For several years now, the LEGO Ideas online platform has served as the “dream machine” for many a LEGO builder who has wanted their custom creations to become official mass-produced sets. We’ve covered enough entries on the site that have gone to review, and beyond, so we know its styling.
A lot of that has changed lately, thanks to a website design overhaul of LEGO Ideas to coincide with its adoption of a new logo. Remember that logo design contest they held starting late last year and ending last January? That’s the centerpiece of the new LEGO Ideas website layout.
To check the differences between old and new, we opened up some of the Ideas entries we featured in the past. On those project pages, gone now is the old green progress bar at top. Only numerical statistics are shown to one side. But that’s not the only changes here.
Here’s a rundown of the alterations on LEGO Ideas according to their blog post announcing the overhaul. We also add our own opinions as to whether they “work” or not.
- LEGO Ideas submissions are now officially termed as “Product Ideas” (which we’ll try to use from now on)
- Navigation menu redesign to make Ideas Contests more prominent (okay)
- News feed sidebar with filters to show Product Ideas in terms of newness, top ranking, and amount of support (the last filter seems like a last-minute add-in; it wasn’t there when we first looked)
- Ideas Search Engine now has a page of its own, called “Discover” (kind of neat)
- Updates on LEGO Ideas Guidelines and TOS for Product Ideas; all PI’s must be submitted by the creator themselves and not on behalf of someone else, while consolation prizes for 10-K supported PI’s that fail review have been listed (reasonable and informative additions)
One more thing. LEGO Rebrick will soon be shutting down in September, with its contests being folded into those for LEGO Ideas by that time.
We’re looking forward to cover more interesting Product Ideas coming from the revamped LEGO Ideas platform in the near future.