|
Latest
news
Christmas giveaway draw29 November, 2017 Gillian from Lincolnshire was drawn from our list of customers over the Christmas
period and she gets 1.5kg of clean random Lego parts for her son who loves Lego - she says the win has restored her faith
in people and the win is timely as her son has not had the best year - we hope the win marks the start of a better year for
them. Anne and Lyndon Bates of Bristol are the second names to be
randomly drawn from our list
of Christmas customers - congratulations, we hope you find the 1.5kg of parts useful. I am informed that they were delighted
to win and their daughters will make good use of the parts. Thank you to every one that placed an order this Christmas - sales were exceptionally
low this Christmas as Google continues to disappear us (perhaps unfairly) from search results, so every order we received
was warmly welcomed. We will continue to swim against the tide in 2018 and maintain our spare parts service. We wish
all customers new and old a happy new year and look forward to assisting you further in the new year.
Monthly giveaway winner16 November, 2017 Richard from Doncaster won last months 1kg Lego giveaway - congratulations Richard
and thank you for your custom, we hope you will find these extra parts useful.
Monthly giveaway winner 04 May, 2017 John Chambers from Essex won last months 1kg Lego giveaway - congratulations John and thank you for your custom,
we hope you will find these extra parts useful.
Limited offer - buy 1kg Lego for just £10! 25 March, 2017 We are having a sale of our boxed 1 KG Lego lots. If you are a UK buyer and already buying at least £10
of replacement parts, you can add a 1 KG random box of Lego parts to your cart for just £10 which is below cost to us.
These 1 KG lots are grade 'A' used Lego and are a mix of new, lightly used and clean ready to play Lego parts professionally
sorted to eliminate any non-Lego items. With new Lego running at more than £85 per Kilo, these lots make for a very
affordable way of building up your collection of parts. Visit our bulk Lego page - click on the picture below to visit the
page.
|
| Buy Lego in bulk...1 kg from just £12 |
Perpetual Motion Machine - I had a go! 17 February, 2017 I found a couple of hours this afternoon and attempted to build a perpetual motion machine! I have added some photo's
below and a link to a video of it working. I used 14 small magnets and a bunch of Lego parts. I spent quite some time
making minor adjustments and improvements after the basic design was complete - making adjustments and testing was great fun!
At one point I thought I was on the verge of attaining perpetual movement but unfortunately, whatever adjustments I made,
the machine eventually ran to a stop, but I did get really close! The machine would slow down ready to stop and
it would then accelerate up briefly as if trying its utmost to resist grinding to a shuddering halt. I certainly got
it to work far better than I had envisaged I ever would, and considering the short time I had to both design and make it,
I was very pleased with the result.
|
| Click on image to view larger version. |
Click here to watch YouTube video of the machine working!
I used small magnets fitted within the holes of Technic beams and connectors to use the
repelling forces of the magnets along with the momentum generated by the attracting forces to work a six blade propeller past
a pivoted magnetic hammer. The magnets were slightly loose so I placed a piece of 0.8mm cord through each hole before
pushing in the magnets to make them fit firmly. From the picture you may note a light grey shaft with a red ball on the end
- this is the handbrake...just in case!
|
| Click on image to view larger version. |
This is my first attempt at a perpetual motion machine build, and I have to say, Lego
is a perfect medium for building these experimental models - I must have tried dozens of minor and major adjustments
that would have taken forever without the Lego, and best of all, the parts I had provided inspiration and helped generate
ideas on how I might achieve the various changes I felt were worth trying.
|
| Click on image to view larger version. |
I hope my attempt here will help motivate and inspire you to have a go too and enter your
completed model in our competition. There's some great Lego to be won but moreover, I guarantee you will have fun designing
and building your perpetual machine.
