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Good fathers don't let their son pay full price for LEGO.

or this

For some, it's a lifestyle.

I think I saw a Chima box.

Coupon bonanza! 15% and 20% off coupons out there too.

The best lessons in life hurt.

There are some very influential people on this forum, when they speak people sit up and take notice. Its great to hear other people views but never a good idea to just blindly follow someone or just buy / avoid because everyone on the forum says so. Not saying people are lying, but you need to research sets yourself and be comfortable on why your investing on a particular set and understand why people are saying buy this / not that etc.

FBA: Olivia Tree House : $51 Olivia House : $150 Raptor Escape : $140 Friends Adventure Camper : $75 Rancor Pit : $150 75046 Gunship : $80

Also for some strange reason I've had a decent amount of sales on Mondays. Perhaps people are more into online shopping than working on Mondays.

Exactly. Bet that lock up has no Who´s and is full of Simpson´s Houses and EV´s!

For some time, every time that I have heard the Legend of Chima mentioned, it's been half joke, half cautionary tale. The conventional wisdom says stay away, stay far away. There's a few people that are wild enough, dangerous enough or wily enough to have made some money on Chima. They say buy cheap enough and you can make money on anything. I began to wonder about the non-licensed LEGO Intellectual Properties. What is it that makes Chima such poison? Why are these LEGO sets reviled? I felt like I had to know more. I felt like I had to understand what makes one series less desirable than another. I decided to start with what I know of Chima. In the early days, LEGO was giving out Speedorz for free with purchases. I know because I got some. I was able to sell those eventually making about $5 each. As far as I was concerned, I made money, though not much, and notably less than LEGO was trying to sell the same thing for. My buy in was good, free with purchase. That doesn't tell me much though. I didn't keep the Speedorz because I was uninterested in LEGO sets that weren't really building sets. Now that those sets were long gone. I needed something else. I had to go further. Maybe the denizens of the land of Chima could help. Half forgotten memories of something that I sold off as an afterthought weren't going to do it. I had to look deeper. I had to follow the trail. I unearthed a handful of minifigures that came in a bulk lot, and a couple that were part of Target cubes that I had purchased. Nature's mistakes some might call these poor twisted creatures. That is, if there was anything natural about them in the first place. Anthropomorphic animals that wear animal head helmets. Are the helmets supposed to be part of them, or some representation of the animals that they once were? How could I know? I took off the helmets and was happy to see the dual sided heads, until I realized that they were worse than useless. The Chima helmets cover the entire head. No face is visible when they are wearing the helmets, but when you take them off, these freaks become some kind of grotesquerie with two faces. Every single Chima is like Professor Quirrel and Voldemort. It doesn't really matter how good or bad the figures are when something fundamental like creating dual faces without a reason slips by. Sure, you can turn the head around so they'll be angry, but the angry face will be just as hidden by the helmet as the happy face. This is worse than Batman's sweatband. I fled the tiny freaks with their shoulder armor and wings (fire wings are awesome by the way) and their transparent limbs and zombie-ish body damage. Is this why people didn't travel down into the dark heart of Chima? Is this what stops most people? My journey almost ended there, but I had to push on. I had to get to the heart of it. I had to observe. I had to see what the children saw, so I unleashed the torments of the cartoon upon myself. I thought that I knew what I was getting into. I've watched more than my fair share of licensed toy cartoons. I've seen the LEGO Movie and the LEGO Super Heroes videos. I thought that I knew what to expect. I thought I was prepared. I was wrong. The cartoon is dreadful. It's poorly executed nonsense. The main "hero" (Laval) is an idiot and the main antagonist (Cragger) is an easily manipulated fool. As far as I can tell, the "Chi" is some kind of naturally occurring steroid with hideously addictive properties. The Lions are the kingpins and the Crocodiles are the meth addicts that live in the swamp trailer park, constantly jonesing for their fix. The rhinos are dumber than a bag of hammers and the gorillas are too stoned to be effective at anything. The wolves are thug, the eagles are the lion's enforcers and the ravens are some kind of group of mercenary scavengers, easily distracted by shiny things. There's a collection of animals that just said no at some point hundreds or thousands of years before. Somehow, not taking the drugged water made them stronger and longer lived. I have to stop there. I can't relive the unspeakable horrors of this cartoon anymore. I lost days in there to madness. Was it a symptom of that madness to continue this foolhardy quest? It probably was, but I had come this far. I had to see it through. I needed to get a feel for these monstrosities myself. I had to build them to see if there was beauty buried within. I couldn't believe that they were all terrible. The underlying parts were the same as sets and themes that I enjoy. I found 2 sets on my shelves, but that wouldn't do. I couldn't do it with just a couple sets that I had found on clearance. I needed to dive deeper. I put out the call for sets that were cheap, expecting people to be thrilled to get their money back out of these beasts. Strangely, no one stepped forward. The only offers that I received were full retail offerings of used sets through Facebook and a few scattered offerings of new sets at a markup. People who spoke ill of Chima, still seemed to believe that there was something there of value. Was conventional wisdom just a blind that people hid behind, believing that there was still money to be made down the road? Was money back worth less than the effort of digging out the hated sets in order to convenience a stranger? Probably the latter. But, I found a few more sets on clearance, and found someone dumping his collection on ebay and dove in to the murky depths. I had to build, the fever of madness was upon me. It would be either glory or grotesquerie, but my journey would be over soon. Soon I would know the truth. . . The brightly colored packaging was appealing. Warm orange and cool blue mutually highlighted each other. The packaging though, only hid what was inside. I had to open the packaging to see what lay within. I started small with a battle pack and a legendary beast. Strangely, the legendary beast was enjoyable for such a small set, better than many other $9.99-$12.99 sets that I have built. The small ones were harmless and easily dismissed. I was hunting bigger game. Surely as I worked my way up the ladder, I would be exposed to the depravity of this theme. As I built the sets, I looked for simplicity of design including large elements that made them easier to put together. I looked for play elements that were more important than functionality. I immersed myself into the ideas of this theme. I went native, thinking of how the ability to change a vehicle from one form to another might make sense. A large boat that could actually float made less sense to me than vehicles that looked like birds that would never fly. I pulled ripcords and launched Speedorz at targets, at each other, at my cats before succumbing to the darkness inside. I awoke, surrounded by animal head helmets and dual sided heads placed in a row before the greatest darkness. My eyes wouldn't focus upon it for the longest time. I forced myself to look. There I beheld something that I wish I could forget, even here at home, long after my ordeal. My eyes rested upon Worriz' Fire Bike, and I knew fear. I am told that I spoke two words only, but I lost some time there. They say that I said "The horror." When I came back to myself, I was clutching my Star Wars minifigures to my chest tightly. Someone knew how to restore my sanity. Brief glimpses of the dark heart of Chima still haunt me at night. The truth is, there's nothing inherently wrong with Chima. The same pieces were used by the same designers to create a theme aimed at children. The builds run the gamut from clever to uninspired. The minifigures are highly repetitive, I'm not entirely sure I can tell a main character from one of the faceless hordes. I enjoyed the build aesthetic where everything looked to some degree like the animals that used them. As an adult, we had no anchor or inroad. We could jump in to the deep end, as I did and find something to enjoy about them, but it's like candy. You can enjoy it while you're building it, but it's easily forgotten. As far as a future, children (especially modern children) have a very short memory. Very few children will return to the world of Chima to recover their youth as they graduate up through the themes. Adults weren't the original market and inherently knew it, so they didn't really get behind it. There's nothing wrong with Chima, but there's nothing really right about it. When you look at the whole line, the problem suddenly crystalizes. This theme was supposed to take the reigns from Ninjago. Ninjago was supposed to fade away and allow for Chima's Pre-eminence. Something happened that allowed Ninjago to continue. Ninjago outlasted Legends of Chima. I've watched Ninjago with my kids and seen the sets that they've built, and I realized that while they are both juvenile, it seems that Ninjago was treated with more respect by the company. Fans, young and old can tell when they are being respected and when they are just being given a new product for the sake of change. I can look at the sets that I have built and appreciate them for some things. I'll try to ignore the problems with the minifiures. I'll play with them with my kids and try to forget the terrible cartoon. I'll try to forget how incredibly stupid the characters are. I may not try too hard to reassemble things if my kids smash them. It's time to move on and forget the confusion, the fear and yes even the beauty. I'll try to forget that somewhere out there, Worriz waits with his fire bike. EDIT: (I never intended for this to be a typical dog whistle where I jump on and make fun of Chima. I was actually fairly curious about the theme and decided to try it out. My final feelings are mixed because it serves its purpose, but it doesn't really excel. Nothing that I built was terrible or truly worthy of disdain,just not worthy of praise either.)

