natelite

you have some pretty good suggestions/ideas. i like the reissue of anubis guard since those only came in the $99 set. recolored, i think they should be quite popular. spaceman remade in red (reissue version) sounds good too. sort of neo-classic red spaceman like. good. what i don't like is more clowns. we already have 2 clowns and 1 mime. how many more iterations do you need?! no more monkey. how many chimpanzees do you need? evil wrestler, i can dig it. if they make it in black and white, i can see the popularity especially with the metal rock band - kiss - fans. hopefully they will also include the evil long tongue. i wouldn't want them to make a cyclops because it will most inevitably fail. too small. they should consider making a 2x larger minifigure to complement the regular minifig. in the last 20 years, there's been hardly any need to make double-sized figures, but we desperately need one now. i don't quite like the one-mold large figure like the hulk, trolls, etc. they should consider making a double-sized figure to make the larger monsters, like minotaurs, trolls, giants, hulk, the thing, cyclops, etc.

i doubt they would have a theme based on an obscure indian tribe in trinidad and tobago.

i dont think legends of chima will be in heroica's settings. if it was heroica, why not just use heroica to strength the brand name? so i postulate that it's different, and not necessarily medieval rpg. i'm guessing here that it might be similar to aang, the last airbender or similar type of fantasy steampunk universe. not sure what speedorz is going to be. not sure how it can be any different from racers... probably will be equally bad.

Saw your blog. Btw the conquistador helmet is metallic gold not pearl gold. Which means the base is tan, and is sprayed metallic gold.

how do you propose this being any different from the classic lego skeleton that warrants its inclusion in the CMF series?

a great suggestion (as have been made by many) is a cricket player. lego fans have been dying for a cricket bat - both for the sports and for as zombie defense and moc'ing a shaun of the dead scene. they can also introduce a protective helmet with the cricket player, which the baseball fans can collect for their previous baseball player, without being repetitive by reissuing another baseball player with a new headgear.

i think what we agree on is that army building means different things to different people. for some people, 5 is enough. for some, only more than 40 is reasonably army building. so if the objective is to discover which figure is so high in demand with lego fans worldwide that the demand causes price to spike to the stratosphere, then we should agree on the definition of army building as the average worldwide ownership of more than 10 per fans. in other words, if by some oddity, someone likes to collect graduates by buying 100s of them, but the average fan would not have more than 1-2 of them, then that's not army building. if we agree on this definition, then it's quite clear which ones are army building CMFs. contrary to popular beliefs, cheerleaders are not army building. there are a few folks who collect 10s of these but most folks just collect 1s. and the above definition is also very consistent with how BL prices them. army builders are always priced higher than the average or median price for the serie. there are exceptions. like nurse, cheerleader, clown of series 1. they aren't specifically army builders per se, but they are higher priced than ninjas, forestmen, cowboys of series 1.

never going to happen. no religious figures for TLC. too controversial. if you want an elephant head figure, then just say elephant suit guy. if you want 4 armed guy, just say 4 armed freak but you can probably get that from garmaddon already. besides, he looks strangely like kali. the rest should be described as such.

OMG. i sincerely hope not. i'm sorry but most of your ideas are extremely mediocre. i wouldn't want most of them if they ever appear in a serie. boy with pet, gamer boy, chef, baker, policeman, fireman, office clerk, hotel clerk, store clerk, postal clerk, shopper, tourist with camera, backpacker tourist, etc. you can easily make these from your spare parts or from the BAM selection. some of your more interesting suggestions were just a rehash of earlier posts by others, like generic superhero and supervillain, boy/man in skeleton suit, penguin (or other animal) suit, pilgrim, etc. miner or gold prospector is just a rehash of what i suggested earlier. please be creative and dream up more interesting and original figures. here's one - fumagator or fogger - accessories: gas mask, bug spray and tank. here's why it's interesting - GAS MASK and a single cylinder tank. depending on the torso prints, you can create post-apoc minifigs from the gas mask, you can create WW2 soldiers from it, or even steampunk minifigs. and because it's a pest fogger, TLC is not violating it's no modern arms rule. but in reality, most will buy the figure to remake as soldiers. it's also a figure that will cater to the army building crowd! woot woot...

Glued flaps aren't the answer. You can quite easily cut it open and re-glue the box back. As I mentioned a while ago, the best method is to use plastic transparent lids. That way, you can see the contents easily. This should help prevent fraudulent returns and help customers not purchase an incomplete set. The downside is that there may be more in store thefts. Things like ripped boxes may be common. Have you seen the DK Lego books? The minifigures are almost always missing because thieves just take the book, go to a private corner, remove the minifigs and return the book to the shelves. With the new box, there might be more "incidents" where the thieves would deliberately drop the boxes to puncture the lid so they can remove the valuable parts inside. But that's hard to stop against. In fact, even cardboard boxes have been deliberately ripped open for such thefts. It's hard to stop a determined thief. The changes I suggested help the average retail customer to visually check the contents before purchase and help the average store employee process returns better. It doesn't help the ignorant though. It's too hard to figure that one out. P.s. I just thought of something. Perhaps they can seal boxes much like how they seal the Lego games boxes. It's quite clear which box has been opened and which hasn't with those. But I still like the transparent plastic lid option. I like to be able to see what I'm buying.

