Brickstuff Spark shares fun and easy ways to enhance your LEGO® sets, scale models, cosplay creations, trains, robots— pretty much anything you’re passionate about creating. Since 2011, we’ve been making products in the U.S.A. used by fans around the world to make whatever they create a little brighter. If you’re not currently a subscriber, we’d love to have you join our tribe of enthusiasts!

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Clearly we need to work on this newsletter thing. Our last update was more than two years ago— how is that possible? From the outside, it probably looks like we’re just sitting around not really doing much, but the reality is quite the opposite. Time to talk about what we’ve been up to in our little Minnesota workshop/HQ/lair. (read to the end to find out how we’re helping customers during this time of international tension and economic uncertainty)

First Things First

I love the photo at the top of this post— it shows my son and I in our booth at the Brick Days show for LEGO® fans earlier this month in Omaha, Nebraska. You can’t see it in the photo, but I have a brace on my left leg after breaking my ankle back in March. I’m still not able to walk without crutches or a scooter, so my son Peter offered to be the “muscle” at Brick Days, loading and unloading the car and setting up most of our booth. I wouldn’t have been able to do the show without his help.

I’ve been doing shows with my kids since 2013, and this was Peter’s last show before heading off to college in the fall. We had a great weekend together, sharing laughs and reconnecting with customers and friends we hadn’t seen since 2019 when we last attended Brick Days. We received such a warm reception from everyone at the show— it really recharged my social batteries and reminded me once again why I do what I do: I love creating products people can use to expand their creativity. Saturday night, the Brick Days organizers held a special event where the lights were dimmed at the venue and all the fan-built LEGO® creations with lights lit up the room. Such amazing creativity and such wonderful use of lights and effects— this is always a highlight of any show for me.

Now, let’s get on to the updates!

New Premium Light & Sound Kits

After several years of work and refinements, we’re finally reaching the point where we’ll be able to release many of the Premium Kits our customers have been waiting for. We create Premium Kits when we feel we can add special features or functions to a LEGO® set. (for most other sets, see our Starter Kit announcement below)

So far this year, our biggest Premium Kit release is our Wifi-enabled light kit for the incredible LEGO® Eiffel Tower (set #10307). This kit includes more than 500 color-changing LED lights, all easily installed even if you’ve already built your LEGO® set. You can pick from more than 30 pre-programmed patterns, or use your phone or computer to create your own using our easy-to-follow instructions. Also included is a 4-button wireless remote control for turning the lights on or off, and for changing patterns.

You truly need to see these lights in action to realize how they enhance your Eiffel Tower. Here’s just a sample:

Click here to watch a longer video showing more of the effects in action.

Beyond the Eiffel Tower, our priorities for the coming months include releasing new kits to add lights, control, and sound to these LEGO® sets:

• Motorized Lighthouse (LEGO® set #21335) with lights, sound, and remote control

• X-Wing Starfighter (LEGO® set #75355) with lights, sound, and remote control

• Vincent van Gogh - The Starry Night (LEGO® set #21333) with twinkling lights

• Beauty and the Beast Castle (LEGO® set #43263) with lights, motion, and remote control

• Midi-Scale Star Wars Millennium Falcon (LEGO® set #75375) with lights and sound

In addition to creating these new kits, we’re also working on updates to some of our most popular light and sound kits from the past:

• Updated light and sound kit for the LEGO® Monster Fighters Haunted House

• Updated light and sound kit for the LEGO® Ghostbusters Firehouse HQ

• Updated light and sound kit for the LEGO® Ultimate Collectors Series Star Wars Millennium Falcon

• Updated light and motor control kit for the LEGO® Creator Ferris Wheel

We’ll provide updates and more details about all of these kits in future issues of Spark.

Starter Kits Return

We introduced the industry’s first lighting starter kits way back in 2013, but these kits have been missing from our shop since the Covid-19 pandemic. We took this time to go back to the drawing board and develop new starter kits from the ground up to apply to specific types of LEGO® sets:

1. Aircraft (with lighting effects)

2. Space ships (with lighting effects)

3. Buildings

4. Medieval Buildings

5. Winter Village Buildings

6. Vehicles

Each of these kits has everything you need to light up one of the given types of LEGO® sets, including battery pack and getting started guide. Since we’re a small company, we can’t make one light kit for every LEGO® set, so we created these starter kits to allow customers to easily light up 95% of the LEGO® sets ever made.

