Brick le France - with beaucoup de retired sets

If you’re an American AFOL, you’ve probably glanced at notices for new sets and have seen pricing in other countries listed. You’ve probably also seen AFOLs from around the world complaining about how sets are priced in their country as compared to US prices. As an American AFOL living in Germany, I figured I would take a look to see what I could learn.

Before I go into a specific example, I wanted to point out a difference in taxes. In the states, depending on where you are, you pay a sales tax. This tax is priced in after you make the purchase. So LEGO sets its retail price (or Walmart, or Amazon.com, etc.) and then you pay an additional percentage at checkout. In Europe, from what I’ve seen, the Value Added Tax or VAT is built into the price. Your receipt tells you how much the item actually was and what you paid in VAT. So keep that in mind for those Americans who forget the sometimes 8% to 10% sales tax that gets added onto purchases.

Back to my main point… I stopped at a Cora store in France a few weeks back. For those of you in the US who have never been, Cora is kind of like a Walmart only the one I went to was much nicer than a Walmart. While there, I of course had to check out the LEGO selection.

First off they had a lot of retired Collectible Minifigures, but not the current Harry Potter Collectible Minifigure series.

As you can see from the pictures, they had the Ninjago movie minifigures still on sale for €3.99 each. These were released back in August 2017 in the EU and apparently they still have them at retail price. Next you can see the Batman Movie Series 2 minifigures. These were released in the EU on 1 January 2018 and Cora had them for €3.50 which is less than the original retail of €3.99. Finally they had the Series 18 minifigures for €3.50. They were released back in April and again Cora had them for less than retail. I’m wondering if this is a trend in Europe or an anomaly. At Walmart or Target, usually collectible minifigures go fast so I was surprised to see so many options

Next up were a few City sets.

You can see #60104-1 - Airport Passenger Terminal - Retired in France in November 2017. Retail was €99.99, but selling for €94.99. Also #60051-1 - High-Speed Passenger Train - Retired in France in June 2018 and selling for €10 under retail. #60052-1 - Cargo Train is right next to it. It retired in June and they still have it selling at the original retail price. The last one I’ll mention is #60103-1 - Airport Air Show which retired in France back in January 2018. I have no idea on pricing from the picture I took because the label does not match the set. Anyways, interesting to see some retired sets still out there.

I didn’t go nuts taking pictures of all of them and I didn’t buy any either, but one that stood out was #75105-1 Millennium Falcon. It retired in France back in January 2018 and was done in the US back in November 2017. It was still at Cora and there were multiple copies. I know I have seen the price of that set going up on BrickLink.com and I may have been one of the sellers of those a few months back.

If any Americans are reading this, should I have bought some of the retired sets you can’t find in the states anymore? Even with the exchange rate of around $1.20 to the Euro, would it be worth it? What do you think?

A Visit to Gartenschau Kaiserslautern and the Awesome LEGO Display (Summer 2018)

As an American AFOL living in Europe, I had to store some of my collection back in the USA and I have relied on reading fan sites and listening to the Bricks King podcast to stay in tune with the hobby.  My NLS and I decided to take our kiddos to a park and I ended up hitting the jackpot.  The Gartenschau (Google Translate says it means "garden show”) Kaiserslautern is what my kids refer to as the dinosaur park.  It has lots of great garden areas surrounded by large sculptures of dinosaurs.  It also has a lot of playground equipment for kids and a bunch of other things to do.  Here is the link to the site if you want more info (it's in German, but Google Chrome asks if I want to translate it).

As we walked into the park, we saw a sign advertising a LEGO display so we went into the building where it was located.  And then I started to drool...  Wow!  It is advertised as creations and builds from builders from Germany and Luxembourg and boy is it ever.  There were glass cases stacked with MOCs and sets from LEGO.  Then there were huge display areas with some giant creations.  At the end was a kid play area with LEGO System bricks, DUPLO, and some large toddler friendly rubberized LEGO bricks.  To top it off, there was a LEGO store with some sets on sale (that wasn't open when I was there).  The display is on site until the garden closes at the end of October 2018 (not sure it comes back regularly or not).  If you're in the area, definitely check it out.  If not, here are a few pictures of what is there.  The lighting is not super great for pictures so my phone didn't capture the best shots for a website (sorry).  

