Pharaoh's Quest 2011

[Hinckley]

The official website had an update, take a look!

Odd. That page is down now. Even though it still links to their products page...

[prateek]

What's with the December 2010 thing? Does this mean we can expect these sets earlier or the website earlier?

[Delta 38]

What's with the December 2010 thing? Does this mean we can expect these sets earlier or the website earlier?

I'm guessing the website. I don't think they'll be able to release the sets in time for December, and I don't remember having seen any sets being released around that time here.

Anyway, interesting. The gold headdresses we've been seeing recently all seem to have printing. I hope that the one in the cobra set has printing as well, because for some reason a plain gold headdress doesn't look right while the others do.

[Hinckley]

Odd. That page is down now. Even though it still links to their products page...

It's back up...

I'm guessing the website. I don't think they'll be able to release the sets in time for December, and I don't remember having seen any sets being released around that time here.

Anyway, interesting. The gold headdresses we've been seeing recently all seem to have printing. I hope that the one in the cobra set has printing as well, because for some reason a plain gold headdress doesn't look right while the others do.

Maybe there will be a preview set in December as they've done before for Atlantis and other themes.

[Peppermint_M]

A preview set would be most welcome I hope they turn up in the UK sooner rather than later.

[Aanchir]

I'm guessing the website. I don't think they'll be able to release the sets in time for December, and I don't remember having seen any sets being released around that time here.

Anyway, interesting. The gold headdresses we've been seeing recently all seem to have printing. I hope that the one in the cobra set has printing as well, because for some reason a plain gold headdress doesn't look right while the others do.

What's unlikely about the sets being released in December? From my experience, sets for the coming year start showing up in December fairly often, whether from retail stores, online retailers, or LEGOshop.com.

It's worth keeping in mind that release dates can vary wildly by country. Since there doesn't seem to be an Australian version of the website, the release dates listed online might not apply to retailers in your home country.

[Etzel]

What's unlikely about the sets being released in December? From my experience, sets for the coming year start showing up in December fairly often, whether from retail stores, online retailers, or LEGOshop.com.

It's worth keeping in mind that release dates can vary wildly by country. Since there doesn't seem to be an Australian version of the website, the release dates listed online might not apply to retailers in your home country.

The weird thing about a December release is that the first reports on this theme said it should be released in April. But now that I'm checking the leaked catalogue it does say January, which would make a first appearence of the sets in December most likely.

I was kind of hoping I would have more time to save up for this theme, there are so many great sets coming out this winter. But I'm also happy I won't have to wait that long for these sets!

[Masked Builder]

What's with the December 2010 thing? Does this mean we can expect these sets earlier or the website earlier?

I hope so!

[The Green Brick Giant]

I hope so!

They are rarely put online ahead of time, maybe 1-2 sets show up right around Christmas, maybe a week before.

However the last few years they have gotten earlier and earlier.

Edited October 31, 2010 by The Green Brick Giant

[jamtf]

They are rarely put online ahead of time, maybe 1-2 sets show up right around Christmas, maybe a week before.

However the last few years they have gotten earlier and earlier.

I managed to get hold of a German Lego dealer catalogue from the Vedes toy stores chain. It contains pictures of all the new sets (with the confidential stamp) and it says that Pharaoh's Quest will be released in April 2011 ("Lancierung im April") which is confidential information according to the catalogue (it has a small banner with the word "Vertraulich"). I guess that April 2011 is the German release date. It also reveals that the new Pharaoh's Quest theme will get commercial back-up on TV ("TV-Unterstützung").

The newest Star Wars line will be released in February 2011 and the Ninjago sets will be released in March 2011. The newest City and Atlantis releases are both due January 2011.

Fact is however that Pharaoh's Quest already is part of the featured range of products on Lego.com and that the December 2010 date is clearly mentioned in the diary of Prof. Archibald Hale. Perhaps they managed to speed things up (production, etc.) which enables TLG to release the theme earlier than first planned.

Edited October 31, 2010 by jamtf

[Algernon]

Pharaoh's Quest right before Christmas sounds dandy to me.

[Nikola Bathory]

It's logical for them to try to release the new sets in December and not in January or February. After all, December is the single most important month with the biggest sales! People buy like crazy for x-mas and New Year...

Edited November 1, 2010 by Nikola Bathory

[DarkFader]

First off, I must say that Pharaoh's Quest is one of my most anticipated upcoming Lego themes; it seems like lots of fun and even though it is not the return of Johnny Thunder, it still looks like a great theme.

