LEGO Ideas Discussion

[Blondie-Wan]

Posted just under three and a half months ago, aBetterMonkey's Brick-built Adventure Time figures project is now a mere nine votes away from the support goal. It's clearly poised to be the first project in the next review batch, and as someone who likes the show and this project and who voted for it, I'd like to think it has a good chance, what with requiring no exotic elements and just a handful of prints, having accrued its votes quickly, and being the second Adventure Time project to make it to review. On the other hand, though... it's the second Adventure Time project to make it to review (or at least, it will be). We'll see...

Ooh, one more vote just while I was posting - now just eight away from the target!

[Robert8]

What time is it? ADVENTURE TIME!

https://ideas.lego.com/projects/93648

We have the first project with 10000 supporters for the last review of 2015

[Diamondback]

Re Bricksauria and JP license conflict: Might still work if it was rebranded as "JP UCS T-rex"... but past experience with LEGO tone-deafness makes me cynical.

[Blondie-Wan]

Re Bricksauria and JP license conflict: Might still work if it was rebranded as "JP UCS T-rex"... but past experience with LEGO tone-deafness makes me cynical.

It actually was already branded that, the first time around - it was initially submitted as part of a Jurassic Park project. LEGO then archived all Jurassic Park projects on Ideas upon learning Hasbro had the rights, but shortly after that the rights became available and LEGO swooped in and scooped up the license. Meanwhile, the Bricksauria creator had resubmitted just that / those dinosaur(s), but of course now Jurassic Park is an active license, and while we don't know for sure, it's now possible LEGO can't currently do any dinosaur projects that aren't Jurassic Park. Oh, well...

Anyway, I don't know what "tone-deafness" has to do with it. They really do try their best to give their customers what they want, but sometimes they just aren't able to, despite their best efforts and for reasons outside their control.

[fred67]

Anyway, I don't know what "tone-deafness" has to do with it. They really do try their best to give their customers what they want, but sometimes they just aren't able to, despite their best efforts and for reasons outside their control.

No, they really don't - they try their best to make the most profit. That's fine, they're a capitalist company operating in a mostly capitalist society, so they are free to operate how they want, but let's not pretend they give us what we want... they give us what we'll buy for the maximum profit. As a capitalist, that's OK with me, but it is what it is.

While some of their decisions made sense: monorail, selling straight and curve train tracks separately (and abandoning 9V trains), many of them do not: they couldn't keep "Research Institute" on the shelves, and while they made a few extra runs, they never opted to make enough for demand - they didn't even give it six months. They don't sell curve train tracks at all anymore (except in full train sets), so while we wanted curves and straight separately, not only didn't we get that, but we can't even buy curves anymore. Castle builders - keeping in mind it's an "evergreen" theme, have never had a "castle bucket." The best they've gotten is some packs with various small amounts gray bricks, and not even that for over 10 years. All the time I hear people saying they would love buckets with just white, just black, just gray... they even jacked up the price of K-boxes by 33% IF they will even sell them to you at all. They reduce the variety on the PAB walls to some of the least interesting parts. Let's not even talk about selling us round, tapered containers to sell us PAB bricks.

I honestly don't see anybody except you (and this is not meant as a personal offence) that has claimed TLG tries to give us what we want.

Even back on subject, with Ideas, it seems they have made some very good choices, but it also seems as if they've rejected sets that would have been exceedingly popular. Sometimes there's a good reason (too big, adult themes), sometimes not. Why no Hubble telescope when other NASA/space/science oriented sets had completely sold out? Why do they not explain their decisions, especially when no license would have been involved? They don't have to, but it's what people want, so all we do is speculate and think we know why. Why don't they re-release sets that would obviously be hugely popular, like a lot of the science sets that sold out early on, back in Cuusoo days? That, to me, absolutely makes no sense, because they could make a ton of money on it; it just makes no sense at all.

And those "rare" parts they put in things like the UCF Millennium Falcon, or the Cafe Corner? They could sell those parts for triple the profits of other parts they sell, and still undersell BL prices by 90%. Are you going to say people don't want that? I'm not even asking to rerelease the sets (in fact, I have the CC and don't care about the MF, but the subject comes up so much it's worth talking about).

No, no, no... I like TLG, I really do, but let's not pretend their some sort of magnanimous gift givers, here, giving the people what they want. In fact, reading EB the last few years, it seems all anyone does is complain about new sets. Not always, perhaps, but more often than not, they're either not what people wanted, or not very good versions of what they are.

[Blondie-Wan]

No, they really don't - they try their best to make the most profit. That's fine, they're a capitalist company operating in a mostly capitalist society, so they are free to operate how they want, but let's not pretend they give us what we want... they give us what we'll buy for the maximum profit. As a capitalist, that's OK with me, but it is what it is.

While some of their decisions made sense: monorail, selling straight and curve train tracks separately (and abandoning 9V trains), many of them do not: they couldn't keep "Research Institute" on the shelves, and while they made a few extra runs, they never opted to make enough for demand - they didn't even give it six months. They don't sell curve train tracks at all anymore (except in full train sets), so while we wanted curves and straight separately, not only didn't we get that, but we can't even buy curves anymore. Castle builders - keeping in mind it's an "evergreen" theme, have never had a "castle bucket." The best they've gotten is some packs with various small amounts gray bricks, and not even that for over 10 years. All the time I hear people saying they would love buckets with just white, just black, just gray... they even jacked up the price of K-boxes by 33% IF they will even sell them to you at all. They reduce the variety on the PAB walls to some of the least interesting parts. Let's not even talk about selling us round, tapered containers to sell us PAB bricks.

