Brick Update

I took a trip over to the Toys R Us in Times Square NYC to check out their latest LEGO offerings…

Times Square, the Toys R Us is just to the right:

Outside of Toys R Us is a community of characters, all waiting to take their photos with you, for a small tip:

Here we are in mid-March, and TRU still has plenty of Star Wars Advent Calendars still in stock. At least they dropped the price to $35:

The main Star Wars section, a mixture of older sets and newer sets:

Still plenty of the Rebel Hoth Battle Packs in stock:

Millennium Falcons:

Pirates of the Caribbean:

Some of the LEGO sculptures that hover over customers:

Plenty of older collectible minifigs and snow man polybags:

The real gold, the exclusive sets:

Technic, and unbelievably, a good stock of Prince of Persia:

More Star Wars:

Some of the rarer sets to find in a Toys R Us:

More modulars:

The pricing is higher at this TRU because of the cost of real estate in Times Square:

They mislabeled the “Super Star Destroyer” as the “Star Defender.” But at $399, that is standard retail for this set:

I hate to say it, but in a battle, the Mega Bloks sculpture would blow away the LEGO sculpture:

City sets:

Pet Shop was priced at MSRP as well:

Imperial Shuttle has a significant markup:

Still plenty of Harry Potter in stock. $37.99 for the regularly $19.99 Quidditch Match set:

Dino:

Alien Conquest still not moving:

Super Heroes:

City:

It was nice to walk up to my local LEGO Store and see Town Hall prominently displayed in the window:

They only had one box on the shelf, with a big dent on one corner, but luckily they had more in the back, one of which I bought.

Amazing how many high priced collectors sets LEGO has in stock now:

A wall of LEGO:

Still plenty of Pirates of the Caribbean in stock:

They were preparing a special Friends-themed promotion:

Buckets of very cool pieces:

You can see the final promotional piece just below the counter – an ice cream stand:

They also got dark red 1×2 bricks back in stock on the Pick A Brick Wall:

Still have the big dragon in stock:

Plus lots of Dino:

Mindstorms and Technic:

Alien Conquest is still hanging around:

They can finally keep Super Heroes sets in stock:

Three HUGE Star Wars sets, plus many others:

The monthly mini model builds for 2012 so far:

Easter polybags:

Friends:

City:

This wedding set was out of stock for awhile:

First time I remember seeing Super Heroes magnets:

Excited to start building LEGO Town Hall #10224. At 2766 pieces, it is going to be a big build! I love the dark orange color of the building – a nice tone that should fit in well with the rest of the street.

The box, with a different orientation than the other modular boxes:

Back of the box, always interesting to see which 2 other modulars they feature:

The price… by far the most expensive modular, but also the biggest. My gut is this is more for the adult collector anyway, so going bigger may be an experiment for them.

The contents of the box.

The three manuals. Level 2 is the thinnest:

The first modular (I think) that has a single baseplate instead of two put together:

All the bags for the first floor:

A few bags for the second floor:

And all the bags for the third floor and roof:

Excited to get started!

My wife has quite the sense of humor. After a recent thrift store outing, she came home and announced she got me a box of vintage LEGO, with original box, manual, etc. She then presented me with this:

I am fortunate to have a wife who not only supports my LEGO hobby, but has a sense of humor about it. So, for 50 cents, we are the proud owners of a vintage Brix Blox set. Looks as though it is from the 1970’s, and marketed through Sears. Let’s take a peak inside the box:

The pieces are larger, similar to Duplo, but have a harder feel than Duplo, much more like regular LEGO. They fit together with a satisfying click and feel. Just basic shapes and colors. Here is the manual:

Inside you are reminded of the simplicity of plastic building blocks prior to the 1980’s, where everything is constructed from large rectangles. “Boy on wagon” is one of the more interesting suggestions in the manual:

You are certainly reminded of the imagination aspect of these vintage toys, especially when looking at “freighter or “chicken”:

All in all, it was fun to check out the set. But, I think I will stick with LEGO.

A nice package arrived today with 12 sets of #9488 Star Wars Elite Clone Trooper & Commando Droid Battle Packs. I got a really good deal on them, and really like the two clone troopers included. I am trying to find the time to take a photo of my clone army, and my fleet of Republic Gunships.

Here is another LEGO Star Wars set that I didn’t expect much from, but really enjoyed the build. The primary reason behind purchasing it was the minifigs, but I’m glad I have an X-Wing now so I can compare the scale to the UCS Millennium Falcon once I get that built.

So let’s take a look at set #9493: X-wing Starfighter.

It comes across as a fairly large set based on the box size alone:

For a box of this size, I expected the tape seals, not push tabs:

What you get when you open it up: 5 bags, a sticker sheet, and the manual:

Here is everything all put together, including spare parts:

Here is the new R5-D8 minifig:

The coloring is nice, and it’s cool to see LEGO use this head shape in a few minifigs this season:

From the back… surprised they still won’t do back-printing on astromech droids:

Another R2-D2 is included in this set. A comparison:

They provide two X-Wing pilots: Luke Skywalker and new minifig: Jek Porkins. I like Jek’s helment a lot. His face is surprisingly unique compared to other X-Wing pilot minifigs. It’s a nice touch that if you get two X-Wing sets, you can have two pilot/droid combos.

