Meaf

I definitely agree, but I think this example also shows that they would probably need to make a specialized leg piece for Chewy because in that custom I think his legs just look a bit too long relative to his body. Ideally his torso would be slightly bigger and the legs slightly shorter, but I don't know if that's possible since then the legs might not allow for him to sit down (since they would be more like 2.5 studs long).

Just got a new job so hopefully I'll be able to pick up the Markets relatively soon. I probably won't be grabbing anything from the rest of the summer wave immediately, but I do have my eye on a few things (definitely want to get the transforming mech at some point). Also, question for other people who live in the US: is it worthwhile to order sets from Europe if they're significantly cheaper over there? I know the shipping is way more, but I was looking at Bricklink yesterday and saw that the Elemental Dragon vs The Empress Mech was being sold by a store in Germany for $60 less than it costs at retail in the US. I haven't ever ordered any Lego from overseas before so I was just wondering how that tends to work out and if there are any problems with it usually.

I like the 332nd battle pack, should have been cheaper but still something I'll get for sure at some point. Yoda's Starfighter is fine but as others have said it seems wholly pointless. Even if it had to be Yoda's, they could've thrown in someone else a little more interesting with him. Yavin is more mixed for me. The best way I can describe it is cute; it's just a fun looking set, though I'd have preferred if the front was a little more fleshed out. I also really question why they didn't include more space to recreate the last scene of A New Hope, that seems like an obvious choice (I think that part where Luke and Han are standing on the back is supposed to be it, but it's tiny). If this set were around $100 I probably would get it, but at that price I am not sure I will. Even with discounts it is gonna feel like a lot for what you get. The new Advent Calendar is actually pretty exciting for me. It's mostly just because I want Omega, but the other figs look nice too.

In a similar boat to you as I also just recently got that version of Thanos, and yeah agreed on pretty much all points. I really hope you're right about Hulk because not having all the big figs in that weird hunch/squat pose would make me like them way more, and this is coming from someone who already enjoys them.

I completely agree with you but I do think it's probably important to remember how long ago 2008 was when looking at older sets. Of course we can still reference the past for any number of reasons, but Lego has changed so much as a brand in the last fifteen years that even just making a comparison between a set from then and now is likely not super meaningful (as you mentioned, building techniques and parts are very different now).

Wait do we actually know this? Personally I'd be happy if that's the case since I am not a huge CORE fan, but I don't think I've seen it ending mentioned anywhere before.

Obviously we will have to wait and see how this sells, but this set to me feels very emblematic of a problem Lego has been running into with a lot of their new sets for adults, that being how unnecessarily expensive the sets are made by extraneous elements made to make the sets look more like high-end collectibles or something of that sort. The Star Wars dioramas all could be way cheaper without their base sections, same for other similar sets from other themes. This set admittedly does feel way more built around the idea of it being a big box, but I cannot help but suspect that most would have been happier with a similar Batcave for half the price of this one.

Core is the sub-series we got in the Winter 2022 and Winter 2023 waves, kind of like a replacement to Legacy but not strictly based on older sets.

A few more thoughts now that I've seen more pictures (plus the Markets): in general this wave seems good, but I agree that it feels a bit bland compared to the last couple non-Core waves. The Motorcycle Mech is definitely still my favorite and the only one I am 100% getting, although I do like the Elemental Dragon and Mech quite a bit too. The sandals on Lloyd's Mech are also an excellent detail but the overall design is just okay. I really like the new villains across the board but the regular ninja suits are too-monocolor for my liking, plus their hoods just don't give the impression of being fabric at all. Sora and Arin both look great however. As for the Markets, I definitely don't think it lives up the original City or Gardens but I can't say I don't like it. The build itself is a bit empty but for the most part I think it works, and all the structures look great. I imagine that once slotted in with the other sets it will look a good bit better, though the gap made by the left side is a bit annoying. I am 100% picking it up as soon as I have the money, though that might not be for a while unfortunately.

The new sets look quite good. Not sure which ones I'll be picking up yet but I like the Combo mech, Transforming mech, and elemental dragon enough that I'd consider all three. And of course Ninjago City will be a priority, though we still need better pictures of that one.

I don't care too much about this set since it's 4+, but I will say the minifigures are pretty interesting. I feel like the hood part looks a little bit too much like a helmet (more for Nya than Arin) but otherwise they are great. The new lower mask part is especially cool, I like that it will presumably work well whether you are using a character's hair or hood.

All the sets look good but I really just can't get over the new sea creature soldiers in the palace. I love them, but unfortunately I'm probably not going to be getting that set.

Yeah, based on what we have been hearing I wouldn't get too worried until 2024. If we still have heard nothing by summer that'd probably be a bad sign.

If there are any leakers around with more information feel free to add on/correct me, but I think the general consensus was that most of those leaks were for sets not releasing anytime soon. A lot of them looked pretty unfinished, so I wouldn't be surprised if most if not all of them are planned for 2024. Zelda has been one of the most requested Lego themes for over 10 years, so I don't think they'd get that far into planning and then just drop it unless they ran into serious issues.

I'm not sure how keen Lego is to revisit non-Mando shows, but I hope the relative popularity of Andor does allow us to get some more sets. At bare minimum I guess we can look forward to at least getting another set (or maybe more than one) for season 2, which releases next year.

Well it's a bit hard for me to say too much on the the Ninjago City Markets at the moment, but from what I can see it looks really good and pretty gigantic too. I will definitely need to do some rearranging whenever I pick it up. The bounty doesn't look bad, but it doesn't interest me much and as others have noted it seems rather small. That might just be down to the picture though.

Even a set like 70621: The Vermillion Attack would be perfectly serviceable, just something to let us get a couple more generic villains would be great.

Honestly I am a bit surprised at how many named characters there are in this wave: Kai, Jay, Cole, Zane, Lloyd, Nya, Arin, Sora, Wu, Raz, Ras, and the Empress. Plus I know there has also been some speculation that the Time Twins might return, though I don't know that there's been any evidence for that in the leaks so far. I don't necessarily mind having so many named characters (twelve or fourteen with the Time Twins), but it does feel like it may be hard to army build the new villains when there are going to be so few available. Getting some kind of battle pack type of set would be great but unfortunately Ninjago doesn't seem to do those very often.

Are we expecting to see the new Monkie Kid sets soon? I don't remember if we've heard the release month (I assume June or August?) but I'm always curious to see what they cook up with this theme.

We're definitely close enough to June that they could do an official set reveal now, but I'm not sure if that's what they are really trying to lead up to with this poster thing they've been doing.

One thing I wonder about if we ever get a full line of Botw/TotK (or just Zelda in general) sets is how they would handle minifigures for the non-human races. I think most of the Rito and Zora could just be normal minifigures, but even then some of them like Sidon are probably too big to be a regular minifigure. And Gorons are obviously completely different, I think they'd pretty much have to get a new mold, or at bare minimum a new head mold and a back attachment to make them more rounded. I hope they do make them at some point (and find a good way to do it) because having more fantasy races in Lego would be great.

I feel like that's what it'd have to be right? There are enough iconic moments spread across the MCU there that it would feel weird for it to be strictly based on one film.

Agreed, I would be shocked if we don't see (S3E7 spoilers) by the end of 2024. Mandalorian is pretty clearly the most popular Star Wars show and apparently the one that sells the best in the realm of Lego too, so I have no doubt that Lego will give us just about every important character from this season aside from maybe the two main characters of the third episode (if you count them), since that one didn't have a lot of things I think Lego would want to adapt.

So at this point are there any 2023 sets we still don't have names/descriptions for? I don't remember any but I'm not sure of I might have missed anything.

That's a rather sizable downgrade from what we'd heard before. I guess the other three that were rumored weren't all that interesting so it's not a huge loss, but it still would've been nice to get them (it was MJ, Ned, and Dr. Strange right?).