Lyichir

Great MOC, and I love the interior! I wonder, though, if for the decorative birds outside there were a way to use this piece?

Why are people assuming something related to space? "Aerospace", to me, suggests some sort of plane, which I feel would be pretty nice since we haven't had a Creator Expert plane since 2012's Sopwith Camel.

Probably just time constraints. Based on how many Apocalypseburg concepts there were it would not surprise me if more time was spent there in earlier drafts. Adding another vehicle would require both time to introduce it as well as time for Sweet Mayhem's ship to comically dispatch it. I do wish more of these vehicles could have made it, especially since they're unlikely to be able to be used in future installments, at least not without modification to suit what would likely be a seriously different set of settings and aesthetics. I suppose this sort of thing probably happens for all sorts of themes, though. It's just that we don't always get such a clear a window into what might have been.

Besides the point TakaNuiNuva made about team cohesion, if they were to introduce one for each of the ninja all at once it'd eat up a lot of the budget for new parts that could otherwise be spread between various purposes. One new hood mold per wave (or more realistically for what we've gotten, one that remains in use in varying colors or patterns for several consecutive waves) serves a purpose—it gives them a visually distinct look from previous versions of each of the ninja that keeps them from feeling like duplicates of figures kids may have already gotten. But six at once offers little additional benefit (since color alone is usually enough to differentiate the ninja from one another within a wave) for six times the cost, money that could otherwise be spent on new armor, weapons, or enemy heads or headgear.

I accidentally typed "Main" when I meant "Male" in my post, to address your first point of confusion. Sorry about that. The term "Mary Sue" has gotten so distorted over time from its original meaning, which was specific to fanfiction and referred to an unflawed self-insert character whose presence made the canonical characters act decidedly out of character (for example, fighting for their affections). But nowadays it's used so broadly that it's used to slander any character (but especially female ones) who succeeds. If Rey, for example, is a Mary Sue because she can pilot the Millennium Falcon ends up able to use the Force with little formal training, then so is Luke, who outlives almost his entire squadron as a newly recruited pilot, and uses the Force to destroy a moon-sized superweapon after one session of being shot at while blindfolded, or Anakin, the only human in the galaxy with fast enough reflexes to podrace and who took out a blockade at the age of ten. But Rey is the one criticized as a "Mary Sue"—probably because unlike all the other exceptionally talented heroes in the Star Wars movie series, she's the only one who's a girl. Lucy does change over the course of this movie, despite your insistence that she doesn't. It's true that she does have a reason to want Emmet to change in the beginning of the movie, which is the same as the reason she had changed—she felt like desperate times couldn't be safely approached with optimism like his. At the same time, Emmet's optimistic attitude at the beginning of this movie is totally in line with his personality in the first movie—even when he didn't know the truth about Octan and had few actual friends he had approached everything with a happy-go-lucky attitude, and it's unrealistic to assume that the changing threat from Lord Business to Duplo aliens would change that. What does almost change him (much like the one thing that pushes him to the brink of despair in the first movie) is the loss of his friends—until then, he truly believed that "everything is better when they stick together". Meanwhile, Lucy's change of heart at the end of the movie doesn't merely come from a lack of an overarching threat—it comes from seeing what Emmet became like when he tried to change for the tougher and not liking what she saw, and from realizing that Emmet's peace offering to the Duplo aliens at the beginning really did end up making a difference. As for the queen, her tendency to be sound overly suspicious is almost a running joke, cemented with the revelation that she really DID have good intentions. Was she manipulative? Almost certainly—just as Batman is self-centered, or Unikitty is moody, or Benny is manic. But that doesn't make her evil. You could make a strong case that her manipulative nature echoes the way that many powerful women throughout history have achieved leadership through soft power, rather than bravado or military might. But beyond that, she is also naive—the fact that she was literally created by Emmet five years earlier, and is in many ways an avatar of the younger sister Bianca's wild creativity, means that she's unlikely to recognize how her actions are perceived by what she sees as an aggressive and unreasonable adversary. It's true that the whole plot could have been averted if the Duplo aliens had not threatened to destroy the heroes on their first appearance. But again, keep in mind that the frame story means that you are trying to impose judgment and reason on the play patterns of a three-year-old. The fact that the Duplo aliens took Emmet's peace offering to heart and in fact, made it their leader, suggests that the lesson you seem to think should have been emphasized was already learned. The conflict here in this movie came more from Finn's relationship to both his sister and his Lego hobby itself becoming strained by the societal pressure to "grow up". In the Lego universe, by the time the time skip goes into effect, the Duplo aliens are no longer the aggressors—but like Finn, repeated conflicts over the years have left them jaded and untrusting when a new visitor comes bearing an olive branch. As for why Rex is supposedly right not to trust his friends—this is a point I see people stumble on but with the time travel taken into account does not present a conflict. In Rex's timeline, Emmet left Apocalypseburg on his own with no witnesses, crashed on his way through the Stairgate, and got lost underneath the dryer. In the human world, it's not uncommon for something as small as a Lego figure to get lost for an extended period of time. And in the Lego world, Queen Watevra's plan would have gone unhindered, Emmet's friends would realize that the Systar System wasn't a threat, and by the time they discovered that Emmet was even missing (something they might not assume at first, since they'd expect him to still be in Apocalypseburg when they returned), they would have no leads to where he had ended up and would eventually move on. Of course, you could argue that this point is moot since the time travel is presumably just part of Finn's imagination—but then, by that same argument, so is the notion that Emmet's friends wouldn't have come back for him. Either way, the fact that Rex took the fact that nobody found him personally and used that as an excuse to go back to his past self and cut all of his friends out of his life by force makes him decidedly the villain of the movie. He may have had valid reasons to feel the way he did, but that doesn't make his decisions or actions less wrong.