Perpetual Motion Machine Competition - Now Launched! 13 February, 2017 Our Perpetual Motion completion is now launched. To enter
our completion you must submit photo's and or video of your creation along with a few lines to explain how you designed
it and how it works/the idea behind it. We don't expect any of the entries to actually fully work energy-free and break
the laws of physics!, although that would be rather cool!, but instead we want to see creative ideas that really test the
laws of physics, and hopefully 'nearly work'! The completion closes on the 31st of May 2017 and a winner will
be announced by the 2nd of June 2017. The winner will receive over 2.5kg of selected technical Lego (everything pictured
below is included).
|
| Click image to see further images of the Lego. |
Lego is the perfect medium for inventors and lends itself
brilliantly to developing, testing and trying out mechanical ideas, so inventing and developing a perpetual motion
machine in Lego is a great idea. Lego is so quick and easy to use and changes can be made readily as the design requires,
and with thousands of parts to choose from (all of which are interchangeable and compatible) the task is made quicker, more
enjoyable and often far more cheaply than making parts from scratch. Competition entrants may use additional materials which may not be Lego branded
- I envisage some people may wish to use cord/string, magnets, weights and other accessories, to get their inventions going
and that's fine...whatever it takes to get your idea up and running! Submit your entries using pictures and or video files and
provide a short write-up so we understand how it works, how you came up with idea, how you developed it and what
difficulties you had getting it to work. As entries are received they will be posted here...but don't worry, even though
early entrants may have their designs copied or improved upon by later entrants, you must get them in ASAP as I'm
watching carefully, and early entrants will score serious brownie points when it comes to me choosing a winner! If we receive
plenty of good design entries I may opt to make further prizes for runner-ups! I want the winner of the Lego
to make good use of the prize so I am looking for all the tell-tales signs of a budding inventor and smart thinker!
A heads-up on the next competition 09 February, 2017 We are presently putting together the prizes for our next competition and will post the full details
here shortly, but we can tell you its a rather interesting competition as the winners of the available prizes may also be
on the cusp of solving the worlds energy crisis! to enter the competition you must design and build (in Lego) what is known
as a perpetual motion device. Perpetual motion devices have been designed and built for many years - for example Leonardo da Vinci designed numerous
perpetual machines (none of them truly worked, but I'm sure he had fun designing them as he designed so many!). Perpetual
motion devices are meant to run perpetually without any energy input and according to popular science this is impossible,
but it doesn't stop anyone trying! So theoretically, a perpetual motion device that runs itself for ever is impossible,
so we don't expect to see any of the entries breaking the law of thermodynamics, but we do hope the competition will foster
some clever and creative designs that 'nearly work'! Many perpetual motion machines are complex and require gears, axles, weights, magnets,
levers, connectors and platforms etc. People that build them spend many hours making bespoke parts for their machine's
and if they need to make changes as they experiment, they often have to start making new components from scratch! As Lego
enthusiasts, we have a significant edge on many inventors as we know how adaptable Lego is. With Lego, we have a huge range
of connectable parts that allows quick assembly and we can modify our designs easily and without waste. The technic range of parts
is fantastic for building machines so I expect to see some clever and interesting entries. Anyway, if it sounds interesting
to you, and breaking the law of conservation of energy doesn't phase you, you can start to scratch your
head right now and come up with some winning ideas - you might not solve the worlds energy problem, but you might refine your
design and build knowledge and (just maybe) win some seriously useful free Lego! Winners will get sizeable collections of
Technic Lego so their perpetual motion device might not be their last, best or even largest invention!...details of the prizes
will follow once I have put them together.
|
| Click on image to view larger version. |
Free Lego giveaway 01 February, 2017 Emily Proctor and Peter Cowell of Kent have been randomly drawn to win 1kg+ of clean, mixed and genuine Lego
parts in our December draw - thank you for your custom and we hope you find these extra parts useful. Business is very slow
and we are barely covering our overheads but we will continue to make monthly giveaways as best we can. We are working hard
to increase sales, and if finances allow we will start some fresh completion giveaways over the coming months - keep watching
this space for further giveaway news!
Christmas day giveaway28 December, 2016 Louise Berggren of East Sussex placed an order with
us on Christmas Day and as she was the only one to do so, she won the 1kg of Clean Lego parts we planned to giveaway in our
secret Christmas day draw. Congratulations Louise, we will include your free bag of Lego parts with your order.
