99 replies to this topic

[22kane]

LEGO Store "Build a Minifigure" stations
Please post questions and answers - and general discussion - in this thread!

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I read on a post a couple of days ago that the Lego stores had a "build your own Minifigure" station with various body parts and "tools". Someone had said that Lego took many of the parts from series one and is offering them in these little stations at the Lego stores. I decided to visit my local Lego store today and sure enough there it was. I immediately got excited until I saw the $9.99 price tag for three figures and was disappointed in the parts they were offering. Many of the torso's were common figures like a police man or a pirate shirt. There were only about five different faces available including the skeleton head but not his body. The tools were brooms, swords and a few other common pieces. I quickly realized that it certainly wasn't worth the 10 dollars as I probably already had most of the pieces. Here is the question... I am wondering if this various by store? Maybe most of the good stuff was picked through at the KOP location. Has anyone out there had better luck?

Edited by Rufus, 25 April 2012 - 05:58 PM.
Tagline inserted

[MacK]

Well yeah it varies, it's just like the in store Pick-a-Brick. Generally though the selection isn't very good and consists of the basic parts like you mention. Occasionally there are good parts to be found, such as the series one minifig parts, but I've also heard about mermaid tails (the older ones), and Princess Leia torsos being found.

Really I'd suggest just glancing into the minifigure bins every time you visit a Lego store just don't have high hopes for finding "gold".

[22kane]

That reminds me... There was a mermaid tail in there but that was the only "rare" piece. I'll take your advice and check in on it every once in a while.

[Lego Otaku]

22kane, on 21 May 2011 - 05:16 AM, said:

That reminds me... There was a mermaid tail in there but that was the only "rare" piece. I'll take your advice and check in on it every once in a while.

Usually most of the good pieces are taken as soon as they are put out.  I did pick up 15x mermaid torso for one pack (some stores allow this instead of requiring 3 of each types)

[Donut]

MacK, on 21 May 2011 - 02:10 AM, said:

Occasionally there are good parts to be found, such as the series one minifig parts, but I've also heard about mermaid tails (the older ones), and Princess Leia torsos being found.

I think it was the mermaid torso.

While I really like the idea of BAM, the selection has remained stagnant for far too long. I wish they brought in new pieces at a faster pace.

[Gregorovich]

I've never been to one, so I can't really answer the question. I have a question of my own, though, and I didn't want to start a new thread. Can you buy a single fig or two figures for a lower price, or do you have to buy 3 for £10? I'm guessing there'd at least be one figure I'd be willing to buy, but not 3 for that price if they're not ones I want.

[Donut]

Gregorovich, on 21 May 2011 - 03:24 PM, said:

I've never been to one, so I can't really answer the question. I have a question of my own, though, and I didn't want to start a new thread. Can you buy a single fig or two figures for a lower price, or do you have to buy 3 for £10? I'm guessing there'd at least be one figure I'd be willing to buy, but not 3 for that price if they're not ones I want.

At the BAM counter, there's a special plastic container where you use to store the minifigs in. It has 3 compartments to house 3 minifigs. So essentially, they want you to buy 3 minifigs + 1 accessory for each fig.

[SilentMode]

Gregorovich, on 21 May 2011 - 03:24 PM, said:

I've never been to one, so I can't really answer the question. I have a question of my own, though, and I didn't want to start a new thread. Can you buy a single fig or two figures for a lower price, or do you have to buy 3 for £10?

You should be able to buy less than three figures, it just works out to be cheaper per figure if you buy them in threes. Over here they're three for £3.50.

[Gregorovich]

Donut, on 21 May 2011 - 03:30 PM, said:

At the BAM counter, there's a special plastic container where you use to store the minifigs in. It has 3 compartments to house 3 minifigs. So essentially, they want you to buy 3 minifigs + 1 accessory for each fig.

SilentMode, on 21 May 2011 - 03:52 PM, said:

You should be able to buy less than three figures, it just works out to be cheaper per figure if you buy them in threes. Over here they're three for £3.50.

Thanks. I'm planning on going to LEGOLand during the summer. If there's only one minifigure I want, I'll pay the £3.50. If there's two though, I'll just get a third one seeing as it would cost the same.

[fred67]

Donut, on 21 May 2011 - 03:20 PM, said:

I think it was the mermaid torso.

Not just the torso, the legs/fins, too.

Gregorovich, on 21 May 2011 - 03:24 PM, said:

Can you buy a single fig or two figures for a lower price, or do you have to buy 3 for £10?

Not at my store... 3 for $9.99.  You cannot get just one or two.

[Solitary Dark]

At Legoland Windsor 'The Big Shop' @ The Beginning has Build a Minifigure - It only appeared this year (At the same time as the Pick a brick shrunk dramatically.)

The selection is fairly sparse with parts really being limited to items available in current sets, but there were parts from Minifig series 1 (Robin hood heads, clown torso's) - I think the price was £4.99 for 3 - Again there is a window box with 3 spaces - I disnt see a price per single but will keep an eye out on the next trip.

