Aanchir

Yeah! It’s a very exciting piece, and it’s great to see it being used in so many different ways even in its debut year. It seems like it could be very useful for not only bay windows, but also railings, countertops, skylights, windows on a ship’s bridge or observation deck… and apparently, water wheels! Thank you for educating me! Needless to say, we don’t have any authentic medieval architecture here in the USA, so most of my knowledge about this stuff tends to come from stuff I’ve read rather than firsthand observations. And sometimes even detailed articles about this stuff gloss over these sorts of important details. Agreed. Honestly, neither of these arguments ever felt convincing to me. The first is contradicted by the sheer number of non-Castle-themed castles we’ve seen over the past decade — if kids didn’t like castles in general, why include so many of them in themes like Legends of Chima, Elves, Nexo Knights, and Hidden Side that could just as easily focus on other types of builds that don’t bear any resemblance to castles? And as for the latter argument, even if licensed themes like Harry Potter DO factor into LEGO’s decisions about the Castle theme, it clearly didn’t stand in the way of the Castle theme revivals in 2004, 2007, or 2010. And the Harry Potter brand was a much stronger “craze” back then than it is now, with Google Trends showing stronger search interest in Harry Potter than even Star Wars during those years! All in all, I honestly feel that the main reason for the Castle theme’s current hiatus is just that LEGO has decided to focus on other themes for the time being, not that they have any sort of objection to the Castle theme specifically. The classic armor and grille helmet were actually already in production, having recently appeared in sets like Spider-Man and the Museum Break-In, Gamer’s Market, and Skull Sorceror’s Dungeons, and the Disney Castle. Of course, I’m sure this set is much more relevant to traditional Castle fans’ interests than most of those were (although the armor stand in the Skull Sorceror’s Dungeons is certainly a great technique to keep in mind for castle MOCs)! The Medieval Blacksmith set likely opted for newer shoulder armor pieces instead of the classic breastplate not because the latter wasn’t available, but rather because shoulder armor can more easily be mounted on a wall (conserving the interior floor space) and does not cover up the printed Black Falcon tabards on the knights’ torsos. Not new, no. It was introduced back in 2016 for the LEGO Friends Adventure Camp Archery set, and has since shown up mostly in Friends and Disney sets. But it’s definitely nice to see it in both this set and the Medieval Blacksmith, since it’s a natural fit for medieval settings, not to mention a great throwback to the printed archery targets in the old-school Forestmen sets!

Would timber framing on buildings like this have actually appeared black when it was new? I always figured that it would have had a more "natural" wood look when first installed, and that surviving examples from the medieval era only look as dark as they do due to age-related weathering. That said, I do think Dark Brown might have looked nicer than Reddish Brown in these timber-frame sections of the build, simply by virtue of having stronger contrast with the Bright Yellow infill. Alternatively, a lighter and less saturated infill color like Cool Yellow could have improved contrast in a similarly appealing way, though it might feel less like a nostalgic callback to Black Falcon's Fortress that way. In general, when thinking about "modernized" versions of traditional sets or factions, I tend to carefully consider how many color choices back then might have been informed by the limitations of the time. For example, if LEGO were to bring back the Forestmen, I would expect the trees to be in shades of brown, as opposed to black. Likewise, there are a lot of Castle, Pirates, Ninja, and Adventurers sets even during my childhood that used Bright Yellow for "golden" objects like goblets, decorative sword holders, statues, mummy headdresses, stands for precious gems… even locks on jail cell doors. In a modern context, I'd expect these sorts of features to be in colors like Warm Gold that more clearly communicate the material they're intended to represent, as they are in this particular set. So from that perspective, it doesn't seem any stranger to me for a "modernized" Black Falcon faction's castle to have Dark Blue roofs than to have Dark Stone Grey walls or a Dark Azure moat. Well, even in the early 90s when I was first getting into LEGO, basic bricks and plates in colors like green, brown, and tan were still very rare compared to other colors, even in instances where those colors would seem like an obvious choice. Case in point: the first tiles I ever owned with a printed wood grain pattern were the Bright Yellow ones from the Extreme Team Challenge set in 1998. I remember the Aquaraiders sets being the first theme/subtheme I ever encountered that included large quantities of green parts besides plant pieces or baseplates. Likewise, the sheer number of brown and tan parts in late 90s themes like Wild West, Adventurers, and Star Wars felt pretty groundbreaking to me for that time!

