Blondie-Wan

Indeed, and the proton packs are also a dozen pieces each (13, actually, counting the brackets that hold them on the minifigures' neck posts). The four team members, their carried gear, a and the display base total 106 pieces. That's just over a fifth of the parts in the set (and all stuff we do expect this new set to essentially duplicate - I don't see them leaving out a team member, or enough proton packs to go around for all four of them). The extant Ectomobile uses 402 pieces for the car itself. They could easily use the exact same build, or very close to it, plus four proton packs, and all the same characters plus three to five more (Janine, Dana, Louis, Slimer, and perhaps Walter Peck) and still have well over 4000 pieces, which should certainly suffice to build an impressive station. Heck, the 10188 Death Star has "only" 3803 pieces, and some of those go toward a couple dozen figures and a chibi-style TIE. That's also true, and even more so if we don't limit it to sets released at almost the same time. Imperial Inspection used the same Imperial Shuttle build, save for perhaps one small part near the back, as the first Imperial Shuttle set, even while adding a bunch of stuff. The 6502 and 6212 versions of the X-Wing fighter use almost the exact same build for the ship itself, just with different other stuff. Ultimate Space Battle uses the same builds as the contemporaneous Jedi Starfighter and Droid Tri-fighter sets. Outside Star Wars, the Double-Decker Couch set from The LEGO Movie includes both the same double-decker couch from MetalBeard's Sea Cow and a version of Emmet's car very similar to the free one from the TRU promotional build event, which in turn was just a very slightly reworked version of the LEGO City set Small Car from a few years ago.

"Last minute" would be revealing it by putting it on sale. If they reveal it even a couple weeks earlier, it wouldn't be last minute.

If this line is doing as well as it appears to be doing, I suspect LEGO will keep it going, even if they don't have anything planned for next year. They can always skip a year of new releases, just keeping the first wave around as long as it sells well and releasing another wave in 2017. They used to do it with SpongeBob Squarepants all the time. As long as the line sells well, there's continued media support, and they have access to the license, it should go on for a while.

I don't know that I'll be able to get this at all (I don't yet even have any of the systems that will run it), but I do hope to get it, and assuming I don't just get everything released for it, I specifically want: - all Level Packs - all packs with female characters - all packs for Back to the Future, Doctor Who, Ghostbusters, The LEGO Movie, and The Lord of the Rings - and at least one pack from each theme / franchise not already covered by one of the above. With the currently-known packs, that would give me 30 of the 44 known playable characters. Damn, I'm just going to need more money any way I slice it (which I already do for all other LEGO anyway...).

Pfft, there's a heck of a lot more precedence than that. Look at Star Wars. Look at all the versions they've done of the Millennium Falcon. Or the Slave I. Or Vader's TIE. Or regular TIEs, X-Wing fighters, Y-Wing fighters, A-Wing fighters, B-Wing fighters, Snowspeeders, AT-ATs, AT-STs, Naboo fighters, Republic Gunships, you name it. They've done Luke's landspeeder four times in minifigure scale - twice on its own, twice as part of a larger building / location set (the Mos Eisley Cantina), and they've done that even more times with the snowspeeder. It happens all the time. Including an Ectomobile with the Ghostbusters headquarters wouldn't be any different.

Agreed, though at least two of the LEGO themes that are there appear to be well-represented. Out of all fourteen known themes, Ninjago has the second-largest number of known playable characters (seven), while The LEGO Movie has the third-largest (five), including one in the Starter Pack. It seems weird that Legends of Chima has only three, though. I do hope we'll get Elves and Bionicle in this eventually, among others.

I don't think it has anything to do with them treating fans badly. I think they just don't release details until they're ready to do so. With WALL•E, for example, if they'd released the details earlier, then surely everyone would wonder what was taking so long to get it out in stores if it was done... but just because the design is finalized doesn't mean the factories had had enough time to produce however many thousands of them were needed. With the Doctor Who set, it's possible the design was finalized only fairly recently, and the packaging and instructions only after that, and they're still ramping up production to accommodate the anticipated demand. Would you prefer if they'd revealed the design a few weeks ago, but then still not actually released the set in stores until a couple months after that? At least thanks to LEGO Dimensions, we have at least gotten to see some official imagery pertaining to this theme, and we know what the initial minifigures for the 12th Doctor and a Cyberman will look like, including special new molds for the sonic screwdriver, a Cyberman head, etc. I want to see the set, too, but I seriously doubt LEGO is dragging out the wait for no other reason than to be jerks. They'll show it when they're ready to do so.

