LEGO Ideas - Review Results

ReesesPieces · February 19

It is central park, they need to have Gunther as well!

SumoLego · February 19

It seems a bit repetitive. Getting a TV vignette Ideas set every three or so years is uninspiring.

Particularly one that really didn't reference LEGO or otherwise promote it.

(But I would love to see a Seinfeld apartment, so I suppose this isn't completely unanticipated.)

Baby_Yoda · February 19

Friends is cool, I wasn't expecting that. We all knew Steamboat Willie was coming, and I'm not particularly interested. I'll wait for the Treehouse reveal before I decide whether I'm getting the Friends set.

pxchris · February 19

^^ A Seinfeld apartment would be fun! I also thought that a Cheers bar would be a hoot!

MrJackson · February 19

I'm joining the ranks of people who are really disappointed by this Review's results. I didn't think any of them would make it, and I almost wish none of them had, rather than the two we got. I guess I'm not surprised by Steamboat Willie, but the Friends set has me totally stumped. First, I don't think it's as popular as some of the comments make it out to be, including this theoretical second wind for the show among the 20s-demographic. Second, I've never thought the show is all that funny to begin with - I'd much rather watch Seinfeld. Third, I don't think the show has held up at all over time, and I don't think that's unique to Friends; my wife usually has Full House on at night as background to fall asleep to, and my god, has that show not aged gracefully.

Unfortunately there was nothing else in the review that I could have seen making it - I think the Fiat got a lot of clamoring, but having seen the new Creator Mustang that's coming, which blows the Fiat (and the entire rest of the Creator Expert Vehicle line that came before it, for that matter) clean out of the water, I don't think the Fiat ever had a chance. Too many space submissions, which doesn't surprise me given the number of space Ideas sets there have been, including the absolutely incredible Saturn V.

I feel like Ideas should be renamed "TV shows and other IPs we can't shoehorn into the existing catalogue" or something like that. The new Flinstones set only convinces me more of that. At this point it's easier to identify the Ideas sets that aren't based on an existing movie/TV show. And the ones that are? Adventure Time? Really? I worked at LBR for 4 years, during which I saw the bulk of the shelf life of Adventure Time. I mean, we couldn't give the thing away. I don't think I saw a single kid (the target audience) march into the store saying "I want the Adventure Time set, where can I find it?" Even BBT sat for a good portion of the latter part of its life (don't get me started on the show itself).

TL;DR These sets are puzzling and Ideas has run its course, IMO.

Lyichir · February 19

MrJackson said:

TL;DR These sets are puzzling and Ideas has run its course, IMO.

You say that mere months after the extremely novel Pop-Up Book, a year after the Ship in a Bottle, and less than two years removed from the highly acclaimed Saturn V and Old Fishing Store (with the Treehouse set still on the horizon). I get that you're not super excited by the recent results or the release of the Flintstones set; I'm not too fussed about them either. But to declare Ideas as having "run its course" based on one quarter's news seems pretty impulsive, given the broad range of the theme and the small number of sets we get each year.

pxchris · February 19

Overall I am extremely happy with what has come out of Ideas. I think the awesome thing about it is that it gives TLG a way to put these very niche sets out that will (in many cases) only appeal to a relatively small target market. But I believe that some of the absolute best sets to have come out in the last five years or so fall into the Ideas range.

Saturn V
Voltron
Ship in a Bottle
Pop-Up Book
Caterham Seven
Wall-e
Exo Suit

Not to mention some fan favorites like the Old Fishing Store, Ecto-1, Doctor Who, and Yellow Submarine.

Again, not all of those are going to appeal super broadly, and that's the awesome thing. I myself don't own all of those, but the ones I do have (which is quite a few), are among my favorite sets!

I'm looking forward to picking up the Flinstones set. I do think that it could have been a bit better, but overall based on the reviews, I'm still pretty happy with what they put out.

MrJackson · February 19

I'm also looking at the stuff in between those sets that is movie/tv related: Minecraft, DeLorean, Ghostbusters, BBT, WALL-E, Doctor Who, Yellow Submarine, Adventure Time, Voltron, Tron, and now Flinstones. As of this writing, BL lists 23 sets, with Flinstones making it 24. So 11 of 24. If you include the upcoming Tree House and the two just-announced next releases, it becomes 13 of 27. I mean, that's almost half of the entire Ideas/CUUSOO range.

Saturn V and Fishing Store are great sets, and that was a banner year for Ideas. To be fair, I have a number of the Ideas sets that I mentioned above, and didn't not enjoy any of them. My point is more that Ideas seems to have become a conduit to get sets from other mediums into the product catalogue. I still maintain that the best ideas set is #21301 Birds. That and my #4002014 HUB Birds are the only two sets that are displayed on the first floor of my house, the entire rest of the collection is relegated to the basement.

pxchris · February 19

It's funny that you mention displaying - because I see the Ship in a Bottle and Pop-Up Book as ideal display sets. If I owned the Maze, I think I would have that out on display as well in my living room.

For me, other than those, the only other sets I currently have out in the main, public areas of the house are some of the Creator Expert vehicles. Though those will get moved back into my LEGO / Media room once I have the new shelves up.

MrJackson · February 19

See, as much as I wanted to love Ship in a Bottle, I can't - and I voted for the original submission. I just think the final model got nerfed so severely, I couldn't bring myself to spend money on it.

pxchris · February 19

I loved the grandiose original that Jacob designed (which I supported as well), but having seen his actual model in person I have to say, that on a display-ability level, I'm actually quite happy with what the LEGO designers did with the official set. The original model is a behemoth and truly couldn't be reasonably displayed in most homes on a bookshelf or such I think. With the released model, I can quite nicely display it on a shelf with some books and it looks magnificent.

While I most certainly don't always agree with the design decisions LEGO makes to Ideas sets, I have to say that in this specific case (of the Ship in a Bottle), I'm actually quite in support of them.

MrJackson · February 19

That's certainly fair, but one change I never understood was changing the orientation of the bottle to lie flat on its side, rather than rest on the corner canted 45 degrees. That would have given another inch or so of height for the "Leviathan" which ended up being anything but, since the internal space was shrunk. I'm curious how they will make the rather large Friends coffee house scaled a little better - I think it's rather large as it currently stands.

SumoLego · February 19

There's no way the coffeehouse maintains that size. I expect the same footprint as Leonard/Penny/Sheldon's apartment or maybe something slightly larger.

Even the scale of the CNY feast set would be sizeable and expensive for an Ideas vignette.

pxchris · February 19

I have a feeling that you're right @SumoLego, and I think that it's going to really end up making the set loose that Central Perk feel.

nexander · February 19

Im another that has been left head scratching by this. I get the Steamboat set, small with personality that will be attractive to many ages. Friends however makes me think they are just after something to sell to millenials. I showed it to my wife (we watched it on tv/DVD when it was originaly shown) and it took her ages to figure out what it was. Hopefully the final design will be smaller, more focused and have a bit more charm and personality.

Aanchir · February 19

MrJackson said:

I'm also looking at the stuff in between those sets that is movie/tv related: Minecraft, DeLorean, Ghostbusters, BBT, WALL-E, Doctor Who, Yellow Submarine, Adventure Time, Voltron, Tron, and now Flinstones. As of this writing, BL lists 23 sets, with Flinstones making it 24. So 11 of 24. If you include the upcoming Tree House and the two just-announced next releases, it becomes 13 of 27. I mean, that's almost half of the entire Ideas/CUUSOO range.

Yeah, but like… the Ideas theme has almost always oscillated around a 50/50 split between pop culture related and non pop culture related projects. That's not a new thing, nor in any way a betrayal of the philosophy behind Cuusoo.

After all, the idea that pop culture based sets are inherently any less imaginative than non pop culture based ones isn't all that credible. It's not as though projects like the Shinkai, Hayabusa, Birds, and Saturn V were any MORE creative or original than stuff like Wall-E or the Ecto-1. They're all very direct likenesses of existing subjects that were familiar and meaningful to the people supporting them — it's just some are based on specific subjects from real life and others on ones from works of fiction.

