Blondie-Wan

I guess something like that. I don't think it's tied to 60097 specifically, since the ad will likely appear on the instruction booklets for lots of other upcoming sets and this is just the first one we've seen, but I imagind it is indeed something for which they don't see a need to have the site up just yet.

That single promotional image isn't much to go on, admittedly, but it doesn't appear to me to be connected to LEGO Dimensions. The latter is very focused on characters and franchises and mashups thereof in an adventure game milieu, while this image hints at none of that. It looks more like something centered around free-form, creative building, with possibly some adventure elements on the side, but there isn't even a hint of conflict, for example, whereas LEGO Dimensions clearly has conflict between factions play a central role. If I had to guess (and of course I'm keenly aware how foolish a guess based on this single promotional image of a game about which we know very little might look, especially in a year or two), I'd say this game looks like it might fall somewhere between the late, great LEGO Universe and the still very much alive Minecraft.

What jonwil said. Note the last review results were in early February, a little over a month after the break between review periods. If that were typical, we could expect the next review results in early June.

Edit: fixed!

They shouldn't - The Big Bang Theory is from Warner Bros., which also owns DC Comics outright. The set probably (almost certainly) won't have anything pertaining to properties from Disney (Marvel, Lucasfilm - Star Wars, Indiana Jones, etc., Pixar, etc.), Universal (Back to the Future, Jurassic Park, etc.), or other major studios and other media companies, but I fully expect DC Comics to be represented somehow, given its prominence on the show, and conceivably The Lord of the Rings and perhaps even Harry Potter could make appearances as well.

I don't see how that's misleading us. They stopped making it, and told us they stopped making it. Did they say they were definitely going to sell out by the end of the week after production? No (honestly, the last sets off the line probably weren't even in stores yet; there was never any reason to think they'd be sold out that quickly after production stopped unless they were all bound for online orders anyway, and shipped directly from the factory straight to customers). Did they say they would sell them only to a certain date, and then pull any unsold stock remaining at that time and send it back to the factory? No. Did they say they only had four left, and one of them was on fire? No. They just said they were discontinuing production at the end of February. That's all. Honestly, regardless of whether their motives in doing so were mercenary or altruistic, they did us a favor in letting us know exactly when they'd stop making it. I'm absolutely agog anyone might think it was somehow a bad thing, and yet that appears to be the case. Just what course of action would be preferable - that they not tell us when it was discontinued? That they tell us, but only a few months later when stocks were nearly depleted, saying "oh, by the way, this was discontinued back in February but we didn't want to say anything then"? That they just flat-out lie and say it would remain in production indefinitely, for years on end, alongside the brick separator and extra-large grey baseplate? I don't see how any of those would be better than what they did.

I know we already talked about if before, but I am getting really curious about the characterizations in the game, given that we have a mix of mostly heroic playable characters, but also several villainous ones.

Oh? Are they still making it?

I remember that comic well, but for me it always showed the opposite - it illustrated how a yellow minifigure would indeed work for Lando, even assuming they used the same preexisting, standard mustachioed head that they used for Biggs (and especially if they didn't, but instead used a new print like they did for the other major characters, with a character-specific mustache like the one he eventually got). That said, I am now glad for fleshtones in the licensed themes, for reasons already discussed. The one thing route that would have bothered me would be if they had continued to a realistic fleshtone for dark-skinned people and bright yellow for everyone else, as they did in the Cloud City set. I'm glad that's the only one they ever did like that, although now that they've long since settled the minifigure "skin" color issue I do wish I'd gotten the Cloud City set when I had the chance, but I was just really uncomfortable with that approach at the time.

It's not as though one precludes the other; both are mutually compatible. In fact, they're interdependent - we have to buy it to not miss out, and if we do miss out, it's because we didn't buy it.

Yes, and? It was available for months before they ceased production. The critical difference, though, is that if they ran out of stock when they were still making it, someone would still be able to get it once the new stock became available. With it out of production, that has changed - now, once LEGO sells out, LEGO will no longer sell any more in the future. And so it is the last chance to buy it. From February to now, and however much longer before it sells out = one long chance. Because when it sells out this time, it's not coming back.

A Terror Dog! Of course, that's perfect! I don't know why I didn't remember / think of that; I must be getting senile.

Right, but not all western kids are white, and LEGO doesn't want to limit their appeal to just white kids (or just western ones, either, though their pricing and distribution surely aren't doing them favors in that department). Offering the options of various non-white skin tones in the licenses, as well as yellow nonlicensed people who can be read as something other than white, gives them multiple ways of reaching a broader range of kids. There is of course the problem that such a small percentage of characters in most licensed themes are something other than white, but of course that's an issue with their licensed source materials rather than with LEGO itself, and will only get fixed when we get more POCs in the various movies and shows and whatnot on which LEGO bases sets.

Those (and pretty much all other non-licensed LEGO themes) use yellow to represent any regular human skin, regardless of race or ethnicity. When they use other colors, such as white, green or whatever, it's either because it's depicting something other than skin (for example, the white used for the S4 Kimono Girl and the S5 Small Clown represents the makeup they're wearing), or because they're not exactly "human" but monsters, aliens, statues, etc.

When the split happened I was bothered by it, and for a brief period I actually avoided buying certain licensed sets that I now wish I'd gotten. I eventually overcame it, and now happily go with flesh tones for licensed themes and yellow for non-licensed ones, as LEGO itself does, though I do yearn for greater flexibility in mixing them without having the visually apparent differences. I did always think they could have gone on using yellow for everyone, including people of color - back in the early 2000s, they actually did print specifically, overtly "black" facial features on yellow heads in a few basketball sets where they didn't represent specific, real-life individuals - but after learning that their research showed children tended to read yellow faces as "while" (or possibly other races / ethnicities, but never black), I understand the move to realistic flesh tones in the licensed themes, and I agree it was the way to go. At the same time, though, I understand that yellow is the traditional, iconic "skin" color of LEGO minifigures, with so much of their branding and corporate identity tied up in it, so they could hardly stop using it, so I do think the split - yellow for original stuff, flesh tones for licenses - is a good solution. Oh, they are flesh-colored; just because they're not "white" doesn't mean they're not. They're brown, which is an actual color of actual human beings. When we speak of minifigures being "yellow" or "flesh", we're not talking about a difference between just two colors, but between yellow (a color real people don't generally come in) and a broad range comprising a number of colors that real-world human beings normally come in. "Flesh" doesn't have to mean just one color. Exactly.

(n/m)

I think they'll keep the proton packs as brick-built accessories worn by the characters, just like the existing ones from the Ideas set, most likely with the same build and the same printed piece in the back. Or possibly they might create a new molded element to take the place of the whip or something, but keep part of the build the same. I think they wouldn't count it as the "side" build in these; it'd be more like Bane's backpack, and they'll do something else for the additional build. A mini Mr. Stay-Puft does seem a good candidate after the obvious mini Ectomobile, and perhaps Slimer / Onionhead and mini Lady Liberty, assuming they do give us all four. Those seem the four likeliest side builds to me... though if they do it the way I was thinking and give us one team member in a Level Pack, two in a Team Pack, and one in a Fun Pack, we'd still need one more build to make a total of five (since the Level and Team Packs have two apiece). Hmmm... Most of the builds are either vehicles, or some sort of secondary character / creature (Shelob, K9, a flying monkey, etc.), but they can apparently be any crazy thing, like a ginormous sandwich. What could work for the Ghostbusters, after using all those other things?

I'm sorry, but I just don't see anything remotely "hoodwinking" about their actions at all. Does that word have a different connotation in the UK? Over here it means scamming or cheating or otherwise doing something unsavory to trick someone, and I don't see anything in their actions to warrant that.

As long as they're being just a wee bit generous with the LEGO Dimensions packs, offering up all these new molds and printed pieces, I'd like to think they'd print the "S" symbol on the back of the cape. I suspect that would elicit a few more sales of the Superman Fun Pack, even to people who already have one or more Superman minifigures and have no interest in the actual game.

Quite possible, although I expect LEGO (and / or WB) will at least try to tune the supply to the demand, and actually produce more of those packs they expect to be most popular, and fewer of the packs they expect to be less popular. I'm therefore going to hazard a guess that most of the packs will be roughly equally easy to find, with the possible exception of an occasional outlier for whom they misjudge the demand (in either direction). Oh, and any vendor exclusives, of course. Yes, I have no doubt about that. We already have people just in this very thread saying they indeed to get this pack or that pack just for the elements (including but not limited to minifigure elements) even though they won't get the game.

Well, obviously. And collecting all LEGO Star Wars sets is very expensive as well. That doesn't mean there are too many of those (which is not to say that there aren't too many - though I'm not saying that there are, either; I'm just saying it doesn't mean anything). I don't think anyone - certainly not LEGO or WB - expects even half of LEGO Dimensions players to even attempt to complete a set of all add-on packs. I'm sure they expect most players to just place an emphasis on those characters and themes that most interest them. LEGO and WB will offer these accordingly - there will likely be far fewer copies made of each specific individual add-on pack, say, than of the starter packs, since they will assume that for any given character, there will be a certain percentage of players that aren't interested in that character, versus players who are. The flip side, though, is that to fully exploit the game's potential, and also make it as satisfying and engaging as possible, they will want to offer a massive variety of characters, so that each player can find as many characters as they want and can afford. It allows them to fine-tune the revenue potential they can get from each player. Those players who only like a few of the available characters, or can afford only a few, can at least get those few, while those players who like a ton of the characters and are inclined to buy lots of them can do so. It doesn't work as well if they release only a few characters, though.

Too many of them for what?

I know only what they tell me. When I made my earlier post I was remembering (or possibly misrembering, I freely admit) information sources from earlier this year announcing the set being discontinued (specifically, going out of production), but now that I've gone looking for it to back it up to respond to your post, I admit I can't find it. My apologies. That said, I do think it makes much more sense to assume they're speaking of the end of production rather than the end of sales, since they obviously have total control over when they choose to stop making it, but they have no control over when consumers might elect to purchase the last units to hit shelves. The one thing I would be sure of, though, is that they never meant "we'll sell this until a specific date, and any unsold units at the end of that time will be returned to the factory or discarded, rather than being kept until they sell" (and yes, I fully realize is not what you said). I just honestly don't understand how their statements could be taken to mean something other than what I'm taking them to mean, and I similarly don't understand your interpretation of them, or your perception of a gulf between their expectations and the reality of sales. Given what information we do have on hand, such as the minimal text in the banner in the OP's post, it appears to me they simply meant "we're going to cease production on this date, so if you want one be sure to order sooner rather than later, since the first time it sells out after this date, it'll be gone for good". They're not predicting when it will sell out; they're just saying that, unlike the situation when it first temporarily sold out on day 1, there won't be more runs after this. Given the differences in sales and availability between our two sets of experiences (wildly different limits, discounts vs. no discounts, etc.), it also appears possible to me the situations are just very different between our two countries, and maybe the UK received a much greater allotment per capita than the US did (or a proportionally greater number relative to consumer interest), which itself may skew our different perceptions of the set's overall success.

No telling. I've been thinking about how the Ghostbusters might be brought into the game. The problem is that I can't think of enough side-builds to go with them. Obviously the Ectomobile would be one thing, but then what? That aside, if we were to get the whole team, I'd assume one Level Pack, one Team Pack and one Fun Pack. Otherwise, I'd guess we just may not get the whole team. _________________________________ As far as the "sides" go, there are actually several playable characters now known who are villains / antagonists, at least in the source material - the Wicked Witch of the West, Gollum, Bane, the Joker, Harley Quinn, and even Bad Cop (albeit not so bad in the end). Perhaps there are multiple goals - like, some common goal of defeating a menace that threatens all the worlds and everyone in them, but then individual characters could also have their own personal goals on the side, that might be at odds with other characters (like, "get back the Ring" or "break the Bat" or "steal all the Chi" or whatever). It could make character interactions pretty interesting. But who knows? I will say I'm dying to know more about how the game and all these characters work. LEGO and WB have done a good job of piquing my interest, I must say.

That would be nice, though I'm more concerned with whether the Ghostbusters will have arm printing now. If so, I really hope they do packs with all four...