Classic_Spaceman

The lack of a cape is a trade-off to allow him to have his jetpack, as both cannot fit on the Minifig at the same time (though I would have preferred to get a cape as well, and just have Moff's jetpack stored on a hook somewhere).

Are they? I feel like your assessment is the general feeling towards the theme (Time Cruisers in particular; Time Twisters at least had an aesthetic).

I would actually prefer the white suit, simply because I know that LEGO is not going to give her a new hairpiece with tiara (or potentially even leg printing!), so I would rather the black suit be saved for a CMF. 🫤

It is truly bizarre - I even checked to make sure that they did not just reuse the BTAS Batman torso for her! Why are we questioning the Jonkler's motives? Are we stupid?

The loyalist Mandos in the battle pack have different legs! Off of the top of my head, I can see around seven different paired combinations of these parts (including the one advertised) without even factoring in the Fleet Commander’s pieces! As for using the Imperial Mando helmets for Clone Commandos, the shaping is too drastically dissimilar for me to see it being able to work. That being said, considering that we got three new helmet moulds across two sets in this wave, I can just see LEGO making a proper Commando helmet if/when they get around to giving them to us.

The excavator and crane are both excellent, and we get two new construction torsos (in reddish orange?) and one new printed leg piece, which was unexpected! Also, it seems like the LEGO equivalent of CAT is “ELEPHANT”, based on the stickers. The car transporter truck has stickers, but also some really nice brickbuilt detailing on the front of the truck and the sides of the orange car. Based on the seams, the harbour is almost certainly modular! Those panels on the LEGO truck had better be prints!! 😡 The jungle sets look really good! The main issue is that the titular jungle bits are rather lacklustre, but that seems to have freed up parts and budget to bulk up the vehicles and include lots of animals (two adult crocogators in a ~$20 set was not expected!). That being said, the $10 set needs a second red panda, and we really should have gotten at least one tiger cub. One nice detail is that the explorers from the arctic/ocean subtheme last year are returning in the jungle sets (plus Johnny Thunder, and minus the divers and the red-haired mechanic) - I like that bit of continuity! It is actually the scientist with glasses and orange hair who is missing; the mechanic is on the motorcycle.

It looks like Paz is not a complete reuse, as he has some black contour lines on his helmet.

The 4+ Batcave is bad, as expected. Man and Jonkler are reused from last year’s 4+ Batmobile, but we do get a new Batgirl torso - That I do not think she has ever worn before! 😑 Also, why is Jonkler stealing Kryptonite??

A white horse with bridle appears in one of the new Harry Potter sets; I cannot tell if it is the same as the previous one, or a new print, but it should end up on PAB sometime next year (hopefully before the LKC retires, whenever that is supposed to happen!).

Not specifically Space, but one of the new Harry Potter sets has a cool new bubble-crystal mould that comes in trans-purple and trans-bright green. Should be fun to use as alien flora or minerals!

Maybe in front of the cave?

My god, that dragon is amazing!! The Tournament Temple City is exquisite! Wow!! First look at Jordana, as well; I like that she and Cinder now have different outfits. BTW, the gold robot-looking figure is not Echo Zane; his name looks like “Temple ____”.

After seeing the Advent Calendar, I am no longer miffed at not getting the third Praetorian Guard in the Mando bunker.

That was the old material (polycarbonate); the new material (MABS) is almost identical to ABS in its properties (hence the ability to make a mostly-translucent Minifig).

Translucent parts are not weaker; the designers made the hips and torso a solid colour to conceal the inner connection points (explicitly stated in a recent interview).

I really, really, hope so! Either a standard OT Falcon, or a completely different ship, would be far better than a weird non-Canon, non-Legends, gimmick set.

None of the existing hood pieces will fit with the new Asgardian cape piece. If that were the case, then why did they make the Thor/Loki cape attach on the shoulders like it does in the movies? If LEGO wanted a new plastic cape to replace the cloth ones, they could easily have made a more generic plastic cape that just attached around the neck (which would also allow it to be compatible with the existing hood pieces). It will really come down to which characters get plastic capes. Classic Magneto (if we get him in the Mansion) would look great with the new cape, for example; Darth Vader, not so much. I can see a transition to the vinyl material used for Ninjago dragon wings in that case, but solid plastic/rubber would not work for things like sails!

Obviously! LEGO generally sticks with generic OT depictions, though, unless they are making a set specifically for a different piece of media (Rogue One, Rebels, etc). There is a bit of precedent for this in recent years, however, with Squadrons Rae Sloane in the TIE Bomber.

2006 was a different time! We never see Tarkin on a Star Destroyer in the OT, so his inclusion is rather unusual. I absolutely agree!

Same! Their Avengers/AoU capes attach directly on the top of their shoulders and then drop down from there, and have a more rectangular shape than LEGO’s typical triangular capes. This is reflected in the new parts, and plastic/rubber probably looks better in action poses than cloth (which can deform or hang strangely). This being said, I really do doubt that LEGO is phasing out all cloth elements, and I even think that there is still a place for cloth capes in the superheroes line (Superman comes immediately to mind!).

Transparent book cover with a Naughty/Nice list on it! Also, Santa would obviously be wearing a spacesuit version of his normal outfit. From a marketing standpoint, not a lore standpoint; LEGO themes are basically their own brands at this point, which is why new themes get a big marketing push when they first drop (establishing them as a brand).

I am very curious to see if we get more overarching ‘megathemes’ in the future! Castle and Pirates are the obvious next picks (as the other 2/3rds of the classic trio), but I can see themes like racing, mining, or underwater being ‘megathemes’ as well.

Or a reindeer in a spacesuit, or maybe a robo-reindeer (antlers would be large antenna arrays)! I agree that it is weird, though not that it is dumb; I am assuming that LEGO either felt that the sets would sell better under the City banner than as an independent theme, or that they only planned to make a few sets and did not think that creating an entirely new theme for a single HY wave would be worth the cost and effort.

I believe that @icm is just curious.

I doubt that plastic/rubber will replace cloth entirely, but I can see them becoming more common in superheroes sets, as they lend themselves better to action poses (facilitated by the increasingly-common clear posing bars).