TeriXeri

This, exactly sell them seperately, like they have done with road baseplates, after sets stopped using road baseplates. Road Plate packs are still far better compared to some inbetween solutions LEGO had at the end of the road baseplates lifespan, like a few versions Xtra/City/Friends cardboard roads or even road TAPE, which really should not return. As for the studded "road" plates, they had not appeared this year yet until the recent reveal of the 4+ 42636: Heartlake City Preschool , which seems to have 2 8x16 in Tan (42632: Farm Animal Vet Clinic from this year used the old 2014 style 8x8 with less studs and a 1x4 extension) After all, LEGO seems to be focused on making a lot of sets "displayable" adding like rounded plates at the outer edges, or putting things at angles, instead of sticking to a strict grid, and I don't think they want to be stuck with the same format for too long, as it seems themes like 3-in-1, Friends, and even Harry Potter , change their "modules" every few years. The only place LEGO really is "stuck" on, would be the Modular building format being on baseplates, but since those are primarily large sets (over €200 nowadays) , I think they don't want to lose their large collector base by suddenly changing the format. I mean, they did change the size of Speed Champs after so many years, and designs like Hogwarts keeps changing scale , roof color and style, but that doesn't really compare to LEGO being locked-in "baseplate-height" for those long time Modulars. One thing that does affect City and Friends imo, is that too many of the sets feel like all standalone builds, not part as a greater whole, as so many curved plates over the years does not make it easier to make larger terrain / buildings out of it, and the amount of round stuff (mainly the huge amount of buildings/terrain on curved plates) feels less LEGO-like to me in recent years, the Jungle Terrain is a good example of this, LEGO has added clips to connect multiple sets, and they do allow more dynamic display with those clip hinges, but it seems mostly designed for looks , and display (huge contrast to the 2017 Jungle sets terrain, which still of course could be displayed, and the airplane wreck set had hinges , but square/rectangle plates make it easier to combine) . Of course LEGO had their combination buildings and most are still available in City right now, but for new sets, so far I could only see that 60423: Downtown Streetcar and Station remains compatibile with those, using 8 wide station sections and the technic pin connectors (and then City/Friends/Technic Space using those octagonal connector modules, but that's a different format) With the giant crane however, it would not surprise me to see a vertical focused build next year, but the "blueprints" included in the 2 construction sets suggest one is the 2024 Robo rollercoaster and the other the 2023 Ice Cream shop)

Dragon looks like the most Warcraft-ish dragon LEGO has done, many similarities with Alexstrasza (Cataclysm expansion model, because of the pupilless eyes and chains) , dragon does look a bit thin in the mid section tho, but that's just a design choice, it's not trying to be a Warcraft dragon.

60304: Road Plates will still be available (but are listed as possibly retiring after 2025), but I imagine a new type of road of some sorts, will appear by then, as road baseplates have been around even long after sets using them were made. Sets being built on 8x8 and 8x16 modules seems to have stopped, as those 2023 sets (police academy, car wash, downtown, appartments, skate park, ice cream, ski ramp) are also all retiring at the end of this year, sets still use modules with pin connectors, just not of strict 8x8 and 8x16 2-thick plates (which needed at least 4-6 extra 1x4 plates or tiles to fill in the gaps) City certainly does not follow the same old patterns anymore, as trains also won't follow the old 4 year cycle , especially considering the 2018 cargo train is actually still in production, and the 2022 trains are possibly retiring in 2024 and 2025, and now there's the new tram set which is basicly an unmotorized train set.

Beach House looks really nice, it's the first creator house in a long time that's not a jumble of colors , or multiple smaller buildings, also looks like a deeper interior then the last street set. Could potentially be one of those sets where combining multiples is worth it. And it could be an alternative / addition to 42639: Andrea's Modern Mansion , as it's the similar style of architecture / location. T-Rex also benefits a lot from the larger scale.

