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Yeah, I had quite a break myself. Seems like "dark ages" is not a thing for no reason. and the propeller housing? yes, I do feel it's an evergreen, even though according to Rebrickable it was last used in a set in 2005.

Funnily enough, I believe that age group was targeted back on the cusp of studded/studless transition for Technic, around 1997-1999. That's when Technic tried to rebrand from "nerdy" to "cool" and "edgy" and targeted older, rebellious kids and teenagers.

Oh dear, as a huge fan of unlicensed LEGO I'd definitely have a bunch of ideas. I know underwater themes have been done a lot, but I'd definitely give this another try, perhaps Aquazone II - a proper reimagination of Aquazone with similar-looking and directly inspired factions but modern moulds. I wouldn't mind the return of those octagonal tubes, since today we've got way better ways of SNOT building than before, so they'd be easier to integrate into builds in ways that don't seem awkward. The propeller housing should deifnitely make a return though. It'd feel right at home, seeing as how TLG have been making a slow return towards angular shapes after almost two decades of roundness (if the Lego City yellow bulldozer is any indication). Regarding a newer theme, I picture: dark bluish gray and neon green. spaceships, vehicles - combo of sci fi and Lovecraftian fantasy. exploring deep tunnels in search of ancient civilizations and creatures, uncovering mysteries. Think a combination of space with the character of Adventurers and Rock Raiders, with a dash of the mid-late 90s sci-fi themes such as UFO and Insectoids in terms of aesthetics. I know it's all vague, but that vibe might end up leading to something pretty cool Funnily enough, I believe that age group was targeted back on the cusp of studded/studless transition for Technic, around 1997-1999. That's when Technic tried to rebrand from "nerdy" to "cool" and "edgy" and targeted older, rebellious kids and teenagers. As for System themes though? you're probably right, nothing to my knowledge ever targeted teens directly and explicitly

Yeah, you may be right about that, when you look at themes like Blacktron etc they used mostly universal parts from the previous years' assortment, which is ironically what Lego would return to after 2003. And I agree that mid to late 90s and early 00s had the biggest concentration of bespoke moulds. Just look at the Aquazone, Ufo and Insectoids themes. Rock Raiders too tbh. I can understand how this was not particularly sustainable for Lego, since those parts were few in number and limited in use, which is pretty much just bad economics of scale, simply put. So it stands to reason they'd reverse course from this approach. But damn, were all those sets and themes memorable and fun, can't deny that! BTW, on an unrelated note; I only just realized Lego introduced 16x16 plates only as late as 2011, and red ones as late as 2024. When I was a kid, I played a lot with a red 16x16 plate serving as a baseplate (a proper plate with antistuds on the bottom, mind you). That thing came from an old Cobi town-themed set from the late 90s or very early 2000s where it served as either the floor or the roof of a gas station. Pretty stunning if you think about it, how fast Lego's competitors innovated compared to Lego themselves. If Lego has been playing catch-up for literal decades even in regards to basic pieces like that... oh boy

Well, since the 2003 restructuring the idea is to only add parts if they are really useful, multipurpose and justified, so as to avoid a repeat of the 80s and 90s where moulds only ever used in a single set reigned supreme (which almost brought the company under). I agree it seems like there might be some bloat recently but then again, are sets made in 2015 really that different to sets made in 2025 really? Talking about both System and Technic. I haven't seen a leap half as big in the last 15 years as say, the 5-year leap between 2002 and 1997 for Technic was. I think the biggest revolution for the system was the 1x2 plate with rounded edges and open studs, that thing has completely revolutionized builds. At this point the only way there could be another revolution of a similar impact is if Lego finally agreed to introduce plates with studs on both sides.

I checked New Elementary and apparently the only new mould for November (not counting some minifig hats) is this: https://rebrickable.com/parts/5850/brick-arch-1-x-3-x-2-straight-end/ doesn't feel like anything revolutionary, in fact it's one more piece that feels like something obvious which might as well have been made for 40 years by now. Looks like Lego is slowly filling in their functional backlog

Hah, gonna be an unpopular opinion, but I actually think Rock Raiders is one theme that would have benefited greatly from the new grays. Old gray was decidedly superior for Castle and other non-sci-fi themes, but this one practically begs for these colder, fresher looking grays haha But regarding keeping things period correct, I was always fascinated by mixing eras and techniques. For example in Technic, I've always greatly appreciated models that combined studless and studded rather than going full studless - same goes for MOCs that use modern parts, but also incorporate long-retired moulds. Check out this little thing for example - almost all modern pieces, but tastefully incorporates key Aquazone parts. I really like it. https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-47760/Sylon/aquanauts-aquahawk/#details

Yeah, except as Aquazone MOCs have proven over the years, some new moulds and building techniques that have arisen over the years can really benefit those old themes. It's a bit of a conundrum, since you can really be tempted to want to use new pieces, but not if it could come at the cost of having to discard theme-defining specialized moulds.

How do you approach the idea of MOCing for themes that relied heavily on old grays? Do you stick to the old color, replace what you can with the new grays or just mix them without worrying about the consequences? Sadly the old grays do not extend to any new moulds released after the transition (around 2003), so if you want to moc without colors clashing, you need to restrict yourself to old parts. On the other hand, many of those specialized parts that permeated those sci-fi sets were made in the old grays - for example the entirety of the UFO line including the X-wing parts, the saucers and all that. That's why for example Aquazone is a great theme to MOC for, since none of its subthemes ever relied on either of the grays to any significant degree... except the Stingrays, which did, unfortunately.

Well, there is one sloped tile part with a 2x2 start, the 3043, which has endured all the way since 1958. It's not exactly the same thing as what we've discussed though, and probably functionally equivalent to two 1x2 cheese slopes put against each other. But I also agree that with Lego's move away from play features and more towards shelf models in the vein of Cobi, they might be incentivized to start introducing some of the pieces that competition's been using for years. If you look at New Elementary, it seems like that's exactly what they've been doing. All those new moulds feel distinctly like something I've seen used by clone brands before.

I suppose Lego never wanted to go heavy on odd-length plates since System builds are even-width (since otherwise you couldn't seat a minifig centrally). Cobi on the other hand go absolutely ham on those, since their tanks are odd-width, which explains it entirely.

Yeah, I've been following New Elementary and Lego have been slowly catching up on some moulds, but looking at these - most of them look so obvious that it's mind-boggling it took them so long to bring them in. Competitor brands have a decade-long lead on Lego in regards to many of these, especially as far as slopes, tiles and curves are concerned. Lego are making a respectable effort, though. It's kinda fun how recently they introduced something as obvious as a 1x3 Technic brick with 3 holes. But what I was reminded of are studless slopes bigger than the cheese ones. It's ok to want to extend the cheese family, but for example Cobi have been doing 2x2 and 2x4 slopes with no studs on top, different heights too (3 plates vs 2 plates etc). I wonder if Lego ever want to make ones like those. Cobi uses them en masse to finish out the hulls of their tanks - while I understand Lego were never quite as obsessed about leaving no visible studs as Cobi were, those would still be worthwhile aesthetic additions - especially given that Lego have been more than eager to make just that but curved rather than angled. EDIT: checked out the category on Rebrickable and apparently there's part 5404 from 2024 (Slope 18° 2 x 1 x 2/3), which may count as a possible beginning of such a line of parts.

I checked out New Elementary and indeed, some parts introduced in January 2025 are quite exciting and definitely feel like catching up to the competition, such as that 1x2 by 2x6 bracket, a full height curved slope and a 1x3 Technic beam with an axle hole in the middle. They also made a 2/3 stud height variant of 6091 and associated extensions. All feel like very nice steps in the right direction, the only question is... what took them so long?

Welp, while the ship is an excellent sculpture/model, it's a little light on articulation/play features, which I suppose could be counted against it. An absolute marvel to look at, though.

What an absolutely incredible model. Not only does it show off how extremely powerful the inclusion of rounded edge plates was, the guy excels at building dense structures, sculpting shapes, ensuring sturdiness, has a great eye for color themes and guess what - also seamlessly incorporates long-discontinued parts to great effect in the form of the small Insectoid legs discontinued all the way back in 2004 or the 2463 wedged slopes. Perhaps there are even more old parts used here, but I didn't catch them. Such ways of combining most up-to-date building techniques, unbound creativity and incorporation of old pieces are a combination that I'd judge to be the pinnacle of Lego System building.