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Brickpicker Blog

Brickpicker blog articles on LEGO investing, news, reviews, evaluations, discounts and more...
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I have had the privilege of meeting Dr Dave Watford along with Huw Millington of Brickset fame during several of my work excursions to London. They were always gracious enough to come to take a ride into the city to meet with me when time was available. Not only are these two extremely nice gentleman, it is very evident that they know their LEGO.  In all honesty, I would be shocked if you can find something to stump them on. Dr Dave works Huw on Brickset, is a Features Writer with the magazine Bricks and he has his own LEGO blog called Gimme LEGO.   Dr Dave's blog articles are always detailed with strong solid points and educational, I highly recommend it.
For the past five years Dr Dave has been posting awards for Best Theme, Best Non-Licensed Set, Most Disappointing Theme, Best Licensed Set,  Most Disappointing Set, Best Minifigure, The "Better than Expected" Award, Most Welcome LEGO-Related Announcement and the Gimme LEGO Readers Choice Award.  This is where we need your help and giving your opinion for the list of entries.
What's the best LEGO set of 2015?
10246 Detective's Office 10247 Ferris Wheel 10248 Ferrari F40 21303 WALL-E 21304 Doctor Who 31039 Blue Power Jet 60095 Deep Sea Exploration Vessel 70751 Temple of Airjitzu 71016 Kwik-E-Mart 75060 Slave I 75902 Mystery Machine Please take a 10 seconds of your time to head over to Gimme LEGO and cast your vote.
Previous Gimme LEGO Awards: 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011
I happened upon some of the new 2016 battle packs almost an entire week before their street date. I was excited to get a jump on them and to increase my personal armies.
REVIEW: SET DETAILS
Set #: 75131
Name: Resistance Trooper Battle Pack
Theme: Star Wars
Parts: 112
Price: $12.99
Before we get to the build, let’s talk value. At $12.99 the price per piece works out to a bit over $.115 each. This is on the high/medium side of pricing for a licensed set. There are 4 minifigures, all of which are, surprise surprise, Resistance Troopers. Okay, I stretched a point. The guy without the helmet is a Resistance officer. I cannot tell for sure at this time, but I think most of these figures are unique. (I will edit once I have clearer pictures of the Resistance Troop Transporter or one in hand.)
 
BOX CONTENTS
Some people may wind up picking up a set that is open box or, want to verify the box contents before beginning a build. For this set, there are 2 unnumbered baggies, a 4x10 light bluish gray plate, and an instruction book.

Now before I continue, I want to take a moment to talk about the box, which I almost never do. They have redesigned these smaller set boxes to be taped closed instead of glued. There's no punch out area on the back for you to messily tear apart your box, instead, you can cleanly cut open the seals and collapse it for storage, if that is what you do.

THE BUILD AND EXECUTION
So, the first thing that you build are the minifigures and the guns. I'll go more in depth about the minifigures in my reaction. I do want to talk about these helmets. It's a 2 piece helmet with a transparent yellow piece inside that creates a visor. I don't know why there's a hinged jaw piece. I don't think it's purely aesthetic, there has to be a reason for it, besides adding piece count. I do think that this helmet on its own looks good.

So, for now, I'll talk about the guns. The standard stud shooters are back. This time, to make them different, we've added an additional handle to the backs of 3 of them. Don't they look so rifle-y? Rifle-ish? Whatever, they're still ugly.There is one interesting thing to note. Building the 2 Force Awakens Battle Packs back to back allowed me to recognize that LEGO gave the bad guys red studs to shoot, and the good guys blue. Either way, I still hate these things. As a parent I really hate for my kids to play with these things too.

Now, on to the secondary reason that anyone would buy this set, the construction. We're going to be building a kind of landspeeder with a cannon. "What, like the amazing Flash Speeder?" you must be asking. Well, yes, only much smaller. So, as with anything, we make the base that everything else rests upon. On the underside, we attach those little 2x2 domed rounds so that it "glides"

Layering, layering is the key to a good lasagna. You have to put the right stuff on in the right order or it's just a mess.

Once you've stuck enough pieces on the back, you can attach your engine pods. I don't know why landspeeders have engine pods, it seems like military vehicles with their propulsion stuck way out to the side like that are just asking to be crippled and stranded on a battlefield.

Don't forget an open cockpit and a weak looking stand for the cannon.

I guess those blue things on the front are lasers?

 
It appears that I have forgotten to take a picture of the cannon. It's just another 1x2 modified plate with a stud shooter that has more stuff attached to make it look cannonish. The control stick of the landspeeder is cartoonishly short, so the poor driver will never reach it.

REACTION
I was not a fan of this set. For me, the highlight was the Resistance officer. His design looks like a uniform. he looks good, even if he only wears browns. The other troopers are not too exciting. I think if you remember back, I referred to their predecessors in the 75103 First Order Transporter as space farmers. Looking at these guys in their helmets, I can see that was unfair. With their tan helmets on and their tan and gray uniforms, these are the most bland army in the galaxy. The only interesting thing about them is that one guy has a huge moustache.
The vehicle is just small and lame and, to the best of my recollection, never appears onscreen. The resistance troops do nothing onscreen except mill about and dash from place to place. I guess the tan and gray infected them and left them largely ineffective, which is probably why they show up after all the Stormtroopers are dead.
 
FINAL THOUGHTS
There's not a lot to recommend this set. The Resistance troopers will be good for displays and troop builders. Minimal screen time or action involving these guys will put a damper on the casual collector buying them. The only thing going for this battle pack is that it's kind of the cheapest thing out there for the Force Awakens in LEGO that will be easily found. If the film producers don't redesign the Resistance uniform, then these guys will probably (hopefully) play a bigger role in future Star Wars films. If they do, then a battle pack of 4 of them will pick up. If they are redesigned (like the rebel uniforms were in every original trilogy film.) This will be a bigger dog of a set than a clone wars battle pack.
Of course, this set will sell at retail. mom, dad, grampa, grandma, and little Timmy with a small allowance will pick it up. I anticipate slow growth and low returns post EOL. (At this time, Amazon does not have a listing for this set. when they load it, I will happily add the link.)

Check out the companion 75132 First Order Battle Pack review
EXTRA PIECES:
 


I happened upon some of the new 2016 battle packs almost an entire week before their street date. I was excited to get a jump on them and to increase my personal armies.
REVIEW: SET DETAILS
Set #: 75132
Name: First Order Battle Pack
Theme: Star Wars
Parts: 88
Price: $12.99
Before we get to the build, let’s talk value. At $12.99 the price per piece works out to a bit under $.15 each. This is on the high side of pricing for a licensed set. There are 4 minifigures a First Order Stormtrooper, a First Order Heavy Gunner Stormtrooper, and 2 different First Order Crew. The Heavy Gunner and the open face Crew are currently exclusive to this set.
 
BOX CONTENTS
Some people may wind up picking up a set that is open box or, want to verify the box contents before beginning a build. For this set, there are 2 unnumbered baggies and an instruction book.

Now before I continue, I want to take a moment to talk about the box, which I almost never do. They have redesigned these smaller set boxes to be taped closed instead of glued. There's no punch out area on the back for you to messily tear apart your box, instead, you can cleanly cut open the seals and collapse it for storage, if that is what you do.

THE BUILD AND EXECUTION
So, let's begin, just open both baggies and dump it all together.

So, the first thing that you build are the minifigures and the guns. I'll go more in depth about the minifigures in my reaction. So, for now, I'll talk about the guns. The standard stud shooters are back. There's not one exciting thing about them, but there is one interesting thing to note. Building the 2 Force Awakens Battle Packs back to back allowed me to recognize that LEGO gave the bad guys red studs to shoot, and the good guys blue. Either way, I still hate these things. As a parent I really hate for my kids to play with these things too.

Now, on to the secondary reason that anyone would buy this set, the construction. We're going to be building a kind of turbolaser turret tower. (I didn't intend to alliterate, it just happened.) So, what's a good tower without a base?

Those flaps fold up into the tower for storage. The placement of that control console is a little awkward, I almost felt like it should be turned around. When you actually create the lower part of the tower with those 2x2 double slopes there's not a lot of room for a minifigure to stand awkwardly between them. Also, look, ammunition storage.


The turbolaser is one of those 1x2 modified plates with a stud shooter and some other stuff tacked on.

then you build a mounting station for it which will all snap onto the turntable on top of the tower.


REACTION
I actually like the look of this set. the tubolaser adds some play value, and doesn't look terribly funky. It was a very fast build. Of course it is, once you take away the 12 pieces for the handheld stud shooters and the 16 pieces for the minifigures and the handful of pieces for the reloads for the stud shooters, you've got a small polybag of parts, under 60. A few of the pieces are nice for building MOCs, but again, not a lot of pieces to go with. So, apart from the way too small build, there's the minifigures, the real reason anyone would buy this set. The standard stormtrooper and the crew with the full helmet have been seen before in sets like 75101 First Order Special Forces TIE Fighter and 75103 First Order Transporter. The Stormtrooper still looks amazing and the Crew still looks vaguely silly and plain at the same time. The Heavy Gunner sports a new deco on his torso piece. It looks good, any first order army needs a few of these guys around for a little bit of variation. Front and back decorations are unique on him. The second crew has a unique hat and a different head. I honestly don't know if I think this hat is sillier than the other one or not. I don't know how many crew your First Order army needs. If anyone buys a bunch of this battle pack, hey will have an army of Crew. I personally don't want an army of guys in undistinguished black jump suits and silly hats. Even though, you can relieve the uniformity slightly by swapping heads so that the open faced helmet guy utilizes one of the other heads. I will say that it is nice to see a little variation in the color pallet used for human Star Wars minifigures.

 
 
 
FINAL THOUGHTS
This set is overpriced. There's no way around that. The build is small and LEGO is surely saying that kids and collectors are going to buy it regardless, because they always buy battle packs. The price point is designed to get the impulse buyer, the casual buyer and the army builder. The figure selection is what will drive the aftermarket price of this set. Whereas the 75078 Imperial Troop Transport held 4 Stormtroopers, this one only has 2. Initial sales of this set will be brisk as collectors attempt to build their armies, but I think it will sour after a while. Those 2 crewmen are going to be the anchor that drags this down. The only hope that anyone who is hoping for big returns on this set has is that the Heavy Weapons trooper stays unique. I highly doubt that will happen.
This set seems like a cynical cash grab by LEGO. By including half the number of Stormtroopers, and a very small build, they seem to be angling for troop builders to buy twice as many of these sets to equal their Imperial armies. Of course, this set will sell at retail. mom, dad, grampa, grandma, and little Timmy with a small allowance will pick it up. I anticipate this design of troops to be around for years, so we'll be seeing them again. I anticipate slow growth and moderate returns post EOL. (At this time, Amazon does not have a listing for this set. when they load it, I will happily add the link.)

Check out the companion 75131 Resistance Trooper Battle Pack Review.
EXTRA PIECES:

 
This really isn't going to be a fluff article about how awesome Brick Classifieds is, but more of a small message that people are starting to take notice of it.  Launching any new site is not easy at all.  Google and other search engines don't even know you exist, so obtaining new customers via organic traffic is tough. Vendors that do list products don't have a lot of feedback so it's hard to show history and trust.  So you might say, ok, what is so good about this?  Those that have stuck it out and continued to post new quality listings with solid descriptions, real photos and priced their listings right have done well, real well.
Brick Classifieds has been live for just about a year now and a little over 500 vendors have registered, listing a little more than 1,200 items for sale (there are more than 5,000 items in the system that are waiting to become active). Sales actually are strong for a new site, exceeding greater than $200,000 with an average sale price of ~$350.  This shows strong interest in vendors listing high valued sets and taking advantage of the zero commission fee structure.  Overall, Brick Classifieds has saved vendors over $20,000 in commission fees if comparing to a few structure like that on eBay.
There have been a lot of enhancements on the site over the year and we continue to work on new features and tools.  This week we will be updating and releasing price lookups to all the other marketplaces. This feature will show you what your item is going for on those sites and allow you to price your listing accordingly to take full advantage of the zero commissions fees but yet make more money.
We are working on a few things for 2016 that could lead to a breakthrough moment for the site.  I am in talks with a few developers to help build a native mobile app for the site that will allow for easy posting of new sets, minifigures and other LEGO related items.  I have also had a few talks with Huw from Brickset.com to get Brick Classified's listings in front of that large community.  I gave him access to an API to search for sets via keywords to appear within their LEGO database.
We believe 2016 can be a breakout year for Brick Classifieds.  Even though this new site may virtually disappear when put up against monsters like eBay, Amazon and BrickLink, but all sites need to start somewhere. There are some fantastic deals there to be found.  Use the feature at the bottom of each listing to compare Brick Classified's price to those that might be found on eBay or Amazon.  We will continue to plug away and making the site better, hopefully with the support of some of our fellow LEGO communities and our great vendors, everyone will learn that Brick Classifieds should be the first place to look when going to buy LEGO online!
Hello LEGO fans, collectors and resellers…
Many of you may already know who I am, but for those of you that may have just learned about Brickpicker, my name is Ed Maciorowski and I would like to ask you for a few moments of your time. Over the past five years, my brother Jeff and I have operated the BrickPicker site at no cost to members and fans. All we ever asked from members was to click on affiliate links to help pay for the site expenses, which cost members little or no out of pocket money. Many of you have gained valuable information and insight from our data and forum community that enabled you to make money from LEGO collecting and reselling. Often, people would ask how can we help the BrickPicker site and its creators and we would say thanks for the offer, but no thanks, we felt uncomfortable taking donations. Well, we have a way for all of you to help out not only me, but over 150 children and their families.
Let me introduce you to the St. Paul School of Burlington, NJ…
My son, Max, is a member of the Kindergarten class in St. Paul School. He has attended the school since September and adores it. My wife, Jane, and I also adore the school. It is everything a school should be. It’s a school where everyone knows your name and there is a sense of pride and respect not found in many other larger schools. I cannot explain it, but there is an ambience of goodness in the building. Sounds corny I know, but as a person who has the word “evil” in his email address, I can tell you that I know when something deserves special recognition as a “good” thing. But it’s not only me who recognizes a great school. St. Paul School was voted the “Best Private School” in Burlington County, NJ and won numerous other awards. St. Paul School’s graduates constantly excel in high schools throughout Central NJ, with a large portion of graduates appearing on the National Honor Society and finishing top in their classes as Valedictorians and Salutatorians. To find out more about the St. Paul School, you can check out their website…

