Sales Alert

 We've got two sales this week.  Target is running 15% off select Lego sets.  I know it states "when purchased online" but I was in a local Target and they had shelf tags with marked down prices.  Barnes & Noble has 25% off select Lego sets.

Good hunting.

Sales Alert

 Target is running a 20% off Select Lego sets sale this week.  This is an in-store sale for once and has a good cross section of choices.

The Star Wars Mech Armor sets are included in this sale which finally brings two of them to a reasonable price.

Also, I saw this recently on a visit to my local Lego store.

That's a really nice combo.

Good hunting.

Good Sets for Parts 19

It's been over a year since I've done one of these posts, mainly because I wasn't really excited by very many sets last year.  This year's Lego releases have an overall theme of "Space" and according to a designer in an interview I read there's also a "Mecha" theme going on.  So that should lead to a number of cool sets for us to look at.

31145 Red Dragon – $9.99 for 149 pieces.  $0.07 per part.  Bright colors, plenty of Ball Joints, some Padlocks, Hinges, and other useful parts.

31149 Flowers in Watering Can – $29.99 for 420 pieces.  $0.07 per part.  Clear Clip Plates, D Snot Bricks, Octagonal Bar Plates, and Curved Bars just to start.  I'm guessing you could get a few Frames and some Terrain out of this set.

40709 Spring Animal Playground -- $12.99 for 172 pieces. $0.08 per part.  I actually saw this one in the store the other day.  What caught my eye was all the parts for potentially building trees, along with a bunch of Clip Plates, Bar Plates, and other useful bits.

60428 Space Construction Mech – $10.99 for 140 pieces.  $0.08 per part.  Already reviewed.

60400 Go-Karts and Race Drivers – $9.99 for 99 pieces.  $0.10 per part.  Nothing groundbreaking in this set, I just think it has neat colors and would be good as a starter for Intercept Orbit.

60406 Race Car and Car Carrier Truck – $29.99 for 328 pieces  $0.09 per part.  Plenty of Teal along with a handful of interesting parts.  Combine it with 60400 and you should be able to build a decent IO fleet.

42609 Electric Car and Charger – $15.99 for 170 pieces  $0.09 per part.  The previous Friends Electric Car set was excellent and this one looks like it might give that one a run for its money.

76277 War Machine Mech Armor – $14.99 for 154 pieces  $0.10 per part.  Exo-Force Arms, Stud Shooters, Ball Joints, along with something that looks like a mini-Station makes for an interesting set.

71805 Jay’s Mech Battle Pack – $9.99 for 78 pieces  $0.13 per part.  Like other Battle Packs this set is minifig heavy but, it's a new source of those Hexagonal Panels everyone likes so much.

71806 Cole’s Elemental Earth Mech – $19.99 for 235 pieces  $0.09 per part.  A heavyweight looking mech, Black, Orange, some Gold, new Panel parts, and a handful of useful bits too.

71807 Sora’s Elemental Tech Mech – $19.99 for 209 pieces  $0.10 per part.  A little smaller than the prior set and the price point isn't as good but, it has less bulky parts and I like the tree design.

71808 Kai’s Elemental Fire Mech – $29.99 for 322 pieces  $0.09 per part.  Two mechs in one set means plenty of useful parts in multiple colors.

75372 Clone Trooper & Battle Droid Battle Pack – $29.99 for 215 pieces  $0.14 per part.  This falls victim to the "Star Wars Tax" but it's a Frame-in-a-Box with a bunch of Droid Bodies and other useful parts, along with a handful of minifigs you can use for something else or sell off.

These were just some of the sets released on January 1st and there are more to come throughout the year so we can look forward to a greater number of potentially useful sets in 2024.

Sales Alert: Black Friday

I had an inkling a few weeks ago that there might be some interesting Lego items on sale this Black Friday.  It looks like I wasn't wrong.  Here's a few sneak peaks.

Walmart

Iron Man Armory 76216 -- $45.00 ($0.09 Price per Piece)

Belle and the Beast’s Castle 43196 -- $45.00 ($0.09 Price per Piece)

Target

Mega Construx Pokemon Motion Pikachu -- $44.99 ($0.04 Price per Piece)

Fire Rescue & Police Chase 60319 -- $24.99 ($0.08 Price per Piece)

Friends Hair Salon 41743 -- $24.99 ($0.06 Price per Piece)

Star Wars Republic Fighter Tank 75342 -- $24.99 ($0.10 Price per Piece)

Lunar Roving Vehicle 60348 -- $24.99 ($0.09 Price per Piece)

plus

Up to 40% off select Lego sets.

Kohls

20% off select Lego sets.

If you want to take a deep dive, go to BlackFriday.Com.  Good hunting.

Sales Alert

 Target is running a "20% off Select Lego Sets" sale this week.  They're also running a "20% off Select Mega Construx Pokemon Sets" sale as well.

Good hunting.

Sales Alert

Target has a "20% Off Select Lego Sets" sale running this week.  Ignore the "When Purchased Online", I can confirm this is In-Store too.

Good hunting.

SLAB Baseplates

My friend JP saw Slab Dream Labs SLAB Baseplates in a "Bricks & Minifigs" store yesterday and mentioned them to me.  (This was not the only Lego related thing brought to my attention by friends yesterday.)  So in between running errands I did a dive into what they had to offer.

Rocky Road

Lunar Surface

They have several interesting

backgrounds that are printed on

to the baseplates.  These baseplates

are generally available in 12"x12",

24"x24", and 48"x24" selections.

They also have several cool combination/sets of plates available.  Like

the image I selected which rekindles ideas of Frame Racing in my mind.

CADmonkey pointed this out on the Discord, the construction is not

standard Lego.  Both the SLAB and SLAB Lite are thicker than normal

Baseplates.  They're closer to a Brick in thickness from the looks of the

picture.  Also, the SLAB design has a sheet of MDF as the bottom layer.

So these are pretty neat and I get *ideas* just looking at them.  But, the construction could lead to possible issues with storage, compatibility, and also cost.  You also have the issues that playing on baseplates brings to MFZ.  These could expand the options for table-settings, just be aware of what you're -- literally -- bringing to the table.

Sales Alert

Target has a "BOGO40% Off" sale on select Lego sets this week.  From the promo image it includes the Harry Potter, Minecraft, Friends, and Super Mario lines.  According to Toys'n'Bricks it's 92 sets on sale.

Good hunting.

Sales Alert

I should have posted this on Tuesday.  Target is running a "20% Off Select City, Friends, and Duplo Sets" sale this week.  I'm not sure if this is an online only sale.  This might be a chance to get some of those City sets that have a questionable Price-per-Piece though.

Good hunting.

Sales Alert

Target is running a "20% Off on Mega Construx Sets" sale this week.

Also, I was in a local Walmart last night and there were Clearance and Rollback prices up and down the Lego aisle.  Looks like they're starting early on clearing shelf space for the new 2023 sets.  I saw some real deals so you might want to get in there soonest.

Good hunting.

Sales Alert

Target is running a "20% Off on Select City, Disney Princess, Duplo, and Super Mario sets" sale this week.

Walmart is running an Early Black Friday sale on Duplo Classic Creative Animals 10934 and Classic Bricks and Animals 11011 this week as well.

Good hunting.

Sales Alert

Target is running a "20% off Select Friends, Ninjago and Duplo" sale this week.  At first glance it appears to be online only, so this may require research.

Also, Walmart has been putting random Lego sets on Clearance for the last week or so.  You'll have to check your local to see what's available.

As always, good hunting.

Good Sets For Parts: Terrain 2

A short discussion on the Discord about good sets for terrain made me dig up this old post and update it.  It's been nine years since I've done one of these.  Every now and then Lego will have a batch of sets that make for a good starting point for building a battle field.  Looks like this is one of those times.  I'll warn you right up front that most of these are City sets and we know how horrible those price points are.

60307 Wildlife Rescue Camp.  $99.99 for 503 pieces, $0.20 per part.  Trees, rock outcroppings, megafauna, and a vehicle.  We've got a wilderness battlefield starter here.  Add in 60302 Wildlife Rescue Operation and 60301 Wildlife Rescue Off-Roader to expand it.

60336 Freight Train.  $199.99 for 1153 pieces, $0.17 per part.  A four car train and another vehicle along with a decent sized track oval.  Add in a bunch of my Medium Sized Building as a group of warehouses and that's the beginnings of a good business district battlefield.  Two of 60205 Tracks would build a bigger oval for cheaper if you had enough parts to build the train on your own but you'd be missing the switch and spur sections.

60351 Rocket Launch Center.  $159.99 for 1010 pieces, $0.16 per part.  Ever since G.I.Joe issue #8 -- and more recently, Gundam 0080 "War in the Pocket" episode 1 -- I've wanted to have a battle around a rocket launch site.  You could possibly expand it with 60350 Lunar Research Base.

60265 Ocean Exploration Base.  $79.99 for 497 pieces, $0.16 per part.  An undersea battlefield is another one of those "must build" ideas for me.

10303 Loop Coaster.  $499.99 for 3756 pieces, $0.13 per part.  All that Dark Blue and 29 Octagonal Bar Plates.  For someone that doesn't like trains, I weirdly have a thing for sets with track sections in them.  :-)

21058 Great Pyramid of Giza.  $129.99 for 1476 pieces, $0.09 per part.  Tons of bricks and no pesky minifigs taking up space.

41703 Friendship Tree House.  $79.99 for 1114 pieces, $0.07 per part.  I bought two of these so I could make a bunch of this and this type of tree.  There are also plenty of other foliage bits, bricks, and useful parts.

So, yes, the initial cost is high but, hopefully, these will be the start of an awesome battlefield for your group to destroy on a regular basis.

Sales Alert

Target is running an "Up to 20% off on select Lego City, Friends, Marvel and Duplo building sets" sale this week.  As usual, there are some good deals to be found and some sets with annoying price points finally becoming affordable.

Good hunting.

Sales Alert

Target is running a "Buy One Get One 40% Off" sale on select Lego sets this week.  It look like it's a selection from the Speed Champions, Friends, Harry Potter, and Classic lines.  This is a chance to get those $10 sets that have less than 100 pieces at a better Parts per Price ratio than normal.

Good hunting.

Sales Alert

Target is running a 20% off Select LEGO Creator, Technic, Dots, and Duplo sets sale this week.

Good hunting.

Good Sets for Parts 18

It's been almost a year since I've done a "Good Sets for Parts" post, so let's look at some of the new releases for 2022.

43203 Aurora, Merida and Tiana’s Enchanted Creations.  The price is $70 but it has some nice colors and parts along with those crystal/boulder pieces.

21180 Minecraft: The Guardian Battle, this one looks to have some nice parts at a good price point. 

40524 Sunflowers, has me intrigued -- plenty of Clip Plates, $0.07 per piece, and the last Botanical set I reviewed was really good.

76204 Black Panther Mech Armor, Iron Man Mech Armor, and Wolverine Mech Armor are the next set of releases in the Marvel Mech armor series and this series has been good for MFZ since the start.

71761 Zane's Power Up Mech.  New parts, Ball Joints, and cool colors at $0.10 per piece.

71760 Jay's Thunder Dragon.  It's $0.14 per piece but it has new parts, Ball Joints, and cool colors.  I should have a review coming soon.

75321 Star Wars Razor Crest Microfighter.  It's a lot of Dark/Light Bley but, Microfighters are usually a good source of parts for Intercept Orbit.

42132 Technic Motorcycle.  I'm always a fan of small Technic sets and at $0.08 per part that just makes it all the sweeter.

40540 Lion Dance Guy Brick Headz.  Okay, this one is a little more personal to me but, Brick Headz sets are a good starting point for Intercept Orbit and it's $0.04 per piece!

Polly Want a Baggy 10

A look at the upcoming polybags for 2022.   As usual all information was culled from Brickset.

30417: Garden Flower and Butterfly, Octagonal Bar Plate!  Pentagonal Wedge Slopes, Clip Plates, Heart Tiles, and a Hinge Plate among other good parts.

30432: The Turtle Beach, I see a handful of good parts and what looks to be a Station in a bag.

30433: Volvo Wheel Loader, another Technic polybag.  It'll probably have the same availability of the one from last year.  Yay.

30443: Spider-Man Bridge Battle, that drone looks like a good mini-Frame.

30455: Batmobile, I see a handful of those Minifig Posing Stands in Light Bley.  Car polybags are pretty useful too.

30495: AT-ST, that's a chicken walker Frame-in-a-Bag.

30562: Monkie Kid's Underwater Journey, possibly another Station in a bag.

30581: Tropical Parrot, I like all the colors and I see a couple of Ball Joints.

30582: Birthday Bear, I think there's a Frame-in-a-Bag here.  I'm looking forward to the chance to try.

30585: Fire Patrol Vehicle, a couple of over-molded parts and vehicle sets are pretty useful.

30587: Police Robot Unit, eight Inkwells along with a couple of other good parts.  Too bad the overall parts count looks low.

30592: Mini Thunder Raider, two mini Frames-in-a-Bag.

30593: Lloyd Suit Mech, another Frame-in-a-Bag.

I managed to review nine out of the eleven polybags I called out last year, let's hope the availability is as good this year.

Sales Alert

Target is running a 20% off on select Lego sets this week.  Considering I've seen a lot of empty shelves in the Lego department of my local Targets, you might want to jump on this if you see something you like.

Good hunting.

Sales Alert: Black Friday

Target has some sets at 40% off.  Along with more at 30% off -- which are on sale right now, online.  And the giant Mega Construx Pokeball is half off, too.

Instead of listing all the others I'm just going to link you to Toys'n'Bricks breakdown.

Good hunting.