I haven't been in Lego in years and figured there was no way a single store would have a thousand of a single kind of brick on the shelf. Maybe a few hundred, but I don't believe a thousand would be useful because of the store layout and limited space.
Thats why other brick companies exist. Lego is overrated and expensive. ppl are heavily biased with it (i was too). With cobi, go bricks, bluebrixx and co i changed my view. Lego cant even produce 6x6 tiles glittering. Others can.
Now I just got to add in the cost of gas for a 550 mile drive to the nearest Lego store and hope they have the specific brick I want aaaaaand nope I think it’s cheaper online
Those cups man. I'd be stacking all my bigger pieces, and then filling the voids with all the small plates and pieces it could fit, tapping it down for 20 minutes, and filling again.
That's great, except that the pick-a-brick walls usually have less than 30 different parts. Also, I've never seen a 2x8 brick on a pick-a-brick wall. Not once in over 15 years.
You also save the service charge and shipping. But you have to find a store with 1000 2x8 gray bricks that will let you sit there and stack them to fill the cups...
@@Obyvvatel A couple years ago a Chinese company was shut down for counterfeiting lego bricks. The bricks they sold were so well made that a chemical analysis was required in order to differentiate them from the genuine ones. They sold them for 109$ for 1000 bricks. Think about that.
I would say the answer would probably be no considering there's that giant cavity that pushes upward into the total volume of the cup. It's for a cool Lego gimmick, but it also allows less pieces overall to be put into the cup. So I think pick a brick is obviously cheaper if you don't include shipping
You can save even more if you melt the bricks down first, then pour the liquified legos into cups. I wouldn’t doubt you could fit them all into 4 or 5 cups.
You know Lego thought about all this and figured it all out before they ever offered those cups right? They wouldn't do it if they were losing money versus other ways that they sell them.
Yeah. The stores, at least where I live, only have a very limited and unpredictabe selection of bricks. The number of people with the patience to visit the stores repeatedly and then pack the peices into a cup are likely too small for Lego to care about.
Literally only needed to fill one cup and use a tiny bit of math. Tip for next time. Find cost for 1 brick online. Go to store and find that brick. Fill cup with that brick. Divide the cost of the cup by the number you fit in. And compare to online price.
Stacking is the only method when going to pick a brick. They used to have holiday cubes for like $5. I ended up with a few solid cubes of 1x2, 1x3, and 1x4 flats.
Thx for that. I remember, if Afol's still do this, line the cup and stack as much as they can getting the maximum amount in the space and some people get like from a $16/cup, about $25 on up worth of Lego. One store pissed me off in NYC, the big flagship at Rockefeller (the new one on 5th, not the one next to the ice-rink that closed), in 2021 they didn't let me fill my own cup, they insisted THEY do it, and I just pointed to what I wanted. I hated it. I don't maximize, but I put smallest pieces to the bottom, squeeze in as much as I can filling every space as possible and then smaller elements to the top to even fill in the indent in the lid and hold carefully til I get to the counter...lol.
Good to know. Bet there are some really small decorative pieces you could shove inside the gaps between brick layers? LOL. When 3D printing gets good enough Lego is screwed. They’ll basically be selling filament, model files and instructions at that point, lol. My printer can only do 0.1mm height and 0.2mm width. I can print okay Legos with ABS but ABS is a pain to print with because it’s slower and needs good temperature control. While the bricks snap together okay it’s just not the same, especially the gap tolerances and overall finish is lacking. Also the occasional small bumps or rough spots. Give it another 10 years and I think higher end consumer 3D printers will make fairly passable legos. The market is really starting to take off with good innovations and competition so I’m hopeful.
We're actually there already, FDM is not the right choice though, resin printed Legos are probably way easier to get to the right tolerances, and consumer resin printers are getting super cheap and high quality
He was just using the bricks he already bought from lego. He then put the bricks in PAB cups he already had to show how to do it better he didn't actually buy all the cups like that. Did you even watch the video.
Everybody's commenting on the added cost of going to the store, arranging the bricks, gas, time, etc. Just move into a store permanently. Then, you'll have all you need all the time.
