Ideas review results revealed!
Posted by Huw,
The results of the first 2023 LEGO Ideas review have just been revealed!
Find out how many projects were successful, and what they are, after the break. I think you'll be surprised -- I certainly was!
Two submissions were selected to be made into official LEGO sets, most likely in 2025:
THE BOTANICAL GARDEN by Goannas89
TWILIGHT: CULLEN HOUSE by LobsterThermidor
I have to say I'm surprised that the botanical garden was successful given that Friends has just yielded one that looks very similar, and Twilight means nothing to me. So, disappointing in my point of view. What about yours?
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Awful.
Eh, ok. I have a couple of the Friends Botanical Gardens to make into something larger, and Twilight, really? I thought that series of books and films was irrelevant now.
Wow, this is incredibly disappointing.
Multiple other builds were way more interesting than these two.
Ah well, makes saving up for a new guitar a whole lot easier!
Well, that was underwhelming and confusing. Too many sets made it through to even pay attention to this anymore. Either way, congrats to the winners and the nominees.
I admit I love the Friends botanical garden but didn't want to buy two, so this might end up decent.
Twilight, I mean, has this been popular in the past 5+ years? This is such a bizarre pick, especially when the whale was right there, which is a novel building technique and beautiful.
Would be nice if the botanical garden “matched up” or connected somehow with the new Natural History Museum.
Genuinely confused on Twilight. Thought that was more of a flash in the pan type thing.
This botanical garden is a modular building, they never selected a modular building before!
My bet/hope was on the humpback whale.
Ah well, money saved.
Perhaps some of the better ones will resurface on the BDP in the future.
I thought we had consigned sparkly emo vampires to the cultural refuse dump of history by now.
Oh well. Now it seems we can have Ideas sets based on horror(ish) movies, time to get working on my Wicker Man submission
The Twilight submission made it...I have no words.
I guess the Friends botanical garden has received positive reviews, and will probably be retired by 2025 so might make sense to put a bigger adult-aimed one out there. Guess it kind of ties into the general brick-built flower series that seems to be popular.
Very surprised by the Botanical Garden. I thought that it would be ruled out by the Friends set. So glad it wasn't... Superb! A mini Kew Palm House.
Well we can't say they don't surprise us.
I refuse to believe that TLG actually thinks a random house based on a highly controversial franchise will sell better than half of the proposed projects.
On the plus side- it looks like the botanical garden is designed to match the modulars; so hopefully they'll keep that feature.
There's a guy on YouTube who has a series of videos about Twilight where he keeps referring to Bella as a "Lego brick," so now I can't unsee that if this is going to be a real set.
(The videos are funny, but they also throw in some really, really dark humor.)
(Apparently The Oatmeal also concluded Bella was a Lego brick:
"First off, the author creates a main character which is an empty shell. Her appearance isn't described in detail; that way, any female can slip into it and easily fantasize about being this person. I read 400 pages of that book and barely had any idea of what the main character looked like; as far as I was concerned she was a giant Lego brick. Appearance aside, her personality is portrayed as insecure, fumbling, and awkward - a combination anyone who ever went through puberty can relate to. By creating this "empty shell," the character becomes less of a person and more of something a female reader can put on and wear. Because I forgot her name (I think it was Barbara or Brando or something like that), I'm going to refer to her as "Pants" from here on out."
https://theoatmeal.com/story/twilight)
well, this is just dissapointing,
I knew Narnia was unlikely, but these?
first off, the first is nice, but as others have said 41757 already exists.
and the second? well the less said about that the better.
Another botanical garden? At least this one is for minifigs.
All I know about Twilight is that every love story is better than it, apparently.
Overall this wave is incredibly disappointing. We don't need another botanical garden, and why go for some weird TV show/book/movie/IDK-what-Twilight-even-is when you could've had Dr. Seuss, Bluey, Addams Family, or Chronicles of Narnia?
I think the Botanical Garden makes sense. The Friends one was well-received, and the botanical series seems to be doing well too. On the other hand, they could've just done this as a modular too, a wide one like the Natural History Museum.
Twilight though... huh? Even though it was massively popular at the time, it doesn't feel like something that has sustained that popularity. Maybe enough time has passed that young adults who watched them as teens are now feeling nostalgic but yeah, weird pick. To me it's neither old enough to be retro and not currently relevant enough but then again LEGO has approved some other sets that didn't make a ton of sense either (Queer Eye for example, I'd love to know if that one sold anything at all).
Twilight idea is as good as the BTS set.
I've ignored the previous sitcom sets, but I was looking forward potentially getting sets of the Brooklyn 99 and Parcs and Rec offices.
I’m actually really excited for Twilight because it’s just such a strange choice. The botanical garden modular looks beautiful!
Got to give Lego credit, Ideas is certainly helping me save money lately.
Whoever said the Cullen House from Twilight would be picked.... congrats. (Now, where did I put my pitchfork and torch....)
As for the Twilight house itself being picked, my thoughts are as follows, and I quote:... WHAT THE (redacted) ARE YOU THINKING LEGO? Twilight has (thankfully!) over over for many years (a decade maybe?) and it's trash. My sister (who read the Harry Potter books and hates them from what I recall) was around the right age when the Twilight books / films came out, and wouldn't even touch this stuff with a ten foot pole. I also wouldn't be caught dead (or undead) watching those films or reading the books. So, why the set, when the franchise has run out of steam YEARS ago? It's not like LotR, which is still going with the Amazon show, or HP which has theme parks and Fantastic Beasts.
Basically:
The Twilight ship has sailed, and your weren't on it LEGO. Don't try to dog paddle to catch up.
@ResIpsaLoquitur said:
"There's a guy on YouTube who has a series of videos about Twilight where he keeps referring to Bella as a "Lego brick," so now I can't unsee that if this is going to be a real set.
(The videos are funny, but they also throw in some really, really dark humor.)
(Apparently The Oatmeal also concluded Bella was a Lego brick:
"First off, the author creates a main character which is an empty shell. Her appearance isn't described in detail; that way, any female can slip into it and easily fantasize about being this person. I read 400 pages of that book and barely had any idea of what the main character looked like; as far as I was concerned she was a giant Lego brick. Appearance aside, her personality is portrayed as insecure, fumbling, and awkward - a combination anyone who ever went through puberty can relate to. By creating this "empty shell," the character becomes less of a person and more of something a female reader can put on and wear. Because I forgot her name (I think it was Barbara or Brando or something like that), I'm going to refer to her as "Pants" from here on out."
https://theoatmeal.com/story/twilight )"
I've never read or watched Twilight but Cosmonaut Variety Hour / Cosmonaut Picture Show's Twilight watchalongs are hilarious
an absolute howler but I never buy Ideas sets so my opinion is easy to disregard haha
This is an early April Fool’s joke right?
RIGHT!?!???
These are such random picks.
Some positives, I enjoyed the Friends Botanical Garden so will probably pick this up.
The house looks like a nice modern mansion building. Come to think of it, that’s Friends adjacent too with the 2024 Mansion set.
I just need a DISLIKE button for this post.
TWILIGHT, really?
I'm not big on Minidolls, so seeing the Botanical Garden make it through is nice to see.
But Twilight? lol. Well, maybe it's been long enough that fans from when it was popular now find it nostalgic. I'm not one of those people, so easy pass.
@Somnium said:
"Twilight idea is as good as the BTS set."
Perfect!!
As much as I like vampire stories, I've never tried Twilight and this set is not going to persuade me otherwise.
As for the botanical garden, it's been done already, why do another, although it does make me wonder if I should hold off getting the Friends one twice until the reveal.
Is this really the true result? It's so disappointing that it makes you question.
Lego knows best - or so I've been told for criticising the Polaroid camera as choice above other ideas sets. So to qualify my comments - these are 2 sets this customer won't be buying. At least they didn't pick the retro radio.
I would buy an official botanical garden modular, rather than one made from 2 or 3 of the Friends sets. I’m looking forward to seeing the result
Interesting to see Brooklin 99 or Parks&recs sets didn't make the cut : is it a copyright problem or did the Office and other serie sets didn't sell as good as expected ?
Neither of these hold any interest to me. I rather liked The Scream as it was something a bit different, but never mind.
Okay. See you guys in 2027 when these actually release
STILL no Addams Family house!!!!!!! How many times will a version get past 10k and Lego will still make the decision to ignore!?!?!
After going through the qualifiers, I'm even more baffled that Twilight was chosen. Seems like there are far more interesting (and relevant!) ideas in the lineup.
I'll continue to defend the BTS set as "Not for you, but definitely for somebody." If you don't understand the insanity of the Korean music market, then you clearly don't have a teenage daughter. (I do. She has zero interest in a BTS set, but she would knock over customers if Lego made a Twice or TXT set.)
Twilight? I don't get it. Twilight was era-specific zeitgeist of the late 2010s with adult women arguing over whether they were Team Edward of Team Jacob. That didn't stick.
Harry Potter is sustained fandom. I was out the other day wearing a Ravenclaw scarf (look, it was cold out) and some 10 year old girl noticed it, and there hasn't been a proper Harry film since the early 2010s, I think. Twilight? No.
Dirty shame Godzilla was ditched. This would have made an awesome set!
The Botanical Garden might look nice, and if we forget the Twilight licensing the Cullen house doesn't look like anything Lego has produced to date - but those are still lackluster choices among the possible options.
FYI, the next wave of ideas submissions feature 49 sets, including 3 Taylor Swift "Lover House" (whatever that is) ... with the one already submitted in this wave being dumped, I guess we already know the outcome of those 3 upcoming ones (fortunately so !).
Twilight (the movie) came out in 2008, I imagine there's plenty of young women who saw twilight as a teenager who would be interested in this set as a nostalgia.
I suspect this set will be like the BTS set, which people here in the brickset comments complained about endlessly because it didn't appeal to their demographic, only for the set to sell like hot-cakes.
Recently did some drawings for an art exhibition at my church on the topic of hope,
did mine based on Hope in fiction and how that relates to the gospel, with Narnia being a big part of it, was hoping to be able to get LEGO from that franchise to go next to it, since most of the other franchises I included have LEGO versions. (LOTR, Star Wars, Superman/WonderWoman etc...)
disapointed that is not to be
Very disappointed… Can’t understand why either of these made it, yet so many other original ideas were rejected.
So many Taylor Swift being reviewed
Twilight… really?
The botanical garden is vaguely reminiscent of the New York Botanical Gardens the Bronx, and I get it; it classes-up the joint.
The Cullen House is not bad; basically, it’s a modern though somewhat run-of-the-mill cantilever house. I simply had no idea Twilight is still a thing.
@ResIpsaLoquitur said:
"I'll continue to defend the BTS set as "Not for you, but definitely for somebody." If you don't understand the insanity of the Korean music market, then you clearly don't have a teenage daughter. (I do. She has zero interest in a BTS set, but she would knock over customers if Lego made a Twice or TXT set.)
Twilight? I don't get it. Twilight was era-specific zeitgeist of the late 2010s with adult women arguing over whether they were Team Edward of Team Jacob. That didn't stick.
Harry Potter is sustained fandom. I was out the other day wearing a Ravenclaw scarf (look, it was cold out) and some 10 year old girl noticed it, and there hasn't been a proper Harry film since the early 2010s, I think. Twilight? No."
You should see how insanely crowded are the HP areas of Universal Studios. Those insane crowds are buying insane amounts of HP gear and memorabilia at INSANE prices.
I went to Star Wars at Disney as well. Plenty of money there too. But, not nearly as many people dressed-up and not quite the level of spending. HP still attracts a lot of people because of the books.
Lego finally did it, they made a decision I cannot defend. Nothing wrong with the botanical garden, but there are similar sets that exist already.
Two baffling choices....
In itself I have no issue with the Botanical Garden, it's not for me but it's nice nonetheless. But would never ever have expected this considering the Friends set. With that in mind it's even more frustrating the Astronaut, which I already ruled out for similar reasons, didn't get picked.
But then Twilight....I've seen only the first two or three and thought those were pretty terrible. And the only times I've seen someone bring them up recently was not exactly in a flattering way. And based on what I've seen, did the house play that big a role in the films? I mean, it's certainly not on the same level as the Home Alone house, I'd say. But even beyond the source material, it doesn't look like a particularly interesting build, with a rather bland end result. It seems pretty big though, and fully enclosed, so if the final product is gonna even remotely like this, it will be very expensive. Is there really a market for, say, a €300 Twilight set? And unlike the BTS set, I doubt this would sell just for the minifigs.
So many great vampire movies, yet we might get a sparkling vampire...
Apparently LEGO hasn't realised it's not 2008.
The Twilight set will be another massive flop and, yet again, am Ideas spot was wasted to try to pander to an audience that just isn't interested in LEGO.
Eventually these companies will understand that they should spend more time making their existing customers happy than trying to pursue people that just aren't interested in their products.
Oh well.
Two sets I'm definitely skipping (the Botanical Gardens looks cool but seems redundant with the existing Friends set that can be repurposed).
I had ruled out the botanical gardens due to the recently released Friends set but very glad it made it through! Off to congratulate the designer on the Ideas page.
I'll probably buy a botanical garden. The Friends one is nice but a modular version is still welcome. I'm surprises to see it come through Ideas, though. I would have guessed it would be a BrickLink set if anything.
Twilight is surprising but Lego making a play for another demographic with disposable income maybe shouldn't be.
@Zink said:
" @ResIpsaLoquitur said:
"I'll continue to defend the BTS set as "Not for you, but definitely for somebody." If you don't understand the insanity of the Korean music market, then you clearly don't have a teenage daughter. (I do. She has zero interest in a BTS set, but she would knock over customers if Lego made a Twice or TXT set.)
Twilight? I don't get it. Twilight was era-specific zeitgeist of the late 2010s with adult women arguing over whether they were Team Edward of Team Jacob. That didn't stick.
Harry Potter is sustained fandom. I was out the other day wearing a Ravenclaw scarf (look, it was cold out) and some 10 year old girl noticed it, and there hasn't been a proper Harry film since the early 2010s, I think. Twilight? No."
Counterpoint: Zoomers are nostalgic for it. Also late 2010s? The final twilight film came out 2012. Y2K nostalgia is big rn and LEGO is cashing in on it.
Overall, I think this comment section proves how male and old the AFOL community is."
Very few of us have insight into Lego sales numbers, but like...I'd be really surprised if this sold well. BTS I get. Taylor Swift, whenever they make one, also understandable. But I don't see Twilight stuff in shops the same way I do Harry Potter or Star Wars. These are huge cultural IPs, but Twilight? Is there something new coming out (I have no clue)?
The only value I really see is a giant parts pack for a modern house. If it's 50% off, I'd probably go for it since I like architecture.
@Cinnamonbricks said:
"There's already a lego botanical garden being sold, do we really need another?"
clearly the friends one has sold really well that they want another
Not surprised the Brickset demo continues to be this outta touch re: Twilight. It’s still insanely popular with girls in my age group — you all have no idea how many different Twilight watch parties I’ve been to in the past few years alone (including one for Breaking Dawn Pt. 1 just two weeks ago).
My local theater chain even included it in its summer roster of “classic movie reruns,” where it easily sold out.
They’re campy, so-bad-they’re-good flicks you watch with the girlies. My partner, for one, is super pumped about this news.
Frankly I’m shocked, of all the submissions presented these are two of the ones I was sure would be least likely to make the cut. I’m disappointed the Shrimping Boat didn’t make it through; it’s a cute build that would have been at a more palatable price point. And as others have stated, we don’t really need another Botanical Garden. I’m hoping they at least present it in modular building format so that it can be readily connected to others in the series.
What you don't know is there's talk of a Twilight reboot (TV show, I think), so it does make a little more sense than the homogeneous outrage would have you believe.
@Prof_Physika said:
"Not surprised the Brickset demo continues to be this outta touch re: Twilight. It’s still insanely popular with girls in my age group — you all have no idea how many different Twilight watch parties I’ve been to in the past few years alone (including one for Breaking Dawn Pt. 1 just two weeks ago)."
But how many of those are into €300 Lego sets?
OK so I just looked at the Twilight Ideas page to see more images and...is the designer sarcastic? Was this made as an elaborate joke that Lego fell for? If so, hilariously well-done, and if not, clearly I do not understand what's going on here.
LEGO cashing in 2 markets with this Twilight set, and also 21341 : Disney Hocus Pocus: The Sanderson Sisters' Cottage , people who know/love the IP, and otherwise provide a medieval witch house, and in this case a modern villa.
I personally only bought 10291 : Queer Eye – The Fab 5 Loft for the design/parts of the set , not the show or figures (after the discount hit it though)
@AverageChimaEnjoyer said:
"Another botanical garden? At least this one is for minifigs.
All I know about Twilight is that every love story is better than it, apparently."
Your knowledge is a bit incorrect. 'Still better love story than Twilight' is used for any story, not only love stories ;)
@WizardOfOss said:
" @Prof_Physika said:
"Not surprised the Brickset demo continues to be this outta touch re: Twilight. It’s still insanely popular with girls in my age group — you all have no idea how many different Twilight watch parties I’ve been to in the past few years alone (including one for Breaking Dawn Pt. 1 just two weeks ago)."
But how many of those are into €300 Lego sets?"
You'd be surprised. I know quite a few 20-something women AFOLs, it's a bigger demographic than you think, with plenty of disposable income.
Interesting choices.
The modular type buildings never seem to get selected from these reviews, and they have gone for two in this review!
Twilight = Yet another licence, and I am surprised Lego have gone down that route of vampires and all things a little bit dark. I can see the idea of having a "normal" head and a wolf head though for example!!
I like the garden, but as someone said, there is already a very good Friends model like this.
Personally I thought there were lots of good options this time, oddly a few duplicates.
I love the Moon, the whale, the turtle and brick boulevard and there are many others I would have taken over these two. But just my opinion!!
Roll on next quarter!
I lacked the creativity and the want to purchase and combine multiples of 41757 so I am very much excited to be getting this Botanical Gardens set!
I vaguely remember Twilight having been "a thing" at some point. I'm as confused as anybody else why that franchise would be relevant now. But maybe, just maybe, the house itself may turn out to be interesting? As @TeriXeri has said. I mean, you can always ignore 'the franchise' part of the whole thing?
On the other hand, we get 42639 next year. That might be the more interesting modern house in the end. Seems they are duplicating not one, but two Friends sets here (at least in spirit) :)
Disappointing. But hey, at least I get to save my money this round!
Already working on a Friends Botanical Garden MOD and Twilight...doesn't interest me. Looks like the Stranger Things house tbh.
I can't really say anything about the quality of the choices, but what baffles me, why BUILDINGS AGAIN?? In the Bricklink program at least 3 out of 5 entries are buildings. I'm happy they are selling, but why don't TLG makes a whole theme for them, and let Ideas have specialities?
Shocked the Botanical Garden - basically figured that set was already produced with FRIENDS, but I guess the response to the set was strong enough to warrant a minifig version?
Also, this is kinda-sorta the first Ideas "modular"? - obviously it's not an official building but it's clearly designed to be compatible. So much for my assumption that LEGO threw any modular-esque submission straight into the bin.
TWILIGHT is a shocker, too, just because it feels like that IP has sailed, but then, no property ever truly dies anymore. I guess it's cool to have a modern-ish house available - maybe LEGO is assuming they can sell the set to *both* TWILIGHT fans and just fans of City stuff because there's really nothing especially distinctive about the location or the minifigs.
I guess Ideas choices can still surprise me!
Honestly, Twilight's a pretty smart choice. I only saw the first movie and for me it was a MST3K experience, but the series is loved by many.
And... @Indy24LA said:
"What you don't know is there's talk of a Twilight reboot (TV show, I think), so it does make a little more sense than the homogeneous outrage would have you believe."
If so then this pairs great with that, along with the book turning 20 in 2025. Even as a non-fan, what a great house! This isn't as wild as 75810, but I think it'll prove popular. Especially if there's a sparkling Edward minifig included.
I don't think I could care either way. IDEAS used to be quite fresh and felt like a premium AFOL product (with premium boxes that could be closed!) done in lowish numbers, that was somewhat niche rather than mainstream and that was a bit different to the usual LEGO sets. Now LEGO does lots of AFOL sets, the large unlicensed MOCs don't appear to be that different to other ranges. The licensed sets tend to be licenses I don't care about, presumably because they are aiming at a totally different demographic to me that doesn't buy LEGO. I haven't seen any of the Twilight movies, the trailer and the subsequent parodies of the characters in various comedies was are enough to tell me that it is not for me. Although I have seen 100s of copies of the same DVD on the shelves of charity shops ... a bit like The Da Vinci code books.
@Nannig said:
"Interesting to see Brooklin 99 or Parks&recs sets didn't make the cut : is it a copyright problem or did the Office and other serie sets didn't sell as good as expected ?"
I was surprised that P&R didn't make the cut - the show has an enduring online presence, though it definitely is a smaller audience than THE OFFICE. Less surprised about BK99, which kind of abruptly ended without a lot of fanfare due to the reaction to police violence in the wake of the George Floyd murder. People remember the show fondly but IDK if there's a huge appetite for merch anymore.
It does feel like THE OFFICE probably undersold - if it were doing well, I think P&R would have been a lock.
@EvilTwin said:
" time to get working on my Wicker Man submission"
Take my money.
I look forward to seeing this Twilight set on the clearance rack next to BTS Dynamite.
I’m confused and surprised. Confused about the botanical garden and quite surprised about the Twilight set. There were so many excellent models to choose beyond these two. Sigh.
I have to admit that I read the first three "Twilight" novels. Bit of a guilty pleasure. That being said, I don't understand this choice. The house wasn't really an important location of the movies and it's a bit bland.
I'm curious if the Botanical Garden will be a modular. That might throw yet another wench in my city layout.
Botanical Garden set is fine but the Cullen household?
WHY?
@EvilTwin said:
"I thought we had consigned sparkly emo vampires to the cultural refuse dump of history by now.
Oh well. Now it seems we can have Ideas sets based on horror(ish) movies, time to get working on my Wicker Man submission"
Obviously I am assuming you're referring to the Nicolas Cage "No Not the Bees" remake, because that's the most beloved film of the last 50 or so years.
Saves me money.
@dudebrick said:
"Honestly, Twilight's a pretty smart choice. I only saw the first movie and for me it was a MST3K experience, but the series is loved by many.
And... @Indy24LA said:
"What you don't know is there's talk of a Twilight reboot (TV show, I think), so it does make a little more sense than the homogeneous outrage would have you believe."
If so then this pairs great with that, along with the book turning 20 in 2025. Even as a non-fan, what a great house! This isn't as wild as 75810, but I think it'll prove popular. Especially if there's a sparkling Edward minifig included."
Wonder if Lego knows something we don’t ie. TV reboot is already in pre-production and set release will coincide with first airing by the time it rolls around.
Wait a second. We already had sparkly vampires (Balthazar and Celeste) in that one TLM2 set. Was this FORESHADOWING a Twilight set? I smell a conspiracy...
I trust LEGO has determined there’s an untapped market out there for Twilight so I’m excited to see the final set and hope it does well.
The Botanical modular is great, both because it looks good but also because it breaks this unsupported notion that modular type submissions will never be considered. Hold on to your butts for the wave of modular submissions going forward. And we should remember that this won’t be out for quite a while and very likely after the Friends set has been retired.
It looks like LEGO took the easy way out with the botanical set. Twilight does nothing for me. Pretty disappointing.
@Oeuf0platieN said:
"FYI, the next wave of ideas submissions feature 49 sets, including 3 Taylor Swift "Lover House" (whatever that is) ... with the one already submitted in this wave being dumped, I guess we already know the outcome of those 3 upcoming ones (fortunately so !)."
And in 2036, when the 82nd version of it is submitted to IDEAS, Lego will catch on that the kids like Taylor Swift and approve it.
@yellowcastle said:
"
The Botanical modular is great, both because it looks good but also because it breaks this unsupported notion that modular type submissions will never be considered. Hold on to your butts for the wave of modular submissions going forward. And we should remember that this won’t be out for quite a while and very likely after the Friends set has been retired."
There is already a butt load of Modular MOCs submitted to ideas anyway.
The garden looks good but a bit like the new museum, it needs space around it to show it off which is something my town certainly does not have due to extreme overdevelopment (I really need to have words with the occupiers of the Town Hall who are clearly taking backhanders for planning permissions...) There look to be some very old window pieces used above the front door though so I am guessing this design will be quite heavily modified before making into an official set.
I have never heard of Twilight (but I am 51) but it looks good as a modern house design but other than that it looks like a pretty standard MOC modern house - probably good as a parts pack in the future if the discount takes any licensing fees out of the equation...
As someone with AFOL friends in the target demo, not surprised in the slightest at twilight, it will sell as well as Hocus Pocus, nowhere near as baffling as Queer Eye or The Office as IP ideas sets. It's no BTS set, but I can easily believe they will turn a tidy profit on this.
Botanical Garden I assumed was DoA for being a kind-of-modular and so close to the Friends set, but curious to see what it turns into (I guess not a modular).
Overall feeling is there are too many sets per review. Need to boost the threshold, I didn't even see the Twilight set in the list the couple times I had looked at it.
Twilight is odd... and it's kind of funny to see the reactions here that the hatedom it inspired when it was popular still lives on. I guess though in some circles as other people have mentioned it is a cult classic now, even if only in a "so bad it's good" type of thing.
Although hearing people complain about Twilight makes me feel about 10-15 years younger than I am now. Start saying "Thanks Obama" and "Kony 2012" and tossing some troll face memes in the chat and I will really feel like you've recaptured my youth (although if LEGO really wanted to recapture my youth there is a Bionicle head project they rejected which wouldn't have required licensing fees...)
Anyways what I said yesterday that the vote threshold for Ideas needs to be raised still stands. These project reviews are to big and out of control now to really predict what has any chance of passing.
@EvilTwin said:
"I thought we had consigned sparkly emo vampires to the cultural refuse dump of history by now.
"
If they do the topless male character using light nougat, then it would be a good way to re-introduce that part again (from Indy airplane mechanic). They were very popular with people making "300" armies of fleshie Spartans.
Both not great BUT remember what happened before Target USA let us pick some from of the "better run ups" and we got the Viking Village so hopefully the same will happen again.
LEGO IDEAS more like LEGO LICENSED IP BUILDINGS COLLECTION amirite
Look, I don’t want to come across as rude or dismissive to the designer, but Twilight was never really that good of a franchise. It was divisive when it was big and nowadays it’s mostly the butt of jokes. Doesn’t help the movies kinda don’t have the healthiest portrayal of romance in my opinion.
Are there really people nostalgic enough for it to drop over $100 bucks on it?
Boring choices. As said on the last story about this, when so many will never get made because of licencing, why the heck do they let them get through to judgement?
So glad I just purchased the friends botanical garden set...
By the time these sets come out, the Friends botanical gardens will probably be retired, so it makes sense upon second thought.
@blueshift said:
"You'd be surprised. I know quite a few 20-something women AFOLs, it's a bigger demographic than you think, with plenty of disposable income."
Lego isn't looking for "bigger than you think" demographics, but for absolutely massive demographics.
As much as I didn't like the BTS set, I can see the market for that. Because A) it's a current fad with tens if not hundreds of millions of fans, and B) it was a decently small set at an affordable price point. And after the fans bought it they put it on a continuous 40% discount for people who don't care about BTS but just like the minifigs.
Of course I don't know what the final product is gonna cost, but assuming it will be anything like the fun submission, the €300 I mentioned before might even be a fairly low estimate. And then it makes me think more of those football stadium sets. All from clubs with absolutely ginormous fanbases worldwide. But considering the fact that the last stadium came out almost two years ago and will be discontinued in a few weeks with no successor in sight, plus also considering the continuous massive discounts on those sets, I have a feeling they didn't do so great.
And that's the thing: I just don't see that many non-AFOL's spend that kind of money on some toy that is also pretty hard to display. Star Wars, Marvel, LotR, Harry Potter? Sure, but those fanbases are on a different level, and those already have established a huge following within the AFOL community (and all started with affordable sets). But Twilight? I highly doubt it.
@EvilTwin said:
"I thought we had consigned sparkly emo vampires to the cultural refuse dump of history by now.
Oh well. Now it seems we can have Ideas sets based on horror(ish) movies, time to get working on my Wicker Man submission"
Are we talking about the original 1973 one. (I would love Edward Woodward and Christopher Lee figs)
Or are we going for "the bees"?
I'm surprised that TLG thinks that a book & film franchise that normalises stalking and abusive relationships is a good brand match.
Whilst the botanical gardens is rather similar to the friends set now, by 2025 the friends set will probably just be a memory of a set that was well received at the time of its launch.
@TheJack64 said:
"This is an early April Fool’s joke right?
RIGHT!?!???"
I was going to say the same thing. ><
There's nothing to see here, move along.
My comment when the Friends Botanical Garden was released,
"My only disappointment was that there was a much better Botanical Garden Ideas submission just before this was released, which obviously won't see the light of day."
SO pleased to be proved wrong!
If you search on Rebrickable, you will find several mocs that take 2 or 3 friends botanical gardens sets and turn them into a modular. So, its a popular one for a modular.
Never seen twilight. But as a building, it looks good. Could put that on a baseplate, and add it to your modular town as well. But as the IP will push up the price, it might not be worth it.
This is a joke, right?
I'd had my hopes up for the Bionicle Head Statue and the Iron Giant. At the very least, I expected something like the telephone or Humpback Whale to make it.
I would hope that modular building fans would have a lot to celebrate here! Completely understand if others have less to be excited about though.
Regarding the selection of the botanical garden, the timing seems right to me. The botanical collection seems like a success, the Friends set was well reviewed, and the parts are available or in production, so this is a great time for LEGO to make an adult-oriented, detailed, mini-fig scale set. I also presume by the time it comes out the Friends set will have cycled off shelves.
For the Twilight set, if you put your thumb over the minifig heads, (and the wolf) it's a pretty nice mini-fig scale modern mansion. The "Twilight" branding may bring some extra eyes and new fans to LEGO. As many have pointed out, LEGO IDEAS is the place where LEGO gets to try out different brands and styles and tempt audiences perceived to underserved. I'd be tempted by this set... once the price is right.
So many jokes I want to make about the Twilight set... All I can say is, "Oldman! You are needed!"
https://www.collectedcurios.com/sequentialart.php?s=657
With the sets at least a year away, if not longer, the Botanical Garden will not be on shelves at the same time as the friends set. Lego has obviously seen the reaction to the friends set among AFOLs and probably figure there is a market to capture with a more detailed set aimed towards city displays.
This just shows that Lego Ideas aren’t automatically dead if a similar set is released after the submission is posted, as long as there is enough of a difference between them and a large enough market
On another note, Lego really needs to start banning certain IP that has failed the review process multiple times. Lego has apparently decided a Shrek set is not viable. But I’m sure we’ll see more shrek sets reach 10k. And some of these are exact copies of submissions that were rejected before, like the astronaut. It’s wild that Lego even allows the same user to repost the same submission without any clear changes to the model. At that point people are just farming free Lego by posting ideas that will easily reach 10k
Well I can't imagine a Twilight set selling very well at all. Who is that even for? Are there even fans of that series anymore? And I don't have much interest in the botanical garden either. Given some of the amazing submissions in this review, this is incredibly disappointing. Not one but two Shrek models made the cut but yet didn't get picked? Awful. Well, at least I'll save some money.
First time in many years Ideas series sets trigger absolutely zero interest in me.
It wouldn't surprise me if any hints of the Botanical Garden being modular (i.e. a couple of pin holes and a bit of pavement) are removed before production, considering that a glass house is totally unsuitable for placing close to other buildings!
@Zink said:
"We don't know what form the actual set will take. It could be considerably scaled down. As the biggest Twilight proponent on Brickset, I too do not think a 300€ set is warranted."
Fair point, but while sets often have been altered significantly (looking at you, Orient Express....), I can't think of a single Ideas set that has been scaled down to, say, a third of the original fan submission. Well, except for the football table obviously, but in that case they forgot to also scale down the price....
Can't say either of these would have been my pick.
But I think a lot of people leaving unhappy comments here underestimate the nostalgia a lot of young adults have for the Twilight series. This will probably sell well.
The botanical garden has some interesting potential and I'll wait to see what becomes of it before forming an opinion. Twilight...that's a head scratcher. Is there a prequel in pro-production or something?
I wish I knew what the new Botanical Garden will be price-wise since I want the Friends one now. My modulars would enjoy its company.
Given the overwhelmingly positive response to the Friends Botanical Garden, making a more AFOL-friendly one probably isn't that surprising.
@yellowcastle said:
"And we should remember that this won’t be out for quite a while and very likely after the Friends set has been retired."
I was thinking that too.
Also gives an opportunity to fill this new Botanical House with lots of (BIG) plants that wouldn’t work in the botanicals plants range.
@Bricklunch said:
"I'm surprised that TLG thinks that a book & film franchise that normalises stalking and abusive relationships is a good brand match. "
This type of thinking irks me to no end. It’s a popular book/movie series for which a likely large number of folks other than me appreciate and support. Cherry picking aspects of the stories to woke shame folks is going to go away someday, right? Right? Can I still enjoy Aliens or does that normalize child endangerment and gender dysphoria? Am I allowed to get more Star Wars sets or does that just normalize white male savior themes?
Please note that the author of this post bought some Hogwarts sets this year.
At least the Twilight one is more than three walls...
Not an inspiring lot to choose from anyway, but no great selection for me. Oh well.
