Creator Set | SerialBuilder | Pre-order update #15

This update was originally going to be a short update, but then I remembered I don’t do short updates. Silly me.

Let’s get the short bit out of the way…

Shipping Updates

Batch 1

US - the boat is on its way and still due to dock Nov 2.

Norway & Switzerland - There’s a boat making its way over expected around the middle of Nov.

Everywhere else - should be delivered or out for delivery and with you in a few days. Check your tracking link for updates.

Batch 2

AU - Some port congestion resulted in a few delayed shipments, but should be getting delivered soon.

Everywhere else - should be delivered or out for delivery and with you in a few days. Check your tracking link for updates.

Batch 3

All shipments are still on ships making there way to their destination ports. But in a surprising twist of events, the shipments may start arriving in November, earlier than our expected month of December as mentioned in the timeline.

Batch 4

Is closing soon and we’ll try our best to get those shipped out soon so hopefully some may have a chance of making it for Christmas, although we can’t promise anything since that’s a very busy time for shipping.

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Okay, now for the footnote.

When setting up EasternBrick, I thought I’d be spending most of my days either building or designing new lego sets. The reality is very far from that. I don’t really get to spend much time ‘playing’ with legos, but it does still feel like we’re putting together a big complex model and all the individual pieces are fitting into place, bit-by-bit. Let me walk you through some of the latest pieces that are being placed down.

MocBay update and how we deal with instructions

We’ve been hearing requests from some of SerialBuilder’s existing customers that they’d like to get access to the instructions that we’ve updated on his behalf, but we’ve been unable to move forward as the instructions aren’t ours to sell. Even though we’ve improved upon the builds, the designs still belong to SerialBuilder and selling instructions individually is not something that we’re keen on doing either. What we are keen on however, is providing the most value to as many people as we can, and so today we’re announcing that all MocBay customers will gain access to the updated instructions for the builds that they’ve previously purchased, free-of-charge. We’ve been discussing it with SerialBuilder and we all think that it’s fair to reward those of you who have supported him in the past. The catch is that you need to sign up for an EasternBrick account to access them.

The other catch is that we won’t be providing full parts lists. The reason for this is simple - by providing the instructions and the parts lists, we’re making it easy for anyone to rip-off the design and do the thing that we’re trying to prevent - the designs getting stolen. This is actually a major vulnerability with instructions marketplaces like Rebrickable, where the customer must be provided the full parts list along with the instructions so that they can go and source all the parts that they need to make their custom builds. Any design is then just 1 purchase away from being copied and sold without authorisation. This is a rampant issue and we’re always seeing and hearing about countless stories about designers who shared their designs on Rebrickable (sometimes for free), only to see their sets being sold on AliExpress by some unknown shop.

The system works like a 2 key password. Without both the instructions and the parts list, you don’t have a complete set and so are unable to move forward, unless you’re willing to put in the effort to recreate things from scratch - which is the opposite of what these opportunists are looking for. But once you have both, you effectively have the complete design and can do what you want with it.

So our solution is to not provide the parts list, since not providing the instructions or making them less accessible through proprietary software passes on the hassle to the customer, which we don’t want to do. But by not providing the parts list and instead providing the actual parts, we’re skipping the pain a customer would have to go through to source those parts themselves and so it ultimately ends up being a much better experience for everyone.

So then how do MocBay customers get the upgraded parts?

We will be creating upgrade packs which will become available on Mocables.

What is Mocables?

We’re gearing up to launch Mocables, which you can think of like a Rebrickable alternative, but when you purchase a creator’s set, you get access to the instructions and the parts get delivered to your door, all-in-one-click. No need to scour the web for the parts and project manage a complex 4 shipment order from different 3rd party stores just to build the custom X-wing you’ve been eyeing. We currently have a bunch of creators who are working with us to get their sets ready and listed on the site as part of our pilot wave.

For all the MocBay customers, if you’re looking for the upgrade parts packs, you’ll be able to find them under my profile once it’s ready. If, however, you haven’t gotten around to sourcing the parts for your build already - let me remind you that the pre-order is still live 😊

Why not do it all under EasternBrick?

We’d like to keep EasternBrick as the place for our bigger sets and pre-orders, where we spend of a lot of time putting the Creator Sets together and dedicating the space to promoting the sets and the creators we’re working with very closely.

Mocables is our way of addressing the wider MOC community and helping creators who may have much smaller builds that don’t quite fit our Creator Set pre-order model. We have a dedicated team for it and since it’s all part of the same business, as a customer, your account will work across both platforms, so you can just think of it as an extension of our mission of helping creators develop their creations into commercial sets. This is all part of that big complex model I alluded to earlier, which, honestly has felt like building a lego set that’s now beginning to take shape.

New Horizon Beasts

Finally, I’d like to leave you with a bit of a teaser. We’ve been getting a few questions about whether we’ll be releasing new beasts in the future and the answer to that question is absolutely.

In fact, we’re currently working on 6 new designs, and we will begin to release details as they all develop. One of them you already know about since I’ve been developing it for what seems like an eternity now, but rest assured that the Ravager is one of the smaller builds in the lineup. We’re very excited to share more, but for now, I’ll just share a new beast that has been discovered by u/Fearless_Theory1204 on Reddit.

That’s all, for now. Feel free to make some guesses in the comments on what other beasts you think we may be working on and I may or may not confirm for you.