MAB

And LEGO doing a space theme if LEGO doesn't want a Space theme (or rebooting any old theme) is not a compromise, it is giving in to the other side. Putting space themed sets into their best selling themes is a compromise. Kids that want spaceships in sets get them, while LEGO doesn't have to revamp vintage themes that they don't think will sell so well to kids.

In LEGO style, ... Admiral Andrew, Commander Carl, Engineer Emily, Pilot Peter, Doctor Daphne, Janitor Joe, ...

Also they were based on popular folk stories, so children knew how to play with them without needing to be given much narrative since they already knew the stories, what the characters are like, what they would do, etc. I imagine most kids played with forestmen using characteristics of Robin Hood. In that sense, Castle was rather similar to later licensed sets, albeit with more freedom over what sets contain. Of course there is also free play and making up stories based on the characters, but that is also true of licensed themes. I used to role play a lot of space with my toys (not just LEGO) as a kid, and my stories were a complete mishmash of Star Trek, Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, Battle Beyond the Stars, The Black Hole, Doctor Who, and so on with heroic elements stolen from characters from Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, the Six Million Dollar Man and no doubt James Bond, etc.

Why is it funny? Do you understand what compromise means? LEGO clearly don't believe a stand along kid-focused Space theme will do as well as what they are currently doing with their in-house themes. However, thy have made the concession that vehicles and spaceships that could appear in such a theme appear as sets in their long running themes,alongside other non-space sets in the same themes. That is a compromise. They have also made a concession in realizing that it is adults that want nostalgia based sets, and produced sets for adults. So there is another compromise, that we get some big expensive sets for adults but not complete themes for kids. Those SW fans would probably buy SW sets from the next brick building company that partners with Disney. Disney are not going to decide that LEGO no longer wants SW, so lets just forget about that property. Friends sets are minifigure scale. Minifigures fit inside the Friends space shuttle in the same way a minidoll can. And what if those classic themes do not sell so well? Alien Conquest and Galaxy Squad were Space themes, yet didn't appear to do so well. Not well enough to suggest to LEGO that they should continue to do distinct Space themes year-on-year or even once every few years. Ninjago is hardly a new theme. It has far outlasted the original incarnation of Classic Space, both in time and massively when it comes to sets and sales. Doing things like Nexo Knights is not a bad idea, trying something new is how Ninjago started. LEGO has to try new things to find something that resonates with kids. It wouldn't surprise me if NK play tested well but didn't make it once released partly because it was on shelves at the same time as Ninjago and they were both covering similar styles of fantasy based play sets. Many of the NK sets, especially vehicles, could easily be Ninjago sets with a little colour adjustment and different minifigures.

That is probably because you only like what you like and cannot seem to understand why other people like things that you don't. Having those well known characters really helps sell the sets no matter whether they are based on space, historical, pirates, or modern tech, compared to anonymous characters in a narrow theme. You say that they don't make unlicensed spaceships, when in fact they do. There are plenty. Some fantasy in their evergreen action themes, some more realistic in City and Friends. Just because they aren't in a separate Space theme doesn't mean that they don't exist. You say that LEGO should come to a compromise, but that is exactly what they are doing putting spaceships into their other themes - it is a compromise between them having a full kid-focused space theme and not having a kid-focused space theme. Things have changed a lot in 40 years. LEGO have realised that girls like science and technology these days, and hence they are including space and spaceships in Friends which is mainly bought by or for girls. Just because they have minidolls instead of minifigures doesn't make them any less a spaceship. If minidolls had existed 40 years ago and LEGO had also wanted to sell space based sets to girls, then I imagine that there would have been Space playsets with minidolls. Another huge change is the boundary between licensed and unlicensed are rather blurred these days. Although they are unlicensed, internal brands such as Ninjago, Monkie Kid, Friends and even to some extent City are character based themes, and are essentially part of pop-culture just like external IPs. LEGO and some of its themes have become pop-culture. The existence of those named characters help keep those themes popular year after year, and help LEGO sell incredibly wide range of types of sets within a single theme. Ninjas in historical yet modern buildings, with dragons, mechs, flying boats, steampunk and futuristic technology such as jets and things that look just like spaceships. While LEGO has the freedom to design whatever they want within the theme, it is essentially an in-house license that is selling the sets (like Star Wars sells Star Wars). LEGO has therefore done away with the individual and narrow themes of the past and put aspects of them back into their now mainstream evergreen themes. Those themes can last year after year as they are fresh because they jump from genre to genre while keeping the core characters the same, something that a theme based only on spaceships that have to be a particular colour and have fairly plain and rather non-descript characters cannot do. A dedicated sci-fi space theme is a dedicated sci-fi space one year and a dedicated sci-fi space theme the next year, and the next and the next. Would some kids like that, of course. But would some kids like what they are currently doing put wide ranges of set types into core character based themes? Sales figures seem to indicate that they do. Even Classic Space is essentially pop culture. That is why people seem to want the same old design minifigure in a new colour. Or new ships in the same old colours. Yet do a new space character in different colours, and it is dismissed as not interesting.

