Retro Brick Reviews

Since everyone else is doing it, I'll throw my 2025 character predictions into the ring. I think there's almost no chance we don't get Big - he's the only main Sonic character from LEGO Dimensions that still doesn't have a physical version, he's fairly prominent in the series again, and in general probably the most well-known character that isn't already represented in the theme. I think the best way to accurately represent his proportions would be a small brickbuilt figure (similar to LEGO Donkey Kong) with a molded head, but something similar to LEGO Eggman's minifigure could also work. Aside from that, I'll predict out other characters will be Cream, Blaze, and Silver, plus a buildable Omega in one of the sets. That would pretty much round out all of the main series protagonists, leaving the door open for future years to focus more on characters from specific aspects of the series like Riders or the IDW comics, like how Mario has had subthemes for Luigi's Mansion, Donkey Kong, and Mario Kart. I'd love if the sets next year could move away from Green Hill and focus more on the Adventure-era levels. I'd love if the set Big came in was themed around Emerald Coast, for example.

Agreed on both builds. The Scout Speeder is drop-dead gorgeous, but the Dropship looks so bad it's honestly making me reconsider a set that I'd planned on buying day one. Even outside of my general issue of this (like the 2019 version) failing to really capture the original set or what certain parts of it represented (I HATE the dark blue, the only reason the OG used blue was because that color was used on TIE Fighters at the time), the shape is so funky, the overwhelming amount of brown makes it look rusty, and it's funny how every version of this craft removes another seat from the troop transport. It's odd that they introduce a new medium nougat female Rebel head when they could've just reused the nougat female Rebel head from Yavin. Not complaining, but I feel as though if they were going to make one new Rebel head print they should've made it more distinct. I don't mind the reuse of Captain Antilles' head, but I do mind the lack of back printing on QT-KT - way to make the last anniversary figure feel special. Honestly, I wish this set was just the Rebel Scout Speeder with 4 Rebel Fleet Troopers and QT-KT at the standard $25 price. Have one of the Fleet Troopers be the long-desired Rebel Friend, and I'd probably pay $25. As-is, I might end up skipping this one, which is disappointing.

Since the $35 set has a similar piece count to the Sonic Speed Sphere set (as well as the same price obvs), I could see it being a Knuckles Speed Sphere set with a build of the Master Emerald shrine with a ramp on each side so Sonic (from wave one) and Knuckles can battle over it, a la the Chima Eagle's Castle set. Curious what the $20 set will be. For that price I highly doubt there'll be any new characters, but getting an existing character with a new face print would be nice. Surprising this is it, I was fully expecting a 4+ set or two. I still predict what I've predicted since we saw the first wave: Knuckles will come in January, and Shadow (plus Super Sonic and probably a couple other characters) will come in 2HY.

I see it as a "quality over quantity" thing. Sure, there aren't a ton of minifgs, but each new character requires at least one new mold (Tails needed two) as well as double-molded legs with printing. Considering that most licensed themes are full of characters with reused faces and unprinted legs, I'd much rather wait to slowly get great Sonic minifigs rather than getting everyone quickly but with the lower minifig quality of Harry Potter or Marvel. Also, we just got official pics of the 76993 Sonic vs. Dr. Eggman's Death Egg Robot set. It seems like there's a feature where launching Sonic into the mech's stomach will cause the jetpack to pop off the back, revealing two more animal buddies inside: Pocky the bunny (also in the $50 and $100 sets) and Tocky the turtle (exclusive).

Also Coruscant, which is worthy of at least one MBS set if not multiple.

Promobricks just posted a picture of 76993. It looks like the official name is "Sonic vs. Dr. Eggman's Death Egg Robot". The builds include the Death Egg Robot (obviously), another Speed Sphere launcher, a strip of spikes, and a small Eggman base. Figures are Sonic (same from 76990), Dr. Eggman, a blue Flicky, and a brickbuilt Cubot.

Just looked at the higher clarity pics of Yavin and C-3PO has arm printing. That's a great reprint to get, hopefully this also has the back-printed R2 (and for consistency back printing on R2-BHD, though that might be too much to hope for).

The Express features new head pieces for young Harry and Hermione.

I stopped documenting it a couple years ago, but there are SO MANY other leg inconsistencies than just those, and just as many (if not more) inconsistencies with wand color, the latter of which we still see very regularly. In fairness, I highly doubt Rowling would've approved of a trans version :P

The Patronus looks crappy (trans blue should be all or nothing and having it just sprinkled around looks really bad imo), the HE is a great example of a set that's both fantastic and wholly uninteresting but I do like it (hopefully it stays on shelves until the franchise crashes and burns with the reboot, lol), and the trunk is fine and I'll probably pick it up on clearance if it has good minifig parts.

Honestly you don't even have to go that far for astoundingly bad decisions. The Battle of Hogwarts gave Voldy a new face that looks almost identical to his 2019 version and a new face to Neville even though his older face was already specifically based on expressions from DHII, and it looks like his torso is also slightly different for no discernible reason? (The details are in all grey instead of being more colorful last year.) Bella is disappointing, but at least she has double-molded arms which are a nice touch. Imo they should've just not included Molly, her torso and dress are nice but the head and hair are such a consistent eyesore I just see her as a wasted spot that would've been better filled by McGonagall. Definitely a set I'll skip, which is really disappointing because of how long we've all been waiting for this one.

