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MAB

Eurobricks Archdukes
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Everything posted by MAB

  1. MAB
    Yes, they do. What is missing is the sales data, which only LEGO knows. Presumably, for example, Nexo Knights (and Chima before it) has done well enough to allow it to keep going whereas Ultra Agents wave 3 didn't get its expected release in Europe. I imagine the one year non-licensed themes (Alien Conquest, Galaxy Squad, Pharoah's Quest, Atlantis, Ultra Agents, etc) were simply not performing well enough. Whether this is down to sales figures, production or design costs, lack of advertising, short life of theme, customer loyalty to the theme, etc we will never know. However, I doubt that LEGO would cut the un-licensed themes if they were making more money from them than what has replaced them in terms of production capacity and shelf space.
  2. MAB
    Un-licensed themes are also fallible. Probably more than licensed. Take themes like Alien Conquest, Galaxy Squad, Pharoah's Quest, Atlantis, Ultra Agents, etc. For the most part they were dismissed at the time by AFOLs and had discounts just like Chima and Nexo Knights.
  3. MAB
    I don't think so as, for example, City sets currently sell very well. I have no doubt kids would like parts packs but the problem when parents or grandparents buy presents is that often they want to buy a self-contained present (be it a SW spaceship or a City police van) rather than a box of stuff that requires other stuff to be used. If their present becomes mixed up with a bucket full of bricks, it almost disappears. Whereas the kid will remember the police van set that Grandad bought them for their birthday.
  4. MAB
    What counts as a new theme though? Take City, it may have the umbrella label of City, but in reality it is a constantly evolving collection of sub-themes, continually refreshed so in 2018 Mountain Police and Mining, 2017 Coast Guard, Jungle, Police, 2016 Airport, Volcano, Prison Island, 2015 Deep Sea, Swamp Police, Space Centre, 2014 Arctic, Police, .... If there was a recurring castle theme (or space theme), would it count as new? They have gone more down the route of longer lived themes too. So Ninjago, Chima, Ninjago rebooted, Nexo Knights. One year themes are nice, but so are the longer lived themes that allow them to develop a bit of story line through new characters within the theme. But I think more important when looking back at classic vs modern is what and how kids play. In the 19070s/80s, playing cowboys and indians or pirates was fairly common, so was Robin Hood, knights, vikings, etc. When I think about what my kids have played over the past five years, they've dressed up as knights and vikings occasionally, but never Robin Hood or cowboys or indians. They've dressed up as modern day jobs too, fire, police, doctor, nurse, etc. And fancy dress parties, I occasionally see a kid dressed up as Jack Sparrow, but rarely a generic pirate. Most kids seem to dress up as a licensed character (and very often Disney owned) rather than a generic one. I think that is the way society has gone. LEGO just reflects that.
  5. MAB
    I guess it depends on how much money the old brings in compared to the new. LEGO is doing very well now, based on a fairly balanced portfolio of licensed vs non-licensed. City and Friends are huge sellers for non-licensed. Would reintroducing old themes at the expense of licensed properties really bring in significantly more money? I doubt it. Classic Space (and Castle and Pirates) may be remembered fondly by AFOLs but does it sell now (like Super Heroes, Harry Potter (soon to be), Star Wars, etc) is the question.
  6. MAB
    You have extra wagons to hide it in. :-)
  7. MAB
    They copied it months ago.
  8. MAB
    Maybe call it "Alien crash encounter".
  9. MAB
    Now £1 for Ninjago and SW on amazon.
  10. MAB
    No it isn't. Mixels ended at the end of 2016 / beginning of 2017. Plus the target audience is likely to be different. Unikitty sets might be bagged like Mixels, but they are not replacing them. Mixels came, had a run and ended. There is no direct replacement.
  11. MAB
    Looks like EB users are fairly on the ball when it comes to predictions.
  12. MAB
    I agree, but then LEGO knows what sells. Blame the people that want (and buy) licensed sets.
  13. MAB
    Really? Take away the ray-gun and he looks like a regular astronaut, especially compared to the more sci-fi style retro spaceman. As to repeats, I quite like getting variations. Unless there is a specific uniform for a job and everyone dresses the same, repeats can be useful. It is good to have cowboys in different clothes, different mechanics, multiple zombies, etc. It looks much more natural if you use them to populate a city rather than just keeping them as a collectable.
  14. MAB
    Unfortunately also the way sets are made these days, creativity appears to be lacking. So many kids build sets and leave them built. And of course LEGO benefits from this as people then buy more sets rather than use what they have. I wonder what sales are like for the Classic style boxes. My kids use their bucket full of bricks much more than the bricks that come in their sets and are more creative with them, not just following instructions. But when a parent or grandparent sees a cool set vs a pack of plain bricks, what do they buy? I doubt sales for mono-colour packs, like the old service packs, would sell too well.
  15. MAB
    No. Just coincidences. Knights had different heraldic symbols / colours / crests so it makes sense that LEGO knights do too. Knights had different style helmets, so it makes sense that LEGO knights do too.
  16. MAB
    There is also an astronaut in Series 1. And if you include the mime and jester as clowns, then the sheriff in S13 probably also could be counted as a cowboy.
  17. MAB
    The good old days are now gone.
  18. MAB
    None, and book. Although I wouldn't buy it. It's clever but not much to look at.
  19. MAB
    Yes, although it is perfect for any continuous eight month period, as you know in that time you will get exactly one licensed and one non-licensed series :-)
  20. MAB
    That is how it is reported in the play store. There is a big difference between sets aimed at adults / older teens due to techniques used or difficulty and sets aimed at adults / older teens because of their content, be it violence or whatever. Younger kids will still see them, whatever the age range they are aimed at. Seeing a difficult set aimed at adults is different to seeing a violent set aimed at adults.
  21. MAB
    Looks great, very life like.
  22. MAB
    Yeah, loads of places do it now. You can get it quite cheap from China too if you don't mind waiting.
  23. MAB
    Sometimes sellers will push the arms down to the sides of the figure (they are usually slightly forwards) as this makes the figure thinner so that they do not get caught in a mail sorting machine. Even in a bubble envelope, if the arms are poking outwards, they can get caught in rollers in sorting machines. Alternatively, if the envelope was at the bottom of a pile of mail, then the weight of the mail on top could also push the arms downwards if the figure was flat.
  24. MAB
    The ballerina skirt in white is not new, it came in white in the original ballerina and also in Assembly Square. There are also these statements left in from previous reviews:
  25. MAB
    You can sort by cost per part (retail value) at brickset. Although I'd ignore cost per brick and look at the bricks themselves. Work out which pieces you will use a lot of and look for sets with those in.
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