LEGO Pick a Brick Wall Strategy: How to Fill Your Box
Supporting Free Content
When you purchase through our links, we earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. As an eBay Partner, this helps us keep bringing you expert LEGO® reviews and guides. Thank you for your support!
How the in-store LEGO Pick and Build wall works now that cardboard boxes have replaced the plastic cups, how to pack a box so it holds more, and when the wall beats ordering parts online.
At the LEGO Store's Pick and Build wall you fill a cardboard box with any of the parts on display and pay one price for the box. The way to get the most out of it is to stack rather than pour: bricks stacked stud to tube, and plates nested in stacks, fill a box far better than a loose pile. In a 2023 test by The Rambling Brick, a large box held about 120 loosely placed 2x4 bricks and 173 stacked ones.
How the wall works now
Many LEGO Stores have a wall of bins, now usually called Pick and Build. You take an empty box, fill it with any combination of the parts on the wall and pay one price for the box. Prices differ by country and store, so check at the counter.
The containers changed in late 2023 and early 2024. LEGO replaced the plastic cups with flat-pack cardboard boxes in a small and a large size; stores swapped old cups for boxes free of charge until January 31, 2024, and the old cups are no longer accepted. The Rambling Brick measured the new boxes: the small box holds about 446 ml and the large about 896 ml, roughly 91% and 95% of the old small and large cups.
Before you go
- Know what you need. A parts list from a digital design, or a clear idea of colors and part types, keeps you from filling a box with parts you will never use. Our parts sourcing guide covers making one.
- Ask what is on the wall. The selection changes and differs between stores, so a call or a visit is the only reliable way to know.
- Have a fallback. If the wall does not have a part, LEGO's Pick a Brick on LEGO.com or BrickLink probably will.
How to pack a box
- Stack bricks before you put them in. Press bricks together stud to tube into blocks the width of the box. Stacked bricks leave almost no air, which is what turned about 120 loose 2x4 bricks into 173 in The Rambling Brick's test.
- Nest plates and tiles. Plates stack flat into dense blocks; tiles can be stacked on plates. Lay these blocks along the sides of the box.
- Fill the gaps last. Small parts, 1x1 bricks, round plates and similar, go into the spaces left between the blocks.
- Close the lid properly. Do not overfill a box so the lid will not close; ask a store team member if you are unsure what they accept.
Take parts only into your own box while you shop, and put back anything you decide against in the bin it came from.
When the wall is worth it
The wall is best when it has plenty of a part you need in quantity, for example a brick color for a building's walls. It is less useful for one specific part, a rare color or anything large and awkward that leaves empty space in the box.
Two comparisons help. LEGO's Pick a Brick on LEGO.com sells exactly the parts you choose, at a price per part; in the US and Canada its Standard parts cannot be ordered from November 2, 2026 until early 2027, while Bestseller parts stay available. And some current sets are cheap ways to get common parts in bulk: across 834 current non-DUPLO sets in our catalog the median list price works out to about 10.2 cents a piece as of October 2026, while the current LEGO Classic boxes below come in between about 6 and 8 cents.
LEGO Classic Creative Vehicles, mostly bricks and plates in 29 colors, the lowest price per piece of the current Classic boxes.
The Medium Creative Brick Box, a cheaper mix of bricks and plates for general building.
Sorting what you bring home
A packed box is a jumble once you open it. The Sorting Planner helps plan bins and labels for the parts you collect.
Use Our Tools to Go Further
Get more insights about the sets mentioned in this article with our free LEGO tools