The LEGO Wall: New site for tracking Pick A Brick (PAB)

leemcg

Hi @dwalton76. I nearly just made a journey to a store to pick up light grey 1x2 tiles, but realised that they were this part:

http://www.brickset.com/parts/?part=4227776

which have been on the walls for ages (and were there last time I updated - but that was before the move from BrickLinks ids and images).

I couldn't find any way to select the right part.

dwalton76

Hmmm, yeah for some reason that one is missing from the inventory. I'll take a look.

Paperballpark

It's not possible to select this brick either: http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=3839b

dwalton76

I see what is causing the missing parts. I'll have the new images uploaded by tomorrow night and then I can add them into the system.

SirBen

madforLEGO said:

The US stores are also reportedly getting the 1x2 brick with masonry pattern as well, but they keep selling out the minute they get it in due to demand.

The Shaumburg store had the better part of a case of these on Saturday, 9/28.

These bricks, however, were stacked in the corner with other cases of specialty pieces, such as the 1x1 black brick with studs on 4 sides and the olive green cheese slopes. Is there a way to track parts available, but not on the physical wall (i.e. the good stuff in the boxes in the corner)?

Buzzsaw

^ How about adding some extra 'virtual' spaces on the wall for these?
People going to the store will need to ask about the extra bits anyway.

SirBen

^ I didn't need to ask about them. They had 12 open cases stacked by the side, labeled with marker and a sample part taped to the end, ready for picking.

dwalton76

Right now there isn't a way to do it. Short term I could add an extra column or two to your store and you could put them in that way but that might be a bit confusing...at least they would be on the wall though.

Paperballpark

I say don't bother. How do you explain to people that they have to actually ask for those parts? Most AFoLs know to ask what they have in the back anyway, and that's not going to change if you display what's in the back - they'll still ask.

EarthlingJJ

hi,
dwalton76, I tried to update the Utah location, but part # 60603 won't show up( in the 4,3 slot). I'm not sure if this is the right place to let you know, but there it is. Thanks

madforLEGO

Paperballpark said:

I say don't bother. How do you explain to people that they have to actually ask for those parts? Most AFoLs know to ask what they have in the back anyway, and that's not going to change if you display what's in the back - they'll still ask.

You are right for those who have a store close to them and constantly go to their store.However, if someone has a way to drive to their store they may want to know that these parts have been spotted at their local store.
I would not want to have to go and drive to my closest LEGO shop and find out they do not have the 1x2 Masonry brick for example.
Im sure others feel the same way.
Can they call ahead? Sure, but then why have this site at all?
It is good to see what is roughly available at a site, in the wall or in the back.I say a section entitled reported as 'present but may not be on wall' may be something to be looked at

dwalton76

Hey Everyone, I should have all of the missing parts in the database now so let me know if there are any that you can't find. Sorry it took so long...I've been out of town for work for several weeks and my dev machine at home went down while I was away.

pillpod

For those that have access to the Tyson's store: they had 1x1 with studs on all sides in black. Never thought I would see them in the pab wall. They also had olive cheese slopes, as well as pink and purple 1x2 tiles.

cheshirecat

Some new (i think) pieces in Manchester. Can't remember which bins they were and didn't have my phone to photograph/video so can't update wallofbricks.

6x16 Dark bley plates
2x10 Tan plates
1x1 Black traffic light bricks

And i think there may be more new too as the 1x6x5 white panels are now on the breakfast bar.

Might be a nice selection for those going to the AFOL morning tomorrow.

Paperballpark

Oooh I think I'll be getting a few bits tomorrow! I haven't been in for a couple of weeks, so haven't seen white panels either. If I remember I'll take photos tomorrow and update the site.

Were the 'traffic light' bricks the ones with studs on 1 side, 2 sides or all 4 sides?

cheshirecat

All 4. And the white panels were in about three large tubs on the bar. They're included on the site - I must not have been in store for ages!

madforLEGO

Love the 6 x 16 plates but I really think that if you want to maximize your value with the cup to not add them and buy them from PaB online if they are available, because you use a lot of space in a cup for those.

cheshirecat

^Really - on PAB online they're £1.27 each so less than 9 for the price of a large cup. Unless they're cheaper from Bricks and Pieces.

