Aanchir

They're merit badges, printed on 1x1 tiles so you can put two of them inside a book! For example, in the below image Aliya has added the two badges from your post to her camp book: a climbing badge for completing the obstacle course and an entomology badge for finding/identifying insects: In this image you can see the badge patterns a little more clearly (click for full size): There are lots more high-quality pics and descriptions of the Friends sets on this site: https://www.brickstore.nz/collections/lego-friends?sort_by=created-descending#MainContent. The book covers are stickered but the badges themselves appear to be printed. The official images only show book covers for Aliya (in the tree house), Nova (in the archery range), Paisley (in the cozy cabins), and Liann (in the water sports set), but part of me hopes that those sets also come with alternate stickers for the other friends.

have you considered making your own stencils and spray painting/airbrushing the desired patterns? I feel like that could maybe be an option to apply patterns to studded parts, provided the patterns are not too complicated in shape/color. Not sure what kind of paints along those lines would stick best to bricks or match LEGO colors best, though.

oh dang, how did i do that? It's fixed now!

The Friends Castle Bed & Breakfast has the new castle door in Bright Blue, the 4x8x6 turret roof from the Super Mario sets in Sand Blue, and the "leaf cluster" piece in Earth Green! Additionally, the new Friends Adventure Camp sets include both the large and small fern pieces in Earth Green for conifer trees, and a new Brick Yellow (tan) flag piece in a triangular pennant shape, which I figure could be a great new option for knights (although of course it'd be even more exciting to see it in brighter colors or with printing). Finally, the new Friends smoothie stand has rock/thatched roof plates in Reddish Orange and 1x2x2 lattice windows in Medium Lavender — perhaps not the most desirable colors of these parts for medieval builders, but it's still nice to see more color options for both of these molds.

Just saw that Brick Fanatics has shared some interesting interview snippets with designers of the latest minifigures series! There's one article about the Alien Tourist and Blacktron Mutant, and one about the Alien Beetlezoid and Imposter. On a related note, designer Chris Perron has also shared some insights on Instagram about his work on the Ice Planet Explorer. I love behind the scenes details like this so I'm definitely eager to read more about the other figures in the series!

Agreed with @MAB! Honestly it's really neat to see the classic and modern figures side by side like that. Also, I think it's important to consider that recent Space throwbacks have taken varying approaches. Certainly, the Classic Space and Blacktron minifigs in the Icons theme (and Classic Space minifigures in various recent themes) have adhered very strictly to the original parts, monochrome colors, and minimalist graphics. But the series 21 Space Police Guy and Series 26 M:Tron Powerlifter, Ice Planet Explorer, and Blacktron Mutant feature various new molds, along with graphical updates like printed stitching, belt buckles, kneepads, boots with reinforced toes, etc. I think part of the reason for this is that Classic Space tends to stand out even from other old-school themes and subthemes for its simplicity. For example, even from the very beginning, Lion Knight and Black Falcon minifigures had varied body part colors to suggest multiple articles of clothing and armor components made of different materials, as well as varying headgear elements and neck accessories. These factions (and those that followed them like the Wolfpack and Forestmen), also lasted long enough to coexist with figures that had more varied facial features like lipstick, mustaches, and beards, so fans are less likely to expect them to use classic smiley faces as a universal default. But Classic Space minifigures started out monochrome and generic, and STAYED monochrome and generic (with the exception of a few figures that traded their air tanks for jetpacks). Perhaps as a result of this, when figures like the Series 1 Spaceman or Series 6 Intergalactic Girl add extra sci-fi details like belts, reinforced boots, air hoses, and varied facial expressions, fans tend to stop thinking of them as Classic Space or even Neo-Classic Space minifigures. And a lot of fans even tend to see reissued Classic Space minifigures with modern helmets (i.e. any reissued Classic Space minifigure prior to The LEGO Movie 2) as a compromise rather than an upgrade/improvement. Whereas Castle and Pirates minifigures (and Space minifigures based on later factions) can introduce a lot more updated prints and molds before people question whether they actually belong to the same factions as their 80s/90s counterparts. As for the sets themselves, you're right that the Castle and Pirates throwback sets tend to deviate in more ways from the design language of their classic counterparts than Space ones like the Blacktron Cruiser and Galaxy Explorer, especially in terms of colors and textures. I think to some extent, this comes down to subject matter. In a theme like LEGO Space, there's no particular reason to assume that a "real life" version of the spaceships and other futuristic technologies from the sets would inherently have more subdued colors or less angular wings and cockpits than their LEGO counterparts (though it might have added textural detail, like the designers added to the wings and rocket cones of the new Galaxy Explorer). By comparison, a real-life counterpart to 6040 Blacksmith Shop would probably not have a bright red chimney, a bright blue anvil, or a grassy green floor! A real-life counterpart to the tree in 6054 Forestmen's Hideout probably wouldn't have an octagonal trunk, nor such blocky roots and branches. And a real-life counterpart to the islands in old-school Pirates sets would probably not have perfectly smooth rocky cliffs, or beaches made of bright yellow sand. As such, we as adults have generally come to expect a higher level of detail and authenticity when it comes to these sorts of colors, shapes, and textures than we had as kids — something that can be seen both in the features we increasingly prefer in sets and those that we incorporate in our own MOCs.

