LEGO Ideas announced the results of its third and final 2025 review this week, and the math was brutal: 75 fan projects hit the 10,000-supporter mark, and just three made the cut. Sailor Moon fans, brace yourselves. Not one but TWO Sailor Moon builds were among the 68 projects sent home.
The bigger of the two came from fan designer teljesnegyzet: a 2,416-piece build of all five Inner Guardians - Sailor Moon, Sailor Mercury, Sailor Mars, Sailor Jupiter, and Sailor Venus - rendered as poseable brick-built figures with articulated heads, arms, and legs, plus a display plaque featuring Luna.
The second, "The Sailor Moon Star Luminous Rod" by MYS have a table, was a light-up recreation of the iconic transformation rod, sized at roughly 25cm so fans could act out their own "Moon Prism Power, Make Up!" moments. Both crossed the 10,000-supporter line that guarantees an official review. Neither made it out alive.
The Moon Kingdom had company on the chopping block, too. Fan builds based on Avatar: The Last Airbender, KPop Demon Hunters, Scooby-Doo, and SpongeBob all got the axe in the same batch.
So what did get approved? A Jumanji board game build, a Universal Monsters set, and a non-licensed kimono display concept. Four more projects landed in LEGO's "parking lot" for further consideration: an iMac G3, Hollow Knight, Bob's Burgers, and the Naruto Ichiraku Ramen Shop.
For anime fans, that last part matters. The ramen shop has hit 10,000 supporters multiple times since 2020, and LEGO passed on it every single round. A spot in the parking lot is the first real sign of life that project has ever gotten!
Why do these builds keep dying in review? LEGO doesn't explain individual rejections... The company's standard line is that its review board builds concept models and decides whether a project "meets our high standards for what it takes to be a LEGO product," which covers everything from playability and safety to whether a license can be secured on terms that work for a global toy company. Hitting 10,000 votes only guarantees a look. The projects in this batch qualified back in early January, so these creators waited roughly six months for an answer.
Studio Ghibli projects keep hitting that same wall. A My Neighbor Totoro build was rejected in the previous review alongside four other Ghibli submissions, and Howl's Moving Castle got the same treatment in late 2024. Ghibli's protective licensing is the usual suspect there, but LEGO has never went on record and confirmed.
LEGO is no stranger to anime either. An entire One Piece line launched in August 2025 - five sets, the Going Merry included - built around Netflix's live-action series with Eiichiro Oda's blessing. LEGO Pokemon followed on February 27th with a 2,050-piece Pikachu leading the first wave, and a bigger batch is due this summer. The door anime fans spent decades knocking on is wide open.
So why not Sailor Moon? This next part is speculation on my part, so take it with a grain of salt: it likely comes down to who controls the license and what a deal would cost. Sailor Moon approvals run through creator Naoko Takeuchi, whose grip on the brand is famously tight, and modern LEGO doesn't chase one-off collectibles. One Piece and Pokemon both arrived with massive Western licensing machines already in place. A single display set, however gorgeous, is a much harder sell.
There's also a subgenre that's worth watching. Every anime property LEGO has touched or parked so far - One Piece, Pokemon, Naruto - comes from the shonen side of the aisle. A Sailor Moon set wouldn't just be another anime license. It would be LEGO's first shojo icon, and the demand is clearly there.
Rejected projects can be refined and resubmitted, and the ramen shop just proved that persistence can move LEGO's needle. Two separate Sailor Moon builds clearing 10,000 supporters in the same review window tells the company exactly how much demand is waiting for it. If a Naruto set can inch toward reality after years of rejections, the Moon Kingdom's day may still come.
What do you guys think? Will LEGO ever give the Moon Kingdom its due, and which anime deserves the next official set?
Sound off in the comments below!
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