Future Castle Sets?

[TeriXeri]

Would be interesting to see the printed nexo knight shield concept return, with printed tiles or dishes.

Maybe no scannable codes or bright transparent colors this time around.

Nexo Knights had heralds on printed 1x1 tiles for the squirebots already, so I don't see it weird to see them on opaque 2x2 round/square or 2x3 Pentagonal tiles.

Of course they actually used stickers for most of the opaque 2x3 pentagon tile decorations on sets, however with proper color or tile background selection I can see it work out still.

Also don't forget ( Minifigure, Shield Round with Stud and Ring Around Edge) was still produced as recent as 2018 , just never used in the actual Castle theme, but 3 times in historic CMF and some other themes as shields (Chima, Superheroes, Incredibles)

A very versatile piece with a handle on the backside that can fit 1x1 stud/plate/pyramid/horn/spike etc, 2x2 round plate/tiles/jumper/dish right in the center.

3x3 and 4x4 dish pieces fit right on top without needing extra parts even while dishes might not be really suited for a herald (stud in center), still make good generic curved shields.

 

And then there's still (Plate, Round 1 x 1 with Handle) produced since 2016-2019. now this has the possiblity of attaching to a lot more, at a tiny size.

Edited April 10, 2019 by TeriXeri

[Aanchir]

2 hours ago, mon-o-mat said:

In my eyes 2013 castle was too cartoonish. Not only the minifigs or the heraldy, but the overall colour-code. The badies were to obviously bad and especially their pure black helmets and armor didn't look very good to me. The bright red and black 'castle' they got wasn't any better. The Kingdom one was mostly black too, but at least it was combined with dark brown and green colours.

The 2013 King's Castle wasn't that bad, but it wasn't better than the 2010 one for sure while the bright blue details weren't appealing either.

I definitely get that from the perspective of an adult who values a sense of realism, but when you look at what other LEGO themes have been most reliably successful over the years, it seems like cartoonishness is typically more of a strength than a weakness.

Real-life police, fire, and coast guard stations don't typically paint their buildings the same colors as their fleet of vehicles. Real-life police don't spend the majority of their time non-violently pursuing crooks wearing prison stripes, twisty mustaches, and domino masks.

Real-life ninja and samurai didn't typically wear color-coded clothes, drive color-coded vehicles, or ride color-coded dragons. Nor do they fight monstrous-looking snake people, skeletons, ghosts, demons, mummies, zombies, sky pirates, or Mad Max style dieselpunk barbarians using magical Tasmanian Devil spin attacks.

Real-life pirates didn't typically emblazon "death's head" patterns on their sails for all the world to see, force captives to "walk the plank", or go on voyages in search of buried treasure (much less bury it themselves).

Real-life astronauts don't wear color-coded spacesuits, communicate via oversized walkie-talkies, carry laser guns, lock up spies behind cell doors made of lasers, battle aliens, hunt for energy crystals, explore planets using robotic mechs/walkers, interact with bug-eyed aliens, or dock their winged spaceships on helicopter-like landing pads.

Do you understand the point I'm making? I have no doubt that a realistic Castle theme would make a lot of people here on Eurobricks happy, but I can't say it seems like a recipe for the Castle theme as a whole to become a reliable staple of the LEGO portfolio like it used to be back in the day.

Even here on Eurobricks, a lot of people thought there was a dissonance between the Lord of the Rings sets' modest price points typical of mainstream KFOL-targeted themes and their gloomy, subdued color palettes that seemed to resonate more with adult buyers. I'm not sure I'd agree with this particular assessment, since the Star Wars theme is pretty reliably popular with KFOLs even when many of its most iconic sets have dingy, mottled color palettes heavy on black, brown, tan, and greys. But to get sets you enjoy as an AFOL with the kind of regularity of the current best-selling themes, there has to be some compromise between your tastes and those of kids.

