BrickLink Designer Program round 1 crowdfunding begins in an hour!

@Terreneflame said:
" @dave765 said:
"I can't believe they haven't published prices beforehand - very poor form."

Exactly why I won’t even bother looking, I can’t understand why there arn’t prices"

No matter what the prices are, people are going to complain. So not revealing them until the drop serves to reduce the amount of complaints just a little bit

looks like they've updated FaQ.. FREE shipping and will earn VIP points

and site appears to be down

Edit: appears to be OK now but I assumed the worst given recent things over on the Lego site

@Huw: Are the 2021 AFOL Designer Program sets going to be added to the database, like the other ones?

Website is down...

Yes site is down. Very unfortunate.

Edit: Never mind, it is working again. I placed an order for the Bonkle set.

And Bricklink crashes. Good job Lego, good job.

As expected.

This is frustrating

Managed to get an order through! Good luck to everyone!

In and ordered. One 504 error and then a bit slow On bricklink page but lego site side was fine :D

5 minutes in and no update to the site. . . .

Where do you even place an order? The bricklink designer page and the link that the shop takes me to still isn't updating. I'm getting through but it shows the same web page as last night/this morning.

How do you order, I cant find a link to purchase

Placed an order by selecting the product on Bricklink and being redirected to the LEGO shop. Item was automatically loaded to my cart and sent me to the cart screen if it helps anyone (was already signed in on LEGO.com)

Getting charged delivery at checkout stage on Lego store?

@TheBrickMagician said:
"Placed an order by selecting the product on Bricklink and being redirected to the LEGO shop. Item was automatically loaded to my cart and sent me to the cart screen if it helps anyone (was already signed in on LEGO.com)"

Clicking on the product on Lego shop redirects me to bricklink, and bricklink isn't updating with any purchase links.

Managed to place an order for the Kakapo and the Castle in the Forest... Now to see whether either of them get made!

How are people ordering?

Wow, after the site blew up a bit I was worried I wouldn't get an order in! Surprised it's not selling out faster

Wasn't a complete crap show at least.

Order placed within 6 minutes.

Now to see who "wins"

@MrBob strange, the bricklink page seems to have reverted back to the old layout from the past few nights. It had come up for me with a link to purchase as well as a progress bar as to how many of the 3-5k copies had been sold (the bar hadn't updated at that point so showed 0). Hopefully it updates soon again

This is predictably appalling. Just getting the page from before 5pm, no pre-order button or anything. When the page loads at all this is.

Why do Lego insist on treating their AFOLs like rubbish?

Castle, Boat, Flight, with $100 VIP redeemed. I was wondering what would happen with the VIP redemption if projects are not funded, but the castle is pretty much guaranteed and over $100.

@TheBrickMagician said:
"Placed an order by selecting the product on Bricklink and being redirected to the LEGO shop. Item was automatically loaded to my cart and sent me to the cart screen if it helps anyone (was already signed in on LEGO.com)"

What do you mean "selecting the product on Bricklink"?

EDIT: Nevermind, the site finally updated for me to have a preorder button. Only took 12 minutes :facepalm:

Order links seem to have maybe updated again on the Bricklink site pages

Castle and boat ordered. What worked for me was to search by name on LEGO.com and click on the link from there.

@uwfan893 From the Bricklink Designer Program homepage, where it shows what products are available for this round of crowdfunding, if you select the product you are interested in it will take you to the products Bricklink page. From there you have an option to purchase it, which will redirect you to the LEGO shop website to complete the order. No orders are being processed through the Bricklink site itself

@aufan893 No problem, glad it worked for you!

Website seems to be down again. Fortunately it was 'up' for long enough for me to place my order. I really hope the Kakapo scrapes through!

It's live now. Just ordered my "Pursuit of Flight"!

@Paperballpark said:
"Website seems to be down again. Fortunately it was 'up' for long enough for me to place my order. I really hope the Kakapo scrapes through!"

Same here. I got a copy of the Castle and I'm pretty happy about it.

Got safe finally to go through, what happens if not funded? did I miss that? if not 3000 do we get a refund?

I am shocked a suprised... was able to connect and calmly add the sets I wanted (safe & flight) to my basket and check out. All done. System didn't crash, at least not for me. Seems like they got it right... for once.

I managed to preorder the Castle but it took quite a bit of refreshing on the Bricklink side. There was actually no problem placing the order on the Lego.com side of things.

Castle in the Forest is the first to hit 3000, reaching the threshold within 16 minutes. It will probably hit 5000 within 30.

Definitely would have been faster if the set up weren't so terrible. Go to the LEGO website, find the item, click on it, redirect to Bricklink, click on order, redirect to the LEGO website, and then order.

@lee1980 If the product you order doesn't receive the required 3000 orders (or it is not one of the first five projects to hit 3000 orders), then you will be refunded for the product per the FAQ

Where is the order page? Anyone help? I can't even find it.

502 bad gateway... why am I not really surprised...?

It's not working for me, of course...

Finally managed to place an order for the Fishing Boat. Fingers crossed it reaches the crowdfunding goal.

The pages are loading, but no sign of any order button(s). How do I order the safe? From Lego.com or from Bricklink?

all links just go to the introducing page for me with no link to purchase.

Got my order in for the Bionicle set. Sadly looks like its behind in the running.

Decided to impulse buy the castle as well due to the decent price, and wanting to make sure I end up getting something out of all this madness if Bionicle doesn't hit the threshold.

Has anyone already got an order confirmation e-mail directly from Lego? I only have a Paypal confirmation.

