Blondie-Wan

Ah, well - different strokes, and all that. Personally, I love them purely as novelties, as well as things that can occasionally be useful. My wife has a Creator Apple Tree House that she likes to redecorate for the holidays, and at Halloween she enjoys populating the yard with "trick-or-treaters", so costumed folks are always welcome, as are "real" monsters. For myself, I just think they're delightful. I do also plan to eventually throw my own minifigure costume bashes and such.

If you're buying only those that interest you, though, then doesn't it just make it easier on you if fewer figures interest you? (There's no hope for me, since I try to get at least one of each anyway...)

I'm not a particular fan of the Wizarding World either, but I know enough about it to know they could easily devote multiple Minifigures series to it if they wanted. The same is true for lots of LEGO licenses, actually - Marvel, DC, Middle-Earth, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, The Simpsons, Doctor Who, and more all have enough characters to support multiple runs of blind-bagged minifigures. Just be glad most of them are likely either judged not popular enough to sell as well as LEGO would like (well enough to be profitable, surely, just not enough to be as profitable as they want), or have action figure licenses with other toymakers that prevent LEGO from offering individual figures, even if they have to be assembled. I think that given how far out some of these are planned, they're not going to do that soon; they also surely do want to have more "regular" series again (mixes of costumes, historical, fantasy, sci-fi, horror, sports and rec, ordinary day-to-day life, etc.). I'm confident Series 19 will be along those general lines, like 1-13 and 15-17.

We don't? (I count them as such myself, since of course that's what they are, but I do notice many reviewers here typically omit them when cataloging a set's printed parts, for some reason. I do intend to practice things a bit differently if and when I ever start reviewing sets, though there's no telling when that might happen. )

I assume it's just meant to represent a typical minifigure from that time, not a specific minifigure innovation.

I count 8 printed parts in that photo (or 7, if one draws the distinction of the paintbrush being "painted" rather than "printed"). Very fine review otherwise, though! Even with the minor issues, I think this is an excellent set as promotional freebies go. A unique minifigure, five printed nanofigures* (!) - including a Classic Space nanofigure (!!!), additional printed tiles, and a nifty box that actually does something? Very sweet. I picked up one on April 2nd when I went to my nearest LEGO Store for Minifigures Series 17 plus one of the Anniversary sets, and another today with the LEGO Ideas Ship in a Bottle plus a couple more Minifigures. I'm thinking of trying to get third near the end of the promo period, when it overlaps with the forthcoming Star Wars one for the Darth Vader pod. Just having a CS nanofigure is a source of joy for me, and everything else is just icing on an already-sweet cake. I'm sure I'm not the only person contemplating nanoscale Classic Space builds using this figure! And as noted, the printed "caution" tiles are also great. It's kind of amazing to get so many of them in a freebie now, when regular retail sets these days often use stickers for the same effect, and still don't offer as many as this one has. *I think "microfigure" is in fact the "official" term for this figure type, but the same term was also used for the figure style introduced with the LEGO Games line. It seems peculiar that LEGO would use "microfigure" so casually to two totally different figure types when they're so precise about exactly what counts as a "minifigure", but there we are. For myself, though, I like using "nanofigure", since it helps me distinguish between these and the LEGO Games figures. I agree. The overall figure certainly wasn't around in 2002. I do think, as you do, that it was chosen to represent the innovation of short legs, and I can understand the booklet's creators doing it for that reason (and thus it not strictly being an "error", since it was likely a deliberate decision made with full awareness of what was accurate and what wasn't about it), though I personally wouldn't have gone that way. FWIW, LEGO's second version of the Slave I did indeed feature short legs for young Boba Fett in medium blue, and that was indeed in 2002. These legs don't quite appear to be medium blue, though - they look more azure to me - and the entire hair mold didn't exist at all then, nor did the print design. But oh, well.

Which Avatar would that have been - the Nickelodeon TV series about Airbenders (which previously briefly had a small LEGO theme back in 2006), or the James Cameron movie (series) about the Na'vi of Pandora? I think I'd personally prefer the former, though either would be cool. I'd love it if some of those properties could have been in the game, and also if a few more of LEGO's own homegrown ones could have been as well, such as Bionicle and Elves.

I think it might have happened to me at some point over the years, but it definitely isn't common. That said, since you say their boxes "are in perfect shape and sealed well", I'm assuming it's something that happened at the factory. We all know that for all their virtues, LEGO isn't perfect, and if it's possible to get an occasional defective (or missing, or just plain wrong) part (or instruction booklet), I don't think it's flatly impossible to have some sort of fault with the bags. It does seem deeply strange that you'd have it happen with not one but two different sets, though, opened back-to-back. How were the bags torn - were they clean separations of seams, or the plastic just tearing, or what?

