A couple of days ago LEGO announced the chosen projects from the third 2015 LEGO Ideas review. There were nine qualified projects in this review-period that reached 10,000 votes between September 2015 and early January 2016. The results are quite interesting. Below is the video-announcement and some other details. 🙂
The LEGO The Beatles Yellow Submarine is by amateur musician and songwriter, Kevin Szeto. He wanted to show his affection for The Beatles through a LEGO tribute to the iconic British rock band. He really brought it to life in vibrant and fun colors, and even included the whole band as LEGO minifigures. The submarine in its current state is just a bit over 400 pieces, which is in line with other LEGO Ideas sets. It features a functioning propeller and rudder, as well as a set of periscopes that can rotate to different angular positions. The top cover of the chassis is removable to reveal a cockpit that fits all four minifigs. This is a great display-piece for Beatles fans, plus we will get the entire band in minifig form!
The LEGO Apollo 11 Saturn V is by LEGO fans saabfan and whatsuptoday is the second project that was approved in this round. The whole rocket is about 1 meter or 130 studs long, and consists of 1179 LEGO elements. If LEGO stays true to the original submission, this is going to the largest set released under LEGO Ideas, and could open the door for other larger projects. The rocket is actually quite complex with a modular design. It features a removable 1st rocket-stage with the main rocket engine, a removable 2nd rocket-stage with rocket engine, and a removable 3rd rocket-stage with the Apollo spacecraft. The Apollo spacecraft includes the “Eagle” Lunar Lander and the Lunar Orbiter. And there is also a rescue rocket on top of the whole spacecraft. The set comes with two minifigure astronauts. This is not just a beautiful LEGO model, but it is also educational and a testament to human exploration.
Below is the announcement video with more details:
LEGO is still working out the final design, pricing, and availably for both the LEGO Beatles Yellow Submarine and the LEGO Apollo 11 Saturn V, but they should be available towards the end of this year and/or early next year. At the same time the next batch of LEGO Ideas projects that reached 10,000 supporters between January and May 2016 are already in review. The results will be announced later this fall.
I think LEGO made a good choice with both projects. I’m particularly excited about the LEGO Apollo 11 Saturn V. This will be the third space exploration related LEGO Ideas set after the #21101 LEGO Ideas Hayabusa, and the #21104 LEGO Ideas NASA Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Rover – both excellent sets. If you would like to check out the currently available sets originally designed and submitted by LEGO fans, check out the LEGO Ideas section of the Online LEGO Shop.
So what do you think? How do you like the two projects LEGO has chosen? Are you excited about either of them? Or both? Were you hoping that some of the other projects get approved instead? Feel free to share your thoughts and discuss in the comment section below! 😉
And you might also like to check out the following related posts:
- New Book with More LEGO Ideas Birds
- Projects in the First 2016 LEGO Ideas Review
- LEGO Ideas Maze – More Alternate Mazes
- LEGO Ideas Maze – Review & Thoughts
- LEGO Ideas Caterham & Adventure Time
- LEGO Ideas Doctor Who Set Review
- Review of the LEGO Ideas The Big Bang Theory
- LEGO Ideas WALL-E Now Fixed & Available!
These are both great sets, especially the Apollo 11 Saturn V, which I know a lot of my friends are going to be thrilled by. I am very disappointed, however, that the Victorian London Christmas was not approved. It is one of the best sets I’ve ever seen, and I was already saving for it. The builder did an amazing job with all the little details and I am very disappointed that I won’t be able to add this to my Christmas collection.
Maya, yes, the London Christmas model was beautiful. Unfortunately it was too big to become an official LEGO set. However hopefully LEGO will get a hint that people would like to have something like that, and they may make something similar with a more reasonable piece-count and price. 🙂
I can’t wait for the Yellow Submarine. I grew up around music, in a family of musicians who love the Beatles, so that is a must on my list.
Nice! I think this is going to be a great set both for play and display. Great details, instantly recognizable, not too big, not too small. Plus it includes the entire band! 😀
That rocket will most likely be shrunk…
It’s been a while since I saw the animated movie, and I don’t remember if the inside of the submarine was ever shown…
I’m hoping that the rocket will remain pretty big. The fact that in the announcement the length was particularly mentioned gives me hope that they are planning to keep that feature.
I thought the HMS Beagle would have gone through- no copyright problems, historic, boaty, fits in well with other themes etc, really surprised it didn’t get through?- I’m really puzzled sometimes at what they chose to pass…perhaps not many people had heard of the ship or what they did…unlike the above of course.
We are definitely due for a large ship, so perhaps LEGO already has something in the works. Otherwise, yeah, it would have been nice.
Any word yet on what other sets will be coming out for the fall?
As in Ideas sets? There’s the Caterham Super Seven (21306), which will probably be out around November.
Other sets coming out are the 2016 Winter Village set (supposedly a train) in September, and the Star Wars Rogue One sets. I think everything else will be out in August. 🙂
The second wave of summer sets are coming out in August. So all the new Ninjago sets, Super Heroes, Nexo Knights, Friends Amusement Park sets, Elves, etc. Later we should be getting the Disney Castle set, as well as the Star Wars Rogue One line. I can’t remember what else…
I like that the Apollo 11 passed review, although I guess LEGO will half its size. 😕 Hopefully it will still be an awesome set. The Yellow Submarine is also nice, and it’s more reasonably sized, but I kind of like the song better than the model.
Also: http://brickset.com/article/22070/10252-vw-beetle-press-release 🙂 I think it looks great (excepting the surfboard), although I’ll probably never get it. The color is nice, too, and those new 5X5 curve bricks are quite interesting. 🙂
We will be talking about the VW Beetle tomorrow, as it was just not possible for me to fit in the press-release before 10 AM. But yeah, it looks great! 😀
Sign me up for a Yellow Submarine!!! Is there a secret compartment to store a random doobie? Probably not very Lego. …but there probably should be anyway. 😏
Maybe for the AFOL in OR and WA.
LOL! Well, they sort of had a marihuana plant in the VW Camper, so I would see LEGO sneaking in something. 🙄
Yellow Submarine! Such a brilliant idea! Now let’s add Nowhere Man Jeremy and a Blue Meanie!
A Blue Meanie minifig would be sooooo great! From your mouth to Lego’s ear!