I will say I kind of understand the alt builds only being partial. One of the things that made alt builds so fun back in the day was how relatively simple most small-medium sized builds were. It didn't take long to take them apart, experiment, and if you wanted to, go back to the default build. These days? There are SO many pieces. Small, fiddly ones, 1x1s that are easy to lose. Dense and detailed builds clearly designed more for display than play. It's so much work to just build a Lego set that it can be rough on the hands and feel like a hassle to take it apart. And if you lose pieces in the process, you're screwed. So I appreciate that they were able to work SOME form of alt builds into these in a more accessible way without juniorizing the sets.
I'd actually say those points as to why alt builds likely aren't around are also key to back up the idea LEGO sets have become *too* detailed/complex. Before if you wanted a complex set you'd buy Technic of one of the more expensive large sets like bases or such, but now there are so many small pieces that make up builds to the point something that just at face value looks like it should be a $15 set ends up being close to $30, often times. Heck, the fact that, as you noted, sets feel like they're made for display rather than play these days is the antithesis of what LEGO should be. It should be a set you build and have endless play with, but now when you build something you feel deterred from ever disassembling it, and in the cases of some sets where parts actually fall off easily if you try to play with them it further makes one feel like they aren't even supposed to touch their LEGO sets after they're built. There's been a massive problem with things being made to look more complex than seeded, have far less playability, or fun features to toy with anymore, and whether or not I'm in the minority, I feel it's not a good thing in the least. Do I think we need to go back to the simplicity of the 90s? No, not at all. Even with as charming as those sets are, and just the more simplistic style of builds from the time I still think more detail than that is good, but I feel like the late 2000s to early 2010s were LEGO finding that sweet spot for detail and play, and they should have stuck there. Add more parts so there's options, sure, but having more substantial parts than small detail parts is important, otherwise you end up having very little to actually work with if someone wants to build something new with a set they got, and of course all the little parts end up inflating the price far too much for what you end up getting. That's my take, at least.
Honestly I love how this theme is balancing the homely aspects of castle themes and classic space with the adventurousness of modern themes. There’s something for everyone, Pirate ships, space ships, MONSTER CARS. And mechs. It does make me a bit worried that we’ll have another Ninjago where things that would have been separate themes are all rolled into one. There’s not much “ninja” about modern Ninjago sets which I really dislike. No sneaking around, places to hide, or traps set by the ninja. Sure the show touches on these aspects, but the sets? Not really. It’s more of a power rangers theme down to the zor- I mean mechs. But dreamzzz fits the theme and Lego much better. I just worry that each wave will feel too similar. Will we get to a point where we say, “another animal car hybrid” we already have 2 this wave. Interestingly it seems Lego is trying to grab male and female buyers directly. The two 20$ pose-able builds show this off the best.
@@RaiJolt2 thats something very special about this theme i noticed too! Most themes are primeraly directed to either boys, or to girls (ofc that doesnt mean other genders cant enjoy it too but i think u get my point). Dreamzzz seems like the first theme that takes inspiration from literally everywhere and tries to appeal to everyone, which i would say is something very positive.
Of the minute, but the most creative original theme (and the best) is Chima. The only thing that held it back was the bad writing of the show, that made it hard for people to understand the worldbuilding and the amazing lessons the story brought.
With no pun intended, these sets are a dream come true and fully capture LEGO's escence. All of LEGO's classic slogans easily capture this theme, "Just Imagine" "The Action's Up To You" or "A New Toy Everyday" Dreamzzz really might be the theme that represents their beliefs the most.
@@SmitzPNK Monkie Kid and Hidden Side are really neat original themes, but the former bizarrely is a LEGO store/Asia exclusive and its genuinely awesome show is nearly impossible to find, and the latter was seemingly too preoccupied with AR to really last (the sets are awesome and thankfully didn't suffer from the mind-melting 200% extra premium for Vidiyo).
this new theme is giving me HEAVY Lego Universe vibes! Centering around creativity, Multiple themes and ideas mixing together, the Maslstrom style Villains, the Floating Islands! that alone along with being a new Original theme makes me very hyped!
