Faefrost

I’m a bit surprised with the results. The Jazz Quartet is a wonderful model. I’m not sure exactly what the target market is for it. But probably worth an experimental release. The Office I would not have guessed, just for it failing before and having recently been somebody else’s license. I confess I’m sitcomed out with regard to sets, but it seems a lot are looking forward to it. Snow White looks like my type of set if they produce it, which I’m thinking they will. I wish they could move some of the fantastic projects from this review into the next one, which while large, seems less interesting.

The packaging isn't vacuum sealed. There's air and oxygen in it. Which brings another fun point that people never realize. Color = Chemistry. The process of making the plastic a certain color changes the plastics characteristics based on the properties of the substances used to pigment the plastic. Blue and black are two of the oldest and most stable pigments for plastic. They are readily available, mix well, are cheap to acquire and can be injection molded at a wide range of temperatures and pressures. At the opposite end of the spectrum is pink. The compounds to generate pink plastic are only found in a few places, require more handling and processing, resulting in much more expensive color additives. And the color does not mix well with the plastic requiring much higher temperatures and pressure to get good results. If you've ever heard of the "pink tax" in the news media, see the above to understand what is really going on there. A pink shaving razor is sold for 10-20% more than a black or blue one because the pink color costs more to produce. It probably also explains why Friends sets feel a bit more overpriced than some other lines. The parts color price is baked into Lego's design point system. And we all know the problems of brittle parts in Redish Brown and Dark Red parts. The issue there is the chemistry related to those colors.

It doesn't really matter if it's a typical brick. In this case the baseplates are polystyrene vs the bricks ABS. What yellows is the flame retardent additive that is put in both. Which decays over time. Limiting oxygen exposure might slow it as its an organic reaction? But not much else.

This is probably the hardest review to guess the outcome for in years. There are a ton of really good really well presented projects this time. With quite a few that radiate "perfect ideas set:

Www.bricklink.com will be what you are looking for. It's a peer to peer buying and selling site for lego. You will be able to likely find what you are looking for there from somebody. And while Bricklink was originally created Lego bought it in recent years. But you're not buying from Lego. The site just connects buyers and sellers.

Something to keep in mind. UV light doesn't cause yellowing. It simply accelerates it. The yellowing is caused by the Bromine Based fire retardents that were required to be added to plastics used in childrens toys and household electronics begining in the late 69's to early 70's (depending on region). The Yellowing is going to happen eventually. Even if the plastic toy is vacuum sealed an entombed in climate controlled darkness. But like I said without the uv light boost it can take decades sometimes. How much and how fast a part yellows will be unpredictable. The fire retardent was added at the point the plastic pellets are melted. Basically just dump a bucket in. So amounts of the FR will vary from batch to batch, and the type and formulation changed over time. Modern FR's dont yellow anywhere near as bad as the ones used in the 70's. To slow yellowing avoid direct sunlight on the toys. Unless you are using flourescent grow lights or aquarium lighting in your display normal household lighting should be a non issue. LED lighting is probably the best option as it has no UV and very little heat output.

Just a heads up. Results are delayed 1 day until friday. But if you post your guesses in the blog comments section today they enter you in a chance to win an ideas set. https://ideas.lego.com/blogs/a4ae09b6-0d4c-4307-9da8-3ee9f3d368d6/post/ab8bc94d-2389-4c11-9bc7-7182a9166d84

Didn't they just hire someone to quash leaks? So yeah, don't get your hopes up.

We can hope. Maybe Cyrus Borg's Tower next time?

Yeah, I mean there are specific niche builders who might want a lot of those specific firefighters. The yellow turnout gear with dark red helmets matches some well known US fire services, such as much of California. So if someone was modeling their fire department they might want a lot. But they’d want the whole figure. Heads helmets and legs too. I could see this as being from a Chinese or South American bootleg shop that is just sticking any random figs on the blister card. But you would see more random legs and accessories. This is almost the correct set. It’s just weird.

Big planes are probably like trains. But without as large of an obsessive adult hoobyist pool. Kids may get 1 large plane. But most kids will not have more. They are big and hard to store. So while they sell at a steady predictable way. They don't benefit from a lot of yearly focus.

60262 is out of stock/sold out at Shop.lego.com and has spent some time on my local Lego Stores Clearance/Damage Box area. I just snagged one for something around $80. This is normally a sign that a set is being retired. Even if they don't announce it as such. So we may see a new Airplane set of some sort? But I doubt we would see it before the summer release waves. We also can't predict the nature of the set if they do release a new plane? 60262 was an oddball. A "Combi" half passenger/half cargo. So would we get a new passenger? a new Cargo? Some smaller utility plane?

