Blog And News Articles

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)…

In last week's Summer 2016 rumor news, we mentioned that one "insider" thought we would be getting a Vader's Tie Advanced refresh. It now appears that upcoming 75150 Death Vader TIE Advanced is based on the Rebels television show. Take a look at the screen grabs below. A low resolution image was uploaded to Twitter and imgur.com earlier today. I do believe the leaked images (if true) are prototype boxes as 3 of the 5 images have 442 listed as the element count. The $99.99 (brickset.com price) set is #75150 and will include an A-Wing plus 4 minifigures. An A-Wing pilot can be seen on the box image as well as Sabine (no helmet). The im…

NEXO Knights is Lego's replacement for the Chima theme. This latest "kiddie" theme is returning to television on Monday January 11 on Cartoon Network. The 2-part pilot and new NEXO Knights episodes will be shown each weekday until January 22. Check your local listings for showtime (e.g. shown at 5:30pm in the EST time zone). Will you be watching? Wikipedia: "The series describes the adventures of five young knights: Clay, Aaron, Lance, Macy, and Axl who protect Knighton from Jestro, the Book of Monsters and their army of lava monsters. They also help the Monarchy, Merlok (sorcerer) and Robin." TV advertisement. While over…

I remember when the leak for this LEGO set first surfaced. "What? Princess Leia wears purple and green? Admiral Ackbar is in it? Is this a new B-Wing?" It excited me inasmuch as any new Star Wars set does. Plus, we didn't know that it was called Resistance Troop Transporter. As images got larger, my enthusiasm diminished. When it hit the stores, and there was no other new Star Wars to buy, I was back on board. So let's take a look at the set that never made the Kessel Run. Let's Review. REVIEW: SET DETAILS Set #: 75140 Name: resistance Troop Transporter Theme: Star Wars Parts: 646 Price: $69.99 Before we get to the build, let’s talk value. At $69.99 the …

After the recent Telegraph article going viral all over the world stating that LEGO bricks and sets were better investments than Gold over the past few years, one has to wonder what other investment vehicles do LEGO bricks outperform. With the recent roller coaster on Wall Street and foreign markets, a question presents itself...Are the LEGO secondary markets and LEGO collecting and investment in general, more stable and profitable over the long haul than other more high profile investments? Let’s analyze some data… With 2015 coming to a close, the final financial year-end data on stock markets, crude oil and gold prices is available. Take a look at the major sto…

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…

I'll dive right into this article by discussing the investment potential of the "comes in black" 76023 Lego Tumbler set. It appears production was stopped for the $199.99 76023 Lego Tumbler set months ago about the same time Lego slapped the infamous "retiring soon" tag. European and US Lego Shop At Home websites have either sold-out (red font for those who track that) or removed this set's page entirely. In the US, only Amazon and Target have stock currently. According to Brickpickers who try to track inventory like @trekgate502 , the current inventory at those 2 online retailers could be gone by the time the 4th NFL Wild-Card game finishes this Sunday. Regardless o…

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 …

We all love lists, right? Welcome to what I expect to be a new weekly blog entry for Brickpicker: Top 10 Best Sellers at LEGO Shop at Home. As most of you know, LEGO’s online site includes a feature showcasing the Top 25 selling sets, updated on a daily basis. While this list is definitely a small sample, I believe it can help us gauge what’s popular with end consumers at any given time, so that when retirement time approaches we have at least an idea of how well a set sold through it’s lifetime. I will also be excluding (basically skipping) those entries on S&H that are not sets. For example, if a baseplate is currently sitting in place number 5, I…

Hope you didn't spend all your money on the new LEGO Ghostbusters Headquarters. In November, we mentioned the possibility of new LEGO Ghostbusters sets coming, based on a press release from Sony Pictures, the rights holder to Ghostbusters franchise and the 2016 reboot film's distributor. Paul Feig, director of the new film confirmed today on Twitter that there indeed will be LEGO sets based on the movie. He states "Fun stuff coming from LEGO too. Just FYI. Sorry, bank account." Note this is ahead of any official word from The LEGO Group. The movie should no doubt drive buyers to all things Ghostbusters, including 21108 Ghostbusters Ect…

Update.... Lego's announcement has been made. "POW" about the price . Sure looks cool though. I removed the initial Facebook pics and added Lego's official ones. 6052 Batman™ Classic TV Series – Batcave Ages 14+. 2,526 pieces. US $269.99 – CA $329.99 – DE 249.99€ – UK £229.99 – DK 2499.00 DKK Drive the villains out from Batman’s Batcave! Help Batman™ and Robin™ to drive the villain intruders from the Batcave, featuring a Bat Lab with Batcomputer, plus the Batmobile with stud shooters, Batcopter with flick missiles and the Batcycle. This special model, based on the classic 1960s TV show, also has a Wayne Manor sect…

