LEGO Ideas Discussion

[Blondie-Wan]

Hopefully they will learn from history and produce more Science Adventures sets.

Hopefully they'll do more of the first one, since it's clear people really want that and the existing supply isn't really enough for demand. I think if all the time it were available on Shop at Home were grouped and added together it'd total less than a week.

I certainly wouldn't mind another set along the same lines.

Edited January 23, 2015 by Blondie-Wan

[Faefrost]

Hopefully they'll do more of the first one, since it's clear people really want that and the existing supply isn't really enough for demand. I think if all the time it were available on Shop at Home were grouped and added together it'd total less than a week.

I certainly wouldn't mind another set along the same lines.

Which is still an order of magnitude longer than the Mars Rover was available, with no signs of a rerun?

[Blondie-Wan]

Which is still an order of magnitude longer than the Mars Rover was available, with no signs of a rerun?

Oh, I know, I know. :( I dearly want Curiosity myself. I really wish they'd do another run of it, but right now it doesn't appear to be in the cards. I don't understand why - it seems to not use any specialized, set-specific parts (colors / prints / decals), unlike every other CUUSOO / Ideas set except Birds, and one would think there'd be enough of a market just in science museum gift shops and the like, but I guess not. Of course no set remains in production forever, but I really wish it had had more than a few days or a week or whatever it was of availability.

If I'd had the remotest idea it would go that quickly, I'd have ordered it as soon as it was released, but at the time there were only four previous sets in the theme, and aside from the very first (which was released exclusively in Japan), they'd all been available for substantial periods of time. The Minecraft would always sell out in a matter of hours or days for the first several months or so of availability, but they'd always do more runs; it and Hayabusa were each around at least a couple years by the time Curiosity came out, and the DeLorean time machine had only come out few months before but had always been available. From all the previous experience with CUUSOO sets I had no reason to guess Curiosity would go so quickly and stay sold out. :/

Oh, well. I've managed to get five of the CUUSOO / Ideas sets - the Hayabusa probe, the DeLorean time machine, the Ectomobile, the Exo-Suit and the Research Institute (by pure coincidence, all of the sets with minifigures, none of the ones without; it just worked out that way), and I know I'm luckier than a lot of people to have all of those. I quite like the new Birds set, and will try to get it if I can before it's gone, but I won't be quite so torn up over it if I miss it as I am over Curiosity.

Edited February 5, 2015 by Blondie-Wan

[Artanis I]

Funny, when I first saw a bunch of Mars Rovers in a shop I thought "ugh how ugly, that looks rubbish" and that was the end of that. And considering when D2Cs hit retail here, that would've been 6 months after release at the earliest. I saw them a few more times over the next month or more. Some times USA gets the other end of the stick for a change.

I was going to get the Birds set, but I think the price is $70? Ouch! That one's a maybe.

[legoman19892]

Birds is $45 US

[Blondie-Wan]

Funny, when I first saw a bunch of Mars Rovers in a shop I thought "ugh how ugly, that looks rubbish" and that was the end of that. And considering when D2Cs hit retail here, that would've been 6 months after release at the earliest. I saw them a few more times over the next month or more. Some times USA gets the other end of the stick for a change.

I was going to get the Birds set, but I think the price is $70? Ouch! That one's a maybe.

What? You saw them in a shop?! A while ago, when i realized the US Shop at Home might well not be getting any more, I started calling brick and mortar stores all over the country, and not only did none of them have it (of course), but several of them told me they'd never had it, and that as far as they knew it was a Shop at Home exclusive. You're telling me that Australian stores actually had it on shelves?!

Argh. I don't suppose any of them still have it, do they?

Edited January 26, 2015 by Blondie-Wan

[Artanis I]

Yeah that's what I'm saying. Since we don't have any Lego brand stores, all D2Cs come out some months after S@H release at standard retailers. Availability varies, some sets last days, others months, and usually they are exclusive to certain chains, just like the sets from standard themes you can only get from eg Target. The Mars Rover hit Myer (for a week or so?) and a few independent & hobby shops at the same time as the Delorean, probably 6 months after that was on S@H. But yes, there were a handful in the bookshop I often visit (I only buy CMFs, everything else there is top price) for a time.

Unfortunately for you, this was too long ago. (I do recall thinking "hmmm, is that the one those guys online were disappointed about missing out on?") Plus, at $70 plus postage, I'm sure it would've been quicker & cheaper then to satisfy a scalper on eBay?

Edited January 26, 2015 by Artanis I

[Blondie-Wan]

Yeah that's what I'm saying. Since we don't have any Lego brand stores, all D2Cs come out some months after S@H release at standard retailers. Availability varies, some sets last days, others months, and usually they are exclusive to certain chains, just like the sets from standard themes you can only get from eg Target. The Mars Rover hit Myer (for a week or so?) and a few independent & hobby shops at the same time as the Delorean, probably 6 months after that was on S@H. But yes, there were a handful in the bookshop I often visit (I only buy CMFs, everything else there is top price) for a time.

Unfortunately for you, this was too long ago. (I do recall thinking "hmmm, is that the one those guys online were disappointed about missing out on?") Plus, at $70 plus postage, I'm sure it would've been quicker & cheaper then to satisfy a scalper on eBay?

If the set were still available for you in stores there, rather than just offering outright to pay you to buy one and ship it to me, I'd offer instead to pick up something here that's either much more expensive for you, or just unavailable - the Birds set, say - and trade the one for the other, so that you'd get Birds for less than it'd cost you there, and I'd get Curiosity for less than it'd cost on eBay. Oh, well...

______________________________

Meanwhile, it's now the very end of January. If the Ideas team doesn't intend to miss the late-January deadline they gave in their last announcement video, they should post their next review results announcement sometime today. While missed deadlines do happen from time to time for lots of us, I do expect the review results very soon now.

[Blondie-Wan]

Aaaaand... they're late! There's no telling now when the next announcement will be, although I'd expect it sooner rather than later. It could come at any time now...

[Robert8]

Actually, I'm not excited to see the results this time, since the sets I like are way too big for being produced.

I think this could be the poorest LEGO Ideas "wave" so far.

[JGW3000]

OMG WE ARE GETTING DR WHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

https://ideas.lego.c.../1-blog/post/26

(did I say I am excited we are getting Dr. Who, and Wall-E too).

Edited February 4, 2015 by JGW3000

[Blondie-Wan]

And WALL*E, too! Huzzah!

[just2good]

Dr. Who and Wall-E? That's dope!

[AyliffeMakit]

OMG WE ARE GETTING DR WHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Yes. Just yes. All my life I've been dreaming of an official Doctor Who set, and its finally going to become a reality.

Oh yeah, and WALL:E's pretty cool too.

But not as cool as Doctor Who.

[XAxles]

I need those hype thrusters, Ayliffe. Well, the Speed Champs theme, anyway.

While WALL-E's actually brilliant, I think the UCS Hubble would have been a tad nicer.

For me, the Piano might pass, but man that's gonna have a small box. Unless we get not one, but TWO pianos. My money's on Labyrinth Marble Maze and Natural History Museum.

[TheBrickPal]

I don't watch Doctor Who, so I don't care all that much; however, WALL-E is gonna be pretty great!

[JGW3000]

I am disappointed that the Hubble Space Telescope didn't make it, maybe other space-related projects will get approved in future review periods.

[Blondie-Wan]

I think a Hubble project might be more successful at another time. The project under consideration was for a pretty large model; they might have declined it just for that. Other scientific research craft have been mainstays of the whole CUUSOO / Ideas line.

[jonwil]

Wall-E is a perfect fit for LEGO and the fact that the guy who made it worked on the film was a bonus :)

I hope Doctor Who includes at least one of the Doctor's enemies (I wonder if its possible to produce a Dalek at minifig scale that would be satisfactory to LEGO and the BBC and that doesn't need any new molds, illegal building techniques or anything else that would rule it out)

I suspect the Hubble was just too big (and also its not in the minds of the public in the way the mars rover was at the time that set was green-lit)

I think its pretty clear that LEGO will never do a Ghostbusters HQ set because it would be too big. The best hope for more Ghostbusters stuff (assuming the Ecto-1 sold as well as I thought it did) would be the Stay-Puft set which isn't too big to work and is also instantly recognizable for anyone who has seen the film (next to the Ecto-1, the 4 guys and Slimer its probably the most recognizable thing from the film)

Both DC and Marvel have big D2C sets available right now already (Tumbler and soon the Helicarrier) so it makes sense for them not to produce the Batman or X-Men houses (plus I suspect the size didn't do either creation any favors at the review and we dont know what the licenses have to say regarding Ideas projects from DC and Marvel or how that fits in or whether Marvel even wants X-Men toy product on the shelves right now because of their fights with Fox over it)

