Lyichir

The animation and lighting looks really intense compared to previous seasons. I'm impressed!

By "pink" are you looking for the old Paradisa pink? Neither of this looks quite like that—the older color is slightly ashy and less saturated.

Your descriptor for the Hidden Side sets (which committed the great crime of... using appropriately spooky illustrations instead of photos or renders) is a pretty good case study for part why Lego probably shifted to the black boxes for adult-focused sets. Way too many adults have a low tolerance for "fun" or "creative" packaging decisions, being at best dismissive of them and at worst accusing them of false advertising. So perhaps an accurate but sterile product photo on an undistracting background IS the way to go for things like that.

I always find complaints about "inaccuracies" like this a little odd, since for a Lego-produced theme the shows/comics/other graphics are based on the sets, rather than the other way around. It's possible that the longer striped sleeves on Nova in the show are based on an earlier design for the fig that ended up simplified for production. The printing on mini-dolls is already quite complex compared to many other parts, so perhaps tri-color printing in alternating colors that fully wraps around the skinny mini-doll arms ended up being too complex to produce reliably, or too expensive to implement in a typical set. Then again, there are other differences as well, such as the belt that the Nova fig also lacks, so it's possible that the animators of the show simply saw fit to add additional detail, much like how the designs for the Ninjago TV series sometimes include additional wraparound details on the sides of torsos or backs of legs.

Great alternate build! Really impressed with how you've used those new hinge-y bricks to close up the sides of the mech around the minifigure.

Nice! I just finished the grocery store... really fun build and my first Friends set in a couple years (though I still want to try to get last year's theater and art school, and maybe even the space center before they all go away). It's really amazing how much more refined this grocery store is even than last year's one in City. The sliding door function is perfect, and the color scheme and signage are amazing as well. The truck is quite cute as well. Since I don't buy Harry Potter sets this was also my first exposure to the new broom piece—love how it can stand upright on a stud and even has a Technic connection in the base. Feel like it's begging to be used for a samurai-esque ponytail on a Ninjago mech.

As somebody who had pretty much no interest in minifigure sets (IMO the sets we've gotten so far are much better than minifig-based sets would be), the new set looks great. Love the new characters (Dry Bowser was high up on my wishlist), and the big entryway with brick-built giant chains. It looks like the new fern pieces from Rivendell are used for the Bone Piranha Plant, which is a much closer match to the sort of Piranha Plant leaves than the leaf piece that had been used so far (and it looks to be in grey, which will be great for classical architecture). Can't wait to see the rest of the summer lineup! Here's hoping at least one of the final two Koopalings makes an appearance!

Not a lot of activity here lately, huh? Recently Season 4 of the TV series became available on several home streaming apps, including the Lego channel on Roku and FireTV and the HappyKids app on Roku, FireTV, iOS, and Android. They're not sorted into a proper season order so if you want to watch them this way, you might have to search the episode titles themselves: Personally I'm really impressed with the season overall, can't wait to see how it resolves (presumably in a multi-episode TV special like last year).

See, I would hate if if the "lamer" ones went away like that, mainly because those often tend to be far more interesting to me than the hundredth or so army-buildable medieval fig. The coolest thing about the CMFs, in my mind, is that they give a chance to create figs of subjects you might otherwise never see in any other theme, even if often those are less sought after among the overall buying audience. Doing away with that would likely create a sort of "tyranny of the majority" that flattened the selection into only the most ordinary, broad-appeal sorts of figures, the kinds that there's already plenty of room for in other themes.

Huh, I'd been unsure from a casual look at the main set picture, but seeing the "lifestyle" shot that definitely looks like a new color! I don't know if I'd necessarily compare it to Earth Blue (since classic Trans-Dark Blue still seems darker and richer than this new, more glassy-looking windscreen). If I had to compare it to any opaque color I'd sooner compare it to Sand Blue.

Incredible MOC! The exposed studs and most of the parts usage feels very authentically classic, but the angled wings and cargo bay walls give the shape of it a very modern flair.

Haha, this is hilarious—and I love the idea of working a quirky scene like this into a larger MOC as a humorous "easter egg"! Love the builds of the big paws as well—clever parts usage with those tow hooks used for claws!

While this set certainly didn't sell out as quickly as the BTS set, I wouldn't necessarily read too much into that. Obviously a $500 price requires a little more saving up than a $100, and there's a difference between an early VIP release and the BTS set's launch, which was available to all customers. And the demand for the first ever BTS set is a significant outlier not just compared to this set but the majority of Lego releases anyway—even reliable, proven sellers like the modular buildings rarely sell out day one. If nothing else Lego was wise not to launch Rivendell and the BTS set on the same day! My dad was showing me pictures of the lines at some of the Lego stores for this set, which were certainly nothing to sneeze at. Hoping all the employees working those days get some days off to rest after this week!

OMG, what an excellent little submersible! Love the windscreen, and the tasteful use of stickered parts for detail.

I disagree with this framing and have since the CMFs were new, simply because often the "less popular" figures are often the kinds of curiosities that might never be produced at all if not for the benefits of blind packaging "evening the odds" of getting them. For example, the Crash Test Dummy was generally one of the less popular figures from the first series (since it wasn't something to army build or use to augment other themes). It's also an amazingly unique idea for a figure, and one that hasn't been made before or since in any other theme. And there's been figs like that throughout the theme's lifespan—figs that don't have the army-building potential or mainstream appeal of things like knights and astronauts, but as a result have even MORE individual impact by making something that's never been seen before in Lego and wouldn't necessarily fit into an existing theme, rather than a mere iteration on a concept that's already been explored plenty of times in the past. That's what you'd stand to lose by eliminating the randomness—if everything was individually labeled those kinds of oddball figures would lose the surprise appeal and there'd be an overall "flattening" effect on the overall variety offered. And to what end? So that figs from already well-represented themes like Castle and Space could be slightly easier for fans to stockpile? Maybe this is my own "unpopular opinion" but I don't feel like that trade-off is worth it.

