Brick Update

I was excited to get my hands on one of the more impressive looking sets to come out of LEGO’s first wave of 2012 Super Heroes sets: #6862 Superman Vs Power Armor Lex. While the set is one of the smallest of the series, with 207 pieces, 3 minifigs and a retail price of $19.99 – it really does everything incredibly well.

Every element of this set has loads of playability, and you can instantly see this set being used across other Super Hero sets as well.

Here are the pieces sorted out. The manual is small and formatted as a comic book. Some dark purple bricks, lots of green, some neat clear elements, and then loads of gray and black:

The minifigs are a real standout. First up is Wonder Woman. From head to toe – she is all custom for this character, and they capture everything better than I expected for such a blocky minifig. The leg printing really sells this – the stars came out perfect:

Finally, a LEGO Superman. They did a great job here. The curl is a nice touch:

Lex Luthor is fine. I always wonder if they experimented with creating a “bald” headpiece that would round the top of a minifigs head. He doesn’t read as a specific character – this figure could easily be used in any City themed set:

I assume the parts that came in this pack are the Chinese made elements:

Not surprising to see Wonder Woman’s legs, lasso, and hair in here. Superman’s hair was a surprise though.

Here are all the joints that give the armored suit it’s mobility. I’m not used to many of these pieces, I assume they are standard fare in the Hero Factory lineup:

These pieces have that cool metallic finish to them, like gunmetal:

Lots of clear pieces, including the bright green elements, and that greenish clear tube:

“Do you hear something?!”

Don’t…. turn… around…

I tried to warn you…

In the clutches of Lex Luthor:

This battle could go on all night…

The armored suit is really well done, with lots of unusual ways of using the bricks. It’s very posable, and has lots of nice touches such as the moveable fingers, the gun, and the overall look.

For $19.99, I think this set has tons of play value, and a chance to get three main characters in the Super Heroes lineup. Highly recommended!

I found some pleasant surprises at Target today. First up was a stash of the LEGO holiday gift card packs. These were in a wagon that an employee was using to restock shelves. They were super hard to come by during the holidays, and I was surprised to see them:

It was nice to finally see the 2012 Star Wars sets on the shelves. Unlike at Toys R Us, Target is kind enough to charge MSRP. Here we have the new Elite Clone Trooper battle packs, Endor battle pack, Droid Escape, Geonosian Cannon, and Anakin’s Jedi Interceptor

TIE Fighters and planet sets.:

The new X-Wing Starfighter:

They also had a couple Super Heroes sets in stock:

Still some old Harry Potter sets:

More Harry Potter LEGO:

This is the only discounted price I saw, $15 for the Imperial V-Wing Starfighter, which normally retails for $20:

I ended up with these sets. I had a $10 gift card from ebates, so I grabbed Superman vs Power Armor Lex, as well as two of the Elite Clone Trooper & Commando Droid Battle Packs. The latter has been hard to come by, and on eBay they are selling at $20 and up:

Wal-Mart evidently rolled out a big toy sale today, and there have been widely varying reports from all over the country as to how Wal-Mart prices LEGO. Some stores have great deals on sets, 50% off. Others have nothing on sale. Many have a mix. Some have the sale items clearly marked in the LEGO aisle, some in a special sale section by the garden area, and many requiring you to scan each item to see if it is on sale. These reports come from the forums at ToysNBricks.com and Brickset.com.

I headed over to my local Wal-Mart, and below is what I found. On sale was a single LEGO set, the big 1600 piece XXL box. It was at the same price Wal-Mart used as a promotion around Black Friday: $15. It was shoved in an odd location, with no sticker on it or the shelf:

Much of the LEGO section had empty shelves, with even older sets priced at full retail. The Star Wars section has tumbleweeds:

And they are promising the 2012 sets to arrive on Feb 10. I wonder why they bother waiting. Toys R Us and Target both have these sets available for sale:

The still had quite a few Harry Potter sets:

Plenty of full price Alien Conquest and Pirates of the Caribbean too:

More Harry Potter, and even Log Cabin:

It sort of surprised me to see Friends separate from the regular LEGO section:

The have a bunch of the new CITY sets:

Plus Dino and Cars:

I received two packages in the mail yesterday which is helping to round out my LEGO Super Heroes collection of Batman sets. I have all the big sets now, and just need to pick up the smaller sets to have them all. I’m building the Fun House at the moment:

Last week I stopped by the enormous Toys R Us that sits in the middle of Times Square in New York City. There selection is usually very good, with exclusive sets filling the shelves. But… because of the high rent of Times Square, prices for all sets are higher than regular retail prices. So something like the Death Star may be in stock, but instead of costing $400, it may be $440 or $460, negating the effect of any coupons or discounts they may be offering at the moment. Okay, onto the photos:

The ever-impressive display of buildings that hovers over the LEGO section:

You are greated by a display of Super Heroes sets:

And of course, they are still trying to unload loads of Star Wars Advent Calendars, even well into January:

Lots of older Collectible Minifigs for sale, as well as snow man polybags:

Alien Conquest sets till fill the shelves:

Slave One has disappeared from many stores, but still in stock here:

The LEGO Exclusives I mentioned: Fire Brigade, Tower Bridge, Maersk Train, etc:

Imperial Shuttle, Super Star Destroyer, AT-OT with Dropship (now getting very hard to find), plus Winter Bakery:

Mindstorms and the Shuttle set:

Come City sets:

More City:

Kingdoms still in stock:

Baseplates:

More City

Lots of Mill Village Raid:

And of course, Prince of Persia is still in stock:

Creator:

More Alien Conquest:

Star Wars, including some now-retired sets such as Battle for Endor, Palpatine’s Shuttle, etc:

More Star Wars LEGO:

Anyone need some Mandalorian Battle Packs?

Another view of the buildings:

More buildings:

Lots of Pirates of the Caribbean in stock:

They even have an endcap of Pirates of the Caribbean:

Racers:

Hero Factory:

Harry Potter and Pharaoh’s Quest:

Atlantis:

Plenty of red box Ninjago:

Toy Story 3:

Massive LEGO Friends Displays:

LEGO Friends:

City:

City:

Friends:

Friends:

Friends:

This is becoming a common site: parents spending 30 minutes feeling up bags of LEGO Minifigures in order to find the specific figures their kid wants, or in order to complete the set:

The 2012 LEGO Star Wars sets have begun arriving. Here we have the endor battle pack and the planet sets:

The wildly overpriced tie fighter:

The Y-Wing, and the much-anticipated clone battle pack:

The Droid Escape was not in the regular LEGO aisle, but at a display up front:

Anakin’s podracer polybag:

On the City side, nice to still see Public Transport in stock:

More city:

One of the newer City sets I hadn’t noticed before. Pretty cool:

They still can’t seem to unload the $38 Quiddich Match:

A random old Space Police set appeared on shelves:

The always present Prince of Persia, plus Mill Village Raid, and Earth Defense HQ:

They had pretty much the entire line of Alien Conquest back in stock:

Tons of Creator sets:

Technic:

I was surprised to see a couple Fire Temples in stock:

A nice package arrived in the mail adding five more LEGO Tusken Raiders to my collection:

I was pleasantly surprised to see some transparent clear and transparent black bricks on the Pick A Brick wall. I had two of the holiday boxes to fill up, so I scooped up a whole bunch of each.

So many transparent black 1×2 bricks in one place:

Transparent 1×2 bricks:

Transparent 1×1 plates:

My “haul.” I didn’t have a lot of time, so I didn’t stack them in the boxes, I just threw a bunch in:

I haven’t counted up how many of each I ended up with, but here are the four varieties they had:

My first trip to the LEGO Store Rockefeller Center in 2012. Nothing too unusual, but nice to see the new Super Heroes display and recent sets. They moved the store around, moving City to where Star Wars used to be and vice versa. Series 6 minifigs were on display, and the only real sale items I saw were the Christmas tree polybags. Enjoy the photos!

A friend was able to snap photos of LEGO at a different Walmart for me. Unfortunately, because of bad timing, they couldn’t scan in the sets to check prices. My guess is that log cabin and the Harry Potter stuff would have been marked down. I may head over tomorrow. Anyhow, enjoy the photos:

This Walmart had a huge LEGO section, both sides of the aisle, and pretty well stocked too! Notice the friends sets in the upper right corner:

Some of the newer City sets have arrived:

A mish mash of stuff, including Star Wars advent calendars, still in stock!

Duplo:

Walmart seems to mix Kre-o in more often than other stores I have seen. Target does this a bit too:

The other side of the aisle:

Some Dino sets and creator stuff:

Harry Potter, Super Heroes, Pirates of the Caribbean, Friends, and more:

More creator plus Hero Factory:

Ninjago – still a couple red boxes left:

Still waiting for the 2012 Star Wars sets to arrive:

More Star Wars:

More Star Wars:

Some new City sets:

And finally, 2012 Ninjago sets: