CountTenaciousCucumber103 Posted March 12 Hi everyone, I'm a big LEGO fan (like all of us are) and I'm interested in building a website related to LEGO for fun and enjoyment for not just me but the LEGO community too. I am however stuck with some ideas on what website to build so wanted to ask the community if you have any ideas. An idea I had was to build a platform to view and possibly share collections of LEGO in an exciting way. I think it would be best described as a "LEGO museum" where people could view collections of LEGO sets (e.g. Star Wars, Harry Potter, etc.) and it would take the user on a journey through the sets, showing when each set was built, approx. price, related sets, and things like that. In addition, I was thinking about adding the possibility for people to create their own collections of LEGO sets/creations and share them with people, but I found out that this kind of already exists on the famous website Brickset. I made a Google Form for some feedback on this idea (here's the link if anyone would like to fill it out: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfuZNXLiKq4M5up0q9JIuWs4I4tGZeoD8BdKKD8xdoxOKz_gA/viewform?usp=sf_link) but I think it's a bit pointless if Brickset already offers something similar. This is why I need some ideas, and anything anyone can come up with would be really appreciated. For example, is there anything you wish you could do with LEGO but can't at the moment since there's no platform to do so? Thank you for reading! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JesseNight Posted March 13 I think it's gonna be hard to come up with a unique idea that hasn't been covered yet, with so many good platforms already in existence. Like there is Brickset as you already mentioned. Then there's Rebrickable for collection and MOC sharing and selling. Then there's Bricklink for sets and parts both, inventory management as well as wanted lists and being a platform offering to buy at the same time. I wish you the best of luck with your plans. 1 major tip I can give is to have a standard that's compatible with websites already in existence. One of the beauties with the existing sites is that I can export a list from one platform and import it on another. I feel a feat like that would be a must. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mylenium Posted March 13 I don't care for all the fluff. It's way too time-consuming to maintain digital collections, be that commercial offerings, MOCs or one's own parts repository. And I consider myself pretty immune to all that nostalgia stuff, since I only took up the hobby eight years ago. What you propose would do zero for me and as already pointed out, there are enough sites that already do it. Of course that doesn't preclude you could do it better, but I'd need much different reasons to visit such a site. A constant source of frustration are for instance the unsophisticated search functions on these sites, which mostly rely on what's built into the underlying CMS/ blog software, so a meta search engine that maintains its own database with extensive tagging, verbose descriptions, a reverse image search and other "intelligent" functions (not necessarily real AI) would be helpful for instance even if it merely links to other existing sites. I'm sure there could be many more other such scenarios, with the point being that a new site really should resolve shortcomings that others have, not add to the pile of redundant functions. Mylenium Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SpacePolice89 Posted March 13 What is missing is a website about minifigs. There used to be a website called minimundo.de with pictures of all minifigures released. The website was very easy to use and if I clicked Black Falcons it showed me all Black Falcon minifigs on a single page with some additional information like year released and which sets they belonged to. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TeriXeri Posted March 13 (edited) 6 hours ago, SpacePolice89 said: What is missing is a website about minifigs. There used to be a website called minimundo.de with pictures of all minifigures released. The website was very easy to use and if I clicked Black Falcons it showed me all Black Falcon minifigs on a single page with some additional information like year released and which sets they belonged to. Brickset has that but their tag system seems a bit weird at times. https://brickset.com/minifigs/tag-Black-Falcons https://brickset.com/minifigs/tag-Black-Falcons/category-Castle Bricklink seems quite good as they have minifig search by themes , but then does not visibly show what year or set, and does not show 2023 Falconer CMF as "Castle" https://www.bricklink.com/catalogTree.asp?itemType=M https://www.bricklink.com/catalogList.asp?catType=M&catString=9.289 Rebrickable search gives even less results https://rebrickable.com/search/?show_printed=on&include_accessory=1&include_gear=1&q=Black+Falcon&search_type=figs Other then that, Brickset and Bricklink both seem to show 28 figures when filtered on the Castle theme. (Brickset has that microfig and a 0 set figure so it's 30 but outside of that both have 28, outside of CMF) Problem with making another database would be the tricky side of info and pictures, especially pictures would need permission to be re-used from other sites, or made for missing entries + keeping it up to date. Even with the best intentions, or seemingly harmless as copying pictures of LEGO parts or figures from an existing database, it's still stealing if done without permission. Edited March 13 by TeriXeri Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MAB Posted March 13 If you haven’t got any novel ideas, it is probably best not to create a new website. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JesseNight Posted March 13 I must agree that search functions are often lacking. One other thing that tends to annoy me on many sites is when I search an older set or part that has less digits in its model number than modern ones, the modern ones appear first. For example I search for set 1234 (fictional number), it would show me 12341 to 12349 before 1234... so it only searches for "contains" my term, and is lacking a function for exact matches to be on top. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MaximillianRebo Posted March 14 Anything related to photo or other media hosting is going to run up storage space very quickly (which is why EuroBricks requires people to link photos from external sites), or if you are relying on external links of official photos that requires all sorts of permissions as stated already. The main thing people are asking for is better search functions but I feel if that was achievable to people capable of creating such algorithms would not be cheap. It's a bit like Lego Youtubers; the market is already saturated so the challenge is finding a niche that hasn't been explored yet, or doing the same as everybody else, but somehow (hopefully) better. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SpacePolice89 Posted March 14 13 hours ago, TeriXeri said: Problem with making another database would be the tricky side of info and pictures, especially pictures would need permission to be re-used from other sites, or made for missing entries + keeping it up to date. Even with the best intentions, or seemingly harmless as copying pictures of LEGO parts or figures from an existing database, it's still stealing if done without permission. If such a website would be made maybe we could all help with the pictures. I have over a thousand minifigs from the late 70s to the late 90s in mostly great condition plus some newer ones that are related to the classic themes. All that is needed is some place where people can upload their contributions and a set of standards how to take the pictures. Others might have minifigs from other themes and eras so I believe It wouldn't be difficult to get all the pictures if the community gets involved. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mylenium Posted March 14 15 hours ago, TeriXeri said: Even with the best intentions, or seemingly harmless as copying pictures of LEGO parts or figures from an existing database, it's still stealing if done without permission. Yes/ No/ Maybe. We can agree that it would open up a whole can of worms, but it's not per se "stealing". But that's a discussion for another time... Mylenium Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Lego Tom Posted March 14 14 hours ago, JesseNight said: I must agree that search functions are often lacking. One other thing that tends to annoy me on many sites is when I search an older set or part that has less digits in its model number than modern ones, the modern ones appear first. For example I search for set 1234 (fictional number), it would show me 12341 to 12349 before 1234... so it only searches for "contains" my term, and is lacking a function for exact matches to be on top. What if you search for "1234" - using quotation marks? Some search functions will only search for the specific info within the quotes and disregard anything else, depending on how sophisticated the system search design is. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JesseNight Posted March 14 11 hours ago, Lego Tom said: What if you search for "1234" - using quotation marks? Some search functions will only search for the specific info within the quotes and disregard anything else, depending on how sophisticated the system search design is. Ja het zoeken met aanhalingstekens enzo is mij wel bekend. Werkt op Google maar helaas niet op BL en RB (die ik het meest gebruik op dit moment). Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
