Brick Update

I stopped by a LEGO Store on New Year’s eve, and was surprised how wiped out it was of product. They had 4 or 5 things on sale, literally 4 or 5 boxes with a 10% or so sale sticker on it. But the rest of the shelves with regularly priced merchandise were pretty much wiped clean too.

A few new sets were spotted, Batman Arkham Asylum and Horizon Express.

Perhaps the most interesting thing I saw was that outside the LEGO Store was a kiosk with a third-party LEGO seller, Brick Warriors,which were selling LEGO minifig accessories of their own design.

So the after-Christmas sales for LEGO were pretty underwhelming so far this year. Wal-Mart seemed to have the best deals, but it is wildly inconsistent from store to store. In the end, low stock levels seem to be the main theme in sales across the stores I checked or heard about. Below are images from Wal-Mart when they first opened on Dec 26th, as well as Target. For the LEGO.com sale, it seems that 90% of what they put on sale was sold out before they even posted the sale. Screenshot below too.

At Wal-Mart I picked up Dino 5886 T-Rex Hunter for 50% off, Mines of Moria for about 30% off, and Sith Nightspeeder for 50% off:

Here is what I found at Wal-Mart:

And this is what I found at Target:

Here is what LEGO.com offered just when the sale started, I believe on Dec 24th:

My next stop was Target. I had heard someone else on a forum mention this, and it was true here: Target reduced their LEGO stock to half. Only one side of a single aisle had LEGO in it. So, as things sold out in the last month, Target did not keep restocking hoping to have a bigger buildup to the end of Dec. They just let it dwindle and consolidated now, instead of waiting to January, clearancing out a bunch of merchandise.

The biggest surprise for me was that they had the Dino Defence HQ in stock. This set disappeared from shelves recently and is becoming one of those “must have” sets on the aftermarket. I finally grabbed one, paying full retail price:

They had one Planet set for $4.98, Sebulba’s Podracer & Tatooine. I grabbed it, even though it had a small rip in the front:

The TIE Interceptor & Death Star Planet Set was $6.98 with a lot of them in stock:

They actually had one copy of Monster Fighters’ The Zombies in stock, but…

It was a bit crushed, and completely opened. This set has been very hot on the aftermarket, selling for double retail price:

An endcap of Star Wars:

Pirates of the Caribbean The Black Pearl is STILL in stock, at full retail price:

On a lark, I decided to venture out to my local Toys R Us (and Target) on December 24th to see what stock was left in the LEGO aisle.

The lot had a lot of cars in it, but you could easily find a spot.

Overall, the place was not very crowded indoors, and there weren’t any big lines. The LEGO section:

A very mild amount of activity and lots of stock:

Just like last year, still trying to push those LEGO Star Wars Advent Calendars:

Galaxy Squad and even Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were on full display:

The Hobbit sets are in stock. You also see Toys R Us’ promotion: $25 off a regular-priced LEGO purchase of $100 or more. On their website, they allowed this to stack with sale items:

More Galaxy Squad:

And more Galaxy Squad. With Star Wars, it feels like 60% of the LEGO aisle is space themed!

A good sale on Creator Hillside House 5771, if you are able to stack it with the $25 off $100 deal, as I did online:

Same with the Ninjago Samurai Mech, which was on sale and they had plenty of in stock:

My first sighting of the Hobbit Gandalf polybags, mispriced here for $15.99! I scanned one in, they rang up at $4.99.

Some Dino in stock. This stuff is slowly turning out to be a hot property on the aftermarket.

Lots of LEGO City, plus a lone Alien Conquest set still in stock:

A mix:

I don’t remember seeing this before, a nice little set with 2 minifigs and a mini-mech. Kai’s Fire Mech:

For Star Wars, Palpatine’s Arrest was on sale and they had a ton of them in stock:

Lots of sets, but many duplicates:

Monster Fighters is starting to disappear:

Creator:

Friends:

Today is the 2 year anniversary of this blog! In the past 2 years, I have shared a total of 2,100 original photos and 200 blog posts. In the past twelve months alone, I shared 1,504 images and 120 blog posts, much more than the previous year.

I have seen more than a 250% increase in traffic from the first year to the second too, thanks to those who return for new photos, and our good friend Google.

This blog is really a personal journal of my experience with LEGO, with a particular focus on a visual archive of the LEGO retail experience. As I stated when I first started the blog, I really enjoy the online LEGO community, especially the great forum at Brickset.com.

For me, this blog has a long-term view. I love the idea that you will be able to look back on these images in 5 or 10 years, and see stores full of LEGO sets that are now retired. My original inspiration came from these vintage toy store photos, most from the 1970s and 1980s.

There is a thriving community of LEGO blogs out there, and I want to ensure this one offers something a little unique. I know that if I wanted bigger traffic, that I would simply repost breaking LEGO news from Eurobricks, ToysNBricks or Brickset. and other sources. But that is not my goal here. I am not in a rush to steal other people’s images and content to get traffic. I simply want to share what I see from my small corner of the LEGO world.

Thank you to the many folks who make this hobby so much fun!

So I’m working on the lower levels of the LEGO Death Star, and really enjoying the build so far. The more I build it, the more I appreciate why LEGO won’t pull it from the shelves. Not only is it an iconic part of the Star Wars universe, but just filled with classic scenes. The design is so inventive too, fitting so much into a sphere. More updates as I make progress…

So I am finally sitting down and building the LEGO Death Star set. I believe I own 4 of these sets already, all unopened. But I found a nice deal on a set from another collector, one that is already opened, so it gives me an excuse to finally build it.

This set has been out for YEARS, and the box art is still two or three generations ago in terms of LEGO Star Wars packaging design:

The manual is MASSIVE:

It comes with loads of minifigs. If LEGO were to release this set today, it would either be much more expensive or contain many fewer minifigs. Some of these are now older designs, but a nice collection overall:

The trash compactor monster! Well done LEGO.

Chewie and the little droid:

The build starts off simply enough:

And builds…

And builds… It just gets bigger and bigger…

Okay, another update on my progress soon!

My first siting of a 2013 Galaxy Squad set at Toys R Us. Set 70700 Space Swarmer:

It’s funny to see the Galaxy Squad set among two other space themes: Alien Conquest and Star Wars:

A 2013 City Set: 60007 High Speed Chase. Includes Chase McCain!

Hobbit set 79004 Barrel Escape:

The LEGO section was getting to be a mess:

Polybag 30213 with Gandalf:

The sticker on The Hobbit sets: “Special The Hobbit Trilogy Preview Set!”

Hobbit set 79001, Escape from Mirkwood Spiders:

Right side of the LEGO aisle:

The left side, still with a big Monster Fighters display:

Funny how Prince of Persia, Atlantis, and Alien Conquest sets still litter the shelves:

Lots of collectible minifigs:

I haven’t seen these LEGO LED Torches before:

Friends:

Friends:

I visited a small independently owned toy store today and found the new LEGO Hobbit lineup of sets on the shelves:

In the past couple of weeks, I picked up some nice deals at Toys R Us. Through various discounts, I ended up with the Desert Skiff set 9496 and Star Wars Cloud City Planet set at maybe 20% off each, plus the Darth Maul Polybag thrown in for free.

I finally grabbed a couple of the Friends set: Olivia’s Tree House 3065 for about $16.75 each after taxes. Not a huge discount, but I have been eyeing this set for awhile: