LEGO® CUUSOO 空想 - Turn your model wishes into reality

[Meatman]

They would have to combine both ideas and split between both people. Afterall, Lego is going to change either project anyways.

[Blondie-Wan]

That second project (actually the first submitted) has now garnered the 10000 votes. Whatever the outcome, TLG's CUUSOO team is at least getting an unambiguous message that people want official LEGO Ghostbusters.

[Faefrost]

I think it's a fairly safe bet, that provided licensing does not torpedo it, that at a minimum a Ghostbusters Ecto 1 and 4 figs is what will be produced out of this horribly crowded review period.

[Erik Leppen]

All those good proposals reaching destination makes me fear the chances for the Portal proposal...

Edited August 26, 2013 by Erik Leppen

[BobSmithHello55]

This is very useful! Here is my Avengers Helicarrier. Might have to fix some rotor parts. Here it is. http://lego.cuusoo.com/ideas/view/36639

[Blondie-Wan]

Say, if one gets a CUUSOO project approved and turned into a set, does one get one or more free copies of the set, or "just" the royalty (and the fame and glory )?

[jimmynick]

I say, a free set would be a nice perk, but your 1% certainly provides enough money for you to buy one for yourself.

[Another Brick In The Wall]

Yeah, I'm actually hoping the Oz set holds back until the next review period. This one is too crowded. I don't think it will matter with the Macross set sadly. As soon as the licensing dept realizes the licensing complexity involved they will most likely opt against it.

A colleague of mine, who is an IP attorney opinioned that the Macross set may not violate the Hasbro license because it is a construction toy. She also said it's possible that the licensing of the VF-1 Valkyrie transformable model by Hasbro may have expired (as unlike all the other Transformers IP it was not created by Hasbro).

[Faefrost]

A colleague of mine, who is an IP attorney opinioned that the Macross set may not violate the Hasbro license because it is a construction toy. She also said it's possible that the licensing of the VF-1 Valkyrie transformable model by Hasbro may have expired (as unlike all the other Transformers IP it was not created by Hasbro).

The problem with the Macross set isn't Hasbro or any prior toy deals (does Hasbro actually have any Macross lines?). The problem is the root IP. It's a whole complicated legal mess, but what it comes down to is Macross was owned and created by two different Japanese companies originally. Neither had the funding to cover the whole thing. At some point one of those companies outright sold the western rights to the IP and it's merchandising to Harmony Gold in the US, where it became Robotech. (Note they did not license it to Harmony Gold. They sold it.) the other company later challenged this sale. Needless to say this has triggered almost 30 years of confusing, contradictory and outright absurd international legal wrangling. While who owns the IP when and where is confusing and questionable at this point, the one thing that seems solid is Big West owns the Merchandising rights in Japan and Asia (Macross) while Harmony Gold outright owns the merchandising (for the first Macross series only) in North America. (Robotech). This is why we cannot get all those wonderful Macross Valkyrie models from BanDai and Hasegawa etc over here as regular retail products in the US and Canada. We have to specialty import them.

I just can't see Lego sticking their head in this licensing Vipers nest for a 10-20k CuuSoo run. Their licensing department will take one look at this mess and start drinking.

[Faefrost]

Sorry weird double post

Edited August 27, 2013 by Faefrost

[Faefrost]

Admiration vs Empathy, Why so many FOL and Original projects don't thrive on CuuSoo.

Alrighty, I apologize in advance. This will probably be yet another one of my longer winded bits of babbling. Feel free to skip this large wall of text and weird pictures and just skip on down to discussing something interesting.

The Topic for today is that that so seems to haunt AFOL’s over CuuSoo. Why do great original projects. Fantastic FOL projects, garner so few votes and so little support on CuuSoo. While anything with an outside fanbase just churns up the charts. What is going on here? We know this is happening. Our good friend GlenBricker has rather clearly tracked it with his numbers and his magic and voodoo. http://blog.brick-hero.com/

So what is going on here? Just looking at the discussions around here we can see that there is a common feeling that this is happening. And some frustration that our fellow FOL’s are not effectively countering it. Here are Just a few examples of clear and reasonable coments from some of our more disturbingly level headed EB forums members, spread over a number of CuuSoo threads. Notice how they all seem to arrive at the same place? (And my apologies for cutting and grabbing some of your comments fromover in other CuuSoo related threads. Trust me it all ties together eventually.)

ShaydDeGrai notices the disparity of support coming from within the AFOL community. He is taking steps to correct his own behavior to support fellow FOLS, but why does this need to be?

I was supporter #9996. I'd never even heard of FTL but I supported it in part because I thought the micro-build space ships were cool and, after 14 years of SW models, refreshing.

More to the point however, I supported it because I was tired of the on-going culture of AFOLs withholding support for quality projects (even if they are likely to be killed off in review) for one nit-pick or another while at the same time complaining that non-AFOLs fly in like locusts and push projects like Perdue Pete and Atlas through (seemingly) effortlessly.

Votes are cheap. I think AFOLs should spend a bit more time supporting each other and less time bickering with each other and trying to play omniscient gatekeeper for TLG.

Missing Brick is showing frustration that yet another obscure Niche IP based project has rocketed to 10k using outside votes while more general audience stuff gets left behind.

Great, just what we need: another cuusoo project based on an obscure computer game that very few have played and with very little appeal to those who haven't.

-N13OS-

I was hoping that Cuusoo would produce lots of interesting AFOL sets we could all enjoy, but increasingly it seems to be dominated by niche interest groups who muster support from outside the existing Lego fan community. Eg. from the FTL page:

This is great marketing from TLG's perspective - introducing new people to Lego - but not so great for existing Lego fans who might prefer sets with wider appeal which achieve 10K on their own merits.

-N13OS- Has the same concerns. But his observations are that yes those from outside the lego community are the main driver.(something verified by GlenBrickers science stuff)

@ Missing Brick,

However, your opinion on what CUUSOO projects ideally should be is quite similar to mine. I often visit project list and don't see anything that would catch my eye, and then I think "Come on, give me something that everyone would like!" But you can not indulge every creature, so there are always will be those who would say 'Meh!' or will be sarcastic as you are.

And here we have GlenBricker talking about some of the deeper symptoms of what we are observing. Pay attention to the bolded section.

Your argument is one that has upset me from the beginning of my experience with Cuusoo which is why I started blogging. It is clear however that AFOLs are not showing up to support the projects you want to see succeed. I have factual data and a campaign that supports this claim.

It is all well and good to complain at the projects that reach 10,000 by reaching outside of the Lego community, but those are the only people voting on Cuusoo in any acceptable numbers. FOLs tastes vary just as much as non-FOLs so the small community of FOLs hanging out on Cuusoo are not getting any projects to 10,000.

This is not Lego's fault, Cuusoo's fault, or the fault of the IP related projects that get to 10,000. As this is a one vote per person system, the failure of non-IP projects to get ot 10,000 is the fault of the FOL community alone.

In order to begin to explain this, I would like to teach you to two concepts.

1. Admiration – Admiration is how you react when you see a really really good MOC. When you want to look at every detail. See how they put it together. View with interest the story that they tell. Contrast this with;

2. Empathy – Empathy is when you are not being told that story. It is a story that you know already. The presented project speaks to something inside you. It is the feeling you get from things that you build. It is the things you sometimes get from those third party sets that tell or show something that you closely identify with. That desire to make this project or design yours in some way.

