Oky

My problem with the SB revival is the same as with PotC; one big, overpriced set and one horrific looking Brickhead isn’t much of a revival to me, no matter how good that set might look. Maybe once they make more sets for a lower price/age range so that kids who actually watch SpongeBob and AFOLs on a tighter budget can afford and enjoy them I will like it more, but for now, the SB revival ranks pretty low for me.

The problem isn’t just that it was Batman-focused, it didn’t give us much new and what it did give us felt inferior, which is a sin especially since it’s not just a Batman revival, but a DC theme. The first year was mostly just sets we had gotten before, but smaller and more cartoony looking than the original, with the exception of the one Superman/WW set and maybe the Joker Funhouse. And the less said about those weird constraction figs the better. Marvel’s first year was comparatively far better, giving us not only new Spider-Man sets we hadn’t gotten before, but also expanding the theme to Avengers and X-Men as well, although of course it had the benefit of releasing at the height of the MCU. Overall it wasn’t a bad revival, but definitely not as good as it could’ve been.

You make some good points. I suppose you could see the Indy revival as a failure because it failed to truly revive the theme like the Harry Potter one(s) did for example, but I choose to judge a revival for what it is rather than what it wasn’t. They really nailed those 3 sets they did release, so I’d argue it did more with less. It didn’t need any bonuses like Brickheadz to shine. Exactly. The 2010 reboot may have had its flaws, but it was pretty great for its time, and it laid the groundwork for the future of the theme. Things like DA were indeed revolutionary and we wouldn’t have all these movie-accurate designs and big, detailed 18+ sets today without this revival (for better or worse). The way I see it, it was good from 2012-2018. After that it became the repetitive Batman theme, and even the first few years were a bit too Batman-focused, so it has spent more time being a bad revival than a good one.

I don’t see Simpsons and Stranger Things as revivals. They are part of the same theme, just with unusually big gaps between releases. I know people say the Krusty Burger is at a smaller scale than the other sets, but still. Also, you forgot Toy Story and Mickey Mouse, which brings me to… WORST 1) Toy Story: The switch to standard heads and limbs was a bad move in my opinion and it’s mind boggling how the sets keep getting worse. The single set released for Toy Story 5 is horrid, and the buildable character sets, while not bad, don’t come close to how good the original 2010 sets were. 2) PotC: “Hey, let’s bring back this popular theme, but only make one set for it. Let’s take a $100 pirate ship and bloat it up to a $280 set, but charge $380 for it for no reason. Oh, and let’s not call it by its name and instead give it an SEO-friendly title to really maximize profits!” 🙄 3) DC: Batmanbatmanbatman. This revival started off so good (although it was never quite as good as the original Batman theme in tone) and peaked with the 2018 sets, but has since devolved into literally just Batman and his cars to the point that it feels like LEGO is just trolling us now. I have mixed feelings about LotR. While some of the sets like Rivendell, Bara Dur, and Minas Tirith are great, the fact that any small sets made as part of the revival have been either GWPs, booknooks, or bundled together into one overpriced set (Shire) really kills this theme for me. 🫤 To end this on a positive note: BEST 1) Indiana Jones: 3 excellent sets at different price points, all just slightly bigger and better versions of classic sets. This is how you do a remake. It’s a shame we only got 3, but the fact it left us wanting more just shows how good this revival was. 2) Harry Potter 2010: I think this iteration of HP struck the perfect balance between movie-accurate designs and the whimsical creativity of the original run. 3) Harry Potter 2018: While this revival has given us tons of great stuff, I feel it’s increasingly getting too focused on detailed, movie-accurate looks and has lost the magical feel that the original had with all its crazy colors and hidden play features. Watch Cheesy Studios’ reviews to see what I mean.

Nice steamboat. But it could use a bit more detail around the lower deck. When you’re building it for real, maybe add some lamps, ropes/chains, life preservers, and crates of adventuring gear. It’s a great start, though, and definitely gives River Expedition vibes.

Not bad, although I don’t think riding around on an actual dragon really fits the more realistic tone of Adventurers. Then again, it’s about as realistic/historically accurate as those metal rice hats…

Yep. EB is pretty dead and very hard to access (if it loads at all) these days, but we’re still here. Indeed there has been a lot of shows. I started playing D&D 2 years ago and I’ve been enjoying all the media (and LEGO) that has been released based on it since then such as Vox Machina, Mighty Nein, and Delicious in Dungeon. Amazon’s other big animated show, Invincible, is also great. Many criticize the cheap animation, but I don’t mind it since it reminds me of Saturday morning cartoons. There has also been a boom of good video game cartoons. Castlevania, Arcane and Tomb Raider are all quite good just to name a few A few other cartoons from recent memory: Blue Eye Samurai is amazing. Scavengers Reign was hauntingly beautiful. Primal continues to be awesome, even though the third season was a bit weaker with the whole zombie thing. Chaos Theory was a good follow up to Camp Cretaceous, both of which are the best thing to happen to the Jurassic franchise since JP2. The Dragon Prince, while not as good as Avatar or some other shows, is still a good fantasy adventure. My Adventures with Superman is super underrated. Tales of the TMNT is fun. Not the best Ninja Turtles show, but definitely not the worst either. Dream Productions, an Inside Out spinoff movie that is almost as good as the main movies, but was dumped onto Disney+ as a 4-part series for some reason. Seriously underrated. Not to mention Ninjago and all the good animated Star Wars content we’ve been getting!

Nice little cyberpunk scene, although the environment looks a bit plain. Adding some markings or greebling to the street and walls would go a long way in adding some color and texture. You did a nice job with the coloring and detail on the bikes, so your environment should reflect that.

I’ve been having trouble accessing the site since these attacks. It simply will not load at all for me.

There is also a nice Balloon Pilot torso coming up at Build-a-Mini.

The new Maersk ship has the binoculars in dark red! Also, the revolver in orange that has been used as a flare gun in some of the recent Jurassic sets could be useful. I also quite like the new 2x2 Minecraft chest for smaller treasures.

I really hate the whole Adults Welcome thing. Were they not welcome before? If they’re so welcome now, why has LEGO been severing ties with the fan community? And why do they seem to do everything to make adult sets as unappealing as possible with huge price tags and boring black boxes? As for the need to have everything under one big brand umbrella, that seems like something that is being forced on people by large corporations like Disney rather than something people actually want. Technically we got an Adventurers Icons set with the Haunted House, but obviously that wasn’t the kind of remake-style set we were hoping for. Hopefully we’ll get one someday.

Ninjago could be a tentpole if it wanted to. They certainly tried for a while with their diversions into air pirates, underwater, Islanders, cyberpunk, dungeons, etc., plus the show literally has realms filled with rock monsters and government agents that they could capitalize on, but with the Dragons Rising rebranding they seem to have decided to stick to what they do best, mechs and dragons. Now we just need some themes to fill the role of everything else, and a contest to come up with some sounds like a lot of fun!

I feel like trying to recapture the success of Ninjago is LEGO’s downfall. You can’t have a theme compete with Ninjago if it’s trying to BE Ninjago. Ninjago is way too established and popular at this point for a new theme to come in and try to be even nearly as successful if it’s just copying the same formula. Back in the day, Ninjago was able to coexist with themes like Monster Fighters, Dino, Ultra Agents, etc. because they were so different and I don’t see why that couldn’t be the case today, especially now that Ninjago has stopped trying to be every theme at once and settled into mostly just mechs and dragons. Sure, those old themes never lasted more than 2 waves, but they didn’t need to. Does everything have to be a “big bang” theme that lasts multiple years to be profitable for LEGO? I’m getting tired of licensed themes and their skyrocketing prices and hope we get some more original themes soon. That’s a fantastic idea!

The demand to have the characters in their spacesuits came from the IP owners: