Blog And News Articles

Today, we are going back in time to almost three years ago (time flies!) and taking a look at one set that had the forums and the entire LEGO community talking almost non-stop: the LEGO Technic 4x4 Crawler Exclusive Edition. Unlike the majority of LEGO sets released throughout the years, the Limited Edition Crawler was designed through a fan base contest, with one of the conditions being that the creators utilized the chassis of the 9398 Crawler. The winner model was to be selected and produced as a limited edition of only 20,000 copies. Even since the winner was announced, investors and collectors were excited about the possibility of getting their hands i…

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 …

They are going to be at comic con but will be available to all in 2017. A new branch from the Lego tree? Funko pop anyone? Lol

According to this Lego Ideas blog entry, the approved Lego Ideas Adventure Time set is nearly complete! Here's a quick glance at the set: The set will be number 21308, and include 495 bricks with an MSRP of $49.99. Per the blog entry, seven brick built characters will be included in the set: Jake, Princess Bubblegum, Lady Rainicorn, Marceline, BMO, Gunter and Ice King. Compare this to the originally approved Ideas entry: Even though there are fewer characters, the ones in the approved set appear to be slightly more detailed than the original entry. This new set is much different than the Lego Dimensions packs that are set to be released wi…

More often than not, the main question LEGO investors are trying to answer is “When is this set retiring?”. As we all know, once a set is retired is when it really has the potential to start growing in value, so it is not surprising that the EOL question is as common as it is in the forums. However, focusing entirely on currently available sets may be causing investors to miss on a potentially lucrative market: sets that have already been retired for quite some time. It is not the first time I write about this, and I know some of other members like fellow Mod Grolim used to bring up quite often in the earlier years of Brickpicker, but taking a look at my last articl…

Yesterday I was contacted by the website Tech Insider to help them list the Top 25 most valuable sets of All Time. It was good timing too since I did run the price guide numbers recently. With no real big surprise, Star Wars led the pack with getting 10 sets into the list. I think the one surprise is getting a set from 2015 in there with the Bat-Pod. No one is really sure how long that will remain in the list and if aftermarket builders will do a good enough job on the "fakes" to kill that market. Good old Mr Gold is still going strong after a few years and holding onto a value greater than $1,500. If you are lucky enough to have every set on this list, you …

Here is a quick guide for smooshing (feeling) the new 71011 CMF Series 15 packs. Smooshing is a term used by Lego fans for feeling the CMF packs' hidden contents to determine which minifigure is inside it. You should be able to identify each minifigure by feeling for the 1st accessory on the list below. The other accessories can be used for back-up identification purposes. Farmer: round hat, pitchfork, pig Astronaut: visor (like a big fingernail), oxygen tank Frightening Knight: ball with soft spikes, shield, bucket helmet Clumsy Guy: crutches Tribal Woman: …

Would like to share and also want to hear your experience.... I started investing in Lego in Jan, 2013. I don't remember where I read this in Brickpicker forum. However, I remember some experienced member wrote something very similar to the title, "in order to sell $60,000 worth of Lego in one year, you should have $180,000 in inventory". Because I read that, I decided to actively sell for one year starting late Jan, 2015 to see whether that was true or not. According to the Brickfolio, current value of my inventory is $ 183,597.18. After almost one year of active selling, I have had $ 59,485.52 in sales, minus all the fees/shi…

Brexit vote pushes up cost of Lego Lego will raise its prices by 5 per cent next year, blaming the falling pound in the wake of the Brexit vote. The Danish company will increase the prices it charges British retailers from New Year’s Day, but said it was up to shops to decide whether to pass on the cost to customers. Lego, founded in 1932 by Ole Kirk Kristiansen, has become the latest company to raise prices after the referendum vote on June 23 to leave the European Union. In October, the food manufacturer Unilever threatened to increase the price of its products to British retailers by 10 per cent. This would have affected Marmite, Hellmann’s mayonnais…

Here is the list of current 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. These are from within the last 12 months. Polybags Currently Available Set # Theme Set Name Locations 30256 Chima Ice Bear Mech Target …

Rumors, rumors and more rumors. Additionally 2016 sets have been named with numbers by just2good on his YouTube channel. Many of the sets below have a MSRP of more than $75 so we should expect at least medium sized builds for playsets and large or combo packs (dual builds) for vehicles such as Vader's Tie Advanced which now is rumored to include 2 ships for est. $100. The unknown Star Wars sets could be more The Force Awakens and Rebels sets or a new Star Wars sub theme which as Lego Droids for example. Maybe another UCS style set? The Capt. Rex and Clone sets seem priced high to me given where we are in the Star Wars film / TV universe cur…

Hey Lego fans, boy does Brickpicker have great news to share today! Walmart.com is throwing a "Throwback Thursday" sale like it's 2013. Walmart's online website is currently selling the $199.99 Lego 75095-1 Star Wars UCS Tie Fighter set for only $139.99 with free shipping! That is a 30% discount. We haven't seen a sale like this for an Exclusive set in "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away". Click the link below to save money on a fine Lego set. http://www.walmart.com/ip/LEGO-Star-Wars-TIE-Fighter/42104274 Regarding the Investment potential, the Tie-Fighter is an iconic Star Wars ship. The ship's status alone will help it's Lego version perfo…

Major Update below from the comments sections, looks like the set will contain BB-8, Flametrooper, Poe wearing Finn's jacket (well, it's Finn's jacket now) and a 4th minifigure which might be Max Von Sydow's character Lor San Tekka. It looks like set 75102 "Poe's X-Wing Fighter" will be getting a wingman to help battle First Order Tie Fighters by the Summer of 2016. Lego reviewer and insider Just2Good recently published information on two rumored Lego sets and a X-Wing set is among them. A smaller Jakku-themed set is the other set. My thoughts... We can probably expect a white / light gray with blue them…

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

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Probably I'm not the only one surprised by the early retirement of several quite recent Star Wars sets. I decided to make an overview of all non-polybag Star Wars sets in Europe and in the United States. The list below is the result. It is divided in subs '2013', '2014', 'January 2015', 'during 2015'. At least in the Netherlands you can find toy stores that still have some of these retired and Shop-at-home-sold-out sets, some even from 2013. Hopefully you will find this list useful in your shopping efforts. Collecting and investing conclusions: below list. This list was last updated 25 March 2016. Updates can be seen under the list. 2013 Number …

This blog entry I struggled with the title, and considered a "while you were sleeping" title or something else to really convey how I felt about the current state of Lego investing. Unless one were sleeping, it is easy to see how the Tumbler 76023 has taken off. "The Horde" should be proud. While I am sure plenty of Tumblers ended up in the hands of little Timmy, the horde can pat themselves on the back for plowing though the last 4,000 copies that Target and Target-eBay had left in record fashion being the last retailer standing after LEGO Shop at Home, Walmart and other online retailers ran out of stock. Lets take a quick peak at some numbers. …

A happy belated New Year to all my readers, all nine of you. May this coming year bring you discounted exclusives, 80% clearance finds in out of the way stores on long retired merchandise and superb buyer feedback in 2016. I'd also like to quickly take a sentence to remind readers that the Mack's, a.k.a. The Founders, a.k.a. The Collectors, a.k.a. The Guys Who Made Me Take the Blue Pill, are still raising money for St. Paul's and it would be a darn shame not to support such a great cause. I could cite a boatload of research that supports the notion that giving money away makes the giver undeniably happier, or could chastise those that read content (including this rubbish)…

The universe of LEGO Star Wars is changing. Some of the changes may be too subtle to notice at first, but it began more than a year ago. Before we look into the changes taking place now, and influencing the future, let us take a look at the way things have always been. Historically the LEGO licensing of the Star Wars brand has always been consistent. Star Wars had a three-year cycle between movies starting with The Phantom Menace in 1999, the year that LEGO acquired the rights. There were theatrical releases of Star Wars films in 2002, 2005, and 2008. Three years was sufficient for LEGO to create new sets and visit new ideas. Enough time passed to fully explore t…

For The Distinguished Lego Batman Collector: 76052 Classic TV Series Batcave Review Welcome to my new feature, For The Distinguished Lego Batman Collector! Like most AFOLs, I've been a Lego fan for nearly my entire life. When I rediscovered Lego when my son turned four, I was really surprised to see the development of detail in the minifigures, and in particular the licensed figures. And staring at a shelf of Lego sets in the store, my favorites were the Lego Batman sets. I was hooked. Naturally, I've begun collecting Lego Batman sets, minifigures, DVDs, and Character Encyclopedias, and I'm even on the hunt for that Lego Batman Board Game! The colle…

Reading some of the threads on the forum, members sometimes bring up the amount of vendors that are selling a particular LEGO item. This made me think about coming up with a way to see how many people are selling an item and then what the sales rank of that item is. This can be a good indicator for you aggressive sellers out there to see a void that might need to be filled. If you see a low number of vendors with a lower numbered sales rank (lower than 100), this could be a great opportunity to unload some of those sets. If you see a high number sales rank with a high number of vendors, you might want to either hold on for a while and see what happens or just unload t…

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: 7…

There were two interesting user comments in-response to CapnRex101's August 27th article, "What's Missing? Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" on brickset.com. These comments were made by a LEGO set designer, Hans Burkhard Schlömer (aka BrickCommander). His posted comments are.... Essentially Hans Burkhard Schlömer said the initial wave Rogue One sets such as his designed, Krennic's Imperial Shuttle, will be retiring this year. Then his next comment suggested the 75105 - Millennium Falcon will be replaced by the 75190 - First Order Star Destroyer as LEGO's next "BIG" non-UCS set. Here is the list of Rogue One Wave 1 sets. 75152-1 Imper…

The Lego Group has revealed the first of their 2016 San Diego Comic Con minifigure giveaways: a new "Hydra-devoted" Captain America minifigure! This minifigure celebrates the heel turn of one of Marvel fans' favorite heroes. More information on the giveaway can be found at Entertainment Weekly. What do you think of the new minifigure? Please share your thoughts in the comments. View full blog article

Ok, which one of you did this? Darth_Raichu? Veegs? According to this article, police are reporting that three men forced their way into a Toys 'R' Us in Ontario and stole a "large quantity" of Lego sets with a presumed retail value of $20,000. That is a pretty large haul even if the currency is in Canadian Dollars. I am wondering why this news is just coming out now since the crime happened back in October. The most intriguing part of this article to me is that they mention that this probably happened due to the increase in popularity because of the movie and that the high prices of LEGO have created a "black market" I am not sure if they are callin…