Lyichir

I quite like the Land Bounty, actually—the inverted windscreens under each of the decks are really neat, as is the top deck separating to become a flyer. Looks like there's a buggy stored in the back as well. And the heavy use of arches gives it some really sweet lines in profile. I almost wonder if this set might have been developed from a concept created at one of the Lego Movie 2 Apocalypseburg brainstorming sessions. The Ninjago characters may not have shown up in The Lego Movie 2, but if they had it wouldn't surprise me to see them driving something along these lines. Katana 4x4 is also a standout—I love that multi-part windscreen! Between this and the X-1 Ninja Charger Kai is 2 for 2 when it comes to making what could be the most boring vehicle type to work with (four-wheeled car) into something special. And I doubt I need to convince anyone about that mech—it's simply gorgeous. Feels like a quantum leap ahead of previous mech sets in terms of scale and naturalistic shaping.

If there's any Chima connection, I think it's less likely that it's characters FROM the realm Chima than it is for Fire and Ice Chi from that realm to be involved somehow in the resurrection of both sets of seemingly undead elemental baddies. Considering how rarely Copper Metallic is used already, I think the former (one or even both of the colors not being metallic) is far more likely. Looks to me like the main head color is Reddish Brown while the armor is either Copper Metallic or Dark Orange.

Yeah, I agree. There are plenty of options that aren't quite as oversized and undetailed. Another thing that could be fun would be some sort of Galidor cameo—getting a figure like Nick Bluetooth or Gorm as an actual minifigure could be awesome. Though that might be getting a bit TOO franchise-specific. For the mech pilot idea I was thinking something more along the lines of a generic or new character but with a uniform and emblems calling back to the Exo-Force theme.

A "Mech Pilot" based on the Exo-Force theme (but with more classic fig facial features) could be pretty cool!

IIRC it was a store exclusive, which often have a tendency to be rarer on the aftermarket due to not being distributed as widely in the first place.

That's the other issue with "bleeding edge" subject matter like this—compared to something like the Saturn V that has already made history, there's really no way to ensure that these SpaceX designs will have the same impact or stand the test of time. Worst case scenario, their legacy could be tainted by a disaster of some sort that cuts the program's legs out from under it and makes the Lego version seem less appropriate in hindsight.

This is one of those weird cases where despite not being all that into Dino Attack's gung-ho paramilitary genre, I still sort of disagree, at least in regards to Dino 2010. It always seemed pretty clear from the designs to me that the Dino Attack sets were designed with that heavy weaponry and such in mind, and the cages and traps of Dino 2010 felt neutered by comparison—much less interesting as far as the builds were concerned, as were the vehicles which lost a lot of their appeal as far as playability was concerned. The later Dino theme did better by designing the sets with a non-violent approach from the start, since the sets didn't have to start with much more militaristic designs and then strip them of the things that made them interesting.

Even then, I'd personally disagree. Maybe it's just a matter of the kinds of architecture I'm familiar with in real life, but the decorative brickwork of the Corner Garage (provided by the SNOT quarter circle tiles) feels a lot more interesting and realistic than the fairly vanilla siding, blocky arches, and sloped roofs of the Green Grocer. In general the heavy use of SNOT allows for a greater variety of detail (including a range of relief from subtle to pronounced) that more calls to mind standouts among the modulars like the Fire Brigade, Parisian Restaurant, and Detectives Office, rather than the bolder and more simplified visual style of the City theme.

It is risky—but it's a measured risk that has the potential for a significant reward. Waiting on a new franchise's success to be proven is more or less an invitation for one of Lego's competitors like Mattel to swoop in and get an exclusive deal before a franchise gets big. By signing on early, Lego can gauge the success of the theme for themselves. If successful, they might have a multi-year winner on their hands (like with Harry Potter, which Lego was smart to originally license at the start of the movie franchise). And if not? The theme gets cancelled, like the themes you mention, without being any more of a drain on Lego's resources than an original theme would have been (and let's not pretend that original themes are that much less risky—there are plenty that lasted no longer than Lone Ranger or Prince of Persia). In any case, Harry Potter and Overwatch are not examples of these. Harry Potter was a proven franchise and even if the Fantastic Beasts sets didn't pan out in terms of sales, there was a lot of pent-up demand for Harry Potter sets since the theme ended previously. And for Overwatch, Lego notably DIDN'T make the theme to launch alongside the game—rather, the theme launched three years after the game's release once Blizzard had an established player base that they could point to as proof of its potential.

For me personally I consider the shape less interesting if only because it lacks the "multi-tiered" shape with segments that gradually narrow toward the top. Instead, from the pictures it looks to be mostly the same width up until the conical tip. That seems like it would make the build process a lot more repetitive to me.

Eh... as subject matter it's pretty much just "Saturn V again but less historically relevant" and as a build it's "Saturn V again but with a less interesting shape and build". There's very little that it brings to the table that's genuinely new other than the SpaceX license, which I doubt is worth what it'd cost to acquire for the sake of a set like this.

I'm not 100% sure I understand, so just to be clear, will you be interviewing Lego employees and fans IN China as part of this? If so, it will be extremely interesting, since a lot of the dialogue about Lego's presence in China on English-language forums comes from a Western perspective (whether it's from fans or Lego Group representatives), while the perspective of local fans or Lego employees in China is mostly discussed hypothetically if at all. I would be fascinated to hear what they can bring to the discussion. If you're just interviewing global representatives and non-Chinese fans, it might still be interesting and informative to some, but as someone who has already discussed the topic at length and read much of what there is to read publicly about Lego's business endeavors there, I doubt it will interest me personally to the same extent.

