TeriXeri

Timing is crucial for LEGO tbh, 2026 will be a huge year, with 30 years of pokemon, potentially a 10th generation of pokemon game being announced (or released possibly late 2026), and perhaps more special events/crossovers. Switch 2 will also be drawing in a lot of people in and back. Seeing how LEGO and Fortnite did a thing like adding codes for skins with the product to draw people into the game, it wouldn't even surprise me to see if somehow some mystery gift code or whatever would be included with pokemon LEGO sets to get something in the latest game (which in late 2025/early 2026 will be Legends Z-A, which still is a mainline 9th generation game despite having a bigger focus on generation 1 to 6, being based in the generation 6 X Y city based on paris, and Mega evolutios) (I mean, They sold a pokeball controller for the 2018 games, which had a code to redeem mew at the time), so physical product coming with digital promotion is nothing new for pokemon, along with timed events being basicly a thing for decades as well. 2027 potentially might include Gen 10 pokemon LEGO sets I'd assume, wouldn't surprise me to see at least the 3 starters in some form if they continue those .

In the last 10 year or so, Duplo moved from Zoos, to Wildlife Reserves/Safari Parks with vehicles/man-made structures, to nowadays, sets without any indication of human tourism/influence as no more figures are included whatsoever in their wildlife sets in 2022/2025. 2015 had a forest type of theme , the largest set basicly still depicted as a "zoo" with still fenced off enclosures for foxes and bears etc. 2016 had more sets focused on around the world , which still included human activities/tourism , 2019 did a similar thing but already more natural structures. 2022 did another round of around the world sets, in a big wave with Europe, Africa, Asia, Ocean, World , but this time the sets had 0 human figures , structures or vehicles , and 2025 continued that on a smaller scale with "2 sets named Wild Animal Families" What's interesting to note, is how it will progress into City sets, as those 2022/2025 young children move into the age of City/Friends sets. I doubt we'll see City sets with just animals and 0 figures, but sets are certainly shifting to higher animal/natural terrain ratios, even quite big side builds like the arctic foxes train tunnel and wolf cave . And a lot of new animal moulds in smaller sets showed up in Friends in 2025, I'm sure they might have some quota on new animal distributions.

Looks like a lot of small standalone vehicles , which is good, and they are mostly 5+ so probably use that new chassis piece and prints. Hopefully that also means summer will have buildings with less vehicles. Taxi and The LEGO Van definately sound nice and new. ( LEGO Masters NL/BE had actual LEGO themed vans in the last season, basicly Volkswagen ID Buzz packed with LEGO bricks, and 1 episode also had soapbox racers)

Yeah it's in the USA too (and canada/mexico), as well as an increase from 32 to 48 teams/countries competing , so if there's one year to do it, it's 2026.

Recently got a lot more interest in pokemon again and have been looking at the mega sets, and surprisingly they have sets I'd very much expect from LEGO https://shopping.mattel.com/collections/mega-pokemon (not trying to discuss their brand here, just the license which is expiring for them anyway) There's a lot of sort of hype building for late 2025 (Legends Z-A) and 2026, with Switch 2 being just out, 30th anniversary , and potentially 10th generation being announced/released. Pokemon is also the biggest franchise in the world by far, unless you sum up various disney brands/characters. So beside quite almost 100% expected buildable pokemon models, I really wonder if they go all-out with minifigs and such. There's a ton of potential for classic playsets, like oak's lab, gyms, team rocket, pokecenter / mart and endless numbers of creatures. It just really depends if and how, but when I think LEGO, I think more then just buildable display models that mega already did. Moulded creatures would look best with minifigs, but ultimately many of them very complex beyond the few basic ones , and scale widely varies, and bigger models would likely need moving parts etc. Ultimately, could be very different from how they handle Mario, as Nintendo is only like 33% of The Pokemon Company

With Switch 2, being out, they'll probably open the way to more tie-ins, especially when more actual new games are announced / released. I also do hope LEGO will make some proper game themselves again, as LEGO fortnite building just isn't the same, and their vehicle system honestly is incredibly bugged since launch and still is. And LEGO Worlds is outdated.

There have been a few more , but mostly bulldog and labrador, and a few Chihuahua tiny dogs. 2020 had white bulldog with red collar, and brown bulldog with blue collar. 2021 had brown Labrador Retriever (LEGO's description) and a Tan one in Family house (and 2023 downtown) Husky was recolored once for jurassic world but showed in City in 2022. 2023 had a Tan french bulldog earlier made for 2017 CMF, and other 2021/2023 sets 2024 had a few new dogs , with the white bulldog coming back but with a teal collar, and then the labrador coming back , but with a vest, Tan+darkgreen vest in 2024 advent calendar , and then the brown neon yellow vest versions for police, fire and generic silver print version in the red tram set. And there have been a bunch of recolors of the shepherd and pup meant as wolf or in other themes, like the bulldog with blue collar and different print is in a harry potter set, as well as darker shepherd prints in harry potter or monkie kid and others. Perhaps Friends looks like they got more dogs as they aren't used in minifig themes, and a lot of them are recurring named cats and dogs as well, still the moulds have more variation imo, especially this terrier type is very different and made in Tan, and Black as well. And there have been some weird dogs in those play cubes in random colours : (just type in part search for Dog on something like rebrickable and there's a year filter, gives a good visual idea of most dogs etc)

LEGO very likely won't do actual ZOO sets anymore. From the bricklink designer program guidelines https://www.bricklink.com/v3/designer-program/guidelines.page "Avoid depicting wild animals in zoos, circuses, aquariums or other situations that are designed for human entertainment. Please only show wild animals in their natural habitats." Even duplo completely stopped Zoo sets despite it being the product line having a lot of them in the past , now they do "Wild Animals" like 10446 3in1 Wild Animal Families Although the aquarium part "rule" has been broken by LEGO themselves , even in 2025 , there's 11204 Mermaid Gabby's Aquarium Adventure (exception to the rule is probably that it's from a movie, not from LEGO themselves), and they'll probably look past things like the aquarium from 2024 80113 Family Reunion Celebration as it's likely a goldfish/koi , not a "wild animal" (and fishing / cooking is allowed with the fish/food elements)

I really disliked when in 2021, City had those 3 sets (a police boat, a space ship and a safari rescue truck) with no instructions, not even PDF. Now, those sets were small enough for it to not be a giant disaster, and half the sets were extra pieces to customize anyway, but you needed an app followed "story" to build tthe base model, and even when it was part of the default instructions app, it was silly there was no PDF instruction too. Sets themselves were really good playsets/parts packs however, no fault there really (beside the US price but 2021 had a lot of that with City sets being $10-20 higher) Meanwhile some recent City sets, especially 4+ and 5+, literally use like 1 LEGO piece per 2 pages of instructions.... (the instruction variants with those blue hands) Sometimes a Creator set has a 4th or 5th model being digital, or Dreamzzz had 2 2025 sets with 20 models (10 digital only) which I can understand, but removing all instructions would be terrible.

Agreed, even if it's just a mech , which is the bare minimum 2025 had for superman (given it's the first appearance since the 2020 CMF). the last regular set before that, being from 2018, and then 2020 CMF. Supergirl had even less , 76040 Brainiac Attack from 2015 being the last regular set, since then it's been either very limited (2016 playstation Dimensions), 2017 minidoll, 2018 weird mighty micro variant, or a comic-con/famdome limited figure in 2020. I just want some nice variation of DC sets , 2019 onwards has had like a dozen batmobiles , a few bat jets and batcaves, but after the 2020 CMF, DC outside of The Batman, pretty much hit a giant pause button. After the ever-repeating stream of venom vs spider battle sets with cars, airplanes, helicopters etc, , Spider-man 2025 LEGO sets got quite a bit of different attention, with 3 "new york" building playsets containing a lot of variants of characters, and then the metro subway car scene , from raimi's spiderman 2. (altho have hefty price tags under Marvel)

Was looking at those 2025 Spider-man sets like 76311 (miles vs spot, with a NY police car), 76317 (peters appartment) and 76324 (oscorp) , and those structures remind me a bit of previous 3-in-1 structures with how they connect , but because those are under Marvel + those figures, they are way more expensive due to license + figures. Same goes for the metro car in 76321 Spider-Man vs. Doc Ock Subway Train Scene (even has the LEGO trains logo as a sticker) . But still, those are the type of "City" sets that are very nicely designed (even tho some structures like Oscorp set are pretty simplified with those 6 wide panel walls), but the color schemes and texture are nice, just very very inflated by the figures and license.

