LEGO VIDIYO is a Lego theme that was released in March 2021 based around the concept of creating music videos with an AR app. The theme is a partnership with Universal Music Group and LEGO, with a music artist known as L.L.A.M.A. debuting as the "real" version of the Party Llama character in the sets. The app for the theme was released at the same time as the physical products.
The characters combine the wacky diversity of LEGO Minifigures with musical theming (being performers from pursuits encompassing instruments, vocals, and dance) and 1980s-era aesthetics, and the physical products are centered around the Minifigures (here, within the context of the theme, referred to as "Bandmates"), with some sold in "BeatBox" carry cases including a large amount of BeatBit tiles to be scanned by the app, and two series of twelve blind-boxed Bandmate figures with three BeatBits each.
The theme was a brave attempt at a child-friendly version of TikTok, but with a criticism about the app's glitchy performance and concerns over the expenditure of the physical sets, the theme proved to be a commercial disaster and was discontinued almost a year later.
Capture the Beat of these Tropes!
- The '80s: Many of the characters draw from the colors and fashions of this decade, likely due to how prominent pop music was in the image of that time. Some figures fall outside of the eighties theme, like the Discowboys' genre placing them firmly in the seventies and the punk leanings of a few characters feeling from eras either before or after the eighties.
- Amazing Technicolor Population: As to be expected for LEGO themes with fantastic species, there are a few cases, like the Genie Dancer's lavender skin, the Alien Keytarist's orange hue, and the Banshee Singer's spooky green. The Vampire Guitarist is an interesting case, breaking with most LEGO vampires and even the Vampire Bassist in the same theme, as, instead of having stark-white skin, he has a pale mint tone. There are several animal cases as well, like a teal shark, pink kitten, and blue leopard.
- Anthropomorphic Food: In keeping with its theming, most of the Candy Pop genre's performers fall under this. The Ice Cream Saxophonist is a humanoid ice cream person with candy clothes and waffle-cone legs. The Candy Mermaid has elements of this to an extent, as her fish half is also a sweets half, and so her hair looks like frosting and her tail is also waffle-cone. The second wave introduces two gummi bear characters in the Candy Pop theme.
- Blob Monster: One of the Series 2 Bandmates is the Slime Singer, a human-shaped semi-translucent pile of slime.
- Bunnies for Cuteness: The Bunny Dancer and Bunny Guitarist are cute, friendly-looking rabbit people.
- Chained by Fashion: The Banshee Singer features chains across her torso, which plays into both her classic-ghost and modern-metal influences.
- Cool Horse: The Unicorn DJ and Flying Unicorn Singer are magical pop star horses.
- Frozen Fashion Sense: The Genie Dancer and Banshee Singer both wear older styles of clothing. The Genie Dancer's likely evokes the history of her folklore or marks her as ageless, while the Banshee Singer's suggests she's been dead for a while.
- Funny Animal: While this theme has similarities to the LEGO Minifigures line, one of the ways it sets itself apart stylistically is by having its animal characters be animal people rather than costumes, most of whom fall into the K-Pawp genre.
- Genie in a Bottle: The Genie Dancer is based on this trope, though she does not come with a lamp.
- Genre Mashup: A variation. Each featured music genre in the theme is an established genre that is given a fresh spin by mixing it with a different theme or other genre
- "Candy Pop": pop music with characters either themed around or made from candy (whether partially or not).
- "Discowboy": seemingly a cross between country and disco.
- "ETDM": EDM made and performed by aliens.
- "Fantasy Folk": folk music involving characters from fairy tales and such.
- "K-Pawp": K-Pop performed by cute animal characters, like bunnies and kittens.
- "Monster Metal": heavy metal with monster characters, mostly those associated with horror.
- "Pirate Punk": punk music with a piratical theme.
- "Robo Hip-Hop": hip-hop music performed by robots.
- "Samurap": rap with a Japanese influence.
- "Tropico/Tropical Techno": techno with a Latin twist and (mostly) animal characters.
- Giant Squid: The pirate musicians gain a Squid Drummer in the second wave, likely invoking this or the Kraken.
