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.
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.
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!