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I would expect to see him use this hair piece (which was originally introduced for Nakia from Black Panther and young Lando Calrissian from Solo, and was recently used for Andrea's dad Martin). I'm honestly really happy that LEGO has been introducing more Afro-textured hair pieces like this in recent years. Even if the options they currently have aren't perfect for representing all hairstyles like River's "fade", they are a LOT more accurate than if LEGO's options were still limited to pieces originally designed to represent straight hair, like the Sleepyhead hair piece. And the number of new options in just the past few years gives me a lot of hope that this variety will continue to expand in the future!

Small clarification: I'm a "she", not a "he". It's true that social media comments can get pretty brutal, but I don't think that should be seen as reason to give up hope for a project like this being viable. After all, there have been plenty of horrible comments about LEGO Ideas sets released in the past, including the Minecraft, Back to the Future, Research Institute, Women of NASA, Dinosaur Fossils, Barracuda Bay, and Medieval Blacksmith sets. But it's the number of people who like and decide to buy a set that determines its viability on shelves, not the number who dislike it or decide not to buy it. More importantly, the project creator already seems to have pretty good plans for how to improve on the issues I brought up, in ways that will probably also add to the appeal of the project as a whole (adding educational value, expanding the variety of different subject matter it portrays, and authentically honoring the heritage of various Native American cultures. By contrast, naming this project something like "Generic Native American Set" would only end up making it more offensive, in my opinion. For comparison, consider the Lederhosen Guy, Pretzel Girl, Bagpiper, and Kimono Girl minifigs. As representations of specific regional folk costumes (a man and woman in traditional Bavarian dress, a bagpiper in traditional Scottish highland dress, and a woman in a traditional kimono and oshiroi makeup), they're not bad designs at all, and in fact their level of detail and authenticity shows great respect for the heritage of each culture that they portray. However, if the same minifigures were named "Generic German Man", "Generic German Woman", "Generic Scottish Man", and "Generic Japanese Woman", they'd be FAR more offensive, since framing them that way would make them seem like out-of-touch stereotypes of how people of those nationalities dress in general.

I don't mind the current bigfigs myself, especially for characters who are meant to seem kind of monstrous or beastly like Hulk, Gorilla Grodd, Killer Croc, etc. — I think "normal" minifig proportions like the brick-built Giant Man and Ares figures would feel odd and inappropriate in those cases, since it would just make them feel like regular people, but taller. The current bigfig designs feel like more of a "happy medium" between the design standards of minifigs and non-minifig molded creatures like dragons, dinosaurs, or Star Wars creatures like the Rancor, Wampa, and Dewback. That said, I do wish more of the ones like Hulk, Thanos, or Sandy who have fairly standard minifig-style heads/faces also had removable heads and headgear — perhaps not standard-sized minifig heads and headgear like Mungus and Killow, but maybe new head and headgear molds with a 2x2 diameter, like the Trolls World Tour or Mojo Jojo minifigures. That would not only make them more customizable, but also boost their expressiveness by allowing them to turn their heads.

I mean, 31117 being based more strictly on real-world space exploration technology doesn't really lead me to think that sci-fi stuff is off the table — just that real-world space exploration is still really popular right now, and LEGO wants to make sure they can offer something of that sort for kids who'd be too young to enjoy more teen/adult-targeted sets like 10283, 10266, and 92176. After all, even if their color schemes resemble real-world space agency livery, 31107 's A- and B-models both include aliens, and its C-model is a "Vic Viper" style spaceship. Likewise, 31115's A-model wears a jetpack and includes an alien, and its B- and C-models carry glowing energy crystals/fuel cells and are piloted by robots. That all seems pretty sci-fi to me! On another note, I just noticed Space Mining Mech's set description answers the question of what the brick-built elements inside the A-model's transparent dome are for — that center build can be flipped around to change the eye color/expression from "calm" fluorescent green to "distressed/agitated" reddish violet (at least, that's my interpretation of what the two eye colors likely signify). Which, again, gives me far stronger Forbidden Planet vibes than NASA vibes.

