2016 D2C sets

[Robert8]

I just read this article on brickfanatics about the 2016 D2C sets. They expressed their disappointment with the D2C "wave" this year

These are the D2C released in 2016 so far:

Brick Bank

Ghostbusters Firehouse Headquarters

Assault on Hoth

Batman™ Classic TV Series - Batcave

The Village - LEGO Minecraft

What do you guys think?

Do you agree with brickfanatics?

[Vorkosigan]

A quite poorly written article that makes much ado about nothing. I don't think there is anything overly terrible about The Village except for that many vocal AFOLs don't care for Minecraft. I'm not a fan, and there are many sets I'd prefer, but it still doesn't indicate a decline to me. Maybe it doesn't bother me because I'm used to very few D2Cs being aimed at my interests.

[HawkLord]

Brick Bank - best one of the lot. Looks great, fantastic price-per-brick cost. Faces are boring, but easily fixed.

Ghostbusters HQ - way too pricey. I wish they would have reduced the size and cost. I love Ghostbusters, but not enough to drop that much on it.

Assault on Hoth - now Star Wars, I would drop a ton on and have, but this is just a compilation of past Star Wars Hoth sets. There's virtually nothing new or worthwhile. Now granted, I have a larger Hoth collection because I've been collecting for the past seven years, but even people just getting into Star Wars can amass a Hoth collection fairly easily.

Batman Batcave - I liked the old show, but no where near enough to pick up the set. As it is, it just doesn't pop. There's something about it that feels like it could have been more. Or even less and cheaper.

Minecraft - I don't know anything about Minecraft, so I probably don't have anything overly interesting to say.

[BrickJagger]

It's worded poorly, but I largely agree with the article. The Brick Bank and Batcave are disappointing, and Hoth is one of the worst Star Wars D2C sets ever.

And The Village.

The Village.

Minecraft, to be honest, is a digital rip-off of Lego that is intended for seven year olds. Why they're selling sets at almost 200 bucks is beyond me. The Minecraft sets themselves are also in contention with Ben 10 and Galidor for the worst theme of all time. They are simply piles of bricks with a few special prints, and why anyone would dish out more money to buy a Minecraft set rather than cobble together something out their collection boggles my mind.

[Exetrius]

It's worded poorly, but I largely agree with the article. The Brick Bank and Batcave are disappointing, and Hoth is one of the worst Star Wars D2C sets ever.

And The Village.

The Village.

Minecraft, to be honest, is a digital rip-off of Lego that is intended for seven year olds. Why they're selling sets at almost 200 bucks is beyond me. The Minecraft sets themselves are also in contention with Ben 10 and Galidor for the worst theme of all time. They are simply piles of bricks with a few special prints, and why anyone would dish out more money to buy a Minecraft set rather than cobble together something out their collection boggles my mind.

I'm sorry, to say this, but: don't be a fool. (I'm talking about the italicized parts here) Lego is as much targeted towards seven year olds as Minecraft. In fact, Lego has been a kid's toy from the start, while MC started as a simple game, having the target demographic "people who enjoy playing games" and was only later discovered by kids. I am, like many others, an adult who enjoys MC, just as you are an adult enjoying Lego. Stating it's for seven year olds is a little... childlike, wouldn't you say?

I don't see how the theme is comparable to Ben 10 or Galidor, since Lego MC uses the basic, highly compatible core bricks that have brought Lego to where it is today. I do agree that the sets have a bad value-for-money from an AFOL, MOCer perspective, but that doesn't make it as bad as Galidor, not even by a long shot! (my apologies, Galidor fans!)

And about the rip-off thing: squareness and endless creativity (building, rearranging and destructing) are the only conceptual similarities between the two.

Sorry for the off-topic rant, but I just can't ignore such bold statements!

I think the Brick Bank is an excellent modular, once again. Looks great, great pieces and a great price.

