31 minutes ago, pooda said:

I wish people would stop asking for an in-house space theme

People don't stop asking for it because they want a sci-fi in house space theme.

Just now, Lego David said:

People don't stop asking for it because they want a sci-fi in house space theme.

Do we really need one though? We have City Space! We have Star Wars. Creator has had some space sets before. Lego Movie 2? Emmett's house can be turned into a space ship and don't forget Rex's ship. I'm gonna even add Toy Story to the list because of Buzz Lightyear. So a standalone Sci-Fi theme would not only be pointless, but it would be a waste of TLG's time and money. 

1 minute ago, pooda said:

Do we really need one though? We have City Space! We have Star Wars. Creator has had some space sets before. Lego Movie 2? Emmett's house can be turned into a space ship and don't forget Rex's ship. I'm gonna even add Toy Story to the list because of Buzz Lightyear. So a standalone Sci-Fi theme would not only be pointless, but it would be a waste of TLG's time and money. 

My thoughts on the current space sets:

City Space:  these don't feel futuristic to me.  The shuttles look like rehashes of the STS, which went out of service in 2011.  The rockets, with no landing legs, look outdated compared to a SpaceX Falcon 9, and downright antique compared to the Super Heavy + Starship from SpaceX, and New Glenn from Blue Origin.  I liked Space because it was about the future.  Today's City Space feels like technology from 10-20 years ago.

Creator:  Again, mostly sets that resemble the past.  The Ideas Exosuit was pretty cool though. 

Lego Movie 2:  I agree that this was a pretty good original space theme.  Emmet's House/Rescue Rocket, Rexplorer, Rexcellsior, Benny's Space Crew, Benny & Emmet's Repair Shop, Sweet Mayhem's Systar Starship, and the WYLD-Mayhem Starfighter provided a wide variety of spaceships for Lego enthusiasts.  I bought the Rescue Rocket, as it was the only ship I really liked. 

Star Wars:  I'm tired of Star Wars sets.  How many iterations of X-Wings, TIE Fighters, and Millennium Falcons do we really need?  The last Star Wars set that I bought was the U-Wing from late 2016, because it was it was different and interesting.  

Unique and inspiring ideas about what the future might look like, are what I liked best about Space.  Most of the recent space-related stuff hasn't been unique or inspiring to me.

 

4 minutes ago, hagridshut said:

Star Wars:  I'm tired of Star Wars sets.  How many iterations of X-Wings, TIE Fighters, and Millennium Falcons do we really need?  The last Star Wars set that I bought was the U-Wing from late 2016, because it was it was different and interesting.  

I said the something similar about police sets by Lego City and I'm still standing by my statement on that situation.

But back to the point. I do have to agree that Star Wars should make some changes to their toy fleet. I guess they make a lot of those because they are more well known than other vehicles in the Jedi universe. 

Edited September 13, 20195 yr by pooda

8 minutes ago, pooda said:

I said the something similar about police sets by Lego City and I'm still standing by my statement on that situation.

But back to the point. I do have to agree that Star Wars should make some changes to their toy fleet. I guess they make a lot of those because they are more well known than other vehicles in the Jedi universe. 

I feel differently about the Lego City police.

Although some of the police sets haven't fundamentally changed in the past 30 years (there are still police cars, police headquarters, and police helicopters), Lego has created some unique twists to the police sub-theme.  The "mountain" police sets, like Mountain Police Headquarters, Mountain Arrest, and Dirt Road Pursuit, are interesting creations that reflect non-urban police activity.  

The Sky Police Drone Chase is also different, and reflects a modern problem with drones flying illegally or being used for crimes.  

Lego City also doesn't have a predefined story.  Kids who buy or receive these sets as gifts are pretty free to create their own adventures and name their own characters.  

Star Wars is predefined, with decades of stories behind the sets.  We know who the minifigures represent and what adventures happened to them.  To be fair, this is somewhat true of The Lego Movie 2 as well, but TLM2 featured the kids who owned the Legos breaking their sets down and later rebuilding them into new MOCs.  I felt that TLM and TLM2 encouraged creativity over established story lines.

1 minute ago, hagridshut said:

I feel differently about the Lego City police.

Although some of the police sets haven't fundamentally changed in the past 30 years (there are still police cars, police headquarters, and police helicopters), Lego has created some unique twists to the police sub-theme.  The "mountain" police sets, like Mountain Police Headquarters, Mountain Arrest, and Dirt Road Pursuit, are interesting creations that reflect non-urban police activity.  

The Sky Police Drone Chase is also different, and reflects a modern problem with drones flying illegally or being used for crimes.  

Lego City also doesn't have a predefined story.  Kids who buy or receive these sets as gifts are pretty free to create their own adventures and name their own characters.  

