A lot less themes this year?

[Itaria No Shintaku]

Hello,

I beg pardon if this has been already pointed out, but... I was thinking... did TLG produce less themes this year?

I mean, these are themes that were produced in 2015 and not in 2016:

Ultra Agents

Legends of Chima

Jurassic World

Scooby Doo

Pirates

The Lego Movie

The Simpsons

and these are the themes that were produced in 2016 and not in 2015:

Angry Birds

Nexo Knights

Ghostbusters

Correct me if I'm wrong but I see 7 themes discontinued and only 3 new replaced them.

Do you have any guess why this happened?

[davee123]

Possibly-- The year's not even halfway through, yet, though. They may fill those gaps a bit. ... And technically, although you didn't count them, they've also picked up 3 new DUPLO linups: Miles from Tomorrowland, Doc McStuffins, and Sofia the First (all Disney).

But regardless, it's not really a useful metric, unless it's sustained over more time. When the stars align and projects are ready to roll out, they'll show up. And it'll be in the same general ballpark. They've got something like 20-30 different "themes" (depending on how you count them) going on at once. I wouldn't read too much into it unless it starts happening for 2-3 years in a row.

DaveE

[BrickAddict90]

I've noticed this too, but as Davee said we're not even halfway through the year just yet. I've also noticed the "quality" of themes declining. Maybe it's just me. Instead of Castle, now we have Nexo Knights (not a big fan). No more Space themes, Western, Res-Q. All of those themes were Lego's golden days. Just wish they'd bring back another "awesome" theme.

[PicnicBasketSam]

Ultra Agents and the Lego Movie came out in 2014. You missed Speed Champions and Elves for 2015. Ghostbusters isn't new for 2016, the Ecto-1 came out in 2014.

Your argument isn't entirely valid... there are huge amounts of sets being released for big themes, at the expense of the one-shot themes. The only one so far this year is Angry Birds, compared to about four last year.

[Lyichir]

I've noticed this too, but as Davee said we're not even halfway through the year just yet. I've also noticed the "quality" of themes declining. Maybe it's just me. Instead of Castle, now we have Nexo Knights (not a big fan). No more Space themes, Western, Res-Q. All of those themes were Lego's golden days. Just wish they'd bring back another "awesome" theme.

Res-Q? Seriously? That's late '90s, and hardly a bastion of great set design. Today's themes are incredibly high-quality compared to most sets back then, and I say that as someone who grew up in that era and bought many of the sets.

In general, last year had a fairly large number of themes that were on the wane—Legends of Chima had a small third year, Ultra Agents got an unexpected second wave, Simpsons got a second and final year, and The Lego Movie somehow managed to eke one final wave out of a year-old movie. There were also a fair few one-offs, with Jurassic World, Pirates, and Scooby Doo. This year has fewer, though you could technically add a few more. Disney as a general property is as much of a theme this year as Simpsons was last year, with a minifigures series and D2C set. I believe we're supposed to see Adventure Time (as both an Ideas set and Dimensions property) as well. If that doesn't count then technically Ghostbusters would, since this is the first year we've gotten multiple non-Ideas, non-Dimensions sets, and if it does count you could potentially also include the other rumored new properties for the second year of Dimensions. DC Super Hero Girls could arguably also count as a new theme, if it does end up releasing this year (we haven't seen any info about sets yet, but we know they're coming at some point). So the ratio of new themes to old themes probably won't be quite as uneven as you make it out to be.

[Itaria No Shintaku]

To those who are saying that the year isn't over yet: there will be no new themes from now on, at least this is what I learnt from the retailer catalogue who goes until December. Or at least, no themes for my country since sometimes they showed up only in certain countries.

While Disney having a D2C planned could be enlisted, I don't see a lot of sets that fill the gaps left by Pirates, Scooby Doo, Ultra Agents, etc...

