LEGO Ideas Discussion

[Robert8]

Now we know that the exact same hats come in the CMFs. Both of them. 

This is the Dr Who thing all over again. The molds were already produced for Dimensions, but appeared first on the Ideas set

[Blondie-Wan]

1 hour ago, Robert8 said:

Now we know that the exact same hats come in the CMFs. Both of them. 

This is the Dr Who thing all over again. The molds were already produced for Dimensions, but appeared first on the Ideas set

Almost, but not quite - the Doctor Who elements appeared first in the LEGO Dimensions pack (released in November 2015), and then in the Ideas set (released mere weeks later, on December 1st).

That means the LEGO Ideas Doctor Who set is the first Ideas set released from an active licensed property, but Steamboat Willie is the first one approved from an active license, as well as the first one to introduce new molded elements (while The Flintstones is the first one to introduce a new element of any kind).

[toastergrl]

Aaah!! I'm so sorry, I didn't see the following messages - I'd been really busy working on university coursework up until midday today, and online forums had to take a backseat for a bit.

On 3/15/2019 at 12:53 PM, Exetrius said:

@toastergrl That's a fantastic design! I checked out some of your competitors, but your rendition seems to be more sleek and parts-efficient.  I'm pretty jealous of your rendering skills (the prints) btw! Could you tell me which software and/or what tutorial you used for that? 

Best of luck with your project, you're well on your way! 

Your kind words are really appreciated, and I'm more than happy to share my secrets! I used Studio 2.0 (Bricklink's LEGO design software) to build the structure, which has a built-in renderer. I might admit I cheated a little bit, though - those prints aren't baked into the parts. I drew the original flat print sketches in MSPaint, then composited them into the image in post with GNU Image Manipulation Program (or "GIMP"). Since I come from a digital art background, it's a little easier for me than messing around with baking vector art into LDraw files.

On 3/15/2019 at 3:09 PM, Robert8 said:

Love it

It's unbelievable super cool outrageous and amazing 

You know what? Your praise is PHENOMENAL, FANTASTIC, SO INCREDIBLE, WOO-OOH (thank you >u<)

Meanwhile, I'm pretty dang impressed with the Steamboat Willie set. That's, like, an extremely major improvement on the original concept, and the whole deal with the action functions is right up my alley. The only obstacle is the price, and... ouch, that price. It's a tough thing to balance, though... hopefully we'll see more like it from Ideas, but based on stuff that doesn't have the Disney tax.

[Exetrius]

On 3/20/2019 at 11:30 PM, toastergrl said:

Your kind words are really appreciated, and I'm more than happy to share my secrets! I used Studio 2.0 (Bricklink's LEGO design software) to build the structure, which has a built-in renderer. I might admit I cheated a little bit, though - those prints aren't baked into the parts. I drew the original flat print sketches in MSPaint, then composited them into the image in post with GNU Image Manipulation Program (or "GIMP"). Since I come from a digital art background, it's a little easier for me than messing around with baking vector art into LDraw files.

Thanks a ton! 

[Scene]

Is it me or has there been an influx of subpar design orientated ideas? I'm all for the ideas project, but surely the actual design has to be an integral part of said idea, otherwise someone could just upload a worded document outlining their idea without going anywhere near a brick or design software. It's almost as if we're entering the LEGO Dada movement in my opinion.

[Exetrius]

13 hours ago, Scene said:

Is it me or has there been an influx of subpar design orientated ideas? I'm all for the ideas project, but surely the actual design has to be an integral part of said idea, otherwise someone could just upload a worded document outlining their idea without going anywhere near a brick or design software. It's almost as if we're entering the LEGO Dada movement in my opinion.

Hasn't IDEAS always been this? 

30% garbage
50% moderately executed bad ideas
19% well-executed moderately good ideas
0.999% well-executed good ideas
0.001% well-executed, good, marketable ideas
 

I'm not exactly a numerical genius, so above estimations may be a bit off. 

 

[TeriXeri]

To me a majority of submitted IDEAS sets are just too large.

Edited March 29, 2019 by TeriXeri

[Scene]

Have you noticed that it is the same 5-10 people who support anything resembling 2 or more bricks stuck together with the exact same comment? I swear if I uploaded road kill in lego form with the pictures at 10x10 pixels blown to 1080p the same "people" would support and call it a genius idea with the same autonomous response they've given to every other idea posted... troll ideas with troll voting at the extreme.

