Set Review - #60169 - Cargo Terminal - LEGO City

I don't review a lot of LEGO City sets as they tend to repeat.  The fire fighters, police cars, and others tend to repeat every year.  The cargo theme along with a few others, tend to repeat less often.  I saw #60169, Cargo Terminal come out and was interested.  It originally came out on 27 May 2017. However, the original retail price is $79.99.  With 740 pieces that comes out to $0.108 per piece.  I found that to be pretty high, but thankfully I picked it up on Amazon.com for 20% off for $63.99 or $0.086 per piece.  So definitely better.  Sadly, the set was only 20% off on Amazon.com for a small amount of time.  Keep watching it though and it may come back.

Onto the review...

The set box is similar to most city sets.  The front shows the full up set.  The back shows the play features along with the standard minifigure that is saying "Hey!"

The contents include 8 parts bags numbered 1 through 8 to go with the instructions.  Bag one includes a piece separator as you can see in the picture.  There are 5 instruction booklets and then a sticker sheet.  Thankfully the stickers are mostly license plates and a few others so it's not a massively stickered set like some in the past have been.

The first bag is a forklift.  This is not the first appearance of a forklift in a City set.  It has been in the Cargo Terminal #60022 from 2013 and Cargo Truck #60020 from 2013.  This one includes a female minifigure, a hand cart to move things around and a small pallet with miniature LEGO sets on them.  These have appeared before to include in 2010's LEGO City Truck (#3221).  Not too much has changed on this forklift design although it is in red versus orange or yellow.

I pictured some of the extra small pieces included at the bottom of the photo for reference.

The second bag is a crane that has a movable arm.  That is the arm rotates up and down but the hook part does not move in and out of the arm.  The hook attaches to a crate that you build in yellow with the LEGO logo stickers on either side.  The forklift can load the pallet of LEGO sets into this crate.  The set includes 3 other crates that can be picked up with this crane.

The third bag is the start of the truck to carry the crates.  Nothing too special about this part of the build.

Bag number 4 completes the truck.  It comes with a driver who has a beverage and one crate with a mini-jet ski or similar type item in the crate.  The truck has room for 2 crates in total.

The fifth bag is a trailer that attaches to the truck to carry additional crates.  This allows you to load all of the crates that come with the set onto the truck.  Nothing too impressive about this build.  My only complaint is that the front axle has a ball attachment to the back of the truck and then the axle itself is on rotating plates.  When you attach it to the truck and have it turn, it can over spin.  I would go with either the ball attaching to the truck or the rotating axle, but not both.  Too be fair, it doesn't take away from the trailer or the set that much... it's just a nit picky complaint that I have I guess.

The sixth bag is 2 additional crates.  One has a small four-wheeler and the other is... um... maybe a snow plow that is supposed to attach to a larger truck?  I'm not really sure.  You could pretend it is a number of things I guess.  The crates are built similar to the others where the fork lift can lift off the cargo and the crane can pick up the crate itself.

The seventh bag is a small hut that could be the entrance to the cargo area.  There is a female minifigure that sits inside with a coffee maker, some cookies, a camera with a view of traffic, a wrench, a walkie talkie, and a barrier arm that swivels up and down.  Like many City sets, this leaves a bit to be desired with no back wall to the building and not a lot else to it.  It's sets like these that I enjoy because I can then use my own pieces and parts to expand upon them to make them better.  Also, it can be a good addition to a larger cargo yard that you are building.

The eighth bag is a rack where the forklift can place the pallets.  There are four slots for the 4 items with the set.  As mentioned with the building, the shelving could stand to be expanded, but that's where your imagination can come into play.  It's a good start to what could be a larger cargo yard.

Here is the entire set.  In my opinion, it's a great set.  There are lots of play features, there is room for expansion, and it's not a repeated City set that you see re-hashed every year.  Definitely a good set for a kiddo or for a nerdy adult like me who builds city scenes with LEGO bricks.  Look for the opportunity to get this on sale.  In early May 2018, the set is around 19% off on Amazon.com in the US.  LEGO seems to add to the cargo theme every few years versus annually so if you can't get this one, you'll have to wait a few years.