Ultra Agents and the Lego Movie came out in 2014. You missed Speed Champions and Elves for 2015. Ghostbusters isn't new for 2016, the Ecto-1 came out in 2014.

Your argument isn't entirely valid... there are huge amounts of sets being released for big themes, at the expense of the one-shot themes. The only one so far this year is Angry Birds, compared to about four last year.

I don't want to sound rude, really, but you didn't read my argument so you can't call it unvalid. I listed themes that appeared last year and not this year, then the opposite. I didn't mention 2014. And the Ecto-1 is not part of the Ghostbusters theme. It's part of the former Cuusoo now Ideas theme.

[TomKraut]

Do you have any guess why this happened?

I have: Nexo Knights.

Looking at your list, I would say Disney D2C / CMF replaces Simpsons, Angry Birds and Ghostbusters replace Scooby Doo and Jurassic World and of course we have Nexo Knights for Chima. The three TLM sets seemed like stragglers who where purposefully delayed to get the buzz going a little bit longer. I guess they were designed with the rest of the sets and just didn't fit into the 2014 lineup.

That leaves Pirates and Ultra Agents, both 100% in-house themes. I bet Lego decided to put all their design and marketing resources into Nexo Knights to avoid another Chima, which meant that there was no room for a new "Special" theme like Ultra Agents or Monster Fighters and another run of one of the classics (Pirates, Castle and Space).

The results are two very large first-year waves for a new big-bang theme and a marketing campaign spanning almost every type of media (books, magazines, TV show, video game...).

Cheers

TomKraut

[Andrzej777]

I am just a year into lego but 2016 must be the worst year ever :) at least so it seems to me.

There is actually not a single theme that would be to my liking. No proper castle theme, pirates is gone, the wild west is probably not gonna come back anytime soon (after the lone ranger)

[Itaria No Shintaku]

I have: Nexo Knights.

Looking at your list, I would say Disney D2C / CMF replaces Simpsons, Angry Birds and Ghostbusters replace Scooby Doo and Jurassic World and of course we have Nexo Knights for Chima. The three TLM sets seemed like stragglers who where purposefully delayed to get the buzz going a little bit longer. I guess they were designed with the rest of the sets and just didn't fit into the 2014 lineup.

That leaves Pirates and Ultra Agents, both 100% in-house themes. I bet Lego decided to put all their design and marketing resources into Nexo Knights to avoid another Chima, which meant that there was no room for a new "Special" theme like Ultra Agents or Monster Fighters and another run of one of the classics (Pirates, Castle and Space).

The results are two very large first-year waves for a new big-bang theme and a marketing campaign spanning almost every type of media (books, magazines, TV show, video game...).

Cheers

TomKraut

I peacefully disagree.

In 2013 were released, excluding polybags and battlepacks 37 sets for Legends of Chima. They were a lot.

In 2016 we will have, excluding polybags and battlepacks 29 sets for Nexo Knights. 17 have been realeased, 12 will show up in june and following. No third wave is planned for NK.

So, Chima was a Big Bang theme far more than what Nexo Knights is. In fact, it was supposed to replace ninjago. It was a large letdown compared to the efforts placed in, but there is no evidence that TLG is putting more effort in NK than in Chima, if not of the opposite.

[TomKraut]

Well, we won't know for sure as neither of us is a manager at TLG

I think I remember reading somewhere that the design resources at Lego where stretched thin this year because of NK (don't have a source ready right now). And comparing Chima and NK, I get the feeling that a lot more of the "System design capacity" went into NK than it did into Chima back then (with a lot of constraction figures and a lot of Speedorz).

It just makes sense to me that with the release of NK, Lego doesn't want to distract their employees or their customers with other themes. They have a lot riding on this (as they had with Chima) and don't want to mess up this time...

[Itaria No Shintaku]

Well, we won't know for sure as neither of us is a manager at TLG

I think I remember reading somewhere that the design resources at Lego where stretched thin this year because of NK (don't have a source ready right now). And comparing Chima and NK, I get the feeling that a lot more of the "System design capacity" went into NK than it did into Chima back then (with a lot of constraction figures and a lot of Speedorz).

