Aanchir

For my part, the lack of catapults or siege towers didn't surprise me at all — after all, teen/adult-targeted exclusives in general often tend to have fewer conflict-focused play features and scenarios than their kid-targeted counterparts. We've seen the same sort of thing many times before in sets like Medieval Market Village and Kingdoms Joust from LEGO Castle/Kingdoms, the Haunted House from LEGO Monster Fighters, the Temple of Airjitzu and Ninjago City collection from LEGO Ninjago, etc. Moreover, I realize you weren't on Eurobricks for the reveal or release of the 2013 Castle range, but a lot of those sets which DID come with siege equipment like catapults and battering rams ended up getting a lot of criticism from adult fans because they were seen as either needlessly driving up the price tag or taking the place of parts that could have been used to give the buildings/structures in those sets a larger and more impressive design. So even if a stand-alone catapult or siege tower set could potentially have a lot of AFOL appeal, stuff like that would probably not be received as favorably as secondary builds in a more location-focused set like this one. The good thing is that as zoth33 pointed out, that sort of stuff is pretty simple to build and add to the set yourself, since it doesn't have to be as heavily integrated with the main build as the sorts of play features that were included (like the drawbridge, portcullis, postern gate, secret cave entrance, and water wheel).

Yeah. We can tell Paisley's house includes a bedroom upstairs, and what appears to be a dining room table downstairs to the right. I would also assume it's got a fireplace since the chimney is so large and prominent. Olly's house what I'm pretty sure is a sofa by the big downstairs window, but it's hard to see a whole lot of other detail of its interior since its windows are generally smaller. Probably at least one bed upstairs, and hopefully a cat bed for Gertrude!

Even beyond your comments about modern fantasy, plenty of stories of its own about warrior women or warrior queens emerged even in medieval Europe. And while some of those stories fell unambiguously within the category of legend or myth, others were certainly presented as real history (even though in many cases modern day historians have failed to find evidence corroborating that these were anything more than local folklore that got muddled together with accounts of real events). As such, I feel like medieval warrior women at least fall within the same category as tales of heroic outlaws like Robin Hood, powerful wizards like Merlin, larger-than life heroes like Arthur and Beowulf, and fire-breathing dragons like La Gargouille. Whether purely a product of fiction or mythologized/exaggerated accounts of extraordinary people and events from actual history, they are well established as part of the medieval storytelling tradition which LEGO Castle is rooted in. Honestly I worry a topic of that sort would be kind of a nightmare, given the many past comments I've seen about that topic which have veered into "culture war" style fearmongering and tribalism. But you're right that some of this discussion like the talk of which figures should or shouldn't have appeared in Eldorado Fortress is definitely moving away from the intended subject of this thread.

Certainly, a lot of parts were being discontinued around that time, but I still feel like it's pretty telling in some cases which parts were kept around and which were not. Aquazone was an extremely big deal to me as a kid, so I certainly do miss the octagonal brick family. But their use in sets was likewise really limited, especially outside the Aquazone theme, so it doesn't surprise me that they didn't remain in use long after the end of that theme. Even after their final set appearances in 1998, I strongly suspect that the molds would have remained available to designers who wished to keep them in active use or reintroduce them — LEGO was not very cost-conscious about inventory management until 2004 or so, when it became clear that this was one of the factors which had nearly sent the company into bankruptcy the previous year. So I can only assume that designers of the time simply didn't see a whole lot of further use for them. The 7x7 corner turret was likewise never widely used, and by the 2000s LEGO Castle design philosophy was already in the midst of a shift towards elements with even-numbered widths (like 30246, 48490, and 40253) and away from those with odd-numbered widths. The more widespread use of the 1x5x6 and 3x3x6 Castle wall panels was probably the main thing that kept their retirement on hold until new wall panels were introduced to replace them in 2009. It probably also didn't help that the scale of this part was geared towards building very large structures, and thus it rarely saw use outside the largest of Castle sets (unlike its 4x8 counterpart, which saw a lot of use in smaller Castle and Pirates sets). The cypress had been around much longer than some of these other examples you've cited, but was still never used anywhere near as widely as the other tree molds in that family of parts, so it doesn't surprise me one bit that it was the first of the bunch to be discontinued. I mean, prior to the service pack you mention, it had not appeared in a new set since 1994! If designers considered it an especially useful or necessary piece, I feel they would have made more use of it while they still had the opportunity, particularly since the other single-piece tree molds saw plenty of use over that same period of time. Agreed. Also there's nothing about that big corner turret that feels particularly play-oriented to me. Certainly, it's pretty large and sturdy, which is great for making minifigure walkways without needing a whole lot of support from underneath. But the modern LEGO parts palette is hardly lacking in other large, sturdy corner plates which can be used for these same sorts of sturdy walkways. And there's no play-related reason that the parapet wall itself NEEDS to be the same part as the walkway it surrounds. Frankly, the main advantage of that part (besides making this section of the build quick and simple for less experienced builders) is display-oriented rather than play-oriented: it lacks the gaps or seams that would likely result from building up a diagonal parapet wall out of smaller bricks on top of a larger wedge plate.

I mean, on a very general level, they are spies. Relative to other space factions, they specialize more heavily in robots and flying saucers to do their dirty work, which gives them a bit more of a sci-fi B-movie vibe. Technically, Spyrius is not the name of the faction, but the name of the planet they hail from. The inhabitants of this planet are usually described as "Spyrius spies" or "Spyrians" — however, Spyrius is still used sometimes used as shorthand for the people of that planet, in much the same way that the names of real-world countries are sometimes used as shorthand when referring to their people collectively. The 1994 LEGO catalog from the UK includes some very general blurbs about Spyrius which generally applies to all countries as far as I've seen (and is translated nearly word-for-word in some other European catalogs from that year). It is described as a planet of spies who steal technology from high-tech factions like the explorers of Ice Planet 2002, while evading capture or surveillance by the Space Police. In some 1995 material from the United States like this LEGO Mania Magazine page, Unitron would effectively take the place of the Space Police as Spyrius's law enforcement adversaries. However, since most Unitron sets aside from the monorail did not see wide release outside of North America, it's unclear whether the same would apply in other countries. The 1995 LEGO catalog from the UK (and those from other European countries) also included a short comic of the the robot minifigure commanding or supervising the human robot/mech operators from afar via a walkie-talkie, implying that the robot minifigure holds a higher rank. The British LEGO Club's Summer 1994 issue of "Bricks & Pieces" magazine provided some further lore about the Spyrians, establishing them as a relatively new threat to the peace of the United Galaxies, led by the villainous Major Kartofsky. Neither this magazine nor the British catalogs make it immediately obvious which Spyrius minifigure depicts "Major Kartofsky", although more recently the video game "LEGO Legacy: Heroes Unboxed" has used this name specifically for the Spyrius robot minifigure (which aligns neatly with the aforementioned comic which portrayed that figure as the humans' commanding officer). In general, both the name "Major Kartofsky" and the British set name "6939 Spyrian Sovek with Major Kartofsky" seem heavily Russian or Eastern European-influenced, perhaps taking cues from the numerous Cold War era sci-fi stories from the United States and Great Britain which presented alien invaders and other extraterrestrial antagonists as an allegory for the Soviet Union. One oddly specific bit of lore that I've only ever seen mentioned in the Canadian LEGO Innovations Magazine is that the Spyrius robot minifigure "can make itself invisible (except for its red hands) when it wears a magical helmet." This seems to correspond to some lore in the aforementioned British "Bricks & Pieces" magazine issue, which stated that the Spyrians had stationed a spy on Ice Planet 2002 who could turn completely invisible except for his eyes — the main reason that this magazine used "eyes" instead of hands appears to be so that the magazine editor could include simple cartoon eyes on various pages throughout the issue as part of a search-and-find puzzle for readers. In several countries such as Spain, Portugal, and Russia, the robot minifigure is also given a proper name in the local language which translate to "Red Robin, the spy" in English. In Germany, this minifigure was referred to as a "mutant-robot" — a term which, in English, sounds contradictory, but that I believe may have been meant to differentiate him from the less humanoid robots from earlier Space themes. In the Netherlands, this figure was called an "Elektronische Spion" (Electronic Spy), and in the United States, it was generally referred to as a "droid", although LEGO has since stopped using that term in non-licensed themes (except when used as part of a compound word, like the "Nindroids" of LEGO Ninjago) because it is a trademark of Lucasfilm. Significantly, all catalogs or marketing materials that I've seen also tend to use terms like "Robot", "Giant Robot", or "Monster Robot" for the larger brick-built figures, rather than the word "mech". In modern parlance (and modern LEGO set names), "mech" tends to be the preferred term for robotic vehicles operated by an on-board pilot character, whereas terms like "robot" or "droid" tend to be reserved for automated or pre-programmed machines. But back when the Spyrius theme came out, the term "Mech" had not caught on quite so widely, and among English speakers it was still largely specific to anime and tabletop gaming fan communities, and I have yet to see any contemporary LEGO magazines or catalogs which used that term in reference to the Spyrius theme.

