Lego's 10 Worst Failures

Howdy! Props to you if you know why I'm in Danish Prison! 😄
Written by: Josh Strider
Video Edited by:
& Josh Strider
Produced & commissioned by Josh Strider (Phantom Strider)
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thanks to Unbrickme for some lego fiber optic footage - UnbrickMe's channel:

[ComicalRealm]

Fun fact: LEGO is the world’s largest producer of rubber wheels. They produce more than Bridgestone, Goodyear and all other car tyre manufacturers.

[dtinagliastudios]

LEGO did not abandon the blind bag format at all. They’ve been doing it multiple times a year every year since 2010. LEGO fans have been feeling around in the bags to identify what figure is there. But the thing about Vidiyo is that they didn’t do bags, they did BOXES… preventing fans from identifying what figure was in the package, resulting in a terrible reception.

[LendriMujina]

30:36 Funny how "Bluetooth" was named after a person — Harald Bluetooth, King of Denmark and Norway 1100 years ago — but it sounds like a painfully made-up name now. Sort of like the polar opposite of the "Tiffany Problem" (where a name in a historical setting sounds too modern despite actually being period-accurate).

[VenomSnake]

This channel is like a warm blanket. I’ve been coming back for years now. The background music, strider’s narration, and the overall wholesome safe feeling of these videos are like therapy for me!

[legospacememe]

LEGO never actually abandoned the blind bag idea. It still exists in the LEGO minifigure blind bag series

[NonbinaryFelineArtist]

I have to admit, I like how you’re trying to tell a story while reviewing something at the same time, I think it makes the video more interesting.

[Voxovan]

One thing about Bionicle's reboot that's worth mentioning is how little marketing it got. Usually Lego's new big action themes get a TV show or something along those lines at launch, as well as magazines, books, comics etc. Bionicle G2 didn't get any of those things. Other than very small coverage in Lego magazines, all it got was a series of 90-second long online episodes that Lego didn't even bother to hire more than 1 voice actor for. The first book promoting the story was released in summer 2015 - six months after the theme's launch, and the first comic book was released in December 2015 - a whole YEAR after the theme's launch. By 2016 the theme was selling so poorly it was deemed unprofitable and got cancelled.

I don't want to sound like some crazy conspiracy theory guy, but it really seems to me like Lego didn't want this theme to succeed to begin with. There was a lot of people who were fans of the original run of Bionicle that didn't even know the reboot happened, how on Earth were the kids who never heard of this theme before supposed to know about it? Oversimplified story and characters were definitely a big flaw of the reboot, but in my opinion the main reason it flopped so bad was the fact that it wasn't advertised like, at all.

[jfwfreo]

I think a big part of what killed Vidiyo was the initial pricing. Because it had the music licensing costs and the costs to build, run, maintain and moderate the app, the initial pricing was way higher than it would have been for most other themes and that put people off (I bought a bunch of Vidiyo stuff including the big boom box but I paid a lot less than RRP for it).

The fact that they didn't release (or even announce) any of the stage sets until much later didn't help (if they had released some of the smaller stuff like the car alongside the first wave of figs and the first wave of the clear boxes, that might have made people more interested)

[VectrexLife]

Hey Strider, it was an absolute pleasure to write, edit and guest star at 11:38! The early Lego games are very close to my heart (even Lego Friends to a certain extent, haha.) This whole video was a lot of fun! You make Lego's history super interesting and entertaining. Thank you so much for having me on. Cheers!

[pneumonianakey]

"hey mom"
"Yeah?"
"Can i get this Lego set?"
"You.. already have 70 sets.."
"But he dabbed in the commercial"
**Glass breaking**
"TAKE. MY. FUCKING. MONEY."

[grantonnintendo]

Thanks Strider. My father passed away yesterday from cancer and your videos have really helped me. Keep up the great work, my friend!

[SicMetalMaggotlife]

The big reasons for Bionicle G2’s failure that I’ve heard across that community was the lack of a really cohesive story/storytelling, poor marketing, and poor timing.

