News round-up

 

  • News round-up

    Posted by Huw, 28 Jun 2012 14:39. Filed under Miscellaneous.

    8909: Agile Archer
    Collectable Minifigures/Team GB, 2012
    More details...
    ©2012 LEGO Group

    Here's a round-up of news that emerged while Brickset was down:

    The Team GB minifigs are now available at shop.LEGO.com in the UK. It states that "A maximum of 9 minifigures may be ordered per address, per household." however if previous experience is anything to go by when they've specified similar restrictions, it won't be enforced. (thanks to thedailybrick)

    Loads of people have emailed about BuildWithChrome  which will let you populate Australia and New Zealand with 32 x 32 base plates, and build virtual models on them using the Google Chrome browser. It's not something that we'd normally cover in the news but I'll mention it now to stop the emails from flooding in :)

    Similarly, news has emerged that LEGO is going to try its hand at another MMOG which is surprising given the fate of their last effort. Hopefully they will take lessons learnt from the failure of Universe and make this one a success. One thing that Universe didn't do but should have, and which it sounds as if this one will, is tie it in with physical products, the collectable minifigures by the sounds of things. I guess this means they will be around for a good few years yet, then... (thanks TooMuchLego)

    Given the site was down for a while yesterday and today, I will extend the competition to win a signed Dino set courtesy of ToyAddict.co.uk until Friday at midnight. If you're in the UK and haven't already entered, visit the competition page to do so now.

    Finally, from now through July 8, 2012, ThePlasticBrick.com is offering Free Domestic Shipping to all orders over $49.95 in the USA. They have lots of recently added sets that are looking for collectors and playmates. Visit ThePlasticBrick.com and save on your order today.
     

     


    21 comments, latest one posted 10 months ago. (Commenting has ended on this article)
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Comments

Posted by Alemas in Germany, 28 Jun 2012 15:04

HUW! The article announcing the return of a LEGO MMOG IS BROKEN!!! FIX IT NOW, PLEASE!!! :P When I click the link, NOTHING happens. No new tab, nothing.

Posted by Matthew in United Kingdom, 28 Jun 2012 15:07

I've had a look at (and hopefully fixed!) the link now Huw. Honestly, the things we do for you Alemas...

:-)

Posted by Alemas in Germany, 28 Jun 2012 15:10

@Matthew: Thanks. :P Now it works. Good. First thing: Make it free. :P

Posted by natro220 in United States, 28 Jun 2012 15:32

Alemas - lay off the caffeine dude! lol The BuildWithChrome thing looks cool...can't say I'm looking forward to Lego Universe v2 though...unless it is a VAST improvement.

Posted by jeffculligan in Canada, 28 Jun 2012 15:32

Hopefully "maximum accessibility" means free-to-play, I assume they realize that the Lego Universe cost model didn't work.

Posted by paul_merton in United Kingdom, 28 Jun 2012 16:13

It seemed to accept my second order for another 9 Team GB minifigures (of course, I added a few extra bits to take the total just over £50 both times :))

Posted by ericjohn in United States, 28 Jun 2012 16:18

Is anyone going to start a series of hate comments about "if previous experience is anything to go by when they've specified similar restrictions, it won't be enforced." Shouldn't we expect better from customer service? Oh. This benefits us, I guess I'll shut up.

Expecting a quality MMOG to be free is ridiculous. There needs to be some revenue to keep the game alive and the thinking, "LEGO takes so much money from consumers that they can provide this for free" is bunk. It sounds like some kind of minifigures are going to come with codes like Webkinz. Interesting, a good interesting, that the game is licensed out from LEGO by an independent company.

Posted by Polynices in United States, 28 Jun 2012 16:34

I still miss LEGO Universe so another LEGO MMOG makes me happy... except Funcom is a terrible choice for a partner. They're responsible for the most bungled launch in MMOG history (Anarchy Online) and another failed MMOG (Age of Conan). They do have a new MMOG coming out soon (The Secret World) which some people are saying good things about... but they said good things about Age of Conan before it launched and flopped.

Let's all hope Funcom has improved and will manage to make this work.

Posted by Isabella and Lego Liker in United States, 28 Jun 2012 17:41

Lots of cheap stuff (may be used), but some sets are in good to great prices.

