review: SSM Vending Brick Ops (Various)

Source: SSM Vending

Have we attained “Peak Brick” yet? The thought occurred to me as I passed by the coin-operated capsule machines at my local supermarket and noticed these toys priced at a paltry USD$.50. With interest in the hobby skyrocketing, we live at a time when new brands (foreign and domestic) enter the global building block market each year to meet the seemingly inexhaustible demand for new product. Sets from other regions that once would have been considered rare or exotic are virtually at one’s fingertips as long as one has Internet access. There’s practically a theme or product line that caters to nearly every demographic of the toy buying public. Now that a building block fan can get a quick construction fix from a vending machine for only two quarters, is the hobby doomed to enter into a state of decline? Out of curiosity both journalistic and morbid, I broke a twenty to purchase two plastic capsules and learn the answer.