It just makes sense to me that with the release of NK, Lego doesn't want to distract their employees or their customers with other themes. They have a lot riding on this (as they had with Chima) and don't want to mess up this time...

Perhaps this is true, but they didn't show us yet.

At the present moment, less sets are released on Nexo Knights' first year (including the ones TBA) than Chima's first year.

Perhaps in 2017 we will have the table turned.

[MAB]

Why does the year they were released matter so much? Surely what matters is how many sets / themes are available at any time?

The Lego Movie didn't actually have any released in 2015 if you were in the UK. The three sets out in 2015 were already available from 26 Dec 2014. And that was just three sets, the tail end of a theme. The Simpsons is hardly a theme, it was two sets and only one in 2015 (as the CMF are in the Minfigures range).

I peacefully disagree.

In 2013 were released, excluding polybags and battlepacks 37 sets for Legends of Chima. They were a lot.

In 2016 we will have, excluding polybags and battlepacks 29 sets for Nexo Knights. 17 have been realeased, 12 will show up in june and following. No third wave is planned for NK.

As noted above, think about speedorz. 17 of those 37 sets were speedorz. 13 of them at the cheapest level £9.99 / $14.99. So these were game sets rather than more traditional building sets. You have chosen to exclude polybags and battlepacks. If you chose also to exclude the game packs as well, then there are more building sets in Nexo Knights than the original release of Chima. Or if you chose to exclude Constraction figures as they are not system, you also lower the Chima numbers. This is what happens when you compare unlike themes but bias what you count - the numbers are meaningless.

[makoy]

To answer the question 'what happened'... It looks like TLG is consolidating their efforts on fewer themes to put more effort on creating better products. It is not always good to have more. Look at Chima. If the metric you use is the number of sets released then it seems that it is far superior theme than Nexo Knights but in my opinion what's more important is how good those products perform in the market.

So I am not alarmed LEGO has less themes. For me it is better to have less themes if that means the company can consolidate their efforts on creating better products.

[Itaria No Shintaku]

Why does the year they were released matter so much? Surely what matters is how many sets / themes are available at any time?

The Lego Movie didn't actually have any released in 2015 if you were in the UK. The three sets out in 2015 were already available from 26 Dec 2014. And that was just three sets, the tail end of a theme. The Simpsons is hardly a theme, it was two sets and only one in 2015 (as the CMF are in the Minfigures range).

As noted above, think about speedorz. 17 of those 37 sets were speedorz. 13 of them at the cheapest level £9.99 / $14.99. So these were game sets rather than more traditional building sets. You have chosen to exclude polybags and battlepacks. If you chose also to exclude the game packs as well, then there are more building sets in Nexo Knights than the original release of Chima. Or if you chose to exclude Constraction figures as they are not system, you also lower the Chima numbers. This is what happens when you compare unlike themes but bias what you count - the numbers are meaningless.

And 12 sets of NK are "ultimate" at the cheapest level. So if you remove 17 sets from 37 20 are left. If you remove 12 from 29, 17 are left. Which however means that still Chima produced more sets than NK

[Blondie-Wan]

Hello,

I beg pardon if this has been already pointed out, but... I was thinking... did TLG produce less themes this year?

I mean, these are themes that were produced in 2015 and not in 2016:

Ultra Agents

Legends of Chima

Jurassic World

Scooby Doo

Pirates

The Lego Movie

The Simpsons

and these are the themes that were produced in 2016 and not in 2015:

Angry Birds

Nexo Knights

Ghostbusters

Correct me if I'm wrong but I see 7 themes discontinued and only 3 new replaced them.

Do you have any guess why this happened?