This is... a bad take. I'll start with your assertion that the only ones learning are the main male characters, which is super-wrong, because Lucy is just about as much of a protagonist in this one as Emmet and learns alongside him that sensitivity and optimism aren't something that you have to "grow out of". There's a clear difference between her perspective at the beginning of the movie that Emmet's positive attitude is holding him back and her later realization that in fact her own cynical outlook might be unnecessary and blinding her to a better future. I also disagree with your labeling of every female character as a "Mary Sue", not just because of the sexist connotations of that term (what a surprise, that it gets pulled out for a movie with so much more of a female perspective than the first one), but also because of the aforementioned character growth for Lucy. Even Sweet Mayhem, who admittedly got less character development than I'd hoped for, realized that hiding her true nature instead of being honest about her goals and feelings could have ended in disaster. And Rex being right? Even realizing the true nature of the universe he's a part of doesn't make his friends or his relationship to them any less real. It's just like how in the real world, understanding that our emotions, thoughts, and choices can be reduced to chemical processes doesn't invalidate the constructed values of morality, empathy, and kindness that hold our society together. And that goes hand in hand with his very blatant toxic masculinity—like the frustrating insistence on "facts not feelings" you see from many critics of feminism, he uses his position of privilege (in his case, his self-important idea of being "enlightened") to deny the reality of the needs and emotions of others. EDIT: Corrected "Main" to "Male" in the second paragraph

Kind of expected that but disappointed nonetheless with the wall-mounted display case—was hoping a video might offer me some better views of the back of the Bat-Hemoth since I've been trying to figure parts of it out on LDD. Or possibly a few more layers, but only the front half of the cake and open-backed so that they can feature some of the infiltration scenes from the interior.

There are a lot more than that, even if you disregard references to the Ninjago theme itself! As the review points out, one of the arcade machines is Junkbot, an online game from the Lego website in the early 2000s. Sticker number 22 reads "River Dragon" in the Ninjago alphabet alongside the symbol used for aerial mechs in the Exo-Force theme, referencing 8111 River Dragon. The signs outside the blacksmith shop read "J. Stone" in the Ninjago alphabet with a subtle background matching the logo from Jack Stone's outfits. Sticker number 26 reads "ADU" and features the silhouette of a Vic Viper, both referencing that iconic spaceship style from Gradius that has become a popular MOC subject in the AFOL community and the Alien Conquest theme that featured such a ship for the Alien Defense Unit. One of the trading cards isn't of a Ninjago character but rather one of the squid warriors from Atlantis. Sticker 46 is an Exploriens logo.

I don't think those are meant to be legs so much as the trailing edge of a "sheet".

Same! I kind of hope that if we get a set of the Space Temple, the clock might be included as well as a small build.

