Lyichir

It's not really "marketing research", it's just a promotional video. Last year Lego did a similar video: But it's also not trolling—just social media marketing (not just to kids, but also to parents who might be amused by youngsters' takes on their childhood sets and maybe inspired to buy them new ones). And this year Lego DID bring back Lego space to some extent (which is probably why they got kids together to make another video themed entirely around that). If Lego does bring back castle I wouldn't be surprised to do a video like this on retro castle themes, even if the new Castle sets aren't purely remakes or reimaginings of old factions.

Speaking of "not really Lego" merch, the other day I saw a photo of some plushes from Target. Orange seems to have ALSO joined the ranks of plush Classic Space minifigures, but what I found even more charming was the plush of one of the new aliens from the City space sets! I already thought those were cute as heck so seeing it turned into a cuddly plush is amazing! EDIT: On a different note, the other day when we were discussing the new space parts from Build-a-Mini, I mentioned that the main thing I thought would improve the jumpsuit-style torso would be if one or both arms were reddish orange (matching the right side of the torso print and giving it slightly more of a Futuron feel). Unfortunately, reddish orange minifigure arms didn't exist... but today I learned they soon will, since one of the newly revealed Animal Crossing figs has arms, hips, and mid-length legs in that color! Still no standard-length legs or hands (so you can't quite go full Futuron with it), but still a nice development!

You keep claiming that Lego "can't do a non-licensed space theme" because of some hypothetical licensing clauses but by any reasonable metric, this IS one, and proof enough that no such clauses exist. There's no way that a licensing partner like Disney would be like "you can't have an original theme that's based on sci-fi futuristic spaceships and planetary bases but you CAN put a giant "SPACE" label on a bunch of existing themes and include all that same subject matter, or make sets based on pre-existing space themes, and none of those concerns apply anymore". Such a clause, if it existed, would be as good as useless, especially since the distinction between what themes qualify as "space" and which ones don't is generally arbitrary and fan-devised (as evidenced by the long-running debates about whether Earth-based themes focused on sci-fi spacecraft like Alien Conquest, or space-based themes that don't leave a single planet like Rock Raiders, qualify). I also think the claim that "people who want futuristic space ships" will be turned off by the City label is, again, wild conjecture. I doubt non-AFOLs really have any strong opinion of what the City label means—the insistence that it must be modern-day, must be realistic, must have all these specific qualities, are again, mostly fan-devised (and have had to be revised repeatedly as the City theme has stretched beyond the "city limits" in recent years). I doubt many parents would be bothered or upset by the fact that these space sets have a City label—the most association they're likely to have with the Lego City brand is "something my kids already like".

An Isabelle reappearance is slightly disappointing but given the subject matter of the set (Town Hall/Resident Services), it makes sense for at least one staff member of that establishment to be included. Plus at least she's in another of her outfits. The camper van is an unexpected inclusion seeing as it's only in New Leaf and the mobile game, not in New Horizons which the rest of the set is based on. But it looks like it adds some nice play potential, especially since it looks like you can maybe store some of K.K.'s road gear (amp+microphone) in the roof. So kids can role play K.K. arriving in town and setting up for a concert, or packing up and hitting the road again. Audie and Tangy are great choices for villager additions. Audie has a fun story behind her since while not confirmed, she might be named after an 87-year-old player who went viral in 2019 when her grandson shared her 3,580 hour playtime for New Leaf. She's also the first wolf villager to appear as a minifig, making it easier for other characters like Chief or Whitney (among several others) to be made in the future. Tangy is our second cat villager to appear but is certainly one of the more unique and distinctive choices with her fruit theming! And it's a little thing, but I do like the autumnal tree in the Resident Services set, marking the third season to be represented in these sets (after spring and summer). With these two prominent subjects out of the way, two of the ones near the top of my wishlist are still the museum (with Blathers and possibly Celeste and/or Brewster as well) and the Able Sisters' tailor shop (with Mabel and Sable). But there's of course plenty of other potential for more villager-focused sets as well, along with possibly sets themed around visiting characters (including holiday-themed visitors). EDIT: One last thing I forgot to mention is it's a little bit of a shame that the airport includes Wilbur but not Orville, since there's not too many sets other than the airport that he'd be well-suited to.

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.

Looks like it in the lifestyle photos. The slight opacity kind of reminds me of the "trans-neon yellow" that was mostly only used for Clikits and a few Bionicle eyestalks.

All this talk about bulky electronic hubs... anyone remember this set from the '90s? https://brickset.com/sets/5600-1/Radio-Control-Racer I think all the examples shared from throughout the years are proof enough that there is room for both more versatile individual electronic components and for a more specialized hub like this in the Powered Up/Control+ system. A set like this is hardly the end of the world.

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!

I'll take a split sticker over a STAMP any day of the week.

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.

To be quite honest, it's not abnormal for sets from less than a year ago to still be on shelves, nor for sets that are more than half a year old to be discounted to make room for newer stock. The link you shared shows a 20% discount for me, which is not that out of the ordinary for a set that size.

Why do you assume the golden versions of Mr. Oz and Albert aren't canon? It's entirely possible that that's their new look for this year.

They didn't bring retired parts back for Legends, either, which was the part of the issue—the demand for rereleases of the old sets, which would inherently always be less authentic than the original sets, and would have to compete with both more advanced modern sets and with the authentic originals on the aftermarket... that's a heck of a lot of limitations to overcome. Probably even more limitations today, when the sets that were old in the early 2000s are now even older, with even more retired parts and fewer adult fans who actually remember them from when they were kids. Lego has definitely still managed to capitalize on nostalgia in more strategic ways, with updated redesigns like the Galaxy Explorer and Eldorado Fortress or spiritual successors like the Lion Knights' Castle, which can activate those same sorts of nostalgic memories while also being more modern, polished designs with broader appeal. I'm not convinced at all that straight rereleases would be able have that kind of appeal, any more than they did the last time Lego gave it a shot.

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.

Very good thoughts. Maybe I will end up making a BAM purchase when these roll around. Interpreting the torso as a more "casual" jumpsuit does make it more appealing to me, and that armor really does look fantastic (even though I still feel like choosing between it and the existing backpack/armor pieces feels like a tough choice. As an aside, the titanium metallic left arm isn't totally out of the ordinary since 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). The titanium metallic on the Futuron-esque torso looks fine to me though 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.