LEGO Ideas Discussion

[goalieboy82]

is there as size limit for the sets?

like i have said, not against this idea they have chosen, but they could have done it in a NASA theme (could have included some NASA planes)

or

the X-15 would be great as a set

 

Edited February 28, 2017 by Captain Nemo
Images removed. Per site guidelines, please do not post pictures larger than 800x600

[VaderFan2187]

2 minutes ago, GregoryBrick said:

I can't find mention of that anywhere on the Ideas site, but they do mention 'playability, safety, and brand fit'

Oh wait. I saw the build now. Never mind, disregard my comment

At first I thought it was just the stand. It reminded me of the time there was a Star Wars bucket on Ideas which had 10,000 votes but was rejected. It had 1 Darth Vader and 99 Stormtroopers.

[BrickJagger]

Ugh. I'm all for equality, but do we really need another female figure pack? The modern day space sets are getting old aswell.

 

[Lego_Talk]

I would've chosen a different set like the Lego Observatory

[Blondie-Wan]

1 hour ago, goalieboy82 said:

is there as size limit for the sets?

They recently instituted a rule that submissions should be no more than 3000 pieces. Scads of projects have been well over that in the past, including several that made it to review, but so far nothing surpassing that has been approved (the recently-approved Old Fishing Store is probably the closest), and none of the sets that have actually been released have had more than 771 pieces (though the Old Fishing Store and Apollo 11 Saturn V both appear likely to blow right past that). If you meant lower size limits, then I think the minimum piece count is two, and also no projects consisting solely of minifigures. The smallest CUUSOO / Ideas set actually released so far is the Research Institute, which has an official piece count of 165.

 

25 minutes ago, BrickJagger said:

Ugh. I'm all for equality, but do we really need another female figure pack? The modern day space sets are getting old aswell.

 

Considering the ginormous sex / gender disparity among minifigures in existing sets so far, one could reasonably argue we need several hundred more female minifigure packs to make up the difference. :p  

It's unfortunate you don't seem to care much for present-day, real-world space exploration, but it's abundantly clear lots of LEGO fans in general and LEGO Ideas users in particular are crazy about them. Look at not only how many have been approved, but also at how many others have made it to review but not been approved, and how many still others are gathering votes at any one time. Space nerds have told LEGO in no uncertain terms that we want more, more, more of these sets.

Edited February 28, 2017 by Blondie-Wan
Making piece count statement more precise

[crockalley]

49 minutes ago, Blondie-Wan said:

Considering the ginormous sex / gender disparity among minifigures in existing sets so far, one could reasonably argue we need several hundred more female minifigure packs to make up the difference. :p  

Yes, I see a lot of false-equivalency floating around. Male-dominated sets for decades, but the moment there are two sets with only women figs, people bow their tops.

[goalieboy82]

like i have said, this Ideas set would have been better in the context of a NASA Lego series of sets (along with the some other sets with NASA Lego's like this)

[Tech Artist]

Personally I like the Women of NASA set. I loved the Research Institute so I'm really looking forward to this one.

[Artanis I]

I seriously "noooooooooooooo"d when she finally announced the results. But but then the "we are still considering Voltron" was a relief. Man, after all of that we get ANOTHER delay! It was hours away from being in the previous review, and now it's delayed until the next one... I really, really hope it passes...

Quote

let's celebrate all of it; and stop trying to draw lines along gender, race, and ethnicity for the politics we want to promote

I would also like to add "nationality" to that. As others have said, it's not just NASA that has contributed to space exploration.

I think selective celebration is actually divisive.

[Blondie-Wan]

27 minutes ago, Artanis I said:

I seriously "noooooooooooooo"d when she finally announced the results. But but then the "we are still considering Voltron" was a relief. Man, after all of that we get ANOTHER delay! It was hours away from being in the previous review, and now it's delayed until the next one... I really, really hope it passes...

I think it would make a fantastic set as well. Fortunately, the fact it's being held for further review probably indicates they do have some interest in doing it, and are trying to make it work. I'm guessing it's held because either they're trying to ensure they can come up with a build design that has all the project's features and still meets LEGO's requirements for a commercial set, they're still crunching the numbers on the business case ("would this Voltron project, which needs to be at least size X and therefore cost price Y, sell enough copies at that price?"), or most likely IMO, they're trying to hammer out a licensing agreement that works for both LEGO and the Voltron rightsholders.

