I've seen a few of these Lego Ideas proposals which were based on licensed properties come to fruition as actual retail products, but I am curious to know how it works from a legal rights perspective.

Once an entry wins enough votes, do they then go and try and license the IP, or do they only accept winning entries for Intellectual Properties for which they already hold the license?

In the case of Narnia I'd imagine it would be particularly tricky given the number of potential license holders and rights holders - The CS Lewis Estate, Harper Collins, Netflix, and presumably in this instance Disney and Walden Media due to the fact that many of the designs in this set are based off the movie.

Good luck with the competition though - it will be interesting to see how it turns out.

@icarus Thank you so much!  I certainly don't know the specific mechanics.  When I submitted the project, there was an initial IP check that stated this theme was "pre-approved" for LEGO Ideas.  I don't think that 100% means they have the license rights though.  I have read that they evaluate feasibility of licensing during their board review of projects that reached 10,000 votes.

Hopefully the project will reach the required support threshold and we'll find out!

Posted by: @icarus

Once an entry wins enough votes, do they then go and try and license the IP, or do they only accept winning entries for Intellectual Properties for which they already hold the license?

In the case of Narnia I'd imagine it would be particularly tricky given the number of potential license holders and rights holders - The CS Lewis Estate, Harper Collins, Netflix, and presumably in this instance Disney and Walden Media due to the fact that many of the designs in this set are based off the movie.

I was just about to say the same thing — it would be awesome to have a Narnia Lego set, but it would certainly need the approval of the rights holders / licence holders, on top of the 10,000 supporter votes, in order to actually be produced. I've just bought a Lego Ideas kit myself — Winnie-the-Pooh, with his friends and his house (which opens up at the back and has all the furniture inside it too!). It's just awesome and I can't wait to get started on it, but I note that the Disney logo is very prominent on the box. Whoever came up with this set in the first place, the final design could only be produced under licence, unsurprisingly.

It's interesting to compare the official product with the pictures available of the original concept, too — the final version looks more refined and they've made the minifigures look much more like the actual characters as designed by Disney.

Getting approval was probably easy-ish with a Disney property — they also now own Star Wars, for which there's been official Lego for quite some time, so the Lego bosses presumably already have a relationship with the Disney bosses. But when there are other stakeholders, including the Lewis Estate and presumably now Netflix as well, it's surely a lot more complicated... However, we can only give it a go and see what happens!! I've logged in and given it an upvote — great work and all the best, @reepicheep900.

@courtenay 

Thank you so much for taking the time to comment and support the project!

If it reaches 10,000 and is selected by LEGO, their master builders take over the project and do the refinements as you've noted - I'm hopeful they could really do some great work with the custom minifigures and talking animals - I could only work with parts from sets that are out right now and got them close - but custom work would take it over the top!

In terms of licensing, I would imagine it could be complicated - with that said, there is some precedent to toy companies obtaining licensing for Narnia themed products and I would like to believe LEGO has the necessary relationships to make it happen!  I'm sure that will be a consideration, should they choose the design.

@reepicheep900 I shared the link with a close friend who's a huge Narnia fan AND a huge Lego fan and he replied he was just logging in to vote for it!  

I had a look through your updates and I must say I absolutely LOVE your Lego Aslan — it was already an impressive kit, but that just takes it to the next level (or beyond). 

As a point of interest, I've started putting together the Winnie-the-Pooh kit I mentioned, and in the instruction manual, there's a blurb about the guy who made the original design that was submitted to the website and gained enough votes to be made into a real Lego Ideas kit. Like you, he's a dad who originally put this together for his own kids and then it grew from there...  

@reepicheep900

At the risk of jinxing your luck completely, it looks like you are racking up the votes at a phenomenal pace! Hopefully you can maintain the momentum for the last few hundred votes needed to see it over the line. 🙂 

I have to say, I've been looking through some of the other Narnia projects on Lego Ideas which haven't come anywhere near as close to hitting 10,000 votes, and it is fully well deserved. Not only is the build quality and detail of your set streets ahead of everything else I've seen, but your photography and presentation is also exceptional.

In terms of the set I also really like the way you've integrated the Wardrobe side with the Narnia side. Its an aspect of visual design that most screen adaptations of Narnia don't tend to address (i.e. what does the back of the Wardrobe look like from the other side) but i really like the sort of frozen-cliff face effect here.

Anyway, hopefully congratulations will be well in order by the end of the week, and really excited to hear what happens next in the process! 

@reepicheep900 

This lego set looks completely extraordinary! I love the detail that was put into the all the Pevensies and especially the new take on the White Witch. (The new hairstyle is a plus! ) The details on the faces were really well done. I love how Peter has an almost nervous look, which is always how I imagined his character in the book, and how Lucy has an almost mischievous look on her face. Especially admiring Lego Aslan's wise face. Incredible set and I think it will be a great thing for kids to enjoy! 

-KingEdTheJust

@courtenay Sorry for the delay in response - for some reason I didn't get notified.  So glad you liked the updates.  Adding Aslan was a must, I just didn't have a suitable LEGO Lion.  It definitely helps make the set complete.

Also, thank you for sharing with your friends! Every share has helped get this closer!  

@icarus Thank you so much for tracking along on the progress and for the support.  The momentum seems to be keeping - just a few more days and we'll hit the magic number!

So glad you like the back of the wardrobe - a lot of thought on how to have the wardrobe kind of transition into the snow/ice.  I started with a much larger spare bedroom side, but the snow side looked way off and the set got too big...obviously you can see where it landed.

Also thank you on the feedback for the media - I've never done toy photography, so it was a bit of a learning curve.  My 2nd round of photos/updates were better than my first.

@kingedthejust 

You picked up on all the little details I was going for on the minifigure designs!  Finding the right faces took some time, I tried 3 different faces for Lucy before settling there.  Edmund and Peter were pretty easy.  Susan and the Ice Queen were very difficult to find and I'm not completely satisfied with either - regardless - if LEGO produces, I'm sure they will come up with their own versions.

Posted by: @courtenay

Getting approval was probably easy-ish with a Disney property — they also now own Star Wars, for which there's been official Lego for quite some time, so the Lego bosses presumably already have a relationship with the Disney bosses. But when there are other stakeholders, including the Lewis Estate and presumably now Netflix as well, it's surely a lot more complicated

Interestingly, there is an article on the Lego Ideas site which explains some of the issues which exist surrounding IP License conflicts, and oddly enough it seems like the main problem area is actually for properties which they already have active licenses. So things like Star Wars, Marvel Superheroes, and the Mickey Mouse characters are all completely off the table.

https://legoideas.uservoice.com/knowledgebase/articles/356076-license-conflicts-and-resolutions  

Although that seemed somewhat counter-intuitive to me at first, I guess its because its probably actually easier for them to go out and acquire a new License from a new partner, than it is for them to try and renegotiate a huge contract they already have in place with a huge company like Disney.... i guess in the case of Winnie the Pooh it was only possible because Pooh wasn't specifically one of the existing Disney licenses they already had deals for.

The other prohibitions they have in place are for Licenses which are held by other companies (i.e. Mega Blocks or other such rival construction brick systems) or for ideas which have been already submitted to and won the Lego Ideas competition before... which i guess its as much about avoiding duplication-of-effort and repetition, since I can't really see the legal issue with doubling up on generic concepts such as a Piano or Typewriter (unless the original user who submitted the idea retains some form of copyright claim over the idea?)

Only 35 more votes to go — you must be stoked, @reepicheep900!!  

(I keep wanting to break into a rendition of "The Final Countdown", which is probably showing my age )

Really looking forward to hearing what happens once the magic number is reached — obviously it doesn't mean this will be produced as a real set, but it means they'll definitely have to consider it... Given how quickly it's gathered support, though, that should at least tell them there are more than enough people who would be very willing to buy it!

Edited to add: And CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Here's an interesting question for the community at large - if this set manages to negotiate the appropriate licenses with the CS Lewis Estate, would it be the first piece of Official Narnia merchandise ever not to be affiliated with with either the Disney/Fox/Walden productions or the BBC production?

Thank you all for the continued support!  So pleased to see the design reach the required votes in such a short period of time.  Looking forward to seeing what happens in the next review cycle!

Looking at some of the other entries which have made it to the "In Review" stage, I would definitely fancy your chances against a lot of the other proposed sets, though I must admit that the Lego purist in me is always going to be tempted by one of the original non-Licensed creations  - the Legoland Central Railway station is pretty glorious, as is the Botanical Gardens. However, all of these feel like they would be hugely expensive sets, so I think yours will score high on cost-effectiveness

In terms of the other licensed properties in the mix, there's a very nice looking Iron Giant, and the Cool Runnings idea is pretty quirky and original, though I think yours should score really well in terms of "playability". There's a fair few submissions in there which look nice enough as display pieces, but don't look like they would be any use as a toy. Personally I think a good Lego set needs to function well both as a play thing first, and display piece second, and I think I've read somewhere that this is a criteria the Review Board also consider.

https://ideas.lego.com/search/global_search/ideas?idea_phase=idea_achieved_support&query=&sort=top

Realistically, my only real worry for your chances would be about them not being able to license the IP, so hopefully they can work something out - it would be highly frustrating if it turned out that Netflix hold all the current merchandising rights, given that they haven't done anything with the property for nearly 5 years!

Fingers crossed! 😀 

@reepicheep900 

Still eagerly awaiting the results from this!

Based on previous years of Lego Ideas I'd been expecting the results to be out by early Autumn, but I'm guessing it was quite a big intake for this round.

Any inside word on how the process has gone? I'm assuming if it was an instant rejection on copyright grounds you would have known and they wouldn't then bother to work through the development process with you?