LEGO Ideas First Stage 2021 Review: A Look at the Qualifiers

With the largest review in the history of the LEGO Ideas platform looming, we've decided to take a look at which qualifiers are most likely to meet approval, based on a few statements the LEGO Group and LEGO Ideas Team have made this past year.

Earlier this year, the LEGO Ideas Review Board stated that they'd be moving away from. approving Licensed Sets under the LEGO Ideas banner in an effort to bring more original ideas to life—which exactly what many have considered to be the purpose of the LEGO Ideas platform in the first place. In recent years, we've seen a large number of licensed sets, specifically American Sitcoms like Friends, Seinfeld, The Big Bang Theory, etc., and a lot of fans have admitted that these sets simply don't appeal to them. These sets are undoubtedly quite niche, and will most likely only appeal to a select demographic, which may be part of the reason LEGO and the LEGO Ideas review board want to move away from licensed sets for a time.

Licensed Sets

Out of the 57 qualifying projects, nearly 50% of those feature some type of intellectual property, or at least the potential for licensing issues, which as the LEGO Ideas team has said in recent months, they're leaning away from. Below are 27 sets that we can determine will most likely not be selected for the LEGO Ideas First Stage 2021 Review:

1. The Princess Bride: The Guilder Frontier

2. The Nightmare Before Christmas - Halloween Town

3. Hyrule Castle (The Legend of Zelda)

4. The Polar Express

5. Baba Yaga

6. The Office

7. The X-Files: I Want To Believe

8. Metroid: Samus Aran's Gunship

9. Chitty Flies Again!

10. Among Us: The Skeld Detailed Map

11. Welcome to the Black Parade

12. Animal Crossing: New Horizons Paradise

13. Asterix & Obelix

14. The Shire, The Hobbithole of Frodo and Bilbo Baggins

15. Charlie and The Chocolate Factory

16. The Karate Kid "Wax On, Wax Off"

17. My LEGO Totoro (Feat. Cat Bus)

18. NASA's SLS & Artemis

19. Via Rail Canada - The Canadian

20. SpaceX Starship and Super Heavy (BFR)

21. The Simpsons - The Krusty Burger

22. 4½-Litre 1927-31 Bentley 'Blower'

23. The Office

24. A Map of Middle-Earth

25. Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs

26. Scania Next Generation S730

27. Modular Portal Testing Chamber

Holiday-themed Sets and Modular Buildings

On top of the LEGO Ideas Review board moving away from Licensed Sets, we've also never had a Modular Building pass the review, and as a result, it's very unlikely that any set that resembles similarities to the Modular Building design or style will not be selected. After all, LEGO would not want a competing project to potentially dampen sales of whichever Modular Buildings are on sale around the same time as this Ideas Project reaches production. Also, any Holiday-themed sets will most likely be passed over, especially if they resemble the LEGO Winter Village Style. The following projects will also most likely not meet approval: