Interesting Ideas
Posted by Huw,
Today we will be publishing two LEGO Ideas related articles. In this first one, Brickset member rock99rock discusses three recently added projects. If it's well received, it will become a regular feature.
Later on I'll publish an article about a project whose creator used a very unusual method to encourage me to promote it.
Cable Car
Just looking at this model I can imagine the “Ding Ding! Ding Ding!” of the Cable Car bell as it heads toward Pier 39 in San Francisco. The level of detail in this model is very well thought out from the exterior handrails, to the way the roof splits in half to view the interior. Unfortunately, the attention to detail has pushed the piece count towards 700 with what appears to be zero minifigures included. Sure LEGO can add say three minifigures, but that just pushes the potential $50-$60 set up another $10.
Even though it could benefit from power functions, it would still compliment many street scenes in a unique way. It would be quite an undertaking to modify existing dioramas to accommodate a track splitting 2-way traffic as intended. As such, the designer has updated with an alternative version to combat this by replacing the track wheels with rubberized street wheels thus removing the need for rails.
That update feels a bit unpolished and could use a bit of help. Even though the rest of the design is wonderfully done, I just don’t feel there is a large enough market for this set to get enough votes and be chosen by LEGO.
- PROS: Design, Compliments Street Scenery
- CONS: Potential Cost, Small Market
UCS Dawn of Justice Batmobile
A little more than a year from now, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice will be released in theaters. A new version of the Batmobile has been spied on set, and this is a LEGO Ideas rendition of some of those photos. Much like the LEGO Tumbler, this model is not afraid to show its studs! The designer has done a wonderful job in replicating many of the obscure angles found on the original vehicle.
At closer inspection, there appear to be quite a few single/unsupported plates covering the exterior of the vehicle causing it to look fragile. The front grill area looks a bit crude, and could use a bit more attention. Whether this is due to the complexity of the car’s original design or what methods this designer is familiar with at this scale, remains to be seen.
The designer has been very active in submitting updates, such as a more detailed interior (very LEGO Tumbler-esqe) and front-end rigidity improvements. With the already existing Batman sub-theme licensed from DC Comics, I have little doubt that some variant of this model has already been theorized/authorized/procured by LEGO. With additional solidifying characteristics and exterior polishing, I’d be happy to put this on my shelf. Will the one on my shelf actually be from this submission? Highly doubtful. History has shown that submissions in a theme of which LEGO already possess a license are not selected for production. I’d love to be proven wrong some day.
- PROS: Collectible, Large Market, Unique Design
- CONS: Licensed Theme, Fragile, Unpolished Exterior
NMR Spectrometer
The NMR SpectWHAT-er? I chose this submission based completely off the number of votes it has already received this past week. NMR stands for Nuclear Magnetic Resonance. After a bit of research, I discovered that the spectrometer determines the physical and chemical properties of atoms or the molecules in which they are contained. Not that this doesn't sound at least a little cool, but it certainly didn’t seem to warrant the over 1000 votes it received within its first few days of eligibility.
Perusing the comments of the project, I quickly noted the amount of support being received from users of actual NMR Spectrometers. Through the use of social media, the submitter or initial supporters were able to wrangle in this audience using targeted methods of sharing. This initially worked heavily in their favor but seems to have died off a bit in the past few days.
While I think the technology is cool, it would be difficult to place the NMR Spectrometer out in the world as it’s own set. I could certainly see it as part of a “Research Institute V2”, though I doubt the draw to that set would be the NMR Spectrometer itself. The submission itself seems a little too simplistic in terms of quality design. While the furniture could use some polishing, the updates tab has a welcome addition of some proposed Spectrometrists.
- PROS: Inexpensive
- CONS: Niche Market
The Cable Car would look great in a shoebox-sized diorama, or even between a few modulars. The finer details are pretty spot on given its size, and the overall model is unmistakably recognized as a Cable Car. The Batmobile needs some exterior design work, though this version is easily distinguishable given the photos of the movie version that exist in the wild. The NMR Spectrometer has potential as part of a larger set, but the appeal fades as its own entity.
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25 comments on this article
The cable car and Batmobile are pretty cool. The spectrometer is not my cup of tea. If I had to chose one, it would be the Star Wars UCS X34 Landspeeder of Psyence. That's what I call a great model, but then again, I am a Star Wars fan!
The cable car looks awesome, but the one thing we (imho) already have enough of is Batman-related Vehicles. More Justice League please!
Excellent Ideas!
By coincidence I spent more then a 5 years working with NMR.
So simply what it does: the NMR spectra from this machine will give you an information about a STRUCTURE of the organic molecule. Even simpler - it give information about e.g. how are the carbons and protons (hydrogens) connected.
For AFOLS: Something like an advanced molecule-building instructions 8-D
Interesting. The main problem I find with the whole 'Ideas' concept is that there are so many submissions to plough through, that you tend to rely on recommendations from others.
It seems like in order to have a successful project, your Lego building skills are not as important as your networking / self-promotion ability.
