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!

LEGO® House: LEGO® Square

As you enter into the LEGO® House, your first stop is the LEGO® Square. This area is free to enter into and there are a number of things going on. I entered by the door that is right by the LEGO® Brand Store there. In front of the store is a display where you put your hand down on a sensor and it tells you what minifigure you are like. In reality, it just randomly generates a minifigure picture as my 5-year old tried it multiple times and was always something different.

One of the first things you see is a directional sign telling you where everything is in the square. The signs look like large brick tiles. At the bottom of the sign, a brick-built dog does its business.

Right by the information desk is a brick model of the LEGO® House itself. It is pretty detailed and while I didn’t get to read everything on it as I had 2 kiddos who wanted to see everything, it does look like it is to scale.

At the far end from the LEGO® Brand Store is a mosaic on the wall. I assume this is the Christiansen line of company leaders. If you look at it from the other angle it says in Danish “DET BEDSTE ER IKKE FOR GODT” or “only the best is the best” in English. “The best is never too good” is apparently the direct translation.

This mosaic is by some tables which are set up for people to eat at. While I have been to many places in the US where bringing your own food is not acceptable (they want you to buy food there), Denmark as a whole was very accepting of bringing your own lunch. My family visited the LEGO® House 2 days in a row. On the first day, we hit the Mini Chef restaurant because… well we had to. I’ll review that experience later, but let’s just say it is a bit pricey. So for day 2 we stopped at a grocery store near by, grabbed some makings for sandwiches and had much cheaper sandwiches by the mosaic for lunch. It worked out a lot better for our wallets and you could still watch everything nearby.

How did they make the mosaic that has 2 images? If you look up close, you can see it is all made of 1x1 cheese slopes. There is no sign nearby that says how many they used, but it is definitely cool how they did it. Makes me want to try it, but probably on a smaller scale.

Near the mosaic is a koi pond made from bricks. I didn’t get a picture of it, but above the pond are real plants that hang down and on those plants are brick butterflies. The Square as a whole had a lot of real plants with various brick built plants and animals mixed in.

The full scale Bugatti Chiron will be at the LEGO® House in the Square through 10 June 2019 (so not much longer). It was pretty cool to see. While you can’t get up close to touch it, you still get a pretty good view.

You can see my set review of #42083-1 here and some pictures of an actual car and the factory I saw in France here.

The display had a touch screen attached where you could control the functions of the car to include all of the lights and then a sound system that made it sound like the car was really powering up its engine. Lots of onlookers took pictures of it and it always seemed to be a popular place to hang out.

Nearby the car were some smaller cases. I took 2 pictures. The first is of the engine parts that they built to actually power the car. The second is of the Technic parts they used to built it and a few of the assembled patterns. They also had a case with the side mirror design inside and then a case with a lot of #42083-1 wheels. The wheel case was a contest where if you guessed the right number of wheels, you could win a #42083-1 set for free. My NLS, my 5-year old, and I all guessed. We’ll see if any of us were close.

Overall, the LEGO® Square is a great welcoming space. There are still a number of things to do and its a great place to hang out. My NLS pointed out that if she worked in the area in Billund, it would be a great place to bring a lunch and hang out to get away from work.

As a Dad with little kids, the plight of bathrooms is real. Are they clean? And in Europe especially, is there one I can use? The LEGO® House bathrooms all seemed pretty clean to me. There were a number throughout the building to include in the Square area. The ones in the Square were the biggest with stations to change diapers, stalls with kid sized toilets, and a line of sinks at a little kid level. Gold star to the LEGO® House for realizing kids would be there and you need good bathrooms for those kids.

Right by the bathrooms are a bunch of lockers. The lockers are free to use if you purchased a ticket. You swipe your entrance wrist band by the locker and it locks it. When you want to open it, just swipe your wrist band again. We put our lunch cooler in there and a few coats which worked out great.

You can buy your tickets to the Experience Zones at the information desk in the Square or you can save money and buy them online ahead of time. If you buy online, you can print or use your phone to scan a code at a machine in the Square. It will disperse your entrance wrist band right there. If you have trouble, there were a number of employees in the vicinity who were very helpful. On the first day, an employee saw us fighting with the sticky part and he came over and helped to install the bands on us and our kids.

