Why has the disney movie themes been poor performers?

[StarPod]

Disneys themes seem to perform terribly. Not just one but all of

Them. Cars and toy story being the worst of them all

But even the potc sets have done poorly with the exception of the ships. Why do you think these sets have done so poorly on the after market and do you think the Lone Ranger, Star Wars and the super hero theme could follow (with the exception of exclusives)

[Guest eightbrick]

The themes aren't bad, the movies are. Well, the live action ones are at least. For animated ones like Cars and Toy Story the problem is that they don't really work well with people older than 7, unless you are building them for the joy of building. I don't think SH is going to crash and burn unless they really juniorize the sets and pump out the same characters. Star Wars is suffering from all the remakes and the fact that there are just too many sets being released every year for people to keep up with.

[Huskers1236]

Probably to a point has to do with the limited demographic.  If someone isn't a fan of a movie, they aren't going to buy merchandise from it, which Lego is no different than when it comes to licensed material.  Star Wars has such a large fan base, I don't think Disney can screw it up, but you never know.

 

As for Superheroes, I think again, if you're a fan of the comics/movies/cartoons, you're going to probably be more apt to pick up the corresponding Lego set of the characters you like.  I'm personally not a fan on this arena, so my Superheroes collection is pretty small compared to themes like Star Wars and LotR which I prefer. 

 

Lone Ranger is more niche than SH even.  If you're a fan of Westerns, I think you're going to like these sets whether you like the movie or not.  I like the old Wild West stuff, so I'm buying LR sets because I like the Western aspect of them, not because of the movie.  There is enough crossover there to help them out, PotC the same.  Classic Pirates builders like the boats and probably bought them, and keep buying them at inflated prices because they want the central part of the Pirate theme, the ship.

[Guest eightbrick]

Lone Ranger is more niche than SH even.  If you're a fan of Westerns, I think you're going to like these sets whether you like the movie or not.  I like the old Wild West stuff, so I'm buying LR sets because I like the Western aspect of them, not because of the movie.  There is enough crossover there to help them out, PotC the same.  Classic Pirates builders like the boats and probably bought them, and keep buying them at inflated prices because they want the central part of the Pirate theme, the ship.

Definitely agree with you on Lone Ranger. I wonder sometimes if was just a plain western theme if that would be more popular. At least then we wouldn't have a horde of Tontos...

[Noodlenut]

Lone Ranger is one of those themes that I don't know if it will fail or succeed.  It could go either way, but I haven't heard from anybody who doesn't like the sets at all.  My guess is that it will be similar to POTC, with good investment sets and bad investment sets.  I think that the train will be a winner, but I won't get any of them because there are more safe investments out there to put my money into.

[Huskers1236]

Definitely agree with you on Lone Ranger. I wonder sometimes if was just a plain western theme if that would be more popular. At least then we wouldn't have a horde of Tontos...

I would have MUCH preferred a generic western theme to LR.  I'm probably going to end up with a fair amount of Constitution Trains.  I think this set crosses the line in regards to what I was talking about earlier.  Western/LR/Train fans will  hopefully want this set now and in the future.  Will they want the other LR sets?  I don't know, so I'm not going big on those, though I think the Carriage could do well too since it is well done. 

[Guest eightbrick]

I would have MUCH preferred a generic western theme to LR.  I'm probably going to end up with a fair amount of Constitution Trains.  I think this set crosses the line in regards to what I was talking about earlier.  Western/LR/Train fans will  hopefully want this set now and in the future.  Will they want the other LR sets?  I don't know, so I'm not going big on those, though I think the Carriage could do well too since it is well done. 

I think they did okay in terms of keeping true to the original theme, if the figures were generic and not fleshies they could easily sell them as unlicensed sets.

 

Gold City Junction = Colby City Shootout

Chief's Teepee/Boulder Canyon = Comanche Camp

Frontier Patrol = Calvary Builder

Bandit's Secret Hideout = Silver Mine Shootout

 

That leaves the train and stagecoach, and from classic Western the covered wagon (really wish we got one of those but I guess the stagecoach is sort of similar) and Fort Legoredo. They did decently, but the Lone Ranger sets definitely don't capture the charm of the first theme.

[akohns]

"All Disney movie inspired themes are bad" is a horrible statement to make. I think themes have done poorly for various reasons.

 

Toy Story and Cars: The sets did poorly because it's not the right target age group. They should have kept it to a duplo theme, as many older kids are more interested in other themes and the kids who were truly into those movies were likely too young to be playing with the smaller legos yet.

