As you can probably tell from my membership name ,I`m a builder of Lego Stars Wars, who has recently gotten hooked on Super-Heroes (mostly Marvel,but also some Batman ).These hero sets have been great, but Lego have been a bit mean ,when providing "baddies". A good example is Hydra Showdown, which comes with only one Hydra Agent.The new Batmobile Kryptonite set come with two dudes in overalls and a fork-lift (o.k. it`s a rocket armed fork-lift...but come on,it`s hardly going to get Mr Wayne breaking sweat, is it?).

Now if you want to bulk up the bad ( or good) guys in Star Wars, there are many sets to be had;- Storm Troopers ,Rebels , Battle-front packs ....the closest Super-hero format set that could be called a battle-pack ( along the lines of these Star Wars sets ), is the "Iron Man vs Ultron" £12.99 little box set.In this you get Tony plus an "Ultron style glider" vehicle and three non Ultron-Prime dudes, if you buy a couple of these ,then you`ve got some real options for scene building.

What I would like to see is a Marvel Hydra set ( Red Skull plus Hydra agents ), Shield ( Fury, Coulson or some other named character plus some Shield Security Dudes ).For D.C., it could be even simpler for Lego,;they already do loads of generic crooks in their City line ,and it would be cool to adapt them and box them up with say the Joker (often in film/t.v , he will have 2 or 3 thugs/hoods with him ).Also how about Sandman and some of his "goons" as they appeared in the the Lego Marvel Super Heroes console game?!!(although I realise this definitely will not happen, it would still be nice!)....So come on Lego, most of these figures are already part of your previous or currently existing lines!

Edited March 17, 20168 yr by r5-j2

To be honest, I don't think kids want henchman battle packs.

Besides, I don't think they can sell CMF packs or stuff like that, because in all honesty, most people buy the sets for the figures. Doing that (I THINK) would lower set sales. That's why they never do that.

I think the examples of what you'd like to see are great. I would want to see them all as well. As do I agree with everything you said. It is annoying to have only a small select few henchman and goons for heroes to take on, however in saying that I see exactly why we haven't.

See LEGO currently only has the "construction based toys" licenses as companies like Hasbro, Diamond Select or Mattel already obtain the "action figure license" and it would mean LEGO would have to pay more money than it initially would have to gain the licenses to sets, packs or blind bags containing just army building characters.

Which means TLG has to put each character in with builds. The Iron Man vs Ultron or Cap vs Chitauri were great sets but to buyers it could be a potential pass, because of the lack of a "Boss" type villain on top of the builds aren't anything special. And there are only so many builds (you could sell at that price in those small sets and without being overly repetitive) you could pitch before you can't justify it being a set.

To be honest, I don't think kids want henchman battle packs.

Besides, I don't think they can sell CMF packs or stuff like that, because in all honesty, most people buy the sets for the figures. Doing that (I THINK) would lower set sales. That's why they never do that.

AFOLs like us would surely want them ,wouldn't we ? (not just kids). Lot`s of the Star Wars battle-packs are snapped up by adult builders, so why not people like us who collect the D.C./Marvel stuff doing the same? Also we would only need to 4 or 5 sets to "cover all the bases".My great-grandson collects Ninjago and I try to bulk up his lack of "baddies" ,which he has himself commented on ,by getting him any Ninjago Lego magazine ,that has a Poly-bag baddie figure "freebie" attached to it, so it`s just not adults who notice the lack of "opposition" in some sets.

Edited March 17, 20168 yr by r5-j2

It's possible the license constrains them. Alternately, it's possible they just want all the sets in the Superheroes line to focus on, well, superheroes.

I think one reason, though (possibly just one of many, but probably a reason, anyway) is that they only release so many sets in this line each year, and it's more important to them to "hit the high points" with a mix of the most toy-ready scenes from the year's Marvel and DC movies, plus sets from animated shows and the like that let them feature whatever other additional characters they want.

It's possible the license constrains them. Alternately, it's possible they just want all the sets in the Superheroes line to focus on, well, superheroes.

I think one reason, though (possibly just one of many, but probably a reason, anyway) is that they only release so many sets in this line each year, and it's more important to them to "hit the high points" with a mix of the most toy-ready scenes from the year's Marvel and DC movies, plus sets from animated shows and the like that let them feature whatever other additional characters they want.

You`ve made a decent point there.

