An interesting notice was posted on the LEGO Ambassador Forum a couple of days ago by Kevin Hinkle, LEGO’s Community Manager for the Americas. I will post the notice below for your reference. Please note that the changes mentioned apply to North America only at this point. 🙂
“As we’ve discussed here previously, there have been some significant changes to the Pick-A-Brick Wall in our LEGO Brand Retail (LBR) stores this year. Some aspects of this roll out have made their way to the European locations, but for the most part the impact was within North America.
I’ve been in dialog with the responsible team and we have an interesting bit of information we’d like to share with you. We are currently piloting a fan favorite’ concept on the Pick-A-Brick Wall in which we’ve partnered with the LBR Experience team to identify and supply LEGO elements that would be considered popular among the AFOL (Adult-Fan-of-LEGO) community. For the moment, this is in practice at two test locations; Bridgewater, New Jersey and San Antonio, Texas. This selection is not based upon any surveys or focus groups you have missed, but rather on the intel of your LEGO community team and ordering habits in various support programs. For reference, I’ve attached the graphic that is being utilized to highlight these pieces on the wall (see below).
If the concept tests well, we hope to continue roll out across all LBR locations in North America. However, I do not have any information regarding timing. Additionally, I do not have any information regarding implementation at our locations in Europe.”
The San Antonio, Texas store currently has four items under the Fan Favorites section: 1×1 black brick with studs on 4 sides, 1×1 metallic-gray round tile, 1×2 purple tile, and 1×2 green inverted bracket. None of these pieces are new to the LEGO Pick-A-Brick Wall, as they have all been available previously either as regular items or as part of the LEGO Build-A-Model promotion. Hopefully as time goes by and LEGO gets more feedback on what adult LEGO fans want, this section will be filled with more unique and interesting elements.
Kevin is asking for feedback on this new idea, so if you have any thoughts, questions, concerns, feel free to share them in the comment section below. Also, if you are excited about the idea, and have some requests for special elements, you can share that too. I will make sure to convey your feedback to Kevin through the LEGO Ambassador Forum.
And you might also like to check out the following related posts:
I like the idea. (Hoping for 1X2 transparent blue tile.)
Trans blue.. light, medium, dark? 🙂
Sorry; trans light blue.
Please bring this to london! If I can get 3-4 cups of dalek bricks (1×1 w 4 studs) I’d be ridiculously happy as they are expensive on bricklink!
Tom, if the program works out in the US, it will likely be implemented in other places as well. 🙂
I absolutely love this idea.
I hope it is implemented on a individual store level allowing local Lugs to communicate the desired parts to their local store
1×2 sand green brick, 1×2 sand red brick, tan 1×2 brick (brick design), 1×1 stud with hole in the middle, purple 1×2 brick, black bar, grey head piece (no print).
Parts we would actually want a zillion of.
Oh, dear! Would love to have some sand-red! 😀
Brick pattern bricks in either 1X2 or 1X4 a lot of colors. And just about ANY brick in sand green, sand red, sand blue, or earth green.
They had the black bar as part of the green jeep in the last Pick A Model and the current models both use a 1×1 tan brick, although it as studs on one side.
I second jake.
And I would add 1×1 with 1 stud on side (the newer version) in Light Bley, and black.
1×2 and 1×1 tiles in dk tan, dk red, dk< Bley, black and white.
Masonry 1×2 bricks in dk red, dk tan, and light or dark Bley.
The log or “palisade” 1×4 brick in reddish brown.
Grass stem in olive green
Plant 6×5 or 3×4 in any color. Especially lavenders, pinks, and reds
Plants! Other than grass, which seems fairly common. Also the 1×1 brick with 4 studs in any color, anything in sand green or sand blue, masonry bricks, skeleton legs, anything transparent, and building windows (as opposed to the ubiquitous windshields). I’m so excited about the possibilities!!
I love the idea, especially the 1×1 brick with studs on the sides being one of the flagship pieces. I hope there’s always at least one good SNOT brick in the mix, along with the nice detail tiles and height-changing plates. Jumpers would be another good thing to have in this I think.
The element I look for most often in the PaB Wall is a 2×2 tile in any color other than pink, purple, or orange. I would especially appreciate tiles in earth tones: light gray, dark gray, green, tan, brown, etc. I certainly could settle for 2×1 tiles as well.
Great ideas so far, keep them coming! I will gather all the suggestions and requests in a couple of days and submit them to LEGO. 🙂
I like to create buildings such as castles, homes, dollhouses, etc. To do this successfully, you really need a variety of brick sizes in the same color. It would be nice if the Lego Stores would stock the wall with a given color, say tan, and provide 1×1, 1×2, 1×3, 1×4, and maybe a larger size like 1×8 all in that same color. A couple months later they could switch that to a new color, say light-blue grey, but provide all the basic sizes of that color brick simultaneously. That would really help AFOL builders.
Consider all the Creator houses and Modular buildings. You tend to get a particular color of brick in a multitude of sizes. For example, the Parisian Restaurant comes with a great variety of the olive green brick in many sizes. This variety of brick size is what AFOL builders need also.
The same goes for roof tiles. They recently had black roof tiles (45 degree, 2×4) on the brick wall. It would have been nice to also have black 2×2, and 2×1 roof tiles at the same time, as well as some of the convex or concave corner roof tiles. Then a builder could acquire all the pieces to make a really nice roof.
