What are the most underrated themes?

[Lego David]

By underrated I mean themes that very few people usually talk about, but which deserve a lot more attention then they get.

What do you think is the most underrated theme?

[Johnny1360]

Nexo Knights 

[Erik Leppen]

Duplo? Juniors? Maybe City (don't know how much attention that gets on the forums)?

Those are, I think, the themes that get people into the hobby, after all.

[dr_spock]

Friends?

[Aanchir]

• First and foremost, Aquazone was one of the themes I was most interested in as a kid growing up in the 90s, but it rarely seems to get as much attention from AFOLs as Pirates, Space, Castle, or even other relatively short-lived 90s themes like Wild West and Adventurers. While Aquazone didn't last all that long, during the years it ran, it was often treated as about as big a deal as Castle, Space, or Pirates — perhaps part of why LEGO even spun it off as its own theme and not as the "Seatron" Space subtheme it was originally conceived as.
  
  Aquazone was one of the first themes to eschew many of the more ubiquitous genres of storytelling and embrace a much more obscure type of sci-fi. It was also one of the first themes to largely feel like a world of its own, and not just a fictionalized vision of our world's past, present, or future. In both of those respects, it could be said to have paved the way for other "high fantasy" themes like Bionicle, Ninjago, Legends of Chima, Elves, and Nexo Knights. In fact, the animal-based vehicles that have appeared in several of those themes can trace their heritage pretty directly to the sea-creature-based vehicles of the Aquasharks, Aquaraiders, and Stingrays.
  
  It also pioneered the idea of characters seeking out and competing over a bespoke fictional resource, the Hydrolator crystals that the factions processed to create breathable air. Similar ideas have become a staple of subsequent themes: energy crystals in Rock Raiders, Life on Mars, Mars Mission, and Power Miners, the mystical ruby in Adventurers, Voltstones in Insectoids, CHI in Legends of Chima, "mysterious crystals" in LEGO City Arctic and Volcano Explorers, the realm crystal in Ninjago, magical crystals in LEGO Elves, elemental crystals in Bionicle G2, and so on.
  
  Like many products of the mid-to-late 90s, it had loads of big and specialized parts that in hindsight make its prices and the simplicity of many of its builds feel rather shocking. But it also utilized quite a few parts that were not only fun but genuinely useful, including:
  • An entire family of octagonal bricks (6032, 6037, 6039, 6042) that were designed with proportions and connection points ideally suited to SNOT building and Technic integration.
  • The 3x3 marine propeller (6041) and propeller housing (6040), which again were extremely Technic compatible. You might not BELIEVE how fun it was as a kid to blow on one of these propellers and watch it spin rapidly with an exciting whirring sound. I'm glad that the propeller, at least, remains in use.
  • Various hinged robotic arm and magnet elements, which for the most part predated Aquazone but were still iconic attributes of the theme.
  • The shock absorber brick, which again predated Aquazone but was used together with the octagonal bricks in a manner unique to Aquazone sets as what was arguably the LEGO System's first style of "click hinge".
  • Various minifigure accessories: harpoons (57467), utility knives (44658), and of course the iconic rock crystal… all of which have seen continued use as recently as last year, albeit usually redesigned.
    
    Needless to say, I wouldn't mind one bit if the next underwater theme were a new take on Aquazone!
     
• Another from my childhood that comes to mind is Spyrius. Blacktron has a much stronger reputation as the quintessential villainous Space faction (probably in part due to being consistently positioned as the Space Police's most persistent rivals), but I feel like Spyrius had a much more clearly defined identity with its clear and specific focus on espionage, well-defined fleet of robots and flying saucers, and over-the-top villain designs. The Spyrius droid was also one of the greatest minifigures of its day, with not only much more extensive printing than was normal at the time, but with some really creative graphic design that took cues from the LEGO skeleton and classic minifigure smile.
   
• Continuing through the 90s we arrive at Time Twisters. While Time Cruisers could feel a bit incoherent at times, the later Time Twisters subtheme had really compelling spooky vibes and a really slick color scheme of Black + Bright Blue + Earth Orange (classic brown). Both Time Cruisers and Time Twisters were also extremely functionality driven themes, and I feel like Time Twisters really pushed that to an awesome new level. As a bonus, it also reverted to a more conventional minifigure design language after the Time Cruisers' much more cartoonish facial features.
   
