Finally! Real Deals on LEGO Sets... or are they? (Nov 2023)

If you can remember back a few years, 2020 was the pandemic and people were at home with a bunch of US government stimulus checks and nothing else to do. Many of them resorted to ordering LEGO sets to build in order to pass the time. As a LEGO fan, this is an awesome thing to happen. It’s great to see more people join the hobby and get into building. The downside was the pricing on LEGO sets. With high demand, sets flew off the shelves and the LEGO company could barely keep up. There was no need to have a sale or offer discounts. Then in August 2022, prices on a number of sets went up by around 25%.

It was a depressing and expensive time to be a LEGO fan, but great if you were the LEGO company raking in the profits.

I’m writing this post in November 2023. The US Federal Reserve has raised interest rates in an effort to fight inflation and the rampant spending on LEGO sets has dampened. A few years ago, new release sets were on backorder within a few hours of their release on LEGO Shop @ Home. That’s not happening as much anymore.

The big retailers in the US (Walmart, Target, Amazon) have been running sales for a few months now. Sales have been on everything from small CITY sets to larger Ideas and even UCS Star Wars sets. Definitely shop around before you pay full price on a set. Even some of the sets released in 2023 are being discounted already.

LEGO has been increasing sales as well. We’ve seen more discounts on and a lot of GWP offers with sometimes more than one GWP at a time if you spend a specific amount. This weekend is the LEGO® Insiders Weekend 2023 sales event. You can redeem codes to snag discounts on some bigger sets, grab 2X point on all sets and 3X or 4X points on a select few. This is along with GWPs at specific price points and I saw something about maybe being able to redeem fewer points for discounts. I suspect we’ll see a bunch of items go on sale as well.

However, I am calling foul on a few of the sales at LEGO this weekend.

#10255-1: Assembly Square is set to retire this year. It originally retailed for $279.99 in the US. In August 2022, the price increased to $299.99. This weekend there is an offer to redeem a $60 off the set. So LEGO raised the price and now they’re offering a sale on it.

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#21325-1: Medieval Blacksmith is also set to retire this year. It originally retailed for $149.99 and then the price increased to $179.99. Now it’s $35 off. I guess it’s a deal now, but that’s just bringing it back to the price it was before the price went up. How come there isn’t a bigger discount on this one?

In the end, I guess we should be glad for any discount at this point. Oh well. Happy shopping so you can have some happy building!

Set Review - #10255 - Creator Expert - Assembly Square (Modular Building) - Part 3

Part 1 of the review        Part 2 of the review

It was a challenge, but I managed to finish the build before moving.  Here is the rest of the review...

The fourth set of bags contains 5 parts bags.  It includes the second floor build above the bakery and flower shop which consists of the dentist's office and photographer's office.  Below is the complete version from the front.  

The dentist's office is impressively full of details.  The chair, light, and trays for the dentist to use all look similar to many dental facilities.  I don't know about some of the tools that he has to use, but I guess they weren't going to make special tools just for this set.  

The photographer has a small shop attached to the dental office and he shares a waiting room with the dentist.  The camera itself is very old looking, but is a great design of an old camera by LEGO bricks.  There is a photographer minifig (is this the first mustache in a modular?) and then you can see the photograph 2x2 tile on the wall.  There is also a white background for taking photos.  The box shows the ballerina figure (shown later) posing on it.

The fifth set of bags contains 7 parts bags.  As can be seen below, this completes the floors above the coffee shop.  It includes a music studio/store, the dance studio, and then the top of the building.

The second floor is the music shop.  It contains a counter with cash register and then some instruments you can buy to include a drum set, saxophone, acoustic guitar, and an electric guitar.  The store looks a little bare, but I'm sure you could MOC up some good additional things to fill it up the store like records or other instruments.

The third floor is the dance studio.  It contains a bar, mirror (similar to the barber shop from the detective's office), and piano with a seat to play.  Beyond that, there isn't much detail which is okay in my opinion.  The dance studio also has a clear door that opens up to a small balcony which can be seen in the picture on the bottom left below.

To roof of the 3 story building in Assembly Square deserves some mention.  The design is fairly simple, yet it comes across as very detailed and architectural (If that's the right word to describe it).  The designers used a piece new to me that I found pretty cool.  Brickset says it appears in 6 sets so apparently I'm not up on my new pieces.  

The sixth and final set of bags contains 7 parts bags.  It completes the top floor of the right side building, the fountain, and lamp posts.  To start off, the top floor is an apartment for a LEGO fan.  The instructions show a female minifigure with a baby minfigure.  You can decide whether those are the only 2 occupants or who the true LEGO fan is in that apartment.  The apartment contains an interesting design for a couch that folds out to be a bed as well.  There is a small kitchen and toilet in a room too.  In terms of LEGO, there is a table with a train display (and a Horizon Express?), a box for the cafe corner, an Eiffel Tower, and a few others I'll let you figure out on your own if you get the set.  

The back of the set shows the outdoor patio area with a grill/cooking area, seating, and a plant that has seen better days.  