60312 is a big white and blue car with a single minifigure and 94 pieces. ProbablProbably a Police Car -60313-unknown -60314-includes a similar looking car compared to 60312,also includes a ice cream van with a ice cream cone on the top and maybe a chain to attach to the supposedly included atm,4 minifigures are most likely the City Adventures TV show crew "ice, cream and truck" and a officer. This woThis would almost certainly be the Ice Cream Bandits vs Duke Detain from the Lego City Adventures TV show. I hope so, the Ice Cream Bandit characters look great in the show and would make really distinct minifigs. I'm going to guess that either this police car, or the one in 60312 is probably Duke's "N computerized AI powered police car ala KITT from Nightrider? w Car" -60315-is a big truck which trailer is a office with windows for the first time and hinged openings, also included are a small police quad and a Tuk-Tuk with a milkshake cannon on the roof. Count me in for anything with a Tuk Tuk. Maybe more Ice Cream Bandits? -60316-small three-story building with a prison where there's a break out function,a helipad for the helicopter included, the other vehicles are a police car and a garbage truck (or lorry bin in the UK), there are a few minifigures and animals included. Maybe this years Police station, plus Shirley Keeper and her Truck> 60317-Big Two-story building where you can blow out a atm and a few parts of the walls, as for the vehicles there are 3: a van to serve as camouflage for the crook's and the police vehicles from the canceled crook's hideout set. Probably a rework of the cancelled crooks hideout to be less Dynamite'ey? Maybe a set that will give those of us collecting the LCA characters a Tippy Doorman fig? 60318-simple set consists of a small red helicopter and a burning food stand, food vendor and fireman included Sounds 4+, kill it with fire!!!! 60319-Fire Rescue and Police Chase is supposed to be a speeding crook with a sports car, traffic lights and a fuse box burning, for the Fire team you have a small pickup with a drone as for the Police Team there's a motorcycle included new version "City Starter Set"? 60320-Classic Fire Station consists of a three-story building, a garage on the side with a helipad also some burning garbage cans and a tree from which an animal must be rescued are included for further use. Vehicles included are a fire engine and a small fire helicopter. Not unexpected, but will need pictures. The set is expected to bring 5 minifigures. -60321- The set includes the burning, three-story facade of a cannery, in whose windows the flames must be extinguished with the "water jet" in the form of a spring-tensioned shooter. The vehicles include a large fire engine with trailer, a fire brigade car and a fire brigade motorcycle, as well as 6 minifigures A set of the Funky 47's Firefighter figs would probably be too much to hope for... -60322 is a small formula 1 car (color is orange) like Promobricks said before, there are a cup and tools as accessories We're overdue for a formula 1 car -60323 is another 4+ set basically being a small jet with a single minifigure, not much to say... 60324-Mobile Crane is blue and orange, has a rotatable structure and extendable supports. For "working" a piece of road is included, as well as probably two minifigures. 60325-Cement Mixer Truck is a small 4+ truck in blue and yellow with 2 minifigures and a small construction site. 60326 Does not have any information, we just know it's a park,I think it might not include roadplates unlike the other buildings from the upcoming wave, 60327 is the same:not a single piece of information was given to 60328 sounds exciting as it's a small beach with a watch tower, a palm tree and a ice cream selling bike,a beach buggy and a jet ski. A for the minifigures there are 3 and one of which is a ice cream seller in a ice cream cone suit. I'm surprised we haven't gotten a full on Lifeguard sub theme ala Bay Watch. 60329 is a two-story building with just a few walls to allow more playability for the kids, there is a small playground and a bus stop on the other side of the road included and a road crossing (for road safety) Hopefully the rumored School with School bus. 60330 Hospital is supposed to be a 2 story building, basically what Promobricks said, but now we know more of the looks of the hospital that is supposed to be red, blue and white, there's a small helipad on the roof to land the helicopter included in the set (small like 60204) nothing about the interior sadly, but we are having a ambulance and I hope it is big.(Fingers crossed) Lego has never gotten an ambulance right and I don't expect to start getting them correct now all of a sudden. Finally we have the helicopter transporter and it's basically a red truck with a yellow helicopter with 2 minifigures meant to be driving their respective vehicles. Bleah!

The rumor going around is the shipping delays on some sets were caused by a supply shortage of cardboard. Minor disruptions of seemingly trivial products high up in the supply chains can trickle down in unusual ways.

I don’t think any official versions of the figure pack included an I love Legoland Torso, or two unprinted sand blue torso’s? Also the blue legs from I think Alien Conquest or the CMF skydiver. This reminds me of the scam some action figure scalpers pull on stores like Walmart and Target. They buy a high value desirable figure. Carefully open the box without breaking the seals. Take out the figure and any valuable bits, replace them with a cheap junk figure like a Mattel Wrestling fig. Reseat the box and return it to the store for a refund. The clueless CS Reps don’t know what the figure is supposed to look like, issue the refund and reshelve the bogus fig since it was a “sealed box”. I just don’t know why you would do that with a couple of city firefighters?

They have done modern military figs in licensed sets. The Man of Steel sets include the Christopher Meloni Colonel Hardy figure, in uniform, with a Gun and a Jeep. They would not do super realistic guns, but they would use that Alien Conquest gun piece, just as they did with the recent Punisher fig from the Daily Bugle set. Besides with Stargate it’s all about the Alien weapons. They have enough bits from various Ninjago series to cobble together some decent Jaffa weapons.

I’ll have to find a minidoll to check. The problem may be more height than footrest size. The new bike shells are slightly smaller than their corresponding pre-existing bike shell.

Speaking of demolition cars, is it strange that the only thing I find interesting in that big monster truck stuntz set is the crushable cars? Those would work so well with a Heavy Rescue Fire Truck.

The Evel Kenivel line did do well in the UK. I forget who licensed it? The main draw was the really well made flywheel powered ~1/8 Scale vehicle. You had a hand cranked launcher that could really get the flywheel moving. The motorcycles balanced perfectly and would tear around the house and driveway. With enough room (ie a really quiet dead end street) you could get 50-100 meters off a launch. The Lego bikes arent that good. But they have all the base components of it in a working smaller scale.

Play mobile has to keep products available for much longer than Lego. This is due to the differing nature of their tooling costs. As a building set maker Lego’s tooling costs are mostly in fairly universal elements. Which can be amortized across multiple products and product lines. You will almost never see unique tooling from or for a single set. Whereas with Playmobile almost every set has some unique tooling. So they have to stretch out the shelf life of a given product to fully amortize the tooling costs.

The line reminds me a lot of a miniaturized version of the old Evel Kenivel toys from my long ago younger days. Which is a good thing, those were the best toys ever.

Whenever Lego has to replace a commonly used mold, they will often make some subtle tweaks regarding things like friction or clutch power. It’s not anything they would announce as a change to the part, nor would they in any way differentiate the old parts from the new, outside of those concerned with mold testing. And it may not be universal with a new vs old point. Because many parts have more than one toolset. So they may have replaced one worn out mold at one factory while another factory is still using an older mold. (Not that the molds are factory specific. They move around based on need and where there is available factory time.)

So we're bordering on an acceptable size for a ritual burial canoe? 2 sets gets you enough to make a proper coffin. Which we will need when our spouses find it in the living room. For those that need a matching piece to their insanely huge Hasbro HasLab Jabba's Sail Barge. Oh Lego why do you tempt me so?

I picked up a few of the Stunt sets today. I’m rather impressed with the little flywheel bikes. I’ve found myself zipping them around my desk all afternoon. The last time I think I did that with a Lego play feature was the original Ninjago spinners. While I’m not crazy about the tiny rear tire, it works and works well. But for best results do rev it 3x before release to really get that flywheel going. It looks like all of the small Bike sets have some printing on the bike shells. No stickers!

Like some others I've dabbled a bit in the name brand non Lego brick lines. Mainly a few Kre-O D&D and GI Joe offerings and the Mega Call of Duty, World of Warcraft and recently Masters of the Universe stuff. Stuff that doesn't intersect Lego's niche. Is the quality the same as Lego? No, but the gap has been growing narrower every year. So much so that even the dreaded and cursed Mega is putting out tolerable bricks. (if they ever get their set packing QC worked out they might actually be a threat). But more alarmingly for Lego I notice that my Amazon recommendations have become littered with upper tier Chinese Knock Off Lego sets. In particular Chinese sets produced of AFOL's modular MOC's. Particularly Modular Building offerings from a company called NiFeliz. We around here know not to touch these. But what does it do to Lego's sales when a Amazon Search for "Lego Modular Buildings" mostly returns these products instead of Lego's own? A lot of the Chinese Bootleg companies seem to be changing their approach. Rather than simply bootleging the existing lego sets they are reverse engineering (or in some cases contacting the AFOL designer and legit purchasing the designs) of a lot of well known MOC's and using SEO to get themselves noticed.