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TLG : the LegoDog groupies

We have acronym : TRUTH

Toys R Us has changed the conditions of their rewards program as of early 2015. These changes are not well documented on the TRU reward website and these changes are important if you wish to gain maximum value from their rewards program. Here's a short guide on these changes, how the program works, and how to gain maximum value from TRU rewards. 1) Sign up and point accrual. You need a TRU rewards account, its easy to sign up online or in person. Here's the link for on-line sign up. You get 1 reward point for each dollar spent, the equivalent of 4% back on your purchase. 2) Reward Amounts. Rewards are issued in $5 increments, and require 125 points for each $5, up to a maximum reward of $200 or 5000 points. You can set your desired reward level online here (you need to be logged in for this link to work). You can "bank" up to $200 in future rewards (5000 points) at this link. If you don't opt in to point banking (and you should), TRU issues rewards every 2 weeks in whatever value you've earned, if you have at least 500 points accrued. These rewards come by postal mail and are also posted in the "My Rewards" tab online. 3) Reward Restrictions. THIS IS IMPORTANT. TRU changed their reward program, and your reward certificate/coupon can ONLY be used to purchase a SINGLE ITEM ONLINE. You will want to carefully consider what value of coupon you want the certificate to be issued for. If your reward certificate is of value greater than your most expensive item, that item will show as $0.00 at checkout, but the remaining value of your certificate will be lost. At present, you should be able to use your reward certificate to purchase multiple items in store, but be sure to check before you use a certificate worth more than your most expensive item. 4) Rewards on demand. If you've opted into "points banking" above, you can have TRU issue a reward certificate instantly and any time by the "Create a Reward" link on the right side of the "Rewards Preferences" tab. You can issue your own reward in $5 increments up to your point balance at any time. It takes about 10 minutes for the reward to appear in your account under "My Rewards". 5) A flexible way to use rewards. Given #3 and 4, above, the easiest way to use rewards is to set a high reward level (I use the maximum, $200) and then just issue yourself certificates when you have the points using the procedure in step 4. As a bonus, this happens instantly. 6) Purchases. You use your certificate in person by scanning the coupon/certificate. You can also use it online by typing in the number during TRU checkout. If you have a balance remaining, you must pay that. Tax is ONLY charged against any balance remaining, not on the sale price of the item. 7) Percent-off coupons, Sale Prices, and rewards. Coupons and discounts work differently when also using a reward certificate. The reward value comes off the price of the item before any percent discount is applied. This means that percent-off coupons aren't nearly as valuable when cashing rewards, and will only apply to any remaining cash balance on your item. If a TRU item is on sale, your reward will be applied against the sale price. Carefully choose your item and make sure you know its price before completing your purchase. 8] Dollars-off coupons and rewards. Dollar-off coupons work just fine. Note, the minimum dollar amount for a coupon to work ($5 off a $25 or greater purchase) is applied to the item price after your reward coupon has been applied. 9) Reward Expiration. Reward coupons expire 60 days after you issue them. 10) Returns. THIS IS ALSO IMPORTANT. If you return an item purchased with a reward certificate, you forfeit the reward certificate and it will NOT be reissued. Choose your reward items carefully as you basically can't return them. 11) Double Rewards Points. If you use the TRU credit card, you receive double reward points on all purchases, the equivalent of 8% back. You can use your TRU credit card for partial payment during checkout, and still receive double points for your entire purchase. 12) Online and eBay purchases. TRU is pretty good about knowing who you are when purchasing both online and via eBay, and there purchases accrue reward points just like in person. If you're logged in, you can see all your purchases online at this link. That's it! Good luck in accruing and using points. Be sure to issue your certificate for close-to or less than the amount of the item you want, try to use a dollar off coupon, and know that the item basically can't be returned.