We introduced these kits last year, and our competitors have already attempted to copy them which means we must be onto something! Check them out and let us know your feedback in our User Forum.

Having Fun in Tough Times

This is only a sample of what we’ve been working on, but I see this update has gotten long already so I’ll wrap it up for now. And moving forward, I think we’ll be sharing information more than once every two years! Much more to come.

Before signing off, I did want to acknowledge that we are entering into some very uncertain economic times. In the U.S., this is visible most clearly with the ever-changing tariffs on both imports and exports that our government is announcing— more than 90 different announcements regarding tariffs since January alone! As a U.S.-based small business, we expect to be hit hard by these tariffs despite doing most of our manufacturing ourselves; the fact is that most electronic components we use to make our products cannot be sourced domestically, and— bizarrely— most tariffs impact component parts, not finished goods, meaning that we could actually save money if we moved all manufacturing to China as our competitors have done.

I don’t want to do that, though, because we’re having too much fun making things ourselves right here in the U.S. I’ll have more to say about the ongoing impact of tariffs in future posts, but for now, I just wanted to acknowledge the anxiety the current environment is likely creating for our customers.

In the end, nobody likes tariffs. Which is why we’ve set up a discount code you can use to get 20% off everything we sell through the end of May. Just use code downwithtariffs at checkout on our website to get your discount. If you’re a long-time customer, you know we almost never have sales, so this is a pretty big deal. It’s just one way we want to show support for our customers, because when times get tough, there’s no better way to spread joy than by building together and adding a little light to our creations.

Thanks for reading to the end. As always, build bright!

We're long overdue for an update! I know it can seem at times like we're not making progress on the goals we outlined at the beginning of the year, but we've been working hard every day to get the kits we've planned for release closer to the finish line. Here's a quick update on where things stand as of today, July 5.

The Biggest Change

The biggest change we've made in the past six months has been the launch of our EasyLight™ product line. I wrote about the details in an earlier post-- creating EasyLight™ essentially required us to change every product we make: most designs, all of the packaging, all of the photos, and all online content. One of my biggest challenges is that I tend to underestimate the amount of time projects will take; this was certainly the case with EasyLight™. We're about 80% complete with the re-branding, and we'll be rolling out the remaining products in the coming months. I couldn't be more excited about the new way we're thinking of our product line and how we talk about it– the new products are easier to understand, easier to use together, and most important to me personally, easier to use with just about every brand of lighting product on the market today. If you haven't read about EasyLight™, I encourage you to check out the announcement post.

While EasyLight™ was the biggest change for our company since its founding 12 years ago, it was also the biggest challenge to meeting the timelines I outlined back in January. I've tried to work on EasyLight™ and all of the other new kits I mentioned simultaneously. The good news is that we're getting close to the finish line on both work streams.

Status Update: Other Product Lines

Here's a quick update on the status of the other product lines I talked about in our January update.

• BrickScreens: Although I'd originally planned to have these back in stock by the end of May, they're still not back yet. We continue to receive requests for the screens, so I'm working on them bit by bit as time allows. You should see them start to re-appear online in a month or so.

• Holiday Products: We're gearing up for some fun new holiday releases this year, so these products should start appearing in our shop around the September/October timeframe.

• Custom Work: Because of all the other changes and work going on, I don't anticipate being able to accept custom work again until the beginning of 2024.

• Starter Kits: As outlined in my January post, our popular starter kits are being re-aligned to fit within the EasyLight™ line of products. There will be more scenario-specific kits for things like vehicles, airplanes, and buildings. All of the core pieces for these kits are almost ready, so look for starter kits to re-emerge around September.

• Website: Another huge area of focus for us this year. We're waiting until the work on EasyLight™ is complete so we only have to update one set of information in a single location. Aiming for September to launch a much more user-friendly and informative site.

• Interoperability with Other Vendors: This is baked into EasyLight™ from the ground up. You can now use your existing lights from other companies with Brickstuff products! Check out the Works with Other Brands section of our main website to see more.

• BrickPixel™ Lighting System: Most of the new kits we're finishing up incorporate this technology-- you're going to love what we have in store for you here.

