I just started buying Lego sets again after a long dark age, so Galaxy Squad was a couple of years before I started paying attention to Lego. I have some questions about it:

How successful was Galaxy Squad at the time it came out? It seems well-regarded by AFOLs now, but did it sell well?

Was it planned as a single-year release, or did it not perform well enough in the market to be continued as a line?

In your opinion, what does the performance of Galaxy Squad say about the viability of non-licenced space themes in the future?

Never liked it, not spacy enough (hate the clear trans canopies!) and the bugs suck

Parted out a bunch of them but figs/GS parts didn't seem to sell. And the set where discounted heavily here in DK like forever

So, I'd say not a great succes for TLG

There will be space in the future, but it will be like this, 1-2 waves, very different from SW and nothing like CS

Cheers,

Ole

There will be space in the future, but it will be like this, 1-2 waves, very different from SW and nothing like CS

That depends If consumers buy enough of the waves to make It profitable for TLG to continue. See Ninjago; It's popular by demand and TLG keeps churning out wave of sets every 6 or so months. I have no sale lists of GS, but I assume It was not very popular to make It to a third wave as I mentioned before.

There will be space in the future, but it will be like this, 1-2 waves, very different from SW and nothing like CS

I guess the next Space theme will be something in the line of Castle 2013 and Pirates 2015: a childish simple theme with a single wave

I just started buying Lego sets again after a long dark age, so Galaxy Squad was a couple of years before I started paying attention to Lego. I have some questions about it:

How successful was Galaxy Squad at the time it came out? It seems well-regarded by AFOLs now, but did it sell well?

Was it planned as a single-year release, or did it not perform well enough in the market to be continued as a line?

In your opinion, what does the performance of Galaxy Squad say about the viability of non-licenced space themes in the future?

It probably wasn't very successful, as it was clogging up shelves for over a year in my area and there didn't seem to be a lot of hype surrounding the theme (The thread for the sets performed similarly to the Castle 2013 thread despite having twice as many sets).

I suspect that it was a single year release, due to some of the sets being recycled Alien Conquest prototypes. Alien Conquest was due for a second wave in 2012, but it was canceled because Monster Fighters was going to fill its slot. It would have been weird to have the theme skip a year and then come back, so the sets were probably just rebranded.

I doubt we'll see any large space themes in the next five years simply due to the mass amounts of Star Wars films coming out. If we get anything it will be a small, five set wave like Castle 2013 and Pirates 2015.

I liked those sets... well, some of them. The smallish fighter sucked, and the big flagship blue thingy wasn't all that great, and those were the only two I had--I do regret not getting the mech or the hovertank. Those were solid designs. And if the next space theme is as rubbish as Castle or Pirates in recent years... I'm going to start buying Ninjago. Or Nexo Knights, if they make any knights' vehicles that appeal to me.

Never liked it, not spacy enough (hate the clear trans canopies!) and the bugs suck

I agree with this sentiment for the most parts, but I did like some of the designs:

http://brickset.com/sets/70704-1/Vermin-Vaporizer

http://brickset.com/sets/70705-1/Bug-Obliterator

I also liked some of the smaller human vehicle designs but didn't want to buy the big ugly bug sets they came with.

It would have been a better theme if there were colored canopies, no bugs, and no focus on war.

Some of it seemed to sell well, and I liked the designs of the ships. This set was cheap and very hard to find in stock (I'd have bought a nice fleet if I could find them):

Conversely this set was everywhere for a long time after everything else was looong gone:

As others have mentioned, the trans white was a bit disappointing, and the alien bugs didn't appeal to many. I think it suffered in that it was a bit between an "action theme" and a "space theme", and therefore didn't become much of a hit with either target audience. Also, the space men were not generic like the space themes of old, they were unique named characters (something I don't like).

I think all space themes will suffer to a significant degree while SW Lego is still popular (especially now that there is constant new media for it), the reason being, the kids and parents recognise the SW models but not this stuff, even though it is cheaper and has original design.

