TeriXeri

City Space sets look fantastic, even the circular space station looks much better in detail, the ring isn't as bad, as it comes with 8 modules to fill it up (4 interior , 1 solar panel, 1 docking platform + hoverbike, 1 greenhouse, 1 shuttlecraft) . I imagine those space station modules could turn that little shuttle into a cargo ship by linking those modules as well :) The big 8 wheel rover reminds me of one of my favorite Nexo Knight set Axl Tower Carrier, and I like it, and also has a module that looks detachable , so more sets, you can expand. Space Base really has a 1999 Space Port vibe, in a good way, with the launch pad and glass windows. (set 6455: Space Simulation Station) , and the spacecraft looks to have another detachable space station module. The 4+ set is actually fine as well, doesn't look extremely junior and the price is okay for what it comes with. I like the focus on crystal collection and friendly looking aliens, so it's very classic-space intent instead of a conflict/invasion theme.

Those new vehicle sets look great, City has been doing very well on the small vehicle sets, especially 2023, and 2024 looks to continue that. I love how the Go karts use the same scale as the original Town racing theme as well. Road Roller isn't a 4+, and looks fine , Burger Truck is a nice food truck variant and cool parts usage, and sesame seed bun print, and the flames are pretty cool, including the torso. Race Car and truck make a cool playset and doubles as transporter, Sailboat comes with a dolphin. And even the 4+ race car will go well with 60322: Race Car, color scheme is basicly reversed. Hopefully most of those decals are prints. Space sets look fantastic, even the circular space station looks much better in detail, the ring isn't as bad, as it comes with 8 modules to fill it up (4 interior , 1 solar panel, 1 docking platform, 1 greenhouse, 1 shuttle) The big 8 wheel rover reminds me of one of my favorite Nexo Knight set Axl Tower Carrier, but this is actually Space, and looks good. Space Base really has a 1999 Space Port vibem, in a good way, with the launch pad and glass windows. (set 6455: Space Simulation Station)

It's much easier and cheaper to put a Space logo on boxes, instead of making an entirely new theme called Space. Especially when it contains sets from all sorts of themes like Technic, City, and likely even CMF, Classic, Creator and Friends might use the same logo on the boxes of their space related sets for 2024. It's actually unrelated to Nasa this time around, but LEGO's own Space logo. The main relation to Nasa is likely renewed interest with the 2024/2025 moon missions. Nasa branding still happens, on a per-set basis, it was on boxes of 2019 and 2022 City sets for example, alongside a video campaign explaining the artemis mission via LEGO figures telling it. Sometimes it's even on the sets themselves in case of the 2022 City space rocket, but even that subtheme used the LEGO space logo as well in most cases. As for technic, 2023 has the recently released 42158: NASA Mars Rover Perseverance, which is based on real life rover, and then 2023 has an unlicensed rover with 42180: Mars Crew Exploration Rover (inspired by Nasa is still on the box, but the space logo's on the box and stickers on the set are LEGO's) Also interesting how some of those Technic sets have the same sized airlock modules that would fit on the City space theme modules from 2019, 2022 and 2024, so technically some of it is somewhat minifig compatibile, even in the same orange color. This piece : Not saying they are meant to be collected together , but they can be used as such it looks like, to expand things if you have the sets already.

And perhaps the 3-in-1 31152: Astronaut in Space set as well (price and piece count very similar to the buildable minifig set) , so maybe it's an actual buildable figure with a spacesuit . The concept of a 3-in-1 astronaut actually was done this very year with 31134: Space Shuttle having an astronaut as it's alternate build, but at smaller 144 piece scale, and not 650 pieces. And there's also this space themed Classic 11037: Creative Space Planets. All seems to make sense with 2024 / 2025 being years of Artemis 2 and 3 missions, and if succesful, the first manned moon landing since 1972. (and due to delays, LEGO might have been planning this ahead)

