Lyichir

Really clever and creative way to use all the rounded bricks in this set! The layout you've created feels really well-suited to play too—I can just picture kids hopping Yoda and Palpatine around between the various pods to have them fight. Overall it reminds me of the kinds of alt-builds you used to see on the backs of Star Wars boxes—maybe not as detailed as if they were their own set, but a great use of the available parts to build something different from the Star Wars universe.

I would be down for an updated Lloyd's Titan Mech. Even after all the others I still love its streamlined shaping—if they can maintain that while also implementing more recent advances in articulation for large mechs, it could easily be worth the remake.

For me, I've been a longtime collector of original themes over licensed themes. As a kid I had some licensed sets like Star Wars and Harry Potter, but before long I decided that the tendency for themes like Star Wars to have their sets often supplanted by superior versions made collecting those a neverending struggle, and I tended to prefer the design of original themes anyway (since they could focus on being a cool looking and interesting toy first and foremost). I'm especially drawn to "story themes" and have been since Bionicle—their strong character designs and toyetic set designs tend to feel like they offer all the benefits of licensed sets with more creative freedom for both the designers and myself as a MOCist. So currently, some of the primary themes I collect currently are Ninjago, Monkie Kid, and Dreamzzz (though with two of those ending soon I'm looking forward to what's next). I also pick up Friends sets every now and then—I love their color schemes and emphasis on playable detail (though I especially miss the Elves theme, which combined those aspects with a fantasy setting and story I couldn't get enough of which might've made it one of my favorite themes of all time). Recently I've also collected some of the City space subtheme (the latest of which feels like a worthy successor of the original Space themes I grew up with). And I've been making exceptions to my preference for unlicensed sets with the Super Mario, Zelda, and Animal Crossing sets—I've been a Nintendo fan for almost as long as I've been a Lego fan, and I've been extremely impressed by the results when they finally started collaborating. That's mostly all for "themes", but I also often enjoy many of the bigger standalone sets like the Icons modular buildings and nostalgia-focused remakes/homages to older themes, Ideas sets, and the occasional Lego Art set. I've also started building Botanicals sets with my mom (a great bonding activity with one of the less Lego-crazy members of my immediate family), and I often help my Dad with some of the sets he enjoys as well (often City, Trains, and sculptural vehicles like Icons vehicles and NASA sets).

Built a lot of the new sets on Stud.io using the online instructions, in anticipation of getting them for myself. I'm super impressed with the Castle Bowser set, which just seems fantastic both in terms of playability, looks, and having a great selection of characters from Wonder. I wonder (pun not intended) whether we might see any other sets based on that game... a set of one of the flying battleships from that game could potentially be cool, with their more metallic/industrial look compared to airships in past games.

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.