You might remember that back in October of last year, the LEGO Ideas team announced that The Flintstones project by Andrew Clark was selected to become an official LEGO Ideas set. (You can read more about the designer and the project here: LEGO Ideas Treehouse & The Flintstones). This morning, the LEGO Ideas team revealed what the finalized set will look like after it was refined by LEGO’s own designers, as well as some other details. See below. 🙂
Here is the official description of the set: Have a yabba dabba doo time at Fred Flintstone’s home! Enjoy modern Stone Age suburban life in Bedrock with the #21316 LEGO Ideas The Flintstones collectible toy! A wonderfully nostalgic building toy, it features The Flintstones house and their iconic family car. The detailed house has a removable roof for easy play, an opening front door, sofa, TV, coffee table, bowling ball, and bowling pin elements, plus a green garden baseplate with a buildable palm tree. Build your own Flintstones vehicle that seats four minifigures, and features a new-for-March-2019 fabric car roof element, and an attachable dinosaur rib for creative play. The first animated TV series ever to be aired in a prime-time slot, The Flintstones cartoon was first broadcast in America in 1960 and has become an enduring family favorite around the world. Recreate hilarious scenes with the included cartoon character minifigures of Fred Flintstone, wife Wilma Flintstone, and their friends Barney and Betty Rubble, or simply build and display this instant classic LEGO Ideas model.
- This LEGO Ideas building toy includes 4 new-for-March-2019 The Flintstones cartoon character minifigures: Fred Flintstone, Wilma Flintstone, Barney Rubble and Betty Rubble.
- The Flintstones home features a removable roof for easy play, an opening front door, curtains and curtain rails, sofa, TV with aerial, kitchen sink, table and phone, fireplace, painting element on the wall, coffee table with fruit bowl and fruit elements, buildable floor lamp and lampshade, crate with a bowling ball and 3 bowling pin elements, plus a green garden baseplate with a buildable palm tree, 2 flower pots, flowers, plants and 2 milk bottle elements.
- Includes a buildable postbox with printed ‘Flintstones’ decoration, plus a letter element.
- The LEGO brick-built Flintstones car features 4 minifigure seats, 2 steamroller wheels, a new-for-March-2019 fabric car roof element, plus an attachable dinosaur rib.
- This creative toy building set comes with a booklet with building instructions, fun facts about The Flintstones, and information about this awesome retro set’s fan creator and LEGO designers.
- Build and display this collectible construction toy or recreate your favorite scenes from the classic American animated sitcom The Flintstones.
- The Flintstones Bedrock home measures over 4” (12cm) high, 6” (16cm) wide and 4” (12cm) deep.
- The Flintstones car measures over 2” (6cm) high, 4” (11cm) long and 2” (7cm) wide.
- Included 748 pieces.
- Recommended for Ages 10+.
The #21316 LEGO Ideas The Flintstones set is going to be available exclusively to LEGO VIP members directly through LEGO from February 20th. (I assume general release will be at the beginning of March, although the press-release did not specifically state this.) Prices are as follows: US $59.99 – CA $79.99 – DE €59.99 – UK £54.99 – FR €59.99 – DK 549DKK – AU $99.99AUD (Euro pricing varies by country). For more details, visit the LEGO Ideas section of the Online LEGO Shop.
First of all, it’s worth noting that this is the second successful LEGO Ideas project by Andrew, the first one being the #21304 LEGO Ideas Doctor Who set released in 2015. Congratulations to Andrew for such an awesome achievement! Secondly, it’s always interesting to study the similarities and differences between the original submission and the final set design. Here, the house got a more polished look, although I have to say I like the roundness and roughness of the original design a bit better. However, these features might have made the model too difficult to build.
The iconic vehicle was also redesigned, as well as the mailbox, and the “Welcome to Bedrock” sign was removed. Looking at the pictures, I think most of the changes are reasonable and sensible, and the set still looks just as fun as the original submission.
As far as the minifigures, I’m much less happy about the changes from the original submission. Pebbles and Bamm Bamm were omitted, leaving us with just Fred, Wilma, Barney, and Betty. In my opinion, Andrew’s original design for the faces is much better and more accurate to the cartoon. Giving the characters more generic minifig heads made them loose a lot of their personality, to the point that they are almost unrecognizable as The Flintstones. Also, I liked that Barney was shorter in the original submission. Why LEGO choose to make him the same size as the others feels like a strange decision.
All in all the #21316 LEGO Ideas The Flintstones set does look like an interesting to the LEGO Ideas collection, even if I don’t agree with all the design choices. What do you think? How do you like the final design compared to the original submission? Did you vote for this project? Are you planning to purchase the set when it becomes available? Feel free to share your thoughts and discuss in the comment section below! 😉
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I am big fan of The Flintstones and can’t wait to get this set! 🙂
Think that this set will look great in my collection! 😉
Yabba dabba doo, I want this set so badly too. Lol! I loved watching the Flintstones t v show. And now it’s going to be a Lego set . Awesome!
Wait, what no dino!? Oh , that’s a deal breaker for me. I mean come on , you gotta to have dino. Let alone the fact that it doesn’t have dinosaurs appliances ( woolly mammoth dishwasher). Like I said deal breaker for me. Sorry, Lego yet again you half do a job on sets that can be better.
This brings back a lot of memories, but I don’t like what they have done with the faces. The original ones were so much better!
I voted for the original design, but I don’t like this set. Where is Dino??? The kids??? And why is Fred so tall? I don’t like the faces either. And the car is too big. Sigh…. I was looking forward to this set, but I think I will pass.
I liked the faces better on the original. And I agree with Sammy, where is Dino? Maybe they are going to make more Flinstones sets?
Well, they basically had two choices. Keep the design as the submission, and then people would complain that the faces are not like other minifigs. Or change the faces to regular minifigs, but now people complain that they liked the original faces better. I like the original ones more myself, but it’s clearly a dilemma.
I’m more upset about them removing the kids and Dino, and changing the car. I thought the roof made with plates was better. You could pile stuff on top.
It’s true that the faces are different, but that’s what gives The Flinstones their personality. And most importantly, that’s what we expected when voting for the project. I do get when they update the project to meet their safety, playability and other criteria, but why make all these unnecessary changes. The original project was almost perfect as is.
I doubt it. The franchise isn’t as popular anymore as it was in the 60’s.
Here’s where I find it a bit unfair for the creator that created the set and the fans. The fans voted from what they saw but, we’re not getting what we voted for. It’s as if an artist made a painting and Lego decided to have a preschooler copy half of it . That’s an insult to the Creator that made this set and the fans that voted for the original. If Lego is concerned about cost( which I doubt it , you can see by other sets that are sold) they know that collectors will buy it no matter what’s the price. If Lego is concerned on how much it cost them to make it. Well , all I can say if you what to make an omelette you have to break a few eggs.
One issue, which often gets lost, is that Lego would need to base their sets on sturdiness and playability, while moc:ers and builders only need to care about looks. Also, there needs to be a balance between the parts and the kind of set produced, to make it an economically feasible venture.
Lego is perfectly capable of doing that , they just chose not to. Remember they have factories and all the parts in the world to create all kinds of sets, parts and pieces. It’s called how much does Lego want to invest in a set. It goes back to the omelette. How many eggs ( money) does lego want to spend / risk on a product.
Well, this is a limited niche product, and they’ve decided against creating any new molds for the theme, already by the start.
One of the problems is that they made the building too plain. Especially the front. Now it looks like a concrete bunker, instead of the rock house of The Flintstones.
I agree with others that the car got too bulky. It would have been funny if the feet of the minifig could stick out at the bottom so they look like they are running. Like in the show.
And they removed so many of the details that were fun; the sign, the driveway to make the car tilt, the record player, the kids, etc. Was this project approved by the original designer? Or how does that work? Do they just take the project and don’t check with the designer?