Octopus Overlords

I saw several of the new Titanic (along with the new giant AT-AT) sets at the LEGO Store in Tysons Corner last week. At $629 (and $800 for the AT-AT), that's...a lot of money for some LEGO.

coopasonic wrote:When I was unable to get the LEGO Titanic for my son for Christmas, generous was not what I was thinking of your friend. Nice and generous doesn't seem the fittest description for scalpers.

There's a difference between scalping and investing. He doesn't sell his sets until they're retired, years down the road. If he was flipping active sets, then I'd agree.

I recently came into possession of an unopened Creator Expert Taj Mahal (10256)...a massive, now-retired set that I was able to buy for less than the original selling price. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it, but it was too good of a deal to pass up...will probably see what I can do on eBay because there's no way I have room to display it anywhere...

LEGO Fans Claim $800 AT-AT Is Hard If Not Impossible to Rebuild

At $800 and 6,785 pieces, LEGO’s new Star Wars AT-AT is one of the most expensive and complicated LEGO sets ever produced. At more than two feet high and almost a foot long, it’s also one of the largest. Once the enormous Imperial Walker is finished, however, it’s time to either display the beast or tear it down to rebuild it. According to some LEGO fans, rebuilding the LEGO AT-AT is difficult due to some complicated interlocking parts, something some fans said is against the very spirit of LEGO.

Daehawk wrote: ↑Tue Dec 07, 2021 4:48 pm LEGO Fans Claim $800 AT-AT Is Hard If Not Impossible to Rebuild

At $800 and 6,785 pieces, LEGO’s new Star Wars AT-AT is one of the most expensive and complicated LEGO sets ever produced. At more than two feet high and almost a foot long, it’s also one of the largest. Once the enormous Imperial Walker is finished, however, it’s time to either display the beast or tear it down to rebuild it. According to some LEGO fans, rebuilding the LEGO AT-AT is difficult due to some complicated interlocking parts, something some fans said is against the very spirit of LEGO.

Yep. As a huge LEGO fan, this is 100% a real problem from my perspective. I've put together a ton of LEGO sets over the years, mostly with my kids, but some by myself after they tired of it. We are now in the middle of packing to move, and some of my favorite LEGO Star Wars sets are on display in my basement media room. I'm in the middle of disassembling them to store them for the move, and some of them -- especially the sets that make heavy use of Technic elements -- are really, really difficult to get apart.

A far cry from the old Space LEGO sets I grew up with in the 80s! Galaxy Explorer will always be my favorite.

I just ordered the 10283 NASA Space Shuttle Discovery which includes Hubble. 2354 pieces, $200.

That sounds like you got a good deal on that.

Ordered direct from the LEGO site.

Have you guys seen Rebrickable? I have bought quite a few sets based on the fact that they can or can't be used in some amazing fan-based builds.

Example: Recently bought the Technics McLaren for $40 from Costco - Christmas present for son - but for $5 you can download a PDF for instructions to make this:
https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-79312/ ... l/#details


Also, that site is fun for any even casual fan to look through. The guy that has made a FLEET of MASSIVE Lego star destroyers....ooooof. I can't find his page, but at one point he built massive scaled versions of multiple Star Destroyers, and put them all together in formation. Amazing. Here's one from Rebrickable using 20K Lego pieces: https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-23104/ ... 5/#details

Edit: Oooo! Found it, check this out: https://imgur.com/gallery/wdWkc

Videos are very cache pause'y for me today. My downstream is fine at a wide open 450/25 ...but videos still want to give me a wait animation and load.

Oops, that Star Destroyer I posted above is his smaller build (!). The big boy is 35K pieces and is almost 5' long, and 70 lbs. It's worth going through the whole slide show, as he has a working hangar, barracks, bridge, etc. and has some amazing pics. Note the build in front of this beast is the Lego boxed kit 75055, @ 1359 pieces, for reference. Slide show with details: https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index. ... er-tyrant/

My LEGO Imperial Star Destroyer: the ISD Tyrant by raskolnikov268, on Flickr

Lego releases new Atari 2600 kit.

How can I refuse this?

The Atari set is pretty awesome and would look great on a shelf next to my Lego NES. My wife would kill me if I brought home another set though. She was already unhappy when Optimus Prime showed up last month...apparently doesn't agree that he's the perfect compliment to Lego Voltron.

These 80s nostalgia sets are revealing a major weakness in my ability to say no...

disarm wrote: ↑Wed Aug 03, 2022 6:39 pm The Atari set is pretty awesome and would look great on a shelf next to my Lego NES. My wife would kill me if I brought home another set though. She was already unhappy when Optimus Prime showed up last month...apparently doesn't agree that he's the perfect compliment to Lego Voltron.

These 80s nostalgia sets are revealing a major weakness in my ability to say no...

I'm right there with you. Just returned from the Lego store with the Atari set. Can't wait to put this one together.

I already have the NES, Voltron, Optimus Prime and Ecto-1 sets, and have been seriously eyeing the Back to the Future Delorean for a while. Like I said, I have a problem (and these are only my nostalgia sets, not everything)...

That costs more than my original Atari 2600 back in 1981 or so. and it doesn't even play games.

Got this for Christmas and plan on starting it soon:

Lassr wrote: ↑Fri Aug 05, 2022 8:39 am Got this for Christmas and plan on starting it soon:

Enjoy! That one was a lot of fun to put together and is quite impressive sitting on the shelf.

My wife got a Sesame Street set for Christmas and she just finished it a few weeks ago. The attention to detail on Lego sets is quite impressive.

Kurth wrote: ↑Tue Dec 07, 2021 7:50 pm

A far cry from the old Space LEGO sets I grew up with in the 80s! Galaxy Explorer will always be my favorite.

Same!

LawBeefaroni wrote: ↑Fri Aug 05, 2022 9:26 am

Kurth wrote: ↑Tue Dec 07, 2021 7:50 pm

A far cry from the old Space LEGO sets I grew up with in the 80s! Galaxy Explorer will always be my favorite.

Same!

In the store the other day, I was looking at the “new and improved” Galaxy Explorer set they’re currently selling.

Not bad, but I’ll take the original any day over the new one.

I have it, in pieces mixed in with dozens of other sets. I may d/l the instructions and spend a few hours digging through the bin with the kids this weekend.

I just discovered the power of the site Rebrickable. Oh my. If you are at all "into" Lego and actively building, you probably already know about this site. But if you haven't actually created an account and actually entered your sets in? It's....well, you just have to go and play around with all the data available (especially if you have lots of sets - probably not very impressive if you have 10 or so).

It's possibly one of the coolest implementations of tying different databases together into a cohesive, MEANINGFUL tool that I have ever seen. I have no idea what is powering it (AWS?), but even if you aren't a Lego fan, so many of you guys are in IT that I think it's worth a look to see what they are doing there. I would LOVE to know how much CPU power that takes...it feels...monumental.

Anyway, the real reason for my post is because I was looking at a recent deal on an Imperial Star Destroyer set (the current UCS one, for around $600), but man is it ugly. Way too many studs on the exterior IMO. When you look at some of the MOCS on Rebricable (and other sites), I think the only reason to build the set as is is to be ABLE to build the MUCH better looking MOCS.
The current UCS ISD available to buy at retail:




Side note: I had no idea this existed, but The Office is the rare show that all three of my kids are enthralled by (at the same time), so I had to pick this up:


1164 pieces, seems to be sold out everywhere, and is on backorder at Lego.com (where's it's by far the cheapest, AND gives you some freebie, free shipping AND most importantly gives you a ship date, so you can actually order it). Will be a present for all three of them to work on together over Christmas break, and I can't wait to see them all at the table at the same time, huddled over it and making jokes (in my mind's eye that's what will happen! ).

