Author: BrickUpdate

My local Target is finally recovering from the holiday season, and is beginning to setup their 2011 aisles, starting with the LEGO aisle. It was shiny and clean, and in a new place than it was just a week ago. In checking out the new sets, I found two pleasant surprises: mispriced sets!

The first is LEGO City Corner set 7641, marked $14.98 instead of $59.99:

I grabbed the last of the City Corner sets. There weren’t any available at Targets in a wide radius from where I live, but I know they had the same pricing.

The LEGO Ninjago Spinjitzu Dogo set 2504 was also mispriced at a 20% discount, and with the wrong label:

I picked up one of these as well, even though I still think it’s overpriced at $40.

Here’s a look at the rest of the 2011 LEGO aisle at Target:

Some Harry Potter sets are finally back in stock:

Stopped by another LEGO Store today, and was surprised to find the Technic 8258 Crane Truck at half price. They had two, and I bought both of them, along with another Home One set 7754 and the Han Solo magnet set at half price too:

This LEGO Store is pretty small:

Their 50% off pile has dwindled, but I was surprised to see so many Midi Star Destroyers in stock:

They had a full display of Ninjago sets, which I saw plenty of parents/kids buying:

Ninjago minifigs:

The big hole in the shelves are where the Technic Crane Trucks were:

They still had a few of the Harvesters in stock at half price:

Very cool magnet, the vintage space minifig. At $10 each, I passed.

A very popular set, 9348 the town people. I saw one woman buy this while I was there.

They had one of the newer Star Wars sets, but this sold while I was there as well:

Star Wars magnets on sale:

They had a bin of Series 3 minifigs in the back. They poured another box into here before I left:

Never paid any attention to these until Wal-Mart put them on sale at less than half price. The Luke is pretty rare evidently, at least at this price. I suppose I could wear one for each time zone.

Just got back from the LEGO Store, a great sale with tons of sets at 50% off. A photo tour:

I bought a few sets, but nothing crazy. The Star Wars Home One set, some Clone Walker Battle Packs, and a couple others.

I’ve wanted this set for awhile, and as I mentioned that LEGO sets seem to come in pairs, I got two of them today. Found a great deal and got them at more than 50% off. It’s the LEGO Toy Story Army Men on Patrol set #7595. A nice pack of 4 minifigs and a green jeep.

Here are the sets:

Mmmm, lots of green pieces:

One of the minifigs. So many possibilities:

How about a space-sick stormtrooper:

It ain’t easy being green:

Or maybe Ron Weasley drank a bad potion:

Regardless, a great set, with some fun minifig parts and loads of green for your collection.

I’m noticing a trend in my spending habits, and in the deals that retailers are offering for LEGO products. Again and again, I am finding it to be worthwhile to purchase two of the same set in order to take maximum advantage of sales. The photo below is of some recent purchases, and each came from a different retailer. The discounts were incredibly good, otherwise I would never buy this much LEGO in such a short time frame, and purchase duplicates of sets. For each, I chose sets that I really liked the minifigs or parts so I can expand my collection.

I couldn’t resist picking these up, the LEGO Star Wars Imperial Speeder Bike set #30005. I think I have 30 of them total, the result of finding a big batch of them, and a $10 off a $50 purchase coupon. Evidently, they are a pretty rare set, and a limited promotion of some sort. I think they appeared in stores in Fall of 2009 for the holiday season, and then reappeared in Fall 2010.

They seem to be the only way to get Stormtroopers in bulk without relying on buying bigger sets or the second-hand market. I bought them mainly for the minifigs, but was surprised at how nice the little speeder bike was. I will likely just add those pieces to my overall parts collection, you can never have too many brown and grey pieces.

I believe these worked out to about $3.25 each before tax. A pretty good deal, considering these minifigs typically trade for more than that on BrickLink. Then, you get the extra speeder bike pieces as a bonus.

As an adult fan of LEGO, or AFOL for short, I’ve decided to keep a LEGO journal of sorts, sharing my LEGO collection, and discussing aspects of this hobby. Clearly, there are many other LEGO blogs out there, but these are the ones that I check daily (and by ‘daily’ – I mean HOURLY):

• Gimme LEGO
• A Modular Life
• Toys N Bricks
• The Brothers Brick
• From Bricks to Bothans

So thanks to them for the inspiration and for fueling my continued interest in LEGO.