TeriXeri

For me it also slowed down a lot late 90s, the last thing I actively collected were Slizers/Throwbots , and finally happened around 2001, until 2016.

That view makes sense, Black Knight and Dragon Knights even shared much visual aspects, as did some Black Falcons with Black Knights, and sets likely stayed on shelves in a mixed way as well. From a personal , current "database" view, I personally consider Dragon Knights and Royal Knights as a new generation, with perhaps even Wolfpack replacing the bandit function of the Forestmen (later for Dark Forest to come back at least in US) But overall , even Crusaders and Black Knights had sets with ghosts in them, so there's no strict seperation between historical knights or fantasy. Still, in a greater sense most 80s and 90s themes fit together really well regardless. Ninja was obviously different (but introduced some very cool parts like the big doors), and Fright Knight and KKI had some sets using thicker pieces (basicly a result of the late 90s/early 2000s LEGO design across many themes)

Same here, I wouldn't even call him majisto, I still have the original one which looks notibly different, and even Merlok 1.0 had better printed blue torso/skirt brick with a unique print + face. I don't have a whole lot of old Castle figures, but old majisto just is a nicer figure, I'll just visit this castle with the old cart set, as I don't really think a Wizard living in 10305 fits with the Era at all either, I still got some 1993 dragon knights, maybe at some point I'll make some build for them once I move my old LEGO to the new.

Those look great. I just remembered the 80104: Lion Dance , those printed curved plates might work as brick built horse blankets as well, or as Joust decorations for a raised stage/tent.

The 2022 medic helicopters are a bit meh, there's a big gap in that larger medical helicopter, no idea why there's no door or winch, just looks weird to me with that big gap where the roof is only 2 studs wide. If LEGO wants to make a rescue helicopter, seperate from hospital colors, maybe a yellow/red copter under the beach rescue logo/scheme, I know the Ski helicopter/vehicle had the colors. Of course Coast Guard could fit a similar role, with a heavier helicopter. Currently, the better rescue Helicopter is the Fire one , which is retiring at the end of this year. 60281: Fire Rescue Helicopter

You said " I've actually been fighting for the medical subtheme to return." Which sounds like there are no medical sets currently, sorry, the word "return" made me wonder what that meant. If it just means the gap between 2018 and 2022 was pretty long, I understand, because like I said, 2020 and 2021 had no regular medical City sets available as the 2018 hospital retired at the end of 2019. I do think some medical sets should always be part of City, and I think that's what you mean with First Responders.

60330: Hospital and 60343: Rescue Helicopter Transporter released this year.

Medical subtheme return? I don't see how 2022 is different from 2018 or 2012. Of course, more regular sets would be nice, so there won't be 1-2 year gaps like 2020-2021 had no hospital sold, and 2020 had only the ski resort.

Brick Box sounds interesting, especially if it would follow something like the recent City Missions sets, as long as it's not 4+. But I'm sceptic and cautious this early.

At least I think it's trans purple, it's the old X-wing shape. 76211: Shuri's Sunbird (picture from Brickset) Could be a print or a sticker.

Quickly played through the missions yesterday, but overall I like the parts in this set for sure. The return of the old X-wing windscreen in 2 sets now (white in this one, and trans-purple in a wakanda set) hopefully means it will be made more. The Geode in darkgrey are new as well in that color, and it's nice there are 2 in this set, surprised they were not used in the other 2022 Moon sets, but they made 2 variants of a double-moulded boulder for that.

I'm hoping for 2023 to be a year that's less focused on Stuntz and Animals , and more focused on basic "town" things again, at least for the winter wave. Construction/Roadworks that's not 4+ would be nice with road plate potential and perhaps a new Road plate expansion pack kit with different street signs (since Xtra doesn't look like it'll come back). If anything, something with excavator, bulldozer, dump truck etc has not been made for a while now, especially outside of 4+. More missions sets would be nice, and could still be a place to introduce animals. A large number of sets look to be retiring at the end of this year. If Great Vehicles are still a "clue" to potential subthemes there's the 2022 Crane, Horse Transporter or Space Ride Amusement truck. As for potential animal hints, there's only the Horse riding/jumping set that's not retiring, the Park and Beach are both going away so unlikely to be subthemes.

The trademark is real, the actual content of the theme could be anything at this point, even minidolls. Another trademark is called Brick to the Future.

LEGO clearly has money around to throw on things, recently they even advertise at the UEFA Women's Euro 2022, not any particular set, but a yellow banner with 3 LEGO logos on it.

