Canadian Eh?

[tedbeard]

Do you know if shipping to the mainland is cheaper than to Vancouver Island?

I am not sure but even if it was slightly cheaper it probably would not make up for the time and effort required to have someone receive it for you and then for you to pick it up.

[ProducePrincess]

The new vancouver legostore is in oakridge mall and is opening around april 15. Kind of an akward time for it to open because its the last day of springbreak for some people.

Its right on the canada line apparently which is nice, would take only about 20 minutes to get there from my granparents house in richmond.

[travisco_nabisco]

The new vancouver legostore is in oakridge mall and is opening around april 15. Kind of an akward time for it to open because its the last day of springbreak for some people.

Its right on the canada line apparently which is nice, would take only about 20 minutes to get there from my granparents house in richmond.

I am so happy there is finally going to be a Lego store in Vancouver. It is probably a good thing I live on the Island though, otherwise I would be at the Lego store way more than I should be.

[Legobrandon]

I live in Central Richmond, and I have to say it is a nice to know that the store is less than a 20 minute drive away. It would take me 10 minutes to walk to the Canada Line station and about another 20 mins to arrive at Oakridge. Anyways, I am very excited about this store, I will definitely go to the grand opening.

[legomaniac83]

Went to take advantage of the 20% off sale at TRU today, but none of the city vehicles I wanted were there (how annoying).

Instead grabbed a flyer and headed to WM. They had tons of new sets, and the prices on some had been reduced. Most notably:

4432 Garbage Truck, 4435 Car and Camper, 4208 Fire Truck all $19.87 down from $24.99 (20% off!)

But 4431 Ambulance, 4433, Dirt Bike Transporter and 4434 Dump Truck were still the normal price. (I thought this was odd since they were all in the same price bracket).

Grabbed 4432 and headed to cash with the flyer to see if they would take an additional 20% off since WM price matches on the spot. They shot me down. The reason is they don't take percentages as sales in other flyers - the item has to be shown with the sale price.

However, I still bought it 20% cheaper than TRU

Happy Shopping.

[IAmWillGibson]

New Heights in Jackassery

A Cautionary Tale

So here's the situation. I was at an unusual Walmart last night, in Mississauga. It was a bit of a rush job, and I was feeling spendy and impulsive, and I found a Catwoman Chase buried on the shelf, the only one there. The box was a little crunchy, like maybe it'd been sat on, but what the hey, I don't care about boxes. I buy it and as is my habit when buying smaller sets on the go, I forgo the bag, open her up, and transfer the contents into my pockets for more efficient travel, tossing the box and receipt on the way out.

And a little later, when I had a moment, I got to investigating what I had here, and I immediately noticed some weirdness.

There were the instructions, two bags, the grey triangle piece, the the two parts of the cycle. Looked all well and good. But... fiddling around, where was Catwoman?

Yeah, she was gone. Totally not there. How the crap could this happen? Investigating closer, I found to my shock and amazement, that the bags had been opened and then re-sealed. I'm not even sure how whoever did it did it, but they were. The seam along one end looked normal, but behaved a little differently, acted a bit crispier, and opened up pretty easily with a little tug.

So I thought, dammit, someone bought this thing, removed the Catwoman, and then went to the trouble of gluing the entire package up again to return it.

It got a bit weirder when I finally got it all open and inventoried it. It is officially missing Catwoman, her whip, the jewel, one 2x2 brown tile [oddly enough] and all the standard 'extra' parts, the 1x1 studs and stuff there always are. So someone clearly opened the whole thing, probably built it, and THEN decided to return it minus the Catwoman. That's... a lot of effort. And I'd almost respect the thief more if he'd just take the figure and been done with it rather than actually fondle every damn thing.

Anyway, that was a bit of a novel, but there's a message in there: Avoid Walmart. Avoid less-than-perfect boxes. Keep your receipts. And if anyone has a Catwoman for trade, let me know.

Edited February 19, 2012 by IAmWillGibson

[dr_spock]

Bummer. I have heard of that happening in the States. I guess it made its way to Canada.

Hmm, I wonder if someone in the Mississauga area has a few Catwomans on Bricklink for sale?

[legomaniac83]

That sucks Will. I would call Lego and they might help you out. Did you pay full price for it? What WM in Mississauga?

This reminds me of a find at Winners a few weeks back. I found a 8084 Snowtrooper Battle Pack on the shelf and the box was completely destroyed. It had been opened and I couldn't tell what, if any, had been taken. The price was $9.99 so I went to the front to see if they would take any off the price. A the cash, the lady looked at it and took $0.99 off. $.99!!! I said no thanks and walked out. Usually retailers are pretty good at discounting open stock.

On a side note, has anyone gone to fill up their Pick-a-Brick Box from Black Friday? I went to Sherway on Saturday and managed to fit an astounding 540 pieces into it! Thanks Lego!

Edited February 20, 2012 by legomaniac83

[IAmWillGibson]

That sucks Will. I would call Lego and they might help you out.

It was the new one down on Dundas. I didn't contact LEGO because it was clearly an opened box and no error on their part, so I can't image they'd have any reason to help me out on it. I guess it couldn't hurt to ask, though.

Speaking of Winners, I was at HomeSense [which is the same thing] looking for the City of Atlantis on clearance. There were two there, one for 60 bucks and one on clearance for 44, but it wasn't a sealed box. I took 'em both to a lady on the floor and said "Why is one on clearance and thew other not?" She gave me some dumb answer and said "Why don't you just get the cheaper one?" To which I replied "Because it's open. I don't know what's there and not there."

And so she dumped the contents out to investigate, and there were a bunch of LEGO bags with numbers and such, but when I looked, they were clearly opened and re-taped and filled with sub-Dollarama-level Lego knockoff junk. She's like "Look, LEGO." And I said, "Lady, that ain't LEGO."

Regardless, I didn't buy the City of Atlantis.

[tedbeard]

This reminds me of a find at Winners a few weeks back. I found a 8084 Snowtrooper Battle Pack on the shelf and the box was completely destroyed. It had been opened and I couldn't tell what, if any, had been taken. The price was $9.99 so I went to the front to see if they would take any off the price. A the cash, the lady looked at it and took $0.99 off. $.99!!! I said no thanks and walked out. Usually retailers are pretty good at discounting open stock.

I have found quite the opposite. Due to problems with theft many stores I have found will refuse any discount and cite "corporate policy" designed to discourage thieves. If they allow the set to be sold after being opened then they are asking people to break open boxes and then bring them to the front to be bought at a discount. Kinda screwed-up I know but I can sorta see their point.

[smitty9999]

The Real Canadian Super Store recently had a sale (I forget what %) on the Kingdoms set as they were on clearance.

[Ogre]

New Heights in Jackassery

A Cautionary Tale

So here's the situation. I was at an unusual Walmart last night, in Mississauga. It was a bit of a rush job, and I was feeling spendy and impulsive, and I found a Catwoman Chase buried on the shelf, the only one there. The box was a little crunchy, like maybe it'd been sat on, but what the hey, I don't care about boxes. I buy it and as is my habit when buying smaller sets on the go, I forgo the bag, open her up, and transfer the contents into my pockets for more efficient travel, tossing the box and receipt on the way out.

And a little later, when I had a moment, I got to investigating what I had here, and I immediately noticed some weirdness.

There were the instructions, two bags, the grey triangle piece, the the two parts of the cycle. Looked all well and good. But... fiddling around, where was Catwoman?

Yeah, she was gone. Totally not there. How the crap could this happen? Investigating closer, I found to my shock and amazement, that the bags had been opened and then re-sealed. I'm not even sure how whoever did it did it, but they were. The seam along one end looked normal, but behaved a little differently, acted a bit crispier, and opened up pretty easily with a little tug.

So I thought, dammit, someone bought this thing, removed the Catwoman, and then went to the trouble of gluing the entire package up again to return it.

It got a bit weirder when I finally got it all open and inventoried it. It is officially missing Catwoman, her whip, the jewel, one 2x2 brown tile [oddly enough] and all the standard 'extra' parts, the 1x1 studs and stuff there always are. So someone clearly opened the whole thing, probably built it, and THEN decided to return it minus the Catwoman. That's... a lot of effort. And I'd almost respect the thief more if he'd just take the figure and been done with it rather than actually fondle every damn thing.

Anyway, that was a bit of a novel, but there's a message in there: Avoid Walmart. Avoid less-than-perfect boxes. Keep your receipts. And if anyone has a Catwoman for trade, let me know.

I avoid buying LEGO from Walmart due to an encounter much like yours. (I may have even posted about it here back when it happened)

With mine though, it was a Knights Showdown set from Kingdoms and the box had been VERY CAREFULLY cut open, then sealed again with double-sided tape, after 95% of the parts had been swiped, leaving just enough stuff to give that tell-tale "LEGO jingle" when you shake the box.

Thieves suck!

[Legobrandon]

How about weight? Did they stuff a rock in the box as well?

