Ideas for new Lego themes! (Non-licensed)

[MAB]

How would a non-licensed superheroes theme work? You really need a back story for any superhero, and if LEGO need to develop these and then have them compete for shelf space with the (mainly) Marvel and DC brands, they might as well put that effort into something a little more unique - like they did with Ninjago, Chima, Monster Fighters, Nexo Knights, etc.

[Digger of Bricks]

59 minutes ago, Lego David said:

22 hours ago, Digger of Bricks said:

Space Racers (as the name suggests, it's LEGO's old Racers theme, but in SPACE!)

I think that partially happened with the 2001 Xalax  subtheme, that was about a race among some little alien looking creatures, that could have well taken place on a different planet. I am not sure, but I also think that was confirmed in the 2001 game LEGO Racers 2.

If you're further interested in this idea, @Henchmen4Hire started a speculative topic on such a few days ago... 

59 minutes ago, Lego David said:

Space Pirates. Just think about it. Similar to Disney's 2002 movie Treasure Planet (which by the way, Disney wants to forget they even made it) and maybe with a little Nexo Knights vibe to it, I think this could be pretty awesome. 

While I'd be totally on board for a Space Pirates theme, having such a theme aesthetically take after Disney's Treasure Planet would irk me for certain reasons. 

46 minutes ago, MAB said:

How would a non-licensed superheroes theme work? You really need a back story for any superhero, and if LEGO need to develop these and then have them compete for shelf space with the (mainly) Marvel and DC brands, they might as well put that effort into something a little more unique - like they did with Ninjago, Chima, Monster Fighters, Nexo Knights, etc.

Yeah, while I can agree that a straight-up in-house Superhero theme couldn't exist within Lego's product lineup currently (if ever), I do think Lego should at least take after the varied team dynamics from such for their own future themes more often. Rather than once again recycling the typical uniformed "Power Rangers" trope they've utilized for awhile now with many themes' protagonists, how 'bout something more diverse on par with, say, Guardians of the Galaxy for instance? 

[Karalora]

I'm still holding out hope for a theme based in Greek mythology. They could have a hero team composed of legendary characters from the era, each taking on a role congruent with their most famous attributes, such as:

• Hercules: The notional main character, known primarily for his strength but fairly well-rounded.
• Perseus: The hotshot kid and the gadgeteer, with his winged sandals and mirror-shield.
• Achilles: The most skilled with weapons, as well as being invulnerable.
• Atalanta: The fastest runner in Greece, talks to animals.
• Odysseus: The strategist/older mentor/team dad. Also the sniper, with his famous bow that no one else can wield properly.

Each set could feature one or more members of the team playing out a specific mythical adventure/encountering a monster.

[Digger of Bricks]

While I know Ninjago could act as a inhibition to such nowadays, it'd be cool to see Lego attempt another shot at a System-based Mecha playtheme in the vein of Exo-Force once again, perhaps next time around with either a Space-based premise (think Gundam or Voltron, though Lego had sorta touched upon this approach with 1997's RoboForce) or a Jaeger Vs. Kaiju basis (ya know, Pacific Rim!). *

* Yes, I know, Lego had also touched upon that trope before with Hero Factory's Invasion From Below.

[Lego David]

2 hours ago, Digger of Bricks said:

While I'd be totally on board for a Space Pirates theme, having such a theme aesthetically take after Disney's Treasure Planet would irk me for certain reasons. 

I don't say they should just straight take after the same aesthetic, just maybe inspire a little bit form it.  Like, in the same way Exo-Force was inspired from Japanese manga and anime such as Mobile Suit Gundam and Robotech, but still feels like an original LEGO theme. 

Although I would personally love to see such a theme happen, seeing Nexo Knights' poor reception by the Castle fans... Yeah, I dunno if Pirates fans would be very happy with it.

[Digger of Bricks]

4 minutes ago, Lego David said:

2 hours ago, Digger of Bricks said:

While I'd be totally on board for a Space Pirates theme, having such a theme aesthetically take after Disney's Treasure Planet would irk me for certain reasons. 

I don't say they should just straight take after the same aesthetic, just maybe inspire a little bit form it.  Like, in the same way Exo-Force was inspired from Japanese manga and anime such as Mobile Suit Gundam and Robotech, but still feels like an original LEGO theme. 

Although I would personally love to see such a theme happen, seeing Nexo Knights' poor reception by the Castle fans... Yeah, I dunno if Pirates fans would be very happy with it.

In premise, such a theme should be not much more than a mere Space theme with piracy (i.e. please no floating sailships within a atmosphere-less cosmos). 

[The Island Chronicles]

Hmmm..... How about Great Buildings? It could be like Great Vehicles only with buildings. 

Edited August 27, 2019 by pooda

[MAB]

7 hours ago, pooda said:

Hmmm..... How about Great Buildings? It could be like Great Vehicles only with buildings. 

