Friends vs Lord of the Rings

[Gryphon Ink]

.. you just can't help thinking "That's it? Where are the Ultimate Collector Set models? Where are the Architecture-style models I can display at the office?" Even if you _ARE_ an eight year old you find yourself asking "Where's Galadriel? Or Arwen? Or Eowyn? Or any other female character for that matter? What about Elrond? Saruman? Gandalf the White? The Witch King? Denathor? Treebeard?" There's just so much untapped potential, the current line leaves you feeling hungry rather than excited.

You are right about the untapped potential, but I think you have to remember that this is only the first wave of a brand-new theme. It was never meant to cover all of the material in LOTR. I hope for Galadriel and Eowyn minifigs, too - not to mention Saruman and every major bad-guy in Middle-Earth - but with luck we will see some of them in next summer's wave, and with even more luck the UCS sets and the rest of the epic settings will be in our hands soon after that, when TLG are secure in the knowledge that Lego LOTR is a massive success that they can afford to go all out with. It's still early days in this theme, and for now they have to play it conservative and just offer a selection of LOTR's "Greatest Hits", while leaving enough hits to make the next few waves satisfying.

On it's surface, the LotR currently looks to be stuck somewhere between a Prince of Persia and a Harry Potter line, but if TLG actively sought to engage adult LOTR fans (not just existing TFOLs and kids who _also_ like LOTR) a Middle Earth line could be as big as Lego Star Wars (I'm sure I'm making myself a target here but...) if you look beyond the film to the books, Tolkien's other literary works, notes and letters, 70 years of fan art both commercial and otherwise, the three ages of Middle Earth offer a huge universe to drawn upon for kits...

Again, I agree with you on all comparisons between LOTR and Star Wars. The problem is that, as far as I know, TLG don't have the license for all of Tolkien's work. They don't even have a license for material from the LOTR books, only the movies. So, for example, they can't make a Tom Bombadil set, because he wasn't in the movies. No Barrow-wights, no Ungoliant, no Melkor. To do any of those things they would have to go after a whole new license which belongs to the Tolkien Estate. It's a legal mess that means TLG can't easily capitalize on that fantastic wealth of material.

[Meiko]

Well to start off, I guarantee that Friends will last longer, as Lord of the Rings I believe will be over after 2013, just because that's the kind of licensed theme I see it as. Friends I feel is more like the kind of theme City is, which can be adapted with multiple settings and themes among each year's sets.

In the years that I think both Lord of the Rings and Friends will bring in an equal annual profit, just because of the popularity of Friends and the fact of LotR being licensed, therefore costing more.

Edited October 17, 2012 by Meiko

[Aanchir]

On it's surface, the LotR currently looks to be stuck somewhere between a Prince of Persia and a Harry Potter line, but if TLG actively sought to engage adult LOTR fans (not just existing TFOLs and kids who _also_ like LOTR) a Middle Earth line could be as big as Lego Star Wars (I'm sure I'm making myself a target here but...) if you look beyond the film to the books, Tolkien's other literary works, notes and letters, 70 years of fan art both commercial and otherwise, the three ages of Middle Earth offer a huge universe to drawn upon for kits, by comparison (and I say this both as an informed Star Wars fan and someone ready to duck) the Star Wars just isn't that rich (yes I have read the books, the comics, seen the movies and TV shows, played the games, etc. SW is big, but when it comes to real substance and originality its not the be-all-end-all universe some fans think). Unfortunately The Silmarillion is not exactly typical reading for your average eight year old and I just don't see Morgoth taking down the Valar with flick-fire missiles so TLG would really have to go outside their comfort zone to capitalize on this market.

What makes you think the LEGO Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit brands aren't going to be as big as LEGO Star Wars? Sure, it's missing a bunch of important characters. So was LEGO Star Wars in its first year-- in fact, the Original Trilogy version of the actual logo featured four characters who wouldn't appear in sets for another year (Leia, Han, Boba Fett, and a Stormtrooper), and the Episode I version of the logo featured one who would arguable make his first appearance the next year (Darth Sidious, who would appear as Emperor Palpatine in a minifigure pack in 2000) and one who would take eleven years to make an appearance (Queen Amidala in her red gown). And those are the bare minimum of the major characters who were left out of the initial year of sets.