So here is the situation. St. Paul School is a Catholic school and as many people know, Catholic schools always have a hard time paying the bills to remain open. While St. Paul School and other Catholic schools welcome all religions and people, they are not funded by state or federal tax dollars and must adhere to many policies of the Catholic church and their Dioceses. Unfortunately, due to the weak economy and other forces outside of their control, enrollment in Catholic schools is down, putting more and more pressure on the school’s and local church’s budgets to remain open. This is an ongoing battle and fundraising has become an annual ritual in every Catholic school in the nation and most likely, the world. Everyone has to do their part to help out and Jeff and I are doing ours. Here is our plan…
Jeff and I are going to personally RAFFLE OFF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS OF RARE AND RETIRED LEGO SETS! These sets are from our personal collections and they include the:
10188 Death Star 10228 Haunted House Sealed Case of 64 Series 10 Collectible Minifigures (MR.GOLD might be in there!) 10224 Town Hall 10225 Ultimate Collector Series R2-D2 MORE SETS HAVE BEEN ADDED!!! That is well over $2000.00 in LEGO sets. All are retired and appreciating in value as we speak. I will personally ship them to anywhere in the world at my cost and in a proper shipping container. There will be one winner for each set and you must buy tickets for each raffle separately. One person can win all the sets if they enter all five raffles. There are discounted tickets available and the raffle will be run on the www.rallyup.com website, which is a very reputable and trustworthy fundraising site. They will automatically pick the winners at 11:59 PM on January 31, 2016 and will notify the winners. I will then ship out the winning LEGO sets to their new owners. The raffle and link to share can be found below:
                                           https://rallyup.com/stpaul-2016
Each ticket costs $10.00 and enables you to enter one LEGO set raffle of your choice. $50.00 will cover all five iconic LEGO sets. ALL OF THE PROCEEDS (besides the commission to www.rallyup.com) goes to St. Paul School and to its corresponding church, The Parish of Saint Katharine Drexel, which helps the school operate. Tickets can be paid with any major credit card and the site is secure. Unfortunately, PayPal does not get involved with “raffles,” so PayPal can only be used for direct donations. I know that is a minor inconvenience, but if their is an issue, contact Jeff or I and we can see what we can do about transferring money to our PayPal account and paying for your raffle tickets. If we get a great response from people, we might add a few major sets or collectible and rare items to the raffle contest.
On a personal note, I just have to say that I feel awkward asking people to help and for money, but the St. Paul School kids, faculty and community are worth it. They need to raise $200,000 by the end of January in order to keep the doors open and I am pulling all of my strings to help get them to that goal. I need your help. Period. If you value quality education and teaching children morals and respect, then supporting a school like St. Paul is paramount to the future well being of this planet. To the BrickPicker community...Show the LEGO world that we are more than just a bunch of Quick Flipping Low Lifes….that we care and have a heart, even though we buy all of Little Timmy’s LEGO sets up to resell. LOL. Honestly, this is important to Jeff and I and I want to be proud of our community that we have built over the past 5+ years. If you want to repay us for all of the efforts we have made over the past five years, buy a ticket...or two...or five. My son and 150+ other kids and families, faculty and friends of the St. Paul School will thank you…
CLICK HERE TO PARTICIPATE IN THE FUNDRAISER
PLEASE HELP AND SHARE THIS BLOG POST ON FACEBOOK, TWITTER AND
OTHER SOCIAL MEDIA OUTLETS!!
 
If you are interested in just making a donation and want to use Paypal, you can.  Just click the purchase link on the right side bar.  On the next page you will see a checkbox that will allow you to just make a donation.  Check that box and you will then see options for payment.  Paypal is not available for buying raffle tickets, it is against their terms.

Here is the list of current, former, and upcoming polybags in the LEGO world.  If you've found a polybag that's not on this list, or have any update to give us, please note it in the comments below.  This information is put together from a number of different sources on the Internet, including real world reports.  Availability in your area may vary.  This information is US-based.
Polybags Currently Available

Set # Theme Set Name Locations Status Date 30312 City Demolition Driller TRU Current   30315 City Space Utility Vehicle Legoland Current   30285 Creator Tiger TRU Current   30259 Elves Azari's Magic Fire TRU Current   30112 Friends Emma's Flower Stand TRU Current   30203 Friends Mini Golf TRU Current   30205 Friends Pop Star Legoland Current   30202 Friends Smoothie Stand TRU Current   30204 Friends Wish Fountain TRU Current   30291 Ninjago Anacondrai Battle Mech TRU Current   5002144 Ninjago Dareth vs. Nindroid TRU Current   30294 Ninjago The Cowler Dragon Target Current   30286 Seasonal Christmas Tree TRU Current   30272 Star Wars A-Wing Starfighter Legoland Current   30274 Star Wars AT-DP Legoland Current   5002948 Star Wars C-3P0 TRU Current   30276 Star Wars First Order Special Forces TIE Fighter Target Current   30278 Star Wars Poe's X-Wing Fighter Target Current   5002938 Star Wars Stormtrooper Sergeant TRU Current   30275 Star Wars TIE Advanced Prototype TRU Current   5003084 Super-Heroes Hulk TRU Current   30303 Super-Heroes Joker Bumper Car Legoland, Walmart Current   30305 Super-Heroes Spider-Man Super Jumper Walmart Current   30604 Super-Heroes Cosmic Boy DVD/Blu Ray Preorder Mar 2016 Polybags Coming Soon

Set # Theme Set Name Locations Status Date 5004409 Bionicle Accessory pack   Unknown 2016 5004404 City Police Chase   Unknown 2016 30471 Creator Helicopter   Unknown 2016 30472 Creator Parrot   Unknown 2016 30474 Creator Reindeer   Unknown 2016 30397 Disney Princess Olaf's Summertime Fun   Unknown 2016 30398 Friends Adventure Camp Bridge   Unknown 2016 30371 Nexo Knights Knight's Cycle   Unknown 2016 30373 Nexo Knights Knighton Hyper Cannon   Unknown 2016 30374 Nexo Knights Lava Slinger   Unknown 2016 5004388 Nexo Knights Nexo Knights Intro Pack   Unknown 2016 30372 Nexo Knights Robin's Mini Fortrex   Unknown 2016 30421 Ninjago ?   Unknown 2016 30422 Ninjago ?   Unknown 2016 5004391 Ninjago Sky Pirates Battle   Unknown 2016 30605 Star Wars Finn (FN-2187)   Unknown 2016 5004406 Star Wars First Order General   Unknown 2016 30279 Star Wars Kylo Ren's Command Shuttle   Unknown 2016 30446 Super-Heroes The Batmobile   Unknown 2016 5002946 Super-Heroes Silver Centurion   Unknown 2016 Polybags That Have Not Been Sighted

Set # Theme Set Name Locations Status Date 5002942 Bionicle Bionicle Villain Pack   Unknown 2015 30217 Duplo Duplo Forest Random Bag   Unknown 2015 30218 Duplo Duplo Snail   Unknown 2015 5002931 Friends Disco Dance Floor   Unknown 2015 5002928 Friends Party Polybag   Unknown 2015 30292 Ninjago Jay Nano Mech   Unknown 2015 5002920 Ninjago Ninjago Accessory Pack   Unknown 2015 5002922 Ninjago Ninjago Role Play   Unknown 2015 5002919 Ninjago Scenery and Dagger Trap   Unknown 2015 5002939 Star Wars Phantom   Unknown 2015 30304 Super-Heroes Avengers Quinjet   Unknown 2015 Polybags No Longer Available

Set # Theme Set Name Locations Status Date 30311 City Swamp Police Helicopter Target No Recent Sightings Jan 2015 40140 Creator Flower Cart Lego.com No Recent Sightings Jan 2015 5002941 Bionicle Bionicle Hero Pack Lego.com No Recent Sightings Mar 2015 30283 Creator Off-Road Legoland No Recent Sightings Mar 2015 DRWU Jurassic World Dr. Wu TRU No Recent Sightings Mar 2015 30313 City Garbage Truck Target No Recent Sightings Apr 2015 30293 Ninjago Kai Drifter Lego.com No Recent Sightings Apr 2015 30256 Chima Ice Bear Mech TRU No Recent Sightings Aug 2015 30320 Jurassic World Gallimimus Trap GameStop, TRU No Recent Sightings Aug 2015 30246 Star Wars Imperial Shuttle Target No Recent Sightings Aug 2015 30314 City Go-Kart Racer Target No Recent Sightings Oct 2015 30228 City Police ATV Kmart No Recent Sightings Oct 2015 30188 Creator Cute Kitten TRU No Recent Sightings Oct 2015 40146 Creator Lufthansa Plane Lufthansa No Recent Sightings Oct 2015 30284 Creator Tractor Lego.com No Recent Sightings Oct 2015 40055 Seasonal Halloween Pumpkin TRU No Recent Sightings Oct 2015 5002947 Star Wars Admiral Yularen Lego.com No Recent Sightings Oct 2015 5002125 Super-Heroes Electro TRU No Recent Sightings Oct 2015 5002943 Super-Heroes Winter Soldier Lego.com No Recent Sightings Oct 2015  
 
* As I was preparing to publish this article, Ed Mack announced the Brickpicker sponsored fundraiser in benefit of the St. Paul School of Burlington, NJ. I truly encourage you all to visit the following link and make a donation; besides supporting a great cause you will be entered for a chance to win some really cool, retired sets worth thousands of dollars (and appreciating as we speak!).
I truly wish the St. Paul School the best,
FCBarcelona101*
Read Ed’s Announcement
Raffle Entry and Donation Page
 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
As of this writing, the LEGO Imperial Hotel (Architecture) stock continues to decline. All signs seem to point out the set is up for retirement very soon, with LEGO Shop at Home discounting it since Black Friday and a new line of larger Architecture sets in the horizon. I felt that analyzing the Imperial Hotel would be a good idea for an article; maybe we can help bring the stock levels down to 0!
The Architecture theme as we know it today was introduced in 2008, even though LEGO had already released some sets under the same name back in 1962. That first line, however, had absolutely nothing to do with what we currently see in stores. Let’s begin with a high level analysis of the theme as a whole.
Theme Analysis
The Architecture theme consistently receives praise in the forums as a result of its perceived positive performance, but how does its average CAGR compare to the average LEGO set and some of the other popular themes?

As you can see, the Architecture theme underperforms both the Star Wars and Advanced Models theme, as well as the entire LEGO set average of 11.54%. While this does not seem to support the theory that Architecture is a great performer, we have to remember that CAGR is somewhat skewed by the length of time sets have been retired, as well as the fact that currently available sets have really low CAGRs (as they are still available at retail).
If we were to only take into consideration the CAGR of retired sets, the picture would be significantly different.

Of course, we would have through the whole process of removing currently available set from the rest of the data series in order to have an apples to apples comparison. However, that is extremely time consuming for the larger themes like Star Wars, and I believe that for the purpose of this article focusing on the Architecture line alone clarifies the point. With an average CAGR of over 24% for retired sets, we can conclude that the line is actually quite successful.
One other argument for the Imperial Hotel is that it belongs to the Frank Lloyd Wright “collection”; an unofficial sub-theme that has been attributed with superior performance by some forum members. But, are FLW buildings really that different from the average Architecture set? Let’s take a look.

Above we have a graph of the growth over retail for each of the currently retired sets in the Architecture theme, with the FLW buildings grouped for the ease of comparison. It is pretty clear that when taking into consideration all of the retired sets, the average growth over retail is significantly higher for the rest of the theme (222% vs. 112%); That takes into account 2 data points that could be considered outliers, however. The JHC was the first set to be introduced, so we can expect that collectors will want to have it as part of their collection more than some of the rest, while Sungnyemun  was available for purchase at LEGO Shop at Home for less than a year according to Brickset data (around 237 days).
If we were to take those 2 sets out of the average calculation, the rest of the theme would show an average of 113% growth over retail, pretty much in line with the 112% of the Frank Lloyd Wright collection. In light of this, I am not sure I can buy the argument that these FLW designs perform significantly better than the rest.
Set Analysis
The Imperial Hotel is one of the largest Architecture sets released to date, and has been available for close to 3 years at the time of this writing. With over 1,000 pieces, the detail LEGO designers were able to capture in the model is nothing short of impressive; they really were able to capture the essence of the real structure and at the same time create a model that can be easily displayed on an office desk.
Another factor that I believe will help the performance of the set is the appeal to Asian buyers, especially in Japan. The performance of Sungnyemun makes me think that buyers from countries where this structures are located and the relatively higher LEGO prices in those markets push demand toward US sellers that are able to ship internationally.
Finally, and this is just my perception of this, the Imperial Hotel set seems to have been somewhat overlooked by some Brickpickers. I just have not seen as much discussion about this set before LEGO discounted it for Black Friday. In these times of increased competition and hoarding, it is sets like this that could continue to provide returns more in line with what LEGO investing produced in the past.
Future Performance
With the set seemingly going into retirement within the next few months, I wanted to try and forecast its future price appreciation over the next couple of years. While the data we have is very limited and the market is changing dramatically, it is always fun to speculate and share opinions about future set value!
First of all, let’s take a look at the performance of the “closest” set of the theme, the Robie House. As on previous articles, remember that the values that are outside of Brickpicker’s data set are estimated AND the 2015 value is as of November.

