Bricklink Designer Program Round 2 opens soon – everything you need to know!

October 24, 2021 | 9

Bricklink has revealed all the details about Round 2 of the Bricklink Designer Program which opens on 9 November 2021, with pricing, and set details all revealed.

This is the second round of Bricklink’s Designer Program, an invitational program that gives rejected, un-licensed LEGO Ideas set a second chance at being turned into a LEGO set. Round 2 includes 8 new option to be crowdfunded, with the first 5 to hit 3,000 pre-orders, proceeding to being turned into actual sets.

Round 2 opens on 9 November 2021 12:00 pm Pacific / 9:00pm CET, and here in Australia, 7:00am AEDT (10 November), and if it’s like previous rounds, some sets will get crowdfunded and sold out incredibly quickly.

Sets offered in Round 2 will ship starting August 2022, so be prepared that it’ll be a lengthy wait before you receive them. Note: you’ll only be charged when your order is shipped.

There will be a limit of 1x copy per household, and there will be 10,000 copies of each set produced, which is a slight bump of 5,000 from Round 1, which of course was expanded with an extra round of 5,000 sets following popular demand.

There’s a LOT on offer here, and is one of the most expensive Bricklink Designer Program rounds yet – if you pre-order all the sets, it’ll cost you US$1781 in total for all sets (note: only 5 will make it out of this round).

• Mountain Windmill (2,085 pieces) – $179.99
• Modular LEGO Store (2,149 pieces) – $179.99
• Science Adventures (414 pieces) – $35.99
• Seasons in Time: Calendar (3,010 pieces) – $249.99
• Retro Bowling Alley (2,779 pieces) – $229.99
• Brickwest Studios (3,741 pieces) – $279.99
• Venetian Houses (3470 pieces) – $289.99
• Ruined House (4,002 pieces) – $299.99
• Clockwork Aquarium (874 pieces) – $64.99
• Quest Builder (3,415 pieces) – $259.99

Update: Unfortunately due to the Rust set tragedy, Bricklink have decided to swap out Brickwest Studios for Venetian Houses

Personally, I have my sights on the Brickwest Studios as I have a love affair for Western LEGO sets, but I also really like the Retro Bowling Alley, Mountain Windmill, and I really hope Science Adventurers, designed by Ellen Kooijman, who designed the Research Institute Ideas set and Women of NASA sets.

The Ruined House also looks brilliant, but it’s also the most expensive set out of the lot – but would look amazing as a base for a Zombie or Urban Warfare MOC.

Here’s a look at all the sets vying to make it out of the Bricklink Designer Program Round 2!

Mountain Windmill (2,085 pieces) – $179.99

High in the Boratis Mountains, built between the two tallest peaks, stands the windmill. How the windmill came to be there, its purpose, and who inhabited it (if anyone) were all unknown—or long forgotten. 

One day, far below in the Valley of Gales, a young villager happens upon a lost map that reveals a hidden path up the mountain. He sets out with one goal… to unravel the mystery of the windmill on the mountains… 

Modular LEGO Store (2,149 pieces) – $179.99

The main concept is a stand-alone LEGO® Store that is about to open after a long period of renovations in an old building in New York. A two-story-high beautiful Pick-A-Brick wall is the main feature of the store.

The storefront has a few notable features such as big show windows, doors, huge red and yellow bricks, and the rooftop with technic gears which epitomize how the old building was upcycled here. It shows that the building used to be a small toy factory.

Unlike other modular buildings whose interior design has to be hidden by the bricks, the inside of the store can be seen easily thanks to the nice daylighting coming from the windows.

In your modular town, it’s time to place a LEGO store filled with LEGO products you love. It will make you happy whenever you see it.

Science Adventures (414 pieces) – $35.99

Join the scientists on their research adventures! 

• The geologist explores the mountains to locate important minerals and unravel the processes that have shaped the Earth. 
• The wildlife biologist is on a jungle expedition to study the tiger in its natural habitat. 
• The archaeologist investigates bones and artifacts to uncover the secrets of an ancient civilization. 

This set consists of three vignettes of scientists in their outdoor work environment. The small settings are built on 6×6 base plates, and each scientist comes with a set of tools and equipment required for their research. The accompanying booklet will provide short descriptions of the respective research fields. This set combines an educational aspect with a fun building experience and has plenty of play value. The presented set consists of 188 parts. Please support if you would like to see it as a real product! 

Geologist Dr. Coyman is examining an unusual rock formation. Some work with the rock hammer is needed to find out what is inside! 

Biologist Dr. Miller is hiding behind a nearby bush when a thirsty Siberian tiger shows up to drink from a puddle of water. A perfect opportunity to study its behavior up-close! 

Archaeologist Dr. Yates made an extremely interesting historical find of a fully preserved skeleton and real gold coins. Will this provide the final clue in understanding the ways of the ancient people who lived here? 

Seasons in Time: Calendar (3,010 pieces) – $249.99

This functional calendar allows you to change the day, date and month. Plus, it comes with seasonal and holiday specific vignettes to place on top throughout the year!

