Some updates, and Purchases

Hi All! Sorry for the long gap between posts! This is just a quick update on some stuff I'm gonna be doing in the near future.

This weekend, I'll be heading up to LEGOLand Malaysia for some family fun and shopping! I'll probably do some trip review/guide thing, as best as my phone's camera can manage. For those of you who've already been there, I'd appreciate ANY tips you may have regarding LLM! Just leave a comment below!

Next Thursday, I'll be flying up to Hong Kong and visiting In's Point for the very first time! So I'll be doing the trip review thingy, and maybe writing up a beginner's guide to shopping there for newcomers like me. Any tips? Do leave a comment!

Also, I've just come back from Malacca this Monday and I've got some really nice purchases!

As you can see, these are from Parkson's Departmental Store in Malaysia. They're currently running a pretty good 50% off sale on LEGO that's ending this month. I managed to get the entire Series 3 of the Retired Planets Series!

Also they're having some sort of Gift-With-Purchase promotion.

Lastly, this weekend is Black Friday/Cyber Monday!

For those of you who don't' know, Black Friday and Cyber Monday refer to the days around Thanksgiving in the USA, and are well known for the major sales. Last couple of years, LEGO.com had really nice clearance on sets (50% off or more) as well as TRIPLE VIP Points! Other retailers like Amazon are also in on it, so do take this chance to shop around! Better have it than regret it!

Brief Shopping Trip at LEGOLAND Malaysia

So this weekend, my family and I decided to head up to LEGOLAND Malaysia in Johor for a little family fun with some friends. On the upside, it was a really fun experience with all the rides and miniland displays with some pretty cheap food given the current exchange rate of SGD to MYR. On the downside, shopping was rather disappointing in terms of pricing and variety. 

This post will be covering only SOME of the stuff at LEGOLAND, largely because I forgot to take pictures. Sorry!!

So the first place I went when we got into the park was the Star Wars Miniland! Me being a Star Wars fan, I just couldn't miss this awesome attraction with dozens of model displays equipped with cinematic lighting and effects. 

Sorry for the poor photo quality! What I found good about this attraction was that it was entirely indoors, even the gift shop and queue area! Making it perfect for the current rainy season here in South East Asia. The gift shop had a very good variety of Star Wars sets, and is one of the few shops in the park where you can find Star Wars themed sets and merchandise other than The Big Shop. I bought a nice Star Wars magnet set with removable Minifigures to add to my collection, for just SGD $9! Everything else was about the same price as in Singapore.

If you're into UCS and larger sets, the shop has a good assortment of UCS Sets like the B-Wing, Death Star II, Red-Five X-Wing, Ewok Village and the Sandcrawler. These seem to be the only sets that are actually cheaper than the RRP in Singapore!

In the rest of the park, there are small shops spread out in each themed land each offering their own merchandise and sets. For example, the shops in the Castle/Medieval Themed Land stocks Friends, Castle, Lord of the Rings/Hobbit and Seasonal merchandise, while the Adventure Themed Land stocks CREATOR, Chima, Ninjago and for some reason, Galaxy Squad. The Adventurer's Depot at the Adventure-Themed land also serves as a clearance/sale centre, where retiring sets from themes like Galaxy Squad are sold at a slight discount. Do take the opportunity to go to the shops in every Land to buy anything you want! This is because while The Big Shop does have a wide variety of all themes, they don't stock all the sets and items from every theme. For example, the Arctic Sets and Polar Accessory Packs were widely available in the LEGO City Land, but were largely unavailable in The Big Shop. The same goes for the Star Wars UCS Sets. So do take the chance to buy whatever you want, to save time on backtracking later on!

These are the Seasonal Polybags that were available when I visited, I could only find them at the King's Market at the Castle/Medieval Themed Land.

This was the the Mini Market, near the entrance/exit of the park. Pretty good deal at roughly SGD $4 each, they make very good stocking stuffers or souvenir gifts. You can find them pretty much everywhere in the park, except the Star Wars Miniland of course.

The Big Shop from the Outside.

The Star Wars Collection. Pretty good variety, but not as much as at the Miniland. Got a couple of Toys R Us exclusives and UCS Sets, a lot more at the Miniland though. Not much in terms of LEGO Star Wars Apparel either.

More stuff, City and Minecraft. Not much City Arctic here in The Big Shop though. Much more available at the LEGO-City Themed Land.

These were available at the Cashier for RM 29.90 each. Not a bad deal as they're quite rare here in SG and for only SGD $12 each. These were only available at The Big Shop, so do check them out!

More LEGO CREATOR Eagle Polybags and Brick Separators.

The Brick Shop. This is where the Pick-A-Brick and Build-A-Minifigure was. PAB was RM 45 for 100g, and BAM was RM 25 for 3 if I'm not wrong. Pretty good deal, but the shop was rather lacking in variety of parts for both the PAB and BAM.

1 of 2 PAB walls. Good array of colors and parts, only problem was that you either can't find the part or color, or you find the right part in the wrong color! Didn't buy anything from here, price-wise isn't very cheap either. Hopefully the new LEGO Certified Stores in Singapore will be better!

So that's all for this quick review/guide! I'd definitely like to visit again as this park is perfect for young ages. Some rides and roller coaster even had 2 sub-rides of different heights/speeds/difficulty for the younger ones and older ones. Definitely a place to visit with friends!

I'll be flying up to Hong Kong this Thursday and visiting the fabled In's Point while I'm there. Do check back some time near Christmas for a guide/review of that too! I'll be taking much more pictures and making sure it's way more comprehensive than this one!

LEGO Store Opening in Singapore!

Great news! According to local LEGO Sites like Brickfinder on Facebook, there seems to be a LEGO-Certified store opening soon right here in Singapore!

This hasn't been confirmed officially by LEGO, but there has been an exact store address provided. Currently, it is to be at Suntec City somewhere on the 3rd Floor.

Some additional details include numerous product displays like in any other LEGO Brand Store overseas, and our very own Pick-A-Brick wall!

Also, Singapore will finally see Exclusive products released here at the same time as te US/UK/EU regions! Great news for all of us LEGO Collectors!

There's also some talk of an exclusive set giveaway to celebrate its opening on the 29th November 2014, so for all of us LEGO Fans, we'll be sure to mark that date on our calendar!

For me, it's sad to say I won't be going down for the opening because I'll be at LEGOLAND Malaysia instead. I guess it's quite and unusual dilemma! Do expect to see a trip report on the shopping at LLM!

Quick Update

Hi all! Sorry for the lack of posts recently, it's just that I've been really busy with some personal things, both LEGO and Non-LEGO.

So recently I've been working on some shelving, trying to display all my LEGO sets and minimize the space they take up in the cupboard. Hence, I've had a tough time making stable supports for each and every vehicle or set. Currently I'm making simple pillars of white bricks, on bases of round 6-6 plates. If any of you readers have any plates to let go, do let me know!

Also, I'll be visiting LEGOLAND Malaysia in a few weeks, as well as Hong Kong in December! I'm really excited for these, and I'll definitely take lots of photos and do lots of shopping. Maybe I'll do some photo reviews, but don't expect really hi-res pics from my iPhone's Camera.

Lastly, my Set Reviews are currently put on hold. This is because all of them are pretty much in a mess right now due to my shelves/display cabinets, and I have no idea which sets come with what, or where they are for that matter.

So that's all for this update! Have a great weekend!

LEGO Loot from LEGO HQ in Denmark!

So, my dad went on a business trip recently to Billund, Denmark. On the trip, he got to visit the LEGO Employee Store or P-Shoppen, and he got quite a number of LEGO Sets for me and my siblings.

LEGO P-SHOP

Interestingly, the sets that he bought in Billund were much cheaper than the RRP we have here in Singapore, and even that of the USA which pretty much has the cheapest prices due to the exchange rate and everything.

The Loot

These are the sets he bought: 75053 The Ghost, 41035 Heartlake Juice Bar, 2 21109 Exo-Suits, 2 30247 ARC-170 Polybags, 2 30244 Anakin's Jedi Interceptor Polybags and 30115 Jungle Boat Polybag.

And no. In case you were wondering, the LEGO Friends stuff is for my Sister, not for me.

And yes. I did buy 2 Exo-Suits, 1 for Me and 1 for my Brother.

For those of you who are more discerning, you may have noticed that there was a parts error in the earlier production runs of the 75053 The Ghost set, in which one minifigure had Black hair instead of brown. I've just built the set with my brother, and unfortunately this edition came with the Black hair. Looks like I'll be getting another parts order soon.

21109 LEGO IDEAS Exo-Suit

75053 LEGO Star Wars The Ghost

30244 LEGO Star Wars Anakin's Jedi Interceptor

In case some of you were wondering about the prices, all the sets he bought as shown in the first picture only cost a total of 990 DKK, which is around $214.25 SGD, inclusive of taxes. This is a VERY GOOD DEAL, considering The Ghost alone retails locally for $179.90 SGD and the Heartlake Juice Bar for $59.90 SGD.

The Exo-Suits were also much cheaper, setting us back only $32.46 SGD each, and the polybags only $3.25 SGD each.

Considering the Exo-Suit and Polybags are really hard to find in Singapore, this has been a great shopping trip. Thanks Dad!

On a side note, this has made me really want to go for the LEGO Inside Tour! I guess thats one more thing to add to my "Bucket List".