It depends upon what you mean by a theme being "produced in" a given year. You appear to be referring to the years in which new sets were introduced, but there are also sets that are introduced in one year but remain in production another. For example, Ghostbusters actually had its first set introduced in 2014, but that set has remained available, at least, all the way through 2015 and into 2015; it appears to hav even remained in actual production all the way to the present year. At least some of the themes you cite as being produced in 2015 are also still being produced this year; they just aren't necessarily getting any new ones.

[DrJB]

I recall reading somewhere that they came up with close to 300 new sets for 2016 so, ... not sure the 'number of themes' metric is very valid.

[kinggregus]

I am in a way glad to have been reading this thread as it confirms my perception.

For the first time in 10 years, there is not a single theme that attracts me. I am personally typically attracted in historic themes (preferably licensed) and today we do not have such themes.

I could not point why I had so little excitement this year.

[Vorkosigan]

I think Dimensions may have had an effect on this situation. While it was released in 2015, the September release is quite late by LEGO standards and certainly effect 2016 output. Even though the builds are small there are many new figures. It seems to me that the Dimensions launch and ongoing waves may be taking enough designer effort to replace a couple small themes like Pirates and Scooby Doo.

[Bricks4Me]

I agree, it would be cool if there were more themes but sadly not many new ones.

[Cwetqo]

I recently attended official presentation and while I dont have any details, here are main highlights:

-Nexo Knights is this years "Big Bang" theme

-City is "Core Strategic" theme

-Ninjago is becoming "Evergreen" theme

Main themes rank something like this (if I remember correctly):

1. Duplo, City, Friends, Nexo, Ninjago, SW

2. Bionicle, Elves

3. Technic

4. Juniors, Classic, Minifigures, Disney, Creator, Marvel, DC, Speed C., Minecraft, Architecture

D2C or Shop Exclusive: Scooby Doo, Mindstorms, Creator Expert

[xboxtravis7992]

What do those rankings mean? Does that mean Lego views rank 1 as Big Bangs and Evergreens, and then it drops down in classification?

[makoy]

I recently attended official presentation and while I dont have any details, here are main highlights:

-Nexo Knights is this years "Big Bang" theme

-City is "Core Strategic" theme

-Ninjago is becoming "Evergreen" theme

Main themes rank something like this (if I remember correctly):

1. Duplo, City, Friends, Nexo, Ninjago, SW

2. Bionicle, Elves

3. Technic

4. Juniors, Classic, Minifigures, Disney, Creator, Marvel, DC, Speed C., Minecraft, Architecture

D2C or Shop Exclusive: Scooby Doo, Mindstorms, Creator Expert

What do those rankings mean? Does that mean Lego views rank 1 as Big Bangs and Evergreens, and then it drops down in classification?

We know that Duplo, City, Friends, Ninjago and Star Wars are the top 5 best sellers last year (but not necessarily in that order in the list). I don't know about Nexo Knights. Perhaps because TLG is spending so much on marketing for this Big Bang that's why it needs to be up in that list. I'm thinking it could the 80/20 rule... where they need to focus only on the top 20% of their themes to get 80% of the profit needed for this year.

[Itaria No Shintaku]

As far as I have seen before, so are the themes splitted 2 times a year, January-June and July-December.

So.. from January 2016 will only half of the themes be produces and the rest for 2016 will be produced after July.

Sorry to disappoint you but no new themes will be introduced in second half of 2016.

[MAB]

What theme is 40161 under. Games? It's own theme? Is one set enough to be a theme?

[Aanchir]

What theme is 40161 under. Games? It's own theme? Is one set enough to be a theme?

Branding-wise, it'd be in the same category as 40165, 40155, 40154, 40153, and 40118. Brickset just calls these "miscellaneous". I'm not sure how LEGO refers to them internally. On shop.LEGO.com they're tagged as "home", but so are "themed" products like last year's Pirates Chess Set (which, notably, was numbered in sequence with these) and various extended-line products like magnets or drinking cups.