The winter wave of Star Wars LEGO sets has begun to hit. The Force Awakens sets are front and center, just the way that should be expected weeks after the movie is released. Since they are here, it is time for a review. In this installment, we'll be looking at the set that is the turning point of the movie that brings our heroes and villains more firmly into their roles, the Battle on Takodana. REVIEW: SET DETAILS Set #: 75139 Name: Battle on Takodana Theme: Star Wars Parts: 409 Price: $59.99 Before we get to the build, let’s talk value. At $59.99 the price per piece works out to a bit under $.15 each. This is on the high side of pricing for a licensed s…

Good news fellow Lego fans. We are getting a Finn Stormtrooper polybag (30605-1). That means no more switching minifigure heads to reenact Finn and Poe being best buddies while escaping the Star Destroyer. Details will emerge about soon enough about how to acquire it. Most likely a Lego or Toys R Us promotion. It could be a Lego promo for the May the 4th weekend. I do expect this minifigure to have demand especially if the sand stains print remains exclusive. Source : http://brickset.com/sets/30605-1/Finn-(FN-2187) View full blog article

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…

Dorling Kindersley's first Lego Star Wars dictionary of sets was published in 2009. The 2nd edition with recent sets hit the book stores in 2014. It now appears a 3rd edition is planned for this year if the Brickset latest "new" inventory is correct with this new ISBN value (see picture below). These DK books are a wonderful visual guide to practically every Lego Star Wars and exclusive set with concise information and photographs. As a special incentive, 1 exclusive minifigure have been included with each edition to-date (both had a Luke Skywalker "A New Hope" variation). The 3rd edition should highlight the latest Ulimate Coll…

A Polish online retailer have posted images of 3 upcoming Capt. America Civil War sets. The sets appear to contain a nice array of vehicles, play sets, minifigures and a brick built version of gigantic Ant-Man. Some Marvel characters such as Black Panther and Crossbones will finally make their minifigures debut. It also appears The Quinjet gets it's third remake since 2012 while other minifigures are refreshes or carryovers from previous sets. While unsure of their investing potential at this time, I do think most of these sets will be highly popular. Source = http://www.extraklocki.pl/katalog/klocki-lego-super-heroes/marvel/3,9,id,desc/? …

Lego recently issued their Designer video for this new set. Enjoy the video and try not to get slimmed. Please share your thoughts about this set in the comments section. Note: Amazon and other online retailers don't seem to have this in-stock yet. Lego's own Shop web sites does have it in-stock though. Links are below for purchase. LEGO: USA | UK | CAN View full blog article

Looks like Lego has some interesting events and introductions planned for the first two months of 2016. Some highlights... The "massive" (using my Liam Neeson voice) 75827 Ghostbusters HQ is now on-sale along with the 10251 Brick Bank. Series 15 LEGO Collectible Minifigures are on-sale starting Feb. 1st. Various polybag and promo items based on money spent. Themes include Nexo Knights, Elves, Disney Princess and Friends. Events for children include monthly builds, club meetings and a neat minifigure swap with employees. One build event includes a Star Wars Snowspeeder. Double VIP points for the 21006 Architecture Wh…

US-based online retailers now have the latest Lego Star Wars sets in-stock. Each set looks to be fun builds with neat features and desirable minifigures. Battle on Takodana 75139 , $59.99 This 409 piece is Lego's first attempt at creating a scene from Maz Kanata's castle. Lego is usually "hit or miss" with playsets and set 75139 is probably a "miss" with regards to the castle itself. A small portion of the castle's entrance can be built including the main door and wall that contains a falling tree. The banner above the door is a nice touch and screen accurate although it should be one of many. Included minifigures are Finn, Maz Kanata, unmas…

Both Ed and I would like to thank each and every one of our members and guests for allowing us to have the best year ever. It was an amazing year of new opportunities and expansion. We launched new products and hit milestones that the two of us joked about hitting not too long ago. Brickpicker just celebrated its fourth full year of existence and we couldn’t be happier that early in our fifth year we are oh so close to registering 55,000 members. Because of the success we have had, Ed and I were honestly blown away when I received an email through our contact us form that I honestly thought was a joke at first. I couldn’t believe that someone was contacting us to…

With the new year come a slew of new Lego sets included a new theme: Nexo Knights. Rumor is, that the Chima line is retiring and the Knights are to take its place. The Nexo Knights are not really a throw back to the Classic Castle sets, but they are not true Steampunk themed either. At first I absolutely hated the idea, but the theme is growing on me. Sets in the theme range from the 1140 piece Fortrex to these small 75 piece sets. The 75 piece Ultimate Robin is what I wanted to look at today. At MSRP $9.99 I was really curious on what one would be getting for their money. At first glance it looks like a glorified minifigure, but priced higher than a traditional …

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…

Good news for Lego Ideas completionists and set 21301 fans, the Birds set is being heavily discounted by Lego store and shop at home web sites. The latest US-based sale seems to be working as shop at home is now sold-out and inventory is drying up at their physical mall stores. This is also a good sign this set is near retirement. I like this set's investment potential compared to most sets since Birds doesn't seem to be heavily hoarded by resellers and the production run seems limited like others in the Ideals theme. While 21301 is not a flashy set, it's a fun build and looks great displayed. The newly discounted price of $35.98 is also an attracti…

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 th…

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 …