I don't know the TLG numbers, but they didn't seem to sell well in my city. I managed to buy every set on clearance and multiples of a few on deep discount. I really liked the theme personally, loved the figures and the aliens.

In the UK the sets ended up at "B&M". This is a discount retaile rthat buys old lines, and poorly selling lines and sells them massivley discounted. Its usually full of crap. Before Galaxy squad i had only seen those board game lego things. I was stunned to see "real" lego there. And ive never seen anymore.

So im guesing it sold poorly.

I picked up some of these 50% off, again anecdotal but they seemed to be heavily discounted. I thought the good guys were nice but didn't care for the bugs at all. I'd prefer a more civilian space, or at least one with humans on both sides of the conflict. If they give us humanoid aliens, I'd like to see them represented as more equal, not just evil. As Artanis I mentioned the bug based sets seemed to sell especially poorly.

The GS vehicles catched my eyes first, but then the insects' vehicles grew on me too. I enjoy the theme a lot.

For me, it was close in spirit to CS, with colored spacemen, and nice looking ships with gimmicks (separating into several sub-ships for example). The bugs reminded me of District 9. All in all, very neat. A lot of white pieces to buld large spaceships. I strongly recommend it.

The second wave sets were heavily discounted in France and the theme was clearly not popular at the time.

But curiously, I had troubles finding the "first" wave sets to complete my collection.

There were things that appealed to me about the sets, but also things I didn't care for. The former were outweighed by the latter. I really wanted to like the theme, though.

I wasn't too big on the bugs, for example, because I see bug aliens as pretty cliché. Then again, it can be done well (as in Ender's Game or Starship Troopers).

I also didn't care much for the color scheme, which was very bright and colorful. It seems they do that with their own in-house themes, and use the better colors on the licensed sets. But I did like some colors, like those used on the aliens, and a few of the humans. I also liked the trans canopies, unlike others here. Colored canopies are too specific for my tastes. I liked the concept of the robots, but never found one in particular, or in a color scheme that I liked.

Anyways, it didn't seem to do too well in my area, either. Definitely anecdotal, but it's also the general consensus.

Never was a fan of this theme. Felt like a bad riff on Insectoids, but with the Aliens as the unambiguous villains. I suppose the theme should have been right up my ally, but somehow it came off as an uncanny valley version of what I wanted.

Anyways, the theme did not do well in my town(s). I visited toystores and bookstoresbookstores aplenty during its run from the suburbs of Philadelphia to Bridgewater mall NJ, and they were always on the shelf too long, stamped with sale stickers. I swear I saw the two largest sets at my local USToy just a year ago at a pretty big discount. I regret not buying any, but mostly because now I don't have Zoid mini figures for AG.

~Insectoid Aristocrat

I think the theme was a mixed seller. Much like Alien Conquest, the more complete human themed vehicles sold well. The Alien focused sets were often shelf warmers. Some of the set and vehicle designs were superb. But honestly the 5 color Sentai's team designations were a horrible marketing and branding decision. It made the heroes and their ships feel incoherent. The more recent Nexo Knights seemingly learned from this and kept a consistency among the hero vehicles while maintaining the distinct colors for the heroes themselves. With Galaxy Squad they tried to inject some of the color/tribal language that worked with Ninjago and Chima into SF. It didn't work as "squads".

The clear canopies for the humans were the result of that decision to use 4 different base colors for the vehicles. They needed something neutral to work with blue or green or red or orange.

Honestly the Human focused sets are great. Especially the larger ones. The Vermin Vaporizer is fantastic. The Galactic Titan is a nice impressive tank and drop ship. The large Bug Obliterator Ship is an OK space capital ship. A bit chunky, but with some cool features. Whereas all of the Bug/Alien sets are fairly awful. No articulation, weird clunky awkward shapes. An over abundance of stickers. Of them only the Hive Crawler is anything above bad.

