brickzone Posted January 14, 2009 Posted January 14, 2009 First of all, much of the 2009 line-up has been available on S@H since the end of December. Mostly pricing is as expected, but Ireland for some unknown reason got a bum deal on Mediaeval Market Place, €116.99 instead of €99.99. Smyths does not yet have '09 sets on the website (www.toys.ie) but I was in the Blanchardstown store in Dublin, and they had a number of '09 sets. Of particular interest were the Cannon Battle at €4.99 (instead of €5.99 on S@H), the Dump Truck at €16.99 (instead of €19.99 on S@H) and Construction Site €79.99 (€89.99 S@H). They also had the Kraken Attackin, Crawler Crane, some new Creator Sets, and the Castle and Fireman building sets. I should be able to check stock at Limerick Childers Road at some stage in the next week or two. No new stock in Cork city centre last weekend. Argos should have the new catalogue out on Friday or Monday I believe, so keep an eye out. Last year we got the new police station at a knock-down price of €55 right off (rather than €75 on S@H). Art & Hobby in Limerick had some shelves cleared for new Lego last I was there, but they had none at that time. Tesco had rearranged their meagre remaining Lego onto two shelves and filled the "empty" ones with Megabloks :/ Also I recommend keeping an eye on the exchange rate and Amazon.co.uk (so far just Power Miners - good value for them though) and other UK retailers (e.g. www.toysdirect.co.uk - Brickbeard's Bounty at £49.99, shipping similar to S@H, £11 or so, so bulk ordering recommended).
graham g Posted January 18, 2009 Posted January 18, 2009 I called into Byrnes (World of Wonder?) and Smyths in Waterford yeserday. Byrnes were still unpacking their boxes and nothing had prices on when I was there. There were lots of unopened Lego outer boxes sitting on the top of the shelves in Smyths. On display were Pirates (was after the Impulse set, but none there), Power Miners (actually look a lot better than I anticipated), City (mostly construction plus new City 'Battle Pack'), Indy (not really interested) and some Creator sets (did I really see one with a mini-figure in it?). Girl on the check-out said that they had yet to unpack all of the new sets. New sets picked up at Smyths: 3 x 8014 Clone Battle Packs @ €12.99 (almost all gone - lots of assassin sets left) 1 x 8018 Armoured Assault Tank @ €54.99 (expensive but a great build) Also a couple of older City sets. Good to see that Smyths prices are lower than the Argos ones. :-)
brickzone Posted February 11, 2009 Author Posted February 11, 2009 Smyth's are great value on Pirates '09 compared to S@H for Ireland. Just €30 for the Shipwreck Hideout (S@H €40) and €65 for Brickbeard's Bounty (S@H €90!). Also Cannon Battle for €5. Just as well with the cheap UK prices.
Skinny Boy Posted February 12, 2009 Posted February 12, 2009 Thanks for the update Brickzone. Haven't been shopping in ages. Might get a Pirate impulse over the midterm, fiver ain't bad!
brickzone Posted February 28, 2009 Author Posted February 28, 2009 Art n Hobby have the new Farm sets in already. Despite the markup (more so on small sets than large) they have a quite extensive range of sets in quite accessible shop locations (e.g. they are the only sensible Lego buying place in Crescent Shopping Centre, Limerick). Farm is €75 (probably S@H price) but Smyth's will apparently have this at €65 (they have prices more comparable to UK on some new sets - probably cause unlike other Irish retailers they have a UK operation and can easily buy stock in UK at UK prices rather than the "special" prices offered to Irish retailers generally). Also there are some special offers - some of these reduce prices just to S@H (e.g. Indy Swamp Chase at €25 rather than €30) but some are reductions like Speed Racer Grand Prix for €30 (down from €50 - I picked this up for the minifigs and parts). Also Flying Wing at €45 which is cheaper than S@H (€55) but I think I'll still pass on it. I'd love to get Shanghai Chase reduced - but Art n Hobby have it at a whopping €40. Art n Hobby are one of the few places I've seen Belville - they have more of it in, and some reduced prices on it. Also they have quite a bit of Duplo again (my nephew liked the look of the Bob the Builder Duplo). They also had an Agents Mobile Command Centre display case - slow work by the Lego Company I think, because the local Art n Hobby sold most of the MCCs before Christmas when they had no display! They also have a Power Miners display in the front - great to see so much Lego on display and indeed being sold! (Just a pity about the markups!) Still waiting for Tesco to restock!
Skinny Boy Posted February 28, 2009 Posted February 28, 2009 Thanks for the update Brickzone! Speed Racer Grand Prix for €30?! Wow. Just thought I'd say, Smyths at Jervis have all the Power Miners, all Pirates (including the shipwreck) and the new City construction sets. Flying wing also quite dear. Toymasters beside Smyths doesn't have much at all. In fact, lots of other products were gone, so hopefully a big closing down sale will come of it!
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