Are classic themes dead ?

[danth]

I should clarify I don't think Castle or Space or Pirates are dead. They refuse to die. They're too well loved by AFOLs. I really think Lego needs to figure out what to do with them. If they keep making Icons sets with classic throwbacks, great. If they keep making Classic-themed Creator sets, great. We've yet to see a "real" Space Creator set though.

[Lyichir]

43 minutes ago, danth said:

I should clarify I don't think Castle or Space or Pirates are dead. They refuse to die. They're too well loved by AFOLs. I really think Lego needs to figure out what to do with them. If they keep making Icons sets with classic throwbacks, great. If they keep making Classic-themed Creator sets, great. We've yet to see a "real" Space Creator set though.

I think considering only classic subthemes to be "real" is part of the problem in considering the overarching themes "dead". There have been multiple space-related Creator sets (present/historical and futuristic alike), but if you're considering only things that fit into the narrow confines established by earlier space themes to be true Space, then of course the offerings that match those criteria will be fewer and farther between. If we get a full Space or Castle or Pirates theme again there'd be a pretty decent chance that those wouldn't merely retread the colors or iconography of their predecessors either.

[danth]

2 minutes ago, Lyichir said:

I think considering only classic subthemes to be "real" is part of the problem in considering the overarching themes "dead". There have been multiple space-related Creator sets (present/historical and futuristic alike), but if you're considering only things that fit into the narrow confines established by earlier space themes to be true Space, then of course the offerings that match those criteria will be fewer and farther between. If we get a full Space or Castle or Pirates theme again there'd be a pretty decent chance that those wouldn't merely retread the colors or iconography of their predecessors either.

New Space sets with different color schemes than the past is like my wildest dream. But all previous Space themes had space men, and all had colored windscreens until Alien Conquest.

The Space Mining Mech didn't have a minifig nor did it have a colored windscreen.

The Cyber Drone I liked, and bought in multiples. But it has a boring trans-clear windscreen. And it doesn't have a space man, for some reason it has a robot. At least it's a cool minifig.

But anyway if we're talking about Creator specifically, I don't think it makes a lot of sense to make, say, a Creator Castle set, but NOT use classic, well-known Castle factions. That's why they used Black Falcons. You need something already established. I think Space would be the same. Creator Space sets should use established themes too.

But I'm all for a new Space theme using all new colors. Go nuts!

[Kit Figsto]

20 hours ago, Alexandrina said:

I even think some of the old themes are baked into Lego lore so to speak, and their legacy is oversized in common perception compared to what it actually was.

I think this is a hugely key point here.  There's a big element of nostalgia that I think makes people over-remember how popular/big/expansive some of these themes actually were.  I'm pretty sure Wolfpack Knights got a total of like three sets, but if you asked an AFOL to guess how many sets the theme had, I would bet a lot of people would think that number is much higher just because of how long the legacy of that subtheme has lasted.  I'm not saying this nostalgia is bad or wrong (believe me, I absolutely hold a lot of themes in that same place), but I think it leads us to automatically place the older themes in a much higher regard than newer original themes.

I mean, there are people already writing off Dreamzzz as a failure when nothing has been revealed other than some of the minifigure designs.  People love a theme like Time Cruisers (I do too!), but the reality is that most of the builds are far inferior to stuff coming out today.  Who's to say that Dreamzzz can't be an interesting new theme?  I still maintain that Hidden Side could've been a successful theme if the box art wasn't so confusing (seriously, I would glance at those in store shelves and just have no idea what I was even supposed to be looking at).

So, no, I don't think you can say that classic/unlicensed original themes are dead when there are still several out there.  Just off the top of my head, the last decade-ish, we've had a pirates/castle reboot, Galaxy Squad, Monster Fighters, Chima, Ninjago, Monkie Kid, Friends, Nexo Knights, Pharoah's Quest, Hidden Side, and now Dreamzzz.

