BrickLink Designer Program Series 2 available for pre-order

Ye direct links would be great

and waiting again on the lego site

@wwward said:
"the Bricklink site works and didn't crash, but now I can't get through on the LEGO website..."

Yep me too, not adding to the cart on teh LEGO website :(

not working.

update: Gotcha! I thought I would end up ordering the bricks in my bag as well, but not the case.

All's good on BrickLink's side, but Lego's webiste is complete ??

Just goes to show, no matter how long you prepare in advance with both sites logged-on and set up, something always goes wrong, and NOT from my end. I sure as hell better not miss out again because TLG has messed-up.

Awful, truly awful

Is Lego down?

@twentythree said:
"Just a blank white screen no matter which set I choose."

Same here.

@patrickbrans said:
"
https://www.lego.com/cart?product=910034 Brick Cross Train Station
https://www.lego.com/cart?product=910035 Logging Railway
https://www.lego.com/cart?product=910036 The Ocean House
https://www.lego.com/cart?product=910037 Mushroom House
https://www.lego.com/cart?product=910038 Ominouse Isle
"

None of these sets really interest me...I purchased quite a few of the previous Designer sets but these are nothing special. Too bad as I really liked some of the sets that didn't make it to this round.

Keep fighting through it everyone! I had about 7 minutes of the full variety of issues, but finally got the two sets I wanted into my cart and made it through checkout.

A fist full of patience finally got me through, got the Brick Cross Train Station and the Ominous Isle ordered.

I'm seeing the green line moving, and I still can't get into the Lego page to purchase my preferred set, This is disgraceful on behalf of TLG. Of course, they won't offer anything substantial but pathetic platitudes, but I will have some harsh words with customer service if this continues.

Bricklink isn't working for me at all... all I was doing was looking at my wanted items list!

Worked for me, Brick Cross into Lego basket, checked out!

It worked! Got the Train Station and the Mushroom House. Still debating on Ominous Isle...

The progress trackers on Bricklink are creeping upwards, so I guess SOMEBODY is successfully placing their pre-orders. Not sure what dark magic they're using to get the Lego site to load ...

I used all 5 links and then placed all my orders at once. I even got to enter a code for my CC sent to my phone since my bank doesn't trust me. :) Good bank! Trust No One!

Brick Cross and Logging Railway ordered :)

Order placed! Woooooooo!

finaly, got them all

unsurprisingly the train station is the first one reaching the 'funded' mark

Got the mushroom house!

It's working now. Just placed my order.

That was a stressful few minutes, but I got my train station and mushroom house.

I’m not in the US ffs I don’t want to buy it in dollars

keeps taking me to Lego usa and can't change it to the UK. Does anyone have UK links?

My credit card's going to be aching for weeks...

Hmmmmm directs to the US Lego site. Not helpful here in Australia.

@1x1 said:
"keeps taking me to Lego usa and can't change it to the UK. Does anyone have UK links?
"

It did that for me once, just close it, go back to BL and click on the link again. Eventually it'll auto sign you in for UK

I've tried about 20 times but it keeps doing it

It won't allow me to change the country for my billing address. Can anyone help? Lego is taking ages to answer my customer service request.

First three sets are funded: Station, Mushroom House and Isle.

finally working

Station and Mushroom House ordered.
Station looks well on its way to sell out in a few hours

My order went through twice... Now I have to call back to cancel :(

Received oder confirmation on BrickCross but still cant get account page to load.

I am also having the same problem that I cannot get to the UK page.

A few failed attempts after clicking the links, and then it put me on to the US version of the Lego page (I am in the UK). But Brick Cross now ordered!!
My first BDP set, come on.

There is a little bit of a delay, but no more massive server crashes like what I've experienced in the past. I'd say give them a break. Is it perfect? No, but this was a lot better then some past ones.

Not a huge fan of this lot, but got Ominous Isle and Brick Cross. Looking more forward to series 4 next February.

Brick Cross Train Station funded from several minutes ago : )

prices are all $20 more US than listed up above currently.

Edit - thanks for updating the article!!

@dimc said:
" @SithLord196 said:
"So far the U.S. prices seem to be higher than those listed in this article. The Mushroom House came up at $89.99 and Brick Cross is coming up at $279.99."

These have been the prices on the BLDP site since the beginning. Brickset is incorrect in this article for USD. "

I had not realized that. Thank you for the clarification.

Finally working

try using https://www.lego.com/en-gb/cart?product=910034 changing the last number to the one you want

@NeptuneIce said:
"Hmmmmm directs to the US Lego site. Not helpful here in Australia."

Switch the US in the link to AU, I just got mine to work that way

Looks like there are a lot of us with Brick Cross and Mushroom House. I wonder if they'll both sell out around the same time?

@Huw said:
"What a surprise. LEGO.com has failed the company again..."

The direct links worked for me, even a few minutes before official opening.

@AliveAndBricking said:
"It won't allow me to change the country for my billing address. Can anyone help? Lego is taking ages to answer my customer service request."

I manually changed a small part of the web address in the address bar from en-us to en-au once I had it in my shopping cart. It changed the shopping cart from US dollars to Australian dollars and then allowed me to enter an Australian postal address and place the order. If you changed it to en-uk it might work.

Although I just tried to replicate it and the shopping cart is now in my local currency so maybe the error has been fixed at LEGOs end.

The trick with the region is to look at the address in your browser. In the bit where it says /en-us/ change the reference to US to your region and hit enter - e.g., AU, UK, NZ, etc. You should only need to do it once

Thanks all. Have tried everything but still going to US site. I despair

I'm on the Shipping Page and stuck on a call with Customer Service.

There's NOTHING on the bottom right for me to change region.

i too am waiting for my account page to load. However, I have the relief of going through this last time and everything has gone the same way, except account page, so should be okay.

