How Many Botanical Gardens Do We Need?

On Tuesday, 19 December 2023, the LEGO Ideas team released the results of their last half of 2023 review with 71 designs under consideration. You can read the post and watch the video here. The second set listed was by Fan Designer Valentina Bima (aka Goannas89) and it’s titled “The Botanical Garden.”

Image from ideas.lego.com

It’s an awesome design with some great details and 8 minifigures. We’ll see what the final set looks like, but hopefully the LEGO designers can do it justice.

But wait…

Don’t we already have a Botanical Garden set?

We have #41757-1: Botanical Garden from the Friends theme as seen here.

I realize there are a lot of differences. Minifigures versus minidolls, one is designed as a play set while the other is a… bigger play set… maybe… and obviously size, but I’m curious as to why the Ideas team selected another Botanical Garden set when LEGO has one available already?

If LEGO is looking to appeal to a wider audience, I think they have done that already. I posted Tiago Catarino’s review video below. Around the 4:45 mark, he starts to talk about buying two of these sets and making a larger Botanical Garden. Tiago used two pieces from his collection to make it work and I have seen numerous other posts of people doing a similar thing. The Friends set has appealed to a larger audience already beyond the normal Friends fans. Why would LEGO need to try and do it again? #41575-1 costs $79.99 in the US. Two will set you back $159.98. Will this new Ideas set have more details at a lower price point? We’ll have to wait and see I guess.

Happy building!

Classic Space and Castle Themes Back to Drain Our Wallets

If you follow any of the LEGO Fan Media sites or LEGO itself, you saw that LEGOCON 2022 had some big set announcements. I was surprised at the number of announcements and also the scale of some of the sets. It wasn’t like an introduction of the LEGO CITY line for the next year. There were some big drops which is pretty cool if you ask me.

The set I’m most excited about is #10497-1: Galaxy Explorer. This is probably because I was a big LEGO Space fan as a kid (M-Tron was one of my favorite themes), but it is cool to see a set like this show up. It has four minifigures, 1,294 pieces, and with a retail price in the US of $99.99, it works out to $0.08/piece which isn’t too bad. It’s available starting on 1 August 2022, but you can pre-order it on LEGO.com now.

The box design is reminiscent of the sets of the past with the yellow coloring and packaging design. This started with #21322-1: Pirates of Barracuda Bay and returns here. I’m looking forward to putting this set together some day.

LEGO.com

LEGO.com

---

The other big reveal was #10305-1: Lion Knights’ Castle. This one will also be released on 1 August 2022 in the US and I don’t believe there is a pre-order option. The set will contain 4,514 pieces and will retail for $399.99 in the US. That will work out to $0.089/piece which isn’t too bad. I count 21 minifigures which may or may not be accurate, but is pretty darn close. This one is pretty pricy, but it’s great to see Castle finally come back in a big way. I suspect this one will fly off the shelves and will be hard to get for a bit.

LEGO.com

LEGO.com

---

Andres Lehman from Zusammengebaut.com just recently posted an interview he did with the set designers from LEGO. Mike Psiaki and Milan Madge are well known from previous set designs they’ve had and they show some of the cool details and functions of these sets. It’s worth the just under 16 minutes of your time to see what is up.

Happy building!

Another Technic Supercar is Announced!!!!!

I by no means am the first one to announce this, but I am super excited that on 1 June 2022, the next LEGO Technic supercar will get released. Okay actually we are now referring to them as being a part of the “LEGO Technic Ultimate Car Concept Series.” Either way, a sleek red Ferrari will be a great addition to the existing sets. This one is #42143-1: Ferrari Daytona SP3. I will contain 3,778 pieces and retail in the US for $399.99. That works out to $0.106 per piece. Here are some of LEGO’s promotional shots of the model.

The packaging looks impressive from LEGO’s promo shots and some of the video reviews I have seen online. For $400, the packaging had better look awesome, right?

As per usual, we have a promo shot from LEGO by the real car. Some good photography here although they should have edited out the TV dish in my opinion. I couldn’t tell you much about the real car other than I’m sure it goes fast and I’m sure I can’t afford the real one.. Along with this set, LEGO is releasing a limited run book (5,000 copies) that highlights the set and LEGO’s relationship with Ferrari. I believe the book will be priced at $70. In my opinion, the set is expensive as it is, I don’t need to dump more money into a book.

