MAB

And I am surprised as to why people think the ratio in the number of licensed to unlicensed themes matter. The problem is not the number of licensed themes, but the number of unlicensed themes. LEGO not doing small licensed themes like Wednesday, Wicked or Fortnight is not going to make any difference to the unlicensed themes they offer. Hating on themes you don't like is not going to introduce things you want. I don't understand why someone wanting an unlicensed theme that LEGO doesn't think is worth producing would be happy if someone else is excluded from enjoying something that they like in LEGO.

No, but then I display sets in a room that doesn't get intense direct sunlight (north facing in northern hemisphere, and away from windows) so I don't really have that problem. My Saturn V and Steamboat Willie for example are still nice and white, and my castles are still pretty decent LBG not yellowed. I saw a Steamboat Willie for sale a few months ago, and it was horribly yellowed on one side. No doubt it had been left on a window sill, but it shows even here we get enough sunshine to sun damage bricks quickly if they are not properly cared for.

Yet City has been a top selling theme every year for many decades. Ninjago and Friends have been so popular that they have grown in terms of yearly output way bigger than classic themes or the one year themes, and keep selling year after year after year. So some kids must understand what in-house themes mean.

I wouldn't pay close to 400 GBP / Eur / USD for a large model of it. Also I doubt it would be accepted through IDEAS as it is an existing theme.

So instead of 10 different Disney themes each with 5 sets in, you'd prefer one Disney super-theme with 10 subthemes, each with 5 sets in? It would reduce the number of licenced themes, increase the ratio of unlicensed to licensed themes but keep exactly the same number of licensed sets as before taking up exactly the same amount of shelf space in a store. More importantly, it would make no difference as to whether or not they made any classic style unlicensed sets. So it would change absolutely nothing. But if you want that, you can do it yourself. Just mentally label all licensed sets as licensed, then use their current theme as the subtheme name. And as if by magic, there is only one licensed theme and so there are now more unlicensed themes than licensed themes. Yet absolutely nothing changes in terms of what sets you can buy.

So why does the ratio of unlicensed to licensed themes matter to you? LEGO could combine all of the Disney owned properties into a single theme and have Disney - Star Wars and Disney - Princess and Disney - Whatever and so on and call everything a subset of the Disney theme just like they have done City - Stuntz, City - Space, City - Volcano, City - Forest Police, etc. Doing that would instantly decrease the theme ratio yet would make no difference to the numbers of licensed or unlicensed sets available and no difference to you as it does not introduce any unlicensed sets. Similarly, they could increase the number of in-house themes by having Ninjago - future tech, Ninjago - historic, Ninjago - mechs, Ninjago - dragons, Ninjago - City all as separate themes with similar or the same characters. Or they could do "Unlicensed theme that you don't want as it is for modern kids 1", "Unlicensed theme that you don't want as it is for modern kids 2", etc. Both would make more in-house themes and change the unlicensed to licensed themes ratio. But that would not give you anything from the old themes from years ago. It is also important consider BDP sets as that is where nostalgic adults are spending their money on some Classic themes, especially Castle where buying each related set is typically of the order of at least $1000 per year, money that won't be spent on regular retail sets.

LEGO also used to be 100% no minifigures. And long before that, it was 100% wood. Times change. Some people want licensed sets, some want unlicensed. LEGO caters for both, about equally. Similarly some want DUPLO, some want Technic. Some want big, some want small. If LEGO did not do licensed products it would soon be dead. Other brick brands would be producing the licensed sets that many of LEGO's consumers want to buy and so that would soon become the dominant brand as customers soon get used to buying that brand for licensed sets and would also switch for that brands unlicensed sets too. If they cut out all the adult (Botanicals, Architecture, etc) sets as well, they would reduce further. And if they cut out mini-dolls, another chunk gone. And then if they cut out modern themes and only do sets for themes that existed a few decades ago, they'd be a tiny niche company doing retro toys. Kids have moved on. Kids like Ninjago. It has been going 15 years. There is a reason for that. It is constantly refreshed and it contains many styles of sets and many types of play. Ninjago is 3 or 4 themes under the same banner.

They are still for sale at LEGO.com. These are all predominantly small themes in terms of set numbers compared to the huge City, Friends and Ninjago themes. When I go into a store, barely any shelf space is taken up by Animal Crossing or Wednesday compared to City. Yes, there are many more licensed themes simply because many of them get barely 5 sets. This is why it is far better to compare the number of sets than the number of themes. When I go into a store, I typically see about half the store is unlicensed and half is licensed. Lord of the Rings is not a separate theme in itself, the minifigure based sets are part of ICONS and the Brickheadz are obviously part of BH. Similarly, Pirates of the Caribbean is not a theme, the one set it has is part of ICONS.

So there are only two non-licensed themes and one is town (City) and the other feels like it is licensed, so presumably this is Ninjago. Then there is the best theme Creator. That makes three. Yet there are only two non-licensed themes? And what about themes like Friends, Monkie Kid, Dreamzz, then hybrid themes like Icons, Ideas and Technic that contain both licensed and unlicensed. There are plenty of unlicensed sets available these days, they are just different subjects to the 80s and 90s.

You cannot really tell much from a one off photo from one location. There are a huge amount of CMF parts from many series across multiple years (at least as early as series 2 and at least as late as series 11) in that bin, so presumably the store was getting rid of lots of random parts it had lying around. Anything could have been chucked in there.

Yeah, I don't mind flesh printing on torsos .. if it is necessary. I don't mind topless muscular guys or girls in bikinis or skin showing where a dress style requires it. But I don't like things like this ... I don't mind the collar numbers so much as they need some details on the figures (samecwith name tags), but the yellow neck makes it unusable for fleshie figures. Plus he would have had a (white) shirt anyway and colouring the neck area white would make it more usable. And there are plenty of similar examples with fleshie print that stops reusability with yellow figures. Luckily, I think LEGO has got better here over the years and similarly with the gendering of torsos where they could be dual use.

