Even David Beckham Builds LEGO Sets

Thanks to Zusamengebaut.com for finding this one. Jimmy Fallon interviewed former soccer star David Beckham on “The Tonight Show” and our favorite “highly sophisticated inter-locking brick system” was the topic of conversation. Mr. Beckham’s wife likes to make fun of him on for his bricking hobby, but according to him he loves to build as it helps to calm him. In fact he’ll stay up late into the night to finish up a set.

The clip on YouTube is below. If you don’t want to watch the full thing, skip to the 3 minute mark. That’s when the discussion about the brick begins. And how do I get a free copy of the Millennium Falcon given to me?

Enjoy!

Another LEGO Ideas Train Submission Reaches 10,000 Votes!

Back in July 2019, I brought up a submission by the builder Bricky_Brick on the LEGO Ideas platform. It’s an incredible looking train station with a train at the station. The details are impressive and the top clear piece is very cool. I’m not sure of the exact date (maybe 31 January 2020), but it achieved 10,000 votes and is currently marked as achieved support. Here’s a picture of the build, but go to the Ideas site if you want more photos.

Now we have to hope LEGO selects it for review and then actually picks it up for a set. While it would be incredible to have this as a set, I don’t have high hopes. We’ll see… maybe they just need an amazing set to change their minds and inspire sales. I know I would definitely be in line to buy this one if it came out.

What do you think? Should LEGO make this set and would it sell? Or is this just another cool AFOL design that will remain in electronic form?

Have You Ever Purchased Your Bricks at Smyths?

Many Americans looking at LEGO fan media sites may have heard of a store called Smyths before and have never actually seen one. It is usually mentioned on some of the European sites. Well for those of you who are curious here’s a short peek into the store.

First, a quick overview… Smyths is a toy store located in the UK, Italy, Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. While they have a physical presence, they also have an online presence too. You can order to have it shipped to your house with free shipping starting at 29€ or you can order online and pick up in the store.

The short story… it felt like a Toys R Us store back in the US before they closed only the words were not in English and there wasn’t a giraffe.

Let’s focus on the important part… or parts… or bricks…

The store I went into had one side of an entire aisle (maybe 75 feet long) full of LEGO sets. They appeared to have most of the themes too and the sets they did have were well stocked. They did not have the very large sets like the #75192-1: Millennium Falcon, but their online store lists the stock at each store. That way you can see where they have sets and go to another store to get what you want.

Some specific things that caught my eye:
-They did not have the latest collectible minifigures (the DC Super Heroes series). They still had Disney Series 2 and Series 19 and both were still at full retail of 3,99€
-They had the #42056-1: Porsche 911 GT3 RS from the Technic line still. This has been retired in Europe for over a year. I’m tempted to go back and get it as a set to hang onto to sell later since it has been retired in the US for a while now.
-#21046-1: Empire State Building was on sale for 69,99€. The regular retail price is 99.99€ according to Brickset so that’s pretty good. The regular retail in the US is $129.99 so the sale price works out to be around $77 with the currency conversion. That’s not too bad.

Overall, I’m not an expert on LEGO set pricing in Europe or Germany so I don’t know if the prices were on par with LEGO or higher or lower. I know Toys R Us used to raise prices on LEGO to above what you could get at Shop @ Home or in a LEGO Brand Store. If any Europeans are reading this, let me know what you think on pricing at Smyths.

My closest Brand Store is about 30 minutes away and this Smyths is about 25 minutes away in the opposite direction. I don’t have a pull to hit one over the other, but I do have to pay to park to visit the closest Brand Store. Also I still buy most of my bricks on sale from Amazon.com or through Shop @ Home so unless I find great deals on the local economy, it isn’t worth it with the exchange rate between the dollar and the euro.

Where I live in Germany, they do have Walmart/Target type big box stores, but their LEGO set selection isn’t very large. From the last time I was in the US, I recall that Walmart and Target have boosted their LEGO set offerings as Toys R Us went away. Smyths definitely seems like a decent option if you don’t live near a Brand Store and don’t want to shop online. I’ll have to pay attention more to see what their sales are like or if they ever have special offers.

In the meantime, happy building!

(and no, I was not paid to build this post or to advertise for the store… especially since my blog is written towards American LEGO fans and most Americans don’t have a Smyth’s nearby to visit)

The Piano Guys Meets LEGO Stop Motion Animation for Christmas

I stumbled upon this video on YouTube without even trying to look for it. It’s a stop motion video done by Michael Hickox Films with the Piano Guys music playing along with it. The Christmas movie references are great. It’s worth the just under 4 minutes to watch the video. Enjoy!

