anothergol

The reason I think it's ratchetted (we -already- have a compact ratchetted clip system) is that even though normal clips have enough friction for legs on small or mid-size builds like in these sets, Lego generally avoids those, probably because they lose friction in the long term. When Lego uses normal clips for legs, they generally put a clear brick under the build as the "real" stand.

The ones on the spider legs among other places. I believe they're either a new 2-parts ratchetted hinge, or one new part.

Btw for those who were looking for 69066 & 68504, they're available now. Way too expensive for tiny massable parts. Trunc is pretty useful for texturing, but you'd need quite a lot. Yeah, but sadly for decoration purposes, the clip part won't have friction

I don't know exactly what those new small clip parts are, but they're gonna be a game changer. Only hoping they're not ratchetted, but it looks like they might be. And since they're used for legs, they probably are :( (of course small ratchetted clips are compatible with normal ones but the connection is very weak)

I can only speak for europe, but no. They can place an order for you, but you'll still have to phone in order to pay. It doesn't seem to have changed since Paypal, but perhaps now it has.

Yep, and frankly I'm fine with that, it's better than not getting the part. Only that's (most likely) why they're told not to accept adding zero-price parts to carts, because it's probably illegal. It's more of a problem when the price is listed and you end up paying much more, which is a thing that was happening in the past (those 5 cents parts), and what I was expecting to happen with the 2 cents gold parts (but it didn't).

Let me guess, the operator was new and didn't know what was going on with the system giving him errors, later realizing that it was because some parts didn't have a price yet. I've been on hold for up to 1h15 like that (to be told that the no-price parts would be free, but of course they never are) It was worse, back then parts would only randomly appear 6 months later, and some would simply never be in stock. I believe it started in 2020 (or 2019?) that parts started to get listed & generally in stock the day the sets were launched. But it didn't last and now they get listed on launch but rarely in stock once again.

Second "anniversary" vote has started on Ideas. Castle was kinda at the top (but also kinda not), so it's votable again. I voted classic space for this one, though (at the same time it asks you to vote for one, but allows selecting multiple) Oh and falcon legs are gone too now.

Aaaaaand the falcon torso is gone already. So is the orange space helmet. And the horse.

They have numbers here: https://www.lego.com/en-gb/aboutus/lego-group/contact/locations/ Normally when you call the 00800 (from any european country) you end up in the UK anyway. I used to have so much troubles with that 800 that my cellphone wouldn't allow, back then I had to call a belgian number that was redirecting to the UK one. Lego can prepare an order for you by email btw.. only you'll still have to call in order to pay.. which is weird but.. Lego. Ideally they would just let you do that through Paypal.

Tan got back in stock a few days ago but LBG still isn't here. Frustrating when you wait for several items to be in stock at the same time, and one disappears when another appears. (it's also not listed in black yet, while it's used in the forge) Grey now back in stock & black one listed (but not available)

Not gonna happen (sadly "for the environment"), they like to send letters with just 2 parts inside. They will only add (over phone) to an order that has just been placed, and I think you only have a few minutes, hours at best.

for everyone, not just LUGs? Great

By now Lego certainly well knows the demand for animals. And yes they totally shouldn't focus on that, B&P is most likely only responsible for an insignificant fraction of their income. But that was my point, it's Lego who's to blame here, they're responsible for shortages of parts & it's fully understandable why. I happen to still have mine from the 80's - they're still "usable" but so beat up that none of them should ever end up on BL. Perhaps today's parts will survive 50 years because kids don't unassemble stuff anymore, but I see at least 4 reasons for used parts to be bought with care (color incompatibility, yellowing, scratches/defects, and salmonella :) )

Yeah I know, but I wonder if they ditched BrickArms because they weren't Lego, or because they were about modern weapons. BL was already anti clone brands. In parallel Lego has that program (what's the name again?) to work with other businesses, and they don't seem to have a problem working with other people for compatible stuff (like those controversial lighting kit clones). But perhaps Brickarms were too directly competing.

