Worlds collide for Sci-Fi and LEGO fans
February 4, 2015 1:25 PM   Subscribe

LEGO has announced that it will produce WALL•E and Doctor Who And Companions sets selected from submissions to the LEGO Ideas program.

The LEGO Ideas website was started in 2008 and features creations submitted and voted on by users. This marks sets eleven and twelve to be approved for production from the program. The LEGO Ideas Wiki site tracks user submissions and news.
posted by Clinging to the Wreckage (61 comments total) 15 users marked this as a favorite
 
Next year, I will be sitting at my work desk with appropriate lego figures in my hand shouting "DELETE DELETE" and "EXTERMINATE EXTERMINATE" and will be happy forever.
posted by Joey Michaels at 1:28 PM on February 4, 2015 [12 favorites]


(Please please please please let there be a LEGO Doctor Who game. Like the sonic screwdriver isn't MEANT to be building LEGO together to make a thing.)
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 1:28 PM on February 4, 2015 [16 favorites]


LEGO makes me so happy, not only because of the toys themselves, but because they effectively unite pretty much every canon into a shared universe. The Doctor is now in the same universe as Bilbo Baggins and the Justice League and Indiana Jones and who knows what else, which just makes me want to giggle.
posted by jbickers at 1:32 PM on February 4, 2015 [5 favorites]


But when are we going to get our official Inspector Spacetime LEGO kit?
posted by Doktor Zed at 1:39 PM on February 4, 2015


Legos.

Pronounced "lee-goss".
posted by Steely-eyed Missile Man at 1:44 PM on February 4, 2015


Legoim.
posted by Guy Smiley at 1:48 PM on February 4, 2015 [2 favorites]


We are Legoin.
posted by Buttons Bellbottom at 1:52 PM on February 4, 2015 [2 favorites]


Am I the only one who's a little sad that Lego has become so "branded"? Maybe I'm nostalgic for my childhood where you just had "City", "Space" and "Castle". I was decidedly in the "Space" camp (but not Space Camp). In any case, since most of the parts were generic enough it was easy to steal parts from the boring city hall set and expand the moon base.
posted by mr.ersatz at 1:55 PM on February 4, 2015 [16 favorites]


I shall continue waiting for my LEGO Klaus Nomi.
posted by mykescipark at 1:55 PM on February 4, 2015 [7 favorites]


LEGO's latest Castle line is THE BUSINESS. Seriously. Their Space has been a little bit neutered from all the Marvel/Star Wars stuff but I think they're getting back to it.

And actually, their CITY line still rocks pretty substantially.
posted by Doleful Creature at 2:07 PM on February 4, 2015


My two boys love Lego. I spend an excessive amount of time trying to gently persuade them to go for the better-value, more versatile kits, like the Lego City and Creator sets rather than the over-priced branded stuff with limited reusability.
posted by pipeski at 2:08 PM on February 4, 2015


(The Castle stuff is good too. I especially liked building that spiral staircase)
posted by pipeski at 2:09 PM on February 4, 2015


In response to

> But when are we going to get our official Inspector Spacetime LEGO kit?
- and -
> I shall continue waiting for my LEGO Klaus Nomi.

if the internet has taught me anything, it is "don't dream it, just make it (yourself)"
posted by filthy light thief at 2:14 PM on February 4, 2015


The branded stuff has the same if not better re usability than the generic stuff. I'll put my boys' Chima-fied Hogwarts with alien defences against that crappy yellow castle any day.
posted by obiwanwasabi at 2:17 PM on February 4, 2015 [7 favorites]


I hope that if I just shout

TURLOUGH LEGO
TURLOUGH LEGO
TURLOUGH LEGO

often enough I can will it into being.
posted by Shepherd at 2:19 PM on February 4, 2015 [3 favorites]


Surely that's a Harry Potter bod and a different head and hair?
posted by Artw at 2:23 PM on February 4, 2015


I saw it pointed out that the designer of a Lego Ideas set selected for production gets 5% of the profit. The dude who made the Who set is set for life.
posted by egypturnash at 2:24 PM on February 4, 2015 [3 favorites]


filthy light thief: "if the internet has taught me anything, it is "don't dream it, just make it (yourself)""

I didn't make him... for you!

oh my god

tiny lego riff raff
tiny lego frank n furter
tiny lego rocky

posted by boo_radley at 2:30 PM on February 4, 2015 [6 favorites]


That WALL-E is awesome. But I want a M-O.
posted by Kabanos at 2:30 PM on February 4, 2015 [5 favorites]


But I want a M-O.