Sure, what is cool is subjective. But in this post you said that LEGO are ignoring fans and only catering for fans of licensed themes when it comes to spaceships. You say there should be a little bit of both as a compromise. And that modern kids like cool spaceships no matter if it is something new. LEGO are clearly making non-licensed spaceships. They might not be to your taste, but it is untrue to say they only cater for fans of popular culture. They are making spaceships that appeal to kids, just like the spaceships in the 80s appealed to kids then.

And what if they like a cool spaceship in Monkie Kid? Kids can play out space themed play with any spaceship, it doesn't matter what the badge on the box says, or what logo is on the torso or what colour parts the ship is made from.

Of course if you ignore all the spaceships in City, Friends, Technic, Creator, Monkie Kid and so on then there are no unlicensed spaceships.

No, just pointing out that LEGO existed before minifigures and that there were plenty of themes (including some nostalgic ones too for some people) before the 'original' ones. Early minifigure sets are nostalgic to kids that grew up with them but later ones are nostalgic to kids that grew up with those ones. Ninjago, Nexo Knights and Chima will be nostalgic to kids that enjoyed them when they were a kid. If the first minifigure sets were based on other subjects such as a space conflict vs insect aliens or historical with no conflict then presumably they would be the ones people want as they were the original minifigure based themes. They do have both. There are spaceships, both licensed and unlicensed, in current sets. They are not only carering for fans of licences. Similarly there are plenty of other swooshable and pushable vehicles in both licensed and unlicensed themes that have similar play styles.

It is not so bad for castle, but for Space there is also the issue that kids like to see designs that are based on more modern views of futuristic ships rather than what was seen as futuristic 40 years ago. I liked the Space themes of the 2010s - Galaxy Squad, Alien Conquest. They were fun designs and new stories not constrained by Classic Space.

What do you mean by original themes? As I don't think things like Town Plan, or the old pre-minifigs Legoland theme, or the Homemaker theme and so on would sell so well these days.

For me, it is somewhere in between. Sold prices are good to show what others have sold / bought it at, and current for sale prices show what people are hoping to get / and buyers not willing to pay yet. If I want to sell something fast, then I will list close to the recent sold prices. If I don't mind hanging on, I will list above the current for sale prices. But I agree that if people under price items, then they will be cleared out very quickly. I recently bought a load of the same two advent calendar figures on bricklink. No doubt the person selling them bought the calendars in a large quantity cheap enough and probably made a little profit, although they listed all the figures at the same price and it looks like the unpopular ones have still not sold yet. They could have got much more than I paid for them if they had sold them singly over time to individual buyers. But they priced them cheap enough that I bought the lot. I could flip them now at about 1.7x what I paid (that is just under the lowest local current asking price), although these are small enough that they will disappear for a few years then come back at 4x what I paid. It is definitely possible to manipulate the market on older parts where other sellers don't have much stock. I have some scarce printed parts that I can (almost) control the market on. I could list them all now but demand is so low that if there was suddenly 100s of these parts on the market, nobody would buy them as there is so much stock. I drip feed a few at a time and even leave them out of stock for months sometimes to make it look like there is very little available stock. It seems to work, as people are willing to pay quite high prices compared to other similar printed parts. A few other sellers do have stock of the same parts and occasionally one of them will put loads on the market and they will sell quite quick at low prices, often in quantity (presumably to other sellers investing in them). They make quick profit but not full potential, whereas I make slow but very high profit. Two different models that both work. As they all fit in a box smaller than a shoe box, storage space is not an issue so I see no reason to rush sell.