I wish universe had had more (any?) sets to go with it, the theming for it always looked so cool to me even though I wasn't interested in the game. Closest to like a Dnd or WoW or insert any "everything and the kitchen sink" style fantasy franchise in lego I can think of
This AFoL is collecting and building the entire series. On the scale of reality to fantasy, I love fantasy, and LEGO is pushing further to “out in left field” than I’ve ever seen before, so I’m into this. Knowing that Slugger - not being a fan of modern LEGO - is vibing with DreamZzz is exciting. I know a number of other LEGO fans who say this theme is speaking to them, so I am cautiously optimistic… And all those call outs to old themes!!! Space, Pirates, castle, Ninjago. Oh, I’m excited for August.
The bad guys from this theme remind me of the Maelstrom, the evil force from the Lego Universe MMORPG. They’ve got the same color scheme and the little guys even have the same faces as Stromlings. Pretty excited for this theme, it’s great to see alternate builds be part of mainstream Lego again!
Oh my God! I totally forgot about universe. Man, that was such a weird game. Like, $50 retail plus a monthly fee. Also the chat was on a whitelist basis. but I remember having a ton of fun there. I think my best weapon was some super powerful fishing rod.
@@raf42 I don't remember the $50 retail fee but I do remember struggling to pay the $5 monthly fee as a 10 year old lmao. Sadly because of it I wasn't there to experience the last month of the game, but I was obsessed with it. My favorite weapon was a giant sword with part 30407 as the blade
I hope that wave 2 includes more fantastical dream locations. My favourite thing about Hidden Side was the location or building sets. They combined the physical locations of City with the fantasy and play elements of themes like Ninjago. A villain's hide out or perilous area to explore would be great. The farm, tree house and village all feel quite safe.
Haha, and I'm hoping to see more "real world" locations in a second wave! I think a small build of Dr. Oz's classroom would be a lot of fun. 😊 Hopefully we both get what we're looking for!
There is also a Bionicle reference with one of the nightmare creatures looking a lot like Karzahni, a character that also had the ability to give people nightmares/visions of alternate realities.
Yes! I was really afraid the designs would go FULL TILT on the colours, but I think the palette for each individual set is refreshingly reserved! Pleasantly surprised. 😊
@@RRSlugger Ironically enough, the actual friends sets are recently getting more reserved every now and then. I mean have you seen the bonatical garden? That could 100% pass for a City set if it wasn't for the minidolls. While at the same time some of the new City sets are getting more whacky with their colors and architecture.
And then I look over at ninjago which is having a massive multidimensional event right now and I just think “we worked 5 years on the best most legendary lego theme ever made just to pit it against ninjago’s soft reboot” If I ran a massive toy company, I’d at least wait one or two waves, maybe a year (as much as I, the consumer wouldn’t like that). Also I think maybe people would be more impressed if the sets also included sudo combiners as well as sudo alt builds. A lot of constraction fans alike me have much nostalgia with those.
I relate to basically you've said in this video. I really hope their research pays off. As an adult, this doesn't seem quite my speed, but if it makes kids happy and using their imaginations I'll be very happy. The comics do remind me of the early 2000s when every set came with comics and little stories to get you started!!
The first new theme since my rediscovery of my passion for LEGO - As someone who finds recent licensed themes cynical, I am excited. And glad that you are the one to alert me.
The bad guys look like they take some inspiration from the sleep paralysis demons that people experience in real life. The glowy, far-out eyes, deformed faces and the pitch black body look like something someone would see during an episode of SP.
Thanks Slugger, I think you captured my feelings on this really well. It’s great to understand how much research Lego put into developing the concept for the theme before going “all-in”. I’m happy that Lego is going back to its roots with a return alt builds and avoiding the obsession with digital gimmicks we have seen in recent years. Even the decision to put paper instructions at the heart of the build process is really encouraging. The particular character designs and sets of Wave 1 don’t particularly grab me, but I appreciate the intent. While I think the premise of the Dream World is clever I am a bit curious/worried that Wave 1 lacks design cohesion (perhaps natural given the vast scale of world-building Lego is attempting).
The boys at the lego group were def on something when they came up with this one. All of the sets are at least decent, some are just a little bit too random and ott for me, like the crocodile would look so much better as a whole model instead of a mash-up. Very strong wave that will probably be more appealing to kids than the hidden side and video stuff was. Glad theyre trying something new+ return of alt builds !!
