Second 2023 Ideas review: 49 projects qualify

I would love for Marine Life to finally have its moment. The book book would be rad, too, and would likely have have wide appeal much like the bouquet sets. The greenhouse probably would, too; it’s reminiscent to of those paper models I get ads for (much like I do for various book nooks!). The stilt house is amazing, but I can’t see them going that route. As far as licensed sets go, only Shrek’s swamp is really of any interest to me!

@CCC said:
"I'd like Taylor Swift's house to be made. Not because I'd buy it, but just because of the fallout it would cause, with four people whining about their idea being stolen without any compensation. "

That would be fun! I'd be in for that.
Or they could approve all five, produce a single set in the end, and randomly distribute instructions acknowledging any of the original submitters.

Tbh, not really interested in any of these. But that's just fine with me.

PS: these random instructions might actually be smart. If you need to be complete, you'd have to buy a lot of these houses to make sure you get each of the five instructions :)

theres a load of these we can already guess are not gonna get through, being the trains and the taylor swift houses and the cars.
Personally would love asterix and obelix. KSP would be good but i doubt it will. And SLS but again, doubt it will

Marine Life 2 and the Bookends are the only two I'd consider buying, but the Muppet Show by Bulldoozer is amazingly well done and has some great ideas.

I like the Alfa, Red Dwarf and the Kerbal set. The alfa seems unlikely as it's too adjacent to Speed Champions, Red Dwarf has been proposed over and over without success, so that leaves Kerbal as what seems most likely of my picks.

Thing is, this is another round with a silly number of qualifiers. Either they have to do this more regularly, or raise the standards, because I'm sure that I'm not alone in skimming past the majority of these. So many are presented at once, and 96%+ we know will be rejected, even if they pick two.

I really like the train tunnel bookends. Probably the only one I would be interested in. Unless they made the Big Boy engine, but I don't think that will happen

Looks like music may be the new sitcom sets, if BTS has sold to expectations. I assume there must be some T&Cs when there are (as good as) identical entries. First dibs?

Anyone who doesn't want Red Dwarf is a goit!

Jumanji would be my next choice. Cue the drums.

I don't know about the property it's based on,but if tail spin doesn't win,I'm going to be upset. I've had my eye on that beauty for a while.

Also,that is a lot of Taylor swift. And another Shrek house,even though I think ashnflash's one will be approved.

As someone who grew up with the original Krusty Krab set in 2006 and always dreamed of having one with a more detailed interior like the show, I have to root for this one. Not sure what its chances are, though.

There are so many other decent ones that it's honestly hard to pick. Love the Muppets, arcade, and greenhouse as well.

okay, that’s four and a half taylor swift houses, and two of the same red bull car- what happened in the zeitgeist that i dont know about?

My most wanted BY FAR is the flying scotsman, but we are getting the orient express so I reccon it won't make it through. I would love the mary poppins set but im worried lego will be put of by the mainly UK appeal.

I reccon the most likely is the mr rogers set as lego know lots of people would buy it and they love to make these apartment style sets for shows.
It will be a massive waste of some great entries if taylor swift is selected

I don't quite understand why Great Ball Contraption is not already a Lego theme. Fits perfectly: you can release as small and as large a set as you want (different price points to please consumers with different means); by definition these sets must be modular so Lego could release one or more per year and they would all work fine together. Also cool has a display/talking piece.

Like the bike, like the boat (not sure how popular that would be outside the US). In fact, plenty that I like but unfortunately none of them will be made. sigh.

5 Taylor Swift sets ?!?!?!? * in a Sebastian Maniscalco's voice * 'what's going on?'

Only 49?!?! We’re slipping. Can LEGO please raise the threshold for review at this point?

Not exactly the most interesting round. As for the obvious elephant in the room: this situation with the Taylor Swift house shows exactly why I feel there should be some kind of moderation on Ideas. Once a set gets to a certain point, say a 1000 votes, staff should look if it's A) an original idea, and B) if it is eligible at all. The tour set at least is different, but the other 4 are just the exact same thing. So too bad for the ones that weren't the first. As for that tour set: forget about the side builds and just make it a CMF series....
(not that I would buy any of it....how ion earth did she get *this* huge?)

But looking at the whole list, the ones I actually might buy:
1) Big Boy
18) Minifig gumball machine (now this is an *IDEA*!)
32) Landscape Photographer (just love how it looks)
45) Train bookends (got rejected before, hopefully makes it through this time!)

And the ones I do quite like but probably wouldn't buy:
2) Retro Arcade
5) RB18 (I fear a stickerfest, and needs slicks!)
8) Western River Steamboat (looks amazing, but more likely for BDP?)
12) Stilt house
14) Trojan Horse (again, BDP?)
23) Motograph (Absolutely love the concept, but it seems like a rather tedious build and not something I'd put on display)
29) Hungry Caterpillar (kinda surprsing this doesn't exist yet...)
30) Working Lego Biccycle (so much clever parts usage!)
34) Vintage Toaster (just cool)
46) Pixar Luxo Jr. Lamp (just iconic)
48) GBC Showcase (GBC is just cool! And indeed they could make it into a theme)

And just some other thoughts:
4) Alfa Romeo Giulietta Spider: as an Alfist myself I should love this....but it just doesn't work at all at this scale. And to be fair, it's probably among the most impossible cars to properly built from Lego at any scale, with all of its curves.
6) Muppet Show: easily the better of the two.
9 Asterix & Obelix: haven't we had better attempts before?
10) Shrek Swamp: I just can't unsee that figure...
13) RB18: I would love to like it, but size does matter. And again a stickerfest, and I doubt those deorations on the nose can even be done?
16) Talespin Seaduck: Can't deny it looks great....but not necessarily an interesting build, and who's gonna display something this huge?)
17) Stud Lane Book Nook: I actually love the concept, but this has been done before - and better - by other brands.
20) Yu-gi-oh: A minifig, a small dragon.....and one big boring box. Seems like a goud parts pack for everyone looking for drum lacquered pieces...
26) Flying Scotsman: As a train enthousiast I'd love to see a model of the Scotsman, but this needs a lot of work...
33) Rose Apothecary: never heard of the source material but it sure looks nice. But isn't this a tiny bit much oversized? Would be extremely expensive and a very tedious build.

"Landscape photographer" and "Big Boy locomotive" are nice builds. With the Loc being a clear no (Orient Express), the Landscape one would be nice to see appearing in shops in... 3 years or so?

Numerous Taylor Swift, double entries for the Muppets, ...
It used to be about choosing between good builds and ideas. Sadly the quality of both builds and ideas are inversely proportional to the increasing volume of sets passing into the review stage.

I haven't bought an Ideas-set in years now. Probably won't be soon either.

Four versions of the Taylor Swift's Lover's House? If one of these gets through, the official design will doubtless have some alterations and all four could claim credit on it. Seems unfair otherwise.

I'd be highly sceptical of any of them winning, but that was before the Disco set.

Venice is a BrickLink set so I doubt that will get through.

I like the book ends and Book Nook.

There are some good non-IP designs here! My favorites are probably Marine Life, Train Bookends, Gumball Machine, Landscape Photographer, and the Bicycle. The first three are returning Ideas so I doubt they will make the cut.
On the IP side of things, I like both the Phineas and Ferb sets and Mary Poppins. Although I doubt any will be made. I don't think the Mary Poppins scene is iconic enough for the price people would be paying. Evil Incorporated is iconic, but that looks like a set with a hefty price tag. Something that would probably prevent it from selling well. Of course Perry is recognizable, but then how many people want a large buildable version of the platypus?

Didn't Shrek's swamp already get approved? I thought they were having trouble since they had two to choose from, but maybe I am misremembering. Taylor Swift...why? Maybe music will be Lego's next target akin to sitcom sets.

The bicycle is very impressive. I'd buy that.

Zero interest in any of these, not one that feels unique enough in its design, even though there are some great builds of course.

I'm not great at calling which set(s) will pass but this time I reckon 22, 24, 35, 40 and 43.

Honestly I don’t usually pay too much attention to what Ideas sets make it through - it’s almost always a bunch of stuff that has *zero* chance of ever being produced.

Message sent, though, Swifties! Maybe they’ll revive the Vidiyo line and just make all the minifigs T-Swift themed.

I don't know if that's still the case (I hope it's not) but last year there was another brand of construction blocks doing Astérix sets (they were available in Lidl, in France at least)

I got one from a charity shop, they were shockingly awful, hard plastic that hurts your fingers, and the worst minifig clone design I've ever seen

Two more NASA sets, two more sitcoms, another Asterix, another Venice...

