2011 Alien Conquest

[caperberry]

Mark Stafford, a LEGO product designer on the AC sets (and possibly he was the lead or only designer?) spoke at AFOLCON last week. It seems there WAS going to be another wave of AC, and I got the impression sets had already been designed. It seems LEGO had to drop a theme this year, I'm not sure if this was down to the number of themes and/or parts coming out, so they had to make a tough choice. They couldn't drop a licensed theme as they'd obviously already paid the license.

He was clearly saddened about this. When I mentioned the cool Mech shown on this concept art board, he said that was a set intended for 2012. Such a shame!!

The concept of this year's wave was really cool too. The first wave was the aliens attacking Earth; so the second wave would have been set on the alien planet with us attacking them.

Edited May 7, 2012 by caperberry

[CMP]

And that helicopter looks so badass too...oh, well. I prefer Dino and Monster Fighters, but it's still a shame.

[caperberry]

I also love the brain jar in the UFO top left!

[Vindicare]

I see the same thing, and it's not just those themes. Atlantis, Space Police, Pharoh's Quest. Kids always go for the human faction, probably cause their more relatable/identifiable and in some cases just look cooler.

I think monster fighters will change that since the monsters are the cooler part of the sets

And that's really too bad, because 7952 UFO Abduction is just too cool a set. The light brick that holds it's prey in it's deadly clutches! Then the fact that you can pounce on them and actually abduct them is beyond cool.

Edit: that upper left one I'm assuming is the mothership, that is awesome! And a better looking mothership than what we got.

Edited May 8, 2012 by Legocrazy81

[Algernon]

That really is a pity. I guess this just reinforces the fact that licensed LEGO themes are quickly eclipsing the more traditional ones, and LEGO purists are suffering for it. There's a reason why the Cuusoo projects that succeed are all based on established intellectual properties... how can there be demand for something that doesn't exist on the toy market in any meaningful way?

The only upside to this is that LEGO hasn't necessarily forgotten about Space, and we're likely to see a new unlicensed theme in the future. Just probably not until some of the current licenses run out.

[Si-MOCs]

That really is sad news... I knew how excited he was to bring us the AC line...

And attack on alien planet would have been a great wave...

I'm guessing they didn't say if there was much of a possibility of releasing it later?

[WhiteFang]

I agreed it is a great pity not to see Alien Conquest second wave. I am totally enjoying this theme very much despite of my late arrival. There are lots of possibilities and imagination by putting both Modern City and futuristic sci-fi action into play. I really wish there is more to come or at least a Space theme like this will prove more interesting to me.

[LEGOman273]

Noooooooooooooooooooo!!

That really is sad news... I knew how excited he was to bring us the AC line...

And attack on alien planet would have been a great wave...

I'm guessing they didn't say if there was much of a possibility of releasing it later?

Perhaps they could change the designs a bit, add new 'Figs, and call it Space Marines.

[caperberry]

And that's really too bad, because 7952 UFO Abduction is just too cool a set. The light brick that holds it's prey in it's deadly clutches! Then the fact that you can pounce on them and actually abduct them is beyond cool.

Exactly, the best thing about this theme was the slightly dark humour and B-movie shlock horror. I still get a kick out of putting a Clinger on a minifig.

[Faefrost]

Oh man that picture and concept sound so cool too. I love that tank truck that looks like it compliments the EDF HQ, and the hazmat suit guys!!! Plus this could easily have been where we saw the Space Marines used.

Is there any chance they might return to this theme next year?

And that's really too bad, because 7952 UFO Abduction is just too cool a set. The light brick that holds it's prey in it's deadly clutches! Then the fact that you can pounce on them and actually abduct them is beyond cool.

Edit: that upper left one I'm assuming is the mothership, that is awesome! And a better looking mothership than what we got.

I think the abduction set was the best seller of he alien ones. And overall the most appealing. The tripods and the big mother ship just didn't find a good target niche. I know some AFOL'S love the mother ship, largely for all of its odd parts, it is a weird, oversized hard to display piece that is awkward to play with and doesn't pack a lot of minifigs value for its size. The blue human hero sets suffered from holes in the opposite way. The top end HQ set was grabbed off the shelves and is probably the years best single set. An all time classic. But all that sits on the shelf price wise between it and the dinky little ATV set is the upper mid priced jet copter, which is really kind of an old school ugly and unexciting. It needed a ground vehicle set in the $30 price point. ( lesson there buyers do not treat the hero and villain sets the same. Just because the line has a $30 villain set does not eliminate the need for a hero set in that range.)

[jadedomg]

I loved alien conquest and that photo at the top of the page is so amazing and sad at the same time. The tank really does compliment the HQ and the mothership is great.

[ZO6]

That is sad news that AC was shelved for this year. In my mind it presents a glimmer of hope that the theme may resurface next year, but perhaps that's just wishful thinking. In my opinion it was one of the best (if not THE best) space theme from the past 15 years. I really loved the throw back to classic space with the ADU vehicles, and I thought the builds for all of them were good old fashioned brick stacking (which is what I love). The alien faction presented some interesting designs, even though I wasn't quite as keen on the colour scheme or some of the parts used.

Thanks Alien Conquest, it was fun while it lasted! Hopefully TLG's in house themes don't get pushed to the side too much more by liscenced ones...

[BrickBucket]

I though AC was a cool idea, the aliens are in my opinion the best Lego has ever designed and I really loved the tripod invader! But the problem I had with it was the Alien ships where nice, but had next to no interior. The aliens had no equivalent of the Earth Defence HQ. It was a very vehicle heavy theme. I was hoping for saucers like the ones in X-Com UFO defence with rooms and interesting bits inside them.