Happy building!

BRICKS FOR BRICKS STORE ANNOUNCEMENT - CLOSING 31 MAY 2018

It is with great sadness that I announce that the BrickLink.com store for Bricks for Bricks will be closing on 31 May 2018.  My non-LEGO job is pulling me away (from Bricklink, but closer to Bilund).  I have an amazing opportunity that I couldn't turn down, but I will be unable to run the business while I'm away.  I will keep the website running as well as I can and I hope to be back in business in a few years.

Thanks to everyone who supported all of the great groups that we've worked with over the past 4 years.  We're at over $120 for Brick Dreams this drive with one month to go.  I will post the final number when we get there.  Happy building!

Set Review - Series 18 Collectible Minifigures - #71021

The 18th series of collectible minifigures were released in the US on 1 April 2018.  There are 17 minifigures in this series and they retail for $3.99 in the US.  After the Ninjago movie minifigures and the second set of Batman movie minifigures, I am glad to have another original, creative set.  This series is being released along with the 40th anniversary of the minifigure so there is a party theme to celebrate.  So here they are...

The first four minifigures are costumed with tails.  The cowboy has the back half of the horse that he's riding.  The unicorn and cat just have tails.  The dragon has some impressive wings and horns on the back as well as a tail.  In keeping with the Batman Series 2 minifigures, these also all have orange base plates to stand on versus the standard black base plates in many of the past series.

The next four all have some impressive costumes.  The first is a spider.  He has a pretty impressive spider on his back and is holding a small spider.  The next is an elephant with a tutu.  She is next to a mouse and has an alternate face where she is pretty shocked to see the mouse.  I'm a big fan of the cactus.  If you have never seen an actual Saguaro cactus up close, they are pretty impressive and some get rather tall.  I think this minifigure costume is a good representation.  Next is a firework of some sort.  The sun glasses definitely add to the costume.

Here are four more party minifigures.  The first is a clown that makes balloon animals.  There are two balloon animals and the scale and accuracy of each were well done by the LEGO designers.  Next up is the blue brick girl.  Along with the red brick guy, they were the most numerous in the orders that I placed.  The last one to mention is the flower girl.  There's a flower costume hat and a pot to go around the pants.  This one is definitely outside the norm for what LEGO creates and I'm a fan.

Next up are two with some bigger pieces that are quite different from the past 18 sets of minifigures.  First up is a guy popping out of a cake.  He is a full minifigure and just fits in the larger cake piece.  The splashes of frosting on his shirt are a nice touch and the gold party hat helps too.  The next one is a race car driver.  He has some creative patches on his shirt and the car looks like it could be a part of the Speed Champions line.  

Finally there is a boy who is a party attendee.  He is holding a balloon and has a gift that includes some past LEGO collectible minifigure bags.  Then there's the original LEGO policeman minfigure from back in the day holding the original set he came from.  I ended up purchasing 3 orders of 17 from LEGO Shop at Home (they only allow you to purchase 17 per order) and I only had one of the policeman minifigures.  There is a girl to attend the party too, but she did not come in the first 51 minifigures I ordered.  If I get her later, I will add her picture to this post.

I was about to wrap things up with this post and then had to save it as a draft.  In the meantime, another order of series 18 minifigs arrived and the party girl showed up.  She is similar to the party boy only she has a purple party hat and balloon.  Her gift is full of 1x1 round tile sweet treats.  

It took 4 orders of 17 minifigures from LEGO to get all 17 minifigures.  I'm thankful to have a store to sell the extras in otherwise this method is not the way to go to collect these.  With that being said though, this series is awesome.  These are some great minifigures that were creatively designed.  If you're a collector of these, I recommend picking these up over some of the past licensed minifigure sets.  

Bricks on the Tube

There are a lot of great fan sites out there and usually the pick up the good videos, but there are a few that I haven't seen around so much.  

To start off, there's this video.  Without spoiling it, this 18 year old from Andorra found a way to use LEGO to improve his life in a big way.  Check it out!

