Ratsmitglied

From what I've seen, with the 20% off sales it is actually cheaper to buy many sets (excluding licensed sets and minifigures) in Australia than in the US, particularly when you take the shipping costs and currency conversion feeds into account. It is only when you hit the US specials that things become a lot cheaper. But that is irrelevant to the topic.

Average income depends on which average you use, and where you get the stats from. The most recent data for mean gross income for taxation purposes (probably the most accurate figure in a lot of ways) gives just under $50k AUD as the mean income. At the end of the day, the headline reported income from newspapers is usually close to double the median income (i.e. the amount that 50% of the population earns less than) because the population base is smaller, so those with a very high income have a greater effect on the mean than they do in other countries. this article (from 2011, but the figures will be fairly close still) gives a better idea - http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/2614076.html

I have to say that this was one of my favourite displays at BrickExpo, it is an impressive MOC.

Not German, was being silly with an online translator and my surname a few years ago (Original language -> English -> original language -> English -> German I think was the string used), and liked what I ended up with :-P

I would agree about a thread (this thread?) for Aussie available good pricing. As you say, many places won't ship to Australia, so it becomes a pain to try and find the ones that will.

Hi All, I found my way back to Lego after quite a long hiatus (about 1992-2010), but only just started looking for forums etc. discussing lego. I'm not usually a big poster on forums, preferring to read and get ideas rather than posting, so don't expect to see to much posting from me... In terms of where I'm from - I hide in Canberra, Australia, and I've currently got a wide range of kits in my collections, although I have to say that my preferred Lego themes are Space (although Alien Invasion didn't really appeal to me, I prefer space to not include 'Earth'), Historical (including pirates), City (specifically Fire) and large scale models (such as the Tower Bridge, Sopwith Camel & Red Baron). I also enjoy the functions of Technic models. I do have a collection of the collectible minifigures, but haven't actively tried to complete any of the sets, more trying to collect those figures of interest to me. I don't have any interest in Licensed themes except for the Lord of the Rings as physical kits, but I do enjoy the licensed computer/console games.

As stated on the Target Australia homepage "Target Australia Pty Ltd is part of the Wesfarmers Ltd group and has no affiliation with Target Corporation US" In the Wikpedia article for Kmart "Kmart also exists in Australia and New Zealand (see Kmart Australia), although it now has no relation to the American stores except in name, after U.S. equity in the Australian business was purchased in the late 1970s." So in this case they are both Australian companies. Fishpond, on the other hand, is New Zealand owned and operated, it just happens to own a .com.au domain name (mind you, my experience with Fishpond was terrible, out of 6 items ordered, only one arrived and there was absolutely no communication)