wwwmwww

Eurobricks Vassals
  • Content Count

    23
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by wwwmwww

  1. Hello, I've always been a fan of legos. My favorite set of all time has to be the 8880 Super Car. I purchased this set and assembled it as a grad student at Michigan State University. I learned far more about real cars in the process then I ever expected to. Then soon there after came a job, kids, etc. and I had zero free time. I'm now in a lower stress job, my kids are off to college and a friend pointed out the LEGO Ideas 21309 NASA Apollo Saturn V set soon to be released that I'm hoping to get. But all this has rekindled the joy I had putting the 8880 Super Car together. It had 4 wheel drive, 4 wheel steering, 4 wheel independent suspension. In many ways it's drive train seems to be more complex then all the super cars I've read about since. This MOC kit seems like one of the nicest I've read about: https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-2811/NKubate/predator-supercar/#bi But I was curious what others thought was the best Super Car out there, official kit or MOC. Also if I end up going after an MOC like this one, what is the best way to get all the pieces. I see the directions are for sale but getting all the parts sounds more complicated then putting the model together. Thanks, Carl
  2. All, Just learned about let set 42083, the Bugatti Chiron. It sure looks nice. I'll likely be picking this up in the near future. Which got me thinking... is there a list of the OFFICIAL LEGO Super Cars out there? I found this that lists just 7 but I know there are more then that. https://brickset.com/sets/theme-Technic/tag-Super-Car By the way, what is the difference between set 853 and 956. The piece count differs by 2 but they appear identical. Thanks, Carl
  3. I got that email January 6th... Well its now a month later and still no card. I contacted customer service again and they are telling me I should have received it by now so they will print a second card and mail me another. ETA for the second card is now the end March. Maybe I'll end up with 2 if the first card ever shows up. So do most have their black VIP cards now or are most still waiting on them? I did get the "Exclusive to Black Card holders Double VIP Points on Star Wars purchases" email so I know I'm in the program. Carl
  4. Still waiting on mine, but I did get a reply from Customer Service: I got that email January 6th and I'm not certain what to make of it. If they have sent it out, actually mailed it, couldn't they have given me the date it was mailed? And the time period of "between now and February" seems unusually large for something that may already be in the mail. I'm not overly worried... I suspect that it will show up any day now. Just seemed like an odd way to state things, as maybe sent it out simply meant that its been sent for processing and that it hasn't been mailed yet. I'm in Malta, New York just for reverence. Anyone have any ideas when the first exclusive deal for Black VIP Card holders is expected to pop up? Carl
  5. I purchased mine on September 21 at a Lego Store in West Hartford, Connecticut. I too am still waiting on the black VIP card to arrive. I just emailed Lego Customer Service asking about it today. If I get a reply, or my card shows up, I'll try to remember to post a note here. Carl
  6. This comment was made 2 weeks ago. I know I haven't seen any sign of my black VIP card yet, Has anyone got theirs yet? Carl
  7. My biggest worry was that either another mall entrance would open before mine and that by the time I got to the store from the entrance there would already be 10+ people in line. Either that or there there would be a crowd at the mall entrance and a mad dash to the lego store to form the official line and I'm no match to many that are younger and faster then I am. Fortunately neither of those happened. I ended up being the first in line by over 35 minutes. If you go I just say do your homework. I talked to the Lego Store employees to find out the tips they had, found out who would be there at opening the next day, asked them which mall entrance I should use, and told them to expect me. I think I even stated that my goal was to be the first person in line. I then talked to no less then 3 people from mall security. I should also say that the entrance they told me would open first was the one nearest the security office, not the one nearest the Lego store which is what the Lego store employees had suggested I use. The first 2 security people I talked to just gave me the official line that the doors open at 7am. It was the 3rd one that I talked to that give me tips on how I might be able to get in before 7am. I did think it funny that security was pretty much telling me I could sneak in with mall employee's early. So not only was I standing in front of the lego store in the mall 45 minutes before the official door opening but those that should up 2nd, 3rd, and 4th all came from the opposite direction I had come from. I believe they had stood at the entrance that the Lego Store had suggested using. I had come in at effectively the opposite end of the mall right next to the security office. When the 2nd guy showed up he was actually surprised to see me there as I think he was likely the first one in that closer entrance when those doors opened. Also there were no young kids in the line at all. All adults that were likely as slow as me. And all were very civil and friendly. People held the spot in line for others that left to go use the restroom, etc. during the 3+ hour wait for the LEGO store to open.
  8. The LEGO store where I got mine has their display model sitting horizontally on a platform in a big Plexiglas enclosure in the middle of the store and I've seen several images from other stores with similar displays. I don't think I've see one displayed in the vertical position yet. Do you have any photos of this display? Is the stand made of LEGOs? Thanks, Carl
  9. I got one today. The closest LEGO store to me is in West Hartford, Connecticut and is 105 miles away. I called over this past weekend asking when they might get more and they told me to call back on Tuesday to see if they were getting any in their next shipment. I did and they told me they were expecting 10 sets this Thursday, today. So I drove down last night. Got there an hour before closing and talked to the staff to get the particulars and I also talked to the mall security about when the doors to the mall would open and which doors would be opened first. The mall doesn't officially open its doors until 7am but someone from mall security told me some mall employees start showing up at 6:30 and that I might be able to get in with one of them. So at 6am this morning I got to the entrance they told me should open first and sat on a bench. At about 6:10am, an employee already in the mall spotted me as came and opened a door and asked if I wanted in. I said "sure" and I actually got to the LEGO store at 6:15am and was the first person in line. The second person didn't show up until 6:52am. By 7am there were already 4 people in line. By the time the store opened at 10am there were 12 people in line for the 10 kits. Over all it was actually a rather fun experience. Everyone was civil and it was nice talking to other LEGO fans. One other thing I learned while in line... the store manager came out and made a few announcements before letting us in. One of those announcements was that LEGO has now adopted a policy they they will no longer accept returns of sets over $500 that have been opened. I thought that sounded odd to me as the second most expensive LEGO set that I am aware of is the Death Star 75159 which retails for $499.99. So I later asked the manager aside from the Millennium Falcon are their any other sets over $500. His response was "Not at the moment, but you can assume there will be more." The way he said it gave me the impression that he was already aware of another set or 2 planned to retail for more than $500 that were in the pipeline or about to be released. Anyone here know any more? Just curious what other large sets might be on the horizon. Carl
  10. I was thinking the same thing initially. It was the deliver date of December 5, 2017 that clued me in something wasn't quite right with that picture. Carl
  11. I spoke to one for 15 minutes and finally asked to speak to a supervisor and I then talked to the supervisor for another 15 minutes. Neither ever offered me anything, not even 300 VIP points. I pointed out that even WalMart doesn't encourage others to take items out of someone else's cart and that its a sad day when LEGO is setting their bar lower then WalMart. Their response was "But sir, we are not WalMart." To which I said "Obviously, as they at least offer some level of respect to the items a customer places in their cart." Trust me it wasn't a good morning yesterday. I get mad just thinking about it. Carl
  12. A question about the black VIP cards. I thought I had read somewhere that they would be shipped to those that purchased this set this year. However a few of the links I saw that pointed to some of the auctions showed that the black VIP cards were included. Did those of you that picked this up in person at a store yesterday get a black VIP card? If any of those arrive that were ordered on line, are they coming with the black VIP cards? I'm willing to wait on these to reappear on S@H but I'm now worried they may not be back in time to get the black VIP card. And if LEGO is mailing out the cards at a later date I certainly wouldn't expect to get one if I were to resort to eBay or elsewhere. But if they are included with the set itself... maybe that is a way to get the black VIP card. Still no plans on going to eBay. I'm curious how LEGO will respond to the two emails I sent customer service yesterday. The first was asking for help to complete my order as I couldn't get anything other then a busy signal via the phone. I had the set in my cart but couldn't pay for it without getting error messages instructing me to contact customer service. The second email was to complain that they sold the set that was in my cart to someone else while I finally had customer service on the phone and was hoping to get them to take my money. Basically I was doing what the site told me to do and I think I screwed myself over. I should have just kept plugging away on the website and not tried to reach out to customer service. They were less then helpful and just caused me to waste time. Carl
  13. I've see two things in writing so far. Not sure if I can find them now. One said the VIP cards were limited to the first 20,000. The other said that anyone who purchased the set this year would get one... so up to Dec. 31. After missing out on-line I did call the nearest lego store to see if they had any or when they might be getting in new stock and I asked them about the VIP cards as well. He too told me that anyone who purchased the kit this year would get one. So I'm tempted to dismiss the 20,000 figure but I'm not certain. It could be which ever of these two events happen first.
  14. Arg!!! I was up this morning at 7AM refreshing the page constantly until it went live. I think it was about 8:35AM. As soon as it went live the limit dropped from 2 to 1. And I got one in my cart. But I then spend the next hour trying to pay for it and just kept getting errors after errors that tell me to call customer service. I try. About 40 times I get a busy signal. Once I got a recording that said we cannot take your call right now and asked me to call back later. So I go into work unable to get anywhere on-line or over the phone. While at work I see I can get a little further in the checkout process but I need to update my address and every attempt at that gave me an error telling me to call customer service. So I continue to try that. At this point I already notice the the MF is listed as backorder status in my cart when it wasn't initially. And once I do finally get them on the phone it disappeared from my cart entirely. They sold the one right out of my cart... boy am I pissed. Needless to say I complained and then complained to the supervisor but it didn't get me anywhere. I even asked if there was a simple way to be notified when these were back in stock. That was another big "no". So short of being on LEGO 24/7, anyone have any tips on how best to monitor the site so I could be texted or something if they come back in stock.
  15. Thanks! The reaction at least makes sense to me now. I did say it was just something I had considered before Lego reduced the limit to 2. Even if they hadn't the wife would have likely put on her own limits. As for my role in why lego appreciates in value, I can certainly accept that. Honestly I'm not certain I view that as a bad thing. Or are you saying it is frowned upon to pay more then retail for old discontinued set? Some of the old sets I'd still like to get I simply didn't have the means to get years ago so as I said before I'm happy to pay a reasonable premium for those that recognized the value of a set and were willing to hold on to a couple to sell at a later date. My intent certainly wouldn't have been to deprive anyone that wants and can afford one today. I was just thinking about those that may want one and cannot afford it today, or even those that may not even be aware of this until years later. Say there is a 14 year old out there that would die to have this but his parents cannot afford it. In 10 years he could have a nice job and be grateful someone bought a few extras. Or lets say there is a 20 or 30 year old busy getting his career and/or family off the ground and has sat LEGOs aside to focus on other things. After his kids are off to college and the pace of his career has slowed he may be wanting to get back into things and be trying to get some of the good sets he missed. That is pretty much the boat that I am in now honestly. Understood. And I'm of the generation that doesn't even know what FOMO means. I had to look that one up. And NO... that isn't the group I would have been targeting. Part of this is simply due to my ignorance of these concerns. The only other set I have ever tried to get on the day of released was the Saturn V that just came out. And that I forgot to check on the morning of its release. I remembered that evening and when I did go to place my order... they had sold out of the initial batch but were still accepting pre-orders for a batch that would ship by the end of that month. That was being touted as a very limited and coveted set and it was limited to 2 from the first time I saw it listed. Still I had no problem getting one. Sure I placed my order nearly 18 hours after it went live and as a result I had to wait a few extra weeks but that didn't bother me. This is not being touted as "limited" that I am aware of. Its very expensive so I'm honestly not expecting as many to be fighting for them as the Saturn V. And Lego is offering the special VIP card to those who order before December 31. So I believe Lego intents this to be for sale well into next year at least. Even the fact that they initially had the limit set at 5 told me they had plans to make alot or that they expected them to be around for a while. The reduction to 2 I took as an indicator that they may not yet have as many ready as they had hoped for at this point so its their attempt to slow things down initial. If you look at the designer video, as been noted earlier in this thread, you can determine that Lego has been sitting on this set since at least January. Granted I don't know the typical time from the completion of a design to release but in this case I suspect some of that time was simply to build up some volume of this set as they were expecting high demand. The high price tag also points to that expectation I believe. So I fully believe it is LEGOs intent to make enough of these that everyone that wants one and can afford one should be able to get one. Will they all be able to get them tonight/tomorrow... likely not... but it would really surprise me if there were those here trying to get one now and still didn't have one by the end of the year. Those that are already in "FOMO" mode I think they are a bit premature. But I fully admit maybe they know something I don't. And as for being out of stock and going to ebay... yes I agree that would be frustrating. But I'm also not in FOMO mode yet either. If this initial batch does sell out before I can get an order in... I have ZERO plans of even considering eBay as an option until next year at the earliest. If I am wrong... and I do go to eBay next year paying 2X you can make me eat these words. But if I want this badly enough to pay 2X for it I'll be happy someone has it available to sell. I *DO* have an interest in LEGO but at the same time I'm not necessarily opposed to making some profit or allowing someone else to make a profit off me. I have no real desire to help the scalpers but if I am on eBay looking for this next year I think my biggest complaint would be with LEGO themselves. Surely they would see they are leaving money on the table and that they should have made more. Thanks. Is that thumbs up icon supposed to look like a minifig hand giving a thumbs up? I wasn't certain what I was looking at there until I put my cursor over it. Carl
  16. WOW!!! I'm a life long lego fan. I've been collecting and playing with legos for 48 years and I was totally unaware of this animosity towards investing. I hope neither of you have a 401K at work or have ever purchased a lego set after it was out of print for more then retail. If you have I hope you are able to see the hypocrisy in your statements. I have certainly purchased many lego sets for far over retail value and I've always been grateful someone had purchased it and been willing to keep it in near mint condition until I had found them. For the record, I had no plans of scalping them. They would have likely sat in their boxes untouched for 10 years and if the fair market value for them in that time wasn't 5X what it is today can you honestly say you wouldn't want to be in my position? And even if Robianco got his wish... it would still be a win-win for me as I'd likely just give them as gifts to my grandkids and been a hero in their eyes. How can you possibility say that isn't a smart investment? Still I'm new to these forums and if this is the way new members are welcomed for simply being honest I'm happy to go elsewhere. And all this over a hypothetical as I had already mentioned Lego reduced their limit so I cannot buy 5 even if I wanted to. Carl
  17. I checked here over the weekend and it told me the limit was 5. Today when I check the limit has been reduced to 2. https://shop.lego.com/en-US/Millennium-Falcon-75192 They haven't even gone on sale yet so I suspect the number of sets they have ready come the 14th isn't quite what they were hoping for. I was actually contemplating getting 5 and setting 4 aside as an investment. Carl
  18. Thanks. Yes, I'm aware of the story behind why the dish was replaced. Just curious if there was something significant to these other parts. I may have to check out the Incredible Cross Sections book. Just found this image on Amazon: Cross section of TFA Millennium Falcon Looks like those nose bits are tractor beam projectors. Thanks, Carl
  19. Speaking of those "TFA bits on the nose"... back when TFA came out all I remember was talk of the new sensor dish. Is there actually some in-movie reason that would explain these bits? If there is I'm guessing we may not see it until TLJ. Or is this just some creative license by LEGO? If this is just some minor greebling difference between the model used in ESB and TFA, I would guess there must have been many such differences. So why make special parts to highlight this one? Just very curious, Carl
  20. Could someone post an image or scan of this handout? Just curious what other info might be on it. Thanks, Carl
  21. Thanks for the information. Its very appreciated. Carl
  22. Hello. I'm a relatively new LEGO VIP member. I joined when I got the Saturn V that just came out. And I see this is supposed to be released for sale to VIP members on September 14th. Can someone tell me how that works? I logged into my VIP account and I still just see the October 1st date which is the release date for the general public. I'd love to get in on the VIP release and get the new Star Wars VIP card but I'm not certain what the procedure will be for placing an order on the 14th. Can it be done on-line? Does one need to call? I'd just like to know what to expect come the 14th or if there is a site I need to watch or something. Thanks, Carl
  23. Hello, Thanks for the warm welcome and all the information everyone. It is really appreciated. Carl