Yeah, I wasn't on any forums until 2006 or so, but I definitely knew about the LEGO Legends sets from the Shop at Home catalogs and from LEGO.com (as well as other exclusives from that time like the Blacksmith Shop). Basically the same ways that LEGO promoted other direct-to-consumer sets like Medieval Market Village, Imperial Flagship, and Star Wars UCS sets back before social media marketing was a thing. It's one thing to say LEGO marketed the LEGO Legends sets badly — after all, they did a LOT of things badly in the early 2000s! And marketing to adults was something they were particularly inexperienced with at that time. But it feels a little overblown to call it sabotage. I mean, Star Wars UCS sets from 2001 also came in black and white boxes (though 10019 Rebel Blockade Runner got re-issued the following year in a colored box, just like new LEGO Legends and Star Wars UCS sets got from 2002 onward). Same with with 3723 LEGO Mini-Figure and 3724 LEGO Dragon. All those sets were also limited in availability, and primarily available from the LEGO website, stores, and catalogs. So did LEGO sabotage those as well? Because to me, that all just seems like a symptom of their direct to consumer division's growing pains.

Interesting question. Depends how strictly you want to stick to the style of 1980s sets, I suppose! I know that a lot of folks since the Modular Buildings came out have tiled the sidewalks with 2x2 paving stones similar to those sets, but that level of detail might be a little odd juxtaposed with the simpler 1980s style of buildings and vehicles. If it's any help, the Idea Book 6000 includes some suggestions on pages 8 and 9 such as small flower planters, trees, fences, or piles of loose bricks (the last of which I suppose would work best in a construction site type setting). Lampposts or electrical poles strike me as another especially good option, since both are the sort of thing that you might expect to find evenly spaced along a road! If you want something that would secure the baseplates together by more than just a few studs (like, say, something with a 4x4 or larger footprint), some possibilities could include a larger planter/flowerbed, a telephone booth, an advertising column, a dumpster/skip, a fountain, a monument, or a public art installation. I also encourage you to look over the Wikipedia article on street furniture and see if that gives you any further ideas!

Yeah, the LEGO site has a bunch of non-theme-specific "interest" categories and tags that are more for the benefit of shoppers than anything else. Which makes sense — kids who like animal toys, castle toys, or race car toys aren't necessarily going to be picky about what branding those toys come with. That said, even if LEGO doesn't have any sort of specific quota of medieval-inspired sets they intend to release per year, I do think it's probably safe to assume we'll continue to see more sets along those lines, regardless of which themes or departments they come from.

