Lyichir

We have our first official pic of Queen Watevra Wa'nabi! And I think she might be... Unikitty's mom? The picture cuts off before showing her whole forehead, but it seems like she might have a unicorn horn up there, suggesting that she could possibly be the unicorn side of Unikitty's family (whether we'll ever see the cat side of the family remains to be seen). EDIT: Just now expanded the picture and see the crown instead of a horn. Which doesn't TOTALLY disprove the theory but does make it seem less likely. And with what might be the first significant maternal figure in the main Lego Movie series (discounting Ma Cop who was more of a bit part and Misako since The Lego Ninjago Movie seems to mostly be its own thing), I can't help but wonder if she might offer any insight into Finn's mom in the real world. This character's name might imply a laissez-faire approach to parenting, which would fit with the mom's inactive role in resolving the first movie's father-son conflict.

The front end of that Harvester Transporter looks really neat. A breath of fresh air from City truck designs that have gotten a little samey, thanks to the abundance of newer tiles and bows with 45 degree angles.

Very neat! The use of treads as thrusters is inspired and helps to create a form very much unlike the boxy tank it's made from.

I'm curious—any lingering fragrance after dying the parts with a spice like turmeric?

Found a source for the descriptions. Each spinner has attachments for an attack, defense, and speed mode (four attachments per mode, I assume attached around the outside rim of the spinner). Mostly related to their favored weapons/elements (though Wu's "attack mode" attachments apparently take the form of four teapots!). Not all of the sets list part counts but Zane's has 109 parts, the Wu and Nya pack has 227 parts, and the Lloyd vs. Garmadon pack has 208 parts, so seems a ballpark estimate for each set seems to be over 100 parts per spinner—not bad at all and probably a decent indication of how complex and varied the attachments will be.

The Lloyd vs. Garmadon one? I think that’s fake. The spinner images are the ones from that parts database but seem out of scale with the figures (the actual spinners look to be bigger, with a 2x2 base). I did just see what looked like a “text leak” with a description of the Kai spinner. Can’t tell if it’s real or not, but if so, the “attack, defense, and speed mode” attachments probably imply parts clipped to the outside rim of the spinner (consistent with the part images).

The counterpoint is that for non-licensed themes, Lego has to put in a lot more work in terms of brand-building. Licensing a popular movie ensures that the movie itself will pull a lot of weight in terms of generating hype for the sets, whereas for a theme like Ninjago, Chima, or Nexo Knights, Lego has to basically build the brand from the ground up in the hopes of generating a “craze”. That’s not to say they haven’t become fairly good at that, but there’s a reason there’s usually only one new “Big Bang” theme per year. A huge marketing push like that is a lot more resource intensive at the design and marketing stages than licensing an already popular property.

New Skulkin look great to me—good to have confirmation that it is a new head so that it can wear a wider variety of headgear than Wyplash’s head. I’ll be interested to see what headgear and armor they go with.

Wow, did I post this topic? It went away at some point... wish I'd documented why or how it now that other people are experiencing it.

Yeah, those two hairpieces were also on that parts database. Hard to tell what they're from. The black "skin tone" of the headband had me thinking it was MAYBE from a new Stone Warrior? Though it's not much like Stone Warrior outfits we've had in the past, and maybe a little too colorful for that. And the black part may be meant to represent some sort of skullcap rather than bare skin like on the Scalawag Pirate CMF. As for the Cole hairpiece, no idea about that either. Both pieces could still conceivably be from other themes (possibly Lego Movie 2). EDIT: Actually the Cole headpiece seems to be on a unique fig, so it's possible the source for that is the same as those other two Asian-looking outfits.

Have we even had any reliable confirmation of the Borg Tower set being a thing? I've seen rumors but none with any sort of credible source attached, which makes me a little skeptical. And I'd be surprised to see leaks from a 2019 D2C before we've gotten so much as leaked pictures of the regular retail sets... In any case, if it's just an unprinted gold minifigure it could be from almost any theme—I see no reason to assume it's from Ninjago if it lacks any identifying features which would otherwise suggest that.

They're definitely classic Trans. Green—Trans. Bright Green is much glowier. Also, I remember seeing the parts in that color when other 2019 parts started showing up early on a certain online parts database. I had thought they might be for the new Ninjago Ultra Dragon set, but this makes more sense.

Golden statue? Are you sure that's not the Golden Ninja fig? Because that wouldn't have Borg's hairpiece, though they do have a gold (and Dark Green) ninja mask (and maybe if we're lucky Lloyd's hairpiece in gold as well).

That's a great MOC, but the new color (Vibrant Coral) seems like it'll be much more vivid than that. So I don't know if it'd work quite as a subdued paint job like that. Which isn't to say it won't show up in the new modular (truth be told I have no idea what themes will use it).

