>>9813436This isn't exactly a controversial thought, but Lego is too reliant on its licenses and the ability to sell "X but in Lego form". Of the 41 theme categories Lego has on its site right now, Only 9 of them are 100% original themes with no relation to other licenses, and even then
>Vidiyo as a theme bombed hard and every set is on clearance so they can clear out the warehouses>BOOST and Mindstorms are effectively the same idea, with BOOST being more in mind for younger kids and Mindstorms being for early teens. They're also standalone sets and not really "themes">Classic is just brick packs and baseplates, I wouldn't even really call it a theme. So in reality there's only 5 non-licensed themes in production right now
>City>Creator 3-in-1>Friends>Ninjago>Monkie Kid (Which even then isn't available in non-Lego stores like Target/Walmart)Then put it side by side the Licensed themes
>Star Wars>Harry Potter>Spider-Man>Marvel>Batman>DC>Minecraft>Super Mario>Jurassic World>Disney>Minions>Speed ChampionsAnd even without getting to one-off licenses for Ideas/Creator Expert sets like Home Alone, Seinfeld, Transformers, Adidas, and so on, there's already a 2/1 ratio of License to non-license sets on store shelves (3/1 if you're in a store that doesn't stock Monkie Kid).
This isn't to say that Licensed themes are 100% shit, but Lego relies too heavily on selling sets on the "I RECOGNIZE THING" factor and their brand name. If it was a near even distribution of original and licensed themes I'd have no qualms, but Lego has pretty much with the same tried and true original themes for the last several years (City, Creator, Ninjago, & Friends) with only introducing 1-2 seasonal themes like Monkie Kid, Nexo Knights or Hidden Side that get phased out after 2-3 years.