Whoa, that sounds like it'd be neat to see! If you end up gettiing them and swapping the colors, please share pics so we can see how that idea looks in real life!

Yeah, the anti-stud was very loose by the time that sets like the Exo-Suit used it. I think they've since replaced the mold, but I'm not 100% sure if I'm remembering correctly.

Glad to hear you have so many improvements already underway! I look forward to seeing those updates once you're allowed to post them. It definitely sounds like the sort of project I'd be happy to support once those issues are resolved, and one that could have a very strong chance of passing review and appeal to a lot of builders.

I figure it's a thing that's probably been thought of but not approved for production yet for some reason or another — maybe LEGO's had a hard time coming up with a version of that concept that tests well with kids. Or maybe sales data for other sources of bulk parts like Pick-A-Brick or the old-school service packs has led LEGO's higher-ups to think only brightly-colored brick assortments would sell. Or maybe they were simply reluctant to release a set like this until they fixed the issue with brown parts being unusually brittle (which was only resolved fairly recently). One way or another, though, sets like the LEGO Minecraft sets I mentioned above definitely reassure me that kids would buy a set like this under at least SOME circumstances, so I think a non-licensed brick bucket like that could potentially do well with the right design and branding. But I can't really speculate too much more than that without further insights about what's held this sort of concept back in the past.

I know from my own childhood experience that some types of finger hinge were prone to breaking after repeatedly being connected and disconnected. The style of finger hinges used for Homemaker figure arms or Space and Aquazone robotic arms were especially bad about this, but the "modified plate" style used for windscreens, vehicle roofs, crane arms, and carriage hitches (or the vertical style used for window panes and shutters) weren't immune, either. I remember my family ending up with a lot of broken parts in all those styles that had to be thrown away (especially ones that were already heavily used hand-me-downs from other builders via eBay or yard sale lots). Considering how many times LEGO had to redesign other parts that were prone to breakage like Ø3.18mm clips and Bionicle sockets, I wouldn't be surprised if the finger hinges were discontinued for the same reason. That said, there are still a few parts that use finger hinges (like the classic 2x2x2 "post box", or the book covers introduced in the 2016 Nexo Knights and Elves sets). So I suppose it might have been possible for LEGO to develop a breakage-resistant version of the finger hinge if they'd taken more time to explore those options instead of just replacing them with other hinge types. My understanding of engineering-type stuff like that is extremely limited, so I can only speculate about what would or wouldn't have been possible in that regard. I agree that the old-school finger hinges are remarkably useful parts, and that there are a lot of ways they can be used where other types of hinges like clips, locking hinges, or Technic pins are less effective due to their slight vertical offset (Mixel joints are a good substitute in some of these cases, since their hinge is aligned with the vertical center of the plate, but their limited colors and thicker hinge design present an entirely different set of limitations).

I doubt we'd ever see an entirely monochrome bulk brick set like that — even for Castle/historic creations, that would be fairly limiting, since you'd need additional colors for stuff like roofs, trees, roads, hills, waterways/moats, etc. And I think a lot of the Classic theme's appeal is the promise of being able to build lots of different types of subject matter, even from just a single box. But I could definitely see the potential for one that is mostly "earth tones" like shades of grey, brown, tan, green, and blue — sort of like a non-licensed version of the LEGO Minecraft "Crafting Box" sets (21116, 21135, and 21161). It could potentially have a set name like "Creative Landscaping Bricks", "Creative Environment Bricks", "Creative Nature Bricks", or "Creative World-Building Bricks". That would not only tie it together with other LEGO Classic set names, but also with the sort of eco-conscious societal trends that LEGO has leveraged with other sets like "Plants from Plants" or various jungle- and ocean-related City and Friends product lines. And like other types of Classic sets, it would be able to have plenty of different example builds on the box to show off its versatility: like, say, a castle, a tree, a pyramid, a brown bear, a mountain, a shipwreck, and an elephant. That way it would resonate with kids with lots of different interests, not just with the historic builders who would benefit greatly from it as a parts pack.

