LEGO Ideas Discussion

[Blondie-Wan]

Outstanding! Congratulations, Bricked1980! That’s a terrific accomplishment.

[MAB]

1 hour ago, Blondie-Wan said:

It’s not out of the question, though, that it might get a hundred, which is enough to get that initial deadline extension that’s pretty important.

 

Anything that doesn't get to 100 in time probably doesn't deserve to stay longer.

[Blondie-Wan]

13 minutes ago, MAB said:

Anything that doesn't get to 100 in time probably doesn't deserve to stay longer.

Quite possible, but if that’s the case it surely won’t get much farther and one doesn’t need to worry about it. OTOH, those deserving projects that have a hard enough time attracting supports might, just might, have more of a fighting chance.

Remember, the whole Gathering Support phase is just one out of multiple filters. The submissions process already screens out an unknown number of flat-out unacceptable product ideas, then the Gathering Support phase as it is ensures that fewer than 1% of accepted projects even make it to the Review phase, and then the Review phase approves only a fraction of the projects that enter it. And frankly, I think most people would be happy if they approved a few more than they do. (And then, of course, you’re your own ultimate filter, in that even if something gets all the way to store shelves, you still don’t have to buy it.)

The odds against Ideas projects are so great already that honestly, it just strikes me as mean-spirited to want to make the process even harder than it already is.

[icm]

53 minutes ago, MAB said:

Anything that doesn't get to 100 in time probably doesn't deserve to stay longer.

"Deserve" is such a loaded word.  There are plenty of projects that are brilliantly conceived and brilliantly executed that don't make it to 100 in time because the project creators don't know how to promote them.  Not every project that flops before the 100-supporter mark is a jumble of poorly matched parts assembled by a child and uploaded by a parent.

[Exetrius]

2 hours ago, MAB said:

Anything that doesn't get to 100 in time probably doesn't deserve to stay longer.

Depends on your notion of "deserved", but I beg to differ.

Consider this, a project of mine that recently expired:

IDEAS project: Galaxy Vipers - Neo Blacktron

Time nor effort were spared in the process of designing, rendering and editing. I promoted this on Flickr, Reddit, Facebook (specifically: a Classic Space group) and Eurobricks. It all amounted to.. 45 supporters. 

Draw your own conclusions here. I'm genuinely open to hear some possible 'fail factors' of my project, as I'm considering re-submission.

 

 

 

[Bricked1980]

5 hours ago, Blondie-Wan said:

Outstanding! Congratulations, Bricked1980! That’s a terrific accomplishment.

Thanks a lot.  Hopefully it might help to bring in a few more votes.

[fred67]

Two things, then I'll shut up about it:

1. Yes, a "mutual vote" club is completely unjustifiable and completely contrary to the spirit of Ideas.

2. Soliciting votes from friends and family isn't the problem - I was actually going to mention this, but I didn't feel it's worthwhile.  When a kid piles a few bricks on a baseplate and gives it a name, and mom and dad and grandma and grandpa and uncle Joe all go and support it (despite the fact it's worthless and no one would ever buy it), I do think it's "wrong" on several levels, but I ultimately don't care because, after those five votes, the project just dies away anyway.  It's pushing a not-great set to 10k and then TLG gets screwed because people who voted for it weren't actually willing to buy it.  Ideas is NOT the place to show off your random brick pile to grandma and grandpa - send them a text for crying out loud.

[Blondie-Wan]

10 minutes ago, fred67 said:

Two things, then I'll shut up about it:

1. Yes, a "mutual vote" club is completely unjustifiable and completely contrary to the spirit of Ideas.

See, I think precisely the opposite. I find immense value in a supportive community, one which encourages us all and wants its members to succeed.

10 minutes ago, fred67 said:

2. Soliciting votes from friends and family isn't the problem - I was actually going to mention this, but I didn't feel it's worthwhile.  When a kid piles a few bricks on a baseplate and gives it a name, and mom and dad and grandma and grandpa and uncle Joe all go and support it (despite the fact it's worthless and no one would ever buy it), I do think it's "wrong" on several levels, but I ultimately don't care because, after those five votes, the project just dies away anyway.  It's pushing a not-great set to 10k and then TLG gets screwed because people who voted for it weren't actually willing to buy it.  Ideas is NOT the place to show off your random brick pile to grandma and grandpa - send them a text for crying out loud.

I’m not talking about a kid putting three 2x4s and a minifigure on a plate and calling that a bus stop. I’m talking about substantial, enticing builds that form the basis of sets we want to buy. I’m sure that most Ideas submitters - not just the teeming multitudes with crude, blocky versions of things TLG already makes better versions of, but Ideas superstars like Alatariel, JKBrickworks, RobenAnne, AndrewClark2, etc. solicit supports from folks they know who may or may not care about LEGO, but definitely do care about Alatariel, JKBrickworks, RobenAnne, AndrewClark2, and so on. Obviously I don’t know the case about each and every one, but it seems like a given that the very first few supports most people would try to get would be from friends and family - and why not?

[Blondie-Wan]

I think we may just have fundamental philosophical differences in our approach to and understanding of LEGO Ideas (and, perhaps, much else). And that’s perfectly fine. I just think it might be better to let people support whatever they want to support, for whatever reason they want to support it, than to have some sort of Ideas cops demanding everyone else justify and defend their support choices according to their rigidly-defined criteria.

[Elysiumfountain]

15 hours ago, icm said:

"Deserve" is such a loaded word.  There are plenty of projects that are brilliantly conceived and brilliantly executed that don't make it to 100 in time because the project creators don't know how to promote them.  Not every project that flops before the 100-supporter mark is a jumble of poorly matched parts assembled by a child and uploaded by a parent.

It also doesn't even have to be that the creators don't know how to promote them. I remember one person telling me several months ago that the precise reason my projects wouldn't make it is because I was one of the people who didn't spam everywhere they could regardless of the consequences. That people with the decency to try to make their projects relevant had no chance. Still don't know how I feel about that. I think eventually I just gave up because I didn't have hours every day to devote to promotion! ;) 

[MAB]

14 hours ago, Blondie-Wan said:

See, I think precisely the opposite. I find immense value in a supportive community, one which encourages us all and wants its members to succeed.

 

Then there is a difference between a supportive community and one which supports everything. A community that supports everything no matter what (which was my reading of the suggestion) is not necessarily good.

 

17 hours ago, Exetrius said:

Depends on your notion of "deserved", but I beg to differ.

Draw your own conclusions here. I'm genuinely open to hear some possible 'fail factors' of my project, as I'm considering re-submission.

2

Of course, deserved will mean different things to different people, and also different things at different stages. If a MOC doesn't get to 100 in a month after some self-promotion, then I don't think it has any chance at all of ever getting to 10000. So if it gets to 100 through other means, it (i) clogs up the system (which of course is why they implemented it) and (ii) may give the designer hope where in reality there is none.

 

As to yours, is it a nice little MOC? Yes. Would I buy it? No. It looks fairly simple and probably quite easy to build it or something similar from an existing pile of bricks. It is also very small for an ideas. They are both important factors for me. So would I vote for it? No, as I wouldn't buy it.

[Blondie-Wan]

Dinosaurs Fossils Skeletons - Natural History Collection is the first product idea to enter the Third 2018 LEGO Ideas Review batch!

[Chiaroscuro]

Voltron seems to be a really popular set. There are at least three dozen projects based on it at the front page of the Ideas site... some quite complex, but people don’t read the rules?

[Blondie-Wan]

28 minutes ago, Chiaroscuro said:

Voltron seems to be a really popular set. There are at least three dozen projects based on it at the front page of the Ideas site... some quite complex, but people don’t read the rules?

I’m getting some site glitch that prevents me from seeing what’s on the front page, but they’re currently running a Voltron contest, and they just stopped accepting submissions and entered the judging phase for the 130-plus entries they’ve received. Could you be seeing the contest entries rather than product ideas?

[Blondie-Wan]

Meanwhile, the LEGO Ideas x LEGO House display is live, and the latest 10K Club interview (featuring the creator of the Acclamator Class Assault Ship) is now up.

[Bricked1980]

48 minutes ago, Blondie-Wan said:

the latest 10K Club interview (featuring the creator of the Acclamator Class Assault Ship) is now up.

I've just been reading the interview. One thing I noticed is that the designer mentions the model includes 4087 pieces. So does that mean his model was submitted before the 3000 brick rule was introduced or does it mean that Lego are pretty relaxed about that rule? 

There are a few models on Ideas that I've often thought look as if they contain more than 3000 bricks. If any of them reached 10,000 votes I wonder if they'd be instantly rejected or still considered for production. Also I wonder if the designer would still receive the 500 dollars of free Lego sets?

Edited September 24, 2018 by Bricked1980

[Blondie-Wan]

22 minutes ago, Bricked1980 said:

I've just been reading the interview. One thing I noticed is that the designer mentions the model includes 4087 pieces. So does that mean his model was submitted before the 3000 brick rule was introduced or does it mean that Lego are pretty relaxed about that rule? 

The former. I’m not sure of the exact date the project was submitted, as it doesn’t show the date (didn’t it show that before the recent big update? I’d certainly appreciate being able to see a project’s date of posting), but looking at the updates (which are dated), that project was posted no later than early March of 2016. The 3,000-piece limit was instituted June 21st, 2016, more than three months later.

Generally, when they have a rules update that limits what people can submit, they leave up the preexisting projects that would have been affected, rather than taking them all down (which is why all the existing projects pertaining to Star Wars, Marvel, DC, etc. didn’t disappear instantly as soon as they put in place the rule about projects based on licenses they’re already using). Of course, the fact this project wouldn’t even be accepted on the site now (both because it’s well over 3000 pieces and because it’s based on an existing license LEGO has been using continuously since 1999) does mean its chances in the review are very, very, very slim, but technically it still gets formally evaluated and considered like all the other projects.

22 minutes ago, Bricked1980 said:

There are a few models on Ideas that I've often thought look as if they contain more than 3000 bricks. If any of them reached 10,000 votes I wonder if they'd be instantly rejected or still considered for production. Also I wonder if the designer would still receive the 500 dollars of free Lego sets?

I believe what happens is that when people submit projects, the Ideas team looks at them before posting them to make sure they comply with the rules, and they reject anything that clearly, obviously exceeds 3,000 pieces. For borderline cases where a submission looks like it might exceed that part count, I think they ask the creator to verify that it doesn’t (possibly by sending an LDD file or something like that, so the Ideas team can see exactly what went into it), or ask for a redesign that is clearly under 3,000 pieces.

[Bricked1980]

16 hours ago, Blondie-Wan said:

The former. I’m not sure of the exact date the project was submitted, as it doesn’t show the date (didn’t it show that before the recent big update? I’d certainly appreciate being able to see a project’s date of posting), but looking at the updates (which are dated), that project was posted no later than early March of 2016. The 3,000-piece limit was instituted June 21st, 2016, more than three months later.

I assumed that was probably the case. I've been thinking of re-designing one of my modular buildings to bring it below the 3000 part threshold so I can put it on Ideas. It is only slightly over though so wasn't sure whether it was worth going to the effort of a redesign if other people have already got their models through with over 3000 parts.

@parsom just wondered if you're still having problems with people voting for your project? Yesterday I did some promotion using Flickr, twitter and Instagram using a new video I've created of my model. This has received a big response with over 1000 views on instagram already. It's also become my most liked Tweet I've ever posted. I've had several comments from people saying how they really like the model and that they've just supported it. Despite this my support count only went up by 3 votes. Every time somebody said they'd voted, I checked the site and my vote count hadn't gone up at all. So I'm wondering whether people are just telling me they've voted when they actually haven't - or whether there might be a glitch with the site not registering votes correctly.

Edited September 25, 2018 by Bricked1980

[parsom]

10 minutes ago, Bricked1980 said:

 

@parsom just wondered if you're still having problems with people voting for your project?

As far as I know - yes, this problem still exists. Some people are still waiting for the activation code.

I can only say, that this is absolutely shaming for Lego. But they don't seem to care about it. They are happy with site improvements.

I wonder what was the scale of votes devastation...

And more to say - main Ideas page still looks like a garbage bin and expired project is still on one of the most visible places.

[Blondie-Wan]

3 hours ago, Bricked1980 said:

I've had several comments from people saying how they really like the model and that they've just supported it. Despite this my support count only went up by 3 votes. Every time somebody said they'd voted, I checked the site and my vote count hadn't gone up at all. So I'm wondering whether people are just telling me they've voted when they actually haven't - or whether there might be a glitch with the site not registering votes correctly.

I think either is possible. I’ve also wondered sometimes (even before the update) whether some folks might not fully understand what supporting a project entails - that they have to set up an account on the site, log in, answer the questions after clicking the Support button on the project, etc. I suspect there might be some people who think supporting an Ideas project is just “liking” it when it’s shared on Facebook or whatever.

[parsom]

17 minutes ago, Blondie-Wan said:

 I suspect there might be some people who think supporting an Ideas project is just “liking” it when it’s shared on Facebook or whatever.

Totally agree.

[LucyCol]

There are a few projects that I would like to support however, no matter what I do, or try I am unable to get past the log on screen 

[parsom]

28 minutes ago, LucyCol said:

There are a few projects that I would like to support however, no matter what I do, or try I am unable to get past the log on screen 

Please contact Lego Ideas team - on FB or whatever - because they seem to live in a fool's paradise.

[Bricked1980]

1 hour ago, Blondie-Wan said:

I think either is possible. I’ve also wondered sometimes (even before the update) whether some folks might not fully understand what supporting a project entails - that they have to set up an account on the site, log in, answer the questions after clicking the Support button on the project, etc. I suspect there might be some people who think supporting an Ideas project is just “liking” it when it’s shared on Facebook or whatever.

Yes I definitely think this is true. Twitter, Instagram and Facebook are all great for promoting projects. Problem is that when you ask for votes a lot of people misunderstand and think you're just asking for "likes" on that particular site.

Last Saturday I took my model out on the road for the first time  I took the brick built version along to a local Steam toy fair and it was exhibited alongside some of non Lego models of steam trains, traction engines and that sort of thing. I received some positive feedback about my model from steam and traction engine enthusiasts many of whom were keen to vote for the model.

However when it came to them actually voting things got quite interesting. It was quite a learning curve to see how non Lego fans respond to the Lego Ideas website. Many people were saying how much of a faff it was to vote and they just couldn't work out what they needed to do to be able to "support" a project. Some people were also fearful that by clicking "support" they would be obliged to buy the set or part with their money, especially when it came to the part where you have to say how many copies people would buy and how much you think it's worth.

I do think the vote process is more complicated than it needs to be and this can definitely put off a lot of potential supporters. This new "activation code" thing is just another needless hurdle they've thrown in to the process.

[Bricked1980]

I've made a few updates to the design of my LEGO Ideas model and have also made a brick built version (previously the images were just rendered). If anyone is interested in seeing how this looks when built from real Lego then please check out my updated topic here on Eurobricks.