Lyichir

I haven't built much Technic lately so weirdly the most exciting part of this for me is that dark tan steering wheel (a nice alternative for a part that mostly only comes in grey and black).

Aw, this is awesome! It's a great likeness, and I like the way you made the expressions able to be changed and the arms posable like a sort of stop-motion puppet.

To be honest even if that character becomes popular it might be a while before we see a character like that in sets, given that the majority of DC sets are either based on a movie (which generally have a pretty long turnaround time to be made after even a successful comic/comics event) or focus primarily on Batman and associated characters. I haven't seen or heard about an interview like that? Despite it looking like the main Lady Bone Demon arc might end this year, I hope that claims that the show might be ending are inaccurate or outdated information. I definitely feel like this is one of the most high-quality animated series Lego has made, and while the theme could possibly continue without the TV series to support it, it definitely wouldn't be the same...

Looking forward to building the Lunar New Year Traditions set tomorrow. Built the Spring Lantern Festival earlier this month when it was snowy and it felt nice and seasonal, but I've been saving the other set for the actual Lunar New Year. EDIT: Finished building the set! A fun build despite the bases of the modules being slightly repetitive. Did anybody else who has this set get an extra of this 2x4 printed tile? The inventory only lists one but I got two in the final bag, so I'm wondering if everybody got that little bonus or if I just got amazingly lucky.

Worked a bit this morning on another mod for the Boutique Hotel! Added a downspout to the exposed corner as suggested by my dad:

I saw this featured on Brothers Brick the other day! I really love it—this style of architecture and interior furnishing, with features like a conversation pit, isn't something I'd ever seen done in Lego before.

The new Little Mermaid set looks incredible! Once again has me wishing Lego Elves had lasted long enough to get a mermaid-focused wave... Some great looking parts in it including opalescent minifigure heads and lots of neat Cool Yellow parts!

Trans-Neon Orange apparently did actually retire last year. We had seen hints of that earlier (a Lego color chart spotted in a video listed it as due to retire at the end of 2020), which seems consistent with the Lunar New Year set being the last set to use it. It is a shame—though I'm glad that between Nexo Knights and the first year of Monkie Kid using it heavily in its final years, it went out with a bang rather than a whimper.

Do we have a list like that for basically any theme? I could be wrong but I think it's a little too early in the year for that kind of info to be available yet. If I had to guess, I'd expect a lot of last year's sets (especially the 1HY sets) to get retired at the end of the year, much like how most of the 2020 sets retired at the end of 2021. If there's one likely exception among the 1HY 2021 sets it'd probably be 80024 Flower Fruit Mountain, which is a big "flagship" model that's more focused on the Monkey King legends themselves instead of an earlier story arc or villain faction. The remaining 2020 sets (80008, 80012, and 80013) might be likely to go as well—they've held out longer than the rest of the sets from that year, but with all three including the now retired color Trans. Fluorescent Reddish Orange, they aren't likely to stick around forever.

In general, I think this is a part of why Ideas projects based on existing themes (retired or otherwise) can have a harder time. Any time you do something like that you're going up against prior art, which not only includes the sets Lego DID make, but also any concepts that were considered and ultimately abandoned before they even could become a set. So even something Lego hadn't made before, that "fills in the blanks" of an older theme, might be something Lego already decided years ago didn't test well or wasn't able to be realized effectively in a consumer-facing set. That's not to say it'd necessarily be impossible to convince Lego to give an old idea another attempt, especially given enough time and a promising enough proposal in both execution and audience reception. But it's something that those kinds of ideas have to overcome that something completely new or unprecedented might not have to worry about.

This is gorgeous! Most Lego mosaics I tend to see at conventions are more or less purely representational (recreating things like a photograph, comics panel, or movie poster), which used to impress me a bit but doesn't always lend itself to continued innovation (if you've seen one, you pretty much know what to expect from others). But something abstract like this, where the objective is less to represent something specific and more to create a vibrant art piece with as many colors as possible... I've never seen anything quite like it!

I get really tired of these kinds of broad declarations about what Lego "is" or "isn't" that seem based more in one's own personal preferences than what actually works or doesn't. The reality is that while some "digital" Lego experiences have failed, that's far from universal. Lego has been experimenting with digital extensions of their brand since my childhood in the 1990s, including things like their old computer games, Lego Mindstorms, various web and app games, and more. And many of those have been great successes! What has happened more recently has been experimenting with the relatively new frontier of digital/physical integration, and the results, while mixed, haven't been as uniformly negative as people make them out to be. Nexo Knights was generally about as successful as its non-app-connected predecessor Legends of Chima was, and Hidden Side actually outlasted most earlier "spooky" themes like Scooby Doo and Monster Fighters. Even the outright "failures" like Life of George, Lego Fusion, and Vidiyo give insight into what is or isn't worth pursuing in that space, so that future themes can learn from that. Acting like integrated digital experiences are an unachievable goal isn't just inaccurate, it's a recipe for potential decline. Many kids today are more tech-savvy than ever before and if Lego treats those interests and passions as entirely counter to their brand values and mission, as you seem to, it'll merely alienate them further from Lego as a hobby. Relevance in the toy industry requires meeting kids where they are, not just where you want them to be, and that can mean stepping outside the comfort zone of what worked thirty or forty years ago. That means that there will continue to be themes that don't appeal to you personally as an AFOL and parent. That's okay! That's what the other themes are for! The point of having separate "themes" in the first place has always been offering things for varying tastes, not making everything be for everyone.

