LEGO Ideas Beatles Yellow Submarine designers explain the process

In a recent interview, fan designer of 21306 The Beatles Yellow Submarine, Kevin Szeto, shared his thoughts on getting his project approved and it going through the official design process and LEGO designer Justin Ramsden discussed turning the unique project into an official LEGO set.

It’s an insightful read, with Kevin and Justin discussing with Brickset changes to the fan submission, the process of developing the model and whether the subject matter is right for a LEGO set.

Kevin explained his involvement, once his project had been selected.

There were a couple of Skype meetings between myself and the LEGO team, where Justin showed me the prototype of the production version he was working on. I was happy to see the alterations and improvements, but I was not really doing any supervising per se. The submarine model was already in very capable hands!

He also shared his reaction to the final product:

I totally love the final version! Kudos to Justin and his team. While many changes were made, I am glad to see that a lot of the fundamental elements of my original model are still intact. Any changes only made it that much better. My absolute favourite change is the use of the hot dogs for the railings.

Justin Ramsden was the LEGO designer selected to work on the project, turning Kevin’s MOC into something suitable for official LEGO release. It seems that he was the perfect designer to work on the set, given his enthusiastic response:

I was absolutely over the moon when I was told that I would be working on this LEGO® Ideas project as it was amazing to be a part of such an iconic LEGO product release. I watched the film when I was growing up and was blown away by how surreal and inspirational it was. I’m also a massive fan of The Beatles having grown up with their music all my life (and even managing to see Sir Paul McCartney numerous times live in concert), so to see The Beatles in LEGO form is a dream come true.

He also addressed whether the set was typical subject matter for the LEGO Group:

I feel that besides being a tribute to one of the most iconic rock bands in history from our fans, the model translates really well into a LEGO® model, due to its bright colours and fun nature. I’m just surprised that it wasn’t created sooner!

For the full interview with Kevin and Justin, click through to Brickset.