Slightly Off-topic: Licenses
Over the last few days and weeks, LEGO and its partners have announced several new products and licensing deals. These include:
- Disney (Cars, Prince of Persia, Toy Story)
- LEGO Rock Band
- LEGO Harry Potter video games
- LEGO Ben 10
- etc.
Most of the Disney announcement was greeting enthusiastically. LEGO Rock Band seemed to be half and half enthusiasm and derision. I haven't actually seen much about the HP video game. But the Ben 10 announcement seems to really have people frothed up.
From what I see, the more familiar/comfortable people are with the licensed property, the happier they are to hear LEGO is doing a license of it. For example, Disney is well known and well respected, and the properties announced seem to be held in regard. From what I've read, many people are looking forward to them.
On the other end of the spectrum, Ben 10 is a popular Cartoon Network show that has a wide fanbase. But the announcement drew instant criticism from LEGO fans (both adults and kids), with a minority of people taking a "wait-n-see" approach. A lot of people are also comparing it to Galidor, which I don't understand, especially since nobody has seen the sets yet.
My main takeaway from this is that LEGO fans apparently equate corporate decisions on a personal level. I think the main critique of the Ben 10 announcement could be summed up as, "Since I don't like or know the show, LEGO is making a bad business decision in licensing it." But if you've been to a Toys 'R Us or Walmart or Carrefour or Intertoys, you'll see a metric ton of Ben 10 merchandise on the shelves. So it can't be that the show doesn't have an audience... clearly it does.
The other key takeaway for me is the unexpectedly large amount of complaints regarding the number of licenses from LEGO these days. I don't really have an opinion on whether a company should produce products from a few or a lot of licensees, but apparently lots of other people do have opinions.
So here are a few questions for you:
- What do you think of all the licenses LEGO has announced this year?
- Do you strongly agree or disagree with any in particular? If so, why?
- Do you think LEGO has too many partners its licensing from?
- If you disagree with a particular license, is it because you're not familiar with it, or because you think it will not make a good LEGO set?
OK - start talking.
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