life in plastic: Purchasing Your First LEGO Modular Building J!-ENT has not received any compensation from the company for this post. J!-ENT has no material connection to the brands, products, or services that are mentioned in this post. For product reviews, J!-ENT has purchased the above product for review purposes or may have received one or more of the products or services mentioned above for free by the company which in no way affects our reviews, may it be positive or negative. We only recommend products or services we have tested/reviewed and believe will be good for our readers. Some of the links in our posts are "affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, J!-ENT will receive an affiliate commission. J!-ENT is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.” Celebrating ten years of modular buildings, the LEGO design team has come up with 10255 Assembly Square for the anniversary – so how does it stack up?
Price: £179.99 / $279.99 / €239.99 Pieces: 4002 Available: January 10255 Assemb... The official LEGO online store has updated the list of sets ‘retiring soon‘, giving fans the opportunity to snap up these products before they are gone forever. There are some surprising sets in there, with 21302 The B... The LEGO Group has just unveiled 10255 Assembly Square, a special Creator Expert set celebrating ten years of modular buildings. Brick Fanatics casts an eye over the set to share some first impressions… The first word that c... The newly announced 10255 Assembly Square is bigger than your standard modular building, in order to celebrate ten years of modular buildings from the LEGO Group. The line kicked off with 10182 Cafe Corner, with at least annual re... The next LEGO Creator Expert modular building, that will mark ten years since the first of these popular AFOL targeted sets was released, has been officially revealed to be 10255 Assembly Square. The set will contain 4,002 pieces ...
Talented fan builder Jme Wheeler recently discovered that knock-off manufacturer Lepin had used his builds as the basis for fake LEGO products, and decided to share this letter outlining why it’s really, definitely, not cool... Next year marks ten years since the LEGO Group released 10182 Cafe Corner, and there’s a rumour that to mark the occasion a special set will be released. If you have gotten over the realisation that it has been a whole decad... I wrote a while back here on BF that I fully fell for the modular series of buildings. So much so that I spent more on three of the first sets than the cost of a 2003 Ford Mondeo (check ebay or Autotrader – high miler and yo...This is an easy one to answer yourself if you know where to look... However, the answer will vary depending on when you do the research. The price will increase as time goes by, they aren't making any more Cafe Corners, Green Grocers or Market StreetsBrickLink is going to have better prices than eBay,..
(catalog listing for all the (modulars)Then go to the catalog entry for each one, for example 10182 Cafe CornerBrickLink Reference Catalog - Set 10182-1 and then view the lots for saleBrickLink Search Results (filter by new if you want)Repeat for all the modulars... For those in production, buy direct from LEGO when they have free shipping (such as now, 30 November 2012)I didn't actually do this but I think, right now, (late 2012) if you want new copies of each, you are looking at around 3500-4000 USD, plus or minus. (Quick check, the cheapest new, MISB Cafe Corner is 1300ish, Green Grocer about 500ish and Market Street around 1300 as well... the others are less since they are still in production, yoiu can probably get all 4 for less than a grand...)So what does this mean? If you see a LEGO set you like, buy it. Don't wait and pay aftermarket prices! (although I love it when you do, some of those modulars for sale on BL are mine. Think of it as enabling my habit)If you're interested in collecting all the modular buildings I would recommend starting by purchasing all the ones that are available in store today.
As of today (11/2013) this includesFire Brigade ($150)Grand Emporium ($150)Pet Shop ($150)Town Hall ($200)Palace Cinema ($150)The Fire Brigade just moved to discontinued status, so if you can find one on the shelves I'd recommend purchasing it now. On my last visit to the Lego store the employees said they won't be getting anymore in stock.The hardest part about the collection is obtaining the buildings that are discontinued. Most sets are discontinued 2-3 years after they are released. I was in a similar situation trying to obtain the Green Grocer and Market Street (already owned Cafe Corner). For both of these sets I used Brick Link to purchase each individual part and assemble the buildings. It's a lot of work, but the Green Grocer set is now my favorite mainly due to the amount of effort I put into creating it. Here's my recommended process for getting a discontinued set:1) Use Brick Store to create a part list for each building. The part list is sourced from Brick Link and is fairly accurate.2) Use Brick Rake (brickrake) to obtain obtain a store list and price list for the parts in the building.3) If possible, use gurobi [1] (The overall fastest and best supported solver available) to solve the optimization problem of finding the least number of stores with the lowest prices for all the parts you need.
Without gurobi you'll have to do a greedy approach (more expensive) or brute force (takes forever) method to solve the optimization problem.4) Use the output parts list to order from the sellers on Brick Link. A sellers inventory changes day to day, so it's best to order from all the sellers as soon as you have the list.You may have to make some substitutes to the parts because some of the listed parts are very specific to the set. Using this method I was able to build the Green Grocer for ~$400 and Market Street for ~$200. The set is a lot of fun to build and each release seems to get slightly more intricate than the last building. [1] Gurobi has a free academic license if you access it from a .edu domainThe 10 most expensive Lego sets Photo via Antonio / Flickr Remix by Max Fleishman You won’t find these at your local elementary school. Lego enthusiasts can shell out serious dough for the privilege of building the coolest, rarest, most extravagant sets. Lego’s priciest advanced models are highly valued collector’s items.
The most expensive retired Lego sets can fetch up to five figures. Among the most expensive include sets themed after Star Wars and major world landmarks like the Taj Mahal. What makes certain Lego sets so expensive? It’s not solely because of the number of pieces or a popular franchise tie-in like Star Wars. The value of a Lego set often skyrockets after it retires. “Rarity is the most important factor with any LEGO collectible. If a set is rare, and desirable, and continues to be rare, it will remain valuable,” said founder of Lego pricing guide BrickPicker Ed Maciorowski. Here are the top 10 most valuable Lego sets according to the Lego collector’s website Brickpicker: Number of Pieces: 1248 Notable features: “Market Street” is Lego’s second entry in its modular building series for adult builders. The set features curved staircases and interchangeable floors. Number of Pieces: 2,056 Notable features: Lego’s “Cafe Corner” features three stories, a mosaic, and a bicycle.
Number of Pieces: 3, 428 Notable features: The completed Lego Eiffel Tower is the tallest Lego model to date; standing at 42 inches. It features a French flag made out of Lego bricks. 7) Imperial Star Destroyer Number of Pieces: 1,359 Notable features: Lego’s model of the Imperial Star Destroyer ship from Star Wars includes eight synchronized cannons, an Emperor Palpatine hologram, and a Lego figure of Darth Vader. 6) Death Star II Number of Pieces: 3,447 Notable features: The Lego Death Star II is built to scale with the original and includes a super laser. Number of Pieces: 1 Notable features: Made to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Lego’s Minifigures series, only 5,000 Mr. Gold figures were produced in total. 4) Statue of Liberty Number of Pieces: 2,882 Notable features: Lego’s Statue of Liberty model is made entirely of sand-green bricks. Number of Pieces: 3,263 Notable features: Lego’s electricity-powered Grand Carousel spins and plays music.