Ideas Showcase

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I am a member of a large number of LEGO related Facebook Groups. Over the last few weeks, I have seen some really great LEGO Ideas projects being promoted in these Groups. These projects are featured here.

As part of improvements being made here at Brickset, I made the suggestion to write feature articles for worthy Ideas projects.

Read on as I showcase eight Ideas projects and add some detail to the concept for featuring popular Ideas projects.

123 Sesame Street

By bulldoozer21

The 123 Sesame Street project appeared on several Facebook posts a month ago as long-time puppeteer Caroll Spinney retired after 50 years as Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch.

In 1969, Oscar was orange, Gordon had hair, and Sesame Street was already totally awesome. Celebrate your love of 49 years of Sesame Street by voting for this LEGO Ideas project

Wouldn't it be great if this set was available in 2019, the 50th anniversary of Sesame Street!

This project has nearly 6,000 supporters and just over a year to reach its 10,000 supporter goal.

Auto Union Type C Racecar

By redera00

This is a replica of the Auto Union Type C race car from 1936, in its hill climbing races configuration.

Redera00 has always been fascinated by this automobile, which was designed by mixing aerodynamic bodywork with powerful underpinnings; it is like an airplane without wings!

With nearly 300 supporters, this project is in its early stages. It has over 400 days to achieve the next milestone: 1,000 supporters.

Take a look at redera00's profile to see the other impressive projects.

The Snow-groomer PRINOTH LEITWOLF was the principal featured project in an earlier Ideas Showcase article.

Lego Pendulum Waves

By dawidmarasek

Did you know that the time taken of a pendulum's swing (its period) does not depend on its mass?

The period (the time taken for pendulum to swing back and forth) depends on its length alone: a short pendulum swings fast while longer pendulums will swing slower.

Now you can create your own physical experiment to see that the cycle time depends only on the length.

This LEGO Pendulum Waves model has eight pendulums of differing lengths. If they are released simultaneously then they will all soon be swinging independently of each other. Eventually, however, the oscillations get resynchronized and some amazing wavelike pendulum patterns are created.

You really have to see the video to appreciate the harmony of this model.

I can see this model being on display at home or work as it teaches us about our natural physical world.

At 450 supporters, the LEGO Pendulum Waves model is halfway to the next milestone: 1,000 supporters. It has over 400 days to reach this target.

Playable Lego Piano

By SleepyCow

I have promoted grand pianos before in the Ideas Showcase articles. My son is a professional piano teacher so we hear piano music being played from his teaching studio several times a week.

The Playable LEGO Piano is the most detailed piano model that I have ever seen. The Concert Grand Piano, one of the most complex instruments of all time, is now in LEGO form.

Built entirely from 2798 authentic LEGO bricks, it accurately captures the mechanical details of a real piano. Some of the key features are:

  • Removable keyboard with 25 independent working keys, each key connects to its own hammer.
  • Working damper and pedal function.
  • 25 strings.
  • Realistic piano lid which can be open either half stick of full stick.

This is Sleepy Cow's only Ideas project. In a short time The Playable LEGO Piano project has gained over 6,500 supporters. It has over two years to reach the 10,000 supporter milestone!

LEGO Earth

By master-builders

Build LEGO Earth, a foldable map that transforms into a globe!

Dabble in cartography as you assemble the seven continents in bright, coordinated colours.

Unique elements such as the Statue of Liberty in New York harbour, the Eiffel Tower in France, and a red snake posing as the Great Wall of China add character on the continental plates.

The LEGO Earth is made up of twenty triangular sides (an icosahedron) which can be flattened out into a Dymaxion map.

The LEGO Earth is master-builders' only Ideas project. It has over 800 supporters with more than a year remaining to reach the next milestone: 1,000 supporters.

BrickHeadz: Mount Rushmore

By erzahurak

By his own admission, erzahurak is obsessed with BrickHeadz: he loves the look and style of them!

Mount Rushmore is a massive monument to some of America's greatest Presidents, carved atop a mountain in the Black Hills of South Dakota. It's an incredible sight!

BrickHeadz is a very popular LEGO theme. The Mount Rushmore Ideas project successfully fuses an iconic American monument with this popular LEGO theme.

Erzahurak has two Ideas projects; the other one being a Freddie Mercury Brickhead.

BrickHeadz: Mount Rushmore is nearly at 400 supporters and has just over a year to reach the next milestone: 1,000 supporters.

Let's lift these Ideas Projects along

Anatomini

By Stephanix

The Anatomini project has been appearing on social media lately.

It depicts human anatomy captured in the iconic LEGO Minifigure.

