u/BeginnerHere26

Hello,

I'm not a LEGO enthusiast or a business expert by any means, but I've been following the 200K theft since it blew up on YouTube and made the rounds online (organically of course, despite what the CEO thinks lol) and it got me thinking.

I was actually explaining the situation to my husband and started wondering, could Bricks & Minifigs be cash poor right now? It might be a dumb theory, but hear me out.

Given the state of the US economy, my guess is that more people are selling their LEGOs than buying them at the moment. If that's the case, their inventory could be piling up faster than revenue is coming in. I know corporate has more control over franchisee licensing than day to day operations, so this might not be a company wide issue, but it's something I kept thinking about. I'll admit I don't fully understand how that side of it works.

The part that really doesn't add up to me is that this is apparently a company claiming to be worth around $6 million. I've seen numbers range from $6 million to upwards of $93 million to $450 million. I just don't believe those high of numbers given the circumstances. If any of those are anywhere near accurate, why would you risk everything over $200k worth of LEGO sets? Not justifying the theft, obviously, because that's what it was. It's pretty blatant at this point. I also haven't watched the unredacted police footage, so if I missed something that was said in the videos, please let me know. The only thing I can think of is that paper value and actual liquid cash can be very different things. A business can look valuable on paper while struggling to cover real expenses.

I'm probably missing something obvious, but something about this just doesn't sit right with me. It makes me wonder if there's something underneath it all that the CEO of Bricks and Minifigs doesn't want exposed. Would love to hear from anyone who knows more about this than I do.

Hey everyone! I'm relatively new to soap making and wanted to share some of my recent experiments that didn't quite go as planned, because I think failures are just as valuable as successes!

I've been working on seashell concept using a clear glycerin base over a goat milk base, and while the idea is there, the execution needs some work. However, I'm very happy still because I was able to figure out what temperature to pour the glycerin in without melting the goat-milk sand and seashells underneath. After some reflection I think I've identified four things that went wrong:

Temperature control. Since I use a microwave I think I'm overheating the clear glycerin base. I'm going to switch to a double boiler method for more control going forward.
Mica as a colorant in clear base. I think the mica isn't mixing thoroughly enough and is causing air bubbles and cloudiness. I'm going to try liquid colorants instead and see if that disperses more evenly.
Base quality. I've been using a cheap Amazon brand called EDSRDRUS and it's been really inconsistent across two purchases. I'm open to recommendations for a better quality clear base. I also could be just really bad at melt and pour glycerin, so I'm going to try the first two points first before switching. That way I use the EDSRDRUS up.
The balance between the sand portion and the glycerin layer needs work. Right now the sand portion is pretty thin compared to the glycerin layer, which means the seashells aren't as visible as I'd like. I need to make those layers more equal so the seashells really stand out.

As part of the concept I also poured goat milk into the glycerin while it was cooling to create a wave effect, which I think has a lot of potential but needs some refinement along with everything else! I used a toothpick to try and create the waves.

Also just a note, the soaps in the photos are wrapped in clear cellophane wrap which I use to protect them when giving them away, so that's why they have that extra layer of shine to them.

On the flip side I also have some oval floral embed soaps to share! These were actually made using leftover flower embeds from my wedding soaps. The flowers are goat milk and the base is shea butter melt and pour, lightly scented with rose fragrance oil. I used a heat gun and a little melted goat milk soap to adhere the flowers to the base. I thought these were failures at first but they actually turned out pretty cute, which reminded me that florals are definitely my forte!

Has anyone else struggled with clear glycerin bases? Any tips or brand recommendations would be really appreciated!

Question: Could Bricks and Minifigs be Cash Poor?

Showcasing My Failures Because They're Just as Important as the Wins 🧼