When I first heard that Lego was partnering up with Universal Music Group to produce a new theme, I was curious as to what kind of theme they’d put out. And when the codename “Vidiyo” was leaked, I was baffled. Then the set names were revealed, and the names “Candy Mermaid Beatbox” and “Party Llama Beatbox” were even more intriguing. And today, Lego released a trailer for the new Vidiyo theme. Apparently each “beatbox” set is gonna have a minifigure and a set of printed 2X2 tiles that can be scanned via a free app. The idea is that you can arrange the tiles in any order to create new songs.
I’m sure a lot of people are gonna hate on Lego Vidiyo, but…I kinda like what I’ve seen. Sure, I probably won’t get too involved with the app, but there’s just something about this theme that I kinda like. It’s gimmicky, but it’s not as one-dimensional as the Lego Super Mario line from last year. Instead of just picking up Mario and making him bounce on everything, you can actually get creative with the Vidiyo sets and use the tiles to create a wide variety of tunes.
But the main thing I like about Vidiyo is the sets themselves. There’s just something about small, cheap pods with minifigures that I like (Ninjago 2020 arcade pods, anyone?). And the minifigures themselves are just…whoa. They’re weird and off-the-walls with their concepts, but in a good way. The standouts for me are the robot guy, the ice cream guy, and the “party llama” guy. When the theme does release in March, I think I’ll pick some of the sets up.
There’s no way I’m going to form any sort of personal investment in the theme - I’m just not at that point in my life anymore - but it seems interesting from what you’ve said. Music has been a huge part of my life for a while now, so it’s nice to see Lego try and build a theme around it. Honestly the names “Candy Mermaid Beatbox” and “Party Llama Beatbox” dull some of my enthusiasm; they sound like they’re trying to represent some sort of modern pop or… idk, whatever genre mainstream music is anymore. Granted, I can’t blame Lego for that, since they have to cater to their audience and it’s our failure as a culture that all of the good kinds of music are pushed out of the mainstream.
Back off my soapbox, I also think it’s neat that they seem to be aiming for smaller, more collectable sets here. One of the things that’s killed any continuing interest in Lego for me in adulthood is the depressing lack of Bionicle the lack of small, interesting sets. I have to shell out upwards of forty dollars to get anything that feels worth my while, just because the smaller sets either feel too small for their price range or simply uninteresting. Of course, it’s quite possible that this might suffer a similar problem, but I have some hope.
Complaints about record labels aside, the video they posted didn’t give me that much hope on first glance… However, I can see AFOLS and even the target audience using the tiles/minifigures well after they get bored of the gimmick. As long as the sets are priced appropriate to their parts (which, if they aren’t, I’m blaming fully on UMG) this theme could break even, even if most of the buyers aren’t actually that interested.
As someone who doesn’t collect tiles and rarely collects minifigs unless they have rare or useful properties, I’ll pass on Vidiyo. Having said that the Raya and the Last Dragon sets interest me far more. They have four ldu diameter dishes and a new dino tail element.
This theme is going to flop hard, calling it now. There’s no way kids will choose Lego’s attempt at imitating TikTok over actual TikTok (which is free btw).
I downloaded it for no reason and I can just tell we’ll be getting lego cringe compilations even before finishing my first performance to actually see others.
Maybe I’ll still pick up a beatbox for the parts but other then the physical part this theme is worthless to general builders.
