New themes in 2022?

[MAB]

7 hours ago, TeriXeri said:

I don't see a Minidoll action theme happening however.

Why not? Elves worked very well, and was both minidoll and action.

[Megbricks]

10 hours ago, TeriXeri said:

Currently, short term for 2022, I think the most interesting development to keep an eye at is how there are no Legacy Ninjago sets this itme around, but sets called EVO, which seems like cheaper set segment instead of remakes of old sets.

Oh i didnt see that ! I will have a look!!!

[Lion King]

I don’t think we will have Indiana Jones theme next year because I heard something about being pushed back to 2023.

[Megbricks]

17 minutes ago, DBlegonerd7 said:

I don’t think we will have Indiana Jones theme next year because I heard something about being pushed back to 2023.

Hopefully Lego has back up stuff

[Kim-Kwang-Seok]

On 10/13/2021 at 6:22 PM, Lyichir said:

I'm really confused by the assertion that Lego wanted to cancel Ninjago "at least six times". As far as I'm aware there was only one near-cancellation (the post-2013 one), and not long after that it started being considered an evergreen part of Lego's portfolio.

I'm all for more "action themes", but I hope for that with the understanding that something as long lasting as Ninjago is the exception, not the norm. Few Lego themes last longer than three years and many beloved action themes of earlier years were lucky to get one to two years. Even successful "big bang" themes like Nexo Knights and Chima ended three years in despite HEAVY investment in development, media, and marketing. That's the reality of the toy industry—sometimes you catch lightning in a bottle, and continuing to invest in those kinds of concepts can help them to have a lasting impact, but that doesn't mean that pouring money into new ideas will guarantee success. On the contrary, overinvesting in something that fails to sustain an audience can turn what starts as a modest success into an expensive failure.

I mostly take longer videos from Tommy Anderson and duckbrucks as a source and I think I remember like SEVERAL times where they kind of wanted to cancel the series in the current form. Like it was unclear what would happen after skybound, then it was unclear again after hands of time and if they would just take the ninjago movie universe and basically cancel the tv show universe, etc.

I got the impression that the creators were under constant pressure until like s11-12, when TLG seemed to have realized that they have a constant source of income with ninjago. Even if it does tank at one point - I'd never believe ninjago to be dead, as long as Lego exists, because they could relaunch it at any point even with a break.

Anyway - I'd still hope for some kind of spinoff from either ninjago or City - make an adventure theme; in combination with board + card games (=very cheap and simple production) they could also have the flexibility to touch on several "classic themes" from different periods. I think that would be the safest bet. I'm thinking a pimped version of Johnny thunder, related with either ninjago or city universe, so that it's not something completely new and unrelated.

[MAB]

1 hour ago, Kim-Kwang-Seok said:

I mostly take longer videos from Tommy Anderson and duckbrucks as a source and I think I remember like SEVERAL times where they kind of wanted to cancel the series in the current form. Like it was unclear what would happen after skybound, then it was unclear again after hands of time and if they would just take the ninjago movie universe and basically cancel the tv show universe, etc.

What does that mean? As they frequently "cancel" Ninjago in "the current form". Storylines change, locations and villains change. One person's "cancelling the current form" is another person's "new series". Changing storylines is different to cancelling the entire theme.

1 hour ago, Kim-Kwang-Seok said:

Anyway - I'd still hope for some kind of spinoff from either ninjago or City - make an adventure theme; in combination with board + card games (=very cheap and simple production) they could also have the flexibility to touch on several "classic themes" from different periods. I think that would be the safest bet. I'm thinking a pimped version of Johnny thunder, related with either ninjago or city universe, so that it's not something completely new and unrelated.

LEGO games - especially ones without LEGO pieces in them - seemed to fail miserably. They also cancelled the games line (the ones with real pieces). Cards and board games might be relatively cheap to produce compared to LEGO parts, but if they go down the route of cheap cost, the games will fail again. If a game has little thought in gameplay, it will be a dud. If they don't invest in producing a decent game (using LEGO parts or not), the fact that a crummy game costs little to produce is not that important. If there are no actual pieces, it won't even be bought as a parts pack when they need to slash prices to clear them.

[Lady Bone Demon]

LEGO (board) Games was successful when it first launched- like a shockingly huge success- the only issue was that it couldn't keep that momentum and it was rather quickly showing that it's potential had been fully tapped in regards to what consumers would purchase from LEGO in this regard. Aside from like a one off set like the Harry Potter chessboard I really don't think board games holds that much potential for Lego, especially as a entire theme.

