anothergol

well, they're dogs

How is it supporting the creators to use real LEGO, though? I've "supported" the Arvo Bros by buying their Xingbao sets, of the very few rare supposedly licensed ones. Lego would never have done that (because of the themes). The ones owning the licenses were not supported, though.

That leaves Rebrickable (who ever cared about MOCs on BL anyway?).. until Lego buys it

Oh you'll get them for cheap enough. For a recent part, that has only 1 per set, it should be more expensive than on B&P, yet BL's average price is 0.8, vs 2.2 on B&P, and it's only gonna go downwards. People have already voted with their wallet how useful they find that part :)

Yes that's what it's made for, saving time, but MOCers don't wanna save time, and they certainly don't want to be restricted to the shaping imposed by a large part. What are the chances someone's MOC will have a section looking exactly like this, that he will be able to substitute with this? I picked that part because it really has already been the center of a contest (on New Elementary), and when I see the entries, all I see is a large part being forced in. None of the MOCs really benefit from the part, and the best entries are even the one that totally hide it. In short, that part was an imposed handicap, in that contest. http://www.newelementary.com/2019/04/build-fix-contest-entries-part-4.html

But there are levels of specialized parts. Let's check recent parts. At the top, you have things like this: You absolutely can't do anything but Batman with it. And if you ever manage to (by hiding most of it, most likely), then your MOC will be "the MOC that used that part" and no one else will even bother because it already stopped being original. I'm not blaming Lego for parts like that because it's not meant to be useful, it's made for collectors and that's fine. Then you have this: It's certainly doable to do MOCs around them. But the thing is, it's more likely that you will have to search for places where to use them. You will deliberately try to stick them in your MOC for that NPU. But are they really *useful* other than as marine decoration? They aren't even in a color that can be used as stone decoration in a building. So yeah, you can use them, but they're not very useful. In a way I'd blame Lego for spending time on parts like these while the competition has very useful, generic parts that Lego still doesn't have. But on the other hand these packs seem to be made as extras, not really part of the "system". Then you have this: I think it's this kind of part that most people have a problem with. It's not even very specialized, as it has already been reused by Lego in the junior snowspeeder set. It's just that it's pointless to adult MOCers. It's the kind of part that's so useless that it generates contests, "show us what you can do with this crap". But no adult will naturally choose to be restricted by the geometry of such a part, and it has no specific detail, nothing that allows it to be used in a way that couldn't be achieved using smaller parts. So even if you manage to stick it inside your MOC, no one is gonna wonder what that part is. So of course it's useless to us, but it was only designed to be useful to kids. For adults, it's gonna end up being a cheap part grabbed on BL that can act as cheap filler somewhere. Perhaps yes, underneath a spaceship, but only picked for its price. I'm not blaming Lego for parts like these either as it's just there for little kids to have less to build & a more solid toy. Personnaly I have nothing against plane cockpits, they allow for smooth toys and it's certainly possible to do spaceships, mechs or pod-like houses using them. I love such cockpits and more importantly, complex windshields. Can't wait for the new ones in the next Speed Champions sets, even though some are printed, and THAT's the kind of specialization that can make them useless to me. I'm certainly gonna use the one from the Ferrari set, and yes it's gonna force me to go with red, but what can I do with one that has "ROGER DUBUIS" printed on it? Also the question is useful for what? At the end of the day we're making MOCs because we like that form of limited art (if it was for the end result only, we'd 3D-print our own stuff). But we don't have the same rules. Some wouldn't use any compatible part not produced by Lego, but would use anything done by Lego, including container pods, sprue parts, or doll clothes & stuff that aren't even "Lego" other than for the brand. For those, even the weirdest part will be more useful than a non-branded recolor of an official part. I know I never cared about Galidor because I thought the conectivity wasn't Lego, turns out I'm wrong and it was pins. Still, it was the old-grey era so they're still not very useful to me. Because yeah I happen to like such parts, I also like Bionicle ones, and I rarely use them for the same reason that they generally were in the most toyish colors, that they were generally exposing nasty mold marks, and that half of them were in cheap soft plastic and you always get them in the worst state on BL.

I've always used Bricker for that, because Bricker sorts by date. So when I'm making a MOC, missing a part and I wanna find which set I own to steal it from, I'm not wasting my time browsing sets out of the range of years I've been buying Lego. That beats BL, but I've never used Brickset for that, so I can't compare. While I'm all for it and I've bought several of the spaceman battlepack from Movie 2 (in which helmets are simply not as good, exposing a nasty mold mark at the top), I'm more for new sets like Benny's ship. I bought & opened a new (tiny) set from 1983. And when I opened it, it was something, a set that was basically released when I was a kid & waited for nearly 40 years to be opened. A re-release just can't bring the same feel.

2012? That must explain why I got my second Mr Rebrick minifig (around 2017) with a classic head, they were probably emptying an old stock & ran out of them.

You sure? It started working again around 1:30 here (same timezone), when I got it. And it was the same error at 9 the day for the minifig, so I believe it's just the servers that can't handle the load (which is a hint that the stock would empty fast). Of course the minifig is ugly & pointless, so it generated less orders & took much less time to recover. It is, to Bricklink, thus back to Lego :)

I too don't think it's off-topic to talk about BL itself & its problems, in a thread explaining why it's gonna change in a near future. If you wanted to talk about everything you are allowed to know about the acquisition itself, this thread would be 1 post long.

Yeah but again, even if you were right & they weren't, you have to be fine with that because buyers have to be as well. As I wrote, missing parts are in 3/4 of BL orders, it's just the norm. (well to be fair: it's also often the wrong parts that you get, so the seller often loses too, but by his own fault) 2000 from how many orders? IMHO it has to be much worse for "normal" sellers/retailers, because those make a lot less mistake (only because it's their main job), while customers don't change & are probably as bad for them. In short, I'm sure BL customers suck, but not more than everywhere else, while BL sellers do suck more (because it's just a side job, so that's excusable, but still..). Also, remember to make everything clear & succint in your shop's terms. We have to deal with totally different rules in every shop, we have to hunt for every fine print, deal with tables that differ between term & splash pages.. And it's too often that my final bill doesn't match the terms. Of course unsurprisingly, always higher.

Still, be happy that BL sellers don't have to perfect either. Buyers like me are ok to take shit from BL sellers because we know they're mostly tiny family businesses, sometimes with orders filled by kids for their pocket money. Because yeah, when we receive orders with missing parts (which is pretty much 3/4 of the time), dirty & chewed up parts, and we had to understand stupid rules of "add 1eur per every lot when the AVG lot value is below X" and had to accept fees for anything imaginable, we still give positive feedback, something I would totally not do for normal, bigger businesses. I'm sure buyers aren't perfect either and sellers should be ok with that too. For real fraud, the rating/report system works fine IMHO. Out of hundreds of orders, I've left a couple of neutral feedback when sellers were real megablocks (like you ask "are you sure you really have this rare part" before you buy, you ask again "please make sure you have this rare part before sending" after your purchase, and you get a message saying "we've shipped your order. Oh and sorry but we didn't have that rare part"), but only one negative feedback to a seller that wasn't replying and hadn't shipped anything after 1.5 month. Others did the same and his shop closed, that's a nicely working system.

