LEGO Ideas no longer accepting projects based on active licenses

Wowzer! This could change a lot of things

Hopefully this means more original ideas will get the attention they deserve.

Finally they made it official. They kind of already had this rule but just didn't have it in the rule book. Or else the indominous probable would've been accepted.

Finally. Now we don't have to hear everyone complain about how a Star Wars submission did not get chosen. There have been a lot of great submissions for existing licensed themes, but I always thought it was quite obvious LEGO would not choose them since it would effectively be "wasting" an Ideas release, of which they are few and far in between.

@CCC: Covered under "Disney characters" I'd expect.

I don't see Jurassic Park there and it's interesting that Lego doesn't want to produce anything on Ideas from Lord of the Rings yet they haven't done anything with that license.

So instead of outright not allowing bad projects with little-to-no effort put into them onto Ideas, they've just made it so that you can't submit projects from IPs TLG currently has.

Yes good site 10/10

What I did when I read this: 1. Kicked chair. 2. Picked up near complete McLaren F1 planned submission. 3. Angrily threw at wall. 4. Watched as it exploded. 5. Started work on Lamborghini Countach planned submission.

This is good they finally made it official.

Finally.

So, about 85% of projects submitted will be taken down. That's honestly a good thing. There were way too many Star Wars projects on the site. The way I see it, Lego Ideas is only getting better. They are really forcing builders to be creative and make worthwhile projects that haven't been made before.

Scooby Doo is out of the current licenses ;-(

Good. We can expect more originality now.

I think this is a good decision, although, I know my daughter is drooling over the "bus" in the next round. She would buy that immediately. I have already told her that she should just presume that version is never going to be made.

They really had to do this, because it is just too easy for people to make sets that Lego is already actively working on, and it then gives the perception that Lego has copied.

Very good change!

@Ayliffe: Who's going to be the judge of "effort" in your scenario? What sort of concrete measuring system do you have in mind? Because I can't think of one. Lego Ideas' rules on submissions largely exist to avoid popular projects that nevertheless can't pass the review process. A "quality test" is already part of the system, in the form of the supporter count—closing the doors entirely on less skilled builders would be an unnecessary step that could have a huge negative impact on the popularity of the service as a whole.

yes. Finally....

I don't see April fools Game of thrones there :P

Sounds great! Looking forward to seeing what people have to offer. Will be good to have all those sets that will obviously never be chosen off the site. There are plenty of other places people can show off their work.

Does this mean they'll be taking down all offending projects currently on the website? If so the site is about to become substantially smaller.

I too am looking foreword to more original ideas.

FINALLY!

NOOOOO!!!! not Sonic the hedgehog i saw some go ideas there

It does not look like they are going to purge the site of submissions, from reading the post on Ideas blog.

Too bad they've ruled out more Apollo sets. There are some really nice models of the CSM, LM, and LRV on Ideas.

So my hopes of trying to relist my tower bridge are not going to work now... :( this saddens me

I have a few that fall into this list, however, I would not object to them being archived and letting the few ideas which are not included getting a bit more visibility and perhaps supporters.

Glad Red Dwarf and Land Rover are not on the list. Red Dwarf especially as is was in Dimensions.

Dagnabit TLG, you have the license for Wizard of Oz, so get off your tails and start making some sets!!!

Time to submit my Lone Ranger and Prince of Persia mashup!!!

LOOOOONNNNNNNGGGGGGG overdue

This is a good progression for LEGO Ideas (esp. Star Wars and LotR). I think I would support eliminating BrickHeadz from Ideas, as well (kind of a "leave it to the official designers" thing). Although I will be extremely hypocritical and say I like seeing Speed Champions on Ideas.

IPs I did not see however include Land/Range Rover, Jeep, and Indiana Jones. Really rooting for the Jeep Wrangler Rubicon already at 10,000!!

Ha ha, just as I was going to put up an expanded Detention Block set based on new the exclusive one...

@SpeedChampionsFan Lamborgini is owned by VW/Audi (both on the list), hope that does not ruin your submission. Pontiac is not listed, so a Firebird would be okay, but not a Camaro?

I'm all for this decision, for the most part, but it a real bummer that there's so many themes they have that they aren't currently making sets off of. Things like Star Wars, Super Heroes, Disney Princess, etc . . . Should definitely not be accepted. Some of the others that are dormant I wish they'd still allow.

Seems like this would've been a no-brainer from the get go.

Wow. I'm really surprised that they did this. I was not expecting this, but I kind of understand why they did.

I hope the CW Flash set doesn't get taken down

This is very welcome news to me. I think it's super hard to compete with these licenses, because of their brain-share. And also, as a consumer of LEGO Ideas products, I simply hunger for original ideas.

