Lego David

I 100% agree. I don't think all original action themes need a TV show either (sorry if I didn't make that clear in my first post), my point was just to explain the reason why so many of them tend to have TV Shows nowdays. Not having any TV Shows is part of the reason why I love all the pre-Ninjago Original Action themes so much. They may have had some pre-defined characters, but the lack of a pre-defined storyline allows you to use your own imagination and piece together the clues on your own based off the various other tie-in media those themes received, such as the flash games and such. The Crystalien Conflict flash game of Mars Mission is a great example of that. Not to get off-topic, but while what you said certainly played a part in Bionicle's popularity (and Hero Factory was mostly driven purely by its "Build your own cool robot" concept) Bionicle's story had a very strong hook, and those who managed to get into it, just couldn't let go. To this very day, Bionicle fans still continue to hope that G1's story would one day be continued in some form, due to not getting proper closure when the line abruptly ended in 2010. That's saying a lot about the role the story played in Bionicle's popularity. I suspect that if Ninjago would also get abruptly cancelled one day and the TV Show wouldn't get the chance to properly conclude, a lot of Ninjago fans are gonna be left in the same state Bionicle fans are today.

I don't think LEGO themes being backed up by a TV series or other media tie-in is a bad thing at all. I know it is sad for AFOLs who just want generic figures, but the reality is that characters and stories is what sells. The real issue is whether the respective TV series is of quality or not. Ninjago has a decent TV series with likeable characters and an often engaging story that has kept the kids interested in the theme for a decade at this point, while other story-driven themes that got TV shows, like Chima and Nexo Knights, greatly struggled with the sales due to their TV Shows being of sub-par quality. Ever since LEGO successfully first tapped into the story-driven themes market with Bionicle in the early 2000's, it has become a staple of the brand's in-house themes. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying LEGO shouldn't also do more themes with generic figures like Castle, but the reality is that without being attached to the story or characters of the theme, most kids (and some AFOLs alike) will have no reason to remain engaged with the theme and come back to it for more. My personal issue is similar to what @LOTR34 believes. I don't hate Ninjago nor its TV series, but the fact that LEGO just dumps all their ideas into their current most popular theme can be quite frustrating. Sometimes the blend of those ideas can work (a good example of that would be the Skybound wave), but most of the times, it just comes off as feeling really off, like this current wave. Instead of exploring new ideas for underwater villains and vehicles, we just get the obligatory shoehorned in Snake villains and Ninja cars into an underwater wave of all things.

I am not a fan of those Scuba Diving Ninja suits either. Something about their design just looks... very off to me.

Wow, that's incredible! I particularly like the use of the mirror and that Queen picture from that old Harry Potter set!

Sadly, this has zero chance of happening. It is believed that the Ghost Mold has been destroyed, as it was missing from the Hunted House set. In that respective set, we just got a generic ghost figure without the ghost part. I'd imagine if we do get a ghost, it would probably be the same as the one we got in the Hunted House set, but realistically speaking, they'll probably just throw in a generic skeleton. LEGO had a bunch of cancelled sets and themes in the late 80's and early 90's period, including a lot of unreleased Space themes, several Castle themes, and a Gangster theme. I did a video with a friend where we talked about the unreleased Space themes (with more upcoming videos covering the other stuff):

Are we getting snakes as the villains again? Really? This feels like a missed opportunity. We could have gotten awesome Atlantis-style fish/sea monster villains, but nope, we just got more god damn snakes. The only sets I am interested in are the Temple and the Water Dragon, the rest are look pretty mediocre. Honestly, if you are gonna turn Ninjago into the "every original theme into one" theme, then at the very least make it on par with what came before. This whole wave feels like a dumped down version of Atlantis. Just like the Summer 2020 wave felt like a dumped down version of Fantasy Castle.

I don't think having those licenses around is gonna protect them from anything. As we saw numerous times, the popularity of those themes is 90% of time influenced by whether there are any new movies coming out, or if those new movies are well-received... because if not, the sets just don't sell (there are plenty of examples of that). And if your licensed themes sales are most of of the time completely dependent on stuff happening outside the company, then you clearly have a bit of a problem.

I am by no means against LEGO taking risks (I'd even go as far as saying that I encourage it), but in my mind there is a clear line between what kinds of risks they should and shouldn't take. I am all for experimenting with new kinds of LEGO play themes, but I don't support gimmick-based products like VIDYO or Super Mario.

On top of the issues already discussed here, like the overpriced cube sets and the blind boxes, there is also the issue with the app itself. I know I am not part of the target demographic, but still, I see so many problems with this app. This whole thing was obviously created in order to compete with Tik Tok, but in the process completely missed what makes Tik Tok popular with kids. Tik Tok is completely free, while this app requires you to spend more money in order to unlock more features. That kind of marketing has always been a recipe for disaster. On top of that, they specifically stated in the press release that the app requires you to submit your videos for moderation before you can publish them or even save them on your own device... which is inevitably gonna take at least a few days, which a kid isn't going to wait for. Unless the moderation takes less than five minutes, there is no way the kids are gonna stay engaged with the app for long. Not to mention how that moderation process in of itself is not sustainable for LEGO. In order to do that, it would require a lot of man power, which LEGO doesn't have. Remember how back in the day, the LEGO Universe Online game was abruptly cancelled despite its popularity? It was cancelled for the exact same reason, that being requiring way too much man power for the game moderation. All in all, this whole app gimmick feels like it is destined for failure. LEGO has made themselves a reputation of just walking away from all their tie-in media as soon as the products have been sold, and I can bet it isn't going to be any different here. They are clearly trying to tap into a market they have no real staying power in. If LEGO really, really wants to combine physical play digital play, they should invest in stuff like Mindstorms instead, which has continually proven successful. All those phone gimmicks, on the other side, are all gonna eventually end up in the clearance bin. The more I see LEGO experimental release products like this, the more convinced I am that they are about to enter in their second dark age... just like the one from the early 2000's.

This ^^^

I mean, they also had a Castle stop motion contest going on Ideas just a few weeks back, so I don't think looking at what contests LEGO currently holds on Ideas is gonna give us any genuine clue at who won. Also, GWPs don't necessarily always have to tie into D2Cs.

I agree with all those points. For me personally, the Clone Wars sets are the only thing from LEGO Star Wars I am remotely interested in.

Apparently we're getting Elephants in the next wave of LEGO City! I'm so excited for that!

Our villain has finally arrived, ready to terrorize the world of Arvodia: Meet Lord Zodrek, the evil Pirate Sorcerer.

What are you talking about? Pretty much every advanced MOCist uses this kind of techniques. Sure, they may not be very stable as physical models, but they sure look pretty in the pictures. And when it comes to art, looking good is what matters the most.

That may be the case with some less experienced builders, but a lot of advanced builders always blend System and Bionicle together perfectly. If you want to see that, look no further than the annual Bio-Cup Building Competition . It's not so much about designing creations around Bionicle parts, but rather, figuring out which parts work together texturally and aesthetically.

We still got the Pharaoh's Quest theme in 2011, which was basically a re-imagining of the original Adventurers Egypt wave. I can understand the sentiment that they are different from the rest of LEGO, but calling them "Toxic Waste" comes off as rather rude to be honest. System MOCists probably don't have much use for them, sure, but Bionicle MOCists use them all the time in order to create all sorts of amazing brick-built characters, robots, mechs, and creatures. Those people also invented a thing called "Nice part usage" where they think completely outside the box and use parts in completely different ways than their original purpose. All it takes is a little creativity. This style of building is probably not for you, but dismissing those parts as "toxic waste" is completely disregarding the Bionicle MOCing community and all the amazing creations they've built. So please, be very careful before you make any statements like that.

I would like to point out though, that while a few Modular-quality Castle or Pirate sets once in a while would satify a lot of people, that wouldn't really satisfy MOCists like me who are always looking for new parts. Large D2C sets very rarely include new molds, where as with a normal kid's line of 5-6 sets you are always guaranteed to get at the very least a couple of new molds (like minifigure accessories or animal molds). Castle fans really want to see the return of the Goat mold, but it is very unlikely that we'll get that in a D2C set.

If I had to take a guess, I'd say Castle would be the go-to choice for most system fans voting in the poll. I can't guarantee that will happen, but that's my assumption. The first wave of Star Wars Buildable figures still sold decently, because they focused on the most popular characters in the franchise there. After that though, they began focusing more on the far less popular sequel trilogy and Rogue One characters, and that's what killed the line. Not only were the human characters very djaring and unappealing, but they weren't based off popular characters, and therefore nobody wanted them. The fact that they were twice as expensive than an average Constraction set didn't help either. It's also worth noting that in general, a lot of Star Wars merchendise warmed the shelves in the 2017-2018 period, due to the poor reception of the Star Wars movies released at the time. So there's another reason why those sets were almost always on clearance. Overall, I think the Star Wars Buildable figures had the potential to be popular, but failed due to a couple of reasons (none of which being Constraction's fault).

Classic Space is generally viewed as its own thing, separated from the rest of the Space themes. Castle, on the other hand, is generally viewed as one single umprella theme. I don't think most people who voted for some of the other Space themes would have also voted for Classic Space.

If two themes will win, then it will probably be Castle and Classic Space I am farily confident that if Bionicle doesn't take the number #1 spot, it will without a doubt take the #2 spot at the very least. I don't think either Classic Space or Pirates will stand a chance against those two giants (based off how many votes they got in the first round).

Wait, so are they also gonna reveal the poll results whenever the set gets released? I thought we'll never know the results of the poll, and LEGO will choose whichever theme they want from the top four, regardless of which has the most votes.

Has the poll closed yet? If so, when will we most likely learn about which theme has been chosen (even if we'll never know the actual results of the poll)?

With so many projects reaching the review stage, I think it's about time LEGO starts approving more projects. Just 1 out of 35, really? LEGO Ideas is generally selling like hotcakes, so I see no legitimate reason why they can't afford to approve more projects.