Anyways, if this is true, I’m 100% on the DC minifigs right now and I’d kinda like to get my hands on one for that reason alone, but I’m glad they picked a less popular character this year instead of something highly desirable like a proper Nolan-suited Batman or Green Lantern, if indeed this is going to remain a convention exclusive character. Still, feels odd to be saying that about a character who once used to be much more popular than Superman, even though that has never been the case during my lifetime.

As for the Hobbit minifigs, and the recent trend of having all LEGO licensed news come out through non-LEGO sites like MTV.com, keep in mind that many of these movies set up exclusive contracts with a single news site such that _all_ movie-related photos, including merchandise, can only be released through the partner-site for a set period of time. The LEGO Company gets no say in that, so that’s why AFOL sites get cut out of the loop on photos like this, and why they tend to be so hard to locate at first.