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CUUSOO Corner

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  • effalconeffalcon Member Posts: 71
    I wonder if its a good or bad thing that a number of projects are getting to 10,000.
    more sets is great, but we're getting quite a few sets hitting the mark, not sure Lego would want to produce so many 'custom' sets.

    probably raise the vote requirement soon.
  • LegobrandonCPLegobrandonCP Member Posts: 1,917
    probably raise the vote requirement soon.
    Yep, totally. Perhaps 50,000 or 100, 000.
  • LegogeekLegogeek Member Posts: 714
    I wonder if its a good or bad thing that a number of projects are getting to 10,000.
    more sets is great, but we're getting quite a few sets hitting the mark, not sure Lego would want to produce so many 'custom' sets.

    probably raise the vote requirement soon.
    10,000 votes doesn't guarantee production. LEGO still has to evaluate and approve it.
    I think the more likely scenario is what others have mentioned - the voting and review process will be enhanced to weed out unlikely, non-approvable designes earlier on.

  • madforLEGOmadforLEGO Member Posts: 10,762
    Apparently there is a firefly model of Serenity up
  • atkinsaratkinsar Member Posts: 4,258
    I too think they will raise the vote threshold at some point in the near future, don't think it will shoot up as high as 50k, but maybe to 20k, it's inevitable as the site gets more exposure and gains in popularity.

    Looks like Zelda will be hitting 10k in the next few hours, and based an voting patterns, I would also say Serenity and Western Town to hit the mark within the next week or two, that's a lot of ideas to review!
  • RedbullgivesuwindRedbullgivesuwind Member Posts: 2,108
    Thats two good ideas at least. I would buy that western town in a heart beat.
  • dougtsdougts Member Posts: 4,110
    if they raise the vote count, then it's gonna be near-impossible for any non-licensed theme without a non-LEGO viral campaign to hit the threshold.
  • andheandhe Member Posts: 3,916
    Looks like Zelda will be hitting 10k in the next few hours, and based an voting patterns, I would also say Serenity and Western Town to hit the mark within the next week or two, that's a lot of ideas to review!
    I guess that's why they decided to 'bulk review' projects, seeing that a number of ideas were going to hit 10k in the next month or so. The Zelda one will need a lot of thought as it's basically just an idea for a lot of game related weapons and new moulds.


    I would imagine that after June, and the top projects have had a chance to get reviewed, then we will see a change in either the voting threshold or licensing/ideas allowed. If they moved the goalposts now, I'd imagine people would get a bit irate.
  • LegoFanTexasLegoFanTexas Member Posts: 8,404
    I'm guessing those T and C's wouldn't stand up in court anyway especially for the projects that are turned down - particularly because you aren't being paid for your IP and LEGO aren't doing anything with it.
    For a contract to be valid in the United States, there must be consideration given for any deal.

    If Lego turns down a project, what consideration are they giving the designer? You generally can't sign away your rights without getting something in return, courts will throw that out.
  • bricksanbricksan Member Posts: 566
    Zelda should hit 10k this afternoon it only needs 36 more supporters. The support has come from IGN.com doing a feature on it.
  • cheshirecatcheshirecat Member Posts: 5,331
    ^ Was about to ask, a couple of days ago it was still behind the Western Modular.
  • andheandhe Member Posts: 3,916
    I wouldn't be surprised if its hits 10k in the next hour. Only 19 votes remaining...
  • bricksanbricksan Member Posts: 566
    I agree. I feel Cuusoo may need to re-evaluate the voting process as it's one license after another at the moment and they are all pretty much getting the support thanks to plugs from major sites etc.

    TLG are going to have to sort out another license if Zelda is to be approved, so that will be at least 3 to sort out if not more. Maybe they should make it none license projects only?
  • AvengerDrAvengerDr Member Posts: 453
    I don't see Zelda happening. It's got a very niche fanbase IMHO which would be competing for LotR - a more "mainstream" fantasy theme.
  • andheandhe Member Posts: 3,916
    edited May 2012
    Minecraft is/was a licence, and got approved. Remember these are (potentially) one-off sets. If TLG can sell something to current non-fans and draw them into buying regular theme sets then they've achieved their aim with Cuusoo.

    EDIT: Zelda 10k achieved! Guess we'll have to wait and see!
  • bricksanbricksan Member Posts: 566
    Any guesses as to what will be next to hit 10k?
  • atkinsaratkinsar Member Posts: 4,258
    I'd guess Serenity within 1 week, followed by Western modular within 2 weeks.
  • RedbullgivesuwindRedbullgivesuwind Member Posts: 2,108
    ^Hope so although I dont think the serenity will get made that has a really small fan base despite it being awesome :-).

    Im with @RJH i am a bit tired of the demands for licenses. If it is an existing license that is fair enough. Say a new model for Ninjago or Star Wars (provided they are good and not a demand for 6000000 stormtroopers in an orange bucket). But when people put things up there for say EVE or for Zelda it gets boring fast. I think Lego should change it again in the summer and make it more orginal ideas.
  • prof1515prof1515 Member Posts: 1,550
    Minecraft is/was a licence, and got approved. Remember these are (potentially) one-off sets. If TLG can sell something to current non-fans and draw them into buying regular theme sets then they've achieved their aim with Cuusoo.

    EDIT: Zelda 10k achieved! Guess we'll have to wait and see!
    Minecraft was a relatively easy and cheap license to get since it's a presently "hot" subject and yet relatively small-fry. Additionally, it required little to no investment beyond the licensing.

    The western town has the best chance of the models suggested. The others aren't likely.
  • cheshirecatcheshirecat Member Posts: 5,331
    ^ More importantly the Cuusoo project was taken over by the minecraft team - hence the licence holders.
  • ModeltrainmanModeltrainman Member Posts: 1,191
    Who would vote for a modular engine repair bay for Trains? Anyone?
  • dougtsdougts Member Posts: 4,110
    ^ way too niche
  • ModeltrainmanModeltrainman Member Posts: 1,191
    edited May 2012
    Hmm? I do't mean modular like Cafe Corner, Fire Brigade. I mean modular as in snap a few together for a longer bay. Like this.
  • graphitegraphite Member Posts: 3,275
    ^ I agree with dougts that something like that (and really most train related items) are not going to gain enough support. I'm currently designing a MOC modular train station on a 48x48 baseplate that could go along with the other modulars where the extra 16 studs out the back are a tunnel similar to what you have pictured since in my current town setup that amount of space behind my other modulars is where the train track goes around so it worked out perfect.
  • ModeltrainmanModeltrainman Member Posts: 1,191
    Mine will be up on Cuusoo soon. I have a question I've been wondering for a while. There are tons of licensed things up there. Is it against the Cuusoo rules to try to get a LEGO model of the house from Up made, or ae licensed things(without the approval of the licensee OK?
  • prof1515prof1515 Member Posts: 1,550
    Mine will be up on Cuusoo soon. I have a question I've been wondering for a while. There are tons of licensed things up there. Is it against the Cuusoo rules to try to get a LEGO model of the house from Up made, or ae licensed things(without the approval of the licensee OK?
    You can post pretty much anything from the look of things. Of course, you're probably just wasting your time with a model that would require a license but it's your time to waste.

  • fyrmedhattfyrmedhatt Member Posts: 128
    The Minecraft license was easy as the company itself submitted the project, and we are talking about a niche game production company whose game and gameplay is strongly inspired by Lego brick construction. On top of that Mojang is a Swedish company, and Lego has had a long history of cooperation with other Scandinavian companies. Eve is from another niche video game company where a lot of the same things as above applies, although the close similarity in gameplay to building real bricks is not there (I think Eve Online is from Iceland, which used to be part of Denmark).

    Pretty much every other license will be more difficult to produce than that, but I can see Lego getting deals with intellectual properties that are pretty much dead and/or stagnant, as the proprietor would probably see any income as free money and added publicity for the product. That's why I'm hopeful about Back to the Future and also Serenity/Firefly, but only time will tell how Lego will handle these licenses, they might not be compelled to struggle to get them since it's "only" a Cuusoo project.

    I think Zelda would be one of the hardest licenses to get since it's an active IP with frequent releases, and I'm sure Nintendo is going to ask for plenty of money since it's pretty clear Lego will benefit more from using the Zelda IP than Nintendo is getting from Lego.

    That last part has always seemed to be important when it comes to licenses. When it comes to Lego using a company logo or vehicle model in a product, like with the VW Bus and Beetle, the MB Unimog and of course the collaboration with Maersk, the licensing company benefits as much or more from Lego making the models than Lego themselves. It's really great for brand recognition to have kids displaying and playing with your product...

    I really do wish that more of the Cuusoo models would be original creations and not licenses, but as I stated above, we will have to see how much Lego is willing to pay and work to get licenses for Cuusoo products. There's a pretty good chance many of them will get shot down in review, but why would Lego limit their options by outright prohibiting any licensed properties?
  • atkinsaratkinsar Member Posts: 4,258
    On whether ideas requiring a licence are a waste of time or not, the outcome of the next round of reviews will give us a strong indication. Unless anyone here is an expert on negotiating toy merchandise licence deals and has inside information on how these deals work, we're all just guessing.

