Brick Update

Some of the LEGO Star Wars summer sets have arrived at my local Toys R Us. Even though I had a 20% off coupon, I still couldn’t justify the high cost of these sets for a few of the minifigs I am interested in. Let’s take a look:

Palpatine’s Arrest set #9526

$109.99, which I believe is $10 more than MSRP:

Set 9497, Republic Striker-class Starfighter for $49.99:

The Gungan Sub, set #9499:

$79.99:

Saesee Tiin’s Jedi Starfighter, Set 9498:

$34.99:

The mix of sets in the LEGO Star Wars section:

This was interesting, a LEGO Lord of the Rings case for $13.99:

It includes a green baseplate:

Today we are taking a look at LEGO set 9473, the LOTR The Mines of Moria. At $79.99, it hits the “mid-range” of the Lord of the Rings sets LEGO is now offering. 776 pieces and 6 minifigs, plus the huge troll and 2 skeletons (which I don’t consider minifigs.)

Overall, I am very impressed with the set largely due to the level of detail LEGO put into the construction. At every step, this thing is over-built compared to some of the more kid-friendly sets. You layer piece on top of piece, or use many smaller pieces to make up a section that, in the past, LEGO would have just used a large molded piece for.

Okay, let’s walk through this…

The completed set, with box.

Two instruction booklets:

I have heard people complain in the forums that the set should have been 4 times bigger. I don’t really understand that reaction, the key elements of the scene are well represented here. If you have the money, buy 2 sets and combine them… you will have a really nice set that way!

The cave troll. I’m never usually a fan of these large molded figures, but the printing is so nice, I have to say, this is a great figure.

Such a decorative back for such an ugly dude:

If I were a minifig, I would not want to get this guy’s attention:

The two orcs. Not sure if you can tell, but both faces are represented here. Scary and slightly scarier? I love he green color:

Back printing, hair and ears:

The head pieces came loose with all the other pieces, signifying that these weren’t made in China then packed in at the factory. They are hard plastic and have a nice feel to them, unlike many of the Chinese made Collectible minifig accessories:

Logolas and Boromir, both exclusive to this set:

Back printing:

Impressive detail:

Pippin and Gimli:

Even though it is covered by his beard, LEGO still gave his torso nice printing:

More incredible detail on the helmet:

The doorway. Just look at how many pieces it took to create the door. In the past, LEGO would just have two basic plates act as the door, but here we add all different tiles to give it texture. Same with the archway around it:

The back side:

The side wall:

The play feature allows you to hit two switches and have the columns fall down:

Again, the detail impressed me. Here I removed two pieces to show that they layered on small pieces to get just the right look:

Stacking lots of small pieces where a molded piece would have gotten the job done:

The hidden treasure chest:

Just look how much detail is in the column, all those different textures and pieces:

The back side:

The tomb (or coffin?):

The well:

Extra pieces I didn’t use:

This was a nice bonus pack of extra weapons:

The stickers. People complained too about this… how many stickers were included. The funny thing is, this set is so detailed, it doesn’t need ANY stickers. I looked at this as a complete bonus. If you like stickers, use them. If you don’t, like me, ditch them. It should also be noted that these are some pretty cool stickers, useful for a variety of themes and scenarios:

Overall, a really nice set!

I am breaking up some LEGO Elite Clone Trooper battle packs, and admiring the inventory. Here is a look at opening up and combining 5 of the battle packs. First up, the clones, which are still some of my favorite minifigs:

The idea is to keep the clones, get rid of the commando droids and integrate the rest of the pieces into my bulk collection of playable LEGO. Here is everything sorted out:

Some great colors in this set, I love the dark red:

The commando droids. The dark brown color is very cool, but I’m not a droid fan. Maybe some of these pieces could be used in interesting ways in a MOC, but I will likely just sell them off:

All the accessories for the clones, you get a lot of extra dark red visors and such:

I have a ton of Elite Clone battle packs, I suppose I will build up a bit of an army of these… stay tuned!

