Curtis

Thank you all so much for the ideas! I had no time to grab and go before the trip so I just quickly grabbed a mixture of what was recommended, and what I thought was trip appropriate. The full 31037 (Creator Adventure Vehicles) set (in a ziplock bag, instructions on the iPad) + all the great white slopes and snot pieces from 31006 (Highway Speedster) and then a few key minifigs to create a storyline for my kids back home. Batman (in the Phantom Zone polybag 30522), Vacation Batman from the Batman movie CMF series, Hiker Guy from CMF series 16 and a Storm Trooper. There are a few other minifigs I wish I would've thought to bring, lifeguard, surfer, etc. but oh well. Here's the story so far My (young) kids are loving it. A little bit each day and I think it's really helping with them missing us. My 4 year old thinks it's his LEGO Batman and "can't believe it" when he saw the first few pictures and wondered how his Batman got in my bag. HA! ah...nope, I can't post even a single photo because I'm limited to 102.4kb

Space is limited, but I'd obviously just re-bag everything into a ziplock and download the instructions onto my iPad. What set would you all recommend I take on a trip to mess with while my wife is reading novels on the beach? Are there any sets that are better than others for say, alternative builds or mods within the set itself? I'm open to all themes, even technic. Thanks!

Huh... I passed on the Council of Elrond at 30% off because I thought it was boring. Shows what I know.

This is very true. Last November we were shopping for my daughter at the LEGO store, my wife saw the Winter Village line and she thought it would be fun to build together every holiday as our own little family tradition. (That was the start of my LEGO obsession) Now we have the Palace Cinema, new Family House and Vampyre Castle. All selected by her. She is fairly picky about what LEGO sets she likes and she definitely thinks you're all crazy, but she's developing her own LEGO niche for sure. :) So if you have kids it's easy. Simply help her understand that LEGO is the absolute best toy for imagination, development, motor skills, etc. and that they will get the most out of the toy if the parents are involved in some way, either through building or just being supportive. If no kids, then create a tradition with a set that you build together. Pick the right set, nothing too childish, and make it "your thing.". Then, if it's good enough, pick a spot to display it. She'll be proud to show off what you built together. Last resort, you could always show her how much Mr. Gold sells for...

Assume everything will be turned upside down and shaken...then tossed across the room with no one to catch it. With that image in mind, pack accordingly. As far as value, I agree with DarkDragon, highball it because even when I think I know what I've spent, my VIP tally always makes me cringe. Good luck! Curtis

No wait, never mind, now it's back. If I could delete this topic I would.

Out of curiosity I did a search for the B-Wing on Lego.com this morning. Found the thumbnail and noticed it was back to "Out of Stock with a ship date of May 20th" rather than just "Out of Stock." So I clicked on it and got this error page: http://shop.lego.com...arfighter-10227 Funny graphic, but odd I thought. So I searched for the set number again and now when you search for B-Wing it doesn't come up at all...for the USA site. I must have been searching at the right time the 1st time to catch the image of the thumbnail before it was updated and removed altogether. It does however list every other country's page for 10227 and OUCH!...$350 Australia!?!?

Though I do think it looks very cool once built, I'm in the same boat with you on the rest of your perspective. Seems an easy buy if even just for the parts. A set I wouldn't be getting if not for the sale. My local LEGO store sold out in about 30 minutes! Employees running back and forth from the shelf to the back room in an attempt to keep up.

Are you sure you're not just frustrated with your local retailer's stocking decisions? Leaving you with less Original sets to chose from? The stock ratio at the Corporate LEGO Store near my house is easily 70% Original LEGO to 30% Licensed LEGO. Honestly, that's being generous to the Licensed sets because I only had to visualize the shelves for that figure (pun). If you take into account the PAB wall and the minifigure station that ratio falls even further to the Original LEGO. So maybe you're just put off by your local big-box store?

I did a search that turned up nothing really telling about this Creator set: 31002 Super Racer. Bizarrely I am trying to decide between this set and the Star Wars 9488 Droid Battle Pack. I don't do Star Wars really, I just like that ARF Trooper's helmet a lot. I can get each one for the same $10. I know it's an Apples to Oranges comparison, but is there anything special or memorable about the Super Racer that I shouldn't pass up? Thanks!

Thanks for the advice and tips! After reading all this and checking out some leads I decided to go ahead and get the new complete set I found for $43.00. I don’t have very many extra parts and after what ‘Someonenamedjon’ and ‘Dluders’ said, I figured the whole set will help when it comes time to build a rock crawler MOC. 1974: Luckily my son is only 10 weeks old so I don’t think he’ll start complaining for a few years yet! Zblj: Wow! That’s $26.17 US… That IS a steal! Curtis

Thanks everyone! Spider-Man: I agree! The Iron Man and Avenger/Hulk sets are great! I’ve not yet purchased any others…trying to pace myself. Brickington: Have not yet tried an Architecture set. Thought about the White House a couple times though. Or that Water Fall one looks cool. Bjtpro: You’re right! My daughter loves the City Passenger Train. I was never into trains as a child, but Lego trains are so much more fun than traditional trains in my opinion. Curtis

Hi everyone! I found a Ninjago Skull Truck for $43.00 at a local store and just wondering if it's worth getting for the wheels/tires, suspension and other Technic parts at that price? It seemed like they had a few older sets that they must have found in a back room somewhere because I bought an Atlantis Shark as well. They also have a Creator Sonic Boom jet (5892) for the same $43.00 that I was debating over instead of the Skull Truck, but that's just my Lego A.D.D. at play. Anyway, I thought I saw somewhere that the wheels/tires on the Skull Truck are fairly hard to find and might lend well to a rock crawler MOC? Any thoughts are appreciated, thanks! Curtis

Hi, my name is Curtis and my recent interest in Lego was sparked by my 3 year old daughter. My wife calls it a phase. I haven't been into Lego since my childhood space police and race car sets. I have one of the Technic F1 cars from later in life, but that was due to my interest in F1 more than Lego. Fast forward to now and it seems I'm all-in with Lego and so far without a true direction. Technic, Creator, Marvel, City... I'm all over the map. Curtis