icm

I've been saying since 2018 that Icons vehicles are Model Team in every way that matters. Model Team vehicles never had moveable pistons. As you can easily check for yourself, the only Technic function that Model Team vehicles ever had was simple rack-and-pinion HOG steering, sometimes connected to the steering wheel in the cabin. Any Icons vehicle with steering or another mechanical function of similar complexity is Model Team. Any Creator 3-in-1 large-scale vehicle with steering or another mechanical function of similar complexity is Model Team. Any large-scale System-built vehicle in any other theme with steering or another mechanical function of similar complexity is Model Team. The Advanced Designer Set subtheme of Creator, way back in 2004, was Model Team. Model Team, as a designated theme, is long gone, but Model Team never left in spirit. If some sort of mechanical functionality embedded in a brick-built structure is the dividing line between Model Team and other large-scale vehicles, then sets I would label as post-Model Team "Model Team" include the following. This isn't necessarily an exhaustive list or a list that's well-sorted by year and theme, and it excludes a lot of other large System-built sets with interesting and creative Technic mechanisms because they can't be described as vehicles (ie, the Aquarium, the Pac-Man Arcade, the NES, etc). TLDR, Model Team is thriving. List below inside spoiler tag:

I'm going to guess this is a 4+ set, but at that price point it would be cool if it was Malcolm's car from the finale of The Lost World, where he and Harding are zipping around San Diego in a red convertible with a baby T-rex in the car.

I hope that isn't true. I would much rather have Zeb with the X-wing than with the Razor Crest. Discounts on a moderately overpriced $70 set will be much easier to find than discounts on a crazy overpriced $150 set, and the likely aftermarket price for Zeb will make me feel like I need to get the entire set new with minifigs instead of getting it secondhand without minifigs. Besides, just four minifigs in a $150 set is awfully stingy.

@danth, sorry for calling you the "self-appointed president of the sticker haters association" in a post in another thread a few weeks ago. Said president is a different Eurobricks user. Anyway - I don't have hardly any interest in the upscaled minifig itself, but I might have to get a few of that big blue panel with the CS logo print. It'll be perfect for ground bases and so forth. Hopefully it's not too expensive on Bricklink or Pick-a-Brick! I guess maybe I could talk myself into getting the upscaled CS minifig as a companion piece to the GWP red Spacebaby or the Creator 3-in-1 astronaut, but character/creature/mech builds usually aren't my thing. Just fairly rigid swooshies and cars.

Wow. When you put it that way it really brings home how badly these sets were blocked out (from a charitable point of view) or how greedy/cheap Lego is being about them (from a cynical point of view).

I think that piece originated with the Bluey car last year.

I'm surprised, these actually aren't too bad apart from the prices. Even though the Landspeeder still doesn't have a windscreen element designed for it, the element used here is much better than the one that they've used for the past decade and a half. I like the printed boat studs on the engines, and the Bluey seat element is a nice touch. The seats are too far forward apart to accomodate the Smart Brick, but it'll be an easy mod to take out the Smart Brick bed, move the seats and windscreen back two studs, and fill in the gap. I appreciate the simpler build compared to the 2020 version and the lack of flex tubes compared to the 2004, 2009, 2014, and 2017 versions. The 2020 version was more complex than it needed to be, yet without major improvements in proportions compared to the 2017 version, and the flex-tube build was getting old and tired. The Tatooine side build is fun and I don't have a Jawa minifig yet. The Gonk droid is fun too. But at $40 for 215p, this needs to be at least 30% off ($28) before it even approaches reasonable territory. Maybe I could get it half-price without figs and get a Jawa from Bricklink. It would be perfect at 40% off ($24). On the one hand, the actual hut in the Yoda's hut playset looks great. It's a large build with plenty of interior and exterior detail and, more important, plenty of room inside, in front, and in the doorway to pose and play with minifigs. It's considerably more convincing than the 2018 version, which was a boxy little facade, and the colors are a little brighter, and it's light years better than the 2022 diorama version, which looked good on the shelf but had absolutely zero play value. I like the fact that we're getting big crates and boxes from Luke's camp for the first time ever, and I appreciate the extra scenery. I'm not convinced the play value of the big Technic juggling scaffold is worth the effort, though. I kinda like the mid legs on Yoda, even though it makes him a little taller, but I'm disappointed that the standard astromech body hasn't been redesigned to have a centered stud to allow head rotation like on the Smart Tag astromech body. Despite the PPP, I'd much rather pay $70 for this than $80 for the diorama version. (I ended up getting the diorama secondhand for $25, missing a few small pieces here and there.) At $70 for 440p with a build this size, this one seems reasonable (still overpriced, but not egregiously overpriced) once it hits 20% off or $56. It would be a good buy at 30% off or $49. At first glance, the AT-ST doesn't look too bad. It doesn't look as good as the 2016 model, aka the GOAT of AT-STs, but not too bad. Of course, then you realize it has no rear wall. Leaving off the rear wall seems like the best way to make it Smart Brick-compatible, since that gives easy access to the interior, it has the least impact on the front-facing angles, and it's easy to add a rear wall back in. I don't mind the mid legs on the Ewok, but I think the mid legs work better on Yoda than on the Ewoks. The speeder bike is terrible. It's too small of a vehicle to effectively redesign to fit a Smart Brick. At $50 for 347p, this one would be reasonable at 20% off or $40, but better at 30% off or $35. The Mos Eisley cantina isn't quite as terrible as I was expecting. The Smart Brick integration is still awful, but it shouldn't be too hard to remove it from the stage. The brick-built dewback is tiny and derpy, but it really isn't any worse than the microfighter version from 2019. The minifig selection still leaves a lot to be desired. It should have, in order of priority: Han, Wuher, and another Bith musician. Why doesn't it have Han Solo? How can you have a cantina scene with Greedo without Han Solo? That's an incredibly stingy move by Lego. But at least the whole scene put together is fairly large and easy to reconfigure in a line or a square. On paper, at $80 for 666p, this would be pretty good value at 20% off for $64, but the lack of a Han Solo minifiigure really drags the whole thing down and only makes it an acceptable buy starting at 30% off or $56. The Millennium Falcon is really the highlight of the Smart Play sets. A lot of people on the forums, including me, have been saying for years (since 2022) that the next playscale Falcon should be smaller, cheaper, more accessible. We expected a "small Falcon" to use the windscreen introduced for the 2022 City Space sets and this one doesn't, but that's ok. The parts count, minifig count, built size, interior space, and swooshability compare favorably to most of the other $100 swooshy vehicle sets in Star Wars and Marvel from the past few years, such as the Inquisitor Transport Scythe and the Quinjet from the first Avengers movie. The proportions and angles of the ship suffer from the smaller format, but overall it's still finished fairly well. The new panels on double liftarms are a very practical solution to the roof problem, and I like the pull-out module for the hyperdrive repair. It's too bad this is the first playscale Falcon not to feature a gunner seat, but I guess something had to go. The pickup bed for the Smart Brick should be fairly easy to mod over. It's ironic that the mandibles on the older, larger playscale Falcons were too thin, while the mandibles on this version are too thick. At $100p for 885p, this is no more overpriced than is usual for Star Wars and Marvel sets of this format, and it'll be solid value at 20% off for $80. Some more thoughts on the all-in-one sets: Given that a regular X-wing is supposed to be coming later this year at $70, which is the new normal for starfighter prices, I don't resent the Smart Brick X-wing anymore. It's a fun playset for kids, and it's been ages since we've had an X-wing that came with a maintenance train. In fact, when I was a kid I thought the maintenance train was the best part of the OG X-wing set! My brother had the 7140 X-wing and I had the 4502, but I was still jealous of his maintenance train and I thought it was stupid that none of the other starfighters came with a little maintenance train. The Smart Brick maintenance train isn't as cool as the one in the OG 7140, but it's still fun. I used to build boarding stairs for all my starfighters out of basic bricks, so I always like to see boarding stairs in official sets. At $90 for 584p including one Smart Brick, the value isn't there, but it seems like it would be fair value at 20% off for $72, and legitimately good value at 30% off for $63. The value of the TIE Advanced at $70 for 473p isn't much worse than the X-wing, but the ship is worse because it doesn't lean into its compromised proportions the way the X-wing does. It just looks bad, not cute in a caricatured kind of way, and it'll be hard to mod into a better version. This one would still be a bad buy at half off or $35 secondhand without minifigures or Smart Bricks. The Throne Room Duel and A-wing set still makes no sense. It's a shame the complete package makes no sense, because on their own both builds are very good. The Throne Room window is an attractively downsized version of the form pioneered in the diorama version, and the duel arena and control sticks are sensible builds for the set concept. The A-wing is a little small, but its forward body has better angles and contours than any previous A-wing and a very simple and sturdy build to boot, while the lack of an aft fairing behind the windscreen for Smart Brick compatibility is easily fixed. It would have been better to release the A-wing separately, with no Smart Brick, for $30 and the Throne Room Duel separately, with the two Smart Bricks, for $120, if close to the same total retail price must be maintained for arcane accounting reasons. At $160 for 962p, the complete package makes no sense, but at least it's still somehow better value by PPP than the downsized Clone Turbo Tank from 2025! This price doesn't begin to become reasonable even by Star Wars standards until 25% off or $120, but below that I can start to see the value.

