The Real Indiana Jones

LEGO Ideas Discussion

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14 hours ago, adwind said:

I don't think moderators would remove something unless there's a clear violation of rules. There's probably something we just don't see or know, maybe the number of pieces wasn't the issue

I assume other projects by the same user would also be removed if that's the case...

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34 minutes ago, JintaiZ said:

I assume other projects by the same user would also be removed if that's the case...

And the Lost City project that they have seems to still be there, so they must not have found anything with that. And I'm not entirely sure it would be the subject matter either. The other Orient Express project with 3k supporters is still up there. And the two times I submitted my version they never did anything. I can't remember, what else do they not allow. Weapons and religion, I suppose, but neither of those fit. 

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9 hours ago, JintaiZ said:

I assume other projects by the same user would also be removed if that's the case...

Not necessarily actually

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12 hours ago, Elysiumfountain said:

And the Lost City project that they have seems to still be there, so they must not have found anything with that. And I'm not entirely sure it would be the subject matter either. The other Orient Express project with 3k supporters is still up there. And the two times I submitted my version they never did anything. I can't remember, what else do they not allow. Weapons and religion, I suppose, but neither of those fit. 

Self promotion on a specific project?

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Well there are now 33 projects to have reached 10K.....

Nothing from @Itaria No Shintaku on EB or elsewhere as far as I know about his awesome Charlie and the Chocolate Factory project - he hasn't commented on here since February 12th......

Edited by Vilhelm22

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Just a heads up, copy-pasted from our Naruto: Ichiraku Ramen Shop project comments section:

Quote
Hello guys, we want to share something with you, all our supporters:
 
We are really sad to report that this idea, design, art and updates have been stolen by Super 18K chinese company. Apparently they have retro-engineered the design and are going to produce this exact idea without our permissions or Lego Ideas permission. They are even using all the images of this idea and updates for self promoting.
 
We really really hope Lego takes the necessary actions to stop this and protect us as designers of their ideas platform.
 
We are not allowed to sell or make money from this design, we cannot produce or sell this design, we cannot obtain any benefit of this design other than the one provided by Lego if they decide to produce it, but we have to see how third party companies can make money out of our hard work and dedication without any authorization, attribution or even mention? Is this the result of all the time and effort we have invested in this idea? Is this really the kind of protection Lego Ideas offers?
 
We are really sad, frustrated and devastated right now and discouraged to continue with any other project in the platform. We need to hear from you Lego Ideas team, we need to know that this will be investigated, reported to legal authorities and stopped as soon as possible.
 
Thanks for your time, you are all awesome.

 

Edited by DadiTwins

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3 hours ago, DadiTwins said:

We really really hope Lego takes the necessary actions to stop this and protect us as designers of their ideas platform.

It's a horrible situation to have to be in, but unfortunately I'm not really sure Lego have much in their arsenal. A lot of these Chinese companies have demonstrated that they're not going to play ball regarding copyrights, and Lego can't even stop their own in-house designs being reverse-engineered and sold. As much as it sucks for designers who put all that time and hard work into a build to have it stolen, while Chinese companies are continuing to profit from the designs and not be sanctioned by their government, they've got no incentive to change their practices.

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One interesting question is what would happen if someone put an idea on LEGO Ideas and a Chinese company copied it before it hit 10k and got given a review result. Would LEGO decide that because the Chinese have copied it, they will not make it into a product?

 

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Having had IP stolen myself, I can only sympathise with this. It is an utterly unpleasant experience. BUT it was my IP and therefore I was able to sort it out.

Signing away all rights to Lego for the (long) Ideas slog would lead to some expectation of attempts at protection by Lego, or at least sympathetic communication with the designer. This is very much firmly in the 'no rights without responsibility' department as far as I'm concerned.

I was contemplating ideas submissions, but I don't think it is worth the hassle for a 95% rejection rate for the winners. The whole concept is utterly broken in every way.

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8 hours ago, jonwil said:

One interesting question is what would happen if someone put an idea on LEGO Ideas and a Chinese company copied it before it hit 10k and got given a review result. Would LEGO decide that because the Chinese have copied it, they will not make it into a product?

 

Interesting question... The answer is that it has even more possibilities to be created by Lego. Happened with the last 2 picks, the Earth Globe and the Starry Night. Both ideas were copied and sold by Vonado way before reaching 10k. Both of them were then selected by Lego as new products.

