Blondie-Wan

Possibly. I was thinking in terms of a "minifigure" qualifying as such if it has a certain number of traditional minifigure parts - not just LEGO elements as we traditionally understand them (with a torso assembly being one part, and so on), but the actual individual pieces of plastic. Otherwise, one wouldn't normally consider Maggie Simpson to be a minifigure, since she's made of just two "parts" (body assembly and head), neither of which is a regular minifigure part, but since her body assembly includes two arms made of four regular minifigure arm / hand pieces of plastic, that's enough to qualify, while a regular skeleton does not because it has only one traditional minifigure part (the skull / head). But the criteria do seem oddly weird and specific, yet hard to pin down. Your idea about attachment points seems as good an understanding as any.

I think that's probably what happened here, honestly. This is a 4600+ piece set for "only" $350. I suspect that if the packaging is thinner than what one might expect, it's because they decided the set had to be this many pieces in order to be done properly, but at the same time it couldn't cost more than this much to be able to sell as s non-Star Wars set, and so in order to be able to sell it at that price and still make a profit, they opted to compromise on an aspect that wasn't the product proper, but something that many people just consider trash and throw away anyway. If TLG went even further with this set than they already have and incorporated every additional wish people have asked for - finished back, longer footprint to hold Ectomobile more easily, all prints and no stickers, an additional character or two, and a sturdier package on top of all that - we could be looking at a much more expensive set. Even the mighty Star Wars has had only three sets more expensive than this.

Quite possible. I've said before that I thought they could do well offering things like the Curiosity Rover in science museum gift shops and the like.

Incidentally, Shayd's project isn't up yet, despite having been submitted on the 6th; the last group of projects posted went up two days later, on the 8th (yesterday). For all those who have submitted projects (especially multiple projects), hoe long does it normally take for them to get posted? I see there were an awful lot of projects for one day yesterday - 47, unless I've miscounted. I wonder if the Ideas staff is working through a backlog...

Even a project that doesn't get accepted can have an effect on the ones that do, though, but it's hard to measure that. A project that gets a lot of votes but not all the ones it needs can offer valuable clues about what it might take to get all the way to 10000. Or a project that gets all those votes but doesn't get selected might still have an effect on what does (look at Ghostbusters and Doctor Who, where on two different occasions two different projects covering the same subject matter wound up in the same review batches; in each case one was picked, presumably at least partly because having not just one but two versions of those subjects make it to 10k at the same time demonstrated great interest - conceivably, if either subject had gotten a single project instead of two, TLG might not selected it, having less evidence of its market appeal).

That would have eliminated various projects that languished in obscurity for a while before being "discovered" and suddenly getting the votes they need, or at least a lot more in a short time. We already have a time limit now for accruing the necessary supporters - a triple limit, actually, since there are three deadlines to hit. I really don't think we need monthly quotas (or weekly, daily, hourly, etc.) on top of that. Shayd specifically indicated that project is an experiment to see how such projects perform. (S)he isn't saying that it should be rewarded; they're trying to determine how rewarded it will be under those conditions. "Sorry, that page doesn’t exist!" What was originally there?

We're also getting a Level Pack and two Fun Packs for LEGO Dimensions.

Shayd's project isn't up yet (this is you, right?). It should show up soon, though.

I think all nine are fine projects (in fact, I supported every one of them), but the three that move me most are the HMS Beagle, the Apollo - Saturn V, and the Yellow Submarine (which is actually something I'd wanted to submit myself for a long time, but never got around to it).

Possibly, but it's also possible the fact it's an active license means it's less likely to pass, since there's already an agreement in place that prescribes what can be made and, perhaps, how it can come about. We don't know for sure, but conceivably the terms of the agreement might prevent LEGO from releasing a set based on a concept by an outside third party. It's worth noting there have been several Ideas projects based on existing licensed themes - both inactive and active, including a few projects based on themes that started with earlier Ideas projects that did get approved, like Ghostbusters and Back to the Future - and so far, not one such project based on an existing theme has ever been approved. That doesn't mean it's flat-out impossible, either - most if not all of those previous projects had other, obvious strikes against them (such as being too large), and I myself actually intend to submit some Star Wars projects of my own. I just know I should keep my expectations in check.

I'm actually quite happy with most of the printing and other aspects of the existing minifigures, with a handful of exceptions. First, I'd love to see hair printing on anyone wearing a hat. With Indy himself, the wide brim of his fedora is great cover, but most other characters with hats appear to be lacking hair; either hair printing on the heads or more new combined hair / hat elements would be useful. Also, Short Round's hat could really benefit from printing (though I expect MLB's trademarks will prevent TLG from fully recreating the logo on the front). TLG really should also have given Indy clean-shaven faces in Shanghai Chase and Venice Canal Chase, as well as printing the slashes in his shirt on the back of his torso in The Temple of Doom. But still... Toy Story also had that lack of completeness, I'd say; most licensed themes do, though Harry Potter does seem to have fared better than many (and of course Star Wars has gotten the best representation of all). Indiana Jones actually got quite a fair bit - sixteen retail sets in four waves released over two years, which is more than most other licensed themes got. But yes, there are still many glaring omissions.

No worries about a stoning - clearly at least 10,000 people would like that one, after all. It's one of the ones for which I'm most hopeful, myself.

