Since launching back in 2008, the LEGO Ideas platform has given fans a way to turn their own creations into official kits. And while we typically see a handful of kits released from the theme each year, LEGO is making some new progress today to provide an additional avenue for creators to turn fan-made builds into official kits. Relaunching its partnership with BrickLink, the upcoming LEGO Designer Program is giving rejected Ideas projects a second chance. Head below for all of the details.
LEGO announces new BrickLink Designer Program
After the clear success of its Ideas theme, LEGO has been trying quite a few different out of the box strategies for releasing new kits over the past few years. First, we saw the company embrace true crowdfunding with an Indiegogo campaign before taking to BrickLink to partner with eight builders for some additional models.
That partnership with BrickLink is continuing into 2021 with an expansion to its Designer Program. To date, we’ve received 13 creations from the collaboration in the past, and now it looks like even more will be on the way. But to mix it up from the original two waves of fan-made builds, LEGO is going to be picking potential models from the creations that aren’t chosen for its official Ideas kits.
Now that more and more models are achieving the required 10,000-supporter milestone on LEGO Ideas, fewer and fewer kits have been seeing the light of day on store shelves. And with 35 different kits up for consideration from the latest review, that’s only going to increase.
LEGO’s solution here is to launch a new way for these denied Ideas projects to still become official builds by inviting them to partake in its new BrickLink Designer Program. If things stay the same as before, this will be a mix of crowdfunding with the usual Ideas requirements, where a set will need a certain amount of preorders before being confirmed. This was particularly successful the first two times around, so it’s no wonder why LEGO is breathing new life into the program.
As of now, there isn’t too much information on when we’ll start seeing new set announcements, but LEGO does note that it has plenty in store for us in early 2021.
9to5Toys’ Take
LEGO has been having a bit of an uphill battle lately trying to decide which of the fan-made builds actually become official Ideas kits considering how popular the platform has become. But this announcement goes a long way towards helping get even more of the community involved. The BrickLink Designer Program sets last year were some of my favorites, so I can’t wait to see which previously rejected Ideas models get a second chance.
It’s also great to see LEGO actually leverage its recent acquisition of BrickLink for something as out of the ordinary as its new Designer Program.
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