I know someone will make the point that a lot of these themes only lasted a year or two, but the fact is, most of the "classic" themes people bring up from the 90s/early 2000s also only lasted a couple of years.  Original Aquazone went form 95-98, Time Cruisers got 9 sets across 96 and 97 (one was the same set released under two names, so that's really 8 sets, which is fewer than some of the themes I listed above that only lasted for a year or two), Alpha Team was 2001-02 and then returned in 2004, Rock Raiders only got actual sets in 1999, but had some minifigure packs in 2000, Western was 96-97, plus a couple of Legends re-releases in 2002, Dino Attack was one year, et cetera.  The only classic themes that really held up perpetually over a long period of time were Pirates, Castle, Space, and Town/City.  I'm actually inclined to put Ninjago and Friends into that category at this point, since I believe both are coming up on 15 years now, and that's a longer run than Pirates has had (only counting full themes released as Pirates, 1989, 91-97 and then reboots in 2009 and 2015).

Point being, a lot of these themes that are remembered fondly didn't last that long either, so I'm not entirely sure why people write off recent one-off themes as massive failures, when a lot of the super well-regarded nostalgic themes, in some cases, actually had fewer sets released.

 

 

[MAB]

On 4/13/2023 at 6:56 PM, Ondra said:

Nobody is buying vidiyo or hidden side even on huge clearance . I can even buy some sets brand new from Lego movie 2. All these in absurd amount of copies here.

Dreamzzz will be next, they never learn...

Hidden Side sold very well here (UK) when it went to clearance prices. 33% and 40% was enough to shift remaining stock. I haven't seen any sets in stores for a while. Vidiyo still hangs around, but even on a 50% discount it is expensive and LEGO handled the cancellation of that one badly so as to make it unattractive.  Why buy an app tied toy with a defunct app?

[danth]

12 minutes ago, Kit Figsto said:

So, no, I don't think you can say that classic/unlicensed original themes are dead when there are still several out there.  Just off the top of my head, the last decade-ish, we've had a pirates/castle reboot, Galaxy Squad, Monster Fighters, Chima, Ninjago, Monkie Kid, Friends, Nexo Knights, Pharoah's Quest, Hidden Side, and now Dreamzzz.

Now do themes that launched within the last 5 years. That eliminates all but Monkie Kid and Hidden Side. The only one that you didn't mention was Vidiyo. So 3 non-licensed themes launched in the last 5 years.

Themes existing 10 years ago doesn't mean anything if they're not being replaced.

[Kit Figsto]

1 hour ago, danth said:

Now do themes that launched within the last 5 years. That eliminates all but Monkie Kid and Hidden Side. The only one that you didn't mention was Vidiyo. So 3 non-licensed themes launched in the last 5 years.

Themes existing 10 years ago doesn't mean anything if they're not being replaced.

If you're just looking at themes being launched, okay, but I meant unlicensed themes that existed at some point during that era.  If we're not counting Friends since it's not minifigures, you still have Ninjago and City, plus Dreamzzz coming this year.  If we're talking strictly themes being launched, I count 4 in the past 5 years (Vidiyo, Monkie Kid, Hidden Side, and upcoming Dreamzzz), so not quite 1 per year.  I picked a few random years out of curiosity to see how many new themes have been launched (I literally just clicked random ones on Brickapedia, I didn't choose these for any specific years).  I'm only counting minifigure based unlicensed themes.  I don't think subthemes can really count, because if you counted them as separate themes, then every time Ninjago or City has a new subtheme, that would also count as a different theme (ie City Jungle, City Arctic, etc).

1991 - No truly new themes, there were some Town and Space subthemes being introduced for the first time, but nothing truly new.

1995 - Again, no "new" themes per say, there were some new subthemes of Castle and Aquazone.

