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Lord of the Rings Ongoing Discussion

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2 hours ago, Robin_IV said:

Ok. Thanks. Maybe I will find this scenes on YT

Yes. Exactly. I also heard this from other people who did text reviews that they were confused about the decision over this set. I think its not bad at all. We have too less ships in TLW but for LOTR there could be done so much more. Maybe TLG was annoyed with licensing or something like this.

If they would make an update on this theme they have definitely much material to choose from...

This reminds me that the Black Gate set also featured a scene that was only in the Extended release. Something may have happened with Return of the King since it seems like there were a lot fewer sets for that. Why no Pelennor Fields set? No Fell Beasts? No Gondor sets with Gondor minifigs? It's hard to say what happened which is why nothing should be ruled out. I doubt New Line would get as mad about TLG scooping scenes from upcoming movies as say, Marvel/Disney would. But they still get away with that, though less these days.

I wish they'd return to LotR/The Hobbit but my guess is that they don't have the licenses any more and are either unable or uninterested in getting them back. Though it's probably too graphic and adult-oriented and IP, Shadow of Mordor Lego would be amazing. I do think that TLG should bring back a more classic medieval/castle theme post-Nexo Knights in general. I think the Elves theme proves that they can do the style they like now (collectible, play-friendly, narrative scene sets) without "teching" it up the way they have done with Ninjago and Nexo. I do think that Ninjago is probably the most consistently high quality out of all their themes and I'm always delighted when there are more "medieval" looking Ninjago sets/chapters.

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3 hours ago, Robin_IV said:

I would love to see a new LotR Theme. But I have to agree that the old sets were not that spectacular. It was not because of the set choice but the poor composition of the sets itself. Don't get me wrong I like 9474 and 10237 but e.g. the 9472 9476 79005  are very small for what they could be.

 

 

They were small, but then they had to be to reach a certain price point. Of course they could have been bigger, for a higher price. And not all sets can be $100-$250 large sets.

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2 hours ago, mccoyed said:

This reminds me that the Black Gate set also featured a scene that was only in the Extended release. Something may have happened with Return of the King since it seems like there were a lot fewer sets for that. Why no Pelennor Fields set? No Fell Beasts? No Gondor sets with Gondor minifigs? It's hard to say what happened which is why nothing should be ruled out. I doubt New Line would get as mad about TLG scooping scenes from upcoming movies as say, Marvel/Disney would. But they still get away with that, though less these days.

I wish they'd return to LotR/The Hobbit but my guess is that they don't have the licenses any more and are either unable or uninterested in getting them back. Though it's probably too graphic and adult-oriented and IP, Shadow of Mordor Lego would be amazing. I do think that TLG should bring back a more classic medieval/castle theme post-Nexo Knights in general. I think the Elves theme proves that they can do the style they like now (collectible, play-friendly, narrative scene sets) without "teching" it up the way they have done with Ninjago and Nexo. I do think that Ninjago is probably the most consistently high quality out of all their themes and I'm always delighted when there are more "medieval" looking Ninjago sets/chapters.

Yes. Lego must bring back the classic themes. Pirates have to come next year due to the anniversary (they just have to) and Knights should also get an update also not only on new sets but on new ideas and designs in set design and not always the same over and over again. I don't understand why they refuse to honor something which made them so popular two decades ago. Ninjago is -speaking at itself- a popular and high quality theme which hit the mark. This creativity which were put and still is put in these sets should be transfered to other themes except for what the individual likes of the Ninjago theme. And well know that lego is able to produce something HQ.

Coming back to topic: This creativity I wish to see in a new LOTR Theme. I understand that there has to be set pricepoints and that there can't be all sets for over 100$. But come on. Nobody can tell me that to release 12 sets in total for such a huge story like Lord of the Rings (with 3 Movies) is enough. Look at StarWars. And these were 6 movies (with now the new ones). LOTR deserves imo much more than a 13, 13, 20, 30, 30, 40, 60, 60, 80, 100, 130, 200 dollar theme. There is some room for improvement.

I know I maybe want to much but I just wish it.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/13/arts/television/lord-of-the-rings-series-amazon.html

https://www.thesouthafrican.com/lord-of-the-rings-tv-series-release-date-budget/

 

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13 hours ago, Mr. Cube said:

It´s not as simple as that. We do not know what exactly was in the licence contract. Maybe just 2 LotR + 2 The Hobbit waves were planned, but this has to be changed after The Hobbit became trilogy, so they did 3 Hobbit waves instead.

That doesn't explain why the shelf life was so short of the sets they did release.  That's what I'm talking about.  A Star Wars set comes out and has upwards of a 2 year life span, none of the LOTR sets lasted that long.  If they were selling well, they would have restocked.  I wasn't referring to creating new sets, I was referring to what they released dying out and not being replenished.  You can come up with any hand-waving suggestions as to why, but the only logical reason is TLG didn't think it was worth it.

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12 hours ago, Robin_IV said:

Lego must bring back the classic themes. Pirates have to come next year due to the anniversary (they just have to) and Knights should also get an update also not only on new sets but on new ideas and designs in set design and not always the same over and over again. I don't understand why they refuse to honor something which made them so popular two decades ago.

 

 

Presumably because they don't think it would be popular now, and that they want to do new things rather than keep on repeating the old. Pirates and knights are not as popular with kids now as they were in the past. 

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I slightly disagree that pirates and knights aren't as popular as a blanket statement; other toy lines do have pirate and knight themed toys, after all. For what it's worth, my local Lego store even still sells foam swords and shields and surcoat replicas with the 2013 Castle heraldry, in both boy's and girl's styles. (Those are also dated this year, presumably not leftovers from 2013.)

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I agree with you there @Mr. President.

I think that TLG did not have the vision to create a great fundament for the classic themes.

Looking back at Kingdoms, TLG was experimenting on civil based sets and did not sell very well.

The Fantasy Era also finished after a few years.

TLG makes it to difficult for themselves, when it comes to defining a theme. The setup of a new Castle or Pirate theme will not as broad as the original themes of the 80's and 90's.

 

On topic: I would love to see a new LOTR theme, but TLG does not produce sets based on TV-series (Ideas not included).

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1 hour ago, sander1992 said:

On topic: I would love to see a new LOTR theme, but TLG does not produce sets based on TV-series (Ideas not included). 

 

The Simpsons was on TV.

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Just now, MAB said:

The Simpsons was on TV.

But theme was only to celebrate an anniversary of the TV-series.

Normally there are no sets based on TV series.

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18 minutes ago, sander1992 said:

But theme was only to celebrate an anniversary of the TV-series.

Normally there are no sets based on TV series.

I think that was more coincidence than anything else. If you read the press release here https://www.lego.com/en-us/aboutus/news-room/2014/january/lego-the-simpsons the 25th anniversary is not mentioned until part way down. Similarly there were no "25th anniversary" badges or advertising on the boxes. I imagine here that they agreed with Fox to do The Simpsons House and CMF (and also got their advertising episode in return) and it just happened to be the 25th anniversary. The sets were also available for a couple of years, long past the anniversary.

If LEGO wants to do sets based on TV series and gets the rights to do them, then they will do them. What they have done in the past matters not. One of the reasons they have concentrated on movies is probably that they are essentially worldwide events, in that they are released worldwide over a small timeframe and so they sell well globally. Whereas a lot of TV in the past has been highly regional, and with different release dates (sometimes years later) so it is much harder to market the toys globally. The rise of Netflix and Amazon streaming services may well change this in the future. If there is money to be made selling toys based on Netflix or Amazon produced content, I am sure LEGO will be involved.

 

There have also been sets for Powerpuff Girls (Cartoon Network), Scooby Doo, TMNT (I'm not sure if these were TV or movie versions though), Spongebob Squarepants, Avatar: The Last Airbender.

 

Edited by MAB

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2 hours ago, sander1992 said:

Normally there are no sets based on TV series.

But that's been changing.  TLG has learned from other toy companies that so-called "program length commercials" TV strategies have been very successful.  Now we have a bunch of shows co-based on LEGO products.  When I say co-based, I mean they happened in conjunction of one another, not because of one another (like Uni-Kitty).  As @MAB pointed out, there have been a number of series based on TV shows, and some Superhero sets (particularly DC) are based on shows.

