2011 Alien Conquest

[Delta 38]

Everyone has good points. A realistic military theme would be great, but probably wouldn't sell well. A dark grey plane couldn't possibly compete with colourful alien ships, and I can't imagine a realistic military theme being integrated with a story and everything.

The closest we've had to an actual military theme over recent years is probably Indiana Jones. If there's a significantly-marketed movie that features these things, perhaps it may be a possibility, but not a focus. Something like the A-Team (the original television series) could be appealing to kids, however outdated.

With the humans vs. humans point, there have been a few themes with this. They don't, however, have tanks or giant mechanical walkers to massacre each other with (Star Wars doesn't really count).

[TheBrickHitHouse]

Probably wouldn't sell? Yeah, because kids hate guns and tanks, sheesh - the nonsense some of you write.

A 'military theme' would do amazingly well. You want a storyline and to keep it 'family friendly' - have them fight robots then

Lego avoids it not because it wouldn't sell but because they worry it's not 'lego', family friendly and innocent

...of course this is the same company that made a Death Star set complete with planet killing laser!

[Aanchir]

Not entirely true. Look at Kingdoms and then there was Western where they had bandits vs law. They do do it, although rare. I can't wait for these to come out. I'll definitely be picking up the Tripod Invader set to wreak havoc on the citizens of my city.

To be fair, Western (called Wild West in the United States) is a pretty dated theme in this day and age. It had a lot of things I don't expect LEGO to ever return to, including minifigures with noses. It should also be noted, as I pointed out, that the weapons weren't the sort that kids would necessarily connect with the modern weapons they see in war-zone footage on the news. It's easy to find a life-size toy "cowboy gun" in the toy aisle of stores here in the United States, but you're not going to see anything resembling an AK-47. Kingdoms is a better example, but again tends to focus on swords and other medieval weapons rather than modern military weapons.

To be fair, tanks and other military vehicles aren't totally out of the question. There have been sets with "tank" in the name, even, like the Exo-Force Mobile Assault Tank and Hybrid Rescue Tank sets (not to mention the Bat-Tank). But there always has to be a certain degree of separation between these set designs and reality. So a theme with a Halo-like sci-fi military isn't out of the question (Alien Conquest actually approaches such an idea with its very obvious sci-fi guns and uniforms), but a theme with a 20th- or 21st-century military focus would be strictly off limits.

Also-- and this is where I'm just sharing my opinion, not trying to state the guidelines LEGO uses-- I feel that cartoony alien foes are a lot better for LEGO than a more fearsome foe, because when you think about it LEGO has a very cartoony aesthetic. Minifigures have shiny black dot eyes, no noses, and in many cases wide smiles or similarly exaggerated facial expressions. To have them facing off against xenomorphs would just seem unnatural in my personal opinion. So instead, we get the ludicrous Mars Attacks! style of aliens in spacecraft that look like they came from B-movies of the 1950s.

[jonwil]

There are plenty of AK47 toys.

Google for "ak47 toy" and you can find plenty of pictures.

The shelves of my local toy stores have quite a lot of toy machine guns and stuff (all of which have things like bright colors or orange tips to make them clearly different from real guns)

As for the debate over Indiana Jones and its "military" vehicles, look at the vehicles TLG chose to make. None of them are in any way similar to vehicles in use by modern military forces and none of them are likely to appear on the news, only in movies.

Tanks on the other hand appear in the news all the time and modern tanks dont look all that different (to a kid at least) to tanks from the world-war era.

[vexorian]

There are no AK-47 LEGO brand toys, and I doubt there will ever be.

[Gregorovich]

I was looking through some pictures from the NY toy fair, and the news reporter's torso appears to be decorated with a sticker ! I don't know if this is normal for a toy fair, or if this is actually going to happen with the final figure.

Also, why does she have a different head at the NY fair from at the Nuremberg?

[Aanchir]

I was looking through some pictures from the NY toy fair, and the news reporter's torso appears to be decorated with a sticker ! I don't know if this is normal for a toy fair, or if this is actually going to happen with the final figure.

Also, why does she have a different head at the NY fair from at the Nuremberg?

ToyFair often uses stickers as placeholders for prints. Nothing to worry about, I imagine. As for the different face, looks like the Nuremburg one is more finalized. It's also the one that appeared in the finalized high-res pic at Gizmodo (which notably shows no torso sticker).

It should be worth noting that the time a Toy Fair happens doesn't necessarily correspond with how finalized the sets are. Some of the Star Wars sets that were already out were unfinished at the New York Toy Fair, with, for instance, the Gungans using the older head piece rather than the newer, printed heads.

