Well it's the 90th anniversary of LEGO as a whole right, doesn't have to be all classic stuff. I mean a lot of them are from the 90s/early 2000s so why not Trains too? I'd wager there'd be a lot more interest for the more recent line anyway particularly as the blocky classic stuff wouldn't fit so well into a lot of modern city builds.
I don't see an issue with this, they still let you specify a sub-theme so you can easily request the first line of Alpha Team sets.
Maybe they're being sensitive given recent events in America if you're talking about gun violence
Also with thirty to choose from, the ones they've picked are quite iconic and I wouldn't be surprised if Western just missed the cut.
At the risk of incurring the wrath of all the Bionicle fans out there, I rather hope Bionicle doesn't make the cut. It's already been re-launched fairly recently, and of all the products to choose from, if they do something from the original run then I don't see much opportunity for creativity or having a decently large set? They'll be making something new (re-releasing Tahu wouldn't be particularly impressive of a 90th anniversary celebration) and I don't see where you can go with that.
Well yeah, LEGO started in 1932 And this gives them plenty of time to design a set, get it peer reviewed, produced, all that lengthy process which will presumably be made tougher during the COVID-19 pandemic.
I'm sure they'll have a lot of other things planned for 2022 too - LEGO IDEAS isn't one of the more well-known parts of the company (ask anyone in the street about it and they likely won't have heard about it compared to other aspects of LEGO) so this seems to me like a nice side-project for the fans who know about it.
Sure they could make one for every theme but that's a huge investment banking on people's nostalgia. This method lets them gauge how much interest there would actually be for such a thing, I'm sure all the business boffins there would have proposed an entire line of products if they thought it would be financially worthwhile.
And I really don't think this is going to split the fan base haha, it's a harmless vote. I'd hope that the LEGO fandom doesn't draw in the kind of people that will go ballistic at each other over which toy gets made. If you're that desperate just buy the original ones off Bricklink or eBay.