I read the Lego Cuusoo blog a few minutes ago and I guess I wasn’t too surprised at today’s post. It was an announcement that Lego would not be moving forward with producing the Shaun of the Dead Cuusoo project.
It is a bummer, but as Lego stated in the post, the project did not fall in the intended age range of 6-11 years old.
I know this has been debated before, but what are your thoughts now that the decision not to move forward has been made? Has the time since the project reached 10,000 votes changed your thoughts on the project? Let us know!
Here is the Cuusoo blog post in it’s entirety:
The LEGO Jury has completed the review of the Winchester – Shaun of the Dead project that hit 10,000 supporters on LEGO CUUSOO on March 31, 2012.
LEGO CUUSOO gives the opportunity to submit product ideas, however all LEGO products, regardless of age target, must be content appropriate for our core audience. With this in mind we have decided that – good though the model is – the film Shaun of the Dead contains content that is not appropriate for our core target audience of children ages 6-11.
Long before the Winchester received mainstream media attention, Greg (Yatkuu) contacted us in earnest to see if his project was acceptable. We recognized the potential conflict, but didn’t see a reason to remove the project. The model was presented tastefully and we thought it deserved fair consideration. With 10,000 supporters, the Winchester earned the opportunity to receive the full LEGO Review.
Greg has been a pleasure to work with throughout this process. We’re impressed by his model, grateful for his constructive approach with us, and we are sad to disappoint such a devoted LEGO fan.
We appreciate the passion exhibited for new product ideas on LEGO CUUSOO. Opening ourselves to new product suggestions invites popular ideas that don’t always fit our brand. This is the first time we’ve felt that we should turn a LEGO CUUSOO idea down, but we’re grateful for the spirit behind projects like the Winchester and for the opportunity to be challenged. It keeps us sharp and looking toward the future of the LEGO brick.
Whilst I did think the idea was cool (and from seeing it ordered a couple of custom pieces like the cricket bat
) I did wonder if this would actually see the light of day. That said, I am surprised that whilst it didn’t make it to production, the guys at TLG didn’t use it as a launch for another modular building idea…
Who knows, maybe it did and they just aren’t saying! I think that lego learned a lesson here and their policy toward the Cuusoo projects has changed as a result. I’m also not all that sure that lego realized how many of these entries would be things that would require some kind of licensing agreement such as this Shaun of the Dead project and the recently passing 10,000 votes of the Back to the Future and Eve online sets are. it will be interesting to see what happens with the project in the future.