Why No Lego Love for The Acolyte? by Jeff Smith

I’ve been a Star Wars fan since I was five years old, when my father took me to the old Hatboro Movie Theater to see the film when it first premiered. I’ve also been a big Lego fan since I was young. So I, like probably millions of kids in the world, combined the two hobbies.  I made  the spaceships I saw on the big screen and re-enacted my favorite scenes. Re-enacted, of course, in Lego.

In 1999, one of the greatest partnerships ever happened: Lego and Lucasfilm partnered to produce Lego sets from the movies to help promote the prequels. This was a marriage made in heaven! Kids and adults would have the opportunity to build officially-licensed Star Wars sets out of Lego. It was a dream come true! Lucasfilm established yet another merchandising resource, and Lego had rights to the most lucrative franchise in the galaxy. A lot of money was to be made -- and I mean A LOT. To this day Star Wars has been Lego’s biggest selling line, out-selling Lego City, Harry Potter, Technic, and Duplo. They used the license to make sets for every vehicle, movie scene, and droid imaginable. Lego could re-release vehicles and playsets giving them a new makeover. They would still sell. Kids, adults and collectors went nuts over these toys, sometimes buying multiples of the same set. There are sets for every live action Star Wars movie, and every Star Wars tv show.

Except one: The Acolyte.

Why didn’t the Acolyte get any Lego Sets? Lego normally would be jumping at the opportunity to make sets based on new characters, spaceships and scenes. Lego starts designing sets months in advance before a show or movie airs so they can capitalize on the hype and sell more toys. Granted, every set they produce has a risk. Even in the Lego Star Wars universe you can get a dud. Sometimes sets just don’t sell. Set 75201 First Order AT-ST is considered one of the worst-selling sets, as well as set 7111 Droid Fighter. So what was it about The Acolyte that made Lego say “Nah, let’s skip that one. We don’t think we can make a good set from that show.”?

To explore this conundrum, we should first ask the question: What makes a good Lego Set?

I rate a set on three basic criteria:

1. Functionality: Does it operate/move in a realistic or elegant way?

2. Aesthetics: Does the set look cool?

3. Playability: Does it capture the spirit of the vehicle or scene they’re recreating?

Functionality: I’m not going to go into functionality since this usually pertains to Lego Technic sets. Some Star Wars sets have Technic elements to make them move, but most do not.

            Aesthetics: Pure and simple, how the set looks. I just had the pleasure of assembling, set 75382 Tie Interceptor given to me by my friends Geoff and Gretchen. The Tie Interceptor is one of my favorite ships, sleek and fast-looking. Lego captured almost all the details of the movie. It was a fantastic build. I would definitely score it high in the aesthetics category. But, as cool as this set is, it’s out-of-scale with the minifigure included.  If I was a kid, I would have trouble playing with it. Granted it’s a model set, it’s not meant to be played with. But Lego, first and foremost, is a toy company. And their products should be judged as such.

            Playability: How fun is a set to play with? Sets that have firing projectiles, hidden panels, and things for minifigures to do are the most fun. It allows children to immerse themselves into the world of the toy they are playing with. Set 75021 Republic Gunship boasts firing missiles, opening cockpits and compartments, and pivoting gun turrets, too. The more things you can do, the more fun it is. It fully captures the spirit of the clone troopers and the Clone Wars. Very fun.

            Sets that score high in either category are good. But sets that score high in both categories are great! The UCS At-At 75313,The Razor Crest 75331 and The Imperial Shuttle 10212 come to mind. (I have to mention Lord of the Rings Rivendell 10316, too. I know it's not Star Wars but – Wow! What a great build.)

            Now, let’s talk about the three components of the Lego sets: Minifigures, vehicles and playsets. Minifigures, minifigures, minifigures! Star Wars inadvertently made Lego into an action figure company. Rare Star Wars minifigures can go for hundreds of dollars on the secondary market. The right minifigures will make a set immensely popular, not just for kids, but for collectors. Then, there are the vehicles. Star Wars has some of the most iconic spaceships. Need I say it: Millennium Falcon? One of the coolest things about the design of Star Wars ships is that a lot of them are dynamic. The wings on the X-wing open and close, The B-Wing rotates around the cockpit, and, one of my favorite ships, the Imperial shuttle, has wings that fold up when it lands. These features (when done right) translate well to Lego sets. Finally, the playsets. Some memorable settings and scenes: Jabba’s Palace 9516, The Battle of Endor 8038, and The Death Star Final Duel 75291 immediately come to mind. I doubt, however, the Senate Scene Discussing Trade Regulations wouldn’t make a great set. A traumatic scene like Anakin Slaughtering Younglings in the Jedi Temple wouldn’t translate well either.

