1980-Something-Space-Guy Posted September 8, 2011 Posted September 8, 2011 SW has done much harm to space and thankfully POTC was not very successful. That is so true ... I believe that Lego put more of its creativity into Space than it does into SW. After all, all SW ships have already been designed. And what about us who are not huge SW fans? Hopefully Space will someday resurrect in its full glory. However, I don't think that a LOTR theme would span so many years. I would actually like to see a licensed theme of this. In about 5 years, at most, castle would be back, I think.
Erynion Posted September 8, 2011 Posted September 8, 2011 (edited) Is pink skin really THAT bad? Yes. ... Chapter 1: Creator Buildings in modular-style ... Ok, give every location a main-set. Two examples: Edoras - the Golden Hall. Lothlorien - Caras Galadhon. In these "main-sets" are located the "main-characters". Now has Lego to give these locations a set in a 3-in-1 style with lesser famous characters (just soldiers and/or civilians). For Lothlorien a treehouse for three several variations. For Edoras a "3-in-1 set" for a house, city gate and a city wall. The city gate and city wall are modular. So, at the time has lego just 4 sets produced. And now want every LotR-fan for these huge locations at least 3x "3-in-1 (modular) sets". And now begins LEGOs buisness with LEGO LotR. (And everybody know: Tolkiens World is HUGE) That's a really interesting idea, but I don't know if I can see LEGO doing something so... "innovative", especially in an untried licensed theme. As usual, I could be wrong, but that's my feeling. ... And today chapter 3: Customizer, your hour has come! ... -Let’s talk about “one” orc battle-pack including 4x minifigures. So, Customizer, now has your hour come. Be creative and to develop 4x different torsos plus 4x different heads including 2x different faces pro head and 4x different helmets. Now we get 4 (torsos) x 4 (heads) x 2 (faces) x 4 (helmets) = 128 varying kinds of orcs. -If we want every variation of orc in our army than we have to buy this “one” LEGO developed orc battle pack 32 times! THAT is EXACTLY the sort of thing *I* would like to see from LEGO battle packs, REGARDLESS of whether or not they are for LOTR! I'd add one other point though...each figure in the battle pack has to have a different weapon/shield combo. Sword and shield, spear and shield, axe and shield, bow and quiver (NO CROSSBOWS FOR ORCS, THANK YOU!) That way, you can customize your units even further. "NO CROSSBOWS FOR ORCS, THANK YOU!" Here, here! ^^ I kind of disagree with these ideas for at least some battle packs. For Orcs, maybe, since they usually come across as a disorganized rabble anyways. But for soldiers of Gondor, the standard soldiers should all have the same uniform, simply because that's the way it is in the movie and when I build a magnificent army I want them all to look uniform and organized. Sure, including some different weaponry is fine, but the uniforms for standard infantry and archers should be the same. Also, we need to have decent ratios. Normally, battle packs come with at least one "hero" minifig that you really don't want multiples of, which is no fun if you're buying lots of these and trying to build an army. And the Knights battle pack for castle came with two knights (no horses of course ) and three "foot soldiers" - I would hate to have a Gondor battlepack with two Tower Guards and three standard infantry, because there's no way there would be that ratio of elite guards to the regulars (think of the films. We saw, all of what, maybe ten or twenty different Tower Guards, but hundreds upon hundreds of infantry and archers lining the walls in the Siege of Minas Tirith). Obviously, I would also hate to have five Gandalfs or Faramirs running around for my twenty soldiers. So given all that, I think the ideal Gondor battlepack would consist of four regular soldiers (with the same helmets, same torsos, same legs, and then maybe two infantry with shields - one swordsman, one spearmen - and two archers with bows and quivers. Or maybe three infantry and one archer, w/e) and one Tower Guard (with the winged helmet, and slightly nicer torso and legs and a cape such, maybe shield and spear could be the same). Different faces are fine, since that's realistic. EDIT: Actually, just thought of this - one of the archers could be a ranger of Ithilien. That could add some variety. But I repeat, for my standard Gondorian soldiers, I want the SAME HELMET, SAME TORSO, SAME LEGS, SAME SHIELDS... That being said, LEGO hasn't been giving us such nicely uniformed soldiers in the same set for decades now, so it probably won't happen. The Uruk-hai are also dressed pretty similarly, though I guess the Riders of Rohan have a fair bit of variety. However, a Riders battlepack MUST come with horses for each man (like that'll ever happen ) for it to be any good. But the kids in HP started at age 11, the top end of the usual LEGO range, and