Lego enthusiasts are getting a heavy dose of cinematic nostalgia as two modern science fiction classics make their way toward official brick-built reality. The Danish toy manufacturer has officially announced its latest Lego Ideas competition winners, selecting the iconic Ranger exploration ship from Christopher Nolan’s acclaimed 2014 film Interstellar. Designed originally by fan builder Minibrick41587, the upcoming set will bring the fictional spacecraft to store shelves, complete with everyone's favorite cinematic robot companion, TARS. Alongside the futuristic spacecraft, Lego also approved two additional fan submissions: the "Tulip Field Windmill" and "Chinese Cork Carving Art."
Key takeaways
- The Ranger ship from Christopher Nolan's Interstellar won the latest Lego Ideas competition and will include TARS.
- The Korben Dallas Taxi from The Fifth Element was placed in the Lego Parking Lot for a potential future release.
- Lego Ideas allows fan designs that receive 10,000 votes to be assessed for official commercial production.
- Official Lego Ideas sets typically take around a year or longer to transition from selection to retail store shelves.
How the Lego Ideas process works
The Lego Ideas program gives ordinary fans the opportunity to design their own custom brick sets and submit them to the public. Once a design gathers 10,000 community votes, it advances to an internal company assessment phase where corporate leadership crunches numbers and evaluates commercial viability. Out of numerous submissions, Lego selects only a handful of designs each year to manufacture into official commercial products. This collaborative crowdsourcing pipeline has previously birthed retail sets for beloved pop culture properties including The Big Bang Theory, Wall-E, Voltron, Tron: Legacy, Jaws, Twilight, The Goonies, and The X-Files.
Before any fan design hits retail shelves, the corporate design team typically refines and modifies the structure slightly to ensure stability and manufacturing standards. While winning designs usually take roughly a year to arrive in stores following their official announcement, timelines can fluctuate depending on production schedules and licensing agreements. For instance, a recently revealed Godzilla set selected in June 2025 is scheduled to hit retail shelves in late November.
The Fifth Element taxi and other parking lot contenders
In addition to the immediate winners moving forward into production, Lego earmarked two specific fan builds for its internal "Parking Lot." This designation means the company actively wants to produce the sets, but the commercial timing is not quite right yet. Instead of forcing the creators to restart the rigorous approval process from scratch, Lego holds onto the concepts until a strategic moment arises, such as an upcoming anniversary.
Sitting in that waiting room is the Korben Dallas taxi cab from Luc Besson's 1997 sci-fi masterpiece The Fifth Element, which would thoughtfully include a miniature Multipass if officially released. Sharing the parking lot status is a build based on the popular video game franchise featuring a Peashooter from Plants vs. Zombies. Fans tracking the Interstellar release can likely anticipate seeing the Ranger spaceship debut on store shelves in late 2027 or early 2028 based on typical development windows.
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