City does need some more small sets with dogs and cats , Friends has a lot of them, especially 3 cat sets in 3 years with multiple sizes/prints, minifig dogs have mostly been with fire/police, and the recent cats just have been kittens that released a few years ago. I mean, there have been City sets like the otters, chicken coop, or squirrel park with animals before, a City variant of a dog park or cat café would still be nice to see, even if Friends dogs and Cats can be used with minifigs, it would be nice to see some more minifig style dog/cats in smaller sets too.

I agree about dogs or cats, Friends got 3 cat sets in a row in 2023-2025 with cat hotel, playground and party, that's a lot of different animals, even if it does repeat a few. And dogs get a bunch of playgrounds etc. And other small animal sets like hamsters or guinea pigs. Not that I dislike Friends at all, but would be nice to see some focused sets with the minifig-styled dogs and cats as well, not just most police or fire dogs, but actual pet-focused City sets. Also Friends sets with animals are generally cheaper, 42648 Panda Sanctuary has 3 pandas in friends style (so not full city-bear size), which if it were a city set, it'd probably be close to double the price and include a vehicle. Also not saying that every friends animal type needs to be copied and minifig-ized (or whatever you want to name it), as the animals are perfectly useable with minifigs , but a dog park or cat cafe in City / 3-in-1 style with at least some minifig style dogs and cats could be fun to see. City could use some more horse sets as well, but so far, minifig horses in general entering an era with just 1 color available unless they add / rework the horse model in 2026 or something.

So now, with BDP 9 returning cannons to the list (likely used for Icons Black Pearl, but perhaps more, 3-in-1 ship also retiring but seems likely to get some replacement later), as that Dreamzzz pirate character so far has not appeared anywhere but build a minifig, not even in game tower. And I think the reason they didn't use a cannon for the Going Merry, was due to how it needs to fire via pulling back, which is harder to integrate compared to a studshooter trigger, which resets itself by inserting ammo from the front. Still, the One Piece cartoon had multiple pirate ships with multiple cannons, that could use the regular cannon piece if they do new sets. (I don't know if they have shown up in the netflix series)

Cannons (still red/dark grey) returned with the BDP 9 list. Alongside some pirate minifig parts like the dark grey + brown peg leg from One Piece, and minifig machine pirate torsos. Multiple possibilities for the Cannon pieces to return : - September 2025 Icons Black Pearl - retirement of 3-in-1 Pirate ship (new set for 2026??) - more One Piece series Pirate ships - Dreamzzz having a Pirate Character

That City set is gone in 2026 , even brickset updated their date on it to 31-12-25

Yeah , the BDP palette 9 has the gryphon and kraken knight torso/leg parts + shields, I don't see horse or serpent knight parts. Still just 1 colour of horse (Dark Orange), no goat or sheep anymore.

The tall fence has the fence centered, so regular train wheels could fit , however the piece can be fragile, so putting any sort of prolonged weight/pressure on it could probably have the piece crack somewhere eventually. I never tried short fences as they aren't centered so would not fit standard train wheel / wagon parts.

Those 1x4 fence pieces were one of the first parts that could unofficially partially function as rails, and released almost the same year as blue rails too.

I think it's just a way to have an "action figure" of various sizes, without reinventing an entirely new character. Or it could work as aa nostalgia trip like 60421 Robot World (City rollercoaster with mech from exo force) Hasbro still makes action figures, altho I can't remember them every being as popular as LEGO in Europe as much, LEGO Star Wars probably was one of those things that internationalized Star Wars toys franchise a lot more for example. LEGO did have their 2 decades of a lot more action figures instead of mechs as well , with their slizer/bionicle/hero factory/star wars buildable figs/chima figs. In recent years they tried System action figures like 76226 Spider-Man Figure, and currently still available 76298 Iron Spider-Man Construction Figure , but I think "mech" sets like 76308 Spider-Man Mech vs. Anti-Venom just sell better , as they come with minifigs. 76316 Fantastic Four vs. Galactus Construction Figure is a bit of both, I doubt that would sell very well if it did not come with the 4 figures. Note, this is pure an opinion, and speculation, as Europe is big, and sales numbers aren't available.

Yes, exactly this one in the FAQ: What happens between Review and Crowdfunding? Why does that take so long? After Crowd Voting, the BDP Design Team works with fan designers to refine the models to meet our requirements for model safety, stability, and building experience We also refine the building instructions and modify the models in case an element from the BDP Palette will no longer be available for production. This is something we do everything to avoid, but is ultimately outside our control.

Yeah I think BDP isn't the best indicator to predict things, but those brick lists in the Studio program do give insight on why some designs have, or don't have certain parts or colors or prints. Series 6 7 and 8 only have Dark Orange horse, as that's the only color in the lists for example, while the list of series 5 had brown and tan as well . The Shire has the dark orange horse so it's not retired next year, so that make sense for it to be available, but for the other colors: White - harry potter , somehow not available Tan - Lion Knight's Castle (retiring, pretty much confirmed with falcons,forestmen, and lion queen torsos not being available for BDP series 6-8) Brown - found in 2022 version of 2000430 Identity and Landscape Kit (so probably retiring or getting updated again at some point, as it also contains transparent neon orange parts which is a retired color) Still, it doesn't say anything about future parts or sets, it just somewhat explains the BDP designs a bit.

Cannon parts weren't part of the part lists after series 5, so could not be used (3-in-1 Pirate ship is retiring after 2025) 3 pirate torso and the peg leg and printed skull hat were also removed after series 5. LEGO Studio still has the part lists from series 5 to 8. However, it does not mean 2026 can't or won't have a new set with cannons or pirates, I just think the parts aren't getting into lists , until after sets hit release dates (and BDP dates are known in advance)

I think the sets are indeed restricted to a list given to them by LEGO, each submission phase gets their "palette" list. Use only parts found in the current official BrickLink Designer Program palette for the intake period you’re submitting for (e.g., ‘BDP Series 6’). Exception being stickers. I just checked the Studio program, which has the BDP list for BDP 5 to 8, and there are definately differences between them. BDP 5 notably has 4 Pirate torsos, peg leg and skull print hat, (mostly from the 3-in-1 pirate ship set), and also forestmen, falcons and a second lion option, BDP 6 onwards only has 1 lion, 1 wolfpack, 1 pirate torso option (which makes sense if they are sold/shipped in/near 2026 probably) I will definately check in September and beyond when they open up BDP 9 submissions, and see if more minifig parts are added.

True. Overall , I wonder about what factions would be included in a possible next Icons set (beside Wolfpack or Black Knights fitting to be next up) Timeline wise of the original sets : Lion Knights / Forestmen last seen in 1992 catalogues. Falcons still appeared with the Sea Serpent in 1994 catalogues. Wolfpack were still sold in 1996 (dragon knight figure pack). Forestmen had a GWP, and were featured in Lion Knights Castle. Falcons did have the most sets with Medieval Blacksmith, 3-in-1 Castle, also in LKC, and CMF falconer. Lion Knights had the biggest icons set and had a figure and an oval shield in medieval town square, I think a remake of the double axe torso would be nice to see before they go. Leaving out BDP sets here, but if they are included, forestmen had 2 castles, falcons had Castle + Siege Camp, Lions had the Harbour (and color swap option for Siege Camp). (of course highly influenced by in production parts), as Castle in the Forest had stickered shield as Forestmen had not officially come back yet.