LEGO Ideas Discussion

[astral brick]

On 8/18/2019 at 4:24 AM, albertbalanza said:

Just a quick question and I hope someone can shed light into this: has anyone noticed that the Japanese Tea Garden and Gravity Falls Mystery Shack were dropped from the Second 2019 LEGO Ideas Review Stage, considering that it has not yet officially begun?

About the Japanese Tea Garden I am afraid that the answer is very simple, Lego is already planning to release a similar set, therefore they want to avoid the polemics that occurred with the Jurassic Park set.

Anyway, I can't imagine how frustrating and disheartening should be to reach the ten thousand votes only then to get the Idea rejected like this. As I said in another thread, a new voting procedure should be adopted urgently.

[Ashnflash]

Gonna be honest. This is really - REALLY messed up. I cannot believe this happened. I can't imagine how I'd feel if this happened to me. I can't wrap my head around this. To me, this is just further proof that the system is broken. If there was a problem with these two projects you should've stopped this before them even getting approved for support. 

[TeriXeri]

I think it's fair for LEGO to be able to do this, we don't know the reason why , but LEGO must have had good reasons (which they say they communicated privately)

Tbh if it were me, I'd rather hear something now from LEGO then have false hope for more months.

 

[Mbrick]

On 8/17/2019 at 8:36 PM, LegoFjotten said:

I don't know which builds are yours so I can't comment specifically on them, but in general I think your chances would be better if you put all your efforts into one build. The prices for many of these competitions are excellent so the competition is pretty tough. I think the Jurassic Park Grand Prize winner was a good choice, and I can see the qualities in the runners up selections as well. I do think there are more builds that could just as easily been chosen as runners up, but at the end of the day it is what appeals to the jury that specific day...

Thanks for your answer :) You can see my 4 JP contest entries here if you want: https://ideas.lego.com/profile/Ian Malcolm/entries#/?query=&sort=top

I published them only when I was sure I couldn't have improved them and when I was really satisfied with the result. My goal wasn't to publish more entries to get major opportunities and to sacrifice the quality of them. I started with putting 100% effort in one sumbission, and then when I finished it, there was still almost a month to the end of the contest. So I built my second one, and so 3rd and 4th, but I didn't sacrifice quality for quantity :). Not to sound presumptuous but I think I deserved a prize, I can't believe that the cake-triceratops beat my entries :(

[Chiaroscuro]

@hachiroku raised some good points regarding the digital builds, specially regarding the light sources. I also prefer the real builds, because you can fake a lot with digital (not only using colors not available but also stability issues). But I also understand not everyone has all the needed bricks at hand, speciay for short time contests. 

 

@MbrickThe results of course are all subjective. One may like something another one don’t. But although I like all your JW builds, if I have to judge the contest the results would be the same. I liked more the cake Dino, even more than the 2nd place in the contest.

 

Please take the following as constructive feedback, and do not take offense. Again, it is my opinion not the truth. 

 

Your rainbowsaurus looks great, but looks more a dragon (like a Chinese one) than a dinosaur. Nerosaurus is a great scene build, but again it looked more like a giant shark or sea Monster. Your other creation are similar in tone from the second place (the Scorpio). Again, it is a matter of taste, and somehow I liked the Scorpio better.

Edited August 20, 2019 by Chiaroscuro

[MAB]

15 hours ago, astral brick said:

About the Japanese Tea Garden I am afraid that the answer is very simple, Lego is already planning to release a similar set, therefore they want to avoid the polemics that occurred with the Jurassic Park set.

Anyway, I can't imagine how frustrating and disheartening should be to reach the ten thousand votes only then to get the Idea rejected like this. As I said in another thread, a new voting procedure should be adopted urgently.

I read a rumour that the designer of the tea garden was a LEGO employee and so was not eligible to enter.

 

[Mbrick]

4 hours ago, Chiaroscuro said:

@MbrickThe results of course are all subjective. One may like something another one don’t. But although I like all your JW builds, if I have to judge the contest the results would be the same. I liked more the cake Dino, even more than the 2nd place in the contest.

 

Please take the following as constructive feedback, and do not take offense. Again, it is my opinion not the truth. 

 

Your rainbowsaurus looks great, but looks more a dragon (like a Chinese one) than a dinosaur. Nerosaurus is a great scene build, but again it looked more like a giant shark or sea Monster. Your other creation are similar in tone from the second place (the Scorpio). Again, it is a matter of taste, and somehow I liked the Scorpio better.

Ok thank you for your answer :)

[Bricked1980]

The Brick Fan has picked up the story and posted an article about the 2 projects getting archived.

https://www.thebrickfan.com/lego-ideas-projects-archived-before-review-stage/

[Robert8]

If they are going to release sets similar to these, then they had no option. And even so, I don't really think this was the right way to do it. 

They are really between a rock and a hard place on this one

[anothergol]

On 8/15/2019 at 11:09 PM, hachiroku said:

I like to participate in the Ideas contests, but I like to build physical creations and I have the feeling that physical builds have some kind of disadvantage compared to digital builds, it's kind of discouraging. 

I'm really curious if there is any reason for that, because as I said, there is almost no winners with physical builds in all the recent contests: https://ideas.lego.com/search/global_search?type=contests&query=&sort=most_recent

 

It's normal, you can obviously get better results with an infinite palette of parts in all possible colors. The only advantage of building with real parts is that you can make better pictures of your entry, and even here it's only when you know how to make good pictures, or it's worse than renders. Plus, renders in Studio nowadays (or Mecabricks if you can bear it) are pretty good.

So.. just start doing 3D. It's not incompatible with making real builds.

 

[MAB]

5 hours ago, anothergol said:

 

The only advantage of building with real parts is that you can make better pictures of your entry, ...

 

Plus you know for sure if something is stable if you build it using real bricks / parts. Although for a competition where the model doesn't need to be built out of real bricks, that may not be an issue.

[Robert8]

It seems at least one of these projects was submitted by a LEGO employee. And thats why it was archived

[Digger of Bricks]

4 hours ago, Robert8 said:

It seems at least one of these projects was submitted by a LEGO employee. And thats why it was archived

The Brick Fan - LEGO Releases Statement on LEGO Ideas Archived Projects

Quote

Earlier this week, I reported that two projects that reached the Second 2019 Review Stage have archived for unknown reasons. These two projects are Gravity Falls and Japanese Tea Garden. LEGO has released a statement on the LEGO Ambassador Network regarding this and they said...

• Although questions haven’t directly come in via LAN, I can understand there are some questions about the recent archival of the two LEGO Ideas 10K Club submissions Japanese Tea Gardens and Gravity Falls Mystery Shack.

  It’s incredibly rare that we make the decision to remove submissions that have achieved the 10,000 supporter milestone and to not allow them through to the review stage. Unfortunately, after a thorough evaluation we made the tough decision (because we can clearly see that both models are incredibly well built) that in these two cases we had to do this as the submissions did not comply with our Terms of Service. We couldn’t, in respect to the LEGO Ideas community, move the submissions into the review stage as well as award prizes, whether the main prize or the consolation prize, to the members in question.

  Although we know that you’re all very interested in knowing the specific underlying reasons for why we decided to archive them, this is not information that I can share with you out of respect for the privacy of the members in question. Should the members in question choose to share the reason for the archival of their submissions, then they are welcome to do so.

[parsom]

Could somebody please take a shot of Treehouse alongside with the Old Fishing Store? I wonder how they compose together.

Edited August 26, 2019 by parsom

[Faefrost]

On 8/20/2019 at 8:37 AM, MAB said:

I read a rumour that the designer of the tea garden was a LEGO employee and so was not eligible to enter.

 

That could be the case for both of them. Either lower tier LEGO employees, or people who were hired after submission. Say a LEGO store employee somewhere. If nothing else I hope the builds got them noticed enough to put them on a path for advancement. 

https://ideas.lego.com/blogs/a4ae09b6-0d4c-4307-9da8-3ee9f3d368d6/post/80169e60-7cf7-4dec-b51c-2f21d3051747

 

so betting odds on what will see production from this round? 

 

I’m actually leaning towards Thunderbird 2. Not that it’s the best build. Both the Haunted Mansion and the Snow White 7 Dwarves house would sell like gangbusters. But it feels like LEGO already has an active Creator Expert Disney subtheme. Which would probably eliminate the 3 Disney sets from consideration. The UCS Shuttle is gorgeous, but a subject they have done as an advanced D2C set before. The others seem a bit niche. 

I’m surprised we didn’t already get a Disney Haunted Mansion D2C set this year. But of the original New Orleans style from Disneyland. It’s the 50th Anniversary. 

[Roebuck]

Pursuit of Flight has the best chance of making it, since it is small and original..

When do we expect next review to be published? I have high hopes for some pirates for a change, would be perfect to throw the pirates fans a big juicy bone this year 

 

[NathanR]

There's a lot of good sets in this review, it's a shame we can't have all of them.

I'm really hoping for Thunderbird 2 (even though it would be the end of my own Thunderbirds ideas project).  But I suspect we'll get either Medieval Blacksmith  or the combo of Winnie the Pooh and the Pursuit of Flight. We've had a few very large Ideas sets, so probably they are looking for sets that could be built with around 1000 to 2000 pieces maximum now.  The rest of the sets in this lineup strike me as too similar to existing Lego themes, or sources of licence conflicts (e.g. the Seven Dwarves House is obviously Disney, and we don't know what is planned for the Lego Disney Princess line).

4 minutes ago, Roebuck said:

When do we expect next review to be published? I have high hopes for some pirates for a change, would be perfect to throw the pirates fans a big juicy bone this year 

The blog usually gets updated with one designer biography a week.  When all nine in the review period have been featured, Lego make the announcement. The Pirates set has to make it through, or there is simply no justice in this world. Though I did like that Anatomini project...

 

[jonwil]

Looking at whats in the review, I doubt the Space Shuttle will make it (they already said something about the space shuttle being ruled out due to the Women of NASA set plus this one just looks too big even compared to something like the Saturn V Rocket). And they have done space shuttles in the past (including at least one that was actually NASA licensed and had real NASA logos on it IIRC)

Thunderbirds could work if the license can be secured (don't know how likely that is) and if the vehicle can be done in a size that doesn't make the set too big/expensive.