[Kim-Kwang-Seok]

11 hours ago, MAB said:

What does that mean? As they frequently "cancel" Ninjago in "the current form". Storylines change, locations and villains change. One person's "cancelling the current form" is another person's "new series". Changing storylines is different to cancelling the entire theme.

LEGO games - especially ones without LEGO pieces in them - seemed to fail miserably. They also cancelled the games line (the ones with real pieces). Cards and board games might be relatively cheap to produce compared to LEGO parts, but if they go down the route of cheap cost, the games will fail again. If a game has little thought in gameplay, it will be a dud. If they don't invest in producing a decent game (using LEGO parts or not), the fact that a crummy game costs little to produce is not that important. If there are no actual pieces, it won't even be bought as a parts pack when they need to slash prices to clear them.

Call it an exaggeration if you will - I more or less just count the times there were plans to cancel the tv show timeline. Which has never been executed as we know. But if you watch some of duckbricks videos or other stuff, you'll see there were plans a few times - sometimes more and sometimes less concrete.

[Lego David]

19 hours ago, Lady Bone Demon said:

LEGO (board) Games was successful when it first launched- like a shockingly huge success- the only issue was that it couldn't keep that momentum and it was rather quickly showing that it's potential had been fully tapped in regards to what consumers would purchase from LEGO in this regard. Aside from like a one off set like the Harry Potter chessboard I really don't think board games holds that much potential for Lego, especially as a entire theme.

I'm honestly surprised people don't talk about the LEGO Games line more often. It was actually quite a decent hit at the time of its release, but I guess it didn't make any long-term impact...

The Heroica subtheme in particular was amazing... That's probably the closest we'll ever get to a D&D style Fantasy LEGO theme. I am actually quite surprised they made an entire story, characters, and world just for one single Board Games subtheme and didn't use it at all afterwards. It would have made for an amazing minifigure theme had it been released in that formant. 

[karmajay]

I wonder if they could take away from popular monster catching themes for a new adventure theme? Stuff like the video game monster hunter or pokemon/digimon stuff? Seems to be liked by a wide range of age groups.

[Lyichir]

12 minutes ago, karmajay said:

I wonder if they could take away from popular monster catching themes for a new adventure theme? Stuff like the video game monster hunter or pokemon/digimon stuff? Seems to be liked by a wide range of age groups.

It wasn't a minifig-based action theme but you could probably argue that Mixels was an attempt at the same sort of zany monster-collecting franchise as Pokémon/Digimon.

[Meaf]

14 hours ago, karmajay said:

I wonder if they could take away from popular monster catching themes for a new adventure theme? Stuff like the video game monster hunter or pokemon/digimon stuff? Seems to be liked by a wide range of age groups.

That's an interesting idea, but I'm sure if it really works for Lego, at least at minifig scale. Your typical first form monster in a property like Pokemon is small enough that it would be hard for Lego to give any of them a lot of detail without a unique mold, which probably isn't exactly realistic unless there are only a few of them.

[Lego David]

On 10/23/2021 at 7:47 AM, Meadius said:

That's an interesting idea, but I'm sure if it really works for Lego, at least at minifig scale. Your typical first form monster in a property like Pokemon is small enough that it would be hard for Lego to give any of them a lot of detail without a unique mold, which probably isn't exactly realistic unless there are only a few of them.

Well, if say the line consists of about 6 characters per wave, at least a couple of them receiving a new mold isn't exactly unreasonable. CMFs always come up with a bunch of new one-off molds with each new wave, so having that also happen with a line like that wouldn't be impossible. Plus, in other lines like Bionicle or Hero Factory, all the individual characters always got their own unique mask molds. 

I actually do think that this would be a pretty cool idea, all things considered. Maybe it would be even cooler if those characters also came in some sort of pod that can open up and store the character in, similar to the Creator X-pods from the mid-2000's or the Slizers from the late 90's.

[Meaf]

19 hours ago, Lego David said:

Well, if say the line consists of about 6 characters per wave, at least a couple of them receiving a new mold isn't exactly unreasonable. CMFs always come up with a bunch of new one-off molds with each new wave, so having that also happen with a line like that wouldn't be impossible. Plus, in other lines like Bionicle or Hero Factory, all the individual characters always got their own unique mask molds. 

I actually do think that this would be a pretty cool idea, all things considered. Maybe it would be even cooler if those characters also came in some sort of pod that can open up and store the character in, similar to the Creator X-pods from the mid-2000's or the Slizers from the late 90's.

That's a fair point. I was thinking of it being based on an existing franchise, but if it was original and had the budget of a "big bang" series then it would probably work well. Some kind of impulse buy line akin to Ninjago's spinners (like the pods you suggested) seems like a no-brainer too. It actually is kind of strange Lego never really explored a series like that, though I suppose they might have tried and never gotten out of early tests.

