Having just skimmed through here briefly at first, I now came back for a much more formal/official statement.
Alright, I will try to make this as concise and to the point as possible. First off, I am going to address the popular issues that I see arising, and then post my opinions as well as reply to a terrific post by
Casey M..
Replacing Kingdoms:Really?
I for on have only bought... 2 kingdoms sets. I was not at all impressed with the line. The village raid was the main set in my opinion just because of its unique animals and gorgeous peasant figs. I totally understand that some of you guys love the line, (I respect that), but I for one will be very much okay with seeing that pass on, especially if it means gaining a whole new theme of LOTR. Still, I agree with some unnamed member, that having LEGO throw in some random castle creations, (like the Medieval Market Village almost 4? years ago) would be a great and refreshing change to the license.
Fleshies:This one I thought had much humor in the posts. Like all castle lovers, having anything SW near our castle theme just makes us panic.
The new valuable faces that all of us want, to be put on fleshies, which none of us use, is a very interesting conundrum. Kinda makes me think about the old days when SW still had yellow heads. sigh... But I digress. I believe that the main problem that all of us have with the fleshies, is that they are not yellow. Lets face it, never has there been a castle theme before that used fleshies. PoP was closeish but it didn't actually replace castle.
License:First off is the expense. As we have seen with the other recent licenses, LEGO hikes the price up ever so slightly in effort to gain some revenue with some more popular themes. I can totally understand this. Building recognizable themes like LOTR/SW is very popular with the public. At Brickfair, it was interesting to see how many people reacted to seeing Amon Hen. Many didn't care about how well built it was, they were just there cause it was LOTR. That part I can understand. LEGO attaining a popular license is money in the bank for them. As I said, I can understand the price change, but naturally nobody likes it. Having anything disrupting our money flow will be unwelcome to be sure. Ultimately, though, I would love to pay a little extra if I can get some solid figs/bulk bricks out of the deal.
As I was browsing through the responses, I noticed a very well thought out post by
Casey M. who was addressing some very good points. I thought it would be a great way to express some of my concerns with the line by responding to his.
Forestboy wrote:- ...Any kind of FOL throughout the past decade ('00-Present), has figured out to recreate LOTR in their own way. The Balrog, elves, hobbits, hobbiton, etc. I've even created my own fellowship once. Lego has arlready provided us enough elements to make it ourselves. Bruce recreated LOTR in visual form, Blake has/is re-creating scenes like Amon Hen + others, a group of MOCpage users made an entire LOTR display at Brickworld 2011 (plus there was another builder there, unaffiliated with the group of MOCpage users, who still brought some awesome LOTR stuff), Brickforge has produced several LOTR items (and prints too, I think), The One Lug creating The Last of March of the Ents...
This is the section that I think I have more experience than the average builder in. Those of you who know my building record, know that I absolutely love to buildin LOTR theme. I am a huge fan of the movies and books, and love the LOTR medium because it gives me all my main interests.(Castle, landscape, water, architecture) For myself, who has managed without the license, I feel myself dreading the release date. One of the major reasons for me building in LOTR, is that it isn't a licensed theme! Honestly, if I wanted to build in a licensed unoriginal theme, I would go over to SW for crying out loud!
This is my main and only nitpick with the license. Sorry, "nitpick" isn't fitting the bill too well here... "travesty" comes to mind. I can't really express the resentment I have at what could be interpreted as "My Precious" being stolen. I feel as though once the sets come out, LOTR LEGO will be losing what made it good, the original concepts and minifigs. Also, I expect the theme itself will grow exponentially. I have found my small little quiet niche in the castle world there, and I suddenly have the fear that the niche will be in the spotlight, and that it will be the next big "Star Wars" product. Part of it is my egotistical self saying "I dont want Amon Hen to be outdone!" but then another side is wanting "...to have my quaint theme back, untainted by the license." Needless to say, I feel quite bitter about this part of the license. A lot of my friends are totally pumped for this, while I am weeping in the corner.
Forestboy wrote:- If the Eurobricks set list is true, virtually none of the sets seem to be There and Back Again related. Even with the LOTR liscense, and everything pretty much being done already in the LOTR realm, I was hoping for some really interesting Hobbit sets, but it looks like I'll have to wait for those. 2013 for Hobbit? Yes? No? Maybe?
Judging by the fact the The Hobbit movie isn't projected until December 14th, 2012, I expect we will have to wait around there
Forestboy wrote:- From someone who actually likes fleshies, I don't mind them, but I completely agree with the torsos. The Indiana Jones "soldiers" (Nazis) had the patch of flesh on the chest, some of the PoP sets had some flesh on them, PotC is doing the same thing. I get where you're coming from.
Aha! Finally, someone who is expanding their range a little bit. Like Casey, I am also trying to use Fleshies, (My recent Hobbit creations) more and more. I currently only have... 20 heads right now. So it takes a good bit of changing around to get the figures done. But, I am very excited to have some new and familiar faces in fleshy, which IMO looks more realistic and better in plastic form, even if it isn't the cute classic yellow we all grew up with.
As I said before, I really dread the set releases that will destroy my "niche". However, this doesn't prevent me from looking forward to the new molds and lovely figure accessories/torsos. Having seen some of the new confidential photos, I was really pleased with the quality of the sets, which helped pacify my anger a little bit.
Well, that is my official statement here on CC. I got asked a lot of questions on flickr regarding this issue, cause of my deep connection with LOTR, and I finally summed up something of a trace of my feelings. I hope you all took the time to read this post. I hope it is worth your while.
Soli Deo Gloria!-Blake
)
LOL
With the glasses on am I less recognizable?
