Are there too many licensed LEGO themes?

[MaximillianRebo]

There's a false dichotomy being pushed in some comments that licensed theme are inherently uncreative, therefore they should be scrapped in favour of unlicensed themes which of course must therefore by definition be creative. A Hogwarts or Helicarrier set isn't creative but Hidden Side sets, which follow fairly well trodden horror tropes, are.

Putting aside that all licensed sets have started life on someone's drawing board - just not a Lego designer - I'd argue that even within Lego there's still a level of creativity involved, not in concept but in design. Anyone who's built a MOC knows that it's not always a straightforward process to slap a bunch of bricks and plates together and say 'yep, that absolutely looks like an X-Wing'. Solving the various shape, stability and part usage issues involves a fair amount of creative thinking to design a Lego model that looks as close as possible to real life (or on the big screen), or simply working out how to bring together a system of parts that was in large part designed before the first Star Wars movie was released and using them to create a recognisable and detailed Millennium Falcon.

[Alcarin]

My opinion is, that yes, there is too many licensed sets and too little non licensed... Especially in area Castle/Pirates etc... 

 

I mean i keep seeing LEGO city + Friends and Ninjago everywhere, and then after that its mostly Star Wars and a little Harry Potter... and some LEGO "flower" sets... kinda not a good variety imo, especially for boys, if they are not into Ninjago or Star Wars, there is barely any mediaval or fighting stuff.

 

We really need perma pirates/Castle themese.

 

 

[imposter]

8 hours ago, MAB said:

So buy Dreamzzz or vintage stuff on the secondary market. And let others that want to buy Star Wars, HP and Ninjago buy what they want. If LEGO only made themes like Dreamzzz, they'd soon be bankrupt and you'd only be able to enjoy old themes from the secondary market.

The point was that there are too many LICENSED themes? Dreamzzz... is only one "LEGO's OWN STORY" -theme.

Good news are that Creator 3 in 1 is creative. We get new castle and probably two new factions. So Creator theme is somehow creative. 

[MAB]

46 minutes ago, imposter said:

The point was that there are too many LICENSED themes? Dreamzzz... is only one "LEGO's OWN STORY" -theme.

Good news are that Creator 3 in 1 is creative. We get new castle and probably two new factions. So Creator theme is somehow creative. 

There are not too many licensed themes though. If anything, there are not enough as LEGO is missing out on sales to fans of other licenses.

The number of licensed themes is irrelevant to the number of unlicensed themes. The number of retail sets of each is about 50:50 and has been for a while. The reason there are few unlicensed themes (not sets) is that the popular licensed themes have swallowed up the smaller themes. City covers so much more than it used to including realistic space. Ninjago covers a lot of light fantasy, some historical architecture, historical-like wooden ships and space-like futuristic technology. The shorter lived themes of Dreamzzz, Hidden Side, Vidiyo, and even NK and Chima have mopped up the rest of the ideas although often overlapped in some places.

Creativity in those themes is responsible for killing off the classic themes. Remember also people's views of Castle in the final years. LEGO gave fans a big castle and small medieval sets yet those fans dissed it as boring and repetitive, it sold poorly and was heavily discounted. Something similar happened to Galaxy Squad with complaints about it being too aggressive and not Classic Space. So LEGO used creativity in story telling to weave some aspects of classic themes into the themes that kids actually like today, and no longer do the classic themes but instead make big, expensive classic style sets for nostalgic adults that only want things like they had in the past.

[Paul B Technic]

 

11 hours ago, MAB said:

Star wars is about 5% of LEGO's output in terms of available sets.

When i was last involved in the planning and running of our local LEGO show (about 5 years ago) we had over 50% of people wanting to display Star Wars LEGO... in the end, we had maybe 30% of tables taken up by Star Wars LEGO.

We had some members of the public complain we had too much Star Wars LEGO and some complain that we didn't have enough.... this was about the time I gave up and have not been involved or even attended since.

Edited 16 hours ago by Paul B Technic

[Lion King]

3 hours ago, MAB said:

There are not too many licensed themes though. If anything, there are not enough as LEGO is missing out on sales to fans of other licenses.

