Faefrost

Part of the "Modular" in Modular Buildings, as originally envisioned by Jamie was that you could stack any number of the Middle Floors between the Ground Floor and the Top floor. And the stairs etc would all line up properly. So you could make a 12 story Town Hall, just by repeating the Middle floor 10 times. I think that requirement began to be softened somewhere around Palace Cinema. You can stack Palace Cinema's, and the stairs line up, but the facade looks rather strange. There are a few rather nice well detailed 1 room Apartments in the Modurs too. Police Station and Assembly Square each have one.

Eh? Yes and No. We don't carry much special knowledge or insights as AFOL's, or at least less than we often think. But most of us are in fact adults. Many with careers in businesses and retail and we have a pretty good idea of how things work. And from a Retail and Marketing standpoint the Vidya sets were an abomination. The sets themselves were fine as sets. But aside from the blind boxes (which I actually kind of liked over the constantly fondled CMF bags) the sets were set at the wrong Price Point and Packaged Horribly for the Price Point they were set at. There is no way those little Boom Box or whatever they were called sets, looked like a $20 purchase to any parent or even most kids. With $20 in hand the kid will turn right around in the aisle and get a much more impressive looking City Set. Not some stupid little 3 inch cube. This is probably the worst or most obvious marketing failure we have seen from Lego since 2003. Yeah they have had some misses. And some failed experiments. But this one just felt like somebody in marketing and product management screwed up big time. If the Boom Box's had hit the $9.99 price point the line would have been a great success. At $19.99 it's a colossal, predictable and inexcusable failure of one of their internal departments. Somewhere something got past Lego's usual fairly good feedback loops and made it to market when it should not have. I'm sure someone high up fell in love with the idea and everyone was so happy to please that nobody gave the clearly needed feedback regarding escalating development costs and the less than ideal MSRP. You don't just have to design a great product. You have to get it to market at the correct price and package and present it in such a way that the potential consumer is able to determine it's value from that presentation. Vidya failed at the last 2. It didn't help that it had more than a bit of the "Hello Fellow Children" vibe to it. "Do you know the TikTokKpops?"

The stickers aren't a factor of cost. At least not as much of one as we make out. Remember City sets are targeted mainly at Kids. And the Kids unlike we AFOL's view the stickers as a fun and important part of the experience. They like stickers and like applying stickers. Sometimes you have to give your primary target audience what they want.

Ooo I like this one. And I've skipped the last few sets as being a little too out there.

Don't make the sets play functions dependent on a cheap cheesy cell phone game to interact with the set?

Sadly I am only now finding out about this incredibly charming show. I'm impressed. It reminds me a bit of early Ninjago, with some Lego Movie style humor as well. Kudos to the show runners. They managed to make almost every character surprising and charismatic in ways I was not expecting. While somehow making them different from what you initially expect. Duke and Mayor Fleck really stand out for this. As does Betty Kaboom. It's a kids show that is still entertaining for adults. That doesn't talk down to the viewer. Now if only they made it so you could actually find it to watch it. (Season 1 is available for Streaming on Paramount +, Seasons 2 and 3 you pretty much have to hunt down Turkish shaky cam bootlegs on YouTube.)

/sigh Still no Winter Village Night of the Krampus set?

Production numbers will vary wildly based on theme, price point, historical data etc. the highest produced are almost certainly the smaller impulse buy City sets. They will likely see production numbers upwards of a million. The lowest produced outside of special promotional stuff is likely the D2C stuff, that is selling more into a niche adult hobbyist market. The minimum production run for something like that may be as low as 10-20k for things like some Ideas sets. Most of the D2C stuff probably plateau’s around 100,000-500,000 units per production run.

Yet another huge review. How long until they up the support required for review? My quick takes looking at this list. - just scratch any set with the word Medivel off the list. That will pare it down quite a bit. And those that look like the Medivel is there but silent. - Having the Star Wars license classically precludes certain defined competing properties. Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica and Spaceballs being big ones While this may change under Disney, I think Lego is still operating under a contract from when George was around. - They don't seem to want to do a full up modular series building under Ideas. I think if they were to do one it would have to be something really distinct and different. Not simply a reay nice building. The closest to hitting that mark might be The Nanny. But I don't see it happening. - They are unlikely to do subjects they have rejected in the past or did as dimensions sets. Scrath Minas Tirith, A-Team, Nightrider, Up etc. - nobody wants to play in the sewer. - BTS is an almost good idea, but kind of a bad set. They just need the figs on a nice stage. Anything BTS (or Twice or Blackpink, etc) Will sell well around the Pacific, South America and Asia. Although China's recent "No Girly Men" rules might limit its markets. - Gamestop, hell no. Lego ain't gonna touch that publicly traded trashfire. - Movie Set. Way too ambitious. The project needed to be paired way down. If they had, 2-3 backdrops cameras etc and maybe a brickfilm play element to it and it would have been a sure think. - "Women Of..." Been there done that. Next! As for what I think has a chance? - Lifeguard Shack. It's a nice clean project. More detail than a City or Friends set. Good color choices. Would pair well with the Old Fishing Store and could hit a $50 price point. It looks like a viable product as presented. - Jaws, it hits all the right notes. A nice boat. A big shark. Can probably be delivered for around $100 or so. - playable Mini Golf. Ding ding ding! We have a winner. This is exactly the sort of thing the Ideas team falls in love with.

