Blondie-Wan

Sure, but it seems like a missed opportunity to have further discussion of the theme that connected back to old discussion. Personally, I’d have been inclined to discuss the new stuff in the old thread (including mention of the minifigures from the first wave of Disney Minifigures three and a half years ago).

The very first two sets (Shinkai 6500 and Hayabusa, from the CUUSOO days) also had stickers. They typically eschew stickers in Ideas sets, but as far as I can tell they’ve never really had a hard, fast rule against them. Notably, Voltron also has stickers, though it uses them specifically to give the builder the option of having the five lions numbered or non-numbered (to represent either the Americanized version of the show, or the original Japanese version). The Old Fishing Store has eleven stickers, but it also has a slew of printed parts - I think more than any other Ideas set, even ones with tons of prints and no stickers (I think Doctor Who was the previous record holder, with around fifty printed elements, none of them stickers).

How interesting. While obviously if LEGO releases any Ghostbusters sets next year it’ll be because of Ghostbusters 3, it’ll coincidentally fit and strengthen a pattern of them releasing Ghostbusters stuff every other year, in all the even-numbered years: 2014 (LEGO Ideas Ectomobile) 2016 (D2C Firehouse Headquarters, LEGO Dimensions Fun, Level, and Story Packs, Ghostbusters 2016 Ectomobile) 2018 (Venkman & Slimer Brickheadz) 2020 (Ghostbusters 3 stuff, and more???) It’s also notable to me that while they didn’t release anything new for the franchise in 2015 or 2017, stuff from the previous years remained available all throughout those years, so that there was LEGO Ghostbusters stuff available continuously from June 2014 up through whenever the 2018 Brickheadz set sold out, making Ghostbusters a LEGO theme that ran for five straight years without interruption, even if there were only eight things released. It seems to have done reasonably well for them, all things considered; I wouldn’t be a bit surprised now to see it return in 2020.

This has been quite a year for LEGO Ideas. 2019 has brought us: - the first year with more than four Ideas sets released (the Dinosaur Fossils set makes at least five) - the first review with three approvals at once - the largest, most expensive Ideas set yet (over 3000 pieces in the Treehouse, for $200) - the first Ideas sets (plural!) to introduce completely new elements There was a time not so many years ago when many doubted any of these things would happen. Look how far Ideas has come! I don’t think they have separate licenses for just the minifigures that come as part of a set of they already have a license for the set. That said, prior to Dinosaur Fossils, every CUUSOO / Ideas set that’s had minifigures has been based on a CUUSOO / Ideas project (or “product idea”, as they say now) that’s had minifigures, and every CUUSOO / Ideas set that hasn’t had minifigures has been based on a project that didn’t have them, either. They frequently change the number, designs, and specific character assortments of minifigures when translating projects into final sets, but Dinosaur Fossils is the only Ideas set where the original project didn’t include any minifigures but the final set does. It seems to me that generally speaking, if an Ideas project doesn’t use or show any minifigures, then the final set won’t either if it gets approved. But then, Dinosaur Fossils is a brand-new exception to that pattern, showing that if it was a rule before it isn’t one now, so I guess it’s possible a Futurama set based on this project would include minifigures; I just wouldn’t count on it.

I’d dearly love to have Kermit as well, but I kind of doubt he’ll be there (though I guess it’s possible, and would certainly be a pleasant surprise). Though he’s certainly an important part of the show’s history, he hasn’t been on it since a brief appearance about a decade ago, it's been since decades before that that he was a regular character, and he’s actually under different ownership (Disney, specifically) from the Sesame-specific characters like Big Bird and Oscar. The latter three would all be Muppets characters, but not Sesame Street ones. I’d love them too, though, but if we ever got them they’d surely be in a The Muppets set, not a Sesame Street one. As I noted above, Kermit is similarly more a Muppets character than a Sesame Street one, but he does at least have an extensive history with the latter show.

