Designing new elements

[Jabba the Taff]

Hi Steve,

I was just wondering what the process is for designing new elements. In general and specifically with regards to whether the designers think, "Hey, this would be a useful piece. What sets can I use it in?" or "I've designed this set, but I really need to use a new piece." Is there a threshold for how widespread the use of a new element would be, before it can be produced? And just how much testing is involved before it gets produced?

A bit of a chicken and egg question I know. And I guess there would be only so much you could tell us about the process.

Thanks

[MrCRskater]

As they say, "Necessity is the mother of invention", but this is an interesting question and something I've always wondered about too.

[bluemoose]

I'll offer something based on my understanding, if I may ?

It's a difficult issue - LEGO are trying to keep a much tighter control of the proliferation of parts (& colors) than they did in the past, to help control their costs, and hence help keep themselves profitable. They recognise that new parts are exciting to their customers, and contribute to sales growth, but also that it is more important to some themes than others. Each year they decide how many new parts they can afford to produce, and allocate a number to each of their teams (& hence to themes). Bionicle typical gets the most number of new parts, as that is seen to be a key characteristic of that theme (I also suspect that bionicle parts are cheaper to produce ...); Star Wars usually does quite well too, as do other comflict-based themes (Mars Mission, Agents, etc.), but the more traditional themes (Town) don't do so well. Each team will propose new pieces, based on a idea, which will be evaluated by management for their potential construction value, before a final decision is made. A new piece's 'value' to other themes will be considered. Its likely that there will often be discussions & 'horse trading' between the different theme teams. I understand they keep prototypes of elements that never made it into production at Billund, for future reference ...

I believe the new cow was designed for the Town/Farm sets, but actually first appeared in the 'Direct' team's Medieval Market Place (the Direct team rarely get any new parts of their own); I think the same is true of the new fish, which was designed for Pirates. So there is cross-over between Teams.

Don't know if that helps :-)

Ian

[speaknspell]

Its changed a lot over the years. For a long time it was a lot about just making an element that looked cool or fit a specific purpose. Lately there are committees dedicated to making sure the 'system' is sound with every element made and even goes back to older elements to start to adjust them into system.

Short answer I know, but elements get a lot more consideration as to whether or not they are 'in system' now.

Steve