What's more, it feels kind of… odd to say that the Bright Red accents on the Dragon Mountain set's parapets weakened it while those of the Kingdoms King's Castle strengthened it. It's not as though either Bright Red or Bright Blue blends in any more with grey than with black, or as if classic sets like Forestmen's Hideout, Wolfpack Tower or Black Knight's Castle, Majisto's Magical Workshop are any less beloved by the people old enough to have grown up playing with them because of their conspicuous use of bright, classic colors. In my case, I believe I missed out on all but the last of those, but as poor as its value was in hindsight, it certainly made a meaningful impression!

The current castle I'm building on LDD is currently making heavy use of Sand Green, because I often feel bored going to LEGO fan conventions and seeing the Castle displays awash in monochrome greys. Hopefully, though, this will still resonate strongly with traditional-leaning Castle fans if it ever gets to a state good enough to submit as a LEGO Ideas project!

1 hour ago, TeriXeri said:

And then there's still (Plate, Round 1 x 1 with Handle) produced since 2016-2019. now this has the possiblity of attaching to a lot more, at a tiny size.

One thing that frustrates me about this particular piece is that a shield built with it can't be held facing the figure's side, which is often essential if you want them to look very natural when riding a horse or other creature (this was a minor source of frustration for me with Farran's shield in the final wave of LEGO Elves). The figure's clip-shaped hands  will always hold it pretty facing forward. Because of that, I tend to prefer using a pneumatic T and a 1x1 round plate with hole when trying to create a custom shield.

Edited April 10, 2019 by Aanchir

[MAB]

19 hours ago, Aanchir said:

Real-life ninja and samurai didn't typically wear color-coded clothes, drive color-coded vehicles, or ride color-coded dragons. Nor do they fight monstrous-looking snake people, skeletons, ghosts, demons, mummies, zombies, sky pirates, or Mad Max style dieselpunk barbarians using magical Tasmanian Devil spin attacks.

 

3

Yes, we do. :-)

 

 

[x105Black]

On 4/10/2019 at 10:56 AM, mon-o-mat said:

In my eyes 2013 castle was too cartoonish. Not only the minifigs or the heraldy, but the overall colour-code. The badies were to obviously bad and especially their pure black helmets and armor didn't look very good to me. The bright red and black 'castle' they got wasn't any better. The Kingdom one was mostly black too, but at least it was combined with dark brown and green colours.

The 2013 King's Castle wasn't that bad, but it wasn't better than the 2010 one for sure while the bright blue details weren't appealing either.

@BardDandelion Really good idea. Multiple waves of castle sets don't even have to be connected to each other, but at least share the same overall style.

I love the black and red combination, and look for great minifigures in those colors in all themes for use in Castle builds, so 2013 was great for me.  That said, I think both would have been better with darker colors (dark red and black for the dragons, and dark blue for the opposition).  Some color schemes are terrible, so this was nice.  And in my world, black armor and weapons are the strongest (which goes back to my childhood, when there were fewer such black parts than brown and grey).

[Aine]

Aanchir, that post was golden!
It was also very very true and sad...

[mon-o-mat]

On 4/10/2019 at 7:08 PM, Aanchir said:

What's more, it feels kind of… odd to say that the Bright Red accents on the Dragon Mountain set's parapets weakened it while those of the Kingdoms King's Castle strengthened it. It's not as though either Bright Red or Bright Blue blends in any more with grey than with black, or as if classic sets like Forestmen's Hideout, Wolfpack Tower or Black Knight's Castle, Majisto's Magical Workshop are any less beloved by the people old enough to have grown up playing with them because of their conspicuous use of bright, classic colors. In my case, I believe I missed out on all but the last of those, but as poor as its value was in hindsight, it certainly made a meaningful impression!

But all those sets are very conservative when it comes to colours. Mostly black and grey, with some red for the roofs. Ok, I don't know why the Hideout has a blue roof, but I suspect red would stand out too much from all that black and green surrounding it.