If you like any of it, especially the Human team vehicles, I would strongly recommend you explore the sadly short lived Alien Conquest line. Especially the centerpiece ADF HQ set which is one of the finest space themed sets ever made, even though it's a ground vehicle.

It didn't work as "squads".

I reckon a large factor was that the squads were too small. (Not that it was feasible to release many more sets.) Otherwise they should've picked one (or maybe two) and made all of the sets with those colours.

I think the theme was a mixed seller. Much like Alien Conquest, the more complete human themed vehicles sold well. The Alien focused sets were often shelf warmers. Some of the set and vehicle designs were superb. But honestly the 5 color Sentai's team designations were a horrible marketing and branding decision. It made the heroes and their ships feel incoherent. The more recent Nexo Knights seemingly learned from this and kept a consistency among the hero vehicles while maintaining the distinct colors for the heroes themselves. With Galaxy Squad they tried to inject some of the color/tribal language that worked with Ninjago and Chima into SF. It didn't work as "squads".

It's kind of funny you say that because like just like Galaxy Squad, the "good guy" vehicles in Nexo Knights have shared main colors but also accent colors specific to the character they're affiliated with. So Clay's Rumble Blade and hover horse have Dark Azur accents, Lance's Mecha Horse and hover horse have White accents, Aaron's Aero-Striker V2 and hover horse have Bright Yellowish Green accents, Macy's Thunder Mace and hover horse have red accents, and Axl's Tower Carrier and hover horse have Flame Yellowish Orange accents. Even King Halbert's King's Mech joins the fun, coupling the usual main colors with Warm Gold accents.

Perhaps it's just the use of "louder" main colors (Bright Blue, Earth Blue, Silver Metallic, and Tr. Flu. Reddish Orange instead of White, Dark Stone Grey, Black, and Transparent) that makes the Nexo Knights color schemes work better in your eyes. Or perhaps it's just that the character-specific accent colors in Nexo Knights tend to be used more sparingly.

Edited September 11, 20168 yr by Aanchir

Or perhaps it's just that the character-specific accent colors in Nexo Knights tend to be used more sparingly.

Probably. More subtly included.

Discounted GS sets were useful sets for parts drafts. There were some interesting pieces. I guess in that regard, they were well received by some AFOLs.

About the only thing I liked about this line was the fact that the Blue squad dude could be used to fill out my AC ranks. Other than that, my experiences mirror most of what everyone else has said here.

In your opinion, what does the performance of Galaxy Squad say about the viability of non-licenced space themes in the future?

For me, it says "Stop being stupid and give me trans-neon-green, Lego!"

I didn't see them at all in most stores around me btw. And if they're not in stores, how could they sell?

Personally i thick it is one of the best lines ever produced, especially space lines.

I missed it when it came out (i was out of lego), but when i found this out in 2015 i bought all sets multiple times. They were easy to find at great prices

It was action and adventure strait from a sci-fi movie.

It was non-licence, so cheap and non of the freaks look like mad for it.

Most sets had special builds or neat semi-transformation gimmick.

Excellent sets for army building, the only thing missing was a squad headquarters!

If you like the movie starship troopers, you'll love this :)

don't know if it sold well, but i'm not a kid, i grew up in the years when space battles were cool :)

I only ever had two Galaxy Squad sets, the big blue ship and tank, along with the huge queen bug (which I personally thought were the best sets in the line), but I always enjoyed the line, as I thought the split function was very creative, and could inspire great MOC builds. The alien ship build I also thought looked very nice, but they may have been better of as just giant bugs than simply "bug-shaped ships".

I loved galaxy Squad! But there was a lot of it on clearance in my area. I ended up getting duplicates of all the smaller sets, but most of the clearanced sets also hung around for months. Unfortunately, I think its less about viability of lego space and more about being out competed by lego star wars.

I really liked the insect figures, but since Star Wars and Super Heroes are consuming most of my budget, I have simply been unable to invest in space for a while. Too bad.