LEGO Ideas Snow White designer feels ‘let down’ by the LEGO Group

The designer behind the rejected LEGO Ideas Snow White project says he feels ‘let down’ by the LEGO Group as 43242 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ Cottage arrives on shelves.

Harry Finkel’s LEGO Ideas Snow White project originally reached the second 2019 review, but was rejected at the first time of asking. He then redesigned and resubmitted his pitch for a large-scale cottage inspired by the 1937 Disney animated movie, which racked up 10,000 votes in time to progress to the first 2021 review.

Alongside the results of that review, the LEGO Group announced in October 2021 that it was still considering whether or not to greenlight Harry’s Snow White project. “We’re still looking into the possibility of releasing a set based on the Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs project,” the Ideas team wrote on the project page. “Once we have a decision, we’ll share it with you here and on the LEGO Ideas blog.”

Five months later, the LEGO Group revealed that it had made a decision – and it was bad news for Harry. “Our team has thoroughly considered the possibility of releasing this project as a LEGO set according to the criteria of the LEGO Review,” the Ideas team said. “Unfortunately, the LEGO Review Board has decided that we will not produce this project as a set.”

Fast forward to February 2024, or almost exactly two years to the day since the LEGO Group rejected Harry’s submission, and the company pulled back the curtain on 43242 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ Cottage. Released under the LEGO Disney banner – independently of LEGO Ideas – the final build bears a pretty strong resemblance to Harry’s original pitch (perhaps inevitably, given they share the same source material).

“I feel let down by the LEGO Group,” Harry tells Brick Fanatics. “I’ve been a lifelong fan and having an Ideas set make it all the way has been a dream for me, as it is for many fans out there. There was clearly interest from TLG to make the set as it ‘required further review’, and we were told there were ‘a few boxes left to tick’.

“They then rejected it saying they would not produce the project as a set, and now their own version of the set is released within the timeframe that could’ve been expected for the Ideas project. I assume this wasn’t a case of the LEGO Group already working on the set as it would’ve been rejected in the review stage. I understand there are many factors involved, but this has been disheartening.”

Brick Fanatics reached out to the LEGO Group for further comment more than two weeks ago, but the company has yet to respond.

Who you gonna call?

This isn’t the first time the LEGO Group has released an official set hot on the heels of rejecting a similarly-themed LEGO Ideas project. Back in 2015, the company came under fire for launching 75827 Firehouse Headquarters not long after passing on LEGO Ideas user Sergio Herencias’s pitch for the Ghostbusters HQ, claiming at the time that the model was ‘developed independently of any LEGO Ideas submission depicting the firehouse’.

“Our LEGO designers planned and created the set by referencing the Ghostbusters film and through collaboration with the studio,” the LEGO Group said in a statement provided to and shared by Sergio in 2015. “LEGO Ideas guidelines state that projects based on current LEGO licences are likely to be similar to concepts already in our product pipeline.”

The LEGO Group updated the LEGO Ideas guidelines 18 months later, preventing users from submitting projects based on active third-party licences. There are exceptions to this rule, though – as Harry’s Snow White project proves, given the animated film falls under the Disney umbrella (and has already received mini-doll-inspired sets in the Disney Princess range).

‘Great minds think alike sometimes’

A similar case arose in 2019 with the reveal of 75936 Jurassic Park: T. rex Rampage, which some fans thought cut too closely to Ideas user senteosan’s rejected 2014 pitch for a LEGO Jurassic Park gate with a giant T. rex. The five-year gap between that project and subsequent model only exacerbated the issue for many, but the LEGO Group clarified that the official set was based on an internal sketch model from 2012, predating the LEGO Ideas submission.

“In our desire to continue to allow LEGO Ideas members to submit product ideas based on third-party licenses, we have in the LEGO Ideas guidelines acknowledged the fact that there may occur unintentional overlaps between products being developed internally by our design teams and those submitted by fans via LEGO Ideas,” the company said in a statement in 2019.

“This is simply because great minds think alike sometimes, especially when basing designs on popular licences of movies, TV shows, vehicles, buildings and more, with whom we either already collaborate with or who fit the LEGO brand values for potential future collaborations.”

43242 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ Cottage is available now. You’ll be able to get your hands on another of Harry’s builds in Series 2 of the BrickLink Designer Program when crowdfunding opens in June.

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