Lyichir

As an AFOL, I'm fairly sure this downturn is a direct result of all the things Lego does that I personally dislike. [/sarcasm]

Nah, the explanations listed in the report seem to make sense to me. 2017 was a rocky year for Lego, and they took a chance on some endeavors that didn't quite give them the results they were hoping for. But they can't all be winners. Over the past decade Lego has proven adept at keeping tabs on the performance of their various product lines and adjusting plans accordingly, so I'm sure they'll be fine.

Based on things LEGO is goofy enough to try, I'm going to say they'd shoot for something more like Jackie Chan playing Guns'N'Roses on a flute.

It wouldn't be too far of a stretch, considering Bionicle started out with (among other things) Flight of the Valkyries on a synthesizer.

Yeah, this year's Nexo Knights sets are a fitting end for the theme. The Blacktron-esque color scheme of the bad guys and gold-infused colors of the good guys look great, and making Monstrox himself into a digital wizard (Nexomancer?) like Merlok sets up a pretty epic showdown for the finale. Hopefully I'll be able to pick up a few of them—I'm worried that like last year's sets I'll end up putting them on the back burner to focus on Ninjago and Elves until it's too late.

I am all for the continued use of Dark Azur in Technic.

Buildable Elves dolls.

The Daredevil Stunt Plane is really good—it might arguably even be the best minifig-scale biplane we've ever gotten in a Lego set! I love the supports between the wings and the curve of the leading edge!

Interestingly, the model on display differed quite a bit from the one in the official images. Unfortunately, Lego designer Mark Stafford explained on Reddit that the display model was an earlier prototype from when Lego was aiming for a $120 price point instead of a $100 price point, suggesting that the official pics are probably more accurate. That means a less substantial base (without the added landscaping or gear functions of the display model) and probably none of those very interesting little arch pieces from the railing of the display model, either.

Can I just get a normal castle theme already.

I want a moat not a mech.

There will most likely be a new castle theme next year, since there's been a new castle theme every three years like clockwork for at least a decade and a half. So for impatient castle fans that's something to look forward to.

 

A Throwbots reboot would be cool.

It'd be interesting to see for sure.

 

What about Lego Island: Extreme Stunts? I know that could technically fall under the City stuff, but I'm talking about a theme that has actual characters made by lego and a story and a game to accompany it. Maybe it's just nostalgia talking, but the Lego Island games as well as the Rock Raiders games gave me life as a kid (and if I still had a computer that could run these games, I would totally play them in my spare time)

 

I think the only thing Lego Island would really have going for it at this point is nostalgia. Lego's storytelling, character design, and branding has come a pretty long way since then, and it's been almost a decade and a half since the last game.  Heck, the main character, Pepper Roni, feels like an artifact of the 90s by this point. As you mention, most subject matter covered by Lego Island has been more or less supplanted by City, and I'd even argue (perhaps controversially) that Lego City: Undercover does a better job of covering that sort of subject matter in a modern way.

Quite frankly, I'm surprised it's not gone already. There didn't seem to be much excitement over G2 when I popped in, given that this has generally been a story-focused forum, and G2 was kind of weak on that. And while it wasn't the reason I left, the forum was prone to toxicity after BIONICLE ended. I guess that tends to happen when the forum is focused on a dead story.

 

Not that I've poked around that much, but is Ninjago helping this place stay afloat? I was just thinking about it after I saw some ninjas on one of my church's staff's fridge, and I realized that Ninjago's been around longer than I was following BIONICLE. Which makes me feel old, but also proud of LEGO for catching lightning in a bottle twice, and perhaps more successfully the second time.

 

Also, hai.

Unfortunately, while Ninjago is huge (very probably bigger than Bionicle was at its peak), it's been hard to sustain Ninjago discussion here on BZP. A likely factor is that the Ninjago fandom tends to be centralized on social media, which both is more native to the current generation of kids than message boards, and serves a function much like BZPower used to back in the day (a direct line to the creators of the sets and story). BZPower has an entire subforum devoted to Ninjago, but it only has a few topics and doesn't get much activity. And even what it does get is more than you tend to get discussing other themes like Elves, Friends, or Nexo Knights. What remains of BZP's userbase seems pretty content discussing what little news (or regurgitated arguments) about Bionicle tend to trickle out, with little interest in branching out to other themes.

Lego's sales haven't really been falling in the long term—on the contrary, the past few years have been somewhat of a golden age for them (despite a decline in growth in 2016). Themes like Ninjago and Friends are bigger sellers than Bionicle ever was (even at its peak in 2002–2003). So the idea that kids becoming more engaged with digital entertainment spells the end for Lego sales probably isn't any more accurate than it was back around the turn of the millennium.

There are certainly things that would have made Bionicle G2 better from a fan perspective, but given Lego's capabilities and resources, plus the established reputation of Bionicle and constraction in general (both good and bad) with retailers and media partners, I don't really see how different or more successful a direction Lego could have realistically taken with it. If anything. Bionicle G2 may have just been the wrong theme at the wrong time. Maybe five years just wasn't enough time for an audience refresh, or maybe the decline in action figure sales meant that bringing it back then was misguided from the get-go. Either way, I certainly don't think bringing back G1 would have been any more effective.

These look pretty clumsy.