Oh, apparently it hasn't been mentioned in this thread yet, but the palm trees in 42639 also include a larger version of the fern piece with a 1x2 plate at the bottom instead of a 1x1 plate. Although we only have one image of that set so far, you can get a rough sense of the relative size of the two fern pieces since the palm trees use the small fern for their topmost layer of fronds and the larger fern piece for all the others. And another Friends set, 42604, includes some ornamental trees that use the seven-petal flower piece in green as leaves, which I'm sure is another recolor that could have uses for various sorts of trees, shrubs, and greenery! There is a minidoll-style goat mold in this year's Wish sets from the Disney theme, so I wouldn't be surprised if we later see that same mold in a Friends set more generic colors and printing!

I'm not sure how likely they'd be to bring back big single-molded trees like that, except perhaps for 4+ sets. Brick-built trees have become the norm across most themes these days, and compared to those I think single-piece trees with the leaves, trunk, and base/roots all the same color feel like a bit of a relic of a bygone era. Scale-wise, they also feel odd for anything but a very young tree — not only are their trunks extremely narrow, but even their widest branches extend scarcely any further than a minifigure's total width! Plus, even old-school Castle sets used molded trees extremely rarely compared to Town or Basic sets — perhaps in part because their small size and clean, geometric shapes have always felt a lot more suited to the type of meticulously trimmed and cultivated tree you'd find planted in a yard, garden, or orchard, along a street, or even as a potted houseplant than the sort of tree that you'd find growing wild in a field or forest. Make no mistake, I definitely do understand the nostalgia for those old trees and appreciate how charming their simple, stylized appearance can be! But I feel like they're in a similar sort of situation to several other parts from pre-minifig and early minifig sets like single-piece flagpoles, road signs, and railway crossing gates — they came about at a time when there weren't really any alternatives to using a single specialized part for those sorts of subjects, but at a certain point enough new parts were introduced that this ceased to be the case.

Having the brachiosaurus in the center would probably mean having to shove the reception/gift shop area off to one of the sides, though, which feels a bit odd to me when those are some of the first places a visitor would go after entering or before leaving. Also, don't forget, if you only have one atrium instead of two, you'd have to squeeze both the brachiosaurus AND the stairwell into that space, whereas in the current set there is a separate atrium for each. I think a "big exhibit in the center" type layout works better for museums with a floor plan that extends further front-to-back and not just side-to-side, so that even if the main exhibit is visible from the door, there is still an "anteroom" of sorts for the reception desk which you have to pass through before entering the main exhibit spaces to see their contents up close. I could see that sort of thing working if you modded the set to use a 48x48 baseplate instead a 32x32 baseplate and a 16x32 baseplate (or two 32x32 baseplates, as some people considering a "double corner" version have suggested). But an expansion like that would obviously be a lot more work than one that mostly moves the contents of the current set around while keeping the building itself close to the same overall size. In any case, I'm definitely very excited to see what sort of mods people come up with for this set! After all, even if you choose to keep the floor plan mostly "as-is", the fact that the floor area is so spacious and most of the exhibits are removable makes the interior VERY customization-friendly!

Yep, and hopefully this also means no more minifigs or mini-dolls getting sent to hospitals for slipping on whole, unpeeled bananas!

