jaysapathy

Has anyone bought the instructions yet? Started to build it? Easy to build..? First impressions? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

Has anyone successfully been able to generate a PDF of instructions from these files? No matter what, it keeps choking for me..

That was last updated in June. It's August. I was looking for a little bit more current feedback.. :D Thanks though!

Any of you out there in Denver? What's the PAB wall like? SLC's has had some really, really neat pieces the last little while (lots of Friends stuff) but I'm interested in visiting the two Lego stores out there while I'm on vacation. What's the word?

Did a new personal best yesterday by smooshing 511 pieces into a small cup. Lots of 1x2s -- glorious, glorious tan/white 1x2s. Now if my store would just start getting more long tan bricks, I'd be in heaven.. One of these days I need to finish building this Ice Cream Shop :P

It was the Salt Lake store. The employee I was talking to (who has always been a little shady to begin with) had told me that they had it in stock and that it'd be available for purchase for Lego VIPs on Dec 1st. He wouldn't bring it out, but he did assure me it was there, and that it'd be available a month earlier like some of the other sets (winter village stuff, for example). Went in yesterday to redeem my Brick Friday VIP Event coupons, and found out from the manager it was a load of hogwash. They're not getting it until Jan 1st, just like everyone else. Needless to say, the employee's misinformation kind of ruined my December a little. I bought the Town Hall to make myself feel better. :P On the plus side, my wife got the Hedgehog keychain (which was ringing up at $2.50, by the way) and I picked up a set for my younger brother with what we acquired at the VIP event. Strangely, my triple points from my purchases last week didn't register the triple points, but the manager was nice enough to fix it. Did anyone else have that problem? Was also "outed" by a Lego store employee. "My husband was reading the Eurobricks forums and saw your posts!" (I'm looking at you, raidermab). There was no Q&A period about whether or not I'm actually on here or if that's my username -- it's pretty obvious, apparently. Regardless, I'm still well liked in the store.. ;)

At my store as well. I seem to recall someone posting a page or two back that this was what was going to happen.. Hmm... They also had a discount table. 10% and 20% off, superheroes and Architecture stuff. But the big surprise was that they had the Cafe in stock. Oh yes.

And here we go!

Did nobody read my post? It has less to do with cost and more with your number of transactions. If you want a guaranteed invite next year, buy your stuff in smaller increments :P A quick phone call is telling me that the same deals are going to be available online as well as in store tomorrow. The only incentive I have to go now is to shop when it's less crowded, get a free key chain, and a PAB box. Fortunately, the free box makes it worth it. :D Still that rumor about triple points though, so we'll see...

Just got this link in my email: http://shop.lego.com/en-US/Black-Friday-VIP Apparently, they're doing everything online as well, which kind of nullifies the reason of going in-store... Don't mind saying that irks me quite a bit.

They had 6 people on staff when I was there. The store manager was telling me she just hired 5 more. They're doing enough business that the company will pay to have up to 8 people on the floor right now during the weekends. Insane. Utah mentality is different from the rest of the country. I think we sell more Legos here than they do in Denmark, because that's pretty much all there is for kids to do here. The store has been that busy from the soft opening, and it just hasn't let up. And the parents here are also insanely cheap -- if you ever want tips on how to fit as many pieces as you can into a PAB cup, watch a Utah mommy fill one. No matter how good you are, they'll put you to shame.

SLC store is a different animal. Because they haven't been open long, they were given manager's discretion to hand out invites, which is why there won't be more than 10-15 invited -- you had until the 15th to RSVP, and the managers invited people as they saw fit. As busy as the store's been lately, it's been difficult for them to sit and talk with people about it, much less get their info. As far as the online purchases factoring in? This is a Lego Store shopping event, not a Lego Online shopping event. Not really that odd. :P

A lot of misinformation here. For the most part, the invites go to the people with the most transaction numbers per store. Doesn't really matter how much you spend; it's your average transaction number per customer. One guy who spent $500 in one shot has less of a chance than a guy who bought 7 $8 polybags. That said, the store is open an hour earlier than normal for access -- only the VIPs get to shop for an hour. You get a free holiday PAB box just for showing up, and access to the Black Friday deals a week early, including the second holiday set. After the hour is done, that's it. There's also a rumor floating around about triple points during that hour. Also, a free red keychain! Trust me, if you were invited, you don't really want to miss this.

Salt Lake was, as I've said, the busiest I've ever seen it today since it opened. Rumor was they were doing about $1k an hour. In the 30 minutes I was there, I easily saw that go through the register. Pretty crazy day in there. If I were you, I'd just hang around the PAB wall for a few minutes and wait to see what they put out (they can't have empty spots on the wall, and someone's always filling it). That's all I do. Works out well.

The wife and I hit the store today. Busiest I've ever seen it. First thing we saw was the local LUG getting ready for their meeting by dominating the PAB counter filling up several cups. We turned around and left. Neither of us can stand those guys and their condescending attitudes. On the plus side, several gems had showed up on the wall this time around. The big winner: 2x2 light gray tiles. Picked up an entire cup. Other neat-os of note were the light pink 1x2 bricks, white picket fences, 6x16 dark gray plates, 6x6 dark gray plates, 1x4 reddish brown ribbed bricks, and 1x2 tan bricks. We walked out with two very full cups totaling 1225 pieces. 2.4 cents each. Not bad. One week to go -- next week's going to be expensive.