Many seem to be angry because they think Lego did that for the money, which I don't believe at all. I don't even think Lego expected so much hate after buying BL, more the opposite. But there are valid points. Like, Lego is quite censored. The usual "no alcohol, no weapons, no religious stuff". There are MOCs on BL, most likely they will have to obey those rules now. Quite some war vehicles (there is even a "military" section at the top) & churches there, it's gonna piss some people to see them removed. I personnaly don't mind, because for me BL has never been any relevant as for MOCs. But if Lego had bought Rebrickable, I would have a problem with that. I don't think at all that Lego is interested in BL's pocket money, but I do believe there's a high risk that Lego's rules are gonna be applied to BL, because they have been applied everywhere, with no exception. Do you have any example of anything Lego has done that wasn't 100% kids friendly? (yeah those ashtrays & all, but they wouldn't do that today). I was joking previously with the fact that BL can't be kids-friendly because dirty used parts mean a risk of diseases, but I can totally imagine Lego's lawyers explaining them that no, "child died because of E.coli found on parts sold by Lego" is a risk they just can't take, restricting BL to new parts & thus killing it. I believe Lego will really have to stress on the fact that BL is for adults, but again, I've never seen Lego do that yet. It'd be great news if Lego started to do adult stuff, though. The best "Lego" sets I ever bought were not made by Lego, but by a chinese brand, while the original MOCs (by the Arvo brothers) were Lego.

As a buyer, I don't think I ever got ANY bug from BL, out of hundreds of orders. Is it so broken from the seller's side? Meanwhile I've hardly had any B&P order that didn't bug at one point. I totally agree here. But the thing is that out of hundreds of orders, I've never needed BL's help. Meanwhile I've so many times needed to write to Lego, because everything you touch there is broken, and you never get any info about the availability of a part. So yeah their help desk is very polite & all - not necessarily very useful because well, often they don't know more than you do, about problems that are way out of their reach. But we shouldn't be needing it. Like since the last change of the VIP system. At the moment I have 2 VIP #'s, none of which gets accepted in phone calls when they ask to enter it. I once called to simply know which was my "new" VIP number (would it be so hard to write it somewhere on the VIP account info?), one that would get recognized in the system. Polite support & all, but it only made things worse, as I'm not getting VIP points anymore. Even to phone to Lego I've had to try everything - eventually getting Lego's number from a Lego shop in my country (and it looks like a backdoor, with 2 redirections to the right service). Because of course, none of the numbers on their website was working. So as for online stuff, there is just nothing Lego could bring to BL, but the opposite yeah. As for software, I still find the LDD superior, so the people who are/were on the LDD are surely talented ones, who even knows if they're still with Lego & doing what. Studio is too a marvel of programming, though - only not very well fine-tuned yet.

When I see how broken Lego's website is at the moment, trying to order the frigging Batmobile, with errors everywhere, seemingly trying to connect to.. FACEBOOK.., god, I hope that none of Lego's in-house web devs will touch Bricklink. The last time I placed an order, no one was able to pay because of a bug with VISA. How is a giant company ok with a website that has pretty much never worked correctly?

of course there are small markets

but.. *someone* has already bought the set. And is it known for sure that Lego is not *allowed* to sell individual licensed parts? I thought it was just that they didn't want to (for 2 reasons, the first that they, as you say, wanna sell sets, and the second reason that a licensed part is generally produced just for 1 set, thus in smaller quantities, it's their best interest not to produce too many extras that they're not garanteed to sell outside sets, and can't reuse later).

To be fair, if Lego wasn't wanting anything on (old) BL, they could simply have bought them all. (but I don't see why on earth a license owner wouldn't want licensed part on BL)

Lego has always been producing parts for LUGs, how is that different I'm not talking about the AFOL designer program, I'm talking about MOCs sold in BL shops. If you even knew that it existed, because yeah, no one does, and it's not even an idea that could have worked (it's just a miracle when a shop has all of the parts needed for a MOC). Oh I think Stranger Things was rather kids (or at least teens)-friendly when they covered it. I don't think they would have made the same choice after the totally over-the-top season 3.

Well, they do acknowledge that BL is for adults. If they have a problem with these silly items, it's more that they regret having done such things in the past, I guess. Because they can't possibily make BL safe for kids. I mean, a kid would be safer drinking & smoking than licking used parts full of salmonella.

of course it does.. to them. But then let's not pretend they will do that because it's guns. & Brickarms (& others) have no context & what counts as "modern" anyway? Pretty much all Lego themes have bits of fantasy, so if it's fantasy that allows this set to feature a gun, then it's allowed in every theme. Because this looks pretty contemporary to me. So yeah, it looks like it's only in Lego City that guns aren't to be found, but they are in every other theme, regardless of the time. The problem is that Lego isn't phrasing their "ban on guns" properly. It has more to do with the seriousness. Lego wouldn't do what clone brands do, replicas of warfare vehicles (past or present) that look too serious & made for fans. But there's a difference between a replica of a Sherman and the Metal Slug, which IMHO would be totally fine for kids, but too against Lego's strict rules.

Dude, revolvers are still around. WW2 is also a no-no for Lego (or they would make tanks, like the competition does), except it's ok when it's Indiana Jones. Just like FPSes are banned, except it's ok if it's Overwatch. Also, Brickarms & others do old time & fantasy weapons too. I think Lego is ok with war when it has enough fantasy behind it. Of course they are, they aim at kids and kids love to pretend war. But Brickarms are just arms, eventually it's up to the kids to pretend it's fantasy or reality. But let's face it, kids will use all of Lego's guns and make their City minifigs shoot at each other. And when I was a kid when Lego had no weapon yet, these were guns: They do decide what you can sell on BL or not. You're still free to sell somewhere else of course.. where no one is gonna find it. (not that I think they would ban licensed parts, I don't see why they would do that either)

Something ironic in this, Lego's most useful parts generally started as minifig accessories, including weapons. These guns, MOCers understand how annoying their SIGHT is, but we have to do with that, because it's a gun. Well, some in my collection have the sight cut off. And where did I get them? Bricklink of course! Cut off by kids who would prefer this part NOT being a FRIGGING GUN.

They're not dumb, if 99% of their income comes from kids, if they invested pocket money it's not to directly make pocket money, but improve their image, because their brand is all they have. If that ensures them that Bricklink isn't gonna be filled with third-party parts, there, that may already be worth what they invested. If there's a company that knows how serious of a threat clone brands are, it's the one that started itself as a clone brand. Bricklink only shows incomplete stats, so maybe this will be totally wrong, but let's do a quick computation: https://www.bricklink.com/help.asp?helpID=1304 From the 2013 chart, let's round it at 1 million orders per year. Or let's be very generous, make that 2 million orders per year (BL says to have 1 million accounts, god knows how many are still very active, so 2 millions orders/year seems fair). Let's also be generous on the average order value, and make it $40. What's 3% of 80 millions? 2.4 millions. With that you have to pay salaries, and remember, that's a year of programmers on Studio & other apps TOO. ..but let's be generous here too and let's say it's 2.4millions profit. How much is Lego making again? Let's check. 1.2... BILLION! Pocket money I say. We're only a handful of adults playing with Lego, we're not the market. Lego's profits seem to fluctuate by +- 200 millions each year, the acquisition of BL isn't gonna reflect in that, even if they raised the fees to 100%. I mean just look at this chart, BL's pocket money may just affect the decimal part, they're not caring at this level. Instead they work on the protection of what they have & their image, because that's globally what makes a difference.

I don't understand why some are worried about fees. Lego isn't there for pocket money, what is 3% of what's sold on BL per month? And EVEN if you doubled the fees, consider that 10 to 30% of your order is shipping, that Paypal is probably taking as much as BL, and that the price of a part can be up to 10x different from one shop/country/month to another. Plus Lego is more known to waste money with AFOL's, sending so many letters across countries with just 1 little part inside. It's for the reason that it's pocket money that I'm not worried about prices changing, but it's also the reason I'm worried that they could just abandon it if they feel it's too small or didn't bring anything. There are lots & lots of examples of companies bought & projects abandonned. They could even be after the talents & allocate them to other projects (which might be what happened with the LDD). Hey, if they bought it for their image and they realize they're already getting hate before even doing anything.. Yeah, let's shed a tear for Kiddicraft first :)