Until now, the LEGO Minecraft project has been undergoing the standard review process that all projects coming out Cuusoo will have. However, LEGO has now officially decided that the Minecraft project has what it takes to be a viable set. You can read the press release here.
The set seems to be picking up a lot of interest outside of the normal LEGO fan circles, even getting a nod in this week’s Penny Arcade comic (strong language).
The comic is a close approximation of my thoughts, minus the rage.
That’s funny cuz when I saw minecraft my thoughts were, its Lego without the studs…
I never understood why this got so many supporters, maybe most of the supporters are people from outside the lego “fan circels”. Anyway, as far as I’m concerned you can already play minecraft with lego, appearently over 10.000 people dissagree ?
I assume the set will be a one shot and meant as a display item, the sort of thing you might put on your desk. Certainly, based on the press release, they’re aware that they’re making a building toy of a building toy. It isn’t like they’re producing a full line of Minecraft sets!
Besides, maybe the set will be made of lots of regular bricks, and then we can point to it whenever some smartass, “Yeah, I used to like LEGO back when it was just regular bricks.”
I find it amusing that all the comments from AFOLs are like wtf? i don’t get it, its just blocks. yet all the kids are like that’s great its Awesome..
I suggest you read the comments here: http://legocuusoo.posterous.com/minecraft-lego-cuusoo-project-passes-lego-rev-54968 as well as the afol comments above..
Just maybe Lego know what they are doing, making physical toys of recognised virtual characters is not new…(Toystory, spongebob, batman, starwars) I’d quiet happily have a Lego Enderman on my desk, and I could make one myself, But then I could make pretty much any lego set myself, but Lego don’t just sell bricks, they sell Sets, and I look forward to seeing their offering. In my book anything that brings more people to Lego is a Good thing.
I think one reason why many AFOLs (me inc.) aren’t going for this, is that I think many looked at cuusoo as LEGO’s initiative to crowd-source and cherry-pick creative ideas from the community. New ways of looking at things, themes that haven’t been explored, build techniques that aren’t yet part of the official canon…
Yet the first project past the [worldwide] gate, is an über-simplistic franchise milky milky cow, lacking in any sense of originality or creative merit. It flies in the face of what we hoped cuusoo could be. It feels like its been hijacked.
That said, I totally understand why LEGO have rubber-stamped it; reasons already mentioned above. It’ll be good for LEGO, it makes good business sense, as well as opening up new audiences. LEGO are a business, after all…
From the school of thought that Penny Arcade uses and many fans seem to agree, sure, doesn’t make sense.
But I imagine that the company chose it because it’s a popular creation that will bring more people into the fold as it’s a licensed subject for a demographic who might as well already be playing with LEGO. As a first worldwide Cuusoo product it also is wise to pick something that a lot of people know because it widens the view of the program. Add to all of this that Minecraft is something with which you can build anything and that fits very nicely with the core values of LEGO.
I am having a hard time getting excited for these, in all honesty. Where they ever really so different in the first place?
We got flash mobbed by the minecraft folks! Where is the Steampunk flashmob? where is the 9V train and monorail Flashmob. For 20 years we’ve been asking for this stuff from Lego and instead we get a cube of bricks. rubbish!
I believe this is not for FOLs at all. This is for FOM (fans of Minecraft) in an attempt to bring them into (or back into) the LEGO world. I have never played the game, but if the pictures are an accurate recreation of the game in bricks, it seems like a waste. In recent years LEGO is looking to expand into every little nook of the toy world. This is just another step towards being the Disney of toys.
Considering the announcement of LOTR and other new themes this summer, this entire theme seems to be severely lacking in anything I consider a “set”. Are there going to minifigs? Accessories? Anything other than a big block? Sorry for my ignorance, but if that is all we get, I feel like I can make this at the pick a brick wall in NYC instead.
Are there people out there that will want this? Of course, but anyone who is not a hardcore fan of the video game will walk right by this. Moving on……
I hope everyone realizes that the images being used with the announcements (both here and on the Cuusoo page) are not the product, but merely various Minecraft things that have been done in Lego.
^ Accepted, however a quick google search of “minecraft” brings up hundreds of pictures that look very similar. I do not see a single figure or accessory, nothing but basic brick shapes. Is there something to this game I am missing?
This can only appeal to a fan of the game. If you showed me this picture without any hint of what it was, i would be very unimpressed. Not so with a normal LEGO theme set where I can pick out dozens of useful brcks or fun parts.
One word. AWESOME
Meh, if anything that set looks like it will be a good brickset builder.