Here's one I hadn't seen before. At my local Fred Meyer. Guess I live in a bad neighborhood.

The Helicarrier is on the list of sets to retire this year, according to a member from Singapore. It's quite possible that the Helicarrier is going to be the surprise retirement of this year, going quietly out of stock and then retirement while everybody has their eyes on the sets with their "Retiring Soon" labels. Regardless, I'm not going to put any money in the Helicarrier. Maybe 10 years from now I'll put out some grey hairs from my head, regretting I didn't get any now. But I just don't feel good about this set and the future demand for it here in Europe.

At least I like these people. From day one of "Fear the Walking Dead" I've wanted to the zombies to win and end the series.

I was excited for a second. I thought it was BOGO 50% off Moe's.

Who let you in my house?

I heard Val-E bought 50 Pet shop's at RRP.

What we can take from this is, investing in Vacation Getaways for more than $50 buy-in could be a fruitless effort.

Thanks Jeff, I guess you included the little boys Lego star wars underwear deal in your list above in order to provide a MOC idea for putting it on an AT AT, like the one from the MAD magazine.

TRUTH and TRUST

Yes, a number of Belgian/Dutch resellers now carry (more) "exclusives". Bartsmit also carry Airjitzu, Batcave, UCS TIE, TB, Slave I, Brick Bank, T1, Mini Cooper, F40 and SW. They have very bad prices though, so only worth it if you somehow manage to find an amazing discount. The porsche is also pretty much everywhere. The whole "exclusive" / "hard to find" thing, is complete BS. They should just be honest and introduce the "expensive" tag.

They find me .

the coupon printed in the flyer was there last year. but the ones attached to the front definitely wont be there.

Terrible set. You wouldn't like it. Now, go buy another 3 Pet Shops.

To be honest I would go insane without Amazon (for both selling and buying). We do probably 98% of our sales thru FBA. I find their system very easy since we educated ourselves prior to starting and follow all of their rules. Not dealing with a single customer or shipping any orders has allowed us to leverage our time so we can source and sell alot more product. We think they are head and shoulders above any other platform and we are happy to invest a percentage of profits in their stock every dip.

Or... PC and PR are selling well enough so they do not need the retiring soon tag.

Cheaper Dragons! https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01AW1QYMO/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

They need to wrap it up. I know it follows a Graphic novel but the pattern is old and tired. I used to get excited about the show and some of the villians but how many bad hombres are we going to go through? Pattern: Walk around. Zombie dance. Bad dudes/chicks. Kill em. Repeat. Breaking Bad got it right. Baby Blue.

The first customer trials of the Pick-a-Brick concept were not successful.

Keep those little guys Ciglione. He will serve you well

@exciter1 @fuzzy_bricks Great acting. Great drama. So much desire to vomit. I have a no-no about eyeballs. RIP

Now I am worried about my Pet Shops, Val-E's in for 50 and Ciglione for 33. We're all screwed.

Not to poop in anyone's cheerios, though this set jUST came out in May. I expect it to be hanging around a while, even at the great buy in, it's a LONG time commitment of capital. I mean, 50% is never bad, (Exception: Chima.) but especially as we enter retirement/clearance season, for me personally, I like to target sets closer to EOL even at worse discounts. (Pun not intended). For personal collection or for gifts, obviously that's smashing.

