Ideas for new Lego themes! (Non-licensed)

[danth]

26 minutes ago, MAB said:

There was loads of fantasy /sci-fi Space in City in 2024-25. If they do it too frequently it becomes boring. 

Does this apply to Ninjago or City or Star Wars?

The answer is -- yes. Which is why Ninjago and City and Star Wars release different kinds of sets every year to keep things fresh. (And probably why Star Wars sets, out of pure desperation to do something new, now include "Smart" bricks.)

The old Space sets kept things fresh the same way: Different colors and designs each year, new factions with new gimmicks and color schemes, etc. 

[zeeverse]

31 minutes ago, MAB said:

There was loads of fantasy /sci-fi Space in City in 2024-25. If they do it too frequently it becomes boring. 

What loads of scifi that had solid themes on par with Space Police, Galaxy Squad, Alien Conquest, or Mars Mission...cause I perused all through the 2024-2025 stuff...and I didn't see anything close to that? Where was it?

Where were the battle tanks like Mars Mission, and Galaxy Squad?

Where were the huge aliens like Galaxy Squad?

Where were the bad guys with their cool bad spaceships like Mars Mission and Space Police III?

Where were the big guns and or energy cannons like Space Police, and Galaxy Squad?

Where were the aliens with their own weapons, like Space Police III and Galaxy Squad? 
 

Do you have the set numbers for the modern versions of the above mentioned things in the 2024-2025 release?
Because what I described up above is what scifi has been for over 30 years.

3 hours ago, Murdoch17 said:

If I remember correctly, 2013's Galaxy Squad was a flop at the time or at very least didn't meet expectations, and the same goes for Alien Conquest from 2011, which had a whole wave canceled according to Mark Stafford in an interview with Brick Journal over a decade ago. Space themes haven't seem to have sold well since SPIII or even before, with the (arguably fantastic and gone to soon) Blacktron Renegade being the latest example of that as it went End Of Line in under a year. Of the five classic themes from the start of minifigures, only Town / City thrives today. Trains is a once-in-a-blue-moon thing or rolled into City (depending on the set), while Pirates, Castle, and Space are sadly reduced to occasional throwback items or BDP exclusives, although space has been seen in City too in recent years. These last four themes just don't test as well with kids on thier own, and thus they don't make them. Also, they the retro adult sets are spread out in a drip-feed fashion as to not over-saturate the market. Hope this answers your questions @zeeverse.

A flop?

Where I live our Lego show has a very large Galaxy Squad display, and there's a waiting list for sets in the local used Lego store. 
There's an even longer waiting list for Space Police III sets at the same store.
I've never seen a Mars Mission Set at the used Lego store.

So, how does that mean that these themes are flops?

Because per my experience, flops sit on used store shelves and there's plenty of Creator, City, Town, Technic and a constant Turnover of Star Wars, but plenty of it in the store at all times....

But you won't find any Space Police III, Galaxy Squad, Mars Mission and even lots of Alien Conquest sitting in that store.

So, per what I see, there isn't any flops there... I don't know what happened 10 years ago, but I ain't buying what I hear online at all. I'm old enough to be a Classic Space Fan when it was on the store shelves brand new. So, I saw all of those above mentioned releases in the stores and those shelves were never full. It's just that back then, I was into Technic and Bionicle (the first five years or so).

Now, we may live in two different nations so there could be different societal norms as to what are active things. But where I live, anything Lego Space up to Galaxy Squad is hot stuff... Even the older City Space is good and warm, but never hot. 

[icm]

17 minutes ago, zeeverse said:

What loads of scifi that had solid themes on par with Space Police, Galaxy Squad, Alien Conquest, or Mars Mission...cause I perused all through the 2024-2025 stuff...and I didn't see anything close to that? Where was it?

Where were the battle tanks like Mars Mission, and Galaxy Squad?

Where were the huge aliens like Galaxy Squad?

Where were the bad guys with their cool bad spaceships like Mars Mission and Space Police III?

Where were the big guns and or energy cannons like Space Police, and Galaxy Squad?

Where were the aliens with their own weapons, like Space Police III and Galaxy Squad? 

Since you're posting this to explain why, in your view, the 2024 cross-theme Space sets weren't true Space sets, here's my reply:

Are scientific exploration and discovery not "solid themes"? Are the only "solid themes" permitted in Lego Space sets to be war and violence?

