Bricks for Pencils of Promise

Bricks for Bricks is always looking for local groups to help out with, but we've decided to support some larger groups as well since our online sales will not always be from people in the local area.  With that being said, the first group we have decided to support is Pencils of Promise.  Have you ever heard of it?  Pencils of Promise was founded in October 2008 by Adam Braun.  While traveling in India, he asked a boy what he wanted most in the world.  The boy responded that he wanted a pencil.  Adam handed the boy a pencil and so it began.  Since then, Adam put together a team that collects funds to build schools in Guatemala, Ghana, Laos, and Nicaragua.  Besides building schools (329 finished since 2009), they provide support to teachers, water and health programs for the school, and scholarships for students.  If you want to see more about them, you can visit the Pencils of Promise site here.  

So what's the plan?  Bricks for Bricks is focused on giving back.  In the past year or so of operations, we've given a small amount of funds to various local groups by participating in sales at their fundraising events.  Now that we're selling online, it's time to reach out to help a wider audience.  Why not help people around the world?  So here is the announcement...

Starting today, 24 January 2016, bricks for bricks will be giving 15% of our profits to Pencils of Promise.

Pencils of Promise lists a number of goal amounts:
-$25 provides educational opportunities for 1 student
-$500 supports a teacher
-$10,000 provides a WASH (Water Sanitation, and Hygiene) for a school
-$25,000 builds a Pencils of Promise school

So what can we do?  Support a few students?  Support a classroom of students?  Support the class and their teacher?  Keep the class healthy?  Build a school?

What can you do?  Just check out our STORE and get the minifigures you were looking for.  We'll track our profits and give 15% to Pencils of Promise.  Simple as that.  No extra work required.

One other bonus...

Starting today until our supply is exhausted, we'll give a free brick separator to anyone making a purchase of $25 or more.

Brick separators are sold by LEGO for $2.49.

250 million children worldwide lack basic reading, writing, and math skills.  Together we can change that.  Every purchase can help make a difference.  Thank you for your support!

Happy 2016!

It's been a bit since I've posted.  You saw a lot of posts around the holiday period because I took some time off from my day job and got to spend more time with my fun job.  I've finished off most of my building backlog minus one set.  I'm working on the Simpson's Kwik-e-Mart set.  It's taken me longer to build since it's a larger set and I've been busy.  I'm taking notes and pictures and will post a review once I'm done.  There are 17 bags and I'm only through around 4 at this point.  A good build so far though.

For those of you that follow the LEGO company and their sales, one big event for them is the day after Christmas.  They put a lot of sets on sale.  You can find some good deals although you have to act fast.  Often times I'll check in the morning on 26 December and most of the sets they had listed are sold out already.  I was able to pick up some Simpson's Series 2 minifigures and a LEGO Movie set at half off.  I also picked up another Rey's Speeder set which means some additional inventory for the store.  

LEGO also released some new sets on 1 January.  There are some new Star Wars - The Force Awakens sets, the new LEGO Nexo Knights, and a few others ones so check them out.  I haven't bought any yet, but will let you know if I do.

I also managed to catch the LEGO Ideas - The Big Bang Theory set on sale at Amazon to add some minifigures to the store inventory.

Were you able to catch any of the sales after Christmas or in the New Year?  Have you purchased any of the new 2016 sets?  Let me know in the comments!

55 Minifigures for $62 with Free Shipping???? WHAT????

At my last show in Rio Rancho I had a parent tell me that she found a large number of minifigures online for dirt cheap.  It was something like 46 minifigures for $28 or something.  The parent said I should check it out and that she had placed an order.  They hadn't arrived yet, but were due in from China.  My first thought was that these minifigures cannot be true LEGO minifigures. 

So I did a Google search... I won't post the link, but I'm sure you can find them...  I found a site selling 55 Marvel Super Hero minifigures for $61.36 with free shipping from Chenghai, China.  The cost goes down with the more sets that you purchase.  The figures are labeled as "LEGO Compatible," but clearly are not LEGO brand as if you look closely you can see the LEGO studs do not have the LEGO logo on them.  

From looking at the pictures, the representations look pretty darn accurate and very close to LEGO figures.  They clearly did some major copying of what LEGO did.  I'm sure this company has paid LEGO royalty fees for using its designs and I'll bet they've paid for the use of the various Super Hero logos and designs too.  (yes, I'm kidding there)  Not having purchased these myself, I can't say whether the quality matches LEGO or anything else related to the physical products.

Should you buy knockoff minifigures?  That's completely up to you.  My personal opinion is that you shouldn't.  Besides the fact that I sell LEGO minfigures and this is direct competition to my business, you don't know what you're going to get.  If there are issues, do you trust a seller in China to provide you with good customer service or to help fix issues?  If you're not concerned about that, then give it a shot.  If you or your kids don't care that the minifigures are not from LEGO, then you can probably save some money.  If you've purchased some knockoff minifigures, please let me know.  Send an email (store@bricksforbricks.com) or post in the comments.  I'd like to know what you think of them.

With all that being said, please know that the minifigures sold by Bricks for Bricks are all genuine LEGO branded minifigures.  There are no knock off parts for China or anywhere else.

How Much is a Waffle?

First off, thanks to all those who came out and supported Stapleton Elementary School in Rio Rancho.  We sold a lot of minifigures and our new addition of minifigure Christmas ornaments.  Support from Bricks for Bricks and other vendors there will help the school with many of their programs.

At the shows I go to, I get to talk to many fans of Lego.  Some are kids, some are parents with kids who are fans, some teens and adults who are fans, and many others.  I had some interesting conversations at the Stapleton Elementary School event.  One of them involved a missing waffle.  Not a real waffle, but a LEGO waffle.  It's a 2x2 round tile plate and I'm pretty sure that it comes from set 70818 The LEGO Movie: Double Decker Couch.  It looks something like this:

This screen shot comes from www.brickset.com on the parts lists for set 70818.

Long story short, a boy at a friend's house lost the waffle part and they wanted to replace it.  So they went onto E-Bay and found the part for $4.  Needless to say they weren't happy to pay that much for the new part.

So what should you do if that happens to you?  Well first off, be warned that there are a lot of folks out there on E-Bay, Amazon, and other sites looking to make a quick buck.  Did someone profit on this one?  My guess is yes.  

Set 70818 was sold on LEGO.com from 1 January 2015 to 23 November 2015.  I didn't catch when the part was lost, but if it was before 23 November, it would have been good to just buy the set for the $14.99 that it retailed for versus paying the $4.00 for the one part.  

Another option is to check with the LEGO Company themselves.  If you lost a piece, they will sell you replacements.  I have never used the service, but it is available.  You can go to their website HERE.

If you need to find the part info, you can go to www.brickset.com and type in the set number.  They will give you an inventory list with all of the info on every part in the set.

Another option is to go to Bricklink.  Bricklink is not as easy to use, but the competition is much greater so sometimes you can find some good deals.  I looked up the part and the info I found is HERE.  233 sellers are selling 1,797 waffle parts on Bricklink.  You have to weed through a few if you don't want to deal with foreign sellers.  The first US seller I found is from Texas and has the part for $0.30, but the shipping is $2.45 and the minimum order is $2.00 so you'd have to find a few more things to buy from that seller.  Either way, $0.30 is much better than $4.00 for the part.  Granted you'll probably end up paying a little more than $4 due to the minimum order, but you'll get a few more things.

I hope my suggestions helped.  Worse case, find a LEGO fan (or nerd if you want to call me that) and I'll be glad to help you find the missing piece and give you a bunch of options.

Next up! 5 Dec - 9 AM to 3 PM - E. Stapleton Elementary in Rio Rancho

Our next sale will be on 5 December 2015 from 900 AM to 300 PM at E. Stapleton Elementary for their annual Holiday Craft Fair.  The school is located at 3100 8th Ave NE  Rio Rancho, NM 87124.  You can click the link for a Google Maps view of where the school is located.

We have a few new items in to include some Star Wars sets, some new minifigures, and a few new LEGO Movie sets.  If there's anything specific you want me to have at the show, send me an e-mail here. 

Thank You!

Thanks Albuquerque fans of Lego for coming out to support this past Saturday.  We supported the Manzano High School Marching Band and their future events.

The next show is on 5 December at E. Stapleton Elementary in Rio Rancho.  This will be the second year Bricks for Bricks will be selling at this show.

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Another note for Albuquerque Lego fans, Bricks and Minifigs in ABQ reopened yesterday (14 November).  The store is under new ownership.  I haven't been yet, but I'm excited to know that ABQ will still have this great store.

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I'm going to continue working on building my online store and I'll be posting a few reviews of sets that I've acquired, but haven't been able to open up yet.  Those sets include Wall-E, The Big Bang Theory, the Kwik-E-Mart, and the Ferrari F40.

Sale this Saturday!

Bricks for Bricks will be at the Manzano High School Royal Guard Marching Band craft fair fundraiser.  It is this Saturday, 14 November from 1000 AM to 300 PM.  For more details, go here.

I'm making sure inventory is in order with some of the new sets an minifigures acquired in the past year as well as some bags of bricks so you can buy whatever you want.  Hope you can stop by and get some bricks.  Plus be sure to check out some of the other vendors.

Break--Break

Bricks for Bricks currently has one more show scheduled before Christmas.  I'm working hard to also get our inventory online so people can order right from our website.  It's still a work in progress.  It's taking a while to load all of the inventory and I need to make sure the process is in place before I open it to the public.  So stay tuned!

Sad News in Albuquerque for LEGO fans (Updated with good news)

In case you didn't see, Bricks and Minifigs was bought and has new owners.  YAY!

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While Albuquerque does not have a LEGO branded store owned by the the LEGO Group, it does have a franchise of the company Bricks and Minifigs.  Bricks and Minifigs sells sets, bricks, minifigures, accessories, holds parties, and more.  Sadly, the store will be closing on 18 October.  

The good news is that they are running some sales to get rid of inventory.  I'd recommend stopping in sooner rather than later to grab what you can.  Please be sure to thank them for serving the Albuquerque LEGO fan community over the past few years.

Turn Rectangles into Circles

Okay, maybe it's more of a cylinder... and it's not a perfect circle.  It is however very creative and shows the extent of things that you can do with LEGO bricks.  You aren't forced to just put things into sharp 90 degree angles all the time.  There are a ton of ways that you can stack LEGO bricks together and you can even use them to make a round-ish object.  

Full disclaimer... this isn't my original idea.  I'm not sure who can claim the initial win for building a circular shape with bricks.  So here's the question... how else can you do it and with what pieces?  What if you wanted to make a curved wall with 1 x 4 bricks or 1 x 6 bricks?  

An update on the business... I have another job and sadly I don't play with LEGO sets all day.  That other job has kept me involved over the past few months, but I'm still expecting to be back to bricks in the fall.  I also have some new sets that I need to dig into.  I ordered set 21302: The Big Bang Theory (Brickset review here).  I also ordered some of the second series of Simpsons Minifigures (and should have some available for sale in the fall too.  Thanks for your patience.  I will continue to post as I get new things to show, but won't be able to sell again until the fall.

Where to buy LEGO (Part 4)

Looking for the one piece that you lost that is hard to find?  Need to get a new set of stickers for that set?  Want to buy a large amount of 1x2 red bricks?  Looking to get a mint condition set no longer available from stores or from LEGO?  Have you tried Bricklink.com?  Never heard of it, let's review it here.

Price: You'll find a huge price range on Bricklink.com.  Individual sellers to bigger stores selling new and used items.  You need to do your research before you buy.  Make sure you're getting the best deal available.  Some stores charge packing fees, handling fees, PayPal fees, or other random fees.  Read closely and pay attention.  Feel free to ask questions of the sellers prior to ordering to make sure you know what you are paying for.  

Product Availability: If you can't find it on Bricklink.com, it probably doesn't exist.  Search carefully.  Sadly, some sellers put fake items up so be careful at what you see.  If it looks too good to be true, it probably is.

Set Selection: See product availability in terms of the selection.  The issue with Bricklink.com is that it is not user friendly.  Items are coded in using LEGO's set and piece numbers.  Searching through the monstrous database can be a pain.  The items are there, you just have to find them.

Shipping: Most sellers ship pretty quickly.  If they do not ship quickly comment as such.  You can request overnight FedEx or get the slowest USPS shipping at the cheapest cost.  For the most part shippers package items so they are not damaged in transit.  

Customer Service: Bricklink.com runs on comments.  For each order, you will have the opportunity to post feedback on the seller.  They in turn will rate you.  In theory this keeps everyone honest and the system working properly.  There will be some bad eggs in the system, but you can read their feedback to determine if you want to work with them or not.  Be cautious of new sellers.  They may have no feedback posted or very few posted.  In theory their prices will reflect the limited comments.  

Overall: Bricklink.com is a marketplace focused mainly on dedicated to adult fans mostly.  It can be a challenge for those not into the LEGO hobby to use the site.  The buyer should beware and do research on the items they want and make sure the seller they choose to use has a good reputation in the system.  It can be a great place to make purchases though.  Especially if you are looking to find a lot of parts and pieces cheaper than buying them brand new from LEGO's Pick-a-Brick.