Blondie-Wan

If they did ever offer a Mike figure, I think they could reuse Slimer's arms for him. I don't expect to see him in this series, though. I think he wouldn't use enough traditional minifigure elements for TLG to want to call him a "minifigure".

A few minutes of internet research show K'Nex acquired the Beatles / Yellow Submarine rights in May 2012, and apparently released the products later that year; they seem to no longer be actively producing them, though, although some stock remains in retail channels as reported by MAB. If they're no longer making them, I think there's a good chance they no longer have the rights. K'Nex's site still lists their Angry Birds products but not their Yellow Submarine ones, and we know TLG has scooped up the former. If they still feature a property to which their rights have expired or are about to, it suggests to me that they stopped making Yellow Submarine stuff a little less recently, which would bode well for the possibility of LEGO doing it... though that's assuming Angry Birds is treated as a single property, and not split into separate rights for the original videogames and the upcoming movie, which is a possibility. Note that at the same time TLG was making Spider-Man sets based on the first couple Raimi / Maguire movies from 2002-2004, Mega Bloks was making their own Spider-Man sets based on the comics. Either way, though, it appears from their website K'Nex is no longer making Yellow Submarine stuff, which seems borne out by MAB's report of the remaining stock being on clearance, so as someone who'd like to see an official LEGO take on it, I'm cautiously optimistic.

Unless it's determined prior to the review that another company does still have the rights, I don't think there are grounds for kicking it out (archiving the project). They can always simply decline it in the review, of course. Alternately, if they actually approve it and produce it, you can simply not buy it. No one will make you have it if you don't want it.

Indeed. For that matter, they could approve the Yellow Submarine and still approve one or more other projects at the same time - they've already had at least two different reviews in which they approved multiple projects at once. What are some of your projects, The Steward?

You're aware that movie is pretty darn popular... right? I mean, it's not like they're doing a set based on Sheena, Queen of the Jungle. This is Ghostbusters - I reiterate, GHOSTBUSTERS. It still plays in theaters from time to time - I saw it with a huge audience just earlier this year, and it still got a great reaction. And that was a theater-specific screening; it also had general rereleases in both 2011 and 2014. It's the top-grossing comedy of its entire decade, and when adjusted for inflation it still ranks in the top 40 box office grossing movies in history. It was nominated for multiple Oscars and Golden Globes, and it consistently is included on lists of greatest movie comedies ever, frequently in high rankings. There are still legions of fans; I frequently see huge numbers of Ghostbuster cosplayers at DragonCon each year. The fact that the movie is over 30 years old is as irrelevant to this set's commercial prospects as the number of folds in the napkin closest to you. Star Wars is seven years older than Ghostbusters; by your criteria, that would make it automatically a colossal disaster, and clearly it's been draining LEGO all these years and bringing it close to bankruptcy. Do you think that's the case? If the set fails it'll be simply because it's so super-expensive; there are plenty of people who'll want it but just can't afford it. But I unconditionally guarantee you there are plenty of Ghostbusters fans. As for "not so detailed", I wonder what your basis for comparison is. I have a hard time thinking of any LEGO set ever released that's more detailed than this one. It's lavish with detail.

It's a nice build (not that it matters too much, since Ideas projects are just concept proposals and will get redesigned if approved anyway) of a nifty, fanciful craft, that would make a fine set even without minifigures of the group.

I didn't say it definitely would be declined for that reason, I was just trying to identify a reason why it might be, and that's the biggest potential pitfall I can see for that project. A while ago it would have been that another company was already making Yellow Submarine construction toys, believe it or not, but I think they might be done with them, and that the rights may be free again. Not sure, though - so that could also be an obstacle. But I do think it might have the best chance of the four projects so far that have achieved their support this period and are awaiting review (and for which we'll get the decisions announced sometime next spring).

I doubt they'll go to $5 just yet. They only just reached $3.99; they'll stick with it a while.

