So, I've been wondering; what's the ammount of AFOL's influence on official LEGO sets?

Cause I regularly check out Flickr, see really nice MOC's; both in building technique's and visually design wise.
And than a couple of months down the line a new official LEGO set pops up, using some technique's/visual elements of a MOC (reminding me of it).

Most LEGO designers were once AFOLs themselves, I doubt they stop following trends in the fanbase after it becomes their job.
When a new element comes out there are a number of ideas one can think of for using them, I don't think it's rare that two people unknowingly think of the same thing.  

I know I often think of something, then go check online, and find out the same thing has been done before.  Should I now abolish my idea because it's already taken?
 It must be a big challenge for Creator Expert designers to think up a new never before seen design for something that reoccurs in every set, like a street lamp.

What goes in their advantage are new elements and colors, and what goes in ours are phased out molds and illegal connections.

I agree with Sven F, there's bound to be coincidences, but of course they are inspired by what they see online. I know there's a wall, at least where the City designers are, with pictures of MOCs taken from the internet, to inspire those who don't regularly go online and check out other people's builds (in other words, those who weren't AFOLs before they joined the company). So they don't pretend they don't seek inspiration elsewhere. On the other hand, when you say 'a couple of months down the road', it can't possibly be inspired by some other creation if that's the timeframe. Most product lines are at least one year ahead when it comes to detailed planning of sets and the designs are locked looong before they arrive on the shelf. But you probably didn't mean that literally :)

I recall a Hobby Train set from years ago that AFOLs had influence in designing.

If it is a couple of months, then it is probably a coincidence.  Or that AFOL had LEGO insider information for their MOC. 

 

I don't deny that there could have been coincidental invention: it isn't just possible, I think it's quite likely. But that's not to say that LEGO designers haven't been inspired by AFOLs either.

Here are my suspicions:

For years before the release of the official sets, AFOLs were MOcing Star Wars vehicles, showing them off at events and posting pictures of their MOCs online. It was so widespread, it was practically a hobby in its own right. I find it hard to believe that TLG wasn't aware of the trend before they sought their first SW licence.

A number of minifigures were designed by Alexandre Boudon and posted online when he was just an AFOL. His designs were subsequently bought by TLG and, I believe, he joined the company. Quite a few minifigures in the CMF line are based on those designs.

For some years, AFOLs have been using the connection between minifigure hips/legs and torsos to add custom accessories at the waist. TLG didn't start doing it until just a few years ago (2014, I think). Now, LEGO tails, belts and skirts that attach at the waist are fairly common, but that wasn't true until recently. Could it be a case of coincidental invention? Perhaps, but I doubt it.

 

 

14 hours ago, L@go said:

I agree with Sven F, there's bound to be coincidences, but of course they are inspired by what they see online. I know there's a wall, at least where the City designers are, with pictures of MOCs taken from the internet, to inspire those who don't regularly go online and check out other people's builds (in other words, those who weren't AFOLs before they joined the company). So they don't pretend they don't seek inspiration elsewhere. On the other hand, when you say 'a couple of months down the road', it can't possibly be inspired by some other creation if that's the timeframe. Most product lines are at least one year ahead when it comes to detailed planning of sets and the designs are locked looong before they arrive on the shelf. But you probably didn't mean that literally :)

Wow, really!? Nice, I didn't know that. You're right, not literally. ;)

Btw; the official set I've seen was the Mr. Pinguin's ride from the LEGO Batman movie, it reminded me of a steampunkish build I'd seen on Lugnuts.
Had the same thing happen when I seen some other new theme's this past year, so many reminded me of MOC's of the web.

10 minutes ago, AmperZand said:

For years before the release of the official sets, AFOLs were MOcing Star Wars vehicles, showing them off at events and posting pictures of their MOCs online. It was so widespread, it was practically a hobby in its own right. I find it hard to believe that TLG wasn't aware of the trend before they sought their first SW licence.

If you read the book called "Brick by brick" you'll find that LEGO was afraid of taking licensed kits into model range. They were afraid of everyone thinking "LEGO can no longer design their own sets". That's the risk they had to take and eventually this helped company surviving during its "dark age".