Lots of good stuff in that catalog. The only CaDa sets I have are their 1:24 Sauber F1 car and their Space Shuttle designed by Eric Trax, but there's quite a few sets in that catalog that I might like to get. The Speed Racer Mach V, of course, is a must-buy.

I know it's just the January doldrums, but it's still surprising how much the deals have dried up this month. Quite a few sets I was planning on getting at 20% off this month are no longer available on discount. Since you do seem to like Dreamzzz, what did you think of Mr Oz's Space Bus and Space Car? Personally, I thought the Space Bus was pretty fun at the 30% discount I got it for, but I didn't feel like the design or the build were very interesting or creative, despite the stylings of the theme. Likewise, I didn't think much of either version of the Space Car in the instructions. However, there's an excellent alt build on Rebrickable that uses all the Space parts to build a Perseverance Mars rover while preserving the other parts for the yellow sports car, and with that in mind I like the set a lot. I haven't got any of the other Dreamzzz sets, but I kinda wish we'd gotten more of Mr Oz's Space dreams.

71514 Dino Jet with the long necked dinosaur.

Oh very well then, if Google AI Overview says that, then that's that. I was hoping you were going to cite some national literary governing body or something, as that would have been a legitimately interesting cultural exchange. Moving on from this tired topic, I suppose the dinosaur set from the last Dreamzzz wave would make a nice ride for Roboforce 1997.

Pardon me, is your nation the USA? Sometimes the country listed on Eurobricks forums isn't actually the country a user is posting from, which can make it hard to understand some posts. Your understanding of the genre of scifi is different from my understanding of the genre of scifi as a resident of the USA, so I'm probably misunderstanding something in the meaning you're trying to convey with your posts. Maybe if you could clarify this point I could understand you a little better.

Sigh ... I said I didn't want to rehash this whole thing, but here I go again .... "Scifi" is a very broad genre. It can encompass ring-shaped space stations as in City Space 2024, domed Mars bases with opening airlocks as in Friends Space 2024, and xenocidal total war with an alien aggressor as in Galaxy Squad 2013. Ring-shaped space stations are a concept that is frequently repeated in science fiction. Domed Mars bases are a concept that is frequently repeated in science fiction. Xenocidal total war with an alien aggressor is a concept that is frequently repeated in science fiction. They are all fictional concepts that have never been made into real things. Having a university education in a field that is somehow related to science, technology, engineering, or mathematics is neither necessary, nor sufficient, nor even particularly applicable to knowing a genre of fiction, SF/F, pretty well. Seems like you're just describing the nostalgia cycle. Wait ten or fifteen years and call me in the morning.

Respectfully, it's splitting hairs to say that City Space and Friends Space 2024 aren't "Scifi Space". But I don't want to rehash this conversation that's been had many times before in this forum, so I'll bid you good day.

