Unreleased/Cancelled LEGO Sets

[Mesabi]

Also, there's an entire tag for Unreleased sets on Brickset.

Wow... we really should have noticed that. Thanks Hinckley.

[just2good]

Don't know if you eventually figured out what happened but...

http://vignette1.wik...=20101105160559

http://vignette4.wik...=20101105160735

This guy here is vehicle 13. Designed by Mark Stafford. These images (although taken from Brickipedia) were originally from an interview with Nabii that talked about designing sets. This was one set that was brought up during the "scrapped sets" portion of the interview.

It was later revealed that it wasn't scrapped. Instead they retooled it into the Undersea Explorer from the Atlantis theme.

In order to link it to its roots, they went as far to make the change canon in the Atlantis story, being that it literally was a Power Miners vehicle transferred to the Deep Sea Salvage Crew.

This is also the reason why Brains was transferred into the Atlantis story, all for the sake of established this connection, once the second, and unfortunately final year for the theme began.

Thank you... I never knew this! As somebody who ADORES Power Miners, this was some awesome info. Do you have a link to the interview?

[LegoRomania]

Another​ cancelled theme is Voodoo Heads the original idea that evolved in Bionicle.

http://board.ttvchannel.com/uploads/db5640/18710/70f9686ea40ed373.PNG

The had also canister ready.I can't find the canister picture.

[xboxtravis7992]

Another​ cancelled theme is Voodoo Heads the original idea that evolved in Bionicle.

http://board.ttvchannel.com/uploads/db5640/18710/70f9686ea40ed373.PNG

The had also canister ready.I can't find the canister picture.

Christian Faber's blog has lots of stuff on development of "Doo Heads" and how he turned it into Bionicle. His blog also shows lots of early Lego Star Wars stuff.

[BrickJagger]

Another​ cancelled theme is Voodoo Heads the original idea that evolved in Bionicle.

http://board.ttvchan...86ea40ed373.PNG

The had also canister ready.I can't find the canister picture.

I can see what they didn't release that. Freaky.

[just2good]

Hey, does anyone know anything about the Knights' Kingdom Board Game from 2009? According to Brickset, it was unreleased, but it has a set number (3592), its inventory is listed, and the instructions were apparently on LEGO's site (Brickset's listing has a link to it), but the link is now dead. I'd love to see the instructions for it!

[davee123]

Hey, does anyone know anything about the Knights' Kingdom Board Game from 2009? According to Brickset, it was unreleased, but it has a set number (3592), its inventory is listed, and the instructions were apparently on LEGO's site (Brickset's listing has a link to it), but the link is now dead. I'd love to see the instructions for it!

I think that's probably poor data.

If you look at the parts list, it shows the Knight's Kingdom figures from 2004-2006. The dark-colored helmets and characters were used in the "2nd wave" in 2005. Definitely not 2009. And if you notice, it's got several 2x3 plates in gray. Well... not terribly surprisingly, it matches exactly with the BrickLink inventory of the Ravensburger game released in 2006:

http://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?G=218141#T=S&O={}

Note that there was also an English version by Rose Art in 2004, but that was different (I actually have a copy of that game).

I suspect that this entry in BrickSet is probably wrong, but I don't see any notes about it, really. Huw added it back in 2012 (as a 2012 set), and then changed it to 2009, adding a note that it may not have been released.

What it looks like is that there was a potential LEGO Games game (probably totally unrelated to the defunct "Knights' Kingdom" from 2004-2006) that was learned about retroactively. The game probably had a working title like "Knights' Kingdom", and for some reason, the LEGO website lists its inventory as the same as the old Knights' Kingdom game (probably a mistake at LEGO). The actual set (I would think) would be very different from the theme, but wouldn't use minifigures, since they relied mostly on the LEGO Games "microfigs".

If I had to guess, I would suspect that it was unreleased thanks to competing with the Heroica lineup, which was in the same genre. Or possibly, that's what Heroica was named before getting the "Heroica" name, in which case this could have been another expansion to the Heroica lineup.

