natelite

do you think it makes sense to move deals and finds to a subforum? that way the unselfish members who were just trying to give other members heads up on BOGO sales weren't penalized by the % posting stat. people like lightningtiger for eg. excellent guy. or move buy/sell/trade to a specific subforum and enforce strict posting rules (i don't know what they are but things like x no of days joined, % time on other forums > 50%, etc.)

making time??? play fun??? :lol:

drat! so the helmet is in pearl gold and not metallic gold. same with the shield.

did you buy a box? there are 4 to a box.

yeah...but the sw book w/ luke mf is only $12-13 in the US! way overpriced!

the mini sets are worth quite a bit on BL. especially SW sets. wait a bit and each could fetch $20 in little over a year. it's hard to get like 6 SW sets but 2 of them, and you have already recoup your cost. take the IJ mini jeep for eg. it's already up to $40 on BL. you could easily sell that and pab the parts from S@H.

avatar (aang the airbender, not the 3d version) is coming to the cinema...will TLC release new avatar sets? there were only 2 sets in that short lived series. still need toph to complete the 4 master benders. i thought that cartoon show actually has a lot of charm. and plenty of oriental headgears and fun sets to make. for e.g. they could have made the omashu delivery system (i.e. chutes and slides). there's also the mechanical city in the sky. oh well... hope they figure out what else to make when the SW license run out in 2011.

false. as late as last week's BOGO 50% off sale, TRU still weren't limiting anyone to 5 per person. maybe where you live they were doing so but i kinda find that hard to believe seeing how you were the one claiming wallys and targets to also carry them hence do not think a shortage is at hand. if there were no shortages, why limit the few buyers that actually want them... duh.

also three of the 5 faces were repeated. why a BP would contain 3 of the same faces is utterly beyond me. kinda defeats the purpose of getting a BP.

WRONG! i bought the dragon battle pack and at the very top of the package it says components are made in CHINA. everything in that battle pack is made in china. as for discussion thread, check this out. http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=42598 i agree with the findings. the hands are too loose. overall quality just seem inferior to even the impulse sets. the normal sets' components are made in denmark, hungary, mexico and czech republic. i generally find any lego parts made in china to be inferior. it's probably the plastic used is inferior.

i removed one. unlike older keychains the head can be removed from the helmet. for eg, the fairy keychain's head is glued shut to the hairpiece. i think the portal emperor should be available later on as a magnet set. if you wait, the BL prices should come down as well. magnet set will be better since it will come with the trident while the keychain version costs $5 but will have a hole in the head and no trident.

walmart usa stores do not have the minifigures. neither do target stores. this is confirmed. stores that participate in series 1 should have them and have already displayed them on 21st June when it came out nationally. online stores (EE, etc) ship them out on 21st June. TRU got the minifigs earlier, about 1 or 2 weeks early as part of TLC's deal with them. TRU always get all sets earlier than other stores except for occasional special editions sets for target/walmart. so yes, at this point, your only safe bet is BL or ebay. don't forget that shoprite and pathmark also occasionally sell lego sets. but purchase decision is made independently by each store. if you're lucky, yours might sell some minifigures. don't know about series 2 or 3 but my guess is that starting with series 3, more stores will carry them and you can expect more of these. maybe then target and wally will also participate in selling these.

i received my EE shipment today. those who ordered, check your mailbox! i opened 2 boxes and sorted the bags. yup, for both boxes the composition exactly matches what was already published. i will check the other 8 later but i think that's too much of a coincidence by now to go waste my weekend sorting bags.

i got the farm using the BOGO 50% coupon. total is $112 with tax for 2 farm sets. not bad at all. like 40% off.

you hit the nail right on the head. that's the reason for these cheap plastic figures. they were cutting cost drastically, which led me to believe these weren't suppose to be more than marketing gimmicks meant to drum up interest in lego. remember, these figures were initially created as business cards alternative. just how much does a business card cost anyway? even the most expensive kind will be at best $0.10 or so. only later did someone from the marketing department thought to sell these as "collectibles" probably still utilizing the cheap plastics and cheaper chinese labor cost. you should see an improvement in quality in series 4 if not series 3. not sure if there is still time to change the production process for series 3. if you ask me, series 2 will be the most desirable...one figure in particular will be priced through the roof because it will be in 3x per box and will be sought after by historical fans and army builders. why? well, production has ended and unless TLC makes more of these essentially you can expect series 2 to be as limited as series 1... except series 2 has a figure which is extremely sought after... like 10x or even 100x the desirability of the cheerleader or zombie of series 1. expect that figure to go for $40+ (at least 10x the cheerleader)... the only thing stopping it from going higher is that you can get a close replica by going to brickarms or brickforge.