Yeah....my problem with that is..... wouldn't the mountains be a place where a fire is more likely to happen than a crime? Yet there is no Mountain Fire theme. Fire sets sell too, but hardly any blood, sweat and tears is put into those. Except for the theme that comes out every three years. The swamp has that effect too as a Swamp Coast Guard theme would sound more reasonable. 

As for "naming" the characters, that was another issue as City is supposed to be generic. Chase McCain, Harl Hubbs, Duke Detain and Freya McCloud are prime examples. Once you name certain mini figs, you're kinda obligated to name them that once you acquire them. The encouragement to imagination is tarnished with that. 

1 hour ago, pooda said:

Do we really need one though?

Yes we do.

1 hour ago, pooda said:

We have City Space!

Those have nothing interesting about them. Just generic space shuttles.

1 hour ago, pooda said:

Creator has had some space sets before

Which were exactly the same as the City ones, except under the Creator theme.

1 hour ago, pooda said:

Lego Movie 2? Emmett's house can be turned into a space ship and don't forget Rex's ship.

I mean, just because they have something related to space doesn't mean it's a space theme. 

1 hour ago, pooda said:

So a standalone Sci-Fi theme would not only be pointless, but it would be a waste of TLG's time and money.

I don't think it;s really going to be pointless.After all, people asking for it isn't already a reason why you should make it? And if done right, it won't be a waste of TLG's time and money either. 

Ok, maybe you could argue that we technically still have space sets today, but in 1-2 years those would be gone too. 

Well I still stand by my statement. So block me if you've got an issue. 

52 minutes ago, pooda said:

Yeah....my problem with that is..... wouldn't the mountains be a place where a fire is more likely to happen than a crime?  

I've been to rural mountain communities in the United States.  There's no shortage of crime.  Everything from drunken fights over petty matters, to break-ins, to much more serious matters like drug running and domestic abuse.  10-15 years ago, cooking meth was commonplace in many areas.  In the past 5-7 years, the trade in illegal opiods grew off the charts: oxycontin pills, heroin, fentanyl, and other nasty stuff.

People may associate crime with high-density urban areas, but the truth is that there is crime everywhere.  Deindustrialization over the past 30 years has also hurt rural community economies pretty hard.  When people don't have jobs, some turn to crime in order to get money to survive.  Lego Mountain Police is a completely plausible theme. 

1 minute ago, hagridshut said:

Lego Mountain Police is a completely plausible theme. 

Well its pointless to me. Especially coming on the hills of the regular police sets. Overlapping is an issue. No wonder sky police did horrible. 

Edited September 13, 20195 yr by pooda

12 hours ago, Lego David said:

Yeah, but other Star Wars content will still be released meanwhile, such as that Mandalorian thing on Disney+.

Of course, though there may be a possibility any of those upcoming Disney+ miniseries wouldn't be as inhibiting to in-house Space themes as any cinematic Star Wars offering could ever be, as the animated Clone Wars TV show that ran from 2008 through 2013 didn't stop Mars Mission, Space Police III, Alien Conquest, and Galaxy Squad from coexisting alongside it in the same way the cinematic Prequel and Sequel Trilogies seeming have done for such.

9 hours ago, Lego David said:

10 hours ago, pooda said:

I wish people would stop asking for an in-house space theme

People don't stop asking for it because they want a sci-fi in house space theme.

Exactly, and Star Wars is just too redundant and aesthetically drab for some people's tastes. Not to mention, neither City nor Star Wars can give you technicolored canopy and windshield recolors like a in-house Space theme can. 

Besides the odd technic set here and there, it was Alien Conquest that brought me back to Lego and I purchased at least one of every set,  The new city space sets are the only other sub theme I will have ever purchased at least one of each set and in some cases I'm up to 3 already.  I would love to see the licensed themes take a very long break so we can get some in house stuff (more space and pirates) but you have to admit that Lego hits one out of the park now and then with what they do squeeze into the lineup.

I just don't see another Sci Fi theme happening. 

As the past has shown, Lego will do something related to sci-fi and/or space (other than SW) every couple of years. Currently this is the TLM2 line and Mars exploration as part of the City range - I am sure we will see something else in that field before 2021. Sci-fi will always sell with kids, and SW can not go on forever, Lego is most likely aware of both.

 

5 hours ago, pooda said:

I just don't see another Sci Fi theme happening. 

You have made your point over and over again, we get it.

8 hours ago, pooda said:

I just don't see another Sci Fi theme happening. 

I think there are plenty of excellent directions Lego can take a in-house Space theme nowadays that can heavily differ in premise and/or aesthetic from anything either City or Star Wars could ever offer. For instance, take these few ideas I shared for such elsewhere recently...

