Indiana Jones 2023 - Rumors & Discussion

[BrickBob Studpants]

58 minutes ago, Kaijumeister said:

@BrickBob Studpants All it takes is for Lego to release a formal statement definitely confirming this is it for the theme. They chose to obfuscate things further with their ambiguous press release after all, haha.

They won’t do that though. The few times they actually announced the discontinuation of a theme were always tied to the cancellation of a planned wave, like with Vidiyo and Dots. I’m sure they only made these announcements because they couldn’t get away with not explaining why an entire wave wouldn’t make it onto shelves

No cancelled Indy wave, no announcement necessary

[Kaijumeister]

23 hours ago, BrickBob Studpants said:

They won’t do that though. The few times they actually announced the discontinuation of a theme were always tied to the cancellation of a planned wave, like with Vidiyo and Dots. I’m sure they only made these announcements because they couldn’t get away with not explaining why an entire wave wouldn’t make it onto shelves

No cancelled Indy wave, no announcement necessary

Agreed, it was fun while it lasted!

[Xzmmc]

Man, I'm collecting the new Adventure Series line of action figures too, and no sign of Mola Ram there either. Lends some credence to the theory that Disney just doesn't want any of the Thuggee related stuff in merchandise.

Still, makes you wonder why the Temple of Doom got far into production to the point where boxart was made.

[Kit Figsto]

6 hours ago, Xzmmc said:

Man, I'm collecting the new Adventure Series line of action figures too, and no sign of Mola Ram there either. Lends some credence to the theory that Disney just doesn't want any of the Thuggee related stuff in merchandise.

Allegedly, there is a Mola Ram figure coming in the Adventure Series line.  Someone on Reddit found a Target product description from some other figure that mentioned a few as-of-yet unrevealed figures (I think ones that had already been announced, like Henry Jones Sr.) as well as Mola Ram.  I know that doesn’t mean it 100% is coming, but it seems likely since it wouldn’t have even been mentioned if they had no plans of putting out a figure for him.

 

With respect to the LEGO sets, assuming we don’t get a second wave (which I know is the likely scenario, though I still think something in 2024 is still at least a remote possibility, albeit not super realistic at this point), I have to think, what could have been.  I mean, I only have the $40 Lost Tomb set (though I will definitely be getting the Fighter Plane Chase too), but the quality of these sets seems absurdly good.  Good prices, a nice mix of playability and display value, fantastic minifigures (seriously, even the mummy figure is great.  The biggest complaints I’ve seen is just minor stuff like a lack of leg printing on Sallah, which I can excuse given it’s a $40 set with four figures and one of the best price/piece ratios I can remember), and an all around attention to detail.  I would love to see the same treatment to some scenes like the truck chase, Grail Temple, Cairo street fight, Shanghai car chase, the ToD bridge battle, and a handful of other scenes.  
 

If this is all we get, I’m grateful that we at least got something, but boy, there are at least 3-4 sets that I would like to see before LEGO Indy retires, likely for good this time.  Or at least the truck chase, please!

I do think there’s a possibility of the line continuing on a semi-regular basis in the form of more dioramas, if the Idol Temple one sells well.  I can think of at least a couple more scenes that would be conducive to that, and LEGO is at least aware of the AFOL appeal, since the only quote sets we’ve really gotten have been for really big franchises with evergreen themes (Star Wars, Jurassic Park).

[Xzmmc]

6 hours ago, Kit Figsto said:

Allegedly, there is a Mola Ram figure coming in the Adventure Series line.  Someone on Reddit found a Target product description from some other figure that mentioned a few as-of-yet unrevealed figures (I think ones that had already been announced, like Henry Jones Sr.) as well as Mola Ram.  I know that doesn’t mean it 100% is coming, but it seems likely since it wouldn’t have even been mentioned if they had no plans of putting out a figure for him.

After a bit of research, it seems one of him was planned, originally for the upcoming ToD wave of figs. But he's no longer part of it, replaced with Black Sleep Indy who was not in the original plan.

Between that and the ToD set being cancelled after getting boxart and such, that leads me to believe dropping all Thuggee related content was a fairly last minute decision by Lucasfilm or Disney.

It's really too bad. I understand why, just a bummer.

[BrickBob Studpants]

25 minutes ago, Xzmmc said:

It's really too bad. I understand why, just a bummer.

Sure, I get the reasoning for not releasing any Thugee-related merch. But can somebody explain why they only figured that out so shortly ahead of release?!

[Yperio_Bricks]

What's up with that hanging bridge set pics at Insta? Is that something?

