2024 Space sets

[Classic_Spaceman]

4 minutes ago, Lyichir said:

even though I still feel like choosing between it and the existing backpack/armor pieces feels like a tough choice.

It sort of feels like a “year 2” addition to the spacesuits; the astronauts encounter hostile wildlife or journey deep underground and need extra armour for protection. As for how to incorporate it, my plan is to use it mainly for the command colours, as I have not been able to find decent backpacks to use to make them into divisions of their own (and I have an increasing number of dark blues!). 

9 minutes ago, Lyichir said:

the construction team commander has a titanium metallic right arm, which I'd interpreted as possibly a prosthetic (since it didn't match the color scheme of the other two commanders). 

I was never sure whether to interpret his arm as a prosthetic or just as additional armour (since it matched the drill that he holds). As an aside, we really need a proper prosthetic arm piece! 

11 minutes ago, Lyichir said:

what would really elevate that torso, in my opinion, would be if the right arm were reddish orange to match that side of the torso print. Unfortunately I think reddish orange still has yet to be used for fig parts aside from printing.

I agree; the lack of a reddish orange arm is my only real issue with that torso. 
 

[Lyichir]

2 hours ago, Classic_Spaceman said:

I was never sure whether to interpret his arm as a prosthetic or just as additional armour (since it matched the drill that he holds). As an aside, we really need a proper prosthetic arm piece!

Personally I'm not sure a dedicated prosthetic arm piece is totally necessary–there was a clunky sci-fi prosthetic in the old Agents theme, and hooks exist for historic prosthetics in themes like pirates. For realistic modern prosthetics, realistically the simplified form factor of a normal minifigure arm could probably still suffice in many cases (maybe in a different color or with printing to make it look more artificial). Then again, Friends recently introduced Autumn (a character with a limb difference) and a prosthetic hand piece for her, so I guess something similar could potentially be done for minifigures as well.

[Artanis I]

Ah. That was actually disappointing, but I do like the armour.

[Lion King]

I like three of those space-themedBAM minifigures.

[Classic_Spaceman]

20 hours ago, Lyichir said:

Personally I'm not sure a dedicated prosthetic arm piece is totally necessary–there was a clunky sci-fi prosthetic in the old Agents theme, and hooks exist for historic prosthetics in themes like pirates. For realistic modern prosthetics, realistically the simplified form factor of a normal minifigure arm could probably still suffice in many cases (maybe in a different color or with printing to make it look more artificial). Then again, Friends recently introduced Autumn (a character with a limb difference) and a prosthetic hand piece for her, so I guess something similar could potentially be done for minifigures as well.

Fair point about modern prosthetics, but I think that a new mould would be good just from a visibility standpoint. Maybe something like a normal arm with grooves or dual-moulding to suggest internal mechanical components and an outer casing (and to make it look less natural than a normal arm). 
This kind of piece would also be easy to reuse for robots and cyborgs, so LEGO would get a lot of use out of it! 
 

[Artanis I]

TLG posted this video today...

So the market research says that kids DO like the old stuff. So the annoying folks that keep saying they don't can officially eat a hat.

[Mondo-TRON]

On 4/23/2024 at 7:59 AM, Lyichir said:

The Rambling Brick has pictures!

The new shoulder armor looks particularly cool, even if I'm not sure I'd personally have use for it (since the new City astronauts already have pretty good color-coded neck accessories). The "Futuron-style torsos" might be a looser interpretation and looks like the new reddish orange rather than coral.

I for sure need to get a bunch of those armor pieces. Is it possible that this piece shows  up in  upcoming City Space sets? (Hopefully it continues into next year)

Edited April 25 by Mondo-TRON

[Black Falcon]

8 hours ago, Artanis I said:

So the market research says that kids DO like the old stuff. So the annoying folks that keep saying they don't can officially eat a hat.

As mentioned before, the question is not if they would play with it, but whether it would be able to compete with the other themes that are on the shelves. And for that the question would be how much they would need to update the older sets to appeal enough. Either way the sets could use the old colours, but they would still look quite different from the original sets, likely more than the Galaxy Explorer update did.

