We take more and we start again: After Prince of Persia (John Carter was not declined in LEGO sauce ...), here is the other cinematic fiasco that should delight LEGO fans concerned about reducing their budget devoted to ABS plastic products: The Lone Ranger, a film by Gore Verbinski, with Johnny Depp as headliner and with a pharaonic budget of $ 250 million, does not fill theaters and only displays just over 48 million dollars in first week revenue where Despicable Me 2 grossed over $ 140 million over the same period.

Disney will recover from this failure, no doubt about it. LEGO too, of course. On the other hand, it is now almost certain that The Lone Ranger will not benefit from a sequel and by extension we can guess that LEGO will stop the production of products derived from the film.

Sales figures six LEGO boxes inspired by The Lone Ranger universe will inevitably be impacted by the film's commercial fiasco. Some argue that this impact will be lessened by the film's western theme, whose return to a LEGO version was eagerly awaited by fans and which still works with the youngest if we are to believe the sales figures of equivalent products developed by Playmobil. . It is possible, but it will not be enough to make the LEGO The Lone Ranger range commercial success.

Two immediate consequences for LEGO fans: A very correct availability of boxes already on sale and a guarantee of long-term sales on the remaining stocks in the weeks and months to come, reactivity being required when the risk of slump occurs. profile on the horizon.

LEGO had obviously bet on the success of the film and had launched this mini-range with great fanfare with expertly distilled teasers, reviews ordered on the most influential sites, etc ... But the main sales medium of these six LEGO boxes remains unquestionably the film. And if it does not fill the rooms, the alert is raised.

If you are fans of the western theme, be patient, we should quickly see clearance offers at knockdown prices on the six boxes concerned, as was the case in the past with boxes from the Prince of Persia range.

Disney may not win every time, but between Avengers 2 & 3 and the restart of the Star Wars saga, the accounts should very quickly be rebalanced. For their part, LEGO fans can rub their hands while waiting to be able to afford the products of The Lone Ranger range. The money saved will be used to pay for the Star Wars licensed boxes to come ...

You can find the entire LEGO The Lone Ranger range on pricevortex.com, amazon Spain currently practices very attractive prices on these boxes ...

79106 Cavalry Builder Set	-	-	-	-	-	14.99 €
79107 Comanche Camp	-	-	-	-	-	29.99 €
79108 Stagecoach Escape	-	-	-	-	-	49.99 €
79109 Colby City Showdown	-	-	-	-	-	59.99 €
79110 Silver Mine Shootout	-	-	-	-	-	79.99 €
79111 Constitution Train Chase	-	-	-	-	-	99.99 €

KV9T9-B Wasp Podracer: This barbaric name probably doesn't ring a bell at first, but if you take your Blu-ray out of theEpisode I The Phantom Menace, and as you carefully watch the podracers race on Tatooine, you will see that the machine in question starts from the second row.

From "Deleted Scenes"You will also discover that this machine piloted by Clegg Holdfast has its brief moment of glory during the second round of Boonta Eve Classic before suffering the wrath of Sebulba and crashing miserably.

Legopard (His flickr gallery) gives us here a beautiful MOC, nicely staged, reproducing this podracer with an ephemeral career. Some beautiful construction techniques are on the menu, and all would look great in a corner of my office ...

Below, the next custom minifig Super Heroes proposed by David Hall alias Solid Brix Studios : Green Arrow.

The minifigure, created by HJ Media Studios, is really successful and the 3D rendering presented is simply superb.

But, because there is a but, I bought a minifigure in the past in the shop of Solid Brix Studios, in this case his Iron Patriot (See this article), and I was a little disappointed with the final rendering because of the printing technique used (Digital printing) which gives a result which is absolutely not comparable with that obtained in pad printing (Pad printing).

I will therefore wait to see the first pictures of the future buyers of this new custom to decide whether or not I spend a few tens of dollars to add this visually very attractive minifig to my collection.

