So, it's been a while since my last blog entry, but I finally managed to find some free time to continue with one of my favorite articles to write, the effect of re-makes on LEGO sets.

This time, I wanted to analyze the impact the newly released Republic Gunship had on both of its predecessors. For some reason that's beyond me, this particular ship seems to be one of the most popular vehicles of the whole Prequel Trilogy, and LEGO has seen a lot of value in releasing it for the THIRD time this past summer.

This new version follows the same path as the 2008 version by having a pretty decent piece count of just over 1,000 pieces, along with a pretty nice selection of minifigures. As far as the actual ship design is concerned, both 7676 and 75021 share pretty much the same appearance. As one would expect, there are some changes here or there that make the new set unique, but other than that and a couple of new cool minifigures there is really nothing that would make me buy this set if I owned any of the other versions, especially 2008's.

Now, let's take a look at the price charts from Brickpicker for the older versions of the Gunship and see if we can determine the impact 75021 had on them:

I think this graph pretty much says it all. First of all, the graph shows both previous set's price trends, along with their lineal trend as well as the first month when we started seeing the new Gunship on the shelves (represented by the black vertical line). As you can see, the oldest version of the 2 has dipped some since the announcement and subsequent release of 75021, but it is 7676 that has seen the worst drop in value.

Despite going up around $40 from March to April and hovering around that price for a couple months, it suddenly dropped almost a full hundred dollars by pretty much the same time the new version started hitting the shelves or at least when it was expected to be released in a short period of time. So far, this has been the largest drop in value I have encountered when writing this series of articles, and this helps to make the inference that the market feels pretty much the same way I do: the similarities between the 2 newer versions justify just passing on the older, more expensive version in favor of the newer, cheaper one.

Those investors that unloaded their 7676 stock prior to the month of July are certainly happy they did, while those that decided to hold may be regretting it. Thanks for reading!

Okay so back in the 80's I used to work for a top advertising agency in the UK. This agency did very controversial adverts, one of which was the Carling Black label campaign's That always ended with the phrase "I bet he drinks Carling Black label!"
We were asked by Lego to do an advertising campaign for them. This campaign was to run in all the national newspapers and also on tube stations billboards etc.
After much deliberation with the creative and design departments of the agency, It was decided to focus the campaign on Michael Jackson (R.I.P) who of course was at his prime at the time. The idea was to create a life-size model of Michael made of Lego, and as advertising agencies do, add a few catchy phrases for the campaign.
Eight months in the making the model was made, shot and put together by the agency, and of course was given the go-ahead by the clients Lego. The campaign lead with the line "amazing what you can make out of plastic these days" At the time Michael Jackson denied ever having plastic surgery, and clearly this was taking the Mick out of that. The Jackson camp must've got wind of the campaign because two weeks before the campaign was due to be released, I received a hand written letter on Neverland's headed paper from the main man himself threatening legal action for defamation of character should we proceed with the campaign. Michael requested that the model was destroyed and the campaign was abandoned.

Although the campaign never pacifically mentioned Michael, after you see the advert clearly there is no doubt who it refers to. The head cheeses of the agency backed down and decided to totally abandon the campaign fearing a hefty lawsuit from Michael Jackson. The account manager for the agency ordered the model to be destroyed, but decided to keep the head for himself which he kept on his desk for a number of years before moving on and passing it down to me :-)

I was such a big fan of Michael Jackson, that I kept the original letter (as it has his signature on it) and the only copy of the advert, along with the lego head the account manager had given me. My plan was to write to him personally and maybe, just maybe I would get the opportunity to go over to Neverland and meet my idol. Alas this never happened :-(

The small print under the advert read:
"it's not our first facelift, of course. Year after year we bring out string of new hits. All of which help to keep us in the spotlight. And what about our long-term sales record? You just can't beat it. Twenty five consecutive annual sales increases, receiving no end of gold discs along the way. It always pays to remember just who's number one. And in the toy market there's certainly no bigger thriller. Lego the worlds most popular toy."

Hey there Brickpickers! Here's my first blog post, thought I'd make it a doozy. Wanted to share some of the sights from Brickcon 2013 in Seattle. I went on Sunday, day two of the event. Took my nephew and my 5 year old son, so if I lack details it is likely due to the attention spans of a 10 and 5 year old. :-)

Overall Impressions

The event is really a must see for any Lego fan in the area. The venue is somewhat small - I would expect it to expand in future years with Lego's growth - but there is a lot to see, and you can spend half a day there pretty easily. Not sure it is worth travelling a LONG distance for, but that could change in future years.

Here's a shot of part of the room to show how packed it was on the main floor.

Sellers, sellers, sellers

Being a Brickpicker, I was of course interested in the vendors who were there to sell their wares. There were a good number of custom sellers, including Brickarms and Custom Army Clones (I think i have that right).

Brickarms sells custom guns and accessories, molded from the same ABS plastic as Lego. I have to say, for a non-Lego item, they are pretty impressive and look and feel like the real thing. They had a sizable display and we picked up a few of their items.

Another cool vendor was one that sold custom capes for minifigs. All sorts of printed capes of different shapes and sizes, which again looked exactly like legit Lego capes.

A number of vendors were selling minifigs. Both custom minifigs, and minifigs from regular sets. You could find pretty much anyone you wanted, although I did not see Mr. Gold anywhere. Being there on day 2 of 2, I wonder what was sold on Day 1 when it opened.

One vendor was also selling some of the custom sets I have seen posted on here, like the Ghostbusters car.

Surprisingly, one of the busiest areas was a vendor (can't remember the name, maybe Math n Stuff) who was selling mostly current market sets at retail prices. Their area was pretty packed with people buying things they could go buy at their local Walmart or Target, or go to Amazon.com, and find for less.

A bunch of vendors were selling used and retired sets. Saw a couple of Cloud City's, and a few other cool things for market prices. There was a used adult owned Burrow 4840 for $100 which I was thinking of buying, but when I went back it was sold. I will say - I saw a number of Harry Potter used sets for sale in the morning, and they were gone in the afternoon. Ol' Harry still has a lot of draw. But I was surprised to see so many new sets being sold. Chowren Toys was a sponsor for the show, and I hoped they would have a booth, but if they did then I missed it.

There is probably an opportunity for someone like the Mack's to come in and blow everyone away with a bunch of old sets, but given what I saw the crowd buying during my time there, I am not sure it would be worth the time/money/booth investment.

Official LEGO presence

So....the only "official" Lego booth I saw was promoting - what else - Chima! Just stand in line and play some Speedzor game, and you would get a free set with Razer in it. So once again, they were using free giveaways to pump the Chima line. As a marketing technique, it might work - both my nephew and son didn't want to wait in line, we did anyway since I can't pass up free Lego, and once we got home they were having a blast with the set. Now my son wants some of the other characters. I don't think it will translate into anything better than Ninjago when it comes to investing, but something interesting to watch.

MOC's Galore

The number of MOC's on display was simply awesome and inspiring. Some you have probably seen before, but I was amazed at the skill of the AFOL's who had stuff on display. Sit back and buckle in, this will be a long ride.

There were a ton of cool things made from Bionicle parts - shout out to Exobro. :-)

This Dragon was probably 18" high and two feet long, and was really amazing.

The big alien monster thing from The Avengers was another cool one - you can see the crew batting it in the pic, sort of.

I also liked this Alien brain sucker head mask thing, which was sized for an adult!

Star Wars of course remained a popular MOC item. This was a cool mini scale Hoth battle scene diorama.

Another section had some detailed 15" tall Star Wars figures. The Han Solo in carbonite had blinking lights on the side, it was pretty awesome.

This R2D2 was as big as a real garbage can, but somehow lost his feet. Poor R2!

This one was a big MOC with an Endor scene on the top...

...and a Rebel Base hanger underneath, with regular sized X-wings and everything. pretty impressive.

I liked the Rebel trooper bowling with the soccer ball in front of the entrance.

They had the big daddy of them all of course, although I think this one had some modifcations.

And it was completely dwarfed by this. A 6 ft long Venator Attack Cruiser. This thing was amazing, and I can only imagine how many parts it was.

Here's a shot of the engines in the back. Amazing detail.

They also had the Giant Squid attacking the SSD, which people may have seen on the web making the rounds a bunch of months ago.

Super heroes were popular of course as well in the booths and on the floor. This Batcave was pretty amazing. The wall in the upper left with the costumes would rotate into a wall with bat weapons as well.

This semi-scale sized Sentinel from the Marvel comic books was pretty cool.

More super heroes stuff.

There were MOC's of all shapes and sizes. I probably took pics of like 20% of them at the most. Here are a bunch with a few comments scattered here and there.

Disney castle was cool.

