Licensed Sets LEGO Missed the Ball On/Never Made

[somelegothings_]

In LEGO, we have praised licensed sets but often overlooked how absurdly awful they were. And there are chances LEGO could've made great sets but missed out on. I'll start small so we can have some discussion.

LEGO missed the ball on the smallest DC Superheroes 2012 set. Catcycle Chase was the name. I think? I had owned the set for what seems now like forever. Also being lucky enough to own the 2006 counterpart. I must conclude that LEGO missed. It was rubbish. The 2006 set offered a crazy set up for a chase featuring the Bat-Dragracer and frankly, as absurd as an idea that is. The vehicle was still imposing and added nicely to the serious theme. The 2012 counterpart was awful. While the set did have it's perks with rare-ish pieces. Batman wasn't imposing. In fact. He was smiling... In a jetpack. And there was a HUGE waste of resources on that awkward street corner. Where Batman would stop Catwoman by throwing a traffic lamp onto her. That explains itself.

LEGO also missed the ball on an OBVIOUS set that would have made a good amount of money. A UCS Hogwarts. I'm not really one to be mad at LEGO for missing a set because they may not have thought of such potential. But this was obvious, and the countless iterations of Hogwarts in the past just couldn't amount to the massive size of the real Castle. Now, I reckon. A ~$300 Hogwarts would be a lot better than a $120 re-hash of the same. Old. Annoying. Sections of Hogwarts. So much potential, yet no response or attempt.

A point I want to put across is that we shouldn't be bashing LEGO in this, we should just say that they were at a weak point with these sets. So, don't make it sound like LEGO is terrible... (This message may be hypocritical.) Anyways, I'd love to see anyone's input on what LEGO could've done better. Or just have done in general...

[TheBatstan]

I have a few problems with the 2012 Batcave:

1. No Alfred. Seriously Lego he's a crucial part of the Bat-Family and he could have been put in the set instead of Ivy as we got the exact same version of her in the Asylum. I just hope that the IDEAS Wayne Manor gets approved as that's the only other logical set that he could be in as I'm not about to spend almost $100 online for him.

2. No iconic trophies. In the original 06 Batcave, we didnt get the giant penny or the dinosaur, but we at least got some stuff like the Joker bomb and the samurai sword. I thought that this time around that Lego would outdo the original by maybe including a Robin suit display at least but nope, nothing.

3. The size. The previous Batcave was pretty big with three main sections that actually look like a cave! It even had the turntable with was ignored in this set as well. I also didnt like the bright colours all that much as well. I just hope that we get a BVS Batcave that could be more in line with the Ninja Tuetles movie lair set in terms of size and detail.

rant/.

Edited January 4, 2015 by TDKR2012

[Captain Braunsfeld]

I have a few problems with the 2012 Batcave:

1. No Alfred. Seriously Lego he's a crucial part of the Bat-Family and he could have been put in the set instead of Ivy as we got the exact same version of her in the Asylum. I just hope that the IDEAS Wayne Manor gets approved as that's the only other logical set that he could be in as I'm not about to spend almost $100 online for him.

2. No iconic trophies. In the original 06 Batcave, we didnt get the giant penny or the dinosaur, but we at least got some stuff like the Joker bomb and the samurai sword. I thought that this time around that Lego would outdo the original by maybe including a Robin suit display at least but nope, nothing.

3. The size. The previous Batcave was pretty big with three main sections that actually look like a cave! It even had the turntable with was ignored in this set as well. I also didnt like the bright colours all that much as well. I just hope that we get a BVS Batcave that could be more in line with the Ninja Tuetles movie lair set in terms of size and detail.

I perfectly agree. I have always regretted not to have bought the initial batcave set.

In 2012 we just got less for a higher price.

[Yooha]

The decision process of what sets are made into production...is something we can barely understand. Many-many factors like cost, playability, how difficult it is to build, etc. I'm sure there are many sets each year that never go into production because of company decisions - I would love to know the ratio though :)

So what sounds a bad idea/missed opportunity from our side are "Which very cool sets should we produce out of these 3, if we have capacity only for 1?" questions over there.

