Blondie-Wan

Robert8 usually does this, but has conferred upon me his blessing to post the poll this time, so... here we go! Let's see which projects in the LEGO Ideas review batch that closed earlier this week are the ones we think likeliest to become honest-to-goodness sets. We should find out in five months or so from this posting (give or take a few weeks) which of us were right.

Oh, the results of the batch that just closed won't be known for four or five months. Those for the previous batch, though, are supposed to be announced by the end of this month (though they've missed dates before...). The idea of them waiting until the interviews are done makes some sense, but if they plan on going back and posting interviews with everyone in the 10k club, it's inevitable that they'll have some with project creators after their projects are declined, so maybe not.

Okay, will do! Edit: but not yet; off to dinner with wife.

I really think Voltron will happen, along with at least one of the science-based projects. I could see as many as four or five projects getting approved out of this batch, though I know others are doubtful we'll ever get that many from a single batch. Robert8, if you're reading this, will you be starting another prediction poll thread for this batch?

It's official - the second 2016 batch has closed, with twelve projects now entering review (joining nine projects from the prior batch nearing the end of review, for a total of 21 projects currently under review). The new twelve are: Voltron - Defender of the Universe The Addams Family Mansion Star Wars UCS XP34 Landspeeder Spaceballs - Eagle 5 Plum Creek - Little House on the Prairie Women of NASA The Large Hadron Collider LEGO Observatory - Mountain View Lovelace & Babbage Modular Construction Site Merchant's House Lamborghini Veneno Roadster We have highly detailed minifigure-scale buildings, a single much-smaller-than-minifigure-scale construct, a couple minifigures-and-vignettes-like combos, and three vehicles - two from science fiction and one from reality, two (not the same two) at much larger than minifigure scale and one not. And fully a third of the projects pertain to SCIENCE!, while just over a third are from pop-culture entertainment properties. All in all, a fairly representative selection of the sorts of things Ideas users most love to submit and support, yet once again a fresh new assortment with stuff we haven't seen before, as well as being the second-largest review batch to date, IIRC. Which projects will be approved (if any)? This feels like a tougher call than the last two, to me, but I think the four likeliest are the three smallest real-life SCIENCE! projects (all of them but the Observatory), plus the Voltron one. I find it difficult to pare down beyond those four, though, and of course I'd love for a slew of these to be approved - in fact, I believe I supported all of them except Voltron - Defender of the Universe, and the only reason I didn't back that one is because it was posted and got fully supported in a brief time, while I was still getting caught up on other, older projects I'd missed while taking a support break (i.e., I just didn't get to it in time, but I would have happily supported it if I had). I think it'd be awesome if someday, they had a huge review batch full of terrific projects, and actually approved the whole lot. It probably won't ever happen, of course, but you never know... Also, the latest 10k Club interview is up, in which we hear from Jurassic Park Visitor Center creator LDiEgo.

How do you know it was built by a six-year-old (or younger)? Can you prove that?

Perhaps, but the Little House on the Prairie "branding" is undoubtedly responsible for a great deal of the supporter interest. It's part of what people voted for, and they can't take it away now, whether they approve or decline they project. I hear updates are a way to sustain interest. Id also try sharing it with more communities devoted to the game.

I've had the same thought, but I think there are also a few problems with that strategy. For one thing, it's hard enough for most project creators to get their projects fully supported at all, let alone do it targeting a certain timeframe. For another, you never know when a rocket like Women of NASA, Voltron - Defender of the Universe, Minecraft, the two main Doctor Who projects, that Golden Girls project, etc. will just show up out of nowhere and zip all the way to 10k in less than a month, making a batch turn out larger than one had foreseen. And on the other hand, again, we don't know for sure just how many projects they might approve from a single batch anyway, so such planning could be for nothing. Not that it keeps me from considering such factors with my own projects, of course.

The latest blog post 10k Club interview is also up, featuring our own PepaQuin of Johnny 5 fame.

He does! He's actually had multiple really cool projects on Ideas, but so far, his Labyrinth Marble Maze (which was approved and became the Maze, the most recently-released Ideas set) and his Particle Accelerator (currently in review) are the only ones to make it to 10k, although it looks like this one has a good chance of doing that as well. I love the Pop-Up Book, though I also confess to minor annoyance, in that I've also been meaning to submit a similar project (as well as a project not entirely unlike the last project right before this one, the Star Wars Lars Homestead). That's what I get for taking forever with my projects...

Lovelace & Babbage is the eleventh project to accrue 10,000 supports and enter this batch!

You think Conzo really didn't enjoy the movie, even though (s)he thinks (s)he did?

If by "kind of did say" you mean "didn't really say, but were widely misinterpreted as saying", then yes. The cast and director were saying the sexist comments were sexist, which they were. I'm honestly not sure just what percentage or how many of the comments were sexist vs. just opposing a remake/reboot in general, but I do know there was an absolute torrent of the former - certainly in the thousands, and enough to make it difficult to respond to anything else. Anyway... as far as LEGO Dimensions goes, I imagine the Story Pack will be fun (but then of course I like the movie). I'm looking forward to it more than I am the LEGO Batman Movie and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them packs, but I think I'd like all of them anyway... though right now, I still don't have the game at all, or a console that can run it, and don't know when I will, alas.