I've bought individual pieces from the PAB wall in store before (to get over a cost threshold) which iirc was a set 50p each - so perhaps they'll sell them for that price?

madforLEGO

Hmm, thought I saw them cheaper than that, but some time ago. So I guess it would be cost effective to stuff the cup full of them, but you would need at least 8 in a cup to break even. As they are 2.00 US in the states for 8x16 and they have green plates on PaB online, I would not mind seeing those in a PAB wall in that case.

SilentMode

^ If you want to risk stacking them, you can fit quite a few of them in a cup.

FenrisAkashi

@silentmode "risk" stacking?

SilentMode

@FenrisAkashi yes, even when stacking then with a one-stud overlap, they can be tricky to separate.

Paperballpark

I knew I'd forgotten something this morning - my old tubs to claim the discount!

CCC

SilentMode said:

@FenrisAkashi yes, even when stacking then with a one-stud overlap, they can be tricky to separate.

overlap sideways not lengthways. Then with two brick separators it is easier to separate. Fill the gaps with 1x plates first.

madforLEGO

Paperballpark said:

I knew I'd forgotten something this morning - my old tubs to claim the discount!

Yeah I used to bring a cup all the time to get PaB pieces, now it is 2 cups since they have the 1x2 masonry brick in light bluish gray. The other interesting thing is that they no longer add that rebate barcode sticker on the cup for bringing cups back and that program is discontinued from what my LEGO store told me.

Paperballpark

^ The Manchester Lego store added stickers to my new tubs this morning...

madforLEGO

Must just be in the US then.

jasor

I dont have the barcode on my cup, but I get the discount anytime i go to the stores around me: Overland Pk, KS , Des Peres, MO , Frisco, TX, and Okla Cty, OK.... maybe they are saving a tree by not stickering. I do make sure to ask though.

madforLEGO

^-Yeah I believe you still get the discount if you bring your own cups and maybe that is what LEGO just decided, like you said save a tree and just let anyone bring their cup in and get the rebate.

FenrisAkashi

@CCC and @SilentMode

Ah I must be crazy then, I stack these just one on top of the other in brick fashion and just separate them later with the brick separator while watching TV and the like.

@Jasor My store just always asks me if its a refill or not, no stickers for like 6 months now

jasor

^Ha! i do the same thing with my plates. Not scared at all. I do love the 6x16. Last time they were in BLEY on the PAB wall, i got a whole cup full to expand my Jabba's Palace/Rancor Pit.

dwalton76

I'm kicking around adding the manuals for each lego set to wallofbricks. Not just the PDFs but images that you can click through...kind of like a slide show on a photo site. Would this be useful?

If I do that, I'm also kicking around adding a feature where you look at a page in the manual and say "This page uses two 2x2 red bricks and three 2x4 blue bricks". That way in a month from now when you find a single 2x4 blue brick beside the set but you don't know where it goes, you could quickly flip through only the pages of the manual that use a 2x4 blue brick. I really need this to put my death star back together after my kids play with it :)

This 2nd feature would require the user to sit down and input into wallofbricks exactly which parts are used on each page of the manual. Would this feature be worth that amount of hassle?

leemcg

I can see how it would be useful, but not sure whether it could be useful enough to encourage contribution.

Personally, I'd focus on core functionality, and then when you're happy with that, go for a big publicity push (work out, or ask what all the big sites need to put wallofbricks on the front page). The real thing you need is more contributors. Then you can add all kinds of stuff.

dwalton76

I'm pretty happy with the core functionality that the site has right now. I don't have anything left on my todo list in regards to adding a part to the PaB wall for a store.

As for a big publicity push, short of buying ads on facebook, google, etc, I'm not sure what else to do. I emailed just about every lego users group I could find, I've had it mentioned in a few blogs, etc. I just don't have tons of time to dedicate to building up a huge collection of inbound links. I talked to the person who owns brickset (sorry, I forget his name off the top of my head) and he plans on linking to wallofbricks for parts that are currently on available via PaB walls. Hopefully that will increase visibility to the site some.

maniac

@dwalton76 - Newcastle, UK needs to be added to the list of stores.

ninjagolightly

I scanned this thread but i admit I did not read every post and it all seemed about B&M...
Is there any site that tracks when new parts are added to PaB online?
It takes forever to scan through hoping I will recognize a newly added part.

Paperballpark

Short answer: no.

Long answer: no, sorry.

cheshirecat

Presumably brickset could as it does, I think, record which parts are available from online PAB.

programmerdan

@dwalton76 -- glad this thread got bumped, I wasn't aware of Wall of Bricks. I'll start updating the New Jersey stores soon. I've been updating BrickBuildr's PaB, but two of the newer stores in my area don't have bin data yet, so I can't update them, but your site does -- so win! Kudos to you for doing this project.

Would you have any interest in working with another developer (me) on an Android app? Not sure how my free time will work out for this kind of a project, but if you build the APIs, I'd be happy to take a stab at making the app ... This would greatly help in those stores where reception is poor (that's most of the ones in my area), as I could have make the app sync on WiFi or connection availability, and have the parts image database device-resident.

Let me know if you are interested.

jasor

^ IF you two did that...you would be awesome.

Legogeek

Wall of Bricks is a great idea... but, it's only as good as the info that gets added.

I was surprised at the lack of data for the stores near me. It really surprises me that there aren't any local collectors that are updating the WOB. I would have thought that there would be a bunch of Bricksetters here in So Cal.
So I figure, 1) no one else has the time either, 2) there aren't that many AFOLs here, or 3) no one knows about WOB.

I honestly don't have the time to visit my local store(s) as often as I'd like, let alone do inventory of the PAB wall (or I would - Honest!). Really... if I had the time I would do it.

What we need is a way to get store employees involved.

Just some musings of a bored-at-lunch AFOL.

jasor

^ an App is paramount to getting ongoing participation, with AFOL and employee clientelle. The managers at surrounding stores I frequent all state they know of requests for specific parts, and get phone calls all the time for what's on the wall.

An app they could upload would make everyone happy.

Paperballpark

^ considering they can access the internet from their till points, I'm honestly not sure what difference an app would make to them.

ninjagolightly

Once they got rid of grab bags and stopped having decent sales, I basically stopped going to Lego stores more than once or twice a year... why bother when I can get everything from [email protected] with 1/100th the hassle? But I happened to be in one recently and, as usual, it made it clear why LEGO could care less about AFOLs... I spent an hour around the PAB wall and the store was busy and I was the only AFOL seriously packing a cup. Otherwise its just kids grabbing handfuls of whatever is in reach. I'm sure TLG puts exactly zero thought into what goes on the PAB walls because the 99% of their clientele below age 10 doesn't care. If they saw it as a way to draw AFOLs to the store, they would handle it totally differently. As was clear in the case of the grab bag debacle, THEY DON'T CARE ABOUT AFOLs COMING TO THE STORE. They sure aren't going to use an app. And I doubt serious Brickset-type AFOLs visit my local stores often enough to keep the info up to date enough for me to plan a trip around it. I think you would have to run some kind of major contest or promotion on brickset or eurobricks, where people could win prizes for most frequent updates or something, to reach critical information mass.

FrictionPin

Personally the most helpful feature on the site to me is the list of recent activity. I'd love to see that list expanded from the small sample it shows currently. Seeing the history helps me to see what new parts are being added to stores and also what new pieces are being released in which areas without having to open each and every store individually.

dwalton76

I've chatted with the person who runs brickset and at some point he is going to link to wallofbricks from the individual parts pages on brickset. I am hoping that will give wallofbricks enough visibility to get enough users to keep the data more up to date. Unfortunately I'm a coder and not a marketing guru so getting the word out is challenging.

cheshirecat

Have you considered adding online PAB availability to it all, as mentioned above. Would be nice to be able to check online using your nicer front end. And being able to see whats been available, whats new etc...?

dwalton76

@programmerdan I think that is a great idea. I debated doing an Iphone app but I just took a job at a startup a few months ago so don't have enough free time to tackle that project. Having an app would be a huge plus in stores with bad cell reception. I'll send you an email so we can coordinate

dwalton76

I thought about PAB online in the beginning but their prices seemed higher than bricklink so I figured most people would just buy on bricklink. It probably would be a ton of work for me to add support for the online parts if people will find it useful. How many of you guys buy from the online PAB wall?

dwalton76

@FrictionPin I can expand the activity page so that you can see beyond the last 100 changes