Account page now working and order on. Back to Roland Garros.

@sidneyleejohnson said:
"frankly I thought series 2 went much more smoothly than series 1 as far as glitches go. Not perfect but I thought it was an improvement. I think it took me 2 hours to resolve last series and it took me 10 minutes this one. So thumbs up for progress."

Good for you, but you must be having a laugh. Then again, I see you're in the US. It's the rest of us who are struggling here. Bully for the Americans, I guess.

After a couple of issues on the GB Lego site I managed to get my order for the Logging Railway in at about 16:07. An improvement over last time! Now I can shut down my laptop and head to the airport!

Took some patience but I got the Brick Cross Train Station

It is working fine in the UK. At least for me.

@paulvdb said:
"And now all sets are funded."

The order was:
Brick Cross Train Station
Mushroom House
Ominous Isle
Logging Railway
The Ocean House

I am curious how everyone feels about the current system (5 sets, and all can be funded) versus the 2021-2022 version of the BDP.

You may recall that in the prior incarnation there were 9 sets available (round one had fewer) and a race for the first 5 to hit whatever the threshold was.

I am of mixed opinion, as I like not worrying about whether or not my selection(s) will be made, but I also like having more options.

An absolute farce yet again. Links not working, linking to US site, LEGO pages taking forever to load and still no sign of the order confirmation e-mails. I am surprised anyone ever gets their order through on this load of sh*te.

I received my confirmation and the standard pre-order items are out of stock emails already.

@twentythree said:
"Just a blank white screen no matter which set I choose."

Finally went through.
Got the Mushroom & Pirate.

Trick seemed to be scrolling down on my phone.

@followsclosely said:
"Waiting for direct links..."

https://www.lego.com/en-us/cart?product=910034 Brick Cross Train Station
https://www.lego.com/en-us/cart?product=910035 Logging Railway
https://www.lego.com/en-us/cart?product=910036 Ocean House
https://www.lego.com/en-us/cart?product=910037 Mushroom House
https://www.lego.com/en-us/cart?product=910038 Ominous Isle

@SmilingCyclops said:
" @huracanum said:
" @paulvdb said:
"And now all sets are funded."

I am curious how everyone feels about the current system (5 sets, and all can be funded) versus the 2021-2022 version of the BDP.

You may recall that in the prior incarnation there were 9 sets available (round one had fewer) and a race for the first 5 to hit whatever the threshold was.

I am of mixed opinion, as I like not worrying about whether or not my selection(s) will be made, but I also like having more options."

I think I mostly prefer the current versions. While there are fewer options, I disliked that there was another round of the sets being pitted against one another, leading to frustration for both designers and supporters."

I agree with the frustration of the previous version (I am a fan of EndlessAges work whose Steam Powered Science went unfunded in R3 of the previous version, though it had a lot of changes between initial and final version and I do not recall if I had decided to order it).

On the other hand, the current voting system which "weighs in alongside the BDP's internal selection criteria..." is less than transparent, to put it mildly. Especially, because you would think that any "internal selection criteria" should be applied before it gets to a fan vote. Why give us a set to vote on that does not/cannot pass whatever that criteria is?

Frustration aside, the past version gave a seeming more direct voice to the fans.

@huracanum said:
" @paulvdb said:
"And now all sets are funded."

The order was:
Brick Cross Train Station
Mushroom House
Ominous Isle
Logging Railway
The Ocean House

I am curious how everyone feels about the current system (5 sets, and all can be funded) versus the 2021-2022 version of the BDP.

You may recall that in the prior incarnation there were 9 sets available (round one had fewer) and a race for the first 5 to hit whatever the threshold was.

I am of mixed opinion, as I like not worrying about whether or not my selection(s) will be made, but I also like having more options."

Don't designers get to resubmit designs to future series anyway? So would this change matter in that light? If you were super close (not sure if designers get any intel on how close they were from bricklink design program admins), you could just try try again. At some point you might just decide you just aren't going to make it how ever many times you try. ("Quitters never win, winners never quit, but those who never win and never quit are idiots."-Stupidity demotivation poster)

Brickcross already half sold. Give it another hour or so until Sold Out

Ordered the seemingly standard Brick Cross + Mushroom House combo! Well... 300 quid, a nice round figure!

Minor probs with freezes and getting US site, but shut down all lego.com occurrences and started again from BrickLink and it worked fine.

Okay.

It appears that Bricklink kept defaulting me to the US Lego page, and that when I got to 'Shipping' I was unable to change my address from 'United States' to 'United Kingdom'.

After speaking to a very polite and patient TLG Customer Service employee, it appears that I needed to change the web address from 'en-us' to 'en-gb', and that suffices without messing up the order. In hindsight, it seems obvious, but I'm still not sure why I was being sent to a US Lego page rather than a UK one, seeing as both my Bricklink and Lego accounts are registered in the UK/with UK address information. Strange.

Total shambles with pre-order link continuously going to the US site and when I changed region my cart was empty! Thankfully, the tip to change "US" to "NZ" in the browser worked so pre-orders made but I just can't understand how Bricklink/Lego can't get this system working right from the get go.

@Carl said:
"Total shambles with pre-order link continuously going to the US site and when I changed region my cart was empty! Thankfully, the tip to change "US" to "NZ" in the browser worked so pre-orders made but I just can't understand how Bricklink/Lego can't get this system working right from the get go."

Seems we had a similar problem, albeit, as a Brit, I needed to change "US" to "GB" in the browser. Anyway, fingers crossed that it's now worked out for the both of us, but having been 'burned' once before via Bricklink, I'm not counting my chickens until the set is on my doorstep, some months down the line.

Order the pirate’s Ominous Isle , and then after the second thought made another order for the Brick Cross Train Station. May finally have a proper train station for my 12V system

But the website problems at the beginning… this is really embarrassing for a company of TLG size

Well that was fun. Lego masochistic episode for the fortnight completed.

Does this mean I'm into L&M? Should I have a special leather outfit to wear for making online Lego purchases?

Got the mushroom house, still considering if I should buy the station

40 minutes on and still no sign of an order confirmation e-mail. LEGO account not showing correctly. So I have no clue if I got the sets I wanted. Absolutely disgusting from a company who keep telling us they care. That's clearly bo**ocks

@Belboz said:
"40 minutes on and still no sign of an order confirmation e-mail. LEGO account not showing correctly. So I have no clue if I got the sets I wanted. Absolutely disgusting from a company who keep telling us they care. That's clearly bo**ocks"

Can you check your account history? I got my email pretty much instantly, and I have an order number.

As I said, the account is not showing correctly. Half the information is missing.

Looks like they're redesigning the accounts section.

@Belboz said:
"As I said, the account is not showing correctly. Half the information is missing."

Did you change your link to en-gb from en-us?

@dimc said:
" @Belboz said:
"40 minutes on and still no sign of an order confirmation e-mail. LEGO account not showing correctly. So I have no clue if I got the sets I wanted. Absolutely disgusting from a company who keep telling us they care. That's clearly bo**ocks"

Can you check your account history? I got my email pretty much instantly, and I have an order number. "

I didn't get an order number with my email, but it did come up at the end of the transaction, via the Lego page. The confirmation *email* was pretty vague and basic: "You've made some great choices. We hope you had fun shopping..."

LOL! Yeah, 'fun shopping'...

Anyone knows how it is with credit card authorization? Will these funds be blocked all the time until order is shipped (in half year)?

I normally get two e-mails. the first says they have my order. The second states the order is confirmed. Neither has come through since ordering almost an hour ago. Not willing to re-order as I'm not rich enough to afford two of the same set.

@AliveAndBricking said:
" @dimc said:
" @Belboz said:
"40 minutes on and still no sign of an order confirmation e-mail. LEGO account not showing correctly. So I have no clue if I got the sets I wanted. Absolutely disgusting from a company who keep telling us they care. That's clearly bo**ocks"

Can you check your account history? I got my email pretty much instantly, and I have an order number. "

I didn't get an order number with my email, but it did come up at the end of the transaction, via the Lego page. The confirmation *email* was pretty vague and basic: "You've made some great choices. We hope you had fun shopping..."

LOL! Yeah, 'fun shopping'..."

I got that first, then 9 minutes later I got "your lego order is confirmed" and 24 minutes after that, "important update on your lego order" where it says they're out of stock, but I always get these for BLDP orders.

@Cwetqo said:
"Anyone knows how it is with credit card authorization? Will these funds be blocked all the time until order is shipped (in half year)?"

Nope. They just pre-authorize the payment and only charge upon shipping. Which is good, and dangerous at the same time :)

Good to see that all five models are funded, but that there still appears to be plenty of time before any of them reach the maximum number of orders (although Brick Cross Train Station and the Mushroom House are about halfway through their max orders).

The My Orders page just says Unknown for the status on every past order in my account. I feel for the Lego Database admins right now.

Finally got my order confirmed e-mails through after over an hour. That's ridiculous when you consider that the sets have a limited number and time is of the essence. No doubt it will be the same in October when I try to get the lost city.....

@Belboz said:
"I normally get two e-mails. the first says they have my order. The second states the order is confirmed. Neither has come through since ordering almost an hour ago. Not willing to re-order as I'm not rich enough to afford two of the same set. "
I haven't got the second e-mail yet, but the 1st one ended up in 'junk', which they never have before!
(and all my orders, past and present, currently have a status of 'unknown')

I'm not entirely sure what I shall do with series three and four. The harbour office, forest stronghold and lost city look tempting, as do the merchant boat and medieval seaside market.

@followsclosely said:
" @gunther_schnitzel said:
"...
It would be more straightforward to actually take payment now and complete the transaction now.
"

There are legal reasons why they can not do that.
"

I'd be really interested in knowing what those legal reasons are - if you know what they are.

All this creates a lot of transactions and, in some place, banks charges you when you exceed a certain numbers of transactions - which can go up fairly quickly.

@HOBBES said:
" @followsclosely said:
" @gunther_schnitzel said:
"...
It would be more straightforward to actually take payment now and complete the transaction now.
"

There are legal reasons why they can not do that.
"

I'd be really interested in knowing what those legal reasons are - if you know what they are.

All this creates a lot of transactions and, in some place, banks charges you when you exceed a certain numbers of transactions - which can go up fairly quickly.
"

Obviously it depends on jurisdiction, but I'd bet it goes something like this:

You can charge for a pre-order or backorder if it's likely you can procure said item within X amount of time. Backorders are for items that already exist, so that's fairly standard. Pre-orders it will depend on the item, and of course the contract you sign as a purchaser, which is why you can kickstart things years out. Lego, I am guessing, has a standard contract for all purchasers, so it's easier to do that once per person and then have pre-orders bill quick and refund, since they cannot have these produced within the X timeframe. This simplifies their legal agreements on the back end so you don't have to go through and sign something special for these.

I am not a lawyer, so take this as an educated guess.

Got a couple Ominous Isles. BLDP coming in clutch for my pirates fix (unlike LEGO proper).

@followsclosely said:
" @gunther_schnitzel said:
"...
It would be more straightforward to actually take payment now and complete the transaction now.
"

There are legal reasons why they can not do that.
"

They can if (in my situation) you have the option of bank transfer.
If the amount is to high, you must pay in advance and with a small amount you get billed after it's shipped.

To everyone complaining about the site erroring out.... It appears that the huge traffic hit in the first several minutes dissipated. By 11:20ish there were no issues on BL or LEGO.com

@gunther_schnitzel said:
" @followsclosely said:
" @gunther_schnitzel said:
"...
It would be more straightforward to actually take payment now and complete the transaction now.
"

There are legal reasons why they can not do that.
"

Not really, I can buy an airline flight, concert ticket or other event months in advance and be charged immediately. Concert tickets are often sold ‘subject to licence’, with a refund if the concert doesn’t go ahead.]
"
You do realize that you can't attend a concert or catch a flight before it happens, right? Those are events at a time and date, not a tangible item.

@gunther_schnitzel said:
"What a stupid pointless post. "

Can't disagree there, you've clearly got it figured out for a company that operates in thousands of legal jurisdictions, I'm sure their legal and accounting departments haven't thought about this at all, and I'm sure their CS team loves fielding these requests that they wouldn't have to if there was a way around it.

That was another very stressful purchase...... Chrome was having none of it, forgot my password for BL but the laptop has it..... then the checkout screen wouldnt work....... eventually scraped it across the line in Edge.....Hopefully order is good.

I'm kind of thinking - with the Logging railway the thing I want is more-so the bridge than the train, but I feel like I'm in the overwhelming minority for wanting the bridge... I wonder if I should purchase two of the sets, keep the bridge and sell the train - I feel like that's the part people want anyway...

Edit: Or should I not buy anything now and wait for a bunch of bridges to appear on the secondary marketplace from people who wanted the train only

@LiamLime said:
"I'm kind of thinking - with the Logging railway the thing I want is more-so the bridge than the train, but I feel like I'm in the overwhelming minority for wanting the bridge... I wonder if I should purchase two of the sets, keep the bridge and sell the train - I feel like that's the part people want anyway...

Edit: Or should I not buy anything now and wait for a bunch of bridges to appear on the secondary marketplace from people who wanted the train only"

So far as I can tell, that train does not run on normal tracks. The designer said that it's based on the old trains for logging which used quick and dirty track layouts that weren't used for long. I have no idea if the train CAN run on normal tracks (I didn't watch the video), but if it can't, I'm not sure you'll have many people who want only one or the other.

Your best bet may be to just order the parts to extend your bridge from PAB, since we know they're in production.

@Lego34s said:
"That was another very stressful purchase...... Chrome was having none of it, forgot my password for BL but the laptop has it..... then the checkout screen wouldnt work....... eventually scraped it across the line in Edge.....Hopefully order is good."

"That was another stressful purchase"

Indeed. I have to mentally prepare myself for the stress these programs are going to cause, every few months or so, especially if I've got my heart set on something I know is going to be popular (e.g. Brick Cross Train Station).

@dimc said:
"
Your best bet may be to just order the parts to extend your bridge from PAB, since we know they're in production. "

Very fair point

Clearly I ordered way past the opening time, but it was smooth for me. Thankfully nothing was sold out yet, but at the same time I wouldn't have cared too much if it had been.

@dimc said:
" @gunther_schnitzel said:
"What a stupid pointless post. "

Can't disagree there, you've clearly got it figured out for a company that operates in thousands of legal jurisdictions, I'm sure their legal and accounting departments haven't thought about this at all, and I'm sure their CS team loves fielding these requests that they wouldn't have to if there was a way around it. "

Thousands of legal jurisdictions. What planet do you live on? Sounds like you are a LEGO corporate shill struggling to justify this cluster***k of a an ordering process.

Their IT department is incompetent, it isn’t a stretch to think other departments are also.

@yellowcastle said:
" .. "

Yeah, the 30k cap has done a lot for that and seems much more reasonable compared to the 5k and 10k caps from previous designer programmes. That said there's still limits to where LEGO ships to and the time funding runs at isn't great for a lot of the world, so I would stop short of saying the sets not selling out for a few hours is good enough, would love to see the cap removed altogether... I know there's probably production reasons for the cap being there, but lego's an established company, they can deal with a little variance in production :)

@LiamLime said:
" @yellowcastle said:
" .. "
".."
Concur.

@dimc said:
" @gunther_schnitzel said:
" @dimc said:
" @gunther_schnitzel said:
"What a stupid pointless post. "

Can't disagree there, you've clearly got it figured out for a company that operates in thousands of legal jurisdictions, I'm sure their legal and accounting departments haven't thought about this at all, and I'm sure their CS team loves fielding these requests that they wouldn't have to if there was a way around it. "

Thousands of legal jurisdictions. What planet do you live on? Sounds like you are a LEGO corporate shill struggling to justify this cluster***k of a an ordering process.

Their IT department is incompetent, it isn’t a stretch to think other departments are also."

There are hundreds of countries on earth, and many of them have many many jurisdictions in states, provinces, and even localities, all of which can have their own laws.

I've dealt with this from a business perspective, though obviously not at Lego scale.

Go be mad somewhere else. "

The vast majority of counties do not have multiple legal jurisdictions that are in any way relevant here. You are talking absolute balderdash.

@Cwetqo said:
"Anyone knows how it is with credit card authorization? Will these funds be blocked all the time until order is shipped (in half year)?"

In my case, yes.

@Vladtheb said:
" @dimc said:
" @LiamLime said:
"I'm kind of thinking - with the Logging railway the thing I want is more-so the bridge than the train, but I feel like I'm in the overwhelming minority for wanting the bridge... I wonder if I should purchase two of the sets, keep the bridge and sell the train - I feel like that's the part people want anyway...

Edit: Or should I not buy anything now and wait for a bunch of bridges to appear on the secondary marketplace from people who wanted the train only"

So far as I can tell, that train does not run on normal tracks. The designer said that it's based on the old trains for logging which used quick and dirty track layouts that weren't used for long. I have no idea if the train CAN run on normal tracks (I didn't watch the video), but if it can't, I'm not sure you'll have many people who want only one or the other.