 

[Artanis I]

I wonder the same, I think it would be very expensive, and you never know what the back room licence discussions are all about.

I was wondering how many projects have been held over and failed review. That space jet thing is the only one I can think of.

[goalieboy82]

if the Red Arrows happens, this opens the door to:

*removed*

and

*removed*

Edited March 1, 2017 by Captain Nemo
Do not post pictures larger than 800x600

[xboxtravis7992]

2 hours ago, goalieboy82 said:

if the Red Arrows happens, this opens the door to:

*snipped awesome photos*

 

Yes please. Those look awesome, considering how many military style jets Lego has done recently in bright colors (Captain America's F-14 thing for example, or the bright blue F-35 also from the Avengers sets, or the recent stunt show set) I could see Lego releasing some of those as real sets. Still, although the F-16's and F-18's in those photos are de-armed and basically glorified stunt planes, Lego might hesitate given their connection to two active military units. 

[dr_spock]

5 hours ago, VaderFan2187 said:

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?

Feels like it is oriented more towards minifigure collectors than builders.

 

[Blondie-Wan]

3 hours ago, Artanis I said:

I was wondering how many projects have been held over and failed review. That space jet thing is the only one I can think of.

At least two that I know of. The "space jet thing," by which I assume you mean this videogame-derived F7A Hornet project, was one; it was actually held through multiple reviews. I'm guessing they must have either really wanted and held out hope as long as they could, or it took them a long time to ascertain whether the game was a good brand fit (all I know about it myself comes from that project). Also, the Doctor Who project that became a set was actually one of two similar projects that were both submitted almost immediately after it became known they'd accept submissions for the franchise, both of which got their full support in a matter of weeks, and thus went into the same review batch together, just as two similar Ghostbusters Ectomobile projects had done a few review cycles earlier. Unlike the two competing Ghostbusters projects, the two competing Doctor Who projects were both held over to the following review. Like them, though, one of the competing projects was ultimately approved, while the other was declined.

I believe there was also a Landrover Defender project quite some time ago (in the CUUSOO days, IIRC) that was held for a while and then declined, but I can't seem to find it (though I do see a different Landrover Defender project that was declined more recently, but not after being held over). If I'm remembering correctly, that's a total of three projects that have been held over and subsequently declined. That might sound discouraging to someone who wants to see the Voltron project make it, but there's still plenty of room for hope - after all, there have also been multiple projects that were held over and then approved. The other Doctor Who project is one, obviously; the Female Minifigure Set (that became the Research Institute) is another.

[Artanis I]

I wouldn't count the "failed" Doctor Who set, they were only going to approve 1 of those, if any.

[jonwil]

My guess in regards to the F7A hornet is that they were waiting to see just what sort of game Star Citizen (the game the F7A is from) would end up being (its still in "alpha" with no real way to know what the game will ultimately look like going forward) and then eventually they decided that it wasn't a good brand fit after all.

 

[HawkLord]

I'm actually happy to see the "Women of NASA" get approved. Not only is it great to have more female role-model minifigures, but anytime you can mix science and Lego, it's a win. I can see this being a set in classrooms and the like. 

Here's hoping for Voltron. The Netflix show was great and given the cost of other Voltron toys out there (domestic and imports) this could be pretty competitive and obviously very unique. 

[wooster]

On 2/28/2017 at 5:08 PM, GregoryBrick said:

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.

 

"while not the usual AFOL 20,000 element monster"....you, sir, just won the internet for the day!  Good one!

[Littleworlds]

Reading the reactions on the current ideas-round I frankly cannot understand the outrage: The men of Nasa are getting a hulking huge Apollo 11 rocket and the next round sees women of Nasa - per piece-count the guys are still way ahead  

[Blondie-Wan]

1 hour ago, Littleworlds said:

Reading the reactions on the current ideas-round I frankly cannot understand the outrage: The men of Nasa are getting a hulking huge Apollo 11 rocket and the next round sees women of Nasa - per piece-count the guys are still way ahead  

They're also way, way ahead when it comes to minifigures of real-life, historical people. Just between last year's soccer Minifigures line and the NBA subtheme of the LEGO Sports theme from the early 2000s, there are literally dozens of official minifigures of real-world male athletes alone, plus official minifigures of real dudes in various other themes, ranging from Abraham Lincoln to the Beatles. As far as I can tell, though, the only minifigure that can be considered to represent a real woman is the "Egyptian Queen" from Minifigures Series 5 (clearly modeled on Cleopatra, but not actually officially identified by that name until she appeared in The LEGO Movie a couple years later). Are there any others?

[Littleworlds]

10 minutes ago, Blondie-Wan said:

They're also way, way ahead when it comes to minifigures of real-life, historical people. Just between last year's soccer Minifigures line and the NBA subtheme of the LEGO Sports theme from the early 2000s, there are literally dozens of official minifigures of real-world male athletes alone, plus official minifigures of real dudes in various other themes, ranging from Abraham Lincoln to the Beatles. As far as I can tell, though, the only minifigure that can be considered to represent a real woman is the "Egyptian Queen" from Minifigures Series 5 (clearly modeled on Cleopatra, but not actually officially identified by that name until she appeared in The LEGO Movie a couple years later). Are there any others?

I completely agree with you. Complaining about a female over-representation is just ridiculous. 

[Robert8]

1 hour ago, Blondie-Wan said:

They're also way, way ahead when it comes to minifigures of real-life, historical people. Just between last year's soccer Minifigures line and the NBA subtheme of the LEGO Sports theme from the early 2000s, there are literally dozens of official minifigures of real-world male athletes alone, plus official minifigures of real dudes in various other themes, ranging from Abraham Lincoln to the Beatles. As far as I can tell, though, the only minifigure that can be considered to represent a real woman is the "Egyptian Queen" from Minifigures Series 5 (clearly modeled on Cleopatra, but not actually officially identified by that name until she appeared in The LEGO Movie a couple years later). Are there any others?

The S10 Trendsetter is modeled after Paris Hilton. And the S2 Pop Star is totally based on Britney Spears. One can also think the S15 Tribal Woman is based on Sacagawea and her son, Jean Baptiste

 

1 hour ago, Littleworlds said:

I completely agree with you. Complaining about a female over-representation is just ridiculous. 

That's not my complain. 

My complain is.... look at that set. It's just a few minifigures with a stand an a couple of accessories. And they approve that project but reject other projects like the Gingerbread House. 

People spend a lot of time (and money) designing and building their projects, like the Gingerbread House, and they approve just a bunch of minifigures as a set.

Edited March 2, 2017 by Robert8

[Blondie-Wan]

16 minutes ago, Robert8 said:

The S10 Trendsetter is modeled after Paris Hilton. And the S2 Pop Star is totally based on Britney Spears. One can also think the S15 Tribal Woman is based on Sacagawea and her son, Jean Baptiste

Perhaps, but they're not officially meant to be those people the way the minifigures of Blackbeard or Abraham Lincoln are.

 

19 minutes ago, Robert8 said:

My complain is.... look at that set. It's just a few minifigures with a stand an a couple of accessories. And they approve that project but reject other projects like the Gingerbread House. 

People spend a lot of time (and money) designing and building their projects, like the Gingerbread House, and they approve just a bunch of minifigures as a set.

Now, I do agree with you here. Putting aside the symbolism of Women of NASA and what it represents, along with what will undoubtedly be some very cool minifigures, it's true that it's not the most interesting set in terms of the pure building experience. That might actually have contributed to its selection, though, given that the next two sets are apparently both going to be huge. They may simply have not been able to squeeze even another medium-sized set into whatever production capacity they have allotted for Ideas sets in the next year or so, but this one is surely logistically easier to produce than everything else in the batch.

As for the Gingerbread House... I'm as mystified as anyone else. I thought that project was as close to a slam-dunk as any they've ever had, and there were other projects from the same batch that I also thought much likelier than the Old Fishing Store. But perhaps they just decided it was time to do a really lavish, modular-like building and we're looking for an opportunity, and the beautiful Fishing Store came along and they decided they'd rather do that than even a couple of other, smaller sets. Just a shot in the dark...

[Mesabi]

I'm just surprised they didn't say anything about the Saturn V. Maybe I'm making this up, but I thought I heard they were looking at summer of 2017 for a release.