2003 - Sports, World City (which was just a theme that replaced Town until City came along) and Orient Expedition (subtheme of Adventurers).  Discovery also came out, but I don't really know how to classify those, they were realistic space sets that weren't minifigure based, and apparently lasted like four years.  So essentially one new theme if you just count Sports.

2007 - Aqua Raiders, Castle (2007 reboot) and Mars Mission.

So you had one year with 3 new themes, one year with 1, and two years without and brand new themes.

The only real difference between them launching new themes now and back then is just that there are fewer major, evergreen unlicensed themes.  The actual duration and size of unlicensed themes now is probably bigger than most that are remembered so fondly.

[Alexandrina]

15 minutes ago, danth said:

Now do themes that launched within the last 5 years

Imo it's disingenuous to exclude Ninjago and Friends as this does - both have very clearly established themselves as successful original themes, and they're still running so obviously replacements haven't launched.

I'd also throw in Elves, which launched longer ago but was still on the shelves five years ago. Plus Castle (through Nexo Knights) and Town ofc.

So really, in the last five years there have been eight original themes on the shelves, plus one-off sets here and there from other original IPs, as well as more adult ranges such as the botanical sets. A slight drop on the golden age, but for example 1996 - bang in the middle of the golden era - had nine original themes. When you add in the licensed coterie it's actually a broader spread now than in the golden age. The wide range of original IPs seems to be more an early 2000s thing, and I think a response to the decline of Pirates. For instance, in 2002 there were sets released in:

• Alpha Team
• Belville
• Castle
• Galidor
• Harry Potter
• Island Xtreme Stunts
• Racers
• Space
• Spider-Man
• Sports
• Star Wars
• Studios
• Town
• Train

(I'm ignoring Pirates and Western which were only represented by re-releases of classic sets; they were as present in 2002 as Castle and Space are today). That's fourteen themes, which is a good number to be fair. Three of them are licensed (and all those licenses are active today too). Town has never left, and Racers is essentially Speed Champions with fewer stickers. Friends has replaced Belville as the 'girl-oriented' theme. The less said about Galidor the better...

What you're left with is seven original themes which aren't active today and don't have direct replacements. The parallels between Studio and Vidiyo are obvious, even if Studio was more successful. Alpha Team, like Ninjago today, was the action theme of its time. Dreamzzz will last at least as long as Island Xtreme Stunts did. What's missing is the evergreen themes: Castle, Space and Train are no longer in regular production, but there's still just as many short-lived original themes as ever.

[danth]

1 hour ago, Alexandrina said:

Imo it's disingenuous to exclude Ninjago and Friends as this does

We were already including Ninjago as an existing theme and the context was non-minifig so...

The discussion is are themes dead, not were they dead, so I don't know why people keeping bringing up themes from the past as evidence of themes not being dead. Isn't Elves pretty long gone?

Edited April 15, 2023 by danth

[The Island Chronicles]

1 hour ago, Alexandrina said:

Island Xtreme Stunts

That was my favorite theme of the 2000s as it was based off of a video game saga that I loved since I was as a child. 

[Kit Figsto]

2 hours ago, Alexandrina said:

What's missing is the evergreen themes: Castle, Space and Train are no longer in regular production, but there's still just as many short-lived original themes as ever.

This is pretty much the point I was trying to make.  I feel like something I hear a lot is people talking about how all of LEGO’s original themes now are huge flops, when the reality is, most of them lasted longer than a lot of these so-called “golden age” themes.  If you consider Nexo Knights or Hidden Side a flop, by that same criteria, Aqua Raiders II or Western were flops because they only lasted 1-2 years.  If that’s how you consider a theme to be failed, then every single unlicensed theme ever except Town/City (I lump train in with these), Pirates, Castle, Space, Bionicle, Ninjago, Adventurers and Friends was a failure because nothing else has lasted beyond like 3 years.