It is not 90% of the time. It is still about 50:50 licensed to unlicensed when comparing numbers of sets. And if you look at sets aimed at kid ages, that swings slightly more towards unlicensed, as expensive collector sets tend to be licensed. As to why the number of licensed sets is so high compared to 25 years ago, that is because they sell well and they bring in huge numbers of buyers. I take the alternative view that I don't need to buy every LEGO set and not every LEGO set needs to appeal to me, whether it is licensed or unlicensed. If LEGO can make something new and that brings them more income via new consumers, even if just for that set, it is good for them and it doesn't hurt me in any way. The reason the focus has moved from the type of sets that adults now enjoyed as kids decades before is because society has changed and kids want different things now to then. But then that was also true of toys in the 80s and 90s compared to toys in the 50s and 60s. LEGO still produces hundreds of unlicensed sets aimed at kids every year, many more than in the past, but these tend to be in their big three evergreen themes of City, Friends and Ninjago. The last two continuing for over 10 years shows that the kids today are buying into these unlicensed themes just like kids of the 80s and 90s were buying into classic minifigure based themes.

For me, it looks too weird having a male barbarian wearing a leather basque/corset designed to emphasise femininity.

The lack of printed sheet - I think so. I guess they rely on the email now. My recent order also lacked the heads (2 types, 12 of each) that showed up a week later. I assumed it was a stock problem.

From an e-waste point of view, I'd hope they would sell the brick and the charger separately. Getting a new charger with each brick will be wasteful. It is a bit like Galidor. So many people slag that off without ever playing with it. I bought some for my kids years ago, and it got a lot of use. Especially when they worked out you could build your own limbs and heads.

Yeah, I mentioned earlier a female governor and her son could be possible. I don't mind so much if they do female soldiers so long as they don't make the torso gender specific to maximise their customisability. The falconer was great like that, as were all the castle like figures in the D&D set. It is a bit harder with ones like the female barbarian in S25 when they want the 80s movie style characters. But then the earlier male barbarian was not particularly good for an army builder and it doesn't matter too much for one-offs.

I don't agree with they way it is sold, with the smart brick in some sets and not other sets when they could have sold the sets without the smart brick and the smart brick separately. However I have heard from a couple of families with younger kids that these are a great hit with them. I doubt it is the game changer LEGO was making it out to be, but from what I have seen, they look quite fun. There is also the issue that when a few of the bigger influencers say they don't like something, everyone else seems to fall into line. I guess they fear mocking and nasty comments and people not subscribing if they dare say anything different.

You also need a zombie costume guy. And girl. A bit like the Scooby Doo villains.

Yes, I meant with fairly loose definitions. Governor's daughter type figure could be in the 'soldiers' group although it could just as likely be a female governor and her son. I get what you mean about islanders but they could either be done sensitively or switched for shipwrecked people done in different styles. I very nearly mentioned zombie pirate and so we need a zombie soldier. A robot pirate is still a possibility. And if they are going for whacky / non-historical figures, then there could be child in Jolly Roger shirt, cannon suit costume (like the crayon), treasure chest costume, and treasure hunter with a map.

Space was a much wider brief than a single theme of the past, and so it was easy for the to include many different figures. Pirates is quite narrow, but they could probably still do 4 pirate figures, 4 soldiers and 4 islanders. It would no doubt be 2 male and 2 female of each so would not be too hard to fill.

Because if they did a small version with all the characters and a big version with all the characters, then sales of the big version will be impacted.

It also doesn't help that hosting sites are not available in all regions. Imgur, for example, has blocked content in the UK since it had an argument about protection of children's data and so I cannot see imgur posts. I could load up a VPN, clear all the cookies and try again. But I tend to just skip those posts instead. I think also that haul photos used to be interesting as things appeared and disappeared seemingly randomly. Licensed parts were available for a while, then pulled. New parts appeared all the time rather than together on a specific date. Whereas now, it is much more regimented and I need not look at what people got as I already know what is going to be available for the next three months or so, so long as it does not go out of stock. Before this thread started, it also used to be a bit of a secret (but still discussed in private groups) in that often you didn't want others knowing what was available at least until your order had been placed and dispatched, especially when they had messed up and were giving 100s of parts away free, or selling torsos for 5p, or very in-demand licensed parts dirt cheap.

Or, more likely, there is no intentional pattern. There were other licensed series coming out between them and other things going on, such as the year for Space in 2024, and various other small set series like Vidiyo and Formula 1 that don't get numbered but take shelf space in the same way unlicensed CMF do. And if you look at the years, there is no clear pattern. Series 14 was 2015, Series 18 was 2018, Series 22 was 2022, Series 26 was 2024, Series 28 is 2026. It is more likely that LEGO do what they want, when they want, rather than setting up a pattern and then change it.

I don't think you are in the minority that does not, but the majority that does not. But that is the point of marketing high value sets for niche properties. The fan bases are relatively limited so they aim to go for smaller numbers of high value sets rather than larger numbers of low value sets. I read somewhere that the audience for Spongebob is about 25% 18-34 year old without kids, with likely similar numbers of other adults with kids. They could aim sets at children but that would mean more small sets need to be sold and they could also cannibalise sales of their other sets aimed at kids. So they aim for high value sales to a minority of adults.

I wonder what viewing figures are going to be like for that one. When he gives his opinion in the title, are people really going to watch for four hours just to find out he doesn't like them? Even if played at 2x speed, I could still watch a movie instead in that time. And I'd still know that he doesn't think much of the Smart Bricks.