Bionicle
This one is something only early 2000s Lego fans may remember. Bionicle was an action oriented line about the Toa–six beings who could control the elements of fire, water, earth, stone, air, and ice and wore masks that granted them special abilities. It actually was a successful line for a good amount of time, spawning comics, video games, four films, and junior novels. For a while, it made up nearly all of Lego’s financial turnover from the previous decade. By 2008, the lack of new interest in Bionicle forced the company to shelve the property in 2009. It lived on through the HeroFactory property, but it just wasn’t the same. In 2014’s The Lego Movie, it was featured in a quick “blink or you’ll miss it” slideshow of Lego properties when Wyldstyle talks about other universes.
As of January, the series has undergone a reboot of the original story, with plans to take it through to 2017 and possibly further. Having the Toa in a video game would go a good way towards increasing the reach of the Bionicle property. The different lands that the Toa reside over–the fire Toa Tahu, has a village inside of a volcano while the stone Toa Pohatu has an arid desert, for instance–could land themselves to some nice visual variety, and their masks (regular colors and gold variants) would lend them to being instantly collectible. If nothing else, you could always appeal to the nostalgia market. Not to mention it’d be kinda funny to see the Toa pissed at Wyldstyle after she called them something “we don’t need to mention”.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Ninja Turtles is one of the Lego properties that doesn’t really receive as much marketing as their City or Marvel lines. They showed up briefly in Lego Movie, but otherwise they just sort of exist. Which is a shame when you remember the excellent TV show and that movie from last year that we all just acknowledge as a thing that happened for whatever reason.
The Heroes in a Half Shell deserve to be in this lineup mostly because of the TV show, as a matter of fact. The various villains included are all named by Mikey, but you can totally tell it’s done so kids know what to ask their parents for come shopping time. Seriously, you can’t think a writer would include a line like “Let’s call him Fishface!” without getting dollar bill signs in their eyes. In a way, it is fitting–the Ninja Turtles property is a guide on being a blatant marketing exercise, second to Transformers. The Ninja Turtles were also created as a mockery of the ninja trend that ran through comic books in the 90s, and there’d be some humor to gain from watching them interact with the characters from Ninjago. Maybe they can come up with a song better than Batman’s, if that’s even possible.
Marvel
This one admittedly isn’t so much of a “should” as it is a “will”. The Marvel property sells like gangbusters through the movies alone, and there’s already another Lego Marvel in development. It’d be surprising if the Marvel Universe wasn’t included in the first wave of Lego Dimensions minifigs–and make no mistake, there will be more than one wave of these things, if Lego has their say.
Still, there is a chance for Lego and Marvel to shine their light on characters that aren’t in the prime spotlight all the time. Spider-Man, Wolverine, the Avengers, we’ve seen them in Lego form about three or four times at this point. Time to show us characters like Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, or Vision from the films. The comics have brought characters like Captain Marvel, Kamala Khan’s Ms. Marve,l and Miles Morales’ Spider-Man to the forefront. With the Inhumans getting a big screen debut in a couple of years, it’s more than likely they’ll be included at some point down the line. Heck, you have to have Pizza Dog from the Hawkeye comics. Have to.
Star Wars
Again, not so much of a “should” as it is a “will”. Star Wars and Lego are practically joined at the hip at this point, you couldn’t separate them even with a lightsaber. Thanks to the excellent Star Wars Rebels cartoon and upcoming Force Awakens movie, people are more primed to visit that galaxy far, far away again. Throw in the upcoming return of the awesome Battlefront game franchise, and you’ve got something that can sell itself just by name alone and turn profits five times over. And in fact, usually does.
Lego and Lucasarts could use this as a chance to take some clever jabs at the Expanded Universe. Since it’s technically not in canon anymore and overridden by the films, some laughs could be had at this from characters both from the Star Wars universe and from other universes. There’s still The Old Republic, which hasn’t been touched by anyone that wasn’t connected to Bioware. You can bet that Force Awakens characters will be included at some point, and it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to say that characters from Rebels will make appearances as well. That brand synergy, after all.
Let us know what universes you want to see in Lego Dimensions. Like our choices? Disagree? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
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