LEGO is reportedly banning The Legend of Zelda-themed submissions from its community-driven LEGO Ideas platform. The Legend of Zelda is a massively popular franchise of Nintendo video games. Unsurprisingly, there are a good number of The Legends of Zelda fans that also love LEGO and have created impressive builds to submit through LEGO Ideas, but those fans will just have to wait for LEGO and Nintendo to solve the issue first.
Nintendo and LEGO have had a growing partnership in recent years, leading to the release of multiple Nintendo-themed LEGO sets. These have entirely been focused on the Super Mario Bros. franchise, including some interactive sets intended for young audiences. There's also been a Nintendo Entertainment System set, though it also has Super Mario Bros. shown being played on a classic television. The partnership hasn't expanded toward other Nintendo franchises yet, however.
The report regarding The Legend of Zelda's apparent ban on LEGO Ideas comes from BrickFanatics. The LEGO-focused website says that The Legend of Zelda-themed projects will no longer be allowed on the platform, with all submissions being denied. The reason for this is described as a "license conflict," which hasn't been an issue until recently. Exactly what changed in the relationship between Nintendo and LEGO isn't clear.
What this means right now is that all existing The Legend of Zelda-themed LEGO submissions on the LEGO Ideas website have been rejected. BrickFanatics explains that in the past there have been at least 8 different fan designs based on The Legend of Zelda that reached the 10,000 vote mark on LEGO Ideas. This is the threshold necessary to receive a review from the LEGO team. These have all ultimately been rejected. Going forward, The Legend of Zelda projects won't even get the opportunity for a review.
BrickFanatics does state that it's possible this is good news for The Legend of Zelda fans. While fan-made submissions may be blocked from becoming a reality going forward, the decision to ban them could be because Nintendo and LEGO have agreed to release official sets. That doesn't necessarily make up for fans not being able to submit their ideas, but it would be better than nothing.
Fans sadly also have to acknowledge that this could just be Nintendo putting its foot down. Nintendo is known to be protective of its properties, and The Legend of Zelda submissions on LEGO Ideas could be seen as LEGO profiting from Nintendo's IP. Here's hoping otherwise, but Nintendo and LEGO fans should probably lower their expectations.
Source: BrickFanatics