[MAB]

3 hours ago, Kit Figsto said:

This is pretty much the point I was trying to make.  I feel like something I hear a lot is people talking about how all of LEGO’s original themes now are huge flops, when the reality is, most of them lasted longer than a lot of these so-called “golden age” themes.  If you consider Nexo Knights or Hidden Side a flop, by that same criteria, Aqua Raiders II or Western were flops because they only lasted 1-2 years.  If that’s how you consider a theme to be failed, then every single unlicensed theme ever except Town/City (I lump train in with these), Pirates, Castle, Space, Bionicle, Ninjago, Adventurers and Friends was a failure because nothing else has lasted beyond like 3 years.

This is the problem when it comes to getting new themes. To do new themes, they have to retire others, or have an ever increasing catalogue of current themes. If they retire others they are seen by some as a flop. They used to do decent themes for a year or two - Monster Fighters, AC, PQ, Atlantic, etc. That was possible because they retired when another comes along. The downside is having to advertise and get a new tgeme up and running every year. Whereas advertising Ninjago or City is much easier.

[Mylenium]

11 hours ago, Kit Figsto said:

Point being, a lot of these themes that are remembered fondly didn't last that long either, so I'm not entirely sure why people write off recent one-off themes as massive failures, when a lot of the super well-regarded nostalgic themes, in some cases, actually had fewer sets released.

I think you have to put it into perspective, though: A 200 million per year company in the 1990s vs. a 6 billion annually company now. I think that in itself is a point. Advocates of classic themes probably get a bit worked up over not getting their share when in their mind "LEGO could do it easily". That is of course true to some degree (they have the money), but at the same time also not true (inner workings of a big con-glo-mo and overall strategy). that doesn't invalidate any other argument in this debate, but perception really plays a big part, not just with that nostalgia thing...

Mylenium

9 hours ago, danth said:

The discussion is are themes dead, not were they dead, so I don't know why people keeping bringing up themes from the past as evidence of themes not being dead.

As long as there is no clear distinction what constitutes a theme, sub-theme, sub-sub-theme, limited run special super duper edition or whatever you'll not get a satisfying solution to that problem. I don't think there needs to be, as most of this discussion on whether a theme is dead or not to me really revolves around that "...in the style of..." thing. People want to rebuild their classic space stuff or expand their collection, but I doubt that many would care what it's actually called as long as the parts usage, color schemes and overall design approach are similar.

Mylenium

[MAB]

2 hours ago, Mylenium said:

As long as there is no clear distinction what constitutes a theme, sub-theme, sub-sub-theme, limited run special super duper edition or whatever you'll not get a satisfying solution to that problem.

Classic also needs to be defined, as a lot of themes mentioned here are not what I'd label as classic, but instead either vintage, old or retired depending on what they are.

[Peppermint_M]

I believe another issue we don't really notice is Nostalgia making older themes have more of an impact on us than they made statistically or in longevity. I loved my UFO figures from the two small sets I had, but UFO was a small subtheme that some of the older contingent of AFOL wouldn't know or "rate" as it wasn't in their life. People today would likely grumble about the larger elements in builds, uncomplicated construction and design choices. However I would call it a classic as the figures were personal favourites. 

My younger brother is in his early twenties. He calls Power Miners and Agents classics that were favourites. Themes I recall moderating for as people complained that it was not more Rock Raiders and Alpha Team!

Our perception of childhood favourites will forever influence our perception of modern equivalents. When it comes to things like sweets (Candies) and fizzy drinks, here in the UK it is probably accurate to say they are very different and modern is (to us) not as good; Regulations on flavourings and sugar content means a lot of products have less or no sugar (Or outright do not exist. Panda Pops eh British Millennials? Miss those!) and different flavours as the artificial has been swapped for natural. (Alas, fake strawberry, your candy sweetness will not be seen again).

