Next LEGO Ideas set revealed

$20 seems low, for what she was describing (in terms of minifigs and detail).

As for the next review, the Birds would be the obvious 'fit' but seeing there are two Dr Who sets, you can't help wondering if they've got some license agreement in the pipeline.

After the jaw dropping moment last time when ECTO-1 was announced, this one seems a little disappointing, probably because of the big names of Adventure Time and Zelda being passed over. I can only hope that the next review will result in a Doctor Who release...

I wish they would go into a little explanation on why the others were not approved...

Congrats to the Female Minifigure Set designer. My daughter will look forward to this!

I'm not surprised to see Female Minifigure Set pass. But to be honest, even though I really support this one, it's the least interesting project due to its similarity with existed City/Minifigures line, while the others are more original.

Most of the sets have license issues that may not fit in LEGO's marketing strategy. The only problem might be the Japanese Archtecture, which could have bring a totally different wave to our existed modular buildings which are mostly European styles. It's better that LEGO would officially give something else instead one day.

And the fact that really makes fans dissapoint would be that only "ONE" project passes in a single period. Yes, maybe it's a coincidence and we can't push it, but if this situation continues, voters would lose interests in making votes since more votes wouldn't result in more products.

YAY for girls toy!
Since Lego Friends release a few years ago, people's been hankering for a "less-girly",
strong role model for girls. This is it!

I am getting one for me and my daughter.

^^Maybe that will change for 2015 or so, especially if there are 2 sets LEGO really wants to make from the IDEAS camp. Just my opinion.

Bit annoyed at this, while i understand the lack of representation women have in lego sets aimed at boys, I would rather that women were included more in other series than a specialist range that isn't that interesting.
I would have preferred the Sherlock or Japanese architecture and i really hope that they reconsider and do a japanese architecture set as part of the general theme as i really feel like it shouldn't be dominated with western style architecture like it is now.

Good to see them exploring non-Friends sets aimed at girls! Even though it seems a bit unfair that it's not from the same review season.

The fact that this set was "pushed" forward sort of bums me out because it means that no set from the actual review period won.

We all had our favorites to be sure and I know we can't always get what we want but if TLG can simply "push" sets they plan on making and ignore the whole review period then it rather defeats the point of the review period. We had the Exosuit picked and now being released out of order and now a set from a review period or two ago getting picked instead of those that actually reached the threshold in the timeline.

It looks, from a fan perspective, that the review period is pointless. Having the "Staff Picks" on the Ideas page doesn't help the issue of feeling like TLG is no longer interested in the premise of CUUSOO and has turned an awesome idea into a marketing gimmick.

3rd time no Zelda.. Well done Lego!! -_-

And less than one day after Sherlock season Three goes on Netflix. Kinda surprised JA and AT didn't make it, those seemed like passers to me.

I am very happy to see the female minifigures to be made into actual sets.
Now all we have to do is hope that the box will contain more than one female figure and the dinosaur. Especially for the 19,95 that is rumoured.

I do feel for the critisism of some fans above. There are some great idea's in past review that are passed by. I can't help feeling this seems a bit premeditated. On the other hand, I do seem to remember a review with no produced sets at all some time ago.

Again no Zelda. I am officially giving up hope for a LEGO Link and Epona ever.

For the next review, as a Biologist I am crossing my fingers for the Birds!!!!

I'm interested to see what a cheaper minifgure-scale Cuusoo/Ideas set would look like, as most have been natably overpriced, but it's too bad we won't be seeing any Sherlock or Japanese architecture. The most important part of the Research Insitute is the female scientist, and I'm certain we've already had a perfectly passable one in the Minifigures series. We shouldn't be aiming for more LOOK IT'S FEMALE sets, just casually putting more girls in sets of every theme, in my opinion.

TLG should really up-front say if Zelda is no longer going to be made. I'm sick of false hopes. UCS BTTF was probably not going to pass, Adventure Time would have needed new molds to stay close to the submission and/or look good, Sherlock is probably adult material and license issues, Macross is licensing issues and another IDEAS mech, and Japanese Architecture is too big and might have taken too long to produce 10,000 votes. Female Minifigures was the most likely thing out of here.

My sister, age 8, said she would totally want a $20 lab with female minifigs. She has no interest in Friends or Disney Princess and vastly prefers minifigures to minidolls. It frustrates her and irritates me that LEGO's "marketing research" says boys don't want female minifigs in small sets of any kind. Her favorite theme is Creator, BTW. No minifigs to be gender-upset.

WARNING: EDITORAL RANT I would be rather upset if they put a male minifig in because the whole point of the submission was that the minifigs were FEMALE. It would be against what people voted for to put male scientists in 21110. If people want male scientists that AREN'T crazy, LEGO should see this in some way from these people. This is supposed to be about females doing crazy things that LEGO doesn't portray females doing or doesn't portray at all. Also, if they try to make one model out of three, that would ALSO ruin it from the submission.
/editorialrantover

This would mark the first time two Ideas sets come out at once.

I'm an 11-year-old boy, so some aspects of this argument make Jabba's Palace seem positively rational. This is about as far as the argument makes sense to me.

I am not personally convinced of the need for a specific female only line of sets. There are plenty of sets with 'strong female role models' (whatever that actually means?).

60013 Coast Guard Helicopter Crew Member
60042 High Speed Police Chase City Bandit
60052 Cargo Train Forklift driver
60034 Arctic Helicrane Arctic Explorer
4209 Fire Plane Pilot Female

I always wonder if initiatives like this are actually reinforcing the message that women are being held back in society and having a more negative than positive effect overall. Constantly saying that women need special treatment is not a very positive message is it.

^ @KingDave: Good examples KingDave. It seems to me that over the past few years LEGO has been including a lot more female minifigures into "everyday" or "normal" sets. So I don't really get this whole gender issue when it comes to LEGO. The only impression I get of women "being held back in society" comes from projects like this, a point you also bring up.

The fact that LEGO changed the name to "Research Institute" seems like LEGO won't be focusing as much on the solely female side of it. Instead I think it'll just be a few small models like the ones on the project page that happen to have female scientists.

Nice to see the results, might just pick one up, but still I don't have the information I really want,

When will we get the exo suit, and how does it look?!

also, maybe lego wants to make the zelda sets (there's obviously enough demand), but zelda doesn't want to become lego...

I wonder if Lego will replace the minifigs with minidolls in the final set.

Lego should have just taken the fact it was popular to heart and add more female minifigures to the varied lines they do, I know one of the reasons the police chase set stood out to me on shelves was the unique appearance of a female criminal as an example.
At least they are renaming it rather than having the blunt "female minifigure set" motif, I'm also not a fan of the rather strange/cheeky/almost cheating way the set got through via not being eliminated like other Cuusoo submissions and being put through again.

Still it will be interesting to see what they come up with as a final boxed product, it will at least have a comfortable time fitting into many peoples city collections at least.

Even though I'm not a fan personally I'm putting my money on a Doctor Who set getting chosen next.

I love how they de-politicized the FMS. It was a great collection of MOCs no matter how you took the all-female population. Now FoLs get a small collection of female figs and a great parts pack, and it doesn't look at all like a radical concept. It shouldn't be.

Wanted Sherlock but I totally understand why it got dumped.

Japanese Architecture took too long to reach 10k, though I would have liked to see what LEGO would have made of it.

Disappointed about Iron Knuckle Encounter, but the fight for LEGO Zelda is not over! Our next shot: https://ideas.lego.com/projects/2082

Super excited for the female minifigs in research roles! I'll get one of each for my daughter and other kids in our family. Super bummed by the dudebros on this board who feel threatened by girl cooties. It's not like they took away ALL of your toys, now is it boys?

call me overly cynical, but I wonder how much money apple will pay to have their store the next product?

As it would have been said in French : "The mountain gave birth to a mouse".
It means that the project selection process is too long and too complex for only a small outcome.

^x4
Yuffie you seemed to be the first person to directly acknowledge what I was thinking too - TLG has shifted the focus from women doing high skill scientific jobs in their sector to a lab for high skilled scientific jobs, with female minifigs. I think behind the scenes they might be taking on board the equality element to apply to future System sets, but the 'discovering of new worlds' etc offered by having a set specifically for science is good news.

I'm not a massive fan of City but that's partially because the City mainly consists of the police and fire departments with no one to save. This Ideas set, like the Arctic sub theme, offers some more interesting exploration-like themes but grounds them in reality which is great for ambitious kids!

Brilliant.
I may need several of these sets...... and £19.99 is the ideal price for that.
Especially if it is possible to make three different Dino fossil skeletons with the set. :)
The http://shop.lego.com/en-GB/Battle-for-Ninjago-City-70728?fromListing=listing" Battle-for-Ninjago-City-70728?fromListing=listing Battle for Ninjago City is almost an ideal replacement for the Japanese architecture project

Okay... This was not the best idea. First of all, this was not a project of this review period. They should have just made a project from the review period. Second of all, the customers can just make this out of spare parts. And last of all, this was the worst project from the choices. seriously, the ADVENTURE TIME project was better, and that is not that great of a show.

what a waste of a set. I won't be buying this, there really is no way to tie this into my Lego city, and I'm not sure how you would play with this so it would just end up sitting there collecting dust.
It's amazing they picked that set over things like the Japanese Buildings, etc.

I don't understand the LEGO team choice... This project didn't earn 10k supports also...
Minifigure project? Then what are minifigures series sets for?
Very strange, I'd like to see Sherlock..

this project they picked is just as bad as the Simpsons Mini figures.

^Oh god, not that circlejerk again.

Anyway, I'm quite pleased with the choice. The models in the original were all excellent, and I can always use more female minifigures.

Disappointed, but not exactly surprised. I think it's time for Lego to either tell us what they want in a Zelda project, or just come clean and say it ain't gonna happen before they get anyone's hopes up.

I really wish we had reasons for rejection, too, other than the vague "How do we make these decisions" paragraph on the blog. The "staff picks" also seems terribly unfair--why do those projects get a huge boost while others are left unexposed in dark corners? How on earth does "Agora" stand beside some of the other amazing models in there? It's really starting to feel like there's a definite transparency problem with this program.

Oh well, guess it's time to break out my reverse engineering skills on Macross...

Boooo!

I'm not happy with this at all. They've picked the most boring of sets (that was not even part of this review anyways), and then down play the importance of the idea in the first place, the female minifigures. I'll be honest, I'm angry that we are denied a Sherlock set so we can have a boring laboratory set that could have just as easily come from City and it's sub themes.

So TLG has picked the set that appeals the least to their target market?
GG Lego, GG

Would of loved to see Japanese Architecture as a set, it's one of the most innovative sets that has made it to the review stage. Instead we get the premise 'Female Minifigures'. Oh the originality...

Dull. Dull. Dull. They passed over on ideas such as Adventure Time for this. Sigh..

Congrats to the Lego Female set, but I'm starting to have some confusion. Doctor Who and Zelda have been entered numerous times, but they complain it would have "a limited audience"? Also, how in the heck did the Japanese architecture fail? It was perfect in almost every way, and AFOLs would be lining to get a copy of it. Plus, it would open Lego to new ideas with their products.

I imagine that none of the sets in this review period met whatever criteria Lego uses, and thus rather than skipping a whole review period, they took the easiest set to pass from the next one, as it was relatively hassle free parts wise and could be produced quickly with low risk.

Agreed on the depoliticising it, while keeping the essence, I think it's perfect and is the right way forwards, make it so kids and adults don't even notice because it seems natural, the way it should be in both lego and real life.

There was no Doctor Who this review period. But there will be two next time. Since CUUSOO specifically asked for some after licensing issues were resolved I think it will pass next time.

Congrats to the Research Institute. I am interested in seeing the final build on this one and more importantly what the three minifig prints will look like.

I think it is a great choice, and they did a brilliant job of disarming the political agenda bomb thrown their way, while at the same time providing a nice inspirational little set.

Re Zelda. Sigh! They have said over and over and over why these sets fail. Every one of them has pretty much required a new head sculpt. And the core issue isn't whether or not the creator would say its ok just to use a Santa Elf hat. For the license Lego would have to adhere to Nintendo character guidelines. Which probably would mandate a new part. Of course they have told us what the issue is. Zelda is where the "no new parts" rule began.

Sherlock is way way to adult specific to ever meet Lego brand fit. It's a great show, but would you let a 6 or 7 year old watch it?