You've made some lovely builds here, but one aspect I see that might be considered insensitive is the way you have combined elements of several different Native American cultures into one model. For instance, totem poles were specific to the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest coast, whereas tipis were specific to the indigenous peoples of the American Great Plains and Canadian Prairies, who had more of a nomadic lifestyle. And the indigenous peoples of the American Southwest (where you would find cacti like the one in this project) would typically live in permanent earthen settlements called pueblos. I feel like a good way to remedy this issue would be to break your project up into multiple vignettes, with each representing a particular Native American culture. This would give your project greater historical and cultural authenticity, and even some educational value which might benefit it greatly in LEGO's review process. After all, several successful Ideas projects in the past (especially ones with strong educational appeal in their own right) have taken the form of separate vignettes like this, including 21110 Research Institute, 21301 Birds, 21312 Women of NASA, and 21320 Dinosaur Fossils. Having said that, you did a beautiful job with the construction and decoration of the tipis and totem pole in your build, as well as landscaping elements like the cacti and tree. So I feel like this build is off to a good start. The tree, totem pole, and canoe would be very fitting for a Pacific Northwest coastal vignette (with a cedar clan house or longhouse rather than a tipi), while the horses and one of your tipis would be most of what you'd need for an authentic Great Plains vignette (along with some grasslands-inspired landscaping). I apologize if this post comes across as excessively didactic, but I think these sorts of improvements would greatly improve your project's quality and chances of approval while maintaining the beauty, creative strengths, and historical appeal of the current MOC!

Sometimes I wonder if the number of lifestyle-oriented features in themes like Nexo Knights compared to "traditional" themes like Castle or Pirates might have something to do with how story- and character-driven they are. After all, if you show a kid an unnamed knight minifigure and ask them what he does, they'll probably say stuff like "protects the castle" or "has swordfights with other knights" or "rides a horse" or "slays dragons" — you know, the sort of stuff they associate with the job/task/role he's "dressed for". Same as how you'd expect to see a police officer minifig pursuing and capturing criminals, a firefighter minifig fighting fires, or a pirate minifig sailing a ship or searching for buried treasure. By contrast, giving a character a name and some general personality traits helps to flesh out their identity and lifestyles beyond the job/task/role they happen to be dressed for, and thus helps kids to care more about what their lives are like when they're "off the clock", so to speak. That's all just sort of a side note, though — suffice to say, I agree that I'd love to see these sorts of features in LEGO castles more often, regardless of whether or not they're part of a story-driven theme. Especially since themes like Elves and Nexo Knights demonstrate really effectively that lifestyle-oriented play features don't have to come at the expense of action-oriented play features like sieges, catapults, ballistas, trap doors, or dungeons! Yep! It has a lot in common with the modular style of the early LEGO Harry Potter sets from 2001 and 2002, but a lot more substantial-looking. Many of those early sets suffered from the same issue as a lot of late 90s and early 2000s sets, with more of an emphasis on columns and arches than solid walls, and some of them like Snape's Classroom or the Chamber of Secrets were only meant to be viewed facing the "inside", diorama-style (the outside was messier-looking, and didn't match the overall Hogwarts Castle color scheme or design language very well). This latest wave is a lot better about this, and I think that helps to prove that it could work in a traditional castle theme without the weaknesses of those gappy, poorly-enclosed early 2000s sets.

