Lyichir

Come to think of it, it's a shame they didn't show off a wanted poster for Wapol (since he was technically captain of the Bliking Pirates). But yeah, even then there's not really enough posters to pull off the randomization again. I certainly wouldn't mind getting non-randomized posters for Dorry, Brogy, Sir Crocodile, and Nico Robin, though! I'm not sure how well the Baroque Works business cards would work as a replacement... if they did them as 1x2 tiles or whatnot, they'd be pretty small... not room for a ton of detail, and without full portraits you'd lose the fun "Lego" aspect of the minifigure-ized posters.

Regarding the chick figure, IIRC bright light yellow/cool yellow was reformulated recently for more consistency/less translucency, so that's likely the cause of the difference.

That would certainly make sense as those are the main Kanto starters (Pikachu and Eevee from Yellow version and the Let's Go games). Eevee looks good. My concern with minifig-scale characters is less their quality and more whether the variety will end up being good. That, and I'm curious how the human characters will look as minifigs (I expect regular minifig faces instead of "anime-style" like Exo-Force).

Huh, you're right, that might be the baby body. That would certainly be scaled better, though its inability to hold accessories would be an unfortunate drawback. Still, I think that's a better option than the regular minifig torso, especially since it'd help to better sell the difference between the regular form and his "heavy point" transformation (which presumably is regular minifig-sized).

I think that's magenta/bright reddish violet, which'll probably look better in real lighting. Was certainly not expecting him to be a full minifigure (even with short legs). If he seems too tall I might try using one of the Lego Dreamzzz "dreamling" torsos for him, which do come in the right color.

It's a minor thing and sort of unlikely but if they were to include Koby and Helmeppo, it'd be cool if they included the hats from their uniforms, which the Baratie set lacked. I say unlikely because Helmeppo's in particular likely ought to be dual molded to work in his iconic hair, and I'm not sure that'd be the best use of the budget for this wave.

I don't share BrickBride's pessimism about the theme and think that things like the Gum Gum Fruit and buildable Chopper have the potential to be really popular (despite their priciness). Not everything has to be a full "playset" to appeal to kids. I know when I was a kid I enjoyed both minifig-scale playsets and buildable characters like some of the Technic Star Wars droids. If anything, I think adult collectors/completionists might be the people more torn up about favorite characters outside the main cast being omitted in favor of a broader range of set types. And to be honest, the Gum Gum Fruit set has me maybe a little hopeful that they aren't opposed to revisiting subjects from earlier seasons, so we might be able to see some of the things they missed in the future. The Lego theme debuted last year and had new sets for the new season this year, so depending on whether Lego wants to have new sets during the hiatus between seasons there might be plenty of opportunity to fill in at least some of the "gaps".

Eh, it's not always a guarantee. The Lego NES set included a bespoke part for 8-Bit Super Mario, which would never see use in any other sets. That said if the molded Pokémon had articulation that might be even less likely, given that that'd likely involve even costlier preassembly.

Lego molds definitely can be stored for several years without being used, so long as they're not completely worn out from use (which is when they're typically destroyed). That said, taking an out of production mold out of storage and putting it back into production comes with its own logistical costs in addition to the costs of production and maintaining replacement inventory. And refabricating a worn out mold has costs similar to introducing a brand-new one. The goat's mold IIRC was a case where the original mold was damaged and could not be reused (needing to be refabricated).

Realistically I don't think there was ever any chance of every Pokémon appearing in sets. But that's the same for most Pokémon merch. Things like starters, legendaries, and other popular Pokémon are on the whole more likely to get a lot of merch than things like, say, the middle evolution of a random Bug-type. I feel like that's definitely going to be the case with Lego, too, and would likely be even more limited if they'd gone the route of molded, minifig-scale Pokémon instead of largely having them brick-built. That said I doubt things will be limited to Kanto Pokémon for too long. It's a decent place to start but moving on to popular Pokémon from other regions will go a long way to keep things fresh. And I wouldn't even rule out regional forms or the like, just so long as there's a set concept that can make them part of an appealing product as a whole.