@CDM said:
"The botanical garden has some interesting potential and I'll wait to see what becomes of it before forming an opinion. Twilight...that's a head scratcher. Is there a prequel in pro-production or something?"
No, the Twilight set will actually focus on the house itself, which is an architectural masterpiece imho. The actual existing house being so beautiful is actually one of the main reasons why LEGO selected this, as they confirmed during the fan media days in Bilund a few months ago. I for one am super stoked that this will be produced. I don't give two cents about Twilight, but finally we are getting a full-fledged minifig scale, beautiful, modern house (that will hopefully be modular). And I am sure that many AFOLs agree (once they get past the Twilight badge.... that is)
BTW, I honestly had fun reading these comments. So many angry AFOLs mumbling and complaining that LEGO never gives them what they want, that Twilight is way past its prime and stupid (while I doubt that many Brickset readers really are in touch with what is popular in popculture nowadays), while LEGO have secretly given them exactly what they want with these sets: two (not one!) modular buildings with their own distinctive style and vision.
Oh, and finally, for all the Taylor Swift haters here: I sincerely hope that in the next review LEGO will FINALLY approve on e of the Taylor Swift submissions. Give me that beautiful dollhouse with each room in a different colour, and that Taylor Swift minifig, LEGO!
oof pretty disappointed. 2/71 acceptance rate isn't great either
I am shocked, shocked I tell you!
Twilight will forever be a part of the zeitgeist going forward, whether it is good or bad or you love it or hate it.
Either way, the set might be cool. I'll wait for official pictures.
The botanical garden is for minifigures instead of minidolls, so I guess that is the difference.
I would be shocked no Taylor Swift stuff went through. That seemed like a guarantee
People are throwing around the idea of demographics so I'm going to throw in my two cents: They passed up TWO Shrek projects for Twilight.
I was born in 99. I was a kid when the Shrek trilogy was in its heyday, and I was a late-kid early-teen when Twilight was getting film adaptations. I'm also a pretty avid Tumblr user. Just about everyone I've talked to my age has a thing for chiseled vampires or wolf men (though not necessarily werewolves, wink, wink.)
Despite that, basically none of them willingly bring Twilight into a conversation, and when it does come up it is always in a sense of mocking and ridicule. Shrek on the other hand is discussed constantly. For anyone I only communicate with online, thanks in large part to meme-culture, they tend to bring up or reference Shrek at least once a month. For people I speak to in real life on a regular basis, at least one Shrek quote will slip out a week. For Zoomers and late Millennials, it's easily our most unifying and memorable film.
Even outside of that there are definitely licensed products that appeal to other demographics like Stargate and Godzilla. I think most relevant to the discussion though is the Owl House. While definitely for the new generation, it's show targets at the same type of fanbase we saw with things like Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, and Twilight. Despite its success basically no merchandise for the Owl House has been released, and it's cultural relevance is likely to die out around late 25 early 26. Despite being less culturally relevant than Shrek and less recognizable than Twilight, LEGO could have cornered the market for Owl House merch for the rest of its "lifetime" if they passed that. "LEGO Eda" was even a massive meme in that fanbase.
No matter which way you slice it its an on choice. In comparison to its competition it doesn't appeal to AFOLs, doesn't appeal to Zoomers, doesn't appeal to the magic heartthrob crowd. Of course, LEGO's smart. Similar to things like the football stadiums they'll probably just print less copies of this so what they did make guarantees to sell. If you make more than you put in its a success right?
@Sethro3 said:
"I am shocked, shocked I tell you!
Twilight will forever be a part of the zeitgeist going forward, whether it is good or bad or you love it or hate it.
Either way, the set might be cool. I'll wait for official pictures.
The botanical garden is for minifigures instead of minidolls, so I guess that is the difference.
I would be shocked no Taylor Swift stuff went through. That seemed like a guarantee"
Only one Taylor Swift submission in this round. The next one will have three more, if I am not mistaken. And, I kid you not, I want that to be made. But only if done properly. And, apparently she is very protective of her own IP, and likes to keep ultimate control of the memorabilia she sells. She is a business woman after all (and dare I say it, pretty good at it too, looking at her personal wealth). So, could be that the licensing costs would be sky-high, or she is not sure whether she wants this made.
@MrBedhead said:
"No, the Twilight set will actually focus on the house itself, which is an architectural masterpiece imho. The actual existing house being so beautiful is actually one of the main reasons why LEGO selected this, as they confirmed during the fan media days in Bilund a few months ago. I for one am super stoked that this will be produced. I don't give two cents about Twilight, but finally we are getting a full-fledged minifig scale, beautiful, modern house (that will hopefully be modular). And I am sure that many AFOLs agree (once they get past the Twilight badge.... that is)"
I don't know what was said in Billund so I'll take your word for it but if they are more interested in the house vs the license the designers better get to work because the fan model (with all due respect) does nothing to convey the architectural character of the actual house.
And I agree, make with the Taylor set(s).
@yellowcastle said:
" @Bricklunch said:
"I'm surprised that TLG thinks that a book & film franchise that normalises stalking and abusive relationships is a good brand match. "
This type of thinking irks me to no end. It’s a popular book/movie series for which a likely large number of folks other than me appreciate and support. Cherry picking aspects of the stories to woke shame folks is going to go away someday, right? Right? Can I still enjoy Aliens or does that normalize child endangerment and gender dysphoria? Am I allowed to get more Star Wars sets or does that just normalize white male savior themes?
Please note that the author of this post bought some Hogwarts sets this year."
Please don't presume that because I make an observation that I either do or don't believe in it.
TLG likes to make a virtue of its corporate value so a series of books & films designed to appeal to teenage girls and which manages to fulfil all 15 signs of domestic abuse in its protagonists would be the sort of thing that might make TLG think twice. May be they did and they decided imprinting on an unborn baby is fine and the implied lack of her autonomy is not an issue?
Personally I've no interest in the series and I care not one iota if TLG makes it or not. The set would be easy enough to adapt just to represent a nice house.
@GSR_MataNui said:
"People are throwing around the idea of demographics so I'm going to throw in my two cents: They passed up TWO Shrek projects for Twilight.
I was born in 99. I was a kid when the Shrek trilogy was in its heyday, and I was a late-kid early-teen when Twilight was getting film adaptations. I'm also a pretty avid Tumblr user. Just about everyone I've talked to my age has a thing for chiseled vampires or wolf men (though not necessarily werewolves, wink, wink.)
Despite that, basically none of them willingly bring Twilight into a conversation, and when it does come up it is always in a sense of mocking and ridicule. Shrek on the other hand is discussed constantly. For anyone I only communicate with online, thanks in large part to meme-culture, they tend to bring up or reference Shrek at least once a month. For people I speak to in real life on a regular basis, at least one Shrek quote will slip out a week. For Zoomers and late Millennials, it's easily our most unifying and memorable film.
Even outside of that there are definitely licensed products that appeal to other demographics like Stargate and Godzilla. I think most relevant to the discussion though is the Owl House. While definitely for the new generation, it's show targets at the same type of fanbase we saw with things like Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, and Twilight. Despite its success basically no merchandise for the Owl House has been released, and it's cultural relevance is likely to die out around late 25 early 26. Despite being less culturally relevant than Shrek and less recognizable than Twilight, LEGO could have cornered the market for Owl House merch for the rest of its "lifetime" if they passed that. "LEGO Eda" was even a massive meme in that fanbase.
No matter which way you slice it its an on choice. In comparison to its competition it doesn't appeal to AFOLs, doesn't appeal to Zoomers, doesn't appeal to the magic heartthrob crowd. Of course, LEGO's smart. Similar to things like the football stadiums they'll probably just print less copies of this so what they did make guarantees to sell. If you make more than you put in its a success right? "
Very simple potential reasons for Shrek not being selected.
1) the humor is quite coarse, and we all know that LEGO is still a bit sensitive to that
2) it uses parodies of many fairytale creatures, which also appear in many Disney movies
3) Shrek is an IP of Dreamworks, and LEGO produces quite a few Disney sets. I am sure that Disney would not be too happy with LEGO making a set based on a competitor's IP
At least it’s not a Taylor swift set.
Two awful choices.
Lego has been making some truly baffling choices lately.
Well, that's two sets I'm not going to buy. Utterly disappointing. At least I'll save some money
@vzarmo said:
"At least it’s not a Taylor swift set. "
Wow, most adult, sophisticated comment ever. AFOL who hates Taylor Swift, doesn't want a Taylor Swift LEGO set to be produced, because he thinks Taylor Swift is just a mindless pop-star whose music has no redeeming qualities, so nobody who want this Taylor Swift set can actually have it, because disgruntled Swiss AFOL does not like Taylor Swift or her music.
I bet you think that your musical tastes are fantastic and probably better than the musical tastes of 90% of the population.
I have two words for you: Grow Up.
I hope we'll finally get Taylor Swift set in the next review, with all the AFOLs who made each of five (not three! there are four houses and a stage set with tiny house) projects mentioned as fan designers. That would be such a great way to show the power of the fan community of Swifties - it would not be just one AFOL's and her/his project's win, it would be OURS win! :)
Yeah, that probably means that fan designer's royalty will be split as well, but I think it's a safe thing to assume that all those desingers made projects not because of money or an internet fame, but because they are really passionate about Taylor's music.
And the best thing is - if such a project will be approved, we need to be prepared for a some clever and not-so-obvious teasing of the set from Taylor's side, because she likes to play riddles and hide some easter eggs for fans to find, like that Google playground game just a week ago. If you know, you know. :)
@CDM said:
" @MrBedhead said:
"No, the Twilight set will actually focus on the house itself, which is an architectural masterpiece imho. The actual existing house being so beautiful is actually one of the main reasons why LEGO selected this, as they confirmed during the fan media days in Bilund a few months ago. I for one am super stoked that this will be produced. I don't give two cents about Twilight, but finally we are getting a full-fledged minifig scale, beautiful, modern house (that will hopefully be modular). And I am sure that many AFOLs agree (once they get past the Twilight badge.... that is)"
I don't know what was said in Billund so I'll take your word for it but if they are more interested in the house vs the license the designers better get to work because the fan model (with all due respect) does nothing to convey the architectural character of the actual house.
And I agree, make with the Taylor set(s)."
I wasn't there either, but Brickfanatics confirmed this on their Youtube channel. For me they are a pretty trustworthy source, so I basically take their word on that.
@MrBedhead said:
" @vzarmo said:
"At least it’s not a Taylor swift set. "
Wow, most adult, sophisticated comment ever. AFOL who hates Taylor Swift, doesn't want a Taylor Swift LEGO set to be produced, because he thinks Taylor Swift is just a mindless pop-star whose music has no redeeming qualities, so nobody who want this Taylor Swift set can actually have it, because disgruntled Swiss AFOL does not like Taylor Swift or her music.
I bet you think that your musical tastes are fantastic and probably better than the musical tastes of 90% of the population.
I have two words for you: Grow Up."
You wrote a wall of text after my one short sentence without knowing anything about me. I don’t hate her, to be honest don’t even care. It was just a joke.
But yeah I am the who should grow up. Lol.