19 hours ago, Alexandrina said:

It's a horrible situation to have to be in, but unfortunately I'm not really sure Lego have much in their arsenal. A lot of these Chinese companies have demonstrated that they're not going to play ball regarding copyrights, and Lego can't even stop their own in-house designs being reverse-engineered and sold. As much as it sucks for designers who put all that time and hard work into a build to have it stolen, while Chinese companies are continuing to profit from the designs and not be sanctioned by their government, they've got no incentive to change their practices.

You are right. If they continue doing it is because there is not punishement. Lego is probably not doing anything as they also have their own in-house designs cloned and being sold.

What really pisses me off is that we cannot make any money from our design as it is owned by Lego, but chinese companies can. We cannot sell instructions, inventary or productize the idea using a third party company, but we have to see chinese companies making money out of our hard work while Lego does nothing. The fair play here would be that, in the case our idea is cloned, Lego releases us from our contract inquirements and let us monetize our idea like chinese companies do. I can see Lego going after us if they see our idea in rebrickable with paid instructions, but they won't move a finger if it is a chinesse company...

Edited by DadiTwins

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1 hour ago, DadiTwins said:

Interesting question... The answer is that it has even more possibilities to be created by Lego. Happened with the last 2 picks, the Earth Globe and the Starry Night. Both ideas were copied and sold by Vonado way before reaching 10k. Both of them were then selected by Lego as new products.

You are right. If they continue doing it is because there is not punishement. Lego is probably not doing anything as they also have their own in-house designs cloned and being sold.

What really pisses me off is that we cannot make any money from our design as it is owned by Lego, but chinese companies can. We cannot sell instructions, inventary or productize the idea using a third party company, but we have to see chinese companies making money out of our hard work while Lego does nothing. The fair play here would be that, in the case our idea is cloned, Lego releases us from our contract inquirements and let us monetize our idea like chinese companies do. I can see Lego going after us if they see our idea in rebrickable with paid instructions, but they won't move a finger if it is a chinesse company...

I am very sorry this happened to your design!

I should admit that you probably wouldn't be able to make any profit of your idea anyway since it's an IP. Unless you buy a license from IP owner. 

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3 hours ago, Tube Map Central said:

Having had IP stolen myself, I can only sympathise with this. It is an utterly unpleasant experience. BUT it was my IP and therefore I was able to sort it out.

Signing away all rights to Lego for the (long) Ideas slog would lead to some expectation of attempts at protection by Lego, or at least sympathetic communication with the designer. This is very much firmly in the 'no rights without responsibility' department as far as I'm concerned.

I was contemplating ideas submissions, but I don't think it is worth the hassle for a 95% rejection rate for the winners. The whole concept is utterly broken in every way.

Glad you could fix your issue. To be honest we were expecting more professionality from Lego. It is weird that they allow a chinesse company to clone their Ideas portal designs with total freedom, but it is even worse that they do not have any kind of conversation, agreement or compensation with the designers. If a third party company is breaking the contract they have with the designers and they cannot avoid it, the least Lego can do is to release the contract with the designers. Lego feels very powerful if they have to prosecute individual fan designers, but they are useless if they have to go after chinesse companies.

Lego should start thinking on a Lego Ideas designers protection initiative, with clear rules and statements. We fan designers should feel protected at every moment, we do not deserve this kind of frustration.

2 minutes ago, adwind said:

I am very sorry this happened to your design!

I should admit that you probably wouldn't be able to make any profit of your idea anyway since it's an IP. Unless you buy a license from IP owner. 

Thank you. Well, I think we could still be able to sell the instructions of the design without the minifigs in rebrickable for example. We cannot sell/produce a set based on an IP, but we can sell the instructions of our own design.

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6 minutes ago, DadiTwins said:

but they are useless if they have to go after chinesse companies.

That could be said of most Western companies, to be honest. I'm not sure that Lego are "allowing" designs to be copied, so much as the Chinese company is doing it anyway and Lego have no realistic recourse. You're right in that they could/should release you from the contract - but anything beyond that is entirely out of Lego's hands.

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14 minutes ago, DadiTwins said:

Thank you. Well, I think we could still be able to sell the instructions of the design without the minifigs in rebrickable for example. We cannot sell/produce a set based on an IP, but we can sell the instructions of our own design.

I'm not the expert in this field, maybe you're right, but in my understanding using the name of Naruto in anything related would be a violation... but that's my guess only! 

