There’s a lot happening… and kinda renders yesterday’s post on Bricks and Pieces slightly outdated, but LEGO have just announced a new Pick and Build Hub online, which will be the new home for Pick a Brick, but also introduce Build a Minifigure functionality online on LEGO.com for the first time ever!
As part of this, LEGO’s beloved and Bricks and Pieces service, will be merged into Pick a Brick, to offer a more seamless and less confusing experience, and also introduce some new
The full announcement and information is below. I’ve also included some screenshots of the new Pick and Build Hub, but do note that these screenshots might not reflect the final launch.
The new merged experience to the Netherlands, France, Germany and the UK early February. This will be followed by Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the US in late February. We’ll then look to rollout to all other countries globally.
Exact launch dates are to be confirmed, so be sure you’re subscribed via email and following on my Facebook page, Twitter or Instagram to find out when it’ll launch.
Again, please note that these images I’ve shared are from LEGO’s test platform and are NOT final, so some things might change, and certain features might look different.
Glossary Cheat Sheet:
Bricks and Pieces – will be merged into Pick a Brick
Pick a Brick – will remain the same, but with Bricks and Pieces functionality. LEGO’s new unified system to order bricks online.
Pick and Build – LEGO’s new hub for Pick a Brick, Build a Minifigure, and other new online experiences to encourage creativity.
What’s happening
We’re merging Bricks and Pieces into Pick a Brick. With the new Pick a Brick setup, you’ll be able to shop across one merged portfolio, with clear visibility between Standard and Bestseller elements. You’ll also have the option to choose what elements you want from which warehouse. Items that are listed as Bestseller are our most popular elements and will ship from Poland or the US, and your order will be trackable. Standard elements will ship from our Billund warehouse and will not be trackable. It’ll be easy to tell which items are Bestsellers by the yellow tag.
We’ve worked hard to align prices between the two different experiences and keep the prices as low as we can while reflecting changes to market conditions. There will some elements that will be at a slightly higher price and others at a lower price.
In the past, different colours of the same design often had different prices. Now the prices will be more consistent, with some exceptions. Certain colours (like gold and silver), pieces that glow in the dark, and decorated elements will still be priced differently across the same design.
With this new experience we’ll be introducing a split basket with a threshold for each basket. The split basket view will give you visibility between Bestseller and Standard elements and where your chosen elements are coming from (either Billund, Poland or the US). If your basket meets the minimum threshold amount, then you won’t have to pay any handling fees. We’ll continuously improve our supply chain processes to reduce and simplify these handling fees in the future.
This new experience means all parts orders, including those previously made in Bricks and Pieces can be applied to promotions (such as gifts with purchase) on LEGO.com.
Background
Our current Pick a Brick and Bricks & Pieces setup means that consumers aren’t aware of the two different experiences. During 2021 we’ve been running tests and meeting with different consumer groups to better understand the current consumer experience.
Based on these learnings our next step will be to create a new merged experience on LEGO.com. We’ll merge Bricks and Pieces and Pick a Brick into one front-end experience where consumers can browse our portfolio of elements in one place more easily.
Additionally, we’ll improve the shipping time in the US and Canada by implementing a new fulfilment area in our US warehouse. This will reduce shipping time for our top 1,600 elements from 13-18 working days to up to 5 working days. There will likely be some shipping delays for a short time after we launch this experience.
Why we’re making this change
Analysis has indicated that our current setup isn’t always the best experience. Differentiation between our Pick a Brick and Bricks and Pieces experiences isn’t always clear. This new merged experience will bring our portfolio into one place, with clear visibility on Standard versus Bestseller elements.
Customers who place larger orders currently need to split their order between Pick a Brick and Bricks and Pieces. The new merged experience will mean larger orders can be placed in one spot, with greater visibility on delivery times.
When is it happening and in which markets?
The first change happens for the US and Canada when we implement a new fulfilment area in our US-based warehouse in January and start fulfilling Pick a Brick orders there. In order for this change to occur, Pick a Brick will be unavailable for approximately 48 hours, starting late evening January 23rd to January 25th when Pick a Brick comes back online. This outage is planned and is necessary. During this downtime, individual elements will still be available for purchase through Bricks and Pieces.
After that we’ll roll out the new merged experience as a soft launch. This will allow us to understand what’s working and identify improvement opportunities early.
We’re planning to roll out the new merged experience to the Netherlands, France, Germany and the UK early February. This will be followed by Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the US in late February. We’ll then look to rollout to all other countries globally.
During the soft launch, we’ll use several metrics and insights available to us to understand if the new experience is working as it should. We’ll take any learnings from this soft launch and use them to help us deliver the best experience possible for our customers.
New features and functionalities
We’re also creating a new location called the ‘Pick and Build hub’ for Pick a Brick and similar future experiences. With the new ‘Pick and Build hub’, we’ll test and launch new experiences that enable creativity and fun.
As a first trial we’ll introduce Build a Mini to our shoppers in Europe and Asia. With this tool you can combine different minifigure parts and create your own minifigure. The Build a Mini selection of bricks will only be available for this experience. They won’t be available as part of the Pick a Brick assortment.
Additional Information/Q&A:
Will this now integrate into Bricklink?
No, Bricklink was completely separate for this project.
Is there a maximum limit on the quantities, can anyone expect any restrictions/bans if large amounts are ordered?
Yes, we will have some maximum order quantity restrictions. A maximum of 200 different elements with a maximum of 999 pieces of each. If a consumer needs more they can call Consumer Services to verify options or place multiple orders. This system requirement is necessary to ensure system and warehouse stability.
Will this new process affect/improve how quickly new parts become available for order, and the overall selection?
We tried to merge the entire B&P catalogue with PAB and sell the elements that are allowed for sale and can be handled from the warehouse. Usually all elements that could be found on B&P will be available on the merged experience as the Billund Warehouse is still supplying.
This means the value of Bricks & Pieces is transferred to PAB online so that a great many elements are available through it that are difficult to source any other way including exclusive printed elements.
However, we might see a change around how fast we will sell newly launched exclusive elements and more will come on this in the future as there are many moving pieces in this project.
Will all Minifigure Parts from BaP be moved to this new Build a Mini? Or will existing minifigure parts remain a part of this new, merged PaB and B&P?
The Build a Mini experience will be a test to help improve the consumer experience when buying minifigure parts.
The elements that were chosen for the configurator are elements from the Build a Mini instore experience from 2019 & 2020 which was in most of the countries closed due to Covid. Only those elements are used in the configurator test and they do not appear on PAB online. There will continue to be minifigure elements available on PAB as there have been in the past.
How will replacement parts work, as they share the same system as B&P right now – will they become a part of this new system, or remain where they are?
The replacement parts service will remain unchanged.
What countries will Build a Mini be available in?
Build a Mini configurator test will be available in all countries that today has PAB. except the Americas markets.
Would it be possible to order sticker sheets via B&P?
No, we excluded stickers in the initial launch as they are difficult to handle, and more investigation is required.
Will the cart system be overhauled to fix the current bugs? Currently the B&P cart frequently dumps your selection causing you to start over, making the whole process very frustrating.
The new integration of B&P in PAB should solve that problem, as PAB online will use the global “cart system” of LEGO.com which is running quite reliably. If there will be an issue / bug with the cart we will fix that asap.
This is very cool to hear. Although I feel like I jumped the gun after reading the last article I mad a big bricks and pieces order lol. Although we will see how many parts move into the new available parts when they transition.
Like others have also said there may be an issue with sellers buying up the popular pieces in bulk for resale. I know a lot of the parts on the list in the last article were already sold out when I started searching for them.
This is good news! The press release says it all: “Differentiation between our Pick a Brick and Bricks and Pieces experiences isn’t always clear.” Bricks & Pieces is in the replacement bricks section, which may lead to further confusion that consumers are required to pay for missing pieces, or that B&P is only available for missing pieces.
The biggest benefit would be being able to view the full B&P catalogue using the existing search functionality of PAB and features like same piece / same colour. Should make things easier to search without needing to know all the part codes.
Hope sticker sheets get added too. Printed tiles are usually better, but stickers can be applied on any brick you choose (or even on non-Lego elements).
I look forward to checking out Build a Minifigure.
“Currently the B&P cart frequently dumps your selection causing you to start over”
Yes, this is true too. Unsure why, but after a few additions to the cart, the web browser starts to use a lot of memory. To avoid this, I periodically add to cart and then edit the order to save it. Usually takes a few editing attempts for it to restore all pieces without error.
Awesome!!!! I think this will be good since the minifigure bins aren’t available since Covid. Also anything to improve buying random bricks is going to be helpful
Hmmm interesting although they have it ready to roll it seems a bit overwhelming with the different countries selection and no BUILD A MINI in the Americas? That’s odd.
Well good luck to them. I hope it makes the process easier
I do feel like making it world wide the availability seems like it may make it harder to get the pieces we need and want
With sellers often buying up all the pieces. Great article Jay!