On 3/14/2014 at 9:53 AM, LOTR343 said:

You got a point there but I doubt if any 7 year old knows who is Two-face,Man Bat or even Taskmaster yet still Lego made those characters,so why not other not-so-famous characters too?

Those characters have appeared frequently in Kids TV shows and in one case some films. Two-face has appeared in Batman Forever, the Dark Knight, the brave and the bold, Justice League, TBAS, the new TBAS, Justice League unlimited. If say Two-face is easily one of Batman's most recognisable villains along with, Joker, Penguin, Riddler and Catwoman.

Manbat and Taskmaster are more obscure but again they have been appearing in animated shows, Manbat really has an identical list to Two Face ( minus the films ). Taskmaster has appeared in Ultimate Spider-man and I think Avengers Assemble?

Anyway these characters are appearing in prime time slots on kids TV, While characters like star girl aren't.

  On 3/14/2014 at 12:26 PM, Spider-Man said:

I think you are highly underestimating kids. My 7 year old brother definitely knows who those guys are and his friends know at least ManBat and Two-Face. Kids pick up on stuff really fast and with all the superhero merchandise these days they tend to be fairly familiar with obscure characters.

If you took a poll at an elementary school and asked them which of the following superheroes/villains they know, I HIGHLY doubt more than 5 percent of them would know who ManBat, two-face, or taskmaster are. They'd probably know the avengers, spider-man, batman, and superman and that's it. It seems your brother and his friends just know more than the average kid. Maybe I'm speaking generally here but unless they're in some blockbuster movie that came out in the past 2 years, a 7 year old is probably not going to know who they are without some outside information on the comic book characters themselves.

You'd be surprised what today's kids know, Luna. I'm an elementary teacher and I can tell you a lot of them know their comic characters down pat. Deadpool is particularly popular. And they definitely know who Two-Face is.

  On 3/14/2014 at 1:32 PM, Suspsy said:

You'd be surprised what today's kids know, Luna. I'm an elementary teacher and I can tell you a lot of them know their comic characters down pat. Deadpool is particularly popular. And they definitely know who Two-Face is.

Yeah, I guess so. Maybe it's because superheroes are just a lot more prevalent in today's pop culture than they were ten years ago.

And also, I doubt this can all be blamed on LEGO. Why has Taskmaster been made? Because Marvel/Disney asked LEGO to base a set around the Avengers Assemble cartoon and might have even dictated the figures included, though I personally doubt they go that far. If you want to see Gorilla Grodd, Black Adam, Braniac, and all the other iconic villains, just hope that DC makes a Justice League animated show and asks LEGO to create merchandise.

Edited March 14, 201410 yr by montyofmusic

To be fair Taskmaster came in a set with 5 other characters.

  On 3/14/2014 at 2:08 AM, Numbuh1Nerd said:

As for Flash, people don't even recognize Flash's logo, let alone his villains. True story: I was wearing my Flash t-shirt one night when my mom and I were stopped at a sobriety checkpoint. The policeman asked if we'd been drinking (of course we were not), said we could go and that he liked my shirt and that "he watches that show all the time." I was quite confused for about the next ten minutes because Flash hasn't been on a tv series regularly since Justice League Unlimited, but then I realized that he was referring to the Big Bang Theory, which as you may know, the main character Sheldon wears a Flash t-shirt often and the logo is often appropriated to go with his "Bazinga" catchphrase on anything they can possibly slap that on to. Flash is not a household icon these days.

Do you think it's weird that this happened to me too at a school reunion?

  On 3/14/2014 at 3:40 PM, clutch said:

To be fair Taskmaster came in a set with 5 other characters.

Those characters being, at least to kids:

1. Hulk-popular

2. Thor-popular

3. Falcon-second tier; I doubt many kids would have heard of him if not for the cartoon or the Winter Soldier.

4. MODOK-second tier unless kids have watched the numerous Avengers cartoons.

5. Taskmaster-obscure.

So that's two popular characters driving a set featuring three lesser knowns, something that DC could definitely do if they had some decent animated source material to brand it with.

I remember at school we were doing a project on heroes, it was my jobe to go around and ask who was their favourite hero. To my suprise, one guy said Moon Knight. This just shows that people know who obscure heroes are, and that they should be made into bricks

  On 3/14/2014 at 4:57 PM, montyofmusic said:

Those characters being, at least to kids:

1. Hulk-popular

2. Thor-popular

3. Falcon-second tier; I doubt many kids would have heard of him if not for the cartoon or the Winter Soldier.

4. MODOK-popular because of AA.

5. Taskmaster-popular because of USM

I think another big problem with DC and what's been great for marvel is just how relevant their characters are. Marvel has had Spider man, Iron man, Hulk, Thor, Cap, Loki, Wolverine, Hawkeye, Black widow, and Falcon (in the upcoming Cap 2) all show up in blockbuster movies for all audiences in the last 3 years. Many of those characters have multiple movie appearances. Most of those characters could sell their own lego set. Meanwhile DC hasn't had any of their characters in the spotlight besides Man of steel and Dark knight rises. Even the animated shows aren't really worthy of any sets except for maybe the Batman show. So really besides Superman and Batman dc doesn't have any characters that are relevant outside of the comics (I highly doubt Arrow is relevant among Lego's target audience). I don't know if my point is coming across but whatever.

