Lyichir

The lack of Trans-green and trans-neon green probably has a lot to do with the introduction of trans-bright green, which has been used a bit more heavily than those other two colors in themes like Atlantis, Nexo Knights, and now Monkie Kid. Personally, nostalgia aside, I tend to prefer trans-bright green as a windscreen color—trans-green often feels too dark and trans-neon green too bright to make out the figs inside clearly, but trans-bright green is a happy medium that, to me at least, feels "glassier" than either of those other two colors. Of course, sometimes you do want a more "tinted" windscreen color that obscures the occupants. Trans-neon orange was lucky to get a brief resurgence in Nexo Knights and then Monkie Kid before sadly seeming to be retired this year. I feel a little similarly about it as I do about Trans-neon green, but perhaps a little less so since standard trans-orange sometimes feels a little TOO glassy for some applications, and unlike trans-bright green it doesn't fluoresce (at least not consistently). So, for instance, trans bright green feels like a decent substitute for Blacktron, but regular trans-orange on an Ice Planet MOC feels like a poorer substitute.

I don't think it has anything to do with the Crocodile not selling well... probably more just that Lego doesn't want to risk oversaturating the market. Even in the heyday of Creator Expert trains (from the Holiday Train in 2006 to the Horizon Express in 2013), a new one only came out at most every two years. And clearly even that release pattern wasn't sustainable given that after the Horizon Express came out it wasn't until last year that we got another. Lego may well have other train sets like that in the pipeline, but expecting them to release year after year like the Winter Village and Modular Building sets probably isn't realistic. On a completely different note, a part of me really wants to see a train in the Monkie Kid theme. It probably wouldn't be something that'd satisfy fans of realistic trains (outside of potentially parts like the container walls in new colors), but I feel like a cargo train HQ would fit right in with the container ship HQ from the first year or the quadcopter from this year. Might be something I'd have to MOC, though—next year's story seems to be taking an actual "Journey to the West" and I doubt that adventure will remain constrained to rail lines.

Same for black horses from the Kingdoms theme.

It's attached to the platform Mario's on in this image (I think it's meant to be the end of the Magikoopa's broomstick).

Yup! I think they're Medium Nougat too, which would be a new color for those ship hulls.

Wow, that airship looks amazing! Definitely bigger than I would have expected for the theme (I would have probably expected a larger "sky level" with multiple small airships, rather than this full-sized one). A bit of a shame there aren't any Koopalings, but the enemies it does have (Magikoopa, Rocky Wrench, and a Pirate Goomba) are all great.

The thing about sneakers (especially nice expensive name-brand ones) is that there are folks out there who collect them these days. Not my jam, but I can certainly see somebody who does do that paying for a Lego replica to go with their closet-full. Anyway, I think it's a pretty cool set. I've seen MOCs of shoes before but the way this one goes together similar to the real thing is pretty novel. And I kind of love the fact that it uses real shoelace—sort of bridges the gap between Lego fantasy and reality a little, sort of like how the flower bouquet is meant to go in a real vase. Parts-wise, I like the look of those new 5x5 quarter domes. It's an uncommon radius but I could see these pairing well with other parts like the new Space Shuttle bay doors.

Ninjago isn't really getting D2Cs "constantly". It's really only had three big D2C sets since 2015, and there was a whole year between the retirement of the last one (Ninjago City) and the introduction of the latest one (Ninjago City Gardens). It does tend to get more D2C sets than a lot of other original themes (which probably has to do with its evergreen status ensuring that D2Cs don't outlast demand for the theme as a whole), but it's nowhere near as much of a mainstay as, say, lines like modular buildings or Winter Village sets (which get one installment each year), let alone themes like Star Wars (which typically get multiple D2Cs every year).

Yeah, Universal certainly has a lot to live up to with whatever they come up with. The Lego movies produced by WAG weren't always quite even with one another but they were consistently a fun time. And when it comes to the nitty gritty of franchise ownership, no one company really covers the breadth of Lego licensed themes, but WB's ownership of DC arguably was more promising to me than the small stable of Universal-owned franchises, especially given those characters' histories of being interpreted in multiple ways making Lego's distinct interpretations of them possible. I guess for me the upside is I don't have to fear a Lego Harry Potter movie becoming a reality any time soon. Anyway, the sequel concepts discussed in the article sound like they could have been really promising. My own personal idea for a sequel involved the Teen Titans and Batman, having learned to accept being a part of a family, having to learn to accept his little Robin "leaving the nest". But a focus on Batman's other relationships could also have been good.

The red Technic part you didn't recognize is new in that color but not totally new! It actually debuted earlier this year in Dots as a latch mechanism for the Secret Box set!

Okay, the spinny staff looks INCREDIBLY satisfying in that video. A part of me is a little less whelmed by the punchy fist than I thought I'd be, though. I wonder if it'd be more interesting if the rubber band were attached to the back instead of the front (so that instead of springing back into place after a punch, you could pull it back to have the fist shoot forward).

https://www.brothers-brick.com/2021/06/13/lego-monkie-kid-80028-the-bone-demon-review/ Brothers Brick uploaded their review of the Bone Demon set! Looks fantastic.

Another factor (minor though it might be) is that I don't think Lego has EVER made a set that had bigfigs but no standard minifigs. So if that indicates a reluctance, that might be a factor in why we got Huntsman and Syntax as foes in this set.

I think Hulk vs. Red Hulk is one of the only examples I can think of, unfortunately (unless you go back to older "bigfigs" like the Castle giant trolls). But yeah, despite how mocked that set sometimes is among Super Heroes builders I feel like it's a really solid idea for a dramatic conflict scenario in a set. Of course, Hulk vs. Red Hulk got away with it in part because it didn't actually use new molds (using two different Hulk molds from previous sets). Strong Spider would probably require at least a new bigfig-sized hairpiece, if not a new torso. So there's a not insignificant chance that it just wasn't in the cards from the get-go.

Yeah, I'd kind of hoped for that too after a S2 episode featured him in magenta track pants with white stripes instead of white track pants with black stripes (a change like that would keep his color scheme mostly the same, just rearrange it somewhat). But ultimately I'm more disappointed with the villainous side of the set than the heroic one. After all, at least Mo gets a new print in this one, and the mech itself is a pretty decent-looking build (even if being a bigfig-scaled power loader is the only really new thing it brings to the table). But even compared to Sandy's speedboat from last year, the narrative aspect of this one feels... off. In that set, having Pigsy in the set captured by the Spider Queen (a new villain at the time) made for a compelling story starter that made the oversized speedboat feel narratively justified, with the conflict coming not so much from the battle but from a "race against time" to get Sandy's friend out of danger. In this one, the pacifistic Sandy is given a huge mech suit... and for what? Two villains from previous sets who Sandy could probably fight off bare-handed if he had to? There's not really a compelling motivation for the conflict, and the result is a product that feels oddly incomplete. A bigfig-scaled foe for Sandy to face wouldn't be the ONLY way to resolve that—a more formidable mech or vehicle for the bad guys or some additional characters and set dressing that could add a non-combat angle to the conflict would also work. I don't know. I suppose I could potentially talk all day about what could have been, without having any real insight into what constraints the set was under or what options were available. But ultimately I guess I'm just talking through why a set that I generally like most of doesn't quite feel as satisfying to me as the other two sets.

Eh, I think Sandy suits the mech itself well. I just wish he'd had another bigfig to square up against. A Strong Spider with brick-built spider legs would have felt more like a worthy foe. What especially stinks about not getting Strong Spider is that he'd have been a great opportunity to reuse the new bigfig head from the new Thanos. You wouldn't even need to recolor it! He'd just need a new hairpiece mold (that could also potentially be used for characters like Hulk in the future), and possibly a different body (though he could probably get away with just building his legs into the spider base like Spider Queen did last year, which would be cheaper and easier and allow another option for displaying him without the spider legs).

To be honest this is the first time I'd heard anyone allege that those sets weren't selling well anywhere. Here in the U.S., it's seemed like the opposite—here they're only available from Lego.com and Lego stores, but at both they've sold out numerous times from what I've seen. If the sets are on clearance now in your area, that honestly probably has more to do with the fact that they're seasonal sets whose "season" has passed—it's coming close to half a year now since the start of the Lunar New Year. It's possible that the sets might have been overproduced, but it's also possible that early shipments of the set sold out quickly and your local store overestimated future demand when restocking. In any case, as a consumer rather than a seller, I certainly wouldn't complain about discounts that substantial on such nice sets! This year's Lunar New Year sets are very well designed and if they were discounted in my area I might even be tempted to pick up a second copy of the Spring Lantern Festival to expand the garden/park scene and maybe customize some of the lantern builds for future years!

The comparisons to Destructoid befuddle me a little because while structurally it and the new Noodle Tank are sort of similar, thematically I feel like this new set has a ton more going for it. To be honest before people started bringing it up in reference to this set, I almost forgot Destructoid existed, in part because it offered very little that the other sets in the Rebooted wave didn't—it was just a weird mech tank thing, nowhere near as interesting to me as, say, the Nindroid MechDragon that combined the classic Ninjago dragon motif with the robotic theme of the Nindroids. By contrast, I LOVE this new Monkie Kid set, with its overall culinary theming. The full-featured kitchen in the noodle bowl-shaped cockpit, the noodle launcher in the fridge, and the giant chopsticks that the mech can hold all amuse me greatly. And I love the conflict the set presents of Pigsy's homemade cooking and in-person delivery versus the Speedy Panda store's pre-packaged fast food and delivery robots. All in all I'm easily as excited for this set as I am for the Bone Demon. I do agree that Sandy's mech isn't the most exciting set by comparison. But it is, after his speedboat last year, only the second set really themed entirely around Sandy, and I do like the features like the punching fist and the claw that spins a large version of his crescent staff. And the overall design, which feels heavy and industrial, reminds me a little of themes like Exo-Force. As I'd mentioned before, I think what would've elevated this set from good to great would be if instead of Huntsman and Syntax in a piddly little mech, Sandy's mech had been paired with Strong Spider from the animated series—a bigfig foe with big spider legs would've felt like a much more even match for a bigfig-scaled mech like this, I feel.