I think we can all agree that the fast appreciation this set has experienced should start to slow down in the coming months; eventually, we can expect marginal growth as the set plateaus.
As mentioned before, I expect the Imperial Hotel to perform slightly better (percentage wise). The graph below shows the projected performance of the Imperial Hotel. The graph assumes retirement in January of 2016.

The result is a growth over retail of around 145% by the end of 2020, with a Compound Annual Growth Rate of close to 12% over the period 2013 to 2020.
Final Thoughts
I am a believer in the Architecture line, and having had the time to go over the performance of previously retired sets has only strengthen this belief. I truly think that, for whatever reason, they are somewhat under the radar and have the potential to produce some of the most consistent returns in the LEGO investment universe.
I've been wanting to build this set since it was released in June. I never really realized how much I enjoyed stuff from Return of the Jedi until I really looked at my LEGO collecting habits. This particular ship is a beautiful and elegant design in the films, but how does it look when translated in the most recent LEGO iteration? Well the box was pretty, so let's delve into the set.
 
REVIEW: SET DETAILS
Set #: 75094
Name: Imperial Shuttle Tydirium
Theme: Star Wars
Parts: 937
Price: $99.99
Before we get to the build, let’s talk value. At $99.99 the price per piece works out to a bit under $.11 each. This seems to be about average for pricing for a licensed set. There are 5 minifigures 4 of which are currently exclusive to this set. Chewbacca is available in this form in 2 other sets. Han, Leia and the 2 Rebel Troopers are exclusive.

 BOX CONTENTS
Some people may wind up picking up a set that is open box or, want to verify the box contents before beginning a build. For this set, there are 6 numbered baggies, and a bag containing the instruction book and a sticker sheet.

THE BUILD AND EXECUTION
Bag 1: Here you build the basic foundation of the shuttle and the 2 Rebel Troopers. There's a box with 2 Thermal Detonators (although if you want 3, the extra pieces are there), a weapons rack, and a hatch in the floor.

Bag 2: you're continuing to expand the structure of the shuttle's body. You also create the attachment points for the moveable wings. They ratchet up and down individually and you fairly successfully disguise the spring missile shooters. If you look in the second image below, you can see the Technic Pin Connector (62462) that is used as the trigger to fire the missile.

Bag 3: The first thing I want to make note of is how cool and SNOT the engines of this ship are and how it's a whole panel that's attached to the back. I don't know why they went with the 2 2x4 tiles that will soon be hidden.

The landing struts are linked and will move up and down in tandem.

The hatch I mentioned before has a piece on a hinge that will prevent it from lowering on its own. You must flip this down in order the lower the ramp.

The bag finishes adding some details to the body, including guns.

Bag 4: The fin. The fin is awesome. Bow down to the fin. It is solid, it is large and in charge, and take it from me, make sure you attach everything in the right direction so that the pin holes line up, because getting it back apart to fix a minor mistake is a giant pain.

The fin just slots right into the top before you pin it in place.

Plus, you get Princess Leia and her cookie.

Bag 5: This bag is the biggest one in the set because you are making the wings and finishing the body of the shuttle. You make some panels for the body that pivot up and down to reveal the interior of the shuttle. The wings weren't terribly complex, but they were time consuming due to size.


Bag 6: Probably the smallest and most disappointing of the bags. I don't know if I was tired by this point, or if the cockpit design just wasn't that inspired, but compared to the rest, it wasn't a terribly exciting finish. The Han is nice, but Chewbacca's a little bit off. Maybe it's the dark brown, or the weird paint details. Maybe I was disenchanted with this portion, because the cockpit canopy cannot stay open. It's too heavy and closes on its own.

There were some extra pieces, including a cookie and a Thermal Detonator. I did not take a picture of the brick separator, but rest assured there is one.

REACTION
I really like this set, a lot. With the wings down, it is a beautiful thing. With the wings up, the bloom sort of comes off the rose. You see the underside of the wings when it is in the parked or resting position. The underside of the wings are ugly, kind of like an inside out sausage. Ok, maybe not that bad, but the most attractive way to display it will take a lof of clear bricks that are not included to make it display prettily. I really do like this set a lot. Despite the wing undersides and the closing canopy, it's a really nice set. The figures, for the most part, are nice. I really wish there was an extra helmet for Leia. I also wish there was a Luke with poncho to go with it too. I'm going to proudly display this set on its own until I build my Ewok village, then it will go with that.

This set goes well with Endor scenes, but it would also look great with a bunch of Imperials for an arrival scene. If I could swing the space, and got a good enough discount, I'd have 2 on display.
FINAL THOUGHTS
This set has the misfortune/fortune of being released 3 months before Force Friday. With the advent of all the Force Awakens sets, this one got relegated to a secondhand status. Fans and parents were more likely to go for TFA sets for the months leading into Christmas. LEGO most likely curtailed production in favor of the newer sets. This is all good news for the future of this set.
Original Trilogy sets are always popular. Well designed ones moreso. If the newer movie sets take precedence in production, this set will have greater scarcity that collectors might not notice until after EOL. I think this set will be strong later on. A week before Christmas, Amazon has sold out.
If you need something to convince you, check out these beauty shots. Go buy it on Amazon
 
 
 
Set your reminders and get ready for an explosive live interview with Ed Mack tomorrow between 8:00AM and 10:00AM on the Harry Rinker Radio Show WHATCHA GOT. Ed is scheduled for a telephone guest appearance for Sunday, December 20 at approximately 9:30 AM Eastern Daylight Time.
WHATCHA GOT?, is a syndicated antiques and collectibles call-in radio show that airs on Sunday mornings from 8:00 AM to 10:00 AM EDT (7:00 AM to 9:00 AM CDT).   It also streams live and is archived on the Internet at www.gcnlive.com.
WHATCHA GOT? has over 35 affiliates in 18 states.  A list of affiliates, not always up to date, and more information about WHATCHA GOT? is available on my website www.harryrinker.com.
----------------------------------------
Updated:
Here is the live broadcast of the interview

As a countdown to the Force Awakens, I will be writing reviews on Star Wars LEGO sets this week.
I haven't really done an exclusive set before. I kind of wonder if the exclusives are the sets that people would be most excited about getting, or the ones that people wouldn't mind missing. Let's dive into the Hailfire Droid set and see if it's a can't miss, or a swing and a miss. 
REVIEW: SET DETAILS
Set #: 75085
Name: Hailfire Droid
Theme: Star Wars
Parts: 163
Price: $19.99
Before we get to the build, let’s talk value. At $19.99 the price per piece works out to a bit over $.12 each. This is to be on the high side of pricing for a licensed set. There are 3 minifigures Clone Trooper Lieutenant, and 2 Super Battle Droids. The Clone Lieutenant is exclusive to this set.

BOX CONTENTS
Some people may wind up picking up a set that is open box or, want to verify the box contents before beginning a build. For this set, there are 3 numbered baggies, 2 decorated 10x10 trans clear radar dishes and an instruction book.

THE BUILD AND EXECUTION
Bag 1: You build your clone trooper and the central body of the Hailfire Droid. There's not really any interesting techniques in this portion of the build. You're basically setting up a solid chunk in the middle that you are later going to pin everything to.

Bag 2: This bag combines with the 2 radar dishes to create the fenders and attach the dishes as the wheels. Shown below are the fenders and the new attachment points for them.
You also build both of your Super Battle Droids. I have no clue why there's a trailer hitch on this thing.

Bag 3: You finish out the build by creating external fenders and the missile racks. I'm usually not a fan of these spring missiles, but for this particular set, I feel like it works. A few greeblies to give a bit more dimension to this thing, and a tilt of the wheels, and off you go.

REACTION
I like the look of this set. It's a fairly quick build. It needed a small gun emplacement or something for the Clone Trooper. He's massively outclassed in the firepower department, and a small build for him, would have made this seem more like a $19.99 set instead of a $14.99 set. I'd say it fits in well with all of the Geonosis stuff from 2013. Too bad that means it has been out far too long without anything to pair it with.

The Super battle Droids are standard. Nothing terribly exciting about them. They're nice to fill out a scene. I like the Clone Lieutenant though. The blue pops, and looks good when mixed in with all of the standard clones. He's got a standard trooper face, not a Clone Wars one, so that's a real plus.

 
FINAL THOUGHTS
This set is overpriced. It's a Prequel Trilogy set in a Sequel Trilogy world. There's nothing big to lift it up, and there are no main characters to draw in Timmy's mom. Scene builders, completionists, and impulse buyers are probably the target market for this particular set. It looks cool, but it's not instantly recognizable in the way that an A-Wing, Luke's Landspeeder, or the Droid Escape Pod is. If they had thrown in a main character or a unique Jedi, there would probably be more demand for this set.
What I haven't mentioned yet is that this an exclusive set shared by Target and the LEGO Store. In the long run, it will be harder for completionists to get if they want to fill in holes later. I don't know if the demand will ever be huge, but I anticipate the value to climb modestly just due to the fact that it is an exclusive. I would recommend pairing it with the AT-TE or Republic Gunship.
Shop for it on Amazon
EXTRA PIECES:

 
 
 
 
As a countdown to the Force Awakens, I will be writing reviews on Star Wars LEGO sets this week.
Today, we are going to be looking at a set that I have opened a fair number of previously. I have only built it once before, but at the time I felt like that was enough. Luckily I had a couple that I bought on discount to fill in on a day when I wanted to bang out a quick set and a quick review. I made an "artistic" decision with this set to portray the minifigures involved as building the set. Hopefully it's more amusing than annoying. 
REVIEW: SET DETAILS
Set #: 75078
Name: Imperial Troop Transport
Theme: Star Wars
Parts: 141
Price: $12.99
Before we get to the build, let’s talk value. At $12.99 the price per piece works out to a bit over $.09 each. This seems to be on the low side of pricing for a licensed set. There are 4 minifigures all of which are Stormtroopers. The Stormtroopers have 2 different expressions, frowning, and very unhappy. The frowning ones are exclusive to this set.

BOX CONTENTS
Some people may wind up picking up a set that is open box or, want to verify the box contents before beginning a build. For this set, there are 2 unnumbered baggies, a 2x12 Light Bluish Gray Plate, and an instruction book.

 
THE BUILD AND EXECUTION
So, here we go, No numbered bags, time to open them up and dump them in a pile. I dislike this method of building larger sets, but on smaller sets, I guess it's fine.

It looks like I have a helper to put this together. Maybe he has some friends who can  help.

Now I was just thinking of a conversation in Clerks where Randall says "You think the average stormtrooper knows how to install a toilet main? All they know is killing and White uniforms." Well, let's hope these guys are better at making their own crafts than installing plumbing.

The basic size of the vehicle is very small. There's no driver's compartment, and the shape is moderately reminiscent of the Kenner toy that they show based their design on.

The front and rear have some interesting shapes. Nothing is terribly complex with this build. Honestly if I weren't taking pictures of Stormtroopers building it, the review would be very short.

The crew area is 4 slots on the outside. It has 2 flick missiles on top  in a rotating turret.

There were 4 extra pieces. Actually, that's kind of a relief, I get a little tired of seeing all of the extra studs. Speaking of Extra studs, there are 4 in the box in the center of the vehicle. I did not include them in the extra parts because the instruction book indicates that's where they belong.

 
REACTION
Back before this set was released, I was excited. The version in Rebels and the original Kenner version indicate a nice midsized vehicle, probably in the $20-$30 range. I understand that LEGO makes a small, inconsequential thing for their battlepacks, but this was never the thing that I wanted. It's ugly, it's short, it's squat and cannot hold the proper number of characters. Plus, I hate the stud shooter guns.

The minifigures are great, army builders to a man. Basic Stormtroopers without odd decorations that you never see on screen are awesome. That's probably why I have opened like a half dozen of these sets. I just need to give them real blasters.

