Ideas for Lego sets - the more 'out of the box' the better!

pantenkind

"I'm told LEGO took a serious look at it, but decided it was too brick intensive to be viable as a commercial system."
See, this is what I cannot understand about LEGO. I know they want to cater to kids, but its like they completely ignore and sometimes insult us by saying things like that. How would it not be viable to sell floor kit packs, wall packs etc..? Then you could buy as much or as little as you want and play. Just kind of irks me when they pass on great ideas for really dumb (seemingly) reasons.

Also to keep on par with the post, I already said I liked a modular strip mall type series. I think ghostbusters would be amazing, I can think of so many different sets that would be great to build and display. I also think a more adult castle theme with bigger sets and more complex builds and details would be great too. I think star trek might be kinda cool too, although with the various space and star wars I can see that genre getting a little tiresome. I also think a haunted house/ghost theme would be really cool, imagine a haunted house in modular detail, or even a draculas castle type set ( I know I am asking for two different nice castles and that is probably asking too much here :-) )

As for the LOTR what sets could they have that would be both fun to build and play/display? The hobbits villiage might be cool, or the (forgive me, I cannot think of the name) giant fort where the battle in the second book takes place. I guess a set of nazgul would be pretty damn cool. What are some other ideas?

dmm32552

^ Helm's Deep would be epic. Hobbiton/Bag End would be great sets. Minas Tirith would be difficult to pull off but they could do it (I imagine it as an expensive set like Diagon Alley). The Battle of Pelinor Fields would be epic (Grond would have to come with that set). King Theoden's palace. Attack at Weathertop. Mount Doom. Saruman's Tower. Mordor. The Mines of Moria. Shelob's Lair. Inn of the Prancing Pony.

Town

Soulless strip malls? no thanks. Give me something like the pet shop anyday.

That said, however, I wouldn't mind more modern-looking shops either.

sfaokay

Prohibition era gangsters (with cool pinstripe suits), molls and elliot ness style gang busters. Speak easys that change to libraries with those swivel tables etc , tommy guns, flapper girls, banks, john dillinger-style hideout , 20's-30's cars. The series 5 min fig is not enough!

pantenkind

Soulless strip malls? no thanks. Give me something like the pet shop anyday.
That said, however, I wouldn't mind more modern-looking shops either.

I think you misunderstood. If you read my post about the strip malls I even said not current ones because they are just glorified cubicles. I am talking about old school downtowntown main street style small shops where each building has its own design and personality. Would basically be a smaller version of the modular buildings.

Legopants

What about Tintin? Isn't there supposed to be a film coming out this year? Plenty of characters to "legorize".

MvdS

X-Men. That would be a dream come true.
Larger Size Sentinels.

bluemoose

What about Tintin?

The film comes out later this year (Late Oct/early Nov in Europe, 23rd Dec in the US); it would be great to see LEGO Tintin sets, but I think we would have heard something by now. I guess that there could be a perceived conflict between the PotC ships & the 'Unicorn', a prominent ship in the Tintin movie. But there is loads of scope for Tintin sets, based on the books - lots of vehicles, locations, fig variants, etc. There is quite a thriving market for die-cast & GRP collectables ...
http://www.thetintinshop.uk.com/acatalog/Atlas_Model_Cars.html

rocao

^ I think the greater strike against TinTin is that it simply is not known in the US. The movie late this year may change that, but "The Adventures of TinTin" cartoon and comics have tried to penetrate the US in past years and failed miserably each time and would most likely be seen by TLG as a risk.

bluemoose

^ The real risk is with Spielberg/Jackson, & the investors who are pumping ~$135M into producing & marketing the film. I've read a few interviews with Spielberg where it has been suggested that 'Tintin' was a risky undertaking; he seems confident that it won't be an issue. If LEGO were to produce a range of Tintin sets, releasing them in conjunction with all the marketing surrounding the movie release would, obviously, be a no-brainer. Just as an aside, Europe as a whole is a much bigger market than North America for LEGO, it's just that the retail market is much more fragmented.

rocao

^ Spielberg and Jackson have the leeway to take those risks and they've both recently directed and produced films undeserving of their box office gross (I won't name the movies to spare us from that debate :P).

But, I'm curious, do you have any figures on LEGO sales by geography? I've never seen officially published numbers, but my guess derived from sources such as NPD put North America at around 25% of the market, which if reasonably accurate, is a pretty sizable chunk and is the basis of my claim that it'd be pretty risky to introduce a license where that much of the consumer base has never so much as heard of it.

brickmatic

^ On the other hand they have official sets exclusive to Japan. They could release just in Europe. Although I'm just playing devil's advocate. I agree the relative obscurity of the theme in the US is why they wouldn't pursue it.

bluemoose

@rocao - My point was that come December it won't be obscure in the US :-)

As for regional sales, they used to break it up by region in the annual reports; the most recent that show revenue split between Americas+Pacific .vs. Europe+Asia+emerging (2005), shows -
Americas+Pacific - 27%
Europe+Asia+emerging - 59%

The 2006 report has a different split, but shows the numbers for 2005, split as -
North America, UK, Australia, NZ - 33%
Central & Southern Europe - 28%
Scandinavia, Benelux, Eastern Europe & Asia - 25%

It's pretty clear that the Europe as a whole revenues are going to be a higher than US revenues. (USA population ~310M, Europe population ~730M, so it's not really a surprise :-) )

I've seen other, more detailed breakdowns, but they aren't in the public domain, so I won't post them here.

brickmatic

So the UK accounted for 6% of revenues in 2005. Interesting.

Was there cost data? Because this is revenue, not profit.

bluemoose

I've been told that the UK is bigger than that, at around 10%; if they calculate the amount spent per household, or per person, the UK is at the top of the list & has been for many years.
The 2005 '27%' figure also includes central & south america, which isn't in the figure published for 2005 in the 2006 report.
I don't think I've ever seen profit breakdown by region.

brickmatic

^ The numbers add up with UK at 6%.

Central & Southern Europe added to Scandinavia, Benelux, Eastern Europe & Asia is 53%. Add UK at 6% and you get 59%, which is equal to Europe+Asia+emerging. North America UK Australia NZ without UK at 6% is 27%, which is equal to Americas+Pacific.

However, what doesn't add up are the totals. Where is the remaining 14%?

bluemoose

Regardless, I've been told explicitly that the UK makes up ~10% of their revenues; rounding errors may account for the difference.
In the 2005 report, the rest is made up of 10% 'Direct' & 4% 'Other'.
In the 2006 report, the the rest is listed as 14% 'Community, Education & Direct'

brickmatic

So Central and South America have marginal sales numbers.

rocao

^^ Is it the case that the ~10% from UK is a more recent number than the 2005 report? I know the last few years Europe was mentioned as growing more than North America.

Yellowcastle

I find it fascinating that the U.S. is not a bigger chunk of Sales than it is. Yet it seems to me that the online communities are very U.S.-centric. Is that observation incorrect? Perhaps more EU children play with Lego than those in the States but the States has more AFOLs?

brickmatic

^ Or we buy our LEGO cheaper.

rocao

I think it's a correct observation and a microcosm of a similar phenomenom of U.S. presence in all facets of the Internet. There are many reasons for this, but I'm going to dinner so I'm not going to list them now :p

Btw, I'd need to revisit relative wealth globally, but my opinion is 25% is quite a large representation in sales.

aplbomr79

It is too bad that Duplo is not able to be seamlessly integrated into the LEGO line. There are some great sets that would look great in my collection - especially the 'Zoo' theme. Why is it that some DUPLO line can sell so great, but would falter in the LEGO line? Is it that the age groupings and interests don't pan out?

Or is it that TLG just does not wish to produce these types of lines for LEGO? I would think that designing and fabricating animals for DUPLO would be more expensive than doing the same for LEGO. Imagine the run on a City Zoo done up in true form for LEGO! Or maybe TLG is setting the groundwork to release such sets in the LEGO line...

Anyone?

StuBoy

A Zoo would be fantastic! It would require a lot of new moulds though, so maybe they don't have the budget for that.

prof1515

I suspect it's not that a Zoo theme would do poorly in Lego but rather that it wouldn't do as well as other themes. Animals have greater appeal to younger children than they do most older children. I know my younger niece loves animals while my older niece is far less interested in them than her sister.

Zoos are very static places by comparison to cars and planes, police stations and airports, spaceships and pirate ships, etc.

Si_UKNZ

a zoo would be fantastic, and the play possibilities around escaped animals will at least give all those police something else to do

aplbomr79

@stuboy - well, they have to make the molds for DUPLO... and the molds must be similar in comparison (DUPLO vs LEGO). Does DUPLO sell as well as LEGO - or is it just that there isn't as much competition between DUPLO sets as there is in the LEGO sets?

@pro1515 - how about a 'Traveling Zoo' - animals on airplanes? Or maybe 'Zoo Gone Wild' - and have the animals escaping their confines? Yes, a bit facetious - but it could be fun!

Sorry, didn't see Si_Dorking_Surrey_UK post before I posted - but great minds think alike - or are committed in the same ward at the looney bin.

prof1515

I would think a safari theme (preferably with cameras, not guns) would hold greater potential since it could incorporate campsites, trucks, jeeps, helicopters, boats, etc.

Lambringo

I like the idea of a LEGO zoo but it I feel would be difficult to create as a theme. While there could be a grand zoo entrance, the remaining sets would just be walls, fences, cages and feeding troughs and the impact of the animals would not be as great as DUPLO due to the scaled down size. I think the zoo theme works much Better in DUPLO as the larger animals are the focus with a few large pieces to represent the enclosures. The Dino theme is in nature a zoo, and it only involves a large enclosure and some capturing vehicles.

Si_UKNZ

thinking about it, if the concept of a farm set can work, no reason why the concepy of a zoo cant

bahnstormer

isnt the new dino line effectively a sort of zoo set ?

andhe

Hmm a zoo full of dinosaurs... Now there's an idea! Someone should make a film about that.

Coolsplash

I know one kid who would totally freak out hearing and see the LEGO Zoo, and that's my son. He just loves animals. His latest wish list is to get the Zoo animals from Duplo sets and incorporate them in our City plan by creating a big Zoo with the works. And we used to debate over the scale of the animals with respect to scale of the LEGO mini figures. Kids I tell you :) My son wants us to have the new Forest Police Station, why, cause of the big bear :P

prevere

Looking to hear from a few of you - what's that one thing TLG has yet to offer in a building set that you'd buy in a heartbeat.

And maybe it's already been done and you don't realize it yet. Silly as it sounds, I would love to see 2,000 piece cruise ship. (Lego has done some ferries, but not a cruise ship as far as know...I don't think).

intromission

Be honest. Did you have LEGO on the mind while watching news clips of the cruise ship disaster off the coast of Italy?

prevere

Actually no. Maybe subliminal. Recently, someone created a Disney Cruise Ship in Lego, huge. And I thought it was awesome.

intromission

Oh. I only say it because I did and thought the very same thing earlier. Not to make light of that horrible situation.

war44lock

I would love to see a minifig scale Lamborghini or Ferrari super car, they have done things with both car makers before but not a road going car for LEGO City.

Blue1dot

Agreed, the Disney Cruise ship is incredible, and huge with lots of attention to details in each cabin. The unfortunate Italian ferry actually made me think of a LEGO Titanic set for the 100 year anniversary. Also, I've mentioned this before, I would like a Mississippi Queen-style paddle wheel riverboat (and a new ferry, and a cruise ship would be nice too).

intromission

A riverboat would be amazing.

starfire2

A modular police station!

Dato

RMS Titantic.

tamamahm

A ski resort, with a mountain, chairlift, sledding run, skiers, snowboards and sledders.

dk1007

The Forbidden City in China

y2josh

I always thought a Big Ben set could be pretty amazing. And an Ewok Village... made of about 30,000 pieces...

duilim

The Colosseum! How good would a Roman theme be?? Although the Forbidden City in China as mentioned by dk 1007 sounds very tempting as well......

airjordan

Any 5000+ piece set with COLOR. Just finished building 10214 Tower Bridge. It looks SWEET, but the build became monotonous with all the tan pieces. Very similar to the Taj Mahal, Eiffel Tower, and Statue of Liberty.. Oh and don't forget the grey Death Star II and SD/SSD. The RMS Titanic would be great for this. It could be a massive (3+ feet) and a few thousand pieces with color. And movable safety boats on the sides. Big Ben would be another single color build IMO, though you're right that it would look sweet. Although the Grand Carousel didn't hold up well, it still looks awesome with all the color.

legoDad

WWII tanks, fighter planes, battle-ships...etc...from Allied to Axis forces.
I know, I know (it's been said a zillion times on war related material)...but they did some for the Indy line. I can dream though.
Plus the Dan Siskind's military model's are too expensive (but great lookin').

legoDad

@duilium...don't know if this is still up, but check out this link...
http://architecture.lego.com/en-US/inspire-us/?vote={00E2F78B-189A-4F1A-9207-8EE10D6D7213}&uid=c5b39e3afe9a887e

herekittykitty

The Forbidden City, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, would all be awesome in 4000+ pieces but probably pretty monotonous. I wonder if they will do the World Trade Center one day - that would probably be best done as a smaller architecture set.

It's funny, my "I can't believe they haven't done this" that I've been telling my husband about since November or so is a 2000+ brick R2-D2...