Lego Ideas 90th Anniversary Fan Vote

[Merlo]

24 minutes ago, BrickJagger said:

I have nothing against Bionicle , but they both got enough votes to move on. If anything Pirates is the poser because it had the fourth most total votes. 

I mean... for me it only makes sense to look at broad categories first and then vote on a subcategory.

In that case Space-y and Castle-y themes win hands down. And only then the rest follow, among which Bionicle got arouund 8% more votes than Pirates+Imperials, despite PI votes being split first amongst each other and then more among other categories compared to Bionicle fans and newly made accounts voting Bionicle only.

Edited February 3, 2021 by Merlo

[AmperZand]

2 hours ago, Lego David said:

I am very glad they admitted their mistake and included Castle. It seems like everyone has a fair chance at winning now.

Nope. If you have an older VIP account like mine, you are excluded from voting. It seems that LEGO's most loyal supporters (at least in terms of duration) are the least important to the company.

I suspect that people like me would vote more for Castle, Classic Space or Pirates than Bionicle, so it isn't a fair chance. 

Edited February 3, 2021 by AmperZand

[Lord-Vorahk]

I mean, I couldn't get back into the account I used to support Sokoda's Bionicle diorama back in 2019, so I just... made a new one. 

[Grover]

If you want a new theme, make sure you tell them so in the comments (e.g., 'Bring back classic space!').  I suggested they also bring back the goat!

[MatthewRC]

2 hours ago, Lord-Vorahk said:

Predictably I went for Bionicle. 

I have no doubt that Lego will keep doing Space, Castle, and Pirates sets ad infinitum. They're already doing that. Classic Space gets a throwback almost every other year, there are Pirates sets on store shelves right now, and Castle has two(?) coming in the summer. And I honestly think the "No-brainer" choices should've been left off, to give some of the smaller, more obscure themes an opportunity to return. Obviously that would need to be prefaced with a "We didn't forget the obvious choices, but we don't need to be told to keep making those. They're not going anywhere" statement, but between those three extremely obvious choices that keep getting made anyway, and Bionicle, who a lot of people are very passionate about but probably won't get the victory even if it gets the most votes, nothing else really stood a chance.

 

I do find it hilarious that Castle got wild-carded in, though. Smacks of "We expected/wanted this to come down to Space, Pirates, and Castle, but those pesky 90s-2000s kids voted for the robots so, uh... We made a fourth slot! Castle gets to join in too!"

I say that because I experienced something very similar in the Transformers fandom a few years ago, with the Power of the Primes vote.

 

For those not up on their knowledge of this particular brand of plastic crack, from 2017-2018, Hasbro ran the toyline "Power of the Primes", which closed out the Prime Wars trilogy of sublines. Hasbro have been running fan-choice polls to decide on certain new figures for a while now, which resulted in new main character Windblade, the all-female Combiner team the Torchbearers, and a bunch of other stuff. But for PotP, they decided to have the fans choose who would be the next wielder of the Matrix of Leadership. This character would then get a Leader-class toy (At the time the largest/most expensive general retail figures) and a starring role in both the IDW comics and the infamously woeful Machinima animated series.

Thing is, Hasbro had basically already picked who they wanted to win: Japanese G1 character Deathsaurus. 

The problem was that they made a complete hash of supporting him.

Deathsaurus was instead billed as "Unknown Evil", ensuring that only people already familiar with his head silhouette would even know what he was, and put in a bracket with two huge fan-favourites: Marvel G1 antagonist Thunderwing, and Beast Wars main character Optimus Primal. Predictably, Deathsaurus lost badly. So Hasbro made a Surprise Fourth Slot so they could wild card him into the finals, where he predictably again lost to Optimus Primal. Because when you put three G1 dudes against one Beast Wars character, the absolutely massive Beast Wars fandom will all vote for that one guy and win. 

Then the toys actually came out, and the Leaders had an "Evolution gimmick", being composed of a small figure representing their pre-Matrix selves (So Orion Pax and Hot Rod for the two main Autobot leaders) that armoured up into their full-size leader forms (Optimus Prime and Rodimus Prime). As such, Primal's toy had the small figure be based on his iconic Season 1 design, while the main attraction was based on the gaudy and much-less-popular Optimal Optimus. Because of its small size, Primal's regular form couldn't transform into his usual gorilla mode, and he instead turned into... a surfboard for his armour's gorilla mode.