Pursuit of Flight seems great, its different and small enough to be worth making into a set.

History museum is another "modular" and LEGO doesn't seem inclined to do anything in that size/form factor in Ideas.

The Office might work (depending on licensing) although its a fair bit bigger than both Big Bang Theory and Friends which is a negative. Haven't watched enough of the show to know if its got any content that may not be appropriate.

Medieval Blacksmith looks too big and detailed (bigger and more detailed than things like the Fishing Store for example)

Winnie the Pooh comes down to Disney and licensing I suspect (that and whether Winnie the Pooh fits better with Duplo than LEGO given the previous Winnie the Pooh Duplo sets)

NASA Spacecraft will probably be ruled out (too similar to other NASA stuff they have already done)

Haunted Mansion could work although the size (and whether it conflicts with what they are doing on the Disney d2c sets going forward) might rule it out.

The Dwarves House looks cool and would probably make a great set (its not so big as to be a problem but its got all the details it needs to work (again licensing will factor in here although they did use Snow White in a Disney Princess set so there's that)

 

[Robert8]

Hmmm this one could be a "none" I think...

The office won't happen. Too similar to Friends and too soon

 

Thunderbrids might have the biggest chance out of these

[icm]

I would love to see the Thunderbirds set happen, and it's easily the best playset from a vehicle perspective.  But the IP is a little bit obscure (at least here in the US), and Andrew Clark already has two Ideas sets, including one released this year.  I doubt the Ideas review board will award him a third set, even though that set would be superb.

EDIT - Actually, Thunderbirds is the only vehicle playset in this Review group.

Edited September 3, 2019 by icm

[Roebuck]

10 hours ago, NathanR said:

The blog usually gets updated with one designer biography a week.  When all nine in the review period have been featured, Lego make the announcement.

So 5 more weeks then

[anothergol]

Quite a good selection for once, this time.

While I'm fed up with NASA stuff,

-I like the Thunderbirds set (but I'm not sure if it's not the render that I like more). Not a fan of the Thunderbirds, but I'd pick it & I can imagine Lego doing it.

-pursuit of flight, jkbrickworks again, enough said. I'd pick this one.

-the office.. I only like the "idea", not the set. But <insert show>+Lego alone is hardly an idea. Still, I want The Office minifigs.

-the medieval blacksmith. It's well done, but I would never buy a set like this, simply because there are MOCs out there that put it to shame, MOCs that we'll never get because they're most likely too fragile. It looks like something Lego would produce, so as an Ideas project it's great, but it's also the reason I wouldn't pick it.

-Winnie the Pooh is cute enough. And obviously has zero chance, because China.

-History museum, I find the exterior a bit too messy & overdone but I dig the interior

-Haunted mansion, meh, & it conflicts with the more fun Hidden Side

-the dwarf's house, a bit like the blacksmith, well done but not MOC-grade IMHO. I can imagine Lego picking it, but I wouldn't buy.

8 hours ago, icm said:

But the IP is a little bit obscure

oh it was big, it's just.. pretty old now

[MAB]

I hope the Pursuit of Flight. It is an interesting set in that it is a bit quirky compared to most LEGO sets being a kinetic model, a bit like the pop-up book. Although of course they have since done the dragon dance kinetic model. I like the medieval blacksmith but I don't think I'd buy it, plus it is a bit too niche (would the general public really buy it?) Seven Dwarves - fine if they get the license and include Snow White. Winnie the Pooh, same again - fine, but have a decent Tiger. The Office, no thanks. I like the show, but it is old and not as iconic as The Big Bang Theory or FRIENDS. NASA, we've had enough recently. Thunderbirds, no interest from me.  History Museum, no thanks, stick with the modulars. And Haunted Mansion, no thanks, already got the MF set.

Edited September 3, 2019 by MAB

[NathanR]

3 hours ago, anothergol said:

11 hours ago, icm said:

But the IP is a little bit obscure

oh it was big, it's just.. pretty old now

The original Thunderbirds series was very popular in the UK in the 1960s, and again in the 1990s when it got broadcast again (so just misses out on the current obsession with the 1980s).  I don't think the series got shown so much in the USA.  But the show got a reboot a few years back as a CGI show, and the Ideas set is based on the updated Thunderbird 2, so it is actually pretty current!

[Faefrost]

21 hours ago, icm said:

I would love to see the Thunderbirds set happen, and it's easily the best playset from a vehicle perspective.  But the IP is a little bit obscure (at least here in the US), and Andrew Clark already has two Ideas sets, including one released this year.  I doubt the Ideas review board will award him a third set, even though that set would be superb.

EDIT - Actually, Thunderbirds is the only vehicle playset in this Review group.

It’s actually a little less obscure than you might think. The new show (which this is from) is up to 5 seasons on Amazon Prime. And I think the Amazon show gives them multiple ways to license a product, be it direct from Gerry Anderson’s company (I forget the name) or via the sublicensors making the new show.