Blondie-Wan

Yep. Their usage of the word "minifigure" seems to have varied a bit over the years, and indeed other companies and people use it all sorts of ways, but currently, LEGO itself has a pretty strict definition of what it officially refers to as a "minifigure". They apply it only to LEGO figures that are made with a certain number of traditional minifigure elements. Other figures, even if they're about the same size and scale and are meant to be used in conjunction with minifigures, aren't. For example, R2-D2 isn't considered a minifigure, while C-3PO is. If you look at the initial press releases for LEGO Dimensions, they talk about Fun Packs, Team Packs and Level Packs for franchises like Back to the Future, Ninjago and The Lord of the Rings featuring "minifigures" from those franchises, but within the same sentence referring to the ones for The LEGO Movie just as "characters"; that's thanks to Unikitty. Note also how the official description of the new Ghostbusters Firehouse Headquarters refers to it having nine minifigures (Peter, Ray, Egon, Winston, Dana, Louis, Janine, the library ghost, and zombie driver), plus Slimer, a pink ghost and a blue ghost. Even something like the classic LEGO skeleton isn't technically considered a "minifigure", even though it represents a skeletal version of a minifigure character, since it has too few traditional minifigure elements to qualify (just the skull, which is the same actual part mold as a regular minifigure head). We, of course, are free to do otherwise if we so choose, and I like to consider R2-D2 (and other astromech droids), battle droids, skeletons, Unikitty, Daleks, Slimer, rock monsters, etc. to all be minifigures. They just aren't counted as such in official LEGO set descriptions.

The Adventure Time project is in the batch after the one we're waiting on results for, so it'll be a few more months before we know about that one. I do hope it gets approved, though.

Really? Yes, Ghostbusters is still hugely popular.

It's undoubtedly for just this sort of scenario that they specifically note in the terms for Ideas that it's possible they might have sets in development that are similar to Ideas projects, especially for licensed themes. For all those who might suggest they "ripped off" an Ideaz user, I'd guess they'd simply point to those statements in reply. Honestly, I think it's perfectly reasonable, though I suspect not everyone will agree. Oh, well... Stickers actually aren't completely unknown in CUUSOO / Ideas sets; they're simply not the norm. There are in fact three CUUSOO / Ideas sets that use stickers - Shinkai 6500, Hayabusa, and The Big Bang Theory. While it's true they've nearly abandoned stickers since those first two sets and The Big Bang Theory apparently used them only for parts they seldom if ever print on (and thus may not be set up to print on), keep in mind this is a 4634-piece set for $349.99 USD. That's a big price, but an even bigger piece count, and frankly the price-per-piece is on the low side, almost surprisingly so. Going with stickers might have been deemed a necessary cost-cutting measure in order to allow the set to come in at the desired size without going into a price range unprecedented for any sets other than the largest Star Wars ones.

Right after I voted it showed just one vote for each of those two characters. Huh.

I don't understand why more purported fans don't just want all the Doctors and companions, according to these polls. I can't believe I'm the first to vote for two of Ten's companions.

It's also quite character-specific, though. They wouldn't reuse it for a (non-Lucasfilm) Disney character.

This thread requires pictures! :)

Sorry. I started replying but didn't post until others including yourself already had. Apologies!

I'm in awe. The stickers are a disappointment, I have to admit, but with 4600+ pieces for "only" $350, having all deco'd parts printed as well was surely just a bit much to expect. It looks great, and man, it's huge. 37 bricks and a baseplate tall x 32 studs wide x 48 studs deep is half the size of a modular? What 64 x 48 modulates are you thinking of - the Miniland buildings in LEGOLAND parks? This thing is huge. It has a BIGGER footprint than a modular. I don't think you understand just how huge this thing is. It is the same width as a modular and one and a half times the depth.

Wow, so much negativity here. I think it looks great, myself. But I, too, am antsy to see the interior.

I know; that's why I specified "national storefronts" rather than just "S@H" alone - to indicate it was just in particular countries / regions. It's still pretty bizarre, to me.

That's nuts! A whole new theme that officially launched in August, gone from S@H national storefronts by late October?! I wonder if it's a casualty of that LEGO shortage we've been hearing about this year.

Not just Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, and Sigourney Weaver, but Annie Potts as well - all the surviving core cast members except Rick Moranis, who retired from screen acting many years ago. I've been wondering whether there might be any sets based on the new movie(s). Come to think of it, there could conceivably be a promo polybag or two based on that - like, buy the classic original Firehouse HQ, and get a free member or two of the new team. Hey, you never know...

