Blondie-Wan

That part has been around since 2000, appearing in at least 20 sets in various themes ranging from LEGO Studios to Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time to the modular buildings to The LEGO Movie - including, yes, multiple sets in the Harry Potter line and various post-2000 Castle subthemes. I think I would be a lot more forgiving than most of you are of the Beauty and the Beast castle, if not for the use of stickers. I thought they'd gotten away from stickers for character figures, even "brick-built" ones. I actually kind of like the set otherwise, but those stickers seriously detract from it. If only they'd been prints...

Only lightningtiger can say for sure why he's in Australia, but I suspect it has to do with his being Australian.

Not to go on a tangent, but I actually do think Technic projects do have a chance; just because none have been approved yet doesn't mean none ever will (notably, the fact the Landrover was held over shows they're at least willing to give them long, serious consideration). That said, your video is one of the most entertaining on Ideas, and I like the project itself. Supported!

Argh - stickers, for character faces!?

I love the Victorian London Christmas project as well, and voted for it, but I'm hesitant to bet on it getting through; while I'm sure they will indeed approve such large projects eventually, I don't know if they're ready to do so just yet. There are quite a few that have done it faster, actually - Minecraft did it in just 48 hours, the Doctor Who project that got approved took four or five weeks and the competing one that didn't took about half that, Alatariel's second set of scientist vignettes took about three weeks, the Golden Girls project that made it to review was also fast... the Victorian project certainly got its votes faster than most, but it's not quite the second-fastest.

If you concern yourself with the resale value of sets, you can find yourself paralyzed, unable to open and build anything, for fear of ruining some perceived market value. To each his or her own, of course, but I personally would much rather just enjoy my LEGO as LEGO, and not bother with the market value unless circumstances compel me to do so. Besides, if a set or part is truly that valuable, it will likely retain at least some of that value even after being opened and used. Just my personal opinion, of course.

My point about The Big Bang Theory is merely that it likely illustrates that TLG is fine with acquiring a license for a single set (since presumably the TBBT Ideas set is not only the first but also, presumably, the last thing TLG will produce for that particular franchise). I think the demographic appeal of Yellow Submarine is sufficiently broad. At the same time, I know many Beatles-loving FOLs surely felt mixed emotions upon seeing the K'Nex set, as many would surely love to get a set of the ship if only it were LEGO. I include myself in this group (just like I'm a Pixar fan who saw the Mega Bloks Cars sets but bought only LEGO ones, a Marvel fan who avoided MB's Marvel sets but has bought several LEGO ones, a Doctor Who fan who held out on the Character Building sets in hopes LEGO would get the license, etc.). But perhaps you're right. At any rate, we should know in about four months, give or take a few weeks.

I'm pretty sure Character Building's Doctor Who stuff was available until not all that long before Ideas began accepting submissions based on the property (indeed, I know they were still in stores, even if CB wasn't selling them any longer itself). For that matter, I remember Mega Bloks' Marvel and Cars stuff being still being on shelves even as TLG's licenses to those properties began. What's important here is whether K'Nex still has the license for Yellow Submarine. The fact their site has absolutely zero mention of it anywhere (other than the archived press release from back when they first announced it), not even a "Sold Out" message, suggests to me that not only are they no longer selling the set, but that they in fact no longer have the license. Of course, anything's possible... And yet K'Nex was obviously able to get it, at least for a short while. I doubt TLG would have trouble affording a license K'Nex got. I don't think they're concerned about whether they can use it for the long term, either - I really doubt they're planning on doing a lot more with their The Big Bang Theory license, after all (though granted, I was wrong about them getting it in the first place, but still...).

Sweet! I haven't gotten any of the Batman games, so I don't know much about what they have.

So they didn't actually make the games out of Lego? Darn. I had thought that'd be what they'd do when this pack was initially announced. That definitely makes me less interested in getting it... As someone who adores so many of those classic games, I'm definitely interested. I actually find that a pleasant surprise, even though LEGO-ized versions would also be cool. Granted that it's easy to get ROMs for those games illegally and run them in MAME or whatever, but I'd actually rather have a legit way to play them. I'm fine with a LEGO Dimensions level made out of those. If only I can get the game (and a system to run it on)... Please tell me that's the John Williams theme from the 1978 film!

I don't think sales to investors trump those to people who want the sets to enjoy as sets, though, and TLG exercises particular pride and care with the Star Wars theme / license. They'll issue a new UCS-style Millennium Falcon if and when they think the time is right for it and that the market will bear it - which may not be ever, but it won't be because of fears of "ruining investments" (at least, not principally).

Or made him a her.

I'd think that for this set above all other CUUSOO / Ideas sets (and most other sets, for that matter), "what to do with it" would be obvious.

I was actually thinking about trying that, using a 48x48 baseplate. I certainly understand why the official set isn't larger, though, given how many already balk at the price.

I'd be happy to see the bubble burst, but I'm not sure I want whatever would cause that to happen. At any rate, it's moot, since it's completely out of my hands (and virtually everyone else's).

