MAB

One of the problems even then was that you couldn't really buy them blind, as other people knew what was in them and took out the popular ones. Buying blind really means buying blind from the ones left over. I remember using an app to scan the bar-codes to try to get multiples of the ones I wanted, the problem was often that someone else had already done it. I even learnt the last few bars in the barcode for some of them as it was quicker than scanning, and I still remember some of the dot codes for popular figures introduced after they removed the bar codes. So it wasn't really any better than now. The main difference now is that the packets get crumpled.

It looks like someone is doing the inventory now, so it should be ready fairly soon.

I saw this advertised on brickset. https://www.legohouse.com/en-gb/what-s-on/lego-house-live-tours/ You need to sign up. They are running five free virtual tours covering different eras in LEGO history. June 11 and 25, July 9, Aug 13, Sep 1

Go to the BL page for the set, then part out to wanted list. I'd exclude all parts by default, then go down the list adding in parts that you need.

Just a reminder for everyone for the DOTS pieces, you get one tile at random for 14c.

It's funny, I remember sets from 30 or so years ago frequently used to use the clips on saddles, for swords, guns, flags, etc. I cannot think of any modern sets where the box art shows the clips on the saddles being used - probably only the winter village market for the flame on the carousel horse. Given the way parts often change design over the years, I wonder why they still have clips if they are not actually used for anything.

COVID really seems to be having an effect on voting numbers on IDEAS. There are currently: 434 ideas with more than 1000 votes (still gathering support) of which 189 are over 2000 and 44 are over 5000. It used to be quite rare that there would be more than a couple with over 5000 at any one time.

I think they are capemadness, you can see the same design on a different shaped banner on his BL site: https://store.bricklink.com/dingraham#/splash Obviously no longer allowed to sell customs on BL now LEGO owns it.

Well they are continuing to release sets now, so presumably we will get some new ones in January. Production does not need many staff, and not close to each other. The issue might be designs of new sets, but I guess designers can still work from home and design decisions can still be made via online meetings.

Is there a good way of seeing lego content there? I find it really useless, as most tags I search for have so much crap come up, usually nothing to do with the tag, as the poster uses so many irrelevant tags to get hits.

I've had it before. Check what the invoice that they send you indicates the price is, as they may well change it to charge the real price. You normally get a small window between receiving that and them sending it. I've had to cancel orders before because of it. A few years back, they used to make loads of errors, initially listing many new parts at 5c / 5p. The better deals were when some parts were listed as free! No, that is the price per item. They charge full cent prices, so an even number of items cannot be an odd price. Plus the prices of ~0.27c and so on are right for heads.

And LEGO's in house Fantasy Era theme had an even better run for orcs and dwarves.

I can understand them wanting a delay between them rejecting it and the designer being able to profit from it. It wouldn't surprise me if some people started marketing their designs as "Rejected by LEGO, now you can buy the set they banned ...". With the delay, it takes it out of the public eye for a while. Of course, if the designer wants to allow people to build it, they can always give them away for free. Plus they will be profiting from their design, as the 10,000 club get a nice prize for getting to review.

I think a lot of people will care. You only need to look at the rumours threads on EB to know that people talk about sets or rumours of sets before they are revealed. LEGO saying you cannot make X will mean people will talk about X, and much earlier in the design process. Yes you can, you are allowed to give instructions away. Just not sell them.

It has become more acceptable to be a geek / nerd / hobbiest / whatever you want to call it these days. If TV shows with adults building with LEGO are mainstream now, then LEGO has made it into the adult world. And acceptance is not just in LEGO, dressing up like cos-play is much more prevalent these days, you can buy expensive (adult-priced) models for many TV series, and so on. Similarly building your own electronics is cool again - and even for girls this time - look at what Lady Ada (Limor Fried / adafruit) has done in that field.

I don't think that is what he was saying. I read it as the minifigures cost a lot of money to buy and are falling apart, and would be (even more) expensive to replace, rather than that this is some sort of valuable treasure to make money from in future.

I've built quite a few - copied off his flickr account. They are very nice to display, but $20 is a bit steep for what tend to be fairly basic parts. I hope he now designs a Darth Vader too, as that one is missing.

I don't really see the point of it. The floor is going to need to be very flat and it look semi-permanent. If you have a set up on boards, then painting the features is probably a better solution than this.

Nice. Building from a small limited supply is tricky, lucky for you that you had 2 of many parts to make it symmetrical.

There is not really a better way apart from doing it manually. Updating multiple lists is tricky. After all, how does BL know whether you want 10 bricks to go to WL1 and 2 to WL2 or 7 to WL1 and 5 to WL2. Of course, it would help if they reduced the number if you apply say 5 to WL2, then there would be only 7 left to apply to WL1. But I think you have to do it yourself.

I think here you highlight the problem that LEGO has with some people wanting stuff brought back from the deep past and the complete dismissal of anything doen in a modern style. You say it has been over 20 years without a knights theme or similar. And even something done superficially would suffice. Yet all of these are within the past ten years. If these don't count then nothing modern ever will.

Also if it does fail in year 1, there is already an excuse that is not due to the sets but due to the current pandemic. So probably worth sticking with it. And when they stop Monkie Kid in future, then I imagine they will continue to do themes that appeal to China / Far East buyers. It makes sense, as that is where the real growth in their product is.

They invest a lot and it is successful. What should LEGO do? Invest a lot in a few things and do them well, or invest a little in lots of things and do them very superficially? LEGO simply cannot do everything that everyone else does and to a high standard. I think it better that they do what they want to do well, rather than trying to match their themes to what every other competitor is doing. People have bulk bought Spartans and Romans in the past - and LEGO know about it as they have written about it in books - so popular figures in S20 is nothing new. So there is little point of them putting PAB on BL if they are not competitive. The new XP interface has already shown that they are favouring some sellers over others via whatever algorithm they use to highlight stores, and they do not make that algorithm public.

Where have they said that these are for the Chinese market? Everything I have read says they are based on Chinese folklore but not that they are for the Chinese market. Presumably this is because they are not for the Chinese market as they are sold worldwide. Yes, it is.

I don't think that will happen. LEGO have stated that they will not interfere with the way Bricklink runs, if they become a seller there then I expect many of the independent sellers will leave. I certainly would. But also PAB is often expensive compared to BL sellers, and their range is somewhat narrow unless you want really basic bricks only. While the sets sold well, the (by hand) picking and packaging of them seemed to kill off Bricklink staff for ages. From the videos, it looked like everyone was drafted in to pick. They were very late getting many of them out, and these runs were really quite small. I cannot see how the AFOL programme can scale up cost efficiently without automatic or robot picking. And if they scale up, they might as well do a normal sized run of normal sets, rather than smaller runs of much more niche products. I'd love to see how they do the picking in future if this was the reason behind purchasing BL. To me, the real downside is the cost - Bricks and Pieces basic parts are often expensive compared to Bricklink sellers and to price per part ratios in regular sets. Presumably this is down to hand picking and the complete lack of economies of scale when picking/packing individual orders. I wonder what size run for a set it makes sense for them to automate the picking.