Castleheads Rejoice: Amazon Discounts 10223 Kingdoms Joust
Castle fan? And I don’t mean the TV show. If you’ve been hedging your bets and waiting for a nice discount on 10223 Kingdoms Joust
Archive for the ‘LEGO’ Category
Ace "onions" Kim | January 25th, 2013 | LEGO, Sales News
LEGO Faces New Allegations of Racism
9516 Jabba’s Palace
According to an article in The Daily Mail, LEGO is taking some heat from the Austrian Turkish Community for the perceived similarities between 9516 Jabba’s Palace and the Hagia Sophia Mosque in Istanbul. While arguments can be made that George Lucas has been guilty of incorporating some stereotypes into his films, it should be noted that filming in Tunisia as a stand-in for Tatooine may just have had some influence on some of the creative choices made for the fictitious palace.
Personally, I don’t think of Jabba as a terrorist because he smoked a hookah…I just think he’s a chill cat. Dr. Melissa Günes, General Secretary of the Turkish Cultural Community, must have a gold medal in the logic long jump. LEGO’s Katharina Sasse responded appropriately by pointing out that “…when designing the product only the fictional content of the Star Wars saga were referred to.”
The entire Turkish population of Austria weighs in at around 132,000 according to the CIA World Factbook, so worst case scenario, LEGO has enraged a population roughly the size of Topeka.
LEGO Reveals 10232 Palace Cinema
Today, at BrickFair, Kevin Hinkle is unveiling the latest modular building in the series 10232 Palace Cinema. This set was leaked weeks ago but we now have official images and other release information. The set will have 2,194 pieces and will cost US $149.99 / CA $199.99 / DE 139,99€ / UK 119.99 £ / DK 1,099.00 DKK. You can buy this set from LEGO Shop@Home beginning March 2013. You can view the full set of pictures in the 10232 Palace Cinema image gallery. They score points for building design, but that limo. Should we expect all cars in the modular building series to be open-top/convertibles? First the fire engine, now this limo. And how about a corner gas station/convenience store already?
Official press release below. I’m sure there’s a video out there somewhere, so I’ll update this post once it surfaces. I’ve skipped the picture gallery, figuring you can just click through to the main flickr set.
10232 Palace Cinema
Ages 16+. 2,194 pieces.
US $149.99 CA $199.99 DE 139,99€ UK 119.99 £ DK 1,099.00 DKK
Build a grand premiere at the Palace Cinema!
It’s premiere night at the Palace Cinema! Illuminate the night sky with the spotlights as the child star arrives in a fancy black limousine! Gather the crowd on the star-studded sidewalk, then head into the detailed lobby with a concession stand and ticket area! Take the grand staircase into the theater with a large screen, movie projector and reclining chairs for 6 minifigures. Introducing the latest addition to the LEGO® Modular Buildings series, the highly detailed, 2-story Palace Cinema corner building. This collectible model features a sidewalk of the stars, brick-built entrance doors, posters, sign frontage, a tower with spires and rooftop decorations. Includes 6 minifigures: child actress, chauffeur, female guest, male guest, photographer and cinema worker.
• Includes 6 minifigures: child star, chauffeur, female guest, male guest, photographer and cinema worker
• Features brick-built entrance doors, posters, sign frontage, tower with spires and rooftop decoration, lobby, concession stand, ticket area, staircase, big screen, projector and reclining seats for 6 minifigures
• Vehicles include classic-style limousine
• Hard-to-find elements include a red baseplate and dark tan, dark red, and gold pieces
• Seat a 6-minifigure audience in the reclining seats!
• Play on the star-studded sidewalk, in the detailed lobby or in the big-screen theater!
• Collect and build an entire town with the LEGO® Modular Buildings collection: 10224 Town Hall, 10218 Pet Shop and 10211 Grand Emporium!
• Palace Cinema measures 15″ (38cm) high, 10″ (25.5cm) wide, and 10″ (25.5cm) deep
• Limousine measures 1.6″ (4cm) high, 5.9″ (15cm) long, and 1.9″ (5cm) wide
Ace "onions" Kim | December 24th, 2012 | LEGO, Sales News
The No-Brainer Last Minute Gift Idea
Amazon Gift Cards
Amazon has a variety of delivery methods for their gift cards: Facebook, email, even print and color your own. With crayons! And the gift card recipient can turn around use that gift card to preorder the newest LEGO sets or whatever else catches their fancy.
Do I love Amazon? Yes I do, I link to them a lot. And I was totally ready to write up this whole other paragraph about how LEGO Shop@Home Gift Cards would just as nice of a last-minute gift idea, but their site only lists physical gift cards even though their ‘Redeem Gift Card‘ page alludes to the existence of an e-gift card. Confusion abounds! Maybe they exist in another country.
Oh well. Hit up Amazon and you can call it a night.
FBTB Announces HeartlakeFriends.com
Today, on the one year anniversary of LEGO Friends, I’m proud to officially announce the launch of a new blog: Heartlake Friends. The goal of Heartlake Friends is to take an unbiased position to look past the noise of any perceived controversy and celebrate all the positive aspects and outcomes from LEGO Friends. Me being an adult male, I’m not exactly the target audience for the line, so this is where my wife steps in. She’ll be managing the content and together with our three year old daughter, we hope to make a compelling blog that you’ll want to visit and maybe even share with us your thoughts and stories on your experiences with LEGO Friends.
