Best and worst revivals of licensed themes

[BrickBob Studpants]

I don’t think a thread like this exists on EB yet  As the title says, I’m curious to hear which licensed themes you guys think had the best and worst revivals yet. I had the idea once I saw the leaked SpongeBob image, realising almost every licensed theme I ever cared about had at least one revival so far

The list includes:

• Harry Potter (2010-11)
• Marvel (2012-now)
• DC (2012-now)
• Pirates of the Caribbean (2017)
• Harry Potter (2018-now)
• Jurassic World (2015 & 2018-now)
• The Lord of the Rings (2023-now)
• Indiana Jones (2023)
• The Simpsons (2025)
• Pirates of the Caribbean (2025)
• Stranger Things (2026)
• SpongeBob Squarepants (2026)

I only count it as a revival if the gap to the previous iteration was more than 3 years.

My top 3 are:

• 1) LotR: Single-handedly responsible for me not creating a poll out of this since it would easily win anyway  I don’t think any explanation is necessary here. 
• 2) HP 2018: Going from a small and rather surface-level theme to this behemoth is something to behold! They’ve given us pretty much every location and character we could only dream of before. Time for it to die though
• 3) SpongeBob: Of course we haven’t seen the real set yet, but I don’t need to. It’s everything I wanted based on the drawing alone!

And the bottom three:

• 1) Indy: Hate to say it, but they messed it up. Only 3 sets based on 2 out of 5 movies, no fanfare, no Brickheadz, no nothing. Great individual sets, but as a revival, it failed hard 
• 2) DC: Initially a great revival with a huge expansion compared to the 2006 theme, but now it’s a shadow of its former self with an onslaught of Batmobiles.
• 3) Simpsons: I love the Krusty Burger set, but if that’s it, that’s not much of a revival to be honest.

As for themes I wish still had a revival, Avatar would be up there. Both of them, actually! ATLA has so much potential and the 2006 sets were a waste of the license. At this point, I’d also be okay sets based on the Netflix show (still need to watch it tho). The other Avatar should’ve had some sets for the third movie. Varang in particular would’ve made for an awesome minifig!

Another theme is Doctor Who, if that counts. So much potential!

Excited to hear your thoughts!

[MAB]

It isn't really a theme, but ET had the Dimensions set with minifigure and phone build and is now getting the large brickbuilt figure. I've got the first and will be buying the second.

 

For me LOTR is both the best and the worst of the revivals. Best because they have done stunning large sets. But worst because they have only done stunning large sets, and not a proper theme with multiple opportunities to buy the minifigures or army build (like in SW or HP).

[icm]

1 hour ago, BrickBob Studpants said:

I don’t think a thread like this exists on EB yet  As the title says, I’m curious to hear which licensed themes you guys think had the best and worst revivals yet. I had the idea once I saw the leaked SpongeBob image, realising almost every licensed theme I ever cared about had at least one revival so far

The list includes:

• Harry Potter (2010-11)
• Marvel (2012-now)
• DC (2012-now)
• Pirates of the Caribbean (2017)
• Harry Potter (2018-now)
• Jurassic World (2015 & 2018-now)
• The Lord of the Rings (2023-now)
• Indiana Jones (2023)
• The Simpsons (2025)
• Pirates of the Caribbean (2025)
• Stranger Things (2026)
• SpongeBob Squarepants (2026)

My comments on that list:

• Harry Potter is the gold standard for a full-fledged theme revival. A broad range across all price points and audiences, nearly comprehensive coverage of the movies and characters, repetition with variation for new customers and longtime fans. Still, the most recent Hogwarts system is more expensive than the previous versions, and has fewer scenes separated out as smaller playsets.
• Marvel doesn't really count as a revival, since the previous iteration was just sets for the first two Raimi movies.
• DC doesn't really count as a revival either, since the previous iteration was only Batman. As a Batman revival, though, it's pretty great. We've had an impressive range of Batmobiles over the years in playscale and in UCS scale, and we've had a lot of other Bat-vehicles. However, since 2021 it's been mostly TV and movie Batmobiles only, which is great because they're recognizable vehicles that I want to have in Lego, but it's also a mixed blessing because it means we haven't been getting fun, colorful Batcave playsets to go with the Batmobiles.
• Pirates of the Caribbean doesn't really count as a revival either. One big display ship (the Silent Mary) in 2017 and another (the Black Pearl) in 2025 are not a continuing playtheme, nor even a continuing display line. Taken as its own set on its own merits, though, the new Black Pearl is amazing. I think it's the best playscale pirate ship Lego has ever made, and I hope to get it on the next combination of double points and a good GWP.
• Jurassic World is the silver standard for a full-fledged theme revival. I'm not sure it counts as a "revival", though, since it's the first ongoing dinosaur playtheme that's lasted more than a year at a time. I think it's positioned itself well in the lineup as a theme that can absorb new material from new media while also doing its own offbeat, basically in-house ideas in off years. For me, a good licensed theme makes good, fun playsets that stand on their own with the license filed off, and I think JW playsets mostly do that. However, I wish they would do more remakes from older media; it's about time for another Indominus Rex playset. I'd love a remake of the Indominus vs Ankylosaurus set.
• The Lord of the Rings does count as a revival, since it's been an ongoing line of large Icons display sets over four years now. I wish those were accompanied by smaller playsets too, but if you're going to take an IP in the direction of an ongoing Icons line, this is a terrific way to do it.
• Indiana Jones had the potential to be one of the best revivals, but it was stifled. The three sets we got were fantastic playsets at great prices. If we got more Indiana Jones sets like that, it would have been perfect. Since the revival didn't last beyond three sets in one year, it's the most disappointing revival.
• The Simpsons previously just had two large display sets and two CMF lines. The revival has just one Icons set. I guess those are comparable volumes of product, so that counts as a revival. Unfortunately, the Krusty Burger set is far below the standards set by the Simpsons House and the Kwik-E-Mart. Very disappointing IMO.
• Stranger Things is one Icons set seven years after another big display set, it doesn't really count as a revival. On its own merits, though, the Creel House is a very good set except for the price. The looks, functions, and minifigs are all great. The one thing I would change is the blue van, because the space behind the front seats isn't accessible for play.
• As one large Icons set that amalgamates several older playsets into a "theme in a box", the new Spongebob set doesn't really count as a revival either. Still, if Lego acquires a license only intending to use it in one fairly large set aimed at an adult audience, it's good to keep it under $300 and include all the main characters. So the Spongebob set doesn't annoy me the same way the big Pokeball set does.

[OttoRiver]

Best:

1. Harry Potter (2018) The fact we finally got Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw robes is enough to put this at number one for me. So many asks and locations we had hoped for in the 2010 revival that went unanswered were answered between 2 CMF series and plethora of playsets that have come out. I think it also managed to toe the line between playsets and display pieces really well (although the classroom books/ house banner phase was weird)

2. Lord of the Rings. I might have put it higher except that many characters had already been represented before and are still missing some big players in this new line. Also wish there were some cheaper offerings. Love the detailed display pieces but I think there is room for more affordable sets, especially as army builders.

3. Pirates of the Caribbean. As someone who was so close to just MOC'ing my own Black Pearl, I was so happy to see this series come back. I think its a gorgeous build with nice characters (outside of Cotton missing his vest). I only hope it isn't a one and done and we get more ships for this line. The fact it is almost always on backorder makes me hope sales are high and not just lack of quantity.

Worst:

1. Stranger Things. The first set was amazing and the Creel House feels like a cheaply thrown together set with inaccurate minifigures to boot. A more detailed house with more detailed and accurate characters would have made it a better investment.

2. DC. As a DC fan, I am so tired of the over reliance on Batman. Where is the Watchtower, the Hall of Justice, the Hall of Doom, the Daily Planet? The universe is so large but it feels like we only ever get love and attention to Batman. So disappointing when it arguably had one of the best waves in 2015 and never matched that level again.

3. Indiana Jones. I was rooting for this to make a larger comeback but alas, only 3 sets out of a planned 4. The Raiders diorama set is one of my all time favorite sets with being an interactive display model that I wish they would try and do more. I just feel like its too much of a risk with the current image and marketing strategies of the company but a Club Obi Wan, Flying Wing fight set, or a Venice set would have been appreciated.

