anothergol

and yet they do. Have you watched the videos?

..we're talking about 3D home-printed compatible parts.

That's not what the second video is saying. They seem to be after anything compatible. As for the brand, that's quite normal, but all they're gonna get from this is that "Lego-compatible" will turn into "Kiddicraft-compatible" in labels. Lego doesn't like how their brand has become the generic name for all compatible bricks, well I'd be them I'd hate it even more if it stopped being used as such.

I still don't understand what the lead user lab is about, but what's sure is that 3D printing isn't what they had in mind:

Studio's rendering has a FOV setting

Interesting that Lego uses poor FDM printing instead of SLA to prototype. 6-studs makes sense for cars because it's much more realistic when we can see the driver offset (even if there is no room for a passenger, but on the box art it looks like there may be). Oh, and I hadn't spotted it, but is that a new slope part on the formula E? 4x2 with 2 studs? Yay!

Yeah, looks like we're getting a new 6-studs wide windshield. Sadly it's probably printed..

Yes, beware of "0.05" prices, it's the default for parts that don't have a price yet (why 0.05 & not just zero?), and it's definitely not what you're gonna be charged. Also, several sets/parts just added, but nothing that can be ordered yet.

Is there a working backdoor outside Australia? I just placed a phone order, I can confirm that the LBG barrel, LBG fez & LBG 1x1x2/3 rounded can be ordered. The full-LBG mini-lever and the LBG BB8 head can't be ordered yet, though.

It's even (way) more time wasted by an operator when you place a phone order, and that's exactly what they're getting by closing B&P. I consider the handling price included in the part's price, which isn't exactly cheap compared to: -(often) Bricklink -Lego's own Brick walls -sets, where a massive chunk goes to the reseller, then the box/manual/R&D/ads, etc I'm pretty sure Lego doesn't care not because they're losing money, but because it's bringing peanuts compared to sets bought for kids.

yep I saw it. Just a day after the few purchase gifts, though :(

Funny thing, we can see your whole cart (or maybe not anymore, I've emptied it to start over & try placing an order). On one hand Lego's website times out so quickly that we often lose our cart while filling it, and here your session ID is still valid 3 days later? They really don't know what they're doing. So, for what it's worth: https://www.lego.com/fr-be/service/replacementparts/sale alone just works for me now. It's without the /sale that it tells about it being closed. Sadly it's still all in AUD inside a french layout, lol. And of course the cart doesn't go through anyway. It's taking me to a bad request page now, sry if I broke your session :( Meanwhile I emailed Lego to know if 3 specific little parts now finally had a price & could be ordered (by phone), and they sent them to me, for free.. but 3 tiny parts in a letter.. grrr.

Yes, I can only speak for myself but I would be surprised if selling instructions alone could be a legitimate business. Perhaps for a few Youtubers who have a wide audience & can sell instructions, like they would sell T-shirts. Or perhaps as "art" books like the Arvo Brothers did. Other than that, it's just a small hobby and it would be crazy to waste all the beer money paying half an hour of a lawyer.

I don't know, I hadn't found stuff by PhatMojo that looked like Lego. If what you're referring to looks like this, then yeah I can imagine it being a problem. Edit, ah, found it. Funny pesonalized instructions. Too bad it sucks. https://phatmojo.com/theoffice/

Funko does The Office as well, so it's most likely not exlusive why? They would just have done the shell. No one voting is expecting more.

Oh that's not what I was saying. I was saying that first, we have no real recourse against chinese resellers, and our only real recourse against european resellers would be them to cooperate directly. But real legal actions have a cost that are waaay beyond the pockey money MOC instructions bring. Second, I was only saying that yes, you do own the rights on your MOC, but if it's based on a license you can't legally do anything without that license anyway (perhaps unless it counts as a parody, in some cases). You can legally stop someone from selling your work, but if you can't legally sell it yourself, it's a bit pointless. And if you were already, by fair use, sharing instructions for free, then there's no monetary loss, it's only a moral problem, which IMHO it totally, and only is (no credit being given, poor quality & laziness).

Obviously few people will buy instructions (assuming they even know it's a MOC) when they already come in the box. But yeah, we SHOULD be embracing chinese knockoffs, because they would ideally help. No one buys instructions alone, gathering parts is not fun. And obviously it's not Lego that's gonna help (even if you're part of the happy few in Lego Ideas, they will adapt your MOC anyway), so that only leaves the chinese. The best "Lego" set I bought were Xingbao ones, the "partly" licensed ones, and they're sets that Lego would not produce. I think it should go more in that direction. But yeah, there's no such concept as intellectual property for chinese people. And ironically, not for us MOCers either. That Star Destroyer, or my own micro AT-AT may be MOCs, they're in no way our intellectual properties, it's Disney stuff... So afterall, who are we to complain about it? MOC instructions don't sell, but the difference between 2 instructions and a few hundreds (which is still nothing, but still hundreds more than 2) can be attributed to the SW license. I can only speak for myself here, but maybe someone else wanna share numbers to confirm this. These specific MOCs only have 2 choices: not being produced as sets at all, or being produced without licensing. They just can't exist as "proper sets", Lego will not produce them, knockoff brands can't get the SW license even if they were willing to pay.

