Ardelon

Or make them sky pirates, team them up with snake-peopleand set them against ninjas. But actually, this pirate-faction set that CM4Sci posted in the Ninjago forum doesnt look too bad - head, bandanna (newly in dark green!) and pistol are OK (maybe even the legs), and the plane has some bottles (the highlights for me) and whatnot. Interested to see more. Though this would go in a 2016 Pirates thread, if its worth making one. EDIT: new pic after old one taken down from imgur

My votes: 1) No on being a Castle theme. While Mark Stafford saying it is Castle is basically the final word, I am looking for a more natural justification than simply word from above. In this vein, anything could be Castle simply by virtue of the higher authorites saying so - even Town, Aquazone, or Galaxy Squad - regardless of any deeper basis for the claim . 2)Dont care about what weve seen so far, Parts-wise, there is some nice stuff, but mostly stuff that doesnt appeal to me. Build-wise the sets look well crafted. 3) No on buying any sets - not for some boycott or statement, but simply becasue Im not a buyer of Action themes (with the exception of Adventurers and similar), and there is nothing here that would push me to buy it. 4) it makes no difference to me - since Im not a buyer of these themes. I appreciate that theyre successful and lead to more sales of LEGO, and I follow the Ninjago cartoon and am tentatively liking the NK teasers, but set-wise these are unappealing to me, and I would rather see TLG devote more resources to more traditional themes. Though that said, it does make a difference to me insofar as they replace a theme I appreciate, which I fear will be the case, since Mark Stafford claims its a Castle theme.

Sci-fi, science fantasy, castle punk, ...

Beautiful building! Outside my price range, but still. And wonderful way to work in a story of bank robbery and money laundering! Which means I think the laundromat doesnt detract from the building at all, quite the opposite - it provides more setting for a city than just a bank. Highlights for me are the gray ingots as masonry, black fence pieces, and what looks like a new stamp/seal piece. And is that orange brick in the laundromat supposed to be detergent?

Castle-punk or cyber-castle sound about right for this theme. Its a shame Castle couldnt be reinvigorated som other way, like taking it into non-European regions (like Middle East or Far East inspired)or (Greek)mythology, or some other way more compatible with the existing Castle world. But I guess the marketing/research guys have all the right answers to that. I dont doubt Nexo Knights will bring in a lot of new (and older) kids. What i do doubt s that they will continue on to be Castle buildrs as oposed to Sci-Fi builders.

Im impressed with these sets, specially the pirate plane (bottles as exhausts!). The dragon is meh, but the structures of the other two look decent for such small sets, and Im also intrigued by the new Venomari.

Since there arent any actual rumors, maybe it would be better to merge this thread with the one x105Black posted?

I have to mention, Im happy TLG chose the approach it did, with a complex reveal instead of just teasing us with a minifig or poster. Bravo and thank you, to whom it may concern in TLG.

Dangerous talk, in times like these. Heres my wishlist: 1) A traditional, low-tech, honest-to-goodness Castle theme. Fantasy or realistic, with repetitive or original heraldry and set concepts.

Youre right, but I was thinking more of an in-universe explanation. But nope, just a plume.

Like I said in the Disney CMF thread, it seems too bulky for a blind bag (at least as a 2x4 piece - slightly less as a 1x4 piece). But it seems like the general consesus is that its possible. So much the better. The thing is, if its the 2x4 piece, its not even a new mold, but an existing brick. Meaning no new mold to be milked in CMFs and regular sets. It might just be the show designers being creative and wanting to use something different than the slope piece. Of course, AFAIK a 1x4 configuration would be new (not sure on that), so this paragraph would be moot. Just playing devils advocate here.

Kind of my point - jumbling random things together to maximize the "kewl/awesum" factor, and yet the result is often less than the sum of its parts. Like putting chocolate syrup on salmon, on the basis of both foods being delicious (although I admit I havent tried this combination ...). I think that more often than not, cool things are awesome in relation to their environment, and risk looking out of place elsewhere. But I will stick around to see how the designers handle it. And if you can afford miniature robots, you can afford firearms and cruise missiles to do your dirty work for you, without relying on "knights", but I admit that now Im thinking about it too hard. I thought it worked like the hole at the cap of baseball caps where you can poke your ponytail through. But this way is funnier. I wonder whether it will be addressed in-show.

I will definitely be checking this out. It seems to be better than Chima, and hopefully will be (at least) on par with Ninjago. Actually, Im afraid it will be too similar, with little to differentiate them than the setting. Another concern of mine is that the monsters seem to easily beatable - one hit and even the big ones go up in a puff of smoke.

I dont think the Macy dress piece would be used ina CMF series, as its too bulky and identifiable, even more that the slope piece. *Maybe* if it was a niew piece thats only 1 stud wide, instead of the 2-stud wide piece used in Toths design, but even then I wouldnt expect to see it in a CMF blind bag. But otherwise I agree, its a great piece and I hope to see it used as an alternative to the slope skirt somehow somewhere someday. And yeah, flesh-colored is the only way to go. Having said that, I hope the series will avoid fleshy triangles and skin prints on the torsos as much as possible. But if we get figures like Aladdin for example, there wont be any way to avoid it. I would have thought the same would go for the PotC baldric, and yet...

Nice to see this thread settling down in a more fitting forum. Maybe the discussion here will become a little less tense. But as for the „childishness“ debate, I do think that by pursuing the „coolness“ factor, like sticking jet engines or glowing energy weapons or hoverboards in historical-themed settings is a mark of this theme being childish. In other words, the practice of incogruously mixing „cool“ stuff from various areas (or historical periods, in this case) to keep kids with short attention spans excited, instead of focusing on well-rounded themes with their own pluses and minuses – like for example, accepting that a characteristic of castle/medieval/fantasy settings is a low tech level, which creates is own opportunities and challenges, distinct from sci-fi. So yeah. Im probably not helping with the „less tense discussion“ part. But I do think the opinion that this is a childish theme has its merit. Thats not really a judgement on the quality of the theme – it looks great as a big bang action theme in place of Chima.

Maybe the set will extend to the underground level, the firehouse will include the basement, and the piece count will be filled up by adding the sewer with pink ooze from GB2?

Eh, not sold. The villains look good, though. And the sets seem pretty substantial and playable. Otherwise, Tron lines galore - the good guys leg & torsos (or what we can see of them) look like straight from Galaxy Squad. I would have appreciated this far more as an acion or sci-fi line with a lot of parts useful for Castle.

I am actually surprised there are Dimensions sets for LotR but not for the Hobbit, which is a more recent and kid-friendly series of films.

Like some others, Im getting a space marine vibe from the pics. Interested in how medieval the visors will look. And the torsos - am bracing myself for tron lines and such. And I assume Macys plume is actually her hair, since no other knight has it.

Well, Im working on my PhD in International Relations IRL, so I guess I would be some kind of scholar at an early university. Great topic!

The hairpiece on my sigfig, usually. Though recently without the bangs.

I didnt really see this happening, but since I saw just2goods review of Homers dimension set with Homer holding a Buzz Cola can, this scenario actually seems like a good way to get Moe.

But not for a few years yet, so TLG might lose sales to kids that will have moved out of LEGO (or at least System LEGO) by then.

Maybe the set will be released in January in one location and half a year later in another? Or are these sets released simultaneously everywhere?

Well, ifyou mean the newest pic, its on p134 of this thread: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=105102&st=3325#entry2345657