Hobbes

In case you're referring to mine, jipay, that room is 17 m

HA! Thank you, mister_phes, this is the "small pirate" set I mentioned in your Pirate-Collection-Thread that I wasn't sure about whether I owned it. I confused it with the bit bigger Sabre Island set (of which I recently acquired two)! ThanQ ;)

snefroe1, your examples are sales, of course: 12.90 instead of 19 sure is. I was only complaining about Austria. We Austrians like to ;) The only sort-of-sale I remember was at a local TRU where they sold 3(!) of the new fire-sets for the price of two. While that might be a sale when you look at the single set price it isn't really a sale to attract non-AFOL or non-collectors. I haven't seen any "xx % off"-sale here lately. Although sometimes there are sets on sale they "want to get rid of", that is true - but very rare. Like those 440x Designer Sets I mentioned: they're retired on S@H but still available in some stores - at full price. So I got them on eBay for half... And for the VAT: I agree with jipay, it doesn't add up... As for the many responses in a short time: it always is a hot topic. I know we can't do much but I just wanted to rant ;)

http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=129844 Being expanded constantly...

That sums it up pretty well. It was once... I dunno, was TLC doing badly in the 80s/early 90s that they won't "revert" their way/business? I'm not a business professional, nonetheless I don't understand why it is so difficult to "just be LEGO" again, not a "hip and cool toy". LEGO is hip and cool anyways and will always be. What's so bad about owning just a bit of the world's toy-market but produce a high-quality yet affordable product? We saw what happened when they tried to appeal to a whole new clientele. Didn't work. Couldn't. There'll always be people who won't buy it (pity them). And it seems raising the prices didn't work either[1] because now they have to sell their theme parks |:| I just don't get it... :| [1] Raising prices with declining sales never works. I haven't seen one store/company where this policy worked. I learned that 18 years ago in school already...

I hear you, mister_phes, I hear you... :'(

1) The lowest priced sets here in Austria are Bionicles for EUR 3.99. The small City sets (Police Motorbike for example) are EUR 4.19. 2) In the States, maybe, not in Europe as far as I can tell. I think that EUR 67.99 for the 4404 set is way too much. Or EUR 51.99 for 4886 (compared to USD 39.99!). Same goes for the XXL Crane (EUR 51.99 here, USD 49.99 in the States). And I'm not taking into account the currency exchange rate - including that the difference is even higher! Something is wrong with the European price policy. Fortunately I have "connections" to the States and mostly buy my sets there (unless I can't wait to get it which so far only happened when the BNSF came out). US-prices, I think, are fair. European prices IMHO are not. 3) I don't see any. Maybe a local store sells something off now and then but that is mostly older sets that are retired (on S@H at least). 4) Here I cannot agree. As I said, to me 4 Euro are (almost) nothing. I'm willing to spend it for those sets. But now that people have gotten used to the Euro they are aware what 4 Euro really are worth compared to their income. And I've heard parent "excuses" over and over: "4 Euro? Lets get you 2 of <fill in other plastic toy here>."

As I mentioned in this thread it looks like Austrian stores - Viennese stores at least - are restocking their LEGO shelves. I visited at least four different major stores lately and in all four I happily witnessed the interest (very) young customers showed in LEGO. Especially Bionicles seem to be a favorite among boys (not surprisingly). But what I also was able to witness was the parents' reluctance to spend 4 Euro on tiny sets like "Racers" or the small Bionicle figures. The common (and sadly true) opinion was that for that price you can get two sets of something else (usually some 1-piece plastic toy). That is sad. The interest seems to be there. But the price policy obviously works against it. I mean, I was standing there, drooling, seeing all these sets, but didn't buy anything because of the price. And my single income is above the average of an Austrian 2-kid-family. If I don't want to spend that much how could they? Where are all those small sets ("Town" used to have some in "the good ol' days") that you could afford from your pocket money? Kids should be able to buy those kinda sets by themselves, without risking their parents' credit history. Just my 2 cents... had to rant a bit. Sorry if a similar topic already exists in the vastness of this message board ;)

I like those. No. No. Check what? eBbay is the cheapest place to get stuff. Didn't you know? Yes. As mentioned before: that can't be - there's no cheaper place than eBay. Loved it. Keep 'em coming. PS: Feel free to imply sarcasm where needed.

I recently got me a(n) SES on ebay Germany for 56 Euro + shipping. It's not MISB but MIB. With shipping I payed 70. There were others on auction but I decided to go for the the one with the box. Mostly because of the reasons mister_phes described earlier. I wouldn't have gone much higher, though. I got it for 4 Euro below my maximum bid. To me MISB and MIB are the same: if I can get a box I'll take it, but it won't stay sealed here. I wanna "play" with the LEGO and keep the box as a "memory". I didn't see it that way when I was a kid, of course, that's why I don't have any of my childhood boxes :'( Can't wait till it arrives. Should be here during next week... *satis*

Umm... I didn't pay much attention to it at the store. The box said 7419, that's what I remember. And LUGNET lists only one version for it. But I'm not an expert on Orient Expedition...

At that price I guess it'll be there for some time. And as I said they had more than one ;)

I don't really like it that's why I didn't deem it noteworthy ;)

I'm interested in one myself so I do know the price. Unfortunately it was pretty high: EUR 103.99 :/

They had the 7075. That was the only one I saw.

As far as I remember they had 4713, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 and 19. I'm not sure about 4712.

Today I didn't want to go straight home after work and decided to stroll around in town a bit. Since it was raining I decided to do some "indoor window shopping" and went to a shopping center in the city which also has quite a big toys department (not TRU size, but still). I didn't expect to see a lot of LEGO cos the last time I was there (sometime in January this year) they didn't have much on their shelves. Looked like they were selling off their last stock without the intention of restocking. Well, today that LEGO corner looked a bit different. It was still there - and bigger than ever! I haven't seen that much LEGO in a toys store for ages! They have restocked everything, even sets I haven't seen on the shelves for quite some time: they had Designer sets (the 440x line), brick buckets, Harry Potter, Bionicle, Technic Racers (or whatever they're called), other Technic sets, the entire Santa Fe train line, all of the My Own Train train cars, all Orient Expedition sets (thought that was gone), the latest train line (4512, 4511, tracks, speed regulator, train station, cargo), the entire new Construction theme (including the big truck and XXL crane), the new dark grey road plates, the entire Ferrari line, Duplo, Jack Stone - and not just one set of each! LEGO EVERYWHERE! :oD It was the fourth store, I think, where I saw the 7344. I personally don't like it at all but in all the stores I saw it it attracted little boys (and sometimes their dads). So, I have to admit that it seems to be a good model after all :) It felt reeeeeeeally good to see that LEGO does seem to attract customers (again) and encourage stores to restock. I haven't had that feeling lately. I didn't buy anything, though (there was no sale and the prices still are *cough* an outrage *cough*), but I could have left a lot of money there :-D Today was a good day...

The bit I'm confused about is where you got that from? The way I read it TLC thinks about selling all four parks. I didn't see the name Billund mentioned explicitly anywhere. LEGO started in Billund and that's why it is a very delicate matter (I liked the comparisons with the Vatican and Paris). And I think those EU-regulations (whatever they are) are the least reason they're thinking of selling (we Europeans know that Brussels likes to regulate anything)...

"We still expect a sale to take place in the course of the summer." That from TLC directly - what can one think?

I am not "worrying" about the ship itself or its looks. It's not a pirate set and it probably resembles the ship in the movie. What I don't like is that it's supposed to be a LEGO model but looks like Playmobil. And that's what I meant about 2005 not being that great a year afterall: the new sets do look good - but that's about it. They're still "playing sets", not "building sets"...

People said 2005 was a good or even great LEGO year. I never agreed (although it's better than the recent past). TLC was going in the right direction with the new city sets (except for the dump truck), for example, but not convincingly enough to me. Simply because of sets like this ship... If this is an indication for a new pirate theme then I'd rather pay more for old pirate sets on eBay... very disappointing... :(

This one? I save my comment(s). I agree completely with mister_phes' friend.

Does a parallel universe do the trick, too? I usually have my problems with leg room on planes...

How about "Guess What UPS Brought Me Today"?