This monastery on the side of a mountain was amazing. Modeled after a real life place.

Mothra was pretty funny.

This was the other cool space ship I saw, the Aurora. Just massive with a ton of detail.

I don't even know what the heck these were, cities on wheels I guess, but they were amazing.

This one cracked me up - a battle base with mechs manned by Friends figures. Really cool.

Here's the Delorean we wish we could buy.

And I would buy an A-Team van in a heartbeat - bring us a minifig BA Baracus please!

This might have been one of my favorites, just for the detail. A junked car wrapped around a tree. Such imagination, for something that most of us would never think to build.

And then there was Hogwarts...

Yes, they had the most amazing MOC of them all, the giant Hogwarts I think people have seen pics or videos of. It is breathtaking in person, and I try to say that without hyperbole. If you are a fan of the HP series, it is just incredible to see in person in every way. Every big scene at Hogwarts? It is in there. Every detail? They nailed it. I'm not sure what else to say about it, it was the best part of the show for me, and mindblowing to think of it being constructed and planned out.

Here are some pictures without comment.

Final thoughts

It was a cool event. Well worth a $9 admission fee. They were filming some sort of a documentary during the day, so perhaps you will see some video from it in the future.

And to end....obligatory Space Needle made out of Lego!

See you in 2014!

One very commonly asked question in the BrickPicker Forum is what is the better place to buy and/or sell your LEGO sets - BrickLink or eBay? More often then not, responses will list advantages and disadvantages of both services, but not necessarily which one is superior. The purpose of this article is to settle that dispute once and for all!

Several installments of this type of article will be produced in the near future, but for now, here is the first part of The Superior Market - eBay vs. BrickLink.

Several dozen sets, varying in size, will be compared, based on eBay and BrickLink sales of the last 6 months. I will try my hardest to keep these findings as non-biased and impartial as possible, as well as survey a good variety of sets that have qualifying data.

Small Sets - MSRP $0.01 - $9.99

If the image is a little small, you can click on the table and it will be enlarged.

*Average over the last 5 months. Numbers provided by BrickPicker.com and BrickLink.com Price Guides.

**Value in red signifies eBay USA has higher price, value in green signifies BrickLink has higher price.

***Percentage difference between greater sale price and lesser sale price. All values rounded to the nearest thousandth. On average, sets that sold for more on eBay USA sold 16.95% more on eBay. Sets that sold for more on BrickLink had sale prices of an average of 12.16% more than eBay. Overall though, of the 20 sets surveyed, 80% of them sold for a higher price on eBay than on BrickLink.

If you remember The Perfect Storm, it didn’t end very well for the heroes. George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg went on to create classics such as The Descendants and The Departed while their on-screen alter egos – Captain Billy Thyne and Bobby Shatford - were swallowed in a monstrous tidal wave never to be seen again. So how did I fare with my Lego selling experience in September? Was the “perfect storm” of Lego giveaways successful, or was it a disaster?

My Original Proposal

On Sunday, September 1st I will walk into the Lego Store in Downtown Disney with $102. With this $102 I will get 1 x Funhouse Escape (6857), 5 x Star Wars Battlepack (probably 75000...but might change my mind depending on qty available), 1 x VW polybag and 1 x Clone Lieutenant polybag.

I get a 10% discount at the Lego Store in DD due to my Disney annual pass. So 64.99 + 39.99 x 10% off x 8% tax rate comes out to $102.

I will sell the minifigs and Funhouse separately on Ebay, with short listings at first, maybe 1 day to take advantage of Labor Day. I will reconfigure my battlepacks to cater to the army builders (ie 10 Droidekas in a lot) and sell them all off as well. I will be one of the first VW polybags listed on Ebay as I will have both of those listed on Sunday morning, ending on Monday and shipped (hopefully) on Tuesday.

When I sell enough to earn another $102 in Paypal I will repeat the process as many times as I can during the month of September. Hopefully earning enough to where I have multiple Funhouses for sale at the same time.

Uh-Oh

So as many of you know, this is not how it went down. The Lego Store did NOT give both polybags to customers who qualified for them (while S@H did). This threw a large wrench into my plan, as I now I would have to choose: 10% discount or second poly bag?
There was a second problem I “ran” into. The Disney Marathon was taking place on Sunday, September 1st – delaying my purchase by one day. At the time this seemed like a monumental set back, but really had no effect either way on my overall outcome. So I was forced to actually make my starting purchase on Monday. I was staying at the Hotel there with my girlfriend for a nice weekend getaway, so no extra trips were required. I was also able to pick up a couple of crawlers while I was there, flipping one for a nice $150 profit in my pocket!!!
The Battlepacks also were not in stock, so I had to make a last second adjustment and went with 2 Corporate Alliance Tank Droids and 1 Mandalorian Speeder instead.

The Experience

Sales were okay. There were a few things that sold quickly (VW Polybags) and a few that just languished (thank you Robot Darth Maul).
I was able to turn my inventory about 3 times. After selling through my initial purchase I ended up with $130.46 (profit of about $28). The second wave of sales was actually done through S@H, and I bought 3 of the CATD’s and didn’t get another Mandalorian Speeder. The second round was more successful, because I also added a Golden Dragon from the Ninjago line. I bought this through TRU, surprisingly, and was able to get the free Sea Plane polybag. After this round I had $172.70 in my pocket (profit of about $70). Round three was the same as round two…but seemed like things took longer to sell. I was able to buy a second Golden Dragon and ended up with $203.35. I also had about $14 leftover that was unspent, and a Harley Quinn minifigure, and two of the CATD’s that are still unsold. My total time spent was about 6-8 hours of work. For $100. That’s about $12-$15 per hour of work. Plus a few dollars for gasoline (once to Downtown Disney, then twice to TRU, but it’s on my way home from work).

Conclusions

It was a lot of work. I spent time packaging and shipping, listing and re-listing. Also had to deal with people that wanted their items sooner (sorry buddy…but regular shipping won’t get that BatCycle to you in 48 hours for your kid’s birthday). Was it worth the trouble? Hard to say. I took what I thought was the most opportune time to part out sets and still only made about $100. The irony of this was that I made one and a half times that in about 12 minutes of work selling the 41999 Crawler. I guess the lesson here is that I probably won’t be parting out much more, as for me, it was too time intensive for the return that I got. If you are doing this, I wish you well and hope that you have better luck then I do!
So what set am I going to buy with my $203? Well, I am going to use my 10% discount, and I earned 292 VIP points…so that’s worth $14. I am just shy of being able to get an Ewok Village…probably get an R2-D2 and another Funhouse and call it a day.
Now…that Christmas Set doubled up with the Star Wars Polybag….maybe THAT’s the real PERFECT STORM!!!!

This is just a quick tip if you want to dust off your Lego sets without worrying about taking them apart and running them through the dishwasher, or meticulously wiping them with a cloth. So, I just got my Jedi Defender-class Cruiser the other day, and completed my Old Republic subtheme collection. However, my two Republic Striker-class Starfighters and my Sith Fury-class Interceptor had quite a layer of dust built up on them. They looked pretty lousy and unpresentable, so I decided to try out the 'ol air compressor on them. This turned out to be a very successful experiment, as it dusted those sets off in ten or fifteen seconds apiece. Now, they were not completely clean and still had a very thin,almost invisible layer of dust on them, but the shine of the plastic was back and the pieces were in no danger of being scratched like they are with other dusting methods. Of course, this won't work with cleaning dirt or grim off of sets, but I think that it is a great quick fix if you want to keep your display sets looking their best.

BrickPicker Notes: Hello. I would like to introduce you to Owen, AKA Stomping Freak. He has quite a story to tell. Owen was a Sergeant in the Cheshire Regiment of the British Army. He has served tours all over the world. Jeff and I thought Owen's story is a must read for many LEGO fans...and even some non LEGO fans. Owen suffers from many physical and mental disorders, but has found relief and help through building and handling LEGO bricks. I hope you enjoy his blog. It is our wish that his story might help others that suffer from similar health issues...Ed

Hi, everyone, this is me. I'm 43 years old...and disabled. I have a bone disease which is affecting my spine, legs, and hands. Depressed, well I should be. But thanks to my childhood friend, the LEGO brick, I'm starting to feel like a human being again.

Right. Let me give you some history. While most of you were leaning to wobble to the sofa, I was graduating high school, going to college, meeting girls(I was good looking with hair down to my waist), playing football, running, reading...really enjoying life. Then due to one too many broken bones, I found I was paralyzed from the waist down(There is a large piece of surgical steel in the base of my back).

Oh, check this pic, its me at my little sisters wedding:

As you can see, young, thin...Damn sexy... LOL!!!