Since you're posting this to explain why, in your view, the 2024 cross-theme Space sets weren't true Space sets, here's my reply: Are scientific exploration and discovery not "solid themes"? Are the only "solid themes" permitted in Lego Space sets to be war and violence? Why are big battle tanks necessary in Lego Space? Lego Space went over 20 years without big battle tanks. Why are huge aliens necessary in Lego Space? Lego space went nearly 20 years without huge aliens. Why are bad guys with cool bad spaceships necessary in Lego Space, particularly as opposing factions? Why are big guns necessary in Lego Space? Why are heavily armed aliens necessary in Lego Space? Why can't we all just ... get along in our little make-believe worlds? Personally, I found the focus on peaceful, conflict-free exploration in the 2024 cross-theme Space sets to be a refreshing contrast to the high-conflict Space subthemes of the late oughts and early teens, and a nice callback to earlier eras of Lego Space.

This vlog from Emmasaurus shows off a lot of the CES exhibit that I haven't seen in other media. They made a full-size prop of the Smart Brick X-wing and they rented the outside of the Sphere to show some kind of gameplay piped from inside the X-wing prop. That prop and ad space can't have been cheap. I wonder what the cost of this promotional experience was compared to, say, the cost of the F1 Drivers Parade where everyone was in full-size Speed Champions car props, and how it compared to the overall development budget for Smart Bricks.

Looks very good. A simple but effective conversion made perfect by the new windscreens.

I'm no expert, but I think maybe French warships of the Napoleonic Wars had white hulls beneath the waterline?

Well, that's a real mashup of times and themes and places, isn't it? What is this, a hospital ship?

Looks very good. Those are the same parts used for the front profile of the A-wing in the new Smart Brick set. Did you come to this solution independently? If so, kudos to you. If not, it's still a great MOC!

I didn't expect to see a Creator pirate ship in 2026 when the Going Merry from 2025 is still on shelves and another One Piece ship is rumored, but it's still good to hear. It's a couple hundred pieces shy of the 2020 Creator pirate ship, so I wonder how much smaller the build is going to be. Hopefully, it'll be a larger physical build because it uses fewer but larger pieces. The 2020 ship was good, but had too many fiddly little 1x1 plates and other tiny parts for my taste.

Looking forward to these! I've wanted a proper backhoe and front loader for a long time, and with current City build standards they ought to be great. Curious to see how the dump truck will be different than the one that comes with the tow truck. Probably it'll be bigger, since it's the first item in the set name. It was nice to get a small carwash a couple years ago as the first City carwash in several years, but it didn't have enough depth to be completely convincing. Hopefully this carwash will be long enough to hold a complete City car inside.

I'm taking this Mando-movie X-wing rumor with a grain of salt for now, but if it's true there's hope for a new Snowspeeder and A-wing next year, notwithstanding the Smart Brick A-wing in the Throne Room set and the rumored Smart Brick Snowspeeder in an Echo Base set. I really hope so, because the Smart Brick A-wing is legit amazing except for being a little too small and having Smart stuff behind the windscreen instead of a proper fairing. Also, we desperately need a new Snowspeeder with the new windscreen. Just based on the nature of the vehicle, I expect the Smart Brick Landspeeder will be pretty easy to mod into a regular Landspeeder. It would a be a real monkey's paw moment for the Mando-movie X-wing to have the new Smart Brick X-wing's windscreen, but I don't think that's likely. The new element is pretty clearly designed to accomodate the packaging restrictions of the Smart Brick X-wing's build, rather than for general use. I daresay it's more likely to find future uses as an armor element in a Ninjago mech or in whatever comes after Dreamzzz than it is to be used in another starfighter.

Newly rumored: 75460 X-Wing Starfighter Based on The Mandalorian & Grogu June release I guess they're throwing us grumpy old folk a bone with this, compared to the Smart Brick X-wing. We'll see if there's any substance to this rumor. If there is, I hope it'll be a more developed version of the excellent 2021 X-wing or even a return to the series of larger rubber-band X-wings that ended in 2020, or dare I imagine a minifig-scale X-wing with actual center-pivot wings? I don't think I could take another X-wing with click hinges for the wings. Then again, this rumor could be all wrong and it's a buildable Zeb bust instead, or something.

@Mandalorianknight, I'd choose the extra-light gray for accurate X-wings, Snowspeeders, and Imperial shuttles.