By Adam Pawlus
Photography: Michael Sullenger and Adam May

(NEW YORK, NY, February 15, 2004) This year, the Danish brick giant had fairly limited Star Wars offerings, but the new LEGO Millennium Falcon was on display for all to see. This was the only currently unavailable piece on display, and our guide informed us no new items were planned as tie-ins to the upcoming DVD release of the original trilogy.

Numerous licensed items have been revealed to include fleshtoned figures rather than yellow, and apparently this is the wave of the future. Most 2004 sets will include the new peachy skinned figures, which will stick out like a bit of a sore thumb when in displays with the old ones. Still, it's a notable move in a new direction, one some fans will undoubtedly make observations on in great detail. The Spider-Man, Harry Potter, and Star Wars sets will be seeing this change through the year.

An incredible amount of other items were shown from licensed products to original concepts. Their push toward building sets of a more traditional nature continued, with Make & Create Designer Sets of dinosaurs, deep sea creatures, and several other items.

Super-small versions of these sets are coming as well under the name X-Pod. For about three bucks, you get a small plastic container filled with 36-50 pieces. The containers come in blister packages like we're used to for action figures, and the pods themselves can be built upon into all sorts of creations and also look a little like a Christmas ornament. It's a really creative idea and shows LEGO is once again leading the way in the field of packaging that you don't want to pitch after the toy is opened.

Bionicle continues with the new Metru Nui theme and this year promises a few new kits as well. Aside from the dozen sets released in recent weeks, they also showed all six Vahki, the enforcers of Metru Nui, as well as three larger sets. While all of these have been previewed on the Web earlier, the finished product looks quite remarkable in person and will probably continue to be a hit with the kids. The Vahki are going to be released around July with the Nivawk, Nidhiki, and Krekka coming in August. The next direct-to-DVD/VHS video, currently dubbed Bionicle 2, is due out this November.

Mixing both old and new LEGO building themes is Knight's Kingdom, a new theme that incorporates Bionicle-style large action figures, classic castle style building sets, and a trading card game all in one. At 16bit.com, a review of the product will be coming soon but the long and short of it is that the trading cards are die-cut to double as shields for the large figures. The smaller sets are basically the same as classic castle sets, only more up to date. Both sets share the same new characters, which is a first for an original LEGO creation.

Spider-Man 2 product is coming in two sizes, the regular style we saw before and their "4+" range which includes figures scaled like the old Max Steel sets. The offerings shown at the booth had primarily yellow skinned figures, but we were assured that these prototypes would be changed before the final product hit stores.

Numerous other items were shown as well, which should be at LEGO.com and in our image bank!