TeriXeri

Great space suits for sure, and kind of make sense since LEGO made a Classic space-like logo in 2020-2021 3-in-1 sets : 2019 Space had Orange space suits and blue crew suits, so flame orange and azure seem appropriate. The other torsos aside from the most left jacket in the picture were all in the 2019 Space theme.

I don't think they are direct rivals either. Friends and City do have similar subjects and followup subthemes like hospitals (2017/2018 , 2020/2022), School (2021/2022) , Horses (2021/2022) , which might be part of this campaign to have some more Friends things in City, and then the big one was the return to some houses/shops in City (outside of just the big townplans) If 3-in-1 minifig sets can be seen as an extension of City , I think there was quite a lot of coverage of activities / houses as well, as far as tree houses / beach houses / swimming pools etc go. As an AFOL I prefer most 3-in-1 houses/shops over the Friends/Citybut that's mainly from a Parts perspective, 3-in-1 being more brick built walls instead of large panels, but I don't expect City / Friends to suddenly add 100+ parts to their walls at the same prince points, still I'm very interested in the 2022 Big "Friends Appartments" set to fit in a City/3-in-1 scale display. I think an example of how City is trying to balance more female figures : 60110: Fire Station (2016) 1 female figure out of 5 firemen 7944: Fire Station Headquarters (2021, basicly experimental re-release of 60110), 6 firefighters 3 are female including the chief. before 2010 pretty much 0 female Fire / Police figures in City , 2013-2016 was about 20%-33% female figure, and 2019/2021 , much closer to 50%.(in sets with 2+ figures) , and 2015 added female Construction workers. As for Friends, I think balancing sets with 2+ minidolls might probably get more male minidolls.

They are a thing because of girl theme focus yes, but its still somewhat a stereotype, and also plays in the 71% of boys don't want to admit they play with a girl focused LEGO set. (in the article) And not just the dolls, colors, but also the cuter style of animals and such are part of the stereotyping. And this LEGO article goes both ways, encouraging boys to play with themes like Friends / Princess etc, and then more representation on girl things in other themes (which in terms of City/Creator, LEGO is almost 50/50 in terms of minifig gender nowadays) but other themes could work on the stereotyping if they truly want to reduce it as noted in article. LEGO clearly is already trying to reduce stereotyping way before 2022, in the last 5 years or so LEGO had Go Karts in Friends, female Stuntz bikers, female cops, fire brigade, construction workers in City, knights, pirates, astronauts etc. And of course the LEGO Movie having Lucy/Wildstyle , and Sweet Mayhem + Queen Whatevra as antagonists, and also mixing minidolls, minifigs, and brick build characters together in 1 world. And before people say "i want to delete minidolls, pink colors and puppies with anime eyes" , I'm not advocating for that , my posts here mostly are out of interest of what MIGHT happen, not what MUST happen in my view. I just think if LEGO truly wants to take steps to less stereotyping, it has to go both ways, that includes like others have noted, product promotion/photos with just boys playing with a Friends set for example. Ulimately your right, parents or other adults certainly buy the majority of LEGO sets for people at younger ages. Box color/art is probably the first thing those buyers see (in physical stores at least), and right now Friends does have stereotype magenta boxes with 5 girls on it, and City has the blue boxes for a long time now. I'm not saying that changing box art would be a big solution, i'm not a marketing expert and don't know what LEGO's exact goals are here, ultimately I don't think stereotypes will be completely removed from society just by changing things like that. Elves wasn't a typical action theme but it did have 4 female 1 male in the main lineup. Again, overall, I don't think what LEGO's exact goals are, it's going to be a tough balance. I don't really expect any massive changes within current succesful themes, maybe some more female figures within ninjago, and some more boy things in Friends, but that's about all I expect. Bigger changes would perhaps come from some entirely new, unique in-house theme, as Elves showed it was unique like nothing had done in LEGO before it.

New Friends info descriptions on Stonewars.

True, I know books and even comics often depict sets or parts that have retired or never made (I remember a City comic with a giant T-rex skull a while ago , which showed long retired a ship from nearly 10 years earlier , now that a printed t-rex skull is actually a part but thats just cooincidence I think). Nexo Knight books showed a lot of things never made into sets, one book had concept art, other book showed forest/water monsters (maybe they were planned dunno). Anyway, not wanting to go too off topic here. Back to Playmobil, it looks like newest theme they got is Ayuma, it just released, it's like a playmobil version of Elves.

I started to collect new "Space" sets since about 2019 as well (collected Nexo Knights from 2016-2018 until that ended, and no LEGO from 2001-2015), but I did mostly rebuilt 928 Galaxy Explorer around 2015 which got me looking for upcoming LEGO sets. 2019 City Space combined with LEGO Movie 2 made 2019 a pretty good Space year , especially sets like the City People Pack, and Benny's Space Squad helped start new collections easily, and the Space Station set was innovative for City imo. The 2017 and now 2021 Shuttles are my main spacecraft since then, altho I got Pop-Up Party Bus as well (was lucky to win it from a giveaway TLM2 promotion), and Emmet's Dream House has a 2-in-1 Spaceship option which is pretty cool. The 2020 Underwater base and submarine set also offer opportunity to serve as space sets, especially the diver figures were great and their suits are basicly space suits (I can imagine the same about the older Atlantis theme which I don't have) , the 2019 Space people could also serve as divers, vice versa. 2020 and 2021 also offered decent sci-fi sets in the 3-in-1 Rover, Mining Robot, and Cyber Drone. I look forward to the 2022 City Moon Base and Space Station . I still want to get 80020: White Dragon Horse Jet, as I think it's a great looking "Spaceship" set. I don't have the big 2019 City launch bases but I think what they did looked pretty impressive, with the cargo hold, boosters and countdown. I have yet to take any Nexo sets apart, but the potential for Space vehicles is big , many space wheels, neon orange, etc.

I think LEGO currently needs to find a good balance between Friends / City / Creator 3-in-1, there has been a lot of overlap between themes, but it seems focus for each theme are shifting a bit lately. Currently it seems 3-in-1 is mostly shifting away from it's Houses/Shops , 2022 will have a noodle shop but 1HY mostly seems to have brick built animals (one being a purple owl). City had an overhaul with the road plates and now more shops/animals and a house set, and for 2022 will have a School, something only seen in Friends or Town beforehand. Friends will be getting it's largest set in 2022 supposedly with an appartment block. But yes, LEGO has to be careful about the design and color use. Still I think the minidoll vs minifig factor perhaps is a bigger deal then the color schemes, especially this part of the article : The LEGO Group knows that boys are also battling prejudice when it comes to creative play and playing with toys that are traditionally seen as being for the opposite sex. 71% of boys vs. 42% of girls say they worry about being made fun of if they play with a toy typically associated for the other gender.

Unless Friends/Princesses themes get major overhauls, I don't think Stereotypes can really go away. Not only are those themes seperated by generally different color schemes, but also the figure types specifically designed for girl themes. Minidolls kind of evoke the "girls play with dolls" type of mindset more then minifigures ever have, Paradisa had the color scheme but still was a part of Town. I'm not saying that Friends sets can't fit into a City-theme display, but the different figures, animals, and color schemes don't really blend in automatic. On the other hand , would adding more female figures, both protagonist and antagonist and side characters to Ninjago and such solve this ? I don't think it's that easy. I don't watch the ninjago tv show, but that theme, as well as nexo knights and even chima generally had a lot more male characters. City has been adding a lot of female characters across it's sets, many police and fire sets have almost a 50/50 split nowadays, so I don't think the stereotype is as big there. City is also adding a School set next year , and a rumoured set with at least 1 horse, so I wonder if that's a signal of City trying to be closer to Friends subjects.

A Lambo Countach in a single-pack set, sounds very nice, would probably be my 1st 8-wide SC set if they do it right.

I wonder how this will affect the balance between Minidolls and Minifig sets ( Mainly Friends vs City ) , and the overall color schemes of such themes. Also wonder if it would mean another minidoll focused theme like Elves could appear, or maybe a minifigure version with the pastel colors etc. (think of paradisa-like subtheme) I don't think it would mean the end of minidolls (moreso because of Disney princesses, and not Friends).

I'd assume first set to be revealed would be the Tiger, the only set that's a January release, and also the largest of 1HY2022. 755 pieces for €50 sounds like a good deal, and would also be the largest brick-built animal set in a long time, but I assume lots of small parts. Also description says it has a waterfall/branch sidebuild, with Koi / Red Panda alternates, sounds a very Asian set timed for Chinese New Year , and 2022 is Year of the Tiger.

I agree, I have all the recent Creator stuff, and Nexo Knights being partly sci-fi got me back into LEGO (72003: Berserker Bomber probably being the most Space out of that entire theme). I never got LEGO Movie 1 sets (got back into LEGO after it retired) Right now the only sci-fi set I still want, and is available is 80020: White Dragon Horse Jet. LEGO Movie , Nexo and Monkie Kid are "in-house licensed", so outside of that, there were some Creator sets. 31111: Cyber Drone was probably the most sci-fi Creator has done so far, but nothing like that for 2022, City has some Lunar sets but they seem to be more like the 2019 releases, and I doubt much futuristic (as in bright transparent colors) Cyber Drone, Mining Mech and Shuttle probably will last until the end of 2022, so hopefully 2023 will allow some larger Space/Sci Fi creator set, but not wishing too hard here. I'm not sure how well the buildable animals sell for 3-in-1, but 2022 seems rather heavy on those instead of entry point minifig sets (like 31111), one of the complaints of the "Classic theme" Creator sets have been limited number of figures, so having more entry point themed sets would help Castle/Space/Pirates a lot, even 2 different figures can be mixed/matched in multiple configurations, and 3-in-1 also would encourage multiple sets.

Kind of strange that LEGO releases a Pirates book in 2022, with a picture of Barracuda Bay which is set to retire before 2022 , unless the set is extended due to success. That said, Saturn V was originally IDEAS and re-launched less then a year after retirement, so if Barracuda Bay would have the same faith, it wouldn't surprise me.

95% discount, that's crazy.

As far as Star Wars UCS Retiring : A-Wing 31 December 2021 Star Destroyer 31 December 2022 Falcon + Gunship 31 December 2023 Source : Brickset set end dates they recently added.

As for Western, there's Brickwest Studios in round 2 of the Designer Program, might not be the typical theme set but the parts still come from LEGO, and bricklink is owned by LEGO, so it's not like they have 100% forbidden the Western theme. I don't expect anything depicting natives, unless it's done in some fantasy way (like the purple faced islanders from Ninjago Island season 14)

Nexo Knight magazine had a few rarer parts only seen in 1 set, but I don't think it had entirely unique parts (unlike some of the Nexo Knight books that were released, one had Semi-Stone Clay exclusive to that book)

I'd call it the TileTanic if we had to use LEGO naming.

While expected, using Brickset's set dates recently added to many sets, it's pretty much confirmed to see a new City train before August 2022. 60197: Passenger Train has 31 Jul 2022 as end date

Brickset recently added set dates on many sets on their site (from what they say is an official source), it says 01 Jul 2020 - 31 Dec 2021 for 10277: Crocodile Locomotive Interestingly it says 01 Jul 2018 - 31 Jul 2022 for the City 60197: Passenger Train , very expected to have a New City train in summer 2022 then.

Yeah, could be Temperate / Mountain forest too, but what I mean, is mostly pine trees and rocks and perhaps some birch tree which stands out cause it's white bark, and also grows in mountains/northern regions.

31120 uses a bunch of panels and slopes to make towers/cliffs, might be useful for some raised areas.

I don't think a big passenger airport set is likely for 2022 since the 2020 large airplane will still be sold until December 2022, Brickset recently added dates to sets they got from some official source. But the 4+ Airport , and Air Race sets are indeed retiring this year. However, with the Road plates, a runway type of set could still be interesting, maybe with focus on a Cargo Airplane / Helicopter ? But if there will be some Coast Guard, I think that's more likely to have a helicopter + helipad. A Cargo Terminal + Cargo Airplane could still be a big set, or 2 sets. (not trying to shut down your theory, just speculating) Going by the Friends subthemes, Forest and Horses for City would be a cool subtheme to see for City, like forest horse riding trail, and a Minifig stables, and maybe another set being a nature focused exploration set with boreal forest animals (bear/lynx/wolf etc.) , set could be a rock cliff with climbers/hikers, and a cave for animals, perhaps some minerals or cave drawing inside to explore. (but not at an industrial scale like 2018 mining)

Retail price are €20 / €30 / €60 / €100 for the non bike sets, with the Arena being €90 in germany. Looks like pretty good, 30-33% off.

Jang just posted a review video of it