ZOINKS! LEGO officially announces Scooby Doo Theme

January 24, 2015 | 7

What wonderful news to wake up to! Bleary-eyed me woke up this morning to a fresh press release from LEGO officially announcing their next licensed theme – Scooby Doo! This is huge for me, as I grew up watching Shaggy, Scooby and the entire gang on TV.

There will be 5 new sets in the first wave, which are currently available for purchase at LEGO’s online store!

LEGO Scooby Doo will be released in Australian retail stores in September.

• 75900 Mummy Museum Mystery (AU$19.99/US$14.99)
• 75901 Mystery Plane Adventures (AU$39.99/US$19.99)
• 75902 The Mystery Machine (AU$49.99/US$29.99)
• 75903 Haunted Lighthouse  (AU$79.99/US$49.99)
• 75904 Mystery Mansion (AU$119.99/US$89.99)

No Australian prices for the Scooby Doo sets are available yet, but I’ll update this post when we get news of it.

Accompanying today’s announcement and press release is without doubt, the most iconic element of the Scooby Doo franchise, the Mystery Machine. The set contains Fred, Shaggy (both have awesome new hairpieces), Scooby Doo and a Zombie. The sets nails the bright and colourful feel of a Saturday morning cartoon turned LEGO set. Unfortunately, it looks like most of the details are accomplished via stickers.

Toy News International also released a photo of the largest set in the wave – the Mystery Mansion. I really like how it looks and keen-eyed readers will be able to spot a wonderful new carved Pumpkin element on the left side of the Mansion.

“Fans always wonder which properties may come to life in LEGO form, and this year we are thrilled to bring all of the mystery, humor and hijinks of the Scooby-Doo universe to life in LEGO toys and animated content,” said Jill Wilfert, vice president, licensing & entertainment at The LEGO Group. “We constantly review  properties to find those with global reach, great characters and stories and inherent building and role play opportunities, and we think that Scooby-Doo delivers on all of these while also driving strong appeal among collectors and today’s parents who have strong nostalgia for the LEGO brand from their own childhood.”

I am quite excited by the Scooby Doo theme and I hope that the first 5 sets are just the first wave of many more Scooby Doo sets to come. I am quite optimistic that the Scooby Doo theme will be a long-ish term partnership between Warner Bros. and LEGO.

I feel that the theme fills a very popular AFOL niche – offering up horror-themed elements and minifigures outside a one-off theme like Monster Fighters. By incorporating all the bright cartoony elements of Scooby Doo and blending it with characters like Zombies, I think that the LEGO Scooby Doo theme will do quite well.

It also helps that most of the kids who grew up watching Hanna-Barbera cartoons are most likely parents now, who will definitely recognize the Scooby Doo brand and buy them for their kids. If the Scooby Doo theme lasts nearly as long as Spongebob Squarepants, I will be delighted.

The release date for LEGO Scooby Doo in the United States will be sometime in August. There is no Australian release date yet, but watch this space for updates!

Are you excited about LEGO Scooby Doo? Let me know in the comments!