Aanchir

Ooh, interesting thought. I hadn't considered that similarity.

And in that set's alternate build (since it was one of the rare examples of a Castle set that had instructions for one), it got flipped around for use as a cape on the chariot driver figure — who I assume was the inspiration for the shirtless, caped Wizard of Avalon from the "Captain Indigo" comics in Bricks & Pieces Magazine. Truth be told, I kind of wish that the new Majisto figure from the Lion Knights' Castle had a short black fabric cape like this one to echo the original Majisto's plastic cape, instead of a Sand Yellow/Dark Tan satchel which he doesn't really use to carry anything in the set itself. While I get this frustration, I think for the viking in particular it'd be kind of illogical if the torso print DIDN'T have a cape print of some kind in the back, since it's clearly printed with the brooch holding the cape closed in the front. So if the back print didn't have a cape, it'd be unclear what the brooch is attached to. The printed cape on the Falconer is less essential, since the portion of the cape printed on the front of the torso is simply tucked under the tunic's collar. So you were to use that torso without a fabric cape, that little bit of Earth Blue remaining visible in the front could just as easily be interpreted as an undershirt, gorget, or other article of clothing.

Yeah, and on a similar note, it could be an aspirational thing, like dressing little kids in sailor suits. I can just imagine astronaut parents enthusiastically opining that "Our little boy/little girl is gonna be a RADAR TECHNICIAN one day!" I can't imagine a futuristic space fleet like this needing any sort of strict regulations on what colors baby clothes have to be. After all, it's not like an astronaut seeing an infant/toddler in a red or white spacesuit would mistake them for a fully licensed and certified pilot/explorer. Unless you WANT to introduce that sort of wacky mix-up scenario in your own MOCs/stories, that is — I mean, after writing it out, I realize it WOULD be pretty hilarious.

…after reading all of that, I regret asking for clarification. In any case, I greatly prefer the idea a lot of people have shared in this thread of using pink for medical, since real-life medical scrubs are often in soft colors like pink, light green, or light blue. It'd certainly be less intimidating as a patient than being operated on by an astronaut in a blood-red spacesuit. And from the perspective of sets, it provides a good explanation for why there weren't any pink-suited astronauts in actual Classic Space sets — none of those sets depicted medical settings like a clinic, examination room, operating room, or quarantine facility!

Yep, they're prints. Brickset and New Elementary both have reviews up now confirming it! https://brickset.com/article/90039/review-40581-bionicle-tahu-and-takua https://www.newelementary.com/2023/01/lego-review-40581-bionicle-tahu-and.html

I'm so confused by your attitude here. You shared your choices, other people questioned a couple of them, and now instead of bothering to explain those choices to anyone, you're throwing around vague insults that don't appear to make any obvious sense in context. How does "country's first not nations" pertain to the amount of royalty in your proposed space fleet? What do "goblins" have to do with LEGO Space? What does "conglamorant" mean? How is anybody in this conversation a "yellowbelly" (i.e. a coward)? Why do you keep addressing people by their user rank and not, by their usernames? It feels like you're going out of your way to be disrespectful/obstinate. I apologize if I've misunderstood/misinterpreted your tone/intent, but I am genuinely struggling to make sense of some of these comments.

Even the Fantasy Era giant trolls came in Sand Yellow/Dark Tan, so there is precedent for having them in different colors. But I guess if you're someone who feels that Olive Green in particular clashes visually with Sand Green that's not much consolation.

Some kind of curve, definitely. Even if you can get by without them for a city street layout, they're pretty essential for racetracks, which were one of the other major uses that the old road baseplates had back in the day! Ideally, I think I'd prefer a curve that turns less than 90 degrees, like LEGO train tracks have, so you have the option of off-grid building. But a 90-degree turn would definitely be simpler for builders to work with, especially younger kids. Not sure about the answer to your question, but so far I've mostly seen folks have been discussing it in the Ideas discussion thread.

