Brave New Lego World: day CLXXXVI: 60013 Coast Guard Helicopter + 60023 City Starter-set GET!

Day 186, 18/08/2013:

My local Big W was having a sale on Lego, so a quick trip there netted me the 2013 60013 Coast Guard Helicopter:

Lego City 60013 Coast Guard Helicopter

This is somewhat similar to the 60010 Fire Helicopter released earlier in the year in that they both have a retractable winch, though obviously, the 60013 set comes with something water-themed (wind sail) as opposed to fire-themed (burning refuelling station).

Lego City 60013 Coast Guard Helicopter- back

This set also marks my first shark, and a white one at that!

The other set I picked up is quite applicable to my Lego City city, though kinda noobie: it’s the 60023 Lego City Starter Set:

Lego City 60023 Lego City Starter Set

As the name implies it’s something to get kids started off with -it includes a break separator tool- so it wasnt really something awesome. I figured I could use with some more emergency vehicles and mini-figs (especially the kid). Furthermore, Lego kinda skimps on the amount of jewels they give you with sets, so more jewels is more good 😀

Lego City 60023 Lego City Starter Set- back

Brave New Lego World: day CXL: 7498 Police Station + 60015 Coast Guard Plane GET!

Day 140, 3/07/2013:

Since the time I got back into Lego – late October last year- all the larger Lego City sets (sets that cost over 100AUD; usually between 130AUD and 150AUD) have been discounted to 100AUD or less… all except the 2011 7498 Police Station that is. I always thought it was strange that even newer sets like the 2012 4204 The Mine or the 2013 60004 Fire Station were being greatly discounted yet the older 7498 hadn’t; maybe 7498 was selling well at full retail price? And then of course when it’s finally on sale, both Myer and Target decide to discount it to under 100AUD! Unfortunately Myer was late in discounting 7498 so I ended up ordering it from Target online for 99AUD (RRP is 149.99AUD), and having it delivered (free!) to my local Target to pick up at a later date, so no Myer One points for me 😦

I’ve ordered from Target before (bought the Target exclusive 4205 Off-Road Command Centre at the start of the year) and the delivery was excellent: (very) large box meant I had received my Lego set dent free. So when I ordered the 7498 and the new 60015 Coast Guard Plane, I felt confident that they’d arrive in much the same condition as the 4205 (though I did realise 7498 is significantly larger…).

Unfortunately I was mistaken: the 7498 has quite a visible dent in the centre, causing noticable creases 😦

Lego City 7498 Police Station

The 60015 was placed on top of 7498, and obviously something was then stacked on top of the box they were in, resulting in the crease But I guess I still ended up getting the sets at pretty nicely discounted.

Lego City 7498 Police Station- back

Not surprisingly the back is crease-free -.- The back gives an excellent overview of what you can do with the set; love how the cell toilet is actually a hidden exit and that the cell doors can be opened and closed by a single sliding mechanism.

I was surprised that Target decided to sell the newly released 60015 Coast Guard Plane at a discounted price of 47AUD (RRP on shop.lego.com is 59.99AUD) but whatever! It was a no brainer to get 😛

Lego City 60015 Coast Guard Plane

Whilst the shape of the box is fine, there was something stuck to the front (tape?) and it’s been ripped off rather poorly Nooo my OCD!! This seaplane becomes the second seaplane I’ve obtained (already have the 2010 3178 Seaplane), and the boat my god-knows-how-many-now-th; pretty sure what little water space in the city cannot possibly accommodate all my boats…

Lego City 60015 Coast Guard Plane- back

I’d still love to modify my city so that the water sections were actually water, but for now I think that’s beyond the abilities of the cheap IKEA tables I’m currently using 😛 And once more I’m reminded why I prefer to purchase my Lego sets in person: I can make sure I get sets that haven’t been sat on/crushed/kicked about/etc.

Brave New Lego World: day LXXII: 60009 Helicopter Arrest + 40052 Springtime Scene + 850449 Minifig Accessory Pack GET!

Day 72, 26/04/2013:

Despite being sent out at the same time as the Pick A Brick order, the sets I ordered from shop.lego.com arrived two days later. I have not been able to find any retailer in Australia that sells the 2013 60009 Helicopter Arrest, so I decided to purchase this directly from Lego in order to get the free* shipping (*free for orders of 150+AUD). Edit: Toys R Us AU (and USA) have an exclusive on this set:

Lego City 60009 Helicopter Arrest

Lego City 60009 Helicopter Arrest- back

Considering the order hadn’t reached 150AUD yet (this set costs 79.99AUD), I also ordered the totally radical 21.99AUD 2012 850449 Lego Minifigure Accessory Pack duuude:

850449 Minifigure Accessory Pack

850449 Minifigure Accessory Pack- back

There should be some space around the beach to place this set (hopefully).

