BrickCon (Virtual) 2022 - Day 2

Day 2 was another great day. I started off by attending a few presentations. The first one was “The Lego News Room: Working at the Speed of Social Media.” This was about how LEGO in the US handles social media, carries on conversations across multiple channels, and keeps up with real time popular items. I’m not great at social media by any means so this was eye opening to me and it was interesting to hear what they had to say.

The next presentation I joined in on was “New Element Design from a Mechanical Engineering Perspective.” Two engineers from LEGO in Billund, Denmark talked about some of the parts they’ve designed, some of the challenges they’ve encountered, and what their experiences are working on the team.

Here are a few copies of slides they presented with examples of some parts the presenters worked on. They did specific parts, not the full minifigues.

They also showed us some of the software they use to make changes to parts. The picture below is an example of a part that they walked us through to talk about how they adjusted a part to improve its quality.

The next session I joined was an Ask Me Anything session with Jordan Paxton of the AFOL Engagement Team. Jordan helps run the LEGO® Ambassador Network (LAN) and while I have been a part of conversations with the LAN and AFOL Engagement Team in the past, this one was very heated and emotional. I was actually quite shocked how passionate people were. I’m not 100% certain on what is going on, but I guess a few LEGO User Groups (LUGs) were removed from the LAN and with that, they lost access to support from the LEGO Group and discount parts.

Two notes I did take were that we shouldn’t expect to see new set reveals at conventions and the brittle brown bricks issue has been solved, but LEGO has done a poor job advertising it. I guess the brown parts were stored at the top of the warehouse (warmest) and there was a color change issue that took place. Since then, they have added fans to warehouse and the issue has been fixed. What are you all seeing with your newer brown pieces?

The last thing I participated in was the Keynote presentation which was given by Angus MacLane. He is probably best known as a Director with Pixar, but is also an AFOL. I didn’t know it, but he was the fan designer behind set #21303-1: WALL-E. He stated that he was in the perfect position for the build as he was a part of the movie team so he knew about WALL-E well in advance and could start working on a LEGO version. Also, he was the one to approve the IP for Pixar so the LEGO designers had to work with him on any changes they made.

His introduction was given by someone in a Buzz Lightyear costume which was awesome!

He bragged that in making the Lightyear movie, he made sure the ship had a yellow windscreen to make sure that LEGO produced another yellow windscreen part. I don’t know how true that is, but I’m not sure I care. Glad the piece is out there now.

His talk was awesome, well put together, and very relatable for LEGO fans. As someone mentioned, this session was well worth the $25 registration fee to sign up. I actually think it may end up on YouTube in the near future. If it does, I’ll add a link.

The main purpose of the talk was to present how he goes about building MOCs. He uses the SUCCS method (defined below) and he went through various examples of builds he’s done and how he used this method. I don’t think I could do the talk justice here so just stay tuned for the video.

Onto day 3! Happy building!

BrickCon (Virtual) 2022 - Day 1

I took some time off from work to attend BrickCon 2022 virtually. It was also a good opportunity to do some building, sorting of parts, and organizing my store so I’ll take it.

Day one was pretty slow. This is due to the physical show just setting up so most of the attendees are assembling MOCs in the main hall.

For those of you not familiar, BrickCon is held in Washington state and this is the 21st year it has been held. 2020 kicked off the virtual side with COVID and BrickCon kept up a hybrid version in 2021. 2022 has a hybrid version as well. You can attend sessions via Zoom, there are games for virtual sessions only, and you have access to a Discord server just for attendees.

The first session I attended was titled BrickCon 101 which was an introduction to attending a virtual Con and was a good overview of the events going forward. I got to hear about some of the events like an auction happening over the weekend and some of the speakers. Also, Stuart Harris from the Lego House popped in to say hi.

Next up, I observed a speed build. I missed the sock build (build a set wearing socks on your hands). The speed build took set #31100-1 and an alternate build to the set was presented to the builders to assemble. The first one to finish won. The alternate build was a windmill and there were 5 participants. I was the only observer and then the BrickCon virtual host. As an observer, you’re supposed to heckle, but I kept my mouth shut mostly and watched. They finished pretty quickly and then a few of us chatted for a bit.

