Wolfpack

I know, it is something some people in this topic care about. You could use a new part like a saddle for both castle and western (and some other themes), that was my point. As far as torsos are concerned, the last vawe od Dreamzzz had 15 or more different torsos in five sets, so it is more than doable to make two themes with that number and that budget or even three. With a clever combining of moulds the difference in new parts and new prints would be small, but a difference in diversity would be huge. You could also do one wave in the summer and the next one next year, it would not change much, as long as more themes would be available at any time.

I would also prefer single themes, I was answering what a next best thing or a compromise would be. Single themes are of course the best as lego can then create absolutely anything they want and have no constraints.

Not really. If you would quote the whole post I actually explained that you would need next to zero new parts, as all the gear would be (and mostly is already) in production. So you would need only new (mostly torso) prints, which is basically more or less the same whether you have five sets of two different themes or five sets of one theme. But it would give much more variety to the fans (instead of five or six castle torsos three castle and three space torsos). It would also make the general theme perpetual, which seems to be so important for some people here, so there would be Eternal sets on the shelf all the time and that would also make a place for any classic theme and you would not need to shove it under city. So it would solve the marketing concern some people here have about classic themes. Also those who do not like space for example would have something elso too choose from and in two years they would get two new themes. Ideally they would keep castle/pirates/space torsos on PAB until new sets for this theme arrive. It is not perfect, but it is the next best thing, what they asked for. It "solves" the "problem" for those who say it is not about the number of formal themes. It would formally introduce only one new nonlicenced minifigure theme, together making them three.

I think the marketing would be very important in such endeavour. They could do a new brand lego Eternal, Timeless, Evergreen or something, maybe yellow boxes and then mix all those themes. 2027 two or three castle sets and two or three space sets, 2029 two or three pirate sets and two or three western (or adventurers etc.) sets. Those themes should not be too hard or too expensive to make. Most of the parts are in the production anyway. They would need some ten headgears to fix as basic moulds to be available all the time and they could make basically anything. The same goes for weapons, ten would be more than enough, most of them are already in produciton anyway. Everything else is also already available in other themes, so no problem there. With some recolouring and torso prints, maybe adding some usefull stuff from the contemporary CMF line or a new part here and there the options for new factions would be limitless. If it does well, just add more stuff. If the designs were half decent I am sure they would not make a loss. It would be also a great help for BDP, which could focus more on other stuff and keep the remaining sets more genuine.

No. There has been no lego set that would interest me since 2024 and lego is doing nothing I actually like these days, but in the 1990s I would have the whole catalogue (except town). I never liked town (too realistic) or Ninjago, so there is nothing for me. And it is not just about me, it is even hard to buy a gift nowadays. Kids love original themes, trust me they do, but except for Creator you have to buy them old sets or GWPs on the internet, because all castle, pirates, space etc. are sooo big and expensive (and mostly 18+, although many are realistically not that hard). That is exactly the reason I started the debate in this topic that spurred so much controversy. I do not care for foreign IP and licences, if I would then I would buy their original books, movies or whatever. And I do not want to support Disney, J.K. Rowling or FIFA. I mean compare the new Sports theme with proper lego football from 2000. The latter was an actual fun original play theme based on a real activity (football), the modern one is just some Ronaldo Messi slop to profit from the World Cup. As SpacePolice89 said: Only a new in house theme that isn't all over the place could revive my interest in new Lego sets. So it is not all about reviving classic themes, as some forum members stubbornly and continously try to plant us. On the contrary, I want lego to create new themes, particulary new historic and scy-fi themes. But there is no such theme on the horizon. In the old days there were numerous new themes each year, now the last original theme was... Dreamzzz in 2023? Imagine that, the last theme lego introduced already retired. And then some people have the nerves to say that lego is catering for the non-licenced themes fans just fine. I would maybe even satisfy with BDP, if just they had instructions and if the designers had a little more freedom about the palette. I mean just keep the basic assortment of hats in production and maybe enable some recolours and torso prints. If there are hundreds new for all the CMF and BAM minifigures, why could not each designer have one torso print for his set?

