of then having other directors do II and III (again, as happened with the originals), but decided somewhere along the way that he really wanted to do the other prequels as well (partly because none of the prequels were nearly as stressful as doing the original, which actually put Lucas in the hospital briefly). I've further read that Steven Spielberg was keenly interested in doing at least one of the prequels and practically begged Lucas to let him, but Lucas turned him down.

In fairness, George Lucas' role as executive producer didn't really make him responsible for most of the major creative decisions regarding Howard the Duck (with the exception of shooting it in live-action instead of animation, which was indeed his idea, but the particulars of the story, characters, etc. weren't). Moreover, if one assigns him responsibility ("blame") for Howard the Duck, it's also fair to give him responsibility ("credit") for Labyrinth, Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, Tucker: The Man and his Dream, Latino, Powaqqatsi, etc., since he was the executive producer of all those as well - but people always seem to ignore his contributions to those well-regarded movies, while holding him responsible for Howard the Duck. I do recognize not everything he does is great, alas (particularly in the last several years ), but let's be fair.

My understanding is that there's a specific number of each minifigure in each box, ranging from three to five per figure per box (so that while some of them are indeed rarer than others, alas, none of them is really rare to the extent that individual items from some other lines of collectible, blind-packaged products are like rare cards in CCGs or trading cards, certain collectible vinyl toys and so on). I don't remember the precise number of each figure that's supposed to be in each box, but the count should be around here in the forums somewhere, and I can say there should be at least three of everything. Given your experience, I'd assume that either a) your box was an unusual instance of a mispacked box, or b) someone had actually gotten to it already and it merely appeared to be unopened, or c) there was something wrong with the info your phone gave you.

NES game? It was an arcade game first and foremost; the NES is just one of the many platforms to which it was later ported. When I came into this thread I expected the MOC to be specifically about the game, but the differences between it and the game scenario, combined with the fact that the post quoted here and one other response to it are the only ones who mentioned any version of the game at all, lead me to think a lot of EBers aren't acquainted with this arcade classic, which disturbs me just a bit. Am I that much older than everyone else here? That said, though... nice work!

It seems to me like it would lead to stimulating discussion. It actually seems like one of the more interesting topics I've seen in this sub-forum in a while.