Happy Christmas and
New Year wishes24 December, 2016 We would like to thank our customers and those that
have helped Spareblocks.com during 2016. We wish everyone a great Christmas and hope
them happiness for the new year ahead. For anyone that places an
order with us over the Christmas break you will be entered in to our Christmas draw for the chance of winning one of
several 1kg boxes of Lego parts - Winners will be announced here over the coming weeks. If you require help finding the Lego part(s) you need or have any other queries please do not hesitate to email carl
directly at info@spareblocks.com and I will try and respond as soon as I can.
Facebook Draw Results15 December, 2016 The results are in! To get our newly launched Facebook page up-and-running we
put up 5 Lego Star Wars set giveaways for our new Facebook fans. The response to our Facebook page has been very
positive and 168 people entered the draw by liking us and sharing with their friends on Facebook. As of now, we have
got 462 likes of our page in less than 4 weeks, so a big thank you to everyone who has contributed. We ensured all entrants had a fair and equal chance of being drawn and the draw was independently witnessed. The
lucky winners were:- First Prize:- Amanda Skinner from Lincolnshire Second Prize:- Tom Gilson from Belgium Runner up prizes:- Derek Torc McLean from Ayrshire, Richard Hope from Wetherby and
Chris Davies from Leeds. Derek, Richard and Chris
will each receive Lego Star wars Endor Rebel Trooper & Imperial Trooper Battle Pack , set number 9489 (2012), brand new
in unopened box - as a bonus, we have included a 260g bag of mixed Lego parts to their winners parcels. Tom will receive Lego Star Droid Gunship, set number 75042 (2014), brand new in unopened box. Amanda will receive our star prize of a Lego Star wars Millennium Falcon, set number 7965 (2011), brand new
in unopened box. All winners addresses have now been obtained, prizes packed
and either dispatched or awaiting collection by Hermes. We
will be holding further giveaways and competitions, so if you didn't win this time, keep an eye open
for future events either on our Facebook page or on our website (Spareblocks.com). Once again, we are grateful to everyone that took part in the draw and helped to get our Facebook page
launched.
As a reminder to new customers, we
cannot guarantee delivery of parts in time for Christmas, but for UK customers purchasing before 10am this coming Saturday
we will try our utmost to process your orders for first class dispatch on Monday. If you found us via. Facebook, email us
after your checkout to claim your 260g of free Lego (you must be a UK customer having placed an order of £25 or more
to qualify - the offer has been extended to the 1st of January, so if you need to buy missing parts or fancy buying some additions
for your Lego collection, don't miss out on this promotional giveaway!).
More free Lego giveaways8 December, 2016 As a further bonus to the main Facebook page draw an additional entrant was randomly chosen
to receive a 1kg+ box of clean mixed Lego parts to add to their collection:- Nicola Cooper of Sheffield won 1kg+ of clean genuine Lego - well done Nicola! your
parcel is on its way and thank you for entering our Star Wars Lego giveaway
on Facebook and good luck in the main draw! If you have not yet entered
this free giveaway draw then do so now! - the draw ends on the 15th December and 5 people will be randomly chosen to
receive the Lego boxed sets we have to give away. If you love Lego, you need to like the page and keep a watch out for the further
free entry Lego giveaways that are planned, and don't forget to visit and add to your favourites list our website
Spareblocks.com as we have the best online resource for those difficult to find and discontinued Lego minifigures and
parts.
Wikipedia 06 December,
2016 Wikipedia
is a not-for-profit website that relies on donations from users to provide a free educational online resource. Its that
time of year when Wikipedia is seeking donations to cover their operating costs. We have made a donation as we find
the Wikipedia service to be extremely helpful and informative and we would encourage others who appreciate the convenience
of their service to consider donating too. Donations start from just £2 and can be quickly made using PayPal by
visiting the Wikipedia site.
Free Lego giveaway 04 December, 2016 Richard Armstrong of Workington has been randomly drawn to win 1kg+ of clean, mixed and genuine Lego parts.
Facebook customers 27 November, 2016 We have extended our 260g giveaway on all orders over £25
until January 1st for our UK Facebook Lego fans! - if you place an order with us for £25 or more and you found
us via. our new Facebook page, simply email us at spareblocks.com immediately after placing your order to let us know
you found us via. Facebook and 260g of clean genuine Lego parts will be added to your order. Due to the weight of these Lego
packs, we are unable to extend/guarantee the offer to our overseas customers, but if you place a significant order and would
like some free parts, email us and we will include what we can using the P&P submitted.
Free Lego giveaway27 November, 2016 As a further bonus to the main Facebook page draw, today an additional entrant
was randomly chosen to receive a 1kg+ box of clean mixed Lego parts to add to their collection:- Angela Turpie of Clackmannanshire won 1kg+ of clean genuine Lego - congrats Angela! Hermes
will deliver within a few days.Thank you for entering our Star Wars Lego giveaway on Facebook and good luck in the
main draw!
Christmas Clean 27 November, 2016 The business of supplying replacement Lego parts requires extremely good
organisation and as Christmas approaches we get a little bit busier and the need for tidiness and order is vital. As the business
is labour intensive and little give exists beyond undertaking the workload necessary, a tendency towards disorder is a constant
threat. In preparation for Christmas I have just completed one of 4 yearly ‘tidy-ups’ where I go through everything,
consolidate stored stock, remove any rubbish accumulated and clean the unit through. Having run the business initially in
my spare time and then full time more recently for more than 10 years, I gained some useful skills in organising and sorting,
so the process is considerably faster than many might assume – it usually takes me around 4 hours and the floor area
of the unit is 1000 square feet (about the same floor area as a good sized house), and it’s quite full! On the issue
of sorting and organising, it often saddens me that my organisation skills could not be better utilised to help people who
have a problem with clutter etc. but lack the skills and experience to resolve it themselves. I was once fortunate enough
to advise a friend who had become depressed with a clutter problem in his flat. After briefing him on an action plan, he had
it completed in just 6 hours! – He was amazed he was able to do it so well and in such a short time by undertaking it
in a set order while following some simple and logical rules. TV documentaries feature so called experts assisting people
with such problems but their methods tend to upset the owner/sufferer as they want to immediately throw ‘stuff’
away, but the owner doesn’t, and they can take longer than necessary too...it can be done without throwing anything
away initially, and it can be efficient if the correct methodology is utilised (look-up Pareto’s rule if you are not
familiar with the 80/20 rule – this is a very useful understanding to have when it comes to tidying, sorting and cleaning!).
I benefit from the experience I gained running the business, clearing houses out in the past and I have a masters in project
management, so if you have a big clear-out, organisational or tidying project to do, get in touch and I will gladly part with
whatever advice I have that might help. Anyway, everything is clean and well organised and I know exactly
where everything is so I can work efficiently. In testament to the level of organisation maintained at Spareblocks.com, we
currently have approx. 16,000 different product lines and at a moment’s notice, I am able to precisely locate and retrieve
for packing any one of the products in seconds which is exactly how it needs to be!
|
| Spareblocks.com Packing area |
Facebook Draw 26 November, 2016 So far, over 100 people have entered our Star Wars Lego giveaway! (if you
haven't yet entered, make sure you like the page, like the article and share the article - you have to do all three
to be entered! - we note that a few people have omitted to either like the article, the page or share it, and they will
miss out on this genuine free draw opportunity!). In addition to the 5 boxed
Lego Star Wars sets that will be posted out as prizes following the main draw on the 15th of December, 2 entrants have
already been selected to receive 1 kg boxes of quality Lego spares and we intend to undertake further draws and make
further bonus giveaways in the coming days. As well as the draws we have announced on this page, we also
have a giveaway of 260g quality mixed Lego parts for any Facebook 'likers' that place an order this month (November)
- see our earlier post for details if you intend to visit our website to buy Lego parts, minifigures, baseboards etc.as the
free parts are well worth claiming.
Free Lego giveaway22 November, 2016 The launch of our Facebook page on Sunday was very successful. So far 69 people
have entered our Star Wars Lego giveaway! From the first 69 entrants, and as a bonus to the main draw,
2 people have today been randomly chosen to receive one of our 1kg boxes of clean mixed genuine Lego parts. The names drawn
were:- Phil Bond of Romford won 1kg+ of clean genuine Lego. Thank you for
liking us on Facebook! Rachel Carey
of Stockport won 1kg+ of clean genuine Lego. Thank you for liking us on Facebook!
Future free competitions
and draws21 November, 2016 Three more competitions/prize draws have now been planned
for early 2017 and a selection of new Lego sets of various themes have been set aside (over £400 worth) and they include
Star Wars, Toy Story, SpongeBob and others...they will be announced here and on our new Facebook page in the coming weeks
and months, so keep a look out! Our competitions are always conducted independently and fairly and giveaways have been won
worldwide. In past competitions first prize winners have included overseas entrants (Manuel (France), won a Millennium Falcon
set in 2013), and we have had winners in Australia, America and elsewhere, so please take part wherever you live.
Spareblocks.com has launched a Facebook page and to promote
it we are giving away BNIB Lego Star Wars sets! 20 November, 2016
|
|
| Click image to visit our Facebook page |
We have launched a Facebook page and to promote it we are giving away 5 brand new Lego Star Wars
sets. If you would like the chance of winning one of the sets simply visit our Facebook page, like the competition posting,
like the page and share it on your own Facebook page wall. Winners will be randomly chosen on Wednesday 15th of
December and the prizes will be dispatched as soon as full postal details are received. All 5 sets are brand new/sealed and are as follows:-
| BNIB Star Wars Lego set 7965 |
|
| Our First Prize! |
First Prize: Lego Star wars Millennium
Falcon, set number 7965 (2011), brand new in unopened box. This discontinued set is extremely popular and is becoming increasingly collectable. The set contains a number
of unique minifigures and with 1254 parts its a fantastically interesting build. One of our previous winners of this
set kindly provided us with a review and some pictures of the finished build - click on the link below to read Ben's review.
Click here for Millennium Falcon Review by a previous winner
| BNIB Star Wars Lego set 75042 |
|
| Our Second Prize! |
Second Prize: Lego Star
Droid Gunship, set number 75042 (2014), brand new in unopened box. This discontinued set is extremely popular and is becoming increasingly collectable. The set contains unique
minifigures and parts. With 439 parts its an expert level, and a very challenging Christmas day build!
| BNIB Star Wars Lego set 7965 |
|
| Our runners-up Prize! - 3 runners-up will be chosen to recieve this set. |
Runner up prizes: Lego Star wars
Endor Rebel Trooper & Imperial Trooper Battle Pack , set number 9489 (2012), brand new in unopened box. This Battle pack set is a must have for any Star Wars and Lego
fan and is becoming increasingly difficult to source in unopened new condition. The set contains a number of unique minifigures
and with 77 parts and 4 minifigures its a great addition to any collection. A total of 3 runners up will be selected at
random to receive one of these sets!
Additional notes:- Draw winners will be announced here as soon as the draw is made from all the Facebook members that have
liked the post, liked our new Facebook page and shared it on their own Facebook page. Winners will be promptly notified via.
Facebook on the 15th of December with a request for their postal details. The full name and town/locale of the draw winners
will be shown here and on our Facebook page, so only enter if you are happy to have these details published. If you are
a UK resident and win one of our giveaways, the Lego set will be dispatched via. tracked mail and will be delivered in
time for Christmas so long as you provide your address details to us promptly. Non-UK entries are welcome but should the winner
be based abroad, delivery is unlikely to occur before the Christmas period due to the longer postal times. Tracked and signed-for
postal services will be used to ensure you are not left disappointed - good luck to everyone, and thank you for your interest
in Lego and Spareblocks.com. The random selection of
winners will be undertaken by an independent party with an independent witness to ensure the method is fair
and all entrants have an equal and fair chance of winning. Customers
of Spareblocks.com past and present are encouraged to enter as described above, however, for this giveaway, customers
have no advantage over other Facebook entrants as this giveaway is aimed at celebrating the launch and promotion of our Facebook
page only and the draw will be completely random. # Three more
competitions/prize draws are planned for early 2017 and a selection of new Lego sets of various themes will be available including
Star Wars, Toy Story, SpongeBob and others...they will be announced here and on our new Facebook page in the coming weeks
and months.
Click here for our Facebook page!
|
