The new Angry Birds LEGO line will help you create your own set up to save the piggies.
Jill Wilfert, vice president of licensing & entertainment for The LEGO Group said,
“We are excited to bring Angry Birds to life in LEGO form, given the popularity of the game and its characters with fans of all ages, which will only be amplified by the forthcoming film.”
The Angry Birds app is the most downloaded app in the store, at more than one billion downloads. Along with the original Angry Birds, there are multiple spin offs.
The company that created this franchise is Rovio.
According to Rovio, they have launched “numerous chart-topping games under the Angry Birds brand for different platforms: Angry Birds, Angry Birds Seasons, Angry Birds Rio, Angry Birds Space, Angry Birds Friends, Amazing Alex, Bad Piggies, Angry Birds Star Wars, Angry Birds Star Wars II, Angry Birds GO, Angry Birds Stella and Angry Birds Transformers.”
This particular LEGO line will be based on the Angry Birds Movie that is expected to come out alongside the Lego line in Spring 2016.
According to the Chief Executive Officer of Rovio, Pekka Rentala, said,
“The LEGO brand has an unparalleled ability to connect with people through products that spark creativity and imagination. We’re really excited to build experiences together with this amazing best-in-class partner.”
LEGO is not new to creating lines based on franchises. They’ve created the Bionicle LEGO, Star Wars LEGO, Disney LEGO and The Simpsons LEGO.
In 2014, Rovio’s annual revenue was down by 9%. The media attention had gone up since 2013, and consumption of products was down as well.
According to Reuters, “It has struggled to retain players amid competition from new games.”
Some of the similar games are considered to be Stupid Zombies, Fruit Ninja and Birds’n’Blocks.
Chief Executive Mikael Hed explained that they had overestimated the amount of income Angry Birds would generate in the coming years, and because of the over compensation of employees, they had to lay off 130 jobs, or 16 percent of their workers in Finland.
With the addition of a LEGO line, and a 3D full length feature film that’s set to come out May 20, 2016, the profits shouldn’t be a problem for the company.
According to IGN, “The Angry Birds movie comes from The Simpsons writer Jon Vitti, and directors Clay Kaytis and Fergal Reilly (formally animators on movies like Frozen and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, respectively).”
Some of the stars of the Angry Birds film are Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones) as the voice of Migty Eagle, Keegan-Michael Key (Let’s Be Cops) and Josh Gad (Frozen).
According to Rovio,
“The upcoming Angry Birds Feature Film is getting very positive reactions from major retail and license partners as well from consumer focus groups. This will have a positive impact on licensing in the coming years.”
As of now, Angry Bird merchandise such as shirts, beanies and plushies are sold at places such as Hot Topic, Target and Amazon.
Not much has been said about what the LEGO line will contain, but fans are hoping to be able to reinact their favorite Angry Birds levels, sling shot included.
Another addition to the ever growing brand is an animated series. The series began in 2013 under the title “Angry Birds Toons” and was released in Finland.
According to IMDB, “ANGRY BIRDS TOONS brings to life the characters and adventures from one of the beloved games in history!”
While this may seem like a last ditch effort by Rovio due to the decrease in popularity of their games, with a budget of $80 million, fans should be looking forward to this.
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