LEGO has revealed 21317 Steamboat Willie, the next LEGO Ideas set featuring retro-Mickey and Minnie Mouse minifigures as well as the iconic S.S. Willie steamboat. The boat’s steam pipes bounce up and down and the paddle wheels rotate as the set is pushed forward. The set comes with 751 pieces and will be available starting April 1st for US $89.99 | UK £79.99 | CA $119.99 | EU €89.99.
The monochromatic set comes only a month after it was selected to be one of the next LEGO Ideas products, a shockingly fast turnaround in comparison to previous LEGO Ideas sets. The set is also quite an upgrade from the original submission. Continue reading to see all the official photos, or take a closer look at the insides and build process in our review of 21317 Steamboat Willie.
Only a few weeks since the set was announced in the second round of LEGO Ideas reviews from 2018, 21317 Steamboat Willie will be available to buy from April 1st. The final set design is very different from the Ideas project which inspired it, and, with all respect to the original model, the improvements are significant. Mickey’s paddle steamer is much larger and more detailed than the original microscale design.
The set has 751 pieces, features black & white retro minifigures of Mickey and Minnie, and is available from April 1st for US $89.99 | UK £79.99 | CA $119.99 | EU €89.99.
Newly revealed LEGO Ideas set 21316 The Flintstones is now available for VIPs (LEGO’s loyalty program that is free to join). The set comes with 748 pieces that make up the Flintstones’ rock-made home, their iconic foot-propelled car, and minifigures of Fred and Wilma Flintstone as well as Barney and Betty Rubble. You can read our review for all the dino-details.
The set sells for US $59.99 | UK £54.99 | CA $79.99, with general availability to non-VIPs beginning on March 1st. As always, when you click through from The Brothers Brick, a portion of each sale goes to support the site, so thank you in advance!
Last year, LEGO Ideas celebrated 10 years since the first fan idea became an official retail set. Who could have imagined the number of universes, places, and characters turned into official products since then? And now, one more idea joins the club — LEGO Ideas 21316 The Flintstones, a fan project by Andrew Clark, who is known among LEGO enthusiasts as the fan designer of another LEGO Ideas set, 21304 Doctor Who. With 748 pieces, the Flintstones set is much bigger than Andrew’s previous project. It will be available to LEGO VIPs starting on Wednesday, February 20th for US $59.99 | UK £54.99 | CA $79.99.
It’s been a long time since the last LEGO Ideas announcement, so here are LEGO Ideas Second 2018 Review Results! Ten brilliant fan projects competed to become the next official LEGO retail set, and only one idea was approved by the LEGO Ideas team…
Today at the New York Toy Fair, LEGO launched the next fan-inspired product in the LEGO Ideas lineup: 21316 The Flintstones. The set comes with 748 pieces that make up the Flintstones’ rock-made home, their iconic foot-propelled car, and minifigures of Fred and Wilma Flintstone as well as Barney and Betty Rubble.
The release is also timely with the newly announced dinosaurs from Jurassic World that could fit right into the prehistoric neighborhood of Bedrock. The set will be available to LEGO VIPs starting next week on Wednesday, February 20th for US $59.99 | UK £54.99 | CA $79.99.
There are only a few days left to submit entries to Bricklink’s AFOL Designer Program before the Nov. 18th deadline. Up to 20 finalists will be judged by current LEGO designers, and the winning designs will be crowdfunded, produced and sold by Bricklink.
Last weekend, The Brothers Brick attended the launch event for the LEGO Ideas 21315 Pop-Up Book in Portland, Oregon, and we chatted with fan designers Grant Davis and Jason Allemann about their collaboration and how the set became a reality.
Both Grant and Jason (aka JK Brickworks) are talented builders and have been featured on The Brothers Brick multiple times. If you haven’t yet, you should read our official review of the set (spoiler: we loved it) and then dive into this behind-the-scenes conversation about creating the set. LEGO Ideas 21315 Pop-Up Book is now available from LEGO for $69.99 US.
The Brothers Brick: Thanks for chatting with us. We really enjoyed building and reviewing your LEGO Pop-Up Book. Can you tell us a little about how the collaboration first began?
Grant Davis: I had an idea for a LEGO pop-up book in late 2014. I created a model originally powered by LEGO rubber bands, but it was significantly more inconsistent than what I knew a set should be. I ended up contacting Jason because of the technical skill I had seen in his creations, and because he showed interest in my original model on Flickr when I posted it.
Grant’s first iteration of his LEGO Pop-Up Book using rubber bands and bendable minifigure legs.
Jason Allemann: Grant got in touch with me in February 2016 via a message on Flickr. I, of course, absolutely loved the original Pop-Up Book model he had posted over a year earlier, so when he asked if I wanted to join him to develop an Ideas project based on that concept, I jumped at the opportunity.
TBB: Had you two ever met each other prior to this collaboration?
Jason: I don’t think we’d ever met in person before the collaboration, but I was very familiar with Grant’s work via Flickr. I do recall he left a comment on my Particle Accelerator video on YouTube at some point, and I even gave him a shout out in one of my follow up videos for that model, all long before we started working on the Pop-Up Book.
Grant: The first time that we actually met was at Brickworld Chicago 2017 after the Ideas project had already launched and had 8,000-9,000 supporters. We both didn’t know that each other were going to be attending. It was pure coincidence that we ran into each other at the convention! We didn’t talk much about the project, but I do remember that we played some two-player arcade games together as our first in person bonding experience.
TBB: What was your collaboration process like?
Jason: We mostly shared info via e-mail and the occasional Skype call. What I remember most about the design period was that it just took a while. We were both pretty busy with other things, so it would often be weeks between development updates, and it took a full six months before we finally submitted the project. We are both easy going people, so working together was really nice, and we were on the same page with most of the design decisions.
Jason’s first prototype of the pop-up mechanism and an early idea for minifigure storage.
Grant: The bulk of the initial contact was done over email. We fleshed out a lot of the nitty gritty details there in long multi-point messages. We talked through how many inserts we should suggest in the project (we suggested two, which is what LEGO themselves decided to stick with). We set up a Google document to work on the exact description for the project as well, which helped lessen the amount of e-mails.
There was even a lengthy discussion on what exactly the project should be called. We talked through several title options for the project before settling on the simple title of “LEGO Pop-Up Book.” We at one point or another considered “Brick Adventures,” “Brick Tales,” and “Brick Worlds.” The “Once Upon a Brick” title that is on the final model of the book was thought up by the LEGO design team.
Earlier today, LEGO revealed 21315 Pop-Up Book as the next LEGO Ideas set. The ingenious set comes in the form of a book with two interiors based off of Little Red Riding Hood and Jack and the Beanstalk. The Pop-up Book comes with 859 pieces as well as four minifigures and one microfigure, and will retail for $69.99 USD when it goes on sale November 1st.
LEGO has revealed the next LEGO Ideas set: 21315 Pop-Up Book. Chosen back in May from the crowd-sourced LEGO Ideas platform, the book’s final design has been kept secret until now. LEGO has figuratively taken the covers off the set which includes 859 pieces to build the book and two stories that fill its pages, as well as four minifigures and one microfigure. The set retails for $69.99 USD.
The Pop-Up Book is the brainchild of two fans, Jason Alleman and Grant Davis, two names you may recognize. Both Jason and Grant are regulars here on The Brothers Brick, having a long history of building excellent creations. However, Jason’s name may ring a bell for another reason, since this isn’t his first LEGO Ideas set. Jason also created 21305 Maze. (Check out our interview with him about that project.) This brings Jason into the exclusive double-feature LEGO Ideas club, which was previously occupied solely by Ellen Kooijman who created 21110 Research Institute along with 21302 The Big Bang Theory.
As many of us are still enjoying their newly bought LEGO Ideas 21311 Voltron sets, the LEGO Ideas First 2018 Review Results are already here, so we can finally learn what the next LEGO Ideas set will be.
Today LEGO launched a new initiative in cooperation with Bricklink called the AFOL Designer Program where fans can submit custom designs which will be then be produced and sold by Bricklink. (The term AFOL is an acronym that stands for “Adult Fan of LEGO.”) The creations will be judged by current LEGO designers, “crowdfunded” through pre-sales, then released as limited edition 60th Anniversary sets.
The one-time program will accept submissions through November 18, and the designs must be created in Bricklink’s new Studio 2.0 software. Up to 20 finalists will be selected for judging. The eventual release of the fan-designed sets is slated for April 2019, with 10 percent of the sales going to the designer.
