Idea: Fantasy CCBS Themes

[InfurnallDragon]

Quick Acronym Definitions: KKII=Knights Kingdom with the Action Figures; CCBS=Character and Creature Building System used by modern lego action figures;

Most of CCBS has been strongly Sci-Fi for the few themes that use it. Most lego action figure themes were also this way. One thing that MoC'ers can definitely use and has a place for on the market is action figures in the fantasy or "medieval" theme. I have a few ideas for things that could definitely work and I would love to see happen. These could and should introduce new pieces for CCBS/Technic building systems for us to make our own creations, or just as cool sets themselves. These are in order of what I see as most possible. In each spoiler for them is a background on what they are and why they could come back.

>Knights Kingdom III:

The Castle LEGO sets are rebooted all of the time, and are a staple in the playsets system. Knight's Kingdom was one such theme. It was later rebooted into something LEGO did that was a little different from their other themes. Knight's Kingdom II did not only have story with unique characters, but it also had an action figure line that was shipped at the same time as their really good playsets (something BIONICLE tried to do in 2005-2007 but imo was bad). It even had a collectable card game that went alongside it. The problem with Knights Kingdom II was that it tried a little too hard to be different from its other action figure theme, BIONICLE. It can be said that they wanted it to resemble classic LEGO more than technic did to sway those who did not like BIONICLE for its appearance. Whatever the case, it lacked in compatability with a lot of LEGO products of the time. The second wave of KKII did introduce new armor pieces to bring more compatible components with action figure building than just axle-joint weapons, and after that in wave 3 the weapons and armors became more diverse.The problem with every wave persisted to be the Knights Kingdom body piece and the limbs. The joins were difficult to make compatible with BIONICLE and the limbs could had an annoying friction attempt that locked joints into place and had more limited poseability.

It is however not as likely that they would reboot Knights Kingdom as simply making Kingdom ultrabuilds in a new (maybe plotdriven) Castle theme. But if they rebooted Knights Kingdom once, why not again?

>Heroica, the Action Figure Game: [EDIT: I am going to do a more developed writeup of this, the thread is too small and not focused on this new theme idea]

Remember the LEGO table games? Heroica was one such game. It was expanded on more than any of the other game sets LEGO made. For a time it even had its own comic. Something both BIONICLE and Knights Kingdom shared was that they both tried to introduce a sort of game that could be played with them. Heroica could get action figures with games made for them similar to BIONICLE's glatorian game, but with a stronger emphasis on trying to build your own character like an RPG. A cardgame mechanic like Knights Kingdom could also make rules for the game a bit clearer and add a collectables aspect to the toy line. Maybe have an emblem piece similar to Hero Factory's cores to determine a class you have, and then the cards can be abilities or events to happen to your characters with a few being class-specific. I would not use the overdone rock paper scissors 3 elements thing for this. There would be emblems maybe for core rpg archetypes but they would not be named in order to allow players to determine what their heroes or villains are. Each emblem would be a symbol referenced on relevant cards (ie Pokemon elements). The archer like characters could have arrows, tanks would have shields, melee scrappers would have swords, mages have a fireball for magic, etc shapes on Hero Core sized pieces. If this is done right, you could make a D&D-esque rpg with monster sets and hero sets. You could have MoC'd protagonists and antagonists with everyone creating a story for their characters as they play this card-actionfigure-rpg game. They should keep things pretty generic or at least enough to allow players to create their own rules just like LEGO table games. Perhaps even bring back the dice. Combat could feature a hitpoint counter too, similar to the Glatorian one. The glatorian one seems to be made more for a technic-gear in the mata wave throwback, so something else is needed. Something Optional that can also be aesthetically pleasing. A long 2x(something) platform with lego bricks that doesnt have to be added to the figure?

Cardpacks could be marketed by "class" having each one contain their respective plastic emblem with a code on the back for combiners or gamemode suggestions on the website. The emblem would let you build a class from parts you already have even though you may not have bought a set of said class.

The series would not be exclusive to fantasy, a heavy emphasis on the players building their own worlds could lead to steampunk, magepunk, sci-fi, high fantasy, WHATEVER as is the nature of LEGO MoC'ing. To point at this maybe have a Hero Factory cardpack in polybag with cards that are Hero Core specific, and maybe even more card boosters that expand to LEGO space themes and more.