I re-joined my family for dinner and kiddo bedtime prep after this ended.

Next up was the opening ceremony. The virtual crew got to watch the opening ceremony going on live in Seattle. The presentation had a lot of administrative notes and then some information on moving the location in future years.

There were also prizes. In person attendees won a bunch, but the virtual crew also won a few to include…

This guy!!!! WOOHOO!!!

I won #71773-1: Kai’s Golden Dragon Raider from the Ninjago line.

This wasn’t new to those present in person, but for the virtual crew, we got to see the Convention Model for the first time. It’s titled “The Wooden Duck” and it contains 346 pieces. I don’t remember how much it cost, but I should get it sometime in mid to late October. I’m looking forward to it!

Lastly, I checked in with the virtual late night social for a bit before getting to bed. They were playing a LEGO based bingo game online. I played two rounds. You go to a web site, enter your info, and get a card. Then the host did random generated picks of various LEGO elements, minifigures, and other related items. I didn’t win, but it was fun and it was impressive to hear how many people knew which sets some of the obscure pieces were from.

I’m looking forward to day 2. It should be a few presentations and the key note speaker in the evening.

Happy building!

Set Review - #10497-1: Galaxy Explorer - Icons

About a year ago, LEGO ran a vote for the favorite theme to bring back for the 90th anniversary of the company. The votes were tallied and Castle ended up winning. The #10305-1: Lion Knight Castle was the resulting set from the vote. As a bonus to fans, we also got this set which is #10497-1: Galaxy Explorer. This set is a remake of 1979’s set #497: Galaxy Explorer. The original set had 338 pieces and retailed for $32. The new set contains 1,254 pieces and retails for $99.99 in the US. This works out to $0.08 per piece. The set was released on 20 June 2022 in the US and it is still out at the time of this post. I purchased the set on pre-order straight from LEGO Shop @ Home, but Walmart has had the set on sale for $75 for the past week or so. I’m not sure how long that sale will last, but it’s crazy to see a new set discounted so quickly after it’s release. It makes me wonder if the set isn’t selling as well as LEGO had hoped.

The box is designed after the old box style and is similar to #21322-1: Pirates of Barracuda Bay. It has the 90th anniversary logo on the bottom right on the front and a few other changes like the “18 years and up” for the age versus sets from the 1970s and 1980s. The back of the set shows some of the various play features of the set.

The contents of the set are 9 parts bags, an 8x16 black tile, the instructions (in a sealed bag), and a sheet telling you that some day LEGO will switch over to paper parts bags, but in the meantime you can keep throwing out your single use plastic bags.

The build starts with some inner substructure made of mostly Technic elements. You also build what will become the landing legs that extend down and then retract.

I failed to add it in the picture, but you get a space minifigure in a red suit here as well as a brick separator.

The second bag starts to give the ship it’s shape and adds some of the crew compartment. It’s great to see the printed tiles and bricks from the past return. From the bottom view, you can see the three landing legs. Each of them have a piece that is flat on the bottom and then has studs on top to connect with the rest of the ship. I’m not sure if this is a new piece or not, but it’s a cool use of this part.

Builds three and four help to create more of the shape of the ship. The use of LEGO geometry to create the angles is impressive. Not only are plates used, but the various leading and trailing edges of the ship still match the angles with very little gaps. Well done LEGO design team!

I found the build to be a bit fragile as I was putting it together. There were a lot of parts that kept coming off. This was rectified by the end, but just a note to be careful as you assemble the set.

Throughout the instructions, LEGO included various fun tidbits about the set which were nice to include. You’ll notice the use of colors. The designers only used colors available back in 1979 except for the light gray which was slightly different back then.

Bag three adds another space minifigure. This time it is in white.

