danth

Super cool and fun MOC! The moving truck bed and forward lights are nice touches.

Sorry, my fault obviously. I made a few jumps there without explaining it. My thinking is that the "consumer fanbase" shift is greatly caused by the transition to mostly licensed movie/TV show/game sets. These sets may draw in a lot of people who don't really like LEGO per se but like the licensed franchise. And the sets are modeled to look like a specific vehicle/location etc in the show, and can sometimes be expensive. So these kinds of sets are likely to stay built forever, and less likely to be used for parts. Collectors aren't really MOCers. If you pay a lot for something, you don't want to tear it down. And licensed sets aren't really as conducive to MOCs as pre-license sets, that have more generic parts and alt builds on the back, or Creator sets. So that's where my whole licensed vs classic thing came from. And I totally didn't explain it at all. Because I've been through that discussion so many times that I take it for granted. But I think it also totally explains the shift to "Talking about LEGO sets" instead of "Building with LEGO" that you mentioned. Maybe a "fix" we could have around here is more MOC or Alt Build contests.

Nope, I'm antagonized over my opinions every time I share them. So then I have to explain and defend my opinion with examples. And then I get blamed for talking about it too much. Heck, does anyone actually disagree with me? Because I've never heard "Actually, I like clear windscreens better and here's why" or "I hate the old Space logo, it sucks, I'd rather have X instead." I mean a real disagreement would be refreshing. Instead of just straight up invalidation.

It IS still 1980, look at this: https://brickset.com/sets/theme-Star-Wars/year-2022 I just want to go back to 2014:

Space themed big "S". See https://brickset.com/sets/theme-Space. It doesn't include NASA sets. 31115 is the only one that would count, but it's in NASA colors and doesn't even have a minifig...even though it's a mech. Very odd. They're obviously skirting some contractual line there. When we have minifigs, non-NASA colors, AND an actual Sci-fi design, AND it's actually in Space, then we can talk. And no the Cyber Drone doesn't count. It's shown flying through a city.

*Shuffles notes* I have a response to this somewhere...aha! As for these: But they were. Look into it. Look at the years of sets at Brickset. You'll find out that you are wrong. Sure, the first time Pirates went away, it wasn't replaced. But the second and third times?

For me it's the Chang'e moon base which evokes a Classic Space mood IMO.

I think what's "stopping" them from replacing, say, City with a licensed theme, is there is no blockbuster movie/TV series about cops and firemen. Or if there was, it wouldn't be a kids show and would have lots of death/violence. That's all great but it doesn't mean LEGO should replace beloved classic themes with licensed themes. At least they're starting to slightly rectify that with Creator but they seem terrified* of creating a Space-themed Creator set. *No, I do not mean literally terrified. Yes, I know LEGO is a corporation, not a person. Please stop being pedantic. https://literaryterms.net/personification/

Trans orange and Ice Planet are awesome! They should totally bring that theme back. Also, whaaaaaaat?? I'm easily pleased. It doesn't take much. LEGO is just unwilling to do the bare minimum to please Space fans, unless there is a LEGO Movie being made, in which case the creators have to literally insist on Space sets being made. I forget where I read that...but it was Christopher Miller, and one of his own childhood Space sets was actually used in the film. Are you...I mean really? It literally says "Galactic" and it's a space ship. 🤣 There's a coolness factor of transparent colored pieces that you just don't get with trans clear or trans light blue (the default "glass" color). Why not include an exciting colored windscreen in a one-off set, since we can already get the trans clear/light blue version in City sets? I mean it's just a missed opportunity. Greytron! At least that's what Space MOCers have come to call that "theme". Teal blue would add a bit of a 90's sci-fi vibe, IMO.

No. I want something evocative of classic Space themes. Trans red, trans blue, trans green, trans yellow, trans purple, etc. Something fun. Something with color. Trans light blue is for cars. Trans clear/black is for Star Wars. Not if you release a "Space" set without space colors or logos. But if you do include those things, you actually can please everyone. People who don't know at all about Classic Space won't care and will like it either way. But long time Space fans do care, so why not create a set that pleases them too?

How much you want to bet none of those elements are a Space-colored windscreen (i.e. not trans-light blue or trans-grey etc) and none have Space logo? Seems like this could be an exciting for Spacers but Lego is going to mess it up as usual.

Yep, in the Speed Champions case the movie licensing is new and that's what I was talking about. The rest of your post might just be preaching to the choir. Yes, fandom drives sales. The problem is when licensed products replaces non-licensed options, especially for Lego where the whole point is building creatively.