And then Burn-E
posted by drezdn at 2:32 PM on February 4, 2015 [1 favorite]


I was going to say Four and Sarah Jane 4eva but I really want Lego Turlough now. They need to make minifigs of the lot of the Doctors and companions and major villains, because now I want Three and Delgado!Master too.
posted by immlass at 2:37 PM on February 4, 2015 [1 favorite]


All I ask for is a Lego Martha, they can go with to go with any Doctor, as long as I get a Martha.
posted by Faintdreams at 2:39 PM on February 4, 2015 [4 favorites]


Also:



squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
posted by Faintdreams at 2:39 PM on February 4, 2015 [1 favorite]


Oh wait actually it's 1%. That is still likely to be an impressive number.
posted by egypturnash at 2:47 PM on February 4, 2015


This is a huge deal because these are by far the biggest licenses that lego has produced through the program. It really opens up the floodgates for the future.
posted by Another Fine Product From The Nonsense Factory at 2:54 PM on February 4, 2015 [1 favorite]


Am I the only one who's a little sad that Lego has become so "branded"?

Yes.

My two boys love Lego. I spend an excessive amount of time trying to gently persuade them to go for the better-value, more versatile kits, like the Lego City and Creator sets rather than the over-priced branded stuff with limited reusability.

Oh wait, sorry. There's two of you.

The eyeballkid household loves the Lego as well. We don't have problems fitting together pieces from every type of Lego set to build what we need (including the Mindstorms stuff). Maybe the branded stuff you bought wasn't Lego? The Lego stuff all fits together.
posted by eyeballkid at 3:02 PM on February 4, 2015 [3 favorites]


The only reason I don't like the branded Lego sets is because I am cheap and assume that there must be a license fee baked into the cost of the set.

Otherwise the parts don't seem any more specialized/less reusable than any other set. And fine, instead of making up backstories for your yellow people you now have Iron Man or Harry Potter, but you've got to explain how they co-exist, or can swap body parts to make new characters.

There is a Lego Physics set on the Ideas site that includes Lego dominoes and a marble run that I would love to see made.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 3:19 PM on February 4, 2015


I mainly want a Clara minifig so I can stick a dream crab on her head and lose her under the couch.
posted by Biblio at 3:29 PM on February 4, 2015 [5 favorites]


Everything's a product!
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:29 PM on February 4, 2015


Any Doctor Who Lego game needs to include the Autons -- a baddy made of plastic in a game where everything is made of plastic!
posted by nathan_teske at 3:34 PM on February 4, 2015 [3 favorites]


tiny lego riff raff
tiny lego frank n furter
tiny lego rocky
It's just a block to the left
And a peg to your right
Move your hands to your hips
And kick your Lego high
But it's the space ship thrust
That really drives you in sa a a a a ane
posted by Buttons Bellbottom at 3:37 PM on February 4, 2015 [10 favorites]


Legopolis?
posted by BungaDunga at 3:44 PM on February 4, 2015 [1 favorite]


Looks like Lego have now grouped all the sets that are just bricks under the "Classic" theme.
posted by Artw at 3:48 PM on February 4, 2015


The only reason I don't like the branded Lego sets is because I am cheap and assume that there must be a license fee baked into the cost of the set.

There is, the licensed sets are definitely more expensive than the regular Lego lines.
For example:
TIE Advanced prototype, £39.99 for 355 pieces, 11p per piece.
Arctic Outpost, £34.99 for 375 pieces, 9p per piece.

Star Destroyer, £119.99 for 1,359 pieces, nearly 9p per piece.
Palace Cinema, £119.99 for 2,194 pieces, 5.5p per piece.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 3:54 PM on February 4, 2015


No LEGO Danny Pink, I bet.

Poor Danny; he got screwed worse than Mickey. No only did the Doctor steal his girl, he got him turned into a freaking Cyberman
posted by leotrotsky at 4:07 PM on February 4, 2015


Oh my God I hadn't even thought about a Lego Doctor Who game. Or a Lego Wall-E game! OhmyGodohmyGodohmyGod that needs to happen!
posted by sarcasticah at 4:12 PM on February 4, 2015




WHY is Wall-E not made with Mindstorms??
posted by LogicalDash at 4:22 PM on February 4, 2015 [2 favorites]


First I heard about this today, I was linked a Daily Mail article about it. I only got to the first picture caption before emphatically closing the tab and looking for news elsewhere. Good lord! That's a Weeping Angel, not a Cyberman. And it's the Doctor's companion, not his frelling assistant! Gah!