Edited Tuesday at 05:05 PM by OttoRiver

[BrickBob Studpants]

@icm Yeah, Marvel, DC, and JW might be a bit if a stretch, but those are still the same licenses at heart  I look at these as revivals with a much much larger scope.

And I agree, HP is the gold standard because it includes everything (playsets, display models, CMF series, Brickheadz etc) and it’s the best-covered license by a long shot. Even SW has more vital gaps!

Yet, I still place LotR above it because of how majestic the new Icons sets are. And the theme has a lot more steam in it than HP does at this point.

@OttoRiver: PotC’s return is fantastic, but I hope this isn’t it! If they brought back PotC and AGAIN fail to give us the Flying Dutchman plus Pintel and Ragetti, I’ll be mad

I don’t agree with your take on Stranger Things though. While the Creel House clearly isn’t on the same level as the Upside Down and some of the minifigs are pretty lacklustre (looking at you, Jonathan), it still hits more than it misses in my book.

[Oky]

I don’t see Simpsons and Stranger Things as revivals. They are part of the same theme, just with unusually big gaps between releases. I know people say the Krusty Burger is at a smaller scale than the other sets, but still. Also, you forgot Toy Story and Mickey Mouse, which brings me to…

WORST

1) Toy Story: The switch to standard heads and limbs was a bad move in my opinion and it’s mind boggling how the sets keep getting worse. The single set released for Toy Story 5 is horrid, and the buildable character sets, while not bad, don’t come close to how good the original 2010 sets were. 
2) PotC: “Hey, let’s bring back this popular theme, but only make one set for it. Let’s take a $100 pirate ship and bloat it up to a $280 set, but charge $380 for it for no reason. Oh, and let’s not call it by its name and instead give it an SEO-friendly title to really maximize profits!” 🙄
3) DC: Batmanbatmanbatman. This revival started off so good (although it was never quite as good as the original Batman theme in tone) and peaked with the 2018 sets, but has since devolved into literally just Batman and his cars to the point that it feels like LEGO is just trolling us now. 

I have mixed feelings about LotR. While some of the sets like Rivendell, Bara Dur, and Minas Tirith are great, the fact that any small sets made as part of the revival have been either GWPs, booknooks, or bundled together into one overpriced set (Shire) really kills this theme for me. 🫤 To end this on a positive note:

BEST

1) Indiana Jones: 3 excellent sets at different price points, all just slightly bigger and better versions of classic sets. This is how you do a remake. It’s a shame we only got 3, but the fact it left us wanting more just shows how good this revival was. 
2) Harry Potter 2010: I think this iteration of HP struck the perfect balance between movie-accurate designs and the whimsical creativity of the original run. 
3) Harry Potter 2018: While this revival has given us tons of great stuff, I feel it’s increasingly getting too focused on detailed, movie-accurate looks and has lost the magical feel that the original had with all its crazy colors and hidden play features. Watch Cheesy Studios’ reviews to see what I mean. 

[BrickBob Studpants]

6 hours ago, Oky said:

Also, you forgot Toy Story and Mickey Mouse, which brings me to…

I knew I must’ve forgotten a theme or two  Toy Story has indeed been a downgrade. Personally, I liked the TS4 sets, despite their 4+ nature, but they indeed don’t hold a candle to the 2010 sets. The less said about the sole TS5 set, the better. I do like the buildable figures we got tho, especially Lotso!

6 hours ago, Oky said:

1) Indiana Jones: 3 excellent sets at different price points, all just slightly bigger and better versions of classic sets. This is how you do a remake. It’s a shame we only got 3, but the fact it left us wanting more just shows how good this revival was. 

Indeed, but to me it failed as a revival because of the wasted potential. There should have been one set per movie as the bare minimum, and all the other “luxuries” pretty much every theme gets, like Brickheadz, polybags, and keychains. The fact Indy is one of the very few licensed themes not to get Brickheadz representation still bothers me immensely. 

6 hours ago, Oky said:

3) Harry Potter 2018: While this revival has given us tons of great stuff, I feel it’s increasingly getting too focused on detailed, movie-accurate looks and has lost the magical feel that the original had with all its crazy colors and hidden play features. Watch Cheesy Studios’ reviews to see what I mean. 

I get your and Cheesy’s point, but it can’t be denied that there is a lot of nostalgia involved here too  There is an undeniable magical feel, but a lot of if is also rather nonsensical and would be extremely out of place if they attempted something similar nowadays. The sets were awesome back then, but I prefer movie-accuracy over random shenanigans, as charming as it was

And while I loved the 2010/11 sets, they are woefully inadequate nowadays. They barely introduced any new pieces and the approach of mixing years together did not work for me. Like Harry looking exactly the same, regardless of whether it was a CoS or DH set  And I remember HATING that school uniform Harry with the same stupid old hairpiece was included in a set focussing on the Battle of Hogwarts. 

And the 2011 DA set shows how the standards have evolved. Pretty revolutionary back then, but nowadays regular playsets have more sophisticated building techniques

Edited Wednesday at 06:33 AM by BrickBob Studpants

[Clone OPatra]

Fun topic!

You forgot Mickey Mouse and friends which was originally that Fabuland-style theme and more recently came back as 4+. Not sure which is better though...

Best, definitely both iterations of HP revival for me. The 2010-11 stuff was awesome at the time and as someone who had been getting the sets since '01, it was fantastic to see it brought back after it trailed off with just the one castle set for OOtP.

Obviously the newer revival is much better though and really sets the gold standard for how a Licensed property can be covered. In just a few short years LEGO had given us pretty much everything, and has just been filling small gaps or iterating ever since. Amazing.

I dream of if LEGO covered Star Wars (especially the prequels) the way they have with HP. There are still important characters missing from Phantom Menace after 27 years! But I digress.

I hear both sides of the IJ debate. The new sets were fantastic, but as an overall revival it was so limited in scope that it felt like having a door slammed in your face right after it was opened.

On the flipside, while out of my price range the LotR revival shows an interesting way of doing things that I can't fault. Big sets released with a consistent schedule and given some love - an ok pattern for an adult-skewing theme.

Personally I don't think it's fair to put DC in worst unless you identify a more recent point where they cut over to just Batmobiles. It was a good revival in 2012 and has lasted ever since, but has more recently gone way downhill.

[Oky]

You make some good points. I suppose you could see the Indy revival as a failure because it failed to truly revive the theme like the Harry Potter one(s) did for example, but I choose to judge a revival for what it is rather than what it wasn’t. They really nailed those 3 sets they did release, so I’d argue it did more with less. It didn’t need any bonuses like Brickheadz to shine. 

18 hours ago, BrickBob Studpants said:

And the 2011 DA set shows how the standards have evolved. Pretty revolutionary back then, but nowadays regular playsets have more sophisticated building techniques

Exactly. The 2010 reboot may have had its flaws, but it was pretty great for its time, and it laid the groundwork for the future of the theme. Things like DA were indeed revolutionary and we wouldn’t have all these movie-accurate designs and big, detailed 18+ sets today without this revival (for better or worse). 

 

2 hours ago, Clone OPatra said:

I don't think it's fair to put DC in worst unless you identify a more recent point where they cut over to just Batmobiles. It was a good revival in 2012 and has lasted ever since, but has more recently gone way downhill.

The way I see it, it was good from 2012-2018. After that it became the repetitive Batman theme, and even the first few years were a bit too Batman-focused, so it has spent more time being a bad revival than a good one. 

[Clone OPatra]

41 minutes ago, Oky said:

The way I see it, it was good from 2012-2018. After that it became the repetitive Batman theme, and even the first few years were a bit too Batman-focused, so it has spent more time being a bad revival than a good one. 

I don't think being Batman-focused for some of the good years makes it bad revival. It was a revival of a full Batman theme after all, and it was better for longer than the original theme existed!

I've also had a look through BL to refresh myself. Personally, 2019 was still fine - the sets revolved around Bats but still included other characters and constituted a decent wave of remakes moving back to regular style after the LEGO Batman Movie stuff. 2020 had the awesome (poorly selling) figure series and a few ok playsets, 2021 had the movie ties ins, which were fine.

I'd say honestly you could count a second revival as 2023- onwards. 2022 was essentially dead, and since 2023 the theme has been just some media-tie in Batman vehicles each year, some ok in their own rights, but poor as a theme.

[BrickBob Studpants]

5 hours ago, Oky said:

[…] but I choose to judge a revival for what it is rather than what it wasn’t. 

That’s what I usually try to do as well, but I was so disappointed with the ToD getting cancelled and DoD not getting anything, that I can’t help but focus on the wasted potential

And not getting a BrickHeadz set just stings. As a collector, I always see a gaping hole in my BrickHeadz collection where Indy should be. Even if you don’t care about BrickHeadz, isn’t it insulting that Indy is pretty much the only major license that could’ve gotten one and didn’t?

The only others I can think of that aren’t 4+ themes like Bluey and Gabby’s Dollhouse are Trolls, Dune, Star Trek, and all the Nintendo IPs. Dune and Star Trek are both active licenses so they might still get something next year, Nintendo is very strict with highly stylised representations of their characters anyway, and Trolls… If you’re sitting in the same boat as Trolls, you know you’re in trouble

5 hours ago, Oky said:

Exactly. The 2010 reboot may have had its flaws, but it was pretty great for its time, and it laid the groundwork for the future of the theme.

It was, but looking back, I can’t help but think of it as a stepping stone. It walked, so that the 2018 reboot could run a marathon. On its hands.

4 hours ago, Clone OPatra said:

I don't think being Batman-focused for some of the good years makes it bad revival.

It may indeed be a bit unfair to judge a theme that has lasted 15 years so far solely by the output of the last 4-5 years. However, comparing the first and second halves is like night and day, so it’s hard to ignore what this theme could still be. There has to be more than just endless Batmobiles

[Tariq j]

On 7/8/2026 at 12:54 AM, Oky said:

3) Harry Potter 2018: While this revival has given us tons of great stuff, I feel it’s increasingly getting too focused on detailed, movie-accurate looks and has lost the magical feel that the original had with all its crazy colors and hidden play features. Watch Cheesy Studios’ reviews to see what I mean. 

Yeah, whilst I love the current HP theme I can definitly see that. I always thought (like you said) the 2010 line struck a good balance between being movie accurate but still maintaining that whimsy/magical feel. Like in the 2010 Hogwarts set you had stuff like the hidden objects in Dumbledore’s office, Sirius Black’s face in the common room fire, the diary hidden behind a knight etc. Things like that are missing from some of the more recent sets. That being said I do love the reboot line, as many others have said it is the “gold standard” for reboots and has given us pretty much everything you could ask for since coming back. The Star Wars line could learn a lot from it at the moment. 

Indiana Jones is a weird one. Because the three sets we got were brilliant and I genuinely can’t think of a single thing to criticise about any of them. But it was so disappointing that they stopped there. They could have done some Brickheadz and more sets based of the other films. 

Toy Story had a fantastic line in 2010 (as did Cars for that matter). But the 2019 4+ stuff was very disappointing. I also never really loved the use of the minifigure heads for Buzz, Woody and Jessie as opposed to the moulded heads they used in the original line. The 2026 sets are ok but still a far cry from the OG sets. The Incredibles wasn’t a revived line but it did get caught up in the 4+ stuff.

One thing I will say (and perhaps this is my own nostalgia talking) is that it does feel like 2008-2014ish was like a golden age for licences themes. Films like Crystal Skull, Stranger Tides and Toy Story 3 got a good range of sets whilst previous films in their respective series also got good coverage. In addition there was also a healthy balance of sets too, like there’s weren’t themes composed of exclusively 4+ or exclusively £300+ sets like we sometimes see today. 

[Oky]

16 hours ago, Clone OPatra said:

I don't think being Batman-focused for some of the good years makes it bad revival. It was a revival of a full Batman theme after all, and it was better for longer than the original theme existed!

The problem isn’t just that it was Batman-focused, it didn’t give us much new and what it did give us felt inferior, which is a sin especially since it’s not just a Batman revival, but a DC theme. The first year was mostly just sets we had gotten before, but smaller and more cartoony looking than the original, with the exception of the one Superman/WW set and maybe the Joker Funhouse. And the less said about those weird constraction figs the better. Marvel’s first year was comparatively far better, giving us not only new Spider-Man sets we hadn’t gotten before, but also expanding the theme to Avengers and X-Men as well, although of course it had the benefit of releasing at the height of the MCU. 
Overall it wasn’t a bad revival, but definitely not as good as it could’ve been.