Blondie-Wan

That's why I said I thought it was a possibility, of course, rather than something I thought was likely (I did also say I didn't know that I should be optimistic). I do agree it's not especially likely - we'd probably have heard something about it by now - but I don't think it's completely out of the question.

I do plan to get those two myself, though for me it's simply because I love Toy Story; any applicability those sets have to filling out my Old West is just a bonus. That said, they do offer some nice opportunities in that area. I do think the train in particular would look great in a LEGO Wild West layout as-is (it's not as though the rest of it wouldn't also look like a bunch of toys, after all ), but of course it can also be easily modified to something more suited to taste if needed. I already mentioned the current Collectible Minifigures gunslinger and tribal hunter, who are great additions to anyone trying to fill out a western parts pack. I hope later series include a few more suitable additions...

My understanding is that the Indy line was put on hiatus to make room in TLG's product lineup for Prince of Persia. I don't know if I should actually be optimistic it'll return, but I do think it's at least a possibility (particularly with next year being the 30th anniversary of the series). Sure, although Prince of Persia as a LEGO theme is really only about the movie, not about the games the movie is based on, and the movie doesn't appear to be one that'll endure in audiences hearts and minds for decades to come. Now, Toy Story, on the other hand, is an acknowledged classic, and one that's probably more in keeping with LEGO's own values and feel to boot. IJ sold very well at launch, at least according to LEGO itself, and nearly all the sets produced in the line were in fact available for close to a year or more, with a couple available quite a bit longer than that (Temple Escape, Temple of the Crystal Skull). It's been only in the last couple weeks that the sets from last year's August wave were finally clearanced and sold out in Shop at Home; that's about a year, and I do still see the sets at both Target and Toys 'R' Us. The only regular retail set that was available for significantly less than a year is Jungle Duel.

Once again, I'd like to remind people that there are opportunities to buy the Series 1 figures in US stores that aren't Toys 'R' Us, Target, Walmart or any other huge retail chain. From my personal experience, aside from my local Toys 'R' Us, I know of two different small, operator-owned stores near me that carry them, and at least one of them appears to keep them in stock quite a bit longer than TRU (the other may as well; I'm not sure). I don't think this was part of an intentional marketing strategy; I think LEGO just really didn't anticipate how phenomenally well these would do. I suspect Walmart and Target and other major retailers didn't either, and for that very reason didn't order many if any; that fits the lack of availability at those stores. I'm sure LEGO would love to have known of the demand for these; they'd probably have produced longer runs, so they could sell more. That makes sense. I do think they'll ramp up production on later series, so anything from Series 3 on should be much easier to get hold of in the US (and remain widely available in Europe).

If that's the case, then parents simply buy the other, non-LEGO toys, and indeed some of them do, but not all. We all know LEGO continues to sell well; some themes sell better than others, but I don't think whether a set is licensed or not necessarily dictates anything. The best-selling themes include a mix of licensed and original themes, and the most poorly-selling themes also include a mix of licensed and original themes. In fairness, Pixar's movies meet that same standard, IMO. If LEGO must use licenses, at least Toy Story is a great one that really fits LEGO's own values and aesthetics. I don't know how long it can actually go as a LEGO theme - I'm afraid it might not endure as long as I'd like, honestly - but I do think that in terms of everything it represents, it fits LEGO like a glove, and I'd bet dollars to donuts that LEGO's people feel the same way. And Star Wars, at this point, has endured as a mammothly popular toy theme for over thirty years. Whatever one may think of the movies (or of LEGO or other toys based on them), I think it fits the description "based on everlasting themes that kids have played out for decades" as well as anything ever did.

How is it not a LEGO figure if it was made by LEGO? It's not a LEGO minifigure, of course, but it's still a LEGO figure, just as DUPLO, Belville, Bionicle, Technic, etc. figures are.

Coolness, Dr Rod, congratulations. And welcome to Eurobricks!

Totally! :thumbup: :thumbup: Regarding the Buzz promo, it does mean Buzz is now in one more set than Woody (not counting the giant Construct-A-Buzz, just the minifigs). I half-wondered whether the reason Woody was chosen for the promo we learned about earlier was specifically to give him one more Buzz-less set to be in so as to tie his appearance count with Buzz, but now that's clearly not the case. It does seem a little strange that Woody's in one (or two) fewer sets than Buzz, but at any rate it's clear one's going to wind up with more than enough of both if one collects all the sets anyway.

So was I (really! I swear!), though I was thinking more of the Mac / iPhone game Cro-Mag Rally than of The Flintstones. I may still give it a shot sometime... Nicely done, AllanSmith.

I was actually going to suggest that very thing! That's *exactly* one of the roles I was thinking of for a good candidate for Series 3 or later.

