Brick Bits #1

Return of a legend

As usually happens at the beginning of a month, we have another wave of brick releases from LEGO®. After 14 years, Indiana Jones sets are appearing in the offer again, tied to the upcoming film about his adventures. One of those sets surprised me quite a lot with its price. I mean 77013 Escape from Lost Tomb.

I wonder whether there is some kind of surprise inside the Ark of the Covenant 🧐

Usually you can expect licensed sets to cost more, but not this time! For exactly 600 bricks, the official site asks 179.99 PLN, which works out to 0.30 PLN per brick. That is a good price for an ordinary set from, for example, the Creator series, and for a licensed one it is very good. I also expected that at this price it would only be available in LS, but surprisingly you can already order it from SMYK for 20 PLN less, which suggests limited distribution.

To make it funnier, another smaller set, 77012 Fighter Plane Chase, has a catalog price of 159.99 PLN and only 387 parts, which gives 0.41 PLN per brick. To quote the classic, “I leave the math to you.”

A charming design, although the car’s ‘windshield’ looks very weak.

At the very end of the new series we have a diorama for adults. The set is 77015 Temple of the Golden Idol. It shows the first scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark. We get 1545 parts for the catalog price of 699 PLN, and here the conversion is already very unfavorable: 0.45 PLN per brick. That is half as much again as the set I mentioned at the beginning. Quite a difference, right? The only thing that might save the situation is broad distribution. For now it is visible only on the SMYK site and costs 100 PLN less. It is a great shame they flew so high with the price, because it looks very nice.

A beautiful diorama and great minifigures do not look like a 699 PLN set.

To sum up, I do not know what is going on in the heads of the people responsible for pricing individual sets, but this is not a good direction. I realize that the price-per-brick ratio is not universal. Sometimes sets have unique molds, special colors, and that can raise the price. Heck, even the box itself can do that, especially if it is black. But for me, someone who buys sets while thinking more about the parts, this situation is unacceptable. I will definitely get the first set. It has a lot of nice parts and a very good price. I will probably stare at the rest in the catalog and skip them, because for that money I can get far more bricks. I also really regret that we are seeing another Indiana Jones and not an Adventurers series. Ehh, those were the days…

Land Rover is coming

Ta-da! Majestic Land Rover

If you think I am complaining too much about prices, look at this beast now. Cool, right? That will be 1149 PLN, please. You get 2336 parts and yes, that means 0.49 PLN per brick. Maybe now you will tell me, “eh, this will surely enter broad distribution, stop complaining, rybeusz.” Hehe, and do you maybe remember Camaro (10304)? After half a year in exclusive distribution, it seems that this set is slowly entering the market, but for now it is visible only at jatu.eu and Proshop. At catalog price it came out to 0.55 PLN per brick, and currently at the lowest price it is 0.45 PLN per brick.

A set from the Creator 3-in-1 line, for example the new LEGO® 31139 Cozy House, is currently available on the market for 200 PLN and gives us 800 bricks. That comes out to 0.25 PLN per brick. Of course, we do not have a license for a real car or a massive box here, but I still do not think the Land Rover is worth its price. If you decide to get it anyway, it will certainly look great on a shelf 😉

Pick a Brick

A Viking helmet appeared in the Pick a Brick service on the LEGO® site some time ago, but it was only available under “Standard”. Now it is available as a “Bestseller”, so the wait for shipping is max 6 days.

There is also a knight visor in gold. On BrickLink both are more expensive.

Location map

The Fan Klocków blog has launched a map of locations related to the LEGO® brand. You can find stores, museums, and other spots on it. I think it is a very useful tool. Unfortunately they do not have all the locations entered yet, but there is a contest tied to adding them. You can find the map here.

Choo-choos

The long-awaited train series from COBI also premiered. I admit I had been waiting impatiently myself. LEGO® also has an interesting offer of railcars, but they are designed mainly for children. COBI, on the other hand, made a historical locomotive and it looks phenomenal! The wheel mechanism looks great, and on top of that we get two-color tracks 🤯 COBI may shake up the market nicely with little wonders like these. The price-per-brick is not bad, but I will wait with the purchase until it drops a bit in broader distribution.

For now only straight tracks are available in the sets, but curves are planned too.

April Fools’ Day

April 1 was not long ago, so everyone tried to shine with some kind of joke. Fake sets were to be expected, but this year LEGO® went a step further and sent several well-known YouTubers a “prototype” set for evaluation. In the photos it looked completely different than after being built. I would not mind one myself: it seems to have a lot of nice parts. 😄 Interestingly, nobody received a box; the bricks came in plastic bags. Our homegrown company COBI also joined the jokes, though without any bigger stunt.

Summary

And that is the end of the first post in the Brick Bits series. Thank you for reading! I hope you liked the format :) I encourage you to comment and share other bits of trivia from the LEGO® and COBI world. Until next time!