Oh, yes. There are various sightings from as far back as a few weeks ago reported earlier in this very thread. A few stores here and there have accidentally put it out early, though it's not supposed to be sold yet (and I believe most stores' computer systems prevent and LEGO Dimensions stuff from being sold yet even if it's out on the shelves).

Okay, but then they'd be betraying everyone who voted for AndrewClark2's project, for which an interior was an important specific aspect of the concept. Remember, with Ideas sets they can (and do) change the specific builds, but they try to retain the core concept. Eliminating the interior would make it fundamentally different from what people voted for.

Star Wars made it into The LEGO Movie only because they started talking to Lucasfilm about it early, before Disney bought Lucasfilm. Once the filmmakers got word of the acquisition, they scrambled to make sure they got the agreement with Lucasfilm in place before Disney's acquisition was finalized, so that Disney wouldn't be able to say no. It's widely thought that Disney wouldn't have permitted it if the filmmakers asked only after the acquisition. This is a concern of mine, as well. I'd like to see more of LEGO's homegrown themes make it in (especially ones based around other figure types, such as Bionicle or Elves). That would make the game feel more authentically "LEGO-y" to me. I do like or love all the licensed themes that are there, but I do think the game would benefit from more LEGO-original themes, both "classic" and new.

If by "ended" you mean "had its last set introduced and was immediately dead as soon as it hit shelves", then yeah, but it makes more sense to me to consider it "dead" no earlier than when they've completely ceased production. The sets released in mid-2013 surely had some of their later runs rolling out of factories after that (and of course, further time passed between the final production run of a The Lord of the Rings set and the day the Tower of Orthanc finally sold out from LEGO itself). Also, you originally did not use the word "ended" or "died", but "gone", which to me even more strongly implied not just that no new sets were being introduced, not even that production had ended on all existing sets, but that the theme was generally sold out (at least from LEGO itself, if not every retailer). I mean, by your terms, the 10188 Death Star was "gone" in 2009, since it was released in 2008, even though it was finally discontinued only this year. Moreover, even if we do use your criteria for saying when the theme is "gone", June of 2013 is still not three years ago, as it is presently September 2015, two years after June 2013 (or two years and three months if you want to get really picky). Three years ago, in September of 2012, the entire first wave of The Lord of the Rings sets was still widely available, with a then-forthcoming second wave still nine months away, which to me is a pretty bizarre state to consider "gone".

I agree. Possibly also e (i.e., some other reason we don't know about), but certainly c. It only started three years ago, and hasn't been gone more than one or so (and not even that much, if we count a certain game). But I do agree those projects are extremely unlikely to pass (which doesn't keep me from voting for them - helping demonstrate continued interest may well help some other, less ambitious project in the thrme get through sometime).

Indeed, the Midway Arcade Level Pack specifically refers to "over 20" classic arcade games, and the Portal Level Pack draws upon one or two more. I don't think there's anyghing strange about adding a videogame / videogame character to this when there are already dozens or so of both in it. As far as odd choices go, well, the game is full of odd (but awesome!) choices already. At this point, it looks to me like they're just going after seemingly every franchise that a) enjoys a decent measure of popularity, b) doesn't conflict with some other rightsholder's rights (for either toys-to-life games or construction toys), and c) fits the LEGO brand.

What about us brain-dead slobs?

Oh? Hm. Space (as in Classic)? Stargate? Something else?

Actually, the one that showed the building is the one that got accepted; the building was included to illustrate the project more fully, but wasn't part of the core proposal. There was a separate, later project of just the building that made it to review, but didn't get approved.

Okay, let's see... GB = Ghostbusters? We know this franchise is in, anyway... HP = Harry Potter? It seems like a no-brainer, even if it's not currently running. It's been a huge success for WB and LEGO, and the forthcoming Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is connected to it, after all. It's one of the themes we were speculating about being included right from the beginning. S = more Scooby-Doo! or The Simpsons, perhaps? One initial isn't much to go on, especially when it's such a commonly used one. AT = The A-Team? Or perhaps Adventure Time? Both seem to fall within LEGO Dimensions patterns - so many of the franchises are either from the '80s, as The A-Team is, or have had projects that made it at least as far as entering the LEGO Review on LEGO CUUSOO / Ideas, as Adventure Time has done. I was initially discounting the latter, but it seems to apply to so many... MI = Mission: Impossible? Mr T = Well... huh. If this is that Mr. T, I'd expect it to be part of The A-Team or something, but... well, Mr. T did have his own series back in the day, in which he himself was actually a character, rather than just playing one. But I just can't quite believe it's that... KR = Knight Rider? FB = Fantasic Beasts and Where to Find Them, I'm guessing. It just seems too good a candidate, what with it being a new spinoff of a beloved franchise that's already done very well for both WB and LEGO. TTG = Teen Titans Go!, perhaps? GR ... Hmm. I wouldn't think this one is something LEGO would do because of some of the content and tone, but given the way they seem to be particularly leaning sci-fi / fantasy offerings from the '80s for this game, as well as relaxing their content standards just a bit, could this possibly be... Gremlins?! ET = E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial?! It almost feels as though LEGO Dimensions will be kind of a precursor to Ready Player One - which Warner is making a movie of, as it happens... Ah, but all of these suggestions pertain to licensed entertainment franchises. What about some more homegrown LEGO themes? Surely the Ninjago, Legends of Chima, and The LEGO Movie stuff won't be all...

They did it with that Avengers heli-thingy. Probably has something about Lego having the right to adopt the idea into a set outside of the Ideas line in their TaC. But who reads those? ;-) Moreover, if it's really this large, it's likely they started work on it a long time ago, quite possibly before the Ideas project entered review. The Ideas guidelines and TOS do note the possibility of an Ideas project reflecting something already in the works, as well as noting that projects based on existing licenses being less likely to pass review (partly for this very reason). that project creator may well be the victim of unfortunate timing, just like the creator of the Western Town project.

Probably (and I know their approach to the market has changed a lot in the last decade), but FWIW, at the time they had the rights to construction toys based on the Spider-Man movies of the early 2000s, Mega Bloks simultaneously had the rights to the Spider-Man comics. The two offered their own Spider-Man building sets at the same time, just based on different iterations of the character / franchise. While LEGO is a fairly cautious, conservative (not politically, but in approach to risk) company these days, it's also the undisputed market leader in its product segment, and the very brand has so much more cachet than Mega Brands and the rest it's not even funny. I think if they actually did do a theme based on a part of a licensed theme that one of their competitors was also tackling a different aspect of, I think a large number of consumers would go for the LEGO version over the other one simply because it's LEGO, and more desirable (certainly to everyone here, anyway, but also to quite a few "outsiders"). I can't help but think TLG has some awareness of its brand's standing, but you never really know...

Ah, so you did, thanks; my mistake.

The obvious reason would be to have all four team members, of course - two of the remaining three in a Team Pack, and one in a Fun Pack. I've suggested this multiple times already, actually. Alternately, we could get packs based on the new movie. That said, some of these sets of initials are obviously suggestive and tantalizing, but I'm not ready to confidently declare what all of them are, just yet. There's still plenty of room for guesses and conjecture.

We still don't know what (if anything) 71208, 71224, 71225, and 71226 will be. I really doubt it; I'm sure these are just further add-ons for the original game. Everything we've been told indicates the original base game Starter Pack is all we'd need to be able to use any add-on for years to come, and that we shouldn't have to buy a new Starter Pack each year or so.

Most interesting! I personally hope "AT" is Adventure Time rather than The A-Team, but either is possible, and it could just as easily be neither of those but something else still. "Connectable"? What the heck? I'm guessing it's some new Pack type (like Starter, Level. Team, and Fun), but who knows.

It's not a matter of treating the fans poorly. It's a matter of presenting it when it's ready. They were surely still working on the design for much of the time we first began to expect the reveal "any time now". Remember, they also still had two other Ideas sets to finish up and release when they first announced this one.

Looking back over the last several years, it seems they've been experimenting with licensed D2C sets and seeing how big they can go with them. Of course there have been Star Wars UCS sets since the early 2000s, but Star Wars has always been a special case, and they haven't really known for most of that time whether they could do a set from some other licensed theme and have it sell. Since around 2010, though, we've had things like Diagon Alley, Arkham Asylum, the UCS Tumbler, the Simpsons' house, the Kwik-E-Mart, the Tower of Orthanc, and the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier (not in exactly that order, I know, but anyway), and the high end they're willing to reach has continued to go up (which makes sense, as the largest of the mass-market sets are approaching the sizes and prices the D2C specials started out at, years ago).