Lyichir

Aw, they're cute! I miss Mixels... even though their parts and others like them are widely featured in other themes like Creator and Classic nowadays, there's not much that's as cute and affordable as they were. Can you manage to make a combined version of them, though? It might be hard since all three have different color schemes.

Do we know if this story arc is just for the winter wave or do you think we might be getting some sets related to it in the summer like we did in the Skybound wave? It wouldn't surprise me to see a couple more sets in the summer (possibly including the new version of Zane), especially since this wave had to be split between these and the Legacy sets. That said, it is weird that neither category of sets has Zane in it, apart from the pink Zane avatar. You would think that they could have organized it better so that this wave had a set with the new Legacy Zane and the next one had a set with digi-Zane or vice-versa, instead of a whole wave of Ninjago sets where one of the original ninja is barely in any sets at all.

Probably. Then again, part of what I like about the set is that the camper van and bulky SUV are so much different than the sorts of sports cars or work vehicles that have often been more typical of the City theme. Especially with the smaller size of the filling station, I feel like the vehicles are more of a selling point for this set than the actual building. If you wanted to mod the sides of the camper van for a more realistic look, you might could take some inspiration for the sides from the broken down camper van in this past year's Welcome to Apocalypseburg set from the Lego Movie 2 theme. This, of course, is probably my favorite of the City sets this year. It just so perfectly sums up the look of a typical ice cream truck, with bright colors, a big sign/mascot on the top, and a sliding serving window on the side. The inside is a little less realistic (since it seems to be focused more on "play" for kids (having cones, scoops, and ice pops just sitting there to be mixed and matched) rather than more realistic freezers or soft serve machines, but I'm sure that wouldn't be too hard to mod. I might take some pointers from this set for MOCs, since I've been hoping to build a slightly beefier "haunted" ice cream truck for the Hidden Side theme.

Overall I quite like this set! Both vehicles are quite nice and different from the sorts of vehicles we often get in City, and the tiny gas station is decent as well. There are some things I think could stand to be improved—I wish the SUV had a little more space inside for an additional passenger. And while asking for less is a little bit paradoxical, the curb by the charging station seems bigger than it needs to be, making it so you have to stretch the charging cable farther—either making the base smaller or shunting it more toward the office (perhaps using the extra length to extend the wall of the gas station by two studs as well) wouldn't hurt.

Yeah, just noticed that in just2good's review of the beach buggy. I guess they're just giving us extra stickers for the heck of it now? I guess that's kind of neat, especially since different sets offer different assortments.

I don't know about "no place to put minifigures"... there's not many places to DISPLAY minifigures securely (especially not if you want them all to be clearly visible from the front, as you might on a shelf), but things like the arcade machine, kitchen, "energy bridge" up to the center section and the little platforms for the ninja to climb up seem like they'd be great for kids actively playing with the set. I think those kinds of play scenarios can be more important to whether something functions as a good "playset" than being able to pose all the figs in a static display. Speaking of, I like the arrow stickers on those platforms. Reminds me a little of the old Alpha Team Game Boy game. Actually, a lot about the set feels sort of similar to Alpha Team, like the overall color scheme or the columns supporting the ground floor. I love a lot of the techniques used in the set, like the diagonal "gateway" in front and the various roofing solutions. It all adds up to a build that "feels Ninjago" while also still feeling significantly different from previous temple or shrine sets.

I wonder if they're meant to represent "sprays" like in games such as Overwatch—graffiti-like tags that players can apply to surfaces in game. Maybe the instructions shed some light on how they're meant to be used? They also remind me of the almost excessive decals on the Ninja Tuner Car, which in turn call to mind the ludicrous pop-culture customizations on the main character's ride in the book Ready Player One.

The new design comes in black in the Hidden Side train set, actually.

Regarding size, the two sides of this modular (when combined) are roughly comparable to the shorter and taller sides of the Detective's Office. So it might pair well with that building.

Less certainly tended to be more with the Elves theme, which often had a similarly small summer wave that was nonetheless packed with quality! The summer wave of a theme that gets two waves in a year tends to be weighted more toward larger sets than the winter wave was, which should hopefully mean at least one more set on the scale of this year's school and possibly two other mid-to-large sets as well. Knowing so little about the second year's story it's hard to speculate about what might be included. I would not be surprised to see at least one of the additional sets focusing on the Hidden Side itself like the Portal set, hopefully featuring an equivalent version of Parker to the faint, bluish version of Jack from the first half of the year.

That part would not even work for the same purpose as the columns in this set. It's too thick. The candle piece introduced this year is thinner than a full brick. That's the reason why this set was able to close up that gap between the hinged windows where earlier sets like the Pet Shop could not.