I'm definitely all for the idea of modular castles that can be rearranged both vertically and horizontally, and was extremely passionate about the Harry Potter books, movies, and LEGO sets as a kid. But in light of J.K. Rowling's vocal animosity towards the rights and dignity of transgender people like me, I can't really enjoy any of those forms of the series the way I used to. I personally feel that tan is a great color for stone walls in medieval or fantasy settings — there are loads of great examples in the Elves theme, which I thoroughly enjoyed! And by contrast, traditional black or grey castles often strike me as cold, sterile, and even a little tiresome. That said, I unfortunately doubt we'd see any non-licensed castles with tan walls while the Harry Potter theme remains active. Some other features Harry Potter sets often feature that I'd love to see in a future castle theme include: Round towers, spires, and parapets (rather than just square or octagonal ones). If you asked me to picture a castle in my head, it would pretty much always have these features, and at this point LEGO has more than enough curved parts to make it happen. Lifestyle-oriented features like places to eat, sleep, study, and wash up. I still find it kind of galling that we've practically never seen a castle with a great hall/banquet hall, bedrooms, or a library in a traditional Castle theme! And while bathrooms like we see in Hogwarts would not be authentic to a medieval setting, chamber pots or garderobes would not only be fitting, but would likely appeal to kids who enjoy "potty humor". Magical creatures besides just dragons. For example, griffons are an iconic medieval fantasy creature, which would almost certainly be cool enough to draw kids' attention. And unlike, say, unicorns, they don't have any connotations of "girliness" that might be off-putting for kids and adults who are bothered by that sort of thing.

Okay, now that LEGO has released so many high-quality pictures on their website, here are some other parts that stand out to me: The bathroom set includes the 1x5x3 wooden stable door in Dark Brown (its first appearance in a natural/unpainted wood color). The Chamber of Secrets set includes a brand-new candelabra piece in Warm Gold inside Lockhart's classroom. In earlier pics I didn't look closely enough to realize, because I assumed it was built from multiple existing elements. The base of the buildable Hermione's wand seems to include a pumpkin in Sand Yellow. Could be useful for other types of gourds, as a stuffed head on a scarecrow/effigy, or as a decorative element on columns. No new pieces involved, but the lantern construction in the flying lesson set (using a small train/minecart wheel and a harpoon) is a nifty technique that could be worth keeping in mind for the future. Also, this is the first set to contain the 3x4 crate in Black in over 15 years! Besides creatures, some of the new Olive Green recolors in the Basilisk like the 2x2 curved neck/tail segment with pin hole, 2x2 macaroni tube with axle hole, and the old-school dinosaur tail middle and end segments could be great for upscaled plantlife, like giant vines or a magic beanstalk.

I definitely agree there! They've also been used for Pigsy from the Monkie Kid theme since its debut, and for the Pug Costume Guy from Minifigures Series 21. Hopefully it won't be too long before we start to see them in even more non-licensed themes like Creator 3-in-1, Ninjago, the Chinese Festival sets, and 18+ sets like the Modular Buildings, Winter Village, and Fairground collections. Some of those 18+ examples would be especially fitting for them since they often feature family members of varying ages, so it'd be easy to throw a few teenage characters into the mix. I don't really see any reason to think that LEGO isn't taking their competition seriously. After all, there's lots of stuff that LEGO is already doing that helps to give them an edge on their competitors: for example, investing in their in-house properties like City, Friends, Ninjago, and Monkie Kid; acquiring popular licenses and building themes around them (which keeps them out of the hands of competitors); experimenting with new physical and/or digital play features to set their sets apart from other construction toy brands; and promoting their brands and products through TV, print, and online formats. Needless to say, there's nothing they can really do to prevent clone brands from rushing a "Starry Night" set (or any public domain concept from LEGO Ideas) to market before them, but it goes without saying that they're going to try and make the eventual LEGO version as appealing as they possibly can. As for Mega Construx, just glancing at the Castle Greyskull promotional video on Mega Construx's own website, the bricks still have sort of the same icky, waxy look I remember from Mega Bloks products of my childhood (back before the parent company Ritvik was renamed Mega Brands or acquired by Mattel). Although the colors are much richer than they were back then, the color of the bricks still seems wildly inconsistent in places, such as among the "sand green" standard bricks, round bricks, and hinges on the interior walls 14 seconds into the video. Even the brick shapes are inconsistent/imprecise, as can be seen with the uneven edges of the stacked plates in the lower right corner of the video at around 30 seconds in. I get that you might consider stickers a quality issue, but there are a lot of LEGO fans (even in this very thread) who either have no preference between stickered and printed decorations, or who even ENJOY the process of applying stickers to their sets. "Taking their competition seriously" doesn't mean assuming their competitors always know best about what customers actually care about.

Lovely work! It feels very true to the original, but with a much higher level of realism and detail. Even though it is mostly built in "earth tones", they are warm enough and varied enough that it doesn't end up feeling dull, gloomy, or sterile. The one thing I'm not so keen on is the grey color of the crane, since from what I've read, I think most harbour cranes back during the Age of Sail would have been made of wood, not metal. So a standard 1x12 plate in Reddish Brown might feel more realistic than this thinner 1x12 plate with bar in Medium Stone Grey. But I'm nowhere near an expert on that time period, so you should probably take concerns like this with a grain of salt. There's also a part of me that would've preferred if the water matched the more placid Medium Azur plates from Barracuda Bay, but at the same time, the transparent blue cheese slopes you used work brilliantly for choppy waves against a rocky coastline, so I can't particularly complain. I do sort of wonder how Tr. Light Blue cheese slopes on a layer of Medium Azur plates (instead of Tr. Blue on a layer of Sand Yellow plates) might look as a compromise. Out of curiosity, do you have any pictures showing the model from behind, or any of the interior details? I know there's not a whole lot of interior space, since you stayed true to the proportions of the original set, so any furnishings are likely fairly sparse. But I'm still interested in seeing whatever you were able to come up with! EDIT: Just checked out some of your other MOC topics to see what else you have built, and while I don't have the time or energy to comment on all of them, I want you to know I was not disappointed! You have done a remarkable job creating updated versions of all kinds of classic sets, and I will be very excited to see what else you build in the future!

Even then, I think it's really nice when sets like the Skate Park or Family House include both the short and medium-length legs to differentiate between older and younger kids and/or older and younger siblings. And for that matter, it'd be a little weird if the figure riding in the bike basket in the Shopping Street set resembled a teenager instead of a young child! I definitely see how hypothetically, the farmer's daughter in this year's Tractor set could've used medium length legs without much negative impact (although it wouldn't be quite as adorable as portraying her as a little girl with a pet bunny). But all in all, I feel like LEGO is doing a pretty good job using the short legs on child characters mainly when that sort of younger appearance makes sense in the context of the set.

Truth be told, I don't think there's much point in arguing over who's "most disadvantaged", especially when even fans of the same theme can often have different ideas about what sort of sets or themes it'd take to fill the void they see in LEGO's current offerings. Like, there are some Bionicle fans who might be happy with ANY new "constraction" theme that introduced useful new parts for action figure building, even if it's one like Hero Factory that has no relation to the Bionicle universe. But there are plenty of others who specifically want LEGO to bring back the Bionicle mythos in some form (with Toa, Masks of Power, elemental villages, biomechanical wildlife, and all that jazz), and who would have no interest in a non-Bionicle action figure theme. Likewise, there are some Castle fans who would be content with a theme focusing on other parts of pre-industrial history like the Roman Empire, or with a medieval fantasy license like The Lord of the Rings. But at the same time, there are also Castle fans who specifically want non-licensed sets focusing on medieval knights, castles, and villages. And anyhow, these sort of discussions have a tendency to derail topics like this one that are supposed to be focused on the future of the Castle theme specifically, as well as to generate needless divisions and animosity between fans of different themes. So I don't think that it's really productive for us to debate what theme's fans are worst off.

