LEGO Art - Rumours and Discussion

[Vilhelm22]

For ages known as Zebra (a code name before release, similar to banana for Hidden Side), TLG officially announced today (July 1st) the new LEGO Art theme, starting with four sets:

31197 Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe 

31198 The Beatles

31199 Marvel Studios Iron Man

31200 Star Wars Sith

Each set makes one of 3-4 mosaics, with the Iron Man and Sith sets being combinable to form a mega picture from 3 sets.  With one set you can make 1 Beatle, 1 Marilyn Monroe, etc.

 The prices for each set are US$120/€120/£115. 

These will be available from August 1st everywhere excluding US and Canada for The Beatles, Marilyn Monroe and the Sith.  Iron Man is available universally on August 1st.

For those thinking this has been mentioned before, it has, but not in its own deserved thread, and basically only names of sets + theme.  There was never the deserved own thread, and no pictures, which is why I’m creating it now!

 

I don’t know about everyone else but I’m hyped for these - though disappointed at the price...  Discuss here.

Edited March 7, 2024 by Vilhelm22
Topic name change

[Vindicare]

These are great, they look fantastic & being able to combine more than one is awesome. But there’s no way I’m buying these for that price, especially when there’s so much else to get. Like if I wanted to display all the SW options, that’s roughly $800. I love what they’re doing here though.

[tafkatb]

I'm really excited for these! I'm also very curious about where they'll go with this theme in the future, especially any further music- and art-themed ones. Given the partnership with Universal Music Group they announced a few months ago, there could be a lot of potential for more musicians and/or album covers. As for other (visual) artists, I think Van Gogh would translate to this medium nicely.

[Vilhelm22]

Forgot to mention but 5 more have been leaked - no details known but just the existence of sets - check the  ‘2020 everything we know so far’ site.

Anyway, I didn’t really give much of my personal opinion, so I will now.

These look AMAZING!  I’ve been a fan of the Beatles for years (I have my father’s vinyl from about 1974) and these are very accurate to the photos on the inner sleeve of the white album.  

To tell the truth, I’ve never been a fan of either Star Wars not Marvel, but I know enough to know who these are.  The giant Iron Man looks amazing! (I think this pic hasn’t officially been released yet)

Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe is an interesting and classic idea, though isn’t really one that works as a stand-alone - I think you need at least four to make it look good, which is £460 for me.  I’ll be interested to see how far people go with MODs in different colours of this one.

As is often the case, I want all of these.  This comes to a total of ... um ... £1610.  I can’t afford this unfortunately, so I’ll probably prioritise Beatles, then Iron Man (if I get that far!)

On the topic of future sets, I’d like landmarks like the Golden Gate Bridge which I think would work well - a 4 in 1 landmark set.

Edited July 2, 2020 by Vilhelm22

[astral brick]

Stroke of genius from Lego's marketing, from the name of the theme to the reasons of buying the same set more than once. Perhaps the first true set to promote the adult-targeted line, not a coincidence that the promotional pictures show a (presumably wealthy) man browsing his vinyl collection or a woman in the act of building.

The message is clear: adults, give us your money, it is ok to buy Lego now, it is not only for kids anymore (oh really?).

Anyway a very interesting corollary is that Lego has officially subsumed what is considered a classic conventions' exercise. Therefore I would even dare to think that maybe there is hope for other afols' peculiarities such as gbc or Neo Classic Space.       

[FrkW]

I've been a fan of Warhol for even longer than I've been in to Lego, so this has my name written all over. And the popcultural, repetative themes of Warhol really lends itself to the LEGO astetics. I do think it works as a stand alone, the artwork is so iconic and he did print several single frame pieces as well. That said I'm probably going to end up getting all four anyway...

Love the van Gogh idea, @tafkatb. Agree that it would make an amazing motive. 

Edited July 2, 2020 by FrkW
spelling

[MAB]

8 hours ago, Vilhelm22 said:

 

These look AMAZING!  I’ve been a fan of the Beatles for years (I have my father’s vinyl from about 1974) and these are very accurate to the photos on the inner sleeve of the white album.  

 

Are they compilation albums? As The Beatles split in 1970. Maybe they should do a special collectors edition White Album cover to go with these. A set of about 2300 white round tiles plus a plate with the name on it.

9 hours ago, tafkatb said:

As for other (visual) artists, I think Van Gogh would translate to this medium nicely.

I'm not sure they would. Digitize a van Gogh painting to 48x48 pixels, then use only LEGO's palette and see if you like it. It works fine for bold paintings with blocks of colour but so much detail is lost when going to a low resolution. Mondrian style would look good. 

 

[Vilhelm22]

26 minutes ago, MAB said:

Are they compilation albums? As The Beatles split in 1970. Maybe they should do a special collectors edition White Album cover to go with these. A set of about 2300 white round tiles plus a plate with the name on it.

Sorry, I didn’t make that clear.  Most of it was bought around then, as of course the vinyl was still available after their demise.

Nice idea with the white album cover! What about 96x96 rather than 48x48 to cover the four pictures when arranged in a square?

And I’d be interested to see how they would do the lettering in this situation - the actual album does say The Beatles in indentation with no colour.

[VBBN]

Oh dear, Warhol’s is my favorite artist so the Monroe is a must buy, but to buy four of them at that price...ouch. 
 

I do wonder what the aftermarket on BrickLink will be for the exclusive frame elements? I’m hoping in time it will become cost effective to just buy extra frame elements instead of multiple sets at those prices 

 

if they do a Lichtenstein set I’ll be ruined over here 

[Mylenium]

15 hours ago, tafkatb said:

I think Van Gogh would translate to this medium nicely.

Not really. His paint style is much more complex than people give it credit for, an issue you'd face with many contemporary artists that literally plastered on entire tubes of paint and mixed and structured them on the canvas. The many subtleties would poorly translate to such a simple, flat medium as LEGO plates, even more so as the direction of the strokes also matters a lot. Take e.g. van Gogh's moon light night. Very few colors, but the paint being caterpillared across the canvas to form specific ridges and radial patterns...

Mylenium

[MAB]

Funny enough, I did The Starry Night earlier, this is 48 pixels wide (31 high) but before changing to LEGO colour palette. I think most people would recognize it as van Gogh, but  would anyone want it on their wall? I'd prefer a much cheaper poster than this.

[UberCorp]

Ya, Van Gough doesn’t look good pixelated. Its recognizable, but loses all the details that make his style so unique.

[tafkatb]

I was thinking more along the lines of self portrait, since all the other ones so far are faces. As with diamond painting, close-up subjects like portraits and still lifes tend to come across better than landscapes.

[danth]

I'm in for a Patrick Nagel if it ever happens.

[MatthewRC]

This theme would be the perfect opportunity for LEGO to make more Doctor Who products.

[Mylenium]

21 hours ago, tafkatb said:

I was thinking more along the lines of self portrait,

Not sure whether I would want Vincent to stare at me. He was a troubled soul. It could be quite unnerving...

Mylenium

[tafkatb]

5 hours ago, MatthewRC said:

This theme would be the perfect opportunity for LEGO to make more Doctor Who products.

I was thinking the same! I will be very impressed with the designers if they can pull off a 13-in-1 design. 

[MAB]

19 hours ago, MatthewRC said:

This theme would be the perfect opportunity for LEGO to make more Doctor Who products.

The same could be said for just about any license. Given the price, especially for multiple purchases, they will need to appeal to a license with a lot of (rich) adult collectors.

 

[Lucarex]

On 7/3/2020 at 2:23 PM, MatthewRC said:

This theme would be the perfect opportunity for LEGO to make more Doctor Who products.

Why perfect? The relentless optimism of Whovian obsessives not satisfied with an Ideas set and a couple Dimensions packs.

As for this Art theme, even though I'm right on the marketing demographic for this sort of thing, it just leaves me stone cold uninterested. It was an interesting concept when they had the personal photo mosaic makers at various flagship stores these past few years, but that's about it. These, at this price point are a very hard sell. So many better ways to spend Lego money.

Edited July 6, 2020 by Lucarex

[jimmynick]

I think there's a niche for these sets - probably not in the AFOL market in general but among people who like other art and collectibles and will thrown a hundred dollars or two at something they like the look of. The Beatles set initially threw me because I thought it was supposed to be Let it Be but yes the picture seems to be from inside the White Album: not something I'd ever paid attention to before.

