Lyichir

I don't know what you mean by "put into the final review pool". This just PASSED review—that stage of the process, at least, is done (and so far Lego hasn't yet rejected any project after it has passed the review stage and been selected).

Well, personally I think fitting the whole Iron Man figure is pretty cool. As a longtime Bionicle fan it gives me Exo-Toa vibes. I expect that before long there will be mods to shorten the torso for folks who prefer more accuracy (with any luck, only requiring the parts of the set).

I recently built a bunch of this year's sets (the Luigi's Mansion sets and several of the summer sets), so I figured I'd share my thoughts. The Luigi's Mansion sets are neat (and were very good for getting me in the Halloween spirit), but they weren't my favorite. The button to activate the Poltergust, while clever, requires a little more dexterity than usual for these sets to keep the button pressed while jumping/scanning. And while the mansion scenes are neat, they require a LOT of space to set up and arrange—all for a less impressive overall visual composition than the Peach's Castle or Bowser's Castle sets. Speaking of Peach's Castle, I was really impressed with that set. It's a setting I've wanted to be made into a set for a while, and the rotating centerpiece and curtain wall both look stellar. I also LOVE the Goomba-in-a-cake feature, which is totally charming. Today I built the Cat Peach Frozen Tower set and was more impressed with it than I thought I'd be—while it's slightly less visually cohesive than the main castle set (and only really having one new enemy), there's quite a lot of well-organized play features packed into that one central structure (almost the inverse of something like the Luigi's Mansion Haunt and Seek, which has a lot of playability but spread over a fairly massive area). The Big Spike Cloudtop Challenge was another fun set—the titular enemy is incredibly well-designed and the beanstalks and pivoting platform are great too. The Piranha Plant I could take or leave... there's been a lot of sets using those in various ways but the build is starting to feel a little stale for that particular enemy. Maybe my favorite of the new sets, though, is the Big Bad Island set. I love the Koopalings in general but Iggy is particularly great, as are both of the larger enemies (especially the Goomba with its shuffling feet!) The landscaped features of the set are quite effective and complement the enemies well, and overall for a mid-sized set it has a ton of appeal. I recently bought a complete set of the latest series of character packs, but haven't built them yet—I like to space those out to help scratch my Lego-building itch for a while. And I probably will be saving the Mighty Bowser set to be the main item on my Christmas wishlist.

I dunno... as a longtime Bionicle fan I have learned the pain of getting exactly what I want in a set, only for it to warm shelves or otherwise fail to find an audience. The nice thing about GWPs is that since they're nominally "free", pretty much everyone who gets one (whether purposefully, by specifically buying sets to earn the GWP, or incidentally, by buying other sets they want during the GWP eligibility period) appreciates them. Not always so much for sets that you have to purchase separately. With those even a set that has been clamored for can sometimes land with a dull thud if it's more expensive or otherwise somehow less appealing than people had hoped for. And I'd rather a Bionicle tribute set sell out faster than anticipated than be overproduced and become one more thing for the haters to crow over. That said, I've heard conflicting rumors about this set. Some people have claimed it will be a typical GWP while others have linked it to a rumored subscription service of sorts. So while I certainly believe the rumors of a set like this existing, a lot of the details about what it will consist of or how it will be distributed still seem to be up in the air.

If I had a nickel for every time in the past two decades I've seen someone warn that Lego is repeating the mistakes that led to its near-bankruptcy and is heading for that again, I'd be able to afford that Black Panther bust. Lego is gonna be fine. Yes, there have been some misfires. But there is no recipe for success that comes with zero risk. And while it's easy to gripe about something like Vidiyo that misses the mark, Lego's core themes like City, Ninjago, Creator, Technic, and Friends are still firing on all cylinders. For that matter, even among licensed themes the number of sets in heavy-hitters like Star Wars, Marvel, and (much as I hate to admit its popularity) Harry Potter WAY outnumbers the number of niche, adult-targeted properties.

This part isn't true. There have been several GWPs with exclusive prints before—40530, 40450, 40291, and 5005358 are a few examples of GWPs with exclusive printed parts.

Having heard from people who work at Hasbro (not Lego's) photo studio, I get why the build photos can be like that. Firstly, talent (including photo models) costs money, and they don't necessarily have time to have them build a set halfway or so in order to have an authentic look at what that stage of the build would actually look like. Also, what makes for the most "authentic" photo of the build process doesn't necessarily show off the total contents of the set the best (especially since builds tend to be broken up into stages so these days you would rarely have all the parts of the set spread out in front of you). Even so, having an in-process build photo (even an inauthentic one) feels important to emphasize that it is indeed a building toy, not just a prefabricated model like it appears in most of the other product photos. As for your other criticisms... I dunno, I always feel happy and impressed when I put together a suitably large or complex set. And while my house is obviously nowhere near as neat and tidy as the professional lifestyle photographic sets where those sorts of photos are taken, I do like to display recently completed builds prominently for at least a few weeks before trying to find them a permanent home in a more out-of-the-way room or shelf.

I think you have a valid point about wanting diverse figs at lower price points. Licensed themes have been an inconsistent means of introducing diversity, especially given that the kinds of properties Lego tends to license (mostly Hollywood blockbusters, a lot of them legacy franchises from the 80s to early 2000s when those kinds of movies were even less diverse than they are today) rarely are as diverse as the general human population. I'm hoping that the wonderfully diverse selection of faces in the table football set was designed with the intention of being reused in other sets, including cheaper sets and possibly even the online and in-store build-a-mini/minifigure factory (so that you could special order a fig with a specific face that resembles you).

