jaysapathy

Has anyone bought the instructions yet? Started to build it? Easy to build..? First impressions? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

Has anyone successfully been able to generate a PDF of instructions from these files? No matter what, it keeps choking for me..

That was last updated in June. It's August. I was looking for a little bit more current feedback.. :D Thanks though!

Any of you out there in Denver? What's the PAB wall like? SLC's has had some really, really neat pieces the last little while (lots of Friends stuff) but I'm interested in visiting the two Lego stores out there while I'm on vacation. What's the word?

Did a new personal best yesterday by smooshing 511 pieces into a small cup. Lots of 1x2s -- glorious, glorious tan/white 1x2s. Now if my store would just start getting more long tan bricks, I'd be in heaven.. One of these days I need to finish building this Ice Cream Shop :P

It was the Salt Lake store. The employee I was talking to (who has always been a little shady to begin with) had told me that they had it in stock and that it'd be available for purchase for Lego VIPs on Dec 1st. He wouldn't bring it out, but he did assure me it was there, and that it'd be available a month earlier like some of the other sets (winter village stuff, for example). Went in yesterday to redeem my Brick Friday VIP Event coupons, and found out from the manager it was a load of hogwash. They're not getting it until Jan 1st, just like everyone else. Needless to say, the employee's misinformation kind of ruined my December a little. I bought the Town Hall to make myself feel better. :P On the plus side, my wife got the Hedgehog keychain (which was ringing up at $2.50, by the way) and I picked up a set for my younger brother with what we acquired at the VIP event. Strangely, my triple points from my purchases last week didn't register the triple points, but the manager was nice enough to fix it. Did anyone else have that problem? Was also "outed" by a Lego store employee. "My husband was reading the Eurobricks forums and saw your posts!" (I'm looking at you, raidermab). There was no Q&A period about whether or not I'm actually on here or if that's my username -- it's pretty obvious, apparently. Regardless, I'm still well liked in the store.. ;)

At my store as well. I seem to recall someone posting a page or two back that this was what was going to happen.. Hmm... They also had a discount table. 10% and 20% off, superheroes and Architecture stuff. But the big surprise was that they had the Cafe in stock. Oh yes.

And here we go!

Did nobody read my post? It has less to do with cost and more with your number of transactions. If you want a guaranteed invite next year, buy your stuff in smaller increments :P A quick phone call is telling me that the same deals are going to be available online as well as in store tomorrow. The only incentive I have to go now is to shop when it's less crowded, get a free key chain, and a PAB box. Fortunately, the free box makes it worth it. :D Still that rumor about triple points though, so we'll see...

Just got this link in my email: http://shop.lego.com/en-US/Black-Friday-VIP Apparently, they're doing everything online as well, which kind of nullifies the reason of going in-store... Don't mind saying that irks me quite a bit.

They had 6 people on staff when I was there. The store manager was telling me she just hired 5 more. They're doing enough business that the company will pay to have up to 8 people on the floor right now during the weekends. Insane. Utah mentality is different from the rest of the country. I think we sell more Legos here than they do in Denmark, because that's pretty much all there is for kids to do here. The store has been that busy from the soft opening, and it just hasn't let up. And the parents here are also insanely cheap -- if you ever want tips on how to fit as many pieces as you can into a PAB cup, watch a Utah mommy fill one. No matter how good you are, they'll put you to shame.

SLC store is a different animal. Because they haven't been open long, they were given manager's discretion to hand out invites, which is why there won't be more than 10-15 invited -- you had until the 15th to RSVP, and the managers invited people as they saw fit. As busy as the store's been lately, it's been difficult for them to sit and talk with people about it, much less get their info. As far as the online purchases factoring in? This is a Lego Store shopping event, not a Lego Online shopping event. Not really that odd. :P

A lot of misinformation here. For the most part, the invites go to the people with the most transaction numbers per store. Doesn't really matter how much you spend; it's your average transaction number per customer. One guy who spent $500 in one shot has less of a chance than a guy who bought 7 $8 polybags. That said, the store is open an hour earlier than normal for access -- only the VIPs get to shop for an hour. You get a free holiday PAB box just for showing up, and access to the Black Friday deals a week early, including the second holiday set. After the hour is done, that's it. There's also a rumor floating around about triple points during that hour. Also, a free red keychain! Trust me, if you were invited, you don't really want to miss this.

