Alexandrina

Not that it majorly affects your point but I thought it was 2008 that it was supposed to end? (I thought I remembered reading threads on Eurobricks at the time but my Google-fu failed to find them just now). I seem to remember that the Clone Wars cartoon revitalised the theme and at least in 2007 people were expecting it to fade out. 2008 was the tenth year of Star Wars sets, and the smaller 2009 offering could have been because they originally had nothing planned and managed to get a small selection out relatively last-minute. This seems like a strange response to the news that Botanicals has done well. Nothing about Botanicals goes against Lego's values, it's as inoffensive as a theme could possibly be.

A bit late to the party but my tuppence: I have a kind of complicated view on classic themes (which to me is distinct from, but overlaps with, unlicensed themes) which is very much built upon my own personal history with Lego. I'm an only child in a small family; before me, the only Lego that anybody in the family had ever owned was not much more than an ice-cream tub's worth of bricks that were bought second-hand in the late 1960s and which were lost at some point before I was able to inherit them. I also had a 'mini dark-age' between the ages of five and nine, and didn't come from the most well-off family. We never struggled, but my childhood Lego collection consisted of what was free in the paper, what I could afford from £3 a week pocket money, and maybe a £40 set for Christmas and my birthday - nothing huge and certainly nothing vintage. This meant two things: first, I was always lacking for parts. I just never seemed to have enough to build what I wanted, especially when it came to basic bricks. And second, I spent a lot of time looking enviously through catalogues and online databases. So for me, the classic themes are the ones that were already old when I was first really getting into Lego in the latter half of the 2000s and spending quite literally hours at a time scrolling through Peeron. They represented the sort of sets and parts I'd never even seen in person, a kind of borrowed nostalgia, as well as the sense that in that era it was easier to get lots of basic bricks. (In hindsight I think this is partially true and partially coloured by my watching a lot of brickfilms made by people whose collections came from that era but who probably had more expenditure on Lego than I did as well.) Weirdly, even though I never touched any of the classic themes until the Covid era, I now have a genuine nostalgia for the time I spent looking at them on Peeron. I was eleven at the time, and carefree enough that my biggest concern was which Lego sets I would have spent my pocket money on had I been ten years older. Oh, to be that age again... I think for me there's nothing particular about the themes themselves. It's the era, the design philosophy of that time, the palette of elements available - the specific themes only matter insofar as they were the themes available in the classic era, and so have dedicated parts. (And as I have no specific nostalgia for any one theme, I group the big three equally with their peers - Paradisa and Aquazone are just as much classic to me as Space and Castle). I'm a sucker for a lot of things which have been phased out of Lego in the years since: raised baseplates, wall panels, classic yellow smileys, BURPS and LURPS, octagonal bricks, even the old shades of grey and brown. Not to mention the cypress trees, my all-time favourite Lego element. All this to say that if Lego were to reintroduce one of the classic themes, would I be interested? Yes. But for me they wouldn't necessarily be an immediate purchase. Chances are they'd be done in the modern style, rather than the classic, so I'd be assessing any new sets based on their merits rather than the nostalgia of the theme.

Devil's advocate here but none of those additional things are strictly necessary for an in-house theme. I mean, it's 2026 so there probably will be tie-in material for major new themes, and even if there was nothing I feel sure we'd at least be aware of a massive black hole in set numbers that have been linked to sets for a theme due out in just over a month - happy to be surprised here, mind - but if Lego were revisiting a 'generic' theme (your Castle, Pirates, Space, Western, etc.) or even introducing a new 'generic' theme (for example Romans or Samurai*) then there wouldn't necessarily be quite so much need for copyright or tie-ins. Such a theme would stand a greater chance at going unnoticed until late in the day. This would go doubly so if it was launching as a Lego exclusive, as you've now also closed the 'leaks' that might come from retailers' catalogues appearing online. * these are just ideas off the top of my head, with no consideration as to the merit of these as actual themes On the topic at hand, it's been a good while since I've frequented the forum so it's possible I've mentioned this already upthread but I've thought for a while that it would be good to see the old Europa prototype be given a new lease of life. Though a big part of the appeal for me is in the mystique of those prototype photos, and especially the 'classic style' elements that never ended up seeing the light of day. I'm not sure whether an actual take on the theme done following modern design philosophies would hit quite the same.

I really like this! Oddly my eye is mostly drawn to the wave effect you've got going on on the sea. Trans-clear cheese slopes, unless my eyes are misleading me? I love it when something that's so simple ends up looking so good.

