Blondie-Wan

They do accept them; that's why there's a slew of projects on LEGO Ideas from already-licensed themes. I assume you mean they don't approve them, but we don't know that for sure; all we really know is that they haven't approved any yet. That doesn't absolutely prove they won't, though. It just means for whatever reason, they haven't so far. They might yet (it would probably help if the vote-getting submissions in those themes weren't principally multi-thousand piece behemoths). No - it's five copies of the set and 1% of the profits, not 5%. 1% surely wouldn't make much of a difference.

I was thinking if it were a D2C, it would presumably / obviously be a UCS-style set, and it's not that unusual to have UCS and non-UCS versions of the same thing out simultaneously. That said, it's also one example. I mean, in the LEGO world, "MF" can mean minifigure, Millennium Falcon, Microfighter, Monster Fighters... any of a number of things, really. It's possible those are the initials of a new modular building, for example.

And you know that "MF" is not, say, "Millennium Falcon", for example?

What I really want to know is what happens if you plug in two toy pads at once. I assume one just wouldn't work, but do we know for sure? It'd be awesome if it meant you could bring in up to fourteen characters / vehicles / gadgets / whatever...

You're in luck, then, since that's from the '90s.

The link works for me. Well, huh - it takes me to the 404 page if I'm logged in, but still lets me see the blog post (and my quick reply) if I'm not. What the heck?! Must be a glitch on my end...

They don't seem to do much official Ideas stuff on the weekend. If it doesn't happen today, I'd guess it'll happen Monday.

It still takes me to the 404 page.

The latest LEGO Ideas Blog post has the title "Doctor Who", followed by a one-word post: "Stuff". I think we're about to get something more... Edit: it's gone now. The link takes you to a 404 page. But it was there, I swear! It was posted by SmooresSara (Sara Moore, of the LEGO Ideas Team) - it still shows up in her Activity history! Sooooo close now...

But the weakest projects seem to be principally from people who've submitted only one or two, while many of the most accomplished ones are from prolific submitters. I suspect if implemented this policy would actually have the exact opposite effect of the one intended. Well, that assumes it's a contest with a set number of winners and such, and also that there is always a winner, like it's the Oscars or something. It's not, though. TLG is simply picking projects that it thinks it can profitably produce as sets, and do so without too much interference with its regular production capacity. A few points to consider: 1) Just because a project by X is chosen doesn't mean one can't be chosen by Y. They can, and relatively frequently do, approve multiple projects in a single review batch. It's not like there's a single award for Best Creation or something. 2) TLG is a business, and the Ideas program isn't simply about recognizing and rewarding fan accomplishments (though it is that, in part); it's a means for people outside the company to pitch ideas for things they want to see, and a means for TLG to find out what it should make for the market. If your company holds employee meetings every month to solicit ideas for things it could do to be more profitable, why should the company discard a really good idea this month in favor of a lesser one just because the same employee who had this month's great idea also had a great idea two months ago? The only difference here is that the ideas are coming from outside the company. It's not in TLG's interest to nix a terrific Ideas project just because the submitter previously had an Ideas project approved. 3. Just like disallowing projects from previous "winners" wouldn't benefit TLG, it wouldn't benefit most fans, either. The second and third and fourth projects that go up for review by creators of previous projects that got approved do so because those later projects also have their own fans. Look at The Big Bang Theory. Now, I'm not particularly a fan of the show, but looking around in Licensed it's clear many people are. If Alatariel had been allowed only one Ideas approval ever, it would have gone to her Female Minifigures (which became the Research Institute) and that would have been it. Everyone who wanted an official LEGO set for The Big Bang Theory would have been out of luck. Sure, someone else might have (and indeed, probably would have) submitted one, but would it have been as successful in getting voted and making it to review? The fact Alatariel already had a big following from her other projects undoubtedly helped. So, too, did the build; perhaps somebody else's TBBT project would have been cruder, and not as appealing (and hence not gotten as many votes). Note, too, that the approval of The Big Bang Theory didn't keep other projects didn't get approved. On the contrary, it was just one out of three projects ultimately approved from a single batch of six - fully half the projects made it. That was the one with TBBT, Birds, the Back to the Future "Jules Verne" Time train, the modular Apple Store, and two different Doctor Who projects. Of the three that weren't approved, one of them (Doctor Who) was essentially a duplicate of one of that batch's three approved projects. That leaves just the Apple Store (which was not only large but also needed a license that almost certainly wasn't happening, since Apple's current approach to managing its brand involves a distinct lack of the sort of brand merchandise it used to have back in the '90s), and the Time Train, which was both large and also a project from an existing licensed theme. I find it extremely unlikely that any of them would otherwise have been approved but werent because The Big Bang Theory was. And The Big Bang Theory is literally the only single instance so far of an approved project from someone who'd already gotten one. In other words, it's really not a problem, and doesn't require a solution.

