CONFIRMED: Fan concept for a Doctor Who LEGO® set will enter production in 2015.The LEGO Group have announced that they will be producing a LEGO Doctor Who set. The concept for a Doctor Who set came from the LEGO® IDEAS website where fans can submit ideas for a set and vote for their favourite idea to be produced.The Doctor Who concept from fan Andrew Clark received the 10,000 votes requisite for The LEGO Group to consider it for production.A licensing agreement between BBC Worldwide and The LEGO Group will see the new set available in all of The LEGO Group’s key markets before the end of the year.Andrew’s winning design featured a range of Doctors, companions and monsters across the show’s history, but fans will have to wait until later this year to discover what will be produced.Marcus Arthur, MD of BBC Worldwide UK said, “Both Doctor Who and LEGO enjoy a particularly close relationship with their fans and I can’t wait to see what LEGO produce.”Emma Owen, UK spokesperson for LEGO Ideas commented: “We’re extremely excited to announce that a Doctor Who and a WALL-E set will be released as our next LEGO Ideas fan based sets, congratulations to the designers Andrew Clark and Angus MacLane!“
(The first Skylanders game appeared in 2011.) It’s not even new to see a toy to life franchise that mixes up various media properties—Nintendo’s Amiibo line brings together characters from all of its franchises, and Disney Infinity offers toys representing all facets of its vast stable of intellectual properties. But there has never, ever been anything like Lego Dimensions, available Sunday on multiple platforms. It mixes and matches elements of blockbuster IPs with the heedless abandon of a fanfic author hopped up on Pixie Stix and Mountain Dew. This game doesn’t just bring together characters and props and settings from its own franchises, like Chima and Ninjago and The Lego Movie. It mashes together Batman, Gandalf, and Homer Simpson. Doctor Who and Scooby Doo. There’s a velociraptor from Jurassic Park, a companion cube from Portal, and a winged monkey from The Wizard of Oz. They can jump behind the wheel of the DeLorean from Back to the Future, the Ecto-1 from Ghostbusters, and the G-6155 from the arcade classic Spy Hunter.
It is a miracle of commerce, a prodigy of cross-branding. Media companies are usually very protective of the sanctity of their IPs–they don’t want to cross the streams, as it were. The fact that so many rights-holders signed on to this daft project is a testament not just to the clout of Lego, but to that of the Lego games franchise created by Manchester studio Traveller’s Tales. What began as a branded toy tie-in has become a ridiculously successful brand in its own right. A decade ago, Traveller’s Tales was tasked with doing a game based on a successful line of Star Wars Lego toys. The game they produced followed the action beats of the trilogy, but the heroes occasionally had to pause and build weapons and tools out of bricks, or make tongue-in-cheek gags at the expense of the source material. “It was the first official parody of a massive license,” says Jon Burton1, co-founder of Traveller’s Tales. “It’s making fun of itself in a knowing way, but without diminishing the brand.”
(This was long before Phineas and Ferb, Robot Chicken, and Family Guy did their Star Wars crossovers.) Lego Star Wars sold millions of copies. Since then, the team has pumped out Legofied versions of Raiders of the Lost Ark, Pirates of the Caribbean, Lord of the Rings, Marvel and DC superheroes, Harry Potter, and Jurassic Park. What’s the secret to the franchise’s appeal? Look at Lego Gandalf. He has maize-yellow skin, a squat squared-off torso, and a ridiculous waddling gate. “But he truly believes that he is the Gandalf, just like Buzz Lightyear believes that he’s an actual a Space Ranger,” says Burton. The devs also took pains to license every bit of the movies, so Lego Gandalf sounds exactly like Sir Ian McKellen, and Howard Shore’s booming score accompanies him wherever he goes. “You add the right music, the right sound effects, the right voices, and these cute little characters that are so endearing and funny are also somehow very…official,” Burton says.
Traveller’s Tales’ Lego games have sold a combined 150 million-plus2 units, and that was before the release of Lego Jurassic World, which was the best-selling game in the U.S. during the month of July. Along the way, the games have introduced many to the toy line. “Lego has had double digit profit growth for the last ten years, which just so happens to coincide with when we launched the games,” says Burton. “And things have gotten more synergistic with Lego. When we did the first Star Wars game, our character designs were based on the existing toys. By the time we did a DC Comics game, someone on my team noticed that the Harley Quinn character model we designed for the game is the exact one they eventually used for the toy.” Lego Dimensions is the logical extension of Traveller’s Tales’ success, a chance to bring together some of its favorite franchises that weren’t new enough, or big enough, to build a standalone game around. “We made a list of the best franchises that we wanted to have in the game,” says Burton.
“When you can sell a toy pack branded Back to the Future, then from a financial point of view, Universal will feel more comfortable.” The pitch worked, over and over. “Barring one licenser, everyone we talked to said yes,” says Burton. (He didn’t name the abstainer, but Disney would seem the shoo-in candidate, given that Star Wars and Marvel have been key Lego crossover franchises in the past but that the company makes its own toys-to-life game, Infinity.) They decisions were made based on which characters and settings had the most potential for fun gameplay. But people at Traveller’s Tales also knew that they were essentially wishing new physical Lego toy lines into existence. “Part of the motivation was that I really wanted to own a Lego Doctor Who and Tardis!” says Burton. “I want a Lego version of Chell from Portal!” If you see Lego DeLoreans and Lego Ecto-1s adorning cubicles around your office, you have Traveller’s Tales to thank. Lego also coaxed (or cajoled or money-hatted) superstar voice talent for the game.