Darth Punk

I guess the key word there is a themed set. Hulk smash has seen the retail,catalog and has a previous track record of being correct.

Well not exactly. http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/05/could-disney-finally-give-us-the-remastered-unedited-star-wars-we-want/

I'm less inclined to care about the interior since our winter scene is on the mantle. Thus no one other than myself will really ever see the interior. I'm hoping the ice skating rink is a bit different from the one included with the winter village bakery. I've already expanded mine but some cool new minifigs would be great.

Cha-Ching! The scene with Luke swooshing the skyhopper pretty much says it all in terms of vehicle popularity. What would be cooler for a young child to watch A New Hope while swooshing their very own skyhopper while watching Luke do the same? The only thing I could think of is Yoda in your living room levitating furniture.

Collectibles will always be connected to potential investment to some degree. The problem comes in when investment buying exceeds the collectible market and supply is greatly increased without an equal collectible demand. Baseball cards is another great example of what turned from a collecting hobby to a business and now many of those baseball cards are viewed as worthless. Baseball card companies flooded the market to match the skyrocketing demand. But that demand was mostly driven by investors who cashed out leaving a glut of cards with no customers to equal the supply. LEGO will continue to be collected for a long time I imagine regardless of its perceived value just like some collect radios, or spoons or postcards, etc. The investors will eventually on to the next hottest item and less people will buy for their nest egg.

And you know this how? Like I said its a rumor. But we do have a pic from the lego batman dictionary as to how it might look. Here is a link for those who are interested. http://www.brickheroes.com/2014/08/rumeurs-invisible-jet-hulkbuster-en-2015/

There is a rumor that wonder woman's jet is being made and will be all or mostly translucent. Could very well see some new parts soon either way.

Probably wouldn't be that hard to find someone who could replicate a helmet to look like Vaders. Maybe even the person who made it to begin with.

A whole entire league in fact.

Now all their minecraft sets wouldn't be so lonely. More on the way. https://ideas.lego.com/blogs/1-blog/post/17

That would be great or maybe a Benny. I imagine a micro manager will be included as well.

If only that were the case. Then there would be many happy folks here. I can only speak for myself but I think some of the disappoint toward the hobbit sets are the lack of further LoTR sets. I have never been a big hobbit fan to begin with but it felt like an opportunity to expand upon middle earth. The first wave we saw bag end which was an excellent edition. But since it seems it's been mainly ruined walls with the exception of lake town. None of the sets seem to have the presence that a helms deep or Orthanc presented to us. I also realize that the hobbit is geared toward a younger audience so play features have become the main thrust which makes the sets feeling like they are lacking aesthetically. While my initial reaction was born of frustration, there is some good In there. At this point one can only make the best of the situation knowing that this most likely will be the end of lego middle earth for good. I'll end up getting all the sets and apply a good deal of modding. But that nagging feeling of what could have been may hang around for many days to come.

I'm not sure how I feel about the characters, but I do like the look of Rebels. It does have an OT feel to it which I of course like and makes me feel like Star Wars is moving in the right direction. It's also something my older daughter and niece will enjoy watching.

Perhaps not. But they do create a great deal of buzz which is often the purpose of promotionals. Just look how much discussion there has been on this site alone over four minfigs.

I'm sure we will see official images before October 15. TLG just doesn't want us to know when until they are ready to do so. And they never want to see leaked photos, unless they are doing the leaking. I know we have had this conversation before as I was confused myself. It seems Tolkien is vague on this part and seems to shift around who might be included as the five. Perhaps Tolkien could never truly decide this point thus leaving it vague on purpose letting the reader to,decide for themselves.

Should have one soon, Hoth bricks is reporting the 2014 advent calendars are now listed on lego servers. So imagine people will be getting them soon for review. http://www.hothbricks.com/2014/08/lego-advent-calendars/

Looks like the accounting department designed these sets. If this doesn't nothing will. They are clearly just fulfilling their obligations. I can see it being a short run. I am happy to be getting a witch king of any kind.

