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Lyichir

Eurobricks Grand Dukes
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Everything posted by Lyichir

  1. Lyichir
    Well, personally I'm impressed with the buildable figures. It's amazing to me how far primarily System-based figures have come that you can have these streamlined, varied builds and have them robust enough for play, with scarcely any specialized figure parts necessary.
  2. Lyichir
    USA might have gone through the August stock more quickly since I think there were more August 1st releases here (Ninjago, Monkie Kid, and I think some City sets that were already out in Europe were August releases here). It also probably didn't help that a lot of expensive, high-demand D2C sets came out August 1st including the Atari, Camaro, Sanctum Sanctorum, and Galaxy Explorer. That adds up to a lot of different reasons why buyers might stay up to try to get orders in even if the Forest Hideout itself wasn't their main objective.
  3. Lyichir
    I managed to get one in my order shortly after midnight (EST). I'm glad since I sat it out the first time it was available.
  4. Lyichir
    New Elementary has the instructions for the two alt builds available to download! https://www.patreon.com/posts/69821053 I spent most of today building the Space Cruiser/Space Transporter (LL924) alt build on Stud.io. I really appreciate how even beyond the differences in scale and the features of the original sets, they've varied the looks and features of the three ships. The dense array of computer screens packed into the cockpit of the mid-sized craft, and the nifty bit of tech in the cargo bay, both really make the B-model stand out.
  5. Lyichir
    I never said retention isn't important. But to some extent, that's what Lego's other themes are for. For instance, Lego doesn't need to necessarily keep releasing science/tech/space type sets through Ideas at this point—they've had enough success at that that they can do those sorts of things without crowdsourcing (as they did with 2019's Apollo 11 Lunar Lander or last year's Space Shuttle Discovery) and still be pretty confident that they'll sell well. The main advantage of crowdsourcing is to identify what sorts of interests or subject matter they aren't capitalizing on, and that can take the form of things like non-traditional subject matter (the various display pieces like the Globe or typewriter fall into this category), or for licenses, things from more niche TV series or movies (especially ones that aren't as current as the kinds of blockbuster hits Lego tends to license full themes from).
  6. Lyichir
    I don't have a super-strong preference for some of these aspects, like helmet type or shield style (since often I like to have variety between characters or factions). But for armor, the Ninjago theme has helped me fall in love with shoulder armor that leaves some or all of the torso print visible. Fully printed torsos tend to have more visual variety than a fully molded breastplate, allowing characters or factions to be differentiated more easily than a fully molded breastplate necessarily allows for. Bulkier shoulder armor can also help to "even out" the look of a minifigure's proportions better than torso armor alone, which can sometimes make a figure look abnormally tall. By padding out the shoulders, the difference in height from having a neck accessory is masked slightly by a corresponding increase in width and, with some shoulder armor, by masking how low the arm connection is compared to the neck. The ridged pauldrons used in the medieval blacksmith set are a great example of this.
  7. Lyichir
    I saw one person on Facebook mention that not only has their preorder shipped, but the GWP Forest Hideout (rumored to be rereleased starting on the first of the month) was apparently added to their shipment. Sounds like a nice surprise!
  8. Lyichir
    While the Rakuten talk is interesting and I certainly won't fault anyone for wanting to save as much money as they can, I feel like it's worth mentioning that many Lego fansites (including Brickset and New Elementary off the top of my head, and probably others) also have referral links to Lego.com that, while not giving you money back personally, can help useful sites like that to stay afloat without having to rely as heavily on more user-unfriendly forms of advertising or fundraising. Personally I try to remember to buy through those sorts of links when I can—I feel like the extra 5-15% that I might have otherwise saved on Lego is worth it to keep those kinds of image-heavy resources I rely upon as a fan free and reliable.
  9. Lyichir
    Yeah, I'd really caution against getting too attached to any speculation at all about what this theme might be. I'm remembering how people spun the vaguest information about Nexo Knights into high hopes that it would be something steampunk-y only to be bitterly disappointed when it turned out to be more castle-meets-space.
  10. Lyichir
    A couple weeks ago I got some build-a-mini figs on a trip to the Lego store... one part I hadn't seen before was this face, which I felt was perfect for the new knight figure! I also got a lady pirate with dark red hair and hat, and the new wizard.
  11. Lyichir
    I seriously doubt it. Monkie Kid no longer being in some stores seems to have more to do with inconsistent sales outside of Asia than anything else, unconnected to any upcoming theme especially one that is most likely not due out until next year.
  12. Lyichir
    To be honest I don't know why you'd place those expectations on the 90th anniversary when we haven't gotten anything like that for previous anniversaries. Mostly previous anniversaries have resulted in one or two tribute D2C sets, basic brick buckets, and things like that—not unlike what we're getting this year. I too ADORE CMFs that are reimaginings of classic figs (apart from the series 19 jungle explorer, the series 16 spy is a spot-on recreation of Dash from Alpha Team), but I wouldn't really expect a whole series of those. A big part of the appeal of the collectible minifigures is offering new and unique figures, so a series entirely composed of retro references would not only go over most of the kid target audience's heads, but would fail to offer that kind of novelty.
  13. Lyichir
    Not to mention the potential for the Lion Knights to be reused in other themes like Creator like the Black Falcons were.
  14. Lyichir
    And your evidence for that part I've bolded is... what exactly? Do you know how many people who bought one of those real-world object or sitcom sets have stopped at that, or are you just making it all up because you personally aren't into those? It seems like the only reason you're mad at "pandering" is because you aren't the one being pandered to.
