Lyichir

Is it possibly this piece? A pair of them forms a long 2x2 cylinder. https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=1749#T=C

It's not impossible even for costumed figs to come with other smaller animals (a la the Series 18 Elephant Girl coming with a mouse). So all hope's not lost for fans of non-costume animal molds.

Didn't think about that—could even potentially be a case where instructions were printed locally for different regions (i.e. North America, Europe, etc.) and had different standards for each.

So the Spider-Verse series has trans-orange bases—the first time that base piece has appeared in a transparent color. Could offer some unique options for future series as well.

Are you sure about that paper quality bit? I remember a lot of old instructions (from my childhood in the '90s) being a lot flimsier. Maybe it was just because I was a kid (i.e. more careless), but I often found it much easier to tear old instructions—and instructions to larger sets, being stapled most of the time, had a tendency to come apart at the seams. I find modern instructions, whether they're the thin leaflets from smaller sets or the "perfect bound" instructions that are now used for medium-to-large sets a lot of the time, to be a lot more robust and resistant to wear than my often tattered childhood instruction books.

Maybe it's my perspective as an American but I think a lot of parents would buy their kid a toy tank? Like toys like G.I. Joe and Transformers have been hot sellers for decades here, and one in this theme based on a shark is sure to be cartoonier and less analogous to real-world weapons of war than those. And speak for yourself about the sets for Zoey and Izzie—Bunchu is awesome, as are sets like that cool new time owl for Zoey. I wish they'd make some bigger sets for those characters, but seeing as your complaints are also about price, I doubt that's exactly what you're asking for.

Game Boy set reveal! Includes cartridges and screens for Super Mario Land and Link's Awakening. https://www.ign.com/articles/lego-game-boy-set-revealed

While I'd love sets based on the world presented in the Pokémon games (and have sketched up digital MOCs based on that concept in the past), I'm not sure whether minifigure playsets will be all that likely, to be honest. For one thing, the "anime-esque" look of the human characters might not adapt to minifigures particularly well (with Lego having largely moved away from non-standard minifigure designs like those in Exo-Force, Clone Wars, or Avatar: The Last Airbender). And most smaller Pokémon (including iconic ones like Pikachu and the many starter Pokémon) would likely need bespoke molds (largely not reusable for other different Pokémon in the way that, say, a Friends animal can be recolored and used for lots of different versions), at a scale that would scarcely allow for articulation, customization or playability. I guess we'll see, but to a certain extent I feel like Mega's approach to the franchise is probably a pretty good indication of the kind of brand depiction The Pokémon Company is interested in as far as building toys are concerned—an emphasis on the Pokémon characters themselves over a more human-centric approach that minifigures would entail.

I don't know how likely that is overall. I mean, the Mario movie didn't get its own sets, and we don't know anything about this movie other than "there will be one". But they might just opt to do something based on the games to tie in with the movie without explicitly being based on that depiction (a la the Sonic sets featuring Shadow that came out in advance of Sonic 3). In that case I'd expect them to stick with things like the existing Mario sets (playsets with brick-built figures and/or a more advanced set meant as a display piece), since it's not like DK himself or most of his animal-esque supporting cast would necessarily be suited to minifigures.

Gorgeous! The way you've used the grooves on the tiles/jumpers used for the corn kernels to visually separate them is inspired.

Yup. These warnings have already been showing up on other sets with light/sound bricks, including things like the Winter Village sets. It's definitely not attractive, but there's not much that can be done about legally required warnings. But it generally shouldn't affect most Technic sets.

Oh that's extremely good! Really good blend of the classic form with more modern parts.

The P-Wing set has a clever mechanism to allow a 3-wide foothold for the Shy Guy to slide out of the front, to allow compatibility with both him and the four-wide digi-fig. I'd been stumped as to how to make vehicles that'd be compatible with characters with a footprint that width (including Shy Guy, Bowser Jr., Diddy Kong and several of the Koopalings), and this is a clever solution (even though, obviously, it has some pretty particular space requirements that wouldn't work with smaller karts or bikes). I'll be eager to see what Tanooki Mario and Cat Peach (from the earlier power up sets) look like in the Tanooki Kart and Cat Cruiser (part of why I wanted those two karts is because their "signature drivers" already existed in Lego to an extent). By the way, some of the other August Mario releases also have more pictures/video on the Lego shop pages than they did when they were first added. That includes more alt pics of the Mario Kart sets, as well as a nice lifestyle video of the Castle Bowser set that showcases features like the elevating prison cell. Really looking forward to these sets! EDIT: Another thing I just noticed... STILL no play-scale Spiny Shell in these last two Mario Kart sets. :( It's far from the last opportunity (more Mario Kart sets are likely in the future, including ones based on the new game), but still a little bit of a shame we've gone this whole year without that iconic item.

Yeah, both of those are fully original designs (even though they hearken back to classic factions). For LKC in particular that means it can do fun things with angles for the layout compared to the mostly rectangular layouts of classic castle sets—I'd highly recommend it.

