Aanchir

Just was looking at the pdf instructions for the new train sets on the LEGO instructions app (they're up already there, and probably being added to the LEGO customer service site soon also), and I'm really impressed with some of the details I'm seeing there! I'm so glad that the passenger train has a nice cafe car with a coffee machine, hot dogs, croissants, etc. Gives me nice flashbacks to dining on Amtrak, though I know that's probably a vastly inferior experience to a fancy high-speed train like this one! The little stickered overhead displays showing the speed of the train (303 km/h) are also a very neat feature that sets this apart from past train sets. And for the first train to use those new-ish trailer base pieces as a carriage base, it certainly does a nice job showcasing how much more interior space they can create! No bathroom, though, which is quite a bummer considering how increasingly commonplace they've become in other sets, even vehicle sets like airliners. I suppose if you doubled up the train's length to get a locomotive on each end, you could also remove the second cafe care to create space for a bathroom. Again, though, this is mostly coming from my perspective as an American who's mostly used to traveling up and down the east coast on much slower Amtrak passenger trains. Maybe on high-speed trains like this it'd be easier to get from your origin to your destination without needing to stop for a bathroom break. The freight train is the least interesting set of this wave to me personally (I'm just more into passenger trains due to having more firsthand experience with them). But this is definitely a very cool and unique one when compared to its predecessors! I'm glad to see that there IS space to add Powered Up lights to the locomotive behind the left and right headlights if you so choose, particularly since that's an option not offered by the 2014 and 2018 cargo trains. Also, somewhat embarrassingly, I'd missed the quarter-circle tile for the center headlights every time I looked through the images of this set previously — very nice use of geometry there! There's no space for a light brick behind that one, but it's still a very nifty detail compared to the simpler square and circular headlights we're used to. The open wagon is a simple build, but a very effective one IMO. I remain impressed by the clever use of the hinge pieces from the Vidiyo beatboxes for its side panels! Maybe it's just cuz I'm not a train builder myself, but I never would have thought of those as a useful train part. I'm also now realizing that both the containers and the flatbed also use those new curved-top parts from 41951 and 41592 in Black for the first time to help secure the cargo! I guess that's another detail I'd overlooked in my eagerness to focus on the passenger train and station. The car carrier is also nice, and I'm also only now noticing that the sides which fold up and down are not just side walls to protect the car on the lower level from debris, but also locks to hold the support arms for the upper level in place when the train is in motion. Pretty clever there! I'd already mostly figured out the details of the train station build by rebuilding it on stud.io based on the official pics and 360-degree turnaround. The instructions allow me to see a few errors I made (which I can now correct), but mostly minor ones that don't change my overall positive impression of the set. The bus also has a neat digital display showing its destination on the inside, similar to the one on the outside, but otherwise no big surprises there. In general, I remain VERY impressed with this wave of train sets, and would be very tempted to get some of them (perhaps even all three) to create my own train layout, if only I had space in my apartment for one! Perhaps if I end up feeling like I'd really, really regret missing out on them, I can pick them up to build and display just the trains and station individually, and put off making a full layout until my wife finishes her PhD and we are ready to move into a bigger home.

From my own experience, I had several "bullet helms" as a kid that ended up with broken chin straps (an issue I never had with later helmets like the "kettle hat" introduced in 2000), so that may have been part of the reasoning behind the decision to retire it. It was also sometimes difficult to remove minifig heads from inside of it, as if it formed a vacuum seal between the outside of the head and the inside of the helmet. However, if LEGO really wanted to bring it back, I'm sure they could find ways fix both these issues. So even if those factors led to it being retired, they don't totally rule out getting a redesigned version of it in the future. Just as with other parts that we're hoping will be brought back some day (namely, goats), getting a new version of the bullet helm probably just depends on the designers of a particular set both 1) having the budget for a new mold and 2) deciding to use that budget to bring back an older part instead of introducing a brand new one.

One particular thing I think Vibrant Yellow could be very useful for (especially in a LEGO Space context) is as a solid-colored equivalent of Tr. Fluorescent Green/Trans-Neon Green, sort of like how the original Blacktron color scheme used both Bright Yellow and Tr. Yellow. Previously, some sets used Bright Yellowish Green for this (like the Hero Factory set Toxic Reapa), but it was never a really great match.

