Giving Campaign - Brick Chalk Guy - 28 November through 20 September 2024

We donated $460 worth of LEGO sets to the Chalkguy LEGO Service Project at the end of 2022. We heard from Ben Glenn and he asked if we’d be willing to run another campaign to support his organization. Our answer… of course!

From 28 November 2023 to 30 June 2024, 15% of the profits from the Bricks for Bricks Bricklink Store will support the Chalkguy LEGO Service Project. You can learn more about this project at their site here.

We look forward to sending them some sets in 2024. Thank you for your support!

Happy building!

Some of our 2022 donations to the Brick Chalk Guy drive.

Set Review - #21342-1: The Insect Collection - LEGO Idea

It’s the 50th LEGO Ideas set. I’m surprised LEGO didn’t make a big deal out of this one. Usually they celebrate all kinds of anniversaries. Oh well. #21342-1: The Insect Collection was released on 4 September 2023 for $79.99. It contains 1,111 pieces which works out to $0.072 per piece which isn’t too bad. A lot of the pieces are smaller, but some are special printed or unique pieces so that may make up for it.

For the review, the front of the box shows the three different models with the set name and Ideas logo on the top. The back shows another view of the set and some close up shots along with a display suggestion.

The set contains seven numbered parts bags. Bag one contains a piece separator. There are then four instruction booklets that come in an envelope (Thank you LEGO!). The first book gives some detail on the models and designers. Then the remaining three are for each of the builds.

The first bag begins building the Blue Morpho butterfly. It builds a base with a brick built plant or stick coming out of the base. Around the base are a few flowers and other plants and leaves.

The second bag adds the butterfly. The first instruction book shows the fan designer build of the butterfly which was built with SNOT techniques. This one is made with plates and tiles stacked on top of each other. The advantage is that they have some printed tiles on the edges of the wings. The disadvantage is the build isn’t as exciting due to the techniques used. It still looks great though as a blue butterfly with the different shades of blue. You also get a miniature honey bee. The bee is fun although I would rather have had a larger sized bee like the fan designer originally submitted. I guess this bee is more to scale so it fits into the scene better.

One bonus though is everything is printed. There are no stickers. YAY!

Bag three starts the Hercules Beetle build. The build starts off with a base similar to the last build. Then you add on a piece of a plant or a branch that the beetle is crawling on.

The fourth bag begins to build the beetle. It’s an interesting build with some fun techniques. The horn piece is big. I’m not sure if they are unique to this set or not, but it would have been interesting to see if they could have built it with additional pieces instead of one larger piece.

The fifth bag finishes up the beetle. You add in two blue mushrooms and then finalize the beetle. Besides the legs, you add in the wings and the covering of the back of the beetle (I’m not sure of the official term for it). You can pose the beetle with the wings out or remove the wings and have the yellow pieces covering the back. I like this feature and decided to picture it as if it’s just taking off from the branch.

The sixth bag starts the build for the Chinese Mantis. You start with the same base that the other two insects are on. Then you build a small stem with some leaves and flowers on it. There are also some round 1x1 red tiles printed as ladybugs. The fan designer submitted a larger scaled ladybug to Ideas and I would have preferred that as well, but I’ll take what they created.

The seventh and final bag adds in the Chinese Mantis. The designers did a good job capturing the shape and details of the insect. I like the use of the pistols at the bottoms of the legs and crow bars for antenna.

Here are the final builds. Definitely something outside the ordinary sets we see so that’s good. I would have liked to see more of the fan designer submissions (larger ladybug and bee), but I can’t complain with what we received. These are definitely display pieces which is fine for the 18+ audience in my opinion. Pricewise, it’s not bad considering the price for piece and maybe as it gets closer to retirement, we’ll see it go on sale which would be awesome.

What were your thoughts on this one? Can you mix them in with some of your Botanical sets?

Happy building!

$182 to Creations for Charity! Thank You!

We collected 15% of our profits from 1 July to 27 November 2023 which resulted in $182 for Creations for Charity. Overall, Creations for Charity raised $33,265 and donated sets to kids in 17 countries around the world. It was just shy of their 2021 record of $35,000, but still very impressive. You can see some of the results as the Beyond the Brick team helped to give away some of the sets purchased from the funds raised.

Thank you to everyone who supported Bricks for Bricks and allowed our continued giving!

Happy building!

Set Review - #76419-1: Hogwarts Castle and Grounds - Harry Potter

How many different versions of Hogwarts Castle can LEGO come up with? We’ve had all of the minifigure scale modular sections and then #71043-1: Hogwarts Castle which is about half of the castle. On 1 September 2023, we got #76419-1: Hogwarts Castle and Grounds. This one contains 2,660 pieces and retails for $169.99 which works out to $0.064 per piece. This Hogwart’s set is the first one that has the full castle all in one set. It’s a much smaller scale than the others, but it works and still captures a bunch of details. Onto the review…

The box front shows the full set build. There’s a Harry Potter logo and the 18+ greebling on the bottom. The back of the box shows some of the details of the set and the other side of the set.

The set contains 22 numbered bags with one bag per number. There’s also a 16x16 black plate and then the instructions are in an envelope. There are two instruction books. The instructions start with some details on the set and the castle. Throughout the instructions, there are various notes about some of the sections of the castle.

Of note, I did find at least one error in the instructions where they listed the wrong piece and showed a different one being installed.

The build starts with some of the sections underground. Bag one builds the chamber of secrets and then the Devil’s Snare. Bag two builds the room where they chase the keys, the Wizard’s Chess board, and then the room where Harry meets Professor Quirrell and finds the Sorcerer’s Stone.

Bags three and four build out more of the base and some of the cliff sections around the castle. Of note, you get a 1x8 black tile with “Hogwart’s Castle” printed on it similar to how the Architecture sets are built.

Bag 5 continues to build out the base of the castle and more of the cliffs around the edges. Then bag 6 starts to build the top with a lot of olive green pieces for grass coloring and a bunch of jumper plates to hold future sections of the castle. There are also some light gray tiles as walking paths around the castle.

Bag seven builds the last underground section which I think is Snape’s potions library (maybe). Bag eight continues the base to include more of the cliff edge and a pathway made up with some sloped dark tan sloped pieces.

Bag nine adds more of the cliff section and some plates to build up on. Bag 10 adds in the boat house at the end of the dark tan path you build.

Bag 11 adds in a lot of the water pieces. I like the use of dark and light colored translucent blue tiles to make some different colored water. You also include a section in the bottom right which is where the Durmstrang Ship will go later on in the build.

Bag 12 starts the Great Hall. I like how this one is buildt separately and then added to the rest of the castle at an angle.

Bag 13 finishes up the Great Hall and adds it to the rest of the build. As mentioned, I like how it’s installed at an angle. You also add the bridge which works out okay, but the supports don’t quite touch the bottom so it looks a little odd if you look closely.

Bag 15 tops off the quad area and then the Headmaster’s Tower. Bag 16 builds another section of the castle. The instructions say that this area contains the girl’s lavatory area where Moaning Myrtle lives. I appreciate how some of the building techniques create the details and then there are some printed pieces mixed in. Thankfully, no stickers. YAY!

Bags 17 and 18 build the East Wing according to the instructions.

Bag 19 builds the astronomy tower which is the tallest point of the castle and is built using some SNOT techniques.

Bag 20 starts a corridor section that is completed in the next bag. More printed bricks again which is great.

Bag 21 finishes the corridor in this section of the castle and then adds in the greenhouses. It also adds in some walls and some gemstone and ice cream pieces as miniature trees and plants.

Bag 22 is the final bag in the set. It builds the Whomping Willow, the Durmstrang Ship, the Pegasus and Beauxbatons’ Carriage, and then finally the Architect of Hogwarts golden minifigure. The first three are all fun miniature builds and if you know the Potter world, you can easily pick up on what the builds are representing. The minifigure is a nice addition to the set and to the gold anniversary minifigures, but it really isn’t a known character. It’s fun that they came up with an idea of what the architect might look like, but I don’t see this minifigure as a must have collectible just based on it being a made up character. I guess it’s better than yet another Harry Potter minifigure.

Durmstrang Ship

Pegasus and Beauxbatons’ Carriage

Architect of Hogwarts

Whomping Willow

Here is the final build from a few different angles. Overall, it’s a great set. You can buy the various sets to piece together the castle or get the larger castle, or just get this one and be done (assuming you don’t collect minifigures). It’s great that you get the full castle and a bunch of details from the books in one set. The minifigure isn’t a standout to me, but it’s nice that they included one. The price per piece is good although the pieces are a bit smaller so you would hope that would be the case. If you’re a Harry Potter fan or enjoy Architecture themed sets, I highly recommend this one. Look for opportunities to grab this one with double Insiders points or great GWP offerings in the future.

Happy building!

One of my Round 3 Picks Will Get Made (2023 Bricklink Designer Program)

Somehow I’m trying to will the crowd to select the sets I think are cool. So far it’s worked on one out of every five nominations I’ve made. Maybe I need to try and think like the crowd? Anyways, you can see my round 3 selections here. Once again, only one of the five sets I liked made it through. Let’s take a look at the final picks for this round.

Camping Adventure by user name thepresident14 contains 643 pieces. This one is a smaller set and hopefully that means not as expensive (hint, hint LEGO if you’re reading this). I think there are a lot of camping/camper related sets already so I wasn’t a big fan of this one. It could go well with #21338-1: A Frame Cabin though as the trees look similar.

Forest Stronghold by username Krackenator contains 3,208 pieces. The Castle fans had yet another win. Don’t we have enough grey sets with the Star Wars line? Okay, you have to admit this one looks cool. The two structures with the bridge and then rope at the top to swing across. There’s some creative stuff in this one. The piece count is sure to make this one cost an arm and a leg though.

Harbormaster’s Office by username Rich_Herbert contains 2,395 pieces. To me, this one was similar to #21310-1: Old Fishing Store. Maybe it’s a chance for folks who missed that one to grab something similar? I like some of the details and what I assume will be stickers. You might be able to connect it to the Old Fishing Store as well which could be fun as a dock scene.

Lost City by username letsgolegobrick contains 3,332 pieces. This one is a very detailed build with some cool looking techniques (the roof colors are awesome). You could see LEGO doing a whole theme with this one. I wasn’t a huge fan of this set myself, but it is an impressive build. With the number of pieces, it’ll be a pricey build too.

The Art of Chocolate by username Brickester contains 2,574 pieces. This was the original pick that I had. I’m a big fan of this one as it’s something out of the ordinary from what we normally see. Plus you can use it in your Winter Village or with your modular buildings.

Well done to all the builders. I look forward to seeing the final products! Happy building!

Finally! Real Deals on LEGO Sets... or are they? (Nov 2023)

If you can remember back a few years, 2020 was the pandemic and people were at home with a bunch of US government stimulus checks and nothing else to do. Many of them resorted to ordering LEGO sets to build in order to pass the time. As a LEGO fan, this is an awesome thing to happen. It’s great to see more people join the hobby and get into building. The downside was the pricing on LEGO sets. With high demand, sets flew off the shelves and the LEGO company could barely keep up. There was no need to have a sale or offer discounts. Then in August 2022, prices on a number of sets went up by around 25%.

It was a depressing and expensive time to be a LEGO fan, but great if you were the LEGO company raking in the profits.

I’m writing this post in November 2023. The US Federal Reserve has raised interest rates in an effort to fight inflation and the rampant spending on LEGO sets has dampened. A few years ago, new release sets were on backorder within a few hours of their release on LEGO Shop @ Home. That’s not happening as much anymore.

The big retailers in the US (Walmart, Target, Amazon) have been running sales for a few months now. Sales have been on everything from small CITY sets to larger Ideas and even UCS Star Wars sets. Definitely shop around before you pay full price on a set. Even some of the sets released in 2023 are being discounted already.

LEGO has been increasing sales as well. We’ve seen more discounts on and a lot of GWP offers with sometimes more than one GWP at a time if you spend a specific amount. This weekend is the LEGO® Insiders Weekend 2023 sales event. You can redeem codes to snag discounts on some bigger sets, grab 2X point on all sets and 3X or 4X points on a select few. This is along with GWPs at specific price points and I saw something about maybe being able to redeem fewer points for discounts. I suspect we’ll see a bunch of items go on sale as well.

However, I am calling foul on a few of the sales at LEGO this weekend.

#10255-1: Assembly Square is set to retire this year. It originally retailed for $279.99 in the US. In August 2022, the price increased to $299.99. This weekend there is an offer to redeem a $60 off the set. So LEGO raised the price and now they’re offering a sale on it.

