Let's be honest, the LEGO The Hobbit license is looking pretty bad ...

After The Bridge Direct for the USA and Asia, it is Vivid imaginations, an English toy maker who licensed The Hobbit for Europe, Africa, Australia, New Zealand and the Middle East.

The manufacturer will offer plush toys of the characters from the film, board games and mini figures. The Bridge Direct will offer Action Figures, Adventure Packs, Beast Packs and detailed collectible figurines. We can also afford role-playing accessories such as swords, battle axes, etc ...

Vivid has produced toys under the LOTR license in the past and therefore knows the industry well. The product lines of the two manufacturers will be unveiled to industry professionals within a few weeks, probably at one of the first Toy Fair in February 2012.

Still no trace of LEGO in the equation, and if we admit that the partnerships are signed and announced now for the end of 2012, we can start to worry.

But let's not forget that LEGO has learned to keep its secrets before revealing them at the most opportune moment. The LEGO Super Heroes range is a fine example of controlled communication. Nothing concrete had filtered before the San Diego Comic Con in July 2011 ...

It is done. The project Lego minecraft initiated by fans and supported by the game publisher MojangOn Cuusoo reached 10.000 supporters and therefore moved on to stage 2. By comparison, the first project to come out of the Cuusoo initiative, the Shinkai 6500, had barely reached 1000 supporters in Japan in 420 days.

What will happen now? The project therefore passes from the state of IDEA (idea) than Review. During this phase, a jury made up of designers, product managers and a few other decision-makers from the LEGO company will examine this project. Prototypes will be created to assess whether the concept meets LEGO safety and playability standards.

This phase of Review will last 1 to 2 weeks and at the end of this process, a decision in principle will be taken on whether or not to continue the project.

If the decision is positive, the project will then enter a third phase during which the products intended to be placed on the market will be designed, finalized and prepared for marketing. This phase will last several months.

But Paal Smith-Meyer, head of the LEGO New Business Group is already calming the ardor of Minecraft fans even if he readily recognizes the exceptional nature of the mobilization around this project: “It is still too early to say whether a Minecraft play set will become a LEGO product as it still needs to go through a review and approval process to ensure it meets our usual LEGO standards, but it is certainly a lot closer.”
In summary, he says it is still too early to determine if the LEGO Minecraft concept will go to the end.

So, LEGO Minecraft or not? I think the project will succeed. A tribute set for the game for sale exclusively at the LEGO Shop and the thing will be heard. There is something for everyone: LEGO will delight its new customers who are Minecraft fans, Mojang will do a good deed by donating the 1% of royalties to charities and Cuusoo will have shown that even on a global scale, every idea can potentially be successful. shape. 

The press release on LEGO Cuusoo: Minecraft project achieves 10,000 supporters on LEGO CUUSOO.

You got it, I let you down yesterday. In question, the minifig of Chewbacca which was not really worth three lines on the blog.

I give in to temptation tonight and I therefore offer you a snapshot of Chewbacca, the grumbling wookie, with the accessories discovered in the box of the day ... Just as mean from LEGO and frankly uninteresting, but I would have you allowed to save a few minutes of your time last night, and waste half as much tonight (!?) ...

More seriously, I hope the worst is behind us, otherwise I am going back to my Kinder Advent Calendar. There at least, there are things to eat ...

It's certain eBay that we can already find for sale this Sandtrooper from the 2012 range and which comes from the set 9490 Droid Escape.

We discover a little more the silkscreen printing of the sand on the outfit of this soldier stationed on Tatooine. But what turns out to be even more interesting is the character's head. No more black head without serigraphy, here is a new version which goes much better with the body with the very heavy serigraphy of the minifig.

From memory, we have not seen a Sandtrooper or Stormtrooper without his helmet in the Star Wars saga and we can wonder if this serigraphy on the face is ultimately very useful. But it remains interesting because it will allow the use of this face on other custom minifigs for example.

We will be entitled to two of these minifigs in the set 9490 Droid Escape and this new visual comforts me in the idea that it will be one of the best sets of this first wave 2012. 

We also find on eBay the minifig of C-3PO from the same set. We already know her well, but this photo confirms an impression we all had so far: C-3PO's eyes are well screen-printed.

After the Mexican sellers who flood eBay and Mercado Libre, here is a Canadian seller on eBay which sells the 2012 minifigs from the LEGO Super Heroes DC Universe range.

Buy now prices are high but not crazy. Around 15 euros for the minifigure to have it a few weeks before everyone else, it's up to you.

At worst, we will take the opportunity to see these minifigs up close with close-ups that allow you to capture every detail and confirm that these minifigs are really superb.

Red Robin and The Riddler in their comic version are very successful. The colors are bright and the serigraphs not too overloaded. We stay in the minifig in the true sense of the term.

I already own Superman (distributed at NYCC), and he forms a cohesive duo with Wonder Woman whose minifigure is sublime. Lex Luthor is more generic, the costume is well rendered with the screen printing on the chest.