Back on point, we have to just remember one simple thing - TLG wants to maximize profits.

That means that, even if a Castle or Pirate theme was actually profitable, it does make it worth it to TLG to produce them if they can make more with other themes.

So when we're talking about things like themes not selling well, that doesn't mean they weren't profitable, it may very well mean that it wasn't profitable enough. They only have the capacity to make so much LEGO every year, so they focus on what will be the most profitable, not just profitable.

 

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16 hours ago, MAB said:

Presumably because they don't think it would be popular now, and that they want to do new things rather than keep on repeating the old. Pirates and knights are not as popular with kids now as they were in the past. 

Pirates is definitely not as popular as it used to be. Knights, however are a different story. I see medieval themed stuff all over the place, from books to TV shows and movies. The Castle theme also has run almost continuously for 40 years. Lego themselves have said that NK is a Castle theme, so we have had "Castle" sets as recently as this year. It'll come back soon enough, and I think it will be fantasy inspired like the 2007 line.

12 hours ago, sander1992 said:

I think that TLG did not have the vision to create a great fundament for the classic themes.

Looking back at Kingdoms, TLG was experimenting on civil based sets and did not sell very well.

The Fantasy Era also finished after a few years.

TLG makes it to difficult for themselves, when it comes to defining a theme. The setup of a new Castle or Pirate theme will not as broad as the original themes of the 80's and 90's.

Fantasy Era is one of the most popular Castle themes of all time. When I look on Youtube and even on these boards, most of the people who want Castle back want a new version of Fantasy Era. There was even a thread on Brickset discussing how expensive the FE sets are to buy second hand. I wouldn't call it a disappointment in the slightest. If anything, I think it was discontinued and Kingdoms was introduced to provide a bridge to LOTR, considering how FE and LOTR have similar concepts.

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@MAB O, I didn't know that. I thought that the anniversary was the reason. Thanks. :thumbup:

@fred67True, but TLG has only produced sets based on animated TV-series (Ideas not included).

I'll doubt that they will for a LOTR live action TV-series. I would love a LOTR theme, I really do, but I think it will not happen.

@BrickJaggerTrue, I see that my post was a bit blunt.

Fantasy Era was a great theme and a success.

But when it comes to the set up of a new theme, TLG demarcates (Is this the right word?) the theme.

The themes cannot expand for long and discontinue after a few years.

That is why the previous Castle, Pirates and Space themes do not last long.

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7 hours ago, BrickJagger said:

Pirates is definitely not as popular as it used to be. Knights, however are a different story. I see medieval themed stuff all over the place, from books to TV shows and movies. The Castle theme also has run almost continuously for 40 years. Lego themselves have said that NK is a Castle theme, so we have had "Castle" sets as recently as this year. It'll come back soon enough, and I think it will be fantasy inspired like the 2007 line.

3

I agree medieval stuff is (reasonably) popular with kids, but not necessarily knights. Maybe that is bias, as I hope if knights come back, they also do some civilian style sets too.

1 hour ago, sander1992 said:

True, but TLG has only produced sets based on animated TV-series (Ideas not included).

 

I imagine that is because TV shows that (i) are for kids and (ii) get exported worldwide tend to be animation. It is easy to change languages for cartoons, and also settings tend to be more fantasy than real so they make sense to kids worldwide. If there was a show that fits into LEGO's remit, is marketable worldwide, is on TV / streaming, and happens to be live action I don't think they would worry that it is live action. Something has to be first.

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9 hours ago, sander1992 said:

 

@fred67True, but TLG has only produced sets based on animated TV-series (Ideas not included).

Is that true, though?  Maybe not themes, but aren't some DC sets based on the live action shows?  Arrow?  Flash?

EDIT: It occurs to me that, outside Ideas, they've also done some classic Batman series sets.

Edited by fred67

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15 hours ago, fred67 said:

Is that true, though?  Maybe not themes, but aren't some DC sets based on the live action shows?  Arrow?  Flash?

EDIT: It occurs to me that, outside Ideas, they've also done some classic Batman series sets.

Such as the "Batman Classic TV series - Batcave". There can be no denying that set is based on the TV series.