I would also be skeptical of Ghostbusters replacing Hidden Side unless Hidden Side was already on track to conclude this year. Like others have mentioned, Lego's engagement with the Ghostbusters brand has been much more low-key than other licenses, and in the absence of a sequel to the upcoming movie or some other plans to broaden the franchise and make its media more continuous (such as a spin-off TV show), I wouldn't necessarily expect the licensing for the new movie to have legs beyond the year of its release. If Stranger Things itself didn't kill off Hidden Side in its debut year, then I wouldn't expect Ghostbusters to, especially considering that while the genre of Hidden Side is similar to both licenses, the app tech is one of its key features and a big part of its reason for being, and is something that might not fit in as well with a more limiting external license. That said, there is the chance that Hidden Side and the new Ghostbusters could cross-pollinate, for lack of a better word, with "ghostly" parts from Hidden Side making there way into the licensed Ghostbusters sets (much like how the Ninjago: Possession ghost trails and "Skreemers" found their way into the earlier Ghostbusters sets), or possibly even vice-versa. Some of the parts in the upcoming year's sets like the ectoplasmic pre-pack or the weird torso extender piece could possibly find themselves recolored and used in Ghostbusters in much the same way. And if the Ghostbusters sets introduce any suitable parts that aren't IP-locked, those could in turn find themselves used in Hidden Side. I did see that! Unfortunately, most of the alternate pics are focused less on offering alternate angles of the sets and more on things like the art on the front of the box, and lifestyle photos of the use of the app or the building of the set. We do get some pics that show the back of the lighthouse, the back of the subway, and slightly more of the ticket booth in the Ghost Fair, as well as a better look at some of those sets "untransformed", but I'm still left wanting for some alternate angles on the beach buggy or the plane, which could possibly be one of my favorite sets of the bunch. For that matter, the pic of the back of the lighthouse doesn't quite show off the full contents of the cave underneath. I think I might see what could be the base of a melted down candle on a table? But it's hard to say for sure.

The post I was replying to in the first place was pretty much straight complaining, actually. Calling the use of stickers "inexcusable" when in fact there were pretty straightforward reasons for why they were used is not a "wish". But I'm done here. There's no point in me engaging with posts by people who take any sort of contribution I make to discussions as insincere or malicious. Doing so saps my enthusiasm for a hobby that is meant to bring me joy.

Hey, guess what? I'm just as much of a fan as you are, despite personally choosing not to express my fandom by complaining all the time. I am going to say this and hope I never have to say this to you again: quit talking down to me and trying to delegitimize my contributions just because I try to be empathetic and understanding of designers and their process.

Hey, quick question—why the hell are you so hostile all of a sudden? I adore Lego. My favorite themes tend to be ones that get sorted into the "Action Themes" subforum here on Eurobricks—things like Ninjago, Nexo Knights, Elves, and so forth. I also have loved both The Lego Movie and its sequel, along with their associated sets. Beyond that, I collect the Modular Buildings and the occasional Ideas set. Personally, I'm not as into City, but my dad is, and occasionally help him build the sets he gets or help him come up with mods for them. As such, I try to keep tabs on new releases in the City theme so that I can share them with him or get them for him as gifts. I also really aspire to being a Lego designer, and as such I've read as much as I can in terms of interviews or comments from designers. It's a lot of that that clues me in to the fact that, hey, a printed part amounts to more logistical costs than people like you give it credit for, and beyond the mere cost valuation is kept in check to keep overall complexity from ballooning out of control like it did when Lego almost went bankrupt over a decade ago. I recognize that sometimes tough decisions have to be made to keep a set under budget, and often that means that given the choice between one new print or one sticker sheet with ten or more new stickers, the latter is going to have a much bigger impact on how the set looks complete. Ultimately that's why I feel like it's sometimes useful to analyze why decisions about a set were made, rather than just putting together a wishlist of all the things that could be better if the designers had had no limitations whatsoever. Understanding the pros and cons of those decisions gives me a lot more insight into why choices that might initially seem pointless or disappointing were ultimately made, and how those choices might offer unconsidered advantages. In the case of this set, for instance, the choice between stickers and prints could mean the difference between decorating just the sides of the vehicle (without the vent detail on the side and leaving the hood and roof undecorated) and being able to more fully decorate other parts of the vehicle to match the sides. In that context, the choice to use stickers feels like a worthwhile trade-off to me. Maybe you already considered those facts and came to the opposite conclusion. I was just sharing them because a lot of the time people DON'T consider what kinds of limitations designers are under, or what kinds of trade-offs have to be made, and as such decry them as "cheap" or otherwise irrational instead of putting themselves in the designer's shoes to consider whether, given those same choices, they might ultimately end up making the same decision.

That's a neat idea! Unfortunately, I'm not sure how well it would work, at least if you wanted the buildings to be numbered consecutively like on most streets. The closest practical color to recolor the set to would be 106 Bright Orange. Before that the nearest widely used color that would be feasible to recolor the townhouse in would be 102 Medium Blue, while after 107 the nearest prevalent color is 119 Bright Yellowish Green/Lime. The placement of Bright Bluish Green is smack dab in the middle of many 90s to 2000s colors that were used briefly before being retired, so there are very few of them that would offer a wide enough selection of basic bricks (let alone more specialized bricks) to recolor an entire modular in.

The existing zebra print tiles are now three years old and have probably been removed from production, meaning they would have to be reintroduced as a new element. On top of that, as someone else mentioned, their size is different from those in the set. The biggest reason for the stickers is the variety of decorated parts needed—there are at least five unique decorated parts in the set (the 4x4 hood, 4x6 roof, 1x4 tiles, 2x3 tiles, and 1x2x2 brick), and since printing all of them with prints that were unlikely to be reused in other sets was probably not a realistic option, having all of the decorations on a single sticker sheet would be the most efficient way to do so.

Would it be possible to fake it by making an additional car and motorizing that (so that it pushes the engine and pulls the other cars)? That feels to me like it'd be the easiest solution (and the only one that wouldn't necessitate gutting the engine), but I'm not exactly a train expert.

So because you were frustrated about not being able to get one set you had a temper tantrum and cancelled all your other orders and are considering selling off your whole collection? I dunno. I get being frustrated when you miss out on something you'd been looking forward to, especially when it's due to website errors/insufficient stock that are no fault of your own, but your reaction to missing out on a freebie seems more than a little overkill. You're no worse off than if that promo hadn't been released in the first place. If a single disappointment like that is enough to make you consider dropping the hobby for good then perhaps that's for the best, because clearly it's causing you more distress than a children's building toy has any right to.

Personally I adore this modular. I've seen a lot of people wishing the book shop was bigger but personally I'm thrilled that instead of a huge bookstore we got a small quaint one like the many independent used bookstores in my hometown. The same beautifully ornate yet livable detail Wes Talbott brought to the Elves sets is on full display here, along with a ton of great techniques and some eye-popping use of color (the Cool Yellow/Warm Gold/Flame Yellowish Orange tiling in the bookstore interior is simply lovely).

There wouldn't necessarily need to be a door separating the shop and the living space if the upper floors of the shop are where the shopkeeper lives.

I guess? The way you had framed it made it sound to me like you did want it to be that. But if the goal wasn't to have all those sorts of disparate themes share the classic Adventurers cast, then what exactly would be gained by making them all one overarching theme instead of keeping them separate? The way it was, with various themes featuring their own distinct aesthetics, settings, and casts of characters, allowed for a broad range of appeal, so that even somebody who was less enthused by the Castlevania-esque gothic horror of Monster Fighters might prefer the sleek sci-fi stylings of Atlantis or the gritty, blue collar industrial look of Power Miners. Trying to force it all under a single theme umbrella could necessitate finding a compromise between them and flattening that diverse appeal for a more even tone, which might be very good for the specific audience that is interested in whatever that middle ground would be... but less so for anyone whose interests skew closer to any one of those many extremes. On top of that, you run into an issue where those themes can't exist side by side as easily. Ninjago's flexibility allows it to reinvent itself from season to season, but conversely it can't easily maintain focus on a particular setting or set of baddies while simultaneously moving on to another, different one. So instead of the action theme heyday of a decade ago, where you had themes like Atlantis, Power Miners, and Dino all coexisting with distinct branding, an overarching "Adventurers" theme might have to focus on one quest at a time and move on from that to focus on a different sort of setting and quest, even if there were still opportunities available for the previous story material (as we saw when both Atlantis and Power Miners were able to persist beyond their first years of sets)

Even if there were an overarching theme of that sort, I can't help but think that the Adventurers theme is a poor fit for it. Broaden it that far and it loses the classic appeal it once had. To be honest, even back in the day I felt like the Dino Island subtheme lost sight of the real-world archaeological basis that made the first two years of the theme great (thankfully, Orient Expedition brought that sense of real-world adventure back with a vengeance, with only the occasional fantasy elements for flavor). It's much like how a lot of people reacted skeptically to the fourth Indiana Jones movie's introduction of crystal skulls and ancient aliens, which a lot of people considered a step too far in the sci-fi direction compared to the original series' focus on mythological or historic relics.

Nah. The Atlantis sets’ aesthetic would not work at all for Adventurers, and that aesthetic was at least 75% of what made me interested in the theme in the first place. Themes shouldn’t have to be forced into the shape of decade-old IPs to be appealing, and in fact that kind of grinding down the uniqueness of a concept can take away any unique appeal it might have had. That’s sort of what I was talking about in my previous comment. Hidden Side may seem slightly dated a decade from now, but it’ll also encapsulate that moment in in the evolution of Lego sets, stories, and tech for the rest of time. If you got rid of the phones and funky vehicles and hip teenage protagonists it’d just feel like an iterative update of previous themes that would render the earlier version redundant and would in turn be rendered redundant by the next time Lego revisited the idea of a “spooky theme”.

This probably is at best tangential to the kind of time periods people consider “historic”, but there’s a diver figure in the new Hidden Side sets who uses a brown helmet and air tanks. The air tanks could work for similar old-timey divers, but the helmet could potentially have even more historic applications if paired with one of the various compatible knight visors Lego has released.