Ever since he was a kid, David Aguilar was obsessed with Lego. He spent his childhood building cars, planes, helicopters, and eventually, his own prosthetic. Born with a deformed arm, the self-named "Hand Solo" decided to take his Lego-building skills to the next level.

This next one says it is 7 months old or so as of the publishing of this post, but I haven't seen it before.  This one is made by the LEGO group and shows LEGO's supply chain process from plastic bits, to the formation of pieces, to creating a set, to delivering the set to the store.  It's worth the watch if you haven't seen it before.  

Here's our fantastic short documentary showing you exactly how our iconic LEGO bricks are made. Be prepared for all your questions to be be answered!

I had seen the first version of this one by BrickBrosProductions.  You can see it here.  The creators used LEGO bricks in real life to do different things like cook eggs on a frying pan.  The second version below is similar to the first one.  Enjoy!

In our newest brickfilm, Lego In Real Life 2, a boy craves to eat an egg for breakfast. It turns out that the egg may have some interesting qualities... Check out this awesome video: Talking to the guys who made LEGO In Real Life - An Interview with BrickBrosProductions https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGYE2rsLHL8 Go check out Jerome Montpetit's channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCf4UEAWuTS8sofd69PVlJAg Music composed in Filmstro Pro!

Set Review - #21039 - Shanghai, China - LEGO Architecture

I don't review too many of the Architecture themed sets, but here are a few I've done in the past if you are interested:

#21023 - Flatrion Building, New York
#21031 - Burj Khalifa, Dubai, UAE

This review is of one of the Architecture skyline series within the Architecture theme.  These skylines were started in 2016 with New York City, Berlin, and Venice.  2017 had Chicago, London, and Sydney.  2018 brought this set and will have Las Vegas which was delayed due to it's inclusion of the Mandalay Bay resort and casino and a forced redesign after tragic events that happened there a few months back.

This set is the first in Asia and my guess is it is an attempt to garner support from the huge market in Asia and China.  It was released in the US on 1 January 2018.  It contains 597 parts and retails in the US for $59.99.  That works out to $0.10 per piece.  I purchased the set for $47.99 from Walmart which works out to $0.08 per piece.  As of the writing of this post (early April 2018), the set is on sale for 20% off at Amazon.com and Walmart in the US.

Onto the review... The box looks much like the other Architecture sets.  Set on the front and then description of buildings on the back.  It opens the same way as the others too.

The contents are 6 bags, an instruction booklet, and 2 flex rods not in bags.  The instruction booklet has some great pictures of the actual city and some descriptions of each of the buildings.  After the English version it goes through the same in Spanish and French.  I'm kind of a fan of the unmarked bags.  You have to find the pieces versus opening bag 1 and then 2 and so forth.  It makes it more of a challenge to build.

The first part of the build is the base.  I am a fan of how it's built.  Some of the past Architecture builds I have done have just had a rectangular base.  I like how this one has a rounded part and isn't symmetrical.  

The part of the build includes the Chenghuang Miao Temple, Longhua Temple and Pagoda, Radisson Blu Hotel (in the back), Bund area, and the Oriental Pearl.  The first 2 older buildings would be really awesome to build on their own in a larger scale, but I can't see LEGO building them.  The Bund area is designed pretty well considering how small of a scale it is shrunk down to.  The Radisson in the back isn't all that exciting.  I'm not as familiar with the city, but I would think they could have picked a better building.  

The buildings on the right side are much more impressive in my opinion.  The Oriental Pearl is definitely an interesting design and the LEGO designers did a good job scaling it down.  The World Financial Center is another good build and if anything the brick color is great.  The final building is the Shanghai Tower.  The use of the Technic 3x3 half beam curves and the flex tubes to create the curved shape is an ingenious technique.

Here's the final set.  I think it looks great.  I do think it's overpriced at the retail price so grab it at 20% off from Amazon.com or Walmart if you can.  If you're a fan of the Architecture theme or the skylines, I would definitely add it to your collection.  It's a great build and it comes with some great pieces to use elsewhere too.  What are your thoughts?

Set Review - #10260 - Downtown Diner - Creator Expert

Thanks to the LEGO Group for producing another modular building.  WHOOHOO!!!  I'm always excited to buy, build, and review these sets.  You can see past reviews here:

#10255 - Assembly Square
#10251 - Brick Bank
#10246 - Detective's Office

The Downtown Diner was released on 1 January 2018 in the US.  It retails in the US for $169.99.  With 2,480 pieces, it works out to $0.069 per piece.  Not too bad.  You can see the LEGO Designer video on YouTube here.  Onto the review!

Here's the box...

This set contains 5 sets of parts bags, an instruction booklet wrapped in plastic, a tan 32x32 stud baseplate, and 4 gray 8x16 plates.

The first bags start the first floor and include an orange piece separator.  Lots of 2x2 tiles to lay down and a black and white pattern that looks pretty cool once its done, but takes a bit to install.  The details for the diner itself start to appear here with a table and booth with ketchup and mustard on the table, a juke box, and a gumball machine.  The short order cook is in this set of bags.  His cooking area has what appears to be some bacon cooking on his cooking surface.  This set also includes the start of the stairs that go up to the upper levels.  

Not much to talk about in the back.  There is a trash can and a brown square container out back.  Other than that, it's pretty plain in the rear of the building.

The second set of bags completes the first floor.  It includes the waitress minifigure on skates serving some ice cream.  There are some pancakes to cook on the griddle and on the table.  The bar is completed with a soda machine with 2 flavors.  The stairs to the next floor are finished and there's a light at the top.  Also, what stands out to me is the clear window design on the front with it's nicely designed curves.  The "DINER" sign in its bright pink is also pretty impressive.  

Here's a close up of the first floor diner.  You can see the coffee maker on the left, the grill with its bacon and pancakes and the hood above it.  There are some pictures on the wall in the back and on the right.  Some of the accessories include 2 coffee mugs, a camera, a frying pan and knife for cutting, the plate of pancakes, and the ice cream that the waitress is carrying.

The third set of bags completes the second floor which is a fitness center.  The front of the building has the teal green rounded bricks surrounding the clear windows that goes from the bottom of the floor to the top and eventually connects to the next floor. 

The back doesn't have too much other than a fun stairwell that curves up.

Here's a closer look at the inside of the second floor.  You can see a boxing ring, a punching bag, a bench with a bar and weights, some dumb bells, and a water cooler.  This floor contains 2 minifigures which are a male boxer with boxing glove hands and a female in a light green workout outfit.

The fourth set of bags completes the third floor.  This floor is a music recording studio.  There's a recording area with a sound room, a mixing station, and a waiting area with a fancy chair.  There's also a small porch where the picture shows a female minifigure standing out on it.  

My favorite part is the front of this floor.  It continues the windows from the previous floor and the very sleek teal green design that surrounds the windows.  It culminates at the top with a curved half-circle teal green part.  

Here's a top view of the floor.  The recording studio is on the right side of the picture with the sound booth on the bottom of the picture and the mixing board on the top.  I like the use of the steering wheels to make the speakers in the mixing area.  The recording area is pretty detailed with some sound dampening materials and a microphone.  The wall has a picture of an album along with a gold record.  The rest of the room looks more like a waiting room.  There's a table with two glasses and a drink pitcher, a lounge chair with a table, and 2 rugs on the floor.  One of the windows has an air conditioner in it (on the left side of the picture) which is similar to the second floor.

Now some views of the top of the building.  The left side has a skylight window that can be propped open or closed.  There is a ladder that to climb up to the roof as well.  On the right side of the picture, you can see an antenna (or is it a lightening rod?).  The details on the front were rather simple to build, but still quite detailed like many of the other modular buildings.

This set includes a car.  Other modulars include a car to include the Palace Cinema and the Fire Brigade sets.  This one is pink and looks to be maybe 1950s or 1960s style (I'm not a car expert so someone correct me).  It has space for 3 minifigs and has some decent detail to it.  I like it!

