Blondie-Wan

I still don't have the base game itself yet (or a console to run it on)! But I'm trying to get all the packs, and I've been picking up packs as I find them clearanced (fully aware that people like me who are interested in the game but reluctant or unwilling to buy packs at full price haven't helped the game succeed - alas, I'm just not in a position to buy them all at full price right now). Currently I have five Level Packs (half the total ten!), including all the first four from Waves 1 & 2, plus the Mission: Impossible one (my only Year 2 pack so far; I'm focusing on Year 1 since it's older), plus fifteen of the Year 1 Fun Packs - all the ones from Back to the Future, Doctor Who, The LEGO Movie, The Lord of the Rings, and The Wizard of Oz, one apiece from Ghostbusters and Legends of Chima, and three from DC Comics - plus the Scooby-Doo Team Pack. That all gives me at at least something from 11 of the 14 franchises & themes from Year 1, including everything released (aside from the Starter Pack contents) for 7 of those 14. The three I don't have anything from yet - Jurassic World, Midway Arcade, and Ninjago - include two with just a single pack apiece, so once I get those two packs I'll have two more complete franchises (as far as this game is concerned, anyway). Ideally, of course, I'd like to get everything. That might or might not happen, but if not, I'd like to at least get one pack from every franchise, so that once I have the game I can at least access all the Adventure Worlds and Battle Arenas, and also get all the packs from those franchises that interest me most. If I try for just those essentials rather than absolutely everything, the only remaining Year 1 packs I absolutely need are the Ghostbusters Level Pack and Mr. Stay-Puft Fun Pack, the Midway Arcade Level Pack, the Jurassic World Team Pack, and at least one Ninjago Pack (er, and the Starter Pack, of course). I should be able to do that. But I'll try for more.

And here I am, collecting all these things, blissfully unaware of what they're doing on the secondary market. I suppose I should look into selling or trading off a few duplicates I thought I'd "need" that I've since come to realize I really don't. Wow. I picked up three when they came out, all at MSRP or thereabouts; it's amazing to remember they used to be just $1.99 apiece in the US when they first came out! I certainly wish I could still get a complete new series for $31.84 plus tax, but those days are long behind us... Had I known that tile alone might one day fetch such a price (!), I might have stocked up on them from the BAM kiosks in LEGO Stores, but it's been a while since I saw any there...

Wait, what? The nurse is now the most sought-after S1 minifigure, and it's going for that much?? Huh. I would not have guessed.

Whoa! Well, there we go, then. That surprised me, but reinforces my point.

Almost always, but not quite; there have in fact been stickered minifigures, though AFAIK none have been produced in the last ten years or more. But that said, my post was really just a joke about the omission of the (obviously) printed minifigure elements in this set from the photo of printed parts.

Well, LEGO seldom does as much with a license as fans might wish. I'm an Indiana Jones fan, and there's a ton of stuff from that franchise that wasn't covered in the sixteen boxed retail sets. After Doctor Who was announced, we had a big thread in the Licensed forum discussing all the things we could see from the theme, but it looks like the Ideas set and the two packs for this game will be all they ever do. Middle-Earth lovers have decried all the omissions from the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings for a few years now. Star Wars is probably the only entertainment property that's really, truly well-represented in LEGO, and even that has a few characters and scenes that have never been done in official sets. This isn't so much a LEGO Dimensions thing as it is a general LEGO thing.

Well, wait - just what does the "cancellation" mean? I get that it's being discontinued, so no more packs will be made, but does this mean the existing material is going to stop working?

Wait - surely the minifigure parts are printed as well?!

Was it wasted? I was under the impression the Portal 2 material is some of the best in the game. Is it not?

Official MSRP is $24.99 / €24.99. I'm a bit surprised ZUX was able to get it; it's not officially released until November 1st. 231. This makes it the second-smallest and second-least expensive CUUSOO/ Ideas set to date, after the Research Institute. They were unable to get approval to use her, apparently. I would have thought they'd opt to include an alternative woman of NASA to retain the count of the original proposal, but I guess they didn't want to include someone not featured in that, or to be seen as "replacing" Johnson. All that said, it looks great, and I'm looking forward to getting it.

I still need a ton of Year 1 stuff. I hope I'm able to pick up everything I really want. Ideally I'd get everything period, but I don't know whether that'll happen.

I'm fine with our having missed out on that one. Right now it appears no new packs are forthcoming. That's unfortunate, but there's already a ton of cool stuff to play through and with in the game. Right now my immediate concern is getting all the packs I want before they go away. Though I've been following the game with interest since the beginning, I'm really late to the party in actually getting it; I still don't yet have a console that can run it. Rather than wait until I do, though, I've started getting a bunch of the packs now, to ensure I don't miss out on them.

One thing I'm still wondering about is what happens when two or more toy pads are connected to the same console. It's been two years now since the game was released; surely someone has tried it by now, but I'm still not seeing that info anywhere (and I know it's been asked in this thread and elsewhere before, and not just by me). Anyone know? _______________________ I still don't have the game yet myself, or a console to run it on, but I've started getting some of the packs in anticipation of when I do, to ensure I get all the ones I want most. I'd like to get everything, but it may not be possible.

No worries. I think there probably is some upper limit on how many Ideas things they'll approve at once, but I don't know that we've hit it. We do know they'll approve more than one thing at once, sometimes; they've done it five times now, after all. They've yet to approve three at once, but they have approved three projects from a single batch before. There was a batch with six projects - the life-sized birds figures, The Big Bang Theory, a modular Apple Store, the Back to the Future Time Train, and two separate, similar Doctor Who projects. They approved the Birds and The Big Bang Theory right off the bat and held the two Doctor Who projects for further review, and then approved one of them in the next review (alongside the WALL•E project from the following batch), so they ultimately approved three projects from that one batch - fully half the total six! _____________________ Could they approve an entire batch? It's very unlikely to actually happen, but I do think it's theoretically possible (and likelier for small batches than for larger ones, of course).

Sorry if you feel I was condescending. I pointed it out simply because there actually is a significant difference between winning a traditional contest and what happens with Ideas. The distinction is a critical one, and yet as you yourself note, multiple others have preferred here to "winning", which to me suggests a misunderstanding. I should also note re: x105Black's misgivings about Alatariel's multiple "wins" that her second approved project / set, The Big Bang Theory, is actually a collaboration between herself and GlenBricker, so even just her two project approvals still entail multiple people being approved, even if those were the only two Ideas projects that had ever happened. In fact, at least a couple of the other sets to come out of CUUSOO / Ideas are also the result of collaborations, so there have actually been at least three more individual people who've had sets made than there have been sets made, rather than the other way around. Re: LEGO choosing the best, they will of course make their decisions based on such considerations as whether they can license certain properties (which can be entirely out of their hands), what's a good brand fit (which doesn't always coincide with what we fans most want to see), what has the best business case (which may depend in part upon market research to which we aren't privy), and so on. Note that even here in this very thread, there's often disagreement about what "the best" really is; just with the most recent review results, for example, we have people interested in Voltron but not the Ship in a Bottle, and other people interested in the exact opposite. Personally, I feel every selection they've gone with has been a fantastic choice with the possible exception of The Big Bang Theory, and even that one makes sense to me even though it's not as inherently appealing to me personally as some of the others. In other words, I think everything they do approve is entirely justifiable. It's a bigger and more understandable disappointment when they don't approve something that one does want. It just doesn't seem to make much sense to me to be upset about them approving something one doesn't want, though, and that includes projects from submitters who've already had previous projects approved. If each approved project were clearly "taking the place" of another project, that would be more understandable, but I just don't see how them approving a project by someone who's already had one is somehow worse than them just not approving anything.

No one guy is saturating the field yet. Only one person has had more than one set produced, and she's had only two. For the moment, it simply isn't an issue. LEGO is going to choose those projects that they think will sell, that serve the brand well, etc., and it doesn't make sense for them to ignore a great idea and instead produce some lesser project (or no project at all) simply because the submitter of the great idea already had one. Even if they start having a few more individuals with multiple projects approved, it's not going to dispirit many. There have already been too many different people with projects approved (and will continue to be more). They'd pretty much have to have multiple consecutive reviews go by with only one submitter's projects approved to really sour a lot of people on Ideas for that reason, and I just don't think that's likely to happen.

I do suspect the movie is why they chose that particular character, even though it's a different incarnation of Lloyd from the movie version. It's a pretty nice move, I think. For those people not particularly concerned with getting all the packs in general or Supergirl in particular, it's arguably a nicer bundle than that promo, since means that right out of the gate you not only have four playable characters, the same as with the Supergirl promo, but you also get two vehicle/accessory things instead of one (assuming Lloyd's thing is indeed included), and you also get access to four different Adventure Worlds right away instead of just three (since Supergirl just unlocks the DC World, the same as Batman). That said, I still would rather try to get a Starter Pack with Supergirl right now than one with Lloyd, since he can still easily be had on his own and she can't. Now I wonder whether there are any more retailer-exclusive promos (or any other promos, really) waiting in the wings...

But: • Ideas isn't about projects that "win" a contest; it's about pitching Ideas to LEGO for sets, and them deciding which ones they can do that would make good sets. They want the best ideas for sets, and it doesn't really matter to them whether they all come from one person or not. It's like if you're in a meeting at work and come up with two or three different ideas on how to improve productivity or whatever - should your boss say "that's great, but we can take only one of your suggestions even if all of them will make us money or save us time or make this a more enjoyable place to work, because it's not fair to everyone else whose ideas we don't use"? Of course not. • It's not an awards ceremony where there is always one award given out in a certain category or whatever. There isn't a set number of projects they will or won't do, and them approving or declining one project doesn't automatically mean another one will be declined or approved in its place. It's true there's a finite amount of resources they can allot toward Ideas sets, but it's not as limiting as the other factors that go into their evaluations (brand fit, business case, etc.), and they can and do simply queue sets if they approve more than one at once. They've approved two different projects at the same time on five separate occasions now, and they've also had an entire review where they didn't approve anything despite having a larger number of projects under consideration (13) than ever before. In other words, if a project is approved, it's not "taking the place" of some other project (unless it's a similar project, like the two competing Ghostbusters projects that entered one review together, or the two competing Doctor Who projects that did the same thing a while later). Every "winner", repeat or not, gets outside help from at least 9,999 other people, so a certain (quite healthy-sized, actually) amount of outside help is just plain part of how LEGO Ideas works.

I noticed the other day that Target is now offering a new store-exclusive promo on the starter packs - there, you can get it bundled with the Lloyd Fun Pack from Ninjago (there's a little sticker on the box to indicate it's included, just like the ones on some of the PS4 packs that tell you it has the Supergirl promo). When I last looked at Target's website, they were showing it only with the PS4 Starter, but unless I'm misremembering things (which is entirely possible), in-store they had Starter Packs for multiple systems that included the Lloyd pack. The picture on the sticker just shows the Lloyd minifigure on his toy tag base, but does say that it's the "Fun Pack" as opposed to just the figure, so I assume his vehicle build is included too.

Wow. I've long hoped for an updated UCS Millennium Falcon, and now it's here. I'll have to work hard to make sure I can afford it this time, having missed out on 10179. At the same time I'm still hoping for an absolutely perfect, ultra-comprehensive on ten years from now, for the 50th, that addresses every possible issue people have with this one. But in case that never happens, I'll have to get this... I finally saw it in person at my own local LEGO Store the other day. It's SO FREAKING BIG. And most impressively detailed, at least on top. The bottom actually is surprisingly plain, it seems, though I couldn't get a very good look. My understanding, based on what they told me at the store, is that they automatically mail one to any VIP member who buys this. Presumably that includes people who sign up at the time of purchasing this. They didn't know anything about a limit on the cards, either by number or time, BTW. They seemed to think the cards would be for anyone who ever buys this set at any time throughout its life, but other sources indicate it'll just be for those buyers who get it by December 31st or earlier. Not exactly, though there is the special VIP card, but didn't I also read something somewhere about 150 random copies containing certificates signed by the designer?

21104, the NASA / JPL Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Rover from LEGO Ideas. That was a very different case from this, though, and in no way should be taken as any kind of indication this would be an online-only exclusive.

I don't know; the wording of LEGO's Facebook post strongly suggests this is something they'll actually do. Not even a 7,500 parts set consisting entirely of 48x48 baseplates, Ninjago spinjitsu spinner bases, Mindstorms RCX bricks and XL motors?

Holy smokes, the set is so big they're actually giving us a specially-designed carton with rollers (!!!) to lug it home from the shop. I can see people who were going to order it from Shop at Home changing their plans and running out to their nearest LEGO Store specifically to get that rolling Falcon caddy. I wonder whether they'll have those available for the set's entire run, or if they're just going to be in the stores for a little while?

... and the Fishing Store has even more pieces than that. And the Voltron set, while likely not as large as either the Saturn V or Fishing Store, will still surely be a large set as well. I think the days when we could reasonably assume large Ideas projects (ones that would yield sets costing from $100 to $200 USD, say) have no chance right out of the gate simply, because they're large, are now behind us.

Whoa! That thing should prove useful. I hadn't seen it before (unsurprisingly, since it apparently debuted just this year and has been in only two sets so far). I wouldn't be surprised if it appeared in the Falcon, but we'll just have to see.