Faefrost

Probably a combination of LR underperforming. Almost everything else underperforming in this horribly crowded summer, and how crowded 2015 already looks to be. Disney already has an Avengers movie and a Star Wars movie in production for then. Why risk overloading the theater goers with another high cost tent pole?

If we do it would probably be as a "last farewell" final exclusive set in the theme ala Diagonal Alley and the Imperial Flagship

Actually that's kind of refreshing. It hasn't shown up on EBay for astronomical amounts of money,nor has it shown up around here or any other AFOL fan site. So it probably simply landed with someone who thinks its cool and kept it for play value. Well done if tats the case.

Non tech majors? Ummm I have degrees in Political Science and Business Administration (well ok also an Associates in Fire Engineering and Paramedic but I can't see those being relevant.) I may be comming down harshly on you, and I apologize for that, but you are triggering one of my pet peeves from Academia. So many of the "Soft or Social Sciences" completely ignore Economic theory or training or even the vaguest concept of how business decisions are made. All they do is a generic "corporations are evil" screed and somehow discount how it all interrelates in the real world. Both historically and in the modern era. You have some brilliant designs and a wonderful sense of history in your projects. But somehow you seem completely detached from the reality of what constitutes a viable consumer product, or what is reasonable to get not just through the 10k voting process, but also through the review. This is not simply a matter of "Vox Populi" stepping up. It is a matter of clear clean business presentation and a touch of real world common sense. How much risk they assign to sets or themes is largely a factor of how much they calculate they can get back from sales. And they do not really guess with this sort of thing. They do detailed analysis based on whatever data they have available. The better the data the more likely they are to take on a degree of risk ( in the case of CuuSoo price a product into a higher price point). The more they can clearly identify a market for said product the more risk they are willing to entertain. But even with that said CuuSoo is obviously an experimental area of TLG and one somewhat isolated from the main development departments. Given it's 4 production slots per year and what we have seen in comments from officials and the nature of sets that have passed review, we can safely surmise that CuuSoo's risk budget is probably fairly small and controlled. While CuuSoo may be able to price or apply a risk point on a project of $200 chances are that would have the potential to limit other projects. So they will only spend that much budget on an absolute sure thing. And that is where you run into a problem. Because while fascinating, what you are proposing is something that they have no pre existing data on, and no real outside market, merchandising or fanbase to use as a replacement for their own lack of data. Simply calling anything that might have some historical context a History project that counts as a data set toward yours is probably not how they will do it. Beyond looking at the aftermarket sales data of 2 or 3 blind bag CMF's they really have no data to work with for your projects. (And no CuuSoo votes are not viable data for future sales predictors. They are simply a vague gauge of interest to screen out projects for review.) So with no data they will be really limited in what they can or will produce should one of your projects reach 10k. The closer you get to realistically estimating and matching that limit, the better your chances in review. You may be having great fun making these huge elaborate and detailed projects. But do you simply wish to take a year or two or more to shepherd them to 10k and not pass review because of the business case? And yes I am harping on your pictures again. Your establishing pictures, the first picture that gets used for the 1 inch thumbnail, all now look like video game splash pages. They look gorgeous for what they are. But in no way can you tell what the project or set is from looking at them in a reduced 1 inch format. These are the first things that people browsing through CuuSoo see of your projects. While nice art, they are ill suited to the purpose of quickly clearly telling the viewer what the project is, and enticing them to take a closer look. Contrast those with this digital image from one of GlenBrickers projects Love it or hate it, in one quick glance of a small reduced picture you know exactly what the project is, exactly what the set entails and what the property involved is. It is clean. It has a lot of whitespace to let the models stand out. You don't have the bundled in fan base of a pre existing IP. Your first point of contact with the potential consumer or CuuSoo voter has to more clearly show off what your project is. If I didn't think your ideas had merit I would not be harping on you about points like this. You have some of the most detailed historical projects on CuuSoo. But you are not setting realistic limits on them or presenting them where they will be easily attracting newcomers.

OK that video is hilarious and greatly entertaining

/beats head against the wall /sigh Is this just a contest of ego for you? Or do you actually want to see one of your sets as an actual boxed product one day? Because if its the former, and all you are looking for us an ego boost. Each vote says they like your MOC then by all means carry on. If you ever want to see something have a chance as a retail product, then yeah 500 pieces, 2-5 Minifigs. I can pretty much guarantee that that will be pretty close to the sweet spot for their maximum risk for a typical CuuSoo project without some very specific underlying business data. They will go larger only in the extremely rare case where they have very very solid real world data from similar products showcasing a strong or specific market for them to be able to fully and quickly sell out a short 10k to 20k production run. Right now I would postulate that the only set types that they have this sort of data for, and perceive a very clear repeatable consumer for would be a large Technic set (such as 41999) or just barely possibly a Modular Building set. TLG has good market data on these types of sets and knows probably down to mailing address exactly who the consumers of them are. Maybe, just barely maybe they may look at something like the Sydney Opera house. But that seems doubtful for a CuuSoo project. Just too much risk into an unknown return. They will never under any circumstances go for such high cost, high risk products on an untried subject with virtually no data. Especially without it having any sort of media or pop culture tie in. It always amazes me how so many supposedly professional academics particularly analytical ones such as scientists somehow fail to grasp the levels and types of analysis that do go on in the business world. (Hint! There's a reason why large companies have been scarfing up all of the math and physics majors.)

