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I dunno, I feel like the quality is way down with the new facilities being used to make the minifigs:

So I've noticed recently that LEGO has been making several changes. Some may be good, some may be bad, but they don't exactly hurt us as investors, except for maybe #3 which is could technically. But let me know if you have some more to add to the list, or is it just me that these things are happening? 1) Condensed boxes. It seems like that the most recent sets I got were almost bigger. This may be because the boxes themselves were smaller to actually fit the set better. I'm not POSITIVE, but I am pretty sure that boxes for most sets (except for battlepacks or $13 sets) have gotten smaller and are a better fit with the set you buy. A couple years ago, I remember buying a $30 Star Wars set and the box was huge! I don't remember which one, but I remember it felt smaller than I was expecting because of the size of the box. A week ago, I picked up the new General Grievous Wheel Bike for $25, but the box seemed so much smaller, and same thing for the Batman: Riddler Chase set (which I got at the same time). You can tell just buy swooshing the boxes around (sealed of course), that it's harder to hear the pieces floating around in there, because it's more condensed. 2) HIGHLY detailed figures. We all like minifigures and I think most of us appreciate authenticity, but it just might be getting out of hand. The new Luke Skywalker that comes with the Sand Crawler will have Mark Hamil's mole (beauty mark etc., someone correct me if my terminology is wrong) on his face. A MOLE! I don't really know if this is a good thing or not. I appreciate authenticity, but that seems really odd to me. And the new Darth Vader and Obi-Wan in the Summer 2014 wave will have printed on cloaks. Vader gets a cape (because he actually wears one, I guess), but all of Obi-Wan's garments are screen-printed. I DON'T like that in the LEAST. 3) Separation of Figs and Set In case you were wondering, that was supposed to be sort of a pun like "Separation of Church and State" (not to get political, but as a joke, but I went to the dentist and got nova cane, so none of this may make any sense...). Anyways, the sets are separated in numbered bags to make building simpler, which as a collector I like, and the figures are also separated in said bags. I appreciate this, as a teen who still plays with LEGO. It adds more anticipation in building the next part, rather than wanting to use the minifigs for hours and THEN build the set. But as a parter-outer, which some of you are, but I am not, it makes selling minifigs apart from sets difficult since you have to open 2, 3, or 4 bags to get 1 or 2 figures. It does help with selling the model parts though, since having a dozen bags all opened at once to build a tiny section is time consuming. 4) DC Comics (no longer DC Universe as it was in 2012-13) Overall, I appreciate this because I am a huge DC fan and comic reader. I don't read EVERY comic, but I read the biggest story arcs and know several characters (including the Martian Manhunter which has caused some stir in the investing world). Many characters have been given interesting looks that some did not expect, such as the Flash. His design is somewhat based on the New 52 (which is DC's relaunch of comic books, negating some things that happened in original comics, and starting fresh). If it wasn't, he would probably have been given the same helmet as in the LEGO Batman 2: The Videogame. Other characters with a New 52 look include: Martian Manhunter, Nightwing, Damian Wayne Robin, Batgirl, and (sort-of but not quite) SDCC Green Arrow. This is probably an effort of WB to streamline the New 52 into all aspects of DC, which now includes LEGO sets/minifigures. 5) Chinese Manufactured Parts I am not talking about the fake figures you see going for $0.03 on eBay, I am referring to LEGO approved parts that are not exactly the quality standard of normal Denmark manufactured LEGO. Some have wondered how to identify for sure if it was manufactured in China or not. Apart from just noticing look and feel differences, there's some branding you can look for. As seen in picture 1, I have compared 2 new, recently unpackaged and built, DC Super Heroes 2014 minifigures, Batman and Martian Manhunter. Manhunter is the Chinese manufactured figure. In picture 2, compare the right arms of the figures. On Batman, you can see the first thing very close to his hand is a number (not sure what the number means exactly), and then the word LEGO. On Martian Manhunter, you can see closer to his armpit (I don't know what it's called...arm pin maybe?) there is an indentation with a number. I didn't want to remove the arm in the event I might damage the torso. In picture 3, the legs of Batman feature the LEGO branding and numbers. Manhunter's legs do not. That is summary is how to identify a Chinese manufactured minifigure. So is it just me? Did you catch any of those before? Learn something new? I want to hear anything you noticed happening in recent years of LEGO history.

So, the Taj shipment is coming with UPS and weighs 18lb. Feeling better now

http://www.ebay.com/itm/3-LEGO-Holiday-Sets-10216-10222-And-10199-With-Boxes-/221396237373?pt=Building_Toys_US&hash=item338c3e7c3d Outside of the Taj Mahal, probably the deal of the month.

My grandpa ran a plastic injection mold business for many years and I asked him about this and he told me Chinese Manufacturing won't change the quality of parts because they will use the same molds and machines. They will be there monitoring the process and make sure everything is going right, it's not like they're turning the whole manufacturing plant over to a bunch of Chinese people and see what happens. -I don't always going shopping, but when I do I buy Lego-

The bane figure alone in this set is high value down the line, you also get his tank, the black bat-bike is better than the blue one in the funhouse and looks really good with a black batman fig rather than the blue supplied.. only this set and the funhouse can you get the classic blue batman red robin, ivy only available in arkham set. The batcave has some good features such as the changing cell, Ivy's holding cell, the computer displays and the bat equipment and bat phone. This set is still the best investment of any superheroes set to date... IMO.

