LEGO Ideas Discussion

[Blondie-Wan]

Hm. To be honest, I liked the previous site design much more. The new one is a lot less intuitive to me, I’m having trouble finding things, and I seem unable to find certain options altogether; I also don’t think I care for the look of the site as much. I feel like it’s going to be harder to get people to support a proje- I mean, product idea now.

On the plus side, one new rule change is pretty cool. People whose projects accrue 10,000 supports but aren’t chosen in the review get consolation prizes (three sets with a maximum combined value of $500 USD), which is pretty sweet.

They're fully integrating the Rebrick contests with Ideas now, too.

[JGuy]

It seems that the activity feed which showed what projects were being supported in real time is gone?  That seems like an odd feature to remove, I enjoyed that feature....

[Bricked1980]

2 hours ago, Blondie-Wan said:

On the plus side, one new rule change is pretty cool. People whose projects accrue 10,000 supports but aren’t chosen in the review get consolation prizes (three sets with a maximum combined value of $500 USD), which is pretty sweet.

This is a good feature. After months of designing, promoting etc, it must be very gutting to get all the way to 10'000 and then find your project gets rejected. At least a consolation proze would soften the blow a bit.

28 minutes ago, JGuy said:

It seems that the activity feed which showed what projects were being supported in real time is gone?  That seems like an odd feature to remove, I enjoyed that feature....

I have only been using Ideas for about a week now so hadn't even had chance to get familiar with all features of the old version. But it does seem as if they have made some odd decisions about which features to remove. They don't seem to have left many options of how to sort the order of the projects anymore. As far as I can see it's just a choice of either "Top entries" or "newest first".

[Exetrius]

3 hours ago, Bricked1980 said:

This is a good feature. After months of designing, promoting etc, it must be very gutting to get all the way to 10'000 and then find your project gets rejected. At least a consolation proze would soften the blow a bit.

Agreed. I even think the consolation prize may be worded a little bitterly; personally I think it would be an awesome reward for the hard work that has gotten into it. After all, we submit ideas as a hobby thing, and the process of getting to the 10.000 must still be one of the greatest praises you can achieve with building LEGO.

One thing I wonder: will the whole 10K-but-rejected club from the past be rewarded as well?

[jfbat]

8 hours ago, Robert8 said:

It looks great but I found something odd

Now you can't sort the results by "most supported"

 

I thought that "most followed" would be the same. That function just doesn't work, it shows the same order as "most recently updated".

The look is ok, the filters and sorting options are a shambles. So: no, at the moment I prefer the old site.

[Bricked1980]

Good news. A message has just popped up on ideas saying they are adding back the options to sort the list of projects by most popular, most supports etc. This is due to feedback they've received from people after yesterday's update.

[Blondie-Wan]

Edited June 28, 2018 by Blondie-Wan

[x105Black]

18 hours ago, Bricked1980 said:

Lego Ideas is now back up and running. It has been completely overhauled and re-designed. I think I prefer the new style actually. 

I really don't.

15 hours ago, Blondie-Wan said:

Hm. To be honest, I liked the previous site design much more. The new one is a lot less intuitive to me, I’m having trouble finding things, and I seem unable to find certain options altogether; I also don’t think I care for the look of the site as much. I feel like it’s going to be harder to get people to support a proje- I mean, product idea now.

On the plus side, one new rule change is pretty cool. People whose projects accrue 10,000 supports but aren’t chosen in the review get consolation prizes (three sets with a maximum combined value of $500 USD), which is pretty sweet.

They're fully integrating the Rebrick contests with Ideas now, too.

I liked the previous design more as well.  I find this one cluttered and difficult to navigate.  I also don't like the list of projects on the home page.  I miss the old scroll through sections to see recently supported, currently in review, and successful projects for sale.  And the Staff Picks were great.  All of that on the home page made an easily navigable source for me.  I hate that they have all been moved off of the home page and tucked away so that a stream of random projects can clutter it up.

Consolation prizes are nice, though.

[Digger of Bricks]

I guess it'll take some getting used to, but right now, I'm really not that fond of the new set-up, as it strangely looks rather archaic compared to its previous format. 

[Blondie-Wan]

And now the long-awaited Voltron set has finally been revealed. It looks great! And it’s the largest (by piece count) and most expensive LEGO Ideas set yet.

