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mayor, did you just watch Les Miserables? Your mini-rant sounded very French Revolution to me... I have to disagree with a few of your assertions: 1. TLC will not get bad press from cracking down on resellers. 2. Boycotting Lego would be more damaging to resellers than to TLC. You're WAY overstating the number of resellers there are throughout the world. As Ed says, Lego sets are overwhelmingly bought for children. They fuel sales, not resellers. 3. TLC isn't going anywhere. They just posted their most profitable year OF ALL TIME, and there's no reason to think they will not maintain sales. Any idea what the largest toy store in the world is? You guessed it - Lego! Bigger than Hasbro, bigger than Mattel. There not going to vanish in 10 years. I get that you're trying to be proactive about this, but reseller boycotting would be akin to peeing in the ocean to get sea level to rise - reseller boycotting will not make any meaningful diference in their sales.

People are forgetting that it is the same tight controls that LEGO has always implemented that creates the environment that allows price appreciation.

Why should the people who attend things like this not have the opportunity to get special things? It's the nature of collecting and fan conventions. This has been going on for years, so you may as well stop now if this is the thing that will keep you away. I've never really understood the "if I can't have it then nobody should be able to" mentality.

The Brick Fan just uploaded this interesting tidbit earlier. The short of it, a new Architecture set will be released sometime in July and consist of 1,210 all white parts, and the first ever building event for the theme will be held. (Check link and below for information.) Place: Oceanside, California Store: Barnes & Noble bookstore Address: 2615 Vista Way, 92054 Date: Friday, July 26th, 2013 Time: 6:00 p.m. Another B&N will be holding this event (thank you bheltzel for pointing it out). Place: Atlanta, Georgia Address: 2900 Peachtree Road, 30305 Date: Thursday, July 25th, 2013 Time: 7:00 p.m. Quacs pointed out this one. Place: Oak Brook, Illinois Address: 297 Oakbrook Center, 60523 Date: Thursday, July 25th, 2013 Time: 4:00 p.m. The event is free to the general public. The Architecture Studio set itself will be available for purchase from July 25th to the 28th. Price is believed to be around $150. > >Architecture Studio (21050) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvarmGbMlWI

I just received this warning email from Shop at Home. I guess they don't like my business of 50x DC Funhouse and the like. Should I be worried and/or change any buying habits/practices? If banned does a new credit card do the trick? How do they know that my kids don't have a ton of friends and the Funhouse is our go to standard birthday gift? LOL copy/paste from email below: Hello, In an effort to reinforce existing LEGO policies, I am sending this message to you. The LEGO Shop sells and ships products to end-user consumers only. You may not purchase LEGO products for resale via the shop.LEGO.com site or LEGO Brand Retail Stores. We reserve the right to cancel or suspend your order for further investigation if we suspect it is being used for resale. If you represent a retail business and are interested in purchasing LEGO products for resale, please contact our Independent Toy Dealers department to discuss our reseller requirements by calling 1-800-673-0360, or email [email protected].

Who knows exactly why they have decided to take this action, but I have represented companies who have taken similar actions and know some of the reasons that a company would do this. One of the main reasons is to exercise control over who is representing their products to consumers. I would suspect that many folks here would think that this is a stupid reason because TLG is making money off of every set sold to a reseller. However, if you've invested as much money and effort as TLG has to build one of the strongest toy brands in the world, you want to protect that brand and exercise control over the retail experience that your ultimate customer has when they purchase your product.

craigslist...yes. always in a public place in daylight. ebay...no way. they bid on the item knowing there was a shipping charge. my time is not worth the hassle. cheap bastards.

Lego.com can make whatever rules they want when they sell a set through their website. A person can choose to follow them, work with them to start up your own partnership with them, or ignore their rules, but in ignoring them there may be consequences. Lego.com is clearly sending a message to the poster of this topic and while a person can disagree with it ultimately Lego.com will dictate how they run their business. Do I think it's fair? So long as Lego treats everyone that has the same purchasing practices that signals a reseller to them, yes.

Yes, this was a very interesting thread that I was fortunate enough to participate in. LegoFanTexas is one of Brickset's most knowledgeable members and is a large LEGO reseller, with multiple employees servicing his LEGO reselling business. While I don't believe that is his main source of income, he is at the top of the LEGO reselling food chain nonetheless. He was banned from using LEGO S@H. This sort of "black listing" seems to be increasing. Just today, Jeff and I received an email from a member talking about the same thing. We are waiting to see how this individual wants to move forward with this issue. This is a complex issue with multiple angles and levels. The "black listing" of LEGO resellers and investors is an interesting topic that I would like to see discussed further in these forums...

I am talking about combining the freebies with the exclusives. Do the math - Funhouse from lego store with nice promo or 25% over retail and no promo or VIP from TRU.

