Commandments for new Lego themes.

[electrodude]

I've been a lego fan for a while and while I no longer buy their stuff I still keep an eye on their products. Throughout the 2000's but especially in the recent years, 2 developements in lego struck my mind, and they're still in use right now. I'm sure you've all noticed them in some way.The first is the increase of lincenced themes, since Lego Star Wars was such a hit around 2000 it was only logical, but now some long standing themes have been replaced with a licence like Castle and Pirates.The second more complex, but still pretty clear. It's the rise of the Commandments of Flashy Themes, which are listed below.I. Thou shalt have two sides: Good and Evil. No moral ambiguity here. They can be identified by colour and styleII. In addition to Commandment 1, thou shalt not use complexity.III. Thou shalt not use subtlety, subtlety is for wimps.IV. Thou shalt make the good and evil guys fight over a set of objects carefully spread around all of the sets or even sold seperately.V. Thou shalt have a colour scheme containing lots of extreme colours and contrast.VI. Thou shalt not worry about being realistic.VII. Thou shalt not worry about being practical, especially in the weapons department.VIII. Thou shalt make anything that is valuable or powerful either bright and transparent, or glowing, or gold.IX. Thou shalt no longer put the emphasis on construction, but on action instead, with lots of epic functions that mostly consist of shooting. .X. Thou shalt not use peace, and victory can only be attained by slaughtering the enemy, directly or indirectly.Edit:XI. Thou shalt have an epic story with loads of room for expansion. Note that I don't think these are bad, I love Monster Hunters which is a prime example but it's very different from the lego before the 2000's.Also notice that Bionicle uses some of the commandments, but also adds a layer of complexity and a better colour scheme.What's your opinion on this subject? Please tell me if I'm wrong.NOTE: These are not mine, nor do I think these are necessarily the best things to go by, I'm only saying Lego goes by it

Edited August 9, 2012 by electrodude

[Click]

Expanding on IX. Lego needs more epic functions that you can actually play with a lot, and not go "oh, it spins/it opens/it bends, good for you. Like I'll ever use that again." Just something fun that's different and original.I like most of the functions, but I think it would be nice to have some sides in the middle, at least that just haven't decided yet on their side, and can come back in later waves or storyline.And XI. Thou must include an intriguing storyline with lots of room for expansion (think of Bionicle or Ninjago)

Edited August 9, 2012 by Click

[fishers64]

*nods along*Now we need a line that tromps over all of these rules fantastically. The unusual is always a better recipe for success in the creative world.

[Athmos]

Those are some pretty accurate commandments. I liked Bionicle, because they didn't just have "Good" and "Evil" sides. It had a bunch of Neutral, Neutral Good and Neutral Evil characters and groups. The Dark Hunters, they weren't "Evil." They just wanted money and power. To conquer? Not exactly, but just so they could have it. They were fuuuuuuunnnnnn. Also, I want more creative LEGO builds. IX. really needs to be changed.

[electrodude]

Expanding on IX. Lego needs more epic functions that you can actually play with a lot, and not go "oh, it spins/it opens/it bends, good for you. Like I'll ever use that again." Just something fun that's different and original.I like most of the functions, but I think it would be nice to have some sides in the middle, at least that just haven't decided yet on their side, and can come back in later waves or storyline.And XI. Thou must include an intriguing storyline with lots of room for expansion (think of Bionicle or Ninjago)

Yeah the main problem with the commandments as a whole is that it just makes the whole thing too simple. On the other hand, a lot of kids like simplicity .

Expanding on IX. Lego needs more epic functions that you can actually play with a lot, and not go "oh, it spins/it opens/it bends, good for you. Like I'll ever use that again." Just something fun that's different and original.I like most of the functions, but I think it would be nice to have some sides in the middle, at least that just haven't decided yet on their side, and can come back in later waves or storyline.And XI. Thou must include an intriguing storyline with lots of room for expansion (think of Bionicle or Ninjago)

I'll add those. Edited August 9, 2012 by electrodude

[Toa Smoke Monster]

I think a lot of these are very true. (I, II, IV, and VIII, in particular) IX kind of makes me sad, because it was the construction of the early Bionicle sets that helped me get into the theme.This is one of the reason that I liked the Bionicle storyline. It became complex (in a good way IMO) and had really great character moments in it. It stood out from other Lego themes, which really made it cool.

[bonesiii]

Yeah, Bionicle actually challenged a lot of these. Especially the Bohrok. And there were moments of peace, like the bear in MOL. But sadly a lot of it is true... Not that I don't want bad guys or epic battles or anything...As for color schemes I'm thinking Kaita. Ugh.

[BobaFett2]

They lack epic storylines. The only theme with an epic storyline is BIONICLE, although LU could have gotten there. Most other storylines are incredibly limited.Friends breaks these.