In total of Marvel sets we have only;

2x Chitauri (plus a general)

3x Sakaarans

2x Comic Hydra (2 different variants)

2x AoU Hydra

0x AIM, despite having their base

3x Ultron drones

Hardly worthy armies

In total of Marvel sets we have only;

2x Chitauri (plus a general)

3x Sakaarans

2x Comic Hydra (2 different variants)

2x AoU Hydra

0x AIM, despite having their base

3x Ultron drones

Hardly worthy armies

It's cool - we've got Thanos

It's cool - we've got Thanos

True , but even Thanos can have a "bad day!"

I think this is a great idea, and while I think the concerns raised have been completely fair so far, I think it would be easy to still do "army builders" but fill these other criteria.

I think there would definitely be enough interest, I worked at Toys R Us for 3 years and enough kids and parents bemoaned the lack of cheap sets and more villains in the Superheroes line that I think it would be a hit. As for cannibalizing sales of larger sets, I don't know if that would be true given LEGO just released Mighty Micro sets which are only $10 and they have released multiple for both DC and Marvel.

As for the action figures part, that again can be solved by a small build being included such as a vehicle for the larger side or a small play feature piece. However I'm not sure how big an issue this is since they have released Constraction figures for both Star Wars and Superheroes now.

Each set should definitely include at least one "good guy" though, as Blondie-Wan pointed out it's a lot harder to sell a set with no heroes in a Superheroes line.

I think this is a great idea, and while I think the concerns raised have been completely fair so far, I think it would be easy to still do "army builders" but fill these other criteria.

I think there would definitely be enough interest, I worked at Toys R Us for 3 years and enough kids and parents bemoaned the lack of cheap sets and more villains in the Superheroes line that I think it would be a hit. As for cannibalizing sales of larger sets, I don't know if that would be true given LEGO just released Mighty Micro sets which are only $10 and they have released multiple for both DC and Marvel.

As for the action figures part, that again can be solved by a small build being included such as a vehicle for the larger side or a small play feature piece. However I'm not sure how big an issue this is since they have released Constraction figures for both Star Wars and Superheroes now.

Each set should definitely include at least one "good guy" though, as Blondie-Wan pointed out it's a lot harder to sell a set with no heroes in a Superheroes line.

Here`s info from somebody who has been on the shop floor (as have I been;-I`m also an ex Toys`r`Us employee) ....thanx for you input Spidey!

Edited March 17, 20168 yr by r5-j2

Honestly, if I were inclined to build an army of Hydra or Ultron drones, it's plenty affordable to buy them on Bricklink. I think they're all going for under $2 per fig right now which ain't bad. As a collector I don't want to see anything happen that might jack up the cost of new sets. It's expensive enough as it is to nab all these minifigs!

I do like the sound of superhero bp's. I know my new favorite battlepack will be madrox the multiple man bp.

Because it's a different kind of theme. Kids don't want the random goon, they want the cool guys with powers.

Because it's a different kind of theme. Kids don't want the random goon, they want the cool guys with powers.

Iron Man vs Ultron Drone was basically an army builder pack. One hero vs 3/4 goons is all we need

Battle packs would work if they gave a mainstream character variant and then some henchmen.

Examples would be:

Variant Iron Man and some A.I.M soldiers

Red Skull and some Hydra Soldiers

Comic Loki and Chitauri

Agreed the BP's main focus would have to be one or two iconic figures with 2 henchman.

Iron Man and a shield Agent vs two Hydra operatives

or

Loki and 3 Chitauri

or

Captain America vs 2 hydra henchman and Red Skull or Winter Soldier

or

Groot vs 3 of those armored bug/orc dudes from GotG

I think kids would love BPs for Marvel if done right. Sure no one would want to pay $13 for a generic henchman that looks like they belong in a City set (no offense City fans) but if done right kids would love them. The whole point of these movies is to basically watch one super hero wallop on hundreds of enemies and one supervillian that's either their equal or better.

Edited March 18, 20168 yr by Forresto

Agreed the BP's main focus would have to be one or two iconic figures with 2 henchman.

Iron Man and a shield Agent vs two Hydra operatives

or

Loki and 3 Chitauri

or

Captain America vs 2 hydra henchman and Red Skull or Winter Soldier

or

Groot vs 3 of those armored bug/orc dudes from GotG

I think kids would love BPs for Marvel if done right. Sure no one would want to pay $13 for a generic henchman that looks like they belong in a City set (no offense City fans) but if done right kids would love them. The whole point of these movies is to basically watch one super hero wallop on hundreds of enemies and one supervillian that's either their equal or better.

That`s what I was trying to say ,but you (and others) get what I was on about ,and express it better than I did....................Excelsior!!