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+1 Good to have the "official word" out there, thanks! I'll go with Elephant Knight's interpretation of the character in my copy of Barracuda Bay, but I'm glad you're able to see yourself in the same character. Representation matters! Or at least sufficiently ambiguous representation that many different people can see themselves in the same character.

I totally see where you're coming from with that - but I don't imagine that the graphic designer and copy writer thought too hard about it. It's easier to say "former gunner of the Cross Bone Clipper" and leave it at that as a fun Easter egg than to provide a more detailed back story. Robin Loot is a trans woman? Sure! Robin Loot is a cis woman? Sure! Whatever floats your boat, pun intended.

Look at the colors of the Royal Navy in the time of Nelson - all that bright yellow! All that black and white! I think the Barracuda is much more realistic with the bright yellow and bright red than it would be with muted, "realistic" colors. We tend to assume everything old has to have dark, muted colors when that is not the case historically. Muted, faded colors on older buildings are precisely that - muted, faded. They were bright when they were new. In particular, look at this painting of HMS Victory and compare it to the Barracuda. The Barracuda colors are spot-on. https://fineartamerica.com/featured/hms-victory-before-trafalgar-angus-mcbride.html I like bright colors. Let Lego world be bright and colorful. All these dark grays and dark tans and dark browns and earth blues are hard on the eyes.

Set idea: 3-in-1 TIE Fighter. Contains all parts and instructions to build a TIE Fighter, Interceptor, or Striker one at a time. $70 USD, 650 parts, four minifigures: 2x TIE Fighter Pilot, 2x Imperial Ground Crew.

I don't expect that the Pirate Bay sales figures will be the deciding factor in a go/no-go decision for a new Pirates theme, but if sales are good I'm sure we'll get more Pirates-type sets from Ideas, Creator Expert, and Creator 3-in-1 in the next few years, besides just 21322 and 31109. The only Ideas sets to spin off a full theme were the Minecraft ones, but several others have prompted companion sets and other Ideas sets that "rhyme": 21102 Minecraft Micro World ---> Minecraft theme 21103 DeLorean Time Machine ---> Back to the Future Dimensions packs 21108 Ghostbusters Ecto-1 ---> Ghostbusters Firehouse, Ecto-1 from the new movie. These were prompted by the 2016 movie, but they wouldn't have happened without the Ideas set paving the way. 21110 Research Institute ---> "rhymes" with 21312 Women of NASA and, to a lesser extent, 21320 Dinosaur Fossiles 21302 The Big Bang Theory ---> "rhymes" with 21319 Central Perk 21309 Saturn V ---> no dedicated NASA theme, but its sales success surely helped green-light 10266 Lunar Lander, 21321 International Space Station, and the 2019 City Space line. Granted, these were also prompted by the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 and the 20th anniversary of continuous habitation on the ISS, and the City line was a four-year refresh of the 2015 line, but! It's still quite possible the LM and the ISS wouldn't have happened without the Saturn V paving the way, and the City line might have been much smaller if the Saturn V hadn't been so successful. (The 2019 wave was HUGE!) BTW, I'm so glad they changed the name of the Pirate Bay for the set as released. It wouldn't be a good look to release a set that shares a name with a notorious file-sharing and torrenting website!

I also had no interest in the original project, but am buying the final set on day one. This thread has even made me want to make my own take on the original submission in Studio and then Bricklink it! But there's little that caught my eye in the original submission, and the set as released exceeds my expectations in every way. All of which is to say - Happy birthday, @Lyichir! Many happy returns on your birthday, and stay safe and healthy too!

Just finished rebuilding my 95% complete 6285 (just missing the cannons and a few small parts). Can't wait to build 21322 and have the two ships side by side. After I missed 10210 in 2010 and its prices skyrocketed on the aftermarket, I promised myself I'd get the next sailing ship of that quality no matter what, and 21322 is it! With the world-ending-and-all it's more important to save money for food and rent, so this might be my last big Lego buy for a good long time - but it sure is a beauty, and I wouldn't miss it for the world!

I bet 31109+21322 will make a really nice combination. Build the Barracuda and fill in the gaps in the remaining island with the B model from 31109. That way you get the best pirate ship ever released and you get a pirate tavern that more closely resembles the Pirate Bay fan build. We probably won't get good pictures of 31109 until June, so that it doesn't steal 21322's thunder. Regardless, I'm planning to get both as soon as I can.

