Today, the LEGO Ideas design team finally announced the First 2020 Review Results. This review round included 26 projects that reached 10,000 supporters between January and May 2020. Surprisingly enough, only one project was approved to become an official LEGO Ideas set so far — Earth Globe by Guillaume Roussel (aka Disneybrick55). Designers praise the idea for its possible educational application and display value. Release date, price range, and availability are yet to be announced.
One more project, Sonic Mania – Green Hill Zone by Viv Grannell (aka toastergrl) is still under consideration. There’s a chance we will see it turned into an official set at some point in the future (like it was with 21311 Voltron: Defender of the Universe). The final decision is due early 2021.
The results of the Music to our Ears Contest Review Results are also in today. Tomáš Letenay (aka TOMOELL) becomes the next fan designer, whose idea — Legendary (Fender) Stratocaster — will soon appear in stores as one of the next LEGO Ideas sets.
You can see the First 2020 Review Results summary below. What do you think about the designers’ choices? Do you agree?
Absolutely shameful. I guess they only want to do licensed items so they can charge more for them? Too many great ones left out.
There goes a big chunk of their reputation and any remaining belief I had in them and the Ideas project, which turned out to be a travesty and a waste of everyone’s time.
I have no idea what you guys are complaining about. Lego Ideas has always refused est more projects than they accepted. It’s been a great program that have me some of my favorite sets. But not every one of your pet projects will be approved.
Damn autocorrect. *way more projects and *gave me. Also no pun intended.
@Tracy 15 of the 26 would require licensing. If your theory was correct, we would see MORE licensed properties, wouldn’t we? Especially considering a few of them are IPs that they already have licenses for (Potter, Indiana Jones, and some relationship with Disney)…
They seem to only be focusing on submissions that will fit into their 18+ portfolio. Disappointing. Yet another reason for me to sell instructions to my creations rather than put them on Ideas.
In their defense, however, I think we have all seen enough weird collaborations with other brands for one year :)
Not even disappointed anymore. This was somewhat predictable result, as the lego ideas platform has been for some time focusing mainly on “cheap win” licensed sets (sitcoms, kid’s cartoons) and display pieces, with occassional nostalgic throwback. Forget about anything else, it is not going to happen.
I really wanted the Indiana Jones one to succeed, if only for the Anubis guards to return.
I don’t have any other opinions on specific ones I wanted to pass. 1 approval (and 1 pending) seems rather low though.
There has been a lot of huge, expensive sets lately to release from Lego. I assumed they would release at least one of the space sets, and a couple smaller ones. I thought since they had a lot of submissions, they would definitely do three. It’s sad that so many good projects will never come to light. Definitely disappointed!
Y’all are confusing. If only licensed products, sitcoms and cartoons are selected I wonder if they realized that they rejected sponge bob square pants and Futurama..? I would argue LEGO ideas is great! Pirates of barracuda bay was a wonderful set. Ship in a bottle, dinosaur skeletons, and tree house are all very nice as well (not licensed?) Disappointment over rejections is reasonable but to lose faith in a company that you obviously like enough to read/comment on fan site is asinine.
I would have loved to see Castle in the forest as an official set. Here’s hoping it was rejected because Lego is revisiting the Castle theme soon?
I would buy a nice lego globe if they do it right.
Cam, the issue is that they have a whole bunch of very high quality options in this (and many previous) ideas group, but they have yet again chosen one fairly mundane project and rejected pretty much all others.
There are 7 or 8 from this group that I would have bought without issue – none of them required licensing, but all were interesting and would have looked awesome on a shelf. But now Lego wont get my money at all for their choices here – Im not interested in a globe, and I have zero interest in Super Mario Bros.
So Im left with seeing if the ones I am interested in will be released as instructions by their creators – I would be more than willing to throw money their way directly and bricklink the required parts.
I have been more disappointed with recent Ideas selections than excited, I have to say, and I have no idea any more what Lego are actually looking for – its starting to feel like Ideas is pointless, given the number of excellent ideas rejected.
@Moo
Sonic is a different franchise than Super Mario Bros, though…
And I actually considered Castle in the Forest, due to old Forestmen nostalgia and the throwback to 6077 Forestmen’s River Fortress that I owned as a tween.
But since I have to be cautious about funding and space for the following year, it might – personally – be for the best, though… =/
I too am disappointed my personal favourites were not chosen, and feel like the IDEAS project does not really do justice to all the creative submissions that reach 10K. However we have to keep in mind that LEGO has no obligations to us whatsoever. If anything, they’re doing us a favour by allowing us to directly influence what sets will be produced. So to say that one loses faith with the comnpany because of which sets they choose to produce, is over the top.
For everyone who wants the other ideas (myself included): we can but hope that the creators release instructions or files online! Or that LEGO will change the verdict in the future, as they did with the grand piano set.
I realize that it takes more thought and effort, but anyone can design and build the set(s) that they like even if LEGO rejects them. It might possibly even be more enjoyable.
It is not so much losing faith in a company as is losing faith in a platform of a given company – I’ve abandoned Lego Ideas a long time ago once I realized that their selection criteria does not make sense the least bit (and is also way too long). I hardly follow it (no voting anymore – it’s a waste of my time) and only check the results every so often. In this batch, I would have gladly bought the Gemini capsule, the castle in the forest and the Technic snow groomer and even potentially the Cybertruck depending on how they would have done it. I like display pieces like the next guy but they have to speak to me somehow (for me space is good as it also have an historical and educational value) – while very nice, the ship in a bottle and the globe are both dust collectors to me. I have only two idea sets – Saturn V and ISS space station but I will get the Pirates of Barracuda Bay and maybe the piano – also potentially the upcoming Blacksmith shop. For completist Ideas is probably the worse ever theme – it has very nice sets but for a very wide and varied audience – very unlikely that someone will like them all and it can be quite expensive. Personally, they get a set right for me about every other year which is very manageable outside my other favourite themes. For me, Lego really drop the ball when the cancelled the Bell Osprey (set 42113) I’m still mad at this and dramatically reduced my purchasing since – of course one person won’t do much to their bottom line but if they manage to aggravate more people over the coming decades, eventually it will start to show.
@Hobbes
Lego Ideas is a theme meant as one-off sets for niche interests. Not as a specialized theme for completists.
@Hakan. True, but there are completists everywhere and some people have decided to buy every single ideas sets. We can write their rants at every single result announcements. It is indeed an interesting category to collect just for the sheer variety of themes and styles but you are bound to buy a few items not to your liking I suppose.
@Hakan. Sorry I meant: we can “read” their rants (as opposed to “write”) at every…