Well, there are also the brick-built ones that often show up in Friends sets, made from a red Bionicle ball joint attached to a green 1x1 flower plate Nah, this is a ridiculous take. The hair pieces with tight curls are hardly any more race-specific than old-school ones that obviouly have straight hair like 4530 and 6093. Even in licensed themes, we've seen the newer curly-haired designs used for actors/characters of extremely varied races and ethnicities. For example, 79688 has been used for characters like T'Challa, Mo Morrison, Viktor Krum, and Bruce Wayne. 21778 was also used for Viktor Krum, along with other characters like Lando Calrissian, Dennis Nedry, Dean Thomas, Wong, and Razor Fist. Frankly, I think it's much better that these more varied options exist rather than having to pretend that smooth or straight hair is implicitly neutral/universal, when anybody with more textured hair can tell you that's not the case. Moreover, LEGO Castle and Pirates have been heavily based in fantasy rather than historical reality since at least the late 80s. In fact, portraying of these themes as fantastical, idealized storybook versions of these time periods is a big part of how the original LEGO designers even got away with including so many weapons in classic LEGO Castle and Pirates sets in the first place, since back in the 80s the company's leaders were much more averse to portraying any forms of realistic violence, death, or warfare in sets (regardless of their setting). And as others have already pointed out, we can all recognize that ghosts, magical wizards, and dragons are not real. Even Robin Hood and his Merry Men are, for all intents and purposes, not real — even if there might have been a real-life basis for "Robin Hood" at some point, the Forest People obviously take their inspiration from the fictionalized portrayals of the character in later folklore and works of fiction, such as his signature Lincoln green garb and fortified treetop hideouts. Likewise, Captain Redbeard and many of the other LEGO Pirates characters are obviously much more heavily inspired by fictional pirate characters like Long John Silver and Captain Hook than by any real-life historical pirates. You might as well be complaining about the historical inaccuracies in Le Morte d'Arthur or Treasure Island. If you truly believed that the neutral facial features and yellow complexion of the classic minifig were meant to be able to represent anybody and everybody, regardless of race or ethnicity, then I don't see why any of this should bother you? After all, back in the 80s, other LEGO fans were free to interpret the generic knights/soldiers in classic LEGO Castle and Pirates sets as women, just as you were free to interpret them as men! It's not that strange to believe that versions of these themes updated to modern design standards would acknowledge these varied possibilities. Yet the objection you express here isn't that these updated figures include varied facial features and hairstyles — rather, your issue is just that LEGO didn't uniquely prioritize your interpretation of the classic Castle and Pirates characters as "male unless otherwise specified". All in all, if these are the best arguments you have against LEGO designers including diverse characters in their sets, then their position in that debate is hardly the ridiculous one!

I think the tan part inn the trash is an ice cream cone from the nearby ice cream kiosk, but yeah, I'm definitely also curious whether the banana peel has any connections underneath! On another note, the LEGO Friends set 42639 (shown in this Brickset article) has some very tall palm trees using a new larger version of the fern piece (with two studs instead of just one) as fronds! Also some of the other sets like 42621 include a large leaf cluster piece for deciduous trees, but theoretically also usable for shrubs, or even for concealing a pitfall trap!

Fair enough! I'd also forgotten that the boxes in Great Britain at that time no longer had the actual names of the sets on them like the American boxes or earlier British boxes from the 1980s did, presumably so they could use the same box design across all of Europe (including in non-English-speaking countries). So this means that even when character names WERE featured in the names of the sets (like "Hubble Bubble's Dragonair", released as Witch's Windship in the US), that was not always apparent to buyers or gift recipients That said, Hubble Bubble's name was mentioned several times in the 1997 British catalog and the March 1997 issue of Bricks and Pieces magazine, so I figure at least some British kids would have been aware of it! Certainly as an American kid, most of my knowledge of US character names in the 90s came from LEGO Mania Magazine (as our version of the LEGO Club magazine was called at the time). Admittedly, I have no idea how much the subscriber base for those magazines might've varied between the two countries — nearly all North American sets when I was growing up were packaged with little leaflets telling you how you could "Join the LEGO Club FREE", but I have no idea whether there were any similar ad campaigns for club magazine subscriptions in the UK. As I understand it, LEGO went extra hard on merchandising and marketing in the US in the 90s. At the time, they still didn't have quite as strong a foothold here as they did in Europe (where LEGO had long been a household name), and competition from the US-based K'nex and Canada-based Mega Bloks brand was particularly intense on this side of the pond. I believe this is also why so many 90s product lines (like Unitron, Aquaraiders, Roboforce, Dark Forest, and even the 1997 LEGO Pirates range) were mostly limited to North America at the time: maximizing their sheer variety of products and their shelf presence at toy stores/department stores was meant to help LEGO stand out from other building toy brands, even at steeper prices than what those other brands were able to offer.