The traffic light is there at the real / reel building, and it's a feature on the sidewalk next to it. As long as they have the sidewalk on the side of the building, it makes sense to include it, though I can see leaving it out.

Oh, I agree, but it doesn't stop people from making that connection anyway. I similarly am confident TLG's Ghostbusters HQ set was not simply ripped off from the Ideas project, but that idea persists in others anyway.

Try looking at it next to an actual 1000-piece set and then get back to us. ;)

I mostly agree with this, though "even less well known than the Corvette was" implies the Corvette itself isn't well-known, which surely isn't the case - it must be one of the most well-known cars ever. We don't know why it was declined, but any number of other issues seem more likely. Perhaps it was licensing snags, as TLG is already licensing Chevrolet brands for the Speed Champions line, or perhaps Chevy and TLG couldn't come to terms on this project, or perhaps they actually are in fact already developing one (in which case all the folks who already suspect TLG of ripping off Ideas creators with the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier and Ghostbusters HQ are probably going to have a conniption fit, so for TLG's sake I hope it's not that). But I do agree with you that Caterham Super 7 isn't nearly so well-known... although I'm not sure that would have mattered to all buyers. I know I'd never heard of it before, but I found it a really nice-looking car project, and I'd consider getting it as a set even though I'm not a "car guy". I just liked the look of it a lot. Adventure Time does actually have a fair bit of merchandise, though, including toys. And the loose simplicity of the art style on the show lends itself fairly well to this sort of approach (the project figures are immediately recognizable to someone familiar with the show), so I do think the rightsholders would be happy with the likenesses. I think the biggest obstacles here would be either if the extant toy licenses cover construction toys (it doesn't have any already that I know about, but that doesn't mean the rights aren't spoken for), or that TLG might decide the darker themes underlying the fun and wacky surface aren't really a good brand fit, what with the show taking place in what's really a post-apocalyptic future and some of the characters having pretty sad / dark back stories and all. OTOH, I never would have thought they'd do The Big Bang Theory or The Simpsons, so obviously I'm not the best judge of such things, and I do think Adventure Time is ultimately pretty kid-friendly even with the subtext and all - more so than either The Simpsons or, especially, The Big Bang Theory. Size and licensing are one thing (er, two things), but I don't know about the "target audience" idea. Do you mean traditional LEGO buyers / fans? Part of the whole reason for being of LEGO Ideas is to expand their target audience. The Yellow Submarine would target Beatles fans, moreso than just LEGO ones - and there are surely plenty of them who would love to build an official LEGO Yellow Submarine. I think the biggest obstacles to these, besides your aforementioned size and licensing concerns, might be the Beatles' association with drug use (though at least it's not an explicit part of the project, and it can be taken as simply a fanciful adventure about the Beatles on a Yellow Submarine), and that 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea probably doesn't have a huge, devoted contemporary following / fandom per se... though it surely does still have plenty of fans and admirers, and the Nautilus also would have potential to sell well sheerly by virtue of being a particularly gorgeous, beautiful set.

Indeed, I do think it's a strong possibility, as most of this batch's projects strike me as highly unlikely, even though I voted for most of them. The F7A, Adventure Time figures, and The Little Prince project seem to me the likeliest candidates, but all three are licenses, which of course can complicate things any number of ways.

No, there are enough visual differences between most of those characters that Disney would surely insist on character-specific molds for them, with the likely exceptions of Huey, Dewey and Louie, assuming they get made. Note how similar but not identical Lisa Simpson and Maggie Simpson look to one another, and how those differences were enough for TLG to use a separate, character-specific mold for each one's head. Marvel's Howard the Duck has varied widely in appearance over the years, but never really looked exactly like Donald (though many years ago, before Disney owned Marvel, they once sued Marvel over Howard and forced them to make him look even less like Donald - that was when and why he started wearing pants, though he hadn't originally). Fun fact, since it's relevant to this last sentence of yours (albeit not to Disney minifigures): all of Howard's feature film appearances (all both of them ) have come out on the same day. Howard the Duck was released August 1, 1986, and the Howard-cameo-featuring Guardians of the Galaxy was released 28 years to the day later, on August 1, 2014.