Build 5 adds more detail to include the “shooters” on the front, some colored tiles on the top, and the start of the crew compartment. Initially, you attach an assembly of parts to the main structure of the ship with a Technic pin. For a while it just looks awkward as it sits at a weird angle and looks out of place. As you go further, you see that it fits right in and matches the angles perfectly. The fifth bag also includes another red colored space minifigure.

The sixth bag adds more detail to include additions to the crew compartment (beds that support leaving your oxygen tank on), storage for gear, the rear storage section for the space buggy with a ramp that folds out, and the start to where the engines connect.

Build 7 includes a white space minifigure and finishes off the crew compartment. You get additional control panels to add into the back compartment. You also add in the two yellow windscreens. I heard numerous complaints about these screens being scratched, but I didn’t have any issues. The set also comes with more printed parts to include the Classic Space logo and the numbers on the side.

Build 8 completes the rear tail, storage compartment, maneuvering thrusters, and the functionality that lets the rear compartment flip open to let the vehicle out.

This set comes with 4 space minifigures. While we didn’t get any new colors from the past, it’s still great to have additional space suited minifigures to add to the crew. Also included is a robot/droid. It wasn’t in the original set, but was in some of the other Classic Space sets. This one can carry coffee mugs which is fun considering they are in space and the coffee wouldn’t actually stay in the cups.

Here’s the final set. The ninth bag adds the engines. Two are on the sides in the back and two are attached to the back. The two on the sides can be removed and you can stick a minifigure on top to ride them. The ninth bag also adds the space buggy. You can open the rear of the ship, pull out the ramp, and it slides out. This is another cool addition to the set.

I highlighted the landing gear earlier and I took a picture of it extended here. The new piece is great and I like how it extends out to land and then folds up and tucks into the ship to allow it to swoosh away.

Overall, it’s a great set. I think it’s priced well and $75 is an even better deal if you grab it from Walmart. As a Classic Space fan as a kid, I was pumped to see space return and I appreciate the addition of this set to the line. Side note, I voted for the M-Tron theme to return…

I recommend this set for fans into the nostalgia of older LEGO sets as well as new fans. My 5 year old enjoyed playing with the space buggy and minifigures and I’m sure others as well. Also, it’s a great way to get into the 90th Anniversary sets without dropping $400 on the Castle.

Happy building!

2021 Bricklink Designer Program - Round 2 Sets Finally Delivered!

I lost track when I made the initial order. The last estimate I saw, it was 10 months ago. Well, they’re finally here. The 2021 Bricklink Designer Program Round 2 sets are shipping or maybe already arrived to you all. In case you aren’t familiar, the Bricklink Designer Program for 2021 was a chance to bring back some of the non-licensed Ideas sets that received 10K votes, but didn’t make it to production. LEGO, through Bricklink, crowd funded these sets and selected the ones that achieved 10K pre-orders. I managed to get the five that made it and they just arrived. A quick rundown of the sets is below. I’m not sure which ones I will build and which ones I will add to the Bricks for Bricks Bricklink store. You’ll have to check the store for updates.

#910003-1: Mountain Windmill
2,085 pieces
Retailed for $179.99 in the US
$0.086 per piece

The design of this one is cool, but I saw something that it was originally supposed to have minifigures and then they were removed before production. I’m thinking I may add this one to the store at a later date. We’ll see.

#910009-1: Modular LEGO® Store
2,149 pieces
Retailed for $179.99 in the US
$0.084 per piece

The box I received had a few rips to the printing on the box on the side. Nothing major. I like the concept of a modular building that fits with the others, but I’m not sure if I’ll build this one. We’ll see.

#910013-1: Retro Bowling Alley
2,779 pieces
Retailed for $229.99 in the US
$0.083 per piece

The idea of this one is great and the design is cool. Sadly my box showed up pretty beat up. As you can see by the picture of the back of the box, there is a large crease. Some of the seals showed up detached from the box. I will most likely keep this one, but am not sure whether it will be a display piece, if it could fit in a city scene, or if I will build it and then store it for a future date.

#910015-1: Clockwork Aquarium
874 pieces
Retailed for $64.99 in the US
$0.074 per piece

This one is a fun concept, but I’m not sure what I’d do with it. This one will end up in the store at some point.

