40179 Mosaic Portrait

DadsAFOL

4500 1x1 plates plus a 48x48 baseplate and a brick separator.  GBP100 at the new Leicester store.

tallblocktoo

Cool idea!  Is this going to remain exclusive to this store?

LostInTranslation

"GBP100 at the new Leicester *Square* store." 

It's exclusive right now. Who knows where they might also install it? 

It is a cool idea but sooooo expensive 

bandit778

Although this does seem expensive for a box of 1x1 plates, from experience at making my own using new tiles varying in size from 1x1 up to 1x8 it's actually quite a good price for making up a mosaic.
Even using Bricklink prices for the quantities required it's probably going to cost more than the set does, and you have to do all the hard work yourself.

prevere

I remember when LEGO would offer this via the website before. Sounds like they are re-testing the waters. I have a lot of questions about how they are implementing this so it works for the regular moms & dads out there. 

SprinkleOtter

"Hi, I'd like a mosaic made only out of the most expensive 1x1 variety please."

Shib

I suspect it will remain at very least in store exclusive - just what stores get it might change. Leicester Square is the kind of area that people are more likely to spend more than normal for souvenir type purchases.

while it might be a good price for that many 1x1 plates, it's a very restricted palette so you could probably still do a better job for less (if you use other sized plates) but would involve extra leg work.

paul_merton

Must be a bit of a chore putting on so many 1x1 plates (especially if you don't like them all to look wonky!). And although 1x1 plates are cheap, it's cheaper still to use larger plates wherever possible. There's obvious potential for savings on the background colour at least.

E.g. this is about a third of the cost of the equivalent thing made out of 1x1 plates, is more fun to build, and looks better imho:

BrickDancer

Might seem pricey, but that is a fantastic RRP price for what you get in 1x1 plates. I see plates in yellow, white, light bley, dark bley, and black only I'm guessing. But what color is the baseplate?

paul_merton

You can fit, what, two thousand 1x1 plates in a large Pick a Brick cup? That makes it seem pricey to me (can't remember if all of those colours have been available on the wall, though!)

BrickDancer

^But it's rare to find 1x1 plates at PAB. I've done a lot of mosaics and usually have to resort to BL where they really add up even at $0.02 - $0.04 a piece.

LostInTranslation

It's a 48x48 light bley baseplate

tallblocktoo

I'd buy one!  Regardless of it seeming pricey but thats unlikely as I won't be jetting off to London any time soon.

TheOriginalSimonB

If anyone wants to send me £100 plus postage up front I'll happily get you one when I go down in December. I'll even persuade MrsB to jump in the booth if you don't want me on your wall.

Speedman29

paul_merton said:

E.g. this is about a third of the cost of the equivalent thing made out of 1x1 plates, is more fun to build, and looks better imho:

But you get limited definition of the image using plates. 1x1 offers the most detail. Looks pretty cool, not sure I'd get one, but its a great idea.

stlux

Got one today, and had my set signed by the designer :)

paul_merton

Speedman29 said:

But you get limited definition of the image using plates. 1x1 offers the most detail. Looks pretty cool, not sure I'd get one, but its a great idea.

It should give exactly the same detail - use 1x1 plates only where you have to, and larger plates instead wherever possible. E.g. if you have two 1x1 plates of the same colour right next to each other, replace them with a single 1x2 plate instead. It works out cheaper per stud and the end result is the same in terms of what colour each "pixel" is.

Here's one I made of my cat using that approach - it was a right pain sneaking him into the photo booth (joke!). It would have cost about 3x more if I had used 1x1 plates throughout.

Calv

I have never seen 1x1 plates in those colours on the PaB wall and knowing how difficult it is to get 1x1 plates in decent quantities to keep my Bricklink store customers happy, I will be getting a set from my visit there tomorrow.

I had visions of a 1x1dispenser counting the required amount of plates to match the photograph! but I now see that the set is already made up with 4500 1x1 plates which gives 2198 spares once you have created the mural using 2302 plates. This makes much more sense.

I think it is a great idea, just hope the queue isn't too long tomorrow...

I reckon 900 of each colour = 4500 + baseplate and separator =4502 pieces.



 

mr_benn

@paul_merton - I think you're absolutely right in terms of your approach to mosaics and the use of plates to keep costs down - I think I'm right that I've seen a few other things you've done on here and you're pretty damn good at it!

I have to say though that I think this is a great offering from Lego - as people have said, the Leicester Sq store is a place where holiday impulse purchases will be rife, and having tested out the photobooth thing and seeing how good a mosaic can look I think a lot of people will be tempted - rest assured I am (and I would be genuinely tempted to have the rest of the family done too!)

CCC

^^ and of course bigger plates are a lot easier to break down than just 1x1s.

Calv

^^^ and assemble....

stlux

@Calv I was the first customer to use the machine on Thursday, but I did not see any queues at the "photo booth" during the +/- 3 hours I spent at the store. You have to purchase a ticket to use the machine at the checkout first though, so time to get a mosaic depends entirely on any queues to get in/to the checkouts that there might be on Friday.

stlux

For anybody who might think if gifting a mosaic to somebody: now that I've had a minute to look at the back of the card I had to buy to use the photo booth, I see it is valid for 1 year from the date of purchase.

