Blondie-Wan

Wait, what? LEGO-ified covers of famous WB movies? What’s this about? If you mean to tell me I can now get a Blu-ray of, say, Casablanca or Citizen Kane with LEGO cover art, I am going to be beside myself...

I was just in a local Walmart and noticed new packages I hadn’t seen before for Blu-rays of The LEGO Movie and The LEGO Batman Movie. They were each in boxes like those used with many of the LEGO video releases that include polybags and such, sporting banners across the top saying “3 BONUS FIGURINES” next to a photo of the same Wyldstyle, Batman, and Gandalf minifigures included with the LEGO Dimensions Starter Packs; Wyldstyle even has her Dimensions-exclusive tracker. I don’t know how long these have been around, but I think they’re new, as I believe I’d have noticed them earlier if they’d been around a good while. They look like they could be Walmart exclusives, but I didn’t see anything that definitively establishes that. At any rate, they’re kind of interesting in a number of ways: 1) Ouch. I knew LD hadn’t performed to expectations, but this is the first time I’ve seen something that smelled this obviously like they were just dumping excess parts inventory after overproducing stuff for the game. 2) Assuming these bundles are indeed new and haven’t been sitting around on shelves for several months or a year or whatever without anyone noticing, it makes one wonder just how many more of the Starter Packs they’d anticipated selling, and over what timeframe. We know they’d planned for at least three years of waves of releases, and of course they’d want to keep the SPs available if they wanted to recruit new players in the later years of the game, even if the older packs were no longer available. As it is, LEGO still has stock of the Wii U, XBox 360, and PS4 Starter Packs and is still selling them on Shop at Home, even though all the add-on packs are now gone nearly everywhere. I would have thought they’d just continue to produce the SPs at a rate sufficient to meet demand over the life of the game, but could they instead have just made tons of the necessary components up front, enough to meet all the anticipated need for years, so that they wouldn’t have production lines continuing to turn out the SP minifigures for years on end? If so, what about the other game-specific parts - is there a big stockpile in some LEGO warehouse somewhere of 12x24 plates with 6x6 hole and two corner cutouts in Dark Stone? If so, could we expect to eventually see those portal plates turn up in Pick-a-Brick? 3) It may be just a promotional freebie (and one intended principally more to get rid of unwanted inventory rather than actually actively promote something), but even so, I think this technically still constitutes a new LEGO product release utilizing characters from The Hobbit / The Lord of the Rings. The license yet lives! I still don’t yet have The LEGO Batman Movie on Blu-ray yet, so I very nearly picked up this bundle, but didn’t just yet; I kind of want to get 3D release of the movie even though I’m not able to watch 3D yet, and having three different versions of the LD Starter Pack (for Wii U, PS3, and PS4), not to mention various other sets, I already have all the copies I need of these minifigures / characters, and then some. But still...

I have them (everything but a couple DUPLO sets, two of the four polybags, and the extended line stuff), but honestly I still want these. That said, I do agree the 2010 line is a better representation of the overall franchise (up to that point, of course) than these are to the franchise as it stands now. Of course, we’re looking at these through adult eyes, and it may well be that this year’s revival offerings really are better for the audience LEGO is trying to reach. But I do have to say I’m glad I have the sets from nine years ago.

I agree there are projects like that, but I don’t think they make up an actual majority of submissions.

Perhaps. I would have thought, though, that they’d just use the old molds, as they’ve done for Buzz (aside from his 2010 head), the Pizza Planet alien(s), and Rex. If anything, it seems to me like going to more traditional minifigures might actually be more expensive than reusing the special 2010 arm, leg, and head molds, since this means they had to create new molds for Woody’s and Jessie’s hats, and so on. Moreover, I certainly wouldn’t mind seeing the longer arms and legs brought back, not just for Toy Story but for a number of themes. A while back I saw a custom Chewbacca someone had done using the longer Toy Story arms and legs painted brown, and though I personally am more of a purist when it comes to minifigures, I found it remarkably effective. That said, I think I’ll still get these sets, and combine them with the 2010 line, the Disney Minifigures, and my modest MOCing skills for my personal ideal LEGO representation of this franchise.

Too large for what?

Neither is the chrome gold C-3PO minifigure.

I plan to get them all. I could see leaving out Mickey and Minnie if one is getting the LEGO Ideas Steamboat Willie set, and I do want to get that as well, but... eh, I think I’ll try for all of these anyway.

Wait, what?! A Mars subtheme of City coming this summer?!

I don’t think either of those is as weird as the fact the runner-up prizes each include two different Slave I sets. Honestly, in fact, I don’t actually see anything particularly weird about them giving away the chromed Threepio figure or the Tantive IV set, whether they’re doing a new Tantive IV set or not.

We do know that they have an archive of most of their products from over the decades, and the descriptions mention that these “are collected from the LEGO vault”. It’s just a little noteworthy that they apparently have extra copies of a few things specifically to give away in contests and the like - but then, it was already known that they’ve done this sometimes, I believe. IIRC, back in 2007 they pulled and set aside three extra copies of the 10179 UCS Millennium Falcon specifically to give away as prizes for future contests, in addition to whatever stock they wanted for their own archives (and I think they’ve since given away just two of them, so unless I’m mistaken, there may still be one more 10179 left that they intend to give away to some lucky person on some future date). Back sometime in the early or mid-2000s, they also occasionally gave away or auctioned some much older sets (from the 1970s, for example). There was an official LEGO seller’s account on eBay, and they had a few auctions of vintage sets and donated the proceeds to certain children’s charities, IIRC.

Note that that’s just the grand prize; there are also two runner-up prize packages:

That’s unusual, too. I was so taken aback by Chip that I didn’t even realize right off that they’d also shown Huey without his brothers. It’s unusual because these characters are usually depicted together (Huey with Louie and Dewey, and Chip with Dale) on merchandise packaging and such when it’s meant to encompass the full groups - like, obviously it’s different with the tag on a plush doll or the blister card holding an action figure of one specific character, but blind-bag figure packaging for a line encompassing all three Duck nephews and both chipmunks? It’s just a little peculiar for one character from either camp to be prioritized in that way over the others, that’s all. Of course I realize that the selection of characters on the fronts is meant to be quasi-random sampling of some of the characters and not really saying that some are more important than others, or whatever (but note they still made sure Mickey and Minnie made it both times... as did Emmet and Wyldstyle on both LEGO Movie series, and as did Homer and Bart on both Simpsons series). I do also get that the characters used here serve as convenient shorthand for their overall groups - they likely don’t want to fill up five of the limited character spots on the bags with just characters from these two groups, while at the same time they may still want to give some indication that nephew and chipmunk characters are there, so this accomplishes that. It’s not really strange from a LEGO blind-bagged figure packaging perspective. It’s just unusual from a Disney products packaging perspective.

Yesterday Apple announced a new gaming subscription service coming in September for Macs, Apple TV, and iOS devices. Among the apparently exclusive titles coming to the service are at least two LEGO games - LEGO Arthouse, about which we know little beyond the title, and LEGO Brawls, which is being described as like “Super Smash Bros. with minifigures”.

Wow - that bag is really unusual in picturing Chip without Dale, I believe.

LEGO is partnering with NimbleBit, creator of Tiny Tower (and its erstwhile Star Wars variation, Tiny Death Star), to produce a new LEGO version, coming soon for iOS and Android: There’s also a new contest on LEGO Ideas to design a floor for the game. One winner will get his or her floor used in the final game, and get a prize package including the Corner Garage and Ship in a Bottle sets, plus a $200 shopping spree on Shop at Home.

I don’t know about piece count, but in terms of overall set content (build, functionality, etc.), both the Exo Suit and the Pop-Up Book final sets incorporate substantially more than the original submissions. The Exo Suit may have a bit less greebling and detailing than the submission (certainly it has very different greebling and detailing), but it doubled the minifigure count and added a robo-turtle and some additional equipment, and the Pop-Up Book incorporated the original submission’s proposed story (Little Red Riding Hood) while adding a whole additional one (Jack and the Beanstalk). Also, while not quite as huge an addition / expansion as those, the Yellow Submarine Yellow Submarine added a display stand and a Jeremy figure that weren’t part of the original project. Snake doesn’t bend a “rule”. It’s not common for D2C sets to introduce pieces, even ones that remain unique to those sets, but it’s not completely unknown, either (note not only Snake’s head, but both versions of the UCS X-Wing cockpit canopy element, the first of which remains unique to that set). LEGO doesn’t have a hard and fast rule against Ideas sets including new elements; they just don’t accept submissions that specifically call for them, but they’re perfectly free to approve proposals and then create new elements for them if they decide they’re needed. They just haven’t done so before this year. I suspect it’s likely they began working on it as soon as it entered review, if not earlier, possibly even once the product idea got to 10k. We do know from past statements that sometimes when they can, they begin working on Ideas sets before they “have” to, and that they sometimes know well before making an official announcement that they’ll do a particular idea. For example, when they announced the Second 2017 Review Results, they softened the blow of the disappointment from none of the projects being approved by announcing they had already chosen at least one project from the following review. That would turn out to be the Pop-Up Book. It was internally a “go” at least four months or so before they publicly announced they were doing it. _____________________ I see a lot of comments about the price of this one. For the size of the boat, $90 does indeed seem high... yet it doesn’t actually have that high a price on a per-piece basis; it works out to a hair under 12 cents per piece, which is hardly unusual. What is it about this one that seems so exorbitant - is it just the physical size of the build, which uses a lot of parts in a dense arrangement for a compact build? A lower-than-expected number of minifigures for a minifigure-scale set this size? Something else?

