Brick Update

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:

Opening up a Battle of Endor set 8038 for the first time. Very impressed with the assortment of pieces – lots of gray and black bricks and tiles, very useful for castles and other uses.

An incredible assortment of minifigs from this set, 12 in total, including three Ewoks, an Imperial Officer who is only available in this set and the Death Star ($400 set!), two rebel troopers in their Endor gear (people use these Torso’s for war MOC’s and vietnam soldiers), plus a fine assortment of other key Star Wars characters.

A good day is when a LEGO package arrives in the mail. A better day is when this happens before my wife is home to notice!

Today two more LEGO Grand Emporium sets arrives, set #10211. This brings my total to 3 sets of these, along with 3 of the Fire Brigade, and 1 Green Grocer. Here is an excellent review of the LEGO Grand Emporium.

In the past year, one of my favorite LEGO blogs has posted about their hatred for large unnecessary LEGO pieces. Those huge molded pieces of plastic that LEGO sometimes uses. Dr. Dave Watford’s posts can be found here and here. I was recently cleaning up an older set, and came across the same thing.

The set is the 1999 Rock Raiders set #4970 The Chrome Crusher:

(image from Brickset.com)

For such a small set (168 pieces and retailing for $30), look at these huge pieces it comes with:

For such a small set, you wonder how it can even be called LEGO. But…

The set is actually kind of cool. Some neat chrome pieces, some teal accent pieces, and a neat little vehicle overall. The best part is the very steampunk minifig:

This set can still be picked up for less than it’s original retail price from a variety of sellers on BrickLink.

Suddenly, I went from having zero LEGO Death Stars to having 3 LEGO Death Stars. Wondering if I can triple the recipe and build them all into a single huge Death Star?

I bought the first one at full retail, thinking it was about to be retired. I was wrong, Amazon got 700 more in stock a few days later. The other two I got an amazing deal on.

When I have the time, and find the space, I will open one up and build it.

My second LEGO Medieval Market Village set #10193 arrived recently, slowly building my stockpile of LEGO castle sets. I can see this going well for a Harry Potter setup as well.

The upcoming 2011 LEGO Kingdoms sets look as though they will fit in very well with the Medieval Market Village, especially the Mill Village Raid set #7189.

I’m starting to bring out my LEGO Stormtroopers, slowly building the army. Below is a sneak peak. I’m thinking I may want to do a MOC of a LEGO Death Star.

I was organizing my LEGO collection the other day, and had to snap a photo of a few of the larger unopened sets I still have to get to:

That’s four Home One Calamari sets, two Battle of Endor sets, one Venator and Turbo Tank. I try to think of these when bumping into a decent LEGO sale at Target yesterday:

Those Clone Battle packs are a good deal at $10. Target had a few other sets on sale too, but nothing amazing:

Did I mention that I finally ordered the LEGO Death Star. That’s for another post I suppose.