[BrickBob Studpants]

22 minutes ago, Yperio_Bricks said:

What's up with that hanging bridge set pics at Insta? Is that something?

No, it’s obviously fake. The horrible compositing and the outdated pieces are dead giveaways

[Yperio_Bricks]

6 minutes ago, BrickBob Studpants said:

No, it’s obviously fake. The horrible compositing and the outdated pieces are dead giveaways

Okay, thanks! I have no account and see the pictures only veeery small

[Mandalorianknight]

58 minutes ago, BrickBob Studpants said:

No, it’s obviously fake. The horrible compositing and the outdated pieces are dead giveaways

It's one of the lowest-effort leaks I've seen in some time. The clearly 08/09 figs, the croc photoshopped in at the weirdest angle, etc. Though it's a slight improvement of his jabba's palace "leak", where he posted a MOC of it, then the next post is that same MOC (which if we're being honest isn't very good) with a 2010 lego watermark pasted on it.

 

At this point, given the reception of the 5th film, I think it's pretty clear Indy as a theme is probably gone. The best we can hope for is that the sets out sell well enough to get us the occasional diorama or 18+ set in the years to come.

[BrickBob Studpants]

3 minutes ago, Mandalorianknight said:

The best we can hope for is that the sets out sell well enough to get us the occasional diorama or 18+ set in the years to come.

Yeah, going the LOTR route is probably the best we can hope for at this point, and even that is not particularly likely

[RichardGoring]

On 6/2/2023 at 7:52 AM, BrickBob Studpants said:

Sure, I get the reasoning for not releasing any Thugee-related merch. But can somebody explain why they only figured that out so shortly ahead of release?!

I can easily imagine that with so many people involved in approvals, they all focus on a small part of it - aesthetics, stability, profitability, box size logistics etc. - and no one ever took a step back to ask whether they wanted to release it and if it fits the overall strategy. Until the last minute, when you see it, and then realize. Someone else will have looked at it, or I'll read the information in detail at the next stage, or it must have been approved already to have come to me, are all likely things to occur to those involved.

[Clone OPatra]

12 hours ago, Mandalorianknight said:

At this point, given the reception of the 5th film, I think it's pretty clear Indy as a theme is probably gone. The best we can hope for is that the sets out sell well enough to get us the occasional diorama or 18+ set in the years to come.

To play devil's advocate just a little, lukewarm reception of the last two Jurassic films didn't stop LEGO doing a full kid-oriented (that just happens to appeal to adults) wave for the first Jurassic Park movie. Yes it's different because kids love dinos, but I'm just saying reception of the latest film in a franchise doesn't have to correlate with what LEGO decides to do.

A full adventurey line of sets for the first three films (or first four) could've been a success given it wouldn't be like much else in LEGO's portfolio at the moment. Or it would've failed. We won't know.

It does feel sad and weird seeing just a couple of Indy sets on the aisles of my local toy stores wedged in between whole lines of other LEGO sets.

[eldiano]

The re-issue of the old school and new indiana jones figures have been selling like hot cakes though, they clearly have the same problem with mola ram not being a figure but you would figure the lego geniuses would focus on bar obi one scene where everything goes and short round, they could had done other sets from the movie aside from featuring thugees but hey Disney. 

[brickbride]

2 hours ago, Clone OPatra said:

To play devil's advocate just a little, lukewarm reception of the last two Jurassic films didn't stop LEGO doing a full kid-oriented (that just happens to appeal to adults) wave for the first Jurassic Park movie. Yes it's different because kids love dinos, (...)

A full adventurey line of sets for the first three films (or first four) could've been a success given it wouldn't be like much else in LEGO's portfolio at the moment.

To be fair, dinos a) aren't politically fraught and b) have worldwide appeal. Whereas the entire "Caucasian male adventurer travels to stereotypical exotic locations, meets exotic local stereotypes, and steals their cultural treasures" genre is pretty much limited to Western audiences and even then hasn't aged particularly well. I very much doubt that LEGO would want to risk their reputation in their non-European markets with any set of that sort (instead of giving us Westerners themes like Monkie Kid and Ninjago which focus on the Asian or Asian-inspired characters). So I'm not so much shocked that there won't be any further Indy or Adventurer sets as I'm surprised that even this handful of Indy sets got approved in the first place.

This is also why I'd be surprised if we saw a revival of the Cowboys/Wild West theme. What I cannot understand, meanwhile, is why LEGO is so reluctant to give us more Knights/Castles and Pirates, since those seem to be in huge demand and appear to be much less politically fraught (apart from the issue of islanders in the pirates theme, but I think the theme would work just as well without that aspect, focussing on pirates vs. soldiers).

