Blondie-Wan

I desperately wish I could've gotten the $500 monster, but I never could afford it. I've never been able to get any other minifigure-scaled version of the Millennium Falcon, either, though to me it's such an essential part of Star Wars. I'm amazed you seem to think they do it a lot; the way I see it, they go for long stretches without offering it, considering how vital a part of the classic trilogy it is. As I see it, there are certain elements of the original trilogy that are so "classic" they should be regularly available for as long as LEGO is doing Star Wars as a theme - perhaps not continuously, but they should never go for too long without having some official set available for such iconic vehicles (characters, locations, etc.). I think the Millennium Falcon is pretty much at the top of the list of such classic vessels, right alongside X-wings and TIEs.

These reports of boxes "short" on Spartans (having fewer than three per box) are odd, but it does seem to bear out my perception that there's a bit of actual randomness to the packing. I personally opened the two boxes I found at Target the other day, and while each of the two contained three Spartans (Ok, yes, I was cherry-picking these soldiers ), I could swear they were in different locations in the two boxes - IIRC, one box had one in each of the three rows / columns, whereas the other had none in the middle one but two in one of the others. Yesterday I went to the second-closest Target to me and picked up three more Spartans; these were all the ones remaining out of the two boxes there. I initially assumed someone else had beaten me there and gotten half the Spartans, but I now wonder whether there might have been fewer than six between the two boxes to begin with.

"That's no moon..."

Just to add another corroborating anecdote, I went to my own local Target yesterday morning (here in Tallahassee, FL) with the baggie from one of the S2 minifigs I'd previously bought from another store, and had someone in customer service scan it. She then informed me they had 120 units in stock - two boxes, of course (which did indeed turn out to be in the Halloween section, which they had just started setting up), and the figures were indeed priced at the standard $1.99 each. Though I'd previously had Series 1 baggies scanned and show up as a product in Target's system, this was the first time I'd seen any minifigures from either series actually in stock there.

I posted my thoughts on that a little earlier: Well, another good use, anyway, after the Toy Story characters.

If I may be pardoned for quoting myself, I'd like to offer a personal update. I went back to Learning Express yesterday and picked out a vampire, Spartan, maraca player and disco king. Huzzah! I now need only five more to complete the set, though I also want duplicates of everyone (and a lot more than two of some of them). Interestingly, the Toys 'R' Us here didn't get any on their truck this week, so the earliest they may have them will be Thursday next week when their next truck comes. This means both of the two small indie toy stores I've talked about here have actually gotten a hot new LEGO item before TRU. That doesn't happen too often...

I'm delighted to note the second series has made its way to those same two smaller toy stores here in Tallahassee (I've mentioned them previously in this thread), and I picked up my first seven of the minifigures today (four at one, three at the other). Both stores are selling them for $2.99, alas, but it appears that's the way of things. My haul: surfer, lifeguard (nice to get two that go together so well), witch, traffic cop, weightlifter, karate champ and explorer. I think the explorer is my favorite of the ones I have, but the two I'm most looking forward to are the maraca player and the Spartan. I very much want them all, though!

I'm very excited by the prospect of both Egyptian-themed sets and non-Duplo Cars ones, and hope it's all true. There were indeed plenty of Egyptian-themed sets in the first iteration of Adventurers, but that was over a decade ago. I don't know what things are like where you shop, but none of my local stores carry much stock from the mid- to late-'90s... That would be a great idea, though I'm not sure TLG would use such an approach in marketing towards their core customers (kids). It'd be nice, though... One other tantalizing possibility (a long shot, perhaps, but still) occurs to me regarding possible Egyptian sets. Given the interest many others here are showing in a regular Egypt theme, I don't know if my idea is actually something everyone else would prefer, but I for one would absolutely love it if it turned out to be one (or more!) new Indiana Jones sets commemorating the 30th anniversary of Raiders of the Lost Ark and/or the Indy series in general (Raiders is set largely in Egypt, of course)...

Considering the huge variety in shapes and sizes of real sharks, I don't see any need to get rid of either one. I'd love to see both continue to appear in sets, as well as occasional brick-built sharks. I don't see either as being too cartoony, either, considering they share the stage with the inherently cartoony human minifigures. As long as as many LEGO creations (including most of the ones that would use these sharks) are going to be centered around minifigs anyway, I think quibbles over insufficient realism are kind of silly. For those who do find the new one too cartoony, though, perhaps they could go with a different print for the eyes. The mold wouldn't have to be changed at all. They change prints on human figures all the time, and other animals have also been presented with different prints / patterns (parrots, cows, cats); why not sharks, too? Of course, the new shark appeared first in the Agents line, not the Pirates one, and it may be that the old shark was deemed not quite right for the scene depicted in Speedboat Rescue (since the sharks are more the focus of that scenario than most of the other scenarios in LEGO sets featuring sharks). Moreover, that Agents set includes not one but two of the new shark, and Brickbeard's Bounty has one more, making a total of three instances of the shark across the two sets (so far). And BB is still available, too.

I'm not sure I get what you were saying about Ratatouille; "surpassed" to me implies "was better received than," but the way you used it here it seems to mean "wasn't as well received as." It actually did indeed garner better reviews than Cars, as did all other Pixar movies, though Cars still got mostly quite good reviews - it fared "poorly" with critics only when compared to the rest of Pixar's output, which is a pretty darn tough standard. I do get why critics weren't as impressed with Cars as with other Pixar movies, though I personally agree with the majority of them that still found it a delightful movie; I actually personally enjoy it more than Finding Nemo (not that I dislike Nemo; I just like Cars more). Ratatouille is one of my absolute favorites, though, and the one I saw most in theaters (nine times), in addition to lots of video viewings. Agreed. Sets would be out in stores by October or November if they were doing Tron, and we'd have already known about them months ago if they were going to be out that soon. Ah, well. Perhaps it's just as well. I wouldn't ever want TLG to become too dependent upon licenses, and they've already got several going, though I do agree Tron would've been a cool one.

I'm sure Tron is indeed more popular than the Prince of Persia movie (or at least will be shown to be over time, but TLG didn't know how well the movie would be received when they acquired the license, a year or two before the movie came out. Obviously they hoped it would do better (though for all I know, the sets may have done reasonably well anyway, regardless of how well the movie has). Licenses expire, and aren't always renewed. Sometimes, one toy company may pick up a license for a given property, make toys based on it for a while, stop doing them when the license expires, and then another company picks up the rights and makes their own toys, which might be of a similar kind or type to the first company's (construction toys, for example, or action figures or whatever). There have actually been several different movie / TV properties that both LEGO and Mega Bloks have made sets from, at different times: Cars Dora the Explorer Pirates of the Caribbean (LEGO sets coming next year) Spider-Man (movies only - LEGO for first two movies in series, MB for 3rd, as well as original comics) Thomas the Tank Engine There may be one or two I'm forgetting, but this is already a pretty substantial number of properties that got construction toy treatment first from one company and then the other. Are you kidding? Kids love Cars - lots of them do, anyway (and so do more than one or two parents). Plenty of people are fond of just plain toy cars, anyway, and plenty love Pixar's movies and characters; the point where the two cross over would naturally tend to have the potential to have huge, broad appeal, and that's the way it's worked out. Kids who were just being born around the time the movie came out are now just old enough to start to appreciate the movie, while many older kids who liked it then still like it now, and it enjoys continued popularity on DVD. As far as the toys go, it turns out to have become Pixar's top creation when it comes to merchandising. The line of diecast Cars cars that started when the movie was released has continued right up to the present time, with no sign of going away anytime soon, and there's plenty of other Cars merchandise out there as well. All the Pixar movies have their own toys and other merchandise when those movies come out, but Cars is the one Pixar movie or series that has the most ongoing, long-lived appeal beyond big key marketing opportunities like new movie releases.

Thanks for the list! That all looks about right, according to everything else I've seen. I do wish we could add the return of the Indiana Jones theme to the items there, but I haven't seen any indication yet of it happening, alas. One thing I think we can safely add is the continuation of the Cars theme with new sets based on next year's Cars 2. I wonder whether the theme might expand beyond Duplo sets...

Our 10199s arrived yesterday! Huzzah! A part of me was a little anxious and still inclined not to believe it until we actually had the sets in our custody, but arrive they did. I feel very lucky to have gotten it for its regular price so many months after it sold out so quickly here in the US from Shop at Home. We're both excitedly waiting to build it (which we'll do closer to Christmas, naturally), and both looking forward to the Winter Village Bakery.

And here I thought everybody who came here never let a credit card get dusty to begin with. One learns something new every day! I'll try to hit TRU today.