Why are big battle tanks necessary in Lego Space? Lego Space went over 20 years without big battle tanks.

Why are huge aliens necessary in Lego Space? Lego space went nearly 20 years without huge aliens.

Why are bad guys with cool bad spaceships necessary in Lego Space, particularly as opposing factions? 

Why are big guns necessary in Lego Space? Why are heavily armed aliens necessary in Lego Space?

Why can't we all just ... get along in our little make-believe worlds? Personally, I found the focus on peaceful, conflict-free exploration in the 2024 cross-theme Space sets to be a refreshing contrast to the high-conflict Space subthemes of the late oughts and early teens, and a nice callback to earlier eras of Lego Space.

[zeeverse]

6 minutes ago, icm said:

Since you're posting this to explain why, in your view, the 2024 cross-theme Space sets weren't true Space sets, here's my reply:

Are scientific exploration and discovery not "solid themes"? Are the only "solid themes" permitted in Lego Space sets to be war and violence?

Why are big battle tanks necessary in Lego Space? Lego Space went over 20 years without big battle tanks.

Why are huge aliens necessary in Lego Space? Lego space went nearly 20 years without huge aliens.

Why are bad guys with cool bad spaceships necessary in Lego Space, particularly as opposing factions? 

Why are big guns necessary in Lego Space? Why are heavily armed aliens necessary in Lego Space?

Why can't we all just ... get along in our little make-believe worlds? Personally, I found the focus on peaceful, conflict-free exploration in the 2024 cross-theme Space sets to be a refreshing contrast to the high-conflict Space subthemes of the late oughts and early teens, and a nice callback to earlier eras of Lego Space.

You are taking what I said out of context:

I refer to Lego City Space as Lego City Space.
I refer to Galaxy Squad, Space Police, Mars Mission, and Alien Conquest as Scifi Space. 

Those are not the same terms and as such, all you are stating your post is what I think Lego City Space should be.
And as such Scifi Space should be a separate thing, which is always how I have viewed and also how I presented it in my original post.

But since you are starting us down this road:
Whether one wishes to hope for peace, or make plans to defend, in a Universe full of unknowns, neither position should be disregarded, or downplayed, until the Human Race has verified everything in the known universe--and that is going to take an unbelievably long time.

 

[zeeverse]

1 hour ago, danth said:

Does this apply to Ninjago or City or Star Wars?

The answer is -- yes. Which is why Ninjago and City and Star Wars release different kinds of sets every year to keep things fresh. (And probably why Star Wars sets, out of pure desperation to do something new, now include "Smart" bricks.)

The old Space sets kept things fresh the same way: Different colors and designs each year, new factions with new gimmicks and color schemes, etc. 

Right and Galaxy Squad is HORRIBLE for humanity! I mean look at it! It's obviously a ploy to lure people into being entomologists, or pest control specialists, or the wife's bug crushing hero.

---Oh how humanity will suffer from this horrible theme!

[icm]

23 minutes ago, zeeverse said:

You are taking what I said out of context:

I refer to Lego City Space as Lego City Space.
I refer to Galaxy Squad, Space Police, Mars Mission, and Alien Conquest as Scifi Space. 

Those are not the same terms and as such, all you are stating your post is what I think Lego City Space should be.
And as such Scifi Space should be a separate thing, which is always how I have viewed and also how I presented it in my original post.

But since you are starting us down this road:
Whether one wishes to hope for peace, or make plans to defend, in a Universe full of unknowns, neither position should be disregarded, or downplayed, until the Human Race has verified everything in the known universe--and that is going to take an unbelievably long time.

Respectfully, it's splitting hairs to say that City Space and Friends Space 2024 aren't "Scifi Space". But I don't want to rehash this conversation that's been had many times before in this forum, so I'll bid you good day.

[zeeverse]

3 hours ago, danth said:

Star Wars.

People who are in deep denial will now swarm this thread to say it's not true, so be forewarned. But it has been confirmed by legendary Lego designer Christian Faber and former Lego R&D employee Suzanne Eaton. 

I contend that most Star Wars Fans would probably not be Lego Space Fans, and I have seen plenty of Lego Space Fans say they are not interested in Star Wars.

So...

I'm not sure "which" Lego Fan Faber is referring to, to be quite honest.