By 2019 humans will be outnumbered by LEGO Minifigs. Yet we don’t know much about the little yellow fellow.
Until now …

The Anatomini Ideas project has over 8,500 supporters with nine months remaining before it expires. Let's get this project to the 10,000 supporter's milestone.

Thunderbirds Are Go

By AndrewClark2

Like me, Andrew Clark2 grew up loving to watch the Thunderbirds with their cool vehicle designs, characters and missions. I featured this project in an earlier Ideas Showcase article.

This LEGO Ideas project is based on the 2015 animated series: Thunderbirds Are Go!

Andrew Clark2 is quite a successfully Ideas designer. He has brought us The Flinstones and Doctor Who and Companions projects.

The Thunderbirds Are Go Ideas project has just 75 days to archive 240 more supporters to reach the 5,000 supporters milestone. It will then receive a further six months extension of time.

Queen Victoria Cruise Ship

By FlagsNZ

A couple of weeks ago Huw suggested that I give my Queen Victoria Cruise Ship project one last shout-out here at Brickset.

It has reached 9,000 supporters and it only has 38 days remaining to get to the 10,000 supporters' target - 200 new supporters per week.

Full resolution images can be seen in this Flickr album.

Shout-out articles for Ideas projects that have reached 5,000 supporters.

Recently Huw conducted a poll "What features would you like added?". I made the suggestion to write a feature article for any Ideas project that has reached 5,000 supporters.

So please get in touch if your project is getting close to the 5,000 supporters' milestone and you would like a shout-out to give your project some momentum.

If several requests are received together I will prioritise the articles based on the time remaining - those projects expiring soonest will get a shout-out first.

I can be reached by the contact feature on my Brickset profile.

So here are nine Product Ideas projects to have a look at. Two of these projects are very dynamic so please look at their respective videos.

I am always interested in your thoughts. Which projects do you like? Do you agree with my selections?

Feel free to leave feedback and links to your favourite Ideas.

58 likes

44 comments on this article

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By in United States,

Wow, these look great! Really want the piano, although I don’t think LEGO would release something that complex. The only one I can see them approving is Queen Victoria’s Cruise Ship. Best of luck to all.

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By in Australia,

Nothing really grabs me. I don't mind Sesame Street, just because it would look amazing in a Town setting. The piano does indeed seem very complex. And Lego Earth ... maybe you need to see it in-person, because I can't make sense of that at all.

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By in United States,

There's definitely a few in here that I will be supporting! Also want to give a shout out to another project that I personally absolutely love: The Clockwork Aquarium by mjsmiley. It's at about 5700 supporters, with more than 500 days left, but I'm really hoping it doesn't stall out, because I think it has a pretty good chance of getting approved too :)

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By in United Kingdom,

Although not the most appealing to me, that Globe seems like a shoe in to be approved if enough people vote for it, what with it’s educational aspect.

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By in Netherlands,

Great choice of LEGO Ideas to give some attention.
Many thanks for highlighting Anatomini!!! And the ideas by others, you personally know what it takes to go10K.
I didn't know you are an editor at Brickset:-)
LEGOIdeas themself also celebrate the 5000 milestone. Guess who 's idea that was? Hi Hi.

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By in Belgium,

Wonderful selection. Some may a bit overkill to turn into sets but it brings attention to great future designers or build ideas in general.

Thanks for bringing them to our attention. Nice work and looking forward to the next list!

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By in Singapore,

That piano is awesome. It Lego made it I would definitely buy it day 1

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By in United Kingdom,

Globe is my favourite I think, as something that would appeal to adults, being quite complex, but also enjoyable by kids because it looks fun and colourful

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By in United States,

@Jman007,

I dunno, as long as the piano doesn't feature a lot of illegal techniques and things like that, it seems like a great pick. It's averaging over 100 supporters a day and should hit 10,000 before the end of the year. . . after less than two and a half months on Ideas. That's one of the fastest projects in recent memory.

It's also going to be the second piano on Lego Ideas to hit 10,000, so clearly there is demand for such a product.

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By in United States,

I need that Lego Thunderbird 2 in my life, but I'm worried there won't be enough people :S

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By in Australia,

Although I always admire the creativity of the submissions (and envy their talent), the only one I would consider adding to my collection is the Anatomini for novelty factor alone.