Salt Lake was, as I've said, the busiest I've ever seen it today since it opened. Rumor was they were doing about $1k an hour. In the 30 minutes I was there, I easily saw that go through the register. Pretty crazy day in there. If I were you, I'd just hang around the PAB wall for a few minutes and wait to see what they put out (they can't have empty spots on the wall, and someone's always filling it). That's all I do. Works out well.

The wife and I hit the store today. Busiest I've ever seen it. First thing we saw was the local LUG getting ready for their meeting by dominating the PAB counter filling up several cups. We turned around and left. Neither of us can stand those guys and their condescending attitudes. On the plus side, several gems had showed up on the wall this time around. The big winner: 2x2 light gray tiles. Picked up an entire cup. Other neat-os of note were the light pink 1x2 bricks, white picket fences, 6x16 dark gray plates, 6x6 dark gray plates, 1x4 reddish brown ribbed bricks, and 1x2 tan bricks. We walked out with two very full cups totaling 1225 pieces. 2.4 cents each. Not bad. One week to go -- next week's going to be expensive.

That's what happens when you and your wife spend 2 hours at the store stacking an AFOL cup. We're popular. :D Sadly, I don't think I'll be up there again until the morning of the 23rd (woohoo!), which kind of disappoints me. The 30 minute drive tends to get a little cumbersome going through rush hour traffic. I'll just have to keep my eyes peeled for any new wall updates. Couldn't believe what I saw when I was in there Saturday.. Pretty sick.

Seems that west coast stores are starting to get similar inventory. Went in last night and picked up a cup jammed full of 1x4 pink bricks, 1x2 purple plates, different assortment of tires tropical tree leaves(!!), and a myriad of other goodies I can't even remember at the moment. The employees were telling me the store got 41(!) plallets of stuff, and that their PAB wall was changing, quite literally, daily. Going to be a good month.

Most of the employees over there are great (one or two give me the creeps), but the AM is exceptionally awesome when it comes to giving me the heads up on what's coming up on the PAB wall. I spent two hours there giving him advice on how to shift it around to make the most out of the space and get the best amount on the floor. Whether he really genuinely thought I was helping him or he was just tolerating me remains to be seen. ;)The wall is going to be crazy over the next month and a half, if statistics are to be believed. I'll have to stop in and pick up some more goodies as the wall changes -- keep me updated.

Spent some quality time at my local store yesterday to be pleasantly surprised by the amount of hew stuff being put on the wall: 1x2 lime green bricks 1x16 white bricks trans-green cones trans-blue cylinders 1x6 red bricks 1x6 yellow bricks 1x3 dark bluish gray bricks 1x4 tan bricks 1x1 light bluish gray bricks with bar on the side and last but not least, both parts of the light bluish gray 1x2 hinges that are used to create the pointy rooftops. Pretty sure I missed a few as well, but those were the ones I could remember. The gentleman stocking the wall was loading it up as fast as I could fill the cup. For the first time since the store opened, I actually had to take two cups instead of one, just because there was so much new goodness there. As an added bonus, he said they're getting shipments every day this week in preparation for Christmas, which means the next two months are going to be PAB expensive while I try to grab a little of everything on the living wall...

Found myself near the local Lego store, and stopped in to pick up the Cinema, only to find out they were out of the free Christmas sets, so I'm ordering it online. Meh. But, I was quite happy to find out that there were a few new things on the PAB wall. I managed to jam a cup pretty full with some 1x2 trans-clear plates, light gray 4x4 plates, trans-green cylinders, 1x4 white arches, tan 2x8 plates, and leaves(!). Also managed to shove a few white doors in there, which means I don't need to order the 5 I need for the sets I'm working on on PAB (that's a dollar right there!). The biggest find, however, was some trans-black 1x2 bricks. There weren't many, so I took what I could get my hands on. I've no idea what I'm going to use them for yet, but bricks like that always come in handy. In total, this cup had 567 pieces in it. Two and a half cents per brick. [rant] As fun as that was, I ended up having to fight off an obvious Lego reseller in the store. The guy was buying cup after cup of trans-clear and "rare" pieces (as he put it) just scooped full. No stacking, no methodology to try and get the most out of it, just jammed whatever he could in the cup and then grabbed another one. As the wife and I were pulling pieces out of a box that the employees were nice enough to get from the back room, he tried to muscle my wife out of the way saying "They never get these" and took several handfuls. Then he grabbed 8 of the same kind of Star Wars sets, went to the register, and argued with the employee about how he's allowed to buy all of them, as long as he does it in separate transactions. Then he demanded his free Star Wars pieces. As sad as it sounds, this sort of behavior runs all over Utah, and it's unfortunate that the Lego store will attract these lazy, rude, disgusting human beings. Bah. The experience didn't get a whole lot better after that, as I was talking to one of the employees about the local LUG. He asked me why I hadn't joined, and I was pretty direct with him that I thought all the LUG members were socially retarded. He was then nice enough to tell me that he was a member. Awkward. [/rant] The employees were telling me that the manager, because of the high estrogen factor she sports, is requesting a lot of the pastel colors. Rumor has it she's ordered some 1x2 plates in pastel pink, which should be interesting. It was nice to see a handful of new things on the wall, and if that's any sign of what's going on, our local store is finally starting to get some good stuff. Now if they'd just stop selling out of the freebies..

My local store hasn't updated their PAB wall since the opening. I'm green with envy at all the sparkly goodness. :P Nice find!

Like I said earlier, the windows have been there since they opened, they just haven't put them out because there's no window panes. There's tires and tire rims in the back as well, but they don't match (the wheels are larger than the rims). Their corporate baggage handlers haven't sent them anything new for the PAB wall since they opened, and they're concerned about running really low. Rumor has it new stuff's supposed to arrive next week, but we'll see.. That's a Utah thing. Remember, this state's retail faction is run 97% by college students. There's one or two shining stars there, but for the most part, it's college kids who are trying to pay their rent and have more than one job. If Utah weren't such a college state with BYU, UVU, USU, SLCC, etc bringing them in, you'd find people who were more genuinely excited to be at a Lego store. It's not unusual for me to know what the store is getting long before the employees do. They just don't seem real "in the know." When I took my Lego store employee minifig in last week, the girl's first words were "omg how did you make that?" I have to admit that it does take a little of the magic out of a Lego store visit sometimes to have employees like that. The wife built a bar wench for one of our builds. I thought that was pretty funny for some reason. The witch hats, pitchforks, and the saxophonist hats were definitely the highlight of the bin. Really have my fingers crossed that they start getting new stuff.. 2x in pastel doesn't do a whole lot for me.

I never would have guessed that. Not in a million years. Lego Harry Potter just wasn't my thing. Thank you!

While ordering some lamp posts from Brickforge (which are awesome, by the way), I came across this: http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4004/5159782513_8a9a1b2a0b_o.jpg I'm working on a few custom figures, and that torso and pant would work fantastically. I pose to you this query: can anyone identify it? Does it come in other colors perhaps? Cheers!

THE WINDOW PANES FINALLY SHOWED?!!! AAAAAAHHHHH!!! The windows have been in the back since the store opened, they just didn't have panes to go with. Sounds like I'm taking a trip this weekend. Did you notice anything else new? The wall looked like this the last time I was in.. http://wallofbricks.com/pab-display.php?country=USA&pab_store_id=127 But the last time I was in was, well, Monday?