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What do you guys think of the bluebrixx licensed Star Trek sets?
(www.bluebrixx.com)
Fun to build and it's great, that the same ship is often available in different sizes/prices.
Wish these had been available a few years back when our kids were in their peak Lego building phase.
The key question I have is about BlueBrixx distribution to places that science and tech oriented kids (and gift-giving extended family) look for toys and models. Does BlueBrixx have any distribution other than online?
While adult fans will find things online, having boxes and models physically on display somewhere that kids can see them makes a huge difference to whether a certain kind of model ever gets considered for a wish list and can even determine whether or not it gets built.
While our kids loved to peruse catalogues to decide what projects they wanted to do next, our occasional visit to the Lego store outside Montreal or a Playmobil vendor really sparked their enthusiasm. I don’t think that it’s only the Lego branding that gets in the way of building the North American market for a competitor.
Beyond online purchases and catalogues, our kids picked up their advanced LEGO, Playmobil, SnapCircuits, Smithsonian models etc. at museums, hobby stores, a few toy stores that targeted learning toys across a broader age range and even children’s hospital gift stores. It seems like family had picked up gifts from similar places where they lived.
Since it's a new and relatively small company from germany all stores I know of that sell the products are also located in germany. However, they have been expanding very rapidly in the last years and even faster since they got the Star Trek license, but it'll take a while to gain popularity in north america. Also a lot of their growth came from a certain german youtuber, so It'll take some time for it to even be physikly sold out of germany.
The company needs to get some representatives out to the toy trade shows and conventions in North America to break into the market. That’s how the models get picked up by genre sellers and distributors.
Even getting a representative seller at various Comic-Con’s and regional cons would be worth it to sell to core fans and build a base. Our kids have walked around cons with money to spend and come away with nothing but a t-shirt and pins because there really wasn’t much on offer for Star Trek suitable for their ages.
I mean this sounds logical, but I think they want to get established in central europe before expanding (which isn't a bad tactic), that's at least my assumption
Edit: we also could all just call shops close to us and ask them if they have the product ;) (if that tactic still works)
The point is that this doesn’t work at all.
I’m in Canada, and our local hobby, game and comic stores are dependent on the distributors or the ability to order directly from the manufacturer. We usually start with them, and when we can’t order through them, go online.
Even for some of the small specialty presses producing Star Trek books, we’ve been obliged to order through Amazon because the publisher isn’t working directly with Canadian stores, even though the books should move without difficulty under the North American free trade agreement.
Final point, Canada has the most intense Trek following in the world, even more than in the United States. TNG was the top rated show during its run - of any television show, not just in its genre. So, if a company can’t sell Trek merch here, they won’t be successful.
I like how many options they have. Wasn't expecting the Maquis ship to be represented.
I actually have a few of them! Voyager, the Delta Flyer, the Val Jean, and a Borg cube. The NX-01 and Defiant are in the mail. While I love the novelty of having and building my own fleet, the quality of the bricks I feel could be better.
Don't get me wrong, it isn't bad, just not nearly as good as Lego. I've had to in several situations glue down pieces since they won't stay in place. One angled board I received had a chunk of it melted away. That type of thing.
You will have to press harder than you think you should to get larger bricks to stick together as well. Again, not a large problem, but it can be annoying (you might make your fingers sore as a result, I've had to take breaks because my fingers just needed to recover).
Last thing, you will absolutely get sick of the color gray. So. Much. Gray. But, I still think they're worth it, the novelty of the sets makes them cool to build and they still are fun, they just have a few shortcomings as it isn't as quality as Lego.
I agree with all of this. The Borg Cube especially was very difficult to assemble, and I've done some pretty big official Lego sets so I'm used to a good challenge. I had to resort to gluing some parts in place, as some of the plates were bent and just would not stay in place while I worked on the next side.
I also really came to dislike the tiny black pieces they use to add studs to the bottom of some bricks. Too small, too hard to insert, and way too easy to just roll away and never be found.
That said, the final product looks fine and nobody ever questions if they are legitimate sets or not. I don't regret the purchases, just didn't enjoy the build process like I normally do.
Yeah, I'm in the middle of the cube now. Several of the 1x1 type pieces are not committed to staying where I've placed them. So far the hardest one was the Delta Flyer purely because of the angled panels by the windows, you have to hold it very particularly or the whole thing just comes apart since those sections are held on extremely minimally
I've heard that people had some problem with the cube, it looks awesome, but the small parts seem very annoying
Did you get a replacement for the broken brick? If yes, how was the process of getting it? I'll probably buy one of them myself.
I did not, I really didn't think it was worth the hassle. The plate was sandwiched between other bricks and was going to be facing the wall once I finished so I just left it be
I would like to get one. Unfortunately I don't really have enough space to display one. Maybe one of the smaller ones...
I like the concept but that Sovereign Class looks like it should have been euthanized...
this post was submitted on 01 Sep 2023
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