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Hello all,

just got into the fun of building LEGOs via LDD. A great tool indeed. :classic:

However, as many starters might have done before, i recreated some official set that's not available anymore. I just used the 'legal' parts for workarounds and also left out features i am not interested in. After hours of work i wanted to know what the finished set would cost. I was pretty surprised by the result. Roughly 280 pieces and TLG wants more than 50 € for this... There's even no minifig included. *oh2*

Thus a bunch of questions do arise:

- How much is their fee for 'handpicking' the bricks and doing a custom box? Is it reasonable to create larger sets and save some money this way?

- Are bricks in some certain colours more expensive than ones in different colouring or do just the kind of bricks matter? Which kinds of bricks are the most expensive (e.g. Technic?)?

- Are there any price lists for the legal bricks offered with the official LDD?

- Would it be possible to order a custom made rehash of some officical set or does TLG deny this anyway by policy?

These issues might very likely have been discussed in the past so moderators feel free to merge this with an existing threat on the matter.

Every help is welcome. :wink:

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Hello all,

just got into the fun of building LEGOs via LDD. A great tool indeed. :classic:

However, as many starters might have done before, i recreated some official set that's not available anymore. I just used the 'legal' parts for workarounds and also left out features i am not interested in. After hours of work i wanted to know what the finished set would cost. I was pretty surprised by the result. Roughly 280 pieces and TLG wants more than 50 € for this... There's even no minifig included. *oh2*

Thus a bunch of questions do arise:

- How much is their fee for 'handpicking' the bricks and doing a custom box? Is it reasonable to create larger sets and save some money this way?

- Are bricks in some certain colours more expensive than ones in different colouring or do just the kind of bricks matter? Which kinds of bricks are the most expensive (e.g. Technic?)?

- Are there any price lists for the legal bricks offered with the official LDD?

- Would it be possible to order a custom made rehash of some officical set or does TLG deny this anyway by policy?

These issues might very likely have been discussed in the past so moderators feel free to merge this with an existing threat on the matter.

Every help is welcome. :wink:

  • Models on DesignByMe cost a flat rate of 10 USD in addition to the cost of the pieces. Additionally, the individual pieces tend to cost up to 25% more than they do on Pick-A-Brick (which has the same parts selection as LEGO DesignByMe mode of LDD). With larger models, you'll pay less per piece than on a smaller model because you're only charged the flat 10 USD rate once per model, but you'll always save even more by purchasing the same parts through Pick-A-Brick.
  • Bricks in Design-By-Me or Pick-A-Brick have the same price in all colors. Generally, larger pieces are more expensive than smaller pieces, but there are also other considerations. Parts with printing or pre-assembled parts are generally most expensive of all, so on PaB many minifigure torsos are .68 USD apiece, and the horse is .75 USD
  • Not sure about any price list, but as I mentioned the prices tend to be 25% higher than the online Pick-A-Brick prices for the same pieces. So, for instance, a .24 USD Hero Factory part would cost .30 USD through DesignByMe (in addition to the $10 cost of the custom box and instruction booklet).
  • To my knowledge, TLG might reject any official sets put in the online DesignByMe gallery (which is what you order parts through). However, sufficiently modified models ordered through the DesignByMe gallery should be OK. For instance, there are enough Hero Factory parts on DesignByMe to build a model slightly resembling an existing Hero Factory set. If you were to build set 2065 but change all the red parts to blue and all the yellow parts to red, it would likely be permitted.
    LEGO's Terms of Moderation don't mention anything about copying official LEGO products, just prohibiting models that copy other companies' products which TLG would be violating trademark law by reproducing. At the same time, I doubt they'd appreciate their own products being copied In general, of course, most sets would be cheaper as actual sets or as Pick-A-Brick purchases than as DesignByMe purchases.

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I don't see why LEGO would object to you using their designs. They could sell you a set via TRU for £25 or sell you nearly the same set via Designbyme for £40. They'd be mad not to?

Cheers

Rog

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I don't know about pricing but I don't think it's a flat $10 rate. I tested this couple weeks ago by making a LDD file containing 17,000 lime 2x4 bricks. PAB rate (if you got around size limit) would be a bit over $4000. If I checked the price by sending LXF file, I was quoted over $6,000.

$1700 extra for using LDD... :thumbdown:

info and SS: http://www.bricklink.com/message.asp?ID=545953

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The cheapest way is most often to buy the bricks from BrickLink, specially if it's fairly common bricks that have been around for some time. Use LDD Manager to import your LXF-file, and then upload the model to BrickLink as a WantedList. If you are lucky, you should be able to save 50% or so (even on new bricks). But of course you don't get a fancy DbM box :classic:

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after getting out of dark age, I started to build with LDD and decided to order some bricks, but not from LDD program, I used the pick a brick from shop@home after realizing how much more expensive was the first option... then I discovered bricklink and at first was tempted by prices, but worried by buying from many stores which means many shipping costs as well... then after realizing how much wider is the choice in bricklink stores, I had no more doubts and now no more regrets.

I still use shop@home pab, but only for few bricks that I should order from stores that have a minimum buy and far from my country, and since I need only them I have no other option.

after you try bricklink, you'll never come back!

have a nice lego day

mrBlue

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Thank you all for for enlightening answers. Maybe i will get a chance to get the desired models after crating them via LDD.

I will continue to build more but also follow your precious counsel to search for the parts in the channels you mentioned. Let's see whether the effort to sort and type in everything by number is worthwhile.

Thanks again and have a nice day! :classic:

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