Least successful Lego line/set (Galidor excl.)

[Zane]

Don't really know. But I got have a full set of Aquanaut sets and all but one Rock Raiders sets. Yay!

TT

[blueandwhite]

I'm not sure. Afterall, other than the beancounters who work for LEGO, who knows what theme was the biggest failure. Jack Stone is certainly up there though. Trying to introduce maco-figs in the place of the existing (and extremely successful) minifig just doesn't work. If a child who is 5 yrs old is mature enough for minifigs, then why create a larger version. There isn't a big demographic between DUPLO and LEGO.

As to the Basketball line. Allthough I think it was a terrible idea, LEGO must have thought it did well enough to pick up the NHL licence (though that may have already been in the pipeline).

My personal opinion is that there are too many failed lines to count. With no continuity of themes, children lose interest and LEGO suffers. Afterall, how many one-year lines with oddly coloured bricks can one child endure? It killed castle, it killed space, and it killed the pirate lines. What's worse is that the new lines were usually one-shot deals, gathering only the smallest of followings. So, as I said earlier, I think LEGO has had so many failures that it would be inappropriate to single out one.

Later.

[Sting]

I'd probably have to say Star Wars. Who buys those sets anyway? I guess lego thought there would be a huge devoted following of Star Wars who would buy every set. Now THAT backfired!

*yoda* (lol...)

I wouldn't at all think Time Cruisers was an utter failure. They brought out Time Twisters a year later. I doubt it did incredible, but it couldn't have been as bad as Jack Stone or the utterly painful Basketball. (I still see hundreds of those crappy things everywhere)

[Clone comander Nodra 999]

dont hate a theme just because they only had one line. I loved artic and divers more than space and starwars just because how well they reflect upon real life.

Also u forgot to mention scala, belville and clikits.never in my lif have i heard a girl say"i want lego".EVER! lego shouldve shot thos lines a looooong time ago

and death to jack stone

[Ickelpete]

Znap!

This must have been a complete disaster from TLC's point of view aswell all that new production tooling and then not selling very well.

It appears on Ebay all the time and a lot of it goes unsold

My local toy shop brings out load of accessory bags each christmas in a hope someone might buy them.

On the football theme I recently bought a lot of the accessory packs for the footballs as I am planning to build a Great Ball contraption at some stage :-D

[JoeMI6]

I agree Pete, i got given a Znap set, and i hated it. It recently got thrown out with all the regular garbage.

[Mithrandir]

I've never heard of Galidor before, so I checked it out on peeron... wtf? That's not even remotely Lego.

Other failures:

Technic from 1996-2004 (especially robo-riders, Speed Slammers, Throwbots/Slizers)

Arctic Alpha Team?

I'm not so sure about this one, but everywhere I go I still see these sets on shelves, on clearance, not moving. Which is weird, because personally, I thought this was a great line. Brought back memories of my beloved Ice Planet 2002 :)

[mutant piraka]

one word that will break the rule:

GALIDOR

never been released in UK X-D

[Michael Huffman]

I got a Time Cruisers set the other day and I think its really good. Its so innovative with all its features, but I can understand why people think they're stupid. I've only see this one set though. The others may make me think differently.

On one hand, it looked like the Time Cruisers was just a ploy to get rid of themed elements out of Lego's warehouse, but on the other hand, I'd kill to find a #6493 Flying Time Vessel still on the shelf for full price... well, maybe half priced. ;-) I think at the time, the line angered a lot of AFOLs, but now with the movie tie-ins, the color changes, the reduced element count, the cost-cutting measure Lego is taking, the theme really wasn't that bad...

Now, Galidor on the other hand, wtf where they thinking? Toy companies should stick to making toys, not cartoons or kid's shows. Lego is good at coming up with basic story ideas for their toys, but beyond that, they miss the mark... I understand why Lego wants to partner with Lucas, Warner-Brothers, & Cartoon Network, but Lego back off on some of the licenses deals...

--Mike.

[Legoman]

well i think probbly dino attack it was so silly i still see it on the shevles well it probbly its jusat me but it was a really stupid

and as every 1 knows basket ball was just megablocks

[Dino_Bot]

I was under the impression that Insectoids didn't sell well, since I never hear anyone ever mention it...

[Sting]

I was under the impression that Insectoids didn't sell well, since I never hear anyone ever mention it...

