Two Galaxies, Double Points, and One Retailer's Bad Day

BDP's 2028 overhaul rewrites the program from the ground up: Series becomes Waves, five finalists per wave chosen through a new Crowd Validation process, plus tighter crowdfunding and production limits and refreshed BrickLink branding. The timing tracks with Series 9 closing fully funded, five for five. That success rate is the kind of signal that invites structural change. Expect Wave 1 to test whether validation beats open voting.

This one's been bubbling for months: earlier-year chatter about a Star Wars/Marvel crossover set got louder once Disney announced the Hope Assembles comic series, and now LEGO Ideas has made it official with a fan design contest. The format, fan-submitted and fan-voted, means the actual designs stay unknown until the December 15 decision. Expect leak chatter to fill that gap long before the vote closes.

Reports of cracked minifigure heads, Patrick Star and Gingy among them, have been circulating for weeks. LEGO has reportedly told at least one creator it knows the cause and is offering free head replacements for the affected SpongeBob and Shrek figures through customer service. What it hasn't done is say what's actually wrong, which leaves the quality question open for every other minifigure made the same way.