Blondie-Wan

Wow, Captain, that is a most impressive collection. Congratulations!

It makes sense to me to have minidolls, since they're already doing minidoll Disney characters in the Disney Princess line, and this would offer something to go with them, while still allowing the DP sets to remain princess-focused and conflict-free, as Disney apparently wants to keep them. I'd also begun to wonder whether LEGO might begin offering blind-bagged minidolls anyway; it seems a reasonable step to take, given the increasing importance of minidoll themes alongside the minifigure ones. Is this (a blind-bagged Disney figure line, whether minifigures or minidolls) definitely happening? Has there been anything other than that suspiciously-dated initial report to go on?

Haha! I'm glad to see they haven't abandoned the "chain of delivery" videos focusing on different franchises, as I'd feared they had. I hope we get a Doctor Who one. A Ghostbusters one would be awesome, but given that Peter Venkman will apparently be voiced not by Bill Murray but by Frank Welker, I'm guessing it won't happen. Ah, well. Nice to see our first glimpse of Midway material! I really want to play LEGO-y Joust, Defender and Robotron 2084 in this.

Ah, nice point. I do have the rock band set and the Halloween / Monster Fighters set, plus the birthday, wedding, graduation, Halloween and Christmas cake / table topper sets (not all of which include variations on the 'CMFs', of course), plus the brick calendar with the skater and cheerleader minifigures from S1.

I strongly suspect it'll turn into a full theme, yes (and indeed, we can already say it definitely will be if we count the LEGO Dimensions sets). I don't know how large or long-lived a theme it might be, but I do think it'll get additional sets beyond the one LEGO Ideas set and two LEGO Dimensions packs we know about. But I've been wrong many, many times, of course.

Which one is this? My thoughts exactly!

I have at least one of every so-called CMF from the numbered series 1-13 except Mr. Gold, at least one of each from The LEGO Movie, and one of each one from both series of The Simpsons. I do not have Mr. Gold, the Toy Soldier from the Character Encyclopedia, or any of the Team GB ones, though I do expect to get at least the Character Encyclopedia. I tried to get at least two of each for a while, and more of those I found particularly useful to have in large numbers. By the time Series 8 came out, though, I was having a harder time keeping track of just where I was in my collecting at any given moment, and I accidentally wound up not getting a single duplicate of the the one figure from S8 that I most wanted a bunch of (the Lederhosen Guy - I'd really wanted to get a slew of them for use in an Oktoberbest-related creation). After that huge disappointment, later compounded by my failure to get enough Series 10 Baseball Fielders to make a whole team, I found it harder to justify trying to get so many of each as I'd done before, and I no longer try. I do still have at least two of each figure from Series 1-7, and way more of some individual figures (my counts of S2 Spartan Warriors, S5 Graduates and S6 Roman Soldiers are all over 20), but I think Series 9 is the last series for which I have at least two of each. And for the two series based on The Simpsons, I just have exactly one apiece. I do also still have a slew of unopened ones, just for kicks. While the vast majority of my minifigures are opened, including at least two of everything from S1-7 and at least one of everything after that (save Mr. Gold and the Team GBers which I don't have at all, of course), I still have dozens of unopened ones to save "for a rainy day". The idea is that when I want a little surprise for myself I csn reach in, grab one at random and open it. It's not a complete surprise, since these are all ones I felt packets to figure out what they were when I bought them (so I do know I don't have any more S8 Lederhosen Guys, alas), but I wont know exactly what I'm getting when I just reach in and grab something, especially if I don't even look to see what series it is first. However, I've been thinking of trading some of these off for others I want more duplicates of, so for the moment I'm still holding off on opening any, for the most part. It seems appropriate to keep them in this LEGO trick-or-treating bucket (a freebie from a Toys 'R' Us LEGO promo from a few years ago); apologies for the crummy photo:

Yes, welcome aboard! If our good Artanis will forgive me, I respectfully disagree at least partially with one answer, and entirely with another: Well... it's not that simple. There's a longstanding belief held by many that licensed sets cost more, and it's true some of the most expensive sets in recent memory have been licensed ones, but those sets were also huge, and serious attempts at breaking down value for dollars (or pounds, Euros, whatever) aren't so conclusive as the comfortably assured conventional wisdom. I can certainly find examples of Star Wars sets, for example, that offer better value than same-priced non-licensed sets available around the same time. Piece counts include minifigures? Oh, they certainly do. One can easily verify by looking at the piece counts on sets consisting largely or even entirely of minifigures. The Minifigures line (with a capital "M" - the blind-bagged ones, commonly referred to around here as "collectible minifigures" or "CMFs") doesn't use piece counts, but that's because each package contains one of a number of different minifigures with varying piece counts.

I respectfully disagree. I fully realize not everyone shares my appraisal, but to many of those of us who are really big fans of the character, this stuff is important, while the general masses who just want an adventure lose nothing if continuity is maintained. But those of us who do care do lose something if it isn't. Moreover, what you're calling for will happen eventually, whether I like it or not, and I acknowledge that. The issue is that there's still room and time for a bit more with Harrison before that happens, and I for one would like to see that, but once the reboot comes that'll be it, and I'd hate to see the opportunity for one more "original" Indy passed up, never to return. Anyway, we're getting a bit away from LEGO-related discussion, so to bring it back a bit before the mods step in and do it for us, I'll just note that having another movie that continued the existing series would be more likely to help us "complete" the theme than a reboot, which would probably leave us with something more like two incomplete LEGO themes based around the property.

Oh, certainly, and don't get me wrong - I very much want more official LEGO Indy stuff (go see the post I just made here if you want to see how crazily passionate I am about Indy). I'd definitely be up for a UCS Flying Wing if they did it. Heck, I'd dearly love a big, Diagon Alley-style D2C of Marshall College or Barnett College, or any number of other things.

(d/p)

That all might have been true at one time, but ceased to be with The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, which expanded upon the framework established by three episodic individual adventures and made them chapters in a more developed, ongoing screen biography of sorts. The franchise gained immeasurably from it. A reboot might work with the extant features alone, but would it preserve the more subtly nuanced continuity established by the show? And even if so, assuming it had a actor taking over the role at a point in Indy's life in the "high adventure era" covered by the original three, it would mean that if one watched everything in internal chronological order, there'd be a point in which the actor keeps changing from movie to movie between Harrison Ford and some other guy. Right now, Corey Carrier, River Phoenix, Sean Patrick Flanery, Harrison Ford, and George Hall each cover the character in a specific age range and time frame. Doing new movies in the '30s would disrupt that. Moreover, for the purposes of filling in the major details of the life of this remarkable individual, another 1930s adventure isn't needed nearly as much as one set a good while later. Harrison's current age range of 36 to 58 isn't even the oldest at which the character has been portrayed; that honor goes to George Hall, whose appearances as a 93-year-old Indy established that he had at least one particularly harrowing adventure later in life that we still know nothing about. I for one would really like to see that, and the big gap from 1958 to 1992 is also still the longest unexplored gap in his bio. I'd really like at least one more movie to fill in that gap, if only just a bit. One more movie with Harrison at any age will always have a particular, unique appeal that no movie with someone else in the role will have anyway, but to state the obvious, they can only do it if they do it. A reboot (or even a "soft" reboot, with a younger actor but still in continuity) can always happen at any time, and indeed can and probably will happen more than once from here on into the future. But if there is to be any more Indy with Harrison in the role, ever, it should be the next one, since there'll undoubtedly be no going back once someone new has taken over. In other words, the film(s) you want *will* happen, sooner or later, no matter what, regardless of whether the one I want happens first. But the one I (and others) want can only happen before that; once they go to one without Harrison, there'll be no going back. Why not have one last one with the actor who most embodies the character, while we still can? That's another thing I'm thinking. While it's far from the most important consideration with any new Indy movie for me, I don't know that we'd get all the LEGO sets we'd want with a reboot. Heck, we didn't get new sets representing any of the older Jurassic Park movies with the current film and theme, even though it's still in continuity with at least the original. I fear that if Indy were rebooted, it might diminish the chances of getting more sets from the four extant films, to say nothing of the TV series. Well, as noted, there's a lot more continuity to the Indy series than many realize, and has been for a long time. In fact, he's always had a more "nailed down" continuity than Bond, whose adventures prior to the Craig reboot always took place in something like the "present day" (at the time of the film's release), yet essentially kept the character from aging by constantly recasting, putting the series in this sort of weird "floating time" chronology not unlike a lot of comics. Indy's adventures, on the other hand, have always been specifically dated with at least the year, and have taken place at specific points in time throughout the 20th century; we even have his exact birthdate (July 1st, 1899) and everything, and his adventures reflect his maturation and progression through life.

While I don't know that I'd say they dropped the ball, exactly, I certainly would have liked to have seen another year's worth of sets - or better yet, two, since that would have let them have a big finish for the franchise's 30th anniversary. I do find it particularly vexing that they never produced a single minifigure of Sallah, Marcus, Katanga, Mac, Ox, Toht, Donovan, Chattar Lal, or so many others. I would also dearly love for them to have made sets based on the TV series, though I understand that might not have been a realistic hope. They still could have been great sets, though. Eventually, of course, there will be another Indiana Jones movie - most likely a reboot, alas, but though I'm not keen to see the series rebooted just yet, I do have to say I'd like to get the inevitable LEGO sets, even if they're all reboot-based, as I'm sure I'll be able to utilize aspects of them for classic Indy MOCs (and of course, if we get a non-reboot movie, that would just be glorious). They may not have much choice in the matter, of course, as it's dependent upon what Nintendo wants to do. And now that there'll be a certain degree of competition between them because of Amiibo and LEGO Dimensions, it may be less likely than before.

Ah, okay. I'd missed or forgotten that, but it makes sense. Developed and initially published by Taito, actually. Midway published it in North America and Europe under license from Taito, who developed it, released it at home in Japan, and gave it a limited release in North America before Midway gave it a wide release.

It's possible there are parts in some of the packs that are used for only one or two of the builds.

It definitely would be, if not for the fact the "real" Flying Wing has swastikas on it. Of course that didn't stop them from simply omitting the offending markings and releasing a version of it in a regular minifigure retail set, but would they do that for a UCS-type set, where fidelity to the source material is especially important?

I could see them straight-up reusing that dragon (albeit likely with different colors and prints, of course). We should probably consider the extant baby dragons as our best indication of what larger dragons for this theme would be like. There should be enough of a design aesthetic continuity between them to indicate the baby dragons we have now grow up to be the adult dragons we're getting.

I seriously doubt that would be it... but next year is the 35th anniversary of the franchise. I'd dearly, dearly love for this mystery D2C to be an awesome Indiana Jones set. If that were it, which again I seriously doubt, and assuming it were minifigure scale (as opposed to a UCS / Creator Expert-ish biplane or something like that), the aforementioned Grail Temple would be one of my top picks, along with the Dunn & Duffy Combined Circus train and the Bantu Wind. Of course, there's still a slew of things they haven't yet touched from all four movies, to say nothing of the completely unrepresented TV series, but those seem to me to be some of the stronger candidates for D2C sets.

I still think Elves might be a real possibility, though of course it would help if it were in right off the bat. Press release about those lighted display cases here, for those interested. Those would be neat to have (and not just for the LEGO Dimensions stuff), but the existing cases of those sorts are already kind of pricey - too much so for me to be able to get more than a few, and I'd want a bunch if I were going to have any (so as to be able to display a whole slew of minifigures). These are actually illuminated with LEDs; they have to be more expensive still. Nice, but I think I'll have to pass, alas...

$30 for those two figures, plus the accompanying side builds (the slime cannon and Terror Dog), plus the data for the in-game versions of all four, plus the disc bases that bring them together. $30 may be a lot for two minifigures if that's all one wants, but the packs do come with more. Re: a Ghostbusters theme, next year is probably the best time for it, with the reboot and all (as it should renew awareness of the franchise in general and bring further attention even to the original two movies). With three LEGO Dimensions packs plus the still-available Ideas set in release anyway, LEGO would seem well-poised to expand it to a full theme (possibly with sets from both the originals and the reboot, similarly to how they've handled the different versions of source material for the Superheroes and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles themes). Hopefully they're working on a theme as we speak...

Yes, that too. I wouldn't be too surprised to see it happen.

Unikitty appears to have a new print for her facial expression, one unique to her Fun Pack. This character appears to have a different unique variation for every set in which she appears, actually, including the Fun Pack (and if you count the alternate faces included for the ones in the Double-Decker Couch and the SDCC exclusive, there are more official versions of her than there are sets that have her (!)). Wyldstyle comes in the Starter Pack(s) with her tracking device (the one she's shown using in her first scene in the movie, at the construction site where Emmet first sees her), which doesn't appear in any of the "regular" sets for The LEGO Movie; it has a 1x2 tile with a unique print (ironically depicted as a sticker in the actual movie). Wyldstyle herself appears to be the same as one available in various sets, but her tracking device (specifically the printed tile, which is attached to an ordinary 1x2 plate with click hinge) is unique to the Starter Pack.

I'd rule it out, since LEGO's license for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is expiring / has expired and Mega Bloks picked it up. I think it's safe to say for a theme or franchise to be in LEGO Dimensions, all these conditions have to be in place: - The franchise can't be owned or licensed by the maker of a competing "toys-to-life" videogame (e.g., no Disney properties, including anything from Pixar, Marvel, or Lucasfilm, even though tons of those do have "regular" LEGO sets; no Nintendo properties; no Spyro the Dragon). - The franchise can't be owned by a competing toy company, or have its construction toy rights licensed to a competing company (which rules out things like My Little Pony and Transformers forever, and also rules out things like Star Trek, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and SpongeBob SquarePants for at least the immediate future, even though two of those have had official LEGO themes before; those themes just ended, and were taken up by other brickmakers). - The franchise has to be at least somewhat kid-friendly (no RoboCop, Alien / Predator, Game of Thrones, The Terminator, A Nightmare on Elm Street, etc.). - And ideally, the franchise should have some sort of "extraordinary" or "fantastic" adventure component. Franchises about regular, normal, real-world things probably won't fit the game's "heroic adventure" milieu. I therefore wouldn't expect something like The Big Bang Theory or LEGO's own Friends in this game, even though I previously suggested Friends myself back when we didn't know as much about LEGO Dimensions. That still gives us tons of potential stuff, though, and in particular any recent / current or fondly remembered Warner Bros. property that fits the above conditions might be a candidate, such as The Goonies, The Neverending Story, or Harry Potter. In fact, I half-suspect that if ever we get official LEGO Merrie Melodies / Looney Tunes, it'll be because of this game. It's a long shot, since it would require highly specialized figures across the board, but I don't know that it's out of the question. Also, LEGO's own "adventure" themes are all possible candidates, at least if they're recent or current, or enduringly popular. Several of us have noted that we think Elves would be a great fit (and frankly would like it to happen). Old standards like Pirates and Castle could also fit (though I suspect we'd know about them already if they were going to), and possibly this mysterious "Big Bang" thing we're starting to hear about.

I seriously doubt there will be any official LEGO Mortal Kombat thing ever, whether for this game or anything else. I'd sooner expect Star Wars and Marvel in this game than that. Heck, I'd sooner expect Galidor than that. When it comes to Midway material, the obvious place to start would seem to be the games that actually have original arcade cabinets appear in the announcement video. That gives us Defender and Robotron 2084, though I certainly would imagine there will be more games than just those two.

I can't believe this review doesn't mention the design's clear homage to the police spinners in Blade Runner.