Brick Update

I stopped by a LEGO Store last night that I hadn’t been to before, and got my first glimpse of the new LEGO Star Wars and Harry Potter sets. Was hoping for some good finds on the pick-a-brick wall, but didn’t see anything I needed. Okay, here’s a tour:

Pick-a-brick wall:

A view of the store. They actually had a few sale items. A dented box Maersk ship was 10% off.

A Maersk ship – funny to see this just sitting out like that.

The I LUG NY display box:

New Harry Potter sets. Very cool to see all the purple bricks in The Knight Bus set 4866:

The new section of Hogwart’s Castle:

And all the Star Wars sets arrived. Here’s the Sith Infiltrator #7961:

The new Hoth Echo Base set #7879. The reviews I have seen of this have not been very positive:

Anakin & Sebulba’s Podracers set #7962:

Geonosian Starfigher set #7959:

And finally, the Millennium Falcon set #7965:

I took a short trip down to Delaware, and couldn’t resist seeking out the local LEGO Store. To my pleasant surprise, they had 2×2 dark tan tiles on the wall, so I stocked up. I also added some plants and other assorted pieces. Here is the sealed cup:

Contents of the cup:

Sorting them out:

The total count. This ended up being about 2 cents per piece. Important to note that Delaware has no sales tax.

A photo of the LEGO Store, nothing too unusual here:

The Space Shuttle set on the shelves:

I haven’t paid to much attention to the Pirates of the Caribbean stuff yet, but this ship is pretty impressive:

I thought this was a strange set:

Some of the cooler sets out right now:

So. Many. Scorpions.

This store had dark red in stock too, the 2×4 bricks as well as 1×2:

Not sure why, but I was trying to think of a reason to buy a bunch of these:

I was pleasantly surprised to find not just dark red bricks, but dark red 1 x 2 bricks on the LEGO Pick-a-Brick wall today. There weren’t many, left, and I bought pretty much all they had left, which worked out to be a single large cup full.

This is the first pick-a-brick cup I ever bought, so I was curious about some of the techniques I have read about for stacking the bricks to fit the most in the cup. You will see the start of my failed attempt below. it was hard to get perfect, and I ended up knocking the cup part-way through, which undid all of the careful work. In the end, I just built a solid core for part of it, and dumped the rest of the bricks in.

I chatted with some of the LEGO Store employees while I did this, they were curious as to what I was doing, and were really pleasant. (as usual)

People have reported fitting 600+ 1×2 bricks in a large cup. I ended up with 520 1×2 bricks and 15 other bricks too. Not too bad, it worked out to less than 4 cents per brick. For such a rare color, this is a great deal.

Approaching the LEGO Store:

Here are the red 1×2 bricks when I first saw them:

The start of my attempt to stack them the way I saw it done on Flickr, which should yield around 600 bricks per cup.

In the end, this was my cup, filled to the brim:

Here is the haul:

Meanwhile, elsewhere on the pick-a-brick wall were some interesting colors and shapes:

14 more LEGO Stormtroopers just arrived in the mail, I just had to share that:

I finally finished building the LEGO Green Grocer set 10185. It took nearly 20 days off and on of building. (update #1 and update #2)

But of course, just as I finish the building, the stormtroopers move in:

Couldn’t help but make a quick trip to the LEGO Rockefeller Center Store when I was (merely) 20 blocks away. Here’s a tour:

The main entrance of the store:

The side entrance at street level:

A view out to Rockefeller Center:

As usual, incredibly crowded, especially in the Star Wars section, where they also put the Pirates of the Caribbean, the LEGO Store New York Exclusive Items, Technic, and some computers for little kids. They really shove a lot in this corner:

The new Alien Conquest sets and Ninjago taking up a smaller spot than I would have imagined:

Series 3 and 4 collectible minifigures and other assorted items:

Some exclusive items to this store:

More New York items:

Pirates:

These kids were checking out the Death Star:

Feeling the series 3 packages, looking for certain minifigs:

The new Kingdoms sets, and Harry Potter:

A sea of blue boxes! LEGO City:

Emerald Night is still in stock, and you can see the new Pet Shop on the right:

More LEGO City:

I haven’t seen these before, magnets from the new Police Station:

LEGO Creator:

A view of the Pick-a-Brick wall:

One of the sculptures overhead:

The big Rockefeller Center sculpture:

A LEGO Store employee wondering why I am taking all these photos:

A view by the register:

An obligatory Duplo photo:

New LEGO Cars 2 sets:

Lots of brown bricks on the Pick-a-Brick wall:

More brown:

The white horses were a surprise:

The weirdest element I have ever seen on a Pick-a-Brick wall:

Some tall white pieces:

These seem to be pretty popular:

Black inverted slopes:”

Even more brown:

Long black bricks:

Window elements:

Dark gray 1×1’s – another popular item:

More brown:

More dark gray:

The build a minifig station:

All in all, a great selection!

