LEGO Ideas: No sets selected in most recent review

I wonder why

No Zelda?! Really?!

Really Lego? Really? What a waste of time that was.

That's too bad. At a glance, Science Adventures would've made a nice companion piece to the Research Institute.

C'mon Lego, just give me this Corvette.

That's really unfortunate that none of them passed.
I was really hoping for that T-Rex to pass.. imho it's a work of art.

Wow, this is disappointing, and discouraging to people who might want to submit to Lego Ideas in the future. Science Adventures seemed like a slam dunk, but it's probably too similar to the Research Institute. Who knows....

No Science Adventures because it's too similar to the research institute, no discworld because it's too big/Terry Pratchett's passing put the IP rights in flux, medieval street is too big, Frozen palace clashes with existing sets, DC-3 either too big or IP couldn't be secured, Tyrannosaurus clashes with Jurassic World sets, ISS too big, Golden Girls IP couldn't be secured, Zelda IP couldn't be secured, Titantic too big, Corvette IP couldn't be secured, Small Yellow too weird, Daft Punk IP couldn't be secured or Lego don't think they 'fit the brand'.

Best bet for Ideas is a roughly 500 piece set ideally attached to an IP that Lego doesn't have access to (that the IP owner is happy to see as a set) or with no IP attached. At least, that's what the existing run of Ideas has suggested to me.

I am really surprised the science one didn't. It would have been a way for Lego to follow up the good PR generating women scientist set… I am disappointed the Castle market one didn't get made, but not surprised.

Strange, Zelda is more popular than ever, this is even the second Zelda project to reach 10 000 supporters. Also, TLG hasn't been shy on fetching new licences either, lately. Why not?

Just one other project that I don't understand: the T-rex. Looks gorgeous, requires no new licence and has a realistic piece count. Maybe because they already have planned something similar for the Creator line?

Exactly evilbobthebob. Too many of these were either similar to existing sets/lines, or probably IPs that either didn't want to become Lego, or were too expensive for the ROI.

I would have thought that Science Adventures would have been a lock and a nice companion to Research Institute.

There's a few I could understand why not (Zelda, Daft Punk, Small Yellow, and Golden Girls: licensing/ Frozen,science adventures: already has similar sets/ ISS, T-Rex, Discworld,Medieval Market: building experience issues) but the Corvette, Titanic, and Douglas DC-3 all had good reason to be made into sets.

Hard to believe that none of those were worth producing. I'm wondering if Lego is starting to think Ideas is more trouble than it's worth.

pretty sure that I have seen "Kinect" off brand lego versions of Super Mario Kart. Nintendo may have made a huge mistake in licensing it's IP to a non-lego brand, but if Lego wasn't asking they may have wanted to cash in for something on the construction set wave? That is likely why no Zelda not in the future Mario nad that Nintendo ilk.

I'm sure one of the reasons the castle one didn't make it is that they already made 10193 Medieval Market Village

It seems that the nicer ones: the T-rex, medieval village, and the Corvette, all of which apparently did not "fit in small boxes".

It is really disappointing how such FREE ideas are being put under piles of constrains to come up with a final decision, bringing us back to where we originally started. From what we have witnessed in the Ideas made into products so far, mostly licensed themes and a couple of small products were able to pass. So if you are like me looking for the next HUGE project, you will just have to do it yourself as it will "never meet the criteria".

I thought the Corvette had a chance, but that was also before the news hit that Lego already had a Corvette coming out in 2016.. Granted, it is minifig scale, but it is still the Corvette name..

They should at least update the guidelines to reflect what size set they'll actually bother to produce. Have a weight limit perhaps? It'd save a lot of people wasting countless hours on these larger ( and sometimes lovely) builds.

I'm going to disagree with most people - I wouldn't have bought any of those sets. If they turn down the Caterham in the next review however, I'll not be happy!

I wonder if Ideas is coming to an end.
The vignette style is most likely popular since Lego keeps making them recently, but I guess one Ideas set was enough to test the concept, and now Lego knows the formula.

I'm not entirely sure, but the Zelda IP may be a no-go because of K'Nex's relationship with Nintendo; K'Nex make Mario sets, and I believe that Nintendo own at least some of the Zelda IP.

I would have bought two Corvettes.

Your loss, Lego.

I agree. Disappointing indeed.

From what I have seen, Lego Ideas has become a brainstorming resource for Lego designers. As long as people are willing to give their ideas to Lego for free and have other people provide free marketing information on pricing and popularity, Lego Ideas will continue.

Will the creators be rewarded? Probably only enough to incentivize creators with a small hope of an unlikely payout.

With the 'too big'-rule, you can almost cross all projects of the next review.

@evilbobthebob: The Chevrolet Corvette licence has already been secured. It's being used for next years speed champions sets. My best guess is they didn't make it because it is too big.

I'd like to know what kind of math goes into IP licensing decisions with a product going to Lego or some other company. The big surprise to me was TMNT jumping from Lego to Mega Bloks.