As for sets based on the books, not only would those be weaker in terms of their marketing potential in that there wouldn't be a major marketing push behind the stories themselves, and certainly not much targeted towards children, but furthermore it might be difficult to acquire the rights to produce sets based on those franchises since they aren't owned by the same company as the movies.

UCS sets and Architecture-like microscale sets would be incredible, but it makes perfect sense for TLG to test the waters with traditional playsets before trying to diversify their offerings so much. To be honest I'm surprised that so many other licensed themes get UCS-style sets their first year.

Also, Meiko, it's silly to think LotR/The Hobbit won't be continuing after this year since there are going to be more movies in the franchise. Unless the sets sell tremendously poorly, TLG will fight to keep that license, because otherwise another building toy company will snatch it up in a heartbeat.

[Artanis I]

I've seen the upcoming Barbie Megabloks sets and they are crap, just as bad as Belville was if not worse. I've seen only 4 colors in total: Dark Pink, medium pink, light pink, and turquoise.

But have you seen any Barbie merchandise? Pink, pink, pink, white, pink, pink, spam, spam, spam & spam.

[AndyC]

the three ages of Middle Earth offer a huge universe to drawn upon for kits, by comparison (and I say this both as an informed Star Wars fan and someone ready to duck) the Star Wars just isn't that rich (yes I have read the books, the comics, seen the movies and TV shows, played the games, etc. SW is big, but when it comes to real substance and originality its not the be-all-end-all universe some fans think).

The big difference here is that the variation in Star Wars predominantly comes from vehicles and, traditionally at least, TLG have found that sets containing vehicles just sell better than sets consisting of buildings/scenery only (presumably because of the swooshability factor!) That and the fact that, like it or not, Star Wars itself is simply a marketing machine - you can pretty much stick a SW logo on any old tat and it'll sell, which is probably not quite so true for most other things, even those as popular as LotR.

[TheLegoDr]

It also helps that Star Wars has had memorabilia since the early days and has been growing ever since. LOTR had some awesome and successful movies, but not a lot of other stuff to go with it other than the novels from many years ago. So marketing can be a tough sell at times. I do believe LOTR would sell better than a lot of people are expecting, but I can't expect it to become an Evergreen Licensed theme like SW. I would imagine Friends would maintain good longevity just because of the success and target audience. Every store around has barely any Friends sets, but has full shelves of every other theme. Either they didn't get a lot of shipments in, or they can't keep them on the shelves.

[Hrw-Amen]

It is not strictly true that Lotr has not had any merchandise over the years. Some games/wargames companies have been producing them for donkey's years now. I remember buying small sets of goblins and elves and that sort of thing relating to Lotr when I was at school which was some thirty odd years ago. It was readily available in toy/model shops and since the advent of the internet has become much more so.

As for swoshability, I can imagine that a Mirkwood or Rivendell would swosh quite well, can't you just picture it!!

I do think that if Friends is popular which it certainly seems to be then it will probably be around longer, in ten or even twenty years time. I am not sure about Lotr, it has the potential to be but probably only if they can get a licence for the whole universe and not just the five films.

Now, let me just swosh my Ork forge!!

[Leo604]

1. LOTR will by far be more lucrative, given the amount of related media released in the past 10 years.

2. Friends, however, will last longer because LOTR is only gonna last as long as the movies are released. Once that's finished, it'll probably go down seeing as most kids in the recommended age group don't like the books as much.

[SheepEater]

. I am not sure about Lotr, it has the potential to be but probably only if they can get a licence for the whole universe and not just the five films.

Personally, I'm hoping for at least 3 full years with alternating waves of Hobbit sets and Lotr sets.

By the way, the Hobbit movies will now be 3 instead of 2... so your five films are now six total. ( I presume nobody informed you 2 months ago)

[Deathleech]

It's interesting to see this debate still going some three months after it was initially started and how much things have changed in that time. Two Hobbit movies is now three, Friends sets are selling like hot cakes, etc..

Realistically, LOTR is finite. Since, Lego only has the license for the movies and there's only three of those, they could technically get to a point where they run out of sets and ideas to work with. Meanwhile, Friends is so generic that it could continue by merely intigrating any and all girl related trends in fashion, style, etc for years to come.

