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Hello LEGO fans.. It’s been a little over a year since Jeff and I started working on our first book, The Ultimate Guide to Collectible LEGO Sets: Identification and Price Guide. Well, after a year and a half, the book is now available at retail and is selling briskly. We would like to thank everyone who has bought a copy and hope you have enjoyed the book. Krause Publishing did a very nice job with our book in my opinion and is seeing strong sales, strong enough to ask us to do a second book. The new book will concentrate on the classic LEGO minifigure (...and maxifigure) and their values and unique features that make them valuable on LEGO secondary marketplaces. The book will be done in a similar fashion as our first book...basically including most major LEGO themes and the important minifigures from each theme. We are looking to discuss hundreds of special minifigures and will have a price guide that covers many of the major minifigures. But unlike our first book which gravitated towards more text and analysis than pictures, this book will make the photos of the minifigures the focal point of the book. This book will be a hardcover book, with higher quality images and page finish. While there will be plenty of data and analysis, the publisher wanted to put LEGO minifigures in “creative LEGO” and “real world” scenes or dioramas, besides having the traditional body shot of a minifigure found on Brickset or Bricklink. The creations of French photographer, Samsofy Pardugato, is an excellent example of mixing real world situations with LEGO minifigures and coming up with a dynamic photograph. Here are a few of his works and you can check out more example here… A person can also create a wonderful photograph with just LEGO sets, pieces and minifigures. Here are examples illustrating such techniques… As I stated above, there will be dozens and dozens of important, unique and valuable minifigures discussed in the book and not all will receive special treatment, but quite a few will and this is where Jeff and I need YOUR help. We need the help of those LEGO fans and collectors out there that have a creative flair for photography and we are willing to offer fame and fortune for it...LOL. Jeff and I are going to run LEGO photography “contest” for any person who wants to give it a shot. We are looking for people to come up with “creative LEGO” and “real world” scenes or dioramas for each one of the below themes: ADVENTURERS AGENTS/ULTRA AGENTS ATLANTIS/AQUA RAIDERS AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER BATMAN BIONICLE CASTLE CITY COLLECTIBLE MINIFIGURES(CMFs) COMIC CON, TOY FAIR & CONVENTION CREATOR DIMENSIONS DINO/JURASSIC WORLD DISNEY PRINCESSES ELVES EXO-FORCE FRIENDS HARRY POTTER HERO FACTORY IDEAS/CUUSOO INDIANA JONES LEGENDS OF CHIMA LORD OF THE RINGS/THE HOBBIT MONSTER FIGHTERS NINJAGO PIRATES/PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN POWER MINERS RACERS SCOOBY-DOO SEASONAL SPACE SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS STAR WARS SUPERHEROES TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES THE LEGO MOVIE THE LONE RANGER THE SIMPSONS TOY STORY MAXIFIGURES VINTAGE PRE 2000 MINIFIGURES MISCELLANEOUS MINIFIGURES and THEME COUNTERFEITS Each new chapter will have one of these creative LEGO minifigure action scenes or dioramas attached to it in some manner, whether it’s in the introduction or later in the chapter. Some major themes might have multiple “special” images. These creations should include one or more minifigures from that theme. That is really the only rule for these images. They have to have theme based minifigures in the photos. Besides the major creative layouts in each chapter, we will discuss dozens and dozens of other important minifigures that require high quality photos. Examples of these can be seen here: These can also be creative in nature, but they don’t have to be. Sometimes, a quality high resolution photo of a cool minifigure speaks volumes. Specific minifigures that will be discussed in the book will be released to those who are interested by contacting Jeff or I. I have a list for each theme and will be looking for quite a few to be honest. Feel free to share any ideas that you have. As for the contest itself, there will be various prizes. First off, each person who sends in a photograph that gets accepted by the publishers to use in the chapter introductions, which focus on real life images & LEGO dioramas, will get a “Limited Edition” book and a special call out in the book. Basically, there will be a small bio for each person who submits winning photos in the book. Each one of these “special” photos will have a title and breakdown of minifigures in the image, so we can make a proper “blurb or call out” on the page. The photographer’s name will also accompany these images. The TOP TEN images (in any form) that we receive will win a $100.00 LEGO or Amazon Gift Certificate each. Judging will be done by the publishers and one person can win multiple prizes for multiple submissions. There will be a BRICKPICKER GRAND PRIZE WINNER of a $500.00 LEGO or Amazon Gift Card. This award will be chosen by Jeff and I and will go to the person who go above and beyond everyone else. Maybe it’s a few exceptional photos. Maybe it’s about dozens of solid images that can be used in the minifigure write ups and analysis or any combination thereof. We will take a look at all submissions and all will be taken into consideration, tracked and figured into the final judging. Lastly, I just want to say that Jeff and I want to make this a special LEGO “community” book. We fought hard to make it a hardcover and upscale, visual book. Here is an opportunity to make some money and gain some recognition as well. Many of you are way more talented than Jeff and I and can create custom MOCs and images that we can only dream of making. Now is the time to show off your creativity and let the world see your creations. This contest will start immediately and run through the end of January at this point. Changes in the schedule will be dependent on response from LEGO fans, but we will need time to sort through the images and put them together for the book publishers. Winners will be announced in late Spring, after the publishers put out a rough draft of the book. The book will be available for purchase next Fall. Please, any questions or ideas, please ask and Jeff and I (and Krause Publishing) will try to answer them. Good luck and happy photographing... ----------------------------------------------- PHOTOGRAPHY SUBMISSION GUIDELINES Camera used MUST be MINIMUM of 5-8 megapixels. Camera should be set at the highest resolution. All files must be in TIF or JPG format. DO NOT Compress Image Files. If you are trying to shrink the file size, please Zip the file Download the photo release form. All submissions require a filled out and signed photo release form to be considered for the photo contest. You can email the filled out and signed release to [email protected]. If you need a fax number, I will post one as well. I will be posting a link to a form here for you to submit your photos. All the submissions will not be publicly viewable. We will be submitting them to the publisher. Please do not post your creative works here on the site or anywhere else. ----------------------------------------------- What if I have a lot of images or a lot of very large files to send? If you have images that you want to send and they are large, we do have a WeTransfer Account that you can utilize. Feel free to go there and send us the photos and signed photo release forms here. Send as many as you need!! It is very simple to use! https://brickpicker.wetransfer.com/

The Sandcrawler is without a doubt one of the most iconic vehicles in the entire Star Wars universe. Ever since C-3PO first spotted this gargantuan transport, Star Wars fans have been very attracted to the idea of owning their own version, along with its extremely popular operators, the Jawas. Back in 2004 released its own version of the Sandcrawler. That set remains a pretty accurate version of what we originally saw in the movies, and for a long time it was also a very expensive set to acquire in the secondary market. As mentioned before, a big part of its appeal was that, at the time, it was the only set to ever include the Jawa minifigures. As you can see in the graph below, the original 10144 Sandcrawler has experienced a significant decrease in value. A year ago, you could acquire a used version for around $240; that’s $50 more than what it is currently selling for. Of course, it is not hard to explain the reason for this decrease, as LEGO released a much-improved version of the Sandcrawler during the second quarter of 2014. At the time, I have to admit that I didn’t really like the newer model as much as I do now. The newer version will hit its 2-year anniversary next year, and while LEGO’s product cycles have changed significantly over the last few years, I figured I would give my opinion about the Sandcrawler’s investment potential. As a personal note, I recently acquired a personal copy of this set for my personal collection, and have to admit that it is a pretty impressive model with really nice minifigures. One of the reasons I am confident this set will perform well once retired is that it includes almost 3,300 pieces, making it one of the largest LEGO sets currently in production. While size is not the only predictor for future growth, it has definitely contributed to the success of other sets beyond the Star Wars theme. In this case, the number of pieces allows for the design of the set to be extremely accurate to its movie counterpart. As mentioned before, the minifigure selection is also pretty solid, with the 4 Jawas and Owen Lars as its main highlights. It is important to mention that the release of this newer version has actually hurt the value of the Jawa minifigure in general, as it used to sell for closer to $30 and now hovers slightly over $10. Another aspect that I believe will contribute to this set’s future value is the instruction manual. While some of the older Ultimate Collectors Series (UCS) sets had really nice and bulky instructions (Death Star/Super Star Destroyer) the new Sandcrawler is one of the first, if not the first, to include what I consider a more collector oriented manual. Besides giving the builder step by step instructions, it also includes a nice introduction with some images and information about the Sandcrawler itself. A pretty nice touch that LEGO and Star Wars collectors will definitely value in the long run. LEGO officially recognized the set as part of the Star Wars’ UCS, making it the first set to be “stamped” with the new UCS seal on the box. While one could really argue the Sandcrawler does not really qualify as a UCS set for a couple of reasons (missing information label and the fact that it is a play-set and not a display piece), official recognition by LEGO is all it takes for it to be sought after by some of the most serious collectors. As we all know, UCS sets appreciate significantly after retirement, and this one should be no exception. Even if you were to completely dismiss the set as part of the UCS line, the performance of the original Sandcrawler over the 8 years before this new release was pretty outstanding. While the investment landscape has changed, the size and price don’t necessarily make this one easy to hoard for the average investor. I put this set in the same category as I do the Death Star and Ewok Village, not really UCS but not solely play sets either; more of a mixed breed that I am encouraged to see LEGO is willing to produce more often, as evidenced with the upcoming Hoth Rebel Base. It will definitely be interesting to see how these "sub-line" behaves once retired. Finally, it is my personal opinion that the Sandcrawler will retire at some point in 2016, probably by the end of the year. I will shoot to have at least 4 or 5 of these before July of next year, and invite every investor to consider it as part of their strategy as well. Thanks for reading.