xxix5

When Should City be Cancelled?

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So, I've had this thought for a while, and that's when should LEGO cancel City? I suggest cancel it some time between 2020-2025. I think City needs an overhaul. Town lasted 1978-1996, World City 2003-2004, and City has been running since 2005, making it 13 years old this year. I think the golden age of City has come and gone. Now, City has had some good sets in recent years like the 2013 "Racing BikeTransporter" and the 2018 "Pickup and Caravan", but to be honest, I don't think City should be pushing Police as much, though it does sell. I do really like the older city, World City, and Town sets, but recent City sets, adding big yellow net shooters don't really work half the time, and they just look kinda ugly. And with all the new pieces LEGO could develop given about 5-10 years, this could be a big improvement from the current one, and they could re-release polybags of old polybags to help fill the void of City, and then around 2030-ish, come back with a new name to relauch the theme. Now, LEGO could take a big hit and tank if this does happen, but LEGO, as far as I know, didn't tank when Town was cancelled, so this would be interesting, and I would like to see if anyone out there agrees with me. 

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City is still one of the top-selling LEGO themes. I doubt that LEGO would cancel it or even change its name unless they really thought its core audience of kids was growing tired of it, and clearly that hasn't happened yet. Furthermore, they wouldn't keep it off the shelves without a meaningful replacement for 5–10 years. The only time there's been years without some kind of Town/City product line was in the early 2000s when Jack Stone filled that niche, and it's well understood at this point that was a mistake on the LEGO Group's part.

Just because you dislike the current state of the City line doesn't mean it's in any sort of dire straits that would require cancelling or rebranding it.

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Yes, I have to agree with Aanchir.  Even if the current line is stale, they'd not dump it without an immediate replacement... but as was noted, it's still selling well.  I do agree that some kind of refresh would be nice, but they've already mixing it up with the ocean/underwater theme, the recent Coast Guard and Volcano stuff, the different locales for the Police, bringing back a mining/underground sub-line, etc..

I wouldn't mind seeing them go from World City -> City -> Future City or something like that.  Switch it up with some near-future stuff with the theme as a whole... but even something like that they sometimes cover the market for with things like Ultra Agents.  Some kind of refresh would be fun, but they obviously have a formula that's still working, so until they have a need to do anything more drastic I think they'll have their energy spent elsewhere.

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How about MEGA-CITY? 

Kids who outgrow CITY will move on to something else in or out of the LEGO brand.  But there is always a new batch of kids being born every day who hasn't had CITY before.  They are not going to say #$@, another fire or police station if they never had one before.

 

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3 hours ago, xxix5 said:

...To be honest, I don't think City should be pushing Police as much

Says the member with a City Police minifigure as their avatar. :laugh:

3 hours ago, xxix5 said:

...but recent City sets, adding big yellow net shooters don't really work half the time, and they just look kinda ugly.

MOD them out on your sets, very easy. Kids want playability. Lego is for kids. You can change what you don't like about a set, its Lego. But Lego will do what research shows the kids want. Just change your sets to your liking.

3 hours ago, xxix5 said:

Town lasted 1978-1996, World City 2003-2004, and City has been running since 2005

Between Town and World City, Lego System carried the Town/City content for that period.

3 hours ago, xxix5 said:

I do really like the older city, World City, and Town sets, but recent City sets...

This is the same old repetitious "back in my day everything was better" nostalgia-desire-based post made multiple times a week. Same as "bring back classic space, classic pirates, classic castle, indeed everything as I remember when I was a kid" [despite the fact that many of those sets you speak of are all very mediocre compared to what is offered today, 4-wide cars?].

3 hours ago, xxix5 said:

So, I've had this thought for a while, and that's when should LEGO cancel City?

Never.

And police will never go away. "The most popular classic Lego set in history. The police station is the flagship set of Lego City, the company's original playset."

 

3 hours ago, xxix5 said:

And with all the new pieces LEGO could develop given about 5-10 years, this could be a big improvement from the current one...Then around 2030-ish, come back with a new name to relauch the theme.

Much of this is just semantics. Town, City, World City... whats the difference, its the same theme. Call it Metropolis, Urban Land, Large Minifigure Settlement, Municipality-Ville, Megalopolis; its still going to be buildings and vehicles, police and fire. New parts are added to City all the time, they don't need to kill a theme or change the name to incorporate new parts.