I've seen speculation that it might be for Steve Harrington in an upcoming Stranger Things set, which does seem plausible to me.

I can't wait until we start getting reviews of this new wave of sets... I've built all three on Stud.io from the pics and have them mostly complete (from the exterior at least), but as is to be expected there's some interior details that I can't quite decipher (most notably, none of the pics show the "crypt" of the Bone Demon set removed from the torso section, so I'm not entirely sure how it attaches or what's behind it). And the longer I pore over the limited pics and videos we have of the sets to try to get a glimpse of the parts I'm unsure of, the crazier I'll feel! Some fun details I HAVE noticed through building the sets include the Bone Demon mech having waist rotation (the upper torso attaches to the scorpion tail with a ball joint that is built tightly so as not to bend but able to rotate freely), the same set including an equal number of left and right corner-cut 1x2 bows in Glow White (notable because the build is ever so slightly asymmetrical but uses two of the left ones in one spot to compensate for the two right ones elsewhere), and that set including the parts to build two normal skeletons in addition to the other figs (the torsos and arms are in the gate build while the legs and skulls are in the cauldrons). I am still a wee bit curious whether these three sets are the last ones we'll see this year. There are two set numbers that have been "skipped" in the release order, and the slightly earlier release date of these sets could potentially allow for another small release. I'd love if one or both of those potential sets included some of the characters who haven't appeared in sets this year, either newer characters like Strong Spider or ones from last year like Princess Iron Fan or Yin and Jin. Of course, those two set numbers could also just be sets cancelled altogether during development, or they could be something totally atypical for the theme (for instance, perhaps a buildable Monkey King figure like the buildable Harry and Hermione in the Harry Potter theme).

This is so amazing! It really captures the zaniness of the original set while also refining the whole thing into something that feels more plausible. A part of me does wish the roof could curve outward a little more like the roofs in the original Fright Knights theme tended to do. The cheese slopes you used do the job okay, but a more dramatic curve could be a lot of fun. If the new 1x3 inverted half arch ever appears in bright red, that might just be perfect.

I quite enjoyed the Season 2 premiere. There are definitely a lot of talented teams this time around, and now that we're a season in, the contestants, host, and judges all feel a bit more at ease with what their roles in the show should be. I think I might need a couple more episodes before I can pick a team to root for this time, though. Spoilers for those across the pond who haven't gotten to see it yet...

Wow, that is impressive... it packs in pretty much all the features I'd hope for in a Borg Tower set!

Hm... that's a bit of a toughie! I'm a sucker for cool boat sets, and that includes submarines. The Ocean HQ isn't the worst set to get a feel for the Monkie Kid theme. It has all of the main hero team except Mr. Tang, and is a pretty great mobile base. That said, if you were planning to get more into the theme, there might be better options. While the main ship build is certainly great, most of the individual characters in the set have more impressive personal vehicles in other sets. And the villain selection isn't really the best the theme has to offer—just Bull Clones and General Ironclad (a higher-ranking Bull Clone with differently colored arms and a cool cape). Other sets in the theme have more impressive (and in some cases, exclusive) foes and more dynamic personal vehicles for them or the heroes. But if the ship itself is your main focus, there's not a lot else quite like it in the theme or out of it! It's huge, with a massive interior that can fit not only the normal minifigures but also the small mech it comes with, two small boats, and the Sandy bigfig (who can occupy either the engine room, the hammock in the lounge area, or the crow's nest). I don't have the Hydro Bounty yet but it seems pretty impressive. Like the Ocean HQ, it has most of the main cast of its respective wave, but unlike the Ocean HQ, one of those (Nya in her diving gear) is unique to that set and unlikely to reappear in that particular outfit. The Wu-bots are also exclusive to that set. The build itself is quite unique with several great features like the mech and the mini-sub bays. And aesthetically, it's very unlike most other Ninjago sets, past or present, with a really classy Art Deco sort of look. But as you mention, it is less likely to retire within the year than the Ocean HQ. It'll probably remain available well into next year. So if you think you'll have another opportunity to get a set that size, you might be able to get both if you opt to get the older one first.

Easy to miss, but the truck in the new City Stunts subtheme has two recolored anglerfish from last year's sets (this time black with either white or glow white eyes, fins, and teeth). Could be fun colors for a deep ocean MOC.