How to Train Your Dragon - 2025 Rumors & Updates

[THELEGOBATMAN]

1 hour ago, BrickBob Studpants said:

If the movie designs don‘t differ too much, I could see them making it a bit ambiguous on purpose, even though the packaging will likely be a dead give-away 

The minifigures will be the main give-away.

While the dragons and locations will definitely look very similar, some characters are played by differently looking actors. It's also much harder to make an actor look like their animated counterpart than it is to do the same with a CGI dragon or a historical(ish) location.

[BrickBob Studpants]

2 minutes ago, THELEGOBATMAN said:

The minifigures will be the main give-away.

Fair point. No matter how close the costumes are to the animated counterparts, it will likely be rather obvious which version the minifigs are based on

[THELEGOBATMAN]

1 hour ago, Black Falcon said:

You are right there, but the reason I think why they will be brick built is, that new moulds for the dragons would be rather expensive, as we see in Jurassic World, and they would probably need a lot of them if we think they would make more dragons.

They will be brickbuilt beyond the shadow of a doubt, because there are no vehicles in HtTYD. 

The reason dinosaurs are moulded in Jurassic World is because they can focus the builds on random vehicles for children to play along with the dinosaurs. The dinosaurs aren't the main part of the sets.

In How to Train Your Dragon, you don't have that privilege. There's only so many wooden viking structures you can make, and it's not like they bring much play value to the dragon itself. Which means that dragons have to become the focus of the set—just like the ones in Ninjago.

Not to mention that themes like Ninjago have shown that there's absolutely no need for barely-posable moulded creatures when the designer knows what they're doing. The dragons there look absolutely incredible, and with their sizes it'd be an awful choice to turn it into a Hasbro action figure instead of an actual build.

4 hours ago, Black Falcon said:

Is it? I mean, it was mentioned in this thread a few times that they have done the same with other franchises like Indiana Jones - making Sets for the existing stuff, where it is quite safe that people want it, instead of making it for a film where noone knows yet how well it will do.

Indiana Jones was supposed to have a wave for the new movie, it was just inexplicably cancelled (along with another set based on the second movie). It was supposed to follow the Avatar schedule—first a wave for the first movie(s), then a wave for the new one.

But How to Train Your Dragon can't do that. It's either/or, in this case you can't have both. Either they make a single wave (or two, but there's not much you can do beyond that) based on the new movie, or they make a wave or more (or even a whole theme) based on the original ones.

The reason being, you can't have the same dragons on the shelves at the same time (except for Toothless, the demand for him will be high—there's definitely a bigger version for collectors coming). It'd be pointless and confusing. Since the designs will likely be very similar to the original ones, it's not something you can avoid.

The only other option I see is making a wave based on the original movie, with a single set based on the new one. (For example—you make a small set with Toothless, Hiccup, and Astrid with the pond for the remake, and include Toothless in a bigger set for the original one.) But that's extremely unlikely I think.

So honestly, I think it could go either way. It all depends how LEGO views this theme, because if it's one-and-done, I don't see a reason for them to base it on the original ones.

[Black Falcon]

34 minutes ago, THELEGOBATMAN said:

They will be brickbuilt beyond the shadow of a doubt, because there are no vehicles in HtTYD. 

The reason dinosaurs are moulded in Jurassic World is because they can focus the builds on random vehicles for children to play along with the dinosaurs. The dinosaurs aren't the main part of the sets.

In How to Train Your Dragon, you don't have that privilege. There's only so many wooden viking structures you can make, and it's not like they bring much play value to the dragon itself. Which means that dragons have to become the focus of the set—just like the ones in Ninjago.

Well, I can´t really agree with your reasoning here. First of all, the dinosaurs are still the main part of the Sets. It is probably all kids care about really. The vehicles are added mainly to add more playability to the sets. Also, Dragons are easier to to build IMO without moulded bodies, than dinosaurs, especially the small ones are. Let´s take the raptors for example, they have quite small legs, and I am not going to say they couldn´t build them with bricks (they have done it for the magazins) they are probably not that stable when kids actually play with them.

34 minutes ago, THELEGOBATMAN said:

Indiana Jones was supposed to have a wave for the new movie, it was just inexplicably cancelled (along with another set based on the second movie). It was supposed to follow the Avatar schedule—first a wave for the first movie(s), then a wave for the new one.

But How to Train Your Dragon can't do that. It's either/or, in this case you can't have both. Either they make a single wave (or two, but there's not much you can do beyond that) based on the new movie, or they make a wave or more (or even a whole theme) based on the original ones.

Well but the reason why we didn´t get any sets for the new movie was probably because the film went bad. We have seen it with fantastic beasts too - they made one wave for the first film and then went back to do Harry Potter - so why should Lego make Sets to the film when they can make it for the series and old films where they know it is well received? The only reason for them to make sets for the new movie I could imagine is if Universal would especially want to have those to promote their film better - I still think however that Sets for the old stuff would work as well. Probably the differences won´t be that big. The biggest difference would probably be the minifigs, The dragons would probably look pretty much the same in a legofied form.

 

[THELEGOBATMAN]

10 minutes ago, Black Falcon said:

Well, I can´t really agree with your reasoning here. First of all, the dinosaurs are still the main part of the Sets. It is probably all kids care about really. The vehicles are added mainly to add more playability to the sets. Also, Dragons are easier to to build IMO without moulded bodies, than dinosaurs, especially the small ones are. Let´s take the raptors for example, they have quite small legs, and I am not going to say they couldn´t build them with bricks (they have done it for the magazins) they are probably not that stable when kids actually play with them.

There's a difference between being the main draw of a set, and the main part of a set. Sure, people buy those sets for the dinosaurs—but they're not the main build of the set. The sets are focused on combining vehicles and (occasionally) locations full of play features with dinosaurs and minifigures. That works well, because (as you've mentioned) a lot of the dinosaurs are really small, so not only would they look rough, they also wouldn't support a whole range of sets. If you make moulded ones, you can repeat them across waves (which is exactly what Jurassic World is doing) while focusing on making new builds.

How to Train Your Dragon can't do that. There are no vehicles (except for a boat), and the main location isn't diverse enough to support a whole wave of substantial, play feature driven builds. Which means that the main part of the set has to be the dragon. Unlike Jurassic World, the main dragons don't repeat there (I mean, technically they do, but each species has a specific main dragon). Hence, each set will be unique and focus on a creature that won't be repeated in other sets.

18 minutes ago, Black Falcon said:

 

Well but the reason why we didn´t get any sets for the new movie was probably because the film went bad. We have seen it with fantastic beasts too - they made one wave for the first film and then went back to do Harry Potter - so why should Lego make Sets to the film when they can make it for the series and old films where they know it is well received? The only reason for them to make sets for the new movie I could imagine is if Universal would especially want to have those to promote their film better - I still think however that Sets for the old stuff would work as well. Probably the differences won´t be that big. The biggest difference would probably be the minifigs, The dragons would probably look pretty much the same in a legofied form.

The sets have been cancelled months prior to its release date. It couldn't have been long into the process, because we haven't heard any details about the sets, and they obviously haven't started producing them. For Fantastic Beasts they did make a set, and then after seeing the reception to the movie decided not to pursue this part of the theme further.

Of course, you're right about the second part—it's all up to Universal and what they're expecting. Do they want to promote only the new movie, or will they see it as a way to cash in on the previous movies again? We'll have to see. 

[Agent Kallus]

I think in the moulded V brick built creatures debate my preference (like others I'm sure) tends to be based on the size of the creature. For example horses and anything smaller: moulded, but big dragons I'd actually much rather be brick built. Things bigger than an elephant when moulded end up not feeling much like Lego to me.

[zoth33]

6 hours ago, Black Falcon said:

I see, that one looks actually quite good conisdered it is brick build. Usually not a fan of brickbuild creatures, unless they reach a certain size. Very likely they would do something similar to that with the dragons, moulded head and wings -if they don´t use foil for those. And the rest brick build. At least I don´t see them doing moulds for the whole dragons, but who knows.

