MAB

Why not just open them? Then there is no packaging to get wet.

It is just a new ID rather than new part, the pearl gold torso/arms/hands was in the HP architect statue in the 2019 advent calendar.

We already had a pretty decent version for a Wagner inspired viking style opera singer.

Not so good this time. The last few packs have not been bad at all, but this one does not look so good.

That's rather boring on both counts. It seems a shame if they theme these using in-house themes. I can understand having a female footballer although hopefully more than one team, although it is easy to buy the football table torsos online so not as interesting as it might have been.

We already have an (old) Sean Connery minifigure.

The numbers should be raised if like the old ones, much like the LEGO logo on the backs. Are you saying the number sides are completely flat with the number printed (with ink shadows) instead of moulded?

I got a standard order yesterday. One big ziplock bag with two long/thin ziplocks (each containing 100x of one part) inside, along with other mixed up parts in the larger bag and another large ziplock bag with smaller quantities of mixed up parts inside. Whereas a bestseller order (much smaller quantities) from a couple of days before was a heat sealed bag. So I guess it depends on the contents of the order, maybe the total volume of parts and maybe also keeping large quantities separate. I'm glad they didn't mix up the 100x of each part, as they would have taken ages to sort out.

https://www.bricklink.com/v3/designer-program/series-1/main.page They go on sale (to crowdfunding) Feb 2024. Expect delivery end of '24 or early '25.

I don't think the designers feel they are being taken advantage of, I imagine it is an honour to have their MOC created into an official LEGO set (that is, one with the LEGO logo on the box). There is choice to enter a design or not, there is no compulsion that LEGO is taking designs and telling designers they have to agree. To me, the BDP sets are not Castle, in the same way that the Blacksmith, the Castle from Monster Fighters and the new ICONS set are not Castle. Everyone gets to define what their collection should be composed of. If someone wants them in their Castle collection, that is fine. If someone doesn't, that is also fine. This is exactly what they are, just in a box with the LEGO logo (and BL logo). I also don't buy them. I find they are expensive for what they are and I prefer my MOCs to these. My MOCS might not be quite as detailed or use as many small, greebly parts but I prefer them as they are mine and therefore mean more to me than following someone else's plans. But it seems that there are many AFOLs that collect and/or build but don't MOC these days, and these sets fill a niche that LEGO designed sets don't quite fill. They also act as a "community engagement" tool allowing AFOLs to interact with the company in a way not possible before. I think the BDP (or what was previously the AFOL Designer Program) was a major influence in the purchase of Bricklink. By having it run by a separate company, the BDP does not overlap too much with the LEGO-controlled IDEAS.

They were dealt with separate to PAB (standard and best seller). I know as I had an order that included a regular boxed set, 40x online-BAM figures, standard PAB and bestseller PAB. They all came in separate parcels and the online-BAM arrived much quicker than the PAB parcels. This was when they had some good parts in the online-BAM, so I haven't tried it since then!

It is crazy to think that a good chunk of value is essentially in the box. I didn't buy any of the previous rounds as I wasn't really interested in them and didn't think it right to buy to sell with this type of set. But if I had bought some and wanted to build them, I'd be buying the parts (after sourcing from my existing collection and BL store) and keeping the set sealed. But then the same is true of vintage sets, where the parts may be relatively common but decent condition boxes and instructions can sell for more than the actual sets (without box and instructions).

Those small bags are often common parts that would get stuck inside larger parts and would have been produced and stored, then bagged when necessary. The same with the bags with printed parts in, they are parts with individual item numbers, produced, stored and bagged when necessary. That appears to be different to the DOTS letters, and the small single colour item bags like in Friends, superheroes, Star Wars, and so on which appear to be produced and bagged as a single item. If LEGO could print all decorated parts instead of using stickers at a similar cost, I reckon they would. That they don't suggests that they cannot cope with the capacity, whether it is storage, printing issues (availability of jigs, downtime between part shapes and calibration time, etc), or the cost differential is large enough that the product becomes not viable at the profit margins they want. If you don't buy the arguments, you don't buy them. It is then your choice to buy the sets or not. The sales volumes over recent years suggest most buyers are not bothered by stickers enough to not buy LEGO, even if they prefer printed parts.

We have only seen (so far) that they can do bagged printed parts for 1x1 round tiles, with single colour printing. If that is the limit, then I'd take stickers to decorate different shape and colour parts over that. If they could do multi-coloured printing on maybe 2x2 square tiles or 1x2 rectangular tiles then that would be much more suitable. Even if all the decorated parts in a set were the same colour 1x2 or 2x2 tiles, it might be OK so long as the build can be designed to take just that shape part for decorated areas. For things like Speed Champions cars, where many different and often curved surfaces that are decorated (with stickers), printing all those in one go seems a way off. The logistical problem there is not storage but the printing.

I imagine there will be more people becoming aware of it wanting to build them (a good indication the scheme is a success), and maybe even more investors thinking they doubled (and a bit over) in price last time, so it will happen again this time. Exclusivity always helps people to make the decision to buy it but it is starting to become a bit like the CUUSOO (IDEAS) sets in the early days. Some people used to collect those because of the theme rather than the actual set, but that seems to have died down now that they produce so many of them. The number of other large LEGO sets may also impact on BDP sales, that number has risen even in the past couple of years. Getting Black Falcons is easy now! And that may also play a part in making the decision to buy the sets or not. No exclusive minifigs, and if the minifig parts are easily and cheaply available, that can help sway people away from buying the set.