#910023-1: Venetian Houses
3,470 pieces
Retailed for $289.99 in the US
$0.084 per piece

I think this one is awesome. This is a definitely must build on my part. Sorry if you were hoping it’d end up in the store!

Set Review: #42143-1: Ferrari Daytona SP3 - Technic

The LEGO Group has me hooked on a few of their product lines and one of them is the Technic Supercar series or now referred to as the LEGO Technic Ultimate Car Concept series. You can see my reviews of the previous cars here. This one is #42143-1: Ferrari Daytona SP3. It was released in the US on 2 June 2022 and contains 3,778 pieces. The initial retail price was $399.99 which worked out to $0.106 per piece. Then the LEGO Group raised prices on a bunch of sets to adjust for their input costs and it now retails for $449.99 which works out to $0.119 per piece. Yikes! I thankfully picked it up prior to the price increase and I cashed in a bunch of VIP points to make the purchase not as bad. However, it hurt and these suckers keep getting more expensive. I can’t wait to see what the 2024 car is going to retail for… or not.

The shipping box for this one is much different from the previous three. It is a smaller box and it showed up with the set in a box only in one box versus the set box being inside a box which is inside another box. My set came with a May 2022 production date on it so not bad considering the June release.

Here’s the set box with the build on multiple sides, the Ferrari logo on top, and the bottom has tire tracks that you can’t see in my photo.

Opening the box reveals three boxes that contain the parts and look like the rear of the vehicle which is some pretty cool packaging.

The first box contains the two instruction books on the top and some parts bags on the bottom. I’m not going to dive into the instruction books, but they have some information about Ferrari, the model, the design process, and then some pictures of cars and designs.

Box two is all parts and box three is parts, the wheels, and the hub caps.

The first build is labeled as the gearbox and engine in the instruction manual. This is one of the more challenging sections of the build. There’s a lot to pay attention to in order to make sure all of the gears, pins, and axles are in the right spot. It’s a lot of work for a transmission that is buried within the car. You can see the transmission from the bottom though so it’s not for nothing. Also, you will be able to lift the rear up so you can see the engine.

I don’t remember the previous cars well enough to know how similar this build is to the others, but I didn’t feel like I was building the previous cars all over again.

The second set of bags builds the suspension. You add in the front of the car frame, the front axle, and the steering system. To me, it’s amazing how all of this comes together to see how it looks now and how it looks at the end.

The third set of bags is the car frame/chassis. Here you install the start of the seats, the steering wheel, the pieces that will allow the doors to open and close later on, and a few other parts. The choice of blue and black for the seats is interesting as it’s a red car, but it works.

The fourth set of bags builds the front of the car. Thankfully, there are no stickers to install so the Ferrari logo on the hood, steering wheel, seats, and elsewhere are all printed. Yay! There is a trunk space in this car, but it does not come with a luggage bag like some of the earlier cars which is fine by me.

I like the use of System pieces to add detail to the car. The use of offset stacked plates on the bumper is a cool technique to replicate the shape on the actual car. It’s a nice touch here.

The fifth set of bags builds the rear hood. It also adds the front “windscreen” and some of the roof. Like the previous vehicles, there isn’t an actual windscreen and that’s okay.

The rear hood was a challenge for me to build as I had a hard time following what the instructions wanted me to do on some of it. I figured it out in the end. Note that there are a few errors in the instruction books. I went online and found some good articles highlighting them. Some I caught without looking them up, but a few required me to see why I had extra pieces left over at the end of a section.

The rear hood can be raised which is a nice addition. You can get a good look at the engine instead of burying it like in the last two cars. It doesn’t stay up well as it’s heavy, but I got it to stay long enough to take a few photos.

One part of the build that intrigued me was the use of rubber tubing to hold on some of the structure and give it a curved shape over the rear wheels. I wasn’t sure what the instructions were getting at initially, but when I saw the pieces installed, it’s cool to see how the shape was created with Technic pieces.