Presumably other IDEAS sets such as Home Alone sold, showing that old movies with no new content have nostalgic fans. I haven't read the books or seen the movies, so couldn't care less about the set as a Twilight set. But I imagine they are not aiming the set at someone like me that has bought and occasionally buys current licensed sets. And I might still buy it though if it gets reduced enough. In that sense, it is like Queer Eye. So many people had no interest in the license yet going on number of figures and figure parts sold on bricklink, it has sold reasonably well once clearanced. LEGO can aim for any new group of buyers, and whether or not the sales to that market are good or not, they can still sell the remainder presumably still making money on them. Releasing a niche one-off product generates interest in non-traditional fan groups and makes them money whether the target group buys it or not. I'm a little surprised that they picked Twilight not because of the subject but because of the way the submission was listed. Maybe it is the way I am reading it, but much of it seems to be a joke as if the submitter has made a parody of the franchise rather than being a fan. But of course, as I have not had any interest in the franchise, it could be that I have misunderstood it.

And buyers can view it to ensure they don't overpay.

Brickset doesn't actually catalogue minifigures, it directly imports bricklink's list. So whatever a figure is called on bricklink, it will have the same name and label as bricklink. Whereas they do catalogue sets and for older ones where there is a set name difference then they tend to use the British names, where known.

And that is why I asked what is a true fan, since the implication was that they are somehow more important than others and so must be super-buyers to have such greatness thrust upon them.

2010s were a golden age for me. Lots of in-house themes, some great licensed themes, the recognition of AFOLs by LEGO, and huge discounts before the popularity took off.

Packing errors are rare, so two errors in a set is very rare especially if their masses match so that the weight rejection method doesnt pick it up. Are you sure you didn't make an error or lose a part.

Because collectors want the 'correct' helmet. So releasing it is a nice gesture to long term fans. It is "Classic" because of the era rather than the design. I don't think kids or new LEGO fans care all that much about the Classic Space figures. I gave my son some original ones, but he has always preferred using the Galaxy Patrol CMFs he has, along with a few Galaxy Squad humans and a few modern design astronauts. He likes the details compared to the relatively plain figures. What is a true Space fan though, and why would their opinion matter? If they are a true fan, they'll be buying it anyway, so whether they like it or not doesn't matter.

It's funny isn't it. Someone thinks Star Wars is boring as they repeat iconic vehicles every 4-6 years or so. But also they post that they want other themes like Justice League and Sponge Bob to come back as they want repeats of those presumably because they don't have them even through they've been done before.

The M-Tron and Blacktron torsos are good, but I imagine those two will be two of the most popular army builders and so it is unlikely that the torsos will be readily available for sale. I have no interest in the rest. I bought plenty of the original CMF classic alien and have numerous heads and parts from AC and other CMFs. The human characters in this series do little for me compared to those that they have done in the past. So for me, it is an easy pass and I won't buy from retail. I might pick up some torsos if there is a glut, but even then I still have some of the originals so won't mind missing out on those. The green helmet was maybe to complement the existing green Classic Space torso rather than suggest a new green one was coming.

I partly keep my collection separated by eras. I have a few 60s trains and 70s Legoland type cars and trucks. They remain built and I don't feel the need to be creative or MOC with those. I also have a reasonably large collection of sets from the early minifig age, from late 70s to about '96, mainly bought as used lots in the 2000s. I tend to keep these parts separate from other eras as i try to complete the sets using age appropriate parts. I rarely MOC with them. Then I have modern stuff, from about 2005 onwards. This is what I use to MOC. I have enough modern parts that I don't feel the need to mix in older parts for MOCing, mainly so I keep age appropriate parts to complete older sets. I rarely keep in-between sets of the 2000-10 decade, so any of those that I buy second hand, I will complete and sell. Older second hand sets, I tend to keep. Newer second hand sets, I keep for MOCs.

From those descriptions, it could be good or it could be awful. Until we get pictures, we won't know.

The thread hadn't been commented on for over 15 years and the original poster hasn't logged in in over six years.

I agree, if they fully switched. I guess the difference here unlike the colour switch is that they can have both coexisting. Friends was introduced with realistic shades in unlicensed themes, the football game is trying it. They can turn it on and off again in new themes or one offs. I cannot see them doing it in the City and Ninjago cash-cows, but I expect they'll do it again in future one-offs.