Craftiness

How to Order Individual Parts and Find Instructions to Make a Retired LEGO® Kit

Kyra

Jun 14, 2023 •9 minutes to read

In case you're interested in building a retired, no longer officially sold, LEGO® set I wanted to share the steps I used to recreate a set in the past. In this post I'll use the retired Wonder Woman™ BrickHeadz™ set that my eldest daughter really wanted.

Pinterest-geared image showing my post title, my main URL, an seven images with an arrow going from the retired product image to the finished piece.

First a quick aside. I have no affiliation with the LEGO® brand and make no money if you choose to purchase these products. I love building and playing with LEGO® and wanted to share what I’ve discovered in case it could help you.

Additionally, I originally went through this example back in September of 2021 but while editing the post in May of 2023 all the steps seemed about the same. Hopefully this is still up to date enough for you, whenever in the future you're reading this, and if not please let me know in the comments below along with the new process if you know it.

Find the Set Number

The first step is learning the identification number for your particular LEGO® set. For this I’d start by searching on the LEGO® website or doing an online image search using any keywords from that set. So taking the example of the retired Wonder Woman™ BrickHeadz™ (41599) set above I’d search for wonder woman on LEGO.com or do an image search for wonderwoman brickheadz. Through these methods I’d be able to find the set number, in this case 41599, for the set.

Image is a screenshot of the search results for Wonder Woman filtered to only show the retired products. On the left are all the filter criteria while the right shows six related and retired Wonder Woman™ products. — If I didn’t have the box and/or instructions and wanted to purchase more pieces or find the instructions I’d start by doing a search on LEGO.com. Here I searched for Wonder Woman before filtering the results by it’s availability as I knew this was a retired product. Scrolling through the results I was able to quickly find the Wonder Woman™ BrickHeadz™ set I was interested in and clicked on it to see more. This search and screenshot was taken on September 19th, 2021. Looking at this I’m now curious about the Wonder Woman™ Dorm.

Image shows the Wonder Woman™ BrickHeadz™ entry on the LEGO.com website. — After clicking on the Wonder Woman™ BrickHeadz™ piece I was able to quickly determine the set number of 41599 by looking underneath the main photo beside the age and piece quantity for the set. This screenshot was taken on September 19th, 2021.

Image shows an image search for "wonderwoman brickheadz" on DuckDuckGo. Below the search you see a row of Wonder Woman Brickheadz images and below a large image of Wonder Woman™ BrickHeadz™ box from vanloda.com. — If LEGO.com search didn’t work, or as an alternative, I could see instead doing an image search for the box and hope it’s clear enough to see the LEGO® set number. In this case it’s listed under the recommended age of 10+ on the upper left side of the box. This particular search, and resulting screenshot, was done through DuckDuckGo on September 16th, 2021.

Download the Instructions

Once I found the set number the next logical step would be to use it to search on the LEGO® Customer Service Building Instructions page. This resulting downloadable PDF means I can later build the set and, most importantly at this point, see what bricks I’d need to buy in order to be able to build this set. In all the instruction books, so far, the page showing each brick used and it's quantity is located on the very last page or at least close to that last page of the book.

Image shows the Customer Service Building Instructions portal. I've typed in the set number, 41599, and so the dropdown is open showing the matching BrickHeadz™ entry I'm interested in. — After clicking on the *Building Instructions* at the top of the page I next searched for the retired Wonder Woman™ BrickHeadz™ by entering it's set number 41599. The dropdown immediately showed the correct set which I could click on to speed up the process if I wanted. This screenshot was taken on September 17th, 2021.

Image shows the building instructions results for 41599 on the LEGO website. — When searching I received one result as I searched by the set number. If I wanted to I could’ve instead searched by something more vague and filtered this down using the theme or year. This screenshot showing the results was taken on September 17th, 2021.

Image is a screenshot of the website showing a picture of the completed Wonder Woman™ BrickHeadz™, the year it was made 2018, and a link to download the instructions and the size of the file 3.89 MB. — When I clicked on the result I was brought to this page where I could download the instructions for the set. This screenshot was taken on September 17th, 2021.

Image shows the PDF with the parts listed in the center of the page between images of series 2 and the back cover of the book. On the left you can see the pages 33 to the back cover in the page overview. — Once downloaded I opened the file and navigated to the end of the book. Here I was able to see all the bricks used in the set including their part number and the quantity I’d need to make the same set. This screenshot was taken of the PDF downloaded from LEGO.com on September 17th, 2021.

Purchase the Bricks

When first starting this post I had said I’d start with the Buy Bricks section of the LEGO® Customer Service website. I even posted about it years ago with How to Find and Purchase Extra LEGO® Parts Through LEGO.com. Sometime between taking the below screenshots and finishing this post the Buy Bricks section of the LEGO® Customer Service website seems to now redirect you to the LEGO® Pick a Brick. As such these photos may look bit different but they show a process that is still functional so I'm keeping them as is.

Anyway to buy bricks now I’d start with the LEGO® Pick a Brick website and search by the set number to see all of the related and available bricks. Hopefully this way you could purchase all of the needed bricks and build the retired kit yourself! Searching for the Wonder Woman™ BrickHeadz™ (41599) set I was surprised to only see 48 bricks listed as the instruction book showed that I'd need fifty.