If there would be a "behind the curtain" book written by LEGO employees - with the permission of the company of course, without any business secrets - I would buy it instantly :)

[1974]

If there would be a "behind the curtain" book written by LEGO employees - with the permission of the company of course, without any business secrets - I would buy it instantly :)

There won't be, the NDAs reach out through the known solar system and spanning infinite amount of lightyears. That said, there are snippets of info floating around the vast internet

I have actually thought about writing .. something. Not en entire book, but an indepth lenghtly interview of sorts as I know two former designers and have been told a bunch of warstories, annecdotes etc. But I we'we decided against it due to not upsetting the sleeping dragon

OT/

[somelegothings_]

We are steering a bit off topic so I'll add more.

LEGO really just... What were they thinking? Mandarin's Buggy from the Iron Man 3 subtheme. I don't care about the fact that it wasn't in the movie because there must've been some communication issues about the final film plans. The tank just looked awful. The colors and the build were... Bad. Now, if there wasn't communication errors just think about the sets we could've gotten. The tank set could've easily been two Iron Legion suits vs an Extremis soldier. Well, that didn't happen so I think this set fits in both categories.

[Cy_Bored1337]

I think LEGO missed on in the Pirates of the Caribean theme the Singapore scene i mean how hard is it to put a few vendors,a ship,bridge and fireworks.It would of been a great set

[Blondie-Wan]

The Indiana Jones theme was wonderful, but barely tapped its potential. In particular, it's almost heartbreaking that despite four waves of sets covering all four movies, they never released a single minifigure of either Dr. Marcus Brody or Sallah Mohammed Faisel el-Kahir, despite both of those characters appearing in not one but two of the movies each. It's also vexing that they never released any of Professor Harold Oxley or George "Mac" MacHale, even though they were well-suited for several of the released sets. I also dearly wish there had been some sets based upon the TV series, though I do understand why there weren't any.

[Ql97]

Don't even get me started on the first Avengers wave. That stuff was just awful, bore no resemblance to its movie counterparts. At lest the second wave looks a little better.

[_epicster_]

The sets for Man of Steel were all pretty disappointing to me. The Dark Knight Rises set was horrible. The Bat was randomly blue, the tumbler was horribly undersized, and the figures were all inaccurate. The UCS Tumbler, however, made up for that

Avengers and Iron Man 3 also had a ton of problems.

Edited January 5, 2015 by _epicster_

[legofreak86]

On the contrary figure wise and scenario wise MOS was 100 percent accurate, all three scenes depicted in the sets transpired in the movie, Superman, Zod, Lois, Col Hardy, Faora Ul were all very accurate to their movie counterparts. The only character not accurate was Tor An who only appeared near the beginning of the movie and was beaten down by Jor El (who also got a reasonably accurate figure, wrong hair and no armour withstanding). The Pod lois drops in was accurate, the car than hardy drives, the kryptonian dropship, Superman slams zod with that car in the final action sequence.

I do wish we'd have got a krypton set though, with the gunships attacking Jor El's sanctuary lab, it could've included Zod (krypton armour), Jor El (krypton armour), Lara, Baby kal el and 2 of zod's armoured soldiers. The set could consist of the lab with the outside with the circular door and have a half dome facade, inside there could be the pod of superman suspended on a feature that lets you launch it into the air Zod's Gunship, Jor El's space dragon thing, and a control panel for lara, i'm thinking similar sort of look to the count Dooku vs Yoda set but with a large circular front facade with the hope symbol exploding door. Could have been like £50, would've made a nice booster.

