The best of the worst Lego Ideas

[anothergol]

8 hours ago, GameyRaccoon said:

What I really hate about Ideas, is licensed themes are constantly being approved while non-licensed ideas, like the ones by JK brickworks and Pete Reid, get shoved under the rug. 

Well to be fair, Peter Reid got his project done, and JK already got two of his.

But I lost faith last year when "Wonders of Peru" reached 10k.

[GameyRaccoon]

 

On 10/29/2018 at 6:56 PM, anothergol said:

Well to be fair, Peter Reid got his project done, and JK already got two of his.

But I lost faith last year when "Wonders of Peru" reached 10k.

That was a behemoth of beauty. It was pretty big though. 

[CopperTablet]

A lot of these terrible MOCs with supporters are just parents supporting their kids' ideas.

[anothergol]

Note that since Rebrick merged with Ideas, there is now another sad motivation behind zero-effort crap entries, in contests (all entries are now merged in the "Discover" database):

"A Bonus prize winner will be selected randomly from a Bonus Pool of high-quality contest submissions."

..resulting in this..

https://ideas.lego.com/challenges/642ce72d-0872-48ef-a27b-a6bbeecc9027/application/0f8e7cfc-95ac-4b68-be54-c51ed14149ca

https://ideas.lego.com/challenges/642ce72d-0872-48ef-a27b-a6bbeecc9027/application/ecb85324-fd84-4908-a112-fd0d79252190

https://ideas.lego.com/challenges/642ce72d-0872-48ef-a27b-a6bbeecc9027/application/73adcfaa-a97e-4c17-a644-9868b61631de

If Lego filtered the crap, out of the 500 entries in that contest, you would only have to view 100 at best.
To Lego's defense, they specified "pool of high-quality", probably from the experience with Rebrick.

 

 

 

Edited December 3, 2018 by anothergol

[MAB]

There are some brilliant entries in that competition. But those ones you highlight are really deserving of something!

[Blondie-Wan]

On 10/29/2018 at 6:56 PM, anothergol said:

Well to be fair, Peter Reid got his project done, and JK already got two of his.

But I lost faith last year when "Wonders of Peru" reached 10k.

What was wrong with Wonders of Peru? That’s a great project. It was always a long shot to become a commercial set, sure, but it certainly wasn’t undeserving of success.

[anothergol]

2 hours ago, Blondie-Wan said:

What was wrong with Wonders of Peru? That’s a great project. It was always a long shot to become a commercial set, sure, but it certainly wasn’t undeserving of success.

To be fair, it's not exactly the project that was wrong, it's what it was trying to replicate.

Does this really look GOOD outside Peru? I get it that it's a cultural thing, but...

It's part of these things I don't get. Like, this

 

[Blondie-Wan]

And what’s wrong with a cultural thing?

[x105Black]

I thought it was cool, and it looked much better than your example.  By a lot, actually.

[MAB]

6 hours ago, Blondie-Wan said:

And what’s wrong with a cultural thing?

Locally, nothing. Worldwide, probably not a good seller.

[Blondie-Wan]

2 hours ago, MAB said:

Locally, nothing. Worldwide, probably not a good seller.

That’s fine, but that alone doesn’t warrant “lost faith last year when “Wonders of Peru” reached 10k”. That sounded like it was some sort of affront to the very idea of Ideas, which seems pretty unfair to me. If it’s not your cup of tea, that’s fine, but why take umbrage at other people deciding they like this perfectly well-constructed LEGO representation of a cultural item?

Edited December 5, 2018 by Blondie-Wan

[anothergol]

2 hours ago, Blondie-Wan said:

That’s fine, but that alone doesn’t warrant “lost faith last year when “Wonders of Peru” reached 10k”. That sounded like it was some sort of affront to the very idea of Ideas, which seems pretty unfair to me. If it’s not your cup of tea, that’s fine, but why take umbrage at other people deciding they like this perfectly well-constructed LEGO representation of a cultural item? 

Had it been a "perfectly well constructed LEGO representation of a Pollock painting", it would have been even more popular, and an even worse joke in my book.

8 hours ago, x105Black said:

I thought it was cool, and it looked much better than your example.  By a lot, actually. 

Really? I thought I picked one of the best ones. Because there's a lot worse.

That said, I read the interview of the people beind this. They are "a collective conformed by 7 members, artists and creatives, currently living in Lima, Perú". See, "artists". I believe the joke IS the art, here. It's ugly on purpose, instead of a homage to a local thing. And that's why I don't get modern art either.

Edited December 5, 2018 by anothergol

[icm]

32 minutes ago, anothergol said:

That said, I read the interview of the people beind this. They are "a collective conformed by 7 members, artists and creatives, currently living in Lima, Perú". See, "artists". I believe the joke IS the art, here. It's ugly on purpose, instead of a homage to a local thing. And that's why I don't get modern art either.