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@MAB and @fred67 true, but that was an anniversary and Super Heroes is an evergreen theme (mentioned in Licensed forum years ago).

But looking back at Lego themes in the past years, there is no entire theme based on live action TV-series.  

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1 hour ago, sander1992 said:

@MAB and @fred67 true, but that was an anniversary and Super Heroes is an evergreen theme (mentioned in Licensed forum years ago).

But looking back at Lego themes in the past years, there is no entire theme based on live action TV-series.  

I cannot really think of much else that they could have given us to tie in with the Batman 1960s TV series.

So they have already done themes based on TV series (multiple times) and they have already done large sets and polybags based on live action TV series. Doing a theme based on a live action TV series is not that big a step.

But what does it matter? Something is always first if it is done. They hadn't done an evergreen licensed theme based on a popular movie franchise before they did SW, then they did SW. They hadn't done series of collectable minifigures until they decided to do the CMF series. Just because they haven't done a whole theme based on a live action TV series doesn't mean they will never do a whole theme based on a live action TV series. If they only did what they have done in the past, there would be no future. If there is a good business case for doing something, then they will do it.

 

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I believe it's clear TLG is willing to do themes from different types of properties, not just movies or animated TV shows. 
Look at how they're now getting around to doing an Overwatch line of sets, which is no movie nor an animated TV show.
If they're willing to do games, then TV shows with the right target audience should be plausible enough.
Whether this will be one such show cannot be said yet, and perhaps it would be unwise to keep our hopes up for the return of the LOTR theme.

But then again, who knows? A LOTR theme was something fans once never believed possible in the first place, and then it came.

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I wouldn't be surprised to see the theme return for BrickHeadz, if nothing else.

Beyond that, though? I think the prospects are fairly dim.

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On 9/7/2018 at 7:21 AM, sander1992 said:

@MAB and @fred67 true, but that was an anniversary and Super Heroes is an evergreen theme (mentioned in Licensed forum years ago).

But looking back at Lego themes in the past years, there is no entire theme based on live action TV-series.  

Sorry, I don't visit as often as I like, but what I'm seeing is us giving you counter example after counter example, and all you're doing is saying "but..." because you can't just admit that, yes, they've done a number of sets based on live action TV, and there's no logical reason why they wouldn't continue doing that, and even adding new ones.

As @MAB pointed out, even if you were right, it doesn't matter - it's not a pertinent counter argument.  There was a point where they didn't do licensed sets at all.  When they did start doing them, except for corporate tie-ins (like "Shell"), the media licenses were all animated.  So back in 1998, someone like you (that sounds a lot worse than I mean it to sound, please don't take it the wrong way) was saying TLG would never do Star Wars because TLG only did animated licenses.  Actually, back in '98 I guess it was "TLC," but whatever.  People were probably also, like with LOTR, saying TLG wouldn't do SW because it was too violent, a lot of deaths, some of them fairly gruesome.

I'm not going to argue about it any more - the ONLY reason for TLG to NOT try to do LOTR (because there are a lot of reasons outside of their control) is because they think they can make more money elsewhere.

 

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If TLc make it go back, they must focus on the lord of the ring licence.

The first wave was a huge success, the hobbit buried this success.

I want gondor ! Just 2 sets with soldier of gondor ^^

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On 9/23/2018 at 3:18 AM, Black Numenorean said:

If TLc make it go back, they must focus on the lord of the ring licence.

The first wave was a huge success, the hobbit buried this success.

I want gondor ! Just 2 sets with soldier of gondor ^^

It still amazes me that not a single gondor set was released 

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On 9/25/2018 at 4:54 AM, Shroffy123 said:

It still amazes me that not a single gondor set was released 

Yeah, that sounds like a huge miss. How could that even happen?

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As much as I would absolutely LOVE to see Lord of the Rings return to LEGO, I have a really hard time seeing it come to pass. Perhaps with the TV show there is a tiny glimmer of hope. I was actually quite (pleasantly) surprised that LotR even made an appearance in Dimensions. Lord of the Rings is one of the themes that have really helped bring me back into the major collecting realm. I actually just recently managed to complete the full series!

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