Hello, I'd like to tell you about an idea that I had. I'd like to make June 25th Give a Sick Kid a Brick (Break) Day. This would be a day where we can give to a little served cause. It might not even cost you a dime.

I don't know how many of you have had a sick kid. My child's been to the emergency room more times than I can remember and admitted to the hospital for observation 3 times. The children's hospital is just as dreary, just as stark and joyless as an adult hospital. Somehow it seems worse because the child doesn't have the same acceptance as an adult in the same position. What an adult endures, a child fights. Shots, procedures, nurses, doctors and specialists poking, prodding, checking and waking them up at all hours becomes like torture. Enduring being cooped in a place that is not their home with few comforts and little to occupy them while they are sick grates upon them.

Some children endure better than others, but eventually they all rebel. They fight against another shot or collecting urine, or enduring another hour of therapy. It's hard for them to understand that the discomfort is to help them get better. So, how does the nursing staff deal with the recalcitrant patient? How do they cheer up a child that is trapped in the hospital on their birthday or an important holiday? Bribes of course. Most children's hospitals have some form of room/closet/cart that holds toys. They promise the patient a trip to the closet if it will help them to do a particularly aggravating procedure, or when they're well enough to go home. The promise of a toy keeps their spirits buoyed over several days as they look forward to choosing something special. Sometimes the staff wrap the toys or make a gift bag or package to present to a child that is down because they can't celebrate birthdays, Christmas, Hannukkah or whatever holiday with friends and extended family.

I can tell you that it doesn't matter what is available, the kids are just happy to have something to look forward to. Sometimes the promise of a toy is enough to strengthen them as a needle is imminent, or placate them as they contemplate the third hour long breathing treatment in a row. They look forward to getting a toy as part of their release. It's a graduation of sorts.

The toys in these closets are provided through donations. Some people donate money to a foundation that purchase toys, some sponsor a toy closet and run toy drives to collect stuff to fill it, and some private citizens donate toys. All of that prelude was to get to this last point. I have asked @Ed Mack for permission to address this community and ask you to mobilize for a cause.

I would like to ask you to commit to donating some toys to your local children's hospital. I would love it if people would publically say that they will help out. I'm not offering any rewards, no chances at winning something good. I really couldn't afford to make it worth your while. It has to be something that you would want to do. I'd like to address some concerns that people may have.

There are children's hospitals in most communities. I am not asking that you send me money or toys, because we should all act locally. Plus, you'll have no fear of having someone take your money or items and not do what they said they would.

Many of us as collectors, parents or investors probably have new toys that have no place. As a collector, perhaps you have something that you bought that doesn't fit or that you were never really happy with. Parents will sometimes stockpile toys for future gift giving, or stash extra presents that their children received because there's just too much. Investors may have some dud that they picked up that they have no real hope of making anything off of. As long as the toys are unopened, they should be acceptable, so you might not even need to spend money.

Some people won't donate to a specific organization because it's associated with a  certain religion or political group. There's a fear that the goods or money will be spent on administrative costs or misappropriated. In this case, you won't donate to a foundation or to a charity. You would donate to a hospital for sick kids, the hospital of your choice.

Some people point to the adult community that collects toys and say that we are taking these things out of children's hands. Here's our chance to give back. I know that many of us have given, sometimes extravagantly. I ask that we give again.

Most people are charitable at certain times of the year. There's a greater push for charitable contributions in November and December. I chose June 25th to ask people to donate because it is half a year from the time of year that many people would end their holiday charitable donations. I think that this time of year is harder on the groups that rely upon people's generosity. June 25th is just a guideline.

I can't make anyone do anything. All I can do is ask, please help. Lift the heart of a child that is hurting.

Now, obviously, you will never meet the child that receives your toy, and they will never know you. Child safety laws and patient confidentiality being so important. That doesn't mean you shouldn't do it. Post a picture to this thread of what you're donating, maybe it will encourage others.

Check Google for your local children's hospital. Most of their sites will list what sort of toys/books or other items they need. They will also tell you how to collect your receipt for the tax deductible donation if you want it.

If you have the inclination, pass it along and try to get others to donate too.

Please remember that all toys must be new, unused, unopened. There's serious concerns about exposing children to germs and if you want to  donate used toys, there are other places like group homes that would love to have them. New doesn't necessarily mean fresh from a store, just unused and unopened.

The LEGOLAND Discovery Center Arizona is set to have their grand opening on April 22, 2016. They are located in the Arizona Mills Mall 5000 S. Arizona Mills Circle. Tempe AZ 85282. Tickets are $22 for a single day admission, and you have to book a time for entrance. An individual annual pass is available for $65, or $60 per person for a family of 4 or more. The incentives for the annual pass holders include a 10% discount in the LEGO retail store and a 20% discount in the cafe as well as skipping the line and going right in to the center. Pass holders do not have to pre-book.

I was able to get in early as part of a soft opening that they hosted for their annual pass holders. It was nice to see and experience everything without the lines or hordes of people. It was also a little sad to see so many employees waiting quietly for someone to approach them. I don't expect that this experience will be one shared by most after opening day.

The first thing that we did was wait in line to get our annual pass cards. They took our pictures so that we can't pass off our cards to friends and family. Luckily, we had preregistered and prepaid, so our wait time was minimal. You enter the first chamber and are directed to a photo station. That's just not my bag baby. I endured the multiple suggestions for poses then got in line for the virtual factory tour.

They warn you that the factory tour may induce vertigo in people who suffer motion sickness. It's a large set of screens with control panels close enough to make the screen size overwhelming. The control panels provide you with the ability to interact with the tour minimally. The virtual tour seems like an idealized robotic factory. I am pretty sure that none of it was filmed in a real LEGO factory. I was hoping that their factory tour would have the machines used in the process like LEGOLAND California, only working. It was an interesting enough video,and as soon as you exit the room, the kids are handed a Duplo brick stamped with LEGOLAND Discovery Center.

The next stop in the Discovery Center is the Kingdoms Quest ride. You get in a buggy and pull out a LEGO style pistol to shoot various things like bats,spiders, trolls and skeletons. It's fun enough and they take a picture right at the end. Sure, the picture is a cash grab and maybe overpriced, but you get to commemorate your high score. Interestingly, there's a dragon's tail sticking out of the wall above a sign about a missing dragon. The front half of the dragon is on the other side of the.wall, but you might not remember it as part of the joke by the time you see it.

Miniland is where you come to next. Several local landmarks are represented in LEGO form. From University of Phoenix Stadium, site of Super Bowl XLII, to the Grand Canyon and the cities of Phoenix and Tempe, attendees are treated to a mini marvel. If it was just me, I could have stared at these builds for 3 or 4 times as long as I did. I was delighted by the mini LEGOLAND Discovery Center in the Tempe scene. Each miniland station had button activated features and the room had a day/night cycle that revealed lighting effects throughout. The city scenes at night were spectacular. Vehicles in each area moved and sounds could be heard representing the scenes that you were seeing.

When you leave Miniland, you enter a large, open room. a fair portion of the open space is taken with tables and seating for the cafe. With so few customers, the room seemed echoing and empty, I can only imagine how noisy it will be on Friday.

The perimeter of the room is divided into zones. Each zone is devoted to a specific theme and/or activity. Clockwise from where you enter, there are the following zones: Friends/Heartlake City, City/Town Play Zone, Restrooms, Master Model Builder, 4-D Cinema, LEGO Racers Build and Test, Parent's Lounge, Cafe, Birthday party rooms, Creative workshop, Merlin's Apprentice and LEGO Duplo village.

Heartlake City, Duplo Village, Build and Test, and Creative workshop are all sort of free build areas. Hearltake City has the large statues of the minidolls and a full cityscape for Friends. Duplo has large, life size Duplo cow and other features along with Duplo bricks and a larger rubberized brick. It's great for the little ones. Build and Test and the Creative workshop allow kids to experiment more with what they build.

The City/Town play zone is just a play area that is themed like a construction site and a police station. It's a large hamster habitrail and has more of the large rubberized bricks. Make sure that your kids have socks. If they don't, the snack bar will conveniently sell you a pair for $1. My kids loved this part of the attraction, but my wife and I were stuck outside waiting until we grew too bored.

The 4-D cinema has 2 different movies currently. Each movie is about 10 minutes and requires the use of 3D glasses. The room is damp because they mist water at various times throughout the film as well as blowing a fan, blowing bubbles or making mist. Of the 2 films, the Chima one was better. The Kingdoms one seemed aged and confused the kids because no one spoke, they just mumbled nonsense sounds.

The Parent's lounge looked comfortable enough and probably had some measure of soundproofing. We had no need to go since the place wasn't terribly noisy during this preview weekend.

The birthday party rooms looked somewhat plain and functional. I can't say that I'd be excited to have a 75 minute birthday party in one.

Merlin's Apprentice was a nice little ride. It's pretty much like the Dumbo ride at Disneyland. Except, you have to pedal to make the thing raise and lower. My legs are slightly too long to work the pedals properly, but thankfully it still worked if you pedaled in reverse, which was easier for me. The kids enjoyed it.

I know, I skipped over the Master Model Builder. It seems slightly awkward to watch someone who is trying to work and to pester him to ask questions. I tried not to be too intrusive or let my kids be either. He had to design and build more than a dozen register screens before opening this week. I did find out that 3 of the other finalists from the Master Model Builder contest received some position there as well. I spoke to one briefly who recognized me from the event.

To reach the exit, you have to go back through Miniland and out an awkwardly nondescript door. I feel like when they get up to capacity, this will create an enormous bottleneck, You have people entering the attraction and exiting in the same area without any clear demarcation. Maybe I'm wrong, but we shall see.

The exit lets out into the LEGO retail store. It's not exactly the LEGO store because the VIP card doesn't add points to your account and they don't participate in the promotions like polybag giveaways or double VIP. The sets are all retail priced, not increased to account for being in a mall or at an attraction. As far as I could tell, most of the LEGO Shop exclusives were present including hard to find ones like the Ewok Village. They seemed to have more role Play items than the regular LEGO Store and were doing a fairly brisk business.

There's a good amount of stuff for kids to do, but as an adult, it doesn't seem like it. All of their literature says that it's aimed at kids 3-10, and I would probably cut it off about 3-8. As a parent, you're paying to shepherd the kids from one place to another. You might have some fun on the rides, in the theater, or participating in building, but it is not designed with you in mind. The place is so not designed with adults in mind that adults can't get in without a child (except for a certain night every month.)

Anyone may participate in minifigure trading. Cynically, I would suggest it is just to sell you build a minifigure or CMFs in the shop, but kids (and adults) can bring their unwanted minifigures from home and trade them with any employee that has a minifigure on their badge, or register. That's an activity that is fun for everyone, but selection is basically limited to what you see and what the kid before you may have left. My kids participated, up until my oldest lost all of hers somewhere.

The Cafe was disappointing. Everything was prepackaged,and most of it was unsuitable for my child who has a dairy allergy. You can't bring in your own food, so eat first. If you buy a one day ticket, you cannot return to the attraction once you leave without paying again.

All in all, I can't see spending the money for a one day pass. I guess as a once in a long while treat for a kid, it would be fine, but parents might wind up feeling ripped off. The discount in the store for annual pass holders is a nice incentive, but you have to balance the cost against how many sets you're going to buy and how many times you'll visit the attraction. If you plan on visiting more than 3 times in a year, get the annual. If you buy a lot of LEGO exclusives, $65 might be offset very quickly by the discounts that you receive. The store will give an automatic 5% discount for VIP holders, but that discount will not stack with the annual pass. Still, 10% is more than sales tax, so most large exclusives would be slightly cheaper than Amazon or the LEGO shop.

I'm going to try to swing by on Opening Morning to see if there's any special ceremony.

https://www.facebook.com/LDCArizona/?fref=nf

https://www.legolanddiscoverycenter.com/arizona/

In a 2 day competition, the LEGOLAND Discovery Center Arizona conducted a unique job interview searching for their new LEGO Master Model Builder. In the food court of the Arizona Mills mall 46 applicants participated in a build off to find the most qualified person for the job.

What is a Master Model Builder? They are the person that creates the models and displays that decorate the location. They are the face of the LEGOLAND location, communicating with the press and the public alike. They run the minibuilds for the kids and special events, as well as creating seasonal and special displays. I was informed that in November they will be creating a new Star Wars display in this location. Creativity and execution are important, so are working well with a team and kids.

Inside the mall on the morning of January 30, registration opened early, the competition was to begin at 9:00 AM. Some applicants had arrived from out of state the night before, others very early that morning. Nervousness and excitement intermixed. The very last applicant registered slightly before the cutoff time. Some applicants had preregistered online, others filled out their application that morning. As they signed in, they were divided into 4 groups. At the start time, the groups were given the theme that they would build. Each group got half an hour to build an animal.

There were 16 elements spread across 6 colors from a 1x3 yellow tile to a 1x8 white brick. There were large tubs of bricks that the builders could choose from. The judges watched them build, and watched each contestant interact with the spectators and the other builders. Enthusiastic kids helped to sort bricks and pieces for the contestants and offer suggestions. At the end of the half hour, each group took their build to the judging area. After 4 hours of building, the judges spent another hour whittling the applicants to 20.

The semi-finalists were divided into 2 groups and given the theme "Under the Sea." Each group was again given half an hour to build. The semi-finalists were whittled down to 10 and the day was done. After 8 hours, 46 had become 10, and they each had a chance to go home and contemplate the theme for the following day. On Sunday, they would have to build something that represented them.

Now, job interviews usually consist of an actual interview, and this one was no different. Early Sunday morning, each of the finalists had to return and be interviewed by representatives of Merlin Entertainment Group.  Merlin is the holding company that runs LEGOLAND, Sealife Aquariums, Madame Tussaud's and more. Each of the contestants arrived for their interview, tired from being up late trying to figure out their design. Some had spent the night trying to construct their ideas from bricks, others drawing on graph paper. But now it was time to put their best foot forward. Once the interviews were completed, they still had hours to wait until the afternoon's competition.

At 3PM the second day's competition was scheduled to begin. The area had been cleaned and set up again, all the spilled LEGO bricks back in tubs. The Finalist's builds were on display, no hint of those who did not make the cut. Spectators gathered around the tables again, excited to see the end of the competition. Each finalist was introduced to the new crowd and the final event commenced. Families and friends cheered on their champion. Kids alternately helped or hindered the contestants. The finalists were mostly engaging and friendly, chatting with the kids and asking their opinions. Some were boisterous.

Judges again toured the area, observing the builds, asking questions and seeing how they all interacted. When the time was up, they stood, hands held high. Relief mingled with hope. Each contestant chatted nervously with friends, family members, spectators and each other. They were each taken to be interviewed for local TV while the judges made their final decision.

At 4 PM the final announcement was made, the winner was crowned with a hard hat. Alecsander Posta was the new Master Model Builder. He was given a brick built goblet and they dumped a bucket of LEGO over his head. Those who did not win were very gracious.

Congratulations Alecsander, we look forward to seeing you on opening day.

Many Lego-related blogs are written about modern sets. This especially applies to investment-related blogs. In a series of articles I try to generate enthusiasm for some of the more interesting vintage Lego sets. We enjoyed building them as kids, whereas probably more often we jealously admired them in our best friend's collection or in the Lego catalogue we devotedly picked up in the toy store. This is primarily a blog of nostalgia. However, investing in vintage Lego can be an interesting and fun pastime. The quest to find rarer sets, to restore incomplete sets and to assess your recently purchased lot of bricks can be exciting, relaxing and rewarding. 

In this series of blogs I will describe sets, show pictures, provide general and set-specific information for collectors and investors, and finalize each blog with some fun stuff. After reading a couple of these blogs you'll hopefully get a certain confidence in this matter. Let's start with set 1592, the Town Square. Those who are not interested in this set's history and contents are invited to fast forward to the "tips for collectors and investors" below. 

ABOUT SET 1592
There's a festival in town! It's the end of summer and everyone is out on the streets to celebrate the last days of sunshine. Behind the medieval castle walls there is a party. Here on the town square a procession comes by... a classic car, a flower float, minifigures in historical costumes... come and join the fun!

Of course, this set being a promotional item, there's a commercial detail. In this case, the minifigures are invited to have a soup with some smoked sausage.

HISTORY
This set was first issued in 1980 in the United Kingdom as a promotion for the British cereal producer Weetabix. Although the link between this set and cereals escapes me (the sign crowning the snack bar says "fish & chips" rather than "breakfast cereals") that doesn't make the set any less desirable. The UK set, produced between 1980 and 1982, features stickers "books", "ice cream", "Legoland carnival" and the UK flag. 

After its initial sale in the UK, from 1981 the set was sold in Australia, Canada, Sweden, Germany¹ as well as Japan². Clicking this link will show you a German advert from around 1981. The advertiser, Fachgeschäft Spielzeugring (German toy retailer group), tells us this is a 'large city centre-themed gift set with a lot of content and endless playability'. 

Then in 1983 a new set 1592 was issued, being a promotional item for the Dutch company Unilever. Already then one of the largest Netherlands-based companies, Unilever has produced a wide array of foods, cleaning articles and personal care products. One of the many brands held by Unilever is Unox, best known for its soup and its (delicious) typically Dutch smoked sausages. To this day movable carts just like the one seen in set 1592 are used to sell these sausages and sometimes soup. In winter soup with smoked sausage is just as commonly seen here as fish and chips are (or should I say, were) in the UK. So The Lego Group and Unilever both did the math, resulting into the advertisement seen here³ (scroll down a bit).

Translation left side: 
"Send me Lego box no. 1592 "Village with procession" for the special Unox-price⁴ of €18,13 inclusive of shipment. I enclose payment plus 3 promo wrappers. N.b. of course you can order more than one Procession set. For every specimen, use a new order form plus 3 extra promo wrappers (maximum: 3 per family). U can also get the box without promo wrappers, in which case we will need to charge €2,97 shipment- and administrative costs. This promotion runs until December 1983."

Translation right side:
"Unique Lego box costing you only €18,13 plus 3 Unox promo wrappers (shop advice price €31,54). "Village with procession" true measurements 39x29cm. Enjoy that tasteful Unox soup while saving for that unique Lego procession box"  

We are fortunate to know that the shop advice price was €31,54 even though this set was never available in any shop. 

The Dutch version of the 1592 set was only produced for the year 1983 and it was only sold in the Netherlands. Even in 1983, some UK set production leftovers were delivered in the Netherlands. This is what Gary Istok says⁵:

"A Dutch acquaintance was a LEGO fan as a child... along with his 2 brothers... And their parents sent in 3 sets of UNOX Soup labels and money to get 3 of the Dutch 1592 sets. Well guess what arrived?? 2 Dutch and 1 British version of the 1592 sets!!"

All of this makes Dutch 1592 the rarer of the two variants and also the most sought-after.

SET SPECIFICS AND CONTENTS
The set comprises of 471 or 491⁶ parts, 10 minifigures 1 statue and 1 steroids-fed horse. Let's first look at the minifigures, horse and vehicles. 

Back row, left to right: a statue, costumed man (with cup for soup!), book seller, convertible car driver, 4 knights, soup and sausage seller (previous job: fish & chips seller), flower float driver, flower queen.
Front row: convertible classic car, horse, flower float. 

There are stickers for the knight shields, knight torsos and horse eyes. I'm not sure the eyes are all that realistic and if aligned carefully they will make your horse resemble cookie monster quite realistically. One year later, in 1984, The Lego Group would issue a horse part (Bricklink: #4493c01pb02) with slightly less disturbing eyes. The convertible car is a very neat little build, cleverly using a pile of 2x2 wheel plate + 2x8 plate + wheel fender + 2x3 plate + 2x2 plate to make a black grille. 

On with the castle walls. Even the first time I built this set, probably as a six-year-old, I thought this was supposed to depict a relic rather than an 'abstract' full castle. This was one of the reasons I liked the set so much: it stimulated the fantasy (history of the castle, what's behind those walls now?) 

A child could choose to pose the knights on and around the castle, or to let them walk in the parade. Probably, behind the castle walls other festival activities were going on. According to the poster, the festival took place from the 28th of August until the 4th of September. The Dutch flag consists of a white part + two stickers. The flag in the UK set had UK stickers, as mentioned. 

The second building is the book shop. The UK set has a sticker "books" for the kiosk one. The building is just lovely! The half-timbered structure is represented convincingly and the use of then-new windows and -door are very charming. The roof structure is rather complex and is fun to build. The building's only flaw is the use of the striped stickers on the canopy. I'll come back to that later.  On the above picture you can also see the cypress tree which is considered a rather rare piece. Not as rare as finding one actual cypress tree within the boundaries of a Dutch city though. 

As can be seen in the above picture, the book shop even has a modest interior. 

The rest of the set consists of two lampposts, a statue of a guy, a STOP traffic sign, a blue bench, fruit tree, an avalanche of flowers (some in pots) and of course the soup with smoked sausage stand. The sticker sheet contains alternate stickers "vers schepijs" ('fresh ice cream').

A main picture of the box can be seen in the beginning of this blog. Here are pictures of the sides of the box (third image is shown on both shorter outsides of the inner box):

The bottom side of the box:

Lastly, the inner box, sticker sheet and instructions. 

Note that there are spares for most stickers: 5 knight torsos, 3 knight shields, 3 kiosks, 2 statue stickers, 3 snack bar stickers, 3 pairs of terrified horse eyes and 1 festival poster. Most unfortunately, the two weakest and rarest stickers (shop canopy) are not offered as spares. 

On the picture you can also see the great build of the car. Check out the way the designer designed that grille!

TIPS FOR COLLECTORS AND INVESTORS
Those who are interested in purchasing / investing in this set should note the following:

• While the UK set (1592-1) and the Dutch set (1592-2) are both quite rare, 1592-2 is the less common of the two. 
• The 2008 Lego Collector Guide rates the rarity of 1592-1 as 5/6 stars and 1592-2 as 6/6 stars. 
• According to the amazing Unofficial Lego Sets / Parts Collectors Guide⁷ the value of an excellent condition set (minor wear, box and contents are in well cared for condition) is 200 to 250 euros. 
• In case you're planning to gather this set from several sources, try to start with a boxed version with incomplete stickers. Check the state of both inner- and outer box. If ordering online, ask for several pictures. 
• After you've found a box(ed incomplete set), make the canopy stickers your next project. These are almost always gone, because they span multiple sloped tiles without much grip and there are no spares on the sticker sheet. To make matters worse, these stickers have a slight overhang. I reckon most canopy stickers were thrown away after building and disassembling the set once. 
• Having found a box and all stickered parts makes life easy. None of the parts are exclusive to this set. Nonetheless, some are difficult to find such as the four black lantern cap parts, only present in two other rare sets; the above-mentioned cypress tree, currently for sale on Bricklink for at least €11,50; the unstickered knight shield, only to be found in two other sets; the two red doors and the black statue head which was only used in 4 other sets. You'll probably have to Bricklink these parts if not present. A full inventory of Lego set 1592 can be found here. 
• Make sure the white flag part, the STOP sign and the two base plates are intact and unglued, the large black statue head hasn't been replaced by the more common cilinder part, the stickered knight torsos have not been replaced by similar looking torsos and the knight legs have not been replaced by other color combo legs.
• Check that the bricks (especially white, blue and grey) have not been discolored. If you want to try to restore the original color, read this blog carefully.  
• Ideally the stickers have not applied at all; if so, they should have been applied as neatly as possible. Make sure the festival stickers have not been torn (like the canopy stickers, they span multiple bricks). 
• If a sticker sheet is present, check for authenticity. The backside of an original sticker sheet reads "FasCal REMOVABLE", the sheet number is 195145. Beware that sticker sheets are being reproduced nowadays.
• Usually the best place to find rare Lego sets are Brick Classifieds (good deals), Bricklink (varied offer) or Ebay (quick purchases). As 1592-2 was only sold in the Netherlands, it's not easy to find it elsewhere. So you'll have to think out of the box. Introducing... the Dutch virtual market place Marktplaats. There you'll probably find one or more 1592s offered for sale. You'll find Marktplaats to be a bit different from the three above-mentioned platforms. First, bidding is possible but it doesn't bind you. So it really has no validity whatsoever. It's always a good idea to directly contact the seller, telling you that you're a foreign collector (or investor, if you think that's wise) of Lego and that you're interested in their set. Ask the seller if he will ship to where you're living. Then the awkward part: if you don't have a Dutch friend who can pick it up for you, you'll have to trust the seller and pay him or her trusting that they'll send you what you bought. It's a bit tricky but I never had a bad experience in the 10+ years I bought and sold through Marktplaats. Wise thing to do before paying any money: check how many years the seller has been a Marktplaats member, then Google the seller's name co-using the words "fraude" or "vals". Have Google translate the search results and conclude. I always ask for the seller's address, explaining it is for my own protection. Literally everybody gave their address without any objection. In the end you can never be 100% sure but it's better than nothing. 
• Once you've completed the set, clean the parts (good method: by hand, see this thread) and ideally put them away in a dark, air-conditioned closet so the discoloring process of both bricks and box will be minimal. Or display it... after all it's a grand piece!
   

FUN STUFF
On with the fun stuff. First, a picture of two sets of Dutch instructions. 

• Can you see what's wrong with the bottom one? Here's the answer. Unilever, holding company of cleaning solution brands, was clearly thought to sell sausages as well was soap during the Legoland festival. This funny error is continued on the two last pages of the instructions. I'm not sure when exactly the instructions were corrected. I have not heard of incorrect stickers or boxes. If anyone has those or knows they exist, please let me know.   
• While the instructions of 1592-2 correctly mention copyright 1983, the box incorrectly says 1980 (clearly copying the 1592-1 box). 
• This set is considered by some as one of the best The Lego Group has ever produced (see these and these reviews. It still inspires people... check out this awesome remake!
• Who's the statued guy? Living 1807-1872 it could be Italian cellist, educator and composer Carlo Curti, or British lawyer, diplomat and writer Henry Charles Sirr. Frankly and unfortunately I haven't been able to find any plausible candidate for this statue to imply an easter egg. If anyone finds out anything interesting on the matter of the statue, do let me know!
• 2 years before the UK release of the Town Square, another interesting set was released. In 1589 (Main Street) we can spot... a piece of yellow castle wall, just as tall and with the same battlements as seen in 1592. It gives reason to believe both walls belong to the same castle. Nice detail for those kids who really paid attention. The castle bits of these sets also remind of castle set 375. 
• Last, not least! I know all of you have been desperately waiting for the answer to the question "so what's the difference between 1592-1's and 1592-2's boxes?" Well, TLG definitely did its best to make both boxes look as similar as possible, probably in an attempt to get away with delivering some stock 1592-1 boxes to Dutch customers... comparing both boxes very closely, the differences are barely noticeable (except for the stickers, of course). The car and flower float have moved a bit, the knights' heads are positioned slightly differently, the shadowing, the background color... all a bit different. But the trees, lampposts, minifigure gestures and door positions are just the same. Perhaps as an insider joke, there's one difference though... the flowers! Some of the several flowers differ in color. And behold... one bed of flowers was even added to the 1592-2 box picture! In all you really have to look carefully... (top: 1592-1, bottom: 1592-2 box fragments). 

References
1 See this Bricksetforum post written by Lego historian Gary Istok. 
2 See this post on the Eurobricks forum written by Lego historian Gary Istok.
3 See this post on the Eurobricks forum.
4 The price in Dutch guilders was fl.39,95.
5 See this post on the Eurobricks forum.
6 The 2008 Lego Collector Guide p166.
7 Unofficial Lego Sets / Parts Collectors Guide, Gary Istok, price list. To see prices for very good, MIB- and MISB-conditions I strongly advise anyone to buy Mr Istok's magnum opus. It simply is a treasure chest loaded with facts, figures and pictures of every imaginable Lego-subject from the 30s up to and until the 90s. See here for a bunch of teasers and here to purchase it. Set 1592-1 is discussed in chapter 17 page 18, set 1592-2 in chapter 17 page 28. 

It happens to the best of us.....

• You haven't built a LEGO set in a week or two. It's a slow day, you're bored, and you've got some spare time on your hands. You glance lovingly at your secret stash of LEGO sets and notice the pristine Pet Shops 10218s sitting on the shelf. They're mocking you - daring you to break those beautiful seals. Grabbing a set off the shelf,  you carefully open the package before dumping the glorious contents onto the kitchen table to get your fix. You say to yourself, "I'll build just one", and six months later, your office looks like this:

• Eventually, you've built one of each Creator Modular Building in your collection, and you've decided that you can't stop until you've added the Green Grocer, Cafe Corner, and Market Street to your LEGO City scape. You head over to Youtube and watch a couple set reviews of the Green Grocer 10185, and decide you'll start there.

You're feeling really good about things, until you visit the Green Grocer Price Guide and see this:

• Almost $1000 for a MISB set?  $700 for a used copy? That's a lot of money to spend on a single LEGO set. Sure it will look awesome on display, but for $950, you could buy a brand new 75059 Sandcrawler + 75060 Slave I + 75095 TIE Fighter and a bonus 10236 Ewok Village. Are there any other options? You've heard other collectors talking about "Bricklinking" retired or Hard-to-Find sets before, but you're not sure what that means exactly, or how to get started.
• The term Bricklinking is AFOL slang, and refers to the practice of buying all the bricks required to build a set from individual brick vendors. is the original, largest, and most well-known marketplace for LEGO brick vendors, but it is not the only quality source for LEGO bricks. Other options include as well as LEGO's and online services.

If located near an official LEGO brand store, another option is the store's Pick-a-Brick Wall,

a cost-effective way to load up on bulk bricks. Selection is more limited, and rotates on a monthly basis (below).

Bricklink Vendors (above) typically operate part-time, home-based stores. Part selection, availability, pricing, and shipping very significantly by vendor.

There a few large-scale, full-time Bricklink vendors, but those are probably the exception, not the norm.

To Bricklink, or not to Bricklink, that is the question.

Getting Started

• If you don't have an active Bricklink account, the first thing you'll have to do is head to the website and register for an account. The account registration link is found in the upper right corner. Registration is fairly straightforward and only takes a few minutes. Click here to get started on Bricklink

• Once your account is established, you're ready to do some preliminary set research.The easiest way to get started is to enter the set # or set name in the search bar located at the top of screen. This takes you to the set's catalog entry which gives you basic information such as demographics, the number of parts & minifigures, and price guide data. There are links to the part inventory and catalog entries for the box and instructions.

• Clicking the Set Inventory tab or Item Consists of 2335 Parts link brings up the detailed inventory screen which displays each part image, quantity, part number, and description. Clicking an individual part number brings up its entry in the part catalog. For example, scroll down to the blue parts section and click the #6005 Brick, Arch 1x3x2 Curved Top.

Click here to view the LEGO Green Grocer 10185 set inventory in Bricklink

• Here is the part catalog entry for #6005- Brick, Arch 1x3x2 Curved Top. Part catalog entries are great for getting a sense of current and past part values, available colors, and alternate/substitute parts for the same piece. In the top right, you'll see info depicting how many sets include that particular part.

• Clicking the Item Appears in 125 Sets link, brings up the list of all sets featuring part #6005. The list is grouped by color, and displays the quantity of part #6005 included with each set. Each set's year and image are shown, with a link to its inventory and catalog entry.
• This is a really useful feature that helps collectors determine if they already have an expensive or hard-to-find part in their collection.

Initial Bricklink Project Cost Estimate

• Click Catalog on the dark green tool bar, then Click Price Guide on the light green tool bar. This should bring up the Part Out Value screen:

• You have several options to select before calculating the part out value (shown in red above). After making your desired choices, click the Get Value button to view the results.

New Parts Results Example:

Used Parts Results Example:

Some notes on Bricklink part-out values

• By default, part-out values are calculated by adding the average sale price of the individual pieces.
• Actual cost to obtain all the parts for any given set can be significantly lower depending on the selected vendor and region.
• These values do not include shipping, handling or vendor fees, which may add substantial cost to the total.
• In some cases, instructions and/or boxes may only cost a few dollars. For highly desired or rare sets, these items may cost hundreds of dollars to acquire. It's often more cost effective to forego these items and download the digital instructions from the internet.

If you're happy with the initial cost estimate, and don't want to alter the stock inventory list significantly, it is very easy to part-out the set to your Wanted List.

• Ensure you are logged into your account. Pull up the catalog entry for the desired set. Click the Part Out link under the My Wanted List section. Clicking the Add to My Wanted List link adds the complete set, not the individual parts, so don't select this option.

• As an alternative to the steps above, you can click Wanted on the dark green tool bar, then Part Set on the light green tool bar. Both options will take you to the Step 1.

• Step 1 - The Select Set screen. I recommend creating and naming a New Wanted List, otherwise all the parts will upload to your main wanted list. If you do this for multiple sets, it ends up a confusing mess of parts rather quickly.
• Next select whether you want to buy New or Used parts, either option is fine. I don't recommend selecting the Any Condition option, as allowing Bricklink to search for new and used parts yields ugly results. You can create both a new and used parts wanted list for a particular set, which is much easier to manage.
• Finally, I recommend checking the Set My Minimum Quantity box, as this will really simplify purchasing and quick price comparisons between vendors. Some buyers opt not to use this feature, because it excludes a vendor from the search results if they don't all of the quantity of required part. For unusual, hard-to-find, or expensive parts, this is sometimes problematic. I tend to treat those parts as the exception, not the rule, and overall find this option very useful.

• Step 2 - The Edit Items screen allows you to select new or used part condition for each individual part, set a maximum price you want to pay for each part, change the desired quantity, or delete an individual part from your wanted list.

• At the bottom of the inventory list, you will see numbered part groups. Depending on the production run, LEGO may have included one of several variations of a particular part. Here you can select which version(s) you want uploaded to your wanted list. Checking the box will delete an alternate part from your wanted list.
• When you have finished editing the parts (note: you do not need to make any edits) click the Verify Items button.

• Step 3 - The Verify Items screen is a final review. Scroll to the bottom and click the Upload Items Button.

• Step 4 - The Items Successfully Uploaded confirmation screen.

• At first glance, comparing the prices above with current Brickpicker values indicates buying a complete new or used set on the secondary market is probably more cost-effective. This is particularly true if having an original box and instructions are important considerations. That being said, if you're willing to put some additional time and effort into your project, and are agreeable to considering part substitutions, Bricklink may provide the most economical solution.
• This is where software programs like BrickStock or BrickStore prove invaluable.

Bricklink management software programs.

• BrickStock and BrickStore are free, open-source software programs which interface with Bricklink for inventory management. Primarily designed for Bricklink Vendors, these programs are extremely useful for any collector considering a Bricklinking project. These are both great products, and I can't recommend one product over the other, but I have more experience using BrickStock.

BrickStore inventory management software download

BrickStock inventory management software download

• After you have downloaded and installed one of the above software programs, you're ready to manage the set inventory. The examples below come from BrickStock, but both products share a similar look and operation.
• The first step is to import the set inventory list into BrickStock. Click on File --> Import --> Bricklink Set Inventory. You can also import set inventories from other popular sources such as Peeron or L-draw or import Bricklink orders or shopping carts.

• Next you will see the Import Bricklink Inventory search pop-up window. In the search bar, enter #10185 or Green Grocer --> On the left click All Items --> highlight the correct set --> Select OK.

• Initially the entire set inventory populates and looks like the screenshot below. By default, parts are sorted by color.

• This is a close up view of the Lower Right Corner of the display. Displayed is the number of Lots - 342 (unique part types), number of total Items - 2342 (parts), Weight - 2.269 kg and Value $0.00 (cost). Initially the Value will display as zero until the parts are Set to the Price Guide.

• To calculate the total Value/Cost of the set: use the shift key and mouse or CTRL-A to select all the parts (they will highlight in blue) --> click the $= button located in the top toolbar.

• The Set To Price Guide pop-up window appears.
• On the left drop down, you can select "All Time Sales", "Past 6 Months", or "Current Inventory".
• On the right drop down you can select "Minimum", Average" or "Maximum".
• Selecting Current Inventory gives you the most up-to-date pricing.
• Selecting Average pricing should give you a similar value to the Bricklink part-out value (without instructions or box).

Three examples of BrickStock set values - Minimum, Average and Maximum

Choosing current inventory and minimum pricing yields a total Value, or cost of $572.68

Choosing current inventory and average pricing yields a total Value, or cost of $1067.26

Choosing current inventory and maximum pricing yields a total Value, or cost of $5609.17

• As previously discussed, Bricklink vendors are free to set price parts as they deem appropriate, which accounts for the wide discrepancy between the minimum and maximum values seen above.
• In my experiences with Bricklinking several sets, I have found the actual cost typically lies somewhere between the minimum and the average values calculated by Brickstock.
• Realistically speaking, you aren't going to obtain all 2432 parts at the cheapest price offered on Bricklink, but many competitive vendors will offer the common parts close to this price.
• The key is determining which rare, or hard to find pieces are going to cost the most to obtain in the needed quantity. These are the parts that require the most time and effort to competitively price shop or substitute with a cheaper part option.

• First, click the Status button in the upper left corner of the part inventory section. This is going to sort all the pieces by "Status", which includes:

1. Green Checkmarks = required pieces included in the inventory. These item will upload to your wanted list.
2. Red X = this is a user selected option, you will not see this unless you manually change the part's status. These items will not upload to your wanted list.
3. Blue + = extra pieces included with the set. Unless deleted or changed to a Red X, these items will upload to your wanted list.
4. Shaded Box Numbers = the alternate part groups

• Deleting the extra parts (the Blue + symbols) from the wanted list will reduce the overall cost of the project.
• Scroll to the bottom and find the shaded box number groups. Find the cheapest version in each part group and then delete the others.

• After deleting the extra parts and the duplicate alternate parts, highlight the entire part list and recalculate the Part Value (using the current inventory and minimum part value selections). Notice the wanted list has dropped to 301 Lots, 2339 Total Parts, and a Value of $564.65

• $565 for all new parts isn't a bad price considering the new in sealed box price is about $950. This price isn't going to include the extra pieces, instructions or a box though.
• As previously noted, you're not likely to get all the parts at the minimum value, and you're going to end up paying shipping and handling fees to multiple vendors. To really make this project worth the effort, you need to find additional cost savings.
• Click the Total button to sort the parts list by total cost. Scroll to the bottom of the list to see which parts add the most cost to your Bricklinking project.

• The 18 part lots highlighted in red comprise $474 of the $564 Part Value.
• As most collectors know, the most valuable parts in the Green Grocer set are the Sand Green bricks. I
• For example, the (50) #3008 Brick 1x8 and (56) #4216 Brick, Modified 1x2 with Groove will cost a minimum of $348 to purchase.
• Add in the cost of the (54) #3622 Brick 1x3, (41) #3010 Brick 1x4 (35) #3005 Brick 1x1 and (7) #3937 Hinge Brick 1x2 Base, and the cost rises to at least $370.

Before tackling the issue of the Sand Green bricks, let's look at some other easy cost-reducing swaps.

• The (4) #4035 Window 1x2x3 Train cost $28. To modify this part, highlight the #4035 Window 1x2x3 Train, then double click the Description field.

• The Modify Item pop-up window appears. From here you can select an alternate part. In this case the #60593 Window 1x2x3 Flat Front. This window has a slightly different appearance (see picture below) than the train window, but will fit into the required opening and look great.
• This set's inventory includes the #60592 Window 1x2x2 Flat Front and #60594 Window 1x4x3 Flat Front, so you're buying a part that is a stylistic match.
• Select OK to return to the inventory screen.
• The #60593 Window 1x2x3 Flat Front, is available for $0.09 which is a cost saving of $27.60 for the lot of (4). To verify this, highlight the part and use the Set to Price Guide $= procedures to observe the price drop from $27.96 to $0.36

• Sometimes changing a part requires adding or deleting another item. In this case you will want to consider adding (4) #60602 Glass for Window, 1x2x3 Flat Front. The original  #4035 1x2x3 Train Window didn't require separate glass.

• Using the same procedure, you can modify the #4864b Panel 1x2x2 - Hollow Studs to the newer #87552 Panel 1x2x2 with Side Supports, Hollow Studs. Once installed, there isn't a visible difference in these parts.The #87552 is widely available for $.02-.03 and drops the price from $10 to $0.6 for this lot.
• Another option is replacing the #2039 Lamp Post, 2x2x7 with 6 Base Flutes with the #11062 Lamp Post, 2x2x7 with 4 Base Flutes. This drops the price from $4.21 to $0.61 for the part.
• The (1) #6251px1 Cat Crouching with Black Eyes, Eyelashes, and Nose Pattern is listed at $1.26. Average price in the U.S. is just under $3 however. You could change this to #6251 Cat Crouching which is listed at $0.50. The average U.S. price is a $1.00, so this change may save you $1-$2.
• The (3) #2431pb043 Tile 1x4 with Viking Snakes Pattern in reddish-brown cost $4.10. You could swap these out for (3) plain #2431 Tile 1x4 in reddish-brown, and drop your cost down to $.09 for the lot. As these tiles add a nice artistic feature to the doorway, I am opting to keep them for my example.
• At a very reasonable $0.18 cents per brick, the (29) #3008 Brick 1x8 in light bluish-gray aren't a good candidate to switch out. The same goes for the (23) #3010 Brick 1x4 in dark green and the (12) #2429c01 Hinge Plate 1x4 Swivel Top in white.

Now we can look at two expensive parts to see the effect of changing to an alternative color.

• The (4) #2449 Slope, Inverted 75 2 x1x3 in dark red cost $8. Double clicking the Dark Red Color Field, brings up the Modify Color Pop-Up window.
• For my example, I want to keep the appearance similar to the original version, so I will change the part to plain red. This change drops the price from $8 down to $0.40. Feel free to make any color choice that suits your preference.
• As previously discussed, searching for part #2449 in Bricklink lets you easily explore all available color options and pricing for each part color.
• Using the same procedure, you can change the (4) #6005 Brick, Arch 1x3x2 Curved Top in blue to another color. Substituting medium blue in place of blue drops the price from $7.63 to $0.64 for the lot.

Other parts to consider changing

• The original Green Grocer came with (2) 16x32 baseplates. These are available on Bricklink for around $5 apiece, for a total of $10.
• Alternatively, you could add a new 32x32 green baseplate to your next LEGO Shop at Home order and save $2.
• For this example, I am keeping the original (2) 16x32 baseplates on my wanted list.
• The (4) minifigures have a current price of just under $26 on Bricklink.
• Looking at LEGO Bricks & Pieces however, all of the individual minifigure components except the (twn074) boy tan shirt torso and the (twn073) female long brown hair piece are available for $7.10
• The two missing components are available on Bricklink for an additional $2-$3. This leaves you with three options. For this example, I am going with option #2.