You'll notice in the one case on the top left there is a brick build sign that says Lauter Steine EV.  This is a LUG in the local Kaiserslautern area that is connected to a LUG in Luxembourg (per LEGO's web site).  

A few more display cases... I won't show them all, but you get the idea.  

There were also a few MOCs of existing buildings.  This first one is of St. Michael's Basilica in Mondsee, Austria.  Here's a link to an Austrian web site with a picture of it.  As an AFOL, I wish they had more info about the builder, some of the techniques used to build it, total brick count, etc.  You know, all those geeky AFOL things that we're into.  I realize the display is meant for non-AFOLs so it's all good.

I'm not an expert of the area yet, but I'll find out where these buildings are and post some actual pictures or links.

The Statue of Liberty at around 6 feet tall.  I left the case next to it so you could get an idea of the size.  I also threw a picture in of the train case next to it just because I'm a big LEGO train fan.

Ok... I was not expecting to round the corner and see this on display.  WOW!!!!!  The Cologne Cathedral looks phenomenal.  If you believe the Wiki page I found, it took 2 years and 900,000 bricks to build.  Another site I saw said it was more like 500,000  If anyone can find other references, please let me know.  I could spend a whole post talking about this build, but I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.  If you want to see more, definitely Google it.  There are tons of additional photos and some videos if you want to see more detail and close ups (with better lighting).

The display also includes a few dioramas. Here’s a picture of the pod racing scene from Star Wars episode one..

This picture doesn’t do it justice, but here’s the fight scene from Star Wars: Return of the Jedi on the moon of Endor.

This picture doesn’t capture the whole scene either, but here is a LEGO Space display.

And of course, they have a giant LEGO city. Here are only a few pictures of the many I took. It’s quite an impressive scene with a farm area, a fairground, a train, a giant town square, construction, and plenty of buildings ranging from MOCs to some of the modular buildings from the Creator Expert line.

I’m hoping they do this setup again next year because it’s awesome! Thanks to my new neighbors in Europe for putting this together!

Listening to Bricks - A LEGO Fan Podcast

Hello again!  It's been a long time since I posted.  I finished my move to Germany and it took a long time to get established.  For those of you in the US who complain about the cable and internet companies with bad customer service, we had to wait over a month to get internet and then have 2 visits from company technicians to get it set up correctly.  It was pretty painful, but thankfully we are now connected and ready to go!

While waiting for internet and for the part of my LEGO collection that I shipped here to arrive, I got to stay connected to the Lego fan community through a different medium.  A few years ago I got into listening to podcasts.  I found that driving around in my car and listening to local radio stations was getting annoying.  I could never find a station that I was willing to listen to for more than a few minutes.  With smart phones now and the ability to link them into your car, I can now listen while driving which is awesome.  The best part is that there are a huge amount of options for shows you can listen to now. 

While it's not the first LEGO themed podcast out there, a few months ago I stumbled upon the "Bricks King Podcast."  This podcast is run by LEGO fan Matt King.  As he states on his site, "We dig deep into the Lego world and interview Lego artists, and review Lego models."  I'm a few episodes behind right now, but so far I have had heard about new sets coming out, some information about what members of the LEGO fan community are doing, information about some of the builders made popular on the web, and a few interviews with the BrickBlogger's Will Reed.  While often the sets Matt introduces are not new to me, it is interesting to hear someone else's take on them.  He's been overly excited about a few sets that I am not interested in at all so hearing a differing opinion has been a good balance for me.

Overall, I am a fan!  Especially with the move that I have gone through recently, the Bricks King podcast has been a great way for me to stay connected to the LEGO fan community.  I enjoy being able to hear about LEGO despite driving in my car or doing work around my house.  If you're looking for a podcast to check out, definitely give the Bricks King a listen.  

You can find him on PodBean here or on iTunes here.  The podcast is on other platforms too, but I'm not going to list them all.  If you are not quite sure yet, you can check out his Twitter page or YouTube page or FaceBook page.  And if you don't want to take my word for it, Will Reed wrote an article about the podcast on the BrickBlogger so you can read his opinion.

Thanks Matt for the great work and keep publishing more!

Set Review - #75192 - LEGO Millennium Falcon - Star Wars - Ultimate Collector Series

You can see part 1 HERE.

Part 2 - Assembling the Ship

Time to put it together.  As mentioned in part 1, there are 17 sets of bags.  Normally, I take pictures after each step, but this time I did not as if you want a really detailed review, you can go to some of the sites where they analyze by pieces, build techniques, and differences between other LEGO Millennium Falcon sets.  My plan is to cover the high points and then give my opinion at the end.

The set starts with construction of the internal substructure.  There are many Technic pieces and pins put together to form a pretty solid skeleton for the ship.

Next up was the addition of the... okay, I'm not an official Star Wars fan... are they legs?  Feet?  Stands?  Whatever they are called, you build a bunch of the same assembly over and over to make the legs.  

I skipped a few pics to show the assembly of the skeleton with the legs and the internal rooms.  The rooms themselves were all attached via Technic pins.  This was a bit challenging as there are a ton of holes where you could insert pins, but we ended up getting them right.  Once you find the right positioning, they are easy to install.

I'm not going to spend a ton of time here, but here are the 4 rooms up close for your viewing pleasure.

Next up, the back gets it's shape.  The Falcon does not have a standard shape so I was curious how the designers made all of the curves.  The next bag helps to get the unique shape started.  It also adds the engines in the back with the use of some light blue colored tubes.  You probably could have done the engines with translucent blue pieces too, but the tubes work just fine.

The shape of the front comes out next.  What I found most interesting about this part of the build was attaching all of the random nick-knack pieces to create the detail on the outside of the Falcon.  A lot of this portion of the build was attaching these pieces to the outer frame.

Next up is attaching the bottom of the ship.  I didn't flip it over to take a picture because it was just too challenging to do so given that there aren't a lot of good ways to hold onto the unfinished top.  

Okay so the next 2 pictures aren't super exciting, but let me explain the first one.  The first one is a picture of the ramp.  The design is pretty complicated, but very impressive.  One reason... you build it outside of the ship and then attach it to the frame.  Another reason, it doesn't require a locking mechanism to stay down or up.  It's designed to stay up or down without any switches or locks.  Pretty cool in my opinion, but maybe I'm overly geeking out over this part.  The second picture is just the ship with the bottom completed and the top on the front started.

Now for attaching the top.  Again, the pieces are built off of the ship and then attached after the fact.  Most of them are pretty easy to attach although I had trouble attaching a few as there wasn't an easy spot to hold onto the frame to snap some of the sections into the frame.  The ones shown in pictures 1 and 2 are permanently attached versus later on in the build where sections can be removed to see the internals in pictures 3 and 4 below.  

Almost there... next up is the cockpit.  I found it impressive that the hallway leading to the cockpit does not lock into place via studs or Technic pins.

Whew!  All done!  I didn't record how long it took me to do.  I also didn't take a separate picture of the minifigures.  You can look them up elsewhere if you want to see them in detail.  

Congrats if you scrolled down this far... I realize I'm not the first one to post a review, but one more opinion doesn't hurt.  Should you buy this one?  It's pretty pricey.  The price per piece is decent and the build experience was fantastic (in my opinion), but you have to weigh whether you want to spend $800 (or more with tax) if you buy one of these.  Also, you have to decide what to do with it when you are done.  Do you have space to display it?

I enjoyed the build and am glad I bought it.  I was financially able to using some VIP points and profits from my store so it didn't hurt my wallet much.  If you are in a position where you can do it, go for it!  If not, there are a few other options.  You can use one of the various brick rental services on the web.  I have never used one, but it allows you to build the set at least.  Another option is to team up with some friends to build it all together after you each pitch in.  What do you do with it when you're done?  I'm not sure...

What are your thoughts?  Are the costs worth the build?  Should LEGO stop making such huge models that price a lot of fans out of the market?  Leave a comment and let me know what you think or send me an email at store@bricksforbricks.com.

Thanks for Supporting Brick Dreams!

