BraveMax

Pretty sure we have, in fact, been waiting for months right along with you. Lego releasing the pics a few days later isn't going to kill their sales. These retailers probably sell a number of *other* toys, and don't really care about this like we do. Let's all just be patient - the pics will come when they come, and we'll all forget all about the wait!

Very prehistoric vibe. And definitely Ninjago - it has exactly the same parts as typical Ninjago sets: 2x each of a sword, a scythe, a pair of shurikans, and the samurai x head dress. Only change is two sais standing in for nunchucks.

Feels like you got cut off here. Regardless - your point sounds like it's just as much speculation as mine. You might not wish for a new team that's "random"... But the old team was a team of "random ninjas" at first, and there's no reason this one couldn't be. I dunno that it makes more sense to me for them to "train" anyone else we already know, aside from Nelson? It may not be these ninja, but I'd expect any new team to have at least a couple new characters.

Not underutilized, or not the new ninja? If you have some kind of insider knowledge, please feel free to share!

The "new ninja" seemed pretty under-utilized in this season... Perhaps they're actually the new generation of ninja?

Jang has a good video of it up. I own it myself, and found it to be a pretty good build, with a lot of great detail, a good selection of minifigs, and some interesting build techniques. My only gripe with it is that the joints connecting the two sides to the center section are super flimsy (literally a rod and some clips). The boat holds together securely as a boat, and works fine as a playset once opened, but you have to be pretty careful when you're actually opening it. I think that's meant to allow flexibility in play (so you can really separate the three segments), but it makes for some harrowing moments at times!

Do you know that from some other source besides these pictures? I'm assuming I'm looking at the same pictures you are, and I'm just saying: there are a ton of things in this set of images that are clearly placeholders, and a lot of them are colored white. I see stickers on the hydro bounty, but those could just be there to make it seem less plain for the retailers they're trying to sell to. After ten years of red bounties, white is an abrupt and odd change in direction. Is it not possible that the colors here (along with other things) aren't final? 🤷

Wow - I've never seen lego set images that were so preliminary! (These are DEFINITELY coming down ASAP - all screenshotted for future reference 😂) Given that white seems to indicate "preliminary" in these pics, do we know that the hydro bounty isn't going to actually be red?

Thank you for this fantastic context!

Mine arrived yesterday - started building tonight! So far, so good! Feels similar to NC, but very different footprint. Bigger bricks down at the bottom...

Just received my GWP skating rink! ... The Gardens apparently shipped separately. ?

I guess my point would be... Does that mean we're not allowed to highlight criticisms? Does a set have to literally be a waste of money (not many of those in Lego!) for us to admit that we're not 100% happy with it?

I'm definitely not wading into the accessibility argument - y'all are getting way too personal with that. Some people don't like it, and that's fine. Some people don't care, and that's also fine. I think, for me, what the lack of access is indicative of is the level of thought put into the set. It's not about blindly forcing ladders and things into it to allow access for minifigs who don't need them anyways, it's about the level of intentionality that *having that* in NC demonstrated on the part of the set's designer. The original NC was a masterpiece - every section of it had something new and interesting. Fun mechanics and interesting build techniques, very little repetition of shape, great detailing, and everything tied together into a cohesive whole. The docks seemed like an afterthought - like they'd had some ideas that didn't make it into the city, and so they created an add-on to house them - but it also had a strikingly different layout and feel to it, and added some additional fun mechanics. Plus it integrated perfectly with NC. Compared to NC, NCG feels more similar to the docks - like the designer came up with an overall shape (essentially the same shape as NC, but with a tree in the middle!), and then came up with rooms/buildings to flesh out that shape without much thought for how they all worked together. Each individual piece is nice (Not arguing at all that the designer isn't good at his job!), but a few of them feel like a rehash of locations we'd already gotten in the previous two sets, and they aren't tied together as well as the locations in the first two were. I'm 100% happy to get a few more locations from the show (Mr. Chen's, the Museum, etc.), and again: I purchased the set on day 1 and am glad to (soon) own it. I'm just not as excited about it as I was about the first two, and I think I would have been had the set felt more intentional as a whole. As for those bashing people expressing negative opinions about the set... Well, I'd hope we can all agree to avoid personal attacks, and perhaps to stay away from absolutes. I haven't seen anyone say the set sucks, nor have I seen anyone say there's nothing wrong with it. That means there's room to discuss both the good and bad aspects!

Just to be clear: I don't think many here are saying we dislike the set entirely (I stayed up until 1 am, then woke up at 7 to ensure I could purchase it!), and I 100% agree that everything about this is subjective. Just trying to "think out loud" about why the set just doesn't feel as epic to me, personally, as the City! Definitely helps to have others add their perspective to what I'm thinking!

Do we know if the 4+ sets count in there?