New Lego Contest Teases Big Pokémon TCG Crossover

A new Lego Ideas contest asking fans to submit their own designs for sets directly inspired by Pokémon cards has fans excited for what could be a larger crossover between the TCG and the brick-building company.

On March 31, as spotted by Jay’s Brick Blog, Lego has announced a new Lego Ideas contest that will see one fan’s Pokémon card build turned into a real set. The so-called “Pokémon Trading Card Game Challenge” is all about fans submitting designs for Lego sets of between 400 and 2500 pieces that recreate an original “dynamic” Pokémon TCG card. All builds will need to have a frame that showcases one singular Pokémon, from a list of pre-selected options, in a “creative way.”

Here’s that full list:

Alolan Exeggutor
Arceus (Normal-type)
Ceruledge
Chandelure
Darkrai
Dragonite
Garchomp
Gardevoir
Gengar
Giratina
Greninja
Gyarados
Hawlucha
Jigglypuff
Joltik
Lucario
Luxray
Machamp
Meowth
Metagross
Mew
Mewtwo
Ninetales
Rowlet
Tinkaton
Torterra
Toxtricity
Tyranitar
Wailord
Zoroark

Fans have until May 6 to submit their Pokémon Lego card designs to the official contest website. Then the Lego Ideas Review Board will look over all the entries and select up to five builds that will move to a “Fan Vote” round on May 28. Lego Ideas members will then be able to vote for their favorite build until June 11. After that, Lego will tally up the votes, and the winner’s Lego card design will be turned into a real Lego set that will go on sale in the future.

Lego has had the Pokémon license for about a year now and has already released some sets.  But those were based on the games and cartoons. This is the first example of Lego directly crossing over with the Pokémon TCG. Many fans are hoping this is just the start of a line of card-inspired builds, with each one featuring different Pokémon creatures. I also wonder if these builds will include cards based on the set. If that happens, which Lego has yet to confirm, I bet those pack-in cards will become sought after and make it harder than usual for Lego collectors to get their hands on these future sets.