• Sound: Ditto for sound-- it's baked into so many of the products we'll soon be announcing. We'll also be talking more about why the other generic light kits on the market that claim to have sound have nothing like what we've created.

• New and Upgraded Premium Kits: This is the area most customers have been asking about, so I'll cover it in greater detail below.

In my January post, I outlined five Premium kits I thought we could complete and release:

1. Ideas Motorized Lighthouse (set #21355)

2. Star Wars Imperial Star Destroyer™ (set #75252)

3. ICONS Eiffel Tower (set #10307)

4. Harry Potter Diagon Alley™ (set #75978)

5. Ideas Tree House (set #21318)

We're about 95% complete with the Lighthouse kit, so look for that to launch very soon.

I ended up spending much more time on the Eiffel Tower set than planned, because I want to make this kit an absolute stand-out. The kind of item you buy and everyone you meet tells you they've never seen anything like it anywhere-- because there is nothing like it anywhere. Over 500 lights, WiFi control, Home Automation (Alexa, Amazon) integration, full customization without needing to code, and the feature I'm most excited about: sound-reactive effects.

To make this kit the most spectacular we've ever created, we're designing every part ourselves. That has meant multiple designs of custom light strips, custom designs of WiFi controllers, and seemingly endless research about how to make LEDs work with sound. As with all of our products, I try to do the hard work and research myself, so you don't have to. I can't wait to share more about this mind-blowing kit very soon. I'm holding off releasing any photos or videos until we're ready with the price and pre-order details. Stay tuned, and make sure to subscribe to this newsletter if you haven't already-- there will be special e-mail only content you won't be able to get just by reading this blog online. Maybe even a subscriber-only pre-launch discount code?

As for the other kits, they will all be making use of the same core technology we're putting into the Lighthouse and Eiffel Tower. Although I can't commit to a delivery date for any of them yet, I will say that the Star Destroyer set is about 80% complete, and the Tree House will have many of the same features as the Eiffel Tower.

Lastly, one comment on the Diagon Alley set specifically: I'm holding off on that one until our new vertical power connectors are ready. These will make it possible to disconnect and re-connect the buildings without needing to mess with any wires-- a big plus! The connector parts are on order (thanks to continuing post-Covid supply chain issues, they have been on order almost since I first wrote my post in January), but there seems to be progress on the manufacturer's part lately, so I'm hopeful for a Fall 2023 pre-order announcement.

As for the 2023 Second Half kits (AT-AT, Knights' Castle, Creator Haunted House, Galaxy Explorer, and Home Alone House), I'm going to focus on the Haunted House to get that complete in time for Halloween, and the Home Alone House in time for Christmas. The other sets may need to wait until Q1 of 2024-- I want each of these to be amazing and special as well, so I need to be able to focus on each one.

Just as we don't sit still, LEGO does not either-- they've released so many great sets this year. We're eyeing a potential Holiday 2023 release for a superb X-Wing light and sound kit, and we're also giving serious consideration to re-introducing our recently discontinued Disney Castle set to be updated to fit inside the beautiful new Castle LEGO released just this month.

I realize some of this news will be exciting to many, while also being disappointing to others. We're still a very small company (just three people, if you can believe it!), and we take great pride in the work we do everyday to make the most inspiring, unique, and creative kits available anywhere. I continue to work on my issues with time estimation, so I think you will soon see an uptick in kit releases. Even when we don't release a kit for a specific LEGO set, I think you'll also find our EasyLight™ Starter Kits and QuicKits have been thoughtfully designed to fit into just about any LEGO set-- current, past, or future.

Conclusion

As always, I want to thank all of our customers, fans, and readers for your patience as we work hard to make amazing things for you to use in your models. While it might not always seem like it, we really are working behind the scenes every day to invent new technologies we hope will take your builds to new heights. I'll have more good news to share very soon, so keep the suggestions and feedback coming, and do subscribe to this newsletter if you haven't already done so.

Until the next update!

Sincerely,

Rob Klingberg, Brickstuff Chief Enthusiast

One of the most common questions our customers ask is: "What do I need to make it all work?"  That's usually followed by a question like, "How do I know what works with what?"

It's something we think a lot about.  Because we can't make a light + sound kit for every model ever released, our approach has always been to empower our customers to assemble their own light and sound kits using a set of common parts.  One of the founding principles behind Brickstuff is that anyone can add lights and sound to any model, no electronics or technical expertise required.  Some of the most amazing creations we've ever seen have come from customers who were initially hesitant to work with any lighting system, but who took the leap by purchasing one of our Starter Kits and letting their imagination be their guide.

Recently, it became apparent based on customer feedback and also based on some of the supply chain shortages related to Covid-19 that our 12-year-old lighting system was in need of simplification and upgrade.  After more than two years of behind-the-scenes work, trial and error, and deep market research, I'm thrilled to announce the official launch of the Brickstuff EasyLight™ System.

The EasyLight™ System At A Glance

At its core, the EasyLight™ System does the following:

Standardizes on Small Connecting Plugs

Since Brickstuff began, our products have used two different-sized power connecting plugs: one "large" and one "small."  We've called the small plug our "Pico plug" or "Pico connector," because this is the plug we've used with our Pico LED lights.  You can see a photo comparing the two sizes of plugs below:

Over time, our "Pico plug" design has been adopted by most other hobby lighting companies around the world as the global standard, which is incredible.  It also means that customers with lighting products made by different companies are often left wondering if our products will work with parts they already have.

The EasyLight™ System focuses on the "Pico plug" as the new standard.  We're going to be calling this our "small plug," and you'll see that reflected in the EasyLight™ marketing materials, on our website, and on our new packaging.

Long-time customers don't have to worry, however!  Many of the EasyLight™ products have both small and large plugs, meaning you can use either a small or large plug to connect power, lights, or extensions.  We're also going to continue selling our heavy-duty (thick) connecting cables with large plugs, as well as many of our popular adapter boards with large plugs.

To make things easy to understand, we've introduced some new labeling that will begin appearing on our website, in marketing materials, and on our packaging.  There are three new icons that will show at a glance which parts work with others:

Enables Parts from Different Companies to Work Together

While we'd love it if Brickstuff was your sole hobby lighting supplier, we know that's not always realistic given the rise of other companies offering low-cost light kits.

We want Brickstuff to be the one company that brings everything together for our customers, so we're introducing a line of adapter boards as part of the EasyLight™ System launch that are designed to work with almost every other company's lighting components.  Using these adapters, you can connect lights and light sets from most every other manufacturer to Brickstuff system components.  Of course this means you can also use these adapters to connect one brand of lighting parts to another brand, even if there are no Brickstuff lights in between.

If there's a type of connector, a voltage, or a company we're missing, let us know by sending us a message!  Our goal is to create the most inclusive system for hobby lighting, so if there's interest in an adapter we have yet to make, we'll look into it.

Has Parts Sorted into Easy-to-Recognize Categories, Sold in Packs

To make EasyLight™ System parts easy to use, we've sorted them into 12 categories, each with its own distinctive packaging color.  Here are the seven categories of parts form the core of the system:

Mini Power Packs

Mini Power Packs include a compact battery pack and an adapter board to power up to four lights. These are designed for adding lights to vehicles or small structures, where just a few lights are needed and space is tight.

Power Packs

Power Packs are the bigger cousins to the Mini Power Packs. Each Power Pack includes a power source and an adapter board to power up to five lights. Both small and large plugs are provided, so Power Packs will work with older Brickstuff components with large plugs.

While the adapter board included with each Power Pack can power up to five lights out of the box, every Power Pack can scale up to power 100 lights or more using Expansion Packs.

Connecting Packs

Connecting Packs include wires and cables needed to expand your lighting setup. Remember, the cables and/or adapter boards needed to get started with up to four lights are included with every Power Pack/Mini Power Pack, so you don't need to worry about adding cables until you're ready to grow. Each Connecting Pack has four cables, and we offer a variety of lengths.

Adapter Packs

Adapter Packs include adapter boards in various configurations: small plugs, large plugs, or a mixture of both. These Packs also include adapter boards to connect 3rd-party lighting parts to the Brickstuff system. This is where the true magic of the EasyLight™ System really happens.

Expansion Packs

Expansion Packs feature a combination of cables and adapter boards designed to quickly allow you to scale up your lighting installations. We've designed the Expansion Packs to relate to easy-to-understand scenarios, like adding light to a medium-size LEGO® City building. Over time, we'll be rolling out guidance about which Expansion Pack can be used with which LEGO® or hobby set, so you'll have an easy reference.