Honestly as an angled build like it is it's not particularly conducive to being fit onto square baseplates. If you're determined to do so a tiled base would be your best option (with half of the castle being able to be secured to studs and the other half "floating" on tiles). Or you could simply modify the castle build to use only 90 degree angles for the base, though that'd take fairly heavy customization all things considered. Having a partially or wholly tiled base would also better allow you to hinge the walls open to arrange figures inside, if that's something you care about.

Designers design "quality" mechs all the time (see: Ninjago and Monkie Kid). But the thing about cheap mechs is that they're, well, cheap. They're affordable, entry-level sets with a lot of play value. They aren't being churned out just because they're easier or cheaper to produce (they really aren't, no more so than any other set that size anyway), but because they're popular and kids like them.

At the risk of getting off-topic, I think an issue with bringing back the cypress tree is separate from the difficulties the return of goats faced, namely that most sets these days that need trees that big are complex enough to opt for brick-built trees instead (especially in a theme like Creator where a brick built tree offers more rebuilding options for alternate models). The classic trees certainly have their charm but with more small parts that can be used effectively for trees and foliage these days, there are simply fewer niches where a large single-mold tree is the best tool for the job.

Perhaps a compromise would be to have a CMF that included different variants of the Fellowship characters from the Rivendell set, like the Simpsons or Ninjago Movie CMFs did with their main characters. As a casual fan I don't recall how many unique costume changes the LotR cast had throughout the trilogy, but I'm pretty sure that there were at least a few (plus the potential for other situational face prints and accessories as well). I agree that if there were a LotR CMF series it would have to include at least some of those major characters who appear elsewhere. As big of a fuss as AFOLs make over "army builder" figs or unproduced side characters, major characters are more likely to attract the sort of casual audience that a low cost, high production line like the CMFs needs to succeed.

I think they were referring to ordering a complete set of figs on the aftermarket, by resellers who had already identified and sorted them. Honestly for blind-bag sets that I've wanted to complete (most recently the latest series of Super Mario character packs), I've been ordering complete sets in that fashion for a while. Especially with a pandemic I really don't want to waste time loitering in stores to feel out the figures I'm missing, and the prices for a pre-sorted complete set of figs usually aren't that much more than buying them each individually would be. Add in the convenience of not having to feel for them yourself and or worrying about wasting time feeling for a fig that might already have been pulled from a picked-through box, and I'd definitely consider it to be worth it.

Ah, you might be right. It's hard to tell—in some of the photos it looks darker than others, moreso than I'm used to with Trans. Bright Green (which I feel like I'm usually much better at discerning). I certainly won't mind Trans. Bright Green (it's a color I've loved since Atlantis, and the angular shape of this one would be great for Monkie Kid MOCs). But Trans. Bright Green is less useful for "authentic" classic color schemes.

No, bootlegs rarely have anything to do with actual future Lego products. If anything, they often spring up to fill the niches Lego ISN'T producing figures for (whether or not Lego has any plans to produce similar figures in the future), like these or unproduced DC/Marvel/Star Wars characters. Anyway, on the subject of the actual sets... I recently got 71418 and one thing that surprised me was the box style. Unlike the other sets I've gotten in this set, this one came in a resealable "flip top" box like you typically see in themes like Architecture, which is much nicer for storage (especially useful for a set like this that has a lot of loose components for augmenting stages). I'd love to see more of this in the future since convenient storage of the interchangeable set components can be one of the more challenging things about this theme!

I don't think you'll find a single Lego fan who "hates plastic no matter what"—it's pretty fundamentally essential to Lego, after all. But single-use plastic that gets thrown away is indeed wasteful and I don't see why wanting that reduced where possible is a bad thing. Will doing so save the world on its own? Maybe not, but every little bit helps. I also feel like maybe where you live, in-store surveillance might be more common than where I am in America. Yes, there are sometimes security cameras, but that only goes so far, especially with some stores sparsely staffed—at best they might allow stores to learn that a set has been tampered with after the fact. Often in larger stores I instead see surveillance measures like alarm cords tied around larger sets, which would nullify the benefits of an openable box flap with windows anyway (can't open a flap when there's an anti-theft device tied tightly around the box).

Obviously not a classic, unlicensed space theme, but the new Guardians of the Galaxy sets might be of interest to some. The small-ish Rocket Raccoon spaceship in particular has in part 35193 in Trans. Green, a nice angular windscreen that'd be great for late Classic Space or Space Police II MOCs. And the bigger ship uses 52978 in Trans. Red, which hasn't appeared in that color since a 2007 Bionicle playset.

I understand your point, but what you are suggesting would make the kind of theft you are referencing practically unnecessary since stealing the most desirable contents in the shop itself would be made trivial. And being able to tell whether or not a set had been stolen from would provide little overall benefit if the method of doing so encouraged thieves by making the lengthy process of buying, pillaging, and returning sets unnecessary to acquire valuable parts like minifigures or other exclusive elements. I think the best method of ensuring that you are getting a complete, untampered set is probably to order sets online through Lego or another reputable online retailer. And that kind of purchase (much more common today than in the 80s and 90s when physical flaps or windows were included on larger sets) wouldn't really benefit at all from those features.