astral brick

I think you are correct. Correct again. What an amazing definition of Ideas you just gave.

Great post, but you forgot the T-Rex (and others) :-)

Yes, you are right, a partnership with Lego - can we really take other companies seriously? - would be more efficient for Bandai, but the problem is that, most likely, it is not going to happen because both brands, which are making business in the toy market, will lose more than they could gain. In the meantime, average Lego customers can't enjoy the brick versions of famous Bandai's licences and afols are deceiving themselves by submitting to Ideas amazing projects that, in spite of being allowed, will never be produced.

Considering the amount and the relevance of Bandai licences, they could cover every theme: - Space: Gundam - Super Heroes: Dragon Ball - Ninja: Naruto - Pirates: One Piece (if there aren't issues with Nanoblock's rights) - City: a random IP including Tokyo's famous attractions In relation to Bandai's resources and years of experience in selling Gunpla and high quality toys such as the Chogokin line, if they had a serious intention of getting into the business of interlocking plastic bricks, they could be the company able to break the monopoly. In every market a true competition is always welcome.

Exactly, I agree with you Yes, they should indeed, otherwise they are giving false hopes to the submitter and the supporters.

Then why did they allow the submission? And if they didn't know it beforehand, why didn't they stop it before reaching ten thousand votes?

What about taking the extra step and releasing the instructions of the Galaxy Explorer's remake? I would be glad to buy them. Let's be real, for some reason, despite the amount of stunning mocs available to use as starting point, Lego will never do it. Peter Reid's idea didn't make it, in spite of collecting thousands of votes. I think that the first moccer to take the trouble to create the instructions will get, aside money, eternal gratitude from Space supporters, teaching Lego, at the same time, a lesson in humility.

I wonder what would happen in case a Gundam project would make the first cut. Back in the day an amazing Macross idea was rejected. Since now Bricklink is owned by Lego, the latter could use it to produce sets that normally would be discarded. I think of the ones addressed to a more mature audience, i.e. many Japanese IPs. They could make a good use of the 18+ label, maybe adding some "limited edition" warning in order to furtherly increase the sales.

I thought exactly the same. In fact, wouldn't it be easier for them to forbid any new ideas based on IP? In any case, even if they are allowed and they reach the 10.000 votes, there is a 99% chance that they won't be produced. I think, for instance, of japanese IPs.

I wonder if they realize that, if someone wants to try a technic for the first time, he certainly won't buy a flagship model. Entry-levels sets are essential to ensure the demographic renewal of the customers.

In my opinion the transition from System to Technic is harder than in the past due to studless beams, not to mention the amount of their angles. Thinking about that, it is no accident that every review is praising the new liftarms with perpendicular holes, considering this innovation a game changer. Besides, the more realistic the set - like this one, which is difficult to identify as made of Lego - the fewer the chances that the buyer will take it apart.

I am in agreement with you. True. However I wonder how many customers, especially the younger ones, would actually take apart the model in order to build something else. Studless design is not helping for sure, being much more complicated that the classic one. This is a very underestimated issue about the Technic buyers' generational turnover.

Amazing models. Technic line would definitely need more small sets to attract new customers.

I don't understand this kind of attitude. A problem that I noticed in this forum is that too many users, and we are talking of adult people, tend to consider every thread as it was a sort of debate competition, if not a trial with evidences to be shown or cross examinations to be completed. The topic of this thread was clear, it was sufficient to look at the tag "building experiences". So far I have only read very few ones that were interesting or, at least, not completely ot. Guys please, this is not a rhetoric competition, you don't have to convince people who are not in agreement with you, or to prove anything to anyone - but yourselves maybe - or to have an opinion about every topic or, the most annoying conduct, to feel obligated to point out or, even worse, to confute other people's tastes, memories or personal experiences. The outcome of these immature and nonconstructive behaviours is to ruin every conversation, forcing the users to leave the forum out of boredom, pushing them to the soliloquies of the blogs' comment sections. Sigh...