Edited April 8, 2011 by Aanchir

[brickmack]

I'll admit I am not really fond of the minifigs in this theme. The ADU officers' color still seems unsuitable for me to try to get plenty of - And it is with a lot of sadness that I notice that this is probably going to be my first chance to get many of those helmet molds, but they chose a color I don't want them in. Most Aliens have this 'brain' printing on their head that to me strikes as a little over detailing - If all of them had trans lime head like in the mothership, I would instead love them all.

I'll still mass some sets because of the accessories. The guns both Alien and Human are great stuff that I will need plenty of. And if that jet pack set was not a polybag I would love to get old school jet packs in bley.

Really want polybags to stop being US-Europe only. I am not even sure they are findable in Europe either.

Edit: Anyone else have the feeling the 8 blue parts at back of the Jet-Copter will keep falling off?

Until recently the polybags weren't available around my area in America either. Even now the only polybag sets sold around here are one of the Toy Story sets and a few microscale Star Wars ones.

[Gregorovich]

ToyFair often uses stickers as placeholders for prints. Nothing to worry about, I imagine. As for the different face, looks like the Nuremburg one is more finalized. It's also the one that appeared in the finalized high-res pic at Gizmodo (which notably shows no torso sticker).

It should be worth noting that the time a Toy Fair happens doesn't necessarily correspond with how finalized the sets are. Some of the Star Wars sets that were already out were unfinished at the New York Toy Fair, with, for instance, the Gungans using the older head piece rather than the newer, printed heads.

Well that's a relief. I was unsure whether it was normal to have stickers at the toy fairs because I've never been to or seen pictures of them before. I hope that this new head does have a reverse face though, because it would look wierd if she was happy when she had an alien sucking out her brain .

[Delta 38]

Probably wouldn't sell? Yeah, because kids hate guns and tanks, sheesh - the nonsense some of you write.

Well, given the option between a realistic war theme and a cartoon-styled science fiction theme, yes, it probably wouldn't sell.

As for the debate over Indiana Jones and its "military" vehicles, look at the vehicles TLG chose to make. None of them are in any way similar to vehicles in use by modern military forces and none of them are likely to appear on the news, only in movies.

Tanks on the other hand appear in the news all the time and modern tanks dont look all that different (to a kid at least) to tanks from the world-war era.

Actually, that's a very good point. The only major vehicles that do have similarities to modern ones are probably those planes. The rest seem to be relatively "neutral" vehicles, as they don't really have weapons.

[Scorpion]

Well, given the option between a realistic war theme and a cartoon-styled science fiction theme, yes, it probably wouldn't sell.

To be fair, those are not the only two option around. Why not a cartoon-styled war theme? Remember G.I. Joe and the Micromachines' Freedom Force versus Terror Troops (if you don't remember the latter, it consisted of realistic warmachines painted in very garish colourschemes as part of one of the two fictional factionss)? You can't say that those two franchises weren't sucessfull...

[Sirens-of-Titan]

To be fair, those are not the only two option around. Why not a cartoon-styled war theme? Remember G.I. Joe and the Micromachines' Freedom Force versus Terror Troops (if you don't remember the latter, it consisted of realistic warmachines painted in very garish colourschemes as part of one of the two fictional factionss)? You can't say that those two franchises weren't sucessfull...

Very true but the reason GI Joe was successful (And I don't think it was quite as popular in Continental Europe) was fact that after the initial historic uniforms, the figures became a mess of future-action, Asian fighter, James Bond mix action heroes. This was not as threatening to parents as actual war. The thing is; Lego prides itself with being an educational toy and outside of traditional histories and movie references it doesn't do the company any good to re-invent the wheel and try and make realistic models; that's already been done by hobby shops.

There is also a factor of cool which figures into it; if all the kids were totally into B-17 bombers and Mig 29's I bet LEGO would have made a few.

That is not to say that there haven't been a fair share of historic aircraft in realistic color schemes released over the years. The red Barron, Sopwith Camel and Wright Flier all ring a bell. Anyways, before I get too far off topic; I actually like the design of the human vehicles; especially the HQ, even if blue would not have been my color preference. The digital camouflage design on the tail of the human jet fighter is an especially nice touch.

[vexorian]

Probably wouldn't sell? Yeah, because kids hate guns and tanks, sheesh - the nonsense some of you write.

It is not 1980s anymore, war toys are hardly as popular as they once were. When I was a kid a realistic tank wouldn't excite me as much as a ultra sci-fi tank that hovers and has plasma weaponry. Gi-joes were a interesting toy until I learned about transformers which were cool until I learned about LEGO. I mean, compare the success of GI-Joe against just about any other big brand toy that competed with them when they started. After the 2000s it had issues to maintain store success and it instead had to become an online product targeted at the niche that was nostalgic for them. Until the movie, which turned the military-realistic GI-joe into sci-fi spy movie-style creatures and they had a mild comeback, but it is really nothing compared to Hasbro's success with transformers. They didn't even need that much of a revival.

