Tom Jurassic

Lego Loosing the Ball with Superheroes Sets

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Hey all,

So before I begin, I would like to say that this is going to be a topic discussing my Opinion on the current state of the Superheroes franchise. Please do not take offense and feel the need to argue as at the end of the day, these are my views, and not yours. Whilst I would like to invite everyone into a discussion, I would like to remind you that any arguing will be reported to Moderators. Anyway, now we have the dull bit out of the way, let's start the conversation. :classic:

So basically, what I want to discuss is the way in which Lego are handling the Superheroes license. Now don't get me wrong, I absolutely love the Superheroes line, but something just feels a bit wrong and out of touch within the whole line. :sceptic: I mean, a lot of Lego's sets are now being reduced to being based upon the Animated TV Shows, and are completely ignoring the films currently, an approach which I feel is not right. I mean, let's take for example Thor: The Dark World. There were some truly amazing scenes in that film, and definitely some vehicles, which, if marketed right, could have made for some very fun and fulfilling Lego Sets. I mean, let's take for example the Asgardian Speeder chase scene. Just that one set, with Thor and Lady Sif chasing Loki, or something along those lines, could have sold well if marketed right. Instead, Lego chose to completely disregard the film and made sets based apon The Avengers TV Show, and the Ultimate Spider Man. Why? :wall:

Next, we have Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Marvel's Agents of SHIELD. Agents of SHIELD is a popular show, so surely Lego could find some way to market one set based off it, which would contain all the characters as Minifigures, to keep AFOLs and fans of the show happy? All it would need would be Coulson, his car Lola, the rest of the team, and an enemy. Just one set like that would be all that we would need. Surely Lego know there is some demand for this? And what has annoyed me even more is Lego's handling of the Summer Marvel Sets. Captain America: The Winter Soldier is set to be this year's high-octane release, with what looks like a thoroughly compelling plot, and further more, action sequences which Lego could easily replicate into product. I am not asking for a whole line, but one set to acknowledge the film would be nice at least. And yet again Lego have missed an opportunity for a D2C Helicarrier, something which many of us fans have been asking for. Do they even listen to our opinions? :hmpf:

Marvel isn't the only line where Marvel is failing, in my Opinion. Within the DC Line, every wave is over-flowed with Batman sets, whether it be another Batmobile, a slightly modified Helicopter, or a completely awfully designed plane. The line is becoming too over-repetitive, and that is something which is going to amount to the line's premature death, and is something which I am worried about. There are so many other DC Heroes like Arrow, or Green Lantern, who are crying for some Lego love, so why can't the Lego designers see this?

I am extremely worried where this line is going as it seems as if Lego are on a one-track money-making course. I love the Superheroes license, I really do, as a lot of the sets are well-made, but Lego are really loosing the ball and have lost track of this line, and I am worried that this'll end it for us fans. :facepalm:

Please leave your opinions below.

Tom

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I have to agree with you, particularly with DC. I understand that Batman is DC's bread and butter, but as you said, other characters like Green Lantern need some love. Even if it's just a set with Green Lantern and Sinestro I'd be happy.

As for Marvel, yeah, the movie licenses would be great. We already have Guardians of the Galaxy coming up in the summer, but I'd love to have some SHIELD sets, at least with the main cast. Your ideal with Coulson and Lola would be the best course of action, but then again, Fury's car in Spider-Cycle could be adapted into Lola with red parts instead of green, but that's just me.

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On the contrary, I'm happy that Marvel is mainly based on animated shows. That way we can have more obscure heroes and villains that we would not have ever gotten otherwise. If they did a whole bunch of movie tie-ins, then instead of having MODOK, Red Skull, and Power Man, we would have three more Captain America and Thor figures.

Animated shows provide diversity, part of the reason I hate the DC line of sets and wholeheartedly agree that they should stop being so Batman-centric.

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I hate the Super Heros Box art, THESE SUPER HEROS ARE BASED OFF OF MOVIES AND COMIC BOOKS!

I also think a lot of the sets have weak builds.I ALSO think that aside of all the Batman sets to the line we are getting way too many Ultimate Spider-Man mini figures,

Edited by Master Spectra

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I guess at the end of the day most of TLG's Themes are designed for children that is there main audience. So we ( as adults) just have to be happy with what is out there.