Even in most of those sets (like King's Mountain Fortress, Black Knights' Castle, Royal Knights' Castle, Dark Forest Fortress, etc), a lot of the towers, gatehouses, throne rooms, and other interiors spaces were open on at least one side — otherwise, kids would be have no easy way to reach inside to move the figures around, or to retrieve loose parts that are dropped inside by accident. The main exception (just as in this set) was for dungeons/jail cells, since in those cases leaving one of the walls open would defeat their purpose. However, I suspect that the "break-away" walls that are often included in recent castles are meant in part to compensate for this lack of access points, in addition to their primary function of allowing for "jailbreak" play scenarios. Incidentally, there's one wall of the dungeon in this set that isn't visible in any of the pictures so far, so I'm curious whether it will have a "break-away" wall function like this. And in the very least, this castle's A-model certainly feels more securely enclosed than the 2010 King's Castle, in which the "open" side of the throne room, treasury, and the left rear tower all faced the OUTSIDE of the castle! In this set, at least, the openings in the interior chambers all face towards the center, away from any invading armies!

"Gentle dwarfs?" Are you referring to the goblins from the 2017 sets? 'Cuz I'd hardly describe them as "gentle"! Anyway, you can relax — regardless of my own nostalgia for LEGO Elves, there's no reason to think it couldn't coexist with a minifig-based fantasy theme. And I'd probably be able to enjoy a new medieval fantasy theme whether it uses minifigs or mini-dolls, even if one with minifigs didn't appeal to me on ALL the same levels that LEGO Elves did. After all, my favorite current theme is LEGO Ninjago, and its use of minifigs certainly doesn't detract from my enjoyment one bit!

True! I've never played Warcraft, but my wife is REALLY into World of Warcraft. Truth be told, pretty much every time I watch her play, it reminds me how much I miss LEGO Elves and all of its colorful, fantastical creatures and settings. I don't mind "traditional" Castle stuff like this 3-in-1 Castle or the Medieval Blacksmith as long as it has enough creative and interesting details, but I suppose that "otherworldly" sort of high fantasy is still a weakness of mine.

You can arguably trace some of these trends back even further — one of the main characters in the Knights' Kingdom sets from 2000 was "Princess Storm", a princess training to be a knight, who wears full armor in all of her set appearances. Likewise, the Ninja theme introduced the White Ninja Princess in 1998 and a female green ninja in 2000. And let's not forget the Forestwoman minifigure from all the way back in 1990! Although Forestmen and Ninja, as outlaws, aren't as beholden to the customs of their time as knights would typically be, LEGO clearly recognized even back then that there was an appetite among kids for female characters who could fight alongside their male cohorts. In the end, details like this can help make medieval-inspired sets slightly less alienating to girls and women, but are minor enough that they're unlikely to drive away prospective male buyers. So if we want medieval-inspired sets to succeed, allowing for the occasional female knight certainly shouldn't hurt their chances! Yep — and in fact, the heads DO get swapped in the B-model (Market/Castle Town), where the female head is used with the civilian torso for a merchant/shopkeeper. All in all, female knights were definitely not common historically, but they certainly existed, which can't be said for dragons! And even in less fantasy-heavy sets, LEGO tends to focus not just on whatever sort of medieval subject matter would have been most typical, but also what sort of medieval subject matter will be most exciting and interesting.Female knights certainly seem like they fall into that category — after all, even back in medieval times, tales of various "warrior women" often acquired the same sort of legendary status as tales of heroic outlaws like Robin Hood! Needless to say, if we can accept the entire Robin Hood inspired Forestmen faction as historical enough for LEGO Castle, then I don't think there's any need to quibble over the occasional female knight or soldier minifigure. Has there ever been a castle set that WASN'T like that? I certainly can't think of any. Closing off the towers from all sides would render their interiors pretty much useless from a playability standpoint, not to mention make it harder for minifigs to move around the castle walls. If anything, my own frustration with the towers isn't the open sides, but the lack of ladders! But I suppose including ladders might have required sacrifices in other areas of the set. By the way, another detail I recently noticed — the outcropping on the side of the front-left tower appears to be a garderobe-style toilet! In the interior pics, you can see what appears to be a roll of toilet paper in the tower next to that outcropping (a historical inaccuracy, of course — back then, a sponge or rag would've likely been used instead, but presumably LEGO felt like a toilet paper roll would more clearly communicate its purpose more easily to kids). I think this might be a first for LEGO castles, regardless of theme! And it's definitely the sort of "lifestyle" detail I greatly appreciate. What's wrong with dark blue? I feel like it's a fairly believable color for slate roofs. I understand why Bright Red or Bright Blue roofs like in Kingdoms or traditional Castle sets might be too vibrant for many people's tastes, but limiting castle roofs to dull colors like black, grey, and brown would start to get boring really quickly, and would give castles of different factions fewer ways of standing out from one another.