My son is learning this the hard way. He got a gift card from someone for Christmas and is realizing there is basically no Lego set he can buy at this store for $25. There are a couple small sets but he already has them. I’m kinda tempted to just chip in. I grew up poor and hardly had any Lego, but I don’t want to spoil my kids either just because I can afford it now. But I also like Lego and building with him. It’s quite the conundrum. Sometimes I’ll buy a big set for myself and build it, but I limit his play time with mine because I don’t want him to get spoiled. He is extremely excited every time I let him play, usually about one Saturday per month. He is a much better builder than I was at his age, he is six and usually does sets for 9 or 10 year olds, but when he rarely gets stuck he gets extremely frustrated and about loses it. I’m trying to teach him patience and troubleshooting by walking back through the work. Oh to be a kid again…his greatest stress is Technic. I remember my first Technic, lol, did not end well.
I think that is actually how he got those bags in the video. It seems he was implying how someone could find a thousand of those bricks cheaper from the two sources he mentioned.
The two Lego stores near me don't allow people to interlock studs. I stopped trying after the 4th trip they told me not to. I had to unstack the pieces before they would let me buy them.
really? My store told me that I should do it to make the most of it and encourages over filling as long as the lid would stay on (I thanked the but tbh I was too lazy and wanted a good seal on the lid since I had so many tiny studs that could leak out if overfilled) ther staff at mine were super cool
Are they really going to let you spend the whole day stacking 20 cups worth of pieces? Even so, is your time worth so little value to do all this? Sheesh!
I just loaded up on the new double door frames this past weekend from the lego store and 13 of those covered the cost of my entire pick a brick cup they were in and compared to shop at home the same amount they were $5 cheaper off the wall to. I also got about 12 wall panel pieces in the same pick a brick cup, so I basically got them for free, which was awesome since I use them in a lot of mocs.
You have to account for shipping and/or travel. Even if you live in a city with a Lego store, time & gas/tolls etc. counts into the cost and shipping...for that many bricks, at least another $50 easy
I will spend 45 minutes filling every spare space in that damn cup (don't forget the space in the lid!) It's truly amazing how much you can fit in there!
Please do the same with a couple different smaller brick types. I have a hunch that stacking or putting bricks together for small bricks may actually be worse than pouring them in the cup
I wish we could check online which pieces are available in the physical store - I rarely stumble upon anything I’d consider needing a cup of.. not to mention some pieces will never make it there, let alone in colour you need. It’s a lottery.
@@Dimage666 there are already companies doing this for about 20% of the Lego price. Designs are changed just enough to avoid copyright lawsuits. like the heads have ears, hands have thumbs etc. If you want to completely replicate Lego you can get designs and print at home for about 5% of the cost. The downside is you won't have the equipment or the skills to paint on the faces.
It does sound a bit like "If anybody ever needs 1000 bricks and has a pcik-a-brick nearby and can spend a few hours filling cups without getting kicked out then they can save a lot of money".
that's why you buy the cheaper alternatives that cost a fraction but have even better quality today. Just look at the jokes that Lego sells as sets for 500 bucks while other companies offer more detail and quality for around 80-100
It is almost like you are paying extra for the convenience of never having to leave your home. Like the person who has to gather the bricks, count them, package them, and get them to a transportation center of some kind (or pay to have it picked up), and the overall cost of the facility. Where is your closest Lego Store? 50 or 100 miles away? More? Did we miss that day in economic education?
It's nice in an ideal world though. In reality, 99% of PAB walls aren't worth visiting even 50% of the time. The wait doesn't justify the savings if you need to stock up for mocs. This is only great if you're not making anything and only want to expand your dormant inventory.
I think it would be more frustrating than fun. At least at the Lego store near me the pick a brick selection is pretty small and random, so it would take a lot of visits to accumulate all the parts for a set even if you didn't care about the color.
But they would never let you check out that way right? I feel like they would want to see each brick youre getting for inventory reasons and they cant technically be sure you didnt sandwhich something in there. Idk, seems unlikely either way but still
That is fascinating. Only thing is where I can find that many bricks at a pick a brick location.
I haven't been in Lego in years and figured there was no way a single store would have a thousand of a single kind of brick on the shelf. Maybe a few hundred, but I don't believe a thousand would be useful because of the store layout and limited space.
There’s one in Germany or something they have everything
@@truckinNloving you see what 1000 bricks looks like in the video. just two bags, nothing crazy lol.
