Karalora

I love the idea of resurrecting Adventurers in theory, but the one big caveat I have is that the classic theme tended to be very othering toward people of color. The protagonists were all implicitly white, and you can tell because the face prints for the Indian and Chinese characters had distinctly "ethnic" features, marking them as different. Fortunately, LEGO doesn't do that anymore--the same shapes for eyes and mouth are used for minifigs of every implied ethnicity. A multinational hero team who travels the globe helping out the downtrodden in whatever way is needed (retrieving stolen cultural treasures, disaster relief, etc.) could be a really great spin on the genre.

At this point I feel I should ask: what are the essential elements of Classic Space and/or Castle that aren't being fulfilled by the Castle-esque or Space-esque elements included in other themes, licensed or otherwise? Is it an aesthetic? Is it that you don't want to have to pick and mix in order to get things that used to be conveniently present in a single theme?

Right, and it's got rounded ears like a big cat, not pointed ones like a Catwoman.

To me it looks more like a bear or panther hood than Felis catus. I'm most excited for the new color of the tree costume!

Oh, TLG could very well be wrong about what kids like, and they often are. I think we see that every time an obviously kid-focused theme fails to take off (although I applaud the experimentation--we need more experimentation and risk-taking from our entertainment, and less falling back on what is proven. Otherwise we will completely stagnate). I agree that we AFOLs are big kids, but I don't know how well that translates into being into the same things as current kids. I think it mostly means that we're still into the same things we liked when we were kids (i.e. geekdom in a nutshell), and that might keep us in touch with the younger generations, or it might not. It depends on the details. You're probably right that those three themes in particular are more popular with adults than kids, at least as LEGO sets. But I don't know if you can extrapolate from that, that hypothetical unlicensed versions would do better with kids than the licensed ones.

I'm not doing that? I'm just saying how I think TLG approaches the issue. For better or worse, they seem to mostly market large, complicated, standalone sets to AFOLs, and multi-set minifigure-based themes to kids. If we're wondering why licensed fantasy (and fantasy-adjacent) themes seem to have chased classic Castle off the shelves, it's probably because those licensed themes appeal more to kids in the areas Castle excelled in, than Castle itself. I'm not telling anyone they shouldn't criticize TLG's marketing patterns when they starve us of the kinds of sets we crave. "Historical-ish knights defending fortresses" isn't the shape of the fantasy medieval aesthetic genre right now. Maybe it will be again someday. On another note, is anyone weirded out by the fact that this line of discussion wound up in this thread instead of the "are classic themes dead" thread? Should we move it over there instead?

Why assume that the primary appeal of Castle for kids is European-style knights defending a fortress? I think kids go more for the aesthetic and fantasy elements--the crenellations and banners on the castle structure, swords and bows, wizards and spells, DRAGONS, princesses. Between Harry Potter, Ninjago, and Disney, these are all pretty well covered. That's another strong possibility. LEGO was obviously never going to make a licensed GOT set, and they probably wanted to avoid anything that was too easy to repurpose in that direction, for the sake of their reputation. However, GOT has now ended in a big wet thud, so there might be an opportunity to shift the genre back.

This might be the most sensible take of all. It's not that any one licensed (or unlicensed) theme pushed Classic Space off the shelves...it's that when these high-tech elements are so common across multiple themes, what's left for vanilla Space to offer? And you could probably make a similar argument re: Castle.

I think there's also a decent chance that the licensees will refuse to do business unless TLG agrees to pull the in-house theme(s) that would compete directly with the branded merch. Big media conglomerates would like very much to be the last word in entertainment for their most profitable genres. Let kids build their own spaceships and the next thing you know, they won't be interested in Star Wars at all anymore! (This is manifestly not true, but it's an example of how megacorps think. It's not enough to be successful, or even hugely successful--they want monopolies.)

Lots! Go through this thread for some examples (including an all-Halloween wave of 31 as an "advent calendar").