Oh, this is a great thread to have! I've heard a saying among some Spacers that "every part is a space part", but there are still definitely a lot of parts that even at first glance get me thinking about all the possibilities they could open up for Space MOCs. And it's nice to have a thread to talk about those from a MOC perspective, rather than in terms of whether or not they foreshadow future Space sets. While not entirely new parts, I've been thinking a lot lately about how neat the LEGO Friends tube slide pieces (49736 and 49737) could be as connections between modules of a space station or moon base. Originally they only came in Tr. Light Blue (which I know that you don't consider especially "spacey" due to its widespread use for regular glass windows and windscreens in Town/City sets), but this year a Tr. Medium Reddish Violet (Trans-Dark Pink) recolor was introduced, and I'm eager to see if more colors might show up in the future! The biggest drawback of these parts for Space contexts is that any tube longer than your finger will force you to rely on on gravity to reliably get minifigs from one end to another without any risk of getting stuck in the middle (unlike the pneumatic transport tubes from Life on Mars and Mars Mission). After all, they are designed for use as slides, which are typically a "one-way trip" from top to bottom! But it's still something I'd like to continue experimenting with. A new mold that I think could be very fun for space MOCs (particularly if new recolors show up) is the 3x3 "splatter" tile (80677) from this year's City sets. When I first saw it, I couldn't help thinking back to the various MOCs I've seen that have used BrickForge's custom spill/splat piece to represent stuff like futuristic acid, fuel, or chemical spills for an M:TRON or Classic Space cleanup team. Unfortunately, none of the colors so far are super "spacey", but in the very least, the brighter-colored ones could be used for some kind of chemical sludge until we get a more exciting recolor like Tr. Fluorescent Green (Trans-Neon Green). On that note, I had similar thoughts about the debut of transparent 1x1 quarter circle tiles earlier this year — including Tr. Fluorescent Green ones! Together with square/rectangular tiles in the same color, I imagine they could making great acid pools or veins of energy crystals for a planetary landscape! The various Tr. Medium Reddish Violet crystal pieces from this year's Ninjago sets would also be a fun way to liven up some alien landscapes. Honestly, it's a bit surprising to me that while space sets have such a long, rich tradition of using brightly colored transparent windscreens, weapons, and accessories to help them look as futuristic and "unearthly" as possible, most official Space sets have stuck to fairly basic earth tones for planetary surfaces. And in turn, the Space MOCs we create often end up based around baseplates and BURPs in those same earth tones since they're so readily available. As such, rock and crystal pieces in bright, exciting colors tend to really fire up my imagination! Oh, and I mustn't forget about all of the wild new parts from this year's City Stuntz sets! There's an awesome new helmet mold similar to the generic "crash helmet" with hinged visor used throughout the late 80s and early 90s, but with attachment points in the back for stuff like horns and pigtails. In a Space context I could definitely see it being used to connect breathing tubes, cables for some kinda neural uplink, or horns/tendrils for alien characters. It appears in three colors so far (Bright Red, Bright Orange, and White). The Blade Stunt Challenge includes a new recolor of a futuristic-looking Ninjago blade piece introduced a couple years back (65184). Its biker also has a cool, futuristic-looking minifig face print with a narrow visor across both eyes. His outfit, like a lot of racing suits without super specific logos or motifs, could also probably be turned into a spacesuit relatively easily! The two stunt loop sets include some of the new City road plates in funky colors like Bright Orange and Bright Yellowish Green which could perhaps be interesting as landing pads/runways/hangars at a spaceport or aboard a mothership. The loop segments themselves are good colors for spaceship or moonbase canopies, though I fear the slightly angled shape used to create a smooth loop will create significant complications. On a more general note, hair pieces in bright colors like Dark Azur, Bright Green, and Vibrant Coral are becoming increasingly common in all sorts of themes, even modern day ones like City and Friends! For Space MOCs, I think they'd pair nicely either with "human" skin colors for futuristic humans like the Minifigures Series 16 Cyborg, or with more whimsical skin colors for humanoid aliens!

There's not really a "no gun" policy for all non-licensed themes. LEGO City doesn't have guns, but other non-licensed themes like Pirates, Ninjago, Space, and the Collectable Minifigures have plenty of guns with varying degrees of realism. For the most part, the "conflict and weapons" policy focuses specifically on avoiding weapons or violent conflicts in modern-day contexts. One reason for this is to avoid calling to mind traumatic situations that real-world kids have experienced. Thus, LEGO firefighting sets tend to focus on empty or condemned buildings rather than on houses and apartment buildings with people living there, LEGO police sets tend to focus on non-violent property crimes, and most violent conflicts in sets (licensed and non-licensed themes alike) tend to be limited to historical, fantasy, and sci-fi themes. And even religious stuff isn't strictly out of bounds, at least not in the LEGO Architecture theme — a number of the landmarks from the Venice and Shanghai skyline sets are religious or spiritual in nature. I would not be too surprised if in the future they made even more architecture sets depicting religious buildings, or perhaps even focusing on them. I totally agree that there are a lot of gorgeous houses of worship with great historical and architectural significance (not to mention interesting shapes and details), such as Notre Dame Cathedral, Sagrada Familia, Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, Harmandir Sahib, and Lotus Temple. And I know that at least some of these have been depicted as 3D puzzles, model kits, or even "Miniland" sculptures at various LEGOLAND parks without generating any major controversy. But religion is definitely an area where LEGO understandably tends to tread carefully and exercise a lot of discretion to avoid portraying anybody's faith in a way that might be seen as disrespectful or divisive. I suspect that even if LEGO were to introduce more sets depicting religious buildings and houses of worship, some particularly holy sites like the Great Mosque of Mecca or the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem may be too deeply sacred to their respective faiths for any LEGO set of them to be in good taste.

True, but the current spear mold has appeared in Dark Brown in a whole bunch of sets (albeit not since 2019). Honestly, I can't tell whether the spear in this set is Dark Brown or Titanium Metallic (Pearl Dark Gray), just that it's slightly lighter than the black tree bark. I can't say I'd be too bothered by either choice. I honestly like the metallic spear colors in a lot of cases — they match other bladed weapons nicely in an armory, are more recognizable as a metalworker's wares in contexts like a blacksmith shop, and tend to seem sharper and sturdier in the imagination than spears with a wood-colored tip or axes with a wood-colored blade. Even as a kid, I remember preferring black/grey classic spears, axes, and lances over brown ones for most medieval characters, since the "metal" look helped them to feel like more of an even match against other medieval weapons in my collection like the dark gray swords and halberds from the Dragon Masters sets. So I can understand why a lot of designers these days prefer to prioritize colors that evoke the material of the spearhead (usually some sort of metal, or bone in the case of last year's Island sets from LEGO Ninjago) rather than the material of the pole. On that note, it's a bummer that we haven't seen the dual-molded spears (90391) in a few years, since they were an option that didn't require either of those compromises. Anyway, glad to see a better pic of this set (albeit still pretty blurry). The designers did a really good job maintaining the shape and size of the original set while still making big improvements using modern pieces (like quarter-cylinder panels in place of corner-octagon panels, or masonry bricks in place of standard ones for the stone lookout post). I also appreciate some of the greater creative liberties they exercised, like adding more leaves and even a mushroom down by the roots! The use of Warm Gold 1x1 round plates is a cute throwback, since the original set and other sets of its era used 1x1 yellow plates for gold coins, though naturally I prefer either molded coins or 1x1 round tiles (with or without printing) as coins in more general uses. Honestly, one of the things I like about Warm Gold and other "pearl" metallic colors is that unlike chrome or lacquered metallic parts, which have a bit of a tendency to steal the spotlight any place you put them, the more subdued "pearl" colors work great for the sort of places where old-school sets often used grey and yellow parts to represent gold, silver, and other metals: for instance, the goblets, weapon stands, and gemstone pedestals from various 90s Castle, Adventurers, and Ninja sets I grew up with. It does feel a bit awkward that the topmost branch abruptly gets narrower after the first big curve, but I think it still looks reasonably believable (perhaps as a place where the branch once forked and some of the larger limbs later broke off. And it is a bummer that the hanging vines from the original set do not seem to have been recreated here in any form. There are all sorts of current vine-like parts that could have been used for that purpose, so that choice seems pretty surprising. But all in all, it's a neat set and I look forward to seeing more pictures (not to mention reviews) that show it in more detail!

I don't think that's it, since they don't do that with train magnets. Pretty sure it's just because real-world industrial electromagnets like the ones excavators, cranes, etc use for lifting scrap metal often have a yellow or yellow-orange housing (Here's an example of a real one of that sort). And so that's probably what the City designers based theirs on. Red or gray would be exciting recolors to see if LEGO ends up reusing that magnet piece. You CAN use two of the square gray magnet pieces together just as easily as you can use two of the yellow ones or one of each, though the shape and connection points might be a little awkward for uses like attaching it to a crane arm. And actually, thinking about it now, I'm surprised it hadn't occurred to me before now how well the yellow ones could work in an Aquazone MOC. Maybe just cuz Aquazone isn't a theme I think to build in all that often, despite how big an impact it had on my childhood.

From what I've seen you're not at all alone in this perspective! I've read quite a few complaints from other AFOLs about these black backdrops feeling sterile or generic compared to more traditional diorama-style scenery or matte paintings. For my part, I don't mind the black backdrops too much, and in some cases I feel like the graphic designers honestly do a good job making up for the lack of a full backdrop using lighting and/or particle effects, without undermining that desire for minimalism. Examples include the warm glow and snow flurries decorating the box art for Santa's Visit, the trail of crackling electricity erupting from the Back to the Future Time Machine, and the cloudy, moonlit sky behind the 1989 Batwing. I can picture plenty of ways they could push the black 18+ box art further in the future if they choose to stick with it — for example, rainstorm textures, stenciled leaf/flower petal textures, or even glowy "grid lines" across the sky like in many 80s and 90s Space sets! Of course, even these more creative examples of the black box art are not as exciting to me as the more detailed backdrops that we still get for more kid-targeted "play themes" like City, Friends, and Ninjago. Fully painted backdrops can not only be artworks in their own right, but they also often present opportunities for fun "easter eggs" or world-building details in the backdrop — consider how the box art for the Queen Dragon's Rescue from LEGO Elves features a painting of Ragana's Magic Shadow Castle in the distance. But honestly, I'm pretty sure that this contrast between kid-targeted sets and 18+ sets is entirely deliberate, since buyers like me who are perfectly comfortable buying "kids' toys" for our own enjoyment aren't the ones who need extra convincing to feel like LEGO building can be truly "for them"! As such, it's likely just one of those areas where there's no way for LEGO to realistically please everyone. After all, I've seen a lot of AFOLs complain that the immersive painted environments from the box art of play themes like Ninjago and City can be misleading or even deceptive — making it unclear where the backdrop ends and the set begins, making large gaps/negative spaces less conspicuous on account of the bright, detailed backdrops behind them, or portraying painted roads, train tracks, or tramways in sets that contain no dedicated road or train track pieces. Needless to say, I disagree with those perspectives — even in my KFOL years, I never felt the least bit confused or disappointing that the scenery from the box art of themes like Aquazone, Exploriens, Ninja, or Bionicle was not part of the sets themselves! But I also think it's understandable that there is a subset of buyers who prefer for the box art to show exactly what they're getting and what it will look like in a neutral, stand-alone display without a whole lot of additional decoration. And it's not like I'm ever going to stop short of buying a set that I otherwise like and want because the box art feels a little plain or boring for my tastes, provided it still showcases all the aspects of the set itself that make it so enticing to me in the first place!

Well, seeing as the old horse bardings were only used briefly, they're probably still in usable condition. I doubt it'd be too hard for the designers to pull them out of storage for a premium set of this sort, just like LEGO did with the 2x2x4 flat-front windscreen for 10218 Pet Shop back in 2011. But yeah, I'm hoping they stick around a bit longer and appear in more sets after this than they did in 2013 — especially if it means getting them in more colors. Even outside of the Castle theme, I could see more modern-day themes introducing them with new colors or patterns for stuff like carousel horses!

Perhaps! On that note, the leader and main character of the Lion Knight/Crusader faction (this minifigure from 6080 Castle Lion) is named Sir Richard in the UK, and Prinz Löwenherz (Prince Lionheart) in Germany. There's a strong implication that this character is later crowned king and depicted as such in the Royal Knights sets from 1995, since that character is named King Richard Lionheart in the UK and König Richard Löwenherz (King Richard Lionheart) in Germany. However, the British "Bricks and Pieces" magazines from 1995 also make it very clear that the LEGO character NOT the same Richard the Lionheart from actual medieval history, via a short story in which he tells his knights about the historical king that he happens to share a name with. Other names given to the leader of the Lion Knights/Crusaders and lord/ruler of set 6080 in various European print media include: Le Chevalier des Lions or Le Chevalier du Lion (The Lion Knight) in France Il Cavaliere del Leone (The Lion Knight) in Italy Ridder Løvefod (Sir Lionfoot) in Denmark Ridder Løvehjerte (Sir Lionheart) in Norway Vita Riddaren (The White Knight) or Lejonriddaren (The Lion Knight) in Sweden O Rei Cavaleiro (The Knight King) in Portugal Set 6080 is of course called King's Castle in the United States and Castillo del Rey (King's Castle) in Spain, but I haven't yet found any print materials from either country that clarify whether or not that title is meant to belong to any of the minifigures from that set, or if all simply depict the king's knights/guards/soldiers. Obviously, I doubt that LEGO would ever try and connect any Castle characters with the actual historical Crusades in this day and age, since it's hard to really decouple that sort of "Holy War" from religious prejudices of that time. And obviously, the Crusades are not viewed very fondly today by Muslims or other people from the places that got looted/pillaged. But of course, none of that keeps fans from using that as a historical framework for this set in their own stories if they're so inclined. Oh, okay. That probably works for me as long as they can be situated there without blocking the entrance or anything like that. I might consider throwing down some Brick Yellow/Sand Yellow (tan/dark tan) pieces as hay to make it look a little more "fit for purpose" if I decide it's too plain looking. Or I might just end up designing a separate stable expansion to the set using Stud.io. But the most important thing to me for the official set is that the horses aren't just required to stand awkwardly off to the side of the set if nobody's riding them.

Actually, on the topic goats… it might be kind of neat to get a CMF of Hans Christian Andersen's "Klods Hans" (Clumsy Hans/Blockhead Hans/Jack the Dullard) either for the anniversary series or a future series. After all, they're a character with considerable ties to both The LEGO Group's Danish heritage and its early history! Dagny Holm, Ole Kirk Christiansen's niece, first worked for LEGO as a toy designer in the 1930s, and one of the products she created during that time was a wooden pull-along toy of Clumsy Hans riding a goat (as he does in the original story). In the 1960s, she rejoined the company as the first Master Model Builder, she built a larger brick-built version of the character on his goat. More recently, her Clumsy Hans models have been referenced both in the 2015 LEGO Inside Tour exclusive set and on one of the lower shelves in this year's Dagny Holm - Master Builder tribute set. I realize that a generic minifig-scale goat (even if it had a different design than the original 2011 version) would not allow a minifigure to ride on it comfortably like they can on a horse, but frankly, that's part of why Hans riding a goat as if it were a horse is such a comically absurd sight to behold in the original story! So in a CMF blind bag, forcing Hans to sit awkwardly atop a single stud on the goat's back would be very fitting. I dunno how realistic this would actually be, mind you. "Clumsy Hans" is not really one of Hans Christian Andersen's best-known stories among modern kids, at least not in America. From my experience, kids are more likely to know other stories of his like "Thumbelina", "The Princess and the Pea", or "The Emperor's New Clothes". "The Little Mermaid" is also very familiar, although a lot of kids today would know it mainly from loose adaptations like the Disney one that replace the original tragic ending with a more conventional "happily ever after" ending. A more generic medieval king feels like a much more plausible CMF archetype for future series, including the anniversary series — regardless of which of the classic factions they tie in with. It's kind of a hobby for me, honestly — I haven't really made much practical use out of this stuff, though I do have a spreadsheet of international names for sets, characters, locations, themes, etc. and a text document where I've got my amateur translations of short stories, comics, and blurbs from various old-school LEGO print materials. So if anybody else thinks that info would be useful to them for creating their own MOCs, stories, etc, you're free to look through some of that stuff. I can't promise my translations are all that great, though. I'm mostly relying on online dictionaries and translation tools for a lot of this stuff since I don't know any languages aside from English, Latin, and a limited amount of Spanish, and I'm only really fluent in the first of those three. What i've gathered so far is also not at all comprehensive! It's limited to whatever print materials I've both been able to find online and had time to really pore over and translate.

I admit, at first glance I thought this was a fake — the fonts and kerning seem "off" compared to actual LEGO box art and instruction manuals, and there's some sloppy cropping around the tree where a white backdrop is visible instead of a yellow one. But it matches the Promobricks sketch and description nearly to a T, so perhaps it's just that somebody took an actual image of the set (whether preliminary or finalized) with a white backdrop and edited in the yellow backdrop and LEGOLAND banner themselves. Or maybe it's just sloppy by official LEGO standards due to being preliminary. In any case, if this is what the official set will look like, I'll be quite satisfied with that! It hasn't ever really gone away! It last showed up in 60292 and 60304, which are both still available from LEGO.com. I could certainly imagine them retiring it at some point in the near future since there are various brick-built alternatives available these days (such as the spruce tree design from last year's LEGO Friends forest sets), but so far that hasn't happened. And it's not like there's any urgency to get rid of it entirely it until the mold itself wears out! Even outside of "throwback" sets like this one, specialized parts such as single piece trees can also be a good fit for 4+ sets aimed at beginning builders.

Good observations! Mind you, the characters you mention were treated differently in magazines and catalogs from country to country. In the United States and Great Britain, the maiden from set 6023 was indeed identified as "the new queen" in some places, and simply as a noblewoman/damsel in others. The characterization as "the new queen" is in captions accompanying the big diorama-type images from 1986 catalogs, suggesting that she is a noblewoman/damsel who has only just ascended to the throne in this story scenario. In "De LEGO Krant" from the Netherlands, the maiden from set 6023 Reiskoets (Travel Coach) was treated just as a young noblewoman/damsel named Jonkvrouw Machteld Eleanora (Lady Matilda Eleanor). She is the daughter of Ridder Pieter van Blankevoort (Sir Peter Whiteford), the lord who rules over set 6080 Slot «Wittenburg» (Wittenburg Castle). Funnily enough, her first written appearance was two years earlier in a short story meant to promote the 1984 sets! A later issue in 1986 expressly identified this new maiden minifigure as the same character as that earlier story, and also featured a new story featuring her. By comparison, "De LEGO Krant" identified the other female Castle figure merely as the "waardin" (landlady) of set 6067 Herberg «De Gulle Hap» ("The Generous Mouthful" Tavern) — a commoner without any noble status. Likewise, the UK "Bricks and Pieces" identified her simply a "mediaeval (sic) maiden". German catalogs identify her as "Burgfräulein" (castle damsel), which is the only example I've found so far that expressly identifies her as a member of the nobility. Both maiden minifigures from 1986 had entirely different characterization in a series of comic pages that ran as ads in kids' magazines/comic books from several different European countries (including The Netherlands, Germany, France, Italy, Sweden, Norway, and probably others). These comics treated the maidens from sets 6023 and 6067 as the same character, variously referred to as a damsel, dame, queen, or princess depending on the country. But in every translation of these comics, she is eventually revealed to actually be an evil witch in disguise, attacking the lords of both the Lion Knights/Crusaders and Eagle Knights/Black Falcons and transforming them into stone blocks/bricks using a wicked curse. There are a few female Castle minifigs from this time period that have been more consistently treated as royalty, at least from what I've seen so far: The female minifig from set 383/6083 was identified as a queen or princess in every catalog/magazine I've seen so far, though that isn't a whole lot since most of the scans I've encountered from that far back don't list any details about the set beyond its name and number. The minifig from set 6081 is usually identified as a princess in the story blurbs from 1991 catalogs (presenting a mystery scenario in which she was recently kidnapped by an unknown captor), regardless of their country of origin. However, the set description from German 1990 and 1991 catalogs refer to her instead as a "Zofe" (Lady's Maid/Handmaid), and Dutch catalogs refers to her as a "Jonkvrouw" (Damsel) in both story blurbs and set descriptions. I've seen very little print material that describes set 1584/6060 in detail, but the US Shop at Home catalogs identify the maiden from that set as the Queen of LEGOLAND. Needless to say, none of this diminishes your point! I agree that a lot of female Castle minifigures in the 80s and early 90s clearly and specifically depicted nobility/royalty, whereas most minifigs from that time period depicting male nobles/royals were nearly identical to other mounted knights (mostly set apart only by accessories like their number of banners or the color of their shields). Just felt like sharing some of what I'd learned about this stuff, since I find vintage LEGO story and worldbuilding materials (and the ways they varied from country to country) so interesting!