• The Avatar: The Last Airbender theme was definitely imperfect, and I would love for it to get a second pass one day since design standards have improved greatly since then. I myself mostly overlooked its sets when they first came out due to not being a follower of the TV show until the following year, and even if I had been a fan of the show, I think the poorly rendered box art and shoddy minifigures (with a terribly inadequate skin color for Katara and Sokka) would have still been a major turn-off.
  
  But many years after the sets came out, I decided to try building them on LEGO Digital Designer using the online instructions, and was surprised to find how many features from the show the designers had attempted to incorporate. For instance, the Fire Nation Ship's underwhelming blocky exterior hides interior details like the meditation chamber from the episode "The Warriors of Kyoshi" and the skiff from the episode "The Waterbending Scroll". I don't regret not buying the sets but I certainly have more respect for their designs than I did for many years.
   
• Power Miners is often overlooked or dismissed due to the persistence of Rock Raiders nostalgia, but in most respects Power Miners stands out as the superior theme, and not just because of how much builds had improved between 1999 and 2009. For one thing, much like Time Cruisers and Time Twisters, it is an extremely function-driven theme, with lots of elaborate Technic features the likes of which had never been seen before. The counter-rotating drills are a key example. Power Miners also had monster designs with far more detail, articulation, variety, functionality, and connection points than "Rocky" from the Rock Raiders theme.
  
  The Power Miners vehicles' main color schemes (Bright Yellowish Green and Bright Orange with white accents in the first year, and Bright Yellowish Green and Blue with Silver accents in the second) contrasted heavily with their settings, which made them visually striking and also realistic enough to offset the sheer whimsy of the actual vehicle designs. And its characters (while not heavily fleshed out in terms of personality) had a wonderful manic energy and a blue collar look that cemented them as reluctant heroes who were perhaps only there because they were the only ones crazy enough to take the job!
  
  And while both Power Miners and Rock Raiders introduced several large elements that got heavily criticized by AFOLs, those in Power Miners are far more versatile — for example, 61472 not only works as a drill stage, but can be used individually as a conical wheel, with two face to face as a cylindrical wheel, or even interlocked as crown gears (a function we have yet to see in sets, although it was employed in the show-only Ninjago vehicle the Tusk Invader). Never mind the cosmetic uses we've seen, like as stylized parapets in Garmadon's Dark Fortress! By comparison neither the wheels, nor drills, nor cockpits and rollcages from Rock Raiders ever saw any use in other themes.

There are probably way more than this that I could think of but this feels like enough for now.

[Lego David]

17 hours ago, Aanchir said:

Power Miners

I don't know, but it seems to me that a lot of people talk about it, even more than Rock Raiders.

18 hours ago, dr_spock said:

Friends?

Not really underrated. Many people actually really like it, despite it's "girl" orientation,.

Anyway, here are the themes that I think are underrated:

- Racers. The theme lasted for 13 years, and it offered so much, but I almost never see people talk about it. People would just say "Ah, Speed Champions is better" without taking a brief look into the theme. This is one of my all-time favorite themes, and it's sad that it doesn't get as much attention as it really deserves. If you want to take a brief look into the entire theme, watch this video:

 

After you watch it you should be convinced that is one of the most underrated themes.

 

-Ultra Agents. A worthy succesor to Agents, this theme doesn't get much attention nowdays, despite it's great sets and story. I think Antimater is a better villian than Dr. Inferno. This theme may not be as great as Agents, but it still deserves a lot more than it gets.

Edited March 3, 2019 by Lego David

[TeriXeri]

Speaking of more recent themes, Nexo Knights.

While I can fully understand it's differences directly compared to a Space or Castle theme of the past, it wasn't meant to be a Classic theme, but more of a spinoff of multiple concepts.

If looked at as a standalone theme, with it's books, TV show, Magazine comics, and target age group I think it was a high quality theme, especially for it's first 2 years.

It might have had a better reputation if they never had year 3, or shown us the Forest/Water monsters, and just stayed as a 2 year/4 waves theme.

[Lego David]

3 hours ago, TeriXeri said:

Speaking of more recent themes, Nexo Knights.

While I can fully understand it's differences directly compared to a Space or Castle theme of the past, it wasn't meant to be a Classic theme, but more of a spinoff of multiple concepts.

