Lego Ideas becoming bland and dull

[canuckster]

Is it just me or is everything that comes out of ideas arts/entertainment or something that could be called a piece of retro art these days. Where is the science and tech stuff?

Maybe Lego just needs to have a separate Movies and TV theme.

I dunno, so much cool science and tech stuff that they never approve.

Sorry for the rant, if this is against the rules my apologies.

[Piraten]

They should make lego ideas and then they should make Lego Ideas Movie/Series theme contest... 

 

And.... GO AVS !!!!

[Jerac]

People vote stuff they already know.

That's why it is like that.

[icm]

I feel like I’ve read this thread about ten times before in the last five years. 

[Maple]

4 hours ago, Jerac said:

People vote stuff they already know.

That's why it is like that.

But there is no reason LEGO couldn't pick a license set and an original idea.

[Mylenium]

7 hours ago, icm said:

I feel like I’ve read this thread about ten times before in the last five years. 

Sure, but it's really, really bad ATM. There's so much wrong with how Ideas works and it really needs a fundamental change.

Mylenium

On 7/12/2022 at 6:32 PM, canuckster said:

Is it just me or is everything that comes out of ideas arts/entertainment or something that could be called a piece of retro art these days. Where is the science and tech stuff?

I don't care whether it's science or art. I love both. However, I'm tired of the low-brow approach to "art" even. The umpteenth TV series set really is super lame and I'm not even sure if the van Gogh set would not simply have slotted into the overall LEGO ART theme and they would have done it at some point, anyway. What I love is truly >>>original<<< art like the Jazz Quartet and we really could need more of that. As for science stuff - I still want it to look pretty. I don't need another ISS or JK Brickworks clunky orrery. So from that perspective I totally understand why some projects don't make it and LEGO will favor more popular stuff. It's one thing to nerd out on something and derive some pleasure from obscure stuff, but totally another to make it appealing to the masses.

Mylenium

[Jerac]

4 hours ago, Maple said:

But there is no reason LEGO couldn't pick a license set and an original idea.

There is: LEGO is fundamentally making what people want.

[danth]

1 hour ago, Mylenium said:

The umpteenth TV series set really is super lame

Agree...but I also feel the same about the umpteenth X-Wing set.

[MAB]

Not long ago there were complaints that IDEAS was too much about realistic space sets. 

[TeriXeri]

I don't know, Tech wise Ideas seems pretty saturated.

Saturn V (re-release)  International Space station both are still available sets retiring after this year 

LEGO also released 2 AFOL space nasa sets seperately :

Apollo 11 Lunar Lander 

Big spaceshuttle Discovery seperately from Ideas (currently not retiring).

3 of those sets are retiring 31st december 2022 according to Brickset.

 

That makes 4 AFOL space sets based on Nasa currently on market,

For smaller and younger there are many options this year as well.

• City has a Nasa moon rocket with nasa stickers on it.
• Friends has a Space Shuttle
• 3-in-1 has a Space shuttle / Lunar Lander (alternate)
• Classic has 11022: Space Mission

 

I'd love to see some actual Space ship via Ideas, not Nasa, Not SpaceX, not based on any Tv show , movie, game etc, maybe not even based on a former LEGO theme.

It's too early to know if Barracuda Bay was an exception to a rule of non-licensed, "Classic Pirates" , but I don't expect any former Classic/80s/90s/2000s space themes to be made via IDEAS.

 

There's also a motorized Lighthouse coming, while the Tree-House set is retiring (brickset lists 31 December 2022)

 

 

Edited July 18, 2022 by TeriXeri

[danth]

I said this somewhere else, but once something that is essentially the same idea (for example, TV sitcom characters in their main sitcom location) has been done twice, they should probably ban the idea from Ideas. It's not really a new idea at that point. Lego can release sitcom sets whenever they want now, they don't need to use Ideas for that. Same with NASA sets and movie cars. 

Use Ideas for actual new ideas.

[SirBlake]

I can’t make sense of their decision making process. Seems to me they’re full up on NASA, but it took them YEARS to finally approve a castle set. I’m not complaining. As a long-suffering castle fan, something is better than nothing. 

