Indiana Jones 2023 - Rumors & Discussion

[Mandalorianknight]

If the theme actually returns turtle should be unbanned, even if just to make a single post gloating about how he was right all along.

[a_clay_brick]

He was not referring to this theme. I promise.

[RichardGoring]

In non-licensed discussion, the Lost City in the Bricklink Designer Program is a pretty excellent setting for Indy, and Solid Brix Studios has done a review on it, placing Indy in there for a bit of fun.

[BrickBob Studpants]

8 hours ago, a_clay_brick said:

He was not referring to this theme. I promise.

Thank you for confirming it!  Now I‘m curious which theme(s) he was referring to, unless that post didn‘t hint at themes other than the ones he already confirmed (i.e., Simpsons and Horizon). 

Avatar can be ruled out too since he said in another post he only expects it to return.

[Lordhelmet]

19 hours ago, Agent Kallus said:

It was Alfrid (not Alfred) that was the greasy advisor in the Hobbit movies.

Ouch, catching spelling error strays.  I agree the greasy advisor was who I intended.

 

I enjoyed the Indiana jones sets and was sorry to see them leave.  They may have been the best priced sets I can remember.

[Darth_Bane13]

I really don't understand why LEGO wont make a full Indiana Jones wave, did they really sell that poorly?

[Agent Kallus]

13 hours ago, Darth_Bane13 said:

I really don't understand why LEGO wont make a full Indiana Jones wave, did they really sell that poorly?

I think they were hoping that the new film would push IJ to the forefront of pop culture in a way that it, uhh, didn't.

 

Edited October 5, 2024 by Agent Kallus

[RichardGoring]

I can still see it returning as a few one-off sets in the Icons range, similar to Lots of the Rings, Back to the Future, Ghostbusters. These older, iconic movies, with a core fan base of mostly adults with money to spend, have been good for LEGO to target. Larger scale sets or dioramas seen most likely though, rather than the play sets. And, if it does ever happen, it won't be for a while.

[Black Falcon]

6 hours ago, RichardGoring said:

I can still see it returning as a few one-off sets in the Icons range, similar to Lots of the Rings, Back to the Future, Ghostbusters. These older, iconic movies, with a core fan base of mostly adults with money to spend, have been good for LEGO to target. Larger scale sets or dioramas seen most likely though, rather than the play sets. And, if it does ever happen, it won't be for a while.

Yeah exactly. Like no chance we will see them doing a big icons set so short after the playsets - especially since I think that the most iconic location they could make is already on the shelves. 

For now, I think a big icons Adventurers Set is more likely to happen than an Indiana Jones one.

[Renny The Spaceman]

12 hours ago, Agent Kallus said:

I think they were hoping that the new film would push IJ to the forefront of pop culture in a way that it, uhh, didn't.

 

What are you on about? Did you forget how 2023 was the summer of Indy? Now all our favourite characters from Dial of Destiny have become just as iconic as the OG characters. We all love the likes of:
-Somehow not Mads Michelson's worst role that year
-Fleabag
-Antonio Banderas 
-Whoever that one kid who was. He there for the entire movie but literally no-one I speak to ever remembers he was even in the film

I mish we got a Charles Stanforth figure

[Kit Figsto]

On 10/4/2024 at 11:32 AM, Darth_Bane13 said:

I really don't understand why LEGO wont make a full Indiana Jones wave, did they really sell that poorly?

I think the best explanation is that Indy merch has never been the same giant that Star Wars or Marvel has been, unfortunately. 

The only movies that even really got much merch in the first place were Raiders, Crystal Skull, and Dial.  If you go way back to the 80s, you can see that the toys and stuff must've been a bit of a failure, for multiple reasons that others have already covered (distribution, figure selection, etc).  Temple of Doom barely got anything merch-wise (most notably, nothing from Kenner), and I don't even know if Last Crusade got ANYTHING.  

Crystal Skull definitely had the biggest merch push of any of the films - you had LEGO and Hasbro on board, plus brands like Topps, Gentle Giant, and Mighty Muggs (basically Funko Pops before Funko Pops), as well as a bunch of food promotions (off the top of my head, I believe Burger King, Dr. Pepper, and M&M's, among probably some others).  Indy was everywhere in 2008, and even though the movie got mixed reviews, it still did well at the box office, it was the 3rd best movie of 2008, only barely behind Iron Man for the #2 spot.  I think despite all of this, the merchandise just wasn't selling that well, because pretty much all Indy tie-ins were gone by 2009.

If you look at the Dial of Destiny merch push, most of it was adult focused, whereas the Crystal Skull merch seemed to aim more at getting kids interested in the movie, which they may not have seen before.  Anecdotally, I can say that it worked, because I literally wouldn't be an Indy fan if not for the LEGO sets.  The Hasbro Adventure Series figures (while expensive) are phenomenal, but their other Indy action figure lines were much more scaled back.  There were a handful of Funkos for the movie, but they also license basically everything as a Funko, so that's not a huge surprise.  That's basically it as far as other main tie-ins.