On 6/27/2019 at 9:28 AM, Digger of Bricks said:

• Raypunk Space Opera (quite simply, think Flash Gordon & Buck Rogers in premise and '30s-era Pulp tone)
• The Final Frontier (think Star Trek & Lost in Space in exploration-based premise and '60s-era tone; or, put another way, an Atompunk Adventurers theme in Space)
• Space Miners (think LEGO's Power Miners, but in Space, except a little more explicitly defined as such compared to LEGO's earlier Rock Raiders theme)
• Friends in Space! (i.e. a Minidoll-based Space theme for girls specifically, perhaps similar in tone to LEGO's Elves as one way of approach)
• Sword and Planet (see Wiki's article on such, with Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter of Mars being the most prime example of the genre)
• Space Racers (as the name suggests, it's LEGO's old Racers theme, but in SPACE!)

My ideal Space theme would be something that combines a few non-violent adventure tropes that feed back into each other. Like racing, mining, mecha, and treasure hunting. 

You could have miners drilling for ores and/or power sources used by racers. And you need mechs for mining or loading or even moving around motors in the raceship (heh) workshop. 

Of course  miners would eventually stumble upon ancient relics from some long gone space civilization, and then treasure hunters show up to steal it, and maybe they hire racers to as getaway drivers to escape the space police.

I dunno, just brainstorming here. 

20 hours ago, danth said:

My ideal Space theme would be something that combines a few non-violent adventure tropes that feed back into each other. Like racing, mining, mecha, and treasure hunting. 

You could have miners drilling for ores and/or power sources used by racers. And you need mechs for mining or loading or even moving around motors in the raceship (heh) workshop. 

Of course  miners would eventually stumble upon ancient relics from some long gone space civilization, and then treasure hunters show up to steal it, and maybe they hire racers to as getaway drivers to escape the space police.

I dunno, just brainstorming here. 

Heh, ya know what, I dig it.   

If anything, such a multifaceted theme oughta be officially named LEGO Galaxy, which would be to Space what LEGO City is to Town.

18 hours ago, Digger of Bricks said:

If anything, such a multifaceted theme oughta be officially named LEGO Galaxy, which would be to Space what LEGO City is to Town.

What a nice idea !! Were is the LEGO group phone number ?

Yeah, that actually sounds like a areally good concept.

1 hour ago, Professor Thaum said:

What a nice idea !! Were is the LEGO group phone number ?

1 hour ago, Darnok said:

Yeah, that actually sounds like a a really good concept.

In an ideal world, every theme would be structured in a subthemed, evergreen format much like City. 

...

Edited November 17, 20222 yr by VoidAcrimony Lego

On 9/14/2019 at 1:23 PM, danth said:

My ideal Space theme would be something that combines a few non-violent adventure tropes that feed back into each other. Like racing, mining, mecha, and treasure hunting. 

You could have miners drilling for ores and/or power sources used by racers. And you need mechs for mining or loading or even moving around motors in the raceship (heh) workshop. 

Of course  miners would eventually stumble upon ancient relics from some long gone space civilization, and then treasure hunters show up to steal it, and maybe they hire racers to as getaway drivers to escape the space police.

I dunno, just brainstorming here. 

 

On 9/15/2019 at 9:55 AM, Digger of Bricks said:

Heh, ya know what, I dig it.   

If anything, such a multifaceted theme oughta be officially named LEGO Galaxy, which would be to Space what LEGO City is to Town.

I strongly support these ideas too.

The space adventures I created as a child with my friends had their share of warfare, but resource prospecting, colonizing new worlds, and space commerce were also major aspects of the stories.  I spent as much time building shipyards, space station hotels, and spaceport marketplaces as I did constructing starfighters and battlecruisers.  Contact and diplomacy with aliens (usually represented by non-Lego action creatures of somewhat similar size) was also a recurring theme.

This does bring to mind one problem I have with Star Wars as the major space theme.  It is almost entirely centered on combat and warfare.  The single-mindedness of this gets boring, because there is so much more to space civilizations than incessant violence.

On 9/13/2019 at 2:38 PM, Lego David said:

I really hope Star Wars takes a break after episode 9. I am just so tired of it. We need a new in-house Space Theme now more than ever.

Many kids that watched the prequel trilogy first time around will be hitting 30 about now. I expect to see more PT sets once Ep IX is over.

 

4 hours ago, MAB said:

Many kids that watched the prequel trilogy first time around will be hitting 30 about now. I expect to see more PT sets once Ep IX is over.

Of course, though playsets based upon cinematic Star Wars installments that have already made their theatrical runs don't seem to inhibit in-house Space themes in the same way ones based upon upcoming cinematic films do.

6 hours ago, MAB said:

Many kids that watched the prequel trilogy first time around will be hitting 30 about now. I expect to see more PT sets once Ep IX is over.

 

Yeah, like maybe a new reamke of the Naboo Starfighter. I am sorry to say it, but Star Wars got to the point where there is absolutely nothing new to it, just reamkes of older sets which we have gotten 10 times by now. That is why we need a new original space theme so desperately.