While I was recovering, I started getting shooting pains in my hands. They began to shake and I had problems holding items. But because of my grip being strong like a clamp, I couldn't hold a cup without breaking it. Weeks passed and I had started to become run down. I could live without being able to walk, but I could not live without being able to use my hands. I was devastated. Then my friend came to see me. She felt bad that she had brought her son with her because she didn't want a child running around, making noise...etc., but he had brought his favorite toy plane with him. It was made from LEGO bricks. After a short time, the little fellow wanted me to play. I was scared of breaking his toy. I held the plane. I could feel it. It didn't break. I could hold the bricks without breaking them. One of the nurses saw this. The next day, she brought me a tray of LEGO bricks from one of the child wards. Even with shaking, I was able to build a little brick wall. WOW... it felt good! It felt friggin' amazing!

Over the next couple of months that I spent learning to walk again, my aides got me to play/build with LEGO bricks more and more. My hand/eye coordination began to improve. One week before I was discharged, I built my first LEGO Creator set, the 10218 Pet Shop. It took me three weeks to complete.

Since then, I have continued to use LEGO bricks to keep my hands working properly. I have been able to return to shooting(crossbow) on the range. I can hold mugs, cook, and perform personal care once again, all thanks to LEGO Bricks.

I love the stuff. I would like to thank Jeff for making me write this. I will continue to blog about fun things, my life, daft stuff and of course...LEGO bricks.

I know I have upset members of the forums, for that, I am sorry. I have physical and mental heath isuses(due to my past). I will delve into this next time. If you know anyone that has problems with hand and nerve injuries, buy them a LEGO set. It could really help them.

It helped me and is still is helping me.

Stomping

When I left Lego behind, I left it for something way more rock ‘n’ roll: rock ‘n’ roll. The move from primary school (elementary school) into secondary school (high school) marked the graduation from the precious toys of my childhood to the world of the pop charts.

Here in the UK in the nineties, the battle was on betweenthe two biggest ‘Brit Pop’ bands of the time; Oasis (from Manchester) and Blur(from London). As a cash-strapped teenager you followed one – for me it wasOasis (although my first ever CD was Blur). I loved both bands but looking backthey weren’t even comparable stylistically, and interestingly I listen to Blurmuch more often all these years later. For my dad things were the same – wereyou a Beatles fan, or a Stones follower? My dad has all the Beatles LPs fromhis youth but has recently been getting into the Stones too. Over in the USthere was the Tupac/Biggie beef, and the question of whether you liked Nirvanaor Guns ‘N’ Roses best... or Metallica or Megadeth. In the nineties the musicindustry thrived off that competition.

Flashback to the late eighties, early nineties. My bedroomwith my brother and sister. What would we play with that day? Lego? Or would itbe... Playmobil? The choice! In what way would we create our own adventuresthat day? I think back then my choice would have been Lego most of the time,but we definitely had time for Playmobil too. Just as Oasis and Blur fought formy attention later on, so both these European super brands vied for theprecious playtime of my childhood.

But is this really a case of Lego vs. Playmobil? Are the twocomparable? Is it possible to only be a follower of one? Is it fair to pit themagainst each other? Is it a case of loving both but only having the time ormoney for one?

For me, Lego is about the building and the creation ofsomething which only existed before as a pile of assorted bricks. Once I’dbuilt a whole town, zoo, Jurassic Park model, or whatever the theme was thatweek, I’d let my siblings play with it whilst I tinkered, improved, extended...Playmobil was about creating stories and adventures using pre-made vehicles,buildings, scenery and people. The way I played with both differed. Lego reallyis the more versatile toy although Playmobil has the advantage of not fallingapart whilst being played with. Playmobil had some great themes available (andstill does) whereas with Lego the only limit to themes was the imagination.

Last week I was wandering around my local toy shop and I wasfascinated by the Playmobil on offer – it seemed that prices were veryreasonable for what you got, some of the sets really grabbed my attention againand after sharing my thoughts with my wife she got straight on ebay and a fewhours later we had won a Playmobil auction (for our daughter, of course). Butdoes this mean I won’t encourage Lego? Does this mean the two toys are incompetition for her time now? No. Different toys. Different ways of playing.

You see, back when Blur and Oasis were battling it out, thereality was that the bands were so dissimilar to each other that it wasn’treally a case of choosing – you could appreciate each one for their own uniquecharacteristics. Same with Lego and Playmobil. But that doesn’t mean you can’thave your favourites – Lego had my heart back then, and it still does now butthat won’t stop me from enjoying Playmobil every once in a while.

Do you rate Playmobil? Do you hate Playmobil? Do you know ofany Playmobil collectors or any adult fans of Playmobil? Please comment andshare your thoughts!

Here's a topic we haven't seen here yet, and one that's near and dear to our heart... the Art of Cleaning LEGOs. After all, the difference between what looks clean, and what IS clean, isn't always black and white... but it is how parents keep their peace of mind.

So, you found that awesome used LEGO set on eBay for a fraction of the cost. Good for you! But, you don't need to be a germ-a-phoebe to know that you probably have some other, very small visitors attached to them. These visitors are called pathogens and are anything that can cause disease. They come in the form of bacteria, viruses and the such. So then, what you really bought were vectors. Sure, you could just ignore this fact and build it the second it gets in your home; risking a cold, or flu. Or, you could wait a few hours and have a B E A Utiful set that looks much better, due to it being clean, and safer, due to the lack of pathogens.

So, what are vectors? OK, I admit, actual vectors are normally DNA based molecules, like mosquitoes or flees, which help the pathogen multiply, mutate, etc, in addition to aiding in its spread. But for this specific example, we'll call your 'new to you' LEGOs vectors, since they do this last aspect quite well. Now that the technicalities are out of the way, lets discuss how can you can turn your vectors back into LEGOs?

Sure you can use hot soapy water, but how hot, and which soap? I'm sure there's tons of you that have more experience than I on this topic, so we don't claim to be the all knowing expert, but over the past year, we've experimented numerous technics to look for the best option. We've tried cleaning them in the washer with a cloth bag, but the ones that let the water in, also let our small pieces out. And we think we've found what works best for us.

So, in the immortal words of Khan: "Now, shall we begin?"

Temperature:

What temperature? Most hot water heaters are set for about 110 to 120 degrees F, but can be set higher. Important! If you have kids, particularly young kids, do not take apart your garage to get to the water heater and change its thermostat. Keep your water heater set about 110 to 115. If you want your cleaning water hotter, add some boiling water to the cooler water to bring up its temp. Besides, maintaining that higher temp in your water heater will cost you dearly and put a needless scalding hazard into your home.

Cleaner/Disinfectant:

So, you boiled your water and got your sink's water temp to 120-130 degrees F. This isn't really hot enough to kill all pathogens, but its about the hottest your hands will be able to take. So, you'll need to add some additional cleaners.

You need a soap to clean and an anti pathogen ingredient, if not already in your soap. If it isn't, you could purchase some lavender oil, or boil some fresh lavender in your water if you have any growing around the house. You can also use a variety of other natural ingredients from citrus, herb, or other oils to achieve the same effect, but we suggest lavender due to its antibacterial, antiviral, and anti fungal properties.

Another must have is white distilled vinegar. It also does the same as lavender, but adds in grease cutting abilities. In a single sink, we fill the sink half way with 120-130 degree F water, add one cup of white vinegar, 5 drops of lavender oil, and 1 tablespoon generic dish washing liquid.

Time to clean.

Cleaning:

Important! Remember that LEGO is adding more and more electronic parts to their sets. Be sure that any electric brick or part is separated before cleaning. We recommend cleaning these with an antibacterial wipe, then removing the cleaner with a moist towel before drying.

For cleaning, don't just throw your LEGOs in the sink. Keep them confined (except the really small tiles that always seem to find their way out) by using a plastic colander, or even better, an interior liner for a salad spinner. Make sure all pieces are submerged. If you have some dirty parts or large plates that like to collect dust, use a really soft brush, scrubbing in two perpendicular directions. Gently swish the pieces around the colander both in and out of the water. Then, using hot water, completely rinse all pieces, being sure to get both sides of the pieces.

Drying:

So they're clean... and wet. If you've ever cleaned LEGOs before, then you know how hard it is to get them completely dry. The little divots and crevasses underneath may increase its clutch power, but they also act like little sponge pores, trapping water for what seems like eternity.

Remember when I said it was actually better to use a salad spinner liner than a colander? Reason is because now you can take your liner and spin those pieces of plastic plastic gold. We've discovered that its better to start slow and speed up gradually. This decreases your scratch potential as we'll as decreasing damage to your salad spinner. Remember, these weren't designed for spinning something as heavy duty as LEGOs, so you need to give the pieces time to find a good position. Just like your clothes washer, you want to make sure your pieces' weight is distributed equally, or you'll have a hard time spinning the pieces fast enough to get all the water off. Once you give a good starter spin, move the pieces around to get out water trapped from the previous spin. Just repeat until you're not getting out any more water.

No salad spinner, no problem. You can also try some of these other methods:

- Cup a few smaller pieces in your hands and shake like you would before you roll the dice.

- Tap the larger pieces on their edge; hard enough to dislodge the water, but soft enough not to damage the LEGO or the surface you're tapping on.

- for larger plate pieces, tap first as above, but rub the stud face in perpendicular directions on a thick towel

Its important to get the water off your LEGOs as quickly as possible. First, residue from the water will dry in place, leaving spots on your clean LEGOs. Second, moisture is one of the biggest requirements for bacteria to reform on your bricks.

If you remember anything from this article, just remember these three things:

- If you have 'new to you' LEGOs, and kids to play with them, we implore you to clean any used LEGOs you buy.

- Using natural ingredients can be a safe alternative to harsh chemicals that can leave your LEGOs almost as toxic as when you got them.

- Lastly get the water off your LEGOs as quickly as you can to maintain cleaning's aesthetic and sanitarial benefits.

Also, if you're selling a set of LEGOs, putting in your listing the fact that you cleaned them prior to packaging couldn't hurt your bottom line either, right? We've seen some nasty stuff come our way, and we know that this time wont be spent in vain. Let's make sure we keep LEGO the safest, best toy in history.

Additional:

Some great sites for other natural cleaning recipes:

- http://www.macheesmo.com/2011/01/four-homemade-cleaners/

- http://gogreenamericatv.com/the-blender-girls-top-natural-cleaning-uses-for-essential-oils/

- http://www.herbsociety.org/resources/t4k/documents/LectureHerbalHousekeepingHandout.pdf

- http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art50467.asp

Note: We do not endorse, nor do we support any essential oil product. Whichever you choose will minimize the use of chemicals on the LEGOs.

First, a little background on me so you know where I'm coming from. I worked for FedEx Ground/Home Delivery in the terminal unloading trailers and loading delivery trucks for 2 years and was a delivery driver and contractor for 5 years, so I've seen how your packages get handled. I want to help make sure that your 41999 gets where it's supposed to without being beat to hell.

Packaging:
First off, start stashing away packaging materials. Save the boxes you get from shipments (assuming they aren't beat up). Keep the bubble wrap and air bubbles from them too. Ask your friends, Romans, and countrymen to save them for you. Every piece you can save is a little bit more profit you're making.

Supplement your stash by getting on USPS.com and ordering a nice variety of Priority Mail shipping boxes. Most everything is free, so don't feel bad about ordering more than you think you need. The most useful boxes are the 1092, 1095, and 1097 boxes which will fit your smaller sets up to the size of Orc Forge. The square 4 box and shoe box are great for Minecraft. You also want to grab a few Express Mail boxes for those last-minute gifts. Don't forget to order a few rolls of stickers to slap on your box seals, since the ones on the boxes don't always stay stuck. If you've ever gotten an order that was delivered in one of these boxes, you'll know that they aren't very crush-resistant. It's OK if you're flipping a City set to some parent who doesn't care about condition. But don't send expensive sets in USPS-provided boxes or you'll be sorry.

Next up, you'll probably want to visit uline.com. The 16"x24"x4" boxes will hold the larger sets (like Jabba's Palace), and you have to buy them in 25 piece lots. They run me about $55 shipped, though your price will vary with the shipping cost.

You'll also want to stock up on thick bubble wrap and tape. Don't be cheap with your tape. It's a very inexpensive item and it isn't worth trying to save a buck if your tape breaks and you have a box come open.

For your more expensive sets: Double box it. Insure it. Require a signature. It's a few bucks that can save you a lot of headaches. Where you draw the line for "expensive" is up to you.

How Your Package Gets Treated
Take a look at this video just to get an idea of what your box is going to go through: http://youtu.be/iYzQ7JSBIGU?t=40s

Now that you've seen that, remember that's the video that FedEx is LETTING you see. You know all those boxes piling up? I've seen times when the overhead chute gets clogged and boxes pile up and start falling from 15 feet up. I've seen corners catch in the sorting aisle and get ripped apart. And just think what a 50 pound box sliding down one of those chutes will do to the box in front of it.

You also should remember that while it's a mint in sealed box Cloud City to you, to the people at the terminal it's just one of thousands of packages they deal with every day. They aren't going to handle it with care.

The Last Mile
The better relationship you have with your delivery drivers, the better they'll treat your stuff. Don't forget that your driver is a human being and not a cyborg. They spend 8+ hours a day driving a truck by themselves. Learn their names. Don't throw a fit because they didn't leave your package. Believe me, they want it off the truck too. For Ground/HD, it's usually money out of the driver's pocket if something gets stolen. Let them know where you'd like boxes left if you aren't home. Offer the guy a Coke sometime.

And please, take care of your guys at the holidays, especially if you see them all the time. The end of the year is a rough time of year. At FedEx, we worked 6 days a week from Thanksgiving to Christmas. Even just a plate of cookies will be appreciated more than you know.

Hopefully this has provided a little window into what your package is going to deal while your carrier has it. Use it and you shouldn't have any problems this holiday season.

And If you take nothing else away, remember this: Don't ever, ever, ever, under any circumstances write FRAGILE on your package. Ever. FRAGILE is a French word meaning, "I'm going to throw this box even harder than I throw every other box". Believe me, I know from experience. Write GLASS.

Remember: GLASS is breakable, FRAGILE is French. OK? OK.

As LEGO.com experiments with their new computer system, many of us have noticed slightly longer waiting times on their customer service phone lines. We needed to call a few times in the past week, and joined the waiting line. We had time, so out of curiosity, we did an average of our waiting times to calculate sets that you could probably complete while you're waiting.

While some of us might build a little faster or slower, we're assuming times for slower builders to make sure everyone could complete in time. Here's our top 10:

10. 3450: The Statue of Liberty:

9. 10030: UCS Imperial Star Destroyer

8. 10221: UCS Super Star Destroyer (Executor)

7. 10196: The Grand Carousel

6. 10181: The Eiffel Tower

5. 10143: UCS Death Star II (original trilogy edition)

4. 10188: UCS Death Star

3. 10214: The Tower Bridge

2. 10179: UCS Millennium Falcon

1. 10189: The Taj Mahal

We know no one likes to wait on the phone, especially when there's a problem to fix. However, if you pull out one of these sets and start building, it should take up most of your waiting time. Just keep that LEGO spirit and maybe it won't seem so bad.

January to August would be spent playing with new Christmas Lego and pouring over the new year’s catalogue in order to make important decisions about birthday presents; the same process for August to December ready for Christmas. Between me and my brother we did pretty well, and since his birthday was in June there was another income of bricks during the year too. I was pretty influential in his choices but then everything was shared – for us Lego was not something to be played with alone.
So, in a roundabout way that brings me to my top 5 childhood Lego sets:

#6380 – Emergency Treatment Centre – 1987 – 308 pieces – 5 minifigures

In 1987 I would have turned 3 so I guess I would have been 4 or 5 when I received this set. This was my first ‘BIG’ set – more than just a vehicle or a ‘Basic’ set and with a detailed and sustained set of instructions. I can remember building this for the very first time and it felt wonderful to be making something so substantial. This one was rebuilt many a time during my childhood – whenever a town layout was built on our purpose built Lego play table (thanks Dad!).

As a build this one was very simple – a case of just building up the layers. I can almost visualise the instructions for this and perhaps know some of it by heart. The pieces included came in very useful for MOCing (I didn’t know it was called that back then, I just that’s what you did with Lego – old habits die hard). These pieces were also the basis for another model in the Lego Ideas Book from 1990 although I’m sure I made it, I can’t remember doing so.

#6274 – Caribbean Clipper – 1989 – 378 pieces – 4 minifigures

My first ‘BIG’ Pirate set (definitely my favourite theme as a child) courtesy of my Grandma (who always came through with the ‘BIG’ Lego sets). I probably also wanted the larger ‘Black Seas Barracuda’ from the same year but I was more than happy with this one. I can remember building this one too and I loved it even more because I loved the Pirates theme so much.

This was another simple build with the two hull pieces making up the bulk of the ship. The cannon were a fun play feature as were the small flaps for them to hide behind. The rigging and sails were a nice touch as was the wind-in anchor. I definitely remember trying to make this float too – not sure I succeeded.

#6278 – Enchanted Island – 1994 – 428 pieces – 7 minifigures

Notice how as the years go by, there are more pieces in the sets? I wonder if that’s a general trend or just a coincidence. Enchanted Island; so good Lego released this set twice – the second time much later on in 2001 (with fewer pieces?!). Man, I loved this sub-theme – I actually think I had ALL the Indigo Islanders sets (I need to check that, though). This was a very playable set and for me and my siblings it provided hours of entertainment, especially alongside the Caribbean Clipper (which may have been commandeered by the pirates by this point). I also remember that it took me a decent amount of time to build which is always a good thing in my books.

One thing that strikes me particularly about this set (and others at the time) is the base plates – many sets at a similar price point (£50) these days don’t come with a base plate, let alone two, and therefore seem a lot smaller to me. I like baseplates – these ones let our imagination run wild when creating our own builds.

#6195 – Neptune Discovery Lab – 1995 – 508 pieces – 4 minfigures

Yet again, a higher piece count at the same price (£50). This was not strictly mine – my brother got this for his birthday (he would have been 6 or 7). This was another theme which we were totally sold on – between us I think we had most of the Aquazone sets from when it was Aquanauts and Aquasharks. Without the other sets I think this theme was a bit limited for creative play as there is only so much you can do with underwater (if you play realistically) but we did enjoy this.

Again, plenty of playability in this set, great baseplates, lots of unique elements and to me still, really attractive aesthetics. The addition of the submarine craft was an excellent selling point too.

#5541 – Blue Fury – 1995 – 421 pieces

Sadly this was one of the last, if not the last, Lego sets I had before descending into teenage-induced darkness. 1995 was the year I started secondary school (I was 11) and whilst I definitely still played with Lego at that time and for a couple more years, I definitely stopped asking for new Lego at birthdays and Christmas. Looking back now, it seems too early to have given up. This model was still displayed in my room until I went away to university at the age of 18 so maybe my Lego love was just hibernating!

Anyway, as you can see, I’m in the throes of remaking this although missing parts are a pain. One particular difficult one is the curved section of chrome tailpipe – if anyone can find me one I’d be forever grateful! Rebuilding this is a ton of fun although having recently built the Creator Highway Speeder it is incredible to see how many changes there are in build technique – the Lego designers really have made progress in how they utilise both new and old pieces.

My childhood with these sets was a happy one – many of my hours were spent playing with Lego (it is almost the only toy I played with inside the house). For a boy growing up in the 90s there was nothing more one could want – it felt like we had it all (although I always wished for a Vikings theme). I know for some the 90s sets paled compared to the sets they grew up with in the 80s but I suppose we get very attached to things which were formative to us – there is much sentiment and attachment to the toys of our childhood.

I would love to hear from you – did you have any of these sets? How did you like them? What are your top 5 childhood Lego sets? What memories do you have of them?

I remember recieving a Mega Bloks monster truck as a child. About half way through the build, a few pieces would pop off when I pressed a piece on. It was very frustrating, and I put it away. When I was a little older, I tried to put it together again. This time i only needed to place one or two more pieces and the thing would have been complete. However, random pieces started popping off again when I would press a different piece into place.

Therefore, I "maturely" remedied the situation by "zooming" the truck off the top of the stairs and watching it flip over and over, crashing, smashing, and tumbling its way down. It was a glorious sight as the beast dissapeared into a haze of purple bloks that were flung off during its first and last journey. At last the pathetic excuse for a toy came to busted halt at the bottom of the stairs. Barley recognizable. It was missing a wheel or two and shed most of it's body on the way down. Meanwhile, I was standing at the top of the stairs with an evil laugh thinking to myself, "If you're going to radomly lose bloks, then I'm going to give you a reason to lose them!" Watching that set explode was definitely the most fun I had with it.

That pretty much ended my interest in ever getting another megabloks set. In fact, I even asked my aunt and uncle for the reciept on a mega bloks skate park set they bought me one year for my birthday so that I could buy a lego set. I wound up getting 4950 Loader-Dozer from the Rock Raiders theme so it was a great trade in my opinion.

Many people (such as parents looking for a cheaper alternative) think that it is just a personal preference. These people believe that since Mega Bloks are "compatible" with Lego, that means they are just as good. I am here to tell them that they are wrong.

When I was younger, my opinion was the following: "Lego bricks are better than Mega Bloks because they stick together better." Even though I have gained a great deal of technical background and understanding since those days, my opinion has largley remain unchanged. This brings us to our first point.

Quality

Even at a really young age, I was able to tell the difference in the plastic quality between Lego and Mega Bloks.
-Color: Lego bricks are always so rich in color and shine, and Mega Bloks always looked like they have sat out in the sun too long.
-Density: Lego bricks are more dense than Mega Bloks. Density is the unit of mass per volume. If you take a 1X4 Lego Brick and compare it to a 1X4 Mega Block, they have roughly the same volume, but the Lego brick weighs more, therefore it has more mass per volume and is more dense. At any rate it is made of a stronger plastic. This higher density and stronger plastic ensures less flexing when pieces are pressed together. This results in a tighter fit and the Lego pieces do not randomly pop off like Mega Bloks do.
-Control: This is just a guess, but I also figure that the quality control for Lego is more strict than for Mega Bloks.

Tolerances

My final semester in school, I took a class called Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerances (GD&T). It has everything to do with the actual manufactre of a part. Take a lego brick for example. Lets say that a certain lego brick has to be 1 inch* in length. Well in the real world, that lego brick will likely never be exactly 1 inch. In fact 3 different bricks can be 1.011", 0.996", and 1.009". Very close to 1 inch, but not. I believe that Lego has strict tolerances. For this particular part the dimension may be 1+/-0.01". This means that the lego brick can be between 0.990" and 1.010" and pass quality control. Since the first brick fell out of this tolerance by 0.001", it would be discarded. (Probably thrown back into the oven and re-melted to try again). Mega Blok's tolerances are probably less strict. In this made up example, they'd be closer to 1+/-0.05" with a range of 0.95" to 1.05" so all three Mega Bloks of the same lengths mentioned before would pass quality control making it easier to get a piece that doesn't hold strong. Holding dimensions to a higher tolerance is more expensive on the company's end, Lego puts more money into quality control. because they have a brand name associated with high quality. This allows them to charge more for retail compared to Mega Bloks.

These tolerances would apply to every dimension on a brick. Take a 1X4 brick for example. There are height, depth, and width dimensions that must fall within tolerances, 8 diamter dimensions of the studs on top, 3 diameter dimensions of the tubes underneath. And probably a whole lot more. Also the studs have to be the right distance away from each other so that they are small enough to fit inside the bottom of another brick, but large enough so they press fit in tightly and do not allow the brick on top to slip off. Incredible design work when you think about it.

To recap: From my youthful experiences and recently gained technical understanding, my "professional" and largley biased opinion is as follows;

"Lego bricks are better than Mega Bloks because they are held to a higher tolerance." which...simply put...means...THEY STICK TOGETHER BETTER!

Keep Laughing! (This one's a cheap shot) From a literature standpoint, Lego is still better. It's name has foreign language roots. All Mega Bloks does is teaches kids how to spell blocks wrong....

I will leave you with a great quote from Family Guy.

Peter: You got Legos? Aw, sweet! Lois only buys me Mega Bloks.
Lois: They're the same thing, Peter.
Peter: You know what, Lois? They are not the same thing. And the sooner you get that through your thick skull, the sooner we can get this marriage back on track.

*Even though I'm from the USA, to all my UK or other country readers out there, I love the
metric system and I really wish America would switch...

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 (May data)

One Month Growth (change in Market Price from last month)

We have a Hero Factory set topping the charts! It’s on the back of a solid 70 units sold in July as well. As expected there are quite a few new entrants on the list as that reflects volatility in prices when only looking at a change from 1 month to the next.

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 Jan 2013 )

Another Hero Factory set tops the list! Maybe I should start to look into these sets a little more… or at least gather data on more of them. Lots of new entrants again, some with pretty low volumes but others that really deserve their position. 8083, 21016, 5887, 3936, etc have all been great performers and you be well pleased to have had a few of those in your investment portfolio over recent months.

One Year Growth (change in Market Price from July 2012)

Now we start to see some solid performers over a more reliable length of time. 6808 Galaxy Trekkor at the top can be discounted due to extremely low volumes, but there are plenty of others that command respect.

9574 Loyd ZX and 9465 Zombies enter the 1 year chart now that they have been released more than a year ago. 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 May 2011)

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. Level Crossing hold on to top spot on the list with a phenomenal 272.7% increase over 2 years. 5 of the top 10 have actually gone up in ranks from our chart two months ago, proving that they continue to be excellent investment options.

Retail Growth (change in Market Price from last month)

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 relesed 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.

