Last week’s LEGO Ideas review saw a record 54 projects rejected in one go – and that’s a pretty expensive result for the LEGO Group.

While successful LEGO Ideas fan designers go on to receive 1% of the total net sales of the official set they inspire (along with 10 complimentary copies), those 10K club members whose designs fall at the final hurdle don’t walk away with nothing.

According to the LEGO Ideas guidelines, builders behind projects that aren’t approved during review receive up to three LEGO products totalling $500 in combined value as a consolation prize. That means the LEGO Group will need to give away up to $27,000 of products as a result of the first 2021 review.

In the grand scheme of things, $27,000 isn’t really going to hurt the LEGO Group’s bottom line. For reference, its operating profit in the first half of 2021 reached a staggering $1.25 billion. But the past three LEGO Ideas reviews have included a total of 107 projects, all but five of which were rejected at the last step – totalling a whopping $51,000 given away in consolation prizes.

For now, the LEGO Group has resisted making any sweeping changes to the Ideas platform to reduce the number of projects reaching the 10K threshold, but the pace at which they’re continuing to do so – another 34 ideas qualified for the second 2021 review last month – may yet lead to ‘potential changes’ further down the line.

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