Is this the first round that has had multiple sets of the same topic thematically in the same round? Red Bull Racing, Phineas and Ferb, Taylor Swift and The Muppets are all at least doubled here.

These are the ones I find most interesting, ordered according to decreasing likelihood that I would buy them:

Kerbal Space Program
Working Bicycle
Asterix and Obelix
Alfa Romeo
Mary Poppins
Talespin Seaduck

There are some nice builds in there. I’d love the Tailspin one but nearly zero change they do it.

Strong candidates to me would be:
-The first Muppet Show submission
- Motograph - pretty unique
- Pixar lamp/ball
- hungry caterpillar

The Taylor Swift house clearly has support so it might pass as well.

My favorite is the bicycle, but I see no chance for it to be a real set.

Muppet Theater would be a day 1 buy for me. I’d probably get Marine Life also because I have a lot of Creator sea creatures. Can’t see myself buying anything else.

I really like the minifigure gumball machine! Also, I guess we will be getting a Taylor Swift set out of this. If we can get a BTS set out of nowhere, I’m sure Lego won’t want to miss out on the Swifties cold hard cash.

@Elite_1 said:
"I guess we will be getting a Taylor Swift set out of this. If we can get a BTS set out of nowhere, I’m sure Lego won’t want to miss out on the Swifties cold hard cash."
I'd really like to know the sales figures of that BTS set, by region no less.
Because over here it's constantly on sale, at least 25% off. No one seems to be interested. Who would have guessed... ;-)

I'd like to see Flying Scotsman make the cut just for the red buffer beams.

@johleth said:
"Red Dwarf could be interesting, LEGO does have some working relationship with the BBC due to Doctor Who being in LEGO Dimensions."

Don't think the BBC own the rights to Red Dwarf any more as the new series or so in the last few years were on the DAVE Channel here in the UK, the parent company of which is UK TV Gold. The only way that could happen is if they sold the rights to them.

@Rolodzeo said:
"I think people want a Taylor Swift Lover House. Maybe I'm wrong, but something tells me otherwise."

No way they'd keep Name? Trying sell kid seems so wrong

8. WESTERN RIVER STEAMBOAT by CTDpower
Trojan Horse
41. SNOWY MORNING IN THE COUNTRYSIDE by Castor-Troy & Max Brich

Those Taylor Swift submissions just show that IDEAS is really in need of a big redesign, 10.000 just doesn't seem a lot anymore, when any sort of big influencers are in play . (I don't think simply raising the number will be any solution however, likely makes it worse)

On the other hand, LEGO is probably happy with the attention it gets this way, drawing in at least 50.000 votes here with those taylor swift submissions is like potential new customers even without making any product out of it, it has had the attention.

And soon LEGO fortnite collab will bring even more potential new customers in.

1) muppet show (but it does need new missing figures). The first entry of the Muppets i mean.
This set is a will-buy

2) Asterix and Obelix (fun fact, they have A and O in Playmobil at the moment right now.
This set is an optional buy

3 & 4) the Alfa and the bike look cool. The Alfa looks slick and the bike looks crafty and a fun build.

Good to know that most lego builders love to listen to Taylor Swift or something. (Five sets. Y’all is crazy)

The only two that appeal to me are:
Marine Life, look good with the Insects collection
Pixar Lamp, look good with the Typewriter

@Wavelength said:
"There's no humungous castle, or Zelda set. Were voters feeling okay?

No Office set either. I know we actually got that one, but it's been such a perennial fixture that I just expectes to see one anyway."

Ideas finally put an end to more Zelda submissions around a year ago from what I recall. Plus there was the leak we saw earlier this year which could've slowed votes for what remained.
Castles, I have to imagine that the Lion Knight's Castle, plus whatever is ongoing with the Bricklink Designer Program slowed them down a measure.

WOW there are some absolute shockers here. And they're not all Taylor Swift ones.

I have everything crossed for the Trojan Horse. That would be exceptional, but I'm willing to bet my kidneys it won't happen.

SLS and KSP please

I like the greenhouse and riverboat. Wonder how the BTS set sold, as that may encourage or deter the Taylor Swift set

Please, let us get just 1 Technic-based Ideas set and I'd die happily... :D

Love the hungry caterpillar!

