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If they do another wave of 3 rounds, I'll probably end up buying a set or two, but I will start to lose some of my enthusiasm for the concept. I'm happy to have the 4 sets I have, and they do look great, but the build experience and final product is simply not as good as the official sets. Lego's rigorous design and iteration process really does make for a better final product. And I've got a large backlog as it is!
I assume they'll run something like that again, but they'd have to do a new selection of sets, no?
It's like in that joke about a low cost airline: Stewardess: Would you like something to drink?
Passenger: what options are there?
Stewardess: Yes or no.
https://www.bricklink.com/v3/designer-program/main.page
Ah ha ha!! All that was needed was to give voice to the thought! Ah ha ha!!!
I mean what's the difference between this and ideas?
I didn't purchase any of the last rounds worth of sets, but heard some rumblings around Instruction quality. Hopefully this is one of the items that receives a bit of an improvement.
Ideas submissions go into a heavy redesign process within LEGO after the projects have been approved. As we all know, the final results of these sets are quite often significantly different than the original submission.
Any sets that make it to production through this method are by-and-large a design straight from the fan designer. Other than some low level feasibility and stability checks, they are left mostly unaltered.
And that's just the biggest & most blatant difference. I absolutely see a place for both of these programs!
I imagine we'll end up with stacks of modular-style buildings and I'm well up for that.
Very exciting, I think it's great for Lego to support the community like this.
Whereas with BL, for better or worse we get something very close to what the designer intended, after a bit of refinement. Some of my favourite models have been the BL ones.
So I can definitely see a place for both programs.
Also, gotta hop on any GWPs you might want to "purchase" since I've been burned by waiting on a few and have missed out. #40290 is one example. Ended up getting it via eBay at a reasonable price. Still have it sealed on my office bookshelf. Great display box.
My order (the 50's Diner) is still showing as "back ordered".
"Vidiyo! Hidden Side! DOTS! All proof that they don't know what they're doing!"
An occasional line that doesn't do as well as they hoped is just the sign of a company trying new things.
Or trying old things: #10497 Galaxy Explorer.
I know at least one element of this program was to gauge interest in the fanbase for these sets that had at least at one point, gathered enough votes to be considered as an official Ideas set. Yet, we saw many of the final sets not reach their initial backing numbers. The few that made it through seemed much more popular and, I'm sure would have sold many more than the 5000 limit.
I don't pretend to understand the ins and outs of LEGO or any other sales organization. But I do think there is a fine line with balancing budgets, inventory, production lines, product availability, and ideal market saturation. I already feel like LEGO has oversaturated its market over the last two years with the proliferation of so many 18+ sets out there. Yet, they have continued to do so. Can the market take more? If there were 20 approved and for-sale Brinklink sets, would they all sell 10k+ copies? Or would the market saturation reach maximum levels, thus resulting in loss of profits by the company who has over extended on marketing, production, inventory, etc...?
All these questions are things that I legitimately am curious about, so I'm not taking a shot for or against any argument. I've certainly had the thought as well over the last few years.
It's all a mystery to me!
TLG can't just make more products. Their factories can only produce a finite number of parts. To make more of any given set would mean fewer of others. Again, I say that I believe TLG knows what they're doing- most of the time.