[Takanuinuva]

1 hour ago, Blondie-Wan said:

And now the long-awaited Voltron set has finally been revealed. It looks great! And it’s the largest (by piece count) and most expensive LEGO Ideas set yet.

And it actually transforms and combines

https://brickset.com/sets/21311-1?more-images

180 dollars is more than fair for a set of this size and detail.

[x105Black]

So very excited, this looks incredible!

[jonwil]

From the looks of it it can transform and combine without any need to rebuild anything. That's awesome.

 

[Johnny1360]

9 hours ago, Takanuinuva said:

 

180 dollars is more than fair for a set of this size and detail.

I think that's a lot better, I thought it was $220

[x105Black]

20 minutes ago, jonwil said:

From the looks of it it can transform and combine without any need to rebuild anything. That's awesome.

I agree.  It's what I was hoping for!

[jonwil]

The Australian price for Voltron is a rip-off IMO. US price for Voltron is the same as the Technic Mack Truck yet Voltron costs $40 more in Australia than the Mack Truck does. Definitely not a day-one purchase like the Saturn V, Women of NASA and Tron sets were (even though I am a huge fan of Voltron as a series)

 

[Capparezza]

4 hours ago, jonwil said:

From the looks of it it can transform and combine without any need to rebuild anything. That's awesome.

 

I guess that's the reason it has taken them so long - they must have had an awful time constructing Voltron

Even if I'm not into this theme and won't buy Voltron, I have to admit it's looking damn good.

[Blondie-Wan]

SpaceX - The Ultimate Collection, a Product Idea featuring an assortment of SpaceX craft (including a Falcon Heavy) all in 1:110 scale (like the NASA Apollo Saturn V set) has just rocketed its way to 10,000 supports in just over 7 weeks, becoming the third Idea in the Second 2018 Review - after this SpaceX Falcon Heavy project, which attained its support in four months and six days, and this International Space Station project, which attained its support in just under eight months.

The Ideas user base continues to send a clear, strong message about wanting spacey LEGO sets.

[Digger of Bricks]

34 minutes ago, Blondie-Wan said:

The Ideas user base continues to send a clear, strong message about wanting spacey LEGO sets.

Yet none of them are Classic Space projects, let alone anything veering off into Sci-Fi at least. 

[Bricked1980]

The space themed sets certainly do seem to be very popular.

Dang! Starting to wish I'd added rocket thrusters to my traction engine now. 

[Digger of Bricks]

1 minute ago, Bricked1980 said:

The space themed sets certainly do seem to be very popular.

It's seems to have always been that way for a quite awhile now, but I guess there has been a bit of an uptick for this subject matter for Ideas projects in more recent months.

[Bricked1980]

13 minutes ago, Digger of Bricks said:

It's seems to have always been that way for a quite awhile now, but I guess there has been a bit of an uptick for this subject matter for Ideas projects in more recent months.

I think the Saturn V struck a big chord  with a lot of people and I think many folks are keen to have another set in a similar style to that one.

Edited June 30, 2018 by Bricked1980

[Blondie-Wan]

43 minutes ago, Digger of Bricks said:

Yet none of them are Classic Space projects, let alone anything veering off into Sci-Fi at least. 

Right; these are about real-life space exploration, which is clearly a very popular subject for Ideas (see: Hayabusa, Curiosity, Research Institute, NASA Apollo Saturn V, Women of NASA).

[Robert8]

I'm surprised to see the (real life) space projects are so popular.

 

[Blondie-Wan]

24 minutes ago, Robert8 said:

I'm surprised to see the (real life) space projects are so popular.

 

I’m not. Space is cool!

For that matter, science stuff in general is popular with the Ideas crowd, and has given us at least one additional set besides the ones I mentioned earlier (Shinkai 6500, and of course the Research Institute represents both chemistry and paleontology as well as astronomy). And for all these sets, there have been a slew of additional ideas that made it to review but not production - a previous ISS, scientists in the field, multiple particle accelerators, multiple natural history museums, an observatory, the first computer, and more. Space exploration is just the most popular specific area with the Ideas crowd out of scientific exploration, discovery and research in general.

I think LEGO likes variety in its Ideas output, but at the same time I know it likes ideas that stir and inspire and carry actual educational value. Given how these latest three space projects all came in at 10k one after another, in such short time frames, and covering such similar subject matter (particularly the two SpaceX projects), I think there’s a real chance one will be approved.

Then again, I’ve been wrong so many times before...