Lego Cuusoo

[Fugazi]

I had a look at a similar topic posted in the Technic forum by Crtlego a little while ago, and I thought that Cuusoo was a great concept that could have fans beyond the Technic forum. I didn't want to hijack that topic so I'm posting this here in the hope that there would be some interest from non-Technic fans too.

As Crtlego mentioned: "Cuusoo is actually an official partner with the Lego Group. Basically, if you have an idea for a new lego design or product you "create a wish" (upload a design) with the details of your idea and if 1000 other people wish for your idea then your idea can become a reality. The concept seems to work and when you browse different topics on there page some of the ideas are labeled "available" which I interpreted as somebody's idea turned into a product."

Actually, one project has already made it to the 1000 supporters level and is being readied for production by TLG at the moment: see here and here (set 21100 "Shinkai 6500").

As you can see, there's no need to submit an actual brick-built design, sketches or pictures of the actual object will work too. This can be an excellent opportunity to request new part designs or unusual colours.

I submitted an idea myself (minifig-scale articulated city bus), but I realise that for this to really work, the suggested ideas must come as a result of a group brainstorming. It's not easy to get 1000 pledges, and I don't think that the EB membership would be sufficient to gather that much support for any suggestion, but if we come up with good ideas then we can get the ball rolling and find more support in the general Cuusoo membership.

I'm looking for ideas, suggestions! Please keep in mind that we need to come up with designs that would be of interest to the greatest number of people, if we want to make it happen. I would like to discuss ideas in this thread, and eventually add the ones that sound the most promising to the Cuusoo list. And then your support will be essential to the wish going up in the ranks and eventually becoming a real product. Only 50 votes are enough for TLG to give feedback on the design/idea. At 500 votes, they start working on preliminary designs for production.

There are dozens of wish lists of different themes all over EB, so bring your best ideas here and let's see which ones would fire up the most people!

Do also have a look at the suggestions in the Technic Cuusoo thread, they are definitely worth your support! Also, if you already have wishes up on Cuusoo, this would be a good place to promote your ideas.

A few random suggestions to start the discussion:

- Western set?

- Pirate-era building?

- Classic Space-style ship or base? or Blacktron perhaps?

- world-famous building that hasn't been done yet?

- collectible-style minifigure?

- historical set: Greek/Roman/Viking/Asian etc?

[jonwil]

I LOVE this idea and think its GREAT.

Remember though that any ideas submitted should be things that would be acceptable to TLG. So for example, submitting an idea to make a Western Saloon set wont be a good idea (since TLG probably wont make sets where alcohol is such a large part of the set). Or submitting a idea for say an M1A1 Abrams main battle tank wont work because TLG wouldn't produce a tank as part of a set (in fact there is a story going back to the early days of castle somewhere where the castle people were saying "the bosses wont let us produce slope bricks in grey because we keep building tanks and they dont like that")

Some ideas that might be worth considering which I have seen suggested by other people as well:

Modular House Bank, could look somewhat like the new Gringots bank or the many historic downtown banks/financial buildings in various cities with the big columns. Build it in Tan or Grey with lots of the new grooved column pieces and other decorative pieces (like the lion head design piece)

Sydney Opera House (probably the most famous building in Australia and it would be a GREAT set to see in Eiffel Tower/London Bridge scale)

Or thinking along the lines of London Bridge, why not do what is likely the most famous bridge in the southern hemisphere and make a set of the Sydney Harbor bridge. All the girder work could be made out of black technic bits with bricks being used for the road deck and towers. Just like the London Bridge set, it could include Micro-scale vehicles like a Ute (Australian variant of the Pickup Truck)

Or another idea could be "town plan 2" done in the style of the recent Town Plan set.

Could feature an old-school diner, corner store/shop (i.e. whatever pre-dates the rise of the shopping mall, the supermarket and the Wal-Mart Superstore) and one other building (not sure what would fit).

Vehicles could be a delivery truck (delivering to the store) plus a station wagon.

Something that would look good alongside the cinema, gas station and town hall from the previous Town Plan set.

[Fugazi]

I agree with your points, TLG wouldn't market any fan-designed set that would go against their basic principles. However, since they will give feedback early during the process, any such issues can be discussed and the design adjusted if necessary. Fundamentally "wrong" projects like tanks and such probably wouldn't gather much support here on EB anyway.

(in fact there is a story going back to the early days of castle somewhere where the castle people were saying "the bosses wont let us produce slope bricks in grey because we keep building tanks and they dont like that")

That's a lovely anecdote!

Some ideas that might be worth considering which I have seen suggested by other people as well:

Thanks for the suggestions, a modular Bank building sounds like a great idea! Let's see what others think and get more input. By the way, I think there is already an official Sydney Opera House in the works, it was discussed somewhere on EB earlier this year! EDIT: here and here

Edited November 1, 2010 by Fugazi

[Mrlegoninja]

Before everyone starts posting, remember to not post licensed things like a Harry Potter set or a Sponge bob set.

I would really like to see a Town hall or just an old fashoned building (Like a church).

[Fugazi]

An update on what's happening on the Lego Cuusoo front:

Most of you know by now that set 21100 Shinkai 6500 has been already released, this was the very first Cuusoo model to reach the production stage. Now a second model has gathered a lot of support in a very short time, and has reached the required 1000+ wishes to be made into a set. This is a model of the Japanese unmanned spacecraft Hayabusa. There's no schedule for the actual release, but in the meantime you can have a look at the preliminary model. Note the important differences between the original pitch and the Lego study model.

Lego Cuusoo Hayabusa

[medib]

An update on what's happening on the Lego Cuusoo front:

Most of you know by now that set 21100 Shinkai 6500 has been already released, this was the very first Cuusoo model to reach the production stage. Now a second model has gathered a lot of support in a very short time, and has reached the required 1000+ wishes to be made into a set. This is a model of the Japanese unmanned spacecraft Hayabusa. There's no schedule for the actual release, but in the meantime you can have a look at the preliminary model. Note the important differences between the original pitch and the Lego study model.

Lego Cuusoo Hayabusa

Thanks for posting this... I guess the next step its got to pass the "viabilty" assessment by a Lego Jury in order for it to

clear to the production phase. 1% of revenue on 10,000 units is better than nothing, but it isnt all that much.

The instructions look wicked, especially on that submarine model.

[Fugazi]

An interesting development -- Lego Cuusoo is soon going global.

from: http://legocuusoo.po...o-international

With the introduction of the Design-To-Order process in 1998, CUUSOO.com has become a pioneer of user innovative product design. Since 2008, CUUSOO.com has been partnering with The LEGO Group to create a user innovative design system for people to create and market their own LEGO sets in the Japanese market. This revolutionary business model allowed an amateur user with a passion in deep sea exploration to create the world's first official LEGO set not designed by a professional - the Shinkai 6500.

So far, the LEGO CUUSOO service has been available in Japan only, with sets produced by LEGO for sale in Japan only. While we are pretty happy about our accomplishment in Japan, we know fans of LEGO around the world are eager to use our system to create their own sets, perhaps even a new series! This is why today, we are extremely excited to present to the world the new, international version of LEGO CUUSOO! (in Beta!)

The beta page can be found at http://lego.cuusoo.com/