The site has been in soft launch mode for a couple of days now while we work out the kinks and get things set up but today seemed to be the perfect day to make the announcement. And to celebrate the official launch, Heartlake Friends is having a giveaway! There are three chances to win some really cool prizes:
- Giveaway #1: Register on the Heartlake Friends site AND post a comment on the 1 year anniversary post. One registered user will be selected at random as the winner. The prize? 1 copy of 3185 Summer Riding Camp (MSRP $99.99).
- Giveaway #2: Like us on Facebook. One liker will be selected at random as the winner. The prize? 1 copy of 3315 Olivia’s House (MSRP $69.99).
- Giveaway #3: Follow us on Twitter. One follower will be selected at random as the winner. The prize? 1 copy of 3189 Heartlake Stables (MSRP $49.99).
You can enter all three giveaways but you can win only once. The deadline to enter all three giveaways is 11:59pm PST December 31, 2012. Winners will be announced in early January and will be contacted by either email, facebook message, or twitter direct message.
We hope you like what you see and visit Heartlake Friends often!
Ace "onions" Kim | December 17th, 2012 | LEGO, Sales News
January 2013 Assortment Buyer’s Guide
Update 1:30am 12/18: Several items have been crossed off. Those items are no longer in stock in time for Christmas delivery. Some items are seeing some slight discounts.
Update 11:36am: Ninjago updated
Update 8:35am: Ninjago updated
With shipping deadlines looming ahead and January 2013 products hitting Amazon and LEGO Shop@Home, I thought I’d post a buyer’s guide of sorts to summarize the torrent of sales news that’s been coming at you the past few days. The list only covers Amazon and LEGO Shop@Home since they’re the only ones to have any stock of the 2013 assortments. This list also includes a few non-licensed themes: Friends, Ninjago and Galaxy Squad. If you’ve been keeping up with our coverage the past few days, you should take a good look at the list below; there are some new additions in some of the themes. All items listed are sold and shipped by Amazon as of this writing; items that have run out of stock and have defaulted to third party sellers are not listed. I’ll try and keep this list up-to-date when things change, and given the rate new sets are showing up, things will change often. Got a tip for us? Use the contact page to send us an email, or add it to the forum thread generated by this post by clicking on the comments link on the bottom right corner. And with all that being said, on to the list!
Ace "onions" Kim | December 12th, 2012 | LEGO, Sales News
LEGO Shop@Home Offers Free Shipping on Orders $49 or More
LEGO Shop@Home is offering free standard shipping on all orders $49 or more, just in time for Christmas. There doesn’t seem to be an end date listed on this page, but since the deadline to ship in time for the big day is December 18th, I’m guessing that would be it. Just add products to your cart and once your order reaches $49 or more, free shipping will automatically be applied. No coupon required.
Remember this post? I did. I was waiting for the 17th to come around and was planning on ordering some TMNT sets on that day to qualify for free shipping in time for Christmas. But I just checked some of the product pages and alas, the availability date has changed to December 19th, just missing the Christmas deadline. The only options at this point are to pay for expedited shipping through Shop@Home, hope that free shipping is still an option on the 19th and get the sets late, hope that Shop@Home gets their inventory earlier than expected, or brave the crowds and hope to run into them on the shelf at a Walmart or Target (since finding them at TRU at MSRP is never going to happen especially at this time of year). Lots of hoping going on but hey, it’s Christmas! The time for miracles is upon us!
Thanks to Jason for writing it in.
Ace "onions" Kim | November 30th, 2012 | LEGO, Sales News
LEGO Shop@Home Sells Galaxy Squad
Looking for something new and different to put under the tree? If The Hobbit sets aren’t doing it for you, Shop@Home just put up the entire Galaxy Squad collection at a variety of price points on their site. You’ll still get free shipping on orders $99 or more for delivery in time for Christmas. Full list below:
Galaxy Squad
- 70700 Space Swarmer $11.99
- 70701 Swarm Intercepter $19.99
- 70702 Warp Stinger $29.99
- 70703 Star Slicer $39.99
- 70704 Venom Vaporizer $59.99
- 70705 Bug Obliterator $79.99
Thanks to ninnymuggins for the heads up.
Last Chance To Buy From Creations For Charity 2012
With just 5 days left to buy an item from the Creations For Charity store, time is quickly running out to help raise money to buy LEGO sets for underprivileged children this holiday season. I’ve been honoured to be a part of this charity in my own small way for the past two years and just shipped off my 2012 donation to it’s new home over the weekend. All the items from the store have been reduced to their minimum price and at last glance there were items priced at as little as $2 like the CFC bracelet, so if you haven’t helped out yet but planned on making a purchase please take a look!
Ace "onions" Kim | November 25th, 2012 | LEGO, Sales News
YoYo.com Offers 40% Single Item
YoYo.com is offering a pretty good deal right now. Use coupon code “TOY40″ at checkout and receive 40% off a single item. It brings a number of LEGO sets down to the best we’ve seen. Example: 9499 Gungan Sub is $37.79 before tax; 9515 The Malevolence is $72.99 before tax. YoYo.com offers free shipping to boot.
Thanks to SDIronClaw for the heads up.