Probably, but Ideas sets don’t always feature exactly the same characters as the product ideas (I still want to say “projects”) they’re based on. Sometimes the number changes - for example, the final Exo Suit actually added a second space person who wasn’t in the original proposal, while the Pop-Up Book similarly added the Giant (along with nanofigure Jack, along with the whole second story of Jack and the Beanstalk), and “Steamboat Willie” added Minnie, where the original product idea had had only Mickey (as the titular Steamboat Willie). The final Women of NASA, on the other hand, had four minifigures to the project’s five, omitting Katherine Johnson. And sometimes they just change - the original “Doctor Who and Companions” project recommended one “modern” Doctor and one “classic”, with a companion for each, suggesting David Tennant’s Tenth Doctor (with companion Rose Tyler; Peter Capaldi’s Twelfth with companion Clara Oswald was also a suggested option, but a secondary one and not shown) and Tom Baker’s Fourth (with companion Sarah Jane), along with K-9 and a Cyberman. The latter two characters were saved for LEGO Dimensions packs, while in the final Ideas set the two incarnations of the Doctor were both “modern” ones, Eleven and Twelve, and Clara was the single companion present. With such a large project and set as Sesame Street, with so many characters (particularly so many of whom would benefit from new molds), there’s no telling how many of the characters represented in the project might be present or which ones they might be. I think the only thing we can be sure of is that some of the “outside” characters who made guest appearances on the show over the years, as the project creator represented in updates and social media posts and such, obviously won’t be present (i.e., Batman and the Joker, the Wicked Witch of the West, R2-D2 & C-3PO, etc. - though I fully expect many of us will add those characters from our existing LEGO collections to the scene in this set).

Good point. I was actually thinking Snuffy and Barkley were good candidates, since they’re two significant Muppet characters who could be accomplished effectively with brick builds and still look good next to minifigures. Agreed about Big Bird. He’s the #1 Muppet character who absolutely has to be there. And I think we can expect some sort of representation of Oscar since his trash can is an essential part of the Sesame Street environment, and if you have his can, you can get away without having his full body; he really just needs a head that can pop out of the can from under the lid. Your idea about the column bricks is a good one. I think it would come closer to recreating the denser fluting seen on the sides of the “real” Oscar’s trash can than that on the classic LEGO trash / recycling can. But I really like the potential of the classic LEGO can to have some sort of figure that can not only be placed inside the can, but actually go up and down inside it. Alas, I think having a hinged lid is a bit much to hope for, but I think simply sticking a 2x2 dish on top of Oscar’s head would be an effective next-best solution. Well, assuming the Muppet characters use minifigures. I think it’s safe to say Big Bird will be a minifigure if he’s there at all (or at the very least, a minifigure torso with brick legs and/or head), but I wonder whether some of the other characters might be smaller. While I expect a Sesame Street set (even one aimed at adults) to play even faster and looser with scale than most LEGO things already do, the LEGO Games-style microfigures used in the project would be remarkably close to the right size next to minifigures, proportionately to the actual Muppets next to average adult humans. But I don’t know that they’d look good for all the characters. Yeah, and like you I do want to see some of the classic Sesame Street non-Muppet people, too.

Added Sesame Street.

Yeah, there have been literally dozens of different local versions of the show produced, each with their own characters, for different countries and regions over the decades. That said, I fully expect this to represent the US original, because it’s a) the original, and b) the one represented in the product idea. BTW, re: viewership age ranges: while looking stuff up on the show just now, I came across the tidbit that as of 2014, 49% of the viewers were over the age of 18. I knew it had a substantial adult viewership, but even I didn’t expect it to be that high. And yes, I’m sure that includes a lot of adults who watch it simply because they watch it with their own kids, but still.

Conceivably, they could get around the new molds issue by simply not using any of the Muppet characters, and having figures only of humans like Gordon, Maria, Bob, Luis, etc. However, I think most of us agree it wouldn’t be much of a Sesame Street scene without any of the notable nonhuman characters; without them, it might as well be just another modular building (not that the modulars aren’t wonderful, but they don’t need the license or the Ideas process to do them). Big Bird is probably the single most essential one, but really so many of them are important. So... what characters do we think will show up? As noted, I suspect this will be aimed squarely at nostalgic adults; if so, would that mean it includes older characters who (for one reason or another) haven’t been seen in years, like Roosevelt Franklin or Mr. Hooper? And would it completely eschew newer characters like Abby Cadabby? Or will they go for a broad range of the show’s history, or will they include only current characters? And for the Muppet characters (assuming they are indeed there), how do we think they’ll be realized? New molds for all? Some? None? Could Oscar (for example) be, say, a printed minifigure head atop a small brick body, stuck into a classic LEGO trash can, with 2x2 dish “lid” on top of his head? Or does he need a new mold in order to be done properly?

Do we know when that’s coming? Ideas projects have leapfrogged one another before...

