LEGO Ideas Discussion

[dr_spock]

On 3/14/2017 at 11:50 PM, koalayummies said:

"Arrgh! An all female what?!?! They better not! Rabble rabble rabble!!!" :bulldozer:

It's not the first time LEGO have done an all female minifig product. 

 

[Artanis I]

Or an all female Ideas product...

[Blondie-Wan]

4 hours ago, Artanis I said:

Or an all female Ideas product...

Indeed, Women of NASA will be the second such product, after the Research Institute.

I believe there have also already been six all-male CUUSOO / Ideas ones (Hayabusa, Minecraft, Back to the Future, Ghostbusters, WALL•E, Yellow Submarine), and the Apollo 11 Saturn V will presumably be a seventh, of course.

[VaderFan2187]

7 hours ago, dr_spock said:

It's not the first time LEGO have done an all female minifig product. 

That's perfectly fine. It's a figure pack. The Ideas sets aren't supposed to be those.

[Actor Builder]

1 hour ago, Blondie-Wan said:

Indeed, Women of NASA will be the second such product, after the Research Institute.

I believe there have also already been six all-male CUUSOO / Ideas ones (Hayabusa, Minecraft, Back to the Future, Ghostbusters, WALL•E, Yellow Submarine), and the Apollo 11 Saturn V will presumably be a seventh, of course.

Wall-E can't be specifically designated as all-male, can it? I don't believe we decisively know the gender of Wall-E's cockroach, after all. And Wall-E is a robot. Wall-E has typically masculine qualities (Mainly enjoying trash), but you can't really assign a gender to a robot, with a few exceptions I'm sure exist but am too lazy to think up.

[Capparezza]

And counting Yellow Submarine as "all-male" is a bit weird, too. The Beatles have been a boy band, that's a fact. Or should they have included Yoko in this set too??? Then you'd have to include a male minifig in a (maybe some day to come) Spice Girls set as well, to be completely fair. I don't see how including only male Beatles could have been circumvented...

[Alpinemaps]

19 hours ago, Blondie-Wan said:

Indeed, Women of NASA will be the second such product, after the Research Institute.

I believe there have also already been six all-male CUUSOO / Ideas ones (Hayabusa, Minecraft, Back to the Future, Ghostbusters, WALL•E, Yellow Submarine), and the Apollo 11 Saturn V will presumably be a seventh, of course.

Not quite sure what your criteria is. If it's minifigs, then I'll give you BTTF, Ghostbusters and Yellow Submarine. 

I'm assuming, based on those sets, you are trying to suggest that those sets might appeal predominantly to males vs females. 

Goint to have to disagree with you on that. My wife would argue she's the bigger Beatles fans. My kids (one male, one female), equally like all the other sets you mention.

[Blondie-Wan]

1 hour ago, Alpinemaps said:

Not quite sure what your criteria is. If it's minifigs, then I'll give you BTTF, Ghostbusters and Yellow Submarine. 

I'm assuming, based on those sets, you are trying to suggest that those sets might appeal predominantly to males vs females. 

Goint to have to disagree with you on that. My wife would argue she's the bigger Beatles fans. My kids (one male, one female), equally like all the other sets you mention.

Not minifigures, just figures generally (whether minifigures, microfigures, nanofigures, DUPLO figures, brick-built figures, minidolls, constraction figures, whatever). Those sets all feature figures of exclusively male characters.

My point was merely that even with these two women-only sets (Research Institute and now Women of NASA), sets featuring exclusively female figures are still dramatically outnumbered by sets featuring exclusively male figures. That's true if we limit it to minifigure-scale sets, but even more so if we consider all other Ideas sets as well.

BTW, even if we stick to just sets with minifigures, it's still not just BTTF, Ghostbusters, and Yellow Submarine. Hayabusa (the second CUUSOO set ever) also features a solitary male minifigure, Junichiro Kawaguchi (albeit made entirely using existing minifigure elements, with no new prints).

[GentlemanJoker]

Recently I have been working on a LEGO Ideas Stranger Things project, but after doing a bit of research I found that previous Stranger Things projects have been rejected and there hasn't been a single one accepted. So is Stranger Things not a suitable subject for a LEGO Ideas project? I checked the guidelines and the closest violation I could find is that the show has some horror aspects to it, so does that mean that if I make this project it won't get approved?

[Blondie-Wan]

Well, despite featuring kids, it's not exactly the most kid-friendly of shows; I wouldn't expect them to accept any projects based on the series (though then again, I never would've thought they'd do Gremlins, The Simpsons, or The Big Bang Theory either, so so much for what I know).

Generally speaking, I think LEGO will consider pop-culture projects only if they fall into the G-to-PG-13 range, content-wise. Stranger Things obviously doesn't have an MPAA rating since it's a TV show rather than a movie, but if it were cinema and not television I think there's a strong chance it'd get an R.

[GentlemanJoker]

18 minutes ago, Blondie-Wan said:

Well, despite featuring kids, it's not exactly the most kid-friendly of shows; I wouldn't expect them to accept any projects based on the series (though then again, I never would've thought they'd do Gremlins, The Simpsons, or The Big Bang Theory either, so so much for what I know).