I pre-ordered the fishing boat, and to my absolute astonishment everything went smoothly. Pressed the order button on the Bricklink product page, got taken to Lego.de and the boat was added to my shopping basket. Went to checkout as per usual, paid and got an order confirmation - including the VIP points I will receive once the order is shipped.

I'm gobsmacked.

@ChrisUK I went to the product page on Bricklink, which had a "Pre-order on LEGO.com" button that redirected me to the LEGO shop with the item already on my cart (having been logged into LEGO.com already)

I got it to load for a second and saw prices but then I was on a call. Now I can't get back to it. From bricklinks home page at the top it says take my money, but then goes to the website page that shows the 7 possible ones coming up, and says available in -1 days. Not surprised another @lego pre-sale goes to crap.

@ChrisUK said:
"The pages are loading, but no sign of any order button(s). How do I order the safe? From Lego.com or from Bricklink?
"

You should be able to order directly from the project's page. However, BL keeps crashing, and when it does, it does not show the order button. I suggest you go on the project's page and refresh constantly.

Ordered the Great Fishing Boat. Gotta have it to go with the Ideas tackle shop and upcoming lighthouse...

On the fence about the castle. So cool. A bit out of my budget though since I don't really collect a lot of Castle stuff - though I did get the blacksmith's set.

seems the regional allocations are working i.e. Castle says it hasn't hit 5k yet but says has hit limit for "project is sold out in your region"

Looks like Castle sold out in Europe

@kkoster79 said:
"I got it to load for a second and saw prices but then I was on a call. Now I can't get back to it. From bricklinks home page at the top it says take my money, but then goes to the website page that shows the 7 possible ones coming up, and says available in -1 days. Not surprised another @lego pre-sale goes to crap."

Working for me again.

finally got in and the castle is sold out in my region

Such a bad customer's experience Lego. Seriously, buy yourself a good IT team, traffic surge is something you can manage.

The castle looks to have less than 1000 left in stock. Grab it now if you're on the fence.

I'm incredibly surprised that the safe and the air planes are doing so well. Things aren't looking good for my Bionicle set...

castle sold out uk

Castle in the Forest doing their best impersonation of Usain Bolt over here.

Well that was beyond shoddy, couldn't get what I wanted (castle in the forest) no matter how often I loaded it up there was never any option to pre-order, just always said days to preorder -1. By the time I got the preorder option had sold out in my region (UK) though the number sold was around 4000 currently, what a shambles

Been there at 5:00 pm, took at least 10-15 minutes before I saw a "Pre-Order" button on any of the models... But my pre-order was succesful :-)

i got a castle! only a few left

@Paperballpark said:
"Website seems to be down again. Fortunately it was 'up' for long enough for me to place my order. I really hope the Kakapo scrapes through!"

Yes, go Kakapo!! Hoping the New Zealand folk will boost it in the(ir) morning :D

Ordered the Castle in the Forest. Really nice and smooth, really liked the Lego ShopAtHome integration as that had all my payment details etc. The castle was also slightly cheaper than I expected which was a nice surprise.

Obviously I don’t know whether it was smooth just after I had ordered... and it doesn’t look like it is now as the order button won’t reappear (not sure if that’s just because I’d ordered already or not).

Castle sold out for Belgium, but yet hasn't reach max order capacity? Whut? How is that even make sense?

@TheBrickMagician said:
" @ChrisUK I went to the product page on Bricklink, which had a "Pre-order on LEGO.com" button that redirected me to the LEGO shop with the item already on my cart (having been logged into LEGO.com already)"

Thanks. The Bricklink page didn't show the crowdfunding info for me until 16:20. Lego.com just kept redirecting me to Bricklink. Eventually it started working and the safe is ordered. :)

I got the two I wanted in my cart but it's taking forever to reach the payment page. Wish me luck boys!

@TheBrickGuru24 said:
" @kkoster79 said:
"I got it to load for a second and saw prices but then I was on a call. Now I can't get back to it. From bricklinks home page at the top it says take my money, but then goes to the website page that shows the 7 possible ones coming up, and says available in -1 days. Not surprised another @lego pre-sale goes to crap."

Working for me again."

Yeah I just got it to work... very frustrating. Got the castle :)

@Covi said:
"Castle sold out for Belgium, but yet hasn't reach max order capacity? Whut? How is that even make sense?"

they said they would split the 5000 across the 3 regions (US, Europe, Asia), it's the Europe wide allocation that has sold out first so shows sold out even though not yet 5000 sold

@Covi said:
"Castle sold out for Belgium, but yet hasn't reach max order capacity? Whut? How is that even make sense?"

They probably allocate a share par country size ?

Gotta go! Good luck to everyone still trying to get through! I hope you can get what you're after!

@Sinc3riT said:
"Wasn't the point of this to bring to life sets that got the 10k votes already? And now they have a chance of STILL not getting made, after all of this extra work?"
A vote on a website costs nothing. These sets cost from $50 to nearly $200.

I'm not getting FREE shipping if I select an item < £50 in the UK! :(

There are many Castle fans out there, so it will be no surprise that the Castle in the Forest will reach the 5000 limit first. Not me though. Ordered the Fishing Boat. At the time it is about half way to the 3000.
The Kakapo looks good, I might consider that one too.

Castle in the Forest has pretty much hit the 5000 global limit now (16:30 GMT)

Glad I got off of work early or I'd have missed the Castle. It's going to be sold out within minutes and there will be A LOT of unhappy people because of that.

Should buy 5 and resell the other 4 on that Castle. You'll make a bundle.

The 5 limit is a bit weird

Welp. Castle is gone.

Managed to order a Castle of the Forest, happy about it since it's now nearly sold-out (and 'unavailable in my region'), less happy about the €10 price bump in Belgium… :(

Castle now 100% sold out....

Was able to grab a castle after a bunch of refreshing. Tried going straight to lego, but then it took me back to bricklink. Once the links appeared it worked fine though.

Still can’t get anything to work, so missed out again without even being given a chance. Frustrating as always when it comes to Lego IT.

@eiffel006 said:
" @guachi said:
"Glad I got off of work early or I'd have missed the Castle. It's going to be sold out within minutes and there will be A LOT of unhappy people because of that."

And a lot of happy scalpers!"

Yup. I should have ordered 5 when I had the chance. I'd have sent 4 to a friend who owns a Bricks and Minifgs store.

They start early and the 1st one already sold out!! fudge again

Got the castle, pursuit of flight and the fishing boat easily just after 5 o'clock. One copy each, fyi :-)
Checked the web site right after, then it wouldn't load anymore.

Edit: @ essel Indeed, that price bump is ridiculous. That's quite often the case.

@karmajay said:
"They start early and the 1st one already sold out!! fudge again"
It started right on time at 11 AM ET, at least in the US.

does anyone know when i recieve a conformation email?

@dbbunny said:
" @Paperballpark said:
"Website seems to be down again. Fortunately it was 'up' for long enough for me to place my order. I really hope the Kakapo scrapes through!"

Yes, go Kakapo!! Hoping the New Zealand folk will boost it in the(ir) morning :D

"

I imagine it will fly to the finish line once the early birds start waking up.

I'm sorry, I'll leave.

Got my orders in for the Castle and the Pursuit of Flight

Incredible that the castle sold out in, what, a little more than half an hour? That 5000 limit was pretty silly.

The order page changed about 15 seconds or so after the exact time it was due to. That 15 secs was probably just their web content management system publishing the changes.

@oempaluca said:
"does anyone know when i recieve a conformation email?"

Confirmations are taking a bit in general. Last night it took an hour or so between ordering and getting my email.

The Great Fishing Boat is pulling into the harbor...

interesting to see if the the other 3 spots keep up in terms of how quickly they get pre-orders.

Its not looking good for bionicle :(

Seems like the pre-orders for 4th & 5th have slowed down, might take a few days to see what makes it through

castle sold out in less than a minute!

@TheBrickGuru24 said:
"The Great Fishing Boat is pulling into the harbor..."

Sold out in my region - Ireland - and not even at 3k

@TheBrickGuru24 said:
" @oempaluca said:
"does anyone know when i recieve a conformation email?"

Confirmations are taking a bit in general. Last night it took an hour or so between ordering and getting my email."

I am a bit scared that something went wrong, i bought the set while the bricklink site said the set wasnt available anymore.

Missed the castle... wasn’t expecting it to sell out in 30 mins. Hoping they increase production of it as obviously there is a high demand.

@CapnRex101 said:
"I find it interesting that the Castle in the Forest has achieved the necessary 3000 backers most quickly and the obvious correlation between where the model has performed well and where castles are actually located! I would expect to see some correlation, of course, but I presume this reflects the general performance of Castle sets within Europe and outside."

Australian here who set an alarm for 1am mainly for this set. No castles here, unless you include Kryal Castle. There are plenty of Castle fans worldwide, believe it or not.

Well I missed out on the Forestmen Castle. Still trying to get my order through for the BIONICLE set but it's at the bottom of the running. Shame, I was looking forward to the two Legacy sets and now I might not get either!

Fishing boat sold out in UK before it was even fully funded!?!

@Shropshire said:
"I truly believe there will be cancelled orders/orders that don't crystallise when it gets to shipping

more than 6 months on a payment pre-authorisation will likely time out.. people get new cards, close cards, go bankrupt, die (sorry but it's a fact)... at best a nightmare for CS as they'll need to seek new payment at the time, but also can imagine some people not being in a position next year to see it through.. no particular reasons just that 6 months is a long time and anything can happen."

I'm no expert, but pretty certain they'll charge people pretty soon after today and then just refund you for any set that doesn't get made. Pre-orders don't often go by long term pending payments, if ever. I've got several across multiple sites right now.

Fishing boat is second to 3000, right at the hour mark.

Fishing boat is fully funded now. Wonder if it'll be sold out by the end of the day. I suppose I could place an order right now, but just because I have $130 in my bank account doesn't mean I should be spending it on that today ....

I had massive connection problems from exactly 17:00 cet onwards but somehow managed to get only 1 copy (for fairness to all others) of the sets I wanted. The castle sold out really fast. But the others all still seem available for Luxembourg. So there seems to be a limit for different countries/regions?

@TheBrickGuru24 said:
" @Shropshire said:
"I truly believe there will be cancelled orders/orders that don't crystallise when it gets to shipping

more than 6 months on a payment pre-authorisation will likely time out.. people get new cards, close cards, go bankrupt, die (sorry but it's a fact)... at best a nightmare for CS as they'll need to seek new payment at the time, but also can imagine some people not being in a position next year to see it through.. no particular reasons just that 6 months is a long time and anything can happen."

I'm no expert, but pretty certain they'll charge people pretty soon after today and then just refund you for any set that doesn't get made. Pre-orders don't often go by long term pending payments, if ever. I've got several across multiple sites right now."