@cinemajay I hope you are not referring to me with 'dudebros on this board who feel threatened by girl cooties' (or are you being sarcastic?). I think you may have missed the point of my comments.

@bradbean: Some girls I know positively despise Friends, so something with female minifigures that isn't rainbow colored with fail-errific "minifigures" would go over well with them. I imagine other people feel the same way. There IS target market here. OK, so it is rather unoriginal. It's unoriginal, but TLG has failed to make something like it before. That right there is laughable.

In terms of product slots, this didn't need to be made. If I had ever watched an episode of Adventure Time, I probably would be angry it was passed up for this. Some of us are not the target market.

Somehow the Cuusoo/Ideas set seems to be target adults (or am I wrong?) so Sherlock would have made a nice set. :-)

I do not get why so many people seem to be disappointed, the cuuso/idea concept is very risky, as they are dependant on the projects which make the review, and they are forced to try to get a licence in most cases, which can be quite hard I imagine.

I for one am glad that we get a minifig-science based set :)

@Blockland

No Doctor Who set has been reviewed yet. Two similar sets just entered this review period. Prior to a few weeks ago Dr. Who was on the disallowed list because another company, Character Builder, had the license for building sets. That license expired so it became viable as a CuuSoo / Ideas proposal.

The Japanese Architecture set failed most likely for a number of reasons. It was one of the oldest sets on CuuSoo. Almost 5 years to 10k. That doesn't illustrate a strong fan base or demand (note the newer 1 year time restriction). Couple that with the size of it, and the fact that it was never scaled back from being a "theme" proposal, and the creator expressed no. Interest in selecting a specific piece of it. These all work against it. Heck the proposal would have been deleted as a theme if it had not hit 10 k just before the deadline. It was a great looking trio of MOCs. But it was not a refined or presented set. The CuuSoo Beta had evolved in terms of refinement of what they were looking for in those 5 years. The set proposal had not.

@icey yes Adults are a large part of the target audience for CuuSoo, plus it obviously depends on AFOLs for project proposals. But they are still locked into the Lego brand fit. Even sets that are targeted at Adults still must be viewed as content and source appropriate for the broader primary age ranges of Lego customers in order to carry the Lego logo. They went through a deep debate over this with the Winchester sets. The general outcome is they will shy away from using Adult only source material. So no R rated movies. No grisly murder. Etc. (and yeah some licenses dance close to this. But context is everything. )

Finally, a real world science oriented set is being made! I pretty much knew this one would be made, the other sets had licensing issues or a "limited audience".

Look at it this way.

The actual quantifiable Zelda fan base. Those who can be viewed to be well familiar with and have spent money on the property and may do so again sits right around 8 million people.

Similarly the fan base of those familiar with or viewers of the Sherlock show is probably around 10-12 million worldwide. It's a BBC TV show. Even Dr. who doesn't do much better.

The quantifiable fan base for Japanese Architecture is 10,000 spread over 5 years. Not a lot to work with there.

The quantifiable potential familiar fan base for the "Research Institute" or "Female Minifigs" set is HALF THE HUMAN POPULATION! Plus whatever portion of the other half has daughters. It isn't sexy. It isn't exciting. It doesn't have pop culture zing. But it is broad and it is deep. You will find far more young girls dreaming of science or the future than you will Sherlock or Zelda fans.

Meh...

The best of a bad bunch got past review... still not very good though.

I've loathed the female minifigure set right from the start. It's political correctness gone mad. The whole reason given for the proposal was to brainwash little girls into choosing technical careers; why should LEGO be interfering in girls' career choices? I say just let them do whatever job they want to do; don't use LEGO as propaganda.

Whilst girls choosing technical careers doesn't appear to be harmful, the precedent of deliberately using LEGO as propaganda to brainwash children is a dangerous slippery slope. I'm disgusted that The LEGO Group would support the propaganda campaign of this devious political activist and I will boycott this product.

If done right, I may pursue this set making it my first fan based set.

If Zelda were the only project going up for review, they'd reject it. :P Any excuse not to make Lego Legend of Zelda...

@Huey1 - Could you explain how having a small set of female minifigures involved in scientific activities = brainwashing children? Your comment left me a bit confused. Especially since LEGO took great care in removing any trace of "political activism" from their final product concept.

