Blondie-Wan

Yes, I saw them a short while ago and supported them. Good luck!

Lo, the Great LEGO Ideas Purge has come! 5909 projects - more than half the total - have fallen, slain by the very hand of Time itself, though some may yet rise from the ashes, Phoenix-like, and in reposting yet live again. And at the same time, as the LEGO Ideas Team taketh away, so too does the LEGO Ideas Team giveth. All projects due extensions have now seen their extensions granted. Behold the spectacular glory of the mighty Brick-built Adventure Time figures, now with 642 days remaining!

Someone did report a while back that later copies were coming with the newer face prints. I'm fine with that, myself, but if I do get one I want to be sure it has the older-style stormtrooper torsos, since I'd like them to match the majority of ones I have. I'm currently wavering between purchasing the Death Star, the Ewok Village, or a smaller group of less expensive sets. The Death Star is an awesome set and I do want it, it's been around far longer than pretty much anything and everything else, and it would be the perfect (and, really, only) complement for the Admiral Yularen minifigure I'd get with it. But it's also expensive, and we've had some financial issues come up lately that have me thinking twice about spending so much on LEGO all at once. Moreover, since Star Wars is such a huge theme I have to prioritize different sets and subject areas within it, and I'm more interested in the Rebels than the Empire. I therefore finding myself weighing the Ewok Village against the Death Star, and while the Death Star is certainly the larger and more impressive overall set, the Ewok Village is the one I'd actually be more upset about missing out on - but then, it's also a lot newer, and while it's old enough that it might conceivably be retired this year, it's hard to imagine it'll actually go first. And of course I really want both, but I just don't know how realistic that is. Apart from the Rebellion as a faction, I'm also interested in Tatooine stuff, so I also am pining for the Sandcrawler, although I shouldn't have to worry about that one for a while. But if I wind up making a smaller purchase, it'll most likely be the Mos Eisley Cantina, plus a Microfighter. Decisions, decisions...

Oh, by now I'm sure others in the US and Canada have gotten LEGO's May the Fourth email for VIPs, but since I haven't seen anyone else mention it yet, I'll just note this now here: For the US and Canada (excluding Quebec), VIPs can also enter to win one of ten UCS TIE Fighters signed by LEGO Group owner Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen. Entries are automatic with Star Wars purchases for VIP members, and/or also enter by email; maximum one entry per day from May 2 to 4.

The Death Star came out in 2008; it's kind of astonishing it's already been out as long as it has, and I expect it to be retired soon. I'd love to get it myself, but I'm quite torn, as there are many other sets (and even a few non-LEGO items) I also want as well, and most of them aren't nearly as expensive.

When I first played with LEGO as a kid in the '70s, I mainly just liked LEGO in general, and didn't really differentiate between different themes and such (though neither did LEGO itself, really, at least to the point they do now), but then along came classic Space, the first distinct, discrete theme to really grab my imagination in and of itself. I never had that many sets, but I loved thd ones I did have, and also fantasized about having all those other Space sets I saw in catalogs and stores. Star Wars is something I've always dearly loved, and it's the theme that first brought me back out of my dark ages. And of the other themes to come along since then, Indiana Jones is probably the one that grabbed me most, both because of my love for the source material and because the theme was realized so nicely (albeit still imperfectly). And since it technically qualifies as a theme, I should note CUUSOO / Ideas is the one I lately find consuming my thoughts and attentions most, as I contemplate various submissions of my own i dream of becoming sets (even while many of these ideas themselves fit into other themes like the ones I've named).

In fairness, didn't the price of the "large" (32x32) remain at $4.99 since 1996 or 1997 or so? We were lucky to have it for so long at the same price it was seventeen years ago; while obviously I'd rather pay five bucks for one rather than eight, I don't think the new price is entirely unreasonable. My only issue is the color thing. I don't even think it's bad to have the lighter, brighter green, and the tan is certainly welcome, but they should have kept the other green and the blue as well.

As far as I can tell, it'll be one specific poster each month - Episode IV in May, Episode V in June, and so on. The Lego Store Calendar for June has been seen now and it shows the free poster offer, and it specifically shows the Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back poster, so my guess is that they're doing them one per month, in release order (so that during May the Fourth weekend and for several days after we're getting the poster for the original Episode IV: A New Hope, and so on until we get Episode III: Revenge of the Sith in October). But we'll know for sure in a few days, of course. Oh, and as far as size goes, I imagine they'll be the same size as most other recent LEGO promo posters - much larger than 8x10s (and folded into quarters to accommodate), but smaller than the actual theatrical one-sheet posters one would see in a theater.

There actually is a brick-built Thomas Bangalter helmet there, though with only 125 votes as of this writing and less than a day left, its chances aren't good. Meanwhile, from the "funky Ideas coincidences" department, not one but two separate Thunderbird 4 projects by different builders got posted this same morning, within hours or even mere minutes of each other.

They do specifically mention mermaids in the one episode we've gotten of the show, after all, and LEGO already has a minidoll mermaid tail element thanks to Disney Princess. I think you're right - mermaids are extremely likely to turn up in this theme, if it continues beyond summer.