A bigger profit margin per set doesn't matter when you can more than make up for it with volume. Basic economics. Also we don't know what the profit margins are. Production costs per set goes down as volume goes up. So even after licensing fees, licensed sets could have the same or higher profit margins. Exactly -- non-licensed sets are only a fallback plan for when they can't slap a license on something. Good point but you can't say Ninjago went away because of Chima but TMNT had nothing to do with it. If Lego gets rid of one theme to make way for another theme, that applies for TMNT just as much as it applies for Chima. Both are fantasy/sci-fi themes with anthropomorphic fighting animals. You seriously think they weren't both in competition with Ninjago? Of course they were. Tomato tomahto. 😁 I totally agree though. It's a figure of speech. 🙂

Lego would immediately cancel all non-licensed sets/themes today if they could. Everything is going licensed. Even their Speed Champions sets (James Bond). Even IDEAS. What's left? Creator, City, Friends, and themes like Ninjago? Hell, even Ninjago would go away if Lego ever scores a license like TMNT again. Do you remember when Lego released TMNT sets, and the number of Ninjago sets suddenly dropped from 48 sets in 2012 down to 9 in 2013? And then in 2015, when Lego lost the TMNT license, suddenly the number of Ninjago sets jumped to 48 again? 🤣 Lego HATES having non-licensed sets.

🤣💩

They're still deciding how to screw over Space fans, and how hard. I think the Target plushies & puzzles are part of it. Get our hopes up, then destroy us, with the added insult of Space merch but no actual Lego sets.

I just ordered the Chang'e Moon base set. It's too cute to pass up. I can't get over the weird factor on the Galactic Explorer though. I do like the windscreens (which I'll Bricklink) and the radar base. Also the set has me wondering how cool a grey & teal spaceship would look with trans red windscreens...

If anyone else wants to post MOCs here, I don't recommend posting as Spoilers like others have done earlier. It really sucks when reading through old posts having to click Reveal Hidden Content 50 times per page! I wanted to go back and look at all the cool MOCs posted earlier. I got so sick of clicking Reveal Hidden Content that I created a bookmarklet to click all of them automatically. If you want to do the same, create a bookmark, copy this code into the URL/Location, and then just click the bookmark while on any page to reveal everything: javascript: var links = document.getElementsByTagName('span'); for(var i = 0; i < links.length; i++){ var inner = links[i].innerHTML; if (inner.indexOf("Reveal") != -1) { console.log(inner); links[i].click(); } }

More Cool Spaceships and Speeders An X-1 Patrol Craft redux from aggie_92: This super neat little craft from ama77what: Also from ama77what this shapely hover craft: This super bright and cute speeder/spaceship (?) from Captain Kim: Rovers! These adorable rovers could be real sets if Space came back. Those green light pieces really do something for me. From carrier lost: This huge rover is big enough to be a locomotive! The addition of white and gray to the traditional Space Police colors is quite eye-catching. By spaceruner: These are just gorgeous little utility rovers. Love the green windscreens! Too bad that windscreen doesn't exist in trans green in real life. By Bastiaan de Jong: This thing is massive! By [ S E /\ Z Y ]: Mechs Love this! There's something Metroid like about it. The shaping and colors are so great. By Marco De Bon: Beefy utility crane-mech by -soccerkid6: Another crane mech! By Simon Liu: And finally this Ice Planet dragon mech! By Geoff Horswood:

Wow, it's been over TWO YEARS since we've posted an inspirational MOC! Well I'm gonna fix that. Here's some good stuff. Apologies if any of these have been posted before. Cool space ships From Shamisenfred: From Pico van Grootveld: Cosmic Cruiser redux from @Horlack Bricks: More Cool Spaceships: From Oran Cruzen. I like the shaping on this. It reminds me of something...a race car? An old 80's MASK toy? I don't know but I like it. A whole bunch of cool ships from Mansur Soeleman: A big classic space cruiser from Nice Try. Kinda reminds of Cosmic Fleet Voyager.

Love these!

This is pretty much my take as well.

I like how the clear supports make it look like it's dribbling waste water or something.

Nice! I like those big beefy rocket thrusters!

I'm a little mystified by It's a Wonderful Life getting 10000 votes. Sure I like the movie, but it would never make a top 100 list of movies that desperately need a Lego set. Then there's the Forestmen set. Why is it that when an Ideas set gets made, suddenly every set even remotely like it starts getting 10000 votes? Are people just lemmings? Do they want to "vote for a winner"? It's just stupid. But if it's going to happen, I'm glad it's finally working in my favor -- I want that Forestmen set!