With the current exchange rates, the prices are getting very similar. In fact, given the worse economic situation in Europe you will see more sales in Europe which means things will be cheaper there than in the US. Only Asia Pacific seems to be distorted still due to the growing wealth and better currencies. I'm quite surprised TLC hasn't yet make its plan to grow there. I mean, even Merlin is smart enough to build the next Lego theme park in Malaysia but TLC doesn't open another Lego store there? Why? If I were in charge of business development or strategy in TLC, I would open 4 stores in Asia: one in Hong Kong, one in Singapore, one in Sydney, and one in Tokyo. That would give a good starting ground to see where else demand might be coming in from. There seems to be a good demand for Lego from Korea too...so that might be another option as well.

the view from the top looks horrible as the gaps are too visible but otherwise, i think the round pauldrons are a tad better than the spiky pauldrons. i think using the cloth pauldrons from either the arc trooper or chancellor palpatine might be the best overall choice. just my thoughts... until someone puts all three together for a nice comparison.

where are the pics of ironman with the round pauldrons?

I would like to see they make a wizard of oz scarecrow minifig with a proper straw hat. You can remake a proper farmer or country bumpkin using that straw hat. I know we had quite a few western minifigs already but I would like to see another, perhaps a banker or an oil baron with a large 10-gallon hat. We haven't yet have one of those. It'll be a good addition to a new western theme. Lastly I like to see a new castle visor. We had many new scifi helmets and I think it's time they remake the knight's visor. Perhaps make a good knight/paladin as the counter to the evil knight from S7.

wow...thanks for the vote of confidence by repeating what i said. as for boy in halloween costume, it's best if you give the specifics. as for me, i think of it as a boy with a carved-out pumpkin as a headgear. it'll be a great, quirky and unique minifigure to collect. you can also display the headgear separately as a jack-o-lantern. you can probably re-use it as the jack-o-lantern villain too if you play around with the parts creatively.

+1 to supersympa. It's a great trade and I would do it again. two thumbs up

i don't quite like the current large one-piece mold. first off, it's not modular, and hence you can't use it for anything else. secondly, you can't pose the legs. for something so large, posability is huge. short legs i can understand since you are confined by the mechanics of what's possible and what's not. but a figure that huge and made out of a single mold... just doesn't seem smart. they can't even reuse the mold for anything else. every new character is a new mold. what a waste. not sure if you've seen alex boudon's template for large® figures. it's basically similar in concept to a minifigure but modularized for larger figures. i think it's great since you can customize your figure to something new. TLC can reuse the mold with different base colors or prints for a new maxifigure. you can use normal minifig heads on the maxifigures. the logic just piles up. it all just make sense. it also has proportion similar to the minifig and looks aesthetically similar to the minifig. you can tell immediately that it's lego - unlike the current large molded figures which look like a cross between megabloks and action figurines. it's just wrong. kids are the most discerning consumers and i think your kid knew immediately which he favors though he may not be able to verbalize it. it's quite clear which of the two that kids prefer. my kids are drawn to minifigures too. i really think they should make maxifigures and stop those ugly one-piece molds.

there are probably lots of duplicated suggestions but i'm hoping the additional exposure will somehow catch a designer's eyes. here's what i like to see : 1. tiki shaman with the gungan oval shield as headgear - and a scary polynesian printed mask on it. 2. terra cotta warrior (or ancient chinese warrior) - preferably with new stone chain-linked armor. 3. roman centurion with new removable curass armor (or can be spartan or greek hoplite but curaiss is the important item here). 4. man in animal costume - another good one. i prefer lion or bear but chicken suit is cool too. we'll be seeing lots of family guy mocs if that's the case. 5. medusa is good too. 6. angel or devil. 7. elf queen. 8. modern-day archer - with the new hawkeye compound bow and a new hip-worn quiver (good for parts). 9. gaul, with new bullet helmet with slots for horns but come with side feather plumes (can be re-used for angels too) -> can be used to make custom captain america figure. 10. victorian era lady - with can-can cloth skirt instead of slope, and thespian's neck piece in new color, and wig. can reuse wig in white for a judge or a british lord. can reuse cloth skirt for a western lady or a can-can dancer. 11. generic super hero to capitalize on the recent super hero craze - head print with masked eye and a confident bordering on arrogance smile/smirk. torso with some alphabet in decorative design(perhaps O for Octan-man or L for Lego-man). comes with a cape in new loud color like bright/neon orange or bright purple. 12. a crazy, old gold digger/prospector with the johnny thunder hat worn with the folded side in front, a pickaxe, a barrel and a dynamite. head - a crazed look with a toothy grin, with white side burns and stubbles. 13. swat/riot police - use the new square roman shield and the hockey player helmet with transparent but full visor instead of the gridded visor. 14. bellhopper is good too. 15. an american puritan/settler with musket and turkey (see google images for sample). 16. genghis khan (http://www.lovehkfilm.com/panasia/aj6293/genghis_khan.jpg) - new helmet, new chain-link armor. 17. a man in full body plaster and crutches.