The number of licensed themes is irrelevant to the number of unlicensed themes. The number of retail sets of each is about 50:50 and has been for a while. The reason there are few unlicensed themes (not sets) is that the popular licensed themes have swallowed up the smaller themes. City covers so much more than it used to including realistic space. Ninjago covers a lot of light fantasy, some historical architecture, historical-like wooden ships and space-like futuristic technology. The shorter lived themes of Dreamzzz, Hidden Side, Vidiyo, and even NK and Chima have mopped up the rest of the ideas although often overlapped in some places.

Creativity in those themes is responsible for killing off the classic themes. Remember also people's views of Castle in the final years. LEGO gave fans a big castle and small medieval sets yet those fans dissed it as boring and repetitive, it sold poorly and was heavily discounted. Something similar happened to Galaxy Squad with complaints about it being too aggressive and not Classic Space. So LEGO used creativity in story telling to weave some aspects of classic themes into the themes that kids actually like today, and no longer do the classic themes but instead make big, expensive classic style sets for nostalgic adults that only want things like they had in the past.

Ok, go ahead and count the licensed and unlicensed sets this year.  I’m not Corning Books, BDP, and other things like Gears. 

[The Island Chronicles]

On 4/3/2025 at 4:58 PM, imposter said:

Ninjago, Friends, Speed Champions, Technic, CITY, and list goes on and on. 

I would change Star Wars, Harry Potter and Jurassic World LEGO in-house themes: sci-fi, fantasy and dino 2050. 

I don't think that would work. It may have worked during Lego's earlier days, but not today in the age of the media. 

[BrickBob Studpants]

As much as I like in-house themes, I wouldn‘t want to give up a single licensed theme for an expy theme  

Some of the takes in this thread make my head spin, but that‘s Turtle for ya  Cutting all licensed themes but 2?? No offense, but boy am I glad you guys have no say in what TLG does. Just imagine pitching some of these ideas. Yeah, let‘s get rid of 3 of the biggest sellers and replace them with themes that all failed hard in the past and died after less than two years. THEY‘LL BE DROWNING IN MONEY!

Also, this isn‘t the 80s and 90s anymore. If Classic Space, Pirates, Western etc. still sold as well as 30+ years ago, they‘d produce sets. Some AFOLs like to point at Playmobil for still doing that, and now look where that got them

[Mylenium]

18 hours ago, JesseNight said:

The point is probably creative freedom. Of course there's always tolerance, and restriction of what we can do with the bricks given, but you know in advance what you have to design... instead of following a designer's own fantasy to create something unseen before. It's the latter that so many people are missing.

No offense to anyone, but such posts make me facepalm myself so hard the echo could be heard across the universe. I know this is going to sound arrogant, but most of you don't seem to know how "design" at a professional level works and what you are describing is more "doodling around" than actual design. I mean every designer worth their salt of course kind of knows beforehand what he wants (others) to build. Ideation and conceptualizing the project beforehand based on defined criteria is how this works. You draw something, create a little maquette, build a crude prototype and then refine it in an iterative process going back and forth, more often than not collaborating with engineers, other designers, specialists. Again, not meaning to be condescending, but I find it hard to even accept your viewpoints when terminology is thrown around so wildly mixed and used improperly. And that takes us back to the original point: Expression of creativity isn't contingent of pulling ideas out of thin air and always creating something completely different. How would that even work, considering that so much has already be done and repetition is inevitable? I would also contest this "creativity" argument on another level. Clearly someone being "inspired" by a Classic Space Star Cruiser is going to build other vehicles in a similar style, not pink LEGO Friends spaceships. So then is this in any way different from someone building Star Wars stuff? I find there's a lot of mixed messaging going on here and people are mistaking their own wants and LEGO not fulfilling them as being a broader problem with the LEGO designers and the company's product portfolio, which couldn't be any further from reality.

Mylenium

[Yperio_Bricks]

1 hour ago, Mylenium said:

I would also contest this "creativity" argument on another level. Clearly someone being "inspired" by a Classic Space Star Cruiser is going to build other vehicles in a similar style, not pink LEGO Friends spaceships. So then is this in any way different from someone building Star Wars stuff?

