LEGO City is the new home of recently retired themes
LEGO City has proven its capability to rival Creator as a new home for retired themes, but from a much more recent era of LEGO history.
Just as LEGO Creator is the 2026 home of retro themes such as Castle and Pirates through sets such as 31387 Iconic Pirate Ship and 31168 Medieval Horse Knight Castle, City is aiming to take its crown with recent releases. The past few years of LEGO City sets have seen several retired themes crop up through everything from brief cameos to dedicated models.
That includes this summer’s 60501 Lava Land with several homages to Power Miners in a single set, as well as a sign for Fabuland in 60502 Airport with Airplane. 2026 has already been fruitful for these references, and the past couple of years have seen quite a few as well.
The prior 60421 Robot World and most of the jungle exploration wave from 2024 brought back Exo-Force in a full mech recreation and the return of Johnny Thunder as a minifigure. Adventurers would go on to be referenced further in LEGO Icons and Ideas.
Despite 60501 Lava Land being a full-on tribute to Power Miners, 60421 Robot World isn’t quite as focused on Exo-Force. The interior of the set’s arcade also features tributes to Alien Conquest, Bionicle and Ultra Agents, acting as a tribute to all manner of more recent, but retired LEGO themes.
There’s a running trend with most of these references. They’re much more commonly paying homage to retired LEGO themes from more recent years than the likes of Pirates, Castle and Adventurers. LEGO Creator will likely remain the new home of more classic themes, but those that are based on more specific concepts and need appropriately specific tributes seem to have a place in LEGO City.
What this might mean for the lore of LEGO City is up for debate. These themes exist in the world in some way, but whether they are works of fiction or real events is unclear. We might be looking into these references a bit too much.
Whether this means that these themes can return one day is also unknown, but we know that at least one member of the LEGO Group was hoping for that when Creator started referencing the likes of Castle and Pirates.
“Something we always hope when we do these one-off things in LEGO Ideas is that it will revive something and bring some kind of new opportunity for the LEGO Group,” said LEGO Ideas Design Manager Sam Johnson in a 2021 roundtable interview. “So what we were really hoping with 21322 Pirates of Barracuda Bay is that the real LEGO Pirates will come back and be where they should be in their prominent place.”
You can pick up 60501 Lava Land starting June 1, and 60502 Airport with Airplane is available now with that Fabuland reference. Wait until Tuesday, and you can pick up the Easter egg on Pick a Brick without the rest of the set.
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