Agreed. others can say 4 or 5 cheerleaders but the above have been the composition of every single box i went through. 10 box is a lot. 80/20? riggghhttt.... i don't think so. i have 10 more coming from EE (pre-ordered), and i can bet the composition is EXACTLY the same as above.

really? check again. the 3x figures consistently price higher than others on BL. i have gone through 10 boxes and every single one only has 3 cheerleaders. if anyone found 4 from a sealed box, i would like to know.

knowing TLC though, the hoplite will be only 3 per box. same with pharoah, surfer dude, babewatch babe. anything from new molds will be just 3 per box. just take a look at series 1 and take an educated guess.

add another store that carries the minifigures - fivebelow! going for $1.99 too! stores that sell at msrp seem to sell out fast though. TRU and borders still have tons lying around. probably loads of dummies and magicians from return purchases (after swapping out their crappier stuff for the better ones, no doubt).

to those asking, yes, i bought them from TRU. central nj area. :D there was a kid who was looking for a ninja but i didn't help him with my cheatsheet. :D didn't want to spoil the surprise for him! i just bought another box (60) just for fun... :D there should be 3 boxes left in the store. no limit on purchase, no one telling you can't use barcode.

i just picked up another 9 cheerleaders, 6 zombies, 2 wrestlers, 3 clowns. seriously, those who said they can't find them in any toystores, were you even looking? :D the toy store i was just in had like 4 full boxes. no one besides myself was going through the boxes. i wanted to just buy like 2 or 3 boxes initially but then thought...nah... the kids might want them, so i just got myself 20. :D going to stop by this afternoon to pick up more. if they aren't gone by then, i might just buy 2-3 boxes and leave one there. i'm going to buy more clowns next since they seem to be going for as high as cheerleaders.

nice, though i'm not sure about the zhaoyun's hairstyle? isn't that era suppose to feature ponytails? i think that version is probably the xbox/ps3 remake. those videogames reimagined versions can transform an original grandpa into a superstar. :D

made in china isn't the problem here. the problem is cheap plastics. another thing i noticed is that the hands are less saturated in color than the heads. ghostly hands... yuck. let's just hope that series 2 is better quality. series 2 will be sold out of 1 figure faster than others. no prize for guessing which one!

it's not the ink because i tried washing them to get rid of the smell but couldn't. i have bought smoke stained lego before and washing with liquid handsoap was able to get rid of the smell. not this time. the smell is from the brick itself. can't get rid of it. you can mask the smell if you use perfumed soap but after the smell dissipate you get smelly brick again. the limited availability is about the only thing keeping these figures inflated in price. if TLG starts to introduce any of these in regular sets you can start throwing these away. the quality of these is like the fastfood toys, which you throw away after a few months. i think series 1 and 2 (and possibly 3) are the only series with quality problems. recall that TLG didn't anticipate the huge demand for these and even retailers were reluctant to carry these to begin with as they were untested. now that they were proven successful, you can be sure TLG will invest a little bit more into these and the quality (hopefully) should improve. -- i.e. if the estimate was that these end up in $0.99 stores, selling for like $0.25 ea, you wouldn't want to spend a fortune using quality ABS material to make these. but if you know they can sell at a premium (i.e. $2.49 when mrsp is $1.99), you wouldn't mind spending $0.50 or even $0.99 quality ABS pallets to make these. and i don't think this has anything to do with china made goods. this has more to do with the quality of the material used. TLG probably used cheaper plastics and cheap labor in china to cut cost way down to about $0.25 ea. including shipping, printing, marketing, etc. just think... if customer service is asking you to return the figures to the retail stores and get a new packet for any quality-related issue, you know they would rather you throw the figure away (or give you another) than for them to waste postage _AND_ send actual quality parts from PaB to you.

personal experience. i bought 7 complete sets and opened one set. definitely subpar when compared to the normal sets. the surface is also matte in texture vs glossy in the normal sets. you could have used the 25% off everything coupon and save yourself some money. it would just be $2.24 ea. or if you are the patient type, you can wait for a 40% off one item coupon and repeated sign up and buy just 1 item ea.