Just figured I'd pop in with mention of the new light bluish grey Technic chain links from the new Star Wars UCS set... feels like those could be nice for an exposed chain on something like a motorcycle.

Honestly for short-distance local transit I don't think it makes too much of a difference—if you're bundled up for outdoor winter weather anyway, then traveling in the open air just means not having to re-acclimate to climate controlled air in between destinations. I do hope the trolley operator has some warm undergarments on, though, considering he doesn't have a scarf or gloves!

This is such a cute set! The "downtown" feel of this set is so fresh and reminds me of old Christmas movies. The buildings and the tram look great. A part of me wonders what this would look like if you added actual train tracks for the tram, maybe even built into the street with the new road plates.

Reddish Brown has been fine for a couple years now—IIRC I think it was early 2020 that Lego announced through their Ambassador Network that they'd finally eliminated the issue in new sets. As such, earlier sets might still have defective parts but post-2020 sets like Barracuda Bay or the Crocodile Locomotive ought to be fine.

So far the neon yellow hasn't really been used as the primary color of any models, it's mostly been used for accents (not just in Technic but also in other themes like City and Monkie Kid). If that remains the case, I doubt it will really impact the widespread availability of classic yellow parts, and as an accent color it's less of an issue if only a small-ish selection of parts are available in the new neon yellow color.

Not particularly. As a big fan of Lego mechs, I recognize how much harder knee articulation is to achieve than you'd think. Having something compact enough to look non-obtrusive, yet robust enough for both play and long-term display, can be a challenge to build with Lego, a medium that is inherently designed to come apart. The original 1985 Optimus Prime toy had knees but lacked hip articulation, and I think the latter allows for better, more varied poses overall.

Various places. Often these days they're sourced from pictures of official Lego color charts, where 2x2 tiles inscribed with the ID number are arranged in a grid. But there have been other sources over the years as well. LDD used to use the official IDs to identify colors (and editing file data could allow you to access colors that weren't on the "official" in-app palette). And there are probably some sources that I'm not aware of. Ryan Howerter's color chart is one of the most reliable ones I know, compiling data from various sources and including not just "standard" plastic colors but also some novelties such as the ink colors Lego uses for printed elements.

In respect to speculation about the other rumored D2C, my two cents are that if it was also something Black Panther I'd be much more interested in a location-based set based on the gorgeous Afrofuturistic scenery and architecture of Wakanda than in a mere vehicle. Granted, this probably doesn't count for much since I don't really buy Marvel sets. But if I were a designer that's what I'd prefer to be working on, especially at a high price point like the rumored one.

You can say that again. I think we're very lucky to get the amount of designer interaction we do, considering how little respect many AFOLs seem to show for the actual hard-working people behind the products. And that gets worse with large expensive sets. I've noticed that people will shower huge, expensive MOCs with praise but once they're confronted with the price it might cost to own something a fraction of the size and price, they quickly seem to become embittered.

Interesting interview about the Motorized Lighthouse set! https://jaysbrickblog.com/news/lego-21335-motorised-lighthouse-design-team-interview/ One particularly notable tidbit for this thread is that the set designers collaborated with the Lego Boost team on the Fresnel lens element. That suggests that, like some previous new molds in Ideas (Mickey and Minnie from Steamboat Willie or the sonic screwdriver from Doctor Who), the budget for that new mold might have been sourced from a separate design team with a more generous budget for that sort of thing.

Really loving your bag-by-bag updates on the build! The low-angle "minifig's-eye-view" photos of the interior are great!

Aw, that's a pretty cute little roller!

Oh, very nice work on the zapper!

I think that might be optimistic. Unlike Mattel, Hasbro doesn't really have a successful building toy system of their own currently. And I can't help but think that particular factors helped allow for the Transformers partnership, including the Lego designer behind the set having formerly been a Transformers designer for Hasbro. But we'll see. I would certainly be interested in getting a set like this if it is successful in review! As for why the previous Thomas toys were Duplo-only, in the U.S. at least Thomas and Friends is very much a "preschool" brand, especially as far as toys are concerned. That's not to say that a System-based project like this couldn't be successful as a more sophisticated display piece for nostalgic adults (like the Sesame Street project before it). But back in 2005-2009, when Lego previously had the license for Thomas, they were much less confident in the adult market for Lego and lacked resources like Lego Ideas which could help to predict that sort of niche demand. A lot has changed in the decade and a half since then!

Incredibly well-made project, but the fact that Mattel currently owns the Thomas the Tank Engine franchise might be a significant licensing barrier. And I don't think Mega currently has any sort of equivalent train system if they wanted to release a set like that themselves. Again, though, as a MOC it's great, as are the other trains on their Flickr!

Personally I can reconcile the forward "cannons" as a defensive/utility measure. Even for a peaceful exploration mission, you never know when you'll need to break up some asteroids or other space debris in your path, or deter some unfamiliar hostile craft. The wings are certainly thicker proportionally at the edges than the original craft, but less so near the center of the craft where they've merely gone from three to five studs thick. I feel like the added thickness is nice both in terms of structural rigidity and for allowing the retracting landing gear (as well as allowing the central "repulsors" to be recessed instead of protruding from the bottom like on the original).

For what it's worth... generally ongoing themes have a greater tendency to leak. "New" themes (which a new castle/historic theme would qualify as) might only be identified in early materials by a non-descriptive codename (for example, the Hidden Side theme had the codename "Banana" before its reveal), and would likely lack any sort of detailed names/descriptions for sets that would catch most leakers' attention. It's still remarkably early to assume we know the full breadth of what next year's sets will contain. So I'd hold off on disappointment.