What old themes should lego bring back?

[Koori]

Definitely Castle and pirates.

[Lego Petman]

I want Pirates of Caribbean and LOTR/Hobbit/TMTN. Any chance?

[Kalais]

Castle!

[MAB]

On 26/11/2017 at 10:24 AM, Lego Petman said:

I want Pirates of Caribbean and LOTR/Hobbit/TMTN. Any chance?

None of them are "classics". And Pirates of the Caribbean is a current license with three sets currently out.

[x105Black]

So far, Castle is in the lead.  I'm heavily in support of Castle, so it excites me to see this.

[Trekkie99]

I'm surprised more people haven't voted "all".  

[RetroInferno]

Castle, and not something like the 2013 line :)

[Digger of Bricks]

39 minutes ago, x105Black said:

So far, Castle is in the lead.  I'm heavily in support of Castle, so it excites me to see this.

I don't know if TLG would perhaps be paying attention to this topic, but nonetheless, Castle will definitely return much sooner than Space ever will, for obvious reasons that go without saying. 

[danth]

2 hours ago, Digger of Bricks said:

I don't know if TLG would perhaps be paying attention to this topic, but nonetheless, Castle will definitely return much sooner than Space ever will, for obvious reasons that go without saying. 

Unfortunately new Tolkien movies are in the works. At least we might get some Castle sets before hand.

[MAB]

10 hours ago, LegoMonorailFan said:

I'm surprised more people haven't voted "all".  

I'm surprised no-one else except me has voted none. I don't want any classic themes to return, I'd prefer new castle themes, new pirates, etc. Just as in the past for space they did Alien Conquest then Galaxy Squad, I'd love them to do something similar for castle / historic related themes. So not classic castle, but regularly changing individual castle-like themes.

7 hours ago, danth said:

Unfortunately new Tolkien movies are in the works. At least we might get some Castle sets before hand.

Which ones? I know a biopic about Tolkien is in the works. Or do you mean the Amazon LOTR series? Obviously that is a different beast, as LEGO hasn't had dealings with them as a production company.

[Digger of Bricks]

4 hours ago, MAB said:

I'm surprised no-one else except me has voted none. I don't want any classic themes to return, I'd prefer new castle themes, new pirates, etc. Just as in the past for space they did Alien Conquest then Galaxy Squad, I'd love them to do something similar for castle / historic related themes. So not classic castle, but regularly changing individual castle-like themes.

I don't think we were talking about the rerelease of classic themes as they exactly once were (a.k.a. set rereleases), just the return of any of those themes as new incarnations (a.k.a. Galaxy Squad for Space, Kingdoms for Castle, etc.).

Edited November 30, 2017 by Digger of Bricks

[MAB]

1 hour ago, Digger of Bricks said:

I don't think we were talking about the rerelease of classic themes as they exactly once were (a.k.a. set rereleases), just the return of any of those themes as new incarnations (a.k.a. Galaxy Squad for Space, Kingdoms for Castle, etc.).

If that is the case, I'd have voted for Castle then Space. I don't really consider themes like Galaxy Squad to be Classic Space, as to me Classic space is the somewhat blocky design, the specific colour palette, etc. hence why I'd like a new Space theme but not Classic Space.

[danth]

9 hours ago, MAB said:

I know a biopic about Tolkien is in the works. Or do you mean the Amazon LOTR series? Obviously that is a different beast, as LEGO hasn't had dealings with them as a production company.

Oh, yeah I guess I meant the Amazon series. Maybe we won't get stuck with Lego sets for those. That would be my preference. 

[x105Black]

On 11/30/2017 at 11:43 AM, MAB said:

If that is the case, I'd have voted for Castle then Space. I don't really consider themes like Galaxy Squad to be Classic Space, as to me Classic space is the somewhat blocky design, the specific colour palette, etc. hence why I'd like a new Space theme but not Classic Space.

True, Galaxy Squad is not Classic Space.  But Space is a classic theme, and Galaxy Squad is the latest incarnation of said theme.