1. Skip the minifigures and save the $26.
2. Buy the individual components from LEGO Bricks & Pieces + Bricklink for $10, and save $16.
3. Buy the whole minifigures from Bricklink for the $26.

Searching for pieces using LEGO

• Visit LEGO Shop At Home website at shop.lego.com --> Scroll to the bottom of the website until you see the CUSTOMER SERVICE links --> Click on Missing Parts

• Click on the third option, BUY BRICKS. The other options are good if you need replacement parts from LEGO due to missing pieces from new sets or manufacturing defect.These are not meant to obtain hard-to-find or expensive parts for other purposes.

• After entering your age and geographic location you will see this screen. From here you can either search for all parts in a given set, or search all available options for a specific part.

• Searching for all parts in set #10185 displays the entire inventory, but many parts will show in Gray (Out of Stock). Available parts are shown in black.
• In most cases, Bricklink prices are more competitive than LEGO Brick & Pieces, but in some situations, I have found LEGO Bricks & Pieces offers the better price. I always recommend a cursory glance at this site before buying an expensive part elsewhere.
• Click on any parts you want to add to your cart and check out as you normally would at LEGO Shop at Home. S&H charge is typically a few dollars and delivery time often takes 2-3 weeks.
• Note: Unlike LEGO Pick-a-Brick orders, LEGO Bricks & Pieces  orders DO NOT earn VIP points.  

But it's called the Green Grocer

• At this point, with only minor changes made, the minimum cost of the set is down to around $485.This price might be as low as $460 if you made all of the cost-saving choices previously discussed.
• Considering these prices reflect new parts, this price is about 50-60% of the cost of buying a new in sealed box set. It's entirely reasonable to stop modifying the inventory here and proceed to uploading these items to your wanted list.

There are additional savings available however, if you modify the Sand Green bricks. What are the available options?

• At $3 minimum, and an average price of $4.67 per brick, the (50) #3008 Brick 1x8 in sand green will cost $300-$467 to purchase. This is the 1st target.
• #3010 Brick 1x4 in sand green are listed at $0.21 minimum and $0.41 average. You could substitute an additional (100) #3010 Brick 1x4 in lieu of the (50) #3008 Brick 1x8. You could also use a mix of #3009 Brick 1x6 + #3004 Brick 1x2. Either combo averages $0.80 per 1x8 Brick equivalent. cw

Changing the desired quantity of a part in Brick Stock

• Highlight the #3010 Brick 1x4 --> Right click on the Quantity Field --> click Set --> change quantity from 41 to 141.
• Double Click the Green Checkmark next to the #3008 Brick 1x8 and change the status to a Red X, which will remove the item from your wanted list.
• The total cost has now dropped from $485 to $319.

• The next part to look at is the (56) #4216 Brick, Modified 1x2 with Groove. At $2.88 minimum and $3.82 average price this part will cost $160-$214 to purchase.
• The #4216 1x2 Brick, Modified with Groove give the set its architectural detail on the front facade, but not all 56 bricks are required for this purpose. About 1/4 are used in the interior. You could download the instructions and get the exact count of 1x2 grooved bricks you need for the facade (~42) LEGO Green Grocer 10185 Instructions.
• Instead of the #4216 Brick, Modified 1x2 with Groove, you could substitute the #3004 Brick 1x2 in sand green. At $0.10 per brick, this is a substantial savings. A plain front facade, while serviceable, certainly lacks detail and charm though.
• As an alternative, you can substitute with the #98283 Brick, Modified with Masonry Profile at a cost of $0.14 per brick. This is a savings of at least $150 for the 56 bricks.

Adding a new part to the Brick Stock Wanted List

• Click the Brick+ symbol on the top toolbar --> the Add Item to Inventory pop-up window appears.

• Enter the part # or keyword (masonry in this case) in the search bar --> select part --> select color (Sand Green) on the right --> enter desired QTY (56) at the bottom --> Click OK --> Click Close
• Double Click the Green Checkmark next to the #4216 Brick, Modified 1x2 with Groove to change the status to a Red X, removing the item from your wanted list.
• You can use the same procedure to add the previously discussed (4) #60602 Glass, for Window 1x2x3 Flat Front.

• This should just about finish most of the major changes. Let's take a final look at the results. CTRL-A to select all the parts, then use the previous steps to set them to the price guide at the current minimum price. As shown below, the minimum price has now dropped all the way down to $165!

When I first got into LEGO as an AFOL I was looking at all of the Star Wars sets that I had missed and how much they cost. It became necessary to figure out a way to get the sets cheaper or make more money. I knew that some people must be making money buying bulk lots and taking out the stuff they wanted and selling the rest. That seemed like 2 birds with one stone. I looked at the bulk lots on Ebay, realizing that most of what I would get from these guys were common pieces. So I started looking at bigger lots, somewhat intimidated by their cost. I figured, however, if an Ebayer was getting $10 for a pound maybe I could make some money just throwing stuff in a box, easy money.

I made a purchase of about 50 lbs for about $350 because I saw some Star Wars sets and minifigures in there. Oh boy, easy money and some treasures of my own. Boy, was I wrong. The money is anything but easy. I quickly discovered that out of my 50 lbs of mixed LEGO, at least 5 lbs were easily recognizable as not building bricks at all. Tinker toys, K'Nex, Hot Wheels, plastic army men, broken action figures, Lincoln logs, playing cards, thumb tacks, thorny burrs and even broken glass was mixed into the ABS blocks. On top of all that junk, the real problems started. All of the Mega Blocks, BTR, and assorted knock off blocks knocked another 5+ lbs out of the lot. That's at least 20% of my precious blocks that was basically trash. As you filter through, you discover broken bricks, severely teeth marked ones and yellowed pieces. profits are getting slimmer by the minute.

Ok, so I regrouped and focused on the sets that were obviously present. I pulled out the stuff I immediately recognized most of a TIE Interceptor, a little car, Jedi Interceptor with Hyperdrive ring, half an ARC Fighter, etc. All of these I scattered around me like ancient peoples paying homage to their creator. How do I go from lots of partial sets to lots of complete sets that I can flip to make back the money that I sunk into this thing? Well first I needed to figure out what was missing. So, I looked at instruction books to see what steps I needed to take to complete them and what pieces were missing from there. Utter bust. That's an awful way to do it. So I took apart the sets I had figured out and checked the inventory against Bricklink. I discovered what was missing, and that sometimes kids substitute pieces in the middle of a build.

Now that I knew what was missing, time to turn back to 20 lbs of assorted bulk. digging through mixed bricks looking for the piece or pieces I need was time consuming and futile. Time to sort them out to make it easier. My wife and I sorted that 20 lbs of pieces by color. We had 10+ bags of pieces separated loosely by color (old and new colors mixing futilely.) That made it easier to look for pieces, but still sometimes wasting a lot of time trying to pick out a small piece in a big bag. After exhausting my patience, I turned to Bricklink to acquire the pieces I needed, dumping more money into this hole.

Eventually I sold a bunch of sets I made from this and a few other bulk lots. Between the Bricklink orders I placed to complete them and the fees and shipping, I think I made some money. My book keeping was pretty terrible. But it all taught me some things. Some of these things I learned could help some people just starting out trying to find treasure in Bulk lots.

STEP 1: Valuation

So, you're looking at a bulk lot that you found on Craigslist, Ebay, a garage sale, another auction or whatever. How should you evaluate it?

• Weight: The volume of pieces will tell you roughly how much is there. 2 lbs = not a lot. 25 lb = a lot. Since you're not buying the sets one by one, you have to immediately realize that you are going to be getting dead weight in addition to the treasures that you seek.
• Visible sets: Any visible set that you can place is good. That will give you an immediate idea of what you can make out of the lot. No visible sets or parts of sets means that there may or may not be gold in there.
• Minifigures: If minifigures are present that's good. If licensed minifigures are present, that's even better. a loose rule I use is to look for flesh colored minifigure heads and hands. Sure there's some dummies in that group, and some good figures that have yellow heads and hands, but it's a good starting point.
• Instructions and boxes: Both of these are a good gauge to show you what sets may be present, but could be red herrings. Sometimes the instructions stick around long after the main components of a set are lost.
• Non LEGO stuff: There's always some detritus. The flotsam and jetsam of stuff that parents scoop up into the boxes. The most common stuff is non LEGO bricks. They're not always easy to pick out at first glance, but they're usually there. What you are looking for is how much of the lot is obviously not LEGO. Do you see doll parts, nerf darts, Pokémon cards, buttons, etc.? usually this is a good sign to me. It means no one has searched it. but it is a pain to filter through.
• Filth: Sometimes you can see how dirty and played with the bricks are. Most bulk will be dusty or dirty. Some will even have paint or marker on them.

So with these factors, let's talk about how they factor into the valuation. an average lot is usually in the $4-$6 per  lb range. Average lots show some partial sets, some minifigures, maybe a few instructions, relatively clean, with not a lot of obvious non LEGO stuff. Depending on the quality and quantity of the better stuff, you might increase your valuation, but remember you're not paying top dollar for what you see, because there's still a lot of work to come. Plus, you're going to get some amount of stuff you don't want. I have been known to go as low as $2-$3 a pound for stuff that had no obvious sets, mediocre looking or no obvious minifigures and excess junk. Then again, I have gone as high as $10 a lb for lots of minifigures and several mostly complete sets of some value. Some people stick to a hard $5 lb. Some lots of only minifigures I have seen sold for close to $100 lb. Figure out your comfort level and stick to it. Be prepared to have wasted your money on a big group of Mega Blocks.

STEP 2: Sorting and figuring out what you have

Once you get the lot, now you have to do something with it. Boxes full of bulk sitting in the garage is just hoarding. You're doing this to make your money work for you. So, I start by trying to pull out all the non LEGO, but also anything that gives me a good idea of what is there. Pull out minifigures, instructions, partial sets and set them aside. I bag the partial sets, with the minifigures and instructions wherever possible.

I would never again sort by color. Finding a red 1x1 modified tile with clip in a big bag of red parts is much harder than looking through a bag of 1x1 modified tile with clips of assorted colors. Instead I start by throwing all the flats in one box. Slopes go in a second box. Bricks are a third box, etc. It's the most general sorting at first. As I go, I look for unique identifiers of sets like printed pieces or unusual shapes. Once the initial sorting is accomplished, I sort again by element.

STEP 3: Completing sets

The best way to make back the bulk of your purchase price is to complete the sets that you received. Some people will complete everything that they can, others disdain anything below a certain dollar amount. It's up to you how far down the rabbit hole that you are going to head. Once you get your sets, you need to figure out what is missing. Even if the set looks complete, it is best to verify. Some people will make substitutions in the middle of a set. Your customers may not appreciate substitutions, especially if there are megablocks in the middle of a build. So, it's time to take them apart to verify the inventory. If the sets are partial, you definitely should take them apart to figure out how much is missing. Look through your new bulk to see if you can find the rest. Focus on the expensive sets first.

Check through your minifigures, instructions, and interesting pieces to see what sets may have been broken down entirely and see if they are worth reconstituting. You could do another survey of your bulk to see if the seemingly random bulk is hiding some treasure. I look for the part numbers on the interesting pieces. Finding the part number can be difficult, since it's usually inside of the LEGO piece and hard to spot, except with the right light. If the piece appears in multiple sets, I check for context with other pieces in the lot. Again, the interesting pieces generally have a unique shape, sticker or printing.

If you can't complete them this way, or even with other bulk you might have, then you have to decide if sinking some more money into them is worthwhile. Does spending $10, $20, or $50 more make sense? Only you know for sure, but you've already dug a hole into your resources and time. It's either keep digging, or see if you can punt it off somewhere. I tend to try to get as many sets working at a time as I can. Hopefully this will help me to get the most missing pieces for the least orders.

STEP 4: Dealing with the true bulk

You're going to have leftovers after you pull out the stuff that is easiest to sell. You have several options.

• You could write it off. Put it back in a box and donate it or stick it in the garage, hoping to forget about it. This is generally the least appealing option to me. I've put time and money into this, so I want to recover something more than the tax write off or another box in the garage.
• Sell it as bulk. You could try to recover something from it by selling it all as a big lot, or even breaking it up into more manageable 1, 2, 5 or 10 lb lots. There's a lot of competition that way, but it's not super hard to do.
• Save the pieces to help you complete other sets in your next bulk lot. This is appealing because you already have it on hand. There's no guarantee that it will do the job, but at least you have a chance to cut down on further expenses.
• Sell the pieces individually through Bricklink or Ebay or some other venue. This is the most time consuming way to do it. It's also the way to get the most total value from the pieces, eventually. A lot of pieces may not sell quickly if at all, but you have a higher return on every piece that does sell.

So, after all of that. You have to figure out whether it was worth it. If you made some money, or got some stuff that you wanted for less than the going rate, it will give you that rosy glow. It's fun to initially dig through all of that stuff searching for buried treasures. When you find something, it really does feel like it's all worthwhile. In the long hours of sorting, searching for pieces, and waiting for Bricklink orders it may be less fun. Waiting for the stuff to sell to recoup your costs is even less fun than that. I like to do it, but at the end of the day, the monetary returns vs. my time may not be the best. It may be the worst paying job that I have ever had.

You really do need to have a plan for evaluating what you are buying and for dealing with it once you do. If you've never done it before, it may be overwhelming. It will take a little while to get more proficient. It's definitely not a quick buck, but money is there to be had. If you are disorganized, if you lose patience, if you don't have the time,you're just throwing money into a hole.

May the bricks be ever in your favor.

pictures are used to demonstrate example bulk lots from real auctions.

For decades, the problem with collectible toys has been degradation of the materials. For most toys made in the past 40 years or more the main component is ABS plastic. ABS plastic breaks down and changes color as it ages. This process can be accelerated via exposure to UV rays (sunlight or fluorescent bulbs), Heat,  and chemical reaction to other plastics. Most collectors have fought a losing fight to prevent their lighter colored plastics from turning yellow (or green if there is a blue coloration to the piece.)

For many years various solutions had been proposed to roll back the scourge of time. Solutions included (but were not limited to) a good scrub, bleach, Denture cleaner, fine grit sandpaper and oxy-clean. I personally tried many of these solutions to debunk their effectiveness. While a good scrub can clean away surface dirt or even yellowing caused by smoking, it is only a surface approach, and the Denture cleaner makes the item minty. I found bleach to be ineffective and potentially harmful to the plastic if left on for too long. I was experimenting with action figures, so sanding them was impractical for many reasons, not just the amount of time and effort involved. Oxy-clean appeared to have no greater effect than a good scrub until I came back to the figures months later and found that it had promoted yellowing making them worse than ever before. I also tried coating them in Baking Soda to no change.

So far, I felt that I had done a good job disproving the myths about bringing toys back to their original brilliance. One day, someone posted about a Transformers collector in Britain using Hydrogen Peroxide and sunlight to de-yellow their toys. This sounded crazy to me, considering that the sun was the major enemy of this plastic.

Common Hydrogen Peroxide, found in any health and beauty section of any grocery store in the world, was used inside a sealed glass container with the affected items. Hydrogen Peroxide can also be found at beauty supply stores in more concentrated formulation, and I even ordered a much stronger version from the internet one time. (I believe that they have since limited the potency that can be bought due to some terrorist bombings.)

I attempted to test the theory first by leaving my figures inside in a jar full of H2o2 without direct exposure to light. After a couple days, I could see no difference. So, I followed the procedure of setting the jar outside on a sunny day. After 12 hours the whites were whiter. Stronger potency Peroxide is more effective in both time and brightening. I am not a chemist, so I cannot explain how the plastic breaks down or how the H2O2 breaks down, or why that would leach the bad chemicals out of the plastic.

What I can tell you is that the experiment did not end there. Was this a permanent solution to the problem? Literally, only time would tell. So, I took my experimental figures and threw them into a closed box and stashed that in a temperature controlled room for several years. Every once in a while I would revisit them. What I found didn't necessarily shock me, but it did sadden me. The pieces had begun to yellow again. Not to their previous levels, but noticeably yellower than after their initial treatment. This treatment was a stop gap, not a solution.

Why is this a topic for a reselling forum? Well, for people who resell LEGO pieces, they may have heard of the Peroxide solution previously. They may have even used it to make older pieces presentable. A yellowed piece is much less desirable than a clean white piece. What will happen though is that piece will continue degrading under the surface. That degradation will start to show again. Instead of decades of displayability for a new piece, you are going to give the end user only a few years. I guess it comes down to the morality of attempting to use this solution to gain an extra little bit vs providing your customers with a happy long term buying experience. One might liken it to a used car salesman putting something into the engine to deaden the sound of knocking. Others might think of it purely as restoration

To view my original experiment and the subsequent discussion from 2008 You can look here.

In short here are the pictures from my initial test with 3% H2o2:

Before:

During:

After:

6 years after:

(Note: If you are going to try this, watch out for it spilling on your skin. Especially if you get a stronger solution)

Hello. My name is Elaine, and I am a Lego addict. I have often said this in jest, but I’ve started to realize that it is not a joke. I woke up this morning, and the first thing I did was check Brick Picker for the deals buzz. As soon as I had put the kids on the bus, I started planning my buy of the day. Since I went to see “The Force Awakens” (again) last night, I was feeling like I needed some more Star Wars sets. I took to the web, and made a plan to go to TRU (since it was Thursday) to buy a First Order Tie Fighter, using the Walmart price (20% off) plus another 10% through TRUTH and 8% back in rewards. It was only 9 am. I spent the next hour itching to buy as my local Toys R Us opens at 10 am. I even considered settling for price match plus 5% off using my Red Card at Target because they were already open. I didn't used to be like this…

I am a collector. I still have 90% of the sets from my youth, and I started collecting again around 2010ish. For several years it was buying a modular for my birthday and lots of sets for the kids. It wasn't until a snafu with the Town Hall that things started to turn ugly. It was October 22nd, 2014. I had a lovely birthday dinner and decided that I would buy a Town Hall as my present. I already had a Fire Brigade, Grand Emporium, and a Pet Shop. I had briefly flirted with the idea of buying a Green Grocer long after it went EOL, but decided that $500 for NISB was too much to spend. (This was some time before the Town Hall incident, but it was what first enlightened me to the existence of the Lego reseller market.) Needless to say, when I went to my local Lego Store that day, I was dealt a crushing blow. I could not understand. I was buying each modular in order, I should have had plenty of time to buy the Town Hall, but it was gone. I was heartbroken. I was devastated. I was desperate. At first, I was ready to scrap the whole idea of my Lego city. It seemed pointless to not have all of them (or at least all of the ones released since I had started collecting modulars). I was still secretly pining for a Green Grocer, and to miss out on the Town Hall too was too much to bear. Within a couple of weeks of calling and searching stores and coming up empty, I bought one on eBay for 50% over RRP. I justified it saying that if I did find one in the wild for RRP, I could always resell that one to break even or better. For a little while, I was content, but it didn't last...

Fast forward to March of 2015. It was my anniversary. There was an hour wait at the restaurant, so we went to the Lego Store. It was double VIP and I was determined not to let another modular pass me by, so I bought myself current, and had a lovely dinner. The next day, I was feeling guilty about spending so much, and I came up with the perfect plan. I would buy two of every Lego set I liked, build one, sell the other when it hit 2x RRP. Perfect! I immediately pulled $2k out of a never-touched savings account (because bank interest is a joke anyway) and had the most satisfying Lego spree I had ever experienced. I felt so powerful and successful with every package that arrived. It was incredible. I wish I could have stayed up there forever…

Within a few months, (but just over 90 days), the reality of what I had done started to sink in. After that first $2k, I spent at least another $1k acquiring discontinued sets via eBay and craigslist, and probably $1k buying new releases because I was still flying high and I had 5,000+ VIP points to burn. For those of you who roll big, I will put this in perspective for you: $2000 is my entire monthly spending budget for utilities, food, etc. I spent 2 months of my household budget on toys. I panicked. I couldn't return anything. I couldn't break even through selling because everything was still readily available. I watched my stocks drop at sickening rates. I wanted to take it all back, but I had gone too far. All I could do was wait and see…

It was the release of Lego Dimensions that brought me to the Brick Picker forums. My stocks were still junk (TB, ToO, EV, PS, PC, Simpson House…), but my buying had calmed down some. I started watching the Daily Deals. I started hiding purchases from my family. I started getting carried away again. I started bargaining with myself. If I didn't buy a coffee for a week or if I put off a haircut or if I returned some other nonessential item, how much could I spend on Lego instead? I started exchanging my “investment” sets for things I wanted to build. The lowest point was when I returned some sets that I had bought at discount, for full exchange value, to get my husband a Red Five for Christmas. I took a few weeks off after that...

I used to have other interests. I used to have a modest savings account. I still have a roof over my head and my kids are well fed, but all I see are Lego. I want to know why I got this way. I can rationalize any purchase. “It helps me relax” “I had a coupon” “I had extra money this month” “But I need to have ALL of them!” (I tell my husband that I would have been a great Pokemon trainer). Sometimes I get mad at TLG. Sometimes I blame the QFLL. Sometimes I blame the AFOL trying to reclaim a happy childhood build. The truth is, I can only blame myself for getting so caught up in a hobby that I really can't afford…

This morning, while I was planning my hunt, I came upon the “why did you start?” thread. The story is slightly different, but it's really all the same. “One time_____ and then I was hooked”. I can't decide if it's genius or predatory, either way, Lego is like a drug, and we are all pushers or addicts. I have 2 Tumblers in my trunk...

