editorial

Does the LEGO IDEAS review team look at competor brands? Or Vice versa?

BrankotheFather editorial, feature, IDEAS, Lego , , ,
A collage of various LEGO model submissions displayed in a grid format, featuring vibrant designs and creative builds, with text overlay asking if any of these are already on store shelves.

[Editor: We are due to see the results of the largest LEGO® IDEAS review period, within the next day or so. With 57 submissions to LEGO IDEAS reaching 10000 votes in the lead up to May this year, we have been told to expect the biggest LEGO IDEAS announcement ever, very soon. Now, while LEGO sets are our focus here on the Rambling Brick, we can’t ignore the fact that some of the clone brick brands have been lifting their game over the last couple of years. I was sitting down, having a chat with Branko when he suggested “Some clone brick brands have released a sets similar to some of the Ideas submissions under review.” So, while LEGO IDEAS is always looking for ideas that push the envelope of what can be done with LEGO Bricks, producing something new and innovative, I can’t help but wonder “Is the IDEAS review process influenced by the way they have been taken up by Clone brands? ” and the converse question:”Do Clone brick brands look at submissions gaining traction on LEGO IDEAS and adapt them for their own purposes?”

Read on as Branko takes a look at a couple of LEGO IDEAS submissions that appear to already inspired clone brick brands along the way…]

An animated cuckoo clock model, crafted from LEGO bricks, showcasing intricate details and colorful design elements as the cuckoo pops out and moves.
A detailed LEGO model of a jukebox, featuring vibrant bricks and various design elements, displayed on a wooden surface with a blurred background.
A detailed LEGO model of a knight in armor riding a horse, featuring a lance and colorful design elements, displayed against a light background.
A detailed LEGO model of an airplane with 'NOLINOR' branding, positioned next to a small forklift and a minifigure, set against a plain background.
Three LEGO models of mushrooms displayed on a bright green background, featuring a large gray mushroom with a flat cap, a yellow mushroom with a rounded top, and a red mushroom with white spots, each set on a base with green foliage.
A colorful LEGO model featuring multiple mushroom-shaped houses, each uniquely designed in different colors, with small figures and accessories surrounding them.

I enjoy looking through all the ideas that are proposed and reviewed on LEGO ideas, and I have gotten the impression I’m not the only one. More and more am I seeing competing brands release sets that seem very closely related to some LEGO ideas.

Join me as I go over a handful of these. I am guessing that the LEGO IDEAS Review Team will not approve these under their own banner. They are very well aware of their competitors and they have easier targets to choose. This saddens me a bit, since the designs are all great, but let’s face it more sets have always been rejected than accepted.

I will also comment briefly on a few categories that we see recurring in these reviews regularly

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Cancelling LEGO® MINDSTORMS is a Sad Thing. But is it a Bad Thing?

ramblingbrick editorial, Lego, Mindstorms, opinion, Powered Up , , , , , , , ,

For the better part of a generation, LEGO® MINDSTORMS has been considered the premier name in robotics education – both as a school-based educational tool, and as a consumer-level product: Even though I was at peak Dark Ages when the first set was released in 1998, I was aware of its existence, and before I had become engaged with the LEGO Community, I had somehow become aware that the RCX had been reverse engineered, with hobbyists developing ways to program it in ways not initially intended. But I digress. Kids brought up with those early sets are now well-established in their careers, which may in part be due to their engagement with MINDSTORMS at a formative time.

A couple of weeks ago, it was announced that the 51515 LEGO MINDSTORMS Robot Inventor, and with it, the LEGO MINDSTORMS Brand, will be retired at the end of 2022 – a little over 2 years since the set’s initial release in October 2020.

This brand, with a pedigree dating back to the 1980s, was being unceremoniously retired. Well, it will be at the end of the year. In part, this retirement means that the app now enters into its sunset phase, where no further development is taking place, but the software is maintained to run on contemporary platforms for two years, as required under European law. But what then?

[read on for more]

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