The sixth set of bags builds the doors and seats. I failed to get separate pictures of them. The doors swing up in the actual car and the Technic version does the same. The doors were a challenge for me to assemble as the instructions show you connecting pieces, but don’t always show where. One picture will show you assembling a section and the next will tell you to install it. Either I missed something or you have to be smart enough to figure out how to install it.

The seventh set of bags is the final part of the build. It completes the rear of the vehicle, adds the wheels, and the display plate. The rear of the vehicle uses a lot of System pieces to achieve the detail similar to the front. I like the look and the offset plates. There is another error in this section where the instructions don’t have a few parts listed, but I found them online and got it squared away. The wheels are a similar size as previous vehicles, but the rims are a silver color. The 1x1 round tile with the Ferrari logo on the rim is a nice touch.

The Lamborghini had a display plate, although much smaller, and the Ferrari has one as well only this one is larger. The plate is printed so I’m thankful to not have a sticker, but I’m not sure it really adds to the model. I could have done without the plate if it saved a few dollars in production costs and on the final set price.

Overall, it’s a very sleek vehicle. The build was great and it challenged me throughout. I enjoyed putting it together. I’m not a Technic fan or MOC builder so I’m not sure if I’d use the pieces elsewhere, but there are a lot to pick from. The price is high and I can only imagine the price going up for future vehicles so get ready. VIP points are the only way I purchased this one. I highly recommend this one if you’re into the Technic vehicle line or if you’re a System builder and you’re looking for a challenge outside of your building comfort zone. Look for ways to save on this one whether it is double VIP points, cool GWPs, or some other method.

Here are the 4 vehicles. My NLS has let me display them in the house as they are up high and out of the way. I’m sure she can’t wait for me to have a LEGO room of my own some day to contain the spread of ABS. This is a pretty cool line up in my opinion. I wonder what car will be next?

Happy building!

Set Review - #21333-1: Vincent Van Gogh - The Starry Night - Ideas (#41)

Set #21333-1: Vincent Van Gogh - The Starry Night was released in the US on 28 May 2022. I’ve had the set for a bit, but it took a while to put together as my NLS wanted to help and doesn’t dedicate as much time to brick building as I do. It’s finished now and I’m happy to review it as this one is completely out of the ordinary from any set we’ve seen in the past in my opinion. It contains 2,316 pieces and retails for $169.99 in the US. That works out to $0.073 per piece which isn’t too bad.

We’ve seen a lot of designs hit the 10K votes mark on the Ideas platform and this was one that when it hit 10K, I really hoped it would become a set. It was selected and I think the designers did a great job sticking to the original design while making it better. I usually wait until the end to give my overall impressions, but I’ll give it up front for this one. This set is incredible! The colors and how the original work of art is portrayed in brick form are amazing. It was a fun build and it’s quickly recognizable as to what it is. I understand that it might not be something everyone will like, but if you have the slightest interest in this set, I recommend giving it a shot. You won’t be disappointed in my opinion.

The box shows the set on the front and then the back shows it on display, a comparison to the actual painting, and then the minifigure feature where you can put it on a stand as if it is painting while looking at the larger set.

The contents are 20 parts bags labeled one through nine, two loose plates, and then the instruction manual comes wrapped.

I got this note in my set. I have yet to see a set without any of the single use plastic packaging. Looking forward to it though.

The first bag builds the Van Gogh minifigure with a small easel to paint on. The minifigure comes with a brush and painting palette. Thankfully, there are no stickers and everything is printed.

You then start the build with some mostly sub structure underneath to support the village and the rest of the build.

The second bag starts some of the microbuild of the village. Even if you’re not a fan of the set, you still get some great parts in some cool colors. This build has a lot of plate usage so get ready for that if you decide to jump in.

The third bag builds a separate section of the painting that is attached later. We did a lot of double checking the instructions and making sure it was all done right after each layer. It helped having two people as we could check work and hunt for pieces to make the build go smoother. With that being said, we still made a bunch of mistakes during the build.

