Brick Update

I lucked into a deal on an army of class LEGO castle Crusaders minifigs. I have been cleaning them up, so I thought I would give you a preview of the lot. Castle has always been my favorite theme, though I am just learning that this torso design signified “Crusaders” as opposed to “classic castle” or “black falcons.”

I have a pretty big stash of castle minifigs packed away that I will have to dig out. But for now, I present about 50 minifigs being dried after a light clean up:

About 50 minifigs and accessories:

Helmets:

Shields:

Just arrived in the mail, the LEGO Imperial Shuttle 10212. I have to say, the box is thinner than I expected for a set of this price – $260! Looking forward to the build.

I stopped by the LEGO Store in Rockefeller Center to check out some of the latest sets. The store from the outside:

Double VIP points in October:

The LEGO Volkswagen T1 Camper Van set 10220. Really impressive, much larger than I expected for some reason. Definitely planning on picking this up:

The LEGO Winter Village Post Office on display, with Rockefeller Center in the background. A nice looking set, nothing unexpected, but a great addition to the line:

I am very impressed that LEGO is keeping three sets from the winter village series on the shelves:

The box to Winter Village Post Office set 10222. Looking at it now, I’m surprised it doesn’t say the set name on the front.

The VW Camper box. I think they only had two on the shelves, even though the display is front and center when you walk into the store:

The new Life of George iPhone app set:

I loved seeing this, a family picking out the LEGO Death Star, and it taking two of them to carry it across the store to the register. It was the last set on the shelf, and the box was a little rough. You can see the hole on the shelf in the back left of the shot:

On the pick-a-brick wall, for some reason, these caught my eye:

A LEGO Store employee refilling the pick-a-brick wall. Magic in those little boxes.

Three series of collectible minifigs on display:

I had never paid much attention to the selection in the build-a-minifig displays. Some torsos:

More torsos:

Some heads:

And… more torsos:

An appearance of the Super Star Destroyer, plus THREE other $250+ LEGO Star Wars sets:

They still had tons of Maersk container ships in stock (here and high on the shelves:

City magnet sets are already on sale:

I stopped by LEGO section at FAO Schwarz in New York City to see their Fall selection. Nothing too unusual, but always nice to see how they display their LEGO. For such a large display area, they have a surprisingly limited number of sets. Yes, the shelves are full, but you see the same set repeated again and again. The LEGO section is also the hardest to get to, all the way in the back corner of the second floor. It is next to the famed piano featured in the movie Big, and next to the Playmobil toys. The overall display is custom made for LEGO, but to me, doesn’t fully evoke LEGO, as much as some kind of gears of a machine. A few exclusive sets not seen at regular Toy Stores, such as UCS Imperial Shuttle, and Tower Bridge. The one surprise was a nice selection of LEGO Books. Onto the images:

A quick trip to Wal-Mart to see what was in the LEGO aisle. Always a strange selection:

Target has a much larger assortment than Wal-Mart. I was shocked to see the Star Wars advent calendar in stock

Nice to see they had the Creator light house here:

I had a few minutes to pop into the Toys R Us in Times Square, and grabbed a couple dozen shots of the LEGO section. The store is right in the middle of Times Square:

The LEGO section is on the second floor, and has very large LEGO buildings of famous New York landmarks:

It’s one of the few Toys R Us locations that has some of the hard to find items. But… because the rent is so high in Times Square, there is a significant mark up on most LEGO sets here. So, even with a sale it really isn’t worth it to buy from this store. They had one Imperial Shuttle with a crushed box in the corner:

And a bunch of Tower Bridges:

The Technic section:

A life size LEGO statue of Jack Sparrow:

Creator:

Plenty of Collectible Minifigs series 5, plus the holiday promos:

Pirates of the Caribbean:

Woolworth Building:

No idea which building this is:

The Hearst Building:

Statue of Liberty:

Ninjago:

Empire State Building with King Kong:

Star Wars:

Some “other” Ninjago stuff:

Atlantis:

Harry Potter:

Chrysler Building:

City:

I decided to stop by my local Toys R Us to check out the Bricktober sales event they have to honor LEGO. They had 30% off a selection of maybe 20 sets, a pretty good selection, plus 10% off everything else. In addition, they offered a $10 gift card with purchase of $75 or more, a free collectible retro minifig magnet and I think some Jeffrey dollars if you spent more than $100. The regular LEGO aisle was somewhat crowded – this was the extended LEGO display area:

More sets:

And still more hidden behind the poll. I was surprised they still had Millennium Falcons still in stock at 30% off. I went late in the day.