Edited by mookage, 21 May 2011 - 05:38 PM.

[Gregorovich]

mookage, on 21 May 2011 - 05:37 PM, said:

At Legoland Windsor 'The Big Shop' @ The Beginning has Build a Minifigure - It only appeared this year (At the same time as the Pick a brick shrunk dramatically.)

The selection is fairly sparse with parts really being limited to items available in current sets, but there were parts from Minifig series 1 (Robin hood heads, clown torso's) - I think the price was £4.99 for 3 - Again there is a window box with 3 spaces - I disnt see a price per single but will keep an eye out on the next trip.

£4.99 sounds like a much fairer price. I hope they don't go up in price and that there's good parts when I go down.

[Donut]

Gregorovich, on 21 May 2011 - 04:01 PM, said:

I'm planning on going to LEGOLand during the summer.

That's awesome! Don't forget to get their promotional duplo bricks (it's free!) and take lots of pictures!

[charlieboy]

Gregorovich, on 21 May 2011 - 08:52 PM, said:

£4.99 sounds like a much fairer price. I hope they don't go up in price and that there's good parts when I go down.

£4.99 is too much when in the Lego shops its only £3.50! Ive bought loads of them from the Brighton Lego shop,the selection does vary massively visit to visit but if you need to populate a town etc....its a cheap way to do it but you'll stuggle to find any really special parts in there.

[Gregorovich]

charlieboy, on 22 May 2011 - 12:46 PM, said:

£4.99 is too much when in the Lego shops its only £3.50! Ive bought loads of them from the Brighton Lego shop,the selection does vary massively visit to visit but if you need to populate a town etc....its a cheap way to do it but you'll stuggle to find any really special parts in there.

Unfortunately though, we don't have an official LEGO store up here. This is really my only chance to go to the BAM, so I'm happy to have it under a tenner. I really hope we get a store up here soon, because I think it's really unfair how England have quite a few, Wales have one, and we have none.

[Blondie-Wan]

22kane, on 20 May 2011 - 10:41 PM, said:

I read on a post a couple of days ago that the Lego stores had a "build your own Minifigure" station with various body parts and "tools". Someone had said that Lego took many of the parts from series one and is offering them in these little stations at the Lego stores. I decided to visit my local Lego store today and sure enough there it was. I immediately got excited until I saw the $9.99 price tag for three figures and was disappointed in the parts they were offering. Many of the torso's were common figures like a police man or a pirate shirt. There were only about five different faces available including the skeleton head but not his body. The tools were brooms, swords and a few other common pieces. I quickly realized that it certainly wasn't worth the 10 dollars as I probably already had most of the pieces. Here is the question... I am wondering if this various by store? Maybe most of the good stuff was picked through at the KOP location. Has anyone out there had better luck?

It varies, not only from store to store, but at the same store from day to day. As it happens, I was just at the LEGO Store at Downtown Disney Marketplace at Orlando, Florida a couple times in the past few days, and they had several Build-A-Minifigure elements I found interesting, though I wasn't able to get as many things as I'd like. They had a few mermaid torsos and tails, some Minifigures Series 1 parts (Forestman torsos, heads and hats, Cheerleader heads and hair, Nurse hair and I think some heads, Clown legs, torsos, heads and hair, Magician torsos and faces), some Pirates elements (mermaid torsos and tails, various heads, "striped shirt" pirate torsos, lots of cutlasses and a single flintlock pistol), a couple of the newer Space Police  criminal torsos with the Blacktron homage, a kepi hat in black, a surprising number of Naboo Fighter Pilot torsos, some pointed witch/wizard-style hats, and so on. Usually I don't see such interesting pieces in BAM sections, but as noted, it always varies.

The things I notice most often are "semi-generic" heads (heads commonly used in various themes), torsos for the more common City folk (cops, firefighters, etc.), and certain regularly recurring accessory items (visors for helmets, pickaxes, binoculars, etc.), but I've also found black fedoras, Pirates redcoats elements (torsos, shakos, etc.), and more.

[Brickdoctor]

Sometimes if you see one half of a set of minifig parts that you know have been spotted at the BaM, and you ask an employee, they'll have the other parts in the back of the store. I saw only a couple mermaid tails the other day, and I asked an employee if they had any of the torsos and she came back with about five tails and ten torsos.

[Triborough]

I have on occasion found minifig parts co-mingled with stuff in the Pick a Brick wall. Sort of reach in and find something interesting mixed in with stuff. I got a black kepi cap that way. I don't think it is intentional, no doubt some kid dropped it in there.

Also, if you ask, you can get I think it is 15 assorted minifig parts for the price of three. This is what I was told at the Lego store in Chicago back in February.