My weekend project from a few weeks back has been slowly coming together, I’ve finished the first two floors of Green Grocer. Here’s a twilight shot of it, as move onto the third floor:

I stopped by my local LEGO Store for the first time in months, and was able to check out all the new sets they have released, plus see what was on the pick-a-brick wall. Of course, I snapped photos the entire time so I could give you a guided tour. Let’s get started:

The new Pet Shop modular building is displayed in the front window:

A closeup of the buildings. Really liking how the two smaller buildings look side by side. Also: a TON of sand blue in this build.

The back of the Pet Shop:

The roof of the Pet Shop:

They also had the Maersk Train displayed in the window, and the Death Star. I was surprised they chose this set – not sure how many kids are looking for the Maersk Train:

Stepping inside we see the box for the Pet Shop:

Along with the other large LEGO sets:

The Maersk Train on the shelf:

The new LEGO City Harbor set:

The space shuttle and other new space sets:

The incredible looking Kingdoms Mill Village Raid:

A stack of LEGO Cars 2 sets:

The new Creator Lighthouse:

I was surprised Alien Quest didn’t have a bigger presence in the store. It seemed kind of shoved in the corner:

More Alien Quest:

The LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean sets were prominently displayed just as you walk into the store. Here they are on the shelf:

More pirates:

This is the emptiest I have ever seen the store. Only two customers came in during the time I was there. Each bought something, one of the sales was Ninjago, which seems to still be really popular:

Okay, let’s check out the Pick a Brick wall:

Getting closer:

I was surprised to see dark red 2 x 4 bricks. Unless these are reddish brown?

They also had other dark red pieces:

Dark blue roof corners:

Little dark gray pieces:

I can’t remember if these windows have been here before:

Tan slopes:

Other tan bricks (these are new to the wall):

White slopes:

Overall, I was impressed at some of the new items on the Pick a Brick wall, and really enjoyed seeing all the new sets in stock. Also had a nice conversation with one of the LEGO Store employees.

Finally made a trip out to my local Toys R Us and Target to check out there stock of the new LEGO 2011 sets. Toys R Us had a full lineup of them.

I absolutely love the new Kingdoms sets, which are very similar to the Medieval Market Village. I do have to wonder how many barns & windmills they will sell compared to the more castle-themed sets. Toys R Us had these, and many of the newer sets displayed in the front of the store:

Some of the new city sets, including the Harbor. I have the original this is based from, which came out in the late 1980’s, I believe.

A closer look at the Marina:

The Space Center seems like a scaled-down version of the shuttle sets I remember buying in the 1990’s. Not a fan of those huge molded plastic pieces used to makeup the rocket here:

Ah, Alien Conquest. These sets simply look incredible. The headquarters truck looks huge, there is something so retro about all of this. Somehow a combination of 1950’s alien theme, and 1970’s LEGO space colors and styling. I don’t usually pick up the LEGO space stuff, but I will likely make an exception here:

Ninjago continues to sell:

Collectible Minifigures Series 4 were plentifulL

Tons of train stuff. LEGO seems to really be embracing this – there are so many train sets in their current lineup, including this station:

The Public Transport set is destined to be a classic. Something about it is very Playmobil, there is a lot of realism to it:

The larger Atlantis set is really nice:

The Creator Lighthouse just hit stores.

Creator Log Cabin:

Pharoah’s Quest:

LEGO Harry Potter is back in stock after the holidays wiped out most stores. And of course, Pirates of the Caribbean is now in stock. These are some nice sets, and LEGO put a huge focus on creating tons of original minifigures for them:

I can’t believe Prince of Persia is still on the shelves. Who is buying these at full retail?

More Pirates:

A pretty good sale on the At-At, I believe it’s $89.99 and the sale runs for nearly a month:

Funny to see Series 3 Collectible Minifigures still plentiful, even as Series 4 are on the shelves, and photos of Series 5 are all over the web.

Okay, moving over the Target – they had an end-cap display of Pirates of the Caribbean:

More Pirates:

But very few other new sets. LEGO has an entire aisle on both sides at Target, so I was surprised to not see any new Alien Quest, Kingdoms, City, etc.

Finally building my first LEGO modular building, Green Grocer. Just looking at the parts, I’m amazed at how much sand green is included, and other great pieces such as the dark tan and dark red tiles. Below are the pieces for just the first floor and street level: