tomorrowboy

I wonder if Lego is paying a per-character licensing fee. So making Roadrunner and Tweety accessories with other minifigs would mean they'd be paying the fees for 14 characters, but only selling 12. Also, at some point I think they decided to only go with animal characters. Having only one minifigure who was human (e.g. just having Elmer, Yosemite, Granny, Witch Hazel) would probably seem weird.

Yeah, it seems weird to only have one. Like, when can you even release a Bugs with that sign? Roadrunner looks fine on the top half, but the legs don't work.

Why would someone buy a non-functional Lego Nintendo? People buy Lego sets for lots of different reasons.

Lantern Festival is still listed as "Temporarily out of stock" here. Maybe someday...

I think these are only positive if people can get actually get them. I think the way they handled the car (e.g. it selling out in less than four days) was a disaster.

Looking forward to seeing what the final version of Starry Night will look like. Also, I think that at least the name of Baba Yaga is fairly well known (they've appeared in Scooby Doo, Hellboy, Tomb Raider, Fortnite, and other stuff) even if the actual stories/character aren't beyond "she's a witch". Plus, if the set looks cool enough people will buy it regardless of if they know who the character is. I mean, chicken legged cabin seems cool?

Is it that much darker than Little Red Riding Hood?

Taking out those outliers doesn't seem to change much (~10 days) for each average since there are enough other datapoints. I might do another chart taking a look at failed projects that hit 10k, but there are a lot more of them to look at!

I went and looked at the archive.org version of the Lego Cuusoo website to find out more info about it. It says "This project took only 48 HOURS to reach 10,000 supporters worldwide."

I asked a while ago if anyone knew how long it took Ideas sets to go from submission to achieving support (10,000 votes mostly) to approval to release, but decided to crunch the numbers when nobody replied. Blue: Days from submission to Lego Ideas to achieving support. Red: Days from achieving support to being approved. Orange: Days from being approved to being released. Submission to support: Longest - 877 days (Maze) Shortest - 1 day (Minecraft) Average - 293 days Support to approval: Longest - 457 days (Voltron) Shortest - 26 days (Minecraft) Average - 229 days Approval to release: Longest - 402 days (123 Sesame Street) Shortest - 42 days (Steamboat Willie) Average - 216 days Submission to release: Longest - 1444 days (Maze) (this took almost 4 years!) Shortest - 179 days (Minecraft) Average - 739 days (just over two years) Anyway, I guess here's your answer as to why Lego doesn't prevent more properties from being submitted as Lego Ideas projects. You contact the IP holder today and maybe they don't want to work with Lego, but come back in a year or two and the situation has changed and now something can be worked out. It took Steamboat Willie over two years to get 10,000 votes and be eligible for review. (If the Medieval Blacksmith comes out on February 1st, it'll have been 1179 days since the set was initially submitted, the second longest.) Only one set (Minecraft) has ever gone from submission to release in less than a year and I believe it was submitted by the rights holders, which would be a different situation than other projects. 17/32 sets (just over half) have take over two years from submission to release. Hopefully some of you find this as interesting as I do. :)

Too bad Lego don't seem as though they're going to do anything about it: From the BrickLink faq. 12. Is the LEGO Group considering taking any action against profit-seeking resellers who deal in regional or event exclusive LEGO sets (e.g. Comic Con)? This was one of the first questions I was asked after announcing the acquisition! We aren't going to interfere with resale of legitimate LEGO elements. We are also going to continue to produce exclusives for events and special occasions as it's fun and helps create a bit of buzz. Of course it's always disappointing when people exploit these good intentions for personal gain. They also say "If sets or elements have been acquired legally, they can be resold on BrickLink." and I guess breaking the "One free item per customer." rule isn't breaking the law.

Both Story of Nian and Spring Lantern Festival are currently listed as "Temporarily out of stock" on the US and Canadian Lego sites. Maybe Lego needs to just make fewer different sets. If they just did one Chinese New Year set they might actually been able to make enough copies for people to buy it.

Yeah, looks like you can just buy it in Hong Kong. Did Lego just grossly underestimate the popularity of this set or what?

Just looked the set up on ebay, someone has a listing for the car saying "More than 10 available / 80 sold" which just pisses me off. Oh, and someone on Bricklink has 186 for sale. What a joke.

Yeah, the car seemed to have disappeared a few days ago. I'm kind of frustrated because I wanted it. : (

They updated the site to say it would be available on January 10th. Now it says "Backorders accepted, will ship in 60 days" Considering the lantern festival is on February 26th this year I think they've messed up this launch pretty badly.

Is the Lego Ideas Vintage Car (40448) free gift sold out? I don't see it on the website any more and the Ice Skating Rink is back.

So, was this just the TV special?

The Sesame Street Ideas set is sold as an "18+" set by Lego. The Ideas sets are not being marketed to children.

Now it's just been removed from the Canadian site entirely. : (

Yeah, it is. Was the Old Fishing Store not popular? It's "drab" and "ramshackle" and I love it and would love to see other sets with a similar aesthetic.

Still says "Coming Soon on January 1, 2021" on the Canadian Lego site.

Does anyone have stats for the time from submission to approval to release for each Lego Ideas set?

Oh, I loved the Food Stand Diners. I hope they get made.

Yeah, I really want to put it next to the diner but won't buy the police station.. The last time they did an Ideas gift with purchase (the rockeship) it was with any purchase that hit a price. You mean like what they did with Pirates of Barracuda Bay? ; )