Light Packs

What's a lighting system without lights? EasyLight™ Light Packs offer a wide range of different lighting components with a variety of different cable lengths. Most Light Packs include four lights; this was done to make them comparable to the packaging offered by our competitors, again to give customers the ability to make apples-to-apples comparisons.

Long-time Brickstuff customers will notice some changes in how we're packaging our lights with the new Light Packs:

1. Most lights will be sold in packs of four. We don't plan to offer bulk packs of lights any longer, but we've also adjusted the price of our lights so buying them in 4-packs is now actually less expensive than buying them before in 10-packs.
   

2. Light Packs just include lights. In the past we included adapter boards and sticky squares in many of our light packs. Customers who need sticky squares can now purchase them separately, and the adapter boards are no longer needed now that every Power Pack/Mini Power Pack includes the parts to connect up to four lights to power right out of the box. When expanding, customers can either purchase Connecting Packs and Adapter Packs, or just purchase an Expansion Pack which will have all of the necessary cables and adapter boards for specific situations.
   

With the introduction of these new Light Packs, we're also selling lights with a wider variety of cable lengths than ever before.

Specialty Packs

Specialty Packs are products that are hand-made, or made in small quantities, that are designed for a specific use. They differ from standard Light Packs (which can be used anywhere, in any scale or brand of model) because they are pre-installed or mounted inside specific parts. One example would be our flickering LEGO® candles: these are hand-made by us and have a tiny flickering LED pre-mounted inside a LEGO® candle element. In most cases, you won't be able to find Specialty Packs anywhere else, and we'll be making them in limited quantities.

Beyond the Core Categories

The seven categories above make up the heart of the EasyLight™ system. For customers wanting to "go beyond the basics," we also have five categories of "optional" products (optional in the sense that they are not required for any size lighting setup, but they sure make whatever you create a lot more fun):

Effect Packs

Long-time customers know we make some of the best lighting effect controller boards available anywhere, and with the new EasyLight™ versions of these effect controllers, we're raising the bar yet again. Effect Packs will include just the lighting effect controller: all lights, power, cables, and adapter boards will be available separately. Of course, if you already have some lights and a Power Pack/Mini Power Pack, you'll be able to just drop in an Effect Pack to add, for example, flickering fire effects to your setup.

Control Packs

Control Packs will provide added functionality like the ability to turn your lights on or off remotely, or with a built-in timer, or even over the Internet using services like Google Home, Amazon Alexa, Home Assistant, your phone via a 3rd-party app, or even using web services such as MQTT and IFTTT.

Sound Packs

Long-time customers also know us for our sound modules, and we're creating a whole new line of them for the EasyLight™ system.

Automation Packs

While Automation Packs are still in development at the time of this writing (May 2023), the vision is to provide motion you can add to your models and control. Think of servos that open and close a LEGO® Star Wars docking bay door automatically, or rotating blades on an airplane or helicopter model. We'll be releasing more information about our Automation Packs over time.

DIY Packs

We're blessed to have a large and growing base of DIY customers: model builders, people with electronics experience, robotics classes, or just anyone who wants to dig a little deeper and use our parts to make their own great creations. That's the spirit of DIY Packs. More information on these packs will be coming soon.

Beyond EasyLight™

Although the EasyLight™ System and its components will work in any setup and for any scale or type of model, EasyLight™ won't be the entire Brickstuff product line.  EasyLight™ is just one of several offerings from the full Brickstuff assortment.  The graphic below shows our full range, and the four major product categories of which EasyLight™ is a part.

Over time, we'll be working the new EasyLight™ components into all of these product lines, with the similar transition to the "small plug" architecture with continued support for legacy "large plug" components. Using all of the same components in all of our product lines gives customers the power and flexibility to connect "anything to anything," no matter how small or large their ideas and models.

Conclusion

This is just a small introduction to EasyLight™, the thinking behind it, and how we think it will empower our customers to create amazing and unique setups.  EasyLight™ represents the biggest investment of time, effort, and money since our founding, so we hope you agree it has good potential.  As always, we want to hear from you if there are areas we're missing, or if anything in the new system is more confusing than helpful.  And of course we look forward to seeing photos and videos of all the amazing things you'll create using these new parts!

On behalf of our small group of enthusiasts working in our small company in a small town in Minnesota, USA, thank you for everything you do to support us every day.

DISCLAIMER:LEGO® is a trademark of the LEGO Group of Companies which does not sponsor, authorize, or endorse any Brickstuff product.

I love the photo at the top of this post.  Since Covid began (an unbelievable three years ago), often it's felt like making and distributing the products we love has been so much harder than it ever was before.  Part of this has to do with the fact that so many things just feel so much harder post-Covid than pre-Covid.  Since we're an electronics manufacturer– and especially since we're a small manufacturer– getting the parts we need to produce the products our customers love has been difficult or even impossible at times.  To keep the company growing, we've had to completely re-design almost every part we manufacture.  That's taken years– actual years!– and many times I've felt like that child standing at the bottom of that big stairway: OK, deep breath, time to start again.  Here we go.

The most amazing part through all of the challenges has always been YOU, our incredible customers.  Truly, you have kept us going, pushed us to develop ever-better and more innovative products, and waited patiently as we've communicated delay after delay in being able to make light and sound kits for many of your favorite models.

The worst part?  Having to continually reply to your messages and Forum posts with repeated "yes, we're working on it" and "thank you for being patient" while still feeling like that kid at the bottom of the stairs!

2023 is a new year, and for us it's a new beginning.  We're finally ready to start climbing that big stairway and we're almost ready to show the world everything we've been working on during the Covid times.  I always want to create products with features you can't find anywhere else, because I know the hobby electronics market is not standing still.  Almost every week I see a new (usually China-based) company offering hobby lighting products, usually at rock-bottom prices (and occasionally with dubious quality).  It is now common when shopping for generic brick building sets to see the words "includes light kit" along with the product listing.

My job is to convince you there's more to adding lights to your model than a quick Aliexpress or Amazon purchase.  More on that to come in future blog posts.

What to expect

I want to be clear on what you can expect from us in the coming months– hopefully this will answer most of the "when will you have <x> ready?" questions that come to us.

We are a small company– that's one of the things I love about running Brickstuff.  We know our customers, they know us and they know what we stand for.  While being small is a wonderful thing, it also means you can't do everything at once.  During Covid, one of my mistakes was to keep saying "yes" to most requests and to keep trying every new idea that came to me.  In the end, that usually meant not being able to actually finish many things.  I'm writing this post from my office, and in front of my desk are 30 plastic bins.  Inside each of these bins is a new product that's just about ready to launch.  We can't put it up for sale yet, because I haven't written the instructions for it, or I haven't made packaging for it.  I think you're going to love every one of these new products, but in order to give me time to finish them and get them out for the world to see, I've realized we need to set an intense focus for the year.  That means some products will be accelerated, while others will be paused or retired.

Some of the biggest changes are listed below.

Pausing: BrickScreens

Our BrickScreen product line is incredibly popular with our customers, and we've been working in the background on a whole new generation of screens, with new animations and features.  I think you're going to love them when they're ready, but for now we're going to pause the manufacture of our current designs.

I expect to be able to launch the new BrickScreens lineup in May of 2023.

Pausing: Holiday Products

We have a growing list of holiday products, and we have some incredible new products in store for Holiday 2023.  Expect to see these emerge on the site in late summer 2023.  Until then, we will not be re-stocking any holiday products.

Pausing: Custom Work

One of my favorite parts about my job is working with customers to design special or custom assemblies, kits, and parts for their models.  As part of our need to focus, however, I've made the difficult decision to suspend all new custom work requests and projects for the entirety of 2023.  If you have something custom you'd like us to make for you, please reach out again in early 2024.

Re-Launching: Starter Kits

We've completely re-thought our approach to Starter Kits, so you can expect to see the new products in this line emerging around March 2023.  Until then we will continue re-stocking our Light Strip and Pico LED Starter Kits.  Our Lighting Effect Starter Kit will not be re-stocked, as lighting effects are going to become a standard feature in most of our new Starter Kits.

Upgrading: Website

Our current website is running on 10-year-old technology.  It's time for an upgrade– this will not come as any surprise to our customers.  We're already working on the new site in the background, so you can look forward to a much-improved shopping experience later in 2023.

