Challenge #9: Group Picture

[onions]

Take a picture of your screenname written on a piece of paper along with as much of the following boxes as possible: 7140, 7142, 4502, 6212, 7130, 4500, 7666. No photoshopping. Picture must contain the actual, whole boxes listed, Fragments of boxes will not work. Flattened boxes are okay. Drawings or other images of the boxes will not work. You must also post the picture to the FBTB: flickr Outpost and tag the photo with "Challenge 9". You have 48 hours to complete this challenge. This challenge will end on Saturday May 16, 2009 at 1pm PDT. Good luck!

For complete rules and regulations, visit the announcement thread

[Legomancer]

Ha! I only have three of the sets mentioned, and one box! I don't stand a chance against any of the competition

Unless posting the set's contents (i.e. the set itself) works. Which probably doesn't

[bigospedros]

Well, I don't own 7142, as 7140 was enough (i'm not rich enough to pay extra money for a different digit set number but the same bricks!) but here are the rest ...



*keeps fingers crossed*

[Mister Ed]

Well, your entry saves me the trouble of entering, as I can't beat it.

[ricefields]

I had to pull out all my misb sets from storage, cardboard protective boxes and plastic containers just to pull this off. Especially 7142 which was wrapped in bubbles - what can I say? I like to protect my rare 7142!

Thanks again for the challenges!

[Bulls_Eye]

ricefields, I still don't see your picture in the FBTB flickr pool. Hurry before you get scooped!

[onions]

ricefields wins! congrats!

I was considering making it a requirement to have both box versions of 4500 and 4502 but thought that might be pushing it. Good to see the original trilogy packaging there in your photo; it was always my favorite package design out of the 10 years the line's been out.

anyways, pm me with your choice of fig and mailing address.

[drdavewatford]

Well done, Ricefields. I have 'em all except 7142, so can't compete on this one ! Incidentally, is 7142 ABSOLUTELY identical to 7140 other than the box ? Really hard to justify getting both if this is the case. Please let there be at least 1 piece different ....!

Dr. D.

[Legomancer]

Great job guys!

C'mon, challenge #10! I'm feeling lucky this time!

[ricefields]

Well done, Ricefields. I have 'em all except 7142, so can't compete on this one ! Incidentally, is 7142 ABSOLUTELY identical to 7140 other than the box ? Really hard to justify getting both if this is the case. Please let there be at least 1 piece different ....!

Dr. D.

Thanks for the congrats! Believe it or not it was my first time posting on flickr and had difficulties getting the photo uploaded.

7142 should be identical to 7140 except for the box, but I have not checked peeron.com just to be sure.

Yes, adding the blue box versions of 4500 and 4502 to the task would have been more challenging; I do have both but would have had to dig harder to find them cause I lost tracked where they were in my basement.

Thanks again to onions for creating this challenge and the prize! Good luck to all members on future challenges!

[Puddleglum]

^7142 is simply a re-release of 7140. It was never sold at retail, so it's pretty uncommon now. The only differences on Bricklink are:

-7142 might have the new or old-style "Bar 1 x 8 with Brick 1 x 2 Curved Top End", depending on when it was produced.
-7142 has 2 1x1 light grey round plates, whereas 7140 has one lists one, plus one extra. Given how uncommon 7142 is, I'm guessing that this is just a mistake in the inventory that has never been fixed.

The reason I bought a 7142 was 7140 had gone out of production, and prices on BrickLink were soaring to double MSRP, so I wanted to get another copy while I could. I'm not sure why I was foolish enough to think that LEGO would ever NOT have an X-Wing in production, but as they say, hindsight is 20/20.

ALSO: I guess the reason for this challenge was that now there will always be something to point to when someone says that saving boxes is pointless?

[a red shirt]

Excellent job ricefields. Very speedy.

What a shame, firstly I only had two out of the whole list, but secondly because the ones I don't have are some good sets. Heck, if I had enough $$ to buy all the sets on the list, I could just buy a C-3PO. Good luck for challenge #10 everybody.

RedShirt

[Athos]

Should have kept my boxes...

Steve

[drdavewatford]

Yep - I'm obsessional about my boxes. Pity that not all eBay sellers are as obsessional as I am......

Incidentally, this thread gives me an excuse to ask about the prices often being asked for X-Wing set 6212 on eBay. This is a current set, not sold out, and yet sellers regularly ask ridiculous amounts over RRP for this set, and presumably they get what they ask for or they wouldn't keep asking. Are buyers not aware that they can just pick this set up from Lego Shop at Home ? I've never seen any other current set being sold for so much more than the RRP ever. Anyway, sorry for the digression, but it's bizarre.

Dr. D.

[ricefields]

6212 is on back order at shop@home and if some buyers have to have it now then they will go to ebay to get it in a few days. Right now, selling prices appear to be reasonable (ie $50-60usd plus shipping). Higher than us retail prices are also attributable to international buyers looking for better deals than offered in their own country where the equivalent set goes for $65-83usd retail.

[drdavewatford]

Yep - you're right about the current back-order status, although up until recently it's been continuously available via Lego S@H (for the past 6 months at least). I still don't think back-order explains the large number of recent "Buy it now" auctions for almost twice the RRP. I do agree that it might be down to folks buying from abroad, e.g. if their local S@H is sold out, however.

I also believe that some people are simply not aware that you can buy sets direct from Lego, which explains why this set (which I've only ever seen in Lego's own stores or at S@H) is often listed way above RRP in auctions.

On a wider issue, it's interesting to me how some quite recent sets seem to quickly increase in value once deleted (just try to get a MISB 6211 ISD, or perhaps a sail barge, for less than twice the original RRP for instance) while other older SW sets seem easy to find at a much smaller mark-up. Anyway, probably not very interesting to anyone else, so I'll shut up now !!

Dr. D.

[Puddleglum]

^FWIW TRU carried 6212 for a while last year, at least in the US. My local store sold out of them not long after Christmas. Anyways, the set has been around for some time now, and they seem to do a new X-Wing every three years or so. I expect they're just selling what they have left of these, and planning a new X-Wing for 2010. (This is pure speculation on my part)