Complete 8426 for under $6

Complete 8678 for under $20

Complete 3815 for $12.50

8200 for 71% off the new price (it is $1.95)

4642 with box for $13.95

30053 with bag on sale for $2.95 (it's $5.09 at my Target)

Big Bling Wheelie also $2.95

Not under, but a well-reviewed (4.6/5) set: Road Hero for $4.95

Posted by fitzyfitz in United Kingdom, 28 Jun 2012 18:10

Mads Nipper spoke about the failure of LEGO Universe at AFOLCON and said they'd probably have another go but take a different approach, probably focusing more on the strong core themes.

Posted by Huw in United Kingdom, 28 Jun 2012 18:23

@ericjohn, I know you're not advocating 'hate comments', but just to clarify, they have had similar restrictions for previous series of CMFs but I've been able to place multiple orders, hence my assertion.

Even if their system prevented a single LEGO ID from placing multiple orders, it would be a pretty sophisticated system that prevented you from creating multiple LEGO IDs, in your wife and kids' names, and placing orders from each. I guess they could manually check adresses, but with thousands of orders per day, would they bother?

Even when they specify that a promo set is only available with, say, Star Wars purchases only over £50, you can usually order anything. I think what I'm trying to say is that their ordering system is not clever enough to support the restrictions they want to implement.

Posted by Joefish in United Kingdom, 28 Jun 2012 20:49

It's depressing that LEGO still haven't learned a thing from the flop of Universe.

They've picked another also-ran online game provider with a track record of failed games and launches.
Yes, they were taken for a ride before by that silly 'Pirates vs Ninjas' meme which had nothing to do with LEGO, then the game creators got railroaded into adding more and more Ninjago-related content at the expense of everything else until everything was Ninjas. But collectible minifigs? How will that work? Unless they're going to clone Skylander or something equally unoriginal. What have they got against TT games anyway that they're not involved in taking their hugely successful stylings online? Or at least consulting on how to make a LEGO game appealing?

They still don't seem to get that what parents and kids and everyone else expected was to be able to build LEGO buildings, cars, worlds even and share them and walk around them with friends, meet up, chat etc. Instead you got saddled with a third-rate Warcraft clone with flaming lava pits everywhere you turned where you had to spent 90% of your time smashing things over and over just to earn the cash for a few bricks to build something of your own. And even then the building tools were some of the buggiest software around, and nothing you built yourself could appear in the main game world.

I honestly cry for the opportunities missed in that game.

Posted by LukeSkywalker in Ireland, 29 Jun 2012 00:45

Awesome!! Team GB is available to buy in Ireland! :D

Posted by Gregorovich in United Kingdom, 30 Jun 2012 09:57

Went to Toys 'R' Us in Parkhead, Glasgow today with my little brother. I unfortunately couldn't talk him into getting any LEGO, lol.

Anyway, they had quite a few boxes of the Team GB figs. However, the only 2nd wave things they had were the new Mining sets, and I couldn't see any good deals either.

Posted by legoguysw in United Kingdom, 30 Jun 2012 11:35

The Toys R Us in Sears Retail Park, Solihull (nr. Birmingham) had a box of Team GB minifigures. They were in the Olympics section near the entrance rather than by the tills as they normally are. Got 8, only 2 duplicates, which I was rather pleased with.

Posted by LukeSkywalker in Ireland, 30 Jun 2012 16:15

^ a bit like that Skylanders game. A Lego version of that idea could be very cool. :)

Posted by itsaturkey in United States, 30 Jun 2012 20:40

Here are three things I hope to see in this game.
1. Either a low subscription cost, or no subscription cost. 120 for one year of a game is unacceptable.
2. Tie in to a current Lego theme (Which is in this)
3. On game consoles. The computer game market is not as popular as it once was.
Honestly if Lego had followed all three of those tips I don't think LU would have flopped.
I'm anxious on more details for the new game. I hope to give it a try when it's released. I guess we'll get more news at Comic Con.
P.S. I wonder why Lego didn't announce this at E3? It was only like 3 weeks ago, and it would've gotten the game more known.

Posted by petro17sq in Colombia, 01 Jul 2012 05:42

I don't find the GB team minifigures in Bricklink, does anyone know how to find these?

Posted by petro17sq in Colombia, 01 Jul 2012 05:42

I don't find the GB team minifigures in Bricklink, does anyone know how to find these?

Posted by Isabella and Lego Liker in United States, 01 Jul 2012 12:32

Perhaps that didn't have it ready for E3.

Posted by Huw in United Kingdom, 01 Jul 2012 12:38

^ I believe that some parts of Bricklink are still broken following the recent hacking, including inventory management. So, as a result, they have not been added to the catalogue and so vendors are having to add them to their stores as custom lots.

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