[MAB]

On 10/20/2021 at 4:21 PM, Lady Bone Demon said:

LEGO (board) Games was successful when it first launched- like a shockingly huge success- the only issue was that it couldn't keep that momentum and it was rather quickly showing that it's potential had been fully tapped in regards to what consumers would purchase from LEGO in this regard. Aside from like a one off set like the Harry Potter chessboard I really don't think board games holds that much potential for Lego, especially as a entire theme.

Yes, it wasn't a bad start but there were too many that had poor gameplay and weren't that good to play or were copies of traditional games and way more expensive than normal versions. If a game is not fun to play, being made from lego doesn't make it better. You can of course use the parts for something else, but that doesn't help the game. Some people may see the "make up your own rules" that they all seemed to contain as being flexible about gameplay, although I thought it was more that lego didn't play test the games enough to determine the rules / gameplay.

Is the HP set actually a game? I thought this was sold as a scene from the movies.

They have tried licenses before too in games. LOTR is not bad, Batman was a bit rubbish, Hogwarts was OK, SW was OK. But all of those seem to be more about collecting the microfigures than being a good game. Similarly various chess sets based on Castle and Pirates.  Chess is chess. When I play, I prefer a real chess set than a Lego based one. But again, they were good for army building when discounted. Same with the recent LUDO set that went 5o 50% off through lego.com, good parts pack but no better than regular ludo set and still overpriced if used as the game even when heavily discounted. I imagine many of these were bought for parts rather than as a game to play.

On 10/21/2021 at 11:35 AM, Lego David said:

I'm honestly surprised people don't talk about the LEGO Games line more often. It was actually quite a decent hit at the time of its release, but I guess it didn't make any long-term impact...

The Heroica subtheme in particular was amazing... That's probably the closest we'll ever get to a D&D style Fantasy LEGO theme. I am actually quite surprised they made an entire story, characters, and world just for one single Board Games subtheme and didn't use it at all afterwards. It would have made for an amazing minifigure theme had it been released in that formant. 

I think hard-core gamers ignored Heroica as it was pricey (even compared to role playing games) and fiddly to play. And lego fans ignored it as they weren't into that type of game. No doubt there was some overlap in the Venn diagram between those groups but yes, it is rarely spoken about now. 

I think there is another issue there too, longevity. LEGO have a reputation of not sticking with something and will often miss out things if they don't fit with the brand. Look at The Simpsons, missing out Skinner but putting in Edna. No Moe, Barney, Lenny or Carl. Or LOTR, no Eowyn or Witch King, but put in Mouth of Sauron. No Gondor. The best role playing games are developed over time, with new adaptations to keep people interested. Lego treated Heroica as here it is, a complete game and you'll never get anything else to expand it or add to gameplay. That is probably a big reason it is rarely talked about now. They are not an RPG company willing to back their game longer term. They are more in and out. Would people still play D&D or MTG if nothing further was produced after the first couple of years? I doubt it. The companies believed in and backed their games. Lego doesn't. 

[Lego David]

9 hours ago, Meadius said:

It actually is kind of strange Lego never really explored a series like that, though I suppose they might have tried and never gotten out of early tests

Well, to their credit, the Creator X-pods seemed to be quite popular, having a decent run of three years. They apparently even had their own website back in the day, where people posted their creations they made from those sets, but unfortunately that site had been shut down as soon as the sets retired. 

So I definitely think the idea has potential, and I wouldn't mind seeing LEGO take another shot at a similar line (that is l, of course assuming those things will be cheap impulse sets in the 10$ range, and not stupidity overpriced like the Vidyo Beatboxes).  

2 hours ago, MAB said:

Yes, it wasn't a bad start but there were too many that had poor gameplay and weren't that good to play or were copies of traditional games and way more expensive than normal versions. If a game is not fun to play, being made from lego doesn't make it better. You can of course use the parts for something else, but that doesn't help the game. Some people may see the "make up your own rules" that they all seemed to contain as being flexible about gameplay, although I thought it was more that lego didn't play test the games enough to determine the rules / gameplay.

Is the HP set actually a game? I thought this was sold as a scene from the movies.

They have tried licenses before too in games. LOTR is not bad, Batman was a bit rubbish, Hogwarts was OK, SW was OK. But all of those seem to be more about collecting the microfigures than being a good game. Similarly various chess sets based on Castle and Pirates.  Chess is chess. When I play, I prefer a real chess set than a Lego based one. But again, they were good for army building when discounted. Same with the recent LUDO set that went 5o 50% off through lego.com, good parts pack but no better than regular ludo set and still overpriced if used as the game even when heavily discounted. I imagine many of these were bought for parts rather than as a game to play.

