Lyichir

I think you might be mistaking cause and effect a bit. The Lunar New Year sets are cheaper and better-designed compared to many licensed themes like Marvel in part BECAUSE they are non-licensed themes with more open-ended design prompts, more emphasis on strong set designs over recognizable characters, no pressure to stick close to pre-existing designs (including prerelease concepts that may not reflect final movie content), no external licensing fees that have to be factored into set prices... the list goes on and on. There's a reason why for many years now I've favored non-licensed themes over licensed ones—the open-ended, self-directed nature of non-licensed themes compared to licensed themes like Marvel and Star Wars is a big part of why designers for those sorts of themes can put out some of Lego's best work.

It's not in any way specific to historic themes in its utility, but there's a new foliage piece in the Friends sets that should be useful for forested scenes. It's like a big bushy cluster of leaves shaped somewhat like the plate with three leaves from several years back. So far seems to come in bright green and medium lavender.

First time with hollow studs and first time with the reinforced sides (less building opportunities there but as somebody who bent some of the old panels before I'll always appreciate something that'll hold its shape better if you accidentally step on it or something). The Friends set also has trans-orange garage door panels (useful if you happen to MOC Mars Mission or something) and Trans Pink ones (less useful for most existing factions but still neat).

Oh wow... those sets look gorgeous! Can't make out a ton of details at this resolution but the overall architectural styles are certainly striking!

Wow, this is really lovely! The exterior is gorgeous, and the interior (while unfurnished) is nice and spacious.

Very nice MOC! I feel like you've nailed the subtle shaping and texture of the sorts of MOCs you were inspired by.

The hairpiece, maybe (hasn't been in sets since 2017), but the snake lower body piece was last used just last year for Pythor in 71775.

Yeah, I think so. Should be a good part to have, when I've tried MOCing Classic Space I've often bemoaned the small number of basic flat window parts that were available. Maybe if we're lucky their use here (and possibly the green helmet) foreshadows their use in a Classic Space moonbase set or something...

There are issues with a double corner that I think might lead Lego to avoid a building like that. For one, some modular owners (myself included, currently) only have space to display the sets in a single "row" instead of a full city block—in which case a double corner couldn't really fit neatly "next to" anything else. Also, even for people who do have the space, a double corner would basically force the "depth" of a block to only be a certain length, since one side of the block would be a fixed length, and the opposite side couldn't vary without the introduction of an inverted corner. That said, I do think making this modular a double corner could be a feasible and potentially good-looking modification! You'd probably want to shift the building so that it's centered on a pair of 32x32 baseplates instead of one and a half. Doing that would allow an extra eight studs on either side of the building, plenty of space for sidewalks. Depending on whether you want it to actually adjoin the neighboring buildings, you could also add an extra three studs of depth at the ends—a slight increase in interior space, though at the expense of some of the few details at the back like the downspout and rear windows. An alternate option that might allow more details to be preserved and for even more space to the sides would be to add a full 16x32 baseplate "addition" on either side—doing so would give you extra space if you wanted to extend each "wing" of the modular or add planters like the ones in front, though if you did that it might risk throwing off the proportions of the base model.

Love the printed noodle tiles for the bowls in the restaurant set!

TBH Basil takes us halfway to where I'd want a "modernization" of Fright Knights. I was never terribly interested in the regular Fright Knights soldiers, after all—it was all about those big scary folks in charge. Now we just need a modernized version of Willa the Witch.

Really neat overview! It sounds like the set might not be "canon" but there's always a chance that they find a way to work these neat versions of the villains into the show—maybe this could be another Calabash illusion or something? I love how each of the villains got an appropriate job—the silk-themed Spider Queen is a seamstress, Lady Bone Demon is a chiropractor, Red Son is in charge of a barbecue (autism be damned my boy can work a grill!), the always punk-rock Macaque is a graffiti artist, and the over-the-top Gold and Silver Horned Demons are Daft Punk-style DJs. Other businesses like the jade shop and the new version of Pigsy's Noodles also look great. I've spotted some other easter eggs in the set already—one of the transparent billboards on the classic space building is commemorating the 50th anniversary of 200 LEGO Family.

Whoa! A lot to look at in this set! I see new fence molds, a new peach mold, and TONS of cool recolors and figs! Also looks compatible with City of Lanterns, which means I'll have to decide how to display it since I'd already doubled the size of my City of Lanterns.

Oh snap, the new Monkie Kid Megapolis City set was announced and features a Classic Space-themed building! https://jaysbrickblog.com/news/first-look-at-lego-80054-megapolis-city-celebrating-5-years-of-monkie-kid/ Possibly a green Classic Space helmet as well?

Finished building the set on Stud.io earlier today (based on review pictures and a helpful speed build video). Here are some of my thoughts that crystallized for me as I built the set digitally: I've seen a couple reviews say that they felt like the build lacked novelty, but I feel like the columns are certainly somewhat novel. Their overall shape isn't totally unique (somewhat of a refinement of the Town Hall's columns), but the way they're attached to the floors via SNOT so that they can span both floors and separate with them is pretty unique. Speaking of the columns, anyone interested in adding a floor will have to do a little modification. While the middle floor IS repeatable (as with most modulars), a small but necessary modification will have to be made to remove the capital from the columns in the middle section to make them look right. I think I've already mentioned this but personally I'm fond of the color, with the dark brown, tan, and dark tan adding a lot of visual interest to the olive walls. The front also makes excellent use of texture, though the back is somewhat lacking in that respect. The use of ingot pieces for some of the signage inside is interesting—a white ingot is placed above the restroom door to simulate a restroom sign while a red one is placed above the supply closet door, presumably to simulate an exit sign. These work but also make me feel like there might be a market for third-party custom prints for such broadly useful signage. The tiling and varied levels on the ground floor are quite elaborate. It definitely makes the layout interesting, but also reminds me that we have yet to have a fully wheelchair-accessible modular. Maybe someday... Some of the "unused" space features little easter eggs. The first floor features a dino fossil under the central raised floor and a mousehole with cheese (but no mouse) off to one side. A part of me wishes that some of the space under the skylights were used more—perhaps for a suspended aircraft or spacecraft model. Though I suppose for the practical purpose of letting light in it's probably not a bad thing to be relatively unobstructed. It's not uncommon for a new modular makes heavy use of some of the new molds introduced the previous year. In this one, some of the parts that stood out to me in how widely they were used were the 1x3 and 1x4 rounded plates. The 1x3 version is used for the fence in front, for the capitals on the columns, and for the dinosaur fossil. The 1x4 versions are used less but find good use for mounting the ferns (another new piece) in the front garden. Another new-ish part used to practical effect is the 3x3 corner plate which is used to reinforce the many corners of the building and the arches that span the middle section of the interior. All things considered, I'm very much looking forward to getting the set for real—maybe for Christmas.

IIRC the original color for the ant was a two-color blend of trans-brown and some other color (dark red maybe?).

Oh, this is cute! The dynamic angles of the cockpit and rear fins are really exciting.

I know! Just today I was using Stud.io and wanted to check which version of a certain printed piece was the newer version, but of course the link to the Bricklink database entry was broken...

The only similarly-sized option from Ninjago that comes to mind is the dragon hilt (36017), which is bigger, harder to incorporate, and doesn't come in the right color. Other dragon motif parts from Ninjago tend to be bigger and probably wouldn't work for this sort of small ornamentation.

I think most of those interviews are from the Registered Lego Fan Media days in Billund earlier this year—back before this set or its release date had been publicly revealed. It's possible that even the interviewers didn't know about the release timing until long after the interview took place.

I hope we get pictures of some of next year's Dreamzzz sets soon. I kind of want to pick up some more of this year's sets but I want to hold off just in case some of next year's sets offer easier ways to get any of the characters. There's a good chance that most of the characters get new costumes next year, but there's also a chance that some of the rarer characters (like Mr. Oz, Albert, or Mrs. Castillo) don't change—in which case maybe one of the upcoming sets might be preferable for picking them up.

I mean, there are potentially also ways to have a "celebratory" modular that's not substantially bigger than the others. For example, one subject commonly explored by fans that Lego still hasn't done would be a Lego store, which could probably fit on a single baseplate. That said, previous celebratory modulars have typically been based on the anniversary dates (the fifth, tenth, and fifteenth anniversaries of the modular buildings series) instead of numerical milestones. So considering that the next major "milestone" would probably be 2027.

I don't think Lego has done stickered torsos since the Lego Factory theme? Don't see why they'd start now, especially since past GWPs (even ones with stickers like the Blacktron Cruiser) have had printed torsos.

I'm very confused what you wanted from this because to me "built on two BURPs" is one of the iconic features of the set it's recreating. I'd be pretty surprised if it HADN'T done that, since doing the same without BURPs would've likely meant a reduction in the interior space. Looking at the pics it may not go "above and beyond" what I'd hoped for from it but it seems to be a pretty decent update of a classic set.

If you were to do that I'd also recommend adding side windows to the building since modulars typically aren't designed with the prettiest side profile. By the way, I saw somebody mention that a museum of natural history wouldn't have a space exhibit and I'd dispute that slightly, since things like the formation and composition of the solar system definitely fall under natural history, and while a little more tangential it wouldn't be totally out of place to go into some detail about the space exploration programs that we've learned about our planet and universe's history from as well.