Blog And News Articles

Interesting write up in the NYT about the planned Legoland outside of NYC. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/06/business/regional-theme-parks-growth.html?action=click&module=In Other News&pgtype=Homepage&action=click&module=&pgtype=Homepage

https://brickset.com/article/42814/lego-tower-mobile-game-announced The most awesome LEGO idle simulation mobile game LEGO Tower is on its way! LEGO has joined forces with NimbleBit, creators of the classic mobile game Tiny Tower to craft a brand new mobile experience. NimbleBit has a long track record of building lovable mobile worlds for their players, and both companies are excited to be taking the Tiny Tower formula to new heights inside the world of LEGO. “Having the opportunity to build upon one of our signature games inside the world LEGO is a dream come true for us.” says David Marsh, co-founder of NimbleBit. “The building blocks of LEGO are a…

In typical fashion as we approach the end of the year, LEGO has officially unveiled the next in it's line of Creator Modular Buildings - The Corner Garage. The set will retail for $199.99 (US) and will be available beginning January 1, exclusively at LEGO Shop at Home. No doubt it will be available elsewhere starting 2nd Quarter 2019. The set will contain 2,569 pieces. The set fits resembles a 1950s era Service Garage and Gas Station, and fits in very well with the 1950's Downtown Diner (10260) released January 1, 2018. LEGO's press release: On the investment front, there could be as many as six Modular Building available at the same time: 10264 -…

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-lego-china-copyright/toymaker-lego-wins-chinese-copyright-case-against-brick-imitators-idUSKBN1E1157?utm_source=applenews Don’t believe this has been posted elsewhere on these boards yet - but it looks like GREAT news, with possible longterm impacts on the knockoff market!

Happy to see this write up about LEGO trying to go green, but what on earth would my childhood look like without ASB plastic? https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/31/business/energy-environment/lego-plastic-denmark-environment-toys.html?action=click&module=In Other News&pgtype=Homepage&action=click&module=News&pgtype=Homepage

https://youtu.be/UFPNWZeeXQw Lego Pneumatic Engine. What is it?  How to make it? The first it needs to finish Lego fake cylinder like in this video https://youtu.be/HcHneyewATE or https://youtu.be/0aZvWva41Ek. The second - to add o-ring to Lego piston like in this video https://youtu.be/wZu-l32Dajw or

Not sure if this has been posted yet but looks like IKEA and LEGO are starting a partnership. Anyone have anymore insights on this? https://www.lego.com/en-us/aboutus/news-room/2018/june/ikea-and-lego-group

In 2003 LEGO released the Cloud City set 10123. For 13 years, there was no representation of the last third of the Empire Strikes Back. People have been asking for new Cloud City sets in the decade since. When information leaked about the Carbon Freezing Chamber, there was a lot of hope, a lot of speculation, and a lot of fans quivering with excitement. When we saw the pictures of 75137, there was an enormous outcry. How could they take an amazingly iconic set of scenes and chop it down to a half of a set with a goofy action feature? Well, I was one of the disappointed masses when I saw this set. No Bespin Luke, Leia or Lando. No gantry for a duel. There's not even a…

Hello LEGO fans... It's that time of year again. Time to raise money for my son Max's school, St. Paul School, in Burlington, NJ. After two very...VERY...successful LEGO Raffles... 2016 BRICKPICKER LEGO RAFFLE 2017 BRICKPICKER LEGO RAFFLE ...in which we raised over $100,000.00 for the school, another year has passed, and it’s time to raffle off some dynamic LEGO gifts for charity. The money we raised the last two years literally kept the school open...which is a great thing. It's a special school that once again was voted BEST Private School in Burlington County, NJ, by The Burlington County Times, along with numerous other awards, such as: …

The merging of two of our favorite things. https://gizmodo.com/artist-hides-secret-code-to-10-000-worth-of-cryptocurr-1824030024

This month (November 2016) marks my first complete year as a LEGO reseller and active BrickPicker, as well as the second anniversary of coming out of my Dark Ages. Okay, I was reading catalogs and buying a few cool sets for my kids every year before 2014, but nothing like the full-on assault of having to catch up with all that LEGO has offered in the past. To celebrate these milestones I thought it would be a nice idea to contribute some of my key lessons from the past year back to this community. First of all, a little background. What really got me out of my Dark Ages was LEGO Trains, actually, it was a Fleischmann N-scale model train set that I used to have when I…

Apologies for the lengthy title, and I'm certain others must have known and discussed this on the boards before, but I read an op-ed in the Hill today “A 40 percent postal rate increase is bad for Americans, bad for the Postal Service,” and couldn’t believe it, so I wanted to confirm its content and I went to the source and found the original document on the PRC website. Order 4258 published on 12/1/17 outlines on page 78-79 a proposed 40% increase to USPS rates over the next five years.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5455713/Lego-make-plastic-bricks-plants-bid-tackle-waste.html Very interesting.

This blog entry I struggled with the title, and considered a "while you were sleeping" title or something else to really convey how I felt about the current state of Lego investing. Unless one were sleeping, it is easy to see how the Tumbler 76023 has taken off. "The Horde" should be proud. While I am sure plenty of Tumblers ended up in the hands of little Timmy, the horde can pat themselves on the back for plowing though the last 4,000 copies that Target and Target-eBay had left in record fashion being the last retailer standing after LEGO Shop at Home, Walmart and other online retailers ran out of stock. Lets take a quick peak at some numbers. …

Not sure if this was brought up yet. https://ideas.lego.com/blogs/a4ae09b6-0d4c-4307-9da8-3ee9f3d368d6/post/eb30a864-2ad5-46d9-804b-121383e684df 7 Projects Qualify for the Second 2017 LEGO Ideas Review The Third 2017 LEGO Ideas Review qualifying period ended this Monday morning, January 8th at 12:00 a.m. Central European Time or GMT+1. We are thrilled to celebrate the 7 great projects that have gathered 10,000 supporters between the months of early September 2017 and early January 2018. Congrats to all members who've made it this far! Something unique about this review period is that 3 projects that hav…

Attention all you SoCal lurkers, BricksLA is only a week away!http://www.bricksla.com/ Come support the AFOL community and see some awesome MOCs. Tickets are only $5, so this is a cheap day of entertainment for the family. And for you diehard BP'rs there are numerous vendors selling retired sets. Maybe a deal or two to be found.

I listened to this on NPR on my way home for work: https://www.npr.org/2017/12/05/568624246/grinch-bots-attempt-to-steal-christmas-by-driving-up-toy-prices This troubles me because a reseller might use a specific algorithm to track a product, but that does not mean that a bot will purchase thousands of that product once launched, leading to price/ product manipulation. There seems to be a pretty big disconnect between perception and reality. Nowhere in the article does it mention that most retailers put reasonable limits on online orders or that banning people, or I guess bots, occurs. Anyone got any Hamilton tickets?

Who gets lego neck (this is where your back or neck seize up)?Ifso here is where you can leave ideas or ways to be able to do continuous lego building without dying of neck or back pain.

Many Bothans died to bring us this information. The official Xbox website has launched a page showing screen captures from an upcoming entrant into the LEGO Star Wars game series. This time it is Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The date given for the release of this game is 6/28/16. Players will be able to play as their favorite new and classic Star Wars character. One screen capture shows Han, Leia, and Chewbacca as they appear in the 75094 Imperial Shuttle Tydirium set. What that means about playing older movie scenes has not been shown yet. Warner Brothers games has not officially announced the forthcoming game Is this the releas…

There were two interesting user comments in-response to CapnRex101's August 27th article, "What's Missing? Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" on brickset.com. These comments were made by a LEGO set designer, Hans Burkhard Schlömer (aka BrickCommander). His posted comments are.... Essentially Hans Burkhard Schlömer said the initial wave Rogue One sets such as his designed, Krennic's Imperial Shuttle, will be retiring this year. Then his next comment suggested the 75105 - Millennium Falcon will be replaced by the 75190 - First Order Star Destroyer as LEGO's next "BIG" non-UCS set. Here is the list of Rogue One Wave 1 sets. 75152-1 Imper…

While I am getting closer to releasing a long overdue update to BrickPicker, now is a good time to release some content that I was hoping to release with the updated site. @belljohn has been talking with Ed and I for a very long time and has spent a lot of time in creating a series of Brickvesting videos that he is happy to share on the BrickPicker YouTube Channel. I am hoping to see this expand this into a bunch of different topic series and welcome any of you that are interested in working on some videos to reach out to me and we can work on it. Set reviews, investing tips, set builds, etc. It's not easy to speak for ~15 minutes, but Brook does an amazing job c…

Brexit vote pushes up cost of Lego Lego will raise its prices by 5 per cent next year, blaming the falling pound in the wake of the Brexit vote. The Danish company will increase the prices it charges British retailers from New Year’s Day, but said it was up to shops to decide whether to pass on the cost to customers. Lego, founded in 1932 by Ole Kirk Kristiansen, has become the latest company to raise prices after the referendum vote on June 23 to leave the European Union. In October, the food manufacturer Unilever threatened to increase the price of its products to British retailers by 10 per cent. This would have affected Marmite, Hellmann’s mayonnais…

http://metro.co.uk/2017/08/03/lego-recalled-120000-sets-because-one-worker-packed-the-wrong-shade-of-grey-6827254/ Doh! There goes the Christmas bonus..

It looks like it's been about 6 months since I did the last one of these. I know I intended to do more, but time got away from me. It's time to get right back in and take a swing at yet another pricey LEGO set and what makes it tick, or brick. I never really thought much about the Y-Wing. It was never really one of my favorite Star Wars vehicles. It looked ungainly and not as sleek as the X-Wing. It is however a classic, used in the original series, reimagined for the Clone Wars and given life again in both Rebels and Rogue One. Recently I saw people talking about this particular set though and it was enough to make me curious about what makes this set difficult…

In recent weeks, LEGOLAND California has gone through another price structure change. This time, removing discounts from "Sale" and "Hard to Find" items that are carried in their shops. In year's past, annual passholders would expect to find LEGO sets priced at RRP. With a LEGOLAND California Annual Pass, a 10% discount was applied to all orders. During the years of "no discounts on exclusives," this made purchasing exclusives, such as modular buildings, a little more desirable at LEGOLAND. Late last year, LEGOLAND California started raising prices on certain items, to "balance" the Annual Pass discount. Items such as the Disney Castle, which has an RR…