What does that have to do with the price of Lego at Disneyland?

February 9, 2009 11:07 PM

Lego-filter: how much does it cost to fill a bucket from the "Pick a Brick" wall?

Our 5yo daughter has become really into Lego the last few months -- triggered by a set that she got at Christmas and by playing with my old Lego sets that are still stored at my parents' place. She seems to prefer "basic" Lego, which is strangely hard to find in toy stores -- as opposed to the Bionicle/Technic sets that get flogged these days.

Friends of ours are going to Disneyland later this year. My wife had the idea of asking them to stop at the Lego Imagination Center at Downtown Disney and fill a bucket at the "Pick a Brick" wall. The question is, how much money should we ask them to spend (we'd pay them when they return, natch)? How much Lego would, say, twenty dollars get us? Is Pick a Brick priced by weight or volume?

posted by e-man to sports, hobbies, & recreation (12 comments total)

Looks like you can pick a brick from the comfort of your living room. I have no idea how or if the online prices differ from the ones at Disney.
posted by phunniemee at 11:19 PM on February 9, 2009

can't you just ebay some of the old-school legos? i know my nephew got a zillion from one of those kids consignment stores for under 30 bucks.
posted by citystalk at 11:21 PM on February 9, 2009

Yeah, for instance this $29.95 box contains 405 bricks.

I can only that, like anything at Disney, it would cost a lot more there. Walt's freezer bills aren't getting any cheaper, you know.
posted by Dee Xtrovert at 11:23 PM on February 9, 2009 [3 favorites]

At the Lego store here in LA, the P-A-B wall is something like $7.99 for a smallish container (not sure about the container's volume, but it's about the size of the 16-ounce tubs you might buy butter or sour cream in). The larger one, which is roughly 1.5 - 1.75 times as large, is, I believe, $10.99. In the smaller container, you could probably fit about 10-12 fully assembled minifigs (though that wouldn't be the most efficient use).

Twenty bucks would probably get you, in terms of sheer number of bricks, something about the size of this set, plus a few more, though it's very possible to stuff those containers creatively.

Your friends may be able to find a more "basic" set like this or these at the Lego store. These are great sets.

YMMV: I've never actually filled a P-A-B bucket, though they are generally a better deal than the themed sets, particularly if you're buying for a younger kid who just wants a good, varied set of blocks.
posted by hifiparasol at 12:41 AM on February 10, 2009

Not sure about the pick-a-brick, but we just got my 3.5yo the box that both Dee and hifiparasol link to and it's pretty underwhelming in terms of volume. Much of that 405 pcs is made up of tiny "finishing touches" (for lack of a better word) like headlights or windshields. We are finding ourselves looking for more of the basic 2x4 bricks with which to build structures, and going the consignment store route.
posted by cocoagirl at 3:15 AM on February 10, 2009

It's priced by volume, like a specialty candy store where you pay for the bag size. And like a specialty candy store, it's not cheap.

The prices seem to vary from wall to wall (Lego mall stores and some Toys-R-Us's have them too), but it's always the most expensive way to buy pieces, I think. The advantages are you get exactly the pieces you care about with get zero 'filler' pieces that you don't, and you can can choose some impossible (?) to find or rare colors, such as four shades of pink and purple and six different greens. Getting fifty 2x4 pink bricks might be expensive from the wall, but it's a lot cheaper than trying to collect them by acquiring 10 each from five expensive box sets. Your five year old might not care about this -- but I mention the rare pinks and purples deliberately.

Even though it looks a bit like one of those bulk food stores, you should definitely do not think of it as cheap. Other than eBay and garage sales, those generic 'basic' buckets hifiparasol mentions are the correct inexpensive route to volume -- and as a kid you really need high volume before Lego becomes amazing -- since they minimize the number of goofy specialty pieces. They're also often on sale at Targets and Wal-Marts and such. Lego stores don't have sales often, if ever.
posted by rokusan at 6:33 AM on February 10, 2009 [2 favorites]

Shorter answer: if you buy bulk bricks, have them pick an unusual color that's not in most of the sets (they can tell by looking at the sets in the store), or spend your $20ish on something else from the store, not bricks.
posted by rokusan at 6:34 AM on February 10, 2009

the pick a brick wall is not meant as a foundation for collecting lego. theyre meant to flush out a certain piece you need for a specific set you made up.

try this
http://shop.lego.com/product/?p=5587&LangId=2057&ShipTo=US
http://shop.lego.com/product/?p=5539&LangId=2057&ShipTo=US

and every builder needs one of these
http://shop.lego.com/Product/?p=630
posted by phritosan at 7:33 AM on February 10, 2009 [1 favorite]

Rokusan's comment is right on target -- if you're still going the P-A-B route, I'd tell your friends to focus on getting a good assortment of colors.

(Though Lego stores don't have sales, they do have reduced prices on items that, for whatever reason, haven't moved quickly, or whose boxes were damaged in transit. The sale on this set is a great deal for the number of pieces you get; I could definitely see getting it as a starter kit for a young kid. Though it may be too violently themed for a 5yo.)
posted by hifiparasol at 8:04 AM on February 10, 2009

The sale on this set is a great deal for the number of pieces you get; I could definitely see getting it as a starter kit for a young kid. Though it may be too violently themed for a 5yo.

That's the set I designed for Lego Factory. It's definitely a good price/parts ratio, but I wouldn't recommend it for a 5 year old unless they're a prodigy with the bricks. There are quite a lot of small parts and some advanced building techniques with bricks going sideways and such. And as hifiparasol said, the theme of the set is perhaps better for kids a little older.

The best bet would be to have your friends going to Disney get you one of the buckets. Your daughter might find the Pink Box fun if she's into the girly pink thing, or if not there are several flavors of the more traditional Brick bucket.
posted by Fleebnork at 8:20 AM on February 10, 2009

FWIW, the epically huge PAB in Legoland San Diego theme park prices by weight.
posted by jamaro at 8:24 AM on February 10, 2009

Thanks for the answers -- esp. rokusan for pointing out that "Pick a Brick" isn't cheap like buying in bulk (which was our automatic assumption). If our local toystores don't start stocking the "basic buckets" soon, we'll likely either order on-line or go through E-bay or consignment.
posted by e-man at 9:12 PM on February 10, 2009