And projects like the Minecraft Micro-World, Adventure Time, and Voltron sets show pretty clearly that there's more to making a licensed set than just running a scene from a movie or show through some kind of one-click LEGO filter with no creative thinking required. The variety of ways of using LEGO to depict a subject is highly flexible whether it's real or licensed. A lot of decisions have to be made about the scale, the balance between the model's display value and play experience, and how much to stylize the subject to account for the inherent differences between LEGO bricks and its original medium.

It's fine if you don't feel drawn to all Ideas projects. I'm not really drawn to the vast majority of them, whether or not their designs impress me, because more often than not I'd rather have a set from a bigger and more story-driven theme like Ninjago, Bionicle, or Elves. But that doesn't mean that Ideas is somehow failing, because it's never been just for one group of fans, but for ANY community that has ideas for stuff they'd like to see as LEGO products, but which wouldn't stand out as obviously to LEGO as having strong sales potential based on their more conventional approach to market research.

Consider that before the Minecraft set, LEGO had never created licensed sets based on a video game (aside from spin-offs of IPs they were already licensing, like Star Wars: The Force Unleashed). Before the Voltron set, LEGO had never created a licensed set based on a Japanese anime. So just because these projects are IP-based doesn't mean that they aren't exploring new possibilities that LEGO had previously never committed to on their own.

Anyway, I'm fairly indifferent to both of these projects. And that's fine! They're not for me. They're for people like those who created and supported them and who saw some untapped value there.

guachi · February 20

MrJackson said:

I'm also looking at the stuff in between those sets that is movie/tv related: Minecraft, DeLorean, Ghostbusters, BBT, WALL-E, Doctor Who, Yellow Submarine, Adventure Time, Voltron, Tron, and now Flinstones. As of this writing, BL lists 23 sets, with Flinstones making it 24. So 11 of 24. If you include the upcoming Tree House and the two just-announced next releases, it becomes 13 of 27. I mean, that's almost half of the entire Ideas/CUUSOO range.

While some are technically not IP I don't count the designs based on actual humans or real human-built things. So that leaves Exo Suit, Research Institute (since it's not of any particular place or people), Birds, Maze, Old Fishing Store, Ship in a Bottle, and Pop-Up Book.

That's a mere 7 of 24.

Some of the stuff based on IP looks great, don't get me wrong.

pharmjod · February 20

Is friends a millennial show? It aired in the 90s and the characters were all in their mid to late 20s which would have put them born in the early 70s. That puts them firmly in the Gen-X generation. Most millennials would have barely been teenagers when it was on.

Baby_Yoda · February 20

I personally grew up with it around. That might be where Millennial influence comes in: they mightn't've been in the target demographic, but it's been around since their youth, so it's more ingrained in their idea of popular culture than Gen-X, who would have already been adults by the time it aired. Kind of like Star Wars for those born in the mid-70's onward.

wardm · February 20

Friends is still big with millennials! I’m a teacher and I saw one of my 14 y.o. students wearing a Friends shirt yesterday. You also see a lot of people posting memes about friends on instagram and other social media.

CCC · February 20

I guess The Big Bang Theory must have sold quite well, so they expect Friends to go the same way. And IDEAS sets are meant to target non-traditional LEGO audiences too, and this is probably likely to tap into the market of women in their 30s-40s.

Redbullgivesuwind · February 20

I think Friends is a very smart choice as it has the widest appeal out of all of the sets up for review. With it's arrival in Europe on Netflix, over here it seems to have given the show a new lease of life with it picking up a large audience, a mixture of new younger watchers and old fans, and I believe it has done very well for Netflix. There were a lot of articles written about it when it started being available to stream. It is also always on TV here in the UK with two channels always showing it. I think the set will sell very well and probably appeal to a large non-lego buying group. Lego obviously think the market is there otherwise they wouldn't release it.

monkyby87 · February 20

Lego IDEAS is always going to have sets based around IP's and other licensed properties, because that's what interests people. It's not like Lego is refusing to let people make unique and different stuff (like the Birds set that was mentioned). The licensed and IP stuff just appeals more. There's nothing wrong with that. But if you're Lego, are you going to not make the stuff that appeals most to people, and instead go with a riskier product that may not be supported by people? It's a balancing act Lego has to play with the IDEAS platform.

