Lyichir

In the time since my last post (while Eurobricks was down), my order for the Wario & King Boo set and the Castle Bowser set arrived! These two sets were at the top of my wishlist for the new wave but I'm looking forward to the other Mario Kart sets in the future. The Castle Bowser set is as great as I expected from the digital build and reviews—gorgeous from all angles, with great characters and a dynamic boss battle (Prince Florian, Wonder Bowser, and Wonder Bowser Jr. all look perfect). It is a shame that they opted for the already common Pink Yoshi here—as much as I love Pink Yoshi (they're my main in Smash!) and while I understand the desire to have a "hero" character for those who don't have digi-figs, Red, Yellow, or Light Blue Yoshi would've been a better fit since they actually appear in Wonder. In terms of digi-fig functionality I'm also growing a bit tired of the repetitive SMB3 Sky Land music being used for any flying vehicle Mario "pilots"... it was appropriate for its initial appearance in the Bowser's Airship set, but in a set like this I'd much prefer a song that's actually from Mario Wonder. I'd love to see other sets from Wonder in the future as well—a Poplin house would make a nice change of pace from the common Toad House sets, and the Flying Battleships from that game, with their eerie green fire and industrial aesthetic, would make a great accompaniment for Castle Bowser. For the Wario set, I really LOVE the Wario fig—the way he's sculpted makes him look so wonderfully squishy despite being made of hard plastic bricks. The leg piece is obviously quite specialized (even moreso than the ones used for the smaller Kongs, since Wario is the only character with pointed toes and a body this wide), but it works well as a sturdy base that can be easily attached to and separated from seats for digi-figs without risking Wario himself coming apart. Love his beefy arms, too, as well as his moustache piece—since the piece is so small and has a simple attachment point like a tile it's fun to put on other builds! I'd love to see a Waluigi in this style as well—I've already started brainstorming what one would be like on Stud.io, which is an interesting challenge given his lanky frame. King Boo is nothing especially new but I still love the blockiness of Lego Boos (them "adapting" to the medium of Lego like that reminds me of how Boos in other games often take on unique traits suited to their gameplay and aesthetic, like the wireframe Boos from Yoshi's Wooly World). The two karts are great as well—the Teddy Buggy is my favorite kart from Mario Kart 8 and looks good, while the Badwagon is both really good looking and has a nice feature to allow a digi-fig to either drive it alone or "copilot" it with Wario (which features Wario voice clips to accompany whichever character you use). All in all, a pair of great sets that have me inspired to try coming up with more MOCs! EDIT: Almost forgot to mention, I listened to the Mario Wonder soundtrack while I built the Castle Bowser set and it ended up timing out really nicely (getting to the end of the Bowser fight close to when I finished building). Might vary depending on how quickly/slowly you build, but I'd highly recommend trying that if you have the set and want to set the mood while you build!

Netflix released a video of Oda being introduced to the sets out so far: Very cute, though I can't help but feel a little heartbreak when I hear him say that he's been saving a bunch of sets "for retirement". I suppose the life of a weekly mangaka doesn't leave much time for other hobbies...

I THINK the body and legs are tan (like he's wearing a bodysuit under the wraps). Which isn't to say they don't still look awkward. I like the melty ghost, though. And it's nice that the black cat is coming back.

Wow, really impressive! The expression on the face is subtle but instantly readable. And the shaping of the rest is superb—I especially love the details like the jeans stitching. This sort of thing would make an amazing display for the window of a fashion store or something.

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.