True, and I realized it recently when I wanted to buy bulks of parts that are unique to clone brands, mainly wedge tiles. I asked around & couldn't find anyone who could get them for me, I had to buy a few sets to get a couple of them. That's also why I suspect that Lego has bought BL in order to stop both BL & the Studio app to be used for clones. BL's system is perfectly suitable for any kind of part, & thus other brands. Studio has a part designer (which hasn't evolved/been fixed since Lego bought it, I wonder why), which isn't really useful (except for prints) to anyone but clone brands, I can imagine Lego willing to stop that.

But it's all automated. What's the time of the automated process, especially for the low quantities of reindeers, compared to the design & preparation time before launching the process? It wouldn't double the time/labor to produce 2x more, that's for sure. I agree that it might kill "new parts sellers" on BL, but "used parts sellers" don't need that to disappear. I avoid used parts like the plague (that they might litterally be carrying) because BL has no gradation system, and BL sellers sell crap (not all of them, but you never know). I'd rather buy a chinese copy, the only risk is that it'll be badly painted, but it won't be as bad as what many sellers dare to sell. I don't even understand how Lego hasn't seen used parts as a problem. I suppose that Lego assumes that it's purely a market for adults, but parts that have gone through unknown hands/mouthes, that's unsafe for kids. Yeah that's the #1 tip to B&P buyers, always take screenshots. It has improved a little, though - remember when simply going back in your browser was deleting your cart. I so wish B&P was turned into a proper BL shop.

I'm no seller but I don't like the idea of Lego hunting people, + there are other platforms (Brickowl) to sell on. Lego can easily do something to stop scalpers: produce more. You can't buy reindeers because they're out of stock? Lego can just produce more, buyer happy, scalpers left with stock that no one wants anymore, and won't do it again. Now the question is where's Lego's interest here? Selling to scalpers is pretty much the same as selling to legit resellers, except they make even more money on it. Why would Lego be against this? And btw, perhaps the 2-cents parts in gold, that apparently keep popping back, still at 2 cents, by know it seems clear that it's not a mistake. And with Lego owning BL, perhaps it was just a test for them, to check how flooding the market reflects on Bricklink (or perhaps that really was done to hunt for BL resellers, but that'd be pretty lame). If you check 61678 in gold on BL, the price is very low. It has been scalped, a lot, some sellers have thousands of them. Now check the price for the 1x2 slopes in gold, it's not the same thing at all. So: flooding the market, that's the solution.

it's set 80023

The reason these 2 appear is most likely that they're not unique to CMF: angled bar is found in a future monkey kid set, and the silver cup in the new ningago city (LOTS of recolors in that set btw)

Depends, I don't think they pick parts by visuals - or I didn't, until one day I got an upwards bracket instead of downwards in an order. But it'd be strange if they were really picking them visually. Perhaps the part was put inside the wrong bin, or they were 2 really close to each other. I too have had missing batches or extra random ones, so yeah there is no checking.

Obviously when you have the shipping volume of Lego, you don't pay the same as the average joe, but still, they must be losing a lot of money sending letters with just 1 or 2 parts inside, all the time (whether it's for missing parts in sets or in B&P orders), plus of course the phone support and manual handling. I always thought that shipping was built-in part prices, though, which is what made shipping so cheap, as it would only be the basis. But still, it's a service they need for missing parts anyway, they may as well sell as well. And perhaps in the future they will automate orders more. I don't even understand how a B&P order can be missing parts - if someone knows the exact weight of every part, it's Lego itself, it should be easy to verify every order by weight. But it looks like even that isn't automated.

Their entire customer service phone center seems to be in the UK btw (well, that's where phone calls seem to end), I wonder if the Brexit is gonna affect that.

They're even findable in plenty of colors if you don't care them not being official. But if you've never played with that part, don't get your hopes too high, they're not that useful, there is zero rotation possible, and some clips (like clip+bar) don't even fit onto them. They're pretty much limited to hands and thin robot arms.

With this new dish not looking necessary at all to the Friends set it's found in What are the chances it has been designed for an upcoming AT-ST? Especially when the 2021 SW sets have been scaled down a little, and this is 4x4 while it should ideally be 5x5. But with 4 studs, you can stick a 3x3 technic disk in-between them, something you couldn't do with the old 4x4 dish (which got a hollow stud update in 2020 btw), so it looks perfect for that. Meaning: yeah +1 for a 2021 Endor set, I guess.