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Why is there no Non-Duplo City Zoo theme?
kwkw
Member Posts: 1,209
Just curious as to if anyone knows why Lego hasn't launched a non duplo city zoo subtheme. It makes a lot of sense financially for lego as it would be a very popular theme, if done correctly, since a zoo theme would appeal to both kids and AFOLs. The cost side of this for Lego wouldn't be astronomical like the recently failed Zelda Cuusoo (which required too many new lego elements). They already have plenty of zoo animal molds, such as bears, alligator, horse (zebra printing), elephants and monkeys etc.., so a few new animal molds (giraffe, lions...) wouldn't be such a big deal considering the amount of new molds they have created in recent years for the galaxy squad, chima and atlantis themes. The sets could also fit Lego's market strategy of creating small, medium and large sets of every price range with each theme. For example, they could produce a small $10-20 set of let's say 3 monkeys with a tree and small enclosure. A medium set around $40-$50 of an elephant enclosure, a large $70-$100 set of a lion pride with a watering hole enclosure are a few ideas. These animal enclosure sets along with an animal themed restaurant, souvenir shop, and ticket office (and other cool things you see at a zoo) would combine to create a grand zoo exhibit. The collectability of each set would also increase demand cause who wouldn't want to collect more of each set to have more animals and a larger zoo? So why hasn't lego made this into a theme? I need to make my own zoo MOC and put it on cuusoo lol
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Comments
The past few years we have gotten a few livestock (2 pigs, goat, chicken, 2 cows and horses). The park ranger set gave us bears. PoP has ostrich and camels. We have owls, exotic birds and dogs and cats.
Or do you prefer single piece toys to brick built?
Our little ones had a few of the Duplo Zoo sets but they weren't very playable other than finding elephants and tigers riding trains.
I also noticed that they tended to use other toy animals as part of their zoo when they played that way. They seemed to want a family of elephants, a family of giraffes, etc. That is something not done very well in most lego / duplo sets. You occasionally get an adult and baby, but that's it.
I recall late 1980's Pirate Lego had Parrots and Monkeys, and personally a lego horse with stripes to make it a Zebra would be really cute
http://www.brickset.com/bricklists/?6319
Many of these are hard and expensive to get hold of, and certainly not from a single source. A set which combines some of them into a zoo would be fantastic, and would appeal to 'late duplo, early lego' age kids (and me).
then you have the whole anti-captive wild animal movement that is on the rise in all kinds of places, which might add some unwanted negative political attention to the new theme.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/david-mackenzie/8080822054/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/whoward69/8071972945/in/pool-gwls2012/
Found those but it's not that close-up.
^ That's awesome. They have cheated a bit and used a Duplo Hippo, but its interesting that it's more or less at the same scale as the elephants from the old Explorer sets and doesn't look like Duplo in that context.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0751362026/
Some of these helped me with a circus diorama I did a few months ago.
I find it really odd the sel;ection of animals that have cropped up among sets when more 'regular' animals like sheep havnt made an appearance.
The duplo animals are fab though
A lot of species have been saved through zoos.
Or some sort of 'conservation' theme would go down well on all accounts. Gorilla sanctuary, Tiger tagging, Panda habitat etc etc
Or we could just wait on the battery hen city farmer! Joking aside I was pleased to see Lego had a butcher complete with meat in the minifigures series.
Zookeepers certainly have jobs to do at a zoo, but these aren't necessarily jobs that kids would understand beyond the vague notion of "taking care of animals". And herein lies another problem: it's hard to act out "taking care of animals" with minifigures, just as it's hard to act out "taking care of people" in a Hospital subtheme. Sure, there's as much danger inherent to that job as there might be to a firefighter or police officer, but giving an animal a checkup or treating them with medicine or therapy are things that it's hard to reenact visibly at such a small scale. In contrast, firefighting is a big, visible, dynamic job, involving spraying huge jets of water from powerful hoses at a glowing, blazing target. And police work, as far as LEGO City is concerned, consists almost entirely of pursuing escaped criminals in frantic chase scenes, something that kids can easily act out. It helps that both of these most popular subthemes heavily involve vehicles, which kids tend to love even just by virtue of their kinetic appeal.
I think a circus theme would probably have a lot more of the thrills and action kids would expect in a LEGO theme (human cannonball, lion tamer, tightrope walker, etc.), and could incorporate a lot of the same exotic animal molds as a zoo theme. Unfortunately circuses are not necessarily a universal childhood experience, and have perhaps even more ethical questions from a historical standpoint than zoos do.