The gimmick was almost certainly intended for Deathsaurus' rival, Autobot Leader Star Saber, who was another contender in the vote and actually made the final legitimately, but then PotP the toyline was cut in half and Star Saber never got made. Also the cartoon predictably blowed chunks and the comic role was cancelled due to IDW winding down its original universe, and Optimus Primal instead featured as a mostly-characterless evil minion of Onyx Prime.

And then this year saw the release of the Generations Optimus Primal that all those Beast Wars fans actually wanted in 2017, putting a hilarious line under the entire tragicomic saga of PotP Optimal Optimus.

I don't think Lego will necessarily make the same mistakes, but it is something I've seen before.

 

As much as I love Transformers as well, this is an interesting similar story!

[Modal]

Voted for Castle! Let’s do it

[jhuyser]

I joined the legions and did my duty in voting for Castle!

[snefroe]

2 hours ago, Lego David said:

I think the big final battle will be between Bionicle and Castle, honestly. There is no way either Classic Space or Pirates are gonna win the vote now, to be honest. 

I agree... "castle" ruined Space's chance to win this thing... still, didn't they say, they would not necessarily do a set of the winning series? they can choose whatever they want out of these four candidates?

[Kit Figsto]

I'm actually pleasantly surprised that Model Team ended up at #12, I'm hoping if this was indeed a way to gauge fan interest about what themes fans want to return, LEGO might consider doing a set or two in the vein of the old Model Team stuff.

Anyway, since Adventurers is out, I think I'll be voting for Castle - I'd like to see Pirates but something more in the vein of a harbor/town, which I'm not sure they'd actually do (I feel like it'd more likely be a ship), but I think Castle has a lot of potential between the various factions.

[danth]

Well, there goes my only chance of getting a new Space set!

So why did they reform all castle sub-themes into Castle but not do the same for Space? I think Castle would win either way but this means Space will get absolutely crushed since people who wanted, say Blacktron or Ice Planet, may not be willing to vote for just Classic Space.

Also just realized that since Futuron was not included (which was obviously done because there's no way they're going to do a monorai, the second ever Space subtheme, which was the favorite of many, could not collect votes to count in favor of Space.

[Lira_Bricks]

20 minutes ago, danth said:

which was obviously done because there's no way they're going to do a monorai,

The rollercoastertrack can function as a monorail. JKBricks has a few MOC's where he uses those tracks for a monorail.

[danth]

12 minutes ago, Lira_Bricks said:

The rollercoastertrack can function as a monorail. JKBricks has a few MOC's where he uses those tracks for a monorail.

But it has two rails!

Okay, I took a peek. Yeah, looks like the coaster tracks are used in such a way that the two rails are functionally the same as one wide rail.

[koalayummies]

[pombe]

45 minutes ago, danth said:

...which was obviously done because there's no way they're going to do a monorail

Did LEGO ever offer an explanation why?

As for Classic Space getting a set, I'm going to state an unpopular opinion.

At LEGO IDEAS, Castle fans got quite a few submissions to 10,000 supporters, including the Blacksmith.  Pirate fans also got a few entries to 10,000 supporters, including Barracuda Bay.  Bionicle fans got The Legend of Bionicle to 10,000 supporters.

Classic Space fans let Peter Reid's Galaxy Explorer redux die on IDEAS with less than 3,000 supporters.  Okay, we got the Exo Suit.  Great job.  But then, where'd everyone go?  Maybe Classic Space fans don't bring it where it counts.  I mean, let's be honest.  If Classic Space fans really wanted to send LEGO a message, as a group we would be spamming every IDEAS Classic Space submission to force LEGO to review each one.

Remember, IDEAS is all about the...ahem...idea.  NOT the actual MOC submitted.

[Roebuck]

5 hours ago, Lego David said:

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't that comic exclusive to Europe only? I don't think it showed up in any North American catalogs.

Might be, but a thing is not necessarily a oddity just because it is not in the States

5 hours ago, toastergrl said:

Second stage of voting is up. Of particular note is that the Ideas team noted their mistake with splitting the Castle vote but didn't want to crowd out Pirates, so it's now a Top Four rather than a Top Three. Classy stuff!

Excellent news

3 hours ago, JintaiZ said:

Blacktron and Space Police are all part of the general Space theme so I wouldn't be surprised if Classic Space wins. Personally, I'm hoping for either Classic Space or Classic Castle.