Wow? You are basing your overall success on the number of page hits to this thread? With no allowances for multiple single person views? Plus your operating assumption is that anyone who has not posted or spoken up is in favor of your approach and fully supports you as Vox Populi! Whereas only the individuals who offer you constructive criticism are counted as against. I'm starting to understand your preference for the "soft sciences" where observational bias can easily be manipulated. Here is the summary of your overall CuuSoo projects. http://lego.cuusoo.com/profile/therealindy#projects That is the hard number of "supporters" you have for these as presented. Your best project has 6,108 page views and 120 votes. Pretty much all of the others have somewhere between 1000 and 2500 views and a vote spread between 20 and 40 total. These results are with the 8,000 page reads here. Chances are those number will not change much if the number of page hits on this thread goes to 10,000 or 20,000. You have about 20-25 core supporters. That's your "Vox Populi" you probably pick up another 5-10 of the ever present "me too!" And "I'm number 5" type voters. Beyond that you are getting fairly low conversion while your projects are prominent on the easy to find first page of discovery. Compare that with a similar project such as this Medusa's Temple http://lego.cuusoo.com/profile/Strider#projects He's over 1400 votes in. Granted that's over a year, but he is still tripling your votes and views per month. Simply because it is a simpler and cleaner project. It is presented cleanly with white space such that the first picture can catch the viewers eye and attract them to investigate further. That first pictured isn't a horrid cluttered mess of cgi, too many subjects, overpowering logos and banners, dark distracting or oddly colored backgrounds, etc. You seem to have this obsession that more and bigger is better. In the worlds of design, production, manufacture and marketing this is not the case. The most import thing in these worlds are knowing when to stop. When to say no. How to apply limits in order to polish and refine the desired end product. If you ever study great designers such as Steve Jobs or Bill Gates, you quickly learn that more than anything else their greatest gift to innovation and product development was knowing when to say no. When and what to cut. What limits to bells and whistles were needed. They understood how to distill their products down to their core necessities. And that is what you need to do with your projects if you are determined to "win" at CuuSoo.

You completely missed Robertsons point regarding Bionacle. It was the toy that saved Lego initially, when the patents on the bricks expired. But it's complex backstory and difficulty of entry several years into the theme became an anchor, such that by 2003 it had started to become a major financial drain on the company. So much so that it was one of the contributors to Lego's near bankruptcy in 2003. They continued the positives of the Bionacle line in other forms. But they have since largely abandoned the negative. Preferring to more limit product life cycles in order to avoid building up such convoluted stories. (Chima may be a move away from that newer policy, it also may not be a rousing success.) You claim to be a real archaeologist. Great. You obviously know history very well. Many of the people giving you advise here are real business people, with a greater understanding of how products get to market, and what is required to get them there. They are waving massive red flags at you shouting that while impressive, and stunning as MOCs what you have here is very unworkable as a product. Particularly so given your entry point of CuuSoo. You claim to want to "intend to win" this contest. Great, enthusiasm will get you far. But this is not the way to have any hope of doing it. Take 1 single set. Just 1. Something around 500 pieces or less, that has 2-5 Minifigs and a play element. Take that 1 set and just that one set and polish it. Something that stands out like the Odysseus set with the boat. And yes chances are very good that it will have to be a Greek or Roman mythology type set. I'm sorry, I know you love history. But the mechanisms for this "contest" that you are determined to "win" require a high degree of audience familiarity and pop culture buy in. Small polished and well presented are the watchwords.

Hmmm? Maybe they can slip something interesting in the gap then. Even if the Disney license prevents them from doing a regular classic Pirates set, something like an exclusive Disney Captain Hook's Jolly Roger would be a treat to fill the time.

Is the proposal close to being ready? and Would it improve CuuSoo? Ummm? You really don't want an honest answer to these do you? I know you are trying so hard and pouring so much into this, but it is fatally flawed in that the entire proposal is almost totally designed to weight and skew the system towards what are essentially elitist AFOL Lego hobbyists. The purpose of CuuSoo is not to stroke the egos and show off the MOC's of the hardcore. Out of curiosity what exactly are you expecting to happen should you submit this proposal? I am assuming that you are not a part of the CuuSoo review system, nor has a request for such a proposal been solicited by either CuuSoo or TLG? So there is no one at TLG that you would have even the smallest reasonable expectation to actually read this, outside of possibly the head of security. Who probably gets a copy of any unsolicited correspondence declaring how they need to reorganize the company around a fans radical new ideas. What exactly are you looking to do with this beyond an interesting discussion subject among AFOL's?

Disney just pushed the 5th PotC movie back to 2016 over "Script Problems". (ie "We're terrified of making another Lone Ranger debacle") So we have an extra year to wait for new sets.

I did the same. I kept the King and his Throne part as that makes a nice standalone display piece, and immediately tore apart the rest.

Yeah. I fear the Lego Movie stuff is going to take the role of or supersede any new Space or Action based themes for the year.

Now I'm confused? I thought the Battle Packs were the Kashykk one and the Imperial pack with the red Imperial Guards? Where did an Ytapau BP come from?

I'm still hoping we get a Brown Ninja in a set this time.

Not true. It doesn't have to be conflict if it has wheels on it. Although it's even better if it is conflict and wheels. Just so long as it isn't real world style wheeled conflict? Sometimes this makes my head hurt.

Hmmm? Sherlock up 1200 votes in a few hours. A huge stream of (mostly female) outside supporters.

I don't think they will touch anything too Norse while the Marvel license is active, to avoid conflicts with Thor. And I think the Marvel license is a long haul one.

I think we will see a set based on the van from the new movie, which more closely resembles the classic Party Wagon than the current ShellRaiser. I don't think they would need a Liongate license unless they were doing a specific old live action movie design. But didn't the original Party Wagon designs come from the Playmates toy lines? I also think Nikolodean outright owns the entirety of the franchise now, including the prior shows. So any contracts for Turtles stuff would likely go through them (excepting Playmates designs). I think we will see a more classic leaning van set. Just not through CuuSoo.

That's kind of surprising.

I'm not sure if this one belongs here under history or in one of the other sections and I apologize for that. I don't know how many are familiar with the crew that makes the "Extra Credits" web series. They put out an extremely informative show putting the nuances of game and video game design into clear plain language. Many of their episodes are wonderful lectures on gaming and game theory and where things come from. Good thoughtful stuff that carries over into a lot of other design and creative projects. As a result they have some real good ties in the game industry. It seems that the folks that make the Total War strategy games had some extra money in their budget when they finished the new Total War Rome game. They opted to give this to the EC folks in order to make a series on Roman History. The first episode of which landed today. A great little walk-through on the first Punic War. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLls0cp_1oA Very informative for those looking for some basis or inspiration for historical MOC's. (Especially for we American types who don't really get a lot of this time period in school.)

Both are interesting properties to base projects around. I think both will do well in voting, but would probably not do as well in review. Magic School Bus- probably has the better chance of the two, and looks like a great well designed project. I only see 2 problems with the project. One is the IP itself. How widespread is it? I know the show has run for years on American Public Broadcast stations, but does it have any European exposure? Anywhere else? The show may also skew a bit younger than the normal target range for CuuSoo sets and projects. The other problem is the project is a great utterly fantastic school bus and kids. But probably needs a bit more illustrating the "magic". I know the project talks about some simple machines and such to stage a "field trip". But some sort of more specific setting might illustrate the nature of the show a bit better. Home Alone has some different issues going on. It's great fun and a fondly remembered movie. But the question of brand fit may come into play. Yeah it's a fun cartoony movie, but it is still hard to completely ignore that it is a live action movie whereby two thugs seek to terrorize and harm a small child, and said child proceeds to direct copious amounts of violence against them, including lighting them on fire. While we know this is all in fun, and as I said, cartoony, in the movie. This might not translate well to a more static presentation such as a Lego set. "Little Billy with a Flame Thrower" does not seem typical of the sort of play features Lego goes for. But hey, you never know. On a related not to the Magic School bus project, has anyone ever put forth a Sesame Street one? That would seem to be the better positioned Children's Television Workshop type IP? It carries much more nostalgia value and has deep decades long penetration around the world. The only draw back is it would probably need character molds.

Appropriate character air pieces will be great. I hope we also get some nice double sided heads to give them some personality.

Because really only two things happen in the Jedi Temple in the movies. You have the "sitting on sofas, chairs and divans talking" play feature, and the "kill all the children" play feature. Oh and a minor "are you dumber than a 6 year old Padawan?" play feature. At least in the Clone Wars version you have the Bounty Hunters invading the temple to steal a Holocron. Direct conflict with Secret passages and air shafts and explosions etc.

WB outright owns DC and fully controls any DC licenses. TV shows are weird for licensing. There are reasons why we don't see very many television licenses. They really aren't worthwhile until a show has deep deep penetration of the pop culture. Often meaning it is well established in syndication and reruns and has spread internationally to a great degree. Things like the Simpsons, Star Trek, and such are good candidates. Otherwise they often need some sort of cross media pull, such as TMNT. Something like Agents of SHIELD is a good candidate for that. The core issue is how many eyeballs actually see the show, and how widespread are they in Lego's marketing areas? In this case Arrow has some positives and some negatives. On the positive side it is part of the overall DC comics property. And still recognizable as such. So it can draw fans that way. On the negative, it is a show on the CW network in the US. A network that draws slightly less viewership overall than the morning farm report or the weather channel. If Lego were to make anything based on Arrow, it would probably be one set in heir DC Heroes line. In that case it would be WB requesting the set in order to use Lego to market the show, rather than the normal Lego using the show to market the set or theme. License holders do this sometimes. (See some great examples over in Star Wars. Any of the Old Republic sets. Or the Rogue Shadow set, which were created to drum up interest in the video games.)