GI blockage

So, Target has 25% off at the moment. TRU and DJs have 20% off at the moment. And I found my Tie Fighter at my local Big W for $68 regular price (24.5% off RRP). Don't miss out on it, imho this is one of the best-looking sets ever.

David Jones has 20% off Lego until 9th April.

Battle of Hoth is actually scanning at $34 at Target - they have 30% off board games until the 14th. Add 15 cents if you would like to buy a bag. And tomorrow (Saturday) only, DJs Sydney Elizabeth St store has 20% off toys. According to a flyer advertising a baby expo there tomorrow.

S@H currently has Altantis theme sets for 50% off RRP. In addition they have double VIP points til 15 March, and free mini tie fighter with $90 SW spend. Also a raft of new sets are now available including Friends and 2012 Cars sets, modular Town Hall, and Sydney Opera House.

Seems it has disappeared now - it wasn't up there for long at all. I got one on order, I hope it ships..

6860 Batcave has just become available on bn.com for $US62.95 before shipping/discounts. And I believe the previously mentioned coupon code U7K4X3B would work for 20% off. But, like me, if you've already redeemed that one, then A4L3E8W will be good for 15% off 'til the 20th.

I scored my Pet Shop at DJs Parramatta on Wednesday. They didn't have any on display, but a lady on staff produced one from beyond a magical doorway, seemed to know the drill. Unfortunately neither of us were aware of the bonus snowman deal with $50 Lego purchase. At DJs I also scored a Lego "Brick Storage Carry Case" which I never knew existed, they are rather cute yet useful. $35 pre-discount and they come in red & yellow. There seems to be quite a few discounts going around at the moment.

Hmm. I received a package HK->Sydney via UPS this week that had been opened by quarantine & taped up again, without any appreciable delay in shipment. I was intrigued cos I've had packages opened up by customs before but never by quarantine, and it's not like there was any organic/electronic/suspicious material in there.. Maybe they've uncovered a Lego-importing drug ring or something. How odd.

...So it's ticked over to midnight in the States and there are indeed no surprises on the bn.com website. When they said "50% off Any one educational toy or game" what they meant was "50% off Any one educational toy or game that we include in the sale". Includes rival-brand sets but no Lego sets. There is, however, assorted Lego-branded merchandise included in the sale, eg watches & Minifigure alarm clocks.

The BN site is advertising "50% off ANY one educational toy or game" for Black Friday. Presumably this includes LEGO - I can't see anywhere that specifies one way or the other, but the ad banner shows a pic of a clone brand that shall go unnamed. What's intriguing is that the "countdown" page shows the countdown to Friday in my timezone - I wonder if this is means those in an Aussie timezone could access the sale 15 hours before the States?? They also show the coupon code E7U4N9X which is currently good for 30% off, presumably off any non-LEGO item but I haven't bothered to check. Also, BN seem to have complicated their BN Kids Club 30% coupons nowadays.. They still provide them, but none of them work during checkout - you have to make the undiscounted purchase and then contact cutomer service to get the refund. Not that I even know of any LEGO items that currently qualify for this discount.

Big W have a "Cyber Sale" for 3 days ending Sunday 20 November, with the online only deals: 8547 Mindstorms NXT 2.0 $348 *** 7956 SW Ewok Attack $34 7957 SW Sith Speeder $39 *** 5766 Creator Log Cabin $34 *** 3839 Games Race 3000 $18 and for what it's worth I've summarised their current catalogue instore-and-online sales, ending Wednesday 23 November: 5767 Creator Cool Cruiser $55 5770 Creator Lighthouse Island $55 5771 Creator Hillside house $68 4865 HP Forbidden forest $19 4866 HP Knight Bus $45 4867 HP Hogwarts $74 *** xxxx Games Hogwarts $35 *** denotes free shipping when buying online. Not sure what happens if you combine free & non-free shipping items.

Myer "Super Saturday" this weekend - the usual 3 for 2 deal on toys, in-store & one day only. (Edit:) They also have 30% off books - last time I went they had a "Essential Collection" box set with 3 downsized sticker books + X-Wing polybag 30051 for $20 pre-discounts. This one can also be found at Costco for $13.

Something else I just remembered - Kinokuniya in Sydney City Galeries Victoria had some Lego Architecture sets built & on display in a glass cabinet, including Fallingwater, the White House, John Hancock Centre and Seattle Space Needle IIRC. I've agonised over this theme but never purchased, so it was nice to get to finally see these sets in the flesh (i.e. ABS). You'll also laugh out loud when you see how much they're charging.

Spotted: ToyRUs Parramatta flaunting shiny new boxes of Unimog goodness on their shelves. At the RRP of $330, they can now be picked off by Sydney's wealthy elite. And by lowly, helpless addicts. You know you love me xoxo

Woolies supermarket in Parramatta has some Cars2 merch for sale. In amongst the stuff was Tokyo Pit Stop and Maters Spy Zone - tag said $15 but they actually scanned thru for a mere $10. Also saw the small Mater, but don't know how much for. I'm glad I made the impulse purchase, Holly Shiftwell turns out to be pretty sexy.

Well I was in Myer Sydney city store on monday arvo - there were a few plain-clothes guys searching the Lego section in a confused manner, holding what looked like order forms with a Myer letterhead. I could be wrong, but it seemed to me they were employees who were filling weekend online orders by picking out the shelf-stock! If this is true, this would explain why they couldn't fill your order, and would be a warning to anyone else who wants to order online any Myer exclusives. It also begs the question - has anyone received online Myer orders with price tags & shelfwear?

For those who own a nintendo Wii, I saw a Lego wiimote on sale at TRU for (i think) $50. It looked incredibly cool - I didn't take a pic but you can google one. From what I gather by the packaging, it includes a red brick separator.

I saw Cars2 set 8679 Tokyo International Circuit in TRU Chatswood today for only $159.99. That's a generous $10 discount off S@H RRP and only $100 above what I'd consider actually paying.

Catch of the Day has the SW Clone Turbo Tank for $120 + $7postage.

Spotted at Myer today - 2 guys who bought two heaped shoppingtrolleyfulls worth of assorted City & SW sets. Woulda been about a grand's worth of lego per trolley. I asked if they were on clearance or something, they said "Yeah, it's all 20% off!!!". Good for them. So, this 20% off thing at Myer has been going on for a while now, I hope this becomes more the norm..

bargains! Also, if you can find it, Kmart has 10198 Tantive IV further reduced to $149. Castle Hill store has a whopping 8 left in the back room. I saw 2 midi-ISDs and 6 blizzards peaks on the shelves.

I also get the same order status, but I've had that same message a number of times before with previous orders, the status fixed itself after a couple of days and everything was ok (apart from shipping time which has ranged between days & months). However now I can't view the groupons I've ordered because the site is overloaded. Funny that.. At least I can still order them going via the mobile site - I'm gonna keep stocking up on them cos worst case scenario is still not too bad.

oo.com.au has the Toy Story Construct-a-Buzz on sale for $20 for the next 22 hours. +$10 postage I think. Yesterday I saw in Kmart Broadway (Syd) a couple of SP3 sets with 'clearance' tags - Space Police Central for $90 and Undercover Cruiser for $40 or so. But I doubt they'll still be around to get reduced any further, the shelves around town are beginning to look bare...

I dislike clone brands, and yes these things are plastic construction bricks too, but I don't see them as any kind of competition to Lego. Nevertheless from a set design perspective these piqued my interest and remind me of olden days Lego sets. I did consider if it would be appropriate to post in this thread, and I decided that by my own standards it was worthy of a post, but not much more than that. Now let us never speak of this again. These aren't the bricks you're looking for. Move along.

Those of us who try hard to look cool may have noticed that General Pants Co. is selling nanoblocks on their gift table. The same people may have noticed that 80s neon is on the way out again, and that nanoblocks are incredibly small building blocks offered at fashionably exhorbitant prices, such as $25 for the Taj Mahal or Easter Island sets, and $15 for the budgerigar, panda or reindeer sets. However, these prices seem close enough to what you might pay in Japan. Those who aren't cool enough (or perhaps too cool) won't have noticed. It is worth mentioning today because General Pants have 20% off their gift table items today. At least in Sydney. Apologies to Lego purists.