BrickLink MOC Pop-Up Store interview
Posted by CapnRex101,
BrickLink launched the MOC Pop-Up Store pilot last month, revisiting various BrickLink Designer Program submissions and allowing fans to buy digital instructions and the parts to build these models.
We recently interviewed Al Chick, Head of Marketing at BrickLink and the program leader for this initative, about the MOC Pop-Up Store pilot.
Brickset: Why did BrickLink decide to launch the MOC Pop-Up Store?
Al: Our objective was to launch a new program that would benefit those who love fan creations or as we call it ‘My Own Creation’ (MOCs). We were looking for ways to celebrate designers and allow people to experience their incredible creations. The MOC Pop-Up Store also gave us an opportunity to feature MOCs that fans were craving from the BrickLink Designer Program (BDP). We know that designers spend so much time and energy to comply with the BDP guidelines, this program was another way to acknowledge their hard work.
As a pilot, the BrickLink team sought to learn if we could create a scenario that would increase overall sales on BrickLink’s marketplace and add value to our sellers, buyers, and designers.
For sellers, we are expanding their opportunity to receive orders beyond day-to-day marketplace transactions, by introducing a program to sell the parts (and building instructions) to realise LEGO fan creations. For buyers, we are lowering the barriers to engage with designers and build MOCs. For designers, we are providing an avenue to sell their building instructions.
What have fans been saying so far a few weeks into the pilot?
Fans are happy that there is now an opportunity to purchase many of the amazing design submissions from the BrickLink Designer Program (Series 1 and 2) that were not selected as ‘Finalists’. Many fans in markets outside our pilot regions are asking when they will be able to participate. As a pilot, we needed to make some restrictions to reduce complexity, but the goal is to expand to more markets in our next iteration.
Forest Citadel by jazlecraz
There has been apprehension around incorporating LEGO Pick a Brick as one of the purchase options, but we have noticed that more transactions lie with our BrickLink sellers than with Pick a Brick. In order to keep MOC prices down, buyers (and sellers) are starting to see why we have incorporated Pick a Brick to supply the rare elements that are not as readily available on the BrickLink marketplace. Over time, as the LEGO product portfolio expands and parts are retired from Pick a Brick, there will be an increasing need to utilise BrickLink sellers who have such parts within their inventory.
We are also seeing that designers are receiving feedback from buyers on building instructions, which have resulted in improvements and swapping out of parts to make the overall building process more smooth.
Lastly, while the price point of MOCs will always be a major factor in the purchase, we see that visitors to our MOC Pop-Up Store are happy to be given more choice with the purchase options. There are 4 options when checking out:
- Include Pick a Brick
- Lowest Price
- Domestic or Within the EU
- Fewest Stores
What are you learning so far?
We are learning that while we need to supply our MOC Pop-Up Store with a variety of designs across passion points, themes, categories and styles we need to be sensitive to price points. That is where Pick a Brick is required to ensure we have a healthy supply of parts to not overload the marketplace. When stock levels are low for the critical elements of a MOC, we notice that this can drive up prices, as buyers may have noticed with the BrickLink purchase options.
The Lost Temple by Brickproject
Another big takeaway is the workload required by designers to participate in the program and the Community Engagement team at BrickLink to curate the designs in time for launch. While each MOC met the criteria of BDP, we’ve still asked designers to update their building instructions, parts lists, and to create BrickLink stores to sell instructions. A big thank you to the designers who worked under a tight timeline to ensure that the building instructions are of high quality for all the fans who are beginning to build their MOCs as the parts arrive at their doorsteps.
We are also learning that visitors to the MOC Pop-Up Store are looking for even more options, such as purchasing building instructions only, purchasing from select stores, removing parts that they already have in their inventor, holding off on making full MOC purchases (I.e., parts left in their cart for a future purchase). Many would like the option of importing parts to their ‘Wanted List’ in the future.
How did you decide on the designers to work with?
We selected the designers with the support of our BrickLink Designer Program team who evaluated all submissions for Series 1 and 2. We looked across passion points, themes, categories, styles, complexity of each build based on advanced techniques, as well as overall size and the parts required in order to curate a list that we could test. Of course, we also factored in the voting results from BDP because we want to feature MOCs that fans love. Ultimately, we wanted a balance of MOCs at varying part counts and price points. The list was refined over time because some designers simply did not have the time to meet our tight timelines to launch in early September.
Container House by ExeSandbox
These models cover a range of different sizes and therefore prices. Is that a significant consideration when selecting designs for the MOC Pop-Up Store?
Yes, since this is a pilot where we are observing and learning, we are also developing an understanding of purchase behaviour and the appetite for MOCs. Thus, we wanted to curate an even distribution of 50 MOCs at low, medium, and high price points.
Do designers have an opportunity to change details of their models, perhaps to avoid elements that are particularly expensive, for instance?
Yes, we worked with each designer to update their building instructions based on a number of factors including: using only parts currently in production, removing minifigures to avoid driving up the model's cost, and simplifying complicated steps in their building instructions.
Whereas submissions selected for the BrickLink Designer Program are often stylistically close to the kinds of products LEGO could release, those in the MOC Pop-Up Store tend not to be. Is that a consideration when choosing models?
Since we sourced the 50 models from BDP Series 1 and 2 submissions, we did not explicitly seek out MOCs that were differentiated from the BDP Finalists or our LEGO portfolio. With the assistance from our BDP team, we selected a breadth of designs at varying price-points and themes. We were looking to simulate a future long-tail MOCs marketplace to give consumers variety for collectability, gift giving, up-skilling, more engaging building experiences and the like.
Scaled 3X Horse by kk_bricks
What are the next steps after the pilot wraps up?
Our next step is to evaluate overall performance to determine if this is a business opportunity we should pursue at BrickLink, as we weigh our priorities to best serve LEGO fans. While we have been tracking purchase behaviour and overall engagement on the MOC Pop-Up Store, we will be interviewing buyers, sellers, and designers to understand what opportunities we can capitalise on as we look to build out a long-term solution for a future MOC Shop.
You can view the full selection of 50 designs here.
Have you purchased anything via the MOC Pop-Up Store and how would you like to see the concept develop in the future? Let us know in the comments.
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25 comments on this article
Very interesting project, although expensive. I hope it evolves to more contained prices.
I’m curious as to when they will release instructions for the 2021 invitational. It say “Instructions Not Yet Available”. I’d love to build Science Adventure and the Ruined House.
This is nothing new. You can go on: The Vault, Rebrickable, Etsy, Brick in Space, etc and buy instructions. After that all you have to do is to source the parts. The real problem with this approach is shipping costs. If you have a little bit of parts spread out across many different providers, maybe 40% of the cost of the set will be shipping fees. I personally order 98% of my parts from Lego and get the odd ones out from bricklink. You have to be very, extremely, incredibly patient to build stuff that way. I tend to wait until I need a lot of bricklink parts before I place an order (I will not order just one or two parts - sometimes it is not even accepted by shop) which means I may sometimes have several projects in different state of finish because of missing parts. Since I solely build space themed sets (Classic Space remakes and real space) and Lego is about to produce tons of space sets next year, maybe my life will get easier - i.e. hoping for plenty of useful parts for space-y stuff!
@HOBBES said:
"After that all you have to do is to source the parts.!"
but that's exactly what IS new here- the system finds the in an efficient way
Is there an example of how the instructions are presented?
@Al_S said:
" @HOBBES said:
"After that all you have to do is to source the parts.!"
but that's exactly what IS new here- the system finds the in an efficient way
"
If the parts are all over the place, there are no efficient ways to get them. Bricklink already works that way: I put all the parts I want in a list; then I ask Bricklink to find me the best way to get the parts. It will start at the top with the seller having the greatest number of parts and then go down from there - you choose what works for you depending on prices, location, etc. It works well but even the huge store that have so many parts, they never have them all anyway - there is always that weird part that only 6 guys on the planet have - and you need it (corollary of Murphy's law). (or everybody has it but only one has it in the right colour)
Anyway, very happy if they figured out a way to increase sales for the guys/gals on Bricklink - they provide a very useful service. Even if you don't build/create anything, sometimes, you need an old part to restore an old set you have - Bricklink to the rescue!
That big horse (pictured in the article) is very neat!
Despite Lego owning Bricklink now, there is not a single mention of their involvement in this initiative. It feels like Bricklink is keeping up a facade of being independent and fan run. Lego hasn't completely taken over and replaced the old staff, but we all know who they answer to now. I'm not one to think Lego has ruined Bricklink, but this interview is ignoring the elephant in the room, due to such a lack of transparency, I trust it as far as I can throw it.
