Karalora

The brilliant thing about DnD is that it's so easy to make characters that are unique and stand out even when repeating race and/or class. Between the big set and the CMF wave, all the standard PC races and most of the PC classes are represented, with the only holdout being the monk. So they could include a monk of any race and then start mixing and matching, implying different character creation options with the accessories and other details, and really highlighting the flexibility of the game. Another option would be to focus the second wave on monsters and antagonists--we got some of those, and really iconic ones, in the first wave, but I think the army builders of the LEGO world would appreciate a fine selection of kobolds, goblins, bugbears, lizardfolk, and other assorted critters from the less shiny side of the Monster Manual. Would it be less special than the first? Yeah...that's kinda always the case with sequels, isn't it? But we've barely scratched the surface and I'm greedy.

Yes please!

Pain in the a--*is shot*

I use the patronuses as ice sculptures in my winter village.

I mean, I don't need a flying phoenix if it's going to be a PITA to get. It would just be a cool addition to the mythological collection.

That flying phoenix is rad. I hope it's not too expensive on BL, because I ain't contributing money to the primary market on Harry Potter products.

Could it have been a spare that came with Train Kid? They don't usually give us spares of 1 x 2 parts but it's not impossible.

Per Bricklink, the black 1x2 tile is used in the Train Kid. I didn't find a CMF mentioned for either the regular blue or dark blue of this part.

Sven is surprisingly accurate to the look of an actual reindeer, for a cartoon. They could probably reuse it with different printing to downplay the cartoony face.

I saw that and immediately thought "The folks at EB are gonna love this!" Of course I don't know if it's more or less frustrating to get thrown a bone every now and again. It goes to show that they clearly know how to produce non-licensed sets in the Classic themes, that skill hasn't been lost...so why don't they more often?

I don't know about anyone else, but I usually think of deer/elk (as opposed to reindeer) as an autumnal animal rather than a winter/Christmas one. To be perfectly honest, the LEGO stag doesn't look very much like a real reindeer, and was probably used as one because the actual reindeer mold (for Sven from Frozen) was locked to that license.

Wow.

Yes.

You might be surprised. A full-grown raven can have a wingspan as big as five feet/1.5 meters. The real problem with the Dreamzzz raven, from a realism standpoint, is the transparent magenta edge to the feathers.

"Trying too hard" seems probable. I looked up when the Western line was active, and the bulk of the Indians sets seem to have come out in 1997--two years after Disney's Pocahontas, which was also a case of "trying too hard" (and ending up vaguely unsatisfying as a result). By 1997, everyone knew what a "Legoman" looked like--dot eyes, no nose, and the mouth and eyebrows doing all the work of the facial expression. Putting extra details on the Indians made them look weird in context, and I have to wonder what went into that decision. You know what? I like the audacity of this. *sigh*...they're not. No one* is literally "looking for things to get offended about," as is sometimes accused. But some things in popular media--like "cannibal natives" and other such ignorant stereotypes--leave a bad taste in the mouth and people would rather they were avoided. I ask again--would hypothetical revivals of the Classic themes be worse if they portrayed their respective indigenous peoples more thoughtfully? * Or very few people--obviously in a population of 8 billion, you can find instances of almost any behavior you can imagine.

Apparently, it is also an unpopular opinion that any hypothetical Western or Pirates revival would be just as good if the indigenous people were not depicted as weird caricatures. Seriously, why would you defend that? Skimming back over the thread, I heartily agree that we could use more sets--Icons or otherwise--at affordable price points. But maybe especially Icons, since those tend to be one-off concepts to entice people who might not otherwise have been interested in LEGO. They could attract so many more people to the hobby if the bar for entry weren't raised so high. I also unironically love the idea of "City Castle." I'm imagining something like a Renaissance Faire or SCA chapter that holds events at a local castle or castle-themed tourist attraction. You could get literal castle structures (in various states of repair if it's an historical castle), a marketplace with lots of fun medieval-style booths and merchandise, knights with unique heraldry and horses with barding for the joust event, the works! City Pirates is harder to parse. Something with a theme park-y vibe is certainly possible, but seems more forced than it does with Castle.