From 1 January 2018 to 31 May 2018 we gave 15% of our profits to Brick Dreams.  That worked out to be $130.  We bought 2 large LEGO Classic large creative brick boxes (#10698) and 1 LEGO Classic medium creative brick box (#10696) for them.  We hope they can use those bricks for a lot of great kids who like to build.  You can find out more about them at: http://www.brickdreams.org.

Thanks for supporting and happy building!

They mentioned us on their site here.

Set Review - #75192 - LEGO Millennium Falcon - Star Wars - Ultimate Collector Series

Part 1 - Unleashing the Falcon

You can see part 2 here.

It's been a bit since I've posted because I broke down and bought the LEGO Millennium Falcon.  I had $155 in VIP points and I used EBates to get another $20 back.  Besides the discount I also got a Darth Vader Pod polybag (#5005376-1).  I ordered it from LEGO Shop at Home, but at the time of ordering it in early May 2018, it was also available at Target, Walmart, and Amazon.com in the US.

LEGO Shop at Home shipped it off pretty quickly and I got a notice from FedEx that we would have to sign for the package.  I think this is the first ever LEGO order that someone had to sign for.  The email I got said that the package would be 34 pounds.  Whoa!  Here it is:

Like many of the other big sets these days, the LEGO Group has packaged the set inside another box.  The first time I saw this was in the Porsche 911 GT3 RS (#42056).  It is a great way to protect some of the sets that cost a bit more.  If you're going to put a bunch of money into a LEGO set, it had better show up in pristine condition.  This set up helps to make it happen and I'm glad the LEGO Group made this change to their product.

The inner box had a few labels.  Of note to me was that this set was made in April of 2018 and I purchased it in early May 2018.  Considering the LEGO Group's trouble in keeping up with demand for this set, they definitely made up for it with some sped up production.  Also of note is that this set was made in Mexico which I'm pretty sure most sets sold in the US are made there.

Here are some pics of the set box itself.  The front shows a good illustration of the set from Episode VI: Empire Strikes back with a Tie Fighter and Cloud City.  On a side note, there were rumors about this set on other earlier sets and there have been a lot of rumors about a Cloud City set coming out.  Could this picture be a rumor for it?  The back side shows the set itself with some of the details.  

The sides have a schematic, the minifigures, and the other side has a picture of the set with a write up about the set itself.  

I included the top just because.  Nothing really special there.

Inside the big box are 4 smaller boxes with some Falcon art and a few quotes from the movies.  I did some reading of other reviews prior to building and learned that you have to open them all to sort out the bags.  I opened them all and with my helpers, sorted bags 1 through 9.  We put 10 through 17 back in the boxes for later.  I didn't take a picture of all the contents like I usually do because of lack of space to take a giant picture with all of the bags.  I think everyone gets the idea anyway.

A set this big and they had to include a sticker sheet.  Thankfully there are only 12, but still for the price, couldn't they have printed on the stickers?  Most are fairly small and easy to put on, but the big label is a pain as you'll see.

Okay so there is the opening... next up will be the build.  I was up against a move so I had to get it built quickly.  Thankfully a friend and 2 of his boys pitched in to help and made sure we could get it done beforehand.  The build will be up next so stay tuned...

Set Review - #60169 - Cargo Terminal - LEGO City

I don't review a lot of LEGO City sets as they tend to repeat.  The fire fighters, police cars, and others tend to repeat every year.  The cargo theme along with a few others, tend to repeat less often.  I saw #60169, Cargo Terminal come out and was interested.  It originally came out on 27 May 2017. However, the original retail price is $79.99.  With 740 pieces that comes out to $0.108 per piece.  I found that to be pretty high, but thankfully I picked it up on Amazon.com for 20% off for $63.99 or $0.086 per piece.  So definitely better.  Sadly, the set was only 20% off on Amazon.com for a small amount of time.  Keep watching it though and it may come back.

Onto the review...

The set box is similar to most city sets.  The front shows the full up set.  The back shows the play features along with the standard minifigure that is saying "Hey!"

The contents include 8 parts bags numbered 1 through 8 to go with the instructions.  Bag one includes a piece separator as you can see in the picture.  There are 5 instruction booklets and then a sticker sheet.  Thankfully the stickers are mostly license plates and a few others so it's not a massively stickered set like some in the past have been.

