Lyichir

Oh, you're right! Thank you for the correction. I don't have any of those so I didn't recognize it!

I know a lot of spacers are generally less excited by trans clear than by colorful windscreens, but I couldn't help but be intrigued by the large 6x10 Jedi Interceptor windscreen used for the Chang'e Moon Cake Factory. I think this might be the first time we've gotten this newer version in a transparent color without printing. I think the trans orange 8x8 bubble windscreen on the bunny mech is also new in that color, which could be nice for Mars Mission MOCs. I could be wrong but I also think the Nexo Knights-style helmets (with the "scoop" at the top) are new in white in the Galactic Explorer set? In Nexo Knights the white knight (Lance) used a standard helmet.

So another fun little easter egg I noticed is the bunny mech being labeled "3708": https://brickset.com/sets/3708-1/Rufus-Rabbit The little bunny zooming around a mooncake logo that evokes the classic space logo is also cute! I love the spacey rabbit and carrot motifs. Macaque now has a new hair piece that actually has six visible ears! And there are six ears built onto his mech, too. Minifigure Sandy in the mech set looks great too, and dispels any worries I might've had that it'd be hard for me to adjust to him no longer being a bigfig. Nezha's Fire Ring set looks epic and I LOVE the idea of a giant wheel bike using the roller coaster track. Macaque's speeder there looks neat too, as does Lady Bone Demon's throne. The Galactic Explorer set continues to look amazing and I like the rear thruster now that we have a better look at it. I'm glad that Pigsy comes in a spacesuit in the Chang'e set so we can get the whole crew in that costume change. And the City of Lanterns... just WOW! I love how they managed to keep the consistent modular format of the buildings from the first year's sets and turn that into a vertical layout with a elevated train and everything! There's so many great details and easter eggs.

Yeah, Bionicle has a long legacy and a passionate fanbase but it's been a long and meandering road for it compared to many other less experimental themes. And you're right that these days System-based action figures or mechs seem to be the current trend (aided in part by the proliferation of things like sloped details for shaping and things like joints and brackets that can allow for both articulation and rigidity in ways that used to be more or less unachievable without more rigid limb parts and Technic connections). When the anniversary poll went up I honestly never expected a set based on the Bionicle building system (either the classic one or the refined CCBS system). Both systems rely heavily on parts that are out of production and would be unlikely to be brought back for a one-off anniversary set. More likely in my eyes if it won at all would be something like a System-based tribute set, such as a figure or mask sculpture or possibly an articulated System-based figure (the likeliest candidate for that being the Mata Nui robot that never appeared in set form but was central to the original theme's saga in a very literal sense, and had a visual aesthetic that was probably better suited to a System build than a Technic one anyway). It remains to be seen what Lego opts for for the anniversary set. I would think something easier to adapt faithfully like Space or Castle would be more likely than Bionicle regardless of how it did in the poll, but a part of me wouldn't rule it out entirely. If nothing else its performance in the poll could signal to Lego the viability of some sort of tribute set even if this particular anniversary set doesn't end up being the place for it.

This is sweet! As fun as "neo-Classic" interpretations of older factions can be, it's always fun to see MOCs that embrace the inherent "blockiness" of the original era of sets. Despite using some newer parts for details (and to help enable such a unconventional 45 degree ship design in the first place), this feels like it'd fit right in with other Space Police 1 sets. The photo is great too—the stark lighting and simple dark gradient backdrop also help to sell that retro look!

There hasn't been any reveal for the 90th anniversary set yet and we may not get that reveal until next year. Aside from that, rumored sets for next year include another space subtheme of City, at least one space-related set in Friends, and at least one (already revealed) spaceship for Monkie Kid.

A Mario Movie CMF wouldn't be totally unlikely, especially given that the cast list we have so far suggests the movie will feature a very broad range of characters to potentially be made into minifigures (not just Mario mainstays like Peach, Toad, and Bowser but also deeper pulls like Cranky Kong and Foreman Spike). A CMF series might also be easier to adapt some of those versions of the characters into than the very game-ified expansion packs. Of course, depending on how certain characters like Bowser or Donkey Kong are depicted, they might not fit neatly into a CMF (since they could very easily have bigfig-esque proportions compared to Mario & co.). But even then, it's possible that a complementary D2C set could still help cover most of the bases (sort of like the Simpsons and Disney series got).

