TeriXeri

-

Yes, easily, fits right in with other sets of previous years. I personally have no problem with the open back designs of more recent 3-in-1 buildings.

-

Maybe it's a new general direction LEGO is trying, the 2018 Mack Anthem had a similar direction with bricks/Technic.

I had to look twice to see if it were Technic or bricks I suppose it's both. Using more System parts in Technic does certainly help the shape and details. Model does look good.

Indeed, that's what I think when I look at my old LEGO collection , example of a few small sets I owned : Sets don't need to be huge to be fun. Of course in most of those sets there's hardly any realism, or details, but imagination played a big role. Now in modern times, I am still happy when they make tiny vehicles and such , some might call them too simple or unrealistic but I am used to this small design from the old tiny boxed sets. Benny's Space Squad builds were great in capturing a similar style/feeling of old , yet new. For 2019 there was this from Magazine Gifts. I know Polybags also exist ,but for me the Magazines are much easier to find locally compared to Polybags. That said, going back to the subject of Classic Space, I recently got the 3-in-1 Futuristic flyer set, and might try to moc some spaceship out of it and my other loose parts

-

Build the Deep Sea Creatures, Underwater Robot and Futuristic Flyer sets this week. Great sets for parts when found on discount. Underwater Robot is my favorite, and also is a great "mech" parts starter set if not looking for a particular theme. Shark also looks great, those 2 sets really go together.

I think it comes down to personal preference, and there's no good and bad. I know there could be endless debate on why some people like yellow, fleshie, or minidolls, but in the end, all 3 are still on sale, and even older LEGO is still mostly compatible to mix and match and allow people to do what they want. If someone would tell it's a downgrade, that's just projecting their opinion on someone elses LEGO collection and that's silly. Of course it affects the way I buy sets, or vote on IDEAS but those are again, personal choices

Certainly looks like one : They also released the "most powerful forage harvester" in September 2018, the Krone Big X 1180, shown in a corn field in the video. (Spinning grey blades at 1:36 in the video) I guess if people wanted a LEGO tractor to go along with it, the 2018 Forest Tractor is a good starting point for a similar set still on shelves. with some modifications, can easily turn into a Farm tractor.

That's how I feel right now, it's different enough, yet fits right in with recent Creator 3-in-1 scale/sets for me. And at some point I'll start taking apart my sets to make my own weird things.

Ninjago is not a new theme, but it's indeed fantastic this year, especially the ice and snake figures, but on a whole I don't want to get into too many themes at once. I almost got the Monastery as a one-off set as it contains the full team of Ninjas+Wu. But if I do that, I know I want more sets because those ice and fire villains are great. I gotta set priorities, and keep my number of themes to a limit. After 5 waves of Nexo Knights, I now collect some City and Creator 3-in-1, and Hidden side fits in there better.

Another great video on an alternate Nexo Knights model from @grohl Original set 70355: Aaron's Rock Climber (2017) 598 parts :

Only just saw the video. that just made me even more exciting bout the theme, might get the Train even at some point. Still one of my favorite aspect of the sets is that the locations and figures can be "normal" and "possesed". I have been collecting City and Creator sets mainly since Nexo Knights stopped and this'll fit right in with both, or even have a new custom Monster faction For 2019, best new theme for me. I hope they'll add some alternate build functionality with the app to promote building and changing the bricks.

I think for me it's basicly my 15 year gap between 2000 and 2016, most my LEGO sets had yellow figures (ufo/Insectoids sets I had being exceptions), even my only Star Wars set. But I have an easier time accepting Aliens (ufo/Insectoids sets I had), Nexo Knights Monsters, or even Hidden Side ghosts with neon transparent heads. As they are LEGO in-house. I was never a gigantic Harry Potter fan, as most my time during the time when it was in the cinemas, I was playing Warcraft games, which by itself have a huge story/lore. I read the first Harry Potter book, seen the movies (tv/dvd with friends). Also read the Jurassic Park book, seen the movies (had some non-lego JP toys and VHS tapes), and was huge dinosaur fan as a kid, but I've grown out of that. Also Star Wars, seen originals at TV, the prequels in cinema, but not the modern movies at all. I knew there were MegaBloks Warcraft sets, and got one gifted to me back then, but it still didn't convince me to buy more as LEGO still had a special place. And it felt like something what they call on this forum "non-purist" I guess. I know LEGO has a relationship with Blizzard now, and Warcraft sets might be the exception for me to get a licensed theme despite not playing the games for more then a year now. Like I said before , each personal experience with LEGO is different. For example Classic Space has a special place as we had sets like the Galaxy Explorer at home, despite the theme being older then me, I really started getting my own sets somewhere in the 90s. However, despite missing the LEGO movie 1 sets (Benny's Spaceship and the Castle set in particular), I tend to look forward and not backward. A few years ago I rebuilt many sets of the family old LEGO, I do keep it seperate for now however as it's special in some way, and the 15+ year gap. This might explain my feeling towards the desire of in-house themes a bit better.

The hospital of 2018 certainly wasn't a one-off set. 2018 also had a medical rescue helicopter (to rescue a snowboarder), and more might be coming soon. (unreleased Ski Resort set) https://brickset.com/sets/60203-1/Ski-Resort A while back I also saw some kid's activity book with a doctor figure in stores. Overall, it's by far the largest presence of doctor/hospital related LEGO in recent times.

There remains a division in the LEGO community, and I don't think it's a bad thing to like different things. Some people like fleshie/licensed figs, some like minidolls, some like yellow figures, some like multiple, some like a few. While I wasn't asking for a 100% copy of Elves or Forestmen, a modern minifig-twist would be a welcome change and not a repeat. And we have seen themes with a twist before in Nexo Knights, while I see a lot of negativity to the theme when it was on shelves, I also see a lot of positivity to it ,even now. Nexo Knights brought me out of a 15 year dark age because it was a new theme with old recognizable hints while still being refreshing to me. Maybe it's that very dark-age that has raised my preference for yellow figures and non-licensed themes over themes based on movies/games etc. (I did have 1 Star Wars set but it was 1999 and still yellow figures) If I had to choose between 2019 Harry Potter and Hidden Side, I'd pick Hidden Side 100%, not because Harry Potter is bad in any way, but everyone has different interests and to me non-licensed plays a big factor. I didn't buy Nexo Knights because of the tv-show or comics, but the sets themselves. Going back to old themes isn't exactly crazy either, LEGO even revived Harry Potter despite the last movie being from 2011. (I know Fantastic Beasts extends the following, but still the main sets are based off older movies). Ninjago also had "Legacy" sets and that's an in-house theme. Many video games are remastering or re-releasing Classic versions (Final Fantasy, World of Warcraft, Warcraft 3, and many others), even movies like Lion King, Dumbo, Alladin, Jungle book got revisted etc. Even LEGO is releasing a new game based on their in-house minifigures anywhere from new to 40 year old classics. Also LEGO displayed 3 20+ year old sets at a brickworld, 2 being Castle from the 80s and 90s. I am also not asking for 100% copies of old In-House Castle/Pirate sets, as it would get the "this doesn't look like xx source material" critic , (even happens to licensed themes like the hungarian horntail as recent example). That said, this is in no way an attack on licensed themes or hate for them or the people that love them, even if you look at the "Eras" thread, you can see opinion and perception of LEGO is a very personal thing.

I think it's certainly worse then the original Royal Knights heraldry from 1995, which to date, is my favorite Lion heraldry, it uses the 5 original more basic LEGO colors (Red, Yellow, Blue, Black, White). The year 2000 Knights Kingdom used almost the same lion head as 1995, but with red added to the crown, but the background is just very bad, yellow X shape behind the same color yellow Lion head makes it a mess. 2000 was my last year before my darkage, so my last Castle sets were actually Fright Knights (1997), until 2016. As for heralds on future LEGO Castle themes, I actually liked what they did with Nexo Knights (which also used a Lion head crest, just obviously more "digital"). Having those shield tiles to change the looks, they made 3 shield molds to fit them, and many printed shield tiles. Also we got some heraldry throwbacks to older themes as well (wolfpack, falcons, forestmen, bulls, etc) , on either the knights, squirebots, or shields. I don't know how the printing would look on opaque tiles however (they used stickers for the ones used on buildings/vehicles). The Monsters didn't use much heraldry at all, beside shield tiles, year 2 stone monsters had a bit of "runic" design, seen in fantasy worlds, like World of Warcraft (Iron Dwarves), which also have a lightning-affinity. The 2018 wave figures had some sort of red eye icon , kind of looks like an "Eye of Sauron" , but that was never explained anywhere, not even in the Magazine comic. As far as Future sets, something along the lines of 2007 or 2009 fantasy era would be great, if you mainly take the buildings from that. (2008 had mostly siege sets/vehicles and a ship). Maybe even some minfigure Elves/Forestmen inspired faction, since the other Elves theme ended. And it would be something that hasn't been done in minifigure Castle for a long time, Forestmen (not really elves but still tree-inspired) back in the 90s, and then the elves form Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit, and LEGO also has made the yellow ears mold for CMF (series 3 Elf, series 17 forest maiden). Add the Harry Potter Patronus deer in a regular color and you'd even have deer-riders.