Forgot to mention one other thing from the new season that I think might be likely to show up in a set...

There haven't been any updates about the set yet. When an announcement happens, it'll happen—we're only one month into the year, after all. Lego tends to do a better job of keeping "direct to consumer" sets like that under wraps until they're announced, since they don't have to provide third parties like retailers the same level of information as they do for sets that get a wider distribution. Leaks do sometimes happen for those sorts of sets, but it's not necessarily something that can be counted on with regularity.

Here's a link to somebody who's collecting all the fansubbed episodes so far: https://twitter.com/Johnny5Toon/status/1485365045055963140

If need a larger hull those originate from last year's 71391 Bowser's Airship, which has both the lower hull sections used in the Houseboat set as well as two of the upper hull segments that can be used to increase the height of the hull.

Oh that's quite clever! It definitely feels like it could fit right in with the Rock Raiders theme, like the 1999 sets or the vehicles from the computer game.

Out of curiosity... why are the sitcom sets the "epitome" of that? Star Wars fans have been doing that for years... for every adult Lego Star Wars builder that MOCs, there's probably dozens or even hundreds of similar "casual fans" who buy the ships they want and leave them as-is. Kid buyers and their parents are of course still Lego's core audience—including for themes like Ninjago. The older fans you derisively call "most of the fan base" are in fact an outlier, not unlike every other AFOL community—the "target audience" for themes like that is still kids, many of whom are more or less invisible to the AFOL community due to rightfully not being as online at that age. You don't see their impact for the same reason you don't see the massive child audiences for themes like City or Duplo. I've been thinking that one of the main things this topic is observing has less to do with a change in the types of people buying Lego and more in a change of what the visible "community" looks like. Back in the day, hobbyist forums like this one were the main public space to discuss Lego online. That didn't mean that the online community in those days was wholly representative of the kinds of people buying Lego, of course, just that those were the types of people who had the will to form or seek out that sort of community. In the modern day, social media discussion has grown to dwarf that as a venue for discussing Lego, and includes more of the sorts of casual fans who previously might never have sought out a Lego-specific community like this even if they bought sets. This includes the kind of buyers who still enjoy building sets, and posting pictures of their purchases and completed builds, but don't really engage with the hobby or its fanbase much beyond that. And that portion of the buying audience is probably expanding, as Lego learns to market more toward adults including those who enjoy a set or two as an occasional diversion, but don't have the time or space to make it into a full-on hobby the way AFOLs who have their own dedicated Lego room are able to. That doesn't mean they're neglecting their core audience of kids, it just means a greater recognition of how broad the Lego buying audience can be.

Finally got around to building my family's copy of the set this past week. We did take the suggestion from this forum (I forget which specific member made it, apologies for not giving credit!) of adding an exterior door under the grand staircase so that the hotel staff can take trash out to the dumpster without going all the way around the building. I used a brown door frame (which works well with the visible brown bricks above it where the staircase connects to the wall) but haven't quite decided what kind of door would be best for an unassuming exit like that—perhaps something like a featureless door in a color like grey? Either way I'll probably have to order something since I don't actually have a ton of 4x6 doors that aren't currently built into MOCs or sets. Overall I'm still really impressed with this build, its architecture, and the geometry that makes it work. I'm not totally without criticisms (the addition of a back door was an easy fix, but that corner where you can see the interior wall color on the roof level could still use a little work), but all in all there was never a dull moment in the build and I felt like I learned a lot of neat techniques building it. We'll probably keep it displayed on its own for a while before moving it to the living room to connect it with some of our other recent modulars.

Very neat idea! I've been wanting Mei to have a mech ever since the season one finale, and this is a great idea of how to realize that. The color scheme and a lot of the details are great. If I had a critique, the wings in particular are huge and distract a lot from the rest of the build—and, subjectively, I wonder if they're even an appropriate feature for a mech for Mei given that traditional Chinese dragons don't actually have broad wings like European ones do. Some subtler wings, fins, or jet boosters of some sort might make more sense thematically and allow more of the rest of the build to stand out. By the way, what design software are you using? Currently Stud.io does include the blade/energy pieces (65184) that you intend to use for the sword. Replacing your substitution for that might give a better idea of whether the weapon is appropriately sized for a mech like this (which I worry might look too short and broad with two of those blade parts compared to the longer, thinner blade pieces you currently use. Using just one of those blade pieces instead of two with a central "core" might scale better to this.

