TeriXeri

Agree, people are fine to hate on it, and I'm certainly not trying to force the idea of "Nexo was a Castle theme" onto people here, the villain side indeed had a lot of fantasy going for it. There were plans for Forest and Sea monsters at one point but that got cut as the TV show ended after 2017, I think some of those concepts got moved to Hidden Side instead, as it had evil trees, lighthouse, fishing boat and submarine. I read a lot of the nexo books and the idea behind the theme was quite nice, but only a small amount of those ideas got made into sets, especially in terms of locations. Even as a big fan of the theme, I do think in hindsight, they went overboard on trying to be too much like Ninjago and then some on top of that, as in giving each main character a main vehicle each wave, a hover horse, a battle suit, etc, which took away from location sets. The 2018 wave was just weird, even compared to year 1 and 2, and really does feel like a filler to end the story, it turned from magic monsters to some tech virus. At the same time, Elves showed how a theme that focused on locations could look, sure it had this Friends/Minidoll colorschemes and styling but I'm more speaking of how that theme was focused on trees/caves/castles and civilian buildings line inns and bakeries etc. Elves had a 4 year lifespan as well. The 2020 Ninjago wave was a lot closer to Fantasy Castle , there was a mech in that wave of sets, but it was pretty much seperate from the rest of the theme that had dragons and beasts and dungeons, I also like the 2 Crystal King sets from this year, and I do think they fit in a Fantasy Dungeon vibe without going overboard on sci-fi/tech. The way I see the 2014-2021 era, was that it was full of experiments, 2 LEGO Movies , 18+, Icons, IDEAS Barracuda Bay/Blacksmith, 3-in-1 "Classic" set like the Pirate Ship/Castle, Ninjago Legacy etc. some succesful, others not so much. It's too early what the future will hold with the "Icons" rebranding, but at least for AFOL I do think things start to look a bit better with sets like the Galaxy Explorer and Lion Knight's Castle. For historic themes specifically, LEGO revived 3 old Castle factions within 2 years , but only time will tell if this is a short or long term trend, or just something meant to appeal to AFOL with bigger sets and GWPs.

Oh I agree here, something original would definately be prefered, I mainly picked that set example due to the original having the yellow, blue, black figure combination. A combined base with multiple buildings (hinged for example), and platforms, along with plenty of communications, launch and some crater inspired terrain would be great, a full size 10497 landing pad might be a bit too much, but it depends on the type of budget.

I do hope if City returns to Mars again, they the logo style will be consistent with the 2022 "mars" missions set and use the orange planet, and not the 2019 style. Not that the 2019 logo or figures are bad, it fit really well with the orange colors, and the orange visor figures were my favorite. New Mars astronaut suits could use orange backpacks instead of the azure ones from 2022. As for Classic Space, I do hope more sets will be made before retirement of 10497 , if it's inspired by an original set, best option would be 6971: Inter-Galactic Command Base , it's a base, and it had a blue, yellow and black space figure which would compliment the Explorer for sure. Could be interesting to see 6 wide window frames and angled windows filled with trans-yellow windows. Angled window frames are in production in this version.

LEGO added a page with alternate building instructions for some sets for the 90th Anniversary, there are 2 PDF instructions for a Robot or "Tree Mouse" from 41703 Friendship Tree House https://www.lego.com/cdn/cs/set/assets/blt96e7fc374c111a1b/Robot-Building-Instructions.pdf https://www.lego.com/cdn/cs/set/assets/bltba665d7a9a840234/Mouse-Building-Instructions.pdf

LEGO added a page with alternate building instructions for some sets for the 90th Anniversary, there are 2 PDF instructions for a Frog or Boat from the 71766 Lloyds Legendary Dragon https://www.lego.com/cdn/cs/set/assets/blt897fce3ef5ed3a62/Frog-Building-Instructions.pdf https://www.lego.com/cdn/cs/set/assets/blt5fe885f0a98a1983/Boat-Building-Instructions.pdf

LEGO added a page with alternate building instructions for some sets for the 90th Anniversary, there are 2 PDF instructions for a Rocket or a Fish Tank from the 60320 Fire Station https://www.lego.com/cdn/cs/set/assets/blt5ea596207d8cd247/Rocket-Building-Instructions.pdf https://www.lego.com/cdn/cs/set/assets/blte53bc89cd938e243/FishTank-Building-Instructions.pdf

