It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Brickset.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, the Amazon.com.ca, Inc. Associates Program and the Amazon EU Associates Programme, which are affiliate advertising programs designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
Comments
Particularly one that really didn't reference LEGO or otherwise promote it.
(But I would love to see a Seinfeld apartment, so I suppose this isn't completely unanticipated.)
Unfortunately there was nothing else in the review that I could have seen making it - I think the Fiat got a lot of clamoring, but having seen the new Creator Mustang that's coming, which blows the Fiat (and the entire rest of the Creator Expert Vehicle line that came before it, for that matter) clean out of the water, I don't think the Fiat ever had a chance. Too many space submissions, which doesn't surprise me given the number of space Ideas sets there have been, including the absolutely incredible Saturn V.
I feel like Ideas should be renamed "TV shows and other IPs we can't shoehorn into the existing catalogue" or something like that. The new Flinstones set only convinces me more of that. At this point it's easier to identify the Ideas sets that aren't based on an existing movie/TV show. And the ones that are? Adventure Time? Really? I worked at LBR for 4 years, during which I saw the bulk of the shelf life of Adventure Time. I mean, we couldn't give the thing away. I don't think I saw a single kid (the target audience) march into the store saying "I want the Adventure Time set, where can I find it?" Even BBT sat for a good portion of the latter part of its life (don't get me started on the show itself).
TL;DR These sets are puzzling and Ideas has run its course, IMO.
Saturn V
Voltron
Ship in a Bottle
Pop-Up Book
Caterham Seven
Wall-e
Exo Suit
Not to mention some fan favorites like the Old Fishing Store, Ecto-1, Doctor Who, and Yellow Submarine.
Again, not all of those are going to appeal super broadly, and that's the awesome thing. I myself don't own all of those, but the ones I do have (which is quite a few), are among my favorite sets!
I'm looking forward to picking up the Flinstones set. I do think that it could have been a bit better, but overall based on the reviews, I'm still pretty happy with what they put out.
Saturn V and Fishing Store are great sets, and that was a banner year for Ideas. To be fair, I have a number of the Ideas sets that I mentioned above, and didn't not enjoy any of them. My point is more that Ideas seems to have become a conduit to get sets from other mediums into the product catalogue. I still maintain that the best ideas set is #21301 Birds. That and my #4002014 HUB Birds are the only two sets that are displayed on the first floor of my house, the entire rest of the collection is relegated to the basement.
For me, other than those, the only other sets I currently have out in the main, public areas of the house are some of the Creator Expert vehicles. Though those will get moved back into my LEGO / Media room once I have the new shelves up.
While I most certainly don't always agree with the design decisions LEGO makes to Ideas sets, I have to say that in this specific case (of the Ship in a Bottle), I'm actually quite in support of them.
Even the scale of the CNY feast set would be sizeable and expensive for an Ideas vignette.
That's a mere 7 of 24.
Some of the stuff based on IP looks great, don't get me wrong.
Lego IDEAS is always going to have sets based around IP's and other licensed properties, because that's what interests people. It's not like Lego is refusing to let people make unique and different stuff (like the Birds set that was mentioned). The licensed and IP stuff just appeals more. There's nothing wrong with that. But if you're Lego, are you going to not make the stuff that appeals most to people, and instead go with a riskier product that may not be supported by people? It's a balancing act Lego has to play with the IDEAS platform.
As others have said, IDEAS can't, and shouldn't, ever try to appeal to everyone. That's not what it's for. Would Lego love if everyone bought all of their sets? Of course. But they know it won't appeal to everyone, so they don't aim to.
It seems to be continuously on the TV in the UK, on one channel or another and still makes the news, such as when it became available on Netflix. So I guess the fan base is still there and it makes a set potentially successful - especially as a way to get new people in to Lego.
But as already pointed out above, they are not consistent with it. This is the one in all the title sequences, the other is in the episodes.
Most Millenials have experienced Friends through reruns or streaming services. It still appears to appeal to those in the same demographic. My 17 year-old niece loves Friends. (So my previously outdated references are now clever again.)
Pivot!
It does occur to me that all of the characters were in their 20's and all employed at career-type jobs. A Millenial show about 20-somethings would probably be more on-par with That 70's Show... (And yes, they're in High School.)