The LEGO Ideas platform has been buzzing with activity this year. Back in May, a record-breaking 26 projects managed to hit the 10,000 supporter milestone and qualified to go under review. The LEGO Ideas team wrote that they were “utterly flabbergasted”, especially considering that they tend to see between 9-12 product ideas in a review period.
And the record was just broken again just a few days ago. Hasan Jensen from the LEGO Ideas team wrote: “Just when we thought the previous review period containing 26 submissions was a LEGO Ideas history breaking event, it’s been topped, as we close the latest review with a record breaking 35 submissions that have hit 10,000 supporters.”
You can check out the qualifying submissions from both review periods at this LEGO Ideas page. With the increasing number of projects achieving 10k support and fans wondering what this mean for the future of the LEGO Ideas platform, the LEGO Ideas team have issued a brief statement, which you can read below.
Over the past six months, we have read a growing number of comments from the fan community related to the significant growth of product ideas reaching 10,000 supporters. A lot of those comments ask the same thing. Is it time for change on LEGO Ideas? Should we increase the supporter threshold, decrease the timeframe, or change something else altogether?
The last two review periods have shown an invigorated interest in LEGO Ideas product idea submissions. We’ve gone from averaging about 10-12 product ideas in each review phase to seeing 26 and 35 product ideas, respectively, in the last review phases. A significantly leap.
We want to let you know that we’re aware that this increase is occurring. We’re also aware that this significant increase has coincided with global lockdowns related to COVID-19. The effects of this global pandemic has driven people to spend more time at home and online, as well as finding LEGO Ideas as an outlet for all that extra time and creative energy. An outlet that has not only driven an increase in supporters but also submissions.
It’s too early to determine whether the trend will continue and we don’t want to make any snap decisions based solely on the effects of this global situation that we face. Therefore, you shouldn’t expect any fundamental changes to the way LEGO Ideas works in the near future.
In the longer term, we are exploring several potential changes, not only to address the current situation, but also to continue our mission of realizing more AFOL (Adult-Fan-of-LEGO) designs. When exploring these options, we are of course mindful of the decade-long journey and heritage of design collaboration with the LEGO Ideas community. Importantly, we will always to strive to make LEGO Ideas the best possible experience for our members and community.
As you can see, the LEGO Ideas team is aware of the situation, but also mindful that the current global pandemic could factor into the increased interest in the platform. So, although there are no immediate changes planned, there could be changes in the future.
What do you think about the significant increase of LEGO Ideas submissions and projects that go into review? Are there any changes you would like to see? And which of the current projects under review are you rooting for to become official LEGO sets? Feel free to share your thoughts and discuss in the comment section below!
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