Brick Update

Earlier this month, Wal-Mart had what I would consider to be the best LEGO sale of the year. They had major discounts on LEGO Exclusive sets, and then Amazon ended up price matching many of them. The sale went on for days, and Wal-Mart kept adjusting prices.

Sets went in and out of stock VERY quickly. Near the end of the sale, oddly, Wal-Mart dropped prices even lower! But by that time, sets were out of stock, and I don’t think any actually sold at the ridiculously low prices.

For the sets we are talking about here, many of them rarely see significant discounts. I was so excited, I took screenshots!

This is the haul I ended up with, two more Fire Brigades and R2D2:

I don’t think we will see another sale this good for the rest of the year. Sure, around Black Friday, there will be some good deals on some sets, but usually it is not Exclusive sets like these.

I stopped by the Rockefeller Center LEGO Store yesterday to check out the Winter Village Cottage and Star Wars UCS B-Wing, both of which just came out. Lots to see in this trip!

A Monster Fighters display in one of the windows. Notice the oversized brick-built stands.

The UCS B-Wing Starfighter. At $199, I am not excited about this set. I will likely buy one just before they retire in in two years or so. And I am expecting sales on this one.

Star Wars LEGO:

They placed R2D2 (another pricey set) at kid eye-level:

Throughout the store, they have these ghost cutouts on the shelves. They are really going for it with this Halloween theme!

I thought this was strange, another decoration for their Halloween theme.

Those Mandalorian battle packs are still hanging around:

LEGO Lord of the Rings:

The City Advent calendar display:

The new Winter Village Cottage. I was surprised at the depth of the main building. Overall, a nice set, but I’m not too thrilled with the direction they are going with the sale of these sets because it affects the price.

Technic. Motorized Excavator is nowhere to be found:

The Monster Fighters sets:

Super Heroes:

Lots and lots of tourists and customers:

October is double points month. Love this little red guy! Also: notice Rockefeller Center in the background:

Another view, with 30 Rock in the background:

The B-Wing. It’s a very nice set for what it is. But the B-Wing is a funny-looking ship, and one that many fans likely didn’t really notice much in the films. Also: $199!

This is a nice little bonus though, a free TC-14 minifig when you buy the B-Wing. This, with double-points, is a nice way to launch a big set. The TC-14, I think, I had been going for around $20 on the aftermarket.

The dark tan 2×2 tiles are back on the Pick-a-Brick wall!

I was really tempted by these, dark gray 1×2 bricks:

And dark gray corner pieces:

Despite rumors of a very limited release, the Friends Advent Calendar is still in stock:

So many great Exclusive sets. Space Shuttle, Camper Van, Sopwith Camel, Kingdoms Joust, and Tower Bridge. Heck, even the little mini-modulars set is still hanging around. I plan on picking that up on Black Friday, when LEGO usually gives an across the board 10% discount.

And yes, four modulars are still on the shelves. Some discussion has been happening in the forums as to whether this is a new strategy for LEGO, or if they are just trying to make up with a snafu they had with Fire Brigade last year. Either way, I love seeing this.

They have two winter village sets out, including Winter Village Cottage. I hadn’t heard if they had retired the Winter Village Bakery so soon or not.

Trains and tracks:

Road baseplates:

City:

I was shocked to see that they had Ninjago Lloyd ZX in stock. I asked the employee about it, and she said that those things fly off the shelf in minutes. These four were just put on the pegs. I resisted temptation to buy them.

A closer look at Lloyd ZX, $10.99 at this store:

Ninjago:

The New York City exclusive sets:

I still have to pick this up, the Desk Business Card Holder:

The NYC exclusive statue of liberty magnet:

Collectible minifigs:

Fan made Battlestar Galactic ship:

Ghost!

Another shot of the store:

The incredible Pick-a-Brick wall:

Architecture sets:

Pirates of the Caribbean:

Creator and Brickley

Creator:

Dino was hidden up here, along with Master Builder:

Duplo and Cars:

Two kinds of Brickley sets:

Toys R Us is having it’s annual Buy 2, Get 3rd Free on LEGO sets. In previous years, you could apply this discount to the many exclusive sets, such as the modular buildings, Maersk Train, VW Camper, Technic, and the really big Star Wars sets such as Death Star, Super Star Destroyer and Imperial Shuttle. But this year, they wised up, and didn’t include those sets in the sale.

Still a good deal, nonetheless.

With all the talk of LEGO discontinuing Ninjago, it should still be noted how overwhelming the Ninjago branding is in the LEGO aisle:

A mix of sets right up front:

City advent calendar is in stock:

Ninjago endcap:

Star Wars endcap. The planet sets were a really good deal in this sale. Not marked up as much as the other TRU prices:

Ninjago:

Lord of the Rings and Ninjago:

Technic sets weren’t included in the sale:

Super Heroes and Hero Factory:

Monster Fighters:

I never really paid much attention to this set until now: The Mummy:

The Ghost Train, for $84.99

The Werewolf:

The Dynamic Duo Funhouse Escape was still in stock, at $10 above MSRP:

The Star Wars section:

Train:

City:

LEGO gear:

First time I saw this: The LEGO Art Carousel:

Friends:

I picked this up on eBay awhile back for a great price, and still can’t find the time or space to build it. It just sits on the shelf, staring back at me, wondering: “When?”

I couldn’t resist picking up the new LEGO Haunted House:

Back of the box:

The free zombie car polybag that LEGO gave me for spending more than $75:

Okay, so maybe I went a little overboard in buying Ninjago Lloyd ZX minifigs:

It seems that the LEGO Motorized Excavator will likely retire soon, so I took advantage of a recent Toys R Us sale to pick up two of them. In the past, I have really not paid much attention to Technic sets, but the more I see of these built, the more impressed I become:

The box has a flap like old-school LEGO used to have, showing all the functions:

These are 2-in-1 kits, so you can create an entirely different vehicle with it too:

Wow, this set is really incredible. It feels weird judging a set on something other than the greatness of it’s minifigs. The photos speak for themselves, but the end product is heavy, filled with detail, and makes a good display piece.

A very cool LEGO set just arrived in the LEGO Store this month, the Haunted House. While it is part of the Monster Fighters theme, it seems more akin to the modular series in terms of size, presence, the style of playability, and price. That, this is a set you will see on the shelves long after the overall Monster Fighters theme disappears, much like Medieval Market Village is till hanging around, years after the rest of its line has retired.

At $179.99 its YET ANOTHER expensive set, but one that is very unique, has some very cool colors and pieces, and is really the much like a dollhouse, but with zombies.

Beneath the set, you also see the new minifig three-pack that includes a ghost, zombie and a witch:

This was a cool coincidence. I stopped at the bank on my way to the LEGO Store, and they had vintage photos from the town in their windows. This house was displayed prominently, and to me, it has a striking resemblance to LEGO’s Haunted House:

I think LEGO is running out of room in their front display windows for all of these models! They now have four in-production modulars, Haunted House, Sopwith Camel, VW Bus, plus the large LEGO sets: Super Star Destroyer, R2D2, Death Star, Imperial Shuttle, etc:

Lots of detail in the Haunted House:

This month, LEGO has a promotion where you get this free Zombie Car polybag with a purchase over $75:

Another new set, the rock band minifig three-pack, all slightly different versions of collectible minifigs that were released earlier:

City Advent Calendar’s ready to be snapped up:

The Friends Advent Calendar. AFOL’s are still hearing news that there is only one small production run of these available in the US:

The September Pickable Model. A pilgrim? I have no idea. Looks kind of like Santa in his Fall clothing:

Nice black 1×4’s in the Pick a Brick wall:

Small tan plats:

One of the coolest sets LEGO has released recently, a Desk Business Card Holder, but it comes with lots of tiles with letters and numbers on them. I should have picked up one of these. Next time.

LEGO Pencil Holder:

The beach minifig pack:

There was some concern that the Kingdoms Chess set was getting an early retirement because it disappeared from LEGO’s website earlier this week. Still in stock here:

The Technic wall:

2012 Star Wars Advent Calendar:

A rather odd display of a blocked off Gold Mine entrance:

Master Builder’s Academy keeps on going:

That larger set, I believe, is $80. Another pretty pricey set, but it was a heavy box:

A Ninjago minifig. LEGO is not putting names of sets on a lot of their packaging:

The many pricey models you can buy. Before, I forgot to mention Joust, Diagon Alley, Maersk Train, etc:

Monthly Mini Builds:

I don’t remember seeing the LEGO Coasters before:

The Brickley polybag:

Super Heroes:

Lord of the Rings and Star Wars. Lots and lots of licensed themes:

Death Star is still on the shelves! Amazing, it’s been out for so long.

The front of the store:

The side wall:

The back of the store. They had their last set of Imperial Shuttle and the Black Pearl behind the counter, the boxes looked a little worn. An employee told me they weren’t carrying Pirates of the Caribbean anymore.

Looking back to City and Friends:

For me, this was a highly anticipated set: Jabba’s Palace, set #9516. I never had the older version that LEGO released back in 2003, and was never a fan of the older Jabba that didn’t have any printing detail.

This set has a high price tag ($120!!!!) for a mere 770 pieces. But… it is saved by the massive amount of new and unique minifigs. I do realize that it takes a lot of $$$ for LEGO to create new molds for pieces that will only appear in a single set, and that the detailed printing costs money too. Overall, they have outdone themselves in terms of minifig detail.

Here is the box, manuals and set:

The front of the box shows off the new minifigs:

I’m not sure why, but this bugged me. One manual was landscape, and the other portrait:

Here is the back of the setup. Not too bad!

The door with the ominous spider droid in the background:

The setup with minifigs:

Overall it does a really nice job of recreating the key scenes in Jabba’s palace:

The has a quasi modular design to it. The entranceway breaks apart, the top comes off, and the back swings out. This will be especially useful when paired with the upcoming Rancor set:

Onto the minifigs. I am quite impressed with the delicate design of Salacious Crumb:

Bib Fortuna and Oola, really great job with the printing on both:

The back:

The Gamorrean Guard is barely able to be called a LEGO piece, since the entire top section is a single molded/printed piece. But… it does look amazing.

The back:

Boushh looks incredible, I am almost shocked at how good of a job LEGO did with this. Chewie, as usual, is the same old mold:

The back:

Han in Carbonite, and unfrozen with the same face (it’s a double sided head.) Nice to get this in another set – iconic:

Jabba is just amazing, they did such a great job on the mold and printing:

It’s nice that they allowed him to turn his head so he can slither along, and isn’t just stuck in the “seated” position:

Details right down to his tattoo, which I never knew about until they printed it on this piece!

Jabba’s back:

B’Omarr Monk:

The trap door play feature:

Overall, an amazing set. I got it for about 20% off via Amazon, which made it an easier pill to swallow, price-wise. But even at $120, you get a lot for your money.