Pick a Brick and Bricks & Pieces were two different ways to obtain loose LEGO® bricks directly from the company, and as you may be aware the two services have just been combined into one.
There are many advantages and improvements to the new system, which LEGO have been very communicative and transparent about with the fan community. However, there is a major change which renders the service largely useless to many, especially those of you who read this site: new elements are not currently available. And it might stay that way.
Complex internal discussions have been going on at the LEGO Group and were still underway at the time the new service went live this week, and so they erred on the side of caution in the meantime and new 2022 elements are not currently available. Depending how these discussions go, it may become the rule that there is some sort of delay before they are added; we don't yet know.
Neither do we know quite what the definition of a new element will be – new moulds, decorated elements and recolours of existing elements, or just some? How long will elements be held back? We've asked for answers via the AFOLET team, who have the often unenviable job of reflecting AFOL views back to the rest of the company. They will let us know once it is decided, and we will pass it on to you.
Of course, new elements can still be bought within the new sets, but I don't need to explain to you the issues with that! And with time, they will become available on the third-party sites like they always have.
Various other issues are being raised by the community too, such as price increases on elements. We won't delve into all that here, as the single issue of not being able to get new elements truly is the overwhelming issue for us. How about you; will this affect you, and how?
This is a complete disaster!!! I love coming on this site to get the low-down on the elements and recolours each month, to see what I can get (often in large quantities) on the BnP site. This brought me sooooo much joy!!! Hopefully, this changes very soon!!!!
ReplyDeleteBnP has basically become useless for me, as I only order new elements. And with availability low, the prices on other sites like BL will go up as well.
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ReplyDeleteThis will save me quite a bit of money buying parts I don't really need but want to experiment with, but it is a major let down. I can understand that they might not want people buying 200 sheep, making BNP a weird siphon for limited stock to fall into the hands of lucky traders, but a cap of 10 pieces for each item over €1 would achieve a similar goal.
Of course if it's just to steer us towards buying complete sets, I might start using explatives.
I wonder if the lack of new elements has anything to do with the current backlog of orders. Maybe it's just a temporary measure to help them get back on track to the posted shipping time estimates?
ReplyDeleteFor the past year I've been buying recolors in China, originally not to use them in my MOCs (it's kinda breaking the rules) until Lego officially released them. That way I didn't have to wait until Lego was ok to sell them to me, and then wait another month for them to process the order.
ReplyDeleteReally, there's competition out there, Lego shouldn't make it even harder to buy from them.
What's the point now? I agree a "limit" on new in-demand elements could ease any strain the robots have fulfilling orders and alleviate the issue of Lego making more money off items that cost less than pennies to manufacture though. BrickLink sellers now have more reason to part out multiples of new sets and charge a premium.
ReplyDeleteMy main issue is that there is no more difference between "not in stock" and "not for sale". So it's hard to day if I should come back to try again or not.
ReplyDeleteThis is so very sad. Getting the new pieces at B&P was one of the main joys of the hobby for me. I am a complete part monkey opening that bag of never seen pieces was so exiting. TLG please don't do that, that means so much for so many of us!!!
ReplyDeleteHmm, that's a bummer, even if new elements often have been sold out or not added yet when I have tried BNP earlier...
ReplyDeleteYet another kick in the teeth for the AFOL community! I can’t think of any other manufacturer that prevents valued customers from buying their products! It’s all about trying to sell more sets because of the vast profit margin. Selling parts is more labour intensive and therefore less profitable.
ReplyDeleteIt is actually a well known policy in many tech companies, so I am not entirely surprised.
DeleteAs an AFOL who's collection is more limited by space than cost, this is a huge setback me. I've been slowly dusting & sorting my entire collection and filling in the gaps with B&P orders, with the goal of having a small number of every common system part in every currently produced solid color so that I always have the pieces on hand when I build small creations.
ReplyDeleteI don't mind waiting a few months after parts come out, but it was really nice being able to buy new pieces all together from the Lego company rather that placing many orders with 3P sellers...
Thanks Lego, the new parts I need to finish my MoC, purchased via Bricklink, will have to come from sellers in three different countries and the total would come to £86 including delivery, around 4x the B&P price just before the site vanished. That's before the sellers realise that they can ramp up their prices even more for scarce parts. I do hope that this is just a temporary administrative catch-up rather than a deliberate attempt to ration new parts. Do you want me to give up my hobby?
ReplyDeleteI am quite frustrated by this change. Bricks and Pieces wasn't terribly well known outside of the AFOL community, and it offered influential member of the community to buy brand new parts and start exploring how to incorporate them into models (ex: JKBrickworks), or in my case - deciding which new parts are versatile enough to add to my LEGO Brick Labels collection right away.
ReplyDeleteIt's not realistic, or environmentally responsible, for TLG to suggest that the only way for serious fans to get their hands on new parts is to buy a bunch of sets.
The cat is out of the bag, this is our new expectation - How about replacing it with a subscription service where we receive a bag of brand new parts every 3 months for a modest fee?
Tom's suggest of a subscription service to all new parts every three months sounds like a fantastic idea.
ReplyDeleteI would happily pay a premium for such a service. That would be much more environment, time, and space friendly than the remaining alternatives.
The idea that new 2022 elements are not available in Pick a Brick is of course not true. I took the January list from NE, picked some designs and checked availability. Many elements from this long list are not available, true, but some are, like 77808 (two of three colors available) and 86996 (medium nougat available).
ReplyDeleteThe statement "new elements will not be sold via B&P" cannot be true. How long is 'new' defined? Most elements will be available over time I guess, it's just gonna take some longer than we were used to. So the real question is: how long will it take for a new element or recolor to show up in B&P?
One thing that bothered me (and Minifig Man) from the start of the fusion is the difference between 'not in stock' and 'not for sale'. The dutch version of B&P now has a switch button for that. It doesn't seem to work however. I happen to know that design 86996 (plate 1x1x2/3) has been available in the past in olive green, but it's not on the site now and the not-in-stock button doesn't show any difference.
The idea of a subscription service seems attractive. On second thought, it would be problematic as well. I'm not interested in new Duplo elements, nor in swivel plates just because it's a new mould (with no real difference from the old mould). I am interested in technic elements, but others might not. I would like the Porsche bow (design 77180), but no more than 2 per color. And I'd like at least 16 of the technic beam 3x19, please. After all, the decisions which new parts are versatile enough to add to your collection is a highly personal choice.
Have we AFOLs made use of B&P too much? Did we let slip the secret to too many fans? I don't think those questions are valid or constructive. I think TLC is struggling to adapt its processes to its growth and that leads to temporary inconvenience.
Yes I agree. I don't personally want all new elements, just specific ones so I'm not sure a subscription service would work for me. I'm wondering if it's become so busy for Lego now to pick all the B&P pieces for orders that it's becoming too time consuming for them and eating into profits. Lego did almost go bus once and they'll be careful to make sure they don't get into this position again
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