The source dragon is a great build.  The dragon is huge and actually dwarfs builds like the viking village and is even bigger than the LKC.  It also has some nice articulation for posing.  

I agree they will probably have molded heads and possibly molded tails with the rest being brick built.  

18 hours ago, lego_guyon02 said:

I respectfully disagree for several reasons:
- 2025 isn't just the year the live-action remake releases but also the 15th anniversary of the animated franchise. 
- Universal's Epic Universe park opens in May 2025 (one month before the remake releases) and the HTTYD land is completely focused on the animated franchise with it primarily being based on HTTYD 2 but also having elements from the 3rd movie and even the tv shows. These sets will surely be on sale in the park as well, considering DreamWorks is owned by Universal. 
- The animated franchise has a huge established fandom, the live-action one doesn't and would therefore be much more of a gamble for LEGO. Especially with the performances of past live-action remake sets as already mentioned by @Accio Lego.
- Playmobil and LEGO have produced sets based on the same licenses in the past. Not to mention that Playmobil hasn't touched the main HTTYD franchise since 2021 (2022 if you want to count the near-universally despised Nine Realms sequel series). 

I'm definitely biased towards the animated side of the coin but I genuinely think it's more likely for the sets to be based on that. Even more specifically I'd expect the sets to be based on the 2nd movie, as those designs for the characters have become the most iconic and representative of the brand and are also the designs used by Universal in Epic Universe's HTTYD land. All things considered I think people who enjoy the live-action remake are more likely to buy animated sets than the other way around. 

 

 

As for my personal expectations for the theme, I hope we'll at least be able to get the main 5 dragons and their riders. I could see them being spread out across 4-5 sets with the dragons using the Avatar design style (a bit oversized, molded heads, vinyl wings, etc.). I would assume Toothless, Stormfly and Barf & Belch would all be sold separately but I could see Meatlug and Hookfang being paired up in a single set (all including minifigures of their respective riders ofcourse!). Maybe throw in some small sidebuilds like a sheep launcher, a dragon racing goal and maybe a little single mold Terrible Terror and we'd have such an amazing lineup of sets! There's so much potential here!!!

Lego has brought back themes and not done past movies and focused on the current movie and have also done the opposite with Indiana jones so we will have to wait and see what Lego does.  I just think it will be based off the new show with the possibility of doing the old animated show and movies later down the line.  

[Black Falcon]

1 hour ago, THELEGOBATMAN said:

There's a difference between being the main draw of a set, and the main part of a set. Sure, people buy those sets for the dinosaurs—but they're not the main build of the set. The sets are focused on combining vehicles and (occasionally) locations full of play features with dinosaurs and minifigures. That works well, because (as you've mentioned) a lot of the dinosaurs are really small, so not only would they look rough, they also wouldn't support a whole range of sets. If you make moulded ones, you can repeat them across waves (which is exactly what Jurassic World is doing) while focusing on making new builds.

Well, ofc they are not the main build, since they are not really built. ;) But seriously, the Dinosaur alone would make the Set look pretty small and expensive (since, well the Dinos are what makes them exactly that) and as said before, they add other stuff like Planes, Cars etc. to add more play features, same as some enviroment/buildings - that is basically what they are doing with all their themes and I doubt it will be any different in this one.

1 hour ago, THELEGOBATMAN said:

How to Train Your Dragon can't do that. There are no vehicles (except for a boat), and the main location isn't diverse enough to support a whole wave of substantial, play feature driven builds. Which means that the main part of the set has to be the dragon. Unlike Jurassic World, the main dragons don't repeat there (I mean, technically they do, but each species has a specific main dragon). Hence, each set will be unique and focus on a creature that won't be repeated in other sets.

Well as said before I can´t say much about the franchise, but looking at the Dragons I don´t see them to be the main part of the sets at least not all of them. Sure you could make a let`s say 20€ Set with a Dragon and a Rider. And maybe they will do that, but I doubt we will see all Sets just including a Dragon and Rider (and maybe some small sidebuild) - I would rather think we will also get a part of the village and be it just one house, a ship etc. Lego usually does Sets in different sizes and I would be surprised if it would be any different here.

[THELEGOBATMAN]

It's also worth mentioning that the first movie doesn't actually have a lot of dragon species appearing on-screen. There's actually only six distinct, named dragons:

1. Toothless (Hiccup)

2. Stormfly (Astrid)

3. Meatlug (Fishlegs)

4. Hookfang (Snotlout)

5. Barf and Belch (Ruffnut and Tuffnut)

6. Red Death

Apart from that, there's only one other dragon species—Terrible Terror, the small goofy dragon which would be a small mould anyway (like Riyu from Ninjago). So the way I see it, there's no way to make more than six sets based on the first movie.

So it all comes down to whether LEGO just wants to make a moderately-sized wave for the movie and stop there, or turn this into a theme with more waves. Because to do so, using the animated trilogy is crucial.

[Black Falcon]

44 minutes ago, THELEGOBATMAN said:

So it all comes down to whether LEGO just wants to make a moderately-sized wave for the movie and stop there, or turn this into a theme with more waves. Because to do so, using the animated trilogy is crucial.

That might depend on how well the theme is doing. In the end only Lego knows, they have been doing Themes with only one wave and themes with several. Even if they have just plans to make one wave they could decide on doing more if the sets sell well, so we will have to see. On a side note, even if they would actually do Sets for the new film, I could see them making another wave for the animated series/films. Still thinking the animated is more likely anyways though.

[THELEGOBATMAN]

I honestly think that LEGO always looks at licenses from a multiple-wave perspective. Even if we don't always get another one (e.g. Indiana Jones), they always plan ahead to make sure they can maintain the there's longevity.

Which is to say, I think the animated sets are somehow more likely—mostly because they give the opportunity to use the second and third movie, which are the ones that actually introduced most of the random, barely-on-screen dragons to those movies.

Still though, all of it is just speculation. I really hope we hear something more soon enough, because I'll go insane otherwise. Truly excited to see anything they cook up anyway, animated-based or not. This has been on my list of most-wanted LEGO themes, so that's another to cross off that list. 

[BrickBob Studpants]

4 minutes ago, THELEGOBATMAN said:

This has been on my list of most-wanted LEGO themes, so that's another to cross off that list. 

That list has gotten veryyyyy short for me in the last 6 years  At this point, all I want is Shrek (which got a bit more likely now), Kirby, and the return of SpongeBob. Everything else I've ever wanted has been done!

9 minutes ago, THELEGOBATMAN said:

I really hope we hear something more soon enough, because I'll go insane otherwise.

Given how they teased the Minions and Trolls themes very publicly, I wouldn't be surprised if they made that kind of announcement again. It's another Universal license, after all!

[THELEGOBATMAN]

4 minutes ago, BrickBob Studpants said:

That list has gotten veryyyyy short for me in the last 6 years  At this point, all I want is Shrek (which got a bit more likely now), Kirby, and the return of SpongeBob. Everything else I've ever wanted has been done!

Right? In the past few years I feel like I'm constantly crossing those off the list—Horizon, James Bond, Fast & Furious, Up, Dungeons & Dragons, Lilo & Stitch (more than just a minifigure), Spider-Verse, and now How to Train Your Dragon. (Plus more Andor, and Superman making a comeback.)

Unfortunately, I have a few themes/sets on there we'll probably never get—like Alien (I'd literally kill for this) and some others, mainly based on 18+ video games. At this point Planet of the Apes is quite possibly the only one I'm truly hoping for that has a chance of getting made.

[Mandalorianknight]

4 hours ago, THELEGOBATMAN said:

Right? In the past few years I feel like I'm constantly crossing those off the list—Horizon, James Bond, Fast & Furious, Up, Dungeons & Dragons, Lilo & Stitch (more than just a minifigure), Spider-Verse, and now How to Train Your Dragon. (Plus more Andor, and Superman making a comeback.)

