*Sigh* after careful review, I noticed a slight error with this video. There is a portion of the first segment that the "Agents" title card is missing. I am not sure why this happened as it is there on my timeline. I'll be sure to double check this next time I upload. Thanks, -Alan
Another small error, you kept saying aqua zone/aquanaut, but the skeleton in atlantis is actually an Aqua Raider from the second wave of sets bearing the name.
Yeah!!! I should’ve mentioned this. But it seems like LEGO has finally completely moved away from the mentality that traditional violence is bad for kids. There was a time when LEGO refused to even create gray bricks… like? So kids couldn’t make tanks out of their castle sets… Star Wars at first completely changed that. And I guess that opened more room for them to make themes like agents.
@@BrickFleet people also forget about the Lone Ranger theme and they had battlepack union soldiers with traditional Lego rifles. I thought that was the coolest thing. Hell the Roman figures in the figure packs made me so content with the idea that this could imply historical themes. While I get history is also filled with dark matter, kids at that age are more about the glamor of the knights and their fabled chivalry. I mean we have Lego Knights already. All I’m saying is Lego should make a history theme. Every two years the theme is different but within the banner. I just want Lego Romans. I bought so many of the figure packs just to enjoy them.
Lego Exo-Force, Agents, Power Miners, Atlantis, Space Police was my entire childhood. I miss those times man, the sets were so innovative and cool. So many hours playing with friends and imagining story lines
I think the a big reason why Ninjago succeeded where the others failed is because it had a TV show. It became Gen Z’s TMNT in a way. Even outside lego fans it’s nostalgic as you’ll see “long before time had a name” pop up in non-lego memes every now and then. It clearly connected in a way the others failed to and that’s probably because you had a multi season show allowing actual characterization and development.
I think you’re on to something about how memeable ninjago is. It’s not that I necessarily don’t like ninjago as a theme, but I feel like there’s something new that could take it’s place soon perhaps.
I've never been into ninjago. Never got the appeal. I always felt like it was a theme marketed towards 6 year olds, shoot for the longest time it seemed like their main goal was to be a beyblade ripoff. Lots of the newer sets are really cool though, but now they just feel like sets for a tv show I've never seen and not it's own standalone theme
@@BrickFleet I get what you’re saying. Me personally I’m very nostalgic for those first 2 or 3 years of the theme but idk what it’s really done since. Definitely is time for new original themes
Mid 2000s early 2010s really were the golden years of Lego. At least to me. So many good original themes like Atlantis, Space Police, Agents, Power Miners, Pharaohs Quest, early Ninjago, Monster Fighters, and Exo Force. Along with great licensed themes like SpongeBob, Indiana Jones, and of course Star Wars. What I would give to see some of these themes revived today
I thought of hidden side as a sort of successor to monster fighters. I quite liked some of those, but didn't have any money at the time. However it was really missing that dark classic monster movie aesthetic that monster fighters captured perfectly.
For me the peak was 1998 to 2008. Bionicle, mastermind, johnny thunder, rock raiders, the return of Castle with fantasy elements, OG Star wars, Mars Mission. Bionicles was total peak.
I only really ever justify purchasing LEGO Star Wars as my licensed theme or occasionally Iron Man sets, but even then it's starting to all feel the same. I am glad LEGO released a large castle set and I fully intend on purchasing one in the future.
I miss the original lego themes that appeared every year. It made it exciting when the new year came because you knew lego would have something completely different come out.
This video pointed out something I’ve been feeling for a while now but could never really express. I’m in my mid 20s now and as a kid there was nothing better than inventing stories and scenes for those original lines, or even mixing them together to create your own world. I went to a target recently and looked at the legos there and the entire aisle was Star Wars, Harry potty, marvel, and Minecraft.
This truely was the golden age of LEGO. Store shelves weren't yet oversaturated with too many liscensed themes and there were plenty of original ones too. The builds were detailed, but not dramatically, lots of play features... Ah nostalgia!
I miss Mars Mission the most. I was totally addicted to that rather simple browser game, but mostly the sets themselves were so much fun to play with, and almost all of them were wonderfully designed. Sadly, I had only few of their last generation Mars Mission sets.
Yeah, surprisingly mars mission sets were on eof the few legos from my childhood that mostly stayed together because I loved their base design the most instead of trying to modify them. Also I'm pretty sure that flash game got me addicted to RTS games 😅
@@goatbeard6857 lol me too. In case you don't know it, Sins of a Solar Empire is a great RTS. It's getting a sequel (SoaSE II) and it's looking pretty good so far. It's in early access, but perfectly stable, it's just getting more features. It's not just a remake, but becoming a true successor.
the thing with ninjago is that it was originally just as unique as these other themes. the ninjas fighting skeletons and then snakes and so on was cool at first. the problem is that it's the only original theme that they still make. if they at least made other themes that were just as creative as the ones mentioned then ninjago being used so much wouldn't be a huge problem.
That really is the issue. LEGO was prevalent in making original, exciting, fun themes in the past, and to this day they have an extensive supply of original themes that are well-loved, and deeply-missed. Space Police, Blacktron, Futuron, Spyrius, M-Tron, Exploriens,Insectoids, UFO, Ice Planet, Johnny Thunder/Adventurers, Alpha Team, Drome, Rock Raiders, EXO-Force, Aquazone, Aqua Raiders, Atlantis, Power Miners, Agents, the list just goes on. So many amazing themes, so much fun potential, and yet we don't see any of it, anymore... LEGO feels like it's abandoned originality and playability as we see just licenses and sets that are overly-complicated to build, yet get boring after just a couple of hours. I had the entire Aqua Raiders line as a kid, I was lucky to get every set at once for Christmas as my only gifts that year, and I couldn't have wanted more. I kept them all in a blue tote (and still have that tote, albeit now it's full of MEGABLOKS), and every day when I had free time I pulled the sets out and built a new story with them. I made custom sea vessels and vehicles, upgraded the base, created monstrosities out of the sea creature parts, and just had a blast. If I were given that same fortune with things from LEGO today in their place, I legitimately think I'd get tired of them. Modern LEGO just isn't fun, anymore, and the creativity is gone. There are too many small parts you can't build much with used in sets leading to alt builds being very limited, and almost no play features aside for stud launchers, which just aren't fun for a kid when they fire a projectile they can't fine later as opposed to a huge black missile. I have no clue if I'm in the minority or not, but I only ever get sets from the 2000's and backwards, because things from that time just felt so much more engaging and focused-on-fun. Now, it feels like padding sets with detail making them more expensive while decreasing play value with no features, or just making huge display sets that do nothing but gather dust. It feels so soulless compared to the past, and it's depressing to see.
I used to love the lego ninjago series. I’d watch it like every day and I had a lot of the sets. I think lego messed up by making the lego ninjago movie, or at least changing the ninjago sets to have the same design as in the movie. This was confusing as now you didn’t really know if the old story continued and if the characters really were the same. Were they like in the old series or like in the movie? Lego (i assume) realized they made a mistake and ended the series and just made some kind of lego ninjago legacy thing that was just sets that were remakes of old sets. Now there have been rumors for a new lego ninjago series in 2023 but I don’t think I’ll watch it. The nostalgia feel is gone and I am still angry at lego for that.
@@qinn1996 The themes are different despite having similarities here and there. EXO-Force had a very specific design aesthetic with their mechs often having thin upper arms and legs that thickened out to a bell bottom-esque design, and always had a windowed cockpit on the torso. The remake of the Thunder Raider I feel is the closest to EXO-Force Ninjago has come, but otherwise the designs are very oriental and samurai-like in their design language, and these days they even have heads which EXO-Force never did. They were mechs first and foremost, never full-blown giant/super robots. This of course isn't me trying to convince you to like either series, you're free to like and dislike what ever you wish, I just wanted to explain the differentiation between them that does make them different in their overall design aesthetics. Overall, I find EXO-Force's design aesthetic more appealing, personally, they just needed to be built more structurally-sound.
@LookedSpy637 that isn’t what happened to ninjago. Ninjago had its classic designs for the first 7 seasons of the show and then when the movie came out and changed the designs, the 8th season of the show changed the classic designs to the movie designs. They characters were the exact same, the only thing that changed was the designs. And no, the show did not end after that. The original ninjago saga ended in 2022 with its 15th season.
They weren't overpriced and the sets were way cooler so they were actually worth the money. The last time I bought a Lego set, I put it together and just stared at it wondering why I spent so much money for something so small
The skeleton diver in the atlantis set is actually a nod to aqua raiders, which was the last underwater theme before atlantis where the divers were all fighting big sea monsters
@@NelsonLopez-ni8nd that was kind if the implication, that the Aqua Raiders stirred up something they weren't prepared for and at least some of them were killed. As far as I remember, Aqua Raiders was just undersea treasure hunters, but I was barely more than a toddler at the time so I don't really remember the theme super well.
I am extremely nostalgic here, but 2006-2012 was peak LEGO for me. Dino Attack, Power Miners, peak Bionicle, Aqua Raiders, Atlantis, Hero Factory, early Ninjago (do still love the show to this day), peak City, Alien Conquest, Space Police 3, Monster Hunters, there are MANY I'm forgetting. But for me, this was my personal peak of LEGO. And, might I add, the LEGO website was so much better back then. The games were captivating for HOURS. I don't know what it's like today, but I feel like it's not at the same level but I would love to be wrong.
Personally, I believed the mid to late 2000s is when lego peaked. The original Batman sets, Indiana Jones, Agents, Clone Wars, Space Police, Pirates, Castle, Power Miners, Atlantis, and Mars Mission. I was unfortunate enough to get into lego in late 2009, as most of those themes were dying off. I definitely wish I would’ve gotten the chance to get those sets, because they are some of my favorite sets of all time.
Funny, I always say 2008 is where Lego peaked because it had Castle, Mars Mission, Agents, a really good Star Wars wave, and Indiana Jones. 2009 is obviously so close, and had these magnificent themes. Great video!
I loved power miners because the sets made you focus on the environment rather than the set itself. Like I remember setting up pillows like caves and deposits of legos around bends, they just encouraged me to be creative and it made me so fond of them.
We also got the Glatorian BIONICLE sets, which were all lots of fun. Malum and Skrall were real fun, and we got the Skopio tank in the latter half which was one of the coolest vehicle sets of the franchise. I'd love to see a system take on BIONICLE; whether that be playsets like the majority of the line or action figures like the Marvel ones that came out recently.
Oh yes, Power Miners is by far my favorite theme! The bold colors and the potential of it was soooooo good... Hoping they'll make a tribute set like they did the classic spaceship, I'd be all over that! Interesting, it seems bold colors and ideas are disappearing in the world at large... We need a fresh injection of beauty and creativity in many areas of life
Glad you enjoyed it! I have more content in the works, I am a college student and working... So things can feel quite unstable haha. I appreciate the donation too!
Another thing is with most LEGO sets nowadays compared to the late 2000's to early 2010's was the playability, Like Most themes only include like 1 part of playability which is either an opening rear door, or just "hooheehaa opening wings" to some sort of jet. I think the reason why most LEGO sets don't have that much playability as they did back then was probably because of how most of them are smaller now
I bet it's also cause sets are more focused on detail and architecture over being fun to play with. I know when I was a kid, I didn't care if it was ugly so long as it was fun, but now they're trying to appeal to older fans as well and building techniques have only gotten more advanced as time has gone by
Finally, someone who agrees with my personal take. Space Police 3 and Agents (especially Agents) are my favourite things to ever come out of Lego. Another theme I feel impacted this generation was also Mars Mission. But that was 2007. Anyway, amazing video :)
Power Miners as I mentioned, was my go to theme. I am thinking as soon as I get a couple of my high ticket sets sold I am going to 100 percent it. I only need 6 sets I believe and I will basically own everything from the collection. I own a lot of agents sets and SPC III, i am only missing 2 at this moment from both.
Another theme that I think would be amazing if rebooted with the modern building techniques and pieces is Exo-Force. It introduced some parts that still get used in sets today and with how some of their modern mechs and vehicles have turned out, I think it could go far.
I was born 1999 so when I was old enough to get obsessed with Lego lots of these sets were in their end faze and I only got my hands on one or two from each theme. I loved Atlantis and was obsessed with the Egypt theme (forgot the name) until it retired after it’s one and only wave. Fell in love with ninjago and to this day still pick up a set or two from each wave. How the time flies.
@@NeoTher_ I never had any of those sets, but yes, Pharaoh's Quest was awesome. Lego needs to make more themes like that, in the same vein as Around the world in 80 days. Just a random bunch of people travelling the world, ending up in random adventures. There was Lego Adventures, but I was born in 2003 so I was too late for that.
Bionicle was my all time favorite toy and comic growing up since kindergarten, but these titles presented in this video were my middle school years. Such nostalgia. Gave me more appreciation for my parents that got me these toys
Galaxy Squad was the theme that my brothers and I played the most. We each had our own colored set and we flew around and shot the alien bugs. Those sets were pretty playable. Good times
Mars mission was such an awesome theme, it got its own RTS game on flash. Also just remembered that German BF-109 aircraft are officially obtainable through lego by getting the fighter plane chase set from Indiana Jones.
Mars Mission was great! I loved Life on Mars since it was from before my time and it was so quirky, so Mars Mission really hit me where I wanted it. And the color scheme was just amazing! Just thinking back to how my brother and next door neighbor and I would be playing in my garage with all these elaborate schemes and plots.
you can actually still play this game on crystalien redux, ive played it recently, and i completely forgot how good it was. they have all the cheat codes listed for the hidden levels too
I didn't mind the switch to grey suits for the power miners since the whole plot was that they started to adventure deeper underground and needed more protection. And the fact that all of this was explained in the catalogues made it pretty straight forward for me.
I remember being 7 years old every payday after my dad got home from work he would bring me a new Lego set, just sitting on the living room floor building legos, not worrying about anything, good times
Your video seriously brought me to tears. It reminded me of the great times where I as a kid was really excited about building lego and creating my own stories with these characters. I hope more people will talk about issues with the recently realeased themes and hopefully Lego will respond with a great new themes that would be at least half as exciting.
I just realized I didn’t have one, but two Powerminer sets at home. My brother and I were very picky with our Lego sets and bought them rarely, that just goes to show how great the Powerminer sets were, I guess even as kids we knew.
Two months ago I started collecting Power Miners sets, these have been my first lego purchases in over a decade, and I'm so happy I picked this theme, the nostalgia is incredible.
It’s a shame a lot of the powerminers sets have increased in value. About three years ago it was still a forgotten theme, I’ll never forget getting a sealed Titanium command rig in good condition for only about $150
I was so lucky to be born in 2003. I still have my Lego power miner sets, bionics, agents and Atlantis it’s still my favourite themes today. It sucks that they discontinued them and just settled for already existing IPs. For a company focused on creativity, they really don’t want to make new themes…
Me too! 🙌🏻 I missed the old Lego Nostalgic sets (Lego Agents, Space Police, Power Miners, Atlantis, etc.). I remember I’ve been wanting Lego Agents sets back in 2009 - 2010 since I was a little boy. 😎🥹
Damn this was the best year for LEGO. I’ve just recently started recollecting my old space police sets. Not only that but even themes like pirates, castle and even city seemed so much better than what’s been put out in the last few years. I even loved the LEGO board games they made!
Every now and then LEGO comes out with a god tier LEGO set, last year my favorite set was Barracuda Bay. It sits very proximately on an floating shelf above my Death Star. One of the best sets of 2020-2021
I wanted to quickly put this out here, cause I feel like I have to tell someone. I’m an amateur writer, been working on my comic since 2012. Over the last few months I’ve slowly started to notice just how much of my stories/ idea can be traced back to these Lego themes. It’s kinda poetic. Lego inspired kids to create and that eventually lead me to create something that I can call my own. I honestly owe everything to Lego, from my childhood, my passion for storytelling, and why my wallet is alway so light. Fantastic video by the way!
Phenomenal video man! 2008 and 2009 were honestly peak Lego for me. I have so much nostalgia for these themes, and I wish Lego would continue to do new and original themes consistently, even if they did only run for 2-3 waves.
I feel like the emerging decade from 2010 the early years were definitely still capturing that same magic, but once they killed off the other original themes for Ninjago it just kinda has been frozen in time since.
@@BrickFleet I think thats our culture in general; before we had changing interests and original ideas, but now we're just watching the same movies and franchises over&over or rewatching older movies....
Man, I remember all of these when I was a kid. Never had any of the Space Police or Agents sets, but I did have a couple of the Power Miners & Atlantis sets, I loved them so much, espcially that drill, it was so much fun to push it & watch it drill.
Robot Chronicles was SO good. Bringing all of the Lego themes together in one big game was just such a blast, it really set my imagination on fire as a kid
At 3:48, you mentioned how you don’t think we’ve seen a theme clash since agents, but that’s actually not true. Atlantis, Aquaraiders, Power Miners, Pharaoh’s Quest, and Alien Conquest all exist in the same universe. In addition Monster fighters, Galaxy Squad, and Ultra agents also all exist in the same universe. These are all proven through various named minifigures in sets in addition to comics in Lego club magazines, specifically the November 2011 US edition.
As someone who also holds nostalgic value to 2008-2009 lego, this is amazing to see. I grew up with these sets, nothing nowadays captures the vibe as it was back in the days. Keep on the good work🤘🏻
Great video! I forgot about these sets till you made this video! Oh how things have changed… not just with Lego.. but I kinda imagine most kids nowadays are probably just playing video games or on cell phones. When I was a kid it was action figures, Lego, outside or tv shows. I was a mid 2000’s kid born 97. I often wonder if kids nowadays are having as much fun as we were back then because there was soo many more options, specially with Lego, action figures, blockbuster and renting movies every Friday, playing in the play places at McDonald’s or Burger King, new kids tv shows 24/7 like SpongeBob, teen titans, batman, Ben 10, Johnny test, video games were peaking but not everyone was a “gamer” so all of my friends had the biggest videa game( on the game cube, xbox and xbox 360). How times have changed
I feel like an honorable mention during the Agents segment would have been "Alpha Team" - its very much its spiritual predecessor. Really satisfied with you mentioning the previous Rock Raiders and Aqua Raiders (missing Aquazone tho, very iconic color schemes and first underwater base afaik)
I really badly want a reboot of Orient Expedition. Just imagining the locales they could turn into sets now makes my mouth drool, plus, with the Indiana Jones franchise on hiatus again, I think it would perfectly fill the void left behind
I'm so happy you brought these themes up. I loved so many of these unique themes and looking at lego now theres a lack of original themes. I wish lego would give bionicle a third reboot. I feel like they will once all the kids from the early 2000's are adults and have disposable income.
I feel like there was supposed to be an ideas vote or something for a new set, was it castle that won? I made a prediction a long time ago that the castle theme would win and I guess I was right. They never officially followed up with the results tho so I am just guessing.
Begin born in 06, i didnt had the chance to cop some agents or power miners sets. But oh gosh i remember begin me, 6 years old, craving un front of videos of those theme. They are part of my childhood even tho i never had the chance to experience it.
I got my first lego set in 2009, though it was a brick box. By the time I got my next one it was 2012, and I knew basically nothing because I was so young. It wasn't until 2 years ago that I found out about all these super cool old themes when learning about Bionicle G1. These are really cool, even if the sets aren't to my taste, I can appreciate that they existed.
Bionicle is in a league of its own in terms of the history of how it came to be and even as detailed as it’s part portfolio which is NEARLY 100 percent retired parts we don’t get anymore.
LEGO themes used to have just so much more creativity and charm than they do now. The years they struggled the most financially are probably my favorite content wise. Back then I couldn't flip more than a few pages though their catalog at a time without finding a set I wanted. Nowadays I rarely find a set I really want. It's all remakes of remakes, bloated designs like Ninjago and of course a boatload of licensed content. I mainly just buy "LEGO ideas" sets now that were designed by fans.
I have no regrets with this 2009 being the year I got into LEGO. I still look back fondly on all the sets I got back in those days. Bionicle, Space Police III, Power Miners, Atlantis, and Agents are still some of my personal favorite themes of all time, although the latter two were started in 2008 and 2010, respectively.
Did you mean Aqua Raiders? I always saw Atlantis as being a nod to Aqua Raiders which was the first LEGO theme I really got into. Regardless, great video! Couldn't agree more that this was a golden age of LEGO.
Watching this gave me such a huge nostalgia hit, I remember seeing these sets in the stores and wanting all of them and now still find all of them incredibly cool. The ones I had I absolutely loved, I do kind of wish they brought these back.
We actually have seen a bit of theme clash since that cool agents one! (Which I didn’t even know about until I saw this video lol). Ninjago and Nexo knights both have numerous references to Chima in them. With Ninjago and Chima having a full on (though brief) cross over in the Ninjago Season 5 finale. And Nexo Knights having some brief, holographic appearances of Eris and the lion temple.
I didnt know that! Glad to hear we have had more of those happen since. Although sadly nexo and chima aren’t very much recent anymore and are starting to play into nostalgia factor already. Crazy how fast lego themes come and go
I didn’t know it at the time but I’m glad I grew up in this Golden Age of Lego: Clone Wars, Hero Factory, early Ninjago, Space Police, Atlantis, and early Batman. Then I got to play all those Lego games on their old website and watch their brand new shows on TV. Even though I haven’t bought a Lego in 5 years, I got to keep the memories they gave me. Thank you Lego.
in my opinion what makes lego so depressing today is that it's entirely licensed themes. ninjago is the ONLY original theme they have. the rest is movies and stuff. the lego soul is gone. agents is my favorite theme of all time and i still remember every villain and agent and even what their jobs were. kids today can't really have that outside ninjago and i guess friends. the rest is IPs
As much as I enjoy LEGO Star Wars, as soon as I cracked open a non-star wars set I always realize how much we get shorted from the classic LEGO experience.
2009 was the year when I enjoyed lego the most, I was 10 years old and I bought whole lotta sets of Space police, Powerminers and Atlantis. So nostalgic that I still sometimes search up reviews on those lego sets... Thanks a lot for featuring and reminding good old days, keeping up your good works.
Wow i completely forgot about all of those themes. I had sets from all of the themes as a kid, this video made me so nostalgic. It reminded me of the old Lego games website where they had mini games based on the sets. This video was awesome man.
The original themes and ideas lego made such as Agents, power miners, Space Police, galaxy squad, monster fighters, Atlantis and alien conquest were hands down the best. My younger brother and I used to always make up storylines for each of the themes and it would make it so much fun to play with whereas the licensed stuff like Lego LOTR, Star Wars, Harry Potter and Avengers were still fun but more difficult to create a storyline about as they were already based on pre existing storylines.
This brings back so many memories. I used to love those sets. Can’t forget lego castle, marsmission, and aquaraiders! Lego batman and starwars peaked at that time too imo.
That agents truck was a massive part of my childhood. I used it for ny clones, then when it broke apart cannibalized the projector to make a medbay that lit up and the chassis to build a tank. Remember loving every minute of it
God that Agent truck was the best thing that happened to me at 10 years old on christmas. I never relived that joy tbh A line that I also find criminally underrated is Aqua Raiders
Not gonna lie I really do like 2009 Lego but you gotta admit, 2007 With Castle, Dino Attack, Aqua Raiders and Mars Mission was incredible; I wholesomely agree that Lego is slowly drifting away completely from original titles and it's very disappointing. The 2000s in general saw the last great home name brands from Lego, now it's just all sponsorship brands, not much originality.
I agree, I believe I have some bias that sides me towards my childhood era of LEGO but I believe even in the scope of this video, Castle, Mars Mission, and several of the other themes you mentioned are just as daring and innovative as my favorite four. Perhaps in another video I can go more in-depth about years prior as they were probably just as strong as 2009-2012 :)
That intro . . . This was my childhood. 2008-2012 is definitely where Lego peaked back when they still made Original themes with their own story and Characters with Combi Models. And it's certainly no coincidence that a bunch of the same designee worked on multiple and sometimes all of these themes and even went on to take part in the first 3 years of Lego's longest running themes like Ninjago and Hero Factory. As well as being a part of the design of a few sets from future themes like Galaxy Squad, Legends of Chima, and Ultra Agents which tried to harken back to those series they drew inspiration from and to relatively good success as well. I just wish that just like what you said, they didn't make a bunch of themes for 2 or three waves before they failed to meet sales or they were just silently canned. We even saw this most recently with the Vidiyo theme which would've been perfect it they just made it a regular Original IP, didn't have ANY relationship to copyright music or a social media app and just had more focus on actual sets that accompanied the ABSOLUTELY AMAZING MINIFIGURES which we will probably never see the level if boldness and daring ambition ever again lest they make something along the lines of Chima or Hidden Side ever again. But yeah, especially after Hero Factory which will always be my all time favorite thing to have ever come from Lego and arguably their best since the Original source theme it was based on sadly went out with disappointing final wave, Ninjago is the only Lego theme that's not City, Creator, or something else they HAVE to have left from my childhood that's still kept on spinning after all these years. And I don't think I'll ever truly be able to grow up from that.
I was just old enough to really get into Mars Mission but young enough to still enjoy the first few seasons/waves of Ninjago. That whole wave of original themes from 2007-2015~ is still so nostalgic to me. Thanks for the throwback
WOAH, Man just hit me in the nostalgia spot, I almost forgot about the Agents flash games. Even tho, I just got 5 or 6 sets in total for these themes, I was enjoying my childhood. Thanks for making me remember.
Bionics slapped hard, and I was sooo sad when they decided to cancel Bionicle, as Bionicle was what I played with a lot as a Kid, mainly Because I used to always build Star Wars guns, to IRL AK-47, and can't forget the M4A1.
I love Lego Agents as a kid. It was my favourite theme for a long time and I love how diverse the villains are while still looking like they were clearly in the same faction.
When I was a little Cub Scout, I was selling popcorn, and after a very long day of fundraising, my mom rewarded me with the Lego Atlantis Neptune's Carrier submarine. That was one of, if not, the coolest Lego sets I have ever owned. I got so much nostalgia from watching this video.
2009 marked my first ever Lego set at 4 years old. It was the Lego Pirates Kraken Attackin, and I still have the same set that I bought on eBay a few years back. Pirates will always hold a special place in my heart for that.
It’s sad that these older theme’s aren’t around anymore but i’m also kinda happy that they weren’t stretched out like how some certain shows and themes are nowadays. Short lived but never forgotten > long lived but milked to death
16 seconds in and after seeing the thumbnail, age old memories are abruptly awakened inside of me. I wanted that fucking blue bigass Agents truck so bad, it was my dream set. Speaking of dreams, i had a fucking dream that I got the truck Lego, and let me say it was a lovely dream. I loved the Agents franchise so so much, and i was blessed to have at three Agents sets. I need this video. 2009 was a grand Lego year for me. (Also, how about that nostalgia synthwave music?)
I disagree with one small point. Lego has never been about creativity. They hide behind that narrative but in reality they’ve always been about rapid production to maximise profits!
I absolutely agree! All these themes are so great. I really miss these days when Lego focused on their original themes much more. I'm also very nostalgic to 2011-2012 themes like Pharaoh's Quest, Dino, Monster Fighters and Alien Conquest, but this era (2009) is just SO GOOD! Space Police is my personal favorite, but all these themes are just AMAZING! 🥹❤️
One of the best memories of my childhood was when y parents took me to Legoland in California, about 6 months before Mars Mission came out I got to see their Mars Mission exhibits being built at the park!
i was younger when agents, paper miners, space police, and atlantis came out but my god every memory i have with lego was those themes. mostly from my brother buying them and me playing with them
*Sigh* after careful review, I noticed a slight error with this video. There is a portion of the first segment that the "Agents" title card is missing. I am not sure why this happened as it is there on my timeline. I'll be sure to double check this next time I upload.
Thanks,
-Alan
Another small error, you kept saying aqua zone/aquanaut, but the skeleton in atlantis is actually an Aqua Raider from the second wave of sets bearing the name.
Ok ok not to mag but except for the translucent part of the power miners section (and the likg green and orange) you just described rock raiders 😂
dw bout it small blunder , keep up the great content moe
@@randombrickfilms1253 yeah.
I didn't even notice.
I like how for lego agents they just straight up said screw it and gave em guns in a 21st century setting
Yeah!!! I should’ve mentioned this. But it seems like LEGO has finally completely moved away from the mentality that traditional violence is bad for kids.
There was a time when LEGO refused to even create gray bricks… like? So kids couldn’t make tanks out of their castle sets… Star Wars at first completely changed that. And I guess that opened more room for them to make themes like agents.
"fuck it, give em some guns."
"But aren't guns bad for kids?"
"NEWS FLASH JERRY, NOBODY CARES ANYMORE!"
Old lego agents had guns too, just not as commonly as the ultra agents did.
@@BrickFleet people also forget about the Lone Ranger theme and they had battlepack union soldiers with traditional Lego rifles. I thought that was the coolest thing. Hell the Roman figures in the figure packs made me so content with the idea that this could imply historical themes. While I get history is also filled with dark matter, kids at that age are more about the glamor of the knights and their fabled chivalry. I mean we have Lego Knights already. All I’m saying is Lego should make a history theme. Every two years the theme is different but within the banner. I just want Lego Romans. I bought so many of the figure packs just to enjoy them.
@@stefannotchev7209 I remember guns gave so much fun when I played like two mont- I mean when I was younger.
Lego Exo-Force, Agents, Power Miners, Atlantis, Space Police was my entire childhood. I miss those times man, the sets were so innovative and cool. So many hours playing with friends and imagining story lines
Exo force had some ugly faces, but the theme is cool on the whole
Exo force was the shit I was so mad when they disappeared on me
EXOFORCE
I don’t understand why they got rid of it all? And it’s so expensive now
Original concepts and designs side edit. I had the ExoForce giant base. Big orange Gate one.
I think the a big reason why Ninjago succeeded where the others failed is because it had a TV show. It became Gen Z’s TMNT in a way. Even outside lego fans it’s nostalgic as you’ll see “long before time had a name” pop up in non-lego memes every now and then. It clearly connected in a way the others failed to and that’s probably because you had a multi season show allowing actual characterization and development.
I think you’re on to something about how memeable ninjago is. It’s not that I necessarily don’t like ninjago as a theme, but I feel like there’s something new that could take it’s place soon perhaps.
Boo, Ninjago.
I've never been into ninjago. Never got the appeal. I always felt like it was a theme marketed towards 6 year olds, shoot for the longest time it seemed like their main goal was to be a beyblade ripoff. Lots of the newer sets are really cool though, but now they just feel like sets for a tv show I've never seen and not it's own standalone theme
@@BrickFleet I get what you’re saying. Me personally I’m very nostalgic for those first 2 or 3 years of the theme but idk what it’s really done since. Definitely is time for new original themes
@@BrickFleet yeah. I think it went on for wayyy too long and should have ended around skybound. I preferred nexo knights.
Mid 2000s early 2010s really were the golden years of Lego. At least to me. So many good original themes like Atlantis, Space Police, Agents, Power Miners, Pharaohs Quest, early Ninjago, Monster Fighters, and Exo Force. Along with great licensed themes like SpongeBob, Indiana Jones, and of course Star Wars. What I would give to see some of these themes revived today
I thought of hidden side as a sort of successor to monster fighters. I quite liked some of those, but didn't have any money at the time. However it was really missing that dark classic monster movie aesthetic that monster fighters captured perfectly.
For me the peak was 1998 to 2008. Bionicle, mastermind, johnny thunder, rock raiders, the return of Castle with fantasy elements, OG Star wars, Mars Mission. Bionicles was total peak.
@@Peglegkickboxer1978-2003 were the golden years. Quality has gone downhill since.
@@Peglegkickboxerwtf is lego mastermind supposed to be?
+ bionicle
Agreed 100%, I’m so tired of licensed themes
I only really ever justify purchasing LEGO Star Wars as my licensed theme or occasionally Iron Man sets, but even then it's starting to all feel the same. I am glad LEGO released a large castle set and I fully intend on purchasing one in the future.
I miss the original lego themes that appeared every year. It made it exciting when the new year came because you knew lego would have something completely different come out.
I'm also tired of basically having one original theme outside of city and Friends choking out every other possible original theme.
even the licensed themes were better back then
not to mention how fkcn expensive the licensed themes are. i miss all the old shit that was so good.
This video pointed out something I’ve been feeling for a while now but could never really express. I’m in my mid 20s now and as a kid there was nothing better than inventing stories and scenes for those original lines, or even mixing them together to create your own world. I went to a target recently and looked at the legos there and the entire aisle was Star Wars, Harry potty, marvel, and Minecraft.
I don't get why is that bad...
When I was younger I was also investing stories with Lego ... And it was licensed.
Harry potty lol
Honestly I would be disappointed if Minecraft didn't try to have a relationship with Lego. The rest of it is getting old though.
This truely was the golden age of LEGO. Store shelves weren't yet oversaturated with too many liscensed themes and there were plenty of original ones too. The builds were detailed, but not dramatically, lots of play features... Ah nostalgia!
And they didnt cost an arm and a leg lol
@@joshuasatterwhite9520 they always costed an arm and a leg.
@@lasarousi my mom says otherwise and she been buying it since I was a kid 😭
I don't think there has ever been a time where Lego hasn't cost an arm and a leg.
I miss Mars Mission the most. I was totally addicted to that rather simple browser game, but mostly the sets themselves were so much fun to play with, and almost all of them were wonderfully designed. Sadly, I had only few of their last generation Mars Mission sets.
I absolutely loved the design of the mars mission sets. They were super unique! Miss that theme so much
Yeah, surprisingly mars mission sets were on eof the few legos from my childhood that mostly stayed together because I loved their base design the most instead of trying to modify them. Also I'm pretty sure that flash game got me addicted to RTS games 😅
@@goatbeard6857 lol me too. In case you don't know it, Sins of a Solar Empire is a great RTS. It's getting a sequel (SoaSE II) and it's looking pretty good so far. It's in early access, but perfectly stable, it's just getting more features. It's not just a remake, but becoming a true successor.
Mars Mission and Adventurers were absolutely my jam as a kid
That Mars Mission RTS game actually has a remake now!
the thing with ninjago is that it was originally just as unique as these other themes. the ninjas fighting skeletons and then snakes and so on was cool at first. the problem is that it's the only original theme that they still make. if they at least made other themes that were just as creative as the ones mentioned then ninjago being used so much wouldn't be a huge problem.
That really is the issue. LEGO was prevalent in making original, exciting, fun themes in the past, and to this day they have an extensive supply of original themes that are well-loved, and deeply-missed.
Space Police, Blacktron, Futuron, Spyrius, M-Tron, Exploriens,Insectoids, UFO, Ice Planet, Johnny Thunder/Adventurers, Alpha Team, Drome, Rock Raiders, EXO-Force, Aquazone, Aqua Raiders, Atlantis, Power Miners, Agents, the list just goes on.
So many amazing themes, so much fun potential, and yet we don't see any of it, anymore... LEGO feels like it's abandoned originality and playability as we see just licenses and sets that are overly-complicated to build, yet get boring after just a couple of hours.
I had the entire Aqua Raiders line as a kid, I was lucky to get every set at once for Christmas as my only gifts that year, and I couldn't have wanted more. I kept them all in a blue tote (and still have that tote, albeit now it's full of MEGABLOKS), and every day when I had free time I pulled the sets out and built a new story with them. I made custom sea vessels and vehicles, upgraded the base, created monstrosities out of the sea creature parts, and just had a blast. If I were given that same fortune with things from LEGO today in their place, I legitimately think I'd get tired of them. Modern LEGO just isn't fun, anymore, and the creativity is gone. There are too many small parts you can't build much with used in sets leading to alt builds being very limited, and almost no play features aside for stud launchers, which just aren't fun for a kid when they fire a projectile they can't fine later as opposed to a huge black missile.
I have no clue if I'm in the minority or not, but I only ever get sets from the 2000's and backwards, because things from that time just felt so much more engaging and focused-on-fun. Now, it feels like padding sets with detail making them more expensive while decreasing play value with no features, or just making huge display sets that do nothing but gather dust. It feels so soulless compared to the past, and it's depressing to see.
I used to love the lego ninjago series. I’d watch it like every day and I had a lot of the sets. I think lego messed up by making the lego ninjago movie, or at least changing the ninjago sets to have the same design as in the movie. This was confusing as now you didn’t really know if the old story continued and if the characters really were the same. Were they like in the old series or like in the movie? Lego (i assume) realized they made a mistake and ended the series and just made some kind of lego ninjago legacy thing that was just sets that were remakes of old sets. Now there have been rumors for a new lego ninjago series in 2023 but I don’t think I’ll watch it. The nostalgia feel is gone and I am still angry at lego for that.
didn't look unique to me since Exoforce came before Ninjago which was pretty similar asian themed stuff I just couldn't find interest in
@@qinn1996
The themes are different despite having similarities here and there. EXO-Force had a very specific design aesthetic with their mechs often having thin upper arms and legs that thickened out to a bell bottom-esque design, and always had a windowed cockpit on the torso. The remake of the Thunder Raider I feel is the closest to EXO-Force Ninjago has come, but otherwise the designs are very oriental and samurai-like in their design language, and these days they even have heads which EXO-Force never did. They were mechs first and foremost, never full-blown giant/super robots.
This of course isn't me trying to convince you to like either series, you're free to like and dislike what ever you wish, I just wanted to explain the differentiation between them that does make them different in their overall design aesthetics.
Overall, I find EXO-Force's design aesthetic more appealing, personally, they just needed to be built more structurally-sound.
@LookedSpy637 that isn’t what happened to ninjago. Ninjago had its classic designs for the first 7 seasons of the show and then when the movie came out and changed the designs, the 8th season of the show changed the classic designs to the movie designs. They characters were the exact same, the only thing that changed was the designs. And no, the show did not end after that. The original ninjago saga ended in 2022 with its 15th season.
They weren't overpriced and the sets were way cooler so they were actually worth the money. The last time I bought a Lego set, I put it together and just stared at it wondering why I spent so much money for something so small
Right?? I see sets that are just reissues of my childhood 2000's sets and they cost double or even triple!
@@charlottesimss9853 ugh ikr
Before they had the largest monopoly on earth
@@charlottesimss9853inflation
The skeleton diver in the atlantis set is actually a nod to aqua raiders, which was the last underwater theme before atlantis where the divers were all fighting big sea monsters
What if Lego Aqua Raiders was a prequel to Lego Atlantis? I mean it would make sense
@@NelsonLopez-ni8nd that was kind if the implication, that the Aqua Raiders stirred up something they weren't prepared for and at least some of them were killed.
