vexorian Posted February 5, 2012 Posted February 5, 2012 It is starting to look like TLG have shifted their strategy regarding waves. As opposed to the past in which it was common to have three waves. There seem to be some few "special" themes that are intended to last for years and other themes that are intended to have only one wave. I would say that Friends, NinjaGo and Hero Factory are the only non-licensed long-running themes that we have right now. (Not counting obvious things that were always supposed to last long, like technic and Creator). Meanwhile, Pharaoh's quest, Alien conquest, Dino and monster hunters all seem like one-hit wonders. Does anyone else think there was a significant change or is it all a coincidence? I really doubt themes like Pharaoh's quest, Alien conquest or Dino were intended to last longer and got abruptly canceled.
just2good Posted February 5, 2012 Posted February 5, 2012 I think that from 2009 on, TLC has released 1 one-wave theme in January (Pirates, Ben 10, PQ, and Dino). And from 2010 on, TLC has released 1 one wave theme in the Summer (WR, AC, MF?).
fyrmedhatt Posted February 5, 2012 Posted February 5, 2012 It seems that Lego has raised the bar for what they want to run for more than one wave. They appear to want something like Ninjago, with virulent popularity before they give the go ahead for a second round. I think all themes have a chance to get more than one wave, but only a few get the green light. And it really makes sense, if at first you don't succeed, try again. This way they have more chances at getting a super-popular theme. For us as AFOLs it's great as we are getting exposure to many more themes, and hopefully it means Lego will be more adventurous with their themes than they would if they were stuck doing the same old thing.
JackJonespaw Posted February 5, 2012 Posted February 5, 2012 I think that from 2009 on, TLC has released 1 one-wave theme in January (Pirates, Ben 10, PQ, and Dino). And from 2010 on, TLC has released 1 one wave theme in the Summer (WR, AC, MF?). POTC was a One-Wave theme, as was PoP.
Vindicare Posted February 5, 2012 Posted February 5, 2012 I'm a bit on the fence with this strategy. On one hand, I like the new themes were getting. On the other hand, like with PQ & AC I really like those themes and was hoping for more. In the end, I suppose it doesn't really make a difference one way or the other if we get one wave or more.
Piranha Posted February 5, 2012 Posted February 5, 2012 Yeah I am on the fence too, one wave themes allow for us to get alot of new concepts every year. But then if the concepts are great then we don't have a chance for future waves or for the story to continue.
just2good Posted February 5, 2012 Posted February 5, 2012 POTC was a One-Wave theme, as was PoP. PoP technically had a September 2010 polybag release in Brickmaster, and PotC had the Black Pearl release in September 2011, and some PotC polybags were released at various points of 2011. Now that I think about it, the 2009 Pirates theme had the exclusive Imperial Flagship released in 2010.
Haltiamieli Posted February 6, 2012 Posted February 6, 2012 Does anyone else think there was a significant change or is it all a coincidence? I agree with your observation, and even started a similarly themed topic on the Action subforum a while back. Your topic has a clearer name, I have to admit.
tedbeard Posted February 6, 2012 Posted February 6, 2012 I would say that Friends, NinjaGo and Hero Factory are the only non-licensed long-running themes that we have right now. (Not counting obvious things that were always supposed to last long, like technic and Creator). Don't forget about City! Harbour, Forest Police, Fire and the upcoming Mining "waves" are distinct sub-themes but they all come under the City theme which is a strong evergreen line.
Clone OPatra Posted February 6, 2012 Posted February 6, 2012 It's tempting to assume that this is a 'new strategy' and bemoan the fact that the grass was greener on the other side (in this case, the past), but that's not really the case. There are more themes new in general, and so it seems that there are more 1-wave themes, which is true. However, 1-wave themes did not just start existing in the last few years. Here are some examples: Arctic (2000), Dino Attack/2010 (2005), X-Treme Team (1998), Ice Planet 2002 (1993), Island XTreme Stunts (2002), Rock Raiders (1999). Now, if you think that a promotional polybag counts as a separate wave, you will not agree with me that most of these themes had only one wave. However, I do not really think that branded-promo sets, minifigure sets, or re-released sets count as separate waves. You could also argue that Arctic was a part of 'Town' (as Bricklink lists it to be), but it wasn't packaged as such and so it seems like a separate thing to me. In my mind, all of these themes listed had just one wave.
vexorian Posted February 8, 2012 Author Posted February 8, 2012 (edited) It's tempting to assume that this is a 'new strategy' and bemoan the fact that the grass was greener on the other side (in this case, the past), but that's not really the case. There are more themes new in general, and so it seems that there are more 1-wave themes, which is true. However, 1-wave themes did not just start existing in the last few years. Here are some examples: Arctic (2000), Dino Attack/2010 (2005), X-Treme Team (1998), Ice Planet 2002 (1993), Island XTreme Stunts (2002), Rock Raiders (1999). Now, if you think that a promotional polybag counts as a separate wave, you will not agree with me that most of these themes had only one wave. a) Consider frequency. In 2010+ this has become a lot more common than previous years. b) Ice planet and Rock raiders come from a time in which space themes had one "wave", but the same wave was in production for longer. I never said anything about grass being greener. Edited February 8, 2012 by vexorian
Lyichir Posted February 8, 2012 Posted February 8, 2012 I personally like one-wave themes. While I love following a theme over many years, in some cases a theme that sticks around too long suffers a decrease in quality. For instance, there's really no comparison between 2011's City of Atlantis and the previous year's Portal of Atlantis. It's worth mentioning that Atlantis was probably not intended as a one-wave theme (promotional graphics in the first wave's sets teased the next wave's Portal set), but the logic is the same. A theme that can be planned out from start to finish will often look better in retrospect. I think there has been an increase in one-wave themes in recent years. In many cases, however, I think these themes have greater success by cutting off before interest in the theme wanes. I've seen very few Pharaoh's Quest sets stagnating on store shelves a year after the theme was released, compared to the last years of multi-wave themes such as Exo-Force, where sets are so overproduced in their last wave that they need to be given away, in bulk, at conventions.
TomRoid Posted February 12, 2012 Posted February 12, 2012 While you may have a point, I'm really excited for Monster Fighters with all its cool features (like a function to make the Werewolf jump out of the tree). To have that gone after one wave sounds quite unfortunate. That may go for Alien Conquest too.
BrickBox Posted February 14, 2012 Posted February 14, 2012 I don't mind so much the number of 'waves', but as vexorian said, one-wave themes used to stick around for several years in the past, like Ice Planet or the Divers sub-theme of the city line. I find it rather unfortunate that new themes tend to vanish after just one year in production now. But I guess it's a consequence of having more new themes every year and Lego not wanting their own themes to compete with each other too much.
Rufus Posted February 14, 2012 Posted February 14, 2012 Since 'one-wave' themes tend mostly to be Action themes, and as there's already a lively discussion going on in the Action Themes Forum, I'm going to much this discussion into that one.
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