So you can easily gift a card to somebody to then redeem for their personalized mosaic as long as they're able to make it to the Leicester Square store within the next 12 months.

tomahawker

^Is the booth entirely automated, or is there an attendant?

stlux

@tomahawker There was somebody available from the staff in case you needed help or had any questions, but otherwise it's fully automated. You hold the card you have bought at the counter at the designated spot (NFC?) and then the machine guides you through the process. Not more complicated than a normal photo booth.
The one part where the store employee comes in the picture is putting the printout of your mosaic in the box, and reseal the box for you.

vwong19

I like the idea, but it should be online so that the consumer can pixelate whatever photo that they desire. Makes gifting easier.

joel4motion

The last thing I want is a mosaic of my own face. I'm blonde so there isn't much differentiation between skin tone and hair/beard. Do you think they'd have any issue with me holding up a photo of someone else? I wouldn't mind gifting it to someone or even a decent mosaic of Bill Murray. I'm aware of the websites/software knocking about to make your own, it's finding the 5000 plates I'd want to do a 96x48.

vizzitor

Going by the videos and pictures online of the booth, it doesn't have a curtain like a passport photo booth. I hope that prevents any *ahem* inappropriate mosaic pictures being generated.

LostInTranslation

It does have a curtain. 

Speedman29

He's missed a yellow 1x1 of that!

CCC

And bottom left too.

vizzitor

LostInTranslation said:

It does have a curtain. 

I must be going blind. Thanks for that.

JudgeChuck

stlux said:

Got one today, and had my set signed by the designer :)

That must be the easiest set ever designed!

"Hmm, let's grab 4500 1x1 plates of various colours and whack 'em in a box... Done!"

;-)

sparklytori

Being really thick here... you do get to make/build it yourself don't you? 

HugeYellowBrick

You get the pixellated picture (as shown above) and a baseplate and lots of 1 x 1 plates in 5 cardboard boxes. Then you can do what you like with it. Some sort of minimalist stripes come to mind.

OrmskirkBricks

Yes. Its in effect a box containing a large base plate and seperate boxes of 1x1 plates in a larger box.  The machine prints the design for you once you finish adjusting the image in the booth.

paul_merton

I wonder how hard it would be to mash up some mindstorms to "print" these for real!

stlux

JudgeChuck said:

stlux said:

Got one today, and had my set signed by the designer :)

That must be the easiest set ever designed!

"Hmm, let's grab 4500 1x1 plates of various colours and whack 'em in a box... Done!"

;-)

Well, there was also the whole machine and the video animation to create :)

SumoLego

If nobody is looking, can put your 'rear end on a pirate's face' and get that mosaic?

(If you know what I mean.)

snowhitie

@joel4motion I was wondering that too. I guess you could buy the box with the plates and then print out your own picture with online software to make a mosaic. Only thing is that you'll have to open the box then and put in something you've printed out yourself instead of an official Lego-page. I like the idea though and maybe if this is a success they'll make them available online too.

stlux

@snowhitie The box comes out of the machine after you have had your picture taken, so you cannot just buy the box. Wouldn't prevent you from changing the mosaic picture Lego provided with one of your own later on of course.

TheFew

Sorry if this question has been answered..... Does the ratio of 1x1 plate colours in the box differ depending on the photo you take (i.e. are the parts in the box bespoke per customer)? Or is it a standard set of bricks in each one?

snowhitie

@thefew There is a standard number.

@stlux yeah sorry didn't explain so well, meant that you then change your own picture for the new one. Or I'll Just put my son in there ;)

paul_merton

^ Judging by the fact that it contains nearly twice as many parts as you would need to fill a 48x48 baseplate, I guess they all contain the same standard set of plates.

Presumably the photo booth itself would stop you choosing a photo that contains too many pixels of a certain colour...

TheFew

Thanks for the info. The "booth" is a bit less magic than I had assumed!!!

paul_merton

When I first saw it, I wondered whether there is actually just a little person inside it who pushes the box out. Is there? IS THERE?!?!?!

bandit778

@paul_merton
No little people, it's operated by Lester minifigures.

That's why they can't give too many away, the machine would stop working.    :)

TheFew

paul_merton said:

When I first saw it, I wondered whether there is actually just a little person inside it who pushes the box out. Is there? IS THERE?!?!?!

Peter Dinklage's Summer job?

Sven_F

I was initially very excited about this, naively thinking i could just wear a sand blue t-shirt and get a bunch of plates in that color.  It's a nice idea,  probably better suited for people like my mom who are able to appreciate things for their novelty value. 

lissa

vizzitor said:

Going by the videos and pictures online of the booth, it doesn't have a curtain like a passport photo booth. I hope that prevents any *ahem* inappropriate mosaic pictures being generated.

Yup, I agree with you......