I don’t know what others would do; I guess you’d have to ask them. Speaking for myself, though, I think I’d draw a distinction between Sesame Street stuff (good Sesame Street stuff, anyway) and stuff from most other shows aimed at that age range. Sesame seems... more respectable, somehow, and there’s also a something about it that can bring joy to anyone - perhaps even adults moreso than kids. And if this set focuses on the show’s history, as the social media campaign suggests it could - with characters who departed the show decades ago, and so on - I really see a certain number of adult fans who’d go for it. Hardly everyone, of course, but then it’s not like LEGO’s larger, more expensive sets are expected to sell in the millions anyway, especially in the Ideas line. Also, I don’t know how old you are, but speaking for myself - I’m 51, just old enough to dimly remember the beginnings of the show, when Oscar was sort of orange rather than green - I can attest that as one gets older, one tends to reach a point where one cares less about whether other people think a particular piece of entertainment is age-appropriate for oneself. I’ll now happily watch and enjoy kids’ shows, and freely acknowledge it, that I might have been mortified to have been caught watching in my 20s, say. (Tangentially... Tom and Jerry? That’s your idea of a comparably child-focused franchise to put in the same category as Sesame Street? I’d expect something like Dora the Explorer or Bob the Builder, but Tom and Jerry? If anything, I’d think Tom and Jerry was more of an older kids thing...)

This year has already seen four Ideas sets - The Flintstones, “Steamboat Willie”, the Treehouse, and Friends’ Central Perk - tying 2019 with most recent years (2014, 2015, 2016, 2018) for the year with the most Ideas sets, a maximum of four. Hiwever, we’ve seen Ideas grow by leaps and bounds, in the range of subject matter as well as the size and price sets can be (and even that maximum number of sets a year has grown, from just one or two back in the early CUUSOO days). Heck, we even just saw them approve three at once, for the first time ever. Could they also be ready to do more than four sets a year? Thanks to @Robert8, I now know a very piratey-looking minifigure head was leaked two months ago (!), and this year is the 30th anniversary of LEGO Pirates as a theme. The former suggests the Pirate Bay might be closer to being done than we’d guess, while the latter offers a notable marketing “hook” to tie a release to (like how the first Ghostbusters set, itself an Ideas set, was perfectly timed for the 30th anniversary of the original 1984 film, and marked on the box as being part of the 30th anniversary celebration). I wouldn’t be too surprised to see Pirate Bay (or whatever the final set winds up being called) released sometime in the next three months, commemorating the 30-year milestone of one of LEGO’s most beloved themes. But wait - Sesame Street also marks an anniversary this year, and it’s a big one - the 50th. It seems like it would take a while, particularly if it’s going to involve new molds, as so many here appear to think it must (personally I think the original project shows how the Muppet characters can actually be realized acceptably effectively using existing elements, though I agree that of all approved Ideas sets ever, this is the one that would most benefit from new molds), but... what if it was internally actually approved a while ago, and is already pretty far along? Is there any chance two sets as large as Pirate Bay and 123 Sesame Street (or whatever they wind up being called) could both come out in the next three months? Could 2019 be a six-set year for Ideas??

As a System set, though (and a largish one at that), this really doesn’t appear targeted at kids in the age range the actual show is aimed at. If anything, particularly given the project’s (remarkable) social media promotion that garnered interest and supports, I’d say it’s aimed at nostalgic adults. In fact it’s quite possible this only can be produced as an adult-oriented set. Mega Bloks currently offers brick-based construction toys aimed at kids of the same age at which the show is aimed. Normally, one of LEGO’s competitors offering a construction toy based on a given property would preclude any possibility of LEGO doing it; the fact this was approved at all means either the MB agreement is non-exclusive, or (more likely, I would guess, though of course I have no way to know) the licenses can coexist because they specifically define (different) age ranges for which the products are meant. I suspect the LEGO Sesame Street set is going to be designed and marked for builders ages 16+, and that it can only happen at all because the license expressly says it will be marketed as an adult collectible, not something for three-year-olds (for whom a System set remotely resembling the project would be too advanced anyway, not to mention far more expensive than most parents are willing to spend on construction toy sets aimed at preschoolers). I realize that seems counterintuitive, given that the show is intended for very young children, ones for whom LEGO offers Duplo, but... it’s also a classic, beloved institution, one which has been around for decades - it’s actually celebrating its 50th anniversary this year - and which many adults of today (of multiple ages, from early 20s to late 50s) watched as children when they were the target age for it, and for which many feel nostalgic, not to mention many of them continuing to watch the show now - either with their own children, or even as adult fans. After all, though principally aimed first and foremost at children, the show has long appealed to audiences of all ages, and garnered a number of adult fans who continue to enjoy it even while well outside the target demographic. Hmmm - there’s something familiar about that, that I can’t quite put my finger on...

