Moose Posted October 12, 2009 Posted October 12, 2009 why dont you buy the one from TRU, get your free set, take it home and then return it. or, since you cant drive and ur mom wont want to go to TRU twice in a week, ask her to go to TRU, buy it, get ur free tractor, go out to stores or something right near TRU, and in an hour or so go back and return to a different employee, this should work.
Alice Posted October 12, 2009 Posted October 12, 2009 why dont you buy the one from TRU, get your free set, take it home and then return it. or, since you cant drive and ur mom wont want to go to TRU twice in a week, ask her to go to TRU, buy it, get ur free tractor, go out to stores or something right near TRU, and in an hour or so go back and return to a different employee, this should work. Why don't you stop encouraging people to scam TRU!? This contributes to their losses and adds to the jacked up prices that we already see at TRU. If you want the tractor, it's 14.99.. just buy it. If you want it for free, buy some more LEGO and get it for free at TRU. It always irritates the hell out of me when a LEGO fan tries to find a way to scam the company. Let's try to stay on topic and remain positive about this promotion. We get discounts, bonuses, and promo bricks for the next 3 weeks to buy LEGO. YAY!
Moose Posted October 12, 2009 Posted October 12, 2009 Hey, no need to get all nasty alice, I was just recommending an easier solution than others were posting (which involved scamming both TRU and the lego store, I just cut out the lego store). Trust me, I am greatly appreciative of these sales, it's how I got my first ever pirate ship! And now that the tractor is potentially free, you can bet your bottom dollar I'm going to the store to spend $30 on other sets to get it. I'm not scamming anyone, it was TRU who scammed me when I went there on Tuesday and bought my ship and didn't get the free brick. So I had to go buy another set at a different TRU just to get it. So actually, I spent more money than necessary trying to get the special brick, which seems to me to be the opposite of scamming. So I'd appreciate it if you didn't jump at me so quickly next time. Hopefully there won't be an ill feelings between us in the future. I apologize if I upset you.
ILikePi Posted October 12, 2009 Posted October 12, 2009 why dont you buy the one from TRU, get your free set, take it home and then return it. or, since you cant drive and ur mom wont want to go to TRU twice in a week, ask her to go to TRU, buy it, get ur free tractor, go out to stores or something right near TRU, and in an hour or so go back and return to a different employee, this should work.When did I say that my mom would not want to take me to Toys 'R' Us twice in a week?And anyways, my mom would not do such a thing. That is virtually stealing, in my opinion. I also have missed out on the first brick, so there's no point in getting the second brick, either. I also have a very limited budget to spend on LEGO. I might get something like Echo Base and a small set to get the free tractor, but I wouldn't count on it, since I have already bought about $57 worth of LEGO at the LEGO Store on Saturday's event. Why don't you stop encouraging people to scam TRU!? This contributes to their losses and adds to the jacked up prices that we already see at TRU. If you want the tractor, it's 14.99.. just buy it. If you want it for free, buy some more LEGO and get it for free at TRU. It always irritates the hell out of me when a LEGO fan tries to find a way to scam the company. Let's try to stay on topic and remain positive about this promotion. We get discounts, bonuses, and promo bricks for the next 3 weeks to buy LEGO. YAY! Yes, I know. LEGO is our most favorite toy and hobby. Why would we want to scam/steal from them?Anyways, I can't wait to see the discount/bonus for next week. Hopefully it will be something good like this week's (getting an item worth about half of what you paid for free).
Shadows Posted October 12, 2009 Posted October 12, 2009 Hey, no need to get all nasty alice, I was just recommending an easier solution than others were posting (which involved scamming both TRU and the lego store, I just cut out the lego store). She didn't get nasty, and by your own admission you suggested a solution that still involved scamming TRU, so she was right. I'm not scamming anyone, it was TRU who scammed me when I went there on Tuesday and bought my ship and didn't get the free brick. So I had to go buy another set at a different TRU just to get it. You didn't ask for it yourself but you blame the employee for forgetting? Then you went to another store and didn't just explain the situation and show them your receipt? Wow. So I'd appreciate it if you didn't jump at me so quickly next time. Ok, I'll do it next time.
