TeriXeri

While I don't branch out to other brands, I am keeping my themes limited, this year I got some City stuff but it's not the main focus, last year Ninjago Season 13 was one of those Must-have themes though, other then that, I have been mostly sticking to Creator 3-in-1 after Nexo Knights ended, but yeah, the Pirates/Castle stuff right now are my favorites. I have seen the printing from other brands, and it certainly looks nice.

Will start building the IDEAS Blacksmith Shop soon, love the set, but love it even more when I found out it looks quite a lot like the Lunarfall Inn from World of Warcraft, I don't current play the game, but I still love the art style. Long term working on a sorting system to start MOCing.

Those IDEAS Castle mocs are much larger in comparison to the 3-in-1, wouldn't surprise me if some of them have like 2500+ parts, or either larger expensive parts, so I don't think it's fair to compare to a 3-in-1 €100 set, to something that'll potentially be €150-250. (Ideas Blacksmith cost €170 in NL for 2100 pieces) It's almost like comparing the Saturn V / Lunar Lander / Space Shuttle discovery to something like the new 2021 3in1 Shuttle with those alternate builds inspired on Saturn V / Lunar Lander.

That Surfer Beachfront is indeed quite amazing, the car is quite weak but at least it's not a 4+ big premade chassis so could be changed. I do hope that €99.99 isnt the actual retail price however.

Could even be already planned to be fair, seeing how the Tractor got those specialized tires and such, Pig Mould still in use recently, now a Sheep as well, Horse has been seen twice also this year again. Cows haven't been made for a while however, 2014 I believe was the last single brown cow in a City Train set. Just wishful thinking here, but if LEGO can make skate park or a family house within City after such a long time, a farm location isn't out of the question imo. 2009 Farm had 3 tractors within 1 year, wouldn't surprise me to see at least 1 more tractor using those new tires if they did bring back a Farm subtheme.

Hopefully that Polybag will appear on LEGO.com, as polybags are pretty hard to find here, and LEGO has added a polybag section not too long ago.

When I came back to LEGO, it surprised me how much technic is System sets now. A set like this relies on technic parts for 5 of it's play features (library wall break/jail wall break/hatch/sawblade/big spinning monster mouth), and the 2 thrones sit on top of studless beams, while the main structural frame is built up with studded Technic beams. And this is almost a fully Technic Car frame, car is huge compared to a minifig, but the suspension was well done. Don't want to get too offtopic as the topic is about the opposite, systemless Technic sets. But unlike System parts often being decorative on technic sets, Technic parts in system sets are required for many functions or structural strength that would hardly be possible with just system. More recent System does use a lot of Clip or Mixel joints where possible however on things like brick built animals/mechs.

Falcons emblem certainly has changed quite a bit from the original, the old one look nothing like a bird of prey, the nexo emblem has a much bigger almost Eagle like appearance (but there's a set called Clay's FALCON blaster so it's not an eagle), and the most recent one in the Blacksmith/Creator Castle is a middle ground solution.

I actually think Dark Blue is a perfect color for roof accents on a blue-shirted faction like the Falcons, but that's because I might be used to it from the Warcraft universe, Blue is the main color of the Alliance and their roofs and banners. Darkblue was also the main color of Clay of Nexo Knights, and he just happens to have the Falcons emblem as his symbol as well. Black roofs would look way too dark for a Creator set, and red roof just don't go with a Falcons faction, but would fit something like Crusaders or Dragon Knights (or the exception 2010/2012 version of Lion Knights) Bright blue roofs were in multiple Lion factions (1995/2000/2013 and also is the color of the Knighton Kingdom which also had a Lion) That said, if LEGO makes something like a darker Castle, Red/Black/Darkgrey main colors could still work, just not for Falcons, but rather some Dragon / Bull / Batlord faction.

4 non licensed castles and a medieval marketplace are great, but with a potential Castle in the Forest release, IDEAS Blacksmith and 3-in-1 Castle, it's a lot of competition in a short timespan. The Farm set could certainly be nice as well.

