Links to Pley.com added to listings

.:.sigh.:. I am not happy to see this integration. My experience with Pley was awful last November, receiving only one small set in a month with everything I wanted to try out already checked out (literally everything on a list of about 40 sets). Their policy with stickers is atrocious: either pre-stick them on or don't include them at all! And their customer service was horrendous. Not a fan of this.

Pley is a good way to fall out of favor with LEGO Group. Surprised to hear they are a multimillion dollar business. I would be surprised if people that frequent Brickset would be interested in Pley. I imagined it was for people that needed LEGO pieces for a party or something. It's definitely not a service that I would ever be interested in.

I have never heard of these guys till now, and got to say I think this is a great idea. I love my Lego spend a fortune on sets, but once they are built they are just objects that take up space to enjoy other than the little ones to play with. The part I enjoy most is the building!!

With a Subscription option like Netflix/Lovefilm/Cineworld Pass, you can effectively, build as many sets as the post time would allow.

Obviously downside you don't get to keep the sets, but then you also get the opportunity to build far more sets than you would normally get access to.

@Whaleyland Does Pley clean the LEGO and reseal it after each use or did you just get sent a box full of loose bricks and parts?

I don't see the point in renting LEGO, to be honest. It's better to save up a bit more and buy the set yourself. Otherwise, you end up spending loads of money to borrow something that you could own yourself. :\

How they have become a Multi-Million Dollar Business is beyond me.

Multi-million company? In other words they've secured investment - still to be seen whether there's a market to justify this.

I'm currently setting up a Lego club in the school I teach at and I'm talking to the UK based Lets Go Play. They provide a similar service with varying subscription levels based on piece count of the sets. It's a great way for my kids to get access to and build sets like the Helicarrier that they could never afford to buy. Also a great chance for me to get access to sets I'd love to build but that don't fit my Lego budget (I'm looking at you, Ewok Village!)

@whaleyland, so what would you prefer them to do with the stickers? It's probably not practical to peel of the stickers and clean off the residue and provide a new sticker sheet every time.

I wonder if Huw spoke to anyone who is a customer of Pley before deciding to promote their service? It always struck me that in this model people will always hold onto the big, exciting, complex sets (like the helicarrier or ewok village mentioned above) meaning that rather than getting sets like this you actually want you'll get little city sets sent to you. It just about worked OK for DVD rental with much lower costs, lower postage, less loss of stock etc etc, I'll be amazed if it works well for LEGO. The one in the UK I heard of you don't even send back to the company for any you know, quality control, you just post on to the next customer directly.

Oh and yes, Pley had multi-million $ investment, it was reported 15 months ago that it received $6.7m in investment. So really it "is now a multi-million dollar business"? Or has been for over a year?

Did anyone ever get to the bottom of whether the magazine was removed from LEGO stores due to advertising Pley?

I'm guessing a lot of the minifigs from Wolverine's Chopper showdown sets mysteriously "go missing"

I had a chance to review Pley's service just about a month ago. To respond to questions above, yes, the sets are cleaned between each user. The packaging and presentation is very nice and well thought out. Their big issue is missing parts and currently they have no real solution to this, although I was told they are working on it. There are other problems with turn around time, fulfilling wish-lists, and customer service. You can read my review here if interested. I also incorporated feedback from current and previous members of the service: http://thebrickblogger.com/2015/05/rent-lego-sets-through-pley-com-review/

so I'm guessing there is affiliate revenue from Pley to Brickset involved. Otherwise, I can't understand this decision

Last summer I tried Pley because they had a month long free trial. I orderd a set, a medium Galaxy Squad set, and got it in a couple if days. When i went to build it I found that it was missing like 10 pieces. After that I sent it back and canceled the service disappointed. I feel that this could be a great service but it needs to executed properly

Just...why?

I've encountered a fair amount of people who have tried Pley and most still use them. I purchased a gift to send to my nephew and he is ecstatic each time a new set comes (so I've heard). His mom did mention that there were missing pieces once or twice in the beginning, but it has been months since that has happened and mentioned that Pley has been very proactive to reach out and let their customers know about this issue and that it is being addressed and solved, something about high tech automation, sounds legit. Seems like Pley is the real deal and stepping their game up big time, good move to partner, Brickset!

@Huw, did I read this correctly?

You can buy the Red Wing X-Fighter for $49.99?

https://www.pley.com/en-US/theme/Star-Wars/Red-Five-X-wing-Starfighter-10240

hey brickbloggers,

Thank you very much for the detailed feedback! I am the COO of pley.com and am responsible for making sure our service level goes above and beyond our customer's expectations.
First I’ll confirm that we do clean and sanitize the sets to an FDA approved level. Some comments were made about past experience with missing pieces. We have improved our operation dramatically and employed sophisticated technology to solve the missing parts and wait times which some of our past users have experienced. I am proud to say that our customer satisfaction has risen through the roof! (see https://www.kidfully.com/providers/pley-com-palo-alto-palo-alto for some recent customer reviews).

I challenge any brickset reader to take our free trial and test the service, you won’t be disappointed :).

If anyone has any comments or question feel free to email me personally at paulv @pley.com.


Excellent service is my number 1 focus!

Read the "reviews" for Pley. If you happen to live near Santa Clara California, the reviews are "excellent". Anywhere else outside of California and the reviews are not so warm. Where did you say your were located? Hmmm...

I think the concept is sound and obviously so do some big money backers. I'm also glad to see paulv on here responding to comments. I'd love to try this if and when it makes it to the UK. I can see it working well for weekend builds, especially if I don't know what is going to be in the box before opening. I really wouldn't be interested in the service for smaller sets though, it would have to be all sets of about 700 pieces or more.

Sorry for not replying sooner...I forgot to check! I remember now that I did get a second set very late and it was a terrible experience.

@MinifigureHQ: the first set was brand new, so it hadn't even been opened. The box wasn't included but the parts were in their original bags. I applied the stickers with the utmost perfection. For the second set, the parts were clean but a few had noticeable scratches on it. Stickers had been applied very poorly by a previous customer. Essential parts were missing and when the spares arrived, my trial period was already over and I had been charged for another month (which I fought against).

@EvilTwin: I think the best two options for stickers are to either not include them at all with the set or to have somebody at Pley professionally apply them and possibly laminate them or secure them with superglue or something. That would take time, though, so just leaving them out is probably the best option. When I complained about that to them, they told me that they wanted the first customer to have a unique and joyful building experience, but that makes the building experience for future users of that kit much less fun and, in my case, terrible.

I tried Pley back in November 2013 when the company was brand new, so I hope things have improved a lot there, but I wouldn't try another demo of it for many years after they've cleaned up their methods and learned better customer service skills. I recommend to others to try the demo, but consider the cost of just purchasing some sets on sale in comparison. I quickly realised I prefer my permanent collection any day to a one-day thrill of building set 73 on my Pley wish list.

@Huw, thank you for adding this functionality. I have a huge Lego collection and my son & I love the creative aspect of experimenting and coming up with new ideas, but that doesn't work for everyone.

I have a good friend that loves to give sets to his kids but they don't have the creative bug to go off and build on their own. This is a great service for situations like that and I think adding links to the site is a great way to extend the range of information and service that you provide the community!

Intresting, from what I remember from when it was first launched most people thought making sure the set was complete would be the hardest thing, and we where told technology would make it really easy and there wouldn't be problems...

Personally I can't see a way to make sure all the parts are there that's simple and easy without huge number of very carefuly staff, especailly if kids play with it with there exsisting collection

I have been using Pley for the past 2/12 months now, lets just say it is probably best for people that have kids, and cannot afford LEGO sets, but it is not a dumb idea, it just needs better execution. (Almost every single chima set had pieces/minifigures missing, all my galaxy squad sets were fine though, came with new stickers and everything, like it was fresh out of the box)

Also if you look at the fine print in the "Terms and Conditions" they say they are not obligated to put more pieces into the sets if they go missing, they rely on the community to mostly help out by using old lego bricks and replacing it, (Also a customer service person told me this) but for some reason a lot of Chima Minifigures/Baseplates go missing, HMM I WONDER WHY, personally if you really like that minifigure in a Pley set, just trade it out with one of you're sucky ones, and it will be all good.(Somehow)

Not obligated to put in replacement pieces? They expect their customers to pay for something incomplete? If I were renting a car, I sure wouldn't like it to have missing pieces...

