Pick-a-brick

Post by **Bruce N H** » Thu Oct 21, 2004 11:58 pm

How much luck have you guys had with pick-a-brick? I was just drooling while looking at these pictures:
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=102267
I believe he's in the Netherlands, but at his pick-a-brick they apparently had scimitars and Orient Expedition pikes! My gosh, I'd have just taken one of those large cups and scooped them out by the hundreds! Not to mention all of the other speciallized pieces in those pics. I've bought at pab once (one other time I was at Disneyland but just got to run into the store and stare at the wall due to lack of time), and almost everything was fairly standard bricks and plates. The only interesting pieces I got were 33 degree corner slopes, 1x4 grill fences (recently used in a stained glass window), and the large steering wheels (still looking for a use). Otherwise I filled the rest of my cup with sand blue 1x2 bricks.
What have you found?

Bruce

LEGOFREAK · Post by **LEGOFREAK** » Fri Oct 22, 2004 12:03 am

my PAB seems to be the same, although I have been to the one at LLCA, and thats all it had, plates and bricks.
the one at San Jose had bricks, plates, and unusual colors like purple and orange. i was somewhat surprised by that. they also had trees and some clear 1*2's
I wish they would get some cool minifg stuff in.
I am not sure but I think they had a section of bionicle stuff. next time we go back i am going to ask because my son is a bionicle freak, and i think a lot of those parts are useful.

Commander Redbeard · Post by **Commander Redbeard** » Fri Oct 22, 2004 1:21 am

**Sighhh...**

You know, maybe TLC should have an online PAB. That would be cool.

J1A3L5 · Post by **J1A3L5** » Fri Oct 22, 2004 2:05 am

Here's a page I made for myself with lists of what I've bought at Pick-A-Brick. At the bottom is a page with stuff I just got today, actually. In the mail though, from a friend of mine.

They had more of a selection than that, however there were some pretty useless pieces. (Who needs mass amounts of wheels, huge 1-piece doors/doorframes, and windshields?) They also had some pieces like small pre-made cone-trees, but most of what they had I got at least one of.

I might add that aside from the dark grey 2x2's and light grey 2x4's the other pieces in the second set weren't there when I was there...

Post by **Formendacil** » Fri Oct 22, 2004 2:27 am

Quit whining!!!

At least you have a PaB.

We don't even have a tiny, little, bley-bricks only one,

Never mind scimitars and pikes.

You have it really good!

stuifzand · Post by **stuifzand** » Sat Oct 23, 2004 5:16 pm

I picked up about 20 pikes today out of one of those boxes...
It's in the Netherlands. And we are very happy with them, all kinds of cool parts in the boxes, and cheap!

This is also available in Germany and Belgium.

Mursk · Post by **Mursk** » Sat Oct 23, 2004 6:22 pm

Urge.. to kill.. rising..

But seriouslly, the Europians have it the best, you get Pikes and we barely even get a single store!

Lord_Of_The_LEGO · Post by **Lord_Of_The_LEGO** » Sat Oct 23, 2004 6:55 pm

Formendacil wrote:Quit whining!!!

I'm just as bad off...living in obscure extreme northern California really stinks sometimes...

At least there's Bricklink...

Tycho McKorley · Post by **Tycho McKorley** » Sat Oct 23, 2004 8:55 pm

I think it's time for those of us who have to live without PaB to go weep.

Green Fox · Post by **Green Fox** » Sun Oct 24, 2004 7:25 am

I really need to move to a country with a pick-a-brick... Come on TLC... there's nothing THAT wrong with Belfast....

The Blue Knight · Post by **The Blue Knight** » Sun Oct 24, 2004 7:44 pm

J1A3L5 wrote:Here's a page I made for myself with lists of what I've bought at Pick-A-Brick. At the bottom is a page with stuff I just got today, actually. In the mail though, from a friend of mine.

They had more of a selection than that, however there were some pretty useless pieces. (Who needs mass amounts of wheels, huge 1-piece doors/doorframes, and windshields?) They also had some pieces like small pre-made cone-trees, but most of what they had I got at least one of.

I might add that aside from the dark grey 2x2's and light grey 2x4's the other pieces in the second set weren't there when I was there...

I'm so terribly far away in Oregon, where is this store? Just how does PaB work? Are they stores owned by Lego? I've never seen one and don't understand the concept. We in fly-over Land don't get out much.

J1A3L5 · Post by **J1A3L5** » Mon Oct 25, 2004 5:00 am

The Blue Knight wrote:
J1A3L5 wrote:Here's a page I made for myself with lists of what I've bought at Pick-A-Brick. At the bottom is a page with stuff I just got today, actually. In the mail though, from a friend of mine.

They had more of a selection than that, however there were some pretty useless pieces. (Who needs mass amounts of wheels, huge 1-piece doors/doorframes, and windshields?) They also had some pieces like small pre-made cone-trees, but most of what they had I got at least one of.

I might add that aside from the dark grey 2x2's and light grey 2x4's the other pieces in the second set weren't there when I was there...
I'm so terribly far away in Oregon, where is this store? Just how does PaB work? Are they stores owned by Lego? I've never seen one and don't understand the concept. We in fly-over Land don't get out much.

The store is in Bellevue, Washington. Basically Seattle, Bellevue is one of the outlying towns. A sort of upper-scale place, it seemed to me. (Especially the mall the LEGO Store was in!)

The PaB's in LEGO Stores work on a cup system. Here's a pic of the large-size cup compared to a 2x4. There's also a small sized cup.

The idea is that for the price of a cup, $12.95 USD for a large one, you can fill it with whatever pieces from the PaB wall you want. As long as the lid fits on, that is. To get the most for your money, you can stack them and stuff. (I spent a long period of time packing the pieces into mine)

However, I've heard that LEGOland Stores work on the basis of weight, instead. I doubt that would be such a good deal.

Yes, indeed the stores are owned by LEGO. They're LEGO Stores, after all!

You can use this link to the store locator to find out if there's one near you.

Finally, here's some pics of the store I was at.

Hope that helps.

The Blue Knight · Post by **The Blue Knight** » Mon Oct 25, 2004 5:47 am

Thanks J1A3L5 (what on earth does that mean sir?). Bellevue is about 3:30 hours north of me. This place looks like an AFOLs dream! Wow! I appreciate the info my friend.

Ja_izzle · Post by **Ja_izzle** » Mon Oct 25, 2004 10:18 pm

I still think someone who has access to a p&B near them should take orders from us who are distant from them, and then mail them to us at our expense... i dunno. thats just what I think.... All i know is that I'm in the market for over 1000 bricks, and anyway to get that would be appreciated.

Jason

J1A3L5 · Post by **J1A3L5** » Tue Oct 26, 2004 2:56 am

The Blue Knight wrote:Thanks J1A3L5 (what on earth does that mean sir?). Bellevue is about 3:30 hours north of me. This place looks like an AFOLs dream! Wow! I appreciate the info my friend.

Sure thing. J1A3L5 = JAL, my intials, and 13, my lucky number, (seriously,) and 5. the next odd & prime number.

Ja_izzle wrote:I still think someone who has access to a p&B near them should take orders from us who are distant from them, and then mail them to us at our expense... i dunno. thats just what I think.... All i know is that I'm in the market for over 1000 bricks, and anyway to get that would be appreciated.

Possibly, it depends how well packed you want the cups. I spent over 30 minutes on each of my cups very carefully packing each piece in and making them all fit, and filling in the gaps with other, smaller pieces. I would expect anyone would want a bit extra in order to compensate for the amount of time spent...