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Thanks for clarifying your terms. But if you mean themes with story and characters, why are you including City and Creator?

As for 2024, going from the Brickset list I count: Animal Crossing - licensed Architecture - licensed Art - mixed licensed and unlicensed, we'll count it as unlicensed here Brickheadz - licensed Bricklink Designer Program - unlicensed City - unlicensed Classic - unlicensed Collectible Minifigures - mixed licensed and unlicensed, we'll count it as unlicensed here Creator - unlicensed DC Comics Super Heroes - licensed Despicable Me - licensed Disney - licensed Dreamzzz - unlicensed Duplo - mixed licensed and unlicensed, but mostly licensed in 2024! I'll count it as a licensed theme here Fortnite - licensed Friends - unlicensed Gabby's Dollhouse - licensed Gear - not a theme for the purposes of this list Harry Potter - licensed Icons - mixed licensed and unlicensed, we'll count it as unlicensed here Ideas - mixed licensed and unlicensed, but mostly licensed in 2024 Jurassic World - licensed Marvel Super Heroes - licensed Minecraft - licensed Miscellaneous - unlicensed Monkie Kid - unlicensed Ninjago - unlicensed Promotional - mostly unlicensed GWPs, so I'll count it as a theme here Seasonal - unlicensed Sonic the Hedgehog - licensed Speed Champions - licensed Star Wars - licensed Super Mario - licensed Technic - mostly licensed in 2024, with some unlicensed sets The Legend of Zelda - licensed Wednesday - licensed Wicked - licensed I would count as unlicensed themes for 2024: Art Bricklink Designer Program City City Space (I'm counting it separately from City here) Classic Collectible Minifigures Creator Dreamzzz Friends Icons Botanicals (I'm counting it separately from Icons here) Ideas (a few unlicensed sets) Miscellaneous Monkie Kid Ninjago Promotional Seasonal Technic Space (I'm counting it separately from the licensed Technic sets here) So, that's about the same number of unlicensed themes as in 2011, while the licensed portfolio has grown.

Advanced Models - mixed licensed and unlicensed. We'll call it unlicensed for the purposes of this thread. Architecture - licensed. Atlantis - unlicensed. Bricks and More - unlicensed. Cars - licensed. Castle - unlicensed. City - unlicensed. Collectible Minifigures - unlicensed. Creator - unlicensed. DC Comics Super Heroes figures for San Diego Comic Con - licensed. Duplo - mixed licensed and unlicensed. We'll call it unlicensed for the purposes of this thread. Education - unlicensed, but not a regular retail theme. Games - unlicensed. Gear - not a theme for the purposes of this thread. Harry Potter - licensed. Hero Factory - unlicensed. Ideas - only licensed sets in 2011. Life of George - unlicensed. Master Builder Academy - unlicensed, but not a regular retail theme. Mindstorms - unlicensed. Miscellaneous - unlicensed, but not a regular retail theme. Ninjago - unlicensed. Pharoah's Quest - unlicensed. Pirates of the Caribbean - licensed. Power Functions - unlicensed, but does it really count as its own theme? Promotional - mixed licensed and unlicensed, doesn't count as a theme for this thread. Racers - unlicensed. Seasonal - unlicensed. Space (Alien Conquest) - unlicensed. Spongebob Squarepants - licensed. Star Wars - licensed. Technic - unlicensed except for the flagship set. For the purposes of this thread, I count the following unlicensed themes in 2011 from the Brickset list: Advanced Models Bricks and More Castle City Collectible Minifigures Creator Duplo Games Hero Factory Life of George Master Builder Academy Mindstorms Ninjago Pharoah's Quest Racers Seasonal Space Technic Ok, that's not quite twenty (20) but it's pretty close. I'll give it to you.

Off the top of my head, I don't think there's ever been a year with twenty (20) distinct original themes. Can you please name the year and list the themes?

I suggest that any future threads on this topic be merged into this one. They're always the same.

It's high time for a Snowspeeder remake with a new bespoke windscreen. Do I expect this Hot Rod T-47 to have a new bespoke windscreen? No.