My usage of Bricklink hasn't changed at all since the takeover by LEGO. I still do business like before. I buy parts I need that are cheaper there than from other sources, and very rarely I also sell a set or piece. My Bricklink store is tiny compared to most others.
Most of the sets in the Pop-up store don't really interest me to be honest, and those that would are so horrendously expensive that I wouldn't dream of trying to source the parts for them.
I had that experience once when trying to source the parts for Anio's Venator MOC, and while the resulting model is certainly a highlight in my display, I don't need that experience a second time. It's just too costly, and more importantly much too time consuming for my liking.
Too expensive. I'll stock with the Designer Program.
This is, what, the third attempt at turning Bricklink into a place to buy other peoples' MOCs? Fourth, maybe? My big question is, how much time has been spent redeveloping this from the ground up, and how much time has been spent developing stuff that's been on hold since Dan was still alive. Has any effort been put into long-promised Seller tools, or are they stuck on the back burner until Bricklink finally decides they either got this right, or need to give it up?
@Al_S said:
" @HOBBES said:
"After that all you have to do is to source the parts.!"
but that's exactly what IS new here- the system finds the in an efficient way"
It finds the lazy way, but not necessarily the efficient one. That is, it does all the work for you at the press of a button, but if you do the work yourself you can eliminate parts that you can pull from your collection, shop based on coupons, etc.
@HOBBES:
I prefer to start with whatever part is hardest to source, since I'm just going to end up ordering from that store anyways. Might as well knock out as much of my list before I commit to paying additional shipping.
@Norikins:
It does incorporate B&P, which is something Bricklink never would have done when they were still independently run. More concerning to me, TLG mandated the use of onsite Paypal (which the BL staff had been trying to shovel on us anyways). Unless TLG _ALSO_ overhauled the entire BL site from the ground up, it's still the twice-patched mess than was hacked to a standstill...twice...without anyone being able to figure out how it happened...twice. I'm still trying to figure out how to safeguard access to my money from outside of Bricklink before I'm willing to start ordering through them again, so ironically the last time I actually used their services was to build Starro right before the pandemic hit.
@AustinPowers:
I definitely feel the same way. Why would I pay hundreds of dollars to build what, to me, is just an unofficial set, when I can spend that money to build what, to me, is my own art?
I'm hoping that testing models for build ability is a part of future iterations. I bought into two projects, and both included at least one step that just wasn't possible with physical bricks. While I was able to work around the issue in both cases, it seems that the fact that these problems existed at all was a sign that no one built these models in anything other than a virtual environment.
It would suck to spend $300 on a model just to find out part way through that construction of it hinges on some linkage that just isn't possible outside of Studio.
It's a too bad my design wasn't chosen for the pop-up store, but well... maybe another time.
I think it would be nice if there would be something like a "bulk discount" for ordering parts from PaB. That would make the price more palatable.
Relatively few comments about it on an AFOL site suggests it is not so popular. It would be interesting to see how many AFOLs are purchasing them, as these are not really general distribution sets like IDEAS where non-AFOLs also buy. Maybe a poll would be good, something along the lines of....
Have you bought one or more designs from:
The Bricklink Designer Program
The Bricklink MOC shop
Both the Bricklink Designer Program and MOC shop
None of the above
@CCC said:
"Relatively few comments about it on an AFOL site suggests it is not so popular. It would be interesting to see how many AFOLs are purchasing them, as these are not really general distribution sets like IDEAS where non-AFOLs also buy. Maybe a poll would be good, something along the lines of....
Have you bought one or more designs from:
The Bricklink Designer Program
The Bricklink MOC shop
Both the Bricklink Designer Program and MOC shop
None of the above"
I can only speak for myself of course, and I have bought sets from the BDP, but only of the official, packaged ones (The LEGO Story, Old Fishing Boat, Venetian Houses). But these were worth it to me. While expensive, those didn't come close to what I would have to pay for the ones in the Pop-up store, most of which do nothing for me in the first place, to be honest.
I can't believe it exists a market for somebodys MOC-building that cost about as much as an official UCS Star Wars set? Is there? Seems absolutely insane.
some prices are way to high...
Honestly, bricklink is already a pain to use. As long as the shipping and extra costs won't be automatically handled (and i know it's difficult), it will be a game of patience and dedication. I can only see some die hard fan of a moc using this service. For other people it makes no sens.
On the other side I would be glad being able to use pick a brick for my own orders.