And for me it maters. It can be used in Romans, Castle, Greeks, Ninjago, even superheroes etc. I love that! It is what I want lego to be. I really do not undestand what is wrong with me expressing that.

With such strawmen arguments you tell more about yourself then about me. It is funny how you can enjoy that I cannot enjoy and how I should not even be a consumer because I expressed some unpopular opinions (all backed by stats) about the direction of the company in the thread intended just for that. Basically your only "argument" is: What you like is wrong and if you do not like what we do, get lost.

Yes! Both by design and by legal contracts. I do not like this. I prefered the old lego universe where parts were versatile and a theme like Time cruisers was possible. And it is not a good thing, because there are only two (or three) nonlicenced themes left.

Exactly! That is why I said we mostly agree, but are talking about different things. Maybe I was not clear enough all them time, but most of what I am saying here is actually founded in stats, that is why I find it unfair that some people (not saying you) try to dismiss or discredit it as pure nostalgia. I gave you link before and here is another one that proves my points. It is from a few years ago, but the trend are clear. https://www.kaggle.com/code/martinellis/prominence-of-special-parts-over-time-visualised

Glad you mentioned that. It is a great example. The classic dragon was made that way, because the head and the tail part was the same as the crocodile and the designers also showed a possible use of that parts for the Loch ness monster that is why it wass allowed to be made in the first place. This is not true at all. The prototypes I am talking about show the actual official plans of the lego company and its designers, most of them were shown by the former employees in BrickJournal. Of course a random MOC-er can use anything, but generally lego is not, they are bounded legally, just look at the BDP palettes and PAB. Again, not true, you are relativising this. It is not about cultural interests, but cultural contexts. I am explaining this from the designers point of view, not interests of someone. The Darth Vader helmet can (and even legally needs to!) be used only in one single cultural context, the cultural context of the Star Wars. The same goes for FIFA trophy or golden snitch. The designer cannot really be creative about it. And even in the rare occasion when he theoretically could be, he is legally not alloved to. So the question is not in which cultural contexts you can use a part, but in how many and I strongly believe that old parts were possible to be used in more cultural contexts then (some of) the new licenced ones. The old parts were certainly produced and designed with that in mind, which I cannot say for the Star Wars helmets or similar parts. If modern parts were so usable and versatile they would not need ten thousand of them and they would not create so many new each year.

I agree with the most things you say, althouh I have a feeling that we are talking about different things. Whether Seatron or Europa were released or not is irrelevant for me, as I am talkinkg about possible uses. And I simply do not see another possible use for a FIFA throphy or a golden snitch. And of course a saddle is used as a sadle. What else should it be used as? But as you nicely said it is used in different cultural contexts, therefore different themes, that is the versability and usability I am talking about. The FIFA throphy can be used only in a cultural context of football world cup, many Star Wars pieces can be used only in a cultural context of Star Wars etc. And yes, I have some statistics to back this up. "We see here again that the 1980s and 1990s were a good period in relative terms for releasing long-lived parts that have only just been retired." more here: https://safetydave.net/lego-and-software-lifespans/

Exaclty! The same baseplate could have been used for space, pirates, castle and underwater. The helmets, swords and others were used for different factions and subthemes and are mostly still used today after 30 or 40 years! The saddles were used for castle, western, Europa, Paradisa etc. Minifig hair were generic enough for anything. Those were the parts!

I understand all that and I already explained that monorail track parts were usable for at least three themes! It could be also useful for mines in Western, Jungle etc. I was also not a fan of bionicle for exact that reason. I never said that modern sets are just a bunch of specialized parts with no other use. I just showed that lego produces more specialised parts than before. There used to be 1000 different parts and you could build anything. Now there are what, six or ten thousand, many of them like those up there. Especially the minifigures, there used to be generic people and knights and spacemen, now there are hundreds of modified heads and helmets that have a single use only.

How many uses does a part like this have and in how many themes it can be used? https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=7994#T=P&C=21 or this https://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemIn.asp?P=35818&in=S or this https://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemIn.asp?P=37704&in=S There were basically no such parts in the old days.

If this windshield (useful for aquanauts, model team, town, maybe space) is the most limited piece introduced in 1990, then you probably agree that parts in were pretty versatile back then? This 1985 part is strange indeed. I do not even see the primary use for it. I would like to see what possible uses designers pitched when they proposed it. Or maybe they adopted the rule because of this piece. :)

No, it shows that lego can put higher prices for sets with lower supply. Blacksmith was popular as people bought more copies and that is why there are still many left on the market. The low price is because of bigger supply than BDP sets, not because of low demand. They could have easily sold out Blacksmith through BDP witn no new parts and no marketing and it would be selling for 250 today, but it would be worse for fans, that is my point.

Yes, you showed a part, that proves my point, thanks. I said the sales are irrelevant for this debate.

The sales of monorail are basically irrelevant for this debate. At most they prove my argument. There were actual plans for ten years and different themes, but were cancelled due to sales. The monorail parts were versatile enough to be used in more themes, space, underwater (cancelled), town-airport etc.

Blacksmith (available until the end of 2023) was ofered for 150 euros in Europe and you can still buy it for that or even less on BL. Alchemist (200 euros, no new parts, no instructions) was available for one week on BL for that price and will be only more expensive when it becomes available. My point is that fans have to pay more on average and lego has bigger profits on average with BDP sets. It is done because of lower costs and bigger profits, not because fans would prefer it.

I think it was useful for more themes, yes. Show me piece from 1990 that you think it was not. And please do not spin it. We are talking about the year 1990, not the nineties.

Not really. I do not know every Castle fan in the world, but all of those I know that buy BDP sets would prefer actual original lego Castle sets to BDP. Original sets are cheaper on average (compare Blacksmith and Alchemist shop, which is also the only reason why someone would spend more on BDP than regular sets, because of the price), have new Castle moulds, new parts or at least new prints (BDP has no prints, only stickers), instructions and are available whenever you want them for two or three years. They grudgingly buy BDP MOCs exactly because there are no actual sets. I am pretty sure that if you asked Castle fans if they wanted the same set to be released under Ideas or under BDP like 99% of them would choose Ideas, let alone if there was choice between proper Castle theme set and BDP. But there are zero Castle sets in 2026, there were zero in 2025, one in 2024 and zero in 2023. Of course people buy BDP. And I want to be clear, the BDP designs are great, most of the winning designers are really talented, but the project is not and cannot be a replacement for actual sets.

This was even more true in 1990. The designers had a rule that each piece should have been useful for more themes and they had to present a planned use for at least ten years. There were no ugly rock pieces in 1990!

My argument exactly! The only difference is that I believe this is bad, while you think it is good. This is why I am talking about the ratio etc. Yup, certainly not impossible. The classic themes are popular enough (just look at the sales of LKC, the BDP sets etc) that they certainly would not be generating a loss. But as I said, it would require more work, original ideas, creativity etc.

My main complaint has always been exactly that! I want more than two or three nonlicenced themes. They can have only two or three sets for what I care. I am just comparing it to licenced themes to show that it is possible. Yes, it requires more work and it is bit more risky in the market sense, but it is certainly possible. That is exactly my argument. Lego should focus more on the lego brand and fans of general lego, that would buy different original themes each year, not on fans of other brands. I want them to make us fans of Raven Knights or Rome or Ancient Architecture or Future Tech or whatever.

I never said that is my main focus. My main focus are the nonlicenced themes and either way it should be fine. But I try to focus on a full picture and I happen to be a bit more realistic than most people here, so I very well know that (because of the limited production capacitiy, marketing, promotional restraints etc.) the situation where they would make 20 nonlicenced and 20 licenced themes is at least in the short term not possible. If they are capable to add 18 nonlicenced themes to the current portfolio, great!