Return of the Bricklink AFOL Designer Program

In 2018, LEGO and Bricklink teamed up for the AFOL Designer Program. They crowd funded 13 sets that were designed by fans and released them for purchase in 2019. I ended up buying two of them. One was #BL19003: Skyline Express and the other was #BL19012: Bikes!. I was a big fan of both of them and probably would have purchased all 13 of them if I had unlimited funds.

LEGO announced their purchase of Bricklink at the end of 2019 and there was much consternation in the fan community as to what would happen. A number of fans, including me, hoped the AFOL Designer Program would return. We heard nothing for a while, but we finally got something a few weeks ago.

Bricklink announced on 17 December 2020 that they were going to re-open the program, but it would be slightly different in 2021. Instead of soliciting new projects and crowd sourcing them, they are going to use designs from the Ideas platform and produce some of them. While not exactly what we wanted, I can’t complain about this effort. The rules are the project must not have an IP tied to it and it must have achieved the 10,000 votes. My search revealed 44 sets in this category. If my link doesn’t work, go to the Ideas site and when you search, select Product Phase - Not Approved and IP - Original Ideas. There are a lot of great designs and then some that it looks like LEGO has produced in a different form already.

If LEGO/Bricklink reads this post, here are the three designs I would like to see made in the 2021 AFOL Designer Program.

1. The Train Station: Studgate

I’m a big train fan and a modular building fan and this set would look fantastic mixed with the two themes. Designed by Bricky_Brick, the same designer as #21322-1 - Pirates of Barracuda Bay, I think this set would add some elegance to some of the more boring train stations that exist in the current LEGO set realm. Plus you get a small passenger train so win, win all around here.

2. Food Stand Diners

How awesome would this set look in a City scene or a park scene or mixed in with your Fairground sets? Designed by builder FrostBricks, this set would be a great add and could be produced at a lower price point considering some of the other larger sets listed.

3. Chemical Plant

If you like Trains, City, or the Octan theme, this one would be great to see. Designed by fan Ymari, this set has a lot of playability (although not meant for kiddos), lots of great details, and connections to train with the tank car and roads with the Octan themed tank truck.

We’ll see if any of these even make it, but those are my votes. What are yours?

For those of you disappointed that we don’t have an AFOL Designer Program where you can submit your project, don’t worry. It appears LEGO and Bricklink are planning on launching this effort in 2022.

Happy Building!

Train Related Idea Reaches 10,000 Supporters - LEGO Ideas

A while back I wrote a post about the need for another LEGO train related set. You can find it here. I don’t know how many people read my article and then acted, but one of the sets I recommended achieved 10,000 supporters! It’s the Chemical Plant by Ymarilego. At ~1,900 bricks, it would be a pretty big set, but the LEGO Ideas set #21311-1 - Voltron is 2,321 pieces so there’s a chance that LEGO will release another big Ideas set.

The next review cycle should look at projects that reached 10,000 supporters between the September and January time frames (if LEGO follows what they did in the past). Now we just have to sit back and wait to see what they do. As far as I know, there is no way to lobby LEGO to pick one set over the other. I’m hoping this one is easier as it doesn’t have any licensing concerns to worry about. Also, it’s built in Octan colors and it would be great to get another Octan related set.

While you’re waiting, there are a few more to check out…

The Continental Comet by NickBr1cks is low on the votes (under 1,000), but looks pretty awesome as an Amtrak engine with a car. I would like to see a US based, modern train model again.

The Motorized Union Pacific SD40-2 and Cooling Wagon by Bricky_Brick is at under 1,000 votes as well. LEGO has done a BNSF set and I think a Union Pacific set would be a great addition. This one has a lot of great details too.

There are a lot of great steam trains in the running, but this one stood out to me. It’s called the Blue Tornado and it is by user dylanfarrow. Maybe it’s the color scheme used, I don’t know, but I think it looks pretty awesome. The scenery around it looks great too with the plants and track ballast. You could use this as a display model or run it on a track. It also opens up a lot of potential for making your own passenger or freight cars.

Please help bring more cool train sets to LEGO’s lineup!

And come one LEGO!!! Pick the Chemical Plant for the next Ideas round!!!

Happy building!

We Need Another LEGO Train! Any Good Ideas?

If you've read through many of my posts, you'd know that I'm a huge fan of LEGO trains and of creating cities around those train sets.  While LEGO has released a freight train and passenger train along with the CITY line every few years, it has been a while since they released a CREATOR EXPERT themed train.  Here's the history:
     -2009 - #10194 Emerald Night
     -2011 - #10219 - Maersk Train
     -2013 - #10233 - Horizon Express
Unfortunately, LEGO didn't follow the trend in 2015 or 2017.  I haven't seen anything official as to why.  If I had to guess, the train line wasn't profitable for them.  I get that they have to run a business, but it leaves us fans out of getting new sets every few years.  

So if you're like me, what are your choices?

You can build train MOCs of your own.  That's an obvious choices, but if you're like me and you're not the best builder in the world then it's not the best option.

The option I'm going for is getting the fan community to vote in a train on the LEGO Ideas platform.  If you're not familiar with it, here's how it works.  Fan builders submit their set designs to LEGO.  They can actually be built or can be built using a digital design tool.  Once uploaded, you get to post some information about the set you've built and why you think it's cool.  Then from there it's out there and people can vote on them.  If it gets 10,000 votes, LEGO considers it for a production run.  If it is selected, your set is sold, you get 1% of the earnings, and people get to buy it.  YAY!  

Here's what I think... we get some of the talented builders out there to post some awesome looking train designs and we vote them through.  Then hopefully LEGO will put one into production.  So what's out there?  I did a search through the LEGO IDEAS system and picked out a few you could vote for.

The first one is "US Train" by user "papat08" and it was posted in November 2017.  Here's a picture of what is being proposed.

It includes a diesel engine that can be modified to add a Power Functions motor, 3 intermodal rail cars with shipping containers, track with ballast, and a level crossing.  The engine is designed like a BNSF engine and is an improvement from set #10133 from back in 2007.  This set is pretty awesome in my books and I would gladly plunk down some funds to pick one up.  If you feel the same way, definitely go give it support.  At the time of this post it is at under 400 supporters, so a ways to go yet.

Another one is titled "Glacier Express" and was submitted by user "OrientExpress."  This one was posted in January 2017 and has over 400 supporters.  Here is what the user is proposing:

The set includes a steam powered engine that can be motorized with Power Functions and a passenger car along with some track.  It has some similarities to the Emerald Night set, but I like it.  Maybe an additional passenger car would help?

And finally... I've shown 2 trains so to switch things up a bit, user "Ymarilego" submitted a Chemical Plant idea on 15 January 2018.  It has over 2000 supporters at the time of this posting.

It includes a tank car with track, a tanker truck, and some pretty detailed chemical plant infrastructure along with a bunch of minifigures.  This one is another one to go out and support.

Let's bring another train set back to the Creator Expert line!  What are your thoughts?  Are there any other train sets out there I should go vote for?