I love their kits, figs, and plethora of accessories. But yea the kit prices are rough. I've actually been fortunate enough to talk to one of the designers about prices for a few minutes a couple years back and the prices made sense considering how much goes into the products. That said, I've only ever bought 3 smaller kits. The rest of my collection I built thanks to the wonderful and quite affordable instruction books they sell. Yea, the models in those are generally older designs, but for the price I don't care, it's 100% worth it. Also while being a little outdated, I've yet to build one that I truly wasn't satisfied with.

4:50 - the fig included in this kit has a printed helmet, which sets it somewhere on a 30$ price point, there's also a perfect caliber Thompson SMG included, which is worth 5$, the windshield made especially for this kit with an exclusive UV print and a tommy gun holster, also designed and made just for this kit (I'd say they're worth more than 5$ a piece, but even if we price them at 5$ per piece, it's already 45$, so what's left is about 50¢ a piece, as usual).

I personaly didnt like their prices since I have found them, but I didnt mind. However, that changed recently cause of their custom track links V3. There were 200 pieces of track links in the packages of the track links V2, but in the packages of the V3 Version 50 track links per package have been removed, still the price got higher by 10$ !!! I think thats cheeky af

@gamernerd1331

8 ай бұрын

Agreed. Fortunately, they still sell some of the V2 tracklinks for $24.

@bobertairsofts5585

8 ай бұрын

@@gamernerd1331yes I’m planning on stocking up on them before they sell out

As someone who was bought several of their kits and over several years even back to their early days I will say I'm happy with their products especially nowadays. but yes the prices can be really tough. especially when internationally shipping comes in. though that being said it has gotten at least in the sense that all the charges are now up front. when I first ordered from them several years ago (I was a kid as well) I had to pay a fair but for shipping and them when they came to deliver it I was faced with a $50 duty fee I couldn't pay for at that moment. and so I missed out on getting the set for a few days.

I’ve also noticed they bumped up their sticker sheet prices by 50% So much for “thanksgiving” holiday spirit.

@bobertairsofts5585

8 ай бұрын

And digital instruction prices went up😢

My two cents from someone that has spent over $10k with them. The bigger sets are definitely worth it. The design time and build quality are exceptional. I am always satisfied with my purchases and I have bought some large sets like the B17, MkV boat, multiple F14s, Sea Stallion, Pave Low etc. I buy a lot of custom minifigs as well but I stay away from the simple sets like you show - they aren't worth it. The fact that some of the new releases sell out in hours (sometimes less than an hour) shows that there is a large market of buyers at the price point. Some of the sets are huge financial investments though like the LCAC and AC-130.

@spooky2bricks

6 ай бұрын

I 100% agree with your assessment, I’ve been a BKM customer for 7 years now and after buying many of their kits and minifigs I definitely agree that the bigger sets are more worth while. I own 2 of the three F-14s they’ve released (both kits, not digital instruction builds) and some other big models like their osprey and Su-27. Those are 100% worth the high cost and I’d have to say the same for their minifigures as well. The only smaller sets that are really worth looking into are ones that are highly custom like their Lunar LRV and Perseverance Rover which rely on custom components that cant be obtained any other way. But then again not a good option for Lego purists like myself, although I tolerate it for custom military builds.

@brandonjaquette8128

3 ай бұрын

You have the mk5??!?!?!??!?!?!?

@ozbanker

3 ай бұрын

@@brandonjaquette8128yeah Brickmania were selling it on special. It was a decent discount like 20% so I bought it

@brandonjaquette8128

3 ай бұрын

@@ozbanker do you have insta reddit or discord?

I personally think they are one of the best custom military sellers out there right now but the prices are a bit steep. I have two sets but I have yet to build them. I have the classic tiger 1 and the landing craft the older version but I do see where the complaints come from.

I love Brickmania and their kits, but I will agree that their prices are driving me away from them as a customer. They do have several employees, loans, rent, and other expenses that drive up their prices, so I am not saying that they are being greedy or anything, but the prices are so high that I find that I cant afford/justify to pay 95% of the kits and figs they come out with. Thankfully it sounds like they plan on releasing new digital instructions in the future, so that will be a much more affordable way to get some of their kits.

@themanwiththegoldengooch9811

8 ай бұрын

I'm glad they're bringing back instructions for sale

Keep in mind that Brickmania (BKM) has 5 retail stores around the US, a team of dedicated designers, and over 70 more employees, they do need to make enough money to pay for all of that. In addition, custom printed parts are not cheap by any means; you need to design the print (which you need to pay a designer to make), have a UV or pad printer (In this case BKM has a really expensive printers for very high quality prints), and then get the Lego part in mass for the printing. For their kits they also spend months designing to be as price efficient but also historically accurate and sturdy. The design process for BKM is very similar too Lego's design process.