Was looking through retirement of sets, and actually surpringly many 2023 retired in 2023 already, including a large set like the Downtown Flower / Designer shop, Seems both City and Friends have this trend of retiring some sets the same year ,or even within 6-9 months. Also currently on Brickset I see Leo's Room and Sports Centre listed for 31 Jul 24 , so mid-year retirement is also a thing. (of course retirement means LEGO.com first and foremost, other retailers can have product for longer , but it's still good to keep in mind on a wishlist or something to plan order of purchase) I don't think this trend of because of bad sales, but rather speeding up the amount of different sets available over the years bringing variation, instead of overproducing some sets that'll become hard sellers after 2-3 years.

Well, it's not unusual for a City set to retire the same year, happened with 3 out of 4 of the farm subtheme sets in 2022 (Vegetable Farm / Store and Chicken Henhouse), and those released June 2022. 2023 had multiple sets retire the same year as well, with March Stuntz, the June released Family House , and January Park Tractor, Construction Digger, Otter ATV, Vet Van and Emergency HQ (and perhaps something else I missed) Friends had a couple 2023 sets retire in 2023 as well, Holiday Camping Trip , Donut Shop, Grocery Store, Hair Salon , Cat Hotel , Skate Park, Dog Rescue Van, Bubble Tea Shop, and, even la large semi-AFOL targeted set like Downtown Flower/Design store (and perhaps others I missed)

Looks like LEGO made a mistake with the latest IDEAS Fan Vote , and noticed after a few days, that it had 2 projects from the same designer. Ironically it's called IF WE COULD TURN BACK TIME. https://ideas.lego.com/blogs/a4ae09b6-0d4c-4307-9da8-3ee9f3d368d6/post/97cd2341-f8db-46d3-aa01-952f11ccf41e Karate Kid project was removed , Honey I Shrunk the Kids was added. https://ideas.lego.com/blogs/a4ae09b6-0d4c-4307-9da8-3ee9f3d368d6/post/373e9387-d24f-4445-ad5d-38cc8c0824d5

I like the battle arena, but that price on the vehicle is really too much , surely it has large pieces and large rubber wheels often seem to cost a lot in ninjago somehow, but still €90 is too much. The mech price is okay, but that's mainly managed becuase they put 100% effort in the mech and just piloted by Cole , no side builds or side figures.

Wonder what the further plans of this "Space" thing will be, it's probably too early, but some 2024 space sets are currently on end-of life lists for 2024 already, like the City lab, mini mech and big rover, and the Friends base. It's only a few sets so not something unusual for City and Friends to have same year sets retire, it's not signaling an early full retirement of the Space stuff across the board. And I'm sure sets can get extended too, as a small set like 31058 Mighty Dinosaurs has been around since 2017 and for now will even be around in 2025.

So far I think it's just a 626 piece T-Rex set (probably follows the style of the other detailed animal builds), and a 939 piece Beach House (perhaps the only minifig 3-in-1 set of the year, but Dreamzzz went heavy on some genius 3-in-1 builds for this summer)

It's nice those camp sets are raised on some terrain , the contrast between the blue water, sand beach and green grass with the brown looks great. Looking forward to the Archery Range and Bed and Breakfast "Castle" ,

3-in-1 can be somewhat exclusive, from previous years, I remember sets like the Aquarium, Crocodile, Castle and the most recent last year's Bird House , or Pink Parrot being LEGO exclusive, or at least very limited distribution without the usual discounts.

LEGO Fortnite game has brick built steerable vehicles now, and with the last update pigs and farm building, so they have more and more stuff for physical sets to draw from , if they don't want battle royale combat stuff in sets. I doubt they would make those farm animals in sets though, I think sets using npc (especially those cowboy bandits, or falcon/wolfpack knight) figures would probably appeal a lot more to a wider audience instead of more "creator-like" farm animals. However, a brick built Brute set could certainly work if they do a LEGO Fortnite mode focused set. I think the actual buildable structures, or ruins you can find in game are a bit huge to do full scale but could still be referenced at a smaller scale, perhaps they can do themed furniture packs like physical version of that Brite Bomber pack they sold in the shop (could be sold like one of those friends "bedroom" sized sets)