I’d probably buy a lover house if it was bright and colorful!

I like things like the book nook or train bookends but you can just make those out of regular sets so probably won’t happen.

Trains won't get approved as we're just getting one. So does "ideas" that are carbon copy of current Lego themes (enough of these please, no Lego will not make a modular building as an idea set).

I think "Taylor Swift" has a good chance, going with the "Era" tour and it will sell like crazy. This alone will make their 2024 profitable.

The gumball machine is possible, as is the Mystery Machine van as UCS style. Maybe Trojan horse ?

The rest I doubt will get approved, even though I like some of them quite a lot.

Ideas is one of my favourite themes, but I have to say I've cooled on it lately... none of these really appeal, except the great ball contraption, which will never be picked.
I feel like there should be a bit of a shake up of how the process works....

Maybe the messiest review pool yet--excessive and excessively redundant. Measures really need to be taken to shrink the pool and cut out duplicates.

Rose Apothecary is cute but no way would it find a large enough audience, and it's comically large for Ideas and way out of scale with the minifigures. I like the first Muppet theater, but I don't think it'd happen. Otherwise, not passionate about the entries here.

I like the minifigure gumball machine. If that were a set, I would likely buy it.

Wow. So many ideas which i dont care about at all. For instance.. What the hell is going on with swift!? Is there a contract we do not yet know about? I mean comon!
The jumanji board game is nice (in case its an actual game) otherwise its of no use to me. Then there is this chameloen which is pretty charming and the hungry caterpillar which might be an even better set out of duplo. I cant see any of those to be choosen soooo, ... Moving on. Wait.. why is there a Krusty Crab? I think Lego made 2 versions already some years ago.. Or am i wrong? Isnt that against the rules to live up an old set again? How can this be in the list? Please someone explain that to me.

I wish that one day trans-neon orange will be back on a new wave of ice planet sets. That was an idea i had until i read that this is not possible on lego ideas. Or will be rejected and will never go to a official lego review. Have the rules changed?

Only the bookends hold any appeal for me. Rejected before, but deserving of approval. And they won't be too expensive, or be too big, and everyone has a place where they can display them!

The Taylor Swift models want to make me pull my hair, but if they follow what they did with BTS, there is a real risk that they will do this, just because.... Taylor Swift. God help us.

@merman said:
"Hmm a lot of entries we can write off. No modulars, no trains (because of the Orient Express we’ll get soon). "

Most likley true but the book ends still get my seal of approval!

5 Taylor Swift projects ... and still not a single Whitechapel project.

One of these days I'm gonna do it, simply so we can add one more rule to IDEAS.

@crammus said:
"5 Taylor Swifts rofl"

Please no

I'd love to see that Alfa Romeo bought and handed over to the Speed Champions folks to see how they can improve on an already good design. It's not really what Ideas is for - and I can see how they'd probably rather not set a precedent of people submitting 'Ideas' that are just designs for existing lines - but it'd make a great car and a nice feel-good story.

I really want the Big Boy and the Flying Scotsman to make it but there is no way Lego will greenlight them after finally letting the Orient Express through breaking the train ideas curse.

@johleth said:
"Red Dwarf could be interesting, LEGO does have some working relationship with the BBC due to Doctor Who being in LEGO Dimensions."

There was also a hidden area in one of the Dimensions levels that was obviously based on Red Dwarf (though it didn’t show any of the characters except Scutters)

I’d like Red Dwarf LEGO but personally I think it’s too niche.

given how many taylor swift entries there are its basically guaranteed to happen unless there's some licensing issues, which I'm not complaining about I feel like a taylor swift set is a good idea given we've already gotten a BTS, spice girls, and beatles set. Otherwise I'd love for asterix and obelix to go through as well as the chameleon and the toaster

Who TF is Taylor Swift?

I remember back in the old days when we used to get like 5 projects per review total :P So difficult to keep track of all the ongoing project reviews when each one has so many projects.

too many doubles, too many pop culture stuff, too many resubmission
very disappointed...

I'm a sucker for larger brick built animals, so I really like the Chameleon, but I don't think it justifies its place. Anything Schitt's Creek is immediately disqualified, it would never get past Lego's PR team. Rockets, trains and Modulars are automatic failures. Plus, the stilt house was never going to get past the design phase.

The Pixar lamp is probably too small to be in modern Ideas, but I would like to see a Phineas and Ferb set, especially with the show's revival in the near future.

My main takeaway from this is that I would love to see Lego make a range of historical helmets in the same vein as the SW, DC and Marvel sets like the Leonidas Helmet.

Red Dwarf has no chance, sadly. But I’d buy it. I imagine the lack of further Doctor Who sets suggests BBC properties aren’t great draws for Lego though.

Other than that, I’d love a retro arcade modular. But I’m less sure I’d want *this* retro arcade building.

Muppet Studio and Shrek are the only ones I’d buy. A lot of interesting ideas otherwise, but yeah, those are the only ones I’d actually put my money towards

A lot of these look good, Muppet show/studio, Arcade. Guess we'll see what gets selected.

There are some really great designs here and some even unique enough that I'm interested in, however, many seem to require an exorbitant amount of pieces, hiking up the price on an already premium hobby. Unless the idea is outstanding, I would prefer ideas kept to around 1000 pieces simply to keep the prices reasonable.

I really need people to stop making Krusty Krabs and Spongebob's house and just buy one of the multiple versions of each from Bricklink or eBay.

Lots of doubles here. None of these really stand out to me, but if they do pick one of the four Lover Houses, I’m kind of obligated to get it (I’m a Swiftie).

The repeating Taylor Swift models remind me of the Jeeves story with the charity concert where all the singers perform "Sonny Boy", with the audience's mood deteriorating with each one until, by the fourth or fifth performance, they're throwing fruit.

The selections this round feel a bit less inspired to me.

At the risk of incurring the wrath of the Swifties, I can't say any of those entries look all that interesting. But she has a HUGE fan following, so maybe a TS-themed set would sell well?

I'm a diehard Muppets fan, so of course I love the idea of a Muppets Theater. I just don't really see LEGO going for it.

My personal favorites are the Mary Poppins set (the best of the multiple Poppins ideas that have been submitted IMO) and the train bookends.

EDIT: I also really like the Mister Rogers set and the Very Hungry Caterpillar set. As long as they didn't end up being too expensive, I would definitely buy either of those.

Main reason I’d love a Muppet Theatre is that it would be a golden opportunity to fill out the last remaining minifigures that my inner Muppet geek is calling out as essentially required to make my LEGO Muppet world feel complete.

I’m not so nutty I’m thinking I’d be able to get a Nigel or a Lips or someone even more fringe…but at the very least, after you put, say, variants of 3-4 big names in there…then start filling in some slots with Dr. Teeth, Floyd, Zoot, Uncle Deadly, Pepe, Sam and for the love of God SCOOTER.

A man can dream, can’t he? LOL

As a Swiftie, I'm extremely excited for a Taylor Swift set, it's a number one buy for me, because I need her minifigure! :D

Actually I would prefer another version of her famous house, which is currently getting votes (1.8 of 10 thousand), because it much smaller (= more affordable) and has lighting bricks combined with transparent bricks in various colors, and I think it looks much better and closer to the atmosphere of the original house. I hope the designers will consider that approach, as they did with some projects which looked significantly different from original fan projects.

Looking at the comments complaining about "too much Taylor"... I smile. Because I know and very well remember, that the AFOL community is only a minority even among LEGO customers. Her fanbase is much larger, and with 5 projects in the single review stage (and a few others in voting, few others in unapproved stage of previous reviews) it's very clear that demand for the set dedicated to her is really high. ;)

@kkoster79 said:
" @crammus said:
"5 Taylor Swifts rofl"

Oh good I wasn't the only one who noticed that. And 49 entries quickly become 44."

Quickly? I think you meant *Swiftly*.

I would love the Red Dwarf set so much, but sadly I can't see them doing it. The detail in there shows how much of a fan the designer was. The more you look the better it gets. I personally would prefer series 4 sleeping quarters (over these Dave era ones, but they are done so well and most series have a nod to them in here). In the Dimensions game there was a hidden RD section, so it could happen, but won't.

If they did do this they could follow it up with a series of Smeg Heads, sorry Brickheadz.

They're three million years in to deep space, I don't understand where that traffic cone came from.