Next year's LEGO Friends Heartlake City Shopping Mall set has a new banana peel piece!

EDIT: meant to post this in the Useful Pirates Pieces thread, mods can delete this if necessary

Nostalgia aside, I also love the visual pun of this part of the build. It's a "space elevator", get it?

Oh my bad, I misremembered and thought Series 23 was this year.

For what it's worth, the black conical helmet doesn't fit with these shoulder pads. That said, I suppose they could have opted for a different shoulder pad mold (or none at all, if they decided to base the entire figure on one of the lower ranking Dragon Knight footsoldiers instead of on the silver-shouldered knight from the original Majisto's Magical Workshop set). This year we've gotten two non-licensed series, and apparently next year is rumored to be the same (with one of them being entirely Space themed). But up until this year, you're right that one non-licensed series per year had been the norm for a while.

I mean, a lot of 90s LEGO character names varied from country to country. So while she was "Willa the Witch" in the US and Canada, she had a whole bunch of other names besides that! In Britain she was named "Hubble Bubble" In the Netherlands she was "Hella de Heks" ("Helga the Witch") In Germany she was either "Die Zauberin Buta" ("The Sorceress Buta") or "Die Hexe Izralda" ("The Witch Izralda"), depending on the publication in question. In Denmark she was "Heksen Hylia" ("The Witch Hylia") In Sweden she was "Häxan Matulda" ("The Witch Matilda") If LEGO brings her back in a new set and they do choose to refer to her by name, I imagine they will use the name "Willa" for all regions, as they did in 10305's manual. I would say the same for Basil, but since his comeback is in the Collectible Minifigures, I imagine that they will stick with a generic description/title like "Bat Lord" for that figure, sort of like they did with the Jungle Explorer and Spy (who were clearly based on Johnny Thunder and Agent Dash Justice, respectively).

Just imagine all the uses a wizard could have for visors! When he needs to provide guidance to a monarch, he puts on his Ad-Visor. When he needs to proofread the wording of an incantation, he puts on his Re-Visor. When he needs to oversee goings-on in the kingdom, he puts on his Super-Visor. When he needs to be in two places at once, he puts on his Di-Visor. When he needs to distribute curative potions to the masses, he puts on his Pro-Visor. When he needs to broadcast a message across the land, he puts on his Tele-Visor. No wonder he needs so many!

That's fair, although personally I think even decisions that don't have too much thought put into them at the time can still BECOME meaningful based on how fans interpret and respond to them. After all, Classic Space colors weren't originally chosen for being "old-school" or "nostalgic", but rather because they were some of the most fitting colors available at the time. But nowadays, when a space model uses those colors, it's BECAUSE they've since gained that particular meaning within that context. As for your literary example, I think the important thing about those sorts of lessons is that generally, creators don't bother making decisions about superficial details like curtain colors unless they have a reason for it — especially in writing, since writers don't have any obligation to describe elements of a scene that they don't want or need the reader to know about. Even if it's just "the author likes red curtains", that probably means there's something about that scene that made them want to include a feature that brings out a positive emotion in them, and because they hoped it might help convey those same feelings to the reader! And sometimes the reasoning behind a detail like that can be something even more basic, like wanting to create contrast between one scene and earlier scenes in the same work (or to bring things back around to LEGO, between one LEGO set and an earlier set in the same theme). "Meaning" in this sense doesn't have to be anything deep or complex to have significance. And where fans, critics, and educators sometimes go awry is believing that certain types of imagery can ONLY have certain prescribed meanings associated with them. Even in LEGO, red can be used to express negative connotations (like when it's used for "villainous" factions), positive connotations (like how it's often used as one of the main hero colors in themes like Bionicle, Hero Factory, and Ninjago), or simply to create contrast (like the red curtains in the Green Grocer set, which provided a splash of deep, warm color in a set otherwise dominated by drab, cool colors). Obviously it's easy to overthink this sort of stuff, but I feel like that's still preferable to not thinking about these meanings at all. After all, in the very least, even the most superficial color choices or design decisions give us plenty to talk about here on Eurobricks!

