China Themes?

[mccoyed]

Actually, I think doing this would be an incredibly smart move by TLG. My reasoning isn't perfect, but it stems from precedent. Consider the film industry, where Chinese money is now being pursued heavily by American producers which seems to often wind up changing the movies being financed (see: Looper, Transformers, Iron Man 3, and Pacific Rim for examples) so that China is reflected back to the Chinese whom investors and producers alike hope will embrace the finished product.

If TLG doesn't sell much product in China, which I would bet is the case (does anyone know? I'm very curious about this) then creating a new theme around Chinese history, even the "cartoon" history of Lego, could crack that market.

[Ardelon]

Id like to see a theme based on China as well, in the mold of the traditional Castle themes - one landed faction, centered on a castle or palace, and a more rugged outlaw faction. Or, even better, make it two landed factions - one good, one evil (well, dark), and make the outlaws "chaotic neutral". Throw in a junk and/or sampan, and, of course, a Chinese-style dragon.

Mongol-inspired raiders would be nice, but I dont know if that wouldnt be too similar to the real-world conflict between China and the steppe nomads. I think the theme should avoid stuff that would define the setting as actually being China, as opposed to a fictional world inspired by China - so for example, no Great Wall.

It could fill a year when the designers decide that traditional Castle is getting too repetitive - even if European-style Castle themes sell better and have more recognizability, this should still be better than having two similar themes on the shelf, or having nothing at all in the Castle slot. Though I dont think we will see any far eastern Castle themes as long as Ninjago is around.

Feudal?

Only for China up to unification in the 3rd century BC; after that, I recall that it replaced feudalism with a "centralized bureaucratic system". Feudalism fits better for Japan under the shoguns, dunno about Korea. (Sorry for being didactic, couldnt resist! )

Point is, we might as well use "medieval", we all know what we are talking about.

[Locomotive Annie]

Sluban make a good few Three Kingdoms sets which I've always thought were really nice. That would be one reason why Lego wouldn't want to bring out a historical Chinese range because a local manufacturer already has it covered.

[MAB]

It is a real shame they didn't continue with the signs of the Chinese Year / Zodiac. 2013 brought us the Year of the Snake set, with the lovely door plaque. 2014 ... nothing.

If they had brought out a similar 2014 set with the same style dated door for the Year of the Horse, they would have had my money for the next 10 years.