natelite

Drat. I need a new title. I have megabloks expert for the longest time now. :-P

isn't it? I even have a great story. Space rangers vs the pirate blackbeard. in the year 2030AD, law enforcers are fighting the worst scourge in intergalactic history. Pirate blackbeard and his gang of evil raiders have invaded all walks of peaceful civilization. Will you help the space rangers and free the galaxies from the scourge and return peace to the galaxies?

I'm getting this mostly because I was missing the first darth maul mf. :-P and if there is one must have char from the prelude episodes, you know it's darth maul! If they make a special soft rubber hair mold, that's even better!

If you ask me, there are lots of themes lego can use without having to resort to violence. How about a space/futuristic civilian theme? How about a medieval civilian theme? I think they are just afraid to launch something so contrarian to today's pop culture of violence. I mean the present police theme involves human vs human conflicts. But some of the humans were clearly bad (criminals). So what's wrong with a space civilian theme, like space police? We can also incorporate space civilian buildings too, like space mining, space refueling station, space bank, space trading market (for crystals or other goods exchange). I have been saying this for a while now, but will iterate here too. I think a space/futuristic theme can actually be popular. Just make sure there are lots of good mix of civilians, including aliens. It actually helps to promote tolerance in society, ie not to discriminate based on physical attributes. In fact with the current MM theme, it is actually worse in that it promotes violence against different race: aliens vs humans. What does that say about being tolerant to those who are different from us? I know that without conflicts, sets just wont sell, so why not create a futuristic conflict theme based on criminals (space pirates!) vs law enforcers (space police!). And instead of making it human vs human, just make it faction vs faction (ie pirates vs police). I mean not every alien is evil, so why even have the human vs alien conflict in mission mars? Just make sure to have the bad guys hoist the pirate signs all over the vehicle to distinguish between the baddies and the goodies.

thanks. i went on a whim anyway but too bad the castles were oos. i got the last 2 asylum sets though. :-P i also saw the new pab minifig section. too bad they ran out of the silver greatswords. dont feel like forking out $4 for a princess or evil ogel wizard mf. :-P

it's hard to time when to buy or know what will be a blockbuster seller. in general if it is not city or star wars, the chances of being on sale is much higher. city and start wars sets are hardly on sale and usually sell out very fast if ever on sale. what i do is if it's available from B&M stores, i will buy it there. shipping for online purchase kills most deals anyway. the good thing with B&M purchase is if it later went on sale i can return the original purchase for full refund. :-P

was the castle also 50% off at the local lego store?

That's odd. I never seen PAB mf version in the lego stores. Maybe the ones nearby my place don't do those. :-P a pity really since those would be much better than magnet sets.

Well, I hope not. Knights should be the knights. The bishops should be new mfs, perhaps with a hood and a robe. Ideally if the rooks/castles can be mfs as well that would be great but I am fine with mini towers for rooks. Having the knights as something else (like the horse head armor) would be bleh for me. :-P

Wow, you trust us enough to send by post the two discontinued mfs to us???

In fact, I think that is precisely the problem. Plus TLG's own doing. What were they thinking coming up with magnet sets for batman - a theme solely centered on a few key characters? Once you get the mf, you don't need to buy the sets.

If you ask me, any movie with the potential to army build can be a big seller. I think that's the difference between lego and the other toy makers. Mattel, hasbro thrive on a selected few characters since they are mostly based on action figures. Lego is on create and build, and the potential to act like a god or general overseeing the battlefield. For that though, you need army building. Lots of it. For that, I think LOTR could have been a big seller (recreate the big battle scenes, etc). Maybe even the new movie "300". Alexander. King Arthur. Well, those are rather bad movies so maybe TLG should not associate itself with bad movies. :-P don't know of any good sci-fi movies that you can army build with.

Someone brought up the topic of lego in china, which I find interesting (since china is the hottest news these days). Now, here is my take on this subject. There are way too many knockoffs in china at the moment but it's definitely a ground which lego wants to thread lightly. They can't afford to go in too early since they cannot compete on price and relatively few people in china knows about lego, so brand name accounts for almost nothing. If they go in too early and ended up not selling anything, it will be disasterous for its brand as it will need to liquidate its operation (and inventory) and become known as a failure both for its set and brand name. But if they stay too long from that market, it will also be disasterous. If one of those knockoffs got off to developing a reputation for its brand (ie climb up the tech chain, make better plastics, better designs, etc), it may become even bigger than lego. In which case, the KO will begin to compete with TLG in the international market, and may even replace TLG as the no 1 choice with consumers globally. Case in point: Haier. It is still currently a wannabe consumer electrical products manufacturer. But we are seeing that it competes with korean/us manufacturers (LG, Fridgeaire, etc) in the us market these days. In china, it is the largest and most reputable brand name, surpassing even japanese brands (Toshiba, Panasonic/National). And in the us market it is rapidly gaining market share due to warehouse retailers carrying its brand (eg, Target, Home Depot). And we know as soon as you "conquer" the US market, the brand name will build itself over time. ---------------------------- Now on the topic of licensing: I think I'm on board with the group that says it's a waste of time/effort except for SW. I think that's mostly because of the lack of a need for either army building or large flagships or vehicles. Spiderman, batman, avatar, spongebob all have limited characters in them and a lack of need for army building. Sw on the other hand, lots of vehicles, spaceships, huge universe and large need to army build. All of the successful themes have centered on either evolution (bionicle, EF - new year = new sets, city), or army building (castle, sw, etc). Unfortunately, all the licenced products have limited evolution (one batmobile, one batcopter) and no army building (how many batmen or spidermen do you need?) So having said that, I think they should focus licenced products on army building themes, like LOTR, narnia, tarabithia, etc. (sorry, can't think of sci-fi army building themes). edit: I just thought of a good licenced theme TLG can venture into. Buzz lightyear and the star command. Simple theme, yet holds potential for army building. Will be popular with kids and afol alike. :-P

from an article from newsweek. it stated that NA was only 10% vs Europe of 30%. that's partially the reason for the lower set prices in NA than in Europe. :-) i dont exactly remember the date...a few month back, maybe mar or apr is my guess.

lego has a market penetration of 10% in NA. so about 30m fans?? so a safe assumption is that at least 10% of lego fans are also sw lego fans. :-P just a stupid top down estimate from me... ;-)

maybe he meant over two million sw lego fans. X-D

well, just in case anyone doesn't believe...i will let the picture speaks for me. :)

I stopped arguing with morris a few pages back

I'm voting more from a practical stand point. Since we are already accustomed to the 4 stud cars, 6 stud trucks we should stick with the scale. Ideally, I think 6 stud cars and 8 stud trucks are better but we have so many models with the former scale that it would not be practical to rework all existing models to those size.

Well, I don

Wow. Those are superb. The trolls (or orcs, it looks more like an orc but whatever) are GREAT. Too bad it's too customized for the regular mf helmets and armors to fit. The dwarves on the other hand. DROOL! Fantastic new helmet. Yeow! Can't wait for these to be released as new sets. Great work LEGO! Finally, we are getting medieval fantasy! Yippee! For elves, I think it should just be a new head piece: some hairpiece with pointy ears on the side and a hole on top to slide onto the head stud. Then we can put the forestmen hats on top of the stud. Maybe they can recycle the EF heads, since those already have pointy eyes. Can't wait to see what else they come up with. Maybe new classes too. I like to see more variety of characters instead of the current selection of knights or foot soldiers. Some clerics, druids or shamans would be fun.

Well, I think part of the problem is inflation. $50 20-30 years ago is a lot of money. You can't keep buying lots of $50 sets. So kids like myself (back then) only have at most 1 or 2 sets. So to create enough play value, we are forced to disassemble the primary model and rebuild into alternative models. And perhaps come up with original models by ourselves. These days $50 is cheap and everyone can afford to buy a lot more lego sets. There is less incentive to rebuild alternative models or to even invent your own. If you want new play value, you go out and get a new set.

Well, most buildings have different color schemes anyway. It depends on who is the owner and what he/she decides to paint it in. :-)

I like to see future themes or sets based on medieval adventurers instead. Sort of like D&D type. Maybe have like 4 main characters comprising a druid/shaman, ranger, warrior/swordsman, thief party out questing in some location. So for sets you could have: 1. rosary inn tavern - comprising a tavern - with a few tauruses (or minotaurs) or orcs and maybe a mystic meg soothsayer where they were supposed to get their quests from. 2. battle at the keep - comprising an evil undead knight on a dragon. A large tall tower with fortified castle walls. Undead minions and goblins (reuse the molds from HP) battling the heroes. 3. maiden rescue - comprising a large cavenous hideout (kinda like the forestman fortress but made from rocks) complete with the wolf pack marauders (about 4-5 with various weapons and armory - maybe even a wolfman champion) and your heroes. 4. raid of the basilisk - comprising a large "basilisk" (reuse the creature ridden by obi during the general grevious chase), a small cart, and your heroes (hey, you need a small $10 set for your army building :-P) 5. defense of the drogoba village - comprising one or two blackmith buildings, a few peasants, 3-4 evil forestmen, and your heroes. You might not need all 4 heroes in all sets but the theme would center on these chars much like your johnny thunder story. Maybe expand it so that you have 6 heroes (include a wizard and a barbarian). Having such a theme would be great for both afols and kiddies alike. You have your stories for the kids and enough variation in the sets for the afols to collect (eg, get lots of forestmen sets to make your forestmen army, etc).