LEGO Ideas The X-Files fan designer had to be tricked

The fan designer behind the LEGO Ideas The X-Files set had to be tricked before he found out he was approved, since the calls had become too expected.

LEGO Ideas 21369 The X-Files is coming soon as the third successful pitch from prolific fan designer Brent Waller. You might know Brent from both 21108 Ghostbusters Ecto-1 and 21328 Seinfeld, and now he's going to have a third set on shelves.

Before 21369 The X-Files launches on August 1 for LEGO Insiders or August 4 widely, Brick Fanatics had the chance to speak with the team behind the set, including Brent, in a roundtable with other LEGO fan media. Brent opened up about the process and his reaction to being picked as a fan designer for the third time, and how the LEGO Ideas team tried to maintain some surprise.

"We've never actually worked together before, because the Ideas team wasn't the same as it was when we did Brent's previous models," explained LEGO Ideas Creative Lead Jordan Scott. "This was the first time working with Brent for all of us, so that was already different. Time difference aside, it was great to work with him. Mostly, Brent was the one suffering because he was staying up later for us, but we appreciate it."

"I'm usually a night owl anyway, so it doesn't matter," responded Brent. "But yeah, it's been completely different. The first time, I found out about Ghostbusters after everyone else, because the LEGO Ideas team are in a different time zone. I woke up to all these messages of congratulations, and I didn't know what it was for because they were just saying congratulations.

"I had to find out that I had a Ghostbusters set made, and then I think it might have been the next day or the day after I had a call with David and I think Marcos Bessa, and I heard that it was going into production.

"Then Sam was their lead when Seinfeld came around, and by that point they had a dedicated team for ideas as opposed to kind of just cherry-picking people who either stuck their hand up or were able to work on projects. It's much more streamlined now."

With 21369 The X-Files being Brent's third project to become a set, the LEGO Ideas team knew that another phone call from them would immediately reveal that he had another model approved, spoiling his reaction. Therefore, a plan was conceived to trick Brent into speaking with them for another reason.

"The ideas team had to trick me this time because I'm used to the process," Brent continued. "I'm used to there being a call beforehand to tell me that it was happening, at least from Seinfeld. So they made up some excuse where they wanted to interview me for a community thing or something.

"I popped up, and Monica and a bunch of other people came up, and I wondered what was going on. I expected two people on the call, and I was looking at five. So yeah, that's the one thing that was different this time. I think think they were expecting a very excited reaction out of me, but because I was so caught off guard by that, it took a little while for it to actually sink in."

It's not a tactic that the LEGO Ideas team have to use often, but Brent has been so successful on the platform that some attempt had to be made to stop the calls from becoming too regular.

21369 The X-Files launches for LEGO Insiders on August 1, ahead of its wider release on August 4, for £179.99 / $199.99 / €199.99. 40896 The X-Files: Scully's Lab is free with purchases of its companion set through August 10, or while stocks last.