Wow, who knew "If it sucks, hit da brickz!" would turn out to be a genuinely unpopular opinion? I was aiming for wry and apparently hit condescension by mistake, and for that I apologize. And no, I was not trying to set up a situation where I would tell people they should quit. It was more of a rhetorical question--if all you do here is complain about the state of the hobby, are you even having fun with LEGO anymore? And if you're not, why are you still doing it? The obvious corollary is that if you are still having fun and you just need to vent about stuff here, then the previous questions do not apply. I unironically think there should be a therapy specialty for people leaving hobbies that they've had for a long time because it no longer brings them joy. It can be as much of a gut-punch as a relationship breakup, and considering the importance of hobbies for overall mental health, it's no trivial thing. This is a pretty bold claim. What are you basing it on? Back to a less polarized topic... Yeah, this. Obviously we would all love it if TLG would cater to our individual tastes until we had our fill, but a global brand has to aim for mass-market appeal and try to please as many segments as possible while avoiding obvious controversies to the greatest extent feasible. A recurring statement I see around here is "I think kids would love [X Classic Theme] if they brought it back, because I would love it/I loved it when I was a kid/I know some kids who like the idea." That's a very small sample to generalize from, you know? We kind of have to assume that TLG makes decisions based on up-to-date market research, and that said research therefore counter-indicates the viability of Classic themes except as occasional one-off sets to appeal to adult collectors who can drop $300 on a set. And no--market research isn't infallible. Sometimes the research says "This is a hot trend, get in on it" and then the trend drops just before the new product goes to market. (This is why smart companies experiment on multiple fronts while also maintaining some evergreen products.) I want to circle back to a question I asked earlier and then kind of rephrased in a way that led a conversation which upset everyone: Assuming LEGO is not going to revive the Classic themes in the foreseeable future, what would be the next best route they could take?

Felidae has more species represented--domestic cat, lion, tiger, leopard, jaguar*, puma, and smilodon! * The adult black panther appeared in a set with Mesoamerican-style ruins.

To those who have said there's nothing they like about current LEGO anymore, here's an unpopular opinion for you: maybe you should move on from LEGO? If a hobby no longer brings you any joy...you can stop. Strange but true! It sucks when something you've put a lot of love into over the years no longer serves you, but sometimes that's the way things go. Life isn't always smooth. I think I've had similar conversations with you on such topics before but let me be very clear about something here: Just because you, personally, do not see a problem, does not mean there is no problem. "Offensive" portrayal of an ethnic group isn't just about portraying them as villains. It can also be about portraying them as Other and flattening them into a single dimension while the ethnic group to which your viewpoint characters belong gets to exhibit variation and nuance. I wasn't into LEGO for Western and the early waves of Pirates, but just looking at the minifigures...yikes. The Islanders are the laziest possible caricatures pulled right from the pages of 1930s pulp adventure novels. The Indians are a little better, but the detailed facial designs compared to all other minifigures being produced in that era are frankly bizarre, and an example of "portraying them as Other" as I mention above. Neither type of portrayal would be remotely acceptable nowadays, and it's not because people have become "too sensitive." Indigenous North Americans, Pacific Islanders, and Caribbean folks were no happier about that sort of thing 40 years ago than they are now...it's just that no one in a position to make design decisions was listening to them back then. Even if TLG does bring back Classic lines like Pirates and Western at some point, I think they should avoid making ethnic or racial "factions" at all.

No one is being mistreated. (Or at least, long-time fans aren't being mistreated over and above anyone else, :coughcough: pointedly in the direction of shrinkflated sets.) Not seeing your #1 preferred product line on the shelves very often isn't the same as being wronged. LEGO seems to be in a hardcore experimental phase right now, throwing all kinds of things at the wall to see what will stick and bring in new customers. And in many cases, it's working! Botanicals and LEGO Art sets have proven to appeal to many adults who previously considered LEGO just a toy for children. (I also don't see many complaints about those themes from long-time AFOLs, perhaps because if nothing else, they are excellent sources for small tiles, flowers, and other specialty parts in a variety of colors. Question for the long-time AFOLs here: assuming the company isn't going to bring back the Classic themes any time soon except for the occasional one-off...what would you consider the next best thing? Or I guess...is there anything new TLG is doing these days that you actually like?

i.e. a Q1 release.

The release date of the series is another likely factor against making a chocolate bunny. May 1 is kind of the worst possible date to debut an Easter-specific piece. Q1 would be ideal for planning Easter scenes for the current year, the back half of the year is more or less neutral, but just a couple weeks to a month after Easter? That's exactly when no one wants to be thinking about Easter at all. We're done, the RL candy is all eaten up and the spring decorations are put away so we can move along to summer.

Off-topic, but I like the little visual gag in the City set above, of the guy going to shear the sheep while he himself has an overgrown beard and hair.

Bingo. You know what you've done here? You've made a breakthrough in the discussion. There is undoubtedly a much greater diversity--of genre, target demographics, medium of origin, etc.--in the licensed themes than the unlicensed. Now, unlicensed themes can't provide diversity in the area of medium of origin, since the medium of origin is LEGO, but there's a lot they could do to diversify in the other areas. When it comes to what you might call storytelling themes, with characters (named or not, but recognizable from set to set) portrayed in a number of scenarios, there should be more options than just "relatably flustered (but also aspirationally hip) Kids Just Like You (TM) Build Things (TM) to Defeat the Forces of Evil (TM)" and "relatably diverse Kids Just Like You And Your Friends have everyday lives, but with more cute pets" (this may be an unfair view of the Friends line, but it's what it always looks like to me when I peruse the shelves).

The design of the Harpy makes me wonder if she was devised for something specific that fell through, and hastily repurposed as a CMF. That's certainly not what a mythological harpy looked like!