Updates to LEGO Ideas Guidelines

[Darth_Raichu]

2 minutes ago, ad2001 said:

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.

Because they are tired of people asking why they never produced big sets with 10000 supporters ?  

[TheOrcKing]

[Brian Briggs]

Some updates to LEGO Ideas have been posted.

The most interesting bit in my opinion is this part:

"Changes to Supporter Milestones and Targets

The biggest change is a Guidelines update we’ve applied to all projects starting today.

We’re attempting to balance making LEGO Ideas as open as possible to members with a range of skill levels, with peoples’ desire to browse and support beautifully presented models. We consistently hear from people who want to see more projects they think are “high quality” and fewer they think are “low quality.” We say think, because quality is highly subjective. This feedback persists even when our moderators filter out the majority of submissions for not meeting our Project Quality Standards.

The most successful Ideas projects—those that reach 5,000 and 10,000 supporters—share one thing in common: every one of these projects posted since LEGO Ideas launched in April 2014 reached 100 supporters in their first 30 days. No project that has gone on to reach 5k or 10k supporters has taken longer. It could very well be that the “wisdom of crowds” is the best quality filter of all. We’ve decided to let you tell us which projects are high quality by doing what you do best: supporting your favorite projects.

Starting today, projects will have 60 days to reach their first 100 supporters before receiving time extensions.

• New projects will now have 60 days to reach 100 supporters. Once they reach that milestone, they’ll receive a one-year boost. The six-month boosts at 1,000 and 5,000 remain the same.
• Existing projects with less than 100 supporters have had their Days Left clock adjusted to 60. We’ve left an Official Comment on the affected projects letting them know."

This sounds like a good way to reduce the number of overly simplistic submissions to the site.

[Alpinemaps]

I'm on board with that.  Are there any new guidelines regarding licensed products?  It was a guideline update a year or two ago that allowed Doctor Who Ideas to be submitted.

[RTRC]

So... going back to the update back in June, does that mean no more cars? There was a lot of awesome and accurate recreations of classic cars the last time I visited the ideas website. But TLG already has the licenses to most of the main car companies.

[Pomodoro]

11 hours ago, RTRC said:

So... going back to the update back in June, does that mean no more cars? There was a lot of awesome and accurate recreations of classic cars the last time I visited the ideas website. But TLG already has the licenses to most of the main car companies.

The new rules are that you can't submit copyrighted material if an Ideas set has already been released within the license, which means cars are fine on Ideas, except for Caterham, since one is about to get released, all other makes are fair game. They want to avoid low effort piggy-backing.

Edited September 13, 2016 by Pomodoro

[jaisonline]

https://legoideas.uservoice.com/knowledgebase/articles/356076-license-conflicts-and-resolutions

It's about time Lego drew a line in the sand about licensed property submissions.  Far too many people have wasted their time just to get rejected.  Additionally, those rejected licensed properties took up votes that other sets could have received.

note: Why don't I see Jurassic Park / World listed?

License Conflicts and Resolutions

← Project Guidelines

Sometimes we have to turn down project submissions that refer to specific brands or licensed properties. We do this to avoid getting your hopes up for something we know we aren't able to make. 

In some cases, we already know that the LEGO Group can't secure licensing rights to produce construction toys based on a particular brand or property, due to a conflicting interest with a third party. 

More recently, we have also changed our guidelines to no longer accept projects based on third party licenses, which are currently produced or announced as official LEGO sets such as Star Wars, Super Heroes, Volkswagen and many more. For a full list of currently active licenses that we no longer accept please refer to the list below titled “Active Licenses.” This list will be updated on a rolling basis. 

If a known conflict goes away or a particular third party license is retired from the LEGO Group’s product portfolio, we'll then be able to accept projects based on a particular brand or license. 

In addition to the above, we no longer accept projects based on licenses that have been commercialized as official LEGO Ideas sets, even if the license is retired from the LEGO Group’s product portfolio. Please refer to the list “Restricted IP from LEGO Ideas” below.

The Fine Print:

If your project was previously turned down, archived, or deleted due to a licensing conflict that is now resolved or third party license that has been retired, you may re-submit it as a new project. Supporters from past projects cannot be applied to a future project.
 

Active Licenses:

Entertainment

Star Wars, MARVEL Super Heroes, DC Super Heroes & Super Hero Girls, The LEGO Batman Movie, The LEGO NINJAGO Movie, The LEGO Movie, Disney characters (Mickey Mouse, Minnie, Donald Duck, Daisy Duck, Goofy & Tinker Bell), Moana, Rapunzel, Aladdin, Cars, Whisker Haven Tales with the Palace Pets , Angry Birds, Pirates of the Caribbean, Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, Miles From Tomorrowland, Doc McStuffins, Sofia the First, The Simpsons, Knight Rider, Mission Impossible, Midway Arcade, Lord of the Rings, Gremlins, A-Team, Harry Potter, Fantastic Beasts, Sonic the Hedgehog, Portal 2, E.T. & The Wizard of Oz.

Automotive brands

Volkswagen, Ferrari, MINI, Porsche, BMW, CLAAS, Volvo, Mercedes, Ford, Audi, Bugatti, Chevrolet & McLaren.

Architecture

Stand alone buildings (Big Ben, London Tower Bridge, US Capitol Building, Louvre, Buckingham Palace, Burj Khalifa, Eiffel Tower & Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum).

Buildings contained in the skylines (London, Sydney, Chicago, Venice, Berlin & New York).

Restricted IP from LEGO Ideas:

• Shinkai 6500
•  Hayabusa
• Minecraft
• Back to the Future
• Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Rover
• Ghostbusters
• The Big Bang Theory
• WALL•E
• Doctor Who
• The Beatles
• Caterham
•  Adventure Time
• Apollo program
• Women of NASA concept

Last updated April 5, 2017

[MrToes16]

As much as I liked some of the great creations submitted for review in the past based on licensed content, I have to agree with this completely. I feel Ideas should be a forum for originality and creativity. A chance to showcase talent that extend well beyond recreating known and popular content.

[Alpinemaps]

Glad to see this happen. It's been long overdue.

I'd rather see creative, innovative, original ideas. Ideas submissions, in a way, are competing against LEGO themselves. And LEGO was assuming big risk of overlapping projects that could get them in potential legal trouble.

[Sprocket77]

About bloody time, used to really annoy me seeing people waste everyone's time posting Star Wars Ideas, they were just never going to be made and took space/votes away from sets with genuine chances and a bit more creativity.

[Val-E]

Where does this leave the Mk1 Golf GTI?

[CrabslayerT]

1 hour ago, Val-E said:

Where does this leave the Mk1 Golf GTI?

As much as I hate to say it, probably in the bin

[Guest TabbyBoy]

30 minutes ago, CrabslayerT said:

As much as I hate to say it, probably in the bin

What about the Golf becoming a Creator set? Since LEGO have the licence, why not? I'll certainly buy it. The submitter can't patent it so there's nothing to stop LEGO from "stealing" the idea.

[CrabslayerT]

1 hour ago, TabbyBoy said:

What about the Golf becoming a Creator set? Since LEGO have the licence, why not? I'll certainly buy it. The submitter can't patent it so there's nothing to stop LEGO from "stealing" the idea.

The mk1 GTI is a car I'm currently saving for, always wanted one. To get one in Lego would make my day! All I'm saying is that as far as the ideas project goes, it's a no go!

[Val-E]

Depends as it was already on the shortlist for the next vote. I assume the new rules will apply from the following selection but it would make more sense (and money) for the set to be a Creator.

[Phil B]

7 minutes ago, Val-E said:

Depends as it was already on the shortlist for the next vote. I assume the new rules will apply from the following selection but it would make more sense (and money) for the set to be a Creator.

It might be on the shortlist, but the updated criteria rule it out clearly, which means it's not going to get selected. You can safely ignore it in the review.

[Alpinemaps]

It might be on the shortlist, but the updated criteria rule it out clearly, which means it's not going to get selected. You can safely ignore it in the review.

I thought LEGO said they were grandfathering in (not archiving) sets that either made the review process or were already gathering supporters. But they acknowledge that it's probably going to be difficult to get it through to production.

