Lyichir Posted May 4, 2012 Posted May 4, 2012 I have a question. Did LEGO stop posting comments for 5000+ supporters? The haven't done it for the Firefly or MLP:FiM project yet, and MLP:FiM has had 5000+ supporters for a while now... I've hypothesized that the large number of official comments on things like the Minecraft proposal were largely due to those being some of the first to reach those milestones. Still, I was expecting them to still comment when projects reached the halfway point. Perhaps they've just been busy lately; after all, a lot of projects are getting closer to 10,000 all at once. In fact, this is the first time we've had two projects pending review at the same time. Quote
Haltiamieli Posted May 4, 2012 Posted May 4, 2012 It doesn't seem to have been mentioned in EB that they recently changed the guidelines to allow or better handle collaborative projects between two or more cuusooers. Could be useful for this idea if it ever comes to fruitation, for example. Quote
Larrynautik Posted May 5, 2012 Posted May 5, 2012 The Dark Bucket and MLP projects will fail. And I'm fine with that. I don't believe Cuusoo should be all about licensed projects! I think the Modular Western Town stands a very good chance, as does the Space Marines project. They're both license-free and I think they're quite likely. Don't give up on Cuusoo! It's still young, give it some time and it'll improve. After people start realizing what is and isn't going to stand a chance they'll stop posting unlikely projects. We'll see the Dark Bucket and MLP reach 10,000 and fail. After that Lego will either make a no-license rule, or people will recognize a pattern and stop posting licensed projects. The actual CUUSOO rules allow the licensed sets. It's written on the website. But one good evolution is that they now refuse the re-release proposals (like "please re-release UCS Millenium Falcon" etc) and have removed such projects from the website. But just do a quick search and you'll see a ton of unserious projects. I don't think people will stop to post such projects. It's to the Lego group to block inappropriate projects. It's not a matter of the toy itself being inappropriate for younger buyers. It's about the license it's based on as a whole. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom was pretty grim and violent in parts, but it wasn't enough to merit it an R rating. Not so with Shaun of the Dead, which also has other things besides gore/violence contributing to that rating. If in your opinion there aren't any enough interesting projects, why aren't you proposing some? Are you worried that other people might consider different things "interesting" than you do? If so, you're probably right, given that so many have supported ideas that you consider laughable. But the Cuusoo program never came with any guarantees, and so far it's only rejected one proposal. If that one proposal was one of the only things you considered worthwhile, that's hardly TLG's fault. As far as I'm concerned, plenty of the most-supported proposals would make awesome products. And it's silly to say that Cuusoo is a waste of time for AFOLs just because products made through it are supposed to be child-appropriate. The LEGO Group has a reputation to uphold as a family-friendly brand. If TLG were to make a Cuusoo product based on a non-family-friendly brand, how exactly are they supposed to market it? They can't exactly throw it in a catalog with all their kid-oriented toys. Cuusoo is still perfectly worthwhile for AFOLs to suggest ideas regardless of whether they interest kids or seem like products kids would enjoy. But there's a difference between ideas that don't interest kids and ideas that parents might not want their kids exposed to at all. Cuusoo's about advancing ideas TLG might not think of on their own, not about advancing ideas that would go against TLG's company values and common sense. And Cuusoo is still a magnificent opportunity for AFOLs even if TLG knows better than to just make sets based on whatever people want. I don't propose projects to CUUSOO because I would need to make a stunning MOC to illustrate it, and I don't know how to MOC. But of course there's a lot of ideas that Lego could investigate and release with success, like the Town Hall modular did. The concept of modular itself is a very good thing, but actually the Lego group only limit this to city basements. When will we have a big modular space base, or a modular Star Wars UCS with fully detailed interiors ? The problem is that the Lego group is asking for new ideas, but will not really try extraordinary things such like very huge sets, uncommon city basements like factories, big houses, universities, schools, mid-eastern or far-East architecture based sets, etc. They ask uncommon things, but that would fit with their "common set" concept. If I am disappointed by the refuse of the Winchester, it's not because I like this project, but because the real reasons are not really clear, so nobody knows if a project will really be released as we have no explanation about the limits. Can a 100.000 parts projects be released ? What is exactly the "target age" they're talking from in the brief explanation of the refuse ? Can't we have a "license limit" clearly defined, about the licenses that will never be released for financial or rival brand reasons ? Is a military theme possible, or absolutely not ? If a proposed set is approved, will it be released exactly like the MOCer did it, or will Lego design it with their own designers ? The problem with CUUSOO is that we get no clear limits explained. Since the beginning some rules have been added, but it's not enough, in my opinion. You are talking about the fact that Lego is a family-friendly brand, and I agree with that, but will a family buy a UCS for a 6 years old kid ? What is their position about the price question ? Most of the families can't afford a 600 euros / dollars set, as you can imagine. You are also saying "how would Lego market a set not designed for kids ?", but personnaly I live in a not-so-poor region in France where I never saw a modular or a UCS on the shelves... It's not that difficult to put a "Designed for adults fans" category on the Shop, with sets that will not necessarly appear in the toy stores catalogs. About the Lego brand values, couldn't they clarify them too ? At least, it could be a base. And I think it's not very fair that they keep projects on the CUUSOO website, with people who vote for them, even when TLC knows they will never release them, like the stormies bucket. Isn't the fact that the core target audience is 6-11 paradoxical with releasing a set that is not a core target theme such like City / Spaceships / Castle / Friends ? In this case, we can throw out every project that do not match themes familiar to children. But, then, what would be the interest of CUUSOO, actually ? They want brand new ideas but only for core targeted themes ? How could we decently do that ? Quote
Aanchir Posted May 5, 2012 Posted May 5, 2012 The actual CUUSOO rules allow the licensed sets. It's written on the website. But one good evolution is that they now refuse the re-release proposals (like "please re-release UCS Millenium Falcon" etc) and have removed such projects from the website. But just do a quick search and you'll see a ton of unserious projects. I don't think people will stop to post such projects. It's to the Lego group to block inappropriate projects. I don't propose projects to CUUSOO because I would need to make a stunning MOC to illustrate it, and I don't know how to MOC. But of course there's a lot of ideas that Lego could investigate and release with success, like the Town Hall modular did. The concept of modular itself is a very good thing, but actually the Lego group only limit this to city basements. When will we have a big modular space base, or a modular Star Wars UCS with fully detailed interiors ? The problem is that the Lego group is asking for new ideas, but will not really try extraordinary things such like very huge sets, uncommon city basements like factories, big houses, universities, schools, mid-eastern or far-East architecture based sets, etc. They ask uncommon things, but that would fit with their "common set" concept. If I am disappointed by the refuse of the Winchester, it's not because I like this project, but because the real reasons are not really clear, so nobody knows if a project will really be released as we have no explanation about the limits. Can a 100.000 parts projects be released ? What is exactly the "target age" they're talking from in the brief explanation of the refuse ? Can't we have a "license limit" clearly defined, about the licenses that will never be released for financial or rival brand reasons ? Is a military theme possible, or absolutely not ? If a proposed set is approved, will it be released exactly like the MOCer did it, or will Lego design it with their own designers ? The problem with CUUSOO is that we get no clear limits explained. Since the beginning some rules have been added, but it's not enough, in my opinion. You are talking about the fact that Lego is a family-friendly brand, and I agree with that, but will a family buy a UCS for a 6 years old kid ? What is their position about the price question ? Most of the families can't afford a 600 euros / dollars set, as you can imagine. You are also saying "how would Lego market a set not designed for kids ?", but personnaly I live in a not-so-poor region in France where I never saw a modular or a UCS on the shelves... It's not that difficult to put a "Designed for adults fans" category on the Shop, with sets that will not necessarly appear in the toy stores catalogs. About the Lego brand values, couldn't they clarify them too ? At least, it could be a base. And I think it's not very fair that they keep projects on the CUUSOO website, with people who vote for them, even when TLC knows they will never release them, like the stormies bucket. Isn't the fact that the core target audience is 6-11 paradoxical with releasing a set that is not a core target theme such like City / Spaceships / Castle / Friends ? In this case, we can throw out every project that do not match themes familiar to children. But, then, what would be the interest of CUUSOO, actually ? They want brand new ideas but only for core targeted themes ? How could we decently do that ? There's a difference between aiming products at demographics other than the core audience and creating products that parents likely wouldn't consider appropriate for the core audience at all. The modular buildings may not be that suitable for a younger builder, but no reasonable parent's going to become outraged by seeing the trusted LEGO brand name on a product like those. The same isn't true of a licensed product based on an R-rated movie. Just look back a few years to see how nervous TLG was about releasing sets based on the PG-13-rated Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Evidently TLG's concerns didn't end up amounting to much, since the Harry Potter theme did come back with a product range including some scenes inspired by that movie. But it's easy to see that TLG has reasons to be concerned about how their licenses reflect on their company image. Another thing to consider is that Cuusoo sets tend to be niche products. 10,000 people voting on a Cuusoo proposal is somewhat significant, but as can be seen these days it doesn't take too much for a project to reach that threshold. And if those products are mass-manufactured they need to be marketed effectively if they're going to get the attention of people-- including AFOLs and non-AFOLs-- who will buy them. Taking an "adult-oriented" product out of the catalogs could have a huge negative impact on sales. AFOLs are already a fairly small demographic compared to the "core audience" TLG mentioned, and the fewer channels you have through which to promote the product, the less chance you have of gaining potential buyers' attention. Cuusoo is still perfectly viable for products that appeal mainly to AFOLs or other non-core demographics. But that doesn't mean that if a product is inappropriate for kids to begin with, whether it has to do with the products contents or the license it is connected with, it will get a free pass just because it got the requisite number of votes. Making rules to prevent proposals that won't pass the jury in the first place could indeed be helpful, but that sort of thing is part of the reason why Cuusoo is still in beta: they have not yet worked out all the kinks needed to ensure its effectiveness. They don't want to create extremely restrictive rules to begin with and risk discouraging entries that might fall into a grey area. Prohibiting military themes, for instance, might inspire people not to create proposals that include any military vehicles, even if those have appeared in sets before in the Indiana Jones theme. So they start with very few rules, only excluding the most blatantly unacceptable things like sexual themes. From there they watch closely to see what people propose and try to refine the rules with less sweeping adjustments that don't snuff out creativity. ----- Anyway, Cuusoo's been seeing projects reach 10,000 supporters a lot more quickly lately. Do you think they might raise the consideration threshold higher at any point now that they have more web traffic? Quote
Perry the Platypus Posted May 11, 2012 Posted May 11, 2012 I think I am the first peron to say this, but WOO HOO! Congrats to MB for getting 10,000 supporters on Modular Western Town! Quote
purpleparadox Posted May 11, 2012 Posted May 11, 2012 I think I am the first peron to say this You're not. Quote
L@go Posted May 11, 2012 Posted May 11, 2012 You're not. Unless a relative of Juan and Evita beat him to it, he might still be the first Peron... Quote
Duke of wellington Posted May 11, 2012 Posted May 11, 2012 I know I joined around about the time Lego was reviewing minecraft which was mid december. At first nobody got 10,000 but know in the last 28 Days 4-5 Have made it Cuusoo cannot handle that many a month soon it will go up to 15,000 but I hope all the old projects still ned 10,00 or Cuusoo gives them extra. Quote
Larrynautik Posted May 12, 2012 Posted May 12, 2012 (edited) There's a difference between aiming products at demographics other than the core audience and creating products that parents likely wouldn't consider appropriate for the core audience at all. The modular buildings may not be that suitable for a younger builder, but no reasonable parent's going to become outraged by seeing the trusted LEGO brand name on a product like those. The same isn't true of a licensed product based on an R-rated movie. Just look back a few years to see how nervous TLG was about releasing sets based on the PG-13-rated Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Evidently TLG's concerns didn't end up amounting to much, since the Harry Potter theme did come back with a product range including some scenes inspired by that movie. But it's easy to see that TLG has reasons to be concerned about how their licenses reflect on their company image. Another thing to consider is that Cuusoo sets tend to be niche products. 10,000 people voting on a Cuusoo proposal is somewhat significant, but as can be seen these days it doesn't take too much for a project to reach that threshold. And if those products are mass-manufactured they need to be marketed effectively if they're going to get the attention of people-- including AFOLs and non-AFOLs-- who will buy them. Taking an "adult-oriented" product out of the catalogs could have a huge negative impact on sales. AFOLs are already a fairly small demographic compared to the "core audience" TLG mentioned, and the fewer channels you have through which to promote the product, the less chance you have of gaining potential buyers' attention. Cuusoo is still perfectly viable for products that appeal mainly to AFOLs or other non-core demographics. But that doesn't mean that if a product is inappropriate for kids to begin with, whether it has to do with the products contents or the license it is connected with, it will get a free pass just because it got the requisite number of votes. Making rules to prevent proposals that won't pass the jury in the first place could indeed be helpful, but that sort of thing is part of the reason why Cuusoo is still in beta: they have not yet worked out all the kinks needed to ensure its effectiveness. They don't want to create extremely restrictive rules to begin with and risk discouraging entries that might fall into a grey area. Prohibiting military themes, for instance, might inspire people not to create proposals that include any military vehicles, even if those have appeared in sets before in the Indiana Jones theme. So they start with very few rules, only excluding the most blatantly unacceptable things like sexual themes. From there they watch closely to see what people propose and try to refine the rules with less sweeping adjustments that don't snuff out creativity. ----- Anyway, Cuusoo's been seeing projects reach 10,000 supporters a lot more quickly lately. Do you think they might raise the consideration threshold higher at any point now that they have more web traffic? So, you think an acceptable Cuusoo project would be an uncommon set created for AFOLs, but that could not shock the parents of the core-target audience ? It's an interesting idea. You also precise that in the case of a licensed theme, the license universe must not be inappropriate for young buyers. I agree with this too, but based on this, Lego can have a clear list of all the inappropriated licences. I'm aware of the fact that AFOLs represent a small part of the Lego sales, but Lego does not know precisely the part of the AFOLs sales, because an AFOL buys far more Lego than any other member of their core-target audience. Personnaly I buy nearly 10 sets per month, and the core-target audience buys 3 per year. There is also a difference between the price of the sets bought. Lego should continue to do investigation about the minority we are, as we are uncommon buyers. You think that a "Designed for Adults" section would be very negative, but what about the Architecture theme ? What they should do is some kind of Architecture theme... but not limited to monuments. And I must also mention that despite the fact that we are not the core-targeted audience, we tend to increase in their population of buyers far more than the core-targeted audience. The Star Wars licence has done a lot in this sense. Concerning the success of a Cuusoo project, the problem now is that non-Lego communities use Cuusoo to have "their" licenced set, and it is at the expense of the AFOLs projects. When I see the Firefly project gaining 7500 votes in one week, I think there is a problem here. Maybe the Cuusoo should be reserved to active VIP members only to prevent that kind of abuse. I really hope the Western Modular Town will be produced now as there is no non-Lego community behind it. It's purely an AFOL project supported by AFOLs, and not massively promoted by a third-part community. Lego could even combinate the Western Town with the DeLorean time machine, as both projects reached the 10.000 AND are not a problem towards the core-targeted audience. The other thing Cuusoo should do is to anticipate the 10.000 on a potentially controversial project, to be able to publish quickly an argumented decision after the review step is reached. As you question me, I don't think Lego should raise the number of voters needed for a project to be reviewed. This decision would favour the third-party communities and make the things more difficult for the AFOLs. The only thing to do is to limit Cuusoo to the AFOLs only. As long as anybody can become a Cuusoo member, vote for a project and never come back again, there will have a problem. Edited May 12, 2012 by Larrynautik Quote
LEGOman273 Posted May 12, 2012 Posted May 12, 2012 I know I joined around about the time Lego was reviewing minecraft which was mid december. At first nobody got 10,000 but know in the last 28 Days 4-5 Have made it Cuusoo cannot handle that many a month soon it will go up to 15,000 but I hope all the old projects still ned 10,00 or Cuusoo gives them extra. I doubt that TLG will raise the number of votes needed, as they know how many sets need to be sold to make a profit. 10K was their decision, and if they raise it, most people will lose all faith in CUUSOO. I would. Quote
SilentMode Posted May 12, 2012 Posted May 12, 2012 First of all, congratulations to the giant push for the Modular Western Town... I have a feeling it's going to be accepted, especially if they had someone working on a concept at 5000 supporters. Will be interesting what they come up with for a parts pack model. In the meantime I've put another project on CUUSOO: support and comment if you want to and/or like the idea. I'll be content if it gets to 50! Quote
Ralph_S Posted May 15, 2012 Posted May 15, 2012 Not licensed, not offensive in any way and not particularly likely to be picked by any other fans than my own (if I have any): my Ladder Truck is up on Cuusoo. Now on Cuusoo: Light & Sound Ladder Truck by Mad physicist, on Flickr Cheers, Ralph Quote
Makuta Posted May 18, 2012 Posted May 18, 2012 Good news, guys! My LEGO Modular Krusy Krab is on CUUSOO! Check it out by clicking the link below. SpongeBob SquarePants Modular Krusty Krab Quote
