Brickipedia News:LEGO obtains a Ghostbusters reboot film license

by NovaHawk
November 6, 2015

Mark Caplan, Sony's senior vice president of global consumer products, has revealed that LEGO has a license for the Ghostbusters reboot film. It's likely that sets will be released sometime around June/July 2016 to coincide with the release of the film.

LEGO already has a license for the original film series, with the first Ghostbusters-related set 21108 Ghostbusters, being released in 2014 for LEGO Ideas. Four further sets based on the original series (three Dimensions packs and one more set for Ideas) will also be released in 2016.

Thanks to just2good at Eurobricks for the news (and to Latenightguy for posting the info here).

Tags: Ghostbusters 2016

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Comments (16)

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LadyRobotNovice

107 months ago

Score 0

Girl Power!

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CJCBricktastic

110 months ago

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Why?

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BerrybrickLegendary Brickipedian

110 months ago

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I think this fares well for Wonder Woman movie sets.

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Soupperson1Legendary Brickipedian

110 months ago

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As does the DC girls license, but I'm afraid we'll just get a JL wave and one WW set like what Marvel is doing. Unless WW is going to be aimed towards girls, which is more likely since they get talking about how much female crew they've hired and it has the word Woman in the title :P

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BerrybrickLegendary Brickipedian

110 months ago

Score 1

I didn't mean mini-doll sets, since those are a given for DC Princess Heroes, and I feel reasonably certain that any based on Wonder Woman will be minifigure based. I haven't been following this Ghostbusters movie because I'm not a fan of the franchise and I find this reboot to sound gimmicky, but it is trying to use the popularity (or nostaligia?) of Ghostbusters to open people up to watching a female-led action movie. It isn't aimed solely at men and women, but rather at both. The same is true - or rather should be - of both Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel which are only getting green lit now because "the time is right," whatever that means. If whoever makes the marketing decision is smart, the sets will be minifigure based as gender neutral themes are, examples being Harry Potter and Scooby-Doo. Making them mini-dolls would immediately send the message that "this is for girls!" and in the age of looking progressive, that isn't what Hollywood wants with its action movies.

Personally, I would be okay if it is only one set, as long as it is minifigure based. It would still give us another great Wonder Woman figure, at least one of her villains, and either another enemy or a member of her supporting cast. I can be happy with that.

Also, nobody is going to be purchasing a LEGO set because of who directed the movie it is based on. :P

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BerrybrickLegendary Brickipedian

110 months ago

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(I realize that you didn't speak much about mini-dolls, but the same gendered marketing applies to aiming things at women because they are made by women.)

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Soupperson1Legendary Brickipedian

110 months ago

Score 0

But if suicide squad is aimed towards adults, why wouldn't the one thing they could make a girly thing not be aimed towards girls? I don't think it's fair, that we as girls get our superhero be made into a boys toy range because the studio wants them to make a bigger profit, then aiming it at one gender. I get the argument for general natural themes but Harry Potter and Scooby-Doo are mainly boys toys in the real world, look through toy aisles where do you find them? I don't think creator or Harry Potter sold as well with girls as they did with boys too. A minifigure theme would be aiming it towards boys rather then towards girls which is kinda weird, at least GB has the word ghosts not woman in the title :P A mini-doll theme would mean it's in the girls aisle, it be insulting if the first female superhero "Renaissance" movie was in the boys aisle, it's embarrassing for children to go into the other toy aisles. WW has always been mainly for women and girls, there's even a strong push with DC girls to get her back in the minds of young girls. If boys bought She-Ra dolls (lol :P) I assume they'd buy WW dolls, now we even get the word action in front :P Yes it be nice to get a WW "boys" set but hopefully we'll get one with batman, based off the comics. A girls theme would make a wave more likely, which would mean more figures and characters, more builds with hopefully some interesting ones and new pieces (hopefully lots of warm gold).

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BerrybrickLegendary Brickipedian

110 months ago

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Because if you do it right you can double your income by appealing to both.

They may feel that the Suicide Squad needs to be targeted towards adults to do the property justice, but Wonder Woman isn't the same way.

LEGO isn't traditionally a boys' toy range, it's a gender neutral one. This is one issue that people had when Friends came out: by saying that sets with mini-dolls are for girls, that implies that ones without them are for boys. It draws a line. Personally, I'm not going to leave it up to toy companies to initiate gender reform and I generally like Friends, so I'm not knocking the theme, but I think it is a good point. There is a lot more to discuss on this topic, but I'll leave it here.

A retailer's catalog earlier in the year said that Scooby was targeted at both boys and girls. Harry Potter (and SpongeBob and The LEGO Movie) must have sold well enough to girls if LEGO would still try to sell Scooby to both. Maybe they won't sell as well with girls as they do with boys, but if you can draw in one audience without alienating another, then there is no loss. I personally think that the 2010 Harry Potter line did immense justice to the series: if you can get past "LEGO as a boy toy" then it is gender neutral. Hagrid's Hut, Hogwarts, and The Burrow are all dollhouses, but you wouldn't really know it because the world and sets are designed well.

There is no reason Wonder Woman can't be the same way: empowering characters and a rich fantasy world. Though she has admittedly been handled inconsistently, I think that this is usually recognized as part of her direction. At the character's core is embassy. Symbolically, she is the ambassador between men and women. I want to say that that line was actually in the animated movie, which the last Wonder Woman film project from before Man of Steel was essentially a 1:1 translation of (I've read the script), so Warner really has no excuse not to notice that.