The LEGO Group has developed numerous Star Wars sets over the past 16 years, but the most coveted, and generally most valuable, are those with the Ultimate Collector's Series (UCS) label. What exactly, defines the term Ultimate Collector's Series?

Brickipedia provides this definition:

"The Ultimate Collector's Series, or UCS, is a sub-theme of sets. UCS sets are meant to be more detailed and aimed at older builders. These sets do not generally include Minifigures, but since 2007, most have included at least one. Most are also not designed to scale with Minifigures, though there are some cases (such as 10195 Republic Dropship with AT-OT Walker) where the set is completely to scale. Ultimate Collector's Series sets tend to be larger, and more expensive than typical sets. Commonly, Ultimate Collector's Series sets were given a five-digit (10xxx) product number until 2014."

Recent discussion among Brick Pickers regarding the Ultimate Collector's Series sets peaked my interest.  I read differing opinions about which sets hold the UCS designation, which sets should/shouldn't hold the UCS designation, and which UCS sets will gain the most value after they are EOL. After reading through a lengthy forum discussion, I was left with many questions, including:

• How does a collector know if a set is part of the Ultimate Collector's Series line-up?
• Does The LEGO Group maintain an official list of Ultimate Collector's Series sets?
• Is there variation among unofficial Ultimate Collector's Series set lists?
• Can a "play set" be considered an Ultimate Collector's Series set?
• Does the LEGO Group typically use special box art for the Ultimate Collector's Series sets?
• Do all Ultimate Collector's Series sets include a display sticker showcasing characteristics of the model?
• As a collector, what is the current value of the UCS line-up?
• Looking at 2016 and beyond, do UCS sets remain a promising LEGO investment?

I set out to research these questions, identify any key patterns in the series, and consolidate this information issue for my fellow LEGO Star Wars enthusiasts.

METHODS

1. Initially I examined the Bricklink reference catalog of all 514 Star Wars sets, looking for any sets with a 10XXX set number, or keys words Ultimate Collector's Series/UCS in the set  title. This search yielded 31 possible sets, which are listed in the table below.
2. Using the Brickpicker Ultimate Collector Series Price Guide, I noted 23 sets.
3. Using the Bricklink reference catalog UCS list,I noted 23 sets.
4. Using Brickset Ultimate Collector Series set tags, I identified 27 sets. 3 of these sets are slated for 2016 release. They were added to the 31 sets identified from Bricklink.
5. Using the Brickipedia Ultimate Collector's Series list, I identified 28 sets.
6. Using the 2011 LEGO promotional "Over 10 Years of Ultimate LEGO Star Wars Sets" poster, I noted 21 sets.
7. Using the individual sets' entries on Brickpicker and Bricklink, I examined photos of each set's box art looking for an Ultimate Collector's Series designation and photos of the set looking for an Ultimate Collector's Series sticker.
8. Additional data regarding set launch year, RRP, new and used set values and CAGR pulled from BrickPicker.com on 1/20/2016.

DATA TABLE

DISCUSSION

After compiling data from the above listed sources, I identified 23 sets which have consensus Ultimate Collector Series designation. These sets are highlighted in green on the data table and set listings below. 8 sets have mixed evidence regarding the UCS designation and are highlighted in yellow on the data table and set listings below. The final 3 sets, highlighted in gray, are slated for release in 2016.  According to Brickset, they are all rumored UCS sets, but their release has not yet been officially announced. Here are some interesting observations and facts:

• UCS box art is the least consistent feature in the series. Only 11 of the 23 UCS sets have this feature. While popular during the first two years of the series, LEGO largely abandoned the practice until reintroducing the gold UCS logo again in 2014.
• 10019 Rebel Blockade Runner has multiple box designs. I'm not sure if these were planned redesigns similar to the recent Creator boxes or perhaps regional variations. Also note that one box version lists the set as the 10019 Tantive IV. Initially I thought this might be a fake box design, but I was able to find eBay listings with this style box art.
• The inclusion of a UCS type display sticker is the most consistent feature noted. Only 3 sets - 7194 Yoda, 10018 Darth Maul, and the 75059 Sandcrawler - do not include one. Yoda and Darth Maul are somewhat understandable, as they aren't a typical UCS style model. It's odd that LEGO didn't include a sticker with the 75059 Sandcrawler, when the box clearly shows the gold UCS logo. 10186 General Grievous and 10019 Rebel Blockade Runner include stickers of a slightly different style than the others, and 7191 X-wing's sticker is gold vs blue.
• LEGO's 2011 promotional poster "Over 10 Years of Ultimate LEGO Star Wars Sets" reflects 21 sets, including the Exclusive sets not typically considered official UCS sets. Of the 24 sets released through 2011, only the 7181 TIE, 7191 X-wing, and 7194 Yoda models are not depicted. This is possibly due to the set numbers deviating from the 10XXX standard LEGO utilized at the time for Exclusive/UCS sets. This aspect has caused the most confusion among collectors. Notice the poster omits the words "Collector's Series" from the title. Was this by design?
• Some collectors view the promotional poster as a history of all the UCS and Exclusives Star Wars sets released through 2011. Other collectors think inclusion on this poster represents de facto UCS designation.

INVESTMENT POTENTIAL

Ed Mack's 2012 LEGO Star Wars Ultimate Collector's Series Investment Blog.

2011 ULTIMATE LEGO STAR WARS SETS POSTER

2000: The Original Black Boxes 

1. 7181 TIE INTERCEPTOR PRICE GUIDE Reviews of LEGO 7181-1: TIE Interceptor

  Build and display this awesome TIE Interceptor!

This is not your little brother's model. The most advanced TIE fighter of the Imperial Navy becomes the centerpiece for any Star Wars collection. Its intimidating dagger-shaped solar panels are recreated with a precision that would please Darth Vader himself. More than 700 pieces make up this amazingly accurate model, which fits on a durable display stand. But display model with caution. This TIE fighter is so real looking, it's scary, especially for would-be Rebel pilots. Ages 14+. 703 pieces

The TIE Interceptor was a type of TIE fighter used by the Galactic Empire during the Battle of Endor. It was identifiable by the addition of four arrow-shaped panels, tipped with laser cannons, thereby increasing firepower threefold. The TIE interceptor was created by Sienar Fleet Systems upon realization that the TIE Advanced x1 would be too costly to mass-produce, and was also the Empire's direct response to the Rebel Alliance's introduction of faster starships.

2. 7191 X-WING FIGHTER PRICE GUIDE Reviews of LEGO 7191-1: X-wing Fighter

  The ultimate X-Wing!
If you think blasting the Death Star is tough, try building the ultimate X-Wing fighter. With more than 1300 pieces, it is one of the most realistic models in the galaxy. From its engine exhaust ports to the tips of its laser cannons, no detail has been overlooked. Built to perfect scale, the X-Wing has an impressive 20-inch wingspan. Comes with a display stand and detailed spec plate. Ages 14+. 1304 pieces

X-wing starfighters were a type of starfighter marked by their distinctive S-foils that resembled an 'X' in attack formation. During the Galactic Civil War, the Rebel Alliance used T-65B X-wing starfighters in a number of battles, including the Battle of Yavin and the Battle of Endor. Approximately thirty years later, a different variation of X-wing, the T-70 were used by the    Resistance, whereas a more advanced model, the T-85, was used by the New Republic Starfleet.

2001: The Black Boxes - A New Hope

3. 10018 DARTH MAUL PRICE GUIDE Reviews of LEGO 10018-1: Darth Maul

Darth Maul lives again!

Darth Maul lives again in this striking bust, perfect for display in your home. The Dark Lord of the Sith makes a menacing model and a great addition to any Star Wars collection. Highly detailed and realistic, this Darth Maul bust stands 1' 5" tall. Ages 14+. 1860 pieces.

Darth Maul was a male Dathomirian Zabrak Sith Lord who lived during the waning years of the Galactic Republic. Maul was born to Mother Talzin and raised as a Nightbrother on Dathomir, before being taken by Darth Sidious as his apprentice. Maul learned the art of lightsaber combat and took on a dual-bladed lightsaber or "Saber Staff", becoming a weapon to be used against the Jedi Order.

4. 10019 REBEL BLOCKADE RUNNER PRICE GUIDE Ratings and Reviews for 10019-1: Rebel Blockade Runner

Escape from the Empire in the Rebel Blockade Runner!

Slipping through an Imperial blockade is almost impossible — unless you're flying the Rebel Blockade Runner! With more than 1700 pieces, this Corellian corvette model is so detailed and realistic you'll be ready to launch your own covert mission against the Empire. Built to scale, the Rebel Blockade Runner measures 28" X 11" x 7" and features LEGO bricks in an all-new color — dark red. Add this amazing model to your classic Star Wars collection. Ages 14+. 1748 pieces

The CR90 corvette, commonly referred to as the Corellian corvette or the Rebel blockade runner, also known as an Alderaan cruiser, was a small, multi-purpose capital ship manufactured by Corellian Engineering Corporation.  Alliance CR90 corvettes acted as front-line combat ships for the early years of the Galactic Civil War. The ease of acquiring CR90 parts and mechanics made them a good fit for the desperate Rebellion. Its near ubiquity made it a popular choice amongst Rebels, pirates, and smugglers, earning it the nickname "blockade runner" for its ability to slip through Imperial nets.

2002: The Black Boxes Strike Back

5. 7194 YODA PRICE GUIDE Reviews of LEGO 7194-1: Yoda

Yoda was one of the most renowned and powerful Jedi Masters in galactic history. Standing at about 66 cm tall, he was a male member of a mysterious species.He was known for his legendary wisdom, mastery of the Force and skills in lightsaber combat. In service to the galaxy and the Force, Grand Master Yoda spent eight centuries training Jedi. He served as the Grand Master of the Jedi Council in the last centuries of the Galactic Republic and oversaw the Jedi Order before, during and after the devastating Clone Wars. Later, before dying and becoming one with the Force, the exiled Jedi Master was responsible for the instruction of Luke Skywalker who would use Yoda's training to overthrow the Sith.

6. 10026 SPECIAL EDITION NABOO STARFIGHTER PRICE GUIDE Reviews of LEGO 10026-1: Special Edition Naboo Starfighter

The Naboo Royal N-1 starfighter, sometimes known simply as the Naboo starfighter, was a starfighter used by the government of Naboo during the late years of the Galactic Republic and early days of the Galactic Empire for defense, patrol, and escort duties. The sleek vessel was manufactured by Theed Palace Space Vessel Engineering Corps, the group responsible for manufacturing Naboo royal starships.

7. 10030 IMPERIAL STAR DESTROYER PRICE GUIDE Reviews of LEGO 10030-1: Imperial Star Destroyer

  Build the most awesome ship in the Star Wars universe!

The Imperial Star Destroyer is the massively huge, incredibly powerful heart of the Emperor's fleet. Manned by the top crew in the Imperial Navy, the Star Destroyer was heavily armored and bristling with turbolasers and tractor beam projectors. One Star Destroyer alone was enough to strike fear into an entire star system! Now you can add the Imperial Navy's best-known and most powerful ship to your LEGO Star Wars collection! Measuring an impressive 37" by 23", this model dwarfs any LEGO Star Wars ship ever produced. This beautifully designed and one-of-a-kind collector's item comes with a special display stand and collectors card. Also includes an exclusive Rebel Blockade Runner Mini-Model, so you can recreate the opening scenes of Star Wars IV: A New Hope!

The Imperial-class Star Destroyer, known generally as the Imperial Star Destroyer, was a product line of massive dagger-shaped capital ships of the Imperial Navy and later the Navy of the First Order. It consisted of two variants, the Imperial I-class Star Destroyer and the Imperial II-class Star Destroyer. The Imperial Star Destroyer replaced the smaller Venator-class used by the Galactic Republic during the Clone Wars and was generally the Empire's star cruiser of choice.At the height of its power, the Galactic Empire operated over 25,000 of these ships.The distinctive profile of the Imperial-class instilled fear into the soldiers of rebelling factions, and the name of a Star Destroyer could be preceded by the ship prefix ISD (for Imperial Star Destroyer).

2003: The Blue Boxes

8. 10129 REBEL SNOWSPEEDER Reviews of LEGO 10129-1: Rebel Snowspeeder

The Rebel Alliance relied on the power of the snowspeeder in the Battle of Hoth. Now you can create a detailed model of this amazing craft, with this LEGO Star Wars Ultimate Collector Series set! This converted T-47 airspeeder features two wing-mounted laser cannons and a rear harpoon cannon. The two-man cockpit features controls that move, plus the model includes a special display stand and collector's card. A great addition to any Star Wars collection! AGES: 14+ PIECES: 1457

The Incom Corporation T-47 airspeeder was an airspeeder that became famous during the Galactic Civil War for its use by the Alliance to Restore the Republic as a military fighter known as the snowspeeder, especially after its extensive use at Echo Base on Hoth.

9. 10123 CLOUD CITY PRICE GUIDE Reviews of LEGO 10123-1: Cloud City

  Return to Cloud City™!

Han Solo™ and Princess Leia™ have journeyed to Cloud City™, only to discover it is an Imperial trap! Now Luke Skywalker™ must challenge Darth Vader™ to try and save his friends!

• More than 25" in length!
• 7 mini-figures including Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, Princess Leia, Han Solo, Boba Fett™, Stormtrooper™ and the all-new Lando Calrissian™
• Four separate play areas including Landing Platform for the Twin Pod Cloud Car™ (sold separately as item #7119)
• Full Action Play: Blast Luke through the window! Drop Han into the carbonite!

Based on one of the most famous locations from the original Star Wars™ trilogy, this set is the perfect addition to your Star Wars collection! Recreate your favorite moments from Star Wars™: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back, or create your own thrilling adventures!

Cloud City was a Tibanna gas mining colony floating in the clouds of the planet Bespin, located in the Anoat sector of the Outer Rim Territories. Under the auspices of Baron Administrator Lando Calrissian, the city attempted to avoid unwanted Imperial attention. Eventually, Imperial forces occupied the station and installed an Imperial Garrison, however after the Emperor's death, the Imperial Garrison located there was abandoned following the events of the Iron Blockade.

2004 - 2005: The Original Trilogy Boxes

10. 10134 Y-WING ATTACK STARFIGHTER PRICE GUIDE Ratings and Reviews for 10134-1: Y-wing Attack Starfighter

  Build the ultimate Y-wing Starfighter™!
Battle the forces of the Empire with the Y-wing starfighter! Named for its unusual shape, the classic fighter-bomber of the Rebel Alliance played a key role in the defeat of both Death Stars and the downfall of the Galactic Empire. Exploding with incredible details, the Ultimate Collector Series Y-wing starfighter carries a pair of nose-mounted lasers, an ion cannon turret and an astromech droid for swift escapes into hyperspace. Featuring a special display stand and collector's card, the UCS Y-wing is a fantastic addition to your ultimate Star Wars™ collection!

• Display stand & collector's card
• Over 26"/66cm long
• More than 1,400 pieces

Y-wing starfighter was a two-seat assault starfighter used during the Clone Wars and the Galactic Civil War.  Produced by Koensayr Manufacturing, these fighters were a mainstay in the Republic Navy during the Clone Wars. Y-wings were used by Shadow Squadron during the attack on the Separatist heavy cruiser Malevolence. The Rebel Alliance used the Y-wing during the Galactic Civil War against Sheev Palpatine's Empire. The Alliance deployed the starfighter to their hidden fortress, and launched Gold Squadron against the approaching Death Star during the Battle of Yavin

11. 10131 TIE FIGHTER COLLECTION PRICE GUIDE Reviews of LEGO 10131-1: TIE Fighter Collection

  Unleash the power of the TIE collection!
The Empire's most feared ships fly again in this special Star Wars collection! Complete set includes 4 models: 2 Imperial TIE Fighters, Darth Vader's TIE Fighter and 1 TIE/d Fighter, plus Darth Vader and Imperial TIE pilot minifigures and Droid Brain. Build your fleet today!

The TIE/D automated fighter, or droid/drone TIE fighter, was a TIE Series starfighter used by the reborn Emperor Palpatine during his attacks on the New Republic in 10 ABY. The TIE/D automated starfighter took the standard TIE Series command pod with twin ion engines and twin laser cannons, additional armor plating and rectangular wing panels with adjustable pitch were added. Despite their heavier armor, they could actually reach a higher atmospheric speed than the TIE/IN interceptors—overall, they were fast, small, and very expendable

12. 10143 DEATH STAR II PRICE GUIDE Reviews of LEGO 10143-1: Death Star II

Construct the galaxy's ultimate battle station!

'No one who saw the dreaded Death Star in the classic Star Wars films could ever forget it. Now you can build your own to add to your LEGO® Star Wars collection! This incredibly detailed and faithful replica of the Death Star II from Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi will make an awesome addition to any Star Wars collection. The partially constructed Death Star looms in space above the forest moon of Endor, super laser ready to fire. This unique collectable is sure to rank as one of the greatest LEGO Star Wars models ever produced!

• Includes display stand and Imperial Star Destroyer to scale.
• Measures a full 25 inches (65 cm) high and 19 inches (50 cm) wide (including stand).

The second Death Star, sometimes referred to as Death Star II, was a massive battle station with enough firepower to destroy an entire planet. Following the Battle of Yavin and the destruction of the original Death Star, the Galactic Empire began construction on a newer and better armed battle station, one more powerful than the original. Before it could be used on the galaxy, it was ultimately destroyed by the Millennium Falcon, a YT-1300 light freighter, after a critical hit on its reactor core.

13. 10144 SANDCRAWLER PRICE GUIDE Reviews of LEGO 10144-1: Sandcrawler

Find the droids you're looking for at the Sandcrawler!

Luke Skywalker's Uncle Owen is shopping for some new droids at the Jawa Sandcrawler. There are plenty to choose from, including R2-D2 and C-3PO. But the Jawas drive a hard bargain and danger is never far away. Recreate this classic scene from Star Wars™: Episode IV A New Hope with this incredibly detailed model!

• Includes a total of 11 minifigures and droids: Uncle Owen Lars, 3 Jawas, R2-D2, C-3PO, R5-D4, R1-G4, ASP droid, gonk droid and Treadwell droid.
• Remove the center section of the Sandcrawler to reveal the Jawa workshop!
• Use the crane to load droids into the Sandcrawler!
• Open the hatch to reveal the inside!
• Cockpit opens to load a driver!
• Steering mechanism lets you guide the Jawa vehicle to its next adventure!
• Measures 15 in/38 cm long, 7.5 in/19 cm wide and 9 in/22 cm high.

Sandcrawlers were large mobile fortresses used by Jawa scavengers on the desert planet of Tatooine. The vehicles drove on large treaded wheels and functioned as transportation for scavengers, as well as shelter from the harsh desert environment. Sandcrawlers were tall and mostly rectangular, but with a triangular front that held its cockpit. Sandcrawlers were used as part of Jawa scavenging operations and contained large cargo holds captable of holding 1,500 droids at a time. Magnetic suction tubes allowed the Jawas to quickly suck droids and pieces of scrap into the holds. Inside the Sandcrawler the reactor melts the scrap metal and droids.

2006-2008: The Darth Vader Boxes

14. 10174 ULTIMATE COLLECTOR'S AT-ST Reviews of LEGO 10174-1: Imperial AT-ST

Construct the ultimate Scout Walker!
The Imperial AT-ST (All Terrain Scout Transport), also known as the Scout Walker, carries the Empire’s forces swiftly and efficiently across the ice plains of Hoth and through the dense forests of Endor. Now you can build the ultimate collector’s model of this famous Star Wars™ vehicle from over a thousand LEGO pieces!

• Fully armed and armor-plated, the incredibly detailed and realistic AT-ST stands over 16.5" (42cm) tall!
• Features rotating weapons, an opening pilot hatch, moving window panels, and more!
• Enemies of the Empire beware!

The All Terrain Scout Transport (AT-ST), also known as a Scout Transport, Scout Walker, or derisively as a chicken walker, was a lightweight, bidepal walker used by the ground forces of the Galactic Empire. It served as a reconnaissance and patrol vehicle. Part of the All-Terrain walker family, it was involved in several skirmishes on the planet Tatooine. Several fought alongside AT-ATs at the Battle of Hoth. They also notably participated in the Battle of Endor, where they were defeated by the Ewoks and their traps

15. 10175 VADER'S TIE ADVANCED Reviews of LEGO 10175-1: Vader's TIE Advanced

Construct Darth Vader's™ ultimate TIE fighter!

Rebels beware! The TIE Advanced x1 is Darth Vaders™ personal starfighter, heavily modified and customized by the Dark Lord of the Sith himself. With its enlarged, angular wings, extended ion engine block and reinforced hull, Vaders™ TIE can withstand and deliver far more punishment than any ordinary TIE fighter. Now you can add this incredible model to your LEGO Star Wars collection! The Ultimate Collector Series Vaders™ TIE Advanced is packed with realistic details straight from Star Wars: Episode IV, A New Hope, from the unique wings and body shape to the cockpit compartment and twin laser cannons.

• Includes special display stand and collectors™ card with detailed specifications.

Darth Vader's TIE Advanced x1 was a starfighter used by Darth Vader during the Galactic Civil War, leading Black Squadron, and flown by him during the Battle of Yavin. It was a modified early prototype of the TIE Advanced x1 line. The Advanced x1 had more cockpit capacity than other TIEs, thus catering to the larger-than-average figure of Darth Vader. It was built to Vader's specifications by Santhe/Sienar Technologies at the Sienar Advanced Projects Laboratory.Unlike the class standard, Vader's TIE Advanced apparently possessed a life-support system.

16. 10178 MOTORIZED WALKING AT-AT

Motorized action straight from the Star Wars™ movies!

Behold the power of the Empire! For the first time ever, the ultimate Motorized Walking AT-AT is ready to crush the Rebel Alliance at your command. Thanks to the new Power Functions System, the mighty All-Terrain Armored Transport really walks forward or backward into battle!

• Features an opening cockpit and rotating laser cannons!
• Motorized Walking AT-AT really walks and its head moves up and down!
• Handle on top allows for easy transportation!
• Stands over 12" (30 cm) tall and over 14" (36 cm) long!
• Includes AT-AT Pilot, General Veers, Snowtrooper and Luke Skywalker with grappling line and lightsaber!
• Includes battery box and motor!
• Requires 6 AA (1.5V) batteries, not included.

The All Terrain Armored Transport (AT-AT) walker, also known as the Imperial Walker, was a major part of the Galactic Empire's motor-pool. It was one of the most heavily armored land vehicles in the Imperial Army, but was also known for its relatively slow speed. The AT-AT walker was a behemoth of a war machine, standing at a height of 22.5 meters.The quadrupedal walker closely resembled ancient beasts of war, or even a giant legendary beast from the dark side of the Force. Designed for the dual purpose of crushing and demoralizing enemy forces, and also serving as a transport for Imperial troops and light vehicles, the AT-AT was among the most awesome vehicles in the Imperial Army's inventory

17. 10179 ULTIMATE COLLECTOR'S MILLENNIUM FALCON

Build the ultimate Millennium Falcon™!

This is it - the biggest, most spectacular LEGO® model ever! Straight out of the classic Star Wars movies comes the Ultimate Collector's Millennium Falcon, Han Solo's famous smuggling starship. Every detail of the modified Corellian Engineering Corporation YT-1300 freighter is here, all constructed to scale with LEGO minifigures. At almost 3 feet (90cm) long, it's the ultimate centerpiece to any LEGO collection!

• With over 5,000 pieces, this is the biggest LEGO set ever made!
• Model is built completely to minifigure scale - minifigures can sit inside and man the controls!
• Landing gear provides a stable base for model to stand on!
• Ship is over 33" long, 22" wide and 8" tall! (84cm long x 56cm wide x 21cm tall)
• Radar dish rotates and elevates and boarding ramp extends!
• Top and bottom quad-laser turrets rotate for realistic play!
• Cockpit top can be removed to access minifigures!
• Includes 5 minifigures: Han Solo, Chewbacca, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia Organa!
• This special set also includes a display card with detailed ship specifications!

 The Millennium Falcon was a Corellian YT-1300 light freighter used by the smugglers Han Solo and Chewbacca during the Galactic Civil War. It was previously owned by Lando Calrissian, who lost it to Solo in a game of sabacc. Its aged appearance belied numerous advanced modifications to boost the ship's speed, weapons and shield, including a hyperdrive engine among the fastest in the entire galaxy, enabling it to outrun Imperial Star Destroyers. It also included sensor-proof smuggling compartments, which were used during the rescue of Princess Leia Organa to evade Imperial stormtroopers. Afterwards, the Millennium Falcon saw further action when Solo chose to join the Rebels during the Battle of Yavin, where it was able to sneak up on Darth Vader's TIE Advanced.

18. 10186 GENERAL GRIEVOUS

 Face the might of the ultimate General Grievous!

The towering cyborg commander of the Separatist forces lives! Wielding lightsabers in each of his four robotic arms, General Grievous prepares to battle the Jedi Knights in a fight for the fate of the galaxy. Standing 18 inches (46 cm) tall on its rotating display base and plaque, this detailed and authentic Star Wars model features poseable hips and neck and a split-apart chestplate revealing Grievous' organs hidden beneath!

• Includes translucent "light saber" elements!
• Model features poseable neck, arms and hips!
• Split-apart chestplate opens to reveal Grievous' organs!
• Includes rotating display stand! Stands 18 inches (46 cm) tall with stand!

Grievous, born as Qymaen jai Sheelal, was the cyborg Supreme Commander of the Droid Army of the Confederacy of Independent Systems for most of the Clone Wars. Critically injured in a bomb plot arranged by Count Dooku, Grievous was reconstructed as a cyborg and was presented to Dooku as a potential weapon to be used in the upcoming war that the count had planned against the Republic.After being made Supreme Commander, Grievous proceeded to wreak havoc on the Republic for the three-year–span of the Clone Wars. The general was trained in the art of lightsaber combat by Dooku himself, who was also a Sith Lord. Grievous was a quick study and eventually came to be recognized as one of the most skilled duelists in the galaxy.

19. 10188 DEATH STAR

Battle inside the Death Star™!

Recreate the action and adventure of the Star Wars™ movies with the ultimate Death Star playset! This amazingly detailed battle station features an incredible array of minifigure-scale scenes, moving parts, characters and accessories from Episodes IV and VI on its multiple decks, including the Death Star control room, rotating turbolaser turrets, hangar bay with TIE Advanced starfighter, tractor beam controls, Emperor’s throne room, detention block, firing laser cannon, Imperial conference chamber, droid maintenance facility, and the powerful Death Star superlaser…plus much more! Swing across the chasm with Luke and Leia, face danger in the crushing trash compactor, and duel with Darth Vader for the fate of the galaxy!

• Includes 24 minifigures and droids, plus all-new Dianoga™ trash compactor monster!
• Includes 6 new and exclusive minifigures and droids only found in this set: Luke Skywalker™ (Stormtrooper™ outfit), Han Solo™ (Stormtrooper outfit), Assassin Droid™, Interrogation Droid, Death Star Droid and 2 Death Star Troopers™!
• Also includes Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Obi-Wan Kenobi™, C-3PO™, R2-D2™, Princess Leia™, Chewbacca™, Luke Skywalker (Jedi Knight), Darth Vader™, Grand Moff Tarkin™, Emperor Palpatine™, 2 Stormtroopers, 2 Emperor's Royal Guards™, R2-Q5™, and mouse droid!.
• Movie-authentic Death Star environments include the Superlaser control room and target monitor, Imperial conference chamber, TIE Advanced hangar bay with moving launch rack, Emperor's throne room, droid maintenance room, detention block, trash compactor, and much more!
• Rescue Princess Leia from the detention block cell, then escape through the secret hatch to the trash compactor below!
• Reenact the final duel between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader in the Emperor's Throne Room!
• Death Star measures 16” (41cm) tall and 16½” (42cm) wide!
• TIE Advanced measures 3½" (9cm) wide!

The Death Star, also known as the Death Star I, First Death Star, DS-1 platform and previously known as the Ultimate Weapon and Sentinel Base, was a moon-sized deep space mobile battle station constructed by the Galactic Empire after the defeat of the Separatists in the Clone Wars. It boasted a primary weapon with sufficient firepower to destroy an entire planet with a single shot.Touted by its command staff as "the ultimate power in the universe," the Death Star was destroyed by Rebel pilot Luke Skywalker in a single T-65B X-wing starfighter. As a result, the Empire began construction on the more powerful Death Star II.

2009: The Anniversary Edition Box

20. 10198 TANTIVE IV

The Star Wars™ saga begins!
Blasting through space with Darth Vader’s Star Destroyer in pursuit, the Tantive IV blockade runner carries Princess Leia, C-3PO and R2-D2 on a vital mission for the Rebel Alliance. Celebrate the entire Star Wars saga with this all-new version of the very first starship seen in the films! The Tantive IV features an opening cockpit, rotating and elevating turbo laser cannons, rotating radar dish, removable roof section and interior command center. It also includes an opening compartment with removable cargo transport vehicle and 2 detachable escape pods for the droids to make their getaway with the Death Star plans! Includes Princess Leia, C-3PO, R2-D2, Captain Antilles and Rebel Trooper minifigures. Measures 20.5″ (52 cm) x 7.5″ (19 cm) x 5.5″ (14 cm).

• Includes 5 minifigures: Princess Leia, C-3PO, R2-D2, Captain Antilles and a Rebel Trooper!
• Open the cockpit and place 2 minifigures inside!
• Turbo laser cannons on top and bottom can rotate and elevate!
• Features a removable roof!
• Lots of interior details including Leia’s desk and command center with seats for 2 minifigures!
• Open the storage compartment to reveal the cargo transport vehicle!
• Features rotating radar disc and 2 detachable escape pods!
• Measures 20.5″ (52 cm) long, 7.5″ (19 cm) wide and 5.5″ (14 cm) tall

The Tantive IV was a CR90 corvette in the service of the House of Organa.The ship was a central player in the events following the end of the Clone Wars  and the beginning of the Galactic Civil War.Five years before the Battle of Yavin, the Lothal Rebels returned C-3PO and R2-D2 to Senator Bail Organa aboard the Tantive IV.Princess Leia Organa traveled onboard the Tantive IV when it was intercepted by the Imperial Star Destroyer Devastator. In the following battle, the main reactor of the Tantive IV was shut down and the ship was boarded by Imperial Stormtroopers.Soon thereafter, the Tantive IV was destroyed by the Imperials

2009: The Clone Trooper Box

21. 10195 REPUBLIC DROPSHIP WITH AT-OT WALKER

  Two incredible Star Wars™ vehicles in one!

Flying through the skies of hostile planets, the Republic LAAT/c (Low Altitude Assault Transport/carrier) Dropship swoops down and deploys the AT-OT (All Terrain Open Transport) troop carrier for attacks on Separatist strongholds. Dropship features an opening cockpit, rotating front and rear cannons, auto-firing missiles and armament bay, and a fold-away handle on top. AT-OT features poseable legs, rotating cannons, crew compartment with weapon racks, and folding cockpit and boarding ramp. Drop ship automatically locks onto walker, then releases it with the push of a switch! Also holds the 7675 AT-TE Walker and the 8098 Clone Turbo Tank. Includes 2 clone pilots and 6 clone troopers.

• Includes 2 Clone Pilot™ and 6 Clone Trooper™ minifigures!
• Two incredible vehicles in one!
• Republic Dropship features a fold-away handle on top!
• Republic Dropship automatically locks onto AT-OT Walker™ and releases with the push of a switch!
• Dropship features an opening cockpit!
• Dropship includes flick-fire missiles, as well as rotating front and rear cannons!
• Dropship measures over 18” (46cm) long and has a wingspan of over 21” (53cm)!
• Customize your Dropship with alternate stickers!
• AT-OT Walker has 8 poseable legs!
• AT-OT Walker features cockpit that really opens!
• Assemble your forces aboard the AT-OT Walker that seats up to 16 minifigures!
• AT-OT Walker measures over 16” (40cm) long and 5”(13cm) wide!
• AT-OT Walker features a fold out boarding ramp!
• Republic Dropship also holds the 7675 AT-TE Walker!
• When Dropship is locked onto AT-OT Walker it weighs a staggering six pounds!

The Low Altitude Assault Transport/carrier, known more simply as the LAAT/c, was a vehicle carrier variant of Rothana Heavy Engineering's Low Altitude Assault Transport series of repulsorlift gunships developed for the Grand Army of the Republic. Manned by a single pilot, the LAAT/c was originally designed to deploy All Terrain Tactical Enforcers onto battlefields, though it was soon modified to accommodate a number of additional vehicles as the Clone Wars progressed, using powerful magnetic clamps to hold payloads in place.

The All Terrain Open Transport (AT-OT) was an 8-legged walker designed for the transportation of infantry used by the Grand Army of the Republic during the Clone Wars. It was used during Battle of Felucia toward the end of the war.

2010-2011:The Jango Fett Boxes

22. 10212 IMPERIAL SHUTTLE

  Now you can build this iconic Star Wars™ vehicle in true minifigure scale for the first time!

The elegant Lambda-class Imperial Shuttle™ transports the Empire's elite and the occasional secret strike team of Rebel commandos all across the galaxy. Now you can build this huge and iconic Star Wars™ vehicle in true minifigure scale for the first time ever! The Imperial Shuttle is authentically detailed with rotating double laser wing cannons and a four-seat cockpit. This Ultimate Collector's model features an opening canopy, detachable landing gear, a stand for display in flight or landing modes, a labeled display plaque, and gear-driven folding wings with removable activation keys. Completed model measures 28" (71 cm) tall on stand and 22" (57 cm) wide with wings deployed. Includes 5 minifigures: Darth Vader™, Shuttle Pilot, Imperial Officer, Stormtrooper and Luke Skywalker™.Includes 5 minifigures: Darth Vader™, Shuttle Pilot, Imperial Officer, Stormtrooper™ and Luke Skywalker™.

• Features rotating double laser wing cannons!
• Open the cockpit roof to access the interior and seat the minifigures inside!
• Wings fold up and down by turning 2 keys on rear of model!
• Model can be displayed on landing gear or landing gear can be removed to display in flying mode!
• Includes display stand, name plate and label sheet!
• Measures 28" (71 cm) tall on stand and 22" (57 cm) wide with wings deployed!

The Lambda-class T-4a shuttle, also known as the Imperial Lambda, Imperial Transport or the Imperial Shuttle, was a type of transport shuttle with a tri-hedral foil design used by the Galactic Empire during the Galactic Civil War. The shuttles were used by such dignitaries as Darth Vader and Emperor Sheev Palpatine. The hyperdrive-equipped shuttle was armed with two forward double laser cannons, two wing-mounted double cannons, and one rear double laser cannon.

23. 10215 OBI-WAN'S JEDI STARFIGHTER

  Blast off into The Clone Wars with Obi-Wan’s collector-series Jedi starfighter!

Now, you can build the ultimate LEGO version of Jedi general Obi-Wan Kenobi's Delta-7 Aethersprite-class Jedi starfighter! Larger and more detailed than any previous Jedi starfighter model, this limited-edition collector vehicle is equipped with twin laser cannons, a full cockpit interior and a wing-mounted R4-P17 astromech droid dome that rotates. With a buildable display stand and plaque, it's just the thing to pursue bounty hunter Jango Fett across the galaxy or battle swarms of Separatist fighters in space! Measures 9 in (23 cm) high on stand, 18" (47 cm) long and 9" (22 cm) wide when built.

• Ultimate Collector's Series Obi-Wan's Jedi Starfighter!
• Equipped with twin laser cannons!
• Features fully detailed cockpit interior!
• The dome of Obi-Wan's wing mounted R4-P17 astromech droid rotates!
• Includes display stand, plaque and label sheet!
• Model can be detached from display stand!
• Measures 9 in (23 cm) high on stand, 18" (47 cm) long and 9" (22 cm) wide when built!

The Delta-7 Aethersprite-class light intercepter, Delta-7 Jedi starfighter, Delta-7 Jedi Interceptor, or more commonly known as the Jedi starfighter, was a model of starfighter designed by Kuat Systems Engineering and used by the Jedi Order during the reign of the Galactic Republic up to its end during the Clone Wars. . The Delta-7 fighter was fairly prominent in the Clone Wars, mainly due to its use by Jedi. One of the most famous encounters and tests of the Delta-7 was the tracking of bounty hunter Jango Fett by Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi through the asteroid fields of Geonosis.

24. 10221 SUPER STAR DESTROYER

  Dare to pilot Darth Vader’s™ deadly destroyer!

The Super Star Destroyer™ Executor has arrived! This jaw-dropping vessel is the personal flagship of Darth Vader, and serves as command ship at both the Battle of Hoth and the Battle of Endor. With its classic dagger-shaped design, the Executor is among the largest and most powerful vessels in the Star Wars galaxy. With over 3,000 pieces, measuring nearly 50 inches (124.5 cm) long and weighing nearly 8 pounds (3.5 kg), every aspect of this fantastic LEGO® Star Wars model impresses. Includes 5 minifigures: Darth Vader, Admiral Piett, Dengar, Bossk and IG-88.

• Includes 5 minifigures: Darth Vader, Admiral Piett, Dengar, Bossk and IG-88
• Features over 3,000 pieces!
• Measures nearly 50 inches (124.5 cm) long and weighs nearly 8 pounds (3.5kg)!
• Includes display stand and data sheet label!
• Center section lifts off to reveal command center!

Super Star Destroyer (SSD) was a term used by Imperial, Rebel, New Republic and Galactic Alliance personnel for many dagger-shaped warship classes larger than Star Destroyers, ranging from Star Cruiser to Star Dreadnought models. In extreme cases, they are also large enough to be qualified as space stations. It was often used concurrently with the term Super-class Star Destroyer, both of which capitalized on the general "Star Destroyer" term, which, after getting popular exposure throughout the Clone Wars, came to symbolize weapons that in people's minds could destroy entire star systems.Darth Vader's command ship, the Executor, was a Super Star Destroyer and one of the most famous Imperial vessels fielded, as was the even deadlier Eclipse, which served as one of Emperor Palpatine's flagships.

2012: The Darth Maul Boxes

25. 10225 R2-D2

  Presenting the ultimate collector series R2-D2 – the best-loved droid in the Star Wars galaxy!

Presenting the iconic R2-D2 as you've never seen him before. Everyone's favorite droid from the Star Wars galaxy is now part of the ultimate collector series and features fantastic detailing, such as rectractable third leg, front panels that open to reveal a universal computer interface arm and a circular saw, rotating head and 2 fold-out front spacecraft linkage control arms. With the included fact plaque and mini R2-D2 figure, this diminutive model is the perfect addition to your Star Wars collection! Measures over 12” (31cm) high and 7” (18cm) wide.

• Ultimate Collector Series R2-D2™!
• Features retractable third leg!
• Front panels open to reveal a universal computer interface arm and circular saw!
• Features realistic rotating head!
• R2-D2 features 2 fold-out front spacecraft linkage control arms!
• Includes fact plaque and R2-D2 minifigure!
• Measures over 12” (31 cm) high and 7” (18 cm) wide!

R2-D2, pronounced Artoo-Detoo and often referred to as Artoo, was an R2 series astromech droid manufactured by Industrial Automaton with masculine programming. A smart, spunky droid serving a multitude of masters over its lifetime, it never had its memory wiped resulting in an adventurous and independent attitude. Oftentimes finding himself in pivotal moments in   galactic history, his bravery and ingenuity often saved the galaxy time and time again.

26. 10227 B-WING STARFIGHTER

Take on the Empire in the ultimate collector series B-wing Starfighter™!

Now you can experience the ultimate B-wing Starfighter from the Star Wars galaxy like never before. This fantastic model features everything you would expect from our premium collector range, including rotating, self-levelling cockpit and realistic wing configurations for landing and flight. And when you're finished battling in the skies above Endor or helping to restore freedom in the galaxy, place this highly detailed B-wing Starfighter on its own dedicated display stand and fact plaque. Measures 26” (66cm) wide and 15” (38cm) high in flight configuration, and 17” (43cm) high on display stand.

• Ultimate Collector Series B-wing Starfighter!
• Rotating, self-levelling cockpit!
• Landing and flight wing configurations!
• Highly detailed model!
• Includes display stand and fact plaque!
• Model can be detached from display stand!
• Measures 26” (66cm) wide and 15” (38cm) high in flight configuration, and 17” (43cm) high when mounted on display stand

The A/SF-01 B-wing heavy assault starfighter, known simply as the B-wing starfighter, was one of the largest and most heavily armed starfighters/bombers in the Rebel Alliance's fleet. The name B-wing came from the craft's appearance to a "B", when upright, the outline of the upper half and the lower half makes a B shape, although its swordlike shape in attack mode has earned it the nickname "Blade-wing", which may be another reason for the "B" prefix.Known as "crosses" due to their distinct shape, the B-wing was designed by the Verpine company Slayn & Korpil in cooperation with then-Commander Gial Ackbar as part of the Shantipole Project. The B-wing, though difficult to fly, participated in numerous engagements across the galaxy during the latter parts of the Galactic Civil War, including the Battle of Endor and the liberation of Coruscant

2013: The Yoda Boxes

27. 10236 EWOK VILLAGE

  Recreate classic scenes at the Ewok™ Village!

Travel to Endor™ and visit the treetop home of the Ewoks. Just like in Star Wars™: Episode VI Return of the Jedi, this recreation of the Ewoks’ forest dwelling is packed with cool functions, including the tree-trunk hideout, secret Lightsaber stash, spider web, net traps, slide, catapults and an elevating throne. Use the rammer function to take out the Scout Trooper’s speeder − just like in the movie! Realistic details include rope walkways, vine and leaf elements, kitchen, food storage area, bedroom and a planning room. The Ewok Village set is the perfect addition to your LEGO® Star Wars collection. Includes R2-D2™and 16 minifigures with weapons: Luke Skywalker™, Princess Leia™, Han Solo™, Chewbacca™, C-3PO™, 2 Rebel soldiers, 5 Ewoks™ (including Wicket™, Teebo™, Chief Chirpa™ and Logray™), 2 Scout Troopers and 2 Stormtroopers™.

• Includes R2-D2™ and 16 minifigures: Luke Skywalker™, Princess Leia™, Han Solo™, Chewbacca™, C-3PO™, 2 Rebel soldiers, 5 Ewoks™, 2 Scout™ Troopers™ and 2 Stormtroopers™
• Features tree-trunk hideout and secret Lightsaber stash, spider web and net traps, slide, catapults, elevating throne, speeder rammer function, kitchen, food storage area, bedroom and a planning room
• Speeder also included
• Weapons include a Lightsaber, 3 blaster pistols, 2 blasters, 2 blaster rifles, 2 spears, bow and a crossbow
• Also includes 2 staffs
• Collect hard-to-find Endor Princess Leia, C-3PO, Luke, Han Solo and Wicket Ewok minifigures!
• Fend off the advancing Imperial forces
• Amaze the Ewoks with the elevating throne!
• Avoid the spider web and net traps!
• Destroy the speeder with the rammer function!
• Take refuge in the tree-trunk hideout
• Shoot down the slide and join the battle
• Fire rocks at the enemy with the catapults!
• Measures over 13" (35cm) high, 21" (55cm) wide and 13" (35cm) deep

Bright Tree Village was home to a tribe of Ewoks on Endor during the Galactic Civil War.The village, built within the trees of Endor, fifteen meters above the ground,could be navigated using rope ladders, vines, and catwalks. Within the village were numerous tree huts, where the Ewoks lived. The largest huts housed Ewok leaders, including a Council of Elders.In the lead up to the Battle of Endor, the Ewoks captured Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, Chewbacca, and R2-D2 near the village. The Rebels were taken captive within the village and were nearly roasted alive for a feast, but C-3PO—who the Ewoks believed to be a deity—convinced the Ewoks to free them. The Ewoks later joined the fight against the Galactic Empire, and the village hosted the festivities celebrating the death of Emperor Sheev Palpatine and the defeat of the Empire.

28. 10240 RED FIVE X-WING STARFIGHTER

  Build the ultimate LEGO® Star Wars™ X-wing Starfighter!

Collect and create the most highly detailed LEGO® Star Wars™ X-wing Starfighter ever produced. This iconic starfighter is featured in many of the most exciting Star Wars battle scenes, including the decisive battle scene above planet Yavin™. Recreate the moment when Luke Skywalker’s X-wing delivered the proton torpedo that led to the destruction of the Imperial Death Star! This realistically detailed model features opening wings and cockpit, a special display stand, data sheet label and R2-D2.

• Includes R2-D2 atromech droid• Features highly authentic detailing, and opening wings and cockpit• Measures over 10" (26cm) high, 20" (52cm) long and 18" (46cm) wide• Includes display stand and data sheet label!

The Rebel Alliance used the X-wing during the Galactic Civil War against the Galactic Empire. While X-wing starfighters remained in public use, they eventually became solely affiliated with the Rebellion. A squadron was kept at their hidden fortress on Yavin 4. During the Battle of Yavin, Luke Skywalker was assigned to an X-wing for the battle, which was to destroy the Empire's approaching Death Star. Although many of the X-wing pilots were killed, Skywalker was able to launch his torpedoes into the battlestation's exhaust port, causing a chain reaction and destroying it. Wedge Antilles was the only other X-wing pilot who survived.

2014-2015: Return of the Black Boxes

29. 75059 SANDCRAWLER

  Collect a true icon of the classic Star Wars™ universe – the mighty Sandcrawler™!

Recreate unforgettable scenes from Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope with this amazing LEGO® incarnation of the Jawas’ desert-going vehicle, the Sandcrawler™. Turn the knob at the rear and steer the Sandcrawler into position, lower the front ramp and offload the droids using the 2 working cranes. Luke Skywalker™ and his Uncle, Owen Lars, are sure to be impressed with the selection on offer: there’s R2-D2, an R1-series Droid, an R2 unit, R5-D4™, a Treadwell Droid™, Gonk Droid™ and even C-3PO™. When the sale is complete, lift the side panels and top to reveal more great features inside, like the engine, storage bay, cockpit and more. There’s even a speeder bike for when the Jawas need to venture outside.

Sandcrawlers were large mobile fortresses used by Jawa scavengers on the desert planet of Tatooine. The vehicles drove on large treaded wheels and functioned as transportation for scavengers, as well as shelter from the harsh desert environment. Sandcrawlers were tall and mostly rectangular, but with a triangular front that held its cockpit. Sandcrawlers were used as part of Jawa scavenging operations and contained large cargo holds captable of holding 1,500 droids at a time.Magnetic suction tubes allowed the Jawas to quickly suck droids and pieces of scrap into the holds. Inside the Sandcrawler the reactor melts the scrap metal and droids.

30. 75060 SLAVE I

  Lift off for bounty-hunting adventures in the Slave I!

Track down fugitives with legendary bounty hunter, Boba Fett™ aboard the powerful Slave I! This exclusive LEGO® Star Wars™ model features a rotating cockpit and wings for flight and landing mode, plus dual shooters and hidden blasters to repel attackers. Reenact the capture of Han Solo™ in Star Wars™: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back and take off from Bespin with the carbonite-imprisoned Rebel hero in the cargo hold. Attach the stand to display this iconic ship in characteristic upright flight. Includes 4 minifigures with weapons: Boba Fett™, Bespin Guard™, Stormtrooper™ and Han Solo™.

• Includes 4 minifigures with weapons: Boba Fett™, Bespin Guard™, Stormtrooper™ and Han Solo™
• Also includes Han Solo™ in carbonite!
• Features a rotating cockpit and wings, opening side hatches with hidden guns and missiles, 2 rotating dual shooters, cargo hold and a display stand with data sheet
• Weapons include special blaster pistol for Boba Fett™, blaster pistol for Bespin Guard™ and a blaster rifle for the Stormtrooper™
• Boba Fett™ and Bespin Guard™ minifigures are unique to this set
• Rotate the cockpit and wings for flight and landing mode
• Place carbonite-imprisoned Han Solo™ in the cargo hold
• Open the side hatches to unleash missiles from the hidden guns
• Showcase the huge Slave I in upright flight on the display stand
• Recreate classic scenes from Star Wars™: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back
• Measures over 7” (20cm) high, 17” (45cm) long and 14” (37cm) wide in landing mod

Slave I was a modified Firespray-31-class patrol and attack craft used by the infamous bounty hunter Jango Fett before the Clone Wars. Jango outfitted the craft with a number of weapons, including laser cannons, projectile launchers, and seismic charges.While under Jango's ownership, the ship was in a dogfight over Geonosis with the Jedi starfighter piloted by Obi-Wan Kenobi.After Jango's death during the Battle of Geonosis,the craft came into the possession of his son, Boba Fett, who used it throughout his own bounty hunting career.During the Galactic Civil War, Boba used Slave I to transport a carbon-frozen Han Solo from Cloud City to Jabba the Hutt on Tatooine.Originally, it had a blue base instead of the dark red, this was then changed when it came into Boba's possession

31. 75095 TIE FIGHTER

   Presenting the Ultimate Collector Series TIE Fighter™ – the iconic Imperial starfighter!

We proudly present the Ultimate Collector Series LEGO® Star Wars™ TIE Fighter™. As featured in many of the action-packed Star Wars™ battle scenes, including the decisive battle that led to the destruction of the first Death Star™, this large-scale LEGO-brick rendition of the classic Imperial starfighter has intricate detailing, as well as an opening top hatch and an exclusive TIE Fighter Pilot™ minifigure with a blaster pistol. And when you want to keep it safe from Rebel attack, mount the model on the display stand and keep yourself updated with all the key facts and figures on the included fact plaque. The Ultimate Collector Series TIE Fighter™ is the perfect addition to your Star Wars™ collection!

• Includes a TIE Fighter Pilot™ minifigure with a blaster pistol
• Features an opening top hatch
• Includes a display stand and informative fact plaque
• The perfect flagship model for fans of Star Wars™ and LEGO® brick building
• Collect one of the most iconic starships in the galaxy!
• TIE Fighter™ measures 18.5” (47cm) high, 12” (30.6cm) long and 12.2” (31cm) wide

The TIE/LN starfighter, commonly known as the TIE fighter, was the signature starfighter of the Galactic Empire, with a later model being used by the First Order. They were instantly recognizable from the roar of their engines and carried locator beacons enabling them to be found by the Empire. Designs for the TIE fighter were partly based on the Eta-2 Actis-class interceptor. TIE/LN starfighter were small in size and manufactured in masses by the Empire. They were outfitted with an ejection seat and twin laser cannons mounted to the "chin" section of the cockpit module

2016: ?

32. 75098 ASSAULT ON HOTH

33. 75144 SNOWSPEEDER

34. 75159 THE DEATH STAR

For as long as I can remember, people have been puzzled by my interest in many things that were “for boys”, and I have been equally puzzled by why toys have a gender at all. As much as I am genetically and physically female, I have never been one to adhere to the likes and behaviors deemed appropriate to my gender. I am a builder and a creator. Both of my parents worked as computer engineers (although I used to think they worked on a train), so my brain and its nurturing were focused heavily on math and science. As a child, I liked toys that were fun to me, and I am thankful that my parents never tried to limit my curiosity and affinity based upon some societal norm. I loved jigsaw puzzles and my father’s vintage erector set, and I built elaborate homes for all of my Barbie dolls using blocks and bricks. I had a little bit of everything (partially because I grew up affluent and spoiled), but if I had to pick a favorite toy, it would be Lego. Sometimes, I did wonder why their were so few girls in my favorite Lego sets, but it never swayed my feelings

I never expected to be a minority. I grew up white as can be in white suburbia, in a nice town, in a great school system getting average grades. I loved blocks, and ponies, and riding my bike. Nothing about my childhood seemed anything other than typical. It wasn't until college that my being female made me feel any different. I majored in Accounting and minored in Comp Sci at a liberal arts college with a 75% female student body. My business classes were 75% male and I was the only female in a class of 30 in my minor. Growing up, I never heard anyone say “you can’t do that because you're a girl”, so I never felt that way, but it was still a bit odd to be surrounded by men while exploring MY interests. My Lego collection (mostly Pirates, Castle and City) had a similar affliction. Though I did delight at the nuance of the rare female pirate, I never let a silly thing such as whether or not my toys were intended for girls or boys determine what I really liked. I viewed my education and intended career with the same carefree attitude, although I still remember my one female accounting professor enlightening me to the fact that only 10% of CPAs are women.

Years passed. I finished school. I got a job. I got married. I started a family. I quit working 3 days before the birth of my 4th and final female child (my poor husband is plagued with daughters). At that point, I started to notice all the ways in which I am a minority. As an SAHM, I am part of only 24% of US mothers. The majority work at least part-time. I have more kids than the national average, and as a result, a minuscule net worth. The most important way that I am a minority, is because of my intelligence. According to SAT and GRE scores, I am ranked in the highest 5% of the population (among those who have taken these tests). Needless to say, after the first year at home, I got bored. Hence, I came out of my dark ages, just as my oldest decided she NEEDED the full line of Harry Potter Lego. I never much cared that Lego was "for boys". I just really liked the product. My girls and I are Lego maniacs, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Close to a year ago, I registered on BrickPicker. I read the forums, but didn't start posting until a few months ago. I had no idea I had so much to say. It was refreshing to chat with “adults”. As an AFOL, I really liked finding a place to share my thoughts instead of monopolizing the time of my local Lego Store employees. As an AFFOL (the first F stands for female), I started to notice just how very male the Lego reseller market is. As with most things, it doesn't really matter to me, but I do find it a point to ponder. I look forward to sharing with you as I explore the impact of gender on Lego sales and marketing.

Recently, Arizona news outlets had stories about 50,000 LEGO bricks being dumped at a local shopping mall. Was this some weird Santa sighting? No. Did the ghost of Ole Christiansen manifest all of the bricks there? Sorry. It was in celebration of the beginning of construction of a LEGOLAND Discovery center at the Arizona Mills Mall. Arizona Mills is located in the city of Tempe, part of the larger Phoenix Metropolitan area.

The attraction is scheduled to open in Spring of 2016. The LEGO-inspired play space will include a huge pool of bricks, brick building classes, a Lego ride, a 4-D cinema and a replica of the Phoenix skyline built entirely from Legos, according to the release.

Judging by what is available at other Discovery centers, we should see a LEGO shop, but one that doesn't exactly participate in the VIP program. It seems like they give an instant 5% discount to VIP card holders and 10% to season pass holders. Do these discounts stack? I actually am not finding information, but I would hope so. Someone who has a Discovery center in their area should be able to say. I honestly doubt that they do. LEGO likes to do one or the other.

However a 10% break on whatever exclusives or sale items that they offer would be a welcome addition to any brickvestors in the Phoenix area.

So far the website has little information, and they tend to keep the riff raff out, but I'll see if I can talk someone into a site visit to get pictures before it opens. Otherwise, I will be there opening day to report on the experience and what my fellow Phoenicians might find of value there.

In the meantime, a couple of articles with attached video as well as a link to the official site.

https://www.legolanddiscoverycenter.com/arizona/holding/

http://www.abc15.com/news/region-southeast-valley/tempe/legoland-discovery-center-coming-to-arizona-mills-in-2016

http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/tempe/2015/10/27/50000-lego-bricks-dumped-arizona-mills-legoland/74648594/

Honestly I am looking forward to taking the kids.

A Look at the Arctic Sub-theme 

With summer almost here it's time to take a look at the new sets and analyze their investment potential. One of the most intriguing sub-themes out there this season is the Arctic themed line of sets from the City theme. Unlike most other city sub-themes that are available this wave and have new sets released regularly or every other year (such as Police, Traffic or Trains) the Arctic line hasn't been seen since 2000 (under the Town theme) and in those fourteen years of growth the standards for minifigures, sets and pieces themselves have been raised. So now the question is how can we find out if the 2014 Arctic sets will perform well?  

Analyzing the Arctic Sub-theme

Now unfortunately due to incomplete data and the age of the latter it's difficult to accurately compare the 2014 Arctic sets to their 2000 counterparts, but even though Arctic is the odd one out when compared to the other City sub-themes of this wave we can take a look at some of the other irregular sub-themes released in the past few years which in this case will consist of the Farm (2009-2010), Space (2011) and Mining (2012) sub-themes. By using Brickpicker's lot calculator we can find the current total cost of each sub-theme.

So far the Farm sets (7684 7634 7635 7636 7637 7566) have done much better than the other examples, even when taking into consideration the fact that it's had more appreciation time than the other two, with a retail total of approximately $205, a current sale total of $502.12 (almost two and a half times retail) and a return of $297.12 U.S.

The 2011 Space sets (3365 3366 3367 3368) have done ok (though again not nearly as well as Farm) with retail total approximately $125, a current sale total of $157.19 and a return of $32.19 U.S.

The 2012 Mining sets (4200 4201 4202 4203 4204) have seen the least return, but have also had the least amount of time to appreciate, with a retail total approximately $205, a current sale total of $221.77 and a return of only $16.77 U.S.

Now the following is going to be mostly speculation but it's still backed by some facts. The 2014 Arctic sets will almost certainly do better than the Mining sub-theme and will probably perform a better than the 2011 Space sets but not as good as the Farm sub-theme. Why draw this conclusion? The Arctic sets seem pretty neat with lots of cool pieces, unlike the mostly dull Mining sub-theme which were also designed, for the most part, very similarly to the construction sub-theme. The Space sub-theme sets were well made and interesting enough but they were unfortunately in an over-saturated market for that genre of sets. The Arctic sets, like the Farm ones, are interesting (of particular note are the huskies and polar bears) with most of the sets having a unique design and reside in a market segment with no genre competition, however the latter line of sets are more suitable to the other City sets than the former.  

Investment Prediction

So based on the recent performance and comparing the interestingness of other recent City sub-themes I predict that in five years the 2014 Arctic sets will have at least reached an average price of 75% over retail.

Hello guys, My second article will discuss Architecture Sets! As a reminder, the first one summarized my experiences with buying second hand lego sets and bulk. Even though the conclusions were probably predictable to many veteran BrickPicker, for me jumping in the water of the secondary hand lego market was the best way to learn where the culprits are of this trade. For those who are not interested in discovering the tips, I can summarize by telling you I live by the NICHE rule now: Net Incoming Cash per Hour of Effort. In other words: I'm building a stock of MISB sets. And that brings me to the main topic of this second blog: what to buy and what to leave out? Are Architecture sets worth it?

The name of the trade for me is more than just buying up large 'licenced' sets at discounts and wait for 2 years. I want to work out what sets could be sleeping under the radar and get those right. Maybe 'Architecture' fits that bill? I'm not sure, but lets find out! And let's see if my analysis confirms whether "FallingWater" could be the investment in this space or not... Investing is all about getting a lot of cool quality product at the brink of the retirement date. The "sleepier" the set, the better. As not many investors will be 'panic buying' it when it is gone, and you'll have ample time to stock at attractive prices. Therefore this article will explain why I think Architecture is sleeping. Second, I will show you why retirement has very much arrived and what it has and could mean for a couple of sets out there that you can still stack at reasonable prices. Through the article, you'll find reasons why people like and dislike these mini-buildings. Personally, I started off disliking it: too expensive, small, wrong scale, no playability, boring colors... But once I read and researched them, I also saw the positives: High quality, artistic, nostalgia, some luxury aspect, souvenir-like, easiliy show-cased, beautiful booklets, attractive collector items, strong design aspect, rich end-customer, sustainable demand from tourism... As you can read on the forums, the jury remains undecided on Architecture. In fact, many invetsors are frustrated as the retirement for these sets wasn't the "classic" two years. And this is a good thing. It means there could be some undiscovered jewels yet, waiting to be bought cheaply and sold for a fat margin by the smart first mover. My interest got particularly triggered when I saw how 21016 Sungnyemun behaved: the set was retired and rapidly doubled in value. Why? Is there a parallel for other sets possible? I never really looked into Sungnyemun, but I should have. Let's not miss out on the others - so I think. And that's what the article is about.

Architecture has "Sleeper Potential": 4 reasons

1. A mediocre track record.

Let's start by looking at the numbers above. The CAGR rate from BrickPicker's site is +11.27%.

Therefore this theme sits just below the average 11.41%. Perfect! That means many investors will look elsewhere. Obviously the picture could change as more sets come EoL. Sungnyemun and the first Sears Tower just to name a few made very good progress once taken off the Lego-factory production line. People who bought the Robie House below RRP can sell it today at 200E. That's nice, but only for investors who waited for a discount in 2013 to get in.

2. Adults Only Lego.

Architecture is not the kind of set you will see in teh window pane of a Toy R Us. You have to look for these sets: they are a little hidden in the classic kids' toy store. The Lego-group doesn't promote them aggressively. The typical Lego Store has some architecture sets in the right back corner of the shop, hidden between gimmics and Cusoo. Whilst their kids are attracted by the bright colors and cool pictures, parents will browse through the shops, ask advice and pick an architecture set that has the most artistic and nostalgic attraction for them. Maybe they have seen these buildings during travels. Design, nostalgia,... these little statues can decorate an appartment for example. And taste is personal: some like Eiffel, others Pisa (this article is going awry)...

3. High Quality, High price per part

Most sets carry a premium price tag. It feels they are "luxury toys" for less price sensitive buyers who would after visiting one of the World's Wonders buy a 50$ lego-souvenir. It should come as no surprise that the 21021 Marina Bay Sands which was sold exclusively in Asia targeting tourists and testing demand for very exclusive sets is trading above the 100E mark. If tourists are ready to buy a 40E catalogue after a visit of Guggenheim in NY, it makes sense they also could buy a little Lego-building as a souvenir to bring home to family and have the booklet with stories, pictures and history added for the same price. Millions of tourists visit Paris, London or Sydney every year, therefore there should be continued interest. Once the production line stops, demand could start outstripping supply and trigger a new price equilibrium. 4. Part out value: negligeable No need to mass-acquire architecture sets for their parts. Many sets use very basic bricks and cost as much as the bricks themselves. A traditional store will look for part out values twice the amount of dollar value of the set. We can be pretty sure that the market isn't going to be flooded with the rare flat name tiles of the buildings. One can only hope that these 4 reasons will be sufficient to make these sets fly once they are end of line. The only risk of them being 'bad sellers' is that the entire concept would be stopped. That would hammer investment returns, as the longer "Architecture" would exist, the more adult fans it would generate, the more collectors would want to have the entire series, and the better the returns. Based on the comments on their website, lego's commitment to sustain the line is there. The challenge for the architecs is to come with a minimalistic approach to make scale models with small bricks. This was an idea started in the 60-ties and rediscovered 40 years later. Through its partnership with Chicago architect Adam Reed Tucker, the Architecture line - reproductions of iconic buildings rendered in Lego was launched in 2008 with the Sears Tower. My best guess is that all future creations will keep that"artistic appeal" and serve to enhance the brand image of the lego group accross all ages. I also gave customer service a call, asking them whether Architecture Studio would come to Europe. They confirmed it would be available during Q3 2014 (the soonest), and that demand for this set in Europe was huge, reinforcing their commitment to have more geographies tapping into the theme .

And now comes the interesting part. There's a new wave of sets that have gone EoL. Will investors who are sick of waiting for FallingWater to retire, see their prayers answered? Three additional sets have already retired. Did you spot them too? Are they worth it? First of all, it's clear that Robie House has gone. It didn't take that long for this set to trade back at MSRP. Next gone are Lego Architecture 21004 Guggenheim Museum and Lego Architecture 21008 Burj Khalifa. And my best guess is that the 21009 Farnsworth House is gone too as there's no more stock in the US. The Amazon website give a similar picture. In fact, the Burj is already trading at a premium there, but not yet on BrickLink. If you want to get in, now is the time.

A good buy is somthing you will be able to sell quickly with a premium. Obviously, that implies we need to look at supply and demand stats. Using 6 month data from Bricklink.com (up to May 2014), I tried to get a first impression on what is popular and what investors have overstocked.

