Brickipedia News:Disney purchases The LEGO Group - April Fools!

User:NovaHawk 00:00, 1 April 2015 (UTC)

by NovaHawk
April 1, 2015. Last updated April 4, 2015.

Happy April Fools, to those of you who were fooled by this :)

In a dramatic move, LEGO has been purchased by Disney. Here's the press release below:

This is a description taken from LEGO.com. Please do not modify it.

Copenhagen, Denmark, April 1, 2015 – In an effort to expand their range of merchandising around the world, The Walt Disney Company has acquired the toy giant LEGO after a $4.01 billion transaction took place between Disney and The LEGO Group.

"Being a company which produces toys that inspire the imaginations of children all across the globe makes LEGO is a perfect match for Disney", said Robert A. Iger, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of The Walt Disney Company. "This transaction allows us to combine two of the most family-friendly brands in the world to create a whole new range of opportunities which will undoubtedly benefit both the LEGO construction toyline and the quality of Disney's merchandising."

"The LEGO brand has flourished in recent years, and a good deal of that success is due to our Star Wars and Marvel toylines", said Jørgen Vig Knudstorp, Chief Executive Officer of The LEGO Group. "Handing The LEGO Group over to Disney will make The LEGO Group bigger and better than it ever could have been under its own management."

The LEGO Group has had dealings with Disney since 1999, when several "Winnie the Pooh" sets were released by LEGO. More recently, LEGO has had sets based on The Avengers, The Lone Ranger, and have continued to release sets for the Star Wars line after Lucasfilm was acquired by Walt Disney in 2012. Under the deal, Disney will acquire ownership of all existing products, LEGO stores and LEGOLAND theme parks. The LEGO Group is currently headquarted in Billund, Denmark, and there are currently no immediate plans to change this until an assessment of how well The LEGO Group has been integrated with Disney is carried out later in the year.

The LEGO Group's CEO Jørgen Vig Knudstorp celebrating with Disney CEO Bob Iger after signing the recent transaction deal.

The purchase of the LEGO Group follows a number of extremely successful recent purchases by Disney, including Pixar, Marvel and Lucasfilm, all of which have had their creative content significantly developed and expanded throughout the years.

The Boards of Directors of Disney and The LEGO Group have approved the transaction, effective immediately.

About The Walt Disney Company

The Walt Disney Company, together with its subsidiaries and affiliates, is a leading diversified international family entertainment and media enterprise with five business segments: media networks, parks and resorts, studio entertainment, interactive media, and consumer products. Disney is a Dow 30 company with revenues of over $48 billion in its Fiscal Year 2014.

About The LEGO Group

The LEGO Group was founded in 1932 by Ole Kirk Christiansen and is best known for producing LEGO brand toys. In 2014, LEGO became the world's largest toy brand by market value, and in 2015 was named the world's most powerful brand by Brand Finance.

Due to our existing affiliation with The LEGO Group, we have received an email containing further information about details regarding the future of several of themes. A summary is provided below:

Architecture will take an exciting new turn- from now on, instead of focusing on wonders of the world, future models will be based on Disneyland theme parks and stores around the globe.
After only just returning, BIONICLE will again be cancelled. While many will be sad to see the theme end so shortly, fans should rejoice in hearing that it will be replaced by a new theme of TECHNIC-based buildable robots, inspired by the film WALL•E. WALL•E and EVE are both confirmed to appear in the first wave. This is in addition to Star Wars constraction figures coming later this year.
The DC Universe and Ultra Agents themes will be winding down, but on the plus side, we will still be receiving approximately the same amount of Super Heroes and Agents sets as before. Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Marvel's Agent Carter sets will be launched sometime later this year in addition to the standard Marvel Super Heroes line.
LEGO Ideas will no longer accept licensed project submissions unless it is currently under a Disney license.
Ninjago will receive a new spin-off TV series and line of sets. Ninjago: Raging Fire will be centred around Nya, who will leave the ninja team and go off on a journey of her own. Early on in the series, she will encounter Mulan, and the two will team up to fight crime together.
Although originally scheduled to be discontinued this year, the Legends of Chima brand will be renewed and expanding its profile among audiences of all ages. Disney has expressed its belief that the diverse cast of humorous characters is perfect for teaching young children important lessons about friendship and conflict resolution. The television series will also be rebooted, and will be more along the lines of Disney's own long-running Mickey Mouse Clubhouse TV show, indicating that such a rejuvenation will feature preschool-targeted sets and media. However, fans need not worry as the more mature versions of the characters they know and love will be retooled and dispersed through Disney media in the meantime. For example, it had been revealed that Laval and Eris will guest star on Avengers Assemble, preparing audiences for future interactions with Marvel characters.
Perhaps the biggest news for some is in the films that will be released. While The LEGO Movie was a big hit, after The LEGO Movie sequel and spinoff films already in production are released, the series will be winding down. Details are still being negotiated between Warner Bros. and Disney, but both studios have stated they would still like The LEGO Movie Sequel and The LEGO Batman Movie to go ahead, and will be largely produced by Warner Bros. However, Disney will be releasing its own series of LEGO movies, and has unveiled the following graphic for the Phase I LEGO lineup:

The first movie in the new series, Johnny Thunder, has a tentative release date of "late 2016", with the other films to follow.

In addition to this, a number guidelines have been sent out to affiliated fansites, and as such, a number of amendments will be made to our Manual of Style, coming into effect tomorrow. Please note that editors are currently advised to NOT make any manual edits to comply with these new guidelines, as the changes will be made automatically by our bots and any such edits could interfere with their work. These guidelines include:

According to Disney, all affiliated fansites must start with "Disney's". Therefore, our site is now known as Disney's Brickipedia.
The correct toy name (that is, Disney's LEGO) should be used at all times.
Any theme currently under a Disney license should begin with "Disney's", for example, "Disney's Cars".
- By extension, when referring to the theme, the full theme name should be used, for example, Disney's LEGO Disney's Star Wars and Disney's LEGO Disney's Disney Princess.

UPDATE: As a friendly gesture to the fan community, Disney has also purchased Eurobricks Forums. Read more about it here.

Tags: 2015

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