JesseNight

I would say ours, but motivated by Lego by giving us a theme with less rules. If you're in a preset licensed theme, everybody will try to make the same stuff (stuff they've seen in the movies). Sure there's still creative solutions to solve problems, but in a non-licensed theme there's full creative freedom. Not saying it's impossible in licensed themes for us (for Lego it probably is), just a lot less likely for people to be motivated to do that. There are exceptions of course. No offense taken, and it's true that I have no idea how professional designers work. When someone has to design an X-Wing, their creativity is aimed solely towards making it look like that. And when we get the so-many'th X-Wing we've had in so many years, that makes me facepalm. Even more if endless repetition of the same is really what people want. That's just my opinion about it, no disrespect intended to the people liking or designing it. However if someone's told to design a new space theme, or a new ship in a decided uniform set of colors for that theme, they can literally go every direction. And if something doesn't turn out right, they can alter their vision or make it better. I miss being surprised by originality of new sets, not knowing at all what we're getting until we see it for the first time. So even as a Star Wars fan, I'd pick City Space over Lego's SW series anytime. Also once again, I'm not against licensed themes, only against too many, and the endless repetition of the same franchises.

It's being worked on I believe, as mentioned here

I wouldn't say "ruin" it. All I wanna say is the old Lego themes would encourage it more by setting an example. Doesn't mean there is no room for licensed themes, because there most certainly is. I just wish it was slightly less, and the endless repetition of new revisions of the same sets (like SW theme) would stop.

I wasn't even aware that monorail flopped. I loved it, but there were very limited sets and they were at a very high price point for that time. This is exactly what bothers me so much too, the endless repetition of the same sets. But I guess it somehow works from a business pov... The point is probably creative freedom. Of course there's always tolerance, and restriction of what we can do with the bricks given, but you know in advance what you have to design... instead of following a designer's own fantasy to create something unseen before. It's the latter that so many people are missing.

I'm no business man and I'm not going to say they should get rid of something that's working for them. I'm just no fan of it myself. Even the licenses that I do like, I would be more tempted to buy a very accurate scale model of rather than a Lego set. I love Star Wars for example, but I own 0 Lego SW sets. For me Lego was about creativity. And yes I loved the old space, castle, and town themes. Should they be frozen in time? Absolutely not. Look at the Galaxy Explorer a few years ago. It proved that an old theme can be successfully "remastered" without losing either functionality or quality, and even offering more on both. With that in mind, new themes should be possible too, right?

I am not against licensed themes, but I agree there's a bit many. And more, I feel like they keep dragging on waaaaaaaay too long. It's fine to have a Jurassic World theme for 2-3 years when a movie releases.But then move on. Same with Star Wars or any other, although the TV industry is part to blame here for keeping the franchise endlessly going with more series (and lots of disappointments). Just my opinion. I see it too that it works for the big audience, so can't blame Lego for making the best commercial decision. "Back in the day" creative themes were most certainly a much bigger thing.

Thanks for the updates @jb70! There's been a part that's been bugging me. It's in book 1, page 114, in the sub model between steps 41 and 42. On step 3 of this sub model, there's a brown 3L axle with stop being inserted. I haven't built this irl, but looking at this digitally I was wondering... how would you ever get it back out once it's all the way in? For now I am more tempted to replace it with a normal 4L axle and a 1/2 bush (if that works in the entire build).

Exactly. Sellers are free to ask what they want, buyers are free to take it or leave it. I see this happen more often with large stores that have a lot of harder to find parts. People prefer to order from the least possible amount of different stores and are easier willing to accept a few common parts being more expensive... or just overlook it in a large order.

@Operacion Saturno That's some valid points indeed! Yes I'm happy with the new trans-yellow canopies too (both the 4 studs wide Cruiser and the 6 studs wide Galaxy Explorer & Renegade). Though in all honesty my favorite canopy is still the SP1/M-Tron one (think SP2 and IP still had it too). I feel the pilots have to sit or lean back too much on these new ones that are a slope down right from the hinge.

Understandable from a business pov. Bit of a shame because it's often the fans who already bought one or more of the official Lego one who want to see more of the series.

