Month: September 2011

Took a trip up to the LEGO Store in Rockefeller Center in New York City. The Star Wars section, unbelievably empty except for a lone LEGO Store employee. The Super Star Destroyer is on the wall to the left. I’m always amazed that they would put a $260 set at toddler eye-level.

A portion of the pick-a-brick wall, and the Pirates of the Caribbean section, along with Technic:

The “Gallery” with the Super Star Destroyer, Death Star, Maersk Train and Pet Shop:

The NY LUG window, some nice grab bags (with minifig parts in them), three series of LEGO Collectible Minifigs, and other assorted exclusive Rockefeller Center goodies.

The main entrance:

The exclusive set 3300001 Brickley. Not bad for $15.

I found the LEGO Harry Potter Durmstrang Ship set #5768 for a good price on eBay, so I grabbed it. The set is another in a long line of pirate-like ships, with some interesting color schemes. Overall – a real unique set for the Harry Potter line. The orange-infused box. Notice how there are four bonus minifigs in this set. I believe this came out later on as a Target exclusive. For a $50 set (price at the time), including only two minifigs, none of which was a main character, might have made this a hard sell. Adding four primary characters really ups the value of this set:

This was a used set, so no little baggies inside the box. I’ll get to those huge gray pieces in a moment:

I believe these two minifigs are exclusive to the set. Very cool looking, they remind me more of the collectable minifigs of recent years:

The bonus minifigs, with the dopiest of faces for Ron:

The back of Harry, in his tournament jersey:

Perhaps the most offensive LEGO pieces ever. I was shocked at this. Most of the ship is comprised of these four pieces. The nice thing is that this must have been why the set was only $50 at the time. Once finished, it has an impressive scale for such a mid-priced set. But my goodness is this what LEGO should NOT be about. Dr. Dave Watford has addressed this issue on his own LEGO blog. Okay, more on this topic later:

Another offensive piece. This set started reminding me of Playmobil:

Okay, one of the cooler pieces was this shield:

I loved seeing the return of the Black Falcon shield in this set, a throwback to older castle sets:

The completed ship. As I mentioned, it is impressive in size. I really like the use of color as well, and the small gold elements:

Details from the back. Nice use of dark red and medium blue:

A view of the deck:

This set reminded me of a newer set I picked up, The Pharoah’s Quest Scorpion Pyramid. It utilizes a massively wide and tall baseplate to compose much of the set. So it is very similar to the large pieces used in the ship set, which are essentially just large baseplates:

In all, this is a set that LEGO would likely charge $100 for today, simply because of size. Clearly, they would add more minifigs today, and perhaps more playability features. In all – a nice set if you can get past the offensiveness of the hull. I almost want to rebuild a true LEGO hull, and add the other elements to it.

I found the Star Wars LEGO mini-promo set #30052 at my local Target:

It was tucked in the toy aisle, just beneath Mr. Potato Head:

I went to two small independent toy stores, to see their selection. Very standard, as LEGO won’t send them any exclusive sets, not even the collectible minifigs. With the big box stores, Amazon, LEGO’s own stores, it always amazes me that it’s worthwhile for these stores to stay in business. Glad they are there though. The first shop:

And the second store, which is a bit more of a specialty toy store, focusing on more natural, educational stuff, European toys , and of course LEGO and Playmobil.

I stopped by my local LEGO Store to check out the new Super Star Destroyer.

Displayed at kid-height in the front window, although for the price ($400) and lack of playable features, it seems as though it’s mostly an adult collector item:

A close up:

No sign of any for sale, just the box of the set they built for the display:

The other big Star Wars sets available:

And tons of other choices. Can’t wait to see how the Marvel and DC lineup next year displaces Star Wars:

The Star Wars advent calendar:

Alien Conquest and Pirates of the Caribbean:

And more…

Ninjago display up front:

The only sale items I saw on display, from Pharoah’s Quest:

I hadn’t seen these before, Pirates of the Caribbean minifig packs:

Someone seemed to have bought a few of the Kingdoms sets:

The City advent calendar:

Amazing the number of big collector sets now available. Three modulars plus Tower Bridge, Imperial Flagship, two Maersk sets and Emerald Night.

And let’s not forget the Space Shuttle, as well as those architecture sets. I was amazed that the Robie House is $200!

A look at the store:

Toys R Us has had back to back to back sales on LEGO for weeks now. I have bought some stuff from them online, but decided to see what my local store had in stock.

A visit to my local Target to see their stock of summer 2011 LEGO sets:

Another day, another package with dark tan LEGO bricks: