Review: Build Ur Bricks rental service
Posted by Huw,
Renting out LEGO sets is becoming big business but with the major player in the field operating only in the USA at the moment there's a window of opportunity for others to set up services in their own country. Build Ur Bricks is a such a service in the UK.
Ash, who operates it, says "We are an online LEGO Rental website that was created to offer LEGO aficionados the best rental experience in the UK. Our customers can rent LEGO sets for a fraction of the price that they spend every month on new ones. We have monthly plans starting from as low as £9.99 a month for easy to build, starter sets to £24.99 a month for the difficult Pro sets. We have over 150 sets in our range to choose from."
He's sent me a sample package to allow me to assess the service.
The package arrives in a large cardboard box in a polythene shipping bag. It's too large to fit through a letterbox, which is to be expected, but could be a nuisance for some.
As well as the parts, the box contains the set instructions, a feedback form with instructions for kids and parents on the back, some flyers you could give to friends and, perhaps most importantly, a polythene bag and return postage label to enable you to send it back the way it came, for free (well, as part of the subscription, anyway.)
The parts are very nicely wrapped in tissue paper and I imagine a kid would be excited to open it up and see what's inside.
The parts are in mesh bags with zips which are sturdy and reusable.
I've been sent the small Jurassic World helicopter set and it's brand new. The parts are still separated out into bags 1 and 2, as they were in the set. Obviously once a kid has built it and taken it apart it wouldn't be sent back in this way, they'd be all jumbled up. Given the call for bags numbered 1 and 2 in the instructions it might cause issues for the next builder although it's not a major problem for a set this size. I can't imagine that Ash's team re-separate them out into bags 1 and 2 before sending out again, but maybe they do.
Parts are sanitised before they are sent out and I think to get a better impression of the service I would have liked to have received a set that had 'done the rounds' a bit so I could see what state the parts are in.
One thing that's immediately apparent is the professionalism of the operation: everything from the website to the packaging has been thought out and well implemented and the whole package gives the impression that Ash knows what he's doing and means business.
Renting LEGO is not for everyone (we've already established that so there's no need to comment on it below) but it's clear that there is a market and if you're looking for such a service in the UK you need look no further than BuildUrBricks.
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12 comments on this article
In Germany is a service called bauduu.de renting lego sets for a monthly fee like a subscription business.
I could see the appeal...somewhat. For me there are several (exclusive/expert) large sets out there I'd like the fun of building but have no interest in owning spending hundreds (thousands) of dollars on.
To me it seems a pretty risky business as serious collectors know that individual pieces and minifigs that are rare are worth money.
Website looks good, but just wondering why the main images feature non LEGO bricks? Would that be a (c) issue for LEGO, though I wouldn't have thought so when the rest of the site is showing genuine LEGO sets.
Good to see these services making their way over to the UK. For me the value of these services comes in a few years when it's the cheapest way to build retired sets.
I'd rent the HH for example.
It looks like a nice site.
One thing I'd love to see on the sets pages though is which pricing bracket each of the sets they have available falls into. Looking at http://www.buildurbricks.co.uk/sets/emmets-construct-o-mech/ for example, there's no indication whether it's available in "Starter+" and above packages, or just "Pro" or what. brickset says the RRP was £49.99, so I'd hope the former, but the site doesn't tell me as far as I can see.
It would also be great to be able to see on the pricing page, how many sets were available at each pricing level.
(Ah, I can now see that I _can_ see the information about what's in what pricing bracket, but only by filtering on the search page).
Unfortunately a lot of important aspects are not touched on here... shipping times, set availability, if the sets are complete (once no longer new), etc.
^ That'll be because the receipt of one set does not qualify me to discuss them.
They probably rebuild the sets then sort them back into heir numbered bags, all the while cleaning and counting the pieces to be sure they're all there. I don't know how they could afford to do this with larger sets if they have a day job, but if this pays the bills then good for Ash and co.
As for whomever suggested that people might pay the small fee to steal a more expensive part/figure: it's not as though they don't have your name, address, and quite possibly payment information. You could sneak around some of those to a degree, but it at least wouldn't be as simple as sending it back without the figure.
Looking at their FAQ and how they address missing pieces upon receipt and upon return, I can definitely see them being taken advantage of. Who's to say someone won't claim that there is a piece missing when they've actually swiped it? And Build Ur Bricks says they will only fault you if a significant number of pieces is missing. Although obviously if the parts that are missing are rare, or if a member is always sending back sets with parts missing Build Ur Bricks would know immediately.
Sounds a lot like how LEGO deals with missing parts (ie honor system). And while LEGO can stomach a few people abusing the missing parts service, it's a lot harder for a startup like this.
I wish Build Ur Bricks the best of luck in making this a profitable business for themselves, but if so many people who would never think of stealing would think of this option, just think of how many people with malicious intent are also thinking of it. It's not exactly like a lens rental where you only have one item to keep track of.
@Huw: Understandable of course! Are you going to continue using the service for a bit? A sort of on going review would be interesting.
^ No, this was sent as a one-off for review purposes.
I personally could never do this kind of thing, I'd much rather own the set myself than borrow it, and majority of the sets on their site are not extremely expensive so atm I dont personally see the appeal of this. :/