Lyichir

Apparently a clearer picture of the cancelled Game Island Tower leaked... confirming that Mrs. Castillo and the villain on the top of it would've been unique. I kind of get the cancellation (the price was definitely quite substantial), but it's still a shame. I really think the design, with the roller coaster track and video billboards, was extremely cool—reminds me a bit of Deca Tower from Splatoon 2, only pushed in an even more cyberpunk/fantastical direction.

Last two Mario Kart sets of the year were revealed. Character-wise they’re nothing special, at least for people who’ve been collecting a while (though I think it’s been a little while since Toadette was available). But I love the kart selection—the Cat Cruiser and Tanooki Kart were near the top of my wishlist for future karts, and the P-Wing (complete with brick-built glider) is great as well.

The summer Star Wars sets have been revealed, and the "Rebuild the Galaxy" snowspeeder has a cool black and trans-yellow windscreen that looks like it'd be fun for Blacktron MOCs.

Bricklink has you covered: https://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemIn.asp?P=983&colorID=105&in=A The only other current fig that has them is Bandit from the largest Bluey set, though. And I think the monochrome one is probably cheaper.

I think this is a good analysis—mechs are an easy way to blend "action figure play" with the typical scale of Lego minifigures and vehicles. Even in cases where mechs aren't "canon" (like the Star Wars ones or the Knuckles mech from the Sonic the Hedgehog sets), they create an opportunity to evoke the details of characters in a buildable form, in a format that's more kid-friendly and playable than, say, a character statue like some of the various Star Wars droid sets or a static display figure like BrickHeadz. The introduction of small ball joints in the Mixels theme was especially a boon to making small mechs at an affordable price point, which is what you typically see in Star Wars and Super Heroes (bigger, more expensive mechs are more typical of themes where they're a greater focus like Ninjago). And it's not like mechs are the only sorts of sets of that type (a small, cheap means of making a set focused on a minifigure character with some buildability/playability)—other examples include Star Wars' microfighters or Super Heroes' mighty micros. Like the mechs, those sorts of sets aren't really focused on representing an accurate depiction of the property in question so much as they are being fun entry-level sets for kids. All this is to say that I don't think mechs are going away any time soon, but also it's not like they're straightforwardly taking the place of more "accurate" pocket money sets, because at that price point and age grade realism/accuracy isn't really the objective.

Love the way you've matched those swirly plant/tail pieces to the arches to integrate them with the architecture!

If One Piece didn't preclude Pirates of the Caribbean (or vice-versa), I don't see why the two of them combined would preclude Wind Waker—especially since the smaller King of Red Lions is arguably a more iconic, set-worthy subject for that game than any of the larger pirate ships, meaning even less overlap with those other two themes' sets. That said, I'm not sure how likely Wind Waker (or Spirit Tracks even moreso) is to get a tribute set yet, at least with the current pattern of releasing sets one at a time. They're not exactly the latest/most timely Zelda games to base something on, and I'd sooner expect Lego to take a small step from the previous Zelda set with something based Ocarina of Time or Breath of the Wild again (or maybe at most, their associated sequels Majora's Mask or Tears of the Kingdom) than to dive right into Wind Waker and its sequels. Then again, next year (when the next Zelda set is rumored to come out) IS the 25th anniversary of Wind Waker, so maybe they will surprise me and base a set on that to tie in with the anniversary!

Got Mario Kart World recently and have been thinking about what sorts of subjects from the new game could make good sets in the future. The open-world nature of the game means there's a lot of potential, since not only are there plenty of potential karts and drivers but also lots of NPC vehicles and structures that could be interacted with in neat ways and would work great either as the main subject of a set or as a side build of sorts. One of the things that seems like it'd make a great set would be the "Yoshi's" food truck. It could come with a uniformed Toad to staff it (either to drive or sell food at the window) and digi-figs could work with it either as a driver or by scanning the "dash food" item for a pick-me-up. The very bubbly, blocky design of the truck seems like it'd be easy to build recognizably in Lego, and very cute as a set!

Definitely an interesting selection. I'm not sure whether I'll plan to get any of these since unlike the previous Dreamzzz BAM parts (which largely featured characters' canon waking world outfits), it's unclear whether any/all of these will actually represent outfits from the show. But I do like that candy outfit for Izzie!

The Mateo vs. Cyber Brain Mech set is indeed cool. I don't think the similarity to Grimkeeper is a bad thing—there's always room for a big monster/mech, and it looks really cool. Not sure if I'll personally get it since that version of Mateo is also in the paint truck set, but it's a solid set. I really like the Time Owl and Fire Chameleon too—really cool creature builds that instantly evoke what they're supposed to look like. I downloaded the instructions to those sets and the illustrations are super cute! I really like the look of the new "pixel wave" effect piece used for many of the sets—when I first saw it I expected it to be a mostly flat energy effect piece similar to ones that have appeared before in themes like Ninjago, Hero Factory, and Bionicle, but the way it actually undulates in three dimensions makes it much more unique. Gonna be a while before I can get any of these sets since they're August releases in the U.S., but I feel like it's a solid wave. Looking forward to what the theme cooks up for its final wave next year.

Sure, I'll give it a try! Seems to work great! Thank you so much!

Yup, exploration vehicles like this can get pretty darn big due to lacking the need to go on regular roads or rails. Though they do end up looking a little silly side-by-side. Incidentally, the designer of the new train station set has notes on its design on their Bricklist. Like I figured, the design was meant to give the station a sense of age by featuring historic architecture with modern expansions (an approach I've seen more and more in architecture lately—there are some good examples in this article). The execution here is a good deal simpler than many of those dramatic real-world examples, but then again, architecture in the City theme generally tends to have to be simplified somewhat to keep it easily buildable by young age groups.

I mean, the reality is that larger sets have more room for extra figures and accessories and more budget for recolors beyond what's strictly necessary for the main characters/build, which typically makes them more likely to be able to fit "fanservice" elements into them than with smaller sets. And large set or small set, Pick-a-Brick typically becomes an option a couple months after release for non-licensed parts in regular sets.

Hard to say, especially since both look quite frayed (likely due to heavy wear, whether real or not). Lego has varied the material of capes over the years as well, with a firmer, more starched material used in the past but a stretchier material used for some recent sets in themes like Super Heroes.

I love getting new windscreens in trans pink and trans purple, one of these days I'll motivate myself to come up with some more Lego Movie 2 "Systar System" MOCs since I loved the aesthetic of that faction.