LEGO Ideas Discussion

[x105Black]

Lovelace & Babbage would be interesting. It's also a more proper way to highlight a female, by not calling attention to the fact that she's a woman and instead focusing on her accomplishments.

I wouldn't mind seeing that one pass review.

[Tariq j]

The Space and Air Museum looks quite interesting.

I don't think we've seen any Museum sets in the passed before so it would be great if this one got 10k and passed the review.

[Blondie-Wan]

Yesterday they began something new, brief interviews in the blog posts with creators of projects that reach review. The first is with whatpumpkin, creator of the Fossil Museum currently in review. She's only 21!

A while back they did have a guest blog post by wetwired, offering his tips and insight on the process, though this interview is a bit more far-ranging. I don't think wetwired's post ever got mentioned in this thread until now, but it seems germane.

[Blondie-Wan]

Yesterday they began something new, brief interviews in the blog posts with creators of projects that reach review. The first is with whatpumpkin, creator of the Fossil Museum currently in review. She's only 21!

A while back they did have a guest blog post by wetwired, offering his tips and insight on the process, though this interview is a bit more far-ranging. I don't think wetwired's post ever got mentioned in this thread until now, but it seems germane.

And now they've done one with Swan Dutchman, creator of the Gingerbread House currently in review.

[Robert8]

Love that Gingerbread House set.....

Hope it will make it!

[Blondie-Wan]

Love that Gingerbread House set.....

Hope it will make it!

I think it's the likeliest project in the batch.

[Faefrost]

I think it's the likeliest project in the batch.

Agreed. It just hits all the right notes. A clean yet distinct design. A nice seasonal theme without licensed IP. Gives them some use for their CMF specialty molds, and is about the same size as a mid level Creator set.

[Robert8]

Unless..... LEGO has one of the works...

[Blondie-Wan]

Agreed. It just hits all the right notes. A clean yet distinct design. A nice seasonal theme without licensed IP. Gives them some use for their CMF specialty molds, and is about the same size as a mid level Creator set.

Yup. Also nary a whiff of anything at odds with LEGO's brand, and it shouldn't even need any element decoration aside from the existing Gingerbread Man printing from Minifigures Series 11.

[LegoFjotten]

Has there been any word yet on when we can expect the Caterham? Really looking forward to that one.

[Blondie-Wan]

Has there been any word yet on when we can expect the Caterham? Really looking forward to that one.

When they announced it and the Adventure Time set, they indicated they'd come late this year and early next year, and we now know the Adventure Time set is due next year, so we can assume the Caterham Super 7 set will be out this year.

They seem to usually release Ideas sets on the first day of their months. Given as far into August as we are now, I think we'd have already seen anything coming on the first of September, so my guess is that it'll come October 1st, November 1st, or December 1st. But I want to stress that's just a guess (er, three guesses).

[mattyman]

Hoth bricks has a picture of the Caterham

[Dazz]

Hoth bricks has a picture of the Caterham

In my opinion, LEGO ruined the set with their redesign. Others may feel differently, of course.

[Emmi]

The Caterham looks awesome. Can't wait!

[Blondie-Wan]

Sweet! It looks great. And it's due in October, which lines up nicely with my prediction of, um, a few hours ago.

Worthy of note: it's $79.99, the highest price yet of any Ideas set. I've often noted how as the program goes along, they seem to be increasingly (if slowly) willing to go larger and larger with Ideas sets, as they get more experience, more comfortable with this way of producing and releasing sets, etc. From the beginnings of LEGO CUUSOO in 2008 right up through 2014 and into early 2015, the most expensive CUUSOO & Ideas sets topped out at $49.99. Then, last year, they finally felt comfortable going a little larger and higher, and released three in a row at $59.99. Then, earlier this year, they released their first Ideas set at $69.99. And now the next one is $79.99.

We've talked often in this thread about how unlikely it is that we'll get really huge, expensive, D2C-style sets such as modular buildings and UCS Star Wars vehicles and the like, and that is still true for the time being. But looking at the overall arc of releases, though, I can't help but think they really might eventually get to a point where they'll do such large sets. They finally have a piece count ceiling for submissions, and it's already quite a bit higher than many of us thought it would be if they ever instituted one. It's not at all hard to imagine them eventually approving and releasing an Ideas set with well over a thousand pieces (in fact, it seems quite possible the recently-approved Apollo 11 Saturn V could be the first). Maybe we'll even see the piece limit for submissions raised some day...

Meanwhile, now that we know the Caterham Super 7 is due in October, my next question is whether or not they'll announce the latest review results before or after it comes out. I'm curious to see just how large their backlog of approved but unreleased sets can get.

Edited August 19, 2016 by Blondie-Wan

[BrickMonkeyMOCs]

In my opinion, LEGO ruined the set with their redesign. Others may feel differently, of course.

How so? Obviously it is a bit less detailed than the originals, but that was expected. The overall proportions and shaping look the same as far as I can tell. They may have taken the poseable steering out though, which would be a pity.