I recently had to move my LEGO room, and came face to face with something I have been reticent to admit for awhile: I have too much LEGO. With such great forums such as Brickset.com and ToysNBricks.com, it is so easy to find great deals on LEGO sets. Around the holidays, those deals become almost exponential, with 50% off sales, clearance sales and the like.

It’s become obvious that I have way more sets than I would ever have time to build, and duplicates of many many many (many) sets. So, I am thinning the collection a bit, of course with the goal of giving it breathing room so I can eventually add more. Funny how that works.

But the process is a good one – allowing me to get rid of stuff that I don’t love, and ensure that the sets I want to build will have room.

Here is a photo of just one shelf, some of the Emerald Night’s I have collected:

Because it wasn’t enough to have four LEGO Stores in easy driving distance to where I live, LEGO bestowed an additional FIFTH store in my vicinity. This is not counting two additional stores I could travel to if I felt like spending a bit more time in the car.

The Jersey Gardens LEGO Store in Elizabeth, New Jersey opened in mid-June, and I just had my first chance to visit. More than 50 photos of it are below. Venturing out to the store, I found myself increasingly confused as to why LEGO would build a store at this location. It is billed as an outlet mall, meaning many of the stores offer discounted prices on what I consider their B-stock merchandise. The mall is located among warehouses, factories, an industrial seaport, airport and major highway. If there is any residential area near this mall, I don’t know where it is. It’s close to the IKEA, which certainly gets a lot of business. But from what I have seen, LEGO builds stores in affluent areas, or very high traffic areas. This mall seems to be neither. And for those who do venture out to the “outlet” mall, they are looking for discounts, not for a toy that while extraordinarily popular, is rather expensive for many average consumers.

Within the mall, the location is kind of odd too, it is in the center court, but in a dark corner. Even the photos I took of the sign didn’t come out very well. The store itself is very large, but with lots of empty space since all of the merchandise is on the walls. You have to walk 20 or 30 feet from the front door before you can actually pick up a box of anything with LEGO in it.

But… who am I to complain about a fifth LEGO Store near me! As usual, the merchandise was well displayed and the employees were friendly. Okay, let’s dig into those 50+ photos:

Here is a peak at what Toys R Us is offering in terms of LEGO here in early summer. It’s an interesting mix of newer 2012 themes, and earlier stuff that I am surprised is still so well represented on the shelves. Alien Conquest and Harry Potter in particular each have a pretty big presence.

A big display of Monster Fighters right when you walk in the door at Toys R Us, plus Super Heroes. I wonder how well Monster Fighters is selling compared to a licensed brand such as Avengers.

Another big display at the front of the store, Toys R Us was having a $10 off $50 LEGO purchase sale. Lots of Harry Potter Hogwart’s Castles still in stock. They always have this at Target too:

I love how Lord of the Rings is inches away from Duplo:

Ninjago:

LEGO Minifigure Speech Bubbles:

Big gray baseplates:

Nothing new in the Star Wars section yet, the summer wave has yet to hit here:

Pirates of the Caribbean still on the shelves too:

As usual, a bit of a mess:

I suppose I could try to interpret this photo as Lord of the Rings sets selling well:

They still have the big promotional display of Alien Conquest taking up shelf space:

I love tracking the price of the LEGO Harry Potter Quidditch Match set. Around the holidays, the price goes up to nearly $40. Now at a bargain price of $24.99, still $5 over MSRP:

Weathertop with a mere $5 markup:

City:

City and Technic:

Creator with a red box Ninjago in the background:

Ninjago:

When I was 19, I found a vintage LEGO castle set at a thrift store, still in the box. That find set off the adult years of LEGO hobby, taking me “out of the dark ages,” which is how adult fans of LEGO describe the years between childhood and picking up the hobby again as an adult.

For years, I bought LEGO at yard sales and retail stores, and my favorite theme of the pre-Star Wars era was always Castle. When I had to pare down my collection, I would sell everything but the castle sets and pieces. Much of it is still packed away.

In recent years, LEGO has began putting out amazing sets across a range of themes. So, I still buy sets such as Medieval Market Village, Joust, and other Castle themes sets (now called Kingdoms), but I have broadened my interests as well: Star Wars, Harry Potter, Modulars, Alien Conquest, City and more.

But… I just couldn’t pass up this lot of older Castle sets from eBay several months back:

These are opened sets from the late 1980s and early 1990s. I have no use for MISB sets – besides there expense… I like being able to build these. (of course though, I haven’t had time to even pry these sets open yet!)

Here we have set 6057 Sea Serpent, set 6017 King’s Oarsmen, and 6012 Siege Cart:

Here is set 6030 Catapult and 6038 Wolfpack Renegades:

And finally set 6023 Maiden’s Cart and 6041 Armor Shop:

One day perhaps I will create a nice display of all my castle sets. Much of what I have in storage needs to be collected back into sets. In the meantime, I am happy to stare at these boxes!

I am working my way up to larger LEGO Lord of the Rings sets, and had a chance to build set 9471 this week: Uruk-Hai Army. For $30, it is a mid-range set price wise, but offers lots of playability for kids, and is a nice army builder for adult collectors.

The box:

The entire setup:

It is written everywhere like this:

The spare parts and parts I didn’t use, including capes:

Rohan soldier. This guy is pretty pricey on the aftermarket.

Eomer, Incredible detail on the helmet especially:

The Uruk-hai army:

Choice of two faces (which only a mother could love):

The Uruk-hai weapon:

I believe this is a new piece, a fully printed wood board:

The new horse:

A section of Helms Deep:

I love that this is brick built, and not made out of large molded pieces:

The colors and details are great:

Inside:

Overall, I really like the set, and appreciate how this is meant to be an add-on to the larger Helm’s Deep LEGO set.

It was great to pick up a couple of the new LEGO Lord of the RIngs sets, Shelob Attacks is the first I was able to dig into. For $20, it’s a nice sized set, you essentially get 4 characters here and a great scene from the book/movie.

The minifigs, I believe 2 are unique to this set:

Ah Frodo. He has two looks: tired and terrified. The ring came out really nice, and you get 3 in the package. I like the detail on his outfit:

Back printing:

Probably my favorite part of the set is Sam’s shirt. I can see this being used for Civil War soldiers and other uses in the LEGO universe. Nice that they got the eyebrows matching the hair.

Back printing:

Gollum. The face certainly captures the scary side of him:

The figure overall is awkward. It’s mostly a big molded piece. Not horrible, but not amazing either other than the head printing:

His feet:

You get a small cave/rock formation here:

Shelob is pretty impressive. Big, and dare I say: scary!

I was glad to see the face was printed, not a sticker:

Minifig scale:

The rear of the spider has a contraption that allows you to hang her:

After months of off and on work, I finally finished LEGO Town Hall. An impressive set overall, especially because of the size. I love the dark orange as a color, and think it works well for the building. It’s much taller than any of the other modular buildings which in a way is good, and in a way is bad. The other sets are very quaint with lots of detail. This set dwarfs them and can change the sense of overall scale. In the end – I definitely think it works.

It’s interesting to see this set come out after Pet Shop, which is such a different direction. Two smaller buildings vs one hulking one. Personally, I find the Pet Shop set offers more flexibility, you can add multiples to a setup and have them fit in. I bought two more sets of Pet Shop recently so that I can have a row of brownstones.

The completed set:

The box:

Three manuals:

The first floor is really cool. As others have said, I can see this working well for a bank:

The second and third floors:

The clock tower:

The back of the building:

Taking a look at the third floor: the large conference table:

The elevator door and buttons:

Top view of the third floor:

The second floor:

The mayor’s office:

The secretary:

The first floor:

Some kind of payment desk:

A sitting area:

The town meeting room:

A view through the main doors:

The elevator shaft:

Leftover pieces:

I like how the set had four male figures and four female figures. I feel like it is usually lopsided with too many male characters in most sets:

The male figures: