LEGO Ideas Discussion

[N_Cat]

Huh... so Science Adventures might compete with Research Institute? But the Research Institute sold out unusually quickly, and many people, myself included, never got it. I doubt Lego is doing another production run of RI, so do they think nobody wants a science vignette set? Because I know I sure do!

[legoman19892]

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Edited October 30, 2015 by legoman19892

[Ondra]

Well now is ideas TLG worst and ludicruos project, there are almost zero logic in reviews with lots of conspiracy going with many exclusive sets that mostly archieved supporters few months before.

Now Im not interested in ideas anymore, thank you!You are killing your own child...

[BirdOPrey5]

I hope the Corvette brand didn't want to give LEGO a license because if it was any other reason the Corvette didn't pass they should just close down Lego Ideas now... That was virtual perfection.

[dr_spock]

I don't think anybody would buy that Golden Girls set, how that got 10000 supporters baffles me.

Golden Girls was promoted on social media and then the main stream news media picked up on it. That gave it its boost to get to 10000 quickly by fans of the show or Betty White. There is no guarantee anyone who voted for a project will eventually buy the set. They didn't have to put down a deposit to vote like buying a car or house. Part of the review should be evaluating how many actual buyers of the product. Perhaps LEGO raise the bar on that threshhold given that Exo-suit had to be discounted to clear the inventory.

[paul_delahaye]

The most enjoyable part of that video was seeing some inside footage of various areas inside one of Lego's offices, really love how they have artwork up of their old sets from back in the day, and copies of the old sets on display, how awsome to see that airport monorail, almost a mint box!

Love it, as for why they selected no sets this time, I can only imagine they have all their Lego Ideas engineers trying to work out how to fix the mess up made with WALL-E's rotating head!

Edited October 30, 2015 by paul_delahaye

[Dr.Cogg]

I can just see TLG in the future making Legends of Zelda sets and saying" look we are making Zelda sets now and its all are Idea", just like Portal, ultimate Helicarrier, sandcrawler and GB firehouse, I'm not mad about them making the sets, I'm mad that they don't give credit to the people that thought of the idea.

P.S. At least they made the Dr.Who set.

Edited October 30, 2015 by Dr.Cogg

[KlodsBrik]

I can just see TLG in the future making Legends of Zelda sets and saying" look we are making Zelda sets now and its all are Idea", just like Portal, ultimate Helicarrier, sandcrawler and GB firehouse, I'm not mad about them making the sets, I'm mad that the don't give credit to the people that thought of the idea.

P.S. At least they made the Dr.Who set.

Amen to all of that.

I read the topic earlier and thought of writing somewhat exactly the same. Cuusoo died, now it looks like Ideas are going down the same road.

Im just glad that all the Doctor Who fans who have worked many years to make LEGO make some Doctor Who sets actually accomplished this.

With that said im sad if its going to be as i suspect, i really like the idea that fols can have an impact on new set ideas. Get me right, i know we still will, however their is a special feeling buying an Cuusoo or Idea set, knowing the work, passion and time the fol have mostly put behind it.

[fred67]

Well, Science Adventures is rather similar to the Research Institute Ideas set ...

Huh... so Science Adventures might compete with Research Institute? But the Research Institute sold out unusually quickly, and many people, myself included, never got it. I doubt Lego is doing another production run of RI, so do they think nobody wants a science vignette set? Because I know I sure do!

It doesn't make sense at all, really. RI sold out and I think there was a second wave (I think it was already in production, a second wave of shipments).

Why they didn't do more runs is baffling.

As far as SA being too similar - when a set does that well, and sells out that quickly, you'd think they'd want to repeat that success. I guess not.

[jonwil]

My thoughts on why they didn't make it:

Science Adventures, my guess is that because its the same person as the Research Institute AND a somewhat similar set, they probably didn't want something so similar so soon.

Discworld is too big and not popular enough. (and I heard getting licensing for it can be a pain)

Medieval Market is too big

Frozen castle would have been too big even if they weren't already doing Frozen sets

DC-3 I suspect is too niche a product (how many kids today even know what a DC3 is?) and a little on the big side again

T-Rex is too big plus they already have a T-Rex in the Jurassic World sets

ISS would have been too big and/or too difficult to pull off (a large chunk of the set would have needed to be support structure to hold the thing up)

Golden Girls isn't popular enough (the only thing I ever liked about the Golden Girls is the catchy theme song)

Zelda has the same issues as every other Zelda project.

Titanic was too big (even the smaller one) and a model of a ship that sank on its maiden voyage may not be the best brand fit for LEGO

Daft Punk was too small

Frozen Castle they already made into a set.

As for the Corvette, they already have one (albeit a modern one) comming out in Speed Champions next year (which they wouldn't want to compete with) and they already have a line of larger scale cars. Also, just how much recognition do those older Corvettes have in places like Europe?

Small Yellow has the issues with the original artist but also the issue of just how popular it would be as a set.

Daft Punk wasn't really a set, just some minifigs and accessories.

Also you have to remember that they have a very limited production capacity for product (and especially so for Ideas sets) and currently have Big Bang Theory, Dr Who and Wall-E in production with the Ecto-1 almost certainly staying in production because of the firehouse. Oh and the yet-to-be-revealed marble maze.

As for the F7A Hornet that has been kept in review for the second time, I suspect they have decided that it would work as a set but they are waiting to see what happens with the game (which is still in beta last I checked) to make sure its a good brand fit and doesn't end up being a "mature" game once all the content is developed.

Looking at the projects currently in review:

Indominus Rex has all the problems of the T-Rex plus its even bigger and harder to pull off

Adventure Time, I dont know if Warner would accept brick built figures for an Adventure Time set. Plus the show just isn't popular enough (Scooby Doo is a lot more popular and they got to tap into the nostalgia factor for those who remember the old Scooby Doo shows). And for all we know, there may be licensing issues surrounding this.

I think we can say that neither of the LOTR projects are going to make it (Orthanc seemed to be a flop as far as d2c sets go and the last waves of LOTR/Hobbit didn't exactly fly off the shelves)

I dont think the Physics set has a broad enough appeal to sell well

Caterham Super 7, it has even less recognition than the Corvette did (especially among kids). Heck I am a car guy and watch a lot of car shows/read a lot of car websites and even I dont really know all that much about the Caterham (or would buy one).

I think the modular library is too big to work as an Ideas set (yes LEGO knows how well modulars sell but this would have a fair price premium due to all the detailing/interior and the fact that its an Ideas set). I just dont think LEGO is going to do an Ideas set that would have a US RRP north of $100

Mr Stay Puft is NICE (and I for one would definatly buy one) but I think its a little too big plus it would conflict with whatever they are doing otherwise for Ghostbusters (like the firehouse). They may even be doing a Mr Stay Puft set of their own like with the firehouse.

For the Little Prince, there may be licensing issues plus there is the "is it popular enough with the target audience" question.

The LandCruiser is even bigger than the Vette and Caterham. And its even less popular than either of those would have been (yes it has recognition but its not the sort of thing people are going to buy as a set). And again it may conflict with their plans for more large-scale cars and more Speed Champions projects.

The Jurassic Park car is nice but it looks nothing like anything in the new film and I just dont see it selling (plus again there may be limits on what the license LEGO has allows them to do)

The submarine is nice (and I do like the sort of "steampunk" vibe its giving off) but it doesn't have the appeal to the target audience. Oh and again its probably too big.

[Sven F]

I am not disappointed, as I wouldn't buy any of it anyway. maybe the little scientists, but not overthrilled. What I am disappointed about is the way fairly lousy sets reach 10000 votes, and a lot of plausible stuff gets left behind. I think this is the worst selection since i started following the reviews. The projects are usually good, but way too large, however this time there's just a bunch of flawed ideas. Why do people bother submitting sets that hold existing licenses and themes?

[fred67]

The projects are usually good, but way too large, however this time there's just a bunch of flawed ideas. Why do people bother submitting sets that hold existing licenses and themes?

I agree... I would have bought some of these, but it's been a long discussion about about what "should be allowed" on Ideas.

How some of these ideas get ANY votes is beyond me... of course I was even recently asked to vote for a set from the parent of someone who submitted a set. It was a nice MOC for a kid his age... it stands no chance of being made into a set. I didn't vote for it. I didn't tell them I didn't vote for it, but I didn't vote for it.

[L@go]

The most enjoyable part of that video was seeing some inside footage of various areas inside one of Lego's offices, really love how they have artwork up of their old sets from back in the day, and copies of the old sets on display, how awsome to see that airport monorail, almost a mint box!

It's not an office - as she says in the beginning of the video, it's the Idea House, a museum not normally open to the public, but a place where the LEGO employees can go to get inspired by the LEGO history. It's a very interesting place, and it's located inside Ole Kirk Christiansen's old house in the center of Billund. And the legendary Vault is in the basement right underneath it :)

[ShaydDeGrai]

Small Yellow has the issues with the original artist but also the issue of just how popular it would be as a set.

Actually, small yellow was submitted by the original artist, Nathan Sawaya, so I don't think that was the problem. For the volume of sets an average Ideas run consists of, popularity probably wasn't that big an issue either ( Nathan could probably have bought the entire run himself and just resold them at one of his roving Art of the Brick shows) I think the more likely explanation is the question of the build itself. The idea of a third of the bricks just being loosely tossed in probably didn't sit well. Also, having seen Nathan's work close up (and having had to solve a lot of engineering problems while making sculptures myself) it's possible that the statue as designed was too fragile for TLG taste. Sawaya uses glue on his pieces, sometimes for durability and sometimes because his design exceeds the native clutch power of the bricks under his typical construction techniques.

[Robert8]

My god what a waste of time

5 months of review for literally nothing

0/13 is ridiculous

[The Executive]

Nothing ,seriously? Lego Ideas is becoming a joke and a waste of time. Why do they make people wait all of this time for nothing? I can't see why small yellow couldn't have made it at least. I do not support Lego ideas, I think it just gets people all hyped up for no reason.

[Dorayaki]

The good thing is, it's not an absolute competition that there must be one "winner" in every review. If there are really no suitable projects, I don't think LEGO should be forced to do any of them. Porbably some voters rather wish to see more of those previous projects selected.

As for these projects, as usual there are defenitely impossible ones. LEGO might not wish to do oversized sets via LEGO Ideas. Some other original ideas which might fit a regular set might depend on LEGO's inhouse market research.

My personally dissapointment is not to see Golden Girls pass since it has the same potential and product size with TBBT set, I quite don't understand why it fails.

The additional issue is that LEGO announced Ghostbuster office recently. Plus those Dimensions franchises, would it be that LEGO actually knock all those fan projects done but secretly begin to do their own thing? It'd still be good to fans, but not to project makers. Hopefully it is a ridiculous assumption.

Edited October 31, 2015 by Dorayaki

[KristofBD]

What a bummer...

Time to clarify the rules to avoid disappointments like this. Waste of time for everyone involved (including LEGO).

[Lego Dino 500]

Lego really does need to overhaul Lego Ideas. All the good projects are left to rot under a blanket of "proud father look what my kid made" posts and only the ridiculously huge impractical ones or the ones who catch the media's eye get to 10,000. It should almost be counted as vote manipulation, nobody who voted for the Golden Girls set would have been an actual customer of Lego. This vote manipulation from an outside source is the #1 reason why so many good projects can't make it to the top. It's no different than using alt accounts on Reddit or Twitter to get your content to the top, and there needs to be something done about it. What if you had to use a Lego VIP account with purchase history to submit projects? But it's a shame the Douglas DC-3 didn't make it, that would've been an instant purchase for me.

Edited October 31, 2015 by Lego Dino 500

[AFOLguy1970]

I would have bought the DC-3 as well. The key takeaway for me from the video is that you had better not consider anything over 500 pieces unless it is the idea of the century. Consider the quip about production capacity limitations to be the unofficial piece count limit for an Ideas project.

Edited October 31, 2015 by AFOLguy1970

[Puvel]

Was kinda hoping for the Discworld one, my living room wall is a basically a mix of LEGO and books so it would have been perfect.

The books are very popular so it could have been a successful set but can imagine license issues killed it.

[Saberwing40k]

Dear god, why is everybody so cynical? Just kidding, I know exactly why. Lego Ideas is just a way for them to get easy money, and often times they cheat the original idea or model maker out of it. Like with the fire house. And, 5 months of reviews for not a single set is a joke. It's a bloody joke, and they should just drop all the pretense of it and limit people to 500 piece or smaller creations, as they have demonstrated an unwillingness to make anything larger. You would think Ideas would allow Lego to do things aimed outside of their primary demographic, but no, everything has to appeal to everybody. The fact that the sets fly off the shelves and are extremely hard to get indicates that there is a market. I actually got to see some of this in action. Almost 100% of the people I observed in the Lego store who bought those sets were adult fans buying it for themselves. I don't know if that is representative, but it might be a fair indicator. Or, maybe they could remove the review phase entirely, and make the system paid. Basically, if the item reaches 10,000 supporters, it is automatically put in production, but that is because everybody chips in like 10 bucks, or if the item reaches a set dollar goal. Also, I think submitters should be required to do some legwork in terms of models, and not allow people to post half baked mocs, and crappy LDD screenshots. Finally, Lego should publish a detailed list of things they will or will not touch, and detailed standards. Like, they would list licenses they have had trouble with in the past, or the different dollar goals for sets of certain size.