Focus Area: Interoperability With Other Vendors

We want Brickstuff to be your go-to brand for everything light and sound related, whatever your hobby.  To make that vision a reality, we're close to launching a full line of adapters that will let customers use our products with those from every other major vendor on the market.  We're long past the days when you could get the best of everything from one company, and we want to be the leader in making what you already have work with all of our products.  We also want to be a bridge in helping you connect products from one company with products from another, even if the only Brickstuff part in the middle is an adapter.  Look for these new products to launch in the Spring of 2023.

Focus Area: BrickPixel™ Lighting System

Since 2013, we've been working on an easy-to-use system for controlling hundreds of lights with a single controller.  This technology has been used in some of our Premium Kits (notably, our Millennium Falcon, Disney, Hogwarts, and Ecto-1 kits), but in 2023 we're launching the BrickPixel™ system in multiple kits, so anyone can deploy their own blinky control panel, synchronized airport landing strip, or disco dance floor.

Focus Area: Sound

Look for more of our kits to include sound as a standard feature.  We're even putting sound into some of our smallest, most basic kits because we think sound is almost as awesome and essential as great lighting.  We'll have pre-loaded sound, sound you can add and control yourself without writing any code, and even sound players that play multiple sounds at the same time.  Think: sound modules for LEGO® train engines.

Focus Area: New and Upgraded Premium Kits

I saved this one for last, but it's our biggest focus area right now.  With all this new technology finally ready for release after three long years, we're going to be delivering on our commitments to customers to create dynamic light and sound kits for some of the most in-demand LEGO® sets.  We have accumulated a huge backlog of sets we want to make, so we're going to plan and release them in groups of five.

2023 First Half (January-June)

1. Ideas Motorized Lighthouse (set #21355)

2. Star Wars Imperial Star Destroyer™ (set #75252)

3. ICONS Eiffel Tower (set #10307)

4. Harry Potter Diagon Alley™ (set #75978)

5. Ideas Tree House (set #21318)

2023 Second Half (June-December)

1. Star Wars AT-AT™ (set #75313)

2. ICONS Lion Knights' Castle (set #10305)

3. Creator Haunted House (set #10273)– in time for Halloween 2023

4. ICONS Galaxy Explorer (set #10497)

5. Ideas Home Alone House (set #21330)– in time for Christmas 2023

I think that's the bulk of what we'll be able to take on this year.  That means that many other sets people have been asking about (Titanic, Hogwarts Express, Carousel, and Roller Coaster, Mos Eisley Cantina, and Medieval Blacksmith among others) will need to wait until 2024.  I'd rather say "not this year" to certain sets (even though I really want to work on them) than keep saying "soon" and not being able to deliver for our customers.

In order to make room on the production schedule for these new 2023 sets, we're going to be discontinuing the following Premium Kits:

1. Hogwarts Castle

2. Disney Castle

3. Super Star Destroyer

4. Starbricks B-Project

For the discontinued kits, we'll continue selling our current stock until it's sold out– after that, we won't make kits for these sets again.

Throughout 2023, we'll continue selling our most popular Premium Kits like the Millennium Falcon, Ecto-1, and Monster Fighters Haunted House.  In fact, these kits will benefit from our new technology and will see some upgrades (more details coming soon on that).

Speaking of upgrades, we're also going to deliver upgraded kits for two of our most popular sets: the Ferris Wheel and Ghostbusters Firehouse.  Look for these kits to be available starting in the second half of 2023.

Moving Forward

Well, this turned into a much longer post than I'd anticipated, but I wanted to have a single place where we could share our updates and set expectations for 2023.  If you have an interest in our schedule and plans, please do sign up for this new blogging platform so you can comment on posts, and also so you'll receive updates via e-mail when they're available.  With this new platform and its ability to post much more than just text, I plan to be sharing updates and behind-the-scenes details more frequently than in the past.

On behalf of everyone here at our small family-owned company, thank you for your support, encouragement, and great ideas.  I can't believe 2023 marks our 12th year in business, and I'm exicted to see where all of our new ideas and technologies take us in the years ahead.

Sincerely,

Rob Klingberg, Brickstuff Chief Enthusiast