Has Vidiyo flopped already?

It may be too early to say, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if it was a major flop.

My answer is a resounding yes it has flopped

Not to be negative but let's be honest, we ALL knew it would flop in no time

@gabrisermig said:
"Not to be negative but let's be honest, we ALL knew it would flop in no time"

Indeed

Currently around €17 in NL.... waiting for a larger discount

In Hungary, beat boxes were on sale or were part of promotions from the beginning of store release.

First, a band mate was the GWP to beat boxes. Now, you get 3 beat boxes for the price of two.

Paid £12 for the hiphop box from Smyths and tbh kinda regret it. At £5 each then I'll buy the whole range of sets as I just want the figures and tiles.

To your question, yes I think VIDYIO is a flop, the fact everywhere has then at £12 is not a good look for the theme. Not seen these at my ASDA though if I did I would pick it up if they were £4.80.

The only success from the theme are the Bandmates but they are hard to find from my experience in store. Then again they are ruined by being in boxes.

Is it Lego?
I have no idea what it is. I’ve never been drawn to it with anything visual. In fact the visual side of it suggests it’s very much for young kids so being considerably older than that I’ve not even looked at it.
If it is for youngsters then it may struggle based on the fact kids want to feel and touch things before buying which unfortunately has been difficult of late for various lockdown reasons. Maybe this has had an impact.
It clutters up the VIP rewards page.

Can't flop in my country when you don't launch it here in the first place.

I'll only purchase the beatboxes once they reach a 90% discount because it actually seems possible.

In my local BigW (Woolworths) [Australia] the BeatBox sets have been reduced from $17 to $15, and there are no gaps on the shelves where they should have been sold. Also it looks like the Bandmakes are not selling, with evidence of one or two being pilfered (box torn and contents or part contents missing)!

In Slovenia 20% discount in the mall.

I've yet to see them onsale here in the US.

I can't tell if they don't sell at my local Target or if they just are good at replenishing the shelves.
I know boxes are better environmentally, but no one wants to pay $5 for a random figure. I only have most of the bandmates because someone broke open a whole box of them and i didn't care they were opened.

One of those ideas that sounds great in the boardroom methinks!!!

As I'm only supposed to be going to the supermarket (I usually shop in ASDA too), I haven't actually seen them on shelf.
I'd get a few at £4.80, just for the figs and odd parts, my local store is terrible for LEGO though.
It's a shame it's flopping, but I'm not in the least surprised.

Unfortunately I think it was a really flawed idea. It's a lesson LEGO has learned over and over again... stray too far from the basic concept and it doesn't make any sense.

No surprise if it would be a flop. Don't know about the situation here in Germany but I have never seen a box of it anywhere or a commercial on TV. Anything app-related is doomed to fail, imo. Lego should concentrate on creating good sets.

Something about that mermaid cover unnerves me, but then that goes for most of the line.

The question remains though, why would anyone buy Vidiyo when, for the same price, you can get way more physical value from sets in other themes? Who is going to buy a boxed blindbag when you can feel up the regular baggies and confirm their contents before buying? The boxes to me were simply an anti-consumer measure that has come to bite TLG in the backside here, and Vidiyo as a whole just doesn't offer anywhere near enough to justify the RRP.

And to think there is another wave to come! Not that I feel bad for LEGO, the profit margin on these will have been very, very healthy so massive discounts aren't the end of the world. I'd pick up the ice cream lad just for fun, but he's boxed so nah.

On clearance already at Kmart (Australia). It's a shame really, i was keen on a second wave for the minifigures.

It probably doesn't help that it auto corrects to "video" on any store website.

The two biggest problems I see with this is that no physical 'toy' stores are open. And launching a product is very hard without demo stations...and POS promotion. People in the UK ultimately can't travel to other areas, you're supposed to shop alone, I.e. without the kids and thus the market for this is limited... I wouldn't buy something for my son that he hadn't some interested in especially at such a high price point...

Secondly... Toys with additional applications, like Web apps and even games consoles versions like Dimensions used are quite niche...and can be short lived. The concept is good, but Lego is a ultimately a toy or to a lot of people a Collectable...and at this price point you get no value.

Lego bang out so many lines that ultimately every so often they are susceptible to becoming flops... I see these as being highly sought after on the secondary market before they get the chance to be retired.

As a Friends fan I have had much experience with the cubes of a similar size to these boxes, yet they cost half. I thought even the reduced price of €13 was too high. :/

I think it’s worth noting that many of the biggest retailers of LEGO in Ireland (Smyths, ArtnHobby, Argos) aren’t selling the Bandmates at all.

In Portugal I've seen some 20% off promotions on LEGO, but VIDIYO was not included, so the BeatBoxes have been at full RRP (19.99€) up to now. I haven't seen Bandmates for sale in regular stores. However, this is all online, since sale of toys physically has been suspended until this week due to COVID-19 restrictions.
But onlnie I see low to no interest on the theme.
I sensed, based on my view of the theme and on previous LEGO experiments with LEGO+apps, that it would flop, like Hidden Side did. I guess the ridiculous prices didn't help.

@mattval41 said:
"The two biggest problems I see with this is that no physical 'toy' stores are open. And launching a product is very hard without demo stations...and POS promotion. People in the UK ultimately can't travel to other areas, you're supposed to shop alone, I.e. without the kids and thus the market for this is limited... I wouldn't buy something for my son that he hadn't some interested in especially at such a high price point..."

I wonder if they are selling better over here (US) since it's a free-for-all. And that's why they're not going on sale.

As I have said before - retailers do NOT make any margin on discounted Lego in retail stores. We purchase Lego at set prices and set margins at full rrp. At 25% discount it is not really worth selling and at 33% discount we make a loss.
Also independent retailers in the UK have not had chance to sell ANY 2021 sets instore this year. Supermarkets have had all year to sell toys in their stores and are now discounting.
Cheers Asda!

Been lowered slightly where I live in Australia. I'm guessing they planned this, they aren't dumb. Have a high price to start with because people will buy them regardless and then lower it soon after.

no surprise... the target are younger kids that don't spend their own money

when kid wants some lego and the parent can either get them small car, or small set with the same money as this figure with some bits, they will go for the small set that has more value.

also parents like lego bc this is a toy to play w/o screens, and vidio only play is with screens. so big ups

I will just say this: 71 pieces, including the minifig parts...

