Non-physical Lego Characters In Physical?

[Dorayaki]

Some replies suggest to include non-licensed themes in the single thread, so I changed it. If you have more opinions about it, please inform me.

I was worried about that this topic is kind of similar with existed ones (DC/Marvel Hero/Villain, etc). In this thread you can only suggest the characters who had appeared in any official media work of TLC (video games, commericals, etc) and you're with their Lego designs. You may not suggest licensed characters who only appeared in the original story but not in Lego adaptions.

Licensed themes:

There could be tons of usable characters in each license, but usually we know that not all of them can do well with scenes, physical designs or playability. Since the very first Lego Star Wars game, Video games and special animation video begin to show more and more prototypes of licensed charactes, which proves that some characters do have good potential as a physcal minifigure.

However it often turns out that they would probably never appear in our real life. One reason could be that many video games only come after regular sets, which only have one or two waves, and these characters can't have a second chance. The exceptions belong to Star Wars and Superheros who is still ongoing, but sometimes the physical design would be different from the game version (maybe better, worse, or have own supports).

Non-licensed themes, video games and misc.:

As time goes by, TLC attach greater importance to the power of media. The beginning was some web series in official websites, then original games such as Lego Rock Band, Lego Battle. After the video games, TLC come to MMORPG, though failed once, it would start again in the next year. Seeing the power of established stories of TV shows, TLC also try to make original animations, from DVD-OVA (Clutch Powers) to TV shows (Ninjago and Chima). Eventually they come to the realm of film industry and is very eager to market their brand with The Lego Movie and its products.

From the non-licensed part of Lego media world, we can see that TLC try to come up with really cool ideas inorder to make these games and animations attractive. They often include more elements than the licensed media works and these elements are closer to how creative Lego can be. However, most of the designs and parts originated from media works also seldom become physical, with some excpetions like Kai's hairpiece. One problem of action themes is, TLC only make the battle scenes constisted of mechs and heros but the other "static" characters can hardly fit in any product.

We're not sure if the upcoming The Lego Movie would also have the same problem. The themed sets we've seen only contain main protagonists and generic citizens, though some special characters have joined the CMF series.

Judging from both their roles and non-physical appearances, which licensed and non-licensed characters deserve to be physical in your mind?

Edited December 8, 2013 by Dorayaki

[thefyfe]

General toht and Marcus from Indiana jones!

Not making the ark scene and grail temple was the saddest news I've had lego wise

[badbob001]

When I play / look at some of the LEGO video games, I can't help but make a mental shopping list of all the parts I want. Alas, many of minifigure parts are purely fictional, like Ellie's hair:

[Legoman123]

General toht and Marcus from Indiana jones!

Not making the ark scene and grail temple was the saddest news I've had lego wise

I do agree there.

[Dorayaki]

When I play / look at some of the LEGO video games, I can't help but make a mental shopping list of all the parts I want. Alas, many of minifigure parts are purely fictional, like Ellie's hair:

Sorry, I've said that non-licensed Lego characters wouldn't be discussed in this thread. Unless other opinions think these should be put together.

Edited December 6, 2013 by Dorayaki

[wesker]

Indiana Jones is the best example of a line feeling incomplete with the absence of so many key characters - Sallah, Marcus, Toht, Dietrich, Donovan, Vogel, Mac, Oxley, the Grail Knight - not to mention costume variants like Well of Souls Indy, Belloq in his iconic white suit and Elsa in her desert Nazi outfit.

Ending the Lord of the Rings line without giving us Eowyn, Faramir, Galadriel, the Witch-King and a Gondor soldier will be inexcusable.

[MonkeyCrumb]

Indiana Jones is the best example of a line feeling incomplete with the absence of so many key characters - Sallah, Marcus, Toht, Dietrich, Donovan, Vogel, Mac, Oxley, the Grail Knight - not to mention costume variants like Well of Souls Indy, Belloq in his iconic white suit and Elsa in her desert Nazi outfit.

Ending the Lord of the Rings line without giving us Eowyn, Faramir, Galadriel, the Witch-King and a Gondor soldier will be inexcusable.

Don't forget the Easterling! That's a fantastic looking LOTR minifig that needs to be made, preferably in a cheap army-builder set :) As for Well of Souls Indy, that's an easy custom from available pieces!

Dorayaki, I'd be happy to see this thread cover both licensed and nonlicensed. It would be great to view it all in one thread since the overall theme is unmade designs we've been shown. There's a ton of Ninjago figures that haven't been made. I'd rather people just contribute what they think of when they are thinking of it, instead of making them back out to the other thread to cut their replies in half, potentially risking forgetting something. That's asking too much and is a bit of work..

Edited December 6, 2013 by MonkeyCrumb

[LegoDad]

Not making Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw student torsos for Harry Potter. Hogwarts just doesn't look the same with only 2 houses represented. I also agree with the IJ comments, way to much source material and figures were missed by ending that line when it did.

[Dorayaki]

Dorayaki, I'd be happy to see this thread cover both licensed and nonlicensed. It would be great to view it all in one thread since the overall theme is unmade designs we've been shown. There's a ton of Ninjago figures that haven't been made. I'd rather people just contribute what they think of when they are thinking of it, instead of making them back out to the other thread to cut their replies in half, potentially risking forgetting something. That's asking too much and is a bit of work..

IMO licensed and non-licensed video-only characters are different in some ways. Licensed characters are established by the original license owner, and they would still be part of the story even if they don't show up in Lego franchise or physical sets.

The non-licensed characters created by TLC could be used for many different needs and purpose in their media works. Their appearances and parts are particularly designed. Its range of discussion could be bigger than the licensed one.

I'm not sure if this thread should be comprehensive since it wouldn't fit in the Licensed theme subforum. Or should it be moved to Special Theme subforum?

[Ultron]

Not making Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw student torsos for Harry Potter. Hogwarts just doesn't look the same with only 2 houses represented. I also agree with the IJ comments, way to much source material and figures were missed by ending that line when it did.

I'm still angry about that. My Luna Needs her robes!

[MonkeyCrumb]

Dorayaki, again as I stated, it's a lot of work for people to come up with a list of things, post the licensed here, and go back out into another forum and find the thread to post the other part of their list. It's expecting a lot of work if you hope to have people participate. Furthermore, you're being too strict, especially when you came down on someone for posting a hair piece from Lego City that could easily fit into a Hogwarts MOC. If you want to move the entire thread to the Special Theme forum, then by all means that would work fine. But otherwise, you're splitting the hairs too fine. I think the yet-unmade donuts from the Lego City video game would work great in every licensed MOC, even Star Wars.

[CorneliusMurdock]

Staff will move or merge threads when appropriate. I'm still making up my mind about this one. It is a very wide open subject that spans the content of many of our subforums.

My advice is to let the topic live as it is and not get bogged down in what the topic should be.

[Faefrost]

IMO licensed and non-licensed video-only characters are different in some ways. Licensed characters are established by the original license owner, and they would still be part of the story even if they don't show up in Lego franchise or physical sets.

The non-licensed characters created by TLC could be used for many different needs and purpose in their media works. Their appearances and parts are particularly designed. Its range of discussion could be bigger than the licensed one.

I'm not sure if this thread should be comprehensive since it wouldn't fit in the Licensed theme subforum. Or should it be moved to Special Theme subforum?

It could be argued that some of the Lego media properties, particularly Ninjago and Chima, pretty well constitute Licences unto themselves. Just media licences that Lego happens to own rather than simply rent for a period of time. But the fact that the primary lore and stories from them do come from the more publicly available cartoon series would probably justify their inclusion here. There really is pretty much no difference between an undone Ninjago character or an undone TMNT one. City Undercover or a simple non specific video game, such as alpha Team probably not as much.

[legofreak86]

To be quite blunt legodad the final wave of harry potter Lego was poor to extent of Lego didn't even seem to know what they were doing with the finale of one of the most successful film franchises of all time! The character variants didn't look at all like the movie ones, they missed out all the best parts of deathly hallows part 2 they could've made. They basically failed to make any sets remotely to do with one of the highest grossing box office movies of this decade! Then all the stuff they could've put into sets they showed off in a videogame yet the lone ranger wave this year which box office wise was not even a one hit wonder got a full wave of very accurate sets!

Edited December 10, 2013 by legofreak86

[Dorayaki]

Dorayaki, again as I stated, it's a lot of work for people to come up with a list of things, post the licensed here, and go back out into another forum and find the thread to post the other part of their list. It's expecting a lot of work if you hope to have people participate.

It could be argued that some of the Lego media properties, particularly Ninjago and Chima, pretty well constitute Licences unto themselves. Just media licences that Lego happens to own rather than simply rent for a period of time. But the fact that the primary lore and stories from them do come from the more publicly available cartoon series would probably justify their inclusion here. There really is pretty much no difference between an undone Ninjago character or an undone TMNT one. City Undercover or a simple non specific video game, such as alpha Team probably not as much.

I've been considering about it. If you guys think it should be a general topic and discussing all the themes together in Licensed theme forum won't violate any rule, I don't have opinions but I also have to alter the OP.

Staff will move or merge threads when appropriate. I'm still making up my mind about this one. It is a very wide open subject that spans the content of many of our subforums.

My advice is to let the topic live as it is and not get bogged down in what the topic should be.

Maybe. I think The Lego Movie would be an important part of this topic, but I'm not sure it would live till that day.

[Freddy Bricker]

Sinestro, Captain Cold, and Brainiac, such iconic characters who won't be made because they can't show up in a Batman set.

[obsidianheart]

When I play / look at some of the LEGO video games, I can't help but make a mental shopping list of all the parts I want. Alas, many of minifigure parts are purely fictional, like Ellie's hair:

I agree with this, and the most prominent example I can think of is the hair from the Singapore ladies Park and Lian in that PotC game.

[Ultron]

To be quite blunt legodad the final wave of harry potter Lego was poor to extent of Lego didn't even seem to know what they were doing with the finale of one of the most successful film franchises of all time!

Actually it's the most successful franchise of all time. When you include the movies and the books (and other things I'm assuming)

Edited December 7, 2013 by Luna Lovegood

[Brickadiergerard]

Ending the Lord of the Rings line without giving us Eowyn, Faramir, Galadriel, the Witch-King and a Gondor soldier will be inexcusable.

And Denethor.

And for Superheroes, Clayface.

[Dorayaki]

Not making Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw student torsos for Harry Potter. Hogwarts just doesn't look the same with only 2 houses represented. I also agree with the IJ comments, way to much source material and figures were missed by ending that line when it did.

I'm not sure Luna's blouse was that classic, but I'd rather see her uniform in the train set.

Speaking of Hufflepuff, I still don't know how come a quawizard tournament would end as biwizard tounament.

[legofreak86]

Indeed it was the most successful Luna. A shame Lego made such a mess of the final wave which could have been so excellent if they had made accurate deathly hallows part 2 sets!

[larsyuipo]

all the 100+ minifigs from lego marvel superheroes, universe in peril <3

[Dorayaki]

I agree with this, and the most prominent example I can think of is the hair from the Singapore ladies Park and Lian in that PotC game.

Usually licensed video games reuse old phyisical hairpieces instead of inventing new parts by themselves. One of the most surprising hairpieces from recent characters would be Gwen Stacy IMO.

Edited December 16, 2013 by Dorayaki

[Freddy Bricker]

You know what, forget my first post, any character from Lego Batman 2, except for Bat-family characters, those are the only one's I won't regret.

[Dorayaki]

I just tried to observe any detail from TLM, but as result I can't find one obvious non-physical character that didn't appear in any TLM set. The "Michelangelo" is left to be the only answer which was already in spoilers. Some other "new charactes" could be those who came with hair-in-helmet, just like Emmet and Gail. But their names are not told, just like many other characters from the physical set.

It's not surprising after some thoughts. Maybe TLC only put characters beside the protagonists that come from old licensed sets, or can be MOCed from any generic minifigure, so that the whole movie can look like a world that is built by "consumers".

But maybe the video game content would point out more minor characters who didn't have any role in this film. I'd check it later.

Edited February 8, 2014 by Dorayaki