  On 3/14/2014 at 4:57 PM, montyofmusic said:

Those characters being, at least to kids:

1. Hulk-popular

2. Thor-popular

3. Falcon-second tier; I doubt many kids would have heard of him if not for the cartoon or the Winter Soldier.

4. MODOK-second tier unless kids have watched the numerous Avengers cartoons.

5. Taskmaster-obscure.

So that's two popular characters driving a set featuring three lesser knowns, something that DC could definitely do if they had some decent animated source material to brand it with.

Falcon and Modok also had roles in super hero squad show a few years back.

Kids get excited about new characters. I was the kind of kid who wanted to learn all about a new character being introduced. I got even more excited when I learned they had been around a while and there was a lot to learn about them!

I wonder why LEGO isn't creating DC sets based on their animated movies? That's the one area in which DC is better than Marvel. Their last 2 (Flashpoint Paradox and JL War) have been very well received and include all the major players. Plus, they're relevant since they're based on the New 52 and we get 2-3 per year, so they have where to pick from...

  On 2/28/2014 at 3:09 AM, B-Lister said:

The Damian Robin didn't get much of a change to his outfit, if at all between the Real DCU and the New 52.

Yeah i was kinda disappointed with that.

  On 3/14/2014 at 8:10 PM, BrickyNolan35 said:

Falcon and Modok also had roles in super hero squad show a few years back.

And that's why my son asked for the set with Modok in it for his 14th birthday.

  On 3/14/2014 at 9:04 PM, Dayton said:

Yeah i was kinda disappointed with that.

I'm glad for it. I thought the changes in costumes were pretty ridiculous in some cases.

  On 3/14/2014 at 8:10 PM, BrickyNolan35 said:

Falcon and Modok also had roles in super hero squad show a few years back.

And if I remember, MODOK at least had a fairly prominent role in it. That may be part of why he's showing up more, now. Super Hero Squad Show (from my memory) was a bit more geared at younger kids; younger kids who are now right in the middle of Lego's target age group. Modok is actually probably quite well known among them.

It's also worth noting that regardless of what "tier" of popularity the characters are at in the comic world, it's really all about the cartoons now. Kids don't read comics anymore, generally. Certainly not the 6-10 age group. What kid could afford to? The cartoons are where they know the characters from, as well as the films. Any character with a decent spot in the cartoons has a decent chance of showing up in the merchandise, I'd wager.

  On 3/14/2014 at 12:26 PM, Spider-Man said:

I think you are highly underestimating kids. My 7 year old brother definitely knows who those guys are and his friends know at least ManBat and Two-Face. Kids pick up on stuff really fast and with all the superhero merchandise these days they tend to be fairly familiar with obscure characters.

This is true! What people forget is that kids like videogames. TLG put out a little number that featured Batman, and it did so well, they made a sequel game and named it...Batman...2. Not to miss this profitable bandwagon, Marvel threw their hat into the Lego videogame market with Lego Marvel Superheroes. Now, my 2 kids, even with very limited game time allowed, know the likes of Killer Croc, Hydra and AIM agents, and Kurse. One of my daughters favourite Marvel characters is Psylocke, and she has never picked up an X-Force or X-Men book. I mentioned ONCE that Brian Braddock, aka Capt. Britain, is her brother. Now she and her brother play together as these two characters just because of that. People need to give kids more credit.

Agreed, perhaps it's just the way I was raised, but after seeing a cameo of Hourman ONCE in JLU I deemed him my favorite hero. I asked for his large action figure as well. Perhaps it's because I wasn't that young, but I was a huge fan of Red Tornado, Stargirl, Hourman and Black Canary during JLU's run. Perhaps my fondness of Hourman will return this year (what with him getting his own show and all ), and I'm just hoping these past few months won't be the last time Stargirl appears in the New 52. However I can't see myself getting over how amazing Black Canary (or any other Bird of Prey) is

When it comes to Green Arrow in media, he was a major character on the later seasons of Smallville. It still airs early in the morning on TNT. That's the channel I watch Supernatural as well: I don't waste time with CW. From the little I've seen, the dialogue makes me think it's like a teen oriented soap opera.

I don't think we'll see any WB produced tv DC in Lego. I'm pretty certain they own the merchandising rights. If DC owned any of those rights I would have preferred the Smallville versions, especially the Blur version of Superman.

On the issue of Taskmaster, like others I am disappointed by the shield, but am happy to see him. He had a great run in the Avengers during Dark Reign, and still gets some comic play since.

About young kids and comics, there are always public libraries. My local library has a plethora of comics and graphic novel collections. The small Marvel Adventures books are kept on the J Fiction shelves. The periodical comics have their own section.

  On 3/14/2014 at 1:32 PM, Suspsy said:

You'd be surprised what today's kids know, Luna. I'm an elementary teacher and I can tell you a lot of them know their comic characters down pat. Deadpool is particularly popular. And they definitely know who Two-Face is.

Really? Hmm. It always supprises me how populer deadpool is.

Green lantarn pro's

(1) you would have a complete JL assemble.

(2) He would not need any new molds.

(3) there are plenty sets lego could make for GL.(GL corps base, GL jet, est.)

(4) GL is like a master builder in the sence that he uses his ring to biuld

things, so I think it's more than appropriate that Lego should make him.

(5) Lego should make a creator set that would average around $25,

and it would come with GL and enough peices to make 3 or more models.

Edited March 15, 201410 yr by Ecclesiastes
merged topic

They are rumors of a GL to be released in the future. I think the movie helped with that.

They just need Green Lantern and a load of different translucent green bricks.