NEWS ANALYSIS Fan fare
With LEGO Back to the Future on shelves, more and more fan-created projects are gathering steam on LEGO Cuusoo. Billy Langsworthy reveals why consumer suggestions can be great for both LEGO and retail
FOR A long time, if you wanted to recreate the trench run from Star Wars, you’d have to scramble around for pieces to aid a crude reconstruction. But the LEGO and LucasFilms partnership soon sorted that out.
What it didn’t sort was
dreams of Ghostbusters, Shaun of the Deador Back to the FutureLEGO scenarios. And while sites like Rebrickable are helping fans make the most out of reusing LEGO sets, a DeLoreon is a stretch too far. But that’s where LEGO Cuusoo comes in. The site, launched in 2008, allows fans to submit ideas for LEGO sets, which, with the help of 10,000 votes, can then progress into a Review stage. From there, a LEGO
Review Board of designers, product managers and other key team members examine the idea to see if its suitable to take to retail. Four projects have made it to shelves to date (Shinkai 6500, Hayabusa, Minecraftand Back to the Future), and hundreds of projects are capturing the imagination of LEGO fans each month. “We have a huge LEGO
fan community across the globe, so it is no surprise to us that they have welcomed our attempt to involve them in
Minecraft, where the Minecraftcommunity got behind the 10K votes in less than two days.”
sharing their product ideas, and providing a possibility to taking active role in deciding what new LEGO products to reach the market,” LEGO UK brand director Angie Tutt told ToyNews. “We have now four quarterly reviews of all the ideas coming in, and we will see more sets reaching the market. It is difficult to
“It sells because it’s
known to be a collectible one-off item,” said Mitchell. “But it has to be
explained to people that it has been designed by fans. The only people who know that, are fans anyway. “It would have much
more appeal if they could find a way of making it clear in the packaging that it was a fan-derived design.”
project how many sets and when these will come, as it is difficult to project what is the next idea to get 10K supporters on the LEGO Cuusoo.” The exclusive nature of Cuusoo products are helping them fly off the shelves, but Crocodile Toy Shop owner Mark Mitchell believes the sets would enjoy further success if more was made of the fact they are fan creations.
The mix of ideas on the platform reflects the market trends. Angie Tutt, LEGO UK brand director It seems licensed
properties, while potentially problematic, are the most popular suggestions on the site, with Minecraftand Back to the Futureproving a testament to appeal of seeing big brands immortalised in LEGO. Despite conflicts with
existing licensees, Cussoo welcomes ideas based on big brands.
“The mix of ideas on the
platform reflects the market trends – and of course include the popular licences,” said Tutt. “These have big fan communities behind them to support the LEGO Cuusoo projects. Like for example, with LEGO
12 November
INSPECTING CUUSOO Recent projects to make it to the Review stage include LEGO Sherlock and LEGO The Road to Oz, but process is not without complications. “It’s obvious that opening up to a design process is a sensitive matter,” added Tutt. “There are constantly a lot of questions to answer to our true fans and public: What projects and models fit with LEGO brand values and what concepts can be translated into a LEGO model and what not. “We have a set of criteria
we have defined for evaluation process of incoming ideas, and we have a panel consisting from experts working in different areas to evaluate the incoming concepts.” For retailers, Cuusoo sets have already proved popular, especially with adults. “The Back to the Future set has been very well received,” added Mitchell. “95 per cent of what we’ve sold has been to an adult.” While striking a chord with adults, Cuusoo remains loyal to its younger audience and several popular Cuusoo proposals, including a heavily covered Shaun of the Deadproject, have been rejected for not being ‘appropriate for our core target audience of children ages six to 11.’ Tutt continued: “We are
very conscious about the LEGO brand values and no matter to what audience we talk to – there are areas and topics that we do not want to associate with as the company and as the brand.”
www.toynews-online.biz
It’s a process that has shot down hopes of Shaun of the Dead, Firefly, EVE Online and Jurassic Park proposals in the past. Despite proving an outlet
for adult LEGO fans to create and support projects they want made, there remains an uneasy tension between a site embraced by adults creating LEGO sets suitable for six to 11 year olds. But exclusive Cuusoo
sets created by LEGO fans for LEGO fans, are proving a unique, but lucrative addition to LEGO sections at retailers across the UK.
IN LEGO LIMBO Here are some of projects currently in the Review stage at Cuusoo
LEGO Sherlock
Follow us on @toynewsonline
LEGO The Road to Oz
LEGO The Legend of Zelda
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74