Out of Stock in the USA

Update to this Post Here

I think people have been building with bricks to pass the time during quarantine. Specifically, AFOLs with some money to spend.. A quick scan of the Shop @ Home website for the US shows a lot of sets “out of stock” across the board. I haven’t seen any reports from the LEGO Company about supply chain disruptions or changes to factory output. I assume there are a number of factors contributing to include physical distancing in factories, challenges in shipping and crossing borders, processing at distribution centers, and shipping to consumers. Has anyone seen any details? Or maybe just sales are higher than normal with people stuck at home looking for fun things to do?

Usually there is buying towards the end of life for a set by re-sellers on Bricklink or EBay (I am guilty here), but I don’t think that is the case here. The number of sets out of stock or back ordered are a bit high in my opinion.

From an initial scan this week, the Creator Expert line lists 19 sets total with only one known to be fully retired (#10243-1: Parisian Restaurant). Of the remaining 18, there are six sets shown as out of stock to include the latest modular #10270-1: Book Shop. Additionally, another five are on back order.

Some back ordered Creator Expert sets in the US

Or maybe it is just the big sets? #75192-1: Millennium Falcon™ and #75159-1: Death Star™ are both out of stock from the Star Wars™ line. #75252-1: Imperial Star Destroyer was listed as back ordered earlier this week, but is now back in stock. And this is just a few days before the big May the 4th sale.

Scrolling around some of the larger sets, #75936-1: Jurassic Park: T. rex Rampage shows as back ordered while #71040-1: The Disney Castle shows out of stock. #71044-1: Disney Train and Station shows as fully in stock. #76139-1: 1989 Batmobile™ is also available.

More out of stock large sets:

-#71043-1: Hogwarts Castle
-#75810-1: The Upside Down
-#21318-1: Tree House
-#21322-1: Pirates of Barracuda Bay (possibly related to this being a hot new release)
-#21320-1: Dinosaur Fossils

Meanwhile the Technic world is fully in stock with no problems getting #42083-1: Bugatti Chiron, #42100-1: Liebherr R 9800 Excavator, or the #42110-1: Land Rover Defender.

I fully admit that I’m guilty here as I added to the out of stock numbers by recently buying and building the #10270-1: Bookshop. Have you been a part of the purchases by buying any of the bigger sets?

Happy building!

Store Review - LEGO® Brand Store - Saarbrücken, Germany

I wasn’t planning on it, but I had the opportunity to stop in a Brand Store in Saarbrücken, Germany during the Triple Force Friday sales event 2019 (4 to 6 October). The store front was full of some of the most recent new sets. With the focus on Star Wars, I’ll start there. The first picture I took included the new LEGO Boost Droid Commander (#75253-1), Kylo Ren’s Shuttle (#75256-1), another Millennium Falcon (#75257-1), and Yoda (#75255-1). They had all of the other new sets available as well. I didn’t look around at the sale sets to see what was available (sorry).

Additionally, they had the UCS Imperial Star Destroyer (#75252-1) assembled in the front window. Wow is it a big set! I was not the only one in the window taking pictures of the set. Still not sure if it is worth my money or not, but it’s definitely a cool display piece.

Additionally in the front window was the new Winter Village Gingerbread House (#10267-1). It was cool to see it up close and personal. I think I’ll be picking the set up at some point, but I’m not sure when.

Also on display was the new Disney Train and Station (#71044-1). Inside the store they had the Disney Castle built (#71040-1).

The LEGO Ideas Tree House (#21318-1) was on display in the front in the summer version. Inside the store they had it built in the fall version with the other set of leaves. It was neat to see how it looks with both versions if leaves.

LEGO Ideas Central Perk (#21319-1) from the TV show Friends was on display in two places. There was one in the front window and one inside the store. The one inside the store was a little easier to see and get pictures of so you get the picture here.

The Technic Land Rover (#42110-1) was available for sale and they had a built set that they were letting people touch and pick up. Props to LEGO for allowing that!

