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Lego recently released a third generation of the Alpha Team lego. The design looks more like GI Joe or something along those lines as Lego attempts to cross into the territory of creating their own action-adventure type of themes. It looks like interesting, but lately Lego is falling farther from the block-like structure. There's more moveable parts and some transforming qualities. The other lineup is the return to the Knight's Kingdom. This time though there's a split in how they designed this. On the one hand, they have the usual mini figures. On the other, they now have slightly bigger figures without playsets. Those look campy and non-compatible so I'll probably avoid them. But the basic minifigure scaled sets are a bit odd. Again the emphasis is on moveable parts, but things like the Citadel of Orlan looks like some 3 year old had designed it. It's quite a horrible design that doesn't look like a citidel. It's kinda like something from Harry Potter except that the walls and columns just jut out without rhythm. There's also a drawbridge set and a large castle. The large castle looks redeeming, but the drawbridge is more of a hack. Lego seems to have a tendency with castles where the pattern goes, large castle + drawbridge + midsized castle. Since I've always been a fan of castle lego, I'll probably get these, but it hurts seeing the quality dip. Right now, all the design efforts are going mainly into the Harry Potter and Star Wars sets, which, imo, must be their bread baskets. The new Harry Potter stuff obvious goes hand-in-hand to promote the upcoming Harry Potter 3 movie. I don't mind and the sets are quite attractive. However, it seems that they have moved away from the interjoining of sets to form some grand scale masterpiece into a town-like setting. It probably is related to how the movie is shot, but I'm a bit sad since the sets themselves in creating this oversized fortress was a tip off in the old Castle style. The Star Wars stuff for this year is a redux of some of the more popular sets done in the first two rounds of the classic versions. They had the new Millenium Falcon, Yoda + Luke's X-Wing, the new Snowspeeder, and the Tatooine set with the redesigned Landspeeder. Now, I'm a big as fan as any of the Star Wars Lego series as seen by my collection of 3 X-wings, 4 Snowspeeders, 2 Millenium Falcons and 2 Landspeeders, but a redux? Couldn't they spent the same effort creating some new sets like emphasizing the actual settings? Some things looked kinda neat though. The Cloud City play set, despite being "open aired", is quite a sight. The landing platform alone is worth getting for this set. They should be creating more of these playsets since the vehicle portion has been overdone. You could create more Death Star scenes like the trash compactor area or maybe more of the landing bay. Also, Ben's hut. The thing about having these types of sets is the versatility to them. I could use them not just for the Star Wars value but the value of creating my own space town (which is why I'm high on the landing platform; think of a Lego aircraft carrier). The ultimate series has been good. The snowspeeder is something I want BADLY along with the Star Destroyer (where the hell am I going to put that thing?) Switching from that point, let's look at the World City theme. It's basically Lego-doing-playmobile with their own twist. The only difference is that Lego has limited themselves mostly to Fire, Police, Gas and the Coast Guard. Lego wants the action elements of that, but they seemed to accomplish the same thing with their Spiderman series (which has more original elements, imo, with the playability). I think they should keep the World City theme simple and just expand the damn city. I don't know how many police and fire stations I own, but it's getting quite boring. Or at least if they intend to redo those sets, just re-release the Legend sets. Main Street was a great idea, but I hope to see more like Metro Park, the Cargo Center, the Public Works Center, the Metroliner and maybe some smaller sets like the old bus stop (which I wish they'd redo), the Paramedic Units, and maybe a house or two. You know, something useful for your town. At this point, my crime rate is at a -10.0% and fires get put out before they get started in my town. Something I've not been able to keep up with but has been quite good are the train sets. Who doesn't like a good train set? The Train Engine Shed was one of the first original and useful Lego sets in a long time. I haven't bought it yet because of how I'm living in Japan, but it's a high priority on my list. One day when I get my own place (or expand my parent's home), I'd like to set up the whole town. One of my life's goals.