Lyichir

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.

Oh, this rules! Amazing MOC!

Maybe the beds (which seem to interface with the air tanks they wear) also cycle all the... waste... out of the suits.

It looks to me like the actual light element it uses is probably the Powered Up light pieces also used for things like trains. I can't quite tell how they attach or how much space they leave, but if there's room you might be able to insert a colored 1x1 round tile between the light element and the rotating reflector/lens to change the color of the light output.

Will be interesting to see what the final set ends up looking like. I'm not too attached to the Vikings theme but the proposal seems like it has potential to be turned into a really interesting layout.

I don't think one to two sets a year, at best, can really qualify as subject matter "overstaying its welcome". Before the Viking Ship Creator set we hadn't gotten a Viking set (other than a collectible minifigure) in years. And castle sets (at least non-licensed ones) are still a rare treat—you could barely make a case that what we've gotten recently qualifies as a full "theme" at all. And while you could maybe make a case for Jurassic World (I haven't seen the movies or bought the sets, so have no real opinion on the matter), saying something like that for Indiana Jones (for which we know barely anything about the sets let alone the upcoming movie) seems to be majorly putting the cart before the horse. Maybe best to wait until a theme exists at all before claiming that it's overstayed its welcome.

I don't think it's that likely. To be quite honest, set design has come a long way since Medieval Market Village–if they wanted to do a set of similar subject matter, it'd probably be both better and more popular if they designed one from scratch.

Eh... personally I've never been too jazzed about the electrical connection between the Nunchuks of Lightning. I know it's always been like that in the show, but none of the other golden weapons really have persistent elemental details like that. Having the chain be a physical chain makes the weapons feel more consistent. Though that's just personal preference and the short chain piece in Trans. Light Blue would be a cool recolor anyway.

Have you tried with just the legs used for the other Pyro Vipers? They don't match the gold but do match the bandage and flame decorations on the torso, which I think looks decent. I can't think of many gold leg pieces that would be a better fit.

Out of curiosity, what sort of MOCs do you have planned for it? I've only got a few pieces in that color so far (Mei's new torso from Monkie Kid, and some Dots parts), and while it seems like a neat color, I'm not totally sure what I'd use it for. It's hard to plan a MOC using it digitally like I tend to when the distinctive "glow" it has doesn't really come across accurately on the digital building programs I use.

This is a licensed suggestion (and therefore outside the scope of this topic). And to be honest while I would like Lego to break their contracts with Blizzard given the toxic corporate culture there, Riot is guilty of many of the same exact issues.

Got my copy in today and just finished building it! Really enjoyable build process and a great finished product. There was one issue my set had that I figured I'd mention. The printing on this part seems to be a bit off-register on both of the ones in my copy of the set—the red square button isn't aligned with the other three green buttons. It's a minor issue but it is noticeable. Has anybody else with the set had this issue? I'm wondering whether it'd be worth contacting customer service for new ones.

This is really neat! The contrast between the rounded shapes of the newer trees and the chunkier, more angular castle shapes really works well. A part of me thinks making the water dark azure like in the Lion Knight's Castle would provide some nice contrast with the blue used for the door, but that's just preference, and understandably dark azure is still a rarer color for large bases to build on.

In case anybody's keeping track to try to gauge when their own sets might show up, my order (placed in the U.S. on the day the set was released) arrived today. Won't be building it yet since it's a gift for my sister and her wife when they visit in a week or so. I did open up the outer cardboard package to see the set box and verify what was in there, and was impressed with how well it was packed—the Lego set occupied most of the space of the box and the ends of the box had corrugated reinforcement to prevent damage to the set. I understand that that probably can't be done for every set since smaller sets tend to be packed and shipped together variably depending on orders, but for a set as premium as this I'm glad the extra effort was spared to ensure it arrived at its destination in good condition.

Oh, I absolutely think they did the right thing in focusing on the ship, especially given that it makes it easier to get multiples for the alternate models. But I do think a standalone moonbase set (that can be dedicated fully to that purpose) would be a natural follow-up, if this does well. I don't think the classic monorail system is likely to ever come back, for reasons that have been discussed a thousand times. But I think the roller coaster track would provide a great substitute if they wanted to have a moonbase with its own integrated transit (not unlike the short brick-built monorail in 6970).

When I think of a "premium"-priced moonbase, one of the major improvements I can think of would be detailed brick-built landscaping (and possibly a brick-built landing platform for 10497 as well). Perhaps it could have multiple areas linked by a monorail (or more likely, a different rail system) as well. Still, even with those kinds of features I don't know if $400 would be necessary—something like the $200 Pirates of Barracuda Bay set would be plenty impressive!

The point at which you separate the themes seems odd to me personally, since while Exploriens and UFO certainly started to rely heavily on bulky, limited-use molds, I never really saw Spyrius as having those particular issues. I disagree with the above poster that the earlier eras of space weren't as good (as you point out, they were the necessary foundation that all later space themes were built upon), but as somebody who grew up with both the good and the not-so-good of '90s space themes, I'd easily rank sets like the Saucer Centurion and Robo Guardian up there with some of the greatest sets from earlier space themes.

I finished building the Heavenly Realms set today! Very impressive set, extremely well designed. I'm tempted to try to come up with a small expansion of sorts to it (even if it doesn't connect directly) with the heavenly stables Monkey King was assigned to before he began his "havoc in heaven".

Very neat to see all three versions (both old and new) alongside each other! Thanks for the great comparison! Caz Mockett from New Elementary came up with a simple landing gear build for the smallest ship using leftover parts from the two alt builds. They don't retract but nonetheless I think they seem like a good option for folks building all three ships!

The doubled grey pins near the back of the image you posted reinforce the beam structure so it doesn't flex (and help to strengthen the connection to the frames for the wings later on). The white and blue pins near the middle both help serve to keep the angled cockpit structure angled properly while it's under construction (before it's anchored securely in the back and middle, the two angled "arms" connected to the front rest comfortably on those pins). The white and grey round bricks with Technic holes are simply there for added structural support (connecting the Technic sections in two to three directions and having ample studs and anti-studs for the top and bottom wedge plates to attach to). The use of a 4x4 round brick instead of a square frame also provides extra room for the SNOT bricks that help to anchor the wing edge. I WISH an AI existed that could optimize a complex construction this well. You can automate something like a basic brick sculpture or mosaic fairly well (and I do expect Lego has digital tools for quickly estimating price and suggesting alternatives in some cases), but for a complex, sturdy, and fairly compact build with angled sections like this, I don't doubt that most iterations were built by hand and physically tested for rigidity (including with drop tests to test how the builds withstand light physical impact and heat tests to simulate the toll gravity takes on a model over longer periods). That's one of the reasons I really respect the work Lego designers do—it involves not just creativity but also an impressive amount of work (including many stages of revisions and testing) to bring something like this from concept to completion!

It's not really that simple. Lego's factories already run on a pretty optimized schedule to maximize production capacity across all of its various lines. Prioritizing one high-demand, expensive set would require Lego reducing production on other sets (including ones that are more affordable, produced in higher quantities, and sold through a larger number of vendors). Smarter to put reasonable limits on these early orders until the initial surge in demand levels off, especially for expensive sets that they don't want to risk overproducing.

In Ninjago, since the very beginning—the original four ninja elements in the theme were fire, ice, lightning, and earth. Other elements were added in later arcs.

Once again I question why anyone should have expected this anniversary to be that different from any past one in terms of the kinds of sets released. Past anniversaries have generally been celebrated with sets like these ones—a classic brick bucket, an exclusive or two, and maybe a gift with purchase set and a couple of polybags. The only real difference this year is scale, with one out of the two exclusive sets being the biggest castle set ever (the other, a Classic Space remake, is not that far removed in price from 2008's Town Plan).

Oh, this is so fun! The shaping is magnificent, perfectly blending articulated creature shaping with landscape techniques.