Conclusions

Completing this exercise again it is still clear that cheap older polybag sets with super low volumes dominate the lists a little, hopefully that’s something I may address in the future with a volume limit or something similar.

One thing that does explain it a little is the fact that the filter algorithms Jeff has developed for the Ebay listings are constantly being improved and this means that the data you see for one month’s update may get altered next time around as the filters get enhanced.

The other major discussion point is that these top 20 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.

I’ve only given a cursory analysis of the lists themselves and would like to leave it to you on how best to interpret the results. The numbers should speak for themselves and I’d like to hear your take on them in the comments below.

To further explain, Lego Stores and Lego S@H are running a free promotional giveaway. Free with a $75 order is a Mini-VW polybag (40079). Also, if you spend $50 in Star Wars merchandise you receive a free Clone Trooper Lieutenant (5001709). By all accounts you could spend $50 on Star Wars and add $25 on anything else and receive both of the polybags. The Clone Trooper by itself sells for between $25 and $35 on Ebay. I am assuming that those buyers are aware that this polybag will be $50 in a few days...and you get $50 worth of free Star Wars Lego!

So if you have ever come accross any of my posts on the message boards you will have learned a few things: 1) I have an odd sense of humor 2) I really like the Dynamic Duo Funhouse Escape 3) I do a mixture of selling off sets as well as holding sets and 4) I preach just buying the minimum amount to take advantage of Lego giveaways. With these things in mind, I am going to do a little experiment in September, and let everyone see how it goes step by step.

The Proposal

On Sunday, September 1st I will walk into the Lego Store in Downtown Disney with $102. With this $102 I will get 1 x Funhouse Escape (6857), 5 x Star Wars Battlepack (probably 75000...but might change my mind depending on qty available), 1 x VW polybag and 1 x Clone Lieutenant polybag.

I get a 10% discount at the Lego Store in DD due to my Disney annual pass. So 64.99 + 39.99 x 10% off x 8% tax rate comes out to $102.

I will sell the minifigs and Funhouse separately on Ebay, with short listings at first, maybe 1 day to take advantage of Labor Day. I will reconfigure my battlepacks to cater to the army builders (ie 10 Droidekas in a lot) and sell them all off as well. I will be one of the first VW polybags listed on Ebay as I will have both of those listed on Sunday morning, ending on Monday and shipped (hopefully) on Tuesday.

When I sell enough to earn another $102 in Paypal I will repeat the process as many times as I can during the month of September. Hopefully earning enough to where I have multiple Funhouses for sale at the same time.

Limitations

I will not be able to add any of my own money after the $102. I will also make sure that there is enough money to pay my Ebay fees at the end of the month. Also, all shipping will be paid with my Paypal account too, so what is left is my profits (less the $102 of course). On September 30th I will revisit the Lego Store and buy the single most expensive set I can with my money. So will I be able to buy a UCS R2-D2? Or will I only be able to buy a Chima Speedorz? Just a side note - I WILL use my VIP points earned throughout the month to increase my earnings.

I will try to keep my fellow Brickpickers updated as to my progress throughout the month, as well as keep a loose schedule of the time I spend doing this...as I am sure people would be interested to know for example, if I spent 13 hours to make $24.

I am open to suggestions of course...so feel free to add your opinions of how you think I will do or if you are even interested to find out how it ends. I will try to keep you updated through the forums or the comments section of this blog.

Conclusions

After I purchase my set on September 30th I will show everyone how much work it takes and how much money can be earned by parting out sets. This is by no means the be all end all for the debate on if you should part sets out or sell MISB or even if you should flip quickly or buy and hold. But it is probably the optimal time to part sets out, even if I am not the optimal person to do it.

To finish up our movie analogy: good old GC and Marky Mark were swallowed up by some ginormous wave and never seen again. Not sure how that applies to me, but I hope I do better than that.

Feel free to use these pictures for anything you'd like as long as you give me credit for taking them.

The SDCC model was made by the SANDLUG and displayed at the LEGO store in Fashion Valley Mall.

Here's the link:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151831238849467.1073741832.535494466&type=1&l=606426e44d

Our recent Review and Blog content contests were very successful and we received a large influx of quality and informative LEGO set reviews and LEGO based blog articles. Building upon that success, Jeff and I would like to offer members DOUBLE BRICKPOINTS on any LEGO set reviews and blogs that are submitted from August 21, 2013 to September 21, 2013...the last day of Summer. I might even reward more than double on certain exceptional content.

Remember, these BrickPoints can be used to acquire LEGO sets in our BRICKPOINTS STORE. Here are a couple of quick points to remember:

• Jeff and I will be flexible with the LEGO sets available in the store. If there is not a set to your liking, we can swap it out for another LEGO set of similar MSRP cost or LEGO Gift Card.
• BrickPoints awarded for review and blog content are based on character count, quality, research involved, photos and charts submitted.
• Blogs that are submitted will be published in the order in which it will be most effective and interesting for the other members. Any quality blog will be published and will get credited in due time, just be patient. Reviews are published quickly. Blogs are spaced apart.
• Reviews need to be 1000 characters long to qualify and blogs need to be more than a couple of sentences. Spelling, grammar, capitalization, and punctuation all count. I do not want to waste my time correcting basic errors.

Good luck and I look forward to posting some interesting new content. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns...

July 2013 Top Ten

1- One of the favorite sets for investors has finally made the best selling lists and in what a way. The Funhouse Escape has secured the top position of this month's list with 261 New units sold, up from 116 last month. This set is a TRU exclusive in the same price range as the Orc Forge from the LOTR, and is constantly recommended by several members in the forums as well. One has to wonder what exactly produced such a large jump in sold values, maybe investors are ramping up summer purchases?

261 Sold (New)

2- Once again Minecraft proves to be a sales powerhouse, staying in the top position of this list for several months already. It has been such a successful set that LEGO recently announced the production of even more models based on the online game, with even its own "theme" section in the S@H page. It seems Minecraft is here for the long run.

223 Sold (New)

3- Somewhat of a surprise, this Creator Construction Hauler set sits in the Top 3 of July's list. However, this is not necessarily a rare occurrence, as the set was just released and probably experienced that "new release" effect that gets a lot of people buying it as soon as it comes out. Pretty cool set, we will have to see how it positions itself next month.

232 Sold (New)

4- Another long standing member of the Top 10 list, the Millennium Falcon 7965 continues to prove itself as the single most popular ship in the Star Wars universe. The set saw a pretty decent increase in sales from June to July, and this trend will only get more prominent with the holiday season in the horizon. Will this be the last year for 7965? I seriously doubt it.

204 Sold (New)

5- This really nice looking Creator polybag really does not come as a surprise. The polybag was given as a promotional item during a pretty long period of time on purchases over $75, which generated a large supply of this in the market by sellers wanting to recover some of the cost of their LEGO purchase. Of course, this kind of sale activity does not happen with every single promo item, but the appeal of this particular one and its compatibility with LEGO City and modular layouts turned it into a popular item.

207 Sold (New)

6- On my last entry I wanted to check where this set would place once the "early retirement" situation was completely forgotten. Well, it seems that the set continues to be very popular, probably as a consequence of it being one of the most iconic locations of the original trilogy and a great collection of high quality minifigures.

168 Sold (New)

7- Interesting to keep seeing this set in the top positions. As I have said before, this is a really underrated set, in my opinion, that has proven to be an excellent investment in a relatively short period of time (Current Market Value: $ 383.93). Even at the higher price tag it continues to sell extremely well on eBay.

95 Sold (New)

8- This small set contains what I think is the most popular character of the entire X-Men franchise for a very affordable price. It is my belief that this is probably the reason it sells so well, but we have to note that even though it has performed (sales wise) very good in July, the previous months were nothing worth mentioning. I have no concrete proof, but I would assume that the set got clearanced in several stores and quick flippers are unloading them.

71 Sold (New)

9- First Ninjago set I see on the list, and one that I really did not expect. Most of my knowledge of these sets is limited to the largest sets, so I can't really give an informed opinion about why this set experienced such a high jump in sales. I would think summer clearance had something to do with it, as with the previous and next set, but that is only speculation.

137 Sold (New)

10- The last entry of this month is a small set that appears to be retired at this point. With 134 new units sold, I would assume that a lot of last minute investors and collectors hurried up to get this one before prices started to go up.

134 Sold (New)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And with this, our July entry about Top Selling sets is officially closed. One thing to look for in the next update will for sure be the position of the Limited Edition Crawler, that with the short release and apparent success on eBay will probably find a place in the Top 20. Thanks for reading

· Birthday present from colleagues: eVoucher for online Lego store which is going towards the purchase of a set I’ve wanted for ages (I think even before I emerged from my dark ages): The VW T1 Campervan. Alongside my love of Lego I have a love of VWs and it only makes sense for me to wait until September to order this as then I’ll get a free mini Lego Campervan too!