- The Gimmick: as this article says here
it's augmented TikTok for your minifigure. - Hook Hand: The Punk Pirate has one, though it doesn't seem to inhibit his skill as a guitarist. DJ Captain also has one, but her area is slightly less likely to be hindered by her hook.
- Humanoid Aliens: Two different takes. The Alien DJ and Alien Singer are more ethereal, technological, and abstract, while the Alien Keytarist and Alien Dancer are goofy cartoony civilian humanoids.
- Interspecies Friendship: The Candy Ballerina, a minifigure, is best friends with the Blue-Beary Guitarist, a gummi bear.
- Irony: There's a zombie character, and he's a dancer, likely the last kind of pursuit you'd think appropriate for a slow, shuffling, rotting corpse.
- Lady Looks Like a Dude: The Shark Singer is an aggressive, scarred, bulky punk shark, but is female, according to her bio. This breaks with a trend of LEGO's nonhuman female characters having Tertiary Sexual Characteristics, as the Shark Singer has none to mark her gender.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: One of the Series 2 Bandmates, DJ Beatbox, is a robot DJ with a head shaped like one of the BeatBox cases.
- Monster Mash: The Monster Metal genre's performers make this up, with a dragon, ghost, werewolf, zombie, and two vampires appearing in that category.
- Mythology Gag:
- Both the Banshee Singer and Candy Mermaid are vocalists, which draws from their species' folklore having emphasis on their voices (banshees being characterized as having ominous sobs or screams and merfolk having magical song).
- The Karaoke Mermaid has Japanese styling to reference the origin of karaoke itself, while keeping the vocal theme of her mermaid species.
- Non-Mammalian Hair: The Hip-Hop Robot and Bass Bot have hair made of cables.
- Non-Mammal Mammaries: Averted by the Shark Singer, an adult female fish-woman with a sagging shirt but no humanoid feminine contours or breasts (which a shark wouldn't logically have).
- Orange/Blue Contrast: The two cartoony alien Bandmates exhibit this. Both wear purple tones, but the Alien Keytarist in Series 1 has orange skin and the Alien Dancer in Series 2 has blue.
- Our Dragons Are Different: There are two dragon characters in the Western form: the Dragon Singer, who is a typical threatening red dragon person, and the Dragon Guitarist, a softer, more benevolent-looking pastel dragon.
- Our Fairies Are Different: The Fairy Violinist and Fairy Singer.
- Our Mermaids Are Different: There's a mermaid half made of candy, a mermaid with Japanese theming, and a punk mermaid.
- Our Werewolves Are Different: The Werewolf Drummer shifts in musical persona as well as physiology when he transforms. By day, he's a mild-mannered improvisational jazz player, but during the full moon, he's a heavy-metal percussionist.
- Pom-Pom Girl: The Cotton Candy Cheerleader.
- The Prankster: The description for the Red Panda Dancer says he likes to pull pranks, such as putting toothpaste in people's hair wax.
- Punny Name: The gummi bears are named the Blue-Beary Guitarist and DJ Rasp-Beary.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Dragon Singer is an aggressive metal enthusiast while his brother, the Dragon Guitarist, is more sensitive and enjoys playing calm acoustic music. They're even colored red and blue respectively.
- Shout-Out:
- The Alien DJ and Alien Singer's appearance, their helmets in particular, make them resemble Homem-Christo, one half of the former music duo Daft Punk.
- The Cotton Candy Cheerleader's bio describes her as "Bananas. B-A-N-A-N-A-S."
- The Ice Cream Saxophonist is described as equally talented to the Epic Sax Guy.
- The Robo Hip-Hop Car model has a two-sided face sculpture resembling a Super Sentai mask on one side and Optimus Prime on the other.
- Threatening Shark: The Shark Singer and Shark Guitarist lean into this by evoking threatening human archetypes through their aggressive punk styling.
- Vampire Hickey: The Vampire Guitarist has two bite holes on his neck. It's possible the Vampire Bassist had something to do with it...
- Visual Pun: The vampires in the second wave of sets play literal axe guitars.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: Not fully shirtless, but DJ Cheetah, the Hip-Hop Robot, and the Carnival Dancer wear their shirts open, exposing their chests.
- Winged Unicorn: The Flying Unicorn Singer is an example.