I wanted to start a new discussion thread for whenever TRU has an interesting sale crossing with "CC Thursday". I am hoping to get opinions on what people will be buying (if anything) in-store during the confluence of savings events. This week's sale for those hiding under a rock is 20% off all Minecraft and City Sets. The price adjustment for this week will be: 1 x 80% x 90% (CC discount) x 92% (rewards) = 66.24% There are other price considerations/strategies that I will ignore since they will depend upon your own situation. Everyone can do their own math to add/subtract these factors: 1. sales tax 2. partial pay with gift cards 3. The current "$5 off $25 purchase" coupon With that being said this week's price adjustment is 33% off! Sets I'm considering 1. Minecraft: They adjusted the prices of these sets up 10% in my store. I went to a TRU Sunday and they all were normal price and when I went back Monday they had raised all of them! After discounts 21113 The cave $14.75 21114 The farm $22 21115 The first night $29.48 21116 The Crafting box $36.85 21117 The end $50 21118 The Mine $80 Opinion: I think long term all of these sets will do really well, however I am thinking it is probably too early to start seriously stocking up on them. I might dabble with a couple of the lower cost sets tomorrow. 2. City I'm not going to list the entire line, just a few notables I was thinking about. After discounts 4204 The Mine $53.6 60062 Arctic Icebreaker $87.1 60051 High Speed Train $100 60052 Cargo Train $134 60036 Arctic Base Camp $67 60014 Coast Guard Patrol $56.95 Opinion: I will buy any Mine or Ice Breaker I come across. I will probably pass on the high speed train for now, but am considering a Cargo Train due to the potential new cargo train coming out later this year. I'm also on the fence regarding the base camp and patrol boat. I would love to get thoughts on: 1. Anything people are thinking about buying tomorrow 2. If this kind of thread interests people on what I'm calling TRU CC Thursdays BTW, I think "TRU CC Thursdays" deserves it's own witty name/acronym, so please help me come up with it!

Yea, I tried doing that - but the kids kept falling off & getting hurt.

http://brickset.com/article/14775/exclusive-official-images-of-simpsons-minifigs Series 2 has been officially revealed... I like the new Bart and Millhouse superheroes. Aside from the "Maggie is the same" complaints, looks pretty good to me.

Sold a 6866 Wolverine for 72.50 euro!

7x Pet Shop 2x Palace Cinema 3x Ewok Village 2x Simpsons 4x Ghostbusters 3x ToO

Hello everyone. I have been lurking and learning here for some time and decided it

Yesterday after school my oldest took a scrap paper and wrote on it... "$20 Ticket For Talking Back" and waited until I gave him s*** for something and handed it to me. I laughed, thanked him for it, then proceeded to give it back to him about 20 minutes later. ** Edit: And I've passed 1500 posts so I finally get a new forum rank avatar. The robot minifig wasn't doing it for me. **

She just called him... and he said maybe

Seems odd to do this now but the longer I wait the weirder this becomes... Hi! I'm an early 30s AFOL who is recently rediscovering his love for Lego. It all started with me finding an old set on Craigslist (set 190). I've been buying the kids Lego friends stuff for about a year or so and this set's potential made me buy it. I also picked up a bucket of bricks from the seller at the same time and things have snowballed from there. I'm not a major investor (aka BTP). I do not have shelves of modulars and I'm way jealous of those of you who do. I mostly buy and QFLL to reinvest into Lego and honestly for fun and fun money. Who doesn't like to turn $20 into $50 minus taxes? This site has been an awesome find for me. Love it and the community here is super friendly and helpful. Just wanted to say thanks.

I was going to wait and pick these all up at Lego for double points over the weekend but Toy R Us is having an actual sale for once so i saved a lot more than if i had bought at Lego. I ordered: 75046 Coruscant Police Gunship $43.99 75051 Jedi Scout Fighter $47.99 75058 MTT $71.99 75080 AAT $19.99 75081 T-16 Skyhopper $19.99 75082 TIE Advanced Prototype $31.99 75083 AT-DP $39.99 75090 Ezra's Speederbike $15.99 Used my coupons and also got free shipping. Saved around $70. If i had bought at double points at Lego i would have only gotten $30-ish. These were all for my collection and not for resale. So i am happy to have saved a bit.

I like it. Could do without the Marge and Homer figures, is that really that iconic? I know they'll never do it but I'm still hoping for Duffman.

Might matter for some folks - Amazon has Save 1 in stock http://www.amazon.com/LEGO-Star-Wars-Slave-Toy/dp/B00NHQHX8G

Just snagged 2 60022 Cargo Terminals at Toys R Us for $79.99 each.

I just ship as is. If you really want to nip it in the bud, just call them and get it sorted out. A lot of people are slow to check mail or don't get it at all if it gets stuck in their crappy spam box. Sent from my XT1080 using Brickpicker mobile app

First impressions of the Kwik-E-Mart, posted on eurobricks.com

agreed. Was hoping for Lego Movie

Just be careful. I've got over 120 lbs of bulk sitting in my garage. I got caught up in it. It's fun, but time consuming. It's going to take me a long time to go through what I've got.

Ummm... If you can look at 60080 and think it looks comparable to 10213 or 10231 you may want to consult an optometrist ASAP.

Teddy Team 6 by Siercon and Coral

Good, those "My Life as" sets are ridiculous.

I would say this I know it has not been popular. I have a store filled with 2013 dated sets not moving. I am not buying based on current sales. I am buying based on Episode VII being out, no UCS X Wing being available and people wanting what they cannot have. If I go down in a blaze of glory hopefully my Town Hall's will bail me out. LOL

I'm planning to grab 10 myself. If I find more than that I will pick them up and offer them to other BP members at my cost + shipping if anyone is interested.

7965 Falcon for $230 + shipping Have 6 left, will hold out for higher numbers next time.

My wife made this out of it for the kids.

One of my TRU shipments. This box was 20 x larger than a Unimog w/ zero air bubbles.

when i was an avid shopper at TRU (once upon a time) this is what i learned: a. never use TRU rewards online for purchase. #3 rewards restriction and its derivative comes because of that. b. never try to stack promotions online. either it invalidates sale price or removes/terminates the rewards et. al. my rule had been then a. to buy with rewards at the store b. buy only items that I am dead sure i won't be returning. c. redeem all the rewards in one single purchase. { but multiple items are fine } d. TRU rewards works like casino coins

Agreed. When I display unique figs that come with a helmet and hairpiece, I usually take a trans minifig head (or similar piece) and mount the helmet on that and have the fig hold the helmet. I am sure that is what I will do with this one.

As contradictory as this sounds, I'm loving the terrible 2's. The little guy is trying to make sentences and how things are starting to register with him like traffic lights, red is stop, green is go. I'm especially lovin' when he shows an interest in the hobbies I like. He'll bring his lego (Duplo) downstairs to build with me or he'll ask to go outside to play "hockey ball"! I've even been turning down the overtime at work to make sure I don't miss this part of life because I know the teens are right around the corner. Good times!

Well at least this confirms two characters for the second series of Simpsons minifigures. I have no idea where the dog will end up unless there really will be a second set of the Kwik-E-Mart or perhaps he will get stuck beside one of the other fourteen possible characters. Please note these are works-in-progress. Source: The Brick Fan

This is spot on and absolutely key. Once a set is opened and my kids build it, I just assume total destruction and anything otherwise just becomes upside down the road. If you try to think about resale value of the stuff opened you'll just go crazy. And they'll learn. When I bought the Slave I, my son knew this was "dad's set" and would come check the progress, but he never wanted to help build it (even when I asked him if he wanted to do a section). He respects the process. :-)

I can't believe you just posted such blasphemy.

Nice Primus acknowledgement...

I never cared for the robot either. I'm looking forward to the dude with the bank of computers though ;)

Fulfilled by Amazon

Yes I did , =)

I have to defend the B-Wing. It's my favorite SW ship and the heaviest rebel fighter in the original trilogy, easily worth two or three X-wings versus any imperial capital ship (putting Luke in the pilot seat of the X-wing is obviously cheating). Laser cannons, ion cannons, proton torpedoes, what's not to love? It just needed some more screen time...

Ice Breaker rules!

51 sold in the last week for me. TFLL! (Turbo)

I made like 75% on my B-Wing... Nothing wrong with that. Greedy ba$%^$%...

Let's do some algebra. A = Star Wars B = UCS C = Ship X = A + B + C Y = investor skepticism Z = X * Y Z = $$$

By all means everyone Red Five is a terrible investment please do not buy any. Let Johnny buy the remaining ones in inventory and have it fly away into that good night.

Why do people gather together and stay up until late on December 31st ? New year falls on January 1st year after year.

Last year, I did a lot of buying on Goodwill. And while I've had some fantastic finds - the coal tender and passenger car from Emerald Night, some HP sets (complete), Boeing 787 (10177), NIB Santa Fe Super Chief - I've also been burned a few times as well. I've got a Friends Summer Riding Camp that's missing two whole bags (everything else is sealed). I've got a Darkseid Invasion missing an entire bag (everything is sealed). I had an Indiana Jones set that was advertised as "complete!" with no picture of the contents. Got it home, and it was $5 of Lego junk. Darkseid Invasion, I'm going to order the parts I'm missing. It's obvious it was a salvage/damaged box, and that one of the bags was swiped or fell out of a hold in the box. Fortunately, it's only part of the ship, and not the minifigs (which is what's important to me). The Summer Riding Camp, I'm just going to inventory, and eventually order the missing parts. Indiana Jones, I actually wrote them a letter, and told them how badly what was described differed from what was sent to me. They were fine with that, asked me to send it back, paid the postage to send it back, and refunded me my entire amount. It's up to you what to do. If they didn't list it as glued, and they have pictures of it out, it's reasonable to say that it's not as described. I get that they sell it "as is", but, there's also an expectation that you, as a consumer, would be getting Lego blocks, not glued Lego blocks. It's a bit inherent in the product. They have a responsibility, as a sell, to accurately describe, to the best of their ability, what they are selling. It's reasonable to say that they might not be aware that a bag is missing, or parts are missing from bags. But if they've handled the product, and put it on display for pictures, knowing that it's Lego (and yes, Goodwills are quite knowledgeable that Lego are valuable), then they owe it to you to make it right. In my mind, it's a little different than eBay, since the one holding the auction is the seller. They certainly rake in the dough - they overcharge (IMO) on shipping, and adding in a handling fee is really pretty ridiculous. It's ultimately up to you, though. It depends on how much you spent. $20? Eh, oh well. The money is going to a good cause. Over $50? If most of it is not salvageable, then you should consider contacting them.

My buddy (AFOL, not an investor) wanted my help to prep and sell his Imperial Flagship (10210, with box and instructions). Spent about 2 hours taking pics, cleaning, and disassembling. Listed it as a BIN on eBay for $499. We're very good friends, he said to just give him $380 when it sold, I'd keep the rest for eBay fees, shipping, paypal, and my time and use of my account. Well, the kit is fabulous, as most folks know. He owed my $100 for a Rush ticket purchase last month, and I said, why don't I just give you $280 and we call it all even? He was thrilled. Can't wait to rebuild this, especially since I just carefully washed all the parts. Here's a few of the parts drying out before sorting.

Wal-Mart 4x GOTG: Milano - $11 each 4x GOTG: Milano - $20 each (random stop on the way to the mall with the family) 2x GOTG: Nowhere Escape - $25 each (same random stop) Target 3x Technic: Hot Rod - $19.98 each

After the Kwik E Mart they need to do a (whispers) monorail.