Not long after posting in this thread a few days ago, I wound up catching it on Amazon during one of its windows of availability, and ordered two - one for myself and one for my girlfriend, who's wanted it ever since I first showed it to her online not long after I started getting her "into" LEGO. We were both a bit upset over missing out on it last year, and we're both really excited to be finally getting it at a price we can afford. I can't wait!

I'm willing to accept it as a typical stylistic simplification for a LEGO minifigure.

I'm eager to get this one myself. It looks like real fun to play with (wheee! I'm emptying a trash container!), and it's great that it uses exclusively prints for element decoration rather than stickers. Strangely, though this is a vendor exclusive for Toys 'R' Us (at least here in the US), which is notorious for overpricing LEGO sets, they actually carry this for $5 below LEGO's own MSRP (!).

Toys 'R' Us is where I found mine, though they haven't kept it on the shelves very long. I just ordered one for my girlfriend from Shop at Home, which is probably your best bet (can any of the Farm stuff be found in any brick and mortar stores in North America besides TRU and LEGO Stores?).

Lovely, lovely set. I so desperately wish even more now I had the Winter Toy Shop. If we're speaking of any use of elements usually used as parts of minifigures, then the first Brickmaster set in 2008 was a robot using minifig legs for its fingers / claws - two minifigure lower halves. And of course there are any number of sets that use minifig heads (printed or not) as something other than heads.

I think I preferred the original chandelier, myself, but either way it's great, and this is a fantastic creation. I love the spiral of flame surrounding the wizard. I hope to have a MOC along these thematic lines ready in time for Halloween, myself, but I'm doubtful I'll make it. We'll see! In the meantime, that is really fine work. I envy you your selection of creepy / scary elements (the multiple coffins / sarcophagi, the new vampire, the old Adventurers mummy, etc.). I do at least have just enough minifigs, accessories, etc. from along those lines (I have all four sets from the "horror" Studios subtheme, four of the new zombie, a few witchcrafty elements from Harry Potter sets, skeletons aplenty from all sorts of sets, etc.) that I think I have most of the stuff I need (I could still use some light bricks), but time and effort are another matter...

vexorian, that is a great idea. I hope someone from TLG is reading this and agrees. I actually do see them stacked sometimes, and if one looks at the designs of the tops and bottoms of most of LEGO's canister-style packages, it's clear they're actually designed to be stackable. Most of them aren't terribly stable when stacked, though, and this idea would actually help with that.

I appreciate the reassurances (I really do!), and hope you'll forgive me if I pester you with one more question: how would you know if you had gotten something non-kosher? Is it just a safe assumption? That's what I thought as well, but if it's the case, how are BrickForge and other fan-run custom parts shops able to turn out what I understand are really nice, high-quality elements at affordable prices? (Sorry to keep asking! I'm just trying to come to grips with the fact I'm going to have to go to secondhand sources for some of the sets I want, and I'm trying to do everything I can to ensure that as long as I'm going to pay "excessively" for some of those sets, I'll get exactly what I'm paying for.)

Indeed it would. I've long thought that the Dunn & Duffy Circus train (from the "young Indy" Utah 1912 prologue of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade) would be a great "special" set to commemorate the theme or send it out with, à la the Imperial Flagship for the Pirates theme. There are plenty of other possibilities as well, though...

You throw them away?! I'm astounded! Those things can always be useful. Heck, even if you never build anything of your own design but simply stick to the official models, you could always lose a piece and need a replacement (that's partly what they're there for, after all!).

I'm not terribly optimistic, either - it certainly could easily be one of those one-year licensed themes - but I wouldn't say there aren't a whole lot of possibilities with it. Heck, LEGO is all about possibilities, and there are certainly lots of scenes that haven't been represented. I think the two primary obstacles with this theme are a) the scale differences between the toys and their world, and the human world they inhabit, and b) the fact several of the toy characters come from real-world toys that would have to be licensed from their own rightsholders (Playskool, Mattel, etc.) on top of the licensing from Disney / Pixar for the overall theme (and LEGO would have to be willing to make toy versions of other toy companies' toys, which they might well have a sort of corporate cultural aversion to doing even if the licensing weren't an issue). Those are certainly significant issues, but I think there's still plenty of room for imaginative releases, and I think ultimately the theme will end not because there's nothing more that can be done with it, but because TLG thinks it's time to move on and decides to do, as it often does before it's really done everything it could possibly do with a theme. It's too bad. I'd really like to see this theme run a bit longer (even if my bank account wouldn't!).