Dream Lego Licensed Themes

[JintaiZ]

Hoping for the return of Lord of the Rings.

[jonwil]

I think if Avatar is something Disney considers acceptable to put into their theme parks, it should be OK in terms of "brand fit" for LEGO as well.

Would the Dune universe be OK or are there things in it that LEGO wouldn't consider appropriate?

 

[Atek]

[jonwil]

Anyone know whether Dune is on the list of allowed IPs on LEGO Ideas or not?

 

[icm]

Dune isn't allowed.

[jonwil]

If its not allowed then LEGO presumably doesn't think its acceptable brand-fit wise (one of the central plot points of the series revolves around the "spice", something that based on the description sounds a lot like a highly addictive drug to me)

 

[icm]

That's as plausible a reason as any for why Dune isn't allowed.  It's one thing to have spice runners as background elements of the Star Wars universe, and another thing to have the entire universe revolve around a highly addictive psychoactive drug.

[MatthewRC]

14 hours ago, icm said:

Dune isn't allowed.

Neither is Courage the Cowardly Dog. However, here’s a concept that LEGO should consider internally in their product design meetings!

On 7/22/2020 at 6:18 PM, MatthewRC said:

Oh, and I have another dream idea for a new licensed LEGO product!

Courage the Cowardly Dog: The Bagge Farmhouse

 

From my perspective, this one would be a Direct-to-Consumer set (similar to the Modular Houses) and would include the following minifigures.

1. Courage (using a new-mold headpiece, standard minifigure torso & arms, and short “mini legs”
2. Muriel Bagge (using a new-mold headpiece, torso and large minifigure arms similar to Rubeus Hagrid’s, Large minifigure arms; dual-molded standard minifigure legs with black boots pattern would be fine for Muriel)
3. Eustace Bagge (using a new-mold headpiece and detachable hat, as well as reintroducing the extended minifigure arms and legs from Toy Story back in 2010)
4. Di Lung (the Asian punk guy) with a flask accessory as seen in the Season 2 episode, “Courage the Fly” (could utilize a recolored Beast Boy hairpiece from the LEGO Dimensions Teen Titans Go Team Pack)
5. The Weremole (new-mold body with removable Technic pin arms, similar to the Angry Birds Movie minifigures)

Courage’s Computer and Eustace’s Truck would also be crucial to this set.

 

Even though I found out the hard way that LEGO Ideas won’t allow submissions based on Courage the Cowardly Dog for absurd reasons, LEGO can still internally consider making Courage the Cowardly Dog in LEGO form! I discovered that in the LEGO Ideas guidelines.

After all, LEGO and Cartoon Network seem to have a very good licensing partnership. What do y’all think of this idea?

 

[Pdaitabird]

I know it would never happen, but I'd love to see a Columbo theme just to get a Peter Falk minifigure!

Just one more thing...it would also be the perfect chance for TLG to make a Bassett hound.

[barneynedward]

I'd like to see a Three Stooges theme. 

[Magnum]

Would be fun to have an 18+ theme based on famous horror movies. Would be cool to have the Nightmare on Elm Street house or the Friday the 13th cabins. Would never happen but I can dream. 

[Flak Maniak]

Ten or fifteen years ago I'd have said they should collab with Blizzard for StarCraft, Warcraft, Diablo (well okay Diablo would be unlikely to happen, but) sets. But now I care not for such things.

If I can ask for things that clearly cannot happen, I'm just going to say Gundam. Huge brand obviously, but too much about war and tragedy for Lego's tastes.

If I can ask for things whose time is past, but that might once have worked, I'd say Gravity Falls, while it was on the air.

Oh, and I thought for many years it was strange that Lego and Nintendo hadn't partnered up, given that Lego is the Disney of toy brands, and Nintendo the Disney of video game brands. But that one's come to pass, even if we don't know how far it will go.

