Lego Crowdsources Its Way to New Toys

Brent Waller spent his childhood crafting plastic brick versions of characters from television shows and movies such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Batman. Now 35, the Australian Lego fan has gotten so good at playing with the toys that the company soon will start selling one of his designs. Waller’s creation, a miniature of the Cadillac ambulance from Bill Murray’s 1984 comedy Ghostbusters, will hit shelves in June and sell for $49.99 in the U.S. His set is one of six that have sprung from a Lego crowdsourcing website where consumers can propose designs. “It’s any Lego fan’s dream to have an official set they created,” says Waller, a video game developer in Brisbane.

With the help of the Internet and social media, crowdsourcing lets companies from McDonald’s to Samsung Electronics tap customers’ knowledge and experience to create new products. Lego has run its program since 2008 with Cuusoo System, a Japanese crowdsourcing company. “Both children and adults these days are used to being, and expect to be, more involved,” Mads Nipper, chief marketing officer, says in a toy-stuffed meeting room at Lego’s headquarters in Billund, Denmark. The Lego Cuusoo site—roughly “my Lego wish” in Japanese—helps the company develop ideas its 180 designers might not come up with on their own.