Some of the best money is to be made with exclusives and/or the free polybags. Check out how much zombie car 40076 or the hulk mini figure sell for.

I have to disagree with this one. If a company is selling a product on thier site or in the mall and they have no restictions like ( limit 3 per customer ) like they do on their site for many sets, and i want to buy 50 to take to my local toy show thats my business. Once i buy it i can do whatever i want with it in reason, burn them, give them to charity, throw them away, sell them to my neighrbor, ect

Don't buy 50 funhouses..... Hope that helps. Grim

I don't do local pickups or meetups for internet purchases. When we sell on Craiglist, I of course deal with it. I'm not worried about safety (I'm handy with a pistol and have an extremely competent husband for backup) but I am worried about time management. Local pickup people like to talk. And talk. And talk. And inspect the item in your presence and talk some more. And ask if you might have anything else for sale and paw over all of it and declare it too expensive. And then tell you about their Aunt Beatrice who has one just like it. Did I mention they're a little chatty? In the amount of time the average local pickup person (for me) takes to get the heck out of my life, I can be doing a lot of buying, listing, packing, photographing, researching, parting out, and napping.

I'm a teen so I'll just fill in the blanks as myself. 1. Male 2. 15 3. If I had to pick only one theme, I would pick Star Wars. I also like City and Castle sets especially when I was younger. 4. Well my first Star Wars set was a Jabba's Sail Barge back in 2007 and I built it. It is still one of my favorite sets I own. I've been into Star Wars since I was 7 and I watched all of the episodes a couple times over by the time I was 9. 5. Long lasting. I've been building LEGO related items since I was 2 or 3 with DUPLO at my neighbor's house. I haven't stopped collecting/playing with LEGO since. I'm more of a collector/investor now. My first ever sets I bought myself were Knight's Kingdom sets followed by Exo-Force and some City sets around 2005. Then I moved into Star Wars/Castle sets. I started investing about 6-7 months ago and I spend some of my money on various sets that I can afford/I think will do well down the road.

I have two kids and they got me back into Legos for real, but I never really stopped collecting and my wife and I have built/collected since we met 15 years ago, so it was not a total rebirth. As for the kids: My 6-year old boy is deep into Ninjago and builds to play with those sets. He also enjoys City sets, especially the vehicles. Minifigures are also a hit with him. My girl turns 4 next week and has been playing with regular legos for about two years already. She plays with her brother's Ninjago stuff, but is more into Friends at this point. She likes the colors and the more doll-like figures. She is also a MOCer, although her creations generally need some explanation at this point. Kids are kids, so it is hard to say if they will continue to love Legos, but I know that their parents will be fans, so it will be hard for them to totally give them up.

1. Boy 2. 7 3. Mostly LotR at this point - it will change in a month, as it was Harry Potter earlier this year 4. He likes the movies 5. I think he will be like me and play with Lego until he gets serious with sports, women, and cars. Who knows though.

I don't have kids but for me: 1. Male 2. 26 3. Star Wars, LOTR, anything that looks sweet .4 I never had Legos as a child - I got in because I love Star Wars 5. Probably long because its been pretty bad so far LOL

First TFOL to reply! 1. Male (ahem, not boy!) 2. 14 3. Lord of the Rings. 4. I caught onto LoTR right after watching the Hobbit, and all three LoTR movies in 2 days. Lots was packing into that, but I watched them all 3 times after that though. Sames goes for SW. I was interested in Castle before SW, so after I watched the movies, I started playing and building the sets! I sort of don't think that that strategy works for all themes, though. 5. Long lasting! It's hard to spend 6 months on a LEGO forum and get bored of it! As long as I have money in my sets, I will stay interested...trust me! To answer your first few questions, I first started out with the accursed DUPLO very young, and often played with my cousins and friends. Then I moved onto LEGO's when I was 7 [that was when I received my first set, but I obviously played with LEGO before that!]. First came a theme called Jack Stone, which is aimed at ages 6-10. I stuck with that for about 2 years. After that came Knights Kingdom, for 2 years. Then SW...then LOTR! I personally build, then put on my shelf. It's sort of running out of room, so I have to improv and stick some builds closer together than I would have wished. I started investing in late-December/early-January after the USA Today BrickPicker article. Prior to that, I had been combing eBay for hours and hours looking for deals, especially keen to find a used Clone Turbo Tank. Never did, but I moved on! That period, which lasted about 5 months, basically was my stepping stone into LEGO investing. It really helped because I knew at least a bit about LEGO and vaguely what a good deal was. Hope this helped!!

It really wouldn't bother me if it were just a variation. Things like the "I love NY" Yoda I have no qualms with because you can get a hold of a Yoda easy enough. Right now though, I am not impressed with how Lego are distributing their minifigs (extending through to video games as well). Key characters like Green Lantern, Green Arrow and even to a lesser extent Iron Patriot will be difficult to come by. They aren't some variation for the completist but key characters in the DC/Marvel Universe. I am hoping that with the Flash coming (and looking as he did in the Lego Batman movie) we will finally see Green Lantern in a set as opposed to his previous Comic Con only rendition.

Great topic, and yep I got back into lego after I became a parent. I've got two boys and we started them young at one and a half years old with a garage sale find. They like the city sets, especially trucks. Can't get enough trucks it seems (police, fire, garbage, dump truck).

Not a big discount but if you plan/want to buy something might as well get $5 off using promo code 5OFF. The best deal I found was Batwing for 20% off CAN retail ($44.95) = $35.96 - $5 off promo = $30.96...add in the tax we're basically paying US price. If you like this set and just buy within CAN market this might be the cheapest price currently. What little margin you can squeeze is important right. And you get Plum pts which add up.

lol Diabolos - I'm feeling the not-at-ComicCon angst, too, but not because of the Legos, because I'm missing the Walking Dead panel AND the walker hunt game played with live actors!

I'm just glad they do exclusive minifigures instead of 800 pc exclusive sets. I'm not a minifig collector, so I don't feel left out. If they released a comic con exclusive Mos Eisley cantina, I'd be pissed. But overall, I hate exclusives and limited editions. Not to say I hate the people who have them, though. But come on, you're already at the coolest convention on Earth. You really need something else I don't have? :)

It better have blocks of gold inside of it.

The seller has a Minecraft set listed at $72,652.00 for sale with only $8.80 for shipping. Act now!

My standard answer: whichever one discounted 35% or more I could have sworn we just had a similar topic on modular 2 or 3 days ago.. :dejavu:

The point I am trying to make here, is that clearance doesn't always signify retirement. I am done here, and am moving on.

I'm not arguing with you, but I have had experiences with items being clearanced but not retired. In this case, my gut tells me that they are retiring, but nothing is final until TLG says.

I'm not saying I agree or disagree, but I can understand the frustration. I do think there should be unique items one could find at these events as it is what makes them so special. On the other side, I am tired with seeing great characters only being available through an event I'll never be able to attend in my life. I guess I'm fine with the tins and special builds they hand out, but exclusive characters like Bizarro and now Spider-Woman which will never appear in a regular set because of this is very tiring. I know I would have been ticked in a way if Dr. Doom was one of these exclusives but thankfully he appeared in the Daily Bugle Showdown set. Now if they did alternate versions or different designs on certain characters at these events, I wouldn't be as upset about it. (Like that Spider-Man that looks like the golden age of comics one.) Again, I do not hate these exclusives or have the childish "if I can't have it, no one can" way of thinking, but that doesn't mean it isn't annoying. It's too bad really cause they captured classic Spider-Woman to a "T".

Ummm....

Amazon - Amazon card. 3% back in points. Pretty good for getting stuff back. ToysRUs - TRU master card - you get the equivalent of 4% back in rewards and they have coupons regularly. Also when you open it you get an extra 15% off a full purchase (I dominated with this as I used it with a BOGO 50% sale). ****** - Has some good cash back deals if you shop at certain stores. Kmart is the best as you get 6% cash back and then can open a "shop your way account" and get extra rewards. Barnes and Noble - 10% off with Membership card ($25) a year. Cruise Ebay - this is the best one in my opinion. Plus Ebay bucks get you around 2% back.

Just remember that for every hot girl out there, there's a dude at home who is absolutely sick of her.

Well my son ordered the Olivia's House from the Website 'Promotionlists.com' June 21st and still have not heard a word from Mark Smith the owner. So he Filed the Paypal Claim today. Paypal said if the seller doesn't send us the set in 10 days my son will get his $60.00 back. So will keep everybody up to date on this, but be sure and don't order anything from that website. Ed

I'm gonna use it to build a snowman.

Never had any pieces missing, but in the past few years, have had a couple of warped/mangled pieces which Lego replaced for me. When I THINK there is a piece missing during a build, what most often has happened is I accidentally substitued a dark grey piece for a black one, or vice versa. That is one thing I think Lego needs to remedy. The dark grey and black are very similar in most instruction books. I'm not sure why they don't change it somehow to give the two colors more contrast. anyhoo...

Uruk-hair? Is that a new salon product? And I never heard of Hackot the Wargs. Sounds like something my cat just did a couple of minutes ago! :lol:

That makes me hate them even more. That sucks! If they get say a 3-5% deeper discount, then I kind of understand, but if it is any more than that, which it probably is, then to me, they are scamming the customers. A miracle they aren't out of business...or EOL. ;)

Spongebob theme retired tbis year....even 5th grader knows that.......see brickipedia link

...and I dont care what u say....

all Spongebob theme on Clearance in Target stores.....

It was just one set, not whole theme as now with Spongebob....

but......hmmm....LR just released.....SB is not.