Blog And News Articles

The Brickpicker Brick Index was updated recently. This index gives an indication of the movement in value of each set based upon the previous 6 months of sales data from Ebay. You can review the sets by theme if you like, but @Jeff Mack has accumulated the top 20 performers for the last 6 months on the landing page. I'd like to take a look at the data and see what it tells us. First, let's take a look at the data that is presented. Each set is ranked by what percentage of value it has increased in the past 6 months. There's a handy graph of that period of time showing a whole dollar value on the Y Axis and months expressed numerically on the X. A cursory overvie…

An image has been found online of a new, upcoming Star Wars polybag of Rebel A-Wing pilot. There's no news yet of where or how to get it.Astute fans may notice that the figure more closely resembles a B-Wing pilot, but this character is based upon the design for Star Wars Rebels.The original report was available on hothbricks.com. More news when it is available. View full blog article

Looks like Lego has some interesting events and introductions planned for the first two months of 2016. Some highlights... The "massive" (using my Liam Neeson voice) 75827 Ghostbusters HQ is now on-sale along with the 10251 Brick Bank. Series 15 LEGO Collectible Minifigures are on-sale starting Feb. 1st. Various polybag and promo items based on money spent. Themes include Nexo Knights, Elves, Disney Princess and Friends. Events for children include monthly builds, club meetings and a neat minifigure swap with employees. One build event includes a Star Wars Snowspeeder. Double VIP points for the 21006 Architecture Wh…

5.8 million bricks! https://practicalmotoring.com.au/car-news/land-rover-breaks-guinness-world-record-for-largest-ever-ego-structure/

As a countdown to the Force Awakens, I will be writing at least one Star Wars review each week. Full disclosure, I have already built one of these previously, and I was not a fan. I found one at a significant discount, wanted a few more troops, and felt like writing a review because I had a joke in mind. I didn't think it was fair to write a review on a set that I built over 2 months ago, so I refreshed my familiarity with this set, and took plenty of pictures. I think my understanding of what works in these pictures is starting to get better, so hopefully you agree. REVIEW: SET DETAILS Set #: 75103 Name: First Order Transporter Theme: Star Wars Parts: 7…

I love Captain America. For over twenty years, if you asked me who my favorite super hero was, I'd tell you Cap. When Ed Brubaker introduced Winter Soldier it blew my mind, I loved Bucky as a character, which is something I never had done before. LEGO's Black Panther Pursuit has both of these characters. I was ecstatic when I heard about it. There's something that people probably know about Super Heroes sets. Invariably they will contain some kind of plane, motorcycle, truck, or helicopter. In this review, we'll look at which of these is contained within, and how successful it is. REVIEW: SET DETAILS Set #: 76047 Name: Black …

Looks like Lego has some GREAT events and offerings planned for April. Both AFOLs and KFOLs will be happy. If you are unable to visit a Lego retail store, be sure to checkout their website at shop.lego.com for select offerings. Some highlights... Various polybag and promo items based on money spent or themes: 1960s Mr. Freeze minifig and Elves Sira’s Adventurous Airglider. Note: The Mr Freeze polybag is available with a purchase of $75 of more from April 1 to 15. New sets (e.g. Angry Birds) will be on-sale. Events for children include a minifigure swamp, Bumblebee build, Superhero builds and club meetings. Maybe best of a…

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.

Welcome to the first entry of what I would like to think of as a revamped Evaluation Corner article. The idea behind this new format is to offer a little more historical and analytical data when evaluating sets for potential investment, in a more visual way. Hopefully you will like it; be sure to add your feedback or comments! Historical & Theme Analysis The topic of this first article will be the recently released The Brick Bounty – 70413. The “Pirates” LEGO theme has become one of those recurring ones we expect to pop up in stores every few years. It really needs no explanation; kids love pirates and AFOLs really appreciate a well- designed LEGO ship. So…

I wanted to throw this out there. I am looking to improve my LEGO Review blog articles and provide readers with more of what they want. With that in mind, I have a few questions. Do you like having the large number of pictures showing the build in process? Am I providing enough information about the process or my feelings on the sets to make you feel well enough informed? Am I missing data that would help you to determine if the set is to your needs? So, basically I'd like to know what I am not doing so well, also let me know what parts are enjoyable so I can try to keep it up. I'm not really looking for an ego boost, I just want to provide the best pr…

For decades, the problem with collectible toys has been degradation of the materials. For most toys made in the past 40 years or more the main component is ABS plastic. ABS plastic breaks down and changes color as it ages. This process can be accelerated via exposure to UV rays (sunlight or fluorescent bulbs), Heat, and chemical reaction to other plastics. Most collectors have fought a losing fight to prevent their lighter colored plastics from turning yellow (or green if there is a blue coloration to the piece.) For many years various solutions had been proposed to roll back the scourge of time. Solutions included (but were not limited to) a good scrub, bleach,…

