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.

LEGO Brand Store Review - Cologne, Germany (Köln, Deutschland)

I recently had the opportunity to visit the LEGO Brand Store in Cologne, Germany. Most US LEGO Brand stores I have been to are in malls. This one is in a pedestrian only shopping area. Here’s a picture of the outside.

The front window highlighted a bunch of the new sets out there. From left to right there’s the Vestas Wind Turbine (#10268-1), the James Bond™ Aston Martin DB5 (#10262-1), the Technic Bugatti Chiron (#42083-1), Voltron (#21311-1), and finally the Pop Up Book (#21315-1). I found it interesting that the sets are all some of the larger new ones with only one selling for less than $100. Two of them are from the Ideas line and then two are from the Creator Expert line. These are sets geared towards an older audience. It’s interesting that they are not highlighting Star Wars or other sets geared towards kids since I visited in December 2018 (right before Christmas).

The inside looks like many of the LEGO Brand stores that I have entered in the states. We were greeted by a store worker (speaking German) who gave us a December 2018 store calendar and a LEGO comic book. He asked if my little guy wanted a copy (at least I think that’s what he said) and I responded that he was too little (in English). And you could see that he felt bad for spending that time talking to us in German when we had no idea what he was saying. Poor guy.

The store seemed well stocked and I didn’t see a whole lot of differences in sets being offered in the US. There were a few that I know aren’t on Shop @ Home, but not being near a LEGO Brand store in the US, I don’t know if maybe those sets are being offered at stores only. They were:

-#40251-1: Mini Piggy Bank - a freebie with purchase in the US during the July 2017 season, but available in Europe (according to Brickset) since 26 October 2018 for €14.99.
-#40222-1: Christmas Build-Up - a freebie with purchase in the US back in October 2016, but available in Europe since 3 October 2018 for €9.99.
-#5005156-1: Gingerbread Man - Brickset said you could get it in the US with a purchase in December 2016 and at LEGO Brand stores in the US for 2017 and again they are selling it in Europe and have been since 3 October 2018 for €4.99.

I also looked to see if there were sets available that are no longer available in the US. My only comparison is Shop @ Home. Sets may still be available at US LEGO brand stores or at other retailers like Walmart or Amazon.com. While I didn’t capture everyone of them, there were a few that stood out to me…

-#10253-1: Big Ben - This set just recently went out of stock after a sale on Shop @ Home in the US. It was readily available for €219.99 (compared to $249.99 in the US). At the going Euro to Dollar rate at the time of this posting it works out to almost exactly the same price. Since that price includes Value Added Tax (VAT) and buying it in the US, the price does not include sales tax, it is actually better to get it in Germany (unless you picked it up on sale during the Brick Friday sales)
-#10259-1: Winter Village Station - This set shows out of stock at Shop @ Home in the US as well, but was readily available in Cologne

The pick-a-brick wall had a lot of options. The pricing was €9.99 for the smaller container and €17.99 for the larger container.

Lastly, LEGO Brand Stores often have builds in them. This store included a fan build and a LEGO designer build. The fan build was placed in one of the glass covered boxes around most stores. Most of the boxes in this store had LEGO set builds in them, but one had this fan build of a Christmas scene in a town.

The other build in this store was actually out of Duplo. It was a steam train engine and it was big enough for most younger kiddos to poke their heads into. To get some of the detail like the number on the front, they used System bricks. I think it’s always cool to see some of the bigger sized builds.

So there you have it… not a lot of difference between US LEGO Brand stores. No major sets on sale that aren’t available in the US or weren’t available at some point. And while I didn’t do comparisons on all of the prices, if you factor in sales tax in the US and the exchange rate the pricing isn’t completely awful. If you find yourself in a German LEGO Brand store, pop in for a look!

Happy Building!

LEGO® Store Review - Mall of America

I have been good at putting a new blog post up weekly until last week.  I have a good excuse though...  I happened to be away and I had the chance to tie in LEGO® while I was away.  In case you all weren't aware, the Mall of America is located in Minneapolis, Minnesota (okay, it's actually Bloomington, but close enough).  It's very large and has a ton of stores inside along with an amusement park.  You can go to the link above to see more about the mall, but back to the important stuff... the mall contains a LEGO® Brand store.  

Fitting with the largest mall in the US, the LEGO® store comes across as large too.  Here is the front.

First off, it has its own building area with couches and tables.  The tables have built in base plates to make stacking bricks easier.  The store also has a number of very large brick built models on top to add to the expanse of the store.  I'm not sure if they are permanently there or if they swap out models... I didn't think to ask.  

Here are some closer shots  of the models.

The inside of the store didn't have much different from other stores other than it seemed a little more spread out.  They had the standard building areas for kids (or adults) and all of the sets seemed to be in stock.  One thing that I noticed in this store and maybe it is in all stores, but I wasn't paying attention, was that the really big expensive sets were not stocked on the shelves.  They just had a single version of each one.  A customer in line ahead of me purchased the Star Wars Sandcrawler (#75059) and the worker told him that they only keep an empty box of the set out so kids don't wreck them.  The worker mentioned that some people buy these as collectors items versus buying the set to build it.  I was glad to see that they took note of that and were trying their best to help their fans out.  Another note on stock levels in the store, they had the Volkswagen Beetle (#10252) and the Disney Castle (#71040) available (at the time of this post #71040 was sold out online).  You'll also notice that they have the standard display case windows around the store.  The windows in the picture show some of the sets available to include the modular building #10251 - Brick Bank and #10248 Ferrari F40.  

In terms of the store, the workers were pretty involved with customers.  Many were walking around with constructed sets or parts of sets and they all seemed to be answering questions.  One was explaining to a family with kids how to best stack pieces in a pick-a-brick cup to get the most pieces in there.  She said that they "didn't want to pay for air."  The customer service interactions were definitely at a higher level than the Tysons Corner Center store I went to this past summer.  They also had some of the larger sets on display outside of the windowed display areas to include the Technic Bucket Wheel Excavator (#42055) which was built and by the registers.  Also, one of the windows had some creations built by "our model builders."  I'm not sure who they are, but here is a picture of what they built.

As for buying anything, while the store was fully stocked with all of the current sets I didn't get any new sets.  For one, it's tough to buy something when you know you can get it cheaper elsewhere like at Amazon or Walmart.  I did see one set of parents checking the price of a set at an online location and deciding not to buy due to a cheaper price elsewhere.  The other reason, the sales tax at the store was higher than what I pay locally in FL.  Ordering online from Shop @ Home makes the most sense if I'm going to pay full price for a set directly from Shop @ Home.  I did get a container of bricks from the Pick-a-Brick wall.  The contents of the wall were the same from over the summer when I went to the Tysons Corner Center store, but I still got some pieces.  I realize that it makes it look bigger, but why the need for the giant wall with the fake bricks in the top drawers?

Hopefully I'll make it to more of the branded stores to see which are better or worse.  If you have one nearby that I should checkout some day, please let me know.

Happy building!

Store Review - LEGO® Brand Store - Tysons Corner Center - McLean, VA

I was in the Washington DC area this past weekend with my family and with some downtime decided to stop at a nearby mall (mainly for the air conditioning on a hot day).  As it turns out this mall had one of my favorite stores in it.  The LEGO® brand store in the Tysons Corner Center happened to be open while we were there so of course I hadto check it out.  In walking around the mall it seemed that the bags you saw people carrying most were either Victoria's Secret or yellow with a red 2x4 brick on it.  We followed the bags and ended up at the store.  It was busy.  Lots of kids all over the place building in the various free build areas and running around excited to see all the sets.  A store worker was near the entrance to greet people.  I'm not sure they appointed the right person as this worker was rather quiet and didn't give a smile.  We got "have you been to a LEGO® store before?" and "your kid's outfit is cute."  Great.  Whatever.  I wasn't there to chat with the employees.

The store seemed to be pretty well stocked with all of the different themes.  I didn't inspect each and every one, but I didn't see holes on the shelves either.  One of the items on display in the front of the store was the new Creator Expert - Big Ben #10253.    

As my NLS (non-LEGO® Spouse) commented, it looked beautiful.  I've seen the pictures and designer video, but seeing it up close and personal was pretty cool.  They did an amazing job with the design.  Here's the box on the shelf.

Another set that I finally got to see in person was the LEGO® Technic Porsche 911 GT3 RS (#42056).  First off, it looks incredible and very sleek!  Secondly, it is definitely a lot bigger than I expected.  The picture I took is pretty bad because it's behind glass so you get a reflection and some of the paint on the window, but it's still an impressive model.  The set was on the shelf, but the box was listed as "for display only."  I didn't pick it up to see if it was just the box or the actual set.  My guess is that if you wanted it you had to request it from the workers.  I didn't ask to see if they had them in stock or if you had to order them.

Other things to note about the store... Collectible Minifigures Series 16 releases on 1 August 2016 (I believe), but they were on sale at the store.  I saw at least one AFOL trying to feel through the bags to get the ones he was looking for.  Also, it was a good mix of people buying different items.  Lots of families with kids walking out with smaller bags including Angry Birds sets and Friends.  We also saw someone walk out with a Tower Bridge (#10214).

Did I make a purchase?  Yes!  My NLS did let me or maybe I pressed ahead without asking before she could say no.  Either way, I am a big fan of the Pick-a-Brick wall in the back of every LEGO® brand store that I have been in.  They have 2 size cups that you can pick from and fill as you want.  I picked the larger cup that cost $16.95 in Virginia after tax.  They had a range of parts in different colors and sizes.  I tend to stick to the smaller pieces so you can fit more in and I pick the colors that are not as prevalent.  I have yet to open my container, but I was impressed that the store worker used packaging tape to make sure my container didn't explode so that was good (I'm sure it's from experience and having to clean up messes in the store).  My cup is below:

My favorite by far is the sand green parts that were available.  They had 1x1 bricks and 1x2 plates.  That's not a common color that I tend to see often so I was glad to grab a few.

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Update (August 9 2016):
2 pictures below of the bricks I picked up from the Pick-a-Brick Wall.  I didn't merge them together, but hopefully you can see where the pictures match up.  You'll notice I went for most of the smaller pieces to try and fit more pieces into the container.  In the end I counted 753 pieces from the container.  With the Virginia tax the final came out to be about $0.02 per piece.  I can't complain about that.

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My favorite by far is the sand green parts that were available.  They had 1x1 bricks and 1x2 plates.  That's not a common color that I tend to see often so I was glad to grab a few.

I called it a review so I should give my opinion.  Should you go to this store?  Or any LEGO® brand store?  The selection is great and the additional benefits are useful such as the Pick-a-Brick wall and minifigure creation station.  Plus you get store workers who understand LEGO® and can help you get sets you don't have if they aren't in stock.  They also have some of the harder to find sets that aren't typically in your average retail store.  Finally you can get and use VIP points for your purchases.  The downsides... you don't get the discounts that you can find at places like Target, Walmart, or Amazon.com.  Everything is at the full retail price.  So should you go, I recommend going if you're looking for a harder to find set or price is not your main driver.  The Pick-a-Brick wall is useful if you stack the cup right too.  It's a fairly decent way to get pieces.  Once I open up the cup I purchased, I'll give an update to this post with the number of pieces I got and the different types.  

Do I wish I had a LEGO® brand store closer?  Yes!  Maybe it's better that I don't when it comes to my credit card bill.  What are your thoughts of the LEGO® brand stores?