I doubt whether any of the above three would appeal to me, if they made it through (Batmobile...? maybe), and so if this continues as a series, it'll simply be a case of 'Am I interested in the models that the author has selected for discussion?', which is likely to be a bit hit-and-miss.
No reason to not do it though - with 100,000 members, chances are each article will feature something of interest to a good number of readers.
I appreciate this article's focus on the design & details of the actual models. This makes for a much more interesting read for me than a critique of each submitter's rendering, Photoshop, and writing skills. LEGO designers would probably rework such a thing as the Batmobile from scratch for strength & authenticity, but I appreciate the work that went into the LDD model. The cable car needs to be produced, Ideas success or not. It's perfect subject matter for a LEGO set. NMR, though -- oh, the college memories! Might be the first time I've seen that acronym this millennium!
I must admit I supported the spectrometer, which has more to do with the subject matter than the build itself. But then again I'm someone who was only very recently brought out of my dark age, by the Ideas Research Institute.
That cable car is utterly delightful though, as @BooTheMightyHamster says there are so many submissions and it's easy to miss some gems, exactly how I'd missed this one. Supported now though.
If another DC UCS set were made, I think a large piece count Green Lantern created power ring construct would be great. It could even be something with multiple build options like Creator sets. If they look for a larger peeve count, they could double it with Sinestro yellow construct. Now would be a cool display model.
If I was going to choose two of these, I would go for the Cable Car and BatMobile. The NMR SM doesn't seem that interesting, though if I owned a (non-LEGO!) one, I expect this would be a dream come true. These Ideas all look very interesting, and if they pass, the LEGO Ideas team will have a hard job.
@Huw, I'd be willing to help with a feature like this. I've been checking IDEAS daily for the last two years so I've seen some projects!
There's some lovely detail on those first two. The Cable Car is a particularly sweet model. As for the Dawn of Justice Batmobile, it's a lovely model, but I have my doubts as to the practicality of submitting it as an IDEAS set. I mean, it's like all the Jurassic Park jeeps that have appeared, or more obviously the 'Frozen' Palace or Avengers Helicarrier projects. Where LEGO have a licence to a property, they'll have already decided what sets they're going to make and set their own designers to the task.
If you want another nice set with fantastic detail, I came across a brilliant RAF search-and-rescue Sea King helicopter that's also a farily efficient build, parts-wise:
https://ideas.lego.com/projects/91868
Or in another idea from the same designer, a US Navy variant recovering the Apollo 11 astronauts (with obligatory shark hazard!):
https://ideas.lego.com/projects/86997
@Jeofish
I absolutely agree with you. As I wrote some time earlier, here are two other examples:
The changing seasons 2015 set seems to me like a concept originally coming from Lego IDEAS:
https://ideas.lego.com/projects/20153
...and it is not for the first time I see some similar concepts from the Lego Ideas being used.
e.g. Jedi defender
https://ideas.lego.com/projects/11084
My husband actually send me an email this report to tell about the cool NMR (not thay I would not have read it during my daily brickset-fix). Maybe I should add my MOC of an X-ray diffractometer, which is what he works with. I used the research institute as a basis to create a big chemistry lab with some cool machines as a XMas present.
It would be nice to get a research institute v2!
Yes, more articles about interesting ideas projects, please!
Nice article - and very cool projects. I will be supporting all three, and mentioning that I saw them here on Brickset when I leave a comment (I always leave a comment when I support a project). The spectrometer and batmobile are awesome, but probably my fave among the three is that intricate cable car. I'd love to see more articles about LEGO Ideas projects.
@Huw, I encourage you to consider an article - or better yet, a series of articles - about the 20 projects currently on LEGO Ideas that have more than 5000 votes but less than 90 days to reach the goal. Yes, full disclosure - I am a partner in one of them (The Little Prince), and I think I can speak for all of the creators that it is quite a lot of effort to get even to 5000 votes. April 30th will be a big day for LEGO Ideas. This is the first time that the 1 year rule will be applied, wiping out every project that didn't reach 10,000 within that time. Anyway, something to consider!
I like these Ideas articles. Keep them coming.
Good idea for an article. It gives better details to what the submissions contain.
But IDEAS is a bit hit/miss overall. I agree with an above commenter that states you need good networking skills more so than good building skills. Ultimately, LEGO would redesign any of the sets that pass review. So it doesn't really matter what you build, so much as people like the subject matter enough and you convey it decent enough to pass review. Then LEGO will find what works best for their business constraints.
I love Batman, but I'd rather have a '66 Batmobile or '89 Batmobile in large scale format (other than the Tumbler, of course) since I have more childhood memories of those shows. The new DC stuff is appealing since I'm a fan, but there is no nostalgia making me want to buy it, like Ghostbusters or BTTF.
With all of that said, the cable car looks great. I think scale wouldn't work for how tall most LEGO buildings are, but as a display model itself, it looks fantastic.
The Batmobile seems rather pointless.
The notion that Lego wouldn't have already thought of making sets based on the new Batman v Superman movie is ludicrous.
Because this specifically is a stab at a new recurring article, I'm going to have to voice my dissent.
