Mylenium

Yes, of course, but that analogy could be applied to a ton of other movies, including ones that you might consider a blockbuster and that made half a billion stateside. Same for TV series and what have you. And that also ties into your argument about US cultural influence: No, it's not as big as you may think and it's sure to dwindle even further, given current political developments. The days when people got excited about Coca Cola are long gone and people are very particular about what they consume or what cultural trends they follow. Explaining it in more detail would be too longwinded, but suffice it to say that for instance a popular watchlist on German Netflix would be quite different from its US brother. And by extension that affects LEGO as well. Some stuff you may take for granted is simply barely known or even totally irrelevant around these parts and thus don't make for a good basis of selling tie-in sets and merchandise, hence LEGO Super Heroes and some other things don't even make a dent in the sales statistics. Mylenium

Apparently there is. At least Facebook keeps suggesting me such stuff. Whether or not it is profitable in any way I can't tell, but at least to me 90% of that stuff looks unattractive hence my impression of quick cash grabs. But does it actually make sense? I mean doing a complex MOC as an AFOL is a different thing than selling it to a mass audience. And as much as e.g. some massive Star Wars MOCs impress me, I just as well think that a lot of this stuff is utterly bonkers. I have a pretty clear image in my head what I think LEGO can do technically and how complex a set can be before it turns from being fun into a chore, so I don't think this is a viable course of action, even if the mere manufacturing of course wouldn't be an issue at all. Commercial sets have to figure in other factors. I also think you'd then have to further differentiate between fan-driven licensed stuff and normal sets and it begins to make even less sense to dream of such big sets without the backing of an existing marketing foundation. Mylenium

B.O. dominace or critical acclaim doesn't mean anything. Many movies that were successful in the US totally bomb here in Europe and vice versa, though by that I don't specifically mean superhero movies. My favorite example still is "Sideways" - got an Oscar, but nobody here in Germany actually saw it (it made a mere 20000 Euros or so and got pulled after only one week in Cinemas) and is now running as filler late at night on some channels. Different tastes and different markets. As far as the superhero movies are concerned we simply don't have the comic tradtion to go with them plus the movies are simply not satisfying certain intellectual needs. Even the best of them are actually pretty mediocre and easy to see through. That's okay for a little brainless fun for two hours, but those movies are forgotten as quickly as Disney and DC are churning them out. That in itself is of course a problem, too. There's just too many movies of that ilk and it's really beginning to just become a show of overused clicheés and worn out standard tropes. All that is to say that there are easily explicable reasons why US-based superhero movies don't have the pull to generate more merchandising opportunities even if the films themselves are reasonably commercially successful here. People just don't care about them that much. And of course one could pull out the old argument of outrageous pricing for many of these licensed sets just like with Star Wars... Mylenium It usually means that after the initial buzz sales will drop considerably and the vendor/ manufacturer is fully aware of it. You need to buy a "corporate BS talk" dictionary. :D Mylenium I think so, too, and in case of LEGO they just once more got the wrong end of the stick. That AT-ST debacle clearly hasn't helped... Mylenium

...which is funny, considering how lately LEGO disobey their own rules more and more. Not just actual "illegal" building techniques but also simple things like having hollows under loosely fixed bricks. That still doesn't answer the question of commercial viability, which ultimately is the point it revolves mostly around. Even a Chinese knock-off manufacturer is unlikely to ever produce a 10000 pieces Star Wars MOC. For me it's also too hit & miss in terms of the quality of some MOCs. It seems that for every really good one there's twenty or thirty half-baked or really bad ones where people just try to cash in. Point in case: Not every MOC may be worth producing and a commercial manufacturer still has to deal with making these decisions even in a less rigid environment than LEGO's self-imposed strict rules. In any case, here are some random thoughts on the matter on my blog, in case anyone cares: https://myleniumsbrickcorner.wordpress.com/2018/09/07/the-missing-brick-link/ Mylenium

Depends on the markets, I guess. Playmobil and Mattel stuff are way more popular here in Germany in the girl-themed markets. And I wouldn't take quantity of sets as indication of anything. Let's face it: You could scratch half the sets from the list and it wouldn't make much of a difference in terms of actually usable sets. Friends feels just as artificially inflated as Star Wars... Mylenium

Neither of the renderings look particularly convincing. Lots of tweaking required on the materials. Mylenium Sounds like a quote from a 90's CG mag "Radiosity improves you pictures by a factor of X." *lol* Just lumping on radiosity usually doesn't do much if you don't tweak the lights and materials. Mylenium

Friends is not "big". You just need to check any of your favorite (physical) stores to see how sets sit on the shelves for months and the massive discounts could further serve as indication that otherwise they wouldn't sell at all. Friends isn't even mentioned among the top five in the latest semi-annual report. I'm sure it's making LEGO some money, but it's not saving their butt, either. And say what you will, that point with constantly repeating themes could be argued either way. With the current lack of quality in the designs I don't think LEGO are luring in that many new users even with traditional subjects... Mylenium

I got my wish and ordered the set for 30 Euros! Now that's a price I can accept... :) Mylenium

Small Update: On Facebook someone hinted that the info based on those partial and potentially wrongly translated bits may not be correct at all, so this could turn out entirely differently, after all. Supposedly LEGO will provide an official explanation soon-ish. Mylenium

Yes, of course they could have called it "Pink fluffy Unicorn Series" or whatever, but it remains a pretty huge mess-up, at least for the confusion it caused here in Germany. Mylenium