The roof over the apartment has another simple, but cool design which includes a spire and even a white chicken.  I was disappointed in the roof over the outside patio area as it contains 2 BURPs (Big Ugly Rock Pieces).  I thought that for a Creator Expert modular building and for the 10th anniversary set they would come up with some great design similar to what was done in the Parisian Restaurant.  Oh well.  It still looks okay, just a disappointment that it is such a big piece.  

Last up is the fountain and lights.  The lights are similar to others from other modular sets.  The fountain is a nice touch to the square.  

Overall it is another amazing build.  I wish I had all of my modulars built so I could add this one to the mix and take a picture.  In my opinion, the Creator Expert team did an outstanding job putting this one together.  I like the use of some of the colors and techniques from previous modulars and a few of the fan references like the AFOL apartment.  While this set is expensive, I found it to be worth the price (even if I used a lot of VIP points).  The build was exceptional and challenging, the types of pieces and colors were fantastic, and the design will go great in many CITY scenes.  Happy building!

Set Review - #10255 - Creator Expert - Assembly Square (Modular Building) - Part 2

See part 1 of the review here

See part 3 of the review here

Assembly Square is slightly different from previous modular building sets.  There is a separate box inside the main box that contains bags numbered four through six.  The main box has bags one through three and the base plates.  The instructions are in a separate package, but there is not cardboard backing to it.  To be fair the book is quite thick so I don't think it will fold up during shipment.  Has anyone had this issue yet?  Also, no stickers.  YAY!

To start off, there are three bags labeled #1.  The first part of the build is uses the 2 base plates.  One base plate is the standard green 32x32 studs and the other is 16x32 studs in green as well. I haven't seen this one used in a while, but I do have some from when I was a kid.  Like the other modulars, this one contains a piece separator.  Here is the final build for the first set of bags..  

The designs for the sidewalks and floors are pretty intricate.  The addition of some angled tiled pieces in light gray and dark gray help to make it more detailed too.  The addition of some 1x2 plates with one stud help with play-ability later on when the various stores are finished and minifigs need to stand.

The carriage is part of the first set of bags.  It's a simple design as can be seen here.  

Next up is the second set of bags which includes 7 bags of bricks.  This includes the bakery and the flower shop along with a baker minifig and a minifig to work in the flower shop.  

First off... the bakery.  The left picture shows the front.  I like the use of the garage door pieces for the front window.  The design to add them in is pretty easy, but not something I would have thought of on my own.  Go Creator Expert team!  You can see the wedding cake in the front with the "wedding couple" on top.  The bakery has some great details to includes some cakes and other pastries on display throughout the store.  It also has an oven to cook the various items, but really no area to bake in.  I get it... not a lot of space and the designers did what they could given the space they had.

The flower shop is next and I included a top view here.  It is very detailed with various sizes of flowers.  As you can see, there is a bird and I think it is the first time there is a bluish-yellow bird.  Also, the design of the flowers that can be handed from one minifig to another is a first that I recall from any sets.  In this picture they are located right behind the minifig in a stand on the wall.

Above are pictures of the front and back.  The flower shop is actually completed in the next set of bags.  You can see the front of the bakery a little better with the pretzel on the front of the store and then I am also a fan of the bottom part of the half circle that will be completed in a later build as part of the floors above the bakery.  The awnings on the flower shop are fun shades of pink/purple too which help the store to standout.

The cafe makes up bag 3 with 4 bags of bricks.  The cafe is chuck full of some great details.  As you can see above, it includes a female barista and then a small dog.  Above and to the left is the front and exterior.  There is a fun 3D logo above the door for the coffee brand.  The steam coming out of the cup is a genius design.  The chairs on the outside are much fancier than the ones from the original Cafe Corner back in the day.  Inside, there's a couch by a table with some chairs and some fun lamps and various foods on the tables.  The barista has a small work station and cash register.  It definitely looks like a cozy place to sit back and enjoy a cup of coffee.

Next are pictures of the front and back of the set after the 3rd set of bags are done.  The left shows the completion of the flower shop to include the 3D flowers and some additional design to the front facade.  You can see on the right that the back of the flower shop has translucent green and clear pieces to let some natural light into the store.  You can see the window placement on the cafe and the green plant growing up the back of the cafe as well.  

So far so good.  No complaints yet.  Onto the rest of the build...

See part 3 of the review here

Set Review - #10255 - Creator Expert - Assembly Square (Modular Building) - Part 1

As an AFOL this is one of my favorite times of year, the arrival of the new modular building set.  Released on 2 January 2017, #10255 is the tenth year anniversary set for the modular building series.  The cost is $279.99 in the US for 4,002 pieces.  That works out to be $0.07 per piece.  This is typical for most of these sets in terms of price per piece, but 4,002 pieces is quite a bit more than usual.  There are 13 sets in all over the past 10 years and I am lucky enough to have 11 of them.  I'm missing The Green Grocer and Market Street.  

This will be a multi-part review as it will take me a while to build this.  For now, I have taken pictures of the box (for some real excitement).  So let the building begin!!!!!!!!

In case you missed it, here is the LEGO designer video.

See part 2 of the review here.

See part 3 of the review here