Aanchir

Same with the spot pattern, too. The existing ladybug tile's spots don't match any real-world species that I know of, whereas this new one's spots are arranged just like the spots of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coccinella_septempunctata (a common ladybug species, particularly in Europe).

Honestly, the bigger factor in why the Blacktron Cruiser had stickers seems to have been the number of different parts it needed decorations for, not their potential for reuse in other themes. After all, 40581 was also released as a "throwback" GWP set just this year and was able to include two set-specific printed elements even at that sort of limited budget. Presumably, if the Blacktron Cruiser had only needed one printed element besides the minifig torso, it could have likewise used new printed parts for both. But since even the exterior markings alone would require more decorations than that, the designer opted instead to use that new element slot for a sticker sheet, allowing them decorate seven different parts at the cost of one new printed element.

It doesn't really bother me so much since even in the 90s, his "alignment" varied wildly from story to story. To give just a few examples: In the Summer 1993 issue of Bricks & Pieces Magazine, Majisto (or rather "Merlin", as he was named in Great Britain) was a benevolent wizard affiliated with the Dragon Knights. In this comic from Disney Adventures magazine, he is a villain who independently opposes the Dragon Knights. His foes are identified as "Black Knights" in the comic's text, but all the visuals representing them are clearly based on Dragon Knights/Dragon Masters sets and minifigs. In the Timebuster comics from the Austrian LEGO Klick magazine, he is the villainous leader of the Dragon Knights, and is opposed by the heroic King Lionheart and his Royal Knights. Conversely, in several of the German audio dramas, Majisto (or rather "Cerlin", as he was named in Germany) is on very friendly terms with King Lionheart of the Royal Knights. Notably, in earlier German promotional comics, the leader of set 6080's Lion Knights was named Prince Lionheart — seemingly implying that the two are related, or even the same character at different stages in life! The "Adventures of the LEGO Maniac" comic from the July 1995 issue of LEGO Mania Magazine shows Majisto teaming up with the skeleton and ghost from Royal Knights set 6090 to harass the Royal King and his knights by throwing them into their own dungeon! That said, this comic does not feature the Dragon Knights at all — just Majisto and his dragon. For my part, I like to imagine that this modern incarnation of Majisto from 10305 operates independently and is freely allowed to come and go wherever he is needed or wherever he can conduct his magical work in peace. After all, much like the land of Tarenta in the German audio dramas, this set's flavor text seems to describe a time of relative peace and stability, interrupted only by bandit raids by outlaw factions, or occasional unrest within the various knight factions. And this upcoming GWP is likely to fit nicely into that framework, since it gives Merlin his own workshop to conduct magical research and business from, rather than forcing him to reside permanently with any of the knight factions. The same sort of ambiguity and contradictions are present in Fright Knights stories from the 90s. For example, the comics from the European LEGO Klick magazine tend to present Willa and her dragons as enemies of Basil and his knights, whereas stories and comics from the American LEGO Mania Magazine tend to present them them as a unified faction. The "Adventures of the LEGO Maniac" comic from the January 1997 issue of LEGO Mania Magazine also shows Willa imprisoning the Royal King, and the Fright Knights sets themselves show Basil's knights imprisoning the Royal King's knights and soldiers. But it's hard to say whether that indicates any actual military hostilities between these two factions, or whether the Fright Knights are simply a solitary people with a generally hostile attitude towards intruders. In the continuity of 10305, I like to imagine that Majisto and Willa maintain a professional and familial rivalry, which may be friendly at times and antagonistic at others, but unlikely to escalate into outright warfare like feuds between rival factions of knights have been known to do in the past.

Potentially… the star-shaped wand mold IS still in production, as is the color 329 White Glow. We just haven't seen that mold used in that color yet. Double-sided torso printing doesn't really cost much more than single-sided torso printing — the biggest factor in the cost of a new printed element is the logistical cost of dedicating a production slot to that element, not the amount of ink or amount of surfaces printed (LEGO's printing machines include both "print stations" that apply ink and "rotation stations" that rotate the part around, so each part is printed all in one go). You have a good point that a new gown print for Majisto could hurt the chances of getting new dragon knight prints as well — unless, perhaps, the gown print itself is designed to be shared with other sets, as in the case of this generic white gown introduced in the Star Wars theme and later reused in both the Harry Potter theme and a non-licensed build-a-mini figure.