I'm not in a financial spot to really jump into a new theme right now, but one thing is for sure: I NEED to get my hands on one of those archer minifigures, that hat and scarf would be amazing for a Lego D&D character!
Finally, something good. I'm actually quite hyped for this theme. I also really like the fact that it doesn't use the phone app thing, like Hidden Side did.
This theme looks super weird to me but I'm sure it'll grow on me. At the end of the day I'm just excited for a new original theme! P.S. I love your videos Slugger
“80% of the build has instructions, then it gives you missions to complete.” Very interesting actually. I might get one to try out this gimmick, building a moc, almost, for play rather than to look cool on a shelf
To be honest, I did not care at all about the theme when it was announced, it was just a “yep, it exists” theme for me. This video has me really excited to see where they take it though. I still probably won’t be buying the sets but I do hope it hits its target audience and doesn’t go the same way as Galidor. Neat video, widened my perspective a lot!
I’m glad to hear this video had a positive impact! I’m not trying to be free advertising for The LEGO Group here, but I did find the press release rather insightful and wanted to share it. 😊
Im super hyped for this theme, only time will tell if it pans out but I absolutely love when Lego does this type of stuff. It's like a mix between vidiyo, hidden side, elves, and a lot of drugs, I'm sold!
The theme looks interesting to me, I'm probably going to try a few of the sets. My favorite right now is the Spacebus, and I hope there will be more sets to come. I also hope this theme does well finantially so Lego doesn't completely stop making new original themes. And the two-thirds of the kids part was the funniest to me, thanks for reading the arcitle!
Hey Slugger- equally glad to have an awesome looking new original theme- I'm definitely sold on the Turtle and Stable! did you get a chance to look at the boxart of the new Roller Coaster set? 👀
Honsetly, I think they've got a gangbuster on their hands, and i'm excited to see it's an original IP this time. I think that if this is successful it will do good for lego in the future, not only in terms of money, but also making them see they should diversify into not just selling marvel and disney at the expense of anything else.
As a huge fan of fun and funky original LEGO themes, I’m incredibly hyped for Dreamzzz! I was skeptical about how good the sets would be, but I’m incredibly impressed with the design of almost all of them! I’m so glad they’re not doing any stuff with app integration, and I’m SUPER excited to see the return of (semi) alt builds! I think they’re a lot more substantial in the bigger sets, like the shark ship. I think dreammzzz has the potential to last for a good while longer than the typical 3 years, especially considering how much research they’ve put into it and the endless possibilities dreams give for coming up with new ideas. Loved the video Slugger! (Especially when you were making fun of the press release, that was hilarious 😂)
I'm excited too! Not sure if I will pony up the cash for the Shark Ship, but they do have a nice array of price points to choose from within the large first wave! Seriously, 11 sets right out of the gate is awesome - that's more than Time Cruisers and Time Twisters combined! Haha, I did roll my eyes a couple of times reading that press release, so I felt poking fun at it was warranted. 😉
I love this theme because it feels so freeing. Dreams are so free-form and fluid, and because of that I am super excited to build mocs around this theme. It's concept just screams weird and something about that feels very freeing and fun for building weird cool stuff
From the description given I really like the sound of this. Feels very "lego", classic in a way well balanced with the newer styles and reminds me of the kind of sets I might have loved as a kid.
Great video as usual, Slugger! This theme weirdly reminds me of a comic, Joe Simon & Jack Kirby's 1974 Sandman, which revolves around some of the same concepts as this new theme. I'm pretty curious about how they'll execute this idea: in my opinion, it's already a positive note that they got rid of the digital elements (and it's ironic they specifically mention it in the description of the theme).
This is the most excited I've been for a LEGO theme in over a decade! I love the emphasis on creativity, and the surreal, dreamlike aesthetic is absolutely my cup of tea. The more architectural sets, like the little village square, remind me a whole lot of cartoons like Amphibia and The Owl House (the latter of which is one of my all-time favorite TV shows). I'm not sure how much I'll follow the Dreamzzz tv show, since I think I'll probably enjoy telling my own stories with the sets more than following an existing one - but I'll at the very least check it out. I'd not considered the similarity to Galidor until you said it, but you're right! I'm optimistic that Dreamzzz will be more popular than Galidor, though, mainly because it sticks to the traditional bricks and minifigures (and personally, I really like the look of the Dreamzzz minifigs).