Creator (both 3-in-1 and Expert) are not City directly, however they have been the go-to themes to get Minifig sets focused on houses/shops without much vehicles. City's last "House" set was as far back as 2010 with City House City did of course have some buildings since, often hideouts used by villains in some Police set, or a bank or museum break-in. Or partly empty houses in Construction, Demolition or Fire themes. Most other buildings are part of a huge set with lots of vehicles as well. (2018 Capital City, 2019 Donut Shop Opening being examples) Of course, the appearance of Friends (2012-now) might also have played a role, as it does have a lot more Houses and Shop focused sets as well, compared to City.

I do see pretty big discounts on the smaller wave 1 TLM 2 sets on Amazon but then they lock them behind Prime most of the time I know you can free trial every 12 months but it still doesn't work Amazon-wide, so you don't get the benefits from UK, DE, FR etc at the same time

Not just Friends, Creator 3-in-1 has the underwater robot set (which also fits minifig), and the Twin-Rotor helicopter has a mini Remote Control submarine as well. City still has the Diving Yacht with the sawfish, and the June City Magazine gift also is a Diver.

We do have the Fire Plane set for 2019 (with 2 trees and a skunk), so more Forest sets could work in some way. be it industrial or nature preservation (Deer Mold?) Volcano and Jungle were more exotic outside-city themes as well. We had some sets with logging in 2018 already with the Train having logs as cargo, and the logging tractor

Pure guessing here: Since the Fire Station and Dockside are connectable, maybe there will be a larger Fire Boat set as well as it's missing from 2019. I also think we get City Police again, but a Police Boat is still possible if they make it dockside like the 2019 Fire Station. I liked the fact that the Fire Station was focused on the building, and the big Fire playset was seperate. As for the big City subtheme just thinking of patterns of previous subthemes which are around 4-year cycles but nothing is 100% predictable. Possibly some renewal of a Sea/Harbour theme, 2011 had Harbour, 2015 had Deep Sea/Space. 2019 had Space but no ships beside the Diving Yacht and smaller Fire craft (small boat + jetski), Sky Police had aircraft. I don't expect Coast-Guard for 2020 but for 2021. (2017 last time) 2016 had Airport and Volcano Explorers. Sky Police will still be on shelves in 2020 so Airport could tie-in to that a bit. As for the other subtheme, no idea, Possibly some exploration outside of the city (Desert/Outback , Farm, Forest )

Police and Firemen had sets for decades now , I don't think they have much effect on other City subthemes at all. I expect a standard City-Police wave, after 2 subthemes (Mountain and Sky for 2018/2019). Hopefully they follow the 2019 Fire Station design and make a smaller Police station set and put the large vehicles in an Action-based set (like Downtown fire). That said, I'd love to see sets themed with something like Farm, Horseriding, Circus, Zoo, etc sets in City. That seems very logical as it's the main thing that's "missing" , 2007, 2010 , 2013, 2016 had big Fire ships. Since the 2019 Fire Station and the Fire dockside set can be connected/re-arranged to form a waterside quay, I doubt the small boat and jet-ski would be the only boats. Coastguard (2008/2013/2017) seems too early for 2020, as it's only been 3 years. So maybe some mix of Harbour and Deep Sea. It's been since 2011 since we got the last Harbour buildings (Marina and Cargo Harbours)

Now that minifig horses are being made again for Harry Potter, hoping for some City or Castle (or Xtra) set with horses next year. I know horseriding is a recurring theme in Friends (with a different type of horse), even this year, but that doesn't take away that they still fit in the minifig world as well. Even if it's in something like Mounted Police in a smaller set (2 horses, trailer, police SUV in similar style to the current 2019 Fire ones) I'd be happy.