Brick Loot: goody boxes by monthly subscription
Posted by Huw,
We're always happy to help promote LEGO-related small businesses so I was intrigued by an email I received this morning about a new company called Brick Loot which is "a monthly box subscription company geared towards LEGO and BRICK Lovers! Get a surprise box delivered monthly filled with BRICKTASTIC FUN!"
I think the basic idea is that you pay a subscription and receive a box full of LEGO and LEGO-like or related products once a month.
The December box will apparently contain $70-worth of stuff for a subscription fee of $27, so that sounds like a good deal. I guess it depends on whether the stuff in the box is of use to you though, and given their partners include manufacturers of clone brands, that probably won't be the case for LEGO purists.
Anyway, it's an interesting idea, and I wish their CEO, 9-year old Parker Krex, the best of luck with the venture.
If you fancy giving it a go, here's a code for 10% off regular prices: Build10.
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Given their partner list I'm not inclined to subscribe, but I wish them the best in their endeavor.
This is the second of these Loot Crate type services I've seen that are targeting Lego fans and neither has actually confirmed containing anything substantial in the way of official Lego elements, which seems the most obvious thing to include. This one does claim to have pieces for a custom lego build but if all the elements are actual Lego pieces I can only imagine the build to be the size of the Snail from the Cloud Cuckoo Land set or smaller.
9 year old CEO?
Eh?
^ Agreed. Eh?
God bless them; they have the word "LEGOS" plastered front and center on their front page too.
Just made a quick order run through - the shipping cost seems to stay at $6 for worldwide shipping \_('.')_/
Brick-related, brick themed, brick-compatible... and none of what they give away is indeed Lego. Seems interesting though. I do like custom Lego, some of the, uh, partners are interesting... but what the heck is Oyo Sports? Fake Lego? Why.
I guess it's brick related though. Yay.
I'm sort-of tempted to try it to see what you get, so I can report back.....
faq state usa shipping only
Thanks for all the comments!
Each box has REAL LEGO bricks in it, but can not add them to the partners page as you know LEGO doesn't "partner" with many:) Each month you receive a custom build with instructions and the bricks. Decembers box was designed by Jason Allemann who's LEGO Ideas just hit 10,000.
ALSO if you do an unboxing video you enter to win a MEGA BRICK worth over $700 in LEGO SETS!
Decembers MEGA BRICK includes the 4 x 4 Crawler exclusive:):)
^ You might want to remove any LEGO font from the site.
http://cache.lego.com/r/aboutus/-/media/about%20us/media%20assets%20library/brochures/fairplaybrochure.pdf?l.r=-190914825
^ Everything on the site is Lego: the graphics on the footer, the backgrounds to your (utterly pretentious) job title images, everything in the "store", and even the "how it works" images. But I'm sure it's only coincidence.
I'm not sure TLC would be happy with that, considering it's juxtaposed with lesser brands...
As long as it is ALL lego and they give us old sets, I'd sign up
It is quite intriguing, I've always wished the UK had Brickmaster or a regular set with the magazine, which I now don't subscribe to. If Parker's a budding entrepreneur even at 9 then I guess you might as well start with official corporation titles like CEO at some point!
I'm actually pretty tempted to sign up for the first month, just because I'm curious. I like some of the partners, Nanoblocks are cool, Oya makes some cool sports stuff, I enjoy Brick Forge, so it wouldn't be a total loss. If I do get it I'll make sure to post an unboxing video.
I would get it. If it had predominately LEGO bricks.
Reminds me of the old Brickmaster subscription LEGO used to do... Except that most of the package is going to be non-LEGO, garbage to us Purists. :P
I was reading about the competing brick subscription product and this Brick Loot one does sound better. Not sure if it'll be worth $70 but maybe I'll give it a shot.
im gonna subscribe
"Please note that Brick Loot is only available in United States US Flag for the moment"
--> Easy deal breaker :-)
I can't see anything on the site that officially states the owner and operator of the site. I'm fairly sure that both that and the exaggerated job titles* wouldn't be allowed in the UK, maybe different in the states?
