Aanchir

Isn't that exactly what we had in 2013? But in general, I'm liking a lot of these heraldry ideas. If Nexo Knights is any indication, then kids still consider falcons, bulls, horses, and foxes/wolves "cool" heraldic animals. Lions and dragons too of course, but they're definitely not the only options. Anybody got any ideas about future Castle color schemes? I know neutral colors like black and grey are sort of par for the course, and I don't really expect that to change (as much as I prefer brighter color schemes), but how about accent colors? Green could be interesting, I don't think any "good guy" Castle faction has ever used green accents. Or maybe some yellow or orange Tudor-style architecture like in https://brickset.com/sets/6074-1/Black-Falcon-s-Fortress or https://brickset.com/sets/20214-1/Adventure-Designer? It would also be neat if a new Castle theme could incorporate more curves than past LEGO castles, which even in recent years have been pretty angular. There are a lot of really cool curved parts these days… panels, bricks, plates, tiles, you name it! Curves could also be a good way to help a new Castle theme stand out more from Nexo Knights, which really plays up the sharp angles even more than a lot of other sci-fi themes do. Just as an example of what's possible (this is not necessarily ideal or realistic, just something I doodled earlier this year):

Cool, this looks really authentic! I haven't ever actually ordered any 3D printed masks or LEGO parts, but when I do I will keep this paint color in mind! I really love the warmness of LEGO's "Warm Gold" (Pearl Gold) a lot better than the more brownish look of the earlier "Sand Yellow Metallic" (Flat Dark Gold), so it's good to know that there's a paint color that approximates it pretty well. :) Did you find that it needed any sort of sanding before painting it?

I was confused at first too, but I think he was responding to Itaria's comment about LotR being "the only castle/fantasy theme with realistic skin-tones". A lot of Castle fans might disagree about Harry Potter being a Castle/Fantasy theme, since it has even more post-industrial elements than LEGO Elves (the Hogwarts Express, the Weasley's car, many of the characters' outfits, etc). But the outfits of characters like Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Trelawney would be plenty compatible with Castle layouts, and there's generally nothing expressly modern about most of the characters' faces (which are the most you'd absolutely need LEGO elf ears to match).

I think the lightning details should be obvious enough with most of the more unique monsters. Ruina and the Roguls, for example, literally have lightning patterns on their torsos and lower bodies. The Grimroc and Stone Colossus each have lightning-patterned wings, and the former has lightning bolts coming out of its fingers. A lot of the monsters also have lightning-themed weapons. The only monsters that don't have really strong electric design cues tend to be the weaker ones like Stone Stompers and Bricksters.

I often regret not buying any of the KK2 System playsets after the first year. My main interest in the theme was in the story and buildable figures, but I often feel like the playsets got really good right when I stopped collecting them. Within the Castle theme itself, my favorite set I owned was probably https://brickset.com/sets/6048-1/Majisto-s-Magical-Workshop or https://brickset.com/sets/6093-1/Flying-Ninja-Fortress. Of sets I didn't own, the only ones that particularly jump out at me are https://brickset.com/sets/7946-1/King-s-Castle and https://brickset.com/sets/10193-1/Medieval-Market-Village. They're not really sets I want to have but they're closer to what I like than most other sets. Really, my favorite LEGO castles tend to be ones that feel more livable, which tend to be from themes outside the "Castle" theme proper. Sets like https://brickset.com/sets/4842-1/Hogwarts-Castle, https://brickset.com/sets/41180-1/Ragana-s-Magic-Shadow-Castle, and https://brickset.com/sets/70323-1/Jestro-s-Volcano-Lair. Ragana's castle is probably my all-around favorite of those three. Elves in general tends to be much better at delivering what I expect to see in a medieval fantasy theme, with gorgeous brick-built dragons, livable buildings, colorful and fascinating environments, an enticing story, and character designs with lots of personality. I hope that when traditional Castle sets come back they will take some cues from themes like Nexo Knights and Elves, and incorporate more livable spaces.

I mean, it's surely ending eventually, but the rumor that it would be cancelled prematurely with the summer 2017 wave possibly being cancelled turned out to be incorrect.

Are LEGO buying kids really getting younger? I feel like there are a lot more sets aimed at higher ages than there used to be. Like, many of the biggest sets from themes like Ninjago and Nexo Knights are aimed at 9–14. The biggest LEGO Batman Movie sets are aimed at 10–16 or 12–16. Elves and Super Hero Girls have a few 9–12 sets. Conversely, back in the 80s and 90s it was hard to find a higher recommended age than 8–12 outside of the Technic theme. That's not even getting into the 10+, 12+, and 14+ sets we see a lot of in D2C or Ideas. We tend to think of those as "AFOL sets", but TFOLs are also a part of their intended audience. That said, the 5+ Friends and City themes are still some of the biggest and most successful. And with all the sets and themes aimed at older kids, that market may be more saturated than the younger market. Hard to say.

Converting from DKK is not really a reliable indicator of price because Danish prices tend to convert to WAY more than US prices. Denmark has some of the highest LEGO prices in the world.

I consider the Dragon's Forge the more impressive of the two sets. It has really elegant architecture as opposed to the run-down look of the lighthouse, includes a cool fusion dragon, and boasts some really awesome exclusive figs. I personally skipped the lighthouse and bought the forge. However, the Lighthouse Siege, as an older set, will be retiring sooner and can be more easily found at a discount. So if you're at all interested in saving up for BOTH sets, then the lighthouse might be the better one to pick up sooner.

I wouldn't count on a Boba Fett figure having Sand Green shells, since his helmet is really the only part of his armor in that color. The rest of his outfit is mostly yellow or dark green over grey. Really, I think the main reason there hasn't been a Boba Fett figure is lack of opportunities. Everything between the first wave and this summer has been focused on movie characters. Next time we get a big wave of legacy characters he's a very viable candidate.

Atlantis and Power Miners were both "Big Bang" themes that only lasted two years. Ninjago changed the game in some respects (like making TV shows a staple of future "big bangs") but it might be safer to assume that rather than making three years the default expectation, the expectations of a "Big Bang" are still decided on more of a case-by-case basis, depending on factors like how the last one did or how experimental the new one is. I did recently find an October 2015 post by @Nabii that mentioned Nexo Knights giving traditional Castle a one or two year break, so from the beginning it seems LEGO was tempering their expectations with this one, rather than defaulting to a three-year expected lifespan. That's not to say Nexo Knights couldn't get a 2017 wave. I don't have any insider knowledge on the matter.

It's so adorable! I want to give it a hug. Amazing work!

Castle can definitely support big exclusive sets, and in fact it has more precedent for that than many themes. But those are mostly independent of the main theme's target audience. Kingdoms was mostly aimed at ages 5–12 and still got the 12+ Kingdoms Joust, after all. So even if a new Castle theme has the same target audience as usual, that shouldn't lessen its chances of an exclusive set aimed outside the upper margins of that audience.

I don't think collectible minifigures are really meant to "test the waters" for anything. They seem to be selected and designed on their own individual merits. I wouldn't read much more into them than that LEGO thought they were cool figs kids would like, that would add variety to their respective series. It is definitely possible that CMF parts (like the Frightening Knight's mace) could find a place in a future Castle theme, but I don't think the CMF designers would be introducing those parts with specific plans to use them in the next Castle theme. CMF designers create most molds with hypothetical future uses, but where and when they show up in other themes would ultimately be up to those themes' designers. Generally Nexo Knights is aimed at older kids than Fantasy Era or other Castle themes have been, so if the next Castle theme were aimed at an even older audience it'd be surprising to say the least. Plus, half the point of renewing or replacing themes is to get new fans invested, rather than rely on the same aging audience. If they wanted to continue targeting kids who grew up with Nexo Knights they could just keep that theme around with an evolving look and story. But unless it was drawing in newer, younger fans to replace the kids who inevitably lose interest, catering to the same generation of kids would yield diminishing returns.

I was just trying to find the source that confirmed Nexo Knights had been in development since around 2009. Turns out it was this video at around 1:15. So the idea of "futurizing" Castle wasn't conceived in response to any sort of failures on the part of Kingdoms or Castle 2013. But I also found an interesting post from Nabii again and thought a certain part of it was worth pointing out: So even before the theme launched, designers weren't forecasting it for more than a few years. Barring the possibility that Nexo Knights has wildly surpassed expectations like Ninjago did and yet this time LEGO has been strangely silent about it, traditional castle should probably be back in 2018 or 2019.

The scale doesn't seem very different to me… looks like around a 12-stud diameter second stage, 8-stud diameter third stage, and 4-stud diameter command and service module (the original had a 14-stud diameter second stage, but the other stages were still around the same size). That said, it is entirely possible that the final set will be based on the basic model and not the deluxe model. Particularly since the fuel tanks in the deluxe model were a later update — the project managed to get its first 4,000 supporters before it included any sort of representation of the fuel tanks. Also, the set version seemingly avoids STAMPs entirely, so its side walls may be thicker and more elaborately constructed to allow for that.

Agreed. Sets and themes dealing with Pacific island cultures are clearly still OK (just look at the Moana sets in the Disney theme), but these cultures' interaction with European cultures would be hard to treat delicately and respectably in the context of a toyline. These clashes of cultures in real life generally ranged from exploitative to genocidal, and many of these indigenous cultures that survive today are still dealing with the consequences. The realities of this period of history would be decidedly unwholesome as a subject for a play experience, and trying to sanitize them would constitute revisionist history and erasure. I loved the Islanders sets as a kid (I dressed up as King Kahuka for Halloween when I was 3 or 4), but the reality is that they were probably not especially respectful to the sorts of cultures they were depicting. After all, even the early days of the Bionicle theme (another favorite of mine) took heat for appropriating Polynesian cultures, and that theme wasn't even depicting real people or history, just sci-fi characters with names and societies inspired by Polynesian cultures. Would a more respectful approach to an Islanders faction be possible? Maybe! But it'd have to be treated with the appropriate care, not just mashing up cultures indiscriminately and using the result as a backdrop for European shenanigans. I think there are probably better ways to introduce diversity (of both cultures and subject matter) to the Pirates theme, maybe by adding some Asian pirates and pirate vessels.

City tends to be a reliable bestseller without any kind of futuristic twist, so I wouldn't anticipate any huge changes to its formula in the foreseeable future. LEGO has had more futuristic takes on the City/Town category in the past in the Jack Stone and World City themes, but neither sold as well as the more familiar-looking, modern-day stuff. It probably helps that City has found its niche with the 5–12 age range that traditional Pirate and Castle sets generally target, rather than the older 7–14 age range of themes like Ninjago, Bionicle, and Nexo Knights. Older kids tend to have a greater demand for stuff that feels to them like something nobody has ever seen or played with before. But for younger kids who are still coming to terms with the world around them, a toy police car, fire truck, pirate ship, castle, or space shuttle still feels pretty fresh and exciting in its own right. Arguably, the nearest recent equivalents to Ninjago or Nexo Knights in the City category would be Agents and Ultra Agents. In fact, when the first Agents set rumors emerged in 2007, the Eurobricks topic for the theme was in the Town subforum, and the reaction there was about as vitriolic as the reaction many Castle fans here had towards Nexo Knights. In that case, though, the City theme had already proven a strong enough core to continue without any kind of interruption, so once Agents discussion was moved out of the Town category, tensions calmed down considerably.

To me the teaser image pretty clearly shows a command module that's 4x4 at its base? Granted, it wouldn't have any room inside due to presumably being a solid 4x4x2 cone, but the diameter seems reasonably accurately scaled to the height of a minifigure trophy. Real Neil Armstrong height: 1.80 meters Real command module diameter: 3.91 meters (2.172 x Neil's height) LEGO trophy fig height (head to toe, not counting base): 4 plates/1.28cm LEGO command module diameter: 4 studs/3.2 centimeters (2.5 x trophy fig's height) If anything, the command module on the set is a bit bigger than it needs to be, but at this sort of scale it's a difference of less than a plate and a half diameter, so not really consequential

I honestly don't mind the idea of Nya having to decide between being a ninja and being a samurai. Even if those two concepts aren't mutually exclusive, I like the idea of her trying to put that older part of her life aside so she can focus more on being the best ninja she can be. Same as how an artist might move on from sculpture to focus more on their work as a painter. It's not as though a person can't sculpt AND paint, but if a person feels called in a new direction it's not always ideal to try and answer that call while also continuing on the same track they were on before. Plus, "Samurai X" in the show has always been sort of a masked superhero, so I like the idea of somebody else taking on that mantle now that Nya no longer needs it (like how there's always a new Robin to take over when the previous one takes on a new identity).

I think LEGO does design certain products with collecting multiples in mind (the Uruk-Hai Army set, for example, or the Nexo Knights battle packs which are generally devoid of named characters). But it varies by set and by theme. It's probably safe to say that most collectible minifigures are selected and designed for individual desirability, since they will generally be bought individually. Whether they make good army builders, then, is probably mostly an unintended consequence of whether the character archetype in question is expected to wear a uniform. I tend to be mostly drawn towards collecting individual characters. If I get multiples of the same character it's usually either for parts or because they came in a set I wanted for other reasons. I did buy a second Raid VPR from Space Police for another Blacktron torso, but I never ended up opening it, so I guess I wasn't really committed to the idea. The only MOCs I've ever really contemplated making with large numbers of identical or near-identical characters are chess sets… which I guess is kind of ironic, since many AFOLs see chess sets as a means to assemble armies and for me it's more often the other way around!

It's only an active license on account of the Dimensions packs, which are still available in Europe. For us AFOLs, a theme may effectively be "over" when new sets stop coming out, but from LEGO's perspective it's only over when they stop selling it, or when the actual licensing agreement expires. If LEGO really had any interest in making more Lord of the Rings sets, you'd have to wonder what exactly they're waiting for? As it is, though, the Hobbit movies were their impetus for acquiring the license in the first place, and currently there's no new Middle-Earth media over the horizon that's likely to generate a similar spike in interest. The reality is that with a licensed theme, a lot of the demand is ultimately outside of the LEGO Group's control — they're merely capitalizing on what people are already interested in.

The Bounty was shown at Toy Fair alongside all the other sets, so it's probably not D2C. I think that the rumors are that this will be a Ninjago City scene of some kind; not 100% sure though.

There's a new LEGO Ninjago Movie BrickFilm contest on Rebrick, and one of the prizes listed is "One exclusive LEGO Ninjago mystery set valued at $300 USD – to be revealed at a later date". So this basically confirms that there will be a Ninjago D2C set, and it'll be BIG — $300 is decidedly higher than the cost of either the Temple of Airjitzu or Metalbeard's Sea Cow. There's also this image in the prizes section, which I believe to be new.

Well put. To give a hypothetical example of the cost savings, imagine you're designing a set made entirely from existing elements and you want it to have 15 new decorations. You can either print all those parts individually, at the cost of adding 15 new printed elements to production. Or you can create a sticker sheet, at the cost of adding one new printed element to production. Logistically, the latter is far more efficient, even without taking into account equipment costs like whether you have all the right machine fittings to print the parts you want decorated.