snefroe

don't tell me you don't know anything about that? i know the last one died before WWII i believe in captitivity in a Zoo somewhere in New Zealand or so... the poor animal was not given the proper treatment... not sure where this is coming from, pirate, surely you can find lots of this on the internet...

Don't ever come to this part of the world to buy LEGO then! The average wage is significantly less and the value of the currency is less than both Euro and American dollars. So image what that does to prices... i've been to that part already, didn't buy lego, (don't think i saw lego products...) but i'd be the first to go back, if given the chance...

no clue... i think they're going for a partnership. tlc would be keeping 10% or so, just to get some money out of it, without having to carry the bulk of the investments. it would also serv as a moral element, like they haven't given up on Billund. they're not out, but they're just giving the daily control to the partner... third, they'd still have a say in things. the lego concept, for instance, is still their product.

just heard on the radio that tlc is very close to selling the four parks for 540 million euro; the innitial price was 400 million. it seems there are still british and american groups involved in the deal...

that may be true... but you're also paid in

true... but 15% of americans are also living on the street, even tho many have a job; they just can't afford the rent... never heard of Hamburger jobs? people in the US very often have two jobs just to make ends meet. even old people of 65+ have to work in some circumstances. in my country, that's even illegal... i didn't have to pay one eurocent for all my years of educution, including university i hardly paid anything for all the times that i've been ill; Any idea how much the average American has to spend on those every year from his own pocket? they may have more money in their pocckets, but how much of that can they actually spend on lego?

i know... still... i can't say that the average belgian doesn't have all the stuff the american has, so... in fact, we're saving a lot more money than the average american as well...

well... our average wages/salaries are higher than in the US. i think that makes a difference...

Well, the prices now are affordable for some children, at the school I go to kids are walking around with cell-phones and I-pods that their parents bought for them, a lego set is alot less then that! Alot of kids are so spoiled... >:( stuff is more expensive in part because (as shown above) kids nowadays have more money to spend, and alot of them don't earn it, they just beg their parents for it! i agree completely. if you look at modern toys, including traditional games, like Clues, chess, stratego,... they're all rather expensive, but they're stil being sold in large numbers. but also the so called "good toys" , like books are not cheap. you also see an entire music industry rising up, making lots and lots of money by producing, and selling, songs/albums for children. it seems to me that parents are willing to cut their own budget and the family budget just so they can buy whatever their children want... we also underestimate the influence children are having on the decision making at home. For instance, it seems children have a very important influence on what car the family purchases, where to go on holiday,...

i bought mine from an american. saved me quite a lot of money as well...

well... we'll ask them in billund...

honestly, i haven't a clue how tlc is setting her price, if she's setting her price at all. first, is the production cost of US lego sets the same as european lego sets? Is she producing all sets in billund or for a part in the us? we know there was a company in Korea and there is one in Tsechia. how does TLC come to her final price in Europe and the US? I don't know. second, there are also other costs, next to TLC's cost, like transport costs, coming from Maersk and local distribution companies. these costs will be much different in the US and Europe. oil prices are after all very different in europe and the US. then there is the wholesailer. he also takes a cut. Wages in europe and the US are very different either. finally, the retailer, even tho TRU clearly is a multinational. he also takes a cut. in the end the customer pays an extra 21% in Belgium, probably in the rest of europe as well. in some other parts of the world, there probably is an extra import tax as well... there's also the evolution of currencies. the dollar is very weak. not a good thing for TLC. what any EU company does right now to deal with this, is to decrease profit margins in Europe, and increase margins in the US. that is why EU companies survive right now, with this high euro. they limit profit margins and costs in europe as much as possible. I assume TLc is doing the same; unfortunately, i have a feeling that they don't... the difference between us and europe is not only based on vat, but also on wages, oil prices, profit margins of the actors of the economic pipeline... that explains the differece. all these elements are part of the final price; we all know that the european social-economic model is very different to the American model, so it's inevitable that prices are as well. it's always been this way, but thanks to the internet and globalisation, we now see the difference. my guess is that TLC tries to get an equal profit margin in Europe and the US. but because life is more expensive in Europe than in the Us, it's very logical to assume that tlc's products will be more expensive in Europe. but it is possible that TLC uses one continent against the other and tries to get a larger profit margin in the US than in europe, since costs are a lot higher here than in the US. that would allow TLC to decrease her profit margins here in Europe in order to become more competitive against the new players in this market. then there is the SAH. at first you would have to say that it is a ripp off. after all, SAH follows the local prices, even tho they're offering exactly the same products all over the world while costs are minimal and the same all over the world. it suggests that tlc's taking huge profits in Europe. however, i don't really know how large/expensive the european structure of TLC as a company is in al the different countries of the EU, compared to the Us structure; it seems to me that the local SAH simply follows local prices because costs on infrastructure in europe are a lot higher and they might be acused of dumping,...

where do you get the 115

outch... a lot of responses in just two hours time hobbes, the sets you're refering to (the small ones) are 2,78 and 3,49 in my country. i know Austria is extremely expensive for lego. when i went to Italy with my parents when i was young, we never bought any lego there... it seems some things never change. the reason why these products are a lot more expensive in europe than any place else is partly because of the 21% VAT. i'm not sure if TLC produces lego destined for the US in Billund or in the US. price would be influenced by that as well... i don't think the people of TLC are really dying to irritate us with these prices even tho they do,... after all, europe is her home market... sure, it would be great if TLC were to produce the stuff in China, but i don't think Denmark will accept that... if you reread posts of the passed, you will find that quite a few of us agree that the price policy of TLC has improved. i can only state what i'm observing in my shops/country: i see lots of sales, sometimes older sets they're trying to get rid off, sometimes newer stuff. i just picked up the discovery shuttle for 50% and a firestation for about the same reduction. we now even get a towel for free if we buy sets at a certain shop (can't remember which one) it seems to me that retailers can afford to have sales on Lego. i even saw a little war between shops for the firetruck. Even tho the official price is about 19

i follow your argument for a large part, however: 1) there are a few, i know, just a few, sets at very low prices. the smallest sets of the construction theme and firefighting theme are 2-4

is that the one in cyclonis pic? i believe that one has an all white head in the film... it's also cheaper... we've said before, tlc is trying to save money on production costs. this is one of their methods.

unfortunately, that's illegal...

Does it really? I haven't researched these matters so I don't have any reference material and I'm half asleep so I probably don't know what I'm on about. Now, with these Internet connections sometimes reach over 1GB in speed (Ok, so maybe few places have connections that fast, but point is one day everywhere will) movies are accessible in seconds. Despite not being as fast, most DSL connections allow for pirated new releases to be downloaded within a couple of hours. If 10 million people world wide decided to download rather than go to the cinema that would be a rather large chunk of the profits lost to downloading. Every bit counts? that's right; the real top 30 of all time looks entirely different to the popular one... much of these downloading sites depends on traffic. if more poeple download stuff , more time will be needed to complete your own film... you're also uploading the part of the film you already have and there are limits to speed if you reach certain percentages of uploaded bits... i've tried it once with the sw ep IV. quality wasn't really good, took ages even tho i've got one of the best connections in world...

i don't think that's a problem. if you look at the box office records of all time, you will see that there are lots of recently released films among the best 30, downloading or not. for some reason, Titanic just hit the jackpot. besides, the internet also has a major recruiting aspect. it is widely used by producers and distributors to send people to the cinemas. i'd also prefer watching sw movies in the cinema...

well... i've been reading quite a few reviews on rottentomatoes.com and it seems it has a "fresh percentage" of 83%, i believe... so lot's of people seem to like it... however, people who don't, refer to the same arguments: lack of decent acting, dialogue and story... the very essence of a film, i should say... i also feel that people use different standards to judge this sw film compared to other films they review. take Roger Ebert, for instance, a well known film critic. i believe he gives this film four stars, which is very high, even tho he agrees there is a lack of acting, dialogue and story. it seems an adventure story like sw desn't have to be a good film to get good points... i won't go and see it for a second time... i'll just wait for the dvd in November... i was also a bit surprised to see that the film no longer takes the number 1 slot at the US box office... if it wants to be in the US top 5 of all times, it's gonna have to add another 100 - 150 million $ to its current record. beating Titanic or even return of the king is out of the question (worldwide, i mean). it has to double its current record to even come close to LOTR

tell me, Mr.Phes... what would you do with these minifigs? i mean, it's not an official set, so it can't be part of your official collection of lego sets... Phesical says "The Why is LEGO so stingy with their mini-figures? began heading off topic. So I've moved the posts into a new thread so we can continue the discussion here - if anyone would like to do so..."

i agree with phes... it just doesn't look right, for some reason... it looks out of balance, the hull is extremely short compared to the bow and the house. the problem with the hull is that it limits your options as a builder of ships that are more realistic than this model. i love that huge grey bow piece. it's detailed and it would actualy fit large ships, but the other hull pieces are just not realistic enough to build Nelson's "Victory" or any other classic ship... there's a touch of humor about this set that doesn't allow me to turn it into a realistic model, contrary to the old pirate ships... i can understand that kids would want to play with the model, but there's no room whatsoever to create a better alternative. it doesn't even have sails... i think that the durability of set is afwul. i mean, when you bought a ship like the baracuda, you could always turn it into another ship. this ship only has one model, one ship, zero alternatives. sure, you could change the house or even the interior, but, as such, this ship will always be this ship. they could just have produced this ship as a 1 piece model... in fact, you can almost predict that many kids will put away this model, next year, when they're done playing "Harry Potter and ... whatever"... you used to dismantle your model and build something new when you're done playing and create a new story, with another model you built yourself with the old parts,... but this ship looks more like a playmobil ship than a lego ship...

i don't really like the ship, or the other two sets for that matter, just the graveyard... the ship is a weird thing, isn't it? 4+ pirate pieces, some nice ideas and pieces,... i have the feeling that it only takes 5 minutes to build this thing and that's it... i think the parts tlc produces have great potential to build really brilliant and large (pirate) ships, for instance, but this set is really, really <insert that tiresome argument> and not particularly the best ship ever produced. TLc is not very consistent in producing quality sets for every theme...