[MatthewRC]

1 hour ago, Lucarex said:

Why perfect? The relentless optimism of Whovian obsessives not satisfied with an Ideas set and a couple Dimensions packs.

As for this Art theme, even though I'm right on the marketing demographic for this sort of thing, it just leaves me stone cold uninterested. It was an interesting concept when they had the personal photo mosaic makers at various flagship stores these past few years, but that's about it. These, at this price point are a very hard sell. So many better ways to spend Lego money.

Because we haven’t gotten anymore LEGO Doctor Who stuff since 2015, and LEGO themselves do like to keep their future products a surprise.

[Lucarex]

2 hours ago, MatthewRC said:

Because we haven’t gotten anymore LEGO Doctor Who stuff since 2015, and LEGO themselves do like to keep their future products a surprise.

You could make a huge long list of licensed and inhouse stuff we haven't had since 2015. Why should Dr Who be any different?

[tafkatb]

Admittedly, if LEGO really wanted to go back to the Doctor Who well, they probably would have made BrickHeadz, since that seems to have been the go-to avenue for continuing otherwise dormant licenses, but I don't see any reason it's inherently infeasible. (Not gonna go all LEGODalekbuster523 here, I just see it as a possibility, along with plenty of other past, current, and heretofore unseen licenses.)

[MatthewRC]

4 hours ago, Lucarex said:

You could make a huge long list of licensed and inhouse stuff we haven't had since 2015. Why should Dr Who be any different?

Alright, here’s my list:
 

The A-Team (Only used for LEGO Dimensions Year 2 and nothing else)

Adventure Time (Last acknowledged in 2016/2017)

Back to the Future (Last acknowledged in 2018 via BrickHeadz)

Beetlejuice (Only used for LEGO Dimensions Year 2 and nothing else)

The Goonies (Doubt it would be able to coexist with a potential Classic Pirates revival)

Gremlins (Only used for LEGO Dimensions Year 2 and nothing else)

Knight Rider (A minifig-scale set of Michael Knight and K.I.T.T. would’ve been awesome)

Legends of Chima (Discontinued in favor of Nexo Knights in 2015\2016)

Middle-earth (AKA The Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit)

Mission: Impossible (Only used for LEGO Dimensions Year 2 and nothing else)

Portal video game series (A GLaDOS set would have been amazing!)

Scooby-Doo (Last acknowledged in 2017 via a DTV movie, Blowout Beach Bash)

The Simpsons (Last acknowledged in 2018 via BrickHeadz)

The Wizard of Oz (Even though we already got minifigures of Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Man, Cowardly Lion, the Wicked Witch of the West and her flying monkeys, this IP still deserves a wave of sets based on scenes from the 1939 film)

 

Please let me know what else I left out. Thank you.

3 hours ago, tafkatb said:

Admittedly, if LEGO really wanted to go back to the Doctor Who well, they probably would have made BrickHeadz, since that seems to have been the go-to avenue for continuing otherwise dormant licenses, but I don't see any reason it's inherently infeasible. (Not gonna go all LEGODalekbuster523 here, I just see it as a possibility, along with plenty of other past, current, and heretofore unseen licenses.)

Well, we should all just wait until Doctor Who’s popularity rises again.

[MAB]

13 hours ago, Lucarex said:

You could make a huge long list of licensed and inhouse stuff we haven't had since 2015. Why should Dr Who be any different?

And also look at the licenses:

Marvel and SW - huge franchises with lots of adult fans. The Beatles - one of the biggest bands ever, and popular with adults (with money). Warhol - very well known pop art, that converts reasonably well to low resolution pixelated pictures, and LEGO can now say this is "art".

Doctor Who is nothing compared to these, same with many smaller licenses. Plus which Doctor? Or all of them possible in one set. I cannot really see lots of people buying enough sets to make all of them at the price. Lord of the Rings is similar - too many important characters to do, and just a few won't work so well. 

Now these new parts are made, people are free to do their own in the same style. It is not really anything new just the backplates.