The first sets could be the original Heroica heroes and their monsters (Goblins the size of matoran, except for their King who is bigger). Instead they might want to pull from later characters to get a diverse group of classes in such as Ranger, Thief, Druid, and Knight.

Another idea to tie it back into Heroica could be the use of different potion bottles.

This idea is very, very ambitious. If LEGO does it though, this could be a whole new world for them. The creativity that an rpg can allow+ the highly versatile building system CCBS. This line would have far more diverse characters and MoC possibilities than if you just had a uniform team of heavy armor knights. It also has far more room to grow as a LEGO theme than the one-off Gauntlet promotional below.

>Gauntlet Ultrabuilds:

You may or may not know that Gauntlet got a new reboot. After Midway Games went bankrupt, Warner Brothers picked up the IP and has made a new game that is in a lot of ways like the original arcade cabinet game. The new game has a plot and is about four adventurers who answer the call of a sorceror who supposedly got himself trapped in a dungeon he created called the Gauntlet. The four adventurers are the classic Warrior, Valkyrie, Wizard, and Elf. These characters are very different from eachother. The new game gives them different personalities as well as appearances. Of course each of them could be a set, but they also face off against many monsters and even Death itself. Build-your-own-army type generic character sets could be made along with a Death figure.

This is least likely to me, mainly because of the fanbases not being so close. But it is also very likely because LEGO and Warner Brothers have been really close over the years. In all likelihood if this happened, it would be a one-off deal just like hero ultrabuilds.

>What I want from any of these ideas:

New pieces of course!

-More diverse medieval weapons than just swords (something KKII didnt do 'til its final wave but even then they were all still melee barring the siege weapons). Perhaps actual bow-shaped blasters that look better than Fluminox or Jungle Protector's awkward blasters with bows built around them. Maybe some functions for them to each use those weapons.

Edit: -Another new piece idea: Magic staff weapons that act as blasters themselves and shoot some sort of elemental projectile that also sits in the staff like an ornament at the top of it.

-More organic headpieces. So fall all constraction has given us is the robot heads of BIONICLE and Hero Factory. Also it is arguable that KKII's visor-heads could be included, but they look pretty bad without their visors. A CCBS-compatible head possibly in a similar artstyle to the hero ultrabuilds, that has a little more customizability than the ultrabuilds ones. Maybe a head similar to minifigs: have a head with the organic face and an axle joint hole at the top. Here you could put hair or a helmet or a hood. The ideal helmet would be made to fit on this minifig-esque head similar to other minifig helmets. It would cover the back of the head and part of the sides, but have a visor-attachment joint pair on the sides for helmets. It should also be compatible with BIONICLE 2015 masks that are also built in visor fashion to create new helmets or let someone outside of the BIONICLE line wear a mask in MoCs.

-New CCBS Armor shell attachments with a more classic fantasy/medieval design. Current CCBS armor shells are just generic enough to be whatever. There is however, few styles of these attachments. BIONICLE looks like it wil ladd at least one for its style, but we probably wont see the kinds of things in BIONICLE that we could see in a Castle theme. They dont have to be just armor, what if your CCBS characters could have quivers for their crossbows or bows? Sheathes for new swords/polerarms?

-Cloaks and Hoods. On rare occasions LEGO would include a cloak "piece" in sets (ie Vezon, Furno XL, King Jayko/Mathias). Short of do-it-yourself custom crafting this is the only way to "clothe" a MoC without using armor. A fantasy theme could bring in armor shells or attachements that are also more robe styled, but that wouldnt look as cool as a (Wizard/Druid/Ranger/Elf) with a cloak on their back as well. Fabric hoods vs full plastic hoods that fit on my suggested head piece would become a new debate similar to stickers vs printeds.

-Female characters. This is a dangerous subject in a few ways. It is infamous for the fantasy genre to have sexualized female characters. Those (VERY FEW) that were in the BIONICLE universe did not really have this problem as much of a possibility with them being robots and all (although Roodaka sort of tested that pretty hard tbh). LEGO would have to navigate a really sensitive minefield, but I dont really see why that can't at least try to break the terrible 1:5 female:male ratio. I understand what constractions target audience is, but in part isnt part of the problem in selling to female customers alienating them from the theme before they consider looking at it?

-Characters that arent robots. BIONICLE and Hero Factory are awesome, but you have to admit that there were barely any characters that didnt look like full-on robots.

Even More New Pieces:

-NEW FEET. We finally got new feet for CCBS in IFB. Before that it was pretty much either Piraka Claws or hero feet. This would be as good an oppurtunity as any to bring in new foot parts and break this stale building design.

-New Hands. For the same reasons as the feet. Also, unless you are wearing gauntlets or other jointed gloves, the robot hands would look like robot attachments on organic characters (see every Ultrabuild). This is the perfect oppurtunity to fix that, with BIONICLE not really leaving space for this.

(New Hands and Feet are probably more likely to happen in a series that isnt just one wave)

EDIT: Updated HEROICA

EDIT2: I feel like the Heroica idea could grow a lot more and I might add to it as the ideas come to me.

This is mostly a speculation sort of a thing for me. I definitely feel like the Heroica is the coolest option and would probably go to Cuusoo with it if I had the resources and the know-how.

So what do you think? Any ideas?

Edited October 7, 2014 by InfurnallDragon

[Voxovan]

I wouldn't like that. Everything built with CCBS looks like robots for me :l

[InfurnallDragon]

I wouldn't like that. Everything built with CCBS looks like robots for me :l

I blame this on untapped potential.

CCBS can create characters that are more living. The shells do really good for characters that are organic beings in heavy armor (which would give Knights Kingdom III a better position over the others). Im kind of tired of there just being robots when its possible to change this.

While they are more animal-based, certain Chi figures looked very good to me and pulled this off pretty well, simply by adding new pieces and using old ones in new ways.

Lets take for example: The Elf of Gauntlet

New bow blaster that looks like a bow. New handpieces that dont look like robot hands (will add to OP) in metru green. A cape. Metru green hood over new suggested headpiece. New feet (for the love of LEGO! WE NEED NEW FEET) in brown, with brown shells above them to make boots. Quiver shell attachment. Brown body armor, with a new chest attachment that gives the green part of the cloak (possibly holding the cloak around the "neck"). Gray shoulder plates. A new piece to go on the opposite side of the forearm plate to form an archer's arm guard. I dont see that looking too bad.

New pieces being in a one-wave set series arent so likely, which is why Gauntlet being a good set line is a bad idea. Similar concepts could definitely be applied to Ranger or Rogue instead. Im going to un /spoiler the heroica idea because I think if anything needs to be looked at more for how a fantasy action figure line should be done it is with that.

Edited October 7, 2014 by InfurnallDragon

[DuckBricks]

Great ideas!

Bionicles technically weren't robots as they were part organic in the storyline (well, besides the Brotherhood of Makuta), but I guess they didn't look organic at all...

[InfurnallDragon]

I am now in the process of writing the "Heroica" idea in greater detail. More than likely without naming it Heroica. I might make a seperate thread for it later but I want to flesh this idea out as much as I can. I see a lot of potential in this, far more than just a fantasy theme. Anyone know which thread category this sort of idea should be in (IF I make a new thread)? I am not going to lose the Action Figure aspect of this but Im not sure which forum category is best for this.

Edit^2: nvm

Edited October 7, 2014 by InfurnallDragon

[VBBN]

Anything Knight/Medieval themed would certainly be welcome to me. If we saw a Knights III theme, I'd like to see there be multiple types of shoulder/knee add-ons in different colors. They could even start by using the gold Chima add-on, I could see something like that being used in a Knights theme in silver or black.

I am now in the process of writing the "Heroica" idea in greater detail. More than likely without naming it Heroica. I might make a seperate thread for it later but I want to flesh this idea out as much as I can. I see a lot of potential in this, far more than just a fantasy theme. Anyone know which thread category this sort of idea should be in? I am not going to lose the Action Figure aspect of this but Im not sure which forum category is best for this.

If it is an idea/proposal/proof of concept for an Action Figure theme it is welcome here.