Oh wow, I love this! It almost feels like a window into a parallel universe, where this was a real set in a real Castle theme. (And your presentation is playing into this illusion too - it's a masterfully-composited image that almost feels like it could be box art) Great job!

Got to admit, I was expecting this to be a worse process than it was (namely: I was expecting to be forced into the autogenerated Lego.com username instead of being able to keep my own). The actual merger process was painless in my experience and it looks like BL is functioning the same as before. Sympathise with those that don't have Lego accounts, though

I don't remember using the word "fact" anywhere, tbh, and I thought it was fairly obvious I was giving an opinion. And honestly the main thrust of my comment was more that it's entirely possible to do Mara in new canon (and therefore bring Mara to Lego)

IIRC Mara was at least to a certain extent controlled by Palpatine during his lifetime - it was why his death was so traumatic for her, as the link was broken. (And why she hates Luke to begin with, as she inherited Palpatine's hatred) I don't remember controversy when Luke appeared in The Mandalorian. If anything it was the opposite. So long as Mark Hamill's likeness was used with his blessing, I don't see why it would need to be an issue (and it would be counteracted by the hype of Mara Jade). A recast is more likely though if they need a full cast - and they've already done Han and Lando, as you say. There was a bit of gurning when it was announced but people got over it. Honestly there are plenty of great stories you could do with Mara, and it would be easy enough to contrive a way to have her alongside Rey in the NJO trilogy too if Disney wanted to go that route. I just hope she doesn't make her triumphant appearance in something with Filoni's hands on it - he's demonstrated that he's incapable of doing justice to characters that aren't his own babies, and I'm not sure he's capable of writing a good story either (certainly he has a terrible track record of Star Wars projects). I wonder if there's the possibility for a spin-off "what could have been" series pulling from Legends, so we can get not only Mara but Jaina Solo as well

Maybe that's where I'm standing out then. I'm honestly not super-fussed about the machines, it's the minifigures (and the potential for locations) that appeal to me. When I got my Tallneck set, I cracked it open straight away to get Aloy built. It's been nearly two years and I still haven't finished the Tallneck itself.

I'm beginning to feel like I'm the only person who saw the machines as an added distraction in the game, and a necessity for gameplay purposes, rather than the main draw. I was much more invested in the characters and the post-Zero Dawn world

I don't think this is the case at all - certainly, in the recent Castle sets there have been plenty of female minifigures in 'traditional' roles in addition to the female knights. With Pirates, I think it's more a combination of Lego's new policy of broad gender equality within their own IPs (which is a vast improvement on the era of one female character per theme, if that) and there not being many interesting 'traditional' roles for women that fit with the recent sets while also being appropriate. The only missed opportunity was for a Governor's daughter/Camilla Broadside figure in Eldorado Fortress. You'd be hard pressed to find fault with the Barracuda Bay figures, and innkeepers and such don't really fit in Eldorado Fortress. They'd be a great addition if we had an Imperial Trading Post remake, though. (When it comes to CMF, it's more up for debate, but I definitely don't think most 'traditional' female roles are compelling for a minifigure on its own, in the same way as a generic male peasant/merchant probably wouldn't be. Great as part of a set - but not going to sell much as a standalone thing. You're inherently going to get more female CMFs in ahistorical roles because CMFs skew towards more exciting archetypes, which were historically primarily off-limits to women)

Based purely on wants not what's rumoured: Andor, Sequel Trilogy, OT. I don't really have any interest in Clone Wars sets or anything from animated properties, and probably wouldn't buy them. Unless it's got Kit Fisto in it. Then I'd be buying day one.

So long as it's in a set devoted to that IP. It would be really annoying to miss out on getting important Horizon characters in the Horizon sets because we instead get a character from a different IP - I'd be irritated if he turned up in a Horizon set before we get at least the likes of Rost/Sylens Maybe a video-game heroes CMF could be a thing? (Or even limiting it to a single console?) That way they could pop out figs for a lot of desirable characters unlikely to get sets of their own

I don't know if they got more generous in the mid-2010s, but they were very stingy with most sets in the mid-late 2000s (battlepacks and expensive sets aside). A lot of the sets on the shelves when I was getting into Star Wars Lego were £40 or £50 for either one minifigure or if you were lucky two copies of a generic minifigure

Yes! Varl! Hopefully this is just a taste of what's to come. At the very least we need Sylens and Erend figures (and Blameless Marad because he has the coolest name in all fiction). I wouldn't be opposed to a Petra figure too but that might be getting a little too into the weeds for Lego themes not called Star Wars