MAB

There's got to be a haunted lighthouse.

It is quite funny on BL where some minor changes (even with the same mold / element number) get a's and b's and so on to differentiate them, whereas others with different mold numbers get tied to the same BL part number.

The new geodes might be good for fantasy castle settings.

The major market - kids - rarely complain about things like this so it is unlikely that they will increase the price of a set just to please people that want to collect the minifigures as display items. There are also other quality issues (rather than design issues) - prints not matching across torso to legs, print broken across torso to legs (clone brands do better here as they print torso and legs in one go), translucent light colour print on dark parts, no inner leg print, not top of foot print even when sides of feet have been printed, etc. The change to dual molded legs really shows off how bad some old figures look. For example, these printed legs look great from the front: But terrible from behind. Compare them to a similar dual molded part and the rear end just looks stupid. So all mine now wear capes to cover this up. Would kids or people that display in a frame care? Probably not.

For Planet of the Apes, I'd prefer the original series. The latest movies would be lots of apes with straps across their chests. I'd like to see those damned dirty apes in their uniforms of the original movies.

I cannot see it being a good seller though, not as one of LEGO's biggest sets. GBC are usually really well received at conventions, but I doubt the public really wants a single module or two. And the cost and size of a decent set-up at home is prohibitive for most, so even a theme of lots of modules is likely to be out of the question. Also, I like the fact that GBC are owned by the community, rather than by LEGO. It would be awful if LEGO started to make official sets and changed community standards.

Although this wouldn't need to stop them doing a set. For example, they could (and can) just do a Space Shuttle set. However, there isn't an "explode" play feature included. But if people really want to play with it exploding, then they can do it easily enough. Similarly, lots of scenes in LOTR are fairly scary for kids, but that didn't make the characters out of bounds for LEGO, they just concentrated on other scenes. But nothing stops someone acting out the scary scenes using LEGO if they want to. If there is a good business case for making a set/theme, then I am sure LEGO can normally find something tasteful to concentrate on, even if there is distasteful material in the IP.

For me, the biggest surprise here is how LEGO do the hair. Will they try to emulate those Kreo sets, with the "real" hair attached permanently to a head, or a "hat" with the hair attached, on to a normal minifigure head, or just go with rubberised molded hair, or molded hair attached to a head, or something else. The also know Kreo has done this license before, so presumably think there is a good market for it, like other ones they have taken up from other manufacturers. MB (and other manufacturers?) have done Spiderman and other SH before LEGO got it (back), Doctor Who by Character Building, etc. Also part of their calculations no doubt take into consideration that if they have the Trolls license, then one of the clone companies will not have it. If someone else had it, then whatever juniors style sets LEGO had out at the time would be in competition with the clone brand's Trolls sets.

Isn't this some minifigures playing a practical joke, using an alien mask on a stick pretending there are aliens for the camera.

Lining up all of those flags must have been fun!

Here is the current 2019 list of sets by theme from Brickset, with the gear type sets removed, DUPLO removed, Books removed, CMF removed as they aren't really sets as such, and education, FORMA, promotional, seasonal, etc removed too. Do those licensed themes really outweigh in-house themes? Especially when you look at the number of sets in the themes.

Take a look at the Super Bowl TV ratings: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Bowl_television_ratings. Do you see any point in that continuing?

They'd be too busy buying Mega Construx Star Wars, Marvel, DC and Harry Potter sets to either notice or care about LEGO not doing them any more. They aren't random, they are chosen by LEGO quite carefully. This isn't unnecessary. They will need something to fill the gap for younger (4+) kids and this is a popular license. It may be unnecessary for many AFOLs, but that doesn't mean it is unnecessary. So keep the ones that AFOLs like, but no themes aimed at younger kids allowed? Minecraft is still popular. It may not be as popular as it once was, but kids still play it. And more importantly, kids still want the LEGO sets. No. Some people are demanding more in-house sets. Yet others are demanding more licensed sets. Just look around the internet. It would be cool if LEGO did ... Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, Thundercats, Space 1999, Star Trek, Thunderbirds, How To Train Your Dragon, Calvin and Hobbes, ... none of those is any less random than Trolls. In fact, a fairly popular movie, with a sequel coming out, aimed at the younger demographic that LEGO will want to target once the Incredibles and similar sets are gone, Trolls isn't that random at all.

If done well, I think the theme could be a really good seller. I guess for AFOLs, a lot depends on how they do the hair. Although for kids, I doubt they'd mind if the heads are molded or traditional heads, or the hair is "hair" or rubber or plastic.

It's from Lester: from this polybag set 40308:

We know they are willing to do "real" space as seen in City (and the even more real Saturn V) against SW - the proof is that they do City sets like that. But we don't know whether doing SW stops them doing a space exploration theme. The fact they haven't (at least since Galaxy Squad, Alien Conquest, etc) could mean that they think Star Wars has their fantasy Space needs covered, or it could mean that they don't think themes like that are worth doing as much as the themes they bring out instead. Just because SW doesn't inhibit something doesn't mean it will be made. Similarly, just because something is not made, it doesn't mean SW is inhibiting it.

I imagine the reason is the same though. They aren't making them as they don't want to make them, for whatever reason. If they decide that a theme such as Star Wars is no longer popular enough, then I think that this would not be good for LEGO space. If spaceships don't sell, then they won't make more spaceships. Whether under the SW brand, another license or in-house. I imagine the reason for not having space exploration or moonbase type sets is that they overlap too much with other themes, not necessarily SW. For example, there is a lot coming in City: To me, this type of theme overlaps more with Classic Space, or Galaxy Squad, or any other possible in-house space theme more than Star Wars does.

I have no interest in them at all as sets. But it looks like there might be some nice parts. And they are using traditional parts for the bodies at least, and wait and see for heads/hair. So they are already better than Angry Birds.

But what would the sets contain? And more importantly who would buy them? I cannot remember the last time I saw Zorro products on the shelf of a toy store. Fancy dress, yes. But toys? Would they overlap Pulp type sets with the current Superheroes offerings, or drop the licenses for SH sets and do this instead. Another company would be sure to pick up DC and Marvel and compete with LEGO's in-house offerings if they dropped the licenses. I can see them doing that type of character in the CMF range, but not as a theme. In fact, we already have a decent head for Zorro. The musketeer hat is a bit big but not too bad, and there are plenty of black torsos and capes.

^ This. If you are bending official LEGO axles in your design, then don't both making your own from plastics used in 3D printers. Go for something metal. There are some supplied of lego compatible axles, although not cheap.

It isn't. The reason we are not getting Classic Space sets is that LEGO isn't making them, it's their decision. Whether it is because they consider that they overlap with SW, or they think they are not marketable these days, or there is no demand from kids, or that they prefer to do new in-house themes rather than going back to old, only they know.

What have they done though, they have put a lot of work into the backstory to make them meaningful. LEGO has done this in themes like Ninjago, creating their own story based IP. Could they do it for Super Heroes? Of course. But if they do caped and masked style superheroes, they will overlap with the licensed Super Heroes themes. So they either duplicate something they already have and so don't add much to their sales, or they cut out the popular licensed based Super Heroes and lose fans of those licenses. And put Batman next to in-house brand LEGOman, and I reckon most kids and their parents will go for Batman. LEGO might as well do something different - like Agents, Explorers, etc - and not overlap with the existing licensed style themes.

I'd prefer them to do something like Adventurers, without the superhero masks and so on. If you mask-up otherwise unknown characters, they look like bad copies of the licensed properties, while overlapping with those properties.

Why would Star Wars (or any major licensed theme) only get a figure here or there, or a single set per year? That is not how licenses work. LEGO makes money off the licenses by selling large volumes of sets. Why do you think Forma is niche and inherently silly? Is it acceptable for fans of Forma to call Pirates and Castle niche and silly?

I think all the LEGO movies have been made primarily to sell toys, so in my view there is no change.