[Ceroknight]

It seems the polybag giveaway trend is starting in Canada...

Free mini Anakin podracer with $35 Lego Starwars purchase

[Ogre]

It seems the polybag giveaway trend is starting in Canada...

Free mini Anakin podracer with $35 Lego Starwars purchase

Huh?

Where'd you see that? I was just on lego.com and didn't see anything. The only SW promotions *I* know of is the free C-3PO key chain with $35 SW purchase on the 2nd and 3rd, as well as the SW poster off from March 1-31. Purchase of $50 worth of SW gets you 30% off the Royal Guard magnet set, too.

I've seen no mention of the polybag as a 'gift with purchase'...though it's the 'free gift' for the Club meetings this month.

Or is this perhaps a promotion from TRU, or some other retailer?

Edited March 1, 2012 by Ogre

[autobrick]

Huh?

Where'd you see that? I was just on lego.com and didn't see anything. The only SW promotions *I* know of is the free C-3PO key chain with $35 SW purchase on the 2nd and 3rd, as well as the SW poster off from March 1-31. Purchase of $50 worth of SW gets you 30% off the Royal Guard magnet set, too.

I've seen no mention of the polybag as a 'gift with purchase'...though it's the 'free gift' for the Club meetings this month.

Or is this perhaps a promotion from TRU, or some other retailer?

That promotion is from the current TRU flyer, which ends today.

[Ogre]

That promotion is from the current TRU flyer, which ends today.

Ahh, okay. Thank you.

[kasmca]

Hi there,

I'm in the Toronto area and will be purchasing the new Town Hall Modular (10224). It's $250 CDN or $200 US. I was wondering how to get the best deal on this model? Will be taking a trip to the US next month, but wondering if it's worth it to wait and get it from the US. Currently Lego is offering double VIP points until March 15, so that may be an extra $12.50 in Lego credits.

Our dollar is now higher than the US. I wish TLG would adjust the currency differenes to be more fair.

Anyone else interested in this model and what are your plans to get the best deal? Apoligize if this is the wrong forum for it, but I think it's a very Canadian issue on how were are gouged with high retail prices for Lego.

Edited March 1, 2012 by kasmca

[tedbeard]

Apoligize if this is the wrong forum for it, but I think it's a very Canadian issue on how were are gouged with high retail prices for Lego.

Totally the right forum, although you are preaching to the choir. The price differential battle has seen an added intensity over the last five years as our $ has been strong. A couple of years ago Wal-Mart actually stopped carrying LEGO for something like six months when LEGO refused to reduce the price in Canada. Wally-World lost that battle as you can see by the huge amount of LEGO in their stores now.

I buy sets, especially the big ones, when I go the states. I do this once a year when I go to BrickCon in Seattle as there is also usually a convention discount at the local LEGO store. If you went to BrickWorld (nearest LEGO convention to you I assume) you would get some great deals and have a great time. Otherwise I tend to buy online from S@H just before Xmas when they have free shipping.

[Ceroknight]

Ahh, okay. Thank you.

Silly me for not mentioning where...

[Ogre]

Silly me for not mentioning where...

No worries. You're not the only one that it's happened to.

Example: *I* just ASSUMED you were talking about LBR stores, or S@H...didn't even cross my mind that it might be TRU, or elsewhere until after I posted, so I had to go back and edit.

[Lemelisk]

Chapters/Indigo has Lego 20-25% off and free shipping over $25. It doesn't say how long the sale will last

[MacK]

Chapters/Indigo has Lego 20-25% off and free shipping over $25. It doesn't say how long the sale will last

Thanks for the heads up Lemelisk, I just picked up an X-wing

[purpleparadox]

Chapters/Indigo has Lego 20-25% off and free shipping over $25. It doesn't say how long the sale will last

Chapters/Indigo/Coles (Coles is another branch of that company) is my main source of Collectible Minifigures. It's the only place in my area that can constantly be counted on to have them in stock. Zellers never does, Wal-Mart is inconsistent, and there's no TRU's within a two hour drive of me.

[Ogre]

Speaking of Walmart...

Swung through their LEGO section yesterday, just to see what they had (only 'new' that I saw was green Ninjago project case...kinda cool)...saw a bunch of watches on the shelves, which I thought was odd, because most places that I've seen them (mostly TRU), they've been in the electronics area, or behind glass (or both). Anyway, I took a look at the Star Wars watches and wouldn't you know it...every single one had been opened and had the minifig stripped out.

I tracked down somebody who worked there, handed her the boxes and showed her what was missing. Her response? "What else is new?"