[Blondie-Wan]

Looking again now, I think I'm probably wrong about these six being likely to be the only six in this batch. I think the Lamborghini Veneno Roadster and the Modular Construction Site both have a shot at making it into the same batch, though I'm not super optimistic about how they'll fare in review (though you never know)! I think Lovelace & Babbage might have a decent shot in review, though I'm as unsure of that as I am about just which review batch it'll make it into (but I do think it'll definitely make it to review, as will the Star Wars UCS X34 Landspeeder, which I think unlikely to pass review).

Hmmm... I think I was wrong earlier. I'm increasingly beginning to think the Lamborghini Veneno Roadster will make it into this batch as well.

I think the 3 projects in the top row will make it.

Women of NASA brought some attention to them

For a while now, the Landspeeder has been trailing the Lamborghini by enough votes that there was a strong possibility the real car was going to make it into this batch while the fantasy one would go into the next, but the Landspeeder seems to have gotten a surge in support and has pulled ahead of the Lamborghini, and is now fewer than a hundred votes away from the finish (while the Lamborghini is fewer than two hundred). It does now seem quite likely both will make it into this batch, which would make it a total of ten projects.

[Robert8]

Yay! The 34032947234093th Star Wars project!

That's exactly what we need

[Blondie-Wan]

Yay! The 34032947234093th Star Wars project!

That's exactly what we need

if you don't like Star Wars, you can take heart in the knowledge that if & when they ever approve a Star Wars project, they'll archive every other Star Wars project still gathering votes at that time, and not accept any more that are submitted.

And in all fairness, lots of the ones that have made it to review are genuinely cool, and some would even make great sets; they just haven't approved any yet, for a variety of reasons. But it could still happen someday. Assuming the license allows it (which is a big "if", I know, but still), all that has to happen is for a project to be submitted and make it to review that a) isn't too big; b) isn't somethjng they're naturally already going to do already anyway; c) doesn't interfere with some other licensee's license for some other kind of Star Wars merchandise; and d) doesn't pose a safety issue. That's a lot, but I think it could happen - in fact, I've been planning several Star Wars projects that would actually meet all these conditions, I think, and I'll submit them if I ever get around to finishing them...

[Robert8]

if you don't like Star Wars, you can take heart in the knowledge that if & when they ever approve a Star Wars project, they'll archive every other Star Wars project still gathering votes at that time, and not accept any more that are submitted.

I hope they'll approve something like this

It would be the most laughable thing ever

[Blondie-Wan]

And now it has happened - the Star Wars UCS X34 Landspeeder is the latest project to reach the 10k supports goal, becoming the ninth project in the current batch! Congratulations, Psyence-!

[Actor Builder]

becoming the ninth project in the current batch! Congratulations, Psyence-!

Which one is the current batch? In the past I've been able to keep up with it, but for some reason I got confused somewhere and I have no idea what the things are being added to the Review. I know what's currently being reviewed, because I've seen them on the Ideas site, but this isn't with that batch, is it?

[Blondie-Wan]

Which one is the current batch? In the past I've been able to keep up with it, but for some reason I got confused somewhere and I have no idea what the things are being added to the Review. I know what's currently being reviewed, because I've seen them on the Ideas site, but this isn't with that batch, is it?

The current batch is the one coming together now; it's made up of all projects that attain their vote goals between the last batch (the one currently in review) and 12 midnight Central European Summer Time on Monday, September 5th, when this one will close (and enter review, yay!), and the next batch begins.

You can check it out by going to the Discover page on the Ideas site, clicking the "filter" button (the one that looks like a funnel) to show viewing options, selecting "Project State" from there, and finally, checking the "Achieved Support" box. This shows everything that's gotten its votes, but hasn't entered review yet (since the batch is still coming together; all the projects in it officially enter review together once it's closed). Or, here - try this link.

Edited August 21, 2016 by Blondie-Wan

[Actor Builder]

Thank you. I didn't read the fine print, I just clicked the link. Now I know the trick, so thanks.

[anothergol]

I think the designer of "Women of NASA" picked this as a submission to Lego Ideas because they knew it has a high chance of success.

If you check closely, you'll see it's a strong feminist who made that project. Ironic, because to me "women of anything" is the most misogynic project you could think of. It's pretty much "hey, women can do it too!" - like there were doubts about it.

And in all fairness, lots of the ones that have made it to review are genuinely cool, and some would even make great sets; they just haven't approved any yet, for a variety of reasons. But it could still happen someday. Assuming the license allows it (which is a big "if", I know, but still), all that has to happen is for a project to be submitted and make it to review that a) isn't too big; b) isn't somethjng they're naturally already going to do already anyway; c) doesn't interfere with some other licensee's license for some other kind of Star Wars merchandise; and d) doesn't pose a safety issue. That's a lot, but I think it could happen - in fact, I've been planning several Star Wars projects that would actually meet all these conditions, I think, and I'll submit them if I ever get around to finishing them...

I find it sad that they don't tell why a project got rejected. The large T-Rex, one of the most beautiful Lego builds, got rejected twice, they don't even say why. Perhaps too fragile? Would be stupid if it was for licensing reasons.. for a T-Rex.