I mean, as 3-in-1 sets, a lot of them ARE also other types of rockets/spacecraft. So maybe it's just that whenever LEGO decides to do a 3-in-1 spaceship set, a shuttle just happens to end up with "top billing" because of all those play features. Plus, back when I was a space-crazed kid, the space shuttle was definitely really iconic and cool to me, but so was the much older Saturn V. I remember @Lyichir and I building a huge one (or at least one that felt huge at my age) that sadly fell over and shatttered before we could get any pictures for posterity. So if kids truly just aren't as hyped up about the Soyuz or SpaceX Dragon (I don't know enough kids to know whether or not that's the case), I can definitely see how they might latch onto an older symbol of human spaceflight. All this said, Creator has sort of oscillated between "modern" focused space sets like shuttles/rockets, and more futuristic stuff like the Cyber Drone and Space Mining Mech, which is a trend I hope we'll see continue. It'd be awesome to see a 3-in-1 set focused on building pulp sci-fi inspired alien spacecraft like flying saucers and tripods, or one with a "moonbase" type model as the primary build! 31012 was definitely pretty great, but I think the Cozy House kinda comes out ahead in my book. The angled roof construction is more complex than just stacking slopes, and results in more realistic-looking eaves, in addition to the realistic gutters and drains. Plus, Cozy House's interior space is used more logically for the needs of a family, as opposed to having a huge garage and a living room with a super high ceiling, but only enough beds for one person! The main area where I think 31012 decidedly comes out ahead is that it includes stairs, which I agree is a pretty serious drawback of 31139 (even if it's one many kids are willing to ignore). The two sets also aren't really comparable in terms of price tag. Not only did 31012 cost $70 USD compared to 31139's $60 USD, but after a decade of inflation the value of $70 back then is the equivalent of around $90 today. If you adjust for inflation, 31139's price tag is closer to that of 31038, 7346, or 5891.

Just took a look at the fan design out of curiosity for an idea of what we might expect. It's a really nice build, with lots of detail and playable spaces, but all on one reasonably compact foundation, so it should fit on a shelf without too much hassle. The colors are great — mottled, but still organized well enough that you can tell what's what — a big improvement over the more haphazard use of browns and tans in BrickHammer's earlier proposal. The old dragon-inspired chanfrons will probably have to change since they are a retired mold, and even if LEGO had the budget to bring them back, I think their incompatibility with the current horse mold would discourage them from doing so. But LEGO has demonstrated time and time again that they are capable of making nice brick-built dragon head ornamentation. And the rest of the build seems largely up to "official set" standards. That's not to say there's no room for improvement — for instance, some of the more cramped areas like the market stall or blacksmith shop could maybe do with some updates to make it easier to reach in and insert/remove minifigures and accessories. But there certainly aren't a whole lot of details like long-retired molds/colors or extremely flimsy building techniques that would blatantly need to be replaced in the final set. After the great job designers have done on other recent Ideas sets like the Blacksmith and A-Frame House, I'm definitely eager to see how this one turns out in the end!

That's a whole lot of royalty for one space faction!

Lots of great nature/landscaping elements for forest settings as well! Lots of 1x1 leaf plates newly recolored in Bright Red! Also plenty in relatively recent/uncommon colors like Earth Green and Olive Green, as well as more common colors like Bright Orange, Bright Yellow, and Warm Gold. 3x4 limb elements in Sand Green (only in one other set so far) and Dark Orange (only in six previous sets, mostly Friends and Ninjago). 5x7 limb elements in Sand Green (only in one other set so far), as well as the more common Flame Yellowish Orange and Dark Red. Sand Green droid heads/mushroom caps (only in one previous set). Olive Green plant stems with three leaves (still relatively uncommon, though it looks like this set only has two or three of them, so these are more of a bonus than a purchase incentive on their own). Several Reddish Brown 1x1 and 2x2 round tiles with printed log/stump patterns. Flame Yellowish Orange butterfly/moth pieces with a brand-new emperor moth print, as well as Cool Yellow ones with the new butterfly print from 80110. A few other printed forest animals such as an otter, a squirrel, and two colors of songbird. It's definitely gonna be a great parts pack for all sorts of builders, historic builders included. I'm eager to see reviews when they show up to find out about any other fun details that aren't as obvious in the official pics and videos so far!