So my story begins upon leaving the movie theatre after viewing The Desolation of Smaug. With nothing scheduled for the afternoon, I decided to take a quick peek in the nearby Wal-Mart to see if there was anything of note within their clearance section. This particular Wal-Mart is one of the older, less desirable ones, small and disorganized that I had frequented only once before. If I had any expectations, they would have been extremely low. So into the store I go, heading straight for the clearance banner hanging by the garden section of the store. As I walk down the aisle, my heart skips a beat when I gazed upon a new, undamaged 4840, The Burrow. I couldn

I would start with your post office. I had a similar issue one time and tracked down the postal worker who remembered delivering my package to the neighbor's house.

Congrats on your new http://www.worldslargestpuzzle.com/! (jk of course, I am rooting for you ... amazing find)

*And the Brickpickers gear up for a civil war over piece quality*

The quality of the CMF is quite clearly less than the regular minifigures you get from regular sets. The minifigures from the CMF line as well as things like magnets are made in China while, up to this point, the minifigures that you find in regular sets have not been. It's pretty easy to tell the difference but it has been discussed on many other sites for a couple years now. The CMF minifigures feel a little cheaper, have a more milky, translucent quality to the plastic and they do not have the black strip on the neck post. Maybe this isn't as obvious to newer collectors, but I would say that anyone who has been collecting a long time can tell the difference without being told there is one.

Why do people keep insisting Chima is a flop? It has already surpassed many many other Lego themes to date! And as for 50% or steeper discounts, every line has had them, not just Chima.

BRAGGING TIME !!!! I bought some new TMNT sets: 79118 - Karai Bike Escape 79119 - Mutation Chamber Unleashed 79120 - T-Rawket Sky Strike All for quick flipity flip Pics or never happ... oh wait... :D

I got this letter from Target: Dear Sir, Please quit buying our hot selling items and reselling them. Please purchase our crappy stuff like our up and up brand and resell those. We really could use the help after letting all your personal information get hacked. By the way, we are not sorry, sucker.

I'm not against it all I just wish people would stop making themselves so visible. Why buy 50+ sets of anything or purchase 1000s of dollars worth of sets at a time? All that is doing is messing up things for the smart buyers who stay under the radar. If the secondary market goes to crap these are the people to blame.

Just LEGOs are awesome? Don't you mean... (Hears several whispers "Oh god, not again" "Shut up Frank" "Ugh") EVERYTHING IS AWESOME! EVERYTHING IS COOL WHEN YOU'RE PART OF A TEAM! EVERYTHING IS AWESOME! WE'RE LIVING OUR DREAM *Bum dun nun dum*

1 x crawler @ TRU : 189 b4 20% + 10$ GC 1 x technic hel: 139.99i : rinse repeat above P.s: I've used the 20% on my R rewards over and over without a single issue.

Some of you read my light box article. I just recently discovered a new use for it! This is my three-legged, blind in one eye, cat named Tom. I am sure that everyone here with cats knows that if you leave a box on the floor, the cat will eventually end up inside the box. When I saw this, I grabbed the camera. My cat was very cooperative and looked up for most of the pictures. When I created my light box, I planned to photograph minifigures with it, but I guess it works pretty well with pets, too!

If that's what you got after reading the entire thread, I recommend a remedial course in reading for comprehension. The question isn't whether the quality is different, its whether its different because the manufacturer in China is bad and LEGO, for mysterious reasons, doesn't do anything about it, or if the quality is different because TLG intends it to be so.

This will start counting against them in a meaningful way soon - starting May 1 if they're big enough to be on a 3 month evaluation cycle, or now if they're on a 12 month (with August 20 being the first look back period where eBay will see it and potentially do something about it ) -- this is all under the new "defect" rating just announced, and one of the best of the new things in my opinion (cancellations requested by the buyer won't count against a seller).

These don't hang around TRU long, no matter what the price is.

Anybody who is going to start panic Buying the GE, is not going to make this Retire in a few months, Lego will make sure there are plenty of these for the Holidays, its in the New Catalog. And only Lego Know's if they are going to really retire this set. Which I hope they do. With the April Double Points I should have 30 of these,and will most likely end up with about 10 more by Christmas. But like I said every would be investor should be picking a few of these up now and then til Dec, along with the TB,HH,PS,and other I am always talking about. Ed

The tools buying stupid amounts of the same set and also buying ridiculous dollars amounts at one time will ruin lego investing long before brickpicker does.

I received confirmation from his Aunt that the Sea Cow is on his wish list so I placed that order right away.

Aren't we all? Sent from my iPhone using Brickpicker

Picked up an Alien Conquest Earth Defense HQ 7066 for $42.xx after tax. Now I have something to go with my Fry's clearance UFO! Sadly none of my coupons worked as there was already a discount on clearance. There were two of them sitting on the floor next to the legos. edit: I forgot to try the $10 gc coupon. Well looks like I am going back to TRU...