Whoa! I’m extremely impressed. The interiors seem wonderfully detailed (arguably more so than most actual Castle-branded sets), the structure/build itself is detailed and complex enough to justify the higher-than-usual 9+ target age, and the alternate builds are very unique and creative in their own right. Additionally, if I’m not mistaken, it looks as though the alternate builds and main build can potentially be linked together where the walls “split” to create an even larger castle! Note the tiny hinged wall segment in the back of the tower model, and the wall of the castle town/market, all of which appear to be the same height as the back wall of the main model, and have the same style of parapets! If I’m correct about this, that’s all the more incentive for Castle fans to pick up multiples of this set. Even the dragon is more impressive than I’d have expected for its size (better even than many $10 or $15 Ninjago dragons), and the color certainly speaks to my childhood Dragon Masters nostalgia! As far as building techniques are concerned, the AFOL-quality arrow slits and the water wheel using the new 3x3x2 quarter-circle bay window frames both really jump out at me, as do the brick-built banners and authentic-looking machicolations on the front towers. I also love some of the landscaping elements like the mossy rocks on which the left tower of the main model is built, along with the trees, mushrooms, moat, and climbing ivy. Actually, how many LEGO castles have even had an actual moat before? I feel like there haven’t been that many. I recognize that the bright colors are likely to be divisive among AFOLs, but I hope that even those fans who choose to pass on this specific set can look beyond superficial aspects like that, and recognize just how much innovation this model brings to the castle category! Especially since the previous wave of Castle sets in 2013 was so heavily criticized for being formulaic and repetitive when compared to the Kingdoms sets that preceded it. This set takes a decidedly less “by-the-book” approach, and makes me excited to think about what other types of medieval subject matter the Creator theme might be able to tackle from a similarly fresh perspective in the future.

The head and trunk are presumably able to rotate, same as the ones from the mammoth in the Arctic sets a few years ago. But I agree that hinged back legs like the big cat, bear, and horse molds would have been nice to see as well.

The crocodile in that set is also the first time the "new style" crocodiles have appeared in classic green! It'd be a great fit for a Barracuda Bay inspired layout, considering that set's general "throwback" vibe. It also includes a crocodile nest, using the egg piece from The Angry Birds Movie (one of which is printed with a newborn croc's eye peeking out through a small hole), and a body of water using one of the new LEGO City "road plates" in Dark Azure! If that part ends up showing up more widely, it could be great for port/harbour settings, since ships will be able to slide freely on its surface (unlike studded plates or baseplates). The LEGO Friends Forest House also has a new printed 2x2 "macaroni" tile with a wooden board print which could be great for nautical settings! Hopefully it will show up in even more sets in the future, since that set doesn't include an especially large quantity of them.

A lion (male, with mane), lion cub, an elephant calf, and new monkey as well! There's also a python using the same mold as Nagini from the Harry Potter sets, but with a new print, and a crocodile in classic green (the ones introduced in 2015 were Earth Green). There's also a new Beauty and the Beast castle in the Disney theme which might offer some useful parts, although the walls are mostly lavender which I know a lot of medieval builders may not care for. The interior is still mostly hidden in the pics we've seen, but it does include a library with at least two book covers in neutral colors. And like the recent 4+ winter version of the castle, this one has lots of fantastic dark red roof pieces.

