MAB

I think it varies depending on the subject - Disney ones will have a large run for example. Unlicensed probably significantly lower. I imagine it has also gone up over time. Some of the earlier sets had second production runs and the set was out of stock for a while (eg Research Institute, Exosuit) even though it later came back into stock. Exosuit was probably over produced at it hung around a long time and need to heavily advertised (the decommissioning campaign) and discounted. Some had fixed runs no matter how popular they were - for example, the mars rover sold out quickly (in days) in the US and was not restocked, although was a much slower seller (in months) elsewhere.

Yes, in reality that middle should align properly and the whole thing should be 120x160 units, so will fit into a 6x8 stud hole.

No, I will use the quote feature. I don't care how they are promoted, and in fact I don't think City needs promoting in more depth than it already is. It does very well as it is and it has remained a core best seller for many years. Advertising can go on newer, more experimental themes. The City sets are simple enough not to need cartoons to tell the child what might happen, since they are based on real life type situations / vehicles / characters, then these do not need fleshing out further. Based on other threads about storylines being imposed via media, for every AFOL wanting more depth given to the characters and more advertising there is probably another two that want to go back t the olden days where LEGO was about creativity and imagination, when we didn't need to be told the names of characters or what the storyline is and children knew how to use their imagination.

In the heist set, there aren't children or any people inside the bank. There aren't any bank workers at all - just cops and robbers. I guess this must take place out of business hours, when there is nobody around to be hurt by a bulldozer smashing into a building. Many police sets are like that and in the associated media, the robbers tend to get caught. I doubt LEGO wants to send out a message that crime can pay in their stories.

You should be able to do that, at least in real life. A plate is 8 units high, a brick is 24 high and 20 wide. See here (this is really handy when working out letters and so on): So if you want to match 6 studs wide, this is 120 units. This could be achieved by 15 plates high, which is equivalent to your 4 tiles one brick, one white tile, and again 4 tiles one brick - it is essentially 7+1+7 plates. Have you tried building a stack of 14 plates plus a tile on top like that then rotating it? To reduce parts, you could also use 2 black 1x4 bricks, then a black plate and a white plate, then two black bricks and finally a black tile. I wouldn't worry too much about trying to connect it via technic pins. If this is going to drop into a slot of the correct size, then gravity will hold it in place, even if tilted.

LEGO danger tends to occur where people are not likely to be harmed. So fires tend to happen in trash cans, unoccupied buildings, trees and so on rather in populated buildings. I cannot see LEGO suggesting to kids as young as 5 that a bus might explode while they are on it - there would be outrage from parents if they were to publish something like that for small children. And surely the simple answer in case of a malfunction (rather than a bomb) is to stop the bus and let the people off.

The same thing would probably happen if they did completely separate arctic or jungle or any other similar City subtheme as a standalone theme without the City branding. City doesn't need really need much advertising. It is one of the core LEGO brands, probably the core in-house brand that many people think of when they think of LEGO, especially minifigure based LEGO sets. Having the City logo on the box helps parents and grandparents decide whether to buy or not - the logos matter much more to adults than to kids. If the kid is into City, then having the City logo is reassurance that the kid will like this set too. Because TV series cost money. And it is not as simple as just give them a TV series as they cannot do a TV series for everything. If they did a LEGO pirates TV series in 2015, it would have had to compete for airtime and kids viewing figures with Chima (which was just finishing) and Nexo Knights (which was just starting). Plus it would also be competing with other pirate TV series at the same time, like Jake and the Neverland Pirates. LEGO had a DUPLO series based on that at the same time, so they may well have wanted to steer clear of in-house pirate sets and cartoons aimed at the younger LEGO fan to avoid conflict there. They could have tried to aim it at an older age group, say 10+, but they are less likely to want to watch the cartoons compared to younger viewers. Also the TV series do not work well for sales figures in all countries, as there are language problems and also toy advertising regulations that they need to comply with.

For minifigures, I am of the same opinion. LEGO failed to produce some important ones, and where they failed I am perfectly happy to accept third party accessories if they look LEGO like. I bought enough Koruit figures to build a small Gondor army and a couple of Fountain guards, However, I only use the armour and headgear. I have no need for the figures or weapons as LEGO already makes them so I sold those off to someone else that doesn't mind non-lego figures. I also use brick forge and brick warriors parts where LEGO don't make the part or didn't make the part at the time I bought them or where the custom part is significantly better. Same with minifigure prints, I don't mind original torsos being custom printed if the printing is decent and it looks LEGO like. With parts, I don't use any non-LEGO parts. I think there are enough parts already to do what you need to do, even if it needs some creativity. So I am sort of almost purist - I'll use LEGO where possible but don't mind using custom minifigure parts if they look like what LEGO would make, they just didn't.

We have them in the UK, but they are often associated with boy racers doing stupid things. Take a look at the advice from police on them: https://www.askthe.police.uk/content/Q359.htm I'm not sure that would fit in well with LEGO's ethics and I doubt many parents would buy their kids cruise night sets.

I'm allowed to comment on any threads. Just as you are. If you reply to a comment of mine, then I am allowed to reply to a comment of yours. It is how a forum works.

Metro / transit has been given a chance. In the past six years we have had these (in addition to trains). LEGO will know how many of them sold, and whether they are a good seller. You've gone back to 2010 to select 8404, but there have been other similar sets since then. As for a news subtheme, I somehow doubt 5-12 year old kids are interested in an entire subtheme. Bits and pieces in sets, maybe, but not a whole theme on it. We have had a few news reporters in sets, from Alien Conquest, to City, to Spiderman, to Ninjago. That said, they could always do a helicopter with a pilot and journalist as an eye in the sky style set. That would make an ideal city set, and another way to badge a helicopter.

I believe they play test various ideas, and presumably "real" settings work better with Hidden Side than space. Plus they have recently done Nexo Knights, so space knights alongside a tech interface. Hidden Side has also brought something that AFOLs have asked for in the past - a school.

I imagine most kids would enjoy most LEGO themes if they were put in front of them and the kids were told they can play with it. Give them a choice and they are more likely to sway towards the more modern sets. And for kids of a certain age, even more likely still if there is a tablet / screen involved. What is important is if kids like current themes enough to want them. There is also a downside to bringing back old themes and aiming them at kids. As AFOLs, we might think re-releases or re-imaginings are great for nostalgia. However, some parents might see that LEGO has not changed since they were kids and why bother buying new sets when the kids can play with their exact same old ones which are still in Granny and Grandpa's loft/attic.

So what? Do you think kids really care whether a subtheme is explicitly stated on a box or in a catalogue? City branding helps kids and parents know that the sets are going to be of a particular style and playability - different to Creator, for example. Having a small, managable number of internal brands helps consumers know what something will be like and also recognize what they might like. If all the arctic sets, or deep sea, or jungle police, or any other subtheme was under completely different branding and the branding changed every year, then LEGO are likely to lose sales due to (lack of) brand loyalty. And mentioning buildings from the recent past is important, since it puts things into perspective. Given the sets are often on the shelves for two years and larger buildings sets such as for the emergency services often cycle every 3-4-5 years, knowing what has just gone helps understand what will come again.

Downtown fire brigade (2019) has a (fire at a) construction site set:

No it doesn't. It may be for you, but not for kids. Often younger kids are not into Formula One or performance cars, they want things that are exciting to them - police, fire and ambulance. Look at non-LEGO kids toys for 4-10 year olds. Many of them are emergency services. Kids don't really care about going to the shops, or visiting the bank to get some cash and so don't act out stories like that. But they find acting out a fire at the construction site or a robbery at the bank exciting.

Well we have a fire station (2019), hospital (2018), 'normal' police station (2017) - that is the emergency services covered. No doubt they will cycle again. 2016 had an airport but also a fire station, 2014 had the generic police station, 2013 another fire station and 2012 a hospital. I wouldn't say the hospital was random, it fits into the emergency services cycle. Aside from that we have had a number of other reasonable buildings for City - Burger bar, construction site, garage, donut and toy shops (all 2019), Capital City (hotel, skatepark, etc) (2018), bank (2017), and lots of even smaller buildings / scenes. Often kids don't care how big a piece of scene or building is - they want action at the docks or construction site or bank (or whatever) - they get vehicles plus the scene. They don't really care if the bank is up to modular standards, they need a shell to act out a heist. Often the set is stand alone or interacts with a couple of other sets. It is rare that a kid sets up a whole town.

No it isn't. In my view, City is to provide vehicles and buildings that kids (mainly boys) like playing with. If you were to build a realistic town, then more than 99 out of 100 sets would need to be houses. Yet presumably City houses don't sell very well as boys tend not to want to play "house", which is why we don't get them. Whereas when aimed more towards the girl market, then houses are popular - look at how many appear in Friends. Adults that want to build cities have their own range - the Creator Expert modulars. LEGO knows what sells far better than you do. They have all the sales data. They know that kids (especially boys) like vehicles. They know they want something similar to last year but different enough to distinguish it as new. Hence variants on police. Not only do "random" licenses sell sets to people that were possibly not already buying LEGO (and hence don't compete so much with LEGO's other lines compared to other current liceses), they also know that bringing in "random" licenses may well turn fans of that license into more general LEGO fans of other themes as well. Look at posts about what brought people out of their "dark ages" - it is often a licensed theme that sparked their interest.

I guess it depends on what you mean by great buildings, but that is already sort of provided in the Architecture range at microscale for famous buildings and the Modulars at minifigure scale for common buildings.

Have a look at this: https://www.freelug.org/spip.php?article391 You might need to change the size of the insert to make it fit in with LEGO part dimensions.

As above, there had already been loads of discussion about this in the right place. There are loads of characters they could do, but the chances are essentially zero. And if they did, it has been a while since the original sets so I imagine they would start again, and reproduce ones they have already done.

Try making a car where you have two minifigures sitting together and see how wide it is and make it a real life ratio long. Even worse, have three kids sit in the back.

Yeah, the torsos were not so bad for MF humans. I like Rodney Rathbone's and Jack McHammer's makes a nice lumberjack if you replace the robo-arm. I had no use for Quinton Steele, but all my spares went to a friend who does steampunk models, so they all got reused. I had no use for Frank Rock's though. I had no use for any of the legs though as they were all a bit specialist, and sold the lot on bricklink.

I'm completely the opposite but have the same view about torsos. So long as I can remove the yellow hands and replace them with fleshie ones, they are fine. So much so that I have a few AFOL friends where we exchange heads and hands in bulk.

They are stopping doing regular retail regional sets. Although convention exclusives will remain. For me: Printing on fake minifigures has now surpassed the quality of printing on LEGO minifigures. Often the print is 'deeper' so dark colours do not show through lighter print. And because torso and legs are assembled and printed together, continuous prints from torso to legs both lines up correctly and also does not have a gap near the bottom of the torso.