New sets discussion (2014/15/16/17)

[BFenix]

I'll take 10 rumble blades please.

I got a feeling this theme will do Bavaria good.

[Blitzen]

These colour decisions are sometimes questionable but I'm loving the Orange Transparent Everything (OTE) in these Nexo Knights sets.

Aha



70313-1: Moltor's Lava Smasher

That explains the OTE. BrikWars is canon

BrikWars 2015, coming in 2016.

[runnybabbit223]

These colour decisions are sometimes questionable but I'm loving the Orange Transparent Everything (OTE) in these Nexo Knights sets.

Aha



70313-1: Moltor's Lava Smasher

That explains the OTE. BrikWars is canon

BrikWars 2015, coming in 2016.

Really? I thought it was coming in 2010.

[Overwatch_Elite]

well as a lesbian athiest i say it could come any time tbh

[RedRover]

well as a lesbian athiest i say it could come any time tbh

"Lesbian atheist" is the most important qualifier there is

[Overwatch_Elite]

well as a lesbian athiest i say it could come any time tbh

"Lesbian atheist" is the most important qualifier there is

as a lesbian atheist i would have to agree

[Zahru II]

This is a really cool wave!

[RedRover]

There's a Stubby mini figure!

[stubby]

Brickset page w/ bigger image.

Looks like most great new figs. One of them is a faun/satyr, which makes me ask - again - why is there not an "classic antiquity" theme yet?

I'll tell you a secret. Something like 90% of the reason I came up with the collectible minifigures line in the first place was because Lego kept rejecting our classic antiquity concepts, and I thought I could use it as a way to get the classical minifigures into production by other means.

I specifically included that as part of the pitch document - that we could use the minifigures line as a backdoor way to market-test some of these characters without having to commit to a whole playtheme, and to offset the cost of new element production like Roman shields etc. so that we'd already have the molds in place if we decided to jump into classicalism later.

The real reason that classic antiquity keeps getting rejected, I'm pretty sure, is because it'd be dumb to sell castle and classical sets at the same time. You'd just be dividing the same target consumer base; for the cost of developing and retailing two product lines you'd just be making the same sales as if you only sold one. And once you know you can't sell both at the same time, then you have to choose between one or the other, and anything castle will always outsell anything classical just because kids connect with it so much more.

We were always waiting for some classical IP to take off so we could piggyback on its popularity - I was pitching this stuff back when Zena was still popular, and again when the Titans movies were on the way, but those were not properties aimed at kids, and so we knew they weren't going to generate enough market for us to make it worthwhile.

[RedRover]

Is nexo Knights going to take the place of castle for awhile?

[stubby]

I understand what you mean about the issue of running it parallel w/ Castle, but they could just as easily alternate to it between Castle iterations. IIRC, the reason the Vikings theme (which was itself made to fill the gap between Castle generations) was so successful was because it was castle-ish, but LEGO finally departed from the same old "Lion Knights vs Dragon Knights" formula that we've had for years and presented something a bit different.

Nah, Vikings wasn't particularly successful, or you'd have seen more stuff like it. It was such a last-minute job that the some of the box covers still had spray-painted SLS prototypes for the cover photos.

What Vikings was really about was a big gamble to see if we could create a hybrid theme between System and Bionicle parts, and we didn't want to risk damage to the Castle brand if people ended up hating it. So we cooked up this expendable theme that could be thrown under the bus when people inevitably didn't like the system+bionicle style.

They could do a similar format with Greco-Roman forts and soldiers fighting off mythological monsters.

I can't discuss unreleased concepts too specifically, but I have a general response that has never failed to apply: I have never heard anyone on the internet suggest a playtheme idea that we haven't already fleshed out and pitched years ago in the Lego concept studio. (And I haven't been in the concept lab for ten years now, so that means nobody's even caught up with where we were ten years ago. I have no idea what kind of crazy stuff those guys have been coming up with since then.)

Is nexo Knights going to take the place of castle for awhile?

I don't actually know - I think they've been keeping me away from Nexo because it has a lot of BrikWarsy-looking stuff - but it seems like that'd be the case. I can't imagine running another castle line concurrent to Nexo.

[RedRover]

I don't actually know - I think they've been keeping me away from Nexo because it has a lot of BrikWarsy-looking stuff

That seems more the reason to have your expertise, unless they're trying to steer away from that.

[stubby]

In this case I'm talking about possible IP contamination. Neither I nor Lego want to get tangled up in any legal issues over who owns what. But if Lego never touches BrikWars and I never touch Nexo, then there's a lot less chance of any appearance of IP boundaries getting fudged.

[RedRover]

Couldn't you allow them to use the IP on condition that you get to play a bigger part in the nexo Knights brand? I mean, if that's what you wanted

[Tzan]

And get a stinky licensing check.

Think of the possibilities.

POOP Blockbots.