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LEGO Ideas Treehouse & The Flintstones

by Thita (admin) on October 5, 2018

Awesome news for LEGO fans! Yesterday, LEGO revealed the results of the last LEGO Ideas review phase! Over the past several months, the LEGO Ideas review board has carefully reviewed the ten creative product ideas that reached 10,000 supporters between January 2018 and May 2018. The end result is choosing not one, but two projects to become official LEGO sets! Below is the video-announcement as well as other details about the selected projects and their designers. 🙂

The first project approved by the LEGO Ideas review board is the LEGO Treehouse, by 37-year-old French hairdresser and LEGO fan Kevin Feeser (a.k.a. KevinTreeHouse). The project was very popular on LEGO Ideas during the voting stage, and it achieved 10,000 votes in less then four months. There is an interesting interview posted with Kevin on the LEGO Ideas blog, where he shares that it took about 2 months, approximately 2,600 LEGO pieces, and several revisions to build the project. He also talks about his passion for nature, wildlife, wooden constructions, and travel, and the challenges he faced while building the LEGO Treehouse. You can read the whole interview here.

The second project approved by the LEGO Ideas review board is the LEGO Flintstones by 41-year-old video-game artist Andrew Clark (a.k.a. AndrewClark2) from the US (originally from the UK). This nostalgic design brings plenty of fun flashbacks of all the stories with Fred Flintstone and the rest of the Stone Age gang. It is interesting to note 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. Andrew shares many thoughtful insights into making a LEGO Ideas project successful in an interview published at the LEGO Ideas blog. He also talks about having fond memories of watching The Flintstones growing up, why he decided to go with the LEGO Flintstones project, and the challenges he faced designing and building it. The approximately 770-piece model took about 88 hours to build spread over three months, and it took the project around 14 months to reach 10,000 votes. You can read the whole interview here.

Both of the sets are expected to launch in 2019, however the LEGO Ideas team is still working out the final product design, pricing and availability, so we will just have to keep an eye on the LEGO Ideas website for further updates. In the LEGO Ideas announcement below, Hasan Jensen and Ali Plumb talks more about both projects.

In the meantime, the next batch of LEGO Ideas projects that reached 10,000 supporters between May and September 2018 are already under review. The result of this review period will be shared in early 2019.

To check the currently available LEGO Ideas sets originally submitted by fan designers, visit the LEGO Ideas section of the Online LEGO Shop.

What do you think? How do you like the results of this review period? Are you excited about the LEGO Treehouse and the LEGO Flintstones project? Were there other projects you were hoping to make it through the review? And which projects are you looking forward to in the next review period? Feel free to share and discuss in the comment section below! 😉

And you might also like to check out the following related posts:

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The story of the LEGO minifigure – Part 5

by Thita (admin) on October 4, 2018

in LEGO History

In the past few weeks, we have been looking through the various assets the LEGO Group collected and sent out to LEGO fan sites in celebration of 40th anniversary of the minifigure this year. So far, we have looked at LEGO minifigure variations and prototypes (see: The Story of the LEGO Minifigure – Part 1), moulds used for making LEGO minifigures (see: The Story of the LEGO Minifigure – Part 2, some sketches by LEGO minifig designers (see: The Story of the LEGO Minifigure – Part 3), and some old ads from the late ’70s early ’80s (see: The Story of the LEGO Minifigure – Part 4). Today, we will continue to look at old advertisement, but this time for various LEGO themes though the years. 🙂

➡ LEGO ADVERTISEMENTS FROM THE 1970s: The first ad is from 1974, showing off some of the large brick-built figures and earliest LEGO vehicles. The next three ads are from 1976, featuring the earliest LEGO Western, LEGO City hospital, and LEGO City Police sets. Note that there is a mix of the large brick-built figures and the earliest minifigures with no moving arms and legs and no printed faces. In the ads of 1977 we are introduced to the first smiley-faced minifigs with movable arms and legs. This is the beginning of the golden era of classic LEGO sets, with elaborate city displays, and the introduction of LEGO Classic Space, and LEGO Classic Castle (click images for larger view).

➡ LEGO ADVERTISEMENTS FROM THE 1980s: The 1980s continues with elaborate LEGO City sets with the addition of electric LEGO trains running on light-gray train tracks (the earliest train-tracks were blue). We also get more LEGO Space and LEGO Castle sets. There is a beautiful advertisement from 1984 with all the LEGO Fabuland characters (Fabuland was first introduced in 1979). In 1988, we see an interesting change with both LEGO Space and LEGO Castle going to the dark side with predominantly black elements with the LEGO Blacktron space sets and the LEGO Black Knights, Lion Knights, and Forestmen castle sets. And, in the advertisement of 1989, LEGO Pirates are introduced with pirates, imperials, and some beautiful ships (click images for larger view)!

➡ LEGO ADVERTISEMENTS FROM THE 1990s: During the 1990s,. LEGO City expands with more police and fire stations, construction vehicles, airports, and trains. Besides pirates and imperial soldiers, LEGO Pirates introduces islanders. LEGO Space branches out to some interesting sub-themes like Futuron, M-Tron, Ice Planet, Exploriens, Insectoids, and Space Police. LEGO Castle keeps the darker theme with mostly black castles throughout the ’90s. In 1992, we see advertisements for LEGO Paradisa, the first girl-oriented theme with soft colors and female minifigures. In 1995, minifigs go for underwater explorations with Aqazone, and in an ad from 1997, we see the first Native American minifigure with a beautiful headdress on a painted horse for the beginning of the cowboys versus Indians conflict in the LEGO Western collection (click images for larger view).

Really sweet advertisements, aren’t they? If you grew up in the ’70s, ’80s, or ’90s, these old pictures should bring back some fond memories! Please note that I only included a sample of the images LEGO sent over to fan sites, and there is a lot more. Some are regional variations of the same ads, or the same sets and layouts shown from different angles. You can browse the entire collection in the library section of Brickset.

What do you think? How do you like these early LEGO advertisements? Do you remember some of them from your childhood? Which were your favorite LEGO sets and themes growing up? Feel free to share your thoughts and discuss in the comment section below! 😉

And you might also like to check out the following related posts:

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LEGO Ideas Treehouse & The Flintstones

The story of the LEGO minifigure – Part 5

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