But again, the real magic happens at the MOC level only, with a full fledged Dundler Mifflin - Scranton building! :


It's a three level structure, with the warehouse on the bottom:


The official set I linked to above on the 2nd floor, and then on top some sections that are not included in the official set, like the "HR section", the break room, the bathroom, and the accounting area:

My Legos were red bricks, white bricks, and a few clear bricks. How is there no big Alamo set? Would be great with some toy soldiers.

Too bad the pictures weren't bigger.

Cool! Thanks!

Nothing to do with Lego, but in regard to the Alamo I just found interesting card models available https://peterspaperboys.com/collections ... dependence

I visited the USS Intrepid today and saw this model of the ship:





According to the accompanying sign, it's 22 feet long, 550 pounds, and approximately 250,000 bricks.

Unfortunately, it was not available as a kit in the gift shop.

Very nice.

Wow!!

Makes some of the ISD builds (15-20K pieces) I’ve been looking at lately seem downright tiny.

That’s awesome.

Would definitely be a team lift to get the kit out of the Intrepid's gift shop.

Lego just released The Lord of the Rings: Rivendell 10136 and I’m sorely tempted. 6,167 pieces. 15 minifigs. Epic.

Looks like an awesome LotR set capturing one of my favorite scenes and places from the books and movies. At $499, it’s not cheap, though!

Thinking it might be time to sell off some of my older sets that I’m not into. Even better, I could sell off some of the kids’ older sets that I’m not into. There was a time when they were crazy about Ninjago, which was ok, but not one of the themes that ever really grabbed me (like Star Wars or Harry Potter or LotR). I may dig those out, reassemble, part check and sell them off.

Anyone have any experience selling old Lego sets? Is eBay my best bet?

Kurth wrote:Anyone have any experience selling old Lego sets? Is eBay my best bet?

You could do eBay, but I would suggest checking out BrickLink as well... massive online Lego marketplace that gets your items in front of the collector market if you have anything worthwhile, and buyers there are well-versed on value of older sets.

New Batcave is insane:

It’s called the Lego Batcave Shadowbox, and that’s because it’s designed to be both a toy and a display piece for your shelf: the space-saving diorama swings open to reveal an entire cave playset with the spacious, suspended-over-a-pit feeling I associate with Batman’s lair.

The 3,981-piece set is filled with play features, too, including four dials on the back that open the vaults that hold Batman’s gadgets and garb, spin his chair, and rotate the images on his surveillance screens.

You can see more of it here

Man I love this stuff.
I would fill my life with Legos if I were a 50 + year old bachelor.

As it is, I have a basement closet FIILED with awesome sets I bought with the idea that one of my two kids would catch my disease. They didn’t. I’ll give my daughter massive props though. She loved em for like 3 years.

I also have -all- my sets throughout “life”.
The Lego pirate ships from the 90s, and the super old original black-n-white police car from the mid 70s, and a lot in between.


Edit:

Rivendell looks sweet too!

...but it has a Christopher Walken (as Max Shreck ) LEGO mini!

Lego is the one reason I'd like to be a kid now instead of way back when the bricks were just red, white, or clear.

Actually no way in hell I'd want to be a kid now, I'd rather we'd had today's Lego way back when I was a kid.

em2nought wrote:Lego is the one reason I'd like to be a kid now instead of way back when the bricks were just red, white, or clear.

Actually no way in hell I'd want to be a kid now, I'd rather we'd had today's Lego way back when I was a kid.

Many Lego sets now are targeted at adults rather than kids, and there's no reason you can't take advantage of that. I have my own 'retro' collection going...Voltron, Optimus Prime, Ecto-1, Back to the Future Deloreon, NES. I also have been collecting Porsche sets for a little while...have a couple of cool Technic cars and a few smaller sets.

My wife rolls her eyes every time I get something new, but she gets over it quickly