Edited by koalayummies

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I love the city sets, sure, how many police stations do you need? Hmmm, how many would it take to make a Lego prison? :laugh:

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Don't fix what ain't broke! Unless the Lego City theme sales start to drop drastically, I don't see why they would or even should cancel one of their most popular themes. I agree with an overhaul of the theme, but I don't think canceling it would necessary be the right option.

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LEGO's selection would look awfully barren without City. Police sets sell, and sell well. It is a success story within the LEGO brand pretty much year over year. While I do feel the pain of mostly Cops and Robbers I also appreciate the rest of the selection. The builds get better the pieces more diverse and the possibilities even more amazing year over year. 

Also the unsightly shooters and net launchers can be easily left out of builds if you don't prefer them to use them. To the target market though this level of interaction is necessary anymore and frankly I welcome it, it encourages further innovation and research on LEGO's part. 

Plus for the time being there seems to be something for a fairly broad market and of course being LEGO the potential to mix and match from the existing lines is always present. The limit is only what you one can imagine doing with the bricks. 

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46 minutes ago, DOOM! said:

I love the city sets, sure, how many police stations do you need? Hmmm, how many would it take to make a Lego prison? :laugh:

One, set 60130 Prison Island, pretty good set especially on clearance. 

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I don't really get the point of the post. Ever since TLG was producing Minifigs there was a present-day urban play theme. Whether it has been called town, or city or anything else is not really relevant. City is probably the most suiting name a city/town-related set can have, since its pretty universally understood in the world. If police sets wouldn't sell (don't expect that to happen), they would release other under that theme. Its not like its exclusively police anyway - well not completely at least :laugh: :wink:

 

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City is certainly part of the backbone of Lego.  While at times there does seem to be a saturation of police sets among others, there have been some new innovations in this line as of late.  Even enough to get me to buy a couple of city sets despite the fact that modulars are my current favorites.  The Fun in the _____ people packs have been very useful, the trains are nice, and the themed sets like jungle, volcano, and mountain can be interesting.  I will probably never buy a generic city police station due to the blandness, but there have been some other sets like Mountain Police Headquarters that have drawn my attention enough to be interested.  

City is probably not going anywhere anytime soon, but that is fine with me.  It is a good source for minifigs, trains, and vehicles to help populate a town setup.  

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14 hours ago, Aanchir said:

City is still one of the top-selling LEGO themes. I doubt that LEGO would cancel it or even change its name unless they really thought its core audience of kids was growing tired of it, and clearly that hasn't happened yet. Furthermore, they wouldn't keep it off the shelves without a meaningful replacement for 5–10 years. The only time there's been years without some kind of Town/City product line was in the early 2000s when Jack Stone filled that niche, and it's well understood at this point that was a mistake on the LEGO Group's part.

Just because you dislike the current state of the City line doesn't mean it's in any sort of dire straits that would require cancelling or rebranding it.

I do like quite a lot of the current City sets, but think about it. The world's changing. And I get tired of seeing the same old Police station with a few new features every few years. But don't you think that the City sets are becoming quite a bit repetitive? Just2good, along with most of the LEGO community are getting tired of the same old same old. If they do make an overhaul, you know that there will be a good replacement, maybe have several themes to take it's place. Now, I would be fine if they took a year of, much like the break between World City and City, that one year gap brought us new stuff that was great. And, in 2019, if they bring us new stuff and expand, much like with the camping and outdoor stuff they've been doing, and maybe make camping a whole subtheme, and, c'mon! We haven't gotton a LEGO Hospital in a long time (though rumors state that we will be getting one in 2018), LEGO City is doing sets they know will sell, and not branching out as much, and I think even a one year gap would be a refreshing break, and they could call it "New LEGO City" or something, and be branching out, and I did state that LEGO would probably tank from that decision, and nobody wants that, but a lot of people aren't happy with the current state of City, with all of it's repetitiveness. And even a new subtheme that is of good quality would give City a boost. You can't deny that. Now, I do see what you're saying with it being one of the top selling themes, and I know that, but just one year. ONE YEAR would serve them enough time to get at least 1, though hopefully 3 new subthemes out to give City a proper boost and have better net shooters that actually WORK well would serve LEGO well in the long run, and would make us miss the sets, so when new ones, even some remakes, would look kinda refreshing. Now, do I THINK they will cancel it? Probably not. Is it out of the relm of possibility? Of course not. But, in a few years, if it starts to tank, they will most likley do something like this.