Your best bet may be to just order the parts to extend your bridge from PAB, since we know they're in production. "

The train runs just fine on normal track. It's standard gauge. Check Racingbrick's review for confirmation if needed. It's even designed to be easily motorized"
Did anyone by chance come up with a workable solution to step the elevation down? Or would the track always have to be elevated? And can I assume that the fake "tile/clip" bridge track would not work with a motorized train? (Apologies as I'm still a pretty novice train person)

About 3,000 Brick Cross Stations left. Maybe 6,000 shrooms. :o)

Plenty of the others....for now.

Thanks Brickset for highlighting via Twitter otherwise i could have missed out on Brick Cross!

Actual prices in € are higher then in article :( but free delivery :)

These are lasting longer than Series 1.

@yellowcastle said:
"
And can I assume that the fake "tile/clip" bridge track would not work with a motorized train? (Apologies as I'm still a pretty novice train person)
"

The video lower on the page does show the train running on the bridge's track with the designer noting the train's motorisation was an important part of its design. They also say they hope people use the bridge in their layout. While this isn't a direct answer to your question and we can't know how well the design might work in practice, it does indicate at least an intent of compatibility of the bridge with existing rail, and motorised trains.

Got the mushroom house -yay! Hope everyone got the one(s) they wanted; this series seems to be moving more slowly than the first, so will be interesting to see if and how that influences the selection of the 5th series.

I’m guessing the mushroom village has a decent chance, and probably a Wolfpack castle if one doesn’t show up elsewhere. I’d really like it if more sets between 1000 - 2000 pieces were selected though.

@illennium said:
" @gunther_schnitzel said:
" @dimc said:
" @gunther_schnitzel said:
" @dimc said:
" @gunther_schnitzel said:
"What a stupid pointless post. "

Can't disagree there, you've clearly got it figured out for a company that operates in thousands of legal jurisdictions, I'm sure their legal and accounting departments haven't thought about this at all, and I'm sure their CS team loves fielding these requests that they wouldn't have to if there was a way around it. "

Thousands of legal jurisdictions. What planet do you live on? Sounds like you are a LEGO corporate shill struggling to justify this cluster***k of a an ordering process.

Their IT department is incompetent, it isn’t a stretch to think other departments are also."

There are hundreds of countries on earth, and many of them have many many jurisdictions in states, provinces, and even localities, all of which can have their own laws.

I've dealt with this from a business perspective, though obviously not at Lego scale.

Go be mad somewhere else. "

The vast majority of counties do not have multiple legal jurisdictions that are in any way relevant here. You are talking absolute balderdash."

If you don't know what you're talking about - and let's be perfectly clear, you don't - you really shouldn't be rude to people who do. None of this is about legal jurisdictions of multiple countries. It is about merchant agreements that businesses like LEGO sign with credit card providers like VISA. Some of those merchant agreements, such as VISA's, say that when you as a merchant take a customer's money for physical goods (yes, the merchant agreement differentiates between physical goods - goods that are shipped - and services such as concerts and events and the other examples you mentioned before), then you cannot charge the card before the goods ship. If LEGO charged people's VISA cards for pre-orders before those pre-orders shipped, they would be in violation of their merchant agreement with VISA, which is why they don't do this. This is easy to google, which you could do yourself instead of making up your own apocryphal theories and then abusing and harassing people who try to correct you."

What has any of that got to do with the claim of thousands of legal jurisdictions?

@illennium said:
" @gunther_schnitzel said:
" @dimc said:
" @gunther_schnitzel said:
" @dimc said:
" @gunther_schnitzel said:
"What a stupid pointless post. "

Can't disagree there, you've clearly got it figured out for a company that operates in thousands of legal jurisdictions, I'm sure their legal and accounting departments haven't thought about this at all, and I'm sure their CS team loves fielding these requests that they wouldn't have to if there was a way around it. "

Thousands of legal jurisdictions. What planet do you live on? Sounds like you are a LEGO corporate shill struggling to justify this cluster***k of a an ordering process.

Their IT department is incompetent, it isn’t a stretch to think other departments are also."

There are hundreds of countries on earth, and many of them have many many jurisdictions in states, provinces, and even localities, all of which can have their own laws.

I've dealt with this from a business perspective, though obviously not at Lego scale.

Go be mad somewhere else. "

The vast majority of counties do not have multiple legal jurisdictions that are in any way relevant here. You are talking absolute balderdash."

If you don't know what you're talking about - and let's be perfectly clear, you don't - you really shouldn't be rude to people who do. None of this is about legal jurisdictions of multiple countries. It is about merchant agreements that businesses like LEGO sign with credit card providers like VISA. Some of those merchant agreements, such as VISA's, say that when you as a merchant take a customer's money for physical goods (yes, the merchant agreement differentiates between physical goods - goods that are shipped - and services such as concerts and events and the other examples you mentioned before), then you cannot charge the card before the goods ship. If LEGO charged people's VISA cards for pre-orders before those pre-orders shipped, they would be in violation of their merchant agreement with VISA, which is why they don't do this. This is easy to google, which you could do yourself instead of making up your own apocryphal theories and then abusing and harassing people who try to correct you."

My experience is that charging only at time of shipment is pretty much the industry standard nowadays. Could this be due to all the banking / credit card agreements? Sure. But if we dig deeper, we may find that this originates with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act for revenue transparency.

@yellowcastle said:
"My experience is that charging only at time of shipment is pretty much the industry standard nowadays. Could this be due to all the banking / credit card agreements? Sure. But if we dig deeper, we may find that this originates with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act."