@CCC:
I placed orders for three copies of the Bionicle Ideas project, but then it didn’t make the cut. Haven’t seen anything else I’d be willing to Clydesdale up the cash for.
I've purchased something. Funny thing, I met the creator of what I bought in-person before knowing they were the creator. (We were with some other BrickCon attendees and went to lunch together.) One thing that would be awesome would be the ability to have the parts needed in a format that can be used elsewhere, like an export from Studio or LDD. Would also be beneficial if PAB could accept something like a parts list export from Studio or LDD. The option for used parts and not just new from BrickLink sellers might be beneficial for some users.
What I purchased was more than what it would have been as a set, but that's just how it is. If the parts were cheaper from third party sellers, new, to build any set, why would you ever buy a set from LEGO? The parts being so much more expensive sometimes? That's just supply and demand economics. The market will correct the pricing (over time), if the market determines price correction is needed. It's not always needed.
I am a designer with two projects in the MOC Pop-Up store. This has been my first experience sharing MOC instructions and a huge learning opportunity. As a designer I've appreciated any customer feedback, the goal from my side is to keep improving on the builds and providing updated instructions wherever I can make improvements.
When I designed my builds I intentionally focused on common parts, and limited part use due to the expensive nature of LEGO. Currently my builds have been available for $160-200 USD (1600-2000 parts).
I've also made a purchase from the store myself, trying to experience the whole process (currently waiting on parts). The Bricklink team has been great to work with, very communicative. I think the integration with pick-a-brick and sellers directly is great, it streamlined the buying process and helped me to get a set I wanted. I'm hoping for the program to continue and various emerging issues to be worked out along the way.
These are my builds:
https://www.bricklink.com/v3/moc-pop-up-store/9/Medieval-Stonemasons-Guild
https://www.bricklink.com/v3/moc-pop-up-store/18/Imperial-Brig
As my parts collection is quite substantial by now, I would love to be able to just buy the instructions. I think there might be a workaround by setting it all up first and then delete items from the shopping carts, but I am not sure it really would work. Have anybody successfully done it like that to just get the instructions?
@Jacopyright said:
"As my parts collection is quite substantial by now, I would love to be able to just buy the instructions. I think there might be a workaround by setting it all up first and then delete items from the shopping carts, but I am not sure it really would work. Have anybody successfully done it like that to just get the instructions?"
Yes, its very easy, takes just a second. The instructions are a separate "cart item". You can just delete the physical brick carts, and checkout only with instructions.
If you buy both instructions and parts, you are will be making multiple purchases from different sources.
@HOBBES said:
" @Al_S said:
" @HOBBES said:
"After that all you have to do is to source the parts.!"
but that's exactly what IS new here- the system finds the in an efficient way
"
If the parts are all over the place, there are no efficient ways to get them. Bricklink already works that way: I put all the parts I want in a list; then I ask Bricklink to find me the best way to get the parts. It will start at the top with the seller having the greatest number of parts and then go down from there - you choose what works for you depending on prices, location, etc. It works well but even the huge store that have so many parts, they never have them all anyway - there is always that weird part that only 6 guys on the planet have - and you need it (corollary of Murphy's law). (or everybody has it but only one has it in the right colour)
Anyway, very happy if they figured out a way to increase sales for the guys/gals on Bricklink - they provide a very useful service. Even if you don't build/create anything, sometimes, you need an old part to restore an old set you have - Bricklink to the rescue!
That big horse (pictured in the article) is very neat!
"
Thanks @Hobbes - put a lot of work in getting that to be true to the original scale of the minifigure horse! And also I spent a lot of time on each piece that is in the model so that they were the cheapest version or parts for the model. IE if a 2x6 brick cost $0.50 and two 2x3 bricks cost $0.15 for a total of $0.30 then I substituted whatever would be cheapest for the consumer.
Thanks @brickset for the post about this program. I'm the designer with the 3x upscale horse. https://www.bricklink.com/v3/moc-pop-up-store/22/Scaled-3X-Horse and its been interesting to see this MOC go from prices of $60 to right now its been around $38. So prices definitely are flexible as parts are increased to depleted in the inventory. I know I spent a lot of time on each piece in my model which was maybe a bit easier since the model is smaller than the others, but its had a lot of great feedback and interest. I think these pilot programs are interesting tests of ways for sellers to get their instructions out to a bigger audience.
I tried to click on the banner at Bricklink, but when the site routed it said this was not available in my region... : (