Iron Man 3 was all sorts of bad, Wrong main villain, two vehicles and scenarios that didn't appear in the movie, war machine instead of patriot, The only saving graces were the Tony Stark, Pepper Potts, the 2 iron man armors, the dum-e droid and Killian (that glow in the dark face was a terrible choice though, i'd have preferred a normal flesh one with a orange markings one on the back. Really that whole wave should've been rejigged as it was the only movie line of the year.

Malibu lab: keep the same, it worked as a playset, maybe change out the extremis dude for eric savin

Tennessee Brawl £34.99 includes Tony Stark (Tennessee outfit), Eric Savin (leather jacket with flesh head and one side of face with orange extremis markings), Brandt (same case as savin) and Harley. Set Includes Water tower with collapsing feature, cafe with exploding feature and a silver car for tony.

Miami Mansion escape £50 set includes mansion facade with two levels, the bottom level includes a lab/ basement with a table with restraints to clip Tony to, a large breaking window and a computer desk with computer, some steps lead up to the main level, this level includes Kilian's office, Mandarin broadcast room with cameras and a small room with the iron patriot armour withstrained by chains. Figures include: Aldrich Killian (jacket and shirt likethe one we got, except with a flesh face with orange fire like markings and an angry face on the other side of his face), Tony stark (hoodie and aim t shirt, wearing one glove of the armour and one leg of the armour), Iron Man MK42 (same as one we got), Iron patriot (with col rhodes head), Mandarin (with sunglasses) and one henchman.

Airforce 1 rescue £70 incudes lego airforce 1 plane with an opening feature to reveal 2 rooms, and with exploding features, minfigures include: Battle Damaged Mk42, Eric savin (Guard disguise), Iron Patriot, The president, 2 agents and a stewardess.

£100 Seaport Battle Set consists of large seaport playset with control deck, cranes, catwalks and lots of exploding and breaking features. Figures include Tony Stark (hoodie open with aim t shirt and soot and a scar on his face like the newest hobbit bard figure), Col Rhodes, iron Man Heartbreaker, Pepper potts (tank top with extremis markings), Eric savin (shirtless with extremis markings), Igor Armour (brickbuilt mech like the hulkbuster), centurion armour (silver and red), silver armour with no mouth markings, The black and god spiky armour.

Then again they should've just done Thor 2 sets in my opinion as it was a far more interesting movie set potential wise to me. They could've done the asgard palace as a £130 set, the london clash, the battle of Vanaheim, the escape from asgard, Malekith's warship, dark elf ships, asgardian ships, the bifrost bridge observatory. Malekith, Thor, heimdal, Jane, sif, dark elves, asgardians, odin, the warriors 3, eric selvig. Shame, that if anything was a missed opportunity set wise.

Same with cap 2, there could have been some cool sets for that too.

I think the most accurate wave of sets so far superhero wise are this year's avengers sets and last years guardians sets.

Edited January 5, 2015 by legofreak86

[Zilcho]

Don't even get me started on the first Avengers wave. That stuff was just awful, bore no resemblance to its movie counterparts. At lest the second wave looks a little better.

What? Avengers was a very good wave. A few of the minifigures were a bit off but apart from that it was a brilliant wave.

[Robianco]

Even though it's listed on the History part of the forum I'd say that the Fellbeast with Witch King, Aowyn and Merry. Without adding in any other things this set at least should have been made.

The UCS Tumbler was a good set. We've already had a mini figure scale Tumbler and I don't think they were going to remake it for a flagship set. The Batmobile has never really been that important in the comics. It gets Bats from A to B... It's just the films that it's the star, so as much as I'd probably have liked a set with the Tumbler, the 66 Batmobile and the Burton-mobile that would have been more of a film and TV tribute than a 75th Bats tribute.

Iron Man 3 wave was notoriously iffy across the board. Except for parts of Malibu Mansion.

I actually think 4842 and 4867 make a pretty good Hogwarts as they are. Except for maybe a greenhouse and boathouse it's as much as we'd probably have got from a UCS set anyway. Those 2 sets together are probably larger than the Diagon Alley set which boasts a 10XXX set number.

