Pick A Brick Changes Spring 2014

DoubleD · March 2014

I was at the lego store filling up my Christmas boxes yesterday, and I was asking about pieces and the lady told me that the pab wall was going to change. She was saying they were going to have more specialty pieces and rotating stock more. Has any one else heard this.

Aanchir · March 2014

I heard something similar recently but can't remember where exactly (I think it was here on Brickset, but can't track down what topic exactly). I'm certainly very intrigued by the possibility. Can't wait until we get more concrete info.

CCC · March 2014

They need to keep the basic bricks there too (1x4, 1x2 and 2x4). Without them, they will lose sales. I cannot see how they can keep very broad inventories, unless they go to smaller bins. The other problem may be price - will they keep cups the same price if they introduce more special parts?

DadsAFOL · March 2014

Yes, I heard the same info. I also heard that the stores will not be allowed to sell boxes of the "special" pieces. Not sure what Lego considers special, but we'll have to wait and see.

In the meantime, here's the desolation of the PaB wall at LLDC Texas this week. So sad.

SirKevbags · March 2014

So special pieces will become the equivalent of "exclusives" ;-)

madforLEGO · March 2014

doubledbrick said:
I was at the lego store filling up my Christmas boxes yesterday, and I was asking about pieces and the lady told me that the pab wall was going to change. She was saying they were going to have more specialty pieces and rotating stock more. Has any one else heard this.

I dunno about you, but I believe that was supposed to be occurring already. All I hear from the employees at the LEGO store I go to is that LEGO never provides any parts, even the ones they request (and are supposed to be available) so I'll believe it when I actually see it happening. Most times though i still manage to find something worth filling up a cup or the box with (recently it was 1x4x3 windows and glass, 2x2x2 crates and the 2x2 light bley tile)

Paperballpark · March 2014

Here in the UK you can no longer buy boxes of parts; you have to fill the tubs instead.

Last I heard (about 2 weeks ago), a lot of the elements were out of stock, and there were only about 80 of the 270 possible elements that were available to order.

ACWWGal2011 · March 2014

doubledbrick said:
I was at the lego store filling up my Christmas boxes yesterday, and I was asking about pieces and the lady told me that the pab wall was going to change. She was saying they were going to have more specialty pieces and rotating stock more. Has any one else heard this.

I heard someone saying that each month will now have some sections with bricks consistant with a certain category.

Don't know anymore then that but i'm kind of freaking out since I really have no clue when we are going(5-6 hour drive away + septic tank going out + dog vet visits = no vacation money at the moment) and I really need to see if they have logs, masonry, and 1x1 round tiles.

I think there's a few people I can ask online for help but first I need the money to do so since I've been spending money on organizing supplies and a few lego orders online(1 BL, 2 ebay) so i'm broke.

LegobrandonCP · March 2014

I went a bit overboard with the 1x1 round tiles yesterday. I really hope to see the masonry brigs in soon since I missed out on them a few weeks ago.

DadsAFOL · March 2014

masonry brig?

madforLEGO · March 2014

They have not had 1x2 Masonry brick by the Schaumburg LEGO store for some time now.
At least when i go there the do not.. Needless to say it is a bit popular.

Goldfreek · March 2014

I saw the new special parts at the Lego store today. They are for making space ships and planes. They are still in the back but will go out within 2 weeks. They had wings, a spaceship canopy, airplane stabilizers, propellers, jet engines, and a few different wheel and axels. They said that there will be a theme to the wall and all stores are supposed to have the same theme and the same bricks for that theme. However they did not receive a lot of each part, maybe 5 boxes for some of them but 3 boxes for most so I expect the AFOLs to clear them out since they are new. I know I wanted a bunch. They also are supposed to put the bricks in a specific location on the wall so all stores are the same and have stickers that say "NEW" to place on that bin.

DoubleD · March 2014

That is awesome, my pick a brick wall never has any good bricks. Maybe i will buy more if they get different bricks. Right now I order offline and pay a bunch for the bricks I need.

dneul · March 2014

Des Peres had white chairs for the PAB wall. HAD being the key word

ACWWGal2011 · March 2014

Goldfreek said:
I saw the new special parts at the Lego store today. They are for making space ships and planes. They are still in the back but will go out within 2 weeks. They had wings, a spaceship canopy, airplane stabilizers, propellers, jet engines, and a few different wheel and axels. They said that there will be a theme to the wall and all stores are supposed to have the same theme and the same bricks for that theme. However they did not receive a lot of each part, maybe 5 boxes for some of them but 3 boxes for most so I expect the AFOLs to clear them out since they are new. I know I wanted a bunch. They also are supposed to put the bricks in a specific location on the wall so all stores are the same and have stickers that say "NEW" to place on that bin.

ERK!

Did they say if they'd still have space for regular, non-themed stuff? Or would it be all theme now? Any idea if they'll have a schedule released to the public of what themes are in what months?

I really want to look for logs, masonry, and round tiles and some other parts on the wall when we go. There's no lego store close to us so it's vacation time only and I can't go to the lego store when there's a theme that would have those parts(if they'd have them). Next vacation date that was is unknown due to unforeseen expenses.

I know that I can ask for someone to send me a cup with parts but the problem is that by the time I'd reimburse the person for the cost of the cup plus tax, shipping cost plus cost of box, and pay them for their time, it'll probably wind up being cheaper for me to just scoop up some of the parts on my next BL order then buy the rest on a separate order when I go to finish up my Wish list.

And also, I know that I can use BL to get the parts along with knocking out part of my wanted list(probably will) but I like the magic of going to the lego store and filling up a cup with my own 2 hands.

I know the term "magic" seems weird but i live hours from the closest lego store and only go about 1 X a year, currently 2 years since last visit and counting as off the 24th according to my VIP history. But when I walk into that store and see shelves of crisp clean sealed lego boxes, sets in their proper spot and a nice big PAB wall with really great parts; i'd have to call it magic.

madforLEGO · March 2014

dneul said:
Des Peres had white chairs for the PAB wall. HAD being the key word

I would say that White chairs are likely new to the walls, most of the time by the store by me they have red and brown chairs only. White would be a nice change of pace and probably why they are gone now.

ACWWGal2011 · March 2014

White chairs? No surprise they're gone. unless i'm looking at BL wrong, they haven't been in a set in years.

madforLEGO · March 2014

Part number is 4079b. All new chairs have the center sprue mark

Goldfreek · March 2014

i think i saw about 15 new parts so that would leave lots of space for the regular 2x4 and larger bricks down low and some other random pieces in the rest of the wall. You can always ask if they have other pieces in the back and normally if they are not to busy they will bring some out if they have any. They did not have a schedule or know what the next theme was going to be but that the bricks would change over regularly and that they would be able to start ordering more bricks now. Also said that they could not do case sales of the new bricks but would be able to for the standard bricks.

SilentMode · March 2014

Shepherds Bush has these:

CCC · March 2014

This could be a really good idea for lego to make more profit on these parts. I can see kids building a small plane / car etc, then sticking it in a cup, then putting a few extra parts into the cup. Putting a model in is going to guarantee poor packing efficiency and so higher average prices.

CapnRex101 · March 2014

I found four more Christmas PAB boxes yesterday evening, so will be heading to Brighton later today. Hopefully they will have some of these new pieces, which sound very interesting.

Short_Round · March 2014

^^^Stratford too. TBH, the wall looked pretty dull to me.

ACWWGal2011 · March 2014

unless there's some REALLY good parts from the themed part, i'll be sticking to the plain parts if there's any I want or i'll skip the wall. those don't seem like very stack and pack friendly items

leemcg · March 2014

Popped into Stratford while doing Mother's day shopping. Wanted to see how I'll use my last 2 holiday boxes on Monday. I did take a video so I'll update wallofbricks later. As well as the parts @SilentMode mentions, there were also light bluish grey 3x6 wedge plates, two different size tyres, some kind of transparent canopy, and 2x2 plates to connect wheels.

About a million times better than last week (from a poor base), but still not the best it's been.

Lee

madforLEGO · March 2014

I used to try to get cute and stack everything in the cups. I'll do it with larger plates and what not but I have given up trying to do it any longer with 1x2,1x3, 1x4, etc. Not that I cannot do it, it just takes too much time for me. I'll still do it for the Pab gift boxes as they are at least squared off and I can fit much more brick and things in those when stacked. But more often that naught I just put smaller 1x1 plate whatevers into the bottom ring to even it out (lately I have been grabbing the 1x1 round tile for this) then pile parts into the cup and knock it against the counter a few times to ensure it is settling into as many crevices as it can. Occasional stacking (like plates or ,in the case last week, 1x4x3 windows and glass) can occur but usually I want to get in and out as quickly as I can. And I put things like a few more 1x2s or chairs into the top stud of the cap and use some tape to hold them down (not quick enough to try to whip the top on without spilling out those parts)

Poisso3 · March 2014

Just went to the Des Peres store and there was nothing new on the wall. Talked to one of the workers and was told that they are not getting in all the bricks theg are ordering because TLG is not able to keep up with wall orders thanks to opening up so many new stores in the past few months. It was also said that TLG was looking at ways to fix the issue.

We were at Disneyland earler in the week, and their wall was 90% 2x4 bricks and the other 10% wasn't anything worth picking up, though there was a cheese wedge in a color I had never seen.

madforLEGO · March 2014

Poisso3 said:
Just went to the Des Peres store and there was nothing new on the wall. Talked to one of the workers and was told that they are not getting in all the bricks theg are ordering because TLG is not able to keep up with wall orders thanks to opening up so many new stores in the past few months. It was also said that TLG was looking at ways to fix the issue.

We were at Disneyland earler in the week, and their wall was 90% 2x4 bricks and the other 10% wasn't anything worth picking up, though there was a cheese wedge in a color I had never seen.

Heard the same thing. and the guy that does parts for the store by me also knows what he is doing and tries to get better parts for the wall than 2x4s, but they just are throwing their hands up because they are not getting anything...

dougts · March 2014

madforLEGO said:
I used to try to get cute and stack everything in the cups. I'll do it with larger plates and what not but I have given up trying to do it any longer with 1x2,1x3, 1x4, etc. Not that I cannot do it, it just takes too much time for me. I'll still do it for the Pab gift boxes as they are at least squared off and I can fit much more brick and things in those when stacked. But more often that naught I just put smaller 1x1 plate whatevers into the bottom ring to even it out (lately I have been grabbing the 1x1 round tile for this) then pile parts into the cup and knock it against the counter a few times to ensure it is settling into as many crevices as it can. Occasional stacking (like plates or ,in the case last week, 1x4x3 windows and glass) can occur but usually I want to get in and out as quickly as I can. And I put things like a few more 1x2s or chairs into the top stud of the cap and use some tape to hold them down (not quick enough to try to whip the top on without spilling out those parts)

I hear you. I've spent time stacking things nice and tight in the past. But my time is just far too valuable to me to keep doing that. Now I tend to only mostly smallish pieces from PAB like 1x2 tiles, plates, and other small specialty pieces. I can just dump those straight into the cup, and very very little air remains, so I'm not losing out much of anything.

leemcg · March 2014

Stratford, London, UK now updated on wallofbricks, so you can see what these "new" items are. It seems to me that they generally spread around the rest of the world soon enough.

Brickarmor · March 2014

I can get a lot of 2x4s in one cup. Basically I fill the bottom with small stuff (which I mix in a smaller cup), drop in the pillars of bricks (central one is 4x4), dump from the small cup to fill voids, shake shake shake, more pillars, more dumping, more shaking. One of the Atlanta stores had Dark Pink and Bright Pink 1x4 bricks and Med Lavender 1x2 plates. This was about 2 weeks ago when I forgot to tell @FrictionPin that I was going and ask if he still needed anything. ;-)

madforLEGO · March 2014

Brickarmor said:
I can get a lot of 2x4s in one cup. Basically I fill the bottom with small stuff (which I mix in a smaller cup), drop in the pillars of bricks (central one is 4x4), dump from the small cup to fill voids, shake shake shake, more pillars, more dumping, more shaking. One of the Atlanta stores had Dark Pink and Bright Pink 1x4 bricks and Med Lavender 1x2 plates. This was about 2 weeks ago when I forgot to tell @FrictionPin that I was going and ask if he still needed anything. ;-)

Yeah I have done the same when buying a load of 6x16s and then using 2x2 tiles around it. Same thing I did but with those large Technic Turntables that were in the PaB wall about a month ago . If there is something I know I want a large quantity of then I have no issues filling up a cup with it, but I do get to a point where I have accrued about 3 large cups of X part it does get a bit old getting more of those as filler.

eileenkeeney · March 2014

I have so many of the small pieces that are currently on the wall, I didn't even take the time to fill in the space between the pieces I bought today.
I did consider white flowers, and taking them off of the sprue. But my time is of some value. The only advantage of an almost empty PAB wall is that it is less crowded back in that area of the store. Usually as I am trying to pack my little tubs with stacked pieces I have to deal with kids running around and people trying to push their baby strollers through that narrow area.

The Austin store had the medium lavender 1x2 plates today. I bought some. There were some left a few hours ago, they may still be there.

What I need is a friend who works in the mall, who will take a photo of the PAB wall daily, and send it to me.

madforLEGO · March 2014

There is another thread about posting what is on the walls: This is the site http://www.thelegowall.com/
The other thread is http://www.bricksetforum.com/discussion/11262/the-lego-wall-new-site-for-tracking-pick-a-brick-pab/p1

Bumblepants · March 2014

My university cafeteria had a self-serve ice cream bar with 8-10 huge tubs of ice cream. One of my friends who worked on staff told me how they would only order really popular flavors once or twice a month and had to order less desirable stuff like Banana Nut so they wouldn't be constantly running out. I have often wondered if the Pick-A-Brick wall ends up working in a similar fashion, It is probably easier on their end to stock it with 2x4s that sell slowly and fill the wall than to constantly stuff it full of fancy parts that disappear in a few days or hours.

klatu003 · March 2014

I've been hearing the same story about the store not getting their orders filled. The PAB wall is looking very sad. Lucky for me they have 1x2 in white (Minas Tirith!) Since I have plenty of time, I put in the effort to pack those cups. I've managed to get around 415 in each small cup, which gets it down below 2 cents. If I just toss them in I only get 250. Mr. Klatu kindly helps me stack *smile*.

TheLegoKid · March 2014

The company is waiting till the end of March to change the wall. That is when the free PAB Christmas boxes expire. The were waiting till the end of the free promotion. Most walls from January- till the end of March were basic bricks. (tiles, 1x4, 2x4, wheels, maybe some plants.) They will be including more specialty items after the free promotion. Depending on your store they will still have the basic 1x2, 1x4, 2x4. Around April 3rd or 4th my store is going to be rearranging the wall.

Poochy · March 2014

Just got back from filling my 2 Xmas PAB cups at Costa Mesa. Nothing special that I could see (or want), so I loaded up with plants/flowers. I did see the white chairs there :).

jediami65 · March 2014

SilentMode said:
Shepherds Bush has these:

In NJ store I saw those plus #4598530 and some #4290149. Also saw clear 1x2 plates for the first time. Store was packed so did not grab anything, rainy Sunday so the mall was pretty packed .

hleonffu · March 2014

@jediami65 we maybe buying at the same store. They had the left and right plate 3x6 with in light bluish grey.

CCC · March 2014

klatu003 said:
Lucky for me they have 1x2 in white (Minas Tirith!) Since I have plenty of time, I put in the effort to pack those cups. I've managed to get around 415 in each small cup, which gets it down below 2 cents. If I just toss them in I only get 250. Mr. Klatu kindly helps me stack *smile*.

You can get about 165 2x4 bricks into a large PAB cup if stacked efficiently. So volume for volume, you should be able to get 660 2x1 bricks. Of course, stacking is going to be harder as they fall apart, but alternating orientation so they form a combined stack, or using a few larger plates to hold them together every so often may help.

I normally buy 1x4 and a similar technique works there.

bobabricks · April 2014

The best parts I've seen at my Lego store were some 1x4 white picket fences, gold grilled windows with rounded tops and redish brown frames, some purple parts that you only get with a few sets, 1x6x5 white wall pieces and trans-clear 1x4x3 windows with white frames.

bmwlego · April 2014

@CCC‌
Your math is spot on. My friend and I stacked 1x2 bricks in a large PaB cup several years back. We stacked them concentrically and fit 650 and 656 1x2 bricks. These 2 cups then filled/near filled 3 PaB cups.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/notenoughbricks/4909690005/in/set-72157624766209816

drdavewatford · April 2014

SilentMode said:
Shepherds Bush has these:

The Sheffield store does too.

Paperballpark · April 2014

I updated the Sheffield store on www.wallofbricks.com late on Saturday evening.

Brickarmor · April 2014

Those same tail, rocket, and wheel parts were at both Atlanta area stores, along with a trans-black windscreen canopy. Overall the Sugarloaf store had a better selection (makes sense, it is much bigger), but Alpharetta had Lt Bley and Reddish Brown1x4 bricks.

FenrisAkashi · April 2014

Prices per cup also went up, 8.99 and 15.99. Inevitable though annoying. Hopefully if we are paying more we can see a broader range of bits.

jasor · April 2014

^ they went up where, exactly?

graphite · April 2014

^ at the LEGO stores.

luckyruss · April 2014

They had the same parts in the pic above in Watford too, together with the LBG left and right hand 6 x 3 wedge plates (both in the same bin), and some sort of trans black canopy.

I am a little surprised about the commonality across the globe these days, I was in Boston a couple of weeks ago (South Shore Plaza) and the mix was very similar to the UK - although I guess I shouldn't be surprised if they all come from the same place. My impression (may be just that) was that there was something of a difference a couple of years back.

jasor · April 2014

graphite said:
^ at the LEGO stores.

I meant where, as in US, UK, etc.

Pick A Brick Changes Spring 2014

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