Crownie

Huh. If it were me, I'd officially announce Orthnac at Comic-Con. (Convention full of geeks. What better place? ) Assuming it's still 'green lit', I imagine it will be a late summer/fall release. I'm not sure it would negatively affect sales of the second LOTR wave, but it certainly would do nicely with the upcoming Hobbit part 2 fanfare in the fall... I'm not surprised, nor was I expecting any sort of announcement this week.

Oy. That's the problem. He-Man is Mattel. And vice versa. They seems to be holding on to the Masters of the Universe IP very tightly - I can see them trying to make their own construction toy long before they'd hand the reigns over to LEGO. And what a disaster that would be. In my own imaginary parallel universe, it could happen. * Also, that Bowser construction posted above is awesome. When TMNT was first announced, I started having visions of certain pieces being used across both themes (TMNT and Mario)...mainly the pipes. And who wouldn't love pipes? With or without Man-eating Piranha flowers... Man, back to my imaginary universe...

These seem to be pretty consistent with the quality of the other recent superhero releases, so I can't say I'm either really excited, or really disappointed. However, I see some awesome potential for MOS sets given some of the elements presented. (Army Jeeps? Completely awesome futuristic suits of armor?) I'm definitely up for grabbing these - multiples of some - and using them for my own interpretations. Oddly, I find myself doing that more and more of late. I think my idea of the perfect LEGO set and what LEGO thinks they can actually sell, are two entirely different things. Thank God I can just rebuild everything to fit my own personal vision.

I'm not sure where you're having the problem - when I pull up Photoshop and block out some text, it looks like a perfect match to Wes' (and also pretty close to the LEGO box art). Are you using a different form of the font? A word-processing program instead of a graphics one? (Though that shouldn't make much of any difference...) Oh, and thanks Aanchir - that PDF is a great resource. My inner design geek is off and running now...

This theme is like Pandora's box. I'm so afraid to purchase even one set, because I know once I open that door... Grrr. So many interesting pieces and prints for so many other themes as well. And like I have room for a train. Really.

Both of these are great. For some reason, I think the Hall of Justice would make a great business card holder. Probably not what the Super Friends were thinking of when it was founded, but what can I say? Cool work, man.

I think a lot of the Hobbit sales have been somewhat dependent upon supply as well. TLG seems to be producing as many sets as it can, but they can't keep up with the demand from retailers. I think the amount of sets that stores were able to get in this past holiday season was far less than most would've liked. That's one good reason some people are having trouble finding them. I'm not sure you can assume it's all because of insane popularity - there just hasn't been enough to go around. TLG needs to slow down with all these sets. No really. I'd say my wallet cries out in pain, but I'm not sure a lot of the money even makes it there, lol.

Thank you. Hopefully I'm just as lucky. Better open it soon just in case... - - - We know return you to your regularly scheduled Iron Man Suit discussion...

As an aside, could anyone who owns the new Daily Bugle set tell me if the sticker sheet comes curled up, or packaged with a cardboard backer? Sometimes knowing this info helps me to determine just how long I should wait before opening a set. I figure the longer sticker sheets are in their curled position the worse off they'll be when applied. As far as I'm concerned, if TLG is going to put stickers in a set, they should always be packaged with a cardboard backer.

Oh man, this Man of Steel Set looks awesome! Superman was the only comic character I was ever able to get a bit into growing up, so while I've avoided picked up any other Superhero sets for anything other than pieces, I'll definitely be getting these. Awesome!

What would be really helpful is if people would post what kind of arch they received and what the lot number of their set was. (Printed on the tape that seals the boxes. One side only.)

I feel like we should all be placing this as a disclaimer after our posts, lol.

LOL. Okay, fixed. I'm sure that didn't help un-confuse anyone, huh?

I'm thinking jhc2nmfn was just being impatient for an answer? In any event, it will be interesting to see what kind of response is received, if any. I haven't built my set yet, but I'd kind of like to know how this turns out before I'm wrist-deep in Bag End parts.

I liked the Wolf idea better, but it's all good. It will give me castle pieces to work with either way, and for that I'm very grateful. I can always go back and use sigils from older factions or wait for newer ones if I find them not to my liking. What I find really interesting is that October has a higher-res pic... Just how does one grease those palms?

