TLG releases sets on January 1st because they want to sell all year, not just during the holidays. Plus Christmas helps to clear out old inventory which they can then fill in with new. Considering that they just became the number one toy maker in the world it seems their strategy works. Hard to argue with success.

Oh yes! I am excited to see that they are offering Aurora, Jasmine & Frozen sets. Of course, I'll probably try to re-interpret Aurora as her Maleficent version, but still.... Jasmine was always one of my favorite princesses, due to her independant, sassy attitude. :)

  On 8/28/2014 at 5:12 PM, Oky said:

.What I find interesting is that they added the word "glittering" to the title. Could this mean the return of those glittery translucent pieces from Belville? That would be kinda neat, but maybe I'm reading too much into it

Most likely you're reading too much into it, unfortunately. Remember the 'Royal Crystal Palace'? It started the Belville Cold North line and only contained 3 Crystal blue snowflakes and 6 crystal medium blue gems/diamonds. Pretty much lacked in the terms of 'crystal'. The reboot of it, the 'Winter Wonder Palace' however had crystal snowflakes and like a ton of the trans blue crystal rock pieces. Seriously, they got the names backward. Ironically the characters of Princess Vanilla and Princess Flora resemble Elsa and Anna so much, that people are marketing the Cold North Belville line as LEGO Frozen on Ebay.

Not going to keep my hopes up for something as nice as the projects on LEGO Ideas, but definitely looking forward to it. :wub:

Another Ariel set intrigues me too.

  On 9/4/2014 at 8:29 PM, CptPJs said:

I don't mind Ariel again as long as we get Sebastian this time. I agree though I'm surprised there's no Belle. Maybe next wave?

Definitely. They at least printed Sebastian on a brick for the Duplo Ariel princess. Because of the Friends line they've been exploring all kids of fun animals and-redesigning already existing LEGO animals. Maybe they finally figured out a Sebastian-type animal, as a printed brick wouldn't go so well on the smaller mini-doll scale. If Sebastian doesn't come with this new Ariel set i'll definitely . or maybe even .

The preliminary picture clearly showed a Sebastian. He's coming this time. (Though he's the same size as Flounder.)

  On 9/24/2014 at 6:43 AM, smittyfan said:

Most likely you're reading too much into it, unfortunately. Remember the 'Royal Crystal Palace'? It started the Belville Cold North line and only contained 3 Crystal blue snowflakes and 6 crystal medium blue gems/diamonds. Pretty much lacked in the terms of 'crystal'. The reboot of it, the 'Winter Wonder Palace' however had crystal snowflakes and like a ton of the trans blue crystal rock pieces. Seriously, they got the names backward. Ironically the characters of Princess Vanilla and Princess Flora resemble Elsa and Anna so much, that people are marketing the Cold North Belville line as LEGO Frozen on Ebay.

Definitely. They at least printed Sebastian on a brick for the Duplo Ariel princess.

Because of the Friends line they've been exploring all kids of fun animals. Maybe they finally figured out a Sebastian-type animal, as a printed brick wouldn't go so well on the smaller mini-doll scale. If Sebastian doesn't come with this new Ariel set i'll definitely . or maybe even .

The pic shows a transparent rock panel previously used in SH, Friends and Chima. The crystals, sticks and walls have also appeared very frequently, so in general there are no Belville parts returning. I do like to see them reused as a part of any hitorical material.

Well that's negative. Skully from Duplo Jake appeared as a print last year, and fortunately he comes with a mold this year.

Olaf is a pure mascot in this case (though looks like he'll only get a head mold). If TLG only qualify animal characters, the most tragic cast would be Beauty&;Beast because there are tons of non-animal mascots (the second trgedy comes to seven dwarves).

Oh and BTW, in this leak Elsa'a hair is purely blonde like Rapunzel and Stephanie, which doesn't look quite accurate. Hope that there would be a lighter blonde for the rubber piecese, or it'd rather be white.

Edited September 24, 201410 yr by Dorayaki

It would be best in Brick Yellow/tan. That would be more platinum than Cool Yellow, and White would be too much. I seriously hope it changes. That purple snowflake piece should really be trans-blue.

Edited September 24, 201410 yr by 8BrickMario

  On 9/24/2014 at 2:16 PM, Dorayaki said:

The pic shows a transparent rock panel previously used in SH, Friends and Chima. The crystals, sticks and walls have also appeared very frequently, so in general there are no Belville parts returning. I do like to see them reused as a part of any hitorical material.

Looks almost like those rock panels have a glittery look to them, so that's a plus.

  On 9/24/2014 at 2:16 PM, Dorayaki said:

Well that's negative. Skully from Duplo Jake appeared as a print last year, and fortunately he comes with a mold this year.

It's certainly overdue to have Sebastian! Plus those cool new shells, and pink colored leaves. Wanting to make an aquarium for a while but kinda frustrated with the choices in foliage being mostly shades of green. Yays for more color choices!

  On 9/24/2014 at 8:05 AM, Clone OPatra said:

The preliminary picture clearly showed a Sebastian. He's coming this time. (Though he's the same size as Flounder.)

YAY!! On that small a scale it would be hard to make him smaller than Flounder without him becoming an unrecognizable blob. In fact, with his pinchers, looks almost like he may end up being slightly bigger. Completely forgivable. The important thing is we get him. Only one mermaid sister, and no King Triton, but the Collectible Minifigure King of the Sea could make a fairly good stand in.

Prelims often re-use parts that are the right shape or style before the new part or colour is manufactured. Just a point to remember.

My only problem is getting a chance at building the ice palace because my mum, sister and youngest brothers are all dead set on having a go at it...

I'm at the Doctor's now (not feeling good at all), but I put this up last night

Enjoy, feel free to use the pics to your liking.

Oh wow - the ice castle looks even better now! I didn't mind the medium lavender stairs, but Aqua looks so much more cohesive with the rest of the set.

Also, I'm really hoping you get better soon. Is it just a bad cold or do you have the flu? I certainly wouldn't blame you if you took a few days off from posting pictures to rest up.

I'm hoping it's just a bad cold/soar throat, that's what it seems like. I just gotta focus on resting more so than anything, so I'll either do two themes a day (at ease) or do one. Thanks for the concern.

Anyways, I'm sad we're not getting Aladin, but this wave is fantastic! There's at least one new exclusive mould in all of these sets, and the Frozen one has at least three!

I agree completely on Aladdin, but the sets themselves due look nice. That Frozen one is going to be pretty darn popular. Feel better, just2good! Glad you're getting to a doctor...my cold turned into bronchitis and took a couple weeks to get over.

  On 10/1/2014 at 4:41 PM, BigHobbit said:

I agree completely on Aladdin, but the sets themselves due look nice. That Frozen one is going to be pretty darn popular. Feel better, just2good! Glad you're getting to a doctor...my cold turned into bronchitis and took a couple weeks to get over.

Thanks, thry said it's nothing big, just need rest. And the Frozen one will be popular indeed, especially considering the price has to be something around $40-$50.

Nice. I feel like this wave is an improvement on the last one, maybe? Feels more properly Disney Princess.

No Aladdin and the existing Friends baby tiger as Raja? Boo. Give me a new full size Raja or Aladdin and I would've bought the set. As it is, it's not bad, but as a big fan of Aladdin it's not worth getting.

Yeah, the Jasmine set certainly is a disappointment. I didn't expect much from Raja since animals tend to be very inaccurate in this theme, but the absence of Aladdin is sorely disappointing. Even the carpet kind of sucks with all those extra bits for holding the figures in place. I think I will skip this set and hope we will get a proper palace with Aladdin and maybe Abu someday.

The Sleeping Beauty set is also just meh. Again, I was expecting a little more, like one of the fairies like in the Duplo set, not the same white rabbit we've had before.

The two larger sets on the other hand look even better than before. I wasn't too opposed to the lavender stairs, but light aqua definitely looks better. And we can now confirm that those rock panels do indeed have a glittery finish. Unfortunately, the snowflake is still purple, but oh well. There's also still a distinct lack of doors, but the cold never bothered Elsa anyway.

The Undersea Palace also looks better with all the decals and that friggin golden slide (Ariel is so spoiled. Why did she want to leave again?). Still not a fan of the magenta roof and railing though.

Overall, this wave is just OK and could have been a lot better. It still has the same problems of having too much girly colors and poor character selections, so I wouldn't say it's an improvement. The fact that there are 4 sets instead of 5 doesn't help either. The Frozen set is about the only one that's really good.

Anyway, thanks for the pics again, just2good, and get well soon.

I will probably need 2 Frozen sets, one for me and one for my granddaughter.

These look nice. I like Aurora's Bedroom, nice new hair, and is that a rose in the purple cone on the table?

Jasmine. No. I don't want it for the set. The gold pieces are fine, but it's lacking.

The Ice Palace looks so much better with crystals instead of flames and Light Aqua stairs. Olaf is still bald, but the new capes for Elsa and Anna look good. Not happy with the superblonde Elsa. Her hair isn't yellow!

The Undersea Castle still looks good, and the sister got a needless hair change. The trans-light-blue heart gems look good.

I feel this wave of sets are all hit and miss in a way, look at the spinning wheel in Sleeping Beauty's set......MEH, such a poor design yet there is a lovely girls bedroom setting.

No Aladdin, oh boy.......how can Lego miss a main character like that......she marries him in the end.....perhaps they should have made the magic carpet scene as a set ?

Now Frozen, thumbs up for a brick-built snowman comic relief.......though may have Lego missed the boat on this one ?

  On 10/1/2014 at 9:34 PM, 8BrickMario said:

I like Aurora's Bedroom, nice new hair, and is that a rose in the purple cone on the table?

No, it's a diamond. Like in the other sets, it's supposed to be a perfume bottle. There's plenty of "roses" in the form of red flower studs all over the set though.

Speaking of the purple cones, it looks like they have a glittery finish as well.

  On 10/1/2014 at 9:57 PM, lightningtiger said:

I feel this wave of sets are all hit and miss in a way, look at the spinning wheel in Sleeping Beauty's set......MEH, such a poor design yet there is a lovely girls bedroom setting.

I kinda like the spindle. Honestly, I can't think of a better way to build one, especially with such a low piece count.

  On 10/1/2014 at 9:57 PM, lightningtiger said:

Now Frozen, thumbs up for a brick-built snowman comic relief.......though may have Lego missed the boat on this one ?

I don't think so. The movie is still really popular and Disney is keeping up the interest with the Frozen story arc in Once Upon A Time, so I'm sure it will still sell like hotcakes.

And they're making a short film as a successor to Frozen, presumably airing with Big Hero 6 this year. There's definitely still interest, and there will be many people fighting to get the last copy of the set for themselves or their children.

I can't believe that's how Olaf will look in the final set... It looks like a possessed puppet.

Anyway, that Frozen palace is the best Princess set released yet.

Aurora has a magic wand? Why?

  On 10/1/2014 at 10:24 PM, 8BrickMario said:

presumably airing with Big Hero 6 this year.

The short film is scheduled to come out in Spring 2015:

http://time.com/3262819/frozen-disney-short-film-sequel/

Aurora was raised by fairies. It is a bit of a jump as they hid their magic from her, but there is a connection there.