If we're listing things that probably SHOULD be done again with Lego's design upgrade around the time of the last two HP waves then I could also include a couple of Star Wars sets that are in serious need of doing as they're also technically licensed sets even if they have their own part of the forum.

[ficbot]

I wish they had some smaller Simpsons sets. The big house is out of my price range so there is nothing to do with the minifigs.

I also heard there is a forthcoming Friends Posters sub-theme. I am very unexcited about that and I wish they would stop stereotyping the girls. I like the Friends theme because it is so detailed---the house and cooking stuff comes with actual utensils, unlike the totally empty and vacant Creator houses. But Posters? Meh.

Also on a Friends note, I really thought the Pizzeria merited a full building, not a little box of just bits and pieces.

[Im a brickmaster.]

No has yet mention the Spider trike? It's one of the few sets I truly have beef with, in fact I when I got it I only built Electros flyin extension thing! So let's think about it for a sec: A trike the consists of...four wheels attached to the vehicle by spindly fin things. Featuring a shoehorned flinging feature that only half works and flops around when you move the trike. I got no words for this. Any small child would look it you and say " But spida man swings, why he need a trike?"

(Sigh)

[JackJonespaw]

I've always wished that Lego hadn't taken a pause for Harry Potter during the release of the HBP, and even OOTP, only releasing one set. I would have loved to see a set centered on the Ministry battle, with Luna and Lucius and Bellatrix, or even a Grimmauld Place set. And while we did get a HBP set, I wish we could have gotten more, as well as more iconic scenes.

[MAB]

No has yet mention the Spider trike? It's one of the few sets I truly have beef with, in fact I when I got it I only built Electros flyin extension thing! So let's think about it for a sec: A trike the consists of...four wheels attached to the vehicle by spindly fin things. Featuring a shoehorned flinging feature that only half works and flops around when you move the trike. I got no words for this. Any small child would look it you and say " But spida man swings, why he need a trike?"

(Sigh)

Yeah, it's about as stupid as a Spider-man glider. :-)

The need to include a vehicle really looks bad in some sets.

[Ultron]

Lego dropped the ball so hard on Harry Potter...it was one of the longest running licensed themes and we still never got Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff torsos. Here's hoping they pick it back up with the new movies.

[KCMatze]

What new movies?! Hasn't that ended?

[Ultron]

What new movies?! Hasn't that ended?

No, JK Rowling is penning 3 new Harry Potter movies "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them". They won't be about Harry or Hogwarts though.

[JackJonespaw]

No, JK Rowling is penning 3 new Harry Potter movies "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them". They won't be about Harry or Hogwarts though.

I can say with pretty much 100% certainty that there would be some sort of fanservice in it. But even so, I can't really see any Lego sets involving Hogwarts coming back, unless an anniversary set, maybe?

[Robianco]

I can say with pretty much 100% certainty that there would be some sort of fanservice in it. But even so, I can't really see any Lego sets involving Hogwarts coming back, unless an anniversary set, maybe?

Yeah... I agree. Newt Scamander and his adventures have nothing to do with Hogwarts and take place far before Tom Riddle or the Wizarding Wars. Hogwarts would seem to be such a tenuous set when there's potential for a whole new world of characters and places. Even if some of the people from the 7 HP books do make an appearance... which I'm king of expecting they will, especially a young Dumbledore.

[Ben Pitchford]

We only got one LOTR Rivendell set and its under 250 pieces. Never made one for the hobbit either. For such an iconic place it deserves more!

Please check out my Rivendell idea that's currently gathering support https://ideas.lego.com/projects/91654

Any feedback is appreciated, thanks for supporting!

[Lordofdragonss]

No LOtR battlepacks

No more HP "student + clasroom" sets

[EvilBlackSheep]

I think one of the biggest miss on the LOTR license was the total absence of the scene with Eowyn vs. the Nazgul. That would have made a great set and i saw a lot of people wanting one.