Blondie-Wan

Well, not just Emmet - the overwhelming majority of the playable character figures are of characters that have been or will be released in other, "regular" sets, albeit some of them in different versions. The remarkable thing is that there actually are a few characters that apparently *are* exclusive, and who would likely never get official LEGO versions if not for this game - Chell, Slimer, Mr. Stay Puft, the Wicked Witch of the West.

I know; that's why I said "so far" and "known". I'm assuming that there will be further characters (and likely even entire new themes and franchises) added every so often for years to come (unless the game flops so badly right out of the gate that they decide to cut their losses and abandon all their plans for it, which seems unlikely to happen).

I think Batman and Robin could actually happen, as they're characters rather than real-life performers, and thus wouldn't require approval / licensing from those stars or their estates; moreover, they're from another franchise that is already an active licensed theme (and one licensed from the same rightsholder as Scooby-Doo!, at that). There's even some precedent for it, with Batman's appearance in The LEGO Movie and a couple of the sets based on it. I therefore think Batman and Robin are by far the likeliest of these to appear in a Scooby-Doo! set - which is not to say it's a sure thing or anything like that, only that it's much more likely than the others. But I think of those, the Harlem Globetrotters, Sonny and Cher, or Don Knotts would be the ones I'd most like to see. Batman and Robin might be the likeliest, but they're also the least needed, if simply because there are already scads of minifigures of them.

Where are we hearing it's based on just the 9th series? The project proposal specifically suggests including one "classic" Doctor (specifically the Fourth) and one new (likely the Tenth).

Almost, though Ghostbusters is getting Slimer and Mr. Stay Puft. Well... again close, but not quite. So far, we know of: 8 from DC Comics 7 from Ninjago 5 from The LEGO Movie 4 from The Lord of the Rings 3 from Ghostbusters 3 from Legends of Chima 3 from The Simpsons 2 from Back to the Future 2 from Doctor Who 2 from Jurassic World 2 from Scooby-Doo! 1 from Portal 2 1 from The Wizard of Oz ... and nothing from Midway Arcade. That's fully half of the 14 themes and franchises that are so far represented by just two (or fewer!) known playable characters, but the other half have more, including three themes / franchises with five characters or more.

It's certainly bizarre to think the villain might be the only playable character and actual minifigure released.

I'm sure the OP meant a minifigure-style monkey like the ones seen in all the in-game footage and art, as opposed to the more brick-built figure included with the Wicked Witch in her Fun Pack. I've been hoping for the same thing. Of current LEGO themes that could conceivably be added to the game (i.e., nothing from Marvel, Lucasfilm, etc.), it's actually the theme I think would make the most sense to add that isn't in it already. I'd like to see all four main elf characters added, ideally the same way I've hoped for the four main Ghostbusters (one in a Level Pack, two in a Team Pack, and one in a Fun Pack). And as much as I love Ghostbusters and want the whole core team, I have to say it would make much more sense for gameplay purposes to have the four elves, since they all would have different abilities thanks to their different elemental associations. I also very much want to see Éowyn, Velma Dinkley, and Marge and Lisa Simpson. From a female representation perspective it particularly rankles that those last two are (apparently) not included as playable characters, since the franchise is completely centered around a family that's three-fifths female, yet the only three playable characters known so far are the two male family members and a male supporting background character who's much less important in the show than the female family members.

Universal, Valve, and the BBC are also rightsholders to elements of the game.

The roach is there. It's just an antenna attached to a 1x? plate, it appears, but it's there.

And about Mr. Stay Puft, which I certainly wouldn't have guessed. These are awesome, and I'm especially thrilled that we're getting an actual Slimer figure, though I'm miffed that the whole team of actual Ghostbusters apparently won't be an option. I think I understand the reason for it - gameplay-wise, there presumably wouldn't be any difference between the four, whereas all other characters should have unique powers, abilities and/or accessories. But it's annoying to think we'd finally get an official logo print on the arm for the Venkman torso, but not for the other three. I was really hoping (and still am) to get Spengler, Stantz and Zeddemore in a Team Pack and a Fun Pack (or three Fun Packs). Also, they could really stand to add some more playable female characters now. There are still only eight out of 43 known characters - that's fewer than one in five, and they come from just six of the fourteen franchises. And speaking of those characters, here's an updated list of all known packs, now color-coded for easy distinction of Starter, Level, Team and Fun Packs! 71170 - Starter Pack: PS3 (Wyldstyle, Gandalf & Batman) 71171 - Starter Pack: PS4 (Wyldstyle, Gandalf & Batman) 71172 - Starter Pack: XBox One (Wyldstyle, Gandalf & Batman) 71173 - Starter Pack: XBox 360 (Wyldstyle, Gandalf & Batman) 71174 - Starter Pack: Wii U (Wyldstyle, Gandalf & Batman) 71201 - Level Pack: Back to the Future (Marty McFly) 71202 - Level Pack: The Simpsons (Homer Simpson) 71203 - Level Pack: Portal 2 (Chell) 71204 - Level Pack: Doctor Who (the Doctor) 71205 - Team Pack: Jurassic World (Owen Grady & ACU Trooper) 71206 - Team Pack: Scooby-Doo! (Scooby-Doo & Shaggy) 71207 - Team Pack: NinjaGo (Cole & Kai) 71208 - ? 71209 - Fun Pack: DC Comics (Wonder Woman) 71210 - Fun Pack: DC Comics (Cyborg) 71211 - Fun Pack: The Simpsons (Bart Simpson) 71212 - Fun Pack: The LEGO Movie (Emmet Brickowski) 71213 - Fun Pack: The LEGO Movie (Bad Cop) 71214 - Fun Pack: The LEGO Movie (Benny) 71215 - Fun Pack: NinjaGo (Jay) 71216 - Fun Pack: NinjaGo (Nya) 71217 - Fun Pack: NinjaGo (Zane) 71218 - Fun Pack: The Lord of the Rings (Gollum) 71219 - Fun Pack: The Lord of the Rings (Legolas) 71220 - Fun Pack: The Lord of the Rings (Gimli) 71221 - Fun Pack: The Wizard of Oz (Wicked Witch) 71222 - Fun Pack: Legends of Chima (Laval) 71223 - Fun Pack: Legends of Chima (Cragger) 71224 - ? 71225 - ? 71226 - ? 71227 - Fun Pack: The Simpsons (Krusty the Clown) 71228 - Level Pack: Ghostbusters (Peter Venkman) 71229 - Team Pack: DC Comics (The Joker & Harley Quinn) 71230 - Fun Pack: Back to the Future (Doc Brown) 71231 - Fun Pack: The LEGO Movie (Unikitty) 71232 - Fun Pack: Legends of Chima (Eris) 71233 - Fun Pack: Ghostbusters (Mr. Stay Puft) 71234 - Fun Pack: NinjaGo (Sensei Wu) 71235 - ? 71236 - Fun Pack: DC Comics (Superman) 71237 - Fun Pack: DC Comics (Aquaman) 71238 - Fun Pack: Doctor Who (Cyberman) 71239 - Fun Pack: NinjaGo (Lloyd) 71240 - Fun Pack: DC Comics (Bane) 71241 - Fun Pack: Ghostbusters (Slimer) Still plenty of gaps in the numbering! Not at all - several other people have contemplated the possibility, though I think most of us are hoping it doesn't happen.

Is Scooby-Doo! really an "action" theme, though? And what about the older LEGO Studios Jurassic Park sets? They surely don't really fit here, but it also wouldn't do to split the theme across forums. Moreover, if those criteria are used to bring those themes here, well... heck, why have the Licensed forum at all? Practically every Licensed theme could fit elsewhere in EB's forum boundaries.

I love them, myself. I bought the Hayabusa set and the Research Institute, and would love to be able to get the Shinkai 6500 and the Curiosity Rover, but the former was never offered outside Japan (I'm in the US), while the latter was gone far faster than I could have anticipated. I continue to vote for projects recreating real-world endeavors in scientific exploration, discovery and research; they're some of my personal favorites, and I fully intend to try to get as many of the ones that pass review as I can. I get that they're not everyone's cup of tea, but I love them. I think if people want to see any more LEGO sets based on Middle-Earth, they're going to have to campaign for them, and do so more vigorously, supporting not just those huge models that would make multi-hundred dollar sets, but also much smaller projects - in fact, it's probably best to just support everything, or at least every project that isn't outright terrible, and try to fill each review batch with multiple projects based on The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, to demonstrate serious interest. It would probably be particularly helpful if there were multiple projects based on the same specific subjects - two or three different projects of the Prancing Pony, say, or Radagast's home or whatever, appearing in the same review batch.

I think it's best described in this instance as LEGO having a good partner relationship with Didney, but that isn't the same thing as having a blanket license to each and every property. WALL·E is a specific property they weren't already doing. I think in this case, the fact they had an ongoing partnership with the rightsholder that involved licenses to lots of other Disney properties, but not yet this one specifically, helped a great deal (as did the fact the subject matter is very family-friendly, it lends itself well to LEGO, and had an additional point of interest in being proposed by someone who actually worked on the movie). In other words, I don't think it says anything about whether they'd approve an Ideas project based on an extant license. That said, I do still think it's possible.

So-called "CMF parts" aren't some sort of special, magical things available only to that line; they're LEGO elements like any other, and once they're created there's no reason why they wouldn't / shouldn't be available to other lines, including Ideas.

Great review! I must respectfully disagree about the minifigure heights; even if it actually comes up in dialogue in the show, the height differences of the principal cast members really aren't different enough to warrant using the short and long legs, even if the project proposal included them. Heck, even Chewbacca over in the Star Wars theme doesn't use the long legs, and he's much more suited for them than Sheldon, while Bernadette is still clearly not short-short a la Kenny Baker, Peter Dinklage, etc. The cast photo you show in the instructions shows their heights to be much more in the same ballpark than most ensembles who get the short and/or long legs used in other licensed themes. Sherlock? Doesn't it have routine murder and a drug-addicted protagonist? Cerebral or not, it probably just isn't suitable for LEGO. The most important thing when it comes to potential pop-culture licenses isn't how good a TV show or movie is, but how suitable for kids it is, and even though The Big Bang Theory is awash in sexual innuendo, it's probably not "worse" than Sherlock.

Because there may possibly come a day when conditions are perfect and they can release such a set, and there's no reason for them to deny themselves that opportunity should it ever arise.

But by that logic, they should ban all submissions and not have the Ideas program at all, since they can already do any set they can already do. They do already automatically decline certain submissions, like ones based on R-rated movies, toy lines from other companies, and so on. That gives us a baseline of stuff they won't do, which establishes that all the other stuff is stuff they don't necessarily know they can't do. In some cases, they accepted at least one submission based around something they now no longer accept, showing how once they decide a whole area is out of bounds for them, they can stop accepting something they know up front they won't do even if they've accepted it before. Combined, these two facts tell us that they most likely will start automatically declining something once they know for sure they won't do it. As they've already had several Star Wars, Middle-Earth, DC, etc. projects enter review, if there's absolutely no way they'll do one they should have clearly established it by now. The fact that they do continue to accept submissions therefore suggests that it is possible to get an Ideas set based on an existing licensed theme. Just because this project or that project was declined doesn't necessarily mean none will ever pass. It just means nobody has gotten one through yet.

As it happens, that very concept did indeed get a CUUSOO / Ideas project, and even got the 10,000 votes and made it to review. I believed it was one of the likelier Star Wars projects, for the same reasons you do, though it was declined. But again, it may always have been declined for any number of reasons, and while its rejection is further evidence projects based on existing active licenses have a harder time in review, I still don't think it "proves" they absolutely can't happen, no matter what. The fact LEGO does decline many submissions right out of the gate (whether for content / brand fit, license conflicts, whatever) while still allowing projects based on current themes is stronger evidence that they are at least theoretically possible; they're just less likely. It should also be noted many / most of the Star Wars, Middle-Earth, Marvel, DC, etc. projects that have made it to review and been declined have had other clear strikes against them that were unrelated to being from existing licenses. For one thing, most of them have been clearly far too large and expensive; several of them were for projects that would dwarf even the D2C Helicarrier and Millennium Falcon sets they have released, while others would be right in that $150-$300 range. Projects that size have an uphill battle whether they're based on any licensed property at all, never mind one LEGO already has. I am fully aware Star Wars projects are not likely to pass, but I am planning on submitting a few anyway, as I sincerely believe there's still a possibility of one getting through, and I have some ideas people haven't tried before for things that are beyond what LEGO and LFL normally release, yet which are still feasible (e.g., not 10,000-piece Sandcrawlers or buckets of a hundred minifigures). Or C., there's simply a timing issue. As has often been noted, LEGO's production capabilities are impressive but not infinite, and they have to make decisions about how to best allocate their resources. Sometimes that might mean declining a perfectly good Idea simply because there are a couple of even better ones, and they can't do all of them and still make all their regular stuff on top of that. I think something like the Star Wars lightsabers project might have had a better shot if it hadn't been in a batch that also had WALL*E and was also between other batches with other strong contenders. Why?

The Scooby-Doo! sets are just now starting to show up in stores; I believe they're officially supposed to come out on Augusf 1st, but some stores are putting them out early. And it is indeed a whole theme, not just a single set.

I strongly second this.

... unless one counts LEGO Dimensions, of course. And it really is a noteworthy addition to the The LEGO Movie theme, since it's adding at least a couple new printed elements for theme-specific items - a 1x3 brick with a new Unikitty face print, and a 1x2 tile printed with the display from Wyldstyle's tracking device (which ironically appeared to be a sticker in the movie).

I went to a couple of local LEGO stores yesterday and made purchases at both, and wound up getting three more Snowspeeder Microfighters, a Stormtrooper watch and two copies of the current LEGO Star Wars poster (Star Wars - Episode VI: Return of the Jedi), along with a few non-Star Wars items. 7194, UCS Yoda? I actually found it a quite satisfying set, and was pleased to get it and build it, though it helps that I got it on clearance for $32 or so. I kept it together a while and then broke it down for parts. There's a ton of tan in it which will find its way into Tatooine creations (among other things).

The original Ideas proposal itself suggested a couple different versions of the Doctor, one "classic" and one "new", so I think there's a good possibility there'll be multiple Doctors just in that one set alone. But I do also think there'll be more to this theme than just the Ideas set and the Dimensions packs. (Shouldn't this be stickied? We do now know there'll be at least three sets, counting the Dimensions ones. Isn't that enough to warrant calling it a theme?)

I've seen people use ones (painted brown) for Chewbacca, and I have to say they work really well there. I would not at all mind seeing a Chewie with the longer legs (and arms) show up sometime. Because those particular characters required them. They're much taller and lankier than Buzz, and would not look as good without them. The licensed Ideas sets in general appear to have much larger / longer production runs and availability periods than the non-licensed ones (naturally, since they have the broadest appeal beyond basic LEGO fandom). I expect this set to be around for several months at a minimum, and possibly a year (though I've certainly been wrong many times before).

I have to echo Aanchir's view. I'll of course abide by mods' edicts, but I do think the tightly restrictive moderation here tends to stifle discussion, and frankly prevents a lot of worthwhile discussion from happening at all. But as noted, I'll obey the rules. :/