Nintendo is opening up on licensed products...

Earlier this week Nintendo President Satoru Iwata stated that the company would become more open to licensing products of its IPs in order to increase awareness. Somewhat coincidentally, LEGO Cuusoo has confirmed that the next review period will consider the potential of moving forward with a set called "Legend of Zelda: Iron Knuckle Encounter".

LEGO Cuusoo is a platform where fans and anyone besides can design and submit potential projects. Other users of the site then need to approve these projects, and when they hit 10,000 votes they go through to LEGO for approval. The company considers all sorts of aspects to decide whether the project can become a product, such as practicality, the size of the potential market and, of course, licensing issues. In truth it's a minority of projects that make it through this final stage, though successes can happen; a Ghostbusters 30th Anniversary submission has just been confirmed for production.

We've been here before with Nintendo and, specifically, Zelda sets, where they accrue the necessary votes and then fail to progress. While some of these projects may not have been practical for many reasons, we'd like to think that Nintendo's change in stance towards licensed products could open the door for LEGO sets; the brick-building company is enormously popular worldwide.

There may be hope, then. This Iron Knuckle Encounter set will now go under review, with results to be announced late Spring; you can see the announcement below.

Our thanks to Brad Long for the tip.