A lot of fans were skeptical when LEGO announced upcoming Ben 10 sets, and they were right. We now have pictures of the upcoming Ben 10 big figs from Amazon.com
Pictures from Mr. Mandalorian
The return of Galidor, aka the Ben 10 figs [News]
A lot of fans were skeptical when LEGO announced upcoming Ben 10 sets, and they were right. We now have pictures of the upcoming Ben 10 big figs from Amazon.com
Pictures from Mr. Mandalorian
FAIL!!!
Oh my. I’m speechless.
LEGO has gotten fat and greedy with their success I’d say.
This is pretty funny, in a sad way.
Blech! Leave the action figures to somebody else.
Bionicle meets power miner rock monsters. if they were 10 bucks I may get a few for parts. In 12 months.. they will be
Important difference: Galidor was a poorly conceived attempt to create a toy line with a show to support it. Ben 10 is a reasonably successful, long-running series of cartoons and live-action TV movies that has sold licensing rights to TLG to create action figures. I’m not sure the line will work but diversification is worth trying and clearly the millions of dollars of Bionicles they sell indicates some appetite from their target market for “action figures”.
That said, I probably will not buy any even at a deep discount – except maybe for my kids if they ask.
C’mon guys, I thought this was a LEGO blog! Oh wait… ;)
The price is appalling, I’m disappointed there aren’t alien minifigs, BUT
I think the resemblence to Galidor is superficial. What really sucked about that line were the godawful character designs and overspecialized limb pieces that could only be used to make godawful characters. These characters are better just in their basic concepts and the parts seem waaay more usable for other MOCs. I like those claw hands a lot.
Eighteen bucks, though. Sheesh.
These certainly don’t appeal to me at all, yet I’ll get behind anything that makes Lego more succesful so they can offer stuff I like. Besides, those joints are Bionicle ball-joint type, not Galidor click type. The Bionicle folks might find these useful. I support a modular action figure concept, ‘cuz the kids’ll love it. I’m not sure why so many people are out of touch with what appeals to Lego’s main target market, namely 6-10 year old boys. These look like they’ll be just about perfect.
I think this may actually be a success…
Truly, not with the AFOL community, but certainly with the Lego group’s target audience, as Proudlove said. This show is very popular with this 6-10 crowd. However with the price tag, it may be a huge flop.
Should be interesting to see how this turns out.
Ouch. You guys are harsh.
Two words: “children’s toys.”
For those complaining about the price, Lego employee known on the internet as Binkmiester (a member of Eurobricks and BZPower), says that $18 is not the suggested retail price, and they’ll be cheaper most places. He should know, he’s working on the Lego Ben 10 website…
Oops, he commented right above me and I spelled his name wrong. >_<
Tedward says: “Galidor was a poorly conceived attempt to create a toy line with a show to support it.”
You have it backwards; Galidor was a TV show first, with the LEGO line as their only form of merchandising.
Now, while I won’t get many — if any — of these Ben10 sets, they are more akin to Bionicle or the large KK figures than Galidor, given the types of parts. For example, on this one pictured here, the thigh seems to be made of a normal double-balljoint-receptacle, with a typically Bionicle-y covering.
In short: If you don’t like them, don’t buy them; leave them for the kiddies (for whom they are marketed!!!) As a MOCer, I see potential in several of these pieces.
Also, I thought it was against TBB’s policy to voice an opinion on a news post, Nannan.
@Ryan H. – Perhaps I’m totally out of the loop, but I’ve never seen something that said we won’t express opinions about news items. I know I’ve made my own opinions known about items I’ve posted.
^Ack, nevermind. I was thinking of something else. My first comment still stands, though.
I think they would sell OK if they were like $10 for 14 pieces. I mean sheesh….
Sounds like a challenge to me. I’ll get the dark blue one.
Ohhh, I don’t know, I think my Ooni could take this guy.
agreed 100% with proudlove
To expand a bit on my initial “FAIL!!!” comment, I do agree wholeheartedly with proudlove and others who believe this may not be all bad for LEGO.
In recent years, The LEGO Group has made stellar progress in developing sets that appeal to adult fans like us, such as the Cafe Corner series of modular buildings. Other themes appeal both to their core demographic and to us, like Space Police.
But for years, LEGO has also released themes that don’t appeal to me. For example, I love LEGO and I love SpongeBob, but the combination just doesn’t do anything for me. These Ben 10 figures are at the extreme end of that range, with virtually nothing to offer an adult fan like myself.
Nevertheless, like Bionicle, I can completely get behind these figs if it means The LEGO Group remains profitable and able to continue giving us all the sets we do love.
While there aren’t to my taste, I can see compatibility with Bionicle, which is hugely popular with the age group these are aimed at. I can see these being a success.
The price seems a bit high, though.
They suck, but so does Bionicle. However if the price is supposed to be $18, that means stores now will charge $20. Even if the children want the sets the parents will go “I’m not spending $100 on 5 action figures!”.
Thoughts: http://www.paganomation.com/blog/?p=390
When the Ben 10 license was inititally announced, I was one who was excited. As a fan of the show, the possibilities were awesome. I hoped the Galidor rumors weren’t true. As I see them now, I think Lego did fail to capitalize on the license the same way they failed with the Avatar line. They aren’t making what the target demo will buy. As action figures, these sets aren’t very good. Ben 10 already has a line of good action figures. As for the mix and match limbs type play, that toy line already exists for the license as well, with more variety.
What Lego should have done was introduce minfig scale sets. The first wave should have Kevin’s muscle car with alien tech, Grand Pa Max’s Rust Bucket and Ship, the Alien creature that can turn into a star fighter. They should have also made sets of brick built aliens like Four Arms, Cannon Bolt, Swampfire, Jet Ray etc. This direction would have been a sure fire success.
Well, my 10 year old Ben-10 Fan son is very, very excited. I’m happy for that, but not for the price point.
I really don’t think it would have been such a challenge for Lego to introduce minifig sets into this toy-line. They essentially did it for Toystory. It would have improved the appeal to a wider audience. If you can find these sets on a store shelf in 2011 I’ll buy you a beer. I’m glad that Lego is expanding their base and looking for ways to grow but it sucks that toy lines that I enjoy are getting snubbed to focus on toys that a lot of people agree are an iffy prospect for the company that looks a lot like a lesson Lego should have learned from Galidor.
As a Bionicle fan/MOCist, let me say that I am NOT looking forward to even acquiring a few pieces. I like brown and all, but I am just not digging that leg armor. Looking at the other sets, this idea from LEGO is just weird, IMO. It does seem that they would have been better off making System sets with figs. At least we might benefit from it then too.
My 6 year old will be in heaven with these. Proudlove nailed it, these are made for kids. Likely there will be things that some of you will build using them. But to say that Lego has a miss here is crazy.
The show is very popular right now, there are a number of characters/aliens to collect, and it’s smack dab in the middle of their demographic.
I agree with Nathan and everyone else who is all for anything that floats the boat. What’s good for the company is good for us in the end, and if a million kids gobble this stuff up then all the better.
However, I’m in pretty much disagreement with most of the posters here in that I’ll be picking up a few of these kits. I can see lots of useful pieces and shapes in odd colours. There is a widespread tendency within the community of not being able to see past the brand name and at the actual pieces. I collect *everything* including Galidor, there’s bound to be a use for it eventually.
I have a good thing going on with my kids right now, take Knight’s Kingdom mega figs. They just want the torsos, heads and other specialized pieces. I’m all about the armour, joints and anything else useful. This will probably end up being the same sort of deal, looking forward to this line!
The problem is I, and many others, this this will fail because of the design, or the price, thus hurting LEGO.
I’d also argue that the theme hurts real LEGO sets because LEGO instead is making new lame molds for this lame theme instead of spending time making actual sets.
I have to agree with many that the price is a very negative point. I’m not going to spend $18 on a set with very few pieces. That’s the main reason why I tend to not buy Bionicle sets right when they come out. I’d like to get more bang for my buck.
From a building standpoint, these parts are probably going to be easier to integrate into a creation than Galidor pieces. As previously stated, these parts look like they work with the Bionicle ball sockets and such. As a Bionicle builder, there are a few parts in these sets that look like they might be interesting to have.