No set number is because technically this is more of a Lego-licensed activity book with parts included rather than a "set" as such, sort of like the "Build Your Own Adventure" books Lego and AMEET have produced for other themes in the past. You can see more information here: https://www.ameet.eu/lego-books/ameet-lego-books-2022-publishing-program/ And yeah, though the pics are preliminary they likely give an idea of what this will include—probably no new parts or prints but an assortment of existing parts with a book full of inspirational models and instructions. It's just something that's supposed to be fun for kids and help to get them building creatively. Not something worth being bitter about because it's not a whole new theme.

According to a fan-subbed copy of that episode that aquatic villain is apparently meant to be .EDIT: added a bit more set speculation to my post (under spoilers).

So the new season of the show is out in China! There's a couple things that show up that feel almost certain to show up in the summer, and a few more that may or may not. I'm not going to spoil the overall plot (heck, since it's only in Chinese so far there's a couple plot points I'm not yet clear on myself), but I do want to discuss the possibilities of future sets, so if you want to be totally spoiler-free, don't click below:

Respect has to be earned. You could start by showing some yourself, and not assuming negligence or malice on the part of Lego's designers just because you aren't personally getting what you want out of the brand. I grew up as a Bionicle fan, for goodness' sake. I'm very familiar with themes I enjoy getting cancelled outright, and have the cognizance to recognize that no matter how much I personally liked them, my own personal convictions about what is good and high quality and enjoyable don't necessarily mean that those things will actually be financially successful in the wider marketplace. Heck, even Lego's designers can't guarantee success even when they put their best effort forward. Sometimes the timing isn't right, or the many aspects of launching a new theme don't end up fitting together as well as expected. If there were any perfect formula for success, there wouldn't be failures in the first place. You brought up Vidiyo, which is a perfect example—despite an immense amount of design work on both the physical and digital end of things, it failed to capture an audience. That doesn't mean it shouldn't have been tried, of course, because you can't just lean on what worked 30 years ago and assume that it will work just as well for today's kids. Lego has to try new things, constantly, in order to stay relevant and be able to catch lightning in a bottle when an opportunity arises. If they didn't, you wouldn't see themes that fail like Vidiyo—but you also wouldn't see massive successes like Ninjago, or Friends, or the Modular Buildings or Winter Village sets, that were able to bring something new to the table and turn it into a long-term, reliable pillar of Lego's portfolio. In the trains category, that has included experimenting with popular licenses for something like the Disney Train or recently re-attempting a standalone, high-detail adult-targeted train set with the Crocodile Locomotive. Whether you want to admit it or not, these are all earnest attempts at revitalizing a category of set that is no longer nearly as broadly popular as it was at its peak, and trying to make it successful for new audiences. What's successful will likely be followed up on. What isn't can be put aside until there's enough change in the culture or expectations of the audience to make it worth attempting again. It's not a fast process, but just because you aren't personally satisfied with it doesn't mean the effort isn't there.

Okay, let me try to explain this to you in a simple way even though it increasingly feels like talking to a brick wall. The people managing business matters like the VIP system or a potential subscription service aren't the same people as the designers. I know a lot of designers personally. They're creative, passionate people, more often than not former AFOLs themselves and with a lot of the same nostalgia for old themes as you or I have. If they had a foolproof idea for how to make those older themes sell as well as a newer theme or product category, they wouldn't hesitate to make that a reality (and they often do work aspects of that nostalgia into their set designs, when they have the chance). But the reality of what actually sells well doesn't always conform to your nostalgia, and just because you're extra loud and annoying about what you want doesn't make you more important than other buyers. They aren't neglecting their "core base" by coming up with new things like road plates—the reality is that you aren't their "core base" and haven't been since you were in the 4–16 age range. And whining about how it shows that big daddy Lego hates you and has abandoned you? Well, despite making it seem like you have the maturity level of an eight-year-old, it's not going to change the fact that you're no longer representative of the majority of Lego buyers. Saying that having a smartphone in the room is going to be the death knell of Lego trains isn't exactly a strong argument for their current relevance. Themes like Ninjago, Friends, Technic or City don't struggle to appeal to kids despite the near omnipresence of smartphones in their lives these days. If a train creates enough annoyance that a kid would abandon them for the allure of Candy Crush, that might just mean it's not a very appealing toy anymore. That said, do I believe that's actually the case? No. People have been warning that video games and computers would be the death knell of toys like Lego since I was a kid 20 years ago, and yet Lego is bigger and more successful than ever. Smartphones are more than just distraction machines—they allow kids to share their accomplishments, look up tips and ideas related to their favorite hobbies, and connect with peers at a level that simply wasn't possible when I was a kid. Those are all things that can enhance, not just dilute, a kid's passion for Lego. For train fans, having a smartphone means that if they ran into a trouble running their trains they could simply look up troubleshooting tips as easy as a Google search instead of just accepting that it doesn't work and abandoning it, or having to rely on a parent who may or may not actually have a better understanding of how to fix an issue with their trains.