Sitting here thinking about how pissed off a lot of Bionicle fans would be if there turned out to be a Bionicle anniversary set that was only available as an employee gift... I would guess that neither Ninjago, HP, or Bionicle theming would be the most likely though, given that beyond often celebrating milestones the employee gifts for the past four years have also been unambiguously Christmas-themed. Ninjago and Bionicle haven't really had anything holiday-themed in the past and on the flip side of the coin Harry Potter has had SO much Christmas-themed stuff this year that I'm not sure what they'd do for a larger employee gift set that'd feel special or unique. I could obviously be wrong... a "Santa Wu" would really only need a Santa suit and red conical hat, so if they wanted to do something like a Bounty-inspired sleigh pulled by a dragon it'd probably be pretty easy to whip something impressive up for employees.

I don't watch a TON of Lego videos on YouTube unless there are video reviews, and even those I often watch without sound just to get better angles on parts of the build when new sets come out. That said, I did start following Tiago Catarino for his awesome build videos! Tiago is a former Lego set designer and his various tutorials are some of the best I've seen in terms of simple and effective builds you can use in your own MOCs. His set reviews are also great—a nice thing about set reviews from a former Lego designer is that his critiques tend to be more informed about the kinds of constraints set designers have to work with than your average run-of-the-mill reviewer. Another set designer who has their own channel is grohl666 (Milan Reindl), a current Technic designer who does fantastic alternate builds—often of the Technic sets he's designed but also branching out to other themes like Ninjago or Nexo Knights on occasion. EB's own Sariel also has a great channel when it comes to Technic reviews. I'm sort of a casual Technic fan at best so it's great to see reviews of new sets from somebody who has a better grasp of how effective various builds and functions are. As a bonus, most if not all of Sariel's reviews come with adorable pet cameos!

Yeah, I was kind of wondering about that rumor since IIRC I don't think Lego typically reveals sets on weekends unless there's some sort of specific event that merits a reveal on that date. I'm hoping for more set reveals next week, especially for themes like Ninjago and Monkie Kid.

There's certain animals like that that'd be very hard to have exist in any reasonable scale with minifigures (other than maybe as a print on a tile or something). I think with those (and others like the spider) there's also an element of the design where the point of them in a many sets is to be scary or creepy—so having them bigger than they would be in reality doesn't really hurt that appeal in many cases. Arguably that's sort of the case for the skunk too—I think if it'd been smaller it wouldn't have necessarily have felt like as much of a challenge for the animal handler it came with to catch.

There's a lot of reasons why those two situations aren't really comparable, but first and foremost the fact that Ninjago is a children's cartoon and toyline is reason enough not to unceremoniously kill off one of their main characters just because their voice actor passed away unexpectedly. Similarly I don't expect Nya to be written out of the story either, since it'd be pretty shitty to eliminate the single female character in the main cast. Most likely she will return at least in some capacity, much like Zane did after his sacrifice in season 3.

Oh man, this sounds great! It might not actually be the Friends going INTO space (though I wouldn't 100% rule it out). But growing up as a space-obsessed kid in the '90s one of my childhood dreams was to go to "Space Camp" (a sort of kids program with NASA in Florida where they put you through mock training exercises and other activities), and I've long hoped that the Friends theme could feature a subtheme along those lines! For a little bit of context, in the current Lego Friends storyline, Olivia's main interests are science and tech, and her dad (who is separated from her mom) is an astronaut. So there's definitely groundwork in place to integrate a space-related storyline!

The question is, does that demand scale? 10,000 is an exceptionally small number of sets compared to an actual Lego set (heck, it's the minimum number of supporters for an Ideas project to even be considered). And the fact that the kinds of hardcore fans who would even know the Bricklink designer program exists would quickly buy such a thing is far from a guarantee that mass audiences would do the same, especially given that many parts of the world where Lego does business don't even HAVE Lego brand retail stores. I would certainly be interested in a large-scale Lego store set if one were to be released—but this particular model, with the constraints it's under, doesn't quite meet my standards.

January.

All those potential anniversaries PLUS the movie... it'll be interesting to see where Lego's focus goes. I suppose it's possible that the six sets listed now aren't the be-all and end-all of what'll be released in the second half of the year. If I had to guess, I'd think Mario Kart would be more likely to get sets while Sunshine, Galaxy, and Odysseywould be less likely (Sunshine and Odyssey being a somewhat less conventional entries in the series aesthetic-wise and Galaxy having mechanics that don't necessarily translate to physical play that well). Then again, I never would've guessed we'd get Luigi's Mansion sets as soon as we did, so who knows? In terms of specific sorts of sets, I still think a Peach's Castle is fairly likely—especially given that Bowser's Castle is retiring. A Peach's Castle would be an opportunity to release Peach and possibly include a new Bowser as well. In terms of potential D2C sets, it's anyone's guess. The two D2C sets so far haven't really followed any sort of pattern, other than specifically NOT using the same gameplay as the rest of the sets (both can use Lego Mario, but in different ways from the other sets). One possibility that comes to mind (that could potentially tie in well with the Mario movie) would be a large Mario sculpt sort of like the Classic Mickey and Minnie from last year. But again, it could be anything. Now for the longest long-shot guess: Wario starter set (with Wario in his classic look) and a WarioWare set or sets (with his biker outfit from those games). If a new starter set were to come out like it has the past two years, Wario would probably be the most likely option for another digi-fig who could be compatible with the existing suits. And recently I got to play the new WarioWare game, which made me picture how that sort of rapid-fire gameplay could potentially work with the digi-figs (sort of a Simon Says-style gameplay where you have to perform certain actions with Wario on a timer). That said... I don't know for certain whether I'd even expect a third starter set, given that two-player gameplay is already possible with the existing two and adding additional players could offer diminishing returns.

The color scheme of these new snakes reminds me (positively) of some similarly colored Bionicle sets from back in the day. The metallic colors used for them could probably make these heads great for metal statuary or sculpture in MOCs (sort of like how the recent Chamber of Secrets set in the Harry Potter theme used grey and trans-green recolors of the hooded version).

Oh man, personally I love the look of that alien—the face (with stalk eyes and a mouth where the face would normally be) feels very low-budget retro sci-fi, in a good way. The lack of a helmet in purple is a slight bummer, but I feel like the distinctiveness of an alien crewmate makes up for it. And who knows? A purple helmet could wind up coming in a theme like Friends before long for all we know (sort of like how the Ninjago Prime Empire sets introduced an "unbroken" blue classic space helmet). The robot is quite cute, as well. I feel like this is the first time in a while that we've seen that robot arm used—and IIRC maybe the first to have it in a non-metallic color. And I love that tiny robot buddy, who reminds me positively of the old Lego Star Wars pit droids and the funny way they walk.

Yeah, sets that can combine and expand are great! And the new road plates are a good opportunity to facilitate that going forward, with sets that complement each other being able to be arranged side by side. For instance, I'm quite eager to see what the first post-road plate train sets look like, and how they factor that new form of compatibility into connecting layouts. However, I'm not entirely sure whether it'd be entirely practical the way they describe (with major facilities like fire or police stations being able to be combined with future versions). Releasing two sets that connect alongside each other is fairly easy, but designing a set that can be expanded and committing to that feature year after year even if it means doing that instead of other non-compatible options isn't always the best course of action—and unlike a simultaneous release, the audience who will actually be able to take full advantage of the combining feature decreases over time as older sets retire. For things like police and fire stations, you'd also have to factor in that some "essential" features might quickly become redundant when combining multiple "flagship" stations—features like helipads and fire poles may test well with kids but how many would a realistic "combined" station really need? Ultimately it might be smarter to stick with designing each iteration of those staple facilities on its own merits first and foremost—older or more skilled builders will still probably be able to find ways to combine the features they like with a bit of old-school rebuilding.

Good review! Regarding storage for the swords, some of the alternate pictures of the set show that they can be rested on the back of the crypt section (with the blades resting between the Technic connectors and large curved slopes, and the crossguards sort of hanging on the Technic angle connectors). It's not the most polished storage solution, but it does get them out of the way if you have the mech separated or just want it to fight bare-handed.

Sand Green sort of seems like it'd cover that "muted light green" territory a bit? Though it's not as close to matching the hue of olive green in the same way that, say, Medium Azure matches Dark Azure. So I could see how another color in that range could be beneficial.

