Repetitive LEGO Topic

LEGO
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I’m willing to bet that more people have watched Batman cartoons/comics/movies/games/media than Star Wars, given that if I mention Batman they immediately know what I’m talking about, but plenty of people have no idea what a “Millenium Falcon” is.

Not to mention that, as stated before, it’s just good business sense. How many Optimus Prime action figures have been released over the years? The answer is so many I can’t even find a number. Besides, you’re very doom-and-gloom about licensed themes but if they were costing Lego more money than they were making they would have gone the way of Bionicle.

Fact is, Star Wars is, and will continue to be, profitable for the foreseeable future. I don’t see that it’s a problem because it’s not like Lego is pulling resources that could be better used on other lines to do it. The team that works on Lego Star Wars has been working on it for… what… twenty years now? I’m pretty sure at that point that Lego Star Wars is NOT the reason Lego doesn’t do more NInjago’s and Bionicle’s, it probably has more to do with “Let’s focus on one IP before we make more.” Which is smart. You didn’t see Bungie working on Halo AND Destiny concurrently. You don’t see Blizzard’s Overwatch team also working on Diablo or World of Warcraft.

Now, can I see both sides of it? Sure. It’s annoying to see remade versions of the same sets all the time to a certain extent. It’s also nice to know that just because I didn’t buy it this year doesn’t mean I’ll never get the chance to without spending two grand. But it certainly isn’t the drain on Lego you seem to think it is because, realistically, if these remakes and licensed themes were as bad for Lego as you seem to think, they would have stopped making them.

Also:

It’s not that you’re not good at making points in a certain way, it’s that the points you’re making don’t really make sense. I understand the emotional aspect of your disliking licensed themes, but the way you’re so… apocalyptic about them is entirely unfounded.

~Hawkeye

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42

David, how come topics like this end up being deleted, ignored, or they turn somewhat volatile? I feel like there’s a lot of tension in these posts and it’s made me nervous about posting anything here.

Not that it’s just you, looking back everyone’s seemed to take a jab at something or other, even official staff. BioKnight’s been incredibly polite and calm in spite of this.[quote=“BioKnight, post:36, topic:47758”]
Looking at Brickset there’s been about 20 falcon related items released in the last 20 years of the theme, however, if you don’t include the two microfighters, the promotional polybags, and the merchandise, that’s down to only about 9 actual sets (about 1 every two years), which I would say isn’t too bad.
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An important thing you brought up here is that not every set under the name ‘Millenium Falcon’ is a giant $100+ set with exclusive minifigs and a massive part count. And the constant re-releasing of the vehicle in set form allows the LEGO company to improve its design every time it does so - I can say with confidence that any Falcon from the last five years is better than the first one they came out with. With a one-and-done, there’s no room to improve.[quote=“LegoDavid, post:35, topic:47758”]
Obviously you can’t compare the newest Millennium Falcon with the oldest, but we can compare the newest with the previous model.
[/quote]

No, I think we can. Twenty years and plenty of experimentation has lead to some really good sets, most of which, while similar to the ones directly before and after (to some degree) all improved for the better as time went on. And LEGO isn’t asking you buy every Millennium Falcon on the market - they’re simply giving you the option to buy a Millennium Falcon whenever they can. Last I checked, the number of people who own a LEGO Millennium Falcon set is significantly smaller compared to the number of people who don’t.[quote=“BioKnight, post:36, topic:47758”]
So in the end, the reason why there are so many Falcons (and Batmobiles) is due to the fact that these vehicles are iconic in their respective franchises.
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And as long as LEGO retains the licenses to do so (and the popularity remains the same, considering it’s Star Wars and Batman we’re talking about I doubt that’s going to change) LEGO will keep finding ways to improve the sets they create - sometimes in small ways, sometimes in big, and sometimes they try a new idea which doesn’t work out.

The last thing I’d like you to consider is that LEGO isn’t pumping out Millenium Falcons and Batmobiles because they just love rolling in money. They made a business deal; they have to produce iconic sets or they lose the bargain. And I think LEGO likes making money more than they like losing it.

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43

According to tfwiki there has been approximately 628 releases/planned releases of Optimus prime…I just counted

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44

Gotta get em all!

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45

Yes, bionicle sets suffer from being the same too but you seem to twist our words to make your point, none of these falcons are the same! The solo one has a completely different design with a connectable front, the UCS Falcons are about ten times the size of the normal ones, not to mention both have different designs

Hmmmm

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ATR 4, 2005

Desert Challenge, 2009

wait a sec, that blue car looks familiar

Terrain Crusher, 2007

David, I’m begging you do your research! Or it will bite you in your back, you seem like a great guy but your prejudice against licenses is going to far

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Wait a minute, that off road car…

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Which in turn looks like this:

Also,

And then look at the red car:

And of course,

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47

Yep! I love racers but it does steal it’s own designs…

I mean, the truck you said is a good point, but you didn’t do every one as LEGO released that same truck cab loads

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Night Crusher

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Bullet Run (notice the truck appears three times)

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Brick Street getaway

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Brick Street customs

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Bridge Chase They didn’t even change the colour of the orange car!!

1 Like
48

Given all the evidence and examples of repeated designs, can this be posted to r/murderedbywords?

But… I only have 627!

These jokes aside, I think we can agree that some things can benefit from being repeated or cloned, in the racers and Bionicle example, the colours can be a welcome thing.

You want this car or dude with swords in green? sure! but also in blue.

In the case of the falcon, yeah it doesn’t change much over 2 iterations but it has improved drastically over the course of it’s lifespan as stated by @Ghid. Lego repeats designs and that’s ok, provided they aren’t 1 for 1 identical and are still working on newer designs, slight changes over time can lead to drastically different things.

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Yep. Having a car in diferent colors is better in my opinion than having the car being remade over and over in the same color.

THIS. This is what I tried to explain all this time.

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Ok you’re taking that out of context: [quote=“Kardax, post:48, topic:47758”]
but it has improved drastically over the course of it’s lifespan as stated by @Ghid
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You literally quoted what I said before the but, this ignores the point that was being made. The point I was making was that small changes are common, I think you’re jumping on these small changes rather than seeing the big picture.

An argument you can make for small changes is that when you go to buy a set that is repeated due to it being iconic or having many iterations (R2, Batmobile, Millennium Falcon) you would want the most up to date version. I bought the 2011 Millennium Falcon, the next one that came out to my knowledge is the 2015 edition for Starwars TFA. Looking through the instructions, they’re slightly different but the 2015 edition is made to tie into the movie release.

To comment that a slightly different version with separate mini figures designed to coincide with a movie is inferior due to minor changes is not a good thing, is to not appreciate the set as a whole.

A proper analysis would be as has been suggested is to compare, for example, the 2000 edition and the 2011 version or the 2015 version or even the kessel run version.

Is it bad for designs to be updated over time, be it minor changes to coincide with new releases with new minifigures or major changes like the basic construction design.

The colour changes can be fine but when the design is being repeated a lot and nothing unique is coming, that is bad repetition, you may cite the colour changes in some of the examples above as being ok, you may cite the minor changes as ok but doing so invalidates your argument for the Falcon. It too is an example of minor changes, how is racers different here?

Edit: Grammar and word corrections.

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51

Ooh ooh, I’ve got some!

I always used to put this with my Tiny Turbos because it was like a civillian car

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There… There really isn’t any similarity between the two.

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I agree… besides the color they aren’t really very similar…

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54

They are yellow and jeeps

But yeah there isn’t much similiarity, a bit like the first two Millenium Falcons…