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I am 14 though, a Child technically, and I see a few other Kids younger then me who hate the receptivity of these sets. TLG must be getting desperate, I mean, look at the fail of the Spider Trike? We NEED Movie sets to accompany these. :cry_sad:

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Whether or not they are "Loosing" anything hinges primarily on each individual's expectations. Let's be honest with one another, when the license was initially announced how many people actually thought "Oooh, the Fantasticar in Lego form, can't wait!!!"

Of course we didn't... It was all about minifigs, and the more iconic, the better. I will agree, we've gotten far too many cartoon and movie costume designs for my taste, which might look better on the screen on real people, but are inferior to the more colorful comic designs in the medium of minifigures. The best figs we've received so far are undoubtedly those most faithful to the comics.

But as for WHY we've gotten so many cartoon and movie sets... Well let's remember whose assets these are in the first place. In other words, it's not TLG obsessed with building from "Ultimate Spider-Man," it's Marvel who's trying to cross-promote a brand here. This is the real problem here-- if Marvel & DC would just get out of Lego's way and let them put together a solid series of product line without any interference from Hollywood marketing execs, we might all be a bit happier.

That, along with unrealistic production deadlines are hurting this theme. Marvel's expectations of turnaround is presumably SO TIGHT that they force Lego designers to throw together sets with little or no visual feedback at all just to get the products on shelves in time for a movie or cartoon release (See Iron Man 3 sets). Perhaps that's what happened with the Electro set. We don't know... But it certainly was a rushed design built to fill a price point by a certain deadline, and the results speak for themselves.

In my opinion the best hero sets we've gotten so far are designed more for their own sake, not just to promote a movie or show. I feel the best we've gotten out of this line so far is the 76017 Captain America vs. Hydra tank set and the 6862 Superman vs. Power Armor Lex sets. They were built from a Lego designer's imagination, with a strong reverence and loyalty to the classic iterations of the heroes themselves. They JUST WORK great on their own. joker's Funhouse could easily be included here as well, or even Arkham Asylum.

I just think that, yes, this line could be much stronger, but the problem may very well lie within the corporate partnerships of the comic entities than within Lego itself.

Edited by Mr. Elijah Timms

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I agree with you on everything, except the helicarrier. It would be cool to get one, but it would have to be mini-scale, and even then it'll be $250.

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I agree a huge opportunity was missed out by not making TWS sets or TDW sets. To be quite honest, the whole of the avengers cartoon marvel stuff seems like they should've been Cap 2 and TDW set. Cap vs. hydra could have been, Steve rogers(blue jacket and white shirt), a police car, Nick Fury (MCU) in a black suv and the winter soldier. The spider trike could have been Another cap set maybe with widow (green jacket), WS and cap (shield WS uniform) on a bike, The Lab smash could have been Asgard battle, Includes Thor (TDW), Jane foster (TDW), Loki (TDW), Malekith (TDW), Kurse (TDW) and to complete the scene heimdall. Set could have been Asgard flying chariot, Dark Elf fighter and a bridge about the size of the original Spiderman bridge set for the Bifrost bridge. The other two sets could have been based on ASM 2 as Disney have the merch rights to that film and sony don't. The doc ock set could have been The same premise with the armoured truck but include spiderman (ASM2 Version), Rhino brick built small mech suit with the guy who pilots it inside and still the police officer. The spidercopter could have been clocktower confrontation: Spider Man (ASM2), Gwen stacy (white jacket and purple top ASM2), The green goblin (ASM 2), Electro (ASM2) could include goblin glider, electric pylons with exploding features and the clockower open at the back for play with cogs and a smashing top window. Just a thought of what could have been. On the plus side we got some cool figures such as Red Skull, Taskmaster, new doc ock, MODOK, Mary jane, electro, green goblin, falcon then some nice variants shame spidey is still mindlessly dull design wise and once these sets are got my sixth spidey in that gettup. At least they could've had gwen in the USM set and put the variant from Sdcc in the three sets.

