BrickJagger

I personally think that 7946 King's Castle is a better set than 70404. After buying both sets, I feel that 7946 is a better build and it looks better on display. 70404's colors are kind of garish and the castle itself feels empty once you've built it. I'm pretty sure that 7946 goes for a bit more on the secondary market, but it's worth it. Vladek's Fortress is a solid pick, its one of the best villain castles Lego has released along with Jestro's Volcano Lair. Both of those sets have a bit of red but are mostly black and are far apart from 7946 on the color spectrum. Hope that helps.

I wish 4chan would go back to leaking like they used to. The site is anonymous and the leakers themselves are tech-savvy enough to make sure Lego doesn't track them down. We're almost a full month past when January images usually come out and the traffic on here isn't like it usually is

I don't play the game, but I'm noticing that the sets themselves aren't very detailed. The smallest set looks chunky and basic, and every set in the wave has four or fewer figures. It's not for me I guess.

I could write a small novel in response to the OP, but I'll keep it short. Simply put, Lego's core values are based around imagination and creativity. Advocating for Lego to get rid of all of the non-licensed themes save for a few is shortsighted and would not be feasible in the long run. Many of Lego's media properties are "here today, gone tomorrow", while their non-licensed themes tend to be based on timeless concepts. As several others in this thread have pointed out, Castle 2013 and Pirates 2015 were half-hearted efforts at best, and their mediocre sales likely had more to do with Lego itself than the customers. We have seen multiple successful non-licensed themes in the recent past (Elves, Ultra Agents, Fantasy Era, Mars Mission, etc.) and I see no real indication that those wouldn't sell well in the present. In conclusion, kids don't change much, and the amount of adult buyers are growing in size, so why would Lego shrink its range of themes and options?

But Monstrox is the main villain. For him to only show up as a hologram in the last wave is pretty suspicious. Ruina as well; she was revealed to be Clay's mother in Season 4, and there's even a poster floating around that appeared to have a Vampire Ruina figure in it. Between the two most important villains missing and the last season of the TV show being cancelled, there's enough evidence to back it up. The Forest and Water monsters were either scrapped early in the design process or were just put into the Book of Monsters book to flesh it out. The latter is not unprecedented either, as there was speculation at one point that there would be an elves faction in Castle because of an elf figure showing up in a map in the Lego Magazine, but it was reportedly only drawn in to fill up empty space. A shame, too... Finally reached 3,000 posts!

It's definitely possible. Lego has recycled designs before and, as you've said, we ended up missing out on a lot of key figures and vehicles that a summer 2018 wave would have covered. The giant spider certainly looks like a recolored Nexo Knights set. I'm not really familiar with the Spider Man extended universe, but the resemblance is striking. What I really want to know is, if there truly was a summer wave, why did it get cancelled?

I think if there isn't a Castle series next year, we'll definitely get some historical figures in the next series. I don't think it's possible for next year to be any worse than this year for us historic fans.

This thread will be kept alive for the next two years because the magazine refuses to die

Where did you see this?

Looks like you're making good progress! Can't wait to see how the castle itself turns out.

It's pretty much a part for part rerelease, not much to see in that regard. When the best part of a $200 set is an eco-friendly spruce tree, there's a problem. Next!

Good points. You're right about the "initial hype" fading, but that really only happens to me with the summer sets. Even then, those sets are officially revealed at NYTF in February, so we'd have to wait 4-6 months at least to get the sets being shown regardless. The winter sets are really only about two months: The January prelims tend to leak in mid-late September, and the sets themselves often come out in early December, as I imagine would be the case with TLM2 I might be in the minority here, but to me that's exactly what makes it exciting. It turns out to be disappointing most of the time, but I like putting together every little detail and predicting what a theme will turn out to be.

Is it though? There's something exciting about seeing stuff that isn't supposed to be seen yet. There's been an argument over this topic ever since EB started. The obvious cons are Lepin stealing designs or whatever, but that doesn't affect me nor does it affect anyone on these boards. The pros are that leaks aren't exactly nuclear weapon plans and are almost exclusively shared by Lego fans who intend to spend money on the sets and would like to plan out what they want to get in advance. For example, I'd like to see at least a set list for the TLM2 sets so I can set aside money if there's something I want to get. Lepin can't copy designs solely from a set list and that type of "leak" is pretty much harmless. Without leaks, news topics have become stale and hard to read with little productive discussion going on, IMHO.

Amazing how these set are coming out in January yet we know almost nothing about them. Part of that is due to this being the most boring "leak season" in a very long time, but still.

He said it'll probably be the jewelry line that has been rumored.

No. There aren't any minifigure parts in any of the bags.

So according to a frequently cited IG user, the theme is called "Dots". There will be nineteen sets in total.

Alright, that's pretty cool. He'll probably have a hard time standing up though.

What do you mean by that? Moving the whole site to a new server possibly? I'm not really familiar with how that works.

Another great entry into this series! This is the kind of storytelling that Nexo lacked. I like how the Vampirates have finally made an appearance, can't wait to see what's next.

Welcome!

This is cool but...what is it? Why does it exist?

Castle is usually a summer theme, Space is a possibility though! Try to hold out hope for something good.

I like it. The building is well done and resembles a facade of a modular. The frozen pond is a big improvement over the one in the bakery and the section with the bench and lamp is a nice inclusion. The figure selection is decent, one of the main highlights for me is the baby with a printed Christmas sweater. I think that I'll be buying this, but I think they could have gotten away with $90 or $80, especially if they hadn't included the blocky and unnecessary tree.

I would like a banner that represents all of the major Action Themes. A figure or two from Ninjago, Nexo, Chima, Adventurers, Power Miners, Atlantis, and Monster Fighters.