@stroy2467

8 ай бұрын

The same can be said about all companies overhead, employees, research and development for design, machinery, blah blah blah. Why are you excusing a company for being overpriced? I’ve seen their printing quality slip over the years. They’re also only price efficient for themselves NOT the consumer. I’ve also seen kit reviews where they break apart.

@SpuriousBricks

8 ай бұрын

@@stroy2467 Could you please send me those kit reviews, I am curious if you are actually correct. Also, look at the average prices of pretty much every other brand that uses genuine Lego parts. Also, they don't hesitate too send you a new print if the quality of one Item is bad. If you really think about it, then its not overpriced. The words "expensive" and "overpriced" have different meanings my friend.

@spooky2bricks

8 ай бұрын

100% Agree, I have not had any issues with any of their specialized custom elements breaking and whenever I’ve had any kind of issue their customer service has been top notch. I’ve been very satisfied with every purchase I’ve made with them over the past several years.@@SpuriousBricks

In my opinion, they have the best custom accessories (printed LEGO pieces, printed Brickarms and custom 3D-printed pieces - although they can be a bit brittle sometimes). And I get why they put certain small parts exclusively in very expensive sets. But it still feels bad to know the perfect piece for whatever I want to create exists, but it is only available as part of a $400 set. For example, they have created the perfect 3D-printed WW2 Japanese tanker helmet, but you can only get one per $300 Ka-Mi tank. Also, the way their website calculates international shipping costs (starting at ~ $50 for international shipping, irregardless of where you live and only going up with every dollar you spend) really makes me think twice before ordering from them directly.

I absolutely love Brickmania. Expensive, but totally worth it.

I´m a little late but I´d like to add my own 2 cents to the conversation. The first is how sturdy the models are. I´ve looked at reviews for some Brickmania tanks, in particulair the Panther, and some of them just love to fall apart because Brickmania valued interiors rather than the ability to be picked up without parts falling of. Another thing is that alot of their tank models cant roll smoothly, compared to other manufacturers like Cobi having all their tanks roll without issue. While the prices are certainly justified, in many cases it still feels like a blatant rip off. For example: the tiny Goliath tracked mine (62 pieces) costs 40 US dollars + Shipping.

4:05 - you probably didn't notice there are also 2 minifigs (classic ones, worth about 12$ each) included in this kit, so the price for these builds is actually 26$, not 50$, so just over a half of the price you mentioned, and there's also the box, which is a cool thing as well if you ask me.

@ileanplamangos

20 күн бұрын

@jesmoc This statement makes zero sense. It is $50 dollars. I don't get how you pay for 2 LEGO minifigures and 2 non functional display artillery pieces. You are still spending $50 on plastic. It's ridiculous that people pay this much for at most $10 of plastic. Another point is, If you think a box is a good selling point, and it justifies you buying that kit, you have a problem. It's not a bargain, if you pay them any price, they are making a profit, and basically scamming you. Realize the truth. It took way to long before I realized how corrupt and wrong a company they are.

Imagine charging 105 US dollars for a 130 piece l3/33 kit not including tax

another thing you have to consider is the fact that they get all their sets officially licensed. that makes the price go up

57$ for 1 minifig is wikid

The reason for their extremely high prices comes from the fact that they don’t make the bricks. They use official Lego and have to buy them second hand from sources like Bricklink and they also need to buy them in new condition (not cheap). There’s also the cost of designing the models, the instructions, packaging, marketing, artwork which may include: custom minifigs, custom printed elements, and custom 3D printed elements on occasion. They also pay pricy licensing fees to multiple companies they build models from such as Bell, Boeing, Lockheed, and a few others. There’s also the fact they run 5 retail locations in which they have to pay rent and other various bills for. On top of all this, their models are done from scratch, all of the pieces are hand sorted by an individual which is pretty labor intensive (especially if a set contains several hundred or even a few thousand parts). Sometimes as much as 20+ people are involved in a products development before it reaches the consumer (and their not getting paid minimum wage). Brickmania’s mentioned that they ensure all of there employees needs are met and that they can make a living to. Also, because they have no other choice due to not being able to make their own parts, they’re forced to make extremely small production runs. On the low end, some models only got 25, or 50 copies, on the high end, 200 or 500 copies maximum for other kits. In which all of the expenses previously mentioned haft to be recouped in these vary low production runs in order to make new kits. each kit takes its own amount of development time. Even they haft to make some kind of profit afterwards, which they absolutely deserve for their hard work. In conclusion they are a premium brand, Lego in an of itself is considered expensive and premium in it’s own right. Having to pay multiple markups on an already expensive product is going to be even more expensive. This is a form of art and should be viewed as such. Each kit is serial numbered and is limited. I can attest that every product I’ve ever purchased from them was worth every last penny. They really are a high quality brand.

