Crowdfunding results prove not all retro LEGO themes are created equal

The future of LEGO Western is looking shakier than ever, as the BrickLink Designer Program proves not all retro LEGO themes are created equal.

The results of the first crowdfunding period for the relaunched BrickLink Designer Program are in, with three of the five fan-designed sets in this initial series selling through their full allocation of 30,000 copies. Among those was SleeplessNight’s Mountain Fortress, a towering 3,995-piece ode to LEGO Castle that gave a home to the Black Falcons faction capable of rivalling 10305 Lion Knights’ Castle.

That set sold out within the first 24 hours of the crowdfunding period, proving once again that LEGO Castle fans will happily gobble up any bone the LEGO Group throws their way – whether on official store shelves or through secondary programs like this one, which allows fans to design their own sets to be sold through limited runs.

The limited-edition nature of Mountain Fortress likely played some part in its rapid disappearance, as LEGO Castle fans snapped up the set while they still had the chance. But that’s clearly not the only reason it sold all 30,000 copies so quickly, because two of the five sets failed to sell out across the three weeks crowdfunding was open – including Ilucky’s General Store.

Where the Mountain Fortress tips its hat to LEGO Castle, the General Store instead guns for the original LEGO Western (or Wild West) theme that debuted in the mid-‘90s. Some corners of the community have been calling for the return of LEGO Western for years – practically since the re-released 6762 Fort Legoredo came and went in 2002 – but they’ve fallen mostly on deaf ears to date.

The LEGO Group has revisited the general trappings of the Western theme within other ranges, such as The LEGO Movie, but we’ve never seen a full return to gunslingers, saloons, forts and the like. Some of that might have to do with the general depiction of ‘cowboys vs. Indians’ now seeming antiquated (and potentially problematic), but the performance of the General Store in the BrickLink Designer Program suggests the wider audience for the theme may be smaller than thought too.

If this one well-designed LEGO set couldn’t fulfil its entire quota over a three-week period – while another retro LEGO set sold out in a single day – how much of an appetite is there for the return of LEGO Western really?

Over on reddit, some reasons floated for the General Store’s failure to sell out include the main image not showing the set’s full contents (it’s missing the covered wagon and minifigures), the fact that it doesn’t really complement anything else in the current LEGO portfolio, and that there’s a lack of more relevant Western-themed minifigures available with which to fill it.

Those are all reasonable suggestions, but they effectively lead to the same destination: a vicious cycle in which we never see any more LEGO Western sets, so when one does pop up it doesn’t fit in anywhere, and thus the LEGO Group doesn’t make any more, and so on until the heat death of the universe. So while LEGO Icons continues to revisit retro themes with sets like 10320 Eldorado Fortress and 10332 Medieval Town Square, the future doesn’t seem so bright for Western.

Crowdfunding for Series 2 of the BrickLink Designer Program kicks off in June. Check out all the finalists for the next two series right here.

Support the work that Brick Fanatics does by purchasing your LEGO using our affiliate links.