Well, yeah, maybe, with some changes. Mandalorian armor is on the low-tech, medieval-expy end of the sci-fi armor scale, compared to, say, Iron Man's nanotech suit. But that's just as much my choice as it is your choice to accept the Nightmare King from Dreamzzz into your Castle setting as a bounty hunter. Not that anyone had actually said anything about accepting Boba Fett into their Castle setting and not accepting the Nightmare King. But you do you, Imposter RiddlerDC Turtle. You do you.

That's a good take on it. Personally, ever since I was a kid I've also had a hard time finding other uses for minifigs with sci-fi armor patterns, etc., as in most action themes, but it's not like I'm very interested in collecting all the different variants of Star Wars or Marvel armor either. So that has more to do with the sci-fi armor aesthetic than with licensed or in-house IP status.

Since I've mentioned Journey to the West and Don Quixote in the same post before, I think it would be pretty funny if Monkie Kid was replaced by a present-day-fantasy mechs-and-creatures theme inspired by Cervantes. Call it, I dunno, "Quixxie Quest"? HEY! Dulcinea is trapped on top of a wind turbine! Build the suit of power armor and the mechanical war horse! Put Quixxie Don inside and charge the power plant! The new Quixxie Quest collection from Lego! Edit - I know that's nothing like the windmill scene in the actual Quixote, but Don Quixote charging at windmills is a cultural meme beyond the actual scene in the book.

Arkham Aslume is notorious for its frequent escapes.

That's a list of Lego YouTube channels. What is the purpose of listing them?

[citation needed] [highly unlikely] [wait and see]

That's not what the saying means. It means let people like the themes they like, whether licensed or unlicensed.

I'm not quite that harsh on it myself, but having built it a couple months ago I agree that it's not nearly the masterpiece the Galaxy Explorer is. It's much flatter than the original Renegade, and much more symmetrical, so I don't feel like it captures the key elements of the original nearly as well. The brick-built Blacktron logos as the little flyers on the wings is a cute idea, but it doesn't work very well either as the logo or as a little flyer for a minifig to use. The idea of a dropship with a big rover is fun, but it's not the same thing as a big container that contains a smaller rover. And the worst part, in my opinion, is the use of an overengineered clip system to join the modules. I understand the reasoning - it does seem to be more rigid and able to bear greater loads than Technic pins would be - but I just don't trust it to stand up to more than the lightest play over the short term. Clips are much more prone to fatigue failure than Technic pins, and a big unlicensed Lego spaceship at an attractive price point should be built to stand up to heavy play over a long term. Clips won't do that. They break all too quickly. I bought and built the new Renegade, the new City modular spaceship, and the old Space Police 2 Galactic Mediator all at about the same time a couple of months ago, and to my surprise the oldest ship (the Galactic Mediator) was still the best toy: surprisingly light, rigid, and swooshable for the size, but with solidly engineered play features and a roomy interior. The interior of the Galactic Mediator is barer than it needs to be, but I think for play that's better than the overly cramped interior of the City modular spaceship. That one is so stuffed with detail that there's hardly room to stand a minifig inside, which makes it hard to actually play with the interior detail.

I'd say they tarnish it, not ruin it. Neither affects the build of the main model. The hairpiece is easily replaced and you can leave the plaque off the model or buy a custom sticker. As unforced errors with the minifigs go, it's not as egregious as giving bikini Leia dual molded shorts. But yeah, those are annoying flaws that decrease the quality of what is otherwise an excellent set. To my eyes, the model looks so much better than the 2015 version. The curved base is especially a night and day difference.

