Meaf

The new snake looks alright, nothing crazy but I think he's okay. I wonder if that Zane design is the actual new suit design, or something else, because it looks a lot different than I expected. He seems to be sleeveless, which kind of reminds me of the Hunted designs from a few years ago. I guess we'll find out what the deal is in the next few weeks.

Yeah, the critical reception has been so all over the place for this one I don't know what to think. I'm going into it with an open mind, and am probably gonna end up buying at least one of the sets once I see it. I completely agree on this wave, it really is quite exceptional from what I've seen.

I don't know where this date of the 20th is coming from either, but regardless we will be seeing them within a month or so. I'm not really super interested in this wave based on the leaks so far, but I'm hoping at least one or two of the sets look good. I know people are tired of mechs but the new one sounds like it has the potential to be great, I hope that one turns out well.

The Hulkbuster is pretty disappointing. I would have preferred if it was a straight remake, because at least then it could be argued that they didn't waste a D2C slot on a model similar to one we got recently. On its own the set sounds fine to me, but the fact that we just had a D2C Hulkbuster just rubs me the wrong way.

I personally haven't seen any of them near where I live (southern New England), so it probably is just down to which stores are interested in carrying them/which stores are selling a lot of them. I do find it odd that they were never in stores around me to begin with, though it is possible it was just a limited window and I missed them.

The Hulkbuster D2C news is quite disappointing. Literally anything else would have been more interesting considering the last one is hardly old. The makes the most sense to me too, and I suppose it does ease the sting a bit if that is the case since it means this probably wouldn't be taking the place of any other potential Marvel D2C. Either way it seems like a waste of time to me, but it seems like Lego is contractually obligated to release at least 4 Marvel mechs a year, so maybe I shouldn't be so surprised.

I think another problem is that they used to at least keep each new group of snake villains fairly different. We started with anthropomorphic snakes, then we got the cultists who were regular humans (which itself was new for Ninjago villains), and then after that was the Vermillion, who were suits of armor filled with snakes. The Pyro Vipers and Eels are by comparison just a lot less interesting, and neither of them have much variation either.

I think another problem with the games is that they probably just didn't interest most kids. Maybe I'm totally wrong and my assumption is just because of my own experiences, but when Lego games were a thing me and my siblings (who were all kids at the time) were never super interested. Sure, I could have asked for the Ninjago or Harry Potter game, but why would I go for those when I could get real sets that came with minifigures. Again, that may just have been my experience, but I just always was more interested in the regular sets. I'd be a lot more interested in Lego games now, but I don't see them coming back, at least not in their old form.

That's a fair point. I was thinking of it being based on an existing franchise, but if it was original and had the budget of a "big bang" series then it would probably work well. Some kind of impulse buy line akin to Ninjago's spinners (like the pods you suggested) seems like a no-brainer too. It actually is kind of strange Lego never really explored a series like that, though I suppose they might have tried and never gotten out of early tests.

That's an interesting idea, but I'm sure if it really works for Lego, at least at minifig scale. Your typical first form monster in a property like Pokemon is small enough that it would be hard for Lego to give any of them a lot of detail without a unique mold, which probably isn't exactly realistic unless there are only a few of them.

I own the Jungle Dragon but not the Keeper's Village, so I can't speak to the direct comparison. On its own the dragon is nice, but I doesn't stand out to me as a particularly special when compared against all the other dragons of Ninjago, aside from the fantastic color scheme. I would probably go with the village if for no other reason than that it's quite a bit larger than the dragon, but as I mentioned before I don't have it myself so I can't comment on its pros and cons.

A new Exo-Force or something in the same vein would be awesome, but I feel like between Ninjago and Monkie Kid, there isn't a whole lot of room for an entirely mech-based series. Maybe we'll see something like that in a few years, once Monkie Kid is over and assuming Lego is still on the mech kick they've been on for the last couple of years.