 

POP: The movie sucked, plain and simple.

 

POTC: My take is they entered the game too late. The popularity of the franchise was waining when Lego started to produce the sets. I think it would have done much better as a whole had the first POTC sets been released in conjunction with the first movie release then it would have been a winner.

 

TLR: Poor movie performance, and just like in Toy Story, right now, kids want to play with Space Men (or superheroes) over a Cowboy. I agree, if this had been a more generic theme it would have done better. That being said, you really could just take all the extra Tontos and Lone Rangers out and it pretty much is a generic Western theme with fleshies instead of yellow heads/hands. They didn't really make any sets that suck because they are scene specific.

[Guest eightbrick]

Prince of Persia is actually pretty awesome for piece collectors. But as you say, the movie was absolute ostrich turd.

[wholovesboo]

The Duplo princess sets seems to have fizzled with the most recent Ariel/The Little Mermaid line. They definitely didn't fly off the shelves. IMO, the price points were too high. I see them being good collector's items in several years. *A neat feature of these sets was that the Duplo princesses' gowns had shiny fabric "skirts" that could be slipped on or off. Sets that still have these fabric skirts included will matter to collectors down the road. I mean Cinderella can't wear trousers to the ball.

 

It will be interesting to see how the the upcoming Disney Princess mini-doll line does. My guess is some of the sets will fly off the shelves, while the others will be duds.

 

Edited to add*

Edited November 12, 2013 by wholovesboo

[Quacs]

The Duplo princess sets seems to have fizzled with the most recent Ariel/The Little Mermaid line. They definitely didn't fly off the shelves. IMO, the price points were too high. I see them being good collector's items in several years.

 

It will be interesting to see how the the upcoming Disney Princess mini-doll line does. My guess is some of the sets will fly off the shelves, while the others will be duds.

 

My daughter can't wait for the Rapunzel set, and was crushed when I told her not to put it on her Christmas list because it wouldn't be released until January.

[wholovesboo]

My daughter can't wait for the Rapunzel set, and was crushed when I told her not to put it on her Christmas list because it wouldn't be released until January.

 

Sounds like a birthday wish list item to me

[sadowsk1]

Some sets were coupled with bad movies.  I think others were not advertised decently.

[matt1147]

Funny, I actually like the PoP movie more now. At first, complete garbage - probably because expectations were high..now, kinda a guilty pleasure enjoyment...

[jaisonline]

it will be quite interesting to see how the lone ranger sets fare IF the sets are discontinued w/in 1 yr of it's release (last Spring, right)? 

 

The train can really skyrocket since it is decent looking and more importantly includes track (only way to get straight track is in sets currently) or the secondary market.  A short retail life for this set would be awesome for investors.

 

The Flo's V8 and Mack sets from Cars and some Toy Story sets (especially Woody's Roundup, the Train,  and Buzz's ship) does decent enough on eBay.  Most were purchased well below retail so solid profits can be had.

[akohns]

The Flo's V8 and Mack sets from Cars and some Toy Story sets (especially Woody's Roundup, the Train,  and Buzz's ship) does decent enough on eBay.  Most were purchased well below retail so solid profits can be had.

For sure. I've sold a couple Trains 2 years ago for a small profit. Took a while though. I've been able to turn a decent profit on a few of the Cars 2 sets that I've gotten at deep discounts but most of these sets can't even regain their retail value including free shipping on ebay. I have noticed the Car 1 duplo sets seemed to do well.

I sold a Mack's Road Trip last year that I randomly found a Walmart. The box was beat to heck but I think I sold it for $110 or so. I think I paid around $30 for it. At over double the retail in 2-3 years it's done REALLY well considering few duplo sets are able to climb over the retail price.

[MartinP]

For sure. I've sold a couple Trains 2 years ago for a small profit. Took a while though. I've been able to turn a decent profit on a few of the Cars 2 sets that I've gotten at deep discounts but most of these sets can't even regain their retail value including free shipping on ebay. I have noticed the Car 1 duplo sets seemed to do well.

I sold a Mack's Road Trip last year that I randomly found a Walmart. The box was beat to heck but I think I sold it for $110 or so. I think I paid around $30 for it. At over double the retail in 2-3 years it's done REALLY well considering few duplo sets are able to climb over the retail price.

The Mack's Road Trip set has made a 50% gain in one year, which is good especially for a Duplo set. That being said, there probably are going to be certain sets that do well and certain sets that do not do well.