What would limiting the number of active projects accomplish?

If they actually use the word "Minifigures" for this series, as they have done for the names of each other series of blind-bagged figures of the sorts we here refer to as "CMFs", it establishes certain parameters for what will be there. LEGO is more particular these days about what it calls a "minifigure" than what it used to; figures not made principally out of traditional minifigure elements aren't called "minifigures", even if they serve as minifigures in a set. Go and read the product descriptions on LEGO's site - you'll note neither R2-D2 nor Unikitty nor Scooby-Doo is officially referred to as s "minifigure", even if we all count them as such. By TLG's current official nomenclature standards, even classic skeletons aren't true minifigures. A "minifigure" has to have a certain number of traditional minifigure elements to be called that, and things like what we're describing for Pluto wouldn't qualify. Maggie Simpson already stretches the current definition; she probably qualifies because four of the five individual pieces of plastic that make up her torso / body are traditional minifigure parts, even though they're just part of a "part" (a factory assembly). I therefore don't see Pluto getting his own slot in a Minifigures series unless they make him bipedal, like a person wearing a Pluto costume - which is an option, of course, as is making him an accessory figure for Mickey.

Do you want to write the software that tells a computer how to recognize how large a project is, or how good it objectively is?

Separating the wheat from the chaff or the good apples from the bad is our job; it's why we vote. Asking LEGO's people to not only categorize everything but also decide what projects we should vote for, so that essentially all we do is sit back and go "eeeeeeyup, those are the ones I want to see", defeats the whole purpose. It also creates more work for them that they don't want / need. Remember, ultimately Ideas isn't just about throwing bones to fans; it's about benefitting TLG by letting some of us pitch concepts to them, while others of us sift through those concepts to help pare the deluge of ideas down to the ones worth looking at, and it's working well for that purpose. Generally speaking, unaccomplished, uninspired projects languish with a few or a couple dozen votes, while great ones make it to 10,000.

Well, obviously, but since the movie is based on the game, the sets ultimately are based on that, too, just indirectly (i.e., through the movie). Moreover, it seems inconceivable that the major action in the movie won't be based around the gameplay mechanic, and thus one would expect the LEGO sets to incorporate this as well. You take that back!

Mmm... quite possibly the first one based on a specific short, although they've had a few sets and themes based around Mickey Mouse and friends, who were introduced in, and have appeared largely in, Disney shorts.

Well, sure, if you want to suck all the fun out of it, but then why play with either LEGO or videogames in the first place? I know full well the pad can't actually tell what figure is on a base (as we all have since long before it was released), much less exactly how the bricks are positioned, but I like the idea of actually rebuilding when doing so in game. Besides, using the physical build variations can help one remember exactly which in-game build one left the figure in when the game is off. This might be particularly useful if one gets multiples of a given pack for the game, as I'm considering doing with this very pack. Agreed, but these two look farther apart from each other than most "real" Daleks do. For minifigure-scale LEGO building purposes, I think most Dalek variations are probably best handled with simple color variation. OTOH, the I think it would be great to vary the Cybermen by having some with the nice new mold seen in the LEGO Dimensions pack, and others using the clever "no new molds" version in AndrewClark2's original Ideas project (using a 1x1 plate with clip and a bucket handle atop a standard minifigure head).

How is something from nearly a century ago not historical? Beautiful build, Vaionaut!

Well, there we go. The nice thing, though, is that if the top 2x2 dish is printed, it's presumably the same print as the one in the LEGO Dimensions Dalek (CM4Sci, can you verify or deny that?), and if everything else is an ordinary, non-Dalek-specific LEGO element, it should be a trivial matter to use a few extra bits to rebuild either one into another copy of the other one, if uniformity is desired. I think I like aspects of both, personally, and I think I'd therefore mod them both into some intermediate design (assuming I'm not using the LEGO Dimensions one for the game in one of its three builds). That said, given how TLG likes to change up the look of any sort of uniform, "army builder"-type figure in order to frustrate me personally , I suspect that if Doctor Who sees some longevity as a LEGO theme, we'll eventually get new Dalek elements with either different printing, special molds, or both.