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By in United States,

Love the globe

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By in Brazil,

Sesame Street: A really great idea, but it would be better if new parts were made for the minifigs, and since Lego isn't going to make new parts for Ideas set. Unfortunately, would hardly pass;

Auto Union Type C: Another great idea, but I believe this car is a little obscure for some people. I don't know if it would sell well. High chances;

Pendulum Waves: Personally, I don't think it is very interesting. It would be just a decoration, for AFOLs it may be good, but there's the kids too... Maybe it pass;

Piano and Globe: Both look pretty interesting, would probably be decorations, like the Pendulum Waves, but I believe they would have more appeal with the younger builders. High chances;

Mount Rushmore: I don't know. I think it clashes with the Architecture line, besides being based on another line. Very unlikely.

In a scale of 0-10 of how likely one of these would pass:

Sesame Street: 3/10
Auto Union Type C: 6/10
Pendulum Waves: 4/10
Piano: 6/10
Globe: 7/10
Mount Rushmore: 1/10

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By in Indonesia,

@ Omnium, I totally agree. Forgetting to mention Peter Reid's LL-497 Galactic Explorer here in this Ideas Showcase overview is easily the single biggest insult to mankind since the creation of the universe.

To all non-believers and disbelievers in the Lego Universe: click on the link below to make up for all your past, present and future faults in one go, and vote this project into Lego Ideas Products Shelf Space.

https://ideas.lego.com/projects/d30ce870-6ede-486a-9d84-bcc9b9c6b5f9

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By in United Kingdom,

Well, I always wanted a piano in this house...

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By in United States,

This is a really good collection--I haven't been impressed with Ideas lately (most seem to be trying to ride the coat tails of other successful projects) but there's some great, original ideas in here. I can't say I like all of these, but I appreciate the originality of the pendulums, playable piano, Earth, "Anatomini," etc.

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By in United States,

That piano is amazing, but I feel that the one with the best chance of getting accepted is Sesame Street.

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By in United States,

WOAH these are cool! I might not go for the Sesame Street one, but other than that, these are really cool. And the Mt. Rushmore gave me a good laugh. Love it!

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By in United States,

The Sesame Street one would be fun! But I'm worried they wouldn't be able to accurately recreate the puppets without new molds.

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if a BrickHeadz Mt. Rushmore is already in the works.

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By in United Kingdom,

Interesting choices there, but none that I'd be tempted to buy I have to say.
I get quite dismayed by Lego ideas every time I have a look through the latest ideas. It seems to be treading a very fine line between a load of kids MOCs and 'ideas' that are never going to get anywhere. It also seems to be overrun with 'home schooled TFOL' builders who all seem to know each other too!
All in all, I find trying to find a quality project to support such a time consuming business, it's hardly worth the effort!

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By in United States,

I would buy Sesame Street. No higher praise than that. It's not even a "maybe". I'd buy it and give it to my 6 year old for Christmas, and build it with him over Holiday break. What a good idea.

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By in New Zealand,

There are some really great suggestions here.

I grew up reading the Narnia series of books by C.S. Lewis. I love The Wardrobe project by parsom.

That modern version of LL947 by Peter Reid looks great and would compliment his Exo Suit model.

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By in Poland,

@FlagsNZ Thanks! I hope that someday you'll post it in your showcase!

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By in New Zealand,

^ Yes, absolutely!

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By in United States,

I really appreciate these articles because it gets me to check out projects which I forget to do on a regular basis. Some great projects here, lately I'm appreciating the projects that have a function, like the piano and pendulum, those are cool. Both would make great display pieces. I'm worried about the complexity and piece count of the piano though.

Rooting for you @FlagsNZ for your "Queen Victoria"! Hope you reach that coveted 10k votes, almost there!

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By in Canada,

The Sesame Street set reminds me of the Fisher Price set I had as a kid. I would jump all over that if Lego ever produced it. :D

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By in Australia,

I thought that LEGO had made a rule that any sets that would fit within existing product lines were not to be contemplated, yet there are numerous Harry Potter ones and Brickheadz??????

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By in United States,

That globe is hideous.

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By in United States,

I quite like the globe and the piano. Sesame Street would be welcome as well. Hope these make it to the 10k stage.

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By in United States,

Any one know when the next review results will be in? I have my fingers crossed for a Falcon Heavy!

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By in United States,

The piano is the only one that Lego would even come close to considering. The others are nice creations, but their appeal is way too limited.

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By in United States,

I use to love Sesame Street when I was younger, they look amazing!! I’m very excited, I really hope that the Sesame Street one gets published, because that is definitely my favorite!

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By in United States,

I like the Lego Earth idea.

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By in United States,

I like a lot of these, especially the piano, mount Rushmore, and world.

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By in Belgium,

What great beauty! Auto Union would top my list (being a petrol head), then anatomini, sesame street, thunderbirds and maybe the globe. Beautiful designs.

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