DrWeevil

Yeah, thanks Dark Sion, much easier decision now :P Whilst I'd like to see a PoTC Flying Dutchman, I think you may have it mistaken for the Spongebob version, which is the one coming out next year! That said, it could make an interesting scene - Jack Sparrow facing off against Spongebob and Patrick I'm pretty sure The Black Pearl is the last of the PoTC sets...

Hmm... yup, more conflicted now! I don't have a whole lot of Castle stuff but did get a few Knight's Kingdom II sets a few years ago - including Vladek's Dark Fortress (my only castle), which is a cool set and looks great on display. I was thinking about using the Kings Castle as the opposing 'good' castle in a medieval display. The Black Pearl would be to round out (or uneven out) my 'Ship Shelf' Hmm... *Cue Jeopardy thinking music*

Question for my fellow AFOLs - If I have to choose between the King's Castle at $119 and Black Pearl at $120 - which set is the better value / would people recommend? (Both current "Aussie Sales")

Well I'm a bit bummed about that - after putting back the Kings Carriage Ambush set the other day because it scanned at ~$50, I haven't been able to find one anywhere in the SEVEN(!) Kmart stores 'closest' to me! My Harry Potter-Medieval Fusion display will have to live without a King it seems...

I picked up a couple of Kingdoms sets at Kmart - Blacksmith Attack at $12 as above and Dragons Prison at $25. The King's Carriage was also on 'clearance' at $49 but didn't think this was discounted enough - wasn't $35 at my local :( Lucky strike of the day however, was 10231 Shuttle for $50 due to a destroyed box and a few missing pieces - cheap enough to replace. Happy camper!

FYI - Grand Emporium is available on the David Jones website at 30% off (<$180), for those who are still in the market for one. No other modulars available online however (bizarrely). Don't know how long it'll be in stock for though...

30%?! I already have a Pet Shop, but that's verrrry tempting to get another, even though I'm not sure what I'd do with it!

Used 10177 Boeing 787 Dreamliner at a good price :D

I'm sorry but I'm confused - are you selling these sets or just telling us you bought something? If it's the latter, which seems probable, you may want to put this post in the appropriate what bargain I bought today thread.

I'm a grown woman AFOL who always played with Lego when I was a kid. When I recall my childhood, there were two main types of toys that my sister and I (no brothers around) would play with equally - Barbies and Lego. We only had one or two Paradisa sets during that time, but they just fit in with our overall combined town/castle/space empire we amassed and built over the years. I don't remember being dissatisfied with the appearance of minifigs - I do remember thinking though, that the girls were always daggy thanks to the single female hair piece that was available back then (not that the male hair piece was much better). We were examples of girls that liked playing 'dolls' as much as Lego - which I think probably represents a large number of girls out there. There are also already a large number of sets that I'd call totally gender neutral - Harry Potter, City, Castle/Kingdoms, Creator, Modulars, Spongebob, Toy Story, Collectable Minifigs, etc etc I think a line geared a little more towards girls is a good idea. You won't find anyone out there who more strongly believes in gender equality than me (just ask my partner!) - but I also agree that certain lines appeal more to boys than girls (I'm mainly talking about Star Wars here - man I find almost all of those sets just plain ugly, aside from a bunch of UCS sets). So if there are lines that appeal more to boys, then why not a line that appeals more to girls? Personally, I'd rather another theme along the lines of Paradisa - as I really dislike the figures in this Friends line as I think it takes away from the 'Lego feel' of the sets, but at least they're using normal bricks that can be integrated with other sets, even if the figures cannot (unless you're planning a MOC of marauding female giants - which could be interesting). I personally won't be buying any (don't care for pink and purple bricks much myself), but I'm not the target demographic. Introducing this line isn't going to lose any existing young female Lego fans - all it can do is gain some. So what's the big deal?

I know it's bordering on sacriledge in the Lego community, but I'm so over sci-fi and fantasy based sets - there are just so many other genres and themes out there waiting to be explored! It may be a bit past the 'best before' date on this series now, but The Simpsons could have huge possibilities IMHO... Think of all the new colours... All the minifig possibilities - just try to tell me you don't want Barney Gumble and Mr Burns minifigs!

Word on the street is that Amazon France has jettisoned their cheap shipping option. I've not checked this for myself (too lazy to start up a real computer) - can anyone confirm? That'll be a real shame if it's true....

Haha if you find Amazon France packaging stories horrifying you'd best never order from The Hut!

Hewman, if I could 'Like' posts I'd 'Like' yours, but I'll have to settle for a +1 (except the work bit) and a .

FYI, if you look at 'Mark's' profile page you will see he last logged in on Dec 14 - so the dude is still definitely around and obviously keeping an eye on this thread, so obviously something nasty hasn't happened in his real life preventing him from fulfilling his obligations. I'm sorry you guys have seemingly lost a lot of money to someone who appears to be a bit of a scam artist. Unfortunately I can't see how you'll be able to claim your money back if it's past the 45-day PayPal rule. Aussie police can't/wouldn't really do anything about it...

Paypal has a time limit on refunds - I thought it was around the 45 day mark. You should check on this. I'd definitely be applying for a refund if I were you

Thanks for the info Peter

Thanks for sharing that information - I thought it'd be something along those lines. As I'm not selling on the sets a smallish tear and crushed corner isn't worth that pain!

I know there's some sort of return policy but I've never bothered looking into it. I have a feeling another member on here has done so at some stage though, but perhaps through Amazon France, not Italy... I wasn't going to worry about following it up.

I picked up my Imperial Shuttle UCS from the PO today - shipped from Amazon.it. The set was received with one reasonably crushed corner and a hole was punched through the front of both the outer box and the set box around the size of two 50c pieces. Not worth complaining / sending back to them, but thought I'd let people know that sets can certainly be damaged even when sent via UPS with 'quick shipping'.

Great idea to pre-sell tickets for set admission times! I came into town for this year's Brickvention reasonably early in the morning (<10am) to see the public exhibition but really couldn't justify standing around in line for hours when after seeing that the line was already all the way around the whole block of the town hall!!! It was totally crazy, so we left. I swear I've never before seen so many kids walking around the CBD cluctching boxes of Lego and Ninjago blister packs! I have two quesitions though: 1) How many tickets are you selling in each slot? (i.e. will it already be crazily jam packed in the first session of the Saturday? - which is when I bought my tickets for :P ) and 2) Will there be different lines for those who already have tickets and those who want to buy them at the door? (I'm presuming to do otherwise will lend a bit of chaos / result in extreme lines again).... Cheers - I'm really looking forward to it!

Im pretty sure your items didn't actually travel to Melbourne and back - those updates were regarding paperwork with the clearing agency before the shipment could leave Dubai. That's what happened with mine.

If you don't already have it you should most definitely buy that set. That's great value at that price. It is a fun build and awesome to display. Edit: on another note - interestingly (to me anyway :P), my MMV from AmAzon France and Imp Shuttle from Amazon Italy both scanned in at Dubai at the same time. Coincidences!

I think I subscribe to this school of thought also. I just happen to be an AFOL that really only buys larger sets, so for me buying from OS has *always* been significantly cheaper than here in-store, the very rare clearance set aside (ie those fire brigade modulars at Myer). Even paying Bricklink prices plus shipping ends up being cheaper. I find I get around 35-50% off Aussie retail when I buy from OS. You will never find that sort of discount - reliably - here. Sure, you score the odd bargain but that's all chance. Ordering online usually means you're guaranteed of receiving it at that price, and I've not had too many problems with set condition either (only two sets of mine have had moderate box squeezage - and as I'm not a 'reseller' or MISB hoarder I don't care). I would have thought that buying a larger number of smaller sets at the same time would also be significantly cheaper than here?

Just out of curiosity, how many people are still regularly buying Lego in-store in Australia? Aside from an SW Advent calendar group buy during a Myer 3-for-2 sale (thanks again Brick Mamba) and some clearance Alien Conquest for a need-now present, I haven't bought anything this calendar half year. I just can't justify it, even during sales time, when it's so much cheaper from OS... When I see these sales posts the prices still seem overly expensive to what I can source elsewhere... Just wondering if others are in the same boat?