Add in changes in society, like the internet letting us engage with something faster and in a greater capacity, plus the quick turnover necessary as kids can encounter things a lot quicker than in the 90s. Again, UK perspective: I had the inlay posters for the Theme and an Argos catalogue to see what new LEGO was out there. The odd shop that had been selling LEGO since the 60s would have catalogues for LEGO (Lots of Newsagents it seemed)  and those were a treasured treat. Now you can log on to LEGO.com and see everything current, recent past and incoming. Again, skewing out perceptions. 

So yeah, just some theories I have. 

[Mylenium]

4 hours ago, Peppermint_M said:

I believe another issue we don't really notice is Nostalgia making older themes have more of an impact on us than they made statistically or in longevity.

Absolutely. And by extension people seem to be oblivious to the fact that buying LEGO back then was a bit more special. Shelves were stacked differently back then and LEGO wasn't everywhere dominating the market. You had to be more proactive to even get it. Perhaps that colors people's perception as well as they may be under the impression that with LEGO occupying one third of a lot of toy stores there must be room for some of those "classic" themes to come back when in fact back then they were their only regular offering and they just sold what they had without thinking too much about it being special or something like this...

Mylenium

5 hours ago, MAB said:

Classic also needs to be defined, as a lot of themes mentioned here are not what I'd label as classic, but instead either vintage, old or retired depending on what they are.

Yes, of course. Not every vintage car is a classic and the same applies here.

Mylenium

[Faefrost]

Most of what Classic Space was has now been running in City as a subtheme for 2 years. And it seems to alternate with undersea stuff. 

Adventures is heavily subsumed in Ninjago with its regular treasure collection story waves. Plus Indiana Jones.

Castle really just needs some media tie in to push it back into the zeitgeist of play patterns. But Castle and Pirates have long had a problem that they largely revolve around the largest most expensive sets for play. And the smaller impulse buy and gift tier sets don't offer great standalone play value. You need the Castle and the Pirate Ship. This is why they have been moving to the larger single creator and black box sets of just the centerpiece. 

Edited April 15, 2023 by Faefrost

[Alexandrina]

23 hours ago, danth said:

We were already including Ninjago as an existing theme and the context was non-minifig so...

Maybe I missed it but there was no context regarding minifigures in either the comment I replied to, or the one you replied to in that comment. And your comment seemed to be excluding Ninjago, as it was replying to a comment including it only to say "now do themes that launched in the last five years"

4 hours ago, Faefrost said:

Castle really just needs some media tie in to push it back into the zeitgeist of play patterns. But Castle and Pirates have long had a problem that they largely revolve around the largest most expensive sets for play.

I'd actually disagree with this personally. Castles are awesome and now I'm an adult with money to spend I gobbled up the Lion Knights' Castle, but when I was a kid I couldn't afford the big sets. I couldn't even afford the mid-range sets. The only Castle sets I had as a kid were Blacksmith Attack and Prison Carriage Rescue from the Kingdoms range. But they gave me knights and I could build the castle I wanted from my bricks. There's always a market for big castles, but I think there would also be a market for impulse-buy sets that are more a minifigure or two and a quick build.

[danth]

4 hours ago, Alexandrina said:

Maybe I missed it but there was no context regarding minifigures in either the comment I replied to, or the one you replied to in that comment. And your comment seemed to be excluding Ninjago, as it was replying to a comment including it only to say "now do themes that launched in the last five years"

I just noticed I said the context was non-minifigs but I meant the context was minifigs-only or non-minidolls. Oops. So I'm just making the confusion worse.

I don't know what "Classic Themes" means but it must mean minifig themes because minidolls have only existed since 2012. I know I specified minifig themes somewhere up above, but I think in the context of this thread generally, it makes sense to assume we're talking about minifig themes. If OP was talking about minidolls he would have asked "Is Elves dead" because that's the only minidoll theme that's dead. So that's why I wasn't bothering to include Friends.

As for focusing on themes that have launched recently, well, I'm doing that for a reason. If you're worried about a species going extinct, you look at new births. If there are 1000 members of a species alive, but none of them were born in the past 10 years, well guess what -- that species is doomed. You need new births to keep the species alive.

