Black Falcon

Have to agree here. While it is a fun Set and sure has some usefull parts, all the exclusive ones aren´t really suitable for castle. That beeing set I like the set for what it is, but probably wouldn´t have been a must have for me. Still hoping that we will get a castle GWP set this year, though. We are getting slowly towards the end of the year, so there might not be that much time left for it - especially with no rumour or mention of one yet. And not sure if they will do a castle GWP for Insiders again, because we already had it there last year.

I don´t think that they would skip Dumbledores Office, it is just such a important and also iconic location, would be surprising if the most detailed Hogwarts wouldn´t have it included. And sure they will not include every location and even very likely not all of the important ones, but I just don´t think that they would skip that one.

Well not in depth but you are said to be quite reliable. And just to be clear, what I said above was about leakers claiming vague hints in general, not about you specifically. Anyways, my point still stands that it is hard to guess sometimes if something is related to a certain scene or just to point towards a theme. I guess since there was not just one hint towards the Balrog, it seems likely that it was indeed a hint towards that.

That isn´really something Castle Fans are looking for though. ;)

As I said, won´t be long till the first blogs post about it: LEGO Design Seminar 2024 gives away Classic Castle set (brickfanatics.com) Looks great so far, though I hope someone will post a better picture, to make it easier to spot more details.

Kinda like last years purple Spaceman ;). Haven´t seen the set you mentioned yet but guess it will show up soon on different Lego Blogs.

You could kinda say the same about their shield and torso though. But I don´t see it happening either. The Black Falcon Archer had none, so why should a bandit have it then?

You would think that a GWP someonewhat fits to the set it is made for, which just isn´t the case here - so I kinda doubt that. Additionally I think the Balrog would be much better suitable for a own set, as they can just use more bricks for it - and I would expect the bridge and Gandalf alongside them. Yeah but that kinda is the point. They make vague hints that could mean anything or nothing. And kinda fit to several things, so if the Balrog comes, they will claim they knew it - and if not, well it was just a general hint toward more LoTR Sets.

I wish they would make somewhat more substantial posts instead of something that can just mean anything really ;). I mean it could be refering to the bridge of Kazad-Dûm or just be used because it is a famous quote and kinda fits used for anything anyways

Well I guess we would have to see it and if we would have pictures of both, some would prefer the cheaper one and others the more detailed one. Yeah, but still City just has very little conflict only. Some lighter delicts - like shoplifiting so the police can arrest someone basically. Aside from that City is a quite friendly theme and I don´t see that Lego does want to add any more conflict to it. Well, the thing is if the source saw the ship and it would have been a Blacktron 2 ship (if it even is one) it would have stated that IMO, instead of just saying it is blacktron. Now of course the source could have aswell just seen a box and just remember the word blacktron on it or have heard other designers talking about it. That beeing said, it is possible to be Blacktron 2, but I would take the chances for it pretty low, also because I belive that Blacktron 1 just makes more sense at this point. And still would rule out B3 completely. And, yeah, sure blacktron is basically the same faction but there has been quite some time between both - it is basically same as Classic Space and Futuron to me. And Space Police obviously belongs to Futuron aswell. But the name Space Police basically just states that it is a Police in Space - if you consider SP1-3 as one faction is basically up to your own imagination - well in the end, it is Lego, so everything kinda is though ;).

Yeah, agreed there, that we would probably get a bumpy sooner or later - though probably not this year, as I would expect more sets for the new movie instead - and I would actually hope for an ankylosaurus from this source rather than a bumpy - that one IMO has an awefull colour sheme. I would rather get one similar to the old ankylosaurus. Best would be to get the same again honestly, but that will surely not happen.

Well I think more bricks wouldn´t have essentially changed the looks of the build though, since their approach was to create a similar design to the old one, with a bit more modern look. In the end you never know what they would have done if they would have had more bricks. I think the inclusion of the ship was a great idea for instance, so if they would have cut that off to drop below 200€ then it would have been a bad idea. But some extra budget to increase the size would probably just add two more minifigs, another cannon and some more walls or something, without adding anything substantial to the build. Possible that I am totally wrong here and they would have used it to something cool or to add some more depth to the model. But if the addition would make the set that much better that it would make more people be willing to spend almost 100€ more, I don´t know. City Space is about exploration, I don´t see a criminal faction really fitting there. I mean sure they could add some bad guys if they wanted, but basically we just have scientists and normal astronauts in City Space and if they would like to add some conflict to it, they could have used the aliens for it. And as mentioned before, last year we got the info about a black spaceship, while this year it especially mentions Blacktron, so it seems very unlikely that will turn out to be a City Set. Well, for me when someone talks about Blacktron, it is Blacktron 1 for me - if someone is talking about Blacktron 2 he will say Blacktron 2. Both are basically two completely different factions and it isn´t really like you could mix them up. Aside from that it was a question as since he got the info about blacktron confirmed from different sources you would think that they at least got that much information. Well we should actually get some more infos about it like if it will be a ship anyways.

Yeah, it was mentioned somewhere in this forum - however, I think it was said they don´t just discard the mould but it is possible they keep it longer - likely if they think they would need it again in the future. Yeah, but you should keep in mind, that those sets are not going to retire the same year they are released and till production stops the mould is still in use - so the 5 years would start from this point ;).

Very interesting, thank you. Well you can still see if a set has many pieces or just a few, so people that actually are looking for smaller Sets can just vote for them - but I also belive that most people will just look at the set and vote if they like it. And sure bigger Sets can be build more detailed and probably look more impressive, but I wouldn´t say that they will get more votes than medium sized just because of that. And we shouldn´t forget that the number of big sets is limited, as they always need to be balanced out - and if we are looking at the sets that we have so far in rounds 1-5 we only had one Set close to 4k in Series one with an other 3,5k one in that series, and then the next 4k Sets are in Series 5 (and this time two of them) but also with an notably higher average piece count of the wave - and while it would be possible to make a series with 3 sets that size I doubt that will happen - I mean you would need two 400 piece sets to balance that out ;).

Well we don´t know exactly how they decide which sets they include, probably they first sort out sets that didn´t do well in the votes and then look at the sets that did really well. Lets say they take the best three of those if they aren´t to similar by design or theme and then look what they are missing still based on the size. I don´t actually think there is really such a thing as different size categories they pick from. I mean if we look at series 4 for instance, we don´t even have any small sets, but also none of the big ones above 3k, as all sets are between 1933 and 2760 pieces. And we shouldn´t forget that with 5 Sets picked a difference of 1k pieces will be 200 pieces towards the average piece count.

If they would have sized it up it would have been much more expensive though, and so less people would buy it. I like it for what it is, but since I didn´t buy the Baracuda Bay, it is easier to skip this aswell. It is a save bet to say it will be icons IMO. Honestly, I could see them making references to past themes, like using the classic space logo for space sets, or Johnny Thunder for the Jungle subtheme but bringing a whole old faction into the theme just seems very, very unlikely to me. Also, all other "nostalgia" Sets were Icon sets, so it wouldn´t make sense to bring it somewhere else now, unless they would actually want to make it an own theme with sets (and we know how the chances for that are). Meaning, so far it was only confirmed by other sources, but not any more infos yet - aside that there probably could also be a GWP coming, since I don´t think they would make two full Sets for the same theme really. As discussions about it came up here, I would guess we are talking about Blacktron and not Blacktron II?

Kinda surprised we see Voldemort there. Would rather expected Greyback than him, but well. Anyways looks quite flat, like how is there even any place to play in it? Well I would expect that the middle part has a bit more space, but can´t really say much unless we see the backside of it. But for now it looks rather disappointing. Looks actually more like a fake to me to be honest.

Well there are quite some you are missing there above, Pumkin, the old Ice in the cornet (that is also used for fruits nowadays), the croissant, peach, sausage, bun, steak, several eggs, cakes, donuts and cookies. And I am probably forgetting a lot things still.

That might depend, they stated that they are looking to make a mix of bigger and smaller sets with an average piece count of around 2500 pieces. So they aren´t just taking 5 Sets they like but also pay attention to this. But basically since you don´t know which other sets will be there, it is kinda pointless to try predict it.

I don´t see why one should be easier to remake than the other, aside that I would say that certain sets from some themes might actually be easier to remake than others. The Galaxy Explorer was a modernized version, but with the Cruiser they decided to go a different way. I do belive however that they would have been able to make a more modernized version of that ship too. The only different I really see between Space and Castle/Pirates is that you are more free to design whatever you want in space, since there is no real model you have to follow in some way - I mean in this case you actually do, because you are rebuilding an old model, but you still have a lot freedom to include cool new stuff or playfunctions in the set. So in this case Castle might have the same freedom, just in a different way. They are free to decide on how they will and design their castle but in the end it will always have a somewhat similar look.

Well that is especially the reason why I mentioned it. I mean in some fantasy worlds dwarves are even using guns and cannons - I prefer the typical dwarve with an Axe or Hammer instead. The old fantasy eare depicted them quite well I think, and something similar, with todays building style would be great to get IMO. And what of all this contradicts with what I wrote? I mean, basically I was just agreeing with you ;)

Well obviously they wouldn´t just bring Fantasy Era back in a modernized version anyways, for that it is way to young IMO. But something similar to it, like you mentioned would be great. I just would hope they keep it close to medieval design wise. I don´t need another Knights Kingdom with colourful Knights like they still use it in Ninjago or Steampunk dwarfes.

I would almost bet no minifigs.

I wouldn´t complain about that. Especially if they would bring back Dwarfes and the Dragons.

People that were in Skaerbag have reported that the Pick a Brick team wanted to take a look into it, since it wasn´t supposed to not be counting according to them. Back when they fused Pick a Brick and Parts and Pieces they changed it so that both were counting (and it was also announced that way) but the T&Cs actually stated standart wouldn´t count anyways - till it changed to not counting for whatever reason. Wouldn´t be surprised if someone saw the T&Cs and changed it according to them.