by One of the best things about Lego is that anyone can pick up a handful of bricks and build something incredible.
With that in mind, the Lego Ideas program allows any Lego fan to design their own Lego set and upload it to the Lego Ideas platform. The public can see it there, where it will be voted on. If a team receives 10,000 votes, it will go before a panel of Lego judges, who will ultimately decide whether or not it will be made into a real, boxed Lego set.
Thousands of set suggestions are uploaded to Lego Ideas each year, but only a handful are ever made. So it’s a tough business, where rejection is the most likely outcome, but there are currently three space-based Lego Ideas sets that have really caught our eye. Two of them have already reached 10,000 views and one is well on its way, so we’ve got our fingers crossed that at least one of these sets could one day sit on our shelves as the a real thing.
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The Martyr
Designed by Lego Ideas user Mr. Sci-Fi, The Martian is the first and only team he’s ever put on the scene. Submitted in December 2023, it has already gained 3,879 supporters as well as a coveted “team pick” award. With a year and a half left to reach 10,000 votes, let’s just say that Mr. Sci-Fi seems to be in favor of reaching that all-important 10,000 milestone.
If you couldn’t guess, the set idea is based on The Martian, a 2015 sci-fi film starring Matt Damon. Along with his individual Mark Watney minifigure, he comes with a MAV rocket, a Mars rover and an artificial habitat where Watney grows a potato farm.
Those familiar with The Martian will appreciate details Mr. Sci-Fi included: There’s a calendar account, where Watney keeps track of how long he’s been on Mars, a laptop full of disco music, and an airlock door that held together with duct tape. . We love seeing clever, intricate details like this in Lego sets.
Will the Martian be made into a Lego set right? Currently, there is no way to know. It looks like it will reach at least 10,000 votes, at which point it will be assessed by a panel of Lego judges. You can add your own vote to the mix, and keep up with its progress on The Martian’s Lego Ideas page.
NASA’s Space Launch System: To the Moon and Mars
What’s great about this Space Launch System set is that it’s designed by a 15-year-old. Kansas-born William Butterworth – also known from his Lego Ideas handle, NASA RocketBuilder – brought the concept to the Lego Ideas platform back in August 2022.
A year later, in August 2023, it had reached the milestone of 10,000 supporters and is currently being reviewed by Lego. Along with 48 other submissions, it is being evaluated by the Lego team for eligibility in a commercial series. &
Not surprisingly, Butterworth says his favorite Lego set is the Lego Ideas Saturn V, and it’s not hard to see the inspiration here in the scale and design of the SLS, NASA’s flagship rocket for its Artemis program. He is a lifelong NASA fan so it came naturally to build a NASA inspired model.
Although we should soon know the results of the review that Butterworth is part of, it is difficult to know whether it will be approved. Usually, Lego only allows one or two sets from each review wave. The Saturn V on which it is based was indeed a Lego Ideas submission, which is promising, but Lego had Artemis-based sets as part of its City range, so it might not want to revisit the concept.
Read William Butterworth’s 10K Club Interview on Lego Ideas to learn more about him and his set design.
Kerbal Space Program – Modular Ship System
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Sam Haughton, 28 years old from Cornwall, England, is the designer of the Kerbal Space Program – Modular Ship System. Also known by his Lego Ideas handle Sam67c, he submitted the idea in May 2023, and by July had already reached 10,000 supporters. That’s a quick business indeed – and it’s currently in the same review batch as William Butterworth’s SLS above.
Based on the popular Kerbal Space Program video game, the Haughton series is designed to be modular, allowing users to design their own ship. There is a standard build, or 40 other “mini-build” designs to choose from, giving a great amount of customization.
Interestingly enough, as Haughton explains in his 10K club interview on the Lego Ideas blog, the original idea for the set came from him creating a short animation with Lego about Kerbal Space Program 2. After building all the parts he needed for his animation , he realized. he had a potential Lego Ideas submission on his hands.
The target audience here is obviously fans of the Kerbal Space Program games, but even for those who aren’t, the appeal is clear to see. Building our own modular rocket sounds very neat, and if Lego doesn’t have anything comparable – unless you count their brand new modular space station – we’d say it has the potential to be picked up as a real set. But we will have to wait to find out for sure.
