Castle Löwenstein "et al"

Graham

@Lawrence

Will we be listing, or "allow" to be listed the collaborative LEGO/BL ADP sets?

Graham

@Lawrence a simple “no” will suffice, if that is the case

Calibrick

Try emailing him directly at brickowl.com. :-)

Graham

@Calibrick
I could, however I imagine others may also be interested in his reply, we’ll see if @Lawrence is willing to do so.

Hoddie

Was the printed brick in these sets supplied by Lego? If it's after-market printing it has to be a no going by past precedent. Though I don't really care either way.

Calibrick

Hadn't considered that, good point, Graham! :-)

One_Click_Off

I also am interested. Have three Wild West Saloons and after we put together one for the family vacation play to include the whole Back to the Future trilogy...don't know what to do with the other two. Can always save these for the impending increase in value...

Graham

@Hoddie that’s a good question, I imagine it was as I can’t see TLG allowing anyone to print the word LEGO on anything!

Graham

@Hoddie The "special" brick was printed by LEGO, so my question remains...
@Lawrence Will you be listing or allow to be listed the ADP sets?

Thanks

Lawrence

I'd rather not be drawn into a public debate on this, it's not something I've had to make a decision on yet.

Graham

@Lawrence understand your predicament. Perhaps you would make an announcement when you decide. Cheers Graham

White Horse Bricks

I don't own any, but my vote would be no. I feel they are a custom set, not issued by LEGO, and produced by a direct competitor to the site.

Graham

@White Horse Bricks I imagine likely most who didn't buy any will have a similar opinion.

The final products were engineered by LEGO designers. I don't see much (if any) difference between the ADP sets and Cuusoo/Ideas products.
Both Cuusoo and Ideas are a collaborative effort between LEGO group and an outside company.

Therefore, if you wish to call these "custom sets" the same logic should be applied to the Cuusoo and Ideas lines.
Additionally, the ADP sets were a product of the respective AFoL designers, and rather than 1% LEGO group pay they receive 10%
Regardless of "competitor", these are a product of the AFoL community, which I am happy to have supported. The sets are good.
By the way, BL isn't the only other LEGO parts sales venue, there are quite a few of them, albeit lessor known. BL isn't a commercial threat to BO any more than the other way round, besides if the sets are sold here (or parted out and sold) then that has to be good for BrickOwl.

I quote (from wikipedia) "LEGO Ideas is a website run by Chaordix and The LEGO Group, which allows users to submit ideas for LEGO products to be turned into potential sets available commercially, with the original designer receiving 1% of the royalties. It started in 2008 as an offshoot of the Japanese website Cuusoo."

Obviously the final decision rests with @Lawrence

qwertyboy

One big difference between Cuusoo and the AFoL sets from BL - the Cuusoo sets are sold through TLG, and the AFoL sets were only sold through BL.

Hoddie

@Graham - are you sure they were 'engineered by Lego'? I was under the impression that designers had a palette of bricks to work with as determined by Lego, but otherwise the designs were purely down to the MOCer?

They're no different to the 1,000s of Lego Professional sets out there in my opinion, all in a roundabout way endorsed by Lego but not produced by them.

Oldfan

If BO decides to include the ADP sets in the catalog, BL would get the same reimbursement from BO for each sale that TLG gets: zip, zilch, zero. Offering these sets for resale on BO will not benefit the competition financially, or in any way whatsoever except maybe to spread the word about the existence of such sets.

If BO sellers are allowed to offer custom MOCs or other one-off sets in the same way as BL does, with nothing except genuine LEGO parts included, I don't see the problem with allowing ADP sets to be sold here in the same way under the same category(s). But if such non-commercial offerings are not allowed on BO, then neither should the ADP sets be allowed, IMO.

Calibrick

For what it's worth (if Lawrence is reading these to help make a decision - or to decide if he even needs to decide <s>), I'm personally absolutely fine with BO listing and sellers selling any set that is 100% pure LEGO parts and was professionally published by **or with approval from** The LEGO Group.

From that POV, these appear to be quite reasonable to list if someone wants to populate the catalog with the information (since it can't auto-download from LEGO).

My only real issue has always been with listing non-LEGO parts and items, e.g., Brickarms - that is what drove me away from BL in the first place. Just because something is physically compatible with LEGO does not make it LEGO and it unnecessarily clutters the catalog, color selections, etc. I know others feel different, again, just my personal perspective. :-)

Graham

@Hoddie yes.
The AFoL designers, created the sets, virtually, using stud.io. The designs were first constructed in Billund by LEGO designers, adjustments were made by them to make the sets stable, useable and up to the quality LEGO requires. Perhaps “engineered” isn’t exactly the right word, though I feel it is appropriate.

LEGO group had a lot of say, AFAIK the final word, they also put tight constraints on the project as overseers.

If they were to be included here, I suggest simply as “ADP sets”. Now of course BL may object. I hope not.

Graham

... or simply list as custom sets?

Graham

@Lawrence as you won’t accept these sets as custom sets the question remains. I realize this is your website and therefore the decisions are yours to make. These sets will sell at a premium, of which you, not BL, gain a percentage. They were designed by AFoL’s not BL. The project was given TLG’s “blessing” indeed TLG were heavily involved all the way. I really don’t see a reason why you shouldn’t include them in the catalog, custom sets seems the logical place to me.
Thanks

Graham

@Lawrence

Will you please just answer the question YES or NO. I have sets to sell (as do others) thanks.

Calibrick

Have you tried emailing him at brickowl.com, @graham? He may be researching it, he usually responds pretty fast. Or he didn't't realize the question remained open, maybe, since there are 20 posts on this thread? He's usually super responsive.

Lawrence

Unfortunately this is not something I currently have an answer to, there is an outstanding item submission in the queue that will be resolved when I have some time

Graham

@Lawrence thanks for the reply, I do realize this is kinda “awkward” for you.
To be frank both you and I/us are in this to make $ or for you £
At this stage I don’t believe there are many folks who aren’t aware that there are several venues, probably not so many who know of these sets.
I don’t know if you’ve seen them, in my humble opinion most of them are pretty darn good, and the presentation excellent.
Hopefully you will come to a (preferably favorable) decision soon.
Cheers G

Graham

@Lawrence wondering if you had time to consider this yet?

Just an example as to why you should include these as custom sets - you previously stated that a custom set submitted by me would need to be something I designed.

Let’s say I bought one of your custom sets, and later wished to sell it, would you allow that?
Assuming the answer is yes, then that’s pretty close to setting a precedent.

Now if I contact the designers and have them submit a custom set listing, would you then allow me (us) to sell them?
Again assuming the answer is yes, then why not simply allow them added as custom sets?

Please give this consideration, there’s hardly anyone on one or the other site that isn’t aware of the other!

Thanks

ForeverSorting

I don't have a horse on this race, but now that BrickLink belongs to LEGO, these sets are, basically LEGO sets (co-branded BrickLink if you will), so I don't see any problem to sell them here.