When you look at a project with Admiration, you are looking at it as some elses MOC. Often a really really good MOC. You wish to stare at it for hours. Learn from it. Congratulate the person that made it, etc. But at the end of the day, it is somebody elses very very good MOC. It tells there story, not yours. Yi=ou like it. You compliment it. You discuss it and learn from it. But you don't seek to purchase it. You have no internal tie to it that feeds a desire to make it yours or megablocks it to your stories. You can spend weeks starring at it in bliss just observing all of the little details and stories and everything. But it is still not really in your head. You don't have some identifying element that truly sucks you in and makes you feel a part of it.

Whereas when you look on a project with Empathy, who made it disappears. You know this story. You feel this story. It is already a part of you in some small way. You wish to purchase it and bring it home.

People almost always only vote when they feel Empathy for a project.

They get enjoyment out of those that they feel Admiration for, but they will rarely vote for them and will almost never purchase them should they become a product.

There is also a third category that we will call polite scorn. I think we all know what we mean by it. Polite FOL’s do not often discuss it beyond some carefully worded constructive criticism. Scorn may get a few votes out of politeness or pity. Beyond that it is pretty irrelevant.

Now here’s where it gets messy for we AFOL’s

- The normal entry point for AFOL and general FOLs for projects on CuuSoo is at Admiration. They are looking at the project through the builders eyes. They can admire their fellows work. But only a small portion of this work will garner any Empathic response in them. Does it fit into your inner world or story? Is it of something you are deeply fond of? Does not just look good, but outright speak to you as something not merely good or well made, but desirable? That’s when it reaches Empathy.

- Now the outside fans that come to support s single project have this equation reversed. The various niche sources, well known IP’s, Pop Culture references, TV, Movies, Video Games, give them a built in touch point of Empathy. They walk in the door Empathetic towards the one or two projects that brought them there. Everything else that they look at while on the CuuSoo site will start from a base point of Admiration or Scorn.

Now the final kicker.

- People only vote for Empathy.

- People only pay for Empathy.

- Only Empathy will make a project a product.

It doesn’t matter how good a MOC it is. How detailed it is. What wonderful techniques, etc. If it does not speak to something familiar inside the viewer, find its place in the internal story that they have going on between their ears, it will remain simply admired.

So what does this mean for us? Or for FOL's on CuuSoo? Does it mean that our projects will never ever get made? No. But it does mean that we need to look at our projects and how we present them in a different light. It is not simply grabbing an existing fanbase and pointing them at Lego like a horde of invading frat boys. It is in part tweaking our projects and our presentations to engender a clean emotional response from other viewers and not simply ourselves.

Provided I don't bore everyone to death or completely enrage them with this one, in Part II we'll look a little at some of our projects out there, and some of the reasons that they may fall within one of the three categories listed. (Or you can just hold me down and pitch large bricks at my head instead)

Edited August 27, 2013 by Faefrost

[Another Brick In The Wall]

The problem with the Macross set isn't Hasbro or any prior toy deals (does Hasbro actually have any Macross lines?). The problem is the root IP. It's a whole complicated legal mess, but what it comes down to is Macross was owned and created by two different Japanese companies originally. Neither had the funding to cover the whole thing. At some point one of those companies outright sold the western rights to the IP and it's merchandising to Harmony Gold in the US, where it became Robotech. (Note they did not license it to Harmony Gold. They sold it.) the other company later challenged this sale. Needless to say this has triggered almost 30 years of confusing, contradictory and outright absurd international legal wrangling. While who owns the IP when and where is confusing and questionable at this point, the one thing that seems solid is Big West owns the Merchandising rights in Japan and Asia (Macross) while Harmony Gold outright owns the merchandising (for the first Macross series only) in North America. (Robotech). This is why we cannot get all those wonderful Macross Valkyrie models from BanDai and Hasegawa etc over here as regular retail products in the US and Canada. We have to specialty import them.

I just can't see Lego sticking their head in this licensing Vipers nest for a 10-20k CuuSoo run. Their licensing department will take one look at this mess and start drinking.

