PAB not as good as before?

[antp]

I wonder why they put so much 2x4 rather than 1x4. For building the latter one seems more useful, even for kids (except for very young ones maybe), but I guess that the first one is cheaper for Lego.

Edited June 14, 2014 by antp

[TheLegoDr]

Tech Artist - the 1x1 with studs on 4 sides is actually called the Travis brick. A builder named Travis Kunce found a lot of creative uses for it. But anything with studs on the side becomes a SNOT brick.

I was just at the Schaumberg store a few weeks ago and they had light bley (med stone gray) 2x2 tiles. I have yet to see dark bley anywhere. The Kansas City store has had light gray 2x2 also. And the Water Tower place in Chicago has only had light gray. And that is from asking them about pieces in the back too. So I think when people say gray, they may want to distinguish between them.

[Faefrost]

I've picked up a ton of dark bley 2x2s at the Atlanta Sugarloaf store lately. I wish they had light bley.

[brickbuilder711]

I wonder why they put so much 2x4 rather than 1x4. For building the latter one seems more useful, even for kids (except for very young ones maybe), but I guess that the first one is cheaper for Lego.

In part, I think it's a gimmick so that those who aren't patient enough to stack get cap space earlier on and are forced to buy more to get the quantity they want, or LEGO gets the part sold over more cups which means more $. Otherwise, their target audience probably likes the sturdy 2x4 and are perhaps more used to those.

[antp]

Though that when I was kid I recall preferring the 1xN bricks rather than 2xN...

[TheLegoDr]

I have always preferred 1x bricks. I have a lot of 2x bricks in a box that never gets opened.

However, when I was last at a LEGO store, someone came in with about 7 cups to re-use. The staff all seemed to know him. But he was stacking tons of white 2x bricks in his cups. I wonder what he is building... So some adults out there do like the 2x it seems.

Faefrost - that is interesting. I've always preferred dark bley and only bought a small amount of light bley because I didn't have a use for them.

[Faefrost]

Adults use the 2xwhatevers as structural support and filler. It's what let's you MOC more three dimensionally. The stuff you don't actually see in the final model.

[antp]

But these are already easy to get for cheap in the bricks assortment sets, where you get a lot of 2xN in addition of the 1xN.

[DuckBricks]

The only interesting thing that ever comes to Bellevue are light blue bricks (Harry Potter car color) and jet engines.

And of course crystals! :wub:

[paul_delahaye]

In part, I think it's a gimmick so that those who aren't patient enough to stack get cap space earlier on and are forced to buy more to get the quantity they want, or LEGO gets the part sold over more cups which means more $. Otherwise, their target audience probably likes the sturdy 2x4 and are perhaps more used to those.

This is quite interesting, I gave negative feedback following a recent Lego Store purchase and it ended in a couple of emails back and forth with the lego store manager when I made the purchase, I commented that the pick a brick was poor and a bit of variety rather than 2 x 4's would be nice, and they replied saying that the reason for all the 2 x 4's is because all the lowest pick a brick holes have to contain large bricks so that any small child who visits the store and is not being supervised by their parents, cannot pick up a small usefull lego brick and try and swallow it!

that's the reason apparently for every pick a brick wall containing loads of 2x4's.

Paul

[antp]

This is true, but they could put other large parts. For example in the Lille (France) store they put 4x4/4x6/2x8 plates there in addition of the 2x4 bricks.

[jimmynick]

The Schaumburg store is usually pretty good and the manager there is helpful. I think before it was mainly based on what the manager could get a hold of which some times it could be good. The whole mainstreaming the stores is surely going to limit some of the rarer pieces that could some times be found. Customer service after all is everything.

Which store is better for PaB? Schaumburg or Water Tower Place? Both are equally time-consuming to get to for me.

[AFOLguy1970]

Plates could easily take some of that bottom space. They are very useful to all ages alike. The closest Lego store to me is not really large, therefore does not have a large PAB wall. It does seem like a bit of overkill to have 2x4. 2x6, 2x3, and 2x8 in the same color taking up four bins. Then, you have the parts that are now required to be at all stores for a given month, some of which I am glad to see. Likely, the larger stores have much more leverage for what they can offer. If only I lived near Downtown Disney! They had a wealth of parts there. Of course, I might be near Rockefeller Center in NYC before the end of this summer, so I have my fingers crossed.

[Darth Punk]

Which store is better for PaB? Schaumburg or Water Tower Place? Both are equally time-consuming to get to for me.

I've never actually been to the Water Tower store. I tend to avoid mich. ave since parking can be very difficult and it's full out tuourists.. I did go to,the Schaumburg store after going to brickworld and they had a good selection. They added a table near the middle of the store covered witht boxes of Pab. I'm not sure if they was because of brickworld or will be a regular feature. I plan on going again in the next week or so,to,check out the new parts.