This set contains 6 minifigures and surprisingly they are somewhat controversial.  This is the first modular building to have minifigures with facial expressions, facial hair, and some even have dual faces.  Past modulars have been the standard 2 dots for eyes and a smiley face mouth.  Personally I am a fan of the change.  It adds more detail to the set and helps to make it more realistic.  I think it was a good move for LEGO to make the change.

Here are some final shots of the set.  First is from the front view, then from the left side, and then from back back.  This set can be placed on a corner in a city scene, but as you can see on the left side, the sidewalk just ends as it goes up some stairs.  Maybe it would be better next to a parking lot or another modular with a sidewalk there.

As already mentioned, I'm biased and I enjoy these sets.  So yes, definitely go buy this one if you are a fan of modulars.  They are fun to build and there are a lot of great pieces if you want to use them for something else.  While modulars are a bit expensive, you can wait to get them when you have VIP points or they have been discounting the retiring set on Black Friday over the past 2 years.  

Well done LEGO!  Another great set!

What are your thoughts?

The (Not So) Secret Way to Buy Discount LEGO Sets (2018 Update)

Back in 2016, I wrote a post with some references for where you can find LEGO at a discount.  It's time for a update.

LEGO Shop @ Home: Buying from the source can sometimes be a good deal.  This however is not always the case.  For most of the year, they throw a lot of sets up for sale that they weren't able to sell.  There are a few key times however.  The Star Wars set sales during the May the Fourth sales and the Brick Friday Sales offer some great deals.  Often they throw a few other sales in there, but you need to pay attention to them.  If you get on their mailing list, you can get notices of when they are coming up.

BrickSet.com - Amazon.com deals in the US: Amazon has kept a good deal of discounts on sets.  If you pay attention, they have a great deal of some of the main lines (CITY, Friends, Star Wars, etc.) at a 20% discount.  As they approach Christmas time, they often increase sales to include discounts of 30% or more.  It's definitely worth it to check this site out before buying a LEGO set to see if there's a discount.  BrickSet used to have a Walmart sales site, but that one has since been shut down.  

BrickPicker.com: As mentioned last time, BrickPicker is more of a resource for those who collect, invest, and sell on the secondary market.  It focuses on LEGO sets that have long since retired and where people are willing to pay big money for some of the rarer sets.  They do show some current discounts on Amazon in various countries and if you follow the forums, you can see what deals people are finding at some of the big brand stores.

Walmart and Target: Both of these retailers have either pushed all of the fan sites to take down their sales searches or people took them down on their own.  I'm not sure what happened, but I have yet to find an easy way to find the LEGO deals at these stores.  Has anyone found something useful out there?  If so, please let me know.

Ebates.com - Okay so this is not a way to save money buying LEGO in a direct way.  However, there are a few ways you can take advantage of it.  For those of you not familiar, Ebates is a website where you sign up, go to the website before you shop, and then Ebates and you get a cut of the total sale when you are done.  If you sign up, you get spam emails every day.  The good news is, you can use it to buy LEGO.  LEGO Shop @ Home is currently (as of 30 March 2018) offering 2.5% cash back.  You place an order, they hold onto 2.5% of the sale, and then they return it to you in quarterly payments.  You can receive a check or link it to your PayPal account.  Before Christmas time 2017, Ebates had a 7.5% cash back deal on LEGO Shop @ Home.  Combine that with Double VIP points and it was a pretty good deal!  Also, you can share their site with friends and get a $25 referral payment.  The link I placed is just to the site and not an attempt to get the $25 referral payment out of you.  Amazon.com and Walmart are linked to Ebates too, but often they are linked to specific categories of products.  I have yet to see them give cash back for toys.

One final note is not related to discounts, but finding those hard to find sets.  Right now, it has been a challenge to buy the Millennium Falcon (#75192).  There are a number of websites out there that help you track inventory.  I have been watching zoolert.com.  You can set it up to track a product and get notifications on availability and pricing.  For the Falcon, it shows availability (or lack thereof) at Walmart, Target, Toys R Us (for a bit longer), Lego, Amazon.com, and EBay.  It does not show BrickLink.com or other LEGO secondary market sites.  If there is a set out there that you are looking for (maybe the Falcon), it may be worth it to use a site like this one.