I think part of it is that "the Lego memories you do have" are based on your own preferences and biases. For me, the presence of "girlier" subject matter appealed greatly to me, especially in the absence of the Lego Elves theme that I had become a huge fan of in the preceding years. Rex Dangervest's aesthetic reminded me positively of some of the sorts of "action themes" I've loved over the years like Lego Agents or Space Police. And the formless, shapeshifting Queen Watevra (as well as the cast of brick-built Systar System residents) represented a very primal sort of building that I think most Lego fans start out with in childhood, and, from my personal experience, can't help but return to when faced with an array of basic bricks. Meanwhile, the Apocalypseburg setting resonated with my memories of Lego conventions—in particular the sorts of gritty subject matter that often seems to be popular with TFOLs and younger AFOLs. I felt that the evolution of the sorts of subject matter it explored was a natural follow-up to the first movie's plot, shifting from the conflict between the Man Upstairs' very rigid, rule-following mentality and Finn's wide-eyed wonderment to a very different conflict between a teenager's maturing tastes and the even more mercurial and wide ranging tastes of a young girl. Also, while this Lego movie had a fair share of pop-culture references I don't think it was that many more than the first movie, which had a plot that unapologetically referenced movies like The Matrix and genres like westerns or fantasy epics and peppered in a wide assortment of character cameos among its Master Builders, up to and including real-world celebrities like Shaquille O'Neal.

The thing that a lot of people don't seem to grasp is that Lego's business model generally takes the fact that they'll lose customers for granted. Lego loses the vast majority of kids as customers when they "grow out" of Lego. The number of them that stick around or come back to the brand as "AFOLs" are a small minority of Lego's audience, that often has a very different set of preferences than most kids or even most parents. As such, Lego generally places a higher priority on replenishing that core market of kids, through new sets and themes geared toward their interests. That's not to say that Lego doesn't make overtures to the periphery demographic of AFOLs. They do, releasing a moderate number of high-dollar sets per year targeted toward advanced builders. But getting upset with the sets that Lego DOES make to appeal to their core demographic is counterproductive. Because if Lego were forced to choose between a hard to satisfy AFOL and a legion of enthusiastic kids who are much more likely to put their money toward Lego, it's not a hard choice for them to make.

Just because it's no longer getting the hype and press that come with being a new, potentially disruptive craze doesn't mean kids aren't still interested. Here's an article about some of the game's recent sales statistics: https://www.game-debate.com/news/24411/minecraft-sales-hit-144-million-mojang-boasts-of-74-million-active-monthly-players

Oh man, I love the way those wall panels complement those newer chunky wheels!

I'm personally looking into acquiring some track to potentially use for a pseudo-monorail in a Ninjago or Space layout. Not much of a builder of "realistic" trains or layouts but I feel like the reduced scale and potential for dynamic changes in elevation offered by the roller coaster track could be fun to experiment with. I also think the steeper 45 degree slopes from the roller coaster could be neat to use for some sort of funicular or imitation cog railway, but since they so far only come in red I'm hoping to wait it out until they appear in a more versatile color like grey.

Him and the other Systar System variants will probably show up, though I don't necessarily expect Metalbeard to be in a set all by himself... curious what he might be paired with. I almost wonder if we might get an expansion to the spa set, since there's plenty more of that scene that could be put together into a set (like the hair dryers seen in some of the previews). The Space Temple is another scene that could very well show up as a set, though I don't think I'd necessarily expect Metalbeard to show up in that one unless he were reduced in size.

The scaled-down Watevra doesn't bother me as much because of both how she needs to be smaller to fit in most of the set's spaces and because she already has quite a wide variety of full-size facial expressions from the Build Whatever Box. But while I can understand wanting to scale Ice Cream Cone down so he doesn't tower over the queen, it is a shame that the full-size one so far only appears in one set with an uncharacteristically happy facial expression. That concern will be averted if Ice Cream Cone appears at full size with a more serious expression in one of the other sets, of course.

With themes like Prince of Persia based on movies that fell short of expectations I doubt it would make much difference to release the sets upon the movie's release. And for the really huge successes, like The Lego Movie, Star Wars, or Avengers, it's advantageous to get the sets out early so that the sets are already in plentiful supply and early demand has been satisfied by the time peak demand hits. There's a reason why almost all licensed products tied in with an upcoming movie release (not just Lego) tend to release well in advance of the actual release window for a movie itself.