A lot of them also had transparent plastic windows to display the pieces, which is exactly the sort of single-use plastic that LEGO is trying to eliminate from their current packaging. Take that away, and the only advantage remaining for an opening flap like that is adding slightly more space for pictures of or information about the set on the outside of the box.

Yep! It'd also be great for making pegasus foals using small wing pieces like the ones from the Legends of Chima or Super Mario sets. This mold first appeared in one of the Disney Storybook sets as a microscale version of the Nokk from Frozen 2, and it's great to see it in more "normal" horse colors. That said, I'm surprised that the Horse Training and Trailer set still uses the old foal mold but the new horse mold. If it's any help, this page has a lot of the new set pictures, including some of the ones Brickset doesn't have yet: https://heartlaketimes.blogspot.com/2021/04/summer-2021-friends-sets.html The new school and hotel both look very attractive and authentic! I hope we get to see more pictures of the hotel interior soon. The forest sets are also fantastic, from the trees and landscaping to the rustic architecture and adorable raccoons!

It was definitely very basic compared to modern adult-oriented sets (such as the Ninjago City sets; Ideas sets like Medieval Blacksmith, Barracuda Bay, Saturn V, and Tree House; or the Creator Expert/18+ Fairground Collection sets), or even compared to recent themes aimed at older kids like Ninjago, Monkie Kid, and Elves. Nearly all of MMV (the walls, roofs, tree, market stall, etc) was overwhelmingly "studs-up", with very little use of more advanced building techniques using parts like SNOT brackets or hinges. The main aspect that really set it apart from ordinary kid-targeted City, Castle, or Pirates playsets of its time was the use of small basic bricks instead of larger column, panel, or mountain pieces that would help speed up the build and reinforce the structure for more intense play scenarios. Mind you, this is not a criticism of the designers' capabilities! At that time, I feel like LEGO was a lot more cautious about what type of building people of ANY age would be able to manage without becoming bored, confused, or frustrated. So I think they designed MMV expecting much of the audience to be made up of builders who were ready for something just slightly more ambitious than the KFOL-oriented Castle sets of that time, and adults/teens emerging from a "dark age" who did not have a whole lot of highly advanced building experience, and so would be most comfortable with fairly traditional/"old school" building techniques using fairly traditional/"old school" parts. Back in 2009, sets as wildly innovative and unorthodox in their construction as Ninjago City, the Saturn V, Welcome to Apocalypseburg, or the Creator Expert Roller Coaster would have been practically unimaginable. Since then, however, LEGO has apparently gotten sales data and other customer feedback indicating that builders are willing and able to handle less traditional techniques, so I suspect designers today get a lot more freedom to incorporate advanced, non-traditional, and/or geometrically complex building techniques.than they would have back then. And furthermore, lots of wonderful new hinges, brackets, curved slopes, tiles, wedges, and connectors have been introduced since 2009 to enable even MORE advanced building techniques than even the most advanced MOCists had access to back then! It might be a bit of a letdown, but calling it a "slap in the face" seems like an pretty severe overstatement when you previously said you "cannot wait" for it. I know I wouldn't be that eager to pay a hundred bucks for a slap in the face!

