My Second Not Lego order from Temu!

 

Hiya brick fans!  I'm back to share another shopping experience from Temu with you today.

I've got an ongoing project to move all of my Lego compatible modular buildings over to raised baseplates (aka MILS plates).   For this you need two types of baseplates, the original thin Lego style single sided baseplate and a top baseplate on which you build your modular building.  In between the two baseplates, you sandwich some 2x2, 2x4 or 2x6 bricks, spaced apart,  in between to form a rigid structure.

While the single sided thin baseplates are relatively easy and cheap to find on Aliexpress, Amazon and recently Dollar Tree, the double sided stackable baseplates are a lot harder to find and cost a bit more.  You can find them for sale on Aliexpress on Amazon for about $5 CDN each.

On Temu, I found a store that sells a six pack of 32x32 stud 10" double sided baseplates for just a bit over $19 CDN.  That works out to a little over $3 each for baseplate which I think is a really good deal.  Temu offered free shipping on orders over $20 (it has just gone up to $25 recently), so I needed to buy something else to top up my order.

Minifigures are cheap and abundant on Temu, so I looked through a lot of listings. I mean you can find great deals on multipack generic minifigs for your Lego city, or you could fill up on the latest Star Wars or movie themed minifigs such as LOTR or Harry Potter, but I wanted something a bit different this time.  I found the above listing and thought , whoa, these are different.  

I did a bit of research and found this article about Bearbricks.  So anyways, I wasn't sure about the quality of the minifigures, so I bought one to both fill out my order to satisfy the free shipping requirement and also to see what the quality is like.

I placed my order on March 28 and my package was delivered on April 10, exactly 2 weeks in duration, so yeah superfast.  Typical orders from Aliexpress these days take about 3 weeks to Canada for comparison purposes.

Right after I placed my order, I checked the reviews for the store  and found that some people ended up receiving single sided baseplates instead of double sided.  Yeah, I should have checked that before I made my purchase, but I was excited to find double sided baseplates for a low price and hit the buy button right away.

I reached out to Temu customer support and just wanted to leave a message with them to confirm that I wanted double sided and not single sided baseplates.  They got back to me right away and confirmed that's what I would be getting. I took a screenshot of the chat box just in case.

I'm pleased to report that, yes, I did in fact get what I ordered.  The Lego compatible baseplates are branded NextXToys and I even got a free brick separator included.  So about that Bearbrick minifigure ...

Here he is.  He's simply known as Bear 13 on the package.  He looks more like a mouse than a bear to me.  He comes with two black swords as accessories.

The print quality could be sharper in my opinion.  The black lightning bolts on his head look a bit ragged.

The biker or varsity jacket design is pretty cool with the hybrid Japanese/skull and crossbones motif.  His jacket has the word "naoping" on it, not sure what that means. You can see from the previous picture that he even has arm printing.  The sleeve cuff is a nice touch.

However, I'm disappointed with the legs, being clearly all scuffed up.

Turning Bear 13 around we find a huge skull and crossbones tattoo on the back of his head with the back of his jacket adorned with a Japanese lady head, two samurai sword handles and the caption "samurai".   

Fortunately, the Bear 13 minifigure is Lego compatible in construction and size.  When I get tired of the giant bear/mouse head, I can replace it with a standard minifigure head I think.

If you haven't tried Temu yet, go ahead and give them a try. Get 30% off and free shipping for your first order.  I'd be very happy if use my affiliate link for your Temu purchases!  Just click the image above and start shopping!

Here's the link to the baseplates and here's the link to the Bear on Temu.

Thanks for visiting and see you next time!  Bye!

How much do Lego style base plates cost in 2023?

Hi brick fans!  Ever wonder who has the cheapest Lego compatible base plates out there, right now?  I'm talking specifically about the 10"x10" or 32x32 stud classic single sided base plates.

Here is a list of all of the places you can find base plates on-line and in bricks and mortar stores in 2023.  All pricing is in 🇨🇦 Canadian dollars excluding tax.

Lego

The original Lego base plate from Lego costs $9.99.  You can also find Lego base plates at all of the major retailers like Walmart (slightly cheaper at $9.83) and ToysRUs ($9.99), MastermindToys ($9.99) and Staples on-line ($9.99).  Amazon Canada matches their pricing of Lego base plates with Walmart pricing at $9.83.

I was going to check pricing at Indigo Canada, but they have taken their website off-line due to a cybersecurity breach at the moment.

Lego Compatible

Walmart has an exclusive toy brand called Play Day Toys which I think were originally called Brick Tech.  You can get the Play Day branded base plate for $7.97. They come in 4 different colours: Beige, Light Gray, Green and Blue.

In Canada, we have a discount retailer called Giant Tiger.  They have a Lego compatible base plate called Zuru Max Build More for $5.00 available in green and gray.

I checked BestBuy and Canadian Tire but they don't seem to carry much in the way of toys. As a result, I didn't find any Lego or Lego compatible base plates at these two retailers.  Discount retailer Dollarama doesn't carry any sort of Lego style base plates either.

Things used to be much cheaper on Aliexpress, but these days all of the Lego compatible bricks and parts have gone up in pricing, with very few stores still offering free shipping.  The cheapest base plates I could find on Aliexpress are from the Apan Sapio store at a total cost of $4.73. At least you don't have to pay any taxes on these items.

On Amazon, there are various generic branded baseplates where you can get a good deal if you buy them in lots of 4, 6 or 8.  For example, currently you can get a 6 pack of multi-coloured base plates for $22.94.  That works out to about $3.82 per base plate.  

If you buy more, the price comes down even more. For example this 12 pack of base plates from the Strictly Briks Amazon store costs $29.99 making the average cost of each base plate only $2.50 each.

But, by far the cheapest base plates available are through Dollar Tree for only $1.50 each!  Sold under the name Make-it Blocks.  They don't have a lot of stores where I live so I have to drive a bit to find one. And not all stores replenish their stock regularly.  I think that Dollar Tree has different coloured base plates but I've only ever seen brown coloured ones, which is fine by me.

So there you have it, Lego compatible base plates can range from $1.50 to $7.97 whereas actual Lego base plates will cost between $9.86 and $9.99.  If you know of any other retailers in Canada selling 32x32 stud base plates, please let me know!

Amazon Find: Double Sided (Stackable) Baseplates (Strictly Briks Brand)

 

So my plan is to convert all of my existing modular buildings to use the MILS system.  To make this happen I need to replace all of my existing base plates with the thicker double sided plates.   

These Lego compatible baseplates are sold in 12 packs for under $40 CDN, or around $3.50 per baseplate, which is a really good value.

Inside the package is a glossy two sided sheet showing some of the other Strictly Briks products.

The studs say Briks instead of Lego.

These are the colourful baseplates in the 12 pack set. 

Here's an underside comparison of the Strictly Briks baseplate and a classic baseplate.

As you can see, it's possible to attach bricks to the underside of the baseplates.

Here's the base plate used in the MILS base.

As I mentioned earlier, you can get these baseplates from Amazon.  Here's the direct link:  https://amzn.to/3NjiNnc

If you are looking for less colourful base plates, Strictly Briks also carries an 8 pack with the following colours:  blue, green, gray and beige/tan here:  https://amzn.to/3NkgJvf