 

4 hours ago, Alexandrina said:

I'd actually disagree with this personally. Castles are awesome and now I'm an adult with money to spend I gobbled up the Lion Knights' Castle, but when I was a kid I couldn't afford the big sets. I couldn't even afford the mid-range sets. The only Castle sets I had as a kid were Blacksmith Attack and Prison Carriage Rescue from the Kingdoms range. But they gave me knights and I could build the castle I wanted from my bricks. There's always a market for big castles, but I think there would also be a market for impulse-buy sets that are more a minifigure or two and a quick build.

Agreed. There were always wagons, small forts, inns, small blacksmith shops, jousting tournaments, etc in Castle. Sea Serpent is my favorite example. I'd say it was one of the finest Castle sets ever, and it retailed for less than $20.

Even Pirates had a nice ship for less than $35. Below that there were rafts and dinghies. And various islands/bases.

Edited April 16, 2023 by danth

[MAB]

4 hours ago, danth said:

I don't know what "Classic Themes" means but it must mean minifig themes because minidolls have only existed since 2012. I know I specified minifig themes somewhere up above, but I think in the context of this thread generally, it makes sense to assume we're talking about minifig themes. If OP was talking about minidolls he would have asked "Is Elves dead" because that's the only minidoll theme that's dead. So that's why I wasn't bothering to include Friends.

If they did a new space / castle / pirates theme with modern parts, then is that a revival of a classic theme? If they did the same using new minifig parts as well, does that count of a revival of the old, as those parts were not used in the originals as they didn't exist? If they did the same using new character parts that didn't exist at the time, would that count as a revival? 

To me, Friends is a partly a revival of the old Town or City sets as it covers similar subjects just with more modern parts (both regular building and figure parts).

The same if they did a blue and grey space theme with minidolls wearing different coloured space outfits, I'd say that was a revival of Classic Space, even though minidolls didnt exist when the original sets were made.

[Mylenium]

13 hours ago, Faefrost said:

Castle really just needs some media tie in to push it back into the zeitgeist of play patterns. But Castle and Pirates have long had a problem that they largely revolve around the largest most expensive sets for play. And the smaller impulse buy and gift tier sets don't offer great standalone play value. You need the Castle and the Pirate Ship.

Arguably that's LEGO's own fault/ problem. Competitors are selling castles, pirate islands and big ships by the bucket without media tie-ins. We're talking 70 Euro sets with 1200 pieces for some of them. Perfectly attainable as "starter sets". It's only in the LEGO world where things are that dire.

Mylenium

[Alexandrina]

10 hours ago, danth said:

You need new births to keep the species alive.

I don't think this applies in the strictest sense to Lego, because Lego has a limited number of spaces for themes at any one time (and also things like genetic diversity aren't exactly a concern for Lego). If Ninjago were to die, it would be replaced by a new action theme. The only reason it hasn't been is because it's so successful as to be running for a decade plus now.

Regarding minidolls, I can see where you're coming from, but I'm not sure I agree personally. They're still Lego, they're just new pieces (in the same way that minifigures were still Lego when they came along in 1978), and minidoll themes occupy a certain amount of Lego theme real estate. For instance, Elves would probably have been made even if minidolls weren't a thing, but using minifigures - the theme itself isn't contingent on a certain type of playfigure being included in the set.

5 hours ago, MAB said:

To me, Friends is a partly a revival of the old Town or City sets as it covers similar subjects just with more modern parts (both regular building and figure parts).

Friends to me has always seemed like a fusion of Paradisa and Belville, both of which I'd argue are second-tier classic themes.

[Feuer Zug]

On 4/16/2023 at 8:14 AM, Alexandrina said:

Friends to me has always seemed like a fusion of Paradisa and Belville, both of which I'd argue are second-tier classic themes.