Image shows the results of the set search showing a header with an image of the set, the set number, the name, and that 48 bricks are available for that set. Below two rows of parts are showing with a hint of the third row below. — I then used that number to query the Buy Bricks section of the LEGO® Customer Service website to find the matching 48 pieces that go with this set. While scrolling through I saw only one piece wasn’t currently available although as it was bright pink I figured it wouldn’t be seen and could easily be replaced by a different colored part with the same design number. I also used another tab to search the Building Instructions section of the website so I could see how many of each piece I’d need and, later once the parts arrive, use it again to build the set. This screenshot was taken on September 16th, 2021. UPDATE: The Buy Bricks section seems to be no longer. For these parts check out Pick a Brick here.

While selecting the bricks for this set I took a screenshot of the brick list in the instructional PDF and went through each one individually. For the bricks available I added the quantity needed to my cart and then crossed that item off of the screenshot. If a brick was out of stock I knew I could wait for it to come in or, more likely, used the brick's design number to see if it came in a different color. If there were no similar bricks I next needed to do a bit more detective work and look through the instructions for where the brick was used to see if it was hidden or not. Depending on the brick and how it was used I could then combine different bricks together to make something similar, find something completely different that fulfills a similar purpose, or skip it all together.

I went through all 48 of the bricks needed and either added them in the right quantities or knew I needed to figure out a substitute. With the physical crossing off of each item from my screenshot I knew I wasn't going to forget anything.

And Now Wait...

Once the bricks and any required replacements are ordered all that's left to do is wait for them to arrive and then jump into the build!

Closeup image of the slightly dusty Wonder Woman™ BrickHeadz™ years later. — The final Wonder Woman™ BrickHeadz™ LEGO® set built years ago and well loved.

Even More!

I love how LEGO® keeps all of their instructions available online making it easier to build past sets.

Sewing Machines

I especially appreciated this fact when I stumbled across a Disney Princess set number 40388, including a sewing machine, that was out of stock but on sale through the LEGO® website. At first I waited patiently hoping it would come back but then I decided, just for fun, to look up the instructions and check out the coorelating Pick a Brick parts. I realized the resulting brick count matched the unique bricks shown in the instructions, ignoring the capes, so I assumed I could easily recreate the set. And I could! Other than the missing stickers and the capes I had the set! And then later when I found another sewing machine set I repeated the process again. This time the lack of stickers were a good thing as the white board now looks ready for a planning session. And technically it may have been even cheaper than the set if, both times, I had only bought the sewing machine and ignored the rest. More recently I heard about a vintage sewing machine included with one of the jazz sets so maybe I should go check out those instructions and buy the parts for just the sewing machine and ignore the rest of the set.

Image shows a dress up lego set with a sewing machine, a vanity, and a place to hang the capes up. — I stumbled upon this set that was cheap but sold out on the LEGO® website. Screenshot taken back in Septeber of 2021.

When searching the building instructions for the set number 40388 it pops right up. — I looked up the instructions for this set and downloaded it so I could better see which parts were required and how they were used. Screenshot taken back in Septeber of 2021.

Image shows three windows open on the computer. The right side is the Pick a Brick page taking the entire vertical space. To the left are two windows with the top one showing the bricks from the instructions with one crossed off and the bottom showing the main image to help figure out where they're from. — With the three screens visible showing me the main image, bricks needed, and bricks available to buy it was time to get to work!

Image is a screenshot of the bricks listed in the back of the instruction set. It's been edited so bricks are slashed through or, if more work was needed, dashed or dotted. — As I added bricks to my shopping cart I crossed them out so I knew they were covered. Bricks that needed more research got dashes or dots so I knew to go back to them and search by it's design number for alternative colors.

Image shows the list of bricks including part number, image, technical name, and quantity. Next to it sits the bag of bricks. — After waiting patiently my parts arrived and looked gorgeous!

Image shows a finished set lacking stickers so the white board and post it notes look nice and clean. Other than the whiteboard there's a bow and bench spot, a sewing machine, a short chair, and a blue lamp. Can't remember if it came with it but I added a purple laptop and camera to go with my blog theme. — When assembling these photos for the post I grabbed what I thought was the set and then later realized was the one I later bought. Anyway once you get the parts all that's left is building it... hopefully you marked down which parts you replaced and with what making the job easier.

Botanicals

I'd also been spending some time with the LEGO® botanical collection and realized I could hypothetical create my own uniquely colored bouquets so I hopped back online and searched for the flower sets online and then narrowed each set down to a flower or two. After selecting which flower I liked the most I next went through the instructions figuring out which bricks listed in the back of the book I needed and exactly how many. From this list I selected a brick and looked up the part number, recorded it's coorelating design number, and then looked it up again by the design number so I could see which colors were available to buy. I then opened a new tab and repeated this process with the next brick. After all the bricks needed for that flower were opened I compared the tabs to see if there were any matching colors I could use for the flower. I quickly realized that it would be tough to recreate the whole bloom in a single hue as so many bricks had mismatched colors offered so I temporarily gave up my pursuit but may try again in the future.

Image again shows a multi-page window set up. This time the main image was replaced with the Notes app showing the flower, page number it's on in the instructions, and a list of bricks with their part number, design number, and colors — With each set having a selection of flowers and then needing to narrow down the brick list for a single type made this process more difficult. On top of that only the part number was listed so I had to search for each brick twice. Once using the part number to get the design number and the next by that design number to see all the parts (colors) offered for that design.

And those are, I think, the only retired LEGO® sets I've bought through loose parts... at least so far. I'd image the price discrepency between the larger sets would be even greater so that combined with missing bricks and no stickers could make this venture a bit disheartening. That said if you really want that particular LEGO® set it is a possible option.

On that note have you recreated retired sets before? If so did you do it similarily to me or in some other way. I'd love to hear about it so feel free to share in the comments below! Hope you have a great day.

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