The newest approved set is confusing. Third-rate 90’s Halloween movie that is waaaay down the list of iconic IP’s they could have gone with. Or not done any IP at all. That’d be nice too.

Whatever. It seems their parameters for approval are secret and way beyond what us mere mortals can predict, so it doesn’t make much sense to moan about it. They’re going to do whatever they want to do.

[Maple]

12 hours ago, Jerac said:

There is: LEGO is fundamentally making what people want.

They made two billion last year, I think they might be making what some people want.

1 hour ago, SirBlake said:

 

Whatever. It seems their parameters for approval are secret and way beyond what us mere mortals can predict, so it doesn’t make much sense to moan about it. They’re going to do whatever they want to do.

My guess is that LEGO wants a Halloween set and it makes Disney happy. The current Haunted House ride set will probably retire next year and this will replace it for the 'Halloween' set.

2 hours ago, danth said:

I said this somewhere else, but once something that is essentially the same idea (for example, TV sitcom characters in their main sitcom location) has been done twice, they should probably ban the idea from Ideas. It's not really a new idea at that point. Lego can release sitcom sets whenever they want now, they don't need to use Ideas for that. Same with NASA sets and movie cars. 

Use Ideas for actual new ideas.

Twice? I count 5.

Big Bang Theory
Friends Central Perk
Queer Eye
Seinfeld
The Office

Again, these must sell, but there is nothing stopping LEGO from making new things. I thought Ships Ahoy was a shoe in, it's well liked, it's weird and different and fun and makes a great display piece. Add some Pirates prints and AFOLs would be happy. But nope, I don't understand LEGO either.

I'm not a huge Castle fan, but with all the new prints there is no reason why LEGO can't make a Castle theme. Even if LEGO doesn't want a new theme, make it a subtheme of Creator, like. they did with City Space.

[MAB]

23 minutes ago, Maple said:

Big Bang Theory
Friends Central Perk
Queer Eye
Seinfeld
The Office
 

Queer Eye is not IDEAS,  that was LEGO's choice outside of IDEAS.  They also did the second FRIENDS set that way.

It wouldn't surprise me if all those sold to more people that are not into LEGO  / hadn't bought any LEGO for let's say a year, than sets that appeal to AFOLs.

[danth]

1 hour ago, Maple said:

Twice? I count 5.

Right. They should have stopped at 2.

1 hour ago, MAB said:

Queer Eye is not IDEAS,  that was LEGO's choice outside of IDEAS.  They also did the second FRIENDS set that way.

Exactly. They don't need to waste IDEAS sets on sitcoms.

[MAB]

18 minutes ago, danth said:

Right. They should have stopped at 2.

Exactly. They don't need to waste IDEAS sets on sitcoms.

An issue there is did they manage to pick a winner when they chose Queer Eye, or have the ones produced through IDEAS have better sales implying they do need to use IDEAS to judge demand.

Now there have been a few classic theme revivals through IDEAS and they’ve done some more by themselves, it could equally well be said that no more  classic themes should appear on IDEAS  as LEGO don't need to waste IDEAS sets on things they can do themselves.

[Maple]

3 hours ago, MAB said:

Queer Eye is not IDEAS,  that was LEGO's choice outside of IDEAS.  

So the total is still 4 and not 2. Minecraft became two different themes after Ideas so sometimes things just work.

1 hour ago, MAB said:

An issue there is did they manage to pick a winner when they chose Queer Eye, or have the ones produced through IDEAS have better sales implying they do need to use IDEAS to judge demand.

Queer Eye has been a massive failure. It was one of the few 'exclusive' sets that was on sale last year, within months of being released.

I think people are only buying it because it has some awesome prints. Kind of like Big Bang Theory. I never got it but I love the food prints in it.
Big Bang Theory makes sense to me. Friends even makes sense to me. Seinfeld seems very American and The Office is obviously very American.

 

1 hour ago, danth said:

Exactly. They don't need to waste IDEAS sets on sitcoms.

It's fine if LEGO thinks they sell then make them. However it's not like LEGO only needs to pick one set a round. Why not pick a sitcom AND an original idea. (I'm really bitter about Land Ahoy which I thought would be a shoe in.)