[Blondie-Wan]

Lego really does need to overhaul Lego Ideas. All the good projects are left to rot under a blanket of "proud father look what my kid made" posts and only the ridiculously huge impractical ones or the ones who catch the media's eye get to 10,000. It should almost be counted as vote manipulation, nobody who voted for the Golden Girls set would have been an actual customer of Lego. This vote manipulation from an outside source is the #1 reason why so many good projects can't make it to the top. It's no different than using alt accounts on Reddit or Twitter to get your content to the top, and there needs to be something done about it. What if you had to use a Lego VIP account with purchase history to submit projects? But it's a shame the Douglas DC-3 didn't make it, that would've been an instant purchase for me.

That's not the case at all. We're expected and even encouraged to use social media and whatever other outside publicity we can get to get votes; it's an intrinsic part of the process.

And you have no way of knowing "nobody" who voted for the Golden Girls project is an actual customer of LEGO (in fact, it's quite easy to demonstrate the opposite, since there are numerous LEGO fans who supported it, not to mention two other projects based on the show that also got thousands of votes, both by different creators from this project and from each other). LEGO is now pretty massively popular, and it's probably safe to say at this point that there's at least a little overlap between LEGO fandom and pretty much any other fandom (or hobby / interest) one can imagine.

Dear god, why is everybody so cynical? Just kidding, I know exactly why. Lego Ideas is just a way for them to get easy money, and often times they cheat the original idea or model maker out of it. Like with the fire house. And, 5 months of reviews for not a single set is a joke. It's a bloody joke, and they should just drop all the pretense of it and limit people to 500 piece or smaller creations, as they have demonstrated an unwillingness to make anything larger. You would think Ideas would allow Lego to do things aimed outside of their primary demographic, but no, everything has to appeal to everybody. The fact that the sets fly off the shelves and are extremely hard to get indicates that there is a market. I actually got to see some of this in action. Almost 100% of the people I observed in the Lego store who bought those sets were adult fans buying it for themselves. I don't know if that is representative, but it might be a fair indicator. Or, maybe they could remove the review phase entirely, and make the system paid. Basically, if the item reaches 10,000 supporters, it is automatically put in production, but that is because everybody chips in like 10 bucks, or if the item reaches a set dollar goal. Also, I think submitters should be required to do some legwork in terms of models, and not allow people to post half baked mocs, and crappy LDD screenshots. Finally, Lego should publish a detailed list of things they will or will not touch, and detailed standards. Like, they would list licenses they have had trouble with in the past, or the different dollar goals for sets of certain size.

With all due respect, there's so much wrong with this I don't even know where to begin.

First off, there's no reason to think they're cheating anybody out of anything. It's unfortunate that fan ideas are sometimes rejected when TLG releases their own versions of those same concepts shortly after, but frankly it's to be expected with any active license. The Ghostbusters HQ surely has to have been in the works since long before the fan project entered review.

And the five months may well have been that long because they were really trying to see if they could produce one or more of those projects, but ultimately just weren't able to. In the case of licensed projects, it can be completely out of their hands - they might be unable to reach a licensing agreement with the rightsholders that makes both parties happy, or the rightsholders might just not be interested in having LEGO sets made of their IP at all. Other projects might run into engineering difficulties, or any number of other things.

The fact that there are so many projects that don't get approved ought to indicate that just automatically producing everything that reaches 10,000 votes could never work. Moreover, it would play havok with the rest of their production capacity if they did.

And they can't just put out a list of every conceivable thing they will or won't approve. You're asking them to literally list everything in the universe with a "yes" or "no" notice for it. They can't do that.

Edited November 1, 2015 by Blondie-Wan

[XAxles]

So now here comes the hard part: how do you get a gem of a build, something that's truly unique, will be a blast to build but has no IP ties, and isn't too large (1000 pcs is the max limit) to be popular enough to get to 10k and be a set that's worth your money? Surely there's that one build or two currently in the Ideas pool that this site can give a seal of approval on and campaign hard enough until it gets to the magic number, right?

[Sven F]

Only thing that baffles me is why any company wouldn't be interested in a LEGO depiction. It's a great honour that definitely increases popularity, it's like being a star during the 80's and saying you don't want to be on the muppet show.

They either underestimate the power of positive influence lego has, or they are simply stupid.

Edited November 1, 2015 by Sven F