            So what’s wrong with the Acolyte? Why no Lego sets? There were some interesting characters in the show that would have made great minifigures. What about the vehicles, or some memorable scenes from the show? Here is where I think the Acolyte falls short.

            The Acolyte did some things differently and took some risks. I’m not going to go too deeply into why the show failed, but the risks that the show took would not translate well to marketable Lego set design.  

*** SPOILERS BELOW ***

The story presents itself as a murder mystery. Who is killing Jedi? It follows the events of Jedi Master Sol and his former Padawan Osha. As the story unfolds the protagonists learn that Osha’s twin sister Mae is responsible for the killing – she’s seeking revenge for an incident the Jedi were involved in that went terribly wrong. It ends with most of the protagonists dying, Osha switching sides, and the Jedi Council trying to cover everything up. And herein lies the problem: The show kills off most of the characters. I think several characters would have made great minifigures, but they either died, had twisted or questionable motivations, and/or were just not likable. Do kids like playing “My Jedi Master has abandonment issues” with their minifigures? Probably not.

Even though I have the same criticism about all of Disney’s vehicle designs (we either get a generic, dull ship or a rehash of a ship we’ve seen before), the ships in The Acolyte were notably lackluster. They don’t relate to any of the classic or prequel ships. They’re designed in a vacuum. The coolest ship was probably Master Sol’s ship, the Polan-717. It has wings that fold in on itself, and it splits in half when it lands on a planet. The main hull and bridge go down to the planet while the wings and main engine stay in orbit. It doesn’t really make sense, but it doesn’t look half-bad. The other ship designs are just mediocre. And bland.

            The biggest problem with The Acolyte in terms of Lego manufacture is the lack of meaningful scenes. Take any Lego set that represents a scene, imagine a child playing with it, and ask them, “How does it end?” In every case, it ends on a positive note. It makes it fun for kids to play.  Jabba’s Palace: “Well, the good guys get captured, but Luke enacts his plan, they defeat Jabba and escape.” The Battle of Endor: “Well, the rebels get cornered, but with the help of the Ewoks, they are able to overtake the Imperial Base and blow up the shield generator.” The Final Duel: “Luke is almost defeated, but Darth Vader has a change of heart and redeems himself by throwing the Emperor down this big shaft.”

Now let's imagine a scene set from The Acolyte. There are two memorable scenes. The first: A coven of Lesbian Force Witches takes control of Jedi Wookie Kenacca with their mind powers and turn him against his companions. The Jedi have to figure out how to subdue him without getting themselves killed, or killing Kenacca. A pretty intense fight ensues. So how does it end? “Well, fighting defensively against Kennacca, the Jedi wear him down enough for Master Indara to use her force power to expel the lesbian hive mind from the Wookie, somehow resulting in the death of the entire coven.” “They all die?” “Every one of them. Dead, dead, dead.” “Oh.” Not terribly fun, is it? The second: A climax scene that depicts the final duel between the Sith Qimir and Jedi Master Sol. How does that one end? “After a pretty grueling fight, Jedi Master Sol finally gets the upper hand on Qimir, but Osha intervenes, turns to the dark side, and force-chokes her former master to death.” Both scenes leave the viewer feeling empty. Neither scene ends well for the protagonists. Neither scene would translate well to a Lego Set.

            Wait a minute. I forgot about droids! What is Star Wars without droids? Certainly a set can be made from droids in The Acolyte, right? There's the pocket droid, PIP, who looks like an 80’s electronic toy. Or the prison guard droid, who looks like a guy in a suit of armor. And the transformer droid. Yes, that would make a cool Lego set! What does he transform into? A chair. A chair? Never mind.

            Lego gets the scripts ahead of time, so they have time to design, produce and market their sets. It takes months of planning and development. Clearly, they must have seen the writing on the wall. Bleak scenes, boring spaceships, and unlikable characters don’t make great toys for kids. Or adults. The Acolyte gave them nothing to work with. In the end, whatever Lego comes up with, they need to justify their investment. They need to make money. Their sets need to be fun.

Their Final Verdict (and mine): The Acolyte, clearly, just wasn’t very fun.