For my part, I enjoy both molded animals and brick-built ones. Which I prefer in any given situation depends heavily on the theme and type of animal. In themes like Classic and Creator 3-in-1, for instance, the creative ways that the same bricks are used for different builds (including animal builds) is a big part of the theme's appeal. So I have no problem with ALL animals in those themes being brick-built, even if they end up looking much more blocky and less lifelike than I would expect in "play themes" like City, Friends, Castle, or Pirates. I would be similarly disappointed if larger creatures like dragons in a theme like Ninjago or Elves were constructed primarily from specialized molds, like LEGO Castle dragons or Jurassic World dinosaurs. One of the great things about those themes' 7+ building level is that they ARE able to achieve highly lifelike designs using standard LEGO parts and building techniques (plus, in some cases, a small number of specialized molded elements like faces and wings). But on a more general level, I prefer when animals in "play themes" feel at least approximately as lifelike as the minifigures or mini-dolls they're meant to accompany. Achieving that goal calls for a certain level of facial detail and a certain balance between geometric and organic shapes which specialized, printed animal molds can achieve much more easily than standard bricks — particularly in the case of animals that are "bigfig" sized or smaller (horses, cows, bears, tigers, crocodiles, sharks, etc). In general, smaller animals like this tend to work about as well with minifigures as with mini-dolls, regardless of which they were originally designed to accompany. Some other examples include the songbird, chicken, frog, fish, crab, lobster, spider, baby bunny, baby sea turtle, baby dolphin, puppy, hamster, and seahorse . And in fact, a number of these animals have already appeared in sets alongside both types of figure!

Ha, the new pirate stuff is amazing, although the ship's design takes a somewhat different approach than I'd have predicted (I expected the stage to face the side of the ship, not the front, with speakers placed in the gunports and stage lighting suspended from the rigging). I love that the mermaid violinist wears fishnets — not as stockings, of course, but just… actual fishnets! Her tattoos, hair, and general "punk" aesthetic are also stunning, as are the pirate DJ's spiked choker and compass pendant… although I'm probably more drawn to those sorts of details because I'm a huge lesbian than because of how pirate-y they are. That squid drummer and shark guitarist are also fun, though it feels like a bit of a missed opportunity that the squid drummer can't hold a second set of drumsticks with his tentacles! Unrelated to the "pirate punk" sets and figures, I can't help but wonder whether the Reddish Brown panel used for the chocolate waterfall in the Candy Castle set could be at all useful for custom hull designs. Admittedly, its smoothness might be a bit of a limitation in that sort of context, considering that there are so many custom hull techniques that allow for more detailed wooden plank textures using smaller curved elements.

I think if expert-level castle sets were guaranteed money-makers, LEGO would've figured that out after the Medieval Market Village and Kingdoms Joust. Certainly, their 12+ age marking was several steps below today's 18+ sets, but they were on par with the Winter Village sets of their time — and unlike MMV and KJ, those were successful enough to become an annual series. I do think that there'd likely be a market for an 18+ castle with an optimal design, but I also think that even today, it would be less of a surefire hit than stuff like the Modular Buildings or Winter Village Collection which have a well established track record of reliably strong sales. I would certainly love to see LEGO create more sets along those lines in the future, though, especially after seeing the amazing work some of their designers have done with the Medieval Blacksmith or with castles in themes like Elves, Disney, and Harry Potter!

That's a fair frustration. Believe it or not, one of the reasons Brickset reviews tend to be relatively light on build photos is that in the past, when they HAVE included more build photos, some users have complained about it "spoiling" the building experience for them. Personally I can't relate at all to that feeling — I often enjoy looking through new instruction manuals for neat building techniques and details as soon as they're uploaded to LEGO.com, and it doesn't remotely diminish the experience of actually building the sets myself. But I guess different builders enjoy different aspects of the LEGO building experience, and that initial feeling of surprise is a bigger part of that enjoyment for some people than it is for me. I do appreciate detailed minifig photos a lot, though, especially since official pictures and instruction manuals can often be less reliable about showing what they look like from all angles than they are about showing the set from multiple angles or documenting the building process. And even BrickLink database photos of stuff like minifig hair and headgear can be unreliable at showing what they look like from both the front and back, which can have a big impact on how useful those pieces might be for other minifigures! I definitely 100% agree about how great New Elementary's reviews are! It's one of my favorite sites to go to for reviews, specifically because they go into such painstaking detail about new sets and parts! Admittedly, my own reviews I've written for New Elementary didn't tend to include too many build photos — usually just one "in-progress" photo at the end of each set of numbered bags. If I ever get back into reviewing sets for them, I'll keep your feedback in mind and try to include more build photos!