I guess it depends on what you mean by great buildings, but that is already sort of provided in the Architecture range at microscale for famous buildings and the Modulars at minifigure scale for common buildings.

 

[The Island Chronicles]

@MABIt seems like my ideas are the only ones that get contradicted. 

I'm talking about a collection of unthemed buildings for the City theme. You know? Like set 60204 Hospitak? That one wasn't really put under a particular subtheme. It was practically just a random building. A good one at that. That's what I mean by Great Buildings. City made buildings that aren't really under one of the fixed subthemes. 

[MAB]

33 minutes ago, pooda said:

@MABIt seems like my ideas are the only ones that get contradicted. 

I'm talking about a collection of unthemed buildings for the City theme. You know? Like set 60204 Hospitak? That one wasn't really put under a particular subtheme. It was practically just a random building. A good one at that. That's what I mean by Great Buildings. City made buildings that aren't really under one of the fixed subthemes. 

Well we have a fire station (2019), hospital (2018), 'normal' police station (2017) - that is the emergency services covered. No doubt they will cycle again. 2016 had an airport but also a fire station, 2014 had the generic police station, 2013 another fire station and 2012 a hospital. I wouldn't say the hospital was random, it fits into the emergency services cycle.

Aside from that we have had a number of other reasonable buildings for City - Burger bar, construction site, garage, donut and toy shops (all 2019), Capital City (hotel, skatepark, etc) (2018), bank (2017), and lots of even smaller buildings / scenes. Often kids don't care how big a piece of scene or building is - they want action at the docks or construction site or bank (or whatever) - they get vehicles plus the scene. They don't really care if the bank is up to modular standards, they need a shell to act out a heist. Often the set is stand alone or interacts with a couple of other sets. It is rare that a kid sets up a whole town.

[The Island Chronicles]

Missing the point. 

The ones you mentioned were under fixed subthemes. And please don't reference buildings that have been long removed from the shelves because those don't really count anymore. 

[MAB]

19 minutes ago, pooda said:

Missing the point. 

The ones you mentioned were under fixed subthemes. And please don't reference buildings that have been long removed from the shelves because those don't really count anymore. 

So what? Do you think kids really care whether a subtheme is explicitly stated on a box or in a catalogue? City branding helps kids and parents know that the sets are going to be of a particular style and playability - different to Creator, for example. Having a small, managable number of internal brands helps consumers know what something will be like and also recognize what they might like. If all the arctic sets, or deep sea, or jungle police, or any other subtheme was under completely different branding and the branding changed every year, then LEGO are likely to lose sales due to (lack of) brand loyalty.

 

And mentioning buildings from the recent past is important, since it puts things into perspective. Given the sets are often on the shelves for two years and larger buildings sets such as for the emergency services often cycle every 3-4-5 years, knowing what has just gone helps understand what will come again.

[The Island Chronicles]

@MAB On top of that. why do you keep following me around? Leave me alone and don't stalk me! 

[MAB]

1 hour ago, pooda said:

@MAB On top of that. why do you keep following me around? Leave me alone and don't stalk me! 

I'm allowed to comment on any threads. Just as you are. If you reply to a comment of mine, then I am allowed to reply to a comment of yours. It is how a forum works.

 

[Digger of Bricks]

If Lego were to cook-up some new action/adventure playthemes that fuses two or more concepts covered by previous action/adventure playthemes, here are a several ideas for such I'd like to see...

1. Space Police + Agents = SPACE AGENTS!!! A Space Police IV with named protagonists working to foil a Blacktron/Ogel-esque shadow cabal
2. Rock Raiders/Power Miners + Atlantis + Adventurers = An Action/Adventure theme that takes an expeditionary team into the earth in search of, not rock monsters once again, but the ruins of a fabled, subterranean Hyperborean civilization
3. 1998's RES-Q Subtheme + Ultra Agents = A near-futuristic Action/Adventure theme focused upon a high-tech Search & Rescue organization heading missions to rescue civilians from cataclysmic natural disasters brought on by a severe geomagnetic storm and subsequent climate change

[The Island Chronicles]

29 minutes ago, Digger of Bricks said:

Space Police + Agents = SPACE AGENTS!!! A Space Police IV with named protagonists working to foil a Blacktron/Ogel-esque shadow cabal

Ok! I remember coming up with this theory about Space Police! My theory was that it took place on Ogel Island, the island where The Brickster lives in Lego Island 2. 

[MAB]

41 minutes ago, Digger of Bricks said:

If Lego were to cook-up some new action/adventure playthemes that fuses two or more concepts covered by previous action/adventure playthemes, here are a several ideas for such I'd like to see...

1. Space Police + Agents = SPACE AGENTS!!! A Space Police IV with named protagonists working to foil a Blacktron/Ogel-esque shadow cabal
2. Rock Raiders/Power Miners + Atlantis + Adventurers = An Action/Adventure theme that takes an expeditionary team into the earth in search of, not rock monsters once again, but the ruins of a fabled, subterranean Hyperborean civilization
3. 1998's RES-Q Subtheme + Ultra Agents = A near-futuristic Action/Adventure theme focused upon a high-tech Search & Rescue organization heading missions to rescue civilians from cataclysmic natural disasters brought on by a severe geomagnetic storm and subsequent climate change

I dare you to add Space + Castle = ...?

[Digger of Bricks]

Just now, MAB said:

I dare you to add Space + Castle = ...?

Dare me? Heh, I'd gladly invest into a real fusion of the two, because you can't quite call Nexo Knights a Space theme if it ain't in Space! 

[TeriXeri]

On 8/30/2019 at 5:53 PM, Digger of Bricks said:

Dare me? Heh, I'd gladly invest into a real fusion of the two, because you can't quite call Nexo Knights a Space theme if it ain't in Space! 

I personally will never call Nexo Knights a Space theme.

However I can imagine some people see it as such due to the neon-orange or bright-green transparent parts and "technology" involved.

But this isn't the first time we see bright/transparent colors in non-space themes.

[Karalora]

1 hour ago, TeriXeri said:

I personally will never call Nexo Knights a Space theme.

However I can imagine some people see it as such due to the neon-orange or bright-green transparent parts and "technology" involved.

But this isn't the first time we see bright/transparent colors in non-space themes.

I guess it depends on whether you think of Space as a literal location or more of an aesthetic.

[Digger of Bricks]

10 hours ago, TeriXeri said:

But this isn't the first time we see bright/transparent colors in non-space themes.

Huh, good point, you could say Nexo Knights acted very much the same way many of Lego's Aquazone themes had previously done, offering Technicolor-canopied "spacecraft" builds in a non-Space setting. 

But, it'd still be cool to see a true "Space Knights" theme from Lego in the near future. Not to mention, if Nexo Knights truly had been such, I do think it wouldn't have received the contempt from Classic Castle fans that it did, as it would've been completely dismissed as just another Space theme rather than a skewering of Castle.

[MAB]

7 hours ago, Digger of Bricks said:

Huh, good point, you could say Nexo Knights acted very much the same way many of Lego's Aquazone themes had previously done, offering Technicolor-canopied "spacecraft" builds in a non-Space setting. 

Out of interest, what qualifies as a Space setting?

If a theme is based on Mars or the Moon, for example, is that Space? After all, they are both locations.  To me, Nexo Knights was more techno knights than space knights, but if they had travelled to another planet and built Knighton there, would it be Space? If people travelled to Mars and built a life there, would that be Space?

Are spacecrafts necessary for something to be Space?

 

[Digger of Bricks]

On 9/2/2019 at 4:11 AM, MAB said:

Out of interest, what qualifies as a Space setting?

If a theme is based on Mars or the Moon, for example, is that Space? After all, they are both locations.  To me, Nexo Knights was more techno knights than space knights, but if they had travelled to another planet and built Knighton there, would it be Space? If people travelled to Mars and built a life there, would that be Space?

Well, for me, if a "Space" theme were to be exclusively relegated to just one extraterrestrial setting outside of Earth, it'd have to be an atmosphere-less one to be more clearly definable as such (i.e. the Moon or Mars). Otherwise, a Space theme that took more after "Planetary Romances" such as James Cameron's Avatar or Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter of Mars might be more easily classified as a fantasy-based Action/Adventure theme due to its singular terrestrial setting; so, if Nexo Knights were to have been an all-out Space theme, it'd have to be more like Star Wars and designate many of its adventures to multiple planets rather than just lumping all those locations onto a single rock. 

[MAB]

35 minutes ago, Digger of Bricks said:

Well, for me, if a "Space" theme were to be exclusively relegated to just one extraterrestrial setting outside of Earth, it'd have to be an atmosphere-less one to be more clearly definable as such (i.e. the Moon or Mars). Otherwise, a Space theme that took more after "Planetary Romances" such as James Cameron's Avatar or Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter of Mars might be more easily classified as a fantasy-based Action/Adventure theme due to its singular terrestrial setting; so, if Nexo Knights were to have been an all-out Space theme, it'd have to be more like Star Wars and designate many of its adventures to multiple planets rather than just lumping all those locations onto a single rock. 

Funnily enough,  I was thinking of Flash Gordon at the time. That would clearly be more action/adventure than space, similar to Nexo Knights. Mind you, I wouldn't mind Zarkov's rocket ship.

[Digger of Bricks]

23 hours ago, MAB said:

Funnily enough, I was thinking of Flash Gordon at the time. That would clearly be more action/adventure than space, similar to Nexo Knights.

While I guess a Flash Gordon/Buck Rogers-inspired theme would feel to be more in the spirit of Action/Adventure rather than Space, I'd still technically consider it a Space theme, especially if its adventures take place among more than one planet. The thing is, would fans of traditional Space consider it such themselves, or would they just write it off as an Action/Adventure theme?