No worries, no hard feelings! I'm sorry I got a little warm there too. I hope you know I really do respect you, like you, and value you as a member of the forum, even though there are some topics that we're consistently at loggerheads about :) In a way, the persistent licensed/unlicensed debate is the broadest version of the kinds of debates we see in all the other forums. In the Star Wars forum it's all about how there are too many clone sets and not enough OT-adjacent this year and the past couple of years, after several years where there were too many OT-adjacent (and OT-derived, as in ST) sets and not enough clone sets. In the DC Super Heroes forum there's too much Batman, not enough Superman and Justice League. In other forums it's been about how there's too many castles and Western sets in BDP, and of those castle sets too many Lion Knights and not enough other factions, and so on. In every case, too much of this, not enough of that / not enough of this, too much of that. And so the pendulum swings to try to address every niche interest in turn, as there's not enough capacity to address them all at once. I must admit, it has been pretty rough seeing alt-brick brands pick up the old stalwart classic themes and run with them, when the resulting products still don't interest me and the reaction pushes Lego in directions I don't like. I hope we can get genuine Lego playthemes of the old classics soon, as big BDP and Icons sets every few years don't really fill the same role. In the meantime, I'm hoping the Horse Knight Castle is good!

Got it. Sorry for misunderstanding you, that's my fault. Shake hands?

Two things. One: This is a counterfactual scenario. I generally don't believe it's worthwhile to engage deeply with counterfactual scenarios, because there are too many variables. I prefer to engage with things as they are. But, briefly, I imagine I would behave pretty much as I do now with respect to several intellectual properties and entire genres of build that I wish Lego would do, but they don't (Thunderbirds, Tintin, many kinds of real-world aircraft, and others). I'd be a little disappointed, but I wouldn't waste a lot of time thinking about it. I certainly wouldn't light up the forums saying that theme X has run its course and deserves to be canceled to make room for what I would rather have. But I'll take your word for it about what you would be doing. Two: I'm not going to take it personally, since this is an anonymous internet forum, but I believe you just called me an a-hole, someone who profanely cusses people out, a TLG cheerleader, and a monster. Let's not do personal insults. If you're going to do that, I'm checking out of this conversation.

Meanwhile, status-quo haters can't let a single reply stand without invoking everything they can think of to argue that nobody has the right to think there's some pretty fun stuff right now. Seriously, when have I ever attacked Western, Space, Castle, or Pirates as much as you attack Star Wars? Your arguments against Star Wars can almost always be summarized as "it's so boring, repetitive, and old that I can't understand why anybody can possibly like it - and by the way, I hate the movies. Therefore we should cancel the theme, effective yesterday." Seems to me like you're the one who most consistently says the theme that you don't like should be canceled, so nobody can have it. I'm all for everybody enjoying the things they like. I wish we had more Western, Space, Castle, and Pirates. I don't go around gloating that we don't have much of them anymore, the way you would gloat if Star Wars was canceled. Obviously, this is tangentially related to Lego, or we wouldn't be talking about it. But sure, let's stop.

Hey, we've had five years of a theme inspired by Journey to the West. That came out about twenty years before the Quixote. Don't tell me Quixote is too old to talk about in a conversation about Lego.

Is it a very modern thing? Don Quixote, Part I is basically a thousand pages of "stupid comic-book fan does stupid things and makes a fool of himself." Don Quixote is so full of references to the popular culture of the time (the chivalric romances that Alonso Quijana reads so much of) that only the broad slapstick humor is comprehensible today without a long list of footnotes to explain this reference and that reference. And the applause breaks you're talking about ... those are called "beats." A "beat" is a brief pause for effect, and it's an important tool in all writing. I'm 100% sure that actors in the Globe Theate in the seventeenth century took applause breaks after delivering a line that skewers something relevant to the time, or something relevant to previous plays by Shakespeare or Jonson or what have you.

How are cultural references completely irrelevant to the topic of Lego themes? That line makes no sense. You clearly haven't paid much attention to how many times Dracula, Ben-Hur, The Maltese Falcon, and other works were remade in the early film era - nor to how many unauthorized sequels used to be made to famous literary works. Ever heard of Edison's Conquest of Mars? That's a famous unauthorized "legacy" sequel to The War of the Worlds. Heck, this goes back even farther. The only reason Miguel Cervantes wrote Don Quixote, Part II is because some copycat had already written an unauthorized sequel that was selling like hotcakes in seventeenth-century Spain. Remakes and grotesquely disrespectful sequels have been a thing for centuries. Yes, these threads always are. They get very tiresome because they're always exactly the same.

Bingo.

That's the case across the board, including with Icons and BDP castles.

Most people admitted the prequel trilogy sucked too ...