How Lego decides on new sets?

[mobi]

We all know that some expert Lego builders have created MOCs which are far better than Lego's own official sets. But so far Lego showed no interest to adopt these MOCs as official sets. I understand that there is a similar initiative in Cusoo but only time will tell if that concept will bring out anything good from Lego. 

When Lego develops an official set, how do they know whether fans will like it or not? Where do they get the confidence that public will accept anything they bring out? Is their fan base as large as Apple's so hat they are confident that anything from them will just sell? Has there been any large Technic set which did not do well in the market?

From various forums and YouTube comments, I came to know that some of the expert builders wanted to help Lego with building instructions if their wonderful MOCs but Lego did not show any interest. 

What do you think?

[mahjqa]

[Paul Boratko]

There is no doubt in my mind that if an Official Designer from Lego wanted to blow everyone away with a model that they would have No trouble doing so... You just won't see it in an Official set...

Also, Lego models are Designed for and Targeted to children.. As AFOL, we are just lucky to be along for the ride...

Lego designers have Budgets that need to be met along with Guidelines which also need to be achieved...

I haven't built it personally, but the Unimog is a Spectacular set...

I would imagine there would also be some Legal Issues involved as well as far as just going and using ideas from someone else...

I would love just knowing that perhaps some idea that I came up with was used in an official model, but not everyone in the world has that same mindset...

Edited April 9, 2012 by Paul Boratko

[SNIPE]

I wish LEGO would make a range that uses technic and system but first I wish they would make some more bricks, then this new theme can be super complciated and have like 2000+ bricks, it would maybe be called something like LEGO masters or something

[Alasdair Ryan]

Authenticity......................LA's........... :laugh:

[mobi]

That YouTube clip at least explains why Lego includes power function in most sets now because children want them!

[mahjqa]

Authenticity......................LA's........... :laugh:

And the next one? Functionality. There you go. The 8043 motorized excavator wouldn't be possible without it.

[Alasdair Ryan]

And the next one? Functionality. There you go. The 8043 motorized excavator wouldn't be possible without it.

Yes yes i know.......

[Ondra]

Interesting topic .I think lego technic series is in their best years.Especially year 2011, because there were two interesting sets-Return of supercar series and unimog.This year is also great with two flying machines and first power functions rc car.I can wait for year 2O13, I hope for something big and complex as unimog maybe garbage truck or haul truck .

[mobi]

The 8070 super car is no match against legendary 8880, 8466 or 8448. I personally find recent sets are getting better at cranes and trucks but for super cars, 1990s sets were still better.

[DLuders]

Maybe The Lego Group asks Technic AFOLs (like us) for input, in order to decide what sets to create in the future. Here is a timely TechnicBRICKS TechPoll (posted today) that we can take:

"LEGO Technic fans have been demanding several new sets, elements, etc... and the LEGO Technic Team has brought a lot of goodies in the past few years.

After the LEGO Power Functions (LPF) introduction, we got for example:

•A large fully motorized excavator

•The return of Supercars

•Orange parts in abundance

•A large RC Off-Roader vehicle

•New PF motors on the way

•Larger and more complex model flagships

•And many new specific parts

Certainly you still have much more in your wishlist, so we have decided for another small poll, populated with a with few examples. Fell free to vote as many as you would support and do not forget to add your own wishes by adding some comments to this post.

For now I've included in the poll new, these new items (6 sets + 6 elements):

•A Motorized Back-Hoe

•A Motorized Fork-Lift

•Yet another Supercar

•A flagship Aeroplane

•A Vessel

•A large Tow-Truck

•Longer Pneumatic Cylinders

•PF S-Motor for small / low torque motorized functions

•PF Linear Solenoid Actuators

•PF Electro-Valve for remote pneumatic control

•Integrated PF Pneumatic Compressor with cut-off

•Compact PF Programmable Brick for light, sound and movement sequences or logics based on input sensors. Not exactly the MINDSTORMS but a smaller and compact Technic fit.

So, which of these would you like to see into or as a further LEGO Technic flagship, in the years to come

Or differently said, what would you like to set produced by TLG next? 'Technic'ally speaking...

TechnicBRICKS' Fernando Correia DEFINITELY has a good connection to TLG's Design Team, so add your "Comments" there to make your wishes known!

Edited April 10, 2012 by DLuders

[Paul Boratko]

TechnicBRICKS' Fernando Correia DEFINITELY has a good connection to TLG's Design Team, so add your "Comments" there to make your wishes known!

Very true... I have found that if you complain enough about certain parts that Lego just might give you what you ask for...

[mobi]

I want to see a proper super car likes of 8880 or 8466. It must have 4WD, suspension, brake and a proper working gearbox. Opening doors, bonnet, roof etc. would be nice. It must also look good aesthetically (recent studless models are usually better looking). Ideally same set should offer a FWD car, RWD car and 4WD car as alternate models. If power function is added, it should drive the vehicle rather than just operating auxiliary functions!

PS: Could not post this to that site. Somehow it was not accepting my Wordpress log in.

Edited April 10, 2012 by mobi

[Technic Gearhead]

Count me in for a motorized Flagship Back-Hoe!

[allanp]

And the next one? Functionality. There you go. The 8043 motorized excavator wouldn't be possible without it.

Yes becuase no set before LAs had any kind of functionality at all, yeah, right!

Sorry, couldn't resist

[DarkShadow73]

I've seen this vid a while ago somewhere, didn't he design more than just the bulldozer? I see a lot of similarities in some models that might be his work, he is an excellent designer...I love the part in the vid where he lets loose all the parts from overhead, its a classy vid...

[DarkShadow73]

I can say one thing for sure, you are right about ALL Lego being designed for children up to teenagers, we all are just AFOL's of Technic and lot of us middle-aged or beyond...and we make up a large percentage of who buys Technic, mainly the larger Technic sets...and a lot who create MOC's use studded/plated construction with some of the newer panel fairings to create a sleeker look to the outward features, especially in the supercars many have created...

For a while after about 2001 they hardly used any of the old style Technic studded or plated construction, but we've seen it come back in a few models in the past few years starting with the 8421 Crane, but not many and not much in any particular model, I do agree that I would like, as many others do, to see some major studded construction come back into play, whether it be from a combination of Technic and City sets elements or a supercar similar to the 8448 which contained virtually all studded construction but it was mainly in the chassis and hidden by the fairings and other flexible axles. It looked almost like the modern Supercar (8070), but contained tons of studded plates and beams underneath its sleek exterior. Looking at it from a different perspective, TLG have created a lot of models in the past few years in their City series, mainly construction models, with lots of what used to be only Technic elements. I've bought a few of them mainly because they 'look' like Technic and fit in well, like the 7632 crane, sure its simplified, but if you look there a lots of Technic in it. I modified some of the superstructure to make it fit in with the Technic theme, also one I own is the Drum Roller from 2008, I think that's the release year. Only issue with that one is the roof always pops off, but the entire drum roller assembly is pure Technic.

Would I like to see TLG produce some of the stellar MOC's posted here. A big YES would be my answer, I drool over a lot of them, but like Crowkillers has said they could be legal issues, and since it is really designed as a children's toy, producing for just us AFOL's, even though there are tons of us out there, I doubt they'd do it, UNLESS some stellar MOC producer was noticed and signed on as a designer for TLG. One would think with all the Brickfests and such all around the world that Lego would take notice of some models and their designers standing beside them. But, it is still a Duplo to Lego to 16 years old product for the most part. I recall a lot of Technic used to say an age range on the boxes of like 10+, 11+, 11-99, but in the past several years it basically only says up to 16 years old on any model in the Technic range. Even some larger Star Wars and larger Architechture sets still say 14+, 16+, which says to me anybody of any age can build it. Here in the USA, Technic seems to be a small market, whereas over in some European countries its huge, inside information from a source that talked to a Lego representative that attended a Brickfest in the recent past. A lot of the independent toy stores and dept stores in my area don't even sell Technic, or if they do, its just the smaller sets. TRU has a better selection, but in my checking the stores, its like a come and go process, you see a lot around Xmas and the major release in the mid-summer, but in between you don't see much of the larger sets.

There is no doubt in my mind that if an Official Designer from Lego wanted to blow everyone away with a model that they would have No trouble doing so... You just won't see it in an Official set...

Also, Lego models are Designed for and Targeted to children.. As AFOL, we are just lucky to be along for the ride...

Lego designers have Budgets that need to be met along with Guidelines which also need to be achieved...

I haven't built it personally, but the Unimog is a Spectacular set...

I would imagine there would also be some Legal Issues involved as well as far as just going and using ideas from someone else...

I would love just knowing that perhaps some idea that I came up with was used in an official model, but not everyone in the world has that same mindset...

A couple of items I'd like to see in the orange color since Lego released the Unimog last summer is a medium sized Telehandler in orange similar to the JLG/Skytrac ones, and another medium sized excavator in orange. I've really never seen a red/grey excavator in the US (8294). Another thing I'd love to see them produce is a blue Genie boom lift. Those would be on my wanted list.

Maybe The Lego Group asks Technic AFOLs (like us) for input, in order to decide what sets to create in the future. Here is a timely TechnicBRICKS TechPoll (posted today) that we can take:

"LEGO Technic fans have been demanding several new sets, elements, etc... and the LEGO Technic Team has brought a lot of goodies in the past few years.

After the LEGO Power Functions (LPF) introduction, we got for example:

•A large fully motorized excavator

•The return of Supercars

•Orange parts in abundance

•A large RC Off-Roader vehicle

•New PF motors on the way

•Larger and more complex model flagships

•And many new specific parts

Certainly you still have much more in your wishlist, so we have decided for another small poll, populated with a with few examples. Fell free to vote as many as you would support and do not forget to add your own wishes by adding some comments to this post.

For now I've included in the poll new, these new items (6 sets + 6 elements):

•A Motorized Back-Hoe

•A Motorized Fork-Lift

•Yet another Supercar

•A flagship Aeroplane

•A Vessel

•A large Tow-Truck

•Longer Pneumatic Cylinders

•PF S-Motor for small / low torque motorized functions

•PF Linear Solenoid Actuators

•PF Electro-Valve for remote pneumatic control

•Integrated PF Pneumatic Compressor with cut-off

•Compact PF Programmable Brick for light, sound and movement sequences or logics based on input sensors. Not exactly the MINDSTORMS but a smaller and compact Technic fit.

So, which of these would you like to see into or as a further LEGO Technic flagship, in the years to come

Or differently said, what would you like to set produced by TLG next? 'Technic'ally speaking...

TechnicBRICKS' Fernando Correia DEFINITELY has a good connection to TLG's Design Team, so add your "Comments" there to make your wishes known!

Technic may be marketed as a children's toy, but we EAT it up...

Edited April 11, 2012 by TechnicFreak

[mobi]

Unless we know Lego's market segmentation, we won't be able to guess how large is AFOL market for Lego to release sets just for AFOLs, which may not have enough market for kids.

[mahjqa]

Seeing the direction in which the discussion is going, I would like to mention that we can help getting technic sets for AFOLs in production, using Cuusoo.

For example, these two models are well on the way to getting required 10000 votes.

Tachikoma

Vampire GT supercar

[mobi]

I am still not optimistic about Cuusoo. Technic fans are very small in numbers and getting 10,000 votes for Technic projects will be very difficult.

Technic models are most complex (= more costly to produce) and it has smallest fan base. So I wonder whether it makes a business sense by Lego to invest more on Technic.

Unfortunately if Lego stops improving Technic, I'll have to stop buying Lego.

Edited April 11, 2012 by mobi

[mahjqa]

Optimistic or not, don't let that keep you from voting. The chance may be small, but if we never get those 10,000 votes we'll never know.

And yes, getting those votes ain't easy. You know what? 1 week in and we're 20% there. Sure, first week is the easiest. However, there is plenty of interest for this set even from non-AFOLs. If this ends up on a big blog (hey, it's happened before) it may well push it over the edge.

And 'smallest fan base' or not, 10,000 votes is 10,000 votes.

Remember Lego Mindstorms? Speciality product. More complex than Lego has ever produced. Frickin' expensive. They still made it.

The world wasn't changed by people who sat on their chairs saying 'nah, that will never happen'.

And in this case, the only thing you need to do is to sit on your chair thinking to yourself "well, let's see what happens" and take 5 minutes to vote.

Edited April 11, 2012 by mahjqa

[Paul Boratko]

Yeah, I am doing everything possible... I have my wife twittering everyone involved in the car world and what not... She even got her tweet marked a fav on one of my favorite rapper's Twitter accounts. He only has 3(one from last year and one from 2010) and hers is now one of them...

My car got featured on dudeiwantthat.com yesterday and I got a ton of facebook likes, but the same amount of Cuusoo votes as the day before it was featured... I think people are still a little confused as to how the Cussoo process works...

I have also been sending out double e-mails to all kinds of sites for both Mahjqa's model and mine...

[DarkShadow73]

AFOLs seem to be the buyers of most larger Technic sets and the amount of us, this website seems to be the most popular one I've seen in my years, they maybe ought to take a look (though I'm sure they do), but still since its market is basically children and teenagers, doubt it will come to pass that we get larger and even more complex models, the summer offerings look very large, especially the Rock Crawler and Helicopter, but I'd love to delve into a 3,000+ piece set along the lines of the gigantic Star Wars sets released, you can't tell me kids could figure out the Death Star to completion(some smarter ones would, but unless all the panels lined up right it is a monumental task, but it would be even for me)...I believe the Unimog is the largest(at least in piece count)Technic set ever released??

Unless we know Lego's market segmentation, we won't be able to guess how large is AFOL market for Lego to release sets just for AFOLs, which may not have enough market for kids.

I would buy your car in a second if it was picked up by Lego and produced...pure genius...

Yeah, I am doing everything possible... I have my wife twittering everyone involved in the car world and what not... She even got her tweet marked a fav on one of my favorite rapper's Twitter accounts. He only has 3(one from last year and one from 2010) and hers is now one of them...

My car got featured on dudeiwantthat.com yesterday and I got a ton of facebook likes, but the same amount of Cuusoo votes as the day before it was featured... I think people are still a little confused as to how the Cussoo process works...

I have also been sending out double e-mails to all kinds of sites for both Mahjqa's model and mine...

[Porty]

Seeing the direction in which the discussion is going, I would like to mention that we can help getting technic sets for AFOLs in production, using Cuusoo.

For example, these two models are well on the way to getting required 10000 votes.

Tachikoma

Vampire GT supercar

If either of these models get 10000, and Lego makes them, they'd be at my house faster 'n' the Unimog.

[DarkShadow73]

I'd buy that Vampire GT so fast it would make your head spin...would have to come with the awesome painted rims though but even without them painted it is definitely the best Technic MOC vehicle I've ever seen in my time...willing to bet it would be the best seller of any Technic set ever...

If either of these models get 10000, and Lego makes them, they'd be at my house faster 'n' the Unimog.

Edited April 12, 2012 by TechnicFreak