I think they should get rid of all bricks that are 2×3, 2×4, 2×6, etc. These are rarely used by adult builders. Consider any official Lego set you’ve every built. How many of these types of larger bricks do they include? Very few. They really aren’t that useful.
I love that idea but, realistically, all the parts aren’t going to sell a the same rate. What would they do with the leftovers so that they could substitute another color in the desired sizes?
The scenario I propose is no different than the current Pick-a-Model. The parts for those models do not disappear at the same time. Some parts sell out very quickly, some never do.
Furthermore, I’m suggesting that the Lego Store use 5 or 6 of the bins for a consistent color of brick in various sizes. Most stores have 84 or more bins on their wall. So this is really a small percentage of their wall. If one of the brick sizes were still abundant after a few months, they could still transition to a new color.
Hope it happens!
So far as I’m concerned they could certainly give up the space currently occupied by the little models. Don’t know if that will happen but your by-the-color thought strikes me as far more desirable.
Hey admin a pic for the 2016 Star wars constraction figures is found! these are based off of the new star wars movie!
I want 2×2 tiles in common colors like tan, dark grey, white etc.
More windows styles, plants, 1×2 & 1×4 tiles in transparent red and blue.
Agree with the idea of more roof tiles in one color with different sizes.
I’d like to see, if they carry forward with it, to have it posted on that stores’ website as to which sets are on that wall. I’d like to know ahead of time if the wall is catering towards a truck, a boat or dalek
Yeah, it would probably be good if the parts were best for something specific, because usually it’s always random parts on the wall.
Wow! This sounds like an excellent idea! If they start putting more unique and special elements in the PAB wall, itd definitely be more worth buying a cup from my perspective.
This is a fantastic idea, hope it catches on.
I love James’ idea of various sizes in the same color. I also do not see much use for the 2x bricks. It would be interesting to see how much they actually sell of those.
Would also love more plants and foliage in various colors!
I visit a Sacramento Lego store on a weekly basis for Pick A Brick. I am in agreement of the lack of speciality item bricks. Many brick bins don’t change often. I purchase bricks to contribute them to Womens Emergency shelters for their children to play with as their own personal gifts. Many of these children are female. It’s seldom I can find the lighter colors such as purple, pink, lavendar, yellow etc on a regular basis. I was stunned to find so many adults “AFOL” purchasing Pick A Brick. Most of my bricks are made into speciality items such as vehicles and animals but I include enough pieces for the kids to build a second. The more speciality bricks means cooler objects made. I would encourage LEGO to install more pick a brick bins in stores. The Sacramento Store Manager has put portable bins on an adjacent shelf to the pick a brick wall containing bricks and speciality pieces that had been replaced weeks and or months before, Excellent job Dave…..your awesome. LEGO needs more wheels, tires, windows, doors and in general brighter colors.
I for one do use a fair number of 2X bricks. (mostly 2X4, 2X6, and 2X8.)
Train windows would be great. Like in the old style trains, eg emerald night.
I would love more sand green parts, tiles and bricks especially. These are by far the hardest parts to get anywhere. The sand or dark green 1 by 1 flat or 1 by 1 round flat are impossible to get in any quantity on bricklink. I also would love the masonry bricks in any color. 1 by 2 curved slopes with no studs or 2 by 2 in sand green, tan, or dark red and dark green (part# 11477). The olive green plant grass stem in bulk would be amazing. Any Fez would be great, but I would like the Reddish Brown Cone 1 1/6 x 1 1/6 x 2/3 (Fez). Also, any 1 by 3 tile. Those are rare. These parts are rare, but it would be great to get hundreds to build MOCs.
Thanks for looking into this!
I appreciate any SNOT part (the 5-direction brick is a good starter). Hinges of any sort are great, also 1-by-anything bricks in rarer colors.
If TLG wants to get ambitious, look on the resale sites and pick parts that are disproportionately expensive and sell them – e.g. not out of print, but for some reason much more expensive than other parts w/ the same shape in another color
I would love to see a dark red 1×2 brick pattern, 1×4 tan and light gray brick, and more 1×2 plates in various colors.
The Bridgewater, NJ store has the same four elements as its “fan favorites”, as would be expected. I am really hoping for more subdued colors in the future for those spots, such as sand blue or green, etc. Here’s hoping it continues and is actually relevant to AFOL desires, not overruns of too-specific elements!
I LOVE this idea! It is always my biggest disappointment when I go to a Lego store and find the wall full of red, yellow, blue and black 2x bricks.
I realize that parts differ in their cost to Lego to begin with, but if Lego can afford car windshields (which I nearly always see in the mix), then couldn’t they afford bananas? Red apples? French bread? Pizza tiles? Soccer balls?
I am also in need of the 1×2 curved slopes in every color but green, which was available with one of the mini-builds recently. Finally, could it become routine for Lego to ship wedges to Lego stores in combined boxes, so that they are sold with a mixture of right and left wedges of the same color? The alternative is a very skewed collection of pieces that are meant to be paired.
I hope this pans out and they stock basic parts in common colors that are typically expensive and relatively scarce on BrickLink, such as 1×2 blay plates and 1×2 blay tiles, 1×1 plates in non-transparent colors (which I’ve never seen in Pick-a-Brick since its inception), etc. Foliage/leaf pieces in all the various colors would be high demand too. Hopefully they will mine their wealth of internal data for what AFOLs really want a lot of when given the choice.
Let’s see some Mixel joints, t-bar joint, click ball joints, and Constraction joints! Basically anything with the word “joint” in it.