@Bricklunch said:
" @yellowcastle said:
" @Bricklunch said:
"I'm surprised that TLG thinks that a book & film franchise that normalises stalking and abusive relationships is a good brand match. "
This type of thinking irks me to no end. It’s a popular book/movie series for which a likely large number of folks other than me appreciate and support. Cherry picking aspects of the stories to woke shame folks is going to go away someday, right? Right? Can I still enjoy Aliens or does that normalize child endangerment and gender dysphoria? Am I allowed to get more Star Wars sets or does that just normalize white male savior themes?
Please note that the author of this post bought some Hogwarts sets this year."
Please don't presume that because I make an observation that I either do or don't believe in it.
TLG likes to make a virtue of its corporate value so a series of books & films designed to appeal to teenage girls and which manages to fulfil all 15 signs of domestic abuse in its protagonists would be the sort of thing that might make TLG think twice. May be they did and they decided imprinting on an unborn baby is fine and the implied lack of her autonomy is not an issue?
Personally I've no interest in the series and I care not one iota if TLG makes it or not. The set would be easy enough to adapt just to represent a nice house."
I also have no interest in this set or IP. My concern was with the woke-shame sentiment that you posted for which you may or may not support. It’s that type of sentiment that imho cripples discourse and drives folks to their own echo chambers.
@vzarmo said:
" @MrBedhead said:
" @vzarmo said:
"At least it’s not a Taylor swift set. "
Wow, most adult, sophisticated comment ever. AFOL who hates Taylor Swift, doesn't want a Taylor Swift LEGO set to be produced, because he thinks Taylor Swift is just a mindless pop-star whose music has no redeeming qualities, so nobody who want this Taylor Swift set can actually have it, because disgruntled Swiss AFOL does not like Taylor Swift or her music.
I bet you think that your musical tastes are fantastic and probably better than the musical tastes of 90% of the population.
I have two words for you: Grow Up."
You wrote a wall of text after my one short sentence without knowing anything about me. I don’t hate her, to be honest don’t even care. It was just a joke.
But yeah I am the who should grow up. Lol.
"
If you don't care for her, why make such a comment? So that people can see what a sophisticated joker you are? Because I can't smell that you actually do not really hate her and rather are just quite indifferent. All I read is a comment from an AFOL that does not really seem to want a Taylor Swift set. And the most obvious conclusion I can draw from that is exactly what I wrote in my previous comment.
@MrBedhead said:
"
Very simple potential reasons for Shrek not being selected.
1) the humor is quite coarse, and we all know that LEGO is still a bit sensitive to that
2) it uses parodies of many fairytale creatures, which also appear in many Disney movies
3) Shrek is an IP of Dreamworks, and LEGO produces quite a few Disney sets. I am sure that Disney would not be too happy with LEGO making a set based on a competitor's IP"
1) Twilight is PG-13 while Shrek is just PG. While Shrek has some crass humor, so do things like Trolls and Minions which LEGO has been willing to do. Twilight has moderately more violence and much more sexual themes, the later of which I've often seen people call out as being abusive.
2) Those fairytale creatures are public domain, Disney does not own them, and many of the more prominent ones like Puss in Boots and Gingerbread man have NO Disney film tie ins.
3) Citing the same two films as my first, LEGO has produced sets for Trolls which is a Dreamwork's IP and Minions, which was produced by Illumination who are owned by Universal just like Dreamworks. If animated competitors was an issue, LEGO would've been in the fire years ago.
Do I laugh, or cry? And here I just bought 2 of the Friends Botanical Gardens....
Ah well, my LEGO town can never have enough greenery, so I'll just have to expand the Arboretum grounds. Hehehe...
The average Brickset commentor is likely a middle aged male. I hate to burst your bubble, but if you've had a child and your partner wanted to name her Isabel, it wasn't cause they liked the name. I had a few friends in the 2000's who did this to their husbands because of their Twilight mania. It's not a big surprise that readers on this sight have no clue about the popularity of Twilight.
@MrBedhead said:
" @vzarmo said:
"At least it’s not a Taylor swift set. "
Wow, most adult, sophisticated comment ever. AFOL who hates Taylor Swift, doesn't want a Taylor Swift LEGO set to be produced, because he thinks Taylor Swift is just a mindless pop-star whose music has no redeeming qualities, so nobody who want this Taylor Swift set can actually have it, because disgruntled Swiss AFOL does not like Taylor Swift or her music.
I bet you think that your musical tastes are fantastic and probably better than the musical tastes of 90% of the population.
I have two words for you: Grow Up."
The Taylor Swift set was awful. And she is a pretty awful human being.
Also, if her set was selected, it means another (far more worthy set) wouldn't be. Its not like all 60 sets were chosen.
Its so popular that the IP has released absolutely nothing for a decade?
@GSR_MataNui said:
" @MrBedhead said:
"
Very simple potential reasons for Shrek not being selected.
1) the humor is quite coarse, and we all know that LEGO is still a bit sensitive to that
2) it uses parodies of many fairytale creatures, which also appear in many Disney movies
3) Shrek is an IP of Dreamworks, and LEGO produces quite a few Disney sets. I am sure that Disney would not be too happy with LEGO making a set based on a competitor's IP"
1) Twilight is PG-13 while Shrek is just PG. While Shrek has some crass humor, so do things like Trolls and Minions which LEGO has been willing to do. Twilight has moderately more violence and much more sexual themes, the later of which I've often seen people call out as being abusive.
2) Those fairytale creatures are public domain, Disney does not own them, and many of the more prominent ones like Puss in Boots and Gingerbread man have NO Disney film tie ins.
3) Citing the same two films as my first, LEGO has produced sets for Trolls which is a Dreamwork's IP and Minions, which was produced by Illumination who are owned by Universal just like Dreamworks. If animated competitors was an issue, LEGO would've been in the fire years ago. "
All fair points. I was just giving you my opinion why I think LEGO is not that interested in making a Shrek set. Just so you know, I understand that DreamWorks actually had some minor issues about how they portrayed the fairytale figures. Add the crass humor and the parody style (which LEGO is not a fan of, it seems), and those are probably the reasons why LEGO wants to stay clear of Shrek to avoid conflict.
Btw, I also want a Shrek set. Big fan here.
@Blazenhozen said:
" @MrBedhead said:
" @vzarmo said:
"At least it’s not a Taylor swift set. "
Wow, most adult, sophisticated comment ever. AFOL who hates Taylor Swift, doesn't want a Taylor Swift LEGO set to be produced, because he thinks Taylor Swift is just a mindless pop-star whose music has no redeeming qualities, so nobody who want this Taylor Swift set can actually have it, because disgruntled Swiss AFOL does not like Taylor Swift or her music.
I bet you think that your musical tastes are fantastic and probably better than the musical tastes of 90% of the population.
I have two words for you: Grow Up."
The Taylor Swift set was awful. And she is a pretty awful human being.
Also, if her set was selected, it means another (far more worthy set) wouldn't be. Its not like all 60 sets were chosen. "
Wait, now it becomes interesting. Enlighten me: why do you think she is an awful human being?
@MrBedhead said:
" @vzarmo said:
"At least it’s not a Taylor swift set. "
Wow, most adult, sophisticated comment ever. AFOL who hates Taylor Swift, doesn't want a Taylor Swift LEGO set to be produced, because he thinks Taylor Swift is just a mindless pop-star whose music has no redeeming qualities, so nobody who want this Taylor Swift set can actually have it, because disgruntled Swiss AFOL does not like Taylor Swift or her music.
I bet you think that your musical tastes are fantastic and probably better than the musical tastes of 90% of the population.
I have two words for you: Grow Up."
Lol. That's a lot to extrapolate from an 8 word comment.
I'll be passing on these, but not really disappointed because I never expected the ones I cared about to make the cut anyway.
I am surprised the Whale wasn't picked, that seemed like an obvious, license-free, innovative, and artistic model with mass appeal. Once again, Ideas continues to baffle us with what exactly it's looking for.
I'm a little disappointed that Narnia and the Shrimping Boat weren't selected. Neither of the selected projects do much for me, but that's how it usually goes with Lego Ideas. I hope other people enjoy the final products though!
@jeloshot said:
"Would be nice if the botanical garden “matched up” or connected somehow with the new Natural History Museum."
Should be easy to combine them in a layout. I'm planning on an arboretum park that includes the Museum and other 'cultural' amendments.
Sucks how the Portal Gun and Bionicle mask weren’t chosen. Hopefully Target or Walmart or something will pick those projects up like the Viking Village. I kinda see why Lego doesn’t want to partner with Valve because Valve will just make Lego do all the work, take the “upcoming” Portal movie for example. Then again the portal gun also has the word “gun” in it. They could easily call it the “Aperture Science Handheld Quantum Tunneling Device” or “Portal Device”
Well, the Friends Botanical Garden will be on it's way out of the cycle when this one comes around anyway, so I suppose this is planned like a change of guard/upgrade kind of thing.
I snorted at the Twilight submission, thinking that it was there to make up the numbers. Talk about an unpleasant surprise.
Also, no Bluey? Seriously?
"We want Bionicle!"
"Got it, you want Botanical!"
These have to be the most absurd Ideas results in a while. The Botanical Garden set is probably going to be nice, but it feels strange when they skip on other Ideas for being too close to contemporary projects and they give this a pass. Furthermore, of all of the licensed options... they went with Twilight above options that are more immediately relevant culturally. I know that somehow we've skipped over early 2000s nostalgia and are tapping into late 2000s nostalgia, but really?
Literally a Twilight Zone twist going on here.
Does anyone even care about Twilight anymore? Does anyone even hate it that much anymore, no less love it?
Neither set does anything for me, but as to why Twilight has been selected might just be that Edward Cullen is played by Robert Pattinson and his head and hair combination already exist as he also played Cedric Diggory in HP and Bruce Wayne in The Batman
You never know if LEGO had already explored some of the submitted ideas themselves and are developing future products. There were certainly ideas with a wider appeal in the review phase.
Given the subject matter, the Twilight tie-in for me is a particularly odd choice: sex and death with helpings of gore. Curious to see how that fits with the brand values. Still, if it leads to a Lost Boys set it wouldn’t be all bad ;-)
We might see Wargs in the LOTR Barad-Dur set that could be used for Twilight?
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People who don't care about Taylor don't post comments about how they don't care. I'll understand why they make one when they do, even if I don't know any of her music, I know lots of people who are huge fans. Twilight is a bit confusing but hey, you do you, Lego.
I'm just sad the whale didn't make it. That's such a neat building method and it's beautiful to boot!
I like the Botanical Garden one so might be interested in buying it. Twilight isn't my thing, nor is modern architecture so that one would only be considered as a parts pack if it eventually was reduced in price enough to warrant a purchase. I'm genuinely surprised the Botanical Garden was chosen. There were a few others that were more appealing to me but my picks rarely ever make it through. I'm surprised they actually went with two choices that are both buildings and not more out there options like the whale or turtle.
LEGO Hunger Games maybe in the future?
Twilight in 2024 lmfao... What's next? Maze Runner? Divergent? Heavens...
I found this round to be below par in spite of the 71 projects… yet I LOVE the Botanical Garden, well done Lego! Twilight, on the other hand, is not for me!
Even so, Ideas, IMHO, is (still) an immensely interesting furnace of projects and the whole Theme is one of my favourite ever! Ciao, keep building !
Thats the last time I voted on ANYTHING on ideas.lego.com
Glad I only bought 1 Friends Botanical Garden set now.
Did anyone else mistake Twilight for Ferris Bueller for a sec? Massive disappointment!
@Cabko said:
"Thats the last time I voted on ANYTHING on ideas.lego.com"
OK, thanks for informing us
@bealegopro said:
"LEGO Hunger Games maybe in the future? "
Nah, then they better go for the original: Battle Royale!
I mean, would there be any reason why this can't be made into a Lego set?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0p1t-dC7Ko
Just imagine some altered minifigs with "explosive neckbands" to make their heads pop off, how cool would that be?
People need to get over their Twilight fixation/obsession.
Toss the box, figures, and giant wolf, and you have a nice modern house to add to LEGOville.
In real life, the actual house is the “Hoke House”
I can usually see the appeal in the choices, even when they're not for me.
I am really struggling this time though. The garden seems like a monumental screw-up in particular - the existing Friends set is already *chefs kiss*
.....did...did they forget they already made one?
very excited about the botanical gardens. great choice
I recall seeing a resurgence of interest in the Twilight series a couple years ago, but it seems to have mostly faded from what I can tell. It's probably Lego reacting late to that little surge of nostalgia enough people experienced while locked inside.
Not sure how well it would sell if it's over $150, because it seems like a sort of set Lego would be attempting to capture a new demographic rather than building one up.
They seriously ditched Godzilla in favor of the Cullen House?!
Unbelievable...
Um, okay? The Twilight films/series hasn’t been relevant for the last 5-10 years, but I think there’s still a cult-like fandom around them, so I can kind of see why they picked that. But that over Bluey or Shrek? You’re kidding (but not going to lie, the house might look nice in my City)
And the fact that the Friends botanical garden is still available makes that one quite surprising as well. But the Friends garden sold pretty well if I can recall, so maybe they’ll release this when it retires. It’s still a wasted spot if you ask me.
@Zink said:
"Y2K nostalgia is big rn…"
Really? Are we all doing disaster prepping again? Ironic disaster prepping? Commemorative Spam re-releases? Re-prints of the doomsday books? Making up some software date audit plans for old time's sake? Writing our next project in COBOL just to see what happens?
Booyah! Sounds wicked!
Botanical Gardens is a good choice, but Twilight feels 10 years too late.
@chrisaw said:
"The house looks like a nice modern mansion building. Come to think of it, that’s Friends adjacent too with the 2024 Mansion set."
That was my first impression of the Twilight set too! Maybe both of the Friends sets you mention are really placeholders for these two Idea sets? Oh, wait, I already have 41757 ; that set can't just be a placeholder. Maybe they are the companion sets or consolation prizes for those who can't afford the larger ones?
Twilight may be trash (I don't know, I never read/saw any of it) but I do like the set. And the huge Botanical Garden is utterly fabulous. I am very, very happy! (Plus, there's hope some of the other sets will become MOC projects on Bricklink--or at least that their instructions will become available. Good enough for me, given all the sets I already own, and the existence of Rebrickable....)
@MudkipDoom said:
"I suspect this set will be like the BTS set, which people here in the brickset comments complained about endlessly because it didn't appeal to their demographic, only for the set to sell like hot-cakes. "
ROFL
Best joke I ever heard. If it sells so well, why is it constantly on massive discount, and even LEGO themselves tried to get rid of their stock at 40% off and it still was available for like ever?
Say what you like about the Twilight franchise (I have neither read any of the books nor seen any of the films) but at least this set could be a cool looking house with an interesting build. The BTS set is just a K-Pop figure battle pack with some lazy and mediocre background filler stuff. No wonder it doesn't sell.
@ResIpsaLoquitur: actually we have two teenage daughters, and neither of them (nor any of their friends) listens to K-Pop. Make of that what you will.
Common Lego L
Hah, i didn’t expect them to choose these sets. I didn’t buy the Friends set yet, so i might get this one. I really like all the plants/botanical stuff lego puts out. They are mostly very creative in parts usage so that’s fun.
The Cullen house. Yeah, why not. Vampires and werewolves are cool.
@CapTitan said:
"They seriously ditched Godzilla in favor of the Cullen House?!
Unbelievable..."
Mega currently has the license for Godzilla and Kong.
Unfortunately, the sets look awful lol
I am happy that there will be a large botanical garden, but fairly miffed that I just picked up the friends version. was really hoping for the iron giant to eek through.
Disappointing. I was hoping for the Naruto's Ramen Shop, but no, TWILIGHT. F*ck off, LEGO.
@RobA said:
" @CapTitan said:
"They seriously ditched Godzilla in favor of the Cullen House?!
Unbelievable..."
Mega currently has the license for Godzilla and Kong.
Unfortunately, the sets look awful lol
I am happy that there will be a large botanical garden, but fairly miffed that I just picked up the friends version. was really hoping for the iron giant to eek through. "
Doesn’t Mega also have licenses to SpongeBob too? I remember picking up a mega block SpongeBob mystery bag years ago.
@Huw does Lego still have licenses with Valve Corporation? I remember Lego Dimensions having Valve licenses and we did get 71203 Portal 2 Level Pack. If Lego still does have licenses it could be possible they release a wave or Portal sets or a few under the Icons branding when Half-Life eventually comes to switch.
@Zink said:
"Counterpoint: Zoomers are nostalgic for it. Also late 2010s? The final twilight film came out 2012. Y2K nostalgia is big rn and LEGO is cashing in on it.
Overall, I think this comment section proves how male and old the AFOL community is."
It's really the negativity of these comments sections that's the main bummer. That and the frequent inability or unwillingness to look outside oneself.
Anyway, I don't think LEGO expects sets like this or Hocus Pocus to be million sellers. They're likely just trying to pull in new fandoms, even if those are smaller or cultier fandoms at this point. You find demographics who are known to buy merch of things they like, and you try to sell them their first LEGO set ever, or maybe their first LEGO set since they were kids. It's not the worst idea in the world.
Struggling to see the sense in these. Like many others have already said, the garden, whilst nice, looks far too similar to the Friends one so sales will surely be cannibalised by that?
As for Twilight, well just like the BTS set it's clearly not for me - easy money saved. However I am surprised it was picked - I am aware enough that BTS are a very big deal currently, whereas as far as I know Twilight really isn't. Then again, I'm not a woman and so Twilight was never meant to appeal to me!
@Garth_Brown said:
"Disappointing. I was hoping for the Naruto's Ramen Shop, but no, TWILIGHT. F*ck off, LEGO."
Hmmmm, aren’t you the polite own in your family?
I'm surprised that twilight passed their rules. A 104 year old sleeping with a teenager and the Werewolf imprinting on a baby to be groomed for him.
@AustinPowers said:
" @MudkipDoom said:
"I suspect this set will be like the BTS set, which people here in the brickset comments complained about endlessly because it didn't appeal to their demographic, only for the set to sell like hot-cakes. "
ROFL
Best joke I ever heard. If it sells so well, why is it constantly on massive discount, and even LEGO themselves tried to get rid of their stock at 40% off and it still was available for like ever?"
I think the truth is somewhere in the middle. LEGO likely overpriced the set to start in order to sell to the crazed fans who will buy anything BTS related. Once those initial sales were made, the price came down to where it likely belongs and where it seems to be doing pretty well. Right now here in the US, it's sitting at $64 on Amazon and shows "10K+ bought in past month" which seems like a pretty decent number to me. When the set came out, I also remember it being sold out or at least backordered on lego.com. Maybe BTS isn't as popular where you live?
In any event, I don't know if the set sold like hotcakes, but it seems like it has been selling pretty well at a lower price point, which again I think LEGO knew would happen after the small initial wave of sales to diehards. I'm no LEGO apologist when it comes to things like product quality, but I think one thing they do understand is how to make lots of money.
I know I'll be in the minority but I love botanical garden... Had it not been selected I would have gone to bricklink and made it for myself I liked it so much..
@chrisaw said:
"Wonder if Lego knows something we don’t "
I think that is certainly the case but that doesn't stop 200+ posts thinking otherwise.
This reaction on here is as predictable as the price/stickers angst on almost every review.
Haha ok you got me. Now where are the actual sets they picked?
I was really hoping they would do Dr. Seuss, my son would have loved it!
Surprised by Botanical Garden, finally a modular chosen!
Twilight is not a hot IP right now... but the modern house looks cool!
If you do away with the Twilight label and get rid of the minifigures the house looks pretty decent and would be getting a lot more favourable comments. I like the design of the building and the pine tree looks decent.
@AustinPowers said:
" @MudkipDoom said:
"I suspect this set will be like the BTS set, which people here in the brickset comments complained about endlessly because it didn't appeal to their demographic, only for the set to sell like hot-cakes. "
ROFL
Best joke I ever heard. If it sells so well, why is it constantly on massive discount, and even LEGO themselves tried to get rid of their stock at 40% off and it still was available for like ever?
Say what you like about the Twilight franchise (I have neither read any of the books nor seen any of the films) but at least this set could be a cool looking house with an interesting build. The BTS set is just a K-Pop figure battle pack with some lazy and mediocre background filler stuff. No wonder it doesn't sell.
@ResIpsaLoquitur : actually we have two teenage daughters, and neither of them (nor any of their friends) listens to K-Pop. Make of that what you will. "
ROFL? Why do you feel the need to belittle people? It is not because the set in your narrow field of view seems to sell poorly in your region, that it is selling poorly in every region in the world. I am getting reasonably sick of people like you, being arrogant and borderline impolite towards people who have different views or preferences, especially when your views are based on your own feelings and your vision of the world in your own little region.
The BTS set was almost immediately sold out after release in the Asia Pacific region and the US. Even now, as someone else pointed out, it is a reasonably strong seller on Amazon at a discount. But of course, a middle aged white man like you would prefer Castles, Pirates and Trains , while these are themes that interest only about 10% of kids, which, lets be honest, are still an important demographic for LEGO.
@Blockwork_Orange said:
"If you do away with the Twilight label and get rid of the minifigures the house looks pretty decent and would be getting a lot more favourable comments. I like the design of the building and the pine tree looks decent. "
Look up the original building. It is a beautiful house, a great example of modern architecture, and I seriously hope that LEGO will improve on the original fan design. Have wanted a house like this in minifig scale for a long while, and am happy that LEGO is finally doing it.
My disappointment is immeasurable, and my day is ruined.
The Botanical Garden is ok, but overall I feel like there were so many other better projects they could've picked from in this lineup. Especially disappointing that we missed out on Godzilla or at actual Portal set. I also hope the Multi-Tool gets released as some sort of Ideas promo later down the line—it's a very neat little concept.
@crazylegoman said:
"My disappointment is immeasurable, and my day is ruined."
Wow, my day would be kinda ruined if someone hit my car, if a loved one got sick or if someone broke into my house and stole quite a few valuables.
My day would never be ruined if LEGO announced sets that I am not interested in.
Well, different people's days seem to be ruined by different things. Djeez.
Almost 1 year ago, Dungeons and Dragons IDEAS contest winner got announced, and beside the original winning model the set is still pretty much unknown .
At this rate, those will be 2025/2026 sets for sure.
Shouldn’t the girl from Twilight be blank and featureless, to match her description in the books?
Botanical Garden is a surprise and I'm here for it. Twilight is also surprising but I think it makes sense as well. Lego Ideas isn't always about appeasing current Lego fans but bringing in new fans with unique sets.
Botanical Gardens looks decent. I expect the other one will go on clearance quite quickly.
