As you probably know already, LEGO Ideas is the platform where LEGO fans can submit their own ideas for future LEGO sets. If their models get 10,000 public votes, LEGO will consider them for production. The LEGO Ideas team reviews eligible candidates in batches throughout the year, and makes an announcement about which project(s) were approved from that particular batch. So far we always got at least one new set per each announcement, but this time things turned out a bit different. Below are the results of the latest LEGO Ideas review (original announcement here).
“Today we share the outcome of the First 2015 LEGO Review, for LEGO Ideas projects that reached 10,000 supporters between January and May this year. Usually we happily announce project(s) that will become the next LEGO Ideas product(s), but unfortunately this time we’re not able to do so. For a number of reasons, none of the projects that qualified during this period were selected in the LEGO Review; this has never happened before and we’re very disappointed to pass on this news, especially because we know the huge amount of effort each member put into creating the models and campaigning for their projects.”
“Why did these projects not pass the LEGO Review? While we don’t share specific reasons why an individual project did not pass, there are a number of reasons why projects don’t make it through the review process. For example, perhaps we can’t come to an agreement with the companies who own the Intellectual Property Rights to the models or characters involved, or it is possible companies are just not interested in having a LEGO version of their product. Other projects sometimes come too close to a number of the products that the LEGO Group already has today or has plans for the near future. Some projects can challenge the rules we have on safe and good building experience for all LEGO builders. We can also have difficulties simply producing some of the larger projects with the production capacity we have for LEGO Ideas.”
“It is never easy to reject any project, and we are very disappointed that we couldn’t announce the next LEGO Ideas product here today. On a more positive note, 2015 has been one of the strongest years for LEGO Ideas. This year alone we’ve seen the launch of #21301 LEGO Ideas Birds, #21302 LEGO Ideas The Big Bang Theory, #21303 LEGO Ideas WALL-E, and soon #21304 LEGO Ideas Doctor Who. And next year the amazing LEGO Maze will be launched through LEGO Ideas. Looking ahead, the Second 2015 LEGO Review features some strong projects and this review period is already well underway. We hope next time we can give you all happier news about the next LEGO Ideas set!”
As you can imagine, LEGO fans have been quite disappointed with this announcement. It was pretty clear that some of the ideas are not going to be approved as they were too big to become an official LEGO set, and others were too close to already released LEGO sets, or LEGO wasn’t able to secure a license. However I’m surprised they couldn’t pick even one from the line-up. I felt that Science Adventures would have been a good candidate, and a worthy continuation of the highly popular #21101 LEGO Ideas Research Institute (both designed by Alatariel) that proved to be extremely popular. The big Tyrannosaurus Rex and Small Yellow could also have been good candidates. LEGO however is still considering the F7A Hornet – Star Citizen project, from the previous review period.
One thing we definitely learned from this announcement is that project creators really need to pay attention to what works as a LEGO set, and consider LEGO as a business partner, rather than a wish-fulfilling magic fairy. Even if a project is awesome, if it is too big, too fragile, or too impractical as a LEGO set, we can’t expect LEGO to produce it. Also, if the idea is licensed, and the license is already held by a LEGO competitor, it most likely not going to happen. And not to speak of projects where LEGO already made a set (or have one in the works) that is very similar to the submission. And since we are not going to get a new LEGO Ideas for a while, this is a good time to catch up on the current selection. They are available under the LEGO Ideas section of the Online LEGO Shop.
And now it’s your turn; what do you think about this announcement? Were you surprised by it? Was there a project that you were hoping to see as a future LEGO set? And is there a project that you would like LEGO to select from the next review period? Feel free to share your thoughts and discuss in the comment section below! 😉
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