johnsocal

Rad!

I can't seem to be able to make a direct link to my lego.com gallery @ http://designbyme.lego.com/en-US/Gallery/default.aspx my username is : johnsocal Will a tinyurl make this work?

I was thinking that LEGO should eventually do a LEGO Universe game for consoles (xbox 360, ps3, 3ds, psp2, wii2) that focuses on the leaders of the 4 factions as a sort of sequel to LU. My son really enjoys LEGO Universe for our Mac, but it would be cool to have a console version that expands on the story line and has co-op play on a single screen. I think the game would do well, but I would not expect to do better than well known brands they license, but it would go further to help LEGO create and build their own scifi/fantasy brand.

We all know by now that MEGA would take the LEGO name if they could. Since they can't, they will just slowly take everything else that isn't trademarked or had it patents expire.

Here's LEGO's original minifigure design patent from 1979, which expired a while back @ http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/11/1979-LEGO-minifig-patent.html

Check out this patent from Texas Instruments @ http://www.google.com/patents/about?id=5MjyAAAAEBAJ&dq=LEGO

The Star Wars license was a brilliant move on the part of LEGO, even though it wasn't fully realized until 2005 with ROTS and SW LEGO video game tie-ins. I think it's safe to say that the huge boom of SW LEGOs helped revive The LEGO Group which was financially floundering (at best) before then. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/05806aa4-f819-11df-8875-00144feab49a.html#axzz1EI5zr8zc

POTC is already past it's prime and I doubt the new movie will perform as well as 1,2,3, did in the box office. With that being said the new POTC LEGO do look really cool and should sell well.

The one thing I would like MEGA to make under the HALO brand is a bucket of misc purple bricks, so people can build their own covenant bases and etc. If there is one color where LEGO really lacks is the color purple and buckets of Covenant-purple and UNSC-camo-green would sell well.

LEGO is also going to have to compete more fiercely for attractive licenses(by paying more) since other companies are getting better at making LEGO-like bricks. Sure LEGO will most likely have the best quality and the best brand for doing MOCS, but for those who are buying toys as gifts and capping their price limit at $20-$30 a set, those LEGO-like products are going to sell very well in comparison. Over the next decade I expect LEGO as a solitary brand will become more marginalized, but their design for the modular plastic brick will become even more prominent throughout the toy industry as a whole. There will always be a LEGO aisle at you local Target or TRU, but over the years fewer-and-fewer of those sets in that aisle will actually be made by LEGO themselves.

This just reminded me of the danger of being dependent on other companies licenses. I think it's safe to say that at some point in the future (after current contract expires) Disney will start making their own LEGO-like products with their own licenses.

The Covenant Phantom set has over 800 pcs and the UNSC Elephant has over 1000 pcs, which isn't too bad.

I think they are cool looking sets if you like HALO, but they have no value for MOCS or anything outside of the UNSC or Covenant alien forces. Here's a good video of all the sets @

Check out the UNSC base in the back.

If this Transformers LEGO-like theme sells well I would expect to see classic GI JOE vehicles and characters show of for the GI JOE 'Real American Hero' 30th anniversary next year.