Yeah, that could be quite nice! It's also possible that we could get shields from some of the established factions in different shapes. After all, even if the classic Lion Knights and Black Falcons never got any shield shapes other than the classic triangular ones, I don't necessarily see that as a reason that they implicitly shouldn't. All that said, if the designers DON'T include any new printed shields, it will probably be because they decided to put that budget for new printed elements towards other sorts of parts — for example, minifigure parts, animals, flags, signs, food elements, etc. And I can't say I'd be at all bothered by that. After all, the Lion Knights' Castle already had way more variety of shield patterns than I'd ever expect to see in just one wave of sets, let alone one singular set! So I would hardly feel cheated if this set focuses more on other sorts of medieval stuff, particularly stuff more geared towards the lives of civilian peasants and merchants.

It's because the Knights of Morcia from that series (particularly in the original 2004 sets) had bright, monochrome helmets and armor, in accordance with that theme's cartoony fantasy aesthetic and buildable action figure tie-ins, and so that became sort of a disparaging nickname for them among old-school AFOLs. Honestly, even as a fan of the vivid color-coded character designs in themes like Knights' Kingdom 2, Bionicle, Ninjago, Elves and Classic Space, I can't say it's inaccurate to describe them as "candy-colored"! But I definitely recognize that the 2005 versions of the characters which added more subdued accent colors were a big improvement, and that in general the characters in that theme were a far cry from what real medieval knights would have looked like. There are still some set designers from the 80s and 90s alive (and even still working for LEGO in some cases). Now that Jens Nygaard Knudsen and Daniel August Krentz have passed away, I think Niels Milan Pedersen is the only surviving designer who worked on the 1984 sets that introduced the Lion Knights and Black Falcons (the design team back then was VERY small). But he and possibly other set designers from the 90s like Steen Sig Andersen could certainly attest to the intent behind some of the decisions they made with those old-school sets. And "understanding" particular creative works doesn't necessarily have to mean knowing firsthand what perspectives and intentions went into them. A person who was a passionate fan of a particular theme or series as a child will certainly have some understanding of what it was about it that appealed to them, and what its particular design features signified to them. That's a different sort of understanding, but one that I don't think should be discounted — especially since even set designers usually try to be mindful of the different ways kids might interpret and play with the products they work on. EDIT: Something else I just thought of that could be neat furnishing-wise would be if they included a crystal ball! Majisto didn't have one in this specific set, but it was one of his signature magical accessories in 6082 Fire Breathing Fortress, and the bubble helmet piece is perfect for that sort of thing! Even if the set doesn't end up including one, I'm very strongly considering ordering that piece to add a crystal ball to my own copy of the workshop. I also suspect that the set will include a version of Majisto's magic scroll from the original set. It's doubtful LEGO would include a sticker sheet if they were only using it for the shutters (otherwise it'd be just as economical to introduce a printed tile for those instead of a sticker sheet, since it's just one new printed element either way). But it makes a lot more sense for them to do so if they also wanted to include a sticker for the magic scroll on the same sheet — either for a white 2x3 tile like in the original set, a white book cover piece, or a white 2x3 tile with clips (with the rolled end built like the scrolls in some Monkie Kid sets).

The designer info on Brickset is usually added by the designers themselves, or by a colleague who designers with less of an online presence entrust to create a BrickList for them! In 10320's case, Pierre Normandin is an old-school AFOL who was already a popular builder within the community long before LEGO hired him, and he does in fact manage his own BrickList. In general, my impression is that LEGO entrusts most of these throwback sets to designers with a lot of passion for the themes in question — this was certainly the case with 40580 and 40581, though I honestly don't know who was behind the outstanding design of 40567 (and whatever designer was in charge of 40601 probably won't be allowed to talk about it until it's officially announced). There are a lot of AFOLs working as LEGO designers at this point, so LEGO is hardly lacking for old-school LEGO fans to choose from for these assignments! And in some cases they're even able to consult with designers who worked on the original versions of those sets or themes to get an insider perspective on what sort of perspectives informed some of those old-school design decisions.

