Part 1: Introduction

Ever looked at LEGO ideas and wondered... is my build on track for 10K?  What makes something popular? Do Staff Picks really make a difference? 

I’ve examined 4 years of data consisting of 12,188 submissions made by 6,116 different users to come up with the answers. I'll cover all that AND some fun facts in this 7 9-part blog series... LEGO Ideas Data.

Here in Part 1: Introduction, I'll go over why I created this blog, what's covered, and tell you about the submissions I've analyzed. I'll also cover the basics of LEGO Ideas if you aren't familiar with it.

Taking a peek

Let's check out an example and fun fact for a hint of what's to come.

What percentage of submissions end up and each of the milestones?

Users with the most submissions reaching 10K

Why this blog?

This all started from my having my own submissions out on the LEGO Ideas site under the username bossofdos64. As I tried to garner support for my builds, I increasingly found myself asking questions such as: 

• How can I get to 10K supporters? 
• What makes a submission popular? 
• How do I compare to other builds?
• Do Staff Picks really make a difference? 

Well, that led me to trying to find answers... which led me to pulling data... which led me to analyzing that data. I figured if I was interested, perhaps others were as well. Thus, this blog.

What's covered?

I'm not a statistician, but I know my way around Excel. I've done the dirty work of collecting the data, analyzing it, and putting it into pretty graphs with (hopefully) simple explanations. There's too much for a single blog writeup, so this will be a series of posts (at least one per week) covering the following:

1. Introduction (this post)
2. Milestones
3. The B-I-G 10K
4. Staff Picks
5. After 10K
6. IP vs Non-IP
7. Word and Phrase Usage
8. What makes a submission 'Most Popular'
9. Summary

Disclaimer

You'll see this posted on the bottom every post, but I also wanted to call it out within the first post. I have no affiliation with LEGO Ideas or the LEGO Group, nor have they provided me any data, information, or insights for this blog. All data is public and was personally gathered and analyzed by me... a non-statistician.

The Data

• January 1, 2020 - February 20, 2024
• The data comes from this time period as it was generally consistent in terms of the rules, milestones needed, and length of Staff Picks.
  
  
• 12,188 submissions
• The ONLY builds considered were those that had either:
• reached 10K supporters -or-
• time had expired
• Anything that was still active "gathering support" as of February 20th was NOT included regardless of any milestones made. The reason for this is it would skew the results as there was no way to determine what the ultimate fate of the submission would be.

• 6,116 users made the above submissions with 4,031 making only a single one.

NOTE: This was a one-time venture; I will NOT be updating it with new data.

Blogging

I've never blogged before, so this is a new adventure. I've tried to make it desktop and mobile-friendly as well as simple to use. You should find all the normal things you would in a blog including my social media, commenting, subscribing via email or RSS, contacting me, etc. 

What is LEGO Ideas?

LEGO Ideas is a web site that the LEGO Group uses for fans to submit builds they'd love to see produced as actual sets. People can submit their design and, if it gets 10,000 supporters, the LEGO Group evaluates it for production. Anyone can sign up in five minutes and cast their support even if they don't submit any builds themselves... and by far the majority do not have builds. LEGO Ideas can be found at the following link: https://ideas.lego.com

Additionally, there are milestones that your submission must reach within a given time period otherwise it expires. Reaching these milestones adds additional time (in days) for your submission to be supported. If time runs out before your submission reaches 10K, your entry is marked Expired and no additional supporters are allowed. 

The initial milestone requires 100 supporters within the first 60 days. The full milestone list can be seen in the graphic below with an example of a submission that has garnered more than 1,000 supporters. It's typically a lengthy process which can take up to two years!

up next: Milestones