One of my favorite details and one of the most obvious missing features missing from the DA version. Also, is that a new Umbridge head print? That was my biggest problem with not just WWW but all the DA buildings, with the only exceptions of Ollivander's and the ice cream parlor all of the interiors were really uninteresting. I'll probably get this set because the interior makes this much closer to the WWW I'd always wanted back in 2010 (and also this one isn't awkwardly cut off on one side lmao)

You are aware that Gringotts stands on it's own at the end of the street and isn't connected to any of the shops on the sides of the alley, right? Regardless of whether it's on a baseplate or regular plates it wouldn't make any sense to connect it that way

Don't say that, they'll actually do it Agreed. I'm basically done with LEGO Harry Potter (I've gone from buying every set to picking up 1 or 2 a year), but I'm definitely getting this just for how absolutely SURREAL it is that UCS Dobby's Sock actually exists.

UCS DOBBY'S SOCK SWEEP!!!!! In all seriousness, this set is basically what I'd hoped for. Dobby is small (i.e. not some huge display model) and very ugly-cute. My only issue is the price, $40 seems like a lot for something so little especially when it looks like over 1/4 of the piece count goes into the pudding.

Seats, probably. I'm really glad about WWW just because the shop actually looks complete this time, it always bothered me how the DA version was just cut off on one side.

It's about 50% that and 50% it making little sense to have him with the Death Egg Robot specifically and exclusively, the reasons for which are outlined above.

Eggman's head definitely looks molded in, if you look you can see the collar of his jacket going far up the back of his head and the bottom of the mustache is clearly attached to the torso. Even if it was detachable, it wouldn't really work for Big because of the coattails which go down over the backs of the legs, which would both look really inaccurate and prevent Big's poofy cat tail from being included. I would love to see Big next year (and I could definitely see it happening, he's appeared a lot in Sonic media recently and he definitely has a following), but he'd definitely need a unique mold similar to Eggman's, but with a tail and probably being overall larger to account for shorter legs (Big and Eggman are nearly the same height, so just taking a torso the same size as Eggman's and giving it short legs would make Big way too small). In what fashion? In terms of the Sonic series, Knuckles has never fought the Death Egg Robot. (He did in the second movie, but these sets are seemingly based wholly on the games). In terms of LEGO, Knuckles would be a very expensive minifigure to make, and looking at this line they'd likely want to spread that cost across the line like they are with all the other minifigs. (It'd be really strange to have 4 sets that repeat their figures all over the place and then 1 with a super-desirable exclusive). There's also the issue of, if they DID make a Knuckles and they DID want him to be exclusive to one set, why would they choose the one most likely to be a bestseller because of so many people asking for it for the last year and a half (due to it's omission from 21331)? You'd think they'd have Knuckles exclusive to the largest set, Luke what everyone here thought they'd do with Shadow pre-reveal. And lastly, again, them leaving out Knuckles has obvious strategy to it in that he's popular enough to headline a second wave, and with his TV series coming out early next year Knuckles hype will be the highest it's been since 1994. My minifig predictions for 76993 are Sonic (standard, not winky), Eggman, and a brickbuilt Silver Mecha Sonic, and I predict that in the second wave (Winter/Spring) the largest set will be ~$70 and include a Knuckles figure with his own Speed Sphere to battle Sonic with.

Since we can say with 99.9999999992% confidence that the missing $60 set is the Death Egg Robot, we can assume that the minifigure selection will definitely include Eggman and Sonic (specifically the normal smile, since currently it's only in the $35 set). Aside from them, I think there's a pretty good chance we'll see a figure of Silver Mecha Sonic (most likely a brickbuild like the other Badniks), since he's thematically appropriate and has gotten a fair amount of merch recently.

Why? We can see the mech is a good size and level of detail and we know it has the best price-to-part ratio of the theme, having the launcher would just be extra value plus more playability (my idea was that there would be a target on the back of the mech where launching Sonic into it would pop Eggman out the top). Either way it looks like a great build, just don't understand the hostility. Glad to hear it, "A new day brings new adventure" and all that jazz

Especially considering that in 2024 Paramount is releasing both a Knuckles TV series and the third Sonic movie (which is set to focus on SA2 and Shadow), so it makes sense to hold off on those two until next year to capitalize on hype. Again, I don't really mind the omissions (it basically confirms they're planning at least a second wave), my only issue is that I wish we got multiple expressions for Amy and Tails like we do for Sonic.

Love all of these sets, this instantly became my favorite theme of 2023. They all have such incredibly chill vibes, and all the new molds and prints are amazing. (I know people are disappointed by the apparent lack of Knuckles, but this really feels like a "quality over quantity" approach with this first wave.)

The thing is, there's no evidence whatsoever that the new helmet is responsible for the inaccurate printing. The mold is virtually identical to the 2014 version aside from the holes themselves, the printing error is much more likely to be general mediocrity on LEGO's end that has nothing to do with the new helmet, especially since the standard 501st print is exactly the same between both designs.

That's... actually a good point. One of my biggest issues with LEGO recently is that a lot of recent GWPs (Ray the Castaway, Hogwarts Staircase, Blacktron Invader) are significantly better than sets you can actually buy at that same size. While I think something like Beru's kitchen is the ideal GWP (cool enough to be enticing and a great bonus, but not really desirable as it's own set or something to regret missing out on), I'd honestly rather a neat-but-underwhelming desk piece like the Death Star II over something like the Blacktron Invader that by all accounts should be a standard retail set. (In other words, if a GWP is good enough to sell on it's own, they should do exactly that.)

I mean, after the Temple of Doom there's a good chance we'll soon get a press release of "We worked closely with Warner Brothers to consolidate the launch of the new Harry Potter sets, and in order to have better synergy with the upcoming series have elected to cancel all of them."