Thanks to forum member LL918 for sharing this tip from down under.
If you happen to live in or are visiting Australia, check out their Toys’R'Us stores for a decent deal on the TRU exclusive 7754 Home One Mon Calamari set. The set is on sale for $140 through Christmas Eve. This is $40 off the MSRP and $60 off the TRUP. Get one while you got the chance!
Below is the list of MSRP and piece counts for LEGO Star Wars and LEGO Toy Story January 2010 assortment along with reported Toys’R'Us prices:
* – items marked with an asterisk are store exclusives.
As you can see, the markup TRU places on top of MSRP is pretty significant once you add it all up. Out of the Star Wars sets, the Droid Tri-Fighter seems to be the best value, while Luke’s Landspeeder seems to be the worst, but honestly, the rest are all pretty bad. Toy Story sets seem to be a better value overall, with Woody’s Roundup hitting that golden ratio of about 10 cents per piece. Woody and Buzz to the rescue is the sore spot of the group however, but since you get RC with a pullback motor, it doesn’t seem so bad.
Pepa Quin found the entire 2010 LEGO Star Wars and LEGO Toy Story line up at his local Toys’R'Us, and it’s not looking good:
PepaBroke: Freeco Speeder – $29.99
PepaBroke: for 177 pieces
PepaBroke: TIE Defender – $54.99
PepaBroke: for 308 pieces
PepaBroke: ARC-170 – $64.99
PepaBroke: for less then 400 pieces
PepaBroke: what a ****ing rip off
PepaBroke: (I may not have remembered the piece count exactly)
PepaBroke: got the two battle packs ($12.99) and the tri-droid fighter ($29.99)
PepaBroke: they had RC ($21.99), army men (12.99) Buzz Statue ($25.99) and Woody’s Roundup ($54.99)
Mind you these are TRU prices, which tend to be higher than actual MSRP. Take for instance the TIE Defender set. TRU Price: $54.99, actual MSRP: I would guess to be $49.99. Still, with the markup in mind, one has to wonder how much more fleecing the fan base can take. With what we had to endure from the outrageously, and I mean OUTRAGEOUSLY, and you know I’m being deadly serious when I use caps, overpriced MINIFIG packs that were this year’s San Diego Comic Con exclusives, I guess LFL and TLG are expecting everyone to just bend over for next year’s assortment.
This is getting ridiculous.
My only hope is that the LEGO Toy Story release is a lot closer to something called reasonable. When Woody’s Roundup was exposed at TRU.com for $49.99, it later rose to $54.99, leading one to believe that the first price tag was actual MSRP. And for just over 500 pieces, 3 minifigs and Bullseye, it really hit the sweet spot, something the LEGO Star Wars line has been lacking for a long time. As soon as more real data becomes available, it would be interesting to see which would be the better value for the money. But I’m placing my bets on Toy Story.
Lumix posted a load of pictures of the upcoming 8087 TIE Defender set in his Brickshelf gallery.
Thanks to Plo from our forums for the tip.
RIght now through December 12 or as long as supplies last, you can score a 7778 Midi-scale Millennium Falcon for $25, down from $39, at Walmart. It’s sold out online, so you may have better luck at retail locations. If it pops back up online, I’ll update this post. For yourself, or better yet, as a gift, it is an excellent set, and at $25 bucks, how can you not pick one up?
Thanks to Casey for sending in the tip.
Toys’R'Us retail and online are having 2-day doorbuster sale tomorrow, Friday, and Saturday. This week’s flyer has a coupon on the back good for 33% off 7754 Home One. You can download the coupon to print it out at home and redeem in store or go online; just use coupon code 933897 to see the savings. 7754 Home One
is listed as “FREE SHIPPING” to save you the hassle of going to TRU. See? They’re also saving you gas money. Price after discount is $73.69. Thanks to Mark for sending in the tip!
Update 1:08am 12/4: If you plan on buying online, and are getting two or adding other things to your cart to make your total go over $100, you can also stack coupon code 930990 for $10 off. If you use Google Checkout to complete your purchase, you can also save on tax. Thank to Nannan for this tip.
Update 8:44am 12/4: If you want to save $15 instead of $10, apply coupon code HOLIDAYTOYS instead. That five bucks will pay for your Subway sammich. So you can save money, save gas, save tax and celebrate with a sammich. Thanks to GIR3691 for this tip.
Jared from FineClonier.com is getting into the charitable spirit. He is donating his custom Cad Bane figure to Nannan’s Creations for Charity auction:
Cad Bane is depicted in Clone armor used when he escaped from … danger? I don’t know, I can’t remember the episode. In any case, the auction won’t go live until later on tonight so keep your eyes peeled. I’ll also update this post when I see it go live.
Out of 52 entries, only one could claim the prize, and that someone is:
Congratulations! Your Yoda brick will be on its way!
Either the news scrolls down too fast and people don’t bother reading back a page or two, or readers are no longer interested in free stuff as the total number of submissions for the last two giveaways has been pretty low. Also, if you do enter the giveaways, make sure you are familiar with the giveaway rules as I had to toss a fair number of entries that did not include the mailing address.
The availability status on 7669 Anakin’s Jedi Starfighter at LEGO Shop@Home is now marked as Sold Out. Doing a cursory search on FBTB’s affiliate sites, including Toys’R'Us (yes, we are now affiliated!), shows the set to be sold out everywhere else online. Amazon’s availability is through third party resellers at nearly double markup. Your best bet? Go to Target.com and do a “Find it at a Target Store” search. Punch in your zip code and it will display all the local Target stores in your area with availability. You can also do this type of store search with Walmart.com. Good luck.
Amazon.com