Wasn't it also the last proper Lego Space Theme? (I dont think Life on Mars was the same Space Theme as Blacktron whereas UFO, Insectoids, ect were all still part of the space theme)

[gusmoore17]

Talking about:

1.- I refuse myself to believe Aquanauts, Rock Raiders or Divers are failures!!! Of course not, at least in Mexico they were the most sold ones through ages and as long as I have come to meet the international lego comunity, they are as loved in the comunity as the rest of all the sucesfull ones (Castles, Pirates, SW, HP, Space, City, etc, etc, etc.) Just check this: if you're a good collector, you at least should have one of those...

2.- From 2001 to 2002 no one can't deny that the sets out that years were the worst ever!! From that years not even the HP or the SW sets could being saved (how could you explain that most of the sets released from these lines 2001-2002 were re-designed in 2004?).

3.- These gets me to other questionable sets: OK, 2001-2002, the NBA and the Hockey sets were released and these were obviously failures, also Galidor, Life on Mars (No one has talked of this non-so-called sets), and other failures such as Jack Stone and Explorer were released these years. So, I absolutely support the idea that during this "DARK PERIOD" of TLC, Bionicle line was the one who kept Lego alive.

4.- In 2003 we could finally see some light at the end of the road: ORIENT EXPEDITION!!!

5.- I think that since 2003 and of course 2004, TLC has achieved a crescent number of fans and sucesful lines, so Lego stopped depending on the Bionicle sets to keep live, and as I have already said, lines such as OE, HP3, HP4, SW, ROTS, KKII 1-2, Ferrari, World City, City, Vikings, the re-designes from HP and SW Classics, Bionicle, etc., appeared in the Intl. Markets and they prove to be a new and extraordinary revival of the Lego Co. around the globe.

6.- What's Znap?? So, I guess that's a failure too, right? *sweet*

[mutant piraka]

i forgot to add Znap

people must have Znapped it over their legs

[Dino_Bot]

I was under the impression that Insectoids didn't sell well, since I never hear anyone ever mention it...

Wasn't it also the last proper Lego Space Theme? (I dont think Life on Mars was the same Space Theme as Blacktron whereas UFO, Insectoids, ect were all still part of the space theme)

I think so, I didn't see any more Space themes after that! I loved insectoids, I liked the shiny trans green colors.

[Lord Thrawn]

I got all the insectoids but the Arachnobase. Very cool.

I say Z'Nap too. Worse than Useless. Compared to that, I don't understand why people hate Bionicle!

[Dino_Bot]

People hate Bionicle?

I wasn't aware of that!

How?!

[snefroe]

insectoids was like most space themes before they disappeared from the radar, limited to one year only, so it's quite normal if you haven't heard much of it on EB. That'll soon change, btw... ;-)

life on Mars was part of space but obviously not good enough to make a very good impression, even tho i like several smaller sets a lot...

i wouldn't consider znap to be a "lego line". it only has the same producing company... I've heard of galidor, but never seen it, it seems i'm the lucky one here :-P

One particular theme that i never liked at all, was Roboforce. Roboforce was a space theme of only 4 crappy sets, all more or less in the shape of robots and the minifigs weren't spectacular either, not to say very bad...

http://www.bricklink.com/catalogList.asp?catType=S&catID=307

unfortunately, space wasn't doing very well back then (1997). they tried to relaunch it with UFO but that also wasn't very great ...

[jof]

dont hate a theme just Also u forgot to mention scala, belville and clikits.never in my lif have i heard a girl say"i want lego".EVER! lego shouldve shot thos lines a looooong time ago

Clickits YES!

ZNAP Yes!

Explore Yes, especially those silly musical thingys

Galidor - I'd never even heard of it until I saw some of the dolls in the Legoland Windsor clearance tent!

Fabuland, but they seem to go for quite a bit on ebay, so maybe they were protected by their low numbers.

Basketball! - what was the point of that in europe?

I don't think scala or belville (or paradisa for that) were ever produced in huge numbers, so their rarity has ensured the price remained fairly high (even though I don't think they were worth the price).

Certainly I find it difficult to pick up good belville sets for my daughter, in fact we have only ever seen 1 set in the sales & got that then & there, & have you seen the 2nd hand prices on ebay!

As for the future, well who knows, at this rate they will probably pick up a few dodgy licenses, but just because the kids don't like them doesn't mean they are not good parts packs.

(Regrets not getting more of the original star wars sets when they were reduced after christmas 3 or so years ago after over production)

Jof

[snefroe]

dont hate a theme just Also u forgot to mention scala, belville and clikits.never in my lif have i heard a girl say"i want lego".EVER! lego shouldve shot thos lines a looooong time ago

Clickits YES!

ZNAP Yes!