It's still a totally new printed element from a cost/logistics standpoint, since the old Blacktron torso has been out of production for years, and so the new one required a separate production slot from any other current torso patterns. In general, many of these mid-size GWP sets seem to be afforded enough new element slots for a few new decorated elements. Besides the Blacktron Cruiser's uniquely printed minifig torso and sticker sheet, here are a few other recent examples: 40581 Tahu and Takua included two uniquely printed 2x2 curved slopes 40600 Disney 100 Years Celebration included a uniquely printed minifig torso and 1x2x2 window pane 40530 Jane Goodall Tribute included a uniquely printed minifig torso, minifig head, and sticker sheet Also, since a Majisto minifig can be built using the same parts as in 10305, that means that any new decorated elements in the set would likely go towards either the knight minifig and/or Majisto's magic scroll. I'm definitely eagerly awaiting more news about this set, especially since my first Castle sets as a kid were Dragon Masters sets, and I was especially fond of set 6048 in particular! So it'd be lovely to get one to accompany my Lion Knights' Castle. That said, I'm not picky about whether the knight minifig is a dragon knight or a knight from another faction, since for me Majisto was always the star of the show!

Neat to see an attempt at re-imagining such a small and simple set! The colors of the island also feel very nicely balanced, and feel true to the spirit of the original model while still adding greater realism with the more varied shades and tones. While version 2's asymmetry is a big visual improvement and helps it echo the original set more strongly, I feel like it would be more "set-like" if the bottom layer were made of larger plates instead of a mix of large and small ones. One way to solve that could be to add a layer of plates representing water like you had in version 1. Or if you really prefer to keep it waterless like the original set, you could simply make some changes to the bottom layer of sand. But this is a very minor personal hangup on my part, so if you prefer to leave it as-is, that's also totally fine! The "crow's nest" is a very creative touch, and also offers some play potential, since it can potentially be removed and used as an improvised "boat"! Perhaps that's how this pirate floated to this sandy islet in the first place. And especially now that you've offset it from the islet's "center", it feels like a very fitting re-interpretation of the barrel from the original set design. Both this choice and the choice to swap the original set's pistol for a spyglass really help the model feel even more true to its name! The crab is also a very appropriate creature for a small set like this, and adds some potential conflict — the crab can try to pinch the pirate for trampling all over its island habitat, or the pirate could hunt the crab for his dinner (as you appear to have shown in your second photo)! Great MOC overall! As tempting as it is to focus on updating larger scenes, you really did a great job with this smaller one, and certainly made the most of the opportunity. It kind of inspires me to try re-imagining some of these smaller pirate sets myself!

They did make one set based on that cartoon after the fact (the Azure Angel)!

While it's true that the open tops of City building modules help to open them up a little more, they still generally include a structural beam separating the open roof from the open back wall, which makes the individual openings for a child's hand smaller. You make a very good point about hinges, though!

True, but since @El Garfio used the word "store" in their post I was focusing on businesses that primarily sell goods/products rather than ones that primarily provide services (barbershops, auto workshops, etc). A big part of why LEGO City buildings tend to be more sparsely furnished than Playmobil buildings is their smaller scale. If you furnish them too extensively, it becomes difficult for kids to reach inside to move figures and accessories around without knocking things over. Also, after skimming through the current Playmobil catalog, I can't help but notice a lot of the buildings have open roofs. LEGO employs a similar approach in a lot of Friends sets (particularly so that they can extend the depth of the building and include more furnishings while still giving kids plenty of room to reach inside), but it tends to be less common in the City theme. And particularly here on Eurobricks, City sets with open roofs (like 60329 and 60347, along with various 4+ sets) have received a lot of negative feedback for it. Yeah, I definitely agree there! It's great to see how the theme has been diversifying lately.

In addition to the stores mentioned by other folks: 60365 includes a convenience store/bodega 60203 from 2019 and 60366 from this year both include sporting goods/ski equipment stores 60380 includes a comic shop and an electronics/mobile phone store So all in all, I'm pretty optimistic that we'll see further diversification of LEGO City shops going forward. A lot of the ones that @Lion King mentioned would be great to see. A school/office supply store or florist/garden supply store would also be very new and different. And it would be neat to see a more substantial jeweler than the tiny 4+ storefront from 60241.

Yeah, the 2010 Imperial Flagship (much like Medieval Market Village from the year before) was very much a product of its time — a time when LEGO was still testing how far they could/should go beyond a KFOL building level, especially in sets like those two that were specifically meant to tie in with recent KFOL-targeted products. Barracuda Bay definitely went a lot further with its use of hinges and SNOT techniques to achieve a realistic hull shape. Its interior was also much more detailed (not only in terms of furnishings, but also structural details like the "ribs" of the ship and the base of the masts), and its rigging made great use of string pieces to add authentic detail. I figure even most folks who have expressed enthusiasm for a new Imperial Flagship would prefer an update/redesign over leaving the entire thing as-is. After all, some changes would be necessary regardless to account for retired parts like the 2x2x11 columns used for the masts — so any designers updating the model for a re-release might as well make other improvements in the process.