 
 
FINAL THOUGHTS
Troop Builder packs have limited growth potential. They're cheap to begin with. The figures are usually commonly available in other places, and at the price point, they are easy impulse buys, so are massively produced. All of that said, Basic OT Stormtroopers are always going to be needed and popular. I could see the Episode VII toys eclipsing these for a while in popularity, but when Rogue One comes out, people will want their classic troopers. I would never stock up on these for resale at MSRP, but if you can get them at a discount go for it. They don't take up a lot of room. I foresee moderate gains post EOL. Something we probably won't see with the PT/CW/EU battlepacks. Maybe it's just me, but I don't think a Stormtrooper should be black or have red on him.
The customers that you will be looking for in future just want to build a scene, the bricks will be nice to try to MOC a better Troop Transport with, but the 4 Stormies will be what drives the sale of this set.
Go buy it on Amazon
Star Wars: The Force Awakens has finally arrived in cinemas, and to celebrate we’ve assembled the best builders in the galaxy to construct seven iconic saga scenes, from the classic trilogy to the new film. We also take a look at the Star Wars Battle Figures, and compare Darth Vaders new and old in a showdown of galactic proportions.
Elsewhere, we find out how LEGO can be used with prosthetic limbs to improve the lives of child amputees, how Britain’s most outspoken toy retailer is preparing for the Christmas season, how to bring your minifigures to life and why not every LEGO set is a solid investment.
There’s much more besides, as animation expert Steve Guinness wraps up his Italian Job project, while David Kresse shows us how to motorise our Technic MOCs. This build-filled issue is topped off with an exclusive interview with Michael Price, the mind behind LEGO Star Wars series Droid Tales.
Issue 15 of Blocks Magazine is now with subscribers, and will be in shops on Thursday 17th December.
Get your copy on Thursday in the UK, and why not subscribe to get future copies early and enter monthly free prize draws? See www.blocksmag.com for more details.
As a countdown to the Force Awakens, I will be writing reviews on Star Wars LEGO sets this week.
Full disclosure, I missed writing at least one review to meet my own schedule. So I have decided to punish myself and try to make a new review each day until the opening of Star Wars Episode VII. Hopefully they will be enjoyable for you and for me. I would like to finish out The Force Awakens lineup, but I've already built Rey's Speeder twice and parted out another one, so I have no interest in buying another one to open and build. I have little interest in the Kylo Ren's Shuttle because it's ugly, and I may or may not open a Millennium Falcon. So, unless something changes, TFA might not get full representation. Besides, I am super excited to get to the Shuttle Tyderium.
REVIEW: SET DETAILS
Set #: 75101
Name: First Order Special Forces TIE Fighter
Theme: Star Wars
Parts: 517
Price: $69.99
Before we get to the build, let’s talk value. At $89.99 the price per piece works out to a bit over $.135 each. This seems to be on the high side of pricing for a licensed set. There are 4 minifigures most of which are currently unique to this set. This set is mainly a troop builder with 2 First Order TIE Pilots, 1 First Order Crew and 1 First Order Officer. The First Order Crew is also available in Kylo Ren's Shuttle.

BOX CONTENTS
Some people may wind up picking up a set that is open box or, want to verify the box contents before beginning a build. For this set, there are 4 numbered baggies, and a bag containing a sticker sheet, and an instruction book. There are 6 small stickers, but for some reason I only used 4 and cannot figure out where the 2 remaining ones go. I read the instructions 4 times.

 
THE BUILD AND EXECUTION
Bag 1 creates the basic shape of the hull of the TIE Fighter. There's a back to back crew area for 2 minifigures, which just happen to be in this bag. You've got 2 pilots, which is one more than you usually get with a TIE Fighter. The Control stick is built from a Battle Droid torso. I like that, it makes it seem more thought out than the really old school 1x2 decorated tile like we used to see. You can just see the ports of the spring loaded missile launchers. 

Bag 2 completes the body of the TIE Starfighter. It has 3 hatches and I'm not sure if that thing sticking up is a cannon or an antenna. It's probably a cannon because it's attached to a technic pin that would allow it to swing forward. The red bricks and pieces create the stripe that I am going to assume is for the Special forces. It's pretty striking on this all black vehicle. The white at the ends of the "arms" is kind of jarring, and I hoped that it would not be visible in the final build. I do like the looks of this, very properly TIE Fightery. The First Order Crew that pops up in this bag is sort of plain, except his ridiculous looking helmet.

 
I have to do something different here, because the build instructions require it. Bags 3 and 4 are the same. The instructions show both bags in the requirements, and at the end just have the "X2" notation. You probably guessed it, each bag contains a wing. The only difference between the 2 bags is that one has a minifigure, and the other has the spring missile projectiles. I'm going to let you in on a little secret here. I haven't built many TIE Fighters. Most of them have very flimsy wings. To me that says everything about the TIE fighter, but does not endear them to me. These wings seem pretty stable. It's got some significant layering , which gives me confidence that it's not going to crumble while it's on display. I've read that the wing design is very similar to the UCS TIE Fighter.

There's this part used in the build of the wings that I don't think I have ever seen before. Bricklink seems to indicate that it's a rare piece. It's only available in a handful of sets

so, once you've built the wings, of course, you put them together with the body.

The opening hatch on top is what allows you to put the pilots inside, the front and rear hatchesjust pretty much allow you to see them.

There were a surprisingly mall number of extra pieces. It's an indication of the limited number of small pieces in this set. You do end up with 2 extra roller skates from the wing greeblies, so our First Order Crew or Officer could use them. I don't recommend them for the TIE Pilots, because there's no room to skate in the cockpit. I also include the brick separator, because I have so many of these now, and they are not a part of the build.

REACTION
I like the build. It definitely came across beautifully in the finished product. It was not complicated, but on the other hand, it's also not a box like the older TIE Fighters used to be. I liked the way that they decorated the wings. I have a horrible memory of how the 7146 was decorated, and am just as pleased not to go back to it. When all is said and done, this is a nice set, a little pricey on the 3P score. 13.5 cents per piece just makes it too expensive, probably by at least $10 for the set, maybe by as much as $20.
The minifigures are great, army builders to a man. Not a single named character to make you feel weird about buying multiples for a scene. They each have new headgear, obviously the pilots have the same one. I think that the design for the Officer's hat and the Crew are dumb looking, but that's not LEGO's fault.

 
FINAL THOUGHTS
TIE Fighters are the most common vehicle in the Empire. Strangely, this is the most common set from the Force Awakens line. Along with all of the product shipped to regular stores like Target, Walmart and Toys R Us, Costcos received large pallets of this set. When all of the other TFA sets sold out from LEGO Shop at Home on Black Friday/Cyber Monday this set still remained. I doubt there's less demand for this set. I think that the early discounts at Costco and Black Friday sales at Walmart and Target are going to be the price that drive this set.
It's going to be hard to look at this set with MSRP so far above average and get excited about it. The regular buyers, mom and dad and Timmy are likely to pick up a copy when necessary. I foresee it having a discount on Amazon for most of its life.
The 9492 performed pretty well after retirement, even though this set was coming along to replace it. The long term value of this set depends upon the reception of the new film. If people like the film, they'll probably want to accumulate these later on. It's actually about perfect for the size, so I doubt that they will make an updated version. Probably any future version of the First Order TIE Fighter will just be a repackage of this, which would seriously limit its growth potential. If I had to make a guess though, the next Sequel Trilogy movie will have a different TIE Fighter design featured to sell new toys, so we'll probably see a new TIE interceptor, Advanced or something like that. There's probably going to be a few years before the inevitable reissue.
(in the week leading up to the new film's release, and 10 days before Christmas, it is sold out from Amazon and already over $90 including shipping. Don't underestimate the power of a new movie)
Buy it on Amazon
So the past few days have been exciting since LEGO finally slapped a "Retiring Soon" label on the list for the 10188 Death Star.  Everyone should jump for joy and start yelling for the money to come rolling in right?  Maybe, but it might be short lived or will it.  According to the new database entry at Brickset, there is a new Death Star coming and it is listing as an Ultimate Collector Series model.

So is this a totally new model, or another version of the old?  Is it really "The Death Star" or "The Starkiller"? The new Starkiller base as it is referred to in Episode VII is described by the official Star Wars site as "An ice planet converted into a stronghold of the First Order and armed with a fiercely destructive new weapon capable of destroying entire star systems."  Obviously this will be much different than what we have known for the last 40 years.  Will this set be more of a model like the #10143 Death Star II, or a play set like the #10188 Death Star.  Is this set going to be about the new movie or yet another rehash of the old. There are no details on piece count, minifigures or release date.
Before you get all upset and get the feeling to dump all your 10188 Death Stars, you will have to wait and see what this model actually is.  I would be surprised as anything to see them do another version of the original and honestly that would be pretty dumb if you ask me.  If it is the new Starkiller version, it will be vastly different than the prior two models which to me will not effect the value of them and possibly even drive the values upwards.
I am really excited to see what it might be. Regardless if it is a new version or old, I am hoping for a 5,000+ piece set!!!
I have been excited for this set for a long time. Most of the time, LEGO keeps a tight lid on their upcoming products. You only officially get to know about what is coming out a month or so before it is released. This, however, is an Ideas set.
LEGO implemented a program wherein they allow people to submit their ideas for consideration. The ideas need to be a fully completed MOC (My Own Creation). Public users of the site can browse all of the submissions and decide if they would support this project. If the project reaches 10,000 supporters within a year, it moves on to the LEGO Group to review. They look at the project and evaluate it a number of ways. This part of the process is somewhat opaque. One assumes that they build the set and see if it is sturdy, if it violates certain building principles, and whether it seems easy or exceptionally hard for the end user. They probably also evaluate the questionnaires that the supporter filled out to see if it matches their analysis. Then they would look at the pricing of the set and what the supporters said that they would be willing to pay.
Doctor Who is the 11th set to be released after going through this process. It was submitted to the Ideas program on February 26, 2014. It was released on December 1, 2015. Anyone who voted for this set has been waiting at least 18 months. You can review the original submission entry here: https://ideas.lego.com/projects/59181
 
REVIEW: SET DETAILS
Set #: 21304
Name: Doctor Who
Theme: Ideas (Doctor Who)
Parts: 623
Price: $59.99
Before we get to the build, let’s talk value. At $59.99 the price per piece works out to just under $.10 each. This is slightly better than the Star Wars licensed sets that I have done recently. There are 4 minifigures and 2 brick built Daleks. all figures are unique to this set.
THE BOX
Before we get started, I am going to take a moment to talk about something that I never mention, the box. LEGO Ideas sets come in a sturdier, nicer looking box. They really do celebrate the people and ideas that get selected and produced. The cardboard is heavier stock and has a nice opening and re-closing aspect. It's more like opening a treasure chest than a package.

BOX CONTENTS
Some people may wind up picking up a set that is open box or, want to verify the box contents before beginning a build. For this set, there are 6 unnumbered bags and a thick instruction book with heavy paper denoting the collectible nature of the Ideas sets.

The instructions have some information about Doctor Who and the characters in the set. There's also a section with information on the developers of this particular set, including the interesting factoid that one of the people from the LEGO Group is the nephew of the 8th Doctor actor Paul Mcgann.

THE BUILD AND EXECUTION
Since none of the bags had numbers, I had to do the last thing I wanted to. I had to open them all up, sort through them and separate them. I dislike this immensely. I hate it when I buy a used set, and it just makes me mad that on a set of over 600 pieces, they couldn't organize it a little better. pieces of each minifigure scattered in 3 different bags shows that they had no intention of making it easier.

For those with a great dislike of stickers, there are no stickers in this set. Every decorative piece is fully painted.

There's a large number of Dark Blue pieces, some of which I think might be new in this color. Dark and Light Bluish Gray dominate the rest of the build


Enough about my sorting. That's not what anyone really wants to read about. First, the instructions have you build the 4 minifigures. You get 2 different versions of the Doctor, his companion Clara Oswald and a Weeping Angel. The set comes with 2 Sonic Screwdrivers, although technically one of them is a spare. The box and instructions indicate that only the younger Doctor is allowed to have a Sonic. I decided to spread the wealth. I guess if they had put any more sonics in there, Clara and maybe the Angel would be pictured with one.

I am not going to go bag by bag with this set, because it's impossible. Because of that, there's probably going to be a lot more pictures than I usually take. Also, the pictures will have more stuff in the background because most of my work space is taken up with all of the pieces I sorted. (this teaches me a valuable lesson to have a work area and a photo area.) I had assumed that they would start you off building the blue box, so I was really excited to get started on that, but they jumped right to the interior.
The first thing that we build is the base of the TARDIS console platform. The designers created a pedestal base to lift the platform up and give the illusion that there is more stuff underneath, maybe more places to go. As a side note, the original submission had a tilt function in this area, but it appears to have been nixed in the final build, as this is very stable.

Now that we've got the base built, it's time to begin working on the console's central column. I like hw they created some little details and hid most of the studs. I don't understand the 8 white 1x1 round plates that are hidden in the upper section of the column. There has to be an aesthetic reason for them, but to me it's just pointless. I did enjoy the way that they built the stairs out of a ladder. it was oddly satisfying to build stairs instead of using a stair piece.

I was curious how they would create a 6 sided TARDIS console. From my own MOC attempts, I know that it is not a shape that comes easily to LEGO. I sort of figured that they would use the same build technique that I finally settled on, but I was wrong. Their way is probably more "legal" as it is fixed into the build and won't move too much. The panels are created separately and snapped onto a series of bars that are pinned into a wheel.

I am honestly somewhat disappointed in the low number of switches, knobs and decorative bits on the console panels. When I think og the console, I think of a mess of stuff sticking up and off, not trans blue plates.

Once you have the console built, then you finish up the working area with a small handful of additional computer consoles, 2 on the outer railing and 2 above the console panels.

Now that the console room is complete, surely we build the outside of the TARDIS, right? Nope, now it's time to EXTERMINATE! We're going to build the Daleks. I'd like to just take a quick detour to talk about Daleks. They are generally rounded, curved and sloped. Rounded is typically difficult to accomplish with generally rectangular bricks. Most MOC Daleks are generally very angular with a dome on top. The designers of this set put some curved pieces on to give the impression of a rounded body shape, but it's more of an illusion than a practical distinction. The design of the arms prevents them from moving at all, but the head design allows the whole top to rotate. I am not a fan of the giant gap created by the way that they designed the eye, but there's not really a better way to portray that without designing a new piece. Putting a piece on top of a dome is no more satisfying.

