>>6160994"Licensed pieces" aren't a thing. The only reason we don't see Vader helmets or Batcowls in other themes is because they resemble their characters too much to be anything else.
Otherwise set designers are free to use so-called "licensed pieces" as they see fit. Wolverine's claws and Thor's hammer appeared in the Monster Hunters theme in the same year. The One Ring showed up in Parisian Restaurant in the same color, and has since appeared in a few other non-licensed sets. The crown of the Witch-King from The Hobbit got a recolor in Disney Castle. The various molds created specifically to emulate characters from Cars made their way into the Ferrari polybags.
Sometimes pieces that are made specifically for licenses show up in non-licensed stuff first: the Green Goblin's hat and ears combo was released in CMF13; Harley Quinn's New 52 pigtails were given to CMF14's Zombie Cheerleader; TLBM Bruce Wayne's sweet new hairdo came in blonde with the CMF16 Dog Show Judge.
Pieces are made for licensed sets all the time, but none of them are exclusive to those themes.
The Maersk Blue deal is correct though.
