Lego has banned fan projects based on The Legend of Zelda series

(Image credit: Nintendo)

Lego will no longer consider fan submissions for projects based on The Legend of Zelda series.

Lego Ideas lets you submit your own vision for a Lego set, and if it's impressive enough, your blocky creation could one day be on actual store shelves. That is unless your idea has to do with The Legend of Zelda; as it turns out, Lego has banned projects based on the wildly popular Nintendo series.

According to Brick Fanatics (thanks, Kotaku), Lego Group is no longer accepting Zelda-themed sets due a "license conflict." While that doesn't give us a clear indication as to exactly what the issue is, the site suggests this could mean one of two things. Either Lego has struck a partnership deal with Nintendo and is planning on releasing its own line of sets based on Link's adventures, or another manufacturer has bought the rights to make toys based on the long-running franchise.

Let's hope it's the former, but either way, it's undoubtedly disappointing for the fans who've already submitted sets inspired by The Legend of Zelda or those with a great Zelda-based idea in mind. According to Brick Fanatics, eight different projects based on the series have already gained 10,000 supporters on Lego Ideas, the number necessary for a project to be reviewed by the experts at Lego.

These include a set inspired by the final battle in Ocarina of Time and one based on the stables from the series' latest instalment, Breath of the Wild. Each one was rejected by the board, with Lego citing the aforementioned issue with licensing. Currently, if you attempt to submit an idea based on the series, you'll get an error message saying that the Lego team has evaluated the IP and "determined that we can't allow submissions" based on it owing to a "license conflict."

Meanwhile, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom launches in May 2023, and fan reactions are as measured as you'd expect.

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Originally from Ireland, I moved to the UK in 2014 to pursue a Games Journalism and PR degree at Staffordshire University. Following that, I've freelanced for GamesMaster, Games TM, Official PlayStation Magazine and, more recently, Play and GamesRadar+. My love of gaming sprang from successfully defeating that first Goomba in Super Mario Bros on the NES. These days, PlayStation is my jam. When not gaming or writing, I can usually be found scouring the internet for anything Tomb Raider related to add to my out of control memorabilia collection.