How to spend US $800 without buying UCS MF

[makoy]

Just now, Hart New Bob said:

I would make them Redcoat ships........But does it count?

I guess it counts since you can MOC what bought. What's more important is to equate that US $800 value to 8 ships.

[Hart New Bob]

10 minutes ago, makoy said:

I guess it counts since you can MOC what bought. What's more important is to equate that US $800 value to 8 ships.

The set was 100$ when it came out....So 8 would be 800$.  USD

Edited September 19, 2017 by Hart New Bob

[Aanchir]

The thought experiment sort of starts to lose meaning when you start including long-retired sets at their original RRP… even ignoring appreciation in the aftermarket, inflation alone means that those sets cost a lot more than we often give them credit for. Sure, in 1979 you could have theoretically bought 25 Galaxy Explorers for $800… but back then, $800 was worth over 3 times what it's worth today.

I'm a bit interested also that most people seem to be choosing sets they want for their personal collections… if I had $800 that I could only spend on LEGO, I feel like I'd probably spend at least part of that on gifts for other people!

[Orange Leader]

I prefer to take the Dutch price of €849,00 and Dutch set prices from shop.lego.nl if I may.

- 10252 Volkswagen Kever €104,99
- 10242 MINI Cooper €99,99
- 10258 Londense bus €129,99
- 21307 Caterham Seven 620R €84,99
- 76085 Slag om Atlantis €29,99
- 70614 Bliksemstraaljager €69,99
- 70610 Vliegende kwal duikboot €34,99
- 70607 NINJAGO® achtervolging door de stad €19,99
- 853687 LEGO® NINJAGO® accessoireset €12,99
- 75172 Y-Wing Starfighter™ €79,99
- 75153 AT-ST™ Walker €54,99
- 75167 Bounty Hunter Speeder Bike™ Battle Pack €17,99
- 70908 De Scuttler €89,99
Total €845,86

I think picking sets that are available/backordered on the LEGO shop website feels more fair than retired sets and there's still a lot of sets I wish to have that are not retired.

[samurai-turtle]

To be honest I would probably do something odd and get 80 $10 sets or 160 $5 sets or some sort of combination of the two. 

[makoy]

8 minutes ago, Aanchir said:

The thought experiment sort of starts to lose meaning when you start including long-retired sets at their original RRP… even ignoring appreciation in the aftermarket, inflation alone means that those sets cost a lot more than we often give them credit for. Sure, in 1979 you could have theoretically bought 25 Galaxy Explorers for $800… but back then, $800 was worth over 3 times what it's worth today.

I get your point but I won't say it's losing any meaning. You just demonstrated that buying 25 Galaxy Explorers equates to around 8500 pieces. That's actually quite low piece count because some of the lists here sums up to more than 10k pieces. By using today's standards and if LEGO will reproduce the same set, do you think that old set will cost 3 times? I don't think so. What you see in the aftermarket is the perceived value of those people who are inflating the set, not the cost of the set. I agree that you can't ignore inflation if you're investing -- but this is not about investing so hear me out -- let's use the price per piece of that set which is 9.5c. If you take into consideration that the cost of production is cheaper today, I think that we can see a 'new' Galaxy Explorer close to RRP. Well, maybe I am dreaming -- but hey, there are Creator sets priced at $35 with over 350 pieces. Why can't a classic Galaxy Explorer worth $35 can't be a reality? Again, I put those conditions  to ignore inflation so that it's easier to list down sets so you could just add up the value and that I don't have to explain myself... but too late, you already made me do it! 

Just now, Aanchir said:

if I had $800 that I could only spend on LEGO, I feel like I'd probably spend at least part of that on gifts for other people!

That's a great way to start. So what will be on that list? :)

@Orange Leader you're over budget.   I think you can let go one of the smaller sets.  That list is packed with vehicles. Is that from your actual wishlist?

@samurai-turtle if you would buy the old army builders with 4 or 5 minifigures, that's lovely.

[bobasdad]

Interestingly, my current wanted list adds up to a total retail price of $799.92 (if you remove everything that has already been retired from it):

21309: NASA Apollo Saturn V ($119.99)
41187: Rosalyn's Healing Hideout ($49.99)
70612: Green Ninja Mech Dragon ($49.99)
71040: Disney Castle ($349.99)
75156: Krennic's Imperial Shuttle ($89.99)
75172: Y-wing Starfighter ($59.99)
76054: Batman: Scarecrow Harvest of Fear ($59.99)
76085: Battle of Atlantis ($19.99)

[Peppermint_M]

Okay, working on the UK RRP of £649.99 -

£84.99	60161	Jungle Exploration Site
£64.99	60132	Service Station
£34.99	60134	Fun at the Beach
£39.99	41187	Rosalyn's Healing Hideout
£44.99	70351	Clay's Falcon Fighter
£64.99	41317	Sunshine Catamaran
£24.99	41311	Heartlake Pizzeria
£74.99	70627	Dragon's Forge
£159.99	10257	Carousel
£34.99	8293	Power Functions Motor Set
£19.99	10702	Creative Building Set

Leaving 10p at the end. 

Rosalyn's Healing Hideout and Sunshine Catamaran are the sets my sister would love to have, so I would get those for sure (about £650 to spend , I would certainly get them for her). The Carousel would be for my Mum with the motor set to complement it, so it can run on its own. The rest is mostly for me , but I think the Pizzeria will end up being built by Mum and my brother would want a go at the Dragon's forge. 

I decided to go with current sets as I am making a wish-list too. Sales and deals in local supermarkets make most of the lower pricepoint sets (Sub £60 sets) potentially a great deal cheaper, so sets that I might not consider paying the £24.99 price would come home with me for the (usual) discounts down to £15 and under. I am making a wishlist to think of using VIP points on, maybe treating myself to or "saving" towards (aka, leave the discounted sets I am not super interested in and put the money aside to get the larger set.). 

Honestly, this has been an interesting exercise for. It is a rather good thread. 

 

[DeanLearner]

Great idea!

Again, working from the UK price of £650 (7541 pieces), and just going by currently available sets (though several I do already own), I would opt for:

Ninjago City £260 (4867 pieces)

Saturn V £110 (1969 pieces)

Old Fishing Store £140 (2061 pieces)

Parisian Restaurant £132 (2466 pieces)

Total: £642 (11333 pieces)

 

I would argue these constitute some of the most beautiful and important System sets currently in production, and massively better value than the UCS MF: 50% more pieces for the same price!

[Agent Kallus]

I 'll go with UK price and only sets either still stocked by Lego themselves or seen in shops in the past 6 months.

75106: Imperial Assault Carrier- £99.99

75158: Rebel Combat Frigate -£109.99

75157: Captain Rex's AT-TE -£109.99

75103: First Order Transporter- £79.99

70626: Dawn of Iron Doom- £59.99

70627: Dragon's Forge- £74.99

70618: Destiny's Bounty- £109.99

71018: Veterinarian - £2.99

£2.07 left over 

parts total- 8057 not the best deal nor the worst.

[jhuyser]

299.99$ Ninjago City

99.99$ Temple of the Ultimate Weapon

119.99$ Jungle Explorers Base

69.99$ Kai's Fire Mech

99.99$ Batcave Break-In

59.99$ The Batmobile

49.99$ Green Ninja Mech Dragon

Which equals to 799.93

 

[BlueberryWaffles]

This is pretty interesting to read! Great thought. My list taken from US S@H:

71016 Kwik-E-Mart $199.99

70917 The Ultimate Batmobile $139.99

75187 BB-8 $99.99

10251 Brick Bank $169.99

21310 Old Fishing Store $149.99

76083 Beware the Vulture $39.99

Total: $799.94

[mocbuild101]

42056 - Porsche 911 GT3 RS - $299.99 - 2704 parts
42043 - Mercedes-Benz Arocs 3245 - $299.99 - 2793 parts
42069 - Extreme Adventure - $179.99 - 2382 parts
42057 - Ultralight Helicopter $19.99 - 199 parts (just to fill the $20 gap)

Total: $799.96 - with 8078 parts! (which equals ~ 10c per part)

 

[kaelthas]

16 hours ago, makoy said:

@MAB bummer... I don't like that I missed all the LOTR sets but if I can go back to that period, I might use your list for shopping. You can make a great diorama with those sets! I also know a guy who is going to like your list, right @kaelthas?

Nice list @MAB, but I would suggest two black gates here. It's too short. 

@makoy, you need to call upon the Sorcerer Supreme aka Dr Strange for his time stone.. 

 

[MAB]

19 hours ago, makoy said:

@MAB bummer... I don't like that I missed all the LOTR sets but if I can go back to that period, I might use your list for shopping. You can make a great diorama with those sets! I also know a guy who is going to like your list, right @kaelthas?

 

 

I have a confession. It was my shopping list. In fact, I bought 2x Helm's Deep, 3x Mines of Moria and Weathertop, 4x Black Gate, 12x Uruk-Hai Army, probably 20x Council of Elrond (they were cheap), and then at least 40x Wizard Battle and 10x Gandalf Arrives (again very cheap). Obviously, I sold off a lot of the duplicate minifigs. I have similar numbers of sets form the Hobbit range too.

3 hours ago, kaelthas said:

Nice list @MAB, but I would suggest two black gates here. It's too short.

 

 

I agree. In real life (with no $800 restriction and having to use RRP) I would go for more. In fact, I did - I went for four.

[Trekkie99]

I'm with @dr_spock on this one. 40 PAB cups sounds good!

[badgerboy]

Great idea for a topic!

If armed with a time machine, it's really just a case of picking up the Space sets I missed out on from Classic Space, I'd also want the complete run from Blacktron (I only have Alienator) and I'd make sure I picked up the Monorail and a couple copies of the supplementary tracks (the ones with the switching points). I couldn't find rrp for the sets, but I think I'm probably still under so I'll throw in the first ever airport and a few spare space baseboards too if there's any money left!

Without a time machine, however, and available from Shop@Home today:

70614 Lightening Jet £59.99  876 pieces

70620 Ninjago city £259.99  4867 pieces

75189 Heavy Assault Walker £129.99  1376 pieces

75188 Resistance Bomber £99.99  780 pieces

75176 Resistance Transport Pod £39.99 x 2  294 x 2 = 588 pieces

75878 Bugatti Chiron £12.99  181 pieces

10699 Tan baseplate £6.99  1 piece

Total 8669 pieces £649.92

This definitely represents much better value than the Falcon, but I'm still glad I bought 75192, it arrived this afternoon and I just know it's going to be loads of fun.

[rodiziorobs]

Destiny's Bounty $160

Ninjago City $300

Goblin King Dragon $30

Elves Airship $40

Goblin Village $60

$60 for CMFs...

and I would get some stuff specifically for my kids with the remaining $150, probably more Ninjago sets.

Although ideally I would use some of the $$$ to pick off eBay deals as they came along. A lot of times that's honestly half of the fun for me, and buying at a store feels like cheating .

[x105Black]

$299.99 - Ninjago City
$349.99 - Disney Castle
$99.99 - Medieval Market Village
$69.99 - Mill Village Raid

OK, I spent about $20 more than was allotted.  Let's take out Medieval Market Village and buy another Mill Village Raid.  Add a couple of minifigures to make up the last $10.

I love the topic, it's a great thought experiment.

[Knight of Ren]

$10.00 - 7115: Gungan Patrol x80 = $800 ;)

OR 

Older Sets:

$19.99 - Isla de la Muerta 4181

$69.99 - Mill Village Raid  7189

$179.99 - Imperial Flagship 10210

$259.99 - Imperial Shuttle 10212

$269.99 - Death Star II 10143 

= $799.95 (Probably worth a 'lil more than that now)

 

Available Sets:

 

39.99 -  AT-ST 75153

$159.99 -  Detective's Office 10246

$199.99 - Cargo Train 60052

$199.99 - Carousel 10257 

$199.99 Slave 1 75060

= Close enough to $800.00

 

[makoy]

@bobasdad That's a good variety. Hope you get all these eventually.

@Peppermint_M Thanks for adding your list! Surely you can get the smaller sets cheaper from your local resellers or Tesco. It's also good to know that you are distributing the sets to your love ones. Apparently, you can't do that with a single UCS set. It's fun reading through people's list and their thoughts behind it. 

@DeanLearner welcome to Eurobricks! Yes, I agree with you and you can also buy some minifigures with the remaining change. :)

@Agent Kallus you also get lots of exclusive minifigures. All the Star Wars sets you listed are likely on discount/clearance already so in reality you will get these for less now.

@jhuyser that's a good balance between playset and vehicles. 

@BlueberryWaffles more than half of those sets are licensed sets and yet you get more than 9500 pcs. Great choice.

@mocbuild101 not bad at all. With almost 13 kg of Technic parts, and 2 of them are licensed, I'm really surprised how much you can get from Technic sets.

@badgerboy you're one of the lucky souls who got it early! I am still not sure whether I will get it. If one can actually take a picture of an equivalent collection value to UCS MF side by side, that will be a great way to visually represent this topic.

@rodiziorobs I know the feeling. Hunting deals is part of the fun for me as well. That list though, a combo of Ninjago and Elves is interesting how well they mix together. I have not bought any Elves set yet but will likely get one just the for parts.

@x105Black playsets / location based sets are always interesting.

@Knight of Ren 80 Gungan Patrols? Impressive. Most impressive! 

[Knight of Ren]

14 minutes ago, makoy said:

 

@Knight of Ren 80 Gungan Patrols? Impressive. Most impressive! 

 

Thank you. I love me some Gungans and who wouldn't want 80 of the beloved Jar Jar Binks himself 

[x105Black]

28 minutes ago, makoy said:

@x105Black playsets / location based sets are always interesting.

Indeed.  They are always the most interesting, to me.  And 2 Mill Village Raids, that's 4 goats!

6 minutes ago, Knight of Ren said:

Thank you. I love me some Gungans and who wouldn't want 80 of the beloved Jar Jar Binks himself 

So many people wouldn't.  So many.  But I'm glad you're enjoying them!

[badgerboy]

7 hours ago, makoy said:

@badgerboy you're one of the lucky souls who got it early! I am still not sure whether I will get it. If one can actually take a picture of an equivalent collection value to UCS MF side by side, that will be a great way to visually represent this topic.

I am indeed very lucky. I'm a stay at home Dad with two lovely children and my fantastic Wife said that I could buy the Falcon and was supportive about it! So, even if I hadn't managed to buy 75192 when it went live last week, I would still be a very, very lucky guy.

I might be pushing my luck if I try to persuade her that I need to buy these other sets to do a photo comparison though.

[Orange Leader]

On 19-9-2017 at 8:21 PM, makoy said:

@Orange LeaderThat list is packed with vehicles. Is that from your actual wishlist?

 @makoy I'm not questioning you for having only Modulars, do I?