My pleasure; I hope it helps. Do keep in mind though that both stores, while franchisees in national chains, are locally owned and the owners / operators probably exercise a lot more personal discretion in determining what stuff they'll carry, so the minifigs (or even LEGO stuff in general) might not be at all Hobbytowns or Learning Expresses (though they might be). I think the important thing is that the figures can be found at places other than the well-known major big-box superchains like TRU, Target, Walmart, etc., so it may pay to look around (and even if you don't find the minifigs, you at least might find that some small Mom-&-Pop-type store that you might not have known about carries LEGO). In fairness, I think the existence of sets like the Statue of Liberty, the Taj Mahal, UCS Millennium Falcon, the modular buildings, etc. clearly indicates LEGO is fully aware of its AFOL customers and does release at least some sets specifically aimed at them. That said, I suspect they really were doing these collectible minifigs with the idea kids would be interested in them, and were caught off-guard by just how much adult interest in them there is. I'd bet the overwhelming majority of the figs sold have been sold to adult fans (and speculators), and I'd further bet LEGO didn't foresee that being the case at all. I imagine they certainly know now, and that they'll adjust things accordingly with Series 3 and beyond, though I'm also sure it's too late for Series 2 to be any different from Series 1 (if anything it should be worse, given the presumably colossal demand for the Greco-Roman ancient warrior).

If I may be forgiven for quoting myself... Update: I was just out and about, running minor errands around town, and stopped at both of these stores I mentioned earlier, and I can confirm both of them do in fact have the minifigures now - I still haven't seen them at a Target, Walmart or Kmart (or even the Borders here, for that matter, even though it apparently carries them elsewhere), but both Learning Express and Hobbytown USA have them here in Tallahassee, Florida. Both stores have them above MSRP - LE has them for $2.99 and Hobbytown has them at $2.49, but they're there. Hobbytown also tells me they've had the minifigs about a week, and the display box is still about 2/3 full, so they don't seem to be selling them nearly as quickly as TRU does at the same price; I'm guessing it's because there simply aren't nearly as many people going to Hobbytown to buy LEGO as there are going to TRU. Probably lots of local LEGO fans go to TRU (and Target, Walmart, etc.) for LEGO regularly but have no idea about these other stores.

I honestly don't know right now; the stores at which I asked about them had ordered them, but of course that was before anyone really knew how quickly they would go, and I don't know whether LEGO's production run was enough to fill all the orders. I'm inclined to think it would be, though - that they'd have enough to fill all the retailer orders that were placed before the release, plus some more for their own stores - and that the big surprise shortage is simply that they sell out quickly once they hit store shelves. FWIW, the stores I asked at were the Hobbytown USA and the Learning Express here in Tallahassee. If there are any of those in your area, you might start by trying them. I don't know that all of them even carry LEGO stuff at all, but mine do (yay!). Beyond those, there are various other toy stores less well-known than TRU that nevertheless carry LEGO; other than perhaps a little wasted time, it can't hurt to call around and see if any of them have any. And that said, it also seems to me TRU is still receiving shipments of these. At my store, the last time I asked about these, an employee advised me that they'd get a truck of new stock on Thursday, and that they'd know the night before what would be on it, so I could check with them on Wednesday night (that is, tonight) to see if they'd be getting any more of these the next day. If your local TRU employees are equally helpful, you might try asking them whenever your own store is awaiting a shipment. I'm sorry to hear of your kids' disappointment. I do hope you succeed in finding all the ones you / they want. As far as the pricing goes, TRU is having one of its LEGO sales this week (buy one at full price, get one 50% off on all LEGO except Star Wars); assuming one's TRU actually has any of these, the sale would knock the combined price for two minifigures down from $4.98 to $3.74. Borders frequently has coupons available as well. I hope you get an opportunity to take advantage of one or more of these opportunities; I know they're certainly appreciated by anyone trying to amass large numbers of them. On a tangent, it's nice to hear your kids enjoy LEGO and that you and they can enjoy it together even if you're not as utterly nuts about it for yourself the way so many others here are, and it's particularly cool that your daughter is into it even at such a young age. She must be quite a precocious little builder! I hope she gets her clown, and her brother his wrestler.

FWIW, a LEGO Store employee at the LEGO Store at Downtown Disney in Orlando told me on Sunday, May 23 that they were supposed to be out June 21st (and the very next day I saw them in the Toys 'R' Us here in Tallahassee). That said, this same TRU got a new box in just last week. Of course, it sold out fairly quickly, but the point is that they got more in as recently as last week (actually, wouldn't they have gotten two boxes at once, even if they didn't put both of them out? Doesn't a case contain two boxes?). I'm cautiously hopeful they'll get some more this week; an employee there advised me to check back this Wednesday, when they'll know what they're getting off the truck and onto the shelves on Thursday. Beyond that, there are a couple smaller independent toy stores that have told me they've ordered the figures, though I don't know when (or if) they'll get them.

A few suggestions for a couple pieces that immediately leaped to mind as ones that really needed representation in other colors: Part No: 30115 Name: Snake New color: 5 brick-yellow (tan) Part No: 30115 Name: Snake New color: 308 dark brown Part No: 30115 Name: Snake New color: 138 sand yellow Part No: 30115 Name: Snake New color: 18 nougat Part No: 30115 Name: Snake New color: 141 earth green Part No: 30115 Name: Snake New color: 24 bright yellow Part No: 48812 Name: Dog / Wolf New color: 5 brick-yellow (tan) Part No: 48812 Name: Dog / Wolf New color: 308 dark brown Part No: 48812 Name: Dog / Wolf New color: 138 sand yellow Part No: 48812 Name: Dog / Wolf New color: 26 black

I've been wanting to revisit this theme for a while now myself. It's too bad I only have one of the actual sets, but I do have some additional thematic material from elsewhere - additional cowboy hats from three copies of one of the old accessory sets (remember those?), plus horses, barrels, wagon wheels, revolvers, etc. from lots of different sets from various other themes, plus gunslingers and tribal hunters from the new collectible minifigs line. I figure all this plus a bunch of basic bricks (which make up the bulk of most creations anyway, after all) will be just enough to get by with, at least for a while (though I still yearn for some of those sets I missed)...

Goodness, I hadn't realized the theme's original run was so short; I'm amazed the theme had so many sets in such a short time. This theme came along during my dark ages, but fortunately I was coming out of them just in time to score at least one of the reissues, Sheriff's Lock-Up. I enjoyed putting and having that one together quite a bit, and I've been looking forward to rebuilding it sometime and also doing some Western MOCs when time permits. The reissue of Rapid River Village remained on my Shop at Home wishlist for several years after it was gone (I've found discontinued sets will stay there as long as you don't remove them, even years after they're gone); for the longest time I wasn't able to bring myself to remove it, though I eventually did did so during a bit of housecleaning to make my wishlist a little more useable.

Swanky! Were you able to do this using just the bricks included with the Beach House, or did you require additional bricks from elsewhere?

Indeed (although Lawrence can also be considered part of the Indiana Jones theme )! My girlfriend is a huge fan of Lawrence (not just the movie, which is her favorite, but of the historical figure in general); I must show her this.

Really? That's odd; the impulses were the first sets to disappear from everywhere I found them (including Shop at Home), well before Shipwreck Hideout. My own local TRU still has a large chunk of the Pirates line, including Cannon Battle, Kraken Attackin', Loot Island and (IIRC) Soldiers' Fort, and still had Brickbeard's Bounty until just a few weeks ago. Shop at Home still has all of those plus Imperial Flagship and a few of the accessory items, as did the LEGO Store at Downtown Disney in Orlando when I was there a month ago. Also note the Brickmaster Pirates book / set from DK and LEGO is in TRU and various bookstores (and indeed, wasn't even released until the latter part of last year, IIRC). In fact, my own TRU even has a small display with tear-off sheets containing instructions and suggestions on how to throw a LEGO Pirates-themed birthday party. This wasn't there until fairly recently.

Hi. Yes, I'm afraid this one set was discontinued pretty quickly, as far as I know. Here in the US (and I presume most other places, though I don't know for sure), it was a vendor exclusive for Toys 'R' Us (also available directly from LEGO itself, of course). It disappeared from Shop at Home in less than a year, and all but disappeared from at least my own local Toys 'R' Us not long after that (they had one last copy of the set lingering on the shelves for quite a while, and I finally picked it up for myself a few months ago and felt lucky to be able to get it so late). I don't know where you're located, but if you're in the US I think your best bet is to first check out as many TRU stores as you have access to, just in case. If that doesn't turn one up, I think you'll have to go to Bricklink or eBay or the like.

It just occurred to me that if we accept one of TLG's Star Wars Hoth rebel trooper minifigs as representing Major Derlin, then John Ratzenberger may also be a contender for the top title, since he's also Hamm in Toy Story and Mack in Cars (granted, I realize the Duplo Mack truck is really stretching the definition of "minifig," but still...). I presume you didn't mean to say there have been or will be LEGO sets based on Willow (which is a shame, really, as it seems a good fit for LEGO, except for having been released more than a decade before LEGO began heavily licensing movie properties...). Not yet, but give them time - you never know...

Wasn't the original release date supposed to be June 21? Could it be that some outlets have them (or are awaiting some in the distribution chain) and are waiting for the original "official" release date to put them out? What's the deal with toy vendors outside the major retailers (Walmart, Kmart, Target, Toys 'R' Us, etc.) who've ordered these - will those orders be cancelled?

Yow, really? Do you guys still have the black-sticker versions of any of the other police sets (especially the car), by chance?