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Your address can be posted here, so everyone can stop by to congratulate you when they arrive.

If we get to $70,000, I will throw in a SSD into the BrickPicker Bundle.

Here are the winning ticket #s that were listed on the Rallyup site. The winners will probably be notified shortly. Please contact me (PM) and I will discuss the prizes and shipping. Thanks again everyone. You really came though for the school and the kids, families and teachers...and me and Jeff too. If there are any issues, I will address them tomorrow. Time for bed...LOL Friends Bundle #6 115 Batman Bundle #4 143 Bundle #1 Grand Emporium & Parisian Restaurant 274 BrickPicker Bundle #5 485 Mystery Bundle #2: More Than 5000 Pieces!!! 535 Create a Bundle #3 564 LEGO Star Wars Death Star #10188 100343 LEGO Star Wars R2-D2 #10225 300345 Sealed Case of LEGO Series 10 Minifigures #71001 - Get Mr. Gold!!! 500460 LEGO Monster Haunted House #10228 600510 LEGO Creator Town Hall #10224 800397

Annddd done! Pretty much used Jang's as my reference, but there was a lot of trial and error as there were some pieces i could not find in black. Mainly the cockpick hinge pieces, so i had to sort of redo the roof section to make it come off as 1 pieces instead of hinge open. I can get the shuttle into a landing pose, but it's not entirely stable. However it will be displayed in flight mode anyways. Really love the teardrop red cockpit windows. This went from a bad looking model (in terms of screen accuracy) to one of my favourites. Aside from the stud shooters; there is practically no grey to be seen. Pictures below:

So why are you here and not at Walmart getting that thing?

This thread is starting to echo the PC thread from last year... ...and all we got is a new box for the PC.

Let me know when you need my address.

MOC'd some movie posters for PC, coming to a Lego neighborhood soon!

Love me some good mega pickles

or 162 of these, score!

Jeff is going to write his contact at LEGO and tell them of the evil resellers saving a school. It really is a great story and illustrates that LEGO fans are a special breed.

I would be going to every walmart in the area if one of them had it for 49. That's 50% for a original trilogy ship, the only quesion should be is how many can you store and still have room to brush your teeth and leave your home to get more shuttles.

availability at shop at home usa: 10240 was available 2 years 6 months. 10221 2years 10 months 10212 2 years 2 months 10215 1 year 5 months 10225 2 yeasr 6 months 10240 was around basically the same as all the rest. it wasn't an outlier. it didn't stick around longer. it was around as long as r2d2 and people were surprised when that went eol. the only difference was there were more brickpickers hyping 10240 retirement. brickpickers didn't make it stick around longer. that's a fallacy.

I think you know that's not how this works. Someone says "buy" and you say "in for 3". Remember?

Congratulations to the winners of these fantastic prices, and congratulations to @Ed Mack for raising more than a whopping $60,000 for the support of the St. Paul school!!! As expected I didn't win any price, but am happy my money went to a good cause!

Sure...Plus a 10030 for kicks...

Completed the exterior mostly. Still need to add some floortiles but don't have enough. So far pretty satisfied how it worked out. It is massive tho. The inner yard. Probably add sandy tiles and some more green. Inside look from the yard into the main palace. Stairs go two sides up. Will need to add some furniture and further tiling

I just had to pop for another 35 tickets.... the cause is worth it no matter what we may or may not win because of it but the chance to win something adds a reason for people to give. While it's sad at the end of the day human nature prevails for some and the appeal to gain something (other than the amazingly awesome feeing of being able to help and be part of something bigger than ones self) provides the motivation to help. I'm happy to help but can admit that the potential for something like this just helps push me to give even more. So at the end of the day I applaud all of you that have donated without wanting a raffle ticket as you are truly a fine human being. For the rest of us keep donating more dammit! The kids need and deserve it and you can get another shot at winning some more awesome Legos. It's about the odds. It may only take one ticket to win but if you buy 100 or more you have an even better chance. Let's see this hit $60k. Hell let's see it hit $75k Heres to folks overseas winning everything because my bill for shipping will be huge and Ed said he is going to match those funds as a donation. Ed, I forgot to tell you that I'm hiring a private plane to help me deliver all the Legos to the winners. You can tag along since you are paying the bill. Sorry for for the long winded post as it probably wasn't necessary but I was reminded of people's tendencies during fund raising events while helping to finalize the annual fund raising event for a local charity I focus on. So I used this as my soapbox and hope to get people fired up to give even more!!