As far as I remember, Aqua Raiders was just undersea treasure hunters, but I was barely more than a toddler at the time so I don't really remember the theme super well.
@@aliciagrayson4203 I remember getting like 1 aqua raider set with the mad spear gun looking things and underwater treasure I must've been like 6/7
I am extremely nostalgic here, but 2006-2012 was peak LEGO for me. Dino Attack, Power Miners, peak Bionicle, Aqua Raiders, Atlantis, Hero Factory, early Ninjago (do still love the show to this day), peak City, Alien Conquest, Space Police 3, Monster Hunters, there are MANY I'm forgetting. But for me, this was my personal peak of LEGO.
And, might I add, the LEGO website was so much better back then. The games were captivating for HOURS. I don't know what it's like today, but I feel like it's not at the same level but I would love to be wrong.
Personally, I believed the mid to late 2000s is when lego peaked. The original Batman sets, Indiana Jones, Agents, Clone Wars, Space Police, Pirates, Castle, Power Miners, Atlantis, and Mars Mission. I was unfortunate enough to get into lego in late 2009, as most of those themes were dying off. I definitely wish I would’ve gotten the chance to get those sets, because they are some of my favorite sets of all time.
TCW went so hard
We need more Power Miners dude
Mars mission was killer
Toooooooooottalllyyyyyyy agree !!! 2003-2007 were for me just the best toys EVER made on planet earth
I just want Pirates and/or the Castle (the more fantasy one with dwarves orcs etc)themes to come pack
Funny, I always say 2008 is where Lego peaked because it had Castle, Mars Mission, Agents, a really good Star Wars wave, and Indiana Jones. 2009 is obviously so close, and had these magnificent themes. Great video!
I say Lego peaked 08 to 10
I loved power miners because the sets made you focus on the environment rather than the set itself. Like I remember setting up pillows like caves and deposits of legos around bends, they just encouraged me to be creative and it made me so fond of them.
I used to build pillow forts around my Mars Mission sets as a kid to simulate being inside a futuristic base 😂
We also got the Glatorian BIONICLE sets, which were all lots of fun. Malum and Skrall were real fun, and we got the Skopio tank in the latter half which was one of the coolest vehicle sets of the franchise. I'd love to see a system take on BIONICLE; whether that be playsets like the majority of the line or action figures like the Marvel ones that came out recently.
Oh yes, Power Miners is by far my favorite theme! The bold colors and the potential of it was soooooo good... Hoping they'll make a tribute set like they did the classic spaceship, I'd be all over that! Interesting, it seems bold colors and ideas are disappearing in the world at large... We need a fresh injection of beauty and creativity in many areas of life
I agree, hoping we get an IDEAS set of the sort or possibly LEGO just coming out with their own remake/remaster of an older set.
@@BrickFleet For a remake, I'd love a recreation of Titanium Command Rig. A set like that would have to have a lot of play features.
@@Abegilr_Dragonrider or possibly a purple rock monster
Thank you so much. I loved the video. So much nostalgia. Greetings from Bavaria, Germany.
Glad you enjoyed it! I have more content in the works, I am a college student and working... So things can feel quite unstable haha. I appreciate the donation too!
Another thing is with most LEGO sets nowadays compared to the late 2000's to early 2010's was the playability, Like Most themes only include like 1 part of playability which is either an opening rear door, or just "hooheehaa opening wings" to some sort of jet. I think the reason why most LEGO sets don't have that much playability as they did back then was probably because of how most of them are smaller now
I bet it's also cause sets are more focused on detail and architecture over being fun to play with. I know when I was a kid, I didn't care if it was ugly so long as it was fun, but now they're trying to appeal to older fans as well and building techniques have only gotten more advanced as time has gone by
2009 was also the year where we saw the most awe inspiring moment in any LEGO theme: Mata Nui's awakening
Finally, someone who agrees with my personal take. Space Police 3 and Agents (especially Agents) are my favourite things to ever come out of Lego. Another theme I feel impacted this generation was also Mars Mission. But that was 2007. Anyway, amazing video :)
Power Miners as I mentioned, was my go to theme. I am thinking as soon as I get a couple of my high ticket sets sold I am going to 100 percent it. I only need 6 sets I believe and I will basically own everything from the collection. I own a lot of agents sets and SPC III, i am only missing 2 at this moment from both.
Mars mission was absolutely a top tier theme. The uniqueness of the sets and play features are nearly unmatched
@@esqueleto2252 Mars Mission was the GOAT
Mars mission is one of the best themes LEGO ever did
Another theme that I think would be amazing if rebooted with the modern building techniques and pieces is Exo-Force. It introduced some parts that still get used in sets today and with how some of their modern mechs and vehicles have turned out, I think it could go far.
This!
I was born 1999 so when I was old enough to get obsessed with Lego lots of these sets were in their end faze and I only got my hands on one or two from each theme. I loved Atlantis and was obsessed with the Egypt theme (forgot the name) until it retired after it’s one and only wave. Fell in love with ninjago and to this day still pick up a set or two from each wave. How the time flies.
Oh yeah I forgot about Pharaoh's Quest, it was so good!
@@NeoTher_ I never had any of those sets, but yes, Pharaoh's Quest was awesome. Lego needs to make more themes like that, in the same vein as Around the world in 80 days. Just a random bunch of people travelling the world, ending up in random adventures. There was Lego Adventures, but I was born in 2003 so I was too late for that.
@@Abegilr_Dragonrider Agreed.
Johnny Thunder?
That intro made me so happy, I felt like a kid again re-experiencing the magic that was these lego sets. Thank you
Bionicle was my all time favorite toy and comic growing up since kindergarten, but these titles presented in this video were my middle school years. Such nostalgia. Gave me more appreciation for my parents that got me these toys
Agreed. I feel like he could’ve touched on Bionicle having it’s peak in 2009 imo.
Galaxy Squad was the theme that my brothers and I played the most. We each had our own colored set and we flew around and shot the alien bugs. Those sets were pretty playable. Good times
Mars mission was such an awesome theme, it got its own RTS game on flash. Also just remembered that German BF-109 aircraft are officially obtainable through lego by getting the fighter plane chase set from Indiana Jones.
Mars Mission was great! I loved Life on Mars since it was from before my time and it was so quirky, so Mars Mission really hit me where I wanted it. And the color scheme was just amazing! Just thinking back to how my brother and next door neighbor and I would be playing in my garage with all these elaborate schemes and plots.
you can actually still play this game on crystalien redux, ive played it recently, and i completely forgot how good it was. they have all the cheat codes listed for the hidden levels too
I didn't mind the switch to grey suits for the power miners since the whole plot was that they started to adventure deeper underground and needed more protection. And the fact that all of this was explained in the catalogues made it pretty straight forward for me.
I remember being 7 years old every payday after my dad got home from work he would bring me a new Lego set, just sitting on the living room floor building legos, not worrying about anything, good times
Your video seriously brought me to tears. It reminded me of the great times where I as a kid was really excited about building lego and creating my own stories with these characters. I hope more people will talk about issues with the recently realeased themes and hopefully Lego will respond with a great new themes that would be at least half as exciting.
I just realized I didn’t have one, but two Powerminer sets at home. My brother and I were very picky with our Lego sets and bought them rarely, that just goes to show how great the Powerminer sets were, I guess even as kids we knew.
Two months ago I started collecting Power Miners sets, these have been my first lego purchases in over a decade, and I'm so happy I picked this theme, the nostalgia is incredible.
It’s a shame a lot of the powerminers sets have increased in value. About three years ago it was still a forgotten theme, I’ll never forget getting a sealed Titanium command rig in good condition for only about $150
I was so lucky to be born in 2003. I still have my Lego power miner sets, bionics, agents and Atlantis it’s still my favourite themes today.
It sucks that they discontinued them and just settled for already existing IPs. For a company focused on creativity, they really don’t want to make new themes…
Me too! 🙌🏻 I missed the old Lego Nostalgic sets (Lego Agents, Space Police, Power Miners, Atlantis, etc.). I remember I’ve been wanting Lego Agents sets back in 2009 - 2010 since I was a little boy. 😎🥹
Damn this was the best year for LEGO. I’ve just recently started recollecting my old space police sets. Not only that but even themes like pirates, castle and even city seemed so much better than what’s been put out in the last few years. I even loved the LEGO board games they made!
Every now and then LEGO comes out with a god tier LEGO set, last year my favorite set was Barracuda Bay. It sits very proximately on an floating shelf above my Death Star. One of the best sets of 2020-2021
Oh wow, this really was my favorite era of basically every theme
I wanted to quickly put this out here, cause I feel like I have to tell someone. I’m an amateur writer, been working on my comic since 2012. Over the last few months I’ve slowly started to notice just how much of my stories/ idea can be traced back to these Lego themes. It’s kinda poetic. Lego inspired kids to create and that eventually lead me to create something that I can call my own. I honestly owe everything to Lego, from my childhood, my passion for storytelling, and why my wallet is alway so light.
Fantastic video by the way!
Phenomenal video man! 2008 and 2009 were honestly peak Lego for me. I have so much nostalgia for these themes, and I wish Lego would continue to do new and original themes consistently, even if they did only run for 2-3 waves.
I feel like the emerging decade from 2010 the early years were definitely still capturing that same magic, but once they killed off the other original themes for Ninjago it just kinda has been frozen in time since.
@@BrickFleet I think thats our culture in general; before we had changing interests and original ideas, but now we're just watching the same movies and franchises over&over or rewatching older movies....
Oh yeah dude, that's my whole childhood right there.
This brings tears to my eyes guys. We gotta build a time machine guys
Man, I remember all of these when I was a kid.
Never had any of the Space Police or Agents sets, but I did have a couple of the Power Miners & Atlantis sets, I loved them so much, espcially that drill, it was so much fun to push it & watch it drill.
Robot Chronicles was SO good. Bringing all of the Lego themes together in one big game was just such a blast, it really set my imagination on fire as a kid
holy shit i TOTALLY forgot that existed!! I need to find an archive of the old flash games, theres so much I haven't thought about in 15 years
@@charlottesimss9853 There's an emulator called Flashpoint. That's what I use
At 3:48, you mentioned how you don’t think we’ve seen a theme clash since agents, but that’s actually not true. Atlantis, Aquaraiders, Power Miners, Pharaoh’s Quest, and Alien Conquest all exist in the same universe. In addition Monster fighters, Galaxy Squad, and Ultra agents also all exist in the same universe. These are all proven through various named minifigures in sets in addition to comics in Lego club magazines, specifically the November 2011 US edition.
As someone who also holds nostalgic value to 2008-2009 lego, this is amazing to see. I grew up with these sets, nothing nowadays captures the vibe as it was back in the days.
Keep on the good work🤘🏻
Great video! I forgot about these sets till you made this video! Oh how things have changed… not just with Lego.. but I kinda imagine most kids nowadays are probably just playing video games or on cell phones. When I was a kid it was action figures, Lego, outside or tv shows. I was a mid 2000’s kid born 97. I often wonder if kids nowadays are having as much fun as we were back then because there was soo many more options, specially with Lego, action figures, blockbuster and renting movies every Friday, playing in the play places at McDonald’s or Burger King, new kids tv shows 24/7 like SpongeBob, teen titans, batman, Ben 10, Johnny test, video games were peaking but not everyone was a “gamer” so all of my friends had the biggest videa game( on the game cube, xbox and xbox 360). How times have changed
I feel like an honorable mention during the Agents segment would have been "Alpha Team" - its very much its spiritual predecessor.
Really satisfied with you mentioning the previous Rock Raiders and Aqua Raiders (missing Aquazone tho, very iconic color schemes and first underwater base afaik)
I really badly want a reboot of Orient Expedition. Just imagining the locales they could turn into sets now makes my mouth drool, plus, with the Indiana Jones franchise on hiatus again, I think it would perfectly fill the void left behind
I'm so happy you brought these themes up. I loved so many of these unique themes and looking at lego now theres a lack of original themes. I wish lego would give bionicle a third reboot. I feel like they will once all the kids from the early 2000's are adults and have disposable income.
I feel like there was supposed to be an ideas vote or something for a new set, was it castle that won? I made a prediction a long time ago that the castle theme would win and I guess I was right. They never officially followed up with the results tho so I am just guessing.
BIONICLE Generation 1 just needs to come back, no more hard reboots.
@@BrickFleet BIONICLE actually won, but since people got mad they gave us Castle regardless.
The Space Police stop motions hyped me up so much when I was little. I remember the excitement waiting for a set I ordered to come in
THE NOSTALGIA. These are my favorite themes as well. (I also played those flash games for countless hours)
Begin born in 06, i didnt had the chance to cop some agents or power miners sets. But oh gosh i remember begin me, 6 years old, craving un front of videos of those theme. They are part of my childhood even tho i never had the chance to experience it.
I got my first lego set in 2009, though it was a brick box. By the time I got my next one it was 2012, and I knew basically nothing because I was so young. It wasn't until 2 years ago that I found out about all these super cool old themes when learning about Bionicle G1. These are really cool, even if the sets aren't to my taste, I can appreciate that they existed.
Bionicle is in a league of its own in terms of the history of how it came to be and even as detailed as it’s part portfolio which is NEARLY 100 percent retired parts we don’t get anymore.
LEGO themes used to have just so much more creativity and charm than they do now. The years they struggled the most financially are probably my favorite content wise. Back then I couldn't flip more than a few pages though their catalog at a time without finding a set I wanted. Nowadays I rarely find a set I really want. It's all remakes of remakes, bloated designs like Ninjago and of course a boatload of licensed content. I mainly just buy "LEGO ideas" sets now that were designed by fans.
I have no regrets with this 2009 being the year I got into LEGO. I still look back fondly on all the sets I got back in those days. Bionicle, Space Police III, Power Miners, Atlantis, and Agents are still some of my personal favorite themes of all time, although the latter two were started in 2008 and 2010, respectively.
Bro I miss the Hero Factory show and the character sets.
Did you mean Aqua Raiders? I always saw Atlantis as being a nod to Aqua Raiders which was the first LEGO theme I really got into. Regardless, great video! Couldn't agree more that this was a golden age of LEGO.
Yeah I did, my apologies. I was glancing over my reading and I just noticed. Thank you so much for the feedback!
Watching this gave me such a huge nostalgia hit, I remember seeing these sets in the stores and wanting all of them and now still find all of them incredibly cool.
The ones I had I absolutely loved, I do kind of wish they brought these back.
Power miners, space police and Atlantis was my Lego Era. To me they are the most goated and cherished sets of all time
Thank you for reminding me of this truly golden age of lego and a big part of my childhood memories I had completely forgotten about.
We actually have seen a bit of theme clash since that cool agents one! (Which I didn’t even know about until I saw this video lol). Ninjago and Nexo knights both have numerous references to Chima in them. With Ninjago and Chima having a full on (though brief) cross over in the Ninjago Season 5 finale. And Nexo Knights having some brief, holographic appearances of Eris and the lion temple.
I didnt know that! Glad to hear we have had more of those happen since. Although sadly nexo and chima aren’t very much recent anymore and are starting to play into nostalgia factor already. Crazy how fast lego themes come and go
Hi babe 👋👋👋
I didn’t know it at the time but I’m glad I grew up in this Golden Age of Lego: Clone Wars, Hero Factory, early Ninjago, Space Police, Atlantis, and early Batman. Then I got to play all those Lego games on their old website and watch their brand new shows on TV. Even though I haven’t bought a Lego in 5 years, I got to keep the memories they gave me. Thank you Lego.
in my opinion what makes lego so depressing today is that it's entirely licensed themes. ninjago is the ONLY original theme they have. the rest is movies and stuff. the lego soul is gone.
agents is my favorite theme of all time and i still remember every villain and agent and even what their jobs were. kids today can't really have that outside ninjago and i guess friends. the rest is IPs
As much as I enjoy LEGO Star Wars, as soon as I cracked open a non-star wars set I always realize how much we get shorted from the classic LEGO experience.
2009 was the year when I enjoyed lego the most, I was 10 years old and I bought whole lotta sets of Space police, Powerminers and Atlantis. So nostalgic that I still sometimes search up reviews on those lego sets... Thanks a lot for featuring and reminding good old days, keeping up your good works.
I feel like the title would work better if it was called "why lego peaked in 2009"
Bet, I’ll change it up!
@@BrickFleet what was the original title?
Wow i completely forgot about all of those themes. I had sets from all of the themes as a kid, this video made me so nostalgic. It reminded me of the old Lego games website where they had mini games based on the sets. This video was awesome man.
What’s the song at 9:00 please I’m losing my mind
The original themes and ideas lego made such as Agents, power miners, Space Police, galaxy squad, monster fighters, Atlantis and alien conquest were hands down the best. My younger brother and I used to always make up storylines for each of the themes and it would make it so much fun to play with whereas the licensed stuff like Lego LOTR, Star Wars, Harry Potter and Avengers were still fun but more difficult to create a storyline about as they were already based on pre existing storylines.
This brings back so many memories. I used to love those sets. Can’t forget lego castle, marsmission, and aquaraiders! Lego batman and starwars peaked at that time too imo.
bionicles, space police, and lego city were my fav as a kid in 2009
being 11 was dope as fuck
Hard facts
12:15 it's not just nostalgia, Lego has literally 4 original set lines.
So yeah
Personally as a bionicle fan lego peaked in 2007
Oh yeah, 2007 was the best Bionicle year, for sure. The Barraki were so damn cool!
Bro the agents, power miners, Atlantis and space police.... so nostalgic i still have a lot of these sets somewhere in my mix of legos
Bro forgot about Bionicle
That agents truck was a massive part of my childhood. I used it for ny clones, then when it broke apart cannibalized the projector to make a medbay that lit up and the chassis to build a tank. Remember loving every minute of it
Dino attack
God that Agent truck was the best thing that happened to me at 10 years old on christmas. I never relived that joy tbh
A line that I also find criminally underrated is Aqua Raiders
Not gonna lie I really do like 2009 Lego but you gotta admit, 2007 With Castle, Dino Attack, Aqua Raiders and Mars Mission was incredible; I wholesomely agree that Lego is slowly drifting away completely from original titles and it's very disappointing. The 2000s in general saw the last great home name brands from Lego, now it's just all sponsorship brands, not much originality.
I agree, I believe I have some bias that sides me towards my childhood era of LEGO but I believe even in the scope of this video, Castle, Mars Mission, and several of the other themes you mentioned are just as daring and innovative as my favorite four. Perhaps in another video I can go more in-depth about years prior as they were probably just as strong as 2009-2012 :)
That intro . . .
This was my childhood.
2008-2012 is definitely where Lego peaked back when they still made Original themes with their own story and Characters with Combi Models. And it's certainly no coincidence that a bunch of the same designee worked on multiple and sometimes all of these themes and even went on to take part in the first 3 years of Lego's longest running themes like Ninjago and Hero Factory. As well as being a part of the design of a few sets from future themes like Galaxy Squad, Legends of Chima, and Ultra Agents which tried to harken back to those series they drew inspiration from and to relatively good success as well. I just wish that just like what you said, they didn't make a bunch of themes for 2 or three waves before they failed to meet sales or they were just silently canned. We even saw this most recently with the Vidiyo theme which would've been perfect it they just made it a regular Original IP, didn't have ANY relationship to copyright music or a social media app and just had more focus on actual sets that accompanied the ABSOLUTELY AMAZING MINIFIGURES which we will probably never see the level if boldness and daring ambition ever again lest they make something along the lines of Chima or Hidden Side ever again.
But yeah, especially after Hero Factory which will always be my all time favorite thing to have ever come from Lego and arguably their best since the Original source theme it was based on sadly went out with disappointing final wave, Ninjago is the only Lego theme that's not City, Creator, or something else they HAVE to have left from my childhood that's still kept on spinning after all these years. And I don't think I'll ever truly be able to grow up from that.
I got that set 0:01
Lucky I remember wanting that lol
Bro I just recovers hidden memory’s from all of these sets wtf
I was just old enough to really get into Mars Mission but young enough to still enjoy the first few seasons/waves of Ninjago. That whole wave of original themes from 2007-2015~ is still so nostalgic to me. Thanks for the throwback
Agents, power miners, Castles, Atlantis, ninja go and hero factory were all so good. Nostalgia hits hard
WOAH,
Man just hit me in the nostalgia spot, I almost forgot about the Agents flash games.
Even tho, I just got 5 or 6 sets in total for these themes, I was enjoying my childhood.
Thanks for making me remember.
Ive been rediscovering my love for lego space police III
Honestly I remember 2009 so vividly, it was all so expressive
Bionics slapped hard, and I was sooo sad when they decided to cancel Bionicle, as Bionicle was what I played with a lot as a Kid, mainly Because I used to always build Star Wars guns, to IRL AK-47, and can't forget the M4A1.
I love Lego Agents as a kid. It was my favourite theme for a long time and I love how diverse the villains are while still looking like they were clearly in the same faction.
Bro you brought up so many memories with lego miners. i remember playing using lego miners sets during new years eve with all of my friends
Lego Atlantis and Power miners were just amazing. I remember getting the titanium command rig and the the shark. I still build them
When I was a little Cub Scout, I was selling popcorn, and after a very long day of fundraising, my mom rewarded me with the Lego Atlantis Neptune's Carrier submarine. That was one of, if not, the coolest Lego sets I have ever owned. I got so much nostalgia from watching this video.
2009 marked my first ever Lego set at 4 years old. It was the Lego Pirates Kraken Attackin, and I still have the same set that I bought on eBay a few years back. Pirates will always hold a special place in my heart for that.
Atlantis and power miners were and still are my favourite. Reminds me of when my grandpa used to always buy and help me build those sets :)
Space Police man, I never ended up getting any, but that stuff is so cool!
agents ultra also looked amazing with a more mature design.
I remember as a kid realizing that all these legos were just remakes of the sets from the 90s. I thought I had it all figured out lol 🧠
It’s sad that these older theme’s aren’t around anymore but i’m also kinda happy that they weren’t stretched out like how some certain shows and themes are nowadays. Short lived but never forgotten > long lived but milked to death
16 seconds in and after seeing the thumbnail, age old memories are abruptly awakened inside of me. I wanted that fucking blue bigass Agents truck so bad, it was my dream set. Speaking of dreams, i had a fucking dream that I got the truck Lego, and let me say it was a lovely dream. I loved the Agents franchise so so much, and i was blessed to have at three Agents sets. I need this video. 2009 was a grand Lego year for me.
(Also, how about that nostalgia synthwave music?)
I disagree with one small point. Lego has never been about creativity. They hide behind that narrative but in reality they’ve always been about rapid production to maximise profits!
I absolutely agree! All these themes are so great. I really miss these days when Lego focused on their original themes much more.
I'm also very nostalgic to 2011-2012 themes like Pharaoh's Quest, Dino, Monster Fighters and Alien Conquest, but this era (2009) is just SO GOOD!
Space Police is my personal favorite, but all these themes are just AMAZING! 🥹❤️
One of the best memories of my childhood was when y parents took me to Legoland in California, about 6 months before Mars Mission came out I got to see their Mars Mission exhibits being built at the park!
i was younger when agents, paper miners, space police, and atlantis came out but my god every memory i have with lego was those themes. mostly from my brother buying them and me playing with them