Yatkuu

Well, that's the idea of an open source project.. allow people to improve it and customize it to their needs along the way. But we will not issue the "modular compatible" version ourselves for 2 reasons: We want to release the build that people voted for on CUUSOO We have enough on our plate with 1 version ...

Hi all! Quick update on the project, about a dozen BrickLink stores have shown an interest in the project so far - see more details here. The Win could possibly be sold as 1 super lot or in several sub lots per floor (just like official sets). Not sure yet how we could tackle the MF question. The instructions are currently under beta review – I have asked a couple of AFOL friends to have a look at them in order to make sure the instructions are ok and easy to follow (anyone who has tried to make instructions from an LDD file will know that it’s not exactly a piece of cake, in particular with large models and non standard building techniques!) Another objective of this review is to try to optimize the brick inventory in order to avoid using rare parts and lower the costs, for that aspect of the review we have a BL expert on board. Stay tuned..

Hello ! For those of you who have followed the story of the Winchester/Shaun of the Dead project on CUUSOO you may already know that this project was the second to ever reach the target of 10k supporters and also the first one to be refused by LEGO. I am the owner of that project and together with my friend Pixel Fox we are about to release the building instructions of the Winchester as an “open source” project. These instructions will be available for free as LDD file, PDF/HTML instructions and we hope to also be able to generate an xml file of the part list for easy export into Bricklink. Note that although LEGO will never promote this project, we did got their authorization to distribute these instructions. While FOLs interested the build might try to build it with their own collection and possibly order a few pieces to complete it, we think that many people who supported the "Win" on CUUSOO are not (yet) FOL and might very well not have any LEGO at their disposal. For these people, ordering the pieces individually may prove itself to be too tedious to be possible … so I am opening this thread today to see if there are Bricklink sellers who would be interested in trying to sell the parts of the Winchester as a “super lot”. We are currently fine tuning the instructions so I can’t provide the list of parts yet but I can already tell you that the building is roughly made of 2500 bricks – there are no rare parts. You may check this picture library to get a sense of what parts are needed since the final build is going to be an exact match of what you see there. Note that we have no financial interest in this deal – we are not trying to get a cut on the sales or anything like that. Our objective with the Winchester project was to promote the AFOL hobby and since LEGO decided to refuse the project we just think that Bricklink is the perfect (and only possible) alternative. As mentioned above we are almost ready to release these instructions, if BL sellers are interested to give this a try I am willing to mention the URL of your store in the release announcement but note that it will be made very clear that we will not be associated in any way to your business and we will also expect you to be very clear on the fact that we are not “partners”. – after the initial announcement you’ll be on your own to promote your sales. The above message will also be posted on the Bricklink forums.

Big congrats to MB! I believe that the model stands a good chance for the review, at least I hope it does.. Not only for MB but also for the whole CUUSOO initiative as I don't think the AFOL world would really forgive a no-go on this one.

Now that is an intriguing sentence! Welcome to EB!

Hi Candia! Bienvenue sur EB!

Absolutely... and when you look at the initial feedback they gave on the Winchester (see below) I would even go further and say that they were not too sure of where they wanted to go. You know, I sometimes wish they never gave this initial feedback... granted there were no guarentees, but still... this message was a rather positive one!

Thank you Faefrost for placing the topic back on track. I pretty much agree with everything you have said - I will only add that while the good ol' "common sense" is one thing, the reality of economics is another. I won't say that LEGO's decisions are exclusively directed by economic factors but I'm pretty sure they play a big role and I believe they can sometimes help bend a few rules (and in those cases they apply the famous "LEGO veil" - really like that concept btw!) Coming back to CUUSOO, again, common sense sounds about right but you have to admit that the objective of the platform was not very clear from the start. It is obvious now that the Winchester did not stand a chance in view of their recently updated guidelines but it was not so clear when I submitted it back in January. As I have said in the "Win's" thread - of course the Winchester and its source material were not aligned with LEGO's standards for kids - but I honestly thought that the evaluation of the project could have taken place in an Adult Fan Of LEGO dimension.

I must agree with this one.. it’s a Geisha. And if you need convincing of what the general opinion is try a Google search on "Lego Geisha", you’ll get as many results if not more than on “Kimono Girl”. I’m sorry but these discussions are not going to get us anywhere, in the end it’s their call, their “grey” rules. Here is another example to illustrate what I mean with “grey” rules – an extract of the Zombie Minifig Bio: Come-on! I don’t claim to hold a Phd in Zombiology… but I know what Zombies are - reanimated corpses that hunt the living. And everyone knows that “Briiiicks” is just a joke with “Braiiiins”! Some might call this hypocrisy – I don’t - it’s the “LEGO veil”. This concept isn’t from me by the way, it’s a supporter of the Winchester project who used it once in the discussions that took place on the Winchester’s CUUSOO page. The “LEGO veil” is the capacity TLG has to tackle topics that are not appropriate by nature with their so called core audience by adding either a humorous twist or by softening the angles. And they can do this because in the end it’s still only plastic! To this day I have not heard a MF swear or seen one get drunk or even kill another! I’m sure they could have used their “veil” with the Winchester if they had really wanted to – just like they could have pursued the serenity project – they chose not to go there, fine! Their call, their rules…. Or to quote what they just said: We can use all the PG rating arguments we want… it is not going to change the fact that whether or not they will choose to use their marketing arsenal to put a “LEGO veil” on sensitive topics is their call – period.

And if you are looking for more "visual" instructions you can check my illustrated tutorial.

Congratulations to the winners, as always this contest has been a pleasure to take part in. Thanks to the staff for organizing it and I’m looking forward to the next one! I had a quick look at the previous contests participation rate for the Category A (8*8 vignette)… Series 1 – 58 entries Series 2 – 47 entries Series 3 – 51 entries Series 4 – 42 entries Series 5 – 36 entries Series 6 – 46 entries That’s a total of 280 vignettes ! 17920 studs or 17.5 32*32 baseplates… not bad, not bad at all!

I have had a similar idea in my head for a while... but my recent experience with CUUSOO kinda gave me a cold shower... Anyway, here are the high level principles of what I had in mind: A yearly contest around CUUSOO organized in collaboration with the major AFOL communities of the web... I probably don't know them all but I was thinking of EB, Brickset and FBTB (some kind of tri-wizard tournament). The contest would have a theme picked by the organizers I'm not sure how but they could perhaps run metrics on what are the "hotest topics" identified on the forums. The contest would be organized in 2 rounds... First round would be held on each separate website, at the end of this first part the champions of each community would be identified... Second round, on a separate platform, a vote between the champions of each site - the separate platform could be LEGO sponsored in order to remain "independent". There would of course be prizes, but the grand prize would be the "commitment" of each community to support and promote the winner(s). Why extend to other communities? Simple, we have to if we want the winning projects to stand a chance on CUUSOO - see how difficult it was to push the Western town? One more detail, usually the contests are asking the participants to submit new MOCs, in the scope of this idea the rules would be different and participants would be allowed to give it their best shot, regardless if new or old. If the Winchester had worked I would have offered to sponsor the prizes of the first contest with the royalties... Well, that didn't go as planned so we'll need to figure out something else but I'm sure TLG would be willing to support an initiative like this...

Oh.My.Goodness. That is friggin' awesome!! Thanks J.V.D. you made my day! Any chance you can put this on Flickr? I must absolutely fave that one!!! Thank you also for all your messages of support - they mean a lot to me. I know I said I would no longer take part in the discussions around the Win... and I won't. I have had more than my share of debate, trust me. That being said, I would just like to clarify one last thing - why I chose to believe the Win had a chance to make it. No, I'm not clinically insane. I'm not naive or over optimistic either... people who know me would even consider me a pretty pessimistic person and very realistic when it comes to human nature. So... why? I took a leap of faith.. I chose to believe that CUUSOO meant "we are ready for something new, something different". All this debate around appropriateness of the theme is taking place within the canevas of the current LEGO standards... was the Win compatible with the current LEGO standards? OF COURSE IT WAS NOT for crying out loud, I'm not stupid! ... but I chose to believe this debate could have taken place in another dimension, a dimension that is considering the expectations of an Adult fan community. So, R.I.P. Winchester.... if anything I like to tell myself that we all learned something about LEGO, this is why I have been very transparent about the project and its evolution. EDIT: When I say "was the Win compatible with the current LEGO standards?" I mean the Winchester and its source material. Because I agree that one cannot truly be dissociated from the other. Oh, and sorry for the shout, sometimes you just have to let it all out!

+- 8100, all the details are here.

Rest in Peace by Yatkuu, on Flickr Hear Ye, good people of the AFOL world, The story of a MOC like no one before. It all just started the usual way... An idea, a few bricks, like any other day. The build was a house, nothing less nothing more Who would have thought it would do such a score? Ten thousand souls united to say Give us the Win, we beg you today! Alas, this build was doomed because of its gore The Win was, it seems, too much to ask for. More seriously, I have no regrets here. I knew it was a long shot from the start but I learned a lot from this experience, met awesome people... it was all worth it. Thanks again to everyone who supported the project.

All right everyone, time for some bad news... actually, it is probably the first bad news about this project since the day it all started. LEGO just issued a negative review for the Winchester project, read all about it here. I understand that a lot of people are going to be disappointed by this decision... some may also see it as a relief and that's ok too I guess. All along the project development I have tried to make a point of respecting everybody's opinion and I will continue to do so by accepting LEGO's decision. I knew the rules upfront - in the end it's their call. Feel free to discuss the outcome of this project - I think it's healthy and normal as LEGO fans to discuss and try to understand how this company works.. what they are exactly trying to do with this CUUSOO initiative. But in any case I won't be a part of that debate. I've literally put everything I could in this project and right now I would rather just forget about it. Thanks again to everyone who supported the project, it's been a great adventure. PS: Congrats to the EVE project for reaching 10k supporters last night, I wish these guys better luck than the Win.

not "Man" enough I guess...

Here it is: http://www.legomen.de/highlights/gewinnspiel.html I used my friend Google Translate so I may have missed a few things...

I had a closer look and this is really intriguing... There is a Facebook Fan page in English: http://apps.facebook.com/man-of-the-men/ You can invite your contacts for a "duel" - you get evaluated based on some specifications of your FB profile.. here is the list of criteria: Seriously, how macho is that ? I guess this is making very clear why they chose to call it "For Men" it is not an initiative directed at all adult LEGO fans but only a male adult LEGO fans! Another strange thing, there is a section of the site named "The Next Big Thing" where people can vote for the set they would like to see produced.. There seems to be some kind of link with CUUSOO and some of the ideas listed are familiar - the Delorean, the Serenity Spaceship, Star Trek... Where are they going with this?

Wow, really surprised by this ! I’m really glad they are doing something aimed at Adult LEGO fans but I’m a little puzzled by the wording used here. I guess they must have carefully considered the words used here but as mentioned here above by fyrmedhatt why “Men” only – isn’t that just plain sexist? On the other hand what are the alternatives… I guess calling it “For Adults” might carry a connotation of “Adult Content”.. which would be completely inappropriate “For AFOL” … most people would not get it… “For grown-ups”, perhaps? The pictures are great btw and that would be a great site to advertise the Modular Winchester Tavern… just saying.

Thanks WF for organizing this once more, 46 entries... wow, that's got to be a record! Well done everyone! Here are my votes: 23) Mechanic Entry (Build by Darkblane) – 1 point 27) Flamenco Dancer Entry (Build by Skafte) – 1 point 31) Sleepyhead Entry (Build by watersnap) – 1 point

This is a brilliant idea and extremely well executed! You have my support and best of luck in your CUUSOO journey.

I was blown away by this contest, the quality level was amazing. Glad to see my favorite entry made it to the final 5 (The Getty Center).

Haha, trust me I'm as impatient as you here! I do have some contacts with them but all I know is that they are working on it, nothing has been decided yet. It's only been 19 days now, and they said 4 to 6 weeks so I'm afraid we'll have to be a bit more patient. I would actually not be surprised that the review would take even longer... first they need to bring everyone involved around the table - not an easy thing in big international companies! I think the CUUSOO team is based in the US, the discussions are taking place in Billund... They have a lot of questions to address - I'm not sure which topics exactly and how soon these are addressed but there is the feasibility from a commercial stand point, marketing, supply chain, compatibility with their scheduled release agenda... not to mention the "controversial" nature of the topic! In addition to that there is the licensing question... meaning more people to be involved in the discussions! Moreover, one could consider that it's not just the question of doing this set or not that is on the table here, it's a defining moment for CUUSOO and perhaps even for TLG to a certain extent. They have never done anything like this. The Win is a fairly simple build, I'm sure they could retro-engineer it based on the pictures! That being said, it's mentioned upfront on CUUSOO that they will do their own version if the project gets a green light, and it could very well end-up being very different than the initial concept. (One good example, nobody saw the MC Microworld coming) If anyone is interested in knowing a bit more about how it all happened the BrickBlogger just posted a nice wrap-up of the whole story (Thank you SilvaShado!)

I agree that something could be done to facilitate and moderate the promotion of CUUSOO projects but it's not an easy task. Note that there is another thread around this theme in the Website & Forum section.