If looked at as a standalone theme, with it's books, TV show, Magazine comics, and target age group I think it was a high quality theme, especially for it's first 2 years.

It might have had a better reputation if they never had year 3, or shown us the Forest/Water monsters, and just stayed as a 2 year/4 waves theme.

Yeah, I too agree with that.

[MAB]

Nexo Knights and Legends of Chima.

[leafan]

Vikings

[Lego David]

19 hours ago, leafan said:

Vikings

People often talk about, do I don't think it's underrated.

[MAB]

Galidor is obviously joked about a lot as a theme. It was clearly a change from the normal system LEGO, and not a patch on the other buildable large figures. However, I appreciate some of the larger body parts that came in the theme.

I wonder how Galidor would have been seen if they had also done a range of minifigures and minifigure scale vehicles to go with it.

[danth]

Fabuland.

Peaceful setting, cute animal characters, whimsical design elements, fun/unique parts, bright colors.

I think you could do a modern day Fabuland as a Friends/Elves style theme. All you'd need is repainted Chima heads. 

 

[Aanchir]

On 3/3/2019 at 6:48 AM, Lego David said:

I don't know, but it seems to me that a lot of people talk about it, even more than Rock Raiders.

Perhaps you're right. I am sort of generalizing my experiences here on Eurobricks, but considering how long I've been here, some of the themes that used to stand out as "underrated" might not be nearly as underrated now that they're old enough to be a source of nostalgia in their own right.

[Mylenium]

18 hours ago, Aanchir said:

some of the themes that used to stand out as "underrated" might not be nearly as underrated now that they're old enough to be a source of nostalgia in their own right.

Yeah, those dang rose-tinted glasses... ;-)

Mylenium

20 hours ago, danth said:

I think you could do a modern day Fabuland as a Friends/Elves style theme. All you'd need is repainted Chima heads.

On an idealistic level I get your point, but then you'd be competing with Octonauts or whatever "cutesie fantasy creatures series" is the current latest hit on kids TV. None of that stuff is very unique and distinguishable, it's often short-lived, LEGO would have to compete with a slew of other toy lines covering similar subjects and so on. It would sure be nice to have something like that from a LEGO-centric POV, but given the steep competition I can't quite see it working on a broader, more general level as a toy appealing to a specific demo. It would be falling into a niche that already is pretty crowded.

Mylenium

Edited March 6, 2019 by Mylenium

[MAB]

17 hours ago, Aanchir said:

Perhaps you're right. I am sort of generalizing my experiences here on Eurobricks, but considering how long I've been here, some of the themes that used to stand out as "underrated" might not be nearly as underrated now that they're old enough to be a source of nostalgia in their own right.

I wonder if the adults that grew up with the 1950s-60s style town sets thought that Classic Space and so on (anything that needed minifigures) was not proper LEGO and that this new fancy stuff was just for kids that don't appreciate the old proper LEGO any more ...

[Johnny1360]

47 minutes ago, MAB said:

I wonder if the adults that grew up with the 1950s-60s style town sets thought that Classic Space and so on (anything that needed minifigures) was not proper LEGO and that this new fancy stuff was just for kids that don't appreciate the old proper LEGO any more ...

Absolutely I did, though after coming out of my dark age, I don't really have that viewpoint anymore. In fact it is one of the things that keeps me from drifting into a second dark age. 

[ShaydDeGrai]

On March 3, 2019 at 6:48 AM, Lego David said:

-Ultra Agents. A worthy succesor to Agents, this theme doesn't get much attention nowdays, despite it's great sets and story. I think Antimater is a better villian than Dr. Inferno. This theme may not be as great as Agents, but it still deserves a lot more than it gets.

I never paid much attention to the characters or the story, but I did rather enjoy those kits.  I must admit, I kinda miss it (and Agents), I'd love to see a revival along these lines. 

As for other themes, it's hard for me to distinguish "underrated" from simply existing in a time before social media.  I mean, does _not_ reaching a certain level of fame/(non-internet)brand awareness (a la BlackTron, Rock Raiders or Bionicle ) in the days before we had places like this to compare notes constitute underrated?  It's getting harder and harder to remember a time when popularity wasn't measured in clicks and bytes.

I remember Aquazone fondly.  I was also a fan of Exo-force, which I'll argue was underrated on the basis that a) I liked it, and b) it was discontinued before it had really lived up to its potential - it could have been better, but it kinda tanked before it got the chance.

Discovery is another theme it seems like no one talks about, which is odd the way real space inspired vehicles seem to race through Ideas proposals these days.  I have the entire line (all six).  It was a sort of "blink and you'll miss it" wave back in 2003.  I don't know how much (if any) these things appealed to kids, but they made nice desk toys for an engineering office.

 

[Mylenium]

5 minutes ago, ShaydDeGrai said:

I mean, does _not_ reaching a certain level of fame/(non-internet)brand awareness (a la BlackTron, Rock Raiders or Bionicle ) in the days before we had places like this to compare notes constitute underrated?

Perhaps those sets are not underrated, just forgotten with the passing of time. Happens all the time and the irony is that even the eternal memory of the Internet won't change that. A few yeaers down the road it's probably just as unlikely avarage people talk about current sets just like nobody outside AFOL circles talks about that old stuff. One must not forget that we're talking about consumer products, after all. They all have their time, but nobody cares about the old model when the new one comes out...

Mylenium

[ShaydDeGrai]

13 minutes ago, Mylenium said:

Perhaps those sets are not underrated, just forgotten with the passing of time. Happens all the time and the irony is that even the eternal memory of the Internet won't change that. A few yeaers down the road it's probably just as unlikely avarage people talk about current sets just like nobody outside AFOL circles talks about that old stuff. One must not forget that we're talking about consumer products, after all. They all have their time, but nobody cares about the old model when the new one comes out...

Mylenium

That's a very good point.  I remember Legends of Chima being all the rage a few years back.  Now you go to a convention and people (half my age) are saying things like "where'd that cool head piece come from?" or  "Is that one of the latest collectable minifigs?"   I guess collective memories are short when the bulk of the target audience is only exposed to decade or so of the products' evolution per generation.

Okay, I'm feeling old now, time to log off, sit in my rocking chair, take a nap and dream of the good old days when gray was either dark or light and you didn't need a full spectrum lamp to figure out which ones were "bluish" 

[Lego David]

11 hours ago, ShaydDeGrai said:

never paid much attention to the characters or the story, but I did rather enjoy those kits

I have to say, Ultra Agent's Story was probably more advanced than Agent's. While I do think Agents was better, I this theme does not get as much attention as it really deserves.

 

10 hours ago, ShaydDeGrai said:

That's a very good point.  I remember Legends of Chima being all the rage a few years back.  Now you go to a convention and people (half my age) are saying things like "where'd that cool head piece come from?" or  "Is that one of the latest collectable minifigs?"   I guess collective memories are short when the bulk of the target audience is only exposed to decade or so of the products' evolution per generation.

Okay, I'm feeling old now, time to log off, sit in my rocking chair, take a nap and dream of the good old days when gray was either dark or light and you didn't need a full spectrum lamp to figure out which ones were "bluish" 

I have a few things to say here: Kids won't forget a theme they loved that easily. Ask any child and they would remember Chima. One of my brother's friend remembers Hero Factory and Bionicle G2 (and he is like 10 years old) and wishes them back. He even liked the SW Buildable Figures, but those are gone now too.

Another 10-year old friend of my little brother wanted a set with Race Cars, but LEGO didn't have any of that for him. He just asked his father to get him a Race Cars sets, and Boom! His father Gets him a Racers set from a used seller. I was shocked when I saw a LEGO Racers set from 2007 in a 10-year old's room. I begged him to sell it to me because I collect Racer sets, but he loved the set so much that he refused. 

This shows that even an old set could appeal to a new generation child.

Just as a kid watches a very old Disney movie such as Snow White and loves it as much as the newest movie that he sees in theatre, so can a KFOL get a very old set and love it as much as the newest set he got. So there is no such thing as "Kids don't like old stuff".

Edited March 7, 2019 by Lego David

[astral brick]

Mindstorms, the natural evolution of Technic and the way to get out of its stagnant dichotomy heavy equipment and vehicles. Underestimated by Lego itself, which never truly pushed the project, guiltily relegating it to a niche, or better said to various niches, more and more confusing and therefore smaller (Boost? Spike?). Always overpriced, somehow understandable in the age of its ancestor Control Center, unacceptable today in the era of Raspberry, whose appreciated integration with Lego was irresponsibly left to third undertakings.

