FTL LEGO Sets Heading for Official Review

[StewShearerOld]

FTL LEGO Sets Heading for Official Review

The success of an FTL CUUSOO campaign could lead to official LEGO products.

FTL was a great game, capturing the imagination of countless players who fell in love both with its universe and its refreshing take on classic roguelike gameplay. That in mind, it's no surprise that some would pay tribute to it, and even less so that that tribute would take Lego form. For the most part, if something LEGO itself.

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The consideration comes courtesy of a <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/122082-FTL-Faster-Than-Light-Goes-to-Lego> CUUSOO project (think LEGO Kickstarter) submitted by one CrashSanders. CrashSanders campaign recently received the 10,000 supporters it needed to earn an official review by LEGO. If the company likes what it sees and can acquire the rights to FTL, it could begin producing official sets that could be sold alongside the likes of its Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings products. Seeing as CrashSanders' CUUSOO submission was overseen by Subset Games, the developer behind FTL, we imagine there wouldn't be much fuss when it comes to production rights.

That being said, a successful review is hardly a guarantee. LEGO has rejected ideas in the past, even some that seem like no-brainers. For instance, a 2012 Firefly submission received wide support from across the web only to be denied an official product line on account of the franchise supposedly <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/117127-Browncoats-Drive-New-Firefly-Lego-Set-Toward-Production-UPDATED>being a bad fit for LEGO. FTL isn't Firefly, but we're going to go out on a limb and say that its primary audience doesn't fall into the younger age group the company typically targets. Keeping that in mind, it's still hard not to get excited over the possibility of official FTL LEGO sets. Even if failure is likely, we'll be keeping our fingers crossed that LEGO does the smart thing when it reviews the FTL submission this Fall.

Source: <a href=http://lego.cuusoo.com/ideas/view/35223>CUUSOO


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[Alcom1]

Great! I need more small plates/studless-plates/slopes/etc.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

lego has that "architecture for adults" line going now, so they can't pull the excuse "legos are for kids/young teens!" crap anymore, so hopefully this does get put through.

 

[ZZoMBiE13]

Lego is odd when it comes to licensing sets like this. I'd love to see it happen, and would have voted this one up if I had seen it. But that isn't always a done deal.

The CUUSOO community got enough votes to make a Shaun of the Dead "Winchester" set as well and it was dismissed very quickly. Too violent with all the half eaten zombies and such. Hopefully these FTL models will fare better. I'd love to own a set of them!

 

[MrPhyntch]

As much as I love FTL and want to see this succeed, fact is I'm afraid that FTL, being an indie title (and relatively niche at that) that the LEGO people will decide against making this reality, as, kid-friendly or not, it may not reach a wide enough audience to justify making it.

It sucks too. Look at some of the previous sets submitted; Minecraft, Firefly, SotD, Portal, and now FTL, this Cusoo thing seems that it would make its money off nerd culture. Maybe some limited production runs of this stuff, sold at a premium price? Hell, I'd buy a Serenity for a hundred dollars even if it's made comparable in size to only 50 dollar sets.

 

[Alcom1]

yes, most of them are based on nostaligia, but they are still aiming for children.

Then why... <a href=http://brickset.com/news/article/?ID=7270>Simpsons?

 

[Teoes]

It won't happen, much as we would want it to. It's really neat that someone's planned out 16/18 ships.. (unless the last two have been done as well but not shown for being supersecretshhh ships!)

That Lego Shivan looks boss. *resists the urge to go play more FTL*

 

[Genocidicles]

I'm just disappointed they didn't make a lego version of the final boss.

 

[faefrost]

They are still considering the Portal set. Which is strange but encouraging. The Sean of the Dead set and the Firefly set were turned down because of the more adult nature of the source material. One is a violent and gory R rated movie, the other has... well lets be honest, one of the characters is a space hooker. Lego felt they could not release these under the Lego brand name. (In much the same way that it would be unlikely for Disney to do the same.)

The FTL set faces some high hurdles to actually get made. My gut says it will fail at the business case review. In order to be a profitable viable subject for a set like this the subject matter probably needs an installed user or fan base of several million. (3-5 million minimum, 10 million preferred.) And by installed fan base, in the case of video games it probably means "How many people have paid at least some money for the game". There are not a lot of video games that hit these penetration numbers. Granted Lego has done phenomenal with their CuuSoo Minecraft set. So much so that they are releasing 2 more. But Minecraft does have 10 million fans. I think FTL is right around 1 million. Not to mention that "Miniships" tend to be a more niche market in Lego. They don't really have the same draw of the larger high detail models or the minifig based sets.

