Bricking bad

How Justin Wang turns LEGOs into profit

Staff Writer

All around AHS, there are entrepreneurs looking to make a bit of extra money selling keychains, snacks, or other collectibles. One student, Justin Wang (10), has found a more unconventional product: LEGOs. Wang, founder of Random Bricks, creates, packages, and sells custom made LEGO sets made from his own designs.

“I wanted to learn more about how economics and businesses worked,” Wang said. “And I noticed that no one around Fremont was working on LEGO sets. I thought it was a market that hadn’t been touched yet.”

Wang’s design process begins with choosing a theme for his LEGO models. “I usually try to find a group of items that I really want to make,” he said. “For example, my first series is about miniature animals, and my second series revolved around different cuisines.”

From there, he goes through the difficult process of designing the LEGO models. “I find this part really difficult because inspiration is really hard to come by, and LEGO doesn’t always have the pieces I need to create what I have in my head,” Wang explained. “For example, because LEGO is so limited, a certain brick I need may have one color, but it’s not the color I need. It makes my process a lot harder and more challenging, so I need to find creative workarounds to figure out how to make this look good, while keeping it as cheap and efficient as possible.”

After figuring out what design looks best for his LEGO builds, he buys the bricks from third-party LEGO sellers. Finally, he creates an assembly manual for the design, packages the LEGOs, and ships the pieces to buyers.

Rishaan Joshi (12), a client of Wang, stated that, “Overall, the product is fairly reliable because it actually uses official LEGO parts.”

Wang’s past creations include capybaras and cats, as well as a bento box and boba tea set. In order to keep the designs manageable, each collection is released as a themed series of three-to-four builds, keeping the themes both organized and exciting. “I usually pick a category and try to design multiple builds around it,” he said. “It helps me stay focused without being overwhelmed.”

Setting the price for his LEGO sets is a whole other challenge for Wang. “Initially, finding good prices to sell to people was really difficult, because I was buying one set at a time. I wasn’t factoring shipping fees, and the LEGO market is already really expensive to invest in currently.”

This obstacle highlights a bigger challenge in the LEGO market. LEGO enthusiast Jonathan Le (12), who has been collecting for over a decade, offered his perspective on the quality of the current LEGO market. “LEGO has a monopoly over the market. Sets are overpriced, and the quality of figures have gone down. For example, some Star Wars sets have fewer pieces and figures, yet cost more than they did years ago.”

Despite these obstacles, Wang has found ways to keep his products affordable. “I try to buy pieces in bulk so I can save on shipping. That way, I can pass the savings onto my customers.” Wang’s more playful side of selling his LEGOs was shown at the AHS night market, where he implemented a wheel that granted up to a fifty percent price reduction that customers could spin.

“They won’t lower prices or impact the company directly, but creators like Wang bring innovation that LEGO doesn’t always have. It’s cool to see original ideas,” Le said.

For Wang, the satisfaction doesn’t come from toppling LEGO, but instead from building and designing something of his own. He finds the most joy in seeing his finished sets and hearing positive feedback. “It’s really satisfying when I finally complete a model after struggling with it. It makes all the effort worth it.”