The Blacksmith seems a little off for WV. Maybe if you added some snow? The Harry Potter Hogsmeade se is however perfect for WV. Effectively giving you a WV Tavern and Candy Store.

I can see where the ocean explorer and space mission sets are fun for a kid. But they and the new animal rescue stuff are kind of hard to shoehorn into your "City". The Coast Guard or any of the boat sets aren't as bad because they work well if you have space for a harbor. And they don't have as many task specific parts. Heck those ships bridge windows would probably be a good element for a Baxter Building MOC to go along with the Daily Bugle.

How about a Winter theme? Maybe the City gets hit with a Blizzard? I was noting the NYPD winter gear and uniforms, with the skater type beanie caps with NYPD on them. The bulkier coats and scarves. It's a look that Lego has all the pieces for to pull off. And you could get some interesting new sets just from the change of season.say a Fire Dept Ice Rescue? Police on snowmobiles instead of ATV's? Public works crews and trucks to deal with it? Mayor Fleck having to wear his cold weather corn suit?

We may see something with an extra half plate build. Not unlike that little garden piece in Ninjago City Gardens. Just so there is something to square up a city block with Assembly Square. Doing a Corner with a half width extension would be an interesting approach, so long as the 16 wide could be shifted to either side. This book is from the two brothers who run Brick City Depot. It's a fantastic Book for Modular Builders. Honestly one of the best resources out there. But it includes full instructions for exactly the building you are asking for. A Classic Corner Pharmacy with a fully detailed apartment above. Which might be why Lego would choose to do something else, as that role is already partially filled. https://smile.amazon.com/LEGO-Neighborhood-Book-Build-Your/dp/1593275714/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3F1PTEQVZNK79&dchild=1&keywords=the+lego+neighborhood+book&qid=1631118813&sprefix=the+lego+neigh%2Caps%2C158&sr=8-1

Please someone correct me if I am wrong, but my suspicion about Trans Neon Orange is that unlike the regular opaque colors, the transparent parts cannot use the newer color injection on the factory floor and probably need to still be made from pre colored pellets. Which limits how many colors they can have active at once. As it depends on silo space.

I'm honestly curious what you actually look for to determine a good set from a bad one? I would place the Tuning Workshop as a fantastic set. It has well made, different and compelling cars. A nice solidly built workshop with some nice detail minibuilds, and some really cool and distinct minifigs, plus a fairly rare dog. It's a set that isn't dumbed down for adults but has enormous play value for kids. The Racing Cars set you describe as the worst of the worst is a near perfect low cost set for play. It's a 2 for 1 set. 2 cars 2 separate builds, you give one to each kid and let them race each other. Simple, basic and fun. Whereas you like the Ocean Mini Sub? It's a 4+ Tie Fighter Cockpit in Yellow.

Speed Champions is the one line it already did happen in, back in 2019. We got two different colors of the same Porsche.

