I don't know how to embed a tweet, but you can find the relevant information here. It will be available on January 1st 2022 for $69.99 / £59.99 / €69.99, and while it doesn't quite match the original pitch, I hope you find the design we were able to produce to be of interest! --- ORIGINAL POST BELOW --- Hi y'alls. There isn't exactly a great pre-existing place to share this, so I'm taking a chance that General Sonic Discussion works. If it doesn't, please move it elsewhere! The original design. LEGO Ideas is a service run by the company of the same name that allows people to submit concepts for potential new sets. If a bunch of people vote up the idea within the duration of the campaign, there's a good chance it'd get turned into an actual set release. A bunch of concepts for different things have already passed through the system - various media franchises and a bunch of space exploration vehicles, for example. Kind of like Kickstarter, but without any exchange of money while they're gathering support, and the time limit gets extended when enough people have supported it. Projects have reached 10,000 supporters and been rejected before, but LEGO and SEGA have already teamed up once for a very low-key affair, so I don't see any major obstacles if this gets off the ground. There's quite a bit of a write-up in the campaign's description, but here's a little extra just for Retro: if you're looking at that image and going "yeah yeah, why is it another Green Hill?", it's because that is straight up the most popular level of the franchise. Sure, Studiopolis, Flying Battery, and Titanic Monarch are richer themes, but I'm not sure any of those have mass-market appeal quite like this zone does, given it's *the* iconic environment everyone thinks of. Plus, it means I get to include a giant boss machine for Eggman to pilot that has plenty of opportunities for action functions, as is in the true spirit of LEGO. If you're interested, why not click the link in the above paragraph and check it out? I'd be happy to answer any questions yalls'd have. Thanks for reading!
You definitely got my support! I've been wanting a Sonic lego set for a very long time, and I'm shocked it hasn't even happened yet. Seeing how many supporters you've got so far I can see us getting a set in the future. :D Well done Roller, this looks great!
The way I see it, if this set gets approved, more could be made, including ones based on Studiopolis, Flying Battery and Titanic Monarch (excellent choices BTW).
I'm sorry to be the curmudgeon here, but I really cannot buy that Green Hill reasoning at all. The series has been basted in Green Hill remakes and clones and recycled nostalgia in general over this entire decade, and that's just the main products. God knows how much Green Hill-themed merchandise and tie-in material we have floating around already. Picking Green Hill (again) on the basis of "most iconic zone in series" feels like a creative cop-out to me. Assuming this pitch was a collaboration between Sega and Lego, I honestly even question if whoever was managing this project was allowed to use any zone other than Green Hill for the pitch by Sega/Sonic Team executives in the first place. (Please correct me if I'm wrong on this.) I especially don't see the point of even using the Mania brand for a set based on a zone that as of late, has been constantly spread out across all facets of the Sonic brand in the first place. Green Hill certainly isn't something unique to the classic Sonic division of the series anymore, let alone specific to Mania as of this point. You could easily bill this as a Forces set if you just tweaked the paint job for the sets to look more accurate to the bleaker atmosphere for that game, or even a Generations set without changing one thing--both games have Green Hill and Death Egg Robots, after all. If the people handling the project really had the Mania license and the chance to pick any zone for their pitch forf a Mania-themed Lego set, and they settled on Green Hill; instead of something actually unique to the game itself like Studiopolis or Mirage Saloon? Then with all due respect, that comes across as a waste of the Mania brand to me. Even a set based on the more obscure classic zones in that game, like Oil Ocean or Hydrocity, would meet the qualifications of being both a more inspired pick, and the use of the Mania label would making more sense, since the game also pays respects towards the less recognized elements of the Genesis games as well as the widely celebrated elements. All of that aside, I do think it is otherwise a rather cute set; and if it does somehow get enough support to be greenlit into production (and do make Lego sets for other less-saturated zones), they don't have any acrimony for me if they succeed at their goal. I really don't mean to have any animosity towards the people putting this pitch together and trying to sell it. It's just the Green Hill reasoning is just broadly reflective of a issue I've been having with the series as a whole as of late.
Thanks for your detailed feedback, Yeow. The pitch was designed entirely by me alone, someone who is affiliated with neither SEGA or LEGO, and I made my reasoning based on the desire to have something that hit as many bases as possible. I only really had one shot at making a reasonable splash out of nowhere, and I was concerned that anything that wasn't immediately obvious as representing the series as a whole wouldn't quite catch on; perhaps a reflection of my own insecurities stifling potential innovation. It's absolutely true that the Mania branding on the concept isn't the full utilisation of the sub-franchise, and it's something I really struggled with when prototyping this concept. I have ideas for ways Studiopolis could have been handled, for example, but it would have lacked the immediate punchy sell of "giant robot you can sit Eggman in" and "the zone everyone recognises" that led me to propose this concept. Much appreciated to everyone else who has supported. The quick rise in just a few hours has definitely been interesting to experience!
