Lyichir

I cannot ignore the City set. Not one but TWO incredible motorcycles. The blue helmet the guy on the right is wearing even kinda reminds me of Jay.

Not really a myth, and seriously unlikely to happen, but when Monkie Kid first came out I sort of entertained the idea of what a similar take on the Wizard of Oz (another famous story about five unusual characters setting off together on a journey to the west) might look like. Imagine... a big Tin Man mech, an evil clan of high-tech flying monkeys, maybe Cowardly Lion as a bigfig. :P

Very excited for next month as a Monkie Kid fan. Even though sadly the new sets won't be available in my country for a few more months, the release in Europe and Asia will mean that the instructions should be available digitally and, hopefully, reviews will start to crop up as well (I'm looking forward to reviews of the Heavenly Realm set especially since I'm still trying to translate some of the banners in the set and understand how the unfolding function is built a little more clearly, both of which would be greatly aided by reviews). On top of that, near the start of the month Children's ITV in the UK (which has recently started airing Season 3 of the show) will be airing the four-episode end-of-season special (concluding this year's story with what seems like it might end up being the final battle between MK and the Lady Bone Demon). Obviously I'd be even more excited if the sets were releasing and the third season of the show were airing in the U.S. as well (grumble grumble...), but in the meantime other countries getting those things is still something to look forward to.

I like to have mine aligned too. But I've never really bothered "spraying and sliding"—I just try my best to apply them carefully starting at one edge and working my way across. The fact that the "margins" on most Lego stickers are similar helps a lot, especially with rectangular stickers with borders that line up neatly parallel to the edges of the part. There are definitely stickers I'm less fond of or which give me more trouble, but ones like plaques that are printed on opaque paper, match the shape of the surface they're applied to exactly, and are large and easy to align before finishing applying them are some of the least challenging.

To be honest, I feel like the dragon itself is enough of a selling point that it doesn't really need an abundance of exclusive minifigs. It's easily the set that I'm most excited for, at the very least. In comparison, I feel like a set like the temple would be a lot less desirable without the exclusive minifigures—there's just not as much raw appeal to the set design itself. I also don't think that a big set that has existing versions of the main ninja is a bad thing—I'm reminded of the Lego Ninjago Movie's Destiny's Bounty which similarly didn't really offer exclusive figs, but was a strong set design that offered the full cast of ninja, and consequently was a very highly sought-after set.

After reading a review of the new Ferrari Technic set, I have an unpopular opinion to share... That set has a printed UCS-style plaque, and you know what? I think the stickered ones look MUCH better. Printing on a big 8x16 tile like that, the molding mark in the center and the "dimples" caused by the anti-studs on the back are clearly visible through the print. Whereas applying a big sticker across the whole surface of the print covers up those little imperfections in the part surface much better. I've never had trouble with a large rectangular sticker of that sort so I've never quite understood the distaste most AFOLs seem to have for them, and now seeing the alternative I feel like it's that much more obvious that the sticker was preferable. Maybe in the future Lego could find a way to split the difference—perhaps a pre-applied sticker like on the Lego Mario sets could get around the issues with printing on that part while humoring sticker-phobic AFOLs.

It's ALMOST compatible. It can fit next to the other buildings just fine. But there's some small sort of quality-of-life tweaks I'd like to make if I wanted to fit it into my city. The second floor and roof aren't quite the perfect height to match the other buildings—you might want to raise both floors by a plate each to have them match, especially if you wanted to have it on the "lower level" of the city since having the roof line up extends the walkable space in front of the second-level buildings. On that same note, you might want to make adjustments to the roofline as well to make that space more clear without "side rails" between it and the neighboring buildings. All that might be moot for me anyway since, while the Creator Noodle Shop is a fantastic design, I'm leaning against including it in my city if for no other reason than having it that close to the Pigsy's Noodles from the Monkey King Warrior Mech set (which I already planned to include) feels a bit redundant, and less exciting to me than including an entirely unique facility. Currently I'm leaning toward modifying the Anti-Gravity Arcade to fill up at least some of my lower-level space. I'd been at a bit of a standstill on those mods since I originally planned to have two interior floors with space to "float" up between them, but I wasn't able to come up with something for that that didn't feel claustrophobic. I decided this morning to try to nix the second floor interior in favor of a taller, more open space, which both better allows me to include the claw game from the original set (which was too tall to fit with another floor above it) and feels way better space-wise. I might include some attachment points on the upper walls for transparent minifigure stands to really bring the "anti-gravity" concept home. I'm still not 100% finished to my satisfaction but doing so might wait until I have the parts in hand so I can better assess how to properly expand the building while making the most of the parts I already own. If I can finish that off, that leaves me with just one 8x8 space to fill. The easiest way for me to do that would be something like a small newsstand that could be attached to the right of the bubble tea shop—I'd just have to figure out a design and how best to fill it with varied-looking periodicals. A part of me wishes there were some Chinese-language newspaper or magazine prints that could be used there, but sadly I don't think Lego's been doing Chinese-themed sets long enough for that to be a thing, so I might have to rely on prints from themes like City (and possibly unprinted tiles or ingot pieces for variety).

Gifts with purchase are typically available both online and at stores (with some rare exceptions). They're only available while supplies last, which for highly desirable GWPs can go quickly, especially online. At stores from my experience you can have more luck getting a highly sought-after GWP, since it's much easier for a bunch of people to make an online order as soon as it's available but less common for everybody planning to purchase in-store to make their trip to the store immediately.

I just recently ordered a second copy myself to do that. Expanding the base itself is fairly easy since you can simply duplicate the center section, and use the two extra track segments from the rear canopies to connect them together. What you do with the extra space that generates is up to you. Here's some of my ideas for how to expand the various shops: I'm planning to expand the three top-floor buildings (adding width to all three and adding an extra floor to the hotel), but still haven't decided on quite what to do with the three extra lower-floor modules of space. Some of my ideas include adapting the Anti-Gravity Arcade from the Lion Guardian set to fit, adapting the upcoming Creator Noodle Shop, trying to MOC a store from the TV show like the shoe store from the first episode, or simply making an entirely new facility like a bank or newsstand. I'm hoping that having the bricks in hand to experiment more with physically will help spark inspiration.

Very cute! Never had any forestmen sets but the hinged opening of this reminds me fondly of Majisto's Magical Workshop (one of my earliest Castle sets).

So far red is the only color that all track types come in, since the 45° slope (used to extend the large hill that the chain goes up) has only been used in that original coaster. Hopefully this new coaster might bring it back in another color for the first time!

For whatever it's worth the Noodle Tank is so far my favorite Pigsy vehicle—the overall build is so clever and I love all the details, including the bowl-shaped tank itself with its chopsticks and retro fridge as well as the two panda drones. The version of Pigsy in that set (with bandoliers full of ingredients) is also one of my favorite versions of him so far, but while it's currently exclusive to that set it won't be for long since the same torso will soon be available in the upcoming Monkie Kid's Team Van.

I can only assume it will be since the other summer sets were revealed already. Lego has done a pretty good job keeping this under wraps since we don't even know what the set will be!

I saw this on Twitter the other day—it looks incredible! Fantastic work on the shaping and detailing! The fact that you managed to make it buildable from only the parts of a few sets is extra impressive!

Brickset has their review of the Crystal King up! https://brickset.com/article/74644/review-71772-the-crystal-king Honestly really impressed with the shaping of that set. The review also gives us our first look at the crystal king under the mask...

Minor correction but the eyes are a print, not a sticker.

Fabulous brick-built detailing!

Yeah. I think for a lot of people (especially busy adults), the "play" they experience with Lego is more akin to how you would "play" with a jigsaw puzzle—putting it together as a one-time activity and then displaying the results afterward. And while I personally prefer the experience of rebuilding or modifying builds, I don't think that type of play is any less valid than the more open-ended play that kids tend to have more time and energy for. If anything, building to display is a good "hook" to get adult fans back into building open-endedly—once a person has rediscovered the joy of building (and their thoughts of what Lego can be used for have been broadened), they're that much more likely to come up with their own ideas of how to put their own spin on either their sets or future models.

Nope, it's shown here! New piece!

No (though the Optimus Prime set has that in red, too). There's some sort of new piece using the larger AT-AT click joint—something like this piece but without extra liftarm bit sticking off, and with either pins on the back to connect it to a Technic brick, or some sort of brick affixed permanently to the back. It's used in combination with this part (which is already available in several Ninjago/Monkie Kid sets).

Don't know if there's much interest among Technic fans for this but the new Ninjago Ultra Dragon (71774) has the gear rack from the UCS AT-AT (part 78442) in either tan or dark tan (not 100% sure which). I think that set and the Optimus Prime set also feature a new joint connector for the hips—specifically, a part that adapts a System brick (possibly with Technic hole?) to the AT-AT-style ratchet joint used for the hips. If nothing else it might have use as a detail on MOCs—I'm eager to see reviews to see what that part looks like in isolation.

I don't think Lego bases their decisions on whether or not to make sets on specific criticism or feedback, so much as they do on the actual hard sales numbers. It's possible that the Crocodile Locomotive simply didn't sell well enough to merit more standalone trains for adult buyers. But it's also possible that it did sell well enough to give it another go, they do in fact have more planned, and they are simply waiting for a year without City trains to release another standalone train set of that sort so that its sales aren't cannibalized by the option with broader appeal to both kids AND adults. That's not to say that they won't take some of the critiques of the Crocodile Locomotive set into consideration when and if they DO release a follow-up. But generally when it comes to the choice whether or not to release something at all, it's derived more from the broader level of concrete support a model gets rather than just the most vocal praise or criticism in organized AFOL circles.

Again, it's not just about the budget of this one set—it's about Lego getting their money's worth out of bringing a mold like that back. If they were planning to bring the goat back for this set they would still be putting it in other sets as well to help recoup the cost of the mold, regardless of which theme it came out of the budget of. It'd be massively counterproductive to make it "exclusive" to a set that will be produced in far less quantity than a regular retail set. And a lot of the other sets this year that could've made use of a goat in that case—the City farm sets, the Jurassic Park set, and so forth—have not used a goat. It makes it seem quite unlikely that a goat revival is going to happen this year.

I think it can depend on the AFOL and their attitude. I don't really collect older sets or products much because I feel like the design standard of sets has generally trended upward, but I appreciate tributes to those older eras that, in their own way, got things to where they are today. Homages to sets from my childhood or even things that predate me like classic space or ye olde wooden duck give me warm fuzzies—not just despite not being "authentic" to how they were in the past, but sometimes even because of how they can improve upon that older subject matter with modern parts and techniques.

No idea. A lot of Lego's promotional videos these days use cheap royalty-free music (even ones revolving around franchises with their own iconic songs or soundtracks), so I doubt this is anything anyone would listen to regularly. Sometimes I wish Lego could spring for actual music from the franchises in question, but music licensing is a minefield and a 30-second social media video probably isn't worth the investment.