PAB Cups: What Did You Get?

[catbricks]

Given the current exchange rate it is probably about

small = £4.22

large = £9.05

This was just an excahnge rate calculation courtesy of google.

... But don't I remember some discussion from a couple weeks ago about how the UK PaB was by weight, not by cup? If so, no amount of cup packing will improve the price Eskallon gets.

[JimBee]

Hey Jim,

Looking at your selection, I can see why it might have been more difficult to stack. Stacking does work better when you are getting enough of an element to make stacks as high as the cup. That said, it's always worth it to either build a brick of pieces at the bottom or at least line the edges of the cup with stacks, and then fill in the edges with loose brick

Better luck next time!

Heh, sorry this took so long to reply to, I just noticed it now.

Thanks for the additional tips, I will continue to try your methods every time I head back to the Lego store. Last time I went, when I got that cup, it took about a half-hour to pack it. It's going to be a full hour next time.

[Eilif]

It always makes me happy when this thread comes up again!

Carbohydrates,

Great job with the packing!

Jim,

Glad to hear that you're developing the packing instinct/obsession. All the best with you future packing adventures!

[Eskallon]

I will be going to the lego store today and if there is a good selection then I will pack a PAB cup. Though if it is by weight then I will most likely not get it as I don't really need any more pieces.

Wish me luck

[Ryan_T]

Can anyone grab me a large PaB cup on their next visit to the store? please? I'm down in Bonita Springs and the Closest store is in Orlando FL, and me and my family only goes once or twice to Orlando, and wouldn't even go to downtown Disney. I'll try to help out to get some money to pay ya for it.. Would really appreciate it..

[Eskallon]

I didn't get the cup. The selecction was poor with dogs and footballs being the only good things. The rest was basic bricks.

Maybe next time

[Follows Closely]

I didn't get the cup. The selecction was poor with dogs and footballs being the only good things. The rest was basic bricks.

Maybe next time

I was just at the Tyson's store in VA and a worker mentioned they have boxes in addition to cups. Has anyone filled a box? He could not locate a box, but claimed they where the size of a shoe box.

[Eskallon]

I was just at the Tyson's store in VA and a worker mentioned they have boxes in addition to cups. Has anyone filled a box? He could not locate a box, but claimed they where the size of a shoe box.

On the milton keynes november store calender it says if you buy lego and checkout with it amounting to more than £50 then you get a free pick a brick box to use in between december 1st and march 31st. It also says the box is the same size as the small PAB cup.

[Follows Closely]

On the milton keynes november store calender it says if you buy lego and checkout with it amounting to more than £50 then you get a free pick a brick box to use in between december 1st and march 31st. It also says the box is the same size as the small PAB cup.

The guy said this box cost $150. I will have to give them a call to get more details.

[Follows Closely]

The guy said this box cost $150. I will have to give them a call to get more details.

$150 for a 10"x14"x8" box. What do you guys think, good value?

[lgorlando]

$150 for a 10"x14"x8" box. What do you guys think, good value?

Not a good value! I have purchased the 10x14x8 box ($150), the PAB cups ($15), and the bulk boxes that the pieces are shipped in ($70). Here is my experience. It takes 6 cups to fill the brown bulk box with 1 x 1 pieces (I tried). 6 times $15 is $90, It takes 10 cups (9 and 1 half) to fill the 10x14x8 box (140 bucks).

You are better off buying 11 cups for $165 or 10 cups for $140 (you save about $10) but the best deal is if they let you buy the brown bulk pack direct from Lego for $70 (you save $20!). Orlando allows this and so do other stores I have visited.

However, if you buy plates or large flat pieces go for the big box stacked tight...

[wooootles]

Not a good value! I have purchased the 10x14x8 box ($150), the PAB cups ($15), and the bulk boxes that the pieces are shipped in ($70). Here is my experience. It takes 6 cups to fill the brown bulk box with 1 x 1 pieces (I tried). 6 times $15 is $90, It takes 10 cups (9 and 1 half) to fill the 10x14x8 box (140 bucks).

You are better off buying 11 cups for $165 or 10 cups for $140 (you save about $10) but the best deal is if they let you buy the brown bulk pack direct from Lego for $70 (you save $20!). Orlando allows this and so do other stores I have visited.

However, if you buy plates or large flat pieces go for the big box stacked tight...

Hmm, it's close. 1x1 pieces are almost 'fluid' that they can fit and conform to the cup's shape (relatively speaking), but as you said, with more bigger, square-ish/rectangular pieces (and disregarding 1x1 fillers) then the box may have some advantage.

Edited October 29, 2009 by wooootles

[wooootles]

Apologies for the bamp, but I just got my first 2 PaB cups!