Aww man! That means no A-Team van or K.I.T.T. from Knight Rider in minifig scale unless Lego produces them their selves. :(

Thank god! No more " Lego UCS Tree Stump that Obi-Wan sat on as a Force Ghost in Return of the Jedi "

Thank goodness. People were mistaking minutiae for creativity.

A sad state of affairs for one of the most creative hobbies in the world.

Long overdue. Now ban the 30,000 piece vanity sets and the models clearly made by pre-school kids whose proud mums upload them and I might go back.

I suspect that regardless of what the list says, they wont approve any Ideas project from any of the parent companies of the brands they have produced (e.g. Lamborghini or Lincoln or Holden or Jeep or Alfa Romeo) since if they are going to produce one of those they have an existing relationship with those companies.

could you say that Cinderella and Aladdin are ok (since they are Public Domain stories).

Woohoo! Kinda. Lots of great projects will be taken down due to this, but this is a good move. MAJOR clean up thankfully. Hopefully this means that they hope to expand upon The A-Team, Knight Rider etc.

Also, anybody notice there were licences that have not been made into sets yet?

@^
yes and Lord of the Rings is still on there.

For the love of God Lego! You have the Lord of the Rings as an active license, and yet you're not doing anything with it? Make more Lord of the Rings sets!

I strongly dislike the concept of 'Automotive Brands' being barred - though obviously that list is not exhaustive of all the brands in the world, it is certainly a good number of the most famous ones. And in my opinion (as a Star Wars fanatic), a good proportion of the best Ideas submissions were fantastic cars.

Will we ever get a set as good as the Caterham 7 again? Perhaps, time (and licensing) will tell!

Huh, I thought that was already a thing...

This is long overdue and should have been made back when it Cuusoo. It least in terms of entertainment. The automotive brands don't strike me a nearly as big an issue.

I would guess it took so long because they wanted to give the fans a chance in the beginning just to see if it could be done. After a few years of experience and some unfortunate stories, they realized their capabilities and probably saw it that projects based on existing licenses couldn't be done. Overall, I'm not surprised.

Honestly the most interesting thing about this is that Lord of the Rings is listed as an active license. Could we get more LotR sets, or has it just not quite expired yet from Dimensions?

Looks like FlagsNZ and myself will have to keep this list handy over the next few Ideas articles :) I'm happy we can finally put this scenario to rest.

LotR is active because of The Lego Batman Movie, and probably Dimensions. However Scooby Doo and Jurassic World aren't listed which is interesting.

FINALLY!! I remember of LEGO giving some sort of warning a time ago about this, that ideas based on existing licenses or Modular Buildings wouldn't pass on the reviews. Thankfully they are no longer accepted now. We need creative ideas, or new license ideas, not an "idea" of a "new X-Wing" or something similar...

Now, the next step should be the ban of badly designed ideas.

Wow I actually thought this was made a rule a long time ago...

My earlier comment glitched and never got posted as usual. Please fix this problem!

If this comment does work, I'll give my thoughts on this below.

Ok, so it worked.

This calls for a celebration. Finally, no more Star Wars and Superheros in Lego Ideas! Yay!

I am happy that they still allow less common licensed themed projects eg. Tintin, Flintstones

Just to clarify:

In regards the Architecture rules:

Does this mean anything relating to those skylines/buildings is not allowed eg. no modular London townhouse or minifig scale London bus?

Or just no projects that relate to those things that are in an Architecture format?

In regards the Automobile brand rules:

Does this only stop one vehicle sets eg. A large Ferrari racing car?

Or you cannot have a Model T Ford outside a Modular building?

I just saw giovannesl's comment; Is it true that Lego Ideas will no longer be accepting Modular Building projects?

I think they have been using some of these rules recently

I had a problem getting the NASA Vehicle Assembly Building on because I mention Apollo - I originally had a 6 piece model of a Saturn V next to the building. Luckily managed to show it wasn't just used for the Apollo programme.

I also had a model of the new Lego building rejectected - that turned out to have a much smaller 'exclusive' set ready for sale.

I hope some of the creators will make the instructions or LDD files of the now ineligible projects available online somewhere. It would be a shame if no one else can get access to a lot of the excellent designs that have been put up on the site.

Honestly, most of the project I actually supported were the original ideas and not the licensed stuff.

The only exception for me was The Beatles Yellow Submarine!

For me this seems like a positive change.

I think rather than banning them outright they should just not pay the idea suggester the royalty fee, i.e. fold the idea into the main theme rather than release it under the Ideas banner. They practically already did this with UCS Helicarrier. Most people only care about their idea becoming a real set in some way, so I imagine just acknowledging them as a contributor would be enough. Personally, these kinds of projects are the only ones that interest me so I'm disappointed this is their next move.

Interesting. Instead of people rejoicing about no more Star Wars sets or being bummed about...err, no more Star Wars sets... how about getting that Jurassic park t-rex passed... All previous sets declined due to licensing deals that have now lapsed are eligable again.

Wait, they still have a Harry Potter licence?
Where's my UCS Hogwarts Express then Lego? I mean come on!

Maybe I should try to submit something now. We're all in the same boat and have to be original and creative now.

@Nintynuts: The problem there is that a big issue with projects based on active licenses, royalties aside, is that LEGO already has a game plan for how many sets the market can bear and which models from that IP would make viable sets. IP holders can also be sort of particular about what subjects they want LEGO to make sets of. In many cases they may already have sets in development of the IP's most iconic subjects, unless they've already considered them and turned them down for one reason or another.

Also, the idea that LEGO could have based their Helicarrier on the Ideas project is literally impossible. Even an average-sized set generally takes at least a year to develop; most take more like 18 months. The Helicarrier set came out in March 2015, while the Ideas version was first proposed less than 10 months earlier in May 2014. Furthermore, the Helicarrier project was downright absurd in its scale, at over 22,000 bricks in its original design and over 6,000 bricks in its July 2014 update. Trying to scale down a massively oversized, never strength-tested LDD model would have probably been even less efficient and taken even longer than just designing a Helicarrier set from the ground up.

@CortezTheKiller: Yes, by way of LEGO Dimensions.

It is my understanding that I can’t submit ANY Star Wars ideas. Is that right? If so, I am out of Lego Ideas. Star Wars is my life, and I thought it was cool to have the chance of making a new Star Wars set. This change is very unfortunate for me, as I can’t submit any more Ideas. Also, you said that any submissions based on active licenses would be rejected. Stuff like Star Wars and Marvel. Does this mean people can’t submit anything related to Lego City?

It's interesting to me that they still have the Simpsons license. Were the sales that bad? Maybe the issue was making it a CMF series. Sure you can recreate the multiplying Homer episode but who needs tons of dupes of named unique characters?

I'd love more Simpsons stuff. It actually has me watching more than the occasional episode. It's such a shame they are done with it.

wtf why would they remove automotive brands?!!!?!
cars are some of the best projects of the site, there was a landcruiser and a corvette that failed review a while back...

@FNFLeader because they are under license already. Just make a car from another brand. Lamborghini has been suggested. I'd venture that the previous post about Lamborghini being a VW brand doesn't apply. Just because TLG had The Simpsons doesn't mean they have every other FOX license or every other Matt Groening creation.

lego ideas is dum now

I only hope that Lego take inspiration from the different project, like the Jedi temple because I really want that buildning!
Now, I wish to see medieval castles and pirate ships and traisn ofcourse!

@ascher: that's your opinion.
Mine is the opposite. It's been full of dum(b) and unoriginal ideas for years. This might actually make it interesting again.

So the Peugeot 205 WRC and the Land Rover Defender are still good ideas (pun intended) to vote for with other words... :P

"No project based on an existing license has ever been approved"

What about Adventure Time? Dimensions sets are 2016 and Ideas set is 2017

Good to hear though I wish they would not allow any licenses at all.

@Bosstone100: Like Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, they still have the Simpsons license on account of LEGO Dimensions.

I can see both sides of this argument. On the one hand, there are licenses like Star Wars that LEGO has been actively releasing dozens of sets for per year for a long time. I'm sure their Star Wars bandwidth is full and planned out a long time into the future, so they don't really need our ideas.

On the other hand, there are licenses they have only used for Dimensions or aren't actively doing anything with. Especially evergreen themes like Wizard of Oz -- I could see potential there for actual sets that would sell.

And the automotive brand thing seems a bit strange, too. So because LEGO released a couple of $15 Speed Champion sets, no one can make cool larger versions? Does LEGO have like a UCS Mclaren P1 planned or something? (I mean, I hope so...)

Also as someone who only started collecting again a few months ago, I would love some new LotR/Hobbit or Harry Potter stuff -- they haven't had anything in years. I guess they tend to mostly release those kind of sets to coincide with movie releases but it seems like those themes are popular enough to sell whenever. More sets like Tower of Orthanc, please!

I wish it meant all licenses as a whole. Maze is literally the only unlicensed set I immediately recognize.

Pitty they never did anything with the exraordinairy Zelda sets that are on the internet. That would be awesome.

I was hoping for another wave of Scooby Doo sets - there's more they could do.

Anyway, this is good to get ahead of and the lists are definitely informative.

Great Ideas improvement from Lego! There's nothing wrong with IP-based ideas in itself, but weeding these out from Ideas will hopefully foster more original submissions on Ideas.

Fortunately anything Classic Space is not on the black list!

if LEGO will refuse these sets no matter what, then it makes sense not to accept submissions based on them - but I think it was a poor move from the get-go for LEGO to unofficially rule these kinds of sets out.

@Beast76: LEGO and Nintendo always seemed like it would be a match made in heaven to me. Imagine sets that let you make your own Mario level in LEGO...