· Birthday presents from family: Lego (along with Lego cards, cakes, marshmallow lollies, chocolate brownies, brick-shaped erasers... and The Settlers of Catan (but that’s another obsession))

· Donations. I know a lot of people. I know many people whose children, like me, have grown up. People who have Lego stashed away somewhere. My first donated set came this week. A Lego Mindstorms Inventor System 2.0 from way back when Mindstorms were new. Now, as it happens the batteries have been leaking acid into the robot unit for a good few years now and it looks like it’s ruined (unless anyone can help me here?) but the fact that I got free Lego still stands (the rest of the set is still usable – and possibly there are re-sellable parts i.e. sensors etc?

I’ve also begun to affect those around me... or maybe that should be infect? My auntie text me yesterday to say they were in the Lego shop in Manchester and that they were thinking of me and that my teenage cousins were building minifigures! I’ve got a friend who has become an avid CMF collector, having only been a casual collector before we found we shared an interest. My teenage brother now builds Lego regularly (his latest a Glastonbury Pyramid Stage complete with band).

I’ve discovered that it definitely pays to be open and honest about your Lego obsession – don’t be ashamed!

The word “Volkswagen” derives from the German phrase “people’s car”. It was designed under the requirements that it carry 5 people and be able to travel 22 mpg, a stunning number, at the time. Eventually, the car was further developed to drive more efficiently as well as have higher speeds.^

Despite the changes within the frame of the Beetle, the initial shape stayed the same throughout the decades of production. See below for comparisons:

1949 Volkswagen Beetle

1972 Volkswagen Beetle

2003 Volkswagen Beetle (Last model produced)

5 years after the final Volkswagen Beetle was produced in 2008, The LEGO Company released a model of the iconic vehicle, featuring 1,626 pieces, and retailing for $119.99 USD.

The Volkswagen Beetle LEGO model uses primarily bricks with studs rather than curved smooth pieces that could have otherwise been used to recreate the smooth flowing surface and shape of the Volkswagen. Instead, studs are used, which gives the build a more chunky shape, which I think could have been done differently, as it can be difficult to make the iconic curves of the Beetle with bricks.

This particular LEGO Volkswagen Beetle was based off the 1960 Beetle. After all, the license plate does read WOB-VW 1960. WOB an abbreviation for “Wolfsburg, the ‘home town’ of Volkswagen”*.

Now, let’s compare the LEGO Volkswagen Beetle to the real 1960 Volkswagen Beetle!!

1960 Volkswagen Beetle Cutaway Picture

LEGO Volkswagen Beetle Open Picture

1960 Volkswagen Beetle Picture

LEGO Volkswagen Beetle Picture

I personally think that LEGO didn’t do a great job with this particular set because they could have used sloped pieces, and pieces with curves in order to better recreate the actual Beetle. The LEGO version seems overall much more stout than the actual, and has too much texture to it. The interior of the car, on the other hand, was done well, especially the chairs and dashboard.

LEGO did manage to include the iconic headlights of the Volkswagen Beetle, but since the LEGO version is so wide, the headlights almost seem out of place. LEGO also could have added chrome “umbrella” pieces as hubcaps instead of the duller silver-gray color that was chosen. The rear-view mirrors of the car were done well, and very creative, which is a nice bonus. Overall, this set visually earns itself 7/10.

^http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_Beetle

*http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=14180&#entry242123

The Volkswagen Beetle has been on a very respectable increase over the past year, and with nearly a 40% increase from $336 last June. Now, let’s look at a few tables that I put together for the Volkswagen Beetle, and the sales in the last 90 days…      

Based on these numbers, and the average total sale price of sets in the last 90 days, we can guess that the Volkswagen Beetle is worth about $572.20. Now this number does include international sales, which is different from BrickPicker data, so the number you see is an approximate value.

This means that the Volkswagen Beetle has increased in value approximately 16% over the last 2 months (June-July), or an average of 8% per month, which is a very constant growth, as it grew 7.21% in May 2013, and does show potential as a set to grab for investment, even 5 years after retirement!

Though the Volkswagen Beetle was not the strongest build, the investment potential and value of the set is high, and definitely a strong contestant in the investment game!!

I hope you enjoyed this article!

This abundance of what everyone sees as amazing deals has an effect that can be both positive or negative, depending on the individual investor that happens to read them. On one hand, seeing those kind of prices can move the investor to a more active deal searching strategy that can pay off big if they are diligent and insistent. On the other, there is a chance that a particular investor looking for clearance deals is spending more money and time looking for deals than it is worth it to them.

Why could these two scenarios be so different? well, there are several variables that impact an investor's ability to find good deals. The following are just some of them:

• Investor's location: It is no secret that the best deals are often founds in either smaller towns or "low income" neighborhoods. Finding good deals in the larger cities is extremely difficult, both for the sheer amount of people concentrated around the stores and for the variety and, usually, abundance of middle to high income families.
• Investor's effort: It can't be denied that someone who tries harder is more likely to find good discounts than someone that only makes an occasional trip to the large retailers. Having said that, as we will see later this is not necessarily a good or bad thing in and on itself.
• Store policy: Most of the time, the decision about what items to clear from the stores is left up to each store's manager. There is not much the investor can do about this point, just get to know the local store policy and maybe get to know the employees.

To me, those three are the most important factors that result in an investor being able to find or not clearance deal in their particular location.

Having laid this out, I want to get to the real point of this article: Is hunting for clearance deals really cost efficient and rewarding both short or long term?. There is no clear answer to this question, as each investor is different and has a different strategy and resources. When I was writing my Cost of LEGO investing articles, I got to see first hand the financial impact hunting for clearance deals in stores can have on the investor's bottom line, so in here I would like to isolate that topic in particular and determine who can benefit and who can't with this strategy.

For the mentioned article, I used the AAA estimated cost per mile to drive a vehicle in the US as a way to know what is the price of driving around from store to store on any given day. Adding to that, there is definitely the cost of the investor's time that could be spent doing something else, but since that is really dependent on each individual there is not really a good number I could use that applied to everyone, so just know that we are keeping that out of the equation.

AAA's estimate cost per mile driven is somewhere around $ 0.61. This cost is inclusive of gas as well as pretty much every single cost that is included while driving like insurance, repairs, etc. So. let's examine several different scenarios using only one set as our main example. Let's base our numbers on 9474 Helm's Deep and use several different investor profiles.

Scenario 1: The investor drives 15 miles to the local Target/Walmart and finds Helm's Deep on clearance for $ 80. Purchase: 2 Sets. (Taxes are ignored)

Scenario 2: The investor drives to the same store, but this time acquires 5 sets, all of the ones that are available on the shelf.

You can clearly see that, logically, the more sets the investor purchases the more the fixed cost of driving is spread out. As a result, the investor buying in larger quantities actually benefits greatly from the clearance price, while the small buyer gets a price that is not much lower than what we have seen on the set at some points.

Now, this analysis leave something out of the picture: it assumes both investors did only one trip to the retailer and found the set on clearance on their very first try. We all know this is extremely unlikely, and even if it were to happen it is very hard that this could be the case every single time the investor visits the store. Usually, investors make several trips to the stores where they find absolutely nothing worth purchasing, so let's add those costs to our analysis.

Scenario 3: The investor drove to the store two times before scoring the deal explained above, and purchased the 2 sets on his third visit.

Here you have it. If the investor drove three times back and forth between his home and the local retailer and bought the two discounted sets at $ 80, the ending cost of each set is almost $ 110. We have seen the set at around this price point several times on different online retailers. Scenario 4: Same as Scenario 3, but this time the investor bought 5 sets on the third visit.

Once again the large investor gets a better deal. Having said that, I think it is pretty evident that the potential costs are very sensitive and can add up quickly in both cases with each individual visit to the store. The moment the investor visits the store more than 4 or 5 times without finding a deal, the more costly those purchased sets will become. In a lot of cases, the actual cost of the set may very well end up being more than its MSRP. Also, keep in mind that we are ignoring the cost of the investor's time in the scenarios above.

Even if you only consider gas as your only driving cost, something that is not accurate, the cost of driving a total of three times to a store located 15 miles away from your home will add around $ 10 to the total cost of your sets (assuming 30 MPG).

What this analysis tells us is that most investors from this site will get better results by purchasing the sets online and browsing the different sites for good deals rather than spending the time and money driving around the stores. Of course, there are some investor that can benefit from hunting for clearance deals:

• An investor who knows their local market extremely well and scores deals in most of his visits. Brickpicker member Lowest Form Of Wit has several times posted how he is able to visit his local stores (especially Walmart) and get at least one great set for a great price. This does not mean everyone can do it, it just happens that his area is good for LEGO hunting and he has been able to capitalize on that opportunity.
• High volume investors: As proven above, those investor that have the resources to invest in several copies of the same set are the ones that would benefit the most from hunting local deals. By purchasing as many sets as available at clearance price they are able to spread out the fixed costs of driving among a large amount of sets, therefore making it worth it.

If you fall into any of the two categories above, you could continue with your deal hunting strategy as you see fit, always keeping in mind all the costs involved. If you are a different investor than these two types, you are better served spending your time hunting for deals online instead of hunting for that 50% deal that once you factor in the cost of the times you did not find anything can end up being equivalent to a 5% discount....or even to paying above MSRP!

To further the discussion, I figured I would try to estimate the number of sets, and number of sets by model, that are released by continent to get a better feel for each of these mass markets, and then try to further segment these mass markets into markets by specific countries.

To determine the percentage of sets for each continent, I looked up the GDP by continent, and used the percentage of continental GPD vs. global GDP to come up with a multiplier. Then, the quantity of sets and sets by model were multiplied by the GDP percentages to come up with a set total by continents. Without further ado, here are the results:

Data provided by the World Bank

Asia: 30.8% of global GDP / 25.2 million sets / 49,700 sets by model number
Europe: 30.5% of global GDP / 25.0 million sets / 49,200 sets by model number
North America: 27.8% of global GDP / 22.8 million sets / 44,900 sets by model number
South America: 6.0% of global GDP / 4.9 million sets / 9,700 sets by model number
Oceania: 2.5% of global GDP / 2.1 million sets / 4,000 sets by model number
Africa: 2.4% of global GDP / 2.0 million sets / 3,900 sets by model number

What do we glean from these estimates? First, while the US market is the biggest in the world, the Asian continent claims the biggest GDP, and therefore the largest percentage of sets among the continents. Europe is actually second largest, slightly behind Asia, which begs the question of whether pricing differences between European and North American markets are about how each market perceives the value of the toy rather than the competition of the market.

To get a deeper, and perhaps more useful estimate of how many sets each individual markets receive, let's further segment the continents into specific countries. I will use the % GDP of the country to the continent and multiply this percentage by the quantity calculated for each continent above. Here are the results for specific countries by continent:

countries are listed in alphabetical order by continent

Asia - 49,700
China: 38.8% of Asian GDP, 19,300 sets per model number
Japan: 28.1%, 14,000 sets
India: 8.7%, 4,300 sets
South Korea: 5.3%, 2,600 sets

Europe - 49,200 sets
Denmark: 6.4% of European GDP, 3,100 sets per model number
Germany: 16.2%, 7,970 sets
France: 12.5%, 6,150 sets Italy: 9.6%, 4,720 sets
Spain: 6.4%, 3,150 sets
UK: 11.6%, 5,710 sets

North America - 44,900 sets
Canada: 9.5% of North American GDP, 4,270 sets per model number
Mexico: 6.2%, 2,780 sets
United States: 82.2%, 36,910 sets

Oceania - 4,000 sets
Australia: 90.3% of Oceania GDP, 3,600 sets per model number
New Zealand: 8.3%, 330 sets per model number

Here's what I gleaned from these numbers.

First, the one major caveat with this model is that we know TLC doesn't distribute the sets produced to regions based on its GDP. I used GDP as a proxy for the measure of a country's economic activity and assumed TLC would distribute sets based upon this economic activity, yet this doesn't account for historical factors, purchasing patterns, regional tastes, maturity of the market, etc. As a result, I would expect the Asian figures to be overestimated since China, the second largest market according to the model, is a much newer market than many of the European and North American markets and TLC hasn't had the time to develop as the Lego market in other parts of the globe. In this same vein, I would anticipate the European markets are slightly underestimated by the model.

That said, there are some interesting observations we see from the model's output. First, this can provide a good concept of the scale of the American toy market to the rest of the world, and an idea of the competition within. When putting the set quantity into a market context, we see that the average number of Lego sets distributed by model number in the US is nearly 37,000 sets. While that seems like a lot on its surface, let's compare this quantity to the number of Walmarts, Targets, Toys R Us, Barnes & Noble stores and Lego Stores in the US:

Walmarts: 3,490
Targets: 1,725
Barnes and Noble: 777
Toys R Us: 600
Lego Stores: 35
Total major brick and mortar retail outlets selling Lego sets in the US: 6,627

This exercise neglects a whole host of regional and national chains where Brickpickers and others purchase their sets, and another major online resource, Amazon. Quickly assuming these outlets comprise another 1,000 retail outlets, we estimate the average number of lego sets by model number distributed to each retail outlet is 4.9. With 508 model numbers, that means the typical US retail outlet will receive 2,489 total Lego sets in a year, a reasonable estimate by any measure. We know that not every model is sold in every store, so this estimate has some bias.

Drilling down to from the macro market level to the micro market level can be quite illuminating, and provide Brickpickers some simple estimates to better understand the primary market. The more investors know the primary market, the better decisions they can make regarding their investment decisions.

So I made this purchase in March 2013 and I was brand new to the investing game. I saw it on sale at WalMart and Immedtialy purchased it because it was on sale and there was only 2 on the shelf so I assumed that those were the last two EVER!
Since then, I have seen many more around, but overall I am still fairly happy with this purchase. It has quite a few minifigures and my friend had the old one (4480) that we played with quite a bit in our preteen years and that one did fairly well from an investing standpoint.

On to Purchase 2; Purchase 2 Set ID Set Name Price Paid Retail Pieces Price per Brick 3816 Glove World $14.82 $19.99 169 $0.088 6865 Captain America's Avenging Cycle $9.62 $12.99 72 $0.134 6865 Captain America's Avenging Cycle $9.62 $12.99 72 $0.134 44005 Bruizer $6.87 $12.99 62 $0.11 76001 The Bat vs. Bane: Tumblr Chase $29.66 $39.99 368 $0.08 76009 Superman Black Zero Escape $6.34 $19.99 168 $0.04 76009 Superman Black Zero Escape $6.34 $19.99 168 $0.04 76009 Superman Black Zero Escape $6.34 $19.99 168 $0.04 76009 Superman Black Zero Escape $6.34 $19.99 168 $0.04 9677 X-Wing Star Fighter and Yavin 4 $7.40 $9.99 77 $0.10 Total $103.36 $188.90 1492 $0.07

Now these items were on clearance and I was floored at how low some of them were. I immediatly drove my scooter two blocks home and got the SUV to bring these back to my apartment. I will highlight a couple of the key components of this purchase comparison.

1) Money Spent Number of Bricks.
I spent nearly the same amount on both purchases. However the first purchase containted 717 pieces and 9 minifigs at $0.142 per brick.
The second prucase included 1492 pieces (more than double the first) and 26 minifigs at an overall of $0.07 (including 2 Captain America, 4 Superman, 4 Lois Lane, 4 General Zod, Sponge Bob, Sandy, Patrick (covered in chocolate ice cream), Batman, Gordon, Bane, and more).

2) Clearance Deals The highlight of the purchase was the 4 Superman Black Zero Escapes that I was able to pick up for 70% off each. You just can't pass up a 20 dollar set when you can get it for $6.34 after tax. Those were $0.04 per brick Astounding!

3) Unorganized
The store's inventory was really unorganized. I walked around a lot and I found LEGO sets in the LEGO isle, clearance LEGO sets in 3 different isles, clearance LEGO sets along the back wall, and clearance LEGO sets on the end caps. Every time I turned around there was another surprise. This disorganization was really helpful because I feel like there are probably a lot of people that would have bought one of those 4 Superman sets at 70% off if they had been in the LEGO isle. (Usually that's where people look for LEGO sets ).

4) Location
A city/town size of 20,000 is just about right for this. The population is big enough to move inventory at a decent pace, but small enough that there are probably not many LEGO investors looking for the deals I am.

I did go back two days later and they marked the prices down even further on a few items. It turned out that I missed the mark down by one day, but with a few of those sets there was only one left so oh well. I picked up one more Captain America's Avenging Cycle for 6.87 at 50% off and one more X-wing Star Fighter for 5.28 at 50% off.

I will be going back this week to see if I can get the last Captain America's Avenging Cycle for 70% off. I also passed up a firefighting set that was normally 40 dollars and was marked down to 13.98 so I'll see if that's still there. I am probably going to make this a weekly endeavor considering how close the location is to my apartment. I have decided that I will only purchase sets at 70% off unless I want multiples at which point I will purchase at 50%. And if I really want it. Like with the Sponge Bob sets, I will buy them for 30% off. I don't know about you guys, but I am never paying retail again.