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Can someone explain what the relationship is between Lego, CUSOO, and the rights holders of the properties that the sets on lego.cuusoo.com are being designed a

by jrmg 14y ago

Can someone explain what the relationship is between Lego, CUSOO, and the rights holders of the properties that the sets on lego.cuusoo.com are being designed around?

sp332 14y ago
It can get complicated, for example this project http://lego.cuusoo.com/ideas/view/13519 http://lego.cuusoo.com/ideas/view/13519 used to look a lot more like the Tachikomas from Ghost in the Shell https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tachikoma#Design https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tachikoma#Design but LEGO was not interested in something from that universe (TBH GitS has a lot of sex and violence for a kid's toy). So he reworked the model into something functionally similar but without the branding issues http://lego.cuusoo.com/ideas/view/17553 http://lego.cuusoo.com/ideas/view/17553 which seems to have stalled out :(
- runn1ng 14y ago
  It was the same with Firefly design, because the show has a lot of sex and violence. The same with Shaun of the Death. Also, sometimes the legos will end up less promising than it seemed at the beginning - see the official Minecraft Cuusoo lego - http://www.jinx.com/p/lego_minecraft_micro_world.html http://www.jinx.com/p/lego_minecraft_micro_world.html . And also, the LEGOs are not produced in so big numbers as normal lego boxes, so they are not sold in regular retail, but only on internet in limited numbers.
smackfu 14y ago
CUUSOO is part of LEGO. After a CUUSOO project reaches 10k supporters, it goes through a review by LEGO corporate which includes stuff like Brand Fit Analysis (too violent?) and Business Case Development (will this actually sell?) and License Agreements (can we license this?). If it passes that, then it gets a model designed by a LEGO designer which is not necessarily the same as the submitted idea. http://legocuusoo.posterous.com/the-quarterly-lego-review-how-does-it-work http://legocuusoo.posterous.com/the-quarterly-lego-review-ho...
- tieno 14y ago
  That is not quite right. Cuusoo is a Japanese company and independent from Lego. (In the beginning Lego Cuusoo also launched only in Japan – but it blew up internationally.) They offer their “social creation platform” (also called Cuusoo) to customers – of which Lego is now most certainly their biggest and most prominent one. I’m unsure of the exact relationship, but I think it’s fair to say that Cuusoo is a SaaS business. Cuusoo seems to host the platform and I assume (but don’t know) that they take care of all technical issues, Lego seems to take care of the review process. So Lego Cuusoo is basically the Cuusoo installation run by Lego. You are completely correct about the review process, though (basically everything you wrote after the first sentence).
  - smackfu 14y ago
    Wow, I had no idea. I knew it was originally Japanese since the first two projects were very Japanese, but not about the separate company. Shoulda done my research.

by jrmg 14y ago

Can someone explain what the relationship is between Lego, CUSOO, and the rights holders of the properties that the sets on lego.cuusoo.com are being designed around?

sp332 14y ago

It can get complicated, for example this project http://lego.cuusoo.com/ideas/view/13519 http://lego.cuusoo.com/ideas/view/13519 used to look a lot more like the Tachikomas from Ghost in the Shell https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tachikoma#Design https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tachikoma#Design but LEGO was not interested in something from that universe (TBH GitS has a lot of sex and violence for a kid's toy). So he reworked the model into something functionally similar but without the branding issues http://lego.cuusoo.com/ideas/view/17553 http://lego.cuusoo.com/ideas/view/17553 which seems to have stalled out :(

runn1ng 14y ago
It was the same with Firefly design, because the show has a lot of sex and violence. The same with Shaun of the Death. Also, sometimes the legos will end up less promising than it seemed at the beginning - see the official Minecraft Cuusoo lego - http://www.jinx.com/p/lego_minecraft_micro_world.html http://www.jinx.com/p/lego_minecraft_micro_world.html . And also, the LEGOs are not produced in so big numbers as normal lego boxes, so they are not sold in regular retail, but only on internet in limited numbers.

smackfu 14y ago

CUUSOO is part of LEGO. After a CUUSOO project reaches 10k supporters, it goes through a review by LEGO corporate which includes stuff like Brand Fit Analysis (too violent?) and Business Case Development (will this actually sell?) and License Agreements (can we license this?). If it passes that, then it gets a model designed by a LEGO designer which is not necessarily the same as the submitted idea. http://legocuusoo.posterous.com/the-quarterly-lego-review-how-does-it-work http://legocuusoo.posterous.com/the-quarterly-lego-review-ho...

tieno 14y ago
That is not quite right. Cuusoo is a Japanese company and independent from Lego. (In the beginning Lego Cuusoo also launched only in Japan – but it blew up internationally.) They offer their “social creation platform” (also called Cuusoo) to customers – of which Lego is now most certainly their biggest and most prominent one. I’m unsure of the exact relationship, but I think it’s fair to say that Cuusoo is a SaaS business. Cuusoo seems to host the platform and I assume (but don’t know) that they take care of all technical issues, Lego seems to take care of the review process. So Lego Cuusoo is basically the Cuusoo installation run by Lego. You are completely correct about the review process, though (basically everything you wrote after the first sentence).
- smackfu 14y ago
  Wow, I had no idea. I knew it was originally Japanese since the first two projects were very Japanese, but not about the separate company. Shoulda done my research.