@Truckin N Lovin depending on the piece lego pab walls can have several thousands of a piece.
Mall of america
Hol up 35 cents for a singular brick? Holy shit.
Not even a special brick !!
Higher margins than lvmh
Thats why other brick companies exist. Lego is overrated and expensive. ppl are heavily biased with it (i was too). With cobi, go bricks, bluebrixx and co i changed my view.
Lego cant even produce 6x6 tiles glittering. Others can.
@@xSoulhunterDKx I see you are a viewer of our Held, Thomas Panke!
@@jojogh10the master of Klemmbausteine
Now I just got to add in the cost of gas for a 550 mile drive to the nearest Lego store and hope they have the specific brick I want aaaaaand nope
I think it’s cheaper online
@@Vor1ki I agree, and I live near two places with pick a bricks.
Dang, that’s hard to hear boss. I have three Lego stores within 30 minutes of me.
@@GeeWillikersMan ain’t no way I see this while going to the lego store lol
@@cowerdnerddespacito9518 well what are the odds of that? We both need to buy lottery tickets today.
@@GeeWillikersMan I would if I wasn’t going to drain my funds for lego!
Don't forget, you can reuse your cups at the store and save another 50 cents a cup.
Smart
Me who just threw away my two cups: no no no wait wait wait
Or you use bricklink to buy your bricks.
Those cups man. I'd be stacking all my bigger pieces, and then filling the voids with all the small plates and pieces it could fit, tapping it down for 20 minutes, and filling again.
I used to work at a Lego store, and was actually taught this strategy during staff training to help kids get the most out of their cups.
@@pyrock0227 wait seriously? That’s amazing
@@pyrock0227wow! Way to teach out of the box thinking but also being on the parent's side when it comes to money
Because it’s about 1$ in plastic there they don’t care how much you jam in there they are going to make a profit
@@mcfatsac yeah that's not $1 in AbS plastic pal. You need to do more research and see the process.
It’s amazing how this company has convinced Middle Aged men to buy plastic at the prices of gold.
Plus you could have probably added a nice quantity of 1x1 or 1x2 as filler to add more value
That's great, except that the pick-a-brick walls usually have less than 30 different parts. Also, I've never seen a 2x8 brick on a pick-a-brick wall. Not once in over 15 years.
I have at my stores in my era. it always full you dont see many people buying 2x8 bricks
When I went to Legoland the pick-a-brick was done by weight, not volume 😕
honestly by volume turns It into a pretty fun game
@@jestawell yeah, sitting on a Lego store floor building an elaborate monument is one of my most common Lego building experiences haha
You also save the service charge and shipping.
But you have to find a store with 1000 2x8 gray bricks that will let you sit there and stack them to fill the cups...
Could also get em on Brick link for like 10-20 cents each
Exactly what I thought! Who buys individual bricks from Lego?
not in that quantity (999)
@@nicedragon815 Sometimes it's cheaper than bricklink and on Bricklink there are shipping costs where lego is 2.99 in the US.
but with boogers and stuff all over them.
@@nicedragon815 ur ma
Thanks for the tip! Being able to save $100 is definitely something good to know!
@@sven6809 they are less high quality tho
@@tortoise7556 If you need 1000 bricks like this at least some cheap ones can surely go unnoticed, and Gobricks are good quality.
Don’t buy legos and save $350
@@tortoise7556 making people believe that the very small difference in quality is worth an insane markup is lego biggest accomplishment.
@@fliprodriguez5250 if that is an option your looking at, then yes
Legos are being sold for way more than they are worth
I consider them overprized as well, but that doesn't mean it's a bad business. They are worth whatever enough people are willing to pay for them.
They are but not as much as you'd think, the tolerances on them are pretty high for a piece of plastic
And yet people still buy them so I guess the price is fine Supply and demand is a thing.
@@Obyvvatel A couple years ago a Chinese company was shut down for counterfeiting lego bricks. The bricks they sold were so well made that a chemical analysis was required in order to differentiate them from the genuine ones. They sold them for 109$ for 1000 bricks. Think about that.
@@Obyvvatel still not worth it usually. Go bricks are awesome
I honestly didn’t know there were specific Lego stores that only sold Legos!
Yes but your local store has to have the bricks in stock. That color and size is rare to find.
