brick shortage

yes im entering a brick shortage what should i do? (dam i really want a city )

bricklink/pic a brick/get sets you don't want but have good basic pieces(non-licensed are better)

I reccomend PickaBrick to Bricklink, it's a little less confusing for big orders until you get the hang of it.
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Redwater

Pick a Brick sells almost nothing

I know but it would be very confusing for someone that is younger. Having parents set up a Paypal is a lot less likely to happen than just a order from LEGO.

I recommend Pick-A-Brick. If you have a LEGO Store near you they'll have a wall of parts. You can get a large or small cup. Just ask an employee if your confused.

Also Creator sets have a lot of parts for it's price. Or any other set would be fine.

Also I'm moving this to General Discussion. It's is LEGO related.

thanks guys

Ok, lets take a look at your options....


Bricklink
http://www.bricklink.com/
Your parents will have to do this one... Most stores use Paypal, and your parents will have to manage everything. When you place a order you must wait for a invoice with shipping to be emailed, and then you will have to pay on paypal. If you do not pay you are banned from Bricklink [Most of the time]. Bricklink is confusing and has a 18+ rule [Correct me if I am wrong]. I would wait until you are a bit older... And Bricklink does take some time to get used to...

Also, My bricklink to see what sellers expect:
http://www.bricklink.com/feedback.asp?u=Lthecat

Online Lego PAB
http://shop.lego.com/pab/
This one is easy, and what I started on... You just enter your credit-card number when you check out and it is shipped out the next day, some bricklink sellers will take up to a week to pack your order. Yet, it is expensive... For example a white 2X4 [I brick I use in almost all my Mocs] will cost $0.26 USD with $7.00 shipping for 999 of them [You can not order more then 999 of any part on PAB], and on Bricklink it will cost $0.18 USD with about $10-20 shipping. So PAB does have its pros and cons.

IRL [in real life] PAB
At a lego store.

For $7 [Small bucket] or $14 [Large bucket] you get as many bricks as you can shove in a cup. Every store has different bricks and you are never sure what they will have. If you visit the store and ask to buy a Kilo box, you will get a large box of one part [Not mixed, only one part [White 1x1, Etc.]] for $74.99... Not all stores do this, but if you get on the stores good side [Spend lots of money ] they should sell you them. Lego Store PABs are hit and miss, but if your area has many AFOLS [or others], they may upload the contents of the wall onto http://www.brickbuildr.com/view/pab/ , so you can see what they have before you go... The price is much better then Bricklink or online PAB...

City Sets
http://shop.lego.com/ByTheme/Department.aspx?d=9
If you need building for your town, and you need it fast, these normal will work out. But in the long run these may not be the best deal... They are mostly made of Large bricks [Pre-fab] instead of smaller bricks that you can use for many over and over again. Take a look at parts like this:

It could be made from 1X1s yet it is a single piece... These are not as useful as the five 1x1s it could be built from. So pick sets like these by looking at what parts come in them by looking them up here:
http://www.brickset.com/browse/
Or you could read reviews on here or on Eurobricks:
http://www.eurobricks.com/sieg/dex/

Creator Sets
http://shop.lego.com/ByTheme/Leaf.aspx?cn=348&d=70&pg=2
Most Creator sets are not Mini-fig scale... But the new waves coming out soon, mostly are Mini-fig scale... Even if they do not fit mini-figs they have great part for any kind of building and most are not Pre-Fab. Also with creator sets you get more parts for the cost of the set, unlike Starwars where you get less for the cost.

Brick Buckets
http://shop.lego.com/ByTheme/Leaf.aspx?cn=717&d=362
I started out with these things, and they are a great starting point... But the fact is most of your buildings will be square and Multi-colored unless you buy different buckets... Sets like: http://shop.lego.com/ByTheme/Product.aspx?p=6177&cn=717&d=362
Are better deals then sets like this:
http://shop.lego.com/ByTheme/Product.aspx?p=6166&cn=717&d=362
Because the second one comes in a bucket [Costs more] making it have 200 less parts. When ever I am looking into buying one of these, before going to the store, I make some thing like this in word:

LEGO Large Brick Box
Item #: 6166 Pieces: 405
Price
USD 29.99

LEGO Basic Bricks Deluxe
Item #: 6177 Pieces: 650
Price
USD 29.99

If you look at sets like this, you can really see how 6177 is better then 6166.


Hope this covers everything, if it does not ask, I would love to help more.


Octan [Who is stuck at home because he is sick ]

Octan wrote: Lego Store PABs are hit and miss, but if your area has many AFOLS [or others], they may upload the contents of the wall onto http://www.brickbuildr.com/view/pab/ , so you can see what they have before you go...

Thanks for this link, the website is really useful.
-
Redwater

woah! nice one octan!

I just stick with Bricklink, personally.

flame wrote:woah! nice one octan!

Thanks, I hope it is helpful. If you are thinking about another themes parts value post it here.

Octan

Octan wrote:

flame wrote:woah! nice one octan!

Thanks, I hope it is helpful. If you are thinking about another themes parts value post it here.

Octan

im starting to think of using brickarms i suppose it saves bricks because i make custom guns from those bricks so it would save my bricks!(i think)

Octan wrote:
For example a white 2X4 [I brick I use in almost all my Mocs] will cost $0.26 USD with $7.00 shipping for 999 of them [You can not order more then 999 of any part on PAB], and on Bricklink it will cost $0.18 USD with about $10-20 shipping. So PAB does have its pros and cons.

I did the math and you pay $70 more to use PAB rather than Bricklink!

flame wrote:

Octan wrote:

flame wrote:woah! nice one octan!

Thanks, I hope it is helpful. If you are thinking about another themes parts value post it here.

Octan

im starting to think of using brickarms i suppose it saves bricks because i make custom guns from those bricks so it would save my bricks!(i think)

This may not be as good of an idea as it may seem. Considering you will use these for your police force, we should take a look at your options:

Also, most local police forces will not be armed with heavy arms [Left to city and Swat forces], this puts most brickarms out of the picture. If you are not basing your force on real facts, you can use a G36C
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heckler_%26_Koch_G36
A stereotypical police weapon. Does Brickarms make a g36? No, they don't. So lets take a look at the M4 Carbon....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M4_carbine
Also, a gun that could be used for a police force. Do they make a M4? Yes, they do, But you will need a mono-pod, launcher, etc.

Lets take a look at the gun:

Then at Brickarms's version:


What is brickarms's version missing? Lets make a list!
Mono-pod $0.25
Launcher (M203) $0.50
Any other attachments you want $0-$10

So if we add this up:
M4 $1
Mono $0.25
Launcher $0.50
_______________________+
$1.75!

Ok, so $1.75+Side-arm cost times the number of officers in your force. It does really add up, I am not saying Brick-bulit is better { http://www.mocpages.com/moc.php/173353 }. One answer would not to arm your police force at all, or just use your Lego guns (Do not use StarWars guns, they do not fit with city!), as I said earlier, most police forces are armed very lightly. And the $1.75 spent on a gun could buy more bricks for your town. Although Brickarms is the 1# known about custom company, their are other companies. Mini-fig-cat ( http://www.minifigcat.com/shop/home.php?cat=103 ) will better fit with your city, and be more accurate. Also Mini-fig-cat is located in Taiwan, shipping to the US/Europe is cheeper then Brickarms is to US/Europe.

Please forgive spelling, I am on a Ipad [Vacation]

Anything other brands you want to know about?

Octan

EDIT: Make that mono-clip a 'U'-Clip, typo, and I don't feel like going threw and changing it.