I'm not sure what contemporary video games I'd choose; hard to pick things that would go well with Lego. I mean, am I to say Guilty Gear and BlazBlue? It sounds ludicrous as I type it. I don't have any plausible ideas for licensed themes, because the only things I'd actually go for are implausible, and besides, I'm not some license-monster anyway. Oh sure, if you made Sol Badguy and Ragna the Bloodedge as official minifigs, I'd have to have them. But almost any other license you could name, you won't sell me a single set of it.

Maybe, as anime gets bigger and bigger in the West, we'll see Lego reach out for their first proper anime license. Wouldn't that be interesting!

[jonwil]

LEGO needs to stop tying into licenses that don't have long term proven success AND current active entries in the franchise where the evidence is that they will succeed.

Trolls World Tour was a mistake (and I am sure the sets would have been just as much of a flop without Covid and the delays to the film's release)

Licenses like Angry Birds and Prince of Persia were also mistakes, the video game series for both properties weren't exactly the most popular video games out there at that point in time and video game movies don't exactly have a reputation for increasing the popularity of the video game or any tie-in stuff.

The Lone Ranger was another mistake (any popularity previous incarnations of the character may have had would have mostly faded by that point and there was nothing to indicate that the new movie was going to be popular enough to make the LEGO sets work)

Themes like Indiana Jones and POTC at least made sense in that they had information from the already-released movies showing how popular they were and a new film to keep the series fresh in people's memory (although I don't think anyone could have predicted just how much of a flop Crystal Skull would end up being :)

 

[gedren_y]

I think I posted about this on another thread, but Dune is centered around a messianic figure. All the cinematic representations hold to this, and also the level of sadism of the titular villain is more pronounced in the original film. These things put all iterations of Dune well outside the standards set by LEGO.

When it comes to alcohol, much of western Europe is more culturally liberal about it than the US. The laws governing age of permissible consumption and/or sale are different. Therefore the depiction of alcohol consumption is less of an issue for a company that is principally Danish.

My true dream license would have to be Animorphs, using the books' cover art, not the TV show, as a template. At the time they were being produced, though, Lego didn't have the kind of new mold production capacity that would have been needed. Now, however, a number of the kinds of parts that would be needed actually exist.

For a realistic contemporary license, I'd have to agree with a previous suggestion, Locke & Key. The Netflix series, which is getting another season, is rated TV-14.

[Maple]

Gravity Fall, Futurama, Stargate, Farscape and Star Trek for sure. 

[jonwil]

Stargate? You mean that show where a bunch of elite special forces soldiers go to alien planets and use all kinds of high powered guns to shoot at people with snakes in their heads who used their power to become basically every god in the history of the planet? Like that would ever happen in LEGO... (yes that's an oversimplification but it illustrates the point of why Stargate fails the "brand fit" test in about a million different ways :)

Last I heard the Star Trek rights were owned by someone else and even ignoring that LEGO isn't going to do Star Trek and have it go head to head against Star Wars.

 

Edited January 24, 2021 by jonwil

[MatthewRC]

On 1/24/2021 at 5:59 AM, jonwil said:

Stargate? You mean that show where a bunch of elite special forces soldiers go to alien planets and use all kinds of high powered guns to shoot at people with snakes in their heads who used their power to become basically every god in the history of the planet? Like that would ever happen in LEGO... (yes that's an oversimplification but it illustrates the point of why Stargate fails the "brand fit" test in about a million different ways :)

Last I heard the Star Trek rights were owned by someone else and even ignoring that LEGO isn't going to do Star Trek and have it go head to head against Star Wars.

 

It was Mega Construx that previously had (or still has) the Star Trek license.

[jonwil]

I know Kreo had Star Trek at one point as well.

 

[Alexandrina]

Knowing me, I've already commented several pages back and am about to repeat myself - but I'd like to see a proper run of Doctor Who sets (and not just a single Ideas release).

Much of Doctor Who's iconic elements are characters and villains, rather than locations. This gives Lego a lot more freedom to build their sets - rather than trying to replicate the look of a location, they can tailor the backdrop to the play functions they want and put in some recognisable villains. Imagine a first wave with different Doctors/companions doing battle against different villains. You could have Tom Baker/Sarah-Jane in a set with Davros and some daleks, Jon Pertwee/Jo Grant with an auton and the Master, Patrick Troughton/Jamie/Victoria against Cybermen... Knowing Lego, they'd even be able to make a play-feature out of regeneration.