while I don't know any kids in the magic LEGO age range that have read the LOTR, I know MANY who've read the Hobbit... and that's ultimately what this is about, since the idea for a LEGO theme revolves around the release of, as I said before, two pretty much guaranteed blockbuster movies aimed at a younger audience than the LOTR. Do we know for sure that the Hobbit is aimed at a younger audience? Because they're including a lot of extra content from beyond the book that is arguably only relevant in the larger context of LOTR lore (meeting of the White Council, expulsion of Sauron/The Necromancer from Dol Guldur), even though this was happening at the time of the Hobbit story. (Everyone who's following the debate, remember: the Indiana Jones movies, Pirates of the Caribbean series, Prince of Persia, and every Harry Potter movie since Goblet of Fire have been rated PG-13. Sorry for being too obsessed with detail, but I'm looking at IMBb and it says the first two Indiana Jones are PG I'm still a little sceptical of the theme. I think if LEGO does come out with it, it won't be nearly what AFOLs are expecting (certainly not Elander ) and we'll be largely disappointed. So, what's better, no theme, or a disappointingly poor theme? I don't know. And I also just realized, if they come out with LOTR, then I'll have to decide whether my favourite minifigures is LEGOlas or Robin Hood. They'll fight for it in my head, they'll fight for my avatar, they'll fight for the prominent place on my desk and in my army battle formation and... oh dear... Edited September 8, 2011 by Erynion
Aanchir Posted September 8, 2011 Posted September 8, 2011 That is so true ... I believe that Lego put more of its creativity into Space than it does into SW. After all, all SW ships have already been designed. And what about us who are not huge SW fans? Hopefully Space will someday resurrect in its full glory. However, I don't think that a LOTR theme would span so many years. I would actually like to see a licensed theme of this. In about 5 years, at most, castle would be back, I think. I think Space has already "resurrected in its full glory". It's not as though Space themes today are too much smaller than they were in the past. And while the format of Space themes have changed, no longer featuring single-faction waves, this is an across-the-board change that occurred in most themes, even ones that Star Wars probably never had any impact on. Star Wars did some serious damage to LEGO Space back when the prequel trilogy was out and there was mass hype for anything and everything Star Wars. But I haven't seen that much attention on Star Wars for some time. And it seems that shortly after the prequels ended, LEGO Space soon returned at full strength in the form of Mars Mission. Meanwhile, I don't know if it's safe to say that the LEGO Pirates theme ended specifically to make room for PotC, even though it sort of seems as though that were the case. There was pretty much a full year between the last Pirates set (Imperial Flagship in January 2010) and the first Pirates of the Caribbean sets (sometime in Spring 2011). I can't imagine why such a "buffer zone" would possibly be necessary if there were a huge demand for pirates in general. Now, LEGO Lord of the Rings probably would damage the likelihood of Kingdoms continuing, since Kingdoms doesn't seem to have had outstanding success. Then again, the fact that it's been a low-visibility theme could have to do with the huge marketing campaigns behind other recent themes like Atlantis, Hero Factory, and most recently Ninjago. In any case I think whether or not Kingdoms continues depends on its own merits entirely. But whether it gets a non-licensed replacement would depend on whether a Tolkien-based theme is in the works.
1980-Something-Space-Guy Posted September 8, 2011 Posted September 8, 2011 I think Space has already "resurrected in its full glory". It's not as though Space themes today are too much smaller than they were in the past. And while the format of Space themes have changed, no longer featuring single-faction waves, this is an across-the-board change that occurred in most themes, even ones that Star Wars probably never had any impact on. Star Wars did some serious damage to LEGO Space back when the prequel trilogy was out and there was mass hype for anything and everything Star Wars. But I haven't seen that much attention on Star Wars for some time. And it seems that shortly after the prequels ended, LEGO Space soon returned at full strength in the form of Mars Mission. You're right, maybe the format of the Space themes has changed not because of SW's fault, and SW no longer has such a negative impact over Space. However, I do think that Space hasn't resurrected in its full glory, because we no longer have so many Space subthemes at the same time. As you say, this isn't because of SW, but this doesn't mean Space is back at its full, at least in my opinion. But of course we're speaking off-topic.