[Space78]

Has anyone seen new CS keyring LED astronauts in blue and red in retail stores or one a website?  These just showed up in my e-bay search, but they have the 2024 space "logo" on the card attached to the keyring.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/235536269981

https://www.ebay.com/itm/235536271208

I'm assuming the seller bought them locally and is looking to make a quick profit before they show up on the Lego website or regular retailers?

Edited April 25 by Space78

[Lyichir]

8 hours ago, Mondo-TRON said:

I for sure need to get a bunch of those armor pieces. Is it possible that this piece shows  up in  upcoming City Space sets? (Hopefully it continues into next year)

While I also hope the City Space theme continues, I doubt this is any sort of preview of next year's figs/sets. More likely these are exclusive prints merely designed to complement the other City Space fig parts—not unlike previous themed Build-a-Mini parts.

[Lion King]

In regard to market research, I think kids like the updated versions of old sets rather than original sets. 

[Classic_Spaceman]

14 hours ago, Mondo-TRON said:

Is it possible that this piece shows  up in  upcoming City Space sets? (Hopefully it continues into next year)

Sadly, I doubt that. New BAM parts are usually exclusive, and we have gotten parts in BAM before that could have appeared in normal sets (last year’s new Arin and Sora heads). 
 

[Lion King]

6 hours ago, Lyichir said:

While I also hope the City Space theme continues, I doubt this is any sort of preview of next year's figs/sets. More likely these are exclusive prints merely designed to complement the other City Space fig parts—not unlike previous themed Build-a-Mini parts.

I can’t say…I mean it’s too early to foresee.May is almost here. I do love to see more sets from Space City but… I don’t know if Lego would do something different for different City subthemes in “Year of Space” fashion.  Like…Castke or Pirates. It’s just hard to tell.

All we hav is to wait and see. 

[danth]

17 hours ago, Artanis I said:

So the market research says that kids DO like the old stuff. So the annoying folks that keep saying they don't can officially eat a hat.

And without ketchup!

Seriously, what is it with those people? Are they victims of circular logic? "Lego doesn't make it, therefor kids don't like it." Or maybe it's Just World fallacy. "Lego doesn't make it anymore, therefor it sold poorly." They say that about themes that ended at the planned time. They jump to whatever the easiest conclusion is, without any data or evidence.

[Classic_Spaceman]

9 minutes ago, Lion King said:

I can’t say…I mean it’s too early to foresee.May is almost here. I do love to see more sets from Space City but… I don’t know if Lego would do something different for different City subthemes in “Year of Space” fashion.  Like…Castke or Pirates. It’s just hard to tell.

All we hav is to wait and see. 

I believe that we have seen most if not all of the 2HY City set listings, and none of them are Space (jungle is the 2HY exploration subtheme), so the BAM parts are probably the last of the City Space content that we are getting in 2024. 2025 is another story, though it would be too soon for LEGO to release more sets based on sales data (if Space sold unexpectedly well), if they did not already have them in the pipeline. 
 

[danth]

6 hours ago, Space78 said:

Has anyone seen new CS keyring LED astronauts in blue and red in retail stores or one a website?

I swear I just saw a recent leak pic that showed those on a shelf at Target. I was wondering the same thing.

[Lion King]

8 minutes ago, Classic_Spaceman said:

I believe that we have seen most if not all of the 2HY City set listings, and none of them are Space (jungle is the 2HY exploration subtheme), so the BAM parts are probably the last of the City Space content that we are getting in 2024. 2025 is another story, though it would be too soon for LEGO to release more sets based on sales data (if Space sold unexpectedly well), if they did not already have them in the pipeline. 
 

I would be happy to hae jungle subtheme that will have Johnny Thunder minifigure. Anyways,i don’t think there will be more City Space in 2HY either.Unless we might be wrong if City Adent Calendar is going to be space-themed OR Jungle. 

And yes, 2025 is another story. I just don’t feel like they would continue Space subtheme into 2025.

[Space78]

18 minutes ago, danth said:

I swear I just saw a recent leak pic that showed those on a shelf at Target. I was wondering the same thing.

Yeah, they've done a blue one before (and people want a lot for those on e-bay), but I've not seen a red one before. 

Not seeing them on the Target website, so might have to go to a store to see if they are there, I guess.

[Lyichir]

17 hours ago, Artanis I said:

TLG posted this video today...

So the market research says that kids DO like the old stuff. So the annoying folks that keep saying they don't can officially eat a hat.