Just wanted to add that this is fucking amazing and I'm astonished you created this yourself - it's photo realistically good and shows some serious skill! Echoing Yeow a little also as I tend to agree - perhaps a compromise could be made to choose a more inspired zone for the next/subsequent set - for example Studiopolis which is signature Sonic Mania? Even so this is just incredible and I hope you sky rocket to the 10K votes you need. You have my support - and I'm certain all of Retro with this too. EDIT: Just created an account so I could vote. I was supporter number 450! EDIT: I was going to relay this to ResetEra but there's a user there that has already posted it in the Sonic community thread and also the dedicated LEGO thread. You'll be getting some votes from Era however for sure.
That's great! I've supported it. I love how the Death Egg Robot actually has an Eggman inside it! Whilst we're talking about Sonic Lego, has anyone had a go at recreating Sonic-related stuff from Lego Dimensions? Badniks and such. The physical Tornado model is slightly smaller than the in-game version. Does anyone have build instructions for creating a game-accurate version of the Tornado, that can actually fit a minifigure inside? EDIT: Yuji Naka likes this: https://twitter.com/nakayuji/status/1099822056991019009
I made an account just to support you, I think this is really well thought out! I would love to see this make it to production. I'll gladly be a total manchild and buy myself a set, maybe one for my buddy too!
Signed up and took the survey to let them know why I signed up. I've never been much of a LEGO guy, but I would certainly buy a Sonic set. Good luck with the campaign, Roller!
I saw this pop up on Facebook a few days ago! I didn't realize it was something still in progress! I thought this was incredibly cute when I saw it.
Thank you so much, everyone! I am pretty dang humbled by Yuji Naka's support in particular, but every comment is appreciated. The first 24 hours just ended and we're basically 9% of the way to the goal. I don't see that moving super quickly further unless we get highlighted by a major gaming news outlet like IGN, Kotaku, Polygon or something, but I'm still super proud thing'sve moved quite a distance in that short a time. Pengi - unfortunately I don't think it's possible to extract alternate builds from LEGO games as Travellers Tales tend to "flatten" a multi-brick build into a single mesh. It is fairly easy to move around the parts on the "back" of the Tornado to allow for four clear studs for Sonic to sit on, though!
I created an account to support it. That concept looks incredible and I really want it to be made reality.
1.1K supporters and increasing! 1K is an important milestone also as it grants a significant time extension of an extra 6 months to reach the next target of 5K. Amazing that this time yesterday I was supporter 450 and support has more than doubled since then. Honestly hope it rockets to over 10K and this gets rapidly green-lit. Best of luck.
I love this set idea. It's so much more crisp than the other Green Hill zone Lego concepts. My question is what did you use to design it? and do you have instructions? (obviously not including the special pieces)
Your support is strongly appreciated, saintminya, 360, and qwertysonic. I probably shouldn't be surprised that people keep on saying they love the project after 1.7k people (!!!!) have done so already, but it's still novel each time it happens. qwertysonic - I used LEGO Digital Designer (discontinued software and I think its installer is now broken in the latest Windows 10 update) to prototype the first few versions and create Eggman's initial concept, then Studio 2.0 to build the level geometry, Flickies, Motobug and Death Egg Robo. I don't have instructions for the full thing, but the latest Update in the updates tab contains a dissection of how the spring mechanism works. Speaking of the latest update, I added a F.A.Q. - probably nothing you guys need to worry about, but still sharing here just in case a little overdetailed exploration and explanation of some stuff I thought about while designing it seems interesting to you.
Project has now hit 2,500 supporters, so it's 1/4 of the way to being fully supported - congrats to Roller/toastergrl for hitting this milestone so quickly! If any of Retro folks know anyone else who'd be interested in this set that hasn't supported it yet, now's probably a good time to get sharing that link~ ...Not that I'm suggesting that out of my own selfish desire to be able to purchase this set eventually or anything, haha. ; )
Thank you very much, McAleeCh! Apologies for not responding quickly; I had hoped we could eke another milestone in there before I updated the thread to avoid wasting everyone's time with new posts from me that didn't have much substantial content beyond self-congratulation, so your marking of 2,500 was appreciated. Speaking of substantial content, though - I just updated yesterday with a behind-the-scenes look at designing Eggman/Robotnik's build process, and I figure y'alls might be interested in that, given he was one of the common points of praise for my build! Perhaps altogether too many words, BUT I know Retro has a thing for in-depth dives into minutae... ;D We're currently a hair under 3k a tad before a week has passed. Things have been slowing down a bit, but I'm thankful for the support everyone has shown already.
