Lyichir

Speaking of trans-red windscreens, there's a new one in the Miles Morales car from the Marvel theme next year.

Just noticed the Rocket Raccoon mech in the Marvel theme has a Reddish Brown Western/Aquazone bush as its tail, which could be great for scenery.

You mean the one on the far left of that first image? Introduced this year for the summer Ninjago sets! So far it comes in gunmetal and warm gold. It fits visors though I haven't tested for castle-y ones yet to see how they look.

I don't recall them ever releasing Ideas sets all at the same time, even when multiples have been approved in the same period. There's 12 months in a year, plenty of time to space them out so that they aren't cannibalizing each others sales as much.

Was pretty gloomy and quiet today, so I built the mid-sized alt-build of the Galaxy Explorer. As is to be expected of an alt-build, there were some areas where it felt slightly less refined than the main model—nothing too severe, just little things like the landing gear not nesting quite as snugly into the recessed sections. And of course, not having the bags opened in numbered order made it slightly more or a challenge than the main model had been. Nevertheless it was a lot of fun and looks great complete, with the hi-tech cockpit being a particular highlight. Since I'm probably going to build both alt-builds, I'll have to start thinking of some Classic Space MOCs that I can potentially use some of the leftover pieces for. Remind me, has anybody made a list of what parts will be left over from both builds? I know that there should be a lot to work with—two windscreens, five astronauts, and plenty of other parts (including parts that neither alt-build uses like the rover wheels). I'd like to come up with some sort of ground base to go with these, though I'll have to figure out where I'll display it all!

Well, the Galaxy Explorers I ordered during the sale arrived... in plastic shipping bags. Luckily no dents, but the box printing got slightly torn where the sticky seal overlapped with the outer surface. I'd been thinking about maybe building one of the alt builds and saving the other set as an investment, but I guess this is my sign to build both of them.

On the other hand, more pointy wings might have required it to be molded in rubber like the seagull. And given that sometimes has inconsistent clutch, a plastic mold is probably better.

If you don't have any windscreens in that color, a good comparison would be the port/starboard lights on a lot of ship and aircraft sets (most of those still use classic trans-green). The difference between the darker classic trans green and trans bright green (introduced for Atlantis in 2010) is pretty significant—trans bright green is (obviously) brighter, and also more fluorescent (though not as fluorescent as trans neon green). Personally I tend to prefer trans bright green for windscreens in a lot of cases, since it's a great middle ground between trans green (which can be dark and hard to see through) and trans neon green (which can sometimes be overwhelmingly bright). But for a classic-inspired MOC, you'd generally want to try to use the original colors where possible, since the difference in brightness is so dramatic and as such significantly alters how well they complement other parts of the traditional color schemes.

I don't think getting to the "end of the book" is much of a worry, to be honest—Journey to the West is long and has a LOT of characters, and so far the theme's been introducing only a couple characters from the original book each year. Plus Lego could potentially draw from other Chinese folklore if it came to that.

For sets from this year and before, it's worth keeping in mind that they might start going on sale as newer sets become available. So if you're trying to keep to a budget it might not hurt to wait and see if the prices on those go down.

Yeah, classic trans green isn't commonly used for things like windscreens anymore (probably due to its opacity compared to brighter trans colors). IIRC the last set to have a windscreen in that color was the D.Va mech from the Overwatch theme, which introduced the 6x2x2 curved windscreen in that color: https://brickset.com/sets/75973-1/D-Va-Reinhardt

Last year the 2022 sets were revealed on the 27th of November, so I imagine it won't be long now. Since the sets are due to release at the start of January, I presume they'll be revealed by the start of next month.

Looks like the baby head, helmet, and airtanks are all one piece... a little disappointing, but probably understandable at that scale (I don't think the "stud" on the standard baby head is designed to have clutch with headgear).

Sometimes it's a molding consideration (like with the old Exo-Force hair), where rubber-like plastic allows for sharper points or thinner details than molded ABS. Lego Friends has used mostly rubber hair pieces since the beginning, due in part to the often more elaborate hairstyles. The hair you mention for Cho Chang is an interesting case since while it was originally molded in a more flexible, rubber-like plastic, some more recent sets (like the Monkie Kid City of Lanterns) have featured that same hairpiece in solid plastic.

One potentially helpful tip is that in modern instruction booklets, black parts always have white outlines. So if a part does not have a white outline, it typically means it needs another color instead. This is especially useful when you need to differentiate other dark colors like dark blue, dark green, or dark brown from black. If you download digital instructions, you can also zoom in for a better view of small parts or adjust the brightness or saturation on your device to help you see the colors more clearly. Beyond that, the only recommendations I can make are to try to improve the lighting in your build space, or perhaps invest in a pocket magnifier of some sort.

I don't know why we should necessarily assume that cancelled Vidiyo figs would necessarily find their ways into other themes any more than parts/figs from other themes that get cut short. It's certainly not guaranteed.

The patched trousers from that fig might be good for that, too.

Promobricks has reviewed one of next year's Ninjago sets, and there's a new wheel arch there that might show up in Speed Champions: Somebody here might have a better idea of what kind of car it might be used on, though.

Whatever the reason for the discount, $50 is mighty tempting—as a casual Space fan I already got one copy of the set at $75, and was planning to leave it at that, but at $50 getting additional copies to build the two alternate models is a much more attractive prospect! Went ahead and ordered some, so thanks for the tip!

I think one issue with the knees from Nya's mech that might have to do with why they opted against it here is how they aren't the prettiest—three ball joints worth of friction requires a lot of bulky Technic. Nya's mech got away with it in part due to the large windscreen pieces to cover the knees, but that's honestly a bit of a cheat and would spoil the really nice shaping this mech has going on in the legs. And yeah, weight is probably a factor—this mech looks quite bulky even WITHOUT the added weight of the jet attachment and staff, let alone with all that additional weight added to it. So it's possible that even those knees wouldn't be able to bear that weight in the long term.

Well, I like a lot of the figs this series. Falconer looks great and I can't wait to do a side-by-side comparison with other black falcons figs (and personally I prefer the falcon with spread wings—much more interesting and lively than the old parrots). Classic space fig and child look good and remind me of wanting a similar "baby spacesuit" after one appeared in an in-flight safety video themed around the Lego Movie. Paperboy looks great, as does the rocking horse girl. Also love the koala and as someone who did a lot of ceramics in college, the potter looks great too!

Promobricks has a review of the new Ice Dragon: https://www.promobricks.de/lego-ninjago-71786-eisdrache-review/151289/ Some interesting new parts, both Ninjago-specific (things like the dragon head and horns and blades) and presumably sourced from other themes (what looks like some new wheel arch pieces).

Yeah, Zane did get a spinner last year, it's true—but unlike the dedicated spinner sets, it didn't come with a unique Zane minifigure. So hopefully this new set corrects that.

Honestly, given the trend of only a couple ninja getting spinner sets each year, I'm personally thrilled that they're "filling in the gaps" from last year's Core wave. Very excited to see the figs in these ones, given how impressive the spinner figs from the previous wave were.

I was about to say—very confusing to see my name on a topic I didn't remember starting!