Themes LEGO should discontinue

[The Brick Boss]

@dr_spock No no no! I meant like as in, I want to see how Lego would do it. 

I know we can MOC. But what I meant was that it would be interesting to see what Lego themselves would do with the idea. Though with Lego, the fire train would probably be just a small futuristic locomotive with a canon shooter coming out of it similar to the 2019 Fire sets. 

[danth]

On 12/20/2019 at 3:46 PM, pooda said:

@danth I'd like to see something like that. I wonder why I haven't seen a police train yet. 

Does such a thing actually exist? It seems hilariously nonsensical to me. Like there's going to be a police train chasing a bad guy train on the same tracks? 

[The Brick Boss]

1 hour ago, danth said:

Does such a thing actually exist? It seems hilariously nonsensical to me. Like there's going to be a police train chasing a bad guy train on the same tracks? 

They may not exist in real life. But in the Lego universe, it can because in the Lego universe, crime can obviously occur anywhere. Robbers can get away on a seesaw car and the police chases them. It would be hilarious to see them try to outrun a high speed train. 

Edited December 22, 2019 by pooda

[koalayummies]

https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/133742-mock-the-police/

Some of the pictures are down but instead of the incessant complaints about City Police this builder ran with it and had fun. Pretty good MOCing that was true to each respective theme.

Some of the genres and themes: Shuttle Police, Cargo Police, Farm Police, Deep Sea Police, Paradisa Police (1992 theme), Arctic Police,

[dr_spock]

Not a police train to chase bad guys, the retired Amtrak Rohr RTL Turboliners are used for police, fire and paramedic train training. 

https://www.railpictures.net/photo/673033/

 

[Gorilla94]

I think Jurassic World should be discontinued. It is all about the dinosours. You don't need a licence for that. Cavemen or an adventurers reboot with Johnny Thunder would be just as nice or better and both could be done without the licence costs.

[The Brick Boss]

3 hours ago, Gorilla94 said:

Cavemen or an adventurers reboot with Johnny Thunder would be just as nice or better and both could be done without the licence costs.

I can attest to that. I remember Johnny Thunder. I also remember Pepin Reed, Dr. Kilroy and Sam Sinister. 

[Lyichir]

On 12/22/2019 at 6:43 PM, Gorilla94 said:

I think Jurassic World should be discontinued. It is all about the dinosours. You don't need a licence for that. Cavemen or an adventurers reboot with Johnny Thunder would be just as nice or better and both could be done without the licence costs.

The fact that the Jurassic World theme has been more successful than Lego's previous non-licensed Dino theme (despite that theme using most of the same dinosaur molds and starring a descendant of Johnny Thunder to boot) seems to contradict what you're suggesting. I'm not really a fan of the franchise either but having that license clearly nets Lego more sales than the dinosaurs do without that name-brand recognition.

[The Brick Boss]

2 hours ago, Lyichir said:

The fact that the Jurassic World theme has been more successful than Lego's previous non-licensed Dino theme (despite that theme using most of the same dinosaur molds and starring a descendant of Johnny Thunder to boot) seems to contradict what you're suggesting. I'm not really a fan of the franchise either but having that license clearly nets Lego more sales than the dinosaurs do without that name-brand recognition.

But what's your view on a revival of the 90s era Adventures sets with Johnny, Pepin, Kilroy and Sam Sinister?

I think reving the classic adventures sets is a magnificent idea. 

Edited December 24, 2019 by pooda

[danth]

1 hour ago, Lyichir said:

The fact that the Jurassic World theme has been more successful than Lego's previous non-licensed Dino theme (despite that theme using most of the same dinosaur molds and starring a descendant of Johnny Thunder to boot) seems to contradict what you're suggesting. I'm not really a fan of the franchise either but having that license clearly nets Lego more sales than the dinosaurs do without that name-brand recognition.

Source? 

[Lego David]

On 12/23/2019 at 1:43 AM, Gorilla94 said:

I think Jurassic World should be discontinued. It is all about the dinosours. You don't need a licence for that. Cavemen or an adventurers reboot with Johnny Thunder would be just as nice or better and both could be done without the licence costs.

I absolutely agree. The sets they made this year have been a complete joke and had nothing to do with the movie they were supposedly based on. T-Rex Vs Dino-Mech, seriously? That is hands down one of the worst sets released this year, simply because it makes zero logic in the context of the movie it's based on. 

9 hours ago, Lyichir said:

The fact that the Jurassic World theme has been more successful than Lego's previous non-licensed Dino theme (despite that theme using most of the same dinosaur molds and starring a descendant of Johnny Thunder to boot) seems to contradict what you're suggesting. I'm not really a fan of the franchise either but having that license clearly nets Lego more sales than the dinosaurs do without that name-brand recognition.

You are forgetting about the Jurassic World sets from the first movie (the ones from 2015). Those didn't seem to be any more successful than the Dino 2012 sets.

I personally believe that with the right amount of advertising, any Dinosaur theme could be successful, regardless if it's licensed or not.