Edited by legofreak86

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I agree wholeheartedly with the DC stuff, but whenever I hear set suggestions for stuff based on Captain America (have any of you even seen the movie yet?) it sounds like a glorified City set, rehashed Avengers set, or just impractical (I hope that you get your helicarrier some day, but...good luck). I haven't seen Thor 2 yet and while there are some okay ideas I've heard, a lot of them seem impractical. Maybe I'm just not so enthusiastic because the Iron Man 3 sets were awful (except the mansion which was so-so), I'm not as a big fan of the movies as most of you are anyway (including and especially ASM), and even if I was, I usually don't care about having a memento and any version of the character in LEGO is a treat, but the Ultimate Spider-Man and Avengers Assemble stuff bring in very diverse and more interesting minifigures than the movie sets would have. Yeah, I think that Lady Sif would be a cool minifigure and I hope that everyone gets a chance to add Malekith and Winter Soldier to their collections, but I'm just not a big fan of how most of the movie designs have translated to minifigures (except the MK 6 Iron Man, Thor, and the GOTG) and the sets are usually nonsensical or dull (again, the exceptions are the mansion, Quinjet, and the GOTG stuff). I think they do need to cut down on USM now though, the last three sets are just different degrees of terrible....

Most of that can be chalked up to how Disney is managing the line, I suppose. But with DC I still blame LEGO rather than WB since Imaginext has a very diverse Super Friends line....

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Personally I'm glad we haven't gotten sets based on Thor 2 or Cap 2. They offer us nothing new except new characters.

Thor 2 sets would badically be Lord of the rings style sets, all the characters would have swords and axes. To me that doesn't really fit into a superheroes theme, while I think Thor is certainly a Superhero the setting of TDW isn't.

Then there's TWS which is basically just S.H.I.E.L.D stuff. In fact most of the stuff we've already gotten with the Avengers sets. In the trailer you can see a Quinjet, jets and Jeeps all of which we got in 2012. Also since S.H.I.E.L.D are basically the bad guys in TWS it might confuse kids looking at the sets, especially when LEGO have been building S.H.I.E.L.D up as good guys. But come on TWS would basically just give us rehashed Sets with new Characters.

I've also seen people question why they don't just make all of Spideys vehicles S.H.E.I.L.D based instead of red and blue. It's because of two reasons, the first is without the bright colours the vehicles ( spider copter mainly) become much more military based. The second is that S.H. I.E.L.D are a spy agency, which would compete with the new Agents line that's coming, LEGO would lose money from this.

With DC I can kind of understand the criticism, but at least we are still getting JL members even if it is slow.

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I don't mind not having Captain America 2 sets, I don't think they would make very exciting sets, as amazing as the movie looks. The only thing I want out of that would be a winter soldier fig (I really want him). Give us a poly bag and I'd be fine. As for Thor 2, that was a HUGE missed opportunity! Now we'll never get the dark elves! They would've made awesome figs. Big let down. In regards to Spider-man, I wish they would give us sets that are more like the Doc Ock bank truck set. I want classic costumes, not the crappy ones from the show. I do like the electro fig, but Green Goblin big fig? REALLY? That set would probably sell like 200x better if it had been classic goblin! And stop giving us the same spidey over and over! We want variants. This one is ugly and could be so much better. Lego needs to step up their game with these sets. They're getting there, but have a ways to go.

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I have all the lego batman sets till this year. Even all the old. The sets aren't interessting, they are now so kid friendly. The minifigures are better, but the four that released this year are meh. The only interesting for me is the penguin set, and a little bit the man-bat set. The steam roller is just too much.

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I think that lego has missed out with CA2 TTDW and TAS2. They could have made alot of money and sets out of the film and it would be great! But hey, Lego likes to focus on unrecogniseable Vehicles and recognisable Figures for both Marvel and DC. I think that Lego is making some of their sets look like bootlegs, like the Spider Copter, The Spider Trike ect. This theme is getting worse and IMO I really, really am just streching out for the good builds and figures now. Lego stop it. Its rediculous. Thats what I think.

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Interesting points all, I have enjoyed reading through your views and opinions. Thank you for such a positive response so far. :classic:

~Tom

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I feel you hit the nail on the head. I would like to add that they shouldn't be afraid of the comics themselves, though I understand most know the characters from other media, concepts and vehicles from the books themselves can fill in the gaps during lulls in films or shows.

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I don't agree with a lot of this, but I'll say one thing for now- there's no other AoS kids toys on the market. I'm sure Marvel/Disney feel like there isn't really a place in the toy market for the show, at least for LEGO's primary consumers- kids.

Nevertheless, nice post. :classic:

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It's the boardmembers sitting around a huge table that decide in the end what gets done or not done......that's why something's go great guns and other items.....meh. :wink:

Lego could still later on produce a set for say Winter Solider just like they did for TDKR.....releasing it over six months after it's release in the cinemas. :wink:

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I completely agree with you and I'm glad we have a thread to discuss this.

