The Real Indiana Jones

LEGO Ideas Discussion

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So so excited. I'm just worried I'm going to be disappointed. I don't the no ive ever been as invested in a selection as this one. 

 

20 minutes!

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Jeez Louise, just stick the "NASA" label on your project and its bound to get approved.  Another boring minifig pack.  At least there is still hope in the next review. 

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I was hoping for some official images for the Apollo 11 and old fishing store. I guess we need to wait some more.
Congrats to 20tauri for getting the woman of NASA approved! 

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the observatory or the merchant house, those are ideas, the Women of NASA could have been done with a NASA series of Lego's (not against it the idea of them doing something with Women of NASA, but like i said, could have been done in a series of NASA Lego's).  

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Not surprised about Voltron, but Women of NASA?  ---- especially considering the omission of Eileen Collins (one of the most deserving) and Christa McAuliffe.  It looks like we have had the latest sacrifice to the altar of political correctness.  I will say no more.....(regarding this)

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42 minutes ago, goalieboy82 said:

the observatory or the merchant house, those are ideas, the Women of NASA could have been done with a NASA series of Lego's (not against it the idea of them doing something with Women of NASA, but like i said, could have been done in a series of NASA Lego's).  

 

I agree 100%. What a let down. Ideas should be a nice build. This is just a few new prints.

Edited by NewTown

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This just enforces to me how little emphasis I put on LEGO producing sets that I, as an AFOL, would like for the set itself.  Instead, I look for parts to be used in my own MOC that is up to the standard I set for myself.  There have been a few sets I have truly liked, but I personally see little point in displaying what someone else created.

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I knew this would happen. 

Good to see Voltron still has a chance

Edited by Robert8

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9 minutes ago, BrickHat said:

I'm excited for the minifig in the orange NASA suit. Otherwise, I'm happy that this can encourage young females to get into STEM. Having said that, I'm probably not getting the set.

My problem with that argument (and this is nothing against you @BrickHat, just that I've heard many people say the same thing), is that LEGO inherently is about STEM.  Both my son and daughter love LEGO, and their creativity and engineering skills have been greatly enhanced already just by building.  It doesn't matter if it's Belle's Castle or Spider-Man's bridge - the engineering to create something like that has inspired both of them greatly.  The skills have transferred over to other areas - my kids are constantly engineering things out of all sorts of materials these days.  I also think it's a bit of bad parenting if the only way we can get girls into STEM is to look toward LEGO approving an Ideas set that has women minifigures.

/rant off

Congrats to the creator of the Ideas set, of course.  I'm sorry I'm not more excited for it, it just doesn't tickle my fancy.  I will most likely pick one up for my daughter (if she shows interest), though.  It's quite the accomplishment to get a set into production.  I'm sure you've seen a lot of "meh" reactions today, and that's a bummer, but don't take it personally.

As for Voltron - I pushed hard for Voltron, and although I didn't see "Voltron" on the card, I'm at least happy with the result.  I've said this other places, too - I'm sure there are some additional licensing "things" that would go into Voltron.  You're not just looking at US licensing, but you've got to get licensing cleared through the original licensee in Japan.

Voltron has cross generational appeal - 80s kids love it, and Gen Y loves it, too.  The show is doing great on Netflix.  Season 2 just premiered last month, and Season 3 is coming in September.  The toys are selling like hotcakes and are difficult to keep in stock.

My thoughts are that there's the multiple licensees, as well as the different versions of Voltron to consider.  There's the 80s version (which is the Ideas set), but there's also the new version.  Maybe there's a desire to get a second set out there that reflects the new show?  Who knows...maybe Dimensions isn't dead and they are considering adding it to Dimensions, lol.

Anyway, I hope to hear some good news come this summer.

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Unfortunately I think the only sets the ever had a chance were Voltron and Little House on the Prairie.  Frankly I'm surprised that neither passed (except Voltron maybe).  I like the idea of making NASA sets, and love the idea of a Catherine Johnson minfigure (a Hidden Figures set would be amazing), but I'm very disappointed that they didn't go for anything new.  I mean, they're literally in the process of making a space set now and they made Research Institute a while back... I just don't understand it.

But congrats to the creator!  I am, regardless of the potential of the other sets, looking forward to seeing this set!  It is an exciting set, and really awesome to get Catherine Johnson as a minifigure!  

Edited by JGuy

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Not to sound sexist or anything, but this didn't need to be made, especially since LEGO released 21110 Research Institute a few years back. This reeks of approval only due to political correctness. As stated before they happened to leave out Eileen Collins (who was the first female pilot and commander of a space shuttle), which is a bad idea on their part (was it because of her political views I wonder?). I was really hoping for the Hadron Collider or the Observatory. I don't think this will sell very well at all.

On a side note, the President just signed an executive order promoting an increase of women in science and business fields. Coincidental that this happened right when the set was announced! 

Edited by ChristopherLee

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That was a rather disappointing review, nothing to say that hasn't been said already so moving on... *biting tongue*

With regards to the Red Arrows Hawk, I think that some may be a bit optimistic about how popular it would be.

Edited by LegoFjotten
Typo

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I can see why most of the projects were rejected. I suspect for one thing they wanted something smaller to balance out some of the larger sets we have been getting as of late like the Caterham, Old Fishing Store and Saturn 5 Rocket.

Spaceballs had licensing issues.

Addams family was far too big (bigger than the Haunted House by a fair margin) and needed a license that isn't all that popular/active these days.

Merchants house was too big and too detailed.

Large Hadron Collider simply doesn't have subject matter that will appeal to enough people (NASA on the other hand, people like astronauts and space stuff)

Observatory is again too big/detailed.

They already have plans for modulars going forward so anything that fits into that category is unlikely to make it. Plus they already make all sorts of construction sets in the City line so again that is a negative for the modular construction site.

UCS land-speeder has the usual Star Wars license issues.

As for the Lamborghini, TLG already has a relationship with Volkswagen Auto Group (who own Lamborghini) and any Lamborghini products are likely to come from that license rather than being an Ideas set. The Caterham made it because it was totally different to anything being done in Speed Champions or large-scale models or whatever.

Lovelace and Babbage has the same problem as the Large Hadron Collider, its not popular enough. (heck, even many computer geeks probably haven't heard of them)

Little House on the Prairie probably fails on the size test (it looks to be bigger than the Old Fishing Store and even if its not, its clear they wanted a smaller set this time around) and the "is the license popular enough with the right audience" test.

 

I will wait for the final set before I pass judgement but I will probably buy women of NASA since it will likely have some neat torso prints in there somewhere. (plus I am a huge space fan).

I suspect in regards to Voltron, the only problem they have is finding a way to produce something at an acceptable price point (i.e. the "will a Voltron set sell" and "is the IP owner willing to do a deal" tests have already been passed). I for one would definatly buy a Voltron set, that show is awesome.

 

Saturn 5 Rocket and Old Fishing Store are already on my wishlist and I hope they both get revealed soon so I can figure out how they will fit into my budget :)

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To quote what I already mentioned in the Brickset comment section:

Quote

Well since the Brickset comments seem upset I called their decision a "political correctness ploy," I feel it is worth explaining my dissatisfaction with their decision. Was it smart for it to include Katherine Johnson who was depicted in a film recently? Yes. Do these women deserve to be recognized? Yes. But so does John Glen, Warner VanBraun, etc. Furthermore as an American I love NASA, but... let's be honest that the U.S.S.R made an equal contribution to space exploration which Lego deserves to recognize (the U.S.S.R. historically sending women to space first). That is why I called it "politically correct," because it stoops to the modern social political trends to earn Lego "public brownie points." 

Just as I think an all male Lego set (like what we saw often in the 90's) was a mistake; I also think an all female set falls into the same error. You can't call one an error while calling the other flawless. If we really want to celebrate space exploration, let's celebrate all of it; and stop trying to draw lines along gender, race, and ethnicity for the politics we want to promote. STEM fields need to be promoted among both boys and girls, not just one or the other. Remember, in the modern US at least; more women are getting degrees then men now in school, suggesting that a method is needed to promote both genders to go to school, not just one or the other.

It's also a lame minifig pack disguised as a set, so it has that against it too.

I just really feel upset that Lego is trying to repeat the Research Institute again. And yes it is a public relations stunt again, just Google News search "Lego" right now and you will see dozens of Tech and other news sites reporting it. HALF of them also linking to the point "hey the woman from that new film that came out is IN THIS SET." Lego is playing the press like a fiddle with this, as I said "brownie points." Not quite as bad as when Lego disavowed Shell due to Greenpeace (despite the fact I am sure Shell is probably still producing a large chunk of oil which becomes plastic in Lego sets...); but this is still pretty pandering.

Not to mention, it is not that cool of a set. Now imagine with me that the project, rather than being "Minifigures on plate" had some actual cool stuff on it? I haven't seen Hidden Figures yet or read much on the history, but from the trailers I have seen, lets imagine a set were we get our Katherine figure, but we also get with it a miniature science lab AND a midi-scale Mercury-Atlas rocket, with a side build featuring the Mercury capsule. It would have honored those who worked on the program, we would have got a good set, and it would still be a STEM inspiring build. Instead though we are getting what looks like a baseplate with some figures.  

Now this isn't meant to say I want to see less female minifigures in sets. Quite the opposite, Lego still hasn't hit the golden %50-%50 male to female fig set ratio in their production (although City and Creator sets seem to be doing that). Lego has been making great strides to balance it out, and I don't want to see them stop until it happens. But doing it this way seems pandering and like a quick way to gain press attention.

