Community LEGO Blogs
LEGO Blog Articles Submitted by the Brickpicker Community
259 blog articles in this category
-
So, it's been a while since my last blog entry, but I finally managed to find some free time to continue with one of my favorite articles to write, the effect of re-makes on LEGO sets. This time, I wanted to analyze the impact the newly released Republic Gunship had on both of its predecessors. For some reason that's beyond me, this particular ship seems to be one of the most popular vehicles of the whole Prequel Trilogy, and LEGO has seen a lot of value in releasing it for the THIRD time this
-
Okay so back in the 80's I used to work for a top advertising agency in the UK. This agency did very controversial adverts, one of which was the Carling Black label campaign's That always ended with the phrase "I bet he drinks Carling Black label!" We were asked by Lego to do an advertising campaign for them. This campaign was to run in all the national newspapers and also on tube stations billboards etc. After much deliberation with the creative and design departments of the agency, It was deci
-
Hey there Brickpickers! Here's my first blog post, thought I'd make it a doozy. Wanted to share some of the sights from Brickcon 2013 in Seattle. I went on Sunday, day two of the event. Took my nephew and my 5 year old son, so if I lack details it is likely due to the attention spans of a 10 and 5 year old. :-) Overall Impressions The event is really a must see for any Lego fan in the area. The venue is somewhat small - I would expect it to expand in future years with Lego's growth - but there
-
One very commonly asked question in the BrickPicker Forum is what is the better place to buy and/or sell your LEGO sets - BrickLink or eBay? More often then not, responses will list advantages and disadvantages of both services, but not necessarily which one is superior. The purpose of this article is to settle that dispute once and for all! Several installments of this type of article will be produced in the near future, but for now, here is the first part of The Superior Market - eBay vs. Bri
-
If you remember The Perfect Storm, it didn’t end very well for the heroes. George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg went on to create classics such as The Descendants and The Departed while their on-screen alter egos – Captain Billy Thyne and Bobby Shatford - were swallowed in a monstrous tidal wave never to be seen again. So how did I fare with my Lego selling experience in September? Was the “perfect storm” of Lego giveaways successful, or was it a disaster? My Original Proposal On Sunday, September 1
-
This is just a quick tip if you want to dust off your Lego sets without worrying about taking them apart and running them through the dishwasher, or meticulously wiping them with a cloth. So, I just got my Jedi Defender-class Cruiser the other day, and completed my Old Republic subtheme collection. However, my two Republic Striker-class Starfighters and my Sith Fury-class Interceptor had quite a layer of dust built up on them. They looked pretty lousy and unpresentable, so I decided to try out t
-
BrickPicker Notes: Hello. I would like to introduce you to Owen, AKA Stomping Freak. He has quite a story to tell. Owen was a Sergeant in the Cheshire Regiment of the British Army. He has served tours all over the world. Jeff and I thought Owen's story is a must read for many LEGO fans...and even some non LEGO fans. Owen suffers from many physical and mental disorders, but has found relief and help through building and handling LEGO bricks. I hope you enjoy his blog. It is our wish that his stor
-
When I left Lego behind, I left it for something way more rock ‘n’ roll: rock ‘n’ roll. The move from primary school (elementary school) into secondary school (high school) marked the graduation from the precious toys of my childhood to the world of the pop charts. Here in the UK in the nineties, the battle was on betweenthe two biggest ‘Brit Pop’ bands of the time; Oasis (from Manchester) and Blur(from London). As a cash-strapped teenager you followed one – for me it wasOasis (although my fi
-
I own every set of the Hobbit and both waves of the LOTR sets and I want to create a battle scene, it will be my first scene ever creating so I need my fellow brickpickers insight and advice here's some photos of my sets feel free to shoot me any ideas thanks for the help and criticism.
-
The Art Cleaning LEGOs Here's a topic we haven't seen here yet, and one that's near and dear to our heart... the Art of Cleaning LEGOs. After all, the difference between what looks clean, and what IS clean, isn't always black and white... but it is how parents keep their peace of mind. So, you found that awesome used LEGO set on eBay for a fraction of the cost. Good for you! But, you don't need to be a germ-a-phoebe to know that you probably have some other, very small visitors attached to them.