I watched that first episode a few days ago, as noted, and enjoyed it, but it seems to have disappeared from the Elves site shortly after that; I don't know what's going on there. It's still on YouTube, though. I also decided I wanted to know more about the music in the show (speaking of which, Aanchir, you mentioned an MP3 download a while ago, but I can't find that, either; what was it? Any chance I could get it?), and I looked up info on the song "If You Dare to Believe", and found the site for composer-performer Chris Hoyer, wherein it states here: So... five more episodes! - well, unless this also refers to the broken-up segments of the full episode we've seen, of course, but I don't think that would be the case. Moreover, in response to a YouTube commenter on the music video who asked "Is there only 1 episode?????" LEGO itself replied, "For now.. You'll have to wait for the 2nd ;)" Five episodes? That's essentially a feature film's worth of Elves-mation.

Well, I'm not in Italy, but... that is strange. Do we know for sure it won't be available in Italy? If so, why not?

Going by the date it was posted and the terms of the recent rules update re: additional time, it should have gotten an extension anyway, but it's nice to see it didn't need it. We now have at least thirteen projects in one review batch, four more than the previous record.

I was thinking it was the realm of The LEGO Movie, hence being entirely LEGO while the rest of the game appears to have environments that are mostly "real" save for LEGO aspects here and there. The design aesthetic of that city seems compatible with the movie's Bricksburg. From what I understand of Disney Infinity, the major reason for that game's Toy Box mode is that it's the only part of the game in which all of the characters from different realms can interact; as I understand it, outside the Toy Box, The Incredibles characters can play only in The Incredibles realm, Pirates of the Caribbean characters can play only in the Pirates of the Caribbean realm, etc., whereas LEGO Dimensions will allow all characters and vehicles and whatnot to go everywhere. Given that, there would seem to be less need of a sandbox-type mode in this game, unless it served some other purpose (such as free-form play, independent of the game missions and such).

All I know is I'm way behind on getting lots of current Star Wars sets I want, and for once I actually have a little money to work with, so I'll definitely get something; I just don't know what. It'd help if I knew what stuff would be on sale, but I guess I'll find out soon enough. But honestly, even if the only Mt4 bonuses I get are the Yularen minifigure and the poster(s), those are still enough for me, given that I want way more stuff than I'll need to buy to get those anyway.

They have "LEGO-ized" versions of movie posters for all six movies, like this: They're all based on the six main Drew Struzan posters for the 1997-2005 releases & re-releases of the six live-action movies (i.e., the individual posters for the 1997 Special Edition releases of the three OT movies, plus the main original release posters for the three prequel episodes). They just gave out all six of them at Star Wars Celebration a couple weeks ago, and as I understand it, they'll apparently start giving them out at LEGO Stores and Shop@Home next month for May the Fourth, but continue with them for six months. I might be misinformed, but as far as I can tell, apparently they'll use May the Fourth as kind of the kickoff of a countdown to Episode VII, and give out a different one of the posters each month for the next six months - so, probably the Star Wars - Episode I: The Phantom Menace poster next month along with the other SW promos, then the Star Wars - Episode II: Attack of the Clones poster in June, and so on, until finishing with Star Wars - Episode VI: Return of the Jedi in October. If this is the case (which, again, I don't know for certain just yet), I'm wondering whether they might intend to continue with a seventh poster in November, for Star Wars - Episode VII: The Force Awakens. It's only natural that there wouldn't be one yet, since the regular non-LEGO poster it would be based on hasn't appeared yet, of course. But again, I don't know for sure. All I really know is that they're supposed to start giving out these posters next month, but it could be that all six will be available at once, individually (one per purchase) or as a complete set with purchase, randomly or by choice of movie, whatever.

Not so much "forgot" as "didn't know about". I know there are Marvel microfigures (or rather, the trophy microfigures, or nanofigures - "microfigures" I've always taken to refer to the figures created for LEGO Games, which are different) in the Helicarrier set, but are there also DC ones? I honestly didn't know of any...