Still short of 150AUD, I also ordered the newly released 2013 12.99AUD 40052 Springtime Scene:

40052 Springtime Scene polybag

40052 Springtime Scene polybag- back

This set should fit in around the forest police sets/area on table 3 (assuming that doesn’t change). Lego was also doing a deal where I could get the 40049 Mini Soptwith Camel if I bought something from the Creator series, so in order to get, I purchased the 9.99AUD 626 Large Green Baseplate:

40049 Mini Sopwith Camel polybag

626 Large Green Baseplate

Figured I’d need a large green baseplate eventually and thought I might as well get it now whilst its purchase served an immediate purpose.

40049 Mini Sopwith Camel polybag- back

Granted the mini Sopwith Camel won’t really fit in with other airplanes due to scale, I reckon I can get it in somewhere without it sticking out like a sore thumb.

Brave New Lego World: day LXIX: 4438 Robbers’ Hideout GET!

Day 69, 23/04/2013:

The 2012 4438 Robbers’ Hideout is one of those sets I have never seen in Australian stores, most likely because it’s been quite some time since I visited Toys R Us. Turns out this set is a TRU exclusive in the US, which usually translates to a TRU AU exclusive as well. However, TRU rarely have a sale (nevermind a Lego one) and I’d rather not pay full retail price for it (it’s on their site for 84.99AUD) So I eventually decided to bite the bullet and just go to BrickLink and purchase it there; whilst I would save about 50% there (got it for about 44AUD), most of that saving disappeared in shipping costs 😦 Oh well, the downfalls of buying Lego overseas… But at least I wasn’t buying it at Australian RRP from Toys Rnt Cheap! \^o^/

Lego City 4438 Robbers’ Hideout

I’ve been having difficulties placing this set somewhere on the table, as I reckon this set should be hidden away; what’s the point of a hideout if it’s in plain sight from the road? However the design of the hideout building makes it difficult to squirrel in some corner (has a front entrance, garage entry on the left and an open back).

Lego City 4438 Robbers’ Hideout- back

I guess I’ll eventually figure out where to put this set; it’s most definitely on table 3, which I won’t start on until probably next year some time.

Brave New Lego World: day XXXV: 60008 Museum Break-in GET!

Day 35, 20/03/2013:

I’ve been wanting to purchase this set for a while, but given it’s high price (89.99 AUD) I’ve held off.

Thankfully Myer had a sale that didn’t require buying something of a similar price (though I did have to buy some roads), so I was able to get the final price to down to about 56AUD 🙂

Lego City 60008 Museum Break-in

I guess part of the high price is because of the functioning (spot)light, as well as the number of minifigs (6).

Lego City 60008 Museum Break-in- back

I always welcome more gold, but now I get to have rare artworks and artefacts thanks to this set!

Brave New Lego World: day XXIX: 3368 Space Centre + 3367 Space Shuttle + 3661 Bank & Money Transfer GET!

Day 29, 14/03/2013:

I’m a regular at the Whirlpool Lego thread, and one day someone mentioned the reasonable shipping fees from the UK retailer John Lewis. Checking their Lego products I found that they had 3 Lego City sets I really wanted, including a special edition one. Specifically they were the 2011 3368 Space Centre, 3367 Space Shuttle and the 3661 Bank & Money Transfer sets. They were also reasonable priced, if not well priced, eg: 3661 is listed at 28.14GBP, which is roughly 40.95AUD; BrickLink has prices start at about 43AUD).

However the whole purchasing process wasn’t exactly smooth. For starters, it took several order placements and an international call to their customer support line to find out that using an AMEX card requires you to put the address the bills get sent to as the actual billing address, for security reasons (WTF). Then a few days after I place the orders, John Lewis go and drop the prices on 3368 and 3661… And then it took over two weeks for the orders to arrive, even when it took other people on Whirlpool a week. And to top it off, because I sent the packages to my work address, the street name was cut off due to the number of characters in the address field so delivery was delayed a day…

Anyhoo, they finally arrived:

Lego City 3367 Space Shuttle

This set, for some reason, was sent in just a plastic bag, as opposed to placed in the box the other two sets came in. There’s quite a bit of damage evident, though who knows if it was like that before or during shipping :S

Lego City 3367 Space Shuttle- back

And a space shuttle can’t be without a launch pad:

Lego City 3368 Space Centre

And it comes with a poster!!!!1

Lego City 3368 Space Centre

I was actually most happy at getting this, given I like/need more Lego money, it’s a building (that doesn’t take up a huge amount of space) and it’s a special edition (usually rarer/harder to get/more expensive):

Lego City 3661 Bank & Money Transfer

Quite like how the money bags are green. With the variety of minifigs and vehicles it’s a nice well-rounded set.

Lego City 3661 Bank & Money Transfer- back