LEGO Collectable Minifigures Future Series Rumours

[Karalora]

1 minute ago, zoth33 said:

Lego had guns in the Pirates of the Caribbean sets so I don't see how that would go against their anti-gun stance if they did Yosemite Sam.  They have themes with guns eve the Marvel and DC themes that do represent modernity so why not give Sam his 6 shooter.  

We have been over this already in this thread.

[zoth33]

7 minutes ago, Karalora said:

We have been over this already in this thread.

Just saying it can easily be done.  

[Karalora]

10 hours ago, zoth33 said:

Just saying it can easily be done.  

If the argument is "LEGO could if they wanted to," I don't think anyone is disagreeing. I'm not entirely sure what the pro-Sam people are trying to prove.

[Lion King]

13 hours ago, Karalora said:

We have been over this already in this thread.

It doesn’t matter if we are already over this. Zoth made a good pint….  I already have said this before - it’s an irony.  I’m fine with Yosemite Sam coming with bananas instead of guns in CMF.  I just dont understand why Lego includes gun in Marvel, DC, Pirates of the Caribbean and a few non-licensed themes/sets. 

Anyways, I still think a regular minifigure head might work for Yosemite Sam with new mustach piece and hat. It sounds like you are concerned by how award the head mold look, yes? And printing minifigure head might be more easier than a specialized head mold. Same way for Elmer Fudd. We have bunch of human characters from Disney CMF Series…

Edited October 30, 2024 by Lion King

[Accio Lego]

I know there’s a lot of Looney Toons talk going on right now, but, frankly, on the subject of the immediate future, I don’t think there’s any chance of a series two. If Lego was going to do a series 2 of an IP that features a lot of molded heads and no corresponding sets, then Muppets is having their 70th anniversary next year and that would make far more sense. Even more likely are the options of the rumored Simpsons theme revival getting a series 3 or Disney negotiating a Marvel series 3 since they’ve got a large number of animation/television projects dropping next year. 
 

Of course, there’s also the possibility of a completely new IP, but that’s pretty unpredictable at this point. When did rumors about this September’s series start dropping last year anyway?

[MAB]

On 10/27/2024 at 1:54 AM, DarrellBricker said:

Conversely, one individual not hearing about some of the characters on my list doesn't mean there aren't a whole legion of fans out there who wouldn't be interested in these figures.

The point is for CMF sales to be good, LEGO (and retail stores) need more than a legion of fans of a franchise to buy them. They have to appeal to general buyers who might know of the characters and pick up a few, even if they are not part of a legion of fans devoted to the franchise.

On 10/29/2024 at 5:07 PM, Alexandrina said:

Who were minor characters 50 years ago is entirely irrelevant though. Even during my childhood, Lola was on equal standing with the rest of the Looney Tunes crew save for the Big 2, and as I understand it there's been a whole new cartoon since then which has frontlined more female characters. Kids nowadays don't necessarily care about which cartoon animal was around in the 60s and which is a newer creation

The "minor characters" was aimed more at Petunia Pig than Lola. Lola wasn't a minor character, she didn't exist. I haven't seen any of the modern cartoons, so for me Petunia Pig is the minor sidekick to Porky Pig. If there are more female characters in the franchise in modern cartoons, and this series was aimed at kids of today, I am a little surprised that they did not include more females in the series matching the modern line up. Aside from Lola, the roster is very reminiscent of cartoons shown 50+ years ago.

[Accio Lego]

9 hours ago, MAB said:

The point is for CMF sales to be good, LEGO (and retail stores) need more than a legion of fans of a franchise to buy them. They have to appeal to general buyers who might know of the characters and pick up a few, even if they are not part of a legion of fans devoted to the franchise.

I think you’re vastly underestimating how mainstream some previously niche DC characters have gotten in the last 30 years or so. I recognized all of the characters in the first comment you criticized, and I’m far from what anyone would consider a super fan. My main experience with these characters was watching Justice League (Unlimited) and a few other cartoons alongside catching a few of the recent movies and some early episodes of the CW shows. Never read any comics but I can still recognize several heroes. To be more specific, one of the characters I remember from that original post was Zatanna – I wouldn’t expect a non fan to know who she was in the 90s, but she had some solid cameos in Justice League Unlimited, was a major character in several seasons of the Young Justice cartoon, and is one of the main characters in the current iteration of the DC Superhero Girls cartoon. So the actual kids of today all the way up through millennials like me would recognize her pretty easily unless they’re actively avoiding consuming superhero media. Plus, her whole aesthetic is classic magician, so she’d have similar broader appeal like the Witch Queen from the current D&D series. That’s one specific example obviously, but despite Lego’s obsession with Batman, DC has been expanding the roster of characters that are immediately recognizable to the general public in recent years, and, beyond that, superheroes and villains just generally have fun designs that would appeal to kids in the same way the D&D series is probably drawing them in despite many of them not being familiar with the game. 

[Agent Kallus]

So we have 

January: Series 27

May: F1 

September: ??? 

I'm guessing it's too early to know really. But we have known things early before. Do we think it's more likely to be licensed or not?

[Alexandrina]

49 minutes ago, Accio Lego said:

To be more specific, one of the characters I remember from that original post was Zatanna – I wouldn’t expect a non fan to know who she was in the 90s, but she had some solid cameos in Justice League Unlimited, was a major character in several seasons of the Young Justice cartoon, and is one of the main characters in the current iteration of the DC Superhero Girls cartoon. So the actual kids of today all the way up through millennials like me would recognize her pretty easily unless they’re actively avoiding consuming superhero media.

So, I think you're going a little far in the other direction this way. Just as it's true that these characters might be more popular than they were twenty years ago, it's true that they're still broadly obscure. I'm firmly in the demographic you say would recognise Zatanna pretty easily, and I've never actively avoided superhero media - I've never even heard of any of the things you say she appeared in, let alone the character. Am I an outlier here? Probably. But I'd be wary of saying any superhero character outside of maybe a dozen across all franchises has universal recognisability with millennials and below. I think as well that it's part of human nature to assume that our experiences are broadly representative - that is to say, most people have at least passing familiarity with the characters we know, and most people don't know the characters we don't know

10 hours ago, MAB said:

Lola wasn't a minor character, she didn't exist.

But again, Lola existing or not fifty years ago is irrelevant to whether she is a major character now (or at least, a few years ago). Petunia Pig is also significantly more prevalent now than she was in the past, but their prevalence in a given time period doesn't matter since the CMFs weren't made in the 70s or the 80s

[Roebuck]

8 hours ago, Agent Kallus said:

September: ??? 

How to Train Your Dragon is a possibility now

[Accio Lego]

49 minutes ago, Roebuck said:

How to Train Your Dragon is a possibility now

Very tantalizing, but the same leaker who broke that news also confirmed Simpsons is coming back. So series 3 of that is also a distinct possibility. 
 

As much as I would love a HTTYD series – the thing that will be drawing people in a selling it are the dragons. You could easily put together a series of 12 human characters, but without any dragons, or even just the majority of characters not having dragons, it would probably disincentivize a lot of casual buyers.
 

You might be able to include dragons with every/most characters if you did a Terrible Terror and recolored it multiple times, and maybe some dragon hatchings, but would it be worth the budget it would take? Maybe I’m biased, but possibly. When you think about it, if they’re going off the character designs we’re already familiar with… that’s a lot of new helmet+hair molds. There’s currently no short hair + Viking helmet mold, and unless Lego seriously dropped the ball on the Ideas Viking Village the long hair + helmet mold from Series 7 probably no longer exists. With a variety of hairstyles and many helmets having unique horns, that’s a daunting thing to budget for in a new theme, especially when you need new parts for dragons too. But when the Harry Potter theme was revived in 2018, they put out a wave of sets alongside a CMF and leveraged the combined budgets to make the reboot an instant bestseller. Admittedly, Lego hasn’t tried that strategy again (closest we’ve gotten is the D&D theme, which only had one set, so the CMF was more about providing variety than the budget to properly depict all the necessary characters and creatures), but they do have evidence that it works. 

[MAB]

14 hours ago, Alexandrina said:

But again, Lola existing or not fifty years ago is irrelevant to whether she is a major character now (or at least, a few years ago). Petunia Pig is also significantly more prevalent now than she was in the past, but their prevalence in a given time period doesn't matter since the CMFs weren't made in the 70s or the 80s

That is kind of my point though. Are they made for kids today or reminiscent adults? If it is kids of today then why aren't there more modern (female) characters in the series? The ones they included are very nostalgic and recognizable for people that watched the originals. If they were after the people watching the new cartoons now, why was Lola the only new character and even she is relatively old compared to those new characters of the reboot about 10 years ago.

[Lion King]

6 hours ago, Roebuck said:

How to Train Your Dragon is a possibility now

Honestly, i ca’t see that way. How many popular characters over 12 slots?

[Black Falcon]

9 hours ago, Accio Lego said:

As much as I would love a HTTYD series – the thing that will be drawing people in a selling it are the dragons. You could easily put together a series of 12 human characters, but without any dragons, or even just the majority of characters not having dragons, it would probably disincentivize a lot of casual buyers.

Well, I would guess Simpson would have a better chance to get a CMF than How to train your Dragon. But I wouldn´t say noone would want to have the minifigs. I mean you can add baby dragons to them and we shouldn´t forget that even without any dragon at all they would still remain viking minifigs and historic minifigs usually aren´t the ones that are running that bad ;). So I could see many people getting them for the parts alone, not caring about the theme - similar to D&D now. And honestly, I do like Dragons but the Dragons of that series are way to comic-like and not really something I would be looking forward to.

[a_clay_brick]

Palnet has said that he heard the September wave will be either Marvel or Fortnite. I've heard Marvel from others as well, but nothing solid enough to make a graphic about.

Grain of salt for now, Palnet is very reliable though.

[Black Falcon]

19 minutes ago, a_clay_brick said:

Palnet has said that he heard the September wave will be either Marvel or Fortnite. I've heard Marvel from others as well, but nothing solid enough to make a graphic about.

Grain of salt for now, Palnet is very reliable though.

Well personally, I don´t care much about either of them, but I guess Fortnite could have some more cool minifgs than Marvel. And since last Marvel didn´t seem to do that well another one would actually surprise me. So yeah, hoping it rather is Fortnite then.

[karrit]

What I've seen from Fortnite so far I have zero interest in.  Never had any interest in The Simpsons.  Marvel depending on the characters I might get some mostly for parts like I did with the second wave but now that the boxes are scannable I doubt I'd actually get the full set.  I skipped a couple in the first series and there are several from the second I definitely would have passed on had they been scannable.

[Accio Lego]

38 minutes ago, Black Falcon said:

And since last Marvel didn´t seem to do that well another one would actually surprise me.

The last Marvel one was also the first boxed series and the only boxed series that never got identifying codes, so Lego would be smart to account for that when deciding if depressed numbers are a problem with the IP. You’d probably be better off crunching the numbers on resellers buying full cases and aftermarket sales and trading rather than judging by how long it took the boxes to be cleared off the shelves of local stores. And one of the unsuccessful parts of that series was probably a massive amount of stock loss from boxes being ripped open – not good for sales but potentially suggests the IP is a good choice since clearly a significant group of people considered certain characters desirable enough to engage in illicit activities to find them. 

[Black Falcon]

13 minutes ago, Accio Lego said:

The last Marvel one was also the first boxed series and the only boxed series that never got identifying codes, so Lego would be smart to account for that when deciding if depressed numbers are a problem with the IP. You’d probably be better off crunching the numbers on resellers buying full cases and aftermarket sales and trading rather than judging by how long it took the boxes to be cleared off the shelves of local stores. And one of the unsuccessful parts of that series was probably a massive amount of stock loss from boxes being ripped open – not good for sales but potentially suggests the IP is a good choice since clearly a significant group of people considered certain characters desirable enough to engage in illicit activities to find them. 

Fair point, I honestly didn´t think about that part lol. Anyways, still hoping it is something else. And actually it is quite a short time for a marvel series again, and there are just so many other IPs they can do....

[VinnieCannoli]

On 9/23/2024 at 5:43 AM, Robert8 said:

Do we know how the D&D series is selling?

I couldnt help but notice there are less reviews than usual. Even some regular LEGO reviewers on YouTube didnt review it (yet)

If by numbers-i have no idea.

If just "how" - i'm 200% sure it's selling amazing. The only time I saw these things in real life was when I went to the Lego Store... anywhere I tried to find them - only empty cases. I got lucky with the first 3 early  amazon purchases and thankfully got more than i will ever want + duplicates. I wish there was more but i'm afraid that lego won't do anything with it despite it's basically free money. But i will be glad to be wrong.

[1Panda]

With the how to train your dragon sets coming and a new shrek movie I think a dreamworks series could happen in a few years but for 2025 I think it will either be marvel or Fortnite 

Edited November 2, 2024 by 1Panda

[JohnTPT17]

7 hours ago, a_clay_brick said:

Palnet has said that he heard the September wave will be either Marvel or Fortnite. I've heard Marvel from others as well, but nothing solid enough to make a graphic about.

Grain of salt for now, Palnet is very reliable though.

Thanks for keeping is us the loop over here!

Either one of these makes sense... There's several new Marvel projects in the works (and a bunch of old ones) that could be used, and Fortnite's an untapped gold mine for minifigs. I'd probably get a full set of either. The only downside is that none of the leakers are putting anything on an Animal Crossing series... Ah, well.

[FinlayTheFaithful]

23 minutes ago, JohnTPT17 said:

Thanks for keeping is us the loop over here!

Either one of these makes sense... There's several new Marvel projects in the works (and a bunch of old ones) that could be used, and Fortnite's an untapped gold mine for minifigs. I'd probably get a full set of either. The only downside is that none of the leakers are putting anything on an Animal Crossing series... Ah, well.

I'm willing to bet on Fortnite since Marvel already has 2 CMFs, also because it would be a crime if they didn't make a Skull Trooper figure

[Robert8]

Fornite has so many characters that it could very well hijack the CMF theme for 3 or 4 years if they are successful as one expects

I think that license should be its own theme, like Vidiyo, with releases out of the CMF schedule

[FinlayTheFaithful]

1 hour ago, Robert8 said:

Fornite has so many characters that it could very well hijack the CMF theme for 3 or 4 years if they are successful as one expects

I think that license should be its own theme, like Vidiyo, with releases out of the CMF schedule

So like, Star Wars style battle packs?