    As for the House from Up, go for it, if done well it could be an interesting project. Lego already has a close relationship with Disney too which should make for smoother waters when/if it comes to licence negotiations.
  • ModeltrainmanModeltrainman Member Posts: 1,191
    edited May 2012
    It's here, if ayone wants a look.http://lego.cuusoo.com/ideas/view/14603 I need help with the door.
  • fyrmedhattfyrmedhatt Member Posts: 128
    edited May 2012
    On whether ideas requiring a licence are a waste of time or not, the outcome of the next round of reviews will give us a strong indication. Unless anyone here is an expert on negotiating toy merchandise licence deals and has inside information on how these deals work, we're all just guessing.

    As for the House from Up, go for it, if done well it could be an interesting project. Lego already has a close relationship with Disney too which should make for smoother waters when/if it comes to licence negotiations.
    I absolutely agree with you, I think we will see much more clearly which direction Cuusoo is going after this June review. And yes, as fun as speculation is, it's still just speculation, in the end only Lego will know the details of the license negotiations for these sets (and I'm guessing they won't even start until they do their reviews).

    I love the idea of an Up house, I'd immediately support it!
  • graphitegraphite Member Posts: 3,275
    @Modeltrainman I know your model isnt complete but if you're looking to do the door I think you may need to fix first the fact that the door and the left wall are set back further on the house since it has a porch that doesn't seem to be in your design.
  • ModeltrainmanModeltrainman Member Posts: 1,191
    edited May 2012
    I'll have to go back and add it. Mostly, I was trying to get the bay window curve.
  • ModeltrainmanModeltrainman Member Posts: 1,191
    edited May 2012
    I revamped my Pixar house. Are we allowed to ask for comments and suggestions here? If so, I'd love to hear,and maybe get support. http://lego.cuusoo.com/ideas/view/14603
  • dmg111dmg111 Member Posts: 40
    On whether ideas requiring a licence are a waste of time or not, the outcome of the next round of reviews will give us a strong indication. Unless anyone here is an expert on negotiating toy merchandise licence deals and has inside information on how these deals work, we're all just guessing.

    As for the House from Up, go for it, if done well it could be an interesting project. Lego already has a close relationship with Disney too which should make for smoother waters when/if it comes to licence negotiations.
    Having dealt with licensed merchandise, I can tell you that it all depends on the licensor. Some hand out licenses often, and are very easy to deal with. Others are very stingy with dealing out licenses, and often require that the company receiving the license be the exclusive licensee for a specific category of merchandise. This can be difficult as categories are split up at the licensor's whim (example: one company may have an exclusive license for kids-sized t-shirts, while another has adult-sized t-shirts, etc.).

    I can also tell you from experience that Nintendo is one of the WORST to do business with. I can easily see LEGO rejecting that project because of this. The t-shirt example above came from Nintendo-licensed products specifically. They can also be very stingy about the actual product produced, and often reject licenses if they cannot get to dictate the designs. For example, Nintendo has this weird rule that anything depicting multiple iterations of Mario (such as a repeat print shirt) must have all iterations of Mario be identical. In other words, you can't have one Mario profile and one Mario facing forwards. Their reasoning? There's only one Mario!!

    And I think Playmobil has the license for Nintendo building toys, if I'm not mistaken.
  • legoheadlegohead Member Posts: 6
    Hi, what do you people think about this project? http://lego.cuusoo.com/ideas/view/13678
  • legoheadlegohead Member Posts: 6
    edited May 2012
    Hi, my name is Daniel and I am the creator of the Music Legends minifigure series project over on Cuusoo.

    The idea is to turn all rock, classical, and other (you name it) musicians into Lego minifigures.
    If the project gets enough support Lego company starts making it, and then I can buy them all , you can buy them too if you want.
    Feel free to make suggestions and support the project if you want to see it happen (no funds needed just votes).

    Here's the link: http://lego.cuusoo.c...deas/view/13678
  • starfire2starfire2 Member Posts: 1,333
    link is not working. It has an error message 'server can not be found'.
  • dmg111dmg111 Member Posts: 40
    Fixed link: lego.cuusoo.com/ideas/view/13678
  • LegoFanTexasLegoFanTexas Member Posts: 8,404
    Pretty much every other license will be more difficult to produce than that, but I can see Lego getting deals with intellectual properties that are pretty much dead and/or stagnant, as the proprietor would probably see any income as free money and added publicity for the product.
    ^ This... Back to the Future and Firefly are both sleeping properties... What possible reason would the owners of the IP NOT want to take free money? If they are paid an initial fixed fee to cover basic costs, then an ongoing income based on sales, they have nothing to lose from something they aren't using anyway, and are unlikely to use soon.
    I think Zelda would be one of the hardest licenses to get since it's an active IP with frequent releases, and I'm sure Nintendo is going to ask for plenty of money since it's pretty clear Lego will benefit more from using the Zelda IP than Nintendo is getting from Lego.
    Maybe, but free advertising is never a bad thing, Nintendo gets in front of more people, their logo gets on the Lego boxes, there is little downside here that I can see.

    That being said, I have read that Nintendo is a hard company to do business with, less so in recent years since Sony and Microsoft took so much of their business away, back in the SNES days, they were reported to be "my way or the highway", and that lingers.
    That last part has always seemed to be important when it comes to licenses. When it comes to Lego using a company logo or vehicle model in a product, like with the VW Bus and Beetle, the MB Unimog and of course the collaboration with Maersk, the licensing company benefits as much or more from Lego making the models than Lego themselves. It's really great for brand recognition to have kids displaying and playing with your product...
    Ford is nuts to not contact Lego and ask if they want to make a "classics" line of Ford vehicles in Lego, maybe even make them RC with power functions. A F-150 truck, a Mustang, a Model T, a Model TT (Google it, pretty cool actually), etc.
  • wertyjjwertyjj Member Posts: 64
    What do you think of this project? http://lego.cuusoo.com/ideas/view/11902
  • BanditBandit Member Posts: 889
    The biggest issue with Nintendo is that Knex is currently making Lego ripoff sets, so that pretty much kills any ideas of a Zelda license.
  • Steve_J_OMSteve_J_OM Member Posts: 993
    I'm absolutely loving this series of micro-scale SW sets:

    http://lego.cuusoo.com/ideas/view/14933
  • LostInTranslationLostInTranslation Member Posts: 5,572
    ^ ha, so freaky! I literally just saw those posted on the Brickish forum by the creator! They are deffo getting my vote.
  • atkinsaratkinsar Member Posts: 4,258
    Yes they are rather good, I supported it a while back.
  • ModeltrainmanModeltrainman Member Posts: 1,191
    Anyone think my replica of Carl's house is better?
  • LostInTranslationLostInTranslation Member Posts: 5,572
    Only 12 more votes needed for Serenity...
  • LostInTranslationLostInTranslation Member Posts: 5,572
    10,000 achieved for Serenity !
  • atkinsaratkinsar Member Posts: 4,258
    edited May 2012
    EVE hit 10k on 26th April, so that's four projects in 10 days that have hit the mark!

    Of the licenced sets that have made it recently, BTTF and Firefly are by far my favourites, doesn't mean I think they'll necessarily get made, but I hope they do. But what I really want is that Modular Western Town, let's hope it gets there soon.
    Anyone think my replica of Carl's house is better?
    Maybe I missed it, but did you post a link, I'd like to have a look? Oh, and better than what...?

  • drdavewatforddrdavewatford Administrator Posts: 6,754
    ^ Sorry to say but I'm not impressed with any of the recent projects which have passed the 10K mark apart from the Winchester... The two ships are ordinary in the extreme - it's all abut the two licences rather than the actual models - the BTTF design is clunky and unattractive, and the Zelda 'design' doesn't seem to be a design at all, just a plea for LEGO to do something Zelda. Great - how imaginative. It's a blessed relief that LEGO will come up with their own designs for these if the projects do eventually get greenlit, but my initial excitement that Cuusoo would result in some of the imaginative and wonderful MOCs out there reaching a wider population has been extinguished and replaced with despair at the lack of imagination being displayed by the voting public. Shame.
  • atkinsaratkinsar Member Posts: 4,258
    I don't know the source material for the EVE ship so can't really comment other than it's not my cup of tea. Serenity is an extremely tough ship to model in Lego, and I have to say, I think the creator has done a half decent job, albeit one that could do with a fair bit of refinement. The BTTF design is ok, not outstanding but decent enough as a starting point. For the record, I don't think any of the four will pass review.

    I certainly don't share your despair at Cuusoo, although I absolutely agree that it's a shame more original ideas don't fair better. I still think it's a good platform, and one that will be refined over time. I do think Lego will change the 'rules' significantly in the near future though, and that may well include banning licenced projects.
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