I would say the answer would probably be no considering there's that giant cavity that pushes upward into the total volume of the cup. It's for a cool Lego gimmick, but it also allows less pieces overall to be put into the cup.
So I think pick a brick is obviously cheaper if you don't include shipping
You can save even more if you melt the bricks down first, then pour the liquified legos into cups. I wouldn’t doubt you could fit them all into 4 or 5 cups.
Also... At the store you can fill the gaps between the bricks with small parts in the pic a brick wall ;)
Never been to a Lego store. For loose bricks is it just like squares and rectangles or so they have special bricks also
I always wondered how people got so many bricks of one colour when the commonly available packs I see have an assortment of sizes and colours
You know Lego thought about all this and figured it all out before they ever offered those cups right? They wouldn't do it if they were losing money versus other ways that they sell them.
Yeah.
The stores, at least where I live, only have a very limited and unpredictabe selection of bricks. The number of people with the patience to visit the stores repeatedly and then pack the peices into a cup are likely too small for Lego to care about.
Thats so cool, here in Hungary Pick a Brick price in the store is determined by wieght, so you're lucky
I didn't even know pick a brick existed in europe...
@@nemo-x I didn't know it existed at all until just now!
stacking the bricks is a great tip! Then pour in the smaller pieces like 2x1s and studs etc. 👍
Literally only needed to fill one cup and use a tiny bit of math.
Tip for next time.
Find cost for 1 brick online.
Go to store and find that brick.
Fill cup with that brick.
Divide the cost of the cup by the number you fit in.
And compare to online price.
The plastic waste produced annually by Lego must be astronomical.
My guess is that it's surprisingly low.
Lego is not a throw away product. It's usually kept for a long time, often decades.
I feel like you could buy a machine that makes bricks? For the simple ones that are square shaped.
Stacking is the only method when going to pick a brick. They used to have holiday cubes for like $5. I ended up with a few solid cubes of 1x2, 1x3, and 1x4 flats.
Poland be like:
You want a handful of legos? Yeah we accept kidneys as payment
Thx for that. I remember, if Afol's still do this, line the cup and stack as much as they can getting the maximum amount in the space and some people get like from a $16/cup, about $25 on up worth of Lego.
One store pissed me off in NYC, the big flagship at Rockefeller (the new one on 5th, not the one next to the ice-rink that closed), in 2021 they didn't let me fill my own cup, they insisted THEY do it, and I just pointed to what I wanted. I hated it.
I don't maximize, but I put smallest pieces to the bottom, squeeze in as much as I can filling every space as possible and then smaller elements to the top to even fill in the indent in the lid and hold carefully til I get to the counter...lol.
Are you poor, but also buying Lego
@@tehjamerz Sorry to hear you're poor. Lego has alot of price ranges though. Hang in there. Things will pick up.
My gf still doesn't understand this concept when she's loading the dishes
I'd love to do this, but the nearest LEGO store is 3.5 hours away
Thanks for doing this, very interesting!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Good to know. Bet there are some really small decorative pieces you could shove inside the gaps between brick layers? LOL.
When 3D printing gets good enough Lego is screwed. They’ll basically be selling filament, model files and instructions at that point, lol. My printer can only do 0.1mm height and 0.2mm width. I can print okay Legos with ABS but ABS is a pain to print with because it’s slower and needs good temperature control. While the bricks snap together okay it’s just not the same, especially the gap tolerances and overall finish is lacking. Also the occasional small bumps or rough spots. Give it another 10 years and I think higher end consumer 3D printers will make fairly passable legos. The market is really starting to take off with good innovations and competition so I’m hopeful.
We're actually there already, FDM is not the right choice though, resin printed Legos are probably way easier to get to the right tolerances, and consumer resin printers are getting super cheap and high quality
LEGO® is already screwed. Many off-brands make bricks of equal if not better quality.
He was just using the bricks he already bought from lego. He then put the bricks in PAB cups he already had to show how to do it better he didn't actually buy all the cups like that. Did you even watch the video.
That’s what I call commitment to the experiment!
Plus all the tiny studs you can fit in there
Everybody's commenting on the added cost of going to the store, arranging the bricks, gas, time, etc. Just move into a store permanently. Then, you'll have all you need all the time.
You can't check out a pick a brick cup unless the lid fits on, though, right?
Correct, or at least it was the last time I was at a Lego store, which was probably about 10 years ago.
@mikehall3976 it's still the case, picked up one last week. The staff help tape down the lid though haha
Now, to find one of these locations and drive a few hours (or days) to save money!
My takeaway from this video is that Lego is too dang expensive, no matter how you buy it. 😔
My son is learning this the hard way. He got a gift card from someone for Christmas and is realizing there is basically no Lego set he can buy at this store for $25. There are a couple small sets but he already has them.
I’m kinda tempted to just chip in. I grew up poor and hardly had any Lego, but I don’t want to spoil my kids either just because I can afford it now. But I also like Lego and building with him. It’s quite the conundrum.
Sometimes I’ll buy a big set for myself and build it, but I limit his play time with mine because I don’t want him to get spoiled. He is extremely excited every time I let him play, usually about one Saturday per month. He is a much better builder than I was at his age, he is six and usually does sets for 9 or 10 year olds, but when he rarely gets stuck he gets extremely frustrated and about loses it. I’m trying to teach him patience and troubleshooting by walking back through the work. Oh to be a kid again…his greatest stress is Technic. I remember my first Technic, lol, did not end well.
Aren’t you in the builders program ,where you get the cheaper
I think that is actually how he got those bags in the video. It seems he was implying how someone could find a thousand of those bricks cheaper from the two sources he mentioned.
The two Lego stores near me don't allow people to interlock studs. I stopped trying after the 4th trip they told me not to. I had to unstack the pieces before they would let me buy them.
Ok that's sad. When I first did this again post-lockdown the employees were happy to see people do this again^^
really? My store told me that I should do it to make the most of it and encourages over filling as long as the lid would stay on (I thanked the but tbh I was too lazy and wanted a good seal on the lid since I had so many tiny studs that could leak out if overfilled) ther staff at mine were super cool
Ridiculus price for a piece of plastic...but high quality pigment is apperently expensive. But still its expensive.
and then fill it with studs and other small pieces for even more value after stacking them, because stacking them leaves those spaces open
Are they really going to let you spend the whole day stacking 20 cups worth of pieces? Even so, is your time worth so little value to do all this? Sheesh!
This is friggen content my mang. Dope.
Lego tires were always an s tier chewing option
I was literally wondering about this earlier today. Thanks for the video!
You see 1000 lego blocks. I see 1000 feet ruined.
Still a complete rip-off either way considering it costs Lego probably somewhere around a couple cents or less per brick to produce.
One of these bricks probably doesn't even cost a fraction of a cent.
I just loaded up on the new double door frames this past weekend from the lego store and 13 of those covered the cost of my entire pick a brick cup they were in and compared to shop at home the same amount they were $5 cheaper off the wall to. I also got about 12 wall panel pieces in the same pick a brick cup, so I basically got them for free, which was awesome since I use them in a lot of mocs.
Will the store allow you to clip them together to fill more space?
Yes!
@@mart555rct brilliant
You have to account for shipping and/or travel. Even if you live in a city with a Lego store, time & gas/tolls etc. counts into the cost and shipping...for that many bricks, at least another $50 easy
If you use a vertical stacking method I believe you will most likely get way more brick per cup just a thought
I will spend 45 minutes filling every spare space in that damn cup (don't forget the space in the lid!) It's truly amazing how much you can fit in there!
Hahaaaaaa but it goes by WEIGHT in lego stores 15 dollars per LB. As per my lego genius Son.
I wish I had this much time
*"Im never gonna use this math in real life"*
Wow! Good job on figuring that out!
It’s even more efficient with the new pick a brick boxes now
Plus I always need small pieces as well. So I fill the empty spaces around the built core with small parts I need.
It’s all about how you stack em
Excellent work. Thanks!
Only issue is you can’t find all the parts you need at a store, and you’re better off using the online store for parts for the VIP points
They get so angry if you try to stack bricks in cups in-store. Twice I have had to complain that their employees have harassed me about this
Please do the same with a couple different smaller brick types. I have a hunch that stacking or putting bricks together for small bricks may actually be worse than pouring them in the cup
Stacking will always help, but isn’t practical sometimes for some. Larger parts it’s always the way to go
You can save even more money if you buy off-brand bricks. They are way cheaper and are at least the same quality as LEGO®.
One thing that always surprises me about LEGO is how fucking expensive it is
Gotta factor in labor
I feel like I am missing out on an awesome community when I stopped playing with legos
I wish we could check online which pieces are available in the physical store - I rarely stumble upon anything I’d consider needing a cup of.. not to mention some pieces will never make it there, let alone in colour you need. It’s a lottery.
This is the single best 3d printer advertising I have ever seen.
please make all of them and then tell us the price..
@@Dimage666 there are already companies doing this for about 20% of the Lego price.
Designs are changed just enough to avoid copyright lawsuits. like the heads have ears, hands have thumbs etc. If you want to completely replicate Lego you can get designs and print at home for about 5% of the cost. The downside is you won't have the equipment or the skills to paint on the faces.
@@Crispymemes yeah you go and build with those crapy stuff and I stick to the original that will not fall apart when you try to move them..
What do want to do build or fill cups? You’re getting paid to fill the cup. When you do a cost analysis like this, don’t forget to pay yourself.
It does sound a bit like "If anybody ever needs 1000 bricks and has a pcik-a-brick nearby and can spend a few hours filling cups without getting kicked out then they can save a lot of money".
If only the nearest lego store wasn't 200 miles away and a state over
Wow sounds like I should’ve kept those buckets of legos from my childhood
I've always wondered about this. How does it compare to bricklink?
that's why you buy the cheaper alternatives that cost a fraction but have even better quality today.
Just look at the jokes that Lego sells as sets for 500 bucks while other companies offer more detail and quality for around 80-100
and now substract your labor for sorting zhe blocks in the store and putting them together.
Now the cups are 2-3x the price of online
I have a good idea. Just keep stacking the cup. Like 1000 bricks in a cup. If they stop you, just say double it and give it to the next person.
It is almost like you are paying extra for the convenience of never having to leave your home. Like the person who has to gather the bricks, count them, package them, and get them to a transportation center of some kind (or pay to have it picked up), and the overall cost of the facility. Where is your closest Lego Store? 50 or 100 miles away? More? Did we miss that day in economic education?
Aren't they switching over the boxes with the same volume but with an easier shape to pack bricks into?
It's nice in an ideal world though. In reality, 99% of PAB walls aren't worth visiting even 50% of the time. The wait doesn't justify the savings if you need to stock up for mocs. This is only great if you're not making anything and only want to expand your dormant inventory.
Sorry, you didn't factor in the cost the plane ticket to get to a Lego store.
Now try and find a lego location that has anything close to the brick
Now stacking is much more nessecary at the pick a brick wall becauce of the new paper boxes( in germany the Cups are not allowed anymore 😢)
A question for the ages.
Now, if I could only find the Lego Store that has the Track Links in a Pick A Brick bin.
Ive been saying this. Its gotta be fun to download a set manual and walk in the store with an inventory list and go hunting.
I think it would be more frustrating than fun. At least at the Lego store near me the pick a brick selection is pretty small and random, so it would take a lot of visits to accumulate all the parts for a set even if you didn't care about the color.
This thinking only goes so far when you realize that you have to happen across the peice on the wall while PAB site has thousands of parts
Do you factor in the cost of labor stacking those bricks together and then taking them back apart?
@Branticus Maximus takes more than 5 mins to do that crap
I summ this up: don't buy lego, buy compatibles for half the price
And if you don't value your own labor, he's right
If you melt them down you can fill every cubic millimeter in the cup, amd save yourself another $150.
But they would never let you check out that way right? I feel like they would want to see each brick youre getting for inventory reasons and they cant technically be sure you didnt sandwhich something in there. Idk, seems unlikely either way but still
The answer to the question I never knew I had
Do 1x1 studs next
So basically, you being paid in labor stacking the Lego.
are they gonna let you stack at the lego store? genuine question. cuz i’d love to pull this off too then
Unfortunately it’s not allowed to stack them. In out Lego store we can shove the cup in the box or take them by hand and pour into the cup. 😢
How long did you have to stand there and pack bricks into cups though? How much is your time worth?
Lego is an awful Company with very Bad Reputation. Also with ripping off prizes. Please avoid their products guys
I don't understand, is it pay per container in the LEGO store? Or per piece?