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The Legend of Zelda Project finally reaches 10,000 supporters

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Another project has reached 10,000 supporters on Cuusoo today! It's the second Legend of Zelda project!

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What are the chances of this passing review? If it does, will you buy it?

Personally, I would buy it in a heart beat, but I'm not sure if this one will pass. The detail in Link is very high.

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I'm happy for it. Zelda is my number one choice for a cuusoo project. But like the other one there's just about no chance of this happening... There'd be like half a dozen needed unique molds, much of which couldn't be used easily outside the franchise.

I guess you could manage with just new hair molds for Link, Zelda and Ganondorf/Demise/whoever... But cuusoo seems to not even want to do ONE new mold.

And it doesn't help that we're currently basically in the middle of the "Zelda Cycle" and the next big new Zelda game probably won't come out for at least a few more years (I don't think the coming remake counts).

Edited by BrickG

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I hope this one actually passes.

At some point Lego will have to give in, after all Zelda fans are pretty relentless.

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My inside sources have told me that Nintendo - not Lego - is against a partnership. They feel their products are in direct competition with Lego products and therefore have not cooperated with talks. I doubt this has changed.

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Congratulations to Ragaru! As this concept has many less 'new molds' than the last I feel it has a better chance of passing review this time around. :)

@pinioncorp:

LegoCityUndercover.jpg

Nintendo is against a partnership with Lego? Are you talking about the same Nintendo that's currently working with Lego and TT Games to have Lego City Undercover be released exclusively to their consoles? The same company that's working

-in-
to promote this game via both parties, up to and including physical promotional merchandise? For two companies who "aren't cooperating", they seem to be suspiciously friendly.

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Nintendo licenses Mario minifigs already. Why would Zelda be so different?

:classic:

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Well it might be more complicated than that outside of video games. Nintendo actually used to (maybe still does in Japan?) make Lego-rip blocks much like MegaBlocks and all that stuff. Right now K'nex seems to have a license, at least for Mario and Donkey Kong, that is similar to Lego. In fact it seems Lego sued Nintendo once over Nintendo's brick products.

So who knows :P. I buy the "too many molds" reason.

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Wow. That was fast; I guess that Zelda fans are more committed to getting a LEGO set than I thought. Not that I'm not thrilled - I most certainly support any LEGO Zelda project, but I just see no reason that this will turn out any differently from MINGLES' project. I imagine that LEGO would prefer a more well-defined project such as the King of Red Lions from Wind Waker.

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Nintendo actually used to (maybe still does in Japan?) make Lego-rip blocks

They don't anymore. They haven't done that since the 80s. They never sold well.

The issue at hand is licensed sets made by Lego. It has nothing to do with their history of Lego games, which Nintendo has been doing for years (even with exclusives).

-Omi

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Congrats to Ragaru, but I'm gonna have to agree with most of the people in this thread - a little too much detail for a single Cuusoo project for TLG to produce (no offense intended). The Iron Knuckle one probably stands a better chance of being approved.

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Overall, I was a supporter of this project and I'm glad to see some of the more flamboyant set concepts have been removed and replaced with something that could actually make a feasible set. The real question for this model, I think, comes down to Link's hat and hair, as well as the number of parts in new colors or printed parts that might be needed if the set is to evoke the same very specific Twilight Princess aesthetic in this concept. It also calls into question whether changes to the design might be necessitated by a licensing agreement: for instance, would Nintendo want a set like this, or would they want a more colorful and iconic treatment of the Zelda series? And if the latter, how many changes would TLG make to a project's original presentation to secure a license?

Naturally, though, this all comes down to whether TLG thinks this project is a feasible business case and after that whether Nintendo agrees to a licensing agreement whether or not they demand changes. I wish it the best of luck, and if it doesn't work out, that will at least offer precedent for designing future Cuusoo proposals.

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I guess Zelda can have a Legolas hair piece with a crown printed on it.

Now... if there's Ganondorf I don't know how you'd mimic his balding jewel decorated head without making a new mold. That assumes a lot though as Cuusoo, if they chose to do this (lol) would probably easily consider basing it off a more recent Zelda like Skyward Sword (which is superior anyways, freakin' best Zelda game in years!). The cuusoo here is not Twilight Princess specific, it's just he aims for a more realistic representation and was inspired by it. Skyward Sword is realistic enough and a lot more recent.

Heck maybe they'd do one based on the unannounced game but that seems unlikely since that game is likely 2-4 years away. Or maybe the Wind Waker HD remake but that also seems unlikely...

Anyways the point is the villain doens't have to be Ganondorf. But I feel like you DO need one (and I think it would be lame if it was a buildable non-figure one).

So you'd probably need new hair for Link and the Villain.

There's an old Lego sword that might be a good Master Sword. Maybe he can just get a standard sword though that would be slightly lame but I could go with it.

His tools are there a bit... you can probably build little bombs... bow and arrow? EZ! Boomerang? Well... guess you don't need it!

But still, even if they manage to keep it down to one or two new molds that might be asking too much... but I do think it would sell like crazy because of the cult following it has just like I think the Back to the Future thing is going to sell like crazy due to nostalgia.

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I think Link/Zelda fans need to take the hint. When Lego has turned down one project and given some 'nice' and 'soft' reasons, that doesn't mean come back with a very similar project..! Especially one with - unlike BttF - no immediately recognisable things outside of a character or two.

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I think Link/Zelda fans need to take the hint. When Lego has turned down one project and given some 'nice' and 'soft' reasons, that doesn't mean come back with a very similar project..! Especially one with - unlike BttF - no immediately recognisable things outside of a character or two.

We'll just make a third and fourth and fifth, etc until Lego gets the picture. ;p

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I've never played Zelda even though I was huge into gaming in the 80s/90s. But depending on how the figures turned out, I may be interested in this. I highly doubt it will pass since they did say no to another project. But it will be interesting to see what happens. I doubt fans will stop putting Zelda on CUUSOO just because a few didn't pass. It's like many people putting the countless Star Wars sets on there. People want a certain thing and TLG may or may not be willing to produce said items at this time.

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I think Link/Zelda fans need to take the hint. When Lego has turned down one project and given some 'nice' and 'soft' reasons, that doesn't mean come back with a very similar project..! Especially one with - unlike BttF - no immediately recognisable things outside of a character or two.

Directly from CUUSOO:

"Please note: If a project does not pass the LEGO Review please do not interpret that as an indication that we will not consider similar projects in the future."

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Directly from CUUSOO:

"Please note: If a project does not pass the LEGO Review please do not interpret that as an indication that we will not consider similar projects in the future."

This is a good point to make, although I'm gonna bet that TLG would have preferred "a similar project" sometime farther into the "future" than just a month and a half after shooting down the last one.

Still, it means we shouldn't lose hope.

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Directly from CUUSOO:

"Please note: If a project does not pass the LEGO Review please do not interpret that as an indication that we will not consider similar projects in the future."

Also directly from CuuSoo

"Models should not depend on new LEGO element molds. While we love considering new elements, if a model depends on a new element, there are more potential factors on which it can fail review. All new LEGO elements go through a very strict design and review process before they are accepted into the LEGO system. An existing element in a new color is OK, but a new element in one set isn't likely."

The problem is the math. CuuSoo projects are short run, specialty products that are not generally widely distributed via retail. So production runs in the tens of thousands at best. A single new mold will easily run into a six digit cost. Even a simple hair piece. That cost needs to be amortized over the price of all of the sets that can and would use the piece. The problem is Links hair piece. It is pretty much required to represent the character. Green hat + spiky blonde hair. Without it you just have a Forrestmen minifig. But to make it for just one short run set adds a HUGE cost the the end price of the set. Because CuuSoo is smaller run, and because the hair piece would be a distinct licensed character piece that could not be re used for other purposes (think similar to Stormtrooper helmets. Can't use them outside of SW), that hair alone could easily add $15 to $20 to the cost of each proposed CuuSoo Zelda set. That would put the price per piece ratio somewhere into obscene ranges. And that's where it will fail the business case review... Again.

