Blondie-Wan

My personal priorities would be all Level Packs, all packs with female characters, and all packs drawn from certain franchises known or assumed to be included: Back to the Future, Doctor Who, Ghostbusters, and The LEGO Movie, plus some assorted original LEGO themes we don't know about yet. Oh, it's going to be hideously expensive, no doubt about that. Then again, I imagine very few of us got into LEGO because it was our idea of a cheap hobby...

The parts inventories in all the instruction booklets I was able to see indicate that all the decorated elements (including those bases) are printed, not stickered. As far as I can tell, no stickers will be used anywhere in any of the game stuff, with the possible exception of the portal elements in the starter packs.

I saw these promoted on LEGO's Facebook presence yesterday. Am I correct in thinking these are the very first LEGO toys that actually fly?

It's an assumption based on the prominent use of an unmistakable Ghostbusters PKE meter in the extended version of the announcement video.

(d/p)

Two more LEGO Dimensions NinjaGo Fun Packs, over at Brick Fanatics:

Those look like the standard small train wheels to me. I think you're right on. Also, I'd really hope for more female characters in general, so I'd like to think we're getting some such as Eowyn, Marge & Lisa Simpson, Velma Dinkley, etc., but who knows.

I wouldn't trust that cake holder unless it were glued, or built differently.

Posted by AyliffeMakit over here:

Goodness, I'm amazed the latest add-on pack reveals aren't being discussed here yet. There are also a couple new NinjaGo packs as well. The Doc Brown Fun Pack has an excellent new hair mold! We knew the Level Packs could have new molds, but this is I think the first confirmation any of the Fun Packs would.

It's not quite three months yet, and even if it were three months is not a long time, especially since we're talking about (less than) three months since the last units were produced in the factories, not (less than) three months since those units reached the market. Many people that want them have them, but I unconditionally guarantee you not everyone who wants one has one, and not everyone who has one (or more) has as many as they want. I'm aware thanks to a post in the Sci-Fi forum that some fortunate individuals were able to purchase huge numbers of the minifigures by themselves directly from LEGO, but that's something different from a regular release. It's not as though anyone can just walk into a toy shop anywhere and buy a boatload of them. I don't know about everywhere else in the world, but here in the US orders are currently limited to one per person (it was originally two at the set's launch, but within a few hours it was changed to one and has remained there). I very much doubt that would be the case if they were desperately trying to unload slow-moving inventory. If the number allowed per order is increased or it gets clearance pricing, I'll then think differently, but until that happens I see no reason to think it's selling poorly (right now, they aren't even running that decommissioning banner, at least in the US store). If you're aware of some public statement they made at any time indicating they expected to be sold out by now, that's one thing, but I don't think the fact they merely let us know when the set had its last production run is the same thing. And I certainly don't expect to be able to pick one up for MSRP for all that much longer, or to ever be able to get it for anything below MSRP unless one counts using VIP points towards it (though obviously things are different for you in the UK given discounts you've seen on Ideas sets). I would personally like for it to remain available until at least the end of June, when I think I'd like to pick up one or two more depending upon how much I spend on other sets around that time, but it's not clear it will remain available that long.

Here's an updated list of all the known sets and set numbers (at least, all the ones known to me): 71170 - PS3 Starter Pack 71171 - PS4 Starter Pack 71172 - XBox One Starter Pack 71173 - XBox 360 Starter Pack 71174 - Wii U Starter Pack 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) 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 - ? 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 - ? 71234 - Fun Pack: NinjaGo (Sensei Wu) 71235 - ? 71236 - Fun Pack: DC Comics (Superman) 71237 - Fun Pack: DC Comics (Aquaman) 71238 - ? 71239 - Fun Pack: NinjaGo (Lloyd) 71240 - Fun Pack: DC Comics (Bane) Still plenty of gaps in the numbering!

OH MY G.O.S.H.!!! That Doc Brown Fun Pack is wonderful - look at his new hair mold! I do have to say, though, I'm a bit disappointed there aren't more female characters here.

Heck, I was plenty surprised about Series 1 and the Simpsons' House, since I never thought they'd do a Simpsons theme in the first place...

Thanks for the info. That is certainly a very different situation from here in the US. I'm aware of what "decommissioned" means. It is not a term they use for all retired sets, and I'm sure they chose it here as a cute way of referring to its discontinuation in terms of the sort of vehicle it is. I do think it's premature to say they've "failed" in getting people to buy it, since the end of February was not even three months ago, and that was simply when the last units were produced at the factory, when they still had yet to be distributed through the sales channels. You sound as though people have completely stopped buying it. If it's still around in a year, we can talk about how they "failed" to get people to buy it, but I don't think at present that enough time has passed to warrant using that term. Try telling the people in the Sci-Fi forum that there are "too many" of this (or any other set featuring CS minifigures). I do think TLG gave this particular set a production boost over what they gave things like the Curiosity Rover or the Research Institute because they anticipated being able to ultimately sell more of it than them, but that doesn't mean they expected to sell all of it at once. I think they just produced enough for a greater demand, but now they're no longer producing it, and they're simply letting us know. They have garnered complaints before when sets have been retired and disappeared from retail with little warning before, and I think they're just trying to stave off that sort of disappointment by giving people - potential buyers of this set, who are likely disproportionately made up of a particular section of adult LEGO fandom - plenty of warning, by letting them know not simply moments before it was about to sell out (information that would be pretty useless), but rather when it was about to go out of production, so buyers had more time to prepare - and, likely, to get an idea of whether to throttle production up or down a bit at the end of the run, based on purchase rates at that time. The "decommissioning" notice also mirrors the special attention given this particular set before it went on sale, with the specially-produced promo videos it received. Note the decommissioning notices went up well ahead of the actual decommissioning.

I vote for stuff constantly; I'm supporting several hundred projects. I imagine a larger project will get through some day, though I'm not keen to guess just when that will be. Given the rules question, I don't know that the piano is the likeliest project in its batch. I'd think it's perhaps a tie between it and the Labyrinth marble maze.

When was the Research Institute ever discounted?! It was only available a few times, and always briefly; it was never around long enough to be discounted. And for that matter, when and where have you ever seen any of the others discounted? I also don't know what you mean when you say the decommissioning "campaign" "hasn't worked". What makes you think so? How would you know? It's not like LEGO tells us how many it sells of everything. The fact is, it sold out quickly, they had at least one additional production run and now there are enough copies available to meet current demand. That is all well-known; anything else is speculation. They do have the "decommissioning" banner, but I think it just had to do with this set having particular interest to a lot of AFOLs (the same reason this set, and this set alone ouf of all the Ideas sets, got special promotional videos before it was even released). I think they just didn't want a situation where they didn't make anywhere nearly as many as needed before discontinuing it (as appears to be the case with the Curiosity Rover), and thus risk disappointing people while also missing out on sales. If it had been a flop, as you suggest, they never would have done another production run; most of the CUUSOO / Ideas sets (at least the licensed ones) don't get additional runs. The fact this was one of the rare ones that did illustrates that it's ond of thd bigger sellers - in fact, I suspect it's the top-selling non-licensed CUUSOO / Ideas set.

I don't think they discount Ideas sets. Someone here suggested a while back that sales would violate the agreements LEGO signs with the creators. I don't know if that's the case, but Hayabusa was around an awfully long time, much longer than the Exo-suit has been, and it was never discounted. I think the Exo-suit is selling well, though, and won't be around all that much lomger. I believe they're just selling through the existing stock, and they just have a lot of stock simply because they anticipated a lot of people would want this set, many of whom would want multiples (I have two copies myself, and I'd like more, though I don't know yet whether I'll get any).

Oh, I don't think they'll have any problem selling them all. Just because it didn't sell out completely immediately after production ended doesn't mean it's doing poorly, and I'm confident there are plenty of people who'd love to have as many as they can get. With production over, I'm sure they'll all be gone soon. And I'm not sure I get how there could even be "too many" from our point of view. Shouldn't we want there to be enough to go around?

They want get as much money from us as they can, and they do know the way to do that is to offer stuff we want. But they do operate under constraints. They can't merely snap their fingers and have an infinite supply of everything. They have a large but finite number of production lines, all of which run around the clock, and increasing the availability of one thing means decreasing the availability of another. They run a balancing act, trying to optimize production for maximum profit.

I'm not saying they're magnanimous gift-givers; of course they seek to maximize profits, but they do try to give people what they want (within reason) as a means to that.

It actually was already branded that, the first time around - it was initially submitted as part of a Jurassic Park project. LEGO then archived all Jurassic Park projects on Ideas upon learning Hasbro had the rights, but shortly after that the rights became available and LEGO swooped in and scooped up the license. Meanwhile, the Bricksauria creator had resubmitted just that / those dinosaur(s), but of course now Jurassic Park is an active license, and while we don't know for sure, it's now possible LEGO can't currently do any dinosaur projects that aren't Jurassic Park. Oh, well... Anyway, I don't know what "tone-deafness" has to do with it. They really do try their best to give their customers what they want, but sometimes they just aren't able to, despite their best efforts and for reasons outside their control.

There's a ton of love for the Exo-suit; a bunch of it can be found all over here. CUUSOO / Ideas sets in general, at least the non-licensed ones, always have more limited production runs. Note the Shinkai 6500, the MSL Curiosity Rover, and the Research Institute all had much more limited availability than this one. The Hayabusa is, I think, the only non-licensed CUUSOO / Ideas set that was available longer, and I suspect the reason for that is that it simply took a lot longer to sell through its run. The Exo-suit, though, sold through its initial run in a day and got rewarded with substantial additional production. The Research Institute, by comparison, was released the same day as the Exo-suit, but though it, too, sold out the first day and got an additional run, it hasn't been made available nearly as much as the Exo-suit - it's been readily available really only a couple times totaling less than a week, while the Exo-suit has had a good few months of constant availability, after an initial period of being sold out, backordered, etc. The only Ideas sets that have been more available, for the most part, are those based on massively popular and beloved pop-culture licenses. Note also that Ideas sets - non-licensed ones, anyway - are largely dependent upon allowances in production capacity that are made for them if it doesn't interfere with production of their much more important main retail lines, and in some cases are even dependent upon possibilities created by those much bigger retail lines. With the Exo-suit, the reason they were able to include Classic Space-style minifigures in an entirely new color, green, is because they were already producing solid green torso assemblies (green torso, green arms, green hands) for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turles line, and they merely needed to divert some of those torso assemblies from the TMNT lines after they were assembled but before they were printed, and print them with Classic Space emblems instead. Now that TMNT is being discontinued, they're no longer producing those torso assemblies in that color for a major retail line, and they apparently aren't able to justify keeping them in production just for an Ideas set, so the Ideas set that uses them is being retired, too, along with the TMNT line. It's one thing to use an Ideas set to introduce a single-piece part in a new color, or with a new print, but it's another thing to produce more complex elements (like minifigure torsos, which require pre-assembly as well as printing) using specific combinations of torso, arms (left and right both, since they're different molds) and hands in specific colors and then do a custom print on top of that. Doing it just for an Ideas set probably takes away too much from their mainline production capacity for major retail sets and themes. I suspect it's probably the same reason why the chemist in the Research Institute could have a new torso print, but not use a different color combination of torso parts to represent her wearing gloves, even though the scientist (also a female chemist) from Minifigures Series 11 did get "gloved" hands. At the time they were making the Research Institute, they were probably also making torso assemblies for some other theme that had white torsos and arms that could be used to represent a lab coat, but only ones with yellow hands.

Posted just under three and a half months ago, aBetterMonkey's Brick-built Adventure Time figures project is now a mere nine votes away from the support goal. It's clearly poised to be the first project in the next review batch, and as someone who likes the show and this project and who voted for it, I'd like to think it has a good chance, what with requiring no exotic elements and just a handful of prints, having accrued its votes quickly, and being the second Adventure Time project to make it to review. On the other hand, though... it's the second Adventure Time project to make it to review (or at least, it will be). We'll see... Ooh, one more vote just while I was posting - now just eight away from the target!

And Gandalf, as well. Three quarters of the known playable The Lord of the Rings characters for this game, then, are ones who appear in The Hobbit as well as The Lord of the Rings. I just lump the two themes together as "Middle-Earth".