Bricklink Designer Program 2021 Discussion Thread

[Johnny1360]

To be honest, if I shared that opinion, I would never again purchase any LEGO branded product and never post anything more about LEGO, complete boycott. Then I would move on and find something more worthwhile to participate in, life is too short for all that sort of aggravation and disappointment. Just not worth it.

[Toastie]

5 hours ago, Johnny1360 said:

life is too short for all that sort of aggravation and disappointment. Just not worth it.

This what I feel - entirely.

If you @Maple had it with them - turn away. There are alternatives to TLGs plastic bricks. Sure, many are from China, and when you struggle with that - it is getting close to "out with it". Why not?

I made up my mind with "purism", and TLG's would be the so nice family owned all so caring, super creative company: Screw it. Should I like one of their products: I maybe in. Like as in: No alternatives around. I do like TLG's product, i.e. the idea, but I have come to an end with their "ever paddled" philosophy on creativity and so on. Which to me has become fake - at best. Oh, they do this and that. 

And don't get me wrong: Not the designers, not the lower ranks, who really try it. No way. Just the corporate level - who decide on bigger "things".

I turned 60 this year. I will not spend one second (anymore, time does not (!) go by - so slowly, as Madonna sings) on being upset about a multi-billion dollar company behaving like just that. They do their game, I live my life.

Best,
Thorsten

 

[Johnny1360]

6 minutes ago, Toastie said:

 

I turned 60 this year. 

 

Congratulations, me too and it is great, really never expected to make it this long but man I really enjoy being old, lol.

[Toastie]

9 minutes ago, Johnny1360 said:

Congratulations, me too and it is great, really never expected to make it this long but man I really enjoy being old, lol.

Thank you very much, absolutely the same here. I really do. And congratulations!!!

Reading the newspaper - in paper form - with a strong, nice cup of coffee in the morning, or two - I frequently sit back and simply enjoy sitting there. And then I do the (so super simple and small) crossword puzzle on the back of the Sports section - with the result printed upside down - but I swear, I only peak when decided that I am "done".

Life.

Then I take the (e)bike and head off to my university.

TLG is never in my way 

Best,
Thorsten 

Edited July 28, 2022 by Toastie

[mark1991t]

Back on topic:

My sets from round 2 arrived today here in the Netherlands. I got the Bowling Alley and LEGO Store.

[Wimmer]

54 minutes ago, mark1991t said:

Back on topic:

My sets from round 2 arrived today here in the Netherlands. I got the Bowling Alley and LEGO Store.

Congratulations ! I’m from the Netherlands as well, but live in CA, USA…

It was my understanding that European countries are first with the deliveries, and then later the US will follow; so this is not surprising me, nor upsetting me. 
But it would be very nice to get my Chalet and Studgate Train Station. 🙂

[merman]

Having just built the Lego Store (paid way too much) I am wondering why the instructions are so low quality. Some parts abd color are really hard to distinguish. Why not have high quality instructions? Hey they can also do it with Technic B-models. 

[Johnny1360]

Technic B model, what's that, lol.

[RichardGoring]

1 hour ago, Johnny1360 said:

Technic B model, what's that, lol.

In the days before mass licensing, LEGO used to encourage alternative builds of the sets that they released. In some instances they would just give you photos of different models the designers had come up with, to inspire you to create your own. In some cases they would actually create formal instructions. It was all done with the spirit of playing well, developing creativity, and generally being a toy that you could re-use and re-purpose over and over and over again, instead of just being something that had a single use and would sit in a shelf or a box and not really get touched after the initial excitement.

[karmajay]

17 hours ago, merman said:

Having just built the Lego Store (paid way too much) I am wondering why the instructions are so low quality. Some parts abd color are really hard to distinguish. Why not have high quality instructions? Hey they can also do it with Technic B-models. 

The instructions are done by the builder and so it does not go through the more rigorous QC of the official Lego sets which would add cost. As someone that has build a chunk of MOCs from purchased instructions these fall in the same category so far in my experience. Again, any more any these sets would be even more expensive.

[Divv3k]

I'm absoutely gutted.  I ordered the Lego Store, Venetian Houses and the Retro Bowling Alley during round 2 of crowdfunding.  I got really excited last week when I got a notification that my items had shipped only to receive a package which only contained the Modular Lego Store.  When I queried this with Lego Customer Service they told me that the package should have included all three sets and they would now just refund the two sets that didn't get shipped as they do not have any to ship to me.  I have asked what happened to the sets that I ordered but have not received any response.  I'm really mystified as to what happened to the sets I ordered and Lego haven't provided any explanation.

[Wimmer]

3 hours ago, Divv3k said:

I'm absoutely gutted.  I ordered the Lego Store, Venetian Houses and the Retro Bowling Alley during round 2 of crowdfunding.  I got really excited last week when I got a notification that my items had shipped only to receive a package which only contained the Modular Lego Store.  When I queried this with Lego Customer Service they told me that the package should have included all three sets and they would now just refund the two sets that didn't get shipped as they do not have any to ship to me.  I have asked what happened to the sets that I ordered but have not received any response.  I'm really mystified as to what happened to the sets I ordered and Lego haven't provided any explanation.

I am very sorry for you. That really sucks. Because LEGO updated my shopping day every day with the next “current day” date; I called them and asked them when the sets would be shipping for us here in the US. The answer I got, from a very helpful and friendly lady on the phone, was that it would ship at the end of August. 
 

After all the horror stories from everybody, and now you, we’ll see what happens; IF it actually happens. And then we’ll see what I’m actually getting,… if anything at all ?…. 😔 

[Modal]

My windmill is now set for September 26th, they just keep pushing the date back. If I don't get this set eventually I am going to be pissed.

[Calvinw]

On 9/1/2022 at 7:11 PM, Modal said:

My windmill is now set for September 26th, they just keep pushing the date back. If I don't get this set eventually I am going to be pissed.

Unfortunately part of the process with these Bricklink sets.  Just ignore the emails until an actual charge occurs on your payment method.  

[Wimmer]

On 9/1/2022 at 7:11 PM, Modal said:

My windmill is now set for September 26th, they just keep pushing the date back. If I don't get this set eventually I am going to be pissed.

Same here. I get a new email about every 8 days that puts the new shipment date out to the current date, plus two days. Now it’s set at September 3rd. I’m waiting for my Venetian Houses to be released ?…

I’m starting to think that people in the US might lose out to a lot of sets because of “overselling” their sets and honoring European orders first ?

Totally with you on the fact I’m going to be very upset if my sets out of both second and third round are getting cancelled/ignored ?…

[RichardGoring]

1 hour ago, Wimmer said:

Same here. I get a new email about every 8 days that puts the new shipment date out to the current date, plus two days. Now it’s set at September 3rd. I’m waiting for my Venetian Houses to be released ?…

I’m starting to think that people in the US might lose out to a lot of sets because of “overselling” their sets and honoring European orders first ?

Totally with you on the fact I’m going to be very upset if my sets out of both second and third round are getting cancelled/ignored ?…

Don't say things like that! Hadn't really considered not getting them, just that they'd take a very long time. I'm indifferent about a long delay. I'd be really disappointed if it was cancelled/lost.

[Wimmer]

6 hours ago, RichardGoring said:

Don't say things like that! Hadn't really considered not getting them, just that they'd take a very long time. I'm indifferent about a long delay. I'd be really disappointed if it was cancelled/lost.

Not to scare you into anything but read this post from one of our Europe members:…

•  
•  

Posted August 4

I'm absoutely gutted.  I ordered the Lego Store, Venetian Houses and the Retro Bowling Alley during round 2 of crowdfunding.  I got really excited last week when I got a notification that my items had shipped only to receive a package which only contained the Modular Lego Store.  When I queried this with Lego Customer Service they told me that the package should have included all three sets and they would now just refund the two sets that didn't get shipped as they do not have any to ship to me.  I have asked what happened to the sets that I ordered but have not received any response.  I'm really mystified as to what happened to the sets I ordered and Lego haven't provided any explanation.

[EndlessAges]

As one of the designers, I wanted to mention that I've completed the instructions for Steam Powered Science and posted them on Rebrickable:  https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-121751

 

 

Also available is the Working Waterfall:  https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-117747

 

 

As well as Seasons in Time:  https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-117295

 

 

Thank you!

[RichardGoring]

I was disappointed these didn't make it. Does your release on Rebrickable mean that the original plan to release instructions has gone, or is this the route Bricklink chose?

[karmajay]

Thanks to any designer sharing on rebrickable!

[EndlessAges]

This is what BrickLink said we should do to sell our instructions.  Originally, they were planning to produce and sell the instructions for Unrealized Designs, but they found they were unable to do so and arranged for us to be able to sell them ourselves.

[RichardGoring]

Interesting. Sounds like they've messed you around somewhat, which is a shame.

It looks like with the reincorporation of some original ideas it now uses out of production pieces. It's so nice though. May have to try and put this together. Terrific work, and thank you for following through with it. I hope you get rewarded for it.

[EndlessAges]

Thank you!  I think the octopus is the only part that should be out of production.  All the rest are parts that were available for Rounds 1 & 2.  Some parts were removed from the list for Round 3 since it will be a while until they were ready to pack and ship those sets, so I added them back in.

And yes, it's been hard to deal with the problems from a designer end at times.  What it comes down to is that BrickLink is primarily a vendor, not a product developer.  The program outlined some great goals but, with no real experience in production, the BrickLink team simply didn't comprehend how ambitious they were being.  Putting LEGO quality instructions together for 15 sets is already a huge commitment of time and resources.  Eventually, it was recognized that creating 25 sets of instructions was too much.

My set especially is has some very tricky to build areas in addition to being one of the larger sets.  I kinda figured that I'd be on my own for making the instructions if it didn't get through to production, so wasn't surprised by this particular change when it was announced.  BrickLink has tried to support us in developing them in other ways, but their main concern seems to be worrying about incidents like the one described above.

On 8/4/2022 at 9:56 AM, Divv3k said:

I'm absoutely gutted.  I ordered the Lego Store, Venetian Houses and the Retro Bowling Alley during round 2 of crowdfunding.  I got really excited last week when I got a notification that my items had shipped only to receive a package which only contained the Modular Lego Store.  When I queried this with Lego Customer Service they told me that the package should have included all three sets and they would now just refund the two sets that didn't get shipped as they do not have any to ship to me.  I have asked what happened to the sets that I ordered but have not received any response.  I'm really mystified as to what happened to the sets I ordered and Lego haven't provided any explanation.

 

[Follows Closely]

Another push back on the delivery date:

Quote

910009 Modular LEGO® Store V39 $179.99 1 $179.99

Backorder Will be shipped by Oct 14, 2022

 

[Wimmer]

On 9/9/2022 at 6:14 AM, Follows Closely said:

Another push back on the delivery date:

 

Same here for my set of Venetian Houses. 
I wonder if LEGO is playing a game of chicken here; see who would cancel first,… the customer or them ?… 😡 

Every week another email with the exact same text, but then a new date. 

I ordered the set in November, I’m predicting they won’t sent it by then…

🤨

I’m also predicting that LEGO will never do this again; since it has been a real downer on everybody. 
LEGO majorly underestimated the amount of dedication and work that this takes, and customers are thoroughly disgusted by the “being lied to” emails every week. 
I ordered three sets in total, over the second and third round. Located on the west coast in CA;  I’m doubtful I will see any of these three sets in real life ?…