natelite

for those of you worried about the sale... don't. i went to macquarie centre's big w spoke to a bigw asst mgr and he was telling me they restock when sold out. those sets currently in the toy sale are sold at introductory prices, not sale prices. the midi MF was sold out when i went today but they will restock on monday. space police is apparently a bigw exclusive, so don't expect the other stores to get them this year. maybe next year....don't really know. also, the 4wd & trailer was $2 cheaper than advertised (at $22.74). i wonder what exclusive set will DJ be getting. seems like there are too many sets/themes this year and every store will run exclusives. won't be seeing any price competition among the different retailers.... no wonder TRU was so ruthless in raising prices... DV's tie was also higher at $55. i don't see why you need to. kmart will price match... there's bound to be a TRU with one in stock.

to give some insight into the decision... the box sizes are determined by the end users. 1. consumers like value for money. unfortunately this means bigger = better. because it is not possible for the average buyer to figure out how many bricks or parts are in the box (unlike the old 80-90s design where you can see what you get), a bigger box gives the impression that you are getting more for your money. 2. retailers also prefer bigger boxes for the same reason as you mentioned. despite the advances of modern technology in prevent shoplifting, there's nothing better than the old fashion big = difficult to hide technology. so even as retailers like smaller boxes to maximize on the retail space, for lego however, since the retail value is large enough, the theft prevention is preferred over retail space savings. besides, lego is a high margin toy which doesn't sell on volume alone. so it's not like they need to sell all the sets in one day. another reason why the lego boxes went from tape sealing back to sealed boxes. did you see how many vandalized boxes there are in walmart? that's why we only saw 7% reduction in volume. the only true saving was in the form of standardized packaging. less downtime having to sort outwhich size to use. save on printing template, and mostly in the packing and shipping process, i.e. how many boxes to fit in a standard container/truck, etc.

removing the chain by the described technic will wear the minifig down very quickly. remember than you need a lot of grip on the minifig while you cut the metal. besides that, chrome wears down with heat and time anyway. anyone with the western sets from 10-20 years ago will tell you the chrome on the trumpet looks very patchy... nice while it lasted but definitely not a keeper. imo of course

yes, but from S@H. i think some small domestic retailers carry them too though...toyworld maybe? or toycorner? anyway, just wanted to add that if anyone is thinking of making a magnet purchase to put in an order soon. i got a feeling that price is going up...

you mean a french door. it's used widely to separate rooms in a house as well.

to answer svelte's question, the chatswood target (and most likely macquarie center target as well) seems to be stocked up in MMV, pirates and spongebob sets. guess it's only waiting until jul 23 now! spongebob sets include the new bikini bottom, krusty krab, sandy's rocketship and the bikini express bus. TRU seems to have done the opposite of other stores and has raised its prices. the solar sailer is now $115, up from $99. they aren't selling anyway ever since the magnet set came out.

i went to kmart to kinda see what is left after two days. surprise, surprise....everything is still there (except death star... maybe only available for layby?) anyway i was pleasantly surprised to see the AT-OT was cut a further $50! i bought it for $299. didn't think to actually buy it because of the rip off pricing but for $299... it's pretty good so i grabbed it. in case it's not national, this special pricing was from the chatswood store. since kmart price match, you might get lucky if you get them to call up the chatswood store to price match! other than that, no special pricing on the other sets. anyone else spotted cheaper than advertised sets elsewhere?

sponge bob is not ending next year. at least not if they are smart. i mean just 1 year use of the new squidward mold? that has got to be the worst kind of investment made by silly people. indy jones will end in 1-3 years time. unlike SW where you have the rebels and lots of multi characters (good guys and bad guys), indy jones is just a story about one professor and a few supporting chars. it's not very comparable to SW... it's more like batman (one main hero with few supporting chars) and we know what happened to batman! disney theme is always a little hard to manage. reason is mostly because the license characters have very unique shapes. hard to fuse with the lego style. i think the reason why disney has change hands so frequently is more about money. the toy makers think they can capture the disney market and bid up the licensing fees. the reality however is far from it. it's not really easy to make money from the disney franchise because every char has a special shape which doesn't fit well with the brick style.

piece count it is. it's great for the slopes as you get lots in different colors. the 2x2 bricks though really kill the deal. i hate 2x2 and 2x4 bricks. i need lots of 1x2 or 1x4 bricks since you don't really build with 2x2 unless you are making a bunker.

toy story 3 will mark the return of KK2 action figures! if there ever was minifig scale, we'll see new armor mold in a similar shape as the troll's or ufo's with mr freeze helmet for buzz. woody will have the 1x1 tooth plates for feet and to make him slightly taller than buzz. both will have normal mf legs. we'll also see new shorty green alien mf (like the SBSP slip-on mold).... this plus buzz + woody will be the new mf pack (and maybe even magnet set). all thrown together from TS1, where they were stuck in the claw-machine. we'll also see a brickbuilt piggy (yay farm animal!) and a tranny rex dino (i hope not too big).