-
We're coming up on the holiday selling season (it's the most wonderful time of the yearrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr) and with a lot of new investors around here who will be going through their first Christmas, I wanted to help out with a little advice on the shipping side of selling. First, a little background on me so you know where I'm coming from. I worked for FedEx Ground/Home Delivery in the terminal unloading trailers and loading delivery trucks for 2 years and was a delivery driver and contracto
-
As LEGO.com experiments with their new computer system, many of us have noticed slightly longer waiting times on their customer service phone lines. We needed to call a few times in the past week, and joined the waiting line. We had time, so out of curiosity, we did an average of our waiting times to calculate sets that you could probably complete while you're waiting. While some of us might build a little faster or slower, we're assuming times for slower builders to make sure everyone could com
-
There’s no way that I’d be an AFOL if I hadn’t first been a CFOL (child fan of Lego – is that a term?). So many of us grown-ups would cite “getting the Lego I always wanted” as a top reason for still being into Lego way into our 20s, 30s, 40s and beyond. For me, as a child, new Lego was only to be had at birthdays and at Christmas. Kids these days seem to be showered with expensive toys with no sense of occasion – that wasn’t me. January to August would be spent playing with new Christmas Lego
-
Ok, as some of you know I am building (or attempting to) build a HO train layout using Legos. The train set it self is not Lego. So far I have drawn out the Star Wars section, and my mini city. I just thought it would fun to keep anyone that is interested in this updated. I will buy the wood this weekend and the train track should be here soon. I will update this blog with text and pics as progress is made. Any ideas and criticism is more than welcome. I hope some of you find this interesting an
-
I just graduated in spring 2013 with a mechanical engineering degree, and the sole purpose of this blog post is to weigh in on the famous Lego vs. Mega Bloks debate with my "professional" opinion. I remember recieving a Mega Bloks monster truck as a child. About half way through the build, a few pieces would pop off when I pressed a piece on. It was very frustrating, and I put it away. When I was a little older, I tried to put it together again. This time i only needed to place one or two more
-
This blog follows on from my first blog back in June that used data to the end of May-13. This is the next update in what I would like to be a regular series of articles that presents the top 20 sets in terms of secondary market price growth according to the data we have available here on Brickpicker. Again, here are some notes on the scope before I begin: I have not restricted the qualifying sets by size or age or any other dimension Information is based on US prices only Not all sets acro
-
Back in 2000 a movie came out starring George Clooney and Marky Mark called The Perfect Storm. This movie told of a confluence of weather patterns that led to a "perfect storm". Unfortunately for our heroes, they were aboard the Andrea Gail in the middle of the Atlantic when the storm hit. So what does this have to do with Lego and Lego Investing? Well, nothing really...except that on September 1st a confluence of polybags has made a "perfect storm" scenario at the Lego Store. To further explain
-
I wanted to make the pictures I took at SDCC 2013 regarding the LEGO stuff I experienced available to everyone here, but rather than individually import about 100 images, I'll just post the public Facebook album link. Feel free to use these pictures for anything you'd like as long as you give me credit for taking them. The SDCC model was made by the SANDLUG and displayed at the LEGO store in Fashion Valley Mall. Here's the link: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151831238849467.107
-
Hello fellow BrickPickers... The end of the Summer is approaching quickly and we are heading into the prime LEGO season...Fall. There are many great new LEGO sets getting released and many great old ones getting retired. One thing is for sure, it is an active time of year, with the Christmas buying season right around the corner. Our recent Review and Blog content contests were very successful and we received a large influx of quality and informative LEGO set reviews and LEGO based blog articles
-
Welcome to the July 2013 Best Selling Sets on eBay blog entry. Unfortunately, there was a delay in the updating of June's numbers that did not allow me to write a list for that month, but that's in the past already. Here are the Top 10 Best Sellers in July!: (Positions in the list are determined by both Used and New listings, but I will only include information for new copies) July 2013 Top Ten 1- One of the favorite sets for investors has finally made the best selling lists and in what a wa
-
So, by my reckoning (and let’s face it, who else would know?) I’ve officially been an AFOL for around 8 or 9 months now (with increasing intensity of course, as these things go). I think I’d measure it from the point at which I entered Brighton’s Lego Store and made my own Steampunk-inspired minifigures (one of which has now gone to a new home as a present to my colleague). In these last few months it has become increasingly known to those around me that I am indeed an adult fan of Lego. This ne
-
The Volkswagen Type 1, or more commonly the Volkswagen Beetle, was one of the offspring of Adolf Hitler’s plan for a car that was cheap to manufacture. The car was manufactured for 62 years (1941-2003), and approximately 21.5 million were made worldwide, a world record.^ The word “Volkswagen” derives from the German phrase “people’s car”. It was designed under the requirements that it carry 5 people and be able to travel 22 mpg, a stunning number, at the time. Eventually, the car was further de
-
We have all read it before: "I got 5 Vampyre Castles at Walmart for $ 50 each!". Clearance finds is one of the most popular topics of this site, to the point that there are several different threads centered around it. Of course, it makes sense. It is to be expected that when a LEGO investing sets gathers around people from all around the world there is going to be some natural "bragging". To me, that's not bad at all, especially since most of the times members of this site are helpful enough to
-
In my last blog entry, I estimated and discussed the number of Lego sets, and number of sets by model, that Lego releases yearly. To summarize my estimate, TLC releases about 82 million sets, and roughly 160,000 of every model number globally. To further the discussion, I figured I would try to estimate the number of sets, and number of sets by model, that are released by continent to get a better feel for each of these mass markets, and then try to further segment these mass markets into marke
-
I recently went to the store and could not believe some of the clearance deals they have on LEGO sets. Before this trip I purchased Jabba's Palace and spent about the exact same amount of money. However, I nearly doubled the amount of bricks for my buck compared to the single set. I will break down each purchase for you with excel graphics. NOTE: I was going to do the excel bit, but for some reason this site wont let me copy and paste pictures and it doesn't leave excel cells in the right format
