Discussion
I had not realised the prices had gone up but the usual sets I would buy for around £175 UCS Star Wars / Ecto-1 etc now £210 !
Seems a bit mad to me when you can buy from elsewhere for the usual price if not lower. I did enjoy shopping in the Lego shop but I'm not paying those prices.
Seems a bit mad to me when you can buy from elsewhere for the usual price if not lower. I did enjoy shopping in the Lego shop but I'm not paying those prices.
We've bought a lot of expensive Lego sets over the years and my son still enjoys saving up for the latest official Star Wars set, however if you are chafing at some of the crazy prices/lack of availability I'd recommend trying Ali Express and searching for 'Building Blocks'. Granted it will take a few weeks to arrive in a couple of Jiffy bags and you probably won't get a paper manual (not always but normally a PDF copy emailed to you), but we've been amazed how good most of their copies of top Lego sets are. My brother bought their Death Star and said it was absolutely spot on at about 10% of the cost of original.
My son really wanted a couple of hard to find Lego Star Wars sets that were £150+ when new and now sold out were going for >£600 on eBay etc, the Ali Express copies were around £40 each and amazingly close copies - not 100% perfect but certainly close enough and look exactly the same with all the stickers/mini figures etc. I think the only thing missing was the tiny 'Lego' writing on the building blocks themselves which you can't see. Now he's a bit older he's more into WW2 which Lego don't do of course, but there is a thriving industry of WW2 soldiers, tanks, artillery pieces and weapons sets on AE, which he absolutely loves and at bargain prices too.
My son really wanted a couple of hard to find Lego Star Wars sets that were £150+ when new and now sold out were going for >£600 on eBay etc, the Ali Express copies were around £40 each and amazingly close copies - not 100% perfect but certainly close enough and look exactly the same with all the stickers/mini figures etc. I think the only thing missing was the tiny 'Lego' writing on the building blocks themselves which you can't see. Now he's a bit older he's more into WW2 which Lego don't do of course, but there is a thriving industry of WW2 soldiers, tanks, artillery pieces and weapons sets on AE, which he absolutely loves and at bargain prices too.
I only tend to buy direct from Lego when I have birthday/Christmas vouchers to spend or the model I want is only available through Lego. They do often offer 'free' gifts with purchases. I recently bought R2-D2 from Lego and I got 3 free sets and a fleece blanket, which to me softens the expense of using Lego directly.
Siko said:
We've bought a lot of expensive Lego sets over the years and my son still enjoys saving up for the latest official Star Wars set, however if you are chafing at some of the crazy prices/lack of availability I'd recommend trying Ali Express and searching for 'Building Blocks'. Granted it will take a few weeks to arrive in a couple of Jiffy bags and you probably won't get a paper manual (not always but normally a PDF copy emailed to you), but we've been amazed how good most of their copies of top Lego sets are. My brother bought their Death Star and said it was absolutely spot on at about 10% of the cost of original.
My son really wanted a couple of hard to find Lego Star Wars sets that were £150+ when new and now sold out were going for >£600 on eBay etc, the Ali Express copies were around £40 each and amazingly close copies - not 100% perfect but certainly close enough and look exactly the same with all the stickers/mini figures etc. I think the only thing missing was the tiny 'Lego' writing on the building blocks themselves which you can't see. Now he's a bit older he's more into WW2 which Lego don't do of course, but there is a thriving industry of WW2 soldiers, tanks, artillery pieces and weapons sets on AE, which he absolutely loves and at bargain prices too.
I think cobi have tons of WWII theme brick setsMy son really wanted a couple of hard to find Lego Star Wars sets that were £150+ when new and now sold out were going for >£600 on eBay etc, the Ali Express copies were around £40 each and amazingly close copies - not 100% perfect but certainly close enough and look exactly the same with all the stickers/mini figures etc. I think the only thing missing was the tiny 'Lego' writing on the building blocks themselves which you can't see. Now he's a bit older he's more into WW2 which Lego don't do of course, but there is a thriving industry of WW2 soldiers, tanks, artillery pieces and weapons sets on AE, which he absolutely loves and at bargain prices too.
I am tempted to look at Ali express for some copy as they’re some retired sets and they are all very expensive now.
Re OP, yeah I never buy from Lego store unless I have a voucher,
I don’t buy from Lego at all, I got some from AE and a few more from eBay, I try to be patient and wait for bargains, quite a few sets are advertised as missing pieces, which can be replaced quite easily via bricklink etc(my Lego falling water house was only 50$ due to this)
About 50% of these are from AE
About 50% of these are from AE
I've got back into the Lego bug last Christmas when my wife bought me the 911 RSR, the trouble is the cost of the models is so expensive I'm struggling to justify getting anything else. I guess one option would be to keep all the packaging and then dismantle and sell 2nd hand to recoup some of the cost, but I like the idea of keeping the model on display.
Have to admit I'm torn on the idea of the AE replicas... on one hand I'm not keen on buying cheap Chinese knockoffs, but on the other the price of them makes it hard to justify the cost of the genuine article.
Have to admit I'm torn on the idea of the AE replicas... on one hand I'm not keen on buying cheap Chinese knockoffs, but on the other the price of them makes it hard to justify the cost of the genuine article.
Zetec-S said:
Have to admit I'm torn on the idea of the AE replicas... on one hand I'm not keen on buying cheap Chinese knockoffs, but on the other the price of them makes it hard to justify the cost of the genuine article.
same boat, want the Ghoutbusters firehouse set but it is very expensive on ebay even those open/used setand the mercedes arocs it is over 300 seal or at least 200 used on ebay
review on those AE clone come back mix, some are very good some seem not worth the hassle
examples below inc delivery
My razor crest was $60
The 007 Aston was $49
The Millennium Falcon was $65
The MOC Porsche 917 was $38
Wall- E was $38
Nowhere near what Lego want
I still have the below to build
Luke Skywalker X wing - $29
Poe Dameron X wing - $29
MOC Land Rover series 1 I(possibly series 2) $44
Empire strikes back Snow speeder (UCS size) $100 - pushed the boat out on that one
Slave1 (UCS) size - $105, again a lot for one of these from AE, but Lego ones on eBay are going for 3-4 times as much.
My razor crest was $60
The 007 Aston was $49
The Millennium Falcon was $65
The MOC Porsche 917 was $38
Wall- E was $38
Nowhere near what Lego want
I still have the below to build
Luke Skywalker X wing - $29
Poe Dameron X wing - $29
MOC Land Rover series 1 I(possibly series 2) $44
Empire strikes back Snow speeder (UCS size) $100 - pushed the boat out on that one
Slave1 (UCS) size - $105, again a lot for one of these from AE, but Lego ones on eBay are going for 3-4 times as much.
wibble cb said:
examples below inc delivery
My razor crest was $60
The 007 Aston was $49
The Millennium Falcon was $65
The MOC Porsche 917 was $38
Wall- E was $38
Nowhere near what Lego want
I still have the below to build
Luke Skywalker X wing - $29
Poe Dameron X wing - $29
MOC Land Rover series 1 I(possibly series 2) $44
Empire strikes back Snow speeder (UCS size) $100 - pushed the boat out on that one
Slave1 (UCS) size - $105, again a lot for one of these from AE, but Lego ones on eBay are going for 3-4 times as much.
This is the same for any product.My razor crest was $60
The 007 Aston was $49
The Millennium Falcon was $65
The MOC Porsche 917 was $38
Wall- E was $38
Nowhere near what Lego want
I still have the below to build
Luke Skywalker X wing - $29
Poe Dameron X wing - $29
MOC Land Rover series 1 I(possibly series 2) $44
Empire strikes back Snow speeder (UCS size) $100 - pushed the boat out on that one
Slave1 (UCS) size - $105, again a lot for one of these from AE, but Lego ones on eBay are going for 3-4 times as much.
The price of them isn't purely about the price of the plastic and the moulds etc. The prices reflect the idea, the design and all the other items that surround it. These things are where the real value in a product like this, not the plastic.
Yes, there's going to be profit. But the stuff you see selling for way over list isn't Lego skinning profit, it's people like you and I making a fast buck.
If everyone went down the AE route, eventually who would do the R&D, the detail design work etc that the rip off merchants rip off?
There's a degree of argument to say individuals will come up with the designs. Rosco (I think that's the name) does some amazing F1 cars... But I think even he has been on the wrong side of the rip off guys already.
Smyth’s are having/had a really good sale on Lego sets at the moment.
Rarely buy from the Lego store, even in billund the last few years the sets are even more. Granted that’s exchange rate etc at work but £20-£25 over a few sets mounts up.
I’m toying with the idea of the McLaren F1 and Daytona currently from Smyth’s
Rarely buy from the Lego store, even in billund the last few years the sets are even more. Granted that’s exchange rate etc at work but £20-£25 over a few sets mounts up.
I’m toying with the idea of the McLaren F1 and Daytona currently from Smyth’s
SydneyBridge said:
A lot of Lego money is royalties for star wars, marvel etc.
Other brands do not pay this.
A large chunk goes into the design and build testing etc to make sure the models work, are buildable in the right way and aren't flimsy.Other brands do not pay this.
It's easy to copy someone else's work, especially when they have to include a step-by-step set of building instructions and brick contents chart...
SydneyBridge said:
A lot of Lego money is royalties for star wars, marvel etc.
Other brands do not pay this.
I’ve seen sets with no licensing with similar piece counts be as much as 20-30% cheaper than licensed sets. Reckon on some big sets with major branding like Disney they could be getting 30% of the retail price. Look how ‘cheap’ the NASA sets are compared to anything else.Other brands do not pay this.
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