Black Falcon

It would make no sense for Lego and it would make no sense for costumers. And no, just because they slam a big Disney sign on it and Star Wars as Subtheme on it, it wouldn´t reduce budget, marketing or anything else. If anything it would increase costs because you would have to redesign existing sets in the first place.

Well, but in the end it is a detail that isn´t that obvious on the first sight, and can get hidden by a beard.

It would make no sense actually. Star Wars and Marvel are both big franchises in the first place, with tons of new Sets every year, especially for the Galaxy far far away. While the Disney theme itself is more about the classic disney stuff, the old movies, new movies and of course the Disney Princess subfranchise. While you still didn´t explain what the benefit of throwing them all together would be, as others explained it would only change the label but not the contents.

We don´t even know if Dreamzzz is going to be gone or not. All the info that was leaked was that Dreamzzz would only get one Wave this year - and people assumed it would be done after that, but no leaker (and neither Lego themselves) stated it would be over as far as I am aware - though probably people asumed it anyways so it wouldn´t be the big news if someone actually affirmed it. But eitherway, right now it is still here, as is Monkey kid. So you can´t just omit those and claim they don´t exist. And for next year we simply don´t know, we could get a new inhouse theme, or not... ;) I did. Just that you apparently added something after I did so. That aside if you quote someone it is (among other things) so others also can comprehend what you are answering on, so just posting your answer under a whole text might not always be the best solution. And different people handle it differently. And nowhere did I defend the reduction as great, my point was just, that while you think it is bad, others thing it actually is great and for me it is just a mixed bag. I would love to get more inhouse themes back but at the same time I don´t see licenses as something bad either - IMO there is no right or wrong here, just different opinions ;). Again. Noone argued against that you shouldn´t like something or your preferences in general but your arguments. As I said, there are many people here that would love more unlicensed themes again, so you certainly are not alone ;).

The point is that you are cherrypicking the themes to turn the facts into your favour. You clould have just said that there are to many licensed Sets for your liking, and you surely wouldn´t be alone here ;). And whether it is an issue that Lego does have licensed themes is a very personal thing. There are many people in this forum that would wish classic themes like Adventures, Western, Castle, Pirates and Space back, same as there are tons of people that are fans of themes of Star Wars, Harry Potter, Jurassic World etc - and people wishing for like every IP existing to get Sets - in the end Lego doesn´t roll the dice deciding which Themes to produce, but what they think (and market research tells them) that sells well. Personally I would love to get a new Castle Theme, space theme, western etc. but at the same time I wouldn´t be against an own D&D theme either for instance. And talking about ratios, I don´t think counting IPs really is telling us much here, most IPs get only one Single Set a year (+maybe GWP and Brickhead) or every few years, if not just once, while City and Ninjago get tons of Sets, and have a big selection of different things. City for instance had Space Sets just recently, this year we probably have more trains on the shelves than we got for a long time, then we had Safari and Jungle sets etc.

Well in the end you are placing the arguments so that they fit your result. Wednesday and Wicked are mostly Minidolls, so if Friends isn´t allowed, they shouldn´t either. You don´t count Dreamzzz and Monkey kid, since both of them are retired (though Dreamzzz still got new Sets this year and Monkey Kid, while not getting new Sets is still not EOL yet) but D&D, Simpsons, PotC count. As you mentioned yourself, Creator also exists, and then you also got Icons which is a mix of Licensed and unlicensed, as @MAB mentioned. Then of course there are more Themes like Architecture and Art (not completely unlicensed) or Botanicals, Classic but since you only want to count Minifigure themes those obviously don´t count anyways. However, then we would still have Education, Chinese new year, Winter Village, Modular Buildings... ;)

Yeah, and in the end if you don´t care about the smart brick, there are still plenty of other sets around. Personally, to me the brick is interesting, and I also would like to try it out but right now for just trying it out I won´t buy it. In the end we will probably still see enough Smart Brick Sets, and maybe one day there will be one that I want to have anyways - or I see one with a nice discount. I cant totally agree with that. Same as LED lamps you get to buy nowadays which you can just throw aways as a whole instead of replacing the light bulb...