Wouldn't surprise me. Accounting says this would be unearned revenue, and maybe it's just easier to do a quick bill to check, refund, and then do it when it ships so they can report it in the same period.

@Murdoch17 said:
"Just departed on Platform 1 - Brick Cross station is SOLD OUT!"

It took me so long to order Brick Cross Station, after two false starts, I'm still anxiously checking my email and Lego account just to check that the confirmed order is still there. Seeing that it's sold out makes me even more anxious.

@yellowcastle said:
"By my count, LEGO has just booked around $16.8M worth of sales for these 5 sets today.

Not a bad day's work."

Probably worth all the stress their Customer Service team will have been put through today. Hope they get a bonus.

Some time after 23:30 UK time and the Station sold out. Watched it slowly reach the max buys while debating whether to buy it or not. Guess I just didn't want it enough!

@yellowcastle said:
"The new 30,000 cap has helped extend these sets, at least into HOURS beyond MINUTES. And for the Kakapoo type sets, DAYS and/or WEEKS. So, hopefully, anyone and everyone interested will get a (EDIT) SLIGHTLY MORE reasonable chance to procure.

Well, except for @StyleCounselor whom @LEGO apparently hates. :o(

NOTE: Edited to clarify "reasonable""

(two hands violently palmed into face with a sickening, sad slap followed by low, weak moan)

"There is no growth without pain."

@Noahcat1 said:
" @NeptuneIce said:
"Hmmmmm directs to the US Lego site. Not helpful here in Australia."

Switch the US in the link to AU, I just got mine to work that way"

Thank you. Got there in the end and bought the sets I wanted. I'm falling asleep at work now, but it was worth it.

Phew... finally got 'order confirmed' and 'out of stock' emails 8 hours after ordering 'Brick Cross' and 'Mushroom House'. Was getting a bit worried as they're now both sold out!

Poop. Was busy with work today and didn't know these went on sale. Oh well, at least I won't have to debate spending about $500 on BOTH train sets. Got the 910035 Logging Railway, but will miss out on 910034 Brick Cross Train Station. I hope it selling out is a sign to Lego that YES, we really would like a large train station set.

On a related subject, the boy decided he wanted Mushroom House 910037 instead of Snack Shack 910030, which I've now cancelled at Lego.com. Given these are limited, what happens to cancelled Designer Program orders – is there a waiting list, or will they go on general sale somehow?

I thought about getting the station and the Mushroom house, even going so far as to put the latter in the basket, but then didn't pull the trigger after all. The fact that both are now sold out saves me from further thinking about it.
No matter though. I still haven't built the three sets I bought in previous rounds.

FYI, the station sold out at 11.30pm and the Mushroom House at five past midnight.

I keep checking my order just to make sure. I don't like when it gets sold out this quick, there should be something to allow people time to buy rather than letting everyone rush to get it sold out. I know sometimes there is a point to be made, even if everyone doesn't understand that point, but there should be something in place so people don't feel a need to rush to buy.

Inevitably, there are already several sets on eBay. Appreciate some people may buy two, one to build, one to sell, but have a thought for those who missed out.
And as for previous years, blimey.
If anyone find the Modular Construction site for less than £500 let me know!!

@easter_house said:
"Inevitably, there are already several sets on eBay."
As long as there are enough FOMO-ridden people who think they can't manage living without one of those sets, there will be scalpers ready to take advantage of the situation. Disgusting as that kind of person might be, it's human nature to want to profit from others' misfortune.
The saddest thing is that some of those scalpers are trying to tell themselves they are actually providing a "service". Spoiler: they are not. They are simply profiteers of the worst kind. Some then argue that it's their way to make a living. Spoiler number two: there's enough respectable jobs out there that no one has to stoop so low as to have to make a living by scalping!
Rant over.

@JDawg5 said:
"The question about WHEN Lego charges your credit card has me puzzled. Lego is calling the Bricklink Designer Program a "crowdfunding" program. But in crowdfunding, the creator gets their money immediately after the campaign is over, essentially as an interest-free loan. The intent is that the creator needs this influx of capital to actually create and ship whatever the rewards are.

But if Lego isn't getting paid until the item ships, then that means they don't actually need the money to manufacture the set. It's not really "crowdfunding." It's more like ... "crowd-picking" since fans have some say in which sets get selected. So why do they call it "crowdfunding" then? The marketing and messaging around this program is weird. "

lol, I never considered that before. Additionally, aren’t you usually locked in when crowd funding? Here, you can cancel anytime it seems.

@Brainslugged said:
" @Banners said:
"On a related subject, the boy decided he wanted Mushroom House 910037 instead of Snack Shack 910030, which I've now cancelled at Lego.com. Given these are limited, what happens to cancelled Designer Program orders – is there a waiting list, or will they go on general sale somehow?"

I happened to see a post today from a Californian Lego fan saying that he recently discovered a few older Bricklink sets in his local Lego store, along with some older GWPs. According to his post, this Lego store also acts as a kinda outlet store for dinged up or returned Lego sets. His post did end with "follow me on youtube for more info" so I have no idea if it was true or just clickbait. He did have accompanying pics though."
I don’t think LEGO outlets these. This sounds scammy but I have known store managers to have fairly broad discretion in what they’ll accept in store for returns.

If LEGO successfully planned for the unexpected, folks like @StyleCounselor wouldn’t be left holding the bag so often on short GWP or lost limited sets. Is there a possible built in cushion as alluded to by @LiamLime? Probably, but it seems to be very, very small.

@yellowcastle said:
" @Brainslugged said:
" @Banners said:
"On a related subject, the boy decided he wanted Mushroom House 910037 instead of Snack Shack 910030, which I've now cancelled at Lego.com. Given these are limited, what happens to cancelled Designer Program orders – is there a waiting list, or will they go on general sale somehow?"

