Lego Design by me : A Swan song...

Lego Design by is closing up shop on January 16th 2012.   Why is Lego Design by me closing shop on 16th Jan 2012?  Who knows...

They've cited cost reasons, frustrated children with models that fall apart... With the demise of Lego Universe I can only assume Lego Chief Executives have had a meeting and decided that to maximize profitability withdraw any products or services which aren't as profitable.

Personally I think Lego Universe is a great game - but the wrong game.  Lego Design by me is a great service though - the problem is it is too expensive.  There are better ways Lego Design by me could have addressed this than shutting up shop though! 

First of all, offer several levels of Lego Design by me service.  A basic where you get a bag of bits and print your own instructions and box cover off.  A Lego Design by me 'silver' where you get the bag of bits, the standard box and printed instructions and a gold Lego Design by me service which includes the glossy cover for the box with your custom lettering.

I just hope Lego Design be me is continued in some similar form once they've got their act together. The prices were supposed to come down once more people were buying and auto-picking robots could be used - but Lego Design by me never had enough customers to warrant the cost.  A vicious circle really...

My nephew was very impressed with my Space Patrol Set when he saw me building it a few weeks ago.  So because Lego Design by me is ending I decided to design and build him a Lego Design by me custom Lego Set for Christmas.  An expensive present - but it's my last chance to order a set and his last chance to own one.

I don't think he'll read this blog - so I think it's safe to show you an image of the model.  I called it the LCX1 Fighter (His initials are L.C.) and I just had room to make the box say Designed by MS for Luke.

Lego Design by me Custom Lego Set : LCX1 Fighter

All in all I'm very sad that Lego Design by me is ending, Lego Design by me was probably the best service or product that Lego was offering.  I can see the issue - designing models looks easy - but to make sure your Lego Design by me model will be solid and not fall apart needs an eye for detail, a lot of patience and a great deal of thought.

It's not easy - but it's enjoyable, whether I shall enjoy Lego Digital Designer as much now that you can't purchase your Lego Design by me model - I really don't know...

Lego Design by me : Plagiarism, in the gallery?

I've found increasingly a number of people have been copying and re-branding my Space Patrol set in the Lego Design by me Gallery!

They say imitation is the purest form of flattery, but taking my Lego Design by me set and renaming it - then implying it's YOUR Lego Design by me set isn't cool!  I may be over reacting to this - I'm not sure how it works - maybe people are downloading it and calling it something else because they want to name it something different or add a different crew... I don't know... It does annoy me!

If you want to help and vote for my model then you need to create a Lego Design by me account to access Lego Design by me, then go to the Lego Design by me Gallery Then do a search for :-

Space Patrol

Click on the one that looks like my model and the username should read martynstanley, I'd appreciate any votes incredibly!  Even if just to rank it higher than the copies!

Incidentally, if anyone likes Lego and would like to own my Lego Design by me Space Patrol set - then go ahead and buy it! - I would be really flattered, and would love to think there's a small fleet of 'Space Patrol' Lego Design by me ships around the world.

I don't promote myself to be the greatest Lego Design by me designer ever - I just like doing Lego Design by me and wanted to share.  It is a good Lego Design by me set - the guns fall off too easily - but apart from that it's great, and your 8 - 12 year old Lego Space fan will love it, even though it is a Lego Design by me set.

Lego Design by me packaging and box quality.

One thing I haven't talked about yet is the quality of the packaging and the print quality of the box you get when you buy a Lego Design by me set.  First things first, I'll explain what you get with a Lego Design by me set.  What you get is a large, standard Lego Design by me set box - with a glossy, printed wrap around cover to go over the top.

I presume this keeps the costs down for Lego Design by me, but the overall quality is excellent.  If anything the finished printed Lego Design by me box is better quality than it looks like it will be when you design it.

The Lego Design by me, box design interface is pretty easy to use - easier than the Lego Digital Designer you used to create the model anyway.  You can add a title and who designed it - I would say more characters to use in the title would have been nice.  On the Lego Design by me box interface you get a series of graphics and backgrounds you can add - and you can create a different picture for the front and the back of your custom box.

I was very pleased with my Lego Design by me set, from the model, to print quality of the box.  It isn't like a production set - you get all 500 bits in one bag and you take a while to sort them out.  The Lego Design by me auto generated instructions are not perfect - they are good!

Lego Design by me - Box & Model

Lego Design by me box - Front Cover

Lego Design by me - back of box

Lego Design by me - back of box with model.

Lego Design by me - Instructions and packing list.

Lego Design by me - Instructions and model

Lego Design by me - Later part of instructions

Lego Design by me - Final page of Instructions

Lego Design by me - Model with Box and glossy sleeve/cover.

Lego Design by me - Model and box

Lego Design by me - Model with removeable roof off.

Lego Design by me - Rear view showing gunner.

Lego Design by me - Crew comprising Pilot, Navigator, Captain and Gunner from left to right.

Lego Design by me - Pilots cockpit 

Lego Design by me - Front view - Pilot in foreground

I've included some pictures of the Lego Design by me box so you can see the quality.