[danth]

45 minutes ago, icm said:

Personally, I found the focus on peaceful, conflict-free exploration in the 2024 cross-theme Space sets to be a refreshing contrast to the high-conflict Space subthemes of the late oughts and early teens, and a nice callback to earlier eras of Lego Space.

Same!

[zeeverse]

3 minutes ago, icm said:

Respectfully, it's splitting hairs to say that City Space and Friends Space 2024 aren't "Scifi Space". But I don't want to rehash this conversation that's been had many times before in this forum, so I'll bid you good day.

Also Respectfully, I've been a fan of Science Fiction, and Scifi my whole life, and I am old enough to be a fan of classic space when it was brand new. To call the 2024 releases as scifi is a very long stretch. Thanks for not wanting to rehash this, because I can counter equally every point you try to make. So, we will agree to disagree and that's fine. I still got my say on this subject and no one can prove me wrong yet. That's fair enough to me. Hopefully, I'll run into you on a subject that we are not on opposing sides. 

[danth]

@zeeverse

Have you seen these sets and do you like them?

https://brickset.com/sets/theme-City/year-2024/subtheme-Space

https://brickset.com/sets/subtheme-Space/year-2025/theme-City

https://brickset.com/sets/year-2024/subtheme-Space/theme-Friends

https://brickset.com/sets/71475-1/Mr-Oz-s-Space-Car

[zeeverse]

24 minutes ago, danth said:

@zeeverse

Have you seen these sets and do you like them?

I'm on Bricklink, Brickset and Rebrickable (but that one is getting questionable) So I have seen them all. I've been doing the Lego hobby for 26 years now. haha!

FWIW, I am a little league Lego Fan. I own only 785 sets, and Rebrickable says I have just over 106,000 parts, but that doesn't count my bulk lego which is right at 80lbs.

I have seen all of them, and I do not like any of them. Here's why:
I was insulted that the 2024 City Space theme was treating alien life as "everything in the universe is dumber than us".
For the City Space Lunar Release: I prefer clear or brown transparent windscreens in my world which is why I passed on the City Space Lunar Release. All the windows were that horrid aqua blue tint. I have no idea why they  did that, but it was a message to me to skip this one, please, which I did.
The Lego City Mars Mission release, I did buy the starter set and the people pack for the minifigures. Everything else did not connect with me as a pseudo realistic City Space theme since there were no active shuttle programs when it released which kind of left me scratching my head. The rover just looked....like something I was not going to buy.
I did buy Mr Oz's Space car for the parts and Mr Oz, who I intend to change for my home space build. 

Edited Monday at 11:55 PM by zeeverse
posted inside quote by accident

[MAB]

1 hour ago, zeeverse said:

What loads of scifi that had solid themes on par with Space Police, Galaxy Squad, Alien Conquest, or Mars Mission...cause I perused all through the 2024-2025 stuff...and I didn't see anything close to that? Where was it?

Where were the battle tanks like Mars Mission, and Galaxy Squad?

Where were the huge aliens like Galaxy Squad?

Where were the bad guys with their cool bad spaceships like Mars Mission and Space Police III?

Where were the big guns and or energy cannons like Space Police, and Galaxy Squad?

Where were the aliens with their own weapons, like Space Police III and Galaxy Squad? 
 

Do you have the set numbers for the modern versions of the above mentioned things in the 2024-2025 release?
Because what I described up above is what scifi has been for over 30 years.
 

There was lots of fantasy and sci-fi Space in City. However, it might not be the sci-fi you want and hence you dismiss it. It was the same with Classic Space fans 15-20 years ago, complaining that Galaxy Squad was too confrontational,  Alien Conquest was not Space as it was on earth, Space Police was too cartoony and none of it was just about exploration and non-confrontational like the original Classic Space.

[zeeverse]

3 minutes ago, MAB said:

There was lots of fantasy and sci-fi Space in City. However, it might not be the sci-fi you want and hence you dismiss it. It was the same with Classic Space fans 15-20 years ago, complaining that Galaxy Squad was too confrontational,  Alien Conquest was not Space as it was on earth, Space Police was too cartoony and none of it was just about exploration and non-confrontational like the original Classic Space.

I've been a fan of scifi for over 30 years. I'm a STEM graduate, and I know the genre pretty well. 

Where I live our Lego show has a very large Galaxy Squad display, and there's a waiting list for Galaxy Squad sets in the local used Lego store. 
There's an even longer waiting list for Space Police III sets at the same store.
I've never seen a Mars Mission Set at the used Lego store.