Finally we begin working on the TARDIS itself. The notorious blue box is the last thing that you build. It took me a while to understand why the ting I most wanted to build was the last thing. It's because builders are likely to stop as soon as they get the TARDIS built and play with that for a while. If it's the last thing you build, then you're more likely to play with everything.
Full disclosure here, I made a building error that I did not catch until the very last picture that I took. This error was very early in the build, but thankfully, in the end very easy to fix. I placed the upper panel all the way in the corner, but it I supposed to be slightly offset leaving a gap all the way around. I apologize to all if this bugs you throughout the rest of the pictures.

Once you have your base, then you need to start creating the box. The exterior is a series of windows with solid panels. This is a pretty nice way to replicate the design of the Police Box. The corners are built separately with Plates used to raise the edges as well as ad detailing to bring the design up from just a simple box.

Just a warning at this stage, you begin putting interior details on the box, but it's very easy to pop out the bottom panel as you are trying to seat the pieces. The reverse image of the TARDIS doorway is a nice detail that I never would have expected.

To finish up, you add the panels that read "Police Public Call Box" these pieces come in 2 sections and are mounted on hinges. This is important to allow you to open up the build. The LEGO designers added a place where the Doctor could fit within the box.

Finally, you can attach the opened TARDIS to the console room platform to allow for the play aspect that it is bigger on the inside. The two separate pieces come together pretty well, allowing you to pick it all up together, but not so firmly that you can't take the 2 elements apart again quickly.

The characters look pretty good. The younger Doctor, Clara and the Weeping Angel all have 2 faces. The younger Doctor also comes with a Fez which looks terrible on him, and exposes the second face. Clara's got the 2 color legs that LEGO has been doing recently. I am not a fan of her hair piece, because her hair is generally straight and darker. The older Doctor is wearing a light purple jacket that I don't recall ever seeing on the show. 

There were a lot of small extra parts, Nothing too exciting, except for the extra Sonic Screwdriver, but that's not pictured here.

REACTION
I like this set. I wanted to like the set before I started, and I wound up not being disappointed. I was slightly disappointed that the TARDIS did not open on the door panels, but it makes sense the way that they designed it. Now the front door is on the front of the build. The reversed image fits in the right place and all is right aesthetically. It's just too bad that in order to have the Doctor peaking out, I'd have to dismantle several panels and remove the roof. The biggest change between the Ideas submission and the released product is in the choice of minifigures. The Cyberman is going to make an appearance soon in the Dimensions fun pack, but the suggested Doctors were set aside for the most recent iterations. The most popular Doctors of them all are #4 Tom Baker and #10 David Tennant. Their exclusion from this set, but inclusion in the Dimensions game play make me really believe that they will be making a later appearance in toy form.
Below, I have added some comparison pictures between the Dimensions set and the Ideas set. I'll probably do the same later on when the Fun pack with the Cyberman and Dalek is released. Sure I have a few quibbles, and some of the stuff that I worked so hard on for my own MOC are more appealing to me, but overall I find this set to be satisfying.

 
 
FINAL THOUGHTS
Doctor Who is enduringly popular and tends to draw a rabid fandom. Those outside of fandom either dimly recall bad special effects, or have no knowledge of this series at all. People who don't collect LEGO will and have gone out of their way to purchase this set. Within 12 hours of release online this set sold out and became back ordered on the LEGO Shop At Home site.
There have been comparisons between this set and The Big Bang Theory, I guess because they are both popular TV series that have recently been made into LEGO form. That's somewhat disingenuous. Big Bang Theory doesn't lend itself to fantastic situations or much play possibility. Doctor Who should be compared to the older sets like the Back to the Future Delorean or Ghost Busters Ecto-1. All 3 of these properties have already been slotted into the LEGO Dimensions game with new or modified minifigures either already released or soon to be. With the Ghostbusters firehouse coming to expand that line, we can hope that Doctor Who follows suit. 
Short term, this set has some limited flipping potential for Christmas 2015. If it remains sold out, or quickly sells out again before the holiday, people will potentially make 50-100% profit in that shortened time frame. In the long term, this set has some legs. I don't see it languishing like birds or Exo-Suit or even BBT. It will probably be as easy to get as Ecto-1 for its lifetime, but I expect the price to jump as soon as it EOL.
I have expectations that like Minecraft, this Ideas set will become a theme. There are a dozen different Doctors, dozens of companions and bad guys galore. They could create settings out of almost every theme that they have released to show his travel in both time and space. The European and International appeal of this property is pretty stunning. So, I could see this set being the pilot, the taste to get people in the door, and then they would retire it to make their own sets. If this becomes a full blown theme, the initial offering will be the most sought after.
I also think that the part out value for this set will be good. People will want multiple TARDIS(s) to display one with the control room and one free standing. Collectors will want multiple Weeping Angels, and some people will just want the Doctors and Clara. I think that this set has legs. Whether you know and like the show or not, the international fanbase will continue to grow as parents introduce their kids to the show and to LEGO. 
 

 
Hello LEGO fans..  It’s been a little over a year since Jeff and I started working on our first book, The Ultimate Guide to Collectible LEGO Sets: Identification and Price Guide.  Well, after a year and a half, the book is now available at retail and is selling briskly.  We would like to thank everyone who has bought a copy and hope you have enjoyed the book.  Krause Publishing did a very nice job with our book in my opinion and is seeing strong sales, strong enough to ask us to do a second book.
The new book will concentrate on the classic LEGO minifigure (...and maxifigure) and their values and unique features that make them valuable on LEGO secondary marketplaces.  The book will be done in a similar fashion as our first book...basically including most major LEGO themes and the important minifigures from each theme.  We are looking to discuss hundreds of special minifigures and will have a price guide that covers many of the major minifigures.  
But unlike our first book which gravitated towards more text and analysis than pictures, this book will make the photos of the minifigures the focal point of the book.  This book will be a hardcover book, with higher quality images and page finish.  While there will be plenty of data and analysis, the publisher wanted to put LEGO minifigures in “creative LEGO” and “real world” scenes or dioramas, besides having the traditional body shot of a minifigure found on Brickset or Bricklink.  
The creations of French photographer, Samsofy Pardugato, is an excellent example of mixing real world situations with LEGO minifigures and coming up with a dynamic photograph.  Here are a few of his works and you can check out more example here…




A person can also create a wonderful photograph with just LEGO sets, pieces and minifigures.  Here are examples illustrating such techniques…


 
As I stated above, there will be dozens and dozens of important, unique and valuable minifigures discussed in the book and not all will receive special treatment, but quite a few will and this is where Jeff and I need YOUR help.  We need the help of those LEGO fans and collectors out there that have a creative flair for photography and we are willing to offer fame and fortune for it...LOL.
Jeff and I are going to run LEGO photography “contest” for any person who wants to give it a shot.  We are looking for people to come up with “creative LEGO” and “real world” scenes or dioramas for each one of the below themes:
ADVENTURERS AGENTS/ULTRA AGENTS ATLANTIS/AQUA RAIDERS AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER BATMAN BIONICLE CASTLE CITY COLLECTIBLE MINIFIGURES(CMFs) COMIC CON, TOY FAIR & CONVENTION CREATOR DIMENSIONS DINO/JURASSIC WORLD DISNEY PRINCESSES ELVES EXO-FORCE FRIENDS HARRY POTTER HERO FACTORY IDEAS/CUUSOO INDIANA JONES LEGENDS OF CHIMA LORD OF THE RINGS/THE HOBBIT MONSTER FIGHTERS NINJAGO PIRATES/PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN POWER MINERS RACERS SCOOBY-DOO SEASONAL SPACE SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS STAR WARS SUPERHEROES TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES THE LEGO MOVIE THE LONE RANGER THE SIMPSONS TOY STORY MAXIFIGURES VINTAGE PRE 2000 MINIFIGURES MISCELLANEOUS MINIFIGURES and THEME COUNTERFEITS Each new chapter will have one of these creative LEGO minifigure action scenes or dioramas attached to it in some manner, whether it’s in the introduction or later in the chapter.  Some major themes might have multiple “special” images.  These creations should include one or more minifigures from that theme.  That is really the only rule for these images.  They have to have theme based minifigures in the photos.  
Besides the major creative layouts in each chapter, we will discuss dozens and dozens of other important minifigures that require high quality photos.  Examples of these can be seen here:
 
 
These can also be creative in nature, but they don’t have to be.  Sometimes, a quality high resolution photo of a cool minifigure speaks volumes. Specific minifigures that will be discussed in the book will be released to those who are interested by contacting Jeff or I.  I have a list for each theme and will be looking for quite a few to be honest.  Feel free to share any ideas that you have.  
As for the contest itself, there will be various prizes.  First off, each person who sends in a photograph that gets accepted by the publishers to use in the chapter introductions, which focus on real life images & LEGO dioramas, will get a “Limited Edition” book and a special call out in the book.  Basically, there will be a small bio for each person who submits winning photos in the book.  Each one of these “special” photos will  have a title and breakdown of minifigures in the image, so we can make a proper “blurb or call out” on the page.  The photographer’s name will also accompany these images.  
The TOP TEN images (in any form) that we receive will win a $100.00 LEGO or Amazon Gift Certificate each.  Judging will be done by the publishers and one person can win multiple prizes for multiple submissions.  There will be a BRICKPICKER GRAND PRIZE WINNER of a $500.00 LEGO or Amazon Gift Card.  This award will be chosen by Jeff and I and will go to the person who go above and beyond everyone else.  Maybe it’s a few exceptional photos.  Maybe it’s about dozens of solid images that can be used in the minifigure write ups and analysis or any combination thereof.  We will take a look at all submissions and all will be taken into consideration, tracked and figured into the final judging.
Lastly, I just want to say that Jeff and I want to make this a special LEGO “community” book.  We fought hard to make it a hardcover and upscale, visual book.  Here is an opportunity to make some money and gain some recognition as well.  Many of you are way more talented than Jeff and I and can create custom MOCs and images that we can only dream of making.  Now is the time to show off your creativity and let the world see your creations.
This contest will start immediately and run through the end of January at this point.  Changes in the schedule will be dependent on response from LEGO fans, but we will need time to sort through the images and put them together for the book publishers.  Winners will be announced in late Spring, after the publishers put out a rough draft of the book.  The book will be available for purchase next Fall.  Please, any questions or ideas, please ask and Jeff and I (and Krause Publishing) will try to answer them.   Good luck and happy photographing...
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PHOTOGRAPHY SUBMISSION GUIDELINES 
Camera used MUST be MINIMUM of 5-8 megapixels.  Camera should be set at the highest resolution.  All files must be in TIF or JPG format.  DO NOT Compress Image Files. If you are trying to shrink the file size, please Zip the file Download the photo release form. All submissions require a filled out and signed photo release form to be considered for the photo contest.  You can email the filled out and signed release to [email protected].  If you need a fax number, I will post one as well. I will be posting a link to a form here for you to submit your photos.  All the submissions will not be publicly viewable.  We will be submitting them to the publisher.  Please do not post your creative works here on the site or anywhere else.
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What if I have a lot of images or a lot of very large files to send?
If you have images that you want to send and they are large, we do have a WeTransfer Account that you can utilize.  Feel free to go there and send us the photos and signed photo release forms here.  Send as many as you need!!  It is very simple to use!
https://brickpicker.wetransfer.com/
 
It's the holiday season, so pour a glass of eggnog and get your ginger snaps close at hand. Actually, are ginger snaps a holiday thing? I have no idea. Maybe I should just talk about the set.
REVIEW: SET DETAILS
Set #: 10245
Name: Santa's Workshop
Theme: Creator (Winter Village)
Parts: 883
Price: $69.99
Before we get to the build, let’s talk value. At $69.99 the price per piece works out to just under $.08 each. This is much better than the licensed sets that I am used to dealing with. There are 6 minifigures. Without a lot of experience with creator or city sets, I feel like most of the body parts are reused. In addition to all of the minifigures there are 5 brick built reindeer. I was a little sad that none of them were Rudolph, but I guess I could swap the extra trans red stud for the brown one that is on one of the reindeer in the set.
BOX CONTENTS
Some people may wind up picking up a set that is open box or, want to verify the box contents before beginning a build. For this set, there are 9 numbered baggies (3 bags each numbered 1-2,) and a bag containing a sticker sheet, and 2 instruction books.

THE BUILD AND EXECUTION
Bag 1: I'm going to still call it bag 1 even though it is the combination of 3 bags, because bags 1 is just awkward. You build Santa, his sleigh, 5 Reindeer, a Christmas tree and a North Pole sign. The sleigh has some nice little details, the runners in pearl gold, the Dark Green accents and the lanterns. The candy cane North Pole sign and the Christmas tree are nice little simple touches. The smaller reindeer has a similar, but simpler build than the 4 larger ones. They all have eyes printed on a 1x1 brick, and the larger ones have printing on their backs. Speaking of their backs, you build a pair of stacked 1x2 plates to fill in the gaps when you separate them from the sleigh. I don't know about you, but to me this is just so much extra pieces as I am unlikely to display them detached from the sleigh. I was half tempted to throw some extra 1x1 round plates on the ground under these guys, but maybe magic flying reindeer don't defecate.