Harmony Gold couldn't licence the VF-1 in the U.S. because the model was licensed as "Jetfire" in the Transformers range. I don't think Hasbro have released a "Jetfire" in their G1 re-releases.

http://en.wikipedia....i/Robotech#Toys

Harmony Gold and Matchbox were unable to sell the 1/55 VF-1 Valkyrie toy originally sold in Japan by Takatoku Toys due to Hasbro licensing it as Jetfire in theTransformers toy line. Because of this, they settled with manufacturing a non-transformable Veritech Fighter that could fit any of the 3 3/4 inch action figures, as well as importing the transformable super deformed Veritech Fighters (originally manufactured in Japan by Bandai as Macross VF-1 Valkyrie "Joke machines").

Edited August 27, 2013 by Another Brick In The Wall

[reptiman]

For anyone who is interested, my latest CUUSOO project was just published. If you would check out the link and consider supporting, I would greatly appreciate it. Here's the link: http://lego.cuusoo.c...deas/view/47433 Thanks!

Edited August 27, 2013 by reptiman

[herdiaz]

hi, every body,

this is my new CUUSOO project, if you would check out this

and consider supporting or comments, thats would be nice and i appreciate

*link removed*

thanks so much :classic:

Edited August 28, 2013 by CorneliusMurdock
False link removed.

[Peppermint_M]

Oh great googly moogly. Robotech/Macross is a viper's nest, let alone hornets! Did you hear about the Jetfire toy Hasbro released recently?

is the best short version.

Harmony Gold do not like anyone touching their Macross pie, nope nope nope. (Despite the big whacking lack of any new releases in years. *Once again folks. The "M" is for Mecha and Macross/Robotech are in my favourites*)

[Faefrost]

hi, every body,

this is my new CUUSOO project, if you would check out this

and consider supporting or comments, thats would be nice and i appreciate

*link removed*

thanks so much :classic:

Should I be concerned that your link does not lead to CuuSoo, but instead asks for a Facebook login? The actual link does not match the declared URL. Not a good way to start things off.

[Another Brick In The Wall]

.( Despite the big whacking lack of any new releases in years. *Once again folks. The "M" is for Mecha and Macross/Robotech are in my favourites*)

The word is that a live action Robotech film is more likely to happen than not.

[CorneliusMurdock]

hi, every body,

this is my new CUUSOO project, if you would check out this

and consider supporting or comments, thats would be nice and i appreciate

*link removed*

thanks so much :classic:

Since your link did not go to the place you specified, I've removed it.

[Blondie-Wan]

Meanwhile, back to the stuff that's already been approved...

When is the Curiosity rover supposed to come out? November 1st would be one quarter after the official release date of the Time Machine, but I don't remember seeing anything that indicates Curiosity will be here that soon.

[CM4Sci]

Meanwhile, back to the stuff that's already been approved...

When is the Curiosity rover supposed to come out? November 1st would be one quarter after the official release date of the Time Machine, but I don't remember seeing anything that indicates Curiosity will be here that soon.

I've been told January.

-Sci

[Another Brick In The Wall]

Can't say i'm excited about MCR .

The Road to Oz up to 8650 with 3 days to go. Surely it can't make it, right?

[jimmynick]

Nah, and I hope it doesn't; it presents another really good potential set, but I feel it would get knocked out by Ghostbusters.

And whoa! Senteosan's Jurassic Park is already at 3000 supporters! Good for him; it's a fantastic build.

[Blondie-Wan]

Nah, and I hope it doesn't; it presents another really good potential set, but I feel it would get knocked out by Ghostbusters.

Well, that's assuming they do approve only one set per review period. Don't they say they could approve more than one in a period, and simply put them into a production queue? Or am I misremembering something?

[dvsntt]

How to gain empathy then?

[Faefrost]

Well, that's assuming they do approve only one set per review period. Don't they say they could approve more than one in a period, and simply put them into a production queue? Or am I misremembering something?

It's been vague, but in one of the announcements it did seem to be strongly implied that yes it is only one set per review period.