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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!

The National Law Journal is reporting that the US International Trade Commission has given permission for LEGO to bring forth patent and copyright infringement cases against three competitors known for their own line of block construction toys which are MEGA Brands Incorporated, LaRose Industries, and Best-Lock Construction Toys Incorporated. From what I can make of the cases brought forth so far (I am still going over the document) LEGO is showing their signature "mini-doll" figure from the Friends line is being infringed upon by MEGA Brands with their "My Life As" line, LaRose's LITE BRIX line, and Best Lock's "Fairy Tale High Little Mermaid" line. LEGO is also providing evidence of outright copying a couple of their set designs with Sunshine Ranch and Heartlake Shopping Mall. A small list of other infringed patents has been stated well as certain exhibits made confidential but mainly about copying the LEGO Company's "mini-doll" design. Source: The Brick Fan

Says the guy with no kids. ;)

I doubt the spin off will be ot x wings. But I don't think that hurts red 5

I have this crazy theory that the Simpsons-related production resources are currently allocated to making figs for the Kwik E Mart and series 2 CMFs, and they are temporarily suspending production of the house, hence the limit 1. But who knows?

71016 - The Kwik-E Mart Ages 12+. 2,179 pieces. US $199.99 - CA $229.99 - DE 199.99

good good another 7 10240 for you i am going to stay cool this 2XVIP for a moment....

On eBay I have been selling at $74.95 and clearing I guess ballpark about $25 per set times the 50 sets. I would raise it to $79.95 and only get one even though I was still the cheapest. Several people had better best match even though almost every other best match I place much much better. Those other ones would show $74.95 or so but shipping was extra. I don't think people scrolled down and the $79.95 put them off even though it was cheaper. Only sold one at that price. Move it back to $74.95 and away it went. I expect to clear out my remaining 3 in the next 24-48 hours and then I have a 2 pack I'll sell cheaper due to some box damage and then 5 more at 50 coming in. Not so confident about them as a quick flip. Yes I can quick flip. But I don't know that I would make money right now. Happy with $1500 in and $1250 out in about 2 weeks. More cash for exclusives now or amiibo's. LOL

I am the MTFLL Medium Turbo Flipping Low Life. I do not hold a candle to xeeeej! They have moved out very well for me. To bad I don't have more than the 5 coming in I have 37 people watching my item at the moment.

Costco did $189.99 its first Xmas. Amazon.uk had them for $186 (for the at the time exchange) early February this year. This set is due to disappear in August this year so don't wait too long to pick one up. Technic seems to hold to its two year time frame pretty religiously... Except for TRU that can't seem to avoid having old stock. I grabbed two 42006 Excavators from my local TRU for $90 after tax.

I bought 9 items last night. My total was $207.xx after discounts (Arctic icebreaker 20% off confirmed). I used a $200 reward. My total was $7.xx after applying reward certificate. This demonstrates that the reward can be used to purchase multiple items, and also store discounts were applied in full before the rewards were scanned. Discounts like 10% Thursdays are applied after rewards coupons are scanned.

Regarding use of a reward coupon for one item only. I know this is the case online, and my local TRU manager also said that's how it works in store. Now, I've not been brave enough to scan my big coupons in store with a multiple-item purchase, for fear of losing a portion of the coupon, or at least entering into a protracted process of getting the reward back. It's possible it works for multi-items in store, but this has been changing the last few weeks. Try this at your own risk. The safe bet is to just issue your own coupons at a value slightly below whatever you want to pick up, and to try and use these in-store if at all possible. You can issue multiple rewards to yourself at the same time, so really no downside to this for in-store use. Bonus: if you work it right, you'll have a $25 balance to pay, on each item and can use the $5 off $25 coupon as well. Work multiple items this way, rinse and repeat.

Chill everyone the Arctic Batman will come in a 4 foot long 3 foot high 1 foot wide box by itself with no wrap like most of my Jedi Cruiser's came in individually. LOL

As do I. I don't think we're seeing this heavily stocked and quickly discounted at Target because it's a poor seller. I think it's a timing issue and stock was late getting to the stores just like the Family House black friday promo. I remember trying to find this at several stores when the minifigure cube came out and most were out of stock at the time. The Steamroller is awesome and the minifigures are great! I don't expect this to take off, but it should be easy to double your money once it's retired and gets back above MSRP.