#21325-1: Medieval Blacksmith is also set to retire this year. It originally retailed for $149.99 and then the price increased to $179.99. Now it’s $35 off. I guess it’s a deal now, but that’s just bringing it back to the price it was before the price went up. How come there isn’t a bigger discount on this one?

In the end, I guess we should be glad for any discount at this point. Oh well. Happy shopping so you can have some happy building!

Bricklink is Back Up and Running! Thank you Bricklink Team!

After a brief hiatus, Bricklink is back up and running. If you missed it, a brief synopsis of the situation is that the Bricklink became aware of some fraudulent activity going on in October. Apparently people were listing sets at very cheap prices, accepting payment, and then not delivering. These payments were not through PayPal or Stripe, but instead through direct fund transfers (having lived in Europe, I’m familiar with this process). This activity culminated in a ransom letter being delivered to Bricklink threatening to start taking out the larger stores until the funds were paid.

Out of precaution, the Bricklink team put the site in maintenance mode to update their security protocols. The site went back online on 8 November 2023 with a requirement to update your password before moving forward. I updated my information and logged in with no issue. The Bricks for Bricks store is still there with the full inventory listed. It is back open so check it out! The forums have more details on what happened and the response if you want more information.

A big shout out to the Bricklink team for working through the issue. Thanks to them for fixing the situation, protecting the site, and keeping it all operational.

Happy building!

Set Review - BrickCon 2023 - Convention Model

I’m a little late on this one as BrickCon 2023 was earlier last month (September 2023). The convention model for this set was of the Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue, Washington. This is the location where the convention moved in 2023 after being elsewhere for a long time. The set contains 492 pieces and was exclusive to the convention so unless you find someone selling it on the secondary market somewhere, you won’t be able to pick it up anytime soon. You could source the majority of the pieces with the exception of the custom printed BrickCon tile.

The top of the box has a picture of the set and the set name. The bottom of the box has the BrickCon logo. I included a picture of the side of the box as I received set number 82 of only 250 produced. How about that for rare?

The set contains a Ziploc bag of parts. BrickCon sources it’s parts through the LUG Bulk program via LEGO and then volunteers sort through it all. So while it’s not the professional looking sealed bag, it works for this set. Of note, the volunteers missed putting in two of the 2x2 blue plates needed for the set. Thankfully, I had some on hand so I was able to complete the build as described in the instructions.

Here’s the final build. It looks to be a similar scale to the Architecture theme. Maybe? The front captures some of the key building details quite well. They also got the sidewalks and roads pretty accurate. The printed tile is a nice addition to replicate the electronic billboard out front. Why the odd seams you ask? Let’s move on…

If you didn’t notice from the last picture, there are some red plates and tiles sticking out the back of the building. These parts can be pushed in through a slot in the back of the building. This then pushes out a small 3D representation of the BrickCon logo via some Technic pieces. This also pushes open the front of the building which is connected with hinge pieces so it opens up. This is a pretty clever design and something that was not mentioned when the set was released so a fun surprise after building it.

It was actually a challenging build. The instructions are designed to save space and so there are a lot of steps crammed onto each page. I missed a few parts early on and have to tear it apart to get it just right so the mechanism would work.

Great job BrickCon team! I look forward to attending next year and building another convention model.

Happy building!

My Bricklink Designer Program Round 3 Picks

This isn’t my first post on the Bricklink Designer Program so I’m not going to go into all the details again. I’m hoping you’re up to speed by now. Voting ends on 20 October 2023 so go cast your votes now! The link is here.

And as a shameless plug, while you’re at Bricklink, you can check out the Bricks for Bricks Bricklink store to see what retired sets and minifigures are there. .

My top five picks to become sets are below (not in any particular order). For the past two rounds, I’ve gone one for five so let’s see if everyone agrees with me or not this round.

American Steam Locomotive

By Bricklink User: stijnd

Contains 2,141 pieces

As a train fan, I’d love to see more trains. This rendition of a steam locomotive is incredible and would look great going around your CITY layout. LEGO won’t produce trains that we want so let’s create some as a fan community. I haven’t seen a video of this one working, but it would look great even as a display piece or in a rail yard.

Octan Highway Truck

By Bricklink User: el_presidente0

Contains 531 pieces

The Octan brand is pretty classic and I think this set represents the brand well. Plus this one doesn’t have a ton of pieces so the cost should be lower. Maybe they’ll be able to add a logo into the final design. Even if it’s a sticker.