I find the continued questioning of release dates a bit confusing. The retailer's catalog images that were leaked specifically states that the sets are due for release June 2013. In bold letters. Right underneath the quantity per case.

Wow. I think 12-year olds are exactly who TLG had in mind when creating this set. I mean, it says for ages 6-12 right on the front of the box in large white letters. (Sorry, you walked right into that one, lol.) Come on, people. A bunch of adults whining about a kids' toy? Let's add a tiny bit of perspective. Please? If anything, they could've junior-ized the design even more based on the younger ages. I mean, City sets are predominantly marketed for ages 6-12, so looking at those designs gives you an idea of what could've been done instead. I think what we ended up with is really cool. Not anything like the level seen in the initial Batman sets, but then the age brackets were slightly different on those. (Incidentally, I loved this review; you made quite an entrance onto Eurobricks, PhillipJFry! Welcome!)

I believe Disney stated that they do not currently have any immediate plans for Lucasfilms licenses aside from Star Wars. As far as them making a new movie? I can only hope not. Something about seeing an older, graying Indy in the last film just took some of the magic away. (Not that the script helped in the magic reduction department) For the love of God, please don't do it again.

I always viewed the City Mining theme as a "one-and-done", much like the Forest Police. I expect it to last about a year from its release date; it should be on it's way out now. The Winter Village Cottage is new for 2012, and should re-appear next holiday season as well as the one after. (If LEGO follows their current pattern.)

I enjoyed reading another review of this set, even though its been over a year since the line was released. There certainly are some highlights to this theme - mainly the dinosaurs, but I was never able to convince myself to buy into it. I'm a dinosaur nut - I grew up wanting to be a paleontologist, and yet I couldn't get that excited about this theme. The dinosaurs are great, but what do I do with them? As an AFOL, I guess for me LEGO is all about the building and displaying of creations, not so much the play, and that's where I think this theme has it's strengths. In play. (That, and I had a really hard time imagining just what I would do with all that yellow...) Anyways, I always enjoy your reviews, and your photography is wonderful. Thanks! I always appreciate all the work you put into these, regardless of whether the set makes it on my 'to buy' list or not.

I'd get the Joust while you still can! (I'm not sure it will be sold alongside the new castle wave this summer, but that's just a thought, no inside information.) Glad to hear another 'thumbs up' on MMV - it's getting me excited to build mine - if I ever find the space to build it and store it... In the present moment, I'll settle for gazing longingly at the box. Perhaps the MVR will provide you with some slightly more 'unique' peasant minifigures. Honestly, the minifigures have changed so much even since 2009 - it can be a bit glaring at times to see them side by side. I've often thought the MMV characters seem a bit outdated now compared to their post-2011 counterparts.

Well the collective 'we' remind me more of Dory's character from Finding Nemo more than anything else. At this point I'd stop at calling it an educated probability. A pretty good guess, but without the actual figures in hand, I'd hesitate on the 'sure'.

Thank you for that breath of fresh air / reality check. Fans on these forums are really in the minority as far as LEGO sales go - and I always see people overstating their influence on TLGs decisions. While they certainly do take the opinion of their adult fans into consideration, we aren't by any means LEGOs primary market.

I'm liking some of these alternate builds more than the officially released ones in the sets. The Hot Rod alternative for the Shellraiser set, while not entirely in line with what I view the show to represent, is certainly eye-catching. Really awesome. I love that LEGO offers these for download, and it's certainly yet another reason to collect multiples for some of the more 'rabid' AFOLs, lol. (For better or worse, I think I belong in that category. )

Well first I was looking at this: http://www.flickr.co...in/photostream/, but now that I'm digging around more, on ebay and set part inventories, it does look like yours is missing some red printing! I'd either call or e-mail LEGO customer service. It looks like your head got shorted a color! (Is my face red? ) I'm thinking that Longtooth looks a bit 'cleaned up' in his rendered iteration, while the actual minifig is indeed supposed to have some red coloration? (I.e. scarring.) It's actually kind of a cool 'variant' in a way. "Before" and "After". Sorry for the alarm! EDIT: In looking at the poster in Huw's photostream I linked to above, I can now make out the red in places - evidently I didn't catch it before. It's apparently been a longer week than I thought, lol. So, my initial opinion was completely baseless in the end. Sorry for the run around! )