Meaf

Do we actually know if the non-playsets (helmets, dioramas, midiscale, etc.) "take up" playset slots in any sense? I don't remember if anyone at Lego has commented on it, but maybe I just missed that. I guess someone could also do a comparison between past years but I'm too lazy to do that right now, and even if someone did I suppose there are other potential behind-the-scenes factors we might not know about, such as if the budget got increased or decreased. I feel like the amount of playsets we've been getting has decreased a bit compared to in the past, especially in the last year. I'm not sure if that's actually accurate though so if anyone has any insights I'd be interested to hear them.

Mostly sounds like a "safe" wave, but I'll reserve judgment until we've seen it. Honestly though I'm too much of a Zane fan not to get his mech unless it's really disappointing, so that's at least one set I'll be picking up!

Definitely agree with the complaints about the skiff. The lack of a guard is really weird and honestly my biggest issue (price aside). Maybe one will come in the Sail Barge but surely it would make more sense for him to be with the ship he's supposed to be guarding, right?

I really wonder if we're going to see a Night Trooper battlepack next year. It feels like something they'd do, especially since it's not too uncommon for a one-off trooper to come in a battlepack later on (like the Sith Trooper, 2023 Shock Trooper, or Dark Trooper assuming you count 75324 as a battlepack). Ahsoka will be two years old by the time that battlepack would release, so I'm not sure Lego will still care about covering the series by then, especially if there are going to be more sets for season 2 or the movie or whatever that could include them.

I feel like that's got to be part of it, but I'm also not necessarily convinced that it's the main reason? Mario and Animal Crossing both largely seem to be reasonably priced, maybe a little more expensive than average but definitely nowhere near the level of the Deku Tree imo. In fairness though I guess they could just charge more for Zelda for whatever reason, of it this could just be a one-off thing and future sets will be more reasonable (since it kind of isn't fair to compare one D2C against two full themes).

Much like the Dark Falcon, the Droid Builder actually seems pretty fun to me. I probably won't ever buy it but I think as a kid I'd probably have loved it and I can honestly really appreciate Lego trying to do new stuff that still really gets at that Lego-y vibe (in the sense that they are very customizable and all that).

Honestly the Dark Falcon looks really fun. I can't ever see myself buying it at full price, but maybe if I saw it on deep discount someday I'd consider it.

Too be fair though, at this point it doesn't seem like Fortnite has the same reservations as Lego when it comes to what they make skins of (the best example of this is probably Invincible, which has skins despite being incredibly graphic). Anyway though I do agree with your original point, Dragon Ball is probably not too adult for Lego's standards. It seems unlikely to me too, but now that I think about it, Fortnite could actually be a nice sort of "replacement" to Lego Dimensions as a way to get minifigures of properties we'd probably never get full sets of.

Yeah I don't anticipate it will lead to anything, although I guess it's not totally impossible? Dragon Ball is weird since it's definitely on the borderline of what Lego would normally consider too adult, but there are other themes that have depicted series with worse stuff. Also it being anime is of course something Lego has not really done before, though I don't really see that being a problem considering Dragon Ball is one of the most popular media franchises in the world. All that said (and slightly more on topic), it would be really funny if they just threw Goku in the Battle Bus set or something like that. I don't think we're going to see licensed characters show up in the Fortnite sets since that'd just be another cost that doesn't really need to be there, but it would be a good way to get some characters from stuff that is never getting a full theme.

I don't think this necessarily means anything, but apparently datamining the new Fortnite update has revealed that they are probably adding Lego versions of the Dragon Ball skins.

I think based on the set list at least some of them are definitely based on the battle royale mode, so it isn't like they're avoiding that part entirely. But as has already been mentioned we have had other themes with plenty of guns before (Overwatch especially comes to mind) so it's probably not an issue either way.

Lego Fortnite doesn't even need to be based on the shooter parts either if they really don't want to. I imagine it will be at least somewhat since that's mostly what Fortnite is known for, but they could totally just draw on the Lego mode of Fortnite for the sets.