More Dreamzzz sets have been unveiled for this August, and one of them is a castle — albeit a whimsical M.C. Escher inspired castle with floors that twist in three different directions! I'm not seeing a whole lot of new or recolored architectural elements in this one, besides 2x2x3 corner slopes in Flame Yellowish Orange for the tower roof, but I figure it's still worth sharing here in case anybody spots any parts or building techniques that they find particularly inspiring. Also, both that set and Izzie's Dream Animals include a Tr. Light Blue Opal recolor of the crystal sword from the 2022 Ninjago sets, a new red panda mold (not useful for medieval European builds, but maybe of use to people who want to make MOCs based on ancient China) well as a new style of Medium Nougat Dreamling that resembles a mandrake or similar plant creature. There's also another nightmare creature set with models like a brick-built raven and wolf, but smaller than the huge Midnight Raven set. Of particular note in this one, some of the images show that the new 4x4 cauldron is in fact made of two 2x4 half-cauldron pieces, which may allow for some more unconventional uses than I'd previously considered. I definitely still feel like it'd make a great kiln or wood stove! On a final note, Zoey's Cat Motorcycle includes a Bright Bluish Green (Teal/Dark Turquoise) recolor of the firing bow from the Avatar sets. Definitely more fit for fantasy builds than historic ones in that color, but still a neat recolor!

So like candy cane stripes, in other words? One simple option that occurs to me would be something like this: Each layer is made up of two of part 67329 and eight of part 35787, evenly split between the two stripe colors of your choice. The resulting pole should hopefully be wide enough to support a light brick towards the top like what you're envisioning. The main drawback of this build is that there's no room to run a bar or Technic axle through the center for added support. But if this is for a static display that shouldn't be a major problem, as long as you don't make it too precariously tall!

Huh, some fun and funky new parts for sure! Very mix-and-match friendly! The shoulder armor piece complements the City torso prints really beautifully. Its white color means it could work nicely with any of the different City astronauts, though the use of a gold logo rather than a reddish orange one means it pairs especially well with the gold hands of the higher-ranking astronauts. I'm also curious how it'd look paired with the Admiral, who uses more gold and less white in his color scheme than the other astronauts. I do feel like it's a bit of a shame that the new torso print simply has white and titanium metallic arms instead of a vivid contrasting color like the arms of the City spacesuits. But since the torso pattern is a general departure from the standard spacesuit design, having a different look for the arms as well is hardly a deal-breaker.

Fair point, fair point. In that regard I suppose it'd make more sense for the next big set to be someething else knight-focused (like a tournament scene, another castle, a town gatehouse, etc) before dipping back into more civilian-focused subject matter. So far none of the big Castle throwback sets have been remakes of specific sets, and tbh I don't particularly expect that to change. Of course, there's nothing stopping LEGO from including signature features from older sets in a new medieval-inspired build, like how the Lion Knights' Castle includes a secret entrance in the rock face similar to the one from 6066 Camouflaged Outpost.

Very good points — in sets, I often tend to prefer an open-backed approach to an open-top approach, since it allows more of a "minifig's eye view" of the interiors. But open-topped buildings were definitely an easier starting point for childhood MOCs, since it lets you build from the ground up without worrying about how those walls are going to support the ceiling or any upper floors. In the particular case of sets like Lunar Launch Site, Ice Station Odyssey, and Alpha Centauri Outpost, the incomplete look of the structures was at least partly budget related. Raised baseplates were extremely expensive, so creating an impressive-looking structure on top of them at an affordable price point often meant using a lot of large panels and columns instead of solid walls. This was also an issue that Castle and Pirates set designers faced, though in those themes the usual solution was to have a few main gatehouse/tower structures with lots of large arched openings, and short parapet walls instead of full curtain walls connecting them. But "fully enclosed" structures have never really been the norm, even in themes like Town and Castle — it's easy to forget, but back in 2007 when the Café Corner set came out, it was a major outlier. And that departure from tradtion was a little controversial among some builders, as expressed in topics like this one: (unfortunately the text in some of the comments from old topics like this has been cut short for some reason — maybe data corruption during a server move or board software update or something like that — but there are quite a number of people who seemed to prefer the more traditional dollhouse-style approach for cost, space, and playability reasons). The 2020 and 2024 City space bases are some of the first that have been fully enclosed, and I'm sure not being built on expensive ramp-and-pit or crater baseplates helped make that possible. But even so I wouldn't necessarily expect that to be a universal rule for space bases going forward. Even this year, the crew quarters, botany module, and lab module in the Friends Mars base are enclosed, but the "command center" is not. And in space themes like those of the 90s that skew even further into futuristic sci-fi territory, audiences are already prepared to suspend their disbelief more than in "real life" inspired themes like City and Friends. That may make full back walls a less worthwhile use of bricks for these themes than additional interior features or space vehicles. So honestly, I'm content with designers of any future Space sets continuing to make those decisions on a case-by-case basis.