This! Whether or not a set uses stickers has more to do with how many unique/set-specific decorations it needs than its size. Hence why The Office has an extensive sticker sheet, but many larger Ideas sets not based on specific IP can get by with printing alone. The former exhausted a lot of its budget for printed pieces on over 20 uniquely printed minifig parts and accessories, and so had to use stickers for all the other decorations based on specific on-screen details. By contrast, a non-licensed Ideas set like Pirates of Barracuda Bay or the A-Frame Cabin requires far fewer unique decorations for either its minifigures OR other parts of the build.

I mean, regardless, I do think that PPP can be a useful metric even for these sorts of "outliers", such as when making value-for-money comparisons between two different Duplo sets or Dots sets or Bionicle sets or what-have-you. Especially if you're stocking up for projects that might require those sorts of pieces in large quantities, so want to know what sets would get you the most rather than worrying about the particulars of the build. It's just that you most likely wouldn't use the oft-quoted "10 cents per piece" as your threshold for a reasonable value in cases like those.

I definitely think price per piece is a useful metric. That said, it's one of several useful metrics out there. Price per gram is another useful one (albeit a trickier one to use for comparing brand-new or not-yet-released sets since a lot of sites won't have weight data for them yet). Linear dimensions can also be a great point of comparison for some sets, especially ones with a roughly rectangular footprint like modular buildings, Creator houses, or Technic supercars. What point of comparison is MOST useful is inevitably gonna vary depending on what type of sets are being compared. And sometimes if you want to get into the nitty-gritty details you might even want to consider multiple points of comparison simultaneously. By comparing price per piece AND price per gram, you can get a better feel for whether a set with a particularly impressive price per piece is genuinely more substantial than similarly-priced sets, or just uses smaller pieces on average. With some sets this is obvious — obviously a 4+ set will use bigger pieces on average than an 18+ set — but it can be more ambiguous in other cases, such as when comparing two UCS Star Wars sets that make extensive use of both small detail pieces AND larger plates, tiles, and panels. Specific desirable contents like minifigures or animals can naturally introduce entirely different complications to the decision-making process, but I don't think they negate the value of these more objective metrics on a more general level. After all, I doubt even most buyers who DO use price per piece for comparisons let it dictate all their purchasing decisions. I know I've certainly bought sets with a relatively high price per piece if the contents seemed worth my while in other, more subjective ways.

I mean, I wouldn't entirely rule out the possibility of a graphic developed specifically for a licensed theme showing up in other sets and themes. For example, the map to the "Canyon of the Crescent Moon" from LEGO Indiana Jones continued appearing for around a decade in other themes like Pirates, Monster Fighters, Creator, Friends, Ideas, and even other licensed IPs like Pirates of the Caribbean, Doctor Strange, The Hobbit and Frozen. Similarly, the Aurebesh "LOCK" screen and keypad from LEGO Star Wars also showed up in Ninjago, Nexo Knights, and Marvel sets. Even among accessory molds modeled on props from specific licensed properties, we've already seen the Dagger of Time from Prince of Persia, the Elven polearms and Uruk-Hai swords from The Lord of the Rings, Thor's hammer Mjolnir and Star Lord's blasters from Marvel, and Asajj Ventress's lightsabers from Star Wars show up in other themes. Needless to say, which parts are or aren't permanently "IP-locked" can be extremely unintuitive, so until/unless a part like this DOES show up in sets from other themes, all we can do is speculate. I agree it'd be a great part for Castle sets/MOCs, though!

Not gonna lie, it would be VERY cool if LEGO brought it back. It really is an outstanding model in both its "hideout" and "ship" forms. I dunno what the likelihood is by any means, but the previous Ideas re-releases suggest it's not totally out of the question. Barracuda Bay is admittedly somewhat more reliant on specialized molds (e.g. ship hulls, minifig accessories, etc) than the Ship in a Bottle or Saturn V Rocket were. But from what I can tell, none of those molds have been absent from new sets for long enough that I'd have doubts about them still being usable/available. Mind you, a totally new classic Pirates inspired ship could also be very cool in its own right. But at the same time, I know a lot of people are eager for a new imperial ship of some kind, and I personally feel the likelihood of them doing that would be much stronger if there's recently been a pirate ship and/or hideout set for it to do battle with. And if LEGO were to release another pirate ship and/or hideout set before Eldorado Fortress gets retired, a Barracuda Bay re-release might be easier to fit into that release schedule than a totally new design (since the design process is already completed and a lot of its elements are still in production).

