Bricks & Pieces/Pick a Brick General Discussion/Queries

Brickchap

Hopefully this thread can be used by many people who have queries about Brick a Brick/Bricks & Pieces.

So I have some questions: Firstly, why do some sets appear on Bricks & Pieces, but not others?

For example, I'd like to get the pieces for Indiana Jones Peril in Peru but when I type in the set number nothing comes up. (even though a majority of the pieces in that set are still widely used and available). Whereas Fighter Plane Chase comes up straight away. Same with Ambush in Cairo, but Race for the Stolen Treasure also nothing comes up.

Even modern sets such as this year's small Technic dump truck (I forget the exact name), or beach campervan, either they don't appear at all or only 1 piece appeared for the Technic set which is very weird since the parts are clearly still available!

Where do I find Lego's part numbers? I only know Bricklink numbers which don't correspond and unless I can think of a modern set which might have a part I want, find it and then try and locate the piece I'm looking for, I'm completely in the dark.

How do I find out if a piece is just out of stock (and when it will be back in), or if Lego doesn't actually sell it?

Finally, are there any ways to easily get all the parts from a Lego set (be it current or older), up on PaB or Bricks & Pieces so that one can easily go through and just select the amount needed, or maybe even just 'select all.'?

madforLEGO

For Old sets, some may not appear, some may not have current parts, but instead use the latest parts....Sometimes there is no rhyme or reason concerning how LEGO does things. LEGO does not always post new set parts, at least for 30 days. Some parts are IP or just not for sale. Some parts just take a while to appear (likely due to popularity or their production schedule). There is the out of stock toggle, but even then some parts do not appear. CS can answer if something is truly not available, or just out of stock (and sometimes they have the release date of a part). I'm fairly certain that at this point, LEGO BnP/Pab no longer shows all parts or counts of a part for a set, just that some parts for the set may be available. Its possible that the instructions have a part inventory on newer instruction books, but not certain on that, I know that I just picked a set off of the top of my head and checked the 10194 instructions and that does show the inventory, part numbers, and quantity of each.

bandit778

@Brickchap
For parts numbers, bricklink ,Brickowl and Rebrickable all show the alternate part numbers which can be searched on Bricks and pieces. 



Helpful for older sets and parts to determine newer mold part numbers that have replaced older out of date parts.

Switchfoot55

I was going to share the same tip @bandit778 did. Definitely search the alt part numbers too for different colors. Often times the B&P site will only bring up standard colors with a common part number, but all trans pieces for another, metallic pieces for a third, glitter pieces for a fourth, etc...

With the changes that went into place last year, it really changed the sets that one can find when searching for parts by set. I can't determine any rhyme or reason really.  

Cymbeline

There seem to be several new animals in Pick a Brick that have no image but I suspect are unprinted. For example: Cow No. 4 - 6396813/1568 is a brick yellow calf that is half the price of Cow No. 5 -  6319749/70050. Design 1568 and 70050 are the same on Rebrickable. I know that we have had unprinted animals before for use as architectural details etc. but these are all larger animals: calves, piglets, lambs, huskies,
crocodiles. Does anyone have any explanations of why LEGO is doing this? 

Switchfoot55

Maybe they either had a batch that didn't print or they want to just offer another selection of animals for their fans? 

I'd definitely take a handful of unprinted calves or piglets at a reduced price. 

Good catch!

vizzitor

They did the same for the violin piece (69947) too so there's been an unprinted version on Pick-a-Brick for a few months now:

Cymbeline

Wow, the unprinted animals went fast! Only Pig No. 10 is left. All the other animals are gone and don't even show "out of stock".

karrit

I ordered a few of each of the unprinted ones to use as background or filler animals.  Hoping they don't look too weird.  In the past I've gotten some of the owls & baby raptors.  I didn't know about the violin so I'll have to order a few of those next time.