Lyichir

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.

I wouldn't be surprised if the licensing costs for a set like this were substantial. Hasbro is more or less a direct competitor to Lego in a lot of ways—I doubt they signed over the rights to a character of theirs unless they were confident they wouldn't be getting the raw end of the deal. Personally before rumors of this started appearing from reliable sources, I wouldn't have really expected a partnership like this to get off the ground at all. EDIT: Actually when I think about it this might require licensing from Takara as well (the Japanese company that produced the original Optimus Prime toy, and produces non-Lego Transformers toys in partnership with Hasbro). I'm not 100% sure how the licensing rights would shake out for something like this—I'll be interested in checking out the trademark info on the bottom of the box when this set hits stores.

I think getting the goat back in a set like this is REALLY wishful thinking. If the goat is ever brought back, or a new goat is introduced, it's most likely going to be in a cheap set produced in high quantities like a CMF or a <$100 City or Castle set, where the cost of remolding it could get more bang for its buck—not a $300+ D2C set which, regardless of its popularity, is likely to move far fewer units than a more affordable set would. As such if the goat were coming back this year we almost certainly would at least be seeing it in things like the City farm sets before we saw it in an expensive D2C, simply because the designers of this huge set would likely have to work with designers in another theme to budget for something like that.

Yeah, I hope nothing bad comes of the leak, especially since it could reflect badly for such a young partnership between two traditionally combative companies... Ideally Hasbro will be understanding (it's not like they have the best track record preventing leaks themselves) and Lego won't feel under any pressure to penalize a fan media partner as historically reliable and high-quality as Brothers Brick. The Optimus looks pretty neat. It looks like it uses several of the new joint pieces introduced this year—the shoulder/hip joint from Ninjago and Monkie Kid that adapts the AT-AT-style joints to the Knight's Kingdom-style joints for extra stability, the compact Knights Kingdom-style click hinge brick introduced in the Tallneck set (in red here, where the shoulders join to the torso), and a new joint I spotted in the upcoming Ninjago set Lloyd's Golden Ultra Dragon, to attach the aforementioned hip joints to the torso while keeping the waist narrow. As a big fan of mech/robot builds AND a former Hasbro intern, I'm really eager to pick this set up.

Less ink used on the cover alone probably doesn't make a huge impact on the cost of printing the instruction booklets as a whole. I have occasionally seen some people request that Lego use less color for backgrounds and such on instructions for if people want to print them out themselves, but I don't think that was the objective here—if it were, you probably wouldn't still have colored backgrounds throughout the rest of the booklets. Again, if I had to guess, I'd assume it was meant to make the instructions "match" the soon to be implemented paper packaging for parts. I think part of why the paper packaging has taken so long to be introduced has had to do with Lego testing for not just the practical aspects of doing so but also the subjective "experience" of unboxing a set (making sure that it still comes across positively even if you can't see all the parts through their bags). The first set to include the paper packaging was last year's employee gift set, the Ninjago-themed Temple of Celebrations, which had outlines of brick shapes printed across the bags not unlike the ones across the upper and lower borders of these new instructions. So the change to the instructions might be to try to repeat that pattern on the instruction booklets as well, to try to make the unboxing feel like one consistent experience. Now, whether that will be effective or not, it's too early to tell. Clearly opinions are divided so far even though the lack of paper packaging so far (at least from the reviews I've read) means that the "complete" experience they seem to be transitioning to isn't all the way there yet. Myself, I feel more or less indifferent to the change–the instruction booklet covers are such a nothing aspect of the building experience to me (compared to, say, the actual content of the instructions and building the set itself) that I really couldn't care one way or the other what the booklets look like on the outside.