I honestly don't see anybody except you (and this is not meant as a personal offence) that has claimed TLG tries to give us what we want.

Even back on subject, with Ideas, it seems they have made some very good choices, but it also seems as if they've rejected sets that would have been exceedingly popular. Sometimes there's a good reason (too big, adult themes), sometimes not. Why no Hubble telescope when other NASA/space/science oriented sets had completely sold out? Why do they not explain their decisions, especially when no license would have been involved? They don't have to, but it's what people want, so all we do is speculate and think we know why. Why don't they re-release sets that would obviously be hugely popular, like a lot of the science sets that sold out early on, back in Cuusoo days? That, to me, absolutely makes no sense, because they could make a ton of money on it; it just makes no sense at all.

And those "rare" parts they put in things like the UCF Millennium Falcon, or the Cafe Corner? They could sell those parts for triple the profits of other parts they sell, and still undersell BL prices by 90%. Are you going to say people don't want that? I'm not even asking to rerelease the sets (in fact, I have the CC and don't care about the MF, but the subject comes up so much it's worth talking about).

No, no, no... I like TLG, I really do, but let's not pretend their some sort of magnanimous gift givers, here, giving the people what they want. In fact, reading EB the last few years, it seems all anyone does is complain about new sets. Not always, perhaps, but more often than not, they're either not what people wanted, or not very good versions of what they are.

I'm not saying they're magnanimous gift-givers; of course they seek to maximize profits, but they do try to give people what they want (within reason) as a means to that.

[Artanis I]

They throw us bones.

[Blondie-Wan]

They want get as much money from us as they can, and they do know the way to do that is to offer stuff we want. But they do operate under constraints. They can't merely snap their fingers and have an infinite supply of everything. They have a large but finite number of production lines, all of which run around the clock, and increasing the availability of one thing means decreasing the availability of another. They run a balancing act, trying to optimize production for maximum profit.

[fred67]

They throw us bones.

That was a much easier way to say what I was trying to say.

They give us bits and pieces of what we want.

[DD840]

It's been weeks since I've voted for anything on Ideas. I am looking forward to the Big Bang Theory and Dr Who but if they continually reject larger projects I don't see much point in supporting them or even regularly browsing the website. I know other people really like the piano but if that's the only one that passes this round it'll be a big letdown imo.

[Blondie-Wan]

I vote for stuff constantly; I'm supporting several hundred projects.

I imagine a larger project will get through some day, though I'm not keen to guess just when that will be.

Given the rules question, I don't know that the piano is the likeliest project in its batch. I'd think it's perhaps a tie between it and the Labyrinth marble maze.

[BirdOPrey5]

I try to check in to Lego Ideas every day. Most days I seem to support at least 1 project.

[BrickJagger]

Caterham Super Seven is 284 away from 10k. Should get there today or tomorrow.

[Robert8]

Isn't it time for the results of the 1st 2015 review?

[jonwil]

There is no fixed time frame for LEGO to release review results. Its up to whenever LEGO have finished reviewing items and have something to announce.

Of the items currently "in review" the only ones I would consider buying would be Science Adventures, ISS, Natural History Museum (although that one has a little more tan and dark tan than I would like), Minas Tirith, the DC-3 and the piano.

[Blondie-Wan]

Isn't it time for the results of the 1st 2015 review?

What jonwil said. Note the last review results were in early February, a little over a month after the break between review periods. If that were typical, we could expect the next review results in early June.

[BirdOPrey5]

Only 1 made it. I won't spoil the surprise.

Although 1 needs further review.

Edited May 28, 2015 by BirdOPrey5

[KristofBD]

Well, another one/two projects I will not buy… Shame, as this time I was willing to buy six of the nine. I must be really unrepresentative...

Edited May 28, 2015 by KristofBD

[CM4Sci]

A lot of these obviously weren't gonna make it. I'm really pleased with the final decision!

[BirdOPrey5]

I'd have bought the Goonies, the Natural History Museum, or the Flying Dutchman for sure. Jurassic Park and this maze we maybies.

[AFOLguy1970]

No purchases for me, although I would have saved up for the Natural History Museum and/or Minas Tirith. My wallet is pleased with this decision.

[XAxles]

Someone who goes by the username GoldLeaderR5 had this to say about our winner over at the blog's comments section:

"I can see how this set can be customized to the builder's own configuration, allowing the set the to both stand AND be altered."

Should be neat, and with some more imagination one might even introduce some form of gate system where one barrier opens up after reaching a checkpoint, as well as expandability to make it a 4-player game with 4 balls; maybe even add pinball scoring!

Edited May 28, 2015 by XAxles

[just2good]

Cool, I liked that one a lot.

[JGW3000]

Well deserved and earned, as Jason (JKBrickworks) has been making excellent MOCs. Congratulations! I'd probably have to get at least two of these when they come out. Its likely to be a larger set, as they describe it as "customizable" which means alternate parts will be included. I am also guessing we should see this very soon, as no new parts, colors, or complicated designs are needed.

[Blondie-Wan]

There were lots of projects in this round I supported and which I'm sorry to see declined, but honestly it was expected; most of them were so large I expected them to be passed over for size alone.

I'm very happy that the chosen project did get picked. It falls outside the range of things one normally sees LEGO sets made of, and illustrates how versatile the bricks can be - something all of us know well, of course, but not all "casual" LEGO fans do.