Did LEGO Steal the NES Set Design?

Beyond the Brick's Joshua Hanlon and Brian Saviano discuss the controversy over LEGO "stealing" design ideas from fans.

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[lanSoriano]

I love that everybody else in the interview is more focused on building a lego set more than the interview itself

[BrickTsar]

Things like coincidence and chance go away when you are dealing with a population of 8 billion people. It’s virtually impossible to make a LEGO set based on an existing structure, building, person, tv show, etc that somebody else hasn’t already done the same thing or something similar somewhere on the planet. One might think that the LEGO art series stole the idea for the Marilyn Monroe and The Beatles - but actually it’s common for artist to put their own spin on something. So it’s not stealing. Inspiration like you said. You’ll never convince the hardcore detractors though. It’s like getting a flat earther to believe the truth

[chuckschwa]

I think it's funny how all these idea stealing conspiracies always revolve around a preexisting IP like a movie and never someone's original character or creation

[yackablejohnson]

even if LEGO was inspired, their end product looks nothing like the fan build. The fan build is the beta, and its light years behind.

[SuperMandoLive]

People always try to find something to complain about. Why would they steal someone else's build? Inspired I could see but both builds are too different to say that they stole it.

[its_Santini]

I built a Lego X-Wing once in the mid-90's. I think they might've stolen Star Wars from me!

[qactustick]

You're not gonna be able to change the mind of anyone who's convinced that TLG stole this idea. Even definitive proof isn't enough to change someone's mind a lot of the time, especially when it comes to 'the little guy' vs. a big company like Lego.

[HUDBRICKS]

I saw the resemblance before and I do think LEGO saw this but they didn’t copy it.

[woodyplays]

Hey beyond the brick love the channel!!😁

[MrMOCsProductionsRebellug]

I understand the point that is being made about the production process taking a long time. Does seeing an existing design not shave off some of that time though?

[andreworders]

I got the video of the talk with Brandon Jones first and then looked up if he was involved with the LEGO NES or if it was just a coincidence. Took me here.

[howl]

Why do rumors like these CONSTANTLY surface? Like when you consider how long product design takes and given the fact the fan model and legos model are based on the same source material, obviously there are going to be similarities. It also just wouldn’t make sense from a business perspective to blatantly steal a design. Everyone is always looking for the next controversy and a reason to complain and I’m frankly getting sick of it

[bigginsd]

As others have said, stealing your idea of making a set based on other people’s ideas (movies, television shows, video games) kind of lacks credibility.
Jurassic Park set with brick built T-Rex = stolen off a fan?
Ghostbusters set with film’s key building = stolen off a fan?
Retro video game with retro TV set = stolen off a fan?
So the alternative is LEGO shutting down Ideas because they can’t be bothered with the headache of “fan” backlash? They stop engaging with the fan base and stop attending conventions? It feels like Toxic Fandom creeping into another area of pop culture. When you have an entirely original idea (of which none of those continually cited are) that you anything approaching a point to your argument, most of the time these reactions aren’t coming from the MOC designers anyway.

[sheilaolfieway]

I doubt they stole the design, but I'm not against them maybe taking some inspiration from it and then maybe integrated some ideas that were similar, i mean you can clearly see a difference in the build the TVS are different the NES replicas are different heck even the controllers are different. Inspired, maybe. stolen, no. Unless the guy who made the first one posted his exact instructions on how to build it online, Lego can't possibly have 'stolen' it.

[DragonMasterSubo]

An NES set? Sure. Similar TV style with the antenna and brown/black/grey coloring? Maybe. Rotating stage 1 with moving mario? uh... Using almost the exact same way to make said rotating stage? yeah....

They at least were 'inspired' by this person. And saying 'inspired' is being generous. They might have had some idea for this set beforehand, but they more than likely changed some things based on this fan set.

[Phyzzius]

One of the main arguments seems to be that it takes a long time to develop a set, but it's not a very strong one. The LEGO Ideas line shows that they're capable of taking a concept and turning it into a product within about a year.

You claim that people who see a conspiracy here are too far from Billund and disconnected from the designers, but to me it actually sounds like the opposite: you guys may be a little bit too close to LEGO. You're not even the least bit skeptical, which, given the obvious similarity between the two models, seems strange to me.

It seems likely to me that the collaboration with Nintendo was already on its way, so I won't go so far to say that LEGO necessarily 'stole' anything. However, the likeness to this guy's model is just too big (imho) to believe the LEGO designers did not at least drew heavy inspiration from it. And if that's the case, it's a shame they wouldn't recognize that

[lewiswilliams]

Obviously this was a stolen idea idk why anyone is talking about this. Yeah the usual production process takes 2years but when there's a detailed video online of an already existing idea then that 2 years will be drastically shorter. Idk how you can look at these two side by side and say that the design wasn't stolen

[jjsrt]

What do you want Lego to pay you for an idea that's not even yours. Mario is owned by Ninetendo good luck getting their blessings to license a product that you don't Even own. If anything be flattered and maybe Lego should give you a set for free.

[levonharut]

One year is enough to create a set. They could have ideas for mario sets, and other play sets can be in production for years, but they also can just add this set because they have seen Brandon's moc and find this idea cool.

[brotherfromanotherbrick]

OMG, they totally ripped it off, just look at the play function. People don't understand, it doesnt always take 2 years to make a set, sometimes it's 6 months, sometimes it's a year.