The fourth set of bags completes the separate build and attaches it to the main build. The interlay of colors and staggering of the plates looks fantastic. I like the micro build houses and the church in the center is cool.

The challenge we found was when you go to attach pieces or try to press parts together, various pieces would fall off since it is a SNOT build. I recommend being careful in how you hold it and where you apply pressure so it doesn’t fall apart.

The fifth set of bags builds the sky background. There was a definite bonus here to team building as one person grabbed plates while the other attached plates. We did our best to match the instructions, but could have been slightly off somewhere. I’m not sure it really matters as in the end, the goal is to build the sky and I’m pretty sure no one is going to sit next to your build and figure out whether it matches the instructions perfectly or not. For this section, you also attach some of the connections on the front for the stars as well as the piece on the back to hang the set up on a wall. This is the same piece used with the LEGO Art sets so I’m guessing it works fine, but I haven’t tried to hang it up yet.

Here’s a close up of the village area with the sky background and then some of the extra pieces. Most sets will have a few one by one plates or tiles left over, but this section had a larger number of plates left. I assume this was because you would have made a mistake and the designers understood how painful it would be to tear down the whole sky to grab a specific plate or two. Good thinking!

The sixth set of bags adds the frame. Don’t be intimidated by all the black pieces. It wasn’t too hard to assemble and I think it looks great and helps to make the set pop out versus just having the set on its own. It also includes a Technic pin on the bottom in the front right side that you can use to help the set stand up vertically on its own if you don’t hang it on a wall.

Number seven adds in some of the stars and then more of the sky just on the horizon. The printed disc/saucer pieces are a nice touch to the set and I think are an improvement from the fan build.

The eighth set of bags adds the… um… not an art history buff here… swirl? I’m not sure what it is, but it’s a cool add and I like how the designers created the curves and angles using the various pieces.

The ninth set of bags adds the big tree in the front, a few buildings, and then the Technic element to allow the minifig to “paint” in front of the set. I really enjoy how parts are added on top to show depth and to give it a three dimensional feel. The tree especially has a more realistic look on top of the “painting” as it is built on in layers of pieces.

It was great build, you get a lot of great pieces, and I think it looks amazing. This won’t go on sale anytime soon so wait for double VIP points or a cool GWP to snag this set. I highly recommend this one.

Happy building!

Why Not Have More Ideas Sets?

In case you missed it, LEGO and Target partnered up to produce a set that achieved 10K votes on the Ideas platform, but didn’t get produced as a set. There were three options and they were put to a fan vote. The choices were a Viking Village, Marine Life, or working mini-golf.

The voting wrapped up and the results were posted. The Viking Village won the vote per the post on the LEGO Ideas site. The set will be sold at Target, LEGO Brand Stores, and LEGO Shop @ Home in the US. I’m not sure of the retailers who will get it outside of the US, but don’t panic if you don’t live in the US and have Target. I haven’t seen anything about when the set will be released. Maybe a year from now?

This brings up an interesting point. Don’t we already have a program to bring rejected LEGO Ideas projects to life?

Isn’t the BrickLink Designer Program the place to bring back rejected Ideas sets? I guess this program limits sets to a 10K production run and has limited availability, but still. Why is there one more program to produce these projects?

My proposal would be to just select more Ideas sets through the Ideas line versus bringing them back through various ways again and again. The issue I’ve heard is LEGO doesn’t have the capacity to produce more at a time then they already are, but then again, aren’t they involved in these programs? I guess the BrickLink program puts more on the fan designer, but couldn’t LEGO do the same for Ideas? Maybe they could publish their guidelines and make fan designers meet them. That’s just my opinion anyways.

I’m glad to see another set coming via fan vote, I just think we could streamline the process versus having various programs to bring Ideas projects to life.

What are your thoughts?

Happy building!

Not Exactly the LEGO Train Set I was Hoping for...

The rumors were swirling around for a while that we’d be getting a large Harry Potter themed set in 2022. Then the rumor changed to it being a Hogwarts Express and I was super stoked. I pictured a detailed train similar to #10194-1: Emerald Night with lots of details. We’d then get a full up train station and maybe even multiple carriages.

