More LEGO Ideas sets are coming next year with the announcement today of 10 new fan-created sets being shortlisted. These sets gained the crowd-sourcing platform’s 10,000 supporter requirement between May and early September of 2019. Now comes the part where we all wait in anticipation on which could possibly be the sets that become official LEGO merchandise. While LEGO usually picks one set from each round to turn into a real product, occasionally the company chooses several or none at all. The models are assessed on their viability as sets, including sales projections and as designs that could be translated into a model of usual LEGO quality. We’d like to wish all the successful builders congratulations on this phase and good luck for the next!
Let’s take a closer look at each one of the submissions:
UCS Space Shuttle Atlantis by Snelson42
Thunderbirds Are Go by AndrewClark2
Pursuit of Flight by JKBrickworks
History Museum by Bricky_Brick
The Office by Lego The Office
Medieval Blacksmith by Namirob
Winnie the Pooh by benlouisa
Nasa Spacecraft by Micro_Model_Maker
The Haunted Mansion: 50th Anniversary by GoodOlPrice
The Seven Dwarfs’ House by Hanwasyellowfirst
The Space Shuttle is off-limits thanks to Women of NASA, so the Atlantis is sunk, and the NASA spacecraft would just be a group of satellites. The Office is way too huge to get approved. The Blacksmith would never pass internal guidelines without destroying the look. History Museum falls under the Modular category. Pursuit of Flight depicts war. I know they’ve _had_ the Pooh license (and I know they once had to end production when it was found out that Disney had acquired the rights from someone who didn’t actually own the IP in the first place, but I think they’ve done more Pooh sets since then indicating that the rights issues were resolved…but that potentially kills that project). Thunderbirds isn’t even really in the public conscience in the US anymore (I think the movie killed most of whatever household recognition they still had left). That’s not necessarily a deal-breaker, but we’ve yet to see a post-Minecraft Cuusoo/Ideas set get approved based on an IP that isn’t at least popular in the US, if not from the US. Haunted Mansion may run into problems based on the two big Disney sets being representative of park attractions. And Snow White may have licensing roadblocks due to the fact that they have a wide-ranging Disney IP license as evidenced by the two CMF waves. Basically, this entire review group looks like the chances range from slim to none for reasons that have nothing to do with the quality of the original projects.
Personally, I’m finding it hard to understand why they even let projects that run afoul of content bans based on previously accepted projects even go to review. It seems like the sensible thing would have been to call out the Atlantis as soon as it hit one of the milestones and archive it, since the indication is that Ideas sets create permanent bans on content, where a licensed IP that goes out of production falls off the restricted list after a while (which we’ve seen happen with a lot of Dimensions IPs).
Generally, the projects seem way too big to be feasible, although I guess Thunderbirds and Seven Dwarfs’ House might stand a chance… The Pooh house is okay, although it needs some work on the minifigs.
@Håkan:
The issue with the Pooh characters is they can’t make new molds. This is what the project creator was able to come up with using existing molds. Three use CMF mascot hats, while the other two have to be brick-built to comply with the rules. Maybe the Ideas team could come with better options, assuming it can even clear review.
Yeah, I got it, although the minifgs still don’t feel 100%. Eeyore’s pretty good, though. Perhaps you could give Piglet child legs, and shrink Tigger so he doesn’t feel out of size to the others…
Shockingly for a change, I find myself in absolute and total agreement with Purple Dave. XD
Yes, I find it baffling that LEGO allows projects that are clearly outside the guidelines to continue accumulating votes past, say, the 1,000-vote point. As unoriginal as many LEGO Ideas projects actually are, the fan designers put a huge amount of effort into promoting their projects, and it seems really unfair that LEGO continues to allow this to happen time after time after time. Just cut them off early!
Why would Women of NASA prevent Atlantis from going ahead? It’s not like there’s a UCS Space Shuttle readily available.
Considering they’ve made both of the WW1 planes in a larger scale before, I don’t see why they couldn’t be chosen.
@David Stelzer
I guess the two of them together would clearly imply a war scene, although I guess you could imagine them as two international pilots hanging around in the air…
-“Ah, Lovely weather today, old chap. All Engines run smoothly?”
-“Aber doch. Wirkliches wunderschönes Wetter heute.”
Why is the Space Shuttle Atlantis ruled out? I know they already did an Ideas shuttle with Women of Nasa, but the huge shuttle model is hardly the same thing (the one in the NASA Spacecraft is quite similar, though). Is there something else I’m forgetting about?
I’d actually say that one’s the most likely out of these to make it. The other recent real-life Space sets that LEGO has done have been hugely popular, though there is the ISS already inbound on the Ideas track.