I'm a little disappointed to see the inclusion of Pley. Reviews of the company are frequently critical of lengthy turnaround times for shipping sets, missing pieces, and long waitlists for larger sets. I wouldn't count on them as a reliable means of experiencing a given set. Just my two cents!

It does seem turnaround time would be too great. You pay for one month service for $x and receive 1 set during that time frame vs just buying a set at that price.

Some of the larger sets would be neat to build before you buy or just to build and display for a moment to get the feel of it. BUT at $50/mo for the larger sets and no guarantee of timing or availability, you could have put that $50 toward purchasing that large set and be done with it. Now you spent $50 and need to come up with an extra $50 if you decide to buy that set later on because you did enjoy building it.

PLUS, used bricks? Some sets are new, but some will be used and cleanded. That's great and all, but I prefer experiencing new pieces out of the package. I must be stuck up enough that I don't like used pieces. Probably why I have made a very rare bricklink order and only deal with LEGO directly.

This cannot be similar to Netflix/Redbox in that it's easy to pull from a stock of DVDs to replace those stolen or switched out (happened to me with Redbox).

Lego sets are intricate, pieces numerous to count (try inventorying just three Ewok Villages...LOOSE!) and each have different values.

This is definitely aimed to the families who don't want to invest in Lego but want to have the experience of building different sets, as well as those who are hosting parties or get-togethers.
But if these families have to cut their budget, I can imagine Pley being one of them. And it'd make sense: buy a creative Lego box (a big one) and it should last you a long time!

As an AFOL, it would never appeal to me.

If this arrives in the UK, it will probably cost £50 (most stuff priced at $50 in the U.S. is then priced at £50 in the UK...). I can't see it taking off over here. Better to just buy a few sets each month, build them then store back in the box until they are retired and sell on eBay to almost get your money back. Ok so this requires a bit of an initial investment and some time to store, list and package parcels, but it means you can buy whatever you want! Either that, or part the set out on Bricklink! And if you wait a while most sets are discounted in various stores so you get even more value for money. DVD rental yes, Lego rental no, not for me!

Received this email:

"We're excited to announce that Rojo the Cub has reached 5,000 votes on PleyWorld.com! We've been working hard to reverse engineer Mike Nieve's fun tiger design, and now it's ready for you.

Exclusively on Pley.com, you can now rent Rojo the Cub! Click below to add it to your Pleylist.

Rojo the Cub
Get This Exclusive Toy

https://dnqe9n02rny0n.cloudfront.net/imgs/sets/PW-1041/b65ba614bc594d19a4f6492227ab5951_01.jpg "

I'm glad they recognized him, but I can see how people may be offended that they're using MOCs to build their "library". Yes, they were "reverse-engineered" but I hope Mike know about this.

Hi @77ncaachamps,

Glad you're on our email list! I'm the Project Manager of PleyWorld, and am responsible for the PleyWorld design submission and creation process.

Any MOC we use is submitted to our PleyWorld site by the designers themselves and with their express permission. Before this even happens, we make sure they understand the entire process: They submit a design, and if it reaches 5,000 votes it is reverse engineered and made available for rental/purchase. All of our designers receive royalties (10% of every purchase and 25 cents for every rental).

Mike was definitely kept informed and signed off on the instructions we created- this happens for every designer whose design reaches 5,000 votes. Rojo the Cub is actually the third PleyWorld submission we've released on Pley, and it's been an exciting experience for all of us involved. Mike is going to receive royalties on his amazing MOC.

Hope that clears anything up, and if you have any further questions, feel free to email me at jint @pley.com.
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