TeriXeri

Yellow, simple, the most customizable, no issues with hands or prints etc Skin tones have incompatibility within themselves as there are now 6 + 2 new colors, if you want to swap heads, or hands, or prints, it's not as simple as a single color. (+ swapping hands isn't official either)

Yeah but the only current available set I could find that's not part of a series or modular connective, is the motorized lighthouse, the rest are part of the 2 Diagon Alley sets, Modular buildings, or Ninjago City series. I have gotten a 32x32 baseplate via a boardgame (LUDO) a few years back, and there also was a Minifigure Frame GWP but with that set the baseplate is glued on a shiny thick paper type of frame. The only 16x32 I got is from the Chinese New Year festival, but yes some are part of modular buildings, like the wide builds like Assembly Square / History Museum, or a Modular that can seperate in 2 buildings like the Bookshop. Diagon Alley 2020 also is built on multiple 16x32.

The 4 Technic Space sets are March releases. For minifigs : Friends Space Rover - April City Space Science Laboratory - April City Space Explorers Pack - May Still sooner then the summer sets. Also March will have quite a lot of other sets releasing, Animal Crossing, Brickheadz, Creator 3-in-1, Star Wars, Disney, Ninjago, Classic , Harry Potter, Speed Champions , Super Heroes

Yeah the only reason LEGO still uses baseplates in sets, seems to be compatibilty with Modular compatible sets, with a few exceptions (like motorized lighthouse) 76417: Gringotts Wizarding Bank - Collectors' Edition is shown on a raised platform, but it's not connected, but rather just sitting on it, but the baseplate is because the other large 75978: Diagon Alley set can connect to it if you don't display gringotts basement/cave. Also the "Ninjago City" series started on baseplates and still is. And some other sets like Daily Bugle, Avenger Tower, and Chinese New Year Spring Lantern Festival, compaitible with Modulars. And there's the example of the Dark Blue baseplate made for the Motorized Lighthouse.

Some sets are never sold in physical stores outside of LEGO's own, or they have some limited exclusivity contract, or it's a reseller trying to sell them for higher then RRP. I see this all the time with webstores too.

If you use just baseplates as a base, just fine, but when you want to connect them to the many sidebuilds, or road plates, or City/Friends or whatever building built on 1-2 thick plates these days, they cannot be connected properly. But this always has been an incompatibility issue, it's just that pretty much everything except a few sets a year are built on regular 1-2 thick plates now.

Fox would look pretty cool with a David the Gnome inspired minifigure on it's back :)

1st year 2020-2021 Season 1 2nd year 2021-2022 Season 2 3rd year 2022-2023 Season 3 4th year 2023-2024 Season 4 5th year 2024-2025 Season 5

I wonder if the high piece count from the lab , could come, perhaps it's built on top of some terrain plate "crater" with a lot of tiny pieces (cheese slopes and 1x1 tiles) , kind of like those 2023 Seasonal vignettes which were on a raised tiled base. Not like a cave, or a very high rock base of course, but perhaps just 2 bricks tall, like a bigger version of terrain seen in the rover set, but simple enough, as there are a lot of quarter round plates and bricks available now, and then filled with those dark orange bits and some plant/crystals.

Depends , of course for the buildings, hinged can work just fine, but if it includes something like a parts of a wall, perhaps could be a bit more like 80s sets. Like Guarded Inn could connect with something as small as Armor Shop / Blacksmith shop as they had seperate little wall sections. Of course I don't expect a full wall around a village here, I'd rather see another building instead of a plain wall, but a wall section could still be part of some fortified building, which perhaps opens to form a wider defense (even Lion Knights Castle splits in 2 and then each can hinge open) . Eldorado is more like a Puzzle layout since clips work a bit different, but the same principle of open back / cave in wide configuration, Eldorado did put a lot of extra pieces in the backside to look nice however, as it's fairly thick rockwork (some parts even feel heavy) and not something as flat as a wall.

I wonder how "modular" this will be, as in able to connect, combine, and re-arrange certain parts of the set, think Eldorado, or Lion Knight's Castle etc.

The only agreement I can think of is the 1% of revenue from sets that go to the original IDEAS submission creator, but Tree House shows sets can be it around for 4+ years, without needing to re-release the set Maybe rules changed since Tree House released (2019), as both Saturn V (2017) and Ship in Bottle (2018) were earlier sets and re-released as different numbers (probably not bound to agreements when it's a new set, as the rules also state "follow-up" sets are not compensated). I can imagine the rules changed so LEGO can keep sets around longer, but at some point the 1% revenue stops, that's my theory at least. Most ideas prior to 2019, were only around about 1.5 years. But yeah, Barracuda Bay retired 2 full years ago and something like the Grand Piano is still around, so strange, but the 3-in-1 ship being around for so long at least tells something that Pirates sets aren't completely unwanted.

True it was ideas, but 21318: Tree House has been around since August 2019, and still around now, until at least the end of 2024, so Ideas sets can definately last for very long time. But on the other hand, a set like Saturn V or Ship in Bottle got re-released with different set numbers.

