Merlo

Like, use some mild soap and follow with a lukewarm water spray and let it dry? My guess would be no, as water might creep into places where it wouldn't be able to dry, but it's been a long time since I've first had this thought and every now and then someone would say they do just that and had no issues thus far. I washed a small non-Lego set this way to test it and it seems fine so far. It dried out pretty fast, but the interior and things like "snot holes" took longer. I've partially disassembled it a day later and everything seems dry to the touch and looks dry under the flashlight. Not sure if it would be that easy with bigger, hollower sets. Another question I have is about sunlight. Does Lego yellow if it's just exposed to natural light? Or if the sun is blasting at it due to the placement/time of year, etc. So, for example, could a Lego set be outside if it's always in the shade or no way? And is it only the white bricks that suffer?

Same. Before I was bothered if I had a small scratch on a see through part, now each new part has scratches the likes I've never had.

Ninjago City Markets had more elements and colors I've never seen before than the last 10 years of sets I've built combined :) I actually googled Lego magnets before reading this and saw there are new ones. Agree they would fit better in some instances. For others maybe a taller/narrower brick would suffice. I don't think this would be a dealbreaker either way.

I wipe my monitors with mf, never a scratch. Maybe there's different kinds though. If it would just remove the shine without scratches, I would do that on purpose :)

I know of a way that's not great, but would work. Some Lego parts are encased in protective shells. Make an unopenable shell for the magnet that's too big to swallow. We'd have a part that's bigger than it needs to be, but better than no sets at all.

That makes sense, but keep in mind Lego - in its core - is already the kind of toy that is dangerous to young kids that might swallow it. Some elements in particular would be really really bad in this scenario.

What I had in mind was the possibility of mold appearing within the newly formed damp environments. I always have the former in mind, the latter I successfully avoid by staying as far away from stickers as possible :) Informative, thank you. I assume putting a set in the shade for a dozen hours would then likely be "same path to yellowing, only faster", rather than "aaaaaand it's all yellow now".

The logistics of that might prove tricky ☺

Probably. Well, here's to making Renegade sleek and boring, I guess? Something like the Aerial Intruder would lend itself much better to a modernized version I'd think. For me the Forest Hideout remake is a clear indication that new Lego designers don't really understand what made these old sets appealing. That was one of my favorite sets as a kid, but when I saw the remake, it was a hard pass. I think I could probably fill a page or two on everything that's wrong with the remake. I can think of several highly regarded spaceships they can make, not to mention other vehicles and stuff. I found the Galaxy Explorer surprisingly (in a good way) simple compared to other 18+ sets I've been building. There was (comparably) very few tiny pieces, just bricks and plates, old school style. DFD has interesting shaping, but I'm not sure how they would translate the colors into an 18+ set nowadays. For the same reason, I'm not sure why magnets would be a problem for grown ups. Maybe Lego would refuse to make them, sure, but there are plenty of toys that would be dangerous for kids and that are sold with warnings.

Well, Lego seems to cater a lot to the "have endless money" crowd lately and they can probably just buy 3 more galaxy explorers to get those GWP's and then trash them afterwards :)

Yes, that's the one, thanks! That looks great from the standpoint of added size and complexity. What I would do is just bring them together in style. For example the MOC has decorative "round" corners - that could be "fixed". Same for: Match battlements style, remove the roofs, match windows style, etc. In the end two castles could feel like they're a part of the same theme, just like Lego castles of old used to (through usage of common elements more than anything).

Do you know if anyone who has 10305 and 3x31120 MOC tried to mod them to fit in the same imaginary theme/period? It sounds like a really fun project and I wish I had the time to do it myself. Now, it might be a big ask to make 10305 more interesting (for someone of my skill, at least), but it seems like it would be very easy to just incorporate the recognizable elements of 10305 into the design of 3x31120, as if both castles were made by the same architect. Lego used to excel at this back in the day, if you recall. Just popping off the roofs and the side builds would already go a long way towards making it into a tall keep-like castle. https://ibb.co/1GH5BX9

I don't imagine this was meant to be swooshy at all. I can pick it up by one wing no problem. The very edge of the wing - of course not. But with that, and especially the red bulges... I think it's obvious just from picking the set once that it has too much weight for you to even think about doing something like that. The guns - I've seen better. But the ships goes for a uniform elegant look throughout, so guns that look better by themselves might have made the entire ship look worse, or like they don't belong.

Epic, EPIC colors. I almost feel like I'm there in a place that never existed.

How so? There's nothing taller than that teal tower.

C'mon son. 21340 looks a lot like the idea, I don't think anyone can deny that. Compare that to so many other sets where the idea was "instant buy at full price" and the final product was "not interested enough to buy at all".

Technically correct, but that's like saying: I tried this canapee and it was quite modest, mostly just bread. (4 studs width) So I went and bought a footlong (30 studs width) and this one is literally all bread, just empty inside. The walkways were never the highlight of NC sets, quite the opposite, but they are too narrow to have much detail. If you look at any wide open public space you'll see it can be mostly empty while keeping the interest with small architectural details, little bits or greenery or, very common, just a different color thrown in there to break away with the boredom. The closest that comes to this feeling are town squares that are left gray and devoid of any design, but they are all visibly tiled, not just flat concrete, which would be horrendous. But even those have a purpose and are used to match the minimalist look of the buildings or, in older cities, a more rustic version is used not to take attention away from the architecture. When looking at the Markets environment, I can't even tell what that floor is supposed to represent. It needn't even be that different. I don't want just this particular walkway to be everything, everywhere, all at once just because it's bigger. But it would help a whole lot if it had something, somewhere, at least once. I like the functionality. Processing plant likely wouldn't be an attractive build to include. But we literally have people fishing in Ninjago City. If you're grown up you're thinking: "well, this is just all kinds of stupid". If you're a kid, you can now play with your characters accidentally catching poop instead of a fish and than having to taste it on a bet. (lol) This is not really something I wanted to associate with Lego. And by that I don't mean my particular silly poop scenario, I meant any poop scenario. We also have restaurants. "hmm, what a lovely crab. I had my doubts about crab /w chocolate, but it's wonderful" - "Guess what? The 'chocolate' - is poop! haha" Actually, scratch the complaint... I want to MOC my city to have someone drowning in poop now. My kid would only be sad to think we're filling an animal's home with feces :\

But... there's poop. Does poop have a role in the cartoon? Doesn't seem like a fun gameplay element to insinuate everyone is catching fish in raw sewage.

Well, as I said in my post, it's not a problem that it's "empty". All the sets are packed and a little breathing room brings a nice contrast. But precisely because the sets pack a lot of details per square Legometre, that part looks barren. It serves little purpose and has little content, yes. But city square are often like that, so it's not a problem. But it also has no texture, it's just flat and gray, which always somewhat brings to mind an empty space that you're yet to build upon and it's all the worse contrasted with the other details. Look at the water in the sets, for example. It does not possess "insane MOC" levels of detail. But it does have some in terms of different colored plates below it, occasional plant, differently orientated tiles, etc. So where in real life I would find more details on the concrete on any city square, even if it's just dirty, than I would in the water, it's the complete opposite here, and thus it feels unfinished. The other gray walkways were too narrow to expect much from them and they were broken with stairs or adjoined architectural details, this is just... plain.

Nice mock-ups, but I'm curious about how many would display all these sets in a straight line. ZMG (don't really know what that stands for :)), despite being shown in that configuration, I feel is clearly made to facilitate different connections, and is great at doing so. (Popped between the bigger builds it looks weird and out of place.) In fact, if you're willing to add a bit of custom made water or are not bothered by irregular edges (Lego obviously isn't in all their landscape sets that come without baseplates), there are many more interesting combinations possible.

Ah, well... I'm going to buy the Markets I guess. But I have to say this is the first NC set that doesn't look amazing to me. Ninjago City was such a pleasant surprise. Docks were made to the same standard, if not better, even though they're not tackling a city part that is equally exciting. Gardens undoubtedly look good, although a big part of it feels like a remake of Ninjago City rather than it's own thing. Markets seem to have noticeable problems with the composition of the scene. As mentioned, the bottom center looks empty. For me, it's not even empty in the "there should be some more builds here" but it's empty in the "in the city this detailed, seeing a surface with no texture on it instantly breaks the illusion" way. The right side is not presentable, ditto for the entirety of the rear. Docks is wonderful on both sides, so much so it's hard to tell which one is better. Ninjago City presents a bare look that works, as it really feels appropriate for that part and we've all likely seen city parts reminiscent of that vibe. So everything except the elevator is on point. Gardens perhaps doesn't have enough detail in the rear to look fully finished, but it's not that bad. Markets just have that flat look you get when you take a Lego building and cut it precisely in half, showing the inner structure, if you know what I mean? The level of details and textures feels more appropriate for Minecraft than Ninjago City. I also wonder where all the pieces went. All into width? And I have to wonder what it will look like without the stickers. City absolutely doesn't need them, but will this seriously lack detail without them? So even though I enjoy flipping my NC around in different configuration, this feels mostly like something I would stick in the center and then surround on all sides. Btw, I'm not sure if I'm seeing it well, but is that red bridge just connecting two parts that are connected anyways, for no particular reason? As a final note - seemingly dumping poo into the main waterway is a terrible decision. We have people actually catching, selling fish and eating fish grown in raw sewage now??

I got this after finding it discounted at a price of 60 euros. That's a great price for a set of this size, if you ask me :) I wanna say the build is nothing short of amazing. There's nothing spectactular in it per se, but it really puts all my efforts into perspective. It's professional through and through and has that "hold my beer, I'm an official Lego designer" feel that I wish all sets would have. Major props to the designer. Even better, it didn't have those steps where you have to put a million 1x1's in a row - and it didn't even need them to look sleek. It's really a crying shame that such superb work went into a model that is so very plain. Pretty much what I've seen on the pics - that's it. Just a boxy look, two canopies, clumsy to hold, too big to play with unless you're a grown up, not intricate enough for a prime spot on the precious shelf real-estate. The most attractive parts of it, subjectively, being the striking color scheme and the rear end opening to let the buggy out, are so old they just might be older than I am. On the other hand, if the point was indeed just modernizing the old model and nothing else (as seen from replicating many of its details), that's not been done very well. The new ship looks more like a fighter plane than a vessel to explore galaxies. It doesn't have the more closed-off feel or the double deck look that made it seem like what you had was an attempt to convey a big spaceship with many limitations, but still successfully enough to let your imagination take over. Quote the opposite, the new Galaxy Explorer feels like a small scout ship, but one where brick count was of no issue, so it could be depicted with as much detail as needed.

After driving me crazy with either butchering the original idea or throwing out sets with insulting pricetags, I have to say that 21340 Tales of the Space Age looks pretty good! It's colorful, it's not pretentious and it's affordable as far as Lego goes. I might buy a Lego set once again for the first time after I switched to other brands completely not so long ago.

I have the same take on the cabin as I do on most Lego sets: the idea was stunning. I would be crazy not to instabuy that. The final product is... fine, I guess? I'm definitely not buying it, but I'd be happy if I was gifted one. It's perfectly understandable why they chose to omit some things, I would do the same in their place. And of course, they had bigger limitations on some other things. But those two aside, that still leaves stuff that is just... bad. Like, bad design choices that make the final product look like the work of a vastly inferior designer. Also, one random thing I noticed buying non-Lego bricks is that they can make any possible brick in any possible color for any set. And yet Lego designers can't even pick from existing bricks and colors to make a set that is more than adequately aesthetically pleasing.

Indeed, it is. This one had me chuckling: https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-125875/ao-ka/starfleet-voyager-10497-style/#details