Lyichir

It seems like if anything, its sales are varying heavily by region... I haven't been lucky enough to see any discounts that substantial in the U.S., at least. And the smaller bandmate sets seem to be selling reasonably well, if the number of stores I've visited that are out of them are any indication. It's too early to see what impact the stage sets will have, but if the sentiment about them online is any indication they seem like they might do pretty well. I wouldn't call that level of variance a resounding success by any stretch of the imagination, but it's probably too early to say what that means for the future of the theme overall. Lego could probably get at least another year out of it by emphasizing the parts that have been working and scaling back the ones that haven't.

LOVING these new sets. Now that we have official pics there's so many more details we can make out. I love the way the Bone Demon mech can separate into lots of components, and MK gets not one, not two, but THREE staff builds in this set (his normal staff, a slightly upscaled one that ingeniously uses candle pieces, and an even bigger one for the mech). The kitchen in the "bowl" of Pigsy's mech is wonderfully full-featured, and it looks like the rake in front of the treads moves up and down as it rolls. Sandy's mech has less in the way of surprises but a mech like this scaled to a bigfig is enough of a novelty, it does look plenty solid with some decent features like the spinning claw and punching fist. I love the figures we're getting too. In addition to the new figures of Pan, Lady Bone Demon, and her minions, Pigsy, Tang, MK, Mo, and even incidental character Lee all get new prints. I'm fine with the repeat of Mei (since this is only her second appearance this year with her new helmet), but I do wish that Syntax and Huntsman (in their third and fourth appearances, respectively) had been swapped for Spider Queen's bigfig minion (who unfortunately is looking like a show-only character). Bigfig vs. bigfig sets are always cool.

Oh, don't get me wrong, I don't want something as bulky as the Power Functions/Powered Up wires. If that were the best we could hope for, there really wouldn't be much need to advance beyond the bulky, slightly hard to use Power Functions lights. But I feel like there's got to be a half-decent middle ground between the bulk of those systems and the intricacy of most third-party systems. There'd still be a place for more professional "non-purist" solutions, but I think something a little bit more accessible to newbies and suited for reconfiguration could have a niche. In any case, the reveal that this teaser was actually for "LegoCon" somewhat negates the point of this speculation—unless, of course, a lighting system is among the reveals at that event.

A good number of new parts to discuss, between recently released set inventories and newly announced sets. In recently released sets, the Wizard Chess set has three kinds of helmets and two kinds of swords in both white and black. Two of the other Harry Potter sets also have unprinted Reddish Brown triangular shields. The Heartlake City School set from Friends also has the 1x2x2 arched window frame in Reddish Brown, used for the base of an easel. In newly announced sets, there's all sorts of things to discuss. The new Frozen Ice Castle set has no shortage of icy parts for fantasy builders, including new 2x2x5 (I think) diagonal wall panels in Trans. Light Blue—in solid colors I expect that could potentially become a new standard type of wall panel for castle sets. It also includes the hourglass mold from the 2016 Elves set, recolored to a more realistic transparent with tan "sand". There's another Disney Princess stable set that also features the stable doors in what looks like Medium Nougat—this is the second realistic "wood" color for that part after the Dark Brown ones we'd previously seen in the upcoming Harry Potter bathroom set.

This is a neat concept and you've nailed the color scheme and a lot of the aesthetic, but personally I'm not sure a solar sail like this makes the most sense for the Iron Bull Clan. It seems like the kind of feature that'd be a perfect fit for the medieval-inspired tech of Nexo Knights, but most of the Iron Bull Clan's vehicles are based on things like modern construction equipment, often with more dieselpunk features like oversized smokestacks and engines that'd create a lot of intimidating heat and smoke. So I'd expect a ship of theirs to be powered by a combustion engine more like a 20th century cargo ship or military vessel, or even by jet turbines like some more modern ships.

I do think "generic" kits are more likely, like the Power Functions starter kits of yore. It's also possible that, going forward, sets designed to utilize the new lighting system will just have instructions for adding it included (again, much like Power Functions compatibility). But the idea of digital instructions for sets, including older ones, is a good one.

Ha, this is cute. I like the playfulness and subtle anachronism of the aluminum can of root beer. The floor plan is also well-organized and makes great use of the limited space! And the tap sign out front is a great idea for signage for this sort of establishment.

According to The Brick Fan, the BrickHeadz set WILL be available to purchase separately in July, which is nice (helps to take some of the pressure off).

Wow, this is gorgeous! So many details and great parts usage! The photography is also great, but a part of me wonders what it would look like with a more blue filtered light to see if that could give it a bit more of an "underwater" feel.

I'm assuming instructions are included since the smaller Vidiyo sets all include instructions and none of the reviews I've seen of the stage sets so far have mentioned otherwise.

Brickset seems to be assuming it's related to the light kits, but it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to speculate that the launch of those could tie in with the next fairground set being designed to utilize them (either as an included feature or an optional expansion like motorizing past sets).

Yeah, this probably has more to do with the already high demand for Lego skyrocketing during the pandemic than with any sort of "decline". With global demand surging, it's harder for Lego to keep stock levels at individual stores satisfied the way they could a couple years back. But that doesn't really mean that sales have slipped or anything—on the contrary, they're higher than ever. Unfortunately there's not all that much that Lego can do about this in the short term. They are still continuing to expand their production capabilities globally, but accelerating those sorts of plans could be a misstep, since there's a pretty significant chance that the increased demand during the pandemic might be a temporary thing that could level off once most of the world has things "back to normal". If that happens, then increased investment in production could backfire later on when Lego is left with more production infrastructure than they can realistically utilize. Demand could potentially be tempered by steeply increasing prices but needless to say that'd cause their reputation and the goodwill of their customers to take a serious hit. So Lego mostly has to just do the best they can with what they have and accept that some of the demand for their products might go unsatisfied due to uneven product availability.

Thank you! I'd seen that on a wiki but it wasn't sourced so I wasn't sure if that was official or just an assumption based on the first characters to represent those genres.

These do seem like some of the most plausible upcoming set contents seen in Season 2. Though when I first saw Mo's mech, I kind of expected it to be a smaller side build in a bigger set. I suppose that's still possible, especially considering that there's no guarantee that there won't be other things that didn't make it into the show (for instance, there's almost assuredly gonna be small builds for the heroes in a big set like the Spider Queen's lair, given the track record of past sets to add small flyers for the good guys in those sorts of villain focused sets). I hope Tang can find his way into one or more of these sorts of sets. I'd especially love if he appeared in a set with Yin and Jin or Lady Bone Demon with his "Journey to the West" book including new printed pages with those characters on them.

A dedicated lighting system would be great and would fill a huge gap in Lego's official offerings. I'm hoping that whatever Lego has come up with is a little more "self-contained" than those third-party kits—something a little less fragile and finicky and a little more up to the standard we expect of Lego's own offerings as far as the installation experience is concerned.

That's probably partly a consequence of how it was originally introduced for the Harry Potter theme to be molded in translucent blue plastic. For a purpose like that, reduced complexity (including lowering the number of components and omitting any sort of articulation) was probably necessary. I certainly wouldn't mind a newer deer/antelope that wasn't under those sorts of constraints.

While a fig with molded parts similar to the Hero Factory Invasion From Below figs would be my favorite way for them to do Bionicle minifigures (since it could allow for the kind of intricate molded detail and customization potential that Bionicle is known for), I doubt they'd do that in a Collectible Minifigure series. While the figs in the CMFs are incredibly varied, for the most part they tend to follow a basic head-torso-legs construction like standard minifigures, with very few exceptions. Yes, some will have a molded head or a mermaid or snake tail instead of legs, but the overall build tends to follow that formula—there hasn't really been anything like the Invasion from Below figures or even the classic Lego skeleton in a CMF series like that. I do agree that if they were to do a Bionicle fig Tahu would be the obvious choice, as Tahu specifically and the Kanohi Hau in general are some of the most iconic characters/images from Bionicle's run.

If anything, the Macaque episode softened his edges a bit. As for the Sandy episode, it really helped to flesh both Sandy and Huntsman out as characters.

The thing is, the fact that people CAN choose to be jerks doesn't mean that there shouldn't be an expectation for people to treat each other with respect, especially in a tight-knit community like this one. People here have asked to be referred to by the pronouns they prefer—it's really not a big ask, and while they can't COMPEL others to do so, they can and should call them out for being unnecessarily rude and bigoted when people insistently misgender them. You seem to understand that concept, given that you seem to be offended by "name-calling". Clearly you understand the idea that somebody referring to you in a way you prefer not to be referred to is hurtful. So why the double standard? Why can't you just accept that respecting people's pronouns is just basic human decency, and that holding people to the expectation of that is not "demanding" or any sort of gross overreach? Finally, it's very rude, and more than a little conspiratorial, of you to assume that somebody choosing to stop engaging with people who are insistently, repeatedly disrespecting them on a fundamental level hints at "ulterior motives". Here's the "ulterior motive" for why people feel the need to back down from relentless bullying—it makes them feel bad and when people stubbornly refuse to see reason or treat them with the barest modicum of kindness, it's tiring and fruitless to continue trying to talk sense into them. It's fatiguing to try to explain basic concepts like "respect" to people who again and again refuse to give a shit. So the people who actually are caring, and smart, and emotionally open break down and sometimes lose their temper a little and have to take a break from the unending grind of pleading to be treated like any other human being.

Well, I for one am interested in getting the BrickHeadz! The tough part, for me, will be figuring out $85 worth of Ninjago sets that I still want, since I've already taken care of a lot of my wishlist for the first half of the year. The Overlord Dragon and Jungle Dragon are still on my wishlist but that's only $70 total... I might have to hope they still have some of the sets from last year that I passed on to round it out. It'd be a lot easier if the Seabound or Legacy sets were releasing next month in the U.S. like they are in Europe. Speaking of the summer sets, the other day I was bored and put together most of the Legacy Fire Dragon from the official pics, and doing so took it from "I guess I'll get it for Legacy Nya" to being really fond of the set as a whole. It's wonderfully bulky and well-shaped and the build is impressive—the bulk of the torso is actually built upside-down (with the studs facing the belly), but the back is still finished off really nicely with sideways wedges and inverted bows. There's a part of me that wants to try to build a bigger, more impressive Fire Temple to accompany it, though that'll be no small feat and will probably have to wait until I have the set in-hand to scale it effectively to the dragon.

Yup. Tripitaka's name in the original Chinese is Tang Sanzang. Tang from Monkie Kid echoes the original in being one of the most "book smart" members of the group as well as being pretty helpless in battle. In a brief gag from the pilot of the show Tang is shown in Tripitaka's place atop the White Dragon Horse before the screen shifts to show him actually sitting on Mei's shoulders. In the latest season Tang comes across Tripitaka's khakkara staff among Monkey King's collection of treasures during a fight, and briefly seems attracted to it as if by fate—before shoving it aside to grab a much more intimidating weapon underneath it. And in an episode featuring a video game inspired by Monkey King's original adventures Tripitaka appears voiced by the same VA as Tang.

I'm going to plead the mods for the opposite. Threads related to LGBT rights or similarly "controversial" topics do have an awful tendency to be full of concern trolls who sideline the discussion away from its intended purpose. But allowing that to result in the topics getting shut down has the unfortunate effect of creating a de facto ban on anything even marginally related to those important issues, and suppressing people's ability to discuss them civilly. So far I think the mods have done a respectable job keeping things civil, which isn't to say there isn't room for improvement. And I'd like to hope that some of the well-reasoned explanations of why things like misgendering are bad or why LGBT pride is important have genuinely gotten across to some users who aren't entering these discussions in bad faith. Perhaps that's optimistic of me. But if people aren't allowed to discuss these things, intolerant members aren't able to reevaluate their worldviews, while members of minority groups aren't able to discuss things that deeply affect them openly. It's a lose-lose scenario to shut these kinds of topics down entirely.

I don't know if I'd necessarily expect a Zelda theme to be a similar format to the Mario sets. Mario works, in part, because of both having one main way of interacting with things (jumping), and being more vocal and expressive generally (Link, by contrast, uses a wide array of items and equipment from swords to bombs to bows and doesn't really speak outside of vocal grunts). I do expect Zelda sets would focus a lot on dungeon building with various traps and functions, but I don't know if the Lego Mario formula would necessarily be the best fit for that. Of course, this is all speculation, so bear my opinions with a grain of salt. I'm not sure we'd see Donkey Kong except as an extension of the Mario theme (either in a Mario set like you describe or in a Mario Kart extension of that). The Donkey Kong Country series of games is moderately popular, but not as much so as Mario and Zelda, and its gameplay isn't nearly as easy to adapt to Lego in my opinion. Animal Crossing could be a good fit for Lego but would likely be VERY different from Zelda or Mario, focusing mainly on buildings and interior design. In terms of subject matter, it's not entirely unlike the idyllic Fabuland theme of yore. It might benefit from a larger scale than minifig-scale as well, not necessarily because it needs fancy electronics but because a larger scale could make it easier to build a wide variety of furniture. But on the other hand, a smaller scale like minifig-scale might be more conducive to the buildings that house that furniture. Splatoon has very quickly become one of Nintendo's top franchises, but as cool as it would be to see its characters and settings represented in Lego, it might be one of the toughest major Nintendo franchises to adapt to Lego simply because its gameplay is so fluid-based—not necessarily the easiest thing to represent with solid plastic.

I feel like Bright Green might not be the best color for Thunderbird 2 anyway. Dark Green (which most FOLs and Bricklink just call Green), would probably be a more accurate shade, and is generally a more common color for other parts as well.

Growing up I was reasonably lucky in that I got a lot of the sets I wanted as a kid, and many of the ones I didn't have lost a bit of their luster with age. So there's only a few that come to mind that I regret missing out on, some of which I never really had a chance at at all. In terms of retail sets, I do sort of regret not picking up The Joker Manor. I'm not normally a Super Heroes collector but I really enjoyed The Lego Batman Movie, and picked up a decent number of the sets (including both CMF series) since to me, the original takes on the heroes and villains in that movie embodied the creative spirit of Lego moreso than any one costume or variant pulled from other non-Lego movies and comics. But the Lego Ninjago Movie sets were higher on my list of priorities as a Ninjago fan, and I wrongly assumed that as a D2C set the Joker Manor set would be available for longer than it actually ended up lasting. Nowadays it goes for around twice its already substantial retail price, so I might never be able to fill that hole in my collection. Getting into way more exclusive territory, I was lucky enough to go on the Lego Inside Tour in 2015, and I don't regret it for a minute (there may not have ever been a better time to do so as a Bionicle fan than the year the theme was brought back and I got to talk with many of the designers one-on-one). But the Inside Tour exclusive set I got that year, H.C. Andersen't Clumsy Hans, was one I had no close emotional connection to as a non-Dane who didn't grow up with that particular folktale. I would have much preferred the following year's exclusive, LEGO Truck Show, since as an American Lego fan in the '90s I was not only familiar with that truck show but actually got to visit it as a young child at one of the stops! Sadly, the price for an Inside Tour set like this on the aftermarket is astronomical, but as somebody who went on the tour I do understand that—I reckon few of the attendees would be willing to part with something like that, not just because of the high value of the set on the aftermarket but also the sentimental value of it as a keepsake of such a once-in-a-lifetime experience.