Yeah, I suspect quite a few of the complaints about the main model involve parts that are used differently in the alternate models. For instance, the red elements from the banner in the A-model appear to be used for the roof of one of the market stalls in the B-model. And the lack of any obvious brick-built fantasy creatures in the B- and C-models suggest the green parts from the dragon may be used for additional landscaping details in those builds. There have definitely been news stories and interviews in the past that mentioned just how much excitement and appeal dragons add to LEGO Castles — this article in particular stated, perhaps a bit hyperbolically, that "On one subject, boys of all ages and nationalities agreed: A castle without a dragon is worse than no castle at all." I dunno about that generalization. Perhaps it might be true for adult fans of themes like Castle, Pirates, and Star Wars, but for my part I've never been bit by the army-building bug, and I suspect the same applies for other AFOLs whose preferred themes are less military-focused. Now, admittedly, I am the kind of AFOL who some might disparage as a "doll collector" — in themes like Ninjago, Elves, and the LEGO Movies, I tend to plan many of my purchases around getting a wide variety of different character designs while minimizing duplicates. Moving out of my childhood home (where I shared much of my collection with my twin brother) and moving into my wife's apartment has forced me to keep some of this collecting impulse in check due to space limitations, and it might be a while before I really have a firm idea of how much LEGO I should be buying from here on out.

Well, unlike fossil fuels, trees are a renewable resource. And the sets with the most simplistic instructions (such as those with 4+, 5+, or 6+ age markings) are typically not the ones with especially bulky manuals anyhow. So I don't think the environmental impact of the instructions is too high on LEGO's priority list. Of course, it could potentially be a worthwhile goal for them to look into further down the road — even if they keep some of the steps simple, they could potentially still cut down on the volume of paper they use by printing more steps per page. I don't know why you'd think that… I've seen plenty of MOCs from kids either shared by proud parents on social media, entered into building competitions like the Brattleboro Museum's annual LEGO contest, uploaded on the LEGO Life app, etc. For that matter, bulk lots of LEGO sold online still tend to include seemingly random assemblies of parts that are the remainder of kids' MOCs, and/or vast quantities of loose parts which indicate that at some point or another, the owner of those bricks decided to use them for something other than the sets they originated from. Now, bear in mind that from an adult perspective, a lot of these beginner-level MOCs likely seem like nothing to write home about (including the sort of stuff that AFOLs might disparage as "rainbow warriors"). But that's hardly an indication that kids don't have a serious interest in creative building. After all, if kids weren't interested in open-ended creative building, then themes like Classic, Creator, Dots, and Minecraft which put a huge emphasis on that sort of creative building and free-form customization would not be nearly so successful. If anything, AFOLs often seem to be the ones most likely to disregard those themes due to their rainbow colors, lack of traditional minifigs, lack of realistic/detailed example builds, and lack of parts and colors that are "useful" to fans of specific minifig-scale themes. Just look how many complaints about LEGO's "lack of original themes" tend to be narrowly focused on the number of non-licensed, minifig-scale "play themes", disregarding not only the "core creative themes" like Classic, Creator, and Dots, but also other non-minifig-scale themes like BrickHeadz, Technic, and Architecture.

Aw dang, I was not at all prepared for this level of detail! Guess my assumption about the castle from that Ideas video being one of the three models didn't turn out to be accurate, although there are some similarities — perhaps the same designer worked on both. I love that has some overhanging jetties with timber-frame walls and yellow infill, which feels reminiscent of the original Black Falcon's Fortress. The brick-built banners are also brilliant, though I agree, it's a little odd that they don't match the heraldry featured on the minifigs, shields, and flags. The dragon looks pretty nice for its size, as well! I hope clearer official pictures emerge soon! I'm sure there are a lot of details that will only become apparent from other angles, as well. One way or another, this seems like it'll make for a very promising parts pack for historic builders.

Yep, and Ninjago City Gardens as well — but even so, three or four sets built on baseplates per year is a pittance compared to back in the 80s and 90s when they were still the standard for larger sets in nearly every theme. And I don't think it's a coincidence that nowadays, they usually tend to show up in sets with well over a thousand smaller pieces to offset the cost of the baseplates themselves. Most smaller sets (and even some other massive ones) opt for a foundation of standard plates instead, which I tend to greatly prefer. After all, even most Castle sets back in the 80s were only built on baseplates if standard plates didn't come in a large enough size. Interestingly, LEGO didn't seem at all concerned about the height discrepancy at that time, because sets like 6080, 6073, 6067, 6061, 6041, and 6040 were all designed to link together using pins and hinge bricks, even though the offset meant that 6080's pins and pin holes were half a plate lower than the ones in all those other sets!