Oh, I love that lance construction! It definitely feels authentic to the colorful lances that sometimes appear on tapestries and other medieval illustrations. I think it would be especially fitting in a tournament scene, with two jousting knights sporting differently-colored lances. But it also looks very stylish here as armament for this lone knight on patrol. I notice you didn't include a plume on the knight's helmet. Is that a historical accuracy thing? I admit I don't know a whole lot about that sort of thing. It doesn't hurt the design by any means, it's just a choice I'm curious about.

I recently realized that besides being a great companion to the black falcons, the new falcon piece also feels kind of like a modern counterpart to the black or grey parrot pieces that appeared in a lot of 90s Castle sets! There are a few cases (even in the Castle theme) where that piece might have believably been meant to represent an actual grey parrot — namely, sets where it accompanies Majisto, since a wizard is the sort of wise and well-traveled individual who might be expected to own an exotic pet from distant Africa. But whenever that piece appeared in a Wolfpack or Black Knights set, I always understood it as a stand-in for native European bird species like crows, ravens, owls, vultures, or falcons.

Yep! The moths appear to resemble the small emperor moth or another emperor moth species. My first guess was the Polyphemus moth, but it turns out they have smaller eyespots on their forewings than on their hindwings. I can't recognize the butterfly species, but it's the same pattern as in the Lunar New Year Display.

Why would you expect the sign to match the building? The point of this sort of flashy commercial signage is to stand OUT from its surroundings — same as how Palace Cinema uses Medium Blue for its sign and marquee, or how Corner Garage and Grand Emporium both use Bright Yellow for their signage. Frankly, I feel like if the designers HAD gone with Earth Blue instead of Dark Red, they'd have also used a different color for the sign out front, since it's not meant to match the walls or be made of the same material. It'd be a different matter if the neon lettering were mounted directly onto the building's walls, rather than onto an electrical fixture in front of the building's windows. In that case, I could see the logic of having the letters' background color match the rest of the building. But at that point you'd be requiring major changes to the building layout, not just color changes.

Considering that this set only appears to include two new decorated parts, I would not be at all surprised if LEGO opted for printed parts. The main advantage of sticker sheets is that they let LEGO decorate a LOT of parts for the cost of just one new element. The new Blacktron Cruiser, for example, has just two new elements (an updated Blacktron torso and a sticker sheet), whereas it'd need four times that many if all of the different stickered parts were printed instead. But in a set with only one or two decorated parts, a sticker sheet would not really be much help because it would barely change the number of new elements required. A lot of sets also have more incentive to use stickers so that they can focus their budget for new printed elements on minifigure parts, which obviously isn't an issue in this case.

That's fantastic! I have tried drawing characters in the mini-doll style but haven't come anywhere near this close to mastering it. Admittedly, it's been a long time since I did ANY sort of drawing, since the end of my time in college a few years ago left me with lingering creative burnout. Maybe this is the year I should try to get back in the habit of drawing for my own enjoyment…

I personally think a studded surface is more fitting for the Palace Cinema's floor. Tiles tend to result in the appearance of a literal tiled floor, whereas plates would help it retain the original carpeted look due to the rougher texture and less conspicuous "seams". I think sometimes when MOCs or mods go out of their way to minimize visible studs, that sort of nuance can be lost. But obviously, it's up to the tastes of the individual builder in the end. I'm surprised so many people dislike the Dark Red upper stories of the Jazz Club. I feel like it balances nicely with the Cool Yellow and Dark Azur for a nice triadic color scheme. Moreover, it's only the second building in the series to use Dark Red as an exterior wall color (whereas Earth Blue has been used as an exterior wall color in Detective's Office, Cafe Corner, and Market Street). Red brick also feels like a very natural wall material for this sort of building, and the Reddish Brown tiles help to give it more of an uneven surface that stands out from the Fire Brigade's tidier red bricks interrupted by grey mortar. The complaints I've seen about the Dark Azur and Cool Yellow are a little more predictable, since bright colors tend to get a lot of negative reactions in ANY new Modular Building, especially among people who stereotype these colors as childish or "Friends-ish". But for my part I think they're both very smart choices. Cool Yellow is a perfect fit for the pizzeria's Italianate architectural style and sunny Mediterranean vibes. And Dark Azur not only evokes "the blues, but also simulates the lower level being illuminated by the building's streetlamps and marquee signage, giving its otherwise dark, moody exterior some bright, groovy frontage that invites people in to enjoy the best this town's nightlife has to offer. By comparison, the use of Earth Blue in the mod above is very stylish and matches the signage quite nicely — but without that bright flash of color on the lower level, the entire building ends up looking very dark, and loses a lot of the contrast that helps the original building's design "pop". That said, this color change might look better in real life than in a render, especially if you could manage to rig up some third-party electric lighting for the streetlamps and marquee to restore some of that brightness at street level. Anyway, my own biggest frustration with the set by far is that the lower level's back wall lacks details to help break up the smooth, uninterrupted fields of color, which feels particularly out-of-character for that sort of shady back alley. Some crawling ivy, drainpipes, electrical/HVAC equipment, a fire escape, or even an additional trellis like the one in front of the pizzeria could have helped a lot there, and potentially given the squirrel nesting on the roof a way to climb up and down the building. Easy enough to mod, but it feels like a bit of an unfortunate drawback even compared to the relatively nondescript back walls of the series as a whole.

I dunno yet if we'll be seeing sets like "Lots of Bricks" in more specific color palettes (might depend how that set's sales turn out!), but I certainly believe there could be room for a set similar to "Creative Pastel Fun" or "Creative Neon Fun" with more of an emphasis on the sort of natural/earth tones used in themes like Castle and Minecraft (greys, browns, reds, greens, blues, etc). It could be called "Creative Nature Fun" or something like that, maybe. Even if those colors in and of themselves aren't necessarily as thrilling or eye-catching as a more vivid rainbow of bricks, you could potentially make up for that with fun sample builds like animals, castles, tropical islands, volcanoes, planets, etc.

Ooh, neat to see an article that discusses that sort of linguistic trend in such detail! I definitely think it's funny sometimes seeing how Space themes, sets, and characters were named differently in different places and time periods based on the tastes of marketing teams then and there. For example, American Space set names were often less descriptive of a set's function and contents than British ones, and more prone to "technobabble" and fanciful, vaguely evocative word choices. Just compare America's Blacktron Alienator, Invader, and Battrax to Britain's Blacktron Strider, Cruiser, and Prowler. Or America's M:TRON Pulsar Charger, Beacon Tracer, Vector Detector, Particle Ionizer, and Mega Core Magnetizer with Britain's M:TRON Micro Bike, Inspection Buggy, Search Craft, Cosmicopter, and Recovery Centre. What purpose is there in a particular ship detecting vectors or ionizing particles? I dunno, but it SOUNDS cool and futuristic, and evidently that's what LEGO's North American marketing department felt would resonate with kids in the late 80s and early 90s. To be honest, I'm pretty glad that the Blacktron Cruiser re-release uses its British name rather than its American name, given how much clearer the British set names at this time were at describing particular vehicle types or classes. "Invader" could refer to any number of different types of spacecraft or ground vehicles, while "Cruiser" more clearly refers to a mid-size interplanetary spacecraft. Also, back then, even subthemes/factions sometimes had different names from country to country. In Blacktron was [Black Space] in Germany and «Black Star» yes in Denmark and Italy (and yes, the faction name was in English in all three languages). Some British catalogs also referred to the Space Police maintaining "law and order in the endless universe of Black and White Space", using these terms either as synonyms for either the Blacktron and Futuron factions or for the territory they controlled. That said, the name Blacktron was standard in all countries for the faction's subsequent incarnation in 1992.

Aw, neat! While it loses a bit of the flair of the original set by doing away with the many trees (brick-built and molded alike) and flags that help to visually break up its foundation and silhouette, that makes a lot of sense considering its purpose as a fun exploration space for cats! Before I relocated the Lion Knights' Castle and Medieval Blacksmith to a high shelf, my own kitties LOVED to knock over or grab at the various tree and leaf pieces that stuck out from the structures and their foundations. Thankfully, they didn't tend to chew on the parts they did get free, just bat them around the floor with their paws — but that did mean often waking up to a game of "where did the loose pieces wind up today?" The ivy seems to be less of a problem since it's secured against the walls in such a way that it's hard to pull free without the aid of opposable thumbs. Anyway, it's especially cute near the end of the video seeing one of the builder's kitties stretching up to scratch his back against the castle's oversized portcullis! As risky as it can be to have sets in a place where they'll be a temptation for pets, I always love seeing pictures and videos of kitties making themselves at home among a builder's creations — whether or not the creation was built with them in mind!

Whoever convinced you that was the reason schools started using whiteboards instead of blackboards was either pulling your leg or mired in conspiratorial thinking. As somebody who grew up with both whiteboards and blackboards in school, the main reason that whiteboards began gaining favor over blackboards around the 90s is that whiteboard markers produce less airborne dust than chalk. Chalk dust can not only create issues for people with asthma or certain allergies, but there were also a lot of concerns in the 90s that it might damage newly-installed computers (which were still a pretty huge investment for schools that had them) by clogging their fans. But even by the time I first entered grade school, most chalkboards in classrooms were made of steel with a dark green enamel coating, rather than black slate (since steel chalkboards are considerably lighter and less fragile than slate ones). As such, the term "blackboard" was already sort of a misnomer by that time — making it even less plausible to attribute the rising popularity of whiteboards to racial sensitivity. It's not like we had any dark green students or teachers dictating what surfaces we should write on! Anyway, if anything, the term "Blacktron" calls to mind espionage-related terms like "black ops" or "black sites". It certainly has no more racial connotations than the Black Falcons from LEGO Castle or the Black Order from Marvel.

Ah, just saw the Beach Camper Van on LEGO.com as well (that one's not even listed on Brickset just yet)! It's 8-wide with both driver and passenger seats, and pretty nicely furnished in the back from what I can see. I love the brick built crab and palm tree! Plus it's got some of those old-timey beach huts for changing into a swimsuit. The B-model is an ice cream stand with a beach buggy. It's nicely designed for the most part, although the "stepped" appearance of the front of the beach buggy seems a little unrefined.The curly-haired man from that model gives me Weird Al vibes. The C-model is a beach house with very lovely colors, plus some nice scenery like brick-built waves and a yucca plant. However, there aren't really any clear pics of the interior, which is where the real make-or-break details for a house model like this tend to be, IMO.

Agreed! Lots of great details throughout like the gutters, drainpipes, shingles, and terrace. Plus, unlike many "family house" sets, it has sleeping arrangements for the whole family. I also just realized Brickset now has more pics of it now, including the alternate models! It turns out the B-model (lake house) has a bathroom and can also fold closed into a right triangle shape, as @TeriXeri predicted. Other neat details include some power tools (presumably for boat maintenance), a wrought iron bench, and a record player with stereo speakers. The C-model (canal house) does not fold, but it looks like the top two floors can be separated and snapped onto the back of the lower two floors for an enclosed layout. It also includes a bonsai on the second floor and some more toys in the attic, including a toy train and what appears to be a Classic Space ship with the familiar blue/grey/yellow color scheme. The brick-built animals are different in all three models: a cat and a snail in the A-model, a squirrel and caterpillar in the B-model, and a dog in the C-model. Likewise, the minifigures are different from model to model: In the A-model, there is a son* with red hair and a green sweater; a mother* with long brown hair and a white T-shirt; and a father* with black hair, a Space jacket, and a hearing aid. In the B-model, there is a daughter* with black hair and a space jacket; a parent* with long brown hair, a green sweater, and a hearing aid; and a parent* with red hair and a white T-shirt. In the C-model, there is a father* with long brown hair and a space jacket; a mother* with red hair and a green sweater; and a son* with black hair, a white T-shirt, and a hearing aid. I'm using these familial and gendered terms loosely, mind you — the set description just describes them as "two adults and a child". So there's nothing to say the adults can't be the same sex, that the child can't be a daughter, niece, or nephew, that that the characters in the C-models can't be roommates or neighbors, or that ANY of the characters can't be nonbinary. Aside from the characters' ages, the A-model is described as a "family house" and the adults in that model share a bed, so they are presumably a couple, but that's the only place that any specific familial relationships are implied. There are some drawbacks, of course. The A- and C- models lack both a bathroom and stairs/ladders to the upper floors, while the B- and C- models lack bedrooms. But these sorts of compromises are not too unusual even in other 3-in-1 houses, and arguably they even provide a creative opportunity for buyers to deviate from the instructions and mix and match their favorite interior features from the different models.