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Pleygo - monthly rental service for Lego sets


jaisonline

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Was anyone able to find terms that detailed the penalties for losing pieces? Are they going to penalize based on brick link value of the piece? One flat rate? This could get really time and labor-intensive for their staff. I imagine the missing piece penalty will have to be stiff, otherwise people are going to rip off rare parts of a green grocer, etc. but then what about little Johnny who loses a basic 2x2 brick? Will Mom keep the subscription if she's charged 10 bucks for a single missing piece? Not likely. These are the kinds of obstacles that this company is going to have to contend with.

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Hi, I actually signed up when the site was launched out of curiosity and received the first set today. I ordered a small Republic Striker-class Starfighter and it came pretty neat in a box and some spare parts. The set seemed to be new as some of the parts are in the original Lego aired bags.

I think this Pleygo site will be used primarily by average parents with little kids. Let's see how it works over time....

My wife's co-worker (a GI doc) told her he does this to keep building diff sets with his son. His wife also likes the "no storage needed" factor,

Did your set come with mini-figs?

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Hi, I actually signed up when the site was launched out of curiosity and received the first set today. I ordered a small Republic Striker-class Starfighter and it came pretty neat in a box and some spare parts. The set seemed to be new as some of the parts are in the original Lego aired bags.

I think this Pleygo site will be used primarily by average parents with little kids. Let's see how it works over time....

My wife's co-worker (a GI doc) told her he does this to keep building diff sets with his son. His wife also likes the "no storage needed" factor,

Did your set come with mini-figs?

Hi,

I was asked couple of questions regarding the set:

1. the set did come with the three minifigures of the original set, which i thought is pretty cool.

2. i emailed their support and was surprised to learn that they do not charge for "normal wear and tear, few missing pieces" as they call it. Which means that you can lose few pieces and they seem to be taking the responsibility to fill them up (or maybe that's why they give an extra bag of spare pieces).

I actually like this service the more i think of it, it took us couple of hours to build and we'll send it back tomorrow. The service is certainly not for collectors, but if the next sets i receive are going to be in similar condition, i'm probably going to buy it as a gift to my 8 years old nephew.

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Hi, I actually signed up when the site was launched out of curiosity and received the first set today. I ordered a small Republic Striker-class Starfighter and it came pretty neat in a box and some spare parts. The set seemed to be new as some of the parts are in the original Lego aired bags.

I think this Pleygo site will be used primarily by average parents with little kids. Let's see how it works over time....

My wife's co-worker (a GI doc) told her he does this to keep building diff sets with his son. His wife also likes the "no storage needed" factor,

Did your set come with mini-figs?

Hi,

I was asked couple of questions regarding the set:

1. the set did come with the three minifigures of the original set, which i thought is pretty cool.

2. i emailed their support and was surprised to learn that they do not charge for "normal wear and tear, few missing pieces" as they call it. Which means that you can lose few pieces and they seem to be taking the responsibility to fill them up (or maybe that's why they give an extra bag of spare pieces).

I actually like this service the more i think of it, it took us couple of hours to build and we'll send it back tomorrow. The service is certainly not for collectors, but if the next sets i receive are going to be in similar condition, i'm probably going to buy it as a gift to my 8 years old nephew.

Huh, this sounds familiar....

http://www.bricklink.com/message.asp?ID=729819

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Ugh -- well now I've heard everything. So ridiculous. Their whole business model is based on catering to kids who have no imagination (which is totally anti-Lego) and treating Lego like some disposable product. They seem to have no concept of how beloved Lego is to millions of kids, and adults alike. Well, whatever. I predict the crashing and burning of their enterprise will stun and amaze the knuckleheads who thought this was a brilliant idea..

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Hello,

I don't know if I'm allowed to post this comment in this way, so please inform me, if its not ok. The methods of pleygo doesn't seem to work in a long term concept, because their profit will be eaten away by the shipping and the costs for replacing missing parts. It could be cost-effective if they get payed for promoting the Lego-Sets by a 3rd party or have other agreements i.e. with advertising partners.
In my opinion you can only run a Lego-renting business (like every other serious business) if it covers the running cost incl. shipping, replacement and personal work time.
After some amount of research I started a Lego-rental myself. Untill now I lended the sets only to friends and coworkers, but in summer 2013 I will open my online-shop to satisfy the Lego-enthusiasts in whole Germany. I thought of starting the rental with a payment on a monthly base, but the price would have been to high. Now you can rent a set for a certain time (2.5 weeks incl. 3 weekends) for a price depending on the set. The costs vary between 40 Euros for a smaler set like the Maersk container ship or the emerald night train, about 70 Euros for the UCS Stardestroyer and 125 Euros for the UCS Millennium Falcon and up to 240 Euros for the 5 classic modular buildings with more than 10.000 pieces in one huge mega set. This includes the shipping costs for returning the the sets to me, and the replacement of extremely worn or destroyed parts, but missing pieces or minifigs must be payed by the customers (I don

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I would love to have a local service like this. It's a bit pricey, but if I could rent retired sets, i could enjoy building them without paying eol prices. Anybody in houston want to lend me a 10179 for the weekend?

P.s. Studebricker-I don't think Lego bricks are disposable. But the experience of opening, building, and dismantling a Lego-designed set is. Which a lot of us already do when we sell sets after eol. I don't think I'll keep my b-wing forever, but it was a lot of fun building it.

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  • 2 months later...
Guest eightbrick

I don't think its going to be that successful with anyone who is more than the most casual of fans and those on a tight budget. Some people even got grossed out by rental videos, so I don't think rental toys are going to be a big hit with the ultra-sanitary parents, plus people want something that they can have for a while, display, build, rebuild, and pass down to their kids. Best of luck to them, but if they were gunning for the big Lego fan demographic, I think they missed their mark. Just think about it... you're a seven year old kid, wake up Christmas morning, and find your parents gave you a Lego set... oh but remember -you have to give it back by January 25th! Thank goodness for Santa  :santa: (hohoho)

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The real issue with any of these subscriber services is they need to make sure their new subscriber rate always exceeds their attrition rate.  That makes scaling these companies difficult - they work at low subscriber numbers for awhile, but when they reach a certain point in time its difficult to keep their new subscriber rate at a high enough level.  With movies, the upfront cost of the DVDs were cheap, yet with Legos, the upfront costs are quite expensive, and maintenance is expensive too with routine replacement piece stocking and sanitizing costs requried for nearly every rental.

 

I don't see this service lasting too long, but more power to them.  I think it could actually serve as a slight stimulant to the secondary market.

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This company is missing the point of Lego.   Building the set is fun...but it's only half the equation.  Playing with the set, showing it to friends, combining it with other sets, tearing it down and using the pieces to build something entirely different...that's what LEGO is.  Pleygo fails at all of the other things.

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  • 6 months later...

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