Not by me, personally (unfortunately.) The nearest paB wall where I live is about 6 1/2 hours drive away. But my dad went to Anaheim on a business trip, so I asked him to pack a cup (he got two, thanks hehehe) with nothing but grey and black basic bricks with clear filler. Now, he's rather busy so I didn't ask him to stack the bricks or do some techniques in this thread, but I did ask him to use the trans-clear as a filler. He just filled it normally, and I say he did rather good: The loot:

Cup 1:

1x3 light grey x 215

1x1 dark grey x 160

1x1 trans-clear plate x 283

1x1 round trans-clear plate (stowaways) x 5

Cup 2:

1x2 black x 219

1x4 black x 75

1x1 trans-clear plate x 313

1x1 round trans-clear plate (stowaways) x 9

2x2 black roof x 26

total = 663 + 642 = 1305.

Yeah, variety is a bit weak, but since he doesn't really know what specific special pieces I want, I just asked him to get pieces I know I'll use and will be handy for Town MOC: grey and black pieces for buildings. I'd rather have few types of pieces that I will want to use than have a bunch of different pieces and not do what to do with half of them. As for my 600 1x1 trans pieces, let's just say I have a few ideas

loot for cup 1. Don't have the pic for cup 2, but it's the same story.

I stacked the bricks, and had about 15% more space that if I went there myself and stacked them I could have gotten almost 800 in one cup. Ah well, still unbeatable value...

[Follows Closely]

1x1 dark grey x 160

My store never has these 1x1. Mice grab dad!

[dynamic_e]

My haul:

Too lazy to count but a bunch o powder blue!

[Stash2Sixx]

The Big White PAB Box costs $150 USD. I measured it out and it holds just under ten cups of 1x1 round plates. But, it's square, so if you wanna spend some time stacking bricks, then that will work out great! If you are buying something large, like monorail supports or trees, and want to fit a lot of them in then it is worth it.

JimButcher, next time you are out at the Woodfield store, shoot me a pm to let me know. I'll meet you up there and show you a few tricks I know for packing a cup!

[diggitydug]

Today I did my first Pick a Brick wall. I was well armed after reading the instructions on many sites, including the ones squirreld away on lego's own site.

When I went into the store. They have a nice brickwall where I live, 12 bins wide and 8 bins tall, though the top 2 really have repeats from the bottom stuff. I told the Lego people that this was my first cup. The friendly lego staffers said "This is going to be a fun time for you. Take as much time as you want to stuff as much as you can into the cup. We will help with some tecniques if you need them". Mighty sporting of them I thought.

So they had a large bin of 1x4 medium grey bricks. A Castle Builder's dream. That was my main target, as the Agents need a new base. However, they also had 1x4s and 1x2s in Power Miner Lime Green. So I knew I had to pick some of those up for the kids.

My basic premis was this:

in the bottom moat of the cup, put 1x2 bricks in. About 18 fit, fill in with plates.

Then, snap together sections of 1x2. lay them side by side, so the holes line up vertically to one side of the cup, and see how many you can fit in one layer. I would do a layer, and then fill in with "filler", mostly transparent 1x1 plates (square or round). Once that was done, I did another layer.

The only layer I had troube with was with the 1x2x2 transparent windows. THere was no way to get these in flat, since they are not solid, I bulit lenghts, as before, and then nestled each pair of lenghs inside each other. I created a whole level of these, and then shook more 1x1 rounds into them. this filled up all the airspace!

Here is my total haul.

38 1x4 Lime Green

66 1x2 Lime Green

47 1x2x2 Transparent Clear Window elements

172 1x4 Grey

18 1x2 Brown -> should have done these in lime green, but saw the brown first.

66 1x1 flat round plates, transparent yellow

41 1x1 flat round plates, transparent blue

26 1x1 flat round plates, transparent orange

75 1x1 flat square plates, transparent green

36 1x1 flat square plates, transparent red

31 1x1 small nosecones, transparent yellow

13 1x2 flat radiator grill, transparent red

05 1x2 flat radiator grill, white

09 1x3 flat tile w/ dials and 82 on it "No. 101"

10 minifig heads, assorted

05 female hair, long *rare red color like in set 8970*.

04 Steering wheels.

Now the lady was nice here. I asked her if i could include a few minifig parts. she said "show me what you want to put in." I showed her the heads and the hair, and she said. "Thats fine but no more, you cant fill a cup up with figures".

Now for giggles, I put this all linto the Pick a Brick online. 674 pieces. The total if I bought it online $91.88 USD!

Not bad for $15.00 USD

Im very happy with my haul. I have greys for wall building, Windows, and a lot of colored bits for electronics, weapons, etc. I dont possilby see how I could have gotten more in the cup.

Score one for the cheapos!

