Over the past months, the LEGO Ideas review board evaluated 71 record-breaking product ideas that reached 10,000 supporters between early January 2023 and early May 2023. Yesterday, LEGO Ideas Community Activation Manager Hasan Jensen, and LEGO Ideas Marketing Manager Michelle Ta announced that two of the projects were approved to become LEGO Ideas sets. Below are the details.
The first project selected from this round to become an official LEGO Ideas set is the Twilight: Cullen House by LEGO fan Nick Micheels (a.k.a. LobsterThermidor). Having only recently come out of his dark ages to re-enter the LEGO hobby a few years ago, Nick has quickly developed his talents as a skilled builder. Similarly, Nick became a huge Twilight fan as an adult and was inspired to create this impressive LEGO replica of the iconic Cullen family house. His design included a brick-built wolf and of course, some of the main characters in minifigure likeness so you can replay your favorite scenes from the movie. If you’d like to learn more about Nick Micheels then make sure to check out his 10K Club Interview.
The second project selected from this round to become an official LEGO Ideas set is The Botanical Garden by LEGO fan Valentina Bima (a.k.a. Goannas89). The LEGO Ideas team was not really that surprised when they learned that Valentina was an architect because her creation shows the level of detail one would expect from an industry professional. From the beautiful replica cast iron arches to the playful scenes of the minifigures and variety of flora. You can learn more about Valentina and how her design came to be via her 10K Club Interview.
The LEGO Ideas team is still working out the final product design, pricing, and availability for these sets, so stay tuned for further updates. In addition, the LEGO Ideas review board has already been working hard to review the next round of 10K product ideas consisting of 49 submissions. These all hit 10,000 supporters between early May 2023 and early September 2023. They will share the results of the Second 2023 LEGO review period in early 2024. You can check them out on this LEGO Ideas page.
Also, there are still 7 fan creations that have already been approved and are in various stages of development. They will be launching at different points in the future. And for the currently available LEGO Ideas sets originally submitted by LEGO fans, visit the LEGO Ideas section of the Online LEGO Shop.
What do you think? How do you like the upcoming LEGO Ideas sets? Feel free to share and discuss in the comment section below!
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Isn’t there a friends set already that looks practically the same?
You’re probably thinking of the Friends Botanical Garden (#41757). It’s much smaller, but still an excellent set. I’m also surprised though that they decided to release another one. Maybe the Friends version is doing really well. I have seen a number of reviews praising it.
Even after all this time, it’s interesting to see how many Ideas sets are license-based, how many are some kind of building or vehicle that fits seamlessly with some existing Lego theme, and how many are some sort of desktop-sized object rendered in brick form.
You can see Lego themselves taking some inspiration from all this, though most of the really off-the-wall stuff is still sourced from Ideas where they can genuinely gauge audience interest before committing to any design work.
Yeah, it’s getting a little too predictable now. But I agree that this is a good way for Lego to judge interest in a theme or license, even if they don’t pick a project.
I’m surprised they picked these. I feel like there were several better ones. Like the Stargate project, or the Shrek set, or the one with E.T. or that cool mech factory. And the Naruto project reached 10k for like how many times now? I’m just not impressed by the results of this round.
I love the garden set — but as always, price will be an issue.