LEGO has made it clear that in its 'Boy-marketed play themes,' the element of conflict is essential. Nearly every LEGO theme has some kind of action conflict. The only exceptions I can really think of are Duplo, Friends, Technic, Creator, and the 'Expert/Exclusive/AFOL-centered' sets. The latter three really focus more on building and less on playing with the completed model.
A zoo just really wouldn't hold some kind of conflict without promoting human to animal violence, something that we know violates LEGO's moral policies. I guess Dino is okay because dinosaurs aren't real today. LEGO seems to think (and maybe rightly so) that boys 6-12 wouldn't be interested in a non-conflict playset.
Still hoping for a one large AFOL-directed zoo in a $200ish set. :)
Plus Friends has the karate class. Didn't you know Emma patrols the streets wearing her kendo mask and carrying a sword at night?
Overall, a zoo set could probably sell all right due to play scenarios we see in the Duplo zoos, like feeding the animals. The issue is that the odds are against it selling well enough to support a whole theme, and a single set would would not likely merit a budget that could support lots of new animal molds. If a lot of the iconic zoo animals like pandas and lions were gradually introduced in other themes, then we would stand a much better chance of seeing a zoo theme.
In general, the mindset of introducing a theme as a vehicle for launching new molds (one of the main reasons AFOLs clamor for a zoo theme) is not very realistic. In reality, the theme concept comes first and has to prove its viability and appeal in order to earn the budget for new molds. Probably the only reason we see any heavily mold-dependent themes like Dino is that similar dinosaur themes have been successful in the past and because dinosaurs as a concept have been a reliable foundation for toy sales even outside the LEGO brand.
Street cleaner. Man vs rubbish.
Fishing boat. Man vs fish.
Surfer cafe. Man vs waves. Will man survive or the waves get him?
Action is not necessarily conflict.
And that's part of the reason the hospital/medical emergency subtheme of LEGO City doesn't get the same prominence as the fire and police subthemes. Ambulances are well and good, and it'd be nice some day to get a hospital ship (though I'm not sure how many kids have even heard of those!), but the flagship set, the hospital, does not have the same potential for action-driven play. There's no fire pole for people to slide down, no jail cell for crooks to escape from. Last year's hospital/clinic managed in large part due to including two separate vehicles: a helicopter and an ambulance. As many AFOLs pointed out, the building itself was unremarkable, because it wasn't really the set's main selling point.
Zoos would face the same issue. It's not an obstacle that means there can never be a zoo ever, but it's still a major hindrance on top of other factors like the cost of new molds.
http://lego.cuusoo.com/ideas/view/39075
Those who say zoos are boring are precisely right. You'll quickly note how I only use the word in the title (to get the attention of those searching for it for lack of a better search term) but then go ahead and just focus on the animals.
Anyone can build a wall or a cage or stables. Any five-year-old has enough skill and bricks to do that. Nobody needs a set that does naked walls for them. But what we do, in point of fact, need rather desperately, are animals that look like — well, not what we've been getting so far.
Most of you will also be aware of that other CUUSOO project that is just a ton of new molds, covering every animal ever and then some, but as has been mentioned above we of course all know this is not going to happen through CUUSOO, or perhaps even not at all, not in our lifetime. When having even just one new mold in your set is all but flat-out verboten, a set that is all new molds is dead on arrival.
More to the point though — and with all due respect to the creator of that project who's got all the mad 3D modelling skills I can't even begin to dream of possessing —, that's just not LEGO for me. That's, dare I even use that word here, Playmobil. That's not what I signed up for when I sided with LEGO for life. I want to build animals out of the same bricks I build cars and planes and houses out of. I don't need a one-piece LEGO walrus any more than I need a one-piece LEGO police car.
But to each his own. Go support whatever strikes your fancy!
I have been invested on creating a "winning" Lego Ideas concept so we can (finally) get a Lego Zoo. Even after me necro-bumping this thread (sorry), we're still waiting.
I made this but, given its chances at 10k and being approved, it was a flop. As a modular building, it fit within a proven sales model which would allow use of 2,000+ pieces. However, people want a horizontal zoo and it doesn't look as nice in that form:
https://ideas.lego.com/projects/145483/updates
So a few months (mostly) being a wash, I'm really trying to do my due diligence. Lots of good points here. I have some good ideas for the "lack of action" point made in this thread. At the moment, my concern is more about balancing trying to make exhibits that feel more organic (getting away from large plates, adding uneven terrain) vs. having the set be too fragmented.