I think a lot of the design language of both Nexo and Hidden Side went into Dreamzzz, seeing how they went mirror / evil characters this wave, with 5 main good guys having a mirror magenta "evil" variant this time around, reminds me a lot of Stone Clay , Good Jestro, or Blue Jack from Nexo and Hidden Side. But yes, Black , Dark Grey, Light Grey/Black (Hooded Crow), or Dark Blue recolor would certainly work for that Raven mould for many applications. LEGO already had a yellow and black raven knight in CMF, but that doesn't mean they can't bring back that faction someday in a raven themed Castle set or something, and of course Vikings / Norse mythology Huginn and Muninn ravens (which were somewhat referenced in the last 3-in-1 viking ship but via brick built small pieces)

71483: The Never Witch's Nightmare Creatures is probably my favorite set of this wave, comes at a good price point , 4 "bad guy" figures , and nice builds with cohesive color scheme. The concept of mirrored good evil characters reminds me of Stone Clay, or later "good Jestro" in Nexo , or blue Hidden Side Jack in sets. And they go all-out this wave with 5 mirror characters (names from LEGO.com descriptions) Izzie - Dizzie Matteo - MadTeo Logan - Dogan Cooper - Dooper Zoey - Doey

Yeah, there's already a giant ship with the arctic research ship, and 2 smaller floating boats with the fire boat and sailboat (+ 2 smaller inflatable boats too in lime and red), so a brick built boat that can be modified easy for play, isn't bad, especially in a harbour set where water play likely isn't going to happen with the majority of the set being the harbour itself. Also not every City set needs to be €150+ , as they are already releasing lots of big sets these days.

A huge crane can be nice, to lift those 8x16 building modules in place, as City does get taller buildings then ever before, with sets like the 60380: Downtown being 4 stories tall and then some for those wind power generators, something where 60324: Mobile Crane would not really work (which was not a bad set however)

I think I'd rather see an updated variant of a black castle (Black Knights / Wolfpack / Royal Knights) before a classic yellow one. Of course a yellow castle with crown knights would still be fun to see, but LEGO decided to put those parts in CMF instead , and thus far has not reused those (including the dark pink plume) The parts from the 2022 Troubadour did get re-used however, including the torso and printed coins, so there's always a possibility for parts to get reused. Right now at least there's a wolfpack torso in production , so perhaps that's a sign for more, at least while MTS will remain in production.

Had it on Nintendo 64 so have not played it on a long time.

Vacuum attachment with small tube with a small brush attachment, better then blowing dust to someplace else, and it's small enough to easily clean studded areas, and the brushes are very soft. Also pieces like 1x1 round stud won't even fit through the black tube right behind the brush, so most pieces are safe from ending up in the vacuum cleaner. Looks like this , use terms like "universal mini vacuum kit" to get search results.

Have been playing No Man's Sky lately, and the exploration, scanning minerals/plants/animals(aliens) and refueling vehicles is how I can imagine how a theme like 2024 City / Friends space works, and Classic Space as well (and in particular the Uninhabited systems with no humanoids beside the player) The game does have other npc factions with interactions, but none of those are direct enemies of the player unless provoked, and the main enemies can be avoided (Pirates or Robots) And it's of course all up to imagination to see how factions like Blacktron, Spyrius or Space Police operated, but 2024 Space really went back to the roots of just exploration of unknown area of space with familiar but mysterious technology and lifeforms. If this gets expanded, I do hope it stays focused on exploration/research/base building and I don't think a second faction would be needed, as there's a lot of "good vs bad" in-house action themes right now, which also use sci-fi looking mechs or vehicles., also would of course depend if they do more of the space stuff under Dreamzzz or Monkie Kid of course, instead of City/Friends/Creator/unthemed(alien habitat etc)

Yeah, I still think this year being a "space" year has much more to do with the original timeline of the Artemis program, and not a "45 years of minifig space", or "60 years of LEGO rockets" , even while there are plenty of non-minifig sets with this space branding. If there was some sort of anniversary, LEGO would have marketed around it in some way, like 10266: NASA Apollo 11 Lunar Lander states 50 years after the real apollo 11 landed on the box, and they currently do for 25 years of LEGO Star Wars, 5 years of Monkie Kid, and "90 years of play" was on 10305: Lion Knights' Castle box. But I think 2028 / 2029 would make more sense for a LEGO Space celebration, unofficially the LEGO 1 and 2 movies were 35 and 40 years after the worldwide Classic space release (1979, with sets appearing in the US in 1978) NASA space has had quite a lot of Adult oriented sets since 2019, as well with Saturn V being re-released, and then the ISS, Lunar Lander and Space Shuttle Discovery and recently Technic Mars Rover , and still an upcoming set. 2019 City space did have more mars related content, which makes sense with the 2020 launch of the then new Perseverance rover, which landed 2021 and still is operational.