Oh, I’m sure. I know we’re not at the point yet that the franchise is definitely sunk, but I do think it’s imperiled. But it’s not clear where we are with this latest one yet - not only is it still in theaters, but it only opens in China tomorrow, and in Australia and Japan next week. And then there’s video and such. I personally suspect, but of course don’t know, that it will ultimately make some profit, but possibly a small one. I also don’t know, given any particular box-office total the current film reaches, how comfortable WB will be doing more. These movies are pretty expensive, generally becoming more so with each installment (an exception being The LEGO Ninjago Movie, which cost less than The LEGO Batman Movie, though still more than the original The LEGO Movie), while at the same time the box-office returns have trended downwards (The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part has handily outperformed The LEGO Ninjago Movie, but appears unlikely to match the takes of the two previous movies). On the one hand, this doesn’t exactly inspire confidence. On the other, movies are an inherently risky business, and this particular franchise isn’t the most expensive one WB is handling. Of the three movies that have had their full runs, only one is a clear financial disappointment and likely loss. While LM2’s final performance isn’t known yet, it has already demonstrated a later entry in the franchise can surpass an earlier one. For us outsiders, there’s really no telling what Warner will decide, until it happens.

In light of today’s reveal, I’ve added Hercules to the list - finally, a property beginning with H, at last! Now we just need to take care of Q, U, X, and Z, and the LEGO licenses will include at least one for every letter of the alphabet. Oh, it should easily be Warner Bros., no question - DC, the Wizarding World, Middle-Earth, Speed Racer, Adventure Time, Scooby-Doo, The Flintstones, The Powerpuff Girls, The Goonies, Gremlins, Beetlejuice, The Wizard of Oz, and probably other stuff I’m forgetting. Some of those are just a single Ideas set or LEGO Dimensions pack or whatever, but the first three are all big, multi-year themes with D2Cs and everything, a couple of which are still running, and are huge. (That’s not to mention that the “LCU”, which we think of as LEGO’s own, is technically more of a joint property they share with WB.)

It looks to me like every figure has at least one new part (except for Mickey and Minnie’s new hats appearing in the Ideas set first). Has Sally’s hair been seen before? What about her bouquet? Re: repetition, I believe eight of these characters have been in LEGO before, but three of them only as minidolls, and two more only as Brickheadz. Unless I’m mistaken (which is quite possible), only three characters here have been Minifigures before.

Almost, but not quite - the Doctor Who elements appeared first in the LEGO Dimensions pack (released in November 2015), and then in the Ideas set (released mere weeks later, on December 1st). That means the LEGO Ideas Doctor Who set is the first Ideas set released from an active licensed property, but Steamboat Willie is the first one approved from an active license, as well as the first one to introduce new molded elements (while The Flintstones is the first one to introduce a new element of any kind).

I’m utterly agog that they’ve done (are doing) two full sets of Disney Minifigures without Goofy. It’s nice that folks who want “Steamboat Willie” Mickey & Minnie but have a hard time affording / justifying the price of the Ideas set can get just those figures, but it’s still peculiar. I can’t believe someone thinks this series is “lazy” (!); some of the selections are odd, perhaps, but they’ve clearly put more work into these than needed. Rather than use the same Donald / Daisy head mold, they did a new one for Scrooge, and another new one for Huey, Dewey, and Louie. Rather than do one new head mold for Chip ‘n Dale, they did specific ones for each. I’ll try to get them all, as I did the first time around.

Possibly, but as noted, they were still introduced here. (And of course I doubt the fabric Flintstones car roof is being used again in any other set, though you never know...)

It’s been brought up elsewhere, but an Ideas first always is worth mentioning here, too, so... Coming on the heels of the first new element shape (the diecut textile piece for the car roof in The Flintstones), the new “Steamboat Willie” set is now the first Ideas set to introduce actual new molded elements (Mickey and Minnie’s hats). Ideas continues to pass new milestones, some of which we thought we’d never see. :) It’s also worth noting that it’s only March, “Steamboat Willie” (the year’s second Ideas set) launches April 1, and we already know what the next two sets are (the Treehouse and Friends’ Central Perk). Could 2019 be the first year with five Ideas sets released?

Agreed. I’d certainly defer to the writer’s expertise when it comes to the money side of movies, but I don’t think he’s a particularly astute judge of the creative side if he truly sees little difference between the LCU works and the various video specials. That said, that’s a very small part of his article, and unfortunately I think he may well be right in his main argument (about the LCU being effectively done at this point). Well, that is... unless they’ve already put enough money into The Billion Brick Race (or whatever its current name is) that they determine it’s better to finish and release it, and hope for the best, than to abandon it and completely write off whatever they’ve spent so far. True, but Warner shares that with LEGO, and I’m not sure whatever cut Warner gets of merch sales is enough for them to continue bankrolling this franchise. Warner wants to sell movie tickets, first and foremost, while TLG wants to sell LEGO sets. Both surely also want to sell additional miscellaneous ancillary products, but I suspect for Warner to want to continue with these movies, it has to first make sense to them purely on ticket sales.