So then some fans in New Zealand accidentally got shipped this set when they ordered #10305-1: Lion Knight Castle. You can read about that here from a blog down under. And The LEGO Group quickly introduced this…

LEGO.com

In case you missed it, the set is #76405-1: Hogwarts Express Collector’s Edition. Unless you were one of the folks in New Zealand who got an early copy, it is scheduled to be released in the US on 31 August 2022. It contains 5,129 pieces and should retail in the US for $499.99. This works out to $0.097 per piece.

At a quick glance, I was super impressed. I’ve built #75955-1: Hogwarts Express, but that one has far fewer details. There are a bunch of minifigures as well which is awesome. So besides the price tag, what could be bad here?

LEGO.com

Oh wait… this set is 1:32 scale and oh by the way besides it being massive, it DOES NOT FIT ON L-GAUGE RAILS!!!!! Much like #10277-1: Crocodile Locomotive, this set comes on a display stand. However, you can transfer the Crocodile Locomotive to L-Gauge rails and run it with your other trains and add a motor. This one, not so much.

I was also hoping for more passenger carriages. Where are they? We get just one so often, but having a few would be much better. I can’t imagine how much it would be to build your own replica or to buy other sets to just get cars. Next time LEGO, more passenger cars please!

Also, the train station is not a train station, but rather a small chunk of structure. I was hoping for a lot more detail and the ability to actually connect it to a train line. This one will require a lot of building on your own with additional pieces to make that happen.

I can’t be all negative. You do get some cool train parts for MOCs, 20 minifigures isn’t too shabby, and if you don’t like it, you’ve got over 5,000 parts to use elsewhere. . For $500, I’m not sure I can bite the bullet on this one just to get some train parts and 20 minifigures. I’m a fan of the Potter sets and a train fan, but this set doesn’t seem to hit the mark. I’ll wait and see on this one.

What are your thoughts?

Happy building!

UPDATE: Free Castle Polybag (or not a Scam)

On 10 August 2022, the actual 90th anniversary of LEGO, fan media highlighted an opportunity to get another exclusive set. I saw a similar post on The Brick Fan, Brick Fanatics, and Brickset so I assumed this was the real deal. Here’s how it works. You order $50 or more of LEGO sets from an approved giant list from Walmart, then you go to https://www.lego90offer.com/, type in a bunch of personal information, upload a copy of the receipt, and they will process sending you a polybag for free.

It sounded like a good deal to me. Walmart runs a lot of sales of various themed sets and sometimes they are fulfilled by LEGO’s warehouse. I went on and ordered $59 worth of items as of course you can’t get $50 or $51 to be just over the limit. So then I went to the site to upload my receipt… As mentioned above, it is lego90offer.com. The site has logos for LEGO and Walmart along with some official terms, but that’s about it. I couldn’t find anything on the offer on Walmart’s website and it doesn’t show up on LEGO.com’s offers either.

So when you go to upload, you provide a name, address, email address, optional phone number (I didn’t list it), and then a copy of your receipt. My receipt was from an online order so it had my address and name as well.

It felt a bit awkward putting all of this personal information onto this random site, but I went ahead and uploaded my receipt and information anyways. I soon thereafter got an email stating that my order was received and would be processed in 24 hours.

We’ll see what happens. Am I the only one who found this process to be rather sketchy? The terms say you can only get one so I’m not going to try again.

Let me know if you get your copy. Post a comment here or email me at store@bricksforbricks.com.

Happy building! (I hope.)

6 September 2022: It’s been almost 4 weeks and a yellow padded envelope showed up in the mail with what sounded like bricks inside. I opened it up and my guess was correct.

This takes “only the best is good enough” to a whole new level. It looks like someone bought a bunch of plastic bags, got the bricks on Bricklink, put a printed card and instruction booklet in, and called it a day. I guess it’s Walmart though so “save money, live better” is their slogan. My opinion, this lacks the luster of a promotional set given it’s presentation and quality. Maybe LEGO should consider how they do their future Walmart promos.

