Doesn’t need to exist.
Explorians
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A great Space subtheme, the sets have a very appealing color scheme, and the set designs hold up very well even to this day. The box art of the sets is also some of the best of the 90’s.
Overall, Exploriens tends to be one of the more overlooked space subthemes, and I think it deserves to be talked about more. 10/10.
Monkie Kid
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A theme whose sets and animation both appeal to me
8/10
Avatar The Last Airbendet
One of the worst LEGO themes of all time in my opinion. It only got two sets, and while the Air Temple isn’t that bad of a set, the Fire Nation Ship is a complete embarrassment. The build is incredibly blocky and primitive, and the the mostly grey color scheme looks incredibly dull. Not to mention, the horrible CGI box art makes it look more like a Chinese Knock-off set rather than a LEGO set.
Even by 2006 standards, this theme is a complete disaster. I don’t know exactly what happened, but I have a feeling this theme was just simply released without any quality control. Avatar, the Last Airbender is a great TV Show, but the sets LEGO released for it don’t really do it justice.
2/10
Super Mario
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Please no
I don’t want to talk about that
All the sets are absolutely useless if you don’t have that overpriced starter set. If someone buys one of the cheaper ones thinking Mario is included, they will be severely disappointed and probably not buy any more sets. Showing the Electronic Mario Rectangle on every box is rather devious seeing as Lego could’ve just not put the EMR on the box and put in big letters in one of the corners ‘Starter Set Required’ or something. The only reason the EMR is on the box is to trick people into buying more Lego.
And then there’s the sets themselves, which for the most part are glorified piles of garbage. The sets are just a few plates strewn together with a brick or two nearby, accompanied by that ever-present not-included EMR. The only real exceptions are Bowser’s Castle and the smaller one with the seesaw thing and the Piranha Plants. ‘Bowsers Castle’, if you could even call it that, is what looks to be a tiny 5-brick-high wall with 4 towers next to it. Riveting. And the plant one is Just a few plates and some rollercoaster track.
Every single set is useless without the starter course, possibly one of the worst decisions they could’ve made. Some poor kid’s gonna buy a set, thinking they’ll get Mario, and then end up not purchasing another set from the theme.
And then there’s Mario himself. Where do I even begin? He doesn’t look the slightest bit like a Lego product. If I didn’t already know what he was, I probably would’ve mistaken him for a McDonald’s Happy Meal toy. He’s a big obese rectangle. The EMR. The Electronic Mario Rectangle.
Then, of course, there’s the fact that Mario must be activated at all times or he won’t have a face. I’m sure some children don’t want to play the game and just want to play out stories with Mario, but they’ll have to have him turned on at all times just so he doesn’t have dead eyes. Imagine how many batteries they’d burn through! And what’s so great about the eyes anyway? They could’ve just printed them on and just used the batteries only for sound effects. That would’ve fixed two problems already!
I hate this theme. I really hate this theme. I don’t like it one bit. And here’s Monopoly’s completely unbiased rating;
1/10.
Is zero allowed on this ranking system? In the case that it is;
0/10.
Maybe even -1/10.
I absolutely despise this theme.
With that out of the way, let say…
Power Miners
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6/10
Cool sets and storyline, but I never was interested enough to collect it.
Indiana Jones
Good sets, but most of the minifigure head prints didn’t age very well. 7/10, I do like it, but personally I prefer Adventurers and Pharaoh’s Quest over it.
Speaking of which…
Pharaoh’s Quest
Lots of really cool minifigures and fantastic sets. Don’t really remember the prices so I’ll give it a 9/10
Hero factory.
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Say what you will about the story, but there is no doubt that the sets were a lot of fun. Hero Factory deserves a lot more appreciation than it usually gets. 8/10
Slizers
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5/10
Slizers was the birth of Constraction, and some of the builds were good. Other than that it was wasted. It needs a good re-imagining for a modern audience.
City
My first sets were city. It’s a pretty solid theme and correct me if I’m wrong but I think it might be the oldest currently running theme. However some of the sets have been pretty repetitive, they seem to be trying to overcome that. 8/10
Space Police III
A true classic. The sets are fantastic, and the minifigures are great (especially the alien figures).
I’ve seen some people who said that they don’t like it because “it lacks the charm of the older Space Police sets”, but honestly, I never understood that opinion. Space Police 3 is a perfect follow up to Space Police 2 and 1, and might even be the best out of the three.
10/10
Rock Raiders
Teal/ten nuff said
Lego dimensions.
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The idea of LEGO Dimensions had a lot of potential, but the execution fell flat. The packs were incredibly expenisve, and the amount of random obscure licenses within is was just ridiculous. No wonder some of them ended up being clearenced for 1$.
I know, a lot of people loved it, but personally, while I liked the concept, the execution really turned me away from it. 5/10.
Aqua Raiders
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Never got any sets, looks pretty cool though. I think it has a slight edge over Atlantis, as I’ve come to associate the yellow colour with underwater themes. Always wanted that base set as well.
7/10
Agents
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A true classic. A great improvement over its predecessor (Alpha Team), and just everything about it is awesome. Dr. Inferno is perhaps one of the most iconic LEGO villains, dare I say even more iconic than Ogel from Alpha Team.
With how awesome the sets are, it’s not surprising that Agents ended up being one of the top selling themes of 2008. 10/10.
Also, as a side note, I also think it’s successor Ultra Agents is very underappreciated.
Speaking of which… Ultra Agents is next.
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Nice enough villains, but I couldn’t care less for the actual agent’s builds. I only got two sets, and even they’re not that great. Awesome mininfigures, pretty mediocre builds.
6/10
Life on Mars
Nice concept (Aliens being friends with humans is something we don’t see very often) but most of the sets are kinda dated honestly. There are a few sets that I like (The Aero Tube hanger is my favorite one) but most of the other sets haven’t aged very well in my opinion.
A great concept, some nice pieces in unique colors (Life on Mars was the only line to have a seginficant amount of the Sand Purple color), but most of the sets don’t appeal to me as much as they do to other people. It’s a neat line, but Mars Mission was a lot better in my opinion. 7/10
Speaking of which… Mars Mission next.
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One of my favourite themes of all time. Definitely in my top 3, after Bionicle and Power Miners. Every set is amazing value, packed with action features, and still sturdy. Even the smaller sets are awesome. The Trike has full suspension and 3 of the big wheels. The Claw Tank has a 360’ rotating base, disk launcher, missiles, two containment pods and a medium sized alien ship.
And don’t even get me started on the bigger sets, those were incredible. The MT-101 is one of my favourite ever Lego sets. First of all it’s an absolute behemoth, it’s got full suspension, six of the largest size of plastic wheels, a huge drill, a detachable plane, a detachable bike, extra ammo storage, two containment pods, an adjustable launch pad, lockable side panels, a Zamor launcher and another decently sized alien craft for just £40, with almost 700 pieces.
The pods also made almost every set compatible with the main base. A few smaller vehicles don’t have the pods, but the lift in the base can be easily lowered to the height of any of these smaller vehicles. In fact, the drilling truck from the ETX Strike can line its bed up perfectly with the lift for easy transportation.
And don’t think I’m leaving out the aliens, their sets were great too. The ETX Striker can transform from a simple circular shape to a fully armed attack craft in seconds, and doubles in size and receives 15 laser cannons as it does it. The mothership is huge and sturdy, and even the side builds could all work just fine as standalone sets.
Every set in the theme was extremely good value, too. Think of the ETX Mothership, another £40 one. What’re you getting? A huge alien ship, complete with 3 detachable mini-ships and a competition cannon built into the body, swivelling turrets and adjustable fins up against an equally massive defence station with a mini drilling rig and a huge pump-powered rocket launcher that works extremely well and is extremely fun to use. All packaged together with a whopping 7 minifigures.
Speaking of the minifigures, this is where some people think the theme was weak, but I think the genericness of every figure was a strength. They could be whoever you wanted them to be, not having to play within the constraints of having actual characters. The aliens were also pretty neat, and I don’t mind the limited articulation. The having glow-in-the-dark stomachs and look cool, not to mention that it was extremely easy to amass an army of them. The commanders are really cool too.
10/10
Roboriders
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I managed to get Lava, Swamp, and Onyx, and I really like them. Very nice color schemes to each of them, and while the build is simple, it’s still quite sturdy and packed with some neat functions. Each of them also comes with some collectable disks, which feature unique patterns of some alien creatures (presumably the creators of the Roboriders).
Roboriders was also the first theme to ever introduce the canisters. Their canisters have a secret code that is reveled when they are put into a freezer, which was used to unlock some sort of game on LEGO.com, but sadly, the game isn’t playable anymore. Even so, having that feature is really nice.
Similar to the early Bionicle canisters, the Roborider canister lids have pin holes on top, which means they can be used in MOCs.
All of them retailed for 6$, which is a great value for all that you got with them.
Overall, I think the Roboriders are great. Some people may not like them for being “weird”, but I personally love them. Even if you aren’t a fan of them, I’d still recommend getting them for the parts. 8/10.
Competition (subtheme of Technic)
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