LEGO Ideas X Target winner announced

Posted by ,

The result of the LEGO Ideas competition What does family mean to you? has been announced.

The winning entry is Your Family Tree by Bulldoozer, which will join the every-growing backlog of Ideas sets yet to be released, so expect to see it sometime in 2024.

In the USA, it'll be available exclusively in Target, and at LEGO.com/brand stores.

Are you satisfied with this result? Let us know in the comments.


The four contenders were:

55 comments on this article

Gravatar
By in Netherlands,

Would be interesting if you could order tiles that had mini figure versions that you could design yourself, of your own friends or family.

Gravatar
By in Serbia,

Thoroughly uninterested in the winner.

Gravatar
By in United States,

^
And there's nothing wrong with that. No product will appeal to everyone.

Gravatar
By in United States,

I wonder how many people voted just for more red foliage...

Gravatar
By in United States,

I don't really enjoy putting together Lego trees in general. They are often a bit finicky and the foliage can be repetitive to assemble. And I don't really get that same feeling of satisfaction that comes from clicking bricks into place. I liked every part of the Ideas Tree House except for the foliage at the end. It was a slog and I just wanted to hurry up and be done with it.

Gravatar
By in Canada,

I was either hoping for the sunset one (which I voted for) for the station wagon set. Didn’t we just get a set exactly like this with 40648 ? Perhaps they’ll do something crazy with the scale, ideas always surprises me!

Gravatar
By in United States,

Hopefully it's a well designed tree. I'd be thrilled if we actually got the recolored red leaf element.

Gravatar
By in Spain,

A couple of these without the pictures will make for a nice park in my city

Gravatar
By in United States,

I like the winner and the station wagon one. Both great. The family tree is a clever idea.

Gravatar
By in United Kingdom,

An ingenious creation, congratulations to Bulldoozer!
Will this be a US exclusive, or available more generally around the world?

Gravatar
By in United Kingdom,

Best of a not great selection of sets. Not interesting to me, but I can see why alot of people would want it, even just for the tree parts.

Gravatar
By in Germany,

The sunset at the beach looked the most interesting to me. Really clever build to recreate that special light situation.
The others, including the winner, aren't bad either, just not as interesting to me overall.

Gravatar
By in Romania,

There is already a similar set 40648: Money Tree releasing. In any case, I'm not into either of them.

Gravatar
By in Canada,

Lots of cute features, nice elements, I think it will be popular as long as the price point is reasonable.

Gravatar
By in United States,

I just want to know when these Ideas sets will actually release.

Gravatar
By in United States,

Interesting choice. I'm not sure how they will pull this off so that everyone can recreate their family tree? Will they have a plethora of tiles in different skin colors/genders/ages? And will they have the same assortment of heads/hair pieces that the Foosball Table set had? If not, I can't see how this would work.

Gravatar
By in United States,

I really like the family tree. It would be great to have a minifig pictured in one side of the picture frame and the ability for us to put a photograph of the actual relative in the other side.

Gravatar
By in United States,

@illennium said:
"I don't really enjoy putting together Lego trees in general. They are often a bit finicky and the foliage can be repetitive to assemble. And I don't really get that same feeling of satisfaction that comes from clicking bricks into place. I liked every part of the Ideas Tree House except for the foliage at the end. It was a slog and I just wanted to hurry up and be done with it."

You are not alone.

Gravatar
By in United States,

Even though I am not interested in purchasing any of these, I think the winner is the best of the bunch, and I appreciated the diversity of designs chosen for voting. Congratulations to all the designers chosen for the contest, especially to the winner, Bulldozer!

Gravatar
By in United Kingdom,

I think given Lego's current obsession with trees (or, more generally, plants) it's no surprise this won.

Gravatar
By in Dominican Republic,

Neat.

Gravatar
By in United States,

@PhantomBricks said:
"I wonder how many people voted just for more red foliage..."

Like it. But, it does have an unsettling resemblance to the trees of Mirkwood.

Gravatar
By in Belgium,

Pity, I was hoping for the sunset to win. As said by others above, I don’t enjoy assembling trees. With the exception of old-style palms :-)

Gravatar
By in United States,

I like this one the best! I won't mind if it is scaled down a bit for price though. For me the similarities to 40648 Money Tree is a plus because that is also on my list to get.

Gravatar
By in United States,

I imagine that this will probably break the record for most stickers in a set as you have to accommodate skin tone, hair color, hair style, gender… After all, who wants to display someone else’s family tree in their home.

As for tree sets, I have nothing against them, but they should offer something more than just a tree. LOTR had plenty of great sets with trees, but even the warg set that was only a tree offered a lot of play features. Of course the Ewok Village is probably my favorite set, after all, it’s Ewoks!

Gravatar
By in United States,

While I identified most with the family sunset, I do think the tree is a cool idea. It would be great if Lego provided a digital template that allowed people to insert pics of their family members and easily print them out the correct size to place in the frames on the tree. Even if they don’t, I think I would attempt to do that myself rather than have the minifig pictures in the frames.

Gravatar
By in United States,

My vote went to the sunset one, but the literal family tree is actually pretty funny.

Gravatar
By in United Kingdom,

After the 100's of entries it's just a tree following the usual design so nothing to worry about, whereas the vacation and other entries could have been something different with more interesting builds.

Gravatar
By in United States,

I’m interested in seeing the final design, as the current one isn’t all that exciting. I suppose it’s a neat representation of “family”, but as a set I don’t know how appealing it is. And if part of the goal is for a family to build together, I think there are more interesting and engaging sets than this would be. But congrats.

Gravatar
By in United States,

I'll go out on a limb (no pun intended!) and predict that the single-stud connection between the branch piece and the picture frame will change by the time the set is produced. It just looks so fragile.

Gravatar
By in Canada,

@StyleCounselor said:
" @PhantomBricks said:
"I wonder how many people voted just for more red foliage..."

Like it. But, it does have an unsettling resemblance to the trees of Mirkwood."


That's a feature, not a bug.

Gravatar
By in United States,

I can't remember which of these I actually voted for. I might actually consider buying this one but just for the tree as I don't think I'd bother hanging the portrait pieces.

Gravatar
By in United Kingdom,

It’s certainly a tree. About all I have to say about it

Gravatar
By in United States,

ngl I really want to see the Target dog made on the german shepher/dalmatian mold one of these days.

Gravatar
By in United States,

@ShilohCyan said:
"ngl I really want to see the Target dog made on the german shepher/dalmatian mold one of these days. "

With the dog variety we've gotten in recent years I wouldn't be too surprised if LEGO just makes a bull terrier mold in the near future. But making Bullseye the dog with it is not something I'd expect.

Gravatar
By in United Kingdom,

The "family tree" is a naff concept as a genealogical "tree" has actually very little resemblance to a horticultural tree.
But there is a lot of fairly naff Lego around isn't there?- people must like it.
Anyhoo, it's a lovely little vignette and we can make it without the little picture tiles, can't we.
I'll get one if I'm still alive when it gets released...

Gravatar
By in Canada,

The lil baby and her picture are cute. I am always in favour of more Lego babies, especially if they're set to venture into space

Gravatar
By in Canada,

It's unfortunately the last one I'd choose. The other 3 are so much better! I would have loved the the station wagon and also the family vacation photos! Will those ever get made eventually?

Gravatar
By in United Kingdom,

Entirely irrespective of whether I think this is a good idea or design. This submission was made by the same person that did Sesame St. and subsequently won the Space GWP contest... That doesn't seem particularly fair to me. I think the IDEAS team should have let another fan designer have the eventual joy of seeing their set on shelf... YMMV.

Gravatar
By in Portugal,

I didn't think any of the submissions really fit the theme aside of that very generic, stock photo idea of a family setting, so I voted for the one that'd at least give us some more red leaves :P

I'm glad it won!

Gravatar
By in United States,

@BernardBlack said:
"Entirely irrespective of whether I think this is a good idea or design. This submission was made by the same person that did Sesame St. and subsequently won the Space GWP contest... That doesn't seem particularly fair to me. I think the IDEAS team should have let another fan designer have the eventual joy of seeing their set on shelf... YMMV."

I have to say I would agree that the Ideas team really needs to consider suspending ones ability to have their submissions considered for a certain length of time once they win a contest to be fairer to other participants. That being said we all have different tastes in what we like. I find myself repeatedly supporting ideas submitted by a few specific individuals as their subject choices & building styles really appeal to me. I hadn't looked at anything on the Ideas platform in a while and was dismayed to see at least three almost identical submissions from different people for some Taylor Swift house build. I can only surmise that it represents something seen in a music video but quite frankly it looks just like a mish mash of some recent Friends builds to me and definitely not something I would buy.

Gravatar
By in Australia,

A US exclusive? Sod that. Whatever happened to "no more regional exclusives"??? Fake news I guess.

All of the contenders were good, but I think Lego chose the best one that will appeal to the most people. The tree is nice and since I love family history, a family tree is really cool. As others have said, the main issue will be how one can actually represent their family in the set.

Even if they had a 'make your own family' thing online or whatever, chances are it would be limited to a small selection of pieces. (I know for myself all of Lego's current minifig pieces would be far too modern, especially if I wanted to make my grandparents or great grandparents).

Gravatar
By in United States,

So, it'll be available at Target....but will we actually ever see it at Target?

Gravatar
By in United States,

@Brickchap said:
"A US exclusive? Sod that. Whatever happened to "no more regional exclusives"??? Fake news I guess.

All of the contenders were good, but I think Lego chose the best one that will appeal to the most people. The tree is nice and since I love family history, a family tree is really cool. As others have said, the main issue will be how one can actually represent their family in the set.

Even if they had a 'make your own family' thing online or whatever, chances are it would be limited to a small selection of pieces. (I know for myself all of Lego's current minifig pieces would be far too modern, especially if I wanted to make my grandparents or great grandparents). "


If I recall the discussion around the Viking Village correctly, this set will not be exclusive to the U.S. Rather, it will be a retail exclusive to Target in the U.S. Other countries can buy from Lego directly. I could be wrong, but that's my guess.

Gravatar
By in Australia,

Looks fine, although I would have preferred the picture frames. The red foliage piles my interest though.

Gravatar
By in United States,

@PhantomBricks said:
"I wonder how many people voted just for more red foliage..."

Me. All day.

Gravatar
By in Poland,

@legomanijak said:
"Thoroughly uninterested in the winner."

And I like it the most. But not asa model but as a PARTPACK

Gravatar
By in Viet Nam,

I reckon this is the most commercially viable one of the bunch. But I’m not so keen on this particular interpretation of a “family tree”. Maybe it’s a cultural thing, or maybe I’m just morbid, but hanging portraits of individuals like this brings to mind some sort of memorial for deceased people!

Gravatar
By in United Kingdom,

I voted for this one, although I think that instead of squares you could have hanging heads. Eerie but more effective and able to customize with hair and skin colour, not to mention no stickers.

Gravatar
By in United States,

I didn't even know this was a thing. I recall hearing about the Viking thing, but that was that. I didn't realize there was another one.

I'd take some red leaves for sure. A few of the others looked neat as well. I will likely not buy any of them though.

Gravatar
By in United States,

@johleth said:
"Would be interesting if you could order tiles that had mini figure versions that you could design yourself, of your own friends or family."

Lol lego would charge you like 100 dollars per tile if they did this

Gravatar
By in United States,

I think it will get reworked so that larger photos can be used…the windows will be replaced with something you actually build. I expect the final to look a lot different from concept, and it’s a brilliant, very marketable, product concept that can appeal both within and outside the traditional LEGO marketplace.

I love it and am delighted that it won.

In regards to this comment by @BernardBlack
“ Entirely irrespective of whether I think this is a good idea or design. This submission was made by the same person that did Sesame St. and subsequently won the Space GWP contest... That doesn't seem particularly fair to me. I think the IDEAS team should have let another fan designer have the eventual joy of seeing their set on shelf... YMMV.”

I respect your opinion of course, but I respectfully disagree. That is to me on the border of participation trophy thinking. If submissions aren’t able to beat someone who is consistently winning, then the other submissions need to BE BETTER.

The answer is not to take the submissions that are the best, exclude those participants, so that those who submit submissions that are not as good get a chance to win.

Where would the spirit of competition go if that was the way things worked? It would go away, and so would the quality.

Gravatar
By in Norway,

@blogzilly said: "That is to me on the border of participation trophy thinking. If submissions aren’t able to beat someone who is consistently winning, then the other submissions need to BE BETTER."

Now, I haven't checked out Ideas for ages (so things may have improved), because I got fed of how getting to 10k was relatively little about idea or quality of build but more about social media leverage. This was infinitely worsened by the extremely limited navigation, which basically only let you sort projects by "newest" or "best", while the dumbed-down "load more" (instead of numbered pages) made it very hard to find back a new project you saw just a few days ago.

I saw it happen over and over and over - Someone submitted a really neat project which got a steady stream of votes for a day or so, but as soon as it disappeared from the "new projects" page the votes dried up and it would take like a month to get as many votes as the first day. The only "solution" to this was to spam social media about your project in hopes to get attention from new users. This is also why licensed projects tends to reach 10k easier than non-licensed ones, as you could advertise your project in fan groups who weren't necessarily Lego fans.

If you already have succeeded at getting a project made as a set, that would of course increase your social media influence significantly and making it much easier to reach 10k again - I believe it's this "rich gets richer" situation that upsets @BernardBlack. I can agree that downright blocking them isn't the best solution, but the Ideas team really needs to factor this in during the review, otherwise we risk ending up with an "Ideas aristocracy" where a handful of designers repeatedly gets selected over other equally-good or better projects.

Gravatar
By in United States,

@axeleng said:
" @blogzilly said: "That is to me on the border of participation trophy thinking. If submissions aren’t able to beat someone who is consistently winning, then the other submissions need to BE BETTER."

Now, I haven't checked out Ideas for ages (so things may have improved), because I got fed of how getting to 10k was relatively little about idea or quality of build but more about social media leverage. This was infinitely worsened by the extremely limited navigation, which basically only let you sort projects by "newest" or "best", while the dumbed-down "load more" (instead of numbered pages) made it very hard to find back a new project you saw just a few days ago.

I saw it happen over and over and over - Someone submitted a really neat project which got a steady stream of votes for a day or so, but as soon as it disappeared from the "new projects" page the votes dried up and it would take like a month to get as many votes as the first day. The only "solution" to this was to spam social media about your project in hopes to get attention from new users. This is also why licensed projects tends to reach 10k easier than non-licensed ones, as you could advertise your project in fan groups who weren't necessarily Lego fans.

If you already have succeeded at getting a project made as a set, that would of course increase your social media influence significantly and making it much easier to reach 10k again - I believe it's this "rich gets richer" situation that upsets @BernardBlack. I can agree that downright blocking them isn't the best solution, but the Ideas team really needs to factor this in during the review, otherwise we risk ending up with an "Ideas aristocracy" where a handful of designers repeatedly gets selected over other equally-good or better projects."


Yeah…don’t agree, sorry.

Return to home page »