User blog comment:BrickCore99/Result Overview/@comment-30610591-20131029152323

"The Thinking with Portals! project, in my opinion, should have passed. Aside from new molds, which LEGO could have worked around, there was no reason it shouldn't have passed. It was a win-win deal: Portal fans would have the set of their dreams and LEGO would rake in the dough."

Obviously there was a reason, or else LEGO would have made it. Maybe they thought that the first game was violent, that the sarcasm was cold, that the surroundings of Aperture Science to dark and scary, or maybe they thought that it wouldn't appeal much to kids.

"The Mini Shop Series was rejected likely due to lisences. A great project, but was also dismissed. Considering LEGO did a McDonald's set in the 1990's, they could have at least done that."

They did do a set, but contracts can run out. McDonalds also could have changed and decided to say no to LEGO.

"With great detail, the Tumbler was another worthy project rejected. It was probably because LEGO already did a Tumbler and does not allow remakes of past sets."

LEGO has remade sets in the past. There are tons of TIE fighters from Star Wars that they produce, plus Batman's Tumbler is different from Bane's. I think it failed because the set with Bane's Tumbler didn't sell very well.