Between the evenings of the 26th & 27th I published twelve LEGO Movie set- and figure-related videos. For the full day of the 27th, YouTube reports that my account received 3x the norm (and 2x the previous records) in comments, likes, and favorites added. Y'all
really like the Movie sets!! I guess it's a good thing that I do too!
This theme does a phenomenal job of combining some of the most fun things that can be captured within the world of LEGO. It has humor, drama, action & fighting, cutesiness (not a real word, I know), interesting vehicles & settings, and characters we can connect with. Most importantly in my opinion, the theme encourages creativity in the most blunt ways possible. Most LEGO sets reward you for building exactly what's shown on the box and the instructions, and then they leave you with a whisper-like hint of, "Maybe you could do other things with these parts... maybe... just saying..." In the movie theme, you are told right to your face, "Take apart the LEGO sets you have, and make something cooler! Do it do it!"
I hope LEGO learns from this massive win and engages in more of this overt creative encouragement in the future. Hero Factory moved in this direction with their 2.0 series, but they didn't go far enough, and actually took creative tools away from us in 3.0 & beyond by reverting to one-piece heads that instantly turned any custom creation into just another version of Rocka or Stormer or Furno. Technic and Creator both encourage part reuse by offering multiple official builds. However, the City and other System-based, minifig-supporting themes that have always been the core of the LEGO business and fan community alike, tell young builders to follow the instructions and then stop and play.
I hope that in early 2015 (since everything through the end of 2014 is already designed) we will begin to see a page of photos of alternate build possibilities included in the instruction sheets for some City sets like we used to a couple decades ago. Eventually, the 2- or 3-in-1 concept could be worked into a percentage of sets in every single System sub-theme. It would go a long way towards fulfilling LEGO's mission of actively inspiring creativity in kids, and as the Movie theme is already showing before its official release, it can be a profitable undertaking for the company as well.