So glad that we finally get a Reaserch Institute for our cities (other than more Police Stations or Fire Dept.), will be on the look out for this and Exo-Suit products.

So sad Zelda got rejected again :(.

Whilst I think the female project is brilliant, I have to agree that it is really unfair that basically NO projects from the actual review passed, as the female project was part of the last review. I guess they may have strategically done this. Oh, well.

@SuperDKong, the issue is the way the original designer (Alatariel) presented the idea. When describing the proposal on Cuusoo, she said the sole purpose of this set was to show that women can be scientists too. Apparently this would encourage girls to choose technical careers, which was her greater aim. Maybe now she'll make a new set with men wearing frilly aprons and operating various pink household appliances.

If this same set had been proposed by someone else and they didn't openly admit that they were making the set as feminist propaganda, I'd be all for it. A bunch of scientists in a lab - great. However, this wasn't the case and therefore I'm against it.

What not a single person has addressed in amongst the bleating that their favorite licensed Ideas set isn't going to be made... is that you don't have the slightest clue how the negotiations around the license might have taken place. Maybe Adventure Time's owners wouldn't license to LEGO, or demanded too much money. We all know about Nintendo being wonky about who they license their brands to.

Why are people constantly surprised that LEGO doesn't want every single CUUSOO/Ideas set to be a licensed product?

I'm calling shenanigans on the whole process.

They knew, they KNEW they were going to pick Female Minifigure Series and the only reason they "pushed" it was so they could have a review with at least one guaranteed winner.

When she said "just one" my heart sunk knowing that they pulled a fast one on us. It's fine for submissions you like to not get picked, its another thing to pretend they were "still considering" one from last time.

FMS is a fine set, the brick built dinosaur skeleton is neat and all, but the submission was a plea for gender representation, one that I agree with, not for an especially thrilling set. I may or may not get it, not out of spite or anything, but for the same reason I rarely get any CITY sets anymore.

ugh... at least I have the Exo-Suit to look forward to.

It's strange she said the project was all about technology and science, but it's actually about the variety of jobs women can hold in our society, including not just technologically based jobs, but also things like being a construction worker. If I created the project, I'd be mad that the focus is being overlooked. The lady in the video not once said anything about female minifigs or anything about female focuses for that matter.

@DanRSL, Shenanigans? Really? Because they didn't approve a bunch of licensed sets that they may not have been able to license or didn't believe were worth the money? The only non-licensed set in the bunch was Japanese Architecture, and looking back at the CUUSOO/IDEAS page is actually three models (two of which seem kind of large), and the author didn't update when Lego asked him to pick on at 5k votes.

Terrible, terrible decision. It lucked out because they likely mistakenly reckon there is mass market appeal to it because it has girl in the title. Also it was up against some other very boring ideas as even the Macross set was pretty meh. I am just glad that the sets they are coming up without community help are still great, and hopefully they are keeping a close eye on what is missing out in general to realise that there is some real great potential themes out there. Space theme is what strikes me, between Eve, Macross, Homeworld, and some other nice ones, this seems like something that is still missing in that genre.

@Huey1, you stated that, "Apparently this would encourage girls to choose technical careers, which was her greater aim." What she said in her actual project description was "I have designed some professional female minifigures that also show that girls can become anything they want, including a paleontologist or an astronomer." I just re-read the whole thing, and there is no brainwashing or propaganda going on in her project description.

I have heard over and over again from many AFOLs, men and women alike, about the desire to have more female minifigures for their town MOCs or other uses, and this project helps to fulfill that wish.

I think historically the only brainwashing that has really gone on is the attempt to limit girls into careers other than scientists, doctors, engineers, etc. In the U.S., where I live, it was less than a hundred years ago that women even received the right to vote. Girls should be able to choose whether they want to grow up to be a nurse or a doctor, a scientist or a stay-at-home Mom, etc. and it is FANTASTIC that LEGO is recognizing those options.

I do hope, and I assume, that TLG will stick with the original concept and only include female minifigures, and I'll be very happy to pick up two sets - one for me (for display, along with our BTTF, Minecraft, and soon-to-obtain Ghostbusters), and one for my son to play with in our LEGO town. Actually, I think in your honor I'll pick up a third set for a feminist friend of mine.