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3 minutes ago, AFOLguy1970 said:

City is certainly part of the backbone of Lego.  While at times there does seem to be a saturation of police sets among others, there have been some new innovations in this line as of late.  Even enough to get me to buy a couple of city sets despite the fact that modulars are my current favorites.  The Fun in the _____ people packs have been very useful, the trains are nice, and the themed sets like jungle, volcano, and mountain can be interesting.  I will probably never buy a generic city police station due to the blandness, but there have been some other sets like Mountain Police Headquarters that have drawn my attention enough to be interested.  

City is probably not going anywhere anytime soon, but that is fine with me.  It is a good source for minifigs, trains, and vehicles to help populate a town setup.  

I agree with your points. But you have to admit, a lot can happen by 2020 or 2025 or even 2030. But what can be troublesome are the sets they put out to play it safe, and not to test the waters. Now, I don't hate City by any means, but I do think that they're sets now, more than ever, that just aren't that good. Now, I'm not too nostalgic for City, as I've only ever owned a few of sets, but those are really more of the unique sets, like the "Pickup and Caravan" set, and I would hope that LEGO sees how many police stations and big, bulky, over-sized cars that are a stud or two too long and maybe a stud too high, which I pointed out in another post. But looking at scale, the older sets, mainly from the previous city and town theme scale better with the big City 18 wheelers and bigger vans. And the police and fire sets are getting repetitive, heck, they have been for years now. And the City theme is one of, if not THE best current selling non licensed theme, and if they were too branch out more, with more restaurant, camping, and new sets, like a water park, a beach, a big cave, and stuff like that would revitalize City to new heights.

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I disagree with the police station-argument: yes, they release a new one every couple of years, but also their target audience is changing pretty rapidly. As long as children are born, they will need toys. And for every kid it will be something new. 

For us AFOLs it might be the 10th police station we see on the shelves, but not for the kids.

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12 hours ago, koalayummies said:

Says the member with a City Police minifigure as their avatar. :laugh:

MOD them out on your sets, very easy. Kids want playability. Lego is for kids. You can change what you don't like about a set, its Lego. But Lego will do what research shows the kids want. Just change your sets to your liking.

Between Town and World City, Lego System carried the Town/City content for that period.

This is the same old repetitious "back in my day everything was better" nostalgia-desire-based post made multiple times a week. Same as "bring back classic space, classic pirates, classic castle, indeed everything as I remember when I was a kid" [despite the fact that many of those sets you speak of are all very mediocre compared to what is offered today, 4-wide cars?].

Never.

And police will never go away. "The most popular classic Lego set in history. The police station is the flagship set of Lego City, the company's original playset."

 

Much of this is just semantics. Town, City, World City... whats the difference, its the same theme. Call it Metropolis, Urban Land, Large Minifigure Settlement, Municipality-Ville, Megalopolis; its still going to be buildings and vehicles, police and fire. New parts are added to City all the time, they don't need to kill a theme or change the name to incorporate new parts.

I wasn't into LEGO during the 4-wide era and I do think that the town era when they started including minifigures-around 2013 was the true golden era of City. And many people, not just me think that City is getting so repetitive. And I wouldn't have as much of a problem with it if there were more unique sets from City and more themes overall. Now, I know more themes wouldn't solve the current City repetitiveness, but more sets would. Maybe even a big City Waterpark for $100.000 United States Dollars. Now, it would probably work better as a Creator set for the same price, but I do think the trains are good. In fact, I would like a police train set, kind of like JANGBRICK's police train, and I don't mind police sets, but more varirty would make me care more.

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If anything, I'd rather want to see the City theme evolve like it's doing now and eventually expand to the point of outgrowing its own name. What do I mean by that? Well, given how many recent exploration subthemes have taken the line outside of its own city limits, why can't we see City eventually introduce subthemes that are set outside of its modern setting? Take those steps, and City could potentially encompass other archetypical settings and themes, shedding its own name for a much more broadly encompassing name like, say, LEGO Universe.*

*Not necessarily referencing the failed MMORPG.

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10 minutes ago, Littleworlds said:

I disagree with the police station-argument: yes, they release a new one every couple of years, but also their target audience is changing pretty rapidly. As long as children are born, they will need toys. And for every kid it will be something new. 

For us AFOLs it might be the 10th police station we see on the shelves, but not for the kids.

Point taken, and I've never owned one, but the 7498 and 60047 look better than 60141. And 60047 compared to 60141 look quite similar, and the garage/survalience towers look almost identical and are put in the same orientaion, across from the jail and left of the main building. And every few years we would get a new subtheme, one year: Arctic. One Year: Volcano Explorers. And the latest ones: Jungle Explorers and Mining Experts. And the new subtheme for police, Mountain Police is just OK. Now, I do hope that we will get more sets that are different, like a new non holiday train station, a train shelter, and a police and fire train, much like JANGBRICK's MOC's he did. 

3 minutes ago, Digger of Bricks said:

If anything, I'd rather want to see the City theme evolve like it's doing now and eventually expand to the point of outgrowing its own name. What do I mean by that? Well, given how many recent exploration subthemes have taken the line outside of its own city limits, why can't we see City eventually introduce subthemes that are set outside of its modern setting? Take those steps, and City could potentially encompass other archetypical settings and themes, shedding its own name for a much more broadly encompassing name like, say, LEGO Universe.*

*Not necessarily referencing the failed MMORPG.

I wouldn't mind that one bit. In fact, I would buy a lot more sets if that happened, as I primarily buy Star Wars and the Superhero themes, unless the holiday sets are good. If they were to expand way more, I would be putting more City sets on my Christmas list.

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12 minutes ago, xxix5 said:

I wouldn't mind that one bit. In fact, I would buy a lot more sets if that happened, as I primarily buy Star Wars and the Superhero themes, unless the holiday sets are good. If they were to expand way more, I would be putting more City sets on my Christmas list.

Hypothetically, the theme could start out by introducing subthemes that are set within more specific locations and time periods that fall broadly within the Town context. For instance, how about subthemes based upon 1950's American Suburbaniana, a police line which takes after the cops and gangster conflicts of 1940's America, or a subtheme that is focused upon a particular European city?

Eventually, City could then become a line of playsets similar to the non-licensed Collectable Minifigure line, with one-off sets and subthemes based upon a whole host of archetypical genres, even becoming a home for Classic themes like Castle, Space, and Pirates! 

P.S. Thanks for following me by the way! :classic:

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36 minutes ago, Digger of Bricks said:

Hypothetically, the theme could start out by introducing subthemes that are set within more specific locations and time periods that fall broadly within the Town context. For instance, how about subthemes based upon 1950's American Suburbaniana, a police line which takes after the cops and gangster conflicts of 1940's America, or a subtheme that is focused upon a particular European city?

Eventually, City could then become a line of playsets similar to the non-licensed Collectable Minifigure line, with one-off sets and subthemes based upon a whole host of archetypical genres, even becoming a home for Classic themes like Castle, Space, and Pirates! 

P.S. Thanks for following me by the way! :classic:

Would I like to see the whole gangster aspect? Possibly? Will LEGO make it? I don't think so. As, despite a gangster being a part of a CMF series, there was a cancelled proabition set back in the day, and gangsters and that era would go against their family friendly policy, but as a subtheme for police, how about desert police, and another subtheme would be all about monorails and steam trains.

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To answer the question in the threads title: never.

 

As long as TLG is able to sell its products, there will be people living in some form of city. Given these conditions, the theme will never be obsolete.

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City is repetitive, but it's also got a pretty good variety of things out there.  Many of the sets people complain we don't see are just repeats of things that don't have frequent repeats, like a hospital or gas station (which we got recently).  A lot of the other themes plug in seamlessly.  Speed champions, for example.  I find something regularly that I want in City, and I haven't bought a police or fire set in years.

There's nothing wrong with City.

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7 hours ago, xxix5 said:

Would I like to see the whole gangster aspect? Possibly? Will LEGO make it? I don't think so. As, despite a gangster being a part of a CMF series, there was a cancelled proabition set back in the day, and gangsters and that era would go against their family friendly policy, but as a subtheme for police, how about desert police, and another subtheme would be all about monorails and steam trains.

Yes, that's true regarding the nature of Prohibition Era gang conflicts; but, it is surprising that Lego had ever even considered it as a playtheme at all to begin with.

Now you mention steam locomotives, yes, there's a particular example of a facet that couldn't be covered by the City theme due to its modern setting; so, expanding the timeframe of the line would open up the doors to period specific relics such as that. 

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Considering LEGO City is hailed as one of the hallmark evergreen theme for their intended target audience (kids), I find it very hard to imagine to cease continue with LEGO City without the association of day-to-day life where it can be useful for children to relate with. Personally, I think LEGO City is pretty solid and improving over the years. 

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I find it hard to imagine Lego ever existing without a City theme. I think they may change the name and branding at some point in the future but I think there will always be a theme that covers everyday vehicles and buildings in a City/Town setting.

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