I think LEGO has done a lot of "realistic" space shuttles, or "nasa" related space over the recent years, especially recently there have been many shuttles , so something else does feel nice for a change. And that's even beside the fact the last real space shuttle flight was back in 2011. Not saying space shuttle sets are bad, or "outdated" , but mainly pointing out that 2019-2023 have been quite the time period for nasa/space shuttle related sets of many scales, and that also includes the Apollo Lander, International Space Station, or Saturn V re-release. And this is not including the 2022-2023 and 2019-2021 City wave (that's 4 years or Mars/Moon related City space in a row in terms of availability) And the Icons and small scale 3-in-1 shuttles are staying on the market at least for 2024. Friends is still getting a 42605: Mars Space Base and Rocket next year, which means the time of moon/mars related space isn't like completely ending. Also there will be a 3-in-1 set named 31152: Astronaut in Space , the alternate builds could very well be a space ship or something. (piece count is similar to 40649: Up-Scaled LEGO Minifigure, so perhaps the main build is an upscaled minifig as well) Also while there have not been Space shuttle set with a fuel tank + boosters included since 2015, I think the dark orange + booster rocket parts from the 2022 City Artemis rocket are decent enough to work with for previous minifig shuttles) As far as actual shuttles since 2021: Icons: 2021-now Creator : 2021-2022 2023-now Friends : 2022-2023

I think this is just put in City because it's a theme where a lot of room suddenly frees up after Stuntz is out, and that lasted about 2.5 years as a subtheme, without really diminishing the total number of other City sets. I mean, Creator 3-in-1, or Icons, never get lines of multiple sets at the same subject at the same time (and when they do, it's like a GWP releasing alongside), at varied set sizes, and now City Space gets like 6+ sets at once, and City have quite the history of subthemes spanning outside of the City with Arctic, Volcano, Divers, previous Space going to mars more then once, Jungle, or recently the african animal rescue. LEGO could make new themes on the fly, but I doubt they want to risk another Vidiyo, or other short lived 2 year run of something currently, and this isn't a movie theme like Ninjago Movie, or LEGO Movie 1 or 2 . Like, what would be the alternative , where would LEGO put this otherwise? LEGO hasn't done a generic unlicensed small standalone theme since 2015 Pirates, after that it were all Movie (LEGO Movie 2, Ninjago Movie), App (Nexo, Hidden Side, Vidiyo), or TV show (Chima, Nexo, Monkie Kid, Dreamzzz) themes backed up by books/magazines. City Stuntz is the closest to a standalone recent "theme" that was purely focused on play and sets, not backed up by apps or media. (altho supported by familiar City characters and Rocket Racer from previous media) ,

If it would be 1 giant hybrid type of set, it'd be like a mix between a Port and a Village, featuring a dock, inn, market, maybe some trader's stone outpost/mayor/monarch type of villa/embassy/place where trading money is stored (not military/cannon focused), and then some beach , rocks, plants, and hidden places for pirates to stash things or hide. What I mean, is like Viking Village + Medieval Market Village + Imperial Trading Post , and then styled for Merchants/Civilians mainly, with perhaps some Pirates/Soldiers and maybe exotic visitors (mainly terrain, buildings, and figures, so no large ships)

LEGO already went a wacky direction with those City missions last year , literally has a boat with option to put wheels under it to drive on land, or a glass dome to turn it into a submarine, and also comes with jet engines and tails/wings. Then the Mars version suggested all sorts of boosters/cannons/grabber arms to tackle a problem to safely land on mars, or stop incoming comets crashing into the ship. And then the wildlife version was a bit more normal, but still came with parts to turn it into a helicopter car and such.

City Missions had quite a big logo on both sides of the box, but that was only 3 sets, Stuntz indeed was a multi-year big subtheme with it's own box coloring (very big logo + orange sections) etc.

Kids can build the sets, recycle the box, hide the instructions, and put it with their other LEGO, nothing will say it's from City beyond Box/instruction coloring. And I'm sure AFOL put their Modular buildings together, despite the switch from Creator Expert to Icons being different theme names, or IDEAS/Icons Pirates , Creator/IDEAS Vikings, or Icons/Bricklink/Creator Castles, all being different theme names of similar groups of sets.