To be honest I've seen a lot of people happy that they're taking more time on the next core game, after Scarlet and Violet released in a somewhat rough state. The teaser looked great already. As for Lego, no new games probably isn't a problem, they've only just barely started covering Kanto Pokémon so there's still plenty of stuff they could do without the pressure of needing new content to tie in with. It's not like there's a lack of demand for the sets even just based on older Pokémon.

Fish skeleton is definitely very cool, first full creature skeleton since the horse. Will be useful for all sorts of scenarios.

Unprinted so a little less personality than non-molded dragons, but could work great for a statue. Fantasy weaponry like this "gunblade" is inherently not realistic or modern, which is where Lego draws the line. Not medieval specific but that fish skeleton could also see good use in a medieval town or fishing village, among many other scenarios (Gollum would certainly enjoy picking those bones clean).

Oh, that folding screen looks lovely and feels like it'd make a great set—both a good display piece and sufficiently different from anything else on the market.

I ordered the Going Merry recently, planning to build it when the new season came out. But yesterday was super dreary and depressing so I ended up starting it early. Finished it this morning and was very impressed—I love a good ship build due to how it combines the fun of a vehicle set with the interiors/living space of a building, and this set doesn't disappoint in that respect, with great furnishings and very logical access to each area. Love the minifigures and the wanted posters, even if I got one duplicate (two Kuros, a Buggy, and a Luffy). The randomization is very blatantly meant to encourage you to buy more sets, but I can't say it doesn't work—I'm tempted to pick up another set like Arlong Park to maybe replace this one as the set to build while I watch. Hoping that when the new season drops we might also get a reveal or teaser for the new sets!

From my experience with BDP sets they tend to do extra pieces more generously than average sets (one extra of each small piece in each bag, instead of just around one extra per piece for the whole set). Probably a result of logistical differences in how they're packed and weighed compared to regular retail sets.

Nice! I just got that one myself (ordered to satisfy my building fix for the rest of the month). Only built the eagle build so far since I figure I'll probably want to keep the other build assembled once I've rebuilt it. That one's a lot of fun though I wish the head could look down a little more.

Are we 100% sure this will be the full list of sets? It occurs to me that if they were to do an even bigger D2C set in addition to the regular retail sets like they did with Baratie, Loguetown might be a pretty good subject—especially since they could potentially include both characters from the Season 2 arc as well as ones from the flashback to Gold Roger's execution (a Gold Roger fig would certainly be a hell of a selling point on its own!). I could see Loguetown as a D2C set working sort of similar to some modulars or the various Diagon Alley sets, featuring several of the shops Luffy's crew visits off to the sides with the execution platform in the square as the main centerpiece.

Considering other One Piece season 2 toys already on the market (including marketable plushes of Laboon and Chopper), I think it's not a stretch to think there will be a set with Laboon (even if not properly to scale with the Merry). I could definitely see them doing a set with a reduced-size Laboon and Crocus, given how iconic both characters are. A part of me hopes that to help give Garp/Koby/Helmeppo more to do the new season they include Axe Hand Morgan's attempted transfer to be court martialed from the manga side stories, which would allow him to be included in the set of Garp's ship. He'd make a fun fig design and would rectify one of the Season 1 set omissions. I'm also curious how they adapt Alvida's devil fruit abilities in the Loguetown arc. A part of me hopes it's not as dramatic a transformation as in the manga/anime, partly because slimming down a fat woman like that to make her more "sexy" is one of many areas where the original manga felt kinda sexist (and unnecessary in the live-action, given how legitimately good-looking her actress in Season 1 is), and also because I'd love an Alvida fig that works for both her Season 1 and Season 2 appearances.