Thanks! Now, I just need a console to play it on. Good luck getting the ones you want (and I recommend you don't wait too long; from where I stand, it looks like we're near the end of the game's and packs' window of availability).

And finally, I have everything! Well, except for the Starter Packs for PS3, WiiU, XBox360, and XBoxOne. But it turns out I can get those too, if I want - Target is now selling the Starters absurdly cheaply, around $15 to $18 each, depending on platform (!). At that price, it's worth it just for LEGO parts alone, never mind the game. I think I'll get at least one more.

I just yesterday picked up the Story Pack for The LEGO Batman Movie, and today got the Fun Pack for Beetlejuice (one day after the movie's 30th anniversary!). Just three more to go, now (Harry Potter and Teen Titans GO! Team Packs, Sonic the Hedgehog Level Pack). I can't believe I'm so close to an essentially complete collection of this theme, but here we are.

Women of NASA is great, but it is a less substantial build than the TRON: Legacy set or nearly any other Ideas set, and was criticized as such. It has one piece more, but a less substantial build overall. And while it does have an excellent assortment of prints, it does still have fewer prints than this one. I think the important thing isn't the appearance of movement in the wheels, but the fact they mean the bike can actually go. Would you prefer that the bike be static? But that's a subjective assessment, not a fact.

Several of those sets have no minifigures, and only three have a higher percentage of their parts given over to minifigures. And if I'm not mistaken, no Ideas sets have a higher percentage of their parts that are printed. It's also a small set, and small, figure-rich and print-rich sets are naturally going to tend to have higher prices per piece. Were this not the case, we could reasonably expect individual "CMFs" to cost a minute fraction of what they do - under a dollar, say. No other Ideas set has this particular set's precise combination of minifigure count, print count, and size, which makes direct comparisons difficult, but I believe it's fairly priced. You're right; I don't see the issue. It very much looks like an attempt to do so to me, and a fairly successful one at that. Certainly the midsection of LEGO's model is more curvilinear than a mere rectangle, in part due to the same piece whose inclusion you decry. The inherent limitations of not just LEGO in general but the minifigure in particular are naturally going to drastically impact any attempt to recreate in minifigure scale an essentially human-sized vehicle whose look is so profoundly shaped by its rider. It is unfortunate you are disappointed, and you're entitled to your disappointment, but I think your comment about what was attempted is unwarranted, and I also think you're being unduly harsh. Certainly the model is instantly recognizable to anyone familiar with Tron as a Tron light cycle, as opposed to a real-world bike, an Akira one, or whatever. ... while all other lines will experience price stagnation, one presumes. Star Wars set pricing is skewed by the routine inclusion of much larger sets than most other lines can support, but at those price points at which other sets may be found, Star Wars sets in general - perhaps not in your solitary example, but in aggregate across all lines - offer what I think is comparable value.

Those "limited" printed pieces account for nearly a tenth of the entire piece count (22 out of 230). And a higher percentage of this set's pieces are devoted to minifigure elements than those of any other Ideas set except the Research Institute, The Big Bang Theory, and Women of NASA. Both factors affect the pricing. The "rather bland looking representations" that "look like blocks with wheels stuck on" hardly look that way to everyone else (at least, no more blocky than all other LEGO vehicles ever, which are of course inherently blocky to an extent because they're LEGO). I think most others asked to describe these in a single word would probably go with "sleek" or something comparable, and they're certainly reflective of the source material. I am respectfully dubious the Star Wars license fee is as high as you seem to think it is.

22?! That's insane! I guess this is the point on the "collect 'em all" train where I get off. (Though that said, I never would have asked for over 20 minifigures in a single series, but if they're really doing it now, I will go ahead and say I hope they also do it for Indiana Jones when they presumably bring the theme back for the fifth movie a couple years from now.)

Is a Harry Potter series confirmed as coming? I've missed a lot of LEGO news lately.

There's a huge difference, though. Looney Tunes and DC are both Warner properties - just as Star Wars and Indiana Jones are both Lucasfilm properties, which made it easy for the makers of those games to include characters from each of those two franchises in the other's LEGO games. Barbie and Ken, Mr. & Mrs. Potato Head, and Slinky Dog are different matters, though. Not only are they not the property of Pixar (or Disney), they're actually the properties of other toy companies than LEGO - some of LEGO's biggest competitors, in fact. I may be wrong, but I strongly suspect LEGO wouldn't want them in the game, even if it could use them for free. LEGO, Mattel, Hasbro, etc. don't want to promote one another.

I found a Walmart that still had a few of The Simpsons Series 2 just a couple weeks ago, but I don't consider that typical (and if I did, it would certainly far surpass the Disney ones staying around a comparatively mere six months). The Disney minifigures attracted attention from Disney fanatics who aren't normally necessarily LEGO fans.

That was certainly my impression. I thought the Disney series was one of the most popular Minifigures series ever.

I'm frankly surprised they haven't already done a Disney Series 2. I guess it's just a matter of them having too full a lineup; between wanting to do at least one series for each "LEGO Cinematic Universe" entry and at least one numbered series for the main line each year, there just wasn't room for Disney S2 in 2017, but I was surprised they went with The LEGO Batman Movie Series 2 to kick off this year instead of a Disney Series 2. _________________________________________ As far as what I'd most like to see from licensed lines, Indiana Jones, Doctor Who, and Adventure Time all seem like great ideas to me (with the caveat that lots of Adventure Time characters really call for something other than conventional minifigures, of course). This is assuming they do indeed do another Disney series as well; they really need to, if only so they can finally add Goofy to the lineup. It just seems wrong to have Mickey, Minnie, Donald, and Daisy, but not Goofy. _________________________________________ I must say it's getting harder and harder for me to keep up. When the Minifigures line began back in 2010, we had just two series that year, both 16 figures, and in the US they were just $1.99 per figure. I got at least two of each figure, and more of others. As the line exploded and went to three 16-figure series per year at $2.99 apiece, it got a lot harder to keep up and get as many as I liked, but I still managed to get at least two of each figure until 2012, when I simply fell behind and got only one of the S8 Lederhosen Guy (sadly, one of the minifigures I most wanted several of), and there was also a regionally limited-distribution fourth series for Team GB, which I was able to get none of. Since then, I've given up on trying to get at least two of each, but managed to get at least one of each for a while - except for S10's Mr. Gold and the entire DFB Soccer / Football series. But now we have multiple series a year with over 16 minifigures, and it's getting tougher than ever to keep up. Though I've managed to get at least one of each figure from each numbered mainline series (again, except Mr. Gold), plus each one from the Disney series (S1?), The Simpsons Series 1 & 2, The LEGO Movie, and The LEGO Batman Movie S1, I'm still working on The LEGO Ninjago Movie, and don't yet have any from The LEGO Batman Movie S2 (the third series with a whopping 20 figures!) - and now Series 18 is just around the corner, and it has an extra minifigure who's tougher to find at just one per box. I love these, but I'm struggling to keep up with them all.

Juniors sets are still sets. Indeed, it's one thing to simply not include those characters in the sets; it's another to recreate scenes from the narratives without them in a game. But I'm sure it could be done. Whether they will is a different matter. You do have the option of not buying them if you don't want them, of course. There are plenty of us for whom the formula does work.

Added two more packs today, the Fun Packs for Knight Rider and Teen Titans GO!. Just five more packs to go, with eight more characters. I think I'm going to make it. Strange to think now that just a few months ago I was thinking of getting "just" some of the packs that most interest me, but here I am now with nearly everything. I have very mixed feelings about all the sales and clearances - on the one hand, they obviously reflect that the game hasn't performed to Warner and LEGO's expectations, and is being (indeed, has been) ended before its time, but at the same time, I can't help but be glad that it's been so easy to get nearly all the packs for so much below their original MSRPs. I've gotten well over fifty packs for this game, and nearly all of them have been somewhere around half price, or lower than that, sometimes much lower. I could never have come close to getting so many of them if I'd had to pay full price (or anything close to it) for everything.

Good grief, so this is where this topic is. Jeez. The day EB's criteria for categorizing Licensed themes begin to make any sense, the universe shall surely end... Anyway, looking forward to these as always. I'm really surprised they're not out already, though.

Ghostbusters and Minecraft notwithstanding, most licenses obtained for Ideas sets seem to be one-and-done, never turning up in other LEGO offerings (save for LEGO Dimensions, and that's no longer getting new packs; for most of its life it had little chance of getting Disney stuff anyway). I therefore wouldn't expect much in the way of large sets for this, though of course one never knows. That said, if and when LEGO ever offers a second Disney Minifigures series, TRON seems a strong candidate for inclusion, if the series has anything from live-action properties (which is a big double if, obviously). Of course, even if that happened, it's possible the only TRON character(s) included would be one(s) already in this set, just with different designs, but still...

No idea regarding a Wii U update. But I've continued to gather packs, and now lack only seven - the The LEGO Batman Movie Story Pack, the Sonic the Hedgehog Level Pack, the Harry Potter Team Pack, the Teen Titans GO! Team and Fun Packs, and the Beetlejuice and Knight Rider Fun Packs. So close! I'm also seeing these discounted and clearanced across the board at Target, Walmart, etc. It looks like now's the time to finish getting whatever packs one wants but doesn't have yet. Good luck, all!