So far I built about half of the set (Bag 1-6), I like it, but while I was critical about rockwork before, based on pics/instructions, it's much better when seeing it in person, and seeing those modules as seperate smaller "sets" meant to look good from the front and still decent at the rear. I agree about the office being shallow, but it's not like it's a dominant flaw, I think the gate being see through is a bigger flaw, as you can clearly see it's empty in the "wide" configuration, basicly the ramp leading to nowhere, with a door , it could at least remain closed The little cave spaces and extra stashes definately add to this set as well, and the boat is nice. Still, I think the Wide configuration, or splitting off the smaller tower sections off is a very nice addition over just a square MOC of the set, also gives it many more options for expansion into a full harbour, or town, like the rockwork acting like a breakwater (especially the main L shape module) . with the option to have the included ship behind it. It could have simpler rocks, BURPS, etc to allow more cave space, and lower piece count, it could have more classic panel walls, etc, if simplicity and full playset was the intended focus. But as this is definately built as an expert type of set with a lot of smaller brick and plate stacking, but I think this set really tried to be different and a more advanced model. A small nitpick would be the front cannon being on a white emplacement, while the bottom should've been yellow, but that color inverted slope had not been made since 2016. The most fun with this set I think will be designing additional modules, that will fit and look appropriate in different connection points.

True, or some sets are sometimes sold after retirement date , the 2020 City Police Station was available on lego.com (Europe) until 1 September 2022 , 8 months after the 31-12-2021 retirement.

Again, none of those dates are final until closer to end of the year, I think most of those are "planned" end dates, and usually I consider things unofficial until like a site like Brickset sets an end date. Sets can be extended too. I mean, this Creator Dinosaur set has been around since 2017, to retire at the end of 2025 currently, far beyond it's original plan I think. (I've seen that set sold in a museum with dinosaur skeletons , so maybe that means more places sell that set across the world in places like that)

And sets like 60326: Picnic in the Park or 60394: ATV and Otter Habitat were super popular (even sold out for a while) and only lasted 1 year as well, it's not always good or bad sales. Not sure why 60398: Family House and Electric Car only was available 6 months tho.

Seems very normal for City, some sets only around for 6 months, others 1 year, but some other sets stay around for 2-4 years instead, so they gotta cycle things out to make room.

Probably, and that particular 3-in-1 set is also a tavern and skull island, so perhaps LEGO considers it 3 sets more compared to others, unlike the 3-in-1 Castle which is just 3 structures ,which also is still around, but if Pirate Ship retires at the end of 2025 , it'll mean it has been around 2 years longer then the Castle. Still the mystery around barracuda bay retiring quite fast, is weird, as it's even still mentioned in the Eldorado instructions when you finish the dock. Viking ship came later and retired sooner but viking always has been more niche, and IDEAS viking village will stay for a while.

Yeah when it comes to like mechs, dragons, vehicles and such I prefer the €10 / €15 / €20 or €30 price ranges usually (also goes for City, Creator 3-in-1, or Friends (Pirates or Castle sadly do not have such price range sets, "Space" now does via City at least) I can understand people that want big dragons or big mechs etc, but sometimes sets can be bloated + I prefer locations when it comes to large sets, my largest dragon is the 2020 skeleton dragon, and mech from that same wave. At least a theme like City now does it's location sets with less vehicles, like their appartment / downtown sets of 2023, instead of being like 50% vehicles seen a few years before. I'm not a huge Ninjago collector (mainly got the 2020 wave, and then crystal king temple+monster, and then the 2022 Dojo+expansion), but I hope this year's Shadow Dojo / Dragon Temple looks good.

$16 US, €15, so I think at that price, it looks great , I mean, it still looks much better compared to 71815 - Kai's Source Dragon Battle (4+) which is a crazy $38/€38.

That's actually a really good idea as there's that connection point with those tireless wheels on technic pin bricks.

Between 2016 and 2023 I had 4 situations of parts being swapped or extra. 1x6 plate not meant to be in the set, instead of a 2x2 corner L brick. (2017 Creator 3-in-1) extra 2x2 slope (part of the set) instead of a 1x2 clip brick. (2022 Ninjago) 1x4 plate outside of a bag. (2020 Brickheadz) 1x3 tile extra (2023 Friends)

I like the 2017 Creator 3-in-1 dinosaur more then a moulded one too, even tho it looks somewhat outdated by now in terms of some pieces) and that set is super popular, as it's going to be around in 2025 (planned retirement at the end of that year), and I look forward to the new 3-in-1 buildable dinosaur set this summer. I think Ninjago does the right middle ground, sometimes moulded heads or wing pieces, sometimes vinyl or cloth, sometimes brick built heads with tiles for eyes etc. (the 4+ designs still look weird but I can excuse those for their easy to build target group)

Seems as usual some 2024 sets might retire at end of 2024, nothing final yet but still handy to have a heads up. https://www.brickfanatics.com/every-lego-set-retiring-this-year-and-beyond#retiring-city-sets fire 4+ bike / helicopter / airplane ambulance helicopter / 4+ ambulance space mech / large command rover 4+ race car sailboat crooks hideout