DaveE

[Breakdown]

I would have to think that some of the most epic stuff would happen between technology changes.

So . . .perhaps it's because it's during my childhood years, but I would be curious if there were other Yellow castles planned prior to scrapping those plans and going grey with the pre-built castle panels.

Further to that, the 4.5V/12V lego sets. Did they really stop in 1985, or were people designing future trains and stations which had to be scrapped at the design stage with the advent of 9V etc.

Just my two cents. Things were probably less planned out in the 70's and 80's in terms of now where you might have more of a cohesive vision within TLG.

[davee123]

I would be curious if there were other Yellow castles planned prior to scrapping those plans and going grey with the pre-built castle panels.

Well, it's all speculation, but I would guess that they probably played with other castle designs in various colors, until they settled on the gray ones with panels. As a kid, I remember disliking the yellow castle, but being more attracted to the more realistic looking gray ones. It's quite probable that LEGO did research and found that many kids felt the same way, hoping to make stone-colored castles rather than primary colored castles.

Further to that, the 4.5V/12V lego sets. Did they really stop in 1985, or were people designing future trains and stations which had to be scrapped at the design stage with the advent of 9V etc.

My guess is that by 1985/1986, the designers were probably starting to work on the new 9V system, and they were releasing their final wave of 4.5V and 12V sets. The new "brick connections" used by 9V came out in 1986, and were followed shortly by the monorail in 1987, and the new 9V trains in 1991.

At the time, LEGO was starting to face strong competition in the US from Tyco Super Blocks, who started competing with compatible bricks in 1984. They had an ad campaign that basically showed them as a cheaper alternative, and LEGO was VERY nervous about what that meant, because Tyco was a pretty big toy company at the time. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that they pushed the Light and Sound system out faster than expected in order to help retain their edge.

Keep in mind that at the time, the design process typically took about 3 years from concept to release, whereas now it's MUCH faster. So the 9V Light & Sound system was probably in the works in 1984 or earlier. And the train sets didn't get retired as quickly-- they had a longer lifespan. So I expect that designers probably didn't start doing much with 12V right after their 1985/1986 sets were released (which had a wave of 4.5/12V trains), and were likely focused on other projects (but again, just speculation). I'd guess that they were aware that the 9V system would be changing their track designs, and they were holding off until that was solidified.

Also of note is that the monorail system was ALSO regarded as possibly being more "light rail" or town oriented. If you look up the old monorail patents from the 1980s, you'll see that they show various different engines, including ones that look a lot more like "present day" rather than futuristic. So it's likely that LEGO was hoping to capitalize further on the monorail system (which ended up not doing terribly well sales-wise). It's possible that train designers were working on other monorail sets that never saw the light of day (or simply working on the Airport Shuttle which was released later).

Just my two cents. Things were probably less planned out in the 70's and 80's in terms of now where you might have more of a cohesive vision within TLG.

Well, in some ways they probably had MORE of a cohesive vision, because they were a smaller company with fewer products, and with a longer rollout schedule. So they had a long time to think about things. However, I don't think they had as clearly defined of a plan, it was probably less detail oriented. Back then, I know they really planned out individual elements so that they'd be re-usable in many ways. Most elements attempted to be re-used across the product line while in the design phase.

I recall someone explaining that to me with the old circular shield/radar dish elements that were seen in both castle and space sets. I had asked whether they were originally intended to be radar dishes or shields, and was told that the designers intentionally tried to make the element multi-purpose to reduce the number of molds needed. Supposedly that was pretty common practice-- whereas today, there are a lot of specialty elements that come out for a single lineup (since LEGO can afford to do that more easily).

DaveE

Edited August 26, 2016 by davee123

[BrickJagger]

Does anyone know if there were supposed to be more KK2 sets in 2007? I remember reading on Classic-Castle once that KK2 was going to have a fourth year with an evil wizard and Gargoyles, but I assumed it was scrapped in favor of Fantasy Era.

[L@go]

...I would be curious if there were other Yellow castles planned prior to scrapping those plans and going grey with the pre-built castle panels.

Well, it's all speculation, but I would guess that they probably played with other castle designs in various colors, until they settled on the gray ones with panels. As a kid, I remember disliking the yellow castle, but being more attracted to the more realistic looking gray ones. It's quite probable that LEGO did research and found that many kids felt the same way, hoping to make stone-colored castles rather than primary colored castles.

I can shed some light on this, or rather, the designer of the original Yellow Castle can - because in my interview with the late Daniel August Krentz, published in issue #3 of Bricks Culture magazine, we touched on this subject. I quote:

The very first Castle set, number 375, came out in 1978 and has achieved an almost mythical status among LEGO collectors, especially those who are fans of the more historical themes. It also stands out for another reason - it's yellow, a strange colour for a castle. There are several reasons for this, one of them being the company's strict 'no war' policy. Godtfred Kirk Christiansen, the family owner at the time, feared that introducing grey bricks would inspire children to build tanks and war machines, so he initially refused to allow production of that colour. With the introduction of the Space theme it proved impossible to avoid grey bricks, but that first castle still ended up yellow.

"I didn't particularly want it to be grey, but if I had done it again I would probably have used the colour known internally as brick yellow, the one which the fans call tan," says Krentz. "That would have been a better colour match with the kind of rock I imagined it was made of, but that didn't exist back then, so it became a yellow castle. We all agreed the next one should be grey though, because we got a lot of new grey Space parts at the time." Hence the very first LEGO castle is the only yellow one to date.

You can read the entire article on my Flickr, the first spread is here.

Daniel also told me his inspiration for the Yellow Castle came from typical castles in the Mediterranean countries - especially Spain, which, as far as I know, tend to be more tan in colour than the traditional Northern European grey ones. I hope this gives you a little bit of extra insight on the matter.

[LEGO Historian]

One of the earliest unreleased sets was the largest house set of the 20th Century. It was a USA/Canada Samsonite (only) 717 Junior Constructor Set. This set was intended as a British Contswold Cottage style house design, using 9 of the 10x20 thick baseplates. This model was found in all 1961-62 USA Samsonite LEGO catalogs, and all 1961-65 Canada Samsonite LEGO catalogs. But the 717 model actually produced never looked like this.

Here is the image from a 1963-65 Candian Samsonite catalog.....

Here is a model of the prototype 717.....

Here is the actually produced model of this 717 Junior Constructor house set of 1961-65....

The reason that the larger house model was never used was likely due to the fact that there were many more parts, and 9 baseplates, instead of 4 for the smaller more modern house. Ironically... the windows/door count were the same. The weight of the box with the smaller model was alread 9 lb. (over 4 kg).... and the larger model would have brought it to over 6 kg.

The prototype model was a variation of a model that was sold to continental European Retailers as a glued display model... as seen here in the 238 Building Ideas Book 1....

Recently a UK LEGO collector found a glued UK variation model of his house, so there are now 3 versions of this model... the never produced USA/Canada version (with an extra gable on the front left of the house), the glued UK version (with a slightly different build, but same window/door count), and this glued EU version.

In my Unofficial LEGO Sets/Parts Collectors Guide, there is an entire chapter that explains in great detail this model and the history of the variations, as well as instructions on how to build it, since it is made of common parts (even the white classic windows/doors are cheap to buy)..

Edited September 11, 2016 by LEGO Historian

[LEGO Historian]

<p>Recently a Swedish LEGO collector who owns my computer desktop version of my LEGO collectors guide notified me that he found a set I don't have in my guide.

It was a 1988 1571 Basic LEGO Set. Here it is.....

The Billund Archives have no information on this set, but they do have one in the Billund Vault (that happens occasionally!). It is shown as the set in the white box....

The Swedish owner of this near mint set wants to sell it (since there seem to be only 2 examples known. And he just put it up for auction on Ebay.... under the heading....

Lego Basic 1571 not to be found on database ULTRA RARE Prototype? FREE SHIPPING

Edited September 11, 2016 by LEGO Historian

[Ronan]

Do someone know about this?  I'd like to see it better.

[Mesabi]

On 3/19/2017 at 9:44 AM, Ronan said:

Do someone know about this? [Snip] I'd like to see it better.

I can't find it in any of the databases. Are you sure it's real? The building style looks like it could be someone trying to pass off an MOC.

[Ronan]

I'm not sure about this set, it comes from there http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=460775 I've never seen it before, I think it was shown by lego with things like the ganster theme, but I'm not so sure.

[BrickJagger]

4 hours ago, Ronan said:

I'm not sure about this set, it comes from there http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=460775 I've never seen it before, I think it was shown by lego with things like the ganster theme, but I'm not so sure.

Looking through those photos....what on earth is this? There's also a photo of an underwater base that I've never seen before that seems to be called "Bizarre Divers". 

6 hours ago, Mesabi said:

I can't find it in any of the databases. Are you sure it's real? The building style looks like it could be someone trying to pass off an MOC.

Based on other confirmed unreleased lines like Seatron and Europa being in that folder as well, I suspect it's real.

[Artanis I]

Looks like typical Aquazone with a striped tiger shark

[Megagan]

Wow I blown away by some of that stuff in those photos! Like is that last one a Lego bison!? I know I have seen those Ice Planet drawings before and a few more that go with them but would not think they came from Lego, but a fans creation so it is exciting to think they might have looked into making a revival for Ice Planet!!

[Alfadas]

22 hours ago, Ronan said:

I'm not sure about this set, it comes from there http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=460775 I've never seen it before, I think it was shown by lego with things like the ganster theme, but I'm not so sure.

OMG a Centaur! Would love to see them in official Lego form. 

[Ronan]

Is it possible to find some photos of the graveyard duel prototype showed at toy fair vip gala in 2005?

[Digger of Bricks]

I was checking out that list of unreleased sets compiled by Brickset which @Hinckley linked, and I thought these unreleased Creator Designer sets from 2004 were interesting, particularly the last one.

4033 Car, 4034 Aeroplane, 4035 Boat, and lastly 4036 Space Plane. 

This would have been the first space themed Creator set, had it been released (if that indeed what is was).

On 6/22/2016 at 9:48 AM, whitswj said:

Don anyone know about a prototype monorail (perhaps a different system than the original) that was developed for one of the Mars themes? I have heard from several people that a concept was made but was not well received by kids during some kind of testing. ...this could just be a rumor though.

While I've read on a Brickset thread that there was a monorail concept unsuccessfully tested with kids according to @Nabii, I haven't heard that it was developed for one of the two Mars space themes. 

[Hinckley]

54 minutes ago, Digger of Bricks said:

I was checking out that list of unreleased sets compiled by Brickset which @Hinckley linked, and I thought these unreleased Creator Designer sets from 2004 were interesting, particularly the last one.

4033 Car, 4034 Aeroplane, 4035 Boat, and lastly 4036 Space Plane. 

This would have been the first space themed Creator set, had it been released (if that indeed what is was).

While I've read on a Brickset thread that there was a monorail concept unsuccessfully tested with kids according to @Nabii, I haven't heard that it was developed for one of the two Mars space themes. 

It was Aquanauts. There's pics somewhere in a BrickJournal. 

[Capparezza]

Errm... I saw some "Grey:Tron" pics on Flickr while browsing, unfortunately I don't have any links and it's not in my browser history anymore. Was that something fan created or was that really an upcoming theme in the LEGO space universe?

[1974]

It's something I (and Walter Whiteside) created, It's based on a theme from 1989 that never got released. I've named it GREY:tron as it's from the same era as M:tron, Blacktron etc

Link to the Flickr group :

https://www.flickr.com/groups/3602763@N25/

Our intention is to make designs from all thre unreleased space themes. There's quite a few of them :

http://www.blacktronite.com/prototype_sets.htm

The monorail was called Seatron, not Aquanauts btw and is actually an underwater/ space crossover. Something TLG never officially did

I've been trying to hunt down those trans-red quaterdomes for ages ..

Cheers,

Ole