I think hard-core gamers ignored Heroica as it was pricey (even compared to role playing games) and fiddly to play. And lego fans ignored it as they weren't into that type of game. No doubt there was some overlap in the Venn diagram between those groups but yes, it is rarely spoken about now. 

I think there is another issue there too, longevity. LEGO have a reputation of not sticking with something and will often miss out things if they don't fit with the brand. Look at The Simpsons, missing out Skinner but putting in Edna. No Moe, Barney, Lenny or Carl. Or LOTR, no Eowyn or Witch King, but put in Mouth of Sauron. No Gondor. The best role playing games are developed over time, with new adaptations to keep people interested. Lego treated Heroica as here it is, a complete game and you'll never get anything else to expand it or add to gameplay. That is probably a big reason it is rarely talked about now. They are not an RPG company willing to back their game longer term. They are more in and out. Would people still play D&D or MTG if nothing further was produced after the first couple of years? I doubt it. The companies believed in and backed their games. Lego doesn't. 

Those are very good points. I was super into the LEGO Games line back in the day, but I agree that most of them weren't all that engaging play experiences (that was probably mostly due to oversaturation, as they released a surprisingly high amount of them after the first year, and with most of them flopping they had several cancelled ones that never ended up hitting store shelves). So if they ever do attempt tapping into the Board Games market again in the future, they definitely should invest more into coming up with engaging gameplay that will keep people interested. 

Edited October 25, 2021 by Lego David

[Meaf]

11 hours ago, Lego David said:

Those are very good points. I was super into the LEGO Games line back in the day, but I agree that most of them weren't all that engaging play experiences (that was probably mostly due to oversaturation, as they released a surprisingly high amount of them after the first year, and with most of them flopping they had several cancelled ones that never ended up hitting store shelves). So if they ever do attempt tapping into the Board Games market again in the future, they definitely should invest more into coming up with engaging gameplay that will keep people interested. 

I think another problem with the games is that they probably just didn't interest most kids. Maybe I'm totally wrong and my assumption is just because of my own experiences, but when Lego games were a thing me and my siblings (who were all kids at the time) were never super interested. Sure, I could have asked for the Ninjago or Harry Potter game, but why would I go for those when I could get real sets that came with minifigures. Again, that may just have been my experience, but I just always was more interested in the regular sets. I'd be a lot more interested in Lego games now, but I don't see them coming back, at least not in their old form.

[Lady Bone Demon]

On 10/25/2021 at 3:57 AM, MAB said:

Is the HP set actually a game? I thought this was sold as a scene from the movies.

it's a functioning chessboard. it aint much but yeah it's technically a lego board game in 2021. 🤷‍♀️

[TeriXeri]

So far the 40174: LEGO Chess set is still being sold as well, for at least another year.

 

2020 Season 13 of Ninjago was the closest to an original LEGO Game in recent times , sets acting as game board, special spinner dice, hearts to represent health etc, and official rules.

The page for the game is still up, with a download link to a PDF : 

https://www.lego.com/en-us/campaigns/kids/ninjago/choose-the-path

 

Edited October 27, 2021 by TeriXeri

[Maple]

Isn't there supposed to be a new theme of 'Lego Games' that's not games but based on video games? 

Plus Monkey Kid is now being sold on Amazon in the USA so that' a nice development. 

[Mr No]

Maybe in the summer

[Maple]

9 hours ago, Mr No said:

Maybe in the summer

Well there is the Overwatch 2 mech that comes out in March and another thing from Dawn Horizons or something (I'm playing Animal Crossing New LEAF so I have no idea on modern games.) comes out in May.

[Mr No]

9 hours ago, Maple said:

Well there is the Overwatch 2 mech that comes out in March and another thing from Dawn Horizons or something (I'm playing Animal Crossing New LEAF so I have no idea on modern games.) comes out in May.

I know, but those are LICENSED themes. Isn't the point of this thread to talk about original in house new themes? 

[Megbricks]

6 hours ago, Mr No said:

I know, but those are LICENSED themes. Isn't the point of this thread to talk about original in house new themes? 

Actually when I created this thread it was for any new themes…Licensed or not. But I would personally  be more interested in an in house theme. As you said, maybe in the summer!

anyone remembers when we first saw the codename leaf appear for the Mario theme?

 

 

[Maple]

7 hours ago, Mr No said:

I know, but those are LICENSED themes. Isn't the point of this thread to talk about original in house new themes? 

No.
Title of thread... "New themes in 2022?"
Doesn't say anything about original themes.