How similar Vikings to other themes?

[Mister Phes]

Me and Master Yoda have been speculating in the The Pirate Theme ended... Thread that the Vikings theme may postphone the release of a new SYSTEM Pirate theme due to their similiarites.

So I'm conducting research to find out what everyone else thinks. Are Vikings a unique theme to themself, or are they similiar to pirates, or maybe more similiar to castle/Knights Kingdom, or maybe another theme altogether... If so specify that theme.

What's your opinion?

[The Middleman]

They're a mix. They are sea raiders that travel on large ships looking for treasure, but on the other hand, they have medieval armor, weapons, and fortresses.

[xwingyoda]

Personally I voted for n

[SuvieD]

They are a theme unto themselves. Yet, they do have qualities like other themes.

Ships, make them like pirates

Forts and catapluts , like castle

Bionicle parts mixed in and six main figures, like the newest alpha team sets

Yet, other things completely set them apart. Monsters, no other theme has them in such number or as many different creatures. Arms, no other theme has used the helmuts, shields or axes that this theme uses. I don't think Vikings need to have any competition. They are unique in design and have no direct comparisson.

Ninja, really shouldn't be considered castle either as it actually took place in the 1600's by which time feudal lords were dwindling and gun powder weapons were become more prevelant. Neither should we consider Vikings as castle or pirate as they do not take place on the same timeline.

I voted #4 as vikings are most similar to everthing! |-D

[xwingyoda]

SuvieD, you forgot also the far west theme (wooden logs on the viking fortress) hehe ;)

It is interesting to notice that you based your answer on construction techniques and parts. I based it on vikings per se ;)

[Khorne]

To, Vikings is a complete other theme. Vikings were more of settlers and the pirates weren't, pirates have flintlock pistols and blunderbuss guns and Vikings have axes, swords and spear. They're even stationed in different timelines.

[Mister Phes]

However, in the eyes of the average consummer (representing to my eyes all what is not AFOL, TFOL and KFOL), and especially parents buying presents to their kids, Vikings and Pirates have lots of similarities, so why buy one instead of the other ?? Lets buy whatever that is cheaper !!!

To those consummers, both products represent competition !!!! They will most probably won't buy both !!

Unfortunately Master Yoda has a good point! They're not likely to buy both - they'll buy the cheapest!

However, bucaneers [Pirates of the Caribbean] have had more promotion than Vikings in recent years so this added burst of popularity may give them an advantage. The kiddies would be [in theory] be more familiar with bucaneers than vikings and therefore more inclined to favour the bucaneers. I must do some experiments on children to confirm this...

Anyway. The point is pirates are more recognisable and popular than vikings [at this present point in time] so therefore a new SYSTEM pirate theme could co-exist quite nicely with a vikings theme. But perhaps vikings would suffer because of this.

I must investigate...

[The Middleman]

Pirate movies, or any movie for that matter (save Star Wars), only have a short vogue of toys following their release, so it wouldn't be that consequential except immediately following the movie(s). Just look at Harry Potter - they sell like hotcakes for a few months after each movie or book, but then by the same time next year they're on clearance for 70% off. The same thing would happen with a Pirates line in tune with PotC, just on a lesser scale - many more children go to see Harry Potter than Pirates of the Carribean.

Besides, LEGO has said Vikings have had a gigantic reception throughout Europe, much more popular than they expected. They're not going to throw out a competing line and confuse the consumers when Vikings seem to be working just fine.

[Mister Phes]

I can't agree that pirates are the same. 2 years later after the release of Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl there are now more pirate related toys and entertainment products than there were then.

This is because PotC wasn't solely responsible for elevating interest in pirates, rather it was numerous movies, computer games, toys, etc. PotC certainly helped but if it was soley upon that one movie then pirate interest would have decreased by now.

Its more like a fire... Each new piece of pirate entertainment adds more fuel to it. Another Pirates of the Caribbean movie would definitely stimulate even more interest, but unlike the Harry Potter series there are other pirate products to keep the momentum swinging after the hype of the movie dies down. Pirates of the Caribbean is an entire genre of fiction, wheras Harry Potter is part of genre.

But why would pirates compete with vikings anymore than Harry Potter competes with Knights Kingdom? And by the results of this poll so far, the majority consider Vikings different to pirates anyway.

[Mister Phes]

I have now conducted some research on small children!

Showing them a series of Viking pictures, including built sets, boxes and mini-figures I got them to indentify what they saw. The responses were:

All ships were identified as pirate ships.

The Viking mini-figures were identified as knights.

The Viking Fortress was identifed as a castle.

None of them seemed to know what a viking was, but they got the dragons right every time! But also thought the Midg

[Dreamweb]

Well, if we look at the time the theme is supposed to take place, Vikings are much closer to Castle than Pirates, they use similar weapons as knights did and there are monsters in their sets (Castle had its dragons). However those similarities are not enough to call them part of the Castle line, so I chose the first option.

[Sting]

Besides, LEGO has said Vikings have had a gigantic reception throughout Europe, much more popular than they expected. They're not going to throw out a competing line and confuse the consumers when Vikings seem to be working just fine.

This makes me happy! I hope next time it involves less monsters and more Vikings... well, since I'm sure Lego wont change the line completely(by getting rid of monsters), at least lets have the same amount of Monster, and more vikings! Because thats what the European Market is identifying with more - The Vikings!

NOW WHY WONT THEY COME OUT IN WINNIPEG :'(

[Mister Phes]

I saw the latest KMart catalogue today and Vikings are apparently exclusive to KMart. Well here anyway. That doesn't sound like a good thing because if they're only sold at one place then there's no competition.