So, how does that mean that these themes are bad?

Because per my experience, flops sit on used store shelves and there's plenty of Creator, City, Town, Technic and a constant Turnover of Star Wars, but plenty of it in the store at all times....

But you won't find any Space Police III, Galaxy Squad, Mars Mission and even lots of Alien Conquest sitting in that store.

I'm old enough to be a Classic Space Fan when it was on the store shelves brand new. So, I saw all of those above mentioned releases in the stores and those shelves were never full. It's just that back then, I was into Technic and Bionicle (the first five years or so).

Now, we may live in two different nations so there could be different societal norms as to what are active things. But where I live, anything Lego Space up to Galaxy Squad is hot stuff... Even the older City Space is good and warm, but never hot. 

[icm]

3 minutes ago, zeeverse said:

I've been a fan of scifi for over 30 years. I'm a STEM graduate, and I know the genre pretty well. 

Sigh ... I said I didn't want to rehash this whole thing, but here I go again ....

"Scifi" is a very broad genre. It can encompass ring-shaped space stations as in City Space 2024, domed Mars bases with opening airlocks as in Friends Space 2024, and xenocidal total war with an alien aggressor as in Galaxy Squad 2013. Ring-shaped space stations are a concept that is frequently repeated in science fiction. Domed Mars bases are a concept that is frequently repeated in science fiction. Xenocidal total war with an alien aggressor is a concept that is frequently repeated in science fiction. They are all fictional concepts that have never been made into real things.

Having a university education in a field that is somehow related to science, technology, engineering, or mathematics is neither necessary, nor sufficient, nor even particularly applicable to knowing a genre of fiction, SF/F, pretty well.

Seems like you're just describing the nostalgia cycle. Wait ten or fifteen years and call me in the morning.

[zeeverse]

2 minutes ago, icm said:

Sigh ... I said I didn't want to rehash this whole thing, but here I go again ....

"Scifi" is a very broad genre. It can encompass ring-shaped space stations as in City Space 2024, domed Mars bases with opening airlocks as in Friends Space 2024, and xenocidal total war with an alien aggressor as in Galaxy Squad 2013. Ring-shaped space stations are a concept that is frequently repeated in science fiction. Domed Mars bases are a concept that is frequently repeated in science fiction. Xenocidal total war with an alien aggressor is a concept that is frequently repeated in science fiction. They are all fictional concepts that have never been made into real things.

Having a university education in a field that is somehow related to science, technology, engineering, or mathematics is neither necessary, nor sufficient, nor even particularly applicable to knowing a genre of fiction, SF/F, pretty well.

Seems like you're just describing the nostalgia cycle. Wait ten or fifteen years and call me in the morning.

In my nation, those that govern the literary works have strict guidelines on what defines modern literary genres of Hard Science Fiction, Science Fiction and Scifi. There is no F in my nation. 

This forum topic is to allow me to state my opinion on what new themes I'd like to see from Lego. 

Since stating them, I have entertained a barrage of negativity towards my personal opinion from multiple posters.

I've maintained my candor and I still am. But at this point, I would like to make something clear.

No one will change my mind.

No one can win an argument against me.

The best one can hope for is a stalemate.

Let's leave it at that, please.

There's plenty of other things to discuss and post about on Eurobricks than this one topic.

 

[icm]

2 minutes ago, zeeverse said:

In my nation, those that govern the literary works have strict guidelines on what defines modern literary genres of Hard Science Fiction, Science Fiction and Scifi. There is no F in my nation. 

Pardon me, is your nation the USA? Sometimes the country listed on Eurobricks forums isn't actually the country a user is posting from, which can make it hard to understand some posts. Your understanding of the genre of scifi is different from my understanding of the genre of scifi as a resident of the USA, so I'm probably misunderstanding something in the meaning you're trying to convey with your posts. Maybe if you could clarify this point I could understand you a little better.

[zeeverse]

22 minutes ago, icm said:

Pardon me, is your nation the USA? Sometimes the country listed on Eurobricks forums isn't actually the country a user is posting from, which can make it hard to understand some posts. Your understanding of the genre of scifi is different from my understanding of the genre of scifi as a resident of the USA, so I'm probably misunderstanding something in the meaning you're trying to convey with your posts. Maybe if you could clarify this point I could understand you a little better.