Overall, the employees there were great. They were very helpful, gave tips to my 5-year old on some of the building challenges, and were very friendly. On the first day, there was one who had one of the Technic cars that has a pull back function. It seemed like every time we walked through the square, he launched it to my kids. On the first day at the end of our visit, my kids were overtired and didn’t want to leave so it was a little rough trying to get them out the door. Then from about 50 feet away, the Technic car goes right by my 5-year old and both kids stopped being upset and wanted to play again. Just enough distraction to get us out the door (Thank you!).

Not sure if I got any pictures of them, but in the Square, they also had some of the larger rubberized bricks to play with. My almost 2-year old enjoys those and it worked out good. My 5-year old wanted to make some custom minifigures to buy in the Brand Store so while that happened, my almost 2-year old and I built with the large bricks.

In the Square there are also some brick built sculptures of the LEGO® family. I failed to get a picture of them, but I believe my NLS has one. I will add it to the post later.

Finally, the Square is your entry point into the Experience Zones and you can see the bottom of the Tree of Creativity from the Square. We’ll get into the Experience Zones next.

Happy building!

Store Review - LEGO® Brand Store - The LEGO® House - Billund, Denmark

If you park at the parking garage and walk to the LEGO® House, the entrance you will take is by the yellow steps outside. Underneath those steps is the LEGO® Brand Store inside. It’s like every other brand store in that there are a lot of sets and pick-a-brick. There are a few differences, but before we get into them the top of the store has a brick built background with minifigures and other characters built out of brick. They are depicting various scenes and some minifigures that have appeared in the past. The Shakespeare minifigure appeared in the first LEGO® Movie. The female minifigure next to the deer looks very similar to the girl found in series 10 of the collectible minifigures (without the shades).

Another picture of the creation above and then underneath the entrance to the store you can see a history of all of the logos. I did a poor job fitting them all in so you can’t see the first or last one, but you get the idea.

This store has a Mosaic Maker. I failed to spend a lot of time reading everything or to see the price. Online, it is advertised as being $129.99 for a 15”x15”, 5 color mosaic with 4,500 pieces. I didn’t see anyone use this while I was there and if you go to LEGO’s website, Billund doesn’t show up when you go to book online.

The store was pretty well stocked. I didn’t go around and get pictures of everything, but the recent Ideas sets were there and the Creator Expert line was well stocked too. There wasn’t too much out of the ordinary although I did catch a few LEGO® Education sets which I don’t normally see in the brand stores.

The store had a this build in it. The label says that it is a fan build not available for sale at the store, but it doesn’t say who made it or if it depicts anything specific. You’ll notice some pick-a-brick containers by the fan build. Unlike most stores that have a wall, this one has them spread out. I think it is because the back wall is actually the yellow steps on the front of the building. I did not get a pick-a-brick bucket, but a skim through showed some decent parts available. They had the newer plant piece available in stock which I would have added to my bucket.

Also they had a large scale Garmadon figure in the store. They weren’t highlighting anything specific about Ninjago and this minifigure is not in front of the Ninjago sets, but it’s always fun to see what sorts of things they build. In the background you can see a large 2x4 red brick. Other than those, that was it for decorations outside of the ordinary. To be fair, if you wanted to see more awesome builds, just go another 100 feet or so into the LEGO® House.

The store sells a bunch of LEGO® House swag to include mugs, t-shirts, minifigure key chains, and a book about the LEGO® House. My NLS got a minifigure and I got some of the exclusive sets (which I’ll cover at another time). The only other set I saw that you can’t get everywhere was #40305-1: LEGO Brand Store. It was out of stock and the employee said they would be getting a shipment in the day after I left. I was disappointed, but given the exchange rate today, 230 DKKs comes out to be $34.40. If you look on Brickset.com, it says the price in the US is $24.99. So I’m glad they were out of stock because I would have paid an extra $10 over buying it from a Brand Store in the US.

Overall it was a good store. They had a good selection of sets in stock and the store employees were helpful. I did not go around comparing prices too much so I can’t tell you if it’s worth it to buy sets there or not. Definitely check the exchange rate if you are there and see if you should just wait to buy in the US.

One note about buying LEGO sets in Europe… the VAT or Value Added Tax is added into the price already. This is unlike the US where sales tax is added on at the register. Some areas in Europe have places where you can get a form at the store and turn your receipt and form in at a location at an airport before you leave to get reimbursement for paying VAT. The store there has signs mentioning that VAT savings so it might be something to look into if you fly to Billund.

Obviously the big draw for LEGO® fans is the LEGO® House exclusive sets. I will capture #21037-1: LEGO House, #40366-1: LEGO House Dinosaurs, and #4000026-1: LEGO House Tree of Creativity in individual reviews.