16 hours ago, danth said:

I think you're really missing the irony here. They have a rule about not submitting remakes of existing sets, but they turned an original submission into a remake of an existing set.

I suppose there are some corporate perks for the rule makers.

Ideas is great for finding out what the Lego super fans want, but I think Creator 3-in-1 might be a better choice for gauging popularity among children and more casual buyers. 

Most of the Creator 3-in-1 sets are town oriented, but I've seen some Sci-Fi sets like a robot and a starfighter more recently.  Creator sets also don't use stickers, as far as I know, which I find to be a big plus 

I am unaware of any active top selling themes TLG has chosen to discontinue. If the new pirate set sells well good chance their will be more to follow.  The whole Ideas concept is basically free (TLG does pay 1% of the profit to the designer) strike that cheap R&D for TLG.  Very smart folks running this company.

I would expect to see a small pirate battle pack coming out, 3 figs and a cannon later this year.  If that sells well then more sets to follow.

To answer the original question, I feel yes an ideas set can revive a discontinued theme.  

  

On 4/4/2020 at 5:25 PM, danth said:

I think you're really missing the irony here. They have a rule about not submitting remakes of existing sets, but they turned an original submission into a remake of an existing set.

If it were "just" a remake of an existing set, I'd agree with you. But it's not. The ability to display it as a shipwrecked pirate base is a fundamental aspect of the finished set (perhaps the most important aspect, considering how much of the set goes toward creating that beached landscape and substructure). I have little doubt that if somebody came up with a version of a classic set like the Galaxy Explorer that were sufficiently transformative (i.e. used the original set as a starting point for a concept that's more than a mere update of the concept of the original set), then it would not violate that rule any more than this does.

If there wasn't a business case for bringing back a kids pirates theme before (that is, a theme with a range of set sizes), I doubt there is much of a case after seeing as this is a one-off large, expensive set. The market for the Ideas set is likely to be different to that for a whole theme of much smaller sets.

56 minutes ago, MAB said:

If there wasn't a business case for bringing back a kids pirates theme before (that is, a theme with a range of set sizes), I doubt there is much of a case after seeing as this is a one-off large, expensive set. The market for the Ideas set is likely to be different to that for a whole theme of much smaller sets.

That's brutal.

No instigating intended. 

I really hope they bring back historical themes. Im wondering if Lego will release some sort of Naval set, either a fort, ship or both, to accompany POBB like they did with Ecto 1 and the GFHQ. I can understand Western has probably had its day, although I hardly think the kids of the 1990s were any more into cowboys and Indians then the kids of today as opposed children growing up in the 50s and 60s.

As has been said, there is certainly a market for pirates and castle out there, for both AFOLs and KFOLs. Sadly Lego seems to have got into its head that 'we dont do historical themes anymore'. The only reason kids dont buy say pirates is because there hasnt been any pirates sets for 5 years and the last pirates wave had no 'love' put into it. Compare the effort put into say first wave Nexo Knights compared to the 2015 pirates line. If Lego gave historical themes a good 'go' they would sell just as much as say hidden side or creator. In my experience young kids love pirates, there's whole pirate themed parties and my local 'cheap store' has one isle for 'dress ups' and one isle devoted entirely to pirate dress up. Im sure there's plenty of kids who'd love to own POBB but naturally a $300 set ($300 AU here) is not going to sell well to young kids.

I dont see why Lego cant do something 'new' with historical themes either, perhaps more emphasis on the islanders this time round or revive the Imperial Armada. For castle I personally liked Kingdoms the best as it was most realistic but the 2008? 'Castle' line with knights vs monsters seemed fine and Im sure would sell now with updated parts and building techniques. I really hate it when people in forums such as this assume that if AFOLs want to bring back historical themes they mean literal re-releases with very basic sets like Yellow Castle. No one means that... And as I said before, the historical themes of the 2000s and 2010s were okay its just they needed more support. Of course kids are going to go more for say Ninjago over a regular castle if Ninjago has a tv show, game, characters, and multiple sets rather then just the same old say 5 sets plonked on a shelf. Some sort of battle pack 'ambush', a 'bad knights' prison carriage, King so and so's castle, and a small and insignificant hideout for the evil wizard.

Personally Id really like to see a realistic Viking theme, they could add mythology if they want to. In my experience vikings are very popular with kids of all ages, there is always a large crowd at a local re-enactment group despite Australia obviously being a long way from any viking influences while both the tv show Vikings, How to Train your Dragon and Norse mythology in general all seem to be 'in favour.'

On 10/5/2020 at 12:56 AM, Brickchap said:

I really hope they bring back historical themes. Im wondering if Lego will release some sort of Naval set, either a fort, ship or both, to accompany POBB like they did with Ecto 1 and the GFHQ. I can understand Western has probably had its day, although I hardly think the kids of the 1990s were any more into cowboys and Indians then the kids of today as opposed children growing up in the 50s and 60s.

As has been said, there is certainly a market for pirates and castle out there, for both AFOLs and KFOLs. Sadly Lego seems to have got into its head that 'we dont do historical themes anymore'. The only reason kids dont buy say pirates is because there hasnt been any pirates sets for 5 years and the last pirates wave had no 'love' put into it. Compare the effort put into say first wave Nexo Knights compared to the 2015 pirates line. If Lego gave historical themes a good 'go' they would sell just as much as say hidden side or creator. In my experience young kids love pirates, there's whole pirate themed parties and my local 'cheap store' has one isle for 'dress ups' and one isle devoted entirely to pirate dress up. Im sure there's plenty of kids who'd love to own POBB but naturally a $300 set ($300 AU here) is not going to sell well to young kids.

I dont see why Lego cant do something 'new' with historical themes either, perhaps more emphasis on the islanders this time round or revive the Imperial Armada. For castle I personally liked Kingdoms the best as it was most realistic but the 2008? 'Castle' line with knights vs monsters seemed fine and Im sure would sell now with updated parts and building techniques. I really hate it when people in forums such as this assume that if AFOLs want to bring back historical themes they mean literal re-releases with very basic sets like Yellow Castle. No one means that... And as I said before, the historical themes of the 2000s and 2010s were okay its just they needed more support. Of course kids are going to go more for say Ninjago over a regular castle if Ninjago has a tv show, game, characters, and multiple sets rather then just the same old say 5 sets plonked on a shelf. Some sort of battle pack 'ambush', a 'bad knights' prison carriage, King so and so's castle, and a small and insignificant hideout for the evil wizard.

Personally Id really like to see a realistic Viking theme, they could add mythology if they want to. In my experience vikings are very popular with kids of all ages, there is always a large crowd at a local re-enactment group despite Australia obviously being a long way from any viking influences while both the tv show Vikings, How to Train your Dragon and Norse mythology in general all seem to be 'in favour.'

The western theme was in the original pop-up book... but it disappeared in the final product...

While 3-in-1 had a Pirate-ish treehouse and rollercoaster, I do believe that IDEAS Barracuda Bay eventually was the reason 3-in-1 got the Pirate Ship set , which also is the largest 3-in-1 set since 2009 in terms of piece count, and the 3rd largest 3-in-1 set ever.

Wouldn't surprise me if IDEAS Blacksmith Shop comes out, that we'll get a 3-in-1 Castle set in summer 2021.

Edited October 7, 20204 yr by TeriXeri

10 minutes ago, TeriXeri said:

While 3-in-1 had a Pirate-ish treehouse and rollercoaster, I do believe that IDEAS Barracuda Bay eventually was the reason 3-in-1 got the Pirate Ship set , which also is the largest 3-in-1 set since 2009 in terms of piece count, and the 3rd largest 3-in-1 set ever.

Wouldn't surprise me if IDEAS Blacksmith Shop comes out, that we'll get a 3-in-1 Castle set in summer 2021.

Don't do that. Don't give me hope.

It would be great if we got a good medieval set and then a cheaper creator one.

 

I do wish Lego would invest in some historical themes though... If not the classic ones then I really dont see why they cant do something else, such as vikings, greek/roman mythology I dont know. Victorian? I guess steampunk fans would like that? 

2 hours ago, Brickchap said:

It would be great if we got a good medieval set and then a cheaper creator one.

 

I do wish Lego would invest in some historical themes though... If not the classic ones then I really dont see why they cant do something else, such as vikings, greek/roman mythology I dont know. Victorian? I guess steampunk fans would like that? 

Steampunk does not resonate with kids. LEGO designers have said in the past that such ideas do not playtest well with kids. They have built elements into other themes such as Ninjago, that is all we are likely to get.

On ‎10‎/‎7‎/‎2020 at 2:31 PM, KotZ said:

Don't do that. Don't give me hope.

Exactly. Don't give hope to the Creator line but let's hope for a proper castle