Those set names sound fake to me. They're not just similar to Ninjago names, they ARE Ninjago names. Storm fighter, thunder raider, golden mech in Monkey Kid, when a Storm fighter, thunder raider, and golden mech have already been released in Ninjago just this year? No way. Edit, this year's Ninjago Storm fighter is said to be a juniors set and it hasn't yet been released, of course. There's got to be some confusion in here somewhere.

@Mandalorianknight, I apologise if you thought I referred to you. I was referring to whoever the unnamed member might be who sent bad PMs to @GREG998.

And yet .... Please. This is a forum for adults. That means people who can and do behave in a respectful and mature manner towards others. That does not mean people who can swear up a blue streak and throw vulgar insults at people they don't like. I don't want to mini-mod or act like a prude here, but please keep a civil tone here, and heed your own advice. Uncivil behavior like this is one of the things that is driving the slow decline of forums. Many formerly extremely active Eurobricks members have left the site because the general decline in civility meant they could no longer conduct the lengthy discussions they came here for without getting flamed, trolled, or worse. I might leave the site if I knew it was in the hands of someone who has repeatedly shown this level of disrespect for other users. I know members who have previously had their membership privileges temporarily suspended (been set to "Taking A Break") for exactly this kind of disrespectful behavior. Some of them have changed their behavior and now contribute valuably and courteously to forum discussions. Others are now banned. The fact that some members have said despicable things to you in private messages does not give you license to say the PG-13 or R-rated equivalents of their NC-17 language on the open forum. <Gets off soapbox.>

Besides, any legitimate attempt to purchase this forum should be conducted in a businesslike and professional manner. Mods, can we lock this thread, please?

My problem is I want to have my cake and eat it too ... I didn't build many MOCs as a kid because I wanted, for example, the A-wing set for the A-wing and not as a source of parts, and I feel the same about kits today. I like to build creations in Studio but I haven't yet persuaded myself I can afford to Bricklink the parts. So I want to build MOCs, just not enough to part with my sets, pun intended. Edit, adding paragraphs: One of the reasons I don't part out sets for MOCs as an adult is because I remember how frustrated I was as a kid when I couldn't rebuild some sets because the parts had scattered into this and that. The other is that I like to keep my room very tidy and well organized, and I don't like messes of any kind. Since I don't have room for a well organized, dedicated build and display space, all MOC building sessions have to be conducted sitting on the floor surrounded by Ziploc bags; it gets hard on the sitting muscles and tedious to take everything out and pack it away again. It's much easier to keep things tidy and clean if I store sets disassembled and rotate them between the storage closet and the small display/play/swooshing table as desired. TLDR: Until I get a better job and a bigger home, I'll stick to building sets and keep my MOCs on Studio.

Maybe ks3649 would like a title on his profile? I think he's earned one. Maybe "Customer Returns Crusader"?

Just some really simple mods here. Added fifth landing leg in front. Added inverted 2x2 slopes on bottom to strengthen mandible connection and improve "lower jaw" slope; added more small plates on the bottom. Switched dark gray wedge slopes for light gray where I could. Filled gaps just behind mandibles and hole in the floor by engineering station. Added small, simple latches to keep roof sections closed when holding spaceship upside down. Replaced topside gun turntable with 1x1 round stud for more friction. Other minor color adjustments. The most important changes are just the latches to keep the roof closed, and those are really simple. A lever or a battle droid arm clipped to a nipple tile, mounted to the central core area, are plenty. Photos in quote so you don't have to load them if you don't want to.

What I find most remarkable about that article is what it says about the 2019 UCS Star Destroyer: “I started building it in my free time at work,” says Henrik Andersen, lead designer for the official Imperial Star Destroyer model. Henrik’s supervisors noted his passion project and tasked him to make it official, assigning him a deadline and a price point of about $700.

Technic is always one of the top selling themes.

The Walmart stores in the Mountain West sell Playmobil.

Congratulations on that major life step! And good luck with the layout.

The rumors are a big Legacy Destiny's Bounty and a 4+ Legacy Jay's Storm Fighter. There may be others but I can't think of them offhand.