Glad "LEGO Tiktok" flops and prices drop (even 50% off is too much for 1 minifigure and some tiles), but sad that the retailers have to pay the losses. We get enough CMF series this year, so both the timing and the idea was bad.
LEGO should stick to their main competence: analog toys. Even the Control+/PUp was a step in the wrong direction and the alternative brick market gains an advantage with RC controls and PF compatible stuff.

Everyone except Lego management knew from the beginning that this was going to flop badly. Parents are not buying Lego to have their kids play on the smartphone even more. The target audience (9yrs?) cannot be expected to have a smartphone already (and that's positive I would say).
That the apps are really bad and not working most of the time added to the insult.

Lego should fire the software team and put all the money into classic sets where kids can play as a police man, doctor, horse girl or whatever they would like to dream about. And this means sets with real houses and real cars and not these Potemkin villages they are selling today in the City line for example.

@IgelCampus said:
"That the apps are really bad and not working most of the time added to the insult.."
And that's if you have one of the like--4 compatible devices.
I couldn't even try it out for curiosity's sake.

They are fun, my son loves messing around with it BUT they are just soooooo overpriced for what you get. Even worse the fact that I bought two of the Beat Boxes and had three printed tiles that were the same just makes the whole thing feel like a giant cash grab. Surely the Beat Boxes, retailing for £18 each, would have exclusive printed tiles?

Great idea, poorly executed and ridiculously priced.

@IgelCampus said:
"...Potemkin villages they are selling today in the City line for example."

funny :-)

I hope so.. this whole Vidiyo thing feels like a concept from 10 years ago. Any decent parent would already have their doubts about letting their kids get even more addicted to their phones. It just seems like LEGO is trying to target an audience that is slowly getting more and more suppressed due to the awareness of screen time and mental/physical health.

Besides the cool figures, I hope the Vidiyo things fades quick. Also I hate that name /rant haha

To all the people who were adamant that AFOLs were being too negative about this theme and didnt know what we were talking about... well, there it is. Not like this is the first time this has happened.

Got them in Ireland for €12 each for my daughter. She loves the minifigures, boxes and tiles. The videos are fun but the app is difficult to manage. Great idea badly executed. The problem with it is that the age group don’t have their own device - so parents have to give their device and be beside child as they have the experience. You can’t share the video outside the app either to generate interest.

So, everyone is blaming LEGO for the weird idea that was bound to fail from the start and everything but wasn't that made in partnership with Universal ? I wonder how much input and say-so they had on the final product line ?
I'm not trying to deflect the blame, I honestly couldn't care less either way but I am curious how it happened. Kind of like the deal with Adidas or those Ninjago shirts. Which company do you think approaches the other because they think they have a killer product in mind ?

I’m circling to swipe the lot once they go on clearance-shouldn’t be too long since they aren’t moving a bit and keep being pressed to the ends of aisles next to the leftover trolls and shelf worn Disney dregs.

I was surprised to see a display in a medium sized supermarket.
I was NOT surprised reading people's complaints about the app not working on most devices (Hidden side flipper for the sane reason)
So, yes, Vidiyo was set to flop because of sky-high RRP, and app issues and covid restrictions didn't help either (not to mention Blind cardboard boxes replacing blind bags)

Don't take my word for it, but in my estimation at first glance, this theme has FLOP written all over it.
Flop! Flop! Flop! Just flop.

Said it when first announced that the 'App to interact with' model isn't the right way to go when it comes to Lego. Nexo Knights, Hidden Side, both also had app functions that were ultimately rarely used and both themes ended before their time. This was just another in the list of misguided attempts to expand play for a toy range that doesn't need it.

Quite aside from the boxes being overpriced, and the tiles being random, it made for sets that the majority of people couldn't justify collecting all of them as it'd be near impossible to get a complete set. And then when it was discovered you could just scan an image of the tile rather then the actual tile to load it into the app, that kinda sealed there was little point buying them other then for a specific figure.

One more thing being with the app that there were plenty of other free, and better, music creators tools out there. Any kid or adult out there that wanted them would probably already be using those instead over an app thats still buggy some time after launch by all accounts.

Really lego needs to learn its lesson that kids don't want to use a smart phone app to play with lego, they'd rather have a toy with more play functions built in, and that although there is a market for collectable figures, people want to be able to get them easily rather then wasting money on luck. Hence why these boxes are being ripped open and not bought and people will happily (at least before the pandemic) spend hours bag feeling to get a specific figure they don't have.

4.80 pounds is a decent price for these

In Finland, they are priced close to the normal retail price (25€) in most supermarkets and shelves still appear full. I found them this weekend at 10€ in a cheap department store (Karkkainen), which in my opinion is the fair price for those.

It's a pity because after testing the app with the 3 figures I grabbed this weekend, I think there is great potential. Unfortunately, this all goes to waste because of
* technical limitations of the app (can't even share the videos made with a family member or friend...)
* the app being unusable if you don't own a recent high-end smartphone
* a retail price completely disproportionate

I bought one set and a bandmate blind box for my 8 year old daughter, who thought she might like it based on the launch promotion material. She built the set fine, but she got very frustrated with the app and now the set is in the discarded pile in the corner of her playroom. She might get some more just for the figures, but sadly it's a no from us for the whole concept and app.

included - suspect, LEGO won’t persist to see what happens. Like almost all large businesses, LEGO probably believes that if you’re going to fail, do so quickly. So it could rush the next iteration of the app to market, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it killed Vidiyo before then.
]]

Vidiyo killed the Lego Star?

It was worth a try, I’m always interested in new things Lego do, and became a big Overwatch fan thanks to Lego bringing out the sets...

My 5 year old nephew liked it briefly, and we filmed a couple of videos which were fun to do, but it’s not a long term thing and he’s back to Ninjago and spaceships.

I like the figures, and the tiles are useful for custom modulars, might eventually do a record store.

I think Zoom/iPad fatigue and less people shopping and impulse buying has contributed - if indeed it’s struggling.

This is from a uk point of view due to the covid restrictions here but thanks to covid it couldn't really have a proper release. It needed demonstrations in the shops to explain how it works. If the Lego Stores had been open there could have a fun launch with people dressed up in costumes of the characters etc.
The only retailers allowed to open have been essential ones - supermarkets and general merchandise ones like B+M. If someone asked a staff member in Asda or B+M to explain what the toy does the staff wouldn't be able to explain it. They don't know anything about it. Lego Stores and Toy shops would have been able to do a much better launch.
Dots was launched just before the first lockdown happened here. The last couple of things I did before being stuck indoors for months was go to the launch day at Lego Store. It was fun and the staff were there to demonstrate and get excited. I also get a bunch of freebie Dots from a different toy shop. They had a really cool display.
Vidiyo needed a proper launch.

@davnnh said:
"Unfortunately I think it was a really flawed idea. It's a lesson LEGO has learned over and over again... stray too far from the basic concept and it doesn't make any sense."

It's a lesson they've been *taught* over and over again. Learning it never really seems to stick though.

Let's see...
Overpriced sets
Blind boxes that make it hard to avoid getting overpriced doubles
A clunky app that constantly needs to be updated
Very limited music selection
No way to do anything with the videos you make outside of the app

How could it fail?

We’ve paid retail for the four Beatboxes and the twelve Bandmates (lucky enough to grab a complete row from a newly-placed, untouched display) because we’ve seen no discount here in the States. I’m really waiting for Amazon to lower the price of the last two Beatboxes we need.

I have three kids—ages 7, 9, and 11 whom I love dearly but are quite honestly not too creative or smart around technology—and we’ve only had good experiences with the app. They love it, and I really enjoy it too.

My complaint is that with only two Beatboxes left to purchase we still need thirty (30!) Beatbits. I really hate that there is no way to get more Beatbits without purchasing duplicate Beatboxes or Bandmates.

@Rob42 said:
" @davnnh said:
"Unfortunately I think it was a really flawed idea. It's a lesson LEGO has learned over and over again... stray too far from the basic concept and it doesn't make any sense."

It's a lesson they've been *taught* over and over again. Learning it never really seems to stick though."

If history teaches us anything it's that history teaches us nothing...

Here in Ireland Smyths and Argos have them reduced from €20 to €14.50, Tesco does not have them (thank you lockdown).

I have all of these now - Amazon/Smyths for the Beat Boxes and then managed to get a box load of the Band Mates in my local B&M. What is frustrating is that I have all the minifigures, but only 86 of the 104 tiles. I should have been more careful opening the duplicates and only opened the bags inside if I needed the tiles. Lego need a Panini type of order system for the last ones you need.

I tried the App once with my son, but as the "music" is not for me - once again with things like this it's appalling music. However, the moves for the characters gave some enjoyment - certainly once the volume was turned down. If Lego released actual musical instruments with ways of attaching bricks, now I'd buy an electric guitar with that functionality!

I personally like the boxes for the Band Mates. They are designed to be bought blind, so I don't see a problem with them packaged this way, especially with Lego moving to be greener. They are still small enough for standard postage in the UK too. My local Tesco used to, but not for a few years now, put the CMF's in the plastic CD boxes to stop people opening them, so you didn't know at all what you were getting. Part of the joy of CMF's is opening a load of packets at the same time with my son and risking the duplicate, so you don't get to build it.

The actual Minifigures are really good, but unlike Hidden Side not much on their own. Hidden Side could sit along side the City range, and the building builds were generally great, so you didn't need the app. The figures had normal heads and ghost versions, so you could place them in your own cities. Hidden Side should have kept going, but without the app.

Yes, I think the theme has flopped. It is not too soon to write it off.

Mario is doing pretty well as there are substantial builds to go with the tech, and the tech is integrated pretty well. Sets aren't that expensive either.

Vidiyo on the other hand--no real builds, just a minifigure, and a small "stage" in some other sets. Both do include random tiles. Stupidly high MSRP, poorly integrated app. And, I don't think the boxes were taken too well. In my opinion, the figures should have been CMF priced, beatboxes $10 at the most.

I don't blame LEGO for trying, but stick to the bricks.

@paulrothwell said:
"As I have said before - retailers do NOT make any margin on discounted Lego in retail stores. We purchase Lego at set prices and set margins at full rrp. At 25% discount it is not really worth selling and at 33% discount we make a loss.
Also independent retailers in the UK have not had chance to sell ANY 2021 sets instore this year. Supermarkets have had all year to sell toys in their stores and are now discounting.
Cheers Asda!"

Such a shame for you guys, it really is.

In the first conversation about Vidyo's release I was saying I really hope my local, very small, independent toy shop doesn't stock anything from the range, because I was convinced they would only actually sell any with a massive discount and lose money. To my mind it was a very bad look when Amazon was able to immediately undercut every other retailer with a big discount, as if the RRP was essentially false with the Amazon discount already built in. Why would any other retailer trust Lego when these kind of deals must surely prevent almost all RRP purchases?

I don't get the RRP of Vidyo at all. Surely the app development costs didn't mean that the Vidyo products HAD to have an RRP double or triple what most people would expect to pay... and shouldn't app costs just be worked into the R&D costs for the whole company and spread evenly throughout the range of products? The Hidden Side range didn't seem to be a big commercial success, but the sets were really good in my opinion and represented normal Lego value at RRP, with the app as a free, optional bonus for anyone interested, no harm in that.

If the Vidyo RRP is down to Lego cutting a really bad deal for the rights to the music used, then I expect both parties regret it as neither will be making money from sales/plays.

The best thing about Vidyo is me learning the word 'Potemkin' :D

@gabrisermig said:
"Not to be negative but let's be honest, we ALL knew it would flop in no time"
I agree, when the theme was released I already knew that it wouldn't work. I don't understand why LEGO continues to launch themes like this. LEGO original themes work better when LEGO hears the fans and gives us what we want. In the end, we are the market. And LEGO should give what the market is looking for.

Everyone knew this was coming.

I've said it before, but I'll say it again... give me a Dots or Xtra style CLEAR bag for 4.00 w/20 or so unique 2x2 printed tiles and I'll buy them up in a heart/drum beat. Throw in a LEGO crate piece - 4211185 - and that just seals the deal. Toss a label on there like Xtra Music and sell thousands... I'll take my 10% now please :)

@davnnh said:
"Unfortunately I think it was a really flawed idea. It's a lesson LEGO has learned over and over again... stray too far from the basic concept and it doesn't make any sense."

Clearly it’s a lesson LEGO HASN’T learned, as they keep doing this (straying from the basic concept) OVER and OVER again every couple of years!!