Resurrecting the 9V Track - The Challenge Has Been Accepted

The team from Assembled (see my article about the site here; in German it’s Zusammengebaut) interviewed JK Brickworks recently while attending Skaerbaek 2019 in Denmark. JK Brickworks is made up of Jason Allemann and his partner Kristal. Their website is here. You may know Jason Allemann from his LEGO Ideas sets like #21315-1 - Pop-Up Book or #21305-1 - Maze.

Whew, lots of links in a short number of lines…. now that we’re on the same page, in the interview, Jason mentions that he has a friend working on additions to the train theme to include 9V compatible track. WHAT!?!?!?!

More background… Jason and his friend Michael Gale co-founded a company called Fx Bricks. Fx Bricks has an initial product called the PFx Brick. In a nutshell, it’s a programmable, LEGO compatible controller that lets you install and control LED lights, small speakers, and control motors in your trains, cars, buildings, and other MOCs. There are some great demonstrations of how the PFx brick was integrated into existing sets and MOCs to include trains, cars, a Friends rock concert, and the Lego Ideas Saturn V rocket.

Some PFx bricks display on their website

What does the PFx brick have to do with 9V trains? Well on the Fx Bricks website, it talks about upcoming additions to LEGO trains to include 9V compatible tracks of various shapes and lengths, a power system, a PFx brick like controller, motors, and interconnects. Per the interview, it looks like Mike Gale has the lead on this project. There is a short brief posted on the Fx Brick site here. If you are a train fan, definitely take a look at it. He also has some sample track pictures. Check out the one below. Can you tell which one is the 9V track and which one is the LEGO one? I had to zoom in to see the LEGO logo on the one in the background. Very impressive!

Here’s a close up shot showing the Fx track attached to LEGO track. It looks pretty compatible in terms of the connection. It also looks like it will fit into a train display without seeming like a different system. The difference just appears to be logo on the stud and it looks more shiny.

We have yet to see how LEGO bricks attach to the track if you want to add ballast and I’m sure at some point we’ll see a video showing that a 9V train can work on it.

A quick history… Fx Bricks is not the first to try. A few years back a company started off called ME Models. The company produced an all metal rail and connector pieces. You could then use your own 2x8 plates in-between the connectors. It wasn’t bad and the metal connection worked. I bought some of the first track and pledged in their Kickstarter campaign. Sadly I never received the goods I was promised from their Kickstarter campaign. I reached out, but never heard back on a status. They went dark for a while. Now they show up on Bricklink as a store and it says they used to offer plastic rails, but have been closed since 2018. Some pictures of the ME Models rails are below.

ME Models standard length track. I was unable to detach the bricks to show the metal rail by itself.

LEGO 9V on the left (the older dark gray) and ME Models on the right.

I’m pretty excited about this effort. Fx Bricks has delivered on its first campaign and is working on more PFx bricks. I’m hoping they can deliver on a track system. The brief talks about having a system in stock so hopefully they are considering supply chain management systems.

Recently I set up a track for my kids to play with and the batteries just don’t have the life span to handle a lot use. Being able to expand my small stash of 9V track would be useful for kids playing. I could see it being a big win for those displaying trains at multi-day long brick or train shows as well.

Good luck Fx Bricks!

Be Ready to Sign up for the LEGO® Inside Tour: 2020

If you are a huge fan of the brick, pay attention to this…. how would you like to have the opportunity to tour parts of the LEGO campus in Billund no one else gets to see? Do you want to meet designers? Do you want to spend 2.5 days at the home of LEGO seeing how the magic happens? Do you want to shop at the employee store? If you have answered yes to those questions, then the Inside Tour is for you!

Here are the details (get the full scoop at the LEGO® House site here):

-Sign ups start October 28, 10 am CET (5AM on the east coast of the US… Europe’s fall time change happens before it does in the US) and end November 1, 10 am CET (2019).

-Available tour dates are:
13-15 May 2020
10-12 June 2020
26-28 August 2020
9-11 September 2020

-Check out the site linked above for logistics details about meals and lodging. Keep in mind that your transportation to Billund is not covered.

-Cost for the tour is DKK 14,500 which at the exchange rate today is $2,155 and change (or ~2.6 #71592-1: Millennium Falcons).

-Based on signing up last year (and not getting picked), there is a short form that lets you put some basic info in and then select the dates you can attend. It didn’t provide you a spot to plead your case. The only other thing that was different was it asked if you were a member of a LUG or not.