EDIT: Just for curiosity's sake, everyone here seems to be of the opinion that the Indy sets sell really well - but like I've said, this is a theme that would seem to appeal mainly to Westerners. Do we know anything about sales on other continents? Do we even know if the Indy sets were released worldwide?

Edited June 7, 2023 by brickbride

[Agent Kallus]

3 hours ago, brickbride said:

 

This is also why I'd be surprised if we saw a revival of the Cowboys/Wild West theme. What I cannot understand, meanwhile, is why LEGO is so reluctant to give us more Knights/Castles and Pirates, since those seem to be in huge demand and appear to be much less politically fraught (apart from the issue of islanders in the pirates theme, but I think the theme would work just as well without that aspect, focussing on pirates vs. soldiers).

 Do we even know if the Indy sets were released worldwide?

Well TBH I'm surprised about the rumours soidiers fort for the pirates theme, given that the soilders from the theme were basically the armies of three of the biggest European colonial powers, the British red coats, french blue coats and the Spanish armada. Personally I have no issue with it ( and I'm looking forward to the first set, I only have one blue coat against at least a dozen redcoats ), but I know there are people who will take issue.

One theme I'd really love to see them do ( that they haven't outside of cmfs) is ancient Greco-Roman stuff. Also I'd like some Egypt stuff that based around the ancients not just explorers visiting the pyramids. So basically a classical civilizations theme or something.

And I'm pretty sure these sets released worldwide?

[LegoAUT]

28 minutes ago, Agent Kallus said:

Well TBH I'm surprised about the rumours soidiers fort for the pirates theme, given that the soilders from the theme were basically the armies of three of the biggest European colonial powers, the British red coats, french blue coats and the Spanish armada. Personally I have no issue with it ( and I'm looking forward to the first set, I only have one blue coat against at least a dozen redcoats ), but I know there are people who will take issue.

Oh please.. 

[Alexandrina]

39 minutes ago, Agent Kallus said:

Well TBH I'm surprised about the rumours soidiers fort for the pirates theme, given that the soilders from the theme were basically the armies of three of the biggest European colonial powers, the British red coats, french blue coats and the Spanish armada. Personally I have no issue with it ( and I'm looking forward to the first set, I only have one blue coat against at least a dozen redcoats ), but I know there are people who will take issue.

I'd guess they can argue plausible deniability though. The redcoats and bluecoats are never explicitly identified as the British and French armies respectively (afaik) and the torsos don't appear to be exact 1:1 matches of any historical uniforms. They're just using the aesthetics of the time period, much in the same way that say the Black Falcons are using Medieval aesthetics without being tied to a specific historical army. (I don't know so much about the Spanish armada sets, but since they date back to the 90s and haven't been brought back I don't think that has too much bearing on Lego's decision making today)

42 minutes ago, Agent Kallus said:

One theme I'd really love to see them do ( that they haven't outside of cmfs) is ancient Greco-Roman stuff. Also I'd like some Egypt stuff that based around the ancients not just explorers visiting the pyramids. So basically a classical civilizations theme or something.

The thing with these is how successful would they really be? Unless you're taking the aesthetics and vibe and making an action theme around them, will there be much appeal to kids? I know in the UK at least ancient Greece isn't taught at all, and Egypt is taught at a young enough age that you get a sanitised, potted history; the risk for both of these is that making historically accurate sets would lead to something kids don't know enough about to relate to, and taking historical liberties would open Lego up to the same criticism as making Temple of Doom sets. The Romans are more well-known but again, you don't have to go very far before you run out of things which are going to appeal to kids but that are also Lego-appropriate. Stuff like the Colosseum and the Pyramids are already being made anyway as large sets. Sure, Lego could do stuff like chariots but even things like gladiator fights would be tough to justify without sanitising massively.

I'd love a theme like this, just like you, but I struggle to see how viable it is. We've already seen Lego's attempts at full-fledged wild west and viking themes lasting just a short time.

[Yperio_Bricks]

10 minutes ago, Alexandrina said:

The thing with these is how successful would they really be? Unless you're taking the aesthetics and vibe and making an action theme around them, will there be much appeal to kids? I know in the UK at least ancient Greece isn't taught at all, and Egypt is taught at a young enough age that you get a sanitised, potted history; the risk for both of these is that making historically accurate sets would lead to something kids don't know enough about to relate to, and taking historical liberties would open Lego up to the same criticism as making Temple of Doom sets. The Romans are more well-known but again, you don't have to go very far before you run out of things which are going to appeal to kids but that are also Lego-appropriate. Stuff like the Colosseum and the Pyramids are already being made anyway as large sets. Sure, Lego could do stuff like chariots but even things like gladiator fights would be tough to justify without sanitising massively.