Now on to my question: Has there been any rumors of any impulse sets for the theme?; we've gotten impulse sets for all major and new Lego themes lately (Atlantis and Kingdoms for instance) so it would be strange if they didn't release a couple for this new adventure theme.

[prateek]

First off, I must say that Pharaoh's Quest is one of my most anticipated upcoming Lego themes; it seems like lots of fun and even though it is not the return of Johnny Thunder, it still looks like a great theme.

Now on to my question: Has there been any rumors of any impulse sets for the theme?; we've gotten impulse sets for all major and new Lego themes lately (Atlantis and Kingdoms for instance) so it would be strange if they didn't release a couple for this new adventure theme.

Oh, good point. I really wonder if they'll have impulses...

If there are any, I'd think them to be an Explorer with a small vehicle or tool box, and a mummy with a treasure chest or something.

[user]

I just got my Lego magazine today and there's a PQ teaser in it and the Anubis heads DO have yellow printing! It also shows more detailed prints on the mummies and a picture of the back intrance to the pyramid set that really reminds me of the old set "pharaoh's forbidden ruins" in the way that there's a large archway and a balcony but the pharaoh has a human head with no bandages.

Edited November 1, 2010 by ComputerBug

[kill will]

The site is up now, check it out

It shows 2 adventurer minifigs and a mummy that has the collectible minifig zombie head. W00T!

[Zeya]

So it says in the story there are 6 treasures. There's a drawing saying "Could the treasures look like this?" showing:

-Staff

-Headdress

-Beetle

-Gem

-Another gem

-Scythe/sword

I wonder if those will be new molds. The headdress and staff probably are already existing molds from the collectible minifig pharaoh or the spielberg movie sets pharaoh.

The Jake Raines article mentions a Himalaya Yeti. That could be a future set. That might go well with the Holiday sets, lol.

[Aanchir]

So it says in the story there are 6 treasures. There's a drawing saying "Could the treasures look like this?" showing:

-Staff

-Headdress

-Beetle

-Gem

-Another gem

-Scythe/sword

I wonder if those will be new molds. The headdress and staff probably are already existing molds from the collectible minifig pharaoh or the spielberg movie sets pharaoh.

The Jake Raines article mentions a Himalaya Yeti. That could be a future set. That might go well with the Holiday sets, lol.

We already know about the treasures; they were in the leaked pictures that appeared long before the official site or any official information was released. Some are new molds, others are not. The headdress is the old mold (although the flying mummies will have a new headdress featuring a falcon-like beak where the current design has a stud). The staff is brand-new and has never been seen in any set.

Also, none of the mummies we have seen have the collectible minifig zombie head, or any collectible minifig heads for that matter. Undead face, red eyes, and misshapen mouth do not a zombie make, and all of the mummies we've seen in official, non-preliminary images have completely new head prints.

Also, I highly doubt the Yeti will be a future set, and if it is, we have zero evidence hinting at it. Remember the Elflands from Fantasy-Era Castle? Like that, oftentimes the cute references LEGO makes are just that - cute references. We need to stop treating every offhand comment by LEGO as a prophecy of sets to come.

[Zeya]

We need to stop treating every offhand comment by LEGO as a prophecy of sets to come.

Why not? It's fun and there's little else to do until these sets release anyway. And I wouldn't call a meticulously designed flash site an offhand comment. That whole thing went through their marketing and legal department, I can guarantee that.

[The Green Brick Giant]

It's logical for them to try to release the new sets in December and not in January or February. After all, December is the single most important month with the biggest sales! People buy like crazy for x-mas and New Year...

In recent years January is a big month too as many people go out and spend gift cards and Christmas cash, but yeah, right before Christmas makes the most sense so you get a good ammount on the shelves after Christmas and some before.

[Aanchir]

Why not? It's fun and there's little else to do until these sets release anyway. And I wouldn't call a meticulously designed flash site an offhand comment. That whole thing went through their marketing and legal department, I can guarantee that.

The flash site itself, though, isn't saying anything like that "Jack Raines plans to go to such-and-such place next". Instead, it just says that he's been to these places, and automatically people begin thinking that these are all going to wind up in sets in the years to come. There's no logic there; as far as I can tell those mentions are merely a way of giving a "thumbs-up" to Adventurers fans back in the day. Nobody began assuming that Spyrius was coming back when it appeared on the graffiti in the Space Police set Space Truck Getaway. At least, I hope not. And nobody saw the ad for "M:Cola - The Magnetic Beverage" in the Space Police videos and assumed that an M:Tron would be returning under that name. This is similar-- just a way for LEGO to acknowledge its past in a way that a select portion of fans should be able to notice.

And how would a passing mention of Jack Raines's previous adventures have to go through the legal department? The legal department probably did an overview of the flash site, true, but there's no reason to assume they meticulously picked apart every detail and researched thoroughly to make sure it was OK to say each and every thing. The big problem with this theory is that LEGO puts a fair amount of time and money into all its marketing. This means that we can assume one of two things:

A) There is hidden meaning in everything LEGO puts out in marketing material. No exceptions. If the legal department so much as glanced at any detail, that detail contains vast amounts of secret knowledge for the fans to decode.

B) Marketing material is in most cases just that-- marketing material. If something makes a detail particularly outstanding-- perhaps a coded message which fans are expected to decode, or something else to which an unusual amount of attention is drawn-- then that detail is clearly important, and may contain information LEGO wants to convey with particular urgency. But a page or two of a journal discussing Jack Raines's exploits, mentioning a couple miscellaneous adventures from the past which echo two of LEGO's previous adventure themes? Sure, that's a beautiful easter eggs for AFOLs and TFOLs to enjoy. But it is not, by any means, a suggestion that LEGO is deliberately trying to tell us about themes that are more than a year away.

The journal page seems to me to serve one purpose: to establish that Jack Raines is a globetrotting adventurer in the same vein as Johnny Thunder, Tintin, and Indiana Jones. But there's no reason LEGO would be throwing us hints about a future that they themselves probably don't even have planned at this stage. Particularly by alluding to past adventures.

[Zeya]

And how would a passing mention of Jack Raines's previous adventures have to go through the legal department? The legal department probably did an overview of the flash site, true, but there's no reason to assume they meticulously picked apart every detail and researched thoroughly to make sure it was OK to say each and every thing.

...

But there's no reason LEGO would be throwing us hints about a future that they themselves probably don't even have planned at this stage. Particularly by alluding to past adventures.

I work in an industry where all marketing material goes through a legal department. They need to ensure a variety of things, anything from hard legal issues (profanity, false claims leading to lawsuits) to trademark infringements. Things like that.

My main points were that the marketing website wasn't just slapped together. And also, it's just plain old fun to try and figure out "what it all means". Assuming one hasn't seen the leaked catalog, regular people who don't visit these/other forums will be intrigued by that website. It's a teaser and meant to get people excited and hyped up for new things to come.

But I agree with you; I'm not really arguing here. I don't think too much should be read into the teaser site either, and I wouldn't bet money on seeing a mount everest yeti set. I'm just saying, who knows. Maybe.

I would however definitely expect to see those 6 treasures show up in actual sets. If some of the treasures aren't in the first (only?) wave of sets, I would argue that we will see them in later waves. It'll be cool to see what ruins or whatever are enclosing the other treasures.

[Peppermint_M]

Can I get an Elflands people?

We gave up on figuring such things from throwaway comments after the Fantasy Castle "map" displayed an "Elf Lands" in one corner.

[Delta 38]

What's unlikely about the sets being released in December? From my experience, sets for the coming year start showing up in December fairly often, whether from retail stores, online retailers, or LEGOshop.com.

It's worth keeping in mind that release dates can vary wildly by country. Since there doesn't seem to be an Australian version of the website, the release dates listed online might not apply to retailers in your home country.

Good point. Then again, Australia's often behind in releases in most cases, so I wouldn't know. Well, I'll wait. It seems highly unlikely that we'll have an early release over here, but that's only my experience.

The plot of this line, though, is starting to sound a bit like Atlantis. Not that I really care about the plot, and I'd prefer to see more adventure-themed lines like these anyway.

[jamtf]

So it says in the story there are 6 treasures. There's a drawing saying "Could the treasures look like this?" showing:

-Staff

-Headdress

-Beetle

-Gem

-Another gem

-Scythe/sword

The scythe/sword that you are talking about is actually a "kopesh", a typically Egyptian sickle-sword that did not make push cuts but slashes. Lego obviously made a new mold for this item as it was previously only available through BrickForge. The older Egypt sets from the Adventurers line (for instance 5978 Sphinx Secret Surprice and 5988 Pharaoh's Forbidden Ruins/The Temple of Anubis) did not have Egyptian warriors carrying this weapon since the only figs of Egyptian origin included were pharaoh Hotep and the (dead) skeletons with pharaoh headdresses.