This set is pricy and I’m not sure when I’ll pick it up, but I will at some point using VIP points to help lessen the blow. I’m looking forward to lining it up next to my other vehicles. You can see my previous reviews here:

#42056-1: Porsche 911 GT3 RS

#42083-1: Bugatti Chiron

#42115-1: Lamborghini Sian FKP 37

Happy building!

2 June 2022 update: LEGO released the designer video yesterday. Here it is in case you missed it.

Is the New Technic Super Car Worth it?

LEGO released the next Technic super car on Thursday 28 May 2020. For those of you that missed it, the set is #42115-1: Lamborghini Sián FKP 37. The set contains 3,696 pieces and will retail in the US for $379.99. Initial release was through LEGO starting on 1 June 2020 with widespread sale across other retailers starting on 1 August 2020.

The Recognized LEGO Fan Media (RLFM) has exploded with articles, posts, videos, podcasts, etc. discussing this car. The comments range from it being an absolute stunning build to a giant waste of money.

I’m not going to give my opinion yet because I have yet to see the car in person or actually build the set. Here’s what I will say right now… $380 seems like a lot of money for this set. I wanted to do some analysis to see if it’s true, so here goes.

First some background data:

---

#42056-1: Porsche 911 GT3 RS
Released 30 July 2016
2,704 Pieces
$299.99 in the US
$0.111 per piece
See my review starting here

---

#42083-1: Bugatti Chiron
Released 2 June 2018
3,599 Pieces
$349.99 in the US
$0.097 per piece
See my review starting here

---

Photo from LEGO.com

#42115-1: Lamborghini Sián FKP 37 Released 1 June 2020
3,696 Pieces
$379.99 in the US
$0.102 per piece
I don’t own this yet so no review yet

---

So is $380 a lot for this set?

The Porsche in 2016 was $300, the Bugatti in 2018 was $350, and now the Lamborghini in 2020 is $380. So $80 more than the first set four years ago and $30 more than the set released 2 years ago.

So at a price only look, the Porsche wins.

They are very different sets though so let’s start with piece count and see if we can normalize. What if they all had the same piece count as the Lamborghini with 3,696 pieces and retained their original price per piece?
-Porsche at 3,696 pieces and $0.111 per piece would be $410.26
-Bugatti at 3,696 pieces and $0.097 per piece would be $358.51

Factoring in the original price per piece and making them all 3,696 pieces, the Bugatti wins on cost.

It’s been four years and prices change. LEGO, like any other business, has to factor in inflation and increasing costs. So what if we added a 2% inflation factor? Let’s assume all three sets have 3,696 pieces, they all retain their original price per piece, but we add in a 2% inflation factor per year to come up with what the set would cost today (in 2020) if it were sold. The math gave me:
-Porsche at $444.08
-Bugatti at $372.99

The Porsche now looks expensive while the Bugatti seems closer in price to the Lamborghini.

How realistic is the last example? Probably not so much as I just randomly picked 2% a year. So next up I found an inflation calculator on the web (because everything on the web you read is correct, right?). I used usinflationcalculator.com. Again… you can call me wrong for using it, but I didn’t want to waste a ton of time searching for a better tool in the hopes of getting close enough. The tool goes by year versus by day so we’ll again say “close enough.”
-The Porsche in its original price with original piece count purchased in 2020 dollars would be $320.47 with a 6.8% cumulative rate of inflation. Factoring in the first example where we use the 3,696 pieces with the Porsche’s $0.111 per piece works out to be $438.26 with the same 6.8% cumulative rate of inflation. So maybe my 2% per year estimate wasn’t that far off?
-The Bugatti in its original price with original piece count purchased in 2020 dollars would be $357.35. That’s with a 2.1% cumulative rate of inflation. Using the same process as the Porsche, we’ll make the Bugatti match the Lamborghini’s piece count, but use the Bugatti’s $0.097 per piece cost and the Bugatti works out to be $366.05 in 2020 dollars.

Factoring in US inflation rates over the last 4 years, the price increase looks somewhat justified.

---

Back to Reality

If you followed all of that, you’re amazing. Bonus points if you are still reading…

Let’s get back to reality and consider some real facts for a few minutes.
-The Bugatti is still available at its original price 2 years after its initial release so the adjustments don’t make sense at this time.
-My guess is LEGO does not price by piece, but instead considers their actual costs to include plastic costs, design, packaging, licensing, paying their workers, shipping, foreign exchange rates, etc.
-I looked at the set from a monetary perspective, but what about from the buyer’s perspective. If you think you’ll get $380 value in buying and owning the set, then it is probably worth it. What if you think you’ll get $400 worth of value from the set? How is that even calculated?
-LEGO is a business and while we would love them to produce things for free, they have a goal of making a profit. There is definitely a profit margin baked into the price of this set. LEGO probably won’t ever tell us that amount, but keep it in mind.

What Can You Do?

Besides saving your change or hoping Santa Claus comes through this year, what are some ways to get this set at a discount?
- Use your VIP points. This assumes you have some of course, but they are easily applied to LEGO purchases.
-Wait for an opportunity to get a deal from LEGO such as a gift with purchase set or a double VIP point opportunity.
-I have a popular post here where I discuss how to find discounts and save money on LEGO purchases. One of those options is using companies like Rakuten where right now LEGO offers 2.5% back. The payments come quarterly and it isn’t a ton, but it helps slightly (~$9.50 on the Lamborghini). Add on VIP points, a gift with purchase, and maybe credit card points, and you’ve helped slightly on the price. (I’m not paid by LEGO or Rakuten)
-For those of us in Europe, LEGO has different discounting plans here. A few months back the Bugatti (#42083-1) was going for around 260€ at multiple stores around here compared to the 370€ original retail price. It makes sense to wait and see if discounts happen here. I have yet to see heavy discounting of sets like this in the US. We’ll have to wait and see if it happens again in Europe.

---

What are your thoughts? Has LEGO cross the line on price finally (or again)? Does the pricing of this new set make sense? I’m curious on your thoughts.

In the meantime happy (affordable?) building!

LEGO Shipping Damage

I've ordered LEGO sets from Amazon before and they often show up trashed.  For whatever reason UPS tends to kick them around the warehouse and truck before they deliver.  Also I'm not sure what Amazon's packing plan is, but I got one small set once wrapped in a bag.  It looked like the workers at the Amazon warehouse had stepped on the bag a few times before shipping.  Luckily for me, the plan for that set was to open it and add the minifigs to the store so it wasn't a big issue.

LEGO Shop at Home tends to use FedEx for larger items and then smaller items arrive USPS or FedEx SmartPost (FedEx hauls the long distance and then delivers to the local USPS for final delivery).  The LEGO distribution point is in Southhaven, MS which is just across the state line from Tennessee.  More importantly it is right near Memphis, TN where FedEx's major hub is.  So if you select the faster shipping methods, LEGO is right there to give it to FedEx so they can fly it to you.  I would assume FedEx Ground is right there as well.

I'm not sure what the community's opinion is, but overall I've had good luck with LEGO Shop at Home in terms of damage.  Everything is usually well packed and arrives via FedEx or USPS with minimal damage.  It all changed yesterday when one of my May the 4th orders arrived.  

I ordered #75142 - Homing Spider Droid as it was on sale for $23.99 vs. the regular $29.99.  I'm not sure how well the picture captures it, but it looks like someone punched it before putting it into the box.  The set was well packed with protection and there was little space for it to get jostled around during shipping.  The other set in the box was not damaged either.  

LEGO has a returns program and I could easily do that, but I wonder if it's worth it.  I'm 99% sure that the contents in the set are not damaged.  In the end I will either build the set or break it apart and sell the minifigs so does it really matter that the box is damaged?  

I'm curious as to what your thoughts on damage to sets are?  Does it matter if your set shows up with a damaged box as long as the contents are okay?  Would it matter more if it was a larger, more expensive set?  What do you think?  Thanks for sharing!

What's inside the container?

It's always fun when the delivery folks stop by and drop off a container with a distinctive rattle in it.  Some of the delivery folks have even made comments that there must be happy children inside the home given all of the LEGO orders you guys make.  I'll qualify myself as a big child.  Anyways, LEGO typically ships USPS or FedEx.  Amazon orders ship UPS or USPS.  This poor order was shipped UPS and like many previous UPS shipments, it arrived looking like someone kicked it from the street to my door.  Upon opening it, thankfully the massive dent is where some of those air pack bags were so no damage to the sets.  

So what's inside?  Well 4 sets actually, but I'm going to talk about 2 here.

The LEGO Architecture theme is one that is under represented in my opinion.  Part of it, I think, is that it is geared towards older builders and not the 7 to 12 year old range that most LEGO sets are built for.  Also, there are no minifigures which are a popular reason to buy sets (in my opinion).  I have a few LEGO Architecture sets and only 1 in the store, but I figured I would branch out and try a few more.  Amazon had a sale so I went for it.  #21031 is the Burj Khalifa... the tallest building in the world which is located in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.  I have never seen the real building, but it's pretty amazing looking just from pictures.  The other one I purchased was #21028, New York City.  This is part of the new Skylines series where they have mini-builds of some of the famous buildings in some cities.  Right now there is only New York City, Berlin, and Venice.  I hope they expand... perhaps to some cities in Asia like Beijing?  Either way, I am looking forward to building these.

Next week I will give an update on our Pencils of Promise campaign, list where we're at on Brick Classifieds, and talk about a few things that have been added to the Bricks for Bricks store.

More Series 15 Minifigs are in!

In the first bunch that I purchased, it didn't include the Faun figure.  I now have it and have completed the set.  You can see my original Series 15 post here.  I also have some additional Series 15 minifigs in the store.  You can see them here.  I have at least one of each of them in the store so if you are short one, take a look.

A Fix for WALL-E

I reviewed set number 21303 here.  It is WALL-E from Disney Pixar's movie about the trash collecting robot that ends up helping to save the human race.  Anyways, the original design was somewhat flawed.  WALL-E's eyes kept spinning around and it was tough to lock them into one place.  In reading some of the LEGO fan sites out there, there were a number of reports that a fix was in place.  I wrote to LEGO customer service and received a response back that yes indeed a fix was in place.  A few days later I received a bubble envelope in the mail.  It contained the following items:

-a small parts bag
-an instruction sheet that shows how to prep the set for the fix
-an instruction booklet for the fix

The final set doesn't look much different from a quick glance.  Here it is along with some of the extra parts.

The close up here shows the new ball joint that prevents WALL-E's eyes from randomly rotating around.  In my opinion, the fix was a success and it doesn't change the set's design drastically enough to be an issue.  I also applaud LEGO's handling of the redesign.  I was sent the fix promptly and at no cost.  It shows that LEGO values their customers and wants to make sure their products are of the highest quality.  

If you've purchased WALL-E or done the fix, I'm curious to know what you think.  Please post your thoughts in the comments.

Newly Released Sets!

It's June and for fans of LEGO it means a whole bunch of new sets.  Typically there are a bunch of new sets around the first of the year and then there are new ones in the summer.  Well June is here and the lineup is pretty big.

To see what is new, go to shop.lego.com and then click on the what's new tab.  It lists 166 items, which to be fair are not all new starting in June.  There are a number of new Star Wars sets to include:
   -the 1,216 piece Imperial Assault CarrierTM
   -a number of new Jurassic World sets
   -the 2,464 piece LEGO Creator Ferris Wheel to go along with sets from previous years to
   include a carousel and fairground mixer
   -a few new Creator sets to include an impressive looking fighter jet
   -the LEGO City Square 
   -the LEGO City Deep Sea Explorer sets
   -LEGO City Space
   -new Ultra Agents sets
   -new Legends of Chima sets
   -more Mixels
   -and finally the LEGO Architecture Flatiron building

It's definitely an interesting lineup worth checking out and LEGO is offering a number of special promotions to entice you to buy.  So if you've been saving up for a fun summer build, this time be a good time to check out what there is.

Set Review - Detective's Office - #10246 (Part 2)

(Read part 1 here)

It took me a few days to finish it up, but here is the completed Detective Office modular building.  All of the minifigures are happily inside.