Unfortunately, I have a few themes/sets on there we'll probably never get—like Alien (I'd literally kill for this) and some others, mainly based on 18+ video games. At this point Planet of the Apes is quite possibly the only one I'm truly hoping for that has a chance of getting made.

Same- not the exact same stuff, but same.

All I want left is for Dune and Transformers to become full themes, and for Eragon, although that'll need to become a visual medium because we're not getting sets based only off books.

 

Very happy that Lego How to Train Your Dragon is coming. I don't have much space left in my collection, but Hiccup and Toothless will find their way in no matter what. (Unless they mold all the dragons, that would really annoy me. Ninjago has shown how well they can pull off brick-built dragons, and i agree with @Agent Kallus that anything larger than a horse feels like it's not really lego when it's molded instead of built.

[Accio Lego]

4 hours ago, Mandalorianknight said:

and for Eragon, although that'll need to become a visual medium because we're not getting sets based only off books.

Somebody has fully blocked the horrible 2006 movie adaptation from their mind I see. But fear not, for there has been announced a Disney+ series on the horizon. 

Edited November 4, 2024 by Accio Lego

[THELEGOBATMAN]

Made a list of sets I could see us getting for the first movie. Included all named characters and dragons, even vikings who barely appear on-screen.

• 20€ set with a net-shooter and a bit of land with a sheep; includes Meatlug with Fishlegs and Gobber

• 30€ set with some land, water and a stick to draw with; includes Toothless (no saddle, brown fin) with Hiccup and Astrid

• 60€ set with the viking longship; includes Stormfly with Astrid, Hiccup, Stoick, and Spitelout

• 70€ set with a buildable Toothless (in the display model style) and a data plate

• 80€ set with a part of the Dragon Academy arena; includes Barf and Belch and a moulded Terrible Terror with Ruffnut, Tuffnut, Astrid, and Gobber

• 110€ set with the Haddock house; includes Hookfang with Snotlout, Hiccup, Gothi, Ack, and Hoark

• 150€ set with a catapult; includes Toothless (saddle, red fin) and the Red Death with Hiccup, Stoick, Fishlegs, Snotlout, Phlegma, and Starkard

I feel like that's the most you can get out of this movie, and even then I'm not sure if LEGO would make sets as big as the Red Death for this theme, seeing how the dragon would have to be as massive as the recent Source Dragon of Motion from Ninjago to keep it in scale with all the others.

Edited November 4, 2024 by THELEGOBATMAN

[Lion King]

23 hours ago, Agent Kallus said:

I think in the moulded V brick built creatures debate my preference (like others I'm sure) tends to be based on the size of the creature. For example horses and anything smaller: moulded, but big dragons I'd actually much rather be brick built. Things bigger than an elephant when moulded end up not feeling much like Lego to me.

Agreed. And we ahve Queztacoatlus from jurassic World that looks very draconic. It has me wonder if we would see a dragon similiar to tat pterosaur speices’ size in future. I don’t mind medium-sized, molded dragons. We already ahve bunch of baby dragons from Ninjago, Harry otter, and D&D. 

As I mentioend before, I like molded ficontical / phrehisric creatures fitting into my world with City animals nicely.  But it’s very unreal, which that’s understandable. 

23 hours ago, THELEGOBATMAN said:

There's a difference between being the main draw of a set, and the main part of a set. Sure, people buy those sets for the dinosaurs—but they're not the main build of the set. The sets are focused on combining vehicles and (occasionally) locations full of play features with dinosaurs and minifigures. That works well, because (as you've mentioned) a lot of the dinosaurs are really small, so not only would they look rough, they also wouldn't support a whole range of sets. If you make moulded ones, you can repeat them across waves (which is exactly what Jurassic World is doing) while focusing on making new builds.