K-Nut Posted September 9, 2011 Posted September 9, 2011 I hope this is just a rumor. We have enough issues already with licenses messing with classical themes. SW has done much harm to space and thankfully POTC was not very successful. We don't need Castle to have to deal with this problem as well. I've heard that Potc is doing well. But now with some thinking I really don't want this to come and replace Castle.
fred67 Posted September 9, 2011 Posted September 9, 2011 Do we know for sure that the Hobbit is aimed at a younger audience? Because they're including a lot of extra content from beyond the book that is arguably only relevant in the larger context of LOTR lore (meeting of the White Council, expulsion of Sauron/The Necromancer from Dol Guldur), even though this was happening at the time of the Hobbit story. I know nothing about the movies except that Peter Jackson is taking on more of it than he wanted to (which I think is a good thing) and that it will be in two parts; I also read a few things about movie rights and so forth, but that was all settled. I know the book was targeted at a younger audience. I can only suppose the movie will be better for younger audiences because the book was, despite a few interesting details they might add, but who knows? Maybe they'll make the epic final battle so gory it'll be R. But there are a few other things I'd like to point out - the first couple of Indiana Jones movies may have been PG, but it was the second one that was explicitly aimed at kids (thank Lucas for that, even if you want to blame Spielberg). Of course, it's generally considered the weakest of the original three for that reason (same reason Return of the Jedi is considered the weakest of the OT, IMO). In fact, the Last Crusade was supposedly referred to as being an apology to adults from Spielberg for the Temple of Doom - and it grossed nearly 50% more worldwide despite being PG-13 instead of PG. But I digress.. the point is that these movies came out 20 to 30 years ago, and LEGO launched a line based on just one last, single movie (perhaps they assumed if it did well there'd have been another one by now... it's obvious "Mutt" was supposed to take over the franchise), it was PG-13; POTC had three highly successful movies and we didn't get LEGO sets until the fourth (relatively crappy) movie... and it was PG-13. I think a lot of parents let their kids watch PG-13; I'm going to go ahead and admit my son watched all the movies when he was quite young... and played most of the video games, to boot. Perhaps 7 is too young, but I don't know that 10 or 11 is, and I think there will be renewed interest in LOTR when the Hobbit comes out. I'll also point out again that I'm not expecting TLG to release LOTR sets. Then again, I was not expecting them to release new HP sets, either (based on PG-13 movies, no less). I was quite happy when they did; I would be quite happy if they did LOTR... but I'm not holding my breath, I'm merely disagreeing with a lot of nay-saying about "why" a LOTR wouldn't work - I personally don't believe the arguments. The question for TLG is merely it would it work well enough to justify the costs, including licensing. I have no doubt this line would not do as well as Star Wars, but it doesn't have to do as well to be worthwhile; but if Newline, MGM, and the Tolkien Estate (and whomever else would get a cut of the pie) think they should get just as much as Lucas does for Star Wars (and knowing Newline and it's parent company... Time Warner, I wouldn't doubt it), then TLG might not feel it's worth it, because it would likely not have nearly as large a run as SW has. But as is often pointed out, it's all just speculation, and this is just my two cents.
Vindice Posted September 9, 2011 Posted September 9, 2011 I've heard that Potc is doing well. But now with some thinking I really don't want this to come and replace Castle. Surprisingly i've heard the same thing. What you have to remember though is that TLG have placed a lot of sets with retailers but almost all retailers have been selling these sets very early on at hugely discounted rates. This means it;s them that are not making the profit they would like on the sets not TLG. so TLG may think it;s shifted well initially but if the retailers are not making their profit margin then they won't take future listings for these lines. The proof will be in how long the line continues.
Elander Posted September 9, 2011 Posted September 9, 2011 (edited) I don’t know if LEGO get the rights for LOTR, but now let’s in this case to simulate that LEGO get the rights.... I hope LEGO would be not conservative and will be innovative and will to transform Lord of the Rings with CREATOR. Houses and walls are not so complicated like spaceships and can be transformed in some variations. For LEGO is that system no risk because they haven’t to develop a lot of sets and we could buying many of them. And if LEGO would not go this way –than has TLC internal a big problem. Just simulate: a couple of sets for a wave for the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit: -Ok, again... let’s add some places by my column (a few of you are really stubborn) : The Shire (chapter 6), because the Shire cool is: (2x sets) LEGO has developed 2x sets –if we want that place complete than we have to buy 7x CREATOR sets plus Bag End (main-set for main characters) = 8x sets. The Black Gate (chapter 4), because here we will find a lot of action: (2x sets) LEGO has developed 2x sets –if we want that place complete than we have to buy 4x CREATOR sets plus the gate (main-set for main characters) = 5 sets. CREATOR Creature (chapter 2) war-troll set for a nice Black Gate battle: (1x set) LEGO has developed 1x set –if we want all variations than we have to buy 3x CREATOR sets. Helm’s Deep (chapter 8), because all want it: (2x sets) LEGO has to develop 2x sets –if we want that place complete than we have to buy 4x CREATOR sets and the Hornburg (main-set for main characters and every wave need 1x highlight; -that is our big set for this wave) = 5x sets. 1x Uruk-hai Battle pack for a nice Helms Deep battle In total: LEGO has developed 8 sets (like POTC) and can sell: 8(the Shire) + 5(the Black Gate) + 3(CREATOR creature) + 5(Helm’s Deep) + some Uruk-hai battle-packs = 22+ sets So, TLC has to be creative and innovative BECAUSE his toy creative and innovative is! And if these company not going this way –than is the party over. We living in a very hard commercial world and I believe I have nobody to explain that conservative management NO way is. Edited September 9, 2011 by Elander
Gryphon Ink Posted September 9, 2011 Posted September 9, 2011 Sorry for being too obsessed with detail, but I'm looking at IMBb and it says the first two Indiana Jones are PG Whoops, you're right. Because the PG13 rating didn't exist at the time of their release. Actually, PG13 was created at the suggestion of Steven Spielberg as a reaction to parents who were angry about the violent content in two of his then-recent PG-rated movies: Gremlins and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom!
Erynion Posted September 9, 2011 Posted September 9, 2011 But there are a few other things I'd like to point out - the first couple of Indiana Jones movies may have been PG, but it was the second one that was explicitly aimed at kids (thank Lucas for that, even if you want to blame Spielberg). Of course, it's generally considered the weakest of the original three for that reason (same reason Return of the Jedi is considered the weakest of the OT, IMO). In fact, the Last Crusade was supposedly referred to as being an apology to adults from Spielberg for the Temple of Doom - and it grossed nearly 50% more worldwide despite being PG-13 instead of PG. I find it difficult to believe that the Temple of Doom was aimed at kids. IMO it was the worst (bloody, violent, dark, etc) of all of them. My younger sister has seen the other 3 Indy films and my parents still don't have any intentions of letting her watch the Temple of Doom. Whoops, you're right. Because the PG13 rating didn't exist at the time of their release. Actually, PG13 was created at the suggestion of Steven Spielberg as a reaction to parents who were angry about the violent content in two of his then-recent PG-rated movies: Gremlins and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom! That I could believe But I digress.. the point is that these movies came out 20 to 30 years ago, and LEGO launched a line based on just one last, single movie (perhaps they assumed if it did well there'd have been another one by now... it's obvious "Mutt" was supposed to take over the franchise), it was PG-13; POTC had three highly successful movies and we didn't get LEGO sets until the fourth (relatively crappy) movie... and it was PG-13. I think a lot of parents let their kids watch PG-13; I'm going to go ahead and admit my son watched all the movies when he was quite young... and played most of the video games, to boot. Perhaps 7 is too young, but I don't know that 10 or 11 is, and I think there will be renewed interest in LOTR when the Hobbit comes out. How do I say this (not that it really matters)? I don't dispute that parents let their kids watch things that are supposedly above their age level (though I don't necessarily agree with it). I think this is obvious given the licenses LEGO has been pursuing. And as such, I agree with you on this, I don't think that the rating on LOTR or The Hobbit would stop LEGO from doing it, whether or not The Hobbit movie is aimed at a younger audience. P.S. I thought the fourth Pirates was much better than the second or third
CMP Posted September 9, 2011 Posted September 9, 2011 You guys are putting way too much in 'Lord of the Rings is too violent and complicated for kids.' So is Star Wars. Even I had trouble keeping up with who's on who's side at the time in Pirates of the Carribbean. Of course they don't understand the true, full, plot. They don't care! They just care that Lego makes good sets and the characters are interesting. Why's Darth Vader so popular among kids? He's mysterious, evil, and wears a bunch of black armor. Do they know about the whole Anakin Skywalker thing? Not really. But he's still very popular. Was Fantasy Era popular? Yeah. Essentially, all we have is less castles and re-skinned orcs. It's not like Lego's going to put bloodstain stickers in a set. And they probably won't make Lord of the Rings sets. It'll probably be The Hobbit. If it's successful, yeah, maybe it'll extend into Lotr. Of course, it's more likely it'll be neither. I'm just pointing out it just as easily could be.
Vindice Posted September 9, 2011 Posted September 9, 2011 i won't let my children ever watch Temple of Doom, not because it's too dark but because it's total crap! I tried watching the PotC 4 film three times whilst on a lengthy flight to Dubai and fell asleep everytime. I thought it was awful. Characters were rubbish, even Jack Sparrow. The only thing that made the film bearable was the the awesome Geoffrey Rush. If any film was worthy of a license then lotR ticks the boxes, great films. As i've said previously i'd love to see the theme but just don't see it happening, especially on the scale Elander would like to see.
Eldervampire Posted September 10, 2011 Posted September 10, 2011 First, I don't have a dog in this fight. I don't collect or MOC Castles, and I dislike the direction Lego has taken with the Licensed themes. But this ain't gonna happen, and I'll tell you why. Number one, face facts, when a lot of us were kids we read books. No I-anything. Sure some of us had Atari or Nintendo. But true Fantasy has almost always been in the Books. They made Hobbit cartoons, but I haven't seen a single kid of the current generation watch them. But I don't pretend to know them all, so there may be a few. Secondly, do any of you remember the FLOOD of toys that happened when the LoTr came out? I do, and I also remember quite clearly the collector market vermin scooping up a varient this and a short packed that. I don't remember any kids screaming they weren't leaving TRU without a Legolas figure. They eventually ended up in the $1.99 bin next to the Robin Hood Prince of theives toys that still haunt the toy eisles. The fact remains, the demographic isn't there. However all of the other themes that have been mentioned here have a strong tie to the desired demographic, mostly us, the parent. I introduced my kid to SW, Indy and PoTc. And The Hobbit and Harry Potter and Lord of the rings. As a result, I have been dressed up as a Pirate, faught about being Han Solo, not Luke and have too many fossiles in my house and holes in my yard where they were planted and I don't ever want to here expelliarmus coming from behind me. But I have never been anywhere near Mount Doom. In the interest of fairness, however I will admit that Lego has not always made sound decisions in the Theme department, so I will check my sources. Yes I have sources, not in Lego, in the Video game industry. I will see if there is any truth to the roumor about the Lego game. But if I'm wrong, I'll eat the sorting hat.
JurassicBrick Posted September 11, 2011 Posted September 11, 2011 Well, considering 'The Hobbit' is supposed to be a lot lighter than the 'Lord of the Rings' films, sets based off that seem logical. As for 'Lord of the Rings', I don't buy the argument that the tone is too "dark" for LEGO. Heck, you can argue that they did a set of "The Dark Knight" and they'll probably do some for "The Dark Knight Rises" in the superhero line, and those films are darker than LOTR. In the minifig line, we've seen Lego create things like elves and a variety of weapons that were the biggest obstacle I saw to a LOTR line. I would think that a license tie-in would be a good way for Lego to increase the popularity of a Castle line, which doesn't seem to be doing all that well, at least in my area. That said, I'm not going to get my hopes up for this.
goldfish Posted September 11, 2011 Posted September 11, 2011 (edited) First, I don't have a dog in this fight. I don't collect or MOC Castles, and I dislike the direction Lego has taken with the Licensed themes. But this ain't gonna happen, and I'll tell you why. Number one, face facts, when a lot of us were kids we read books. No I-anything. Sure some of us had Atari or Nintendo. But true Fantasy has almost always been in the Books. They made Hobbit cartoons, but I haven't seen a single kid of the current generation watch them. But I don't pretend to know them all, so there may be a few. Secondly, do any of you remember the FLOOD of toys that happened when the LoTr came out? I do, and I also remember quite clearly the collector market vermin scooping up a varient this and a short packed that. I don't remember any kids screaming they weren't leaving TRU without a Legolas figure. They eventually ended up in the $1.99 bin next to the Robin Hood Prince of theives toys that still haunt the toy eisles. The fact remains, the demographic isn't there. However all of the other themes that have been mentioned here have a strong tie to the desired demographic, mostly us, the parent. I introduced my kid to SW, Indy and PoTc. And The Hobbit and Harry Potter and Lord of the rings. As a result, I have been dressed up as a Pirate, faught about being Han Solo, not Luke and have too many fossiles in my house and holes in my yard where they were planted and I don't ever want to here expelliarmus coming from behind me. But I have never been anywhere near Mount Doom. In the interest of fairness, however I will admit that Lego has not always made sound decisions in the Theme department, so I will check my sources. Yes I have sources, not in Lego, in the Video game industry. I will see if there is any truth to the roumor about the Lego game. But if I'm wrong, I'll eat the sorting hat. Isn't your argument totally undermined by the fact Lego did Prince of Persia? lol Lord of the Rings would make a great licence, if only for the fact it would do well in the premium AFOL market. For mass market, I think the Hobbit would be better. Edited September 11, 2011 by goldfish
Itaria No Shintaku Posted September 11, 2011 Posted September 11, 2011 I do believe it would depend mostly on the loyalties... I mean, I didn't buy a single PoTC set because of those prices. The bricks and the minifigs are really excellent, but I won't pay 50% more (or so) because a certain minifig represents Jack Sparrow. I have a Jack Sparrow minifig and I would give it away easily. It doesn't fit into my own lego universe. I use Harry Potter's stuff to do OTHER things but Jack Sparrow is too specific. However, back on topic, I still see that given the opportunity, TLC would do that if they are sure to sell well. And when I say well, I mean WELL. Alas, AFOLS are not TLC's target. Kids are. And I wouldn't bet my wage on kids going excited for a "Hobbit theme". Perhaps they would do... perhaps I'm wrong... but while spaceships (SW) and pirate ships (PoTC) tingle a kid's fantasy, most of the sets from "Hobbit" wouldn't. My 2 cents. This said and done, were TLC producing LotR, my money would be over in zero time.
Eldervampire Posted September 11, 2011 Posted September 11, 2011 Isn't your argument totally undermined by the fact Lego did Prince of Persia? lol Lord of the Rings would make a great licence, if only for the fact it would do well in the premium AFOL market. For mass market, I think the Hobbit would be better. No, PoP, just re-enforces my point. It started as a video game several years ago. It was and is first a video game License. I used to Run a Gamestop, I can tell you that Only a handful of early teens bought the LoTr games. And alot of Kids of every age group bought the Platform / Adventure type of games. Most of them were introduced to PoP, Tomb Raider and the like by older syblings or Peers who were. I am still waiting from my buddy to see if he has any info on the new Lego brand Games. Just to clarify, I am a Huge Fan of both the Hobbit and Lord of the rings. I read them both before I was ten. I own all five Middle earth books and all of the Various movies renditions cartoon, live action and even the wierd hybred they did of Return of the KIng. I'm not a hater.
Omicron Posted September 11, 2011 Posted September 11, 2011 (edited) No, PoP, just re-enforces my point. It started as a video game several years ago. It was and is first a video game License. Ummm The Prince of Persia license was strictly a movie license. No sets or figures were based on the video games, and they wouldn't have been able to do that anyways considering they didn't have the license to make anything based on the video games anyways (meaning Disney doesn't own the games, and the agreement was with Disney). Besides, it's already known Lego doesn't touch the video game market when it comes to licenses (which means no Zelda or Mario). However that was said awhile back and that may have changed, but nothing has been said that changed that. -Omi Edited September 11, 2011 by Omicron
Eldervampire Posted September 12, 2011 Posted September 12, 2011 I didn't make myself clear, sorry for that. My point wasn't that Lego made PoP sets based off of the video game. It was that the exposure of the PoP brand was video game based. Platform games have an appeal to a younger audience, even the ones rated above the average player's ESRB. So when a PoP movie hit it was a no-brainer formula. Video game + movie/cartoon based off of it = Lego set. Not that they are the only ones that get made into sets. But the License sets do follow a formula like that. I have watched kids play a video game for hours, kids of all ages for that matter. I have watched a 7yr old sit through a PoTc marathon. I have yet to see a kid sit through any of the current LotR movies, nor do they buy the toys.
vexorian Posted September 12, 2011 Posted September 12, 2011 Star Wars did some serious damage to LEGO Space back when the prequel trilogy was out and there was mass hype for anything and everything Star Wars. But I haven't seen that much attention on Star Wars for some time. And it seems that shortly after the prequels ended, LEGO Space soon returned at full strength in the form of Mars Mission. LEGO itself may be paying more attention to Space now than years ago. But SW's existence is still having negative effects to space. And I am talking about retailers. Specifically my retailers, which seem to have only shelf space and will for a limited number of licenses and last year they decided not to bring any Space Police III because (and I quote) they already have SW anyway. So I go to look for space stuff and they offer me SW. I am right now very afraid of them not bringing Alien Conquest this year.
Elander Posted September 12, 2011 Posted September 12, 2011 (edited) ...however, back on topic, I still see that given the opportunity, TLC would do that if they are sure to sell well. And when I say well, I mean WELL. Alas, AFOLS are not TLC's target. Kids are. And I wouldn't bet my wage on kids going excited for a "Hobbit theme". Perhaps they would do... perhaps I'm wrong... but while spaceships (SW) and pirate ships (PoTC) tingle a kid's fantasy, most of the sets from "Hobbit" wouldn't. My 2 cents. This said and done, were TLC producing LotR, my money would be over in zero time. It will sell WELL. LEGOs only task is to catch the adults and the children. Children loves action: Middle-earth is complete full with action. The kids will love these LEGO-boxes without to know the movies. LEGOs task is every LEGO-set, and I mean every set, to give his own flair. And with Middle-earth it is too easy (in this topic I’ve shown you a LOT of possibilities). And what is about the adults? –They love beauty architecture designing. And now seriously: Who about you would not like a beauty Rivendell? Harry Potter has the exclusive Daigon Alley and Star Wars has a perfect exclusive Imperial Space-Shuttle. And what is about Middle-earth? ...come on, where are the visionaries? LEGO is born for themes like Middle-earth. Here will (like Star Wars) all generations be connected. And why not for some locations in CREATOR style? We talk about houses, walls, rocks and caves. These buildings are no complicated spaceships and perfect for CREATOR. For LEGO a perfect possibility to sell many sets and we have to decide what we want (all explained here in this topic). If you want from every location only the main-building inclusive main-characters –than buy only the main-buildings. But if you want a complete location in UCS style inclusive massive armies –than has you the chance with just 1x or 2x developed CREATOR sets extra to build this complete location. If you want all of them –than will you to need 2x jobs extra. Amazing, that is for everybody a “win to win” situation! -excluded your wallet. And LEGO videogames based of the stories of Middle-earth. –Also amazing. Damn, maybe it is possible to play these huge battles in LEGO-style. Here are also endless possibilities: -large levels, many locations -a lot of characters -different stories, different tasks, and so forth... LEGO videogames for Middle-earth will be another factor to catch the kids. In combination with videogames, exclusive architecture buildings for adults and playable battles (in CREATOR-style) will that theme at 100% an absolute economic success. Edited September 12, 2011 by Elander
Weil Posted September 12, 2011 Posted September 12, 2011 I think children would like Hobbit/LOTR LEGO sets but would they like them any more than non-licesnsed castle/fantasy LEGO sets? I'm not convinced about that really.
Itaria No Shintaku Posted September 12, 2011 Posted September 12, 2011 I think children would like Hobbit/LOTR LEGO sets but would they like them any more than non-licesnsed castle/fantasy LEGO sets? I'm not convinced about that really. Yes. You told in a line what I tried to say in dozens. The problem is, for a kid Midlle Earth is like a generic castle. BUT it costs 1.5x Of course children do not look for the price, but parents do. And not all parents are AFOL. Mine are. But not everyone.
Omicron Posted September 12, 2011 Posted September 12, 2011 (edited) It will sell WELL. LEGOs only task is to catch the adults and the children. The thing is, you think it would, but there are chances of it not selling well. Like Batman. Like Spongebob. Like Prince of Persia. And I haven't heard from Ben 10 in awhile. And how did Indy do? It will be difficult to sell something when you have Star Wars and old Harry Potter and PoTC sets right next to it. -Omi Edited September 12, 2011 by Omicron
CMP Posted September 12, 2011 Posted September 12, 2011 It will be difficult to sell something when you have Star Wars and old Harry Potter and PoTC sets right next to it. That's probably why the latter two aren't getting any more sets.
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