Generally speaking, I think LEGO will consider pop-culture projects only if they fall into the G-to-PG-13 range, content-wise. Stranger Things obviously doesn't have an MPAA rating since it's a TV show rather than a movie, but if it were cinema and not television I think there's a strong chance it'd get an R.

Yeah, that's what I figured. Thanks!

[JGuy]

1 hour ago, GentlemanJoker said:

Yeah, that's what I figured. Thanks!

If you've got any progress though, it's worth finishing just to see if you can get it to 10k!  It may not even get published (I haven't actually seen the show so I wouldn't know), but it's always worth a shot! ;)

[GentlemanJoker]

17 minutes ago, JGuy said:

If you've got any progress though, it's worth finishing just to see if you can get it to 10k!  It may not even get published (I haven't actually seen the show so I wouldn't know), but it's always worth a shot! ;)

Thanks for the motivation! The problem just is that I might not be able to submit the project as an Ideas submission because of the theme of the show. But again, thanks!

[Umbra-Manis]

3 hours ago, GentlemanJoker said:

Thanks for the motivation! The problem just is that I might not be able to submit the project as an Ideas submission because of the theme of the show. But again, thanks!

You can always email the ideas support email and ask them, I did that last year for a project and got a response. 

[dulsi]

For a particular subject, do you think it is better to make a large project that includes everything or a smaller project? I was looking at a Wild Krats project. While the project has everything a fan of the show would be interested in, it is very big. I suppose the simplest solution would be to make both. Make sure supporters know about the two so they support both. Then assuming you reach 10K, Lego could see the interest but decide which they want to try.

[Artanis I]

10 minutes ago, dulsi said:

For a particular subject, do you think it is better to make a large project that includes everything or a smaller project? I was looking at a Wild Krats project. While the project has everything a fan of the show would be interested in, it is very big. I suppose the simplest solution would be to make both. Make sure supporters know about the two so they support both. Then assuming you reach 10K, Lego could see the interest but decide which they want to try. include in Lego Dimensions

FTFY, haha

[Faefrost]

1 hour ago, dulsi said:

For a particular subject, do you think it is better to make a large project that includes everything or a smaller project? I was looking at a Wild Krats project. While the project has everything a fan of the show would be interested in, it is very big. I suppose the simplest solution would be to make both. Make sure supporters know about the two so they support both. Then assuming you reach 10K, Lego could see the interest but decide which they want to try.

For any project based on pop culture or media, especially something that appeals to kids, you will likely see your best success, and your best chance of production if you can take a distinct specific element and refine it such that you end up with a set in the $20-$50 price point. So figure 250-500 pieces 2-4 minifigs. Yeah they will go bigger at times, but honestly that will depend heavily on a lot of data. The safest surest path for anything that might skew younger on the age spectrum will be that price range. "How much would a parent be willing to spend to get the kid something from their show?" Scale your set to match that and you greatly enhance your chances at review. 

Edited March 20, 2017 by Faefrost

[Robert8]

"NBC's The Office", by Dwight SchruteOn, achieved the 10k supporters today!

 

[VaderFan2187]

Oh wow! I noticed the project growing but didn't realized it hit 10K already!

[Ashnflash]

This is literally the best thing that has happened all day, possibly all week (Question Mark?) BUT YA! Super pumped for this! I looked at what's it's up against and I could care less about the others, so I truly hope that I get to see Dunder Mifflin. In 3 days it will be 12 years since it aired on TV  Fingers crossed this is given the go ahead 

[Elysiumfountain]

It reached 10K? I didn't even notice, I'll have to go see! Good for them! Now if only I can get my projects up there.... Hm..

[Exetrius]

1 hour ago, Robert8 said:

"NBC's The Office", by Dwight SchruteOn, achieved the 10k supporters today!

As someone who has never seen nor heard of NBC's The Office, I can say this looks like a bunch of dull minifigs with random ordinary objects in an oversized, not very well-excecuted, boring office. I see very little appeal for the international market.

[Artanis I]

I didn't think the big bang theory would pass review, so who knows. This show is less childish than it (aka better and not canned laughter), and although really funny I think I preferred the original UK version (definitely not appropriate - Martin Freeman made it as a minifig elsewise, and no, not through Sherlock!).

Not as many nerd/geek references as the big flatulence theory, but the Starcraft Kerrigan halloween costume was hilarious. And plenty of people know Steve Carell by now

[Robert8]

2 hours ago, Exetrius said:

As someone who has never seen nor heard of NBC's The Office, I can say this looks like a bunch of dull minifigs with random ordinary objects in an oversized, not very well-excecuted, boring office. I see very little appeal for the international market.

Agree. The execution of the idea is not good. Like, at all. Looks like a random MOC. I don't get how it got 10k votes

[AFOLguy1970]

"The Office" has 15 minifigs in it.  It will get rejected in review because TLG was planning on introducing a set in the City line next year titled "Fun In the Office" and there is too much overlap.