Light and Sound Kit for the LEGO Ideas Treehouse (#21318)

We've received several questions asking if we plan to offer a kit for the beautiful LEGO Ideas treehouse.  Definitely yes!  We're working on some prototypes now, and we want to offer features in this kit that aren't available anywhere else.  Sound will be a part of the kit of course (including the ability to add your own custom sounds and music), and we're even looking into the possibility of making the treetop lights pulse in response to the music.  When we have more details to share about the kit, we'll post it here.

In the meantime, any suggestions for features people would like to see included in the kit are welcome!  We want to make this kit truly wonderful, so keep the ideas coming!

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  • It could be great to have infinite loop for water, fire, birds or maybe falling leaves sound :) 

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  • David Mužík Excellent suggestion-- that was on our list too!

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    • John T
    • John_T
    • 3 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    That’s awesome! I actually bought this set with the intention of switching between an accent lamp and bedside reading lamp. Here’s my ideal lighting setup wishlist (moonshots included):

    - ability to dim lights on based on the location like a real house (ex, porch lights independently internal house lights) 

    - having lights under tree canopy with ability to raise brightness levels to a level that would allow it to act as decent bedside lamp

    - ability to change color of lights inside cabins and treetops  (maybe someones having a party in there). 

    - flickering candles / fire that match up with the wind effects (when wind blows strongest there is flickering to match this). Also ability to disable effects as this could get distracting at bedside. 

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  • John T Great suggestions!  I think we could accommodate most of those ideas, with the possible exception of the color-changing lights inside the cabins.  The limitation there is that the color-changing lights on the market make "white" by turning on all colors, which makes a cool white light that, in our view, looks artificial.  That's why we use warm white lights-- these look much more natural.

    This is turning into a great list of ideas-- thank you again for sharing!

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  • What is the status of a light/sound kit for the tree house??

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  • Kris Petersen Hi Kris, yes we have been finalizing design on a new controller that will allow people to play back music through their treehouse and have the lights respond to the music.  We're also working on some ways to turn the treehouse into a night light with timer, as this has been a request from some customers.  We're still ramping back up to full speed after the Covid-19 quarantines here in Minnesota, but I hope to have more details to share soon!

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  • Rob,

    My treehouse is built and begging for lights! How is what you are putting together different than other companies like Light My Bricks and Taillighting? Both have kits ready for purchase. I want the best set up, but I am ready to make my purchase and make my treehouse shine!

    Thanks,

    Kris

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  • Kris Petersen Hi Kris, thanks for your note.  My plan is to have looping sounds, like crickets and wind, so you could use the treehouse like a noise machine.  Also have the ability to add your own music, then have the lights in the treetops react to the music.  And of course the ability to control the lights using our remote.  In general, much more functionality than you'll find with any other kit.

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  • Hi everyone!  Long time no update, but I wanted to share some progress and to get your feedback on an idea.  Since we first set out to make a light kit for the treehouse, I always dreamed about having lights in the tree canopy that would pulse and flash, like fireflies.  Recently I've found a new type of color-changing light that can be controlled to set color and brightness for each individual light.  This is a bit like the color-changing light strings that we sell today, but the difference is that each individual LED light color and brightness can be set.  It's a big advance over what we sell today, and as soon as I received samples of the new lights, I thought about using them for the treehouse.

    Here's a quick video demonstration to show the lights in action-- this is just a test program I wrote, so the pattern you're seeing isn't the final pattern.  In fact we will be able to do anything with the colors, even synchronize them to your music.  Let me know what you think!

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  • Rob Klingberg My main question is: would people be ok with this setup if the wires were visible when room lighting was on.  Here's what the lights look like with the room lights on:

    The wires are thin and very flexible, much more so than on the other light strings we sell.  I'm also talking with the manufacturer about getting the wires in brown and green to match the canopy options in the LEGO set, so this might reduce the visibility of the wires.

    let me know what you think.  Thanks as always for taking an active part in helping us design the best light and sound kits available anywhere!

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  • Green or brown wires would be best. Excited to get the treehouse lit up soon!

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  • Kris Petersen Thanks Kris!  We were able to get strings with both green and brown wires, so they look much better in the leaves (depending on which color leaves you decide to mount).  More pictures to come soon!

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  • I have this set and was looking for a lighting kit for it. Yours looks promising but development seems to have stalled. Do you have an ETA?

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  • Jeremy Kemp Hi Jeremy, thanks for checking in on this kit.  Yes, the past 17 months have been a bit of a nightmare from an electronic components standpoint because of Covid and supply shortages that continue even until today.  This is impacting every industry that uses an electronic part-- we're small potatoes compared to companies like KIA and Apple, but even these large companies have been challenged.

    We've used the time to work on our next generation of controllers, and we're about 90% complete with these.  Once ready, they will power this kit and all of our future kits, so it's a huge step forward for us.  We are planning a major release push for the end of 2021 with these new parts, which will have capabilities not available in any other kit.  This is the main reason for the delay on this and several other kits (Star Destroyer, Ghostbusters firehouse, Haunted House, etc.)-- maybe more detail than you needed :-) but I wanted to communicate that we're still working every day to get these kits to market so people can see what's possible with light and sound on these beautiful LEGO kits.

    So, long story short, we're still very focused on this kit and the others we've been discussing on the forum, but we're just needed a couple more months to get the foundational parts ready and in-hand so we can open pre-orders.  I do plan to publish more information here when we have news to share.

    Hopefully this helps with your decision regarding kits-- sorry I can't give any more specific details at present, but if you have specific questions, please ask!

    Thank you.

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  • Rob Klingberg Awesome, thank you for the fast and detailed response. I totally get the chip shortage right now, and that makes sense. I'm not in a hurry and will probably end up waiting until closer to Christmas to do this anyway. Do you have an idea of what the kit for this one might end up costing? It sounds very exciting!

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  • Jeremy Kemp Thank you Jeremy for your understanding.  No idea yet on price but we will likely have a "basic" kit and then add-ons people can buy later, along with a "mega" SKU that includes all options and a discount.  Stay tuned.

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  • any updates on the treehouse kits??

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  • Kris Petersen Yes, we're finally starting to be able to order the electronic parts we need to make this kit.  It has been a very long wait-- the lead-times on parts orders have been 54 weeks or longer until recently.  We have parts on order and are working on the new generation of controllers that will power kits like these-- hoping to have them ready for pre-order by late spring of this year.

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    • Sharon
    • Sharon
    • 1 yr ago
    • Reported - view

    Hello,

    I was wondering if there are any updates regarding this light set. It seems very promising and I am very excited to upgrade my beautiful treehouse.

    Thanks in advance! 

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  • Sharon Thank you for your note and for your interest in this kit!  It is on our list for 2022-- we're working hard to finish up this and several other kits we know people have been waiting for for a long time.  I hope to have more details to share soon!

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  • Any updates on a kit for the treehouse??

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  • Kris Petersen Hi Kris!  Thank you for your message and for keeping after us on this kit.  2022 continued to be challenging with electronic parts still in short supply, but the good news is that I think we're close to having the next generation of controllers ready for our kits.  The treehouse will use that controller, so the downside is that we can't resume work on it until we have the final design.  Hoping to have the controllers finished by February, and then fingers crossed that 2023 will finally be the year we can release this and so many other kits our fans have been so patient waiting for.

    Thank you again for your message, and happy holidays!

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