I do build with real bricks from time to time—and even when building digitally I like to restrict myself to what's actually available most of the time. That said, I understand the frustration—but I don't really know if that's an issue that can or should be "solved". I've always treated the substitution process—finding an alternative to a certain part or color that doesn't yet exist—to be an essential part of that kind of building. Realistically, I don't really expect that filling out every "basic" part in a particular color would ever be realistic given the wide range of parts that could be considered "basic" (with new ones introduced every year, making filling in those gaps an almost Sisyphean task). To achieve that, Lego would probably have to prioritize "common" parts and colors over newer or more unusual ones, which almost paradoxically would lessen the impact of each new recolor (since a new recolor in an uncommon color or part type has a dramatically bigger impact on the building possibilities with that part or color than a new recolor for a part that already is available in many other colors, or a new part in a color that has less part selection available). And even if that were ever done somehow, I feel like it'd have the unintended consequence of compromising one of the main draws of new sets for MOCists (that being a selection of new parts and recolors that hadn't seen use before that point). Granted, I suppose my ambivalence to that issue in a broad sense might have something to do with the fact that I often prefer to work on sci-fi or fantasy builds, rather than building things from real life or an existing IP. When you're building something entirely from your head, it's far easier to come up with creative solutions to design challenges of that sort instead of being stymied by situations where only one suitable part would be "accurate".

There are currently four solid pink colors (Light Purple, Bright Purple, Magenta and Coral) and three purples (Lavender, Medium Lavender, and Medium Lilac). There's also one transparent pink and one transparent purple. I really fail to see how that's too many, especially when you consider that substituting one of those for a lighter or darker shade dramatically changes the look of a figure or model, and the use of multiple shades together can often be necessary for parts or prints that require monochrome pink or purple detailing. There are certainly more blues than those: Bright Blue, Medium Blue, Dark Blue, Medium Azure, Dark Azure, Sand Blue, and Light Royal Blue for solid colors, and Trans. Light Blue and Trans. Blue for transparent colors. Arguably Bright Bluish Green and Aqua also count as blue, though both of those get closer to the green side of the spectrum. Cutting some of these from Lego's color palette is arguably possible, though again, you'd have to keep in mind that having that variety allows for a wide variety of complementary color schemes and that several of the blues function as tints or shades of the others that can be essential for certain types of builds or printed decorations. Blue is also an incredibly versatile color range, considering how it stands in for all water, all sky, and a wide range of flowers in nature, not to mention the wide range of blues used in art, fashion, and design. I don't really get why so many people seem so opposed to the color palette being as broad as it is. Back in the day Lego's color palette was indeed overly large, in no small part due to the fact that colors would often be introduced for one or two uses and never used again. That's not really the case anymore—nowadays most colors typically have a wide range of parts associated with them out of the gate, and there's very few current colors that I think are completely superfluous. People often bring up the bizarre (to me) objection that every part (or "basic part", however that's defined) should be available in every color? But I have no idea where that notion comes from. It certainly hasn't been the case for Lego since the very earliest days. And while it is occasionally frustrating to not have a part available in a particular color, having every part available in every color would not only be impractical unless you pared down the number of parts AND colors alike to the barest minimum. And even if you did so, you would simply be eliminating the potential for growth (since releasing new recolors is a significant way in which Lego can make new sets stand out and be desirable even to those who already have a substantial collection).

I do generally prefer individualized outfits, but a uniform spacesuit design works for me, especially if not all of the sets are space-focused and the characters still get different updated outfits in some of the other sets (which I suspect is likely to be the case, given the quest narrative teased at the end of the most recent season of the show). Matching outfits for a one-off mission seems fine to me, considering that the same tends to be the case with real-world space missions. It's a little bit of a shame that this set doesn't include Pigsy (who even with matching spacesuits would need a different printed leg piece since he's shorter), but I suppose the fact that his head wouldn't fit in a helmet would also pose an issue.

Very nice! It sort of surprises me that the Lego Art theme hasn't done anything like this yet—the 16 x 16 bases are perfect for SNES-era sprites. But that does increase my desire to get the open-ended Art Project set, which will be my first Lego Art set (since few of the others have interested me enough to justify the price tag).