TeriXeri

I think it's quite cool they stay quite faithful to the original figures, but I don't think anything that appears in Fortnite is any indication to re-appear in LEGO sets.

Or something like the White + Teal Torso/Legs and Helmets from the recent Monkie Kid sets, even without backpacks it still has some cloud-shaped "space" logo (Galactic Explorer came with 4 suits + helmets)

Yeah, that's one thing that's a bit weird in that Creative Vehicles set , it has 24 of those and only 2 4 wide cars with those wheels sticking out are a bit odd indeed (without modern City fenders), missed chance to add more 4 wide classic fenders as well. As for the wheels themselves, at least there are some options.

City and Friends have been connected for a while with references with Trains and Airplanes going between LEGO City Central / International and Heartlake City, but yeah, when I saw the review of the Rover, I immediately thought minidoll leg slot as well. 40518: High-Speed Train isn't minifig scale, but got a prominent sticker saying LCC-HLC (LEGO City Central - Heartlake City), so it goes even beyond just City and Friends for being mentioned. City and Friends did have ocean explorer/rescue themes , and both had a skiing themed set for 2023, and now some space overlap, I think there will be more subthemes going at the same time from now on, but this rover having leg slots it's the first direct mention of figure compatibility.

910008: Modular Construction Site did get funded, so I think quite a lot of AFOL demand for a big crane has been fulfilled there (to go with Modular buildings) 2022 City Mobile Crane did retire however, so maybe there's some construction crane in the works again . Ideally I'd see something like a 4x4 tower crane design for a static City Crane, perhaps using those parts for structure (with technic axle support for strength) , could be yellow , or perhaps the new orange like the parts are already made for the space base. As in a little taller and thicker then the yellow crane from 60216: Downtown Fire Brigade, without going full 6x6 X shaped panels. The newer screw shaped elevator pieces could also make for nice new construction elevators that could go alongside a crane, or a building, the piece doesn't really need a full elevator design as it's pretty strong by design as long as there's a solid attachment point. Elevator platform piece in Friends Mansion : Or the simpler piece :

Not my observation but I think it's interesting how the top down view of the interstellar spacecraft design matches the classic space logo all along. Classic space logo originally is probably based on the 1976 space shuttle reveal , and 1977 free flight (Enterprise) , as it wasn't until 1981 until an actual launch via rockets (Columbia) (which are also the names of the first 2 NX-Class Warp 5+ human spaceships in the Star Trek universe) I still gotta build them but recently for fun put the red slope roof from 2017 31069: Modular Family Villa on the Police academy, as both are 8x16, and designed with being modular to begin with. I mean, 40305: LEGO Brand Retail Store wasn't themed, but still sold directly by LEGO and is also still compatible with those 3-in-1 Creator and now City, as it has the same 8x16 size removeable roof/floors, so nice to integrate with Downtown/Appartments etc. I started collecting City type of stuff around that time so those Creator 2017/2018 "modular" (not to be confused with the 32x32) sets were some of my first buildings, altho they are annoying to move as they are only connected with a few studs for the floors/window/grass sections.

Yeah that looks better with 6 wheels, but after seeing review, the way the cab is built is indeed really nice, sideway tiling at 4 wide is a nice modern way to build.

Yeah I do hope more of the sets with 8x8 and 8x16 modules, so far sets like the Fire Station or Prison Island took another approach, but I hope there will be some more structures that are compatible with Downtown/Appartment building and such. So far no new sets this year have either of those 2-plate high road plates, studded and non studded variants. They are still in production for 2023 sets, and the road plates expansion set is still sold as well, so I think LEGO just wants to sell current product first before overflooding the market. (the Family House did retire rather quick only 6 months after release however). The 2023 module sets are at quite high price points too (but imo still nicer compared to 2020 Main Square or 2021 Shopping Street for buildings, as a large chunk of those sets went into vehicles, making the buildings secondary and lacking).

Don't think so, as there's only 1 set for it, 31211: The Fauna Collection - Macaw Parrots . 10331: Kingfisher Bird is an Icons set instead of ART.

Good catch, the old guy does show up in the prison but not in a regular set, and the 60416 is indeed skipped inbetween 2 police sets (chase and hideout) If it's not a cancelled set, my guess would be that it's the Advent Calendar, but the placement inbetween 2 police sets would be unusual for that still. An exclusive print like that in a polybag, pointing to a set number different from it is a bit strange indeed, but weird things with City polybags have happened before, in 2022 30587: Police Robot Unit never released. There are other gaps in the City range for this year : 60407-60409 (3 numbers) 60416 (wanted poster in Polybag) 60420-60427 (8 numbers) 60435-60437 (3 numbers)

True, they aren't official "sets" to me either, but I can still see it as a way for people to obtain parts cheaper then just buying instructions for MOCs from somewhere (of course from the original designers only) and sourcing the parts themselves. Of course, those are still big sets and not "cheap" to begin with, and honestly I personally rather wait to see the final designs of the Medieval Town Square and Dungeons and Dragons sets which, while they are revealed later, will still be released and shipped much sooner and almost guaranteed have some new or rare parts/prints. Overall, quite the busy year for castle even without BDP. Personally I have created a mindset that I do not feel bad about missing out on BDP, most GWP, or even Collectable minifigs or Build-a-Minifigure store parts, or LEGOLAND park sets.