I love brickmania, they got great models, but kinda got upset when they started the ukraine line because it made them getting political, I have no problem with supporting ukraine but they showd no interest in other events going on in the world so it kinda feels biased.

@stroy2467

8 ай бұрын

Unfortunately, it’s good marketing for them. All their Ukrainian stuff is overpriced. It’s a shame they’re profiting from an ongoing conflict.

@truejedistudios

8 ай бұрын

@@stroy2467 The whole reason why they are more overpriced is because they donate a certain percentage to the cause. It says so in the description of every one of those items. Don't be so accusatory without doing a little bit of research first

@13luissalas

8 ай бұрын

​@stroy2467 All of their models are pricy, not just the Ukrain benefit sets. Reason why normal sets are pricy is because they want to be able to pay their staff a proper wage, on top of that the designer is getting compensated for his design me made.

@andythesaladgod4578

7 ай бұрын

@@13luissalasthis plus ordering the parts is extraordinarily expensive

hello

Cobi just has way better models and on top of that cobi sets are also 2x to 5x cheaper.

@jesmoc

8 ай бұрын

Cobi models are too big and lazily use special parts made for them instead of cleverly using existing ones.

@stroy2467

8 ай бұрын

Brickmania uses non-Lego 3D printed parts. That’s why people clown on them for being like Tamiya.

@YesName_1

8 ай бұрын

​ We complain when we don't get a custom molded minifigure Now we are complaing about custom pieces. We are the most entitled group to ever exist.

@jesmoc

8 ай бұрын

@@stroy2467 Well, that's a fair point. However, Brickmania doesn't use 3d printed parts for segments of their builds which can easily be made out of genuine Lego while looking good.

@jesmoc

8 ай бұрын

@@YesName_1 Most entitled? LOL, no. You basically missed out all the rich people on this planet. I'm not rich, I'd rather call myself a middle-class person but I'm also really passionate about recreating stuff with bricks. There's a difference between being entitled and having a hobby.

I never liked brickmania because of the price and thier attitude towards cobi. I would much rather get cobi sets than brickmaias

@stroy2467

8 ай бұрын

Brickmania has always been overpriced. I’ve also heard people excuse Brickmania’s prices by talking about their overhead which is total nonsense since I can say the same about every company out there.

@spooky2bricks

8 ай бұрын

There is no nonsense when it comes to price overhead, that’s the brutal reality of running a third party company using what’s considered to be an already premium product. Lego makes hundreds if not thousands of pieces to the penny. They can make any amount in any color with no change in price to them. BKM on the other hand might need to pay several dollars a brick depending on the element. And yes, running a business with 5 retail locations and the cost associated with them really does cost a lot of money. Considering the money of a kit has to be recouped in extremely low production runs, yes the price is gonna be several times higher than what you could get the parts on Bricklink in new condition. Lego mass produces whatever the please, BKM does not have that luxury, look at every other custom Lego company like Brickveteran and PlaneBricks, their prices are similar because they have the same challenges as BKM. @@stroy2467

@ozbanker

7 ай бұрын

yes but the whole price per brick was used originally for real LEGO sets. The original owner and designer who makes the bricks so already makes a profit on them and who has massive global scale. Trying to apply that same methodology to a secondary reseller (actually tertiary reseller as they need to buy second-hand from BrickLink etc.) is completely flawed as they don't enjoy anywhere near the same cost structure as LEGO. Also regarding COBI sets I have one or two of them but they look like cheap designs compared to Brickmania. I looked at some of their planes - the F14 is horrible. The way they just molded whole sections of the cockpit is a major cop out. No build challenge there. I'd rather buy a Tamiya set.

No

definitely not worth the price, there are other brick brands like kobi and mould king that make similar models and are actually worth the price

@SpuriousBricks

8 ай бұрын

Brickmania uses mostly Lego elements, which makes the cost exponentially more because they get the parts, not make them. Cobi and Mould King make their own parts without the Lego brand.

@piens51

7 ай бұрын

​@@SpuriousBrickssure. Whike I understand why the price is so big I still chose Cobi over them. Understanding dose not make me want to buy from brickmania any morr than before.

@SpuriousBricks

7 ай бұрын

@@piens51 That is perfectly fine, I just want to make it clear that Brickmania has to pay more for their parts because they are genuine Lego, not 3rd party peices.

All their Ukrainian stuff is overpriced. It’s a shame they’re profiting from an ongoing conflict.

@spooky2bricks

8 ай бұрын

Did you ever consider the fact that there “overpriced” because all of the profits go to Ukraine’s benefit in which Brickmania has raised over $340,000 so far? BKM only takes the money necessary to recoup what it takes to produce the kit with all extra profit going to Ukraine. Once again someone criticizing something they know nothing about.🤦‍♂