I don't know, I just remember some awesome classic space designs that actually got the votes and then got rejected for that very reason. I'm no Lego representative so I can't say how it works, only what I've seen. Not sure if it's better if they're inconsistent with these rules... Anyway you have my support, I love these old space themes and would absolutely wanna see more!

Awesome! Love to see that, but Lego said more than once that they won't accept Ideas based on previous existing themes. Some amazing builds have been rejected for that very reason.

That looks amazing!

This discussion is among the reasons Aquazone never appealed to me and always felt weird. To me it wasn't Space... but it sure appeared like it tried to be a Space replacement or addition. I just couldn't put my finger on it where to place it.

I'm not an admin, but I don't think such a thing would be easily done. The problem with social media is that they often create complex links and sometimes the formula for those changes. They're likely not a fan of their content being embedded everywhere. The easiest for yourself is to just use a free image host like https://imgbb.com because they give a direct link to the picture that the forum picks up to embed it. You can do a quick upload without an account being required at all, or make an account if you wanna be able to manage your content later.

I have to agree there. Feels like a clear example of upgrades not always making things better so it got me wondering too. On that last note, I wouldn't be surprised if a link to a gallery is actually preferred. It keeps the load of the forum pages a lot lighter for people who just wanna quickly go over the text.

I have to agree not seeing Aquazone as a Space theme, despite the similarities in how vehicles are built. I remember first seeing Aquazone as a kid in the catalog it released and at first thinking it was a new Space theme... then being disappointed when I read the story and found out it wasn't. Not saying it was bad, it just lost its appeal to me.

Not that I'm aware of. I would have known since those were the prime days I was totally into Lego Space! Just double checked the paper catalogues I still have from those years and it wasn't in them.

Wow that M-Tron moc looks awesome! And yeah it's big for sure, with 2 of those giant windshields attached to each other!

I don't know this product specifically, but it doesn't look very special next to stuff you can just buy from a diy store (so don't pay premium just bc it says "made for Lego Supercars"). The more important thing is probably that your screw in the wall is properly mounted, and don't make the mistake of drilling too big a hole. Then it should be sturdy as hell and capable of carrying some weight. Assuming it's an actual wall and not gyproc (plaster) plating, that is. (tbh, I never understood the appeal of hanging a car on a wall...)

Even the Blacktron Renegade, that was famous enough to get a remake this year, was initially US only. I remember when people were speculating about what remake we'd be getting I was like "Huh? Renegade? What's that?". Regional releases have always been a thing with many products, both physical and digital products. Specific demands, localization, it all plays a role. I won't act like I understand it though, I've often found myself in a similar situation wanting something that just wasn't available here. At least we live in a time where ordering it abroad isn't so big a problem anymore.

Yeah those tariffs will likely be felt in prices of stuff. We already have it in EU for many years on everything imported from outside EU. It was once created "to help the EU market & production", but of course that's not how reality works. Production will go to countries it's cheaper to produce, and tariffs will land on those importing it back, who will move it to the customers instead of paying it out of their own pockets of course. So in the end it just resulted in price increases on lots of products that will remain in demand either way, and that remain being produced in cheaper countries or aren't even available as EU products to begin with. [sarcasm] Welcome to the club, US... As for X sueing Lego, that's just ridiculous in caps. If that's gonna happen for real, I hope no judge is foolish enough to actually go with it.

Oh wow... And that happened to be 2 decades I was busy with other stuff than Lego in life ;) There's some good stuff on it indeed.

There's .io files on BS? I'm pretty old school myself but until recently wasn't even aware of this site, and I'm finding it rather difficult to navigate when not having specific terms that I'm looking for. So far only seen picture galleries.

I never said the costs would be high. The point is if the owner passed away, who's gonna take care of that? Or set it up with ads or a fundraiser even if only a small one? A relative with perhaps no affinity at all for Lego? Would they put time and effort into finding someone to take over? (some might but not everybody) Do they even have access? Think the provider would (or even could) interfere? That might be due to the same issue. I think that's a pretty default provider notification. If there's nobody still actively using or even checking that email address, it'll sadly be going nowhere. It's sad that it will go down... But we better be prepared and put our effort into saving what we can, while we still can.