Yoggington

I rather like these announcements, as I'm not all that drawn to any of them. I think I can happily skip past all of series 9, 10 & 11 now, with no regrets.

I saw a few people speculating this might be released alongside the next big castle. But remember, it was a winner of the nostalgia competition on Ideas. How could it have worked that way had a spaceship won??

Well, I tickled my budget, and I figure I can get the University as well as the beaut of a balloon. No more multi-hundred euro sets until Christmas though! Looking at the reviews of the University, it's an odd mix of great looking sections, and super basic sections. Like the solid roof seems like bulk for bulk's sake - which is a bit hard to swallow with that price tag. I've no clue why it's built up by three bricks before you even get to the ground floor. But then the curved window section is really clever. I have vague ideas about melding it with the X-Mansion to build the mansion we deserved. No ragrets about the balloon though. Maybe I could have done without the clouds and it being a tenner cheaper? I do think I'll swap out the basket parts for a loop of 1x2 rounded plates and make it read more like wicker.

The designer hangs around Eurobricks, and posted a thread on it's details a few months back. Some images in there that show the scale compared to other sets:

I understand the one-of appeal for those two, and how these could be chase figures for that reason, but I can't see the army building aspect that say, the Falconer or the Beastmaster had. I'm surprised the Tuba Player isn't more in demand, as it has good reason to be wanted in batches.

What scandal ahead for us when they make it a boat for the Snake Knights to justify the 'Serpent' in the name. Nostalgic castle fans in meltdown!

I gave 13 'Love It's this time round, which is higher than usual. Unsure if the quality is better or if I'm getting less picky. The Sunset Hotel, Equestrian Elven Palace & Le Petit Bouquet mentioned above also made my faves reel. I think the Training Ground is once again the best of the medieval sets. I found one to rival it in 'Kingsburgh: Village fair', then realised it's the same designer for both. He's obviously got a style I like. As medieval sets go, there's a distinct charm to the smaller Pageant Wagon set. Look at those little stage props <3 A little more mid-range, but the Crossroads Stable is great too (although suffers from a poor choice for the cover image) In the Pirates category, I am very drawn to Dreadspire Isle - there's something chaotic in here that reminds me of my 90s pirates sets, in a way that the more polished AFOL submissions don't. It's got all the play features. ALL OF THEM. Like, why has no-one put bananas in a tree before? Now there's a whole monkey plotline brewing. We've a few definitely-not-a-modular hospitals in the running, and the redbrick 'General Hospital' would be my preference. Great colours. And some clever overall shaping to make it look a lot bigger than it's 4000 bricks. A fantastic smaller set, the Vintage Omnibus would fit the aesthetic of most modular towns. (Chekc out that compact spiral stair, *chef's kiss*) And not really in a traditional category for me, but the other three 'Love It's I gave; Mech Knight - big dumb fun. Globe mini - a stocking filler of sorts. Might not go out of my way for it, but if I was already buying something in the wave, I'd pick this up. Crimson Pagoda - great colour use, nice shaping and parts - a really clean standalone piece for a side table or something.

My first 'Love It' goes to the website for allowing us to use 'like it' and 'love it' as filters at long last!

Interesting, must have been an error. They were certainly there at one stage! A bit steeper than I was hoping for. As much as I thought this might be a multi-purchase round, maybe I'll be just getting the balloon.

Bricklink had the prices up for Series 8 earlier today. I can't see them any more, is it just me? For the record, US prices were as below, but it's Euro prices I'm looking for

I'm clearly doing something wrong so

Seagull with the wings tucked. So the flocks of seagulls people make aren't all identi-posed.

I'm afraid I have no idea what my item count is near, so I can't translate that to how many cabinets, sorry.

I feel like these are contradictory points. The first point boiling down to "being back Space / Pirate / Castle / other sets from my youth that I'm nostalgic for". The second boiling down to "why does Lego cater to adults more than to kids?" I don't buy that kids would care too much about a classic theme revival. Some adults would go nuts for it of course. If Lego did roll back the themes, then they are even worse for catering to adults over kids. If they reduce catering to adults then fat chance you'll see the themes you pine for.

Yep, that's how I'd go about it. Maybe not down to the level of every single part and colour of part needs to be separate, as different volumes dictate different tactics. For me I've some drawers mixed like; 1) Very low volume of a part - doesn't matter the colour, all in one drawer 2) Medium volume of a part - Split to one drawer with monochrome (Black, white, greys) and another drawer with all other colours. 3) High volume of part - each drawer contains a colour or range of colours (like I've a drawer full of grey 1x2 bricks, and another that has all the different greens of 1x2s) 4) Rarely/occasionally - I'll mix a part similarly where each variant is super low count. All "food" type utensils for example, go in the one drawer in the utensils box. A carrot is as good as a pie here for functionality & finding.

I saw these when you posted them elsewhere. I'm very impressed with the cyclops head on the Hulk body, I'd never have thought that up.

Another guy who posts quality over quantity: https://www.youtube.com/@kaizoideas/videos His videos come months apart, but every second one is a fully built-in-the-brick concept for an ideas project (and then every other vid is something smaller like a vehicle for the biggie, or a brief tutorial). His builds tend to fit in the City line, sometimes veering futuristic - but these are City builds with AFOL leanings for detail and technique. No talking heads or algorithm hacks, just stop motion building of fully realised MOCs. Super stuff.

I use three of the Bror. Its garden shed/garage shelving, so it can look quite industrial in a house (less so in sage green). But in return you get very deep shelves, and open sides.

This is an excellent idea. Allows for a unifying theme but can also be as varied as you like within that. Spaceman with a futuristic instrument, jester with an old timey something or other and so on. I'll see if I can think up a good full series.

That's why I'm just hoping :D

I'm delighted to find the only one I'm really considering is the smallest of them. My one that got away is the Training Ground. Hopefully the designer posts the instructions elsewhere.

We are literally talking about it right now.

This is true and I agree. I for one would certainly like to see a lot more Castle stuff for example. I think the irritation comes when people make sweeping statements about how there are way more licensed sets than unlicensed - because this simply isn't true. Phrased the way you've put it now, I can get behind that.

See that's the thing, if you go ahead and do that count you'll find it's pretty close to a 50:50 split. It can be quite surprising to find there are so many City sets, Friends sets, Ninjago sets (e.g. respectively for 2025, 50, 42 & 48). Meanwhile in the licensed side, only really Star Wars has comparable numbers (2025: 54). After that you're looking at Marvel (38) and Minecraft (34). Following those, numbers get distinctly small. Even ones that 'feel' like big hitters are not. Like Harry Potter (20) is smaller than you'd have the impression of. There were more Botanicals released (13) than DC sets (12). And so many 'themes' have less ten. Like in no way is the One Piece theme (6) comparable to the Duplo range (27). But thinking back through the marketing for the year it seems to feel like it is. Most in house themes don't get a whole ton of marketing or hype - because they don't need it.

Of course you're allowed. But when you post something like the below - which has no such restrictions. Then get called out on it and react by clarifying in a way that suits your argument, you should be able to see why people react strongly. Like, it is not "just licensed stuff nowadays", and there are absolutely many more than "only two non-licensed themes left!". It's a hyperbolic argument, and it seems very dishonest to say that actually you meant if you only count this limited number then I'm right. Hopefully you at least know it is far fro an unpopular opinion. It's been rehashed in the thread at least a half dozen times.