Also I should mention, out of the sets in the review; I was hoping for Little House to win because I have a family member who absolutely loves that series, and has just began collecting Lego for herself. I thought she would have enjoyed it. 

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1 hour ago, ChristopherLee said:

Not to sound sexist or anything, but this didn't need to be made, especially since LEGO released 21110 Research Institute a few years back. This reeks of approval only due to political correctness. As stated before they happened to leave out Eileen Collins (who was the first female pilot and commander of a space shuttle), which is a bad idea on their part (was it because of her political views I wonder?). I was really hoping for the Hadron Collider or the Observatory. I don't think this will sell very well at all.

On a side note, the President just signed an executive order promoting an increase of women in science and business fields. Coincidental that this happened right when the set was announced! 

You don't know yet that Eileen Collins won't be in the final set; she could well be. The creator appears to have chosen the women she did in the project proposal for a variety of reasons; maybe you should ask her.

As for Research Institute having already been made, there's a world of difference. That set celebrated women in STEM generally, but had "generic", nameless scientists. This one will have specific, real-life individuals as minifigures, which is a significant difference. It's also much more focused than that other set, which ranged across disciplines from astronomy to chemistry to paleontology - this one is tied not even just to space exploration in general, but specifically to NASA. Those facts give it an identity of its own, while at the same time allowing it to complement both the Research Institute and the upcoming Apollo 11 Saturn V.

It's also notable in having a bunch of minifigures of real-life women not just in STEM, but at all. There are literally dozens of official minifigures representing real-life men, including a ton of sports figures, such as the NBA players from the basketball subtheme of LEGO Sports from the early 2000s, last year's soccer players from the German footballer collectible Minifigures line, and some real-world race car drivers from certain Racers sets. There are also occasional historical figures portrayed in works of fiction that got LEGO themes, like Blackbeard in Pirates of the Caribbean. That upcoming Apollo 11 set will likely have Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins, and there are classic yellow interpretations of William Shakespeare and Abraham Lincoln in The LEGO Movie and its associated Minifigures line, while existing parts were repurposed for a simple but official minifigure of JAXA Hayabusa project manager Junichiro Kawaguchi in the first-ever LEGO CUUSOO / Ideas set to include a minifigure. There are others... virtually all of them male. Off the top of my head, I think the Minifigures series 5 Egyptian Queen, clearly inspired by Cleopatra and actually named as such in The LEGO Movie, might be the only official minifigure who could even be considered to represent a real woman (assuming one doesn't count figures of movie and TV characters as representing the real-world performers who portray them, and if one does, women still lag far, far behind men in such representation).

Moreover, from a parts monkey perspective, it should be uniquely valuable in a way that other set wasn't, as it should have five fleshtoned minifigure heads (and associated torsos) with female face prints, a couple of them women of color. Builders working in licensed themes or otherwise using flesh tones rather than classic yellow will surely value this set for that reason alone, whether or not they even have any particular interest at all in space exploration, women in STEM, NASA history or whatever. Few if any sets feature this many female faces in fleshtones; even sets with this many female faces in classic yellow are uncommon. And there are very, very few fleshtoned minifigures of women of color; this set should have two (assuming the same five women are represented in the final set as in the project). That alone makes this immensely desirable to builders working in realistic fleshtones.

So, yeah... tons of reasons why having done the one set doesn't mean they shouldn't do the other. Saying that is like saying they shouldn't have done the Ghostbusters Ectomobile after having already done the Back to the Future DeLorean time machine, since they're both cars from 1980s sci-fi / fantasy movies.

Edited by Blondie-Wan
Italicizing movie titles

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i think for now on (grandfather older sets in) that only non current IP (would say, if someone wanted to do something like this)

or

would this one be made do to his pre WWII political views

 

Edited by Captain Nemo
Images removed. Per site guidelines, please do not post images larger than 800x600

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Random question, what's the opposite of 'political correctness'? 

I for one am quite happy to see any Lego that's a little less stereotyped, male-dominated and white (or yellow). 

I'll be going out of my way to buy this set.

 

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6 minutes ago, williejm said:

Random question, what's the opposite of 'political correctness'? 

Political incorrectness. Why do you ask?

Personally I wish there would've been a better build for the Women of NASA set. As it is, I'm surprised it even got approved. Aren't LEGO Ideas sets supposed to be about the builds?

 

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2 minutes ago, VaderFan2187 said:

Aren't LEGO Ideas sets supposed to be about the builds?

 

I can't find mention of that anywhere on the Ideas site, but they do mention 'playability, safety, and brand fit' as some important criteria. Also, there is a build - while not the usual AFOL 20,000 element monster, it is sufficiently clever and charming to fit with other sets LEGO has done themselves.

Congratulations to 20tauri on getting the 10,000 votes and passing the review process. Well done. I'll be looking for the set when it hits the shelves.

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