Five sets with a twist in the nostalgic LEGO Ideas challenge

The LEGO Ideas A Twist of Nostalgia challenge offers fans a way to bring back a beloved set with a twist, including these innovative examples.

It’s been nearly two weeks since one of the most recent LEGO Ideas challenges that will result in an official set began. A Twist of Nostalgia is calling on fans worldwide to reimagine a model from their past with a modern twist of some kind, and one will become a future gift-with-purchase.

It’s safe to say that this brief has gone down well with the LEGO Ideas community, with over 200 submissions in the running for the grand prize at the time of writing. These are based on all manner of themes, including plenty of Castle proposals. As we reach the midway point of the entry intake, we’ve found five submissions that stand out from the crowd.

These are just five of over 200 submissions already entered into the challenge, with the entry intake open for another two weeks at the time of writing. Head to the contest page to see the rest of the entries ahead of the fan vote on May 12.

Yellow Castle City Museum

LupoBhoUEF‘s take on the iconic 375 Castle is a wonderful homage to the original yellow LEGO castle and the kind of build that we can see fans wanting to integrate into 10326 Natural History Museum as a special exhibit. Rather than recreating the castle in some form, the user has instead integrated it into a modern city in a way that makes sense – the LEGO modular buildings even have a Castle reference that suggests the two take place in the same world.

Castle UFO

The Castle UFO by LPC_Industries is a slightly more familiar take on the original yellow castle, but by no means familiar since it’s a crossover with LEGO Space. It’s the kind of build perfect for a gift-with-purchase targeting nostalgic LEGO fans, while staying true to the challenge’s brief of introducing a twist to the original set. Combining Space and Castle isn’t something we’ve seen often before.

Tribute to Atlantis

It’s not just the oldest LEGO themes that are eligible for this challenge, as several LEGO Ideas users have submitted models based on much more modern product ranges – particularly Power Miners and Atlantis. TintedSlimes‘s microscale version of 8078 Portal of Atlantis would make an interesting gift-with-purchase without requiring any new Atlantis minifigures. It recreates the ominous gateway at a smaller scale with nanofigures and building techniques cleverly used to capture the iconic aesthetic of the set.

Monorail Bookends

While the LEGO Group has yet to bring back Classic Space’s monorail properly, the Monorail Bookends by Mitsu-san78 offer a different path to reference the iconic form of brick-built transportation with any requirement for new or returning elements. With its tunnel design and impressive recreation of the original monorail and the specialised track, this would be an especially appealing gift-with-purchase for Classic Space fans.

Fun Times at Fort Legoredo

There are a few playground versions of older LEGO sets in this LEGO Ideas challenge, but Blocksmiths‘ Fun Times at Fort Legoredo caught our eye for twisting a model that probably won’t return in any other form. With the continued lack of LEGO Wild West sets (beyond the BrickLink Designer Program), it’s evident that the LEGO Group intends to invest in bringing back other older themes instead. They can still keep fans happy with this proposed gift, which would be in the same vein as 40589 Pirate Ship Playground, too.

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