Hive Posted May 18, 2012 Posted May 18, 2012 Good news, guys! My LEGO Modular Krusy Krab is on CUUSOO! Check it out by clicking the link below. SpongeBob SquarePants Modular Krusty Krab Are you serious? Quote
Makuta Posted May 18, 2012 Posted May 18, 2012 Are you serious? Of course I'm serious! Check it out! Quote
Hive Posted May 18, 2012 Posted May 18, 2012 (edited) Of course I'm serious! Check it out! I did check it out, that's what led to my question... Edited May 18, 2012 by Hive Quote
Makuta Posted May 18, 2012 Posted May 18, 2012 Anyone who owns a CUUSOO account must support my Krusty Krab model. Right now, I only have two supporters. Quote
Holodoc Posted May 18, 2012 Posted May 18, 2012 Anyone who owns a CUUSOO account must support my Krusty Krab model. Right now, I only have two supporters. I have no idea what lead you to your statement. And looking at your model, I, just like Hive, have severe doubts that the number will increase singificantly... Which means: You may want to revise your MOC (color- and brickwise, and with focused (!) photos, please), before posting at CUUSOO (and here). You wrote you have worked hard and long on it, but the result (one year spent for what exactly?) is as far away from a perfect 10 like a crab from the moon. Sorry, but I had to extract that tooth. Quote
Makuta Posted May 18, 2012 Posted May 18, 2012 I have no idea what lead you to your statement. And looking at your model, I, just like Hive, have severe doubts that the number will increase singificantly... Which means: You may want to revise your MOC (color- and brickwise, and with focused (!) photos, please), before posting at CUUSOO (and here). You wrote you have worked hard and long on it, but the result (one year spent for what exactly?) is as far away from a perfect 10 like a crab from the moon. Sorry, but I had to extract that tooth. Support if you want to keep LEGO SpongeBob SquarePants alive! And yes, I was talking like a fool in my project's description. I just want more supporters. Quote
Hive Posted May 18, 2012 Posted May 18, 2012 Anyone who owns a CUUSOO account must support my Krusty Krab model. Right now, I only have two supporters. Who's the other vote, your mom? Support if you want to keep LEGO SpongeBob SquarePants alive! And yes, I was talking like a fool in my project's description. I just want more supporters. Not being serious in the project's description probably isn't the best way to fare well, but okay... The thing is: your model is a huge, brown square with tons of bricks. It looks NOTHING like a real LEGO model and has ZERO chance of ever going into production. It seems to me like you already know this and just want some attention. And if you seriously can't see why this model won't ever be mass-produced, it begs to be asked: are you even an AFOL at all? Quote
Makuta Posted May 18, 2012 Posted May 18, 2012 Hey, I did my best! >:( All I want is more people to support me. I just wanted to get 1% of net sales this way. :( Quote
Aanchir Posted May 18, 2012 Posted May 18, 2012 Support if you want to keep LEGO SpongeBob SquarePants alive! And yes, I was talking like a fool in my project's description. I just want more supporters. We have no reason to think Spongebob Squarepants is going away any time soon. There are two sets just released this year, and Spongebob continues to be a merchandising behemoth just like Star Wars and other successful LEGO licenses. Really, the concept of your model is OK, but the design of it is lacking. While I appreciate the interior details, the model is inferior to official sets of the Krusty Krab in many ways, most notably in that it lacks the curved roof. Also, while its scale is accurate in some respects, it would dwarf any minifigure and is way larger than I would actually pay to own. These are among the reasons why TLG likely condensed the size of their official Krusty Krab sets so much compared to yours. A good set design balances accuracy with conciseness, while yours skews towards accuracy and thus becomes unnecessarily large. Just thought some constructive feedback could help you out in perhaps revising your proposal, but I can't guarantee I'd support it anyway. I love the Spongebob Squarepants line in concept, but it's not one I collect these days, and my family already has the original Krusty Krab set from 2006 which is all I'd really ask for in an official set. Quote
Hive Posted May 18, 2012 Posted May 18, 2012 Hey, I did my best! >:( All I want is more people to support me. I just wanted to get 1% of net sales this way. :( I'm pretty sure there are easier ways to earn money than through CUUSOO. You did notice that you have to be at least 18 years old in order to submit projects, right? Who will support my idea? Nobody? T_T I'm certain that if you just keep begging/spamming this thread, people will start to love it and the votes will pour in. Quote
Makuta Posted May 18, 2012 Posted May 18, 2012 (edited) I'm pretty sure there are easier ways to earn money than through CUUSOO. You did notice that you have to be at least 18 years old in order to submit projects, right? I'm certain that if you just keep begging/spamming this thread, people will start to love it and the votes will pour in. Trust me, I'm 20 years old! ;) And yes, I'm begging y'all to support my model. I'll thank anyone on Eurobricks who supports. :D Edited May 18, 2012 by Makuta Quote
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