And hey, if kids love Dinosaurs so much, than why not sell them separately for like 10$ or so, like with the LEGO Dinosaurs theme from 2001?

[Lyichir]

11 hours ago, Lego David said:

I absolutely agree. The sets they made this year have been a complete joke and had nothing to do with the movie they were supposedly based on. T-Rex Vs Dino-Mech, seriously? That is hands down one of the worst sets released this year, simply because it makes zero logic in the context of the movie it's based on. 

You are forgetting about the Jurassic World sets from the first movie (the ones from 2015). Those didn't seem to be any more successful than the Dino 2012 sets.

I personally believe that with the right amount of advertising, any Dinosaur theme could be successful, regardless if it's licensed or not.

And hey, if kids love Dinosaurs so much, than why not sell them separately for like 10$ or so, like with the LEGO Dinosaurs theme from 2001?

The Jurassic World sets for the first movie were massively successful—from what I remember Lego and other retailers had trouble keeping up with the holiday demand that year. That’s a big part of why they continued to license the franchise for subsequent movies and even started coming up with original media for the theme to fill the gaps.

Also, the main reason why Lego doesn’t release the dinosaurs on their own is the same reason why they don’t sell bigfigs or other non-blindbag figs on their own. The core of their business is as a building toy company, so they try to integrate a creatively inspiring building element into most of their products. Otherwise, they’d just be selling dinosaur toys that were both more expensive (due to Lego’s material quality and precision molding) and less detailed (due to the simplified textures and joints of Lego animals) than what non-building toy competitors could offer.

A theme like the original Dinosaurs theme wouldn’t really work with the newer, more detailed dinosaurs since it would lose the creative customization component that that theme revolved around. Even for that theme the designs were heavily compromised to allow multiple dinosaur species to be built with the same general array of parts, and the newer dinosaurs snap together with even less building and customization potential.

[The Brick Boss]

@Lyichir Well I believe it could work. 

Like you said, we don't know the limitations. So there is a chance that there are no limits.

On another note, with Lego itself, there are no limits to what you can do. Thats what made me stay loyal to Lego despite giving up my other toys. 

But due to today's popularity of Lego, calling Lego a toy would be kinda demeaning. Lego is well.... a lifestyle now. A culture. 

Edited December 25, 2019 by pooda

[Vindicare]

16 hours ago, Lego David said:

I absolutely agree. The sets they made this year have been a complete joke and had nothing to do with the movie they were supposedly based on. T-Rex Vs Dino-Mech, seriously? That is hands down one of the worst sets released this year, simply because it makes zero logic in the context of the movie it's based on. 

This years wave isn’t based on any movie. It’s based on an upcoming cartoon. 

Edited December 25, 2019 by Vindicare

[Lego David]

8 hours ago, Vindicare said:

It’s based on an upcoming cartoon.

Which is made by LEGO. I really hate it when LEGO does their own fan-fictions based on licensed properties... They should save that for their original themes.

Edited December 26, 2019 by Lego David

[Vindicare]

13 hours ago, Lego David said:

Which is made by LEGO. I really hate it when LEGO does their own fan-fictions based on licensed properties... They should save that for their original themes.

Oh, they created it? I know nothing about the show. I can agree to that. If they’re going to put effort into an original story, it’d be nice seeing an in house theme. 

[Lyichir]

17 hours ago, Lego David said:

Which is made by LEGO. I really hate it when LEGO does their own fan-fictions based on licensed properties... They should save that for their original themes.

The counterpoint to that is that those sorts of creative takes on licensed franchises are largely to inspire kids to engage with them creatively, rather than just acting out the events of the movies as they happened. I remember way back at the dawn of the Lego Star Wars theme, pretty much every set had a little comic at the end showing a sort of twist on the events of the movies, where the normal sets would be built into one of the alternate models from the box. The Lego Magazines and video games have often done similar sorts of things, adding humor and whimsy to even more serious licenses. In essence, they treat those licensed themes more like how they'd treat any other theme—as a jumping off point for creativity.

I dunno. I would think that for all the criticism licensed themes get for "limiting creativity", encouraging that sort of outside the box thinking would be seen as a good thing. Then again, I don't see Lego's current in-house offerings as being negatively impacted by the existence of these sorts of licenses—I've been collecting in-house themes almost exclusively for more than a decade and have rarely felt like they've been negatively impacted by the existence of licensed themes alongside them.

Edited December 27, 2019 by Lyichir

[The Brick Boss]

My assumption is that TLG would usually use a licensed theme to push out certain subjects (in this case Dinosaurs) so that the topic itself will get more attention. I remember in 2015, I was talking about wanting more race cars. 2015MY introduced Speed Champions, which pushes out a lot of race cars because that's how they'll grab attention. 

So that's prolly why they do it the way they do. 

Edited December 27, 2019 by pooda

[Pdaitabird]

1 hour ago, Lyichir said:

I remember way back at the dawn of the Lego Star Wars theme, pretty much every set had a little comic at the end showing a sort of twist on the events of the movies, where the normal sets would be built into one of the alternate models from the box.