Seconded, it feels like the entire thread has been taken over by discussions based entirely on anecdotes and personal opinions. Anyway, I'm kind of meh on this wave. The diaromas are a neat new experiment, but I'm not sure if I'll be interested in them right now. The battle pack is nice but doesn't interest me, and the BoBF stuff apparently being in summer is a real let down since that's definitely what I'm most excited for. At least the Dark Trooper set sounds like something I'd get.

I dunno about anyone else but a sci-fi pirates theme sounds awesome. A sort of anachronistic series with highly advanced pirates ships in the same vein as Next Knights was to Castle sounds cool, but I also think a more classic space theme where the main characters are more pirate-esque would be neat. Sort of like Space Police III, but with the villains as the protagonists.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems like the Fighter Tank rumor was probably just fake. As for the minifig packs, there hasn't been any new information on them yet as far as I know.

Honestly I hadn't even considered a Turbo Tank, which is funny since I own the CW version. I suppose it has been a few years since we got either one of those vehicles, but I do feel like with the amount of new TV shows coming out, Lego is probably going to save most of the largest set slots for those or OT stuff. I could also see a new Gunship, but I doubt it'll happen until 2023 at the earliest with the UCS one still being relatively new.

Agreed. To be frank, with how much people seem to want Cody I would be surprised if Lego throws him in a rather expensive set. But then again, Lego also hasn't made a ton of expensive prequel/CW sets, so maybe not.

While I wouldn't count on him getting dual-molded legs and arms, I don't think at least one is off the table. The Miles minifig in the mech this year is amazing, though I'm not sure if might have been designed for the Bugle first then thrown in the mech after.

It was actually in this thread a while ago. I tried to find the exact page but I'm not sure exactly when it was. I believe it was done around a week or two ago, so it's probably not too far back if you really want to dig for it.

In addition to what others have already said, I think another factor is that until very recently, OT and whatever was new at the time were what Lego knew would sell (and even then the latter was not guaranteed). With Marvel, everything is a lot more connected, so there aren't really fans who will buy things from only a few specific films because they don't care for the others. I expect we'll see Lego diversify the Star Wars line more now that PT fans are adults and there are a lot of TV shows releasing. Rebel Friend would have been amazing, it's a tragedy we never got him. Sadly they probably realized Luke would sell better and just went with him, but it's unfortunate all the same.

Quick question, do we know which version of Mando is coming in the microfighter? This might be weird but I'm hoping it's the non-Beskar version, since I don't have him yet and he isn't available in any cheap sets.

Agreed, this is actually shaping up to be a half-decent wave. I'm hoping that having a more diverse range of eras represented in every wave is the norm going forward, aside from the ones that are made specifically for new movies.

I'm not a huge fan of the sequels but it's kind of a shame, considering there is a ton of potential for stories to be told in that time period. Moreover, there are still a ton of potential sets we never got from the trilogy. I don't even like TRoS, but I'd totally buy a set of the fight with Palpatine just because it would probably look really cool.

Logically it would make sense that we'll get some Hoth rebel troops, but with Lego you never know. I think it's more likely than not that we'll get another set that comes with one or two of them, but if we're only getting one battle pack then I doubt we'll get too many of them in the wave. Another snowspeeder seems unlikely since we got a 4+ one in 2020 and a normal one the year before that, but I could see us getting another Hoth set in the same vein as 7749 Echo Base.

I do have one idea as to why they haven't done this already, that being that are worried it would devalue their brand. While CMFs can clearly make way more money than a regular set, Lego may worry that putting out too many of them (especially for preexisting series) might result in people only buying the CMFs, effectively eliminating Lego's unique niche in the toy market. While they could make more money doing that, in the long run it might not be a good idea. Additionally, it could have to do with Lego being a privately owned company. I'm not sure how involved the family is in running it but they do still own Lego so there could be some sentimental reasons for not going too far from making building kits. I should emphasize that this is all speculation. There very well could be another reason why they haven't done more CMFs, like being worried about over-saturation. While I don't think this is the case, it is also possible that there is some other factor that keeps the profit margins on CMFs way lower than regular sets. In any case, it does seem like it would make sense for Lego to do more CMF series, but for now it seems like they want to keep it fairly minimal.