I totally disagree with this. I took no more than a couple hours one day and came up with roughly 23 LotR sets. Mind you those were totally different, extremely iconic sets and battle packs, not some of the more obscure sets they could do like the Prancing Pony or Bilbo's Birthday. And like I said, this was from the LotR films alone. Add in the Hobbit and you are easily looking at 15 more sets minimum, and that's not even including all the extra stuff PJ is suppose to add like the Battle of Dol Guldur or any of the Radagas footage. That's almost 40 totally unique sets which could be spread across 6 or 7 waves. Then take those, and figure Lego could go back and re-do a lot of sets like the did with SW (either update them or make smaller sets into bigger ones or vis versa for example make Mines of Moria a $30 set) and you are EASILY looking at 4-8 years worth of set.

I'm a big LOTR fan but I'm also (or perhaps because I'm such a fan) disappointed by TLG's offerings to date. The LotR is so much bigger and richer than a few mini-figures and play sets (with gratuitous play features) There's nothing fundamentally WRONG with the sets they've released to date, but if you're NOT an eight year old whose only experience with Middle Earth has come from Peter Jackson's films, you just can't help thinking "That's it? Where are the Ultimate Collector Set models? Where are the Architecture-style models I can display at the office?" Even if you _ARE_ an eight year old you find yourself asking "Where's Galadriel? Or Arwen? Or Eowyn? Or any other female character for that matter? What about Elrond? Saruman? Gandalf the White? The Witch King? Denathor? Treebeard?" There's just so much untapped potential, the current line leaves you feeling hungry rather than excited.

Like others have pointed out, it's really not fair to be bashing the LotR theme for this so early in the line's life cycle. Of course we aren't going to get Galadriel or Arwen just yet, neither has an on screen presence of more than 15-20 minutes in the movies. Then on top of that factor in we needed to get the full Fellowship + some bad guys in the FIRST wave to start with. If we havn't gotten them by the 4th or 5th line you would have a reason to complain, but to bring it up so early in the line's release is just silly.

It also helps that Star Wars has had memorabilia since the early days and has been growing ever since. LOTR had some awesome and successful movies, but not a lot of other stuff to go with it other than the novels from many years ago. So marketing can be a tough sell at times. I do believe LOTR would sell better than a lot of people are expecting, but I can't expect it to become an Evergreen Licensed theme like SW. I would imagine Friends would maintain good longevity just because of the success and target audience. Every store around has barely any Friends sets, but has full shelves of every other theme. Either they didn't get a lot of shipments in, or they can't keep them on the shelves.

I think LotR is at a serious disadvantage as of right now. As I said in another thread, the LotR franchise has basically seen no advertising or media attention given to it in nearly 10 years. Sure we are getting a video game in a few weeks, and the Hobbit movie in a month, but as of right now there is almost nothing selling the LotR line. No cartoon, no game, nothing. Add to that the fact the LotR movies are all rated PG-13 and a little more adult oriented, while the Star Wars are more kid friendly at PG (most Lego sets are aimed at kids in the 6-14 range so LotR is barely hitting that age demographic), and you just have a much tougher sell. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if the first LotR wave had mediocre sales because of this. I just hope Lego gives the line some time and sees how well it does after the first Hobbit film is released, when the Lego line should get a huge jolt of energy.

As for the original question asked, it does seem like the Friends sets are doing a little better as of right now. It';s really hard to say without actual sales figures though. I mean maybe LotR was expected to be a huge hit so their production runs were substantially larger than the Friends ones, which weren't expected to do well like their predecessors before them so they had much smaller production runs. It's easy to say a line is doing really well, and sets are flying off the shelves if you only have a box or two of sets shipped to a store because you don't anticipate a huge demand.

[Devorath]

I'm not sure how you can even start to compare these two themes. Friends is meant for girls who are not yet "into" lego, and for introducing cute new animals and other fun things, special colors, etc. Lord of the Rings is a license based on a move for teens and adults and consists of mostly tans and grays, and most of the characters are male or monstrous.

I think that without even comparing the two for benefits or shortcomings, Friends will last longer because it is created to last longer and not tied to any fad or license.

Bingo.