Goes right on the Christmas list, for sure...
posted by gemmy at 4:27 PM on February 4, 2015


(By the way, do yourself a favor and play the LEGO Marvel Superheroes game if you haven't, it's the best of the lot and a window into what the movies could have been if they'd had rights to all of the Marvel characters from the start. I'll forgive them not getting Mister Fantastic's powers correct when I can bash bad guys as Beta-Ray Bill.)
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 5:10 PM on February 4, 2015 [2 favorites]


Might as well drop this in here:
Golden Girls Kitchen

...it needs to happen, c'mon, MeFites.
posted by MikeKD at 7:02 PM on February 4, 2015 [2 favorites]


The Tardis is very nice already, but to bring it to the next level I'd suggest a functioning door that is accessible in fold-out mode from the inside as well. It would enable roleplay of the characters standing in the door frame, etc.
posted by polymodus at 7:05 PM on February 4, 2015


you've got to explain how they co-exist

This is a thought that plagues comics and, I suspect, most areas of fandom. It's also something that kids don't waste time on.
posted by The Hamms Bear at 7:36 PM on February 4, 2015 [3 favorites]


No Donna?

BULLSHIT.
posted by brundlefly at 7:44 PM on February 4, 2015 [4 favorites]


I am going to go rummaging through my kids' Lego RIGHT NOW and I'm going to make a Danny Pink and a Rory and an Alonzo and BOY are they going to have adventures!

Seriously, is there some kind of Danny Pink grief support group? I mean, they made us say goodbye to him FOUR times. Once when he died, once when he died again, once when he shoved the dead kid into Clara's house and once when he turned out to be all in a dream.
posted by Biblio at 8:34 PM on February 4, 2015 [1 favorite]


What I like about the branded sets is that, in my mind, they save me money. We like Lego and Star Wars. This way I only have to buy one thing. And the Lego will last much longer and retain its usefulness. My older son also really likes the City sets. We've also got 3 trains so far and just picked another one up on clearance. My shopping for next Christmas is well underway.
posted by ericales at 9:10 PM on February 4, 2015


We love the licensed Lego sets and I say bring 'em on. Without them I wouldn't get scenes like tonight where my three year old son had a Lego car with Pirate Batman, Firefighter Superman and Spider-Man with a motorcycle helmet (because safety) and had given my dad (called Papou) Venom in a motorcycle helmet on a motorcycle.

My son: Papou you're venom. Say "I'm venom hissssss"
Papou: I'm venom hisssss
Son: I'm firefighter superman! Oh no there's venom!
Papou: I'm venom hisssss
Son: Hi venom, let's go to the coffee place!
Papou: What?
Son: No you say "I'm venom hisssss let's go!"
posted by sleeping bear at 12:41 AM on February 5, 2015 [14 favorites]


Am I the only one who's a little sad that Lego has become so "branded"? Maybe I'm nostalgic for my childhood where you just had "City", "Space" and "Castle".

For the past two years, all three of those non-licences themes were available. As of this year, Space and Castle have been discontinued again (to make room for other non-licenced themes), but will almost certainly be re-introduced in the future. Since the introduction of the Star Wars sets in 1999, LEGO has always produced both licenced and non-licenced sets.

The only reason I don't like the branded Lego sets is because I am cheap and assume that there must be a license fee baked into the cost of the set.

There is, the licensed sets are definitely more expensive than the regular Lego lines.


Not so definitely.

Battle Droid Troop Carrier, $39.99 for 565 pieces. 7¢ per piece.
Helicopter Pursuit, $39.99 for 253 pieces. 15¢ per piece.

Licenced
Star Destroyer, $129.99 for 1359 pieces. 9¢ per piece.
Tower of Orthanc, $199.99 for 2359 pieces. 8¢ per piece.

Non-Licenced
Arctic Icebreaker, $129.99 for 717 pieces. 18¢ per piece.
Sydney Opera House, $319.99 for 2989 pieces. 10¢ per piece.
Palace Cinema, $149.99 for 2194 pieces. 7¢ per piece.

Set pricing seems to be based on more factors than just piece count, such as inclusion of complex parts and Minifigure count.

For deeper analysis, the excellent article "What Happened with LEGO" has some great charts and speculation about perception vs reality w/r/t the price of LEGO sets.

The second-to-last chart specifically compares average price of licenced vs non-Licenced sets, and shows no difference at all since 2008.
posted by LEGO Damashii at 12:44 AM on February 5, 2015 [4 favorites]


Not so definitely.

Well, if you live in Magic Cheap Lego Land*, sure :P
Note how the £120 Star Destroyer is US$130, or £85!

(*USA)
posted by EndsOfInvention at 1:52 AM on February 5, 2015


What I like about the branded sets is that, in my mind, they save me money. We like Lego and Star Wars. This way I only have to buy one thing.

Gonna try this on my wife when we "happen" to walk past this in the Lego Store window. "No, see, by buying this I'm SAVING money!",
posted by EndsOfInvention at 1:55 AM on February 5, 2015 [1 favorite]


The images used are from the fan created set for the Ideas system. Those pictures are NOT final. Lego will tweak them a bit. Quite substantially if I remember the Back to the Future Delorean before and after correctly.

A lot people hate the licensed sets, but lets not forget hat they saved the company. You have plenty of non licensed sets but I'll forever be grateful that Star Wars basically saved the Lego Company.
posted by Twain Device at 4:28 AM on February 5, 2015 [2 favorites]


The important thing about this is that these were ideas and designs submitted by fans and voted on by fans.

So the next time you're complaining about all the "branded" legos, remember that in this arena, 8 out of 9 top fan-submitted projects were branded, including the winners. And three of the top projects were from people who looked at the Lego catalog and thought, "If only there was more Star Wars."

The branded stuff is comparably priced and works just fine to do other things. If you still don't like it, they do still sell "generic" piece sets and sets that are not based on a licensed brand.

If that's still not good enough to reclaim your lost childhood, you can buy a bag of sugar cubes and go to town with your powerful imagination.

tl;dr: bingo.
posted by Legomancer at 5:49 AM on February 5, 2015 [1 favorite]


I think it's funny to see someone ask if they are the only one wishing for non-branded Lego sets, considering that comment is posted near the top of every single MeFi Lego post.
posted by smackfu at 5:52 AM on February 5, 2015 [1 favorite]


One more thing: Lego has announced A Doctor Who set. I'd scale back some of these expectations. (It's also well worth noting that an extensive line of Lego-compatible Doctor Who toys already exists.)
posted by Legomancer at 6:04 AM on February 5, 2015


There hasn't been a space lego for ages, what is being discontinued right now is Galaxy Squad.

Looks like there's going to be a fair amount of spaceish stuff as a sub theme of City this year.
posted by Artw at 6:08 AM on February 5, 2015


tl;dr: bingo.

You just inspired me to make this.

There hasn't been a space lego for ages, what is being discontinued right now is Galaxy Squad.

What's your Lego Hipster cutoff for that? Blacktron? Futuron? or are you going all the way back to Legoland System Space?
posted by Fleebnork at 8:13 AM on February 5, 2015 [1 favorite]


Nineteen Eighty Something space Lego all the way.

They keep dropping hints of a proper revival.
posted by Artw at 8:50 AM on February 5, 2015 [1 favorite]


Lego Ideas sure is a great idea. I know people complain that there are too many licensed products, but it's just perfect for licensed products. Lego can go to the license owner and say, "We have a proven audience for this proposed set, it's a one time thing, and we are selling a premium product." Hard for people to say no. If it sells well, Lego has a foot in the door for a whole line, like they did with Minecraft. If not, not much lost.

And then beyond that, it lets them make non-license random stuff that doesn't fit in the typical Lego categories. Lego Bird models? Why not!
posted by smackfu at 11:36 AM on February 5, 2015 [1 favorite]


obiwanwasabi: The branded stuff has the same if not better re usability than the generic stuff. I'll put my boys' Chima-fied Hogwarts with alien defences against that crappy yellow castle any day.

At first, I was going to challenge you to a duel, but then I let my nostalgia for sets from before my time fade and embrace a modified quote originally about cameras: the best LEGOs are the ones you have with you. Adults are generally the ones who are fenced in by the need to keep branded sets separate.
posted by filthy light thief at 11:57 AM on February 5, 2015


That Hogwarts castle is pretty sweet though, here's hoping they bring it back when there's more Potter movies.
posted by Artw at 1:53 PM on February 5, 2015


Lego Bird models? Why not!

Those are pretty amazing. Zero play potential means they're pretty much aimed at the adult collector market, but that's okay, that's the sort of thing you can do with Ideas.
posted by Artw at 1:59 PM on February 5, 2015


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