57 Projects qualify for first 2021 Lego IDEAS review

Astrobricks

https://ideas.lego.com/blogs/a4ae09b6-0d4c-4307-9da8-3ee9f3d368d6/post/9f898d46-12a3-4928-b7e6-ba061e849d62

Astrobricks

Looks like a good round. I got email notifications for five projects I supported :)

andhe

57 is ridiculous. 50 probably stand no chance due to licensing, similarity to each other, crossover with existing Lego products (modular etc) so why let them get this far?

My predictions are always way off so I won't even hazard a guess.

drdavewatford

andhe said:

57 is ridiculous. 50 probably stand no chance due to licensing, similarity to each other, crossover with existing Lego products (modular etc) so why let them get this far?

I completely agree.

I love the Ideas concept but there's now so much background noise that I seldom engage with the site or browse the submitted projects any more.

Switchfoot55

My initial feelings on reviewing the sets was the same. A ton of them are the same (Castles), licensed, or impractical for LEGO to move forward with. 

...though I'm sure LEGO will go with the SpaceX...

Perhaps it's time to move it to 20k votes?

CCC

Plus it will cost them about $28K in prizes this time. I imagine that when they went to $500 of sets to ideas not approved at review, they assumed only about 10 or so would make it to review.

Aleydita

I love Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and the Scania truck. Used to be good at guessing which projects would be picked but I'm not putting my neck on the line this time. With Lego churning out more and more display-only sets, it's harder than ever to discount many of them.

andhe

CCC said:

Plus it will cost them about $28K in prizes this time. I imagine that when they went to $500 of sets to ideas not approved at review, they assumed only about 10 or so would make it to review.

I had no idea that the 'not selected' ones got such a prize. What did it use to be?

benbacardi

As a double bass player, I love the Jazz Quartet. Chitty is done very well, and the bowling alley looks fun! Funny that there's two sets of bookends in this one review.

Although I love all things space, the SLS and Artemis isn't that appealing to me, and nor is the SpaceX Starship. They're just not as iconic as previous space sets (yet, that is!) The astronaut is an interesting take on a space theme though.

pxchris

I sure would love to see The Princess Bride in LEGO form!

But yeah... 57 is just ridiculous.

TheOriginalSimonB

Just Asterix for me.

CCC

andhe said:

CCC said:

Plus it will cost them about $28K in prizes this time. I imagine that when they went to $500 of sets to ideas not approved at review, they assumed only about 10 or so would make it to review.

I had no idea that the 'not selected' ones got such a prize. What did it use to be?

I think it was nothing. 

Huw

The jazz quartet is an excellent model. The poses of the musicians are superb. Sadly, I can't see it being chosen.

Shropshire

Doesn't this also mean 50+ more sets will be considered/voted under Bricklink Designer Program ? i.e. also potentially swamped.

Astrobricks

CCC said:

Plus it will cost them about $28K in prizes this time. I imagine that when they went to $500 of sets to ideas not approved at review, they assumed only about 10 or so would make it to review.

$28k. Yeah, that’ll pretty much bankrupt them lol

BooTheMightyHamster

While I have admiration for every one of those designs, I have to say there are only two that I'd actually hand any money over for - the Scania truck and the SpaceX ship.

Having said that, when I compare some of those designs to things like the Ideas BTTF Delorean, I can't help thinking we're spoilt these days...

The_Rancor

Non-licensed all the way in Ideas for me, certainly in this review!

Steampunk Airship, Greek Temple, Marine Life, Jazz Quartet, Tutankhamum, Viking Longship, I would be happy for any of those.

I only just realised but there’s TWO ‘The US Office’ projects past 10k support - really? Also that Among Us one is going to age badly - it already seems like there’s less people playing it so the peak may have passed, plus it’s just a fairly simplistic set of shaped corridors.

Note - that ‘bike lanes’ Idea is so ridiculously simplistic it’s crazy that it got to 10k - i’m guessing it’s purely because that many people want more bike lanes in real cities and see it as a way of raising awareness?

It’s also interesting to see a Bag End which just seems to have a bit more grass than the original.

Chris87

Biased towards the Scania and Bentley and don't think they would be "mass market" enough for the Ideas side. With the new Space Shuttle also think that will take out the Space X.

Modular style for likes of the Lisbon Tram would be interesting to see as slightly larger scale.

The 10K limit does appear to get reached far more often but perhaps a side effect of the popularity of the Ideas sets is more engagement on that platform. Maybe they should increment this based on the number of users on the site

veyniac

I don't think they should increase the number of votes required; that will just postpone the inevitable. What they should do is restrict voting in some way. I think the best way to do that would be to raise the minimum age required to participate on the site. From my experience on the platform, a significant chunk of voters are cringey 13-year-olds who vote for and follow everything they see in the hope that you will reciprocate. Removing this demographic until they are old enough to realize that Lego Ideas isn't a social media platform would go a long way toward cleaning up the site.

(End rant)

I personally am rooting for Tutankhamun's Mask and the Asterix and Obelix busts. Both are beautiful models, unlike some of the other projects *cough cough bike lane cough among us cough cough*

CCC

Astrobricks said:

CCC said:

Plus it will cost them about $28K in prizes this time. I imagine that when they went to $500 of sets to ideas not approved at review, they assumed only about 10 or so would make it to review.

$28k. Yeah, that’ll pretty much bankrupt them lol

Obviously it won't bankrupt them but they presumably have a budget for the marketing and running of the theme, which will mean money is not spent elsewhere.

bricktuary

benbacardi said:

As a double bass player, I love the Jazz Quartet. Chitty is done very well, and the bowling alley looks fun! Funny that there's two sets of bookends in this one review.

Although I love all things space, the SLS and Artemis isn't that appealing to me, and nor is the SpaceX Starship. They're just not as iconic as previous space sets (yet, that is!) The astronaut is an interesting take on a space theme though.

I was going to type a post basically exactly like this, so, er:
Yeah! What Ben said.

The_Rancor

On the front page I like Zander’s concept of using VIP points to vote for each project you want to support (no more than once per project). That way it means everyone who can vote is already quite invested in the Lego brand, purchasing from them. And it might make some consider which projects they like most rather than just liking everything.

An alternative could be a second stage voting shortlist perhaps - if there are, say, more than 15 projects hitting 10k, operate an additional public voting window when each user can only vote for one project from the ‘long list’, thereby creating a ‘shortlist’ which TLG choose from. It’s an alternative to raising the vote threshold.

bricktuary

I don't really see what's wrong with this as it is. Enough sets have hit the threshold for interest; TLG review group will have a bit of work to do, but really, they've got a lot of publicity for Lego any as people do the hard work on forums, social media etc to drum up the support.

Besides, it will take them 5 minutes max to put a big line through 90% of these, so there's not really more work for anyone.

So what if 30, 50, 100 sets are reviewed each quarter? If anything, it might tell Lego they need to rethink how many Ideas sets they put out, because there's potentially untapped demand for jazz vignettes. Plus, now there's the 2nd chance Bricklink thing. 

I'd hate it if they suddenly decided to raise it to 20,000 votes; it's even more of a popularity contest then and ALL we'll see are sets with immediate recognition i.e. sets with themes attached,

pxchris

The_Rancor said:

On the front page I like Zander’s concept of using VIP points to vote for each project you want to support

Sorry, but I can't see ever using my VIP points to vote for an Ideas set.

The_Rancor

^ I can understand why, but I guess that’s the price TLG pay for adopting a kind of crowdfunding model without any actual commitments of funds to specific potential projects. If you start to ask for something which has potential monetary value (even if it’s loyalty points rather than actual cash) people are always going to push back because they’re used to voting for free.

I’d guess the longlisting/shortlisting thing has more potential, but as others have said, if TLG like the exposure and don’t mind the ‘winning payment’ of each 10k project, it’s likely not very hard to narrow down even 100 projects in one review because so many won’t fit the criteria properly or have too much of a niche license.

iwybs

They used to ask you three questions when you supported a project: how much you expected it to cost, how hard you thought it would be to build, and how many copies you thought most people would buy.  I thought the first two questions were useful, but the third always seemed a little scummy.  I think they should bring back the first two questions.  Those would add just enough friction to the process to keep people from upvoting everything indiscriminately, without being onerous.

bricktuary

As a small aside, the Rammstein Stadium was pulled (for licensing reasons apparently) otherwise that would have made the list. 

https://www.kerrang.com/the-news/rammstein-approve-of-this-campaign-for-a-lego-set-of-their-stage-show/

Hopefully it can be resurrected; although not a fan of their music as a model I think it's wonderful, and a lot of work (and love) has obviously gone into it.

Yellowcastle

I guess I’m in the minority here because I have no issues with the number of sets qualifying.  It simply gives LEGO more options, recognizes the hard work of more designers and enables more voters to feel their voice was heard.  Additionally, nothing says that LEGO can’t approve 10 of them and stagger their releases however they would like.

And to be honest, I’ve probably liked maybe 1 or 2 sets max in each of the previous review cycles.  For whatever reason, this batch, IMO, is really fantastic and I would happily support many becoming sets, especially the Jazz Quartet.  And it would appear that IDEAS sets are doing very well for LEGO and are bridging the sometimes divide between what we actually want (Blacksmiths, Fishing Store, Saturn V, etc) and what their marketing teams think we want (Vidyo, Road Plates with half buildings, micro fighters, etc).

We are living during a LEGO Renaissance which includes the spectacular IDEAS program and I simply couldn’t be happier, even with robots taking over the Taj Mahal. :o)

(Added to main site too due to my innate inability to develop different cogent thoughts.)

bandit778

bricktuary said:

As a small aside, the Rammstein Stadium was pulled (for licensing reasons apparently) otherwise that would have made the list. 

https://www.kerrang.com/the-news/rammstein-approve-of-this-campaign-for-a-lego-set-of-their-stage-show/

Hopefully it can be resurrected; although not a fan of their music as a model I think it's wonderful, and a lot of work (and love) has obviously gone into it.

Having seen Rammstein in concert, I wouldn't necessarily think it was entirely about licencing as their shows involve a remarkable amount of pyrotechnics and has some very adult themes in the lyrics and as parts of the stage show which may have had something to do with it.
I personally would love the set as I'm a big fan of the band but no matter what happens, I can't ever see it happening with Rammstein labelling.

CCC

The_Rancor said:

On the front page I like Zander’s concept of using VIP points to vote for each project you want to support (no more than once per project). That way it means everyone who can vote is already quite invested in the Lego brand, purchasing from them. And it might make some consider which projects they like most rather than just liking everything.

I always thought one of the reasons for IDEAS was find ways to attract new buyers as well as existing. If voting requires vip points, I'd expect to see mainly modular style and similar mocs going to review.

bricktuary

^^ Lego said "Unfortunately, we've had to remove one of the submissions titled "Stadium Tour" that had reached 10,000 supporters.

When submitting creations based on intellectual properties it is imperative that members follow the guidelines for intellectual properties that we have, including listing whether or not a submission is based on such if that is the case."

Paperballpark

Having heard Rammstein songs in clubs back in the day, I can categorically say that it's difficult to think of a band whose songs are less in line with the LEGO brand.

Yellowcastle

^ lol, agreed.

mr_benn

I'd love to see an end to licensed sets being submitted.  For me the absolute stand out sets from Ideas have all been non licensed, and for the most part (I'm sure there are plenty of exceptions) the non licensed sets are much smarter builds.  In my view, people voted for those Office sets not because they're great looking sets (they aren't), but because they enjoyed 'The Office'.  

Love those little train bookends though, super clever :)

JudgeChuck

Surely though, "Bück dich" is exactly what we do for TLG every time we buy a Lego set?

;-)

Astrobricks

iwybs said:

They used to ask you three questions when you supported a project: how much you expected it to cost, how hard you thought it would be to build, and how many copies you thought most people would buy.  I thought the first two questions were useful, but the third always seemed a little scummy.  I think they should bring back the first two questions.  Those would add just enough friction to the process to keep people from upvoting everything indiscriminately, without being onerous.

I think it might be a good idea for them to ask “OK, you like it, but would you actually buy one?” I see a lot of nice projects that I skip voting for because I wouldn’t buy it. 

madforLEGO

bricktuary said:

I don't really see what's wrong with this as it is. Enough sets have hit the threshold for interest; TLG review group will have a bit of work to do, but really, they've got a lot of publicity for Lego any as people do the hard work on forums, social media etc to drum up the support.

Besides, it will take them 5 minutes max to put a big line through 90% of these, so there's not really more work for anyone.

So what if 30, 50, 100 sets are reviewed each quarter? If anything, it might tell Lego they need to rethink how many Ideas sets they put out, because there's potentially untapped demand for jazz vignettes. Plus, now there's the 2nd chance Bricklink thing. 

I'd hate it if they suddenly decided to raise it to 20,000 votes; it's even more of a popularity contest then and ALL we'll see are sets with immediate recognition i.e. sets with themes attached,

Uhhh, if the object is to make a set that people will want, then yes, it already is a popularity contest. Unless people think that the Friends Central Perk got made because it was a great build?

I have mostly tuned out anything making 10K anymore. Make it 20K.. While I will say all of these 10K hits hopefully reminds LEGO that such themes like Castle and Pirate are sought after, too many sets already get up to 10K that really have no hope of being made, like anything 'Pirate' after there was the Barracuda bay for example. Also, castles hitting 10K after LEGO already did not only make a Blacksmith's shop for Ideas, and is not only making a Creator Castle, but is bringing back the Castle theme. I think the fishing shop getting greenlit opened the flood gates for all of these 'wish list' 2-3K piece builds and people that like them vs wanting to buy them are voting.

The problem I think is people are making a 'wish list' with their votes.. Not really going to buy all of the sets they are voting for, which was the real idea of an Ideas set being made.

Either that or leave it 10K, but then put them all back up for round two where people can only pick one of the whatever number of sets that made the 10K, and they have to reach at least 5-10K again to get reviewed seriously by LEGO. Otherwise I think it is just all a big waste of time for many of these sets and people putting the effort into getting them to 10K.

andhe

Did there used to be a limit on how many votes you got each day or was that something else? The current problem is that I can indiscriminately scroll through as many projects as I want giving them my vote with no intention of ever buying them (I think I've voted for two or three projects ever).

CCC

mr_benn said:

I'd love to see an end to licensed sets being submitted.  For me the absolute stand out sets from Ideas have all been non licensed, and for the most part (I'm sure there are plenty of exceptions) the non licensed sets are much smarter builds.  In my view, people voted for those Office sets not because they're great looking sets (they aren't), but because they enjoyed 'The Office'.  

Love those little train bookends though, super clever :)

I don't see the problem with voting for The Office if you enjoy The Office and want a The Office set. 

If there were no licensed sets, there would have been no IDEAS. The first three years were licensed. Imagine no Saturn V, no Minecraft, no DeLorean or Ecto-1, no WALL-E. I think the IDEAS catalogue is richer for allowing licenses.

They could also put an end to modular buildings being submitted, or the endless builds submitted that are similar to one that just got approved.

Shib

CCC said:

Plus it will cost them about $28K in prizes this time. I imagine that when they went to $500 of sets to ideas not approved at review, they assumed only about 10 or so would make it to review.

Worth remembering (because I think some people will misunderstand the point) that $500 of LEGO sets does not cost LEGO $500 - so the actual cost to them to supply these prizes will be nowhere near $28000 but I definitely wouldn’t be surprised is the constantly growing number of projects getting to review makes them alter this prize down as it will get very costly, especially when the vast majority of projects won’t get turned into sets.


I remember seeing a talk from one of the main guys at Ideas during a LUG tour a few years ago and they said they often get asked why they don’t moderate the projects more (e.g removing sets with no chance of passing) and he said they prefer the community to decide these things so they are always more likely to tweak the voting process than take a harder line in moderation. 

That said this level of projects does seem to be getting a bit much - especially with a lot of content in overlap - I’m surprised there are two The Office projects in there, I thought after the two Doctor Who sets in one review they said that in cases like that in future only the first project of each IP would go to review. I think they probably need to start locking voting on ones where it’s basically just a suggestion for a specific IP after one hits review - at least until that review period has finished.

In terms of the projects on offer this time round? I’m always excited by the prospect of more Nintendo LEGO, Zelda or Metroid would be awesomeness instabuys for me...as much as I enjoy the Animal Crossing Game I really don’t want it as a LEGO theme unless they’re prepared to do a CMF to put out as many resident characters as possible. 

With the Zelda project I’m not a huge fan of the design, it’s not bad but it’s trying to merge too many different iterations of Hyrule Castle into one, I’d prefer a specific game version. 

The Metroid project looks fantastic and I’d be really happy with a design close to that. I suspect Nintendo would require some new minifigure parts to sign off on the IP - which in the past I’d have said meant it was a no go, but that’s apparently not an issue anymore. However based on game sales I suspect Metroid might be a bit too niche, especially when it’s in a review alongside Zelda and so many other projects.


There are quite a few others I like the look of but I’d never buy.

CCC

Shib said:

CCC said:

Plus it will cost them about $28K in prizes this time. I imagine that when they went to $500 of sets to ideas not approved at review, they assumed only about 10 or so would make it to review.

Worth remembering (because I think some people will misunderstand the point) that $500 of LEGO sets does not cost LEGO $500 - so the actual cost to them to supply these prizes will be nowhere near $28000 but I definitely wouldn’t be surprised is the constantly growing number of projects getting to review makes them alter this prize down as it will get very costly, especially when the vast majority of projects won’t get turned into sets.

Sure, it depends how they cost it. The lost revenue from those is $28K but the cost of manufacture of course is much lower.

I really wonder if LEGO cares about how many get there. It is good advertising. It gets people submitted IDEAS, and discussing/ advertising / spamming everywhere to get votes, increasing LEGO's free word of mouth advertising. It get's people talking, involved and building. It gets people purchasing LEGO to build something similar to what they have seen that doesn't make it.

I doubt the review panels take any longer either. I can go down that list and instantly reject probably 2/3 of them - that's down to under 20. That just cull half of what remains on gut feeling. That is down to 10 that you can then take seriously.

bricktuary

Agreed. Surely this publicity is exactly what they want - I suspect Lego haven't been featured in Kerrang before for example. 

TLG would be insane to hobble the number of sets making it to review stage by increasing the number of votes or putting barriers up to make it harder to vote and share. 

Shib

Obviously with those prize sets there’s a cost to the company but it’s most likely in their advertising cost and they are unlikely to view it as lost revenue for potential sales as the vague definition of $500 worth of sets gives them a lot of licence to supply a bit of whatever is most cost effective - I haven’t looked into exactly what they say it’ll be but I suspect there’s no specific sets or timeframe promised and if there is any time frame on there it’ll be one that gives them a lot of time.


I suspect you might be right on the review not being that much longer than normal - it’s already quite a long time between this point and review completion anyway. I do think there might be an optimal number of projects per review that they’d like though - I think that large numbers not passing likely has a bit of a short term, negative marketing effect. How LEGO react to this review period might give an indication of that but as ever with this stuff all we can do is speculate as they’re unlikely to come out and say “30 projects max per review period”

CCC

Shib said:

Obviously with those prize sets there’s a cost to the company but it’s most likely in their advertising cost and they are unlikely to view it as lost revenue for potential sales as the vague definition of $500 worth of sets gives them a lot of licence to supply a bit of whatever is most cost effective - I haven’t looked into exactly what they say it’ll be but I suspect there’s no specific sets or timeframe promised and if there is any time frame on there it’ll be one that gives them a lot of time.

I think it is the winner's choice, 3 sets up to $500.

bricktuary said:

Agreed. Surely this publicity is exactly what they want - I suspect Lego haven't been featured in Kerrang before for example. 

Yeah. Apparently the incredibly simple and somewhat boring bike lanes have been featured on Dutch TV, and things like this frequently appear in local newspapers or TV spots on local news. The more IDEAS in review, the more likely they are to get news reports on "Local man/woman made a model of something that might be made into a LEGO set".

Shib

CCC said: 

I think it is the winner's choice, 3 sets up to $500.

In that case it’s almost certainly just written off at manufacturing cost + distribution cost in a marketing budget - if it was more like a $500 gift card at LEGO it would have some lost sales implications but as 3 sets totalling no more that $500 not every winner will “maximise their spend” and the winners are probably given a list of sets to choose from which won’t necessarily reflect what’s currently available in stores - otherwise it would be easier to do the gift card option. 

CCC

Shib said:

CCC said: 

I think it is the winner's choice, 3 sets up to $500.

In that case it’s almost certainly just written off at manufacturing cost + distribution cost in a marketing budget - if it was more like a $500 gift card at LEGO it would have some lost sales implications but as 3 sets totalling no more that $500 not every winner will “maximise their spend” and the winners are probably given a list of sets to choose from which won’t necessarily reflect what’s currently available in stores - otherwise it would be easier to do the gift card option. 

I don't know how they arrange it. Presumably they don't make sets to order for the winners, so they come out of normally produced stock which could have been sold so it is similar to a gift card but just restricted to 3 items only. 

However it is done, it is likely to be a not too significant amount when compared to any overall advertising budget but possibly significant if it is seen as a cost for IDEAS only. 

Yellowcastle

Speaking of the Bike Lanes, I simply don’t understand how that got 10,000 votes.  Am I missing something special/interesting about it?

Fizyx

Yellowcastle said:

Speaking of the Bike Lanes, I simply don’t understand how that got 10,000 votes.  Am I missing something special/interesting about it?

I have to say, it's not actually that surprising if it was shown on Dutch TV.  They absolutely love their bikes, and to be fair there really isn't anything in the current road system that is bike orients/supports bike lanes.  Makes it very hard to put together a Dutch city if you don't have bike lanes :)

andhe

Doesn't the recent city/shop thingy literally have a bike lane? So I guess this idea is basically a bike lane 'booster pack'.

I have something against bike lanes as my local council has taken covid as a excuse to carve up the main roads around me to create bike lanes no-one will use as we we were briefly in a society during lockdown where everyone was living and working locally like some sort of 1950s utopia.

Bumblepants

As pitiful as the bikelane submission is, I could easily see Lego passing it and giving it a full revamp into what amounts to an extension of their City line. Then they just need to sit back and bask in the PR win.

CCC

Bumblepants said:

As pitiful as the bikelane submission is, I could easily see Lego passing it and giving it a full revamp into what amounts to an extension of their City line. Then they just need to sit back and bask in the PR win.

Yes, it could well be like the Research Institute set for generating PR, whether they do it through Ideas or adopt it into City sets instead. Imagine all the press stories that LEGO clearly supports cycling as an alternative form of transport to fuel based vehicles for short trips.

Although to make it realistic for cycle lanes near me, they need to leave lots of indentations for potholes, broken glass and car tyre marks from where motorists use them as drop off points / parking places.