The faces:

The sticker sheet, which I won’t bother applying. These stickers could be used on a variety of sets or MOCs:

Always interesting to see how colorful the inner frame of sets can be. This is one of the MANY techniques LEGO has used to make the building process easier. Greater differentiation in color makes it easier to find parts and ensure they are in the right place as you read through the manual:

Here is the mechanism that let’s you open up the wings:

Very clever system:

The completed X-Wing. It’s a nice size, and a nice likeness to the ship:

With wings open:

Rubber bands are used as part of the mechanism that opens and closes the wings:

In minifig scale:

You can see where those stickers would go in the round engine areas:

Luke and R2 in the X-Wing:

Jek pilots the ship:

A closeup:

All in all, a fun build!

After many years of waiting, I finally added the LEGO Ultimate Collector’s Millennium Falcon 10179 to my collection. It’s a used set, which is the only way I would want to buy it because a new set has so much value, I wouldn’t want to open it. So far, all looks good, everything looks to be in great shape.

This set has become legendary in the LEGO community, fetching incredible prices on the aftermarket. Mint in box sets sell for more than $1,800, and opened sets such as the one I received sell for somewhere above $1,000. I was lucky enough to not have to pay nearly that amount.

When this set was on store shelves, it went for $500. Evidently, LEGO had a hard time moving a set at that price, and discounted it to $375 on a number of occasions. From my understanding, this is the second largest set LEGO produced, at 5197 pieces. It seems to become more and more common for LEGO to put out large sets costing hundreds of dollars.

From the photos I have seen, the set is HUGE. I’m actually concerned about where I can display it. But, that’s a problem I welcome! In the coming weeks, I will post photos of the completed model, but for now, take a peak at what I received:

Got a nice package of ten more LEGO Clone Troopers to add to my army:

Today we are taking a look at LEGO Star Wars set #9491, the Geonosian Cannon. Priced at $19.99, this is another set that feels like a battle pack with a few more pieces added in.

The contents of the box:

Clone Commander Gree. Nice green color, and nice to see more leg printing on the new 2012 minifigs:

The usual clone face:

Back printing:

Barriss Offee. As usual, I’m not going to bother with the cape (or even the Geonosian Wings) as I don’t plan to display these characters:

She doesn’t have a typically “flesh tone” head, it’s a lighter shade:

The Geonosians, zombie and warrior. The heads look to be made in China, they came in separate little baggies. Very nice printing. The older versions of this minifig were pretty rare, so nice to see these in a set again:

Back printing:

The stare down:

The cannon parts:

Love this color:

The retro gun on the left seems odd when compared to the typical Star Wars blaster:

It’s sort of comical, one is very cartoonish:

The cannon. A nice little set, lots of detail, very stable, and nice coloring:

The rear:

Doesn’t seem like a fair match:

In all, a nice set. Good minifigs, a useful cannon, and a nice overall feel to the set. Easy to use this set with loads of other Clone Wars sets and have it fit right in.

Today we are taking a look at Star Wars LEGO set #9492 TIE Fighter, This is yet ANOTHER TIE fighter added to the many others LEGO has produced. I haven’t owned many of them, so this review offers no basis for comparison. At $55 it seemed priced on the high end for only four minifigs and the size of the ship. That said, I REALLY like the minifigs. I got a good deal on two of them, so I will likely keep the minifigs, and sell off the TIE fighters.

Like most Star Wars sets, they are filled with black and gray pieces:

Here is the completed set, with everything in the box:

The minifigs are the real highlight of the set (like many of the 2012 Star Wars sets. Here we have R5-J2, which features the new droid head. The detail on the head was less than I expected, but overall, I’m glad they went through the effort to produce this. To me, it feels as though the head doesn’t fit on the body 100% properly. Something just seems a bit off, but I can’t figure out why:

Here we compare the new astromech droid to others:

I was excited about the new helmet design for the Death Star Trooper.

Double-sided face:

Back of the helmet:

Compared to a similar minifig, the Imperial Trooper:

TIE Fighter pilot:

The new printed face:

The new Imperial Officer. A favorite of mine:

Compared to other LEGO Imperial Officers:

The TIE Fighter:

A weird looking ship, which I overlook since I can only view it from the sentimental lens of childhood:

The back of the ship:

Inside the cockpit:

The front of the ship:

There are lots of nice details in its construction.

A detail on one of the wings:

Comparing it size-wise to the UCS Y-Wing, it holds up pretty well:

In hot pursuit:

I’m not sure the official size comparison of these two vehicles, but I could reasonably see them not far off from this scale difference:

Overall a fine set with minfigs that I appreciate, but I don’t have the impression others will really be enamored with. I expect this set to be widely discounted later in 2012 and 2013.