[USA] LEGO Master Builder Academy

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meyerc13
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Re: [USA] LEGO Master Builder Academy

Post by meyerc13 » Fri Jun 22, 2012 9:57 am

At LEGO Kidsfest last weekend I asked about skipping a level. The employee I talked to said that yes, you can skip a level, however later levels might refer to techniques explained in earlier levels.

He recommended buying the first subscription one month, and the second subscription the next month. If you do that, instead of getting two sets every other month, you'll essentially get a set every month.

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vynsane
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Re: [USA] LEGO Master Builder Academy

Post by vynsane » Tue Jul 03, 2012 6:54 am

Got the email alert that Kit 8 was shipped last night, checking out the site already. They made some changes to the way the site works, but it looks like good changes.
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vynsane
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Re: [USA] LEGO Master Builder Academy

Post by vynsane » Sun Sep 09, 2012 4:50 pm

It appears that they've changed how the subscription works, and have now broken Level 1 and Level 2 into two separate products. At the LEGO Store in the Palisade's Center Mall in West Nyack, NY they had these two displayed along-side the original Kit 1 box:

Level 1, Kit 2 & 3:

Image
MBA Level 1 (Kit 2 & 3) boxed set by vynsane, on Flickr


Level 2, Kit 4-6:

Image
MBA Level 2 (Kits 4-6) boxed set by vynsane, on Flickr

They're also listed this way on the S@H site now.
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Re: [USA] LEGO Master Builder Academy

Post by SpaceViking » Sun Sep 09, 2012 6:16 pm

And---WOW---the price for kits 2-6 went up by $30! (~42% increase!!!!) Glad I got one of these last year.

Is it possible that MBA is not as popular as TLG had hoped, and so now they are offering it as a bulk purchase to clear out old stock? So maybe this will be clearanced at some point? (and no, we havent signed on to sets 7-9 yet, as I was discouraged about the price there too.) On the other hand, if sets 7-9 are selling well at $80, maybe it makes sense to repackage the older sets. I think the books are great, but $80 is a bit more that I'm willing to spend.

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vynsane
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Re: [USA] LEGO Master Builder Academy

Post by vynsane » Mon Sep 10, 2012 6:22 am

All told, the price for Levels 1 and 2 (the original stand-alone Kit 1 and the subscription) went up by $60:

Kit 1 box, Kit 2 & 3 box, Level 2 box:
$30 + $50 + $80 = $160

as opposed to
Kit 1 box, Kits 2-6 subscription:
$30 + $70 = $100

The new price structure tracks with the price of Level 3 ($80 for Kits 7-9), but Level 3 also has about 100 more pieces than either of the preceding levels. It will be interesting to see where this goes, whether this was just a solution to break up the large Level 2 & 3 subscription or if each level will be packaged like this going forward in order to keep the product available but not have to run so many simultaneous subscriptions of various levels. For instance, perhaps we will see Level 3 become packaged like this when Level 5 is released. That said, it's odd to me that the box for Level 2 is just that much larger than the boxes we've received from the products as they were originally conceived.
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meyerc13
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Re: [USA] LEGO Master Builder Academy

Post by meyerc13 » Mon Sep 10, 2012 6:58 am

The new pricing is absolutely insane, and I'm very upset with LEGO on this one because I just bought the intro kit for my son whose birthday was last week, and I was planning to buy the $70 subscription for him. Now, at $130, it's out of my price range and for the first time ever I'm considering returning a LEGO purchase to the store since I feel I was scammed (part of the reason I paid the high price per piece for the intro kit was because of the low price per piece for the remaining kits).

LEGO handled this very poorly... they should have give some warning that the subscription option would be phased out. Isn't that what they did with the old Brickmaster subscriptions? Or with the LEGO Universe shutdown?

What's the value add here? What do I get for my extra $60? Because all I'm seeing is that LEGO saves on the shipping and handling, while I pay more for nothing. Seems like a huge win for LEGO, and a huge loss for me.

Due to the nature of these being a series, I'd discourage any parents from buying into this now. Why? Because if they buy Level 1-3 now, who's to say that LEGO won't pass along another huge price increase for the next level? Thumbs down LEGO, bug thumbs down.

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Re: [USA] LEGO Master Builder Academy

Post by SpaceViking » Mon Sep 10, 2012 7:42 am

vynsane wrote:All told, the price for Levels 1 and 2 (the original stand-alone Kit 1 and the subscription) went up by $60:

Kit 1 box, Kit 2 & 3 box, Level 2 box:
$30 + $50 + $80 = $160

as opposed to
Kit 1 box, Kits 2-6 subscription:
$30 + $70 = $100
Cheese and Peanuts! My brain had somehow lumped Kits 1-3 together for $50. I forgot kit 1 was separate. This new pricing is insane.

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vynsane
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Re: [USA] LEGO Master Builder Academy

Post by vynsane » Mon Sep 10, 2012 8:03 am

Hrm. I was duped into thinking this was just increasing Level 1 & 2 to meet the price of Level 3 (and, ostensibly, Level 4), but it seems even Level 3 has seen an increase of $20. I purchased it when it was first offered and, looking through my order history, I paid $60 for it. It's now $80.

My guess is they initially miscalculated the cost of developing/maintaining this program. It's a shame, because it was high in value at the initial price, with the pieces, high-quality handbooks and online extras. I was always happy to hand-wave any seeming inequities in price-per-piece by taking those extras into account, but it's getting harder to justify.
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Re: [USA] LEGO Master Builder Academy

Post by murphquake » Sat Nov 03, 2012 12:49 am

So where is level 4? It's November... I'm getting Antsy here =-) Im wondering if Level 4 will just be a box with all 3 kits inside, ?sized like the level 2 kits 4-6 box? which would suck, i already wanted a Level 2 box the size of the level 1 & 3 boxes, now you can have 3 boxes the same size, 2 for level 1, 1 for level 3 and a huge box for level 2... something's gotta give =-) Either way I finally got kit 6 today so i now have a complete set and then some. I wish I had 2 more of each figure so I could have them fully kitted out lined up

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Master Builder Academy

Post by darbee » Wed Dec 05, 2012 11:37 pm

Just wondering, does anyone know if the Lego stores in the US carry the Master Builder Academy kits (starting from kit 1)? I'm planning on heading to the Lynnwood, WA store, but if they don't carry it then I'd ship it somewhere closer.

Thanks in advance ;-)

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vynsane
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Re: [USA] LEGO Master Builder Academy

Post by vynsane » Thu Dec 06, 2012 5:55 am

Hi, darbee - I've appended your new topic to the already-existing discussion to keep things organized. Earlier on this page I posted pictures of the new packaging of the MBA sets that are available in LEGO Stores. They Lynwood, WA store should be selling them, but I would just call them ahead of time to make sure they have them in stock.
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Re: [USA] LEGO Master Builder Academy

Post by neomonkey » Thu Jan 03, 2013 10:24 pm

It looks like they removed the subscription kits 7-9 from their website. I hope they introduce the entire thing instore soon.

http://shop.lego.com/en-US/Master-Build ... my-ByTheme" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Re: [USA] LEGO Master Builder Academy

Post by SpaceViking » Wed Jun 19, 2013 7:53 pm

At the Burlington, MA, store tonight, I saw both Level 3 and Level 4 kits on the shelf, available for purchase--- $80 each. I wasn't expecting them until Jul 1, but I'm glad to see they brought level 3 back.

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Re: [USA] LEGO Master Builder Academy

Post by SpaceViking » Sat Dec 19, 2015 10:01 am

Did anyone manage to download and save the Springboard models for Level 4? My son was interested in looking at them today, but appears the Lego MBA site is no longer accessible.

Thanks!

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