danth

So last night I built the truck from 60434 that everyone says is underwhelming. After building it I like it much more; the shape and design of the cab is pretty great. But I think I know exactly what's "wrong" with it. It needs an extra set of wheels between the existing wheels. As a six wheeler it looks perfect.

Wow. Great alt build! I love the shape, and that you reused the mechanism from the original to attach the space ship to the rover. Also, I forgot how spectacular the back-of-the-box alt builds were for the Solar Snooper. I like all of them and they're so different. And the Solar Snooper itself is such a great design. It's my favorite SP2 set. It's more fun than the Galactic Mediator in my opinion.

I assume you've seen this:

Maybe red could be a Specialist designation? Whether or not they specialize in something that falls under the broad categories of engineer, explorer, or scientist.

Thanks for the heads up! Really good info to have going into 2024. I was shocked to find out (maybe it was you who mentioned it in another thread) about the Burger Truck having all prints. That set went from an auto-pass to a must buy.

Shows what I know, maybe I need to pay more attention to that stuff I hypothesize about. I was surprised when there weren't any red colored figs in these sets. It would be a good addition.

Random thoughts: 2024 City Space comes when there hasn't been a SW Trilogy movie for 5 years. Yes there's been TV shows like The Mandalorian, but it could be that Lego is noticing the Star Wars gravy train running a little thin. So a new sci-fi Space theme now makes a lot of sense. But it also gives Lego some serious leverage when renewing its SW licensing. It shows that Lego doesn't need SW. How great is 2024 City Space and the sold out Galaxy Explorer when re-upping a sci-fi license? They could get Lego a bigger piece of the pie if they demonstrate that Disney has more to gain from the licensing fees than Lego does from the license. Also, why suddenly turn away from the more realistic City Space stuff? Sure, City Space has been gradually getting more Sci-Fi (an actual moon base in 2022 being maybe the best example), but mechs and aliens and starships in 2024 is a pretty drastic turn. Maybe Lego sees a connection between going more sci-fi and better sales?

Yeah, I noticed that many (all?) 5+ sets seem to be getting all prints this year which is great. I didn't say that one was corporate! That one really is just about not humiliating the SW sets. Who says Lego sets don't have feelings? It could be that Lego (either the designers or sales people) think that more colorful windscreens would turn off fans of more "realistic" NASA concept style sets. Whereas more kid friendly themes can get away with it. I do think everyone (including Lego designers) knows that this theme would look awesome with trans-purple canopies, which is why they used trans purple for the Friends spaceship (which has the same white + new orange scheme otherwise). I'm sure trans purple was a contender in the concept stages of 2024 City Space. Actually it'd be really cool to see some of the concept designs!

That's amazing. I just looked through the instructions, and the three vehicle sets have no stickers (unless I missed them); the base has some but not on the vehicles. That's a huge improvement. Because of this, I just built the space ship from 60434 while leaving the rest for later. In theory this makes it easier to buy a set just for the build(s) you want, and then resell the builds you don't want as new/sealed in baggies.

I just built the space ship from 60434 and it's a very cool design. And also no stickers! Though there are stickers in other parts of the set. I like to think that the designers of the 2024 Space sets were trying to achieve exactly what I want and took it as far as they could within the constraints put on them by corporate. Can't do a separate Space theme because of Star Wars? Then we'll put Sci-Fi space in City! Can't do colored canopies because cool looking color schemes will embarrass the boring gray SW spaceships? Then we'll do trans black which is the next best thing. Penny pinchers in corporate hate prints? Then we'll put all the prints we can in a 4+ set and reuse them. I even see evidence that they tried to get more prints. Some of the stickers are reused in multiple sets or multiple times in the same set, which makes me suspect the designers intended for them to be prints. Like the matching console stickers in both bases. Also the danger stripe sticker on the dark yellow tile in the Space Construction Mech was probably originally intended as print; two of them could have replaced the 2x2 stickered tile in 60434.

Not a peep about the Icons/Moments black spaceship in quite a while. Hmm.

Right. I was jokingly excusing Castle for being similarly out of place in City as sci-fi spaceships and aliens, and jokingly discarding any concerns about what the box says. Obligatory smart-aleck example of why it should be allowed: Noooo!

It worked for me. I think he's talking about this shot:

I'm down for City Castle. 👍

I would like to register my annoyance about this. I can't buy them on the Lego Store. I can't buy them at Target or Walmart because mine never get any polybags. And I can't buy them at Bricklink from a US seller. Phooey!