How to Train Your Dragon can't do that. There are no vehicles (except for a boat), and the main location isn't diverse enough to support a whole wave of substantial, play feature driven builds. Which means that the main part of the set has to be the dragon. Unlike Jurassic World, the main dragons don't repeat there (I mean, technically they do, but each species has a specific main dragon). Hence, each set will be unique and focus on a creature that won't be repeated in other sets.

The sets have been cancelled months prior to its release date. It couldn't have been long into the process, because we haven't heard any details about the sets, and they obviously haven't started producing them. For Fantastic Beasts they did make a set, and then after seeing the reception to the movie decided not to pursue this part of the theme further.

Of course, you're right about the second part—it's all up to Universal and what they're expecting. Do they want to promote only the new movie, or will they see it as a way to cash in on the previous movies again? We'll have to see. 

It’s your merely opinion that you claim that dinosaurs are not big stars of the sets. I’m sue some people don’t want to buy the entire sets but just buy dinosaurs off BrickLink or ebay if they hve no interest in main builds or minifigures. 

I mean i get that buildable dragons are “main” builds in Ninjago and harry otter. 

[THELEGOBATMAN]

1 hour ago, Lion King said:

It’s your merely opinion that you claim that dinosaurs are not big stars of the sets. I’m sue some people don’t want to buy the entire sets but just buy dinosaurs off BrickLink or ebay if they hve no interest in main builds or minifigures. 

I mean i get that buildable dragons are “main” builds in Ninjago and harry otter. 

It's not, you just didn't understand what I was saying.

I'm not saying dinosaurs aren't the "main starts" the sets—they obviously are, and that's why most people buy those sets. I literally explained it in the first paragraph of my reply: There's a difference between being the main draw of a set, and the main part of a set.

They aren't the "core" of the set, if you will. The most substantial part where all the pieces are put into.

My point was that when the designing the sets, you don't focus on the dinosaurs—they are just recolours and reprints, sometimes with new moulds. They are action figures, not builds, which means they have to be accomplished by actual builds to make an actual set.

With How to Train Your Dragon, once again, the dragons have to be the core of the set. You can't make vehicles, and the locations aren't diverse enough to warrant waves of sets. Not to mention that some dragons are quite huge—they wouldn't make moulds for those.

Edited November 4, 2024 by THELEGOBATMAN

[Mandalorianknight]

16 hours ago, Accio Lego said:

Somebody has fully blocked the horrible 2006 movie adaptation from their mind I see. But fear not, for there has been announced a Disney+ series on the horizon. 

What? What movie adaption? I don't know what you're talking about. Those don't exist.

Cautiously optimistic about the disney+ series. It's an opportunity, but they've already taken down two of my other favorite childhood book franchises (Artemis Fowl and Mysterious Benedict Society- although to be fair I didn't think the latter was all that bad, it just missed the spark of the books), so I don't have high hopes. Plus the newer book, Murtagh, reminded me how mature the series is/gets- being written media where they don't dwell on the gore, it's not as obvious, but it'd have to be a TV-14 series for the later installments in the cycle.

14 hours ago, THELEGOBATMAN said:

I feel like that's the most you can get out of this movie, and even then I'm not sure if LEGO would make sets as big as the Red Death for this theme, seeing how the dragon would have to be as massive as the recent Source Dragon of Motion from Ninjago to keep it in scale with all the others.

I think we could see a number of $30-50 sets with each base dragon and a few side builds- I don't know that something like the haddock house or red death would sell super well at that price, like you say, but I do think cheaper sets for each dragon would do very well, and I think lego recognizes that.

5 hours ago, THELEGOBATMAN said:

It's not, you just didn't understand what I was saying.

I'm not saying dinosaurs aren't the "main starts" the sets—they obviously are, and that's why most people buy those sets. I literally explained it in the first paragraph of my reply: There's a difference between being the main draw of a set, and the main part of a set.

They aren't the "core" of the set, if you will. The most substantial part where all the pieces are put into.

