Beware When Ordering LEGO from Walmart.com

I used to purchase a lot from Amazon.com here in the US. They had some great deals and the free shipping with orders over $35 was reasonable since it’s very easy to spend more than that amount on LEGO sets. Then Amazon just gave up on quality shipping. As I posted here, my orders arrive with little to no packaging in larger boxes and the sets looked like they had been used in a soccer game as the ball. The last straw was when I would order a larger set and they wouldn’t even put it in a box. They would just stick the shipping label on the outside and call it good. I went to the UPS Store to return one and the worker asked why I didn’t re-package it. It was because that’s how it was packaged when I received it. Needless to say, I think I purchased one or two LEGO sets from Amazon.com over the past year.

More of my orders went to Walmart. The discounts were often the same and the shipping quality was much better. I received well packaged sets in boxes that arrived looking brand new. This went on for a while, but has recently gone down hill. At first, I started receiving sets in padded packages. The items would get smashed and I had a lot of returns. The final straw came when I received this…

I’m sorry, but nothing in the item description said I was going to receive a set where the front packaging was peeled off. How did this even happen? My suspicion is that when Walmart does their pickup in store or home deliver orders, they typically put big stickers on the items. People didn’t want LEGO sets with big stickers on them so they return them. Apparently LEGO just recycles those sets back into their inventory and you get this. And get these…

It’s been a great run, but unless Walmart can guarantee that I am going to receive a new set or if they can tell me that the set will arrive damage (and give me a substantial discount for the damaged set), I’m not interested anymore.

Target has been the holdout so far. They continue to package items well and I don’t receive beat up sets. We’ll see how long that lasts. The unfortunate part is that Target has not had the sales that Walmart and Amazon have had.

Let met know in the comments what your experience has been. Have you found a way around receiving beat up sets from any of the big retailers? Have you received worse?

It's Time for a Change to how Collectible Minifigures are Sold

I’ve been a huge fan of the Collectible Minifigures or CMFs as we’ve abbreviated them ever since Series 10. Before that I thought it was a crazy idea to buy individual minifigures. Then I bought a few from Series 10 and I was hooked. I enjoy the non-licensed ones where they come from a range of themes and can go with various existing sets or MOCs. I’m okay with the Licensed themes for the most part.

I have purchased CMFs so far up to the DC Super Heroes series. I’m not a big fan of the DC or Marvel lines to begin with so that might be part of it, but the increase in price from $3.99 to $4.99 in the US finally caused me to stop. I don’t want to sit and feel for the minifigures at the store (especially now with COVID-19) so I usually just buy a bunch from Shop @ Home or Amazon.com. I’ve waited for sales from the last few CMFs to make it even more worth my while, but I have yet to see any deals posted yet.

The LEGO DC Super Heroes CMF series

The downside to buying a bunch at random… you get doubles quite often. It takes a few orders to get the full amount. As someone with a Bricklink store (that will be open again in a few years), I don’t mind selling the extras, but I don’t want to pay $5 for doubles, triples, or quadruples.

I happen to have access to a loophole. I can purchase LEGO in the US or in Germany. The current price in Deutschland is 3,99€. I placed an order this past weekend for 14 of the Series 20 minifigures and it worked out to $4.34 each after the exchange rate took effect.. Still not a great price, but for a purchase of 50€ or more, it came with a Speed Champions polybag (#30342-1 shown below, going for $5 in the US at places like Walmart). We’ll see how many of the 14 are duplicates (or more).

Series 20 Minifigures

#30342-1: Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo EVO

So LEGO Company, here’s what I propose…

1 - Instead of having people going to stores and feeling up packaging during a global pandemic, sell the packages with labeling or provide a way for consumers to select the ones they want. That way we can get what we want and it would be worth paying the $5 each for what we want.

2 - Produce similar amounts of each figure. Instead of having extras of the ones we don’t want and a few of the ones we do want, just produce the same amounts of each. This should help with concerns about doubles/triples.

3 - During the initial sales period (before the next CMF set comes out), place limits in Brand Stores and on Shop @ Home for the number of minifigures you can purchase. Perhaps one or two of each. Then later on when you are looking to get rid of inventory, sell them unmarked and at a lower price. Perhaps even discounts for those who buy in bulk. Perhaps sales at partner stores can continue as they are now, but at a lower price since packages would be unmarked.

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Okay, those are my thoughts. What are yours? How should LEGO adjust sales to provide a better experience to consumers while ensuring the value of the product matches expectations?

Thanks for your thoughts and Happy Building!

Pre-Designed Alternate Builds - Rebrickable

One of the great things about building with LEGO is the ability to continually modify your builds to design different things. You can take a pile of bricks and create whatever you want, tear it apart, and repeat. All you have to do is scour the internet to find tons of MOCs (my own creations) and you’ll see that there are lots of people out there who do it.

Some people might be like me… I build sets that I buy. I think they look great as they are and I have no intention of breaking them apart. There may be some great pieces in the build that I could use elsewhere, but I keep the integrity of the set anyways. I like to keep the pieces together so even for the sets I had to take apart, I can re-build them anytime I want to without a need for hunting for the original pieces.

So what if that’s your limitation? I want to keep the pieces together, but maybe I want to try building some other things. Perhaps you aren’t into MOC building and you need some ideas to get you going.

Enter the website “Rebrickable.”

(side note, I am not being paid to endorse this web site. I am merely expressing my own personal opinions on the site)

This web site has a lot of features that I will not go into today, but one of them I found interesting was the alternate build section. Let me back up… I found it easiest to create a free login (there are pay options). After creating the login and logging in, I searched around. Under the tab “MOCs” the second option down is “Alternate Builds.” This section allows you to select from existing sets and to see what other alternate builds people have done.

As an example, I selected #7587701: Mercedes AMG GT3 from the Speed Champions line. If you click on it, it says people have posted 82 different alternate builds using the pieces from the set. Here is a clip from the screen. It pictures the first 12, but you can view all of the alternate builds. From there you can look at them and try and duplicate them. Or you can create your own and add an 83rd alternate option.

Not bad… what about the larger sets? How about #10260-1: Downtown Diner? For this one, there are only four alternate builds posted. Three of them are buildings and one is of the car. Interestingly enough, If you click on the first option, a designer has turned it into an internet cafe. It then gives you the option to buy the instructions for the MOC. The cost for me would be 10 Euros… not sure what the cost in the US will be. I assume $10. The builder gives a detailed preview of some pictures of the MOC as well as some examples of the instructions. You can also see pictures posted by others who purchased the instructions and you can post comments or questions for the MOC builder or others to respond to.

While I haven’t actually purchased any of the instructions, tried to replicate a MOC, or built my own MOC for this site yet, I found this site very intriguing and full of potential. Seems like this site could come in handy right now for people at home bored with COVID-19 quarantine. It’s your chance to explore some of the endless possibilities of LEGO and I just scratched the surface of some of the things you can use this site for.

What are your thoughts? Have you used Rebrickable before? Have you purchased instructions? Have you posted a MOC or instructions there? Let us know what you think.

In the meantime, happy building!