Citations › Citation ID: 65

C65. BOOK: Daniel Konstanski, The Secret Life of LEGO Bricks: The Inside Story of a Design Icon (Unbound, 2022), p. 122-124.

Sometimes a concept ... requires more than just a new piece or two: a whole family of elements is needed. ... the development of such a family is too great a burden for any solitary theme on its own. Overcoming that hurdle, however, would mean everyone would benefit, as often these big ideas would have wide application across multiple LEGO themes.

Platforms are families of elements developed above and apart from the normal set-design process by a dedicated team not associated with any specific theme. Their purpose is to create new types of construction opportunities, classes of pieces, or even whole building systems, which will have wide-ranging applications. Platforms are rare because of the huge upfront investment in both time and money, but such a high cost is justified because the new family will be useful across multiple product lines for years to come, and quite possibly forever.

...

A prime illustration is the family of elements referred to within the company as bow slopes and known
as sloped curves among fans.

Platforms describe a large group of related parts which are designed to be used across multiple LEGO themes.

Rollercoaster Track is a modern example, and Monorail is an earlier example created before the platform process was established. The Radiuses used across different curved elements is another example where a Platform was used to establish a pattern.