Lyichir

I don't know any specific numbers (and I'm not sure whether they'd be available except in the case of highly limited edition products like con exclusives and other numbered collectibles) but a basic rule of thumb tends to be that smaller sets are typically produced and sold in greater numbers than bigger ones. Which makes sense—smaller sets are both cheaper to produce and ship in quantity than large ones (i.e. a pallet of small sets will contain way more individual products than a similarly sized pallet of large ones), and are affordable to a larger number of buyers.

As headlights, it'd probably fit fairly well behind the 3x5x3 panel that was used for headlights on the 2017 All Terrain Tow Truck (and as a windscreen on several smaller models). That part has a slightly frosted surface texture that might make the grid less obvious like you describe, at least a little bit.

Next year is likely to be a big year for Lego Super Mario, given that the Super Mario Bros. animated movie is coming out then. I fully expect to see quite a big assortment of sets to tie in with that, likely including a number of the classic characters (even ones from retiring sets). It's not unlike how several of the recent sets have included some of the same figures who debuted in the Wave 1 character packs (like the Spiny, Fuzzy, and Bullet Bill). Heck, the Swoop in the Wave 3 pack (and arguably the Boo, albeit with a different design) is an example of the reverse—a figure from an earlier set being rereleased as a standalone figure. Bowser in particular is almost certain to return in a later set in some form or another. If I had my preference, I wouldn't mind a set with Bowser in his "Koopa Clown Car", with Mario able to take his place in the clown car and swoop around like he can with the cloud from the starter set or the broom from the new airship. If they did release Bowser like that, it's entirely possible that his build would have to be modified to make him fit into the clown car properly.

It's just an anecdote but when I went to the Lego store near me two days ago, most of the new Ninjago sets on my wishlist (71738, 71754, 71755, and 71756) were all sold out less than halfway through the month of their release. The only one I was planning on getting that I was able to pick up there was 71753 Fire Dragon Attack. As always, anecdotes aren't necessarily indicative of a wider trend, but it certainly did surprise me that so many newly released sets from that one specific theme were out of stock already.

I don't really feel the same way. Yes, Legacy costumes repeat and new factions for the main story don't typically have as much variety as the early years of the theme did, but personally I don't particularly miss the days when there were dozens of unique villains to have to collect every year. Maybe I'd feel differently if I were just getting into the theme or if Ninjago was the only theme I was interested in, but with a massive collection already under my belt and several other themes that I'm interested in collecting, getting a new variant of each ninja, a new main villain, and one or two types of minion for them feels like plenty for me. Getting additional enemies, allies, or ninja variants is a nice bonus when it happens, but I don't really feel like I'm hurting for content. And I feel like with Ninjago waves being smaller and tighter, I'm actually interested in a greater percentage of what sets there are than I was back in earlier years, when certain sets felt like they were only worth it for the figs and others barely felt worth it at all, repeating a lot of their aesthetics and content from other sets.

Despite the disappointment of Monkie Kid being discounted and removed from shelves in the UK and Europe I'd hesitate to declare that that's internationally the case. I visited a U.S. store yesterday and while some older sets like the Roadster and Flaming Foundry were discounted (as you'd often expect for year-old sets), the sets from this year (both the earlier winter wave and the current summer wave) were still on shelves at their normal prices. The clearances seen in Europe may simply apply to that region, or they may be a decision being made on a store-by-store basis worldwide (as I've heard that there are certain European stores that have yet to make those changes, and conversely it's possible that certain U.S. stores may be clearancing the sets as well if they aren't performing well in those individual locations).

Ah, thank you! The troubleshooting instructions suggested that merely switching bluetooth off for five seconds and then back on would fix it, but clearly that's not enough (at least on the current iOS). Your solution did work!

Got a bunch of the new sets at the Lego store yesterday (though I somehow forgot to pick up the one with Luigi). Built the airship when I got home and WOW—it's really an amazing design. I love how solid it looks and feels in the "closed" state and how much it expands into a fully playable space that feels almost twice as long in the "open" state. And in terms of details, the exterior really feels on-par with the best of Lego pirate ship designs even with so much of the "interior" focused on playable elements. Unfortunately I've run into some technical difficulties updating Mario, which keeps me from trying out all the gameplay features (at least the parts of them that involve more than just the physical interactions). When I tried to update him Mario froze in a "..." state after rebooting him, and even when I did a factory reset and tried updating him again it ended up having the same issue. Does anybody have any advice? I might try calling Lego customer service to see if I can get some more direct help than what's on the troubleshooting page, but if that doesn't work I guess I'll just have to wait for a fix to be rolled out.

One possibility that could be sort of interesting could be a set that isn't minifigure scale—perhaps something like the recent "Hogwarts Icons" set with elements of a Chinese New Year dinner including a place setting, various food items, a red envelope, and other small gifts. Or even something like an elaborate lantern build sort of like the botanical collection sets.

This latest series of figures you've come up with is really interesting! I especially like the video game streamer! I'm curious, do you have any other views of the spaceship costume for the space boy? It's a little bit hard to grasp the full dimensionality of it from a front view alone. I also hope it's not too forward of me to gently critique the painter fig's design. It's clearly based on Frida Kahlo, which is a very nice reference, but referencing a real-world figure (especially one as radical and personal with her art as Kahlo) can be a bit precarious so the ways in which such references are made, if they are made at all, should be approached with care. I've seen a fair amount of criticism of how Kahlo's artwork has been commodified in recent years (especially how brands like Barbie have appropriated her image while removing challenging elements of it). Your figure, while incredibly well designed, seems to fall prey to some of the perceived offenses levied at some of those other brands—such as by omitting the subtle facial hair many of Kahlo's self-portraits included quite deliberately (in spite of, and perhaps even because of, how that might make people perceive her femininity). I'm not trying to imply that you had any intention of causing offense, or even that the choices you made were necessarily wrong—after all, sometimes, there is no clear-cut "right answer" when given a choice of how to represent a figure in Lego (a certain amount of abstraction being of course necessary when adapting anything to the cartoonish and iconic minifigure form). And since all of these designs are being done more as a creative exercise rather than a product being actually mass produced, the impact of any sort of perceived misrepresentation is much less than that of an actual major corporation like Mattel or Lego doing the same. But I feel like, as a designer, it's worth at least being aware of the potential pitfalls that come with representing a notable cultural or historic figure, and how the choices you make could be controversial, so that at least those choices can be made with full awareness of how they might be perceived. It's probably no coincidence that of the many CMFs Lego has produced, only a few of them have explicitly represented specific historical figures, given the complexity inherent to many real-life personalities.

As somebody with glasses, I didn't end up learning that I needed them until a couple years into school (I think second or third grade), so it doesn't seem that off to me for this younger Olivia to not have them yet! I also think the hairpieces aren't bad choices, feeling a little more "childlike" than the longer, more elaborately maintained hairdos the older Friends have (especially since some of those longer hair pieces would probably look quite out of scale on figs this size!)

Oh, you're probably right! I sometimes mix up those two stories. It's a wonderful holiday reference nonetheless (especially since it's one I don't recall seeing in a seasonal Lego set before).

I mean, it's possible the rumors are false. There's been no concrete "leaks" (as far as images of the set or distinct figures or prints, or published set information is concerned) as far as I'm aware. But it's not out of the realm of possibility that the rumors are true, either. The fact that Lego Mario set waves are generally far apart doesn't really have any bearing on a D2C set, since those more often than not release on a schedule independent of the main retail releases for themes.

While Peach's Castle doesn't necessarily appear as prominently in other games, it does appear in others, often with an interior loosely inspired by Mario 64. My favorite version of Peach's Castle is probably the original Paper Mario, which adapted a lot of the aesthetics of the Mario 64 version (including the sky-patterned wallpaper that becomes darker at the upper floors) but made it more "liveable" (so that it had features like bedrooms, a kitchen, a dining room, and a library, instead of just being a castle-sized portrait gallery). The version in Mario Odyssey is also gorgeous, despite the explorable interior being much smaller (mostly just the main foyer). I'm a little unsure what to expect for this set. I'd been hoping for a Peach's Castle that was compatible with the Lego Mario gameplay, and could be used for the beginning or end of a level. Something bigger than Mario's House but smaller than Bowser's Castle, with a sort of reduced interior (maybe adapting a few of the iconic Mario 64 rooms like the aquarium and Bob-omb Battlefield painting in the left and right turrets). But so far all of the rumors have described this as microscale, which is maybe more likely for an expert-level set but excites me slightly less since the idea of using it in the gameplay was a big part of what I was hoping for. I hope that maybe at least it will include a Princess Peach figure who is compatible with the Lego Super Mario gameplay—I came up with a sketch model of what a brick-built one could maybe look like that I posted to Twitter a while back:

These are just so cute! I love the mini-Friends in their little holiday outfits!