Some figures I can think of whose parts might be worth a look include Princess Harumi, Poison Ivy, the Series 8 Actor, Series 9 Forest Maiden, Fantasy Era Witch, Desert Lloyd , and Hero Lloyd. I definitely understand if some of these don't really suit the style you're looking for, though. Keep in mind that parts that don't match the color scheme perfectly (like, say, don't seem to have enough brown, or have an exposed yellow neckline) can always be covered up or complemented with other parts in suitable colors like shoulderpads, cloaks, or quivers. In general, centaurs look kind of odd with full-sized horse bodies unless you exaggerate the size of their human upper half. And that'd likely be an even bigger issue with minifigs due to their stumpy proportions. For what it's worth, portrayals on ancient Greek pottery also generally went with the "diminished horse height" approach, portraying centaurs and adult humans as close to the same height, although of course, that sort of ancient art often took a lot of liberties with scale and proportions.

For my part, I wouldn't want that for ALL bigfig characters, but I would LOVE to see more figures with this sort of physique, especially since the new version of Hagrid introduced some good "standard" arm molds for those sorts of figures. Besides Axl and Hagrid, some other figures that have had sort of a similar "semi-bigfig" physique include Leatherhead and Dogpound from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles , Biggie from Trolls World Tour. Some other LEGO licensed characters who I think might benefit from that sort of design include Mr. Incredible, Bane, Genie, and the Beast (after all, one of the nice thing about both traditional bigfigs and these "semi-bigfig" arm molds is that they're a pretty good fit for the design language of both minifig-based and minidoll-based themes). It would also be a good fit for some licensed and non-licensed character designs haven't seen in sets before, like Cyborg's design from the Teen Titans cartoon, Venom's design from some Spider-Man cartoons, a scaled-down version of the Demon Bull King from LEGO Monkie Kid, or Joey from LEGO Friends: Girls on a Mission. But as mentioned in my previous post, there are also some "bigfig" characters who definitely wouldn't work as well with that sort of design, like the Cave Troll from The Lord of the Rings and the Goblin King from The Hobbit. It's also worth keeping in mind that a lot of bigfig characters are likely exaggerated in size so they're better scaled to their brick-built surroundings like vehicles. For instance, because D.Va's MEKA, Reinhardt's power armor, and Hammond's Wrecking Ball from the Overwatch sets are brick-built models scaled up to accommodate their operators, other "tank heroes" like Winston and Roadhog need to be scaled up so as not to seem ludicrously outclassed. Likewise, if Hulk were built with the same proportions as Axl, then he'd only be five bricks tall, including hair — which is not only shorter than a normal-sized LEGO horse or the car from the recently-announced Escape from the Ten Rings set, but also shorter than a standard LEGO door frame (which has a vertical clearance of 5 bricks and 1 plate). Needless to say, that would be way too small for a character who is notorious for throwing cars around as if they were pillows and being too large to fit through normal-sized doors! Honestly, this sort of inconsistency honestly strikes me as one of the MANY compromises necessary when dealing with the traditional minifigure's inherently wonky proportions, such as… how minifigs appear taller when sitting than standing unless their chair/seat is less than a brick tall. how a lot of larger minifig accessories like rifles, muskets, pitchforks, katanas, scimitars, chainsaws, and are longer than an adult minifig is tall. how minifig cars and trucks rarely allow for a driver and passenger to sit side-by-side unless you exaggerate the scale how even the largest minifig-scale trains, planes, and buses allow a maximum of two occupants per row In general, trying to scale LEGO buildings, vehicles, and creatures to a minifigure's HEIGHT rather than their width tends to create a lot more problems than it solves. So I think it's honestly better to keep certain characters taller than they should be relative to minifigs than to go through the ordeal of scaling everything else down to match. Keep in mind that Legends of Chima and Nexo Knights were pretty successful in their own right — enough so to sustain two and a half years' worth of releases, even if their sets and supporting media got scaled back a lot by the very end. I feel like there will likely come a point at which Ninjago's popularity has declined enough for LEGO to see more ongoing promise in other themes, much like we saw with Bionicle. But honestly, I doubt that LEGO introduces any new "big bang" theme expecting it to become a Ninjago-level evergreen property (although they're probably more prepared for the possibility of that happening than they were back when Ninjago was first introduced). And whenever Ninjago's popularity declines enough for LEGO to consider retiring it, I don't know if they'd wait around for one of their other action/adventure themes to prove it has what it takes to be evergreen. Agreed. And even a lot of the KFOLs and TFOLs who have followed along with the entire series have likely caught up on past seasons via DVDs or digital streaming (like my wife is currently doing — we just finished Season 7 yesterday!) rather than watching each new season when it first aired. Truth be told, I can kind of relate to this issue. Even if it makes sense from a packing perspective, it can make building larger sets kind of confusing when you have no idea just how many bags of parts each section consists of. In the very least, I think the instruction manuals should be updated to show exactly how many bags you need to open at the start of each section.