Oh huh, I didn't realize it was supposed to be Lego Store exclusive. That's such a bizarre decision, you'd think they'd want Fortnite of all things on every shelf they can get it on.

Finished building Barad-dûr today, wow this thing is incredible. I had seen it in a Lego store before building it but I was still kind of shocked when I attached the last section to the rest and saw how big it was. The building experience was honestly really good considering how big it is though, I spread it out over a few days but it never felt too repetitive despite how dark the set is. Overall great set, maybe the best I own honestly!

Oh huh that is interesting. I'm hoping it's closer to blue personally but I guess we'll just have to wait and see on that. Maybe they're just trying to be accurate to the games (for those who don't know, the color has changed between games for some reason).

Thanks for the heads up! Definitely some pretty interesting insights there, and I love the picture of the dragons stacked on each other.

Looks awesome! Honestly I think it seems a bit overpriced for what it is, but I am also a lifelong Zelda fan so like. The only way I'm not getting it is if they were to announce another Zelda set that interested me more before this one releases (which seems rather unlikely). I hope we get more pictures soon!

Oh I know, I just meant in tongue-in-cheek . That actually is a pretty fun idea though! I doubt Nintendo and Lego's priority will ever be to make a set of something that the former seems to largely not care about anyway, but I'd buy it in a heartbeat if they did (unfortunately I am far too deep into Zelda lore and theorizing not to).

I for one think they should make a Zelda Icons set kind of like the World Map but it's just the Zelda timeline. I guess we'd have to wait a bit for that though since apparently we're getting an updated timeline on the Tears of the Kingdom art book. Not sure if I have commented on the recent updates to the leak but I'm glad we're getting Young Link too. It's definitely weird to not get Ganondorf but it would have been weird to not include Young Link given that he's the one who actually goes inside the Deku Tree.

If anything I think the bike could have used two considering it's the same price as the Jay Mech from earlier this year. Even if it had two of them it'd still have one less minifigure and a worse build, but at least it'd feel more worth buying than it does currently. And agreed on the dragon as well, the minifigure selection there feels a little weak to me too—I like that there are less exclusive characters this wave but I also feel like because of that, the dragon doesn't offer much compared to the other sets.

It's ultimately not the end of the world but one thing that does bother me a bit about the new wave is the lack of grunt villains? It's really weird, there's just no way to build up an army of them. Even if you buy every set you only get four total, and the cheapest set one comes in is $50. I guess you'll probably be able to buy them off PAB but idk it's still really strange. If they were going to do so few, I think it would have been more interesting if they'd just done one or two more named characters instead.

I think a stormtrooper battle pack would be pretty likely next year even without the new ISD, feels like we're really overdue for one. Was the last one the drop ship in 2019?

Kind of but I believe what @Fenghuang0296 was getting at is that it's weird that the yellow one is only in the Pagoda. I think in the past, anytime they've done a group of collectibles where they're all available in one set, there was also a way to get them all without buying that set.

The new sets look not bad. The Bunker is kinda meh but maybe seeing more pictures will sell me on it. Battle pack has a mid build but the minifigs are good so I'll probably grab it. I don't care about microfighters but I will probably get this one for Rex eventually. And weirdly I actually kind of like the Luke mech? It's dumb but in a fun way, I honestly could see myself getting it as an impulse buy if I happen to see it in a store.

These are pretty cool! The combo vehicle is a bit lacking I think especially for the price but still alright, and the arena is pretty good overall. The mech is obviously the show stealer though, the amount of articulation on a mech that huge and richly detailed is insane. The online reason I might skip it is because I already have a ton of mechs and if we are going to be getting more mechs like this then I might rather wait and see if a ninja I like better is getting one (no shade to Cole he's just not as much my favorite as some of the others). On the other hand though it doesn't look especially Cole-themed, which I know might disappoint some people but is kind of preferable for me? If the Source Dragon isn't impressing me I'll probably get the mech this year, if not I might hold off until next year and see how things look.