Yeah , the whole mech thing is really a big thing with LEGO now, pretty much non stop since at least LEGO movie 1 (2014), it has been creeping in so many themes, I mean LEGO Movie 1 had Pirate Mech , Construction Mech and Firetruck mechs for example, then Nexo got a whole bunch of Knight mechs , then even Batman, Spiderman and all sorts of other comic figs that usually don't have them, and recently Star Wars mech. And of course current Ninjago and Monkie Kid have quite a large part of their sets themed around mechs. I can't remember the (minifigure) mech thing being a big thing before 2001, of course there were Spyrius bots, and later Technic Slizers/throwbots, and those technic competition sets had mech-like things for technic figures , and then the whole bunch of themes in the early 2000s of course, like alpha team or exoforce (which I did not follow myself, as I got a big gap from 2001 to early 2016). That said, I don't think mechs are bad for LEGO, they seem to be making them constantly so they must sell and they make good toy vehicles and display posable stuff , I mean, comparing a figure next to a big humanoid mech can look very imposing, moreso then a vehicle with wheels bigger then a building. And the smaller mech sets seem to appeal to AFOL collectors as well as some contain figures that are either not made for a while, or at all, or just at a lower price then some big playset. Drones and Jetpacks also have been a thing with LEGO a lot in recent years but that's just a nature of evolution of smaller pieces and backpack/wing builds being easier and more varied now, but same can be seen in dragon builds as well, and vehicles borrowing parts from speed champions etc. That said, I'm not saying like sets from earlier 2000s are worse, they just look a bit more "raw" blocky, studded LEGO but there's actually a lot of very clever parts usage as well, pre mixel articulation with clips and click hinges etc. (But I also think that not every model needs to look perfect studless as if they are not LEGO anymore)

If ninjago would have released in the 90s, I'd probably think of it as LEGO's Power Rangers, they even did a "megazord" combo mech recently, and current mechs have exchangeable parts. I think the main thing those LEGO themes need to have is appeal to 4-10 or so year olds to draw them in, even back then, video games, internet, and sports etc took over a lot of free time and budget when kids get older, and also watch less kids shows. Now LEGO tries to do 12-16 year old sets and 18+ sets of course as well, but that wasn't really the case back then, Technic and Model Team were the sets for older kids before like the 2000s introduced UCS and Modulars and more recently, IDEAS, ICONS, etc. City and Friends even got their 2000+ piece sets in 2023 and 2024. Internet and media have changed the world and kids / adults attention since then, and with the way things are going, at least not every theme is like digital / app based. i mean, Nexo and Vidiyo had scannable tiles, Hidden Side had colored stuff to scan, Those City Missions sets went one step further having no paper instructions but only narrative steps to get going (even tho half of those set concepts were free build, the base model should just have had paper instruction included) As for what's popular right now, I think it really is an experiment to get LEGO themes to stick, as there's mixed success even in the last 10 year or so. I mean Harry Potter and a large part of Star Wars are still based on "old" content and it seems to work, City and Friends both had soft reboots, Ninjago did change some things around as well, so even long running themes still evolve. Even long running subjects like DC and Marvel have mixed results, I mean, Marvel still supported by multiple universes and movies, as well as a heavy push to get young kids interested (+Spidey kids show) but DC seems to have faded somewhat, mainly doing Batman sets from 1989 and 1992 currently. Time will tell if the way they do theme-wide "Space" in 2024, is going to happen for other subjects in the future.

Again one more reason not to blindly follow "leaks" anticipating Blacktron like 9 months ahead of time, and then if it doesn't happen is not LEGO's fault, it's over-expecting on some potential set name / description way ahead of time. But hey, at least it's not an actual deception like some video games have had in the past, pre order etc etc only to get a completely different game from trailers / previews.