So disappointed! l wanted discworld

Sure TLG can't produce every Idea, but it's a shame not even one was selected... (poor Discworld)

I can't say I'm surprised at all- only a very few of those don't have intellectual property, and of those, all are either too big or are too similar to other sets.

I'm really surprised that the small yellow, the T-rex or the science adventures have not been selected.

The small yellow would've been so good too! It's strange that they didn't pick one, but they have done more than one for the last few!

Thought science adventures was a lock, but no big deal none passed as it will save me some money. Don't think any will pass the next review for the same reasons as this one.

They sure are doing a good job of killing ideas all by themselves. I think they ought to scrap the review stage and replace it with a preorder threshold in some approximation of kickstarter. Just have an IP check beforehand then see how many people are willing to commit money to it. This will stop it being about what marketing thinks people want.

I do wonder if the large sets being rejected is down to their factory capacity issues. They are still not making that clear

Only one that I thought was an obvious choice was the science adventures, but was looking at it this morning and the 3 scenes do not grab attention or are as useful as the previous 3 that I intend to incorporate into mocs.

willp2003 - Caterham Cars have been backing the ideas set, so assume there will be little problem with getting the licence. Whether Lego like the design and think they'll sell...

if it's the same for the next review, not sure people will bother with Ideas anymore...

I'm wondering why Lego didn't select the sets like the GBHQ and the UCS Helicarrier as "Ideas" Sets and make the community happy. The "Copies" of this both Ideas Projects even appeared in the same year what is very dickish.... So we (the community) have to believe TLC rob Ideas from "Ideas"

There's a lot of gloom and doom in these comments. Ideas WILL die off if a) people stop buying the sets that are made and b) submissions are not in line with the Ideas brand and TLG has no choice but discontinue due to lack of submissions.

I think it is pretty obvious by now that if your submission conflicts with a current IP (either one that LEGO currently produces or a competitor produces) it will not be selected. If your submission is large (seems average size is ~500 pieces) it will not be selected. I don't know why anyone would even think that a large or conflicting set would be selected. If your submission is for a very obscure theme it will not be selected.

This will make people happy.

I doubt Nathan Sawaya vetoed Small Yellow, given his very strong relationship with LEGO.

This line in their blog post caught my eye: "Some projects can challenge the rules we have on safe and good building experience for all LEGO builders. "

I suspect all those loose yellow bricks caused it to be rejected.

I have never been as disappointed by the Lego brand as now.

I was really hoping for the Titanic to be made. I guess it was just personal, but it would have been the first large set I would have bought in a while, irrespective of its price.

If the Titanic was not made, I could have accepted any other projects, but having none accepted, could be interpreted as if Lego does not care about what fans want.

Not surprised at all and gives clear guidance on what would be a potentially successful idea - don't make it too big and come up with an original idea.

If they cant find one project in 13 then there is a problem and I don't see the next line up looking any more likely to pass than these.

@eggshen

I'm sure everyone here is aware that IDEAs is run by Lego as a way for them to get free market research and they treat it as something for them. But the message they send to the larger community is vote and get what you want, and the community has little reason to be involved if they aren't getting what they want. If Lego manage to kill off participation thats their responsibility, not the communities for failing to meet Legos hidden criteria that they are not sharing.

This just means that we can probably look forward to seeing at least 2 or 3 of these as exclusives in a few months... because of course, Lego has been working on them pre these submissions.

The more cynical side of me would think this was Lego's response to the Wall-e complaints.

TL;DR: long post ahead.

T. Rex would have been impossible to reproduce faithfully without some significant overhaul to make it more stable, and even then it would have been an issue. Ideas doesn't want another Wall-E debacle.

Corvette would steal customers from the Ferrari model they currently (and possibly for the next two years) produce. I bet we see one eventually. ISS, Titanic, and DC-3, besides being large (but not prohibitively so, unless IDEAS has vastly different production limits) also fall into this category. It seems like TLG only keeps two model-scale vehicles in production at a time, although I may be wrong on that. These are projects that could have been produced at some point (possibly excepting the Titanic), but timing was bad, and if TLG did make them, would probably prefer to not release them under the IDEAS banner. The same could be said for the MMV twin; TLG would rather produce a model like that on their own (when they get around to making historical castles again).

Frozen, Sawaya, Daft Punk, Zelda, and Discworld likely all have IP issues: either from preexisting agreements, inability to reach an agreement (I can see TLG groaning about having to license a project already made out of their own bricks), brand fit, conflicting licenses (not Zelda specifically, but other Nintendo IPs; Nintendo is notoriously picky about its licensees), and, as another commenter noted, Pratchett's estate being handled right now; that might be more of a timing issue than a rights issue, though.

Is there even a market for GG? We were all surprised when BBT landed a set, but that show is still on the air, and references/reverences Lego on occasion. It's no surprise an old sitcom with little overlap to the Lego-buying crowd didn't pass.

I guess Science adventures is the only semi-surprise here, although after all the headaches before with RI--pressure from feminist groups, bad (both negative and/or misguided) press, and production issues--I'm not too surprised they didn't want to have to wade through that again. Also, passing it could have sent a message/set a precedent to make it hard for TLG to refuse similar projects down the road.

I think Ideas has always been a flawed model for creative concept generation, because it doesn't value creativity or marketability so much as popularity (those last two are not the same thing). Then there are all those complaints about how many low quality projects there are that clutter up the site.

My solution would be to have a "like" threshold before you can even submit a project to IDEAS. Make your project, put it on social media, and once it has 100+ (or some other number) likes or retweets, then you can submit it to IDEAS. If you can't rally 100 people on FB or Instagram or something, there is no way you'll be able to do it on IDEAS. That would clear out a lot of the clutter, and prove that IDEAS projects are at least somewhat popular, since that is pretty much all the vote process indicates anyway.

@curious -

Exactly how it seems to me. It's like one of those radio stations that's only going to play a request if it was on the list of records they were going to play anyway.

There are too many secret rules that simply don't align with what's popular at the vote. And they certainly shouldn't be making 'Staff Picks' of things they know are unsuitable from the start.

The review team need to get involved earlier on and give some ongoing feedback - not just to designers, but to voters too.

^ddetro

Good one! I could see it coming...

I'm glad LEGO did this. It keeps its standards high. I'm bummed there won't be a T-Rex or Corvette, but hopefully it will curb the submission of gigantic models that would never fit with Ideas' current program. Puts a greater onus on the creators to submit better planned sets, saving TLG some more work.

I wonder if the modular buildings submissions are too large as well...

Why are you people pulling out Helicarrier and GB HQ ?
Helicarrier got 10k in September and in November there was the leak in titles of another designer video. Anybody thinking that TLG managed to copy the oversized Ideas set to real one in 2 months need a reality check.
GB HQ - Sergio started to work on it AFTER the ECTO-1 was approved (search for his build thread), so that was after the talks between TLG and GB IP holder. It's not like it was a unique idea that nobody at this talks could have come up with, right? More so that wetwired had the building shell made at the time of submitting ECTO-1 (but did not put it to Ideas) and then there is OrionPax who had full interior building made year before and Ideas set submitted month before. But did not got the social networking to get more than 1k.
So tighten up your tin foil hats ...

^ Most likely, given the size of recent modulars.

"We can also have difficulties simply producing some of the larger projects with the production capacity we have for LEGO Ideas"

...so Wall-E fixing combined with maze is cramping the pipeline a bit? Add the overall shortage situation now, and giving themselves some more time seems smart.

Still a shame about the Corvette.

No Zelda, I had my hopes up this time.

Daft Punk are also already available on another website.

With all respect to the authors of all those creations, I won't be missing any rejected project out of them all.

From my point of view there is no real eye-catcher in this wave.

Ideas is still a great place, just because none made it through this time, doesn't mean they weren't any good.

I was surprised the museum modular didn't get through in some form from a previous review - I thought they might have it in the pipeline as the next modular. Now the bank is confirmed as the new release, I'm currently building my own museum based on the ideas submission.

Ma dai...

@papluh

Helicarrier was submitted long before, noone thinks they made their own set in 2 months. What people think is happening are LEGO is using IDEAs in planning its own sets and have approved their own Helicarrier set at the 1k votes stage. The IDEAs TOS gives them permission to do that but it further devalues the IDEAs site for the community.

Personally I think what actually happened is they planned the sets independently then realised they couldn't take down the IDEAs project because it would have revealed their plans. Which is not a great situation either because the community is wasting its energy, the IDEAs set developer gets nothing, and everyone is slightly annoyied anyway because it looks bad and LEGO haven't communicated about it.

James87...OR, TLG were already planning and/or in the process of making both of those sets. It's funny to see people saying its a conspiracy to get ideas. GB HQ & Helicarrier aren't even original ideas...so it's not like they stole them from Ideas anyways...not that it's true.

Gutted about the Corvette - I would have loved to have been able to buy that. There's a few others I would have liked to see come to market too, but am not surprised they didn't. An entire review phase without a single set though? REALLY disappointing.

I'm neither surprised or disappointed by the result at all. I hope that it means they'll have more time and resources to put into the next set of projects and pass the Caterham Seven :-)

That's really disappointing. Explanation from Lego is vague. Why not pinpoint the wrongs of a project and thereby helping to provide a bit of guidance as to what it takes to get an Idea from 10.000 votes to an official set?!

Lego have indicated in general why all the projects didn't pass. If they stated for each the exact reason, then they'd reveal their future plans.

By rodiziorobs in United States, 30 Oct 2015 16:21

"My solution would be to have a "like" threshold before you can even submit a project to IDEAS. Make your project, put it on social media, and once it has 100+ (or some other number) likes or retweets, then you can submit it to IDEAS. If you can't rally 100 people on FB or Instagram or something, there is no way you'll be able to do it on IDEAS. That would clear out a lot of the clutter, and prove that IDEAS projects are at least somewhat popular, since that is pretty much all the vote process indicates anyway."

That would still be a popularity contest, and the most crucial factor would be your number of followers on social networks, not the quality of the set.

Lego shouldn't approve sets to appears on Ideas that they know they won't make, like huge or sub-par ones. Huge ones in particular tend to look impressive and thus attract votes for nothing, whereas sub-par ones at least eventually get lost.

I understand that TLG wants to keep the rules vague, so as to not discourage creativity from users. However, it would be nice if they provided a few more details on their criteria and internal guidelines regarding what makes a suitable set.

And their issues with a project this time (eg number of pieces) may not be an issue for the next review. Maybe they don't have a slot to produce a set with 3,000 pieces in 2016, but additional production slots in future may mean that piece count may not be a barrier to future ideas sets.

Or an IP they couldn't secure this time round becomes available at a late date.

@ericlego321 I'm pretty sure cussing is not allowed here.

why didn't t rex approved?!

I for one find it odd that it has taken them so long to come to a review where no sets pass!
They seem to be further and further behind schedule for every review period, now they can make up for lost time...

I'm not surprised at all. Apart from the DC3 & Corvette they were all dire or too left field.

Hopefully the creator expert 2016 car is a classic corvette, really bummed about that one!

@DrDaveWatford

Its clear if you follow Ideas regularly sure. Set designers have clues. Do you really expect the average voter knows them though? Theres even been articles in mainstream press that flat out stated vote for this set and if it reaches 10,000 it will get made. This is where the danger lies the expectation of its users is drifting from the reality and they aren't addressing it, i'm sure even those incorrect articles are still up.

Even knowing the difficulties LEGO face and having a rough idea of the hidden rules its constantly disappointing to see them pass on sets I want. This is not a good outcome for the company at all. You can't put out a PSA and tell everyone to stop being disappointed, you've got to manage it in other ways.

I was so looking forward to: Daft Punk, Small Yellow, Zelda and Scince Adventures :( oh well, next batch.

WHAT!? No Corvette? Stupid LEGO!

How disappointing, I'm shocked. They could have easily made the T Rex a Jurassic World UCS or a creator set, and the Titanic would have been HUGELY popular with kids.

Er, I know the comments section isn't to be used as a discussion forum, but why would the Titanic be popular with kids?

Apart from the Corvette, the other 13 don't create any excitement for me. I think LEGO's conclusion to the review makes sense to me

Too bad, there's a lot of good in this. I really like the dinosaur one.

@StorzN: Lego don't put Ideas sets into other themes such as Jurassic World or Creator and what makes the Titanic HUGELY popular with kids?

The corvette is AWESOME!!!!Lego you suck because you didn't make her a set!!!!

Besides a terrible movie how is Titanic popular with kids? The movie came out in 1997. Maybe there has been a few programs on Discovery/History Channel, but not enough for it to be popular with kids.

I have a few of the IDEAS sets, but overall I've not been a fan of the project. I'm not upset about the loss of these titles.

I agree on there is a standard formula that will increase your chances of passing review. Fall within those parameters and you at least have a shot.

I think Lego have overreached their production capacity which is why none of these ideas are being made.

There may also be other lego products already in development that come close to these ideas.
Small Yellow is almost plagiarism?
Although completely different, the car is very similar to the current Ferarri F-40.
Frozen Palace is too similar to the current Frozen theme.
Golden Girls is too similar to The Big Bang Theory.
The Science set is possibly too similar to the Research institute.
Three sets are just too large.
The Plane might be similar to one due for production or it has too much silver? or grey in it.

Discworld sounds like it should have made a brilliant set and I'm sure Sir Terry would have approved. Maybe TLG could not come to agreement about royalties to his estate?

What ever happened to the days when some projects were shot down as soon as they reached 10,000? Remember the Dark Bucket?

Well, what is the next Ideas set after the Doctor going to BE then?!

I'm disappointed that Science Adventures didn't pass.

^ The Marble Maze is the next Ideas set.

https://ideas.lego.com/projects/14605

As usual, we'll never know why. Small Yellow and Tyrannosaurus seemed like no-brainers. No IP to worry about, not too big, top-notch unique design. And isn't there going to be a Speed Champions Corvette? So that license is seemingly taken care of, too.

Oh well.

I think there's a lot of unwarranted rage in these comments regarding the rejections of the last round of LEGO Ideas. But looking through these, there are many obvious reasons why they didn't make it past. The Medieval Market and Small Yellow would be too large for what LEGO considers a practical size for an Ideas set; Discworld and The Golden Girls are too obscure; Science Adventures is too similar to the Research Institute; Frozen already exists in the Disney Princesses theme; the Titanic and Corvette would be more at home under Creator Expert; Daft Punk does not represent a substantial enough proposition as a set; and there may be licensing restrictions for Legend of Zelda.

The only ones I could have seen realistically making it through were the DC-3, T-Rex, and ISS. But even then, the DC-3 would require too many new parts in chrome silver, the possibly conflict of interest between the T-Rex and Jurassic World sets, and the fact that LEGO has already done a space-related set with the rover.