The basic story mode is supposed to be playable all the way through using just the three included Starter Pack characters, though there are lots of secrets and bonuses and awards and such that are accessible only to other characters from other packs. If you buy only the Starter Pack and no other packs ever, you may not get to play as the 40+ other characters or access the free-roam Adventure Worlds for most of the themes, but you can still experience the Doctor Who universe (and many others) in the core story mode game.

There were actually Jurassic Park sets before, as a subtheme of LEGO Studios, so that can already be considered slightly more than a one-and-done theme, albeit one with more than a dozen years between waves.

... three of which won't have releases until later. Doctor Who gets its first pack in November, Ghostbusters in January, and Midway Arcade in March.

I believe they went with the actors who've previously played those characters in LEGO videogames specifically.

Things that could actually happen: I can't really improve on EZN's suggestion here. Elves (pack details to be determined, as per Lyichir's idea, but I'd want the four central elf characters - one in a Level Pack, two in a Team and one in a Fun) The Lord of the Rings Fun Pack: Comes with Éowyn and Rohirrim horse Scooby-Doo Fun Pack: Comes with Velma Dinkley with... mine cart? Lighthouse? The Simpsons Team Pack: Comes with Marge Simpson with Marge's car, and Maggie Simpson with crib Fun Pack: Comes with Lisa Simpson with pony Complete pipe dreams: Alien Level Pack: Comes with Ellen Ripley, survey vehicle, and power loader Team Pack: Comes with Alien xenomorph and egg Buckaroo Banzai Level Pack: Comes with Buckaroo Banzai, Jet car, and badly-designed Red Lectroid Thermopod Team Pack: Comes with Lord John Whorfin with The Great Vehicle Itself, and John Bigboote with Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems van Indiana Jones Level Pack: Comes with Indiana Jones, 1934 Duesenberg Auburn convertible, and Pan Am Clipper Team Pack: Comes with Prof. Henry Jones, Sr. with horseless carriage, and Anna Jones with train Team Pack: Comes with Marion Ravenwood with Air East Asia plane, and Mutt Williams with motorcycle Team Pack: Comes with Dr. Marcus Brody with Hatay Mark VII tank, and Sallah Mohammed Faisal el-Kahir with brother-in-law's car Team Pack: Comes with Willie Scott with Ford Tri-motor plane (Lao Che Air Freight), and Short Round with Big Short Round (baby elephant) Fun Pack: Comes with Meto with Burton's Fringe-Eared Oryx Fun Pack: Comes with Remy Baudouin with train flatcar full of explosives Fun Pack: Comes with Sophia Hapgood with Atlantean relic My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Level Pack: Comes with Twilight Sparkle, Tree of Harmony, and mirror portal to other world Team Pack: Comes with Fluttershy with train, and Discord with plunderseed roots Team Pack: Comes with Rainbow Dash with Spin-o-meter, and Scootaloo with scooter Team Pack: Comes with Rarity with sewing machine and dress form, and Sweetie Belle with stage lights Team Pack: Comes with Applejack with apple cart, and Apple Bloom with Cutie Mark Crusaders Clubhouse Fun Pack: Comes with Pinkie Pie and Party cannon Fun Pack: Comes with Spike and hot air balloon Star Trek Level Pack: Comes with James T. Kirk with Enterprise (NCC-1701) and flivver Team Pack: Comes with Spock with sehlat, and "Bones" McCoy with Sickbay bed Team Pack: Comes with Jean-Luc Picard with Enterprise (NCC-1701-D), and Will Riker with card table Star Wars Level Pack: Comes with Luke Skywalker, landspeeder, and T-16 Skyhopper Team Pack: Comes with Han Solo with Millennium Falcon, and Chewbacca with AT-ST Team Pack: Comes with R2-D2 with escape pod, and C-3PO with Ewok sedan / throne Fun Pack: Comes with Princess Leia Organa with Blockade Runner Tantive IV Fun Pack: Comes with Lando Calrissian with dejarik / sabaac table Fun Pack: Comes with Wedge Antilles with X-Wing Fighter Fun Pack: Comes with Wicket with Ewok catapult Fun Pack: Comes with Darth Vader with Vader's TIE Fighter (TIE Advanced) Fun Pack: Comes with Boba Fett with Slave I

I think it's still in production. They do keep popular sets around awhile sometimes, after all. Note that they apparently had their final production of the 10188 Death Star only just this year (it was on back order for a while earlier this year), and that set came out back in 2008.