Also CuuSoo goes by quarterly review periods. And only 1 set per review period will be made. FTL is the first set to hit 10k in this review period, but here are the others that are likely to hit the threshold and go up against it for review.

1. Poptropica, another popular video game. This one with a giant Bunny Mech
http://lego.cuusoo.com/ideas/view/34185
http://cuusoo.s3.amazonaws.com/documents/c53db/d6c63/2eff1/93b7d/20040/0e4bf/21be1/d4311/thumb640x360.png

2. Macross VF-1 Valkyrie
http://lego.cuusoo.com/ideas/view/638
http://cuusoo.s3.amazonaws.com/documents/ffb0e/0b1b9/7b002/11799/60435/bacab/a8ab7/99d54/thumb640x360.jpg

3. Ghostbusters 30th anniversary set
http://lego.cuusoo.com/ideas/view/36088
http://cuusoo.s3.amazonaws.com/documents/f46c2/e75bd/fbd88/17be3/dc025/c2d30/df9d2/bd20f/thumb640x360.jpg
(Should I mention that the CuuSoo Back to the Future Delorean set that just released on Aug 1, sold out the first run from from the factory in under 3 hours?)

Anybody see the problem?

P.S. Please feel free to follow the links and vote on any and all of these, and other cool stuff.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

lego has that "architecture for adults" line going now, so they can't pull the excuse "legos are for kids/young teens!" crap anymore, so hopefully this does get put through.

not really.

yes, most of them are based on nostaligia, but they are still aiming for children.
or else we'd had these awesome sets:
http://www.geekologie.com/2012/04/26/shaun-of-the-lego-1.jpg
http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/17q9djrvm1degjpg/k-bigpic.jpg

you can get the serenity lego set unofficially without the figurines on this site though:
http://etadyne.com/product_ff.htm
still in progress.

true, not saying that it is FULL BLOWN LEGO'S FOR EVERYONE! but it is a start, officially at least, it was passed and is selling well enough to warrant advertisement for it.

So I just find it less inclining for LEGO to use that as an excuse for future product possibilities.

 

[Dr. Crawver]

Huh, I finally got the final achievement in FTL to pop yesterday, and then this comes up. Nice little coincidence.

Also I hope this does happen, but needs the crystal ship. Crystal ship is best ship.

 

[faefrost]

lego has that "architecture for adults" line going now, so they can't pull the excuse "legos are for kids/young teens!" crap anymore, so hopefully this does get put through.

not really.

yes, most of them are based on nostaligia, but they are still aiming for children.
or else we'd had these awesome sets:
http://www.geekologie.com/2012/04/26/shaun-of-the-lego-1.jpg

That reminds me. I have the instructions for the Sean of the Dead Winchester, I just need to start ordering parts for it. I have a spot for it all set in the Lego cityscape hanging above my desk.

 

[Skeleon]

Hm. Not too sure. Consider how small those models are (you can tell by checking out the separate parts that make up the models)! The main thing about FTL is micro-managing the entire ship, including the crew. I would've tried for a single, but much larger FTL model (probably the Kestrel) that you can flip open and put Lego-folks inside. You know, with the actual room-setup and airlocks of the ship from the game. The set would come with a couple of Lego-folks and lots and lots of fire-pieces that you can clip into the rooms as required. Have fun sucking the flames and the crew out into space, kids!

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

Hm. Not too sure. Consider how small those models are (you can tell by checking out the separate parts that make up the models)! The main thing about FTL is micro-managing the entire ship, including the crew. I would've tried for a single, but much larger FTL model (probably the Kestrel) that you can flip open and put Lego-folks inside. You know, with the actual room-setup and airlocks of the ship from the game. The set would come with a couple of Lego-folks and lots and lots of fire-pieces that you can clip into the rooms as required. Have fun sucking the flames and the crew out into space, kids!

