Retailer Profile: Outer Rim Trading Co.

Welcome to retailer profile – where we talk to Australian specialist LEGO retailers about their business and their experiences with LEGO.

First up we are talking to Michael from Outer Rim Trading Co.

Bricking Around would also like to point out that Outer Rim Trading Co. contributes $1 from every sale to Brisbane’s Royal Children’s Hospital Foundation

Be sure to check out the Outer Rim Trading Co. specials page featuring sets at least 25% off retail. There are also sealed boxes of series 10 figures available.
http://www.outerrimtradingco.com.au/content/ort-standard.asp?name=SPECIALS

Do you have any particular LEGO memories from when you were a child?
I was always into LEGO from a young age. I’ll have to thank my parents for giving it to my brother and I as kids. City was always my favourite theme, but I did branch out to some classic space, castle and the original pirates. My parents were very supportive of us playing with LEGO, and even set up a huge wooden board with casters on the bottom and put it in the living room to play with (a picture of this can be seen on our about us page). We also made sure to visit the touring LEGO World Shows when they came to town too. Then one day I did something very silly and sold it all for an original Nintendo NES and games. One of the few decisions in life I now wish I could go back and change.

What about your dark ages? Was there anything in particular that brought you back to LEGO?
Even through the dark ages I still kept in touch with LEGO, and made sure to grab the catalogues that came out every year. I despaired at the way LEGO had gone during the dark LEGO System days, but it wasn’t until 6-7 years ago when I met my future wife and we were talking about how we used to love LEGO, then we had a look at the LEGO website and saw Café Corner in all it’s glory (and able to be bought!!). I was hooked again.

Do you currently build sets or MOCs, or are you more of a collector?
Where time permits I might build a few sets to go onto my table town. I wish I had the MOC skills of some of the people I see online. My best attempt at a MOC was converting an Emerald Night into a Hogwarts Express! These days though, I’m normally limited to just building the really big cool models like the Imperial Shuttle and Tower Bridge. There are so many sets just sitting in boxes just waiting for the opportunity to be ripped open and built. LEGO is meant to be built and played with. There is only so much satisfaction that can come from looking at a sealed mint condition box.

What is your all time favourite set?
The UCS Millennium Falcon would probably be right up there. A long fun build, and just wonderful to look at in the flesh.

If you could design a LEGO set, what would it be?
I wouldn’t know where to start in designing a set, but I would strongly recommend a return to classic space with blue bricks and trans yellow plates. There are so many AFOL’s who grew up with it that are just wishing it was back in some form. And if not space, just keep bringing out trains and trackside equipment. Go back to the train theme of the 90’s…

How long has your business been running?
2013 marked our 5 years trading. Originally starting as spare parts on Bricklink to the online store now, and hopefully one day soon into a bricks and mortar store too.

Do you think that there are any obvious mistakes made by LEGO recently. For example a theme that seems like a strange choice to you?
The Mr Gold promotion with Series 10 Minifigures is the main questionable decision of late. If anything, it seems to have brought out the worst in the LEGO community. Customers foraging through boxes like animals, resellers putting ridiculous prices on the secondary market for found figures. I think we’re all better than that.

Is there anything that you think LEGO could be doing to make things easier for smaller retailers like yourself?
I would love to have access to all the retailer exclusive product through LEGO to be able to sell it to my customers who want it. That being said though, I completely understand why the system is the way it is. It creates a point of difference between all the different retailers so that everyone has the opportunity for something special and unique to offer their customers.

You also sell parts via a Bricklink store, do you get a lot of customers who are working on MOCs, or are your sales mainly sets?
It’s all just spare parts through the Bricklink store. There are a lot of people working on MOC’s out there, and when we are lucky we get sent a few pictures of the finished work. We’re very happy to see our bricks put to good use!

Bricking Around does not receive any financial gain from retailer profiles. We independently reach out to retailers so they can engage with the Australian LEGO community. If you are a LEGO retailer and would like to be featured, please use the contact form.