fred67

I know, right? On what planet does Jenga beat Pictionary? I've had some of the best laughs of my life playing Pictionary. Oh... and at number 14.

Day 20... I find the daily opening (my kids are each doing a calendar... one City, one Kingdoms) to be quite underwhelming. Taken as a whole, it's fantastic... just underwhelming on a daily basis. "What did you get today?" "I got a pot with an apple in it..." (on the same day my daughter got "Naked Santa" in the city set). Can't wait for the 24th, when he gets the "Mage" with a fairy wand... and as a bonus, you get multiple fairy wands!

That makes no sense. Are you saying you didn't have to pay taxes at TRU? And you would have gotten free shipping from S@H.

Well... I found myself at TRU this morning (buying a Littlest Pet Shop set for my daughter), and found the series 3 figures. For those in the area: Gwinnett Place TRU. $4.00. And I don't know the bumps... but they had two nearly full boxes, so I felt my way to an elf and a tribal chief, two of the ones I wanted extras of (specifically the elf, of course). The bow and arrow were the telltale item for the elf; the headdress for the Native American chief.... so I figured, against my better judgement, that I'd go for it. I mean, the elves are going for $10 on bricklink. I know I'll be able to get them in January for list, but I was also excited that I found them at all... it was the absolute first time I've seen the collectibles (from ANY series) in a brick and mortar store besides TLS.

It's a tough question. Right now I have a lot of newer RC track that I use for display purposes, but still run my trains 9V because I was heavily invested in it. If you're like me, you have a few trains, run one or two at a time on some 9V track you already have, with the rest in the "yard" or not on the track at all. I think that's like most people. Even a city layout. So when you look at financials, you can buy a 9V motor off bricklink for $43 average new price, or buy a new train motor ($11), rechargeable battery ($50) or 9V-AAA battery box on BL ($15 average on BL, plus batteries), IR Receiver ($15), remote ($13), and PF connector ($4). That's the price PER train. There's also a one time $25 for the charger, if you go that route, but you could use it with all your trains. So... from a purely financial standpoint, if you've already got a lot of 9V track and won't need to add a lot, and just replace pieces as they go bad, 9V still looks great... and with how I personally use trains, I get zero benefits from the added features of PF. Sante Fe with five cars is the biggest I ever cared to pull, so the arguments about stronger motors mean little to me. What I wish they did was used PF, but allowed you to power it with the track, giving the best of both worlds, but that's just me. However, if you like running more than one train at a time on the same loop of track, have track configurations that make 9V impossible, and have added features to trains (like crane arms) powered with PF motors and using PF remotes... OR if you are starting from scratch, PF makes a lot more sense.

How in hell does a company copyright (or even trademark) a color? That's an abuse of the system, right there.

I actually have plans, not selling. Have you seen this? Specifically, this?

Legoman has been quite reasonable in negotiating.

Agree with Vexorian. I've bought bulk "Star Wars" LEGO on Ebay for $5-6/lb. Had to clean it, but it was in relatively good condition. Of course, it depends how the auction goes... sometimes it's a lot higher, but I wouldn't pay that much. 70 times $5 to $6 is going to be around $350 to $420, and that was an ebayer - someone selling their bulk LEGO in 5 to 10lb lots, at a substantial cost of time and effort and dealing with many separate sales and shipping (it was free shipping). $300 is a fine offer.

Yes, it is... I'm sorry. I think the number is correct, but it's the TIE Defender (big difference!), will edit my post. Thanks for pointing it out. EDIT: I decided to go ahead and get a couple, actually. I've always liked the ship, but felt that, even at MSRP, it was way over priced. Cashiers at TRU are hit and miss, this one was nice enough to ring them up separately to get several of the free Imperial Speeder Bikes.

TRU is having a sale starting today, not sure of the duration. 7752 - Count Dukoo's ship, $35.99 8087 - (EDIT) TIE Defender $31.79 (I'm getting this as soon as I click "send") 8036 - Separatist Shuttle $19.79. First two qualify for free 30005 Imperial Speeder bike (purchase $30 or more). EDIT: mistakingly put Tri-Fighter instead of TIE Defender, thanks to Pellaeon for pointing it out! BIG Difference!!!

Exactly... because of their ridiculous markups, I will only buy when they have a sale and I get things for a below-MSRP (on average) price, like the recent rash of BOGO 50% off. If they charged MSRP I would actually end up buying more from them at higher prices than I pay now, since few sellers sell LEGO below MSRP without a sale, and often enough I end up paying the full price... so I buy elsewhere. IOW, they are not making as much money from this informed buyer. If we were all informed buyers, they wouldn't get away with charging over MSRP at all (at least until everyone else was sold out, and that just doesn't happen with most sets). As for the Harry Potter game... that's just plain laughable; even at BOGO50% you end up at MSRP.

Agree with Tyrant and might add (with the exception of the rare occurrence of finding something like that new on Craigslist... which seems quite dubious to me), that if TRU wasn't selling that set at $149, you would never have found it at all. Even S@H is sold out. So gripe all you want about the price, but it was worth it to you to pay it instead of not having it at all. As far as MSRP goes, the second word is "suggested," passing a law that requires no higher price than that is anti-competitive and ends up being worse for consumers (although most don't realize it... politicians pass a "feel good" law against a victimless crime to win voters who don't understand capitalism). For that matter, while I'm on a bit of a rant, there's no such thing as "price gouging." The price is what the market will bear, no more, no less. If there's a shortage of something, high prices make it less worthwhile to "hoard" necessary products. While Hogwarts Castle isn't exactly a "necessity" (bite my tongue, right?), that you paid $20 more rather than not have it proves the point. It sucks, but it was more worth it than not having it. Substitute gasoline, generators, and bottled water during an emergency... better to pay twice as much than be left without because someone hoarded it.

The series 3 minifigures have brought out certain information about cargo arriving in CA and then spreading east, but it may just be for Chinese made items. I'll take a look at another one. It would probably have helped if I was actually looking out for it.

I'm super interested in brackets... do you have any idea how much you'd want for them and how much shipping would be to the U.S.?

I was at Target a little while ago (got a Wampa Cave... one of those sets that I felt was way over priced, but $27 is quite good) and did not see any of these. I'm wondering where you're located, brickster... is this another case of West Coast getting stuff before East Coast?

We finally opened ours... I did intend for them to be used as Advent Calendars by my kids, so I stuck them under the return on my desk and forgot about them until my wife mentioned it... all good, though, they got to catch up 8 days all at once, and have done the past couple of days. One got the City, one got the Kingdoms, and I got one of each ( ), which I'll open when we start building like crazy in a couple weeks (we're all off from work, school; even my son's martial arts classes which drag me away for about 10 hours a week being a chauffeur are canceled for two weeks, which is unusual for them). Even after reading the review, I'm impressed with the extras; thrilled at the extra plume (I got a bunch of elf helmets from brickforge, so I'm digging any extra plumes I can get). I love the women... not in a weird way, but because I like a more "realistic" display and they always seem lacking (in quantity). I suppose I could do without kings and queens and princesses, though... unlike other figures, you CAN have too many of them. But the REAL reason I'm resurrecting this is because I'd never seen one of those old skeletons... I was really impressed with the articulated shoulders! I see now they're an older style... since my dark ages, I'd only collected Fantasy Era and now Kingdoms. This is probably the first skeleton I actually like. I wonder what the reasoning behind discontinuing that style was; I'm guessing they didn't pose well.

Looooonnnnngggggg after the original founder died when it was trying to gain a stronger footing to sue someone else for copying them. Yes... like I said, superior in some ways, but then like Big Cam says, it's all a matter of opinion.

How are people valuing minifigures? I realize it boils down to "what's it worth to you," but if you can just get the figures off of bricklink for less, then doesn't market value count? Some people seem to have gotten annoyed when I mention "cheapest North American bricklink prices." I'm sorry, but some figures are just worth more, and I'm not going to trade one-for-one when the ones I'm trading are worth 50% more. Am I just being a jerk? If we're talking about a margin of 10 or 20%, then I'm flexible... but 50%?

I don't wholly agree with exon, but I really don't agree with this, either. If one could simply buy 16 and be done with it, that would be one thing - but it doesn't work that way, and it doesn't work that way by TLG's design. If you want to "blame" somebody, blame TLG, not people like exon.

Could just make a ball joint, but if we're prioritizing, bendable "kid" legs (short legs that bend at the hip) would be higher on my list.

Sorry... I should have thrown a shout out for a +1 to The_Customizer as well; all arrived as agreed...

An update on what I have/want: I have: Series 1: a couple of zombies, crash test dummy(*). Series 2: Mime, Surfer, Ringmaster, couple of Lifeguards, several vampires, maybe a martial artist. In addition, I have the complete, unopened set of Toy Story 3 characters from the train set, the complete set of figures from the Harry Potter Quidditch set, and Star Wars: 8014 Clone Walker BP, 8015 Assassin Droid BP, 7667 Imperial Dropship, 8084 Snowtrooper BP. (*) Opened but in pack with all accessories and not used. I want: Series 3: Elves, Samurai. Castle: Fantasy/Kingdoms, mostly want villagers, especially women. North America only, please. EDIT: Updated wants.

Superglue works the best if you are not going to take it apart. I did a school project with my son where he built a vehicle that was partially LEGO, and the bricks couldn't handle the torque - it kept falling apart. Superglue worked great.

If it's a "new" set, like the new Harry Potter or Star Wars or trains that just came out this year, it will likely be back in stock at some point. For example, I haven't gotten Hogwarts Castle, which I need to complete the new set... but I'm not particularly worried about it, either. If it was an older set (like something that came out in early 2009 or older), it may or may not be, but after 1.5 years I wouldn't hold my breath. Seasonal sets (Advent Calendars, the Winter Toy Shop and Bakery) typically are only for one season... meaning a limited run that, once it's sold out, that's it. However, LEGO surprised a lot of us by rereleasing the Winter Toy Shop this year... The only lesson is that nothing is written in stone, TLG is full of surprises.