The creators thought about making them scaled to allow minifigs to act out inside but they realized that the resulting ship would be too big to pick up and carry about.

http://blog.brick-hero.com/p/ftl-why-not-make-them-bigger.html

Besides the smaller scale models have a better chance of making the LEGO cut.

http://www.brickset.com/browse/themes/?theme=star%20wars&subtheme=Planet%20set

 

[Treaos Serrare]

LEGO could make money hand over fist with the nerd culture if they just bit the bullet and went forward with making things like this and others. hell if the third party block makers who get sold right beside LEGO can make a profit off of HALO and WOW sets then LEGO can make dosh on FTL. Fuck the kind of appeal the CUUSOO Firefly set got LEGO could have printed money but no instead they gave a stupid and bullshit excuse

 

[faefrost]

LEGO could make money hand over fist with the nerd culture if they just bit the bullet and went forward with making things like this and others. hell if the third party block makers who get sold right beside LEGO can make a profit off of HALO and WOW sets then LEGO can make dosh on FTL. Fuck the kind of appeal the CUUSOO Firefly set got LEGO could have printed money but no instead they gave a stupid and bullshit excuse

I've looked into a lot if the business case, and the sad truth is that for the most part video games are still very very marginal and highly risky for third party licenses such as toy companies. While games have a very intense fan base, it sn't exactly predictable in terms of behavior. Plus what gamers have in terms of enthusiasm they often lack in terms of depth.

Look at it this way. Highly highly succesful video game franchises have an installed fan base of about 10 million or so. Things like CoD, Halo, Zelda, WoW. If you work the numbers for all of them it probably comes down to somewhere between 8 and 12 million regular predictable fans for the properties. Contrast that with some of the other properties that Lego licenses. Lord of the Rings, the Hobbit and Harry Potter have all sold well over 150 million of each book, and double that for movies. The Star Wars franchise has an estimated 2 billion fans. Now for someone making toys, lets say that a good estimate would be converting 2% of the primary fans to paid customers of your product. For things like Star Wars and Harry Potter you have a license to print money. For video games you are just barely hitting tolerable numbers with the absolute best of the best. The toy maker assumes far more risk making a product for an embedded fan base of 10 million than they do making it for a billion. And that's why the Halo and WoW sets are being made by third party or lower tier block makers such as (ugh) Megabloks. As a lower tier merchant Megabloks gains a greater benefit from assuming more risk. Whereas Lego is the big dog in the room. They have no reason to delve into very many riskier properties when they can command the more sure things with the deeper fan pools.

With that said Lego has been diving head first into nerd culture in the past few years. DC and Marvel Super Heroes. Lord of the Rings, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, huge Star Wars sets targeted at aging rich nerds etc. they just have not gone too deep into many riskier video game properties. Minecraft was their first small scale forray into a video game property, and that has worked very well for them so far. But the acid test will be how the 2 new Minecraft sets do.

 

[Treaos Serrare]

LEGO could make money hand over fist with the nerd culture if they just bit the bullet and went forward with making things like this and others. hell if the third party block makers who get sold right beside LEGO can make a profit off of HALO and WOW sets then LEGO can make dosh on FTL. Fuck the kind of appeal the CUUSOO Firefly set got LEGO could have printed money but no instead they gave a stupid and bullshit excuse

I've looked into a lot if the business case, and the sad truth is that for the most part video games are still very very marginal and highly risky for third party licenses such as toy companies. While games have a very intense fan base, it isn't exactly predictable in terms of behavior. Plus what gamers have in terms of enthusiasm they often lack in terms of depth.

Look at it this way. Highly highly successful video game franchises have an installed fan base of about 10 million or so. Things like CoD, Halo, Zelda, WoW. If you work the numbers for all of them it probably comes down to somewhere between 8 and 12 million regular predictable fans for the properties. Contrast that with some of the other properties that Lego licenses. Lord of the Rings, the Hobbit and Harry Potter have all sold well over 150 million of each book, and double that for movies. The Star Wars franchise has an estimated 2 billion fans. Now for someone making toys, lets say that a good estimate would be converting 2% of the primary fans to paid customers of your product. For things like Star Wars and Harry Potter you have a license to print money. For video games you are just barely hitting tolerable numbers with the absolute best of the best. The toy maker assumes far more risk making a product for an embedded fan base of 10 million than they do making it for a billion. And that's why the Halo and WoW sets are being made by third party or lower tier block makers such as (ugh) Megabloks. As a lower tier merchant Megabloks gains a greater benefit from assuming more risk. Whereas Lego is the big dog in the room. They have no reason to delve into very many riskier properties when they can command the more sure things with the deeper fan pools.

With that said Lego has been diving head first into nerd culture in the past few years. DC and Marvel Super Heroes. Lord of the Rings, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, huge Star Wars sets targeted at aging rich nerds etc. they just have not gone too deep into many riskier video game properties. Minecraft was their first small scale forray into a video game property, and that has worked very well for them so far. But the acid test will be how the 2 new Minecraft sets do.

that's just it though because they are basically the only game in town it isn't that much of a risk for them, shit with some of the bigger star wars sets going for 400-500 dollars they can easily afford to make a flop or two, and as I stated before even minimal sets would sell like hot cakes for the nerd market. honestly if they throttled back the prices on the Minecraft stuff I'd buy it in a minute but 50+ for what is barely a middle sized set is a bit too much. similarly if that friggin super star destroyer wasn't 400 goddamn dollars it would be in my room right now with a custom diorama stand. Ultimately though LEGO needs to stop trying to market exclusively to kids and realize that there are 20-30-40 year olds who want decent sets and have the disposable cash to buy them. Hell I bought 6-10 of the same 3.99 mini/micro scale set just so I could build something with those specific parts, and I try to buy conservatively so imagine the guys who do the same thing but with $50-$100+ sets.

 

[faefrost]

LEGO could make money hand over fist with the nerd culture if they just bit the bullet and went forward with making things like this and others. hell if the third party block makers who get sold right beside LEGO can make a profit off of HALO and WOW sets then LEGO can make dosh on FTL. Fuck the kind of appeal the CUUSOO Firefly set got LEGO could have printed money but no instead they gave a stupid and bullshit excuse

I've looked into a lot if the business case, and the sad truth is that for the most part video games are still very very marginal and highly risky for third party licenses such as toy companies. While games have a very intense fan base, it isn't exactly predictable in terms of behavior. Plus what gamers have in terms of enthusiasm they often lack in terms of depth.

Look at it this way. Highly highly successful video game franchises have an installed fan base of about 10 million or so. Things like CoD, Halo, Zelda, WoW. If you work the numbers for all of them it probably comes down to somewhere between 8 and 12 million regular predictable fans for the properties. Contrast that with some of the other properties that Lego licenses. Lord of the Rings, the Hobbit and Harry Potter have all sold well over 150 million of each book, and double that for movies. The Star Wars franchise has an estimated 2 billion fans. Now for someone making toys, lets say that a good estimate would be converting 2% of the primary fans to paid customers of your product. For things like Star Wars and Harry Potter you have a license to print money. For video games you are just barely hitting tolerable numbers with the absolute best of the best. The toy maker assumes far more risk making a product for an embedded fan base of 10 million than they do making it for a billion. And that's why the Halo and WoW sets are being made by third party or lower tier block makers such as (ugh) Megabloks. As a lower tier merchant Megabloks gains a greater benefit from assuming more risk. Whereas Lego is the big dog in the room. They have no reason to delve into very many riskier properties when they can command the more sure things with the deeper fan pools.

With that said Lego has been diving head first into nerd culture in the past few years. DC and Marvel Super Heroes. Lord of the Rings, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, huge Star Wars sets targeted at aging rich nerds etc. they just have not gone too deep into many riskier video game properties. Minecraft was their first small scale forray into a video game property, and that has worked very well for them so far. But the acid test will be how the 2 new Minecraft sets do.

that's just it though because they are basically the only game in town it isn't that much of a risk for them, shit with some of the bigger star wars sets going for 400-500 dollars they can easily afford to make a flop or two, and as I stated before even minimal sets would sell like hot cakes for the nerd market. honestly if they throttled back the prices on the Minecraft stuff I'd buy it in a minute but 50+ for what is barely a middle sized set is a bit too much. similarly if that friggin super star destroyer wasn't 400 goddamn dollars it would be in my room right now with a custom diorama stand. Ultimately though LEGO needs to stop trying to market exclusively to kids and realize that there are 20-30-40 year olds who want decent sets and have the disposable cash to buy them. Hell I bought 6-10 of the same 3.99 mini/micro scale set just so I could build something with those specific parts, and I try to buy conservatively so imagine the guys who do the same thing but with $50-$100+ sets.

But here's the thing. (And please understand I would love these uber cool gaming and nerd centric sets as much as you.) Yes they can easily afford a few flops. But as a matter of business and sound business practice, they don't have to. That's what comes with being the big dog in the room. You don't need to take on quite as much risk to stay ahead of the curve. Why pour money into a niche when they can pour it into a sure thing. Now granted they will pour money into areas that they see future growth potential. And they are starting to do that a bit on a small scale. And honestly, I can't fault them for their business driven decisions. They went from a position of months away from bankruptcy 10 years ago, to the highest growth player in an incredibly competitive business. They tapped previously unimagined markets in the form of Adults who love their toys. They have become the top of the heap not just in building bricks, but in more generalized toy companies. And they still keep doing enough nerd centric stuff to keep me entertained. I would like some video game based stuff. I would buy it. But at this point I will give the benefit of knowledge and trust to their people when it comes to making such decisions, if it insures a steady long term stream of the products I like.