They actually did that back in 2009, sort of. A lot of fan builders at the time did so-called "Pre-Classic Space" builds, with the PCS astronauts facing off against the "3vil" faction, which was a precursor to Blacktron and had a skull motif. Lego asked two AFOL builders to design sets in those factions for the short lived Factory label. They were released as "Star Justice" and "Space Skulls". I'd rather have what you describe than PCS or 3vil, but TBH I'd prefer an honest to goodness Classic Space revival as long as I'm dreaming.

I did ... does that make me older than dirt? :) If one of the supposed reasons for the enduring presence of Star Wars in Lego's portfolio is its rich storyline and world-building, well - real-life space has that in spades, doesn't it? A dramatic storyline, memorable heroes, a whole world beyond what makes it to the big screen, and a plethora of source material to adapt into Lego sets or build as MOCs. That's why real-life space does so well on Ideas, in part. The main groups of sets that my parents bought for me and that I bought with my chore money were Star Wars and real-life space (Town, City, Discovery), and they're still the main groups I buy today. Most of Lego's in-house space themes when I was growing up, and those in the past that I was aware of, didn't appeal to me because they were just generic neon-colored swooshies with a bunch of chaotic angles and bits and bobs sticking out everywhere, not connected to any sci-fi franchise I cared about. If that was my attitude 20 years ago, I wouldn't be too surprised if today's kids had similar opinions. My appreciation for the older Space themes has grown as I've become more of an AFOL, but I agree that the lack of well-known stories was probably holding in-house Space back in the late 1990s. However, I can certainly appreciate the fact that many kids, then and now, would find realistic space incredibly boring, and would strongly prefer sci-fi space of any kind to a space shuttle or space capsule. As licensed spaceships of all kinds have come to entirely displace in-house spaceships outside the niche of City Space and one-offs for the Lego Movies, though, I do lament the relative lack of creativity and the relative homogeneity of the offerings. It would be nice if Lego had a strong, sustainable in-house Space theme with multiple recurring factions as in the 1980s, and I think it would be wise for Lego to invest in that direction to prepare for the eventual cultural obsolescence of Star Wars, whenever that occurs. I won't name names, but I have thought it ironic how often certain forum members who strongly miss Classic Space, or who strongly dislike Star Wars, seem to take it as a personal insult when others don't share their strong viewpoints. These members dismiss any and all attempts at reasonable (for Eurobricks) discussion about the present state of things as malicious attacks intended to quash their views, without considering that their intensely personal reactions often have the effect of silencing or toxifying the discussion and shutting down those of differing views. This lends such a repetitive, cyclical air to the threads that it's not usually worthwhile to participate. Paragraph added in edit: I hope the paragraph above doesn't come across as passive aggressive or dismissive, since I myself hate it when other people's posts come across that way. All I'm trying to say is that I can appreciate both sides of the typical Eurobricks Star Wars vs Classic Space arguments, and I wish we would just all get along and take each other's posts in good faith without anybody getting triggered, taking things personally, or acting dismissive towards anybody. Since most of us don't have any professional experience with decision making at Lego headquarters, nor with sales data nor with market research, either for Lego or for its competitors, we're all on equally speculative ground. Now excuse me while I go spend a bunch of money on secondhand classic sets and brand new Star Wars ... if my wallet will let me.

I'm not complaining about it at all! The set is a very good Lego representation of the ship from the TV show, and I applaud that. I'm just saying that yes, the source material is plain, gray, and boxy, and the set reflects that faithfully. It reminds me of the Rexplorer from TLM2, which is also in many ways an admirable set and a very playable spaceship - but ultimately I passed on that one because I prefer my spaceships more pointy than boxy, and I'll probably pass on the Razor Crest for the same reason.

THIS Batman can turn his head! The new motorcycle looks pretty bad, though. It's obviously inspired more by Batman as "World's Greatest Detective" than Batman as "World's Best-Equipped Crime-Fighting Billionaire", but the bat-fairing reminds me too strongly of the motorcycle in the 1966 film without (probably) that film's cheerful camp. I hope that if Lego releases a motorcycle for this film, it'll just use the standard City motorcycle parts, but it's more likely that any such set would be an oversized monster with no real connection to the film ....

Those are probably the sleekest, most elegant T-70 models I've ever seen. Would you mind posting some breakdown pictures so that we can see how they're built? I might like to try to build them in Studio and maybe even order the parts sometime. Thanks.