Classic space is not a general space theme and neither is classic castle that is why it is Castle in the vote which is a general term
So it is:

1. (General) bionicle
2. (General) castle
3. (only) pirates
4. (only) classic space

My favourites was the imperials, however it looks like that is not combined with pirates in the final vote. In addition to the fact that pirates got the B-Bay last year I do not think they will win so I am probably voting castle since I do not want classic space and goes without saying bionicle to win

1 hour ago, Grover said:

If you want a new theme, make sure you tell them so in the comments (e.g., 'Bring back classic space!').  I suggested they also bring back the goat!

Goat

 

[EamonnMR]

If you add up the 90s space theme votes, you get 20579, which beats classic space. I know they where all different themes, but they all shared a similar bright colors, high contrast, neon lasers and canopies aesthetic. I like classic space but I'd like to see that neon scifi (I guess nowdays it's cool to call it "cyberpunk" even though it hardly evokes Bladerunner or Ghost in the Shell) look. I am happy to see Bionicle at the top even though I didn't vote for it; Bionicle was the first original theme to truly stick and paved the way for original themes to continue into the 21st century rather than being entirely replaced by licensed themes.

[Fuppylodders]

3 hours ago, danth said:

Well, there goes my only chance of getting a new Space set!

So why did they reform all castle sub-themes into Castle but not do the same for Space? I think Castle would win either way but this means Space will get absolutely crushed since people who wanted, say Blacktron or Ice Planet, may not be willing to vote for just Classic Space.

They actually stated that even with reforming all the space subthemes together, it still didn't change the top 3 places, so they left it as it was. Essentially, their additional text box for the voter to add preferences, adds the ability to state a subtheme if so inclined, such as ice planet etc, thus enabling the inclusion of all space subthemes. So, space was given the same treatment as Castle, except it made no difference for space. 

If it helps, I still voted space! 

However, I wish the castle fans luck! 

 

Quote

 

6 hours ago, Lord-Vorahk said:

Predictably I went for Bionicle. 

I have no doubt that Lego will keep doing Space, Castle, and Pirates sets ad infinitum. They're already doing that. Classic Space gets a throwback almost every other year, there are Pirates sets on store shelves right now, and Castle has two(?) coming in the summer. And I honestly think the "No-brainer" choices should've been left off, to give some of the smaller, more obscure themes an opportunity to return. Obviously that would need to be prefaced with a "We didn't forget the obvious choices, but we don't need to be told to keep making those. They're not going anywhere" statement, but between those three extremely obvious choices that keep getting made anyway, and Bionicle, who a lot of people are very passionate about but probably won't get the victory even if it gets the most votes, nothing else really stood a chance.

 

I do find it hilarious that Castle got wild-carded in, though. Smacks of "We expected/wanted this to come down to Space, Pirates, and Castle, but those pesky 90s-2000s kids voted for the robots so, uh... We made a fourth slot! Castle gets to join in too!"

 

 

No, it smacks of they realised they effed up in splitting up the Castle theme into sub categories. Imagine bionicle getting split up into g1, g2, and the reboot?! Yeah, it'd suck to lose votes for bionicle because some people voted for the reboot. Well, guess what, bionicle wasn't split up. But castle and space and pirates (to a much lesser extent) *were* split up, and it *drastically* affected the results and didn't show a true picture with respect to their intention (although it did show a detailed picture of subtheme preferences). 

 

I'll be honest.

Your post smacks of 'we had a chance to win, because bonkles fo lyf! But castle gonna slaughter us now they put us on even ground with fair voting! 

 

Additionally, this second final vote bears no meaning to what they produce. They are going to produce what they want regardless who wins this current vote. 

And as a second Additionally, if Bionicle fans are going to keep referring to castle/space/pirates fans getting throwbacks or 'mentions' or references or other pointless stuff, then I'll do the same and point out how you had your reboot chance and effed it for yourselves by not buying it anyway and showing support for bionicle regardless, and the constraction figs from other themes (like SW, marvel or w/e it was) as throwbacks and tips of the hat to bonkles which puts you on an even footing with the other 3 themes you seem to have such huge disdain towards, while claiming the same thing about everyone being disrespectful of bionicle fans. 

I have no ill will at all towards bionicle or its fans. What I do find tiresome is how what I will assume is, the vocal minority, whining and trying to justify why bionicle deserves it over anything else, claiming this, that and anything else while ignoring similarities attached to bionicle, rather than just going with it, voting, and wishing everyone else good luck. 

I personally voted space. I wish all the others luck. 

Yep. That sincerely means bionicle too. 

[danth]

11 minutes ago, Fuppylodders said:

So, space was given the same treatment as Castle, except it made no difference for space. 

But it wasn't. The final vote is Classic Space vs the others, not Space vs the others.

[Aanchir]

3 hours ago, danth said:

But it has two rails!

Okay, I took a peek. Yeah, looks like the coaster tracks are used in such a way that the two rails are functionally the same as one wide rail.

The trickiest thing about building a "space train" similar to the old monorail sets using the roller coaster track (from my experience, at least) is that the roller coaster track pieces have much tighter turns and sharper inclines than the monorail track pieces did, which can present issues for carriages that are substantially taller or longer than the default 4x5 roller coaster carriage element. But I definitely think it can be done, and in all honesty, I think a lot of the appeal of that style of build can be maintained whether it uses one rail or two. It's definitely something I'm gonna continue to experiment with on stud.io!

For my part, I voted for Bionicle in the second round. It's the theme that was most impactful and formative for me as a child, as well as the one that first got me involved in the online LEGO fan community. Moreover, it's had a huge influence on my subsequent favorite themes like Ninjago and Elves, and on a lot of my favorite sorts of MOCs to build like posable characters and creatures.

But judging from recent sets like Barracuda Bay, I'm sure that LEGO will be able to come up with an amazing anniversary set no matter WHICH theme they end up selecting!

Edited February 3, 2021 by Aanchir

[danth]

1 hour ago, EamonnMR said:

If you add up the 90s space theme votes, you get 20579, which beats classic space.

You counted Blacktron and Space Police as 90s, but they came out in the late 80's. The second wave of each were in the 90's though.

Regardless, your point stands that there's a ton of Space that isn't Classic Space, and the final vote for Classic Space will suffer for that.

Which is super unfair. They did Castle a huge favor but left Space pretty screwed.

Edited February 3, 2021 by danth

[Flak Maniak]

I am very glad that Lego was fair to castle. I will be voting castle in the final round. Any of castle, space, pirates would be fine with me. But it feels like castle is... I don't know, the missing thing. Like it somehow deserves it the most. (Also, "classic space" as in light bluish grey/blue/trans-yellow is not my kind of color scheme; that's just personal preference.) I'd say something about "we just got lots of pirates love", but, I'm a greedy bastard; if I truly were a pirate partisan that wouldn't stop me voting pirates. (And indeed if castle didn't make the final round I'd have voted pirates.)

Hopefully, in general in the future we can have more historical/fantasy themes from Lego. I'd like to think that knights and dragons have that timeless appeal to children, as well as of course to us grown-ups!

P.S. I'm totally at peace with Aquazone never having stood a chance; I got more Aquazone parts on BrickLink recently and, well, I just have to make my own destiny, don't I?

[Fuppylodders]

1 hour ago, danth said:

But it wasn't. The final vote is Classic Space vs the others, not Space vs the others.

Then make sure to list any of the sub themes of space in the text box to make it clear to them

[MAB]

I hope this means they have already selected Castle to win. If it hasn't been chosen, why bother with the explanation when they could have just left it out?

I went for Castle, but I really hope they don't go Classic Castle. I'm not buying a yellow one.

5 hours ago, danth said:

So why did they reform all castle sub-themes into Castle but not do the same for Space? I think Castle would win either way but this means Space will get absolutely crushed since people who wanted, say Blacktron or Ice Planet, may not be willing to vote for just Classic Space.

 

They did mention they did it for other themes too but that it made no difference to the top of the table. However, I think Space should be in the vote, not Classic Space although to most people voting it probably doesn't matter too much.

[Stuartn]

I wanted trains or town to win, so it seems a bit unfair castle has been added. I get castle had more votes and whatnot, but why can Lego change the rules they clearly advertised and include castle, yet not other themes that didn't make it to the top three?

I would prefer castle over bionicle and pirates (though not classic space, though over any other space) but it doesn't seem right to change the way the poll works halfway through to benefit a particular theme that did not win, when 26 themes besides classic castle (about 20 outside of any castle theme to be fair) also did not make it.

[leafan]

9 minutes ago, Stuartn said:

I wanted trains or town to win, so it seems a bit unfair castle has been added. I get castle had more votes and whatnot, but why can Lego change the rules they clearly advertised and include castle, yet not other themes that didn't make it to the top three?

I would prefer castle over bionicle and pirates (though not classic space, though over any other space) but it doesn't seem right to change the way the poll works halfway through to benefit a particular theme that did not win, when 26 themes besides classic castle (about 20 outside of any castle theme to be fair) also did not make it.

Because Castle not making it was the result of their mistake, and Trains or Town were not victims of that mistake.