FTL: Faster Than Light Goes to Lego

[Andy Chalk]

FTL: Faster Than Light Goes to Lego

No, it's not Lego FTL, it's a new Lego Cuusoo project that aims to turn FTL ships into real, live plastic blocks.

First up, a crash course in Lego Cuusoo: It's a site where Lego fans can turn their ideas into Lego concepts and then put them up for public voting. Any idea that earns 10,000 supporters will be reviewed by Lego on a quarterly basis, and those that pass muster will be turned into actual Lego products, with creators earning one percent of its total net sales. Think of it as a Greenlight for Lego; Portal 2 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/114534-Mojang-Making-Official-Minecraft-Legos] is now in the review stage.

And now up for your consideration is FTL: Faster Than Light, the indie hit about managing a starship through the dangerous blackness of space that earned "Five Faves" spots from Critical Miss [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/fivefavorites2012/10108-Paul-s-Five-Favorites-of-2012]. The project was created by Cuusoo user "CrashSanders," who began with a design for the Kestrel, the game's opening ship, and then added an Engi Stealth Cruiser, a Mantis cruiser and minifigs of Humans, a Slug, Rock, Mantos and Engi.

Despite not coming from "official" FTL channels, the Cuusoo initiative has the support of the developers. "Justin Ma wanted to make a few real Kestrels copies by himself, but I told both Justin and Matthew that we could try to make a Cuusoo project so The Kestrel will have a chance to be officially released as a set," he wrote. "It will bring more FTL fans to Lego and vice versa. And they agreed, allowing me to make a project and promised some community support." Sanders also noted that he was aided in the creation of the ships by Cuusoo user GlenBricker [http://blog.brick-hero.com/], who provided renders, custom decals and the Mantis species model.

Sanders said that notching up 10,000 supporters should be a fairly simple task given the game's "expansive fan base" but added that the faster it happens, the more seriously it will be taken by Lego. The FTL Lego Cuusoo runs until March 4; you can give it some love at lego.cuusoo.com [http://lego.cuusoo.com/ideas/view/35223].


Permalink

 

[gigastar]

Needs to be a larger model, with accurate representations of where all the rooms are.

Also whats kind of surprising is that i havent seriously touched lego in 4 years and i can almost deduce all the parts used in its construction just by looking at it.

 

[Avaholic03]

Cool little project there, even if I doubt the idea that "It will bring more FTL fans to Lego and vice versa". That seems to just be the common assumption during these cross-promotional ideas. More than anything, it just panders to people who are already fans of both products. Nothing wrong with that though, I just find it more admirable if they just say "we could make more money doing this".

 

[Slycne]

"iF it exits there must be lego of it"
"If there is no lego of it, someone will make some"
What rule are we up to now?

Rule 92,876: Everything is Lego. Your science teacher lied to you, atoms are just made up of tiny Lego.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

Needs to be a larger model, with accurate representations of where all the rooms are.

Also whats kind of surprising is that i havent seriously touched lego in 4 years and i can almost deduce all the parts used in its construction just by looking at it.

agreed, bigger and having the top open up so you could see the rooms would be awesome.

also, i think that's part of the beauty of legos, seeing the finished product and being able to see all the parts that went into it.

 

[TheProfessor234]

I really hope this goes through, I'd love to have something like this.

As for the bigger/smaller thing; Yes, it would be awesome to have large ships with rooms and things but considering how expensive Legos are, I'd prefer to have a bunch of mini sets around.

Of course, I'd eventually buy a large set.

 

[Glen Bricker]

Hello, this is GlenBricker (of the Lego FTL Project).

Thank you so much for posting the project on your site and helping us get the word out.

 

[josemlopes]

Really? People liked the game but I dont see how kids are suppose to like that (I know that Lego isnt just for kids but I bet that most of the sells comes from them).

Also, the design is so basic that its pointless to have it at a seperate thing, anyone that is into Lego probably already has all the necessary pieces, just let them build on their own since thats kind of the point of Legos

 

[weirdee]

I can't imagine any more suitable physical format for putting together a ship with interchangeable parts, and then kicking it to pieces within an hour of building it and then starting over again.

 

[Scrythe]

If this happens, and I grab a set, I'm going to end up frantically tearing pieces off every time one of my LEGO creations catches on fire, to let the oxygen out.

Wait... that's not a normal thing with LEGO?