Wolfpack

I am a bit dissapointed. The only new (plastic) part is the shield, which I think would be better triangular considering the redesigned dragon. It is funny as the new logo was clearly made with the old shield shape in mind four or five years ago, but now the new shape is used. Other than that as expected, no flag and no new torsos.

It includes a spaceship! I think it is great.

I am also surprised Royal Nest was the most voted castle. Most of the castle selections since series 6 are kinda unpredictable and dissapointing. With Vending Machine retiring next year that also means there will be no Kraken set in BDP.

Regular sets are not designed by fans and are not a part of a community project. BDP was introduced in 2021 with the motto of "follow along" or something like that and it felt like the community is included in the process (voting, seeing bars etc.) and I liked that. There was basically no reason to change that except greed. And I am not writing this only as a (potential) buyer. I am writing it foremost as a fan and a follower, someone who is interested in the process and likes to read annual reports etc. Following the progress bars was one of my favourite things about BDP. I want to know what people like, what people buy etc. and I like to operate with hard facts. If you check my other posts on the forum I always back my statements with numbers and facts and it is hard to do so if they are more and more hiding the publicly important information. It would be wonderful of course if the numbers were available for regular sets, like they are for books and similar items, but of course unrealistic.

That is my critique actually. They want me just to buy it, with hidden and hard to find percentages, so they can do their shenanigans. It is not really a type of crowdfunding I would like to participate in. btw, you can still se percanteges here: https://bldp.pl/en/8?tab=info And to be clear, I am not a reseller, I just want things to be clear and transparent, which i know cannot really be expected by lego in the last decades.

They can have all the data for the past they want, it is still just a guess. They simply cannot know if and which sets will sell out, especially if we know that they all sold more than half with more than one week left. And as a result they cannot know for how much they can raise the quota. They clearly made a mistake last time, they were offering 45.000 Alchemist Shops, but then stopped selling them at 41.000. The available numbers should never get lowered, that is my point. This is not a way how to organise a transparent crowdfunding.

I was very critical already for the last round and I still do not get their logic. They increased the Dustmark Keep to 35.000, but all the sets are selling well and might be sold out. But that is mathematically impossible, as that would amount to 155.000. It would seem that also the maximum was increased, but no, it was the same last time and then they just stopped selling them before they reacehed the limit. The system is totally flawed and needs to be changed, if they have any respecxt for the customers. If they cannot get the total production capacity over 150.000, they should just stay at 30.000 and that is it. The greed is killing them.

Hm, I kinda prefer this one, except maybe for the head. It is obvious it is lego and I can see some alternative builds. But that is the beautiful thing about art, it is subjective.

No, I am comparing two brands, lego and Star Wars and I am showing how cross-branding went only one way and speculating what would the reactions be if it went the other way.

It is not just slaping a logo as you try to indicate. If some classic lego fan would refer to licenced themes as "slaping lego logo on popular stuiff" there would be an outrage. It is actually about inserting something into Star Wars and making it a part of it. If Darth Vader can become part of lego universe, why cannot Benny become part of Star Wars? And there is no grudge against Star Wars fans, I have no idea where you got that. It is just a comparison. I am pretty sure that Star Wars fans would not like if more than half of the Star Wars movies would be about characters from other IP. For most of them it would be "not getting what they want". You might say but this is no longer Star Wars, but that would be just your opinion. Many of us thought this is not lego, when we first saw Star Wars and Harry Potter in catalogues 25 years ago. But than slowly you realise sadly it is. It is something the company is now making. But I like that you see inserting lego stuff into Star wars as "it would not be Star Wars", "slapping Star Wars logo", "false advertising" etc. This way you might actually better understand how we feel with licenced themes.

I know the theory, that is why I used this word. I think it works more or less well here. First they were serving the fans and when they had a huge fan base, they started to attract bussiness partners (other media, licences etc.) and now we are where we are. It is a huge bussiness, fans are locked, other companies are locked and the product is degrading for short term profits. And yeah, I do not regard myself as a customer, not everything is a bussiness for me. I am a lego fan first and foremost (this is lego fans forum, not lego customers forum) and I do not have to be a direct customer to be a fan. If I do not like what they are selling I can buy old used stuff or not even that, I have enough to play with it for life. It is a great comparison actually. It is exactly the same as if the next Star Wars movie was about Benny and Lenny and Blacktron. I wonder how the Star Wars fans would like that.

This!

It was not a response on botanicals as such, but on the second sentence. "I guess TLG's current strategy really is that profitable, as much as I wish it wasn't." I have nothing against botanicals, but I am bit surprised it is in top5. I mean, it is just flowers, but in lego. Themes with very little playability and aimed primarly at grown ups for display are becoming so succesfull. Of the top five selling themes only one is aimed at kids to actually play with.

Yeah it is enshittification pure and simple. Every company comes there. They are making products for non-lego fans, while the core original lego fans are neglected, ignored and left behind. After two, three, four... decades of loyalty they give us nothing, because they calculated, that they can exploit other brands popculture fanbases with some random (as someone called it) slop with lower costs and higher profits, even if they are ignoring all the values (no military, modern weapons, educational and family friendly stuff, focus on quality and durability etc.) on which the company was built.

There are also reports for alter years: 2021: City, Technic, Creator, HP, Star Wars 2022: City, Star Wars, Icons, Technic, HP 2023: City, Technic, Icons, Star Wars, HP 2024: Icons, Star Wars, Techic, City, HP 2025: City, Icons, Star Wars, Technic, Botanicals

Well... BDP (in current format with current production capacities) started in 2024 and that was the year the last classic Icons sets were released. Yeah, I mean the sets were still available until they retired, but there were no new classic Icons sets after the beginning of BDP. The only exception was Blacktron renegade in 2025, but as you mentioned threre have been no space sets in BDP. I never said that BDP sets completely 100% replaced Icons sets, but that they found a sucessfull replacement for them in the economic sense.

It is same as each year. Series 5 were scheduled at the exact same time and had the all-time record selling set of 49.000. I think this series will sell out like the last one. It might even have the opposite problem, as it has strong contenders. If all the sets will be trending fine, there might be no space for adjusting the allocations. So far there has been no correlation between sales and the calendar.

I did not want to imply Icons sets are completely dead, as they would probably still make some at least for anniversaries, but they found a successful replacement. I would also not say BDP is as niche as you think. The castle sets sell up to 50.000 units, 3x that is 150.000k castle sets sold per year alone! That is comparable to some Icons sets sales and and the BDP sets are much much cheaper to make. No marketing costs, no desinging costs, no instruction costs, no new moulds, no prints, no new minifigures, no risk whatsoever. Of course they prefer making them. I was thinking more in the sense of "they are intended for adults, it is not a problem for them to pay more, they have a lot of desposable income" etc. The Creator sets in my view prove that it is not so straightforward, because people (including kids) love cheaper classic sets and it is really a shame there were no cheaper Icons sets in the style of GWPs. If creator pirate ship for 100 eur sells so well I see no reason why the "normal" pirate ship would not. I have a feeling that after the initial success they were pushing the prices (and sizes) of Icons sets too high, but all in all my argument was that the popularity of Icons sets alone does not measure the popularity of classic themes, because the price is a huge factor. I think a 300 eur Dreamzzz set or something would sell even worse. Heck, they even retired the Temple Bounty early despite Ninjago being so popular and despite it costing "only" 200. And yeah, Lion Knights Castle is great, but for 400 I would actually prefer a whole line, a 150 castle, a 100 something set, a 50 something set etc. That would probably be more suitable in the unpopular opinions thread, because I have no official statistics to back it up, but I would like to end with a more controversial take. From everything I know I have a strong belief that "themes worth doing" in the last instance do not base in sales. I would say that on average the sales of nonlicenced and licenced themes are more or less similar (except some obvious exceptions of course) and that the main focus is on costs. Licenced sets are much easier and cheaper to make, both from the design perspective and from marketing perspective (as fan base already exist, not fans of lego but of some IP) and this is why they are making them. It is not that people like classic or nonlicenced themes less or that they sell worse, they are just harder to make. So they only make sets where they expect exceptional sales like Lion Knights Castle. If the sales are normal they have no incentive to make them.

I do see BDP as a replacement for Icons sets. Not a good replacement, but a replacement nonetheless. One proof are also new minifigures in Creator sets, they make BDP classic sets possible without Icons sets. Currently not a single Icons vintage set is available and also none are announced. It all went down in 2024 when BDP started. Eldorado fortress, Medieval town square etc. apparently sold worse than expected, while Creator sets are a hit. That proves that price actually is a factor and that many classic themes fans want smaller sets despite some people claiming otherwise.

Bricklink has hidden all the comments on the site.

You do realise that this argument goes both ways? With all the parts there is no need for licenced themes either. Star Wars fans can just buy a bucket of grey bricks and build whatever they want. The debate here is fundamentally not about what you can build as a MOCer, but what lego is offering, what are they presenting and promoting and what kind of a fanbase are they creating. And it does not look good for the nonlicenced themes, it is a downward spiral. It will soon be four years since the last introduction of a nonlicenced theme, a record since the eighties. So, what can we expect in the future? I believe we might get a third nonlicenced theme in the future, but only when it will be something they will not be able to shove under other two themes and will also not compete with IPs. The space is out because of legal constraints, history themes are more or less out because of BDP, something like agents is probably out because of Marvel and DC, a theme for girls is out because of minidolls, so what is left? Maybe some wacky underwater theme could be possible, as there is no competing IP and because it could be modern enough and action/conflict oriented. Or something related to technology, although the last introductions of vidiyo, hidden side, smart bricks etc. were not too sucessful. And even if there was no new theme in the next years I would not be surprised. They could simply release those few nonlicenced sets they want under Icons.

This is maybe not the topic for it and it should go the unpopular opinions thread, but I remember one legendary designer explaining in an interview, when Star Wars came in 1999, how the designing process changed with licences and how they hated it. So I just wanted to say there is some objective difference, of course not delving into whether slop is the right word to describe it.

Yes I know that, but I think the difference would be only minor and it would be a small price to make a really premium product. It will probably not happen, but I think it is still more realistic than they all of a sudden starting to make more classic Ideas sets. That is my objection actually. It is too easy. BDP is so lazy, they are getting away with it too easy, to cheap and too good. And there is basically nothing we can do. If we buy more sets, they will say the sistem is working, everything is fine. If we do not buy them, they will say see, there is no interest in castle, pirates etc.

Not true. That never happened! So far all the sets got produced. 3000 sets is minimum and all the sets got 10.000 or more orders (Lost City had the least and that was about 10.000 as far I remember), average has been 30.000, which is not much less than some exclusive sets (unofficially some d2c sets have a production run of less than 100.000) Also you must take into account that marketing and advertisement for BDP is basically nonexistant. Despite that and despite having no new parts the sets are sold out in a week with no problem. With new parts, instructions, proper marketing and availability on the lego site the sales would be huge. Black Falcon. Yes, that is what I want. BDP should be removed and Ideas should have those unlicenced sets instead. If not all, than at least one round per year should be done this way. Lego bought BL after all, I am not a fan of that, but they should at least take the better advantage of it. They can make them limited to 50.000 or something and in one run as far as I care, if prodution capacities are the problem. BDP in current form makes no sense, it is just PAB for other people MOCs.

Both programs have their problems. I would prefer if they would take the BDP selection and make them "normal" sets like Ideas. In Ideas the last set I liked was Viking Village and even that one was selected by target not by lego! They had some thirty sets after that, but basically all licenced or some recreation of an object or an animal. In BDP I like most of the sets, but they bring nothing new (except for sticker sheet), not even instructions. Why cannot they select such sets for Ideas??? Keep BDP only as a selection process and make all sets in Ideas.