Honestly it's kinda surprising to me that so many people interpret M:Tron as a mining-focused faction, because they were originally developed as a rescue/emergency response faction, and were primarily marketed as such outside North America (such as in this shop video, this TV commercial, and set names from Britain, Australia, and most of continental Europe). Is anybody aware of any links to commercials or print publications that suggested they were primarily focused on mining? The only example I've seen that comes close is the Brick Buildmore comic from the summer 1991 issue of LEGO Brick Kicks magazine (US) / LEGO Innovations magazine (Canada), which can be read here and here . But other American commercials, magazines, and catalogs I've seen don't say much at all about what M:Tron does, just that they're a high-tech faction and that Blacktron wants to steal their computers. And it'd be genuinely surprising if such a widespread belief among AFOLs simply stemmed from just one comic strip! In the sets themselves, I guess I can see how the transparent 1x1 round plates inside the smaller storage containers could be interpreted as some kind of mineral resource, but none of the models include any sort of shovels or drills, and many don't even have lasers. On the contrary, a lot of their identifiable gadgets include floodlights, fuel pumps and repair tools like hammers and wrenches. Even the Idea Book 260 that I had when growing up included an M:Tron rescue vehicle with a Futuron astronaut in a magnetic stretcher, rather than any sort of mining equipment (and the accompanying inspiration photos show M:Tron astronauts repairing a monorail and lifting and repairing Futuron vehicles rather than mining).

oh, that's cute. I was expecting more of a lunar landscape, but an interior vignette like this also works pretty nicely. Not a must-have, but still pretty cute and fun. I especially love the alien chef! I was expecting a brick-built design with either the three-eyed 2x2 dome or minifig head for its face, but a brick-built design using three of the 1x1 eye tile is even more creative and clever. The lack of air tanks is definitely kind of a bummer though — if the aim was to show the astronauts "taking a break" it could've been neat to have the air tanks slung over the back of the diner seats or something like that instead of just omitting them entirely. Honestly it doesn't seem at all incongruous to me. In general, I'm used to Creator sets, seasonal sets, and other sets along those lines using pretty generic minifigs, and Classic Space minifigs are about as generic as astronaut minifigs can get.

I wouldn't totally rule out the possibility of molded dragons in the future. However, I think adult-targeted Castle sets are more likely to stick to mostly brick-built dragons for a more complex design and building experience, unless it's reusing creature molds from a theme with a younger target age.