In the abstract sense designing a set or a MOC is just as much creating "art" as is painting, or for that matter the box artwork. Typically it just becomes secondary to these cases. Most of the time it's really just about those knock-off companies abusing the LEGO brand awareness to sell their stuff, which of course naturally boils down to what you recognize most easily - the packaging and the logo. And as always the legal stance and interpretation will depend on in which part of the world you live and other factors, so it's an endless field of interpretation, opinions and individual views. I've given mine based on my knowledge and understanding of these things... Mylenium

It's really just about copying the designs, artwork and names. Proving that there was any harm done by selling cheaper versions of sets, when people likely never would have bought the more expensive LEGO stuff, anyway, is another matter entirely and would likely be even more impossible to prove, considering the market(s) we are talking about. The rest would require too many longwinded explanations, but suffice it to say that LEGO just should leave it be. Copyright and trademark law just isn't on their side here. LEPIN could change a few things in compliance with the ruling and they'd still be making the same knock-off sets more or less legally according to Chinese laws (presumably). The only place where this is even of consequence is China, anyway. LEPIN could move their operations to a different place and then what? Another twenty years of cat and mouse play? Can't say I ever see this working out for LEGO. It's the old gag: Being "right" and being legally right are different things as are winning in court and enforcing a ruling. Mylenium

Nope, it wasn't, at least here in Germany. And that's the point: If official LEGO Ambassadors have to inquire on their private backroom forum and do not get an answer for days (!), then something is afoul. And yes, I agree with @shotgunmcos - if it was really planned, why isn't there even a quick & dirty sticker on the package? This reeks of a last-minute scramble no matter how you spin it. Mylenium

Well, then call it dubious, fishy or whatever seems more adequate, but my feeling remains the same. This comes across as one lousy marketing SNAFU. Mylenium

When they released the press materials, not several days after?! The rest is of course up to personal point of view. It just seems to me that this artificial distinction isn't helping matters at all. It's like boxes in boxes with ever tinier boxes inside them. From my observations the "normal" user simply doesn't care and in particular under the umbrella "Star Wars" label this shouldn't be necessary - if only the products would be attractive enough. It always comes back to that. And don't even get me started about the ridiculous price and this supposedly being a "play set"... Mylenium

Exactly. Simply because there is nothing to win. LEGO should simply stop wasting their money on expensive lawyers. The returns/ damages barely justify the cost and effort. Mylenium

Well, straight to the point: LEGO's marketing department comes across as totally clueless, especially since they didn't communicate this from day one. This feels like an afterthought they cooked up in a midnight emergency meeting, not a planned marketing move. They just should have let it be and merely said that it isn't an UCS set. And it#s not that LEGO needs more product lines to confuse the casual consumer even further. In fact this could be seen as yet another sign how weak those products actually are - good products sell themselves and don't need concocted marketing terms thrown on. Mylenium My feelings exactly. It's a total misnomer, even if you disregard all other criticisms I have. Mylenium

Sounds a bit shady... Like they got caught in the act (of messing with UCS) and then simply "fixed" it by relabelling the sets with a new fancy marketing term. Mylenium

What integrity? How should that even work with an expired trademark? All you can protect is the actual set as it being a unique creation based on copyright (in the design/ arts sense). Everything else is a wide field of interpretation, Mylenium

Sounds all super-boring. Been there, done that a hundred times. Really seems LEGO have run out of ideas for Friends or simply don't care. Mylenium

I have to rebut that argument. Aside from the trailer I haven't seen the movie yet - wanted to go, just didn't get round to it, so now I'm waiting for the Blu-Ray. That being the case, I couldn't care less how it is used (or not) in the film itself. In fact I would say that the simplicity of the design is what attracts me. Sure, it's a flying brick, but an elegant flying brick. And of course the curved slopes have potential to be used for future custom builds and you get quite a few. I'm really just struggling with the outrageous price. At 20 or 25 Euros this would be almost a no-brainer. Mylenium

There's the rub: At 50 Euros MSRP, how far down can this possibly this go? The best price I saw is around 37 Euros and by all means, that's still too much for a model that doesn't contain any noteworthy larger parts if, like me, you don't believe in the pointless wonky math of per part pricing. This thing simply isn't worth even 37 Euros. Mylenium

I actually would love to have this set, but the price is just ridiculous. Mylenium

I tend to disagree. Just because some colors aren't off limits doesn't mean everything is roses in Friends. Yes, some color combinations are just whacky and yes, some intermediate/ complimentary colors are "missing". You only need to pick up any reasonably good book on color theory to have that verified. Whether or not people complain (or don't) in other areas of LEGO is an entirely different matter. Different strokes for different people or in this case target demographics. Of course you can find whacky and distasteful stuff in City, Elves, Nexo Knights or heck, for that matter, even in Star Wars. It's just not necessarily as "in your face" as with a lot of Friends sets plus you start out with an even more restricted palette to begin with, which actually sometimes can be a blessing. On the other hand that does in no way mean that they wouldn't want other/ more/ different colors at times. Point in case: The Friends designers are probably trying a bit too hard to use every color in the book and overuse their clichéed color palettes way too much. Again, I'm not debating that we have a lot of colors with Friends, I'm more concerned that they may be the wrong colors, after all, or not be used in the smartest ways. Mylenium

This is entirely in the hands of the evil denizens of Disney, but I guess LEGO would object even to a full holo chess with figures maiming each other... ;-) Mylenium