The first bag is a forklift.  This is not the first appearance of a forklift in a City set.  It has been in the Cargo Terminal #60022 from 2013 and Cargo Truck #60020 from 2013.  This one includes a female minifigure, a hand cart to move things around and a small pallet with miniature LEGO sets on them.  These have appeared before to include in 2010's LEGO City Truck (#3221).  Not too much has changed on this forklift design although it is in red versus orange or yellow.

I pictured some of the extra small pieces included at the bottom of the photo for reference.

The second bag is a crane that has a movable arm.  That is the arm rotates up and down but the hook part does not move in and out of the arm.  The hook attaches to a crate that you build in yellow with the LEGO logo stickers on either side.  The forklift can load the pallet of LEGO sets into this crate.  The set includes 3 other crates that can be picked up with this crane.

The third bag is the start of the truck to carry the crates.  Nothing too special about this part of the build.

Bag number 4 completes the truck.  It comes with a driver who has a beverage and one crate with a mini-jet ski or similar type item in the crate.  The truck has room for 2 crates in total.

The fifth bag is a trailer that attaches to the truck to carry additional crates.  This allows you to load all of the crates that come with the set onto the truck.  Nothing too impressive about this build.  My only complaint is that the front axle has a ball attachment to the back of the truck and then the axle itself is on rotating plates.  When you attach it to the truck and have it turn, it can over spin.  I would go with either the ball attaching to the truck or the rotating axle, but not both.  Too be fair, it doesn't take away from the trailer or the set that much... it's just a nit picky complaint that I have I guess.

The sixth bag is 2 additional crates.  One has a small four-wheeler and the other is... um... maybe a snow plow that is supposed to attach to a larger truck?  I'm not really sure.  You could pretend it is a number of things I guess.  The crates are built similar to the others where the fork lift can lift off the cargo and the crane can pick up the crate itself.

The seventh bag is a small hut that could be the entrance to the cargo area.  There is a female minifigure that sits inside with a coffee maker, some cookies, a camera with a view of traffic, a wrench, a walkie talkie, and a barrier arm that swivels up and down.  Like many City sets, this leaves a bit to be desired with no back wall to the building and not a lot else to it.  It's sets like these that I enjoy because I can then use my own pieces and parts to expand upon them to make them better.  Also, it can be a good addition to a larger cargo yard that you are building.

The eighth bag is a rack where the forklift can place the pallets.  There are four slots for the 4 items with the set.  As mentioned with the building, the shelving could stand to be expanded, but that's where your imagination can come into play.  It's a good start to what could be a larger cargo yard.

Here is the entire set.  In my opinion, it's a great set.  There are lots of play features, there is room for expansion, and it's not a repeated City set that you see re-hashed every year.  Definitely a good set for a kiddo or for a nerdy adult like me who builds city scenes with LEGO bricks.  Look for the opportunity to get this on sale.  In early May 2018, the set is around 19% off on Amazon.com in the US.  LEGO seems to add to the cargo theme every few years versus annually so if you can't get this one, you'll have to wait a few years.

Happy building!

BRICKS FOR BRICKS STORE ANNOUNCEMENT - CLOSING 31 MAY 2018

It is with great sadness that I announce that the BrickLink.com store for Bricks for Bricks will be closing on 31 May 2018.  My non-LEGO job is pulling me away (from Bricklink, but closer to Bilund).  I have an amazing opportunity that I couldn't turn down, but I will be unable to run the business while I'm away.  I will keep the website running as well as I can and I hope to be back in business in a few years.

Thanks to everyone who supported all of the great groups that we've worked with over the past 4 years.  We're at over $120 for Brick Dreams this drive with one month to go.  I will post the final number when we get there.  Happy building!

Set Review - Series 18 Collectible Minifigures - #71021

The 18th series of collectible minifigures were released in the US on 1 April 2018.  There are 17 minifigures in this series and they retail for $3.99 in the US.  After the Ninjago movie minifigures and the second set of Batman movie minifigures, I am glad to have another original, creative set.  This series is being released along with the 40th anniversary of the minifigure so there is a party theme to celebrate.  So here they are...