     

Thank you! I have been thinking this all the time. 

[williejm]

Look, I think it’s fine to have as many licensed themes as possible, but they *really* need to make it a condition of any licence deal that they introduce multiple new animal moulds. We were set a high bar by the Prince of Persia, and slim pickings since. 

6 hours ago, BrickBob Studpants said:

Also, this isn‘t the 80s and 90s anymore. If Classic Space, Pirates, Western etc. still sold as well as 30+ years ago, they‘d produce sets. Some AFOLs like to point at Playmobil for still doing that, and now look where that got them

If you ask me, that’s where it all started going wrong … ah for the halcyon days when there was only one female minifigure per theme, and they were always a busty wench. 

[JesseNight]

21 hours ago, MAB said:

Whose creativity?

I would say ours, but motivated by Lego by giving us a theme with less rules.
If you're in a preset licensed theme, everybody will try to make the same stuff (stuff they've seen in the movies). Sure there's still creative solutions to solve problems, but in a non-licensed theme there's full creative freedom.
Not saying it's impossible in licensed themes for us (for Lego it probably is), just a lot less likely for people to be motivated to do that. There are exceptions of course.

 

6 hours ago, Mylenium said:

No offense to anyone, but such posts make me facepalm myself so hard the echo could be heard across the universe. I know this is going to sound arrogant, but most of you don't seem to know how "design" at a professional level works and what you are describing is more "doodling around" than actual design. I mean every designer worth their salt of course kind of knows beforehand what he wants (others) to build. Ideation and conceptualizing the project beforehand based on defined criteria is how this works. You draw something, create a little maquette, build a crude prototype and then refine it in an iterative process going back and forth, more often than not collaborating with engineers, other designers, specialists. Again, not meaning to be condescending, but I find it hard to even accept your viewpoints when terminology is thrown around so wildly mixed and used improperly. And that takes us back to the original point: Expression of creativity isn't contingent of pulling ideas out of thin air and always creating something completely different. How would that even work, considering that so much has already be done and repetition is inevitable? I would also contest this "creativity" argument on another level. Clearly someone being "inspired" by a Classic Space Star Cruiser is going to build other vehicles in a similar style, not pink LEGO Friends spaceships. So then is this in any way different from someone building Star Wars stuff? I find there's a lot of mixed messaging going on here and people are mistaking their own wants and LEGO not fulfilling them as being a broader problem with the LEGO designers and the company's product portfolio, which couldn't be any further from reality.

Mylenium

No offense taken, and it's true that I have no idea how professional designers work.
When someone has to design an X-Wing, their creativity is aimed solely towards making it look like that. And when we get the so-many'th X-Wing we've had in so many years, that makes me facepalm. Even more if endless repetition of the same is really what people want. That's just my opinion about it, no disrespect intended to the people liking or designing it.

However if someone's told to design a new space theme, or a new ship in a decided uniform set of colors for that theme, they can literally go every direction. And if something doesn't turn out right, they can alter their vision or make it better. I miss being surprised by originality of new sets, not knowing at all what we're getting until we see it for the first time. So even as a Star Wars fan, I'd pick City Space over Lego's SW series anytime.

Also once again, I'm not against licensed themes, only against too many, and the endless repetition of the same franchises.

Edited 6 hours ago by JesseNight

[imposter]

LEGO THEMES 2025

 

 

 

0 > creativity (21)
Animal Crossing
Architecture
Art
Bluey
Botanicals
Classic
DC
Disney
Fortnite
Harry Potter
Horizon
Jurassic World
Marvel
Minecraft
One Piece
Sonic
Speed Champions
Star Wars 
Super Mario
Wednesday
Wicked

100 % Creative Themes (5)
BrickHeadz
CITY
CMF
Creator
Dreamzzz...

Basic themes (7)
Friends 
Icons 
Ideas (over rated)
Monkie Kid 
Ninjago
Seasonal
Technic (car theme)

Edited 6 hours ago by imposter

[Lion King]

9 minutes ago, imposter said:

LEGO THEMES 2025

 

 

 

0 > creativity (21)
Animal Crossing
Architecture
Art
Bluey
Botanicals
Classic
DC
Disney
Fortnite
Harry Potter
Horizon
Jurassic World
Marvel
Minecraft
One Piece
Sonic
Speed Champions
Star Wars 
Super Mario
Wednesday
Wicked

100 % Creative Themes (5)
BrickHeadz
CITY
CMF
Creator
Dreamzzz...

Basic themes (7)
Friends 
Icons 
Ideas (over rated)
Monkie Kid 
Ninjago
Seasonal
Technic (car theme)

I don’t think botanicals are licensed? Like who has rights to plants?

And arent’ BrickHeadz, Ideas and Icons the mixed-up themes? And CMF?

Anyways,  i feel there is an issue with older AFOLs - it’s nostalgia.  I do love in-house themes but i hardly buy any sets from licensed theems. Ionly buy certain dinosaurs from Jurasic World, alien from Star Wars, and fantasty creatuers from Harry Potter. I really dont’ care about other themes like Fortnite, Horizon,  Marvel/DC, etc., UNLess they have cool accessories and hairpieces.  For example, axe from Dungeon & Dragon CMF series go to classic Castle MOCs.  

I just think there should be 50:50 ratio, a good balance for both in-house and licensed themes.  No  thanks to replacing Star Wars with one in-house theme or say bye to Lego….forever.

[BrickBob Studpants]

25 minutes ago, Lion King said:

Anyways,  i feel there is an issue with older AFOLs - it’s nostalgia.

Word. Some people seem to be blinded by nostalgia and conveniently forget that the 80s were 40 years ago. Tastes change, and kids don't necessarily like the same things their parents did. There might still be a market for classic themes, but you can't expect kids nowadays to go nuts for themes that were popular back then. The recent throwback sets were likely mostly bought by adult fans and not kids.

Overall, I kinda find it tedious and somewhat childish to try and pit licensed and in-house themes against one another. They can easily co-exist peacefully, and I fail to see why everything has to be turned into a battle, similar to Marvel vs DC nonsense or silly console wars, except within the same company

[Yperio_Bricks]

1 hour ago, JesseNight said:

If you're in a preset licensed theme, everybody will try to make the same stuff (stuff they've seen in the movies). Sure there's still creative solutions to solve problems, but in a non-licensed theme there's full creative freedom.
Not saying it's impossible in licensed themes for us (for Lego it probably is), just a lot less likely for people to be motivated to do that. There are exceptions of course.

This is simply not true. Look at Star Wars mocs for example. There are so many mocs of stuff you never saw in a movie or show. The Star Wars galaxy is so big and so diverse, it's just a giant canvas for peoples imagination and creativity. People make up their own characters and planets, species and vehicles, events and stories all the time. But according to some, these people are not creative in any way because they build Star Wars mocs?

I think there are actually less "rules" for Star Wars mocs than for Classic Space mocs. Just sayin'

Edited 5 hours ago by Yperio_Bricks

[MAB]

1 hour ago, JesseNight said:

I would say ours, but motivated by Lego by giving us a theme with less rules.
If you're in a preset licensed theme, everybody will try to make the same stuff (stuff they've seen in the movies). Sure there's still creative solutions to solve problems, but in a non-licensed theme there's full creative freedom.
Not saying it's impossible in licensed themes for us (for Lego it probably is), just a lot less likely for people to be motivated to do that. There are exceptions of course.

Everybody won't try to make the same stuff though, as there is typically lots of material to choose from. And in unlicensed themes there is not full creative freedom. In castle, aside from the original yellow castle, the output tended to be grey and occasionally black bits of building, horses and carts, the occasional dragon. There is very little creative freedom to design something genuinely different as if it doesn't fit the theme, it won't be accepted and also probably wouldn't sell if customers didn't understand what it was meant to be. One of the downsides of BDP is the similarity of so many castle offerings, series after series. Similarly with classic pirates, it was really quite a narrow theme conforming to "Boys Own" style or Hollywood style swashbuckler pirates. Kids having those sets would know the traditional storyline and how to play , just like with a licensed set. Classic themes were much narrower than Ninjago, Nexo Knights or Chima but even they draw on traditional storyline although the themes often appeared rather disjointed where maybe there is too much freedom.

[MAB]

53 minutes ago, imposter said:

 

100 % Creative Themes (5)
BrickHeadz
CITY
CMF
Creator
Dreamzzz...

I'm glad for some uncreative licensed themes then if this is what you call 100% creative...

 

Firetrucks are so creative and LEGO has never done anything like that before, and cars that look just like formula one cars and even have real world advertising on them. So creative.

[Lion King]

29 minutes ago, BrickBob Studpants said:

Word. Some people seem to be blinded by nostalgia and conveniently forget that the 80s were 40 years ago. Tastes change, and kids don't necessarily like the same things their parents did. There might still be a market for classic themes, but you can't expect kids nowadays to go nuts for themes that were popular back then. The recent throwback sets were likely mostly bought by adult fans and not kids.

Overall, I kinda find it tedious and somewhat childish to try and pit licensed and in-house themes against one another. They can easily co-exist peacefully, and I fail to see why everything has to be turned into a battle, similar to Marvel vs DC nonsense or silly console wars, except within the same company

Exaclty, kids in 21st century seem to get into pop cultures like Star Wars, Harry Potter,  Fornite, Horizon. Same the way with Pez candy disposers. That’s how pop cultures keep companies alive. 

I’m in favor for co-existence. 

[Black Falcon]

29 minutes ago, MAB said:

and cars that look just like formula one cars and even have real world advertising on them. So creative.

Bad example for an unlicensed set though ;)

[Murdoch17]

1 hour ago, imposter said:

LEGO THEMES 2025

 

 

 

0 > creativity (21)
Animal Crossing
Architecture
Art
Bluey
Botanicals
Classic
DC
Disney
Fortnite
Harry Potter
Horizon
Jurassic World
Marvel
Minecraft
One Piece
Sonic
Speed Champions
Star Wars 
Super Mario
Wednesday
Wicked

100 % Creative Themes (5)
BrickHeadz
CITY
CMF
Creator
Dreamzzz...

Basic themes (7)
Friends 
Icons 
Ideas (over rated)
Monkie Kid 
Ninjago
Seasonal
Technic (car theme)

Huh.... the theme that emulates the creative buckets of old (classic) apparently lacks imagination! Who'd a thought!?!

Also, Brickheadz are licensed, whereas botanicals are not.

(I think this guy is trolling us, folks.)

[MAB]

Just now, Black Falcon said:

Bad example for an unlicensed set though ;)

Why is it a bad example? It is a perfect example. It is a CITY set. The clue is on the box. And we've just been told that CITY is 100% creative.

And just like license haters seem to cite the repetition of the X-wing or Millenium Falcon from Star Wars, what is creative about yet another fire truck? LEGO keep making them as kids want them and they sell, not because they are creative or imaginative.

[Lion King]

19 minutes ago, Murdoch17 said:

Huh.... the theme that emulates the creative buckets of old (classic) apparently lacks imagination! Who'd a thought!?!

Also, Brickheadz are licensed, whereas botanicals are not.

(I think this guy is trolling us, folks.)

BrickHeadz used to be mixed theme but now it’s purely licensed.

and I’m pretty sure you know who htis is…. It could be Turtle. 

[Calanon]

1 hour ago, MAB said:

Everybody won't try to make the same stuff though, as there is typically lots of material to choose from.

And even within LSW when we make the same things people have quite different goals. Brickvault is very popular with their "best version of X EVAR" but many builds are highly fragile with delicate connections. Then you've got someone like BaufmanBricks building in a smaller scale than a lot of people (also, how he scales different sized craft is rather good) and emphasises having functionality over absolute perfect detail.

[Yperio_Bricks]

31 minutes ago, Lion King said:

and I’m pretty sure you know who htis is…. It could be Turtle. 

You are probably right. I just checked some of the IP addresses of his posts and the location is Helsinki, Finland. Same as Turtle's...