 
 
Bag 2:Here we find Mrs. Claus with a plate of cookies, and the residential portion of the workshop. Santa's got an easy chair. There's a photo of the Claus's on vacation in Fiji, and a roaring fire in the fireplace. Plus Santa's got a big stack of mail. You use up most of the stickers in this section. I loved the little details in this portion of the build. The study is by far my favorite. the snow on the eaves is nice and I think the clock is great. I couldn't help but think of the Hill Valley clock tower when I saw it. I also really liked the ladder. Instead of using a premade ladder, we use bannisters and hang them sideways. The pearl gold pops out I think. The giant candy canes were annoying. I think they should have been added at the end, because I kept popping them off every time I moved the build to add more pieces.

Bag 3: This is where you find the workforce and their working area. This is the actual workshop. I don't know if the toy machine was supposed to go into the workshop, so my elves are building the toys outside, just like the box shows. Santa's kind of mean making his elves work outside in the snow instead of inside where there's a fire. I liked the toy machine. It wasn't a hard build, but some of the stuff on it struck me as clever. Plus look at those smoke stacks. No wonder the ice caps are melting, these guys are running industrial machines outside on top of the glaciers.

 
There were a lot of small extra parts, including a cookie, a wand, a candy, 2 flames, a hose, a bow, Santa's beard and a gold lightsaber handle. That seems like a lot of specialty pieces which makes me happy. I also include the brick separator, because I have so many of these now, and they are not a part of the build.

REACTION
I like this set. I wanted to start my winter village last year when this set was new, but I couldn't think of a place for it, and frankly my kids are too young to leave sets like this out where they can access it. Well, I figured out a nice, safe way to display a few sets in the living room, so I got this set. The kids love it, the wife likes it. It's all around fun and nice to look at. I don't know that it belongs in a winter village setting, but with my display, it makes an excellent stand alone piece. My 6 year old tried to help me build this, but she kept getting distracted and wanting to play, and my 3 year old had a great time playing with Santa and his reindeer as I was trying to keep track of all the small pieces that they were knocking around.

I don't know why one of the elves has a crying second face or why Mrs. Claus has an angry one. I guess it's just the reused pieces.
 
FINAL THOUGHTS
This set is on its second year of life, heading into the home stretch towards the holiday. Typically, these holiday sets have had a 2 year lifespan. I wonder though if LEGO might want to refresh this one again next year. It seems like it was a big seller this year. Since it is related to, but not of the Winter Village, I could see it being a bit of a spoiler. People who want only one holiday set would probably choose this one. It looks good on its own, it can work with existing city/town or Creator scenes. The building is barely a façade, so would look terrible with Modulars.
This set has a short life cycle. Sure, this is the second year, but each year it is only available for a few months. This should generate a scarcity, but it is also a highly perishable set. December 26, people will be looking for something else to fill that niche. Very few people will be looking for this set in March. In September, however, people will start seeing Christmas decorations everywhere and might start thinking of Christmas sets.
If this set retires this year, as we should expect, it should make gains. It won't be as rare as initial offerings in the Winter VIllage line, but it should have a broader appeal beyond those who collect to make a winter scene. The popularity of the subject matter will drive the price in the aftermarket. Unfortunately, it is also a very popular reseller target, so initial gains will be low until the quick flippers sell through.Go buy it on Amazon
Welcome to the first entry of what I would like to think of as a revamped Evaluation Corner article. The idea behind this new format is to offer a little more historical and analytical data when evaluating sets for potential investment, in a more visual way. Hopefully you will like it; be sure to add your feedback or comments!
Historical & Theme Analysis
The topic of this first article will be the recently released The Brick Bounty – 70413. The “Pirates” LEGO theme has become one of those recurring ones we expect to pop up in stores every few years. It really needs no explanation; kids love pirates and AFOLs really appreciate a well- designed LEGO ship. So, how has the Pirates theme performed over the course of the years when compared to some of the other “evergreen” lines?

As you can see, the theme sits slightly below the average LEGO theme CAGR of 11.55%, seemingly indicating the performance of its sets has not been quite as stellar. However, it is important to mention that all of the themes showcased above have been around for a long, long time. The aggregate CAGR number is somewhat skewed negatively as time goes by and the return gets spread out over a larger period of time and more sets are added to the sample.
Of course, these only highlights the performance of the theme as a whole, and while that is good information to have, we should focus our attention in the performance of pirate ships. The graph below includes all the pirate ships in the theme with over 500 pieces, excluding the Imperial Flagship.



It is pretty clear that while the overall theme CAGR is not that impressive, the return on investment for these ships is the complete opposite. All of them have increased AT LEAST 100% in value, with the most recent example of 6243 Brickbeard’s Bounty.
Set Analysis
Realistically, I believe that 6243 is the one set that will provide more insights into the potential performance of 70413 The Brick Bounty, as the sets themselves are extremely similar. The rest of the sets in the list are either Pre-2000, or re-releases of previous versions.
It is encouraging to see that LEGO decided to go with a significantly higher piece count for this newest pirate ship release. While not on the same level as the retired Pirates of the Caribbean sets, I do think that the design of the set is very appealing and the set reviews on LEGO Shop at Home seem to suggest buyers think the same. I do want to note that some people feel the “interior” of the set could have used a little more detail.
Besides that, the set includes 7 standard Pirates minifigures, none of which strike me as special enough to increase the value of the set once retired. It would be nice if LEGO found a way to innovate/change the minifigures in this line; they are just too similar to previous versions.
Since this set has practically just been released, it is pretty normal not to read too many comments about it in the forums. I think there will be plenty of time to acquire this set at decent discounts, and the initial price point of $99.99 already makes it appealing for the less “serious” LEGO investor.
Future Performance
I figured I would include some sort of forecast of where I think sets will go in the future in my articles, based on basic regression analysis and just plain trending. If nothing else, it can give some people a very high level idea of potential future performance. 
In this particular case, the sample is way too small to run any kind of significant regression as, in reality, there is only one set that I see as comparable to The Brick Bounty (Brickbeard’s Bounty). Still, I do believe the path of 70413 can sort of follow that of 6243, so we can still make a high level prediction of long term value.
6243 – Performance

One thing to note about this graph: the points in blue are estimated, as we have no actual data points that far in the past. I estimated them based on the usual assumption that retired sets grow a lot faster over the first 2 years of retirement, and then plateau at around 4 or 5 years. All prices are assumed to be end of year. 2014 and 2015 are actual historical values from the Brickpicker Price Guide.
As you can imagine, 6243 has been impacted by the release of 70413 as buyers have the option to pay retail for a set that is significantly larger than the $200 counterpart.
70413 – Projected Performance

Given this information, we can come up with an estimate of what 70413 will be worth 5 years after retirement, assuming a new ship is released at some point in the fourth year. The growth of this set has been adjusted downward to try and capture the change in the market environment. Even then, we could see a CAGR of over 15% by 2022 and an increase over retail of around 120%.
Final Thoughts
Pirate ships hold a special place in the heart of LEGO investors and collectors alike; Not only great performers over the course of the years, but great toys and display pieces. I really think that despite the changes in the LEGO investing landscape, these well done ships will continue to produce decent results in the long run.
 
*This is NOT investment advice. It is just my personal opinion about the set’s potential based on historical information and a set of assumptions. As with anything, past performance is not a guarantee of future results. Please do your own research before making a decision.
 
As a countdown to the Force Awakens, I will be writing at least one Star Wars review each week.
Full disclosure, I have already built one of these previously, and I was not a fan. I found one at a significant discount, wanted a few more troops, and felt like writing a review because I had a joke in mind. I didn't think it was fair to write a review on a set that I built over 2 months ago, so I refreshed my familiarity with this set, and took plenty of pictures. I think my understanding of what works in these pictures is starting to get better, so hopefully you agree.
REVIEW: SET DETAILS
Set #: 75103
Name: First Order Transporter
Theme: Star Wars
Parts: 792
Price: $89.99
Before we get to the build, let’s talk value. At $89.99 the price per piece works out to a bit over $.11 each. This seems to be on the low/average side of pricing for a licensed set. There are 7 minifigures all of which are currently unique to this set. This set is mainly a troop builder with 2 unnamed Resistance fighters, 2 First Order Stormtroopers, 2 First Order Flametroopers, and Captain Phasma.
BOX CONTENTS
Some people may wind up picking up a set that is open box or, want to verify the box contents before beginning a build. For this set, there are 6 numbered baggies, and a bag containing a sticker sheet, and an instruction book. There are 4 medium to small stickers, so not too bad

 
THE BUILD AND EXECUTION
Bag 1 introduces us to the First Order Stormtrooper, the helmet is a new mold, and the deco is nice and fairly accurate, with front of leg printing. The build itself is pretty basic, a platform with an action feature and a couple of long axles linked underneath. In addition, you get some brackets to attach stuff to the sides later.

Turn the knob, the chair goes up

 
Bag 2 is the part where I started to get irritated. you build a box. that's basically it, a box with a few decorative touches. Ask a 7 year old to build a space ship, you might get this same exact shape. I know, there's not a lot you can do with a ship designed to look like a WW2 troop transport, but surely they could have come up with something a little more complex, especially considering the next bag.

Bag 3 you build some decorative panels and slap them on the side of the nondescript box. Ta-dah, you now have a space box. Oh yeah, you also attach the landing ramp and finish off the second play feature, the rod underneath that keeps the ramp closed. I guess it could dramatically open if you push it, but for me, its more important to keep the thing closed in flight. You are also introduced to the Resistance "soldiers." To me they look pretty bland. There's nothing really uniform about their clothes. They could be farmers for lack of anything truly distinguishing a martial aspect. Interestingly, their guns are the same Star Wars guns, but molded in the pewter color.

Bag 4 is all about making your space box into a flying space box. Here, you add the engine and a decorative pair of struts to the ramp, as well as smoothing out the lines at the front of the ship. don't forget about the headlights too. flying space boxes need headlights.

Bag 5 brings us the figure that will drive sales of this ship in the short term. Here we get Captain Phasma. I could not get her cape to drape over one shoulder properly, so I guess she's walking into a heavy wind. She comes with a unique silver blaster, a uniquely shaped and colored cape, and the same helmet as the Stormtroopers in silver. In this bag, you build the rear panel, which includes a trap door over the pop up chair. You also build a conning tower with a slide out platform, where your minifigure has to stand to use it. You also put on some clear wheels on the bottom so that it "hovers."

Bag 6 you build 2 First Order Flametroopers. Their helmets are an entirely different new mold. You build them a massively oversized backpack using the new clear neck bracket and add a white round brick to a standard rifle to make their flamethrowers. You also make a panel to cover the troop compartment. This panel is designed to be removed and replaced easily with a modular type design. the stud shooters and spring shooters are poorly disguised. If stuck right on top and not modified at all could be called a disguise.

There were a lot of small extra parts, including a lot of transparent neon green for the stud shooters. I also include the brick separator, because I have so many of these now, and they are not a part of the build.

REACTION
I dislike this build. I disliked it when I first built it 2 months ago, and my opinion has not changed. There will be those who say, "You think you could do better?" Well, of course I can't. I am not a master builder. I am not clever enough to figure out a better mouse trap, but I can see that this one is sad. Others will point out that LEGO didn't create the boring looking ship design, that it was the people working on Star Wars. To that I agree, I just wish that the designers had tried to make this build more fun.
The minifigures are great, army builders are always welcome, unless they're space farmers. I love the fact that you get 3 different colors of the same old gun. It really added some variation to a bit of the sameness. I am also ecstatic that there wasn't a single stud shooter pistol. I hate those stupid things. The 2 different helmet molds was a pleasant surprise. Phasma's black, non-decorated head was not so much.
 
 
FINAL THOUGHTS
The main draw of this set is the minifigures, and that is where it is going to suffer long term. Captain Phasma is bound to be released in another set, and perhaps then she will have a decorated head piece. The $20 Captain Phasma figures from this set will tank when those future sets are released. I cannot imagine that they would ever consider leaving this character alone here. The First Order troops will definitely see release sooner than later. That leaves the Resistance Soldiers. I think we're going to see better looking Resistance troops in the upcoming battle pack.
The vehicle, apart from my disdain, will more than likely see another release. If it is as prevalent as TIE Fighters in the new age of Star Wars, we'll see a better version for the next numbered Star Wars movie. By then, they will be working off finalized designs and figure out a way to make the build more complex, and probably figure out what they are doing with the back third.
Short term, this vehicle will fly off the shelves in late December. It might even sell out before Christmas leaving a very short time frame to make some modest profits. There's still a ton of them out there in the wild, and the price point is high enough that they will move slower than sets with more ties to the original series.
I am basing most of my valuation on my belief that this ship will make appearances in later films. If Phasma stays unique to this set, if it doesn't get a remake in a couple years, it could be a grower. Some fans love the utilitarian look of the finished product. With the accelerated movie release, LEGO will be inundated with new designs and a need to pump out products for each subsequent film. That rush to stay current could push back the reissue date, if I am wrong and this vessel is not as common as TIE Fighters. 

I almost forgot my joke. It's all about the build of this set. Just imagine Justin Timberlake and Andy Samberg with ugly goatees singing it.
"Step 1: Build a box. Step 2: put some stuff on the box. Step 3: Put your minifigure in the box. It's a fig in a box."

Next time we'll be adding some holiday cheer by looking at Christmas sets. Go buy it on Amazon
I want to make a blog post that summarizes the Black Friday deals.  A lot of the talk is going on in the Daily Deals thread, and we will try to bring deals over into the content here so that it is easy to see what might be out there.  The reason I turned the summary into a blog is because for any comments, the deals are on each page and there will not need to be searching back 10 pages to see what was missed.  This list will be available all the time.  I am hunting through the Daily Deal thread to find the deals, so you will continue to see this update.
 

BLACK FRIDAY LEGO SHOP @ HOME DEALS  - A list of everything on sale @ LEGO starting tonight at 12am EST
 

LEGO: DC Comics Super Heroes: Justice League vs. Bizarro League $6.00
LEGO City Police 60044 Mobile Police Unit 31% Off $30.99
LEGO Movie 70815 Super Secret Police Dropship Building Set 31% Off $55.00
Imperial Assault Carrier 75106-1 26% Off $55.00
Star Wars Order Special Forces TIE Fighter 75101 http://www.amazon.com/LEGO-Special-Forces-Fighter-Building/dp/B00WHYTQXE/tag=brickpicker-20
 
 

Bike Shop live at Target
http://www.target.com/p/lego-creator-bike-shop-cafe-31026/-/A-15276992#prodSlot=medium_1_1&term=lego+bike+shop
Arctic Base Camp
http://www.target.com/p/lego-city-arctic-basecamp-60036/-/A-15409367#prodSlot=medium_1_9&term=lego+arctic+base
Police Dropship
http://www.target.com/p/the-lego-movie-super-secret-police-dropship-70815/-/A-15282721#prodSlot=medium_1_1&term=lego+police+dropship
The Lego Movie (Blu-ray + DVD + Digital HD UltraViolet Combo Pack) - Target Exclusive
http://goto.target.com/c/65738/81938/2092?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.target.com%2Fp%2Fthe-lego-movie-blu-ray-dvd-digital-hd-ultraviolet-combo-pack-target-exclusive%2F-%2FA-50010679
LEGO Dimensions Start Packs
 

LEGO Classic LEGO Large Creative Box, 10697
LEGO DUPLO My First LEGO DUPLO Large Creative Box, 10622
LEGO Jurassic World Video Game (XBox One, PS4, Wii U) $25
LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham (PS3, XBox 360) $8.00
LEGO: Marvel Pirates of the Caribbean (Xbox 360) $8.00 Yes, they labeled it as “Marvel Pirates of the Caribbean”
LEGO: Marvel Super Heroes (PS3, Wii U) $8.00
The LEGO Movie: The Videogame (PS4, XBox 360) $25.00
LEGO Batman (Wii) $8.00
LEGO Dimensions Starter Pack (XBox 360) $79.99
 
 


http://yoyo.7eer.net/c/65738/83484/2056?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.yoyo.com%2Fsearch%3Frf-YoyoPromo%3DBFLEGO
Code: BFLEGO
Max discount: $50
The coupon can be used on MULTIPLE orders
 

Don't forget about the 30% Ultra Agents at TRU...Some really nice sets there.  The 70173 Ultra Agents Ocean HQ for $69.99 and the 70171 Agents Ultrasonic Showdown for $13.99 with the Professor Brainstein minifigure that sells for $14-15+ on Bricklink and eBay!
Discounts on LEGO Dimensions
Lego City: Coast Guard Patrol $50.99
LEGO DUPLO LEGO Ville My First Police (10532) $14.99
LEGO DUPLO LEGO Ville My First Shop (10546) $14.99
LEGO Legends of Chima Sir Fangar’s Saber-Tooth Walker (70143) $23.99

Ebay GC
http://www.ebay.com/itm/262161712504
 

Toys R Us Gift Card $50
http://www.staples.com/Toys-R-Us-Gift-Card-50/product_1204161
 

View Black Friday Deals
BOGO 50% on low priced items under $40
The holiday season is officially on! This year, we have one of the best seasonal GWPs we have ever offered, free shipping on all orders, and plenty of discounts on some fantastic sets! (Please note that some of the product sales start Friday and others begin on Monday).  
Gingerbread House GWP on orders of $99 or more.
Valid: 11.27.15 – 11.30.15 while supplies last
No Code Required
Free Shipping on all Orders
Valid: 11.27.15 – 11.30.15
No Code Required
Brick Friday Sale Items!
Valid 11.27.15 - 11.30.15 while supplies last

table.tableizer-table { border: 1px solid #CCC; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; width: 100%; } .tableizer-table td { padding: 4px; margin: 3px; border: 1px solid #ccc; } .tableizer-table th { background-color: #104E8B; color: #FFF; font-weight: bold; } ID NAME US SALE PRICE DISCOUNT USA CA SALE PRICE DISCOUNT CAN 5004116 LEGO FRIENDS STEPHANIE WATCH W DOLL $12.49 50% $12.49 50% 5004130 LEGO FRIENDS OLIVIA WATCH W/MINI DOLL $12.49 50% $12.49 50% 5002207 LEGO CLASSIC MF LINK WATCH $12.49 50% $12.49 50% 5003023 LEGO MOVIE BAD COP MF LINK WATCH $12.49 50% $12.49 50% 5003024 LEGO MOVIE LUCY/WYLDSTYLE MF WATCH $12.49 50% $12.49 50% 5003025 LEGO MOVIE EMMET MF LINK WATCH $12.49 50% $12.49 50% 5004127 LEGO NINJAGO KAI MF WATCH $12.49 50% $12.49 50% 5004131 LEGO NINJAGO ZANE MF WATCH $12.49 50% $12.49 50% 5000143 SW Boba Fett Watch w/minifigure $12.49 50% $12.49 50% 2856130 Yoda Watch Kids w/Mini Figure $12.49 50% $12.49 50% 2855057 Storm Trooper Kids Watch 2010 $12.49 50% $12.49 50% 2851193 Darth Maul Watch $12.49 50% $12.49 50% 2850828 Darth Vader Watch $12.49 50% $12.49 50% 2850829 Luke Skywalker Watch $12.49 50% $12.49 50% 5004064 LEGO SH BATMAN W/MF WATCH $12.49 50% $12.49 50% 5004065 LEGO SH SUPERMAN W/MF WATCH $12.49 50% $12.49 50% 10568 Knight Tournament $5.99 40% $7.79 40% 60070 Water Plane Chase $17.99 40% $23.99 40% 70819 Bad Cop Car Chase $17.99 40% $23.99 40% 79016 Attack on Lake-town $17.99 40% $20.99 40% 70225 Bladvic’s Rumble Bear $23.99 40% $29.99 40% 76018 Hulk Lab Smash $29.99 40% $35.99 40% 76041 The Hydra Fortress Smash $29.99 40% $35.99 40% 70226 Mammoth’s Frozen Stronghold $35.99 40% $44.99 40% 851339 Ninja Bandana $3.49 30% $4.89 30% 851336 Ninja Fork Weapon $5.59 30% $6.99 30% 70779 Protector of Stone $6.99 30% $9.09 30% 70780 Protector of Water $6.99 30% $9.09 30% 850798 Classic Name Sign $9.09 30% $11.19 30% 70784 Lewa – Master of Jungle $10.49 30% $12.59 30% 70785 Pohatu – Master of Stone $10.49 30% $12.59 30% 70786 Gali – Master of Water $10.49 30% $12.59 30% 70790 Lord of Skull Spiders $10.49 30% $12.59 30% 70792 Skull Slicer $10.49 30% $12.59 30% 70793 Skull Basher $10.49 30% $12.59 30% 70794 Skull Scorpio $10.49 30% $12.59 30% 40080 LEGO Friends Pencil Holder $10.49 30% $12.59 30% 40110 LEGO® City Coin Bank $10.49 30% $12.59 30% 850617 Accessory Set Police $10.49 30% $12.59 30% 850618 Accessory Set Fire $10.49 30% $12.59 30% 40114 LEGO® Friends Buildable Jewelry Box $10.49 30% $12.59 30% 40154 Pencil Pot $10.49 30% $12.59 30% 853447 Ninja Sword & Sheath $11.89 30% $15.39 30% 70788 Kopaka – Master of Ice $13.99 30% $17.49 30% 70789 Onua – Master of Earth $13.99 30% $17.49 30% 70730 Chain Cycle Ambush $20.99 30% $27.99 30% 79017 The Battle of Five Armies™ $41.99 30% $52.49 30% 40158 Chess Set $41.99 30% $52.49 30% 70750 Ninja DB X $55.99 30% $69.99 30% 70227 King Crominus’ Rescue $62.99 30% $76.99 30% 71170 Starter Pack PS3 $69.99 30% $76.99 30% 71171 Starter Pack PS4 $69.99 30% $76.99 30% 71172 Starter Pack Xbox One $69.99 30% $76.99 30% 71173 Starter Pack Xbox 360 $69.99 30% $76.99 30% 71174 Starter Pack Wii U $69.99 30% $76.99 30% 79018 The Lonely Mountain $90.99 30% $104.99 30% 71211 Bart Simpson $11.24 25% $11.24 25% 71227 Krusty $11.24 25% $11.24 25% 71231 UniKitty $11.24 25% $11.24 25% 71209 Wonder Woman $11.24 25% $11.24 25% 71210 Cyborg $11.24 25% $11.24 25% 71212 Emmet $11.24 25% $11.24 25% 71213 Bad Cop $11.24 25% $11.24 25% 71214 Benny $11.24 25% $11.24 25% 71215 Jay $11.24 25% $11.24 25% 71216 Nya $11.24 25% $11.24 25% 71217 Zane $11.24 25% $11.24 25% 71218 Gollum $11.24 25% $11.24 25% 71219 Legolas $11.24 25% $11.24 25% 71220 Gimli $11.24 25% $11.24 25% 71221 Wicked Witch $11.24 25% $11.24 25% 71222 Laval $11.24 25% $11.24 25% 71223 Cragger $11.24 25% $11.24 25% 71232 Eris $11.24 25% $11.24 25% 71207 Ninjago $18.74 25% $18.74 25% 71205 Jurassic World $18.74 25% $18.74 25% 71206 Scooby Doo $18.74 25% $18.74 25% 71204 Doctor Who $22.49 25% $22.49 25% 71201 Back to the Future $22.49 25% $22.49 25% 71202 Simpsons $22.49 25% $22.49 25% 71203 Portal $22.49 25% $22.49 25% 850602 Keychain Cragger $3.99 20% $4.39 20% 850933 LEGO® City Policeman Key Chain $3.99 20% $4.39 20% 850952 LEGO® Classic Firetruck Bag Charm $3.99 20% $4.39 20% 851353 Keychain Anacondrai Kapau $3.99 20% $4.39 20% 853463 Keychain Swamp Police $3.99 20% $4.39 20% 853474 Keychain Commander Gree $3.99 20% $4.39 20% 853450 KC Emperor's Royal Guard 2015 $3.99 20% $4.39 20% 851576 Dolphin Bag Charm $3.99 20% $4.39 20% 853461 LEGO Elves Bag Charm $3.99 20% $4.39 20% 853456 Keychain Martian Manhunter $3.99 20% $4.39 20% 60066 Swamp Police Starter set $7.99 20% $10.39 20% 41032 First Aid Jungle Bike $11.99 20% $14.39 20% 41103 Pop Star Recording Studio $11.99 20% $14.39 20% 10543 Superman™ rescue $15.99 20% $15.99 20% 41033 Jungle falls Rescue $15.99 20% $19.99 20% 10510 Ripslinger's Air Race $19.99 20% $19.99 20% 31022 Turbo Quad $19.99 20% $23.99 20% 76040 Brainiac Attack $19.99 20% $23.99 20% 60073 Service Truck $19.99 20% $23.99 20% 10539 Beach Racing $19.99 20% $19.99 20% 70746 Condrai Copter Attack $23.99 20% $31.99 20% 41036 Jungle Bridge Rescue $23.99 20% $31.99 20% 41104 Pop Star Dressing Room $23.99 20% $31.99 20% 10672 Batman™: Defend the Batcave $23.99 20% $23.99 20% 41035 Heartlake Juice Bar $23.99 20% $31.99 20% 70228 Vultrix’s Sky Scavenger $31.99 20% $39.99 20% 41105 Pop Star Show Stage $31.99 20% $39.99 20% 60074 Bulldozer $31.99 20% $39.99 20% 60049 Helicopter Transporter $35.99 20% $43.99 20% 60075 Excavator and Truck $39.99 20% $47.99 20% 75050 B-Wing™ $39.99 20% $47.99 20% 41038 Jungle Rescue Base $47.99 20% $55.99 20% 41106 Pop Star Tour Bus $47.99 20% $55.99 20% 10577 Big Royal Castle $47.99 20% $55.99 20% 42024 Container Truck $63.99 20% $79.99 20% 60076 Demolition Site $71.99 20% $87.99 20% 75053 The Ghost $71.99 20% $87.99 20% 60004 Fire Station $79.99 20% $95.99 20% 41058 Heartlake Shopping Mall $87.99 20% $103.99 20% 75054 AT-AT™ $87.99 20% $103.99 20% 70146 Flying Phoenix Fire Temple $95.99 20% $111.99 20% Cyber Monday Sale Items!
Valid 11.30.15 while supplies last
Product Description US SALE PRICE DISCOUNT USA CA SALE PRICE DISCOUNT CAN 79015 Witch-king Battle $8.99 40% $10.79 40% 79121 Turtle Sub Undersea Chase $35.99 40% $44.99 40% 76028 Darkseid Invasion $41.99 40% $53.99 40% 70409 Shipwreck Defense $10.39 20% $12.79 20% 76015 Doc Ock Truck Heist $15.99 20% $19.99 20% 41072 Naida’s Spa Secret $15.99 20% $19.99 20% 70411 Treasure Island $15.99 20% $19.99 20% 70412 Soldiers Fort $23.99 20% $31.99 20% 21011 Brandenburg Gate $27.99 20% $35.99 20% 76016 Spider-Helicopter Rescue $35.99 20% $43.99 20% 60035 Arctic Outpost $39.99 20% $47.99 20% 60068 Crooks’ Hideout $55.99 20% $71.99 20% 70413 The Brick Bounty $79.99 20% $95.99 20% 21017 Imperial Hotel $103.99 20% $127.99 20% 42025 Cargo Plane $111.99 20% $127.99 20%
As a countdown to the Force Awakens, I will be writing at least one Star Wars review each week.
This polybag was available for free with a $40 qualifying LEGO Star Wars purchase from Toys R Us. Some stores allowed buyers to purchase some for $3.99, but not every store did, and not even the same quantities.
EDIT: Toys R Us appears to have shipped more of these to some stores and increased the price to $5.99.
REVIEW: SET DETAILS
Set #: 5002948
Name: C-3PO
Theme: Star Wars
Parts: 3
Price: $3.99
Before we get to the build, let’s talk value. At $3.99 the price per piece works out to $1.33 each. However, it's ridiculous to do the 3P math on a single minifigure, because you're rarely going to part one of these out.
BAG CONTENTS
3 pieces are in the bag, a head, a torso and leg assembly.
THE BUILD AND EXECUTION
If you have built one minifigure, you have built them all. I got exactly the build that I expected and there were no extra parts. He came with no accessories.
REACTION
I didn't go overboard taking pictures. In fact, I only took comparison pictures. I really like the looks of this figure. He's got a lot of detailing, and the coloring is really nice. He definitely pops in comparison to the older C-3PO that I had on hand. I guess the detailing is the same as the Sandcrawler version, but I don't happen to have one. This one hit on all cylinders (ha, robot jokes) and really made me happy to add him. Not only is the torso better detailed, but the arm and leg detailing are exciting. Plus, they painted his eyes! My only criticism is that the packaging implies a chromed figure, but oh well.
 
