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BrickLink Designer Program Details Revealed

A couple of days ago, LEGO revealed the next steps in the collaboration between LEGO Ideas and BrickLink via the BrickLink Designer Program: 2021 Invitational.

As communicated in December 2020, LEGO planned to invite a selection of LEGO Ideas members and their 10K Club submissions to participate in the pilot program, the purpose being to realize more of the amazing fan designs that are submitted to LEGO Ideas.

The result has been that 27 members have agreed to participate with 31 10K Club projects. In fact, almost 100% of the invited members deciding to accept LEGO’s invitation to the program.

The designers are already very busy at work on their designs in the pre-production phase. In this phase, designers must re-work their designs to fit a few program requirements, such as having to build their creations digitally in BrickLink Studio using a particular palette of LEGO bricks and colors, resizing their designs to fit between 400-4,000 elements, and more.

“This is very cool: I am in control of designing the final product” – Stephan Niks, Creator of Anatomini

The pre-production phase, which ends May 31st. will also include testing phases. Submissions must pass the pre-production phase and deadline in order to have their design(s) eligible for crowdfunding.

On the landing page, you can find the overall timeline for the program as well as an in-depth FAQ that can hopefully assist you with answers to your questions. The BrickLink team will also be available to answer your questions.

Below are some frequently asked questions about the BrickLink Designer Program that you might be interested in, and there is also an in-depth and updated FAQ that can be found on BrickLink

WHY WERE SO MANY OTHER 10K CREATORS NOT INVITED TO PARTICIPATE IN THE BDP 2021 INVITATIONAL? – Considering the maximum number of sets LEGO can produce, only 32 projects were selected among all the unrealized LEGO Ideas projects. No IP-based models are invited to the program as they cannot be produced through this program.

WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO DESIGNS THAT DON’T MEET THE PROGRAM CRITERIA DURING THE PRE-PRODUCTION PHASE? – Designers of all the participating projects have to revise their original design to meet the program requirements and pass the test building before May 31st. Only the projects that meet the production requirements will be listed for crowdfunding.

HOW MANY DESIGNS WILL BECOME BRICKLINK DESIGNER PROGRAM SETS? – Only the first 13 projects to reach the crowdfunding goal will become BrickLink Designer Program sets.

WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO THE DESIGNS THAT DON’T REACH THE CROWDFUNDING GOAL OR ARE NOT AMONG THE 13 QUICKEST TO HIT THEIR GOAL? – The remaining projects in the crowdfunding phase that don’t become BrickLink Designer Program sets will be sold as digital Building Instructions only, so that you can still have an opportunity to find your own bricks to build them.

HOW ARE FAN CREATORS COMPENSATED FOR THEIR IDEAS? – Fan designers will receive a 10% royalty fee for BrickLink Designer Program sets, while designers of Digital Building Instructions will receive a 75% royalty fee.

WHEN WILL I BE ABLE TO BACK (PRE-ORDER) PARTICULAR SETS? – The BrickLink Designer sets will be manufactured from September of 2021 and LEGO aims to ship the first batch in November. LEGO will be able to share more realistic shipping schedule when the manufacturing process begins.

WILL LEGO MODIFY THE ORIGINAL LEGO IDEAS DESIGN DURING PRODUCTION? – In the BrickLink Designer Program, LEGO do not intend to change the original designs that are loved by the fans, but there can be inevitable modifications due to production requirements, such as part availability and stability issues. All design revisions will be done by the original designer, and the revision history will be shared on the project’s details page.

What do you think? How do you like the idea of the BrickLink Designer Program? Are you excited that more LEGO Ideas projects will be released under the new program? Feel free to share your thoughts and discuss in the comment section below!

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{ 10 comments… add one }
  • Undercover Afol March 19, 2021, 10:35 AM

    This is fantastic news. I hope they don’t sell out too fast.

    • Su March 19, 2021, 12:50 PM

      They shouldn’t sell out since we preorder during the crowdsource phase, right?

      • Håkan March 19, 2021, 3:06 PM

        It makes sense, I guess…

      • Thita (admin) March 21, 2021, 6:22 PM

        There is a limit of how many they are making of each set. The maximum is 5k for each. So it’s best to preorder as soon as they are available. I remember in the previous crowdsourcing round some of the most popular designs ran out fairly fast.

  • Su March 19, 2021, 12:49 PM

    I am SO excited about this. I like how they are rolling it out, and I’m thrilled so many of the fishing village sets are part of it. I’ve been wanting those for what seems like forever now. The train station is another fav of mine. It will be fun to watch this all year with the prizes, so to speak, just in time for Christmas. 😁

    • Thita (admin) March 21, 2021, 6:20 PM

      Yeah, the fishing village has been a fan favorite for a lot of people. 🙂

  • Håkan March 19, 2021, 3:05 PM

    Hmm, The Castle in the Forest is still a pretty good build. I wonder what the price will be for a limited release of this kind…

    Alas, this version won’t include any newly printed Forestmen, it seems…

  • jabber-baby-wocky March 19, 2021, 3:46 PM

    I’m really happy to see this. I’m surprised that they selected some very big projects that will likely cost hundreds of dollars.

  • Henry March 19, 2021, 5:21 PM

    My favorites are the waterfall, the fishing boat, and the dive shop. But I can already tell they are going to be expensive.

  • yoladiel March 22, 2021, 11:22 AM

    It’s scary how many of these I like. I guess I better start saving up. I hope the quality will be at least close to real sets. BTW, are they going to be Lego branded?

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