How reliable is Lego Factory?

[simonwillems]

Hello everybody,

I have not had much time for Lego lately, but now I have and I have made my 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air in LDD.

The Lego Digital Designer program has an option to send the creation to the Legoshop where you can order it at a pretty high price.

My question is this: Has anybody got any experience in ordering self made sets like this and will all the pieces I used in the design be available?

If not, it would be an option to get all the parts via Bricklink (I am ordering 85 parts off Bricklink already for this car because a lot of pieces, chrome etc., are not available in LDD).

Thanks

[Eilif]

I've not done the process my self, but as far as I know, when you upload your design to to LEGO's website, you will get a report of the cost of your vehicle and if all the pieces are available. If you are using the most current version of LDD, with the most current parts palete, then you should be able to order your car just as you created it.

As to Bricklink, it's surely possible. If you have to use alot of different sellers, it might be more expensive, most likely it will be a bit cheaper unless you are using alot of uncommon, valuable parts. No way to know for sure though, until you do the comparison yourself.

[Darth Legolas]

To tell you the truth, I'm a little skeptical that you'd be able to do that. from the picture I see, none of these pieces are too rare, but a lot of them are old. I really don't know how you even got them on LDD.

If they are on LDD, of course, they have a better chance of being order-able, but if Eilif is correct, all you have to do is upload it and see if the pieces are available. If they aren't, you can just go to Bricklink.

Edited July 1, 2009 by Darth Legolas

[simonwillems]

To tell you the truth, I'm a little skeptical that you'd be able to do that. from the picture I see, none of these pieces are too rare, but a lot of them are old. I really don't know how you even got them on LDD.

If they are on LDD, of course, they have a better chance of being order-able, but if Eilif is correct, all you have to do is upload it and see if the pieces are available. If they aren't, you can just go to Bricklink.

Thanks!

The point is: I already made the model in LDD without 85 special/old pieces that LDD was not able to provide. It consists of 523 pieces and Lego is charging me 74.90 euro for it after uploading... So I wonder if this 523 piece model will make it to my home with all the pieces Lego indicates are available?

[DJ Force]

If it is indicated as available, you will get all the parts. I ordered several of my LDD creations in the past and only once I had a complaint when 2 ordinary pieces were missing. Or they fell out the box when I opened it and got sucked into the vacuumer... No idea.

However, you really should try to see if you can get the parts cheaper via BL. When you order uncommon parts anyway, you can as well compare the prices from Legos PaB and BL and in the best case just add those parts to your BL order.

[simonwillems]

If it is indicated as available, you will get all the parts. I ordered several of my LDD creations in the past and only once I had a complaint when 2 ordinary pieces were missing.

Thanks! That was what I liked to know!

However, you really should try to see if you can get the parts cheaper via BL. When you order uncommon parts anyway, you can as well compare the prices from Legos PaB and BL and in the best case just add those parts to your BL order.

I might consider this, the advantage is that it may be a lot cheaper to find the parts via Bricklink. The disadvantage is that it is a real hassle to look up all the pieces at the different sellers....

Does the PAB/LDD have an option to see the parts list of the creation? That would be nice when I want to order the pieces through Bricklink.

[DJ Force]

I didn´t find a parts list so far. That´s another disadvantage from LDD. On the other hand, TLC wants to make money selling bricks, not giving clues what bricks you have to get from BL to build your creation

[xenologer]

Some people say its fine.

I've used it and had problems more than once.

Last time 4 of my bricks were accidentally replaced with 4 of a totally different brick (human error, someone grabbed from the wrong bin I guess).

I've also seen miscountings where I'll end up with 1 brick missing sometimes...

I'm too lazy to order individual bricks off bricklink though, so I keep buying form Factory... I just don't ever expect them to come in totally perfect...

[simonwillems]

...On the other hand, TLC wants to make money selling bricks, not giving clues what bricks you have to get from BL to build your creation

Of course, I never thought about that... That makes perfect sense from a TLC point of view!

When you choose the option to see the instructions of your model however, you can see a list of all the separate parts used (for the powerpoint-like presentation of the instructions) , just not the quantities. So some puzzling required, next to assembly....

[cagri]

Make a wanted list* on Bricklink with Brickstore** and that will ease things for you.

* http://www.bricklink.com/help.asp?topicID=4

** http://www.brickforge.de/software/brickstore/

I wouldn't recommend Lego PAB, it takes days to fill your order, they put all the parts in only one bag and let it loose in a big box. They get cracked, lost or scratched at the best.

I didn

Edited July 2, 2009 by cagri

[paintballman413]

Lego factory is reliable its the pricing that outrages me. You can make the base to a house and it will almost cost $60 U.S. dollars. pathetic. It's just cheaper to do a pick a brick. . other than that Factory is ok.