Series 12, as has been officially announced, will be based on characters from The LEGO Movie. This of course makes perfect sense, and no-one was too offended as the prospect.
When LEGO first launched the DC and Marvel Super Heroes line, a story was kicking around inside LEGO that there would be two different Super Heroes based Minifigures series, one for each license. Due to the continued success of non-licensed Minifigures, and how much it would bump up the price, the idea was canned (although it explains where many of the Comic Con exclusive figure designs come from).
But with sales of Minifigures not what they once were (although still strong), LEGO have decided that things need to be shaken up. For the foreseeable future Collectible Minifigures will be licensed. Series 13 will be a series based on The Simpsons, as part of a drive to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of that series. At least in the UK, there will be no building sets at mainstream retail to go alongside the Minifigures.
Minifigures but no building sets… LEGO have officially branched out into making figures and not construction sets! Yikes, this is a scary precedent. Expect a more detailed article at a later date, attempting to chart the rise of the mini-figure from its humble origins as the finishing touch to a set to its current place in the LEGO Company’s heart as the selling point of a set.
Having finished with hyperbole for now, whether licensed Minifigures is a good idea or not, hopefully sets based on The Simpsons will be released somewhere in some fashion so that LEGO isn’t making mini-figures that don’t actually have any building sets to go with them. There are often lines that for some reason or other end up becoming LEGO Store exclusives in certain countries.
Keep checking out All About Bricks for more 2014 Rumour Lists.
Correction: Thanks to everyone who wrote in and pointed out that its is the 25th of The Simpsons in 2014, not the 20th Anniversary as originally stated!
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