2013 Galaxy Squad

[DraikNova]

Let's hope it gets some serious promotion and some good story. Who knows, maybe this is the theme that's getting a TV show!

Edited November 4, 2012 by DraikNova

[Si-MOCs]

Will there be a next wave? Does anyone "in the know" know if it's a one off or planned for expansions?? The lack of "squads" for the color teams does seem to invite more sets, after all..

Nope. This is definitely a one-wave theme.

The concept cannot really expand and be interesting to young LEGO fans.

GLAXY PRATROL FIGS CONFRIMED FOR 2013!!

<snip picture>

Oh wait, those are just from BrickJournal on their Alien Conquest preliminary coverage. Those red helmets look great though along with the suit, so that might be how the Galaxy Patrol figures look...

Nothing has really been confirmed ... <snip more>

But, like always, my comments are just pure speculation.

Just2Good, while I understand it's extremely exciting to have a new theme and speculate on the future, I would ask you please refrain expressing your speculation as if it is fact.

Especially considering Rez was asking for someone "in the know" - and you responded quite definitively as if you were "in the know". It's fine to speculate, but make sure you note that it's your speculation instead of fact.

That being said, I think some of your rational sounds logical. But let's wait till we see something more substantial before we start declaring things

[just2good]

Just2Good, while I understand it's extremely exciting to have a new theme and speculate on the future, I would ask you please refrain expressing your speculation as if it is fact.

Especially considering Rez was asking for someone "in the know" - and you responded quite definitively as if you were "in the know". It's fine to speculate, but make sure you note that it's your speculation instead of fact.

Oh, shoot! I didn't see the "in the know" part! Sorry! I gotta start reading more carefully!

I'm a bit too excited for this theme, and I love predicting stuff!

Now for someone "in the know" knowing, that is something that is "too early" to tell!

Edited November 4, 2012 by just2good

[Blacktron]

Now a speculative thought: we can all see how this seems to be a somewhat spiritual successor to Insectoids, with a human force fending off the Insectoid-like invaders. Should this theme continue into the future, might we also see successors to past themes show up? It's a stretch, but imagine if the next wave had the Galaxy Squad fending off a redesigned UFO theme, or a redesigned Spyrius, or even Blacktron.

I like this theory very much! The new bad guys remind me of the insectoids line too. Also the different colored heroes remind me of classic space. I even hope, we will see classic space logos on their torsos, just like all the astronauts of the CMF line had. I think it's not a coincidence that they remind us of insctoids and classic space. The Lego designers are wll aware that there are a lot of AFOLs out there. Maybe even they are fans of those classic lines, like we are. There are often little gags for nostalgic AFOLs included in the official lines, just like my avatar minifigure shows.

A few month ago we were spaculating about the future of Lego Space. A few members wrote that they wish there would be a cool new line, serving as a platform to connect to other following Lego Space lines. Just like you wrote: Just imagine Galaxy squad vs. UFO, Galaxy Squad vs. Blacktron and so on. This would be a dream come true. The only problem about this theory might be the sales. It seems, after the re-introduction of Lego Space, none of these lines was very successful. I doubt Galaxy squad will stay longer than a year, but I hope and pray it will be very sucessful.

Edited November 5, 2012 by Blacktron

[Cwetqo]

AFAIK there wil be no new GS sets in 2h 2013. For 2014 its impossible to tell, but i think that its very unlikely. They didnt even kept Monster Fighters, which is a succesfull theme.

Regarding "bad" themes: from what i've heard really bad did: Toy Story, Atlantis, World racers and Prince of persia. Pirates and Kingdoms were doing ok but got cut because of licensed themes. Other, like Space Police, Alien Conquest nad even city space were doing "normal", which means that sales were in expected boundaries.

[Aanchir]

AFAIK there wil be no new GS sets in 2h 2013. For 2014 its impossible to tell, but i think that its very unlikely. They didnt even kept Monster Fighters, which is a succesfull theme.

Regarding "bad" themes: from what i've heard really bad did: Toy Story, Atlantis, World racers and Prince of persia. Pirates and Kingdoms were doing ok but got cut because of licensed themes. Other, like Space Police, Alien Conquest nad even city space were doing "normal", which means that sales were in expected boundaries.

Atlantis DEFINITELY didn't do badly because it was continued in 2011, which is longer than the original plans for the theme. Themes that aren't successful don't get continued past the original plans for them, simple as that. Which isn't to say all "one-and-done" themes are unsuccessful, of course.

Edited November 5, 2012 by Aanchir

[Algernon]

Atlantis DEFINITELY didn't do badly because it was continued in 2011, which is longer than the original plans for the theme. Themes that aren't successful don't get continued past the original plans for them, simple as that. Which isn't to say all "one-and-done" themes are unsuccessful, of course.

That's not necessarily true. LEGO might have been trying to turn Atlantis into an "evergreen" theme and build some demand for it, which was ultimately unsuccessful. Bionicle was loosing steam for years before they nixed it. Even Galidor had a second wave.

I'm not too surprised to hear that World Racers and Atlantis did poorly, since there's not really a whole lot to make them stand out. Toy Story does surprise me though.

[just2good]

I'm not too surprised to hear that World Racers and Atlantis did poorly, since there's not really a whole lot to make them stand out. Toy Story does surprise me though.

It surprises me, too, but also saddens me.

Thanks for the info anyways, 'Cwetqo'. Let's hope Galaxy Squad does get another wave.

