Lyichir

Sure, I'll give it a try! Seems to work great! Thank you so much!

Yup, exploration vehicles like this can get pretty darn big due to lacking the need to go on regular roads or rails. Though they do end up looking a little silly side-by-side. Incidentally, the designer of the new train station set has notes on its design on their Bricklist. Like I figured, the design was meant to give the station a sense of age by featuring historic architecture with modern expansions (an approach I've seen more and more in architecture lately—there are some good examples in this article). The execution here is a good deal simpler than many of those dramatic real-world examples, but then again, architecture in the City theme generally tends to have to be simplified somewhat to keep it easily buildable by young age groups.

I mean, the reality is that larger sets have more room for extra figures and accessories and more budget for recolors beyond what's strictly necessary for the main characters/build, which typically makes them more likely to be able to fit "fanservice" elements into them than with smaller sets. And large set or small set, Pick-a-Brick typically becomes an option a couple months after release for non-licensed parts in regular sets.

Hard to say, especially since both look quite frayed (likely due to heavy wear, whether real or not). Lego has varied the material of capes over the years as well, with a firmer, more starched material used in the past but a stretchier material used for some recent sets in themes like Super Heroes.

I love getting new windscreens in trans pink and trans purple, one of these days I'll motivate myself to come up with some more Lego Movie 2 "Systar System" MOCs since I loved the aesthetic of that faction.

Apparently the June Build-a-Mini figs will include Dreamzzz themed figures again, and this time Mr. Oz has a light royal blue/bright light blue Classic Space torso (the one that had been rumored for the cancelled Game Island Tower set). Doesn't look like helmet or airtanks are included, but if the arrival of dark blue helmet and airtanks this year is any indication we might expect those at some point too (at which point it'll be a great opportunity for those who have opted to take the "Everyone is Awesome" set and make it space-themed).

Yeah, since sticker sheets are printed/cropped at certain sizes, printing extra on them doesn't add much expense/complexity (at least when you're not adding any additional print colors that would need to be aligned and applied separately). Especially when the stickers have fun logos like the ones in the Star Wars set the OP listed, kids are pretty likely to find their own uses for the stickers if they don't need them as a backup for the set itself (either on other Lego parts or just to decorate papers/folders/etc. like they might with non-Lego stickers). Recently they've started doing that sometimes in modern themes, where some sets in themes like Dreamzzz, Ninjago, and Hidden Side have had "bonus" stickers to apply wherever and however you like (on these modern sticker sheets where the stickers are numbered, these are marked with a "+" sign instead).

Sometimes it takes multiple smaller steps to get to a design like this. It looks like this might be designed to complement that earlier piece, looks like they'd fit together seamlessly, so you could use the earlier version if you needed an central axle hole combined with this newer one for a more seamless dome on the front. The transparent color these new ones come in also makes me wonder if these could work as headlight covers on any sort of model.

Impossible to tell for the outfit, but even if they kept the torso the same I was thinking they might give her an updated face print like they had for her appearance in Castle Nocturnia. The tower itself looks like it would've been fun too, with a spiral coaster around a tower with angled screens/advertisements. Neon Yellow would've been a fun color for the coaster track.

Are you sure? I think I see Mrs. Castillo there, who is not in any of the other sets this wave (and would likely have had a new design like the other characters). Definitely a shame that this didn't get released. I'd love to someday see better pictures of this, ideally including both builds (assuming that like other Dreamzzz sets it'd have at least two configurations that you could build it in).

Yeah, these are molding marks. Often on parts with solid studs like basic bricks and plates they appear on one of the studs (so very easily hidden), but they tend to be especially common on the sides of parts without studs or with only hollow studs. Once you've learned where on a part they tend to be, you can often try to hide them by facing them toward where other parts cover them—but try not to get too obsessive over it, because there's only so much you can do. Lego also sometimes revises molds to try to make these marks less obtrusive. Currently I've noticed a change like this taking place with 1x1 tiles, with some parts featuring the molding mark on the side but other parts using a newer mold that hides it in the center of the underside. These sorts of running changes don't happen all at once, so I've noticed that some colors have already changed over while others (which are probably working from inventory produced earlier or at a different facility) have yet to make the change.

Video reviews of the new sets are starting to come out. Most exciting to me is the better look at the interior of the Temple Bounty, including plenty of easter eggs (including a "Ninpla" box of Kai's Climber Mech like the ones from the Ninjago City Workshops, and lots of stickered details on the walls). I do feel like, as great as the interior is, it's a little bit of a shame that only two hammocks are included, but of course compromises have to be made even for a ship as sizeable as this one. Very much looking forward to this set—I passed on the last Bounty, but this one truly feels like something special.

Noticed in a review of the Ninjago Temple Bounty set that it has the 3M Technic liftarm with center axle hole in light bley, the first color it's been in other than white.

I like the helmet choice for the Kraken knights—not only does it look cool with the scarf covering the mouth, but it's also sort of fitting for a faction based on a Norse legend to use viking helmets. The teal and copper/brown also makes for a really distinctive color scheme that doesn't overlap too much with other existing factions/heraldry. I kind of want to try to come up with some MOCs for this fresh new faction, which isn't actually that common an experience for me as a more casual castle fan! The Griffin knights excite me a little less—the silver and dark red works fine but also feels like a slightly generic "good guy" faction. Not that that's bad in and of itself (it makes me slightly nostalgic for a thoroughly mediocre Mega Bloks castle I had as a kid), but it inspires me a little less than the Kraken knights. Which is ironic, because the Griffin was actually my top choice in the poll and the Kraken my least favorite!

Gold was one of my preferences (due to both feeling like a "special" option instead of bloating the number of "regular" colors, and due to gold parts like airtanks being an interesting color for other genres like steampunk). I like the way the final fig looks and I feel like swapping the head for a plain gold one would make a great-looking statue (sort of like the white one from Space Police III). Teal was one that I was less keen on due to expanding the palette of spaceperson colors from primary (red, yellow, blue) and secondary (green, purple, orange) into tertiary colors (halfway between green and blue). Nonetheless in general it's a color I'm fond of and the fig does look good in it. I will say that the spacepeople are some of the least interesting ones in the set to me, taking up four whole slots with figs that barely vary from one another compared to the greater variety offered for, say, the castle figs (which get two knights of each distinct faction with different weapons and faces). I get that this is a consequence of the choice to offer both the winners and runners up of the poll, with classic space having been the chosen theme for Space, but nevertheless it is a bit regrettable that Classic Space gets the whole spotlight instead of another space theme maybe getting to share it.

Copper Metallic (the "pearl" copper from Hands of Time) is discontinued, but Copper Ink (the ink color used for printed/coated parts) is not—this is probably the latter. I never realized/thought of using the ninja scarf pieces with the Viking helmet before! Helps to give the Kraken knights an air of mystery.

Hm... with the official pics showing that the astronaut is more of a departure from the other space sets, I'm feeling less pressure to get this one. I do like the tower crane and the subway car build (including the graffiti stickers, they're a cute, realistic detail for an urban setting and aren't going to actually convince kids to pull out a can of spray paint and break the law any more than sets with bank robberies are going to convince them to rob a bank).

This is quite lovely! The solution you've come up with for the balloon construction is quite complex but the end result is beautifully seamless.

I feel like while more figs might've made the value proposition a little better for some collectors, I can't really see where other minifigures would "fit" without weakening the design composition as a whole. Keeping the whole thing focused on Gandalf in the foreground and the larger Balrog in the background makes for a much stronger, more interesting composition than if you'd had to find room for other baddies or members of the Fellowship in the limited space provided by the "book nook" format.

Oh yeah, in that sense Bricklink Designer program would definitely be more profitable for larger sets (at least as long as the limited quantity of each set continues to sell out consistently). Sorry for misinterpreting.

I'm not sure that first paragraph is fully accurate. Larger sets do cost more and have more profit per unit, but smaller sets are produced and sold in much higher quantities overall, and often through more retail channels, so it's not quite as simple as "full production run of large sets makes more profit than full production run of small sets." As far as promotion is concerned, it is true that big sets make a bigger impact when it comes to impressing people in store windows and shelves, drawing more customers in to buy big and small sets alike. Of course, another aspect of Lego's own promotion is that the largest sets are the ones that tend to be exclusive to Lego Brand Retail, making promoting those a big deal for those "official" channels—the sets promoted by other retailers or through mass-market avenues like TV advertising often favor mid-size sets more. Large projects getting more attention on Lego Ideas/Bricklink Designer Program is indeed something I'd consider a bit of an issue. It's not universal an issue for Lego Ideas, which gets plenty of projects past the review goal and lets Lego make the final call on what gets approved (which to this day includes a mix of larger and smaller builds, with the Pixar lamp being a recent example of a smaller project). But Bricklink Designer Program definitely seems to attract more support for large builds. I think a part of this is not just bigger builds impressing people more, but also the limited, individual approval process for these sorts of sets—if a set making it through the process only guarantees that one set, it can be tempting for fan creators to try to cram as many of the details they would want into one build. This is less of an issue for Lego's own designers, who can either get a whole theme order at once or can otherwise limit the size of sets in the hopes that strong sales will result in follow-ups. So the fierce competition of Ideas/BDP themselves contributes toward the trend toward larger builds.

I really like this! The color variation to simulate dramatic lighting is really cool, and helps keep the architecture from feeling as repetitive as it would if it was all grey. The Balrog itself has some really nice shaping and looks especially great with the much smaller Gandalf in the foreground. I've not gotten any Lord of the Rings sets in ages, and don't typically collect most licensed themes, but I DO have the books on my bookshelf, which makes a companion piece designed for shelves like this a little tempting...

Just was looking at the upcoming City set pictures and noticed that the dump truck that comes in the Tow Truck sets uses flat-topped treasure chests in black. First time for the flat lid to come in black, and the first time the treasure chest bottom has come in black in ten years.

Birdo or Koopa Troopa would work great (as would several other characters who are yet to appear in Mario Kart sets like Toadette or Dry Bones) but a character like Bowser Jr. could maybe be a bit of a challenge due to his three-stud-wide footprint not adapting as effortlessly to the four-stud-wide connection points necessary for the karts to be compatible with digi-figs. That's an issue that affects several other characters as well, like Shy Guy, Diddy Kong, or a few of the Koopalings. I expect Yoshi was chosen for the Bowser's Castle set in part to have a clear "good guy" character to challenge Bowser himself on his "home turf".

I disagree with you about the quality of the set (I personally love it), but I could easily see it being less popular if for no other reason than Blacktron being less iconic/recognizable than Classic Space (running for fewer years and not getting boosts in popularity from things like The Lego Movie that keep Lego's "first" Space theme recognizable to modern audiences. That said, I also reckon Lego would factor that into their projections for the set's sales—which may have also informed the decision to keep this a limited release unlike the Galaxy Explorer's wide release for Lego's 90th anniversary.