The Pick-a-Brick wall or “Suche & Baue” wall was in the back. According to Google Translate, this works out to be “Search and Build.” The wall was one of the better ones I’ve seen. There were a lot of pieces that I wanted to get, but I decided against it. There were numerous “gold” colored pieces, some different flower pieces I have never seen before, some colors that are not always out there, and a few cool pieces that would look great on MOCs for buildings. Bravo to LEGO for stocking this wall well!

I thought this display was cool. Two Statues of Liberty in different formats. The Brick Headz version (#40367-1) and the Architecture version (#21042-1). It’s cool to see the different sizes and versions next to each other. Behind it is the Architecture Trafalgar Square (#21045-1).

Most stores have some none standard builds that are usually larger in size. This one was no exception with a large Chewbacca holding a crossbow and then a Pirate Captain with a hook arm and a parrot sitting on his arm.

Overall, I was impressed with this store. They had everything in stock from what I could tell and a large amount of sets on display for viewing. There were numerous build stations for kids to play with in the store to see things before you buy. The workers were all very helpful with one dressed up as Princess Leia for Triple Force Friday. I talked to one who spoke German, French, and English and the one who rang up my purchase spoke English as well.

I purchased the LEGO® Brand Store (#40305-1) which is only available in Brand Stores. It was 24.99€ as compared to $24.99 in the US. The price I paid was roughly $27.37 with the exchange rate so the total varies since the VAT (value added tax) is factored in and the sales tax in the US varies by location. The last place I lived in the states had an 8.5% sales tax rate so it would have been $27.11… although we didn’t have a Brand Store. I’ll do a review of the set at a later date.

So if you’re in western Germany or eastern France and you’re looking for a LEGO® Brand Store, I highly recommend this one.

Happy building!

Is This The Train We're Looking For?

If you’ve looked at my blog, you’ll see that I don’t post on the latest and greatest sets out. I also don’t rush to get new sets or get sets shipped to me for reviews. I tend to look for sales or opportunities to get an expensive set with a deal like coming with a free set or Double VIP points. With that being said, I’m a big fan of LEGO trains and I miss some of the Creator Expert like trains that were released over the past 10 years or so. I’d like to see more train related sets come out and I’ve advocated for using the Ideas system to do that here and here.

There is a reason why we haven’t seen more Creator Expert like trains. An interview with LEGO Designer Jamie Berard, he discusses how LEGO doesn’t make the money they want on Creator Expert trains. He mentions how they try and fit the train theme in on other themes. We’ve seen it with Harry Potter, CITY, Hidden Side and now Disney. The goal is to get fans interested in another theme to get a train versus targeting train fans.

So #71044-1: Disney Train and Station was released to VIPs on 21 August 2019 and I believe 1 September 2019 is the release date to everyone else (in the US). The set is $329.99 and is 2,925 pieces ($0.113/piece). It includes a train, a station, 5 minifigures, 16 curved pieces of track and 4 straight pieces of track.. The set comes with motorized functions via the Powered Up app. There are lots of reviews on sites and YouTube so if you want more, check them out.

Enough about that… this is not a review and I have not bought the set. The real question is, does this train fulfill the need for a Creator Expert like train? It has close to 3,000 pieces, it looks to have a lot of detail on the train and station which is good. I have yet to build it so I can’t say anything about the building techniques, but it does not look like it is just stacking bricks one on top of the other. From an initial look, it seems pretty positive.

From a train fan perspective, I’m not sure if this is what I’m looking for. It is a great set to go around your Disney park, your castle, to go around with your minifigures, and to proclaim the greatness of Disney. It is not something that is going to roll through a train station next to the Horizon Express or the Emerald Night. It doesn’t seem to go with those sets. I’ve seen a few videos out there where people have had this train run by the Disney Castle and the Creator Expert fairground sets. So maybe if you’re going to make a theme park display, this one would fit in.

I have mixed feelings about this set and I’m not sure it is worth buying or spending my VIP points on. What are your thoughts?