Moose Posted October 12, 2009 Posted October 12, 2009 I did explain to the employee at the second TRU what happened but she said I need to buy another set. I was just trying to give a fellow LEGO enthusiast a suggestion for a set he wanted, as were the other people before me. Was it deceitful? Yes. Is it the best solution? Probably not. I'm sorry. I have never stolen a thing in my life nor will I ever have the cojones to do so. Bottom line is I made a suggestion, it clearly was not well received, and I am sorry. I apologize to the person I offered the suggestion to, TRU, LEGO, Alice and everyone else I may have offended. I want no trouble, I love these forums and want to continue to do so peacefully. I hope we can move on from this and continue to talk about the wonderful sales going on. Again, I apologize. Sincerely, Moose
Shadows Posted October 15, 2009 Posted October 15, 2009 (edited) Thought I'd take advantage of the free tractor offer, so I went to the local TRU, found a set they hadn't jacked the price up on (wasn't easy) and proceeded to the register. Saw about 15 signs for the deal on the way there, but no tractors. Figured they'd be at the register. 15 minutes and 5 employees later, they figured out that they didn't have the tractor, didn't know if it was going to come in, and didn't have any alternate plan to honour the deal. I walked out without the set. They don't want to make a $50 sale, they don't have to. Target is 2 blocks away, much happier to take my money and doesn't jack their prices up. What shall week 3 hold in store for us? Edited October 15, 2009 by Shadows What edit? I don't know what you're talking about.
ILikePi Posted October 15, 2009 Posted October 15, 2009 (edited) I walked out with the set. They don't want to make a $50 sale, they don't have to.So you robbed them of their $50 set? I really hate how TRU jacks up their prices so much, but remains the #1 toy store in USA. These deals and free bricks are very nice, though. Edited October 15, 2009 by ILikePi
posades Posted October 15, 2009 Posted October 15, 2009 So you robbed them of their $50 set? I really hate how TRU jacks up their prices so much, but remains the #1 toy store in USA. These deals and free bricks are very nice, though. How does the old saying go, if you aren't cheating you're only cheating yourself? I'm going this Saturday, we'll see how lucky I am (I'm guessing not very).
Shadows Posted October 15, 2009 Posted October 15, 2009 So you robbed them of their $50 set? I... crap. Just crap. I really hate how TRU jacks up their prices so much, but remains the #1 toy store in USA. Yes, it's crazy. $89.99 Temple of Doom for $99.99 is bad, but proportionately things like Ambush in Cairo that should be $10.99 going for $14.99 is a lot worse. I really don't know how they make it, but they weren't always like this. I remember coming out of my dark ages and buying sets there just as often as anywhere else with everything priced normally and the occasional clearance. Now it's just ridiculous.
Moose Posted October 15, 2009 Posted October 15, 2009 Yeah, TRU's prices have gotten pretty bad. Thats where I always used to shop for my LEGO as a kid. But nowadays not so much. I only go when they have good sales like this, and they rarely have anything clearanced. The last good clearanced item I saw was the viking army set, I didn't get it and I regret that now.
Pellaeon Posted October 15, 2009 Posted October 15, 2009 I really hate how TRU jacks up their prices so much, but remains the #1 toy store in USA. The 15% off last week was nice, since it knocked most of their sets under MSRP. And it was actually a sale for stuff like the Creator sets that TRU doesn't mark up. My personal favorite mark-up: the Agents Robo-Attack set, $49.99 MSRP, is normally $59.99 at TRU. With that 15% off deal, the Robo-Attack was a "steal" at $50.99!