In Marvel line, they should focus on the movies and comics and ommit the cartoons. They should base sets on both MCU movies each year (or others, if they have right - yes, I'm looking at ASM2 - Disney has rights for the merchandise, LEGO has a deal with Disney, result: LEGO makes sets based on USM) and comics, if there's some space left. So far, they have released sets for one of the two film only each year, and I'm afraid we might not get Ant-Man next year.

It has been stated many times and some of you may disagree, but excluding TDW and TWS from their production was a really bad move. Second Thor film was absolutely stunning looks-wise and could provide some great sets and figures. Except many brand new ones (Odin, Frigga, Warriors Three, Sif, Malekith, Kurse, Dark Elves...), it was a great oppurtunity to improve Thor and Loki. I find the current Loki extremely lackluster and I was really looking forward to the TWD sets to fix this up. He could get proper hair, face and better clothes. Now he looks like Bruce Wayne in weird pyjamas and horned helmet. Same goes for TWS: the more I see from the movie, the better it looks. Cool scenes, great vehicles, fantastic characters. All missed in spite of two cartoon sets - Hydra tank is laughing to our faces: Yes, we could make Captain America sets, and we actually did! The other is the same as the one from 2012.

Regarding DC, I'm not a fan really, so I don't mind, but the sets are mediocre as well. They oversaturated the subtheme with Batman. They should lower the number of Bat sets and make them more realistic. Enough silly and ridiculous vehicles. And of course, there are more than one DC characters.

Edited by Ojik

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It's being said so many times before.......the product is aimed at children hence the reason that the sets are based around either movies or TV shows.....and there's the reason - TV.

Kids see the ad's for the movies.......and if they are old enough they can see them. The TV shows.....being cartoons, 90% off those are aimed at children.

Only adults care which version suit a superhero is wearing, not children so much......though there might be a small handful of kids who worry about having the right Nightwing or the correct suit for Ironman.

I don't feel it's all that serious a problem, if you don't like......don't buy it or customise it to your liking as you feel it should be......we are AFOL's are we not ? :wink:

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Regarding Thor 2 and Captain America 2, I bet most of the decision not to have any sets for them came from Marvel and not from LEGO (it seems like Marvel doesn't want to have much in the way of merchandise for either film from what I can tell, preferring toy companies to focus on Guardians of the Galaxy)

Regarding Spider-Man, they base it on the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon because that's what kids (the target audience) are being exposed to the most right now. And with Ultimate Spider-Man being a Sony project rather than a Marvel one, that may also impact the decision to focus on Ultimate Spider-Man.

Avengers 2 will hopefully get some sets but again, right now, kids are being exposed to Avengers Assemble more so than any other Avengers/Marvel content, hence the Hulk Lab Smash set (which is still a good set IMO and a good way to get Thor and Hulk)

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In my opinion, the problem is the fact that a lot of the Animated-Series Based sets are GOOD, they aren't EXCELLENT. A lot of the sets which could be made from the films have a lot more potential, but that's just my opinion. IMO, the Movie sets would be EXCELLENT, not just GOOD. :tongue:

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Personally, I can see both sides. On one hand, I'd love sets based on the Cap or Thor films but, has anybody forgot about the IM3 sets? Remember that Lego aren't given much to base sets on I believe, hence why an otherwise great scene in the final movie can either be entirely inaccurate, or not even be given to Lego by Marvel to base the sets on. Remember Marvel are the ones who make the decisions. Personally, I'd like to have comic versions over movie versions, a red and white Falcon over camouflage Falcon any given day of the week . Be patient though, Marvel wise at least, look at Star Wars in it's first few years.

As for DC? I'm not as familiar with that side of the fence but I 100% on the Batman and his Super Friend slackers waves. I loved the first wave, liked the second, but now? At least have it the other way round, Batman teaming up with Supes in Metropolis VS Braniac or something like that.

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The big names are Batman, Spider-man and the Avengers. Makes sense from a business perspective. Also much like Star Wars they don't give you the definitive version of a minifig or set at first. They milk it for awhile. In a few years we will get Superman and Flash and others with leg printing.

As an AFOL I would love to get Winter Soldier, Dark World, Amazing Spider-man, Arkham City/Origins/Knight, JL, and huge D2C sets. But since this line is young and limited in set range I will continue to patiently wait. I believe LEGO is listening to fan feedback, this year we have the most Marvel sets yet.

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