Updates to LEGO Ideas Guidelines

[Chillreign]

Lego just updated their Guidelines / House Rules / Terms of Service for the Lego Ideas:
Lego Ideas Blog

In short some of the greatest changes are:
- Max. 3000 pieces per set
- When a third party property is produced, they will not accept any more submissions of that property in future
- Some other changes as it's easier to collaborate on projects etc. which can be read in the linkes blog article

What do you think about the changes?

 

[HandyHand]

FINALLY the LEGO Ideas guidelines give some more specifics about what projects could qualify and when it's not going to happen. 

The max of 3000 pieces per set because it must be able to fit in a single box is a good limit. I just checked with a few projects in review now, and even the pretty big Modular Train Station (https://ideas.lego.com/projects/101885) could be approved since it's around 3000 bricks in size according to the designer. A lot of projects that I thought were just too big still fit inside that 3000 bricks limit. 

Let's wait for the next review round to see if these changes in the rules will affect the outcome and whether larger projects will get approved now.

 

[Will 4]

so that would mean in future no BBT no BTTF and no Doctor Who right?

[gregpj]

so that would mean in future no BBT no BTTF and no Doctor Who right?

It means LEGO negotiated the rights to make a LEGO set based on a specific license and now want to capitalize on that license in-house.

It also prevents all those people with shoddy projects from trying to piggy back on an already produced license.

These seem like good changes.

[feed]

The written rules now match the unwritten rules.  

Only real issue is that now so many IP’s sit in dimensions, it’s a struggle to think of licenses that would be viable as an ideas set. Guess they’re trying to push more Birds/Maze like sets.  
 

[Val-E]

1 hour ago, Haay said:

FINALLY the LEGO Ideas guidelines give some more specifics about what projects could qualify and when it's not going to happen. 

The max of 3000 pieces per set because it must be able to fit in a single box is a good limit. I just checked with a few projects in review now, and even the pretty big Modular Train Station (https://ideas.lego.com/projects/101885) could be approved since it's around 3000 bricks in size according to the designer. A lot of projects that I thought were just too big still fit inside that 3000 bricks limit. 

Let's wait for the next review round to see if these changes in the rules will affect the outcome and whether larger projects will get approved now.

 

600 pieces would have been a more coherent limit based on past approved projects.

[HandyHand]

4 minutes ago, Val-E said:

600 pieces would have been a more coherent limit based on past approved projects.

On the other hand, the Apollo 11 project: https://ideas.lego.com/projects/76841 has nearly 1200 bricks and is officially approved for production. So maybe a 1200 bricks limit would have been better?

[Brian Briggs]

2 hours ago, Haay said:

On the other hand, the Apollo 11 project: https://ideas.lego.com/projects/76841 has nearly 1200 bricks and is officially approved for production. So maybe a 1200 bricks limit would have been better?

Set 21305 (Maze) also has more than 600 bricks with a piece count of 769. Even a limit of 1200 bricks might be too restrictive when you think of this limit as a long-term rule.

[citymorgue]

I wonder if they are going to just automatically reject submissions that don't meet the criteria so that people aren't wasting their time voting on projects that have 0% chance of getting anywhere.  That would help prevent the clog we sometimes see in reviews where you know that nothing is going to get approved.

I think with regards to the piece count, I kind of like that they have a threshold like that.  One it allows more fluid detailed sets that are really good original sets to get through, and allow lego the flexibility to improve modify build techniques and stuff.  That doesn't mean they would necessarily approve such a set, as it would cost around $300, but it would be nice one day to see a ridiculously expensive Ideas set.

[HandyHand]

5 minutes ago, Brian Briggs said:

Set 21305 (Maze) also has more than 600 bricks with a piece count of 769. Even a limit of 1200 bricks might be too restrictive when you think of this limit as a long-term rule.

Exactly. That's why I said in my earlier reaction to Chillreign that I think the 3000 bricks limit is a good maximum amount. It also means that currently under-review projects aren't already excluded by default.  

Though I do believe that a 1200 bricks limit could work quite well too. I'm not so convinced of the need for the really big MOC buildings that keep being sumitted (and promoted to Review).

[Pomodoro]

5 hours ago, feed said:

The written rules now match the unwritten rules.  

Only real issue is that now so many IP’s sit in dimensions, it’s a struggle to think of licenses that would be viable as an ideas set. Guess they’re trying to push more Birds/Maze like sets.  
 

I think you can still submit a set under a licensed theme, as long as that license is not from the IDEAS line:

Quote

• Once we produce a LEGO Ideas set based on a third-party property, we will not accept more Ideas submissions based on that property. This sharpens our guideline on follow-up products based on LEGO Ideas submissions. Once we approve a licensed project for production through LEGO Ideas, we’ll archive other projects based on the same property and not accept new submissions based on the that property.

This just prevents follow-up submissions like EVE after Wall-E or GBHQ after Ecto-1.

EDIT: I just checked and it's excactly that.

Edited June 22, 2016 by Pomodoro

[feed]

Righto, that makes more sense 

[jbacunn]

I think 1500 would have been a more realistic number. These people submitting the huge MOCs are just wasting their time in my opinion. Sure they are really cool but I just don't see Lego ever making an Ideas set more than 1500 max and it's really more like 1000. The price point just gets too high. 

Edited June 22, 2016 by jbacunn

[dcdfan]

If they make the number too low, where would they get their ideas...

[Alpinemaps]

I'd be happy to go back to 5 submissions making it through. 9 is too many especially when it's pretty obviously a bulk of them won't make it.

[DFC01]

10 hours ago, Chillreign said:

- When a third party property is produced, they will not accept any more submissions of that property in future

I'm betting this is also to prevent the bad publicity Ideas had when the Ghostbusters HQ was announced months after the Lego Ideas for the same project was rejected. This is to prevent the same from happening again.

[Alpinemaps]

1 hour ago, DFC01 said:

I'm betting this is also to prevent the bad publicity Ideas had when the Ghostbusters HQ was announced months after the Lego Ideas for the same project was rejected. This is to prevent the same from happening again.

Yep.  If that rule had been in place, then Ecto-1's approval would have triggered the archiving of the two Firehouses.

[Will 4]

I think it should be 2000 as Lego will never approve the modular or the merchants house Moc

[Pomodoro]

2 hours ago, jbacunn said:

I think 1500 would have been a more realistic number. These people submitting the huge MOCs are just wasting their time in my opinion. Sure they are really cool but I just don't see Lego ever making an Ideas set more than 1500 max and it's really more like 1000. The price point just gets too high. 

 

24 minutes ago, Will 4 said:

I think it should be 2000 as Lego will never approve the modular or the merchants house Moc

 

Up until they specifically mentioned that 3,000 pieces limit, I would have wholeheartedly agreed with you. However, I'm now starting to think that TLG will actually select one of those very large sets in a coming review to see if they can sell well despite the price tag. It wouldn't be catastrophic if the set didn't sell (as long as it's not licensed), I'd imagine releasing an IDEAS set is way cheaper than any other set.

Edited June 22, 2016 by Pomodoro

[Will 4]

1 minute ago, Pomodoro said:

Up until they specifically mentioned that 3,000 pieces limit, I would have wholeheartedly agreed with you. However, I'm now starting to think that TLG will actually select one of those very large sets in a coming review to see if they sell well despite the price tag. It wouldn't be catastrophic if the set didn't sell (as long as it's not licensed), I'd imagine releasing an IDEAS set is cheaper than any other set.

I am hoping that the observatory will be the first big set picked although if that was the limit I am surprised the Beagle did not succeed.

[jbacunn]

4 minutes ago, Pomodoro said:

I'd imagine releasing an IDEAS set is way cheaper than any other set.

Depends on whether there is a license involved. Wall-E had to be expensive because of Disney. Exo-Suit probably a lot cheaper.  

[Pomodoro]

Just now, jbacunn said:

Depends on whether there is a license involved. Wall-E had to be expensive because of Disney. Exo-Suit probably a lot cheaper.  

Of course, if there's a license involved there's expectations for third-parties, and that's a big no-no if you're not 100% certain that you can sell huge quantities of the product.

[ad2001]

1 hour ago, Pomodoro said:

 

 

Up until they specifically mentioned that 3,000 pieces limit, I would have wholeheartedly agreed with you. However, I'm now starting to think that TLG will actually select one of those very large sets in a coming review to see if they can sell well despite the price tag. It wouldn't be catastrophic if the set didn't sell (as long as it's not licensed), I'd imagine releasing an IDEAS set is way cheaper than any other set.

I totally agree. I think putting the 3000 is to let people to know that they will consider big projects. If they don't want to produce large sets, then they can easily set the limit to 1500 or 2000.

[Darth_Raichu]

11 minutes ago, ad2001 said:

I totally agree. I think putting the 3000 is to let people to know that they will consider big projects. If they don't want to produce large sets, then they can easily set the limit to 1500 or 2000.

Considering the idea (ie. once it gets 10,000 supporters) and actually producing the idea are entirely 2 different things

[ad2001]

1 hour ago, Darth_Raichu said:

Considering the idea (ie. once it gets 10,000 supporters) and actually producing the idea are entirely 2 different things

of cos .. but why bother to set the count to 3000 if they are extremely unlikely to produce it? This number is clearly not arbitrary because it is so much bigger than the average set size from the IDEAS line. It's better for both the company and fans to know the hard limit so that more realistic ideas will be created and voted for. I think it shows that they are willing to embrace the ideas like the Modular line as long as they are not crazily huge.