I like the fact they're going with a webseries, the theme, I absolutely adore the villain designs, alternate builds and emphasis on creativity. The sets really just dont really grab me, but its obvious that Im not in the age group that they're going for, yet at the same time I love a lot of the unique colors and pieces that they're throwing into these sets. As you said, hopefully this is a success and Lego will put more research into their themes, and have more original theme ideas
This actually passed under my Radar, so thank you for bringing it up! It seems intruiging to say the least, maybe this could be a first step but who knows. The clear focus they put on the "Paper instructions with no digital elements" leads me to believe this is also a response to the recent rumors of LEGO fazing out instruction booklets.
As soon as I saw the alternate builds on the back of the box I figured you'd like these! Even if they're not super substantial alt builds, they're something, and that's more than we've been able to say about original Lego themes for a LONG time! In many ways this theme feels like a return to the core values that made Lego special in the first place, plus I think they've absolutely nailed the kind of aesthetic that current younger generations love. I definitely see it as a spiritual successor of Time Cruisers and Time Twisters, but with even more love, care, and detail put into the designs. I am super hyped for this :)
I’m very mixed. On one hand, Some of the builds look really amazing and inspiring. It’s nice to see them playing with the Lego formula, too. Part selection looks great, I love the design of the gryphon character in the promos, shame she’s not in a set. It’s also nice to see they didn’t go further down the path of integrating smartphones. As I get older the more I see what my parents were concerned about with that type of stuff. On the other hand, I feel like original Lego themes now are just far too lore reliant and tonally inconsistent. For example, 2007 castle was simply “Knights vs. skeletons,” or Rock Raiders was “Space miners” They were all very simple prompts for kids to work with and I know for me that always inspired a lot of my own creations. But now with tie-in shows, movies, and games the general idea of the theme is far more complex and in my opinion leaves less to the imagination. Themes like Ninjago, Chima, Hidden Side, Nexo Knights, and now Dreamzzz seem to have another problem. A space theme used to have castles, a scifi theme used to have spaceships or mechs. Now it’s just like every theme has everything mishmashed together and it lacks tonal consistency, further weakening what I would otherwise find an inspiring “prompt” to play around with.
Rock Raiders was “Space miners” Lol, Slugger proved you are wrong. There were books and games there WAS lore. As well here you have lore but you can easily ignore it.
This is a really good point to consider - and I too agree. Part of the failure of many modern original IP's (at least for me) is that LEGO expects you to have watched some sort of tie-in show in order to understand what's going on. Even though a series like Rock Raiders *did* have some small amount of external lore to it, everything within the set was incredibly straight forward. You didn't need a TV series or an app to explain to you what the heck was going on (ala Hidden Side, Ninjago, Nexo Knights, etc). Back in the 90's, the sets had to stand on their own merits and couldn't rely as heavily on supplemental material as crutches. (Not saying the sets were *better* back then, just that they didn't have the outside support we see in a modern series).
I get what you mean about lore dependency. It’s become basically impossible to get invested in Ninjago, Hidden Side or now Dreamzz without watching the shows and additional material.
Its fascinating to learn how much research Lego put into developing Dreamzzz. Having thought about it a bit further, I do wonder if they have have perhaps gone a bit overboard on the set design - i.e. their idea that if they make sets as wacky/fantastical as possible this will somehow supercharge kids creativity. I’m not sure this idea holds true. As Lego acknowledges - kids creativity is innate: they don’t need adults to teach them this stuff (e.g. give them a pile of random bricks and they will always make something akin to a dragon-space-rocket car). As others have mentioned, the set design/colours in the current wave are pretty detailed/complex, with lots of small, specialist pieces. This arguably limits rather than expands kids ability to recombine pieces into their own creations. Ironically, a return to basic lego bricks would be more in-line with the actual findings of academic research on child creativity. Lego must be aware of this. However, presumably they don’t think it would be very profitable…🤔
Good points! It’s hard to say whether or not Lego is taking risk with this theme or they have researched it to the point where this is the safe bet. I guess we’ll see in August..! 😅
Absolutely! It really felt like LEGO was behind the curve when Hidden Side released. Everyone already wanted *less* screen integration back then - glad to see them on the right path now. Hopefully it will be a scenario of "Hidden Side walked so Dreamzzz could run"!
