Brickheadz 2021

[cladner]

Some new Brickhead$ Brickheadz sets popping up on shop at home.  new "Pets" subtheme - lots of possibilities there.

 

and Chinese New Year Pandas

 

 

[iahawks550]

Pets theme will absolutely kill it. Brilliant.

[minicoopers11]

Omg the pandas!!

[Shortbus311]

Maybe just me, but I don't care for them. The Brickheadz line has zero playability. The draw of it is for collectors who want to collect their favorite licensed characters, yet is seems like the pets are aimed at kids.

I think these will be about as good for resellers as the seasonal Brickheadz are, which isn't saying much.

Of course, as a Brickheadz collector who has them all, except the rare SDCC ones, I will be buying 1 of each.

[Alpinemaps]

Maybe just me, but I don't care for them. The Brickheadz line has zero playability. The draw of it is for collectors who want to collect their favorite licensed characters, yet is seems like the pets are aimed at kids.

I think these will be about as good for resellers as the seasonal Brickheadz are, which isn't saying much.

Of course, as a Brickheadz collector who has them all, except the rare SDCC ones, I will be buying 1 of each.

Same (but i’m Bricklinking the rare ones). these Petz don’t really interest me, but i’ll get them. Rather see more of the licensed characters - Star Wars, Universal, and Super Hero. These should be in the same space as Funko Pops.

[CosmicSpeed]

Same (but i’m Bricklinking the rare ones). these Petz don’t really interest me, but i’ll get them. Rather see more of the licensed characters - Star Wars, Universal, and Super Hero. These should be in the same space as Funko Pops.

But Baby Panda 1 and Baby Panda 2 are such inspiring name choices!

[CosmicSpeed]

[Alpinemaps]

Cute.  But I'd really like to get back to real characters again.

[Darth_Raichu]

Those fishes could have easily been Nemo and his dad

[zmnnch]

4 minutes ago, Darth_Raichu said:

Those fishes could have easily been Nemo and his dad

Good point. But LEGO does not want to pay PIXAR/Disney to use the names (just guessing)

[TheOrcKing]

12 hours ago, CosmicSpeed said:

 

I actually like the goldfish here. They're kind of cute. Also those transparent rounded orange tiles.

[Shortbus311]

If this is the majority of the stuff they are going to do with Brickheadz now, random animals and holiday themes, then they might as well stop making the line.... Might be time to just sell off my collection of these.

[keymomachine]

1 hour ago, Shortbus311 said:

If this is the majority of the stuff they are going to do with Brickheadz now, random animals and holiday themes, then they might as well stop making the line.... Might be time to just sell off my collection of these.

While I think you've got a good point, it's not exactly a great year to be doing movie tie-ins and such, which is what drove many of the previous character Brickheadz. I'm hoping for a return to form for this line in the future - or maybe just some deeper cut Disney and Marvel characters. I would love a Robin Hood Fox with Little John Bear or a Vision and Scarlet Witch.

[Alpinemaps]

Vision and Scarlet Witch should absolutely have been a tie-in.

You could also do The Falcon and The Winter Soldier too.

[Shortbus311]

While I think you've got a good point, it's not exactly a great year to be doing movie tie-ins and such, which is what drove many of the previous character Brickheadz. I'm hoping for a return to form for this line in the future - or maybe just some deeper cut Disney and Marvel characters. I would love a Robin Hood Fox with Little John Bear or a Vision and Scarlet Witch.

I agree that licensed movie tie-ins drove a lot of sales for these, but there are so many previous characters out there they could do that they do not need to rely on newly released movies.

Alex and Zombie minecraft
Cinderella (or any other Disney princess not previously done)
The rest of the Ghostbusters
Emperor Palpatine
Queen Amidala
Woody and Buzz
Obi-Wan
Peter Pan and Tinkerbell
Spider-Man
Looney Tunes (since they have a rumored license agreement for minifigs)
Mario and Luigi
C3PO and R2D2
James Bond and a villain (Jaws or Oddjob would be my choice)
Marge and Bart Simpson
I also love your ideas of Robin Hood and Little John and Vision and Scarlett Witch

And these are just from stuff that they already have license agreements for.

All I am saying is that literally anything would be better for Brickheadz collectors and resellers alike than more dogs, cats and fish.

[coelian]

I felt that the line fizzled out after 2018, back during the launch there was a lot of buzz in Singapore where I used to live. The lead designer Macros Bessa even came by to promote the series. Having seen many wonderful MOCs from around the world, there is much potential left in the line and I'm a little disappointed like others that things are becoming too 'generic'. There is little left for both collectors and investors unless there are more exciting releases. Wasn't there some survey done last year and IIRC star wars won the survey and we should have some new SW brickheadz?

[keymomachine]

8 hours ago, Alpinemaps said:

Vision and Scarlet Witch should absolutely have been a tie-in.

Yeah, and obviously it's airing, I just watched last weeks episode so it was fresh in the mind.

I think after they decided the line wasn't selling well they stopped planning licensed production/tie-ins and now they've gotten more popular and Covid has generally boosted Lego across the board. But they've already shifted attention to other areas: Dots (which this pet series is very similar to) and mosaics. Seems like they've dropped the ball on this one.

[Alpinemaps]

26 minutes ago, keymomachine said:

Yeah, and obviously it's airing, I just watched last weeks episode so it was fresh in the mind.

I think after they decided the line wasn't selling well they stopped planning licensed production/tie-ins and now they've gotten more popular and Covid has generally boosted Lego across the board. But they've already shifted attention to other areas: Dots (which this pet series is very similar to) and mosaics. Seems like they've dropped the ball on this one.

I get that LEGO needs to keep some of their line fresh.  But this feels like they have ADHD - they can't stay focused on something long enough to build it.  Dabble here, dabble there.

This could have been the brick alternative to Funko Pops.

Having said that, this is what we know:

Budgie and Chick are number 124 and 125.  The fan vote was about BHz number 150.  We don't know if they're counting the SDCC exclusives in their list.  I don't have my spreadsheet handy to know the exact count of BHz that have been done, but there are a couple of Disney and Harry Potter ones still planned for this year.  So I don't know if this means we should expect another 25, or just a few more.

[Darth_Raichu]

1 hour ago, Alpinemaps said:

This could have been the brick alternative to Funko Pops.

This was LEGO version of Funko Pops.  This is what I think happened (I have no base on this other than my own farts, which is not a good foundation by all means)

Way back when LEGO got licenses to make the wave 1 & 2 Bhz.  The sales for these were not as good as they hoped so they were going to cancel the entire line after wave 3 (or 4) once they produced all the agreed upon licensed characters.  Hence rumors of LEGO cancelling BHz.   Then these wave 3 or 4 became popular (Disney characters etc) enough for LEGO to change mind and continue with Bhz.  They kept the line going by producing the non-license stuffs like witch and scarecrow while negotiating for new licenses.  

Then the virus kneecapped the movie industry which disturbed all licensing negotiations.  But hey, at least LEGO secured HP license (Hagrid+whatever else) so they had no choice but to continue the line with HP + cute animals.

What does it mean for the future? That is not really my specialty  

[$20 on joe vs dan]

2 hours ago, Darth_Raichu said:

This was LEGO version of Funko Pops.  This is what I think happened (I have no base on this other than my own farts, which is not a good foundation by all means)

Way back when LEGO got licenses to make the wave 1 & 2 Bhz.  The sales for these were not as good as they hoped so they were going to cancel the entire line after wave 3 (or 4) once they produced all the agreed upon licensed characters.  Hence rumors of LEGO cancelling BHz.   Then these wave 3 or 4 became popular (Disney characters etc) enough for LEGO to change mind and continue with Bhz.  They kept the line going by producing the non-license stuffs like witch and scarecrow while negotiating for new licenses.  

Then the virus kneecapped the movie industry which disturbed all licensing negotiations.  But hey, at least LEGO secured HP license (Hagrid+whatever else) so they had no choice but to continue the line with HP + cute animals.

What does it mean for the future? That is not really my specialty  

Finally figured out the Funko POp marketing strategy: basic shot gun approach: make everything under the sun with low entry price that eventually you hit a character that resonates w/ an individual...hope for a subset of the population w/ an over-active "collector's gene"...rinse -repeat

I don't think LEGO can reach that kind of volume. 

[Darth_Raichu]

13 minutes ago, $20 on joe vs dan said:

Finally figured out the Funko POp marketing strategy: basic shot gun approach: make everything under the sun with low entry price that eventually you hit a character that resonates w/ an individual...hope for a subset of the population w/ an over-active "collector's gene"...rinse -repeat

I don't think LEGO can reach that kind of volume. 

I have no idea how Funko negotiate their licensing.  They seem to produce everything that is / was remotely popular

[FuzzyB]

I get that LEGO needs to keep some of their line fresh.  But this feels like they have ADHD - they can't stay focused on something long enough to build it.  Dabble here, dabble there.
This could have been the brick alternative to Funko Pops.
Having said that, this is what we know:
Budgie and Chick are number 124 and 125.  The fan vote was about BHz number 150.  We don't know if they're counting the SDCC exclusives in their list.  I don't have my spreadsheet handy to know the exact count of BHz that have been done, but there are a couple of Disney and Harry Potter ones still planned for this year.  So I don't know if this means we should expect another 25, or just a few more.

According to my list, they have produced 118 of them, including the birds and fish (and also #57 Geoffrey). Even if they include the 8 unnumbered SDCC sets, then there should be at least 24 more. If they don’t count the SDCC, that would leave room for another 32.

Hopefully we are done with the Pets line and can get back to more regular BHz. I don’t know if I have the patience for pet bunnies, turtles and guinea pigs.

[Alpinemaps]

5 minutes ago, FuzzyB said:

According to my list, they have produced 118 of them, including the birds and fish (and also #57 Geoffrey). Even if they include the 8 unnumbered SDCC sets, then there should be at least 24 more. If they don’t count the SDCC, that would leave room for another 32.

Hopefully we are done with the Pets line and can get back to more regular BHz. I don’t know if I have the patience for pet bunnies, turtles and guinea pigs.

I just went through my own list, and here are my stats:

• 137 different products produced
  • 4 announced, not yet on sale (Goldfish & Fry, Budgie & Chick)
  • 1 cancelled (TRU Geoffrey)
  • 2 NYCC (Boba Fett & Han Solo in Carbonite)
  • 6 rumored (2 Minions, 2 Disney, 2 Harry Potter)
  • 8 SDCC Exclusives, unnumbered (Superman & Wonder Woman, Batman & Joker, Iron Man & Captain America, Black Panther & Doctor Strange)
  • 6 limited edition/store openings (Nonnie - LEGO Factory Inside Tour, Shimao Store Opening, Beijing Store Opening, Cologne Store Opening, Amsterdam Store Opening, Hangzou Store Opening)
  • 1 TRU build-and-take (Wonder Woman)
  • 3 unnumbered retail sets (Go Brick Me, Bride, Groom)
• Numbers 104-109 have not be used.  They are probably the 6 rumored sets above.
• 6 sets are limited edition (SDCC or NYCC) sets that did get numbers (Supergirl & Martian Manhunter, Spider-Man & Venom, Boba Fett & Han Solo in Carbonite)

I'm going to guess they're going on what's in the pipeline that is numbered, and not counting anything else.  At least, that's my hope.  In which case we've got at least 25 in the pipeline.  But actually 31, since 6 of those are not "official" yet (104-109).

[$20 on joe vs dan]

1 hour ago, Darth_Raichu said:

I have no idea how Funko negotiate their licensing.  They seem to produce everything that is / was remotely popular

like bobbleheads...they created a genre that IP creators actually want to be a part of.  Maybe the IP holders see Pop as essentially an extension of their own marketing..like little billboards on millions of people's bookshelves.

[Darth_Raichu]

@Alpinemaps

Minions Brickheadz:

https://brickset.com/article/58801/review-minions-brickheadz