Pick-a-Brick in Ontario

[footsteps]

Hi all,

Well, I've been rather quiet recently. Life and work have been a bit busier, and people are posting new stuff at such a pace that I can't even try to keep up. So, to all of the MOC and Custom posters from the recent past, I've been looking at your stuff and been impressed. My silence was not meant as criticism.

And now on to the post at hand.

Last month I started a thread about a PaB stand that I found locally here in Ontario. I now have some updates, and more importantly... PICS!!!!

http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=100687

I talked to the owner on the phone (and got his permission to take the photos) and also talked to a lady in the shop while photographing. Some of this may be old news, but I'm just going to do an "info dump".

The PaB tree is at the St. Jacob's Outlet Mall store of 'Bricks and Blocks':
http://www.bricksandblocksoutlet.com/ (click on 'Waterloo').

Of their three stores, only the St. Jacob's one has the PaB at the moment. It's part of test marketing by TLC. The owner mentioned that there are two other stores, somewhere in Canada (he doesn't know where), that also have PaB trees on a test basis. So, my fellow Canucks, get out there and find those other stores!!!!

I asked about getting minifigs as a PaB choice. He will pass that along to TLC. They are also looking at getting the cups instead of the bags.

As I've said before, the zip-lock bags are labeled 'large' and 'small', but look more like 'small' and 'smaller'. It turns out that the 'large' bag is meant to approximate the small slurpee cup used in the US. I'm still not convinced the bag is that large.

I have confirmed that the grey is bley.

On a whim, I purchased a small bag, and just stuffed it with a variety of pieces to see what would fit. When I got home I counted out 110 pieces (see pics). The cost was C$6.89 (after taxes), or U$5.50 at current (abysmal) rates. That works out to U$0.05/piece. If I had concentrated on getting only smaller pieces, the piece count would have been greater, and to price point much smaller.

Okay, that's it from me for the moment.

Alan

[Ja_izzle]

Alright, i think it's great that all you people with Pick a Bricks by you can go get great deals, but I need to find someone who is willing to go to a p&B and get me some pieces and then mail them to me... anyone interested?

jason

[Devari]

$0.05/piece US is good, I believe... (Can anyone confirm this? ) Anyway, much better than buying current sets to get nowhere near the amount of bricks...

The chance of one being in Victoria is next to nill, but Vancouver... Could be?

Too bad we seem to have no Vancouverites on CC.

I think we have some members in Edmonton. Maybe they could check where they are?

[footsteps]

$0.05/piece US is good, I believe... (Can anyone confirm this? ) Anyway, much better than buying current sets to get nowhere near the amount of bricks...

The chance of one being in Victoria is next to nill, but Vancouver... Could be??

Considering the sizes of the cities and towns around here, Victoria would be a comparable location. Who knows, maybe one of the PaB trees has been deposited in Olds, Alberta

The price per piece would be much worse if I only chose bricks, and much better if only plate-types. Right now there isn't a 'killer' selection of parts that I'd really salivate over. I'll keep checking up on it though.

Too bad we seem to have no Vancouverites on CC.

Well, I'd say that I am a Vancouverite (Go! Canucks! Go!) - I'm just currently stuck in southern Ontario. Someday, the universe will return to the natural order of things.

Alan

[Formendacil]

The chance of one being in Victoria is next to nill, but Vancouver... Could be??

Considering the sizes of the cities and towns around here, Victoria would be a comparable location. Who knows, maybe one of the PaB trees has been deposited in Olds, Alberta

Well, I'm sure they'd do well if they put one here. Now, to convince them of the same.

Personally, I'd be more than satisfied with having one in Calgary, or even Edmonton. Both are within a day's journey, and are actually visited.

The odds of me getting to Ontario are about nil. I'll probably visit the one in Cologne before the Ontario one.

EDITED TO FIX QUOTE

[MaxiVisVires]

I guess I am blessed to live out here in California where there's 3 official LEGO PaB's that I can travel to. The one at the Glendale Galleria and Downtown Disney sell these cups 3.99 for a small one ( equivalent to a sour cream container) and 12.99 for a large one ( equivalent to um... this)



The pricing for this is great, except when going for large pieces like shrubs or 2 x 8 bricks. Now the PaB in LEGOLand is what legends are made of. They charge 6.99 a quarter pound. You also get an additional 10% off if you're a plus member (annual pass holder) and you get the brick of the month which is those Duplo promotional bricks you see. They have 2 sized bags. One the size of a normal sack lunch bag, the other the size of... 3 of them put together. They have a wide selection. In almost every color avaiable (though light grey is pretty much gone) And when they don't have something you want. You ask them and they'll check the back. If they have any you can even tell them how much you want. I remember telling the girl working there that I needed 400 Black Minifig legs and she gave me the look as if she was gonna cry. But none the less she got them for me. All in all, at LEGOLand's PaB the average price for a 1 x 4 brick is about 7 cents. So 5 cents a piece is a great deal.