This build—which wouldn’t look out of place on any desk, table or mantle piece—is made from approximately 3000 LEGO pieces. As the seasons change, so does the calendar!

For the top of the calendar are buildable vignettes, one for each season!

• Spring
• Summer
• Autumn
• Winter

Plus unique buildable vignettes for holiday specific scenes including:

• Birthdays
• Chinese New Year
• Valentine’s Day
• Christmas
• Halloween

The Calendar even includes a drawer to store parts in, making the parts easily accessible for season and scene changes. What ideas do you have for holidays and scenes you’d like to add on top?

Retro Bowling Alley (2,779 pieces) – $229.99

Features

• – Classic street sign 
• – Large bowling pin pillars 
• – Fully detailed kitchen with milkshake machine 
• – Several printed tiles including a classic score sheet 
• – 2 exclusive bowling outfit torsos 
• – Gold, silver, and bronze bowling ball trophy shelf 
• – Gumball machine 
• – And more! 

Brickwest Studios (3,741 pieces) – $279.99

Welcome to Brickwest Studios. Here, you can become a true film director, actor, makeup artist or any other job in the cinema world. 

Direct the cameras to the best position, place the lights, and move the elements of the scene to get the best results.

A cinema set with many elements such as the saloon, windmill, water tank, and latrine. It also includes other cinematographic elements such as the cargo van with the mobile dressing room, props of the scene, cameras, and other camera mounts, like traveling or steady cam. 

Get your best disposition to shoot your film in a set that suggests some new prints and color change in pieces such as the lamps, doors of the van, as well as the minifigures. 

10 minifigures are suggested for the set: sheriff, director, bandit, makeup artist or the woman innkeeper, 2 horses, a hen, a scorpion, a snake, a pig and a frog. 

Moments to recreate and create stories from the past to the present, stories from the Wild Wild West. I hope you like it a lot, and if so, do not hesitate to support it. Thank you very much everybody. 

Ruined House (4,002 pieces) – $299.99

Main features

The set has been designed onto two baseplates (32×32 and 16×32). The house comprises a front entrance, backyard, ground floor, first floor and gable roof. The walls are made with clay bricks coated with plaster. The building’s masonry is greatly shattered, partially collapsed and ruined by aging and severe weather conditions, making visible many of the bricks under the plaster coating and a lot of cracks.  

Front entrance: In front of the house, there is a big broken tree trunk, which is next to some agricultural rusty tools. Vegetation, masonry and window panes surround the entrance, blocking the access to the house. 

Backyard: The backyard is on the right side of the house. It is surrounded by a partially collapsed wall, yet still enwrapping a large tree that has grown up without control and that it menaces to fall onto the house. Next to the tree there is an old wooden bench. A brown toad is hidden at the bottom of the backyard. 

Ground floor: An old kitchen and a dining room can be distinguished on the ground floor. The kitchen still keeps a broken sink, pair of cupboards, small gas stove and fireplace. Some wooden beams of the first floor hang from the ceiling, while others have already fallen onto the kitchen. A door provides access to the dining room, in which there is a wooden staircase partially detached from the wall, that provides access to the first floor. 

First floor: The first floor is so shattered that the rooms cannot be distinguished. The floor has great holes everywhere, showing the beams beneath. Very few objects remain on the floor, like a small chest of drawers for example.  

Roof: The roof is made of clay roof tiles that have lost their original colour over time. Large pieces of roof have fallen onto the lower floors, leaving great holes behind. The fireplace’s chimney, although visibly deteriorated, still stands on the roof. 

Clockwork Aquarium (874 pieces) – $64.99

The aquarium rests on a stately cabinet that has elaborate details all around with an ornate topper. The cabinet doors open for easy access to the internal mechanisms and the accessories stored within: fish food and chemical containers. The aquarium tank, back drop, and topper are designed to be easily separated by using tiles and reduced stud plates. This provides even better access to the internal mechanism and makes it easy to replace the background, inside features, and/or creatures. The mechanism is very robust and smooth. It involves a combination of gears, links, and a cam. My hope is to include at least 2 backgrounds and possibly 2 complete themes in the box.

Quest Builder (3,415 pieces) – $259.99

I am glad you found your way to this fantasy set with a multitude of options. No one knows what adventures your heroes will have. No one knows what dangers or monsters they will encounter on their journeys and quests.

Are they on a treasure hunt? Are they on a quest to eliminate the evil bonelord, or are they simply curious and want to unravel the mysteries of an abandoned keep? No one knows what lies hidden in the forgotten rooms. No one knows how far the cellars extend into the lower layers of the earth. No one knows except YOU, Quest Builder!

With this set you can create your own dungeons and lairs for the heroes to investigate. There are hundreds of possible layouts and setups. You can place the rooms in any sequence desired to create the lair you like. The pictures show just a few examples of what you could create.

And that’s it for the 8 projects vying to be crowdfunded!

Round 2 opens on the Bricklink Designer Program site 9 November 2021 12:00 pm Pacific / 9:00pm CET, and here in Australia, 6:00am AEDT (10 November).

Which one of these projects will you be looking to crowdfund?

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