I'm quite impressed by the use of Axl's axe blade pieces from Nexo Knights for the headlights! Quite a clever technique I probably never would have thought of!

For what it's worth, I'm also a child from the early '90s and the "out of the world" themes (by which I assume you mean fantasy, sci-fi, and other genres not based on the real world) have always been some of my favorites. Occasionally a City, Friends, or Technic set will grab my attention, but themes like Ninjago, Nexo Knights, and Elves are much more likely to earn my dollars. I rarely collect licensed themes, but I was much more into them as a kid and might pick up the occasional one-off set every now and again. The main point I wanted to make with this is that our experiences are not universal. And considering that, I think it's a very good thing that Lego offers the variety it does. I'm sure that for every person like you who likes real-world themes, or for me who likes non-licensed fantasy/sci-fi themes, there's probably somebody else for whom those eight pages of Super Heroes sets are the most interesting pages of the book.

I think one big reason is that Duplo isn't big on actual articulation. Most of the ways we've seen the Duplo characters move is with parts not being attached all the way, which isn't necessarily that play-friendly for kids (more of an advanced brickfilm technique, even if the bricks are bigger). So for the one brick-built Duplo character in sets so far, it makes sense that they've opted to include a Technic hinge to better allow for play.

Loving Rex Dangervest's design. In addition to looking like a cooler, more macho Emmet, his little "R" insignia shares some design cues with the Blacktron and Agents logos, as well as Rocket Racer's logo! On another note, I wonder if any of the sets besides Ultrakatty will come with Duplo creatures? Looking at some of the ones in the background of that cover art, it'd be cool to get a bigger one as part of a larger set.

Four CMFs based on a single licensed franchise (that the movie itself doesn't revolve around, as with Lego Batman Movie and the DC characters in its CMF series) seems unlikely to me. I mean, even if it repeats the 20-per-box count of the latest Lego Batman Movie CMF series, that'd be a full fifth of the series! If we were to get all four of them they'd almost have to be in a set or spread between sets and CMFs.

Not that it completely rules it out, but when I saw next year's parts I don't think I saw any of Samukai's parts among them. I did see everyone's favorite comic relief characters Nuckal and Kruncha, though, using Wyplash's head mold (or possibly a new similar mold). It'll be interesting to see what headgear (if any) they use to finish off the figures—I don't think any of the existing Samurai helmets fit the existing head mold but if it's a new mold there are more options.

The photo of the leaked one is a little crappy but the fig itself looks like it'll look better IRL. The suits look to be pretty on point to me—sort of an evolution of the ninja's classic DX dragon suits.

Even if you're building interiors, it's always a judgment call about how you want to use the space. Very few models aside from massive ones tend to include all of the expected features of that type of building, even ones considered "essential" (for instance, while a few modular building sets have included restrooms none have featured a shower or bath). Personally, I'd view stairs or some other way to get from floor to floor to be worth including just because ways to get into or out of a room usually make a space feel more interesting and "complete". Bathrooms I'd consider more of an option—they can add a great element of humor to a build but if you want to focus more on a building's more intrinsic features (be it a home, restaurant, or some type of public building), they're somewhat superfluous.

Oh, sure. I'm not saying all Lego buildings need to be made to that standard (after all, you can only pack so many features onto a 32x32 baseplate), but it'd make for an interesting feature one of these days.

Elsewhere. But it's no longer listed there. I suspect they found some way to get info from the Lego customer service parts database beyond the parts inventoried in sets, but since then either that site has stopped pulling their info the same way and/or their source (be it the customer service database or otherwise) removed the unreleased parts from their database.

I'm not totally opposed to the new hoods. While they do seem to hinder posability much more than the movie hoods, I do like the aesthetic of the long hanging ribbon. It's worth pointing out that change for change's sake is actually a legitimate approach for new designs, and in fact is a big part of why we ever get new costumes in the first place. New costumes are one of the quickest ways to establish that sets are in fact new and different from the ones kids might already have. The movie hoods have been in use for three consecutive waves now, each with its own twist on the color scheme and color layout. By comparison, the previous hoods introduced in Possession had been in use for four waves before being replaced. While obviously there's room to debate whether this new design was the best option, a change of some sort was probably due eventually. The movie hoods had some drawbacks as well. The main one is simply that it added an extra step to removing the hoods or swapping them for hair. I imagine that might have had a big impact on kids' play with the figures, since having to remove the entire head just to unmask a character "interrupts" storytelling to a much greater extent than simply swapping normal headgear. Finally, keep in mind that the lack of movie hoods in this wave doesn't necessarily mean they're gone for good. The Possession hoods and Rebooted masks were used alternately for the ninja for several years (sometimes even within the same wave), and even the classic 2011 ninja wrap has reappeared for characters like Ash and Lil' Nelson.