The first four minifigures are costumed with tails.  The cowboy has the back half of the horse that he's riding.  The unicorn and cat just have tails.  The dragon has some impressive wings and horns on the back as well as a tail.  In keeping with the Batman Series 2 minifigures, these also all have orange base plates to stand on versus the standard black base plates in many of the past series.

The next four all have some impressive costumes.  The first is a spider.  He has a pretty impressive spider on his back and is holding a small spider.  The next is an elephant with a tutu.  She is next to a mouse and has an alternate face where she is pretty shocked to see the mouse.  I'm a big fan of the cactus.  If you have never seen an actual Saguaro cactus up close, they are pretty impressive and some get rather tall.  I think this minifigure costume is a good representation.  Next is a firework of some sort.  The sun glasses definitely add to the costume.

Here are four more party minifigures.  The first is a clown that makes balloon animals.  There are two balloon animals and the scale and accuracy of each were well done by the LEGO designers.  Next up is the blue brick girl.  Along with the red brick guy, they were the most numerous in the orders that I placed.  The last one to mention is the flower girl.  There's a flower costume hat and a pot to go around the pants.  This one is definitely outside the norm for what LEGO creates and I'm a fan.

Next up are two with some bigger pieces that are quite different from the past 18 sets of minifigures.  First up is a guy popping out of a cake.  He is a full minifigure and just fits in the larger cake piece.  The splashes of frosting on his shirt are a nice touch and the gold party hat helps too.  The next one is a race car driver.  He has some creative patches on his shirt and the car looks like it could be a part of the Speed Champions line.  

Finally there is a boy who is a party attendee.  He is holding a balloon and has a gift that includes some past LEGO collectible minifigure bags.  Then there's the original LEGO policeman minfigure from back in the day holding the original set he came from.  I ended up purchasing 3 orders of 17 from LEGO Shop at Home (they only allow you to purchase 17 per order) and I only had one of the policeman minifigures.  There is a girl to attend the party too, but she did not come in the first 51 minifigures I ordered.  If I get her later, I will add her picture to this post.

I was about to wrap things up with this post and then had to save it as a draft.  In the meantime, another order of series 18 minifigs arrived and the party girl showed up.  She is similar to the party boy only she has a purple party hat and balloon.  Her gift is full of 1x1 round tile sweet treats.  

It took 4 orders of 17 minifigures from LEGO to get all 17 minifigures.  I'm thankful to have a store to sell the extras in otherwise this method is not the way to go to collect these.  With that being said though, this series is awesome.  These are some great minifigures that were creatively designed.  If you're a collector of these, I recommend picking these up over some of the past licensed minifigure sets.  

Bricks on the Tube

There are a lot of great fan sites out there and usually the pick up the good videos, but there are a few that I haven't seen around so much.  

To start off, there's this video.  Without spoiling it, this 18 year old from Andorra found a way to use LEGO to improve his life in a big way.  Check it out!

Ever since he was a kid, David Aguilar was obsessed with Lego. He spent his childhood building cars, planes, helicopters, and eventually, his own prosthetic. Born with a deformed arm, the self-named "Hand Solo" decided to take his Lego-building skills to the next level.

This next one says it is 7 months old or so as of the publishing of this post, but I haven't seen it before.  This one is made by the LEGO group and shows LEGO's supply chain process from plastic bits, to the formation of pieces, to creating a set, to delivering the set to the store.  It's worth the watch if you haven't seen it before.  

Here's our fantastic short documentary showing you exactly how our iconic LEGO bricks are made. Be prepared for all your questions to be be answered!

I had seen the first version of this one by BrickBrosProductions.  You can see it here.  The creators used LEGO bricks in real life to do different things like cook eggs on a frying pan.  The second version below is similar to the first one.  Enjoy!

In our newest brickfilm, Lego In Real Life 2, a boy craves to eat an egg for breakfast. It turns out that the egg may have some interesting qualities... Check out this awesome video: Talking to the guys who made LEGO In Real Life - An Interview with BrickBrosProductions https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGYE2rsLHL8 Go check out Jerome Montpetit's channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCf4UEAWuTS8sofd69PVlJAg Music composed in Filmstro Pro!