My Peeron inventory says I have 1033 sets, 575 of which are unique (i.e., the other 458 are duplicates). That does include things like individual Minifigures minifigures ("CMFs"), but it also does not include a slew of other, larger sets I've gotten in recent years; I haven't updated it in a while (since Peeron itself seems not to be updated as often as one might like). I'd guess I have perhaps 1500 or 1600 sets, though that does include things like "CMFs", polybags, and other small stuff. But I also have a few larger sets I've gotten recently like the Ewok Village that I haven't bothered to add to my Peeron set list. Peeron also says my total part count is 139,490; based on what I've gotten but not added to that list, I'd guess I have somewhere between 150,000 and 175,000 pieces. Edit: just removed a single copy of one small set from my Peeron list, so those numbers should be a wee bit smaller now. OTOH, they should be much larger anyway with all the stuff I've gotten the last few years that in some cases isn't even listed there yet.

It looks wonderful. I'm amazed they were able to bring us such a huge set for "only" $349.99 USD - still very expensive, of course, but certainly worth it. The lack of tiles is understandable; it's already a 4634-piece monster, for "only" $349.99. Adding enough tiles to fully cover all the flooding would surely force them to bump up the cost. The stickers are a bigger disappointment, but I think it probably can't be helped given this build at this price. Is that firepole a new piece? I don't remember ever seeing it before. Nice to see so many nods to both movies here! It would have been perfectly fine if it had represented just the original, but including things like the toaster on the pool table is really going the extra mile to make it more comprehensive.

I don't know that it would be, but it would certainly be a huge disappointment to many people, at the very least, especially right on the heels of a prior zero-approval review. I think it's a good thing that F7A Hornet project is still under consideration, as it might be a stronger candidate than many of the other projects now under review.

Ah, right. I'd forgotten about those. Thanks!

The fact that they haven't done so ought to indicate that there are circumstances in which such projects might be approved.

"DFB"?

Well, yeah, they say that outright - they can develop a theme that springs up from a single Ideas set. That's what they did with Minecraft, and there's nothing wrong with that. But I gather you're talking about more than that, and about things like the Avengers S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier and the Ghostbusters Firehouse Headquarters. But both of those sets were obvious candidates for large sets, based on franchises to which LEGO already had the rights, and they surely had both sets in development before the Ideas projects entered review, and quite possibly before they were even posted. Is LEGO just supposed to give a royalty and five free copies of a set to every fan who proposes the same obvious idea that they're working on already anyway?

I actually don't think that looks that bad, honestly, and it makes me think that in minifigures the approach would look even better.

That sounds like a strong possibility to me, as well as one that might work well. ___________ If this series features any characters already seen in the Disney Princess line, it can of course reuse the hair molds.

I haven't seen many Feig films, but Freaks & Geeks is wonderful. Also, people who think Melissa McCarthy can do only one type of comedy have apparently never seen Gilmore Girls. I'm hopeful and optimistic for this movie. Really cool to see confirmation of at least one more set, and the timing does strongly suggest it'll be for the new movie rather than the old ones. It seems LEGO's Ghostbusters will be like their Marvel, DC, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in that it'll represent different continuities / universes within the overall franchise. I'm guessing it's a bit much to expect a set based on The Real Ghostbusters, of course, but it seems at least not absolutely, completely out of the question...

"Highly unlikely"? Maybe in terms of a whole "wave", but between the extant Ideas set, the D2C and the three LEGO Dimensions packs, we are getting five sets that we know about, which between them arguably already cover the two movies roughly as well as the earlier movies in those other franchises (if not more so, in fact - just the stuff that we already know about totals $460 worth of sets for the Ghostbusters theme so far). I think it's kind of amazing how much stuff we are getting, actually. There aren't as many significant "gaps" in what they have for Ghostbusters as there are for some of those others, I think. (But that said, I'd welcome more, too!)