I feel like LEGO has achieved a pretty good balance as of this year, honestly. Most of the characters who still use short legs are either little people (like Jacob Pevsner, Professor Flitwick, and The Penguin), preteen kids (like Madison Yea, young Lloyd Garmadon, and "Tiny Tim" Cratchit), and non-human characters (like Yoda, Dobby, and Santa's elves). And especially now that the minifigure baby exists, it'd feel a bit odd if "child" characters jumped straight from that height to only slightly shorter than a full-grown adult! If anything, I hope that in the future, characters in their early to mid teens start using the medium-length legs instead of full-length legs. Some examples of characters from recent themes who'd fall within that category include Peter Pan from Disney Minifigures Series 1, Jack and Parker from LEGO Hidden Side (age 13), Violet Parr from The Incredibles (age 14), Ahsoka Tano at the beginning of Star Wars: The Clone Wars (age 14), and Ezra Bridger at the beginning of Star Wars: Rebels (age 14). This way, they could have a more noticeable height difference from the adult characters in their respective themes. But LEGO is definitely already beginning to do better about this sort of thing, using medium-length legs on recent minifigs of characters Padme from Star Wars: Episode I, third- and fourth-year students from Harry Potter, the kid protagonists from Stranger Things, and Damian Wayne (the current Robin) from DC Comics. So I'm definitely hopeful that they might be more consistent about this sort of thing in the future. One other thing they haven't done yet, but will probably need to do at some point in the future, is introduce dual-molded versions of the medium-length legs, like they currently have for short and full-length legs. Most characters with medium-length legs so far have been fine without a dual-molded version, but introducing one would allow for stuff like teenage characters with swimming trunks, and also allow more detail on certain animal characters.

You mean the triangular shields towards the top of the roofs? I think those are Reddish Brown, not Dark Red. Still new/useful, though! And yes, the 3x3x2 quarter-circle windowpanes in Reddish Brown are a great new recolor as well. Some of the spires on the castle also include Sand Green recolors of the 2x2x3 drill piece from LEGO Nexo Knights, which was previously only available in Silver Metallic, and the 2x4x3 half-cone, which was previously only in Dark Stone Grey and Dark Green. The snake statues in the Chamber of Secrets are a Medium Stone Grey and Tr. Bright Green recolor of one of the Ninjago Pyro Viper heads, and the owl-shaped lectern in the Great Hall is a Warm Gold recolor of the owl with outstretched wings. There is also an actual barn owl in Sand Yellow with printed white feathers (which is both a new recolor and a new print of the owl mold with folded wings). The Chamber also includes a 4x6x6 slide in Black, the first time it's appeared in a neutral color. All in all, they're both lovely sets and impressive parts packs. It's a shame that J.K. Rowling's recent dogmatic obsession with vilifying transgender people has pretty much entirely soured my ability to enjoy the Harry Potter brand in good conscience. If these sets had come out ten years ago, I would have greatly enjoyed them, but now, I would feel sick to my stomach at the thought of adding any of them to my collection. I honestly hope it's not too long before the theme gets retired again and the designers get re-assigned to other themes where their knack for medieval fantasy architecture can shine without that sort of ethical baggage.

A head like that could also be good for bandits in a medieval setting (much like how the old-school pirate minifig heads were reused on Wolfpack and Dark Forest figures). On another note, I just noticed there's been no mention of the Winnie the Pooh set in this thread. Although there aren't many minifig parts in that set which would be useful in a historic context (aside from Piglet's scarf, which is not new to that set), it does seem like a great parts pack for landscaping and foliage elements, on par with sets like Bag End or the LEGO Ideas Treehouse. Those parts include numerous brand-new recolors like Bright Green coral, Medium Nougat 1x5x4 half-arches, Reddish Brown Technic hubs with four clips, and Medium Nougat 2x2 macaroni tubes, white sack/bindle, and printed 1x1 round tiles representing bees and ladybugs.

Beautiful! I love how it feels so authentic to sets like the Wolfpack Tower without trying to be a 1:1 recreation/redesign of that set. I have to admit, I found it a little surprising that you do not appear to have included a dungeon, since it would be a great fit for the gloomy aesthetic, particularly on the dark, watery, and cavernous lower level. Then again, I suppose from what we've seen in sets, the Wolfpack tends to focus more on robbery and smuggling than on hostage-taking — even the in the original Wolfpack Tower set, the haunted jail cell at the top of the tower is perhaps best interpreted not as holding cell for captured adversaries, but rather as a brig where members of the pack itself can serve a brief sentence if they step out of line or endanger their packmates. I love the wooden support beams under the eaves and parapets, which help the castle structure itself feel a little less monochrome than if it were built from the same black and grey stone all the way up to the roof line. And the seagulls honestly do a lot to help set the scene! I honestly am not sure how this will fare in review (might depend on what other sets LEGO has in the pipeline at that time), but in any case, it's a great MOC that I'm happy to support!