When Indy and Mutt have just arrived in Peru and are walking through the village on their way to the sanatorium, and Indy tells Mutt about having ridden with Pancho Villa. Different strokes, and all that. The show's impact is cumulative - one or two individual episodes on their own might not make much of an impression, but taken all together, the series is extraordinary, and elevates the entire franchise. The episodes also provide background and layers for the character we see in the movies. As he grows up we see him acquire the skillset, experience and personality he has as an adult, with the curious mix of idealism and mercenary qualities that define him. And of course we also see his world itself and how he comes to know it, and why he's such an expert on so many different cultures all over the globe. It's perhaps not for all tastes, and it certainly is different in tone and style from the movies, but it complements them beautifully.

But there's no good reason to make a point of contradicting the canon. The four extant films already mesh with the TV series, and the fourth explicitly references it; a new movie that contradicts the TV series might very well contradict the extant movies as well. Besides, the show is wonderful - the greatest addition to the Indy canon since the original Raiders of the Lost Ark, and easily George Lucas's best creation in at least the last thirty years. Moreover, not only does Ford still want to do a fifth movie, but Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy (who aside from running Lucasfilm, also happens to have co-produced the first four movies) wants to make the movie with Ford. And so does Steven Spielberg. (It's also widely suspected one of Ford's stipulations for returning to Star Wars as Han Solo was that he also get to do another Indiana Jones movie, though of course nobody outside Disney, Lucasfilm and Harrison himself knows for sure.)

The target market is boys, but it could be boys and girls, and appeal to more people. There's certainly no good reason to exclude Marge and Lisa.

I think that would be difficult to enforce, as well as possibly generating resentment among those creators of genuinely good licensed projects that still have trouble attracting votes as it is. I think it would be better for those of us who want original, non-licensed sets to campaign for them that much more vigorously. As long as a few good (and feasible!) non-licensed projects do make it into review batches from time to time, we should continue to get a steady stream of them as sets. As someone who likes both licensed and original projects and sets, I personally intend to submit both kinds, but I did decide a while back that my first submission (when I finally get to it) would be an original idea.

Regardless of how many fans feel about the movie, it was still hugely profitable. There's a strong chance another movie could be. As far as Disney's handling of it goes, it should be similar to their handling of Star Wars, albeit scaled down. Star Wars and Indiana Jones are both owned by Lucasfilm, which in turn is now owned by Disney. Indiana Jones has always been secondary to Star Wars in licensing and merchandising and such, but the major marketing difference between the two franchises in the pre-Disney days was that, while Lucasfilm owned both, Star Wars was distributed by 20th Century Fox, while Indiana Jones was distributed by Paramount. From here on out, Disney will now distribute all new installments of both.

I have to agree. It's particularly annoying that they don't have Marge or Lisa as playable characters when they have Krusty. The game really needs more playable female characters, and Marge and Lisa are vastly more important in that franchise than Krusty.

I really hope not, since that would conflict with the established canon, in which Indy survives into his 90s in the 1990s, with quite a few descendants, but none of them taking his ("Indy") name (though "Henry" does get passed on, of course). Granted that the TV show isn't as well-known or popular as the films, Disney might want to pare it (and all the licensed publications and whatnot) from canon, the way they pared the entire old EU away from the current official Star Wars canon. But I'd really hope not, as the show was honestly the finest addition to Indy lore since the original movie Raiders of the Lost Ark.

And yet they've still approved slightly more unlicensed projects than licensed ones, including the most recently-approved project (the maze). They've also just reiterated a desire for more original projects specifically. I think original, non-licensed projects will continue to have a bright future in the Ideas program, just so long as they get votes (the last several review batches have all been dominated by licensed projects).

Well, no one is saying you can't or shouldn't submit any licensed projects. If those are really the things that move you and that you think about, there's nothing wrong with that. People just want to ensure non-licensed creations don't get left completely out in the cold, that's all. If you have some licensed projects you want to submit... go for it! :)

I get what you're saying, but it's still harder to draw a line than that. It's one thing for us to talk sbout obvious non-starters, but they can't just make a rule that says "obvious non-starters can't be posted", since it doesn't define what an obvious non-starter is, and it's really more a question of degree than anything - sometimes the difference between a non-starter and a decent vote-getter can be a fairly subtle one of only slightly more building sophistication (or even slightly better photography, or writing, etc.). It's not only easier but also fairer for them to be as flexible as possible in what they'll allow, and let the voting process itself handle the weeding and filtering. Are we really so lazy that we can't be bothered to scroll past a few unappealing projects to get to the good stuff? Do we really need everything presorted for us so that we can just blindly click "Support" on everything? What's the point of even voting at all, if that's the case? Besides, as you yourself mention, we don't know that they don't weed out tons of stuff already. For all we know, the projects that get posted might be a small fraction of the submissions received.

Awesome news! I'm looking forward to it. I'm just bummed to hear we won't get any TRON characters; I guess that means Condorman is right out... Mulan and Pocahontas are both officially designated as Disney Princesses.

Oh, absolutely, though I dont think there's nearly as much Ghostbusters material to base stuff on as there is Star Wars, in addition to not being as popular. Ghostbusters could get what amounts to a few sets for the original two movies, and a few sets for the new one (and its sequel(s), should it get any), but not the vast wealth of sets Star Wars gets.

Not all of those have been treated as subthemes by TLG, though (getting their own logos, etc.).