Where to get custom sets

[stevendejong]

Hi all! Yesterday, the public transport museum here in The Hague (NL) told me they would like to sell my tram. Happy! However, I only have experience with selling instructions, and they want a box with all the bricks and stickers (made to order, not stocked). I'm hoping some of you have experience with this. Best regards! Steven

[Murdoch17]

  On 3/17/2025 at 10:54 AM, stevendejong said:

Hi all! Yesterday, the public transport museum here in The Hague (NL) told me they would like to sell my tram. Happy! However, I only have experience with selling instructions, and they want a box with all the bricks and stickers (made to order, not stocked). I'm hoping some of you have experience with this. Best regards! Steven

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@stevendejong You have to do all that yourself. Buying the parts, creating the box art, designing stickers, packaging it all, and so on. I don't think many solo set designers turn a profit as it's very time consuming, labor intensive, and expensive. Heck, even some companies go under from this kinda stuff. (established modelmaker ME models overstretched themselves on a new project a decade ago or so, and they went belly-up quite quickly!) Of course, I don't make custom sets myself, but I do know all the info I just stated is true.

Just some food for thought.

[stevendejong]

  On 3/17/2025 at 12:29 PM, Murdoch17 said:

@stevendejong You have to do all that yourself. Buying the parts, creating the box art, designing stickers, packaging it all, and so on. I don't think many solo set designers turn a profit as it's very time consuming, labor intensive, and expensive. Heck, even some companies go under from this kinda stuff. (established modelmaker ME models overstretched themselves on a new project a decade ago or so, and they went belly-up quite quickly!) Of course, I don't make custom sets myself, but I do know all the info I just stated is true.

Just some food for thought.

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Oof, sounds complicated.

[witchy]

I have not worked with them, but Buildamoc seems like it could be relevant. They'd obviously take their own cut, but they offer a service where designers can contract with Buildamoc to handle the physical side, including printing stickers, and the designer receives a commission from the sale, which sounds like it could be a good match for what you need.

[stevendejong]

  On 3/17/2025 at 3:42 PM, witchy said:

I have not worked with them, but Buildamoc seems like it could be relevant. They'd obviously take their own cut, but they offer a service where designers can contract with Buildamoc to handle the physical side, including printing stickers, and the designer receives a commission from the sale, which sounds like it could be a good match for what you need.

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That's indeed very interesting, I'll contact them to see what they have to offer. Thanks!

[Daiman]

@stevendejong

Just had a look and they seem to be very expensive at least in the finished sale price in Aussie dollars. How does it seem for your currency? And 10 percent is measly seeing it is your intellectual property. I know they have a large stake in it but basically you are only getting the gravy so to speak.

I don't want to commit a mortal sin but in the spirit of the conversation a particular clone brick company will sort and bag parts for sets but you would still need to create the box art and final package for retail sale.

This could be done with a colour printer or copier and simply do a top and bottom for a box like I have seen some tank kits come in, it still looks professional on a shelf.

Not saying you should go down this route , simply documenting possible avenues that have been used.

Sourcing on bricklink these days is still expensive here but may be viable if you care to do packaging at home for a selected run number and if it works well then do another run after that.

Contact TLG directly also may be the answer for the parts at least and as said do a small run to check popularity.

I'll keep looking as this interests me as well.

[Daiman]

well it's pretty hard to get past all the promotions by big ads these days but i did find this about 20 pages in. Not sure if its viable but they seem to know the process and that may give you a clue.

https://www.ddbricks.com/corporate-gifts

A further search on lego corporate gifts may be fruitful as i figure these guys are taking all the cheese so resale may not be worth it however contacting them may provide you with a source for the parts of the supply chain you need from them like parts and box only.

Good Luck.

they do have a kitting service that may be of use...

https://www.ddbricks.com/aboutus/our-services-kitting

[stevendejong]

  On 3/18/2025 at 5:17 PM, Daiman said:

well it's pretty hard to get past all the promotions by big ads these days but i did find this about 20 pages in. Not sure if its viable but they seem to know the process and that may give you a clue.

https://www.ddbricks.com/corporate-gifts

A further search on lego corporate gifts may be fruitful as i figure these guys are taking all the cheese so resale may not be worth it however contacting them may provide you with a source for the parts of the supply chain you need from them like parts and box only.

Good Luck.

they do have a kitting service that may be of use...

https://www.ddbricks.com/aboutus/our-services-kitting

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Thanks so much for all the research you did!

I don't expect to sell enormous volumes, so for now I am opting for Bricklink (+ a third party for some bricks that are unavailable or expensive in LEGO). Fortunately, the museum doesn't want a box with anything on it, they're afraid to be accused of IP infringement.

[Daiman]

  On 3/23/2025 at 9:37 PM, stevendejong said:

the museum doesn't want a box

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That will move things along nicely, congratulations, dont forget to post a photograph of the example one set up at the museum.

[stevendejong]

  On 3/23/2025 at 11:14 PM, Daiman said:

That will move things along nicely, congratulations, dont forget to post a photograph of the example one set up at the museum.

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At the moment they just want to have a poster because of lack of space, but I'm happy with what I can get! Here's the poster. I hope you like it! :)

 

 

[Daiman]

Thats great. It's always nice when you can see your work in print and off of a screen .

[MAB]

That looks great. Just make sure not to put any LEGO logos on it or near it when trying to sell it.

The economics of something like this can be difficult. You have to work out what you could realistically sell it for and then price up getting the parts. If the numbers are close, then it is not worth doing. The amount you sell it for has to be significantly above what the parts cost. Getting parts for MOCs can be time consuming but doing it for yourself is a labour of love. If you are doing it to sell them, it has to be worth the time it takes to both source them, and to sort, pick and package them which of course is not quick when you are using over 1000 pieces.

People might also look at it and think I can buy a real LEGO set with better value. Ad of course LEGO has a great advantage in that they can make the parts much cheaper than consumers can source them.