@ComfySofa said:
"The best thing about Vidyo is me learning the word 'Potemkin' :D"

Same! No interest whatsoever in this theme - not even the minifigs. But in reading this, I learned a new word and about a new historical person.

Every times Lego goes into those ridiculous ventures (apps, clothing, non-brick items/sets) I cringe and I remember the early 2000s. The concept should not be that difficult to grasp: back then, the saviour of the company (can't remember his name) said: get rid of non-core businesses or themes and stick to the brick. He did a fine job turning around the company and eventually left - now the same thing is happening again: Adidas, Uniqlo, Vidiyo.... (sigh)

@ComfySofa said:
" @paulrothwell said:
"As I have said before - retailers do NOT make any margin on discounted Lego in retail stores. We purchase Lego at set prices and set margins at full rrp. At 25% discount it is not really worth selling and at 33% discount we make a loss.
Also independent retailers in the UK have not had chance to sell ANY 2021 sets instore this year. Supermarkets have had all year to sell toys in their stores and are now discounting.
Cheers Asda!"

Such a shame for you guys, it really is.

In the first conversation about Vidyo's release I was saying I really hope my local, very small, independent toy shop doesn't stock anything from the range, because I was convinced they would only actually sell any with a massive discount and lose money. To my mind it was a very bad look when Amazon was able to immediately undercut every other retailer with a big discount, as if the RRP was essentially false with the Amazon discount already built in. Why would any other retailer trust Lego when these kind of deals must surely prevent almost all RRP purchases?

I don't get the RRP of Vidyo at all. Surely the app development costs didn't mean that the Vidyo products HAD to have an RRP double or triple what most people would expect to pay... and shouldn't app costs just be worked into the R&D costs for the whole company and spread evenly throughout the range of products? The Hidden Side range didn't seem to be a big commercial success, but the sets were really good in my opinion and represented normal Lego value at RRP, with the app as a free, optional bonus for anyone interested, no harm in that.

If the Vidyo RRP is down to Lego cutting a really bad deal for the rights to the music used, then I expect both parties regret it as neither will be making money from sales/plays.
"

The other problem was that we had to order these products blind as it were. We are shown sets in advance except for top secret releases like Vidiyo, so we ordered these in good faith back in September, thinking that they were going to be popular

I took the time to read the comments over on the Play store. My goodness, that's a mess of an app. I hope poor Jane in customer service is getting paid well!
This isn't really my theme, but looks like the concept could have been really popular with the target audience. Seems like the parts designers have really come through on their end, but oh, the woe that is the app development.
As a user, the errors seem common in software development:
1. reliance on a complex 3rd party technology (the AR stuff) that works on limited devices, instead of looking for a way to maximise device compatibility. They just don't seem to get the end-user cases for apps & the devices they'll have and use.
2. what appears to be a lack of functional & destructive testing of the app
3. An overly restrictive approach to "child safety online" that has extended out to offline use of the app, and requires excessive verification
4. A pricing policy that seems driven by a cost+ model, rather than perceived user value (as many of the comments above note). Nobody cares how much licensing, development & support cost there is, nor how expensive the bits are. They look at a box as a minifigure & some tiles, plus and free app to support it. But this isn't the only theme I'm seeing this sort of discrepancy in pricing between perceived value and cost.

I can’t say for sure if it’s a flop... but I also don’t really see it flying off the shelves or anyone outright loving it.

General consensus is it’s all too pricey. The Beatbox sets only give you a rather mediocre build with some nice parts and a Minifigure. If you’re looking around the toy aisle, then there are probably about 10 much better LEGO sets for the price of one box for about the same price.

The Minifigure series reception has been lukewarm. Even if the figures are good, I feel like the boxes soured many people’s opinion on them. Minifigure packets are one thing because at least with those I can feel for parts to put the odds somewhat in my favor. Heck, I think feeling for parts is the exciting part of collectible Minifigures. However, you can’t do that with these Minifigures, and the only two I bought were figures I was hoping to avoid. Both the blind boxes and beat boxes seem to just set someone up for buyer’s remorse.

Also, LEGO really needs to quit banking on these apps to sell kits. Odds are if a child is playing on their device, they’re going to play a game they already enjoy or watch a video. So far the LEGO sets mixed with an app have either created an expensive barrier to entry, were lackluster In execution, or both.

The way the VIDYO app is designed makes it a very barebones, very poor, and very expensive replacement for something like Tik Tok. Thing is... the latter is free. And doesn’t require expensive plastic.

LEGO... listen to us. Please. These apps aren’t working out well. Experimenting with new tech is cool, and some videogame/tech stuff is fine, but you need to focus on making the sets great first and foremost. Only the best is good enough. So far VIDYO has been a theme that feels like it got caught reaching into my pocket for my wallet on far too many occasions.

@josemiguel said:
"As a father and a professor, I have already complained three times to the LEGO customer service about the damage of introducing Vidiyo to kids. It destroys creativity, changes the developing brain in a bad way, and creates addiction. They responded that they checkout the videos children make, but that's not the point: vidiyo naturalizes the use of phones and video recording & publishing in children. Soon, they will see normal to publish videos on Instagram reels, Tik Tok, Youtube, and the like. This has nothing to do with the spirit of LEGO. I finally told them about child honouring, but my words were ignored. So, if vidiyo is a commercial failure, I couldn't be happier. It would mean that society thinks."

I think LEGO should really step back and think through the possible dangers of encouraging young kids to get on social media.

Social Media can negatively affect behaviors even in grown adults. It can also lead to a very warped/skewed perspective on the world, and it can often be difficult to tell who or what is and isn’t real. That’s not even getting into the possibility of young children getting harassed, bullied, or even worse, groomed by a predator from who-knows-where.

Anyone else kinda unnerved by how many middle schoolers can be found doing suggestive dances on apps like Tik Tok? That’s not even getting into how easy it is to find content not suitable for kids because most websites have inconsistent at best moderation. Social media is NOT a place for children.

In defense everyone thought Mario would flop...

but then again Super Mushrooms & 1-ups aside...

I got two random bandmates at full price. Havent got box Candy Mermaid only one I think is any good...

I said this on the message board over a month ago, if you push lego to work with apps you loose parents. I buy lego to get my son away from gaming and tv. Hiddenside, nexo knights, and now this. Put you energy into historical themes, castle! BUT, learn from history, we don't want to buy our kids the same carriage ambushes over and over.. Give us more medieval farmers, mills, markets.. Some things sold very well but where always "hard to find".. Drop the hard to find and get some good old fashion sets on the shelves and let us teach our kids history with bricks and lots of them.

@EGRoberts said:
"I said this on the message board over a month ago, if you push lego to work with apps you loose parents. I buy lego to get my son away from gaming and tv. Hiddenside, nexo knights, and now this. Put you energy into historical themes, castle! BUT, learn from history, we don't want to buy our kids the same carriage ambushes over and over.. Give us more medieval farmers, mills, markets.. Some things sold very well but where always "hard to find".. Drop the hard to find and get some good old fashion sets on the shelves and let us teach our kids history with bricks and lots of them."

I find that my favorite themes from when I was a kid were the ones that gave me the tools to tell a story. Heck, I think that’s a big reason Ninjago and Bionicle drew in a lot of fans.

You can mix some more historical elements in there, but I love themes that create a world where the builder’s imagination fills in the gap. Who is the heroic knight? What’s the king like? Who are the bad guys? Set the groundwork then let the kid run with it.

I think that might be what VIDYO desperately needs. Despite all the fun character designs and such, it’s more “go into the app” than “here you go, let your imagination go nuts!”.

True! It is not TLG's place to parent our children, It is my job to parent my child. Of course LEGO can make whatever they want but that doesn't mean we will all buy it. Companies pay big money to get our opinions, yours, mine, that professor. You might be willing to buy this for your child and that is great! But a lot of us parents will not even touch it (not just because it was overpriced) but because of the app dependance. Lego has tried this game already and seen it fail multiple times. I think that innovation is great but this was tried already, Nexo Knights and hiddenside have shown that this platform of play will not be purchased. The majority of the parents have spoken, move on and innovate something new that doesn't require a screen.

I know LEGO owes us nothing and they are free to do what they want with their company, but personally I'd like to see a lot less of these oddball original themes and a lot more return to basics (Pirates, Castle, Adventurers, etc.) as well as picking more Ideas projects for production. With the number of phenomenal Ideas projects submitted (and receiving mountains of support), there's just really no good reason for the "pick one and dump the rest" philosophy in my humble opinion.

While I never agree with getting my kids toys that require them to play on a phone, I do think that the timing of this release is rather unfortunate. Kids are already getting an insane amount of screen time from remote learning, and now Lego is telling them to get more.

I understand the desire to capitalize on tiktok’s success, but I would never let my kids use Tik Tok, or anything else like it.

Perhaps Lego does need to get creative and try new things, but they need to actually get creative and not just look to phones as the solution to everything.

While LEGO is busy experimenting with the bleeding edge, Playmobil is opening their brand stores here in Serbia (via a local toy distributor) and they have huge displays in malls. Guess which displays kids are most attracted to? Castle, historical stuff, and pirates.

So, either TLG's market research is wrong, or Serbia is a completely oddball market.

I just checked and I can't even dowload the app on my 3 year old avarage phone. No wonder it's flopping if people can't even use it.

Another Augmented Reality theme immediately after the failure of another Augmented Reality theme, except this time with just overpriced minifigures. What could possibly go wrong

I don't want to see Vidiyo flop, because failed product launches are a red line in the ledger that detracts from the income that Lego could then allocate to the stuff I do like... but at the same time, I am not surprised to see its launch is struggling.

Some of the biggest Lego launches relied on cheap starter sets and a story-driven background lore like Bionicle G1 or Ninjago. Vidiyo is neither cheap nor story-driven. Classic Space, Castle, and Pirates rely on a historic appeal to be timeless. Vidiyo is not timeless. Trains and Technic sale based on mechanical functionality. Vidiyo's function is all digital. Star Wars, Superheroes, and Harry Potter sale on license. Vidiyo has no useful license, and what it is licensing such as pop-music samples is not being advertised as an important element to the theme. 18+ sets have great building experiences for more experienced Lego fans, Vidiyo has no build. Basically, Vidiyo somehow misses every single thing that Lego's biggest products have had before it, and it already seems to be swimming against the current.

Not to mention, while Vidiyo has a bright appeal and some neat figures; too much of the aesthetic seems to be pulled from Fortnite. I am pretty sure there are parents who are going to be turned off due to the design language being so similar to that video game. Not to mention the "LOL It's All Random" colorful design makes it hard to see how the theme is consistent. It just feels like Lego put everything in a blender and let it loose, from a mermaid to llamas to space aliens... there is no tonal consistency like saying something like Ninjago has in its aesthetic. Kids are smarter than we give them credit, they can see when something has an internal effort put into it like Ninjago and recognize the work, but they are probably smart enough to realize that Vidiyo is a mishmash of all sorts of other ideas that don't really belong together. Yes, kids have generous imaginations, but they also already have to "suspend disbelief" sometimes and if they see that Lego just threw every weird concept into a blender it might turn them off, especially when Lego's existing alternatives like Ninjago or Friends offer much more tonally consistent worlds.

if the app doesn't work, you just end up with an expensive minifigure and a few tiles.
for the same price you can buy a more playable set, like 71718

I was shopping in Tesco's with my 8 year old daughters, and I saw these reduced to £12.

Anyway, I pointed them out to them both, and they showed no interest in them at all.
I tried to explain what they were, that you had to use a phone to play with them, Ava pointed out she didn't have a phone....LOL but I wasn't really sure myself as to what they were, and didn't help matters!

There are the target audience, and they weren't bothered at all...

The main problem is the app - it's one of the unoptimized badly coded app I've yet to use, and I have a decent phone that can handle a lot. Also, Lego will not allow to just save a local video to your phone if you want to send it to family and friends, and you MUST send it to them first for moderation. When directly asking them why Lego need to watch private videos of boys and girls they provided a "copy/paste" style reply. As I won't send strangers a video of my kids, we just stopped using the app.

This, and the "what were they thinking" pricing, made us not care about that product, even my kids.

Some of the figures are nice, so might purchase specific on BL. I'll give them that.

The AR thing as a whole is a gimmick and not really fun after a run or two. Same with Hidden Side. Only things like Boost, Mario or PF are suitable for a long run usage.

I used to buy the LEGO games for PC because they cost half as much as the console versions. Then I started hitting problems, like a blue Santa Claus, a treasure chest you couldn’t collect in the minecart mission because the frame rate stuttered so bad you’d literally skip the one frame where you could touch it, and a villain mission where you couldn’t use a villain’s critical ability were enough to get me to drop the PC versions and buy a console instead. The problem was, they were willing to pay for it to work on a few Pc builds, but you could pick 1000 PCs at random and have no two be alike. They didn’t want to invest in making sure it worked on _EVERYTHING_ because it was basically just a side gig for them, not their main bread and butter.

You see the same thing with apps. They’ll get it working on a handful of phones and call it good. Then most of their customer base tries to use the app and finds they can’t, so the lesson they learn is to avoid LEGO apps like the plague. A new app comes out, nobody touches it, and The LEGO Company is disincentivized from making the next app better because these apps never see a huge install base. Why bother making it well if nobody will ever use it? Why bother using it if nobody will make it well?

The public has figured it out. The only question is how long it will take for the company to wake up.

@andyh1984 said:
"Unfortunately Lego may increase the prices of their core theme building sets to make up the revenue lost through this themes R&D costs and subsequent price reductions."

Which in turn may cause fewer sales, thus a poor idea.

I’ve never really had a problem with Lego experimenting or doing something a little different. That’s how you keep from getting stale. However, this seemed like too massive of a departure, and cost prohibitive. It was way too expensive for what you were getting, especially for an untested and new idea. Hidden Side you could at least still enjoy building the sets, and it wasn’t a great loss if you didn’t utilize the app. Here though, it’s too much “not Lego”. Kids like Lego, and they like tiktok type things. But that doesn’t mean they go together well.

In addition, it’s confusing as to what it is. These are just there to help make online videos, I guess? I don’t know if it’s actually a flop, but it seems like a very misguided effort.

I read this site daily and I honestly still only have a vague idea what Vidyo is. I can't imagine what regular consumers think. It's certainly confusing branding.

While I love the parts in these (and hope they appear in a Build a Minifigure display at a LEGO store soon), I'm not going to pay the prices they want to get those parts. I think the pricing is what really doomed this line. (I think LEGO is also going to find charging 4.99 for something where you cannot feel what you want is backfiring on them too). You could have had all the other things missing from the past year (lack of physical store inventory, lack of demos, etc), and solve the bugs in the app and I think it still fails or at least it is 'not meeting its targets'. These are not cheap. It reminds me of Dimensions (which were a lot better in its scale of interesting licensed parts likely never to be put into a production set and the game itself). However, even then the game had issues, and those packs were overpriced (as detailed by many many cut rate sales on those to move excess stock). Plus such lines are only as good as to how long LEGO keeps supporting them. Which is why when the server is turned off (or no longer supported) many want something physical that was really 'worth' the cost. Yeah yeah I get people have 'priceless' memories of things, but some people do have budgets and think about those actual value in terms of money.
LEGO has a habit of putting premium pricing on almost everything they are doing now, and its another instance of that catching up to them. I get that to stay in business one needs to branch out, but every time LEGO wants to do integrated media into their physical toys it appears to end poorly (and/or cost a fortune). I mean as interesting as the Hidden sets were, I had no care for the virtual stuff and while Im sure I do not speak for everyone, I can estimate that not every kid in the world has a smart phone (which LEGO seems to always forget). However, at least most kids may be able to get one of the sets as its play value will likely outlast the novelty of the Virtual stuff. IMO LEGO is going to always have this issue, as LEGO is a physical tactile toy. Virtual versions are interesting, but I think miss the point of LEGO (otherwise go play Minecraft or whittle the time away making designs in a CAD program). LEGO speaks of 'inclusion' but then makes toys that only some in the world can afford or really utilize. I'm sure LEGO will not learn from this though and make the next CMF line 6.99 a piece BUT give a virtual token of the figure, or some other nonsense.

Poorly thought out concept.
They cancel Hidden Side, which has many fans for this buggy crap.
I used it and liked it, but the latest update now says is incompatible with my device. The device is AR-Enabled and is less than a year old.
I hope they Clearance since the figs are top-shelf, and they come with printed parts.

This is proof TLG will try anything to not release decent train theme ;)

Lego keeps trying to add smartphone apps to the mix, only they absolutely SUCK at making apps. The AR portion of the Hidden Side app didn't work for half of my sets, and I tried on three different, approved, android phones. Look at the reviews on the Google Play store and most of them say the same thing: the AR doesn't work on some sets, there's no cloud save so all progress is lost if you uninstall/reinstall, etc. The Power functions app for the Batmobile was awful and barely worked, I could only ever get the bluetooth to connect with Wifi off, it made no sense. Their foray into modern tech has been totally half-assed and they need to take a step back and retool, rather than force more garbage out.

It’s possible that next year LEGO will release a 3-in-1 Creator set inspired by blue/grey/trans yellow Classic Space, complete with a red CS Spaceman. If it does, I predict two things: 1) sales will be so high that LEGO will have to extend its production run, and 2) there will be LEGO execs in Billund scratching their heads over how this set succeeded while the Vidiyo line failed.

If you’re a LEGO strategist/product development professional, here’s my message to you: The magic of LEGO is in the bricks, not the apps!

Dimensions, Hidden Side, and now Vidiyo... I see a pattern, why doesn't LEGO, and they have way smarter people than me (allegedly)?

One has to be careful though: we read stuff on this site, but it's a site aimed at adults, and that's still a minority compared to the vast amount of kids that currently enjoy Lego. So whatever conclusion you get from all the comments is not representative in the slightest, just like how claiming that a Classic Space set would be super popular... It would, but only in a specific subset of the fanbase, which is vocal on these sites but definitely not the main buyers in stores.

Vidiyo was aiming at piggy-backing on the success of TikTok. The price of the sets didn't really help, nor did the branding, but that's also partly because of the license as well. I don't quite know how to categorize the BeatBoxes, but the Bandmates are a collectible series of minifigs, plain and simple. You can argue that all the CMF series have weird characters without much accessory support. This time though, there's some connectivity with the app and the bits, and the minifigs are of AMAZING quality. Treat them like that and the theme gets much more interesting for adults. And even then, kids have had quite a lot of fun with this, if I am to believe the ratio of good to bad reviews by parents. You can always debate about if you want an app with Lego to start with, buyt beyond that, kids are having fun.

The amount of sales could also be related to the quantity produced. Maybe they expected more of a hit and overproduced the sets. Maybe it's a new strategy to promote high-value and get consumers to jump on sales. All things considered, enjoy those sales while you can: in Canada, barely any store ever has sales on Lego, so it's full price or store-closure deals, if you're lucky enough to find some of those.