I think a medieval farm village set could be nice as a follow-up to the town square — it'd be a good opportunity to focus on features like a windmill, horse stable, henhouse, wheat field, vineyard, haystack, etc. which wouldn't have been as good a fit for that set. Maybe also a big hay wagon with a hiding place for fugitives/stowaways, similar to Crusader's Cart and Smuggler's Hayride. But a festival/tournament set could definitely also be a lot of fun, and I'd be interested to see how today's designers approach structures like tents, now that we've gotten some really nice 18+ castles, trees, and houses! And of course, once the Lion Knights' Castle finally retires, it would create a prime opportunity to introduce another big castle in its place— perhaps a darker-looking one inspired by the Black Knights or Dragon Masters. I'm not sure how soon that's expected to be or how soon after that LEGO would be keen on introducing another castle. For future GWP sets, I feel like it'd be neat to see one modernizing a more vehicle-focused classic Castle set, such as Wolfpack Renegades, Viking Voyager, or Sea Serpent. Alternatively, Knights' Stronghold seems like it could be a good size for a more castle-focused GWP, especially if LEGO does end up making a larger black castle for it to accompany.

My folks recently came up to Canada to visit and to watch the eclipse, and took that opportunity to deliver this set to me in person as a late birthday present! I just finished building it yesterday and I'm very pleased. The variety of different buildings made the building experience a lot of fun, and the models have a lovely level of detail. It's also compact enough to look convincing in relation to the castle while still being large enough to feel really impressive on its own. I'll probably keep it on the coffee table for a while before I go about re-arranging the stuff on top of the bookshelf to make room for it next to my other medieval sets. In the meantime it'll be great inspiration to try and make progress on some medieval MOC ideas. One small frustration — I accidentally knocked the tall flower behind the weaver's workshop off its base yesterday without realizing it, and I guess our two kitties must've found it and knocked some of the pieces around. I've found most of the pieces but am still missing the lowermost Bright Green leaf plate and the Earth Green flower plate. I'm sure they'll turn up, but I'm kinda kicking myself for not noticing when those parts came loose and saving myself a bit of trouble! The kitties have left the rest of the set alone overnight, though, unlike the Lion Knights' Castle and Medieval Blacksmith which they used to love knocking tree and plant pieces off of. Maybe that's 'cuz they're a bit older now and no longer quite so prone to that sort of kitten mischief.

Oh, that's neat! I love how many variants we've seen of this style of alien this year. I am with you in wondering whether that 1x1 round brick alien will show up in sets, and if so how it will be used. I feel like it'd have to be for something couldn't just use the alien minifig head on its own — maybe for a nest of juvenile aliens?

BTS is a K-pop boy band. Their fandom is pretty huge, and extremely visible on social media — at one point I know some folks got annoyed because they were used to using "BTS" as a search query for behind-the-scenes stuff from TV, movies, video games, etc, and suddenly search results for that were flooded with posts or news about the band! I'm not a fan myself and don't really make any sort of conscious effort to keep up with popular music in general, but it genuinely surprises me how many other people were even able to avoid any sort of exposure to or encounters with their fanbase prior to the LEGO set coming out! For me that stuff felt practically inescapable. Guess maybe the non-LEGO sites we use and fan communities we're a part of just differ in how much overlap they have with K-pop fans? In addition what Artanis mentioned about Pharrell Williams's popularity and his various career achievements, I know the music video for "Happy" became a pretty huge meme when it came out, with loads of people from different cities covering it in music videos showcasing hotspots in their own hometowns in place of the Los Angeles setting of the official music video. But in this case I think the biggest factor to keep in mind is that the movie "Piece by Piece" is a LEGO animated film (presumably either stop-motion or CGI imitating that style like in the LEGO movies) co-produced by the LEGO Group. With that in mind, it'd be surprising if there WEREN'T any LEGO set tie-ins! I'm sure we'll hear more about the reasons for the film taking this approach (and how it relates to Pharrell's life story) from interviews and press tours as it gets closer to release. Honestly this strikes me as a case where I wish we hadn't learned about the contents of this set leaked before it was clear what theme it'd be tied to. After all, if our first description of the set had been "unknown Pharrell Williams biopic tie-in" and we only learned later on that it was a spaceship, I'm sure that would've been more of a pleasant surprise than a disappointment for many of us! But because we learned those details the other way around, it's kinda killed the mood in the topics it's come up in recently.