[Elysiumfountain]

@Scene Caught me red handed, I'm definitely one of those people ;) Sometimes my ulterior motive of hoping they'll support my projects works, sometimes it doesn't. But there are some projects I won't support just because they aren't that appealing to me :) 

[icm]

Here's an Idea that I actually really would like to have myself, as opposed to one I support because I want it to have a chance at review because other people will like it - 

https://ideas.lego.com/projects/972610de-2516-4abc-818a-49183ef2de1d

Mike Mulligan's Steam Shovel!

Yes, it's an IP-based build rather than an entirely original idea, but it's a small little thing that's perfectly sized for minifigures, would sit at a low price point (unless it got the same treatment as Steamboat Willie), and could be easily adapted for City or Town builds.  And yes, as a little kid and as an adult I did and do like the storybook it comes from.

[Elysiumfountain]

I think I supported that one! I had to look up pictures of the original IP, I don't think I've ever read that book 

[Blondie-Wan]

On 3/29/2019 at 9:39 AM, TeriXeri said:

To me a majority of submitted IDEAS sets are just too large.

Too large for what?

[TeriXeri]

On 3/30/2019 at 2:41 PM, Blondie-Wan said:

Too large for what?

Many IDEAS sets even meant for minifigs are way above a certain scale, just for the sake of detail and size.

Of course a 3000 part set going to look nicer then a 1000 part set most of the time, and the larger sets do have to have better price per part.

However there are cases where many parts purely going to fill up an area with terrain or something, to me that does not mean "efficient" use of budget.

Edited April 1, 2019 by TeriXeri

[Blondie-Wan]

52 minutes ago, TeriXeri said:

Many IDEAS sets even meant for minifigs are way above a certain scale, just for the sake of detail and size.

Of course a 3000 part set going to look nicer then a 1000 part set most of the time, and the larger sets do have to have better price per part.

However there are cases where many parts purely going to fill up an area with terrain or something, to me that does not mean "efficient" use of budget.

I agree there are projects like that, but I don’t think they make up an actual majority of submissions.

[Exetrius]

1 hour ago, TeriXeri said:

Many IDEAS sets even meant for minifigs are way above a certain scale, just for the sake of detail and size.

Of course a 3000 part set going to look nicer then a 1000 part set most of the time, and the larger sets do have to have better price per part.

However there are cases where many parts purely going to fill up an area with terrain or something, to me that does not mean "efficient" use of budget.

Here's a good example: https://ideas.lego.com/projects/76a7cd1b-17a9-4aba-a795-104c85e64fb1 Despite serious downscaling and other efforts to keep the part count down, this idea is still massive. It suffers from trying to capture too many locations, while in essence their value in the show is basically zero compared to the characters themselves. 

Edited April 1, 2019 by Exetrius

[MatthewRC]

On 3/29/2019 at 8:21 AM, Exetrius said:

Hasn't IDEAS always been this? 

30% garbage
50% moderately executed bad ideas
19% well-executed moderately good ideas
0.999% well-executed good ideas
0.001% well-executed, good, marketable ideas
 

I'm not exactly a numerical genius, so above estimations may be a bit off. 

 

Yeah, I even tried to submit a project based on Cartoon Network's Courage the Cowardly Dog that combines brick-built figures with a Creator-style version of Eustace's Truck. Ultimately, however, the LEGO Ideas moderators rejected my submission because they thought Courage the Cowardly Dog was inappropriate. How absurd! If only Cartoon Network could step in to resolve this misunderstanding.

In case anyone wants to check out my designs, it's on my Tumblr page. Tell me what you guys think!

https://mtthwclmn.tumblr.com/post/183200344490/my-fan-concept-for-a-lego-courage-the-cowardly-dog?fbclid=IwAR123UsTejNXEBhBVPI-rD6BNdJEdt6wSHL2PwE3aV-ITggp8_A_025E-K0

[Captain Mutant]

Has there been any rumours as to when the Treehouse will be released by LEGO Ideas?

Steamboat Willie has been released in amazing record time, but I’ve seen no word whatsoever about the treehouse. Has anybody been more lucky than me on that front?

[Blondie-Wan]

4 hours ago, Captain Mutant said:

Has there been any rumours as to when the Treehouse will be released by LEGO Ideas?

Steamboat Willie has been released in amazing record time, but I’ve seen no word whatsoever about the treehouse. Has anybody been more lucky than me on that front?

Not that I’m aware, but it certainly should be sometime this year.

It’s worth noting it was announced before Steamboat Willie, but the latter leapfrogged it in actual production. I imagine this is because it (Steamboat Willie) was being developed well before it was actually announced, and possibly also because the Treehouse will be a larger, more complex model that is taking some time to develop.

This sort of thing (Ideas sets being released out of the order in which they were announced) has happened multiple times before. The Exo Suit was announced before either Ghostbusters or the Female Minifigure Set / Research Institute, but Ghostbusters came out first of those three, and then the Exo Suit and Research Institute were released simultaneously, two months after Ghostbusters. A couple years later, the Caterham and Adventure Time were announced together in one review, and then Yellow Submarine and the Apollo Saturn V were announced together in the next review - but the Caterham came out first, and then Yellow Submarine even though it had been announced after Adventure Time, and then came Adventure Time.

[MAB]

On 4/1/2019 at 11:37 AM, Exetrius said:

Here's a good example: https://ideas.lego.com/projects/76a7cd1b-17a9-4aba-a795-104c85e64fb1 Despite serious downscaling and other efforts to keep the part count down, this idea is still massive. It suffers from trying to capture too many locations, while in essence their value in the show is basically zero compared to the characters themselves. 

Yes, compare that to these official 'location' type sets:

$40 Malibu Mansion

 

 

$240 Batcave

It looks more like the Batcave than the Malibu Mansion, and probably even  more parts intensive when you consider the simplicity of the elevated chute part compared to the rockwork in that Ideas idea.

 

It is also not clear to me, is it display or play? Would one location have worked better than all of them (I'm not familiar with the source material)? Would having one small but reasonable build (like Malibu Mansion) work, while keeping the price down.

Edited April 3, 2019 by MAB

[Captain Mutant]

22 hours ago, Blondie-Wan said:

Not that I’m aware, but it certainly should be sometime this year.

It’s worth noting it was announced before Steamboat Willie, but the latter leapfrogged it in actual production. I imagine this is because it (Steamboat Willie) was being developed well before it was actually announced, and possibly also because the Treehouse will be a larger, more complex model that is taking some time to develop.

This sort of thing (Ideas sets being released out of the order in which they were announced) has happened multiple times before. The Exo Suit was announced before either Ghostbusters or the Female Minifigure Set / Research Institute, but Ghostbusters came out first of those three, and then the Exo Suit and Research Institute were released simultaneously, two months after Ghostbusters. A couple years later, the Caterham and Adventure Time were announced together in one review, and then Yellow Submarine and the Apollo Saturn V were announced together in the next review - but the Caterham came out first, and then Yellow Submarine even though it had been announced after Adventure Time, and then came Adventure Time.

Thank you very much for the very thorough response.

[Exetrius]

23 hours ago, MAB said:

-snip-

It is also not clear to me, is it display or play? Would one location have worked better than all of them (I'm not familiar with the source material)? Would having one small but reasonable build (like Malibu Mansion) work, while keeping the price down.

A Malibu size build based on a single location would have been better. It's a show about two teenage highschoolers; a spy girl and her boyfriend sidekick, who fight the evil plans of a supervillain duo (and a few other enemies) in various places. The tower lair would be the most logical choice, but looks very bland. Plus, I would estimate that the (nostalgic) fanbase is leaning towards a female majority, who are generally less interested in conflict based sets. On the whole I think the colourful taco restaurant, where the main protagonists often hang out and have a date at some point would be the best choice. It seems that's what a competitor thought as well... https://ideas.lego.com/projects/11815034-7840-475e-827f-699995eebf62

[Robert8]

Guys...

We are 1 month away from the deadline and there are no projects to review yet

Not a single one 

 

 

 

[Modeltrainman]

@Robert8Really?! Is that the first time this has happened?

[jonwil]

A few items getting closer to 10k that might work as products. The "pursuit of flight" idea seems different and interesting, especially with the movement aspect.

Thunderbirds might work as well (although the size is questionable and I dont know if it would have licensing issues)

The Sesame Street set is really cool, pitty someone else has the license :(

 

[Roebuck]

11 hours ago, Robert8 said:

Guys...

We are 1 month away from the deadline and there are no projects to review yet

Not a single one 

What about:

1. The Pirate Bay
2. SpaceX BFR / Starship & Super Heavy 1:110 Scale
3. Museu Nacional - Rio de Janeiro
4. Kakapo
5. The Office - NBC
6. Anatomini