[HawkLord]

I totally disagree with this. I took no more than a couple hours one day and came up with roughly 23 LotR sets. Mind you those were totally different, extremely iconic sets and battle packs, not some of the more obscure sets they could do like the Prancing Pony or Bilbo's Birthday. And like I said, this was from the LotR films alone. Add in the Hobbit and you are easily looking at 15 more sets minimum, and that's not even including all the extra stuff PJ is suppose to add like the Battle of Dol Guldur or any of the Radagas footage. That's almost 40 totally unique sets which could be spread across 6 or 7 waves. Then take those, and figure Lego could go back and re-do a lot of sets like the did with SW (either update them or make smaller sets into bigger ones or vis versa for example make Mines of Moria a $30 set) and you are EASILY looking at 4-8 years worth of set.

See, I never said there wasn't enough LOTR to be made. If I thought about it, I too could come up with 100+ LOTR Lego sets. The problem that LOTR has is a race against time. This isn't like the Star Wars license which gets locked in for 10+ years at a time. LOTR will be finite as I'm sure Lego didn't lock it in for as long as they did Star Wars or the like. At best, we're factoring the Hobbit movies until the summer of '14 when the last movie hits. I bet they don't run LOTR/Hobbit past the end of '14 or maybe thru the first wave of '15.

I've been into Tolkien books since I was a kid and back then there was no Tolkien related merchandise to be had anywhere. Occasionally, they'd come out with a new book edition with extra appendices and the like, but there were barely any toys or anything close to what we have today. Look, I love LOTR/Hobbit, but it's never been a merchandise machine without movies - once the movies go, the line will end.

[ShaydDeGrai]

I've been into Tolkien books since I was a kid and back then there was no Tolkien related merchandise to be had anywhere. Occasionally, they'd come out with a new book edition with extra appendices and the like, but there were barely any toys or anything close to what we have today. Look, I love LOTR/Hobbit, but it's never been a merchandise machine without movies - once the movies go, the line will end.

If you define "toys" as something that would appeal to your average 6-8 year old boy, then I'd have to agree, but if you're talking about "collectables" that will appeal to LotR fans in an older age bracket, there I must differ. I too have been a fan of the books for most of my life and even going back 40+ years ago there was no shortage of collectables (calendars, art books, resin sculptures of iconic buildings, pewter and/or bronze figurines of major characters, etc.) Granted, other than lead figures designed for table-top war gaming and jigsaw puzzles, few of these items were designed to be "played" with, but simply as display pieces there was enough consumer demand to get these things shelf space in retail stores ( Internet direct marketing was still decades away ).

The movies have certainly created a new explosion of genuine "toy" elements to the marketplace (and, for better or worse, consolidated the "look" of Middle Earth and its peoples) but, in the long term, I doubt that demand for Tolkien collectables will be any less than it has been since the 1960's once Peter Jackson stops making films. The more germane question is whether or not TLG will expand the line to include "display" sets that appeal to adult LotR (but not necessarily LEGO) fans, as they eventually did with Star Wars. It's a different demographic with different taste in sets and a different target price range, but it's also a market they haven't really tapped yet.

[Blondie-Wan]

See, I never said there wasn't enough LOTR to be made. If I thought about it, I too could come up with 100+ LOTR Lego sets. The problem that LOTR has is a race against time. This isn't like the Star Wars license which gets locked in for 10+ years at a time. LOTR will be finite as I'm sure Lego didn't lock it in for as long as they did Star Wars or the like. At best, we're factoring the Hobbit movies until the summer of '14 when the last movie hits. I bet they don't run LOTR/Hobbit past the end of '14 or maybe thru the first wave of '15.

Possibly; it really depends upon how well the theme sells, of course. However (as I pointed out earlier), Indiana Jones had its last movie released in May of 2008, and TLG continued the theme into 2009 with waves for both January and August. That's for a theme with a) fewer movies, b) less recent movies (both themes of course were launched a few months before the latest movies were released, but for The Lord of the Rings the oldest movie at the time of the theme's launch is a little under 12 years old, whereas the oldest Indiana Jones movie at the time of the theme's launch was a little under 27 years old, and the most recent of the first three was almost 19 years old), and c) arguably less popular movies. All three factors suggest The Hobbit / The Lord of the Rings should be at least as successful as a LEGO theme as Indy was, if not more so, so I don't see why it couldn't have at least two additional waves after the third Hobbit's release.

[HawkLord]

If you define "toys" as something that would appeal to your average 6-8 year old boy, then I'd have to agree, but if you're talking about "collectables" that will appeal to LotR fans in an older age bracket, there I must differ. I too have been a fan of the books for most of my life and even going back 40+ years ago there was no shortage of collectables (calendars, art books, resin sculptures of iconic buildings, pewter and/or bronze figurines of major characters, etc.) Granted, other than lead figures designed for table-top war gaming and jigsaw puzzles, few of these items were designed to be "played" with, but simply as display pieces there was enough consumer demand to get these things shelf space in retail stores ( Internet direct marketing was still decades away ).

There have been one-shot pieces here and there since the '80s, but nothing substantial. That's my point - LOTR has never had an ongoing collectibles focus until the past ten years because of the movies. Once the LOTR movies ended, Toy Biz stoped their action figure line, WETA and Sideshow stopped making high-end statues, United Cutlery stopped making prop replica weapons, Games-Workshop slowed down with their minis game, etc.

Possibly; it really depends upon how well the theme sells, of course. However (as I pointed out earlier), Indiana Jones had its last movie released in May of 2008, and TLG continued the theme into 2009 with waves for both January and August. That's for a theme with a) fewer movies, b) less recent movies (both themes of course were launched a few months before the latest movies were released, but for The Lord of the Rings the oldest movie at the time of the theme's launch is a little under 12 years old, whereas the oldest Indiana Jones movie at the time of the theme's launch was a little under 27 years old, and the most recent of the first three was almost 19 years old), and c) arguably less popular movies. All three factors suggest The Hobbit / The Lord of the Rings should be at least as successful as a LEGO theme as Indy was, if not more so, so I don't see why it couldn't have at least two additional waves after the third Hobbit's release.

Harry Potter was a bigger cash cow than both of those franchises and yet it's line ended the year the last movie came out. PotC ended pretty quick, as well. Part of it is that you never can tell and part of it is what the fanbase will support.

[General Magma]

Friends is pretty terrible, but comparing it with LOTR?

You're joking, right? But yeah, they're still two completely different themes...

Edited November 2, 2012 by General Magma

[ShaydDeGrai]

There have been one-shot pieces here and there since the '80s, but nothing substantial.

I don't know where you've been shopping but I've got about 500 or so Tolkien related pieces in my collection and only a couple dozen are from the post-Peter Jackson film era. I've attended entire convention auctions dedicated to JUST LOTR art and merchandise back in the 1970's (Peter Jackson would have been in high school back then) so it is a mischaracterization to suggest that without the movies there's no market or that there has never been vendors actively feeding that market. When the number of items available for purchase exceed both your budget and your storage capacity, I consider it "substantial."

Before United Cutlery ever made a single prop replica there was the Franklin Mint, Museum Replicas, LTD and Del Tin Antiche. Before Games-Workshop introduced their take on things, RAFM, Ral Patha, Grenadier and Mithril all had lines of 25mm and 28mm scale LOTR figures for fantasy wargaming. Roughly twenty different Tolkein Art calendars in about a dozen different languages have been published each year since 1969 - ony in the past decade have images from the movies appeared in any of them and non-film related ones are still being released (and selling well).

You are absolutely right that the mass marketing campaign to _kids_ both surged and is waning, but there's an entire Middle Earth sub culture that's been around at least since the 60's that has little to do with the recent films and spends millions on Tolkein related items every year. If anything, the recent film _hurt_ the marketing of a lot of the stuff because the film-related merchandizing didn't want competition from unlicensed merchandise or alternate visions from licenses granted decades ago.

Jackson's film didn't create the market; they capitalized on it; diversified it; and yes, alienated part of it (as not all LOTR fans share/endorse _that_ vision). I agree that the current kits are tightly coupled to the films and without them in recent memory, pre-teen boys won't be putting LEGO LOTR at the top of their Christmas wish list in years to come, but there's money to be made selling to adult LOTR fans if TLG can figure out (both legally and marketing-wise) how to tap into that (film independent) demographic.

[HawkLord]

Before United Cutlery ever made a single prop replica there was the Franklin Mint, Museum Replicas, LTD and Del Tin Antiche. Before Games-Workshop introduced their take on things, RAFM, Ral Patha, Grenadier and Mithril all had lines of 25mm and 28mm scale LOTR figures for fantasy wargaming. Roughly twenty different Tolkein Art calendars in about a dozen different languages have been published each year since 1969 - ony in the past decade have images from the movies appeared in any of them and non-film related ones are still being released (and selling well).

None of those are even a blip on the radar for me, with the exception of the Grenadier figures and the Middle Earth action figures. When you start to get to modern times with $300 Sideshow statues, then you're talking collectibles. A couple calendars? Not so much.

Anyway, LOTR and Friends...

[Slobey]

Judging by my household I think they'll both continue to do well. I think friends have opened up a whole new market segment for LEGO: Parents and girls looking for poly pocket style toys and picking up friends instead.

As much as I love LOTR it does have a narrow appeal in the LEGO market and is competing with the likes of Dino hunters, star wars, monster hunters for boys attention

Despite my influence my 6 and 7 year old girls had little interest in LEGO till the friends line came along. Now you can barely keep them away from it and it has sharpened thier interest in other themes (including LOTR I might add after I read them the HOBBIT)

As much as a lot of people dislike the friends line (insulting to girls blah blah blah) it will make TLG a lot of money which will make our hobby viable well into the future

[Aanchir]

There have been one-shot pieces here and there since the '80s, but nothing substantial. That's my point - LOTR has never had an ongoing collectibles focus until the past ten years because of the movies. Once the LOTR movies ended, Toy Biz stoped their action figure line, WETA and Sideshow stopped making high-end statues, United Cutlery stopped making prop replica weapons, Games-Workshop slowed down with their minis game, etc.

Harry Potter was a bigger cash cow than both of those franchises and yet it's line ended the year the last movie came out. PotC ended pretty quick, as well. Part of it is that you never can tell and part of it is what the fanbase will support.

The success of a licensed theme isn't only related to a movie's success but also on the movie merchandise's success. After all, a high-grossing movie with strong DVD sales doesn't have much impact on the success of a LEGO theme if it's not based on a franchise that sells toys. Harry Potter was a huge merchandise-mover in the early days of the books and films, but in the franchise's later years there were far fewer toys that weren't directly tied to the movie that was out at the time, and not much kid-oriented merchandise at all when there wasn't a movie in theaters. Bye-bye candy potion-making kits, hello realistic action figures, movie memorabilia, and costume accessories.

Basically I've come to the conclusion that you can tell what licensed themes have staying power based on what kids are actually buying. Spongebob Squarepants, Star Wars, and Cars are solid examples of themes that had staying power. In contrast, go to the action figure aisles of a toy store and there won't be many new Indiana Jones or Pirates of the Caribbean action figures unless they're promoting a new movie, and Harry Potter novelty lunch boxes aren't nearly as common as they were a decade ago. This isn't to say any of these themes won't come back if the rightsholders to the source material have a major marketing push for some new media in those franchises, but until then even a franchise that was successful in theaters is no longer guaranteed to make toys fly off shelves.

[SheepEater]

Friends is pretty terrible

It's NOT terrible. In fact, it's a great and successful toy aimed at girls, so whether boys like it or not is irrelevant to Lego.

I have no kids, but my 8 year old niece loved her sets so much she took pictures of them and sent them to me. Prior to that, she liked to play with Lego when I would build City sets with her older brother, but wanted no sets for her own really.

Lego's aim with the line was to steal sales from Polly Pockets, and they have been hugely successful at that. Benjo, one of a local big toy store in Quebec City (not TRU) has a big Friends display and zilch Polly Pockets - I am guessing that this big shelf space or at least part of it used to belong to Polly Pockets. No wonder Mattel is angered at Lego enough to partner with Mega Bloks.

Edited July 12, 2013 by SheepEater

[HawkLord]

The success of a licensed theme isn't only related to a movie's success but also on the movie merchandise's success. After all, a high-grossing movie with strong DVD sales doesn't have much impact on the success of a LEGO theme if it's not based on a franchise that sells toys. Harry Potter was a huge merchandise-mover in the early days of the books and films, but in the franchise's later years there were far fewer toys that weren't directly tied to the movie that was out at the time, and not much kid-oriented merchandise at all when there wasn't a movie in theaters. Bye-bye candy potion-making kits, hello realistic action figures, movie memorabilia, and costume accessories.

Basically I've come to the conclusion that you can tell what licensed themes have staying power based on what kids are actually buying. Spongebob Squarepants, Star Wars, and Cars are solid examples of themes that had staying power. In contrast, go to the action figure aisles of a toy store and there won't be many new Indiana Jones or Pirates of the Caribbean action figures unless they're promoting a new movie, and Harry Potter novelty lunch boxes aren't nearly as common as they were a decade ago. This isn't to say any of these themes won't come back if the rightsholders to the source material have a major marketing push for some new media in those franchises, but until then even a franchise that was successful in theaters is no longer guaranteed to make toys fly off shelves.

This is very true, but it also depends on who holds the license. If you look at Harry Potter action figures, they were huge in the UK because Popco treated the series like Star Wars and made a ton of characters. Meanwhile, in the US, NECA had the action figure rights for the last few movies (previously it was Mattel) and NECA is knwon for not running large figure lines - with a few exceptions they mostly make one-offs. Had a company really ran a strong HP action figure line, I'm sure it would have done well.

The Indy action figure line suffered because the quality was really low and case assortments were terrible. Having three Indys and three Mutts in a case of ten figures was bound to hurt the line. Hasbro just didn't treat it the right way.

We may also be seeing the same thing with The Hobbit figures. Bridge Direct just posted that wave two of their action figures should come out in the summer or spring of next year - that will be way too late. If they don't keep the interest going with products coming in at a more regular fashion, the Bridge Direct Hobbit line won't be as sought after as the old Toy Bz LOTR line was back in the day.

[Runamuck]

Anybody who has watched the news lately? Apparently LEGO Friends sells so well, that the production can’t keep up with the demand!

http://www.dr.dk/Nyh.../1102073812.htm

The article is in Danish unfortunately.

I don’t know how well the Lord of the Rings sets are selling compared to that, but this sure sounds like Friends is a massive success.

Edit: The article is about the fact that all 2012 themes sell really well, but Friends and Ninja-go are the only ones that are actually mentioned by name. There were also small segments in the TV news on DR1 and TV2 where Friends were highlighted on both channels.

Edited November 3, 2012 by Runamuck

[Faefrost]

Sigh! I know the LotR folks are rabid. Heck I'm one of them. But can we just accept that lotR is essentially the Harry Potter replacement in Lego's catalog. It is that same basic target market. Yeah they might get some new customers and fans with the more medievel classic fantasy. But the numbers while impressive, will still be a successful niche Lego product. We will probably (and hopefully) get 10 years out of LotR and Hobbit sets. They won't hit Star Wars numbers but they will land around HP.

But Friends is something else. I know many of we classic fans do not understand or appreciate it. It isn't dialed into Lego's original market. It isn't directed at the Geek/Nerd/AFOL sub culture. What it is directed at is that other 50% of the child population that Lego has not yet been able to tap. And this time it's working unbelievably well for them.

Think of it this way. 70% of the purchasers of Lego LotR sets are probably people who have bought other Lego sets. Castle, PotC, SW, HP, whatever. They are feeding and keeping their principle market. And growing it a bit with newcomers. Now look at Friends. 90% of Friends customers are first time Lego buyers/players. Almost every person buying Friends stuff is a new customer. And they can't produce enough to keep the shelves stocked for them. LotR is a classic and beloved franchise. The products of which will be loved and cared for by collectors for years to come. We will probably see 50 or more LotR sets. (we hope). Friends however is a license to print money. it's striking gold in the basement of the family house. It's finding out that your late crazy uncle Jebediah was secretly a millionaire industrialist and left you everything. lotR is succesful. Friends is an order of magnitude beyond it in terms of what it has done for the company and out hobby.

[SheepEater]

It will be interesting in 10-15 years to see if many of those little girls who got lots of Friends sets will grow up to be AFOLs in their twenties. And bidding against each other on eBay for old, rare discontinued 2012 Friends sets.

Lots of grown women are into collecting dolls. I saw a thick fashion doll magazine (clearly aimed at adults) yesterday in a mainstream magazine shop, but never saw anything aimed at AFOLs.

Edited November 3, 2012 by SheepEater