What else am I missing?  Feel free to comment on any sites I'm not aware of or you can email me here.  

I'm not an affiliate to any of these sites and I am not paid to endorse any of them.  If you want to support Bricks for Bricks, please check out my BrickLink store.

Set Review - #21313 - Ship in a Bottle - LEGO Ideas

We're on the 20th LEGO Ideas set already.  Can you believe it?  Ship in a Bottle was released on 2 February 2018 in the US for $69.99.  With 962 pieces, this works out to be $0.073 per piece.  This is quite a different set from what LEGO has released in the past so let's take a look.  Here is the box, both front and back sides.

Instead of the box opening up from the sides like many sets do, this one opens up on the top.  It reveals an instruction booklet, 4 large clear pieces, and 4 sets of bags.  Numbers one and two are single bags, 3 has 3 bags, and 4 has 2 bags.  

Bag one is the ship.  The build is very detailed considering how small it is and uses a lot of SNOT techniques.  There are a number of the teal colored pieces used, but they are hidden for the most part.  The cannon ports look pretty realistic considering how small it is.  There's a crows nest, a steering column, and a bridge area too.  Pretty impressive in my opinion.

Bag two is the bottom part of the bottle.  This part was surprisingly more challenging than I expected.  Mainly the bottom part uses all clear tiles and bricks.  It was a challenge to build in the same color for that entire part of the bottle (in my opinion).  The rest of the bottle wasn't too bad, but it was more fragile than I expected.

The third set of bags are 3 bags of 1x1 round translucent blue plate (there is probably a more technical term for these pieces so I'm sorry if I screwed it up).  The instructions say that you need to complete step 59 a total of 284 times.  I don't think I've ever seen a LEGO set have 284 steps on one page.  Thankfully it's easy to dump the pieces in.

The final set of bags completes the bottle and the base.  In the picture below you can see the top of the bottle.  It is pretty realistic looking and there is a 2x2 round tile with what would be a wax seal, but is printed with the initials of the LEGO designer who made the set (a nice touch in my opinion).

The base is also a great design.  There is a brick made compass below where the bottle rests, 2 globes on either side of the base, and the name of the ship which is Leviathan.  If you want to know where the name comes from, look up the philosopher from the 1600s named Thomas Hobbes.  He has a book with the same name.  My recommendation is to avoid the book and just build the set.

Here is the completed set.  I am very impressed with the final design and how it looks.  In my opinion, it is one of those sets that is worthy of display in your Brick Cave.

Final thoughts... get this set!  It's another great model from the Ideas range and it's definitely worth it.  The build is challenging, there are some great pieces to use if you plan to build something else with the pieces, and it really looks impressive when it's done.  What are your thoughts?

Set Review - #71020 - The LEGO Batman Movie Series 2 - Collectible Minifigures

LEGO released the second series of The LEGO Batman Movie collectible minifigures on 1 January 2018.  You can see my review of the first set here.  Like the last series, this series contains 20 minifigures.  The retail price in the US is $3.99 each.  You can order a maximum of 32 from LEGO Shop at Home.  Those are the details, let's get into the minifigs...

First off, this set has a new base.  It's the same black color, but it's the first time that there is a logo on the base.  It will be interesting to see if LEGO continues this trend in some of their licensed collectible minifigures. 

First four... to be honest, it's been a few months since I have seen the LEGO Batman Movie and I don't remember any of these from the movie.  So from left to right: Doctor Phosphorus, Black Vulcan, Killer Moth, and Clock King.  Nothing too special about these minifigures in my opinion.

Next set of 4... Wonder Twin Jayna, Wonder Twin Zan, Disco Harley Quinn, and Bat-Merch Batgirl.  Once again, I don't see anything too interesting about these that is different from other minifigures.

To follow on... Hugo Strange, General Zod, Vacation The Joker, and Jor-El.  The Joker looks too much like the Vacation Batman from the last set with the duck floating raft.  