 
FINAL THOUGHTS
This polybag will be a nice to have piece in the coming months/years. The fact that TLG decided to put a character like C-3PO into a polybag is puzzling. The implication is that either Threepio will not be in any Force Awakens sets, or it will not be this version of him. Without having seen the film, I think that he has a very minor role, so could easily be shuffled off to a polybag, where kids who don't know better, won't miss him, but longtime fans will be demanding it later.
I doubt that TLG will release a TFA C-3PO with different Deco. So, if they do issue him in a boxed set, that will suddenly call all polybagged figures into question. How long until they reissue Darth Revan if they do?
Speaking of Darth Revan, this figure will never equal that one in value. It will be a nice little earner, unless it gets picked up for a LEGO Shop at home promotion, then it will tank.
The article I am sharing is not an in-depth article by any means, but I know there are a lot of you that like to take a peak behind the curtain and see how all your little bricks and figures get made.  Bloomberg Business visited the Kladno LEGO Factory in the Czech Republic and it looks like quite an operation. I could only imagine how it would feel to be let loose in one of these factories for a day.  I am sure it would be like visiting Willy Wonka, just not as strange, but then again, you never know

It's opening paragraph reminds us that it wasn't that long ago that "LEGO was losing nearly a million dollars a day".  I wonder how often they would ban people or stop them from buying large quantity of multiples if we can warp back to that time period.  The articles stated just over a decade ago, so I will pick the year 2000 when some of the Star Wars sets just came out and before LEGO had any idea what was going to happen and on their way to be the #1 toy maker in the world.  
You had the 3450 Statue of Liberty (Retail: $199.99 | Current: ~$2300.00), 7191 X-Wing Fighter (Retail: $149.99 | Current: ~$1100.00), 7181 Tie Interceptor (Retail: $99.99 | Current: ~$650.00) and some great castle sets.  If we can push it into 2001 because I really don't think LEGO felt that they were kings of the universe yet, we got more awesome Star Wars sets like the 10019 Rebel Blockade Runner (Retail: $199.99 | Current: ~$1450.00), 10018 Darth Maul (Retail: $149.99 | Current: ~$900.00) and the beginning of the Harry Potter line.
Unfortunately, I can't go back in time, but I would love to go back and walk in a store and say, "Ok, I will take 20 x 3450, 15 x 10019s, 10 of those, 20 of those and so on".  I wonder if they would have taken my VIP card 
 
 
This set has been sitting on my shelf since May the Fourth. I never really got around to it, always kind of figuring I would eventually. This week its time came. I don't recall why exactly I decided to pay full retail for this except since I was trying to get a Yularen minifig. It looks good, and I don't have another model of the N-1 anymore, so maybe that was part of it.
As a countdown to the Force Awakens, I will be writing at least one Star Wars review each week.
REVIEW: SET DETAILS
Set #: 75092
Name: Naboo Starfighter
Theme: Star Wars
Parts: 442
Price: $49.99
Before we get to the build, let’s talk value. At $49.99 the price per piece works out to a bit over $.11 each. This seems to be on the low/average side of pricing for a licensed set. There are 7 minifigures (9 if you count the Droidekas, which LEGO did not), of which only the Naboo Pilot is unique. (I guess it depends if you count both Droidekas.) That's actually a pretty significant number of figures for a set of this price point.
BOX CONTENTS
Some people may wind up picking up a set that is open box or, want to verify the box contents before beginning a build. For this set, there are 4 numbered baggies, a sticker sheet, and an instruction book. The stickers are plentiful and in most cases small, making me wonder if my sticker applications will pop out and look terrible in my pictures.
 (please excuse the date stamps, I didn't realize until I had already loaded them that my wife changed a setting in the camera)
 
THE BUILD AND EXECUTION
Bag 1 is a completely self contained set of parts. You create Obi-Wan and the Naboo pilot as well as a box of guns, a "hovering" (rolling) munitions cart and 2 Droidekas. The box requires one sticker and the Droids each require 2 small stickers. The droids are each 30 parts, and the poor pilot's listed accessory is handcuffs, hey whatever he's into he can do it on his own time. My wife thinks the Destroyer Droids are cute. I like them, I've built a few different iterations over the years and these are certainly the most recent. I like the Obi-Wan, mostly because I don't have another TPM Obi-Wan hanging around. He's got a 2 sided head.

 
Bag 2 brings us the Anakin that was new for this set, the R2-D2 that has become standard since 75038 and some Battledroids, one with Commander markings. Anakin has a 2 sided head, and a helmet that you can swap out for his monster hair. In this bag, you build the basic body of the Naboo Starfighter. the only surprise to me was a Triple connector Axle/Pin piece (10288) that I originally hoped was some kind of neat way to mount the ship so that it would hover. It turned out to be the launching mechanism for the spring missiles, which are very well hidden.

Bag 3 finishes off the main body of the Starfighter. Lots of stickers in this part of the build.

Bag 4 is all about the engine pods, and some peripherals. The engine pods, you build at the same time. I like that you put some stuff inside to stop the various rings that might otherwise freely rotate from doing so. Some of the parts still turn, but not as many as old builds. I like the peripherals. The fuel pod that plugs into the engines make the technic pin holes look intentional. The Ladder goes well with the ship, but overbalances if you stand it by itself, and the rotating stand is nice.

 
There were a lot of small extra parts, of course you get extra Battle Droid arms, a lightsaber hilt and a couple goggles. There's also an extra pair of handcuffs. I also include the brick separator, because I have so many of these now, and they are not a part of the build.

REACTION
LEGO has been building the N-1 Naboo Starfighter since almost the beginning of their license with Lucasfilm. 4 times so far. This set is successful. It's a quick build since you use up so many pieces building Destroyer droids and various carts, stands, boxes, etc. The ship itself is kind of small but then again it's supposed to be. I like how they built a concavity into the bottom of the ship to hold the stand so that it wouldn't fall off, and you don't have to snap anything into place. The button under R2-D2 to dislodge him really launched him several feet in the air when I demonstrated it for my wife. I like that the cockpit is designed to accommodate Anakin with his short legs (standing up) or the Naboo Pilot (sitting down.)

 
 
FINAL THOUGHTS
I feel like the new release schedule for Star Wars films will change the re-release schedule of the "classic" sets. Too many new films with their own new designs will demand shelf space that traditionally would have gone to the newest version of an older model. Prequel trilogy sets are more likely to be left in the dust in my opinion. This is due to the lingering antipathy towards the PT in general and The Phantom Menace in specific.
These designs will make a comeback, fans who were children in 1999 and saw Episode 1 as their entry into the Star Wars universe are beginning to become AFOLs. In a few years, they'll probably be wondering why Pod Racers and Gungans and Droidekas are not more common. Then they'll look for sets like this.
All of the new products coming up are going to demand shelf space, so I could see this set quietly making an early exit. It's not a big gainer in the short term once it goes EOL, but it should be slow and steady. There will always be some demand for Prequel Trilogy sets, even though they are less popular than the new thing, or the Original trilogy.


Aha! You likely supposed this thread was going to be about the much-derided but wildly successful (for investors) Delorean Ideas set. You couldn't be more wrong, even if you were wiping out polybag stocks across entire retail shelves. Granted, the example given might fall more under 'moral' wrongs, and doesn't fit this example well, but here we are. We might as well get used to tenuously related metaphors and similes, as I just used my best one above and it goes downhill from here.
 
Wait – I was trying to get to something important there, before you derailed my train of thought with your insistence that you could be more wrong and in so many more appropriate ways. Concerns noted. If you'll allow me, I'd like to introduce yet another potentially recurring feature: Time travel back in time and tell my younger Veegs-self what I've learned about life, love and plastic bricks.
 
In this post I'd like to talk about exclusives, in particular modulars and Ultimate Collector Series Star Wars sets. When I first started investing Fire Brigades were widely available with a limit of 99 at Shop at Home and the thought of being banned for buying too much of an addictive and profitable toy wasn't even a twinkle in eye of the CEO of Banhammers at TLG. My younger self bought Fire Brigades. I also bought some UCS Obi-Wan's Jedi Starfighters at MSRP. (I later got some 50% off from ToysRUs Canada, which was a much wiser investment). I adored the, sometimes hefted them to appreciate their size and weight, but mostly they just sat there. I didn't have enough to start selling them off for small gains (if I had double digits, perhaps I would have let a couple go at every price bump over MSRP) because I'm stubborn and because the forums preach patience and dumping retiring/retired sets to invest in currently available sets which I would then have to hold even longer seemed unpalatable.
 
This is in no way hating on UCS sets or modulars in any way. My issue was, as a new investor, I got caught up in some EOL hype (well, I use the term hype loosely, as the forums were a little quieter back then) and put more than half of my capital in these two sets. True story, I still have one of each. So what was the problem? It turned out that EOL chatter wasn't on point (more seasoned now, I grin every time someone posts about surefire news of retirements from Lego employees or gut feelings or because the set number got burned into their toast that morning) and my capital sat around for quite some time. That is definitely part of whole 'investing' thing, and I get that, but as new investors now should they really be plowing their cash into the Pet Store? I'm here to talk about why that is perhaps not the optimal way to scale up their – or your - enterprise, unless you have a heck of a lot more capital than I did starting out (a few thousand Canadian dollars which could nab you a Chima Speedorz at MSRP on a good day). If that is the case, just do the Emazers and buy double digits of every set over $100 and chill.
 
What I did have success with was buying the biggest set of a couple themes close to retirement and managed to turn those around very quickly (Black Pearls, Queen Anne, Public Transport, etc). I also was able to grab a few of the $20-25 sets (I still love you, Friends Butterfly Beauty Salon!) that looked promising and turned those around, too. Not only that, but I spent quite a bit of time trolling stores looking for clearance sets and Polly. She is a bit plastic-y for some, but when she has a low buy-in it is hard not to make some money off her. It helped me get to Powerseller status on ebay, taught me a heck of a lot about regularly listing, packing and shipping sets as well as getting regular deposits into my paypal account, which really motivated me to keep on keeping on.
 
Bottom line, if I could go back in time I probably would have advised a younger (handsomer, obviously) me to get just one Fire Brigade for the personal stash but put more money/time/effort into sets that could be turned around in 12-18 months, max. I'd also tell him to research polybags a little more, because finding some of the more profitable ones requires luck, true, but also sometimes a little perseverance. I'd also tell him to embrace the style of a QFLL (Quick Flipping Low Life for those new to Brickpicker) on these polybags and buy the good ones en masse. If you get flamed for it from non-investing civilians, consider it a badge of honor....okay, fine, leave a couple on the shelf if it helps you sleep better, but try to find a way to get selling sooner rather than later. Having sold well over a hundred Zombie Coffin Cars, I can honestly tell you I wish I had someone purchased ten thousand of them, or more. I'm that confident they would eventually all find buyers.
 
So where does that leave you, confused reader? If you are new to Brickpicker you will read a lot of threads and witness a lot a people boasting about buying xx amount of set xx, and how much they are loving it (without knowing what 'it' is, sometimes). Ignore those posters and do some research to make some educated guesses (nothing is certain, but educated guesses seem better than throwing darts at the Shop at Home theme screen and buying based on that method). I don't want to come out and tell anyone what to invest in, but I do think a beginner is better served without tying up capital in huge (hoarded?) sets and getting inventory that can move a little faster, on average. Perhaps, like, 88 mph?

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