An interesting way to display the collectible minifigs series 5 at the end of the LEGO aisle:

I have never noticed this before: the LEGO Designer’s Tool Set:

My purchase: Mill Village Raid and King’s Carriage Ambush. Total came to $82, plus I got the magnet and the $10 gift card.

Here is the magnet, the first in a series of four. Ninja Princess. This year the minifigs are glued onto the magnet. Bummer.

Took a trip up to the LEGO Store in Rockefeller Center in New York City. The Star Wars section, unbelievably empty except for a lone LEGO Store employee. The Super Star Destroyer is on the wall to the left. I’m always amazed that they would put a $260 set at toddler eye-level.

A portion of the pick-a-brick wall, and the Pirates of the Caribbean section, along with Technic:

The “Gallery” with the Super Star Destroyer, Death Star, Maersk Train and Pet Shop:

The NY LUG window, some nice grab bags (with minifig parts in them), three series of LEGO Collectible Minifigs, and other assorted exclusive Rockefeller Center goodies.

The main entrance:

The exclusive set 3300001 Brickley. Not bad for $15.

I found the LEGO Harry Potter Durmstrang Ship set #5768 for a good price on eBay, so I grabbed it. The set is another in a long line of pirate-like ships, with some interesting color schemes. Overall – a real unique set for the Harry Potter line. The orange-infused box. Notice how there are four bonus minifigs in this set. I believe this came out later on as a Target exclusive. For a $50 set (price at the time), including only two minifigs, none of which was a main character, might have made this a hard sell. Adding four primary characters really ups the value of this set:

This was a used set, so no little baggies inside the box. I’ll get to those huge gray pieces in a moment:

I believe these two minifigs are exclusive to the set. Very cool looking, they remind me more of the collectable minifigs of recent years:

The bonus minifigs, with the dopiest of faces for Ron:

The back of Harry, in his tournament jersey:

Perhaps the most offensive LEGO pieces ever. I was shocked at this. Most of the ship is comprised of these four pieces. The nice thing is that this must have been why the set was only $50 at the time. Once finished, it has an impressive scale for such a mid-priced set. But my goodness is this what LEGO should NOT be about. Dr. Dave Watford has addressed this issue on his own LEGO blog. Okay, more on this topic later:

Another offensive piece. This set started reminding me of Playmobil:

Okay, one of the cooler pieces was this shield:

I loved seeing the return of the Black Falcon shield in this set, a throwback to older castle sets:

The completed ship. As I mentioned, it is impressive in size. I really like the use of color as well, and the small gold elements:

Details from the back. Nice use of dark red and medium blue:

A view of the deck:

This set reminded me of a newer set I picked up, The Pharoah’s Quest Scorpion Pyramid. It utilizes a massively wide and tall baseplate to compose much of the set. So it is very similar to the large pieces used in the ship set, which are essentially just large baseplates:

In all, this is a set that LEGO would likely charge $100 for today, simply because of size. Clearly, they would add more minifigs today, and perhaps more playability features. In all – a nice set if you can get past the offensiveness of the hull. I almost want to rebuild a true LEGO hull, and add the other elements to it.

I found the Star Wars LEGO mini-promo set #30052 at my local Target:

It was tucked in the toy aisle, just beneath Mr. Potato Head:

I went to two small independent toy stores, to see their selection. Very standard, as LEGO won’t send them any exclusive sets, not even the collectible minifigs. With the big box stores, Amazon, LEGO’s own stores, it always amazes me that it’s worthwhile for these stores to stay in business. Glad they are there though. The first shop:

And the second store, which is a bit more of a specialty toy store, focusing on more natural, educational stuff, European toys , and of course LEGO and Playmobil.