Meet the Filipino designer whose Sesame Street LEGO set will be sold worldwide

• Iván Guerrero’s childhood favorites have been turned into a LEGO set.

• His ‘dream come true’ began in 2017 when he submitted his Sesame Street set design to LEGO Ideas, the toy maker’s community website, which accepts suggestions and gives designers the opportunity to turn them into real sets.

• Eventually, its design was approved by the toy production giant and given the green light for commercial production and worldwide launch.

• On November 1, the sets will be on the shelves of LEGO stores around the world.

• The 1,367-piece Sesame Street set includes minifigures of Bert, Ernie, Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, Cookie Monster and Elmo, with the characters proposed by Guerrero, all set around the apartment building that is often seen in the episodes.

• The Sesame Street LEGO set will be available in the Philippines on November 1 through the LEGO Certified Store PH. The first 100 boxes to be sold will be signed by Guerrero.

It’s not often that a fan’s LEGO design gets the green light from the Danish toy maker for commercial production and worldwide release, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. There’s Filipino designer Ivan Guerrero, for example, whose Sesame Street set is about to be sold around the world.

Guerrero is the second Filipino to accomplish this feat, after software engineer Leandro Tayag’s Voltron suite got the green light in 2017.

His Sesame Street set, which is about to get world exposure, credits the show he grew up watching, where he learned ABC and 123, for much of the creative inspiration he now has as commercial director.

He first submitted his Sesame Street set design in 2017 to LEGO Ideas, the toy maker’s community website, which accepts suggestions and gives designers the opportunity to turn them into real sets.

The program requires a submitted design to obtain 10,000 votes before it can be considered to undergo a selective review process.

His design eventually got approval from the toy production giant and this year, on November 1, the sets will be on the shelves of LEGO stores around the world.

Based on the show that first aired in the 1960s, the 1,367-piece Sesame Street set includes mainstay minifigures from the series including Bert, Ernie, Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, Cookie Monster and Elmo, with the characters proposed by Guerrero, all set around the apartment building that is often seen in the episodes.

At the rear of the main apartment building, you can see the interiors of Ernie and Bert’s bedroom, as well as Elmo’s bedroom.

Another building, which LEGO later decided to add in the design, has Abby’s character’s secret garden and Cookie Monster’s apartment bedroom.

The Warrior set is also the first to have an original mold for the minifigures as opposed to the standard design, which includes a studded head, body and legs.

For many fans of the show, it is an opportunity to relive the memories of watching Sesame Street as a child.

For Guerrero, who spent months researching and designing the set, it is also an opportunity to bring up the most memorable episodes of the long-running series and the lessons that came with it.

Aside from the Easter eggs and a UFO on the ceiling in reference to The Martians called Yip-yips, Guerrero has included a piece with a cartoon of Mr. Hooper. It’s a nod to episode 1839, where the character, played by Will Lee, dies after Lee’s passing, in an attempt to teach young viewers a lesson about death and grief.

Although he initially hoped it would coincide with the show’s 50th anniversary last year, Guerrero says the set’s release is nonetheless a dream come true.

“As a long-time fan of the LEGO Group and Sesame Street, it has been a dream come true to be able to fuse my two passions into one memorable setting for fellow builders to enjoy,” he says in a statement.

“LEGO bricks and Sesame Street shaped my childhood and adulthood, and the opportunity to work with the LEGO Ideas team to bring this quintessential New York street to life has been exciting.”

The Sesame Street LEGO set will be available in the Philippines on November 1 through the LEGO Certified Store PH. The first 100 boxes to be sold will be autographed by Guerrero himself.

Meanwhile, the filmmaker has also unveiled a LEGO set based on James Cameron’s Avatar and currently has around 9,500 votes. He awaits approval in time for the film’s sequel to be released in theaters in 2022.