@@RRSlugger Yeah! I'm fine with the RU-vid show existing though. Some people criticize programming that sells toys and forget how great that is as a kid.
Themes that use so many different ...well themes are always interesting. Scifi train, fantasy skeleton ship, monster car, fantasy turtle van, elven forest stable. They are all such different ideas. The creators have to find a way to balance the diverse ideas and the theme's cohesion. On one hand the theme might fail because it has no cohesion, but on the other hand (and this is just me spitballing) maybe there's more accessibility for people to buy a set they like and less expectations for people to buy others? Like if you're looking at a mecha theme you have 10 mechs to pick, or a scifi set has 5 starships, but Dreamzzz only has one shark ship to pick, or only one crocodile car, if that makes sense. On the third hand themes like these can risk feeling like a mashup of rejected ideas from other themes... "We have an unused Ninjago skeleton ship, a ninjago mech, a city car and food van and elf stable and a space police ship, what do we do with them?" "Let's mash them up together into a new theme." I would say I'm overthinking this but... you're the one that inspired me to think more about lego! :D Thanks for sharing this, I rarely keep up with lego any more and this theme looks fun.
These are good points you raise! The hodge-podge could be offputting or inviting... I suppose we don't know yet! I think one thing's for sure though - even though LEGO Dreamzzz might have a spaceship or a medieval village, it certainly can't replace those respective original themes. 👍
I WAS cautiously optimistic, until I saw the ACTUAL set-reveals. Now I am ROARINGLY ENTHUSIASTIC, to the point WHERE I CAN BARELY CONTAIN MY EXCITEMENT. I don't think I've been this excited over a theme since Monster Fighters, and I cannot wait until these sets actually release.
You were the first person I thought of when I saw these sets announced! So glad to see you release a video on it. I'm loving the look of this theme and hope you'll continue to cover it as the sets release. Would love to see some set reviews!
Thanks! I'm excited for it too. 😊 I don't plan on picking up every set, but the few that I do look at will probably receive a video in some form or another.
Very interesting stuff! I suppose I'm warming up to it. My first impressions weren't bad, just "meh". I hadn't read the bit that you read here and I'm more interested now. I plan on having the Crocodile Car be my entry to the series since it seems to have a lot of parts I want anyway.
I really hope this theme takes off, ive wanted an original theme with original animals for years, and this theme delivers tenfold! Im blown away by this theme. Glad ive been saving, cuz i might be buying most of the first wave! Grimkeepers design is wonderful, and he is DEFINITELY what im building first
Original animals?... How? I just see rabbits, tortoises, crocodiles, and a pegasus (which existed back in ancient Greece AFAIK). Chima does a better job using animals to explore worldbuilding and morals.
It gives me at least some gonzo Time Cruisers vibes (mixed with the cooler bits of Elves and more recent Space) and I'm here for it. Honestly, I'm just happy to see more original series from Lego again and I hope to see more of it. They don't all have to be crazy fantasy, but it's still cool to see this.
It's SO DANG COLOURFUL! I love all the wonky elements and the surprisingly solid designs...! Also the figures are awesome! :) And no AR faff! Yay! Also great to see them tackle the stuff that always bugged me about Inception and its ilk: Boring Dreams, these are anything but!
I'm not completely sold on the designs themselves, but this is definitely going in virtually all the right directions. Most notably they have designs that encourage custom builds beyond what is included, which I'd say is the true essence of Lego. Also after having seen the sets for a few days now, I'm starting to see a lot of elements found in previous/current themes, especially some recent ones. I suspect they used a lot of current themes as trial runs to test the waters. In general, there's been different iterations of the 'alternate builds' idea such as the afformentioned City Missions sets, as well as the Ninjago EVO sets, but its also reminding me of The LEGO movie alternate builds, and obviously a lot of people have mentioned Lego Dimensions. Maybe just me, but this is hitting notes of Ninjago, Monkie Kid, Nexo Knight, Friends, Elves, Hidden Side, just to name a few off the top of my head; heck there's even a "superhero/batman bike" in the Crocodile Car set. There's definitely a sense of Time Cruisers whackiness here and the joint system of Galador as well. I mean Nightmare King = Crystal King? Mrs. Castillo = Vitruvius? Z-Blob = Monkie Kid Mei + Galaxy Squad? Shark Ship = Ninjago Shark Army + Hidden Side? Nightmares = Ninjago Skulkin + Nexoknight Lava Monsters? (maybe I'm stretching here, but maybe you can see it too) Also as a Power Miner's fan, those wheels! In terms of how I would describe it with non-Lego themes, this is lowkey giving me PvZ Garden Warfare and Adventure Time vibes (specifcally the treehouse, cat-ctus, and giant bunny). Good stuff. I hope this theme won't disappoint in the following waves.
Galidor Season 2 is looking great! I do actually quite like the look of some of these though. I appreciate that they are trying to promote alternate builds with themes like this.
This theme was an unexpected surprise. I love the direction it's heading in so far and hope that it doesn't end becoming another theme plagued with mechs and oversized vehicles which Ninjago and Monkie Kid are known for.
Indeed! Mech builds generally aren’t my thing, but a couple of these ones just happen to be scaled perfectly for Galidor, so they got me there hahaha. 😅
Well, this is interesting. The Nightmare King stuff looks real cool. Really intrigued to see what the instructions are like. Might get the VW Bus set to keep it as a bus. I appreciate the 2/3rds of kids pun.
Idk how to feel about the minifig designs in general, but I do adore that these characters seem a bit more diverse? Excited to see the different hair textures and that the main protagonist has vitiligo! While I know minifigs are yellow to be racially ambiguous, that doesn't mean that they can't have features that reflect the world around us in different ways. So I don't exactly care for how most of them are dressed, but the idea of making the lego men more diverse is an A in my book! After seeing the disheartening amount of discourse around Ninjago's recently introduced new character (iykyk) and his perceived ethnicity, it's really nice to see Lego double down and show more different features so that more groups can see themselves in the characters.
finally, sandman for kids! jokes aside I think this theme looks awesome, though my summer disposable income is already relegated to a few select city and friends releases. I love the energy here, but there isn't really one set in this lineup that I'm totally smitten with. I'd love to see it do well enough to become another evergreen line and certainly appreciate anything competing with ninjago for breathing room. here's to dreamzzz!
Honestly what I am most excited for with this series are the future prospects for sets. With the heavy R&D given to the theme, they probably are looking for a Ninjago level of longevity. Since its a dream theme, it means they can in theory bounce between sub settings much easier then Ninjago could though. A dream means anything so they can explore a ton of ideas pretty easily. While I doubt they'll make a set on that one reoccurring dream I have where I am in an airport food court that is infinite and I wonder it for seemingly forever only for me to finally find what I wanted to THEN WAKE UP TO MY ALARM OR THE NEED TO PEE, they can instead dip into any idea for a bit to test the waters and put into the gist a of dream. Basically I'm being hopeful in wanting to see this branch into trippy dream versions of other settings like medieval, space, other classsic themes, or to lean more into the nightmare idea with more spooky/haunted themes. ALSO I am really excited for the village set. Its just dream medieval and I want to just integrate into my blacksmith set. Plus I love the little weird Pikmin like dudes lol.
I'm getting Lego Elves vibes from alot of these medieval-fantasy styled sets. Mainly from the vibrantly colored nature environments, and small/cutesy magical creature figures with large cutesy brickbuilt creatures. Especially so with the "Pegasus Flying Horse", "Fantastical Tree House" and "Stable Of Dream Creatures" sets
Im very excited about this theme! Obviously becuause any new non licenced theme is grwat but also because if done right the creativity aspect should be very cool!
I'm far from the target demographic from this, but I'm also a sucker for the esoteric aesthetic of dreams and this take on it is definitely making me excited to see more of it. Easily the most I've looked forward to getting Lego-original system sets since Mixels.
Y'know, it was just the other day I bumped into your podcast not too long ago when it came up that a lot of LEGO's original themes were bottlenecked between aggressively realistic City sets and overtly fantastical Ninjago sets with very little in between. Gotta say this looks VERY much like the kind of spice I've been waiting a long time for!
