I was reading something very exciting the other day on Tim Johnson’s LEGO blog called New Elementary. Tim’s focus is on new LEGO elements and exploring their use, which is interesting enough, however even more intriguing is that recently Tim became the member of a team of LEGO fans who are working on the packing and marketing of the upcoming LEGO CUUSOO Exo Suit set. 🙂
Peter Reid (the creator of the original LEGO Exo Suit) worked with LEGO designer Mark Stafford to redesign the Exo Suit according to LEGO’s own standards of playability and durability, then he pulled together a team of LEGO fans to work along with LEGO’s own employees to explore ideas for packaging and marketing the set.
Tim says the following about how big this is: “Having fans direct your marketing is a fairly radical approach, given that TLG have plenty of expert employees who actually do this shizzle for a living. But TLG’s relationship with their fans has been experimental and interesting ever since they realized in the late ‘90s that Mindstorms hackers could teach them a thing or two, and brought them on board to help develop the next version of the product. Admittedly, we fans would like it if TLG did even more experimental and interesting things with us, but in the grand scheme of things, they’re a pretty forward-thinking company in this regard. Indeed, they’ve never involved fans in the marketing of a set quite as much as they are with the Exo Suit.”
Tim also shares in his blog-post about the meetings their team conducted to come up with ideas. Although he is not allowed to reveal the final design of the set or any specific details, he did mention it should be available sometime in August. This is how the meeting looked like according to Andrew Hamilton (I just love these LEGO Classic Space creations!). 😀
As you probably know already, Peter Reid co-authored a book with Tim Goddard titled LEGO Space: Building the Future (see review here: LEGO Book – LEGO Space: Building the Future), which is one of my most favorite LEGO books. It basically pulls together various LEGO Classic Space themes and brings them together into a cohesive story, while also featuring many amazing LEGO spaceships and other creations built in LEGO Classic Space style. See book on Amazon: LEGO Space: Building the Future
The LEGO Exo Suit is actually featured in this book, and although it didn’t need to be, it was a natural choice to tie the Exo Suit into the LEGO Classic Space universe in its packaging and marketing. And that’s what I’m most excited about. I was already committed to getting this set as soon as it get’s released (I love Peter Reid’s design and I know Mark Stafford is not going to disappoint us either), but now that I know the set will be compatible with LEGO Classis Space, I can’t be happier.
This is actually all really excellent timing, as there is already a huge resurrection of LEGO Classic Space due to The LEGO Movie, and the upcoming LEGO Benny’s Spaceship set. The stars and planets are all aligning for LEGO Classic Space – literally! If you are interested in LEGO Classic Space and the upcoming LEGO Exo Suit set, I highly recommend that you read Tim’s entire blog post. See here: CUUSOO Exo Suit: The Logo.
So what do you think? Are you looking forward to the LEGO Exo Suit set? What do you think of the logo and the tie-in with LEGO Classic Space? Feel free to share and discuss in the comment section below! 😉
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yay! space stuff! 😀 this will sell out fast just like all other lego cuusoo sets! cant wait to get this mech!
Awesome! Can’t wait to get it either. #80’s SPACE
I don’t know why I did that. Just seemed fun 🙂
Looks like a cool model! I always thought Exo-suits were really cool. I wish they would start carrying CUUSOO sets at Target or Walmart, my nearest LEGO Store is about 1.5 hours away 🙁
Same here my nearest lego store is 1-2 hours away
Actually Wal-Mart does carry CUUSOO sets at times. It is rare, and it may not be all locations, but I have definitely seen the Minecraft sets there. And of course you can get them at the Online LEGO Store. 🙂
My Barnes & Noble carries the Minecraft sets. But I’ve never seen Cuusoo at my Walmart. 😕 My Lego store is also ~1 hour away. 🙁
It only happened at my WM one time and I was really surprised myself.
found the back to the future set at target the other day was very surprised!
Interesting! 😛
Really?? super lucky you!!
but how many where there Brickaddict?
yes I have seen some CUUSOO sets online but never in a store.
I want to get some. by the way the exosuit is so cool cause it is made up of Lego minifigure parts and tiny pieces . so thanks Peter Reid!!!!
Seth, just so you don’t get disappointed; it is unlikely that those delicate small pieces will be included in the final model. After all; this supposed to be a play-set that can withstand kids getting a bit rough with it. The current model is so delicate that if you look at it wrong it will fall apart. The re-design is being done by Mark Stafford, who is one of my most favorite LEGO designers and who is known for his excellent mechs. He worked closely with Peter Reid to come up with a final version that meets LEGO’s standars and Peter can also be happy about. We shall see how it turns out. I’m very curious for sure. 🙂
And another thing, Lego fans often love MOC:s with a lot of weird, tiny pieces, but they tend to increase the price of the set, so the sets tend to get simplified before they reach the store. Lego designers have a working principle in construction: “Never use two bricks when one will do”. So, the guideline is to follow the general idea with as few bricks as possible, perhaps by including new molds if they are believed to pay back their costs.
Hakan, yes, those are good points. Although I think the “never use two bricks when one will do” principe depends on other things as well; like what pieces they have in excess production. I can’t remember what it was, but just recently I was building something and was wondering why LEGO used two pieces when one would have worked just fine. It could also be that they want to increase the piece-count, so it looks like the set has more pieces. Or, LEGO fans have been requesting a piece and LEGO provides them in an upcoming set in quantities to make fans happy. And also, the final design also depends on what is the age-range the set is targeting. For younger kids larger and fewer pieces that are easy to put together is more important, whereas for older kids and adults interesting building techniques and requested/rare parts are more in focus.
Creator sets often use smaller parts in lieu, to allow more flexible builds, I’ve notices.
My guess is that this set is going to be marketed for 12+ or 14+, and it will include some intricate details, more so that say mechs included in the Ninjago sets. But it will also be sturdier than the original design with better and sturdier connections.
okay so it is not a play model. just something cool then I guess.
I had my hands on that LEGO space book, but I had no money with me at the time. 😥
Yeah, the book is wonderful. I couldn’t put it down! 😀
The tie in with Classic Space certainly piqued my interest, but I can’t be the only one here who would like a bit more color on the final model. The grey scale needs a little something extra.
Phil, yeah, a bit of color would be nice. Now that they are going in the direction of tying the set into Classic Space, I think it is quite possible that some Classic SPace-ish colors would be added. Most likely the logo too. 🙂
But Classic Space didn’t have a lot of colors… It was mostly just gray and blue…
I prefer the white/ trans-blue color scheme of Futuron, though, partly for nostalgic reasons…
Yes, what I was thinking of is a bit of blue and trans-yellow would spice up this mech. 😉
Looks cool. I love all the sticks and stuff. The LEGO Movie certainly got me interested in Classic Space. 🙂 Also, Peter Reid won a robot-building competition a few days ago, it’s on Brickset. 😉
OFF-Topic, but I found this yesterday on Brickset:
http://brickset.com/article/11027/brickshop-nl-reveals-new-minecraft-sets . Looks like there will be a minifig scale Ender Dragon after all. 😐
Yeah, I saw that news about the Minecraft sets. I’m going to wait until it is confirmed by LEGO because at this point is is not really clear which ones are Micro World and which are minifig scale.
I hope its mini-fig!