Maybe you should have bought one last January?

Open it, that's a good price, but it shouldn't stop you from opening it.

I was always under the impression that C2C normally appears near EOL and means something like: "We don't have plans for any further production runs, and we have to handle orders including this item manually as our computer system that's supposed to manage incoming orders automatically isn't working properly when inventory levels are too low."

Latest Amazon USA Updates City LEGO City Trains Train Station 60050 Building Toy $40.29 [38% off] LEGO City Volcano Explorers 60122 Volcano Crawler Building Kit (324 Piece) $25.59 [36% off] LEGO City Deep Sea Explorers 60095 Exploration Vessel Building Kit $86.71 [28% off] LEGO CITY Garbage Truck 60118 $14.39 [28% off] LEGO CITY Fire Station 60110 $79.98 [20% off] Classic LEGO Classic Medium Creative Brick Box 10696 $27.99 [20% off] Creator LEGO Creator Sea Plane $4.99 [29% off] Disney LEGO Disney Princess Pumpkin's Royal Carriage 41141 $9.99 [24% off] Duplo LEGO Education DUPLO Creative Builder Set 6024000 (124 Bricks, 4 Building Cards) $63.67 [32% off] LEGO Education DUPLO Multi Vehicles 6056673 $59.11 [21% off] LEGO DUPLO Town 10813 Big Construction Site Building Kit (67 Piece) $39.99 [20% off] Elves LEGO Elves 41178 The Dragon Sanctuary Building Kit (585 Piece) $39.48 [21% off] LEGO Elves Naida's Epic Adventure Ship 41073 $23.99 [20% off] Friends LEGO Friends 41097 Heartlake Hot Air Balloon $19.70 [34% off] Kids LEGO Kids' 9009952 LEGO Movie Bad Cop Mini-Figure Alarm Clock $17.40 [42% off] LEGO Kids' 9000577 Legends of Chima Cragger Mini-Figure Alarm Clock $19.91 [34% off] LEGO Kids' DC Universe Super Heroes Superman Plastic Watch with Link Bracelet and Character Figurine $16.79 [33% off] Legends of Chima LEGO Legends of Chima 70226 Mammoth's Frozen Stronghold Building Kit $34.90 [42% off] LEGO Legends of Chima 70227 King Crominus' Rescue Building Kit $55.09 [39% off] Lego Storage LEGO Storage Brick 8, Blue $26.13 [43% off] Ninjago LEGO NINJAGO Future Backpack $27.80 [23% off] Star Wars LEGO Star Wars First Order Stormtrooper 75114 $14.99 [25% off] Star Wars Little Boys' Lego Star Wars 5 Pack Underwear Brief, Multi, 6 $13.80 [23% off] LEGO Star Wars Galactic Empire Battle Pack 75134 $10.28 [21% off] LEGO STAR WARS Imperial Death Trooper 75121 $19.99 [20% off] Technic LEGO Technic Mining Truck $23.98 [20% off]

Hope this pic uploads.

This 'impressive' set is getting the Queen treatment by German fans on LEGO Shop at Home with a 1.1 rating on its first 9 reviews.

That's quite an ambiguous statement. Are they selling so well that there's no need to retire them although they were supposed to retire this year? Or is the remaining stock from the final production run selling well enough to make the "retiring soon" label unnecessary?

122 sellers on amazon which is crazy high for a brand new flagship set. Lowest price is currently $465 shipped, it's been as low as $449. xmas flip potential is pretty much DOA before November. Resellers are their own worst enemies on this one.

nice choices, that beetle is really impressive

All those desolate Amazon and Microsoft employees, scraping by paycheck-by-paycheck.

TRU is very ymmv I had a guy last week give me the freebie with a $45 purchase, without me asking, and asked me to pick which set I wanted. Then this week the lady almost didn't give me a freebie because she only had week 1 & 2 at her register, but only week 3 would scan in the comp as free. Luckily we found a sports set.

Same day but when I went back this afternoon, my cashier had no problems doing what the earlier cashier couldn't do.