I think that the problem with Indy merch is that the universe is much more grounded than something like Star Wars or super heroes.  The movies aren't as character-driven, outside of Indy.  Yes, there are tons of cool and memorable side characters, but if you offered action figures of Marion, Henry Jones Sr., Sallah, and Short Round, versus Leia, Chewbacca, Darth Vader, and Yoda, I feel like almost anyone is going to choose the second option.  There's also fewer options for location/vehicles than something like Star Wars or Marvel, where you can either sort of invent your own thing, or there's so many background ships/vehicles that are still cool enough to warrant making a toy out of it.

Don't get me wrong, I really want more Indy merch in any capacity, but I think that's just the reason why we don't get much at all.

[Darth_Bane13]

3 hours ago, Kit Figsto said:

I think the best explanation is that Indy merch has never been the same giant that Star Wars or Marvel has been, unfortunately. 

The only movies that even really got much merch in the first place were Raiders, Crystal Skull, and Dial.  If you go way back to the 80s, you can see that the toys and stuff must've been a bit of a failure, for multiple reasons that others have already covered (distribution, figure selection, etc).  Temple of Doom barely got anything merch-wise (most notably, nothing from Kenner), and I don't even know if Last Crusade got ANYTHING.  

Crystal Skull definitely had the biggest merch push of any of the films - you had LEGO and Hasbro on board, plus brands like Topps, Gentle Giant, and Mighty Muggs (basically Funko Pops before Funko Pops), as well as a bunch of food promotions (off the top of my head, I believe Burger King, Dr. Pepper, and M&M's, among probably some others).  Indy was everywhere in 2008, and even though the movie got mixed reviews, it still did well at the box office, it was the 3rd best movie of 2008, only barely behind Iron Man for the #2 spot.  I think despite all of this, the merchandise just wasn't selling that well, because pretty much all Indy tie-ins were gone by 2009.

If you look at the Dial of Destiny merch push, most of it was adult focused, whereas the Crystal Skull merch seemed to aim more at getting kids interested in the movie, which they may not have seen before.  Anecdotally, I can say that it worked, because I literally wouldn't be an Indy fan if not for the LEGO sets.  The Hasbro Adventure Series figures (while expensive) are phenomenal, but their other Indy action figure lines were much more scaled back.  There were a handful of Funkos for the movie, but they also license basically everything as a Funko, so that's not a huge surprise.  That's basically it as far as other main tie-ins.

I think that the problem with Indy merch is that the universe is much more grounded than something like Star Wars or super heroes.  The movies aren't as character-driven, outside of Indy.  Yes, there are tons of cool and memorable side characters, but if you offered action figures of Marion, Henry Jones Sr., Sallah, and Short Round, versus Leia, Chewbacca, Darth Vader, and Yoda, I feel like almost anyone is going to choose the second option.  There's also fewer options for location/vehicles than something like Star Wars or Marvel, where you can either sort of invent your own thing, or there's so many background ships/vehicles that are still cool enough to warrant making a toy out of it.

Don't get me wrong, I really want more Indy merch in any capacity, but I think that's just the reason why we don't get much at all.

Yeah I don't think it needs to be a permanent theme but a couple waves similar to 2008/2009 with some remakes and some new stuff would be cool. The original sets go for quite a lot now so I think there's a decent sized fanbase, and the 2023 sets we got seemed to be pretty popular.

[Tariq j]

On 10/5/2024 at 3:53 AM, RichardGoring said:

I can still see it returning as a few one-off sets in the Icons range, similar to Lots of the Rings, Back to the Future, Ghostbusters. These older, iconic movies, with a core fan base of mostly adults with money to spend, have been good for LEGO to target. Larger scale sets or dioramas seen most likely though, rather than the play sets. And, if it does ever happen, it won't be for a while.

Yeah, I could see the anniversaries of the films being celebrated - like maybe a truck chase diorama for the 50th anniversary of Raiders or a grail temple diorama for the 40th anniversary of Crusade. But beyond that I don’t see Indy coming back with a full wave of sets.

[Doddsino]

On 10/4/2024 at 11:32 AM, Darth_Bane13 said:

I really don't understand why LEGO wont make a full Indiana Jones wave, did they really sell that poorly?

Several reasons;

1. Unlike Star Wars, it doesn't have as much of an imaginative or unique places and vehicles, in fact most of them were the sets we already got.

2. Religious relics such as the Holy Grail are very likely not going to be made. And they already censored the Nazis.

3. Other locations/sets won't be represented such as the child slaves and human sacrifice in Pankot Palace, despite how cool that might be as a playset. I doubt they're going to make Marion's bar either.

4. You're pretty much limited to Indy as your focus, whereas Star Wars could cutaway from Luke to Han to Leia to Vader to the droids...and that's only the original trilogy.

If anything, I'd almost prefer if they were imaginative with the Indiana Jones license and created new sets based off their own ideas for adventures. That's probably the only way we're going to see a real return.

Edited October 16, 2024 by Doddsino

[icm]

You mean, what you'd really prefer is a full fledged return of Adventurers in which you could insert your 2023 Indiana Jones minifigs. Right?