  15. Lyichir
    To be honest, a part of me hopes that if we get a moonbase-type set it's something original instead of being based strictly on one older set. I've been trying to come up with a moonbase to go with the Galactic Explorer, and when trying to base it on an older set one thing I kept noticing was that none of the older moonbases really seemed ideal. There were neat features, but they were often scattered between sets. Moreover, trying to update the older moonbases to the same high standard of the new Explorer, almost ALL of them were lacking in certain ways. For example, while the new Explorer is fully enclosed and even has a sliding bulkhead door to separate the interior from the cargo bay (ensuring that it can always be airtight even when deploying the rover), pretty much all Classic Space-era moonbases were either partially or fully exposed to the elements, with even the more enclosed ones having entry directly via an open back. This isn't entirely unlike the challenge described by the designers of the Lion Knights' Castle set, when they found that no single classic castle set really represented all of the best of what the castle theme had to offer. And their decision to instead create an original castle, inspired partly by older sets but combining some of the best features with ones that the classic sets had little precedent for at all, yielded truly impressive results. I feel like a similar approach could do incredibly well for classic space, creating a base that takes inspiration from the aesthetic of older bases but polishes them into a much more finished-looking base, combining features from classic sets including command centers, dormitories, launch platforms, vehicle bays, and monorail transit into something that doesn't just do justice to those older sets but improves upon them. That's not to say that if they can manage to update a single base into something as impressive as this new Explorer I'd be disappointed. But I think a true "ultimate base" is more likely to result from a more original approach.
  16. Lyichir
    Honestly I've liked the way City has used variations of the Classic Space icon for NASA-esque "mission patches". Yes, less useful for "true" Classic Space MOCs, but it's still a fun reference to that history as well as to the type of iconography that inspired the Classic Space logo in the first place. So far some of the variants have included things like these two (rocket orbiting around the "dark side of the moon" and rocket orbiting around Mars) as well as ones for orbital missions with the red rocket rotating around Earth. Sometimes I think it'd be fun to MOC a futuristic "museum of Space history" that traces the timeline from these sorts of modern-day space missions to the Classic Space future we know and love.
  17. Lyichir
    D2C sets (which are the main content of Icons/Creator Expert) generally have less budget for things like new molds in part because they're produced in much smaller quantities compared to smaller, more affordable sets that are sold at a wider variety of retail locations. Because sets like that are produced in smaller quantities, it's harder for new molds to "pay for themselves" in the long term due to selling fewer sets overall. That's not to say there's NO budget for things like that, but when there is, it helps for the molds to be more general-use (like the new arches, for instance) so that they can better justify the investment. You're right though that new prints/recolors can be just as appealing and far more likely to appear in those sorts of sets.
  18. Lyichir
    The CMF breakdancer torso was used for a Monkie Kid civilian in 2020. I think it's become more common ever since CMF production was brought fully in-house.
  19. Lyichir
    There's really no reason to assume that a more traditional castle theme couldn't have a TV show if that's what it took to promote sales on the level of other themes. Heck, even CITY has a TV show now! And I bet that themes like, say, Knights Kingdom II or Fantasy Castle might've been promoted with a TV series if they had happened after Ninjago had finally created success for Lego in the TV space, instead of before when Lego's previous attempts like Galidor had mostly failed. Also, even more modest themes without TV series usually come with their fair share of new molds—look at Fantasy Castle and Kingdoms, both of which introduced a decent number of new molds for things like armor and weapons. A smaller theme might have more like 6 to 12 sets a year instead of the ambitious 30 or so sets a year that Nexo Knights got, but that's still enough to have an impact.
  20. Lyichir
    There isn't much in the way of fixed-angled SNOT bricks, but you could probably come up with a close match with hinges. Here's a quick and dirty attempt at it using only a few parts—you could potentially get it even closer by varying the hinge type and its position relative to both the tile and base to get it angled and positioned exactly how you want.
  21. Lyichir
    I mean, there's still dark grey around the arrowslit windows of the new castle too, and around the towers. I often think of the more "scattered" dark grey stone patterns on some of those old wall panels to be more to compensate for the lack of texture, which these days can be achieved physically with things like masonry bricks to add detail without breaking up the color of the wall itself.
  22. Lyichir
    Of the ones you mention I'd be most excited for Australian outback. Lego did a small outback theme many years back but it was sorely lacking in wildlife. And to this day, Australian species are some of the least represented in Lego form. An outback exploration subtheme could give us all sorts of distinctly Australian creatures like kangaroos, emus, and koalas, and could pad things out with new colors or prints for other existing critters like spiders, crocodiles and snakes.
  23. Lyichir
    It looks really nice! Eager to see reviews to see just how much narrower it is than the old one... it'd be ideal if it could fit through 4-stud-wide doorframes, which the current wheelchair can't. But even if it doesn't have an advantage over the existing one in that respect, it still doesn't hurt to have more than one style of wheelchair available.
  24. Lyichir
    It looks like this Technic ring previously only available in white and cool yellow from Lego Friends will be available in dark bley in one of the Avatar sets, if that interests anyone.
  25. Lyichir
    Yeah, the landing gear uses some of the tiled bases from the Super Mario sets, so it's 2 plates thick at the corners and one plate thick in the middle. That allows it to fold up nice and snug into the body of the craft. You can get a good look at the underside of it with landing gear folded out in this picture from Brickset:
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