The Lego Ideas submission page on the building brick maker’s website is full of intriguing proposals from fans. The Palace of Versailles, Mondrian’s New York Boogie Woogie, a life-size table tennis bat and….er… a cat in a loaf of bread (something to do with a meme, apparently).
But one of the most intriguing proposals for any lovers of retro creative tech has to be a Lego iMac G3. The design is picking up so many votes on the site that it might actually make it past the threshold to earn a review from Lego. I hope it does because this is the perfect retro toy I never knew I needed and could become on of the best Lego sets for adults.
Lego Ideas is a section of the Lego website where fans can submit their own proposals for new sets to be voted on by other fans. As spotted by 9to5mac, the 700-piece Lego Apple iMac G3 was submitted by a fan designer who goes by the name of Terauma, replicating Apple’s classic 1998 all-in-one computer.
The G3 has been getting a lot of attention again recently amid the current trend for Y2K nostalgia. The computer is remembered for introducing a CD-ROM drive in place of a floppy disk, and it immediately stood out from other desktop PCs with its translucent curved plastic frame (see our pick of the 100 best Apple products).
It was one of Jony Ive’s first designs for Apple, and it’s often seen as the product that revived Apple’s fortunes following Steve Jobs’ return to the company. There was even a touchscreen iMac G3 (not something Apple’s yet returned to in its computers).
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The Lego version sports the traditional Bondi Blue colourway, it features the distinctive translucent keyboard and “hockey puck” mouse, and even has a miniature replica of the iMac’s cathode ray tube and motherboard.
Terauma designed and rendered the concept using BrickLink Studio (formerly Stud.io) the free desktop application that allows users to build models using virtual Lego bricks.
“When I was a kid, my brother and I often played games on this iMac,” the designer writes. “By releasing this set at LEGO, I wanted people to pick up this nostalgic computer again.”
To stand a chance of being considered for production, Lego Ideas proposals need to reach at least 10,000 votes from users to earn an expert review from Lego. At the time of writing, the iMac G3 has close to 6,900 votes. Considering that it still has over 300 days left to pick up the votes needed, there’s a good chance that it might get there.
Of course, there’s the major issue of copyright, and many commentators have expressed doubt that Apple would ever allow a Lego collaboration. It’s true that Apple tends to see itself as being above novelty brand collabs, with just a couple of well-considered select exceptions (Nike and Hermès).
But Lego has a lot of experience in collaborations, and won deals with some major IPs over the years, from the likes of Disney and Star Wars to Ferrari, Nike and Ikea. Perhaps it can convince the Cupertino tech giant?
You can give the proposal your vote on the Lego Ideas website.