If you have been involved in the LEGO hobby for some time you are well aware of how important it is to have a LEGO shopping strategy. LEGO is not cheap, and both the LEGO Company as well as retailers are taking advantage of the popularity of the brand by keeping prices as high as they can. This is an unfortunate occurrence, especially in the current economy. Ultimately the strategy may backfire both for LEGO and retailers, but that is another topic, and whatever they do, we can still develop our own LEGO shopping strategies to get the best deals. One of the places people often shop for LEGO is Toys’R’Us. It is pretty much the only toy-shop chain left in the USA, and people naturally think of visiting them first when shopping for LEGO or other toys. One thing they are often not aware of however is how much Toys’R’Us jacks up prices on LEGO sets (and probably everything else too). A $5-$10-$20 mark-up from regular retail price is very common. Worse is when Toys’R’Us advertises sales around holidays. Y
ou will see 40% Off and BOGO 50% (Buy-One-Get-One-50%-Off) sales on LEGO advertised on the Toys’R’Us website and at their retail stores. However that 40% or 50% off is NOT what you think it is! In fact you often end up worse then buying the same LEGO set at an Official LEGO Store, or some generic retailer like Wal-Mart. I will show you how Toys’R’Us is cooking the numbers and what you really end up with when you bite the hook on a Toys’R’Us LEGO sale. Eye-opening, isn’t it? The point is that if you want to get LEGO for the best prices, you really have to do your math. LEGO shopping could actually be quite fun if you take finding the best prices as a challenge. And it doesn’t have to be a long and tedious endeavor. Just have the latest LEGO Catalog or visit the Online LEGO Shop to check regular retail prices (I like the Catalog because I can take it with me to the store I’m planning to shop at). Then have a calculator handy to decode all the pricing voodoo retailers use to lure us into buying from them. 🙄
Again, the most notorious offender is Toys’R’Us. Other retailers like Wal-Mart, Target, K-Mart, Barnes & Noble and of course Official LEGO Stores almost always use the regular retail price, and when they have LEGO sales they to be decent, even excellent (like the 50% off regular retail price on some of the best LEGO sets at Wal-Mart last December). They may not sounds as fancy as Toys’R’Us as BOGO smoke-and-mirrors LEGO sales, but you don’t have to do complex calculations just to figure out if you are actually getting a deal. Also, Jason’s point about the LEGO VIP program is enlightening. If you are close to a LEGO store, or if you shop at the Online LEGO Shop, make sure you take advantage of this program. Especially when you can combine it with LEGO’s free shipping and double VIP point offers (like currently), you can really get an excellent deal as these offers are stackable. I also like Jason’s strategy of going right back to the store and getting a free set with the just acquired VIP points. Ho
w is that for an instant saving? 😉 So what do you think? Did you learn something from the video? Have you ever fallen for the Toys’R’Us advertisements? Do you have your own LEGO shopping tips you would like to share? What is your shopping strategy for this holiday season? Feel free to discuss in the comment section below! 🙂You may also like to check out the LEGO Shopping Tips section for more LEGO shopping ideas and strategies or select from the following posts:Legos Couldn'TLego MinfigureEpic LegoLego LandLegos CityZy LegoGorgeous LegoLovely LegoFantastic LegoForwardI want to be a Lego man! They get to live the life. Our community, 511 want itHome > Awesomeness > By Joe Warner on November 14, 2014 Back in the 1990s, LEGO was the struggling toy brick company that adults looked back on nostalgically, but couldn’t make a buck. Until 1999, when LEGO started to license the brick out of it. Then things started rocking, and 15 years later, LEGO has produced a dizzying array of licensed sets from a number of A-list pop culture properties including Star Wars (one of the first), Harry Potter, Batman, The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, The Simpsons and even Back to the Future.
The list goes on. This year saw the introduction of The LEGO Movie licensed sets, which was kind of like, whoa, dude, it’s like turning in on itself! But LEGO is not all about the licensed toys. There’s still the classic and long-running LEGO City, LEGO Space, LEGO Castle and LEGO Technic themes, as well as more recent popular themes like LEGO Architecture, LEGO Creator, LEGO Mindstorms, LEGO Ninjago, LEGO Legends of Chima and the girl-friendly LEGO Friends. LEGO Pirates are also coming back in 2015 after a 6-year hiatus. There’s even LEGO Ideas (formerly known as CUUSOO) which is a program that produces fan-submitted ideas through a Kickstarter-like process. That’s how the LEGO Minecraft and Back to the Future sets were born. We are truly now in the Golden Age of LEGO, and everything is awesome! Let’s take a look at 20 incredibly awesome official LEGO sets from the past 10 years. (Hey, we had to limit this somehow. Otherwise, this list would be huge!)
Special thanks to Brickset for their awesome LEGO site and passionate users! Taken from this year’s big hit The LEGO Movie, Metal Beard’s Sea Cow is an over-the-top mishmash numbering over 2,700 pieces. It’s the largest set from the series and is already considered one of the best ships ever produced by LEGO. It also includes the all-important double-decker couch. Release year: 2014 | Price: $250 – Amazon Released in 2011, this Ultimate Collector Series Star Wars set contains over 3,000 pieces and is no longer in production. eBay is your only hope to find it now. Release year: 2011 | Price: varies (not in production) – eBay Born out of the LEGO CUUSOO site (now known as LEGO Ideas), the iconic BTTF DeLorean Time Machine is a fan-submitted design that became an official retail set. Numbering 401 pieces, the set features the famous gull-wing doors, the flux capacitor, Marty McFly and his skateboard and of course Doc Brown. This is a great time to be a LEGO fan!
Release year: 2013 | Price: $35 – Amazon A treat for movie buffs, this 2,196-piece Expert set is inspired by movie palaces of yesteryear. It’s part of the Modular Buildings series where you can piece together different sets to form a city block.Price: $150 – Amazon Indiana Jones and LEGOs: awesome! This fun 554-piece set recreates the iconic boulder scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark and contains a minifigure for Jock, Indy’s pilot as well as one for the unfortunate Satipo who famously implores Indy to “throw me the idol, I throw you the whip!” Yeah, that didn’t end well. Release year: 2007 | Price: varies (not in production) – eBay Since its release in late 2012 to coincide with the release of The Hobbit, the 652-piece Unexpected Gathering set has won praise from LEGO and Tolkien fans alike. It’s as detailed as the movie scene it recreates is long. Which is to say, it’s very detailed. Release year: 2012 | Price: $63 – Amazon
Containing nearly 3,000 pieces and priced over $300, the Sydney Opera Set is a faithful rendering of the landmark structure, aimed squarely at adult fans of LEGOs, aka AFOLs. Standing nearly a foot tall, the set doesn’t have minifigures and the instruction booklet contains text and illustrations about the history and construction of the opera house.Price: $320 – Amazon Just a year after it was introduced, the Ewok Village, with its near 2,000-piece count, is already in the firmament of greatest Star Wars LEGO sets ever made. Say what you will about the cinematic worthiness of Ewoks, but they make very entertaining toys. Price: $250 – Amazon With no specific instructions and over 1,200 white and transparent pieces, the Architecture Studio is aimed at the builder who likes to use their own inspiration to create memorable LEGO sets. You get 73 different types of building bricks and a thick book that teaches you about architectural concepts. This is a long way from Star Wars LEGOs!
Price: $160 – Walmart Containing 865 pieces and 8 minifigures, the classic Black Seas Barracuda set is so good that it got re-released in 2002, 13 years after it was first introduced, and thus makes it eligible to appear on our list! Release year: 2002 | Price: varies (not in production) – Amazon Marketplace Another Star Wars set, another Ultimate Collector Series toy, 2,500 pieces of pure awesome. Release year: 2010 | It has just recently gone out of production, but the 2064-piece Haunted House is destined to become a sought-after commodity among LEGO builders. It’s been praised for the attention to detail, creativity, unique minifigures and the way it opens like a dollhouse. Consisting of over 1,000 pieces, the Medieval Market Village is a tavern, blacksmith’s workshop and open market with various animal figures, including two cows and a rat. For Castle fans, this is considered the best of the modern sets. Release year: 2009 |
Price: varies (not in production) – Amazon Marketplace This set boasts a mind-blowing 5,195 pieces, giving it the second-highest piece count after the Taj Mahal (#3 on our list). It’s also the largest sized model (33″ x 22″ x 8.3″) and most expensive set ($500 retail) ever made commercially available by LEGO. Release year: 2007 | As featured last year right here on The Checkout, the Tower of Orthanc is a ridiculously awesome set featuring six floors containing over 2,300 pieces and Treebeard the Ent among many other delights. It’s an amazing-looking LEGO set.Price: $250 – Amazon With the highest piece count of any LEGO set ever at a jaw-dropping 5,922 bricks in all, the Taj Mahal had to be on this list. The amazingly detailed and realistic set is a challenge for even the most seasoned builders. Even if you’re not a fan of LEGOs or even toys, this is one you just have to see for yourself. Release year: 2008 | This Advanced Model LEGO set actually moves and plays music like a real carousel and has over 3,000 pieces.