RichardGoring

Yes, you can use multiple money off vouchers in the same transaction.

I've had luck calling the store in the past and they've said how many they have and when they expect it to sell out. They're often pretty good, but you may want to try and get there first thing, just in case it's more popular than they expect.

LEGO Ambassador Network. The group of LEGO fan media, bloggers, vloggers etc who get sets from LEGO to review and inside news to share with their communities.

Nice idea, but I'd hope they'd keep it in scale with the others. Not too large as a single building. Maybe a complex, or something that folds out. Home Alone, or the BDP Chalet are examples of being in the right kind of theme, but the wrong scale to fit.

Absolutely true, but they do a very poor job of managing customer expectations a lot of the time. What is the better situation to be in? 1. You buy a set at 10:00am for $150, knowing that you wanted the set, and get the $150 set. 2. You've heard that LEGO is doing a cool promo that is scheduled for 14 days, but you know that it can sell out, so you decide to buy something on the first day it's available. You buy a set at 10:00am, but the promo is already gone. But they sent you an email about it, and told fan media about it, so they promoted it reasonably well and you were excited. You get your set, but you feel pretty sour about it. If they knew they had such limited stock, why promote it, and cause negative sentiment? If they wanted it to be a genuine campaign, why not produce more of them. As you say, they owe us nothing, but the perception that LEGO is a great company and worth buying from gets chipped away slightly. And then they increase prices quite dramatically. And then they seem quite corporate about custom minifigs. And then they make Bricks & Pieces worse. And then they a website that can't handle high volumes. And then they do limited run things like the Ferrari book or the Ulysses space probe. Each individual thing is pretty small, really, but it just makes you slightly less inclined to like the company. Some here really seem to hate LEGO. I'm not there (yet), but they do need to be careful about managing expectations better. (I realize this, especially the list of small, incremental things is very much 'old man yells at cloud', but LEGO are really targeting those old people right now too, so...) Of course they did that with the 40532 taxi GWP and the modulars, so maybe. Maybe...

Previous experience suggests that once it's sold out, it doesn't restock. There are instances of GWPs that don't sell out coming back, either added with no notice a few months later, until they clear the last remaining stock. Or as a re-run, like the Christmas in July GWP each year. You are much more likely to get one at a LEGO Store if you can make it to one. I've seen the stores keep the GWP in stock for much longer than the website, typically.

I really hope the shields come onto Bricks and Pieces. And the torsos and hats, for that matter. Especially as the set has had such a limited run this time around.

But wow, at $45 that feels very expensive. I think I prefer the two smaller trees over the larger one. It feels a bit too stretched/tall for the width.

Seems so. Folks are Reddit are saying that it went at about 8:30 ET in the US. Incredible. Maybe they didn't make any more for the second run, so it was just leftovers? Why bother saying that it would last until August 14 if it was just leftovers? Bizarre, and somewhat irritating. Should have stayed up, or ignored getting the children ready this morning! Fortunately, I have it from last time around.

There have been several reports of people saying CS reps are stating a delay of three months, but very few of the 2022 parts are on the service, and it's August. I can't find it now, but there was an article somewhere saying that LEGO had made a statement though LAN that they hadn't decided on their policy for releasing new parts yet, suggesting that we don't really know when (or even if) new parts will be available. It's all very murky though. No concrete information.

In the days before mass licensing, LEGO used to encourage alternative builds of the sets that they released. In some instances they would just give you photos of different models the designers had come up with, to inspire you to create your own. In some cases they would actually create formal instructions. It was all done with the spirit of playing well, developing creativity, and generally being a toy that you could re-use and re-purpose over and over and over again, instead of just being something that had a single use and would sit in a shelf or a box and not really get touched after the initial excitement.

Thanks!

Much furniture shopping recently has had me go near the LEGO store once again, and it's always worth popping in if you're close. I got a few more things from the Boston Northshore store. The female ice skater CMF legs and torso are there. I got the gnome torso too. Does anyone recognize the silvery blue female torso on the left? I could only find that one, plus another that had the arms removed (sigh). And nothing that seemed to match for the lower half. Plus added a few of the chainmail torsos for castle-related things. No matching legs today though.

And, sadly, it's now back to $250 on Target pre-order.

If anyone in the US wants the Sanctum Santorum, Target is doing a preorder for the 'original' $200 price, before the higher prices go into effect tomorrow. Saves you $50. Plus you can get it for $190 if you have a Target Red Card, saving more.

The 2022 parts were available in 2022 in the old Bricks and Pieces system. When they opened the updated, merged Pick a Brick service, none of the 2022 pieces were listed. There were stories of LEGO waiting the months before new pieces came into the service, but they were attributed to a well meaning CS rep, and not official policy. I don't believe we've heard anything concrete about it yet.

It may be cheaper/easier for them to ship in two dedicated boxes, rather than together. Especially if the Explorer is already packed in shipping boxes, it means not manually putting two sets together with extra packing materials.

It would be a shame to stop doing something you enjoy because the admin of the company is poor. I hope the frustration fades once you, finally, get it. Good luck!

A very valid point and well worth doing instead.