I fail to see what's "CITY" about the Corner Garage facade. City buildings mostly tend to be built studs up, with an emphasis on a simple, sturdy structure over any kind of textured relief—you rarely see things like SNOT window frames or tiled detailing. If anything, the plainer facades of older buildings like the Green Grocer, Grand Emporium, or Town Hall have more in common with City builds or architecture than the Corner Garage,

Loving those tiny staircases! A really awesome microscale technique I hadn't seen in sets before.

Good review! This is easily my favorite set this year, though I do have one minor complaint, that being that Melody's huge hair makes her have to lean forward quite a bit to fit in the top seat when the bus is closed. Adding a couple of plates of thickness to where the feet attach is a simple mod that can solve this issue. Regarding the color variation on the white stickers, I think that may just be a consequence of using white-backed stickers, which are presumably not printed in white ink, but rather have white as the base color for the sticker paper—Lego's white bricks, on the other hand, are in fact designed to be slightly off-white even without taking into account discoloration (just as their black bricks are a touch brighter than pure black). Clear-backed stickers would avert this issue, but I prefer the white-backed ones as they're easier to apply cleanly. The set generally displays better in somewhat dimmer lighting anyway due to both the sticker color being less apparent and dimmer lighting enhancing the appearance of the light brick function.

This is from several years ago, so for all I know one or more of their factories may have some added capabilities by now. At the same time, there's a pretty clear reason why they might opt not to rush to upgrade—not only would it be expensive (not just in terms of the initial cost for the equipment, but for the time it would add to the process for each individual part going through that production line), but each additional print application stage added to the production line would bring diminishing returns, since most printed parts don't need that many extra print applications in the first place (so for the most part the benefit would only affect dark-colored parts with multicolored prints on multiple sides, a small percentage of the number of printed parts produced overall.) And especially with Lego's year-on-year growth becoming less reliable in recent years, I would say that dropping that kind of money on an upgrade that would only benefit a small number of parts is not as easy as you make it sound, especially when you consider that other areas might be higher priorities for investment with a greater overall impact.

Maybe not... but it's still a little iffy. You can of course keep the part count and material costs down somewhat by using BURPs instead of smaller bricks, but even then they can still have an impact on price (mainly since having a lot of them can increase the necessary packaging size to fit them all comfortably).

Out? I think the street date is supposed to be May, so those ones might have just been put on shelves early. I don't recall if the other three set numbers were confirmed to be May sets as well. It's possible that they might be due for a later release (May is quite early for a second wave itself; I'm used to January themes getting their second waves in August).

Good review! Do you have any Friends hairpieces that you could try the hats from various characters on? Would be eager to see how some of these hats look with hair, particularly Huey, Dewey, and Louie's baseball caps.

To be honest I've never encountered someone who was misled by that. Maybe it's just growing up with Lego video games that frequently bent those sorts of rules for the sake of animating the characters, but it's always been clear to me when an illustration like that is just meant to display the character more dynamically as opposed to actually advertising some sort of hyperspecialized bent arm or leg pieces.

Maybe? I don't think it'd be all that likely, though. And as far as hairpieces you could use with the actual Elves theme, a CMF would be unlikely to suffice since non-licensed CMF series use yellow-skinned figs and Elves used fleshies.

This doesn't necessarily apply to all cases, but in some cases, it's a technological limit. I recall hearing on the Inside Tour that Lego's printing equipment for parts can apply up to six coats of color to a given part, including rotations to print different surfaces. For a part printed on a single surface, that number is usually plenty, but for, say, a minifigure head with both front and back prints for a reversible expression, the number of ink applications that can be used is essentially halved. Increasing the number of times a part can be printed using the same equipment would require a major infrastructure investment to upgrade their production line. That could be why in the case of Lady Iron Dragon, the keychain version has a better face print. With the headgear screwed on, it might not have a double-sided head like the one in regular sets, which could potentially have allowed for either a second coat of yellow or an undercoat of white on the face print.

A decade ago, Space Port sets would indeed have probably gone in town. Two decades ago, the same probably would have applied to Launch Command. "Real-life" based space sets in the City/Town theme are not really a new thing—the only difference in this case is that the sets are based on real NASA concepts for a Mars expedition as opposed to existing NASA technologies or missions. I know I've seen people in the Sci-Fi forum complain about themes like Mars Mission and Life on Mars not being "real" space themes due to taking place in our local solar system instead of deep space. So it's a little rich to see Space envy now that Lego's doing a more grounded take on that idea in the City theme.

Arguably one reason to do so would be the fact that TLNM's frame story showed that the events were happening in a different builder's "collection" than the other three Lego movies. I suppose that doesn't prevent some of the same minifigures showing up (the previously unvoiced Lloyd from TLM being voiced by Dave Franco from TLNM, for instance), but since the events of TLNM presumably don't apply to Ninjago characters in Finn's collection, giving the characters any sort of major role could get confusing. Granted, I certainly wouldn't have minded if an Apocalypseburg version of Lloyd or one of the other ninja had shown up, even if it were merely an unvoiced cameo. But ultimately I don't think the lack of that sort of cameo appearance detracted from the movie.

Personally I'm quite fond of the color scheme—both as a fan of the brighter colors from themes like Friends and as someone who grew up in a newspaper family and loves the way CMYK colors complement each other. I'm not much for programmable models (never got as much use out of EV3 as I would have hoped to when I got it several years back) but I'm loving the look of all these new Technic parts.