Explore Yes, especially those silly musical thingys

Galidor - I'd never even heard of it until I saw some of the dolls in the Legoland Windsor clearance tent!

Fabuland, but they seem to go for quite a bit on ebay, so maybe they were protected by their low numbers.

Basketball! - what was the point of that in europe?

I don't think scala or belville (or paradisa for that) were ever produced in huge numbers, so their rarity has ensured the price remained fairly high (even though I don't think they were worth the price).

Certainly I find it difficult to pick up good belville sets for my daughter, in fact we have only ever seen 1 set in the sales & got that then & there, & have you seen the 2nd hand prices on ebay!

As for the future, well who knows, at this rate they will probably pick up a few dodgy licenses, but just because the kids don't like them doesn't mean they are not good parts packs.

(Regrets not getting more of the original star wars sets when they were reduced after christmas 3 or so years ago after over production)

Jof

i always liked Fabuland. I only had this bear, i believe it was, on a motorcycle, but my neice had quite a collection. Unfortunately, the theme was a bit boring...

we have several Belville sets here on a constant basis. I think it's even increasing in numbers. It seems many lego fans buy the sets for the parts, not sure what they do with the rest tho.

I think the idea behind basket ball was "let's give this to europe as well, they're buying anything anyway". For any european, however, it was clear that Europe would not buy this. In any case, shops are still stuck with these sets ...

[gylman]

i always liked Fabuland. I only had this bear, i believe it was, on a motorcycle, but my neice had quite a collection. Unfortunately, the theme was a bit boring...

we have several Belville sets here on a constant basis. I think it's even increasing in numbers. It seems many lego fans buy the sets for the parts, not sure what they do with the rest tho.

I think the idea behind basket ball was "let's give this to europe as well, they're buying anything anyway". For any european, however, it was clear that Europe would not buy this. In any case, shops are still stuck with these sets ...

At one point I heard someone said that Belville was the single best selling line for Lego in Europe. And sells very well on eBay and frequnetly sold out at S@H. Definitely not a loser line.

Fabuland ran for a decade! Call it Jack Stone for the 80's because it certainly was "joonerized", but it definitely was NOT a loser line.

Basketball is where I began this thread oh these many months ago. And it remains the most useless and failed line of Lego in my opinion. I specifically excluded Galidor in this thread, and Clickits and Znap are not Lego. Even in North Am, people are selling boxes of those minifigs for about a dollar each or less.

[Hinckley]

Fabuland, but they seem to go for quite a bit on ebay, so maybe they were protected by their low numbers.

What?! If Fabuland was unsuccesful why did it run for 10 years? Fabuland was an incredibly successful line, and I'm saying that as impartial observer...

Sincerely,

Mark, The author of Fabuland Housewives on BrickZone.net ;)

[conductorjoe]

Bionicle! Low sales, no popularity, total flop...

JK X-D

I would have to say Outback, like Xwingyoda said. I only saw it in 1 S@H catalog, ever. And only 4 sets? Pfft. They probably did it for some Australian guy in the Lego Co who was having a birthday or something. X-D

[Mithrandir]

People hate Bionicle?

I wasn't aware of that!

How?!

I don't really hate Bionicle, but I don't really like it, either.

Last May, I got a new office job, and I went to TRU to look for a few office toys to stick in my cube. While there, I found the Lego aisle full of this newfangled stuff (the last time I touched Lego was probably back in 1994) called "Bionicle". To be honest, at first it looked really damn cool, even if it was completely unrecognizable compared to the Lego I used to know. So I decided to test one out; I bought this little bugger for $4, brought him home, built him, and was pretty impressed.

S@H was having a bunch of 50% off sales at the time, so I grabbed a bunch more Bionicle sets too, but after the 4th or 5th one, I got really bored. I guess maybe it's because I started branching out into other areas of Lego (Alpha Team and Technic) and got annoyed at the limitedness of the Bionicle pieces (there's really only so much you can do with ball joints). Granted, sometimes they come with a really cool piece that you can add to a MOC somewhere (like this), but for the most part I felt that they just can't compare to the other Lego lines.

And THEN I found out that Lego was discontinuing thousands of pieces this year due to costs, which really soured my opinion of Bionicle, since the sets mostly use very specific pieces that you can't find in most sets, meaning that Bionicle probably takes up a huge number of unique pieces, and some really cool pieces aren't going to be made anymore because of this.

So I'm just not really keen on it anymore. But I do have to give it props for A) bringing me back into Lego, and B) keeping TLC afloat for the past few years so that we can have all these other cool sets.