Now that reviews/speed build videos of the Classic Space upscaled figure are out, it's easier to get a sense of the build. A nice little touch is that, like the Galaxy Explorer set, most colored internal parts (save for a few dark grey parts and brown technic axles) are classic colors. The hips have an updated connection style using AT-AT-style click joints instead of the paired Bionicle ball joints previous upscaled figs use, which is slightly more limited for display and less smooth to turn but is probably sturdier overall. Disappointingly, the printed slopes used for screens in the cockpit in the head are more modern computer console screens instead of the classic-inspired ones from the Galaxy Explorer (but chances are those are out of production and given what a minor little bonus the cockpit in the head is, probably not worth the cost to reintroduce compared to other recolors). There's a handful of parts in the set that somewhat limit the potential to recolor the fig into other colors of classic space fig, at least for now. The biggest issue is the new 1x4x2 1/3 arch brick, which so far only comes in blue (though it's reasonable to expect colors like white, black, and red to arrive eventually). The airtanks and helmet also use 2x2x5 and 4x4x3 quarter cylinder panels, which also exist in white and black but no other classic space colors. These could be substituted for stacks of 2x2 or 4x4 macaroni bricks, though this would increase the number of stud notches visible on these sections. The 1x4 inverted double slope pieces used on the hands also only come in white and red but not yellow, and the 1x3 inverse half-arches used for the hips do not yet come in yellow. EDIT: Corrected some errors I made.

Not too exciting a polybag... not only is it the same minifigure, present build, etc. from previous sets, but there's also no interesting landscaping or anything. Much more boring than the previous two polybags. I also hope if the theme continues that we get an update to Tom Nook eventually. Not only would more outfit options for him be good, but to be honest the tail piece used for him is a poor match for his striped and much more rounded/bulbous tail.

Yeah, I was just watching a Majora's Mask stream and the Clock Tower would make a GREAT display piece akin to the Deku Tree. Perhaps the moon could be on a geared mechanism/pole above it so that it could lower slowly while causing the clock to wind down. That might honestly be one of the most promising candidates for the next set, since Young Link would work to bridge the gap between Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask (and I think with the opening and ending of the game represented, they've already covered some of the biggest highlights they could do of OoT). That, or maybe another set based on Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom to capitalize on more modern Zelda themes (a diorama with a battle between a Guardian and Link on horseback would be my top pick for another Breath of the Wild set). I doubt we'll see EVERY Zelda game represented any time soon. As much as I love top down/2D Zelda games, I feel like their format might be tougher to adapt to a satisfying Lego set, compared to the more cinematic scenes the 3D games contain.

Is the normal baseball bat printed or dual molded? If the former, then white ones might exist as Q elements due to bats with white handles being all white before other colors like medium nougat are applied to the length of the bat as a secondary process.

With all the news recently about the Lego Smart Brick, I'm kinda curious if that would maybe see use in future Winter Village sets. A light brick that you could "program" with various tags could be a big step up from the classic light brick—I could see that allowing for different light colors as well as patterns (for example, a "flickering" light in a fireplace) without having to hold down a button. And since it's rechargeable, there'd be less worry about burning through tiny button batteries. It can also do sound, which could allow for Christmas-y sounds or music (albeit chiptune-y and tinny coming from a small synthesizer and speaker). Just speculation of course, but given all the drawbacks of existing light bricks it'd be interesting if they could use this new system on a more display-focused set like those instead of just on swooshable spaceships and the like.

Finally decided that, despite often being hesitant to buy in to licensed themes, the Going Merry looks fun enough to be worth ordering (and has enough of the main cast that I wouldn't regret it even if it's the only set I get in the theme). I like building Lego while I watch things so having that to build alongside Season 2 next month will be fun! And if I enjoy it enough, maybe I'll pick up some of the other Season 1 sets before they retire. I'm also working through the manga and just finished Chapter 1050! When I started I was just trying to see how the live action series compared (and get a preview of what upcoming seasons would involve), but at this point I'm fully invested and on my way to getting caught up with the current chapters!