I was talking to you ten days ago of the evolution of the Minecraft project on Cuusoo which has since exceeded 5000 supporters.
LEGO intervened on the project sheet to inform supporters that contacts were in progress with Mojang the publisher of the game. 

But Mojang has just surprised his world by taking the initiative to create his own project on Cuusoo, a project which therefore becomes a space for communication between the publisher, LEGO and Minecraft fans.

Mojang therefore confirms its growing interest in this project and also undertakes to donate to a charity the 1% of royalties provided for by the Cuusoo concept in the event of the project's success.
The instigators of the first Minecraft project were invited by Mojang to take part in the development of this partnership. We find among others suparMacho and koalaexpert, two MOCeurs at the origin of many achievements on the Minecraft theme including the visual above.

What more can be said ? I understand the enthusiasm of a whole community around these virtual bricks which would become very real with the realization of this project. I'm less a fan of Minecraft as such. No doubt I did not understand the whole point of the game ...

 I still think that we should be entitled to one or two thematic sets, a sort of tribute to the success of Minecraft and reserved for the most hardcore fans.

The general public will probably not be sensitive to this plastic adaptation of this game which is currently fashionable but of which even the players, even the most assiduous, will end up getting bored in favor of another online game.

On the AFOL side, reactions are mixed: Some welcome this project and support it while others express their annoyance at what they consider to be a betrayal on the part of LEGO, which gives in to the sirens of marketing and considers an alliance , even temporary with a concept that takes up the object of all covetousness: The brick.

So goes digital life ....

Si Lego cuusoo could be used for only one initiative, it would be this: A smart guy named sandro created a project which seems really interesting to me if not realistic, to obtain the re-edition by LEGO of the sheets of stickers from the UCS sets.

Not only do these stickers once applied have an unfortunate tendency to age very badly, but it should also be noted that very often a sticker is applied to two parts at the same time, thus preventing the disassembly of the set without forcing the destruction of said sticker.

You just have to take a look at Bricklink to see that the stickers from the UCS Star Wars sets are selling for a high price, my wallet still remembers:

The sticker sheet (10019stk01) for the 10019 LEGO Star Wars UCS Rebel Blockade Runner set retails between € 79 and € 138 ...
The identification sticker (10179stk01) for the LEGO Star Wars UCS Millennium Falcon 10179 set sells for between € 52 and € 93 ...
The sticker sheet (10129stk01) for the 10129 LEGO Star Wars UCS rebel SnowSpeeder set sells for over € 100 ...
The sticker sheet (7191stk01) for the 7191 LEGO Star Wars UCS X-Wing set retails between 175 and 250 € ...

These prices are clearly abusive, and are dissuasive even for the most collectors. hardcore of us. Here and there, a few initiatives aiming to offer high resolution scans of the rarest stickers have emerged. But these projects are often abandoned for lack of goodwill AFOLs ready to devote a few hours to them.

There remains the solution to have the necessary stickers printed via a photo development site or to print the necessary stickers on self-adhesive paper. But then they have to be cut out cleanly, which is not easy on some stickers like the circular ones from set 10019.
So, for my part, I support this project, which obviously has little chance of success. But this will be my way of protesting the Bricklink speculators.

The mobilization of a slew of Minecraft fans will have done the job: Cuusoo is assailed by supporters of the minecraft project, so much so that TLC had to strengthen its network of servers to better support the load generated by the invasion of a horde of players who would like to see materialize Minecraft made of LEGO bricks .....

To be clear, I don't like Minecraft. This game inspires me nothing. But the community is immense, as is often the case with online games which benefit from the fashion effect and from a passing craze that is certainly temporary but remains massive. The forums on the subject are countless and millions of people, often very young, who spend their time in this fun and graphically a little collection. 

But it must be recognized that the minecraft project on Cuusoo is the only one to really take off by dint of spam and harassment on the forums for every player to vote. There are currently more than 4700 supporters of the project. And what is even more surprising, LEGO intervened to give some information on the follow-up to this project obviously very supported by a whole community.

From November 14, 2011, LEGO intervened officially on the project and announced work on its feasibility and on a possible commercial strategy around Minecraft. LEGO designers are in charge of creating some prototypes in order to assess the opportunity to launch licensed products. Because it is indeed a license, and LEGO is in advanced contact with Mojang, an independent publisher based in Stockholm, Sweden, to negotiate a possible trade agreement. This small team of 9 people will probably have no objection to a lucrative business partnership with LEGO. Mojang understands that the fashion effect must be exploited as quickly as possible via an avalanche of derivative products and you can already acquire t-shirts, caps and other goodies bearing the image of the concept on the dedicated shop.

I think LEGO is taking this project very seriously, not because of the core interests of Minecraft, but mostly for the huge community that the game brings together. All these players are as many potential customers for LEGO which will quickly find affinities with the concept developed by Minecraft: Collective play, use of bricks, creativity, etc ....

But could LEGO go even further and acquire Minecraft? I think so. After the LEGO Universe fiasco, TLC has announced that it still wants to continue developing projects in the field of video games through partnerships similar to those concluded with TT Games and Warner Bros. By absorbing Mojang, LEGO would obtain a large community to satisfy in derivative products and above all prevent other competing manufacturers from getting involved ...

The title got you reading these lines, so let's go: Imagine a set containing 99 Stormtroopers and 1 Black-Chrome Darth Vader ... Recognize that would be tempting, especially when you look at the image above ...

Stop dreaming, this is just the second great idea of ​​the day on Cuusoo which definitely surprises me today.

On the other hand, I would not comment on the speech of the guy who posted this idea on Cuusoo : He is scattered in conjectures on the fact that if his idea was really published in the form of a set by LEGO, he would donate his 1% of royalties to the victims of Fukushima ...

Although I am always sensitive to humanitarian actions, I do not necessarily adhere to this kind of awareness technique, however sincere it is ... So I want my Stormtroopers, the rest is none of my business.

Go take a look at this project at this address and decide for yourself if you should support it, anyway there must be a 0,00001% chance that someday some guy from LEGO will take a look. And even less that I can get my bucket of Stormtroopers for a decent price ....

I have often criticized Lego cuusoo for the ambient disorder which reigns there and for the lack of moderation of the entries which are deposited there by AFOLs in search of various and varied demands.

I came across despite everything an initiative which seems interesting to me and proposed by napachon. It concerns the creation of new pieces to meet certain very specific uses, in particular with regard to the creation in SNOT (Stud Not On Top), which has become fashionable in recent years. Criticized by some, SNOT brings LEGO constructions closer to the world of the model. This technique allows a more consistent finish of some models and allows the creation of truly flat surfaces when the reproduction of certain environments requires it.

LEGO purists, a little nostalgic for a time when pieces were not as numerous in the manufacturer's range, often remain very attached to the presence of studs on their models, as a claim of belonging to a universe of pieces designed to fit together, and formalized by the presence of these growths on the surface of the models.

But today, the imagination of MOCeurs goes further and further into the realism of reproduction and new pieces allow ever more successful construction and finishing techniques. SNOT makes it possible to finalize these creations in a visually very homogeneous way. With this technique the MOCeurs no longer seek to create with LEGO, but to create with LEGO to obtain an object that becomes a model or a reproduction and whose realism is taken to the extreme.

Napachon presents some ideas for parts that could improve the use of SNOT with for example a part with studs on both sides. It also presents some other ideas for parts that would allow a more realistic design and less constraining in terms of shape and final thickness with the wings of planes as an example.

I am not a talented MOCeur, nor a genius designer. But I think the idea developed in this Cuusoo project deserves to be taken into account and debated. LEGO also regularly offers new parts to meet specific construction needs. If an AFOL does the same, it deserves to be considered.

Do not hesitate to post your comments on the subject.