LEGO BrickLink Designer Program Series 1 designs tweaked slightly
Some minor changes to the descriptions of the five LEGO sets soon to be crowdfunded suggest small changes may have been made to the original designs.
The piece counts on all five of the sets in Series 1 of the LEGO BrickLink Designer Program have changed slightly, suggesting that minor changes could have been made to the original fan-made designs ahead of their crowdfunding, which will open on February 7. The changes are only slight, with none altering more than 70 pieces, in line with the idea that the BrickLink Designer Program holds close to the original design. Here’s a quick summary of the changes.
| Set name | Original piece count | Current piece count | Change in pieces | Original minifigures | Current minifigures |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Snack Shack | 548 | 539 | -9 | 1 | 2 |
| General Store | 1,848 | 1,906 | 58 | 5 | 5 |
| Parisian Street | 3,465 | 3,532 | 67 | 7 | 7 |
| Mountain Fortress | 3,986 | 3,995 | 9 | 7 | 9 |
| Old Train Engine Shed | 2,298 | 2,331 | 33 | 6 | 6 |
Parisian Street has the biggest change in piece counts, increasing by 67 parts. All in all, the changes appear to be slight and are generally increasing in size, suggesting either added extra detail or perhaps some fine-tuning to the mechanisms to create a stable, working build. The images on each of the set listings have remained the same, suggesting that the piece changes are not going to overly impact the appearance of the sets, from what we can see at this stage.
Indeed, the designer of the Snack Shack, Stefan, answered a few questions over on reddit and mentioned that “all sets have gone through testing and were adjusted were needed to guarantee a good building experience.” This would suggest that the changes in piece counts are due to stability or quality issues that came up in testing, rather than any major style alterations.
Further down on the reddit post, Stefan also added: “We all had to make changes to our models to make sure they’re up to LEGO’s standard quality and everything was tested with real bricks.
The more significant change outside of the piece counts is the increase in minifigures in two sets, Snack Shack and Mountain Fortress. The former has doubled its minifigure population from one to two, while the latter has increased from seven to nine. The presence of extra minifigures suggests more of a design-focused update than a quality one, as each character would of course need a fresh design that presumably the original designer would have headed up or at least signed off on.
Stefan confirmed that he was behind the introduction of another minifigure to his Snack Shack, writing: “Mine includes two [minifigures], but only one is pictured for now. I was allowed to add another during the refining process.” The ‘for now’ there suggests that more images of the updated sets could well be on the way, likely before the crowdfunding phase starts on February 7.
There’s no indication in the pictures or the descriptions for either of the sets what the new minifigures might look like but, seeing as these changes to piece counts and minifigures came fairly quietly, keep your eyes on the BrickLink Designer Program website. It appears that updates are still coming through for the sets through edits like these.
Catch up on everything you need to know about the LEGO BrickLink Designer Program Series 1 in our general explainer here.
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