Yeah, it was shown in an animation on the main page and wanted to share a picture at first, then there was a "more info" button , now I found more of them. This is the US version of the Alternate Building Instructions page : https://www.lego.com/en-us/90-years-of-play/rewards-activities?icmp=LP-SHCC-Standard-90th_Anniversary_CC_Alternative_BI-OC-NO-5EMXQGTMHD Fish Tank from 60320 Fire Station https://www.lego.com/cdn/cs/set/assets/blte53bc89cd938e243/FishTank-Building-Instructions.pdf Robot from 41703 Friends Tree House https://www.lego.com/cdn/cs/set/assets/blt96e7fc374c111a1b/Robot-Building-Instructions.pdf Tree Mouse from 41703 Friends Tree House https://www.lego.com/cdn/cs/set/assets/bltba665d7a9a840234/Mouse-Building-Instructions.pdf Boat from 71766 Lloyds Legendary Dragon https://www.lego.com/cdn/cs/set/assets/blt5fe885f0a98a1983/Boat-Building-Instructions.pdf Frog from 71766 Lloyds Legendary Dragon https://www.lego.com/cdn/cs/set/assets/blt897fce3ef5ed3a62/Frog-Building-Instructions.pdf

Just found instructions for a Rocket build from the 2022 Fire Station on LEGO.com : https://www.lego.com/cdn/cs/set/assets/blt5ea596207d8cd247/Rocket-Building-Instructions.pdf Quite creative

There's not much time left if LEGO wanted to make an African Penguin, that species of about to go extinct and many people don't even know Africa has penguins, would also be an opportunity to make a Fur Seal / Sea Lion, and re-issue the white shark or a tiger shark.

Really my only nitpick in terms of tiles/prints would be a lack of something like a brick or 2x2 tile with a space logo as the original had a logo behind the cockpit, but overall it's not a big deal. For something like a 1986-1988 white space base/vehicle I'd just use the 2022 City space logos. Those aren't exactly gold-backed Classic logos, but the design is close enough for me for a modern MOC, and they are prints with white backgrounds.

What I'm wondering about is, if this "Castle System" or "Space System" will be some form of collection name like how LEGO started to do "Botanical Collection , Modular Building Collection, Fairground Collection, Botanical Collection" on their boxes after Creator Expert was changed. Barracuda Bay also had this corner text in the same style (which was a 1989 set originally so it still falls in the old box design) I see the Castle System text was a thing on boxes in the US along with piece count, on a set like 6080, so it's probably just that. 1990 seems to be the last year where LEGO used this yellow and lightblue corner design. 1991 had just a LEGO logo, and 1992 (on a set like Wolfpack Tower) the newer LEGO System logo ,as well as boxes that were issued later as sets were still in production.

A 4+ castle would be something like this, not very interesting, 2014. (2014 and 2022) There's a whole category of princess castles too, some 4+, some higher then that, but still very different from a "Castle" theme. Sets with horses are very scarce right now, but hopefully they'll come back in stock on Pick a Brick or small sets instead of more 4+ ...

I actually like the fact that the walls are a single color, there's good contrast between the walls, rocks and colorful elements around it, making it feel like a very classic type of set, and considering this is 90th anniversary. Masonry brick being spread across the wall do help a lot with the texture, and the brick-built areas around windows definately add depth. It's clear the Blacksmith had a different design approach with the mosswork and textured tiling, and damaged plaster on the upper floors, but that set also was mainly based on an even bigger/more textured IDEAS submission.

Old wing plates were revolutionairy at the time, but I do like the modern versions a lot more for building. Old versions of wedges include the old 7x12 wings or 3x4 wedge without notches which you could not put fully on studded areas.

There are still paper instructions in the other City sets. It's just 3 sets called "missions" where you build a boat, a truck or a spaceship and have a lot of extra parts to customize with. Instructions are via the instructions app, the main vehicle basicly gets built right away at mission 2, the rest is pretty optional or easy to build (like the side builds) There's a whole pile of pieces leftover after the basic builds are done, and the app does suggest using them for different story objectives. I still do hope a basic PDF instruction gets uploaded for the basic vehicle builds.

LEGO City missions sets do show LEGO can still make creative products, I don't 100% agree with an app (instructions) being required to see the base builds , but the app itself is still quite fun for what it offers. Each bag is also packed in order of the mission so you assemble a couple figures, build the main vehicle and then do some animal rescue or chasing a criminal type of stuff , with some basic suggestions if needed (hidden behind questionmark you need to click ) Things like "boat needs to go faster" , you can add flames, bigger engines, wings etc provided by the set. Or ways to find the criminal, you can build radars, sonars, or build some mini camera drone from the parts other then the boat. For AFOL, those sets are likely just parts packs, but I enjoyed trying out the experience.

IDEAS, Icons, Creator Expert, Architecture, and even Creator have so many subdivisions, it's more like a box label and not a "theme" of old, and that's not even including licenses. Even 3-in-1 is walking the line of multiple types of sets being offered, from animal sets, microscale vehicles, minifig compatible vehicles and sets with actual minifigures. In the end, it's still a big LEGO system so to me the theme name is mainly a direction for discussion, or organizing collections, not something I strictly divide my pieces by.

It's quite interesting, that, for such a known part, the red airtank is only just coming back this year in 2 normal sets after 35+ years (I don't count Service, or Vintage minifig packs as widely sold retail sets) Red space helmet also has been 37 years.

