Horror/Spooky Themes

[Harkonen]

I made this thread to discuss the horror/spooky themes Lego has made and future ones. When Hidden Side ends I hope we either get a new Monster Fighters like theme or even a licensed Universal Monsters theme! There is still so much potential for spooky supernatural themes and I feel Hidden Side is the beginning. 

[Digger of Bricks]

4 hours ago, Harkonen said:

I made this thread to discuss the horror/spooky themes Lego has made and future ones. When Hidden Side ends I hope we either get a new Monster Fighters like theme or even a licensed Universal Monsters theme! There is still so much potential for spooky supernatural themes and I feel Hidden Side is the beginning. 

I've expressed this elsewhere in the past, but the kinda "spooky" theme I've set my hopes on seeing is a Lovecraftian, Pulp/Noir redux of Monster Fighters set around the 1920's or '30s (because, of course)...  ...other than that though, I'd also be up for another "spooky" theme with kids/teens as the main protagonists, though their adversaries should be much more diverse than Hidden Side's focus on ghosts.

[Pulp Detective]

Spooky themes are my favoure kind of themes.While I like Hidden Side it's monotonous minifigure collection is what I find most disappointing.I would love something akin to a reboot of Monster Fighters or an Adventurers theme with big emphasis on the supernatural.

[UberCorp]

4 hours ago, Digger of Bricks said:

Lovecraftian, Pulp/Noir

Eldritch horror would be great. Lots of creative freedom to come up with a wide variety of creatures, plus eldritch horror has quite a bit of widespread knowledge due to its popularity in tabletop/video games. Though LEGO may not want to make a theme with any association to Lovecraft, all things considered.

More supernatural than horror, but I'd love a spiritual successor to Monster Fighters that focuses on cryptids. Same kinda style/era as Monster Fighters but instead focuses on the main characters trying to capture/prove the existence of cryptids. Could include stuff like Mothman, the Loch Ness Monster, the chupacabra, ect. represented by a combination of minifigs and brick-built/large molded creatures depending on sizes.

[Digger of Bricks]

7 hours ago, UberCorp said:

More supernatural than horror, but I'd love a spiritual successor to Monster Fighters that focuses on cryptids. Same kinda style/era as Monster Fighters but instead focuses on the main characters trying to capture/prove the existence of cryptids. Could include stuff like Mothman, the Loch Ness Monster, the chupacabra, ect. represented by a combination of minifigs and brick-built/large molded creatures depending on sizes.

Oooooh, a period-set Cryptid Hunters theme?! That I can totally get behind...  ...say, what if such a theme had younger protagonists more like Hidden Side, a Junior Monster Fighters if you will? Imagine a premise that'd essentially be Hal Roach's Little Rascals meets Disney's Gravity Falls, with a rag-tag gang of Depression-Era street urchins tracking down and capturing legendary cryptids in appalachian backwoods with their junkyard contraptions, all the while trying to evade G-Men, Moonshiners, Cthulhuian Cultists, and Nazi Saboteurs. *

* Well, at least coded versions of such... 

8 hours ago, UberCorp said:

Eldritch horror would be great. Lots of creative freedom to come up with a wide variety of creatures, plus eldritch horror has quite a bit of widespread knowledge due to its popularity in tabletop/video games. Though LEGO may not want to make a theme with any association to Lovecraft, all things considered.

Well, they needn't directly base such a theme off of Lovecraft's work, just merely use it as inspiration. Right? 

[Harkonen]

I am watching Castlevania right now so I would love a Castlevania like Lego theme. I think it could work with Ninjago too. Like the ninjas are sent in another realm and that one is rules by Vampires. Another theme would be one with Cryptids like many have said. Oh, and one more would be another Monster Fighters like theme but with more monsters, I think it would be cool if Lego did some licensing with Universal Monsters and make original sets based on the classic monsters, including Metaluna Mutants, Phantom of the Opera and Invisible Man. Heck, you can have the monster hunters be yellow minifigs, I mean, Lego did licensing for Speed Champions and they had yellow minifigs. 

[Kit Figsto]

I'd love another Halloween CMF series, but a licensed Universal Monsters theme.  I think between the main monsters plus a few protagonists or side-characters, they could come up with 16-20 figs.

[Digger of Bricks]

On 4/19/2020 at 10:53 AM, LOTR34 said:

I would love something akin to a reboot of Monster Fighters or an Adventurers theme with big emphasis on the supernatural.

Well, when you think about it though, how much more supernatural could an Adventurers theme get than it already has? 

[corasaur]

cosmic horror could be made lego friendly- tentacle monsters, haunted forests, old ruins, couple book pieces here and there. those aesthetic elements have spread pretty widely and are slowly becoming detached from lovecraft himself being a dirtbag. closest they've come is the portal beast in the dr strange set, i guess?

 

every time i watch castelvania, it makes me want to MOD a throne room into Vampyre Castle.

[Harkonen]

16 minutes ago, corasaur said:

 slowly becoming detached from lovecraft himself being a dirtbag

Just because he had different ideologies during a time when it was normal for them it doesn't mean that his work cannot be appreciated. Yes, his beliefs were wrong but he still made one of the best pieces of horror of all time. Never judge the art because of the artist. Anyway, I was thinking, what if Lego got away with slasher horror characters? I think that would be pretty hard for them though. Atleast as nods to them. 

 

Also, I agree with you on Castlevania! Hopefully Lego makes a future spooky theme inspired by it! 