4 minutes ago, zux said:

If you read the book called "Brick by brick" you'll find that LEGO was afraid of taking licensed kits into model range. They were afraid of everyone thinking "LEGO can no longer design their own sets".

Is there any independent evidence of that? I suspect that that was just TLG's excuse for taking so long to tap a market that AFOLs had shown already existed. 

Lego was not designed for children to play with, it was designed for adults to build.

1 hour ago, -zenn said:

Wow, really!? Nice, I didn't know that.

1 hour ago, AmperZand said:

For some years, AFOLs have been using the connection between minifigure hips/legs and torsos to add custom accessories at the waist. TLG didn't start doing it until just a few years ago (2014, I think). Now, LEGO tails, belts and skirts that attach at the waist are fairly common, but that wasn't true until recently. Could it be a case of coincidental invention? Perhaps, but I doubt it.

This new editor is really crap, I can't write anything in between the two quotes anymore... so, to -zenn: Yes, I was contacted by someone from TLG about a picture of one of my vehicles, and asked whether it was OK for me if they printed the picture and put it on that wall. Obviously, I didn't mind :)

And AmperZand: You could probably also argue that it's a natural evolution of the paper skirts they've been doing for a while. I'm not saying they didn't see somebody else doing it and were inspired by that - but it is the only logical way to add accessories at the waist.

22 minutes ago, L@go said:

 

22 minutes ago, L@go said:

 

34 minutes ago, L@go said:

This new editor is really crap, I can't write anything in between the two quotes anymore... so, to -zenn: Yes, I was contacted by someone from TLG about a picture of one of my vehicles, and asked whether it was OK for me if they printed the picture and put it on that wall. Obviously, I didn't mind :)

And AmperZand: You could probably also argue that it's a natural evolution of the paper skirts they've been doing for a while. I'm not saying they didn't see somebody else doing it and were inspired by that - but it is the only logical way to add accessories at the waist.

You could argue that the paper skirts is a rediscovery of the belts in the un-articulated minifigs like in police set 585.

Edited December 5, 20168 yr by pirzyk

23 minutes ago, L@go said:

And AmperZand: You could probably also argue that it's a natural evolution of the paper skirts they've been doing for a while. I'm not saying they didn't see somebody else doing it and were inspired by that - but it is the only logical way to add accessories at the waist.

I'm pretty sure that AFOLs were doing fabric skirts years before TLG too. 

Even after TLG did fabric skirts at the waist, they were still using the neck connection to attach parts that were supposed to originate at the waist such as this one: http://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=11101pb01&idColor=150#T=C&C=150 . For both fabric and plastic parts, AFOLs were years ahead of TLG in their use of the waist.

I do agree that the editor function is absolutely awful. Not only does it not allow you to split quotes, it punishes you if you try by preventing you from replying to the thread.

 

   

18 hours ago, dr_spock said:

I recall a Hobby Train set from years ago that AFOLs had influence in designing.

If it is a couple of months, then it is probably a coincidence.  Or that AFOL had LEGO insider information for their MOC. 

 

Yes... the Hobby Train; it even says it on the box, but I don't think that's zenn was talking about.  Market Street was another one.

But I think zenn was referring to designers "borrowing" ideas from fans.

I remember some pics of a MOC that looked a LOT like th Haunted House (both in general proportions and smaller details like window awnings) that supposedly predated the official set significantly. I think the Lego designer denied having seen the MOC, but the similarities were still uncanny. So if that's true, it's another point for 'at some point, two people are bound to have similar ideas' - even more so if the subject matter seeks to emulate real life.

 

16 hours ago, fred67 said:

Yes... the Hobby Train; it even says it on the box, but I don't think that's zenn was talking about.  Market Street was another one.

But I think zenn was referring to designers "borrowing" ideas from fans.

Yes, indeed. I think it's cool to see 'building styles' from AFOLS in official LEGO sets, it's kind of a wink to them; 'senpai witnessed me'.