I think LEGO is trying that with the Galaxy Explorer remake which is a straight up 1.5x scale up modernization of an existing set, seperate from the whole Benny LEGO Movie. However, speaking of remakes of old sets, I don't know why Barracuda Bay retired so quickly, 1.5 year (with some months of those being Sold out) compared to other large IDEAS sets like the Tree House which will have 3.5 year shelf life, even the 3-in-1 Pirate Ship currently has no end date yet. But I agree that with the last couple years of experiments around IDEAS / 18+ / Art / Botanical / Icons etc, most of those products look clearly meant to draw in new collectors, either via singular display pieces (typewriter/piano/NES/ATARI/Microscale hogwarts/Titanic etc), or entire new collections/multibuilds (ART, Botanical, Helmets, Infinity gauntlet "series" etc., TV shows, and recently Marvel Modulars like Bugle/Sanctum)

Would be interesting if Ninjago did a season related to the Ninja "Castle" theme with horses.

Both a CMF series and set line covering more themes were mentioned by the original post by @LOTR34

Currently the only rumor of a potential theme that might follow a different formula is a trademark named Dreamzzz , and I do hope it won't follow the same vehicle-conflict type of formula as the last 5+ years of "action" themes, also would be nice if it won't have a team of characters yet again, I mean, Ninjago, Nexo, Monkie Kid pretty much repeat the same main characters every time and each character gets their own vehicle type of sets most of the time. Chima was a bit different as it had more characters split into tribes, but eventually turned into a Fire v Ice type of thing. That said, out of all those action themes, Nexo did the worst in terms of amount of location sets, and was the most power-ranger of them all if we take the theme as a whole. Out of current action themes, while Monkie Kid does make some big location sets like Fruit Mountain, City of Lanterns and Heavenly Realms, they are also making quite a few mobile bases (i do think the whole Container folding out to modular rooms is kinda unique though). I'd like to see LEGO try a minifig theme that's a mix of Elves and the Ninjago Dungeon/Dragon wave but for minifigs and no focus on tech, vehicles, mechs.

I do hope this is something like Fantasy, Dreamworld, not really a conflict theme with war vehicles but more like something Elves / Peter Pan / Wizard of Oz. Of course, usually if there are dreams, there are nightmares too. Chima, Nexo, Hidden Side, Ninjago and Monkie Kid all had some tech vehicles of some sort, I hope that's completely absent from this.

The problem with a throwback theme, is there are literally 50++ subthemes across Castle, Space and Pirates, Aquazone, Agents, Adventurers,Western types of themes, add Slizer/Bionicle/Hero Factorio and you get dozens more years of sets. There are going to be things missing even if they made 100 sets, or 100 CMF figures. Of course I would have loved to have some more €10/$10 type of sets instead of the microbuild stuff they put in 11021: 90 Years of Play , or if a set like Forest Hideout would be regular retail. I just seems LEGO is holding back, playing it safe, trying to trickle in some BIG sets and some timed GWP's, instead of going all out. If LEGO released $1000+ worth of 90th anniversary sets at a time, would it sell as well as spreading the same amount over let's say 5 years ? I'm not trying to defend LEGO here, I'd love more sets based on 80s and 90s LEGO themes for sure, more simple starter sets like Benny's, more City People pack type of sets etc, but I think LEGO is testing things out here.

I did use the app for the other 2 City missions sets and liked what they offered in terms of experience, however, LEGO should at minimum offer PDF instructions if they don't want to do paper. I mean, mario sets still have pdf instructions, and LEGO went out of their way to make alternate build instructions even recently for some 90th anniversary builds. PDF is also a whole lot easier to save, compatible with a lot, and for quick references you don't need to do through many screens of app-missions (8 missions per set) I know freebuilding is the ultimate goal of this set, alongside missions to solve certain goals, as opposed to a Mario set, but I don't see how a an option for a pdf would detract from that.

I had 3 of those little aquashark scooter sets so very recognizable, the blue rockwork looks great, especially since the lines go vertical on the cliff it looks like the texture from the catalog pictures.

I think the change happened around April/May this year yes. People were able to order 2022 parts before that time, the inventory after the change just looks like a lot smaller. In Europe, something as basic as a smiley head has been sold out for at least a month for some reason.

Bricks and Pieces still exists for broken or missing pieces ,but the website for Buying pieces is indeed Pick a Brick. And then they added the Pick and Build hub as a place where both Pick a Brick and online Build a Minifigure (currently beta) are. A lot of parts are listed as sold out though, just as an example about 140 out of 210 minifig/minidoll heads are actually available.

I wonder if those design ideas from the concept macaque mech went into 71772: The Crystal King instead. 4 legs, 2 arms, and a color scheme not too far off.