Karalora

It looks better than what I assume was his mustache in the original design. Also reminds me of the description of the literary Count Dracula.

I want to address the claim that (paraphrasing) "without realistic skin tones, LEGO has to use costume stereotypes to unambiguously represent specific ethnicities." Because with realistic skin tones, LEGO would still have to use costume stereotypes to unambiguously represent specific ethnicities. A skin tone is just a skin tone, and people the world over come in dark, light, and everything inbetween. Is a medium nougat minifigure South Asian? Southeast Asian? Latino? Biracial? A white person with a suntan? First Nations? More details would still be required, and those would have to come from the costuming. We had a thread a while back about whether LEGO should ditch the yellow and only produce fleshies, and I think the overall consensus was that fleshies are appropriate in licensed lines where they represent specific characters who have a known race and skin tone, but for City and other unlicensed themes, yellow makes a pretty good generic person who can be any race.

Great news for me; I've been wanting that piece in black for AGES!

This is extremely cute and I love how you can identify each wizard's "specialty" from their accessories and mini-builds. Abracus is a little bit sinister (hopefully not too sinister, if these other wizards still agree to work with him) and maybe operates out of a volcanic area. Eilrys is the nature wizard/druid. Majisto is of course the master of dragons and is passing his skills on to Rowenna. Dragos's specialty is a little harder to pin down--maybe creating homunculi? Bero seems like a created being rather than a summoned one. And Lizandra is a potion specialist (who also has little artificial-looking creatures--maybe Dragos helped her out?)

What does 2HY mean? 2nd half of the year?

These are extraordinary! I like the little "plaques" up in the corner as much as the builds themselves! I would love to see more, but as I'm not especially familiar with Disneyland Paris, I couldn't say which attraction to tackle next.

Yeah, they sometimes do the thing where solving the puzzle requires arranging objects the right way. Obviously, the possible complexity depends on the size of the set, but I think it would be possible to use arrays of Technic gears, levers, etc. to create a build where things had to be positioned correctly in order for a door to move.

This is why I think the best solution would be two sub-themes within the overall Zelda theme, as I described above. For a LEGO set I think it would be much less about figuring out the puzzle like you do when playing a Zelda game, and more about portraying the scenario where Link is faced with a puzzle, and the Technic elements in the set enable you to act out the solving of it. They're not complicated puzzles, as a rule--there will be a locked door or other impassable barrier, and a specific task must be completed in order to unlock it or bridge the gap. It's often quite arbitrary, operating by the rules of video game logic.

Yeah, this is something I think I mentioned (much) earlier in the thread--Mario exists in a sort of eternal present, whereas each Zelda game is a self-contained unique entity. To me, the ideal Zelda theme would consist of two sub-themes--a line of display sets based on iconic things, scenes, or moments from individual games (the Great Deku Tree, King of Red Lions, drawing the Master Sword, etc.), and a line of playsets that are more generic, not precisely mimicking any single game but using elements that are common to several, like recurring boss monsters, dungeon puzzles/traps, fantasy people like the Gorons and Zoras, etc. Many things would have to be redesigned to fit into the LEGO aesthetic anyway, so it could become its own installment of the LoZ franchise.

It's really interesting to consider in the context of the Mario theme, which I think must be construed as a tie-in for the movie even though the sets aren't directly related to the movie's plot. It's almost a meta-tie-in, promoting hype for the IP well ahead of the movie's release, rather than for the movie itself, but I think the synergy was there--Nintendo and LEGO playing the long game. Might we expect something similar for Zelda? (Please?)

How's your "HYAAAHHH!"?

Today Nintendo announced that a live-action Legend of Zelda movie is in the works. Sounds like a potential tie-in to me!

Holy [censored], this is amazing!

We already have the chameleon, which is a lizard. I wouldn't say no to a more generic lizard, I'm just not sure it's necessary for reptile representation. For a gorilla, the Gorilla Suit Guy works pretty well for now, as long as you don't need to see the gorilla from behind!

It still seems like it would require a lot of difficult coordination between otherwise unrelated businesses. The design of actual life-sized buildings would be constrained by the size and shape of LEGO's assets.

Maybe Lion King is also talking about the goat...

One I'm curious about is the claim that retired brick molds are buried in concrete in the foundations of buildings in order to keep them from being obtained by competitors. It just seems so outlandish and over the top--surely there are simpler ways of rendering a mold entirely unusable? What would that kind of adulteration do to the structural integrity of the resulting building?

I speculated as much earlier.

That is true. It just seems weird not to have the player character represented at all.

I'd like to see a set focusing on the natural world in the game--just builds of trees, bushes, flowers, water features, and cliffsides that can be used to plump out the other sets or arranged to be one of the outside islands you can travel to. For the museum, I think the biggest issue would be reconciling the cozy scale of the actual building exterior with the huge spaces inside. Maybe just have a single "exhibit space" with one each of a fish tank, bug terrarium, fossil skeleton, and statue or painting?

Maybe the Brickheadz will be the human villagers, one male-presenting and one female-presenting. That would be the best way to enable customization of hairstyle, etc. without having to produce a slew of new parts.

I don't need them because of Reasons, but yes, sets of all the iconic buildings please!

I really hope they make a museum set with a Blathers minifig. I need a Blathers minifig in my life. I need him because of Reasons.

Why? They're just flamingos, squabbling over the best shrimp-eating spots in the lagoons.