[Legoist]

22kane, on 20 May 2011 - 10:41 PM, said:

I read on a post a couple of days ago that the Lego stores had a "build your own Minifigure" station with various body parts and "tools". Someone had said that Lego took many of the parts from series one and is offering them in these little stations at the Lego stores. I decided to visit my local Lego store today and sure enough there it was. I immediately got excited until I saw the $9.99 price tag for three figures and was disappointed in the parts they were offering. Many of the torso's were common figures like a police man or a pirate shirt. There were only about five different faces available including the skeleton head but not his body. The tools were brooms, swords and a few other common pieces. I quickly realized that it certainly wasn't worth the 10 dollars as I probably already had most of the pieces. Here is the question... I am wondering if this various by store? Maybe most of the good stuff was picked through at the KOP location. Has anyone out there had better luck?

I think the whole idea behind "build your own Minifigure" is similar to LDD My Own Design (or whatever it is called): a "cool-factor" service targetted at KFOLs which are supposed to buy it once just for the fun of it. The second time is not that cool anymore, and any AFOL can see that it's never worth the price.

[Dazmundo]

mookage, on 21 May 2011 - 05:37 PM, said:

At Legoland Windsor 'The Big Shop' @ The Beginning has Build a Minifigure - It only appeared this year (At the same time as the Pick a brick shrunk dramatically.)

The selection is fairly sparse with parts really being limited to items available in current sets, but there were parts from Minifig series 1 (Robin hood heads, clown torso's) - I think the price was £4.99 for 3 - Again there is a window box with 3 spaces - I disnt see a price per single but will keep an eye out on the next trip.

When I was last in Legoland Windsor they seemed to have a good selection of minifig parts, and it's far better organised and tidier than the Lego stores I've seen as they have someone manning it the whole time. The reason we didn't get any though was that they do not have accessories! So it is £4.99 for 3 minifigs (legs, torso, head, hat/hair) but no accessory so you are paying more than the Lego store but for less parts. There was no chance of being able to make it up with extra hats or anything as it wasn't that they had run out of accessories, they don't do them so 12 parts is standard not 15.

I hope that makes sense I felt myself waffling a bit.

We are probably going to Legoland again on Friday so I'll check to see if things are still the same.

D

[Blondie-Wan]

Legoist, on 25 May 2011 - 08:29 AM, said:

I think the whole idea behind "build your own Minifigure" is similar to LDD My Own Design (or whatever it is called): a "cool-factor" service targetted at KFOLs which are supposed to buy it once just for the fun of it. The second time is not that cool anymore, and any AFOL can see that it's never worth the price.

I wouldn't say it's never worth the price, though obviously it depends upon various factors. For putting together ordinary things like cops and firefighters it certainly isn't, but as I noted one can also get other things there, sometimes figure elements no longer being offered in sets or offered only in sets costing substantially more than the $9.99 it takes to BAM, and in such cases it certainly can be, depending upon what one's priorities are as well as exactly what parts are available. But I do think you've hit the nail on the head in idenftifying the BAM experience as part of what you pay for.

[Aanchir]

Blondie-Wan, on 31 May 2011 - 04:45 PM, said:

I wouldn't say it's never worth the price, though obviously it depends upon various factors. For putting together ordinary things like cops and firefighters it certainly isn't, but as I noted one can also get other things there, sometimes figure elements no longer being offered in sets or offered only in sets costing substantially more than the $9.99 it takes to BAM, and in such cases it certainly can be, depending upon what one's priorities are as well as exactly what parts are available. But I do think you've hit the nail on the head in idenftifying the BAM experience as part of what you pay for.

Tru dat. I kind of wish the stores were a little more consistent about what exactly you're allowed to get from Build-A-Mini. Some people's experiences, where you can just get any 15 parts, sound really great, especially when parts are offered that would be hard to get in bulk from any other source (mermaid parts, older collectible minifigure parts, Blacktron torsos, etc.) In what seems to be the intended offer, where you get three complete minifigures plus headgear and accessories for each, the offer is less amazing, but at the same time, some of those rarer parts can still be worth the investment. Getting the same parts from Bricklink might require getting them from multiple sellers, and the shipping costs could really add up in the long run.

[Piranha]

I would say the LEGO Store where I live is decent, I have found mermaid bits, S1 bits, and some rare kingdoms stuff like the Kings/Prince Torso. They even had Tritons one time, but I asked and they said they were from someone returning a set.

I also found out that the display models get turned into grab bags.

[meyerc13]

I get to the Mall of America store every couple of months, and I have yet to find parts that would be worth buying.  I'm not even very picky, because I've wanted to buy them for my son and daughter.  The last two times I was there they only had a single torso to choose from!  That might be nice if it was a decent torso, but it wasn't anything exciting.  I haven't been there since reports started popping up about Series 1 parts at various LEGO stores, so hopefully my next trip will be more fruitful.

[streifen]

Over at Cardiff, the LEGO store has a good selection of BAM to choose from. mermaid torsos, robin hood headgear, MMV skirts, etc.

the one in London is more limited and consist of the more common ones.

i still managed to pick what i want though the combinations were quite horrible (e.g. girl's face w/ robin hood cap & MMV skirt...lol)

as mentioned previously, GBP3.50 for 3. in Cardiff, they came w/ the blister pack.