I'd love a theme like this, just like you, but I struggle to see how viable it is. We've already seen Lego's attempts at full-fledged wild west and viking themes lasting just a short time.

I agree with you and would also question the success of history themed themes. But on the other hand Playmobile has all of the stuff, so there must be a market for toys like this. The have small sets like a pirate captain and a red coat for 5,99€ (Something that impossible for Lego to do nowadays because of...You know the ABBA song) There is a Achilleus' chariot, the greek mythology ship Argo, a roman ship, a playscale pyramide, all sorts of "battlepacks" with greek, roman or egyptian soldiers. Even a ancient egyptian family for 10,99€! There are medieval houses or a viking ship, viking battlepacks... Oh, an of course they have western sets with various houses, a fort, some battlepacks (with cowgirl!) and even a western family as well as a native family and so on...

So toys for these thems exist and i would like to see all of this in the form of Lego.

[Alexandrina]

10 hours ago, Yperio_Bricks said:

You know the ABBA song

Put On Your White Sombrero?

In all seriousness I don't know how Playmobil does their sets. Do they tend to do themes in the way Lego does - with smaller sets, midrange sets and a few big ones - or do they do lots of smaller sets?

Maybe it would be possible to do a wave of historical sets, or a theme devoted to different historical periods. My worry would be that you don't have to go very far with any of these periods before you run out of set ideas which would appeal to a wide enough audience.

10 hours ago, Yperio_Bricks said:

Oh, an of course they have western sets with various houses, a fort, some battlepacks (with cowgirl!) and even a western family as well as a native family and so on...

Western is my most-desired returning Lego theme so I would be very curous to know how well the Playmobil stuff is selling relative to their other themes.

[bdw]

I’ve been living in Vietnam 4 years. Lego is 50% more expensive than Australia (where I’m from), which is already expensive unless you find a good sale. They get new sets very quickly here so it’s nice to window shop. Indiana Jones are still on shelves, not appearing to sell at all. They weren’t part of a recent sale, but I doubt I will buy them even if they are half price. I’ve bought the pieces I want from Bricklink.

Many classic movies are problematic, but as a kid I loved the adventure, travelling, exploring in Indy movies. I loved forest people Lego as a child more than most other themes. I bought a couple of Adventure sets. Ninja Lego (pre-Ninjago) brought me back from my dark ages. I bought the first series of Indiana Jones, mainly for nostalgia. Most are unopened. I’ll sell them in future. My advice is, buy the sets you want (in multiples if you can). Who knows, in a thousand years, maybe they’ll be worth something (I’m sure someone’s already typed that on here). Or buy the individual pieces and build mocs. As others have said, we were lucky to get what we got at all. Enjoy what you have. Don’t think too much. Keep your eyes out for any Indy builds on Ideas and vote with your mouse/keyboard. Maybe mention them in this discussion if you see any Indy ideas you like.

Anyone for a revival of forest people? It relates to off grid/sustainable living… 

Edited June 8, 2023 by bdw
font size too big! :)

[LegoAUT]

7 hours ago, bdw said:

Anyone for a revival of forest people? It relates to off grid/sustainable living… 

Forest people in the sense of the classic castle forestmen? In this case, certainly! They are clearly one of the most desired castle factions people want to return big time, but at least we got a nice GWP with the castle plus they reappear there as well.. hoping for more in the future (although that hope may be futile haha).

[Jack Sassy]

16 hours ago, Alexandrina said:

Put On Your White Sombrero?

Indeed that one. 

On 6/7/2023 at 9:59 AM, brickbride said:

Do we know anything about sales on other continents?

Well, I live on the north-eastern edge of Europe and here these sets sell quite middlingly, then again, people aren't too crazy about LEGO here anyway. 

[bdw]

2 hours ago, LegoAUT said:

Forest people in the sense of the classic castle forestmen?

Forestmen, forestwomen and forestnon-binary   Straying from the Indy theme a bit, but just to reply- I'm hoping the new medieval markets set is a thing. And hoping to see 1 or 2 forest people there, walking around, trading with the castle townspeople

[LegoAUT]

1 hour ago, bdw said:

Forestmen, forestwomen and forestnon-binary   Straying from the Indy theme a bit, but just to reply- I'm hoping the new medieval markets set is a thing. And hoping to see 1 or 2 forest people there, walking around, trading with the castle townspeople

Same here! :)