Most of the models in the Klutz books do, partly by necessity. It's hard to create a book's worth of good-looking, diverse, and functional models that use the same small pool of Technic and System parts and are understandable for kids at an introductory building level. But from my experience they do often serve as a good introduction to the types of simple mechanisms that can provide a good foundation to functional builds, all while being able to go into a little more depth than your typical Lego set building instructions thanks to explanatory text rather than just pictorial instructions. They're not entirely unlike the Lego Education kits in that respect—but much cheaper and more accessible for an individual kid, rather than a teacher or school looking to integrate Lego into their lessons.

What it says on the tin. Which Lego Elves character is your favorite? I was going to make this a poll but realized that between the human characters, elves, animals, goblins, etc., there were just too many options! Feel free to list as many as you like if you can't decide between more than one.

As for me... my favorite is probably Azari Firedancer! Not only does is she stylish and attractive, she has really interesting characterization. She's hotheaded and impulsive as you might expect from a fire-aligned character, but she's also a bit of a slacker and also homeless, crashing with her other friends most of the time since she doesn't have a place of her own. She's also got a really great friendship with the main character, Emily Jones, which could potentially be interpreted romantically but even without that is still really sentimental and sweet.

If I wanted to choose between the various animal characters, my favorite so far might be Dusti the Fox from the second year's story. I love Ragana as a villain, and the fact that her only "friends" are her cat and a slightly maniacal fox is amusing to no end.

And just for the heck of it, my favorite Goblin is obviously Bieblin. How could it not be? His passion for music easily makes him the most adorable of the bunch.

It would have been nice for it to have gotten a clean conclusion, but three years was all I ever expected.

 

Moving to LEGO Discussion...

I mean, this latest wave has a pretty epic tone to it in general, what with all the gold and a final showdown between Merlok and Monstrox. And we're apparently still getting one final season of the TV series to finish up the story. It's definitely better than, say, Exo-Force (which got no story conclusion and a final wave that felt like the beginnings of a new direction at best, rather than a culmination of what had come before).

If I have any regrets, it's that Ava doesn't even appear in this final wave of sets, much less get a redesign on par with Robin or the other knights. I feel like her character has been woefully underutilized over the course of the entire series...

I've heard this year Lego won't be showing off anything beyond June, which is a bummer. That might be further incentive to cover some non-Lego brands...

I guess having worked at Hasbro this past summer, it'd be neat to get some coverage of their booth just to see whether any of the stuff I'd worked on gets revealed. I do like to have a better idea of what's been officially revealed so that I can know what I'm allowed to talk about.

Neat! When I was working at Hasbro last summer I got a chance to get caught up on some recent Marvel comics, and this was one of the titles I really enjoyed. Glad to see them making their Lego debut!

Plushies are good. I wish Lego would do more plush—I'd totes buy plush Lego Elves animals, or plush Unikitties. They've done a couple Ninjago and Batman plushes this year but the quality is so-so. Certainly not the quality you get from a manufacturer like Gund, at any rate.

No more bricks for K'nex? I wonder what that means for the Super Mario and Mario Kart licenses that used those bricks fairly heavily... as a huge Mario fan, the idea that Lego could potentially get that license instead is tantalizing.

 

I'm increasingly disappointed in the massively overhiked prices of Star Wars sets; I always notice it when each movie comes out.

Something I noticed is that Lego dumps a bunch more minifigs into sets than they used to, possibly precisely to jack up the price. Like, what is Lando doing in the A-Wing? Pushing its price up to $40 is what.

 

 

I think in some of those cases it's mainly to provide a "main character" to go with ships piloted by more minor characters (in this case, not even a named character). Tie in the fact there aren't a lot of other sets that would be MORE suited to this version of Lando (since by the time we're due for a new Millennium Falcon they'd probably stick Han and Chewie in there again anyway), and it maybe makes more sense to put him with a minor ship from the same movie.

I've heard that The LEGO Super Heroes Movie would be brilliant, one reason being that, since LEGO is the only company with rights to both Marvel and DC, it's the only company that could give us a Marvel vs. DC movie. LEGO took advantage of owning both licenses in The LEGO Batman Movie with Batman's password being "Iron Man sucks."

I don't think the "Iron Man sucks" password required any sort of license. You don't need the rights to a character to mention their name in a movie. If he actually appeared in any capacity it'd be a different story.

I prefer the use of less... realistic names as it makes the world just a little more engaging to me. I also like the original ending much better. Having it end on a cliff hanger like the first bionicle movie would have made the pilot a lot more interesting. The early draft kinda feels like the stakes were higher which I wish they had stuck to as it would have made the thing a lot more memorable.

I dunno, the names of the ninja in the early treatment feel maybe a bit too on-the-nose in terms of their elemental affinity.

I always thought it was supposed to resemble some sorta facial hair.

I think the most exciting thing about this announcement is that the LDD development team is still working on public-facing content at all. I can only hope that the updated gallery indicates a renewed interest in the software, and ideally further updates to the software itself in turn.

Love this set! Between the diner, boxing gym, and radio station, there are so many great subjects and techniques at play. And this set is so far the best showcase of teal coming back in a big way, with plenty of detail elements as well as basic bricks being released (or in some cases, re-released) in that color.

Check out the color of the tooth elements on the roof and the market stall in this 2018 Disney Princess set. Yes, that IS Bright Bluish Green/Dark Turquoise/Teal! Back in plastic after a whole decade!