danth

There are "status quo warriors" on this website who will pathologically defend "the way it is now". If you so much as hint as preferring classic themes, they will argue with you mercilessly, and generally use tired, fallacious arguments, and accuse you of "being trapped in nostalgia" while defending the repeated release of sets based on 40 year old designs/movies. When you go a few rounds with these people, defending your preferences from their dismissals, you'll be accused of "whining" or "going on and on," when they are the ones who can't stop, who can't let you have your opinion. They project, assuming our preference for sets not tainted and burdened by attachment to terrible movies, is driven by something like their mindless acceptance of the status quo. "It must just be nostalgia." This is truly nasty. Please tell that to the people dogpiling him for daring to have an opinion that isn't "Everything is perfect the way it is now."

Yeah, I'm not a fan of that argument either. The most I can say regarding "specialized parts" is: I'm not a fan of parts that I think look very specific to a certain license or even unlicensed theme. I prefer more archetypal/generic stuff. But this mostly applies to minifigures and their gear. For instance, I wouldn't really want to reuse any Ninjago or Dreamzzz minifigures or their parts in MOCs because they're so freaking weird. Big bionicle-style parts or giant ninja stars are also not of much use to me. But that all depends on what you're trying to MOC I guess.

People who say this are a bit stuck in the past -- it's the same argument I've been hearing for 20 years! Meanwhile Lego are still cranking out toys from a 1977 movie.

Okay, then green ninjas, red & blue ninjas, ninjas with pink hair and cat ears. Ninjago is weird. That's not necessarily bad -- I like weird. I'm just wondering if that's why the movie didn't do as well as Lego Batman. Maybe a Lego movie like I want, with Space and Bionicle and Exo Force would be just as weird, I dunno.

Do we have any reason to believe they will be fundamentally "more usable" than the old ones? As in, something you can see by comparing them to each other? Yeah pretty much, except those movies didn't seem to focus on existing lore that much if at all. And they had the weird outer story with the kid and his dad and sister. I either missed this because it was an edit, or maybe I went blind, but I'm surprised your first reaction isn't "Oh great, more new huge parts that will only be used in Space or City." And obviously Education. By looking at them, I don't see any obvious reason why they'd be more useful than the old.

Yikes. I went blind, sorry. Thanks for pointing that out. Actually it may have been his edit that I didn't see. But I could also be blind.

You implied that Seatron (a Space prototype) would count as another theme if it wasn't just a prototype. Anyway, I notice you didn't respond about the new 2026 monorail parts. How do you think they factor in to this conversation? I'm blind, sorry. Or maybe it was the edited part and I never saw it.

Futuron, Unitron, and City. Also, for what it's worth, Lego has new monorail tracks as of this year.

Hey man, the first Lego movie and the Lego Batman movie did okay. I don't think Ninjago (pink ninjas spinning like Beyblades?) is that accessible to, like, normal adults. But normy sci-fi is usually pretty popular. Or they could make a Netflix series or something. I don't care. As long as it's cool and we get sets out of it. 😀

I'd like to see a Lego Sci-Fi Cinematic Universe. Just make a damn movie (or series) with Space, Bionicle, Rock Raiders/Power Miners, Exo Force, Chima, Nexo Knights, and whatever else makes sense. Go crazy with delving into the existing lore. Have fun, and make lots of sets.

Yep. This is a pretty well established concept in collecting communities. Popular toys sell well, then more get made, then those sell too, and a bunch end up in the eventually supply.

It's not that exaggerated. Most people when they say "theme" are talking about minifig themes, like the original Space, Town, and Castle were. All we have left for those is City, Ninjago, and Dreamzzz. At least I assume Monkie Kid is dead. Friends isn't a minifig theme, it's a minidoll theme. Creator isn't a minifig theme, since many (most?) Creator sets don't include minifigs, and since Creator sets don't follow a theme in the literal sense. I guess there's the Modular Buildings but those are effectively deluxe City sets and there's only one a year. So, saying two unlicensed (minifig) themes wasn't really that hyperbolic if the actual number is three.

Hopefully we'll get a blue Space minifig, and the remaining parts for the light gray one, in the Build, Paint, and Play GWP. Which is supposed to happen some time this year. But it ain't Lego IDEAS if they don't make the actual release a huge downgrade, so we'll see.

Damn, they even lost DuckBricks? That's bad. Although he still bought 3 copies of each set...

Licensed sets don't sell. Especially Star Wars. They're just not popular with kids. You know how I know this? I was at Target this past weekend, and basically every 2025 Star Wars, Marvel, and Harry Potter set was on sale. I guess kids just don't like those sets. Especially Star Wars. (And anyone who's familiar with my post history knows I'm being facetious and poking fun of people who say some variation of "X sets must not sell because I saw them on sale once". I see those posts ALL THE TIME. And it's NEVER licensed sets they say this about, because they apparently have very "selective" vision).

I'm not familiar with the source material, but this spaceship is super cool. https://beta.ideas.lego.com/product-ideas/4e6e1549-a555-4a1e-9862-1f0c7697f35b

Giant Space Lego sets at Legoland Florida:

I was trying to buy parts for a MOC on Bricklink recently, and when I tried to manually select which shops, I couldn't check out due to the "average lot" requirement in some shops. That was super annoying. I already spent the time to pick the shops and confirm prices were okay, and then didn't hit the unmet requirement until I went to check out. I didn't even know about "average lot" requirements until then. It might be better if there was just an earlier warning that a store selection will have unmet requirements. Luckily, the auto-store select actually worked perfectly -- it avoided the expensive stores AND any unmet requirements. Did they improve the algorithm recently? Because I swear it didn't work as well before. But anyway. I'm not convinced that the "average lot" minimum is conducive to what Bricklink is all about. Because the solution, for me, was to not use those stores. If everyone had "average lot" requirements, very, very few people would use Bricklink. The whole point of Bricklink is to buy the bricks you want, and if a store doesn't let you do that, seriously, what is the point? I'd much rather just pay a service fee, or pay higher per-piece prices. Like, whatever the cost is to get the parts I need, just charge me that. Don't make me jump through weird hoops that only serve the seller. Like, I'm paying you to go find me the exact pieces I need, so don't tell me no -- do it and charge me what makes it worth it to you. It's why I go to hardware stores that sell loose bulk nails instead of Home Depot. I'd rather pay $1 for the 5 nails I need than $5 for the box of 100 I will never use.

Thanks!

Dumb question. Can anyone point me to the "parts list" that bricklink designers are allowed to use in their builds? Is there one?

Thanks, I checked out the Brickset review and the video by AustrianBrickFan. I guess the product description about hidden rockets in the helmet was just totally wrong? Or am I missing something? I remember building the leg joints in 40649; I couldn't believe they were using a single cross axle to support the weight of an entire huge leg! The use of large click joints seems like a good idea. I was sort of hoping for some hidden gimmick. Imagine how cool it would be if the interior was all light bluish gray with some trans yellow bricks/panels thrown in just for the alt build potential.

I missed that. Right above that it says "plus a mini robot and rocket hidden inside its helmet" so who knows. It's probably just the one?

This from the description of the Upscaled Blue Astronaut on Lego.com: I wonder what the hidden rocket looks like. I suspected some gimmick when I saw the trans red bits on the airtanks.

I'll be damned. Who is he? Do I kneel?