Does Lego market sets that were designed by fans?

Question

My {son, daughter} read on a LEGO box that the set was designed by a LEGO fan. That is amazing! Is this common and how does my {son, daughter} get into that?

What sets were designed by fans so far?

Answer 1

In addition of the already mentionned Blacksmith shop and the three first LEGO factory sets (5524 — Airport, 5525 — Amusement park and 5526 — Skyline, combined from the 10 winners entries of the contest), the following sets have been designed by fans:

• 10190 — Market Street was designed by Eric Brok. Eric sadly passed away a few month later.

• 10183 — Hobby Train was designed by a team of 10 fans who created 30 different models, all of which are buildable with parts in the set. The fans were Ben Fleskes, Christopher Masi, Holger Matthes, James Mathis, Jeramy Spurgeon, Mike Walsh Cary, Pierre Normandin, Reinhard Beneke, Steve Barile and Tim Gould. All of them high-profile builders, and the set was nothing short of fantastic.

• 10191 — Star Justice, designed by Chris Giddens, against 10192 — Space Skulls, designed by Mark Sandlin. These sets had less success although they were very versatile and allowed for countless hours of space building. They also heradled a comeback of Space themes, which LEGO hadn't been producing for a long time.

• 10200 — Custom Cars Garage, designed by Joe Evangelista, Joe Meno and Stephan Sander, again well-known names in the LEGO community.

• 10025 — Santa Fe Cars - Set I and 10022 — Santa Fe Cars - Set II were designed by James Mathis (thanks to Erik Olson for reminding me of these two)

Also, you have to keep in mind that the line between high-profile AFOL and LEGO designer is becoming very thin, and some people have crossed that line (Pierre Normandin, for example). As such, can't it be said that the sets they design now are created by fans? Designers are fans in their own right!

Also, in addition of the fans-turned-designers, LEGO does invite fans for workshops from time to time. Theire influence on 10194 — Emerald Night for instance is obvious, if only for them pushing LEGO to make big train wheels.

So, the line between fan and designer is blurry, and that's for the better.

Answer 2

If I recall correctly, it started in 2007 with LEGO's initiative called LEGO Factory, where fans were invited to compete in designing models using LEGO Digital Designer. The winners would then have their entries made into the very first fan-designed commercial LEGO sets.

Today, LEGO Factory is superseded by Design by Me. It follows a similar concept, except not in a competitive sense but a personal sense. This means you or your child can use LDD to design a set, share it, and even create custom box art for it, and have it ship right to your door, just as if you ordered a set from the LEGO online store itself.

I believe there were previous events that resulted in fan creations being marketed and mass-produced, but models created in the Factory competition and Design by Me initiative are not mass-produced.

Answer 3

Set 3739 Blacksmith Shop was created by adult fan creation by Daniel Siskind, and was marketed by Lego in 2002. It was the first in the My Own Creation series.

Answer 4

Lego Cusoo is a website where you can upload pictures of your creations, and if they get enough followers,votes, they can be made into official set by Lego. So far two models have been accepted for production:

• Shinkai 6500
  
• "Hayabusa"
  

Answer 5

The Lego Design byMe program offers the opportunity to design, build, and purchase custom Lego sets by utilizing the Lego Digital Designer software.