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!

Set Review - #60203-1: Ski Resort - CITY

#60203-1: Ski Resort was release on 1 September 2019 in the US. It retails for $89.99 and contains 806 pieces and 11 minifigures. This puts it at $0.112/piece. As I write this, it shows as sold out in the US on LEGO Shop @ Home so I may be too late to the game. It still shows available here in Germany. I purchased it in Germany for around $54 which was a much better price, Why are the CITY sets so expensive all of a sudden?

While not an advertised sub-theme, the CITY theme had #60222-1: Snow Groomer back in 2019 as well. We’ll see if they add more in the future or not.

Onto the review…

The box is pretty standard with the full set displayed on the front and some of the play features on the back.

The set contents are eight parts bags, the instructions and stickers in a sealed package, and then an 8x16 white plate. Bag one has a piece separator.

The first bag builds a snow mobile, a trailer to carry a stretcher, a snowman, a dog, and 4 minifigures. The snowmobile is pretty simple, but it gets the point across and has some playability. The snowman looks pretty similar to ones in the past with a top had, red scarf, and a broom as arms. The dog is the standard CITY dog figure.

The minifigures are pretty good. There are two snow patrol figures with a male and a female and then two kids with the shorter legs.

The second bag is a helicopter design. I seem to have accumulated a bunch of these through the years and they all look very similar. In terms of realism, LEGO CITY helicopters lack some realism, but they must be popular as LEGO keeps repeating them. There is one minifigure who is the pilot.

One difference on this chopper is the tail piece. Instead of building out a tail with bricks you get a BURP. I’m not sure if this is a new thing or not. It looks better, but takes away from the build experience as you just attach one piece.

Next up is bag three with this SUV and snow plow. It’s a pretty tough looking vehicle with space for gear in the back, some skis, poles, and the ability to store some equipment. The plow in front is pretty large too. The bag comes with a female minifigure in a ski patrol uniform. I like this vehicle and am pretty impressed with how it looks despite being a CITY set.

Bag four gives us a small snack stand with hot chocolate and goodies to eat. You also get some trick gear to include a small rail to ski/board on and then a mini-half pipe. The half pipe is rather small. You could get maybe one trick off of it if you did it right. I get the point though and that it is meant as a play feature. You get two more female adult minifigures to eat at/work at the snack stand.

Instead of going by bag, I decided to go by the remaining parts of the build. Next up is a winter gear shop. It’s a small store front with snow shoes, snow boards, skis, a hat, a helmet, and poles for sale. The store is only the front part, but I like the design. The front is designed to make it look like it is built as a log cabin with printed tiles to look like the ends of logs. The stickers help with detail to include the store logo and a board out front listing the sales. I like the snow board over the door as a decoration. This one comes with a store worker and then a snow boarder and skier all decked out with helmets and gear.

The inside of the store has some inventory, a check out stand, and the display areas. Not bad considering the size and easily expandable as desired.

The top of the store has a large plate with clips. It comes with a large sticker and is supposed to be a screen you can use to watch your favorite minifigures ski. I chose not to attach the sticker as I thought it was too big and looked kind of silly there. I’ll remove the large gray part before making it a part of a city scene some day.

The last part of the build is a small chalet type building used as ski patrol HQ. Like the store, it is only the front half, but I like the design of the front and think it would look fun as a full up building if you wanted to expand it. The inside has a medical area, an office area, and a work area on the upper level.

I also like the stickers on the side with the route map for skiers and then the name of the ski area “Mount Clutchmore.” Very clever.

That wraps it up. This is a fun set in a great sub-theme of CITY, but is way too expensive at its original price. I’m glad I found it at the discount I did and recommend you look for the same. Since the set is retiring, you might be able to find a good discount out there. If you find it at a discount, this is a great start a future MOC for a ski area/resort. Lots of fun details and some good play features.

What are your thoughts on this one?

Happy building!