LEGO Ideas Discussion

[Blondie-Wan]

13 hours ago, jonwil said:

The Sesame Street set is really cool, pitty someone else has the license :(

Wait - they do? Who?

I know K’Nex had it from 2008 to 2010, but that was quite a while ago...

[Robert8]

10 hours ago, Roebuck said:

What about:

1. The Pirate Bay
2. SpaceX BFR / Starship & Super Heavy 1:110 Scale
3. Museu Nacional - Rio de Janeiro
4. Kakapo
5. The Office - NBC
6. Anatomini

 

Holy crap...

It must be a glitch or something because it showed 0 projects to me

But thanks 

[x105Black]

On 4/3/2019 at 5:41 AM, MAB said:

Yes, compare that to these official 'location' type sets:

...

It looks more like the Batcave than the Malibu Mansion, and probably even  more parts intensive when you consider the simplicity of the elevated chute part compared to the rockwork in that Ideas idea.

That mountainous part looks like it is mostly made of BURP and LURP pieces, so not as "parts intensive" as it may look.

[Lyichir]

2 hours ago, x105Black said:

That mountainous part looks like it is mostly made of BURP and LURP pieces, so not as "parts intensive" as it may look.

Maybe not... but it's still a little iffy. You can of course keep the part count and material costs down somewhat by using BURPs instead of smaller bricks, but even then they can still have an impact on price (mainly since having a lot of them can increase the necessary packaging size to fit them all comfortably).

[jonwil]

9 hours ago, Blondie-Wan said:

Wait - they do? Who?

I know K’Nex had it from 2008 to 2010, but that was quite a while ago... 

https://www.megabloks.com/en-us/products/sesame-street

[Blondie-Wan]

13 hours ago, jonwil said:

https://www.megabloks.com/en-us/products/sesame-street

Huh. Most unfortunate.

It would hardly be the first time LEGO has nabbed a license previously held by a construction toy competitor (indeed, they’ve done it before even specifically within the LEGO Ideas program). But if MegaBloks currently has it as this project enters review (assuming it does at all), it would almost certainly scuttle any chance. It’s strange to think of the project creator overlooking such a huge obstacle when they’ve clearly put so much research and other work into it, though.

I wonder whether there might be a chance offered by the fact the MB sets target such a different age range. Sesame Street is aimed principally at very young children, and if LEGO did it as a regular mass-market line first instead of an Ideas thing it would almost certainly be a DUPLO line, but the Ideas project is really more of a thing for nostalgic adult fans. Is there any chance LEGO and MB could share the license by offering products to different age segments of the market? It seems unlikely, but stranger things have happened...

Otherwise, I think the only chance the project might have would be to enter review after MB’s license has ended, or is about to.

[Digger of Bricks]

The Brick Fan - LEGO Ideas SpaceX BFR / Starship & Super Heavy 1:110 Scale Achieves 10,000 Supporters

[Lyichir]

14 hours ago, Digger of Bricks said:

The Brick Fan - LEGO Ideas SpaceX BFR / Starship & Super Heavy 1:110 Scale Achieves 10,000 Supporters

 

Eh... as subject matter it's pretty much just "Saturn V again but less historically relevant" and as a build it's "Saturn V again but with a less interesting shape and build". There's very little that it brings to the table that's genuinely new other than the SpaceX license, which I doubt is worth what it'd cost to acquire for the sake of a set like this.

[Blondie-Wan]

1 hour ago, Lyichir said:

Eh... as subject matter it's pretty much just "Saturn V again but less historically relevant" and as a build it's "Saturn V again but with a less interesting shape and build". There's very little that it brings to the table that's genuinely new other than the SpaceX license, which I doubt is worth what it'd cost to acquire for the sake of a set like this.

Not sure it’s an innately less interesting shape and build than the Saturn V, but I do agree it’s conceptually very similar ground.

Still, for fans of real-life space exploration, it clearly has appeal of its own that isn’t satisfied by simply having already done that one rocket (or even the multitude of other Ideas sets based on real-world space exploration). The fact that this sort of thing keeps entering review batches, over and over and over and over, presumably indicates there’s a steady, unwavering fan base for this sort of product idea, and the fact that realistic / real-world scientific exploration, discovery, and research in general (and space exploration, discovery, and research in particular) has formed the basis of more approved Ideas projects than any other category except pop-culture entertainment licenses (and vehicles, which overlaps both categories) surely indicates the TLG sees a continuing business case for them. Not that it guarantees anything, of course (especially after they recently declined two other Space X projects along with an ISS all in the same batch), but still.

FWIW, I’d buy this, and I already have the Saturn V (and have thought of getting a second)...

[Exetrius]

They should have just gone with the SpaceX ultimate collection which didn't make it through the review. Could the problem be SpaceX itself?

[MAB]

45 minutes ago, Exetrius said:

They should have just gone with the SpaceX ultimate collection which didn't make it through the review. Could the problem be SpaceX itself?

Possibly. Looking on their website, they don't do many toys. They do a realistic scale model of the F9 and also an Estes style one. It could mean they don't want toys aimed at kids, but then again it could just be that they haven't struck any deals to produce toys.

[Lyichir]

10 hours ago, Blondie-Wan said:

Not sure it’s an innately less interesting shape and build than the Saturn V, but I do agree it’s conceptually very similar ground.

Still, for fans of real-life space exploration, it clearly has appeal of its own that isn’t satisfied by simply having already done that one rocket (or even the multitude of other Ideas sets based on real-world space exploration). The fact that this sort of thing keeps entering review batches, over and over and over and over, presumably indicates there’s a steady, unwavering fan base for this sort of product idea, and the fact that realistic / real-world scientific exploration, discovery, and research in general (and space exploration, discovery, and research in particular) has formed the basis of more approved Ideas projects than any other category except pop-culture entertainment licenses (and vehicles, which overlaps both categories) surely indicates the TLG sees a continuing business case for them. Not that it guarantees anything, of course (especially after they recently declined two other Space X projects along with an ISS all in the same batch), but still.

FWIW, I’d buy this, and I already have the Saturn V (and have thought of getting a second)...

For me personally I consider the shape less interesting if only because it lacks the "multi-tiered" shape with segments that gradually narrow toward the top. Instead, from the pictures it looks to be mostly the same width up until the conical tip. That seems like it would make the build process a lot more repetitive to me.

[TeriXeri]

SpaceX doesn't interest me yet until they start manned missions beyond the ISS soon to be used Dragon 2.

I know this Re-useable Starship is exactly that purpose, for manned flight beyond Earth, but let's see it used first :D

Edited April 10, 2019 by TeriXeri

[Lyichir]

On 4/10/2019 at 11:45 AM, TeriXeri said:

SpaceX doesn't interest me yet until they start manned missions beyond the ISS soon to be used Dragon 2.

I know this Re-useable Starship is exactly that purpose, for manned flight beyond Earth, but let's see it used first :D

That's the other issue with "bleeding edge" subject matter like this—compared to something like the Saturn V that has already made history, there's really no way to ensure that these SpaceX designs will have the same impact or stand the test of time. Worst case scenario, their legacy could be tainted by a disaster of some sort that cuts the program's legs out from under it and makes the Lego version seem less appropriate in hindsight.

[Digger of Bricks]

The Brick Fan - LEGO Ideas Addams Family Mansion Modular Achieves 10,000 Supporters

[BenderBrau]

Cool, it may have a better chance now that the new animated movie is coming out this fall and the submitter shrunk the project to acceptable size (first, not approved version had over 7k pieces, way over the limit). Hopefully the upcoming Hidden Side theme won't tamper with this chance.

[Digger of Bricks]

3 minutes ago, BenderBrau said:

Cool, it may have a better chance now that the new animated movie is coming out this fall and the submitter shrunk the project to acceptable size (first, not approved version had over 7k pieces, way over the limit).

Oh, yeah, I forgot about that movie...

 

[Exetrius]

1 hour ago, Digger of Bricks said:

The Brick Fan - LEGO Ideas Addams Family Mansion Modular Achieves 10,000 Supporters

 

Those Brick Warriors torches though... 

[TeriXeri]

2 more IDEAS reached 10000

123 Sesame Street

Machu Picchu

Edited May 1, 2019 by TeriXeri

[TeriXeri]

Speaking of ideas, it's almost deadline time for the next round of submissions .

Hopefully that means we get the results of this fairly small 2018 Round 3 (5 sets) shortly after. 

And the Tree House still needs to be revealed as well.

 

First round of 2019 is closing up soon:

"... will be in consideration in the next review period (First of 2019) that ends Monday, May 6th, 2019. "

9 sets have made it so far:

https://ideas.lego.com/search/global_search?query=&idea_phase=idea_achieved_support&type=product_ideas&sort=most_recent

Edited May 1, 2019 by TeriXeri

[Faefrost]

I’m so happy the 123 Sesame Street made it to review. That one seems like a no brained if the license is reasonable. 

Of the 5 in review? It seems a weak field. A lean a bit towards the Queen Victoria. The food stands are cute, but I’m not sure what the market is there. 

[jonwil]

Looking at the sets in review, none of them seem particularly viable except maybe the food stands (although LEGO seems to be doing similar products themselves like that donut shop in the new City set or the pizza van from a while back or the Friends hot dog van).

In terms of the sets for the next review, The Pirate Bay seems like a good way to release something Pirate themed assuming they can bring it in at a reasonable price point. SpaceX doesn't seem like it would work (they still have the Saturn V Rocket on the shelves so I dont see another rocket product being done)

The museum seems a bit big and a bit boring (how many people know of it outside of Brazil?)

They did Birds previously and I dont think a model that large of a bird that most people have probably never really heard of will be that popular.

Addams Family seems possible (seems to be comparable in size to the Haunted House or maybe a little bigger), the licensing (and costs) would be the issue there.

Not sure there is much overlap between LEGO fans/collectors and The Office (as opposed to The Big Bang Theory). Then again, I said the same thing about the Friends set and they greenlit that.

123 Sesame Street wont happen unless Mega gives up their license (which they would be unlikely to do)

Anatomini is neat but fairly large and complex (would it be popular enough to justify making it? Not sure)

I dont see Machu Picchu working, I dont think its famous enough (I could be wrong on that though)

 

[tafkatb]

49 minutes ago, jonwil said:

Not sure there is much overlap between LEGO fans/collectors and The Office

Which is exactly what makes it a contender. One of the stated goals of the Ideas platform is to expand LEGO's reach to people who weren't already LEGO fans.

[Digger of Bricks]

On 5/1/2019 at 4:00 PM, TeriXeri said:

First round of 2019 is closing up soon:

"... will be in consideration in the next review period (First of 2019) that ends Monday, May 6th, 2019. "

9 sets have made it so far:

https://ideas.lego.com/search/global_search?query=&idea_phase=idea_achieved_support&type=product_ideas&sort=most_recent

The Brick Fan - Nine Projects Qualify for LEGO Ideas First 2019 Review Stage

[Blondie-Wan]

On 5/1/2019 at 8:37 PM, jonwil said:

Not sure there is much overlap between LEGO fans/collectors and The Office (as opposed to The Big Bang Theory). Then again, I said the same thing about the Friends set and they greenlit that.

Indeed, I suspect part of the whole appeal of LEGO Ideas from LEGO’s POV is the opportunity it provides them to sell bricks to people who aren’t necessarily already LEGO fans. Making new customers, even if only for one set, is surely more valuable than having yet one more offering for people who were already going to spend all their disposable cash on LEGO anyway.

On 5/1/2019 at 8:37 PM, jonwil said:

I dont see Machu Picchu working, I dont think its famous enough (I could be wrong on that though)

 

Machu Picchu, not famous enough?! It’s one of the most famous places in the world!