I have loved LEGO toy building bricks since I was a kid, so I love the concept behind LEGO® CUUSOO. You can submit your own ideas for LEGO playsets, and if it gets 10,000 supporters, LEGO will review it to possibly make it themselves. If it sounds too good to be true, it is…at least so far. Get the details on LEGO’s recent rejections and explanations after the break.
The first project to get the required supporters was The Winchester Pub from Shaun of the Dead back in March. Unfortunately, after review it was deemed not “content appropriate”. Since then, a few other projects have made the 10,000 supporter mark, with the most popular ones being related to film, television, or video games. One of these was the Serenity spaceship from the now-cancelled TV show Firefly, but today that was also rejected because the content of the show was not appropriate for all ages. The legions of Browncoats are sure to be pissed off, and LEGO decided to hedge their bets with not only a thorough explanation of the rejection, as well as a blog entry about Brand Standards.
Long story short, if your idea is too cool for kids, then LEGO won’t make it. In fact, now LEGO won’t even allow it to be part of their CUUSOO beta. I’m sure there will be all kinds of arguments about hypocrisy and such, but I think LEGO could really get around this issue if they created a new brand for more adult-oriented playsets. I’m not talking about an X-rated LEGO brand, but more along the lines of PG-13 or soft R. With geek culture continuously growing, they are missing out on a lot of potential revenue. Star Wars and superheroes are nice, but imagine a Walking Dead or Game of Thrones LEGO playset.
What do you guys think? Is Firefly appropriate for kids? What should LEGO do about this riff between them and us nerds who want cool LEGO sets?