[danth]

1 hour ago, MAB said:

it could equally well be said that no more  classic themes should appear on IDEAS  as LEGO don't need to waste IDEAS sets on things they can do themselves. 

If they actually start doing that. Not sure they will. Space themes still haven't gotten a Creator 3-in-1 like Castle, Pirates, and Vikings have.

If not, it should be open season for IDEAS Space themed sets!

Also, unlike sitcom apartments, there's a huge difference between a castle, a pirate ship, and a space ship! Classic themes are so different they can't really count against each other.

Edited July 19, 2022 by danth

[icm]

To be fair, the 10497 is everything I ever hoped for from a Creator 3-in-1 or Ideas Space set. But I know what you mean.

[Mylenium]

7 hours ago, MAB said:

An issue there is did they manage to pick a winner when they chose Queer Eye

When it was announced, most people here in Germany didn't even know what it was. Even I as a gay person couldn't be bothered and I at least knew! That set was an epic fail and a stupid decision. Indeed people only buy it for the white masonry bricks and a few of the flamboyant prints...

Mylenium

[Agent Kallus]

9 hours ago, danth said:

If they actually start doing that. Not sure they will. Space themes still haven't gotten a Creator 3-in-1 like Castle, Pirates, and Vikings have.

If not, it should be open season for IDEAS Space themed sets!

Also, unlike sitcom apartments, there's a huge difference between a castle, a pirate ship, and a space ship! Classic themes are so different they can't really count against each other.

There have plenty of space sets including in creator, it's just that space fans are harder to please. 

Castles are pirate ship are real things so we know what the they look like, but with proper spaceships there's a lot more imagination involved so there's going to more variety in how they end up looking, and thusly they are less likely to please Lego space fans because they are less likely to be what they imagined.

[MAB]

8 hours ago, Maple said:

Queer Eye has been a massive failure. It was one of the few 'exclusive' sets that was on sale last year, within months of being released.

I think people are only buying it because it has some awesome prints. Kind of like Big Bang Theory. I never got it but I love the food prints in it.
Big Bang Theory makes sense to me. Friends even makes sense to me. Seinfeld seems very American and The Office is obviously very American.

I got the The Big Bang Theory as I like TBBT. It does have nice prints, but it is also a fun set for fans of the show. But it is not good for fans of The Office, FRIENDS, Seinfeld, Queer Eye, etc. Whereas The Office set is not so interesting for fans of TBBT, but it will be of interest to fans of The Office. Just because they are things that happen to be on TV, doesn't mean that they are the same thing or indeed that LEGO can just pick any show and make it work - if sales for Queer Eye are as bad as you think, then it shows LEGO cannot pick winners without fan input through IDEAS.

As for The Office being very American, while the show is set in America, it is shown in many parts of the world. I've seen the whole thing I think three times all the way through, and the early seasons many more times than that. Even though I prefer the original British version.

 

8 hours ago, danth said:

If not, it should be open season for IDEAS Space themed sets!

Also, unlike sitcom apartments, there's a huge difference between a castle, a pirate ship, and a space ship! Classic themes are so different they can't really count against each other.

There is a difference to you, but not necessarily to someone that is not a fan of classic LEGO themes. They can just see something that has been done before and not interesting to them and if any of those themes were popular before then LEGO should be able to make similar sets again by themselves without needing to be told and wasting an IDEAS slot. Just like to you sitcoms are the same, even though they are quite different appeal to different groups of people. That sets might look similar to somebody that won't buy them anyway is not really important. What is important is will they sell (especially to people not into LEGO), and would LEGO be able to pick the ones that will sell.

They did TBBT and it seemed to sell well. Should LEGO have picked up on the popularity and produced their own versions of other very popular comedies? Maybe, but they didn't. They needed IDEAS to give them the idea to do FRIENDS, Seinfeld, The Office, and even The Flintstones. Same with Sesame Street and Winnie the Pooh. Same with Steamboat Willie. Ghostbusters. BTTF. Tron. LEGO didn't come up with any of them. They did have the idea of doing another FRIENDS set by themselves after the IDEAS one was a proven winner. But then they decided to do Queer Eye by themselves too. The same could be said for movie based sets, do they really need to be told what movies are popular enough? Their choice of movies for some of the recent one year themes seem to be very kid focused, so maybe they do need IDEAS input to know which ones to do for nostalgic adults.

