How cool would it be if all of the sweet Lego builds that pop up on Flickr and in forums were suddenly sets you could buy? I know the whole point is that people aren’t following plans and building their own crazy designs, but Lego DeLorean? Lego Blade Runner Spinner? Awesome.
Originally launched in Japan, Lego’s Cuusoo platform was recently opened up to a global beta. The crowdsourced design platform works a lot like Kickstarter or Quirky; fans submit their designs and other fans vote on them. Once a project has 10,000 supporters it officially gets considered for real production. It’s not just Lego ripping people off: the creators get a 1 per cent cut of the total sales. It’s a friggin brick-based democracy.
Unlike Kickstarter, there’s no immediate financial commitment — although you make it up to Lego in the form of market research. When you decide to support a project, Lego asks you how old you are, how much you would pay for the kit and how many you want, since of course you’re not going to stop at just one Delorean when you could have an arsenal. The community has more than 20,000 members collaborating on projects, some of which have been photographed and described in gorgeous detail. Cars and sci-fi are popular, but there’s other far-fetched Lego creations as well.
Lego does get the final say on production — no amount of support will guarantee something gets made, just that it’ll be considered — but two kits from the Cuusoo incubator are already available for sale in Japan. There’s definitely some copyright/licensing legal blah blah with some of these amazing fantasies, but if Lego can be happy bedfellows with George Lucas I have faith in their powers of corporate persuasion. This is a call to action: go vote for the projects you want. Bring me Cuussoo projects in America. Thank you. [Lego Cuusoo]
redartifice
Wednesday, October 19, 2011 at 11:30 AMO_O *scramblestolegocollection*
Nate
Wednesday, October 19, 2011 at 11:33 AMBTTF LEGO.. awesome
Sicarius123
Wednesday, October 19, 2011 at 11:37 AMA 30′s gangster series of Lego would be awesome.
andrew
Wednesday, October 19, 2011 at 11:48 AMBrilliant idea. This is a great way to tap into the genius of the masses. It will be interesting to see how it works out, with costs of such sets potentially unkind.
But if you ever see a creation that you want to build for yourself, it’s not too much of a challenge to get the parts you need. There are sophisticated secondary markets for Lego already out there – in particular bricklink.com is quite an impressive way of sourcing specific parts you need to create the sets you want.
Steve
Wednesday, October 19, 2011 at 8:19 PMIt sounds a lot like Threadless’s crowd-sourcing system. Get community to supply designs, people vote for their favourites to be produced. The creators of the winners get a nice perk or % > everyone gets the design they want.
The issue here is that licensed designs have to be ambiguous enough to avoid the copyright ban-hammer. So the DeLorean would probably be marketed as “Retro futuristic coupe”
Bruce
Wednesday, October 19, 2011 at 12:27 PM+1 at gangsta lego lol
amy
Wednesday, October 19, 2011 at 1:32 PMLego for adults? It’s like their Architecture series. I say bring it on Lego!
MDolley
Wednesday, October 19, 2011 at 3:46 PMAll Lego is for adults Amy. You just need to ignore the age ratings.
I recently got back into Lego and I love it.
light487
Wednesday, October 19, 2011 at 3:55 PMhttp://lego.cuusoo.com/ideas/view/1660
^^ Looks pretty cool for a desk ornament :)
Adil
Wednesday, October 19, 2011 at 6:22 PMWhen I was little, I would spend hours with my lego creating stuff without following a manual. Lego was and the best affordable toy until the prices went up.