2025 Space sets

[Operacion Saturno]

On 8/25/2023 at 9:57 AM, Murdoch17 said:

Licensed and / or Lego exclusive sets rarely leak these days, and when they do, such as Concorde, it was just about a week before the reveal. New themes also leak less as well.

Or they don't believe is real. Last year I found a picture of LEGO 40567 Forestmen Forest Hideout on may 21 in a website and upload it here. It was taken down by an administrator the next day on the believe chinese sites rarely display official Lego sets. The image turned out to be real and the set was released officially on June 15. 
3 weeks prior!

[Murdoch17]

3 minutes ago, Operacion Saturno said:

Or they don't believe is real. Last year I found a picture of LEGO 40567 Forestmen Forest Hideout on may 21 in a website and upload it here. It was taken down by an administrator the next day on the believe chinese sites rarely display official Lego sets. The image turned out to be real and the set was released officially on June 15. 
3 weeks prior!

Also, I should note we aren't supposed to post leaked photos of upcoming, unrevealed sets directly, not even a link to where we found it. LEGO sets forth rules for registered LUGS and registered media, and woe to those who break those rules. It's been that way for YEARS.... maybe even a decade.

Edited September 2, 2023 by Murdoch17

[Operacion Saturno]

22 minutes ago, Murdoch17 said:

Also, I should note we aren't supposed to post leaked photos of upcoming, unrevealed sets directly, not even a link to where we found it. LEGO sets forth rules for registered LUGS and registered media, and woe to those who break those rules. It's been that way for YEARS.... maybe even a decade.

Good point. That's why I didn't post the ones I found of 10497 before the preview of the 4th of july.

Lego has been this way since the late 70s when a group of employees resigned and went to work for Tente.

[Black Falcon]

42 minutes ago, Merlo said:

Blue Brixx set very much looks like a companion set to Barracuda Bay, which is vastly superior to the new Eldorado. It's more elegant, but less playful than that set. New Eldorado takes some inspiration from that set, but does everything worse except the ramp (which is great). The red highlights look much more like what they're supposed to be here, not trying to imply detail that's not possible with low brick count. The gray base shaping is much less amateurish, the trees are superior and there are no weird decisions like the black docks the original had. I am not amazed by the author's vision on these sets, but he had some vision, while the Lego designer had none and just did a poor remake. Lego also took modularity and the red roof tiles from this set. Some of the details in the new Eldorado (or lack there of, especially on stone transitions and the docks) are very difficult to look at.

Both old Eldorado and Blue Brixx set have tame color schemes so I've included the Legat of Legion MOC to show that a set can have lots of colors and not look like the cat threw up on it :)

I´m honestly not sure anymore if you really just have a different opinion, or are indeed just trolling. I mean if you have an other taste, ok. But tell me, where does the Blue Brixx set have the same colour scheme, as the blue brixx actually is the only one of those 4 that doesn´t. 

Also, the Barracuda could match to any of thoses sets, I just don´t see what qualifies the BB one to be called the companion Set either.

For me it would be just to worst coice out of all of them, is looks just boring with not much imagination put into it. The new Eldorado Fortress has way more details, playfeatures and nice ideas. 

The rockbuild of the BB one is just terrible, and the ramp just looks as boring as the one from Lion Knights castle. The dock just looks out of proportion towards the main building, that is taking a to minor part of the whole set. And lastly they are trying to add details to the main building using masonary bricks, that are just not there - not to mention the designer should have made his mind up on whether it is red or tan bricks ;). The new Eldorado Fortress does the same, but at least uses an different technic which doesn´t make it look as blatantly.

[danth]

7 hours ago, Merlo said:

Let's take a look at 4 similar themed sets: Lego 6276, Lego 10320, Blue Brixx 105181  and LoL MOC 6263

Now let's imagine some categories, whatever comes to mind, things like:

-how easy it is to rebuild

-how elegant does it look architecturally

-how "realistic" does it look if you squint real hard and imagine it's a real building

-does it look clean or messy?

-add your own

Worst, but not an unlikely case, is that 10320 is plum last in all these categories.

Best case, 10320 is still convincingly last, but avoids last place in some of the individual categories. The only thing that comes to mind at the moment is that it has a much higher brick count than 6276 so it's more appropriate for AFOL's who don't have nostalgia for that set.