Glad to help! In the future, this is also a good reason to follow along with new LEGO Friends set pictures (and/or looking through pictures and manuals from older LEGO Friends sets), even if you're not interested in collecting that theme. They can be a wonderful resource for clever ways of building all sorts of "everyday" things — such as food, furniture, home appliances, toys, sports equipment, signage, natural scenery, and more. For example, check out the design of the waterlilies and the waves breaking along the coast in the Vet Clinic Rescue Helicopter set, or the soft drink machines, seats, and cupholders in the Heartlake City Movie Theater set, or the kite and cattails/bullrushes in the Heartlake City Park set. All of these techniques use parts that come in all sorts of different sets and themes, and all of them could just work just as easily in generic Town/City MOCs and layouts! Naturally, the same can be said for AFOL-targeted sets like Modular Building, Winter Village, and Fairground sets, which are known to offer a wealth of clever and useful building techniques. But I feel like most of us are used to following along with news about those sets whether or not we collect them, especially since they usually tend to get detailed press releases and extensive review coverage on all the major AFOL fan sites (including Eurobricks). By comparison, Friends sets are aimed at younger builders, and often get released with a lot less fanfare, so they can sometimes slip under the radar if you're not used to keeping up with news and updates about that theme specifically.

Yeah, I definitely think more diverse restaurant and food truck options are possible in LEGO City than what we've seen in the past. I mean, Heartlake City Shopping Mall's food court consists of a boba (Taiwanese bubble tea) vendor and a Japanese restaurant serving ramen and sushi. And previously, Stephanie's Sports Arena included a taco bar. Clearly, LEGO isn't worried about young girls feeling confused or alienated by these sorts of diverse eateries (especially when they're just one part of a larger set), so I don't know why they'd expect that to be a bigger issue with young boys. Friends sets have had great options for some of those types of fruits as well! For instance, Heartlake Juice Bar back in 2014 introduced a Bright Yellow printed minifig head that could be coupled with some green plant pieces to represent a pineapple, which we've since seen across several different sets and themes. The following year, Heartlake Supermarket used the ice cream piece in Bright Yellowish Green to represent a bunch of grapes. And more recently, Heartlake City Restaurant introduced the same piece in Medium Lilac to represent red grapes. For oranges, the Creator Expert Roller Coaster's juice bar sign repurposed the Ø10.2mm ball joint in Flame Yellowish Orange with a green triple-leaf plate on top — which works pretty nicely when compared to the size of the existing apple mold. The same part also exists in Bright Orange, if you're concerned about Flame Yellowish Orange ones being confused for other types of citrus fruit like grapefruit. For that matter, the same ball joint piece in Bright Red with a green 1x1 flower plate instead of a triple-leaf plate works wonderfully for tomatoes! Likewise, a "viking horn" in Bright Red or Flame Yellowish Orange works very nicely for chili peppers. Needless to say, there are lots of options out there for fruits and vegetables even without introducing new molds!