the vynsane asylum

Tom Foolery wrote:Anyone know when the next Modular set is coming out? Announced?

the parisian restaurant was announced last October and released in January.

rumor has it the next one is going to be a "detective agency" complete with seedy alley.

That sounds cool. I was thinking an art gallery or museum would be kinda cool.

I also had an idea where they'd make an office building where the front was open glass windows. So you'd have the main set which was the ground floor, the middle floor, and the roof. And you could buy extra "floors" as stand alone sets and stack your office building as high as you wanted.

Is it worth ordering a bunch of Legos from their website and trying to get VIP points, or am I just better off finding them on amazon and the big box stores?

I always hold off until double VIP points days. It's worth it if you're gonna buy big sets .

I also saw pics of the detective agency and it looks pretty badass.

today's a 2xVIP points day. you get the "winter village ice skating scene" freebie today, too. no sales/discounts, though.

i usually only buy on the lego website when there's a VIP points multiplier or there's a good freebie promo - when there are both, it's game on.

with free shipping over $75 it takes a lot to move my hand to the 'checkout' button.

Thanks for the info. I ordered 3 sets for the kids that totaled over $99, so we got the free set.

What did you end up buying?! There I'd about $1,000 worth of LEGO I'm DYING to get buy I may wait until tax time to do it. Double VIP points on that is gonna be redunkulous.

One of the Minecraft (The Farm) and two Friends sets (Jungle Falls Rescue and the Jungle Base). They are all Christmas presents for the kids. They play Minecraft all the time on their tablets and on the PS3. It is pretty amazing what they have built in the game, like our house, a hotel, stores, etc. I don't really get the game, but it seems like it is a perfect fit for Legos.

TRU has Galaxy Squad sets at 50% off on Black Friday. If we make it there, I'm going to get the Warp Stinger. I have most of the other Galaxy Squad sets thanks to Walmart/Target clearance sales, but I kept putting off buying that one. The funny thing is that it was the one I wanted most.

Walmart has a few sets on pre-Black Friday sale. http://toysnbricks.com/wal-mart-usa-pre ... art-today/
48% off – Olivia’s House $39 (reg.$74.99)
44% off – Ninjago Temple of Light $39 (reg.$69.99)
44% off – City Museum Break-In $39 (reg.$69.99)
35% off – City Helicopter Rescue Hospital Set $39 (reg.$59.99)
35% off – Star Wars AT-AP Walker $39 (reg.$59.99)
22% off – Friends Heartlake Highschool $39 (reg.$49.99)
22% off – Super Heroes Battle of Smallville $39 (reg.$49.99)

My girlfriend got me the Detective Agency for my Christmas/Birthday gift.
I totally lucked out getting an awesome girlfriend.
She also made me a felt Lego Guy. Which is infinitely more awesome than the Detective Agency. Because cutting and sewing felt into a Lego character is ridiculously difficult.

Does TRU ever do BOGO1/2 sales anymore?

Does TRU do sales anymore at all? Every time I go in there, every single item has been marked up since the last time.

Vyn, good job with the pictures from Toy Fair. Are they making more Minecraft sets?

thanks! they are releasing more Minecraft, but unfortunately i didn't get a chance to photograph them, Ultra Agents, Ninjago, Bionicle or Chima. just ran out of time.

i'll be posting a single recap news article at toysnbricks with links to all the various theme topics so it's all in one place, and i'll link to that here for everyone who's interested.

Look for it...

^ that means i'm too old?

pretty sure i'm biting the bullet on the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier set next month during the 2xVIP points promo. that will bring me up to a cool $120 in VIP point rewards.

anyway, finally got around to posting the Toy Fair news roundup article over at Toys N Bricks. also wanted to point out Pinblock, which is currently on track for a stretch goal of $12,000 on Kickstarter. it's a cool product, and they just announced that all backers will get an additional 50% more than each reward amount. the stretch goal is to fund the package design for a smaller retail box of ~500 pieces with an MSRP of $20 - $25, since all of the retail sets they initially designed are between 900 and 1,000 pieces which will MSRP for around $50. they got a lot of feedback at toy fair regarding a smaller intro-size set.