I guess LEGOs mentality is that all the 14-16 age girls who lined up to see the Twilight films back then now have decent income from good paying jobs.
However, even as a guy who made fun of those girls when I was their age, I think the house looks great. Better than the BTS set that looked like a City set with the band members.
@PurpleDave said:
"Shouldn’t the girl from Twilight be blank and featureless, to match her description in the books?"
If that's the case, they should bring back the proto-mini figures from the mid-70's just for her! ;-)
rip to the bionicle set
Weren't there like 5 Taylor Swift submissions or is that in a future round of approvals?
I'm not a Twilight fan, and from the comments neither are 99.9% of Brickset users.
BUT...
Putting the IP aside, the Twilight house is a VERY cool building, and a gorgeous piece of architecture.
The actual building won a Merit award from the American Society of Landscape Architects:
https://www.archdaily.com/12088/m1-residence-skylab-twilight-movie-hous
I'll happily add it to my Lego City.
I'm surprised Twilight even has any relevancy anymore. I haven't heard anyone mention it in basically a decade till this batch of sets were first announced for the review process.
@Zink said:
" @AllenSmith said:
" @Zink said:
"Y2K nostalgia is big rn…"
Really? Are we all doing disaster prepping again? Ironic disaster prepping? Commemorative Spam re-releases? Re-prints of the doomsday books? Making up some software date audit plans for old time's sake? Writing our next project in COBOL just to see what happens?"
Y2K is what the kids call the 2000s, ofc"
If kids somewhere are trying to rename an entire decade after a civilization-ending computer disaster, it's probably just a sign of how education has collapsed in the dark, technologically-regressed era that followed the computer meltdown of Y2K.
If you'll excuse me though, I need to stack a few more tin cans in preparation for the Epochalypse on 2038-01-19 03:14:07 UTC, when the time_t type in C overflows and Unix dies.
Man that astronaut was 100x better than the one that Lego released in their 3 in 1 creator version. Sadly.
I thought the moon set was beautiful and even the title was lovely - the Moon: Earth's companion. It was also something a bit different. Very sad to have missed out on that one in favor of these, neither of which feels as magical.
@MrBedhead: you know, your comments are just as relevant or irrelevant as mine in the grand scheme of things.
But it always gives me pleasure to see what appears to irk you enough to necessitate a reply, no matter how irrelevant the original comment might have been.
Remember everyone lives in their own reality bubble. And only that is the reference we can go by.
Yes, BTS isn't a thing with anyone I know.
Does that mean it can't be popular elsewhere? Of course not, but it's all I can base MY reaction on.
Yes, Twilight is a source of constant ridicule with anyone I know. Plus it's certainly a slap in the face of LEGO's so called "brand values" (which in themselves are a joke imho).
Does that mean it can't make a lot of money for LEGO, which (like Taylor Swift) is all they really care about? Of course not.
And so on and so forth.
Goodnight.
@Garth_Brown said:
"Disappointing. I was hoping for the Naruto's Ramen Shop, but no, TWILIGHT. F*ck off, LEGO."
Just one question: why don't you buy the officially licenced Naruto Ramen Shop set that has been available for years?
Just google "Keeppley K20509".
You're welcome.
If anything this is starting to show TLG is potentially getting out of touch with its core market segment for the ideas and attempting again to reach a niche market. That set surely has less of a fan base and at that scale and price is going to constrain its buyer pool even more. Destined for deep discount sales.
At least the botanical would have a broad appeal.
Salty they wasted another stargate opportunity...
@tm76 said:
"Salty they wasted another stargate opportunity..."
Once again, in case you missed the information: BlueBrixx has the official Stargate license.
@MrBedhead said:
" @crazylegoman said:
"My disappointment is immeasurable, and my day is ruined."
Wow, my day would be kinda ruined if someone hit my car, if a loved one got sick or if someone broke into my house and stole quite a few valuables.
My day would never be ruined if LEGO announced sets that I am not interested in.
Well, different people's days seem to be ruined by different things. Djeez."
My day isn't *actually* ruined; that line is from a TV quote that was made into a meme, and I thought the humor was fitting for the situation.
Pleasantly surprised with the Botanical Garden. Couldn't care less about Twilight.
I thought even Twilight is past it's twilight years!
The botanical gardens are lovely and as others have mentioned, given the popularity of the Friends set and the garden theme, not a surprising choice at all.
Twilight on the other hand was very surprising as I thought that IP was done and dusted - so I did a quick search - and it seems the author has released two additional books - the second selling a million copies in a week and plans to release 2 more and in April this year a TV show was announced. Who knew?
@MrBedhead said:
" @crazylegoman said:
"My disappointment is immeasurable, and my day is ruined."
Wow, my day would be kinda ruined if someone hit my car, if a loved one got sick or if someone broke into my house and stole quite a few valuables.
My day would never be ruined if LEGO announced sets that I am not interested in.
Well, different people's days seem to be ruined by different things. Djeez."
Keep up the good work. Without people like you there would be no-one trolling on the internet as no-one would bother to feed them. You make these comments sections as interesting as the trolls. (Not suggesting that crazylegoman is trolling but you seem to have trouble discerning jokes).
On the Bluey front. There is so much (ridiculous amounts) of Bluey merchandise - at least in Australia - I would think that Lego Bluey would be lost in it all. It would be good for Lego fans of Bluey, but I would be surprised if it would pull in many new fans which is what a lot of these Ideas sets seemed aimed at.
Maybe, focus on the build of the Cullen house as a set, a building in its own right and the merits of that rather than the IP it comes from?
If you didn’t know it’s origins I don’t think anyone would go ‘wow a vampire house’
Dang. I was really hoping for the shrimping boat. It would go great with the old fishing store.
@MudkipDoom said:
"Twilight (the movie) came out in 2008, I imagine there's plenty of young women who saw twilight as a teenager who would be interested in this set as a nostalgia.
I suspect this set will be like the BTS set, which people here in the brickset comments complained about endlessly because it didn't appeal to their demographic, only for the set to sell like hot-cakes. "
Only 965 people on here have it. What kind of hot cakes are you referring too? Its one of the worse selling sets of the year.
I'm convinced an 18+ Botanical Gardens set was inevitable regardless of Lego Ideas. The Friends set was just too well reviewed.
But what's the point of Lego Ideas if Lego is just using it to iterate on already popular concepts?
Look at some of the benefits she has been attending.
@crazylegoman said:
" @MrBedhead said:
" @crazylegoman said:
"My disappointment is immeasurable, and my day is ruined."
Wow, my day would be kinda ruined if someone hit my car, if a loved one got sick or if someone broke into my house and stole quite a few valuables.
My day would never be ruined if LEGO announced sets that I am not interested in.
Well, different people's days seem to be ruined by different things. Djeez."
My day isn't *actually* ruined; that line is from a TV quote that was made into a meme, and I thought the humor was fitting for the situation."
Don't worry. @MrBedhead is an expert at NOT recognizing jokes, irony, satire, or quotes of otherwise well-known memes, movies or TV shows.
@Zink said:
"I'm not into licence products but who can say no to a TWILIGHT set - definitely keeping my eyes on that"
"who can say no to a TWILIGHT set "? 99% of the population is who
Let me guess. Bluey is not chosen as they will get the licence 3 years from now on and steal these designs?
@lordofdragonss said:
"Let me guess. Bluey is not chosen as they will get the licence 3 years from now on and steal these designs?"
Lol. I propose a new drinking game going forward every time someone accuses LEGO of theft of an idea.
@lordofdragonss said:
"Let me guess. Bluey is not chosen as they will get the licence 3 years from now on and steal these designs?"
If they get the Bluey licence, I'd hope they do something a little better.
Yawn. A great way to save money.
@AustinPowers said:
" @crazylegoman said:
" @MrBedhead said:
" @crazylegoman said:
"My disappointment is immeasurable, and my day is ruined."
Wow, my day would be kinda ruined if someone hit my car, if a loved one got sick or if someone broke into my house and stole quite a few valuables.
My day would never be ruined if LEGO announced sets that I am not interested in.
Well, different people's days seem to be ruined by different things. Djeez."
My day isn't *actually* ruined; that line is from a TV quote that was made into a meme, and I thought the humor was fitting for the situation."
Don't worry. @MrBedhead is an expert at NOT recognizing jokes, irony, satire, or quotes of otherwise well-known memes, movies or TV shows."
Thanks for getting this personal, @AustinPowers . Much appreciated.
@AustinPowers said:
" @MrBedhead : you know, your comments are just as relevant or irrelevant as mine in the grand scheme of things.
But it always gives me pleasure to see what appears to irk you enough to necessitate a reply, no matter how irrelevant the original comment might have been.
Remember everyone lives in their own reality bubble. And only that is the reference we can go by.
Yes, BTS isn't a thing with anyone I know.
Does that mean it can't be popular elsewhere? Of course not, but it's all I can base MY reaction on.
Yes, Twilight is a source of constant ridicule with anyone I know. Plus it's certainly a slap in the face of LEGO's so called "brand values" (which in themselves are a joke imho).
Does that mean it can't make a lot of money for LEGO, which (like Taylor Swift) is all they really care about? Of course not.
And so on and so forth.
Goodnight. "
This must be one of the more condescending posts I have read here in a while, which seems to be a trademark of yours.
You responded to a comment about the BTS set not doing as badly as you think, which was a nice, polite, friendly post with a reasonably balanced POV. Your response started with "ROFL". Do you not see why some people who have actually learned what manners are could have a tiny issue with that? It is as if you think that posting on online forums suddenly just relieves you of all etiquette that you would normally apply to people when talking to them face to face. And then you admit that you have fun in seeing how much you irk someone with your comments.
Also, it is quite easy to look up how well a set is doing by going to Amazon or ebay and looking at sales results. So, with a bit of effort you can validate or change your own point of view, prior to sharing it while starting your post with "ROFL". FYI, on Amazon.com US the BTS set has average sales figures, not better or really worse than some sets that seem to have a large following here: the A-Frame, the Tallneck, the Hokusai art set,...
Of course, I am not entirely surprised that people do not want to make this effort since it is just so much easier to make baseless comments without backing them up with facts. And it feels so much better to start such a comment with a snide ROFL towards the person you are actually responding to.
@MrBedhead said:
" @AustinPowers said:
" @crazylegoman said:
" @MrBedhead said:
" @crazylegoman said:
"My disappointment is immeasurable, and my day is ruined."
Wow, my day would be kinda ruined if someone hit my car, if a loved one got sick or if someone broke into my house and stole quite a few valuables.
My day would never be ruined if LEGO announced sets that I am not interested in.
Well, different people's days seem to be ruined by different things. Djeez."
My day isn't *actually* ruined; that line is from a TV quote that was made into a meme, and I thought the humor was fitting for the situation."
Don't worry. @MrBedhead is an expert at NOT recognizing jokes, irony, satire, or quotes of otherwise well-known memes, movies or TV shows."
Thanks for getting this personal, @AustinPowers . Much appreciated."
You're welcome.
No but seriously, you just make it too easy to elicit such comments. Did you honestly not realize what @crazylegoman was getting at? You always react to such posts as if they were personally insulting to you instead of just taking it as just one opinion by someone else that is just as valid or invalid as your own, or mine, or anyone else's for that matter.
And lastly, I don't need to do research on Amazon or elsewhere to make assumptions about what sells well and what doesn't. I have close connections to several toy stores in the area as well as a friend of mine who works for our local LEGO store, so I do have firsthand input on the matter. Purchases on Amazon can be misleading since for a start lots of purchases get sent back, and just like many of the blatantly obvious fake reviews who is to say these numbers are actually valid and not just a way to make us believe something sells better than it actually does. I for one put more trust in the firsthand input I get from real people than from some anonymous algorithm that can be programmed to display anything.
@AustinPowers said:
" @MrBedhead said:
" @AustinPowers said:
" @crazylegoman said:
" @MrBedhead said:
" @crazylegoman said:
"My disappointment is immeasurable, and my day is ruined."
Wow, my day would be kinda ruined if someone hit my car, if a loved one got sick or if someone broke into my house and stole quite a few valuables.
My day would never be ruined if LEGO announced sets that I am not interested in.
Well, different people's days seem to be ruined by different things. Djeez."
My day isn't *actually* ruined; that line is from a TV quote that was made into a meme, and I thought the humor was fitting for the situation."
Don't worry. @MrBedhead is an expert at NOT recognizing jokes, irony, satire, or quotes of otherwise well-known memes, movies or TV shows."
Thanks for getting this personal, @AustinPowers . Much appreciated."
You're welcome.
No but seriously, you just make it too easy to elicit such comments. Did you honestly not realize what @crazylegoman was getting at? You always react to such posts as if they were personally insulting to you instead of just taking it as just one opinion by someone else that is just as valid or invalid as your own, or mine, or anyone else's for that matter.
And lastly, I don't need to do research on Amazon or elsewhere to make assumptions about what sells well and what doesn't. I have close connections to several toy stores in the area as well as a friend of mine who works for our local LEGO store, so I do have firsthand input on the matter. Purchases on Amazon can be misleading since for a start lots of purchases get sent back, and just like many of the blatantly obvious fake reviews who is to say these numbers are actually valid and not just a way to make us believe something sells better than it actually does. I for one put more trust in the firsthand input I get from real people than from some anonymous algorithm that can be programmed to display anything. "
I do this because I think such posts are unnecessary. Maybe I lack some specific sense of humor that you seem to appreciate a lot, but I honestly do not care about that.
And, because you have some connections at some toy stores in Germany, a country that holds about 1% of the entire population of the world, you can draw conclusions about how well sth is selling... worldwide? And because Amazon allows returns you think their sales figures are largely misleading? Oh, and of course they also probably fake their sales figures, just because, why not? You have no proof, or no arguments to back this up, but they are a large conglomerate, so they must be doing sth evil, right? You actually have just proven my point: you conclude sth based on your tiny bit of experience and info fed to you by some people you know, then arrogantly claim that this must be true all over the world, and when someone responds with actual arguments that you might be wrong, you just arrogantly laugh in their face and start quasi-insulting them.
@MrBedhead said:
"And, because you have some connections at some toy stores in Germany, a country that holds about 1% of the entire population of the world, you can draw conclusions about how well sth is selling... worldwide?"
I never said anything about worldwide. I only speak about here, in my area and sphere of personal experience. Sometimes this is later backed up by absolute facts, sometimes not. The gist is, who cares. Did I insult you by assuming a certain set doesn't sell well, based on my experience?
@MrBedhead said:
"And because Amazon allows returns you think their sales figures are largely misleading?"
Again, I said "can be misleading". You read "are largely misleading" which I didn't say.
You often seem to deduce more than what was actually said and somehow get angry about that.
@MrBedhead said:
"Oh, and of course they also probably fake their sales figures, just because, why not?"
Yes, why not? Why should I trust a large corporation that wants to sell me as much as possible by whatever means necessary? I didn't say that they're evil either, every company wants to sell as much as they can to their customers. Bending the rules a little has been part of business practices for centuries and way before the internet was even around.
LEGO themselves constantly cheat too, for example by faking product images on their boxes to show their sets in a better light. Stickers get retouched to look like prints. Prints show perfect white on dark backgrounds even though in reality they look totally different. Flat silver or warm gold pieces are shown as metallic ink style pieces. Injection points that are visible on the actual set get retouched to not show on the box art image. And so on and so forth.
There's no need for any conspiracy theory here, it's just known business practices that are used the world over. Trick the customer into buying something. Nothing mysterious about it at all.
I can look past the twilight name(something is hve no interest in personally), and enjoy the set on its own, but my fear is that the licensing cost will make the set a tough one to purchase.
The worst results we’ve ever had! Twilight!? Really!?
My Godzilla dreams dashed
@lordofdragonss said:
"Let me guess. Bluey is not chosen as they will get the licence 3 years from now on and steal these designs?"
First appearance of a tin-foil hat in this thread?
@Blazenhozen said:
"Only 965 people on here have it. What kind of hot cakes are you referring too? Its one of the worse selling sets of the year. "
Not the first appearance of the fantasy view that an AFOL site somehow represents Lego buying trends as a whole.
Shame for Godzilla and Naruto.
I can always rely on these articles to remind me of why I try and distance myself from the term AFOL and not consider myself one.
A vampire series go, I would rather have A Discovery of Witches or the original Dracula rather than Twilight.
Ignoring the association, the house is a bit boring in colour and style. There are more interesting contemporary ones on eBay.
@jeloshot said:
"Would be nice if the botanical garden “matched up” or connected somehow with the new Natural History Museum."
That may well be the idea.
Too bad the School Day set (from the City line, set 60329) has been discontinued. That – assuming you owned all three sets – would make for some very nice play ideas. That is, a field trip to the botanical garden or the museum. (Or even the observatory if you owned set 60351 (Rocket Launch Center, which includes one.)
My preference is, FWIW, the Friends version.
OK, if some of you fans are disappointed with the Cullen House set, then what would YOU rather have seen among the current list that was up for vote and review?
Be specific.
@ShinyBidoof said:
" @lordofdragonss said:
"Let me guess. Bluey is not chosen as they will get the licence 3 years from now on and steal these designs?"
First appearance of a tin-foil hat in this thread?"
Mine has been on the whole time. :o)
Hopefully this means Lego have a full Bluey theme on the way. But also the Godzilla and daft punk I was really hoping would make it
@Briguy52748 said:
"OK, if some of you fans are disappointed with the Cullen House set, then what would YOU rather have seen among the current list that was up for vote and review?
Be specific."
BLUEY!
@EtudeTheBadger said:
" @Briguy52748 said:
"OK, if some of you fans are disappointed with the Cullen House set, then what would YOU rather have seen among the current list that was up for vote and review?
Be specific."
BLUEY!"
Addams Family house. (It's been there at LEAST twice.)
@Zink said:
" @WizardOfOss said:
" @blueshift said:
"You'd be surprised. I know quite a few 20-something women AFOLs, it's a bigger demographic than you think, with plenty of disposable income."
Lego isn't looking for "bigger than you think" demographics, but for absolutely massive demographics.
As much as I didn't like the BTS set, I can see the market for that. Because A) it's a current fad with tens if not hundreds of millions of fans, and B) it was a decently small set at an affordable price point. And after the fans bought it they put it on a continuous 40% discount for people who don't care about BTS but just like the minifigs.
Of course I don't know what the final product is gonna cost, but assuming it will be anything like the fun submission, the €300 I mentioned before might even be a fairly low estimate. And then it makes me think more of those football stadium sets. All from clubs with absolutely ginormous fanbases worldwide. But considering the fact that the last stadium came out almost two years ago and will be discontinued in a few weeks with no successor in sight, plus also considering the continuous massive discounts on those sets, I have a feeling they didn't do so great.
And that's the thing: I just don't see that many non-AFOL's spend that kind of money on some toy that is also pretty hard to display. Star Wars, Marvel, LotR, Harry Potter? Sure, but those fanbases are on a different level, and those already have established a huge following within the AFOL community (and all started with affordable sets). But Twilight? I highly doubt it."
We don't know what form the actual set will take. It could be considerably scaled down. As the biggest Twilight proponent on Brickset, I too do not think a 300€ set is warranted."
I should also clarify that many of the "AFOLs" I mentioned have never heard of the term AFOL or Brickset before, but they will drop decent chunks of change on things like Harry Potter sets or the botanical collection. Many of them are instead on TikTok or Instagram, or get their LEGO info from sites with a broader scope (movie review sites, etc). I know because they will usually excitedly share that kind of news with me from other sites usually a day or two after it's posted here. What we see on Brickset is probably only a very small subset of AFOLs.
@blueshift said:
"What we see on Brickset is probably only a very small subset of AFOLs."
But one who thinks they know more about what will or won't sell than Lego itself.
@ShinyBidoof said:
"But one who thinks they know more about what will or won't sell than Lego itself."
Hey, don't you think it would be utterly boring if we all just agreed that Lego is an infallible company?
@blueshift said:
"I should also clarify that many of the "AFOLs" I mentioned have never heard of the term AFOL or Brickset before, but they will drop decent chunks of change on things like Harry Potter sets or the botanical collection. Many of them are instead on TikTok or Instagram, or get their LEGO info from sites with a broader scope (movie review sites, etc). I know because they will usually excitedly share that kind of news with me from other sites usually a day or two after it's posted here. What we see on Brickset is probably only a very small subset of AFOLs."
Oh sure, absolutely. But then may I assume they have nevertheless bought every top-of-the-line Harry Potter set? How many do you know that bought, say, the Hogwarts Express?
And if you had to guess, how much do you think they have spent on (expensive) Twilight merch over the last couple of years?
I just have a very hard time believing nowadays popularity of Twilight is anywhere near that of Harry Potter.
Why two houses? Wouldn’t it be better to select different kinds of sets?
Barring Stargate SG-1 for licensing reasons, I’d likely have gone for the Retro Comic Store to slot in-between my Marvel modulars.
@Murdoch17 said:
" @EtudeTheBadger said:
" @Briguy52748 said:
"OK, if some of you fans are disappointed with the Cullen House set, then what would YOU rather have seen among the current list that was up for vote and review?
Be specific."
BLUEY!"
Addams Family house. (It's been there at LEAST twice.)"
I would easily like to see the Aperture Science Handheld Quantum Tunneling Device because Portal is my favorite game and the Bionicle head because Bionicle doesn’t get enough love from Lego nowadays.
Well, I'll spend my money on something else then. What I really would like is to have also the reasons for not choosing a project. I can understand license issues, the modular exclusion because they aren't original ideas, and the fact that a set is too big or "weak" but then I do not understand why an empty modern house could be the best choice. The new Friends modern house is more appealing to me. Btw my choice is on LED lamp and the moon map. Hope that like in the Lego Designer program will be possible one day to buy instructions and needed pieces.
All those great sets and Lego chooses those 2 turkeys. Typical.
@Somnium said:
"Twilight idea is as good as the BTS set."
But BTS set is $100 and it's unsellable
Imagine how many $400 brown houses TLG are going to sell?
Because a set with the 4 figures and a hundred of bricks pretending to be a house or an scenario would have its market into Twilight fans as a gift
But I'm sure there is merchandise more accurate and deriderable for a Twilight fan (and maybe for much less than $400)
This comment thread got super weird. Entertained me for a solid 20 minutes though…
Two more shelf-warmers right there :)
Pretty funny that now I expect to be disappointed by these results every time. Some how....they exceeded my expectations of failure.