BrickLink Designer Program

Brainslugged

Sethro3 said:

That might be good advice for people who don't like a particular set. Keep drinking until it looks good.

That sounds like my dating strategy in the 2000s.

Addicted2Oxygen

Finally finished the castle in the forest. It is an amazing set. Lots of great details and building techniques. 

Most of the unused pieces from earlier bags eventually got used, but I was left with a large number of spares and some unexpected spare pieces.

My guess is the designer provided Lego with the parts list from the software they used but had not cleaned up all the unused parts. Is the only explanation for the white rope and the crab. There are a few other large pieces that are not referenced as well. Will be interested to see what spares others get. 

The PDF instructions have some truly awful images. Will post some examples later. Best one is having to add parts to the back of a build, so you can’t see where to add them. I assume if anyone checked the instructions, they were using the interactive version and not the PDF. 

Will have to rebuild the forestmen set I have and get a little scene set up with them and the blacksmith set.  

gratefulnat

I finally finished building my Great Fishing Boat and have loved every minute, even the frustrating ones. The instructions are certainly not LEGO standard, but I actually enjoyed having to pay more attention and not always having clearly laid out steps as usual.

Attaching the hull at the bow I found rather challenging to say the least.

The bags and the instructions do not always match as others have said, often with a few (at the end of bag 4 many!) left over parts while the instructions indicate opening a new bag.  The left over parts were always the first parts to be built in the following steps, so if you ignore the bag numbers and just build everything is fine.

At the end of step 4 you need one of two black pins, these are both in bag 6.

In bag 8 two 1x1 white bricks are missing on either side of the funnel in the instructions and are also not included, this must be an error (below in the first picture, beneath the 1x1 plate w/ clip).

The rigging needed some adjustment, had to swap a 4L for a 3L bar, and many of the bars should not be inserted completely otherwise they are too short.

I really love the designers elegant upwards angle of the hull at the bow, but I found his compromise (the large overlapping/cracks) in the hull construction too visually irritating to leave as is.

Plus I added some steps to the cabin and got rid of the smaller door.

Had a great time building and modifying this, a refreshing change from a standard LEGO set.

The cabin door

Added a little railing in the back

The hull after my modifications

Enjoyed a few fine beers while building

Paperballpark

I also found that the old practice of a spare part in each bag was evident, rather than the newer practice of a spare part in each set.

Brainslugged

@gratefulnat - Did you end up with as many/varied spare parts as was evident with the castle above?

FireFox31

How do these instructions, bagging practices, etc compare to the first year of BLDP?  I haven't built my Science Tower yet so I can't compare.

gratefulnat

@Brainslugged - I don't think so but am not really sure after modding. These are definitely extras, but there might have been more (1x1 plates/tiles if anything) that I used in my mods and have no idea whether they were extras or not.

Brainslugged

^ Thanks. Nothing too unusual there other than the chain, fishing rod and string. I'd assume extra parts are consistent across copies of the same set otherwise it would make quality control really difficult.

eMJeeNL

I didn't notice any strange extra's for my PoF - actually I'm wondering of any extra's were provided (can't recall, and have cleaned up a lot of loose bricks recently).

Addicted2Oxygen

This was the backwards build from the castle. Sub build images should have been rotated 180 so you can see the other side and thus the stalactites.

Paperballpark

Oh gee I look forward to that...!

I mean seriously, who makes instructions like that, where you actually can't see the difference between step 3 and 4? That's terrible, lazy and incompetent.

Addicted2Oxygen

Rushed is the word I think we are looking for. I think the interactive instructions were meant to be the primary instructions and the pdf Is just the fall back

Brainslugged

Addicted2Oxygen said:

Rushed is the word I think we are looking for. I think the interactive instructions were meant to be the primary instructions and the pdf Is just the fall back

If "rushed" is the issue, I'm happy getting some "challenging" instructions and the set now rather than waiting till June (or whenever my original despatch date was).

bricktuary

The interactive instructions are definitely the way to go, being able to rotate the models and see exactly where the new pieces are is, I would say, essential.

CaptainRogers

Just got an email with this paragraph:

"Orders to the United States and Canada will begin shipping at the end of January and those going to Australia and New Zealand will start shipping at the end of February. Due to ongoing global shipping delays, your order may take longer than normal to arrive after it’s been shipped."

I'm in North America and am greatly looking forward to these sets going out!

amok

Looks like US orders (first round) will be delivered in early February at best...

jedivalkyrie

Or, this:

"In December, we sent an email to let you know your BrickLink Designer Program order was getting ready to ship. We wanted to clarify some info.

Your order was placed on or after August 3rd when we made additional Round 1 sets available to pre-order. We made a mistake by not reminding you the sets you ordered in this second wave of pre-ordering wouldn’t start shipping until as late as June 2022. We’re sorry for not mentioning this and apologize if we’ve caused any confusion."

Wow, just wow.  A year later almost.

Brainslugged

jedivalkyrie said:

We made a mistake by not reminding you the sets you ordered in this second wave of pre-ordering wouldn’t start shipping until as late as June 2022. We’re sorry for not mentioning this and apologize if we’ve caused any confusion."

Wow, just wow.  A year later almost.

Probably better for Lego to lower expectations and beat them rather than vice versa. I was also told June 2022, but it arrived before Christmas.

eMJeeNL

eMJeeNL said:

I didn't notice any strange extra's for my PoF - actually I'm wondering of any extra's were provided (can't recall, and have cleaned up a lot of loose bricks recently).

Aha… didn’t finish all the aircraft. My left overs:

Brainslugged

I just discovered this email from Lego that I received on Monday:

"In December, we sent an email to let you know your BrickLink Designer Program order was getting ready to ship. We wanted to clarify some info.

Your order was placed on or after August 3rd when we made additional Round 1 sets available to pre-order. We made a mistake by not reminding you the sets you ordered in this second wave of pre-ordering wouldn’t start shipping until as late as June 2022. We’re sorry for not mentioning this and apologize if we’ve caused any confusion."

The only thing I'm confused about is that my set was delivered in December!

Astrobricks

I have received this message twice in the last two days:

“Thanks for ordering from LEGO.com. The item(s) listed below are currently out of stock, so it will be a little longer before we can ship them to you. We're sorry about the delay. 
If you made your payment via credit card, please note that while we will authorize your card shortly, it will not be charged until we ship the item(s). You will receive a separate email notification at that time. 

We apologize for any inconvenience this delay may cause. If you’re worried your order will not arrive in time and you wish to change or cancel the item(s) below, please contact us at 800-835-4386 
Best regards,
The LEGO Customer Service Team”

autolycus

Astrobricks said:

I have received this message twice in the last two days:

“Thanks for ordering from LEGO.com. The item(s) listed below are currently out of stock, so it will be a little longer before we can ship them to you. We're sorry about the delay. 
If you made your payment via credit card, please note that while we will authorize your card shortly, it will not be charged until we ship the item(s). You will receive a separate email notification at that time. 

We apologize for any inconvenience this delay may cause. If you’re worried your order will not arrive in time and you wish to change or cancel the item(s) below, please contact us at 800-835-4386 
Best regards,
The LEGO Customer Service Team”

I got two of those emails, but I had BDP sets in two different orders. The order with just the Great Fishing Boat says it will ship by February 8. The order with the castle and pursuit of flight says February 9.

autolycus

Ugg... just got an email from Lego with another update. It now says Castle in the Forest will be shipped by February 17 and Pursuit of Flight by February 20. Those were in a single order together. I have not gotten an update on my separate order of Great Fishing Boat.

autolycus

Just got the update on Great Fishing Boat: February 17.

FollowsClosely

Hi FollowsClosely,

Thanks for ordering from LEGO.com. The item(s) listed below are currently out of stock, so it will be a little longer before we can ship them to you. We're sorry about the delay.
If you made your payment via credit card, please note that while we will authorize your card shortly, it will not be charged until we ship the item(s). You will receive a separate email notification at that time.

We apologize for any inconvenience this delay may cause. If you’re worried your order will not arrive in time and you wish to change or cancel the item(s) below, please contact us at 800-835-4386
Best regards,
The LEGO Customer Service Team

Price: Qty: Total:

910001 Castle in the Forest V39 $179.99 1 $179.99     Backorder Will be shipped by Feb 20, 2022

Well, that sucks.

Cymbeline

I didn't get an email with a delivery update at all. Lego is relying on me to keep checking my orders page to confirm that #910001 and #910016 are still backordered until date unknown. Both were ordered on June 30. In the meantime I've built #910001 with whatever colours of bricks I have. It will be a race now to see whether I get my BL and B n P orders to complete the set in the right colours or whether the set shows up first. Any bets?  

