TeriXeri

I love the orange yellow as well, I personally call it Axl yellow as Chima retired before I came back to LEGO , and the color was used by the Axl character , also I think it looks great with Dark Blue

Sets are up on LEGO.com, and are €69,99 and €99,99 Also there's a top-down picture of the ice rink , which shows the circular moulding mark in the position seen on those 1x6x5 panels.

Looks like the Chinese New Year 2022 set price went Down by €10 each (compared to the 2020 and 2021 sets), for some countries like Netherlands, which is a good sign. If this means most German prices stay the same, and the higher prices in Belgium/Netherlands will now match the German Euro prices better, it's an improvement for those countries. Finland price are still higher, but at least the Ice Festival is €10 cheaper compared to Spring Lantern Festival there as well.

This goes both ways, more color is more choice, but at the rate LEGO is making and retiring parts I rather see more of the same colors instead of 100 colors with only a few parts of each. Overall color is a complicated subject, as sets also nowadays often have bright colored "cores" of all sorts of SNOT bricks, for example : 40498 Penguin (image source: brickset review) Larger sets often have a bright colored core of sorts as well, usually a mix of technic/system. Now, of course, those bright colored cores can allow some crazy creativity as well, making entirely different builds, but yeah, LEGO now is quite different compared to even 20-30 year ago, not just the expanded color/parts, but also build techniques etc. Back in the 80s/90s didn't really mind the smaller color pallete as it meant there usually were more parts of the basic grey, white, black, blue, red, yellow, on the other hand it didn't allow the detail/realism seen today as even 25 year ago, brown and green parts were still quite rare outside of plant/special parts etc. But yes, it comes down to what you said : It all depends on what type of MOCs one wants to make.

I agree 2021 Castle has been lacking figures for sure, 2 sets (totaling at €270 in NL) with only 7 figures, 4 of which are knights, 1 archer, 1 smith and a "Pirate" ? (I'm not complaining about the builds/pieces here fyi, and the 6 included figs + horse were good, the pirate/peasant torso is a bit of debate) Now, for me, I collected a lot of Nexo Knight figs (and also got some old figs from the 90s), but see people who just got into LEGO have no real means but to go expensive ways like CMF, Bricks and Pieces or secondary market. Minifig Horses have been on a shortage for a while as well and now slowly start to make it back into sets again. I know 3-in-1 is supposedly the main means to revisit Classic themes, but with a rumoured Viking Ship set (3 figures?), I do hope there will be more smaller Castle/Pirate/Viking type sets in the near future afterward if they don't do themes anymore.

The opposite thing happened with the Falcon, which is €849 in NL from it's launch till now, which is a lot more then 650 pound even in 2017. (it was even €899 in Finland for some reason). The worst case of weird price differences I've seen was Star Wars 75203 set going for €50 here. ($30 dollar , 35 pound)

Not only a great remake, the mech transform just adds so much to it, didn't expect that I like vehicles that can split up to begin with, but then this recombines into something completely different, and then still has the style of an original set , very well designed imo.

I like how the color scheme fits well with #31097: Townhouse Pet Shop & Café , white/azure coffee mug on the wall, and a red mug above the shop door. Also the trailer ball connection is nice, given that multiple City vehicles have connection points for a trailer, including recent sets.

Crane looks great for sure. And while it may not be a theme by itself, the building pieces + printed sign from 60293: Stunt Park could serve as a demolition site for that crane etc.

It used to be the case there were a lot of toy shops but there has been a sharp decline of them in the last 10 years.

Netherlands has the largest cargo port of the world outside of East Asia , so if it were shipped by container it makes sense to pass through Rotterdam, Netherlands. 10 days with no updates sounds like it was on-route to cross the atlantic by ship. If it were shipped via air, Netherlands still has the 3rd largest Air Cargo Airport in Europe as well.

I'd like to see the Classic theme do some larger boxes with color themes, instead of the constant rainbow with only a few part of a color, for example a more earthy color scheme themed box.

Ok that horizontal look, with opened interior makes it looks a LOT better set. 2 cockpits, 4 interior seats, and then extra hollow space in the red round section as well, the small vehicle will probably fit in there as with many other LEGO big Spaceships, or a holding area as space police. The green "reactor" flame piece is pretty cool as well (also in purple for a weapon). 8 wide so it's really big as well. I can also see modding potential to make it more modular as a set like 6984: Galactic Mediator could split off the center section.

Looking at the picture Brickset posted : https://brickset.com/sets/80035-1/Galactic-Explorer I think Sandy's head/shooter use azure parts, with the Orange/Azure color scheme from 80014: Sandy's Speedboat / 80025: Sandy's Power Loader Mech. Also the Sandy figure hands look teal (only slightly darker then the head color) like the rest of the team spacesuits. The Rocket and base use Teal, which would continue the Yellow/Red/Teal color scheme of Monkie Kid vehicles of 2020-2021.

Back on the subject of Fish, it looks like there are at least a light blue and a spring green fish below the ice in the Ice Festival set, not new colors but still a cool detail.

I was thinking about it, and it seems like they are raised wall panels sideways, there are fish below the ice as well, which makes wall panels more likely then tiles.

The Ice planet figure is pretty cool reference for sure, unexpected. I got most of my neon orange parts from Nexo, so might do some MOC at some point, and that figure gives some more incentive. My old LEGO has 2 of this small set, I rebuilt 1 of them in 2015, which later got me back into LEGO after seeing Nexo knight's parts/color scheme in 2016.

While not winter village, it still fits in, I think the Chinese New Year Ice Festival is one of the coolest ways they built a frozen pond in an official set.

8x8 and 8x16 has been a format used in 3-in-1 sets for a few years (2017-2019) I think that size works well for compact builds.

Monkie Kid - Galactic Explorer set : https://jaysbrickblog.com/news/2022-lego-chinese-new-year-sets-officially-revealed/

That's a very cool take on a Space set in Monkie Kid style. It's a huge rocket, but with Monkie Kid , I wonder about the price. I do like the parts used however.

That one indeed is great, I love the human-scale-to-LEGO mixovers, and mixing so many current sets/themes in them is lovely.

Ice Festival looks amazing , LEGO has done ice skating sets before but this is next level, 13 minifigs ? ! Love the Vignettes as well as they can be integrated in other builds or stacked in various ways making it a cool concept of a set, without too many seperate loose bits, also 12 minifigs !

I loved the big themed dioramas in the catalogs of the 80s and 90s, especially the Castle, Space, Pirates landscapes , and the little stories going about in Town/Trains. https://brickset.com/library/catalogues Static pictures, yet they feel so alive. I do like the recent Rebuild the World videos as they suggest mixing/matching sets/parts/themes, and imagination like flying cars/boats , even while the first video might not be very clear to someone who doesn't really follow LEGO. Also the references to a lot of sets (including Creator Expert) , are quite good if you know what LEGO products exist. 3-in-1 is my current favorite theme simply because it covers so many subjects and also still has the core of rebuilding.

I read some rumours of transparent neon orange going out of production , Monkie Kid doesn't use it in 2021 sets while it was heavily used in the 2020 sets (and Nexo Knights mainly from 2016-2018). I believe the last transparent neon orange part was this ice star in Story of Nian. I do think a new solid neon yellow, has potential, for example City emergency vehicles, or nice contrast color. As for Coral, I hope it stays, as it's lovely and bright, almost like an inbetween to a neon orange and pink, but not many other solid colors are quite as bright in daylight