-The tour is in English so if you’re using Google Translate to read this post, then it might not be the best option for you. The sign up form does ask where you are from and what your nationality is so maybe they try and balance where they select people from.

If you’re not sure about it or if it is worth attending, there are a number of great posts out there about folks who have done the tour. Do some searching online and you’ll hear from adults, teens, and adults who brought kids.

I will be applying again in the slight chance that I get picked. If I recall from last year there were only a limited number of slots per tour and a few thousand applied so we’ll see what happens.

Good luck and let me know if you get selected!

Are We Entering the Best Time of Year to Buy LEGO Sets?

I know what you’re thinking… there isn’t a bad time of year to buy the plastic brick. Well I’m coming at it from the pain to your wallet or credit card bill. I have an older post that I try to update when I get new information on how to find the best priced LEGO sets out there. Bricks can get expensive fast and looking for opportunities to get discounts can be a big win.

I’m writing this post in early October 2019. While it doesn’t seem like Christmas to me, the retailers are definitely thinking about Christmas. To them Christmas means selling a lot of stuff to include toys. A big seller on the toy list is the plastic brick (yeah, probably Mega Blocks too… AUGH!). A quick look at Brickset’s Amazon.com discount list (in the US) shows a whole bunch of sets already 30% off with some over 40% off. While these aren’t the big modular buildings or Creator Expert sets, there is a good variety of sets on the discount list. I expect this list to continue through November and December with changes here and there so give it a look every now and then to see if there’s something that you’ve been eyeing up.

In the past both Walmart and Amazon.com have done limited sales on some of the big sets. This has included some of the big Star Wars sets, Modular Buildings, Creator Expert sets, and some others. Keep your eyes open. Usually by the time big sales get posted on the LEGO Fan Media, the sales are over. Rumor has it that last year Walmart had a very short run discount on the UCS Millennium Falcon (#75192-1).

In the past, LEGO has looked to unload some of the sets it wants to retire around this time of year. It used to be that LEGO ran some big sales immediately after Christmas to unload sets. More recently, LEGO has unloaded sets over the Black Friday weekend with deals on Modulars, Creator Expert sets, and some others. Definitely check out your nearby LEGO Brand Store or LEGO Shop @ Home during that time period. Of course, LEGO will also release some new sets around this time of year for you to pick up and they will run some promotional sets too. There traditionally is a “free with purchase,” Christmas themed set or two that get released in the November/December time frame.

Formerly known as EBates, now Rakuten.com also increases money back deals leading up to Christmas. Last year LEGO Shop @ Home had 5% to 7.5% back during their Brick Friday to Cyber Monday deals. Walmart, Amazon.com, and others often do the same. If you are signed up for this program, take advantage of it..

The big retailers always change how they run sales and deals. Just because they did something in the past doesn’t guarantee that they will do it again the same way this year. So pay attention to the sales. Our friends in the LEGO Fan Media usually do a good job at updating us on upcoming sales and deals. There are many out there so pick your favorite. I look at The Brick Fan as it does a good job keeping up with current and upcoming sales.

I’m not an affiliate and I don’t get paid to advertise for all of these companies and sites. It’s up to you to pick where you want to spend your money. So happy hunting and happy building!

German Bricks - Zusammengebaut.com

If you’re like me and you keep up with LEGO via fan websites, then you are probably familiar with some of the big names out there like Brickset.com, The BrickBlogger, The Brothers Brick, The Brick Fan, and others. These are all fan sites from the US or UK, but what about elsewhere? Recently I stumbled across a YouTube channel called “Assembled.” The channel is run by Germans based in Hamburg (northern Germany) and all of the videos are in English. What sets the channel apart from others? Well for one, Hamburg, Germany is about a 3 hour drive from Billund, Denmark. Assembled has a lot of content from Billund. For example, they were at LEGO Fan Media days 2019 and got to do interviews with set designers on some of the new sets that have been showing up (to include many with Jamie Berard). Here are a few:

Interview with LEGO Creator Expert Design Lead Jamie Berard at LEGO House: Presentation of the LEGO Creator Expert 10267 Gingerbread House | LEGO Fan Media Days 2019

Interview with LEGO Ideas Design Lead Samuel Johnson, Head of Marketing Monica Pedersen and Designer Cesar Carvalhosa Soares at LEGO House: Presentation of the LEGO Ideas Tree House 21318

LEGO Star Wars Boost Droid Commander 75253: Interview with LEGO Designer Steve Geist at LEGO House | LEGO Fan Media Days 2019

They even have some interviews with LEGO CEO Niels B. Christiansen.

February 2019

March 2018

From the YouTube page, I found their website/blog titled Zusammengebaut.com. Using the handy translate function on Google Chrome, it turns out that it translates to “Assembled.” I rely on the translate function to get me through so don’t feel bad if you do the same thing…

You can check out the About page here. It explains what they are and who they are. Andres Lehmann is the face of the YouTube channel and if you check out their videos you’ll see him in a few with the Beyond the Brick crew. They list another five team members and provide some information on them as well.

With a base in Germany, they present some more localized news. The most recent being a stop to the “Rebuild the World” kickoff in Berlin.

So if you’re an American or from the English speaking world, here’s a good chance to see what is going on in another part of the LEGO fan world. Definitely take the time to check out their site.

Happy building!

LEGO Architecture in the News

Lego architects and super-fans on designing perfect miniature worlds

Published 27th August 2019 Written by Matthew Ponsford, CNN

A quick post this week… I found this article published on CNN.com which talks about LEGO and Architecture (click on the link above to read the article). It covers everything from the Architecture set line, to fan builds, to some projects people have undertaken in a larger scale. I would like a truck full of bricks on 2 tables to start building.

It’s a quick read with some good pictures so definitely check it out!

Want to Create Your Own Brick Based YouTube Channel?

Maybe I’m the minority, but I don’t watch a lot of TV anymore. I also don’t have Netflix or any other kind of streaming service so that probably puts me deep into the minority. Usually when I watch things, it is on YouTube. Back in the day, the content was pretty awful, but today there are a lot of folks out there putting a lot of effort into making some great content. That includes all of our brick based friends. A few months back, I highlighted Beyond the Brick and the great work that team is doing to put out some LEGO related content. Well the team there recently celebrated reaching over 500,000 subscribers. They did a number of videos to celebrate the milestone. One in particular that interested me talked a lot about the business aspects of their channel.

I linked it below… What an attention grabbing title though, right? How much money do they make? I won’t spoil it for you, but John Hanlon goes through their YouTube stats to show how many visitors they get and shows you the top videos they have for making money. I appreciate his honest and open opinions about what they are doing and what he still isn’t sure about yet. If you are thinking about setting up a brick based YouTube channel, definitely find 30 minutes to watch this video. Bring a pad of paper and a pen to take notes as he gives some good points. Some key points that I came up with based on watching his video:

-You are at the whims of YouTube and their algorithms. What works one day may change if YouTube changes how they run things.
-Keep putting out consistent good content. Some will bring you money and some won’t.
-Just because you have subscribers doesn’t mean they watch the videos. Most watchers find Beyond the Brick through YouTube’s recommended videos.
-Ads increase right before Christmas. Can you guess why?
-Your revenue will fluctuate. It’s good to have other sources of revenue. Beyond the Brick has regular sponsors. This year it is Brickmania. Last year it was BrickLink. They also sell merchandise and use affiliate marketing.
-Your expenses can get high so be ready.
-They pay a lot in taxes. From experience, my NLS had a business and having a good CPA really helped us as the CPA gave us some good tips for how to lower our taxes. Definitely keep it in mind if you are going to get serious about a brick business (my opinion anyway).

One more useful video if you’re looking to start a Brick YouTube Channel. Boone Langston is a newer member of the Beyond the Brick team and in this video he interviews Jang of Jangbricks for over an hour. If you don’t know Jang, he has been running a YouTube channel for quite some time and has amassed over a million subscribers. Jang goes into the origins of his work and some of the things he has done over the years. I have yet to write a post on Jang, but he is known for providing video reviews of just about every set out there. The video is rather long and I will admit that there were some parts I skipped over, but there is some really good advice as well. Here are a few lessons learned I pulled away from the video:

-Take the time to make sure you are producing quality material. That includes the right lighting, sound equipment, and video equipment. I will fully admit that my pictures on this site need a lot of work.
-Respond to your fans. Answer questions they post.
-Monitor comments and make sure they are in line with your standards. Jang wants to be family friendly and he is quick to remove posts where people are offensive.
-Get feedback from your viewers and try to make changes based on what they want.
-If you are going to review every set, figure out what to do with your sets when you are done. There is no need to collect everything and be a hoarder.
-Your channel is not going to be super successful over night. It’s an evolutionary process to become popular.
-Having a dog in the video is a good distraction for the boring parts

So there you have it. I hope they were helpful. If you can think of any more useful videos on setting up a YouTube channel or more specifically a brick based YouTube channel, post them in the comments.

Happy building!