It’s another day and there’s another controversy has popped up over on LEGO Ideas. Yesterday while I was reporting on The Seven Dwarf’s House hitting 10,000 supporters, I along with some readers noticed that a couple of projects that previously also hit 10k were removed from the list and have been archived. These two sets include Gravity Falls Mystery Shack and Japanese Tea Garden. The official LEGO comments for both projects said:

Regretfully, we have chosen to archive your project and no longer consider it for production for reasons communicated to you privately. Your project will remain visible on LEGO Ideas, but in a status where it can no longer be supported or commented on. This way fans can still admire your creation. We’re sorry to be the bearers of this disappointing news!

Unless I’m wrong, I believe this is the first time that I’ve seen projects that have achieved enough supporters and have been archived even before the review stage has started. I’m not too sure of the reasoning to not consider them for production since they seem to be normal looking models.

The most logical guess is that LEGO has already planned to release them in the future and to avoid people accusing them of “stealing” ideas, they archive it before even going into review however going this route may be a dead giveaway. I guess we’ll never truly know why unless the fan designers say something but they’re probably under NDA not to say anything about it. Put your tinfoil hats on and start guessing away why these two projects are not considered anymore but please keep it civil.