Built the Police Boat mission set, with the app to check it out. I think this "story" is even better then the wildlife set, and the parts allow more building (understandable that animals take a part of the parts/budget of course). I like the dark orange dog/husky variant appearing in this smaller set as well, and 4 figures and some very nice prints like a map and a 5-sided tile, 1x1 lock tile, and a radar slope is genericly useful. The suggestions of the mission builds are cool as well, sonar scanners, water guns, electro rifle to stop the criminal diver, jet engines/flames to make the boat faster, wheels for some fun, and fully equipped figures with hair, hat, helmet or dive gear (red airtank had not been made for 10+ years, and even 30+ years if counting regular boxed sets) I'm also a fan of the neon yellow color, and there are some cool parts in that color like tails, jet engine, a backpack with 4 studs, and some plates. The rest of the parts are varied and useful, lighning bolts, water flames, water shooters, chains, anchor, hook, genie lamp, and large rounded canopy used for "submarine" version of the boat. Overall , those Missions sets are my favorite City sets in a long time and I hope there will be many more. I do think the value on those sets is good, at least when this can be found under €25, maybe not so much at $40.

It certainly is part of Video Game history 70s-early 80s., at least the console era before the video game crash (in the US), and right before the rise of Home Computers and Nintendo/Sega afterwards. I never had experience with an Atari, but comparable console and home computer from the same era.

In 2019 , KIRKBI / LEGO had a deal with Merlin Entertainment to buy some ownership into LEGOLAND parks/discovery centers back, they had 30% ownership before the deal, now 50%. So they less seperate companies compared to at least 2005-2019, but I don't know the exact details.

Just built 60353: Wild Animal Rescue Mission While the lack of instruction for the base car build is a bit meh, the app (part of the LEGO instruction app so no seperate download needed) was pretty good and a lot of fun. While there are still instructions via the app, the missions themselves do a couple suggestions but they are very clever with the parts included. Parts selection is good , not just animals but clips, hinges, jumpers etc will help with kids imagination. The crane parts are very versatile, to make a digger, or cherry picker truck, and there's a tiny construction site inspired build as well. Chains and flex tube parts add more fun to lure/drag objects and animals. Helicopter rotor is a bit over-the-top but very fun when it comes to the LEGO "rebuild the world" concept, comic value over realism. Tree suit and minifig accesoires are nice to get as well. The base truck is basic, but the 7x6 (8x4 in center) flatbed on the back offers enough space for the customization/freebuild experiences. Have not used the other 2 sets yet , but for the other 2 mission sets I think the base vehicle matters a bit less without instructions, but this wildlife version, everyhing is basicly centered around a basic pickup truck form and then pieces on and off. Despite the builds being fairly simple, I'd like to see online digital PDF instruction versions come out for the base vehicles as the app was kind of slow at times.

Reviews showed there's 1 Forestmen Shield in this set, better then nothing. The only multiples of shields however are the standard lion shields, 3 of each blue/yellow background variant.

I don't know, Tech wise Ideas seems pretty saturated. Saturn V (re-release) International Space station both are still available sets retiring after this year LEGO also released 2 AFOL space nasa sets seperately : Apollo 11 Lunar Lander Big spaceshuttle Discovery seperately from Ideas (currently not retiring). 3 of those sets are retiring 31st december 2022 according to Brickset. That makes 4 AFOL space sets based on Nasa currently on market, For smaller and younger there are many options this year as well. City has a Nasa moon rocket with nasa stickers on it. Friends has a Space Shuttle 3-in-1 has a Space shuttle / Lunar Lander (alternate) Classic has 11022: Space Mission I'd love to see some actual Space ship via Ideas, not Nasa, Not SpaceX, not based on any Tv show , movie, game etc, maybe not even based on a former LEGO theme. It's too early to know if Barracuda Bay was an exception to a rule of non-licensed, "Classic Pirates" , but I don't expect any former Classic/80s/90s/2000s space themes to be made via IDEAS. There's also a motorized Lighthouse coming, while the Tree-House set is retiring (brickset lists 31 December 2022)

Since discussion traffic currently is pretty low, just throwing some MOC ideas here with current sets. (if a seperate thread for MOC ideas is desired , I'll move this there) I got this sudden idea (with the Chima thread discussion) but the parts from Crystal King set + some more crystals from the temple set (7 larger crystal, 17 small crystal if you have both sets) could make some interesting variant of the Chima eagle : 70003: Eris' Eagle Interceptor Crystal king set has multiple slopes and hinges, transparent pink cockpit window, claws and the crystals could be the wing parts. And there's this piece included to make the eagle beak. Zane's Jet parts could also be used instead for more gold , different cockpit, or sword-wings. 71742: Overlord Dragon is also still available until it will retire after this year.