Edited April 21, 2020 by Harkonen

[Robert8]

It seems TLG cant make anything other than City work anymore (and Ninjago that is)

 

Hidden Side is pretty much Horror City. And the most recent wave was more City than horror

I guess the next horror theme will be around the same

[Kit Figsto]

4 hours ago, Robert8 said:

I guess the next horror theme will be around the same

Which is kind of a shame, because Monster Fighters was one of my favorite themes of all time.  It had a perfect mix of "realistic fantasy" (in that the vehicles and locations were mostly realistic, maybe with the exception of the hot rod hearse), but had the blended element of being "monsterfied," like a train being covered in ghosts.  Part of what made that really work in my opinion was the setting/time period, it definitely looked like early-1900s to almost resemble some of the classic Universal movies.  The Vampire Castle is one of the favorite sets that I own.  Hidden Side seems alright (being honest, I have no idea what half the sets are since I can't make anything on the box art out) but I just really love the retro-horror.

[Pulp Detective]

21 hours ago, Digger of Bricks said:

Well, when you think about it though, how much more supernatural could an Adventurers theme get than it already has? 

A lot more.For example drop the human villains and focus entirely on supernatural bad guys,let's say Johnny and co.want to find a hidden city on the himalayas and the guardians of the place (something akin to yetis) are trying to stop them.

[Digger of Bricks]

15 hours ago, corasaur said:

cosmic horror could be made lego friendly- tentacle monsters, haunted forests, old ruins, couple book pieces here and there. those aesthetic elements have spread pretty widely and are slowly becoming detached from lovecraft himself being a dirtbag.

15 hours ago, Harkonen said:

Just because he had different ideologies during a time when it was normal for them it doesn't mean that his work cannot be appreciated. Yes, his beliefs were wrong but he still made one of the best pieces of horror of all time. Never judge the art because of the artist.

Exactly!   To me, taking after Lovecraft's work just sounds like a good excuse for a 1920's "Adventurers" theme with a Stranger Things-esque bent. 

1 hour ago, LOTR34 said:

A lot more.For example drop the human villains and focus entirely on supernatural bad guys,let's say Johnny and co.want to find a hidden city on the himalayas and the guardians of the place (something akin to yetis) are trying to stop them.

Well, that is pretty much what Pharaoh's Quest had done, which counts as an "Adventurers" theme alongside Monster Fighters outside of the original Adventurers anthology of subthemes with Johnny Thunder.

[corasaur]

23 hours ago, Harkonen said:

 Anyway, I was thinking, what if Lego got away with slasher horror characters? I think that would be pretty hard for them though. Atleast as nods to them. 

 

it would be hidden-side compatible, since we got teen protagonists. A suburban house under siege? Maybe this turns into the first spooky Friends theme.

[Harkonen]

19 hours ago, corasaur said:

it would be hidden-side compatible, since we got teen protagonists. A suburban house under siege? Maybe this turns into the first spooky Friends theme.

That would be neat, the final wave of Elves was pretty spooky I think. 

[Harkonen]

Lego uses the word "demon" in the new Monkie Kid theme. A word that I did not expect them to ever use so I'm curious if any future horror like theme will take more liberties now that Lego is open to ussage of words like this one. 

[Harkonen]

I think it would be pretty cool of a future wave of Ninjago to be focused on YoKai. 

[Digger of Bricks]

Ya know, would an in-house Zombie Apocalypse theme count as a "Horror/Spooky" theme, or would it be more thought as just an Action theme? 

[Harkonen]

3 minutes ago, Digger of Bricks said:

Ya know, would an in-house Zombie Apocalypse theme count as a "Horror/Spooky" theme, or would it be more thought as just an Action theme? 

Yeah, it would count as horror. Atleast to me, I mean, zombies are undead so yeah. 

[Digger of Bricks]

Just now, Harkonen said:

Yeah, it would count as horror. Atleast to me, I mean, zombies are undead so yeah. 

Then again, would Lego do a theme with undead zombies as its focus? Maybe they'd instead go the route of brainwashed, curable zombies, as undead infected corpses might be a bit too morbid (at least as a playtheme's central antagonists).

[Harkonen]

Just now, Digger of Bricks said:

Then again, would Lego do a theme with undead zombies as its focus? Maybe they'd instead go the route of brainwashed, curable zombies, as undead infected corpses might be a bit too morbid (at least as a playtheme's central antagonists).

To say the truth, I never thought lego would do parody sets of Mad Max like in Ninjago Hunted and TLM2 so I'm prepared for them to surprise us. Maybe, cyborg zombies? 

Edited April 29, 2020 by Harkonen

[Digger of Bricks]

6 minutes ago, Harkonen said:

To say the truth, I never thought lego would do parody sets of Mad Max like in Ninjago Hunted and TLM2 so I'm prepared for them to surprise us. Maybe, cyborg zombies? 

Huh, a Post-Apocalyptic theme set after a robot uprising? Yeah, I guess that's more the route I've previously envisioned Lego taking such a theme. 

[Pulp Detective]

8 hours ago, Digger of Bricks said:

Ya know, would an in-house Zombie Apocalypse theme count as a "Horror/Spooky" theme, or would it be more thought as just an Action theme? 

I know we had zombies in Lego form in the past but isn't a full on zombie theme a bit too much for Lego standards?

[Harkonen]

12 minutes ago, LOTR34 said:

I know we had zombies in Lego form in the past but isn't a full on zombie theme a bit too much for Lego standards?

The lava monsters from Nexo Knights were demons, I'm sure Lego could get away with zombie apocalypse.