One of the big draws of the original Bionicle was its ability to set up cool and dramatic storylines, set up mysterious atmospheres, and explore its characters through media such as comics and books, but so much of the tone and characters were watered down with G2 to appeal to any classic fans. Remember, part of the Bionicle G1’s appeal was how it presented itself to children as something more cool and mysterious than your average action figure or Lego toyline. It was the idea that children would gravitate towards stuff they perceive as for older children because they find it cool. Hell, even the PACKAGES and COMMERCIALS of Bionicle G1 were aimed at advertising the mystery of the theme. Meanwhile, G2 was presented without that sense of mystery and danger and felt just like any other Lego theme, so why should a kid bother to go for it when they can get that fix with a more traditional theme? Nevermind how obscure the books were for G2 that actually WERE published. I can hardly believe any child knew about them.

Another issue was marketing. Bionicle G1 had a very strong multimedia campaign of games, TV ads, books, and comics (that were given away with every issue of Lego magazine so it was not exactly easy to miss…) that allowed children to get glimpses of the story and setting. Meanwhile, if you told anyone who was a fan of Bionicle G1 as a kid that the series had a recent reboot, they’d be surprised since they had never heard of it. G2’s advertising was simply way less extensive compared to the original series. It suggests a lack of faith in the brand on the part of Lego.

And lastly, timing absolutely screwed over the brand. Between action figure toy sales as a whole declining significantly between 2009 and 2015 and Bionicle having to share shelf-space with Lego Star Wars buildable figures of characters practically every child knew the names of, it was a bad environment for a new Lego action figure brand and absolutely needed everything else to be in its favor for it to work…and sadly none of it really was.

[alicemwakanandi]

This guy looks like he cares about everything no matter how small.😊

[AverageInternetButterfly]

I feel that one reason people were invested in Vidiyo was the minifigures. Now that I think about it, I've always been thinking about making a stop motion special loosely based on the failure of LEGO Vidiyo as a pilot to a potential miniseries of shorts focused on different music band members.

[koloth]

The problem with Fusion and Videyo is they focused on the app first and then the toy. If they want to do AR then they need to make it more like Hidden Side. Make a good Lego set and have the app as an afterthought. I actually bought some of the Hidden Side sets because they were kind of nice. And it was easy enough to modify them to remove the app parts, which was just a colored wheel.

[garlicxlr]

I note that several on the list don't interract with actual Lego bricks. You'd think that'd be the first thing you do when designing at Lego

[mrmeme]

As someone who loved Bionicle growing up and not caring about the lore, I didn't like the reboot even though I was extremely excited for it. The main reason was that the masks were too loose. Anytime I would play with them the mask would just pop off from the smallest touch, which would interrupt whatever battle or thing I was doing with them and became an annoyance.

[ClumpyWoods]

I remember writing to lego in early 2013 as a 7 year old I think asking them if they could revive bionicle, and hey, they did it, but if I'm honest, I think one of the big reasons it failed was just because it lacked the worldbuilding and just cinematic atmosphere of the original. I kinda wish I was a little older so I could experience the original bionicle, but hero factory was still pretty cool, I still remember watching the animation lore for the 2011 arc Ordeal of Fire, and I still remember loving Nex.

[goodial]

I guess the a problem with Vidyo is the core fact that it relies on kids spending more time on the phone. I am not a parent, but I'd imagine that many parents really appreciate the offline aspect of Lego that lets kids have a fun and be creative for so long.
Also: the issue with toys focussing on apps is that with ongoing technology sooner or later the app will not work anymore, making the toy redundant in the future ...

[matthewmiller]

So honestly another reason that Vidiyo flopped was because they released the mini-figure blind bags first and THEN the larger stage sets. Honestly, the stage sets are really good and interesting builds. I work at a Lego store and we built the pirate ship set for our display, and honestly it's a great build. The problem is because the original figures flopped, no one cared about these decent sets that came out as an expansion.

They should have treated the stages as the base sets, with the app acting as a bonus play mode, and then released additional characters. Then you could be excited to see various new stages get released for the other figs as they get more popular (like actual bands)