I can only hope the "brainwashing" bit wasn't aimed at builders like me who don't care about little spots of color, especially if it makes it easier to build... My comment that Lego might have considered vibrant color coding less essential for this part was related to how it's less easy to confuse for other pins. A traditional 3M pin looks an awful lot like a 2M pin on one side, so is a little easier to mix up with those (especially because small parts like pins are quite often bagged together in sets). This new part's long shape with no center ridge is harder to mistake for a 2M pin of any type—so it really only needs to be able to be obviously different from other 3M parts.

I think the 3M pin without friction might have used to be light bley in the early 2000s? I don't remember off the top of my head if those switched to tan from light grey before or after the big color shift. In the modern day, though, Lego has generally been pretty good with not overlapping colors and sizes of parts much especially in the small 2M/3M sizes (which I know is divisive but personally as a builder I do appreciate).

Well, the more apt comparison would be the tan one, since this also seems to lack friction ridges. But yeah, a basic color like light bley is nice. I expect Lego felt like it didn't need vivid color coding as much since its shape seems less easy to confuse with other 3M or 2M pins.

This is interesting... The biggest advantage I seem to see is that it doesn't seem to have "notches" along its length, meaning you could potentially fit liftarms or other parts with thickness 1/2 - 1 - 1 - 1/2 in an arrangement like that.

Cole's suit, as is often the case, likely varied things up from the others because if it didn't add a secondary color like orange for the arms, the black of the suit would blend in too much with other black details (in this case, the airtanks and rebreather). I'm not sure what the problem you see with Kai's is... it seems to fit in fine with the others to me. And I'm certainly glad all six ninja got these suits even if they opted not to use some in the show (I wish they could have done the same in Prime Empire so I could have a Zane to display with the others).

Nice! I only made one extremely minor mod to the Bone Demon mech, swapping out the 2x2 jumper on top of the crypt for a slightly more stable 2x2 tile with two studs. That way when the mech is assembled, Lady Bone Demon can be a bit more secure there which helps for positioning the hinged sections on the head.

Nice! The Seabound sets (as well as the summer Legacy sets) don't come out until the start of next month in the States—needless to say I'm greatly looking forward to them. The underwater suits seem to look great "in the brick"!

How much space is there in there? I feel like to even with all three connected together, you probably couldn't fit something MMV-sized in without it looking quite oversized compared to the outside walls. I think a big 18+ set would probably be better suited to either a standalone castle build of sorts or another big medieval building to complement this year's Blacksmith Shop (perhaps something like a tavern and inn, or a mill and bakery). If they wanted to make something to complement the Creator 3-in-1 set it'd probably be more fitting for that to be a 3-in-1 set with a similar target age range as well.

Internal parts aren't usually new or exclusive recolors (it'd be a bit pointless to waste a budgeted color change on something that wouldn't be seen on the final build), but occasionally they use rare recolors or ones recently introduced for other sets/themes in the internals, just as a chance to make more use out of those and make them more widely available. Just as one example, I remember that when they reintroduced Bright Bluish Green/Dark Turquoise (which in the first year of its reintroduction was most prominently used for the final year of Elves sets), they also included some of the new Dark Turquoise parts internally in other sets even if they didn't use that color elsewhere in the build, such as in the wooden base/stand of the Ship in a Bottle Ideas set. I think there were similar instances of Vibrant Coral being used internally in other builds the year it was introduced, though I can't remember specific examples of that off the top of my head.

I'm not sure adding an additional connection point for a classic minifigure hand (and thus requiring the new monkey to go through an additional preassembly process like other minifigures) would actually be less costly than having a molded on hand like it does. It also would necessarily make the arms bulkier, which might look a bit odd on this smaller monkey. Personally I like the new monkey too, and a part of me wonders why it wasn't used for the monkeys in the Monkie Kid set Flower Fruit Mountain (though that's not to say I dislike the short-legged monkey minifigures the set did end up using, which are adorable and have great face and torso prints).