[Aanchir]

I. Thou shalt have two sides: Good and Evil. No moral ambiguity here. They can be identified by colour and style

Pretty fair, and a sensible rule to follow, although there are some obvious exceptions. For instance, while Power Miners had obvious protagonists and antagonists, all the story info there was made it clear that the Rock Monster antagonists were more mischievous and territorial than outright evil.

II. In addition to Commandment 1, thou shalt not use complexity.

Not sure what this is supposed to mean. Are you talking about story complexity, or building complexity?If you're talking story complexity, Ninjago has a pretty complex story, more so than some LEGO fans can really grasp. And a lack of story complexity is nothing intrinsic to recent themes, since most themes today have way more detailed and complex storytelling than any themes of the 80s and 90s which were just bare-bones structures around which kids were expected to create their own stories.If you're talking building complexity, then this statement is downright false. Some of the Ninjago sets I love are far more complex than the sets from my childhood in the 90s. Licensed themes today use way more complex building techniques than the LEGO Star Wars sets of the late 90s and early naughts. And even LEGO City sets use far more SNOT techniques than most 90s Town sets, particularly the "Town Jr." subtheme reviled by adult fans of LEGO. Hero Factory sets are simple, but I'd consider this a good thing-- what some people call "simple", I would call "user-friendly", and rather than limiting creativity like some oversimplified set and part designs, Hero Factory simplifies the builds into a system more versatile for figure building than any previous action figure theme IMO.

III. Thou shalt not use subtlety, subtlety is for wimps.

Subtlety is just fine, and is not rare at all in today's themes. But at the same time, you don't want things so subtle they go right over the audience's heads. I'd like to hear what you think are examples of well-handled subtlety in earlier themes, but personally I think the Hero Factory episode Ordeal of Fire had about as much subtlety as any LEGO story has ever had-- watch in the background of Nex and Evo's debut scene to see him flirt with reporter Daniela Capricorn and get utterly rejected. Likewise, in LEGO Ninjago there are some things implied but never stated outright, such as the fate of Pythor's tribe (while he claims they starved to death, his own ravenous appetite and the fact that he miraculously survived when the rest did not implies that he actually ate his fellow Serpentine while imprisoned).

IV. Thou shalt make the good and evil guys fight over a set of objects carefully spread around all of the sets or even sold seperately.

This one's been with us since the 90s, probably first demonstrated effectively in the celebrated Adventurers theme with its "map segments". It's a pretty good way of driving sales, and certainly a strong motivator even for an adult fan like me. It gets a bit tiresome sometimes, especially in cases like this most recent wave of Ninjago where the collectible "Fang Blades" aren't even remotely exclusive and can easily be assembled from a longtime Ninjago fan's collection. But

V. Thou shalt have a colour scheme containing lots of extreme colours and contrast.

Well duh. Why would you deliberately design a color scheme to be boring? Even Rock Raiders, hated for its juniorized parts but well-loved for its gritty, steampunk-esque color scheme, had contrasting bright yellow and bright bluish-green accents.

VI. Thou shalt not worry about being realistic.

Usually a reasonable expectation. Fantasy and sci-fi themes suffer if they try to be realistic at the expense of practicality or creativity. Even in real-life-based themes like LEGO City or LEGO Friends, meeting buyers' expectations is generally far more important than being accurate, hence why fire stations in LEGO City tend to have the same bright red, white, and transparent light blue color schemes as the fire engines themselves, rather than more realistic earth tones. Also why crooks in LEGO City tend to constantly wear prison stripes rather than being plainclothes criminals-- this is also related to your "first commandment", since if you can't tell at a glance who the bad guys are then your product won't have the same immediate appeal. Some kids will cry during play testing if sets don't match what their vision of that subject should look like.

VII. Thou shalt not worry about being practical, especially in the weapons department.

True to an extent. Something practical in the context of a toy is usually unrelated to whether it would be practical in real life. For instance, some of the simplest but most dynamic action features include launcher functions like missiles and catapults. Missiles didn't start to show up until the 90s in themes like Competition/Cyber Slam, but catapults have been around since the earliest days of LEGO Castle, even if not proportionate or practical-looking. As for swords and other melee weapons, impracticality is often an acceptable sacrifice for Rule of Cool.

VIII. Thou shalt make anything that is valuable or powerful either bright and transparent, or glowing, or gold.

Yep. You don't want your valuable artifacts to be boring or ruddy-looking or kids will have a hard time understanding why they're valuable. Kids immediately associate shiny objects with value and glowy objects with power. Even the suspiciously weapon-like "sensor arrays" of Classic Space tended to be glowy so they didn't feel as boring as solid-colored antennas might.

IX. Thou shalt no longer put the emphasis on construction, but on action instead, with lots of epic functions that mostly consist of shooting.