[KotZ]

On 3/2/2019 at 3:10 AM, Johnny1360 said:

Nexo Knights 

Eh, slightly too new I think for the spirit of the thread, but I'd agree to an extent.

On 3/2/2019 at 10:33 AM, Aanchir said:

• The Avatar: The Last Airbender theme was definitely imperfect, and I would love for it to get a second pass one day since design standards have improved greatly since then. I myself mostly overlooked its sets when they first came out due to not being a follower of the TV show until the following year, and even if I had been a fan of the show, I think the poorly rendered box art and shoddy minifigures (with a terribly inadequate skin color for Katara and Sokka) would have still been a major turn-off.
• But many years after the sets came out, I decided to try building them on LEGO Digital Designer using the online instructions, and was surprised to find how many features from the show the designers had attempted to incorporate. For instance, the Fire Nation Ship's underwhelming blocky exterior hides interior details like the meditation chamber from the episode "The Warriors of Kyoshi" and the skiff from the episode "The Waterbending Scroll". I don't regret not buying the sets but I certainly have more respect for their designs than I did for many years.

For Avatar, absolutely. Total shame there were only two sets for that show, yet we got however many of Spongebob. There was so much they could do. The figs were ugly for Avatar, but the idea was there. If Avatar wasn't a licensed theme, it would have sold better, or LEGO would have marketed it and made more sets. Let's be honest, Avatar is another flavor of KK2 or Ninjago. You could maybe even argue Exo-Force or Bionicle. If LEGO randomly decided to pick up thelicense again, I'd buy the sets in a heartbeat, especially if they were good. I never watched Korra, but I'm sure the sets would be good there too. The line could have a good mix of locations and vehicles/creatures for playability.

On 3/3/2019 at 3:48 AM, Lego David said:

- Racers. The theme lasted for 13 years, and it offered so much, but I almost never see people talk about it. People would just say "Ah, Speed Champions is better" without taking a brief look into the theme. This is one of my all-time favorite themes, and it's sad that it doesn't get as much attention as it really deserves. If you want to take a brief look into the entire theme, watch this video:

-Ultra Agents. A worthy succesor to Agents, this theme doesn't get much attention nowdays, despite it's great sets and story. I think Antimater is a better villian than Dr. Inferno. This theme may not be as great as Agents, but it still deserves a lot more than it gets.

I totally forgot about Racers, and I think I even have one of their sets. Ultra Agents I agree with, although it's basically an extension of Agents, which is maybe why it's forgotten. It's not like the difference between Alpha Team and Agents, in my opinion.

On 3/5/2019 at 11:13 AM, danth said:

Fabuland.

Peaceful setting, cute animal characters, whimsical design elements, fun/unique parts, bright colors.

I think you could do a modern day Fabuland as a Friends/Elves style theme. All you'd need is repainted Chima heads. 

 

Have you seen any of @Hinckley's MOCs or Mafia games? Fabuland everywhere It's definitely not forgotten on this board.

7 hours ago, astral brick said:

Mindstorms, the natural evolution of Technic and the way to get out of its stagnant dichotomy heavy equipment and vehicles. Underestimated by Lego itself, which never truly pushed the project, guiltily relegating it to a niche, or better said to various niches, more and more confusing and therefore smaller (Boost? Spike?). Always overpriced, somehow understandable in the age of its ancestor Control Center, unacceptable today in the era of Raspberry, whose appreciated integration with Lego was irresponsibly left to third undertakings.

This I think is spot on. I was never into Mindstorms or straight technic (aside from Bionicle), but you're totally right. I remember seeing magazine ads and such forMindstorms, but I didn't really know what it could do, or maybe I wasn't tech savvy enough for it. Maybe it was ahead of its time (actually, I'll bet on that). With kids playing with tech more (I talked to a coworker the other day who stated they saw a study that said soon anyone who has no idea how to code willbe considered illiterate eventually), you would think Mindstorms would be great... for this time. It was just too early.

[Lego David]

1 hour ago, KotZ said:

I totally forgot about Racers, and I think I even have one of their sets

I really recommend you check it out in more detail... It's such an amazing line that got forgotten for no reason. 

[Gomek]

Funny, I never cared for Aquazone, but really liked the special monster figures in Atlantis.