As the biggest toy brand in the world, LEGO similarly has a massive footprint in South Africa with countless ways to buy bricks and save on sets.

All South Africans love a good bargain and making their Rands stretch as far as possible so, as we begin 2023, we have drawn up a complete guide for buying LEGO in this country.

This guide will cover the best stores to buy new LEGO, showing what they do best and where to go depending on your needs. It will not cover the second hand market and it will also not cover every possible store in the country, only the ones we’ve found to be the best from many years of shopping.

Great Yellow Brick

Online store link: greatyellowbrick.co.za

Pros: Standardised pricing | Free delivery with no minimum spend | Robust loyalty system | Free Gift With Purchase sets | Exclusive sets | In store bonuses | Usually has new sets first

Cons: Sales are seldom | Promotions do not stack

Great Yellow Brick is the licensee and operator of the five physical LEGO stores in South Africa. Because of this Great Yellow Brick has a lot to offer which is exclusive, and its pricing can basically be considered the recommend retail price for LEGO products in this country.

If you’re ever unsure about any store selling a set, just look up the price on Great Yellow Brick. Anything less than that price is a sale, while anything more is overpaying.

This is a double edged sword as it means you will never be overpaying when you buy from here, but you will also seldom get a discount as sales on Great Yellow Brick are usually few and far between. To make up for this you can find an unparalleled list of features and boons when shopping.

The free delivery on every order, regardless of price, is very welcome, as is the VIP point system which awards one point for every Rand spent. Here is how the points can be spent:

It should be noted that sometimes points can be exchanged for special sets which aren’t sold for money, so there’s reason to collect points outside of the cash back rewards.

Great Yellow Brick also tempts a lot of shoppers with its Gift With Purchase (GWP) system, where a free set is given away to qualifying purchases that reach a certain threshold. These sets, like the VIP ones, cannot be acquired any other way. It’s a really nice incentive but that threshold is usually R2 000 or R2 500, so you have to spend a lot to get them.

The exclusives continue with entire lines of sets which can only be had here, and this continues when you visit a store as Pick A Brick walls (where you can pay for a cup to fill up with loose pieces) and Build-A-Minifigure station (build your own custom minifigure).

Really Great Yellow Brick offers you the most extra incentives when buying LEGO in South Africa, but it does this by selling sets at the RRP. If you want to pay less for sets, that’s where the other stores come in.

Import A Toy

Online store link: www.importatoy.co.za

Pros: Arguably the best pricing in the country | Fantastic customer service | Super fast delivery | Free sets and other promotions

Cons: Free shipping only for Gauteng | No loyalty system

If you want to buy a LEGO set in South Africa right now, chances are that Import A Toy has it for the lowest price at this very moment. While other stores on this list may occasionally beat Import A Toy with a very steep discount or a blowout sale, Import A Toy beats them every other day of the year with consistently low prices.

On top of this the store will routinely also offer extra free sets with certain big purchases and other gifts. Unlike Great Yellow Brick, however, these are usually regular retail sets and not exclusives.

The biggest pain point for Import A Toy is delivery for those outside of Gauteng. Right now those in this province get free delivery for purchases of R750 or more, while those outside will have to pay regardless of order size.

Toy Kingdom

Online store link: toykingdom.co.za

Pros: 3 for 2 sales every quarter | Unbeatable in store sales | Acceptable loyalty programme

Cons: High regular pricing | Deceptive sale pricing | Big in store sales are not advertised

Toy Kingdom is famous – and then infamous – in the local LEGO scene for its 3 for 2 sales which are usually run every three months. LEGO will go on a sale where you can buy three sets and the cheapest one is free.

This sale system was the absolute best way to buy LEGO for a while, until Toy Kingdom gimped it by jacking up their prices before the sale, excluding certain sets from the promotion, and other consumer unfriendly choices.

The 3 for 2 sale still happens regularly and it can still be a fantastically cheap way to buy, but you need to hope that the sets you want are available and that the prices haven’t been tampered with.

Toy Kingdom can also be the best place to shop in person. Stores will, occasionally as individuals and without promotion, offer clearance sales that cannot be equalled by online stores. The best deal we ever got on LEGO was at the Toy Kingdom Sandton branch when expensive Star Wars LEGO sets were put on a “buy one, get one free” clearance.

Toys r Us

Online store link: www.toysrus.co.za

Pros: Bricktober | Occasional decent discounts

Cons: High regular pricing | Deceptive sale pricing | Wonky loyalty programme

The biggest draw for Toys r Us is the Bricktober programme, in which special gift sets are given out on qualifying orders. Bricktober sets are only available at Toys r Us and only in the month of October.

With Toys r Us closed in America it’s unsure how much long Bricktober will last or what specific sets South Africa will get, but special carnival sets were made available very recently in October 2022, so the tradition seems to be continuing.

As for buying here the rest of the year, we can’t recommend it with sales no offering compelling enough deals and regular pricing on the high side.

Takealot

Online store link: www.takealot.com

Pros: The Takealot ecosystem | Sales can make it the cheapest place to shop | Seamless returns system

Cons: Damaged boxes | Deceptive pricing | No loyalty programme | No external bonuses

A the juggernaut of online retail in South Africa, Takealot can sometimes be the absolute cheapest place to buy LEGO. For Takealot it’s all about timing as you not only have to catch a sale, but you need to diligently check that the pricing is accurate as it’s common to see the platform manipulate prices to make sales look better than they actually are.

If you can avoid this the next big problem is that we constantly see LEGO boxes arriving from Takealot in absolutely sorry states, sometimes with boxes ripped open or with holes punched straight through. Even worse is when Takealot provides no packing box at all, and simply glues the shipping label right to the LEGO box.

Thankfully in all the times we’ve seen this happen in the community – and it has been countless times now – the LEGO inside has arrived undamaged. For those who want to keep their boxes for their collection, and those buying presents for others, the low prices from Takealot usually come with the downside of destroyed packaging.

On the upside Takealot will usually replace egregious examples for free, including free collection and re-delivery, but we have also seen replacements arrive just as damaged as before.

Everything else

To cap this offer let’s list off some quickfire extra advice for your future LEGO shopping needs. We’ll also use this space to mention some other stores we have shopped at in the past that didn’t make the breakdown above.

• Kiddiwinks should also be considered for all purchases. The small chain of stores also offers compelling sales, great customer service and exclusive sets.
• Pops Toys is another recommendation from us. This store also sets itself apart with a separate Collector Shop for rarer items.
• Chain stores like Game, Makro and CNA have decent LEGO selections but their sales are rarely worth choosing over any of the other options we’ve discussed so far.
• The Serval Takealot price checker is invaluable to ensuring that Takealot’s rollercoaster prices are kept in line.
• Add products you’re interested in to your Takealot wishlist, and then download the Takealot app. The app will send you push notifications when an item on the wishlist is on sale.
• Over the past few years store exclusives have become increasingly more common in South Africa. Some of the stores listed here will have the exclusive right to sell certain LEGO products, sometimes leaving you no choice of where to buy should you want that specific set. This is also why you may not be able to easily find certain sets when searching.
• The ubiquity of Toy Kingdom and Toys r Us physical stores may make them perfect for those who need to buy a present on very short notice.
• Do not try to game the system by buying LEGO sets on sale at one store, and then returning them at another store at full price. Each store has its own unique system attached to LEGO, even if the boxes are identical, making this impossible. This is a consumer tip as well as a “be a good human being” tip.

[Image – Photo by Xavi Cabrera on Unsplash]