Real Indy, I hope you'll resubmit some of your own excellent projects after The Great Purge. I suspect it may be thousands - everything submitted anytime from when LEGO CUUSOO began, in 2008, to May 1st of 2014, that hasn't already either hit the vote target and entered a review batch or been archived. There are, I guess, at most several dozen projects that fall into one of those two categories (that either have already gotten 10k votes - this includes the ones that have actually been approved and become sets, as well as those that haven't - plus a handful of others that have been frozen and archived), but I think for at least the last couple years the submission rate has probably averaged more than one a day. I know there have been days recently when several new projects appear (though the rate does vary wildly from day to day). Even with it having started small, initially only in Japan, I think in those first six years or so they must have gotten thousands of submissions. That said, I don't think they're going to be deleted, per se; I think they'll just expire (the term used in the official Rules and Guidelines), and won't accept new votes or comments, and also won't show up in search results on the site, but will still be visible on the site by looking under the "Projects" tab on their creators' pages (just as all the previous projects that got archived, or got their votes but didn't pass review, are still visible there the same way). If so, I wonder what happens to an old project's posting if the creator decides to repost it and start fresh - will one be able to see the two instances of the same project under a person's projects, just with one active and one not? I don't know exactly when it happened, but sometime recently they added an "Expired" option to the "Project State" filter on the Discover page. On April 29th, the oldest projects that don't make it will switch from "1 DAY REMAINING" to "LESS THAN ONE DAY REMAINING", and then on April 30th the Ideas team will take the site offline briefly for an update, in which they'll add the additional time to all those projects that have earned it but not gotten it already, while all the other old projects will finally expire. At that time, for one day, we should be able to select the "Expired" option and see exactly how many projects fell away in The Great Ideas Purge (after that first day, of course, selecting Expired will show everything that fell in The Great Purge, but also things that expired one day after that, then later all those plus the things that expired two days later, etc.)

The minidoll sets aren't all aimed at the same ages, though. The Disney Princess sets skew a little younger than Friends, for example; DP sets have simpler, easier builds, while the Friends sets are designed - and age-rated - like comparable City sets. Moreover, doing all these new DC Girls sets as minifigure sets would mean no real new initiative - they'd be just part of the standard, existing DC Superheroes series, while the whole point of the branding is to make clear this is a new outreach toward girls / women. Just continuing the same line they've been doing the last three years wouldn't communicate that idea. Anyway, I don't think fans of DC characters as traditional minifigures need worry - they'll surely keep on with the existing DC minifigures line, and the minidoll sets won't eclipse them, any more than the already-existing Duplo sets do. I don't think that's going to happen at all. Look at the Duplo sets - did they stop putting Batman and Superman in minifigure sets just because those characters are now also appearing in Duplo sets? Of course not. So why should we think they'll stop putting Wonder Woman and Batgirl in minifigure sets just because they'll also appear as minidolls? The minidolls will just be a fourth type of LEGO figure used for DC Comics characters (after minifigures, constraction figures and Duplo figures).

Except that the minidolls were created in the first place because a lot of girls (no, not all, but a very significant number) just don't respond to minifigures the way we do. If this DC initiative is to bring more girls to DC, then LEGO's part isn't going to be about using DC characters to bring them to minifigures; that's the exact opposite of it. They'll use the minidolls (or minifigures; we don't actually know for sure which yet, though minidolls certainly seem likely) to bring girls to DC. The minidolls are already bringing more girls to LEGO than the minifigures did/do, after all; this is just another step.

Heck, it already has - aren't there plenty of people who thought last year's stuff would be it? (For that matter, there are plenty of us - including myself, I have to admit - who thought this theme would never happen in the first place, so...)

Well, they already have the minifigure lines drawing in boys; why not draw girls, too? The minidolls aren't inherently any more kid-oriented than the minifigures; they're just principally targeted at a different sex / gender. Minifigures themselves, despite the fact some adults such as ourselves like them, are similarly targeted at kids; the minidolls are targeted at kids in the same broad age range as minifigures. As for who LEGO is trying to draw in, it's not just LEGO - this is a big thing DC is doing, and you can bet that all DC's licensees will be a part of it, from LEGO to Mattel to Hasbro to anyone and everyone else. And frankly, I think it's a good thing. DC has screwed up and done an awful lot to turn girls and women away in recent years, and this kind of deliberate outreach to girls and women is honestly something they could really use to try and set things right, and make female comics fans feel welcome again. I also think it's great from a LEGO point of view, too - it'll just bring that much more variety to the minidoll world, and bring us a greater variety of set designs, etc. It's not going to take the place of the minifigure DC Super Heroes line, any more than the DUPLO DC sets have done; it'll just be another part of their overall DC output, just as the DUPLO sets are.

By the way, The Brick Fan reports there will be a LEGO Elves "make and take" build event at Toys 'R' Us stores on Saturday, April 25th (i.e., tomorrow), albeit apparently (only?) in Canada; visitors will get to build the Enchanted Treehouse.

Yeah, there have been a few already. Toward the end of the month, they'll take the site offline for a little while for some maintenance and housekeeping, and during that time they'll assign the extra time to all the projects that are less than two years old already and have hit at least one of the two milestones (1000 and 5000), but in the meantime, projects that pass one of those milestones during that time are getting it assigned now, rather than waiting. Some that have already gotten this extra time include this Coinop Videogame, the not dissimilar project Arcade Machines 1980!, this Imperial Probe Droid aka Probot, and this Modular Library. There are a few more that should get it shortly, like this The Secret of Monkey Island project, which just passed 1000 votes but hasn't gotten any extra time yet, as of this posting; as I write, it has 287 days, but by this time tomorrow I expect it'll have 458.

Hey, Small YELLOW made it, with days to spare! We now have a full dozen projects at the "Achieved Support" stage that will make up the next review batch - already three more than the previous record, and there are still several days to go. Just how many more might we see?