Personally, I found the data sample small but nonetheless interesting. Supply - Demand The data is only indicative obviously, but we can clearly see that investors might have to wait a long time before the stock has gone on the Space Needle and Empire State Building (> 5 years), Brandenburg Gate and White House (3.5 Yr)! FallingWater sits at a little less than 2 years which is mainly due to its lacklustre sales volumes during the observation period. Once the set would be officially EoL, I would suspect the supply to dry up fast, making this set quickly rare. Remaining stock on Khalifa is only 6 months! Even though the sets isn't very popular, a squeeze up of prices is very possible as this isn't produced by lego anymore. The Wanted-List Next indication for long term demand is the 'wanted list'. The higher the percentage, the better the long-term interest from collectors. Guggenheim, White House, FallingWater, Farnsworth House score well on this rating. Note that people aren't in a hurry to get the recent buildings: UN, Pisa, Eiffel don't score well. The "Wanted List" is used by investors who are price sensitive and want to wait for a set to depreciate before buying. That explains why some more expensive sets (Robie, Sands) score higher than lower priced items. Note that it isn't clear how high the price on the Robie House can go. This is the most expensive Architecture set, and it would be interesting to see whether that higher price tag would limit appreciation potential. Wrapping this up: conclusions & what to buy? All in all, everyone should come with you own interpretation of this table I guess. My personal conclusions based on the research I did on the Lego website, through Q&A with friends, family and lego fanatics, the data from BrickLink and the European Amazon sites is as follows: Architecture

1. will do well EoL: Robie, Sungnyemun, Marine Sands are recent proof of this
2. will be there long-term for adults, tourist, collectors and creative minds (studio)
3. has come to a first EoL cycle: Guggenheim, Khalifa, Farnsworth are gone/going but still available @ RRP
4. shows sustained potential from collectors
5. remains under the radar for now: it could be hiding "sleepers"
6. doesn't warrant investment too soon: wait for retirement and unless Robie House breaks the 300$ mark, stick to the 20 - 100$ range

Clearly, My opinion on this line of products has changed drastically from negative to "constructive". I will keep close track of this area for the coming months. There could be something brewing there and who know where the CAGR will be in a couple of years! Keep you eye out for... (in order of preference)

Thanks for reading. Hopefully, you will offer me your views on this topic as well.

Licensed Sets: The Issue with Investing.

It's common knowledge (and a common complaint) that sets from licensed themes often cost quite a bit more than those that are non-licensed. It makes sense of course, The Lego Company has to pay for the right to make sets based on characters that they didn't create and those who buy those sets of course have to pay their share in turn but the higher cost is still, especially for investors, a bit of a difficult pill to swallow. Investors must also face the fact that even some sets that are part of a strong licensed theme can bomb pretty badly, so what is one to do?

Why Invest in Poly-bags?

When looking at potential investments in licensed themes poly-bags (this post is specifically looking at those that were/would be available for retail purchase and contain a minifigure and is not addressing poly-bags that were promotional/exclusive only or are simply mini-models of larger sets) make a good choice because the price is quite low (CA $4.99) yet they usually have some pretty valuable or interesting pieces and/or either a main character that's otherwise hard to come or a soldier, which is good for "army-building" as some people like to do. Another good thing about poly-bags is that even if they don't appreciate much in value they can probably be resold at around the same cost as the original purchase price, but of course it's best to make informed decisions when investing in order to make a good profit.

To help gain an understanding of what makes a good poly-bag we can take a look at the Bricklink price guide sold averages for licensed poly-bags (and as stated before ignoring those that did not contain minifigures and/or were only available through special promotions) that were released in the last two years (2012-2013 at the time of this post).

Looking at the graph above you can see that the poly-bags are listed in order of value (greatest-least) and that four of the top five poly-bags are in the Super Heroes theme. It's also important to note that most have figures who were only otherwise available, at the time of the poly-bags release, in sets above CA $39.99. Another thing to note is that all of the poly-bags that don't include a vehicle have somewhat unique/hard-to-find parts in them instead such as

• 30212: Mirkwood Elf Guard has a green wine glass, a large mushroom and some tree/foliage
• 30163: Thor and the Cosmic Cube has a clear transparent 1X1 block
• 30211: Uruk-Hai with ballista has a Halberd and some robot arm pieces
• 30165: Hawkeye with equipment has some earth blue 1X2 smooth tiles and a compound bow
• 30213: Gandalf at Dol Guldur has some green vines, a sword and a brown telescope
• 30210: Frodo with cooking corner has a dark transparent bottle, a gold goblet and a sausage
• 30270: Kraang's Turtle Target Practice has some nice transparent violet pieces along with some robot arms

What's the Key to a Good Poly-bag?

So while we can see that most poly-bags don't often resell below the retail price what are the important signs of a really good poly-bag? First thing is that you want it to contain a character who's popular (obviously) or one that it would be good to collect multiples of. And while it's good for a poly-bag to have some unique/semi-rare pieces, they seem to do better if they contain a vehicle of some sort.

"OUR EXCLUSIVE"

Those two little words on Toys R' Us' website in regards to the Grand Emporium (10211) sparked a minor uproar recently among Lego investors. What does this mean? Will it change the Emporiums expected immanent retirement? Will 10211 languish forever at inflated TRU prices post EOL ala' Vampyre Castle? Should we all dump our large and exclusive sets in favor of poly bags and mini figures? Breath people, take a step back and chill. I, humbly, submit that it will have no impact what so ever.

First the obligatory history lesson. Released in 2010 Grand Emporium (10211) is part of Lego's modular building line. It has 2,182 pieces and comes with 7 mini figures, all for a MSRP of $149.99. As of the first quarter of 2014 it is considered among the favorites to be the next modular to be retired by Lego, and as a corner building and large exclusive the set is expected to perform well post EOl.

While TRU may consider The Emporium to be theirs, Wal Mart and Target may beg to differ. 10211 is available on both their websites, although Target has it listed for $159.99. (As of mid April 2014) This may be residual warehouse stock that needs to sell through but, I find that unlikely as the set has gone OOS at Target at least once since the TRU exclusive designation. It is also still available at S@H for regular retail, currently back ordered, but can still be purchased.

There is precedence for TRU making an exclusive out of a large, close to EOL, set that was previously more widely available. Set 9468, Vampyre Castle, from the Monster Fighters line was a widely available set that drew the "Our Exclusive" badge at TRU close to EOL. 9468 was also expected to perform well after retirement, but hasn't done as expected. First off, Vampyre Castles' official retirement date is February 1, 2014. Given the very brief time frame and TRU's inflated prices this set simply has not had sufficient time to sell out, it cannot and will not appreciate until that happens. Second, it's only been retired for two months. Patience, wait it out. 9468 had an MSRP of $99.99, TRU has it for $109.99. Vampyre Castle is no longer in production, so whatever stock that TRU has is it. In this case OOS on TRUs website is the new "retired".

One of the core principles of investing is "Buy and Hold". With this type of investment strategy TRU claiming a post EOL set as an exclusive and keeping it in the general marketplace a while longer is of little concern. Once Lego quits producing a set it's only a matter of time before that set is gone from the wild and the secondary market will take over. Will TRUs actions cause this to take an extra few months? Sure. Does it make any difference in a sets price ceiling two years later? Not in the least. If such a brief amount of time was such a detriment to a sets performance post EOL no one would own SSDs or Death Stars or Fire Brigades or...

The other side of this is the Technic line which had been a TRU exclusive for many years until very recently. Anyone invest in Technic while TRU was its sole US seller? Of course and with some very nice returns. Unimog, tracked crane, or quad bike anyone?

The whole point of this is to not over react. TRU keeping a modular alive a few extra months in no way will harm your future returns. Will this continue with other modulars? Only Lego and TRU know that answer.

"Should I invest in the Fire Brigade?"

"Yes."

"No."

"Maybe so."

"It has been available for way to long.  Collectors and investors already have all that they need.  You will have to wait a LONG time before the set appreciates."

"It is a modular. That alone will make the set a winner.

" I have seen this conversation take place in the Brickpicker forums many times.  The most common reply that I saw said something like "Everybody's brother (and dog and cat and pet gold fish) has one of these.  Don't risk your money."

While very knowledgeable people took both sides, it is clear that the Fire Brigade has been a winner - but why didn't this set fail?  The Fire Brigade was available for five years, wasn't it?  Most importantly, is a repeat possible?  

The Orc Forge was a steady investment.  People loaded up on these sets and bought more whenever possible.  What made it better was that if you spend $75 dollars or more, you got free shipping and (depending on the time) a free polybag or minifig.

We have not seen the predicted value surge.  The set can still be bought at $60 dollars - the price that it was hovering around right before it retired.  This set has a bright future, but the results have not been as expected.

These are two very different examples.  One had very low expectations and performed remarkably.  The other had very high expectations.  Even though the Orc Forge is still appreciating, the Fire Brigade was the better investment.  Both sets were bought in large quantities by investors.

Now before everyone jumps on me in the comments telling me "The Orc Forge is still appreciating," I would like to clarify that I do not think that the Orc Forge is a bad investment, but that it is appreciating slowly.  I am suggesting that the reason for this slow growth could be because it has flooded the market.

In this article we will discuss whether a set can "flood the market" or not using past examples.  What can a market flood do to the value of a set?

Part I:  The bubble

Oh boy.  Here we go again.  While the bubble is talked about a lot in the forums and is quite a controversial issue, there are a few things we can learn from this concept.

As more people become LEGO investors, there will be an increased demand and availability for certain sets.  Most likely, the market will not crash in one big explosion.  It will start with cracks at the foundation, that creep up to the top, eventually destroying the secondary market for LEGO (if there is such a thing as a bubble.)

Some of the cracks could be caused by flooding the market.  We should start paying attention to how many sets flood the market compared to how many are good investments.

What I am trying to point out is that IF there is a bubble, we will continue to see a rise in the numbers of sets bought which could lead to a flood in the market.  Not something to spend much time fretting over, but something to consider when buying a set.

My personal opinion is that IF the market is flooded, the following buying frenzy will pick the market up from the dust, and we will continue to live happily ever after buying and selling toys.

Part II: What is the effect?

I will use the Orc Forge as an example in this part.  We can all see that the Orc Forge has not been a failure, however, this set has not lived up to its positive predictions.

I believe that the Orc Forge could be worth $70 to $80 dollars if so many people had not bought it.  The Orc Forge, although with a positive appreciation at about 150% of its retail price, can be found in large amounts on eBay.  This was a popular product with investors - maybe a bit to popular.

Minecraft: The First Night is not retired yet, but its popularity went down a bit when it became widely available.  When considering a set to flip, resale value can be inversely proportional to the availability of a set.  This can also be true when considering a set that you think is flooding the market.

I do not believe that a set can become a complete failure because it has been widely available and distributed.  When a set is bought in large amounts, it tells us that it is popular.  There are always new LEGO fans and buyers that will be interested in old sets, no matter how available they were.  As more are bought, the availability will go down, and the set will grow in value.

If a set does flood the market, it might slow its growth down a little bit, but I think that that is the most that it will do.

Part III: How does this happen?

A set can flood the market when someone predicts early retirement and people buy lots of the item, expecting it to no longer be available at retail price.  Here is where I would like to point out a few facts:

The Orc Forge hung around for a while, allowing many people to buy lots of them.  The Fire Brigade did not wait before it retired.  It sold out, and then it was retired.

This is an important fact that we should notice.  From this, I have drawn the conclusion that a set does not flood the market in its life time, but in its last few days when the buying frenzy occurs.

Part IV: The Fire Brigade

True, lots of people had the Fire Brigade, but it had a quick retirement, putting people who did not have this set into panic mode.  The Fire Brigade is also a modular.  People new to the LEGO hobby that love the modulars will want to complete their collection, and it will not take much time before this set becomes known as one of the well-perfoming sets of the past.

Part V: How do I get Fire Brigades instead of Orc Forges?

It is always better to invest sooner than later.  Sets like the Fire Brigade disappeared quickly.  As sets get older, retirement becomes inevitable, and you have the recipe for another Fire Brigade.

Sets like the Orc Forge, however, stay around longer than expected.  They can be a good investment, but they take more time to appreciate.

Sets like the Orc Forge are easy to predict, but sets like the Fire Brigade are almost impossible to predict.  Again, the only way to end up with a better set is to buy sooner than later.

Part VI: Summing it up

Even though it is very possible for a set to flood the market, we must realize that a flood of the market alone cannot make a set fail.  Do not let one aspect alone keep you from buying a good investment.

I hope you have enjoyed this article.  Even though it was short, I tried to include helpful and interesting information.  If you disagree with me or have your own opinion about this subject, please share it in the comments.  Thanks for reading!

This blog follows on from my previous blogs presenting the top 20 sets in terms of secondary market price growth according to the data we have available here on Brickpicker.  Apologies as I’ve been a bit slack and missed the last data update that was in January and had data up to the 10^th of Jan.  As such this update will be based on values as at the end of Feb-14.  This means comparisons in the “Last Rank” column of the tables will be comparing movements from the Nov-13 positions. Again, here are some notes on the scope before I begin:

• I have not restricted the qualifying sets by size or age or any other dimension
• Information is based on US prices only
• Not all sets across all themes are included as I have zero interest in Bionicle/Hero Factory for example so have only gathered data on a few of those sets.  (I just didn’t have the willpower to gather all the data for them really).  Most of the rest are covered though.
• I tried to look at as many sets as possible, but there is a chance a few may have been missed, if you spot some that should/could be included please let me know
• The Last Rank column indicates changes in ranking from the last Top 20 Blog (Nov data)

  One Month Growth (change in Market Price from last month) An entirely new set of entrants and that’s not really a surprise given volatility in prices when only looking at a change from 1 month to the next and that none of the movers from Nov-13 have popped up again here.  Interestingly the newly released 70803 Cloud Cuckoo Palace from the LEGO Movie has made the list after obvious short term supply issues and high consumer demand. It will be interesting to see if any of these sets can maintain some of this growth longer term.  Which leads us nicely onto our next time period:   Six Month Growth (change in Market Price from August 2013 ) Another list dominated by new entrants.  Plenty of recently retired sets enjoying that initial post EOL price bump.  We also get the Advent Calendar’s in a trio in the middle, obviously enjoying a Christmas spike.   One Year Growth (change in Market Price from February 2013) Black Phantom, Butterfly Beauty Shop, and Jawblade take the top spots after maintaining previous growth rates.  There are also quite a few of the much talked about Super Heroes sets that have recently retired, all translating that hype into very good growth performance.  Plenty of other great sets on this list that you’d have done well to buy at market price one year ago.   Two Year Growth (change in Market Price from February 2012) Now into the two year time frame we begin to remove some of the short term fluctuations that can occur with some of the narrower time periods. 21001 John Hancock Center has plateaued a little in recent months and has slipped back 3 spots from the top handing the crown to Fire Lord. We can now start to see some of the performers in the shorter time periods that were presented in previous articles begin to push their way through onto the 2 year growth table, like the Rocka XL, Butterfly Beauty Shop, and Black Phantom.   Retail Growth (change in Market Price from Retail MSRP) Now for the full measure of growth from the retail value of the set.  Obviously a set with a $0 listed retail price like all the promo giveaways etc are excluded as we can’t divide by zero, so that has weeded out a few of the small polybags or very very old sets for which we have no retail data.  But the list is still dominated by cheap sets that have increased by large multiples. The 1626 Angel takes top spot with a crazy 20,477% growth over retail thanks to 1 recent sale of $250 and another 2 years ago of $280 all from a set that cost $1.30 when released back in 1989. Perhaps the first “real” contender is 10190 Market Street, such an impressive result for a set in just 6 years.  Much better than another set from the same year that people often point to as the pinnacle of Lego investing…  The Batman set that slips in at number 20 becomes the first Super Heroes set to do so, and perhaps shows the way for future super hero related sets?   Conclusions These top 20 tables lists all the absolute best investment decisions you could have made if you had perfect future knowledge.  The amount of under the radar sets and “sleeper” hits have been a big wake up call for me.  We sometimes become a little circular in discussing the popular sets for investing (Modulars, UCS, etc) and lose sight of the fact that many of the best investments to be had right now are probably some of the least discussed sets.  It does mean there are plenty more topics ripe for discussion on the forums and in blogs.    

  Lone Ranger Lego...  

Just wanted to let those three little words sink in for a second. Most on this site would agree that this line, with a couple exceptions, is not among the best of choices to place your investment dollars. I tend to agree with that sentiment. I am also a fan of building sets and as such this line is pure gold. The sets are reasonably priced,  have great builds, and come together as a group nicely. For the record I have grabbed a few of these sets at an extreme markdown  just in case people forget about the "Lone Ranger" aspect and see them for what they are, excellent Western themed sets.

The best investment potential in this line is undoubtedly 79111 Constitution Train Chase, but, it also suffers from having "Lone Ranger" as part of its name which makes very reasonably priced among Lego trains. As of early March of 2014 it is still available for under $100. For that you get a 37 " x 22" oval track and an excellent western style engine and tender. The rest of the set is nice, but not to the same standard as the engine. My only true complaint about this train is the lack of power functions, or even the ability to easily add power to the set. What's a Lego builder to do... MOC it.

You may have guessed by now that this blog is less about investing and more about how to add power to a train set. Although, a brief eBay check did bring up several sellers with listings for instructions only in the $30 range and one seller with a powered coal tender MOC for $109. So if you think outside the Lego box, there is money to be made here;)

My intention was to add power while still having the set look as close to its original design as possible. With this set there is simply no way to add power to the engine without drastically changing its appearance so my first thought was to use the coal tender but decided against it. Again it would have to be modified to the point of no longer looking like the same car and I simply had no extra pieces of the dark green color so I couldn't enlarge it if I wanted to. The flat car was also out for obvious reasons. Luckily the prison car lends itself nicely, it's a large open box, perfect to hold a battery box.

The above shots shot the car in its original state, the "box" portion rests on a 6x14 plate with the wheels attached underneath. I started with a completed car and removed the 6x14 and everything underneath it. I then took a pair of 4x4 black plates and added two 1x4 tiles to them along the outer edges. I added both to opposite sides of the train motor, but it looked "empty" so I also added a 2x4 brick to each side. When I was done it looked like this.

I then added the magnetic couplers and a 4x6 plate to each side to hold the top portion of the car.

Now for the battery box.

I then placed the box over the battery box and decided to add a 1x6 to each side to make it look like the original 6x14 was still in place. This is the finished product.

The result looks about as good as I had hoped, while the internal jail door had to be removed the functionality of blowing of the back of the car still works fine. What I was unprepared for was the speed default on Lego train motors, turns out that if you don't have a speed controller they are set to around Mach 5 and will send a small train such as this flying off the tracks, much to the delight of my seven year old. Looks like I'll be getting the IR sensor and remote after all. There is room inside the car to add it and the wire can run through the existing hole where the lever is.

I hope y'all enjoyed this little tutorial and who knows there may even be money to be made adding power to sets like this and flipping them, if anyone tries that let me know how it goes.

Parts list.

1. Lego Set 79111 Constitution Train Chase

2. 2x 3032 4x6 plate dark blue/grey

3.  2x 3666 1x6 dark blue/grey

4. 4x 3710 1x4 black

5. 2x 3031 4x4 black

6. 2x 3001 2x4 black brick

7. 88000 AAA battery box $12.99

8.  88002 Train Motor $13.99

9. 8884 IR Receiver $14.99

10.  8879 IR Speed Remote $12.99

All the parts are common and inexpensive, I had all of them in my parts bins, the electronics I ordered from Lego for a total of $55.00. This was a fun and fairly inexpensive little project that yielded a nice little powered train, or at least, it will once the IR receiver and remote arrive.

You've heard of it on the news, in the papers, and online. It created overnight millionaires while making others broke. Governments are afraid of it and the public is confused by it. But it is here to stay.

What am I talking about, you ask?  Crypto-currency

In 2009, an anonymous online entity, going by the name of Satoshi Nakamoto, released a tremendously well-researched and thought out paper;explaining how an online, peer-to-peer, currency which would not be regulated or backed by any government could change the face of world finance. Shortly after, he released the first example of such a currency, Bitcoin.

Due to the technical and anonymous nature of Bitcoin (and crypto-currency in general), the digital currency adoption started out slow and within more "internet advanced" circles of people. After a few years and a minuscule adoption rate, Bitcoin started to gain notoriety. This was mainly due to the creation of a "dark-net" marketplace, The Silk Road, in 2011. Unfortunately, this marketplace seemed to specialize in nefarious and illegal activities such as drug dealing and weapons trafficking. The users of the marketplace used Bitcoin as the go to currency for transactions because its use was anonymous and incredibly difficult to track.

Fast forward to 2013; The Silk Road was shut down but Bitcoin knowledge started to go mainstream. Services like exchanges, payment processors, and wallets (coin storage) began to spring up. The tech world seemed to catch a crypto-currency fever and it hasn't looked back since. In November and December of 2013 the value of Bitcoin sky-rocketed to $1200 per coin. People became millionaires in the blink of an eye.

Today, there are many more varieties of crypto-currency. These currencies, such as Litecoin and Dogecoin, were created to improve on Bitcoin's original code and theory. And they are also gaining an incredible amount of traction in the financial world.

My personal favorite crypto-currency is Dogecoin. It is the second largest coin in terms of transaction volume and active users, only behind Bitcoin. It has a massive community behind it and is gaining wide-spread, mainstream acceptance as it is easy to get into and learn.

Now, why should you consider selling your LEGO sets for crypto-currency? There are many reasons, but for the sake of brevity in today's introduction, I will give you two.

• It is a brand new technology and you would have a chance to get in on the ground-floor on something that is shaping up to change the world. Only a relatively small portion of the population is using crypto-currency today, but as more merchants accept it, more people will use it.
• With the creation of online and in-store payment processors there is absolutely zero risk.

These payment-processors (think "Visa" or "American-Express"), make it absolutely painless to accept crypto-currency. Many of them, such as Coinbase and Moolah, automatically transfer crypto-currency to other more "common" currency such as USD or EUR. This makes it so that you can reach an even larger audience than you are today; the people using government-backed currency and the people who are using crypto-currency.

This is only the first post of an entire blog in which I am to educate all off you about the benefits and processes of accepting digital currency. If you have any specific questions or would like to learn more about a certain topic, don't hesitate to ask!

So you've spent your time researching the best sets and held them past EOL. You've watched their value climb and the time has come to start selling them on eBay, all is well until one day you get your first angry e-mail from a less than pleased buyer. What to do, What to do...

There is no way that you can spend any amount of time selling items on eBay or any other platform without the occasional issue popping up. While some of the forums may make it seem that every single transaction is a major battle and others paint a beautiful picture of happy customers through rose colored glasses reality is, as always, somewhere between the two. In most cases how you respond to the buyers initial contact will often set the tone for the entire exchange. While every case is in some ways unique most can be divided into two categories from your perspective; preventable issues and non-preventable issues.

First, a quick bit about my eBay history, I have had a single eBay account since 2002 and in that time have received 4 neutrals and 1 negative (the negative came about three weeks ago and eBay removed it) against over 1000 positive. I tend to sell around 200 items per year, although I do not sell consistently. I will sell 50 or more items in a month and then not list anything for three or four months, just depends on how busy I am with my real "jobs". In the same time frame I have only purchased 10 or so items on eBay so nearly all of my feedback is from selling. As far as knowing eBays policies there is a local amphibian who has forgotten more about them than I will ever know, but I have spent over 2 decades in various forms of retail and have found that in most cases it is better to simply provide good service and only involve eBay as a last resort. I am not implying that you don't need to have a good working knowledge of policy, you most certainly do, just that by providing good service you can resolve most issues.

Before I get into what to do after an issue is brought to your attention I want to make one thing perfectly clear. The easiest and most effective way to resolve any issue is to prevent it from happening in the first place. Take good pictures, make sure your descriptions are clear and accurate. Does the box have a crease in it? Disclose it and take a picture of it. Are you selling a new set without the mini figures or some other key element? Say so in the description AND the title. Assume that every single potential buyer is in kindergarten and needs everything explained. By that, I do not mean write a novel, no one will read it if you do, just make sure that your description is accurate and any potential fault is highlighted. You also need to be careful with how you describe your items. I have been selling on eBay for over ten years and have NEVER claimed a box to be "mint", your definition of mint and that of your buyer may vary considerably. Instead of "mint in package" try "new in sealed package", and then mention any shelf wear. I recently sold a Willis Tower with a dented box, I disclosed the problem in my listing and took a close up photograph of the damage. The buyer left me a positive. Point is be honest with your listings and take excellent photographs and you will avoid 98.764% of any potential preventable issues. And 75.6% of statistics are made up on the spot.

No matter how careful you are in your listings mistakes will be made on occasion. You forgot that one piece in a used set, used too little bubble wrap or too much, sent the wrong item, etc... You will mess up. So now you've just gotten a message from a buyer and they aren't happy. Now what? First off, and this is important, if you anger easily or are having a bad day step away and grab a snack, or a drink. Whatever it takes to relax and respond to the situation with an even temper. Last year I sold a set and had unintentionally used a few pieces of the wrong color (I was using them as place holders and forgot to replace them with the correct pieces). The set was a used 6211 and the buyer was, justifiably, angry as I had listed it as complete minus a couple mini figures. My gut reaction was one of defensiveness and had I responded at that moment the situation would not have ended well for me. Instead I just took a few minutes to calm down and collect my thoughts and offered to either replace the pieces if they would let me know which ones were wrong or take $5 off of a $130 set. They took the five bucks and left positive feedback to boot. All of this was done through eBays messaging system. Do not under any circumstances communicate with a buyer outside of eBays system, it leaves a clear and complete record of all communications between you and your buyer should eBay need to get involved. That also brings up another point, in cases where you messed up, do everything that is fair and keep eBay out of it if at all possible.

I define non-preventable issues as anything that happens after an item leaves your hands or if a buyer flakes out or tries to scam you. Lost or smashed in transit? Buyer decide they really didn't need that $3000 Millennium Falcon? Someone leave you negative feedback because Leia was in a bikini and they got offended (someone once tried to return a Leia from 6210 to me for this reason)? None of these issues can be prevented by you. Most of these are also simple to resolve. If a buyer changes their  mind and wants to cancel a transaction because (insert random pointless reason here) cancel it and re-list the item. It is not worth the trouble of trying to force someone to pay. Yes, it's annoying, get over it and move on. If they try and mess with you by not accepting the cancellation, so long as all communication went through eBay, it's a simple phone call and you get your final value fees back. Returns are trickier. I sell mostly loose sets, on those I state "no returns", but it doesn't really matter because if a buyer opens a SNAD (Significantly Not As Described) case I will most likely have to return the item anyway. When I do sell a boxed set I will offer a two week return where the buyer pays return shipping so long as the item is still sealed. It is better to spell out your own policy than have eBay do it for you. I have yet to have to return anything, although I have at times given small partial refunds.

Shipping. I will not enter into a USPS vs UPS vs FedEx debate, or carrier bashing session as they quickly become. I will only say this. ALWAYS USE TRACKING. eBay will side with you if a buyer claims an item never arrived so long as you tracked the shipment and there was a scan that shows "delivered". Without a delivery scan you will have to refund the money. For items over $250 eBay requires a signature conformation, which is nice because I insure any shipment over $100 and USPS requires signature conformation for any insured item over $200. Insurance is there to protect the SELLER (that's you) so use it on any dollar amount that is higher than what you feel comfortable losing. As far as smashed packages go, pack all items well, use the correct amount of material to protect the item. If anything happens in transit, which it will at some point, it's on you. I will usually offer a small refund in these cases, which has worked so far and is much cheaper than a return. Why do you think Amazon is so quick to offer a 20% refund when they send you a padded envelope pancake?

Up until now I have assumed that both sides were behaving honestly. What about buyers with the  intention to defraud? Protecting yourself from fraud as a seller boils down to following the rules. That, and not accepting checks from the Central Bank of Nigeria as a form of payment. I only take PayPal. It's simple, quick, and for the most part reliable. In the last 3 months I have had a handful of buyers ask about other forms of payment, one even tried to buy a BIN when I forgot to mark "immediate payment", I denied them all. The guy who tried to buy my BIN first tried to talk me in to taking a registered check and when I declined he said repeatedly that he would open a PayPal account but never did and then just stopped responding to me. I opened a case against him and re-listed the item. I should also mention that he had 0 feedback and had joined eBay the day he tried to buy my BIN.  To me the whole situation just screamed "scam". With PayPal, in order to be covered you must send to the address confirmed by PayPal. No exceptions.

There are a plethora of ways to be scammed by a buyer, with "can I pay by check, money order, wire transfer, etc...", " I never got it", and "it's broken" being the most common in my experience. I've already covered how to protect yourself from the first two, the last one is not as simple. Even new items can be defective that's why a return policy is necessary. At the same time any return has the potential to be fraudulent. That is when you call eBay.

In all my years of selling I have only contacted eBay a handful of times. In the aforementioned Leia bikini case the buyer tried a SNAD case, but because of the pictures in my listing showing Leia in a bikini and the e-mail exchange pointing out the actual issue (the buyer was a nut job who was offended by a pretty plastic girl in a metal bikini) I won the case. Looking back it may have been easier just to take the return and block the buyer. But, come on, my listing title was "Leia in a Bikini from LEGO set 6210". Point is, try to avoid bringing eBay into a situation, but don't be afraid to do so if all else fails. That's why they have a CS department.

I hope that made sense and that some of you found it useful. And that I didn't scare anyone away. So long as you take care with your listings and follow some very simple rules the vast majority of you experiences with selling will be positive and profitable ones.  

I have never liked Chess as a kid or as a teenager. It was just one of those games that looked boring and bland. A game for nerds. However in the past several years after buying my first iphone, I could not find a app that suited my needs. Ultimately I needed an game that required some strategy and would never get boring. A game that I could improve on over time and a game that would pass time while I was playing it. That game ended up being Chess.

At first, I was VERY BAD at Chess, and in some ways I still am. I remember losing to a group of kids while on a cruise. After 100 or so games I realized that Chess was not so bad. In fact It became an addiction.

Now here I am finally wanting to get a customized Chess board. Since I am into Fantasy and Medieval characters, I thought about buying the "Crusaders Chess" set.

However I want my Chess pieces to be able to be customized and I preferred my pawns to be holding shields and swords. I just could not justify the one or two hundred dollars to get this Chess set it. The pieces are nicely painted but will wear and crack and this was something I did not want.

While browsing eBay, I found this this amazing chess set! The Castle Giant Lego Chess Set. Unfortunately this set was released in 2008 and is a limited edition set. It was priced at $200 back then but now fetches anywhere between $1500-1800. A fairly steep price for an Awesome set. Until Lego decides to launch another limited edition Chess set I have decided to custom make my own!

Here is another set that is readily available for $50. The Kingdom Chess Set. The pieces are nice but the Chess board is small and untiled. This would mean for every move I would have to pull the piece off one section of the board and try to push it back on the desired square without the piece falling apart on me.

It was then I decided to build my own chess board using the "Castle Giant Lego Chess Set" as a template and even improving on the individual pieces.

Budget? $200-400 And so my journey began.

I scoured Bricklink and eBay and bought minifigures and all the pieces i needed. I also spent hours looking for the instruction manual on Google for the pieces from "The Kingdom Chess set".

End result:

White army overview

Black Army overview

 

Here is an overview of the black army showing the black pawns up front with two black knights flanking the two black bishops. Behind them are two cave trolls which can be switched in for the black rooks. I thought it would be more interesting to have the black pawn army led by a single commander pawn (as the center pawns are the strongest in a game of Chess).

 

 

 

 

INVESTMENT VALUE?

 

Well - as this is made from Lego minifigures I expect them to at least hold their value.

 

For Chess players I expect them to find this set very desirable and if I wish I may be lucky enough to find an interested buyer.

 

I certainly do not expect this chess set to escalate in value like the Giant Lego Chess Set; however I am enjoying this set a lot more

than what i would with the Giant Lego Chess Set as it is tailored to my liking.

If ever I decide to have a game a Chess with a friend, i show them my Custom Lego Chess Set and it certainly becomes a focal point for discussion.

 

  If like me you’ve ever struggled with the temptation that having a closet or room stuffed with shiny new Lego sets for investment presents in terms of building and playing or displaying them, this short blog may help! Rarely have I succumbed to this temptation.  I tend to try and keep my collecting hobby side of the Lego game separate from the investing side.  There is occasion where I have dipped in to the investment pool to provide a last minute gift for a young lad or lass, or when I really just had to build the Lone Ranger Train. One thing that helps me do this is looking at the decision to open an investment set with a clear approach involving the true cost of doing so. Often I hear talk on the forums of “Buy what you like, so you can open it if investment growth isn’t as strong as you’d hoped” or “I only paid 50% of retail for it so I might just open and build it…”  The decision to open a set should be made with as much information as possible when you are a profit maximising investor. When you open a set the price you paid for it should have almost zero consequence on that decision. This is a very important mind shift for most people.  The trade off you make when opening the set does not relate to the price paid, instead it is: When you open a set the true cost of doing so is the opportunity cost you forgo.  This is mainly related to the current secondary market price minus a few other factors. If you have a set in hand the trade off you make when “consuming” it is the price you could currently sell it for.  This can be approximated using the Brickpicker current market price for new sets, or you can estimate that cost yourself if you could sell it locally for a different amount.  Basically you take what the maximum is you think you could successfully sell it for right now.  Now from that there are a few deductions to take into account:

• The listing and selling fees if applicable
• Time to set up the sales listing
• Packaging and postage
• Time to post or meet the seller
• Tax from any profits remaining if applicable

If you can estimate those costs you’ll have a pretty good idea of the expected gross revenue you would have from selling the set.  This is you opportunity cost.   Now there are a few other things to take into account as well. Firstly when you open a Lego set to build you don’t “consume” it.  A Lego set is not like a candy bar or loaf of bread, after using it you are still left with a tangible asset – the used set.  This used set still has a value.  The used value of sets are tracked by Brickpicker as well and you can estimate just like as above for a new set.  So if you plan on keeping your opened set indefinitely then you can’t discount your opportunity cost by this used set value.  But if you don’t and you just want to have the build experience, take a few photos, and maybe display it for a few weeks you can subtract the used set value to determine what the act of opening has cost you. Things get more complicated if your intentions are to build the set and display it for a longer term, or if you think you’ll keep it forever but change your mind later on and decide to sell it.  To work out the cost here you’ll need two estimates.  The future value of a used set and the future value of the set if it is still new and sealed.  This can obviously be pretty hard to determine.  My advice would be to look at the current prices for similar sets to the one in question.  Check out similar sized sets and sets from the same theme and look for the price difference between a sealed set and a used one.  That should give you a bit of a guide to the future opportunity cost. So in conclusion, if you want to open a set go ahead, but remember the price for doing so is not the cash you paid at the retail counter but the opportunity cost incurred by not being able to sell a new sealed set.

Photographing LEGO minifigures, boxes and sets can be a difficult task to do correctly.  It can mean the difference between selling or not selling an item on eBay or similar sites.  Before I found out how to create this light box, it was a time consuming process to set up a good lighting system, take pictures of my minifigures, and list them on eBay.  When I was in a time crunch, I would just put the minifigures flat on a piece of paper, which did not look the greatest.  This light box is easy to construct, deconstruct, and store away.  The purpose of this article is to show you how to easily light minifigures or other small objects without the constant hassle of setting up and tearing down a complex lighting system.

Material List

1.  Two shallow boxes.  I used boxes that previously had cans in them.  You can probably find them at a local grocery store.

2.  Three sheets of white paper

3.  One sheet of card stock.  Any color is fine, but do not use pink. ;)

4.  Tape

5.  Desk light.  Fluorescent lights tend to work the best.

Assembling the Light Box

Take the two shallow boxes and stick one box inside the other.  It should look something like this:

Now stand the box assembly so that one box is flat on the floor and the other is sticking up in the air.  Then, take the piece of card stock and tape it in the boxes so that it looks like this:

Take one of the pieces of white paper and tape it to the side.  This does not have to be perfect.  The reason the piece of paper is there is to reflect light.

Next, do the same thing on the other side of the box.

After this, take your last sheet of white paper and tape it over the card stock.

After you place the desk lamp over the box, you are done!

I use a Nikon Coolpix P90, which is not the best camera (as you may have noticed.)  However, under the right circumstances, it can take nice pictures.  Here is a picture that I took in my light box:

I realize that this is not the best method to light a minifigure, but it is better than placing a minifigure flat on a piece of paper.  I would usually try to avoid the direct light, but I found that it worked fine for this purpose.

Please share how you like to light objects in the comments.  I would love to hear everyone's different techniques.  Thanks for reading!

I deal with bulk Lego more than any other type, I find it relaxing, I get to spend some quality time with my seven year old, and it is very profitable so long as you don't over pay or spend to much time on it. Time, time is the killer of an otherwise perfect lot. While there is no single solution to speed the process of finding value in a lot, there are several ways to speed up the process of sorting and building, thus finding the value quicker. Take the lot below, it is roughly 20-25 pounds of seemingly random lego and while I did get many sets of instructions with it, some of the sets were without instruct

Regardless of whether you get instructions or not with a lot like this one (completely mixed) I use the same techniques to figure out what sets I have. I will start sorting a bulk lot as I wash it, sometimes before. The most effective way to tell what you have (unless you have the instructions) is to know your mini figures. With my first run through I pull out every mini figure and mini figure part I find. Say hello to Ten Numb, he was one of the first figures I found and he is only in set 6208. Looks like I have a B-Wing.

Stickers are the next method I use to identify sets. Some like a license plate will actually give you the set number. Same goes with printed tiles. A quick note about stickers, they HATE to be washed. I will try and pull any piece out that has a sticker on it before washing. Washed or not as I find pieces with stickers or printing I sort them into a tray.

The same goes for any unusual pieces, as I find them I set them aside in trays or boxes depending on how big the lot happens to be. I will also sort out some of the more common bricks and plates by size and shape, while I don't generally sort by color if you find it helpful by all means do so. An average tray of sorted plates looks like this.

Makes your pile smaller and whenever you need a plate of any size you know where it is. I will do the same with bricks, rounds, smalls, and all the other more common pieces. When I am done I will always have a few pounds of random unsorted pieces that don't seem to fit in with anything. With those I just put them in a box and dig through it as needed.

Sometimes, even with a lot as random as this one, you luck out and will find pieces of sets or even ones that are near complete. It's not something that happens all the time but it's worth mentioning. Just be alert, for every chunk of a set that I have found I've also run across two or three altered sets or flat out MOCs.

Anyone who has ever processed a bulk lot will know that they always come with non Lego. As I'm sorting anything that I don't think is Lego goes in its own box.

Saving non Lego was a painful lesson to learn. While sorting one of my first bulk lots I took a quick look at the head to the creature from 7255, and thinking "no Lego looks like this" tossed it in the recycling bin. Oops. At least I could still sell Grievous. So, trust me, keep your non Lego until you're done with the lot.

I have always found it difficult to wait to start building so while I'm sorting a lot I tend to start assembling sets. I'll even work on several at once, I keep each one in their own box as I go.

I got all the bins from one of the nicer lots that I purchased, each set was in its own bin with its instructions. That has only happened once so don't expect it to be the norm. And I have no idea why this pic seems to be sideways.

With the first bulk lots that I processed I would only consider a set "worth the trouble" if I could get $20 or more for it, sometimes if much of the value was tied to a single figure I would just sell the minifig and be done with it. Over the last year or so my son has started helping me and I've had him do some of the smaller sets on his own, he enjoys it and when selling a bunch of $10 sets you wind up with the same amount of profit as you get from selling one more expensive set. A word of caution though, wait to sell the smaller sets until you've sold all the larger ones, it saves having to Bricklink pieces for an expensive set after using them on cheap one. I will still sell a mini figure to save time, but not as often as I have in the past. With older lots I would end up with 10-15 pounds of leftovers that I would sell in one shot just to get rid of, didn't make as much as I could have, but I saved time, now I wind up 5-10 pounds and sell it off in smaller lots or as sorted pieces. It's all about what your time is worth to you. I hope y'all have found this informative, and please comment on anything you do or do not agree with. I only need another 997,207 Brickpoints to get that 10179 and each comment is a +1

Welcome to the fifth and final installment of a series started by Comicblast called “The Superior Market - eBay vs. BrickLink”. If you haven't read the previous articles, I suggest you start at the beginning and read Comicblast's initial articleshere ($0.00 to $9.99 and here ($10 to $24.99). The third installment can be readhere ($25 to $49.99) and gives further background about the purpose of these articles and my approach to continuing the analysis. The fourth installment is here ($50 to $99.99).

Fees for eBay were calculated as follows:

• No insertion fee was included.
• 10% was subtracted off the sale price for eBay.
• Fees on any shipping cost were not included since it is impossible to calculate.
• 2.9% + 30 cents was subtracted off the sale price for PayPal.

Fees for BrickLink were calculated as follows:

• 3% was subtracted off the sale price for BrickLink.
• 2.9% + 30 cents was subtracted off the sale price for PayPal.

** One word of caution for the BrickLink values. BrickLink shows me the values in Canadian dollars and doesn't offer the ability to switch to a different currency despite the claims made by it's settings. I used an average of the exchange rate (1.0504) between the CDN and US dollars over the last 6 months to find the BrickLink US sale price. I.e. $1.00 US = $0.952 CDN  ** The results for MSRP Over $100 are as follows:

• BrickLink is the clear winner in terms of being the marketplace that earns sellers maximum profits.
• As usual, without fees eBay appears to be the winner as 12 sets sold for more money: 9.22% vs 6.99%
• With fees, 9 of those sets move to the BrickLink side of profit even though the remaining 3 give eBay a real advantage: 18.11% vs 11.21%

For sets with a MSRP over $100, we see the biggest difference between the two marketplaces. While those that sell for more on eBay make a higher return for the seller, BrickLink is the clear winner in terms of your chances. More sets make more money on BrickLink.

Additional things to consider:

• If you have an eBay store, you may pay significantly less fess.
• There is no free shipping on BrickLink, so the sale price shown is the true sale price.
• eBay prices will more than likely include listings that had free shipping as part of the sale price.

This round scores a TKO for BrickLink. Despite the fact that the Fire Temple sold for a whopping 38% more on eBay, it is clearly an oddball set (though a fantastic one, I love dragons in Lego). People are clearly paying high prices on eBay but there is just no match for BrickLink's lower fees. Sets that appear to make more money on eBay usually don't sell high enough to cover the fee difference. At these price ranges, that also translates into some significant money being paid in fees and lost profits.