When I first got into LEGO as an AFOL I was looking at all of the Star Wars sets that I had missed and how much they cost. It became necessary to figure out a way to get the sets cheaper or make more money. I knew that some people must be making money buying bulk lots and taking out the stuff they wanted and selling the rest. That seemed like 2 birds with one stone. I looked at the bulk lots on Ebay, realizing that most of what I would get from these guys were common pieces. So I started looking at bigger lots, somewhat intimidated by their cost. I figured, however, if an Ebayer was getting $10 for a pound maybe I could make some money just throwing stuff in a box, easy money. I made a purchase of about 50 lbs for about $350 because I saw some Star Wars sets and minifigures in there. Oh boy, easy money and some treasures of my own. Boy, was I wrong. The money is anything but easy. I quickly discovered that out of my 50 lbs of mixed LEGO, at least 5 lbs were easily recognizable as not building bricks at all. Tinker toys, K'Nex, Hot Wheels, plastic army men, broken action figures, Lincoln logs, playing cards, thumb tacks, thorny burrs and even broken glass was mixed into the ABS blocks. On top of all that junk, the real problems started. All of the Mega Blocks, BTR, and assorted knock off blocks knocked another 5+ lbs out of the lot. That's at least 20% of my precious blocks that was basically trash. As you filter through, you discover broken bricks, severely teeth marked ones and yellowed pieces. profits are getting slimmer by the minute. Ok, so I regrouped and focused on the sets that were obviously present. I pulled out the stuff I immediately recognized most of a TIE Interceptor, a little car, Jedi Interceptor with Hyperdrive ring, half an ARC Fighter, etc. All of these I scattered around me like ancient peoples paying homage to their creator. How do I go from lots of partial sets to lots of complete sets that I can flip to make back the money that I sunk into this thing? Well first I needed to figure out what was missing. So, I looked at instruction books to see what steps I needed to take to complete them and what pieces were missing from there. Utter bust. That's an awful way to do it. So I took apart the sets I had figured out and checked the inventory against Bricklink. I discovered what was missing, and that sometimes kids substitute pieces in the middle of a build. Now that I knew what was missing, time to turn back to 20 lbs of assorted bulk. digging through mixed bricks looking for the piece or pieces I need was time consuming and futile. Time to sort them out to make it easier. My wife and I sorted that 20 lbs of pieces by color. We had 10+ bags of pieces separated loosely by color (old and new colors mixing futilely.) That made it easier to look for pieces, but still sometimes wasting a lot of time trying to pick out a small piece in a big bag. After exhausting my patience, I turned to Bricklink to acquire the pieces I needed, dumping more money into this hole. Eventually I sold a bunch of sets I made from this and a few other bulk lots. Between the Bricklink orders I placed to complete them and the fees and shipping, I think I made some money. My book keeping was pretty terrible. But it all taught me some things. Some of these things I learned could help some people just starting out trying to find treasure in Bulk lots. STEP 1: Valuation So, you're looking at a bulk lot that you found on Craigslist, Ebay, a garage sale, another auction or whatever. How should you evaluate it? Weight: The volume of pieces will tell you roughly how much is there. 2 lbs = not a lot. 25 lb = a lot. Since you're not buying the sets one by one, you have to immediately realize that you are going to be getting dead weight in addition to the treasures that you seek. Visible sets: Any visible set that you can place is good. That will give you an immediate idea of what you can make out of the lot. No visible sets or parts of sets means that there may or may not be gold in there. Minifigures: If minifigures are present that's good. If licensed minifigures are present, that's even better. a loose rule I use is to look for flesh colored minifigure heads and hands. Sure there's some dummies in that group, and some good figures that have yellow heads and hands, but it's a good starting point. Instructions and boxes: Both of these are a good gauge to show you what sets may be present, but could be red herrings. Sometimes the instructions stick around long after the main components of a set are lost. Non LEGO stuff: There's always some detritus. The flotsam and jetsam of stuff that parents scoop up into the boxes. The most common stuff is non LEGO bricks. They're not always easy to pick out at first glance, but they're usually there. What you are looking for is how much of the lot is obviously not LEGO. Do you see doll parts, nerf darts, Pokémon cards, buttons, etc.? usually this is a good sign to me. It means no one has searched it. but it is a pain to filter through. Filth: Sometimes you can see how dirty and played with the bricks are. Most bulk will be dusty or dirty. Some will even have paint or marker on them. So with these factors, let's talk about how they factor into the valuation. an average lot is usually in the $4-$6 per lb range. Average lots show some partial sets, some minifigures, maybe a few instructions, relatively clean, with not a lot of obvious non LEGO stuff. Depending on the quality and quantity of the better stuff, you might increase your valuation, but remember you're not paying top dollar for what you see, because there's still a lot of work to come. Plus, you're going to get some amount of stuff you don't want. I have been known to go as low as $2-$3 a pound for stuff that had no obvious sets, mediocre looking or no obvious minifigures and excess junk. Then again, I have gone as high as $10 a lb for lots of minifigures and several mostly complete sets of some value. Some people stick to a hard $5 lb. Some lots of only minifigures I have seen sold for close to $100 lb. Figure out your comfort level and stick to it. Be prepared to have wasted your money on a big group of Mega Blocks. STEP 2: Sorting and figuring out what you have Once you get the lot, now you have to do something with it. Boxes full of bulk sitting in the garage is just hoarding. You're doing this to make your money work for you. So, I start by trying to pull out all the non LEGO, but also anything that gives me a good idea of what is there. Pull out minifigures, instructions, partial sets and set them aside. I bag the partial sets, with the minifigures and instructions wherever possible. I would never again sort by color. Finding a red 1x1 modified tile with clip in a big bag of red parts is much harder than looking through a bag of 1x1 modified tile with clips of assorted colors. Instead I start by throwing all the flats in one box. Slopes go in a second box. Bricks are a third box, etc. It's the most general sorting at first. As I go, I look for unique identifiers of sets like printed pieces or unusual shapes. Once the initial sorting is accomplished, I sort again by element. STEP 3: Completing sets The best way to make back the bulk of your purchase price is to complete the sets that you received. Some people will complete everything that they can, others disdain anything below a certain dollar amount. It's up to you how far down the rabbit hole that you are going to head. Once you get your sets, you need to figure out what is missing. Even if the set looks complete, it is best to verify. Some people will make substitutions in the middle of a set. Your customers may not appreciate substitutions, especially if there are megablocks in the middle of a build. So, it's time to take them apart to verify the inventory. If the sets are partial, you definitely should take them apart to figure out how much is missing. Look through your new bulk to see if you can find the rest. Focus on the expensive sets first. Check through your minifigures, instructions, and interesting pieces to see what sets may have been broken down entirely and see if they are worth reconstituting. You could do another survey of your bulk to see if the seemingly random bulk is hiding some treasure. I look for the part numbers on the interesting pieces. Finding the part number can be difficult, since it's usually inside of the LEGO piece and hard to spot, except with the right light. If the piece appears in multiple sets, I check for context with other pieces in the lot. Again, the interesting pieces generally have a unique shape, sticker or printing. If you can't complete them this way, or even with other bulk you might have, then you have to decide if sinking some more money into them is worthwhile. Does spending $10, $20, or $50 more make sense? Only you know for sure, but you've already dug a hole into your resources and time. It's either keep digging, or see if you can punt it off somewhere. I tend to try to get as many sets working at a time as I can. Hopefully this will help me to get the most missing pieces for the least orders. STEP 4: Dealing with the true bulk You're going to have leftovers after you pull out the stuff that is easiest to sell. You have several options. You could write it off. Put it back in a box and donate it or stick it in the garage, hoping to forget about it. This is generally the least appealing option to me. I've put time and money into this, so I want to recover something more than the tax write off or another box in the garage. Sell it as bulk. You could try to recover something from it by selling it all as a big lot, or even breaking it up into more manageable 1, 2, 5 or 10 lb lots. There's a lot of competition that way, but it's not super hard to do. Save the pieces to help you complete other sets in your next bulk lot. This is appealing because you already have it on hand. There's no guarantee that it will do the job, but at least you have a chance to cut down on further expenses. Sell the pieces individually through Bricklink or Ebay or some other venue. This is the most time consuming way to do it. It's also the way to get the most total value from the pieces, eventually. A lot of pieces may not sell quickly if at all, but you have a higher return on every piece that does sell. So, after all of that. You have to figure out whether it was worth it. If you made some money, or got some stuff that you wanted for less than the going rate, it will give you that rosy glow. It's fun to initially dig through all of that stuff searching for buried treasures. When you find something, it really does feel like it's all worthwhile. In the long hours of sorting, searching for pieces, and waiting for Bricklink orders it may be less fun. Waiting for the stuff to sell to recoup your costs is even less fun than that. I like to do it, but at the end of the day, the monetary returns vs. my time may not be the best. It may be the worst paying job that I have ever had. You really do need to have a plan for evaluating what you are buying and for dealing with it once you do. If you've never done it before, it may be overwhelming. It will take a little while to get more proficient. It's definitely not a quick buck, but money is there to be had. If you are disorganized, if you lose patience, if you don't have the time,you're just throwing money into a hole. May the bricks be ever in your favor. pictures are used to demonstrate example bulk lots from real auctions. View full blog article

So why are you asking us about a used one if you're after a new one? And if you are interested in a used one, it's a simple question for yourself isn't it? Is it worth that to YOU? Why does it matter what we think?

I feel the need to defend Amazon packers a bit here. Judging by the last page in this thread most people are under the assumption that some lazy, inconsiderate minimum-wage employee gets to decide whether or not they want to place a bag of dog food on top of your collectible LEGO box. The packers have absolutely zero say in how your items are shipped. When you place an order on Amazon their computer algorithm takes all of the products in your order, calculates the weight and overall dimensions, and literally tells the packer everything to do. 1) It tells the packer which box(es) to use, and which items to place in each box. It even gives them a display on the computer showing where each item should go in the box (if necessary) 2) It tells the packer how much void fill to place in the box 3) It spits out an exact amount of tape necessary to seal the box In this case, the system told the packer that your LEGO box and your dog food would both fit in the same box. Whether the packer placed the dog food on top or on bottom, it would have had the same end result after being flipped around during transit. The only way to avoid this would be to place separate orders, waiting for your first one to package/ship before placing the second to ensure they don't get grouped together. That isn't to say the people packing these boxes actually care about your orders at all. They are paid commission/bonuses based on how many orders per hour they can ship out, so the system itself inherently promotes sloppy packaging... but it's not fair to blame the employees when the company forces them to package your orders a certain way.

I've posted a few sneak preview pics of these before, but they may finally be done after several months of Bricklinking, MOD'ing, and tweaking. The Cylon Raider is pretty much a UCS size set and is massive & heavy. 2 ships from the classic Battlestar Galactica TV Series Classic Cylon Raider - 1820 pieces Viper Mark II - 325 pieces

Unleash the horde! (BTW, I'm only looking for my personal "to build in a distant future when I finally have time" pile ).

Maybe a house or a convenience store.

Remember, the raffle goes off at 1:59AM EST. It was set to Arizona time. I will throw in a Tower of Orthanc into the BrickPicker Bundle as well as the SSD if we reach $70,000.

I will not write these off. I could care less about that stuff. I have said this time and again, that's not how I roll. There are no angles here. It's a win for me to see my son in St. Paul for another year. That's all this was ever about. Getting one more year. One battle at a time. This^^^^

10179 for 100k?

We are getting there. This raffle really helped. I never really expected this. I was hoping just to make enough to cover the costs of the sets. Honestly., I am amazed by the recent activity. I knew people could help. But would they? The answer was a resounding yes. We still have a 6 or 7 hours to reach $60,000.