[CarrollFilms]

I hope I'm not the only one that thinks "Tripod Invader" is a bit like the one in War of the Worlds.

[Graysmith]

Wow, that's awful if it's true. Alien Conquest was (still is) easily the best space-related theme LEGO has done in the last 20 years. Nothing even comes close, as far as I'm concerned. I didn't love every single aspect of it, but the aliens and the homage to old alien invasion movies was so spot-on. It also lended it some fitting humour to make it more suitable for kids, while still appealing to adults who got all the classic alien invasion tropes like the tripod, the farmer abduction and such. A real home run from LEGO, in my opinion, so it's sad to hear that there were plans for more.. I can only hope that Stafford & Co. will be allowed to show off the scrapped models.. It'd be great just to see what they had in mind.

[vexorian]

Farewell (it is true and we are pretty sure by now)

Alien Conquest , dubbed the reason I now hate LEGO star wars and licensed sets in general.

At least the other day I was lucky to find an AC Alien hanging out in the resale fair around here. I guess some returned set from the US ended up around here and I could only find the single Alien and missed the rest of the set.

[Legoroni]

I'm sad now. AC was what really got my love for Lego space. I loved the figure designs and the models were great. Now, if only the Galaxy Patrol Figure from S7 CMF was in ADU blue.

Not sure if you've seen this, but it's pretty cool:

Now the ninjago spinners don't seem so pointless.

Edited May 10, 2012 by Legoroni

[Faefrost]

I'm sad now. AC was what really got my love for Lego space. I loved the figure designs and the models were great. Now, if only the Galaxy Patrol Figure from S7 CMF was in ADU blue.

Not sure if you've seen this, but it's pretty cool:

Now the ninjago spinners don't seem so pointless.

Oh man there is so much good stuff in that huge MOC. But I think my absolute favorite is the line of aliens waiting to get into Hooters.

[ETAV8R]

What an awesome MOC!!!!

Not sure what Ghostbusters is gonna do about the aliens but who knows maybe it would help if they crossed the beams.

I also see that the new heavy lift helo for city forest rangers has been changed up a bit to carry a component of ADU Troops.

Just noticed the ADU heavy canon in tow, looks fantastic!

Edited May 10, 2012 by ETAV8R

[Faefrost]

What an awesome MOC!!!!

Not sure what Ghostbusters is gonna do about the aliens but who knows maybe it would help if they crossed the beams.

I also see that the new heavy lift helo for city forest rangers has been changed up a bit to carry a component of ADU Troops.

Just noticed the ADU heavy canon in tow, looks fantastic!

I think the Ghostbusters have been called to deal with that demonically possessed talking tow truck that seems to be roaming the streets.

And I am laughing, I just bought that heavy lift helicopter expressly for this same purpose. Refitting it as an ADU transport. Or maybe to swoop the Legoland President in in an attempt to negotiate with them? ( why oh why do I keep picturing Steven Colberts animated President from Monsters vs Aliens?)

[1980-Something-Space-Guy]

Well, I hope this means we are getting a new space theme. One can dream...

[AndyC]

Wow, that's awful if it's true. Alien Conquest was (still is) easily the best space-related theme LEGO has done in the last 20 years. Nothing even comes close, as far as I'm concerned. I didn't love every single aspect of it, but the aliens and the homage to old alien invasion movies was so spot-on. It also lended it some fitting humour to make it more suitable for kids, while still appealing to adults who got all the classic alien invasion tropes like the tripod, the farmer abduction and such. A real home run from LEGO, in my opinion, so it's sad to hear that there were plans for more.. I can only hope that Stafford & Co. will be allowed to show off the scrapped models.. It'd be great just to see what they had in mind.

Well hopefully if they got as far as designing all the models then they aren't exactly 'scrapped' so much as 'postponed' and we might yet see an AC line next year. I'm keeping my fingers crossed personally, it's certainly been one of the best original themes in some time and I'd love to see more of it.

[Dannylonglegs]

Well hopefully if they got as far as designing all the models then they aren't exactly 'scrapped' so much as 'postponed' and we might yet see an AC line next year. I'm keeping my fingers crossed personally, it's certainly been one of the best original themes in some time and I'd love to see more of it.

I agree wholeheartedly! That would be beautiful! I adore this theme and feel like there's still so much potential. The one wave we did get was solid gold.

~Insectoid Aristocrat

[Faefrost]

Well hopefully if they got as far as designing all the models then they aren't exactly 'scrapped' so much as 'postponed' and we might yet see an AC line next year. I'm keeping my fingers crossed personally, it's certainly been one of the best original themes in some time and I'd love to see more of it.

Just so long as they don't rework the models into lime green neon orange and call them "Ninja's in Space".

[Ardelon]

snip

The concept of this year's wave was really cool too. The first wave was the aliens attacking Earth; so the second wave would have been set on the alien planet with us attacking them.

Humans attacking/invading others, even in retaliation? That doesn't seem right for LEGO...

(Not to mention that the skyscrapers n the background evidently place the setting on Earth.)

Though it would be nice if the Galaxy Partol guy was whetting our appetite for a continuation of the theme. It might be that he was only included because the theme was axed, though this hypothesis would depend on how long it takes to develop a CM theme vs when TLG decided to scrap AC.

In any case, a successs of the Space Marines on CUUSOO might get them to reconsider...

Edited May 23, 2012 by Ardelon