[OFFICIAL] Bricklink Designer Program - Series 4 - Finalists Announced

[CaptainMoore]

My Great Fishing Boat has left me with a sour taste indeed, I didn't like assembling it. Ominous isles seems more "classic" in the way it's assembled so probably less risky.

I totally agree with @RichardGoring. I also like Lego product for their colourful taste. I know that some people regret the original PoBB but I prefer the Lego company version. Maybe it's because the renders have darker tones. Neptune and Trading post look more attractive just because of the colours, not even consireding the repetitivity parameter.

On the market side, we're still in the same waters: forts, islands and ships. Maybe Lego considers that this is already a beaten track, so they won't have full waves anymore. They should have a look at this thread to get new ideas.

[RichardGoring]

9 hours ago, Mister Phes said:

This is a common sentiment LEGO Pirate fans have towards BrickLink Designer sets...  they saw the wave of sets from the 2022 pilot program and have assumed that's the precedent for all BrickLink designer sets to come.

I.e. they're fan designs, rather than official LEGO sets.

However, from Series 1 onward, finalist submissions undergo a period of refinement in which the designers work with the "Model Governance" and "Building Instructions Teams" to fine tune their creation.

But how this plays out with Ominous Isle and whether it gives the design that sense of official authenticity remains to be seen.

The 'official' status doesn't really bother me that much - a good model is a good model as far as I'm concerned, but there is clearly a huge amount of work that goes into refining sets that are released widely by LEGO. I didn't realize that the BDP would be working with the building instructions team, which seems to be a step up from the 2021 series. Even in that though, some were excellent, as good as any in-house LEGO set, while others were a little unstable, or inefficient, or some other small niggle in comparison. I thoroughly enjoyed them and I'm glad they exist, but I don't want them to be a replacement for sets produced in-house by LEGO. They should exist in addition.

Bring on round 5 and hopefully more pirates/imperials are featured.

[Jeff of Clubs]

On 3/19/2024 at 8:34 PM, Mister Phes said:

But that still begs the question; could they use this approach for an entire wave of thematically aligned sets? Or are they lacking confidence that enough customers would buy an entire wave in one purchase?

Mayhaps we should just get some fans together, decide on a sub theme, and make some sets for a fictional wave. If the entire wave landed around 400 bucks across a ship, an island, and some smaller kits, totalling a similar part count... I may have to do something. 

A 'Design your own pirate wave competition'...

I do like the Riverside kit and seige camp a lot. The train is neat too for the western folks.

Edited March 27, 2024 by Jeff of Clubs

[Mister Phes]

2 hours ago, Jeff of Clubs said:

Mayhaps we should just get some fans together, decide on a sub theme, and make some sets for a fictional wave.

We started doing that back in 2011-2014 and arrived at three sub themes:

• Dutch Merchants  - civilian faction
• The Haven Guard - imperial faction
• The Smugglers - basically pirates in disguise... looked like merchants, but through clever play features (E.g. glow in the dark and heat sensitive insignias, transformable sections, hidden compartments, etc.), their treachery could be revealed!

But as it turned out, coordinating an entire sub theme among a group of remote team was quite a difficult undertaking, so it never progressed past the conceptual stage.

2 hours ago, Jeff of Clubs said:

A 'Design your own pirate wave competition'...

As demonstrated in the recent contest...  tasking fans to emulate official designs is hit and miss.  So people nail it... while others you might as well have said built whatever you like because the creation is that far off the mark.

So for the next contest I oversee, I'd prefer to move far away from the "create an official set" concept as much possible.

[Artanis I]

48 minutes ago, Mister Phes said:

We started doing that back in 2011 and arrived at three sub themes:

• Dutch Merchants  - civilian faction
• The Haven Guard - imperial faction
• The Smugglers - basically pirates in disguise... looked like merchants, but through clever play features (E.g. glow in the dark and heat sensitive insignias, transformable sections, hidden compartments, etc.), their treachery could be revealed!

But as it turned out, coordinating an entire sub theme among a group of remote team was quite a difficult undertaking, so it never progressed past the conceptual stage.

This was shaping up to be very interesting with the orange soldiers as a new faction, but then TLG went and announced a new wave of sets that were 'more of the same' as other reboots (but less interesting than the AFOL ideas and minifig designs) and that was the end of that for most folks

[Mister Phes]

11 minutes ago, Artanis I said:

This was shaping up to be very interesting with the orange soldiers as a new faction, but then TLG went and announced a new wave of sets that were 'more of the same' as other reboots (but less interesting than the AFOL ideas and minifig designs) and that was the end of that for most folks

The project stalled because I realised I didn't have the sufficient time to oversee it... then 6 months later The LEGO Group announced the 2015 wave of pirate sets.

[Mister Phes]

49 minutes ago, Artanis I said:

This was shaping up to be very interesting with the orange soldiers as a new faction

Out of curiosity, which orange soldier design did you find most appealing?

Just an orange palette swap of the modern Imperial Guard torso?

 

Or something a bit more innovative and not yet officially produced in LEGO form like the Dutch musketeer?

[Artanis I]

Frankly I would have simply done a straight orange (not dark orange) recolour of the original 1989 Classic uniform, and similar flag with 3 vertical stripes. (I was never really a fan of anything post 1993, other than the ships, of which I have exactly 0 anyway)

But the concepts put forward and favoured by everyone else looked really good. I would have been more than happy to see either the orange one in your post, or the more detailed ones I was just looking at released in a wave of sets.

[Arcturus7]

I'm a bit late with this post but just wanted to say thanks again for the support of my Imperial Sloop Neptune build.  I'm unable to resubmit it to future BDP series, so I've made the instructions available on Rebrickable.  Take a look and leave some feedback.  Thanks!

[MightyThorngren]

5 hours ago, Arcturus7 said:

I'm a bit late with this post but just wanted to say thanks again for the support of my Imperial Sloop Neptune build.  I'm unable to resubmit it to future BDP series, so I've made the instructions available on Rebrickable.  Take a look and leave some feedback.  Thanks!

 

That's wonderful you put it up, and for free too! I voted for you hella and posted it to all sorts of places.

 

Why were you not able to resubmit it?

[Arcturus7]

2 hours ago, MightyThorngren said:

 

That's wonderful you put it up, and for free too! I voted for you hella and posted it to all sorts of places.

 

Why were you not able to resubmit it?

It was originally submitted in Series 2 and then resubmitted in Series 4.  You're only allowed 1 resubmission, so that's it.  Also, the palette of parts for Series 5 no longer includes the Imperial torsos.  So even if it could be resubmitted, it'd once again be an Imperial ship without a crew