Next four are Swimsuit Batman (to include the dolphin), Mermaid Batman, Vacation Robin, and
Vacation Batgirl.  I expect both Batmans to be pretty popular as they are different from most minifigs.  While the Batgirl isn't all that exciting, she has a pony tail hair piece that attaches to her head piece which is new to me.

I've purchased 64 so far and have not received all 20 minifigures.  Thanks a lot LEGO!!!!  Luckily I've put the extra in my store so it's not like they are just sitting around to collect dust.  The last 3 that I got are Apache Chief, Black Canary, and Vacation Alfred Pennyworth.  I am short Disco Alfred Pennyworth.  The Vacation version is pretty fun though.  The other 2... where were they in the movie?

My take?  Like the LEGO Ninjago movie CMFs, I was not too impressed by these minifigures.  I would have preferred another non-licensed theme of minifigs to come out versus another set of 20 Batman minifigs.  I think 20 was enough.  The only reason to get these is if you are a CMF collector like me.  Otherwise, I'd hold off.  In the meantime, I'll post the remaining minifig once I get it.

Okay, here's an update on 14 March 2018...

I finally got the last minifig.  Disco Alfred Pennyworth.  It took three orders of 32 to get the full 16.  Definitely not worth it.  Having a store where I sell the minifigs helps, but for the average collector, don't bother with giant orders from LEGO Shop @ Home like that.

The Downsides of Amazon!

A word of caution if you plan to buy LEGO sets from Amazon.com (in the US).

I placed an order for some LEGO sets through Amazon.com and then through LEGO Shop at Home and both of them arrived on the same day.  When I opened the two, I was shocked to see the differences in the two packages.

The package on the left is from Amazon.com.  I ordered three LEGO Star Wars sets.  As you can see they arrived in a fairly large box and there was a small sheet of brown paper tucked in with it.  There was a large amount of open space in the box where the sets could shift around during shipment.  I was thankful to see that the sets were not damaged when I opened the package.  The previous two orders I've had from Amazon.com with large LEGO sets have suffered damage and have required me to send them back for a new set or to just deal with having a damaged box in my store.

The package on the right is from LEGO.  You can barely even tell that it is the new modular building, the #10260 Downtown Diner, is in the box and you can see the 60th Anniversary Lego set (#40290).  The team at LEGO packaged it up good with a lot of air packs to make sure there was no damage.  The sets arrived in great condition as they always do.  

So why is this?  I checked in with a friend who spent some time at Amazon and learned why.  My thought was that some worker didn't seem to care or maybe Amazon is trying to save money by not using as much packaging.  I was wrong on both accounts.  From what I learned, everything is automated.  The items are picked by robots off of shelves and the computers tell workers at the very end what box to use.  There are then machines that spit out the appropriate amount of tape and the packaging to use.  So workers don't even have a choice.  They take the materials they are given, package them, and send the box on its way.  

My question was, wouldn't they be concerned about items getting damaged and having to deal with returns?  Well the goal is speed.  Get the packages out as quickly as they can.  Amazon has such a huge volume of orders that they can't take the time to carefully package items.  

LEGO... well I don't know anyone who works at LEGO.  My guess is that they are interested in sets arriving in good condition.  They don't want to pay for returns and they know that they have fans who are interested in collecting sets that arrive with boxes in good condition.

So some advice...
     -If you want to buy sets in good condition for the purpose of collecting, I recommend
     buying them directly from LEGO unless you can pick them up from a store in person.
     -While Amazon often has some great deals on sets, buy from them only if you plan to build
     the set and don't care what the box looks like or if you don't mind a set arriving damaged.
     -Amazon has a great return policy, but keep in mind that you might not always be able to
     get a replacement set.  You can always get your money back, but I have had a number of
     occasions where they would not offer me a replacement set based on the price that I paid.  I
     could buy another set, but not at the same price.

What are your thoughts?  Do I have Amazon completely wrong?  Does LEGO not care as much as I think they do about damage during shipping?  Is it really just UPS or FedEx or the USPS damaging boxes along the way?