It says you're not charged until shipping in the FAQ

@Shropshire said:
" @TheBrickGuru24 said:
" @Shropshire said:
"I truly believe there will be cancelled orders/orders that don't crystallise when it gets to shipping

more than 6 months on a payment pre-authorisation will likely time out.. people get new cards, close cards, go bankrupt, die (sorry but it's a fact)... at best a nightmare for CS as they'll need to seek new payment at the time, but also can imagine some people not being in a position next year to see it through.. no particular reasons just that 6 months is a long time and anything can happen."

I'm no expert, but pretty certain they'll charge people pretty soon after today and then just refund you for any set that doesn't get made. Pre-orders don't often go by long term pending payments, if ever. I've got several across multiple sites right now."

It says you're not charged until shipping in the FAQ"

Doubling up on this, Lego only charges when the order is shipped in regards to pre-orders. Plenty of websites operate this way.

@xboxtravis7992 said:
"Typical of the Bionicle fandom, we blabber our mouth off how much we want Bionicle back... but put the rubber to the road and we refuse to put our money were our mouth is. Well Sokoda, its been a fine ride and I would love to see a magic turnaround in the 11th hour; but we just got shagged by a rare parrot. "

I think the problem with the Bionicle Memorial is quite simple. This is NOT a Bionicle set. It is a Systems set that commemorates Bionicle. Of course making a true Bionicle set nowadays is practically impossible since most parts are not produced anymore. I am not a fan but I understand there are many out there that would like the theme to come back - just like many would like Pirates, Castle, Classic Space, proper city sets and interesting Technic sets. At least, a few castle fans get their wish this time around.

There are quite a few interesting sets in the second round...

Can I order now and cancel the order later if I change my mind?

I'll be interested to see how many scalpers try and sell the Castle In The Forest sets on ebay before they are officially shipped. Why? Because ebay won't allow the selling of items more than 30 days before it is officially released. And besides, if I were TLG or "povoq" and happened to see someone flipping the castle set online, I think I'd have words with the seller and website concerned...

@EriktheRed said:
"I have a fear that these will sell out faster than you can blink"

aaaand they're gone...
at least the castle is, the only one I wanted. oh well, more $ for star wars sets in august.

@EriktheRed said:
" @Shropshire said:
" @TheBrickGuru24 said:
" @Shropshire said:
"I truly believe there will be cancelled orders/orders that don't crystallise when it gets to shipping

more than 6 months on a payment pre-authorisation will likely time out.. people get new cards, close cards, go bankrupt, die (sorry but it's a fact)... at best a nightmare for CS as they'll need to seek new payment at the time, but also can imagine some people not being in a position next year to see it through.. no particular reasons just that 6 months is a long time and anything can happen."

I'm no expert, but pretty certain they'll charge people pretty soon after today and then just refund you for any set that doesn't get made. Pre-orders don't often go by long term pending payments, if ever. I've got several across multiple sites right now."

It says you're not charged until shipping in the FAQ"

Doubling up on this, Lego only charges when the order is shipped in regards to pre-orders. Plenty of websites operate this way. "

I just called my bank. According to the rep, most banks leave payments pending for 2-3 days on average. Then the pending disappears. But that doesn't mean the charge gets cancelled. It just means the bank trusts that the payment will go through eventually. And when you are actually charged, the payment simply becomes official. Maybe it pops up on pending again? Or maybe they do it quietly. Maybe it varies. I don't know.

So for example, what I was looking at with my other pre-orders was not actually the payments going through, but rather my bank accepting the pending payments and expecting them to go through. Which makes sense. People pre-order things months, even a year plus in advance sometimes, and I imagine it saves a lot of hassle for the bank to just assume that all of those transactions will go through barring the account holder changing something. And if someone needs to cancel, then they will cancel and the bank will know.

Again, I'm no expert, but banks not having literally any safeguard against long-term pre-ordering seems unlikely to me.

I'm hoping for more love for the particle Accelerator, as one of the ones I ordered. It looks like a lot of fun!

@CapnRex101 said:
"I find it interesting that the Castle in the Forest has achieved the necessary 3000 backers most quickly and the obvious correlation between where the model has performed well and where castles are actually located! I would expect to see some correlation, of course, but I presume this reflects the general performance of Castle sets within Europe and outside."

We do have castles in America. Here in Chicago the Mars Cheese Castle is how you know you’ve made it to Wisconsin.

While I personally would not be interested in getting a model based on a specific European castle, real castles simply don’t look like how I imagine a castle should look. On the other hand, the Lego castles from the 80’s look just like how I picture a castle should look, and this is what it looks like when I draw a picture of a castle.

I think that the geographic difference isn’t so much in how interested people are in castles, but in the aesthetics of the castle itself.

Anyways I’m very happy to be getting the castle despite having to take a business call as I was placing my order.

I am curious however as to how well this was advertised. Besides the castle, only the boat has been funded and there are still plenty available. The others appear to have little chance of achieving support. With 5000 being such a low number, and the prices being very good (even with America getting screwed in comparison to Europe), I would have expected a lot more sales.

@iwybs said:
"Can I order now and cancel the order later if I change my mind?"

You can cancel a LEGO order up until it's In Warehouse. And because that'll be a while, the short answer is yes, but I wouldn't wait until the last minute.

Shall we begin to speculate on how fast some of the future Designer Program sets will sell out?

^ don't disagree, just saying some will change bank, some get new cards, some have cards lost/stolen so reissued, some will go bankrupt or have their credit limit reduced, some will die, some
will be over their credit limit... not saying will happen to everyone, just saying it'll be a CS headache. Again, comment isn't an issue this is a problem for the bank, the comment is it'll cause CS work and that there will inevitably pre-orders that don't complete.

@Shropshire said:
"^ don't disagree, just saying some will change bank, some get new cards, some have cards lost/stolen so reissued, some will go bankrupt or have their credit limit reduced, some will die, some
will be over their credit limit... not saying will happen to everyone, just saying it'll be a CS headache. Again, comment isn't an issue this is a problem for the bank, the comment is it'll cause CS work and that there will inevitably pre-orders that don't complete."

I mean yeah, all of the above make sense. But someone like me who has no plans to change banks or have a negative life altering event happen should be good. I use a debit card anyways lol.

Sorry, but no. First, it’s only now that I had a chance to look into this and the only set I’d be interested in, the castle, is already sold out. Second, even more important, when I looked at the page they didn’t have final product pictures yet. I don’t like to buy a cat in a bag, especially for €150

@alfred_the_buttler said:
" @CapnRex101 said:
"I find it interesting that the Castle in the Forest has achieved the necessary 3000 backers most quickly and the obvious correlation between where the model has performed well and where castles are actually located! I would expect to see some correlation, of course, but I presume this reflects the general performance of Castle sets within Europe and outside."

We do have castles in America. Here in Chicago the Mars Cheese Castle is how you know you’ve made it to Wisconsin. "

Mitchell's Corn Palace is another one. Oh, and our two Disney Castles of course.

Probably will be a few more hours until the remaining 3 get funded or later for the 5th spot.

Seems odd how much the fishing boat slowed down after it reached 3000.

I was not going to get the BIONICLE one originally (The final version on Ideas I would have picked up, hopefully the final version if it gets produced will be closer to that...) But seeing it lag behind I decided to throw in a preorder XD

Still a weird set, not really the moments I would have chosen to commemorate! There's no way to produce anything other than a system set too, but its odd to have a anniversary set not be an actual figure.

@Commander_Don said:
"Probably will be a few more hours until the remaining 3 get funded or later for the 5th spot.

Seems odd how much the fishing boat slowed down after it reached 3000."

I am unable to order the fishing boat, the link brings me to LEGO.com but the boat appears to be missing from the site, as if I search for the AFOL designer program, the other ones show up but not that one.

Can't add the fishing boat to cart for some reason. Just keeps saying my cart is empty. Was able to add the particle accelerator with no problem, but the fishing boat won't seem to add no matter what even though it says it's still available in the US.

@AustinPowers said:
" @StarWarzFan7777 said:
"I know people have their preferences and all and that's fine, and whatever five projects win are the winners and clearly the most-wanted, but it would be a damn shame if one of the most legendary Lego themes of all time (BIONICLE) looses to a freakin' bird. Especially because there was an Ideas birds set already."
Just as anecdotal evidence, I know loads of AFOLs, but not one of them has any interest in your so called "one of the most legendary themes". Unless you are of the right age group, you will be either too old or too young to have interest in Bionicle. For the masses, it seems just far too niche nowadays.

As for there having been an Ideas birds set already, but no Ideas Bionicle set, I think you gave yourself the answer what is more popular. "

I'm pretty sure I'm in that age bracket, still not interested. Rooting for the bird, kakapos are rad.

@Commander_Don said:
"Seems odd how much the fishing boat slowed down after it reached 3000."
LEGO.com isn't working for the fishing boat right now, so that's probably why.

@T said:
" @Commander_Don said:
"Probably will be a few more hours until the remaining 3 get funded or later for the 5th spot.

Seems odd how much the fishing boat slowed down after it reached 3000."

I am unable to order the fishing boat, the link brings me to LEGO.com but the boat appears to be missing from the site, as if I search for the AFOL designer program, the other ones show up but not that one."

UK pre-orders are sold out, someone else said the 5000 total are allocated by region; US, europe and asia.

@GSR_MataNui : that's why I said "anecdotal evidence". I simply don't know anyone who cares about Bionicle. I myself was deep in my dark ages when the theme was around, but even if I hadn't been, I just can't see the appeal. I was never interested in story driven themes to begin with, I always loved about LEGO that I could come up with my own stories and build my own worlds. And those were of stuff that fascinated me, like space, castles, western, pirates etc. Bionicle just ticks none of the boxes for me. Plus, the sets don't even look like anything I associate with LEGO.

Even with Ninjago, a theme of which I have many sets, I couldn't care less about the backstory. I have never watched a single episode of the show, I just love many of the cool builds, especially those that mimic Asian architecture. I don't even know the names of the main characters, nor do I care.

@eth6113 said:
"5000 total sets and they still let people buy up to 5? Sounds totally fair...

Edit: And there's already EBay listings... "

The only good reason I can see for allowing people to order more than 1 is people getting one for themselves and then as a gift/s for friends or family member

Fishing Boat shows "Sold out" on the ribbon across the picture but not on the status bar below, while the Castle shows "Funded" on the ribbon yet "Sold out" on the status bar.
Weird.

Edit: just changed and both showing as sold out now.

Edit II: Safe now funded, sold out in Germany.

Oh well, fishing boat sold out before I could convince myself that I really do want it that much, to order it today. Guess other people wanted it more, so good for them. Good for my wallet too, there's already a big chunk of it spoken for this month in terms of Lego. Can't wait to read the reviews of it, in December or January. I hope someone writes up a nice guest review for Brickset.