Looks like Castle is in quite a strong future currently : Lion Knights Castle (Icons) (Lion Knights mainly, some Falcons and Forestmen) Medieval Town Square (Icons) (? ? ? but I assume at least 1 Lion Knight visiting) Mountain Fortress (Bricklink Designer Program) (Falcons) Forest Stronghold (Bricklink Designer Program) (Forestmen) 3-in-1 Castle (Creator) (Falcons) Dungeons and Dragons (IDEAS) , Not really "Castle" , or any of the 3 current factions, but still might be a nice set. While BDP sets aren't 100% guaranteed yet, I think they have a good chance, with the increased production numbers. Mountain Fortress got a final design now and price (€339,99) Model Dimensions (Closed): Width: 45.9 cm / 18.1 in Length: 39 cm / 15.4 in Height: 59 cm / 23.2 in Model Dimensions (Opened): Width: 49.2 cm / 19.4 in Length: 63.1 cm / 24.8 in Height: 59 cm / 23.2 in I currently don't really expect a new faction to appear, and if LEGO does it, it would be after Lion Knight's Castle retires, I'd love to see something Black Knights before a timeskip to Dragon Masters however (altho Majisto kind of did that but that's just 1 (unprinted) figure, and 1 GWP torso).

True, it's not really an "IDEA" at this point, with LEGO having brought back the parts, prints etc. I mean, for Barracuda Bay, it was quite some years since 2015 already, and there was no substantially sized Pirate island set since the 90s, and the 2-in-1 redesign likely helped. Vikings had the ship going for it, and a Viking Village itself was never done in such a way + it was a Vote. Also BDP has another Castle coming up for crowdfunding next month, with https://www.bricklink.com/v3/designer-program/series-1/482/Mountain-Fortress, so between that, the upcoming Medieval Market, Forest Stronghold and Lion Knights, I think Castle is in a good place for the 3 current factions.

Maybe, but in this case, https://www.bricklink.com/v3/designer-program/series-3/1127/Forest-Stronghold is up for crowdfunding later in the year, and while this Ideas submission looks somewhat different as it's more brown, and wood, compared to Stronghold and Castle in the Forest, it's still pretty much the same subject material, as in a main location for Forestmen faction. Then again, with IDEAS, LEGO can still decide to change the final design, while with BDP, not really. As we see with Viking Village, got a lot of new prints.

Looks like an interesting book, especially to somewhat see officially what LEGO will consider under Pirates, Space and Castle after the 2000s, for Pirates it's quite clear as there's basicly 2009 , 2010 Imperial Flagship, 2015 , then 2020 Barracuda Bay , until current, but Castle and Space had more splitoffs.

I still think this is Nintendo's decistion and not LEGO's, as they are pretty protective of their property, and things like Amiibo are still around.

If I think architecture and Space, it'd probably be some of the more famous observatories or radio telescopes.

Depends what era, TNG / DS9 / VOY , they swapped Yellow and Red.

To me, just Forest Base, but that's not going to happen with Forest Stronghold being in the Bricklink Program.

My main guess would still be that roof texture could be built up from many 1x1, perhaps some path is included with 1x1 round tiles (diagon alley sidewalk. Eldorado ramp style) , or just some Tree(s) with potentially lots of tiny flower bits. And since it's medieval, wall sections could perhaps be built from sections with just some layers of plates instead of stacking mostly bricks (Eldorado had those dark red plates in the walls) , and SNOT bricks or brackets with more 1x1 tiles for more sideways wall textures. I think Lion Knights Castle would have 6000+ pieces too if it had large section of wall built from plates, instead of the hundreds of 1x3 and 1x2 bricks they used, if they wanted to go for a more rugged/damaged look seen in MOCs.

I'll probably get the Space Car mainly for the parts (and perhaps convert it to a 6 wide normal car), especially the white wheels will be nice for Ice Planet inspired vehicles. So far, I only got matteo from the magazine, but this theme literally just started in August so I imagine the 2023 will be around during all of 2024 still.

It's pretty obvious many sets have like structural colors for easy building, and then other parts for visual outside appearance, and LEGO doesn't seem bothered at all if they use 5 colors of the same part even if like 2-3 colors are even visible in the build, even on small vignette builds I found pink or purple 1x1 and 1x2 on the inside, while the main final appearance is just 2 greens (on a set like Easter Rabbits Display from 2022) and that set uses. That said, the 2024 seasonal vignettes suddenly seem to have a lot lower parts counts (100 less compared to 2022), as the bases are only just 1 plate thick, so a lot less places to hide small odd colored bits.

With the recent re-launch of HeroQuest (now under Hasbro), the new release had to change all the Warhammer related references to Chaos, and change a few monsters in the process, and they started making new, original expansions.

It helps that the main build splits into 2 island sections, so extending it sideways certainly is an option as well, with 2 sets, keeping the open back configuration.

Perhaps also competitor brands doing Star Trek might've influenced it? I know Star Trek is pretty broad, but still very much about exploration to it's core, I know this LEGO City wave isn't really about "Starships", or other humanoid civilizations, but still has elements of visiting strange planets. I mean, Classic Space started out with 3 space suit colors, and this wave pretty much has 3 main spacesuit colors as well, as does Star Trek for it's main personell in the majority of series it's Red/Blue/Yellow. And there's the gold old guy, which reminds me of some guy like Admiral Picard (Picard series), someone who's not going to sit around in an office. And the Crystals for power, are somewhat synonym to Dilithium from the series, while also going back to older LEGO exploration themes. I was more thinking of another wave, of a few sets, right after this, like Stuntz had, with using the same color scheme, but perhaps a bigger mining set, or a bigger spaceship, instead of a new iteration entirely, more modules obviously as well. A Mining set can still have modules for rest and food, and perhaps a garage with tools (altho the 2022 Lunar Base could serve as Garage already), so more focus on a large mining crater would be prefered. A larger spaceship could perhaps carry more modules, or perhaps even be modular entirely ,kind of like Space police 2 or ice planet, or even Classic space had "dropship" designs which dropped off a stationary forward base type of structure. (I do realise the VTOL Technic set kind of does that already, and that little hangar thing is somewhat compatible with minifigs for play, but that's about it)