It might be a fusion of them, but it takes the best elements and discards the chaff. Friends is the quiet "Evergreen" theme that is doing a much better role in building a viable town feel than City.

[Justin]

When they did bring back older LEGO sets as part of the Legends limited releases, such as the Guarded Inn, Main Street or the Century Skyway (under the name City Airport), they had to make part substitutions, as there were parts that were discontinued since the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and 2000s at LEGO that had updated part equivalents (one-piece road signs from the 1970s-early 1990s were swapped out with modular two-piece road signs that consisted of a post and clip-on signage (first introduced in the late 1990s), parts that used to not have stud notches now have them, and the studded wheel/axle plate combo (with a metal axle) from the 1970s/1980s was replaced with modern studless wheels with separate axle plates (which started appearing in LEGO sets by 1984)...

[Powder Monkey]

Really fascinating discussion going on here! I think the very basic question is which target group is more profitable for Lego (short-term and long-term) in total. Does anyone here on EB (probably a Lego insider) happen to know?
I can only speculate, but if I was Lego I'd say in the short-term it's the AFOLs spending thousands of dollars on sets related to the classic themes they know from when they were kids. They have money and nostalgia. 
This explains this for me:

On 4/16/2023 at 9:26 AM, Mylenium said:

Arguably that's LEGO's own fault/ problem. Competitors are selling castles, pirate islands and big ships by the bucket without media tie-ins. We're talking 70 Euro sets with 1200 pieces for some of them. Perfectly attainable as "starter sets". It's only in the LEGO world where things are that dire.

Which is absolutely true, and I'm happy that someone is serving our AFOL needs :) But for Lego, is it better to concentrate on them? Especially at the expense of the younger generations and future Lego customers? AFOLs age, lose interest or pass away sooner or later  They can still spend a LOT in their lifetime, but does it still outweigh the potential lifetime-profits from new and future customers?
If Lego calculated this it might seem smarter to target the young folks in the long-term.

So in my opinion, it really depends on which strategy Lego is pursuing. I wish I'd know.

For me, the absence of the "classic" themes points in this direction. Now there are a ton of people saying "But Lego IS slowly becoming expensive AFOL fan service". In terms of prices, set sizes, details I think yes, in terms of themes I think not. One castle or pirate set in years is not enough for us, or is it?  

Let's assume Lego chose the long-term goal:
I'm wondering: Can the classic themes - for their concepts - still be interesting for younger people? This comment caught my attention:

On 4/15/2023 at 8:00 PM, Faefrost said:

Castle really just needs some media tie in to push it back into the zeitgeist of play patterns. 

The media aspect is one that I'm very interested in. Several months ago I found this article https://flicksandbricks.wordpress.com/2018/04/24/should-lego-reboot-the-western-theme/ and I think the author makes some very good points. That was in 2018, since then I think Lego pushed it even further with digital services, series, apps etc. Recently they even announced to drop printed building instructions and make them accessible via the builder app instead, so the direction is quite clear to me: More media.
I strongly believe that people buy, what they see on their smartphone, in the media, pop culture. Ninjago is a great example.

The question here is: Is it all a self-fullfilling prophecy? Does Ninjago sell because of all the extended content and media presence? Does Lego just have to launch a Lego Pirate Series on Netflix with a really cool storyline, make a trading card game, interactive journeys through webcontent, apps and social media and people will start to buy? Could it be that the current generation just needs a new imagination-stimulus through modern entertainment possibilities? 
And all of a sudden, pirates or knights are cool again and sell like crazy?  
I even think by daring to establish a whole new universe based on their own IP/theme (be it castle, pirates, space or whatever) Lego could achieve something really big (since current movies, series, games etc. to me are kinda stuck either in an "according to the book" or a "recycling" approach, always going for the safe option and thus being very toothless).

But sure, it's a biiiig risk for Lego. And in my opinion Lego doesn't seem to be that bold right now.