Thanks, that gives me a much better idea of what you're talking about. And I think I even agree with your assessment, though I can't speak to ease of rebuilding.

I think 10320 makes these specific mistakes:

• The use of the reddish brown 2x1 rounded plates as exposed brick simply doesn't look good, they should have used the actual brick piece.
• The reddish brown pieces are everywhere, which doesn't work. It breaks up areas of wall that are just too small for that detail.
• The wall sculpting just isn't that good/interesting.
• The dock area is really rough.
• The rocky areas have an overly messy/distracting look.

Maybe that's the kind of thing you are talking about. The MOC is my favorite of the newer 3 designs.

Back to Space. I think 10497 had a much better execution than 10320.

2 hours ago, Merlo said:

Lego guidelines were so strict he was not allowed to do anything 

I can almost guarantee you that Lego uses computer algorithms to process all designs and suggests ways to cheapen them. Even down to what colors are used. Then the budget guys twist the designer's arms.

The internals of most larger sets look like they were designed by AI.

[arnoldtblumberg]

I'm glad pages and pages of this thread are devoted to explaining to those of us that just want a little joy in our lives how wrong we are to love this set and how everything is terrible. Thanks for that.

[danth]

24 minutes ago, arnoldtblumberg said:

I'm glad pages and pages of this thread are devoted to explaining to those of us that just want a little joy in our lives how wrong we are to love this set and how everything is terrible. Thanks for that.

I don't get the complaints about 10497 myself, other than extremely minor nitpicks.

But I don't see any problem critiquing Lego sets generally. If you can't handle it when someone criticizes a toy, I find that pretty sad, frankly.

Better to chime in with why you love something than to just complain, IMO.

[arnoldtblumberg]

1 hour ago, danth said:

Better to chime in with why you love something than to just complain, IMO.

If only more folks would listen to your advice. :)

[danth]

34 minutes ago, arnoldtblumberg said:

If only more folks would listen to your advice. :)

No, I mean YOU.

In response to people's criticisms of the Galaxy Explorer, I explained everything I liked about it. You just whined about the complaints.

Toxic positivity is a thing. You can't just expect everyone to fanboy out and accept everything uncritically. You can't say liking something is allowed but not liking something isn't. That's just silly.

Maybe that's not what you meant but it kinda comes off that way.

If you're saying that the Galaxy Explorer is so obviously amazing that the repeated complaints almost seem like trolling, well, I kinda get that.

Edited September 2, 2023 by danth

[arnoldtblumberg]

7 hours ago, danth said:

No, I mean YOU.

I was joking with you. I understood what you meant, I was simply ignoring it because you're overreacting enormously to my simply pointing out that a thread about enjoying some LEGO has become dominated by people mad because it doesn't match their precise desires. Toxic negativity is also a thing, and we're awash in it right now. And frankly, you're part of it.

I'm sick of coming here to enjoy chatting about LEGO, which should be a joyful thing, and finding nothing but complaints. I get that in plenty of other fandoms, I hoped not to find it here as much. I was wrong.

[danth]

2 hours ago, arnoldtblumberg said:

I was simply ignoring it because you're overreacting enormously to my simply pointing out that a thread about enjoying some LEGO has become dominated by people mad because it doesn't match their precise desires.

Well you didn't say that before. You were being sarcastic and basically saying we shouldn't do anything but praise Lego.

What you said above is actually a valid point.

2 hours ago, arnoldtblumberg said:

Toxic negativity is also a thing, and we're awash in it right now. And frankly, you're part of it.

Nah. Maybe some people are overly critical. I don't see any toxic negativity though. Unless you think all critique is toxic, which is silly.

2 hours ago, arnoldtblumberg said:

I'm sick of coming here to enjoy chatting about LEGO, which should be a joyful thing, and finding nothing but complaints. I get that in plenty of other fandoms, I hoped not to find it here as much. I was wrong. 

I see a lot praise and hopefulness in these threads, way more than criticism.

I you want to say that we're getting off topic critiquing a Pirate set, maybe you're right.

What do you hope for in 2024 space sets?