Happened much the same when the minecraft set first came out. And it's still available at shop@home. The exo suit was on amazon briefly, but I imagine it will be back soon.

In general I think this is an accurate description. As long as a balance is maintained this would not negatively affect TLG. However, TLG obviously believes that a danger does exist thus their attempt to slow down the secondary market, not stop it. Some have mentioned that TLG doesn't care who buys their product. Be it a child or AFOL or someone who is solely buying for investment. That is untrue to some extent but maybe not for the reason people seem to be talking about. The secondary market has exploded recently and is creating a much larger group of investment buyers. One can spend a little time on brick picker.com to see how many sets are being bought in mass quantities. It is true as Feed has stated that these purchases are geared more toward the higher priced $100 plus sets. And more and more causal buyers are joining in the fray, maybe only buying a few extra sets here or there or perhaps 10s of sets. So what's the problem? One only has to look at the most recent housing bubble to see the effect that a rise on investment can have on a commodity. While rising investment means more sales it also skews who is buying. In this case a rise in the number of sets means more profit for TLG it does not translate to a growing base of consumers. TLG has sets available in a sense for 1.5 years to 99+, they want to win a new customer but also keep that customer for a very long time. There is always a problem when a company grows too fast. Growth means more factories have to be built, more employees hired and a larger diversity of products have to be produced. Done in a measured way while growing your customer base ensures not only short term success but also long term viability. While there are always downturns, having a reliable base can help to minimize the impact. If growth is done too quickly one can easily overextend oneself. Taking too many or too much in loans to pay for growth is often a big danger for many companies. The problem comes in when the secondary market starts to decline. It will, because it always does. How much decline would be determined by many known and unknown factors which would be a topic all on its own. But when it does it will have a ripple effect. Declining prices on eBay will keep some away from investing and might make some stop investing altogether if the margins become too small. Regardless a decrease in sales means less profit and less expansion, and eventually contraction. Factories closed, people lost go and less successful lines reduced and/or eliminated altogether. Plus if you start losing the number of customers this affect will become magnified. All of this of course can easily snowball and has wiped out large corporations. So the speed of growth is always a concern of any business. Another good example is blockbuster video. They were so successful that they could only maintain rising growth by continually expanding the number of stores they owned. They expanded so quickly they eventually saturated the market and no longer had room to grow. Couple that with a changing market and you have a recipe for disaster and a South Park episode. In conclusion, while TLG and the consumer does benefit from a secondary market, like all things when things become unbalanced trouble begins.

Perhaps because those assumptions are based on info not yet publicly announced. Hmmm, maybe.

Very nice, I think the building could easily be made into a train station. I don't think its important for all of the winter village sets to match, since most towns would have various building. Plus part of the fun is the challenge of incorporating everything together.

They make movies all the time based on brands they don't own. They are in business to make movies and they have done really well with the lego movie. Just as TLG makes sets based on licenses that they don't own all the time, Star Wars is a great example. Should TLG drop Star Wars because they don't want to be tied to brand they don't own? It's called business, and it's about making money. And there are many ways to do it.

It's interesting to see that TLG is releasing another possible wave for the lego movie. I wouldn't have guessed they would continue since the movie will have been released almost a year before. Perhaps they will continue releasing sets until the next movie if they can maintain sales for that long. I see two more lego movies are planned for 2018 and 2019. http://www.thebrickfan.com/two-more-lego-movies-planned-by-warner-bros/

I believe the reason prices are lower in the u.s. is because many more sets are sold here. But regardless one country's pricing is only relevant for that country, and has nothing to do with the prices anywhere else. Factors such as taxes, shipping costs and rental space play a major role, not to,mention economic forces relevant to each particular country. The idea a European company is charging more in European countries to subsidize prices in the u.s. is a little crazy. Because if that were true then Europe.would be subsidizing a great many things in the u.s.

Anyone see The First Look of Rebels last night on Disney XD?