So the Golf still has a chance.

Voltron gets through no matter what, which is great. But things like the Jedi Council Chamber or the Agents of Shield airplane can't get through.

Logistically, it helps LEGO too. Now the won't have to try to process 9+ submissions each round, because 3-4 licensed items make it through.

[Phil B]

2 hours ago, Alpinemaps said:

 

I thought LEGO said they were grandfathering in (not archiving) sets that either made the review process or were already gathering supporters. But they acknowledge that it's probably going to be difficult to get it through to production.

So the Golf still has a chance.

Voltron gets through no matter what, which is great. But things like the Jedi Council Chamber or the Agents of Shield airplane can't get through.

Logistically, it helps LEGO too. Now the won't have to try to process 9+ submissions each round, because 3-4 licensed items make it through.

Things might get grandfathered in, as in, they will not be kicked out of an upcoming review if they already qualified, but they won't get selected. Not because LEGO said so, but because:

1) They have never in the past accepted an existing license submission

2) It would look weird, issuing this guideline with clear reasons why, and then immediately afterwards violating this guideline for a grandfathered project.

Net, you might feel better keeping your hopes up, but in reality, it's in vain.

[Will 4]

6 hours ago, TabbyBoy said:

What about the Golf becoming a Creator set? Since LEGO have the licence, why not? I'll certainly buy it. The submitter can't patent it so there's nothing to stop LEGO from "stealing" the idea.

GBHQ cough cough.

[Alpinemaps]

Things might get grandfathered in, as in, they will not be kicked out of an upcoming review if they already qualified, but they won't get selected. Not because LEGO said so, but because:
1) They have never in the past accepted an existing license submission
2) It would look weird, issuing this guideline with clear reasons why, and then immediately afterwards violating this guideline for a grandfathered project.
Net, you might feel better keeping your hopes up, but in reality, it's in vain.

Agreed. I was more addressing that those submissions won't get archived immediately.

[binary_storm]

On 05/04/2017 at 6:58 PM, jaisonline said:

Sometimes we have to turn down project submissions that refer to specific brands or licensed properties. We do this to avoid getting your hopes up for something we know we aren't able to make. 

...

More recently, we have also changed our guidelines to no longer accept projects based on third party licenses, which are currently produced or announced as official LEGO sets such as Star Wars, Super Heroes, Volkswagen and many more.

In light of these guidelines, how does something like the SW-themed "I Am Your Father" submission even make it to review then? Surely there's absolutely no chance of it being made into an IDEAS set. It's baffling to me.

Edited September 4, 2017 by binary_storm

[jaisonline]

1 hour ago, binary_storm said:

In light of these guidelines, how does something like the SW-themed "I Am Your Father" submission even make it to review then? Surely there's absolutely no chance of it being made into an IDEAS set. It's baffling to me.

Agreed.  There are Pros and Cons of Ideas submissions that are already related to an IP that Lego already produces sets of. E.g. Star Wars. 

Cons: votes are wasted on project submissions that we know won't get picked. E.g. That super-sized Sandcrawler.

Pros:  Although Ideas submissions based on themes like popular IP sets won't get picked, they might help the Lego suits to figure out what sets could sell well in the future. E.g.  Classic 1960s Batman, Ghostbusters HQ, 

[Dr Jedi]

8 hours ago, Val-E said:

Gotta think they are going to approve the Saturn launch pad and make a whole theme out of it.

I think the shuttle has a better chance than the platform.  The platform by itself is very boring - they'd have to put something with it.  I could see the platform coming with the shuttle, and also include the ability to mod the platform for the Saturn V.

[TheRebel]

On 22/06/2016 at 9:33 AM, 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?

No brick limit would be the best because it leaves lego free to come up with new ideas

[Bat man]

On 9/5/2017 at 1:59 AM, TheRebel said:

No brick limit would be the best because it leaves lego free to come up with new ideas

Exactly! Free exchange of ideas is best policy for creative industries. TLG should allow all projects to make it in, even if they can’t get approved. Some of you are acting like it costs money to vote or we only get so many votes, at the very least it lets LEGO know which type of sets have demand.