I think everyone in this thread here is aware that every figure could in the end be both genders and if a mermaid is suggested Lego could aswell also make a merman for instance. However, I don´t agree that it makes any of those you mentioned to appear unlikely. Not sure how they would make a damsel anyways, as the only thing really that would make her look like in distress it the enviroment and partly at least her expression, but however they could also take the approach a certain movie did that was named accordingly ;). As for the other two, neither a princess, nor Governours daughter are really anything that I would call tropes. Not more than Aristocrat Lady or Unicorn Elf/Princess anyways ;). IMO the Barbarian torso still works pretty well for male characters too though. But yeah, torsos that work for both genders are surely prefered.

Especially since one charger can load two bricks that would make no sense, so if they are going to be sold seperately there will likely be packs with charger and bricks and bricks alone. But for now as they will roll out to other themes like Pokemon they will surely stay with starter Sets, so it will be more interesting to see what will happen next year. Well, at least I don´t need to try them out to say that they look ugly to me ;). Why? Because you think it is bad, in an ideal world everyone hast to think so? Personally, for what you are getting I actually don´t think that the smart brick sets are actually that expensive compared to normal Star Wars Sets. And if you are looking back at Light and sound and compare those with normal Sets, that system wasn´t cheap either. In the end if the kids have fun with the Smart Brick Sets it will be worth it for parents and if not and the brick ends in a corner after few days, probably not. Since in the first case they are likely to buy more and in the second not, time will tell how well the bricks really are received.

Well that is pretty much what they do all the time though. And seriously, how would it help your intergrity if you just claim the smart brick is shit but you didn´t even test it. What I dislike most about the brick personally is that there are many people online that know that the brick is bad without even trying or knowing what it even does, based on some comments online. In the end, when we are looking at the critcs on Hidden Side and Vidiyo the smart brick actually gives parents what they wanted, that no smart device is needed to play. And in the end all the critism I´ve seen so far is basically from an adult point of view, so it still needs to be seen how kids will play with the brick in the long run. It probably makes sense to include them in some starter sets now, but I would expect to see it sold seperately in the future.

Unique enough I would say? Just look what they did with the Space Series, they took modern Spacemen (well hard to do with Pirates of course, not that there wouldn´t be modern ones, but they surely wouldn´t touch those), old figs and several new ideas (Space Tourist, Orion, Saucer guy etc.) and I don´t think even typical Pirates figures would have to look to much alike, just compare the Quarter,aster with the Pirate Girl from Series 20 for instance, take the BAM Pirate Skeleton and some usual Pirates like Pirate Captain, Shipmate a mermaid, an Imperial, Governour + Daugther and add a cook and a barmaid and you don´t even need to think much to fill a full series ;) The main difference probably is, that Space and Castle had both several Factions with Blacktron, Futoron, Ice Planet, Black Falcons, Lion Knights, Wolfpack etc. While Pirates had pretty much Pirates, which aren´t that destinctive from another and then Islanders and Imperials. So I would definitely see them making Castle over Pirates, especially since that one is as good as guaranteed to do well. But I don´t think that there wouldn´t be enough ideas for a full series still.

I´ve played the game enough, but in the end the gen 1 characters are very basic and I would rather expect them to include the Series characters, so Ash, Misty, Brock and Oak - maybe even Jessy and James? Though probably we shouldn´t expect to many minifigs given there will also be moulded Pokemon, Pikachu is probably granted, the rest we have to see.

Well, not that strange IMO since the mould is there, so it doesn´t cost much for them to use it and wasn´t ther quartermasters bird there too just recently? Also, was there really never a new mould in BAM? Would have thought over the time at least some new accessory would have showed up there.

If they would make sitting, howling wolves, I certainly wouldn´t complain ;)

They were only renamed, not split. Anyways the point was that renaming them triggered the same issue as with newer threats and I just mentioned it because it could possibly help the vendor to track down the reason for it