gizhou

Great detailed review! Exo-Force was the theme that got me back into collecting Lego after many many years. I managed to collect all the sets over the 3 year run (except for the promo ones in poly bags) Hi Front! I've seen from other threads that you worked on Bionicle and I'm curious if you were involved in Exo-Force? The 4 flagship mechs from the first year were awesome, and what was especially outstanding were the alternate models featured on the back of the boxes. It's a shame newer themes/sets have given up on displaying "inspiration" alternate builds on the boxes apart from multi-set combo models. Hopefully you can find the Supernova on an online auction site as it truly was one of the best sets in the series. I personally bought a few copies of that one.

I'd like forum members' opinion on this: EF mechs really don't look like Japanese mechs they take their inspiration from. If Lego really copied Japanese style mecha as well as they do Star Wars models, instead of trying to "westernize" the mechs, do you think we would see a better response? If they aimed EF at an older age group and more complicated builds, would we see more sets sold? BTW, I would be curious what the sales of EF are in Asia? Hey, do you have links to the blogs?

Exactly. I think if Lego expanded the team with more interesting members, and create a deeper story that didn't "aim" at the 7-8 year-old demographic, people would have been motivated to pick up more sets to expand their EF collections. Look at Star Wars and how many characters that universe has, and how the story appeals on different levels to different age groups. A big selling point for any new set is the characters/minifigs. I think one sign of the decline in quality in '07-'08 is this: after carefully crafting amazing-looking alternate models and even giving them names in 2006, Lego gave up on making alternate models in 2007, and didn't even bother to name the combo models or mini-robots this year. I think EF would actually be more successful if they aimed it for an older age group. Honestly, some of the sets were too hard for 7-8 year-olds, but they would still want them if they saw their older age 10-14 siblings getting excited about them. Personally, I will buy the same number of sets in previous years to complete my collection. I can't believe the other poster found Sentai Fortress on clearance for 12 bucks in the US? No wonder Lego can't make a profit. Man, that is amazing. Looks like you bought a ton of Gate Assaults? That was my first set and a great way to get into EF at the start. With the black robot arms on the mini-robots this year, I was really hoping that Lego would introduce a black-colored robot into the series ...

Hi all, been lurking here for a couple years but this topic has finally got me to register and post! Good discussion here. Whether you're disappointed or not disappointed by EF's cancellation, it's interesting to see all the opinions. In case you didn't see it, Lego staff member Swiftone posted this at the EF thread over at BZP Here are my comments: The Exo-Force line is what got me back into Lego after a 20-year hiatus, and I know a LOT of others that also loved this theme. But like Swiftone said, all good things come to an end ... even Pirates, Johnny Thunder, etc. Actually, Japanese manga often have an ending too, not like American superhero comics that go forever and ever. The cool thing is I can say I actually collected all the sets in a single theme (didn't have the cash flow as a kid to collect all the Space Lego sets 20 years ago :P ) I think the 2006 EF line will be considered legendary. They got so many things right from the sleek Stealth Hunter, to the monstrous Striking Venom, to the huge Sentai Fortress playset. The characters were cool, they put effort into making awesome alternate models, there was an fantastic multi-pronged marketing campaign with TV, website videos, comics, chapter books. It obviously worked as EF was the 3rd best-selling theme for 2006 after Bionicle and Star Wars. Then for some reason, Lego threw out this winning formula for 2007 and replaced it with mediocre models (anyone could see the Sky Guardian or Mobile Devastator was just not as cool as the Stealth Hunter or Sentai Fortress), golden boxes that were shiny but offered no new comics/alt models, Exo-Codes that I honestly don't think got many kids very excited. It was a sad waste of the momentum built up a year earlier, and it seemed like the line was set up to fail. It seems that Lego switched design teams on the 2nd year of the series, and tried to save money by replacing smaller pieces with big Bionicle ones. Now in 2008, we actually have got new sets that most fans agree are some of the best yet, but they are putting the axe to the series. Do they honestly think that Lego Secret Agents will sell more sets than Exo-Force in the next year?