[Hive]

I too think the heraldy of Castle 2013 was inferior compared to that of Kingdoms (especially) as well some (but definately not all) previous Castle themes. I can certainly see where the "cartoonish" accusations come from, as they fare a lot further from looking as real, historical heraldy as some previous outings (like, again, the Kingdoms heraldy). While kids may love this (or be indifferent, who knows?), I think most adults prefer it more "realistic". And yes, yes, it's the age old "but LEGO is made for kids!" argument... but naturally we, as adult collectors, look at LEGO from an adult point of view. I'm certainly not buying a set I don't like simply out of appreciation of the fact that I'm not the key target demographic.

Back in the 80's and early 90's, LEGO managed to create heraldy that appealed to kids and adults alike (I'm basing this claim on the fact that I like them as much today as I did then) - so why can't that be done nowadays?

As for the colours, I think the red and black of 2013 looked pretty good together (though not quite as appealing to me as dark green and black from 2010) - but the light blue and grey lion faction was a miss. A darker blue, like in Fantasy castle, looked much better.

I actually experimented a bit with switching colours on some of the 2013 sets back then:

 

[TeriXeri]

I find the Color scheme of the Nexo Knights 1st year lava monsters was pretty well done from a Castle point of view, Dark Grey, Black, Red, Dark Brown go well together.

Jestro's Volcano Lair is still one of my favorite sets,the balance of colors and parts used is very nice. 

Edited April 13, 2019 by TeriXeri

[MAB]

LEGOLAND has made quite an investment in this Castle (from Brickset).

https://brickset.com/article/44164/inside-the-legoland-castle-hotel-in-billund

 

[leafan]

On 6/7/2019 at 12:51 PM, MAB said:

LEGOLAND has made quite an investment in this Castle (from Brickset).

https://brickset.com/article/44164/inside-the-legoland-castle-hotel-in-billund

 

Wow, the trees, grass and supporting logs look so real! Where can i get this set?

[MAB]

You can play with it in Billund.

It does look quite LEGO-like - a nice facade but don't expect much of the view from behind.

[Digger of Bricks]

For those interested, as of this post, Namirob's Medieval Blacksmith project on LEGO Ideas is only 240 supporters away from achieving support!!! 

[DaleDVM]

I look at the castle in Billund...  I like it.  However, I see 3 shields with great heraldry.  And that lion heraldry from 2013 is just awful.  Cartoonish and bad color choices.  Just my opinion.  I may not have made it clear, but I didn't mind the set design in the 2013 sets.  I had a big problem with set design from fright knights through knights kingdom.  

The heraldry on the new facade at Legoland also worries me for the future of castle.  All of that old heraldry, nothing hinting at something new coming down the pike?  Have they ever promoted future sets at Legoland before?  I wouldn't know.

@Aanchir.  I agree with a lot of the thoughts you expressed.  However, I really don't think we can compare contemporary designs to those from 30 years ago.  I also do not think kids have final purchase decisions on sets.  I think their parents do.  Often a parent will veto a childs purchase decision if the parent does not agree the set is cool.  I think adults opinions on sets is as important as the kids.  

As an AFOL the heraldry is literally the most important part of a new castle line to me.  Parts for MOCing I can get anywhere.  The heraldry, figs, accessories, and perhaps animals are the only things I get out of a castle set that are unique.  I would argue that they play a large role in the overall appeal to the target "child" audience as well.  The heraldry is more prominent on the packaging than it is in the set.

As for castle sets being too similar to those in the past.  That wouldn't seem to matter much for the target audience.  Because a new crop of kids is playing with the castles.  They may seem like a rehash of old sets to AFOLs but parents don't mind buying their kids sets similar to those they played with as a kid.  In fact it might be a selling point.  

Since this thread is speculative I will include my observations at Brickworld this past weekend.

I didn't get any official word from TLG employees, but their body language at Brickworld Chicago hinted that I was going to be disappointed with the set offerings next year.  I fear we may have longer to wait for a new castle line.  I hope I am wrong...

 

[Aanchir]

4 hours ago, DaleDVM said:

The heraldry on the new facade at Legoland also worries me for the future of castle.  All of that old heraldry, nothing hinting at something new coming down the pike?  Have they ever promoted future sets at Legoland before?  I wouldn't know.

Some Ninjago themed LEGOLAND attractions, like the "LEGO Ninjago: The Realm of Shadows" live show at LEGOLAND Malaysia featured the ninja costumes from the summer 2016 "Day of the Departed" sets a little less than a year earlier than those sets were released, and well before we knew that they would be appearing in sets. But of course by the time that and subsequent Ninjago-themed LEGOLAND attractions like "LEGO Ninjago: The Ride" or the Ninjago-themed rooms at LEGOLAND hotels were rolled out in other countries, those minifigs were not all that new or surprising anymore.

Similarly, the LEGOLAND Castle Hotel in Billund opened just this year, but LEGOLAND California had one as early as April of last year, and they broke ground on it in January 2017. So even if Merlin had been able to get advance notice on what was coming up in the next year or even the next two years, they probably would have needed a lot of their graphics and so forth for the LEGOLAND Castle Hotel in California locked down far before designs were finalized for any themes coming in 2020 or beyond. And afterward, any subsequent LEGOLAND Castle Hotels at other parks/resorts would just get the same stuff that was designed for the California one, even if it's out of date.

4 hours ago, DaleDVM said:

@Aanchir.  I agree with a lot of the thoughts you expressed.  However, I really don't think we can compare contemporary designs to those from 30 years ago.  I also do not think kids have final purchase decisions on sets.  I think their parents do.  Often a parent will veto a childs purchase decision if the parent does not agree the set is cool.  I think adults opinions on sets is as important as the kids.

Well, I agree with you that parents might veto a child's toy purchases, but I think in most cases it's less on the basis of "coolness" than on the basis of "Is this a good value?" or "Will my child enjoy this?" or "Do I object to this on some moral or practical level?"

So for instance, some parents might take a hardline stance against toys involving potty humor because they see it as "inappropriate" or against toys that make noise because they anticipate it being extremely irritating to everyone else in the family besides the person playing with it. But I have not really known a whole lot of parents to tell a child they can't have something because it's "uncool".

I also think that as kids get older, they have a little bit better ability to articulate what they want or what they like. So for instance, for Duplo designers creating sets for children as young as 18 months old, the parents' perspectives are a BIG factor in design decisions — the main thing that will matter from the kids' perspective is whether they're CAPABLE of playing with the toy or recognizing what it is, not so much their individual tastes. By comparison, kids 5 and up (the general age range for City and Friends sets) have somewhat more defined tastes for what they like or dislike, but a lot of these are still heavily informed by their parents' tastes, as well as by the kids their age who they are beginning to meet at school.

But kids in the 7+ age range are VERY capable of articulating what they like, what they dislike, and why, and a lot of the time their tastes might begin to diverge from their parents' tastes at that time. It's for this reason that this is a highly marketable age range for kids' TV shows and TV commercials for kid-targeted products — kids at this point in life are typically beginning to branch out beyond their comfort zone and experience stuff they've never experienced before, even if it's something the adults in their lives don't like or "get". For instance, I was around 7 when the Pokémon craze began, and MANY of the kids were into it even though their parents (like mine) probably thought of it as a confusing or pointless fad.

4 hours ago, DaleDVM said:

As an AFOL the heraldry is literally the most important part of a new castle line to me.  Parts for MOCing I can get anywhere.  The heraldry, figs, accessories, and perhaps animals are the only things I get out of a castle set that are unique.  I would argue that they play a large role in the overall appeal to the target "child" audience as well.  The heraldry is more prominent on the packaging than it is in the set.

I'm sure heraldry is a big factor in making sets enticing to kids, but I don't know that kids tastes in heraldry align all that neatly with adults' tastes. Sometimes they certainly might, but we've seen plenty of examples over the decades of stuff that sold well on account of its KFOL appeal but which many AFOLs (at least initially) hated: Bionicle,  Power Miners, Ninjago, Friends, Chima, Nexo Knights, etc. There's no reason to think that heraldry or any type of graphic design would be the one place that different generations can flawlessly agree, when even different generations of AFOLs tend to differ in their opinions of which Castle themes had the best heraldry.

And it's worth bearing in mind that LEGO isn't basing any of this sort of stuff on guesswork — they do fairly extensive kid testing for just about any new kid-targeted theme they launch, including focus groups from lots of different countries and lots of different backgrounds. And a lot of the time they're not just testing one concept at a time, but presenting kids with a lot of different concepts and asking them to choose which they liked best.

For example, a lot of the concept art for unused Legends of Chima or Nexo Knights factions or unused Space Police 3 aliens are images that were presented to kids to observe which ones they responded most positively to, with those being the ideas that end up being developed into the final product. It seems reasonable to assume that heraldry, which we both agree is a big part of what defines how much a particular faction appeals to builders, is held to a similar amount of scrutiny.

4 hours ago, DaleDVM said:

I didn't get any official word from TLG employees, but their body language at Brickworld Chicago hinted that I was going to be disappointed with the set offerings next year.  I fear we may have longer to wait for a new castle line.  I hope I am wrong...

Depending on how cynical the designers in question are and whether the body language in question was a response to how well it'd meet your tastes specifically or Castle fans' tastes in general, it's entirely possible they've just been in the business long enough to know that they're likely to get a lot of negative initial reactions from AFOLs, whether they end up warming up to it later on or not.

And of course, it could also be misdirection! I know LEGO employees sometimes like to toy with the fans a little bit when they have an exciting product coming up that they can't reveal yet.

Edited June 18, 2019 by Aanchir

[TeriXeri]

5 hours ago, DaleDVM said:

I look at the castle in Billund...  I like it.  However, I see 3 shields with great heraldry.  And that lion heraldry from 2013 is just awful.  Cartoonish and bad color choices.  Just my opinion.  

I think it's certainly worse then the original Royal Knights heraldry from 1995, which to date, is my favorite Lion heraldry, it uses the 5 original more basic LEGO colors (Red, Yellow, Blue, Black, White).

The year 2000 Knights Kingdom used almost the same lion head as 1995, but with red added to the crown, but the background is just very bad, yellow X shape behind the same color yellow Lion head makes it a mess.

2000 was my last year before my darkage, so my last Castle sets were actually Fright Knights (1997), until 2016.

 

As for heralds on future LEGO Castle themes, I actually liked what they did with Nexo Knights (which also used a Lion head crest, just obviously more "digital").

 Having those shield tiles to change the looks, they made 3 shield molds to fit them, and many printed shield tiles.

Also we got some heraldry throwbacks to older themes as well (wolfpack, falcons, forestmen, bulls, etc) , on either the knights, squirebots, or shields.

I don't know how the printing would look on opaque tiles however (they used stickers for the ones used on buildings/vehicles).

The Monsters didn't use much heraldry at all, beside shield tiles, year 2 stone monsters had a bit of "runic" design, seen in fantasy worlds, like World of Warcraft (Iron Dwarves), which also have a lightning-affinity.

The 2018 wave figures had some sort of red eye icon , kind of looks like an "Eye of Sauron" , but that was never explained anywhere, not even in the Magazine comic. 

 

As far as Future sets, something along the lines of 2007 or 2009 fantasy era would be great, if you mainly take the buildings from that. (2008 had mostly siege sets/vehicles and a ship).

Maybe even some minfigure Elves/Forestmen inspired faction, since the other Elves theme ended.

