BrickLink Designer Program Series 1 wraps up as two LEGO sets fail to sell out

29/02/202429/02/2024 Chris Wharfe 844 Views 1 Comment

Crowdfunding for Series 1 of the relaunched BrickLink Designer Program has come to a close, and only three of the five LEGO sets up for pre-order sold through their entire allocation.

A maximum of 30,000 copies of each of the five fan-designed finalists were available to pre-order during the crowdfunding period, which ran from February 7 to 28, 2024. SleeplessNight’s Mountain Fortress and DistractedBldr’s Snack Shack both sold through their complete allocation within 24 hours, while Mind_The_Brick’s Old Train Engine Shed followed not far behind.

That left just NicolasCarlier’s Parisian Street and Ilucky’s General Store available to pre-order for the majority of the three-week crowdfunding period – but neither of those models ultimately proved popular enough to sell out altogether. The Western-inspired General Store sold roughly 75% of its total, with a few late orders giving it a boost before the deadline, while Parisian Street managed just over half its allocation.

While there’s clearly an appetite for fan-designed LEGO sets through avenues other than LEGO Ideas, the results of this crowdfunding stage demonstrate that the limited nature of these models isn’t enough to guarantee sales: the build itself also needs to pique the interest of shoppers. That feels even more salient with the reworked and relaunched BrickLink Designer Program, given there are three times as many copies of each set available as were produced in the original trial program in 2021.

Crowdfunding for Series 2 kicks off in June, while you’ll be able to pre-order Series 3 sets from October. The LEGO Group is currently determining the five finalists for Series 4 following a public vote to gather support for specific projects, so keep an eye out for the results on March 18. Series 5, 6 and 7 are already confirmed to follow through 2025, with submissions for Series 5 opening this May.

If you purchased one or more sets from the Series 1 quintet, you can expect delivery to commence in approximately six months (the LEGO Group was targeting a July 2024 shipping date when crowdfunding opened). Your card will likely have had a temporary hold on funds, but you won’t be charged properly until your order ships.

Click here to learn more about the BrickLink Designer Program.

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Chris Wharfe

I like to think of myself as a journalist first, LEGO fan second, but we all know that’s not really the case. Journalism does run through my veins, though, like some kind of weird literary blood – the sort that will no doubt one day lead to a stress-induced heart malfunction. It’s like smoking, only worse. Thankfully, I get to write about LEGO until then.