Don't get me wrong, I'm not here to disparage the imaginations of modern kids, I just get the impression that the focus of play has shifted in the past few decades. It used to be that let's-pretend games were described in terms of a genre or broad category--Cops & Robbers, say, or Ninjas, or Fairy Princesses. Nowadays I think kids are more likely to go straight to a specific media franchise--they don't just play Superheroes, they play Avengers. They may then of course spin a wild scenario the likes of which has never been seen in any piece of Avengers media. (I think little girls are especially notorious for doing that sort of thing with their dolls.) It's not that "licensed character play" is itself anything new, it's that it seems to have ousted the alternatives from the landscape of children's common make-believe games. And maybe that's mainly because there's so much media to draw on, that anything a child might be interested in will have a full stable of established characters to pick from and project into.

Seconding! Last year's Halloween BAM characters were terrific!

It's the main one depicting Legoland itself, available for sale only at the theme park. I don't have the box in front of me (and I haven't built it yet), but from memory, the builds included are the entry gate, Dragon coaster, a Pirates ride, the observation tower, and a couple of smaller things. The tipping point in my decision to buy was when I realized it comes with stickers of every Legoland location and you choose the one you want for the sign. I mean...

I won't pretend that wasn't one of my thoughts... But I don't know if I'll actually get this one. I've already bought the new Disney Castle and the Hocus Pocus cottage and a $100 LEGOLAND set this year, and that's just the big stuff, not counting all the smaller sets and Bricklink purchases I've splurged on. At some point I do have to ask myself where I expect to keep all these models when they're not on display.

I hate it as much as anyone, but the unfortunate fact is that children's narrative imaginations have come to be dominated by the characters they see in movies and TV shows. Nowadays when kids play "let's pretend," they almost always pretend to be the characters from their favorite movies and shows, rather than unique characters that they make up. Toys that feature recognizable named characters and familiar scenarios are going to attract more attention and interest than toys that just present a basic unformed idea.

It's bizarre how little attention the actual protagonists of the movie get.

Before I get too far into speculation I should probably note that the only Animal Crossing game I'm familiar with is New Horizon. That said, here's what I would expect for a proper theme: The player-character's house (maybe as a Creator-type set so we can choose the style) with a customizable minifig of the human villager The town square and Resident Services building with Tom Nook and Isabelle, maybe K.K. Slider holding his concert out front The museum with Blathers (and a variety of small builds representing the exhibits) The general store and/or the clothing store with the appropriate shopkeeper character(s) At least two neighbor houses, as separate sets or together in one, with the neighbor minifigs The airport with a plane and the two Dodos A small "wild" island landscape At least one CMF wave to supply alternate neighbors That's kind of your minimum to really recreate the ACNH experience in LEGO form--not your bare minimum, but enough to make you feel like you can build a satisfying little village and then customize it.

Presumably the intended market is fans of the game who would expect to see their own player character represented. Besides, "Male Villager" and "Female Villager" are considered iconic enough to appear in Nintendo crossover games like Mario Kart.

The other very strong possibility is that they'll do the male and female versions of the player character.

Harv's Hippie Commune Island might make a good set, with all the fun vendor NPCs and their individual trailers and stalls.

It will be interesting to see which characters get included in the Animal Crossing line--there are far more potential neighbors than even an evergreen theme can put in actual sets, as well as several "standard" NPCs that will appear in every game. Tom Nook, Isabelle, and K.K. Slider are probably shoe-ins, but I'm wondering whether there are any neighbors that are considered especially iconic.

It does sometimes seem like advanced MOCers are doing their best to obscure the fact that they're building with LEGO at all, doesn't it?

A potted bamboo plant might be nice, though it's really easy to MOC out of existing pieces already.

That seems unlikely, mainly because that's not what playing AC feels like. Swooping a digi-fig around and bouncing it on enemies and trying to get coins within a time limit is about as close as you can get to playing a Mario game with physical objects, but AC is a completely different video game experience. I think it dovetails with LEGO much better. I still want my Legend of Zelda sets though. Where's my Great Deku Tree, LEGO? Why haven't you launched a line of Tears of the Kingdom sets revolving around building monster-obliteration vehicles and sticking their horns to sticks to make wicked-looking weapons?

It's hard to imagine how they would, since building your neighborhood is the focus of an AC game.