If people will be turned off by a movie with "Woman" in the title but not a reboot with an all-female cast, then we have bigger problems. At this point I would also like to bring up The Hunger Games, which, despite being female-led, has been successful despite Katniss not being girly and is generally well received by both sexes.

Wonder Woman was designed as "propaganda" to herald "the new type of woman" who her creator thought should rule the world. Yes, she was designed to empower girls, but she was also meant to teach boys to respect women and femininity. She can't do that in the pink aisle. Besides, I think it would be insulting if Wonder Woman has to be sold separately from the rest of the DC Universe because she is a woman. They don't put her action figures in with the dolls. DC Super Hero Girls stuff can go there, and I have no problem (aside from the existence of pink aisles in general).

They clearly do want her in the minds of young girls, which is why she is headlining DC Super Hero Girls. They also want her in the minds of the public, which is why she is getting a big budget movie.

If boys will buy She-Ra dolls, I don't see why girls can't buy minifigures. I don't have anything wrong with Wonder Woman dolls being released, either, as long as it is in addition with more gender neutral stuff.

We got Aquaman and Green Lantern sets with Batman (even though Aquaman is a joke and Green Lantern was taboo before this year), but still not a Wonder Woman one. She had to split it with Flash and Batman, and unlike Flash who has no vehicles or locales, she actually has the world to carry at least part of a set but they still didn't do it. This movie could be our only chance to actually get things from her world.

Mini-doll sets based on the movie won't be compatible with the other DCEU sets. There is a difference between not producing a Margot Robbie Harley Quinn for Suicide Squad and making the only one available a mini-doll.

One thing to consider is the passive nature of mini-doll sets. The only antagonist in pretty much the entire toyline is a peeved squirrel. Maybe DC Super Hero Girls will do a bit to change this, but I doubt it. Wonder Woman and Ghostbusters are still going to be action movies, not sit-coms, even if they are female-led.

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Soupperson1Legendary Brickipedian

110 months ago

Score 0

My perspective, minifigures->boys aisle->girls think it's a boys toy->they generally don't buy it, we can't have a smart gender neutral toy in this day and age, one market will be dominate we either get a set in the boys aisle or a set in the girls aisle. You'd still be getting characters they'd just be mini-dolls. Disney movies are generally gender neutral but Disney markets the toys mainly towards girls.

I actually don't mind minifigures it's just the fact that it be in the boys aisle irritates me :P Growing up as a girl, most of my girls did not play with LEGO unless they had a brother who did, they would go towards Barbie and such. It'd involve going into the dreaded boys asile, ooh also if we got minifigure sets it'd be a male voice over on ads that be somewhat annoying too :P

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BerrybrickLegendary Brickipedian

110 months ago

Score 0

The issue I would have with mini-dolls based on the characters is that all of the other DCEU characters will be minifigures except for Hippolyta, Circe, and Steve Trevor or whoever. That just doesn't seem like good business to me. \_O_/

Maybe they could put the WW sets on an endcap or their own display to keep them out of either aisle.

Disney does so much gendered marketing despite their movies being pretty neutral that I think it is disgusting. I think it is worth noting that while the reason they bought Marvel and Star Wars was to try and get a footing in the boy market akin to the hold they have in the girls' with Princesses, they are still producing Captain Marvel, Agent Carter, and Jessica Jones as part of their cinematic universe. Granted, despite having female characters, they have still come under fire for not marketing them well, but I doubt that they will have that option with Captain Marvel.

The male voice over is annoying anyway. :P Maybe they would hire a woman instead...that's an interesting point, but I don't think it would make or break it.

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Soupperson1Legendary Brickipedian

110 months ago

Score 0

Minifigure versions of the characters could be introduced in pollybags or with those direct to home movies? A minifigure Wonder Woman would be released in the JL sets that year anyway, so there's no problem with getting her. I just have a hard time imaging all the effort thrown into DC girls, and them go be like "Hey girls, go out to the boys aisle for the one super hero movie with a girl as a lead!" :P

I don't think it's possible for them to instruct a store on where to put the sets, outer aisles generally just have the "hot toys" which will make the company bankrupt after supplying to many :P Even with catalogs friends/elves/Disney princess are separated from the other themes, though the girl juniors sets are included with them and they have minifigures,...until next year.

Yeah I don't think Disney has made any Tangled merchandise for boys or Wreck it Ralph merchandise for girls, despite both being well received by both genders. Captain Marvel has been bushed back like 5 times now, Agent Carter and Jessica Jones aren't available in most countries :P

There's more then one type of man doing the voice over,.. thankfully :P

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Soupperson1Legendary Brickipedian

110 months ago

Score 0

Mini-dolls :O :P

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NovaHawkLegendary Brickipedian

110 months ago

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If I even remotely cared about this film, you would so get a downvote for that :P

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Brikkyy13Outstanding Brickipedian

110 months ago

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And there goes my money... :P

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NovaHawkLegendary Brickipedian

110 months ago

Score 2

Absolutely zero interest in this film, so I couldn't care less. I guess one upside is that we'll probably have a minifigure face we can use to make a geeky Thor?

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Soupperson1Legendary Brickipedian

110 months ago

Score 0

Or an "African-American" woman minifigure in a cheap set!

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