I had to make a few changes to the way this alert system works because it it actually too fast with the updates and too efficient. It was costing us a small fortune to send out SMS messages for items that people were not really interested in buying. You will need to go in an check your items to make sure you are receiving alerts on the sets that you want. You will now have the opportunity to select either email and/or SMS for each sets for each store that you are interested in. There is also logic in there tracking purchases (mostly Amazon since they have the most changes). That will disable SMS alerts after a while if no purchases are made. You will still always get email alerts, but there is no need to bombard people with 100 SMS alerts if you are not ready to purchase that set at this time. Hopefully this will keep your phones from going crazy as well as keep you up to date when stock is available. It is also keeps the system Free for people to use.

Of course it is still early (or not yet even) in the "EOL" stage for all sets in this theme but you are correct that overall it has not been too good investment-wise. By CAGR in the database, Shelob's Lair (25%) and Mirkwood Elf Army are the leaders thus far. Mirkwood Spiders has really taken off lately, Lake Town Chase got a huge bump over the holidays, and Unexpected Gathering is finally starting its inevitable climb as well. ToO speaks for itself. The first four are very roughly double MSRP on eBay last I checked. Why those? The minifigs tell the main story, if you ask me - especially after the final Hobbit movie. But to address your question, is any of this performance "good"? For the pair of wave 2 Hobbit sets, I would argue yes. They can still be found in the occasional Walmart for up to 50% off and are fetching ~4x that. But it really depends on when they plateau, of course. On the subject of minifigs, Lonely Mountain has five exclusive version minifigs in addition to the big fire-breathing star of the show, including the three dwarves that "matter" in the movie besides Thorin. Perhaps more importantly, it represents the point of the whole dang story from start to finish. For purists, very little of that other "5 armies" spectacle was in the book, and none of the Dol Guldur business. Of course this probably won't matter a great deal but it is something to think about long term. Helm's Deep is not a great comparison, in my opinion, though arguably the closest between the two sibling themes. It did do quite well initially after becoming unavailable, but plateau'd very quickly too. Holidays and all that... It only has 3 exclusive minifigs out of 8 total, by the way, two of which are comparable to the Lonely Mountain dwarves in terms of being "second tier" important characters. No super-villain-huge-awesome-guy to carry the set at all. And unlike Hulk, we know we will never see another Lego Smaug. Furthermore, despite a very solid design, Helm's Deep suffers from "lots of grey bricks" syndrome. The Lonely Mountain does not. It is colorful and therefore more unique. Finally, Helm's Deep is just not iconic enough to represent LotR the way Lonely Mountain represents The Hobbit. It is much more similar to Lake Town in many ways, story-wise. The difference being, it survives.. mostly. Now, had Sauron "lived" in Mount Doom, and THAT set been released, WITH him as a maxi-fig, we would have an ideal comparison product. I realize Unexpected Gathering is much easier to display, so it may be chosen "over" this set by many folks who don't give a rip about any of the rest of it. But I think the (personally predicted) difference in supply will more than make up for that in terms of the sets competing against each other. Another way to put it is that this set is to The Hobbit what Black Pearl was to PotC, or Hogwarts to Harry Potter (imagine if there had only been one version). Obviously I am not the first to draw those comparisons.

gotcha. I didn't mean to come across as condescending on that one. My point was I just hate when others call others out on here on a deal just because they couldn't find it or something. Then they get put in there place and silence.

I think I read somewhere once that movie license deal contents (waves, # SKUs, price points, etc) are laid out years in advance. It could be that Lego was contractually required to push that final wave of Hobbit sets out. Based on the limited availability it may mean that Lego knew they were slow sellers, did a half-hearted, but contractually satisfactory retail distribution, and now are just counting the days until they are free from it. Most likely the designers have no discussion with the distribution management, so they put their normal effort into designing the sets. The mold for Smaug was probably approved and made well before any decision about wave distribution.

In a recent issue of the longtime running MAD Magazine, there are a couple pages with some panels of satirical humor on our equally long lasting favorite building block brand. They are rather silly in a relatable way. I suggest clicking on each image to enlarge seeing how squeezed these forum reply boxes tend to make them at regular viewing. Source: The Brick Fan