[Blondie-Wan]

I voted for every option here other than "None". That said, these themes do return all the time, albeit in a general way, and (usually) not in the specific design schemes of various older iterations (for example, the succession of various Space subthemes, some of which have contain homages or connections to Classic Space). But we usually do have some sort of Castle theme and some sort of Space theme (with "usually" becoming "always" if one includes Star Wars), as well as always having some sort of Town theme (for the last decade called City, and before that a few years as World City, and so on, but the broad general idea is the same, even if the focus, design styles, etc. vary considerably; City / Town also bleeds over into other themes like Creator, Creator Expert, etc.).

In terms of specific subthemes and eras, I'd of course like to see the return of Classic Space (and its early successors, like Futuron, Blacktron, etc.), Classic Castle (say, all the subthemes and factions from the '80s and early '90s), and the more recent "Fantasy Castle" era and its immediate successor, Kingdoms. And as long as the question continues to be about what we'd like, as opposed to what has any hope of a prayer of a chance of actually happening, I'll go ahead and throw in Monorail as a crossover subtheme of both Town / City and Space.

One classic theme I've not yet seen mentioned in this thread that I'd like to see return is Adventurers (and / or variations / derivatives, like Pharaoh's Quest). In a similar vein, the extant but inactive licensed theme I'd most like to see return is Indiana Jones (which of course has a strong possibility of returning when the next movie comes out in 2020). Other inactive licensed themes I'd really like to see more of ("inactive" apart from hanging on by a thread in LEGO Dimensions, of course, itself on the way out but not quite there yet) are Doctor Who and The Lord of the Rings (or Middle-Earth, if one prefers, including The Hobbit alongside TLotR).

[Digger of Bricks]

8 hours ago, Blondie-Wan said:

One classic theme I've not yet seen mentioned in this thread that I'd like to see return is Adventurers (and / or variations / derivatives, like Pharaoh's Quest).

I don't know how many other people consider Adventurers to be a "classic" theme, but for me, I do also consider it as a classic theme. Classic themes are to me not themes belonging to a certain era or "golden age", but instead, themes that follow an archetypical storyline or premise, unlike supplementary media driven themes such as Bionicle and Ninjago.

Now 2018 will be the twentieth anniversary of the Adventurers theme, so perhaps there will be something special in store. I wish it were a new theme, but I'm afraid we would have already heard about that by now. 

[Lego Petman]

On 11/28/2017 at 3:59 PM, MAB said:

None of them are "classics". And Pirates of the Caribbean is a current license with three sets currently out.

Why they do not "classic"?How do you classified "classic" parameter? 

[LM71Blackbird]

The classic pirates theme is something I would really like to see have a proper return. A line with large ships and impressive forts and hideouts!

[MAB]

On 10/12/2017 at 6:45 PM, Lego Petman said:

Why they do not "classic"?How do you classified "classic" parameter? 

LOTR/Hobbit/TMTN are all modern ranges, not classics. "Classics" tend to be 1970-90s sets.

 

[Aanchir]

On 12/13/2017 at 9:30 AM, MAB said:

LOTR/Hobbit/TMTN are all modern ranges, not classics. "Classics" tend to be 1970-90s sets.

I think this question merits a bit more analysis, though. AFOLs in the 90s almost certainly wouldn't have considered 90s themes like Paradisa, Wild West, or Aquazone "classics". But AFOLs today might. Are we to assume that these themes became classics at some point? If so, how do you define that point?

It's only been around 20 years since Western/Wild West sets first hit the market. That's over two thirds of my lifetime. But if we consider it a "classic" today, then by that definition, in four or five years Bionicle, Alpha Team, and Harry Potter could be just as accurately described as "classics". Certainly, it'd still be a much longer time before themes of the 2010s hit that threshold, but we do need to recognize that the definition of "classic theme" is not only highly subjective, but also fairly fluid.

On 12/2/2017 at 7:10 PM, Digger of Bricks said:

I don't know how many other people consider Adventurers to be a "classic" theme, but for me, I do also consider it as a classic theme. Classic themes are to me not themes belonging to a certain era or "golden age", but instead, themes that follow an archetypical storyline or premise, unlike supplementary media driven themes such as Bionicle and Ninjago.

