The Winchester made it to 10,000 votes on CUUSOO!

[silvashado]

Very excited to share that the Winchester from Shaun of the Dead made it to 10,000 votes on CUUSOO. So now the LEGO team is discussing the "issues" with it. I really hope they get over the whole zombie thing and make it. It's not that controversial. And it's not fair that they'll make zombies for PoTC, but not for Shaun of the Dead.

http://lego.cuusoo.com/ideas/view/7451

[nick91884]

I really don't think this is gonna fly, I would be happy with a zombie theme for sets though

[Brick & Blue]

Yeah I really don't see any issues with the set.

They have Monster Fighters, I don't see what the big deal over some zombies would be.

[nick91884]

Yeah I really don't see any issues with the set.

They have Monster Fighters, I don't see what the big deal over some zombies would be.

I don't think it is the set itself that is the problem.

The main issue I see is the source material which is not a really good fit for LEGO. The movie is Rated R in the US which means it is only suitable for people over 17 years of age. We all know LEGO is not just for kids but they still have standards for their brand and what they want it to represent and I don't think Shaun of the Dead falls in line with that.

[medib]

I think Lego needs to downplay the shaun of the dead angle, even though those fans were what got the
votes for the model. Its a very lovely model and deserved the votes, and yes Lego has done zombies in the past (POTC, and others). Another way to look at this, is the actual scene is not horrifying or graphic,
just a bunch of the significant characters with a bunch of the the zombies.
They can downplay that with only including one or two zombies.

My whole issue with the to make or not to make is this: even though Lego has the final say on what gets
manufactured or not, to get the 10,000 votes on Cuusoo is VERY significant. The Winchester, to get the
votes needed quite a bit of "outside" help from the Shaun of the Dead community, pulling in non Lego
fans into the mix, much like the minecraft idea. I say let the model be built to please Lego and non-Lego
fans....

[jeffmace]

The main issue I see is the source material which is not a really good fit for LEGO. The movie is Rated R in the US which means it is only suitable for people over 17 years of age. We all know LEGO is not just for kids but they still have standards for their brand and what they want it to represent and I don't think Shaun of the Dead falls in line with that.

Great point. I am near 40 yrs old and this point really didn't hit me until I read your post. A lot of parents buy the Cars, Toy Story, Harry Potter because of the 'G' rated theme. I think it will sell well to the MOC builders and older crowd in general, but will miss the mark with the parents of young kids. I have supported the Western theme on there though. I love that

[iccarus]

And LEGO has killed the Winchester.

http://legocuusoo.posterous.com/results ... winchester" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[hatcher]

I wonder if they'd have to pay the producers of the movie a licensing fee played into the decision.

[nick91884]

From the blog: "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."

This pretty much says it all, the source material was the issue, not the model or the fact it has zombies.

[iccarus]

Yeah, it certainly came down to the source material of the set. SOTD is an extremely violent, gory, and vulgar movie...one of the reasons it's so well loved :)

However, I'm sure there was a business aspect to this as well. The project hit 10k after Simon Pegg started talking it up, which means many non-LEGO fans likely added their votes. I highly doubt your average non-AFOL is going to jump on buying a $150+ set, which this easily would have been if it were produced as proposed.

At least with stuff like Minecraft and EVE, you have a way for the license holder to reach fans to buy the set. Most non-AFOL SOTD fans are not going to be actively watching to see when the Winchester would be available.

[ahcow]

I voted for it because design was done well. I personally wouldn't have bought it though.

[admiralheinrich]

I have mixed feelings on the Winchester's failure to meet LEGO's standards... while I like Shaun of the Dead I appreciate LEGO seeing how this might not "fit" with their values.

Honestly in browsing CUUSOO I'm a little dismayed that one out of every five or ten postings are "LEGO should make sets about INSERT LICENSED PRODUCT HERE". Back to the Future, Zelda, etc... do we really need these things? We have them already in other forms... will it really sate our appetite for merch by having them made by LEGO? I still think the best and brightest of the LEGO community have yet to take a serious stab at CUUSOO and regale us with some new imaginative material.

[ShaydDeGrai]

Ultimately, I don't think it was a question of whether or not the SOTD model would sell (and certainly the quality of the build is more than up to par). I think TLG was far more concerned with the little kid who gets this set because (to a naive parent) it looks like a companion to the Pet Store or Green Grocer and then wants to see the film because of it. We all know where this leads. A coalition of soccer moms goes on the nation press circuit talking about Lego encouraging violence; some fundamentalist religious organization will condemn the toy as a satanic lure to corrupt innocent children; people who don't know Lego, don't know SOTD, ignore the age recommendations on the box and probably don't even have kids of their own start picketing the local toy store for carrying Lego or try to get a teacher fired for using Lego Dacta in the classroom.

It sounds utterly ridiculous, but in recent years I've seen people stage protests over Harry Potter Legos encouraging children to "engage in satanic rituals"; a high school bully on trial for beating a kid with a stick using the "it's not my fault, I played with Star Wars Legos as a child and they have light sabers" defense; and most recently a women's lib group decrying the new "Friends" line as "psychologically scarring" for young girls.

Under-informed people latch on to unjustified causes all the time (and they're usually the one's who get all the free press) I think, in this age of political correctness, TLG recognizes that SOTD is a publicity nightmare waiting to happen and I can't fault them for wanting to avoid that battle even it means AFOL won't be getting The Winchester any time soon.

[vynsane]

I voted for it because design was done well. I personally wouldn't have bought it though.

That's completely at cross-purposes to the actual idea behind CUUSOO and exactly the kind of scenario that I was wary of with the rabid support for Minecraft - the idea of 'Support' is supposed to signify that you want LEGO to produce it so that you can then buy it when it's available, it's not a 'Like!' button...

This is why, as incredibly detailed and cool as they may be, I've not added my support for the 'Modular Western Town' idea - mainly because of the same reasons I've not bought the current Modulars. First: I don't have enough disposable income to spend on them. Second: I'm not as interested in them because I'm more into Sci-Fi and Action themes.

As for the denial of The Winchester... While I'm disappointed, I'm not entirely surprised. They gave it a thorough analysis, obviously, and it didn't meet their specifications of what LEGO wants to produce. Are there zombies coming out this summer? There sure are - but they're not tied to any specific property, and they're going to have the same kind of comical back-story given to any other slightly questionable products TLG produces, it just won't be tied to an R-rated property that the target demographic won't (or shouldn't, at any rate) be privy to.

There had to be a first 10k+ CUUSOO project that would get the ax... It just happened to be The Win...

[silvashado]

This makes me sad, but I'm not surprised. It's another slap in the face for adult fans - it reinforces that we are not LEGO's target audience and that they will not make a separate line of products for us that are more mature. I know it's their business to decide. It's just frustrating...

[vynsane]

I think the age range on each and every box does a pretty good job of reinforcing the target audience. This is not a slap in the face. AFOLs are tantamount to Bronies - a very, VERY vocal, yet infinitesimal, minority. Think about how many sets we each buy on average each year. Then consider how the combined total if those sets amounts to between 5 and 10% of total annual sales.

Then consider the cost of licensing, developing, producing, packaging, shipping and promoting a set that 95% of your audience won't recognize. That's got 'box office flop' written all over it. The only wildcard in the equation are Shaun of the Dead fans who don't also happen to be AFOLs, which is a hard demographic to even estimate. Would they make up the other 95% of the equation? Doubtful. And it's the same doubt I have for Minecraft.

[admiralheinrich]

...the idea of 'Support' is supposed to signify that you want LEGO to produce it so that you can then buy it when it's available, it's not a 'Like!' button...

I disagree slightly with your take on this only because I, and this is totally subjective, have lent support to sets I would buy (in a hypothetical wish list sort of way, not because I have the money) but also lent support to sets I want to exist. CUUSOO allows LEGO fans to highlight for LEGO things that we want to see on shelves, not just for ourselves but to represent LEGO as a whole. CUUSOO gives fans and builders a slight amount of say in steering the good ship LEGO. So sometimes I do treat it like a 'Like' button.

[DarthPaka]

While I understand LEGOs decision, I hope they at least offered the designer a job! I mean, cmon, whether appropriate or not, that set rocks and is very cleverly constructed!

[vynsane]

Re-reading my last post, I think it came off a bit more stodgy than I meant it to. "box office flop" wasn't really the best choice of words to convey what I felt... more like "an incredibly risky venture" - one where the risk outweighed the reward. Suffice it to say, I was a supporter of The Winchester and would have bought it had it been produced.

I disagree slightly with your take on this only because I, and this is totally subjective, have lent support to sets I would buy (in a hypothetical wish list sort of way, not because I have the money) but also lent support to sets I want to exist. CUUSOO allows LEGO fans to highlight for LEGO things that we want to see on shelves, not just for ourselves but to represent LEGO as a whole. CUUSOO gives fans and builders a slight amount of say in steering the good ship LEGO. So sometimes I do treat it like a 'Like' button.

I guess we can all see it from different points of view. I take a more hardline approach, where my 'support' explicitly means I will buy this if it is released. I think there's something of a precedent for this, since part of the support button is a form that asks you how much you would pay and how many would you buy. With that as my guide, I don't go supporting things I think are simply cool, since I would end up putting "0" in both spots, ultimately (in my eyes) defeating the purpose of crowd-sourcing ideas for new products in the first place. If 'false' (once again, in my eyes) support outweighs the 'true' support, then the CUUSOO method will be dead in the water with too many false-start projects that come to fruition.