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Steamboat Willie AND Central Perk Coffee of Friends are your next LEGO Ideas sets!

LEGO Ideas just dropped what is possibly one of the biggest surprises (to me) of 2019 so far in their latest Review Results.

Two Ideas submissions have passed the review process – Steamboat Willie by szabomate90 AND The Central Perk Coffee of Friends Mric76 have both been greenlit and will be turned into LEGO Ideas sets.

The Steamboat Willie set is based on the iconic and historic cartoon of the same name which you can watch on Youtube, and should be a huge hit with Disney fans.

I’m particularly very excited by the prospect of getting mono-chromatic Mickey Mouse.

Friends is one of THE biggest and most important Sitcoms of all time, and perfectly encapsulates the mid-90s to early 2000s.

The television series was a massive hit and cultural phenomenon at the time, and I’m personally really pumped to own the set and finally own an official Chandler Bing minifigure.

Definitely one of the weirdest sentences I’ve typed on the blog, but hey, there’s always a first.

This one was a surprise for me, but I’m quite glad it passed as Friends is such a huge cultural pillar and it will be great to see it come to life in LEGO. Here’s hoping no one gets cut and we get all the characters PLUS Gunther in the set.

I hope the designers do both sets justice. There are no release dates for these sets yet, so stay tuned as the LEGO Designers now need to transform these submissions into actual designs.

Also, I can’t wait to replace all the minifigs with Friends minidolls. Surely I can’t be the only one that thought of that.

15 responses to “Steamboat Willie AND Central Perk Coffee of Friends are your next LEGO Ideas sets!”

  1. Wt says:

    Totally understand why each made it through the selection process. However, neither rock my boat. The Disney set in particular is ordinary at best. At least a coffee shop has some ability to reuse parts.

  2. Naomi says:

    I’m excited by both sets and will definitely be getting both.

    I watched every episode of Friends when it was originally broadcast and loved following their lives across the 10 years, and I watch reruns of it now and still find it as funny as I did back then. It was something I watched with friends of my own and discovered my now-husband enjoyed it as much as I did.
    I’m looking forward to seeing the Lego designer’s take on it when released, it definitely needs the Central Perk logo and Gunther!

    Mickey Mouse is my all time favourite Disney cartoon and I love the original animations the most. There’s just something so special about Steamboat Willie, and the early colour animations that came after. I do not like the direction they’ve taken new cartoons and prefer my kids to watch the old ones on YouTube than the new ones.

    Can’t wait to get both sets!

    • Jay says:

      Haha yes! I’m cautiously optimistic about Friends given that it was a huge part of my teenage years. I hope they also include a detailed exterior and sidewalk, to give us more opportunities to set up scenes. I admit it is an extremely risky move on LEGO’s part, and Central Perk is a really tough model to adapt.

      Steamboat Willie is going to be a winner – I really can’t wait to get my hands on it. The nostalgia, Disney and historic significance of it just seems like a perfect storm of success.

  3. Hammerdragon says:

    Hugely disappointing to see Friends set to be honest. Though TBBT was the one an only time we would see a set of this kind, but this just opens the floodgates imo and I think that’s a sad indictment of the way ideas is/could be heading. I’ve commented previously on Ideas sets seeming to require little or no ‘original’ thought. There’s one currently on the site that mimic’s almost exactly the recent Dragon Dance set. Seriously???!
    SBW could be an iconic set though, with the limited colour scheme and one I’ll probably invest in, provided it’s not overpriced like the Ship in a bottle was.

    • Jay says:

      Unfortunately, that’s an ongoing issue with a platform that requires a massive number of votes AND commercial viability, which is why so many pop culture sets sneak in through Ideas. It’s safe, as LEGO can tap into existing fanbases.

      It’s an interesting Gambit from LEGO, and I reckon the riskiest move they’ve made yet (apart from the Maze), so I’m quite interested in seeing how this unfolds, what the final set looks like and how the market responds.

      It doesn’t have the same overlapping “geek” audience that Big Bang Theory has, so we’ll see if it goes well.

      Steamboat Willie is going to be a winner. Can’t wait for that one.

  4. Yes for Steamboat Willy
    No for Central Perk

    Why would anybody want a Friends Lego one off set ?

    • Jay says:

      Same reason why anyone bought the Doctor Who, Big Bang Theory or countless other TV/pop culture sets – there are large fanbases to tap into.

      LEGO are probably also looking at using sets like Friends to get exposure in mainstream, entertainment media and crack segments of the market that might not’ve previously considered buying LEGO.

      Friends is a HUGE hit in the states, and still is, judging by Netflix paying US$100m to keep the series in its streaming library.

  5. Andy says:

    Friends was an important sitcom for me growing up – my Girlfriend (now Wife) and I binge-watched all the episodes on VHS tape together and got caught up with the lives of all the characters, shared in their joy and their challenges, which often reflected our own lives (Although we didn’t get a duck and a chick, and we weren’t able to somehow afford spacious Manhattan apartments with a Junior office worker and part-time actors wages…)

    So why am I not excited by this set?

    I suppose from the design it just doesn’t seem to resonate as Central Perk – yes, the layout seems accurate, but at the moment it could be any coffee shop from any modular building set. Maybe when we see the Central Perk signage and actual minifigures (I agree, we need to have Gunther, he was a key part of the series and essential for a Central Perk setup) then I might be more tempted by the set.

    • Jay says:

      Same here! Also, rewatching it recently, man, was Ross an asshole.

      Yeah, I agree that Central Perk is a really tough subject matter to translate into LEGO. Apart from the couch, it wasn’t particularly unique looking and a lot of the more subtle details will be tough to capture at that scale. I think it’ll look a lot like the Big Bang Theory. What could salvage the design is if they get the exterior right, and yes if Gunther isn’t in, it’ll be a big miss.

      That said, I’m really keen to see how the designers tackle this challenge! I’ll refrain from judgement until I see the actual finished product!

  6. Josh says:

    We don’t need more licensed sets from LEGO Ideas. I am really upset about how many NASA, TV Show, and Licensed sets we’ve had in LEGO Ideas.

    • Jay says:

      It’s a catch 22 – non-licensed sets have a harder time getting to 10,000 votes, and also can’t tap into existing fanbases, which further add more risk of a set not performing commercially.

  7. Ilyas says:

    Gutted that the ISS didn’t make it btw

  8. Ilyas says:

    It must be me, but I never laughed at one Friends joke…im more a Seinfeld fan

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