[shadefoundry]

There's a couple of licenses I'd love to see Lego tackle, even though they're all definitely never going to happen:

• Shrek - we've already seen minions and trolls, so this would be a lot more likely than some of the other licenses I'd enjoy seeing.
• Indie superheroes - This is a lot farther of a stretch, since most of them are pretty adult-oriented but I'd love to see characters like Spawn or Invincible done up in Lego form.
• The Elder Scrolls - This is the kind of theme that could go for decades. There's so much to this franchise's world that would look great as sets, plus it would be a great new Castle theme when Harry Potter eventually runs its course.
• Thief - Definitely never going to happen since the franchise has been dead since they screwed up the reboot, but still. Dishonored would be another fun one.
• Magic the Gathering - As much as I dislike what Wizards has been doing with it of late, I love the idea of seeing sets set on different planes with different characters. This is another one that would make a great castle theme, but without the limitations of being strictly castle since the Magic multiverse covers all different genres just through a fantasy lens.
• Dungeons and Dragons - See Magic the Gathering.
• Sea of Thieves - Has potential to be a pirates theme without the historic problems that classic pirates had.
• More Nintendo properties as a whole! Zelda would be cool, so would Pokemon, or even Animal Crossing.

[MatthewRC]

1 hour ago, shadefoundry said:

More Nintendo properties as a whole! Zelda would be cool, so would Pokemon, or even Animal Crossing.

Now Pokémon is something I’d love to see in LEGO form! If that were to ever happen, I could imagine it as a new toys-to-life video game with brick-built Pokémon creatures.

[zoth33]

1 hour ago, shadefoundry said:

There's a couple of licenses I'd love to see Lego tackle, even though they're all definitely never going to happen:

• Shrek - we've already seen minions and trolls, so this would be a lot more likely than some of the other licenses I'd enjoy seeing.
• Indie superheroes - This is a lot farther of a stretch, since most of them are pretty adult-oriented but I'd love to see characters like Spawn or Invincible done up in Lego form.
• The Elder Scrolls - This is the kind of theme that could go for decades. There's so much to this franchise's world that would look great as sets, plus it would be a great new Castle theme when Harry Potter eventually runs its course.
• Thief - Definitely never going to happen since the franchise has been dead since they screwed up the reboot, but still. Dishonored would be another fun one.
• Magic the Gathering - As much as I dislike what Wizards has been doing with it of late, I love the idea of seeing sets set on different planes with different characters. This is another one that would make a great castle theme, but without the limitations of being strictly castle since the Magic multiverse covers all different genres just through a fantasy lens.
• Dungeons and Dragons - See Magic the Gathering.
• Sea of Thieves - Has potential to be a pirates theme without the historic problems that classic pirates had.
•  More Nintendo properties as a whole! Zelda would be cool, so would Pokemon, or even Animal Crossing.

Yeah I also had elder scrolls, Dungeons and dragons on my list.  I wouldn't mind magic the gathering either.  

I really think they will do zelda at some point either through ideas or an actual line.  

Sea of thieves would be interesting too

I don't think they would do spawn but they did do deadpool so there is hope.  

[jonwil]

Its been a while since I played it but Elder Scrolls (at least the ones I played) have a few bits of content that may rule it out. Its got a bit of violence and its got some things that may be considered "religious" and "demonic/hell".

I suspect the IP owners for Magic The Gathering and D&D probably wouldn't allow product that might compete with their own stuff.

Does Mega still have the license for Pokemon?

As for Dreamworks IPs, Madagascar would be nice to see.

 

[MatthewRC]

5 hours ago, jonwil said:

Does Mega still have the license for Pokemon?

I’m pretty sure they do, but I’m not sure how their sets are selling nowadays.

[Totoro]

Studio Ghibli for me.