LEGO Collector Guide - Review, When they say catalogue, they mean catalogue... Options

[Slyowlius the Be...]

I ordered this on Tuesday last week, and it arrived today (Monday), so 6 days shipping from Germany isn't bad to the UK. The postage was a little steep, but it's quite a heavy catalogue.

Anyway, onto the product.
It comes in a thick cardboard box, without any excess packing (bubblewrap e.t.c), which is about 30 cm long:

It comes with an invoice, and the catalogue is wrapped in cellophane. Although the pages have yellow edges, the page backgrounds are actually white. Its dimensions are 21cm x 15cm x 3cm (in case you wanted to know ). Overall it has exactly 800 pages.
N.B. It is a catalogue - think Yellow Pages.

The back - all the writing throughout the book is in both English and German. There are a few errors in the English (not sure about the German) - for example, "Toys'R'Us exklusive Set", which is meant to be English

It has a few pages of introduction about Lego (I've only photographed English). Sorry for poor photo badly corrected - it's too fat to fit in my scanner

And a brief history of the Lego logo (only half shown here)

Every entry follows a set layout. I think the "rarity bar" is calculated by how rare it was at the time - the Skull's Eye Schooner 6286 (very rare now) is only ranked at 3 yellow bricks...

The entries are arranged in years, and then by set number. The first entry - and the last...(no Agents though)

Annoyingly, there are a fair amount of "missing images", although these are generally 3-piece Bionicle give-aways, so it shouldn't really concern anyone.

A "random" page -

At the back, there is an extensive index of keyrings/keychains...

...To please Gylman...(rubbed beak on parrot though?)

And an extensive index of service packs ...and an index of every set number, year, and page reference


It's quite expensive for what you get, but it's worth it, even if there are boring pictures of brick buckets and Bionicles and Spongebob But to have an easy reference of every set is well worth the cost.
Americans - wait until they get a cheaper exporter - it cost nearly half the price of the catalogue to simply ship it across the channel.
They only ship to Europe...

[Algernon]

How much is it?

[simonwillems]

Thanks for writing this review.

I do have the catalog myself (shipping to The Netherlands was only 5 euros, I bought one for a friend so we shared the costs making it 2,50) and I am very pleased with it. I spent all day yesterday filing my instructionbooklets in the same order as the catalog displays them, so now I can look up my instructuctions according to it.
I already ordered the limited edition, with hardcover and gadgets, which is more expensive but also more exclusive. Not yet released though.

I can easily recommend this to any Lego enthousiast!



Note: Despite the lovely review I honestly believe you are violating the copyright of the publisher by putting photo's of the catalog on the internet, one of the first pages prohibits it clearly... Just my two cents...

[Karto]

Please note:

- The pieces count are mostly wrong and differs a lot from the official counts and the online databases invetories.
- The rareness is not based on official Lego sales...
- The "special" tag which is used for promotional, exclusive and limited sets is missing for quite some sets.
- The information (i) provided for some sets is fair but incomplete.
- The information given on the release region (North America, Europe, Asia or Australia) is questionable... Some US exclusive sets are pointed to have been released in Europe...

It's nice for images only. Don't rely on it for set details...

This post has been edited by Karto: Jul 7 2008, 10:02 PM

[chris_austin]

Thanks for the info Karto. It's a real shame that the information isn't as accurate as it could/should be. I don't think i'll be buying this straight away, if at all.

[Doctor Sinister]

It's nice to drool over though.

A guy at LEGOLand Windsor just tried to sell me a copy - he was mightily confused when I said I'd had one since Friday. :-D

Dr. S.

[Donut]

Thanks for the review SlyOwl. I am even more curious now, I always wanted a LEGO reference guide so that I could put it in my bookshelf. It's too bad they don't ship to the states.

[Norro]

I want one... Did you buy it from the same seller shown earlier?

God Bless,

Nathan

[Dfenz]

I want one... Did you buy it from the same seller shown earlier?

God Bless,

Nathan

It can be purchased on LS@H Europe in the books and games section (give or take a week shipping delay) so you could add it to a LS@H order and probably not incur any additional shipping (depending of course on whether or not it bumps you into a higher shipping bracket).

regards


David

[Norro]

It can be purchased on LS@H Europe in the books and games section (give or take a week shipping delay) so you could add it to a LS@H order and probably not incur any additional shipping (depending of course on whether or not it bumps you into a higher shipping bracket).

regards


David

Thanks a million! I can't believe I missed that (good lesson in the sleep department). Does anyone know if the special one is any better yet?

Thanks and God Bless,

Nathan

[Holodoc]

Does anyone know if the special one is any better yet?

This is the official info:

LEGO Collector - PREMIUM EDITION LEGO Collector - PREMIUM EDITION
Very limited to 3.333 continuously numbered copies - Catalogue with hardcover in a very decorative packaging and exclusive LEGO gimmicks
from 39,90 EUR
incl. 7 % Tax excl.Shipping costs

whatever all that (decorative / gimmicks) means...

... and it won´t ship before august!
(but I already have ordered mine )

[captaintau]

I can't wait for this to arrive, though it'll take me an age to read.

[TheBrickster]

Excellent! Thanks for sharing pictures. I'm really looking forward to this here in the US. I love paging through these types of books looking at sets you've never seen.

[Cardinal Brick]

Thanks for posting SlyOwl I look forward to the arival of mine.

[Svelte]

Thanks for the review, SlyOwl, and tantalising glimpse inside.

Despite the errors, it obviously will be useful as a reference for times when you're not online or you're just casually flicking for inspiration or whatever. If it sells well, I guess they might issue corrected versions in future.