Ghost Busters HQ is... very impressive. It's remarkable that TLG decided to produce the building in it's entirety, bringing an extraordinary parts count and price. Not really my piece of cake, but still, it has the quality that is to be expected of a D2C.

Assault on Hoth: Not the playset we need, but the playset we deserved? Great way to catch up if you missed out on.. eh... every single Hoth set ever released. Okay seriously: this is not how you do a D2C set... at all. I bet TLG knows that by now.

Batcave: overpriced! The Wayne Manor facade looks better than the back front side (with the terribly unfinished underground) but if displayed like that, it doesn't line up well with the rest of the set.

The Village: overpriced (but that's in line with the MC theme)! However, I think the set looks good and is accurate as a whole.

So overall, the quality of D2Cs this year is below average (only the Assault on Hoth was really a tremendous failure), but the Death Star could still make it also a good year for SW fans.

[CM4Sci]

Glad someone made a thread like this - here's what's on my list so far -

10251 Brick Bank X

75257 Ghostbusters Firehouse HQ X

76052 Classic TV Series Batcave X

75098 Assault on Hoth X

21128 The Village X

10253 Big Ben X

10252 Volkswagen Beetle X

71040 The Disney Castle X

75159 Death Star X

10254 Winter Holiday Train X

Edited September 2, 2016 by CM4Sci

[BrickJagger]

I'm sorry, to say this, but: don't be a fool. (I'm talking about the italicized parts here) Lego is as much targeted towards seven year olds as Minecraft. In fact, Lego has been a kid's toy from the start, while MC started as a simple game, having the target demographic "people who enjoy playing games" and was only later discovered by kids. I am, like many others, an adult who enjoys MC, just as you are an adult enjoying Lego. Stating it's for seven year olds is a little... childlike, wouldn't you say?

I don't see how the theme is comparable to Ben 10 or Galidor, since Lego MC uses the basic, highly compatible core bricks that have brought Lego to where it is today. I do agree that the sets have a bad value-for-money from an AFOL, MOCer perspective, but that doesn't make it as bad as Galidor, not even by a long shot! (my apologies, Galidor fans!)

And about the rip-off thing: squareness and endless creativity (building, rearranging and destructing) are the only conceptual similarities between the two.

Sorry for the off-topic rant, but I just can't ignore such bold statements!

Sorry if I struck a chord, but Minecraft to me is just a bunch of blocks. Everything is basic and low-quality, and while that is intentional it doesn't take away from the fact that the game is an eyesore. Minecraft is similar to Lego, but it more limited in its capabilities. The Minecraft fanbase itself is (in general) annoying and unrelenting, and they are responsible for the downfall of Youtube, which used to be good a decade ago. I made the comparison to Galidor and Ben 10 simply because of how bad I think the theme is, not the building styles.

All I'm saying is that there isn't a need for a Minecraft line and a better, in house theme could be created to take its place.

[Gnac]

Is there a LEGO Popcorn set? Because I want to sit here and build it while this thread wrecks itself.

[Aanchir]

On Facebook earlier today I pulled some quotes from that absurd BrickFanatics article and addressed them in turn:

"I found this years modular the Brick Bank lacking compared to earlier sets with LEGO forgetting that these sets were/are aimed at adults who don’t care for play features"? Speak for yourself. Plenty of adults love a good play feature, and the Brick Bank's play features are all very tastefully integrated so I don't see how any of them hurt its value as a display item.

"What sort of parent is going to drop £170 on one set"? American parents in 1989 were evidently OK with spending the equivalent of £153 in today's money on http://brickset.com/...Seas-Barracuda. And motorized LEGO City trains (aimed at an even younger age range than the Minecraft village) have been priced at £140 apiece for years now. For that matter, parents routinely spend large sums of money on other non-LEGO gifts like video game systems. Parents spending a lot on their kids is not some new or surprising trend.

"AFOLS have little to no interest in Minecraft"? That's sheer ignorance. Many, MANY Minecraft players are adults and I've seen plenty of posts from AFOLs who enjoy the Minecraft theme. Heck, the original LEGO Minecraft Micro-World became a set because it only took ONE DAY for ten thousand Minecraft-loving adults to support the project, and it was one of the most successful LEGO Ideas sets! I personally have no interest in Minecraft but I'm not fool enough to think that all AFOLs feel the same way.

"Where are parents going to find £170 to drop on a large set like this in the middle of the year with summer holidays, expensive school trips etc coming up"? That's not very important, now, is it? After all, LEGO schedules most of their big non-exclusive releases for the summer, but that doesn't mean they expect to sell the majority of those the minute they hit shelves. Rather, summer LEGO releases typically hit their peak sales in the run-up to the Christmas season. The same will probably happen with this set — releasing it in the summer just makes it available for a longer window of time in advance of that shopping rush.

"This year I’ve yet to spend a penny on LEGO and can honestly say I don’t see that changing anytime soon"? Good for you. More amazing LEGO sets for the rest of us. I for one have been thoroughly enjoying this year's LEGO Elves, Ninjago, Nexo Knights, and Bionicle sets.

Overall this article just feels whiny to me. There's nothing wrong with skipping sets you don't like, but claiming LEGO is on the decline because not enough sets are tailored to your interests is taking things a bit far.

Sorry if I struck a chord, but Minecraft to me is just a bunch of blocks. Everything is basic and low-quality, and while that is intentional it doesn't take away from the fact that the game is an eyesore. Minecraft is similar to Lego, but it more limited in its capabilities. The Minecraft fanbase itself is (in general) annoying and unrelenting, and they are responsible for the downfall of Youtube, which used to be good a decade ago. I made the comparison to Galidor and Ben 10 simply because of how bad I think the theme is, not the building styles.

All I'm saying is that there isn't a need for a Minecraft line and a better, in house theme could be created to take its place.

The fact that you don't appreciate what Minecraft has to offer doesn't make LEGO Minecraft any less valid. I don't have any personal interest in Minecraft, but a lot of people do for perfectly legitimate reasons. There aren't many games with a world as profoundly interactive as Minecraft's (even creative toys like LEGO can't allow for the kinds of interactions between materials that Minecraft has), and there are a lot of gamers who are willing to make some concessions on how a game looks in exchange for that kind of creative liberty (generally, you can't have both — if Minecraft worlds were photorealistic they'd be a nightmare to try and render on a typical home computer).

Sure, there isn't a need for a Minecraft line, but no LEGO theme (not even in-house ones) has never existed because of there was a specific need for it. Rather, themes exist because there's an audience for them, and that's just as true of LEGO Minecraft as of a lot of other themes. According to this press release, LEGO Minecraft was even one of the top-selling LEGO product lines for United States retailers last year. That's huge.

Edited April 16, 2016 by Aanchir

[Tech Artist]

I really don't think I'd call the fabulous Ghostbusters Set and Brick Bank a decline. Assault on Hoth is the only one that would fit a decline but that's just one set.

[kwulfe]

I think this article reflects the beginning saturation with Lego sets because there were so many good and excellent sets published in the last years.

The more of these sets you have, the less you can appreciate them. You begin to feel bored. Less is more!

Lego has reached such a high level of quality with so much love for details that they are maybe a victim of their own success at the end.

[Sven F]

I trust that tlg by now has a well developed system for determining what will sell well, and how to cut short anything that doesn't. I don't care for minecraft, but I see people buying it. I almost hate anything superhero, but i don't go thinking they should do something else instead. Not everything is meant for me or afols.

[anothergol]

But are they REALLY D2C?

I mean, to me the Brick Bank isn't "out" yet. If all other modulars have been available outside the Lego shop, I expect the same from Brick Bank - which I love and I plan to buy, but there is NO way I'm gonna pay 170eur for a set that my neighbor in Germany can get for 150eur. If Lego really expects that, they're silly.