I don't know about whether that opinion is popular or unpopular, but I do think it's pretty reasonable. In general, the first wave of City sets each year tends to have a lot of Fire and Police stuff, so regardless of whether you think the quality of those sets is good or bad, it DOES tend to feel repetitive compared to the more varied subthemes and subject matter that tend to launch in the second half of the year. There also tend to be more 4+ sets in the first half of the year than the second. As such, that initial wave tends to depend heavily on the Great Vehicles range for any sense of novelty. 2021 and 2022 were both a departure from the norm in terms of how many "My City/Life & Work" sets (and in 2022's case, even "exploration" sets) got pushed to the first half of the year. This served to promote the new road system and to make more room for the massive Stuntz waves that dominated the second half of both those years. Prior to that, it was more typical to see those sorts of sets in the second half of the year — 2023 is a bit of a "return to form" in that regard. I'm not sure whether 2024 will follow 2023's release pattern as well, but it's not a bad idea to be prepared for that possibility.

Couldn't you move the door of the HLC community center to the top of the kitchen's staircase and replace it with a generic 1x4x6 window pane? Also, if you put the seating area to the left of the kitchen instead of to the right and remove the 1x4 parapet segments at the top of the stairs/ramp that used to go to the community center, the sidewalk will still be continuous and the sign for the seating area will still point the correct direction. Your approach works too, of course, but it seems like even if you stack the two buildings, it's not too hard to solve most of the issues that you describe. Then again, you have the set and I don't, so maybe there are issues with the approach I'm envisioning that I've failed to anticipate. If you want you can try what I'm suggesting and let me know if it works or not!

That's awesome actually! Even if it's completely coincidental, it shows that writers today and writers back then happened upon similar possibilities for stories that could be told in this sort of genre and setting, even beyond the more obvious prison breaks and gold heists that have been included as play scenarios in the sets since the theme's debut.

Oh, this is beautiful! The hull looks fantastic despite being a little more angular than the original set's hull. The custom figurehead is also phenomenal, even if it fits the Caribbean Clipper's name from European languages (the governor's ship Sea Hawk) better than the Imperial Flagship's (admiral's ship Sea Lion). The decks and interior have a lot of nice and authentic details in spite of their small size, and it's very cool that you retained the original set's working rudder despite the space limitations you were working with! I do wonder whether you could improve the visibility of the cabin slightly (and also make it feel a little more hospitable for the crew) by replacing part of the deck above with some SNOTted lattice fence pieces like 3185 or 3633. Like the 8x8 "grid plate" used in many classic Pirates sets (which is unfortunately slightly too large for this model), parts like these could be used to represent the grates which were used on real wooden sailing ships to provide light and ventilation belowdecks.

Lovely work! This definitely feels in keeping with the style of both Barracuda Bay and the cargo ship from the new Eldorado Fortress. Unlike those, it's slightly smaller than the original rather than slightly larger, but it does adhere closely to the original color scheme and color blocking while adding lots of authentic details and streamlining some of the contours. I do sort of wish that the rudder didn't stick so far off the back, but aside from that I think you did an exceptional job with the custom hull design. The removable plate to access the hidden cargo hold is a very neat touch!

Yeah, this definitely seems like a reasonable distinction — and one that even LEGO made in classic Pirates sets. The sailors on the Caribbean Clipper had red epaulets like the soldiers, but without rucksacks and with tricornes instead of shakos. They were the only bluecoat minifigs outfitted in this way. The new Eldorado Fortress likewise alludes to this by replacing one of the four soldiers from the original set with a sailor to helm the cargo ship.

Oh, that's quite nice! I quite like the angled tower ad the varied parapet heights. I feel like it could use some crawling ivy or something to break up the monochrome look, but I suppose maybe that's what you left some of those exposed studs for? I'm also curious what you've done with the interior, since it seems like at this scale it must have quite a bit of space inside.

Ooh, great work here! I am amazed by the custom figure designs. The Islanders look almost like what you'd expect official Islanders figs to look in a modern set. Ironhook also looks amazing, and feels less like just an alternate outfit for Redbeard/Roger than in the original sets (though I kind of wish his beard were a different color to differentiate them a little bit more). Splitting the foundation across multiple "islands" is a great idea. It both makes the layout more flexible and provides more paths for islander canoes to take (instead of just one semicircular channel). I also love the amount of foliage/plant life (especially the extensive use of the fern piece) here, since it helps differentiate it from the landscaping in Barracuda Bay and Eldorado Fortress while still keeping the level of detail consistent. Even the treasure cave's contents feel really cool and unique — I love that instead of just gold coins/ingots, they feel like artifacts with meaning to this specific culture beyond their material value. My main gripe/nitpick is that I wish the island deity/spirit statue still used the more angular build from the original set for the sake of consistency with Barracuda Bay. Conversely, I kind of wish that the drums DIDN'T use the pattern from the original sets, since these zebra/tiger stripes never made sense to me on an island setting. Beautiful editing work on the "box art" as well!

The main reason I didn't suggest that if you want to use LEGO to tell a story involving a hidden treasure map (in general, not just in the context of this set), it'd usually make more sense to use a dedicated treasure map piece for clarity's sake instead of a more ambiguous envelope piece!