Close to the tip of 2022, Lucas Bolt, an environmental artist and Lego fanatic in Amsterdam, was engaged on a design for a Lego set the corporate had crowdsourced to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons, the tabletop role-playing recreation.

“I spent two very intense weeks engaged on it, each night time, each weekend, on a regular basis that I had,” he mentioned.

Mr. Bolt hoped to create the design for Lego Concepts, a program the toymaker began in 2008 to solicit concepts on-line immediately from followers. Usually, designers put up their idea on the platform, and if a design will get 10,000 votes, the corporate considers it for manufacturing. This case was totally different, although: It was the primary time the corporate had given followers an idea to work with.

Mr. Bolt had been designing his personal units for a number of years, primarily for his followers on Instagram, however this was the primary time one thing he had produced had gained actual traction. A panel of judges chosen his set and 4 others for a shortlist, and in a vote followers selected his set as their favourite.

Lego Concepts is a part of a rising technique amongst corporations which might be creating divisions dedicated to going on to shoppers for concepts. Lego takes a extra private strategy, permitting followers to submit designs, whereas different corporations ballot shoppers about what they wish to see or converse to inventors about their newest initiatives. These initiatives are discovering specific success inside area of interest teams of collectors and different extremely devoted followers.

Toy corporations which have direct-to-consumer fashions do not need the identical viewers attain that distributors like Amazon have, however a unit dedicated to direct gross sales nonetheless offers benefits for the general enterprise, mentioned Jaime M. Katz, an analyst who covers the toy trade for Morningstar, a monetary providers firm. The first motive corporations like direct gross sales is the pace at which they can get entry to buying knowledge from shoppers.

That knowledge will help toy corporations deliver merchandise to market sooner, Ms. Katz mentioned, and capitalize on traits and buying patterns. There’s additionally much less extra stock and, by extension, fewer markdowns on gadgets offered on the corporate’s web sites.

“You don’t need to be the final adopter of the methodology,” she mentioned, “Anyone may be capable of transfer sooner than you.”

Many corporations, Ms. Katz added, see their direct-to-consumer divisions as the subsequent iteration of a spotlight group. “You possibly can gather the information in a a lot bigger style,” she mentioned, “It’s not like six folks sitting in an workplace in Chicago and so they’re asking, ‘Properly, what do you consider Barbie?’”

Because it seems, Mattel does need to know what shoppers consider Barbie, however it’s taking a distinct segment strategy by means of its Mattel Creations web site, the place it runs crowdfunding campaigns tailor-made to its fan base for Barbie, Scorching Wheels and different manufacturers.

“The wealth of knowledge, which we generate from our followers, is priceless,” mentioned Sanjay Luthra, managing director of Mattel’s international direct-to-consumer portfolio.

Feeding into client obsession is a giant a part of Mattel’s product improvement technique, mentioned Mr. Luthra, who added that Mattel was consistently checking what followers had been saying on social media to get product concepts. For instance, Weird Barbie, which the toymaker offered on the Mattel Creations web site after seeing the big response to the “Barbie” film on social media, was the highest-selling doll ever on the platform, he mentioned.

A design solicitation program like Lego Concepts also can assist information corporations of their product improvement. “We have now 10,000 individuals who advised us they need this product,” mentioned Monica Pedersen, advertising director for Lego Concepts. “That’s very particular, as a result of we don’t exit and check each single Lego product with 10,000 folks.”

Magic: The Gathering, a buying and selling card recreation owned by the gaming writer Wizards of the Coast, makes use of the same program, known as Secret Lair, as a solution to promote particular playing cards which have added visible therapies like customized artwork.

Secret Lair provides the corporate “a pipeline of consciousness that we simply by no means had,” mentioned Mark Heggen, vp of collectibles at Wizards of the Coast, which is owned by Hasbro. “We have now somewhat lens into actuality, so we will perceive how individuals are behaving, what’s thrilling to them, in the event that they’re coming again or in the event that they’re lapsing.”

Spin Grasp, a toy firm in Toronto, has been soliciting inventors for concepts since its inception in 1994. The corporate’s best benefit comes from the “mutual respect” it has with the inventor group, mentioned Ben Dermer, senior vp of toy innovation at Spin Grasp.

“I feel at different corporations through the years, inventors have oftentimes been maligned, not handled in addition to they might have been,” he mentioned.

There are about 300 skilled inventors within the toy trade, Mr. Dermer mentioned, and Spin Grasp is in common contact with most of them. Usually, earlier than an thought is formally submitted to Spin Grasp for consideration, a member of the corporate’s inventor relations division has already had prolonged discussions in regards to the viability of the product.

For his work with Lego, Mr. Bolt can be rewarded with a 1 p.c gross sales fee on every set, and 10 copies of the set for himself. The ultimate set, known as Pink Dragon’s Story, has 3,745 items and contains a playable journey and, in fact, a dungeon and a dragon. It sells for $360 at Lego Shops, a value properly above many of the firm’s mass-market choices.

Lego will get 1000’s of submissions by means of the Concepts program, however the bar is excessive for a set to make it to prospects. Usually, if a set receives greater than 10,000 votes from followers, the corporate considers it for manufacturing. As soon as made, the set is offered each immediately from Lego and by retailers like Goal and Amazon.

A few hundred units a 12 months attain the vote threshold (although that quantity will increase yearly), and from these solely 56 units, together with Mr. Bolt’s design, have reached manufacturing for the reason that program started in 2008. Examine that with the 916 units the corporate launched simply in 2023.

The units nonetheless undergo Lego’s inside design and testing. The corporate meets with the designers engaged on Concepts units a couple of times a month to make sure the product resides as much as their imaginative and prescient, Ms. Pedersen mentioned.

“It was very particular to see as a Lego builder how they strategy it,” Mr. Bolt mentioned of his expertise with Lego testers. “It was an entire crew of designers, which was actually cool that they spent a lot time designing one thing that I got here up with.”