If either the Creator Expert line or the Ideas line gives us a Creator Expert-style car, I'm not sure what difference it would make in which line's name is on the box; the end result would be the same, right? That said, I do think the Ideas approval effectively means there will be one more Creator Expert-style car than there otherwise would have been. If they were already working on a vehicle along the lines of the VW van, the Mini Cooper, the F40, etc., it should still go forward, and the Caterham will just be in addition to it. OTOH, if they weren't doing one before, it won't be because of the Caterham's approval; it'll just mean we'll still get one set of that sort when we would otherwise have gotten none. Not that I'm aware, and I do follow Ideas pretty closely. But the beauty of Ideas is that anyone can submit projects - why not have a go at it yourself? :)

My Peeron inventory, which is a few years out of date, says I have 1,032 Sets (575 unique), 139,411 Parts, including 1,979 Minifigs, and a total combined MSRP of $15,046.70.

So who is Harrison supposed to play, if not Indy, and why would they cast a younger actor and put him in old-age makeup when they've got a perfect age-appropriate Indy right there? That's just silly. :p What about stuff other than the fifth movie? Is there a general Indy thread here? If not, should this be it (and get a title change), or should there be a separate thread?

I'm fine with most of the original faces, but given the trends in minifigure "updates" and redesigns in recent years, I think it's a given that pretty much any / all characters who appeared in the original line and reappear here will get new prints, even for the same costumes. There were numerous characters missing the first time around, most notably Dr. Marcus Brody and Sallah Mohammed Faisel el-Kahir - both completely absent from any sets despite not only being among the most beloved, fan-favorite supporting characters from the franchise, but also appearing in two movies each. Other surprising omissions include George "Mac" McHale and Professor Harold "Ox" Oxley, whom one would expect to be present given not only how many of the sets were based on the fourth movie, but how many of those sets were for scenes in which those characters appear. Less surprising but still noticeable absences include Chattar Lal, Toht, Dietrich, and Walter Donovan. And of course there was the complete and utter lack of any sets based on the TV show, and hence the absence of Anna Mary Jones, Helen Seymour, Remy Baudouin, and any number of other important characters.

It's possible the license constrains them. Alternately, it's possible they just want all the sets in the Superheroes line to focus on, well, superheroes. I think one reason, though (possibly just one of many, but probably a reason, anyway) is that they only release so many sets in this line each year, and it's more important to them to "hit the high points" with a mix of the most toy-ready scenes from the year's Marvel and DC movies, plus sets from animated shows and the like that let them feature whatever other additional characters they want.

There's no telling how long it'll be around. Broadly, generally speaking, the licensed CUUSOO / Ideas sets tend to stay around longer than the non-licensed ones, but the latter can go in anywhere from mere days (as with the Curiosity Rover and the Research Institute) to well over a year (as with Hayabusa). If I had to predict, I'd guess the Maze will be around at least a few months, but that really is just a guess, based on the price.

Man, it's taken me too long (over a year since it was released; I should know better than to ever wait that long to pick up an Ideas set I want, after the Curiosity Rover debacle), but I'm glad to be able to say I finally picked up Birds yesterday - the last copy left on the shelf at a nearby TRU. I'm looking forward to putting it together and having it on display a while, though it'll eventually come apart. I now have Hayabusa, Back to the Future, Ghostbusters, Exo Suit (x2), Research Institute, Birds, and Doctor Who. I'd love to have all the others (just as I'd love to have pretty much any LEGO set in general), but Curiosity is the only discontinued one I'm really sore about missing out on (though the still-available WALL•E is a high priority for me, and I'll be upset if I miss that one as well), so I think I'm doing okay. I'm very much looking forward to getting WALL•E, the Maze, and Adventure Time, and seeing what else the future brings.

Yes, congratulations, Bricktrix!

If you're going by years since the previous installment, your math is off by ten years - 2008's Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was set in 1957, and this fifth film will come out eleven years later, so if they match the in-universe passage of time to the real one, it'll be set in 1968. That said, there's no reason to think they'll do an exact match. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom came out three years after Raiders of the Lost Ark, but it's set a year earlier. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is set three years after Temple (two after Raiders), but it came out five years later (or eight after Raiders). And just four years after playing a 39-year-old Indy in Crusade, Ford was playing a 50-year-old Indy on The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles.

No, that's from The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, a TV series that ran for two seasons from 1992 to 1993, and was followed up with a series of TV movies from 1996 to 1999. It told stories of Indy's youth, from ages almost 9 to his early 20s. It featured two main actors as young Indy (Corey Carrier as Indy ages 8-10 and Sean Patrick Flanery as Indy ages 16-20), but in the show's original form, most of the episodes were told in flashback, as a 92-to-93-year-old-Indy in contemporary times (early 1990s) recounted stories from his youth to various people. These "bookends" segments starred George Hall as old Indy; that's him in the photo.