Firstly, Chima didn't "fail badly"—it lasted three years, a respectable lifespan for a theme that many other themes would be lucky to have. In Lego's book, that's what you would consider a modest success, even if not quite living up to the ambitious expectations set for it before the decision to continue Ninjago was made. Secondly, Ninjago has already dabbled in Chima-esque aesthetics with the earlier Fire/Ice villain wave, to little detriment. I doubt you could confidently say that "animal heads" or "elemental aesthetics" or "characters with wings" are exclusive concepts to Chima, let alone that they were what led to that theme ending.

Eh, I don't really think there's that much more shared DNA between these themes in the summer than there always has been (with some designers working on both themes). Parts and techniques get shared back and forth—some examples in the opposite direction are the Heavenly Realms set using some angled roof techniques that are borrowed from this year's Ninja Dojo Temple, and the Dragon of the East's face drawing from a long pedigree of brick-built dragon heads in Ninjago.

I have no idea why you would assume that different instruction covers was a cost-cutting measure in the first place, let alone that they'd need an excuse for it. It literally doesn't cost any more to print a graphic Lego has clearly already produced for the box art itself on a paper instruction booklet as well—heck, if anything, producing two separate cover art styles adds labor to the process (at least when it comes to transitioning the workflow to the new format). The more reasonable assumption would be that Lego has decided that a different graphical style for instruction booklet covers, with a less stylized depiction of the contents than the box art, will be more effective. I don't know for sure how they came to that conclusion, but the new graphics have a similar background to some of the tested paper bags (as seen in the Temple of Celebrations employee gift set from last year), so it might be meant to give the "unboxed" contents of sets a consistent, unified look once the transition to paper internal bags is complete.

While more realistic colors for crabs could be nice, to be honest I understand why the reds and yellows are often used... for underwater scenes, it's helpful for them to stand out from other blue/green underwater scenery for both visibility and aesthetics, even though in nature you'd typically expect the opposite (animals trying to blend into their surroundings for defense). In regard to the above discussion on frogs, ideally I'd want a new frog mold to allow for printing so that you could not only have more lively printed eyes, but also potentially vibrant skin patterns on poison dart frogs and the like. But I don't expect the current frog to go away any time soon, especially given that like some other older animal molds (like the crab and scorpion) it's often used not as an actual animal but as a detail element on other types of builds. I'd also love to see a Friends-style frog, which would be especially useful for something like the Disney Princess sets where you want the frog to represent an actual character rather than just random wildlife.

Oh, I love that idea! That'd make for a great set I think.

Not really. I've never been much to worry about those being accurate to the show, though I appreciate them getting closer over time with the introduction of more dragon motifs. In terms of the shurikens, yeah, I reckon that introducing dragon head motifs at that scale would be simply infeasible, especially assuming you still wanted minifigures to be able to grip them effectively. And I've never been too fond of the show's nunchucks having an electrical chain like that, to be honest—since the other weapons' elemental effects aren't a part of their actual physical structure. The design of these versions of the weapons seems informed partly by their role in being "crystalized" and wielded by the ninja's foes in combination with a crystal hilt piece. Hence the sword having a long straight edge, the scythe being slightly shorter (so that it doesn't become comically long with a hilt attached), and the nunchucks having the chain attach to the side instead of the end. I do like the look of that crystal hilt and once I have one in hand I'd like to experiment to see which past weapons it does or doesn't work with.

I don't really collect Marvel but I'm quite impressed with the new Iron Man helmet piece. For a long time I've felt like Lego "misfired" a bit with the original Iron Man helmet by giving it TOO much molded detail (which both made it look distinctly un-minifiglike and made it so that later helmets had to make do with the same facial shapes even if they didn't match that Avengers version exactly). Then later they introduced the simpler single-piece helmet, which was more versatile due to using printed detail instead of molded detail but also lost the cool flip-up visor. This newest helmet feels like the best of both worlds, with printed facial details AND a flip-up visor. I hope that like the single-piece helmet design, this new one goes on to see use for not just Iron Man but also other helmeted characters.