[Merlo]

Quote

I´m honestly not sure anymore if you really just have a different opinion, or are indeed just trolling. I mean if you have an other taste, ok. But tell me, where does the Blue Brixx set have the same colour scheme, as the blue brixx actually is the only one of those 4 that doesn´t. 

Tame color scheme, not same.

Quote

For me it would be just to worst coice out of all of them, is looks just boring with not much imagination put into it. The new Eldorado Fortress has way more details, playfeatures and nice ideas. 

Partially agree. BB set is the most "serious" out of them. This is why I said I'm not sold on the idea of it. The idea does not match my taste, but the execution is capable enough.

Lego set has no ideas worth mentioning over the original. Lack of baseplate made the gray base a necessity and of course it made more sense to play with the hollowness of it. So the only idea it really had (modularity) is taken straight from the BB set. But even disregarding all of that, it's possible to make a somewhat faithful tribute to the original Eldorado without bringing much new into it, but still make it good

I'd buy even a 4000+ set if it looked good.

Instead, look at this. What even is this? How did this pass the first review stage? This is straight out of the "me: age 12" playbook.

 

Quote

The rockbuild of the BB one is just terrible

So rocks in the front here

 

are terrible compared to rocks in the front here?

Interesting take.

 

Quote

and the ramp just looks as boring as the one from Lion Knights castle.

There's nothing wrong with the ramp there, it just happens that the Lego set made a wonderful ramp. Credit where credit's due. But the BB set also has much better / more logical texture placement and element composition so looking at it you immediately have an idea of what is what. The elements separate clearly in your mind because those with same-y colours have lots of texture and those that look flat have different color highlights. This is a clear sign that the creator is familiar with some basic design principles. Lego set just kinda... attacks your eyes and the different elements of the set (walls, ornaments, furnishings, etc) don't separate neatly so everything looks messy.

 

Quote

The dock just looks out of proportion towards the main building, that is taking a to minor part of the whole set.

I can't quite take these comments seriously, but just for the sake of conversation... the docks are usually a much bigger part in sets that could act as a town dock. EF is not such a set. It's meant to be standalone even though it's modular.

 

Quote

And lastly they are trying to add details to the main building using masonary bricks, that are just not there - not to mention the designer should have made his mind up on whether it is red or tan bricks ;). The new Eldorado Fortress does the same, but at least uses an different technic which doesn´t make it look as blatantly.

I think you misunderstood what I meant by "trying to add detail that isn't there".

What I meant is, you have a certain number of bricks and you have to leverage that number with the chosen complexity of the set.

If you have a small set, you may be able to sacrifice enough bricks just to detailing so that the detailing looks convincing - that's great.

If you have a bigger set or you have to limit the brick count, you can forgo brick-built details and just use the pre-made bricks that imply some sort of detail - like BB and many other Lego set - that's obviously a little bit of "cheating", but can certainly look attractive.

But if you try to add simulated complex detailing with a brick count that's too small - then everything starts looking messy and clashes with the other more convincing details in the set. This is why the red parts on the new Eldorado look more like the builder was lacking some white bricks than actual detailing and the details on the BB set do not-

This kind of messy/low res/clashes with more accomplished detail phenomenon is easiest to see in the creator pirate ship:

 

Given the hull is just a single brown color, all the shaping here looks wonderful. It takes something bland (single color) and gives it enough texture to make it pop.

Now look at the rear part with the captain's cabin and black, red, yellow, green and brown parts. They are supposed to imply some colorful ornaments but the brick count is way too low for that, so they just look messy and even wrong/amateurish, most notably with the two little red and yellow specs in the very rear and the way the black just makes the right angle against the brown. This makes it look like one part of the ship is high res and another one is very low res.

 

[Merlo]

20 hours ago, danth said:

Thanks, that gives me a much better idea of what you're talking about. And I think I even agree with your assessment, though I can't speak to ease of rebuilding.

I think 10320 makes these specific mistakes:

• The use of the reddish brown 2x1 rounded plates as exposed brick simply doesn't look good, they should have used the actual brick piece.
• The reddish brown pieces are everywhere, which doesn't work. It breaks up areas of wall that are just too small for that detail.
• The wall sculpting just isn't that good/interesting.
• The dock area is really rough.
• The rocky areas have an overly messy/distracting look.

Yes to all of this.

