…Did I not share this here? I did not share this here. Sorry, the Unpopular opinion discussion reminded me there was another important piece in my Brickfair trip.
There was a LEGO Group employee who gave a presentation and Q&A at Brickfair. They’re in the marketing area, has a large role in the Lego Ambassador Network, works on the Lego Ideas panel, etc. In part of the opening, he said the two main groups he doesn’t know well or hear from: Technic and Bionicle. So after the presentation, I asked him a question - will Lego ever release Technic sets based on animals again, like they did with Forma and the 2001 Rahi.
The answer could be summed up as, “hopefully.” Not a no, not a yes.
He stated that the Technic team was challenged to make/design sets that didn’t use wheels, weren’t ground-based vehicles or flying vehicles, etc. And so they have brainstormed and are testing things like cuckoo clocks, animals, and more. But the main issue is that the designers on the Technic team really only interested in designing super cars, because they find those “sexy” and more impressive to show off.
The planetary set from last year wasn’t something they were thrilled about designing. Which he did bring up the space wave from last year, especially that planet set, was part of their push to try and get Technic to branch out and do more. They just need to convince the designers and more of the LEGO Group that it’s worth pursuing. He said if someone could get a Technic animal to 10,000 supporters, maybe a 3-in-1 Technic creature, or Technic anything to that level, it would at least make the argument easier internally to release something more unusual that won’t make super car levels of money.
The fact they have thought about and have been experimenting, even forced, on doing things more with Technic at all was good enough news for me. Even if it never comes out. But now I have a new Lego Ideas mission.
I was already determined to try and make pure Technic, or mostly pure Technic, animals because I was tired of waiting for the Lego Group to do it. The scarab I built for Bio-Cup was an experiment I’ve been meaning to do and did so before I was at Brickfair. But now I have a lot more motivation and a specific goal.
But they are in marketing, so of course it could all be sweet nothings. So, it was time for research.
There are a few Technic submissions on Lego Ideas that achieved all the support they needed. And all of them were promptly rejected.
The earliest was in 2012, which was before the 10,000 supporter requirement and it got rejected. Though being 24 shy of the 10,000 modern requirement in 2012 is nothing to sneeze at. It had been awhile since the LEGO Group did car brands like this in any form and most of the Technic licensed sets, which were also rare at this time, were purely construction related.
Being in the early lifespan of Ideas, not sure how much it affected the modern direction of Technic.
After the 10,000 supporter requirement was added, we don’t see a Technic project reach that goal until 2018. As you can see below, this motorized snow groomer is massive. And while we would get licensed Technic sets at this scale and various tracked motorized sets a few years after this, nothing quite like this ever comes. Though we did get a small snow groomer set in 2023, I doubt this beast influenced that one.
We see nothing until 2021 with the Boston Dynamics robot dog and we get no equivalent. I’m guessing licensing and disagreements between the two companies is why it didn’t happen. Not even a Mindstorms/robotics version either, so perhaps too risky. But that is a shame, because this would be so close to getting those Technic animals. A perfect middle ground.
Later in 2021 we get this clockwork solar system. This got 10,000 supporters three times (2021, 2022, and 2023) and was rejected each time…And then we got a simpler version of this in 2024 in the Technic space wave. This, this right here makes me believe that it is possible to use Ideas to convince Lego to take a risk on a singular Technic animal set. It will just be very hard.
This tractor and wagon is also achieved its support in 2021, a month after the first go-around for the clockwork solar system. It seems lockdowns really helped the Technic side of things. While not this classic style of tractor, we did get a similar kind of set with John Deere later.
This is the last Technic submission to make it, and rejected, in 2024. Turing Machine – Working Lego Computer. Very cool, incredibly niche. I see why it was rejected. Too early to know if we’ll see anything like it in the future.
And as of current (provided I didn’t miss any), there is one other Technic project that made its support goals that is yet to be reviewed. The CESSNA 185 Skywagon. Which we have some similar Technic sets already.
If you search through Ideas, it will list more than these in a search, but the rest aren’t Technic submissions. They’re System sets that sometimes utilize Technic for the motorized functions underneath. Most others, even if they get a Staff Pick to help boost them, barely get past 2,000 supporters.
But alright, it seems possible. Has anyone else submitted Technic animals? Why yes, I remember most of them and supported them. The links to them are below, though the frog ones are my favorite. Do check them out and their functions.
But as you can see, these hardly went anywhere. If I am going to achieve my mission, I’m going to need a lot of help. The more people building Technic animals, the better. We might not get Technic constraction again, but think of the new parts that could be created to better facilitate Technic animal builds. Imagine how much Technic could evolve and, with the socket and ball joints still in production, lead to modern possibilities with Technic constraction. Even if we end up being unable to convince the public or the LEGO Group to give it another shot, at least we’ll help push something forward.
) project because so far, it sounds very intriguing, like you’d described it.
