That oasis set is AMAZING!

I imagine medieval set submissions specifically are down because they removes the Kraken and Griffon factions for this palette. Im sure there were some people that weren't able to resubmit old designs or that no longer felt inspired due to the lack of available factions.

I've definitely felt the Horse Knight fatigue looking at all the submissions. They were not my favorite faction previously, and now every other design is blue. Very unfortunate.

Great breakdown. I like the sets you called out. Water wheels are cool, but Lego put them on 2 out of 3 of their last official castles. I think the opening bridge is a more compelling play feature

These Bricklink sets would give some of the best icons/ creator expert a run for their money.

They are all amazing and I have voted for many castle themed and fantasy sets, my favourite is Falling Blossoms - Japanese inspired castle with nice design elements and it's really beautiful. Blends my interests of castle & ninjago :)
As others have mentioned I think the reduced pallet available for wave 1 will significantly affect the number of submissions.

The Village Fair is simply incredible. Complexity, color palette, activity, it’s Lego perfection. In terms of execution on a theme the only set I think compares is maybe the Thieves of Tortuga. If this was picked I would buy two of them, one to build and one to give to my kid in 10 years.

The ‘Emerald Oasis’ is fantastic! 🌴 Hope it wins!

Also love the ‘Raven Knights Rockspire Bastion’.

Thank you so so much for featuring my "Medieval Village Fair". I'm thrilled to hear you love the overall build 🤩🤩This was one of my favorite projects: I had so much fun playing with these different angles and wedge plates to create an organic village shaping with multiple building techniques and details!  Thank you for your kind words, much appreciate ☺

For submission counts I'd look to first wave of each prior year, people have speculated that the limited palate causes the drop.

I usually don't care for the ships one way or the other, but that skeleton ship looks great.  I think there was another Water Mill on there, too, and I liked it better. ... Ah, at the end you showed it scrolling through your votes... that one by SC0R.  That needs to get made.

I wonder if overall BDP submissions are down because seemingly the same designers keep getting selected, and other designers who haven't been selected yet are getting discouraged from the continuous rejection. Just a guess, I very well could be wrong.

wow emerald oasis is amazing!!!

These look really good! Definitely wish more of them could be chosen. Particularly like the use of colours this time, it's so much more interesting than a (nearly) 100% Grey Brick Castle (except for that Snake Knights Castle here, which is kind of suffering from that.)

i think a big reason for the drop of medieval submission was the fact, that the griffin and kraken knights were no longer available for this wave

The Emerald Oasis and the Medieval village fair would be an instant buy. The two most beautiful sets in the entire series iimo.

The forgotten road set is so cute! I might vote for once in a while.

I really like the medieval village fair, but can’t believe you left out the rogue’s alley. That set seems so great.

I voted for ‘the Gate Beyond’ (a small but intriguing set!), & also ‘the Witch House’.

If you're looking at trends, you need to look at more than two series. Have submissions been steadily increasing until now or have they fluctuated from series to series? This drop could simply be an aberration, so keep your data handy to compare with upcoming series.

The ship is absolutely awesome.