Completely bogus. Construction value and play value are both extremely important to all modern sets. Many of today's sets are far more complex in construction than similarly-sized sets from the past few decades. Look at LEGO Friends and LEGO City, which have almost zero shooting functions-- especially noteworthy in that LEGO City has been one of the most successful LEGO themes for many years. Other examples of mostly shooting-free themes include LEGO Technic, LEGO Creator, and LEGO Bricks & More, the last three of which are almost completely construction-driven in their appeal.The main reason shooting functions are more common today than in years past is that The LEGO Group can now get away with it. In previous decades, there was a huge amount of effort put into avoiding things that would scare kids and parents. Space themes in the early years always had "sensor arrays" instead of guns or weapons of any kind, and even Blacktron took some negotiating to create because some kids and parents thought the all-black ships and uniforms were too scary. Even before that, there was hesitation to release basic bricks in gray or green since TLG worried they'd be used for military creations. I personally think TLG's more lax attitude towards these things today are less a matter of trigger-happy design and more a matter of changing with the times, since today kids really like these kinds of functions and it's common sense to include them.

X. Thou shalt not use peace, and victory can only be attained by slaughtering the enemy, directly or indirectly.

Hogwash. None of today's themes besides perhaps the licensed themes have anything to do with slaughtering anybody. If kids want to play with them that way it's their decision, and truth be told it's how a lot of kids might choose to stage their good-versus-evil storytelling. But generally violence is never used by the good guys to kill or eliminate an enemy in any LEGO stories. Generally the good guys are either intending to claim and protect a treasure (Atlantis, Pharaoh's Quest, Adventurers, Aquazone), stop some kind of disaster (Power Miners, Monster Fighters, Pharaoh's Quest), ensure peace and justice (Hero Factory, City, BIONICLE), or just experience the world around them (City, Friends).As for themes being conflict-driven, which is more consistent among today's themes than violent conflict, that's hardly unique to post-2000 themes. Aquazone was a competition for oxygen-producing crystals needed for survival. Classic LEGO Space had two colors of spaceman: white astronauts and red cosmonauts. Even the earliest castle sets had armed knights trying to defend the kingdom.

XI. Thou shalt have an epic story with loads of room for expansion.

Not totally sure what this is supposed to mean. LEGO themes have always had room for expansion, since not only do you want to leave open the opportunity for future products, but you also want to inspire kids to create their own unique models in the settings you've created.As for epic story, that's hardly common to themes today or even unique to modern themes. Classic LEGO Pirates had named characters (though the names varied depending on your region), clearly-defined factions, lots of conflict (including launcher functions!), and minifigure designs with tons of personality. LEGO Aquazone and LEGO Space had lots of factions which competed for resources in a completely imagined science-fantasy setting. LEGO Castle had some quite distinctive factions especially in the 90s. And almost all 90s themes had named characters with distinctive personalities if you read the LEGO Mania Magazines. Compare these to LEGO City, which has almost no story whatsoever, LEGO Friends, which has named characters but no main idea besides "a group of friends go through life in Heartlake City", or LEGO Creator, which is purely construction-based. Even LEGO Alien Conquest had no named characters (except a name for the alien commander used in some supplementary material).So overall, most of these "rules" are common-sense aspects of toy design and storytelling that TLG has arrived at through experience with the success and failure of various themes over the years. Licensed themes showed them the potential for inspiration in epic long-term sagas, which led to themes like BIONICLE, Knights' Kingdom, Exo-Force, and Ninjago. Experience with toy sales led to today's "conflict in every box" design patterns, compared to the single-faction sets and themes of the 80s and 90s. Less draconian standards about acceptable conflict play led to a clearer weapons policy that allowed for more freedom in what could be included. However, none of these rules are universal or binding in any way, and overall there is a great diversity among today's themes in order to appeal to a wide range of audiences.

[Rahkshi Guurahk]

Classic LEGO Space had two colors of spaceman: white astronauts and red cosmonauts.

Then they added yellow, then black and blue also.

[Aanchir]

Classic LEGO Space had two colors of spaceman: white astronauts and red cosmonauts.

Then they added yellow, then black and blue also.

Yep. At that point the colors changed more to being different "roles" on the space crew. Red and white were imagined to be explorers, black to be soldiers (though they couldn't ever really say this officially due to the anti-war policies of TLG at the time), blue to be scientists, and yellow to be mechanics I think. There's an article of classic LEGO Space designer Jens Nygaard Knudsen in an issue of the AFOL magazine Brickjournal which goes into a lot of detail about the thought processes behind classic LEGO space.

[Rahkshi Guurahk]

Ohnever got that magazine. Thanks.

[Death of the Endless]

Sorry, but I mostly agree with the Rachira of Time on this. Commandment I is certainly true, but the rest either applies to few themes in any era or to old themes as much as new ones. You have applied a generous amount of Nostalgia Filter, my friend.

[Lyichir]

Aanchir summed up about all I have to say on the subject. But it's ironic that the original poster considers Monster Fighters to be so dramatically different from Lego in the 90's and before, seeing as it has a similar story structure to the Adventurers theme. The only difference is that the villainous characters are more diverse and have more personality, and that there is more variety and purpose to the treasure in each set.