Yeah, page was down the first time I tried to order, then I was too busy so missed out on the castle! Such a shame. Sad about that. May be they will increase the numbers later, who knows.

Gutted to have missed out on the Great Fishing Boat :(

@AustinPowers said:
" @Antoine_23 said:
"I don’t understand why we have to pay on Lego.com ? What about people who buy lots of lego per year. Those people tend to have statistically more missing pieces than the casual buyer and can end up on Lego Blacklist by asking for the missing pieces to be replaced . By having people pay for their « Bricklink » sets on lego.com, does that mean those people won’t be able to participate??! Does anyone know?"
Blacklisted by LEGO for using their "missing pieces" service? Now that's fascinating. How many sets did you buy from LEGO officially with pieces missing?
I have over a thousand sets (bought from all over the place), but only on two occasions did I have to use their services. And of those one was actually not a missing piece, but a switched bag of parts. One of our friends sets was missing a whole bag but had one instead that belonged to the Creator Expert Ferris Wheel! "

I used the customer service a ton of times because of terrible printing quality on sets and minifigures. I'm lucky to not be on a blacklist yet but they really need to step up their quality game.

And about the whole Bionicle debate, it was more of a general statement to say that it was legendary. It did a lot for the company financially and for how they handle their own IPs now. You may not like it but there is a giant crowd out there who does.

Shame they are not showing up for the actual product though. Maybe because it happens to be the most overpriced of the seven, or because it's not really a traditional Bionicle figure, of course.

@Antoine_23 said:
"I don’t understand why we have to pay on Lego.com ? What about people who buy lots of lego per year. Those people tend to have statistically more missing pieces than the casual buyer and can end up on Lego Blacklist by asking for the missing pieces to be replaced . By having people pay for their « Bricklink » sets on lego.com, does that mean those people won’t be able to participate??! Does anyone know?"

Lego scrubbed their "Blacklist" about 6-7 months ago of everyone but true scammers. I know because I was on it. I had no problems in ordering today or lately at Lego.com.

I started at 11am EST and couldn't get the castle page to even load until 11:07. I couldn't the page to load with the link pre-order until about 11:15. I was able to pre-order, but it really shouldn't have been that hard or taken so much effort. I really wonder how a company as big and rich as Lego can run their IT department like a small town library would...

@TheBrickGuru24 and @Shropshire regarding payment processing and preordered/backordered items.

I have had a couple of experiences with payments changing, either a new credit card or PayPal wanting to confirm an old order. The money has never been billed or taken out of the account until the item ships--same thing with adding VIP points. LEGO has always sent an email to contact customer service to update payment information:

"Unfortunately, there was a problem processing your method of payment and we were not able to complete your order. Common reasons for this are:

• An item was pre-ordered or out of stock and the card was authorized at the time of order, but declined at the time of shipment.
• Perhaps your card number or expiration date recently changed or the card is no longer active.

Please call Customer Service at 1-800-835-4386 to confirm your credit card information and we will send your items as soon as possible. For our hours of operation please visit http://service.lego.com .

Thank you for your patience and for shopping with us!"

I doubt LEGO will just cancel orders, instead allowing customers to rectify the situation. Hopefully nobody dies! (A possibility Shropshire acknowledged earlier, not me being morbid.)

@hanks75 said:
" @BionicStars , I think you need to check your math...."
Was going to say the same thing. Last time I checked, 120 USD for 1,500 pieces equated to 8 Cents per piece, not 60. Very reasonable actually. In Germany it's only 100 Euro (including VAT), so even better.
Depending on the parts provided it might at least make for an interesting parts pack, even if one isn't interested in Bionicle.

Update: Pursuit of Flight now funded as well.
Kakapo well on its way to 3,000. Bionicle and Particle Accelerator trailing far behind.

Tried to order the boat, but between me clicking the link and putting in my details I think the European allocation had gone as I got redirected to an error page... And yet I still see a charge on my bank account. Anyone know if this is just a pre-charge, or am I entitled to throw my toys out of the pram to see if I can get my hands on one?

@kfr said:
"It's not working for me, of course..."

Well, eventually it did. Managed to pre-order the safe, which is the one I really want(ed). I was kind of interested in the castle (looks rather nice) and the boat (looks reasonably interesting), but decided I don't want to spend that kind of money on them. It's been mildly painful, but turns out my own WLAN was to blame to a good part

Any word when the next round of sets will launch?

Welp, whatever was going on with the fishing boat (available but link to buy not working), next thing I knew it was full and missed it. Any chance someone bought an extra?

@Antoine_23 said:
" @legowerba said:
" @Antoine_23 said:
"I don’t understand why we have to pay on Lego.com ? What about people who buy lots of lego per year. Those people tend to have statistically more missing pieces than the casual buyer and can end up on Lego Blacklist by asking for the missing pieces to be replaced . By having people pay for their « Bricklink » sets on lego.com, does that mean those people won’t be able to participate??! Does anyone know?"

Lego scrubbed their "Blacklist" about 6-7 months ago of everyone but true scammers. I know because I was on it. I had no problems in ordering today or lately at Lego.com."

I can only hope it’s true!! How did you learn that? An article, a friend that works there??"

Maybe one day I'll get off the Lego Ideas blacklist, but I don't think anyone actually works there.... still can't log in since my account was high-jacked. Thanks Lego Ideas!

I was initially charged £3.95 for postage (since cost was last than £50) when I ordered Sheriff's Safe but after talking to customer services, they have waved the shipping fee. Anyone else in the same position should contact customer services since I don't think it happen automatically.

