Northgeorgiamasonry

I pay for food and utilities, too. Occasionally new socks if they get a hole. But other than that, pretty much just Lego.

The main temple building (bags 4-7) looks really nice and I’d buy that as a stand-alone set at half the price of the full set. But I’m not interested in any of the side builds or the sea serpent which looks a bit incomplete (especially compared to the lineup of Ninjago dragons)

Just my opinion… the City of Lanterns looks really nice but the comparisons to the Ninjago City sets are going to stop once people start building this and actually putting it next to their Ninjagos. Those are some of the greatest sets ever made, with tremendous scale, absurd parts usage, clever mechanisms built into the sets, etc and City of Lanterns - while very colorful and eye catching - just doesn’t look like it’s on their level at all. Unfair to this set to even make the comparisons.

Definitely a step down for this theme from the sets it delivered the last 2 years. Ice Festival is nice and I’ll probably get it eventually. The vignettes don’t do much for me.

9,090 for $630 ($0.069 ppp) would be more consistent with both Colosseum (9,036 for $550 - $0.061 ppp) and Creator Expert Taj Mahal (5,923 for $370 - $0.062 ppp)

My 12 would be: 1. Kermit 2. Miss Piggy 3. Fozzie 4. Gonzo 5. Swedish Chef 6. Rowlf the Dog 7. Animal 8. Sam Eagle 9-10. Dr. Honeydew and Beaker 11-12. Statler and Waldorf But unfortunately that leaves out the Electric Mayhem other than Animal

This feels like a very AFOL perspective. Central Perk and Saturn V are popular among AFOLs but probably nowhere close to TLG’s bestsellers. The $10-20 City, Friends, and Star Wars sets that are found in every Wal Mart and Target and are getting picked up daily from every store for a kids birthday party present - those are the bestsellers.

If it’s 500-800 pieces as has been rumored, I doubt it’ll be $35 since it’ll be a Disney licensed set (…or if it’s $35, then probably lower piece count than originally rumored)

It’s a fantastic build. There are a bunch of very nice combinations of system and technic to incorporate the various mechanisms. Some really clever designs and parts usage building up the ships hull. And I also think the dojo section is very well done. Highly recommended.

I’ll guess Seinfeld next on Sep 1 Home Alone Nov 1 for the holiday season Starry Night Feb 1, 2022 after the January wave

Unpopular opinion: even though Barracuda Bay was 2020 set of the year for a lot of people, it was only the third best ship build of that year. Creator Pirate Ship and Destiny’s Bounty are both better. Now, the final product of Barracuda Bay is certainly much more impressive. But if we’re just talking about the builds, Barracuda Bay uses lots of big hull pieces and the build spends a lot more time simply furnishing the ship. The other two are more technical and satisfying building experiences that construct the ship from no (creator) or fewer (bounty) big hull pieces and incorporate more system detailing (creator) and technic functions (bounty).

I think the scale of the map makes it difficult (since it takes 11k pieces just to get the level of definition in the picture that they want), but it’d be fun to see them start doing more with the LEGO Art theme than just the 2d mosaics

11,000 round 1x1 tiles sounds a bit repetitive Agree that the final display is underwhelming

Agreed. If the project gives Lego an idea that they want to develop, they’ll find the right pieces. The Steamboat Willie and Winnie the Pooh submissions both had underwhelming builds that became great sets after the pros completely redesigned and reworked them.

I don’t see how anyone can be excited about the Creator 3-in-1 castle after seeing this list. 5 castles - all superior to the Creator Castle - and they’re all going to get rejected because Lego just released their own - and much less interesting - castle. Oh well, maybe 1 or 2 will get invited to the next BrickLink round so they can join the Castle in the Forest. Besides the castles, I really like the Jazz Quarter, King Tut, Steampunk Airship, and Greek Temple.

Great project! Really enjoy how you’ve been listening to comments and opinions and even seeking help from the BrickLink community to make this the best set possible under the restrictions you’ve been given. Looking forward to helping fund this!

Not necessarily your favorites or least favorites, but what sets surprised you by how good or meh they ended up being? Here’s my list: Better than expected: 1. 20th anniversary Slave I - I expected this to be pretty straightforward, but it’s so much more than that and such a great build. Interesting and accurate shaping. Incorporating the technic handle for swooshability is brilliant for a ship with such a unique shape. 2. Steamboat Willie - I came in to this with low expectations because so many people reacted that this set wasn’t a good value. But I love it. The use of technic to make the wheels spin and smokestacks bounce makes for an intricate build. The black and white color scheme has exactly the desired nostalgic effect. Might get my award for most underrated set. 3. Saturn V - it’s hard to beat expectations when all I had heard about this one were great reviews, but it beat them. Just a fantastic build and beautiful final model. Deserving of every bit of the hype. 4. Charles Dickens tribute - for a small GWP set, this one is just great. The details are beautiful and the scene feels perfectly Christmasy. Not as good as expected: 1. Disney Castle - I really wanted to love this one, but it just didn’t do much for me. I had built Hogwarts Castle before Disney Castle which didn’t help because Hogwarts is so much better imo. And while the final display is impressive, I looked at it a few times and was ready to disassemble. 2. London Bus - I really like the look of this one but the build just isn’t that interesting compared to some of the other creator expert cars. 3. Millennium Falcon (2019) - this is the only Falcon I own, maybe other models are more satisfying but the final product is kinda flimsy and it’s awkward to play with compared to other Star Wars sets.

Finished the Gardens today. 2 reactions that may seem contradictory: 1. Gardens is closer to Docks than City. The Gardens just doesn’t compare to the wildness, creativity, unmatched building experience, and completely original never-seen-anything-like-it-before surprise that was City. 2. Gardens is absolutely fantastic and will probably be the set of the year. I doubt anything else that gets released this year will have a better combination of creativity, part usage, building techniques, and overall value to top it. The tree in the corner, the shaping of the buildings, and parts usage made this a blast to build. 1 + 2 together (that Gardens is best of 2021 but still not up to City) is just more indication that City is the greatest ever. But all 3 Ninjago city sets are Lego at its best.

Will be interesting to see what the demand is for some of these. In the first BrickLink AFOL designer program, the biggest sets were the castle (~2,000) and the saloon (~1,500). Now we have a lot of much larger sets. Questbuilder is 3,500, Studgate train station is 3,800, Ruined House is 4,000+. Are there going to be that many people who want the Ruined House enough to pay $400 for it?

Gas 'n Wash Express was the set I always wanted as a kid but never got. After a 20+ year dark ages, finally got around to it in my 30s! These are the first 3 I remember, but I don't remember the order. Sabre Island was 89, Cabin Cruiser was 91, Gas Tanker was 92 - so maybe in that order? I always thought of Sabre Island as a pirates set and referred to them as "pirates" and only recently did it occur to me that these guys are not pirates...

Are pictures out somewhere? Don’t see any on #legoleaks

I don’t think it’s a terrible opinion - if you want your project to become an official set, you should put some real effort into it. 2 counter arguments: 1. the proposal doesn’t need to be sturdy, or in some cases even physically possible, because Lego is going to make extensive changes to the design anyway. Why force people to invest in a design that Lego likely isn’t going to follow? 2. Ideas is about engaging with fans and giving the fans an opportunity to bring their ideas to life. Making that experience more expensive and restricted hurts the platform. Better to sort through several unbuildable renderings among numerous creative projects than kill the interest.

I’m not a big HP collector, but after the fantastic Creator Pirate Ship and Destiny’s Bounty last year, I’d love to see another good quirky ship at this price point

The Moaning Myrtle minifig has the perfect color scheme for a drowning Jack Dawson minifig

For everyone who is complaining that the set is illogical because some of the rooms aren’t accessible, it may be helpful to remember that this set is the hometown of some boys who are masters of fire and lightning, and ride dragons, and have a sail ship that flies, and battle a nemesis with 4 arms who attacks the city in a giant shark robot. I can accept a missing staircase or two.