By early press screenings, sure, the writing might have been on the wall. The decision to license and create a theme based on a movie takes place much earlier than that, often even in the concept stages. By the time the movie is even finished production, the sets themselves are likely to be in production as well if not already packaged and shipped. And at that point it's a sunk cost—Lego has nothing to gain by cancelling a theme that for all intents and purposes has already been paid for. I also think "not particularly smart" undersells the choices that do pay off. Lego Star Wars, their very first license, continues to pay dividends to this day. Locking in both the DC and Marvel Super Heroes licenses in one fell swoop was a masterstroke that put two of the biggest cross-media franchises of the modern era under Lego's umbrella. Thanks to Ideas, Lego got in on Minecraft before the Microsoft buyout elevated its cross-platform appeal to new heights. Even Harry Potter continues to defy my expectations for success, experiencing a resurgence long after I would have expected the passion for the books and movies to die down. In general, the poor sellers are in and out before they can have too significant an impact on Lego's bottom line, while the hits, when they happen, can experience the kind of year-on-year success that most themes (licensed or unlicensed) can only hope to achieve.

Not all licensed themes are equally successful, it's true. At the same time, it's possible to be TOO risk-averse—waiting on proven success from a new-ish property allows more time for competitors to swoop in and make an offer, making it that much easier for Lego to miss out on what could be the next big thing. Lego Minecraft is just one example—if it hadn't been for the then new Ideas program, Lego might have missed out on a hugely popular license due to their generally conservative approach toward video game licenses at the time not recognizing the potential for a multi-year success. Prince of Persia, the Lone Ranger, and Angry Birds probably looked like smart investments during the development stage. The first two were major Disney movies based on legacy properties with significant acting and directing talent attached to them. The latter had been a hugely popular mobile game phenomenon that the movie presumably could have reinvigorated. But more to the point, pointing to those as examples of bad decision making by Lego ignores the fact that Lego could not have known how they would sell at the time, but once they did have sales results that failed to meet expectations, they didn't hesitate to make the appropriate decision to terminate the themes. This is a factor that critics of the supposed preponderance of licensed themes often don't take into account—licensed themes tend not to be kept around for longer than necessary, and apart from major successful and ongoing franchises like Star Wars and Super Heroes, actually tend to be some of Lego's shorter lived themes, riding the hype wave of a major movie release before being dropped unceremoniously when that hype subsides to make room for new themes.

That would make sense. Proportionally Fabuland figures and minifigs aren't THAT different. Having just gotten Unikitty's Sweetest Friends Ever, I have to say I'm starting to be a little more disappointed by the reduced-scale Ice Cream Cone in the upcoming palace set, if only because I'd love for a set to include a full-scale Ice Cream Cone with a more serious/annoyed expression.

They could have had Hypnobrai, but again I think they stuck to just one tribe so that they'd make more sense as a cohesive "faction" even for newer fans who might be less familiar with all the distinct Serpentine tribes. And the old bamboo hats haven't been "replaced" since they still appear on Sensei Wu. I imagine they only used the new ones on the Stone Warriors for variety's sake—this is their second reappearance (after Day of the Departed) so they probably felt like trying something new with the designs, much like they did with the other character designs in the Legacy sets.

This describes almost every original Lego theme. A strong debut, followed by a steady decline culminating in the theme's conclusion. The themes that break free of that pattern are few in number—Ninjago and Friends are the only two that come to mind in the past decade that have bucked the trend, the former by continually reinventing and reimagining itself to stay fresh for years on end and the latter by filling a key niche in Lego's portfolio that is as consistently relevant as the older Lego City theme.

Minecraft IS still relevant with kids. The game may no longer be new, but it's still massively popular on a wide range of platforms. And when Lego continues to devote time and money to a theme like that it's usually a good sign that it's continuing to bring in money—despite the perception that it isn't bringing anything new to the table, it'll probably be several years more at least until it loses steam.

The Serpentine vehicles did use purple, and besides that his role in the plot of that season is much more significant. Lizaru and Acidicus would have been nice but would have required yet another long unused mold to be reintroduced (the spikier Venomari head mold). Believe me, I wish there was a little more variety as well (at least enough so that the Ultra Dragon set had some different figs than the Storm Fighter, Blade Cycle, and snowmobile), but ultimately I can understand why the figs we got were chosen.