Themes LEGO should discontinue

[KotZ]

20 minutes ago, pooda said:

Just give up already. You're not going to get me to change my mind. 

I don’t think anyone’s mind truly would change, especially with how set in your view you are. But you should acknowledge the citations provided from TLG’s own reports and trends that have been going on and studies conducted. 

[danth]

On 8/25/2019 at 1:48 PM, pooda said:

@OwenMistika @Ronan54 Eat my rear bricks.

 

On 8/25/2019 at 3:57 PM, pooda said:

Now listen twat, if you can't respect my opinions, then get the hell outta here

 

On 8/25/2019 at 4:11 PM, pooda said:

leave! This is a forum for grown adults. 

 

6 hours ago, pooda said:

Screw Eurobricks! ...Bugger off! 

Mods, can we get some action here? I'm not sure I've ever seen this level of rudeness tolerated. I've reported at least one of the above posts. 

[The Brick Boss]

@danth In case you didn't realize, I got warned for those. I wouldn't have had to resort to that if people didn't piss me off. 

[Vindicare]

13 hours ago, Lego David said:

I would argue that they don't do as much marketing research as they really should. If so, they would look back into what was successful in the past rather than just throw random licenses (and police subthemes) that nobody really asked for. 

Hard to say. From the few documentaries I’ve seen, only a glimpse of market research is discussed. However, I don’t think any licensed theme has ever been random. Trolls & Minions both have movies coming out, so they are taking advantage of the hype & release with sets. The only recent theme I can think of is Overwatch. Not in the random sense, but more of a “late to the party.” I only play Starcraft II, but I feel like Overwatch has been overshadowed by Fortnite lately. Overwatch’s a great theme though, I have a few of the sets. That D.Va & Reinhardt set has some of the best mechs I’ve seen since getting back into LEGO 12 years ago. 

6 hours ago, pooda said:

I'm not disagreeing with anyone. I was initially making an observation. You could've just kept your mouth shut. Then this entire thread wouldn't have been about me. 

What part of get off my back do you not understand? 

You do know the point of a public forum, yeah? I don’t even think your opinion is on Police is the issue, it’s your delivery. I’d say most AFOL’s are right there with you on the amount of Police sets we get(although oddly missing in the Modulars department). From my perspective, your comments read like you’re taking this, both the Police sets & people talking to you about them, as a personal insult. It’s not. It’s simply discussion. 

[JopieK]

Keep it tidy in here guys and gals :) Thanks!

[Asajki]

On 8/25/2019 at 9:48 PM, pooda said:

@OwenMistika @Ronan54 Eat my rear bricks. The Eurobricks forum is the only place that doesn't get it. Maybe when I start working for Lego in the near future, people will get it. 

 

I’ve heard a billion people say they’ll work at Lego, sorry dude

Also, please at grown up and don’t swear! Little kids definitely read this and probably join too, you seem to be acting very childish.

I love original themes but you are wrong on a few things 

1. There was a whole set dedicated to public transport, 8404

2. Lego change police up almost every year, and the designs for the police officers are always changing 

3. Kids love action, good guys vs bad guys, car chases, these things are in a lot of popular kids things and are ever present in city, one of the few non story themes to have the idea of good vs bad

4.  https://www.cheatsheet.com/money-career/popular-childhood-dream-jobs-pay-really-well-grow.html/ 

As the article shows, being a police officer is the fourth ranked job amongst kids, city is often about what kids want to be like, when I was younger, I would call my heroes after myself because I wanted to be like them 

5. I’m actually annoyed with your post, first of all, I don’t want to be tagged, second, if you want to talk just ask me a question, reply, quote a post, which works better? 

A. ‘Eat my bricks’

B. ‘I disagree with you on that point because…’

Edited August 28, 2019 by Asajki

[Lego David]

11 hours ago, Ronan54 said:

why is impossible that the same thing happen to the classic themes?

Because Ninjago has nothing to complete against. It's the only Ninja-related theme LEGO has, and it's been around for this generation's kids life. So they will buy Ninjago as much as they buy Star Wars or whatever else.

With Castle, on the other hand, the last iteration of it we got in 2013 had to compete against Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit. Those two overshadowed it, and that is why Castle didn't get enough attention.

11 hours ago, Ronan54 said:

 I don't see how get rid of a theme(s) because it gets more attention than another one would be a solution

No, but releasing that theme at the right time would probably be. Right now, Castle has nothing to compete against, and with the proper advertising, it might succeed.

10 hours ago, MAB said:

Because TV series cost money

Yes, but if they want it to be their next "Big Bang" theme, I think they should take that money (which isn't an insane amount) and make the TV Show. And if that TV Show has to compete with another TV Show, once again, release it at the right time.

 

10 hours ago, pooda said:

On that last statement, we can all agree! The way to success of a product is through proper advertisement and promotion.

I am glad you can agree, @pooda.

[KotZ]

37 minutes ago, Lego David said:

Yes, but if they want it to be their next "Big Bang" theme, I think they should take that money (which isn't an insane amount) and make the TV Show. And if that TV Show has to compete with another TV Show, once again, release it at the right time.

