LEGO Wants Fan input on the next City Set [News]

Big news for fans of the LEGO City line. The company is soliciting fan input on the upcoming line. It sounds pretty exciting to me. I’ve also tried the URL provided by LEGO, and it doesn’t work yet. They say we can start voting tomorrow, April 3. I, for one, will be there. Here’s the press release from LEGO:

The Future of LEGO® CITY Lies With the People

-Polls open for excited fans to vote on proposals for expansion of LEGO CITY in 2010-

LEGO CITY (April 2, 2009) – Architects and planners of LEGO CITY are at odds over which section of the booming metropolis should be developed next. After a Town Hall meeting was held on April 1, fraught with debate and indecision, CITY officials will open the polls to let residents solve the dilemma. The future of LEGO CITY is up for vote starting Friday, April 3 at Toysrus.com/LEGOvote.

Parks and Rec vs. D.O.T.
Sociologists and environmentalists are rallying around the LEGO CITY Parks and Recreation Board’s plans to create a new CITY SQUARE that focuses on encouraging active play, family togetherness, resident interaction and open green spaces as a means of making LEGO CITY attractive to potential residents and business owners. Details of the new City Square have not yet been released.

LEGO CITY’s Department of Transportation officials submitted two proposals for review and decision. The first, a PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION CENTER, fosters more use of public transit and reduces traffic on the roads. The second, a TRUCK STOP to provide rest and comfort for truckers, is badly needed as LEGO CITY’s industry and commerce growth rates are sending an increasing number of large trucks in and out of the CITY limits. Neither plan outlined specific details.

CITY officials believe all three of the proposals hold merit and could be implemented with great attention to detail and fun.

Call to Action
Anyone with a vested interest in the future of the LEGO CITY is encouraged to log onto Toysrus.com/LEGOvote to help select the next phase of development. From April 3 through April 24, voters will find information and instructions about casting their ballots. Once the polls are closed and a theme is selected, CITY officials and Toys“R”Us executives may foster dialogue with residents over the specifics of the winning proposal. In 2010, public opinion will reign supreme when the new set launches in August exclusively at Toys“R”Us and LEGO stores nationwide.

“Generations of children of all ages have been building cities since LEGO bricks appeared 51 years ago,” said Søren Torp Laursen, president, LEGO Systems, Inc. “To achieve our goal of incorporating more consumer insights and wishes to our LEGO products and experiences, we’re once again partnering with Toys“R”Us to collect public opinion and comments to pick a theme that will help inspire kids around the world as they continue the city building tradition.”

Power to the People
This is the second consecutive year that LEGO fans have been asked to help choose a theme for an exclusive set in partnership with Toys“R”Us. In 2008, fans chose the LEGO Star Wars™ The Home One™ Mon Calamari Star Cruiser™ set, which will be released later this year to mark the 10th Anniversary of LEGO Star Wars.

# # #

The LEGO Group is a privately held, family-owned company, based in Billund, Denmark. It was founded in 1932 and today the group is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of play materials for children. The company is committed to the development of children’s creative and imaginative abilities through its products, which can be purchased in more than 130 countries. Visit www.LEGO.com
LEGO and the LEGO logo are trademarks of the LEGO Group. © 2009 The LEGO Group.

29 comments on “LEGO Wants Fan input on the next City Set [News]

  1. David4

    I would like all three.

    LEGO could easily make a small truck stop for like $40, a park, with badly needed trees, for $60 (I’m guessing trees cost a lot), and a bus station for $90. I don’t see why LEGO needs to limit it to just one or the other. However I think the bus station will win and we will never see a park. LEGO likes having a vehicle for the sets, and a park with a car won’t sell as well as buses. Go park because your the least likely to ever get made if you lose!

    Plus next year should be overpriced Train things in January and Bus and other Transportation in the summer.

  2. Morgan19

    >> the cypress tree mold broke, it will never be back.

    I don’t get that argument. They created the original mold once and could do it (or an updated version) again. Just because it broke doesn’t mean it’s Holy Untouchable Stuff That Can Never Be Remade…

    And I’d definitely say City Square, by a longshot.

  3. Dan Post author

    I’m totally in favor of a park too. The cyprus tree mold thing does make sense, though. If a set designer wants a new part molded, it comes out of their budget for the set. Whether it’s a new version of an old part, or a brand new part, the effect is the same. A designer would have to convince a lot of other designers that they need cyprus trees to make it happen. Or go to bat in a big way, like Jamie did for the new train wheels.

  4. MDC

    DOT. maybe we’ll get a mono-rail for the city, or at the very least a light-rail system that links into the rest of the city sets.

    Truck stop could be good too, but I’ll sit and hope for (and build my own) “PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION CENTER” With Lego Train Stations dropping and picking up passengers, cargo, and just passing through. What a grand idea to create more trainbased sets (now that we have that new rail system).

  5. Motor.On

    I was thinking truck stop, but the point about trees is oh so true.

    Also, what happened to the multi-part palm trees?

    Why the new POOP palms?

  6. tiberium blue

    Adding a popular rare piece like that would only improve sales in my opinion, even if they had to pay for a new mould. How many people sprung for medieval marketplace with the incentive of getting their hands on a turkey? How many more people would buy the farm if they’d brought back the pitchfork?

    I know they make these things for kids but my experience of the AFOL community is most people are more interested in new or rarer pieces when a set comes out and not so much what they can make from pieces they already have.

    How much does a mould cost? Does anyone know?

  7. Motor.On

    I’d bet the mold cost isn’t so much raw materials but engineering. They _do_ have to make it work with the system, make sure it can be produced (within their ridiculous millionths-of-a-percent accuracy), and then make sure it’ll work within their storage system.

    So mold cost is probably pretty high (which is probably why things like the turkey and cows are only in expensive sets, smaller quantities and bigger profits)

  8. eti

    Park! Well, all AFOLs will vote for the park, obviously, but for kids transportation seems to be the obvious choice.
    On the other hand, we will already get a bus stop and we have plenty of cars – and park is a great opportunity for sets boys and girls will like.

    What about a power functions merry go round with the upcoming microfigs as toddlers? Yes!

  9. eti

    One thing surprises me – why is voting at the Toys ‘r Us website?
    Especially for us it doesn’t make any sense since Toys ‘r Us changed it name to Toys XL (and they’re not an imporant reseller anyway)…

  10. Dan Post author

    The voting is probably on Toys R Us’s website for the same reason that the voting that got us the Mon Cal bridge playset was. This set will probably be a TRU exclusive.

  11. thebfg

    >>>”So mold cost is probably pretty high (which is probably why things like the turkey and cows are only in expensive sets, smaller quantities and bigger profits)”

    Moulds for injection moulding cost a fortune, for the small scale machiene at the uni (and that runs at about 1 peice every min or so), it costs in the thousands for each mould. Scaling it up would be considerably more expensive.

    And hurray for a park! About time!

  12. David4

    It took the train people awhile to convince LEGO to make one new train wheel, they then got two. The train wheels can be used in several sets.

    They had Cypress trees in bulk bags for about 2 months. The mold broke and they saw no point in wasting money to bring them back. There is no need to waste money on a new mold for a tree to be in one set. LEGO would just use what they have, or make brick built. If a new theme of LEGO City Parks were being made then maybe they would make a new tree, however this would be a one off special edition set.

    Plus the tree would never look the same, the pointy tip is most likely a legal issue now a days.

  13. Herman

    Park!

    I can’t see any more gas-stations, fire stations, hospitals or police stations.

    We need some normal stuff, a Lego City should not be filled exclusively public services and social workers.

    A Park could contain a lot of fun stuff and more straightforward minifigs.

  14. peterlmorris

    What is the story here? Do I have to actually create an account at tru.com and log in to vote?

    That’s stupid. I have no desire to create yet another online shopping account that some potato-chip stained miscreant living in his mom’s basement can attempt to hijack for his own nefarious ends.

    It sounds like we’re voting for sets that have already been leaked anyway. Need more info, plzkthnxbai.

  15. TooMuchDew

    Link doesn’t work… try http://www.toysrus.com/shop/index.jsp?categoryId=3088672 I just voted for Choice 1: City Square and received message “Votes will be tallied, ideas consolidated and the full finished set will be unveiles in February at the 2010 New York International Toy Fair, then will be available at Toys ‘R’ Us stores nationwide in the second half of 2010! Thank you for taking the time to vote!” No, you don’t have to register with TRU, I think the site/poll just uses cookies to tell if you’ve voted already.

  16. eti

    So first Toys ‘r us changes it name to something else (maybe because they don’t sell enough – at least in my city Toys ‘r Us is in a very awkward area where nobody ever comes) and then we get to vote for a Toys ‘r us exclusive… apparently there still is a Toys ‘r us in other countries.

    Have there been Toys ‘r us exclusives in the past? Were they sold at all in other countries or were they US only?

  17. jpmanalo

    @eti –> Many of the sets that have been labelled as “Toys ‘R’ Us Exclusive” in the United States / North America, have often been released in Australia as a non-exclusive item available at a number of the different department store chains in Australia. Similarly, sets that have been marked as “non-exclusive” in North America have sometimes only been sold by one chain *exclusively* in Australia.

    I suspect that if/when this new “Toys ‘R’ Us Exclusive” set is released, that it might not be a “Toys ‘R’ Us Exclusive” item in Australia (Yes, we do have Toys ‘R’ Us stores here down-under…).

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