I think "absolutely no taste" is a little unfair. I agree with you that I would have preferred a part that read more clearly as dragons or statues, but I figure the designer's intent was to pick out a bright blue decorative element that would be similar in size to the dragons from the original set, which admittedly would likely narrow their options quite a bit. It's also possible that they wanted to make it easy for people who do own the old-school dragon plumes to swap them in if they so choose. Most molded dragon pieces from Ninjago (and many of the brick-built dragons, for that matter) are honestly much closer to western dragons than Chinese ones — after all, Ninjago dragons usually have wings and long, narrow snouts, and lack the characteristic antlers or whiskers of Chinese dragons . The main feature that they have in common with Chinese dragons is a small spiky "goatee", which is a trait they share with the classic LEGO Castle dragon. The only Ninjago dragons that strongly evoke the appearance of Chinese dragons tend to be fully brick-built ones like the Master Wu Dragon, Empire Dragon, and Morro Dragon, and even these are heavily Western-influenced. Honestly, to me, a tiny door you have to crouch to enter nicely suits the vibes of a whimsical wizard hut! Plus, since the entire workshop magically opens and closes, the door mostly seems like a courtesy to visitors, showing them where the front entrance is and giving them a place to "knock" when they arrive seeking magical favors. Actually now I'm thinking it's funny to imagine that the door was once functional, but it got jammed at some point, and instead of bothering to fix it, Majisto just got into a habit of using magic to enter and leave. For my part, this set feels very special to me, particularly since Dragon Masters was my first Castle theme as a KFOL, and Majisto's Magical Workshop is one of the sets from that series that I remember most fondly. And I'm neither surprised nor disappointed by the proportions — as with the Forest Hideout, they're largely faithful to the proportions of the original set, which is what I'd been expecting and hoping for ever since the first rumors of this set emerged. I'm curious which window piece you're referring to that they could have used — do you mean this shutter? That was one of the ideas I considered when trying to MOC a modernized version of Majisto's Workshop back before an official redesign was announced, but it's designed for a 1x4x3 window instead of a 1x2x2 window, and thus much larger than the shutters from the original set. So even with considerable changes to the front of the building to accommodate it, it wouldn't be able to swing out to the sides as far as the shutters in the original set or the GWP version. Obviously I get that your perspective differs, and I'm sorry to hear that this set wasn't what you were hoping for it to be. But to me, what we've seen of it falls only a little short of what I'd consider "ideal". And in fact, I'm already warming up to some of the aspects of the design that I initially felt a little frustrated with. I recently noticed that the silver shoulder armor on the knight is meant to reflect the silver printing from the upper corners of the original Dragon Master torso patterns. In that light, I am really glad that the designers went with this silver shoulder armor here. I'm still considering swapping the helmet for a black one to see how that looks, particularly so that the knight contrasts better with the Lion Knight minifigs from 10305 (perhaps I might go with this one, since it has similar molded cheek guards to the old Dragon Master helmet EDIT: I just checked on stud.io and this helmet would not fit with these shoulder pads, so that rules out that option. Might still try with one of the old dragon knight helmets from my childhood collection instead), but it's possible that the silver helmet will actually look better next to the silver armor than a different helmet color would have. It'll be easier for me to make that determination once I have the set in hand. Still eagerly awaiting more details about the set, particularly its interior! I realized recently that it would be very easy for LEGO to include two more of the reddish brown 1x2 log bricks from the door and one more of the reddish brown 2x4 plates from the balcony as a slightly more detailed replacement for the 2x4 brick workbench from the original set. I also noticed that if they use the flat-topped trunk lid in place of the curved treasure chest lid, it will be able to fully hinge open towards the cave wall, so the contents can be accessed more easily without removing it from the cave compared to the original set (although admittedly, they might want to stick to the old-school treasure chest lid for nostalgia's sake). Also, even if the floor space on the second story is still likely to be fairly limited, my current understanding of the build makes me optimistic that a simple 2x6 bed/cot could fit up there without much difficulty (unlike the original set, where the 4x8 parapet wall bricks and other elements made less of the upstairs floor space accessible). No idea what techniques they might use for the hearth and the torch that provided warmth and lighting in the original set, but I definitely see a lot of possibilities even within this limited space (and the taller chimney definitely has me very curious about what they might do with that back left corner of the workshop). Whatever LEGO doesn't do with that space, I can always experiment with by modding my own copy of the set!

New Elementary has reviewed the new parts in the Natural History Museum! Besides a lot of useful brick and arch recolors in Olive Green, it also introduces 3x3x2 curved railings and windows in Black for the first time, which I imagine will be very useful to a lot of builders! Also some nice new white parts (bar with three leaves and 1x1 star) that are used for the cherry blossom tree in the original set, but could certainly have lots have other decorative uses.