pls no more groom with rings. seriously. you take a minifig in suit, give him a ring from lotr and that's it. it doesn't add anything new. not in terms of parts as we already have plenty of black suits torsos, not in terms of figure. nothing. don't make this suggestion, please! things like sea captain, sea pirates, pastry chefs, restaurant chefs, etc. these are just titles to something which are a-dime-a-dozen. there is no difference between a pastry chef or a sou-chef or a head chef in legoland. every single one wears a chef hat and is white. don't make these mindless recommendations which are extremely niche in terms of target audience. we want better CMF series, not more mediocrity. baseball catcher with mitts and new headgear i can understand but not another ordinary baseball player with different print. news reporter? how is that any different from any ordinary guy in suit? french guy with a baguette? take the mime and give it yellow head and hands, and a baguette. canadian mountie - take the current forest police, done. magician? buy s1 magician from BL for below cost price of $1.50. done. you don't need a rehash of an unwanted figure for $2.99. totally mindless. so no more pop star or rock star or dj or fitness instructor in non-pink colors or guy with headphones, or ice skater, figure skater, skateboarder, skier, etc. we have plenty of parts from the 8 series to make like 100s of varieties of these stuff. what i like to see (which were superbly suggested here as well): 1. tiki shaman with the gungan oval shield as headgear - and a scary polynesian printed mask on it. 2. terra cotta warrior - preferably with new stone chain-linked armor. 3. roman centurion with new removable curass armor (or can be spartan or greek hoplite but curaiss is the important item here). 4. man in animal costume - another good one. i prefer lion or bear but chicken suit is cool too. we'll be seeing lots of family guy mocs if that's the case. 5. medusa is good too. 6. angel or devil. 7. elf queen. 8. modern-day archer - with the new hawkeye compound bow and a new hip-worn quiver (good for parts). 9. gaul, with new bullet helmet with slots for horns but come with side feather plumes (can be re-used for angels too) -> can be used to make custom captain america figure. 10. victorian era lady - with can-can cloth skirt instead of slope, and thespian's neck piece in new color, and wig. can reuse wig in white for a judge or a british lord. can reuse cloth skirt for a western lady or a can-can dancer. 11. generic super hero - head print with masked eye and a confident bordering on arrogance smile/smirk. torso with some alphabet in decorative design(perhaps O for Octan-man or L for Lego-man). comes with a cape in new color like bright orange or bright purple. 12. a crazy, old gold digger/prospector with the johnny thunder hat worn with the folded side in front, a pickaxe, a barrel and a dynamite. head - a crazed look with a toothy grin, with white side burns and stubbles. 13. swat/riot police - use the new square shield and the hockey player helmet but with transparent but full visor instead of the gridded visor. 14. bellhopper is good too. 15. an american puritan/settler with musket and turkey (see google images for sample). 16. genghis khan (http://www.lovehkfilm.com/panasia/aj6293/genghis_khan.jpg) - new helmet, new chain-link armor. 17. a man in full body plaster and crutches.

you get 2 newspaper tile pieces from the batman/catwoman set. so this is nothing special. if not for the black bowler hat (which i think will be issued in a future set or CMF series) this mf is extremely boring.

I think it's a missed opportunity with the DJ. The headphones should have been removable and made to attach to the hairpiece like visors. It will also ensure compatibility with the friends ladyfigs since the hairpieces also have tiny holes for accessories. It was the right direction to start making accessories which are separate from hairpieces. There would have been a lot more uses for a separate headphone piece. For e.g. he could wear it with the strap down at the back of his neck rather than over his head. We could have recycle the headphones with new hairpieces when they become available. You could also use it as a visor on a helmet.

A great custom. Hardly can tell its a custom.

I think he's asking if the arms are attached to the torso. He wants to know how to feel for them in the blind packaging.

Most of your comments are valid and highlighted the points of this series being mainly a parts pack. I just want to address some of your points which were not quite valid. So don't take this as an attack. . The conquistador armor is your regular euro armor with new prints. It's not a new mold. You don't need a hollowed out ball. Just one with studs on both pointy ends. That way you can hold the ball in the mf's hands or place it down on the field for a punt. The pirate's hook in pearl gold has been plentiful enough. In the last pirates theme released in 2010, any hook has been in pearl gold. If they had made it in light bley or pearly grey this round it would be better. It's the same with the conquistador helmet. Metallic silver would be ideal but any variation of light bley or pearl grey would have been better than gold. I'm not quite sure what they are thinking sometimes.

Again I ask, you guys are kidding right? You saw the designs of rehashes and the reaction to them and yet still insist on a rehash of the most plentiful minifigure in the Lego universe besides policemen. I must ask the question again. Why? Before you answer i need to ask how many of the forest firemen sets did you buy? I think they should have a law to force folks who make these kinds of mindless suggestions to buy the unsold stocks rotting away on the shelves.