My point was that when the designing the sets, you don't focus on the dinosaurs—they are just recolours and reprints, sometimes with new moulds. They are action figures, not builds, which means they have to be accomplished by actual builds to make an actual set.

With How to Train Your Dragon, once again, the dragons have to be the core of the set. You can't make vehicles, and the locations aren't diverse enough to warrant waves of sets. Not to mention that some dragons are quite huge—they wouldn't make moulds for those.

Very well said.

[THELEGOBATMAN]

21 minutes ago, Mandalorianknight said:

I think we could see a number of $30-50 sets with each base dragon and a few side builds- I don't know that something like the haddock house or red death would sell super well at that price, like you say, but I do think cheaper sets for each dragon would do very well, and I think lego recognizes that.

Yeah, exactly. I feel like LEGO usually avoids making big sets when introducing new themes, but there are exceptions.

For example, they first Avatar wave had four sets, proved between 45€ and 150€. No idea how well those sold, but it was still surprising seeing 100€ and 150€ set in such a small wave (but to be fair, I feel like those sets were targeted more towards the adults).

For example the second wave was much more moderately priced, with five sets in a 25–100€ range. Then of course there's the Indiana Jones diorama, but again, it's an adult-oriented set.

Animal Crossing focuses on 10–40€ sets, with only two proced above that (and no more than 80€). Despicable Me does the exact same thing, with slightly pricier (around 50€) buildable figures and a single 100€ set. Sonic the Hedgehog is similar, although most of the sets are in the 20–50€ range. There's a few costlier ones, but not many.

So taking into account all of this data, I think it'll follow a similar route to most of those themes (or rather, the latter ones). Sonic and Animal Crossing had 5 sets in their first waves, while Despicable Me had 4 in its most recent one. I think that's the number of sets we should be expecting.

Obviously we don't know what LEGO's approach is (maybe they want it to become an evergreen theme like Sonic), but I'd expect five sets in a 20–50€ price range, with a single buildable display-style dragon at 60€ and a bigger set at 80–100€. Focused on the dragons, without subtantial builds as you've mentioned.

[Accio Lego]

1 hour ago, THELEGOBATMAN said:

Yeah, exactly. I feel like LEGO usually avoids making big sets when introducing new themes, but there are exceptions.

For example, they first Avatar wave had four sets, proved between 45€ and 150€. No idea how well those sold, but it was still surprising seeing 100€ and 150€ set in such a small wave (but to be fair, I feel like those sets were targeted more towards the adults).

For example the second wave was much more moderately priced, with five sets in a 25–100€ range. Then of course there's the Indiana Jones diorama, but again, it's an adult-oriented set.

Animal Crossing focuses on 10–40€ sets, with only two proced above that (and no more than 80€). Despicable Me does the exact same thing, with slightly pricier (around 50€) buildable figures and a single 100€ set. Sonic the Hedgehog is similar, although most of the sets are in the 20–50€ range. There's a few costlier ones, but not many.

So taking into account all of this data, I think it'll follow a similar route to most of those themes (or rather, the latter ones). Sonic and Animal Crossing had 5 sets in their first waves, while Despicable Me had 4 in its most recent one. I think that's the number of sets we should be expecting.

Obviously we don't know what LEGO's approach is (maybe they want it to become an evergreen theme like Sonic), but I'd expect five sets in a 20–50€ price range, with a single buildable display-style dragon at 60€ and a bigger set at 80–100€. Focused on the dragons, without subtantial builds as you've mentioned.

You’ve left off other newly partnered IPs like Fortnite, Wicked, Wednesday, and Legend of Zelda. The first two do roughly follow the same format you’re suggesting, but Wednesday has fewer sets (skewed towards the higher price points), and Zelda only has the one D2C (suggesting Lego is confident that adult nostalgia alone can turn them a profit with that property). Not knocking your analysis, just adding data points to it and pointing out that lego seems to put a little more faith in properties that have been around longer and are known moneymakers. 