But what does "reasearch institute mean" here? It doesn't sound anything that is related to the original "female minifigure set" idea. The original one seems like impulse sets with a female minifig in the centre and a few bricks. This "institute" sound like ONE medium set (according to the $20 bill) with some female characters. What?

This is a major case of suckage.

I would not have anticipated at the outset of the Cuusoo program that such an unenviable selection of projects would be the result. As for the female minifigure set, maybe shed the whole overbearing feminist angle on the project and make the sets replicate decent-sized laboratories of various types and you might have something decent. As it stands it's not a set that's going to generate a whole lot of interest.

As a scientist, I love it. I'm a big supporter of "Science Outreach" and "Women in Science" as are most in the science community. CUUSOO/Ideas has been very much science oriented, with Shinkai, Hayabusa, and Curiosity (and even science-fiction with BTTF and the Exo-Suit). I hope LEGO choose to continue the theme with more sets. Here are some suggestions I think would make great little LEGO Minifigure sets: Rocket Scientist; Astronaut (Mission Specialist); Engineer; Robot Technician; Computer Technician; Zoologist; Field Biologist; Meteorologist; Geologist; Archaeologist; etc.

If I might attempt to summarise Lego ‘Ideas/Cussoo’.
A very odd looking sub, a weird satellite, some little blocky thing that eludes me completely. They then (for want of a better word) destroyed a Delorean, made a rover with parts that were left over.

I’ll grant some success with the Ecto I, albeit not allowing 4 figures to sit inside and messing up the bonnet (again).

I remain unsure as to what the Exo-suit will actually become and now we have a science lab? I am not joining the debate on gender correctness but have no interest in a few lab benches or scientists regardless of their sex.

Next we will have some brick built birds to look forward too :( , can we please put this to bed as no set over £40-£50 will ever be made and the license issue is becoming tedious.

I feel really bad for the wives and girlfriends of many of you. Gotta suck being married or dating someone with such a shitty attitude towards women, not to mention being married or dating a child crying in the toy aisle because they aren't getting what they wanted.

I never understood the brouhaha.

TLG is actually one of very very few, if not the only, company, that makes it laughably easy to teach your children gender equality, or really whatever set of values you want.

Don't like the killer ninja robot? Part it out to build a fluffy bunny. Don't like fluffy bunnies? Use the bricks to build a fully functional handgun. Don't care for the car in pink? Build it in 20+ other colors, or buy any of the 100+ other car sets readily available at any given moment. Don't like the beauty salon? Buy the oil rig. And swap the male heads with female ones if you want to. And make them wear bikinis, tiaras, or mermaid tails if you feel like driving the point home. Or make the *male* folk wear bikinis and tiaras, for that matter.

If that ain't easy, then "easy" has no meaning. What ever happened to people using their imagination? Conchita Wurst was possible in LEGO decades before Conchita Wurst was born.

And I am not even a minifig collector by any means. I just buy regular sets, and get whatever minifigs come with them. And yet these already can be combined into more different female minifigs than my life time has seconds remaining. Maths 101.

I don't need a Gay Minifigure set, or a Euphemism-for-Blacks-du-Jour Minifigure set, or a Drunken Russian Minifigure set. I *already have* them. If I'm not putting them to good use, that's not TLG's fault. They gave me everything I need to make anything I need. The buck stops with me now, not them.

Too many people seem to be confusing LEGO for Playmobil these days.

And then all the flak the Friends sets got. I will never understand it. TLG actually produces a whole line about girls who are inventors, designers, magicians, who skateboard, surf, and fight karate, play guitar and drums, save lives of people and animals alike, pilot helicopters, steer ships, ride motorcycles, buggies and tractors, drive around in their own cars and caravans, conquer the jungle and run their own businesses with not a single man in sight — and then that line, of all things, gets criticized by self-proclaimed gender-equality experts, and not for its portrayal of men, mind you. Inconceivable.

@oddtodd

" @DanRSL, Shenanigans? Really? Because they didn't approve a bunch of licensed sets that they may not have been able to license or didn't believe were worth the money?"

You didn't read what I said, I'll elaborate. The whole process is bogus because they delayed a set that they could have just as easily selected along with the last review just so the first review under the renamed Lego Ideas didn't have all rejected sets.