Last year during the Force Awakens Force Friday push, @Fcbarcelona101 wrote about the new LEGO offerings. I wanted to take a quick look at the new offerings for the new Star Wars prequel Rogue One: A Star Wars story. Oh yeah, that's right, it is a prequel. I know that a lot of people don't want to hear that word associated with Star Wars, but it is what it is. The first thing I would like to discuss are the Constractions or constructible action figures. There are 3 of them for the Rogue One release. As far as it goes, I'm not convinced of the long term viability of these The first series has started to disappear from shelves, but I don't think it's due to dema…

I shared the story once it broke a few months ago but the long/form version is truly out of this world and the scandal it created is huge. The article really shows how crazy and frightening it can be when a major corporation goes after someone. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/26/technology/ebay-cockroaches-stalking-scandal.html

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…

Lego recently issued their Designer video for this new set. Enjoy the video and try not to get slimmed. Please share your thoughts about this set in the comments section. Note: Amazon and other online retailers don't seem to have this in-stock yet. Lego's own Shop web sites does have it in-stock though. Links are below for purchase. LEGO: USA | UK | CAN View full blog article

A Polish online retailer have posted images of 3 upcoming Capt. America Civil War sets. The sets appear to contain a nice array of vehicles, play sets, minifigures and a brick built version of gigantic Ant-Man. Some Marvel characters such as Black Panther and Crossbones will finally make their minifigures debut. It also appears The Quinjet gets it's third remake since 2012 while other minifigures are refreshes or carryovers from previous sets. While unsure of their investing potential at this time, I do think most of these sets will be highly popular. Source = http://www.extraklocki.pl/katalog/klocki-lego-super-heroes/marvel/3,9,id,desc/? …

So, you have found Brickpicker and probably have already bought a number of sets that you plan on selling at some point in the future. Or, maybe you are a somewhat seasoned investor that has accumulated a large number of sets and are just now starting to sell your first few items. Either way, I wanted to give you a by no means comprehensive list of best practices for listing your items for sale. Whether you list on BP’s Brick Classifieds, eBay or some other site, I think these basic first steps will help increase your sales and reduce the risk of potential issues. 1 - General Tips Before getting into more details, I wanted to provide some general tips …

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Welcome to this week's Best of Brick Classifieds: Star Wars Edition. The twelve featured sets have the lowest pricing available among Amazon, eBay and Brick Classifieds vendors. I have included sets from a variety of price points and Star Wars sub-themes. Click on any of the hyperlinks to view the individual set listings or click here to search all Brick Classifieds Star Wars Sets listings. Thanks to all Brick Classifieds Vendors for taking the time to offer such outstanding prices on their sets, but especially to the Vendors with the sets listed below. 1. CMStevens: LEGO Ultimate Collector's Millennium Falcon #10179 $4500.00 …

The universe of LEGO Star Wars is changing. Some of the changes may be too subtle to notice at first, but it began more than a year ago. Before we look into the changes taking place now, and influencing the future, let us take a look at the way things have always been. Historically the LEGO licensing of the Star Wars brand has always been consistent. Star Wars had a three-year cycle between movies starting with The Phantom Menace in 1999, the year that LEGO acquired the rights. There were theatrical releases of Star Wars films in 2002, 2005, and 2008. Three years was sufficient for LEGO to create new sets and visit new ideas. Enough time passed to fully explore t…

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…

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…

Stone Wars recently launched a monthly "best of" list of what's newly available or retiring from LEGO's Bricks and Pieces. It's a pretty cool feature that some of you who run Bricklink stores may find useful. September 2020 October 2020 November 2020 December 2020

Hello LEGO fans.. It’s been a little over a year since Jeff and I started working on our first book, The Ultimate Guide to Collectible LEGO Sets: Identification and Price Guide. Well, after a year and a half, the book is now available at retail and is selling briskly. We would like to thank everyone who has bought a copy and hope you have enjoyed the book. Krause Publishing did a very nice job with our book in my opinion and is seeing strong sales, strong enough to ask us to do a second book. The new book will concentrate on the classic LEGO minifigure (...and maxifigure) and their values and unique features that make them valuable on LEGO secondary marketpla…

It happens to the best of us..... You haven't built a LEGO set in a week or two. It's a slow day, you're bored, and you've got some spare time on your hands. You glance lovingly at your secret stash of LEGO sets and notice the pristine Pet Shops 10218s sitting on the shelf. They're mocking you - daring you to break those beautiful seals. Grabbing a set off the shelf, you carefully open the package before dumping the glorious contents onto the kitchen table to get your fix. You say to yourself, "I'll build just one", and six months later, your office looks like this: Eventually, you've built one of each Creator Modular Building in your collect…