deraven

Looks great, NPU, and nice photography as well. Those big quarter-octagonal classic pieces work well for the overall shape, and the big balloon wheels along with the bubble canopy work nicely together for complimentary shapes in the design. Lovely build!

Welcome to EB, Ash! Happy building!

Looks fantastic! Really nice shaping and clever parts usage at the front of the cab (and overall). Great detail on the wheel trucks, too.

I keep boxes for larger/more interesting sets, and the instructions for pretty much all of them. If I have multiples I'll usually just keep 1 or 2 and recycle the rest. I also prefer to build from paper instructions and the sets feel more real/complete to me with those instructions in-hand. Though if I'm just referencing one for a quick technique or part use or something I will generally just pull up the PDF online. Realistically, I go back to the instructions rarely enough that it wouldn't matter, but whether it be for nostalgia, future resale value (heaven forbid!), etc., I just can't seem to part with them. I simply stack mine in a storage box until it starts getting full, then I file them by theme/category into large binders with the instructions slipped into sheet protectors (not separated or mounted, just the whole booklet slipped into the plastic sleeve).

Still love both of these. Lovely creativity and well-executed. Is this one un-crewed?

Great all-around... but that bluejay is spectacular. Super NPU! I also really like the hillside aspect of the build in general.

Sticker placement is probably the biggest concern here, so I think it comes down to how much money is a factor. If you take a chance on the used set and aren't happy, I imagine you can get a set of the stickers on Bricklink for less than the $20 difference in cost and re-apply them to your liking. If that difference in cost isn't something you're worried about, I would also go with the brand new set and enjoy the fresh-out-of-the-box building experience.

And thank you so much for sharing them with the community!

Looks great! Everything is very clean and well-integrated. You might want to take a look at the Ideas rules, though; I could be wrong, but I think you're not supposed to distribute instructions for submissions (maybe it's just not sell instructions... but something about it in the rules IIRC).

Nice fig. That combination works very nicely.

I like them because I appreciate science in general and find rocketry/cosmology/exploration to be inspiring. I have the Saturn V and Space Shuttle displayed and would like to add some of the more modern rockets (in a similar scale) to that display and it would be awesome if they did them as official sets. Just that simple, at least for me. I mean, same for this set, right? Like, is anyone going to buy this because it looks like a lot of fun to play with and will be acting out their favorite Friends episodes with it, etc.? It's because they're fans of the show and want to display it. I'm a science and space fan. I understand from the Ideas perspective and that perhaps not being the appropriate place to churn these out since, especially with the rules stating that it's not a place to suggest entire themes, etc., but I sure would love to see them put out more real-world space stuff in and educational line like they have in the past if they're not going to do more under the Ideas banner. I just hope people continuing to submit stuff like this won't hinder them from producing their own sets (I know they're covered legally in the Ideas terms, but I still don't know how much consideration is given to that internally).

I'm very interested to see what the final model looks like. It's intriguing and if they get close enough to rendering a black-and-white line drawing from that era in Lego I'll probably grab one. In the current submitted form I don't think it's polished enough, but I guess that's what this whole process is about! It'd be fun to see the steamboat scaled up enough for Micky to pilot it, but the vignette is cute.

Not interested in it myself, but the timing is right in the market and to each their own! Just doesn't look like an interesting build and since I'm not a huge fan of the subject matter I'll skip this one. I'm sure it'll do pretty well with sales as long as the price point ends up in the right range, but man... I really wish they'd have gone with another space set or either of the vehicles. Interesting to see this along with Steamboat Willie being the selections from this round!

Welcome to (non-lurking) EB, Stefan! Thanks for sharing those memories- I too remember some of that excitement in a store with a Lego box in my hands after a lot of hard work and savings. Those creative builds sparked by your nephew make me think he should run a building contest on here. You're definitely in good company here, and we're happy to have you. Happy building!

Welcome to EB, Seba! I'm sure you'll enjoy yourself here, and we're happy to have you. Happy building!

That's what I'm saying- they're ridiculously large next to a minifig (I know they're supposed to represent giant spiders, but that still limits the overall utility elsewhere), but here with your build they seem like an appropriate - though still large and scary - size.

Wow! Finally those spiders feel like the right scale, but even more creepy with this figure standing over them. Really great overall, but I especially like the shaping on the gloves & gauntlets, the shoulders/cape connection, and the helmet with those glowing eyes.

Welcome to EB, ABSAddict! Happy building!

I bought one and some skins, but still awaiting their arrival. Perhaps I wasn't clear/precise enough: I know that's the sequence in which the koi is built, but what I'm getting at is that it's not the focus of the model or the marketing. They're not being marketed as "look at these amazing kinetic mechanisms you can create with Technic" but instead as a "relaxing building experience." Nothing wrong with that, per se, but it feels like they're focussing on the skin and not the mechanism, and I personally feel like the mechanism is what's best about Lego and the skin... isn't. But, again, as one (maybe, eventually) very small product line in with everything else it could be interesting. I mean, Lego makes life-size foam swords and shields for kids to use themselves and we're not spending time complaining about that product which has much bigger production numbers than this experiment.

That's great! Lovely and fun overall design, and the incorporation of the Ultrakatty alien works really well. I agree on the drool design, too.

I think we're calm. I think the skins are the biggest part of this experiment since that's generally exactly what Lego has been beat up about in the past (big specialized pieces rather than embracing the Lego creative experience and brick-building things), but I see how it fits in this more unique and targeted project. If there were a line of these that focussed on the engineering behind the kinetic sculptures and then just dropped the skin on, that would seem more in keeping with the Lego brand to me, and I think this feels weird because it's kind of the opposite. Not that there's anything wrong with relaxation and beauty, but I suppose that's what Lego is looking at here: is there a market for their products if they flip the priorities they usually espouse?

That's what I meant Can you clarify? If I said my goal was to sell 500 of something as an experiment to collect data, and I then sold 7,000 of them and had a lot of interaction with the buyers, how wouldn't that be a success? As Aanchir said, if they were not producing a whole line of these for broad distribution expecting it to perform like Star Wars or Harry Potter, then we'd have a Jack Stone or Galidor situation. Maybe you're not aware of how Forma was sold (past-tense), or do you have more information than we do about future plans for the line? They put these out for sale only on Indiegogo looking to sell just 500 of them, and they sold 6,674. And now they're fulfilling the orders for those buyers, and not stated intention of selling more of this type of product, at least not at the moment. I would imagine that Lego will use the data they've gathered here to produce an appropriate number of similar products for sale if they choose to go that route, but so far there doesn't seem to be any indication that this was anything more than a data gathering experiment.

I guess that depends on what TLG's definition of "successful" is for this venture. It's not being sold generally (at least not yet), just a single run to fulfill the backers on Indiegogo. With 7,700 backers, it's a very small run. It'll be interesting to see if they do more with it and either put up a DTC version or do adapt it to a wider-release with what they've learned from this experiment. And, of course, they could just put out a few more items on Indiegogo - who knows!

Nice review - thanks! I'm still waiting for mine; what is the motion like? Any change from the promo videos? I and many others seemed to have that as our key piece of feedback: the "swimming" motion could be improved so that the body better "follows" the head in more of an S shape rather than basically just wiggling back-and-forth. I assume they didn't do anything to address that, but I'm curious!

Lots of fun here; Mr. Burns' office is my favorite! The trapdoor, chair, and the mounted bear are all great.