So this San Diego Comic Con 2012 comes to an end and it's time to take stock of what LEGO has offered us so we can salivate and start saving for 2013.
First of all, we have to give LEGO credit for its ability to generate buzz. Every single piece of information, no matter how small, was covered by dozens of articles on various blogs and websites covering LEGO news, including my own, of course. The tiniest bit of a minifigure, an exclusive poster, or even a tin can generated reports throughout the LEGO community. FBTB was the main player in the media coverage of the event. All the information, exclusives, and images were provided by them, practically in real time. Everyone else, myself included, was hanging on their every word, waiting to share the news in turn. It's very frustrating, but it's better than nothing.
To remember this year:
Regarding the LEGO Star Wars range , there was a bit of a disappointment. We had to make do with the Rancor Pit , a modular addition to set 9516 Jabba's Palace released this year. The Rancor minifigure is nice, and the idea of expanding Jabba's Palace is excellent. And that's it. The exclusive Darth Maul's Mini Sith Infiltrator set , sold in a metal box for $40 at Comic-Con and including a few pieces, and the Darth Maul The Clone Wars set in a polybag, were enough to generate buzz and fill the homepages.
The LEGO Super Heroes range also received minimal attention. No sets, no groundbreaking announcements, just about twenty minifigures —admittedly well-designed, but confirming LEGO's focus on the Ultimate Spider-Man animated series, and suggesting we might get some enticing sets in The Dark Knight ( Bane ) or Arkham Asylum universes. But nothing has been officially confirmed. It took four exclusive minifigures ( Bizarro , Phoenix , Shazam , and Black Spidey ) to spark heated debate about their ultra-limited production run, the possibility that these minifigures might never appear in future sets, and the exorbitant prices demanded on eBay by the luckiest visitors to the show.
Regarding the Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit range , only one set has been officially unveiled: The Hobbit: Bag End . We also saw a few minifigures from The Hobbit range scheduled for December 2012. No further information was provided regarding a second wave of Lord of the Rings sets. I think LEGO is going to focus on The Hobbit universe, and that the sets based on the LOTR trilogy were just an introduction that won't be followed up with new releases. But I could be wrong. Here again, the buzz was skillfully maintained with a minifigure delivered in a collector's edition in a small burlap sack.
As for the Ninjago range , nothing too exciting, except for a preview of the second season of the animated series based on this universe.
In the end, we talked a lot about LEGO, from 2013, but we didn't necessarily discover much concrete. Apart from the pieces of plastic presented, everything else is pure speculation on the part of the community. Everyone has their own predictions, with The Dark Knight sets in spades or an Arkham UCS asylum ...
Next up is Celebration VI , which will take place from August 23rd to 26th, 2012 in Orlando, Florida. LEGO is expected to unveil more new products for 2013 there. This will be followed by New York Comic Con 2012 from October 11th to 14th, 2012 (I'll be there in person, but I'll tell you more about it later), where new announcements are also expected regarding the manufacturer's flagship product lines.