* Don't get me wrong, I was the CEO of several of my own 'companies' and the managing editor of the school newspaper when I was around his age, but it's a different matter if it's a formal business (which it may or may not be...) trading to the public.
In the USA every corporation has a President, Vice President, CEO, Secretary etc. It is how you have to create your corporation:) I am sure every country is different.
I thought that too Matthew, is the business just a small back room thing with just Parker and parents or is it a bigger deal, because it's hard to tell? Economies of scale and all.
^^ I don't doubt that, my query is whether you have actually created a corporation? If so, there's nothing on the site to say so, and I find it unlikely that you can have a 9 year old CEO. If it isn't a formal corporation I also think it's unlikely you can describe yourselves using those job titles. By all means feel free to prove me wrong :-)
You all realize that unless you are the LEGO Group themselves, you can't offer a box of actual LEGO items and still make a profit. Why would a customer want to spend let's say $20 on a mystery LEGO box which could only possibly contain $5-$15 worth of actual LEGO?
9-year old CEO?
Sounds interesting though, but it's US only anyway.
The only partner that's of interest to me is Nanoblock, which is sufficiently different enough to Lego that I don't think of it as a clone brand. The rest, meh.
Oh, US-only? Nuts to that then.
I agree with the rest. I enjoy LEGO, but I don't want anything else. I only want LEGO. To spend $20 on this potential LEGO related items, vs spending $20 on actual LEGO. I think we have the answer here..
Hmmm. On the one hand, 60% off the retail value seems really sweet... one the other hand, I wouldn't pay $30 to get a bucket of Mega Blocks shoved into my mailbox. I'll pass... too risky.
What happened to the Vice President on their About Us page? He just *poof* gone after someone posted that link...
^ He probably punished the CEO for not cleaning his room so the CEO fired him.
9 year old CEO? An easy pass for me. Way too risky.
A bit snobbish on the comments above (Lord Business anyone...) The effort is as AMERICAN as selling lemonade on the corner. I LOVE the effort! You can be SUPREME COMMANDER CEO PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSE if you darn well please as long as you are trying.
“The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.” - Henry Ford
Good luck to you young sir...(it's hard to tell the 8 years olds from the grown ups sometimes with this group)
Matthew- "a formal business (which it may or may not be...) trading to the public" ...if you mean public trading as in has stocks on a public market, I highly doubt it. The company is most likely a privately owned LLC.
It's a nice idea, but as others have said, totally pointless if you end up with low-quality non-Lego clone brands. It's like offering a mail-order subscription wine club and sending out crates of supermarket cooking wine, or a mail-order film club and sending your subscribers VHS tapes instead of Blu-Ray discs.
As a designer, I would criticise the design of the website too: using the exact same typography as is used in the official Lego logo is kinda cheap and borderline misleading. Set yourselves apart from Lego if you're not connected to them, don't steal the typography from their own internationally recognised logo.
Brick Loot is a great idea! I know how popular Loot Crate has become and if Brick Loot does a fraction of what they do it'll be a huge success! I've watched this company explode over the last month.
What's wrong with a 9 year old CEO?? I bet he's not pulling a million dollar salary and playing golf all day. We need more young entrepreneurs!
I am passing just because I don't do clone brands but I wish them the best. The suggestion to avoid infringing on LEGO's intellectual property is a fair one though.
SirRobin - No, I was meaning the distinction between a 9 year old having a 'business' selling sweets to their friends or something, and the parents of a 9 year old starting up a business for/with them and selling to strangers ('the public') online.
Like some others said above, the possibility of getting a box full of low-quality non-Lego bricks is just way too risky.
It is likely that I will sign up for the first box to test it out. I'd love to sign up for a 3 or 6 month plan but I really need to see what is going to be on offer first. $27 is a bit more than some other monthly boxes, but then, I understand LEGO bricks and the various clone products are also not exactly cheap.
Wish them luck and hope they are able to create a box people are willing to pay for. Kind of kicking myself for not signing up for some of the past lootcrates because they always included exclusive items you can't buy anywhere else, some of which were pretty neat (like that glow in the dark groot figure)