And the other big thing here is fan engagement. If they removed all TV based IDEAS because TV shows have been done before, and removed all cars from movies as they have been done before, and removed all buildings from movies as they have been done before, and removed all NASA related IDEAS as they have been done before, and so on, then there would be very little to draw people (and not just AFOLs) to IDEAS. And if they remove the buzz around "this TV series / movie / whatever licensed item might become an official set" that is a load of free advertising lost.

I think we have to accept that IDEAs is not the Bricklink Designer Program. It is not for creative parts use in MOCs that are interesting to people that like LEGO. It is partly to make sets based on ideas that LEGO did not realise would sell well, ideally to people beyond the consumer base that already buy LEGO. It is also to get fan engagement - not just people looking at licensed IDEAS, but getting people designing models using LEGO based on subjects they like.

[danth]

7 hours ago, Agent Kallus said:

There have plenty of space sets including in creator, it's just that space fans are harder to please. 

There's space and there's Space.

There are no Space sets anywhere except 10497.

Although some Monkie Kid sets are close, the Lightyear set is very close, the City space sets this year are pretty close. So, a good year for getting close to Space.

[Mylenium]

22 hours ago, MAB said:

If they removed (...) then there would be very little to draw people (and not just AFOLs) to IDEAS.

I don't really think so and I disagree. In a way this dependency on licensed stuff has just become a bad habit or a vice even. It's one of the action <-> reaction things. People do those sets because they've proven successful in the past and everyone tries to find the next big hit based on his own favorite series, car, landmark building and whatnot. In my view it has (d)evolved into this unhealthy self-pollination process where former success dictates what potentially might become successful in the next round. Mind you, I'm talking about the idealistic merits of art, creativity and "ideas" in the purest sense, not the commercial viability and LEGO raking in cash. I understand all that capitalism stuff. Still, I strongly feel that they could be just as successful without so much licensing and even if they adhere to that strategy, perhaps there's indeed a way of doing it differently outside of IDEAS...

Mylenium

Edited July 20, 2022 by Mylenium
Bad English

[MAB]

28 minutes ago, Mylenium said:

I don't really think so and I disagree. In a way this dependency on licensed stuff has just become a bad habit or a vice even. It's one of the action <-> reaction things. People do those sets because they've proven successful in the past and everyone tries to find the next big hit based on his own favorite series, car, landmark building and whatnot. In my few it has (d)evolved into this unhealthy self-pollination process where former success dictates what potentially might become successful in the next round. Mind you, I'm talking about the idealistic merits of art, creativity and "ideas" in the purest sense, not the commercial viability and LEGO raking in cash. I understand all that capitalism stuff. Still, I strongly feel that they could be just as successful without so much licensing and even if they adhere to that strategy, perhaps there's indeed a way of doing it differently outside of IDEAS...

Mylenium

Given the first six CUUSOO/ IDEAS sets were all based on non-LEGO IP, I don't think it has become that. It has always been that, with a few unlicensed sets along the way. 

Yet the same could be said for the objects, the "Wow, that's made out of LEGO?" sets. The maze, the pop up book, the globe, the typewriter, the ship in a bottle, the next object that is name out of LEGO. They are similarly following this apparently unheathly route of doing something a bit like before to get success just varying the object that is made to scale from LEGO. If all sitcoms are the same and should be banned, then the same should go for any pattern that starts forming. Possibly even more so for "objects" since LEGO is producing a lot of those by themselves these days (today's Atari, the Nintendo one, the plants, the adidas shoe, etc).

I'd much rather see a range of sets, licensed and unlicensed, than all sitcoms, or all movies, or all modulars, or all objects, or all NASA, etc.

 

And even if they did ban sitcoms from IDEAS to start making their own sets in a sitcoms theme (or just under ICONS) it wouldn't surprise me if there were complaints of why are they doing sitcoms as mainstream sets when they could have brought back Classic S/C/P instead ?