Deathleech

I would go this route. You are going to pay a premium for most of the older sets just because they are retired. If you keep saving up you can easily afford the next Castle wave in it's entirety if it comes out next year. Heck, with sales and such you could probably get it two or three times over no problem. Of course you run the risk of the next Castle theme not being to your liking. You also have to wait at least 6 more months, which can be really hard. It definitely could be worth it though if the rumors turn out to be true.

There are tons of online and open world games that are rated teen or younger. Heck, Edver Scrolls Oblivion and Skyrim were both single player with no online component but still rated M. Also in Star Wars or the Super Hero movies, there is almost no blood or gore when there is violence present. A Stormtrooper may get shot with a laser blaster, but he doesn't bleed all over like when you slash a monster in Elder Scrolls. Even for the more disturbing stuff, like Luke getting his hand chopped off or Darth Maul getting cut in half, it's by a lightsaber and the wound is cauterized right away so there never is much blood shown. I think that is the big difference, the graphic nature of the violence, not necessarily the violence itself.

Why re-do it? You can still vote in that old one, or change your vote if you feel the need. Well if you are a Lego Castle/Fantasy fan, I think you would be happy with either. That doesn't mean you don't prefer one over the other though. I still like the old trolls but would rather have the LotR versions. Also I don't think most Lego Star Wars fans would consider their flesh SW minifigures "disastrous". In fact I think they are pretty happy with them considering their great sales and after market prices for the minifigures alone. Sure some are hit and miss, but as a whole I think most are very well done.

Prices in the US seem fairly consistent across different set sizes and themes. In other countries though, you can get some really weird pricing I have noticed.

You know, it's funny several people in this thread have said they like the older Fantasy Era trolls more. According to this poll awhile back, the LotR orcs and trolls were favored over three to one compared to the Fantasy Era versions.

Updated with several new items for trade or sale and a few new items wanted.

The big difference is most of the Star Wars films are rated PG and the super hero movies are PG-13. Some of the super hero sets are based on cartoons currently airing. In contrast all the recent Elder Scrolls games have been M (17+). The super hero stuff, and especially SW, is right in Lego's targeted age group of 6-14 while the Elder Scrolls would be above since it's adult only. I would love Lego to do a more mature fantasy theme like Elder Scrolls or Game of Thrones, but it pretty much will never happen unless Lego changes their stance. Anyways, nice figs!

It depends on which country you are in. For the UK, the older console prices are about £10 cheaper than the newer. In the U.S. they are all the exact same for each console.

It's going to be £85-95 pounds, apparently, depending what system you get it for.

I always felt the opposite. I was severely disappointed with wave two because it meant the more important stuff would be pushed back to later waves, or worse yet might not ever come. Well low and behold here we are without anymore waves.

Those sure beat the other display case options. Most of them on eBay and from other third party sellers are going for $20-50, and they only look like they hold the same amount of minifigures or less. The official Lego ones that are $20 only hold 8 minifigures.

I agree, pictures can make a world of difference. I have seen some amazing MOCs but unfortunately the pictures are too dark or blurry and it really takes away from the presentation.

It might help to take into consideration your hourly rate at your normal job. That might be a good starting point when figuring out price. Another big factor would be the material cost. If you are charging just cost to you and no mark up, you should probably be charging more per hour and also calculating the hours it takes you to gather all the materials. If you are marking all the pieces up a few cents you probably can't get away with charging a ton an hour.

Has anything actually been sold or spoken for? Do you have an updated list of items for sale? It's been about 3 weeks now.

Haha, cute design. That would fit right in as part of a Dimension set build if Lego had the rights to Marvel for it!

I know, that was my point. Smaug was huge and took up a large portion of the third Hobbit wave's budget. The mosasaurus is even bigger than him so imagine how expensive it would be. Lego would either have to put the mosasaurus in a huge $400 set to accommodate it, or shrink it down so much it's scale is off when next to the rest of the dinosaurs.

So you are saying, if given the option, people wouldn't bother buying the brick separator on it's own? The only reason people get them now is because they are forced through set purchases? Interesting. If true that seems like even more reason NOT to include them in sets I think. I mean by that logic, why are we paying for something we wouldn't normally buy? I dunno if I agree with that either way though. I think if the separators were displayed on end caps like the CMFs and properly advertised, or at the front of stores in the check out line, they would do well. I mean the $2.50 for one isn't even the difference between many(any?) sets. You can't even get CMFs for under $4 anymore unless they are on sale. It could be a quick impulse buy, or something people don't know they want until they see it. Right now they just aren't widely available for individual sale. The only way to get them is online or in specific sets. I would rather have the option of picking one up in stores. I think for a lot of people it would be one of those things that they don't realize they need until they see one sitting in store, then it's like "wow, that looks really useful" and they grab one.

I don't think that is really a surprise? Anyone expecting a new LotR wave was just being optimistic. The last LotR wave came out over two years ago and there haven't been any Middle-Earth sets released since the last Hobbit wave in October 2014 If Lego was going to release another wave, they would have done it by now. Most likely January of this year, and definitely in the summer wave if it was going to happen. With that said there is still hope we might get some new minifigure prints and molds through Dimensions. A D2C set was also something people were also hoping for, though the possibility of that seems pretty much dead at this point. I doubt we will get anything substantial in terms of builds in Dimensions, but the Witch King, Sauron, and Eowyn all seem very likely in fun packs. A team pack MIGHT include a Gondor Soldier seeing as how the JW one had an ACU trooper. I wouldn't bet on that though. At this point I would just be ecstatic to get any of those three characters I mentioned before. Then all we would be missing is an entire faction rather than an entire faction and two huge heroes, lol...

The JW mosasaurus is about 20 times as big as that one though, lol. I doubt Lego will ever make one just due to the sheer size and then having to create the huge stadium around it. Smaug was enormous and ate a large chunk of that waves budget. The mosasaurus would have to be as big, or bigger. They could possibly do a brick built one, but it would look weird next to the rest of the dinos.

I feel like it's easier to pick my least favorite orc than it is my favorite. That is because there are so many good options. My least favorite is definitely the Goblin Soldiers. I know they catch a lot of criticism, but in terms of looks I don't think they look that bad. In fact I really like the way the bald cap looks. The problem is they have some mechanical issues. First off the double sided head print peeks through the bottom of the bald cap in the back. As for the cap itself, it is the softer plastic which means it doesn't have the clutch power of other hair pieces and helmets and falls off easily. This has especially become an annoyance. The legs used would be more accurate if they were the shorter variety, but I understand having the longer legs to give the goblins more flexibility and posing. Regardless of all of this I am unsure why Lego decided to give us three different torso prints when these minifigures only appear in one set? Why not use that budget and give us a different Mordor Orc torso print since that is used in SIX different sets? As for the Mordor Orcs, I think they really could have benefited from another torso print. Something more armor oriented. The alternate torso could have appeared in the Pirate and Black Gates sets for sure. It could have possibly been used in the Attack of the Wargs set and for armored Gundabad soldiers too. On top of another torso print, I think the Mordor Orcs also could have benefited from a generic orc helmet. This could have been used for the aforementioned sets and figs like Dol Guldur Battle and Bo5A. The bald Mordor (and Gunadabard Orcs) look pretty terrible. Either having a helm or the existing ears and hair would make them look significantly better. They could have given us a new helm mold instead of that shoulder armor for the Gundabad Orcs. Speaking of Gundabad Orcs, I think they too could have benefited greatly from an alternative print. If nothing else give us the helmet and alternate Mordor Orc print to make them at least look like soldiers in DGB and the Bo5A (as they do in the movie). I wish the white painted forehead version would have been used in more than one set as well. There were WAY to many bald versions of this orc used. The least Lego could have done is give us some more ear and hair pieces? The shoulder armor was nice, but not worth the mold budget when more valuable things could have been made imo. I think the Orc Hunters are generally pretty decent despite re-using the Mordor Orc torso. They ALL have hair and ears or the braided ponytail which look nice. The fact we got a new face print in the Attack on Lake-town set was a nice surprise. Similarly the Moria Orc is a really nice addition. Both of them available come with hair and a nice, unique print. I absolutely love the olive green color on them, and with everything else they are probably my favorite. I wish we could have gotten the distinct helmet, but seeing as they are only in one set I can understand why Lego didn't spend the money for that mold. Lastly there are the Uruk-hai. I think they are a close second as my favorite orcs, and by far the most well rounded of the bunch. Not only do we get two totally distinct facial prints (most of the others you can barely tell the difference), but we get a hair version and armored version. We get a totally unique sword, shield, and helmet for them and then white hand versions to boot. This creates ton of possibilities and variances, something I wish Lego would have done with their other orcs. They are the only ones who feel really complete with lots of different possibilities and full sets of armor and weapons.

*sigh* Sorry, I guess I should have been more clear. I meant there is nothing new in terms of the minifigures in the starter set? Of course there are the printed chips and the game base.. but I thought people who weren't interested in the game were really just after the exclusive new minifig prints and new molds. I mean are people really planning on collecting the chips if they aren't even able to or don't want to use them? That gets me thinking. Since the chips are the only piece that contains the character unlock, I wonder if people will buy sets and then just sell the chips separate and keep the minifigures if they don't have a system to play the game or any interest in playing? I could see people buying say the Ghostbuster pack and then replacing the new Venkman with the old and selling off the chip and old minifig. Maybe even just selling off the chip alone for cheap. It would be a way to unlock all the characters for dramatically reduced prices in the game if you don't care that much about the minifigures.

So what is it, just someones MOCs/LDD versions you found then?

Wow! It looks even bigger, somehow, next to you!

That's so weird, especially since the minifigure looks better and is more poseable than the "adult" figs.

I think the alignment issue he was talking about is the 1x1 bricks can "spin" since they are only held together by one stud. This causes the edges to be off, they aren't flat or lined up perfectly and need to be adjusted.