LEGO has generally been very careful about what it selects for its Ideas sets in the past, and making sure that there's not too much overlap with existing themes, because it really wants builders to use their own imagination when creating submissions. Minecraft and the Exo-Suit really stand out as what Ideas stands for, with the former utilizing microbuild techniques and the latter having very creative use of parts that are generally only seen in MOCs.

How do we know whether or not the original designer of the Ghostbusters Headquarters will receive some remuneration from Lego? Or maybe Lego's design was already in the pipeline when his Ideas submission was made. My point is this: maybe Lego will produce the DC-3, for example, but as Creator Expert rather than Ideas. And they might compensate the original designer, although that might not ever be public knowledge. GBHQ shows Lego's willingness to produce good designs whose popularity has already been proven by the Ideas community. Who cares if the projects are marketed as "Ideas"? Personally, I think the DC-3 and Corvette are amazing.

"Sir, we have another Lego Legend of Zelda set come up for review, 4th one so far!"
"Eh, what else do we have?"
"Well, we could make Ghostbusters, but it took a long time to rea-"
The fans have spoken, no one wants Legend of Zelda, they want an 80s movie to be milked!"
Seriously, there were so many good ideas that got rejected, many I would happily pay for.

It would be nice if LEGO would just get it over with and publish the following two guidelines, which are at this point pretty obviously true, just "secret"
1) projects for third party IPs that LEGO or a LEGO competitor already hold the rights to will not be considered (and probably add that they will be removed/archived when they hit 500 or 1000 votes)
2) projects should generally be kept under the 1000 part count mark, give or take

@Exetrius FOURTH. This is the FOURTH Zelda set to make it to 10,000. You'd think Lego would be willing to pay any sum for the rights by now.

To anyone saying Ideas is dead - Ideas was DEAD ON ARRIVAL. Don't forget that NONE of the submissions from the very first Ideas review passed either, the Research Institute was just kicked down the line to make it seem like something won. I said it then and it echoes again now. They plan these out WAY farther ahead than any of you think, that's how the RI came out mere weeks after "winning".

Ideas works, but it only works for Lego themselves. It's fitting they dropped the Cuusoo name, as it's not about fulfilling fans' dreams anymore, just about feeding Lego "Ideas".

^I agree, Ideas was dead on arrival. The Exo-Suit was fabulous, Birds was quite good, the Ecto-1 was awesome, and Doctor Who looks brilliant as well. But everything else since they rebranded it has been a disappointment. Research Institute wasn't notable for anything other than female minifigures, The Big Bang Theory was crap with nice minifigs, and WALL-E's issues have been well-documented.

Not to mention the constant refusal of Zelda projects and the increasing appearance of rejected Ideas projects showing up as official sets anyway...

So many people sound so entitled to having MOC's they like become LEGO sets. This is still more of a service than anything. It's a privilege that us fans can even submit ideas to LEGO to become sets.

That said, it is disappointing that out of 14 solid entries TLG couldn't pick a single one.

Disappointed that Zelda didn't become a set, but I'm not very surprised about it. I mean they've already rejected 3 sets beforehand, it was likely this would be the case. The next review has several sets that are way too large for Ideas. The only sets that look in the running are the Little Prince and Adventure Time.

Hmm. I think the Ideas concept on paper works, but what Lego hasn't counted in the equation is fan reactions to every little mistake. This year has been marked by a lot of small issues which as a community we have made mountains out of mole hills: (example, Wall-E's swivel neck). While it has been great to see TLG respond to some of the issues, we keep dragging up more and more problems. If anything is going to kill Lego Ideas it won't be Lego, it will be us.

No T-Rex? I mean really. It's alright guys, we've got a marble maze to look forward to...(sarcasm)

^I agree. The "A"fols are beginning to sound like the entitled generation of children they are raising.

I am sure that there are so many more factors that go into these decisions than we are aware of. I haven't voted on an Idea in ages, but the one thing that I was always curious about was the question about how much one would pay for a set. Many times there are fans of the IP voting that most likely have very little idea of how much a LEGO set would cost. Sure Zelda (just an example) has earned 10000 votes four times, but maybe the price voters are willing to pay are so grossly underestimated that that kills the Idea.

I think my next Ideas project is going to be about the sky falling. I am certain I can get all of your support....

I can understand readers' frustrations, but The Lego Group is free to reject any submissions, and I agree with the suspicion that TLG are unwilling to reveal their plans to competitors. I'm just annoyed at how much time could have been saved by thousands - THOUSANDS! - of people if the Billund Boys had published more stringent criteria for submission.

I've just read the Project Guidelines and while there's a lot of toot about Lego's Intellectual Property, artwork advice and themes to avoid, there's precious little information about the technical specification of any submission. All we need are some simple pointers, eg: no fewer than 100 pieces or no more than 1000, or no longer/taller than 50 cm, or no heavier than 750g, or have any theme which needs IP rights to be negotiated.

With published guidelines being so vague, the "Ideas" site is sodden with garbage. As a result of this article and the comments, I've looked at the site properly for the first time and I'm depressed at the offerings. If TLG really cared about the "Ideas" project they would - at the very least - apply their own rules, but they should also insist on a minimum quality threshold.

TLG should also forbid all CAD only (virtual Lego) submissions. If the creator hasn't made it from their own stock, there's no guarantee it's buildable or playable: see yet another Space Station (submission 84928) as an example of something that can't bear its own weight, something not considered by the author or his 1100 supporters.

lol. I'm not sure what all the fuss is about. The number of new sets released in 2015 is a record high. 2016 will be the same. I'm happy already that Lego is giving us the Ghostbusters HQ for purchase. So what if they've rejected all 15 projects this time round! I don't even like any one of them anyway. ^^

Booo!

Just. . . .boooooo!!!!

Massive disappointment. Really wanted that Titanic.

I wanted the T-Rex.
I had hoped the T-Rex would be differentiated enough by the fact that you can build it, rather than in a mould. However, Lego's logic with licensing makes sense - and we cannot assume what licensing issues they might have had with the other sets. As for the ambiguity in rules, that is required, otherwise 'internet lawyers' will comment on chosen idea sets, that was or wasn't in the rules. The ambiguity is required to allow submissions to be truly creative, but common sense by the contributor surely must also be a factor.
I still love Lego Ideas, a great opportunity to get an official set of some fantastic MOC's.

Zelda is owned by Nintendo, and Nintendo has an exclusivity with Mega Blocks (along with current spongebob sets). Nominate as much as you like, it ain't gonna happen. Just as if I were to submit a design for a lego bong and get 10,000 votes. That won't be made either, but if lego were to ever make a usable bong, I would so buy it! I would have liked the titanic set though.

^ HAHA

"So I MOCd this cool Zelda set. . . . yeah I know it smells like bong water. Sacrifices had to be made bro"

wow I'm very surprise many people disappointed that all ideas are rejected. I don't know much about how lego ideas work but I see the approved lego ideas as out of the box, very unique and new concept/special. For example Wall-e, birds, and exo-suit.
Some of the rejected ideas are interesting but some of them merely another copy of old ideas / not new. Especially science adventure, it's just another copy of research institute, the concept is the same, 3 minifig 3 setting, oh please why would TLG pay a small royalty to people who create the ideas if it's only just a copy of an old concept? If TLG approved it, it will make more entry to lego ideas full of rubbish :p.

The good thing is, it's not an absolute competition that there must be one "winner". If there are really no suitable projects, I don't think LEGO should be forced to do any of them. Porbably some voters rather wish to see previous projects be selected.

As for these projects, as usual there are defenitely impossible ones. The ship and the plane are pretty oversized and LEGO might not wish to do it via LEGO Ideas. Some other original ideas which might fit a regular set might depend on LEGO's inhouse market research.

My personally dissapointment is not to see Golden Girls pass since it has the same potential and product size with TBBT set, I quite don't understand why it fails.

The additional issue is that LEGO announced Ghostbuster office recently. Plus those Dimensions franchises, would it be that LEGO actually knock all those fan projects done but secretly begin to do their own thing? It'd still be good to fans, but not to project makers. Hopefully it is a ridiculous assumption.

As the "owner" of the Titanic and DC-3 projects, here's my overall thoughts on the matter on the Ideas blog post page:
http://tinyurl.com/qaua9lv
And for all of those who comment my Titanic or DC-3 being too big; do you always judge a project by a two-second glimpse on the main image while not 1) reading the description text or 2) even viewing the update page?! :)
A little ironic, that so many blame LEGO for bad judgment with their Ideas Review outcomes, while I'm seeing many Lego fans themselves making hasty judgments on projects.

So in a year or so what set out of these do you think LEGO will steal? Honestly the way Ideas / Cuusoo has been handled is a joke. At the very least they could have continued the female science sets.

Lame LEGO. Lame.

@Ssorg - fantastic MOC's !! You are truly creative and talented !

I think Ideas suffered a bit from the Wall-e neck issue, but although all the sets that were rejected had their merits, I would not have bought any of them.
The restrictions in place by Lego are still very understandable. The only thing which I would suggest is that Lego should be a bit more specific (e.g. cost of production ; Intellectual Property).
For the handful of persons who reach that stage, even the smallest feedback would be very important, like after a job interview, you know what you need to improve or where it went wrong.

Not too surprised tbh. The only sets really worth thinking about are the female Science and Zelda set.

GAH! LEGO!! This feeling... It's like... THE OPPOSITE OF HAPPINESS!!

Srsly how BRICKIN HARD is it for them to make Zelda? I know, I know, ip nonsense. But REALLY! I JUST want one of those Link hairpieces! JUST ONE!

Ideas sets come out so infrequently that it really is a shame not to have any announced for the foreseeable future. :/

I imagine the Ideas team just lounging around their office like "Hey did we pick a set yet... we are almost at the time we are supposed to announce.". "Nah man... we have WallE and Dr.Who out now.. we'll get their money regardless ..."

Most of them don't surprise me, but I figured Science Adventures, T-Rex, and Corvette had a shot. I really wanted that Corvette too. Maybe with the license being secured they're already planning it under the Expert line. About the only thing happy here is my wallet.

Looking at the next review stage I don't see anything making it through next time either. Maybe two in a row with none accepted will convince them to clarify guidelines a bit more.

I love reading through these comments. With the LEGO group being quite possibly the largest toy manufacturer in the world, an achievement selling just one product, a family owned business that's grown not due to corporate acquisitions, but from product sales and sales that show profit increase year upon year. With all this in mind LEGO doesn't stroie me as a company that doesn't know what it's doing. As for Ideas, it's a lottery. Just because a submission reaches 10,000 is no guarantee it gets produced. It's marketing research, and you can't blame LEGO for engineering in that fashion, after all it helps them sell the right product which can only be positive.

Whilst a few of these would have made really neat sets, news like this is rather unsurprising.

I stopped going on Lego Ideas in about May 2014. Since then, it is mostly just models based on video games and pieces of art which have no chance of making palpable sets.

Admittedly, Cuusoo had many flaws, and the issue noted above was at least somewhat prevalent then- the notorious Purdue Pete project, while well-built and creative, had little chance of being an official set. But Cuusoo was also a community- anyone active on there in mid-2013 will probably remember the Space Marines University thread. But now it is just, as mr_skinny pointed out, a lottery. A lottery in which innovative and realistic set ideas are tossed aside for large IPs.

TL;DR WARNING (sorry):

First and foremost, I totally understand the disappointment, and I think fans have a right to be disappointed. I don't think anyone should pass judgment on those who express disappointment. These are passionate fans who also form a part of the consumer base of a product. They are well within their right to have their opinion heard. If I'm Lego, I want someone out perusing forums such as this getting feedback from disappointed fans. However, unsubstantiated disappointment/hate isn't constructive, but neither is blind fanboy-ism. Hopefully we steer clear of both.

I have two projects on Lego Ideas and I must say that this doesn't send a good message. The Lego Ideas platform is more than just about idea generation and a marketing research platform. It's also about building relationships with fans/consumers, a historically strong point of The Lego Group.

I don't think that: a) passing on 14 genuine projects that were strongly supported by the consumer was a strategically smart move for Lego. I don't buy the "meeting their standard" argument (partially) because Lego Ideas HAS been a hit so far, and the proof is in the pudding- there is sufficient demand for the product (however the IP argument is definitely valid) and b) the decision not to produce a set undermines the process and discourages people from participating. Lego has a mutually beneficial relationship right now via Ideas, where they get a plethora of free market research in exchange for an offering to the consumer. If they start bucking this agreement by not producing sets yet reaping the rewards of the research, Ideas needs to go, because that simply isn't holding up that end of the bargain. As mentioned above,
this is closely related to relationships and brand image with the consumer.

Lastly, I don't see why the castle based project (medieval market street) couldn't have been tailored and released this time. It fills the void of no current castle theme (which I think is a travesty considering it has been a legacy theme of Lego since the very beginning). One single set that was an advanced build such as this would have acted as a bridge to keep the theme alive while satisfying the clear demand for the Castle theme (also helps Lego's brand image). As someone mentioned above, wait and see as a Castle themed set gets released in the new year under Lego's thumb, not through Ideas. Then you'll want to question the validity and integrity of the Lego Ideas platform.

Again, sorry for this lengthy post.

@Matt Z it was a well put lengthy post though!

Pretty sure Castle is an evergreen theme, like space and pirates and gets rotated (could be wrong), but I don't think the reemergence of a theme could be attributed to a single Lego Ideas contribution. A good read though with interesting points.

@Matt Z

An important part of the shaky relationship you overlooked was the now growing number of Ideas submissions made into a set without going through Ideas. If you were to look at it cynically, Lego "stealing" ideas such as Changing Seasons and now the Ghostbusters Firehouse. Perhaps the Firehouse was "inevitable discovery", but Changing Seasons sure wasn't.

There is too much behind the scenes that Lego refuses to divulge for Ideas to be successful at relationship building with fans. The most successful relationships they've really developed were through Mojang, TBS (or whoever owns BBT rights) and Pixar.

I'm surprised science adventures didn't make it because of how successful the research institute was, seems like it would have been another popular and sold out set pretty quickly. I'm disappointed small yellow didn't make it, I really wanted that, but I can see why it didn't.

Pretty disappointed that nothing came of what was the biggest group of Ideas project reviewed to date. Most of these would have been great sets. I also find it strange that this is the second time the F7A Hornet has been carried over.

Btw, contrary to popular opinion, LEGO not making Zelda has nothing to do with some "Nintendo license exclusivity." K'nex has the license to Mario properties, yes, but note that Ionix has the license to Pokemon. Zelda also hasn't been banned from Ideas, which was the case with Mario, Doctor Who (at one point), Transformers, My Little Pony, and others when there was clearly a license conflict. So there's obviously no broad "license to make construction toys based off all Nintendo's many, many properties" that's been given out to any company. Besides, if there were, K'nex'd be fools to be sitting on those properties all this time without using them.

I cannot say for certain as to the licensing of Zelda and other Nintendo properties, but I suspect there's more to the Pokemon brand. It is not directly owned by Nintendo in the same way as Mario, rather Nintendo co owns it with Game Freak and Creatures Inc, and Nintendo has majority share in Game Freak.* I bet the Ionix licensing was done by one of the other companies, regardless of Nintendo having deals with K'Nex.

*All this info is from a quick bit of googling, so accuracy may vary!

Yuffie, maybe you should look into the past Ideas/Cuusoos that have been rejected and are becoming real sets? Like the new Ghostbusters HQ, Portal 2, Wizard of Oz, the new 2016 Super Hero racers we are rumored to be getting.

Just because you are paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you.

I can say with confidence that evilbobthebob was spot on for the reasons no set was picked in this round. IP's is not an easy route, and often a grey zone with ridiculous sums of money, demands from different partys etc.

evilbobthebob wrote:
"No Science Adventures because it's too similar to the research institute, no discworld because it's too big/Terry Pratchett's passing put the IP rights in flux, medieval street is too big, Frozen palace clashes with existing sets, DC-3 either too big or IP couldn't be secured, Tyrannosaurus clashes with Jurassic World sets, ISS too big, Golden Girls IP couldn't be secured, Zelda IP couldn't be secured, Titantic too big, Corvette IP couldn't be secured, Small Yellow too weird, Daft Punk IP couldn't be secured or Lego don't think they 'fit the brand'.

Best bet for Ideas is a roughly 500 piece set ideally attached to an IP that Lego doesn't have access to (that the IP owner is happy to see as a set) or with no IP attached. At least, that's what the existing run of Ideas has suggested to me."

I feel bad for all of the creators in this round - I know this took a lot of time and effort to reach 10K. I was surprised that no projects were approved. I thought Discworld had the best chance, for some of the reasons listed above. Zelda is great, but if they've said "no" three times, hearing the "yes" on the fourth try would have been a big surprise. That Frozen project was awesome and more detailed than the set that came out, but obviously if they ended up producing their own they weren't going to release another one.

The titanic ideas project looks, understandibly, identical to a current nanoblocks product.

whoisbiggles: "The titanic ideas project looks, understandibly, identical to a current nanoblocks product."
Um, what?!
Whatever you're trying to imply here, something is clear about your EYES. I googled the nanoblock Titanic and that looks nothing like my designs.
Seriously compare:
Nanoblock:
https://www.questacon.edu.au/qshop/images/D/nanoblock_titanic_built_above%20900.png
My 3 versions:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/51369236 @N06/8622077025/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/51369236 @N06/16619608498/
"looks identical"... IDENTICAL?!! omg...

I only wish to continue my belief LEGO should explain their decisions more thoroughly . No 'hints', just tell us... this set was too big. It'd hurt less to hear it, I think, than to have to speculate, and make it more explicable that these sets were declined.

With respect to Discworld, I don't think Sir Terry's passing is really it. There is Discworld merchandise out there and it's still being produced, and I believe that his widow - and daughter, I think - are essentially in control. Aside from that it's likely to be more popular in Europe rather than the US, and I wonder if LEGO find it too niche to be viable. There is also the case that it has been licensed out to various companies in the past and it's possible there is something stopping LEGO from being able to access the license - perhaps the upcoming BBC series 'The Watch'?

On top of that, I'm wondering if the reported struggles LEGO are having with meeting demand are a factor here. Surely it'd be more sensible from a business point of view for them to focus on the sets they know will bring in money (i.e. Star Wars, Minecraft, Creator, City) than those which are essentially an unknown - especially if they're of a relatively high brick count?

If people here still think LEGO did no wrong with the upcoming Ghostbuster HQ here is the man whose design LEGO stole...

http://www.swissgb.ch/my-statement-on-the-release-of-the-lego-ghostbusters-firehouse-headquarters/

@Landon and @evilbobthebob
Spot on indeed. None of those 'vote winners' was ever going to be a set.
There are so many projects on the Ideas site which are IP based that don't stand a hope of ever being released, either as a Lego regular set or an Ideas set.
Equally there are so many projects that are way beyond the pocket of your average Lego builder that they are never going to be released.
When you go through the daily discover page with your corporate business head on, there are maybe one or two a month that might appear in the future as a set. Regular or Ideas.

Typical--I'll bet they thumb their nose at all the stuff worth having like the Nautilus in 2015 3 Review too.

Why do we even bother? It's pretty much obvious that TLG is never gonna produce anything that upstages their own designers... and with the ever-increasing Juniorization of official releases that's getting like trying to duck a limbo bar getting ever closer to the ground.