That is a very cynical view of human nature.  Why shouldn't a Peruvian artist who likes Lego submit a Lego version of Peruvian art?  That's no different than a German motorcycle mechanic who likes Lego submitting a Lego version of a German motorcycle. I see no reason to suspect the Wonders of Peru was not submitted in good faith.  

[anothergol]

But it's not a motorcycle here, it's the peruvian version of a garden gnome.

If I were to do an Ideas project of a garden gnome, (first, I would try to do it properly, not like a kid's MOC, and) it would totally be for the joke.

Garden gnomes are "a cultural thing" here. Like, german/austrian, not very far from where I live. You can totally find them in gardens in my country. Yet, only a tiny minority don't consider those ugly as hell. And many have these only to annoy their neighbors they don't like.

Do *peruvians* really like those things, or is it more something they do for tourists/export (pretty much like garden gnomes)?
(and it's not the submission of the project that made me lose faith in Ideas, it's the 10k votes)

Edited December 5, 2018 by anothergol

[icm]

I see two problems with your assessment of the Peru project, and perhaps with your attitudes toward Ideas projects in general.

First, you're assuming knowledge of Peruvian culture that you may not have in assessing it as a "joke".

Second, even if it were submitted as a "joke", you're suggesting that Ideas moderators should try to divine the "true reasons" why a project is submitted and reject if it it's submitted as a "joke" rather than a "real product idea" even if the build is outstanding.  I think that's unwise.  Such a policy could be easily abused, letting moderators reject projects just because they don't happen to like them.  Say Bob really likes garden gnomes and really, honestly, thinks other people might like them in Lego too.  Like porgs.  Alice really hates garden gnomes and assumes any garden gnome project must be a joke because nobody could possibly want a Lego garden gnome.  Alice rejects the project.  Was that fair to Bob?  Was it fair to Charlie, who also likes garden gnomes?

Please, let's assume good faith, assess projects on their technical merits and compatibility with TLG brand values, and discuss our own personal liking for a project without projecting bad faith onto its creator if we don't like it.

[TeriXeri]

I really hope the Food Stand Diners idea hits 10000 (currently at 9846).

 It's really something LEGO needs more of imo, minifig food/shops/buildings that aren't as big set as Modulars, and also don't have more then 10% of parts used on vehicles.

Of course there are fantastic larger buildings on Ideas that use a lot of pieces, but I think making smaller Ideas into sets is a good thing too.

Not everyone has a huge budget or space to put Modular-size buildings, so that's why I favor small to medium sized sets.

 

Edited December 5, 2018 by TeriXeri

[anothergol]

3 hours ago, icm said:

First, you're assuming knowledge of Peruvian culture that you may not have in assessing it as a "joke". 

No no, if it happens that it was really a joke, I will have more respect for it.  If it happens that it's 4chan behind the votes, I will even love that such a thing finally happened. Because I'm really waiting for the Boaty McBoatFace of Ideas, I'm quite surprised that it hasn't happened yet. Wonders of Peru would actually have been a good choice as a troll project, as the joke would have been subtle enough that Lego would have given it the benefit of the doubt. Because getting a troll project reach 10k votes would be one thing, but getting a troll project actually produced, that would be huge.
 

3 hours ago, icm said:

Second, even if it were submitted as a "joke", you're suggesting that Ideas moderators should try to divine the "true reasons" why a project

They shouldn't, and I don't wanna censor anything. It would suck if it got rejected, there's already way too much censorship going on at Lego. It's the fact that it got 10k legitimate(?) votes, THAT is what made me lose faith in Ideas.

 

Lego shouldn't even get rid of the crap like this one either, but should flag them as being crap, and put them at the end of the databases.
https://ideas.lego.com/projects/ebd1422a-6fba-4133-a436-0cebc5bc0eb8

3 hours ago, icm said:

Please, let's assume good faith, assess projects on their technical merits

I think that "technical merits" should even be the #1 criteria when it comes to vote for a project (even if, sadly, Lego is gonna redo it anyway).

You told about bikes. While I have nearly zero interest in motorbikes, I can appreciate their beauty, and I can certainly appreciate a nice bike MOC - I've faved some more than once on Flickr.
Yet, let's not pretend that there is a technical merit in project of Peru, which is a pure bottom-up brick build, with all studs exposed, and looks like built by a child. Which is what makes me think that it was a joke, if 7 people pretend to have worked on this.
 

 

Edited December 5, 2018 by anothergol

[icm]

See, I just can't get on board with an outlook like that.  If you want to believe that successful projects you don't like are only successful because they're backed by organized pranksters or political organizations with which you strongly disagree, that's your choice.  Of course, I have no solid evidence to prove that such is not the case, but I think it's highly unlikely that Ideas is pervaded, infiltrated, etc., by the like.  Occam's Razor applies here - if a project gets 10,000 votes, the simplest explanation is that people like it. 

As for the question of technical merit in the Peru project, it's quite clear that the artists put a lot of effort into it.  No child would build such an intricate map of Peru on the back face, and the bold, simple lines and shapes on the interior back wall and inside front covers match the typical style of the non-Lego source. Furthermore, they created custom minifigure skins, which is not a trivial task in a digital build and render.  The interior design style is simple and blocky, yes, but not out of place for Lego.  The building style may be a simple, bottom-up brick build, with all studs exposed, but that doesn't mean it is totally without merit.  Not every Lego set, nor even every Ideas set, needs to use the most advanced building techniques.  What matters to me is that, relative to the building style the artists chose, they executed it well, with good proportions, good color blocking, and a layout that nicely displays each section of the build.  I did not expect the Wonders of Peru to pass the review, because of its relatively limited regional appeal and possible technical issues with keeping the walls and roof stable in a physical version, and, yes, because I've come to expect more complicated builds from Ideas, but I do not dismiss it as completely without merit, and a probable joke.

I don't think I'll continue to reply in this thread, though, because today's posts have already pushed this thread to the first page of Google results for "lego wonders of peru."  It's not fair to the creators of the project to have it show up as "the best of the worst Lego ideas" on Google.

[x105Black]

16 hours ago, anothergol said:

Really? I thought I picked one of the best ones. Because there's a lot worse.

I stand by my statement that this was a decently executed build that appealed to people.  I was interested.

[MAB]

4 hours ago, icm said:

Occam's Razor applies here - if a project gets 10,000 votes, the simplest explanation is that people like it. 

 

 

Or people like the idea of it happening for fun.

Sometimes people do things for fun. For example: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-22145306. This song was about 75 years old, then suddenly entered the UK charts. Was it because people liked it but just hadn't bought it during those 75 years, or was it because they liked the idea of it causing offense?  Sometimes letting the public decide something is not a good idea (like Boaty McBoatface, above). Which is why LEGO gets to veto ideas that make it to 10,000.

I don't know who voted for the Peru set. It might have been a joke, it might have been real. It doesn't really matter - LEGO decided that it would not make a good set.

 

[parsom]

Speaking of Wonders of Peru - it was beautiful. Peruvian retablos are beautiful and sorry, but they are much better than garden gnomes. Garden gnomes are products of aesthetically primitive culture, Peruvian retablos are a sophisticated folk art (even if they are commercialised).

And if you liked this project - check this one:

[MAB]

33 minutes ago, parsom said:

Speaking of Wonders of Peru - it was beautiful. Peruvian retablos are beautiful and sorry, but they are much better than garden gnomes. Garden gnomes are products of aesthetically primitive culture, Peruvian retablos are a sophisticated folk art (even if they are commercialised).

1

Based on your biased viewpoint. Garden gnomes are beautiful to people that like garden gnomes.

[anothergol]

9 hours ago, icm said:

See, I just can't get on board with an outlook like that.  If you want to believe that successful projects you don't like are only successful because they're backed by organized pranksters or political organizations with which you strongly disagree, that's your choice.

Before your post, I didn't know anyone who actually wasn't laughing at that project. Granted I haven't read the project's own comments, which are worthless because Lego censors them. But I've read about it in other places, and yeah it was the general consensus that it's fugly. The best comment about it was (translated) "I don't know why you all laugh at Wonders of Peru, it would look wonderful in-between my taxidermy cat and my seashells-made Eiffel Tower".

9 hours ago, icm said:

Occam's Razor applies here - if a project gets 10,000 votes, the simplest explanation is that people like it. 

That's only the simplest explanation when the project has merits. When it does not, the simplest explanation is: trolls. It happens a lot. Fat ugly man voted in an online beauty contest. Boaty McBoatface. Silly names in product naming contests... When Hasbro polls about french cities for their next edition of Monopoly, and the #1 voted is "Montcuq", which pretty much translates to "Myass", the simplest explanation is trolls. (Monopoly really released it, though. But as a limited edition, because yeah, they know that only a fraction of the trolls would be interested).

(Edit: as MAB pretty much wrote too)

3 hours ago, MAB said:

Based on your biased viewpoint. Garden gnomes are beautiful to people that like garden gnomes.

They totally are, but they're still only a tiny fraction of the population. Which wouldn't make 10k votes impossible at all, only you'd have to promote it a lot on gnome-lovers forums (which I am sure do exist). Still, a lot (like myself) would also vote it for the joke.

Edited December 6, 2018 by anothergol

[anothergol]

4 hours ago, parsom said:

Garden gnomes are products of aesthetically primitive culture, Peruvian retablos are a sophisticated folk art

Can't even tell if serious.

[koalayummies]

On 12/4/2018 at 4:13 PM, anothergol said:

It's part of these things I don't get. Like, this (picture of weird thing)

What is that thing? Is it made of food? Is it melting? Where is it from and whats the story?