I'm sorry, but making a TV series is an insane amount of work and money. It's millions of dollars on a gamble essentially. For the shows that are successful, there's dozens that aren't. I've worked at a TV and film production company that specializes in content for children and co-viewing. The pitches we received that didn't make it were astronomical. The ones we decided to shop around and didn't make it were dozens. The ones we shopped around and got picked up for just one season at minimum I can count on one hand.

[ArneNielsen]

On 8/21/2019 at 9:16 PM, Lego David said:

I mean I can sort of understand why they would do Minions, but Trolls is definitely a rather weird choice

This is only a guess, but it might be cultural. Trolls, like LEGO, was originally a Danish invention, called a GØL Troll back then. Doing a Trolls theme might be a homeage to a fellow Danish toy maker.

[MAB]

4 hours ago, Lego David said:

Yes, but if they want it to be their next "Big Bang" theme, I think they should take that money (which isn't an insane amount) and make the TV Show. And if that TV Show has to compete with another TV Show, once again, release it at the right time.

I doubt they want castle or pirates to be a big bang theme. Their big bang themes tend to be a bit more original. They know what the popularity of these themes are based on previous incarnations. I have no doubt castle will be back in some form relatively soon, and pirates probably in a couple more years. Look at the distribution of pirates sets:

Mid 90s - loads

2001/2 - 4 medium - big sets

2009 - a reasonable range across sizes + 2010 The IF

2015 - a reasonable range across sizes

So it will probably be someone between 2021-23 for another pirates in-house theme.

And I don't think the licensed PotC gets in the way too much here - the last movie had a single large ship, so quite a different market to the kid aimed sets.

 

[Ronan54]

7 hours ago, Lego David said:

Yes, but if they want it to be their next "Big Bang" theme, I think they should take that money (which isn't an insane amount) and make the TV Show. And if that TV Show has to compete with another TV Show, once again, release it at the right time.

And how do you know that a TV show won't take an insane amount of money to make? Most of their TV shows are animated in 3D, which is too expansive for being a harder animation to make than 2D. TLG has to becareful with how many TV shows they release, because they don't know which ones will be a success and wich ones won't. It's not a "Oh, I do it and that's it". No, they have to find a Studio Animation, competent writer(s), producers, voice actors, etc, and they have to pay to all those people who are in the project.

Edited August 28, 2019 by Ronan54

[Lyichir]

On 8/27/2019 at 4:38 PM, pooda said:

@danth In case you didn't realize, I got warned for those. I wouldn't have had to resort to that if people didn't piss me off. 

For what it's worth, I tried to be as respectful as possible (heck, even offering genuine constructive advice) in my post that you replied to calling me a "twat", so maybe you should stop blaming your anger problems on other people.

On the TV show discussion, I'll interject that 2D animation, especially if done well, can be as expensive or moreso than 3D animation, meaning that neither should be seen as inherently "cheaper". The best way to make an animated Lego show cheaper is probably less a matter of style and more a matter of the length of episodes, with shorter 11-minute episodes like Unikitty or the new Ninjago series, or even shorter web animations like those for Bionicle or Elves, offering more bang for your buck.

A Lego Castle TV series could be amazing, though personally in my case I felt like Nexo Knights was a great example of that—particularly in how it used a techno-medieval setting to draw humor from both medieval and modern society. A TV show for a "traditional" castle theme might offer a bit less range of possible scenarios, though I'm sure it could still be done well.

Ultimately, the biggest barrier to such a thing is probably the small number of themes Lego can offer that kind of media budget and promotional focus to at a time. A "Big Bang" treatment for a Castle theme would have to prove its worth over other potential themes to get that treatment, which might be a hard case to make especially since Nexo Knights already did something fairly similar in the recent past. If anything I think Lego might sooner opt to give the next Space theme that sort of treatment—even among recent Space themes like Galaxy Squad and Alien Conquest, none have experimented with a full TV series. And given the popularity of Benny and his Classic Space trappings in the Lego movies, Space might have a better business case for giving that kind of big budget to a classic approach.

[Ronan54]

1 hour ago, Lyichir said:

On the TV show discussion, I'll interject that 2D animation, especially if done well, can be as expensive or moreso than 3D animation, meaning that neither should be seen as inherently "cheaper". The best way to make an animated Lego show cheaper is probably less a matter of style and more a matter of the length of episodes, with shorter 11-minute episodes like Unikitty or the new Ninjago series, or even shorter web animations like those for Bionicle or Elves, offering more bang for your buck.

It's not for being rude, but how do you know that an animated show is more expansive depending on when each episode last? It's not for arguing just to be contrary, I just want to know

Quote

A Lego Castle TV series could be amazing, though personally in my case I felt like Nexo Knights was a great example of that—particularly in how it used a techno-medieval setting to draw humor from both medieval and modern society. A TV show for a "traditional" castle theme might offer a bit less range of possible scenarios, though I'm sure it could still be done well.

x2. Honestly, after watching the Nexo Knights series some months ago, I feel bad about that it didn't have its 5th (and possibly 6th) season last year. 

