deraven

Very nice indeed. And not too much (literal) overhead to contend with, so has some actual practical uses in reasonably-scaled builds!

Congratulations! congratulations conGRATulations!

This is fantastic! I'm not a fan of Sponge Bob in the least, but I'm still supporting this fantastic creation on Ideas. Nicely done!

Really nice build. The wall, the trees, and the building themselves are all lovely. Could have used a softer focus for them in the background to drive the perspective effect, but that's a minor criticism. Thanks for sharing!

I don't think this will signal any bigger changes, as other's have already said, and this has been a few years coming. Honestly, I thought this had already happened. I would be more concerned if Jørgen Vig Knudstorp was moved out of the loop at all, but with him still there helping to oversee and steer, I think they have a good combination of folks to keep things on the right track while still innovating and improving.

This is truly fantastic. I love all the functional features you were able to integrate, and the house in the viewfinder screen is great as well. Bravo!

Right? I guess TLG knows what they're doing with who to target, eh? Definitely enjoying all those recent creations of yours. Thanks for sharing the creativity.

Welcome to EB, Augusto! Sounds like a fun project with the cars and I look forward to seeing some of your creations. Happy building!

That is lovely! Nice decoration on the pen, too. I think this is a great example of what can be done with DOTS that's somewhat outside of the "suggestions" TLG has shown so far.

Quite impressive for that small size, and captures it well. Also an interesting take on the Caminoan!

I believe it's a variety of factors, but certainly the biggest is likely to be composition of the bricks. The amount and possibly type of fire retardant used throughout the years, for example, can cause difference amounts of yellowing or browning in Lego. For instance, I recently pulled some assembled MOCs out of storage that were put together looking pristine and have obviously had the same exposure to light and heat, but a number of the bricks are drastically more discolored than others, even ones they're directly attached to on the same surface of the model.

I agree that it's basically a toss-up unless you do have other specific clues you can see in the pics. If, for instance, there are a few key parts/colors visible in the photos AND still some minifigs from the same sets/era also visible, that's a much better bet that it's legitimately someone selling an un-filtered lot. The biggest tell for me that the bulk lot won't be very interesting is when there are no minifigs visible or if the listing actually says "no people, just parts" or something like that.

But I just did compare it. It really shouldn't be the piece count that decides whether a model is actually looking good or not. Well, maybe it would be better to say that it's an unfair comparison for a few reasons. Mainly, you're comparing a set that is a dragon to a set that contains a dragon. I think that's more what Vindicare meant. That is, when the directive for the designer is "create a Harry Potter set around this topic at this price point" and the dragon isn't the main focus it's not fair to compare that to a set where the only thing in it besides 1 figure is the dragon itself, and at a higher price point to boot. It's more fair, IMO, to compare it to the larger Ninjago dragon sets that are in a similar price range and where the dragon is the main build. In that case, as you agreed, the dragons are much better done (if in a style that's sometimes less organic by design). That being said, I agree that TLG could be doing better in the middle ground with non-molded dragon designs. They have the elements available to do it well, I think they just haven't produced a set recently that hits the sweet spot for piece budget in a set to devote to it, and/or with a designer that wants to take it on as a challenge along with the rest of the design requirements.

OKaaay... I mean, it's only been in common use for a decade+ so I don't know what to tell you. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

It's like that hat was made to be used as a bike seat! This is great.

I agree with this, and definitely that "the devil is in the details," however 1) they have so many lines now that I'm sure they could find something less profitable to scale back or drop and 2) I still believe that they could add more production capacity more easily than most people think. I very much still remember from decades ago the discussions of how expensive molds are to produce, the limited machine time/capacity that goes along with that, etc., but as I noted above those don't seem to actually be a bottleneck anymore, so I think it really does come down to what they want to do with scheduling and such as you touched on. Ultimately all of that is an unknown to all of us so we can only speculate. Getting back a little close to the main topic (of whether or not they should do something like this vs whether or not they could), I still think it would be a great idea to try some limited re-releases again! At this point I'd be happy if they just occasionally throw something our way when they have an unexpected lull somewhere in production (kind of like the 2015 Winter Toy Shop re-release that nobody was expecting, though that came at the expense of a new design for the Winter Village that year).

I think it really depends on the set. The early Modular Buildings, like Cafe Corner, for example, have basically no specialized parts or prints. Those would be a breeze to re-release. Another thing that I think comes into play is how many molds TLG is able to turn out and run at a time these days. Look at the large number of custom pieces for the CMF lines, and the much larger relative number of new elements used elsewhere each year as compared to even 5 years ago. If there were a set they really wanted to put out again that had a couple elements out of production, I really don't think that would be much of a concern and might just add a tiny bit more to the retail price of the set.

Surely someone else here remembers the Legends line of re-releases that Lego did in the early 2000s? https://lego.fandom.com/wiki/Legends The boxes were basically reprints of the original sets with the "Legends" banner included, some of them initially being in black & white instead of color. Minor substitutions or re-designs were done where needed (the Guarded Inn used headlight bricks instead of the old 1x1 windows, for example) and that seemed to have worked just fine. They only released 1-3 per year and they were priced in-line with MSRP on current sets. I think it'd be excellent if the did the same sort of thing again with whatever re-designs might be required and even at a bit of a price premium. I'd also be down with more substantial re-imaginings of some classic sets along the lines of some of the awesome neo-Classic Space MOCs folks have done. Perhaps those would fall into the supposed new focus on AFOLs to tap both some nostalgia and also the bigger pocketbooks, but straight re-issues like the Legends would be wonderful. Even then, 15-20 years ago, the classic sets they put out as Legends were commanding a high premium on the secondary market (I recall coming very close to buying a MISB Black Seas Barracuda for $350 just before they announced that one) and while it hurt the resale value in the short term if you look again now you'll see the BSB back at a premium with high prices for both the original and the Legends re-release. I don't think that's a huge consideration for TLG when deciding something like this... but their motivations are changing over time and I'm sure the acquisition of Bricklink says something about their interest in the secondary market... though I'm still not sure what.

Poll is also broken for me. There were aspects I like about all of those, though Mars Mission was pretty weak IMO. The "fun" that they had with Alien Conquest was great, and I liked the minifigs and aliens quite a lot, but the overall prize for me tips to Galaxy Squad because I thought the sets overall were more interesting and better built.

Huh. Weird. This is a pretty decent Lego/AFOL glossary if you want to peruse it- some other more obscure stuff in there as well. https://www.brothers-brick.com/lego-glossary/

NPU = Nice Part Use. An unexpected (often very clever) way to use a LEGO element in a model.

Some people might debate the quality, but I think most would agree and pad printing is what Lego uses. UV printing, especially on non-flat surfaces, usually results in lower quality (resolution) prints especially when compared side-by-side, and at least I personally don't like the texture that it ends up with on the finished parts. Very generally, yes. You can spend a lot on either, but ultimately the pad printer is just a printing press and isn't nearly as costly from a technical perspective. Now, you can pay a lot more for automation and multi-color setups (which is usually were you want the automation to ensure you get proper alignment between all the color passes, etc.) but an entry-level pad printer can certainly be found for less than a lot of UV printer setups. But you do have to take into account the cost of everything related to the plates for pad printing, and if you're doing quantity and a lot of different designs you're going to have a lot more time in setup with pad printing compared to (basically) just hitting "print" on the UV printer. I'm no expert so perhaps someone else can chime in with more detail if they've done print runs with both options. Another quick thing to mention, depending on how many designs you're looking to do, in what quantities, and how often, it might be cheaper to have your custom designs printed by some place like Citizen Brick. Eventually the cost of equipment and time would be offset and come in lower to do it yourself with enough production (or if you're wanting to only run off a few prints of some designs), but for 50-100 each of a few different designs you might be in the middle ground where you could go either way.

Lovely! And I totally agree that the foliage you've added to the rock work make a huge difference and looks great. Will definitely enjoy seeing more of this layout as it progresses.

I think it looks pretty good overall. I would change the front hood- it's too square in my opinion. I'd use a wedge of some sort on either side to better match the angle you have going on at the bottom with those vents, and also the angular nature of the windscreen.

The first thing to decide is your printing method. If you want the highest quality (Citizen Brick or Lego-level) they you're talking about pad printing. That's going to start at a few thousand dollars for a decent quality multi-color pad printer, plus you need some way to do the plates. Pad printing is not like inkjet or UV printing where you pull an image up on screen and hit the print button; you actually need an engraved plate for each color/process step of your pad print. Unless you already have a high-resolution, precision laser engraving machine that you might be able to use for making steel plates, I would suggest looking at the process to make photopolymer plates (which should hold up well enough since you won't be doing high-volume printing). If you can get that sorted out and feel comfortable with it, then it gets easier from there.