Even by this more qualitative definition, what is or isn't a "classic theme" is rather murky. Like, the Monster Fighters and Dino themes from 2012 didn't really have any more supplementary media than Adventurers did. Would they qualify as classics in your book? If LEGO were to create a new theme in a whole new genre (like, say steampunk, or sword-and-sandals) next year, without much in the way of supplementary media, would you consider it a "classic" from day one? And what about a theme like Fabuland that's over 30 years old, but was media-driven? Classic or not?

[MAB]

^ Yes, very true. It remains to be seen if Classic (with a capital C) will refer to just the older Classic Space, Classic Castle, etc or whether terms such as "Modern Classic" will be used for say HP and post-2000 sets (a bit like movies, for example 1970s onwards is often (currently) referred to as Modern Classic, like The Godfather, etc) or maybe "Golden Age" will come in for the rough period 2005-2015. I guess it depends what happens next!

[Digger of Bricks]

6 hours ago, Aanchir said:

Like, the Monster Fighters and Dino themes from 2012 didn't really have any more supplementary media than Adventurers did. Would they qualify as classics in your book?

Indeed, and actually, those two particular themes sort of can be considered as distant successors to the original Adventurers theme. They both somewhat share similar qualities, though not as closely as the prior year's Pharaoh's Quest theme.

6 hours ago, Aanchir said:

If LEGO were to create a new theme in a whole new genre (like, say steampunk, or sword-and-sandals) next year, without much in the way of supplementary media, would you consider it a "classic" from day one?

Yes, as long as it followed a archetypical familiarity and didn't fall into a foreign, never-before-seen realm.

6 hours ago, Aanchir said:

And what about a theme like Fabuland that's over 30 years old, but was media-driven? Classic or not?

Maybe, if you simply considered the theme as a junior-ized version of Town with anthropomorphic animals.

[icm]

I would consider a "classic" theme to be the first one to successfully explore a certain thematic territory.  Adventurers is the classic in the exploration category, because it came first; then followed Pharoah's Quest, Town Arctic, and all the City exploration themes.  Likewise, the Dino Island Adventurers subtheme is the classic dinosaur theme, because it came before Dino Attack/2010, Dino (2012), or Jurassic World.  Bionicle 2001-2003 is the classic CCBS theme, even though Throwbots and Slizers came first, because it was the first successful action figure theme (yes, I know CCBS as such wasn't developed until later).  Similarly, all the in-house spy themes (and arguably the Super Heroes themes) have roots in Alpha Team 2001, so it's a classic in my book.  Note that this is classic with a lowercase "c"; I don't object to reserving Classic with a capital "C" for the 1970s-1980s themes released when minifigures were a new invention and before subthemes had individual names.  By that definition, I would consider the "Classic Era" to have ended in 1989 when the first non-standard smiley minifigure faces were released with Pirates.  But it doesn't really matter.

[Digger of Bricks]

36 minutes ago, icm said:

I would consider a "classic" theme to be the first one to successfully explore a certain thematic territory.  Adventurers is the classic in the exploration category, because it came first; then followed Pharoah's Quest, Town Arctic, and all the City exploration themes.  Likewise, the Dino Island Adventurers subtheme is the classic dinosaur theme, because it came before Dino Attack/2010, Dino (2012), or Jurassic World.  Bionicle 2001-2003 is the classic CCBS theme, even though Throwbots and Slizers came first, because it was the first successful action figure theme (yes, I know CCBS as such wasn't developed until later).  Similarly, all the in-house spy themes (and arguably the Super Heroes themes) have roots in Alpha Team 2001, so it's a classic in my book.  Note that this is classic with a lowercase "c"; I don't object to reserving Classic with a capital "C" for the 1970s-1980s themes released when minifigures were a new invention and before subthemes had individual names.  By that definition, I would consider the "Classic Era" to have ended in 1989 when the first non-standard smiley minifigure faces were released with Pirates.  But it doesn't really matter.

This too is a pretty good interpretation. 

[danth]

The original Town, Space, and Castle themes were the very first to have the modern minifigure. You can't get much more classic than that.