Many Lego-related blogs are written about modern sets. This especially applies to investment-related blogs. In a series of articles I try to generate enthusiasm for some of the more interesting vintage Lego sets. We enjoyed building them as kids, whereas probably more often we jealously admired them in our best friend's collection or in the Lego catalogue we devotedly picked up in the toy store. This is primarily a blog of nostalgia. However, investing in vintage Lego can be an interesting and fun pastime. The quest to find rarer sets, to restore incomplete sets and to assess your recently purchased lot of bricks can be exciting, relaxing and rewarding. In this series of blogs I will describe sets, show pictures, provide general and set-specific information for collectors and investors, and finalize each blog with some fun stuff. After reading a couple of these blogs you'll hopefully get a certain confidence in this matter. Let's start with set 1592, the Town Square. Those who are not interested in this set's history and contents are invited to fast forward to the "tips for collectors and investors" below. ABOUT SET 1592 There's a festival in town! It's the end of summer and everyone is out on the streets to celebrate the last days of sunshine. Behind the medieval castle walls there is a party. Here on the town square a procession comes by... a classic car, a flower float, minifigures in historical costumes... come and join the fun! Of course, this set being a promotional item, there's a commercial detail. In this case, the minifigures are invited to have a soup with some smoked sausage. HISTORY This set was first issued in 1980 in the United Kingdom as a promotion for the British cereal producer Weetabix. Although the link between this set and cereals escapes me (the sign crowning the snack bar says "fish & chips" rather than "breakfast cereals") that doesn't make the set any less desirable. The UK set, produced between 1980 and 1982, features stickers "books", "ice cream", "Legoland carnival" and the UK flag. After its initial sale in the UK, from 1981 the set was sold in Australia, Canada, Sweden, Germany1 as well as Japan2. Clicking this link will show you a German advert from around 1981. The advertiser, Fachgeschäft Spielzeugring (German toy retailer group), tells us this is a 'large city centre-themed gift set with a lot of content and endless playability'. Then in 1983 a new set 1592 was issued, being a promotional item for the Dutch company Unilever. Already then one of the largest Netherlands-based companies, Unilever has produced a wide array of foods, cleaning articles and personal care products. One of the many brands held by Unilever is Unox, best known for its soup and its (delicious) typically Dutch smoked sausages. To this day movable carts just like the one seen in set 1592 are used to sell these sausages and sometimes soup. In winter soup with smoked sausage is just as commonly seen here as fish and chips are (or should I say, were) in the UK. So The Lego Group and Unilever both did the math, resulting into the advertisement seen here3 (scroll down a bit). Translation left side: "Send me Lego box no. 1592 "Village with procession" for the special Unox-price4 of €18,13 inclusive of shipment. I enclose payment plus 3 promo wrappers. N.b. of course you can order more than one Procession set. For every specimen, use a new order form plus 3 extra promo wrappers (maximum: 3 per family). U can also get the box without promo wrappers, in which case we will need to charge €2,97 shipment- and administrative costs. This promotion runs until December 1983." Translation right side: "Unique Lego box costing you only €18,13 plus 3 Unox promo wrappers (shop advice price €31,54). "Village with procession" true measurements 39x29cm. Enjoy that tasteful Unox soup while saving for that unique Lego procession box" We are fortunate to know that the shop advice price was €31,54 even though this set was never available in any shop. The Dutch version of the 1592 set was only produced for the year 1983 and it was only sold in the Netherlands. Even in 1983, some UK set production leftovers were delivered in the Netherlands. This is what Gary Istok says5: "A Dutch acquaintance was a LEGO fan as a child... along with his 2 brothers... And their parents sent in 3 sets of UNOX Soup labels and money to get 3 of the Dutch 1592 sets. Well guess what arrived?? 2 Dutch and 1 British version of the 1592 sets!!" All of this makes Dutch 1592 the rarer of the two variants and also the most sought-after. SET SPECIFICS AND CONTENTS The set comprises of 471 or 4916 parts, 10 minifigures 1 statue and 1 steroids-fed horse. Let's first look at the minifigures, horse and vehicles. Back row, left to right: a statue, costumed man (with cup for soup!), book seller, convertible car driver, 4 knights, soup and sausage seller (previous job: fish & chips seller), flower float driver, flower queen. Front row: convertible classic car, horse, flower float. There are stickers for the knight shields, knight torsos and horse eyes. I'm not sure the eyes are all that realistic and if aligned carefully they will make your horse resemble cookie monster quite realistically. One year later, in 1984, The Lego Group would issue a horse part (Bricklink: #4493c01pb02) with slightly less disturbing eyes. The convertible car is a very neat little build, cleverly using a pile of 2x2 wheel plate + 2x8 plate + wheel fender + 2x3 plate + 2x2 plate to make a black grille. On with the castle walls. Even the first time I built this set, probably as a six-year-old, I thought this was supposed to depict a relic rather than an 'abstract' full castle. This was one of the reasons I liked the set so much: it stimulated the fantasy (history of the castle, what's behind those walls now?) A child could choose to pose the knights on and around the castle, or to let them walk in the parade. Probably, behind the castle walls other festival activities were going on. According to the poster, the festival took place from the 28th of August until the 4th of September. The Dutch flag consists of a white part + two stickers. The flag in the UK set had UK stickers, as mentioned. The second building is the book shop. The UK set has a sticker "books" for the kiosk one. The building is just lovely! The half-timbered structure is represented convincingly and the use of then-new windows and -door are very charming. The roof structure is rather complex and is fun to build. The building's only flaw is the use of the striped stickers on the canopy. I'll come back to that later. On the above picture you can also see the cypress tree which is considered a rather rare piece. Not as rare as finding one actual cypress tree within the boundaries of a Dutch city though. As can be seen in the above picture, the book shop even has a modest interior. The rest of the set consists of two lampposts, a statue of a guy, a STOP traffic sign, a blue bench, fruit tree, an avalanche of flowers (some in pots) and of course the soup with smoked sausage stand. The sticker sheet contains alternate stickers "vers schepijs" ('fresh ice cream'). A main picture of the box can be seen in the beginning of this blog. Here are pictures of the sides of the box (third image is shown on both shorter outsides of the inner box): The bottom side of the box: Lastly, the inner box, sticker sheet and instructions. Note that there are spares for most stickers: 5 knight torsos, 3 knight shields, 3 kiosks, 2 statue stickers, 3 snack bar stickers, 3 pairs of terrified horse eyes and 1 festival poster. Most unfortunately, the two weakest and rarest stickers (shop canopy) are not offered as spares. On the picture you can also see the great build of the car. Check out the way the designer designed that grille! TIPS FOR COLLECTORS AND INVESTORS Those who are interested in purchasing / investing in this set should note the following: While the UK set (1592-1) and the Dutch set (1592-2) are both quite rare, 1592-2 is the less common of the two. The 2008 Lego Collector Guide rates the rarity of 1592-1 as 5/6 stars and 1592-2 as 6/6 stars. According to the amazing Unofficial Lego Sets / Parts Collectors Guide7 the value of an excellent condition set (minor wear, box and contents are in well cared for condition) is 200 to 250 euros. In case you're planning to gather this set from several sources, try to start with a boxed version with incomplete stickers. Check the state of both inner- and outer box. If ordering online, ask for several pictures. After you've found a box(ed incomplete set), make the canopy stickers your next project. These are almost always gone, because they span multiple sloped tiles without much grip and there are no spares on the sticker sheet. To make matters worse, these stickers have a slight overhang. I reckon most canopy stickers were thrown away after building and disassembling the set once. Having found a box and all stickered parts makes life easy. None of the parts are exclusive to this set. Nonetheless, some are difficult to find such as the four black lantern cap parts, only present in two other rare sets; the above-mentioned cypress tree, currently for sale on Bricklink for at least €11,50; the unstickered knight shield, only to be found in two other sets; the two red doors and the black statue head which was only used in 4 other sets. You'll probably have to Bricklink these parts if not present. A full inventory of Lego set 1592 can be found here. Make sure the white flag part, the STOP sign and the two base plates are intact and unglued, the large black statue head hasn't been replaced by the more common cilinder part, the stickered knight torsos have not been replaced by similar looking torsos and the knight legs have not been replaced by other color combo legs. Check that the bricks (especially white, blue and grey) have not been discolored. If you want to try to restore the original color, read this blog carefully. Ideally the stickers have not applied at all; if so, they should have been applied as neatly as possible. Make sure the festival stickers have not been torn (like the canopy stickers, they span multiple bricks). If a sticker sheet is present, check for authenticity. The backside of an original sticker sheet reads "FasCal REMOVABLE", the sheet number is 195145. Beware that sticker sheets are being reproduced nowadays. Usually the best place to find rare Lego sets are Brick Classifieds (good deals), Bricklink (varied offer) or Ebay (quick purchases). As 1592-2 was only sold in the Netherlands, it's not easy to find it elsewhere. So you'll have to think out of the box. Introducing... the Dutch virtual market place Marktplaats. There you'll probably find one or more 1592s offered for sale. You'll find Marktplaats to be a bit different from the three above-mentioned platforms. First, bidding is possible but it doesn't bind you. So it really has no validity whatsoever. It's always a good idea to directly contact the seller, telling you that you're a foreign collector (or investor, if you think that's wise) of Lego and that you're interested in their set. Ask the seller if he will ship to where you're living. Then the awkward part: if you don't have a Dutch friend who can pick it up for you, you'll have to trust the seller and pay him or her trusting that they'll send you what you bought. It's a bit tricky but I never had a bad experience in the 10+ years I bought and sold through Marktplaats. Wise thing to do before paying any money: check how many years the seller has been a Marktplaats member, then Google the seller's name co-using the words "fraude" or "vals". Have Google translate the search results and conclude. I always ask for the seller's address, explaining it is for my own protection. Literally everybody gave their address without any objection. In the end you can never be 100% sure but it's better than nothing. Once you've completed the set, clean the parts (good method: by hand, see this thread) and ideally put them away in a dark, air-conditioned closet so the discoloring process of both bricks and box will be minimal. Or display it... after all it's a grand piece! FUN STUFF On with the fun stuff. First, a picture of two sets of Dutch instructions. Can you see what's wrong with the bottom one? Here's the answer. Unilever, holding company of cleaning solution brands, was clearly thought to sell sausages as well was soap during the Legoland festival. This funny error is continued on the two last pages of the instructions. I'm not sure when exactly the instructions were corrected. I have not heard of incorrect stickers or boxes. If anyone has those or knows they exist, please let me know. While the instructions of 1592-2 correctly mention copyright 1983, the box incorrectly says 1980 (clearly copying the 1592-1 box). This set is considered by some as one of the best The Lego Group has ever produced (see these and these reviews. It still inspires people... check out this awesome remake! Who's the statued guy? Living 1807-1872 it could be Italian cellist, educator and composer Carlo Curti, or British lawyer, diplomat and writer Henry Charles Sirr. Frankly and unfortunately I haven't been able to find any plausible candidate for this statue to imply an easter egg. If anyone finds out anything interesting on the matter of the statue, do let me know! 2 years before the UK release of the Town Square, another interesting set was released. In 1589 (Main Street) we can spot... a piece of yellow castle wall, just as tall and with the same battlements as seen in 1592. It gives reason to believe both walls belong to the same castle. Nice detail for those kids who really paid attention. The castle bits of these sets also remind of castle set 375. Last, not least! I know all of you have been desperately waiting for the answer to the question "so what's the difference between 1592-1's and 1592-2's boxes?" Well, TLG definitely did its best to make both boxes look as similar as possible, probably in an attempt to get away with delivering some stock 1592-1 boxes to Dutch customers... comparing both boxes very closely, the differences are barely noticeable (except for the stickers, of course). The car and flower float have moved a bit, the knights' heads are positioned slightly differently, the shadowing, the background color... all a bit different. But the trees, lampposts, minifigure gestures and door positions are just the same. Perhaps as an insider joke, there's one difference though... the flowers! Some of the several flowers differ in color. And behold... one bed of flowers was even added to the 1592-2 box picture! In all you really have to look carefully... (top: 1592-1, bottom: 1592-2 box fragments). References 1 See this Bricksetforum post written by Lego historian Gary Istok. 2 See this post on the Eurobricks forum written by Lego historian Gary Istok. 3 See this post on the Eurobricks forum. 4 The price in Dutch guilders was fl.39,95. 5 See this post on the Eurobricks forum. 6 The 2008 Lego Collector Guide p166. 7 Unofficial Lego Sets / Parts Collectors Guide, Gary Istok, price list. To see prices for very good, MIB- and MISB-conditions I strongly advise anyone to buy Mr Istok's magnum opus. It simply is a treasure chest loaded with facts, figures and pictures of every imaginable Lego-subject from the 30s up to and until the 90s. See here for a bunch of teasers and here to purchase it. Set 1592-1 is discussed in chapter 17 page 18, set 1592-2 in chapter 17 page 28. View full blog article

