I have a nephew who has taken to building lego models.
He, as kids do, has chosen to build exceptionally complex models, and has gravitated to a website that allows independent designers to sell their model design and instructions. The buyer then needs to locate the pieces, either from the Lego store, or from independent Lego dealers (I had no idea this was a thing - but my brother has purchased Lego from Lithuania and Thailand in search of specific pieces)
He wishes to build a Star Trek model, and has all the pieces except the now discontinued
which is a trivial part of the model, but he is REALLY into lego, so non-trivial to him. He will not accept any alternative (This is completely contrary to my own lego experience where I made, say, a helicopter, out of what was available to me)
Anyway. I can order the part. Used, for €0.25. Which is cheap.
But I live in South Africa (as does my nephew) and the cost of buying that single piece, and getting it shipped is insane. Plus, of course, the fact that the piece is worth peanuts but our customs/excise may decide differently.
I have asked adult friends in the US and EU who are not collectors of lego, but do have an old box of lego and there may be a chance there (one guy need to look in his mom’s house!) but can anyone suggest a simpler way to purchase the part and ship it to South Africa?
Coming from the US or the EU, I don’t see how you avoid your shipping/customs problem. Maybe there’s a Lego enthusiast FB group based in SA that could help, I’d be mildly shocked if there isn’t!
Thanks for that link. I am a lego fan but not a fanatic, I would never have found it.
The bobshop link does not appear to have it.
The difference is in commercial mail vs personal mail.
As an example, I bought my ex-wife, while we were still married, some clothing. When it went via commercial mail, we got taxed at approximately 100%. A similar order sent via courier service was taxed at 15%
I have no idea how the RSA customs would handle a piece of plastic worth around US$0.25 but I am thinking, I should just be the nice uncle and buy it, no matter the cost.
My brother has already spent too much on this, and I can give it to him or his wife so they can take the credit while I feel good about myself.
Seems the right thing to do, in the circumstances.
(He is not at all a spoilt brat, who gets all he demands. He’s a great kid whose parents - my brother and his wife - don’t have a lot of money. )
For some reason it didn’t occur to me to also point out the actual pieces for sale on that very site. Do you know what color hub your nephew needs? It comes in several shades. You can see the list of colors for sale on the bottom left of this page.
You can choose the color that’s needed (or “all colors”) and then get a list of vendors that have it. You can choose who ships to SA. If you click “More Options” you can find the seller in New Zealand who has it. Or the one in Thailand. There’s no sellers in Africa but there’s many in Europe.
I have no idea what the shipping would be but perhaps you could peruse those options.
Yeah, I was going to say you can buy parts right on that site (Bricklink.com) and filter by local / international sellers.
As Lego goes, it’s not a weird request at all. Lego has a madness inducing effect. My kids are super into Lego and we’ve amassed a massive collection of sets and random bricks, which now mostly occupy multiple rooms of multiple homes as a sprawling cityscape.
I often find myself building things out of random bricks and every now and then there will be this one random part I need to complete my vision.
I was much more into building ‘techno’ pieces from scratch, using what we had. A helicopter with working variable pitch rotors was probably the peak of my brother’s and my ingenuity.*
My nephew seems to be into building models and then keeping them intact.
Different mindset, I guess.
* we tried an aircraft carrier, but lego is not watertight and it sank in the bath.
Yeah, you need to get a large single piece Lego hull if you want to make a boat that actually floats. My son likes playing with this set in our pool. Which is great until he’s like “Daddy! I lost the diver’s goggles in the pool!”
Although it did eventually get scooped up by the cleaning robot.
I’ve given a look and it’s not a piece I can spare, sorry. It’s in a set my daughter owns (Hogwarts Express), but
a) no tyres with those wheels;
b) they’re the black version. If he’s building a Star Trek model, it’s probably for a turbine or similar, so more likely grey or white that he wants;
and most importantly c) she is not giving any of her HP Lego up for any price.
I’ll put out feelers with my friend, the guy with the dedicated Lego building room in his house, but he’s in Europe for a while.