I think I will not wait for April's double vip-points to acquire the GE. Cause I think in half an hour all GE's will be gone.

Sure, go right ahead.

I stopped reading this right there. Don't take lego employees seriously. Parisian restaurant hasn't hit Australian stores yet and will not for at least 6 months . I would be very surprised if it retired this year.

Target and walmart both out of stock but i noticed i can order lex luther armor vs superman for pick up at my local TRU so i went down there and asked lady if she would price match walmart $15 she said ok so i went and got the 7 on the shelf ya baby ya! Can i get a high 5?.. anyone please i need some high 5s

Lego store employee told me every modular except the GE will be retired at the end of the year and no new modulars will be made. I freaked out and sold all my GE's at half price and put all the money towards Parisian restaurants and palace cinemas. I suggest you all do the same.

Same question: How do you know? (Sincere question, not a snark.) I get that there's lots of internet chatter, but is any of it actually proven, or just "what everyone knows"? Sources would be most welcome, I'm always eager to learn.

How do you know? (A sincere question, not a snark.)

Always been a fan of classic Space; my first set was a little gray spaceship in Christmas '86. I was parting out a Joker's Steamroller last week, and when I got to the Batwing/Jet, and for two or three seconds I could've sworn I was 9 years old again and breaking open bags for my Blacktron Renegade. It was a strange rush of memories, but a nice feeling nonetheless.

The bags are separated like that #3 to make it more difficult to steal all the minifigs. When they were all in one bag people would open the box, grab bag 1 and have all the figs.

Chima = Prince of Persia

You could just use the real manual. I understand why people do it, but honestly we all prefer to touch and feel the real Lego manuals while we're building. I also don't plan on selling any of the sets we open to build, so I don't mind if they are 100% minty.

I'd rather go to Target for retail priced LEGO

I think we can all agree that someone who is a collector first is very welcome - someone has to open and build sets to make Lego investing work!

Good deal.

You can buy the batman tumbler polybag at target and pretend like it's the batmobile!

I am one of those who won't judge one way or another until I see the tool in action. I am curious to see how it will be integrated with the rest of the site. Having said that, Jeff feel free to contact me if you still need an unbiased beta tester. :)

I don't know how those people's wives haven't killed them. Mine is close. lol.

This is completely short sited. You are only focusing on price. What about trust - we will actually know certain members. All the people on here who just collect or want parts Easier target audience to get rid of something without the hassle that Ebay provides with Used Sets Trading There are tons of ways this will work fine. My advice for you and anyone who is thinking the same thing - if you are going to make a point about something like this, try not to completely undermine a major feature that the site owners have spent countless man hours, dollars, and probably brain matter on with your opinions. You can express opinions without calling things pointless. The majority of us vastly appreciate the time and effort that goes into something like this and honestly if I have to make a little less money, but get to support a site like this, I will be fine with it. Honestly, competition is what makes things like this better anyway, and Ebay and Amazon need exactly that.

I have 4 for investment at this point going for 10 minimum. I'm buying at least one a month regardless of discount (which don't exist anymore). I'm also mixing in some Pet Shops to try to get ahead of the game. If it doesn't retire until the end of the year I should have 15+ but I just have a feeling it's going to retire this summer? I think the Modulars are no brainers along with large scale models, Seasonal(Winter Village) etc... I believe unless you have unlimited funds there are to many large sets to own(for the collector) or really to invest in for the reseller. I think this bodes well for most investors its a natural limiting factor for the average collector or investor where in sets retire before they have obtained them. At this time LEGO has(and has had recently) so many good large sets($100+) to invest in it diversifies the pool of investors which is why I believe the FB is doing well. Even for those that didn't invest in the FB they may have just put those funds towards another winner. At this time I just can't imagine someone investing and losing unless all they are buying are $5-$25 sets and even then they might make money in 5-7 years. Now fast flipping is a whole other thing. For the most part I'm on a 2-3 year cycle from retirement to sale. I won't be selling my FB's for another 2-3 more years. After your in that cycle is where you make much bigger $ with much less work. I just don't have the time or interest to make 5-10-20 $ a set, I realize that it works for some but I make to much at my regular job for such a low return on my time. Wow...I rambled oh well just my 2cents Nothing ground breaking or unique

You just entered "The Twilight Zone".

Thanks for making my life easier. Clicking "Like" is so much less work than writing all that

Good that you bring this up, and I would be open to paying that yearly fee for as many listings as you think fair. It reduces transactions and time for everyone. This is not strictly about the Classifieds, but something I had been meaning to bring up regarding the ads. Personally, it just not make sense for me to advertise right now just because I am a very small time seller with a small inventory, and I feel this is geared up more to the high volume kind of guys. One thing I think you should consider is offer some kind of free trial of whatever length you consider appropriate. This way you will show those who sign up how much their sales or traffic increases by advertising on the site, making it more likely for them to pay for the service in the future.

I would definitely pay a yearly fee to sell sets on Brickpicker depending on how much the fee is. How much would that fee be?