And it would be something that hasn't been done in minifigure Castle for a long time, Forestmen (not really elves but still tree-inspired) back in the 90s, and then the elves form Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit, and LEGO also has made the yellow ears mold for CMF (series 3 Elf, series 17 forest maiden). Add the Harry Potter Patronus deer in a regular color and you'd even have deer-riders.

Edited June 18, 2019 by TeriXeri

[KotZ]

5 hours ago, TeriXeri said:

As far as Future sets, something along the lines of 2007 or 2009 fantasy era would be great, if you mainly take the buildings from that. (2008 had mostly siege sets/vehicles and a ship).

Maybe even some minfigure Elves/Forestmen inspired faction, since the other Elves theme ended.

And it would be something that hasn't been done in minifigure Castle for a long time, Forestmen (not really elves but still tree-inspired) back in the 90s, and then the elves form Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit, and LEGO also has made the yellow ears mold for CMF (series 3 Elf, series 17 forest maiden). Add the Harry Potter Patronus deer in a regular color and you'd even have deer-riders.

Amen. Fantasy 2008 had a lot of siege equipment, and the buildings had a great base to start, especially that gatehouse one with the gold knight.

I can see Forestmen/elves making a comeback in the next few years, especially with Amazon's LOTR show they're producing. While LEGO might not have the license (or if they can if it even fits their brand if it's more GoT than Peter Jackson), they can easily get in on that market with their own style of elves and stories.

[Aine]

Yep, the recent fantasy craze could be capitalized on even without being a robbery, TLC just needs to revamp their own successful fluff. It'll be thirty years since launch of Pirates, so the Forestmen (And Castle in general) needn't to be in line, but I really think that there's a potential for success with a fantasy/history sets.
Also, the new deer could be nice in natural colour, and the goat really should be used more. Also sheep, please...

Edited June 19, 2019 by Aine

[Digger of Bricks]

10 hours ago, DaleDVM said:

I didn't get any official word from TLG employees, but their body language at Brickworld Chicago hinted that I was going to be disappointed with the set offerings next year.  I fear we may have longer to wait for a new castle line.  I hope I am wrong...

Wait, who in particular from TLG attended Brickworld? 

[MAB]

5 hours ago, Aine said:

Yep, the recent fantasy craze could be capitalized on even without being a robbery, TLC just needs to revamp their own successful fluff. It'll be thirty years since launch of Pirates, so the Forestmen (And Castle in general) needn't to be in line, but I really think that there's a potential for success with a fantasy/history sets.

3

Their sales figures seem to indicate that the successful stuff is the stuff they have on the shelves right now. Why go back to possibly out-of-date themes like Pirates when they know what is selling well now? Their own recent Elves sets seem to have been well received.

 

[Aine]

9 hours ago, MAB said:

Their sales figures seem to indicate that the successful stuff is the stuff they have on the shelves right now. Why go back to possibly out-of-date themes like Pirates when they know what is selling well now? Their own recent Elves sets seem to have been well received.

 

That's really hard to answer. But maybe they will try a different theme in the future, after the current line stops to sell, and if their marketing dpt. realizes that there's demand for Game of Crowns inspired sets, they may start producing them.

[TeriXeri]

14 hours ago, MAB said:

Their sales figures seem to indicate that the successful stuff is the stuff they have on the shelves right now. Why go back to possibly out-of-date themes like Pirates when they know what is selling well now? Their own recent Elves sets seem to have been well received.

There remains a division in the LEGO community, and I don't think it's a bad thing to like different things.

Some people like fleshie/licensed figs, some like minidolls, some like yellow figures, some like multiple, some like a few.

While I wasn't asking for a 100% copy of Elves or Forestmen, a modern minifig-twist would be a welcome change and not a repeat.

And we have seen themes with a twist before in Nexo Knights, while I see a lot of negativity to the theme when it was on shelves, I also see a lot of positivity to it ,even now.

Nexo Knights brought me out of a 15 year dark age because it was a new theme with old recognizable hints while still being refreshing to me.

Maybe it's that very dark-age that has raised my preference for yellow figures and non-licensed themes over themes based on movies/games etc.

(I did have 1 Star Wars set but it was 1999 and still yellow figures)

If I had to choose between 2019 Harry Potter and Hidden Side, I'd pick Hidden Side 100%, not because Harry Potter is bad in any way, but everyone has different interests and to me non-licensed plays a big factor.

I didn't buy Nexo Knights because of the tv-show or comics, but the sets themselves.

 

Going back to old themes isn't exactly crazy either, LEGO even revived Harry Potter despite the last movie being from 2011. (I know Fantastic Beasts extends the following, but still the main sets are based off older movies).

Ninjago also had "Legacy" sets and that's an in-house theme. 

Many video games are remastering or re-releasing Classic versions (Final Fantasy, World of Warcraft, Warcraft 3, and many others), even movies like Lion King, Dumbo, Alladin, Jungle book got revisted etc.

Even LEGO is releasing a new game based on their in-house minifigures anywhere from new to 40 year old classics.

Also LEGO displayed 3 20+ year old sets at a brickworld, 2 being Castle from the 80s and 90s.

I am also not asking for 100% copies of old In-House Castle/Pirate sets, as it would get the "this doesn't look like xx source material" critic , (even happens to licensed themes like the hungarian horntail as recent example). 

 

That said, this is in no way an attack on licensed themes or hate for them or the people that love them, even if you look at the "Eras" thread, you can see opinion and perception of LEGO is a very personal thing.

Edited June 19, 2019 by TeriXeri

[DaleDVM]

19 hours ago, Digger of Bricks said:

Wait, who in particular from TLG attended Brickworld? 

I am not going to name anyone in particular.  However, in the center of the hall there were a bunch of LEGO group employees displaying a bunch of old sets from the vault in Billund.  They are involved in developing and promoting the LEGO game line.

 

[Digger of Bricks]

47 minutes ago, TeriXeri said:

If I had to choose between 2019 Harry Potter and Hidden Side, I'd pick Hidden Side 100%, not because Harry Potter is bad in any way, but everyone has different interests and to me non-licensed plays a big factor.

I didn't buy Nexo Knights because of the tv-show or comics, but the sets themselves.

Strangely enough, I've felt pretty much the exact same way for some time now in regards to in-house versus licensed offerings overall, as upon introspection, I find that sentiment to be at odds with how I would've otherwise felt when I was younger. I mean, despite still having an affinity for the Jurassic Park and Indiana Jones movies, I'm rather jaded by both as Lego themes for some reason. 

40 minutes ago, DaleDVM said:

I am not going to name anyone in particular.  However, in the center of the hall there were a bunch of LEGO group employees displaying a bunch of old sets from the vault in Billund.  They are involved in developing and promoting the LEGO game line.

Oh, that's right, I think I remember hearing about that. It was in promotion of that LEGO Legacy game, wasn't it? 

 

[TeriXeri]

41 minutes ago, Digger of Bricks said:

Strangely enough, I've felt pretty much the exact same way for some time now in regards to in-house versus licensed offerings overall, as upon introspection, I find that sentiment to be at odds with how I would've otherwise felt when I was younger. I mean, despite still having an affinity for the Jurassic Park and Indiana Jones movies, I'm rather jaded by both as Lego themes for some reason. 

I think for me it's basicly my 15 year gap between 2000 and 2016, most my LEGO sets had yellow figures (ufo/Insectoids sets I had being exceptions), even my only Star Wars set.

But I have an easier time accepting Aliens (ufo/Insectoids sets I had), Nexo Knights Monsters, or even Hidden Side ghosts with neon transparent heads. As they are LEGO in-house.

I was never a gigantic Harry Potter fan, as most my time during the time when it was in the cinemas, I was playing Warcraft games, which by itself have a huge story/lore.

I read the first Harry Potter book, seen the movies (tv/dvd with friends). Also read the Jurassic Park book, seen the movies (had some non-lego JP toys and VHS tapes), and was huge dinosaur fan as a kid, but I've grown out of that. Also Star Wars, seen originals at TV, the prequels in cinema, but not the modern movies at all.

I knew there were MegaBloks Warcraft sets, and got one gifted to me back then, but it still didn't convince me to buy more as LEGO still had a special place. And it felt like something what they call on this forum "non-purist" I guess.

I know LEGO has a relationship with Blizzard now, and Warcraft sets might be the exception for me to get a licensed theme despite not playing the games for more then a year now. 

Like I said before , each personal experience with LEGO is different.

For example Classic Space has a special place as we had sets like the Galaxy Explorer at home, despite the theme being older then me, I really started getting my own sets somewhere in the 90s. 

However, despite missing the LEGO movie 1 sets (Benny's Spaceship and the Castle set in particular), I tend to look forward and not backward.

A few years ago I rebuilt many sets of the family old LEGO, I do keep it seperate for now however as it's special in some way, and the 15+ year gap.

 

This might explain my feeling towards the desire of in-house themes a bit better.

Edited June 20, 2019 by TeriXeri

[Aanchir]

14 minutes ago, Digger of Bricks said:

Strangely enough, I've felt pretty much the exact same way for some time now in regards to in-house versus licensed offerings overall, as upon introspection, I find that sentiment to be at odds with how I would've otherwise felt when I was younger. I mean, despite still having an affinity for the Jurassic Park and Indiana Jones movies, I'm rather jaded by both as Lego themes for some reason. 

I'm also preferential to non-licensed themes, even in the case of ones based on IPs I'm genuinely a big fan of outside of LEGO.

I think that for me, one of the reasons for this is that in non-licensed themes (as well as themes co-produced by LEGO and a media partner, as in the case of TLM/TLBM/TLNM/TLM2), the subject matter is often designed with equal emphasis on how cool and fun it will be in any media appearances that are planned as how cool and fun it will be as a LEGO set. Even when there are differences in appearance between the sets and media, LEGO set designers tend to have considerable involvement and input in coming up with the designs of both versions so that their appearance and design strengths translate from one form to another reasonably well.

By comparison, when trying to translate a subject from a pre-existing, non-LEGO iP into LEGO, there's often an unavoidable need for compromises. Even if LEGO were to translate an iconic movie scene into a building set with the utmost accuracy, it might still turn out to be a really crummy building and play experience, and not even necessarily a great display piece. After all, a lot of stuff in movies derives its wow factor from being "larger than life", which a miniature toy can't really reflect, particularly at an affordable price point. And there are a lot of times when movies introduce establishing shots of huge dynamic locations like futuristic cities or skyscrapers simply for visual effect, even if in the end the only events of any consequence to the plot or that would translate to exciting play scenarios occur in just a small fraction of that space.

This seems to be one of the major reasons that the Lord of the Rings sets sometimes earned a lukewarm reception even here on Eurobricks — they just didn't seem as huge and grandiose as they felt in the original movies. And how could they be? After all, we've seen AFOLs create MOCs of some of these iconic scenes at closer to minifigure scale, and in many cases they dwarf even ludicrously expensive sets like the UCS Millennium Falcon! Similarly, look at how many complaints there were from AFOLs that the big Hogwarts D2C set last year was too expensive AND that it was microscale — even though Alice Finch's amazing minifig-scale Hogwarts MOC already showed us how ludicrously massive a minifig-scale Hogwarts Castle would need to be, even with a lot of the interior spaces like dormitories and classrooms condensed from their actual student capacity in the films!

Mind you — as a kid I was less picky, and did end up getting quite a few sets from early 2000s licensed themes like Star Wars, Harry Potter, Batman, and SpongeBob SquarePants. But as an adult I feel like if I want to maintain a responsible budget I should keep my wish list mostly restricted to the sets and themes I enjoy most, and usually that ends up being non-licensed themes, with only occasional exceptions.