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Yeah, counting "themes" isn't very relevant to how Lego actually does business and distributes products these days. @Wolfpack, a "theme" is more of a budgetary category for TLG than a content category, and most "themes" today are more of umbrella labels that contain a wide variety of content types. Like @MAB said, "Tintin", "Pirates of the Caribbean", "The Simpsons", "The Lord of the Rings", "Project Hail Mary" - none of them are really "themes" because they're all parts of the Icons budget, but if you counted them individually as different themes due to difference licenses that'll inflate your theme count. Also, different people have different perceptions of what's a "theme" and what isn't. For instance, when I was a kid I thought of Divers, Arctic, Race, and Extreme Team as separate themes, so when I came across online Lego databases it was a surprise to see them all listed as part of Town. Similarly, I thought of Ninja as a separate theme from Castle. Similarly today, City gets a wide variety of subthemes that could easily be thought of as entirely separate "themes" if you wanted to: Space 2024, Arctic, F1, the various other Exploration subthemes. Like @MAB says, the more useful metric is the number of sets of various distinctions in a single release year, or available at a single time. You can split those up according to a number of criteria and analyze them as you wish, but a simplistic "licensed vs unlicensed themes" split is one of the least useful ways to do it. Minifig-playscale sets, minidoll-playscale sets, no-minifig sets Licensed sets, unlicensed sets that try to model something in the public domain (ie Botanicals), unlicensed sets that don't try to model something in the public domain (ie Dreamzzz) Pure playsets, pure display sets, sets that are good for both play and display Sets by price brackets or parts count brackets Sets that have some sort of story with named characters attached, sets that don't (some people get quite as attached to Ninjago canon and screen accuracy as if it was an entirely licensed theme that didn't originate with TLG) Etc So, you're cherry-picking. So, you're cherry-picking. No, Lego system was never 100% original. There have always been licensed products. The Shell license goes all the way back to 1962. It is true that the proportion of licensed products has increased dramatically since 1999. So would we all. The problem is we all want a different three themes. For instance, I would like the following three themes: Thunderbirds, Interplanetary Patrol (my own silly space stories that I wrote and drew when I was a kid), and, I dunno, Mole-Men from Mars. But that's not going to happen because Thunderbirds is a fairly niche license, nobody knows about Interplanetary Patrol, and other people would rather have Bird-Babes from Barsoom.

Leaked pictures are out for the Tintin rocket! It's an amazingly smooth build and the minifig selection is on point. I wish it also had figures of the main cast in their usual attire, but those will probably be relatively easy to figbash.

How about we split that up into: 50th anniversary X-wing: $90, composed of $65 worth of X-wing build, $20 worth of exhaust port build, and $5 worth of extra parts to customize your X-wing. Figures include Luke, Wedge, Red Leader, and a droid for each of them. Extra parts included to customize your X-wing to each of their paint jobs. (6 figures) 50th anniversary TIE Advanced: $50, composed of $50 worth of TIE build. Figures include Darth, concept-Darth, Stormtrooper, concept-Stormtrooper. (4 figures) 50th anniversary TIE Fighter: $60, composed of $45 worth of TIE build and $15 worth of turbolaser build. Figures include TIE pilot, Imperial Gunner, Stormtrooper (3 figures). That's the same total price and content, but with 13 figures instead of 7 figures, and split up into three sets that are individually more accessible than a single giant $200 box. Personally, if I'm going to wishlist about special anniversary sets I'd go for: Colin Cantwell prototype X-wing (from sketch models), $70 Ralph McQuarrie prototype X-wing (from concept art), $70 Colin Cantwell/Ralph McQuarrie prototype Y-wing (the sketch models closely resemble the concept art, unlike with the X-wings), $70

It's now said to be the Hubble Space Telescope. That's not nearly as fun as another Space throwback set, nor as exciting as an Apollo CSM or Orion set would have been, but I'm sure I'll end up wanting it once I see it. Hopefully it's got a lot of drum-lacquered pieces, because it won't look very good in plain light bluish gray.

I watched maybe five minutes of that one and I skipped around to see a few angles on the sets I hadn't seen before. Duck is far too long-winded for me. I wonder how much of a "watch" that counts for in his monetization of the video?

That's amazing! What a brilliant idea, and very well done too.

I finished building the Ent-D about a week ago. I also have the Bluebrixx version, which I built a couple of years ago. In my opinion, the Lego version is well worth the price premium compared to the Bluebrixx version. The build is much more varied and interesting, and it's really impressive how sturdy the Lego version is by comparison. The Bluebrixx version is a very fragile and boring build, and it can neither separate the saucer in a controlled fashion nor support the saucer on a cantilever. I also really appreciate having genuine Lego minifigs for TNG - the Lego minifigures are much better than the Bluebrixx minifigs (which were only an extremely limited GWP-bundle themselves). Personally, I enjoy the large-scale, repetitive structural techniques of the Ent-D much better than I enjoy the smaller-scale, ornate detail of a modular building, because they seem much more necessary and much less arbitrary. They appeal to the part of my brain that likes mathematical structure and order. The Lego version is very large and heavy, so it's a two-handed swoosh instead of a one-handed swoosh, but I don't think it's too large. It's only a little bit larger than the Bluebrixx version (though twice the parts count and twice as expensive), but it justifies the extra size and the price premium with much greater structural rigidity, much better features and minifigs, a much more enjoyable building experience, and much higher-quality parts. Overall, it is, like you say, a really fabulous model and I hope there are more like this in the future. The obvious next one for Lego would be the Refit Enterprise from TMP/TWoK/TSFS, as that one has never been done by Mega Construx or Bluebrixx. But yeah, the shuttle should have been a GWP at launch and a regular retail set later. It's such a perfect little spaceship that it's a shame to have it released only as such a restricted GWP. Maybe in a few years! It took four years for the regular minifig playscale 1989 Batmobile to make the leap from frustratingly-limited GWP with a big D2C to regular retail set (2019 to 2023), but it finally made it. Here's hoping there's more minifig-scale Star Trek shuttlecraft as retail sets, along with more big display-scale hero starships as D2Cs.

I waffled back and forth on it for a week, but I went and put in an order for a single copy of WALT this morning before the pre-order window closed. I'd say it's surprising how few copies WALT sold, but if everybody was as lukewarm on it as I was that's not all that strange. WALT is a cute little robot and very well designed at a very fair price, but it's not as different from Lego's usual fare as the Fortuna, and it doesn't fill such a huge niche gap in the product line as Fortuna does. When it comes time to pre-order BDP 8 in June, I think I'll get Coconut Cape and the Hot Air Balloon.

Got my order in for the Fortuna. I may go back and get WALT later this week but not today.

JJP leaks site lists an upcoming Icons set as set 11382, TBA Space?, 18+, 1552p, $130, August 1. I don't suppose we have any idea what that is? It's a perfect parts count and price to finally be an Apollo CSM, or maybe it's another retro Space throwback set, or maybe it's something completely different? Does anybody know?

I don't see any reason why the headlight bricks behind the problem ones couldn't be at the same level. That's the most puzzling thing about it.

The design flaws with the headlight brick and the wobbly, improperly attached steering column and fake drivetrain are really disappointing, especially since they seem so trivial and avoidable. It's a shame, especially since the rest of the set is so appealing. I wonder if this model was someone's passion project rushed out on a tight deadline without enough time to iterate, like the 2021 UCS Tumbler and the 2024 UCS Classic TV Batmobile. Neither of those have such problems with glaringly illegal techniques and obviously inadequate structures, but their lack of features and details relative to their large sizes is acknowledged to be due to a lack of development time.

Series 10 voting is open. There are a fair number of resubmissions this time, but not nearly as many Castlemax entries as last time. I think the lack of a Castlemax selection for Series 9 kind of took the wind out of the sails of a lot of potential Castle designers. Here's my "like" and "love" list this time, ordered from lowest to highest number of parts. On the whole I think the Series 10 entries, especially the large ones, are of lesser quality than the Series 9 entries. Like: Medieval Peasant Hut https://www.bricklink.com/v3/designer-program/series-10/4186/Medieval-Peasant-Hut Flame Monster https://www.bricklink.com/v3/designer-program/series-10/3878/Flame-Monster Grandpa's Biplane https://www.bricklink.com/v3/designer-program/series-10/4066/Grandpa's-Biplane Scout and Survey Explorers https://www.bricklink.com/v3/designer-program/series-10/4190/Scout-and-Survey-Explorers Post Office and Stagecoach https://www.bricklink.com/v3/designer-program/series-10/3856/Post-Office-&-Stagecoach Lifeguard Tower https://www.bricklink.com/v3/designer-program/series-10/3770/LIFEGUARD-TOWER Medieval Cog https://www.bricklink.com/v3/designer-program/series-10/4312/Medieval-Cog Flying Scotsman https://www.bricklink.com/v3/designer-program/series-10/4108/Flying-Scotsman:-Class-A3-Steam-Engine-(British-Railways-livery) Bay of Plenty https://www.bricklink.com/v3/designer-program/series-10/4033/Bay-of-Plenty Oakwatch Tower https://www.bricklink.com/v3/designer-program/series-10/4288/Oakwatch-Tower Planetary Outpost 79 https://www.bricklink.com/v3/designer-program/series-10/4303/Planetary-Outpost-79 The Prisoner https://www.bricklink.com/v3/designer-program/series-10/3683/The-Prisoner Plunder Prison https://www.bricklink.com/v3/designer-program/series-10/3873/Plunder-Prison The Old Garage https://www.bricklink.com/v3/designer-program/series-10/3782/The-Old-Garage Medieval City Gate https://www.bricklink.com/v3/designer-program/series-10/3867/Medieval-City-Gate The Training Ground https://www.bricklink.com/v3/designer-program/series-10/4368/The-Training-Ground Spice Galleon https://www.bricklink.com/v3/designer-program/series-10/3844/Spice-Galleon The Northern City Gates https://www.bricklink.com/v3/designer-program/series-10/4313/The-Northern-City-Gates Love: Shipwreck Scavengers https://www.bricklink.com/v3/designer-program/series-10/4281/Shipwreck-Scavengers Triplane Landing Field https://www.bricklink.com/v3/designer-program/series-10/4009/Triplane-Landing-Field Golden Age Aviation https://www.bricklink.com/v3/designer-program/series-10/4224/Golden-Age-Aviation Medieval Tournament https://www.bricklink.com/v3/designer-program/series-10/4158/Medieval-Tournament All Terrain Hybrid Racer https://www.bricklink.com/v3/designer-program/series-10/4283/All-Terrain-Hybrid-Racer Merchants Wharf Cog and Crane https://www.bricklink.com/v3/designer-program/series-10/4339/Merchant's-Wharf:-Cog-&-Crane Fort Huck https://www.bricklink.com/v3/designer-program/series-10/3974/Fort-Huck Japanese Castle https://www.bricklink.com/v3/designer-program/series-10/4291/Japanese-Castle

Except steering, suspension, a transmission with a differential, a fake engine with moving pistons, and a gearshift!

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:

@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.

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

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.