Here are our Mexican friends, big suppliers of minifigs on eBay, this time with Iron Patriot from polybag 30168 offered for any pre-order of the LEGO Marvel Super Heroes video game at Walmart and Gamestop.de sold for 40 $, without its bag or its accessories ...

Also seen on eBay, a Hungarian seller who offered five polybags at a price of 25 € each. The five sachets sold out in record time ...

It would seem that Iron Patriot is therefore produced both in the manufacturer's Mexican factories (for the US market) but also in the manufacturing units located in Eastern Europe.

If you want my opinion, it bodes well for European availability of this polybag. But that's just a guess, don't blame me if in the end it isn't ...

Let's get over the main problem right away: Yes, these collectors souvenirs distributed by LEGO at various events are too exclusive to be affordable. They obviously generate pleasure for all those who can get them on the spot or offer them via the Internet and frustration among “complete” collectors who must resolve to ignore a product that will be eternally missing from their inventory.

That being said, what will be the exclusive products that LEGO will distribute or sell during the next San Diego Comic Con and Star Wars Celebration Europe II? Nothing has filtered out yet. As every year, the exclusive LEGO products that will be offered do not appear in the various lists published on the respective sites of the events concerned. These lists only indicate the products that will be marketed on site by the various exhibitors. The one for San Diego Comic Con is at this address, that of Celebration Europe II at this address.

We shouldn't be too long to be fixed, however, and I hope the 2013 vintage won't be as expensive and / or frustrating as the 2012 one: The four minifigs (Shazam, Bizarro, Black spidey et Phoenix) 1000 copies printed and distributed at San Diego Comic Con 2012 have convinced many collectors, especially Europeans, that LEGO had the ability to offer us something other than an umpteenth version of Batman, but that the manufacturer was not doing necessarily case of the general craze for superhero minifigs by making some of them (too) exclusive.

On the other hand, the mini-series of tin cans on the LEGO Star Wars theme sold for $ 40 and already available in three sets, each printed at 1000 copies (Darth Maul and his Sith Infiltrator sold at San Diego Comic Con 2012, Luke and his Landspeeder sold at New York Comic Con 2012, and finally Boba Fett and his mini Slave I sold during Celebration VI also in 2012) is in my opinion an initiative that fits perfectly with the mission that these collectors memories must fulfill.

I hope that LEGO will continue to offer us this range of boxes this year with one or two different sets. The potential is enormous, the principle is nice, the collector's side is obvious and the content is exclusive "but not too much". Celebration Europe II is a perfect opportunity to add a fourth box to this mini-range.

When it comes to superhero minifigs, I'm more reserved: Four minifigs for a single event is too much: Trying to buy them at a fair price on eBay in the days following their availability is an arduous quest even if the pleasure finding them for a reasonable budget compensates for the necessary efforts (physical and financial).

One or two exclusive minifigs, Iron Patriot for example, as was the case in 2011 with Batman (SDCC & NYCC 2011), Green Lantern (SDCC & NYCC 2011) and Superman (NYCC 2011 - Which incidentally only remained exclusive for a few weeks) would be more than enough to satisfy everyone: Those who are there would have their collector's souvenir, those who have to buy them on eBay would spend less and those who could not. getting them would be a little less frustrated ...

In any case, I am already preparing for the hunt for collector souvenirs. Regarding San Diego Comic Con, my fingers crossed because I'm going to have to go through eBay. I will be at Celebration Europe II at the end of July in the company of Omar Ovalle in particular and even if nothing has been confirmed for the moment, I already know that it will be necessary to cunning to reach the LEGO stand before the daily quota of exclusive products ... We can always assume that Yoda's minifigure seen during the various launch operations of The Yoda Chronicles saga will be there, as will the polybag of the Clone Trooper Lieutenant already distributed during Star Wars Days in California, even if LEGO will undoubtedly celebrate the event with a new product ...