I didn't like it when glenbricker did it, and I don't like it now that rock99rock is doing it - endorsements for projects on Ideas, either implied or expressly stated, is not something that I want to see on Brickset. Here's why:
1) "Who cares?" - None of these projects personally interest me. Some other people in the comments reveal only some of these projects interest them. I'm sure there are hundreds more people, registered and non registered visitors who, like me have no interest in these proposals, but either don't care to take the time or draw response for declaring their disinterest. This runs the risk of turning into an echo chamber where it seems like people love the idea, and time and effort is drawn away from other articles.
2) "Me too!!" - People piggybacking on a Brickset article to push their own proposition or a proposition they really want to pass on Ideas. What is the point in having a highlight for specially picked endorsements if it turns into an open forum begging for support?
3) Redundancy and Artificial Support - Ideas exists. These projects are there for people who want to go find them. Drumming up support by handpicking and "viral marketing" may very well be what Lego encourages to get a project to 10,000 support, but it produces an artificial measure of actual support. How many times do we have to bring up Purdue Pete?
4) Collusion - I know I'm painting a target on me right now but what the heck. There are people who admin/post to Brickset and also have proposals on Ideas. Who knows who and if there are personal connections in the small world of Lego hobbyists is not something I want to see turn into an inner circle of perennial winners.
So there you have it. I personally don't think Ideas (aside from news/landmarks/etc) is something I want to see on Brickset. Maybe I'm alone on this, so take it for whatever it's worth.
@DanRSL
You are entitled to your opinion, but I for one, appreciate the articles. As someone else mentioned, it's difficult to wade through the nearly 10k submissions to find decent projects, so these types of articles makes it easier to bring awareness of great projects. Sure, I don't like all the projects in the articles, but someone else out there probably does.
But more importantly, there is a solution to your problem: go to your account settings and hide all Lego Ideas news topics! Then you will never see these articles again!
@spacysmoke
Keeping myself unaware of these articles actually doesn't solve the biggest problems with these kinds of articles. Namely issues 3 & 4.
I like the reviews if non-LEGO designed sets. Keep it up.
@DanRSL, re: your point3, it is very hard to find anything on LEGO Ideas, and it is very difficult to communicate with others about your projects on that site (asking someone to vote for your project in a comment on their project is discouraged). Maybe I'm misunderstanding you. It seems you are saying that folks should just find projects there without the marketing attempts. And that the viral marketing gives TLG a false sense of the popularity of the project ("an artificial measure of actual support").
If that's what you are saying (and again, maybe I'm misunderstanding you), I think the facts prove you wrong. Every single set that was released through Cuusoo/Ideas has been extremely successful - even ones where you could find dozens of comments on articles like this from folks who never thought they'd succeed. Just look at A) how fast they sold out and B) how much they are on the secondary market. I can't think of a project that got to 10K without some serious marketing efforts.
TLG even encourages these marketing efforts on the LEGO Ideas site.
I think it's fair to say that without the marketing efforts, there is not a single project that ever would have made it to 10K. I'm not saying that this is a good thing (indeed, I'm exhausted from the efforts I've made to promote my projects), I'm just saying that's the way it is.
@Huw, please keep articles coming about LEGO Ideas! I think it's fair to say that we are all huge fans of LEGO. And who hasn't dreamed of either becoming a LEGO designer or building something that was adopted into a set? This would be a dream come true for me and many others, and articles like this help LEGO Ideas submissions reach that 10K goal.
@DarthWalle
If proposals are hard to find on Ideas, then it is a poorly designed setup and website (which we might agree it is, Lego has a problem with good web design for some reason). If the only way for anything on the platform to achieve 10,000 support is for it to go through some 3rd party viral marketing source, what exactly does 10,000 support even measure? How many fans are registered at the Wizard of Oz fansite? How many students go to a particular university? Any possible metric for salability goes out the window, making Lego's own benchmark useless. This is why Purdue Pete was such an important milestone that would determine how Ideas (then Cuusoo) would proceed.
There are definitely examples that got to 10,000 without "serious marketing efforts", just look at the set that started the trend of movie licensed sets - the DeLorean. It took 8 months of internet word-of-mouth, the same can be said for most that are in review.
How well they sell, while great numbers-wise for Ideas, I would argue is more of an issue of marketing rarity and resellers. We were told the Exo-Suit would be a "one time printing so get it before it's gone!" so it is no surprise buyers hurried to get one and they sold out. It is also no secret now that Lego is a good investment, and there are scalpers and resellers all over ebay. If I can resell a $35 set for $50-100 right after I get it, why not?
Oh course TLG encourages this - it's free advertisement and market research. I'm not saying they're necessarily the bad guys here, but I AM saying I disapprove.
"I think it's fair to say that without the marketing efforts, there is not a single project that ever would have made it to 10K"
The Piano just proves that wrong, sorry. And it's not the only example. But more importantly, "marketing efforts" is a cloudy term. Soliciting a non-Lego-buying population to drum up support and then singing the praises of the system when resellers are the ones making these sets sell out is a bigger issue.
Thank you damien, we're on the same page :)
Very nice batmobile!I hope I will have it in my shelf one day...