The LEGO Ideas team has just announced six new confirmed sets are on the way, two-thirds of which are based on third-party IP.
Six LEGO Ideas projects have been officially confirmed by the LEGO Group, five from the first review round of 2025 and one making it out of the Parking Lot. Four out of those six sets are based on third-party IPs: ET, The Smurfs, Power Rangers, and Downton Abbey. The high proportion of licensed sets has sparked largely positive reactions online, with some comments from fans on reddit about the perceived prevalence of licensed Ideas LEGO sets.
"So many licensed ideas selected," wrote one redditor, earning 43 upvotes. "LEGO knows what sells the best..."
That's not necessarily a bad development, of course. LEGO Ideas is a place for the community to have its wants and ideas (literally) heard by the LEGO Group, and if that ends up being a prevalence of designs based on third-party IPs gaining attention from fans, that's what the community wants to see.
However, it's also fair to note that there's another theme that is dedicated to more miscellaneous, one-off licensed sets: Icons. This has become an umbrella theme for some licensed sets that don't have their own theme, like LEGO The Lord of the Rings, Transformers, Jaws, and so on.
If both themes have a large number of licensed sets, is it encroaching on room for LEGO creativity – and pushing up prices? After all, it's no secret that LEGO sets based on external brands and franchises tend to cost more, like Star Wars, Marvel, Disney, and so on.
We crunched some numbers to see if there really is a growing focus on licensed LEGO Ideas sets. Since the theme's inception back in 2014, there have only been two years where there's been a majority of licensed sets in the theme (2015 and 2017). Typically, the ratio is roughly half and half, or with around a third of all Ideas sets released based on third-party IPs.
Looking into the future, 60% of all confirmed LEGO Ideas sets that haven't been released or revealed yet are based on external licenses. It's worth noting that these will likely be split across a number of years, so it's not quite a straightforward comparison to other years. You can see the full ratios broken down over the years in the table below.
| Year | Licensed LEGO Ideas sets | Unlicensed LEGO Ideas sets | % licensed Ideas sets per year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 2 | 2 | 50% |
| 2015 | 3 | 1 | 75% |
| 2016 | 1 | 2 | 33% |
| 2017 | 3 | 1 | 75% |
| 2018 | 2 | 2 | 50% |
| 2019 | 3 | 3 | 50% |
| 2020 | 3 | 3 | 50% |
| 2021 | 3 | 5 | 38% |
| 2022 | 3 | 6 | 33% |
| 2023 | 2 | 6 | 25% |
| 2024 | 5 | 5 | 50% |
| 2025 | 5 | 9 | 36% |
| Beyond | 9 | 6 | 60% |
Ultimately, the perception of there being more licensed LEGO Ideas sets likely comes about from there simply being more Ideas sets than in previous years. 2025 saw 14 sets join the theme, compared to just four a decade prior in 2015, and six sets five years ago in 2020. With more sets released overall, that means that fans might feel as though there are more licensed Ideas sets, without noticing that there are also more unlicensed sets released under the theme as well.
The identity of LEGO Ideas as a theme hasn't changed over the years in terms of the ratio of licensed versus unlicensed sets. Instead, it's simply grown into an incredibly popular theme, catering to the demands of the community in a way that no other theme can.
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