An interesting take on why Technic sets don’t get selected on LEGO Ideas

The defining characteristic of LEGO Ideas is diversity, as it’s not locked to any specific theme, so might that be why Technic never gets selected?

For many people, LEGO Ideas is the most interesting theme in the LEGO Group’s portfolio. This is down to the incredibly wide variety of submissions that come through the system. Most LEGO themes have a handful of designers – maybe the big themes like Star Wars have a few dozen people thinking up new sets. But on the Ideas platform there are tens of thousands of people brainstorming and designing new models.

So it’s a little surprising that so few Technic designs are submitted (relatively speaking. There are still quite a few at the end of the day), and that virtually none ever get selected to go through to the review stage. A recent video from YouTuber RacingBrick has considered this, and has a theory.

His thinking is that most successful Ideas designs are those that don’t fit into any of the existing themes. Sets like 21327 Typewriter or 21329 Fender Stratocaster. Sets that do achieve 10,000 votes but are obvious fits elsewhere, like the Modular Arcade that just reached the 10k point are, says Balazs, less likely to be selected because, well, they could just as easily be an official set.

So turning to Technic, his view is that too many Ideas submissions that are Technic-based, are ‘too Technic’. Too much like the rest of the theme. A successful set, he posits, would be a neat idea that uses Technic, but isn’t defined by it. And as an example, he looks at Sariel’s Mechanical Flip Clock.

For those unfamiliar with the name, Sariel is Pawel Kmiec from Poland and is a legend in the Technic community. His website, sariel.pl documents the astounding range of Technic based models that he has created, and at present he has a design for a mechanised clock on Ideas which has gathered over 8,000 votes in a matter of weeks.

This, suggests Balazs, is a set that might just break the Technic curse on the Ideas platform as, while it undoubtedly relies on Technic to make it function, it doesn’t come across as a regular Technic set. Because while most people aren’t really interested in a working six-speed gearbox, or a functioning differential, everyone knows what a clock is!

It’s an interesting take on the issue, and one worth keeping an eye on if, as looks likely, Sariel’s clock makes it to the review stage. Only time will tell.

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