I got the Blacksmith as well when there was a 15% off, since the set is somehow €170 otherwise in my country, IDEAS are rarely discounted for more here. I love how close it looks to a Warcraft building. But Creator has a benefit of reaching over 25+% off regularly, so getting 2 Castles for the price of 1 Blacksmith is certainly possible. (varies per region I suppose) 2 Castles would be ~2800 pieces, vs ~2100 , of course not taking into account the actual pieces themselves, but yes, at full price, Blacksmith has better PPP, especially in countries where the base retail is €150 or so, instead of €170.

4 non-licensed actual Castles and 1 Marketplace, amazing round . Also there's still Castle in the Forest in the AFOL Designer 2021 Invitationals.

Maybe a different vehicle since this uses the exact same car as the 2019 station, only with a replaced Siren element. Expanding on the 2019 station would be nice, since the dock from this set already could connect (Dockside set has retired at this point tho)

And that's why I hope LEGO sticks to yellow figs in their non-licensed themes, otherwise it just gets more and more complicated and limited.

It's a 4+ set which has been using thicker plates/bricks for it's buildings for a while now, first started back in 2015 with a rectangle, and now a newer rounded version.

Stonewars.de has it listed as Advent Calendar https://www.stonewars.de/lego-2021/#lego-city-2021

With the new Sheep, I do hope it will be at least continuation of a Farm set, and seeing how City brings us more locations now , with recolored road plates , a Farm seems closer then it looked like in 2020 to be honest. Safari Jeep in 2020 eventually lead to the Safari wave in 2021, and 2021 has a Tractor so it's just wishful thinking for 2022.

White lion is definately based on the rare color variation (not albino) that's mostly has been seen in South Africa. Just like Black Leopard/Jaguar exist, and King-Cheetah with stripes , they are different rarer variants within the same species.

Technic is working it's way into System sets quite a lot as well, both Stud beams and Studless are now commonplace even in a theme like Creator 3-in-1 (look at the recent Caroussel from 2019 for example), or less visible Technic Bricks for structural strength. I still see it as a cohesive system, rather then a seperation, of course one side has more studs, one side has more panels but both add to eachother.

I think it's interesting that LEGO didn't go with a 32x32 size for the Harry Potter chess set (34x34), or the new Taj Mahal (30x30) .

In the current day I don't think it's that weird, LEGO formerly pretty much had just smiley faces, and pretty much the only hints of female figs used to be princesses or queens based on outfit, but the smiley face in the end was genderless. Since Nexo Knights (and perhaps before that with Nya in Ninjago), LEGO sort of pushed for more female knights with Princess Macy and her mother the Queen appearing in battle armor. Also Fantasy games often have a female option for Warrior types now, and Archers/Spear classes appearing as female happens quite often. Of course I fully understand it can be weird when seen from a real-life historic perspective but that's easily fixed by swapping heads.

New Croc is amazing , but also quite a bit larger then previous 3-in-1 animals, at a pretty impressive 44 studs long. I'm kinda disappointed with no moving legs for the City Elephants however.

I agree I love the folding function, and I'm saying that from mainly experience with something not entirely castle-like like the Fortrex, which does have towers but not as much interior., this actually has a roof when closed up, making it look closer to something like a Warcraft Alliance Barracks but that isn't a bad thing. Overall, the Darkblue with wood, and grey walls remind me a lot of warcraft, only the Yellow wouldn't be, but the white+wood from the Medieval Blacksmith fits right in. Maybe the designers have had some connection/inspiration with Warcraft, I'm not saying LEGO has copied Warcraft, but as a big Warcraft fan I actually am surprised how similar things look (but for me it's a positive thing). It's just maybe coincidence and the similar color/angle, and the grated windows already just happened to be LEGO parts already, and this warcraft building is from a 2014 expansion. I'm about to start building the Blacksmith as my next set, so that's why I'm so surprised I hadn't noticed.

UFO and Insectoids minifigs were such high quality, and also the printed parts, amazing to see a review on a new set. I had only 2 small UFO sets, but they contained the same figures as the Blue Droid and Red Alien. I bet the transparent neon colors display looks really nice with a blacklight.

I wish LEGO packed their sets more like Playmobil's when it comes to animals, having a Lion Family in a single set, Playmobil has done it many times in sets like these :