Sounds awesome! Forestmen were one of the categories I voted for in the first round of the LEGO Ideas 90th anniversary poll, since even though they were largely before my time as a KFOL (my only Forestman parts or figures I had growing up were ones I got secondhand from yard sale lots), they are one of the Castle subthemes that could be most groundbreaking to see a modern take on, considering the proficiency LEGO designers have shown with plants and tree designs in recent years! I am a little surprised that they'll still be sticking with black for the tree itself, since there are so many more shades of brown available to them than there were in the 80s or 90s, but I imagine it will still look pretty awesome — just a little more stylized than I'd have expected. After all, I've never had any problem with the spooky black trees in sets like 70427, let alone with the more whimsical bark and foliage colors often seen in the Elves theme! If anything, the aspect of the old-school Forestmen/Dark Forest trees that has aged most poorly is their shape, since they were generally constructed from very angular bricks and panels with branches arranged at right angles. And from what Promobricks has shared (provided they're not pulling our legs here!), this set seems like it will be a big improvement on the original set in those areas. I also find it quite charming that the set (as shown in the set) appears to be around the same size as the original set it's based on! Pirates of Barracuda Bay likewise stayed pretty close to the original Black Seas Barracuda's proportions, and I feel like this attention to detail helps "throwbacks" like this demonstrate even more convincingly how much the capabilities of the LEGO system has evolved since the 1980s.

Sounds pretty awesome! It's great to hear that it will include features like sleeping quarters for the crew — features and details like that which would be a low priority for more action-driven playsets are the sort of thing that I feel really elevates a set like this above the sort of KFOL-targeted sets that inspired it. The lack of any sort of landscaping is a bit of a bummer, though — I feel like today's LEGO designers would be more than capable of creating an awesome brick-built lunar landscape without having to rely on a specialized raised baseplate, especially in a "premium" set targeted at older builders. But given what a good job LEGO has done on some of their other classic theme throwbacks like Pirates of Barracuda Bay (and how many great LEGO designers are themselves huge fans of classic themes), I have pretty high hopes for how this set will turn out! Hopefully as more details emerge they will continue to impress!

For what it's worth, LEGO doesn't seem to count skeletons as minifigures in set descriptions, at least not these days — perhaps as part of their efforts to protect the trademark they have on the specific "LEGO Minifigure" design. That said, I personally don't tend to care about the technicalities of what is or isn't a "minifigure". From my perspective, what really matters is how many figures/characters a set includes in a broader sense. After all, unprinted "statues" like The Titanium Ninja memorial from Ninjago City Gardens or the Horatio Hubbs memorial from the LEGO City Main Square are considered LEGO minifigures even under the strictest of definitions. And the way I see it, skeletons, robots, and other brick-built figures (such as Scoop from Ninjago City Gardens) offer quite a bit more appeal and play value than a lifeless, featureless statue — in spite of not officially qualifying as minifigures, and regardless of whether you prefer to think of them as minifigures or not! Yeah, honestly, I'm much more grateful to be getting a new queen than a new king, particularly since so many past Castle themes and other historic/fantasy themes over the years have been woefully lacking in female characters. I still cringe thinking about how many LEGO chess sets over the years had to throw together "queen" minifigures from miscellaneous parts because the factions they depicted were so woefully lacking in female characters. Plus, even if you want to add a king to keep the queen company, and don't already have a king minifigure that you consider up to the task… creating a king can potentially be as simple as adding a crown and/or a gold breastplate to one of the fancier-looking knights! Yeah, more horses would have been nice IMO, but I think two is enough to satisfy me as long as they're both decked out in full barding. The bigger animal-related worry I still have is that Promobricks hasn't made it clear whether there's any stable or other place to keep the horses and their accessories when nobody's riding them. Not having any sort of shelter for the horses would be a real missed opportunity, especially with so much space in this set. I'm still holding out hope that maybe one of the lower-level chambers will include a space to keep the horses, even if it's fairly plain/unadorned like the stable from 6067 Guarded Inn. I don't usually focus a whole lot on themes like LEGO Castle in my collecting, but I am very seriously considering getting this one, even if it doesn't end up meeting quite all my hopes/expectations. After all, it would be a good companion piece to the Ideas Medieval Blacksmith which I already own, and I feel like based on Promobricks' article, this one will also strike a good balance of being a pretty outstanding playset and display piece on its own, while also being every bit as conducive to mods and expansions as other modular castle set designs like 6080 or 31120.

Love what we're seeing so far! It does indeed seem to be what the outer wall and entry ramp in that Back to the Future video were modeled on, even though the gatehouse is different from the 6080-inspired one in that video (I suppose somebody at LEGO decided showing the whole 90th anniversary castle in the video would be TOO much of a spoiler). Looks like there are also plenty of great interior spaces, which will hopefully be nicely furnished with details like a banquet hall, bedchamber, and stable. The hilly foundation and entrance ramp feel like a very deliberate callback to the raised baseplates from the sort of castle sets that I grew up with in the 90s, without the level of specialization or the compromises to the actual build that those generally entailed. Also, the hinged layout seems like it'll be easy to expand on, just like with the old-school modular castle system from 1984-1989. Minifigures also sound like there's a nice variety there, though I suspect they'll be a lot more exciting once we can see the details of them instead of just a list of their roles/archetypes. Hoping the rest of the set's details will be just as impressive as this general overview once it's finally unveiled!

Yeah, I don't think a gap between releases is reason to think LEGO has given up on those sorts of premium/exclusive train sets. Look how long a gap there was between the release of Ninjago City Docks and Ninjago City Gardens, or between And if you count licensed train exclusives like the Disney Train or (rumored) Hogwarts Express, then the interval between those sorts of train sets in recent years has been roughly the same as the interval between Creator Expert trains like the Emerald Night, Maersk Train, and Horizon Express around a decade ago.

You're probably right that a castle scaled REALISTICALLY to the Blacksmith Shop would be absurdly large, but is that strictly necessary for a castle to be compatible with the Blacksmith Shop? I mean, LEGO castles in general tend to be kinda small compared to houses or cottages — even the houses in Medieval Market Village, though several bricks shorter than the Medieval Blacksmith, are tall enough to tower over the roughly 10-brick-tall curtain walls from a typical Fantasy Era or Kingdoms set. In light of that, I don't think it'd take more than a two-story curtain wall (16 to 20 bricks tall) to look reasonable on display near the Medieval Blacksmith. I guess you might need a larger build if you expected blacksmith shop would to fit INSIDE the curtain wall, but in my opinion the hunting-related elements of the set (huntress, hunting dog, bear pelt rug, etc) suggest a location well outside of the castle walls, near the forest's edge. If the curtain wall seen to the left of the gatehouse in the BttF promotional video was in fact based on the one from this new set, (which is my current thinking given its use of new/recent parts and unconventional building techniques), then it appears to be a minimum of 14 bricks tall — MUCH taller than the curtain walls of more average-sized LEGO castle sets of the past. For my part, I also expect that this set (like many other LEGO castle sets) will allow builders to freely expand the curtain walls, either with their own creations or with additional copies of the set. In that case, the height of the curtain wall would be the chief requirement for compatibility with the blacksmith shop, since the width would be flexible depending on the nature of your display. Of course, my dream LEGO castle would be one where the walls, towers, etc. can be expanded vertically AND horizontally in a modular fashion, much like how many Hogwarts sets from the LEGO Harry Potter theme are designed. But I'm not sure whether or not I'd expect this particular castle to opt for that sort of approach.

Don't forget Dots! It's HEAVILY marketed towards free-building, as well as mixing and matching parts from multiple sets. Likewise, the BrickHeadz theme, which to some people might seem purely collecting-driven, provides a versatile template that readily inspires builders to create their own characters in that style (and some sets like Go Brick Me or the Bride and Groom include an assortment of parts for individual customization). Even among licensed themes, the Minecraft theme often encourages custom builds and/or layout designs. And honestly, for all the folks who recognize creative building and play as core facets of the LEGO brand's appeal, I think there are a lot of AFOLs who have an unfortunate tendency to disregard themes like Dots, BrickHeadz, Brick Sketches, and Art (or even some more KFOL-targeted themes like Friends and Super Mario) not for any perceived lack of creative building or play potential, but rather for not being minifigure-focused. Yep! And these days I feel that many adult-targeted, display-oriented sets have features specifically tailored to that sort of thing, perhaps even more so than those from a decade ago — changing the seasonal foliage colors of the Tree House and Bonsai Tree, stripping down the LEGO Art mosaics to create one of the alternate artworks, converting the Optimus Prime and Voltron sets between different modes, changing out the movie-specific details of the Back to the Future DeLorean, operating the mechanical functions of the LEGO Ideas typewriter and piano, removing the finished exterior from the Great Pyramid of Giza, etc. Besides that, these concerns about people building sets for display and leaving them to collect dust aren't somehow unique to LEGO's newer adult-targeted stuff like the Botanical Collection or Helmet Collection. How much time do you really think owners of the Sopwith Camel or UCS X-Wing spend swooshing them around? How many Tower Bridge owners are driving the little microscale cars across the bridge on a regular basis? As I mentioned in my previous post, even the Hobby Sets of the 1970s were intended more as something pretty to build and display in a place of pride than something to play with or rebuild into your own creations — particularly since some of them featured STAMPs (STickers Across Multiple Pieces) that kept you from fully disassembling them unless you took a craft knife to them. Sets like those were no more playable than Optimus Prime, Space Shuttle Discovery, or Typewriter. All in all, it feels a little pointless to quibble about how many display-oriented sets there are today, let alone treat that as a symptom of LEGO "losing their way", when there are HUNDREDS of sets to choose from with designs geared more heavily toward play and/or creative building.

Honestly, I can't tell what "original idea" you're referring to that you think LEGO originated with and has since lost. I mean, their pre-brick products ranged from the more familiar toy vehicles and pull-along toys like the wooden duck or Disney's Pluto, to toy sewing machines and spring-loaded toy pistols . In the 70s, LEGO began expanding into hobby sets that were geared more towards use as display pieces than playsets after you finished building them. And by the 80s they were expanding to media products that tied in with various LEGO themes: for example, picture books, comic books, audio dramas, and videocassettes. I'm not sure what unifying "original idea" you could see in products as varied as that which wouldn't apply just as much to today's LEGO product assortment.

I think it's reductive to act like anybody who cares about flooring would want every floor to be tiled. Even in series like the Modular Buildings, LEGO uses tiles very deliberately to represent specific types of real-world detail, such as tile flooring, decorative carpets, and pre-cast paving stones. But many types of flooring in real life, and some of those (like floor-length carpeting, terrazzo, or unpolished concrete) can be more accurately represented by a studded texture without the regularly-spaced seams you'd get with tiled LEGO surfaces. If you strip away the choice between tiled and studded flooring by turning the former into a universal default, you also strip away that meaning behind that choice. It's kind of like my stance on neoclassical vs. modernist LEGO train stations. One isn't implicitly "better" than the other, they just represent different types of real-world subject matter. Likewise, a tiled LEGO floor isn't always preferable to a studded one — only in cases where tiling the floor helps to represent the details of the particular type of flooring being depicted.

Honestly my favorite part of the City space mission set is the robot dog. I always love cute brick-built robot companion designs like that! Also, while not remotely a Space set, or even particularly useful for space MOCists, I love the old-school sci-fi vibes of the brick-built alien sculptures from 60313 Space Ride Amusement Truck. As well as the sticker on the air dam with a stylized image of the Retro Space Hero! There are also some very neat Tr. Bright Orange windscreens in the Ninjago sets 71769 and 71773. The one from Kai's vehicle has previously appeared in Mars Mission sets (and a Batman set from 2014), but the former is a brand-new recolor of a relatively recent windscreen mold from the Speed Champions theme. On the subject of brightly colored windows/windscreens, the Friends set 41708 Roller Disco Arcade includes 1x4x6 window panes and 4x4x6 quarter-cylinder panels in Tr. Fluorescent Green (Trans-Neon Green). And 43206 Cinderella and Prince Charming's Castle includes a 4x8x6 half-cone in Tr. Blue Opal (Satin Trans-Dark Blue), which could make a VERY interesting Space windscreen — albeit one that would be hard to use for a whole fleet, given how rare a color it is currently.

I think the castle is going to be pretty grand and special one way or another, if its rumored price point is anything to go by. I mean, there haven't really BEEN any "King's Castle" type sets priced higher than $100 or so — even if you adjust for inflation, none of the big "flagship" castles in the theme's history have had price points even approaching $300 in today's money. For that matter, sets like Ninjago City Gardens demonstrate that large numbers of minifigures don't remotely preclude huge sets like this being outstandingly impressive builds in their own right. And the minifigures in that set didn't even have as many shared prints or headgear molds as you'd expect in a castle set with uniformed castle guards and archers.

I don't know if I'd generalize that sort of thing for "premium" sets like this new castle. I mean, this year's City Hospital and Lunar New Year Ice Festival had more than a dozen minifigs each. And last year's Daily Bugle, and Ninjago City Gardens, which are close to this castle's rumored price, had more than 20 each! The Creator 3-in-1 castle, pirate ship, and viking ship certainly had far fewer minifigs than earlier sets depicting similar subjects, but that's mostly just because that theme in general tends to be far less minifigure-focused than "play themes" like City, Castle, or Pirates — as of yet, NO Creator 3-in-1 set has ever come with more than 5 minifigures. Plus, minifigs such as uniformed archers and castle guards are able to share more decorations with on another than more individualized characters like you'd expect to find in other themes. This seems like a reasonable prediction. I think 12 is the absolute lowest number I'd anticipate, given what little we know of the set so far — and I don't really expect them to go that low unless they're trying to budget for a bunch of uniquely-printed animals or something.