Citations › Citation ID: 146

C146. BOOK: Daniel Konstanski, The Secret Life of LEGO Bricks: The Inside Story of a Design Icon (Unbound, 2022), p. 278-279.

Lessons learned from LEGO Legends of Chima had also led to another conclusion: it wasn’t enough just to do colour changes and novelty figure parts. Coexisting with LEGO NINJAGO
meant the new theme had to be dramatically different visually. ... Greater differentiation was needed, and the answer was a new category of parts: structural elements. ... Shape elements may have been designed primarily with LEGO Star Wars in mind, but they were not limited to a galaxy far, far away even in their first year. That made them less expensive to produce, since other toy themes could quickly use them, but this also diluted their novelty. Structural elements would be different.

Structural elements could then endow a unique aesthetic or style impossible to achieve via the current parts catalogue. ... Once completed, they would be locked in the system, as with licensed themes, for a period of time in order to preserve their novelty, before eventually being released for wider use.

Rather than launch new 'big bang' themes using only parts available to all themes, The LEGO Group decided to debut many new moulds with a new theme, and keep them exclusive to that theme for several years to give it a uniquely differentiated appearance.