I have a comment here on why the City Safari Truck might not be exactly up to snuff. 🤣

My local Target and Walmart didn't show any of these sets in stock on their websites. Yet they both had the sets. My Target almost never gets any new Lego sets until months after they're released, so I was shocked to see lots of next year's sets there a few days before Christmas. It looked like they got all of the Jan 1 sets and put them all out, and then got absolutely wiped by Christmas shoppers. There were only a few sets from each theme left when I went. Which was annoying; if I knew my Target would actually come through this time, I would have gone earlier! I went back a couple days after Christmas and the shelves were almost completely empty. My nearest Walmart also had a bunch of new sets when I went a couple days ago, but their shelves were still full. I got the Interstellar Spaceship there. When I checked out, it was marked as a non-sale item because of the release date, but the employee overrode that for me. Lucky! At Target I had no such issues though. I didn't see the new Dreamzzz or Friends Space sets at either store. I did see a couple other new Dreamzzz sets though. So maybe the Space ones got sold out before I saw them.

Well I've so far built a few of the new City Space sets. The Space Construction Mech is pretty great apart from the stickers. Stickers in a small $10 set are pretty aggravating, especially when there are danger stripe stickers on a 1x4 tile that could have been printed and reused. The prints you do get are great though. The Intersteller Spaceship is flawless. $20 for 240 pieces, a great design with a cool gimmick, and no stickers? Can't really beat that these days. The 4+ Spaceship and Asteroid Discovery is what it is; nothing to amaze an AFOL but no complaints either. You get nice prints and minifigs.

Well, I found the new 2024 City Space sets at Target. I got a few of the Space Construction Mechs, the 4+ set, and the big Space Base and Rocket Launchpad. I would have been down for a few Hover Bikes and Intergalactic Spaceships but they didn't have any. This is the first time I've been able to snag a new Space set before Christmas. I wanted to get Benny's Space Squad for Christmas of 2018 but nobody had them out early. So I'm pretty stoked for Christmas this year! It's going to be nostalgic.

Lol

What if a Space fan doesn't like the Monkie kid space ship because it's actually a space shuttle and it has horrendous colors and literal clouds for tail fins and includes weird monkey demon figures and isn't part of a larger unified Space theme?

Boy, Eurobricks does love to gaslight it's Space fans. We should all be happy because of the ugly megablocks Monkie Kid shuttle, the City NASA sets, and Technic sets now? Just keep being intentionally obtuse, Eurobricks. The 2024 Space sets are pretty good and pretty sci-fi, but the previous stuff from various theme are not what fans of Space themes want. OBVIOUSLY. AND you all know that.

I've actually argued that the age of the SW designs doesn't matter. I've never said "SW sucks because 40 year old designs, but Classic Space good because 40 year old designs." I also think a 40 year old franchise can be creatively bankrupt (mostly due to being scared of pissing off the fanbase with anything new that doesn't look Star Warsy enough), while a 40 year old Lego theme that has constantly evolved can not have that same problem, without any irony or hypocrisy on the part of the person noticing.

What I mean is, saying that 40 year old space ship designs aren't popular with kids, in the context of what kinds of Lego sets will sell or won't sell, doesn't make any sense, because it is objectively true that SW space ship designs are 40 years old, and it is objectively true that Lego keeps releasing sets with those 40 year old designs. So is Lego losing money on SW sets? Are they not selling? Or are they not selling to kids, and we all need to admit that SW sets are mainly for adults? Or does the age of a design not matter? Choose your own answer. I admit I totally missed this part of MAB's post: I'm not sure what he was trying to say now. Wouldn't a new Space theme also have new designs and stories? How can Classic Space even constrain a story when it didn't have a story? Maybe he meant if Classic Space itself returned as a theme, with only Classic Space style minifigs and designs, but I'm not sure anyone considers that even a remote possibility. It'd be great if we could get a new Space theme that wasn't limited to one good faction and one evil faction. Then you could have a new factions (with new helmet designs or whatever) intermingled with various throwback figures.

I'm not sure exactly what you mean, but I think the difference is that SW has had scores of sets each year, and Ice Planet has had nothing for 3 decades and doesn't feel stale. And SW Lego designs are beholden to the movies (or shows or whatever), but Lego was able to do something original with this Ice Planet figure (new helmet and armor) even while maintaining the color scheme and basic concept. Also I'm very in favor of NEW Space factions, with new color schemes, and I've said that before. Not sure if that has any bearing on the irony you mention though.