I was going to add this to my BrickLink store, but a quick check showed that people were trying to sell this thing for $75 to $90 each. Really? Come on! I will wait to post it in the store until the pricing comes down to a more reasonable level.

8 Ways to Survive the 2022 Price Increases on LEGO Sets

It’s nothing new, but in case you missed it, The LEGO Group increased prices on a lot of sets in the US on 1 August 2022. Yeah, that stinks… You can see the full US list on the Brick Fanatics site here or see some of the price increases below.

#75978-1: Diagon Alley

Original price: $399.99

New Price: $449.99

#42115-1: Lamborghini Sian FKP37

Original Price: $379.99

New Price: $449.99

#75308-1: R2-D2

Original Price: $199.99

New Price: $239.99

#10297-1: Boutique Hotel

Original Price: $199.99

New Price: $229.99

The fan community has gone nuts about this with various members at the fan media and fans themselves voicing their dismay. While I’m not pleased, I can see why this needs to be done from a business perspective. Gas is expensive, food is expensive, and now LEGO is more expensive. If you want to learn more about it, then I highly recommend reading the article “Greed or Inflation? An Economic Analysis of LEGO Price Increases” from Bricknerd. It’s a good breakdown of what is going on and how The LEGO Group is looking at this from a business lens.

In the meantime, what can you do if you still want to be a fan of LEGO and pick up some of the great sets that you haven’t been able to get and now it’s even harder to get them?

1 - Check other retailers besides buying straight from LEGO. A quick scan of Walmart.com and Amazon.com over the past few days shows that they haven’t raised prices on all of the sets like LEGO has. This doesn’t apply to every set so look carefully, but you can still get a few at the pre-1 August 2022 pricing for now.

2 - Wait for sales. If you’ve paid attention to the news at all, retailers have been struggling with bulging inventories. I’m not sure if that counts for LEGO or not, but hopefully it does. We’ve seen LEGO throw in some additional Double VIP point periods and add in more gift with purchase opportunities. They even had sales on Amazon Prime day which I don’t recall happening before. With the downturn that we’re starting to see, if LEGO and other retailers can’t sell sets, they may have to cut prices. This could mean just back to the pre-1 August prices or better, so no complaints there.

3 - Be smart about timing purchases. If a new set is coming out and you “must have it,” why can’t you delay getting it? Focus on the set you’ve been looking to get that is closer to retirement. Let the initial rush happen and then get it on a later date.

4 - Enjoy the sets you have. I move a lot and my full collection is not all out for the world to see. Every so often, I take the opportunity to pull a set out of a box in a closet and rebuild it. I recently rebuilt some Architecture sets that I bought around 5 years ago and it was cool to see them back together. If you’re really creative, find another way to put them back together. Make the modular building into a different building or re-design that car.

5 - Vote with your wallet. If the new pricing on LEGO sets upsets you that much, stop buying LEGO sets. The LEGO Group will quickly get the hint if no one is buying their products. They will adjust to keep sales up. If lots of people follow you and don’t buy, I suspect The LEGO Group will reconsider how it is doing business.

6 - Use your hobby to fund your hobby. As a Bricklink store owner, I give 15% of my profits to charity. I also use funds from my store to fund my LEGO addiction. Is there a way you can do this too? Sell old sets you don’t want? Buy new and hold until it retires? Sell parts? Design MOCs for people?

7 - Build digitally. You can use Stud.io in Bricklink to build all you want. It comes with unlimited parts and more parts than are in production. You can design MOCs or get set instructions online and build that way. I know it’s not the same, but it’s much cheaper.

8 - Build with a friend or share with a friend. Do you have a friend with the set? Will they let you take it apart and rebuild it on your own so you can experience the build? Did they just buy it and will they let you build it with them? Or spun the other way, did you just get a set that someone else wanted, but maybe can’t afford yet? Ask if they want to join you for the build.

If you think of any other ideas, let me know and I’ll add them to this post. We can get through this friends!

In the meantime, happy building!