That's a big word, considering that no one makes money from MOC instructions anyway. And yes, I myself got one of mine "stolen", and you don't have to go as far as Ali, you can find this one on Amazon: https://www.amazon.de/Modbrix-Bausteine-Imperialer-Eisplaneten-Konstruktionsspielzeug/dp/B07TM5DK14/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=modbrix&qid=1568135125&s=gateway&sr=8-5 While it's kinda insulting that they haven't even bothered building it properly for the box art, the reality is that it's not a "big loss" for me, because instructions only sell for pocket money anyway. And yes, MODbrix stole other MOCs, as well as official Lego sets, and it was on Amazon in Europe, so you pretty much have no chance against Ali. Well apparently they stopped bootlegging official sets, so Lego did something here.

What the hell is wrong with Lego? The ghost doesn't even appear to be temporarily out of stock, it seems to be already discontinued, the day of release!

Too many studs exposed but I like it. I also appreciate the few recolors/comeback, like the LBG mini-levers. And Bricks&Pieces would better come back online, because at this horrible price-to-part ratio, plus the fact it's an expensive SW set, no one on Bricklink is gonna part it out that's for sure. Official sets allow for recolors, that's a HUGE deal. Official sets also normally have to be more solid, but it's not the case for these sets for adults. MF isn't exactly strong, and this one also looks like you will knock off many little parts by moving it around (which is not a criticism, it's good that Lego goes for more fragile but better looking builds). And why would anyone want play features in this kind of pure display model? It's complaints like that lead to assault on hoth being marketed as UCS. If there's one key thing Lego could have added for a fraction of the price gap, it's proper lighting, which of course Lego still doesn't do.

Wait wait, isn't that the EXACT and ONLY reason the thing appears broken for everyone? Let me explain, my last B&P order was done by email & then phone to pay for my order. Dude prepares my order, I phone to pay through VISA, and he says the payment doesn't work. He then goes to check why, doesn't know what's happening, comes back 15min later and says that the problem was the few parts that didn't have a price yet. He removed them, and the payment went on. So if it's really the case that some parts are not really available but still listed on B&P, I can imagine payment going wrong for many orders, and Lego not knowing what's going on because they're provided no clue of the problem. Let's remember that in the past, you could often place orders for parts that didn't have a price yet (& Lego was giving them for free, or not), and operators were told "to stop doing that". Looks like at one end they simply decided to refuse such orders, but because they're incompetent they don't provide any information on the reason why the payment is rejected. That reminds me that one time another shop had made my VISA blocked (without telling me), and when I was trying to pay on the Lego shop, I was getting a generic error (while I'm sure that Lego was provided a more accurate error from VISA).

still, I would suspect that Thunderbirds imagery nowadays brings more memories of Team America: World Police, than Thunderbirds itself

Quite a good selection for once, this time. While I'm fed up with NASA stuff, -I like the Thunderbirds set (but I'm not sure if it's not the render that I like more). Not a fan of the Thunderbirds, but I'd pick it & I can imagine Lego doing it. -pursuit of flight, jkbrickworks again, enough said. I'd pick this one. -the office.. I only like the "idea", not the set. But <insert show>+Lego alone is hardly an idea. Still, I want The Office minifigs. -the medieval blacksmith. It's well done, but I would never buy a set like this, simply because there are MOCs out there that put it to shame, MOCs that we'll never get because they're most likely too fragile. It looks like something Lego would produce, so as an Ideas project it's great, but it's also the reason I wouldn't pick it. -Winnie the Pooh is cute enough. And obviously has zero chance, because China. -History museum, I find the exterior a bit too messy & overdone but I dig the interior -Haunted mansion, meh, & it conflicts with the more fun Hidden Side -the dwarf's house, a bit like the blacksmith, well done but not MOC-grade IMHO. I can imagine Lego picking it, but I wouldn't buy. oh it was big, it's just.. pretty old now

IMHO a bad investor would be the one buying the last millennium falcon at full price, thinking it's gonna resell for $5000 in a few years. I'm pretty sure many did, it's always the same story. SW toys.. comics.. wine.. But if you buy a set on sale at 5ct/piece, it's nearly certain that it's gonna sell for at least that amount at any point in the future. And these days even maintaining your value is a good investment. As long as Bricklink exists, parts have a price. Your only risk is Lego fans disappearing. (Lego itself disappearing isn't even a risk, on the contrary) ..providing you have the room for many sets and you wanna bother selling stuff, because that's work.

Another smaller annoyance that's still there, is the age entry that locks you out (with a long timeout) when you missed a digit. Not only it's really stupid & useless, it also shouldn't even be there considering that Lego already knows your birth date when you're logged in.