[danth]

Well, sounds like @zeeverse doesn't like the recent City Space offerings, which is fine. 

Now it seems like we're all arguing semantics, which is boring. And failing to understand each other. 

I think we've lost Monkie Kid, so this year we have, what, City and Ninjago and Dreamzzz for unlicensed minifig themes? I'd like another, but I doubt we'll get one. 

[zeeverse]

13 minutes ago, danth said:

Well, sounds like @zeeverse doesn't like the recent City Space offerings, which is fine. 

Now it seems like we're all arguing semantics, which is boring. And failing to understand each other. 

I think we've lost Monkie Kid, so this year we have, what, City and Ninjago and Dreamzzz for unlicensed minifig themes? I'd like another, but I doubt we'll get one. 

It'd be nice to have something, Agents, Aquaforce, Xtreme Team, but....nooooo.... I wonder how long Dreamzzz will really last? I think you can only sustain a story-verse like that for only so long. 

Ninjago has seemingly become Lego's Crutch. They seem to throw everything into Ninjago including the Mars Mission/Galaxy Squad crazy designs.

I'm just not one for Ninjas.
They have too much gold in the sets and I am not a fan of gold generally speaking.
And their sets are hard to use for parts more lately. 

Every new year with lego, it seems like I lose more parts sets opportunities due to the broader color palette. 
 

Edited Tuesday at 01:27 AM by zeeverse
typos

[icm]

18 minutes ago, zeeverse said:

Oh very well then, if Google AI Overview says that, then that's that. I was hoping you were going to cite some national literary governing body or something, as that would have been a legitimately interesting cultural exchange. 

Moving on from this tired topic, I suppose the dinosaur set from the last Dreamzzz wave would make a nice ride for Roboforce 1997.

[zeeverse]

13 minutes ago, icm said:

Oh very well then, if Google AI Overview says that, then that's that. I was hoping you were going to cite some national literary governing body or something, as that would have been a legitimately interesting cultural exchange. 

Moving on from this tired topic, I suppose the dinosaur set from the last Dreamzzz wave would make a nice ride for Roboforce 1997.

which dinosaur? There are two releases now, as I recall in Dreamzzz

I did buy several of the 2025 Matteo and Zblob set. The parts in that were extremely useful, plus I haven't seen Lego release a set with that many builds in quite a long time. 
So, I am now converting my Matteos for more Space Oriented Stuff. I'm going to have a few of his weird dreams faces in my pile of Minifigure Heads, that is for certain! haha

[icm]

71514 Dino Jet with the long necked dinosaur.

[zeeverse]

5 minutes ago, icm said:

71514 Dino Jet with the long necked dinosaur.

Oh that's the new one, the brontosaurus type build. The 2025 Dreamzzz sets had some good parts sets in there for me, but 2026 isn't looking too good so far. 

Plus the minifigures of 2025 Dream zzzwere very interesting.

Last year, I was getting good deals on older Dreamzzz and Vidiyo sets, which had some great parts options and some really useful minifigures.

[icm]

I know it's just the January doldrums, but it's still surprising how much the deals have dried up this month. Quite a few sets I was planning on getting at 20% off this month are no longer available on discount. Since you do seem to like Dreamzzz, what did you think of Mr Oz's Space Bus and Space Car? Personally, I thought the Space Bus was pretty fun at the 30% discount I got it for, but I didn't feel like the design or the build were very interesting or creative, despite the stylings of the theme. Likewise, I didn't think much of either version of the Space Car in the instructions. However, there's an excellent alt build on Rebrickable that uses all the Space parts to build a Perseverance Mars rover while preserving the other parts for the yellow sports car, and with that in mind I like the set a lot. I haven't got any of the other Dreamzzz sets, but I kinda wish we'd gotten more of Mr Oz's Space dreams.

[SpacePolice89]

At first I didn't like the latest City space sets at all but after a while I learned to appreciate them because the concept is similar to Classic Space and they are definitely sci-fi. They are still not my cup of tea but they fill an important role in the lineup. If kids would dislike non licensed sci-fi sets and themes they would never have made the most recent City space sets. It think that those who say that kids doesn't like space/sci-fi themes should either post some proof/sources or stop saying it. We already have proof (on video) that SW was the reason for the end of the Space theme so I don't understand how people still can deny that. I think that under current circumstances the best way forward would be another City space faction and let the consumer decide if they are allies, enemies or something in between to the current faction.