Exactly, and since then, City had mining for crystals/gold and underwater gems/treasure multiple times, and more recently with Space crystal geodes, Ninjago went the Atlantis route with underwater villains for 1 season , Nexo had rock/lava monsters for 2 years. Even the recent 2022 City Space had boulders (asteroids/ice comets) with crystals inside. None of those were branded as such, but certainly contained elements of past themes. I don't think everything need to be direct "reboots" as we recently see with Castle/Space/Pirate IDEAS/Icons/GWP, to be considered, I think a kid could easily play "power miner" scenarios if it had some 2016 Volcano, 2018 Mining sets with monsters from the various other themes to support it. Same with the various Aquazone-esque themes and sets made long after (with 2020 ninjago and the recent Monkie kid underwater palace serving as big underwater location sets, or even something like sets from Avatar the way of water (licensed but still very suitable) Space is obviously part of the bigger 3 "original" multi decade themes (along with Castle and Pirates), so City going quite the extra mile here with branding isn't that weird, especially with the 2022 space logo's already being quite close to the original.

I don't see it as strange, it's just LEGO's way of branding things these days. Stuntz was basicly it's own thing, but still under City, just like how something like Botanical, Modular Buildings, Model Cars, and other "series" are under Icons. Now stuntz has ended, and that freed up some already existing "shelf space" , and doing something like Sci-Fi space under City is probably easier to do for LEGO , compared to having to register / trademark something new entirely . Dreamzzz, Monkie Kid , Ninjago etc, all have seperate trademarks/licenses, basicly they are in-house themes, but "licensed" in-house, it's even in the theme name: NINJAGO® LEGO® DREAMZzz™ Monkie Kid™ Also since there's Friends as well, doing Town/City things at the same time, there's also more room for variation, as I doubt LEGO would want City and Friends to be a direct copy, in fact they are clearly moving away from Friends being a "girl version" of City. There's overlap on many things, even for 2024 , both themes will have space related sets, but they cover different subjects. Even right now , Castle for example is spread across IDEAS, Icons, Creator, I still consider it part of one cohesive thing despite having different label on the theme. Same goes for how Creator 3-in-1, Friends, and City buildings and vehicles often can fit together just fine, despite being 3 different theme names.

I actually love that rover, using old space wheels in a different way, with a suspension that doesn't seem to raise it too much looks nice. The classic space logo on the box and big space branding also seems to indicate this might be more then just 1 year tbh, as Stuntz is gone, there's room for other action sets. I never liked the 2019 Rover and Shuttle, so I didn't get those, I loved the 2020 Creator Rover, and the City 2022 Rover was also nice for a near-future Moon vehicle, but this looks great as well, more like a fast vehicle able to go fast covering distance across rough terrain , powered by some internal sci-fi tech (maybe even those blue crystals), instead of being covered by solar. (Star Trek uses crystals in it's Warp engines as well, so it fits to think the crystal here could power teh vehicles as well) I like the canopy shape as well, it's a good combination of angled and curved at the same time, and I don't mind that they chose trans-clear this time around (and the new orange as accent color is a decent stand-in for neon orange's hiatus) I never had any of the 2000s space themes, but still trans-clear canopy, white vehicle, orange details, blue minifig, seems like a hybrid of Galaxy Squad and Mars Mission at first glance. Also still has the collection/science aspect, with the side terrain build including crystals etc. so far doesn't seem to be about conflict unless there are some hidden shooters (and tbh, plenty of other themes have shooters already, even City Fire and the 2K drive trucks, so if kids wanted so, easy enough to add some to it)

I don't think it's a new theme, but rather a label , similar to how LEGO put things like Modular Building Collection , Winter Village Collection, or Botanical Collection on boxes nowadays, and those are all Icons. So instead of things like Castle , Space, or Pirate Collection, it'll be under the label "Moments" to reflect it's based on an older in-house set or theme without being strictly forced to a specific theme.

So far the trend of the past few year seem to be that more Castle/Pirate/Space sets are appearing, at a quicker rate then retirement so that's a good sign I suppose. Retiring after 2023 : Icons Galaxy Explorer - Space (2022) IDEAS Medieval Blacksmith - Castle (2021) (3-in-1 Viking Ship - Vikings 2022) Sets going into 2024: Icons Lion Knight Castle - Castle (2022) 3-in-1 Castle - Castle (2021) 3-in-1 Pirate Ship - Pirates (2020) Icons Eldorado Fortress - Pirates (2023) (IDEAS Viking Village - Vikings 2023) So that's multiple sets remaining, and then new products to appear. So basicly 2024, will "replace" galaxy explorer with another space ship, and then blacksmith with a village, seems to make a lot of sense as those are basicly the same subject.