I think they started regretting it the moment the huge backlash started. The movie was a massive bomb at the box office so I doubt many people are going to be buying the new GB packs. Their absolute biggest mistake was giving it its own Story Pack, the most expensive type. Like it or hate it (and yes, it's not a good movie,) it WAS a mistake to plan so far ahead thinking that the new movie was going to be a success. But hey, you don't have to buy it. No reason to be sad its in the game. The director and cast didn't say people were sexist for not liking the movie; thre said they were sexist for being sexist. :p As far as the Story Pack goes, it could still do well. The movie being a flop isn't because it wasn't popular at all; it's just a flop because it wasn't popular enough to cover its production and marketing costs. But plenty of people did see it. Had the movie been seen by the same number of people but just been significantly less expensive, it could have been a hit. What matters as far as LEGO Dimensions is concerned is whether enough people like the new movie to want to play as those characters in the game, and that's a much lower threshold to pass than the one required to make the movie a success. Don't get me wrong; none of that is to say it'll do well for the game. It could still flop. Certainly being based on a movie that has gotten so much negative attention (warranted or not) isn't likely to help, and I think neither is the fact it's the first of an expensive new pack type that costs half as much as the Starter Pack all by itself. But we'll see.

It currently has 355 supports and 355 days remaining. The next support it receives will be the one that pushes its support count above its days remaining, and that support could be yours! It really is a nice little model, and one I doubt they'd want to change all that much. I supported it earlier; I hope it makes it.

It is tiny, but I think it has a chance. The Research Institute isn't very large, either, and a set this small wouldn't eat into their production capacity all that much; they could fit it into the schedule more easily than a bunch of large sets. Nope, it turns out - they've capped the supporting and commenting with one of their congratulatory Official LEGO Comments now, as they do for all fully-supported projects shortly after they reach their vote goal. With nearly ten months left, it's safe to say this project obviously would have made it anyway, with or without that person's votes. IIRC, I think in the early days they used to subtract fraudulent supports from the support totals of fully-supported projects when they found them, which is why some old projects apparently reached their goals but now show support totals in the 9000s. But I think they stopped doing that now; I believe they close the accounts, but if a project has already reached its goal, they allow the votes to remain, rather than setting it back and reopening it for supports. That said, they have now gone and gotten rid of that account and that comment.

Really?! Huh. It's been around for a little over a year, and it's been near or at the top of the "Most Supported" sorting of the Gathering Support listing on the Discover page for the last several weeks. I take it you don't look at that page too often? I'm surprised, given that you have a project in the top twenty or so, yourself; I'd think you'd be obsessively tracking its progress every day (at least, I'm pretty sure I'll do that with mine, if I ever have any that make it that far). Hmm - a new Ideas user using the handle "afegwgeg" just posted in the comments that (s)he created 20 spam accounts to to help push it across the finish line. Not cool, if true, and stupid to boot; I suspect that account will be closed shortly...

I expect LEGO to outlast me.

The "existing licenses" update applies only to licenses that have already gotten sets approved via LEGO Ideas (e.g., Back to the Future, Ghostbusters, Doctor Who, WALL•E, etc.). Star Wars hasn't yet had any Ideas sets approved, so it's still officially eligible for Ideas consideration (if it weren't, they would have archived all remaining extant Star Wars projects and stopped accepting new ones, as they have now done with those other licenses).

While I don't think I agree that it looks too busy (I mean, just look at the "real" Millennium Falcon), I'm mystified by your reasoning for not wanting a new one. I'd think dissatisfaction with the old one would be reason to want a new one, not a reason not to.

Cool if true, although it's very peculiar that Mickey's not here, and also that Pluto's with Goofy. (Psst - this should go in Licensed!)

The current batch is the one coming together now; it's made up of all projects that attain their vote goals between the last batch (the one currently in review) and 12 midnight Central European Summer Time on Monday, September 5th, when this one will close (and enter review, yay!), and the next batch begins. You can check it out by going to the Discover page on the Ideas site, clicking the "filter" button (the one that looks like a funnel) to show viewing options, selecting "Project State" from there, and finally, checking the "Achieved Support" box. This shows everything that's gotten its votes, but hasn't entered review yet (since the batch is still coming together; all the projects in it officially enter review together once it's closed). Or, here - try this link.

Congratulations on reaching the 10k support goal, Psy!

I would love a UCS Skyhopper. I'm not sure how many others would, but I would. ______________________ Psyence-'s Star Wars UCS X34 Landspeeder has just become the latest LEGO Ideas project to reach the 10k support goal, so perhaps there's that...

And now it has happened - the Star Wars UCS X34 Landspeeder is the latest project to reach the 10k supports goal, becoming the ninth project in the current batch! Congratulations, Psyence-!