CaptainRogers

Seems like the 3rd or 4th delay email I've gotten.

Jern92

Cymbeline said:

I didn't get an email with a delivery update at all. Lego is relying on me to keep checking my orders page to confirm that #910001 and #910016 are still backordered until date unknown. Both were ordered on June 30. In the meantime I've built #910001 with whatever colours of bricks I have. It will be a race now to see whether I get my BL and B n P orders to complete the set in the right colours or whether the set shows up first. Any bets?  

I'm in the same position too. Really wondering why these are backordered for so long.

CCC

Jern92 said:

Cymbeline said:

I didn't get an email with a delivery update at all. Lego is relying on me to keep checking my orders page to confirm that #910001 and #910016 are still backordered until date unknown. Both were ordered on June 30. In the meantime I've built #910001 with whatever colours of bricks I have. It will be a race now to see whether I get my BL and B n P orders to complete the set in the right colours or whether the set shows up first. Any bets?  

I'm in the same position too. Really wondering why these are backordered for so long.

Low production numbers and low priority. Plus they know buyers are not going to cancel them given what they are going for on the secondary market. Even if a buyer no longer wants it, they are better off waiting for delivery then selling it.

autolycus

Jern92 said:

Cymbeline said:

I didn't get an email with a delivery update at all. Lego is relying on me to keep checking my orders page to confirm that #910001 and #910016 are still backordered until date unknown. Both were ordered on June 30. In the meantime I've built #910001 with whatever colours of bricks I have. It will be a race now to see whether I get my BL and B n P orders to complete the set in the right colours or whether the set shows up first. Any bets?  

I'm in the same position too. Really wondering why these are backordered for so long.

Probably stuck on a ship waiting to be offloaded in the US.

Astrobricks

autolycus said:

Jern92 said:

Cymbeline said:

I didn't get an email with a delivery update at all. Lego is relying on me to keep checking my orders page to confirm that #910001 and #910016 are still backordered until date unknown. Both were ordered on June 30. In the meantime I've built #910001 with whatever colours of bricks I have. It will be a race now to see whether I get my BL and B n P orders to complete the set in the right colours or whether the set shows up first. Any bets?  

I'm in the same position too. Really wondering why these are backordered for so long.

Probably stuck on a ship waiting to be offloaded in the US.

Or stuck on a truck waiting to get on a ship. Or waiting for enough employees to not call in sick so the sets can be made. Etc., etc.

FireFox31

Cymbeline said:

In the meantime I've built #910001 with whatever colours of bricks I have. It will be a race now to see whether I get my BL and B n P orders to complete the set in the right colours or whether the set shows up first.

I'm curious how many pieces you needed and much it cost you to buy them to finish the set from your own parts.  That's a sharp reminder that these sets are not all that exclusive.

I'm looking forward to Round 3.  I'll check back on March 1st.

Cymbeline

@Firefox31 I'd say it came to about half the cost of the new set because I was very low on Lt Bl Grey bricks and plates. I also chose to widen the landscaping at the front and I made up my own band of "Forestmen/women" with old and new legs and torsos. I didn't want to source the stickers on BL so I found a couple of the original deer head shields($$$) and made substitutions for the rest. I really enjoyed building the set and this is a good thing because I will be rebuilding it constantly as my BL and BnP orders come in and I replace my colour substitutions. On a side note - It was obviously not a set that LEGO had tinkered with because there were so many elements that you just needed 1 or 2 of. 

KungFuKenny

@Cymbeline I’d like to see pics of your Bricklinked version!

Sethro3

I did consider building it myself since it didn't look like anything I couldn't handle with existing pieces (outside of the stickers). I missed out on the order since the site was lagging/freezing me out since so many orders at once. Oh well. Maybe I'll still consider it. 

Cymbeline

All my BL orders have arrived but the bulk of the missing pieces are coming through BnP - probably at the end of March.

Two of my "Forestmen" are CMF's and the rest are made up. The front extension is still a work in progress.

FireFox31

That minifigure selection looks great.  Nice deer shields.  Looking good for half the price of the official set (and a tiny fraction of it on eBay).

CaptainRogers

Here in the USA, just got ANOTHER delay email. Now they're saying Castle in the Forest will ship by March 3rd. At this rate I'll be happy if I get it the first half of this year.