[Rez]

Perhaps he's referring to the "extended" 3rd wave of Atlantis is the one that did poorly? I know that the first wave of sets sold quite well in my area, but the final wave is STILL in stock everywhere.. I often think I'm the only one who bought any of it.

Sadly in my area Dino is also doing very poorly.. shame, I was hoping for either an extension or a new dino theme sooner rather than later.

[Aanchir]

That's not necessarily true. LEGO might have been trying to turn Atlantis into an "evergreen" theme and build some demand for it, which was ultimately unsuccessful. Bionicle was loosing steam for years before they nixed it. Even Galidor had a second wave.

I'm not too surprised to hear that World Racers and Atlantis did poorly, since there's not really a whole lot to make them stand out. Toy Story does surprise me though.

"Losing steam" doesn't mean a theme is unsuccessful. Themes are expected to see a decrease in sales from year to year; that's part of why some themes are planned for just one wave. They're expected to have strong sales, but not necessarily strong enough that customers or retailers would want another wave after the first.

BIONICLE did not see growth from around 2005 onward, but as I understand it, it wasn't until near the very end that sales actually started "failing to meet expectations", to use TLG's corporate jargon. At that point it was hastily wrapped up with a small, final wave to capitalize on the little inertia it had left.

As for Galidor, it didn't have ANY waves except those which were planned from the start-- note that I specifically used that term in my post, because some themes ARE created with just a one-wave launch in mind, while others are planned for a full-year launch. The reason this makes a difference should be obvious-- the production schedule of LEGO sets (especially the much less efficient production scale back in the early 2000s) means that sales figures for the first wave often won't even be available until production for the second wave has already begun. So a theme can easily have a full year of sets before getting discontinued, even if the first wave had less-than-anticipated sales figures.

I also have a hard time believing TLG ever intended Atlantis to become an evergreen theme. They do revisit underwater themes over and over again, but the designer interview in BrickJournal made it sound like it was intended to be just another underwater theme, albeit a "big bang" theme with a fairly substantial story structure. At the same time, it was clearly successful, meeting expectations if not exceeding them and allowing for a 2012 wave to be released.

Edited November 5, 2012 by Aanchir

[Cwetqo]

I think this is correct. Atlantis was never meant as permanent theme, but number of sets (and waves), investment in promotion and production quantities were substentialy larger than with "simple" themes like lets say Alien Conquest. And, as result of that, some shops still can not get rid of some first wave sets (expensive neptune carrier leads here), despite discounts of up to 80%. Similar is with large portal of atlantis, which could not sell even at 50% discount.

[DraikNova]

Did the catalog (or whatever you get your information from) you saw list summer sets as well Cwetqo?

[whitswj]

/

Edited December 3, 2021 by whitswj

[Algernon]

Did the catalog (or whatever you get your information from) you saw list summer sets as well Cwetqo?

He mentioned that he has not heard of any plans to continue Galaxy Squad beyond the initial release. It's probably better to keep our expectations low; "one-and-done" themes appear to go over well with LEGO's marketing team.

[PenPlays]

Has there ever been two multi-year, action theme waves going on simultaneously?

[just2good]

Has there ever been two multi-year, action theme waves going on simultaneously?

Well, when talking about stuff like this, I look at 2009 and up.

In 2009, we had the second wave of Agents and the second wave of Power Miners. Then, we had the third (and fourth in the US) of Power Miners and the second and third wave of Space Police going on in 2010. And, if Kingdoms counts, we had the second wave of Kingdoms, the second wave of Ninjago, and the third wave (and fourth wave in the US) all going on in 2011.

It seems like LEGO has stopped focusing on extra waves of minor action themes since 2012 had none (Ninjago is a major action theme, as it has a TV show, waves of lots of sets, and a lot of advertising).

Edited November 5, 2012 by just2good

[DraikNova]

Well, as I mentioned earlier, I hope for this theme to get some serious plot-work, or as serious as you can when the story revolves around color-coded human squads fighting insect aliens .

[Algernon]

Well, as I mentioned earlier, I hope for this theme to get some serious plot-work, or as serious as you can when the story revolves around color-coded human squads fighting insect aliens .

Think about NinjaGo... most elaborate original IP LEGO's done in years. It was hardly "serious".

I don't care much about the story, personally, but I've got no objection to a more fleshed-out universe. I'm just glad to get a true Space theme again!

[DraikNova]

Me too. It's been too long.

[Algernon]

Me too. It's been too long.

It really has. Life on Mars, Mars Mission, Space Police 3, and Alien Conquest all lacked the classic sci-fi qualities that the 90's Space sets had. None of them actually took place in the final frontier; rather, futuristic versions of real-life locations. It just didn't feel very epic. With Galaxy Squad, there's a whole wealth of imaginative possibilities. It's much more exciting!

The wait for hi-res pictures is getting unbearable!

[DraikNova]

And I think it's encouraging to see that the CMF series 9 Space Trooper uses the Galaxy Patrol armor; it gives hope to the possibility that some unseen sets of this wave or perhaps the second wave will use the armor.

[nrg]

Edit.

Edited November 6, 2012 by nrg

[RaincloudDustbin]

Well that picture is slightly clearer!

[just2good]

It is new ?

{pic}

Nope, we were talking about it a couple days ago. Thanks for the news anyways.

[vynsane]

If you zoom in a bit, it looks as though the dragonfly in that pic is "shooting" some sort of translucent purple thing at the legs of the minifigure in front of it... perhaps that's the "cocoon prison" from the description?