Lego will no longer ship individual bricks to the US.

Sad.

i'm just imagining a hummingbird flying in the window dropping a little bundle with a parachute that has a singular lego brick as the delivery

That'd be a pretty cute way to do it.

What's the story behind this?
What about missing pieces?

Lokarin posted...

i'm just imagining a hummingbird flying in the window dropping a little bundle with a parachute that has a singular lego brick as the delivery

I bet there is a Monty Python joke in that

pedro45 posted...

What's the story behind this?
What about missing pieces?

I would guess it's because the US has killed the de minimis exemption for small shipments. Paying duties on larger shipments isn't a big deal and they've already budgeted for that, but for tiny individual shipments it's more of a problem, which is why de minimis exists in the first place.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/a/a4b6234f.png

"Happy birthday, Jimmy! Here's your present!"

"One Lego brick?"

"Have fun, kid!"

Lokarin posted...

i'm just imagining a hummingbird flying in the window dropping a little bundle with a parachute that has a singular lego brick as the delivery

That imagery is adorable.

Having ordered a single piece from them before (one of Bilbo's sitting legs was missing from Rivendell), I can confirm that they do ship in a comically-large envelope for such a tiny piece, but unfortunately, there was no hummingbird.

I particularly like imagining that the hummingbird is wearing a little postman cap, though.

Lokarin posted...

i'm just imagining a hummingbird flying in the window dropping a little bundle with a parachute that has a singular lego brick as the delivery

Cute but I can't imagine a hummingbird doing it. A brick is probably more than half the weight of a hummingbird.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/1/10e56711.png
Yep, this is 2.3 grams.
https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?id=264#T=C

Anna, Allen's, and Rufous Hummingbirds all weigh 2-4 grams. (quick googles on this show it up)

I can't imagine a bird with such fragile legs being able to carry something half of its weight TBH.

So let's look up how much birds can carry and I really doubt hummingbirds carry at all.

How much can birds carry?
Professor Bird provided a table from his book, The Bird Almanac, A Guide To Essential Facts and Figures of the Worlds Birds , which I found absolutely astonishing! According to his information, a bald eagle should be able to carry 108% of its body weight. Check out the American kestrel at 145%, the Pallass Fish Eagle at 160%, or the tiny Calliope Hummingbird carrying its mate 116% of its body weight!

https://www.raptorresource.org/2025/02/10/how-much-weight-can-a-bald-eagle-carry/

Well I'll be. Not only does a hummingbird carry something, it's also carrying its own mate. A hummingbird could carry TWO whole lego bricks actually. Damn. I never figured birds could carry their own weight, I figured half at most. I guess I underestimate the square cube law. The smaller you are like Kestrels the more you can carry relative to your weight. Should've thought about that from the beginning.

Anyway cute image and now I can imagine it.

adjl posted...

I would guess it's because the US has killed the de minimis exemption for small shipments. Paying duties on larger shipments isn't a big deal and they've already budgeted for that, but for tiny individual shipments it's more of a problem, which is why de minimis exists in the first place.

Yep. Most of the world shippers/carriers, like DHL, have now ceased ALL shipping to the US.

https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/de-minimis-exemption-ending-canceled-orders-shipping-us-what-to-know-rcna227794

We live in a world where shipping into the heart of Africa is now easier than America.

Meaning like Pick a Brick orders?

If so, jeez, Im glad I buckled down and went through all my sets last year to see what all I was missing and ordered all the pieces I needed (granted the majority of it were pieces you cant even get directly from Lego so I had to use Bricklink, but still)

adjl posted...

I would guess it's because the US has killed the de minimis exemption for small shipments. Paying duties on larger shipments isn't a big deal and they've already budgeted for that, but for tiny individual shipments it's more of a problem, which is why de minimis exists in the first place.

It's not even the duties, it's the cost of the paperwork to pay the duties. Imagine paying someone working for $20/hr to fill out the paperwork to mail a single brick worth $1 and pay $0.05 in import duties.

If it becomes a serious problem, they'll almost certainly build a US distribution center or institute a minimum order amount. Or revert to the old "plus $5.99 for shipping and handling".

Cuba will no longer ship individual bricks to America