Some set designers are members of the forum and visit often. Perhaps they get ideas from us?
Has anyone ever mentioned Lego Scooby Doo?
Cinderella Castle is the easy, low hanging fruit there, and I think they would sell a good number of them if done right, as in the modular building style.
Because I like bursting bubbles. While there are a number of legoworkers on the forum. The possiblity that they take ideas from here is tiny. It takes a while to design sets and also get the lisence if its a new theme and often its planned out well in advance. So sorry but the answer is a no.
February this year, they hired another Community Coordinator... so yes, they are for sure having a finger on the pulse about what happens in the mayor AFOL communities.
I would say it is probably the other way around in this sense: Many of the people on this site follow LEGO close enough to develop a feeling of timing on themes which coincides with the production schedule already in place.
As said above, they have these things planned out way in advance.
For example, in another thread we learned that Ninjago was constructed as a three year theme, so they already had at least a good sense of each year's focus and sets before even making the first one. Now they may extend that a year, given that is their best selling "homemade" series ever, but that decision was probably already made months ago also.
I think that Lego certainly pay attention to a number of prominent forums - there are a bunch of TLF bricksetters who I see on a number of sites - but often I see them posting with regards to feedback provided, rather than soliciting ideas.
One of the reasons that TLG state that they will just ignore product ideas sent to them is so no one can accuse them of stealing one of their ideas - I think that TLG hires people who have already thought of a lot of ideas and have the strategic insight to know what the next big themes will be 1, 2, 5 years even down the line, so whilst there may be parallels between what gets mentioned on forums and the products we see, this is more of an example of parallel thinking than Lego coming and getting ideas.
Yes, the design work for Jabba's Palace and the Rancor Pit likely started before the conception of the Brickset forum in early 2011. I think the normal cycle for design is about 2 years (according to Jamie Berard), meaning that the sets that are released this year were designed in 2010, and the sets being designed now won't be out until 2014.
Does the guy who did the ucs falcon still design stuff?
I don't think "spy" is the right word for taking a healthy interest in a publicly accessible forum.
I said some of my wants for the CMF series was an old style banker with bowler hat and an Elizabethan era character with a ruff. Both of which we are getting. I also asked for cow-suit guy with over sized udders strapped to his front, still waiting on that one.
I want a HOLOGRAM MINIFIGURE.
But please don't release set of ghosts from end of VI ep.
- And if you do that, I will kill myself with the lightsaber.
Otoh, If the question is "does Lego have a team of employees specifically assigned to read Lego related web sites?". I hope so! Every large company should know what their customer base is, what they want and how they can best increase sales. A good amount of information can be gleaned from sites such as this one.
"Does LEGO have a team of employees specifically assigned to read LEGO related web sites?"
Yes, that's the LEGO Community Team. An entire department dedicated to understanding, supporting, and amplifying fan related activity.
@Kevinhink Good to know it is a priority with TLG to know who their customer base is. It was a pleasure to meet you at Bricks by the Bay a few months back. I must say our collection has grown exponentially since taking part in the convention. We aren't into the reselling so it's getting a bit crowded here, but we seem to keep finding a way to make room for more.
@Kevinhink I agree, you can never have too much Lego. But our city is getting more dense with buildings and vehicles than minifigs!