Oky Posted October 18, 2009 Posted October 18, 2009 My personal favorite mark-up: the Agents Robo-Attack set, $49.99 MSRP, is normally $59.99 at TRU. With that 15% off deal, the Robo-Attack was a "steal" at $50.99! That's nothing. Look at Ambush in Cairo: $14.99!! That's almost a 40% mark-up! And Chauchilla Cemetery Battle and Crystal King aren't much better at $24.99, a 25% mark-up. Anyway, the Bricktober deal this week is even less attractive than the last one (to me): FREE Bionicle Encyclopedia ($20 value) with ANY LEGO Building Set purchase of $35 or more. I just hope that Bricktober goes out with a bang with some good sets on discount like in the first week.
ILikePi Posted October 18, 2009 Posted October 18, 2009 (edited) Anyway, the Bricktober deal this week is even less attractive than the last one (to me):FREE Bionicle Encyclopedia ($20 value) with ANY LEGO Building Set purchase of $35 or more. I just hope that Bricktober goes out with a bang with some good sets on discount like in the first week. Erm...what? A BIONICLE encyclopedia worth $20 USD? I laughed when I saw that!Seriously though, how could it be a $20 value? That would mean that the book would have to be as good as the LEGO Star Wars: The Visual Dictionary book, which is $22 USD. Can any BIONICLE fans see what the encyclopedia is like (how many pages and how detailed the contents are)? Edited October 18, 2009 by ILikePi
dynamic_e Posted October 18, 2009 Posted October 18, 2009 Yeah, pretty lame promo this week. I'm gonna wait until back friday to buy more legos.
ILikePi Posted October 18, 2009 Posted October 18, 2009 (edited) Chris from Reasonably Clever has posted some a pic of the book: Bionicle - Makuta's Guide to the Universe By Greg Farshtey Free with a $35 set purchase in week 3 of Toys R Us "Bricktober" Promiotion A nice hardback book, retail value $20. Even nicer when you combined the 15% Bionicle purchase on-line coupon... Maybe not as bad as we thought? Edited October 18, 2009 by ILikePi
dynamic_e Posted October 18, 2009 Posted October 18, 2009 Looks nice, but if you aren't a bionicle fan, it's worthless. The tractor appeals to all because it's free brick. The book though only appeals to bionicle lovers. I may be biased as I have no interest in the stuff.
doctordark Posted October 25, 2009 Author Posted October 25, 2009 This week you get a free lego yellow tote bag case with purchase of any lego set ($30 or more) Link Also it looks like you could buy each bricktober brick for $5 each! Link
ILikePi Posted October 25, 2009 Posted October 25, 2009 (edited) doctordark, your links are broken, so I'll post a screenshot that I just took a few seconds ago: It says that the bag holds up to 750 bricks! I don't think I'll be getting it, but it does actually look like it's worth $20. EDIT: Week 4's brick: At least it has the LEGO logo in it! Edited October 25, 2009 by ILikePi
Oky Posted October 25, 2009 Posted October 25, 2009 (edited) Well, I'm officially disappointed with Bricktober. The last two deals didn't even involve any bricks at all. If that bag/case was filled with 750 bricks, that would be a different story but like this... Oh well, at least I got some good deals out of it in the first week. $5 for a freakin' Duplo brick?! Are these people insane? Sorry for the rant, but I just really hate TRU, mostly for their ridiculous prices. Edited October 25, 2009 by Oky Wan Kenobi
UsernameMDM Posted October 25, 2009 Posted October 25, 2009 I missed the week 3 brick and have an extra week 2 brick. Anyone want to trade?
