Natural History Museum and other projects get to Ideas review

The Natural History Museum modular building project on Lego Ideas has become the latest to reach the ten-thousand supporter mark, and therefore qualify for the next Lego review period, where it will be considered for production as a real set. The beautiful build is based on the iconic Natural History Museum in London, featuring many of it's most famous exhibits, including Dippy the diplodocus, the huge redwood sample, and the statue of Charles Darwin. The creator of the project, tjspencer1, recently updated the project with a slightly smaller version (pictured), bringing it in line with the piece count of existing modular building sets.

I'm normally pretty sceptical of huge projects on Ideas. But I love this design, and given it would fit in so well with the other modular building sets, I really hope Lego consider going ahead with it.

Several other projects have also reached the ten-thousand mark since I last updated on Ideas, when the Marvel Helicarrier project became the first to enter the latest review period. Continue after the jump for a look at the other recent successes:

The second project to enter review in this period was the Labyrinth Marble Maze. A refreshingly original concept for a Lego product, the maze is a game with moving parts, and as proposed could also feature multiple builds with different mazes. Check out the video to see it in action:



I feel this is exactly the kind of original design Lego Ideas seeks to find - Something that perhaps Lego would not otherwise produce, but makes beautiful use of the medium. The ability to swap in alternate mazes also makes this a very versatile product. Even if the set itself only came with the parts for one maze, it could suggest inspirations for other projects, and even spin off a whole craze in Lego maze building - Much as the first Minecraft sets inspired many to make their own MOCs in the same format.

Next to pass the ten-thousand mark was F7A Hornet, a space-ship design based on the forthcoming video game Star Citizen. It's a nicely built ship, with lots of atypical angles for a Lego set. Of course being based on a game there will be licensing issues to sort out, but if the brand fit is deemed suitable it looks like a nice space set. Star Citizen is apparently the most highly funded crowd-funded project of any kind ever (having raised tens of millions of dollars) - So there's certainly a nice big market for Lego to tap into!

The final set in the review, for now, is The Inferno. A big pirate ship from the movie The Goonies. I'm not familiar with the film, so don't know how significant a design the ship is in the narrative. But I get the impression it would be a suitable brand fit at least, and would continue the recurring run of movie nostalgia sets coming from Ideas. However it's also quite large, and perhaps most significantly Lego are about to relaunch their own Pirates theme; which might spell doom for a pirate ship proposal.

There is still the better part of two months until the close of this review period. So these projects will most likely be joined by others.