Tired of licensed sets

[Lego Otaku]

PotC may have been good but there's just a few movies, no TV series, not a classic like Star Wars, and not much else until the next movie comes out so LEGO version of PotC can fizzle after a while. Oh, and let's not forget some sets never matched the movie such as the fountain of youth due to some major changes from when the movie was scripted until it was shot.

PoP was all by itself and the movie wasn't exactly a smash hit so LEGO series fizzled a lot worse.

Star Wars is a major movie with huge cult following, had 30 years to ferment, got reissue coming to big screen (in 3D) and still has continuing TV show Clone Wars. Star Wars themed set will continue to be around for many more years.

[Vindicare]

PotC may have been good but there's just a few movies, no TV series, not a classic like Star Wars, and not much else until the next movie comes out so LEGO version of PotC can fizzle after a while. Oh, and let's not forget some sets never matched the movie such as the fountain of youth due to some major changes from when the movie was scripted until it was shot.

PoP was all by itself and the movie wasn't exactly a smash hit so LEGO series fizzled a lot worse.

Star Wars is a major movie with huge cult following, had 30 years to ferment, got reissue coming to big screen (in 3D) and still has continuing TV show Clone Wars. Star Wars themed set will continue to be around for many more years.

It's not just PotC that aren't up to par with the movie. There's that in every theme. Avengers have a big thread going on about it. LotR has one going on. Nothing ever is 100% to the source material. PotC was a great theme with great sets and figs.

[Faefrost]

Were the PotC sets really that bad? I may have been out of the loop for a while, but I thought they were pretty good(I got QAR, Whitecap Bay and CC). At least these were tied to a successful movie franchise, unlike PoP.

That aside, I feel that licensed themes are great. They may be a bit of a gamble, but when they are successful, everyone benefits. Plus my dreams of getting a Lego Sauron may soon become a reality.

The high end PoTC sets, Whitecap Bay, The Black Pearl and Queen Anne's Revenge are great. Many of the middle and lower tier sets just seem over priced and really really off. London Escape being one of the worst offenders. The minifigs are great, but the sets themselves are kinda blah. London Escape gives you a bare piece of an Inn, not even two walls, and two meh horse carriages. Isle de Muerte (sp?) and the Fountain of Youth sets are just a jumble of weird disjointed bits with no purpose or play value. The mill wheel one enshrines what is perhaps the worst scene in all the movies, and is a blah build while still being overpriced. I will concede the canibal escape one is sort of interesting for the price, and the Captains Cabin is a fantastic little MOC/Parts/Battlepack set. I shame the stuff in it does not actually fit within the cobins of either ship... or the London Inn

at least in the Star Wars and Super Hero sets there is always some degree of a "Swoosh" or "Zoom" factor in any of the sets. They each have a ship or a truck or a speeder or something to kind of grab you, for the most part. The PoTC and PoP sets lacked that. Thankfully the LoTR sets do seem pretty good for that sort of thing, be it Gandalf's little horse and cart, or the big hairy spider on a string to torture your sister with or what have you. Something to clearly play with.

I've also learned to not necessarily judge a licensed theme based on the initial wave of sets. It often takes a release cycle or two for them to fully ramp up and hit their stride. Look at the first releases for Star wars and Harry Potter, then compare it to some of the later more refined stuff. I think the Superheroes stuff, especially the Marvel will ramp up into some very good things long term.

Edited June 8, 2012 by Faefrost

[CorneliusMurdock]

Hello everyone, the other day I bought the last marvel set I needed to complete the collection ( the quinjet ). I was in the Lego store with my cousin who I have just converted back into a AFOL. She said as we walked out " Lego was a lot different when I was a kid there wasnt as many colours or parts, and there was certainly no Licenced sets". This got me thinking that theres a link between the two. In my opinion the new bricks and colours that the licence sets create help benefit standard themes. Some of the parts we use frequently today could have never existed if it wasn't for star wars or superheroes. So I ask all of you guys do you think Licenced sets benefit Lego? Or do you obstruct and coverup the original themes?

I've merged your topic with this one because of their similarity.

[Marty McFly]

PotC may have been good but there's just a few movies, no TV series, not a classic like Star Wars, and not much else until the next movie comes out so LEGO version of PotC can fizzle after a while. Oh, and let's not forget some sets never matched the movie such as the fountain of youth due to some major changes from when the movie was scripted until it was shot.

I think POTC would have benefited from having more sets based on the earlier films (especially the first) as opposed to the fourth one. Would have loved to see a blacksmith's workshop with Jack and Will fighting, or the classic POTC scene with the prisoners in jail begging the dog for the key. And Pintel/Ragetti minifigs

The licenses definitely work best when they're tied to a long-running theme. Like Star Wars, LOTR and Super Heroes both have very long term potential due to the breadth and depth of the source material. As far as the rest of the licenses go, Spongebob, Cars, Toy Story, PoP are all a bit meh for me, but I love the PoTC sets that have been released and will be disappointed if there aren't any more. Indiana Jones worked very well too.

I feel the Avengers sets don't work quite as well as Batman, simply because the Batman sets aren't based on any specific film or comic book. Contrast with the Avengers replicating specific scenes in the film, these are always harder to make work because there's less 'wiggle room' and the differences between the set and the source material can be glaring.

[Faefrost]

I feel the Avengers sets don't work quite as well as Batman, simply because the Batman sets aren't based on any specific film or comic book. Contrast with the Avengers replicating specific scenes in the film, these are always harder to make work because there's less 'wiggle room' and the differences between the set and the source material can be glaring.

Batman is always going to be the best subject for this sort of thing, just because of the nature of his character and source material. Unlike most of the other heroes from either DC or Marvel, Batman has a much more closed and refined environment of settings, and a huge array of recognizable vehicles. With that particularly neat fact that while they do not always look exactly the same, they are always very easily recognize able. The Batcave is the Batcave. The Batmobile is the Batmobile no matter which version (excepting some late 80's early 90's comic sribblings that were just awful and have been thankfully ignored.) Gotham has a distinct flavor that is easy to wrap your head around. All of this is very unique to Batman. Most of the other Superheroes are more character driven and less setting or vehicle.