As I said, when I talk to my friends about it, we can agree on many such things. And when I watch Lego review videos, the reviewers often point out the same things about certain sets.

So my general feeling is that there is a way to make these sets that doesn't involve crazy or unrealistic requests and might even make the sets simpler and at the same time more attractive to the majority. Yet this is often not done and sets seemingly go out looking like a first draft.

Quote

The MOC is my favorite of the newer 3 designs.

Same.

 

Quote

Back to Space. I think 10497 had a much better execution than 10320.

Oh, no doubt. I can only compare those sets on the basis of Lego's lack of vision - both are too close to the original for my taste. What I really would like is a reimagining, not a remake. Imagination was always why I was into Lego.

Having said that, I think 10497 has a top notch execution.

It has very much a vibe of "I hired the world's best professional musicians for this mediocre song I wrote 40 years ago".

The song is still mediocre, the musicians don't really care for whatever feel it might once had, but by god, the playing is out of this world! :)

 

Quote

 

I can almost guarantee you that Lego uses computer algorithms to process all designs and suggests ways to cheapen them. Even down to what colors are used. Then the budget guys twist the designer's arms.

The internals of most larger sets look like they were designed by AI.

 

For whatever reason Ninjago City Markets is the first set I've seen where all the bricks in the interior were not just crazy colored but also "wrong" and seemingly as many hollow bricks were used as possible.

20 hours ago, arnoldtblumberg said:

I'm glad pages and pages of this thread are devoted to explaining to those of us that just want a little joy in our lives how wrong we are to love this set and how everything is terrible. Thanks for that.

Pages and pages? That's such an odd take I'd be surprised one person thinks that way :) I'm pretty sure we're all glad to see our fellow Lego fans enjoy their Lego. It's not even logically possible to be "wrong" about enjoying something, unless that's actively harming others. (let us all skip that part where plastics are probably not that good for the planet lol)

19 hours ago, danth said:

Better to chime in with why you love something than to just complain, IMO.

What, like if you're the first on the scene? Definitely :) But critique is the only way anything or anyone gets better. If you think you're the best, you probably won't work super hard to be the best and then some!

11 hours ago, arnoldtblumberg said:

Toxic negativity is also a thing.

Toxic neutrality is also a thing. It's when you stubbornly refuse to be negative because you'll be perceived differently than if you'd just be positive, but you can't find it in your heart to be positive and this internal divide makes you toxic towards everyone in a neutral way. Or not.

[arnoldtblumberg]

3 hours ago, Merlo said:

Toxic neutrality is also a thing. It's when you stubbornly refuse to be negative because you'll be perceived differently than if you'd just be positive, but you can't find it in your heart to be positive and this internal divide makes you toxic towards everyone in a neutral way. Or not.

That's a very nice point, fair enough.

[danth]

4 hours ago, Merlo said:

23 hours ago, danth said:

Better to chime in with why you love something than to just complain, IMO.

What, like if you're the first on the scene? Definitely :) But critique is the only way anything or anyone gets better. If you think you're the best, you probably won't work super hard to be the best and then some! 

That wasn't directed at you. It was directed at people complaining that you are critiquing sets. Basically they should defend the sets by saying what the set does right, if they can, instead of being mad that you dared criticize something.

4 hours ago, Merlo said:

Instead, look at this. What even is this? How did this pass the first review stage? This is straight out of the "me: age 12" playbook.

That is a brutal shot. Yikes.

But, we're in a 2024 Space sets thread. This critique of Pirate sets is getting off topic. We got there organically, but still.

That might be part of what is upsetting @arnoldtblumberg, understandably.

 

[Horation]

Quite frankly, @Merlo really had quite the skills if by age 12 : he could build such a type of tower that looks almost round, and had decent rockwork skills, and was clearly able to make a sturdy crane (which is not that easy to your average 12 yrs old), now I will agree that maybe reddish brown would have worked better, especially on this side (would create some sort of contrast), but the quality of the picture (low) makes the whole build look so, so much worse, the blue looks like if it has a different shade than the real one, and the angle is cleverly selected to hide as much detail as possible. Now I'm all for criticism, but this is borderline cherry-picking.

To get back on topic, I quite like these remakes, if they aren't always perfect, they at least respect the originals, what I really dislike are reimagined versions , which are kind of like taking your favourite pie and running it over with a bus for the sake of making something new, I mean sure you can still tell there was a pie there, but it doesn't really look like what it used to. Though 10947 could have been smaller, I will concede.

[Merlo]

16 hours ago, danth said:

That wasn't directed at you. It was directed at people complaining that you are critiquing sets. Basically they should defend the sets by saying what the set does right, if they can, instead of being mad that you dared criticize something. 

But, we're in a 2024 Space sets thread. This critique of Pirate sets is getting off topic. We got there organically, but still.

Yeah, I understand. I didn't think of any of this as an argument or taking sides, so I did not think of the fact that I was replying to something you said as disagreeing with you in general.

You're right, I apologize. I wasn't doing it on purpose, age does a number on me occasionally these days. Hopefully I can remember this going forward.

[TeriXeri]

Seems like 2024 is getting a  Creator "Space Astronaut" with a nearly identical price and piece count as the buildable up scaled figure, it could very well be a buildable Classic Space minifig with perhaps alternate builds (going by set number it falls under the usual 3-in-1 lineup but could still be an exclusive like the Birdhouse was).

Looks like Friends is going to Mars with 1 set.

Even with the Artemis Moon Mission sets retiring this year, City seems to be continuing Space and perhaps will move into a more Sci-Fi direction with set names like "Interstellar Spaceship" , "Space Rover and Alien Life" among another space station and rocket base.

I know City space usually isn't regarded as very interesting here (which makes sense as it was mostly Nasa or Mars) but the words Alien and Interstellar does sound they are moving beyond just current-day or near-future, and with those flying cars in City this year with colored windscreens, could mean City Space might actually becoming less "NASA" and more it's own thing, it even includes a small sets like "Space Hoverbike" or "Space Construction Mech"

Also another thing for May 2024, there look to be set names like Alien Pack , Alien Planet Habitat, a Space Series CMF, and a Space GWP all for that month.

Even Technic seems to be moving into a very Space/Sci-Fi direction with a multiple sets like Space Wheel Loader, Mars Crew Rover , VTOL heavy cargo Spaceship and Planet Earth/Moon in Orbit.

All in all, seems like LEGO is certainly planning around the 2024/2025 manned Moon mission putting space back in the spotlight.

(even including the youngest audience with a duplo set)

 

 

Edited September 6, 2023 by TeriXeri

[danth]

I wonder how much this has to do with having no upcoming SW movies until 2026 at the earliest, combined with post-sequel trilogy TV shows not being all that popular with the exception of the Mandalorian.

Is the SW well running dry?

[icm]

You know, @danth, it may actually have something to do with that. You may be right. Still, I agree with @TeriXeri that the more likely immediate cause is the fact that Artemis 2 is scheduled to launch next year (though it may very well be delayed until the year after that). The 2022 City Space sets very deliberately and conspicuously coincided with Artemis 1, so it makes a lot of sense to me that Lego would decide to schedule another wave of City Space to coincide with Artemis 2.

[danth]

28 minutes ago, icm said:

Still, I agree with @TeriXeri that the more likely immediate cause is the fact that Artemis 2 is scheduled to launch next year

Oops, I somehow totally missed that part of @TeriXeri's comment. Yeah, that seems like a strong likelihood.

Man I'm out of the loop. I had to google Artemis 1, and didn't even know about the upcoming manned missions.

[Lion King]

Am I the one who going to lose my mind over so…many…Space-themed sets? Freinds, Technic, City, CMF, Dreamzzz…

[Classic_Spaceman]

5 hours ago, TeriXeri said:

City seems to be continuing Space and perhaps will move into a more Sci-Fi direction with set names like "Interstellar Spaceship" 

Source on this name? 
 

3 hours ago, danth said:

Is the SW well running dry?

I highly doubt that - Sequels aside, there are still plenty of things from the original six movies, TCW, Rebels, and TBB that either need to be made or remade. 
 

[Lion King]

Are we getng an Artemis 2 set? Or just remake of the old Space set?

[Operacion Saturno]

On 9/7/2023 at 7:43 PM, Lion King said:

Are we getng an Artemis 2 set? Or just remake of the old Space set?

We want new Classic Space designs, new stuff, not just remakes.