Hey there, I saw a YouTube short video that was about the failed Bionicle LEGO Ideas set by @Sokoda from a few years ago, and in the comment section I saw few comments claiming that he had become a LEGO designer offically working for LEGO. I just wanted to verify with the people here, is this true?
If so, when did he start working for LEGO and which LEGO themes/products is he designing?
Hello!
Yes, Sokoda was hired as an official designer for Lego last year. He posted about this on his Twitter page:
As far as I know, he is currently designing sets within the Ninjago theme.
Sokoda must now prove his allegiance to TTV by making blatant podcast references inside Ninjago sets that nobody but Keep the Piece will understand 
Yes this is true, and he starting around last year.
Hey, I left one of those comments…
@Ghid Is he still affiliated with TTV or has he since left them?
That would make him, what, the 4th or 5th designer working for LEGO that we know of who is a Bionicle fan? The number of them seems to have increased a lot over the years. I am curious if a bigger number of Bionicle fans as designers within LEGO could increase the chances of more Bionicle stuff coming offically from LEGO, like the Gift with Purchase set? What do you guys think of this? Can designers lobby for more Bionicle content even if not a full bringing back the theme? Remeber that Sokoda was literally the guy who desgined the Bionicle LEGO Ideas set from a few years ago, and I’d imagine that part of his protofolio has played a part to some extent in LEGO deciding to hire him.
IDK, but maybe they could exert some influence on the higher-ups by proposing their ideas in a pitch.
But the other MB members here are probably more knowledgeable in this than I am.
I think this is just more likely as a statistical thing.
As time goes on, more and more people who grew up with Bionicle are becoming adults and entering the workforce, just as people who worked on Bionicle over time are likely moving on to other jobs or retiring.
I think if you come to work for LEGO, it’s very likely you were already a LEGO fan, and a percentage of that includes Bionicle.
As for this, I’m not totally sure. I can’t recall the exact circumstance that led to the GWP set being Bionicle (if that was pitched by the designers or if that was a decision made by higher-ups), but the specifics of what that set was and some things like the sticker references we sometimes get were completely at the discretion of the designers.
And I also don’t know LEGO’s pitch process. It’s plausible that a group of Bionicle-fan designers could try and put something together, but more likely I feel like they’d probably be more focused on doing their designated work.
I think it maybe could result in getting more easter eggs in sets, but as for a full-on revival? That seems unlikely, no matter how many Bionicle fans become designers because that decision ultimately lies in the hands of executives.
This is what I am curious about. How does one climb up the corporate hierarchy within LEGO? I know that technically they are family owned, however in practice they seem to act just like any corporation of their size. So theoretically, if enough Bionicle fans become designers, would it be possible for some of them to progress within the company and reach the state of being executives?
The LEGO company is owned by LEGO A/S, which is in turn owned by the Christiansen family. Despite being “family-owned”, the company has all the usual trimmings and corporate aspects any large corporation would. Ideally (and the standard most of the world seemed to revolve around until a hundred or so years ago) companies would be headed up by one person with power levels below them, but every major company has several boards of executives which decisions must pass through, and LEGO is no different. There is no man at the top to appeal to because the CEO of LEGO A/S isn’t directly in charge of what products do and don’t get made, only in charge of who gets to decide what does and doesn’t pass the final set of approvals.
As for climbing the ladder, it’s really hard in a situation like this, where everyone is trying to climb the ladder. You not only have to beat out most of your coworkers, you have to wait in the company long enough for a position to become available, and hope it’s a position you’re recommended for and advances the goal you have in mind. Oh, and now that there’s so many Bionicle designers at LEGO, you’d better all shut your mouths about Bionicle for the next decade at the minimum or people will realize you’re only in the company to bring Bionicle back.
There is one way an outside force could bring about Bionicle, but that requires an already established company with money to burn approaching LEGO with a tantalizing offer to produce some kind of digital media which products would launch alongside to capitalize off of. But that would take tens of millions of dollars at minimum, so it might be a while before Bionicle fans (who are all impulse buyers) accrue that kind of cash.