@FrodoJaws said:
"I hope it will be a flop....so they can bring back the Hidden Side theme (without the app/game)"

I don't follow the logic, but I'm up for more Hidden Side sets. They were great! Especially the buildings.

Bad packaging.

"Picture of actual product" has served Lego well for years for a reason. Lego sells itself.

Plastic + fun build + imagination.

The really great thing about the LEGO System is that a LEGO brick made in 1970 will work with a brick from 2020. The parts last and can be combined and used with all the other parts in a seemingly infinite amount of ways.
All of the LEGO digital offerings are designed to work for maybe 2 years on devices that are not universally owned by all LEGO users. I find that unacceptable.

LEGO should realize that consumer tech changes at too fast of a rate for LEGO to keep up with. They should embrace the analog nature of their product and emphasize the fact that they are not a screen, socialmedia, or a digital device.

Wait - are you telling me that yet another digitally interactive Lego product failed to live up to commercial expectations and catch on with consumers? UTTERLY SHOCKING.

@davnnh said:
"Unfortunately I think it was a really flawed idea. It's a lesson LEGO has learned over and over again... stray too far from the basic concept and it doesn't make any sense."

I wouldn’t go so far as to say that they’ve “learned” it...;)

In 10 years time there will be an article here about TLG’s top 10 blunders and this will be pretty close to the top.

Dreadful idea from the very beginning.

It has definitely mostly flopped. This is just one of those things that isn't that great of an idea, and on top of that Lego spent a lot of time and money developing the app and making brand new molds and prints which make up most of the sets themselves. Maybe they were a bit too excited about the success of The Lego Super Mario line which did require an app to build the set and thus thought they could have success with another app-based theme, maybe they were just doing one of those things were they were experimenting, I don't know but whatever their motivation was behind it, its still a flop.

I also don't see how Lego hasn't learned that creating Lego themes that are focused on the play features in apps doesn't work 99% of the time.

Ignore the digital aspect entirely and look at the theme. The bandmates are a cmf but with worse figures (or at least with a less broad appeal), a higher price and even more of a gamble than before. and the beatboxes are one minifigure (and of the themes minifigs my personal faves in the bandmates anyhow) in a box that is made of big hard to use elsewhere parts and doesn't have much in terms of play or display value.

Sadly this theme is beyond horrendous, who on earth is green-lighting this, or is remotely interested in it? As someone mentioned above, *how* many times are these abstract, App-driven themes not of any interest and the themes ended so quickly? We’ve been here so, so, so many times before... *please* TLG Just focus on what you do best so greatly, release revisited legacy classic space, castle and pirates, and please save yourselves a colossal amount of money, stop this total nonsense, hear the community when we say nobody is interested sadly in this

I have two children 11 and 8 years old. I was very skeptical of this theme, and suggested that they wait until sales, but they used their newspaper route money to purchase a couple blind boxes and (very overpriced) beat boxes.

The app was awful at launch, but it has gotten much better, and my children love leveling up their band members and unlocking new rewards.

So I would have thought it would be a massive failure, but my kids really enjoy it, and so long as they are using their own money, that's fine with me.

@Starik20X7 said: "I might have to swing by Kmart then! I’m not at all interested in the App side of it but I think the minifig designs are really cool, would look great in my minifig display cabinet..."

I found the same. I don't own a smart phone, and the whole ap thing is lost, on me, but I loved the minifigures.

Had to go to eBay to finish my collection of the 12 blind box sets, but I got four of the Beat Box sets, only from K-mart (and one from Amazon, where it was even cheaper, and I basically added it to get the free shipping with the rest of the order). For overseas folks, K-mart is the Australian option for the cheapest, best prices on Lego (by a country mile).

As I said, I love the figures, but the whole exercise has been absurdly over-priced. When Lego gets too cash-grabby, even parents and the intended audience pull back.

The Unikitty sets a few years ago were a classic example of that. Over Christmas, when the shelves in all the toy stores had been picked clean, there was still the pile of Unikitty sets, sitting there and gathering dust. Even on clearance prices, nobody wanted them.

And, in Australia, the Super Mario sets are falling into that trap as well, currently. There's piles of them gathering dust. They're not selling.

Only saw these yesterday in Target I think it was or BigW. Couldnt comment on how many had sold but as has been attested by many others, all previous themes like this (app based, non traditional Lego) always flop. Dimensions, Hidden Side, likely Super Mario in the long run.

The only reason Super Mario is working is due to the Nintendo tie-in. Lots of licensed themes work like this, they can have terrible sets but theres always some fan or kid wanting a Lego Yoshi or Lego Star Wars Hoth Base for example.

Vidiyo is such an obscure and stupid theme. As someone pointed out above, if we ignore the tech and just look at the Lego System of Play provided, its a bunch of overpriced and largely unpopular CMFs with some 2x2 printed tiles (often they too have limited appeal), then some rather unusable specialised pieces for a silly box no kid will be interested in.

At least Hidden Side had some great Lego sets but it was sadly ruined by the app aspect and the terrible box art/marketing.

Vidiyo has a terrible app (as usual) that tries to run in the shadow of the latest craze (this time its TikTok) and falls flat on its face while the Lego aspect is barely existent and doesnt appeal to anyone. Theres little to no useful pieces or interesting sets for AFOLs and no real draw for kids apart from the occasional child who might want a crazy minifig in which case they wont get it because the parents rightly think its too overpriced.

I remember kids years ago going on about some "Everybody do the flop" meme and I rather get the impression that sunglass wearing rapper guy turns up every now and then in the lego design room...
Chairman: "Right, what new theme shall we do?"
Board member: "Design some new sets based around Classic themes? POBB went really well."
-Chairman commences Hitler rant-
Random board member: "EVERYBODY DO THE FLOP!"
Chairman "Great idea! These technology based themes are always so creative and popular!"....

@LuigiBob said:
" @Brickchap said:
"-Chairman commences Hitler rant- "

Woah dude, chill. Just because this theme isn't doing well doesn't mean the people working in the compamy are "LiTeRaLlY hItLeR!!""

No, he's not doing that. It's a reference to an obscure meme. I think the original footage was from a TV show or something.

@CapnRex101:
I think Dimensions had a few more issues that just piled up on it. To start with, two Fun Packs would get you the equivalent of a Team Pack, but cost 20% more. The market quickly responded to disfavor with the price structure there, and MSRP was subsequently adjusted to make Fun Packs closer to half the price of a Team Pack.

Then there were the themes. You had stuff like Portal 2 where one pack pretty much covered everything you need, vs single-pack themes like The A-Team where one pack leaves you missing most of the team. Then there's Ninjago and Chima. Ninjago is a popular theme, sure, but there were _six_ packs with a combined seven characters, and only Jay offered a bonus ability. Chima had three characters, but only one could use the Chima ability underwater. If you bought Jay and Cragger, you could access those worlds, complete them, and have the Ninjago/Chima abilities for later use without having to buy six Fun Packs and one Team Pack. Ninjago at least seemed to have sold well, between fans wanting to play their favorite characters, or fill holes in their minifig collection. The vast majority of clearance items where I live were Chima packs.

Fans of the theme could be divided into three basic categories. I was one of the people who was actually trying to collect _everything_. In addition to a full set of every character for my Dimensions collection, I also bought several extra packs just for minifigs and parts (and sometimes wish I'd bought more). Then there were people who didn't play the game, but went crazy for the minifigs, especially from themes that were unique to the game. On the flip side, there were gamers who didn't care about anything but the game tokens, and quickly discovered that they could be obtained cheaply on the secondary market, rather than forking over money for their own copies of the sets, resulting in a lot of lost sales.

Then there was the unfortunate timing. During Year 2, Nintendo rolled out their next home console...only this one was also a portable handheld. That didn't really work with a game that required sitting next to an RFID reader that you needed to use to load characters and accessories into the game as well as perform critical game actions. I have to wonder if the game had launched even one year earlier, if not having the Switch looming on the horizon, combined with a somewhat less saturated Toys To Life market, might have resulted in them going ahead with Year 3, finishing the story mode of the game, and giving us the Lord Vortech minifig that we so obviously deserved.

@Zordboy said:
" @Starik20X7 said: "I might have to swing by Kmart then! I’m not at all interested in the App side of it but I think the minifig designs are really cool, would look great in my minifig display cabinet..."

I found the same. I don't own a smart phone, and the whole ap thing is lost, on me, but I loved the minifigures.

Had to go to eBay to finish my collection of the 12 blind box sets, but I got four of the Beat Box sets, only from K-mart (and one from Amazon, where it was even cheaper, and I basically added it to get the free shipping with the rest of the order). For overseas folks, K-mart is the Australian option for the cheapest, best prices on Lego (by a country mile).

As I said, I love the figures, but the whole exercise has been absurdly over-priced. When Lego gets too cash-grabby, even parents and the intended audience pull back.

The Unikitty sets a few years ago were a classic example of that. Over Christmas, when the shelves in all the toy stores had been picked clean, there was still the pile of Unikitty sets, sitting there and gathering dust. Even on clearance prices, nobody wanted them.

And, in Australia, the Super Mario sets are falling into that trap as well, currently. There's piles of them gathering dust. They're not selling."

My local Dollar General for some odd reason, still has a PILE of Unikitty sets, stacked high on top of the grocery coolers at the other end of the store.

@chrisaw said: "The figs are actually fantastic with really nice printing."

I agree completely.

I think the figs are great. It's just the pricing and ap stuff that's absurd and unworkable. The figures themselves are interesting and lovely little characters.

I know they'll keep trying, but inserting an app into LEGO play just seems like it's detracting from what LEGO is.

For many parents and grandparents lego is about off screen time so any sets t at require an app are an immediate turn off. Yes its the 21st century but not everything needs an app! When i first saw these, as an AFOL i though here we go on another Jack Stone journey, only to be resigned to landfill along with bionicle in a few months time. The garish colours are off putting and i can see these going the way of dimensions and ending up in poundland....

They should do a "classic themes" wave. Like a set or 2 from things like space, Adventurers, castle, etc. It could make the fans happy and gauge interest in revivals.
Not to mention they already have the molds.

@ClassicDragon said:
" @IgelCampus said:
"That the apps are really bad and not working most of the time added to the insult.."
And that's if you have one of the like--4 compatible devices.
I couldn't even try it out for curiosity's sake.
"

When will Lego learn? Like Hidden Side, Vidiyo needs a high-end mobile device to use the app content. If parents do get a mobile device for their primary school age child, it's generally a really cheap one or a second hand one that has no chance of running the app properly. No parent with common sense is going to give a expensive mobile device to a child under 11 - they just get lost or broken!
If you must release apps, Lego, please make them work on budget devices. Otherwise you've no chance of hitting your target market.

This is a bit against the tide but me and my kids love these. They are addicted to making the videos and I must admit, it’s funny seeing all the different beatbit effects ??

LEGO is timeless
TECH is fleeting
FLOP is inevitable

Dear LEGO, please give us a closed ecosystem in your offerings. I for instance still love the included batteries in light bricks! What I am trying to say is: give us all the play features IN the box, it just makes it a better experience all in. Take power functions for instance: it just worked straight up! No need for external parties/external hardware/software updates... and i t was embraced by the entire community. It would have been so awesome to see small new power functions add-ons instead of a complete new app driven eco system. To be honest, I hope you'll figure out soon that for instance Nintendo is the company that makes kids stare at screens.... And they are great at that. Lego, you guys and gals are amazing at keeping kids AWAY from screens... put your focus where your strenght is.

Well I finally got one of the boxed cmf today. Free with a magazine (Girl Talk - UK magazine for tween girls). I got the fox figure.
I really like the figure. He is cute. I like the tiles. But the box....if these were in fondle bags like the other cmf I would actually be quite tempted by them. But a box !
I was a Fabuland kid back in the mists of time. I used to often get as little treats or pocket money buys what I always called 'singles'. Which was one figure with a couple of little accessories. They weren't blind bags. You knew what you were getting. If you wanted Clara Cow you got Clara Cow.
Perhaps it's time to end the whole blind bag/box nonsense. Just sell the figures. As the price of cmfs seems to get higher and higher I am more unlikely to treat myself to one while in the supermarket. If I know who I am getting though - I probably would be chucking one in with the food shop all the time.
I know you can buy specific figures secondhand but I would just like to be able to walk into a shop and buy what I want then and there.
I have named the fox Austin after Austin Powers because he is wearing the most awesome purple suit !!