It should have had all rejected sets, at least then it would be honest.

They were all pretty much lame.

Disappointed in some of these responses; it's almost like reading comments on YouTube videos.

One set will not brainwash a child to want to be a scientist. If you believe that, then Lego is brainwashing children to be Clone troopers and truck drivers.

I like the set, and I'm glad they removed the feminist angle on it. People should just look at it as a Lego set that just happens to have female minifigs. It is seriously not worth raging over.

As long as the torsos are new, I'll be buying it. I'm in it for the Lego.

@KingDave, nope I got your point. Let's review your comments:

"I always wonder if initiatives like this are actually reinforcing the message that women are being held back in society and having a more negative than positive effect overall. Constantly saying that women need special treatment is not a very positive message is it."

Sounds pretty dismissive of how most women are regarded when it comes to the sciences and representation in the media (including, yes, toys). And who the heck said anything about "special" treatment. Offering a set of female scientists goes a long way to helping both little girls AND boys understand that there's no reason women can't become researchers.

I'm thrilled to be getting the scientific vignettes that most appealed to me when I first supported this proposal. And yes, I've noticed that a lot of the non-scientists have, in fact, appeared as Lego minifigures since this was first proposed. So I'm very satisfied with how everything turned out, and I honestly don't understand why there's so much fuss being made. So what if this Research Institute only has three women in it? How many older sets only had men doing this sort of work? There's no propaganda here, just a recognition of changing probabilities. If you want men working at *your* Research Institute, use some of the older "scientist" figures--and they aren't all crazy scientists, I might add. Lots to choose from.

I also think it's time we all admitted that Lego doesn't want Cuusoo/Ideas to be used as a way to get an extra slot for a modular building set. Just because something is a beautiful MOC which compels admiration from everyone who sees it doesn't necessarily make it appropriate for official release, as we've seen before (Western Main Street, anyone?).

Personally, I think it's marvellous Lego is releasing any fan-originated sets at all. How many other toy companies do that? The Cuusoo releases have all been quirky, off-beat, and interesting; and except for the DeLorean redesign (which is a matter of taste, IMO) I've liked and wanted them all, to varying degrees. I've bought several and plan to BrickLink some of the ones that were sold out before I discovered the line.

Let's stop tottering on the verge of a flamewar and just enjoy what we're getting. (And, as has been mentioned, if you want some Japanese Architecture, why not start with Ninjago City, sell off the minifigures, and use the profits to MOC it up a bit more!)

Good choice for the winner, but I agree with previous posters. Surely the Ideas community will work better if it's able to better understand what Lego is looking for and why projects are rejected?

@sklamb
> Let's stop tottering on the verge of a flamewar and just enjoy what we're getting.
Sorry, I think it's not a positive thinking either. There are many ideas official LEGO designers never come up with, that's why we have to submit projects in LEGO Ideas. If we just say we only need official products and that's enough, it's not the spirit of Ideas. I would only agree that we shouldn't be against the approved projects just because we support the rejected ones.

Lego has gone towards mini size for the many released sets lately, with smaller size parts and still maintaining the brick count. It's the brick count that matters, right, who will notice that it get lighter and smaller anyway? Well, maybe that's why I buy lesser these days (which is a good thing for my wallet). So in order for an Idea to get through, just built it small. You will increase the chances tremendously.

I'm going to laugh my butt off when it has about 4 male minifigs and 1 female minifig.

WHEN WILL WE SEE THE FINAL DESIGN FOR THE EXO SUIT?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Just to point out there was a garbage truck with one male and one female worker in the set. As a female sanitation worker I found this to be a very surprising set.

Sherlock, Adventure Time, Macross, and Zelda probably have some sort of liscensing problem, which is reasonable, but I don't understand how this beat Japanese Architecture. If it was to big, shrink it down a bit. It was based on the style, not size.

And if size was the problem for JA, than I have a gut feeling that next review we'll be seeing Apple Store make it...

The Research Institute, I don't like. It could just be released in City. LEGO could've made more money by producing Zelda or Sherlock, and using female minifigure set as inspiration for a City set. Basically they could've done practically a 2 in 1 move if they let through something else.