FollowsClosely

^ Same here, so disappointing. 

Status update on your LEGO® order Hi Matthew, Thanks for ordering from LEGO.com. The item(s) listed below are currently out of stock, so it will be a little longer before we can ship them to you. We're sorry about the delay. If you made your payment via credit card, please note that while we will authorize your card shortly, it will not be charged until we ship the item(s). You will receive a separate email notification at that time. We apologize for any inconvenience this delay may cause. If you’re worried your order will not arrive in time and you wish to change or cancel the item(s) below, please contact us at 800-835-4386 Best regards, The LEGO Customer Service Team

Will be shipped by Mar 3, 2022

FollowsClosely

I bet all those that purchased pre-release on eBay are getting impatient!

Cymbeline

And yet again no email for me re shipping delay.

FireFox31

Is there a pattern to reveal why some people got their sets already?  For instance, did only UK buyers receive them?  I'm in the USA, ordered my sets in the first 30 minutes of the sale, and received another rescheduling email.

Honestly, I don't care how long it takes to receive them, just as long as they arrive eventually.  Anyone who wants to sell their in-hand sets, do so before the next shipments are sent.

autolycus

I haven’t seen anyone in the US saying they’ve received their set(s). Just people in Europe. The ones bound for the US are clearly in a shipping crate somewhere.

Astrobricks

FireFox31 said:

Is there a pattern to reveal why some people got their sets already?  For instance, did only UK buyers receive them?  I'm in the USA, ordered my sets in the first 30 minutes of the sale, and received another rescheduling email.

Honestly, I don't care how long it takes to receive them, just as long as they arrive eventually.  Anyone who wants to sell their in-hand sets, do so before the next shipments are sent.

I see no particular reason to doubt TLG’s expressed reason that it’s a logistics issue getting the sets from Europe to North America.

eMJeeNL

FireFox31 said:

Is there a pattern to reveal why some people got their sets already?  For instance, did only UK buyers receive them?  I'm in the USA, ordered my sets in the first 30 minutes of the sale, and received another rescheduling email.

Honestly, I don't care how long it takes to receive them, just as long as they arrive eventually.  Anyone who wants to sell their in-hand sets, do so before the next shipments are sent.

I know of quite a few Dutchies (like myself) who also got their sets before Xmas. So guess it's EU&UK-only for now; i feel for you ROW's.

SithLord196

I don't post on the forum often, but was getting worried about my Pursuit of Flight order. So I came on here to look for updates.

My biggest concern is that it is sitting in the status of Backorder with no date attached, but it sounds like a few of us are in that same boat. 

KungFuKenny

SithLord196 said:

I don't post on the forum often, but was getting worried about my Pursuit of Flight order. So I came on here to look for updates.

My biggest concern is that it is sitting in the status of Backorder with no date attached, but it sounds like a few of us are in that same boat. 

If you are in the US then you’re in fine shape… All of our sets are sitting in a container on a boat somewhere waiting to be shipped or offloaded probably…

PDelahanty

KungFuKenny said:

SithLord196 said:

I don't post on the forum often, but was getting worried about my Pursuit of Flight order. So I came on here to look for updates.

My biggest concern is that it is sitting in the status of Backorder with no date attached, but it sounds like a few of us are in that same boat. 

If you are in the US then you’re in fine shape… All of our sets are sitting in a container on a boat somewhere waiting to be shipped or offloaded probably…

The sets are probably in a truck in Canada that's parked and blocking the road...as they tend to do lately.

CCC

https://www.bricklink.com/message.asp?ID=1327360

If you pre-ordered during Round 1 when the sets first became available in July
2021, your order will have already shipped in early December. As there are currently
global shipping delays worldwide, these orders are expected to arrive in the
US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand in March 2022.

Orders placed in August 2021 are now being processed and will be shipped in the
coming months – they’re expected to arrive by June 2022 at the latest.

As your order continues to progress, you may receive automated email updates
which are generated as part of the shipping process. If you receive these emails
or an automated backorder email, please rest assured that your order is still
on its way to you and will be with you on the dates given above.

For questions on your specific order, please contact LEGO Customer Service https://www.lego.com/en-us/service.
Thanks again for your order and your patience. We hope you’re looking forward
to your BrickLink Designer Program set!

Onebricktoomany

Just had my card charged for the Castle in the forest!  Wahooooooiooo!!!!!!  Container ships have landed!!