Thank you for having described so well your experience. You have perfectly caught the sense of this thread.

Sign of the times: - numbered bags - step by step instructions - use of different colors in relation to specific parts (regardless of the outcomes on the look of the models when the elements are visible). To be added: functional illiteracy, short attention span, inability to go beyond literal interpretation (the most serious issue of the aforementioned ones). Zeitgeist or just rhetoric of the old times? Whatever the opinion is, the need of focus and the sense of challenge may increase both personal satisfaction and skills development at the completion of the set. Therefore the excessive simplification does not simply concern the building experience, it is an a priori value judgement of paying customers.

If visible, they are able to ruin the look of the most expensive sets. Standing out so much, generally out of place, colour matching is a chimera. Now I wonder, since we can't get rid of them, how many millions of blue pins were really produced?

What I found inconceivable is that Lego would not even need too much effort, they could just have a look on flickr to get inspiration to produce, if required, brand new Space models or rebooted versions of the classic ones. Pure profit, no Disney fees to be paid and then applied to customers. Actually, for a fraction of the tax's expenses, they could buy the drawings from the moccers, so production costs could be reduced to the minimum.

Nice build, hopefully it will gather the required support. Moreover I wonder if we will ever see an official set of a Valkyrie.

The combination of the smile and the anti-riot gear of the Space policeman is uncomfortable.

New sub-theme, Brickheads 18+. Hypocrisy problem solved. Anyway Sw is going to win so there is no risk of controversy.

Interesting point of view. Aside the cost aspect - kind of obvious since they steal designs and produce poor quality bricks - when I said that these companies could be considered, in a certain way, pioneers, I was thinking about the fact that they are equating official sets and mocs.

Probably, in the near (?) future, affordable 3d printing with a decent quality will cut the head off the snake. True, but at least there will be a legal alternative. A similar reasoning applies to pirated content. Let's say, without euphemisms, it is embarrassing.

It would be too easy to dismiss these companies as being thieves who get away with it due to their skills to make business in a grey zone. Of course, they produce subpar bricks and they sell clones of official sets. But it is the ripoff of mocs the most vile way to make a profit, because it takes advantage of non-professional designers who can't afford the costs or the stress of a legal action. These companies are offering customers what Lego can't or don't want to produce, such as a military theme or sets based on anime, movies or tv series addressed to mature audiences or whose ip rights are already legally owned by other companies. Moreover they are selling many connoisseurs mocs, such as gbc, microscale, kinetic sculptures. Basically, in their dishonest behaviours, they are filling a gap. In fact what is the barrier preventing many afols from building that moc that they would love to own? Not the price of instructions but the cost, the time and the effort to gather the needed parts. These dodgy entrepreneurs understood it and they give customers an easy and cheap solution, because if there is a supply it means that there is a demand. Obviously we are not talking of mass-scale, but the amount is enough to justify the theft of designs and the production of the crap copies of the pieces. I wonder what Lego is waiting for, why aren't they offering an equivalent of a print on demand service for parts? Lego could increase their incomes, designers would not be robbed anymore and afols would finally build their craved mocs or dream vintage sets using original brand new parts. The downside would be the disappearance of the second-hand market, which is already indirectly controlled by Lego. Perhaps crooks are simply ahead of their time.

Yes, in my relatively short presence in this forum, I noticed that many users tend to act like fanboys, plus some of them clearly have forms of ocd (with various degrees of seriousness). The outcomes are very elaborated posts on a formal level, which end to be substantially uninteresting, because the conclusion is always the same, Lego is perfect, they know better than any customer or competitor, don't discuss their decisions, just give them the cash and worship them. What these extreme fans don't realise is that, in relation to their knowledge or the amount of money and time dedicated to their hobby, they should be the first ones to push their beloved company to improve, instead of a priori defending the status quo. This immature attitude also damages this forum, because newcomers may feel bored, or unwelcome if not intimidated, therefore they will move to the comment section of some blog to express their opinions. Exactly. In fact the point of this thread was not Sw vs Space but Sw + Space.