I happened to see a post today from a Californian Lego fan saying that he recently discovered a few older Bricklink sets in his local Lego store, along with some older GWPs. According to his post, this Lego store also acts as a kinda outlet store for dinged up or returned Lego sets. His post did end with "follow me on youtube for more info" so I have no idea if it was true or just clickbait. He did have accompanying pics though."
I don’t think LEGO outlets these. This sounds scammy but I have known store managers to have fairly broad discretion in what they’ll accept in store for returns.

If LEGO successfully planned for the unexpected, folks like @StyleCounselor wouldn’t be left holding the bag so often on short GWP or lost limited sets. Is there a possible built in cushion as alluded to by @LiamLime? Probably, but it seems to be very, very small."

According to the CS reps, the BL program only makes a set for each person whom orders one. If anything happens to that set before it reaches your hands, you are out of luck. That's what I was told. But, they've lied before.

@Belboz said:
" @thor96 said:
"I find people complaining about crash site in the first couple of minutes the same as those who go to the best known beach during summer and complain there are too many people. FOMO is real and hilarious to me.

I went on the site at 8 pm, ordered without issues and and there was no hiccups. That mushroom house is wonderful, can't wait to build it!"

Your analogy is invalid because the beach will always be there. This is not so with the sets.
(...)

IMHO, TLG love to create FOMO - it's what drives their profits."

My analogy is about the reaction to an obvious situation. Of course the best beach will be crowded on a hot summer day. And of course the lego site will be heavily occupied in the first 15 minutes during an event like this. Surprised and angry reactions about this from afols are funny to me.

And with fomo, it's another obvious thing, every company dreams of customers with fomo, that's not lego invention or specialty. It's in our hands to control these stupid urges about things. Once I got rid of fomo my life got better, I highly recommend working on that.

@JDawg5 said:
"The question about WHEN Lego charges your credit card has me puzzled. Lego is calling the Bricklink Designer Program a "crowdfunding" program. But in crowdfunding, the creator gets their money immediately after the campaign is over, essentially as an interest-free loan. The intent is that the creator needs this influx of capital to actually create and ship whatever the rewards are.

But if Lego isn't getting paid until the item ships, then that means they don't actually need the money to manufacture the set. It's not really "crowdfunding." It's more like ... "crowd-picking" since fans have some say in which sets get selected. So why do they call it "crowdfunding" then? The marketing and messaging around this program is weird. "

It is not crowd funding at all. It is really just pre-ordering just with the possibility of LEGO cancelling the pre-order if not enough people want it to make it worthwhile setting up the production/packing for that set. But calling it crowdfunding makes it sound more special than ordering. A multi billion dollar company dones't need to crowd fund set production in the normal sense of crowd funding.

@thor96 said:
" @Belboz said:
" @thor96 said:
"I find people complaining about crash site in the first couple of minutes the same as those who go to the best known beach during summer and complain there are too many people. FOMO is real and hilarious to me.

I went on the site at 8 pm, ordered without issues and and there was no hiccups. That mushroom house is wonderful, can't wait to build it!"

Your analogy is invalid because the beach will always be there. This is not so with the sets.
(...)

IMHO, TLG love to create FOMO - it's what drives their profits."

My analogy is about the reaction to an obvious situation. Of course the best beach will be crowded on a hot summer day. And of course the lego site will be heavily occupied in the first 15 minutes during an event like this. Surprised and angry reactions about this from afols are funny to me.

And with fomo, it's another obvious thing, every company dreams of customers with fomo, that's not lego invention or specialty. It's in our hands to control these stupid urges about things. Once I got rid of fomo my life got better, I highly recommend working on that.
"
What about FOMO on Brickset discussions regarding FOMO? I’m a mess.

@CCC said:
" @JDawg5 said:
"The question about WHEN Lego charges your credit card has me puzzled. Lego is calling the Bricklink Designer Program a "crowdfunding" program. But in crowdfunding, the creator gets their money immediately after the campaign is over, essentially as an interest-free loan. The intent is that the creator needs this influx of capital to actually create and ship whatever the rewards are.

But if Lego isn't getting paid until the item ships, then that means they don't actually need the money to manufacture the set. It's not really "crowdfunding." It's more like ... "crowd-picking" since fans have some say in which sets get selected. So why do they call it "crowdfunding" then? The marketing and messaging around this program is weird. "

It is not crowd funding at all. It is really just pre-ordering just with the possibility of LEGO cancelling the pre-order if not enough people want it to make it worthwhile setting up the production/packing for that set. But calling it crowdfunding makes it sound more special than ordering. A multi billion dollar company dones't need to crowd fund set production in the normal sense of crowd funding."

Yeah, it seems they're using "crowdfunding" as more of a marketing term. Maybe as a way to try to differentiate the Bricklink program from Ideas, since conceptually, both programs are pretty similar. I guess "fan-selected, limited-edition, pre-order" is too cumbersome.

And I do agree that a company that had $2 billion in revenue shouldn't need to resort to crowdfunding!

@thor96 said:
" @Belboz said:
" @thor96 said:
"I find people complaining about crash site in the first couple of minutes the same as those who go to the best known beach during summer and complain there are too many people. FOMO is real and hilarious to me.

I went on the site at 8 pm, ordered without issues and and there was no hiccups. That mushroom house is wonderful, can't wait to build it!"

Your analogy is invalid because the beach will always be there. This is not so with the sets.
(...)

IMHO, TLG love to create FOMO - it's what drives their profits."

My analogy is about the reaction to an obvious situation. Of course the best beach will be crowded on a hot summer day. And of course the lego site will be heavily occupied in the first 15 minutes during an event like this. Surprised and angry reactions about this from afols are funny to me.

And with fomo, it's another obvious thing, every company dreams of customers with fomo, that's not lego invention or specialty. It's in our hands to control these stupid urges about things. Once I got rid of fomo my life got better, I highly recommend working on that.
"

101% agree. If FOMO was a gene that people were born with, and TLG was harnessing that, then yeah that wouldn't be ok. But FOMO goes away if you just don't buy the stuff. It's the easiest problem to solve ever.

@fakespacesquid said:
"But FOMO goes away if you just don't buy the stuff. It's the easiest problem to solve ever."

Help me, Obi-Cephalopod, you're my only hope.

@yellowcastle said:
" @thor96 said:
" @Belboz said:
" @thor96 said:
"I find people complaining about crash site in the first couple of minutes the same as those who go to the best known beach during summer and complain there are too many people. FOMO is real and hilarious to me.

I went on the site at 8 pm, ordered without issues and and there was no hiccups. That mushroom house is wonderful, can't wait to build it!"

Your analogy is invalid because the beach will always be there. This is not so with the sets.
(...)

IMHO, TLG love to create FOMO - it's what drives their profits."

My analogy is about the reaction to an obvious situation. Of course the best beach will be crowded on a hot summer day. And of course the lego site will be heavily occupied in the first 15 minutes during an event like this. Surprised and angry reactions about this from afols are funny to me.

And with fomo, it's another obvious thing, every company dreams of customers with fomo, that's not lego invention or specialty. It's in our hands to control these stupid urges about things. Once I got rid of fomo my life got better, I highly recommend working on that.
"
What about FOMO on Brickset discussions regarding FOMO? I’m a mess.
"

What? What'd I miss???!!! :o

Kind of relevant, but is it just me, or does the Logging Railway look incredibly similar to the train Emmett and Wyldstyle use to escape from Bad Cop from The LEGO Movie?

Life tips from those who clearly enjoy their schadenfreude.....no thanks.

I managed to get my grand-daughter her mushroom house so all good in the end but the additional traffic was entirely foreseeable and, given its size, entirely manageable. My ire is at TLG who appear to regularly create these situations yet consistently fail to ensure they deliver the appropriate shopping experience.

Anyhoo, I hope all those who had issues eventually got their sets. I personally prefer freudenfreude.

Got 2 mushroom houses one for me and the other as a gift for a friend and.

@bealegopro said:
"Kind of relevant, but is it just me, or does the Logging Railway look incredibly similar to the train Emmett and Wyldstyle use to escape from Bad Cop from The LEGO Movie?"

Sorry, but no, it looks nothing like it.

All of you with FOMO: Think of all of the official LEGO sets you really like but haven't purchased yet despite them being out for years. You get along without having them and probably would barely notice once they exit the retail market. A lot of you desperate for the Mushroom House or Train Station would barely have batted an eye if you knew they would be available for years but now are flustered because they are instantly unobtainable. Scarcity (artificial or not) of items like toys and collectibles play on our emotions so it's best not to give in since there will always be companies like Bricklink who take advantage of it.

Just wondering, why do regular GWP's get a "Limited edition" banner, even though they are produced in the millions, yet the highly limited 30k BDP Sets that sell out in 8h don't? Or do I need a bachelor in marketing and be a LEGO employee to understand the logic?

@R0Sch said:
"Just wondering, why do regular GWP's get a "Limited edition" banner, even though they are produced in the millions, yet the highly limited 30k BDP Sets that sell out in 8h don't?"

My guess is that Bricklink has a different role in LEGO's business strategy. It may be as simple as there being a line in LEGO's internal branding and packaging guidelines document or something similar, or (if a specific decision was made about Bricklink specifically) then that question about Bricklink's role in LEGO's strategy may have come into play.

We obviously have no idea how LEGO internally thinks about Bricklink but in general different products will serve different roles: For example a product given away for free is meant to get you into the store, a product on the shelf is meant to get you to buy it, an overpriced product on the shelf may be there to get you to think the slightly cheaper product is worth it, a product given at cost thresholds (a gift with purchase) is meant to get you to spend more in general. But with all these the product's box design is what sells the product - a "limited edition" freebie given at a price threshold may be more likely to get you to spend more to get to the threshold than a freebie that isn't "limited edition". I wouldn't know, I don't have said bachelor in marketing, just a course or two in commercial design.

But Bricklink doesn't really fit in this scheme, its role may be to get people talking about LEGO, or to more deeply engage designers in LEGO Ideas (if they see that not being selected can still mean a release on Bricklink), maybe to recruit, etc. There's bound to be some sort of flowchart in LEGO's internal business documents that have something pointing into Bricklink pointing into something else. I'm sure it fits into their strategy, but I'm sure the bricklink products serve a very different business role than gifts with purchase - their box art isn't viewed by paying customers, it's instead viewed by friends of people who bought them, or in videos, or on secondary marketplaces. So the box art isn't there to "sell" the product (in the sense of getting someone to pay money for it), instead it may be there to inspire the next generation of MOC builders in a "This could be your design one day" sort of way.

Just some of my thoughts. We will of course never know for sure but just thought I'd expand a little bit on how the lego executives may see the strategic role of bricklink designer program. Don't take any of my suggestions as definitive or anything like that, just as a starting point of how to think about this.

Well, my wife is mad at me. But I will have a limited edition train station for my city, so that's a win!

@Mapleleafbricks said:
"Well, my wife is mad at me. But I will have a limited edition train station for my city, so that's a win!"
Remember, wives are also limited edition.

@yellowcastle said:
" @Mapleleafbricks said:
"Well, my wife is mad at me. But I will have a limited edition train station for my city, so that's a win!"
Remember, wives are also limited edition.
"

Yes, she is one of the rare ones. She supports my Lego hobby (addiction).