As others have said, IDEAS can't, and shouldn't, ever try to appeal to everyone. That's not what it's for. Would Lego love if everyone bought all of their sets? Of course. But they know it won't appeal to everyone, so they don't aim to.

TheFew · February 20

I still prefer Lego Cuusoo :-)

CCC · February 26

The Flintstones has been available for a few days for AFOLs but not much chat about it.

There is an error in the description. It says "Includes a buildable postbox with printed ‘Flintstones’ decoration, plus a letter element." Yet the postbox actually has a Flintstone and not Flinstones decoration on it. It is a shame they do not get details right in sets like this. Surely they have access to enough material in this case.

TheOriginalSimonB · February 26

^I’ll be honest, I love the concept, and it looked good in photos but seeing it in store last week it just didn’t work for me. Not sure why, but my boat was not floated.

Speedman29 · February 26

I felt the same. Popped in the store today and saw it. Was underwhelmed for £55. Just didn't look much there.

RogerKirk · February 26

My city hosted a FriendsFest last year, which had recreations of the some of the sets and I've no idea what else. But it seemed really popular and I saw loads of people walking around with hoodies afterwards. I don't know if it happened elsewhere, but would presume it was part of a tour around the country.

It seems to be continuously on the TV in the UK, on one channel or another and still makes the news, such as when it became available on Netflix. So I guess the fan base is still there and it makes a set potentially successful - especially as a way to get new people in to Lego.

Bosstone100 · February 27

When the Flintstones started, it was just those four characters. Dino was adopted in season 2 and the kids came later, season 3 for Pebbles and season for Bamm-Bamm.

klinton · February 27

CCC said:

The Flintstones has been available for a few days for AFOLs but not much chat about it.

There is an error in the description. It says "Includes a buildable postbox with printed ‘Flintstones’ decoration, plus a letter element." Yet the postbox actually has a Flintstone and not Flinstones decoration on it. It is a shame they do not get details right in sets like this. Surely they have access to enough material in this case.

Huh. I didn't realize that. It made sense to me to have just the family name, but the actual art from the show was indeed "Flintstones". This is going to annoy me now. Thanks for that, hahaha!

blokey9 · February 27

it was "The Flinstones" during the credits, but i believe it was "Flinstone" during the actual show. i could be completely wrong though.

Cymbeline · February 27

@CCC I found this picture of the mailbox from the show . . .

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5015319/uploads/editor/x2/pxzlcae98k8k.jpg

CCC · February 27

OK, I only remember the titles.

andywilson · February 27

Another one excited when the Flintstones was announced but underwhelmed when I saw it in store - I'll spend the £55 on loose women and drink instead. (i.e. buy my wife a Birthday present and top up my nespresso capsules...)

pharmjod · February 27

I mean his name is Fred Flintstone not Fred Flintstones.

CCC · February 27

pharmjod said:

I mean his name is Fred Flintstone not Fred Flintstones.

This is what I was referring to.

Image: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/c4/e2/59/c4e259ffa5fe7e42b7107c70aa9e84b4.jpg

But as already pointed out above, they are not consistent with it. This is the one in all the title sequences, the other is in the episodes.

SumoLego · February 27

pharmjod said:

I mean his name is Fred Flintstone not Fred Flintstones.

The mailbox would then have to read 'Flintstoneses'.

The_Rancor · February 27

Flintstoneses took the rockses precious

blokey9 · February 27

look at that, for 40 years i have misspelling and pronouncing the name.

Astrobricks · February 27

blokey9 said:

look at that, for 40 years i have misspelling and pronouncing the name.

Cuz, you know, flint is a stone :)

SumoLego · February 27

Stonestoneses?

MaffyD · March 4

I'm actually quite happy that they have sets I don't like coming out. I spend more than enough on Lego as it is, and the sets that I personally can't be bothered with are obviously being aimed at someone else. Which is fine.

redarmy · March 4

CCC said:

pharmjod said:

I mean his name is Fred Flintstone not Fred Flintstones.

This is what I was referring to.

But as already pointed out above, they are not consistent with it. This is the one in all the title sequences, the other is in the episodes.

Who the hell are the are Funtstones?

dragon114 · May 20

I want the arcades https://ideas.lego.com/blogs/a4ae09b6-0d4c-4307-9da8-3ee9f3d368d6/post/c9233086-9edf-405f-8f48-7d37c86f8901

SumoLego · May 20

pharmjod said:

Is friends a millennial show?

As a tail-end GenXer, it's definitely a show that was meant for slightly older folks (maybe in their 30's at the time), but appealed to people in their 20's and teenagers. So the first-run of the show was for GenXers.

Most Millenials have experienced Friends through reruns or streaming services. It still appears to appeal to those in the same demographic. My 17 year-old niece loves Friends. (So my previously outdated references are now clever again.)

Pivot!

It does occur to me that all of the characters were in their 20's and all employed at career-type jobs. A Millenial show about 20-somethings would probably be more on-par with That 70's Show... (And yes, they're in High School.)

CCC · May 20

dragon114 said:

I want the arcades https://ideas.lego.com/blogs/a4ae09b6-0d4c-4307-9da8-3ee9f3d368d6/post/c9233086-9edf-405f-8f48-7d37c86f8901

"Please note that the fan vote is a "hidden/secret vote", meaning you will not be able to see how many votes a given product idea has received. The final vote count will be revealed at the end of the voting period. "

Or in other words, we will decide which one wins. And they probably have already decided the outcome. It is VIP Top 5 Minifigures all over again.

Fauch · May 20

that's an interesting idea, as the number of votes alone could be an incentive for supporting a project or not

Lyichir · May 20

CCC said:

dragon114 said:

I want the arcades https://ideas.lego.com/blogs/a4ae09b6-0d4c-4307-9da8-3ee9f3d368d6/post/c9233086-9edf-405f-8f48-7d37c86f8901

"Please note that the fan vote is a "hidden/secret vote", meaning you will not be able to see how many votes a given product idea has received. The final vote count will be revealed at the end of the voting period. "

Or in other words, we will decide which one wins. And they probably have already decided the outcome. It is VIP Top 5 Minifigures all over again.

This is a really silly conspiracy theory. Just because they're not showing the vote counts in real time (a very good idea since showing the votes could pit voters against one another more directly as voters brigade for or against whatever is currently in the lead) doesn't mean they don't plan on honoring the results. As they've said about this event, these four projects have been selected because they have been pre-approved—none will pose any brand fit, design, or licensing issues that would prevent them from being produced. So there'd be no logical reason to falsify the results, since doing so would mean consciously choosing to produce a set that proved less popular than the one that actually won.

CCC · May 21

Lyichir said:

CCC said:

dragon114 said:

I want the arcades https://ideas.lego.com/blogs/a4ae09b6-0d4c-4307-9da8-3ee9f3d368d6/post/c9233086-9edf-405f-8f48-7d37c86f8901

"Please note that the fan vote is a "hidden/secret vote", meaning you will not be able to see how many votes a given product idea has received. The final vote count will be revealed at the end of the voting period. "

Or in other words, we will decide which one wins. And they probably have already decided the outcome. It is VIP Top 5 Minifigures all over again.

This is a really silly conspiracy theory. Just because they're not showing the vote counts in real time (a very good idea since showing the votes could pit voters against one another more directly as voters brigade for or against whatever is currently in the lead) doesn't mean they don't plan on honoring the results. As they've said about this event, these four projects have been selected because they have been pre-approved—none will pose any brand fit, design, or licensing issues that would prevent them from being produced. So there'd be no logical reason to falsify the results, since doing so would mean consciously choosing to produce a set that proved less popular than the one that actually won.

And maybe they should do the same with regular IDEAS. Don't show any vote counts and only notify once they get to 10000.

LEGO Ideas - Review Results

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