well, i'm firm believer of market pricing... so if i want a deal, gotta vote with my wallet! going to pass on this round too. not cheap enough to be worth it. targeting at least 30% d/c. also given the large markup vs us prices, i'm probably targeting 35-40% average. will see if it comes to fruition.

home one is more "correct" ratio-wise. larger sw sets are around 1.5-1.8 times USD prices. home one is coming in at 1.6x (180/110). i think endor got screwed because it was priced in Q1 09 when the AUD was at its lowest in recent years. hopefully the price will be adjusted later this year or early next year. the chromy stormy is indeed a good price for aussies. good enough to BL. the worst non-sw lego mispricing award has to go to the creator family home. USD 59.99, AUD 129.99. WHAT THE ?!?!?!

MMV is on sale at target july 23 i think. the new catalog is out on lasoo.com.au. no prices though but i'm expecting 20% off. anyone seen the new agents sets? how about power miners phase 2? also any word of echo base and tank droid?

target and kmart are part of the same corp. kinda doubt there is any "real" competition. the real competition is between bigw and kmart. myer and dj. :

nope. kmart has the separatist shuttle and the ATOT. haven't seen any new city sets yet. no pirates in target either. kmart sale lasts for 2 weeks. i see you still have the end date as unknown. :

10195 Republic dropship + ATOT $349 (after sale $449) MSRP $399 Clone walker or assassin droid battle pack $14 (after sale $18.49) MSRP $19.99 Darth Vader Tie $37 (AS $47.50) MSRP $49.99 separatist shuttle $46 (AS $57.99) MSRP $59.99 Death Star $599 AS $749 (MSRP $699, was $629, was $399) Power miner thunder driller $35 (AS $44.99) MSRP $49.99 Power miner rock wrecker $35 (AS $44.99) MSRP ($49.99) power miner crystal sweeper $68 (AS $88) MSRP ($99.99) creator 3-in-1 propeller power $23 AS $29.90 MSRP $29.99 creator 3-in-1 race rider $23 AS $29.90 MSRP $29.99 city camper $23 AS $29.99 MSRP $29.99 city 4WD with horse trailer $23 AS $32.70 MSRP $34.99 city sports car $10 AS $12.99 MSRP $12.99 city corner $78 AS $98 MSRP $99.99 city helicopter transport $46 AS $57.99 MSRP $59.99 city crawler crane $70 AS $88 MSRP $99.99 city tow truck $16 AS $20 MSRP $19.99 city garage $108 AS $135 MSRP $139.99 lego XXL 1600 giant tub $63 AS $79 MSRP $129.99 items not listed will be at 20% off. was hoping to have a "set - sale price - after sale price - msrp" list for all the stores. can everyone chip in? that way we can save ourselves lots of trips by getting stores to price match and only need to make the extra trips to get the exclusives. i think my presence here in this country jinxed you guys! even your friendly neighbors, new zealanders, are still getting these "good" mispricings. oh well, i might not be here for much longer so your good fortune may just return!

can someone kindly update the first page? cheers!

if you ask me, i think lego has gotten too cocky since they were unaffected by the 2008 economic crisis and instead grew market share. they must have decided against saturating the market by producing more and instead resorted to making more by inflating the profit margin. true genius.

and no good "mispricing" for the new sets either. only bad pricing. i think i'm probably going back to another dark ages with these prices.

which airline is selling this set?

so far from what i've seen, yes.

Just wanted to know how lego is priced in HK coz i might move there. can you find out the prices of some of the latest star wars sets like clone bp, RAS, AAT, DV's tie advance, hoth base, etc and some of the castle sets, like troll battleship, MMV, etc? appreciate the help! also, if there's a sale what sort of rates do you expect to see? 20%? 30%? half off? buy 2 get 1? and when would be the best time for sales? after christmas? summer sale?

thanks for the replies! seems like there's no official pricing and is about 30-40% (10-15% more than ca, and ca is like 20-25% more than us) more than US msrp? were you comparing SW sets? because if not, i'm probably looking at 100% more than us.... yuck! the only big retailers would be sogo and tru??? any else?

hi there... wanted to know if HK has lego for sale, and what's the msrp and how's its decided (eg, more like oz or kiwi prices?). what retailers would carry them? and how often would there be a sale?

crap. nz S@H is listing some crazy deals... townplan, cafe corner, and agent's deep sea mission. still waiting for a mispricing for au's S@H but so far nothing.