Got in for the Pursuit of Flight.
Love it and want to mod it for an xwing/tie fighter trench run.
Waiting eagerly on the Observatory and Anatomini.

I decided to get Pursuit of Flight, as I was interested in that one when it was getting reviewed.

I also do not understand the insanely low limits. I understand they don't want to affect regular production too much to produce these, but after all the effort they've put into them as well, a total of 5000 seems low.

I'd like the Bionicle set, but it's pretty clear it won't be the 5th set to reach 3000 orders. The Kakapo is neat but not necessarily something I feel the need to get.

For the future sets, I like the Aquarium, Waterfall, and Calendar but will likely only be able/willing to pay out for the Aquarium.

I was a bit too late for the castle, oh well, hopefully a sign the theme is still super popular.

@Antoine_23 said:
" @legowerba said:
" @Antoine_23 said:
"I don’t understand why we have to pay on Lego.com ? What about people who buy lots of lego per year. Those people tend to have statistically more missing pieces than the casual buyer and can end up on Lego Blacklist by asking for the missing pieces to be replaced . By having people pay for their « Bricklink » sets on lego.com, does that mean those people won’t be able to participate??! Does anyone know?"

Lego scrubbed their "Blacklist" about 6-7 months ago of everyone but true scammers. I know because I was on it. I had no problems in ordering today or lately at Lego.com."

I can only hope it’s true!! How did you learn that? An article, a friend that works there??"

This thread on Bricklink confirmed with me about it and how to check to see if you are still blocked. https://www.bricklink.com/message.asp?ID=1239185

@EriktheRed said:
" @Shropshire said:
" @TheBrickGuru24 said:
" @Shropshire said:
"I truly believe there will be cancelled orders/orders that don't crystallise when it gets to shipping

more than 6 months on a payment pre-authorisation will likely time out.. people get new cards, close cards, go bankrupt, die (sorry but it's a fact)... at best a nightmare for CS as they'll need to seek new payment at the time, but also can imagine some people not being in a position next year to see it through.. no particular reasons just that 6 months is a long time and anything can happen."

I'm no expert, but pretty certain they'll charge people pretty soon after today and then just refund you for any set that doesn't get made. Pre-orders don't often go by long term pending payments, if ever. I've got several across multiple sites right now."

It says you're not charged until shipping in the FAQ"

Doubling up on this, Lego only charges when the order is shipped in regards to pre-orders. Plenty of websites operate this way. "

My card was charged for the order once it was placed, so not sure why the FAQ states you won't be charged until the item(s) is (are) shipped.

@Vassaleen said:
"Just seen the castle on sale on ebay for 450 gbp.
TLG don't have a single collective brain cell. 10k voted for these projects. Only 5k of each set and 5 per person! The stupidity is mind blowing! How to upset your most loyal customers 101."

5 of them on EBAY now... $750-$888 USD. 4x markup... and 4 of the 5 are charging shipping.

As I said above, Castle sold out before I could buy it and now BIONICLE isn't going to pass. Real shame.
We still have some somewhat Legacy product coming up with that Space Trooper set with CS color scheme and that Western Studio (the later of which doesn't appeal to me.) So I might get those, but I think I'm going to try and part out these two I missed if given the chance.

I gotta say though, I'd get the 90th not being BIONICLE now, but if they choose Castle over Space I'm going to loose it. Three castle sets in one year and several more in the review phases is good enough in my book, give us some variety.

Sets will be sold with digital instructions, not printed. What will that mean for those who buy on the re-sale market?

Kakapo is funded.
No Bionicle or Accelerator.

And that's a wrap for Round 1! The Kakapo has now reached 3000, and I've forgotten what that means for the unsuccessful Bionicle and Particle Accelerator sets.

@MartyMcFly said:
"Sets will be sold with digital instructions, not printed. What will that mean for those who buy on the re-sale market?"

A generous scalper will charge 50$ extra for instructions...

@MaxA said:
"This is just more evidence that Bionicle is supported by a vocal minority. There are always excuses as to why, but it bears out every time. It’s a quirky fond memory for a small group of people in a specific generation. Compared to almost everything else, it just isn’t that popular.

That’s fine. That doesn’t mean it isn’t cool for those who like it. Bionicle is the indie music of the Lego world. You may like it, but it just doesn’t appeal to most people. "

The overlapping Venn diagram of Bionicle fans and vinyl record collectors in their mid-20's might mean you are more right than you know (saying this myself as a Bionicle fan with a vinyl record collection).

@Alatariel said:
"I'm in the program myself as a fan designer and I couldn't agree more with this comment. May I pass it on to the organizers? "

Looking forward to getting your set to go along with 21110 Research Institute! Hopefully they will allow at least two per person so I can get one for my sister, to whom I gifted my second copy of 21110 a few years ago. It will make a great 30th birthday present this fall.

@Wellspring said:
"Any word when the next round of sets will launch?"

On the 1st of September. The Rounds last for 2 months.

If Bionicle were to make it I'm sure the scalping prices would be unbelievably high. So, uh, blessing in disguise...?

And meanwhile the 3-in-1 Castle is still not selling outside of LEGO.com

You know, I'll be real, here, the "first 5 sets to 3000" limit was some BS and Bionicle probably could have gotten made if the zoomer-ish fanbase had a few days to make some TikToks about it to push it over the threshold.

The Safe set (one of my choices) apparently sold out in my region just as I was trying to buy it, but I was able to buy the Kakapo, so I'm not unhappy. I must say I was very surprised at how reasonable the prices were--and, given that the two most expensive sets were also the two fastest to sell out, I think the Particle Accelerator might have done better if the project hadn't been so reduced in detail. (I know that's why I decided not to try for it, and it looks like a lot of other people felt the same way!)

Buying the Kakapo set went very smoothly, also to my surprise, and I like the fact that it qualified for free shipping and VIP points too! My one beef with the way this program worked was the high limit on sets purchased--one for yourself and one for a present seems reasonable, but a limit of 5 does set up for the scalpers, as many others have noticed. I also think making more than 5000 sets of each selection wouldn't be a bad idea, as I certainly would have liked to get the Great Boat--and also the Foresters' Castle, given its very reasonable prices. By the time I logged in they were both long since sold out. However, TLG may have good reasons for setting that limit on the total pieces they're committing to this program. There's no good reason for as high a per-person limit as 5 that I can see.

Looks like I got lucky with my order of the fishing boat. I had to stop for gas while driving and decided to make my order while filling up. It sold out about ten minutes later. If I hadn’t needed a fill, I wouldn’t have tried to order anything until after work.

I am extremely disappointed for not getting a chance to buying the castle, due to having to work and not being able to go online in the first hour after release! :(
IT IS A SHAME!!!

Lego should produce more of this set! End that stupid limitation!

@AirandSpace said:
"With these sets being pre-ordered, I would love to see LEGO quickly add additional units for purchase. I can't see how it would hurt, particularly if announced soon, so people don't pay scalper prices. I would love the safe and fishing boat, however sadly I was working and missed out. "

My guess is that they will expand these later if this works out. This seems like it was a market test.

@BionicStars said:
"I'm personally upset with how high they priced the Bionicle set. Everyone expected around 50-70 bucks, and they instead put it at 120. That immediately killed whatever momentum the set had. There are only 1.5k pieces, that's over 60 cents per brick. I understand the prints are needed, but they also removed unique elements meaning they kept cost down.
I'm not happy with this system and I find it skeptical how they hid the prices until the day of."

er this comes out to 8 cents per bricks...

I think the Forestman castle looked great, but I’m personally not interested in buying anything but the modulars here. That Construction site is incredible.

After much stress with the website, I finally managed to pre order the Kakapo. I would have preferred the fishing boat, but, hey, the Kakapo will be something unique in my collection!

Nothing but hasn't been said a dozen times so far, but, man, come on. The 5/customer limit and low number of available units only helps scalpers. If they were trying to set this up to only put sets on the secondary market, they couldn't have done a better job.

Also, what does it take to get a revived Castle series? That Castle here sold out in single-digit minutes. Between that, the sales of the Blacksmith Shop, and the excitement for the 3-in-1 Castle, how much more market research do they need to realize there is an audience ready to spend?

Amusing; the Kakapo (New Zealand bird) is sold out in Australia and New Zealand but still available everywhere else. It hasn't moved much since I woke up (and missed out) this morning though.

The safe is only available in South Korea, and Pursuit of flight in the Americas (people not much into planes there?)

Nothing that hasn’t being said but I hope TLG will learn from this debacle for the next rounds…

Ive seen lots of comments on Bricklink complaining the lack of Kakapos in AUS. and NZ. I managed to get one here in Canada, but I just wanted to say that I understand your disappointment. I visited NZ once and I have a massive respect for its heritage, people, and wildlife. If I could get you guys your birds, I would. I know its something special to you. Lego sure sucks for not providing enough sets for the region that is most interested.

@TeriXeri said:
"And meanwhile the 3-in-1 Castle is still not selling outside of LEGO.com "

Its scheduled release is August 1, 2021.

@MaxA said:
"That’s fine. That doesn’t mean it isn’t cool for those who like it. Bionicle is the indie music of the Lego world. You may like it, but it just doesn’t appeal to most people. "

I remember when indie music was called alternative. I guess that means I’m too old for Bionicle. So the question is, which R.E.M. record should I play while I’m building my castle? I’m thinking since they’re Forestmen that Green may be most appropriate.

@Branko said:
"Amusing; the Kakapo (New Zealand bird) is sold out in Australia and New Zealand but still available everywhere else. It hasn't moved much since I woke up (and missed out) this morning though.

The safe is only available in South Korea, and Pursuit of flight in the Americas (people not much into planes there?)"

Only certain parts in my experience. Here in the Midwest it's popular. We have events centered around them. In other states, they probably just consider them a nuisance.

Another ridiculous LEGO "event". LEGO ambassadors should be complaining loudly to the company and its continued ignorance towards fans, builders and collectors. As many have cited, 5,000 sets disparately allocated across the globe is simply not on. The market is clearly crying out for sets of this nature, a money maker for LEGO, surely... yet they've likely stiffed tens of thousands of people and sales. Such a shame Bricklink is owned by LEGO... so very disappointing.

I'm not liking my chances of getting a Studgate Station after this.

I hope they'll review the numbers, especially the max of 5 per person, before the next round.

@TeriXeri said:
"And meanwhile the 3-in-1 Castle is still not selling outside of LEGO.com "

Intertoys is selling it as well.

Missed them all. Just adding my AFOL disillusionment to the comments following another Lego fiasco in the vain hope that someone at TLG reads them and does something. A hobby is meant to be fun, but this sort of poorly managed 'event' is anything but.

@alfred_the_buttler:
The local classic rock station has added "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" into regular rotation, but I’m not familiar enough with their discography to know if I’ve heard any others.