[THELEGOBATMAN]

6 hours ago, Accio Lego said:

You’ve left off other newly partnered IPs like Fortnite, Wicked, Wednesday, and Legend of Zelda. The first two do roughly follow the same format you’re suggesting, but Wednesday has fewer sets (skewed towards the higher price points), and Zelda only has the one D2C (suggesting Lego is confident that adult nostalgia alone can turn them a profit with that property). Not knocking your analysis, just adding data points to it and pointing out that lego seems to put a little more faith in properties that have been around longer and are known moneymakers. 

You're right, I did forget some of those—Wicked and Wednesday. The first one has three regular sets (at 30–100€), with another one at 55€ for buildable figures. Basically follows the same pattern of the Despicable Me 4 wave. Wednesday only has two sets, probably because it doesn't have much set potential, so I don't think it's as relevant.

Fortnite I skipped because it's irrelevant. It focuses on buildable figures, with only one regular set, so I don't think it's useful to compare to. Zelda, on the other hand, has only one adult-oriented set. So again, not that useful.

But the thing is, I think LEGO might realise that How to Train Your Dragon has more potential than any of those themes. Sure, the first movie might not warrant more than eight sets as I've shown, but when you go onto the next ones? That's years and years of waves guaranteed.

Then again, they could also take the upcoming movie approach, like they did with Wicked and Despicable Me 4—so two sets at 20–50€, a buildable figure at 60€, and a bigger 100€ set. Well, only time will tell.

[MAB]

On 11/2/2024 at 3:16 PM, Agent Kallus said:

Is Playmobil even a Lego competitor? I feel like it fills a different niché, after all it isn't a building toy.

Yes. And now, probably more than ever as LEGO has become less of a building toy for many. Look at how many sets are built once then displayed or played with, but never mixed up with other parts or rebuilt as something else or even rebuilt at all. They are both role playing type toys, with the difference that with LEGO you get the extra step of building it first. Role playing with a LEGO car once it is built is not that different to role playing with a Matchbox or Hotwheels car. Replace car with any object.

[Agent Kallus]

1 hour ago, MAB said:

Yes. And now, probably more than ever as LEGO has become less of a building toy for many. Look at how many sets are built once then displayed or played with, but never mixed up with other parts or rebuilt as something else or even rebuilt at all. They are both role playing type toys, with the difference that with LEGO you get the extra step of building it first. Role playing with a LEGO car once it is built is not that different to role playing with a Matchbox or Hotwheels car. Replace car with any object.

Eh. I can agree that Playmobil is a Lego competitor but only insomuch as all toys are as @Black Falcon stated.

You say the extra step of building it first but that's the main step really, some might even think of Lego sets (that won't be rebuilt into something else) as like 3D jigsaw puzzles. Playmobil isn't even at similar scale as minifig stuff. Aren't most toys role playing toys by that logic? From a wooden sword to a hot wheels track to a cuddly Pikachu to a Lego Ninjago dragon.

[MAB]

21 hours ago, Agent Kallus said:

You say the extra step of building it first but that's the main step really, some might even think of Lego sets (that won't be rebuilt into something else) as like 3D jigsaw puzzles. Playmobil isn't even at similar scale as minifig stuff. Aren't most toys role playing toys by that logic? From a wooden sword to a hot wheels track to a cuddly Pikachu to a Lego Ninjago dragon.

For you (and me) building may be the main step, but look at how many kids (and adults) these days build their LEGO once then keep it as a set and not use the building aspect again. 

As to scale, they are similar in that they are small handheld dolls that are played with in a similar way. Most toys are role playing or story telling but the style of play is different depending on their size. A lego minifigure holding a sword (or proton pack) is very similar to a playmobil doll holding a sword (or proton pack) and the play style is similar. Whereas a child holding a life-sized sword (or proton pack) will play with that toy in a very different way even if they are basing play on the same storyline. The latter is also more immersive in that the child is the character, whereas when using dolls they are outside of the play even if they project their feelings onto the doll. So I'd say LEGO and Playmobil have much more in common than a toy from the same franchise made at life size.