CEC Team ask "What would you like to see as new themes for LEGO Direct?"

prevere

Message Intercept Base - Blacktron I base. For some reason I just love the black with the trans-yellow look.

SarahIsabella

For me it would have to be the Grand Carousel. I learned a lot of really interesting techniques building it and once built it is very playable. My non-AFOL friends are always amazed by it, some have even taken an interest in LEGO after seeing it.

bluemoose

Thanks for all the good replies; keep 'em coming.

I know it's fun to chat about what themes you'd like to see in the future, but that's not what this request is about. As I understand it they want to know what sets AFOLs like; they do not intend to rerelease any of these sets, but they want to know, in general terms, what are the key characteristics that AFOLs like in sets, so they can better tune future 'Direct' sets to what we want to buy. The idea is they will look at what we identify as our fave sets & try to pull out some common characteristics (e.g. 'novel building techniques', 'excessive modelling detail', 'unusual colours', 'challenging build', 'interactive features', etc.) and they will then use this to guide development of future 'Direct' sets.

Matthew

In which case I'll stick with MMV

Chipmunkian

My favorites has always been the Forestmen theme. 6066 Camouflaged Outpost and 6077 Forestmen's River Fortress are/were the best in my opinion. For more recent sets, 7036 Dwarves' Mine, I enjoyed (so do my kids) and of course MMV.

sonsofsceva

6765 Gold City Junction is one I find very interesting. If they made a MMV quality Western theme it would be fantastic.

jadeirene

My favorite is 6079 Dark Forest Fortress. I love MMV as well, but seeing as how there is so much love for it already I had to go with a forest set.

gruetzmacherd

I'll second the vote for 6383 Public Works Center (http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=6383-1).

My first set and a great one!

tomcatt

Definitely MMV

Si_UKNZ

6399 Airport Shuttle.
I know they're telling us to exclude monorail, but I just don't accept that there are legitimate reasons for doing this, and it's far and away the best theme/ set ever.

Orthobotrex

@bluemoose: now that you have mentioned those characteristics, I'd go for excessive modelling details and challenging build. Also, given those traits, I'd guess they're after making big sets.
Since I like mecha, I'll add realistic articulations. 5764 would've looked better if it had more joints IMO.

legoDad

8970 Robo Attack.
I'd want to see more 'robot/mecha' styled themes. Which can spawn off more combat, military vehicles in the line for great mecha/military battles.

HuskerDont

Surprised nobody's mentioned any of the interations of the Town Plan yet; if they churned out a different version every year I still think I'd buy all of them....

This would be a great theme to bridge people between the City series and the modular buildings. A few buildings per set with the playability of the open back City design, but with modular building detail. As someone who has always been a fan of the Town/City line, something like this would help keep kids who are getting older interested in Lego and avoid a "dark age", or worse, lack of interest all together.

efitness

6987 Message Intercept Base. MMV is amazing in so many ways, but I have to go with the brilliant Blacktron base.

StuBoy

I've already put my vote in, but another great set with amazing playability is 6066 Camouflaged Outpost. Fantastic minifig count for the size of the set too!
http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=6066-1

thebrickster

more nasa baced sets like the 102321 space shuttle

kor

MMV. That set brought me out of my dark ages.

madforLEGO

9356 Dacta Hospital...

Hospital line (which sounds like it is coming back), an actual Modular hospital or Bank (since people all said the other things Id suggest)

CCLIN

Another vote for MMV from here. Just a great set.

veritas313

My vote goes to the Emerald Night train. My first train I've built, although I have the rest waiting to build, I just love the detail on the engine.

kylejohnson11

I was a huge fan growing up of 6335 Indy Transport. I would like either that one remade or 6337 Fast Track Finish :)

mnbvc

I think for me, I like novel building techniques and challenging builds - MMV was fantastic, and the modulars have probably been the best examples of this (particularly details like the signage on Fire Brigade and Grand Emporium). I also loved Tower Bridge (because that's a landmark close to my heart) but although the finished product is amazing, the repetitiveness of the cheese slopes and the build overall detracted from the enjoyment of the build a little bit (not by a huge amount, but enough that I've remembered it)...so I like things on the scale of Tower Bridge (i.e. huge builds) but with a little more variation to them (a la MMV).

BothSidesOfTheBrick

This is tough, but I think I'd have to choose 10193 Medieval Market Village because it's a large medieval set that doesn't have anything attacking it and it has lots of villagers, which the castle world needs more of. A world needs more than knights fighting each other, there needs to be peasants and peaceful places.

sram

1. Santa Fe Train and coaches
2. Modular building series
3. Western theme and the current Pharaoh Quest line

I am hoping there are a few more out there that liked the Santa Fe Super Chief (10020) and the coaches for it.

SutterCane

Oh wow, seems I've registered here at just the right time!

Well, my favorite theme has always been town/city, especially the location based sets. I just really enjoy that "slice of life" feel.

I think my favorite would have to be Pizza To Go
http://brickset.com/detail/?Set=6350-1
I just always really enjoyed the look of that set, and being able to actually "cook" the pizzas in the oven and then place then in the back of the delivery truck was endlessly fun for me as a child. It has to be my most memorable set. I see that it had a re-release in the 2000s so I'm assuming there were many others who enjoyed it as well.


My very very close runner up would be Rockey River Retreat
http://brickset.com/detail/?Set=6552-1
This, by all rights, should be my top pick, but I think nostalgia has let the Pizzeria prevail haha. Anyway, RRR has everything that I love in a set. It's a "civilian" style location (not rescue, or knights, or any kind of battle or conflict focused theme, just an "everyday life" focus), it has an interesting and unique look to it, has multiple elements and pieces so there is always "something to do" and it features an uncommon place. I love seeing unique locations. What I mean is, there are tons and tons of police and fire sets, but how many mountain cabins? Seeing locations that we don't really ever see really increases my appreciation of those sets.

bluemoose

Thanks everyone. I'm locking this now & I'll collate all the responses & feed them into CEC.
Ta,
Ian