As for the Star Wars stuff, we have an AT-AT released just last yet, the invisible hand is not very well known, its not from the content Disney/Lucas actually wants to promote right now (they seem to want to pretend that Clone Wars never existed from what I can see) and its too big and the lightsabers are too niche to sell (not to mention the license issues that go with Star Wars and the fact that some other company may have the exclusive license to produce replica lightsabers)

From the next wave, the helicarrier is out for obvious reasons, the hornet is out because its too niche (like other video game projects), the Goonies boat is probably too big and too niche, the Flying Dutchman is too big, the Jurassic Park gates are probably too big and also we dont know if things from the first 3 films are on the radar screen or not. Given how poorly LOTR seems to have done (and Hobbit especially) I cant see the business case stacking up for a set as large as Minas Tirith. The museum has possibilities but it may be a bit on the big side for an Ideas set (yes modulars do sell but the museum looks to be a step or 2 above the modulars in terms of piece count and stuff plus we dont know if a modular museum will be as popular as the other themes LEGO has picked for its modulars). The marble maze looks fun and it doesn't look like its too big to work either (although it would be totally different to any product LEGO have ever made so that might count against it). As for the piano, what percentage of the usual target audience for LEGO or for Ideas sets actually like pianos (as opposed to the percentage of that group who are pushed by their parents into taking piano lessons they dont want to take and end up hating pianos for the rest of their life...)

[BrickBob Studpants]

As for the Star Wars stuff, we have an AT-AT released just last yet, the invisible hand is not very well known, its not from the content Disney/Lucas actually wants to promote right now (they seem to want to pretend that Clone Wars never existed from what I can see) and its too big and the lightsabers are too niche to sell (not to mention the license issues that go with Star Wars and the fact that some other company may have the exclusive license to produce replica lightsabers)

Disney does acknowledge TCW, it's officially still part of the canon and future Rebels episodes will bring back a popular TCW character, namely

Hondo Ohnaka

Besides, the Invisible Hand is featured in ROTS, and not TCW (the latter features a similar Separatist flagship, the Malevolence)

[AFOLguy1970]

It would appear that the trend of no large sets is alive and well. This next wave is interesting, because other than the piano, all other sets are fairly larger than previous ones selected. Even the labyrinth appears to have a significant size/number of parts. The piano seems like the easy way out to avoid having a large set produced, but it is fairly small in its present form.

My dream for the next review: Minas Tirith or the Museum gets selected

My realistic best case scenario for the next review: Labyrinth

My fear for the next review: the piano is chosen and a few minifigs/things are added to it to increase piece count

[Blondie-Wan]

If I may be forgiven for quoting myself...

One thing I haven't seen discussed much yet is the dramatic acceleration of CUUSOO / Ideas releases. It started out small and slow, launching in 2008, some six years ago (!), and in that time has produced eight sets to date - half of which were released just this year (!!), and it's still only August. (That's not counting the subsequent Minecraft sets released in the wake of the success of the original CUUSOO set, either, of course.)

While I doubt there's going to be yet another set this year, and of course I'm well aware there were unique circumstances that led to the Ghostbusters Ectomobile, the Exo-Suit and the Research Institute all coming out within a two-month period (!!!), it still seems clear we've come a long way since the kind of wait we saw between, say, the Hayabusa asteroid probe and the Minecraft Micro world, or between that and the Back to the Future DeLorean time machine.

Just how regularly do you all think we might expect to see new Ideas sets released in the future?

With regards to my earlier statement, I'd just like to note that we've now had two review results announcements back-to-back in which they announced not one but two sets at the same time. And as far as the actual releases go, Birds came out earlier this year and the next three sets have all been announced - and it's only February. There could be still more sets released this year, and there'll almost surely be more announced. Even if today's announcements are the last ones they release this year (I'm assuming they all will come out in 2015, as it's only early February and I doubt they'll take eleven months or more to release these three sets they've already announced), it'll still be the second year in a row with four new sets, whereas CUUSOO originally started out releasing something like one set in two years. They're definitely moving a lot faster than they were when they started!

[CM4Sci]

So.. what about the Big Bang Theory set?

[jonwil]

They are likely still working on it. The original submission was a lot further away from an actual LEGO product than the Birds idea was.

[lightningtiger]

So.. what about the Big Bang Theory set?

Well, I guess they are either finalising the minifigs so that the show's actors are happy with them or leaving it to NY Toy Fair or SD Comic Con or something ?