3 hours ago, Bricklectic said:

i agree all seem boring to me

The train station looks nice. But everything else is an easy pass. Also depends on pricing.

9 hours ago, spener90 said:

The train station looks nice. But everything else is an easy pass. Also depends on pricing.

I agree, the train station is very good. Much better scaled and aligned with Modulars than the Studgate Train Station.  The mushroom house looks fun too, will probably pick that one up for my wife. Hard to say no to forestmen figures.

I'll probably buy at least one of each. Have not lost on any of these yet and several have been home runs. 

16 hours ago, BrickLover80 said:

Series 2 winners are out:

https://www.bricklink.com/v3/designer-program/series-2/main.page

I like them better than series 1, but none look like big investment winners.

The Ocean House and Mushroom House catch my eye with their whimsical design. Logging Railway reminded me of this long forgotten short (Locomotion) from my childhood. I might have featured the Brick Cross Train Station in the modular building topic prior, love it still.

You can now order 41 of the sets not selected.

 

https://www.bricklink.com/v3/moc-pop-up-store/main.page?_refreshrnd=59276

2 minutes ago, Pseudoty said:

You can now order 41 of the sets not selected.

 

https://www.bricklink.com/v3/moc-pop-up-store/main.page?_refreshrnd=59276

This is a big win for parts sellers. The MOCs are right there to buy.

The fact that the FAQ says that "In many cases, parts through Pick a Brick may be less expensive" is hilarious though. There are tens of cases of this. The only thing that can make pick a brick cheaper is the free shipping, but still there are some low cost sellers out there that will blow them out of the water even with shipping factored in. 

is there anything stopping sellers from listing retired sets

16 hours ago, Pseudoty said:

You can now order 41 of the sets not selected.

 

https://www.bricklink.com/v3/moc-pop-up-store/main.page?_refreshrnd=59276

ooof on the prices.  Along with the model not yet the final product, seems like a bit of a stretch for sales. 

On 9/7/2023 at 8:59 PM, brickvoyeur said:

This is a big win for parts sellers. The MOCs are right there to buy.

The fact that the FAQ says that "In many cases, parts through Pick a Brick may be less expensive" is hilarious though. There are tens of cases of this. The only thing that can make pick a brick cheaper is the free shipping, but still there are some low cost sellers out there that will blow them out of the water even with shipping factored in. 

It depends, where I am importing from the EU can trigger VAT which can add significantly to costs.

23 hours ago, coelian said:

It depends, where I am importing from the EU can trigger VAT which can add significantly to costs.

Oh cmon: 7,7 % thats almost nothing. But if you do not have a business registered you could send it to a parcel receiving company next to the border in germany, drive there and pick up the parcels and drive back, without paying import taxes. There are almost no border checks.

I recently came across a design in the MOC pop-up store that interested me, and thought I'd share my experience thus far...

The design holds ~700 unique elements, and ~3200 pieces over-all. The build is comparable to a $300 production set, so I decided to pursue it. Unfortunately, so far, the auto-cart mechanism is falling waaaaay short. On the model page it estimates a price of ~$480. When I click on "Purchase", it claims first off that Lego's Pick-a-Brick is not available for this model.  It then gives me three options: international (lowest piece price) $580; fewest orders $745; US stores only $690. None of these estimates include shipping/handling. 

Bricklink doesn't give the option to exporting the parts list, but one can populate the carts and export those. I merged them into single wanted list, and priced it out in brickstore where the total cost based on average part sold price is ~$345.

In brickstore, one can sort by either per-piece cost, and total lot cost. So far, I've found 28 of the highest-cost parts on PaB (208 total pieces), where the savings is ~$22 ($43 on PaB w/ free shipping, $65 based on bricklink sold prices w/o shipping costs included).

So, I'm a 4% of the way through the parts list, and have already saved ~40% on some of the highest cost items by going through LEGO PaB.  Presuming I can get the rest on bricklink in 4-5 stores, I can probably source the parts for under $400.

I must say, I'm a bit disappointed.  The dream of pushing a few clicks and then having a MOC show up in 3-4 boxes is appealing, but the higher cost to me doesn't justify relying on the automation.  And if the buyer has a significant spare parts inventory, then it makes sense to go through to carts/parts list anyway to further reduce the cost.  I find it's easier to do this through brickstore and wanted lists rather than in-cart.

I'm rating the MOC pop-up store a 'miss'.  The biggest miss is that the automated cart chose to skip Lego's PaB, even though many of the most expensive parts are available there.

Haven't yet decided if I'll go ahead an order it.  If I do, I'll post an update with the final cost.

Edited October 8, 20232 yr by SpaceFan9
completed the post. fixed spelling errors.

Talk about set fatigue, here are another 185 options oh, and they just announced 3 more rounds for 2024!
 

https://www.bricklink.com/v3/designer-program/main.page

The finalists, some nice looking sets here:

https://www.bricklink.com/v3/designer-program/series-3/main.page

Forest Stronghold an easy buy.  This coming from someone that has bought none of the previous sets.

Edited November 20, 20232 yr by Huskers1236

Lost city is EPIC! Colors are amazing in a subtle way remind me of the LOTR set....

These are all great builds but it's starting to feel a bit watered down without unique figures elements and IPs attached to some of these. Like the stronghold would be great for example if it had a redo of an old castle faction or new one all together with unique figures and elements, but without it, for the price, I would almost rather make my own. Maybe just me.

When do they go on sale?

46 minutes ago, redcell said:

When do they go on sale?

October 2024, seriously! There are 2 rounds still to be made before these and the first one is scheduled for February 2024.

Some of these builds are not the best and not structurally sound. I can see both the Lost City and Stronghold having issues. 

47 minutes ago, Pseudoty said:

October 2024, seriously! There are 2 rounds still to be made before these and the first one is scheduled for February 2024.

Some of these builds are not the best and not structurally sound. I can see both the Lost City and Stronghold having issues. 

Geez.  I'm sure to have forgotten about them by then.

Prices are up for the Round 1 Pre-Sale 2/7/24

https://www.bricklink.com/v3/designer-program/series-1/main.page?

2 hours ago, Pseudoty said:

Prices are up for the Round 1 Pre-Sale 2/7/24

https://www.bricklink.com/v3/designer-program/series-1/main.page?

So pricey, I really want the castle, train shed, and Parisian street. The price is a bit daunting though, I'll be curious to see how quickly these actually sell out.

6 minutes ago, spener90 said:

So pricey, I really want the castle, train shed, and Parisian street. The price is a bit daunting though, I'll be curious to see how quickly these actually sell out.

They increased the quantity from 20K in the previous round, which was up from 10K in the prior round, to 30K and limit is now 2 of each. I am going for 2 of the castle and 1 Parisian. 

when do these actually hit credit cards - at time of ordering or when they ship?

9 minutes ago, cladner said:

when do these actually hit credit cards - at time of ordering or when they ship?

When they ship, I believe.

On 11/21/2023 at 1:14 AM, Pseudoty said:

October 2024, seriously! There are 2 rounds still to be made before these and the first one is scheduled for February 2024.

Some of these builds are not the best and not structurally sound. I can see both the Lost City and Stronghold having issues. 

Arent they going to be reviewed and improved by Lego first before going to manufacturing?