TeriXeri

I do hope the summer wave is nice. Just saw how mega overpriced the Hospital is over here, €60 for only being 4-deep inside and 379 pieces. That's the same price as the much better 2019 Restaurant. 2020 Hair Salon isn't bad however.

But there still is a large increase in larger sets , especially in the last 5 years. And I can see that increase even further in the future. While the size of set isn't always directly related to being an AFOL set, many of the really largest sets certainly have an AFOL price range. I also hope for more AFOL focused sets , especially in the non-licensed direction, Classic Creator versions of Pirates/Castle/Space would be a start if they can't do it via IDEAS or a full theme. https://brickset.com/article/46973/ten-things-in-ten-years-greater-quantity-of-large-sets After 2015 the number of sets over 1000 pieces really increased:

Everyone has their themes they want to end but there's a better place. https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/169875-themes-lego-should-discontinue/

Robin Hood idea is great, manageable size still with a lot of detail. I've been saying the Blacksmith is a bit too large, but, might look nice next to for example, The Castle in the Forest, or Robin Hood idea above (& Other Castle IDEAS of recent times) + a Blacksmith needs a Castle!

Thunderbirds seems to most likely to have a chance for licensed property, and then Anatomini for in-house idea.

Modulars came much later in 2007, and my personal preference actually goes to 3-in-1 scale right now as I don't have endless display room. I'm mostly speaking of the 2001-2004 period which my Dark age had started already. Internet was also not as big and accesible back then so those LEGENDS sets I never even knew were made, until much later. Town had no new sets in 2001-2003, rebooted as World City in 2004 2000 Castle had the same issues as TownJR, also returned in 2004 Pirates: didn't return until 2009 Space: Star Wars didn't interest me as much as themes like Insectoids or earlier 90s themes, and 2001 Mars mission likely wouldn't have pulled me back into LEGO. I suppose I never really discovered the Studios theme in 2001 as it's certainly the most interesting theme of that year. But by then my hobbies had shifted to video games and budget did shift towards that as well.

There are certainly more offerings now, when I got into the Dark Ages, it was literally the "Dark Age" of LEGO themselves during 2000/2001. Unless you were a big Star Wars or Bionicle Fan or something, the core of LEGO themes literally had died at that point. Town/Castle/Pirates/Space all needed multiple years to get back on the right track.

I was away from LEGO during 2001-2016 and I can clearly see there's more and more focus for AFOL sets compared to 20 years ago. Back then in the 80s and 90s there were 2 themes with sets for larger kids/adults : Technic and Model Team The market of large and recurring series of sets has drasticly grown over the last 20 years : Not just for new fans either. Those series of large sets have been running for a long time now: CE :Modular Buildings CE :Large scale Cars CE :Winter Village SW :UCS Sets CE :Landmarks CE : Amusement Park sets Architecture Large Technic sets And it's not just large sets: seeing how long CMF series run and how much discussion is here about them, I certainly see those as a part of a collector/AFOL product as well, especially the "collecting entire series" thing. And then there's been more standalone releases of still very large sets : UCS Hogwarts 1989 Batmobile The Upside Down IDEAS (very wide spectrum of sets, from TV shows/Movies, to Space, to Creator-Expert type buildings) Ninjago City/Docks I'm not saying that kids/teens can't build or enjoy those sets but many of those sets are at a much higher price range/parts count then the average playsets. I can only see this segment Grow and not shrink. But I can also see some segments have gotten less sets in recent times : Trains Creator 3-in-1 large Houses Historical/Classic themes

Would be a good time to keep using those new underwater decoration parts, likely in different color but still.

So Atlantis was a Random Set of the Day on Brickset. I missed that theme but you can actually make atlantis-like figures with the 2019 Space sets by putting the transparent (lightblue or orange) visors on those white airtanks (that use golden visors in sets). Add some diving fins (Xtra Sea accesoires),Diving Yacht, and 3-in-1 Underwater Robot / Deep Sea Creatures and there's a start Also could add this build from World Fun 2018 : Won't replace the theme but still can make some underwater action with current sets. Also 2019 Friends sets could add some more with those summer sets having Ocean Rescue/Amusement park. Still additional possiibilities depending how the 2020 City Ocean theme and sets like Hidden Side Submarine will look.

I said "for me" at the end of the sentence. 2002 ,2009 and 2015 Pirates I never got sets from as they were during my "dark ages". But I also keep the old LEGO from before 2001 seperate so Pirate Bay or Pirate Ship would be a fresh start.

I still see it all the way up to the 10000 video, but not a big deal. The baseplate and BURP height is both 6 bricks, so they could maybe use some Tan BURPS for height, or add a little cave/stash in the back. Right now this is for sure my most anticipated non-released 2020 set. Just seems such a good way to get (back) into LEGO Pirates, it's been more then 25 years since the last official Pirates set (Enchanted Island) for me.

Also better to end it properly with a bang, instead of having a weird 6-set wave like Nexo did. The TV show already ended at that point. I still liked those 2018 Nexo sets but they were completely disconnected from the rest, the Magazine was like the only way to get some story for that wave. The game did still update to the Cyber theme but sadly that also changed all the content, and not just a section of it. I have no experience with the Hidden Side app however so I don't know how much story is told via that.

Speaking of bring back old parts, I do wonder how they handle the Raised Baseplate situation for The Pirate Bay set. I doubt they'll bring back baseplates for this so maybe they use bricks with the help of some BURPS to make some terrain/hollow spaces. Hidden Side lighthouse is much smaller but the backside of the BURP can still be used as a little cave, but it depends if this gets a "camera unfriendly" side or not.

It seems they updated their page again, different artwork. Also some new Wallpapers from the Stadium and Fossils. And some new physical prints under the Originals branding. At least they removed the rewards that were never in stock.

I think that's the confusing part here as well , the number comes after the period just in that spot.

It only seems this little part of the whole article is based on internal data : "The company also achieved its goal in the past financial year to inspire and promote more children and adults with the LEGO® gaming experience. Internal surveys show that every second child [2] in Germany received at least one new LEGO® product last year." And then directly follows up this statement with : "In addition, every tenth euro was spent on an adult. [3]" 3 being a different Source then 2. [2] Source: BEAT internal market research, period January – October, age of children 3 – 12 years [3] Source: npdgroup Germany , Market coverage 73%

Agreed, compared to something at the same price like Tree House which was certainly very high on the popular set of 2019 polls.

Original submission actually used over 2700 pieces so that's pretty huge

I don't have Monster Fighter sets (or Hidden Side) , but from a builds/figures perspective, MF looks a lot more interesting. Yes, Figures do repeat even in MF but nowhere near the same frequency of how often Hidden Side figures repeat (some different outfits but still repeat the same character) Also actual varied monsters instead of relying on Augmented Reality for many. Hidden Side has great side characters for sure, but also sets rely a lot on many stickers for details, especially the School. I'm still looking forward for pictures of the Castle/Prison but with limited space to display sets, I've been a lot more selective in 2020 (and some big-hitters like Pirate Bay / Pirate Ship on the horizon)

2002 was still a different time, those Legends sets were LEGO exclusive and many countries had no physical LEGO stores compared to now. Internet shopping was still much smaller back then as well. I think if they did the same now, they'd get more(international) buyers but there would be compromises where they use the newer brown color and likely also some different moulds. Personally I'd rather have them release new sets with a more Classic design instead of copies of old sets.

Hard to tell the full long-term international impact yet, as the situation still develops daily.

I still don't think it's fair to compare LEGENDS back then, to how it would do now. First, those sets are LEGO exclusive, just consider how many physical LEGO stores opened since, my country only just got their first stores less then 6 months ago. Internet sales/shipping was also far less developed still. The biggest concern would be bringing back older colors/prints/moulds. I think bringing back Inspired sets instead of 90-100% copies would be a better idea.

This does feel like a LEGO S.W.A.T. type set for sure. https://brickset.com/sets/70815-1/Super-Secret-Police-Dropship Seeing something like that in a Space Police / S.W.A.T type setting could be nice.

Just realised that the Ideas Pirate Bay original design uses raised baseplates in it's submission. I wonder how they'll handle that in the final design. I think it uses this baseplate , last made in 2011. https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=51542#T=C