And yeah I understand "the market is smaller, blah blah", but Lego: just close the Belgian Lego shop & ship your stuff from Germany (which wouldn't even cost 6eur) then. In that spirit, I'm really thankful to Amazon & TRU that they don't have online presence in Belgium.

The Batman & Ghostbusters sets: I like them, but for the budget they require they aren't amazing enough IMHO. The Batman one should have been cut in half, half of it is boring.

Assault on Hoth: let's not beat a dead horse.

The Village: probably reserved to die-hard MineCraft players because to me all those sets look the same.

Edited April 17, 2016 by anothergol

[CM4Sci]

To me a D2C is an "announced" exclusive set that is sold only in LEGO Stores and online. Like Ghostbusters, Temple of Airjitzu, Batcave, The Village, those are all D2Cs.

[Khscarymovie4]

The Brick Bank and the Ghostbusters HQ are amazing! The Batcave has mostly great minifigures, but a not to good build with ugly parts showing all over. The Village is just meh. The Assault On Hoth is a waste. It's a lacking set, and most of the builds in the set are just new versions from old sets. The only D2C sets I'm still looking forward to this year are The Death Star, Winter Train, and Disneyland Cinderella Castle.

[AyliffeMakit]

>Brick Fanatics

There's your problem right there.

[Exetrius]

Btw, don't the 200+ € Technic sets that are coming out this summer count as D2Cs? I think especially the Porsche shown at NYTF looked absolutely splendid!

[zux]

Btw, don't the 200+ € Technic sets that are coming out this summer count as D2Cs? I think especially the Porsche shown at NYTF looked absolutely splendid!

Couple of online webshops have already listed this item, so I suspect it won't be S@H exclusive.

[Aanchir]

To me a D2C is an "announced" exclusive set that is sold only in LEGO Stores and online. Like Ghostbusters, Temple of Airjitzu, Batcave, The Village, those are all D2Cs.

Clarifying on this:

People can waffle as much as they want about what UCS/Ultimate Collector's Series means, but the meaning of D2C/Direct to Consumer is incontrovertible: sets that are designed to be sold/distributed primarily through shop.LEGO.com and LEGO Brand Retail rather than other retail channels. It's not a special status bestowed upon especially large, expensive, or "grown-up" sets. It's just a classification for how LEGO gets the sets to consumers.

10251 and 21128 are D2C sets, but so are promotional gift-with-purchase polybags like 30603 and 30602.

[Ondra]

I think these D2C are not bad at all its the matter of taste, yes I dont like playsets that are marketed as something for adult with crazy price.So yes brickfanatics made a point, but I think Big Ben and Volkswagen beetle can blown water.Im not sure what will be Cinderella castle but my bet is overpriced playset again, if it will be something as Simpsons sets that would be great.

[M_slug357]

What about that Winter Train set though???

[Cwetqo]

Btw, don't the 200+ € Technic sets that are coming out this summer count as D2Cs? I think especially the Porsche shown at NYTF looked absolutely splendid!

They are not. D2C sets are never shown on trade fairs. There is obvious reason for that: main purpose of trade show is that retailers come and see the items in person, evaluate them and make quantinty orders for their stores. D2C is by definition "Direct To customer" and showing sets to retailers is not necessary. True, some "D2C" sets are sold by "some" stores, but is handled over differetn channels (i predict so, I have no personal experience with those).

[CM4Sci]

What about that Winter Train set though???

That's coming out!

[tafkatb]

There are certainly fewer D2Cs that interest me this year than last year, but that's purely a matter of my own personal tastes - and frankly, I could use a bit of a breather after how much I bought in 2015. I like some sets, I'm indifferent to the rest, but I'm not about to expend emotional energy actively hating any of them.

[CM4Sci]

Saw a pretty cool post on Facebook where someone believes the newest Design video has hints for the next D2Cs

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1015138255244166&set=pcb.1116526038368427&type=3&theater