It doesn't matter that this project uses "fewer" new special pieces. The problem is that the core central character requires at least one. And that one piece cannot be amortized in any other way.

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If they are truly unwilling to make even one new mold then they should turn down any project requiring a new mold immediately. Portal and Space Troopers shouldn't even be reviewed since they both require new molds. The fact is that if they really have no intention of any new molds than they should disqualify all suggested sets that contain them.

To me the fact that they aren't outright saying new molds are impossible suggests that they are at least willing to look into it. Until the day the rules are rewritten to say no new molds I am willing to believe there is at least a chance.

I think once we see the Time Machine released we'll have a much better idea of what Lego is willing to do to make these sets a reality.

Edited by strangely

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If they are truly unwilling to make even one new mold then they should turn down any project requiring a new mold immediately. Portal and Space Troopers shouldn't even be reviewed since they both require new molds. The fact is that if they really have no intention of any new molds than they should disqualify all suggested sets that contain them.

To me the fact that they aren't outright saying new molds are impossible suggests that they are at least willing to look into it. Until the day the rules are rewritten to say no new molds I am willing to believe there is at least a chance.

I think once we see the Time Machine released we'll have a much better idea of what Lego is willing to do to make these sets a reality.

It should not be ignored that not all new molds are created equal. Making a new mold for a one-off LEGO Cuusoo set doesn't make much sense if it can't be used in other themes, like many of the specialized molds seen in some licensed theme proposals. However, alongside some of its more specialized new molds, the Portal project has an example I'll use for the sake of argument: a 1x2 tile with rounded corners. If this were the only new mold required for the project, then it would be easy for TLG to spread its use-- and thus, the cost of production-- across other, non-Cuusoo-related themes.

This is part of the reason LEGO Cuusoo can't necessarily just state "no new molds" (don't forget that some of their rules explicitly state what they owe the creators of new part projects, which can hardly exist without the possibility of new molds-- of course, they may make a broader statement to the effect of "no new molds whatsoever" and revise their terms of service, but that hasn't happened yet). It's possible for some projects that new molds could be substituted with existing molds the project creator might not have thought of using, or that LEGO designers have a new mold in the pipeline that hasn't appeared in any sets yet but just might do the trick, or even that a designer might be given the Cuusoo project to work on and realize they can incorporate one of its new molds into another theme and offset the cost of production with that non-Cuusoo theme's higher production numbers and larger budget for new parts.

So all in all, just because a Cuusoo project includes a new mold doesn't mean that project cannot be produced. It depends on a number of factors that will inevitably fall on the LEGO designers responsible for gauging the viability of a project. And what this means is that projects including new molds cannot be flat-out rejected until they have made it to the review stage and the designers have been able to determine whether the new molds are essential or overly specific.

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What really bothers me is that Lego doesn't consider what they have first to use and instead just see "oh this needs new pieces". They don't think outside the box and realize they have a lot of the new molds made already. Plus they don't have to make the set exactly what the project entails. The Minecraft set looks nothing at all like the project that was uploaded.

-Omi

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What really bothers me is that Lego doesn't consider what they have first to use and instead just see "oh this needs new pieces". They don't think outside the box and realize they have a lot of the new molds made already. Plus they don't have to make the set exactly what the project entails. The Minecraft set looks nothing at all like the project that was uploaded.

-Omi

Good point. Even if there isn't a perfect hat/hair combo for Link they could still make an acceptable likeness using any number of the green hats or blonde hair pieces already in production. There are plenty of themes right now that use pieces that while not accurate at least give you a good idea of who it's supposed to be (There's many figures in the superheroes and Star Wars theme using hair pieces that are nowhere close to how they looked in the source material, but they still manage to be identifiable). Ultimately most of the pieces needed for this set idea have a similar part already in production.

Edited by strangely

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