[Digger of Bricks]

On 5/7/2019 at 11:35 PM, Lego David said:

On 5/7/2019 at 3:15 PM, Digger of Bricks said:

Oh boy, looks like it won't a very long break (if you can even call it a break)... 

Ah great. I should have known that Disney won't let Star Wars go that easily. And you are right... 2 years can't even be called a break.... at least not long enough break for LEGO to go back to their in-house space. 

So I guess LEGO Star Wars will keep running forever no matter what....

On 5/8/2019 at 12:59 AM, x105Black said:

About Disney and Star Wars, yeah, that's going to keep going on forever.  I just hope that these announced release dates are in reference to the Benioff and Weiss movies, not Rian Johnson's.

Regarding Disney's next trilogy...

Deadline - ‘Star Wars’ Setback: ‘Game Of Thrones’ Duo David Benioff & D.B. Weiss Exit Trilogy

Quote

David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, the duo who in 2011 launched the singular screen sensation known as Game of Thrones, have walked away from their much-publicized deal with Disney’s Lucasfilm to launch a feature film trilogy in 2022.

Benioff and Weiss were supposed to usher in the post-Skywalkera era of the Star Wars brand with a 2022 new-start story that would stake out a new frontier for the era-defining cinema brand created by George Lucas. The Emmy-winning pair cited their historic deal with Netflix. They said their enthusiasm for Star Wars remains boundless but, regrettably, their schedule is full.

[wooster]

I vote to discontinue the Trolls theme.

[Lego David]

7 hours ago, wooster said:

I vote to discontinue the Trolls theme

And Minions too.

[meliander]

I don't mind any of these, or basically any theme that I'm not interested in. What I do mind is that we are not getting anything from the classic stuff as it seems again. The more Lego tries these odd licensed themes the more I guess they will learn. Why did they stop with the Simpsons by the way? Isn't it a more popular franchise than Trolls or Minions?

[KotZ]

40 minutes ago, meliander said:

I don't mind any of these, or basically any theme that I'm not interested in. What I do mind is that we are not getting anything from the classic stuff as it seems again. The more Lego tries these odd licensed themes the more I guess they will learn. Why did they stop with the Simpsons by the way? Isn't it a more popular franchise than Trolls or Minions?

Simpsons is definitely more adult than Trolls or Minions, and LEGO's core audience is kids. What do kids generally watch? Minions movies, Trolls, and other kid-oriented things. Also, Trolls is Danish, so it's nice to see some some Danish mixing there of LEGO and Trolls, even if I myself won't buy the sets.

[MAB]

2 hours ago, KotZ said:

Simpsons is definitely more adult than Trolls or Minions, and LEGO's core audience is kids. What do kids generally watch? Minions movies, Trolls, and other kid-oriented things. Also, Trolls is Danish, so it's nice to see some some Danish mixing there of LEGO and Trolls, even if I myself won't buy the sets.

The Trolls Movie is as Danish as Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is German.

 

[Lego David]

4 hours ago, meliander said:

I don't mind any of these, or basically any theme that I'm not interested in. What I do mind is that we are not getting anything from the classic stuff as it seems again.

That's the thing... those odd licenses take up a lot of LEGO's market space, leaving no room for more classic stuff.

 

[Toastie]

1 hour ago, MAB said:

The Trolls Movie is as Danish as Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is German.

  and the world famous movie "Die drei von der Tankstelle" is British ...

I do believe though that the "Trolls" as such are Danish - well sort of. It appears if everything north from lets say Hamburg is Danish, Nordic or Norse, Scandinavian, Swedish, Vikings or the like. But the Danish really were and are into Trolls ... for what ever reason.

Best
Thorsten 

 

[MAB]

1 hour ago, Lego David said:

That's the thing... those odd licenses take up a lot of LEGO's market space, leaving no room for more classic stuff.

There is no evidence for this. The overlap between the markets for Trolls and Minions and other classic themes is likely to be small. If LEGO wasn't doing Tolls and Minions, other companies would be (like MegaConstrux did Minions in the past) and people wanting Minions sets would be buying from the other company. If there were more classic theme sets from LEGO, then they would not be of interest to them if they wanted Minions.

[KotZ]

5 hours ago, MAB said:

The Trolls Movie is as Danish as Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is German.

 

4 hours ago, Toastie said:

  and the world famous movie "Die drei von der Tankstelle" is British ...

I do believe though that the "Trolls" as such are Danish - well sort of. It appears if everything north from lets say Hamburg is Danish, Nordic or Norse, Scandinavian, Swedish, Vikings or the like. But the Danish really were and are into Trolls ... for what ever reason.

Best
Thorsten

I'm meaning Trolls are based on a Danish brand. But otherwise they've been Americanized. The original script for the Trolls Movie was way better than the musical we got.

[The Brick Boss]

World City 

No wait! That's already discontinued. HEHEHEHEHE!!!!!!!!!!

[Toastie]

1 hour ago, KotZ said:

I'm meaning Trolls are based on a Danish brand. But otherwise they've been Americanized. The original script for the Trolls Movie was way better than the musical we got.

I was more after this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troll

Best
Thorsten