The first round of crowdfunding for the BrickLink Designer Program took place last month. In case you’re not yet familiar with the program, you can read about it via the links at the end of this post, but in summary, LEGO Ideas projects that achieved 10,000 votes but weren’t chosen to become official LEGO sets, were given a second chance to become actual sets via this unique program.
The program received an overwhelmingly positive response, and in fact the first round went a little too well, exceeding all expectations. Projects met their funding goals and sold out so fast that many LEGO fans never had the chance to participate. This created a lot of disappointment in the LEGO fan community, so much so that LEGO decided to release an official response, which you can read here: BrickLink Designer Program – Round 1 Update
The update outlined some changes to meet demand for the projects in Round 1, and also for future rounds. For Round 1, LEGO decided to increase the number of sets available from 5,000 to 10,000. Castle in the Forest has already reached this amount in Round 1 due to a glitch and is no longer available for pre-order, but the four other sets are now available again starting today. Below is the official announcement:
Fresh chance to pre-order Round 1 of the BrickLink Designer Program sets! If you missed out last time, now’s your chance! Up to 5,000 more copies of Sheriff’s Safe, Pursuit of Flight, Kakapo, and the Great Fishing Boat are made available for pre-order starting today, August 3rd at 12:00pm Pacific / 9pm CET. These will last until they sell out, or through August 31st. There’s a limit of one per household. Here is the link to the page to participate: BrickLink Designer Program
What do you think? Did you participate in Round 1 of the BrickLink Designer Program? Were you able to order the projects you wanted, or did you miss out? Are you planning to participate again? Feel free to share your thoughts and discuss in the comment section below!
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Waiting to hear on the date that the “round 2” sets open for orders. Given what’s already happened, there is no assurance of being able to order the desired sets if not done within the first half hour of availability.
Let’s see if the Bricklink servers survive it.
Thanks for the update! Really appreciate it as I missed out the first time around.
Too bad the castle is no longer available, but I’m glad they increased the number for the others. And I’m glad they reduced the number to only one per household. That was really needed.