dynamic_e Posted October 25, 2009 Posted October 25, 2009 Best part of Bricktober was that Brick 500 on the 24th. Free lego build of a car and you get to take it home. My car must have weighed a good 2 lbs of solid lego and my sons was a pound and a half. No rare pieces, but you can't turn down free bricks
JayDuck Posted October 25, 2009 Posted October 25, 2009 I'll apologize in advance, since I have a feeling this is going to get rather long-winded; I really hate how TRU jacks up their prices so much, but remains the #1 toy store in USA. The thing is though, they aren't. Although they are the number one toy-only retailer in the US, and they do take roughly 20% of the domestic market, Wal-Mart is by far the country's #1 toy retailer. By a large margin, too, since WM is purported to take over 25% of the US toy market. Five percent may not sound like much, but look at it this way; take twenty 'average' kids on the playground with one toy each: of those twenty toys, four of them may have come from TRU, but five of them were bought at WM. Target wants a bigger slice of the toy pie as well, and would really like to get themselves into that #2 slot. Wal-Mart has also put in place plans which they hope will (among other things) kill off their specialty competition (drug stores, TRU, etc.) dubbed "Project Impact": They've knocked out four of the top five toy retailers, and are now going after the last one standing, Toys "R" Us. Project Impact will be the catalyst to wipe out a second round of national and regional retailers. Wal-Mart really has two things in its favor; variety and volume. By variety, I mean that WM has the whole range of products they sell, so they don't necessarily have to mark up their toys enough to cover their margins (that is, sell the product with a high enough markup to pay for the expenses to buy/ship/stock it as well as other costs and still turn a profit). In fact, WM often will use toys as loss leaders, selling them at or below cost on the assumption (usually correct) that customers will also buy other (marked-up) items so overall the store will make a profit. As far as volume, since WM sells more, that means that they buy more from the the suppliers, and bigger orders means bigger discounts. Since they can buy items at lower cost, that means they can apply a larger markup to make the difference between cost and MSRP. Even if the difference is as little as a single cent, if WM sells 100,000 of that item, they make $1,000 more than the other guy. TRU, on the other hand, has only their toys on which to make enough to cover all of their operating costs and profits, hence the higher prices. Also, TRU has chosen to place emphasis on variety rather than price, so they're hoping that while customers are there getting something that is only they carry, customers will pay a little more to get other more common items at the same time. It also seems that TRU is hoping for higher returns on licensed Lego, since, for example 7195 Ambush in Cairo is priced at $14.99 but the plain old 8401 City Minifigure Collection is only $11.99. Compared to S@H, the City set is $2 more, where the Indy set is $4 more. But the Indy sets will likely sell more units since they are from a licensed property and can sell on name over value. I'm not necessarily defending TRU's pricing, but I thought it was worth pointing out that their pricing is a result of TRU having an inherently different business model than their big chain competition (WM, Target, etc.). tl;dr: TRU charges more because they have to make more profit per toy. Also it looks like you could buy each bricktober brick for $5 each! Well, you can't actually just buy the brick. If you look, (link), the page lacks the 'add to cart' button. If you check the box to 'add the additional item' with nothing in your cart, you still have an empty cart until you add some other Lego. $5 for a freakin' Duplo brick?! Are these people insane? It's a 'get something for nothing' value that TRU gave it. Besides, if you think five bucks is bad for a Duplo brick, don't follow this link. Sorry for the rant, but I just really hate TRU, mostly for their ridiculous prices. Well, as I said above, TRU has to charge a bit more due to the nature of their business model. And remember, we're fortunate enough to be part of Lego's largest volume market, so we get pretty much the lowest prices across the board. People in lots of other countries would love to be able to get their Lego at even TRU's 'high' prices. It's all relative. Yep, I was right. Looong-winded.
WesternOutlaw Posted October 26, 2009 Posted October 26, 2009 For those of you who didn't see the final bricks, they will be pictured on Classic-Town.net in about 5-6 hours. Also, I thought the race was a great thing. Mine weighed quite a bit as well. In addition, I used the promotional bricks for a fun little Ghost Train MOC (link to the creation in my signature below). Happy Halloween!
Oky Posted October 26, 2009 Posted October 26, 2009 Best part of Bricktober was that Brick 500 on the 24th. Free lego build of a car and you get to take it home. My car must have weighed a good 2 lbs of solid lego and my sons was a pound and a half. No rare pieces, but you can't turn down free bricks Wait - WHAT? Why wasn't I informed of this?! I didn't see anything about it on their website and nobody posted it here! Fiddlesticks. Anyway, there is a 15% off coupon for TRU here, but it excludes Star Wars and it doesn't look like you could combine it with the free case offer. Still a nice offer though. Expires Halloween.
Recommended Posts