Either that, or I’m guessing Mega’s license is specifically (and only) for sets aimed at children in that age range, meaning LEGO is free to do a Sesame Street set as long as it's specifically created for older builders. It does seem intended more for nostalgic adults than for the preschool children at whom the actual show is targeted.

LEGO Dimensions is the last thing they did with the Middle-Earth license, and it’s “kinda, sorta” still going in a way. There are three “sets” - specifically, Blu-ray packages for the first three LEGO Movies (The LEGO Movie, The LEGO Batman Movie, and The LEGO Ninjago Movie) bundled with the first bag from the LEGO Dimensions Starter Packs (which contains the minifigures of Wyldstyle, Batman... and Gandalf). These were released earlier this year, and can still be found in some stores, soooo... it’s still possible, even now in 2019, to go into a Walmart and buy a LEGO thing that includes a Gandalf minifigure. LEGO Lord of the Rings yet lives!!!

If that head was known about two months ago, it suggests Pirate Bay might be one of the first releases from this selection. If it comes out this year, it’d be a great way to celebrate 30 years of the classic LEGO theme.

They don’t want to change an Ideas idea too much, and I think they’d consider (as most of us would) turning a System creation into a Duplo set to be too much of a departure. But if this launches a whole range of Sesame Street sets, I’d certainly imagine future ones would be Duplo (though isn’t K’Nex or somebody already doing sets for this license for kids in that age range? Could it be that this was approved only because it’s actually aimed at nostalgic adults, and thus targets a totally different age demographic from a competitor’s products?).

Yeah, I just saw it. I agree it looks clearly designed for Pirates, but it could actually work pretty much anywhere (any non-licensed, minifigure-based theme, at least).

I know; that’s why I noted there were three approvals in one review, but not in one review batch. Technically, the first batch to have three approved projects came about a good five years ago, with the First 2014 Review batch, which ultimately yielded Birds, The Big Bang Theory, and Doctor Who - three approved projects, out of a batch of six, so fully half! However, only the first two of those were approved in the actual First 2014 review; there were actually two different but very similar Doctor Who projects in it that were both held for further consideration, and one of them (Doctor Who and Companions, by Andrew Clark) was ultimately approved in the subsequent review, alongside Angus MacLane’s WALL•E. That batch was, therefore, the first one to yield three approvals, but that review yielded “only” two (though that was also a first). This review is the first review to yield three - but not the first batch to do so, both because that earlier batch already did it and because these three didn’t actually all come from the same batch. There has yet to be a batch / review from which three (or more) ideas from the same batch are all approved at once. But we have already had one batch from which we got three approvals, and now we also have one review from which we got three approvals. I think both milestones are worth noting.

Oh, I know full well they’re doing Pirate Bay; I watched the LEGO Ideas review results livestream. I came here (to this thread specifically about the set) to see what everyone was saying about it. I mean, how do (or did) we know this leaked minifigure head is a pirate head, as opposed to a City head? Of course now that we know Pirate Bay is happening that makes it more likely, but the way Robert8 describes it, two heads were leaked two months ago and instantly recognized as a pirate head and a sci-fi one. It’s easy enough to recognize some sci-fi elements on a head that might put it in that genre; my question was about how did people know two months ago, before we knew that Pirate Bay would be approved, that the other head was a Pirate head? Is it printed with a “Yarrr, I be a Pirate! Yo ho ho!” tattoo across its forehead? Edit: I just saw an image of it. It certainly looks like it was designed first and foremost for a Pirate theme, but it could also work in Castle, or City, or pretty much any other nonlicensed minifigure-based theme.

Big congratulations to the creator! This is a much-earned accomplishment. You think so? Huh. I think it’s lovely, myself. Of course fidelity to the source material is a major consideration. One might think so. OTOH, the project creator did a marvelous job of showing how many of the Muppet characters could be realized remarkably effectively using existing elements. Then again, given that this will likely be a large-ish set, they might be willing to invest in new parts, especially if it leads to a whole theme. And Ideas in general has been growing from its modest beginnings, what with them going ever larger with sets, as well as now having approved three ideas at once in a single review. Most notably, they actually just had two Ideas sets this year that each introduced new pieces - granted that one was already designed for a minifigures series released a month later, and the other was “only” a die-cut textile element, but it still showed that Ideas sets can introduce new parts after all. Could this be the first one for which new molds are specifically created?

What does it look like, and how do we know it’s a pirate? Is it wearing an eyepatch? That would be a strong indicator, but not a guarantee...

Wait, what? What leaked pirate head?

Three approvals in one review - a new record! Congrats to the creators of the Pirate Bay, Playable Piano, and Sesame Street projects!