At it's core, you get cashback for spending through the Rakuten (or similar) website. I don't really understand the business model of the retailer giving Rakuten (or similar) commission on the sale, but then I only ever buy things I intend to buy, and don't use the site to browse/impulse purchase, so maybe that's where the retailer value is. You sign up for an account (Rakuten has referral codes, so use one of those to get you and the referrer money). And then shop as normal, but start on the Rakuten (or similar) website. Search for the retailer you want, and click through to the retailer site. They use cookies to track things, so you need to make sure that ad blockers are turned off or private browsing isn't being used. Once you make your purchase, LEGO (or other retailer) confirms it with Rakuten (or similar) and you'll get cashback in your Rakuten (or similar) account. Rakuten sends you a check every three months. Retailmenot has points that you convert to either a PayPal transfer or for gift cards. And I think Honey does the same. In my experience, Rakuten tends to be the more reliable/steady, in that they always have 2.5% cashback available for lego.com and will sometimes increase it, to as much as 15%. Retailmenot doesn't always have cashback, but feels like it has more of the high cashback bonus times. They also try to promote coupon codes, which rarely work, so it feels a bit spammy. And Honey is a mess, trying to find the right link. Unlike the others, which link to specific stores, Honey links to specific products, and it's harder to tell which store it is. You can filter for just lego.com, but it's not the most intuitive. They usually offer cashback, but often it's bonus 'Honey Gold', which can then be turned into cashback/vouchers. I usually use Rakuten, because it's seamless and easy. Minimal effort to buy the stuff you actually want, and the automatically send you a check. I've had really good cashback with them too. I got the UCS Star Destroyer when they were doing a 15% cashback special last year, giving me $105 in cashback (in addition to VIP points). The check arrived two months later. That rate is unusual, but if I'm going to buy from lego.com anyway (to get a specific GWP or Bricks and Pieces order), then you can get 5% in VIP points, 1-2% on a cashback credit card, and 2.5% cashback on Rakuten, as a minimum. People seem to love VIP points, so might as well maximize the effect. These sites also work for other retailers, but for things like Target, they don't offer cashback on toys (they can be specific about what categories trigger cashback). Be careful to note that not everything qualifies for cashback. Often 'Exclusive' items will give you a lower rate (maybe 1%). There is sometimes a limit on the total amount of cashback you can get too. Retailmenot limits it to $50 per transaction, for example (on lego.com). And, without wishing to be patronizing, remember the critical thing of only use it to buy stuff you would do normally, not buy stuff just to get cashback, and all that similar credit card related advice.

If you order on the 4th, then you should get both the Forestmen Hideout and the VIP Pirate Pack IF they are both still available. There's a chance that the Hideout is sold out. If you place a second order on the 5th, you should also get the Forestmen Hideout in that order too, again, as long as it is in stock. Technically, the Forestmen Hideout is one per household, and online they should be able to easily track this, although it seems incredibly rare that they apply these limits (I've heard stories of being in Europe being denied a second GWP online). The VIP Pirate Pack looks like it will be done through the VIP centre and so will actually be limited to just one per VIP account. It's also worth noting that doing an online order opens you up to using cashback sites like Rakuten, Retailmenot, and Honey. They often have anything from 2.5-15% cashback on online orders from lego.com, which can really help offset the cost. Each is different and has different offers at different times, so it's worth checking all three. If you've not used Rakuten before, you'll be able to find a referral code, giving you a bonus of about $40 extra cashback (usually).

Exciting progress! I have, just this last week, started building. I did the Kakapo first and did some of the pursuit of flight this evening. So I might get them done before round 2 ships.

With only minor spelling mistakes through typing on a phone! Ha ha! Hope you have fun with it.

The old Pick a Brick and Bricks and Pieces have merged into a single thing now, called Pick a Brick. Although it's a single interface, behind the scenes it's still two systems. The Bestseller parts are shipped from one location. The standard pieces from another. Bestseller pieces will likely arrive within a few days. Standard with a few weeks. There is now a minimum spend threshold of $14, under which you get charged a relatively high processing fee. Both Bestseller and Standard pieces have their own thresholds, so you'll need to get at least $14 from each to avoid the fee. Piece availability is fairly clear on the site. The search is better, and the browsing much better. You get visuals of pretty much all parts, can filter by several categories, and scroll through the options. You can also search for keywords, as well as part numbers. There is a filter to show out of stock items, so at least you know if the piece is likely going to be available in the future, but that won't be guaranteed. If a piece doesn't come up in search by part number, then it's probably not available at all, but you can try calling in to see if they can add it. There could be several reasons why not all parts are available in Bricks and Pieces. They could be licensed, so generally aren't sold, but LEGO offers replacements. They could be low on stock, so reserving the last few for replacements. Or they could just decide not to sell that part, for whatever reason. None of the 2022 parts are available, for example.

That will work. The pre-order cost is counted towards the threshold for the GWP. If you order anything currently in stock, that will trigger a shipping event and they will ship to you, along with the GWP. As noted above, it doesn't always come in the same box, so you may get the GWP in its own box, but it will be shipping at the same time as something else. Technically you should get the GWP if you only do a pre-order, but the terms say that they are available while stocks last, and typically the stocks don't last that long, so it's a pretty big risk.