Anyway, I think you should keep on building and leave this case behind, people definitely appreciate your designs and skills! 

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Reading the few posts above, do I understand correctly, that even if a design is not chosen, Lego still keep the copyright?

I can understand the restrictions for sets in review, but seems a bit rough if you don’t get chosen. Wondered why I rarely see any ‘losers’ sets/instructions listed for sale anywhere!

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48 minutes ago, Ajf350d said:

Reading the few posts above, do I understand correctly, that even if a design is not chosen, Lego still keep the copyright?

I can understand the restrictions for sets in review, but seems a bit rough if you don’t get chosen. Wondered why I rarely see any ‘losers’ sets/instructions listed for sale anywhere!

LEGO retains the rights to then for three years, during which you cannot profit from them, but you can share the designs, parts, instructions for free. Understandably, there is little incentive to do this, but some do. The designers of the Saturn V made a follow-up with the launch pad, that got to 10k but was rejected. They posted everything online. And it was promtly made, very badly, by a knock off company.

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If I remember correctly there are already 35 projects that will be in the next review! The problem is that it is easier to reach 10k supporters now, so it makes sense why TLG is only choosing 1 project out of all of them. Though there are a lot of good projects this round so I wouldn't be surprised if 4 or 5 gets chosen...

Edited by JintaiZ

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1 hour ago, JintaiZ said:

The problem is that it is way too easy to reach 10k supporters now

This is a pretty disrespectful thing to say. I could attack this claim in a lot of ways, but instead I'll keep cool and kindly suggest you to be more considerate with your choice of words. I hope the chosen wording was not (fully) intentional.


Sorry, but IDEAS isn't putting me in a good mood lately. As I put more work in better visuals for my projects, I only see my submissions returned for revision more often. My latest active project was returned two times, I have written about it in detail in the description of the pic below, if you're interested. 

50952586558_1f9ac12f82_z.jpg

That wasn't a nice process to go through, so I thought I'd do better with my next submission. Well, turns out: NOT. A whole slew of things was wrong with it. Firstly, as of February 21 2021, you may no longer have text in your main visual, except on prints or stickers. WHY? Secondly, I made close-up renders that only show part of the build, and put them on a sheet that's larger than the render itself. In other words, making sure there is some blank space around the model, it's more presentable that way. Commentary: "Please remove the white border in the photos, so the build is in full view." Ugh. 

👉 But here comes the real comment that left me dumbfounded and pissed: "Your recent project submission contains many LEGO Minifigures, suggests a Minifigure series, collectible Minifigures, Minifigures and accessories, a “battle pack” or a mass customisation Minifigure maker Product Idea. We love Minifigures too, but can only accept submissions that contain a significant LEGO model." Excuse me? WHAT? My model is 1760 pieces; I have 7 minifigs. Does that seem exceptional or unreasonable? I include accessories for them, yes, but I am not providing extra minifigure parts whatsoever. Scrapping one or two figs would mean redoing several renders. Cut me some slack, it's not like everyone on IDEAS else is holding back on minifigs! :angry:

I don't want to fully disclose the model before it goes live, but this should give you an idea of this obviously-not-a-substantial-model:

50974563401_c0605a78db_z.jpg

 

So what are your thoughts on this? Has anyone gone through similar hurdles lately? Imo, it's becoming an increasing pain to deal with. 

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46 minutes ago, Exetrius said:

This is a pretty disrespectful thing to say. I could attack this claim in a lot of ways, but instead I'll keep cool and kindly suggest you to be more considerate with your choice of words. I hope the chosen wording was not (fully) intentional.

Sorry if my wording is poor. The builds are great, but it just seems like reaching 10k isn't as hard as it used to be...

46 minutes ago, Exetrius said:

That wasn't a nice process to go through, so I thought I'd do better with my next submission. Well, turns out: NOT. A whole slew of things was wrong with it. Firstly, as of February 21 2021, you may no longer have text in your main visual, except on prints or stickers. WHY? Secondly, I made close-up renders that only show part of the build, and put them on a sheet that's larger than the render itself. In other words, making sure there is some blank space around the model, it's more presentable that way. Commentary: "Please remove the white border in the photos, so the build is in full view." Ugh. 

👉 But here comes the real comment that left me dumbfounded and pissed: "Your recent project submission contains many LEGO Minifigures, suggests a Minifigure series, collectible Minifigures, Minifigures and accessories, a “battle pack” or a mass customisation Minifigure maker Product Idea. We love Minifigures too, but can only accept submissions that contain a significant LEGO model." Excuse me? WHAT? My model is 1760 pieces; I have 7 minifigs. Does that seem exceptional or unreasonable? I include accessories for them, yes, but I am not providing extra minifigure parts whatsoever. Scrapping one or two figs would mean redoing several renders. Cut me some slack, it's not like everyone on IDEAS else is holding back on minifigs! :angry:

Very sorry to hear about your frustration on LEGO Ideas. I totally understand how it feels when such a big project with only a few minifigs gets rejected. Well, at least your project is approved now...

Edited by JintaiZ

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Ooh that. So much that!

A lot of it, in my opinion, has to do with demographics, how well known a poster is, the type of project, all that stuff. The fact remains that Ideas is always like the lottery in some ways. I mean, yes, you will always have several thousand projects that will always be at the bottom, and never make it past 100 or even 500. The other three brackets are made up of decent to fantastic projects that never gain much support beyond a small initial push, great projects that gain a lot initially and then trickle (some of these make it to 10k over the years). And then the top bracket which just seems to fly up there instantaneously (whether because of IP fanbase, the power of social media sharing, etc...) Not implying at all that the ones that shoot up are not good projects, there are all different levels of good or bad in all of these brackets. 

I think for me the only thing that makes me a bit miffed is when people suggest raising the number of supporters needed as if the above proportions have changed. They haven't entirely. I mean, yes, there are more projects making it to review, but there are also more projects overall being submitted all the time, which means the brackets stay the same, the total population has just increased.

When I first started on Ideas (six years ago I think? I don't know, I'm old) you would possibly have twelve or fourteen projects approved per day that would go onto the pages. And there were days when nothing new would be posted, which did give the newest projects a bit of a boost since they weren't buried on the page for at least a day or so. Currently, there's a whole lot more being approved (I should know, supporting each and every one takes so long in the mornings sometimes! And yes, I'm one of those people, but there's a reason for that I promise). So nowadays it can be as high as forty-five projects in a given day, everything gets buried, and the time span required to get the initial support shrinks rapidly. It's a race to keep the projects from being buried. 

That was an extremely long-winded explanation but that's my experience. My only gripe with the raising the requirements is that because more projects make it through, people seem to assume that the top bracket has expanded while the others stay constant or shrink, which is not the case. All brackets are expanding. Like the universe!

Edited by Elysiumfountain

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I had an invoice notification from LEGO today for some Bricks and Pieces I ordered on January 25. Really looking forward to getting those.

But then I had another invoice notification for the GWP Ideas Vintage Car. Then a FedEx notice saying that a package was coming from LEGO US to be, arriving by Friday (so it's not the Bricks and Pieces order).

So I looked at the order, and it was after they'd sold out of Vintage Cars and were offering the Ice Skating Rink instead, and the City Fire Helicopter, both of which I got with the Jurassic Park T. Rex Rampage set I ordered.

So, bizarrely, they're now sending me a GWP that wasn't available when I ordered, and didn't show up on my original order, but has since been added to that order. Maybe they've done another production run of them? Maybe we'll see them again? But it's really odd.

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21 minutes ago, RichardGoring said:

So, bizarrely, they're now sending me a GWP that wasn't available when I ordered, and didn't show up on my original order, but has since been added to that order. Maybe they've done another production run of them? Maybe we'll see them again? But it's really odd.

It can be very frustrating, but you can sell the other GWPs you got and buy a Vintage Car with the money! (There are plenty of sellers selling 40448 for only $25)

Edited by JintaiZ

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1 hour ago, JintaiZ said:

It can be very frustrating, but you can sell the other GWPs you got and buy a Vintage Car with the money! (There are plenty of sellers selling 40448 for only $25)

I'm not complaining at all. To be clear, I will end up getting the ice skating rink, city fire helicopter, AND the vintage car. I just find it odd that they're sending me stuff that they didn't promise to send me. I ordered within the time period they said the offer would be going, but that was always 'while stock lasts' and then they sent me the updated GWP that they started advertising.

It was more just to say that maybe they have made another batch, to be shipping me one in March, and it gives hope to those that couldn't get one first time around.

I already got one of the cars on Jan 1 when I ordered the police station. I will likely give this new spare to a friend who couldn't get one at the time. They're really lovely.

Edited by RichardGoring

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