Oh that's lovely! I like the use of airlock connectors on the sides, rather than just for connecting the spaceship modules front to back. I think the back wings could use more black on them to match the design language of the front wings and the wings of the various spaceships in the official sets. Also it could maybe stand to use more Sand Blue (unless you consciously omitted that color out of personal preference, which is totally valid if so).

I think a good policy for this sort of situation would be to allow playing with those sets only when you're there to supervise or play along. After all, I feel like kids under six years old might just get just as frustrated as you would if the set they're playing with breaks in a way that they can't figure out on their own how to fix! So they'll probably appreciate you being available for any sort of emergency repairs like that, instead of them having to run up begging for assistance when you're working, cooking, or otherwise occupied. This approach should also help ensure parts don't "wander off" when your nephews are done playing, or roll away under the furniture without anybody noticing or remembering to retrieve them later. 'Cuz I know from my own childhood memories that even if I meant to go back later to return something I'd "borrowed", or fetch an adult to retrieve something that fell somewhere out of reach, I didn't always have the memory or attention span to follow through! Of course, I learned a few years later that I had ADHD, which was probably a contributing factor in those sorts of mishaps. Obviously, how practical this sort of approach is depends on how often you're available to play or supervise when your nephews are around. I'm sure it'd feel a little unfair to make that sort of arrangement with them if it seems like you're always too busy to follow through! And of course, we've all got various adult responsibilities which will occupy our attention at least part of the time, and won't always neatly line up with when younger kids decide it's "playtime". But I definitely feel that enjoying LEGO together rather than separately can be a really meaningful bonding experience for both kids and adults, so if this sort of arrangement is an option for you, I would embrace that opportunity!

Yeah, either all black or dual molded with a color like Titanium Metallic or Dark Stone Grey could be really nice for that mold! Incidentally, the house/cabin part of https://brickset.com/sets/71478-1/The-Never-Witch-s-Midnight-Raven can also be separated from the big brick-built raven to turn into a Baba Yaga style house on chicken legs, as shown here! That set also uses a nifty new mold for the Never-Witch's cauldron, which I imagine could also be used effectively in historic builds as a kiln or furnace (thanks to the two openings on the sides which in the set are plugged up with small wheel elements). Another new mold that appears in all three of these recently revealed Dreamzzz sets is a transparent dome similar to the 2 x 2 x 1 2/3 dome/bell jar, but with a jagged crystalline texture at the top instead of a smooth dome. I imagine most of its potential uses in this color will be in fantasy contexts (I can't think of a lot of real-world containers with smooth cylindrical sides but a jagged top surface), but in the future I could imagine it being used in a solid color for broken columns, or in Tr. Bright Orange for a large flame.

In general, System sets in the 80s and 90s tended to use Technic much more sparingly than a lot of their modern counterparts. I feel like Time Cruisers was one of the first System themes of my childhood to make conspicuous use of Technic functions like gears and pulleys. Also, the cultural landscape has changed a lot since the 80s, so a lot of kids and adults today have different expectations of what mechs or giant robots should look like than they did back then. For example, a number of Ninjago mechs in recent years have drawn visual influence from the 90s and 2000s like Neon Genesis Evangelion or Tengen Toppen Gurren Lagann, anime that debuted in the 90s and 2000s (and that even then were mostly familiar to teen and adult anime fans in the west, not to kids). So even after those series debuted, it took some time for mechs with those sorts of designs to start showing up prominently in more kid-targeted toys and cartoons. In the 80s, a lot of the giant robots most familiar to American and European kids from sci-fi media of the time were less humanoid, like the Imperial walkers from Star Wars or the Sidewinder from the Thunderbirds episode "Pit of Peril". So it's not surprising that the "giant robots" in Classic Space sets tended more towards large, lumbering walkers like 6882 or 6940 than the agile humanoid mechs more typical of themes like Exo-Force and Ninjago. So even if sturdy mech sets COULD have existed back then, they probably still would've looked way different than today's due to a different range of design influences.