You mean Luke rebuilding his x-wing into a mech isn't official Star Wars canon?!   I loved those little comics (and the sets) long before I saw any of the films!

[Lego David]

7 hours ago, Lyichir said:

The counterpoint to that is that those sorts of creative takes on licensed franchises are largely to inspire kids to engage with them creatively, rather than just acting out the events of the movies as they happened. I remember way back at the dawn of the Lego Star Wars theme, pretty much every set had a little comic at the end showing a sort of twist on the events of the movies, where the normal sets would be built into one of the alternate models from the box. The Lego Magazines and video games have often done similar sorts of things, adding humor and whimsy to even more serious licenses. In essence, they treat those licensed themes more like how they'd treat any other theme—as a jumping off point for creativity.

I dunno. I would think that for all the criticism licensed themes get for "limiting creativity", encouraging that sort of outside the box thinking would be seen as a good thing. Then again, I don't see Lego's current in-house offerings as being negatively impacted by the existence of these sorts of licenses—I've been collecting in-house themes almost exclusively for more than a decade and have rarely felt like they've been negatively impacted by the existence of licensed themes alongside them.

In essence, there is nothing wrong with giving your own twist on licensed properties. But if that means giving licensed themes more priority over original themes, than no thanks. 

I am really sad that they keep making those Batman direct-to-DVD movies, yet they barely made any direct-to-DVD movies based on original themes. 

[Lyichir]

6 hours ago, Lego David said:

In essence, there is nothing wrong with giving your own twist on licensed properties. But if that means giving licensed themes more priority over original themes, than no thanks. 

I am really sad that they keep making those Batman direct-to-DVD movies, yet they barely made any direct-to-DVD movies based on original themes. 

That's certainly fair. Though on the other hand, original themes do frequently get visual media ranging from full series to miniseries to shorter form webisodes. Sometimes in the cases of themes like Elves (which over the course of its four-year run got twelve 22-minute TV episodes, and over 30 shorter webisodes), this can ultimately amount to much more visual story media per year than those licensed themes get in the form of one individual movie or TV special per year.

There's also, unfortunately, the very real possibility that those licensed movies get fancy DVD releases in part because the popularity of their licenses gives them greater sales potential in stores. The reality is that even non-Lego fans are far more likely to buy a DVD based on a well-known character like Batman than they would be to buy a DVD based on an unknown cast of characters originating from a toyline. Another factor that probably plays a big role is how many of those licensed DVDs and TV specials are produced directly by the license-holders themselves. Companies like WB, Universal, and Disney just have more experience with animation, more connections in the industry (including with writers, actors and TV networks), and are probably willing to devote more resources to media based on their own brands than they are for Lego's in-house brands. So in the case of the Lego Batman specials, WB already has the animators on-hand as well as connections with voice actors who have previously voiced those characters in non-Lego media, not to mention the sales data and audience numbers to back up direct-to-DVD movies based on that stable of brands as well as entire TV networks under their parent company's umbrella. Conversely, Lego likely has to do a lot more of the legwork for their own in-house brands, especially newer or less established ones that they'll have a harder time selling distributors on.

Edited December 27, 2019 by Lyichir

[The Brick Boss]

On 12/26/2019 at 3:45 PM, Vindicare said:

Oh, they created it? I know nothing about the show. I can agree to that. If they’re going to put effort into an original story, it’d be nice seeing an in house theme. 

I'd take it if they were to do revive it really well. I have a feeling that they'd bring that back as a City subtheme and call it Dinosaur Experts. 

[Digger of Bricks]

On 12/26/2019 at 6:32 PM, Lyichir said:

Then again, I don't see Lego's current in-house offerings as being negatively impacted by the existence of these sorts of licenses—I've been collecting in-house themes almost exclusively for more than a decade and have rarely felt like they've been negatively impacted by the existence of licensed themes alongside them.

Well then, why haven't we seen another in-house Space theme after Galaxy Squad? I sure don't think Disney's helping... 

17 hours ago, Lego David said:

In essence, there is nothing wrong with giving your own twist on licensed properties. But if that means giving licensed themes more priority over original themes, than no thanks. 

If an in-house counterpart just isn't viable at the moment, then I'd personally take "in-house" takes on those IPs over nothing. For instance, I found sets based upon Lego's Yoda Chronicles and Freemaker Adventures much more interest piquing than what Star Wars offers most of the time.

4 hours ago, pooda said:

I'd take it if they were to do revive it really well. I have a feeling that they'd bring that back as a City subtheme and call it Dinosaur Experts. 

Nah, the next in-house Dinosaur theme should be set either during the Victorian Era/Industrial Age or the Jazz Age/Machine Age, as Jurassic World and the 2012 Dino theme have modern settings, while 2005's Dino Attack/Dino 2010 that preceded both of those was set during a Post-Apocalyptic future.

Besides, modernity can only monopolize so much... 

[The Brick Boss]

1 hour ago, Digger of Bricks said:

Besides, modernity can only monopolize so much... 

True enough ol chap. 

[Asajki]

I really don’t like Ninjago, I feel TLG is running out of ideas for it so I doubt it’ll survive the 2020’s