Studio has been on the rise over the last few years, particularly with the rise of interest in LEGO building during the pandemic, its integration with BrickLink and the Bricklink Designers Program. Indie shops also function as hubs for the local LEGO community, often hosting displays of custom-designed sets, contests, sometimes even adults-only nights where grown-up LEGO fans are encouraged to come in without kids to distract them.It feels a bit like The LEGO Group is tidying up the house in preparation for its 90th Birthday later this year: Last night we heard about the merging of Bricks and Pieces into Pick a Brick, and this was followed hours with news that LEGO® Digital Designer – a stalwart of many fans of digital building – is going to have support discontinued, to be replaced by ongoing development of LEGO BrickLink Studio, as the group’s officially supported digital building application. Independent shops often have a huge amount of loose bricks for sale, and some even have dedicated play areas where you and/or your kids can simply sit and build with their huge collection, then pay for the bricks you use when you’re ready to leave. (Incidentally: these shops never actually have the trademarked term “LEGO” in their name.) You can find them by searching for LEGO Stores or toy stores in your favorite mapping app. The nearest one to me is Rogue Brick in Fort Worth, Texas. Independent LEGO shops sell authentic LEGO sets and bricks, as well as buy and sell used sets, but aren’t officially affiliated with LEGO. LEGO Stores can’t be everywhere, and where they’re not, enterprising independent business owners are picking up the slack. You can shop the BrickLink site for the more esoteric parts that you need, then check out and pay multiple vendors all at once, getting all of your parts delivered to the same place. Enter third party marketplaces, of which BrickLink is the most robust.īrickLink connects thousands of individual LEGO merchants, many of which have enormous and well-cataloged inventories, with end buyers. There’s nothing malicious about this, it’s just that plenty of parts have such a low demand that they aren’t set up for individual sale. LEGO doesn’t sell all of its parts direct to the consumer-quite a lot of them can only be bought as part of a specific set. Searching by color, shape, or the official LEGO part number (easily found in any of the tools above) is recommended. You can select the parts that you need, add them to your cart, and have them delivered to you in one or two weeks. At the time of writing, there are approximately 1500 LEGO bricks available directly from the manufacturer, one piece at a time. LEGO sells them, direct to the public and one at a time, via the Pick a Brick system. Official LEGO Pick A Brickīoxed LEGO sets aren’t the only way to buy LEGO pieces. Maybe you can fill out some of them with your current collection, but when you can’t find the remainder, it’s time to start hunting online. ![]() If you have your design ready to go, it’s time to find your pieces. My favorite feature is the stability tool, which can tell you which parts of your LEGO model are most likely to fly apart under stress. It’s also possible to move the parts in the virtual world with near-infinite variety, twisting and turning them in the space with warnings for what will and won’t work. Studio mirrors professional design software with its multi-window interface, and its search tool is the best way to get the part you need. ![]() It features tens of thousands of LEGO parts, all of which can be modified and placed within its virtual build space. This free design tool is published and maintained by BrickLink, the biggest secondary market for LEGO pieces (see below). BrickLink StudioīrickLink Studio, sometimes simply referred to as “Studio” or “Stud.io,” is the best option for most builders of intermediate to advanced skill. ![]() There are three notable options at the time of writing. The easiest way to do that (without spending a mortgage’s worth of money on randomized pieces) is to use a software tool to build a set virtually. If you want to make a LEGO set with hundreds or thousands of pieces, you want to plan it out first.
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