this set is an absolute no brainer. when was the last time they produced this set? How many more star wars movies will be coming out?

what do you feed it and is it potty trained? oink

There was definitely a production run in late november in the states, because I waited over a month to finally get one right before Christmas. It became available again around that time and has stayed in stock since. However, it was OOS for quite some time before that period. With Amazon getting knocked out recently, and walmart just having the PC it could be another sign. When Amazon starts to post that message usually means the boxes they have left are the damaged ones and they are waiting for stock, or too many of the recent shipments were sent back, which may mean they might not get anymore in besides what's currently left in their warehouse. Many sets that recently got knocked out can have this message. Target is usually always the last retailer remaining. And, for those of us that pay attention, when Europe starts having stock depletion, it's a definite sign.

You can get RR down to $45 each using a $10 off $75 coupon here: http://shc.cpn2c.co/RecomService/web/bE3R Then use points and whatever other coupons you might have.

Maybe people are getting a little ahead of themselves - or could Tumbler rules apply?

I decided to jump on all 3 of those over the last few months because I didn't want to miss out and pay extra for them. I never really bothered with this series, but once I built one, I became a little obsessive/compulsive with this line. I don't know if you have built these yet, but man... they are perhaps the most fun things to build when it comes to lego sets. Although, I'm not investing in modulars and like to build and collect these for personal use. The PR is great though. It's such a well done and very beautifully designed set. Just all around greatness. It's also out of stock on amazon in the US... and looks like only target and lego LEGO Shop at Home are the last survivors.

HAHA WOW. See. I won something!!!!

I think the situation here is a lot more complicated. This oversimplifies it a bit. If you hold a $200 product and sell it in three months for a $25 profit, that would mean you would have to profit $300 from that same product over the course of 3 years ($25*12). But say you sold 12 products for a profit of $25 today and made $300. That is not the same as selling the same product for a profit of $300 3 years in the future. Taking things such as inflation and missed opportunities cost elsewhere, the $300 3 years in the future is probably going to have less of a value than $300 today. Selling a product for $25 every 3 months might be great if it was sustainable. But, the reason you can flip something like 10240 is because it's such a great set for investment in terms of post EOL value (nice ship, known brand, etc.). The question is whether you can consistently find sets to sell after 3 months for $25. This is why it's to your advantage to find that sweet spot in between these two scenarios. Because if you wait too long, you're losing the opportunity of cashing in on your product and reinvesting it in something else that will experience faster growth (because all products will plateau in price eventually). The other side being can you find the next set to invest in that will give you that quick return. I think this is kind of just looking at the tip of the iceberg, and it's a lot more complicated. Like @Jeffrey_Dollars said, "different strokes for different folks."

Exo-suit

Holy COW!

I am fairly certain his return will be a great school that his child and family will enjoy, with teachers and staff that will be grateful for what he and his family have done for them and the school.

could probably get someone to make a ROI spreadsheet on the ROI of donating sets... with a comprehensive analysis of why its not a good investment to give good sets away in a raffle even though its for a good cause... Then throw in the argument of whether Ed used his VIP points during double VIP month to obtain these sets that he raffled and whether that was a smart choice or not...

There's 60k

Egats Brain, that's a long time per listing. I sell a large amount of used sets from bulk lots so probably take more time per listing than most here because they're all one offs, but I'm still spending five minutes or less per listing. With loose sets I'll take lots of pictures showing the set, the mini figs, the instructions, any rare pieces. With sealed sets, like Loghamel mentioned, front, back, and I will take a shot of the mini figs. I'll also add pics as needed to highlight any imperfections in the box. The description should be brief (no one reads it anyway). Forth quarter last year almost 50% of my items were purchased from a mobile device, I guarantee you hardly any of those buyers read my three sentence description.

Added some front signage and a movie screen for good measure. Ready to build!

Make sure he includes a full extract of all the contact details of those resellers as well, so they can spray us all with ban-hammer love

Here is a short feature (eight minutes) JANGBRiCKS uploaded recently briefly going over the history of all interlocking types of bricks including ones many probably never even heard of. Roughly halfway through towards the end, he shows some of the original instructions among other memorabilia of these long past forgotten relics in inspired creativity.

Yellow Castle and Main Street were both some of my favorite sets I had as a child. You can see their influences (or vice versa) in this set. It is beautiful and sad it was never released in the US. Thanks you for the write up.

This is not really a MOC, so I thought I would place in this forum.... For the past few years we have had a school bring their 3rd grade classes to my workplace to do a tour. Each department gets a topic and explains that topic to the children. Our department explains about recycling efforts and energy use. So, I put together this layout to give a visual example as we explained things to the kids. I purchased the instructions to a Brick City Depot building (https://www.brickcitydepot.com/CB026/smokestacks_coffee_house) and modified it a bit to include a standby generator on the main floor. The generator lights up using Lifelites (http://www.lifelites.com/). I used a Brick Builders Pro sticker (http://www.brickbuilderspro.com/) for the "City Power" billboard. I also incorporated LED lights into the street lights and on top of the hydro dam. I have the LED lights on, but maybe difficult to see due to natural lighting /camera. In the layout we have a hydro dam, wind turbine, stationary solar panels on awning and building, rotating solar panels, standby generation, transmission lines and a recycling center (with Hulk getting “angry”). The only thing really missing is a generation plant (too big and expensive to build) and a nuclear facility – which, I’m waiting for a Simpson’s version! The entire grade seems to enjoy it, as do the teachers. This layout makes it sooo much easier to explain to third graders.

Pictures have emerged of the German attackers