Updated guidelines for LEGO Ideas projects

Last week LEGO updated their Guidelines and House Rules and Terms of Service to clarify the range of submissions that would make good candidates for LEGO Ideas sets. This includes new limits to project size, scope, and subject matter, as well as simplified guidelines for collaborative projects. LEGO Ideas is a very innovate initiative from the company that allows LEGO fans to submit their own ideas for future LEGO sets. Unfortunately the platform has been cluttered by submissions that do not fit with the parameters and requirements of the LEGO Company. This made LEGO Ideas less interesting and relevant to supporters. Hopefully the updated guidelines will help clear up the platform and give way to projects that could actually be made into official LEGO sets. Below is a summary of the updates from the LEGO Ideas website.

• Once we produce a LEGO Ideas set based on a third-party property, we will not accept more Ideas submissions based on that property. This sharpens our guideline on follow-up products based on LEGO Ideas submissions. Once we approve a licensed project for production through LEGO Ideas, we’ll archive other projects based on the same property and not accept new submissions based on the that property.
• Projects must fit in a single product box, so we’re setting a part count limit of 3,000 pieces. While we can’t count the pieces in your photos, if your model looks too big we’ll send it back and ask you to submit a smaller model at our own discretion.
• Projects must focus on a single concept or third-party property. This essentially expands on the “no play-themes or series” rule and also rules out “mass customization” projects (e.g. custom mosaic or minifigure makers) as well as combining more than one third-party property into a single project. (e.g. a project containing both Porsche and Ferrari cars).
• It’s now simpler to collaborate on projects. We’ve removed the requirement to email us declaring your collaboration. You must still receive explicit permission from someone else before including their original work in your project. All new collaborative projects must mention collaborators’ LEGO Ideas usernames in the description, and state that their original work is included with the member’s explicit permission.
• New restrictions on project contents
  • No iconic elements referencing third-party properties we find inappropriate for the LEGO brand
  • No large or human-scale weapons or weapon replicas of any kind, including swords, knives, guns, sci-fi or fantasy blasters, etc.
  • Projects may not propose LEGO Dimensions expansion packs
  • You may only use logos that belong to third parties in the context of your model, similar to LEGO logo guidelines. You may not display logos that do not belong to you in your artwork, since this can imply endorsement from the logo owner.
• New guidelines to help improve project descriptions
  • At minimum, please write your description to include a description of your model, why you built it, and why you believe it would make a great LEGO set.
  • In some cases, moderators may make basic grammatical changes on your behalf so we can speed up the approval of your project. We will never change the nature of your project and we’ll notify you by email if we make any changes.
• Terms of Service now preserves projects that gain a significant following. While we understand you may occasionally want to delete a project with only a handful of supporters, to either re-submit with improvements or clean up your project portfolio, once a project reaches 1,000 supporters it will not be removed.
• Terms of Service revises language regarding assignment of rights. We’ve worked with our Legal department to clarify how you assign us rights when you submit a project, and reassure you that you may share and publish your submission to promote your project online, in media, your portfolio, and other places for non-commercial purposes.

We introduce these guidelines with the following steps:

1. New Guidelines and moderation responses
2. Archiving projects based on third-party properties commercialized through LEGO Ideas, including Hayabusa, Minecraft, Back to the Future, Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Rover, Ghostbusters, The Big Bang Theory, Doctor Who, WALL-E, Caterham, Adventure Time, Beatles, and Apollo missions.
3. Removing projects that don’t fit our new appropriate content requirements such as life-sized weapons or references to inappropriate third-party properties
4. Other guidelines will be applied going forward and not retroactively

Why these updates now?

We write our Guidelines to help you submit projects that have a reasonable chance of being selected as a product in our LEGO Review. The paradox is that we can only learn what is possible to produce through LEGO Ideas by evaluating a wide range of projects and identifying project attributes that fit our capabilities over time.

You’ve also shared opinions and suggestions about how to make LEGO Ideas an even better experience. We feel fortunate to have a passionate community that strives for this as much as we do. While we can’t accommodate every wish, your collective feedback has been incredibly valuable in making these changes to improving LEGO Ideas for as many as possible.

Throughout the rest of 2016 and beyond, our team is working to improve the way we engage on the platform and social media, improving our internal LEGO Review process, and working on the overall long-term growth of the LEGO Ideas experience.

As you can see, one of the most important updates is that projects that are too big will no longer be accepted. People naturally vote for large models because they look impressive, but they don’t take into consideration how much these models would actually cost, or if they could even be boxed and sold as sets. This means that large models often gather the minimum required number of votes, only to be rejected at the end, and disappointing both the original submitter and the supporters. This new guideline should keep projects in a reasonable range and make it clear to everyone what is realistic for LEGO to work with. It is interesting to note that LEGO set the upper limit to 3000 pieces. That’s like a $250-$300 big set! So far LEGO Ideas sets have all been smaller, but it looks like LEGO would be happy to accept larger submissions as well – as long as they are not too large.

Another important update is related to IPs, and new projects similar to those that already became official LEGO sets. Often when a LEGO Ideas project is approved, a whole bunch of similar submissions pop up on LEGO Ideas – basically trying to ride the coattail of the successful project. This clutters up the LEGO Ideas platform with a bunch of copycat submissions, which makes navigating the site difficult.

Hopefully these updates will make the LEGO Ideas platform more useful for both those who submit new projects, and those who support them. What do you think? How do you like the new rules? Is there anything else you think would make LEGO Ideas better? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section below! To see the currently available LEGO Ideas sets originally submitted by LEGO fans visit the LEGO Ideas section of the the LEGO Ideas section of the Online LEGO Shop.

And you might also like to check out the following related posts:

• LEGO Ideas Yellow Submarine & Apollo 11
• 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!