First of all, it's very funny to call a sampling of a handful of kids (edited out of a wider suite of footage for their positive, clippable reactions) "market research".

Secondly, kids liking toys is nothing new. If you take a kid, put them in front of a toy that they didn't have to pay for or choose over other options, there's a pretty high chance they're going to like it! The question, for Lego's marketers, is if they'd like the old stuff as much or more than new stuff. That's a much tougher bar to clear, and I would wager that Lego's actual market testing (which involves not just handing kids toys but also presenting them with choices and gauging their reactions) are part of why this year's space sets look like they do instead of being pure nostalgia throwbacks.

Don't get me wrong—it's a fun video and I absolutely believe in parents sharing their childhood interests with their kids! When I was a kid I absolutely would play with my mom's old hand-me-down, 70s-era Lego when I visited my grandparents. But if I was in a toy store and had to pick between a set like this or an exciting new theme like Aquazone or Adventurers... I think I'd have opted for the latter without a doubt. I see no reason to assume it'd be much different for these kids, given the choice between these sorts of sets and the more advanced space sets of today!

[Space78]

Edit, I see on Bricklink these keychain lights were offered in 2012 in blue and red.  Nice to see they are coming back.  Will they likely be on Lego.com at some point, or do they sometimes offer things like these as a retailer exclusive?

[Classic_Spaceman]

1 hour ago, Lyichir said:

First of all, it's very funny to call a sampling of a handful of kids (edited out of a wider suite of footage for their positive, clippable reactions) "market research".

Secondly, kids liking toys is nothing new. If you take a kid, put them in front of a toy that they didn't have to pay for or choose over other options, there's a pretty high chance they're going to like it! The question, for Lego's marketers, is if they'd like the old stuff as much or more than new stuff. That's a much tougher bar to clear, and I would wager that Lego's actual market testing (which involves not just handing kids toys but also presenting them with choices and gauging their reactions) are part of why this year's space sets look like they do instead of being pure nostalgia throwbacks.

All true. That said, the fact that LEGO made and released the video makes me think that they intend to keep Space around; if not, then the video both advertises long-retired sets to children and trolls AFOL Space fans. Little Easter eggs in promotional videos are one thing, but this is very pointed (the kids even say "Bring back LEGO Space!" at the end!). 
 

[danth]

48 minutes ago, Classic_Spaceman said:

the fact that LEGO made and released the video makes me think that they intend to keep Space around; if not, then the video both advertises long-retired sets to children and trolls AFOL Space fans. Little Easter eggs in promotional videos are one thing, but this is very pointed (the kids even say "Bring back LEGO Space!" at the end!). 

Right? The idea that most of kids that were shown these sets hated them, but Lego edited them out, and then released this video to push Space is laughable.

[danth]

2 hours ago, Lyichir said:

The question, for Lego's marketers, is if they'd like the old stuff as much or more than new stuff. That's a much tougher bar to clear, and I would wager that Lego's actual market testing (which involves not just handing kids toys but also presenting them with choices and gauging their reactions) are part of why this year's space sets look like they do instead of being pure nostalgia throwbacks.

Yeah but is anyone asking to bring back Space with outdated set designs? You could easily reskin any of the new 2024 space sets into a classic theme.

I think they basically did Bring Back Space with the 2024 sets. The only thing that made it weird was releasing them under City. If they changed the boxes to say Gem-Tron or something instead of City, they would absolutely work as a continuation of vintage Space.

[Lion King]

UIdon’t know if there are moe Space sets in 2HY?

[Lyichir]

2 hours ago, danth said:

Yeah but is anyone asking to bring back Space with outdated set designs? You could easily reskin any of the new 2024 space sets into a classic theme.

I think they basically did Bring Back Space with the 2024 sets. The only thing that made it weird was releasing them under City. If they changed the boxes to say Gem-Tron or something instead of City, they would absolutely work as a continuation of vintage Space.

I think the name on the box is only a sticking point for a small contingent of AFOLs with a somewhat purist view of what makes a theme "Lego Space". For everyone else, the Lego City brand is probably more of a benefit than anything else, since it comes with a built-in audience and reputation.

And yeah, I think the City/Friends/etc. sets are Lego's vision of "bringing back space", which is probably part of why Lego produced and published this video this year.