Honestly, I see no problem to buying third-party, LEGO-compatible electronics like Sbrick, BuWizz, etc, or even using generic, non-LEGO motors and other electronics in your MOCs. And I don't think the country of origin is anything to be too concerned about, either. That said, I'd be cautious about buying actual counterfeits of the LEGO parts. Even if you disregard any ethical concerns about counterfeiting (after all, I doubt you'd be asking if you had those sorts of concerns), the fact remains that companies that are willing to "cut corners" by copying another brand's part designs instead of coming up with their own might also be cutting corners in other areas, including safety-related ones. At the very least, if you are bound and determined to use counterfeit PF motors, it's probably be a good idea to take precautions like disassembling the motor housing to make sure there aren't any obvious electrical hazards present, as @9v system has done. And definitely stay alert in case the motor starts to show signs of overheating. "LEGO's patents have expired" is a major oversimplification. Patents on the basic brick and other older LEGO elements have definitely expired, but LEGO still holds active patents on a lot of their more recent parts, especially electronic parts like the Powered Up Smart Hub, functional elements like roller coaster cars or Ninjago spinners and launchers, ornamental designs for decorative parts like mini-doll legs/skirts and hair, and even certain software features like those used in the LEGO Vidiyo app. In general, a good rule of thumb is that as long as a particular part or play feature was introduced less than 20 years ago, any patents it would have been eligible for at that time are likely still active. Feel free to browse Google Patents for more specific examples (a search for "LEGO A/S" is a good starting point).

I think in some of those cases, it might also be to give the sets better SEO (search engine optimization) — especially since all those examples listed above are from licensed themes, and include significant trademarks for their respective brands in both the "title" and "subtitle". This way, any time somebody searches a site like Amazon for keywords like LEGO Batmobile, LEGO Batman, or LEGO Joker, set 76180 is likely to show up prominently in their search results. Likewise, the Beauxbatons Carriage is a relatively minor part of the Harry Potter brand that not a whole lot of people might be specifically looking for — but with the subtitle, it will also appear prominently in search results for more frequent queries like LEGO Hogwarts, boosting its chances of getting Harry Potter fans' attention even if it wasn't a set they were previously interested in or even aware of. Also, for what it's worth, LEGO Batman sets tended to be branded this way even during the Batman theme's original 2006–2008 run. So it's entirely possible that DC Comics' merchandising department likes to encourage this sort of naming scheme in general. Like, to give a hypothetical conversation from a licensing meeting: "Great work! this 'Batmobile Pursuit' set seems to check all the right boxes. But could you work Batman and Joker's names into the title somehow? We want to make sure we're doing all that we can to promote our big-name characters."

I mean, the TV show has had "prisoner-garbed thugs" since at least Season 4 when Kryptarium Prison was introduced. And tech and sci-fi elements have been a big part of the theme for even longer — remember the episodes "Codename: Arcturus" and "The Void" back in Season 3? Honestly, I don't feel like there's much that the theme could possibly do that would push it further into sci-fi territory than those episodes did. All in all, I think it's inevitable that we'll continue to see story arcs ranging from "mostly fantasy" to "mostly sci-fi" as the Ninjago storyline continues. After all, keep in mind that the heavily fantasy influenced "Master of the Mountain" story arch was immediately preceded by the overwhelmingly sci-fi influenced "Prime Empire" story arc. That's simply the nature of the theme. Agreed on all counts! Although, if those figures are fakes, they're mighty convincing… most custom minifigs I've seen shared as "leaks" on Instagram tend to be simple photo edits of existing minifig parts, whereas these ones seem to have totally unique decorations, distinct from any of the actual Master of the Mountain minifig designs that they roughly resemble. Pretty puzzling.