Closer example, Cobi has had a military theme for long and it didn't really steal that much of TLG's market or any at all (and this is Cobi we are talking, so quality is not really that big of a concern). I don't think the kids of today really would hype towards realistic tanks.

And the main factor in sales of children' toys is the parents. The kids may love a realistic modern tank. But finding parents that love the idea of buying that to their children has become harder over the years. The intersection between kids that would prefer a realistic tank over what fantasy and sci-fi are offering us and the parents that would be willing to buy it gets smaller every day.

Lego avoids it not because it wouldn't sell but because they worry it's not 'Lego', family friendly and innocent

Yes, that's true, this is the main reason they won't do a military theme.

...of course this is the same company that made a Death Star set complete with planet killing laser!

Which comes from a completely fantasy sci-fi movie. But nevertheless, consider it. What we can conclude here is that the market success in sci-fi violence like starwars and exo-force was big enough to surpass the risk of losing the family-friendly toy image. The reason that even after SW, Bionicle and Exo-Force it is still so hard for most of us to envision TLG making a military theme is that nobody really expects its market success to be big enough to surpass the risk of losing family image..

To be fair, those are not the only two option around. Why not a cartoon-styled war theme? Remember G.I. Joe and the Micromachines' Freedom Force versus Terror Troops (if you don't remember the latter, it consisted of realistic warmachines painted in very garish colourschemes as part of one of the two fictional factionss)? You can't say that those two franchises weren't sucessfull...

The vehicles in AQ are fantasy/cartoon styled war vehicles.

Edited April 9, 2011 by vexorian

[simonjedi]

I didn't know that we had pics in glorious HD. Theme is Rad as hell, and I'll be buying quite a few sets. Hopefully Lego decide to actually release these into UK stores. I missed the space police line because of it.

I hope they release the fighter from Earth Defence HQ sometime. I love small cheap swooshable sets I can buy multiple of.

[Tereglith]

I hope they release the fighter from Earth Defence HQ sometime. I love small cheap swooshable sets I can buy multiple of.

Release a really awesome selling point of a large set all by itself? Not likely. Still, some people might split up the set and sell it individually on eBay. And we might get a sleeker (than the jet-copter) ADU fighter with a second wave. These sets can't come soon enough!

[vynsane]

Release a really awesome selling point of a large set all by itself? Not likely. Still, some people might split up the set and sell it individually on eBay. And we might get a sleeker (than the jet-copter) ADU fighter with a second wave. These sets can't come soon enough!

Assuming you don't buy the original set, you'll also be able to download the instructions from Brickset, and buy the pieces necessary to make just the fighter via BrickLink.

[Algernon]

Assuming you don't buy the original set, you'll also be able to download the instructions from Brickset, and buy the pieces necessary to make just the fighter via BrickLink.

I don't see why people don't want to just buy the entire set. It's a nice model, and priced fairly.

[Tereglith]

I don't see why people don't want to just buy the entire set. It's a nice model, and priced fairly.

It is, but 'priced fairly' doesn't necessarily translate into 'affordable'. $90 is still a good chunk of change, even if what you're getting for it is worth it.

[Algernon]

It is, but 'priced fairly' doesn't necessarily translate into 'affordable'. $90 is still a good chunk of change, even if what you're getting for it is worth it.

True enough. Well, chances are we'll get at least a winter wave of AC - maybe we'll get another small fighter, a la Mars Mission or Space Police wave 2.

[Nakara]

Oh my, I'm afraid I almost derailed the topic there with the discussion about military sets.

That being said, the vehicles in this theme are beautiful and extremely well designed(just look at that fighter in the HQ!) yet retain just enough fantasy to look sci-fi. My only complaint was if they would release a theme in "realistic" color designed like this theme, but knowing the nature of TLG's target demographic that seems highly improbable. Even white, like the following example, would be good, but it would have been so much better if the theme wasn't the blatantly unreal bright blue it is.

Edited January 29, 2021 by JustinYum

[kermit]

Just checked toys r`us and they have the alien conquests sets on sale now

[Gregorovich]

Just checked toys r`us and they have the alien conquests sets on sale now

I'm guessing that's just in the US, but at least it means we could get some reviews.

[krystalKING]

Thank you kermit!I so excited,I needed the HQ before may 10th,So thanks for the news!

EDIT:I am correct!Looking at the description for the tripod invader the top separates!

Edited April 17, 2011 by krystalKING

[Sirens-of-Titan]

Indeed they have them at Toys'R'Us but strangely enough not online but only in select stores.

I am guessing in another 2 weeks they will be hitting shelves in the US!

[Algernon]

Wow! Already? I guess it's time to start saving up for that HQ.