With the recent reveal of the A-Frame Cabin (21338), we thought it would be a smart time to refresh everyone’s memory on upcoming Ideas sets. And there’s a decent selection on the way to be sure. For a while, we were getting a new record amount of projects reaching 10,000 votes with every round. Being stuck at home during a pandemic will do that, I guess. The more recent rounds seem to have calmed down a bit. Which is happily bringing with it more projects successfully making it through. So with the start of 2023, let’s see what’s in store.
DRAGONS! POSSIBLY IN DUNGEONS
Let’s start with the latest bit of Ideas news. In October 2022, a contest was announced on the Ideas platform to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons. And with an IP this well established, there were endless possibilities. Some 600 entries were received, with 5 going on to the fan voting round which lasted from Nov 28th – Dec 12th. Check out the finalists below and links to their Ideas submission page.
DRAGON’S KEEP: JOURNEY’S END by BoltBuild
XANATHAR, THE BEHOLDER by Shaddowtoa
TRANSFORMING MIMIC by farmfarm
TIAMAT’S DICE TOWER by tcompton1234
THE MONSTER MANUAL by KolonelPureCake
And the big winner is DRAGON’S KEEP: JOURNEY’S END by BoltBuild. And honestly, it’s the absolute best of the bunch. The Dragon looks superb, and the fortress is equally fantastic. It’s got everything you would want as a D&D fan. And even for someone with no knowledge of that world like myself, it’s just a cool looking model. It’s dragons and castles, what’s not to love?! I think this will make an amazing final set and a big seller. The release date is of course TBD, but I doubt we’ll see this before the end of 2023. Especially with such a backlog of Ideas sets.
K-POP FTW OMG
The A-Frame cabin was one of two projects chosen from the Second 2021 Ideas Review. All you K-Pop and music fans get ready for BTS’ Dynamite. This is a collaborative project created by Josh (JBBrickFanatic) and Jacob (BangtanBricks). Full disclosure, I know zilch about this band or the music video. But I do know they are hella popular and this set making it through to approval isn’t shocking. It’s smart really from ye olde marketing perspective. So congrats to both designers. And I gotta say, this is probably the least fleshed out submission in terms of details, graphics, etc that I have ever seen. Pretty neat that it made it through on sheer concept alone.
SISTAAAHSS!!!
Out of 36 project submissions in the Third 2021 Review, just one was successful in becoming a set. And that lucky winner was Hocus-Pocus: The Sanderson Sister’s Cottage (updated). Designed by the Ambrinator, this was her second submission of the same idea. So congrats to her on persevering and getting that project through! I myself am a fan of the film and it will no doubt find an audience – especially if it releases around Halloween. And it’s a good time to market this for the film’s 30th anniversary (ooof…..anyone else feel old??)
Bugs, Pics, TRAINS & space
In October 2022, we got word of the winning submissions for the First 2022 Review. In a happy change from the prior round, 4 projects out of 39 made it on through. And it’s quite the diverse assortment. I’m curious to see what order these will release in. Click the links below to read up on each set on the LEGO®️ Ideas homepage.
LEGO®️ INSECTS – by hachiroku24 is an assortment of 5 brick-built insects: wasp, ladybug, butterfly, beetle and preying mantis. It’s a nice educational set with plenty of colour and nice building techniques. I can see this doing well if the price point is reasonable. It reminds me a lot of the LEGO®️ Birds (21301) from 2015.
POLAROID ONESTEP SX-70 – by Minibrick Productions recreates the famous handheld camera. There’s moving mechanisms and it ‘functions’ just like the real one. It’s a great model with just the right amount of niche appeal.
THE ORIENT EXPRESS – by LEt.sGO faithfully recreates the famous luxury passenger train. LEGO®️ and trains have long been besties and this is sure to be a hit. The details look beautiful and I suspect there will be power functions. And those are never cheap so start saving now.
TALES OF THE SPACE AGE – by john_carter is, in my opinion, the loveliest of the winners. It’s very simple, but honestly quite moving and lovely in cool unexpected ways. There’s a lot of potential in these images. Go big like the Art theme or keep it simple and small, there’s plenty to enjoy. I can’t wait to see how this one evolves.
VIKINGS (NOT THE SHOW)
We’re still not done with LEGO®️ Ideas sets! Crazy right? Target, that beloved company in America, will often collaborate with The LEGO®️ Group on products and/or new sets. Often enough they are exclusives only found in Target stores. So as Canadians we sometimes can’t get tooooo excited. THANKFULLY we can in the case of the Viking Village, winner of the Target x LEGO®️ Fan Vote. Designed by BrickHammer, this set will be available through the LEGO®️ website. Which is fab because this set looks awesome!
Flood of Ideas
The LEGO®️ Ideas platform keeps on churning through 2023 with several more sets in bound. At this point there’s no clear idea on release dates or final model designs. But presumably the BTS’ Dynamite set is next in the queue, but we have yet to hear or see any details. What are your thoughts on these sets? Which, if any, are you most excited for? What unsuccessful set would you want to see get another chance? And what’s your favourite Ideas set to date. Mine’s a tie between the NASA Apollo Saturn V (92176) and the Medieval Blacksmith (21325) – two AMAZING sets. Drop some comments and let us know your thoughts. Thanks as always for reading and until next time, keep on brickin’. 🧱
-Frank
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