Edited December 1, 2009 by diggitydug

[ILikePi]

Nice haul, but how did you get the minifig parts? You aren't supposed to put them into the cup, but rather buy three minifigs for a whopping price of $10 USD. you were really lucky that you could put some minifig parts into your cup!

EDIT: By the way, this belongs in the PAB cup thread.

Edited December 1, 2009 by ILikePi

[brickme]

Okay so I have never got a cup yet. However I was at a lego store when there was an AFOL there and I sorta kept glancing over at him as he made his cup he made this interesting (yet violent) technique of ramming crap in there. And I mean RAMMING. Now the clerks are just kind of staring at him. However this worked suprisingly well. He also would take plants at attach studs on there too. What really got me most though was how he filled the stud on top. He filled it with whatever (I didn't see) and he FILLED it. so what he did was he took the lid and started to squeeze it a little over the bin so nothing would go on the floor and when the excess was out he quickly flipped the lid over and started to move the lid around and what the result was that he filled every air pocket with whatever was in his lid and then got to fill his lid. When he finally bought the cup the clerk just smiled at him and taped it shut.

[JimBee]

The Big White PAB Box costs $150 USD. I measured it out and it holds just under ten cups of 1x1 round plates. But, it's square, so if you wanna spend some time stacking bricks, then that will work out great! If you are buying something large, like monorail supports or trees, and want to fit a lot of them in then it is worth it.

150 USD, huh? And you say it fits about ten cups? Large Pick-a-Brick cups filled to the brim with them? I suppose it could be worth it, especially considering it's square shaped and not cylindrical. Not that I'd blow $150 on PAB.

JimButcher, next time you are out at the Woodfield store, shoot me a pm to let me know. I'll meet you up there and show you a few tricks I know for packing a cup!

Sounds good! I'll be coming to Chicago this holiday, but I'm going to the large store in Chicago. Maybe I could go to Woodfield instead, though. It would be cool to meet you!

[Grimmy]

I am loving this thread! :D I wish I saved pics of mine. I will next time. A few weeks ago I took my 6 year old niece and my mom out to the mall and dinner with the intention of buying my niece her first and my first, PAB cup. Large cup $15 it was so much fun! Even my mother was grabbing the small jewels and 1x1s to fill the gaps on the sides and the bottom edge of the cup. I wasn't sure how strict they were so like many people I figured that the rule would be the lid must fit on shut. So I even put some pieces in the top stud of the cup and did a quick shut onto the cup. It would not shut so my niece sat on it lol! We heard it click and it closed! That baby was packed tight! As a matter of fact, we were afraid to hold the cup as it felt like one wrong touch would have the thing EXPLODE! After leaving the store it did explode but inside the bag as my niece was carrying it

Also, my 6 year old niece made her first theft! We did one of those build-a-minifig packs where you make 3 minifigs. Well after leaving the store and going to the donut shop in the mall, she put her hand in her pocket and found a minifig hat! She accidentally put one her pocket somehow. The store had tons of kids and she was shy. I'm guessing when she was building and watching the other kids, she nervously put her hands in her pockets not thinking about the tiny hat. She had a big surprised worried look on her face and asked me if little kids can go to jail and asked what should we do. Well as much as I wanted to keep an extra minifig hat that we didn't have, I thought this would be a good lesson for my niece. We walked back to the Lego store and she put it back. I was so proud of her. We don't need any bad karma, we like good karma. :D

Edited December 2, 2009 by Grimmy

[Modulex Guy]

I always stack PaB cups, I always try to get the most out of each cup...

My cups are always under great pressure and almost solid.

I needed a few parts from PaB, yesterday ad here is how I stacked my cups.

Here's the haul:

The 4 cups:

Lids open to expose the top and some of the solid cubes (and yes, I even pack the lids):

The 4 solid cubes from the middle of the cups:

Everything taken apart: ALL OF THIS CAME FROM 4 CUPS!!!

Here is just some of the parts I counted, the rest, there was to much for me to count.

1x8 tan brick: 96

1x4 light bley brick: 156

2x6 reddish brown plate: 270

2x8 black slope: 56

1x1 dark bley brick: many

1x2 reddish brown plate: 85% cup full

6x8 black slopes:8

...Plus a bunch more!

[Follows Closely]

By rotating your blocks 90% you could get another 3% :)

[wooootles]

Nice work!

PolishGuy, that's also a nice haul of basic bricks. I' assuming that you got that from a wall in Chicago, which Chicago wall would that be? I'm going there after Christmas and I plan to go berserk at the PaB walls there...

[Modulex Guy]

Nice work!

PolishGuy, that's also a nice haul of basic bricks. I' assuming that you got that from a wall in Chicago, which Chicago wall would that be? I'm going there after Christmas and I plan to go berserk at the PaB walls there...

Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg.

Edited December 17, 2009 by Polish Guy