If there were one, I think Walter Peck would be the most obvious candidate for a new character. My next choice would be a different version of one of the other characters already present, like Dana Barrett in a different outfit from whatever she's in in the big set (so that we'd have Dana as Dana and Dana as the Gatekeeper), for example.

Hey, how many copies of this set are still there?

From what you describe, what I see in photos of other copies of the set online, and what I see in other "silvery-gray" parts of that sort (Aanchir can identify the proper color, if he finds his way into the thread; perhaps we can message him), it seems to me to be an intrinsic, expected thing with that particular color, with no way to avoid it other than molding bricks in a different color entirely, and not something most would consider a true flaw. But if you think it is one, you can always try TLG's customer service - I'd recommend doing that first before posting here, actually. I'm not sure that it's actually a true quality issue, though, for that particular color. But again, Aanchir can surely provide better guidance than I. I'll go ahead and message him...

Hey, it would still beat Star Trek (2009) and Star Trek Into Darkness. And at least the actual sets would surely be cool. Perhaps someday... Anyway, to bring this back around to LEGO Ideas, there was also this project that somehow slipped through onto the site a while back. It's actually a pretty nice model, though I can't see TLG kicking off a Star Trek theme with a detailed life-sized hand weapon replica, even for a fantasy / sci-fi weapon (hmm - might this be why that lightsabers project a while back didn't pass review?). Of course, this one also fell woefully short of the vote count anyway.

I do know that all the Doctor's incarnations have been represented in action figures in recent years, so I can't help but think LEGO versions are at least options, though of course there's no guarantee they'll happen.

What store is this, and in what country?

It's possible, but as long as the set remains in production, it's also possible (likely) that increased sales will mean they make more of them. It's not limited in the sense of them making a specific, set amount that they determine at the outset. If they see that there's a sufficiently strong demand, it's likely they'll throttle production up a bit. This is probably truest at the beginning of a set's availability, though.

Just stopping in here to note that I'm really glad we finally have a dedicated forum for this material. Thanks, Peppermint!

I don't think it was just popularity; I think there really weren't many copies available here. Certainly the fact it wasn't even offered in stores here at all but was over there does indicate they handled the release differently across the pond. I would dearly, dearly love for official LEGO Star Trek to happen, but unfortunately Mattel (Mega Bloks) recently acquired the construction toy license recently held by Hasbro (KRE-O), and will soon release Mega Bloks Trek sets. LEGO Star Trek won't happen for a while. It has also occasionally been speculated or alleged by some fans that the terms of LEGO's Star Wars license preclude them from producing sets based on Star Trek, though I've never seen any real evidence of this and am personally doubtful. But you never know...

I'm aware; the greater disappointment was the lack of arm printing, as the "no ghosts" emblem shoulder patch is the single most important, iconic and recognizable aspect of the uniforms. I think the issue is that while an Ideas set theoretically could have used arm printing, TLG apparently has a much more limited capacity for arm printing than for printing on heads, torsos, etc., as it's a more recent innovation and not all their plants are set up for it, and all their production lines that do minifigure arm printing were solidly booked for other themes. But at least it's happening now.

I do count the Dimensions sets, since they're still LEGO sets with LEGO parts, after all (in my five Homers and five Barts example earlier, one apiece of each of those two characters comes from the Dimensions packs). With the LEGO Dimensions packs, Ghostbusters will have a total of (at least) five products and honestly I don't think the duplication will be too bad. Someone who gets one of each will have three Peter Venkmans (apparently all unique), plus two of each other Ghostbuster as well as of Slimer. It sounds as though the Venkman in this big set will be a "slimed" version, which will at least give one a reason to have both it and one of the others. It's just too bad the Ectomobile didn't have arm printing on the team, or the better hairpiece options that will come with the later Venkman and perhaps Zeddemore minifigures. But it does offer an opportunity for improvement, which might make it easier for some to pay for a new set that comes with the same four characters (plus a bunch of new ones). I actually like having extras of specific characters, for possible convenience for brickfilm purposes, as well as "multi-scene" MOCs and such that might show specific characters in multiple scenes at the same time (like how the official 10188 Death Star set has two Hans and three Lukes). I've actually wanted for a long time to make a huge Indiana Jones display combining lots of scenes at once. Um, well... See the above! I feel kind of bad, since I know not everyone got all the Indy sets and I have so many, but I actually do want to keep all of mine. But that said, I might be able to help out anyway, if you're truly interested in having an Indy minifigure without paying aftermarket prices. I think I might still be able to pick up the second magnet set at MSRP - I just got a copy a few months ago, all these years after the theme went on its indefinite hiatus, and I think there are still a few left, if you'd like me to look.