Apparently a clearer picture of the cancelled Game Island Tower leaked... confirming that Mrs. Castillo and the villain on the top of it would've been unique. I kind of get the cancellation (the price was definitely quite substantial), but it's still a shame. I really think the design, with the roller coaster track and video billboards, was extremely cool—reminds me a bit of Deca Tower from Splatoon 2, only pushed in an even more cyberpunk/fantastical direction.

Last two Mario Kart sets of the year were revealed. Character-wise they’re nothing special, at least for people who’ve been collecting a while (though I think it’s been a little while since Toadette was available). But I love the kart selection—the Cat Cruiser and Tanooki Kart were near the top of my wishlist for future karts, and the P-Wing (complete with brick-built glider) is great as well.

The summer Star Wars sets have been revealed, and the "Rebuild the Galaxy" snowspeeder has a cool black and trans-yellow windscreen that looks like it'd be fun for Blacktron MOCs.

Bricklink has you covered: https://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemIn.asp?P=983&colorID=105&in=A The only other current fig that has them is Bandit from the largest Bluey set, though. And I think the monochrome one is probably cheaper.

I think this is a good analysis—mechs are an easy way to blend "action figure play" with the typical scale of Lego minifigures and vehicles. Even in cases where mechs aren't "canon" (like the Star Wars ones or the Knuckles mech from the Sonic the Hedgehog sets), they create an opportunity to evoke the details of characters in a buildable form, in a format that's more kid-friendly and playable than, say, a character statue like some of the various Star Wars droid sets or a static display figure like BrickHeadz. The introduction of small ball joints in the Mixels theme was especially a boon to making small mechs at an affordable price point, which is what you typically see in Star Wars and Super Heroes (bigger, more expensive mechs are more typical of themes where they're a greater focus like Ninjago). And it's not like mechs are the only sorts of sets of that type (a small, cheap means of making a set focused on a minifigure character with some buildability/playability)—other examples include Star Wars' microfighters or Super Heroes' mighty micros. Like the mechs, those sorts of sets aren't really focused on representing an accurate depiction of the property in question so much as they are being fun entry-level sets for kids. All this is to say that I don't think mechs are going away any time soon, but also it's not like they're straightforwardly taking the place of more "accurate" pocket money sets, because at that price point and age grade realism/accuracy isn't really the objective.

Love the way you've matched those swirly plant/tail pieces to the arches to integrate them with the architecture!

How lovely! The architecture is gorgeous, as is all the intricate furniture you've made for it.

If One Piece didn't preclude Pirates of the Caribbean (or vice-versa), I don't see why the two of them combined would preclude Wind Waker—especially since the smaller King of Red Lions is arguably a more iconic, set-worthy subject for that game than any of the larger pirate ships, meaning even less overlap with those other two themes' sets. That said, I'm not sure how likely Wind Waker (or Spirit Tracks even moreso) is to get a tribute set yet, at least with the current pattern of releasing sets one at a time. They're not exactly the latest/most timely Zelda games to base something on, and I'd sooner expect Lego to take a small step from the previous Zelda set with something based Ocarina of Time or Breath of the Wild again (or maybe at most, their associated sequels Majora's Mask or Tears of the Kingdom) than to dive right into Wind Waker and its sequels. Then again, next year (when the next Zelda set is rumored to come out) IS the 25th anniversary of Wind Waker, so maybe they will surprise me and base a set on that to tie in with the anniversary!

Got Mario Kart World recently and have been thinking about what sorts of subjects from the new game could make good sets in the future. The open-world nature of the game means there's a lot of potential, since not only are there plenty of potential karts and drivers but also lots of NPC vehicles and structures that could be interacted with in neat ways and would work great either as the main subject of a set or as a side build of sorts. One of the things that seems like it'd make a great set would be the "Yoshi's" food truck. It could come with a uniformed Toad to staff it (either to drive or sell food at the window) and digi-figs could work with it either as a driver or by scanning the "dash food" item for a pick-me-up. The very bubbly, blocky design of the truck seems like it'd be easy to build recognizably in Lego, and very cute as a set!

Definitely an interesting selection. I'm not sure whether I'll plan to get any of these since unlike the previous Dreamzzz BAM parts (which largely featured characters' canon waking world outfits), it's unclear whether any/all of these will actually represent outfits from the show. But I do like that candy outfit for Izzie!

The Mateo vs. Cyber Brain Mech set is indeed cool. I don't think the similarity to Grimkeeper is a bad thing—there's always room for a big monster/mech, and it looks really cool. Not sure if I'll personally get it since that version of Mateo is also in the paint truck set, but it's a solid set. I really like the Time Owl and Fire Chameleon too—really cool creature builds that instantly evoke what they're supposed to look like. I downloaded the instructions to those sets and the illustrations are super cute! I really like the look of the new "pixel wave" effect piece used for many of the sets—when I first saw it I expected it to be a mostly flat energy effect piece similar to ones that have appeared before in themes like Ninjago, Hero Factory, and Bionicle, but the way it actually undulates in three dimensions makes it much more unique. Gonna be a while before I can get any of these sets since they're August releases in the U.S., but I feel like it's a solid wave. Looking forward to what the theme cooks up for its final wave next year.