Mijit

I'd love to know exactly what it is in this case. Here in Australia The Tower of Orthanc works out to 11.8 cents a piece. Rescue Reinforcements from the Movie line is 11.6 cents a piece. Whilst MetalBeard's SeaCow is 14.2 cents a piece.

This surprised me to no end, I wasn't expecting it to be cheap, but it's unusually expensive by comparison with everything else. I'd have expected a set like The Tower of Orthanc to have licensing costs galore that would be reflected in it's price, it works out to 11.8 cents a piece, Rescue Reinforcements from the Movie line is 11.6 cents a piece........but the SeaCow is 14.2 cents a piece, if it had been priced in accordance with other Movie line sets it would have come in at just under $320, instead we're paying $390....for what exactly?

I placed an order at the end of December, my shipping info had the exact same details as yours (shipped 2nd, stuck at Alexandria on the 7th, hadn't budged since), so I contacted Lego about it yesterday.... "Unfortunately, there was an unexpected delay with the packages that arrived in Australia on 07/01/14, which was when yours did. They are expecting these packages to be delayed an additional 3-4 business days." ...and i'm not entirely sure what to make of that. A 3-4 day delay means I would have had it last week? And this is why you don't use Time Cruisers to deliver post.

As others have said they're set for a March retail release, however the Aus Online Lego Store is already selling the Movie line sets and Minifigs. Go figure.

I find it somewhat amusing that I could purchase Metal Beard online right now for half of what it will cost me at retail three months from now.