Lyichir

"Illegal" connections typically comprise ones that DON'T quite fit—ones that can maybe be forced together but can cause damage to the parts themselves by doing so (much like a shirt that you can just barely wear, so long as you don't raise your arms enough to cause it to come apart at the seams). It's mostly a term used internally by Lego but is nonetheless important when it comes to not designing models that will inevitably result in frustration and disappointment on the part of buyers.

Personally I'm all for it. I remember ten years ago when I was entering my twenties, one of the downsides of "growing up" was having to say goodbye to the many kid-sized Lego apparel that no longer fit me. Back then I had to mostly settle for convention shirts and other fan-made items, which could be of mixed quality and pretty much NEVER covered the kinds of themes I was into, like Ninjago or Bionicle. Fast forward to the past couple years and it feels like Lego FINALLY got the message I tried to send to them at every convention, that there was a demand for Lego-branded clothing for adults. But even so, for most of the past couple of years those sorts of collaborations have largely stuck to the safe, "themeless" Lego aesthetic, with bold primary colors and lots of brick iconography. Which is great, if you're into it! I certainly don't mind it! But I wouldn't want that to be my whole wardrobe. This is the first time (other than sparse collaborations with outfitters like Hot Topic for the various movie tie-ins) that an actual, more specific theme has gotten this sort of spotlight. And for the most part, I'm a fan! I could do without the big logos and labels of the fashion partner itself, but that's a gripe I have for all SORTS of non-Lego branded clothing, which has a nasty tendency to seem like it's desperately trying to advertise itself to everyone who sees it. But beyond that, I like some of the actual designs! Instead of just settling for repurposed stock art, a lot of the graphics on these opt for either bolder art styles (like the monochrome ninja print on the shirt you received), or subtler, more ambiguous imagery (like the designs that use the Ninjago language designed for the Ninjago movie). It's a direction I'm fond of, and would have loved to see more of back when I was into Bionicle. Again, there's still room for improvement. I don't like the garish HYPE patches on a lot of the clothing, and I've seen complaints about this and other collaborations that there's not enough gender equity in designs and styles (unfortunately, the fashion industry tends to carry even more sexist baggage than even the toy industry in that respect). But it's a good direction, and one that I've been hoping for for a while, so I hope that these collaborations continue and continue to improve.

Where exactly do you see this overlap? The building above the lowest level does overhang the one on the first floor—but only by four studs, the same width as the built in walkway around the first-floor building. Above that is the "main street" level, where a four-stud curved extension to the walkway is built on overlapping a neighboring baseplate, but there's a pretty clear "seam" between that extension and the rest of the raised walkway. The noodle shop there is actually "set in" from the edge by two studs, which widens the extension attached to the side to six studs or, if removed, would leave a very narrow "alley" between it and an adjoining building. The green building above returns that to the edge and adds another removeable four-stud balcony. Nothing except this walkway and the balcony above it overlaps the edge of the baseplate, and both seem to be attached from the side with connections that could be easily removed, not built into the floor of either section vertically. I'm pretty confident about how those two sections are built, because I've been painstakingly reconstructing the set from the images we have on Stud.io. It's just a hobby, and I don't really expect to complete the model because at less than 3000 pieces in the program's already chugging pretty badly to keep up with it all, but from what I've laid out so far there seem like there'd be no issues connecting it to other sets.

The two balconies are definitely removable, I’m calling it. The lower one certainly is (you can see the attachment points for it on the opposite side so you can swap it around). And while the upper balcony doesn’t seem to have an alternative place to put it, it seems like it’d be child’s play to make it attach with Technic pins—so why wouldn’t they? I think some people here need to give the designers a little more credit. There’s no reason they wouldn’t be exactly as concerned about compatibility as other fans of the series are.

I wouldn't really expect something like that in the Creator 3-in-1 theme... generally those sets tend to favor smaller parts that can be reused more creatively in the alternate builds, rather than larger parts like that. I also think that even for another Castle theme, those really wouldn't offer much of an advantage as walls compared to tried-and-true parts like wall panels.

While I'd always adore a location-based set that's as amazing as some of the ones in Elves, my first thought upon reading the set name was that it might be something along the lines of https://brickset.com/sets/6977-1/Arachnoid-Star-Base

To be honest I don't see it being scaled down much if it gets selected, if only because the part selection that is used is so essential to the shaping. That said, as good a project as it is (and as much as I'd like it!), I also don't know if the chances are all that high—Asterix and Obelix are not really that well known in America, compared to most of the other licensed Ideas that have been chosen in the past. I'd love to be proven wrong, though—my uncle introduced me to Asterix as a kid and this is one of the best Lego representations of them that I've ever seen!

I don't get why people continue to describe things like this, Mercy's face, or Hanzo's torso as a "decline" in quality since the same exact issue with printing colorful prints on black have existed for decades. On minifigure heads like this, this one is arguably BETTER than the first such minifigure face printed on black (Jango Fett back in 2002). There's definitely still a lot of room for improvement, but it's not a "decline" by any stretch of the imagination. And so it goes for a lot of the complaints I see about declines in quality—so many of the issues are ones that have occurred for a long time, and in many cases gotten less severe/common than they once were.

I don't think so. I'm pretty sure there's something attached to that piece on the inside of the ice cream shop—an ice cream maker, or something along those lines. The Technic pin attachment points on the base and the edge of the upper street should be plenty for a future expansion, and they wouldn't likely add a new connection point for an unreleased expansion because if they did, the part intended to connect there wouldn't be compatible with the earlier sets.

That set uses the newer style of clip, which was designed to be able to flex a bit more (like other 1x1 plates with clip) for that exact purpose. This older, reinforced style doesn't have as much "give" to it and as such a connection like that can cause it to develop cracks down the middle over time

My only guess is that they decided that the inclusion of pins like that made the finished model paradoxically feel less "complete"? Since it implies additional construction that isn't contained within, and breaks the square footprint of the set ever so slightly. Still, it's an odd decision to say the least. Far from a deal-breaker, certainly (since pins are incredibly common, come as spares regularly, and anyone with another modular set to connect also has pins from those sets), but a strange omission after this many years of including them.

A reveal would also get us higher resolution pictures, which for a set as detail heavy as this one could offer some great insights. I'm a little bummed... the way Brickset phrased their article this morning makes it sound like Lego hasn't offered them anything along the lines of a press packet or review set yet. It's a silly thing to be upset about, since the full suite of images and reviews will inevitably come in time, but after all the bad news in the U.S. last week I'd be lying if I said I wasn't looking forward to a potential grand reveal this morning to help take my mind off things.

Your guess is as good as mine. Maybe Lego decided they only needed one transparent orange color, or some aspect of the fluorescent additive they use made them feel like they needed to make a change? Until we get some sort of statement on the matter, it's all guesswork.

These look good! I'm glad to see the "large macaroni" pieces from the Mickey and Minnie Mouse set continuing to appear in other colors (if anyone at Lego is reading this, would love to have it in white!)

I'm pretty sure they also did that with the Ninjago City set (since, like the Café Corner, it was the first of its series and no other "modules" were available at the time). It does make sense that they'd do the same here since the others are unlikely to be rereleased. Maybe if we're lucky another module will be released before this one is retired.

They usually don't put out press releases on weekends. I'm pretty much expecting a press release tomorrow morning. The partner in question likely just jumped the gun by a day.

I think that's one of the links for the new escalator that appears in the Friends shopping mall! In the earlier, blurry pictures I couldn't quite tell what it was, but now I'm fairly certain. Last year an official color chart (as in, the type used by designers) showed up briefly in a video and it was marked to retire in 2021 on the chart. The Chinese New Year set might have made it just before the cutoff, but I can only assume that the change of the lanterns in this set to Trans. Light Blue (and for that matter the lack of Trans. Fluor. Reddish Orange details in the Ice Planet-themed ice cream parlor) is because of that. It surprised me too, seeing as it's been a pretty commonly used color in the past few years.

The problem with doing rereleases of the original two is that the audience for those is much smaller than the audience for new expansions would be, because rereleases would have a tough time selling to anyone who already had the originals, and depending on how much they were "reworked", they might still be directly competing with the "authentic" originals on the aftermarket. And chances are they'd require a significant amount of changes, since not only are many of the minifigure parts likely retired but certain colors like Copper Metallic and Trans. Fluorescent Reddish Orange are retiring as well. It's just not a strong business case; not when designing a new expansion that could appeal to even more buyers remains a better option.

Adult Ninjago clothing sounds sweet. Years ago I hoped for things like that, but even up to now the closest we've generally gotten is "themeless" Lego clothing for adults. Even the Ninjago movie didn't really result in adult-sized T-shirts and similar merch the way The Lego Movie had. The teaser is... definitely ambiguous, but the fact that the Ninjago language is front and center gives me hope that the designs will be more thought-out and than just standard Ninjago stock art on T-shirts.

If the walkway is removable then I would not be surprised if the balcony is as well. The sidewalk on the old world loops around behind the left-hand building instead of continuing around the front, but still connects to both ends. And the elevator would empty out to the water alone on the old world level if you attached the gardens on that side, but would still connect to the upper level normally (no different from how it works if you don't have anything attached to that side of the elevator).

I don't think it's really an "end module" like people are saying, at least not permanently so. I would bet that the extension to the walkway on the left side can be repositioned to either side (hence the additional Technic holes under the blue building). If so, you can position it anywhere you please, even between other modules, by simply removing the extension altogether.

Hm, I'm surprised. There doesn't seem to be any easy, obvious way to climb to the upper levels from the lower ones. Though I might be missing a ladder or something on an interior or one of the less visible sides...

Personally I'm a fan of the shoulder armor. Yes, it's a little oversized—but that's basically necessary for articulation, and minifigures generally have cartoony proportions anyway. I also like how it gives them a strong/"heroic" silhouette compared to the more humble blacksmith and his wife—conversely, I've never been that fond of how older armor pieces that mainly cover the torso raise the figures' heads without really covering their shoulders much, making the proportions feel awkward. As a bonus it fancies them up (and provides some armor for the blacksmith to work on) without covering those glorious Black Falcons torsos.

Thank you for this. I really enjoyed your article, and feel it did a good job in both explaining what makes many of the "official" modular designs so effective and showing how that can be applied in other creative ways.

It's definitely been done on larger helicopters in themes like Technic and Ultra Agents, but I think this is the first time it's been done on a small (City-scale) helicopter. I'm curious how it's done because the space between the propellers and the open interior doesn't seem large enough for a full Technic gearbox like those other sets used, making me think there might be a newer part used to miniaturize the gearing (though I could be wrong—they're very resourceful over in Denmark).