@Andrew:
Active licenses _can_ expire, and at this point everything that used to be restricted due to Dimensions-exclusive licenses has fallen off the list. To that end, I really don’t see a problem with letting license-conflict projects stick around until it’s clear that they’ll run smack into an active license (Star Wars isn’t going anywhere, and neither are DC and Marvel Superheroes, while any newly established licenses will probably take long enough to get off the restricted list that any current projects will either hit 10k or expire). It would suck to get your project pulled right before the conflict evaporates.
However, Cuusoo/Ideas sets appear to establish permanent bans on similar content for future projects, so if a project comes along with a new marble maze for instance, there’s really no good reason to ever let it collect 10k votes and _then_ go under review.
@Eamon Ward:
https://legoideas.uservoice.com/knowledgebase/articles/356076-license-conflicts-and-resolutions
Restricted IP from LEGO Ideas:
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Women of NASA concept (including Space Shuttle)
^That’s why WoN prevents the Atlantis project from clearing review. So right there, the two biggest and most famous NASA programs (Apollo being the other one, due to the big Titan V rocket from a while back) are off limits. Since I pulled this up, some further clarification is due on my first post. Disney World/Disneyland is on the list Active Licenses/Entertainment, so that sounds like it does kill the Haunted Mansion. And while “Disney Characters” is listed, it’s clarified to a list of characters that does _NOT_ include Snow White or the Seven Dwarves, nor are they listed separately like some of the other Disney IPs. So, I think Snow White may actually have a chance at getting accepted. It’s not a big model, it doesn’t require any new elements, and it’s a solid design.
@David Stelzer:
To be clear, LEGO Direct, not The LEGO Company, released the first Sopwith Camel and the only Red Baron triplane. They played a little fast and loose with certain rules, which is how we ended up with a brown Lando minifig in the same set as a yellow Luke. And even then, they were two separate sets that, individually, didn’t depict armed combat.
@Chris:
I think it’s a garbage decision to count the WoN Space Shuttle as permanently restricting any future Space Shuttle projects (especially stuff like Atlantis), but I’m not the one calling the shots.
Setting aside the likelihood issue for a moment, I’m oddly attracted to “Thunderbirds are Go!” I’ve never seen the show, but I really think the combination of vehicles would make a fantastic, highly playable LEGO set, just like Voltron is a fantastic LEGO set whether you’re a Voltron fan or not.
(And @Purple Dave, I think you meant Saturn V, not Titan V. Oh hey! I’ve corrected PD — my life is now complete… :-P )
I could see them pursuing The Office (Because of it’s MASSIVE enduring popularity), but they’d have to scale that set WAY back to something on par with their Friends set. Maybe if the proposed set is nowhere near what they can release, it fails to be a candidate? I remain blissfully unaware of the ruleset in place for these.
I think Thunderbirds and JK Brickworks’ set are also likely candidates. I like the Snow White one, but it seems like a bit too much for an Ideas set.
Is the playable piano still stuck in review? I still have hopes for that proposal.
The thing about Atlantis is that it’s Lego’s rule entirely in that particular case and they may waive it if there’s compelling enough interest, which the recent spate of various Real Space projects passing (often exceptionally well) would seemingly indicate. More likely I’d guess it’ll be declined on that technicality so they don’t have to reveal a new NASA Space Shuttle UCS-style set on the way, and will give Snelson42 the same treatment they did on the previous Ideas submission (which I don’t recall off the top of my head) that ended up significantly similar to something already well into development. The Jurassic Park gate, maybe?
As far as the NASA Spacecraft set, I can easily see them picking an alternate model, likely another satellite, instead of the Shuttle, which already feels like the odd one out of the set. Possibly even releasing them in the same scale as the suspected UCS-style Shuttle, so there’s an interactive element between the two (at least for the Hubble, since Voyager and Pioneer weren’t launched from the Shuttle)
Beyond that, Seven Dwarves and Thunderbirds feel like they’ve got the most potential, especially since Thunderbirds, while not that popular in the US, still has a VERY solid fanbase in a lot of Europe, which is still considered a primary market for Lego. The Office is…… I honestly have no idea; they could likely scale it down a fair amount, and while they normally wouldn’t choose something so adult-oriented, we’ve gotten Big Bang Theory and Friends already, and neither of those is particularly child-friendly (though admittedly they’re less overtly “adult” than The Office). Haunted Mansion is too big and too niche, I think; Winnie The Pooh *might* be viable if they can get minifig permissions (for a Disney property that there’s been interest in for a while, knowing that the minifigs would do a lot of the selling work, it’s a possibility though not likely). As for the Blacksmith…… Up until we actually got the Treehouse in-hand, I would’ve sworn they’d never pass something like that through, but now? I’m less certain of that. Still unlikely.