As we discussed last month, LEGO is currently running its first Indiegogo campaign to test out a new marketing strategy, as well as new product concept called LEGO FORMA. You can read all the details of the campaign here: LEGO FORMA – LEGO Teams Up with Indiegogo! The campaign is doing well with around 5,000 backers the last time I checked the campaign page, and there is still plenty of time left to participate. 🙂
I was part of the early test group for LEGO FORMA back in July via the LEGO Ambassador Forum, and I also backed the project once it went live on Indiegogo. I couldn’t help myself and ordered the LEGO FORMA Super Box with all four skins, so I have a chance to try them all out and also share my thoughts on it in a future review.
As I mentioned above, LEGO is using the Indigogo campaign not just for introducing a new product, but also for testing a new way of marketing and getting feedback. The LEGO FORMA team has been very responsive to questions and comments on the campaign page, and a couple of days ago, they also sent out a survey to get more detailed feedback from those who backed the project. If you are a backer, you should have received an email with the survey link, and for those who are not backers, I have included the questions below, as they offer some interesting insights into the development and future possibilities with LEGO FORMA.
To introduce the survey, the LEGO FORMA team explains that they would like to get some feedback to make sure the final product is something fans are going to be very happy with.
Thank you again for backing the LEGO FORMA campaign on Indiegogo. We are incredibly pleased that you’ve decided to join us on this journey. We’re still working on the final LEGO FORMA product and we’d love to ask you some questions to get the prototypes just right. We’d love to ask you a couple of questions and hear your thoughts on what you like about LEGO FORMA, and even more importantly, what you believe could be improved. The survey should take around 5 minutes to complete, and to make this a little more interesting for you, we will be sending an additional LEGO FORMA Super Box (base model + all skins) to one lucky respondent.
Some of the questions are pretty basic, asking for age, gender, country of residence, if you purchased other LEGO products for yourself in the past year, how often do you build with LEGO, who do you typically build with, and which LEGO building systems do you use the most often. Then there are also some basic questions about LEGO FORMA, like whom you purchased it for, which package did you choose when backing the project, and why. Other basic questions are about if you ever supported new products on a crowdfunding platform, and if you would recommend backing the LEGO FORMA campaign to friends or relatives. Then, the questions start to get more interesting:
- On a scale of 1 to 5, how important were the statements below when you decided to back the LEGO FORMA campaign on Indiegogo? 1.) Owning a new product before anyone else 2.) Owning a limited-edition LEGO product 3.) Purchasing a LEGO product at a discount 4.) Being part of LEGO’s innovation process
- Based on what you know about LEGO FORMA, how strongly do you agree with the below statements? 1.) LEGO FORMA can help me be creative 2.) LEGO FORMA looks cool and different 3.) LEGO FORMA can help me unwind and relax 4.) LEGO FORMA is something I can share with others 5.) LEGO FORMA is something I can build with my kids 6.) LEGO FORMA lets me use my hands 7.) I will be proud to display LEGO FORMA in my home or office 8.) LEGO FORMA is innovative and renewed my passion for LEGO
- On a scale of 1 to 5, how important were the product features below when you decided to back the LEGO FORMA campaign on Indiegogo? 1.) Ability to customize skins 2.) Ability to display the model 3.) The overall building system 4.) The kinetic movement of the model 5.) The nature theme 6.) The fish theme
- Which information was the most helpful for you to make the decision to back the LEGO FORMA campaign? 1.) Project video 2.) The project story 3.) The project FAQ 4.) Project updates 5.) Project comments from other backers 6.) Perks 7.) News articles 8.) Blog posts 9.) Recommendation from others 10.) Posts on social media
- If there’s anything you haven’t had a chance to tell us about LEGO FORMA or the Indiegogo campaign, please share your thoughts. 1.) What is your number one favorite thing about LEGO FORMA? 2.) What is your number one doubt or concern about LEGO FORMA, if any? What 3 words describe the future of LEGO FORMA for you? Anything else you’d like to tell us?
As you can see, the LEGO FORMA team asks good questions to get useful feedback both on who is supporting LEGO FORMA, and what they like/dislike about the project. In addition, LEGO Ambassadors can also share feedback from their communities via the LEGO Ambassador Forum.
What do you think? Are you a backer of the LEGO FORMA campaign? Did you respond to the survey yet? Feel free to share some of your answers that you feel are important. And if you are not a backer of the campaign, you are welcome to answer the questions in the comment section below! 😉
And you might also like to check out the following related posts:
Okay, I will bite. Here are my answers:
On a scale of 1 to 5, how important were the statements below when you decided to back the LEGO FORMA campaign on Indiegogo? #4 is the most important to me, being part of the innovation process. I like that Lego still willing to try new things.
Based on what you know about LEGO FORMA, how strongly do you agree with the below statements? I would choose #8 as highest, again, because it is innovative. I hope they will release more skins so people can experiment.
On a scale of 1 to 5, how important were the product features below when you decided to back the LEGO FORMA campaign on Indiegogo? I like the kinetic movement, and the nature theme. It’s like Technic went artistic! I’m still not convinced about the foil skins though.
Which information was the most helpful for you to make the decision to back the LEGO FORMA campaign? The video was informative, and I also read comments other people made. It was informative to see the reaction.
If there’s anything you haven’t had a chance to tell us about LEGO FORMA or the Indiegogo campaign, please share your thoughts. My favorite thing is the kinetic movement. My number one doubt is the foil skins. Why not just use regular pieces?
Good points! Thanks for sharing! 🙂
It appears that the campaign slowed down. They had around 1k backers the first day, and now they are around 5k. It’s a successful campaign, but I was expecting more backers. Unless they make it to 10k backers, the project won’t even have the success of Ideas.
They still have about a month left, so they might still make it to 10k. But they already consider the campaign successful. It wasn’t just about the number of backers, but also about the reaction and comments from LEGO fans. 🙂
I’m only concerned about the skin. Why does it have to be made of foil? And what kind of foil are we talking about? Is it flimsy like paper? Or is it thin plastic?
The foil appears to be thin plastic based on the pictures and video, but I’m not 100% sure. I would have liked regular LEGO pieces also.
I guess the foil would both be cheaper than Lego, and achieve a smoother look.
True, although as demonstrated by Jason, with all the curved pieces and available these days, we can make a very smooth fish even with regular pieces. But the cost is definitely less for foil skins.
Did you guys see that JKbrickworks did a brickbuilt kinetic shark with the same Technic frame?
Yes!!! I will probably write about that separately. It’s so impressive! Jason didn’t just build the shark from bricks, but he also improved on the movement! 😀
I hope I’m not betraying how little I understand this concept or being negative but it seems to me that they’re just applying a skin to disguise the fact that it’s a Lego construction.
The motion and engineering is what’s interesting about the construction. To my way of thinking the skin just distracts from that and probably, if anything, diminishes the potential for creativity.
Maybe if the added surface were more interesting… Textural, say. Maybe that would add another dimension. But, as it is, this isn’t something I’d purchase.
Hm… textured skin! This makes me think they could make a silicone skin with studs, and we could add details with small plates and tiles! 😀
This seems like an interesting concept but isn’t it just normal lego with a skin? My concern is will the “skin” hold up? If it will hold up and the can interchange I could see this being a fun addition and even being a subset of getting different skins for the same/similar builds. Will be interesting to watch and see what happens.
Yes, the frame is LEGO Technic, and then just some skins are applied with special pins. I was reading on the FORMA Indiegogo page that they are going to make the template for the skins available for download, so we can print them out in different colors/materials, etc.
I like that it’s technic but not a vehicle. I think technic should make more organic objects like this. I like that it’s kinetic. I don’t like the skins. I much preferred jkbrickworks brick built shark.
Yeah, this is the most common feedback about FORMA. People like the Technic frame, and the movement, but they don’t like the skins. We will see how LEGO responds to that.
I found this link. Afol Jason Allemann reverse-engineered the construction to work with regular bricks.
https://www.brothers-brick.com/2018/10/14/reverse-engineering-the-lego-forma-shark-with-a-brick-built-skin/
Yeah, that’s the video we were talking about earlier. 🙂