I wouldn't take a social media post like that as any sort of sign. Lego has been occasionally sharing images/memes featuring vintage themes for a little while now; on Twitter they tag these posts with #LegoLookback. Last month one of the ones they shared was Paradisa, and I doubt that theme is coming back any time soon.

Is it just me or does this Classic set include frogs in Vibrant Coral, Magenta and Vibrant Yellow? https://brickset.com/sets/11022-1/Space-Mission The Magenta was in the Orchid set but I think the other two are both new!

To be honest I would've preferred if Monkie Kid came out in June and Ninjago in August (or vice versa), so that it'd be a little easier to space out my purchases instead of having almost everything on my wish list drop at the same time!

The Lego shop now has listings for all three sets, including the Dragon of the East! The submarine for Ao Guang can dock in the center of the dragon turtle's shell. Unfortunately in the U.S. both Monkie Kid and Ninjago will be August releases, which means a little longer to wait...

I've been looking closely at the pictures of the Ultra Dragon set and I think it uses a new style of joint for its hips? It's using the Knights Kingdom joint/AT-AT joint adapter piece (used in the Ultra Combo Mech and Lloyd's Legendary Dragon) for both the shoulders and hips, but on the hips it uses it reversed—and it seems to connect to an AT-AT joint "socket" that isn't sticking off in any direction like the standard piece would be. It leads me to think that there's a new piece there that adapts the AT-AT-style joint directly to a System connection. This has been a banner year for new joint pieces, but if this is indeed a new piece, the rear hips of a dragon this size isn't much of a showcase for it—I would guess it was designed for another set, possibly the rumored Optimus Prime set. In general I'm very impressed with the dragon... it's huge and the shaping is top-notch.

Honestly I think the dragon turtle looks great, we got a little bit of a look at it in the show but I think it looks even better (and significantly more dragon-like) here. Can't wait to get more pictures of this set to get a better idea of what kinds of play features it might have. For folks who have a bit more knowledge of Journey to the West/Chinese folklore, does the dog in the Heavenly Realms set have any special significance?

Wow, a gorgeous-looking modular design! It's got a good mix of traditional and modern aesthetics that feels perfect for an architectural office/studio.

Pretty sure it's neon yellow. I love the look of the horse trailer! It seems to be absolutely packed with detail, with a bathroom, kitchen, and more all packed into the trailer! And the shaping of the exterior is extremely clean.

The Dragon of the East set in Monkie Kid apparently has a 6x6 bubble windscreen in Trans. Pink. And the Crystal King set from Ninjago has a different windscreen in the same color. Several years ago I'd been hoping for more Trans. Pink and Trans. Purple windscreens to expand the Systar System faction from The Lego Movie 2... now years later we're getting two new Trans Pink windscreens at once!

Hm... the colors are a bit brighter than I would've expected from the show (especially Ao Guang's hair, which I thought would be a more subdued lavender). But I do like the general look of the set. And it's nice that Tang is included in this one since he wasn't in the other two summer sets.

Your tastes aren't universal. I like beautiful train stations. I also like functional ones, and this one looks clean, modern, and welcoming... to me, this is beautiful in its own way. The art wall, the touches of greenery, and the colorful mix of earth tones and brighter colors all create a comfortable space—at a more affordable price than a bigger, more classical station would go for.

God... it's taken me a little to get my thoughts together about this wave. It truly feels like nothing was left off the table. Every one of the vehicles is impressive and unique. There's a TON of unique figs (including THREE variants of each of the original four ninja), returning heroes AND villains including fan-favorites like Skylor. An abundance of new molds and recolors. An awesome golden dragon and a full-size mech WITH working knees. I would've been perfectly happy with a wave like Seabound or the Island, where you could get more or less every fig in two or three sets and I could use the money saved on the rest of the wave on the new Monkie Kid sets or something. But in this wave none of the sets feel skippable, and not just because of the abundance of unique figs but also because every one of the sets feels new, fresh, and exciting.