Oh boy is this gonna be TLDR. Sorry about that. I've been using a broad sampling of various lighting brands. Mainly Lightailing, Briksmax and Light My Bricks. With Light My Bricks being the expensive option that I've mainly used for stuff that I absolutely have to separate to move like the Daily Bugle and the Ninjago modulars. Of the other two Briksmax is a microconnector hub and spoke system that is compatible with Light My Bricks. Lightailing is prewired bricks in strings so you just swap out specific bricks. The Lightailing is easier to install for a beginner. The Briksmax/Light My Bricks is much more flexible and customizable, once you get over a slightly higher learning curve. And has the added benefit that if you break a wire, you just need to replace a single LED which you can easily order as many as you want. Lightailing is strings like Christmas Lights. Break a wire and you ruin a string. Light My Bricks also makes wireless connectors to place between the floors of buildings, so you can lift them apart without having to undo any wiring. I also have one building lit using a Brick Loot Kit, which in spite of it's rather shocking minimalist packaging (a plastic baggie) was actually a rather amazingly well designed kit that all but installed itself. Brick Tools uses a sort of hybrid between the hub and spoke and string systems. I have one lighting kit from Vonado, which is a Briksmax?Light My Bricks clone with much much poorer quality LED's. Many simply fell apart from handling them. I ended up replacing half the lights with Briksmax bulbs just from replacing the bad or damaged ones. I would recommend avoiding Vonado at the moment. Their designs are great. Their material quality is not great. I have heard good things about Blinky Bricks, but I don't have any experience with them yet. I do like that they seem to be making their own product. Powering is Via USB. So I have 1 or 2 50W USB Charging Hubs under each shelf. And an assortment of USB splitters and extensions that run behind the buildings. Each port of a good USB Charging Hub can power up to 100 LED lights. (Most Modulars run between 20-50 LED's) It's a shelf layout at Shoulder height so the rears are hidden. I have each Hub plugged into a Smart Plug which are linked as a group. So "Alexa Turn On Lego City" turns them all on or off. The same can also be achieved by using a Power Strip with a switch. I also have a run of USB ports attached to the front facing of the shelves so I can plug in or move the cars around easily. For Vehicle lighting this is by FAR the best option I have found. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07X6SXQMR/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1 The Briksmax kit for 60213. It's a near perfect kit for lighting most vehicles. It has 2 flashing white LED's for Police/Fire/Utility Lightbars, 6 solid whites, a warm white LED for the interior a connector hub, a USB power connector and a USB Battery Box. Since you are putting the LED's under or into the things you want to light up, you can use it for anything. Like I said the Lightailing sets are the easiest to install. Starting out I could get one installed in about 2 hours. And I had that down to 10-20 minutes for a few buildings. Installing the Light My Bricks or Bricksmax takes a bit more time. So about 1 building per night. 3 nights for the daily bugle. For effects lighting Briksmax and Light My Bricks have the best offerings. Dr. Stranges Sanctum Sanctorum with a variable effects board It's hard to see in the window. Strange is in the window looking into a green globe and holding a lit candlestick. While other red blue and green spells go off around him... plus I accidentally attached the streetlight to the sp

We also have a Pool Hall and a Dance Studio. I suspect they will keep any Video Arcade's to the Ninjago Modulars which have I think 2 already? Just because they seem better suited to Ninjago's tone and setting. But I would be happy to be proven wrong. If they were to do an Arcade I can't imagine it would be any larger than the banks Laundromat. Just because you don't need anymore to convey the idea of an Arcade. For the next Modular I'm leaning towards something retail, and something that would benefit from at least half or more of the frontage of the model. Something that allows for some attention getting signage. The things that jump to mind are Grocer/Market, Toy Store, Hardware Store, Etc.

Is it a baseplate or simply a regular large plate? Actual baseplates are vacu formed styrene. Not ABS. Older bricks from the 60's should not yellow as they predate the requirements mandating the bromine based fire retardents be added to plastic used in toys and electronics. Any plastic will degrade and grow brittle over time. ABS just does this much more slowly than other common plastics such as polystyrene or polyvinylchloride (PVC).

I was heartbroken when Speed Champions switched to 8 wide. The 6 wides gave us some great classic cars for our cities. That tiny Mini Cooper may be the best City scale vehicle Lego has ever made.

I'm rather pleased with the results. Full Album (for some reason the videos aren't thumbnailing. But will play if clicked on) -> https://flic.kr/s/aHsmWzsPV4

The only almost guaranteed pattern is Corner-Straight-Straight-Repeat. Other than that most other speculation is Voodoo, although they do seem to put some separation between "Public" or "Government" buildings. With the last being the Police Station I think we might see something a little more commercial/retail. Maybe a Corner Market type Grocery Store? For something like a Chinese Restaurant they can easily do that as a side building/frontage. Not unlike how they squeezed the Laundromat into the Bank. But they may surprise us and do something from out of left field.

I think they have been amortizing the "Cargo Bicycle" molds as much as they can in the past three years. But as for TukTuk's, you got me thinking. Have we only ever gotten the one in a City Set? The Ice Cream Vendor TukTuk from 60200 Capital City? The Police TukTuk came from a Ninjago movie set. There is the Noddle Cart Tuktuk in Monkey Kid. The Little Blue and Yellow Banana Delivery one was from a DC Super Heroes set. Am I missing any? Besides the Creator one?

If I remember this correctly. (And please correct me if I am remembering it wrong) They revisit and plan out the list of potential subjects for modulars looking 3-5 years ahead. The actual sets don't take that long to develop. They just plan ahead for the next 3-5 sets, and what is next on their discussed todo list.

So finally gathered all the parts to make this wonderful design. Thank you Berthil for making the plans public. And of course just as I am getting ready to build Lego announces they will be doing a Seinfeld Ideas set... Damit! Now I'm going to have to figure out a third floor!