Picturesque Italy

By Bricklink User: levsi54

Contains 3,908 pieces

There were a lot of modulars in this round again. I didn’t want to pick a bunch again, but I really like this one. It has a good mix of buildings and would help to make your CITY look better with the addition of three well designed buildings instead of just one.

The Art of Chocolate

By Bricklink User: Bricester

Contains 2,574 pieces

This one could fit in a CITY, in a Winter Village, or just on it’s own. There are a bunch of play features and it is a great display piece. I think it would look great if you lit it up too. It’s fun to see a different theme as we haven’t seen something like this before.

Two-Seat Biplane 2.0

By Bricklink User: EmanueLego

Contains 2,268 pieces

I recommended a biplane before and I’ll try again. I like this design. It’s a great display piece and it looks like a fun build.

Set Review: #76413-1 - Hogwart's: Room of Requirements - Harry Potter

Here’s a review for #76413-1: Hogwarts™: Room of Requirements. This one was released on 1 March 2023 and retails for $49.99 in the US. It contains 587 pieces which puts it at $0.085 per piece. I grabbed this one on sale from LEGO Shop @ Home with GWPs so even better. This is not the first venture into this section of the castle. This set focuses on a scene from the last book/movie “The Deathly Hallows”, but we had #75966-1 back in 2020 which was from “The Order of the Phoenix” book/movie which focuses on a separate scene in the room with a different purpose.

Nothing overly special about the box. It is pretty standard with how the front and back usually look for a Harry Potter themed set.

The set contains four numbered parts bags, and instruction booklet, and a sticker sheet. My sticker sheet was smashed into the box and had a pretty sharp crease in it. I was not happy with that, but thankfully, it didn’t wreck the overall look of the set when I was done putting it together.

Unlike most Harry Potter sets, the first bag actually starts with the top of the structure. You build a small roof section and then a larger one with a spire. The one with the spire has a space underneath the spire where a scroll is set for reading. I’m not sure what the reference is to in the movie exactly so it’s relevance in the set is unknown to me.

You get two minifigures in this bag. One is Harry and the other is “The Grey Lady” (Rowena Ravenclaw’s deceased daughter).

The second bag assembles the ground floor of the build. This is the entrance to the Room of Requirements. There is a door (with stickers that you put on both sides) and then the inside starts to build all of the various things that are stored in the room with two cases with cups in them.

There are some straight and curved tiles placed around the door frame on the inside of the room. These tiles have stickers. I had a challenging time putting the stickers on the 1x6 pieces and an even harder time trying to line up the curved stickers on the curved tiles.

The Draco Malfoy minifigure comes with this bag.

The third bag adds more to the room to make it taller. You also tack on a few more stickers for details. You see a number of Technic axle and pin holes throughout the build which will make more sense after the next bag.

On the outside of the build you put together some doors/wall pieces that slide back and forth so you can cover the door to the room similar to the movie. It’s not flush with the wall like in the movie, but it gets the job done considering the cost of the set and the space available for the build.

The Hermione minifigure comes in this bag.

The last bag wraps up the set with a lot of the various items inside the room of requirements to include boxes, books, a chair, a helmet, a record player, and the lost diadem that they are searching for in the movie/book.

The minifigure in this bag is Blaise Zabini who I don’t remember from any of the other movies, but it could just be me.

Lastly you build the fire dragon that Blaise casts in the Room. You can have the dragon as one long piece or you can split it up. The set comes with some extra Technic pins so you can connect the dragon to the various pin holes around the set. This is a fun play feature and I like how the designers added this one in.

5 minifigures in this set. All are exclusive so even if you thought you had all of the Harry Potter minifigures, there is yet another one. No major complaints here, but nothing super exciting.

Here’s the final build. Like the other sets, this one is modular and connects to the various Harry Potter sets to help you build out a full Hogwart’s Castle however you want to. The set has some good play features with the moveable doors in the front, the fire dragon that can be moved around, and some stuff to scatter around the room. You can also use your own pieces to add to the clutter in the room.

Overall, it’s not a bad set and the price per piece isn’t too bad. It’s gone on sale once so wait for another round of sales before you grab this one.

Happy building!