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Sale on Legos for the Holidays

Click through the link above to get 25% off these Lego sets plus free shipping offers! Best Black Fri Lego offers!

8091

Republic Swamp Speeder (TM)

25% off

10199

Winter Toy Shop

25% off

8128

Cad Bane’s Speeder (TM) V39

25% off

2519

Skeleton Bowling V39

25% off

8041

Race Truck V39

25% off

8404

Public Transport V39

25% off

7585

Horse Stable

25% off

10210

Imperial Flagship

25% off

3180

Tank Truck V39

25% off

10198

Tantive IV™

25% off

5659

The Great Train Chase V39

25% off

7583

Playful Puppy V39

25% off

7587

Horse Jumping V39

25% off

3850

Meteor Strike V92

25% off

3179

Repair Truck V39

25% off

10195

Republic Dropship wi

25% off

10215

Obi-Wan’s Jedi Starf

25% off

3852

Sunblock V140

25% off

5839

World Grand Prix™

25% off

8228

Sting Striker V39

25% off

3851

Atlantis Treasure

25% off

8221

Storming Enforcer V39

25% off

8227

Dragon Dueler V39

25% off

8423

World Grand Prix Racing Rivalry™

25% off

10194

Emerald Night

25% off

Lego scene by son constructed. Summer’s over now . . . better start on the fall scene.  Just got his Legos set up in the Princeton house.

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Plan Ahead for the Best Legoland California Discounts

Legoland is fun, but expensive. With adult one-day tickets almost $70 and child tickets almost $60, taking a family quickly adds up. Parking is $12. Plus you will need to eat and maybe shop.

But if you plan ahead, you can save a bundle. Here’s some tips on how to get free Legoland tickets, the best Legoland coupons, and the best deals at Legoland California. I’ve used these tips to save at Legoland San Diego, but they may work with other Legoland parks as well.

Join Lego Club. If you have ever purchased a Lego set or received Legos as a gift, you received an invitation to join Lego Club. You probably just tossed the card away. But joining Lego Club is a great idea. Lego Club is totally free! Club members get a free subscription to Lego Magazine, which comes about every other month. And Lego Magazine often has coupons for discounts at Legoland and other special offers. Sign up by sending in the card that came with your Lego set, or even easier just sign up online.  There is no downside really to joining because you do not ­get a bunch of junk mail or spam. Plus the magazine is fun for Lego lovers. It has the latest sets and news about Legos and is well designed. (As a graphic designer, I give the magazine top praise.) Offers in the past have included a free child admission to Legoland.

Join BrickMasters. BrickMasters is not free. You pay about $40 to join for a year plus about another $5 for shipping. What this buys you is six exclusive Lego sets sent throughout the year. If you are a Lego lover, it is fun when the new set comes in your mailbox. These sets are not big, but they are exclusive, which means you cannot get them in any store. In addition, you get a couple coupons for  $5 off at Lego.com. The way I look at it, that basically gives you free shipping if you want to buy at Lego.com. Sure, you can get Lego sets at other places. But Lego.com offers “Pick-A-Brick,” a way to buy individual pieces you can’t get anywhere else. Plus you get six BrickMaster Magazines a year. These are similar to the free magazine you get with Lego Club, but with more pages and better coupons. Best of all? BrickMaster gives you a coupon for a free child admission to Legoland with a paid adult! Your free child ticket comes in the mail. If you are planning a trip to Legoland, it makes sense to join BrickMasters just for the free child admission coupon.

UPFATE: Lego recently announced they will be replacing BrickMaster with another program in 2011. Lego has a special offer letting you order the 2010 LEGO BRICKMASTER exclusive sets and magazine content in one shipment. It includes the free entry coupon. No word yet on what will replace BrickMaster in 2011.

Join both Lego Club and BrickMaster. Even though the magazines are similar, it makes sense to join both Lego Club and BrickMaster because you get more coupons that way.

Get a Legoland Membership PLUS Pass. If you think you will go back to Legoland more than once a year, it makes sense to look into getting a membership PLUS pass. You get free admission plus free parking and a discount at the shops and restaurants in the park. Getting a pass is a great deal if you live near San Diego.

Buy an annual Membership PLUS pass for one child. Believe it or not, this pass may make sense even if you never visit again. That’s because this PLUS pass comes with a free guest pass! The default is for that pass to come to you in the mail for a future use. But if you ask, you can get the free pass that same day! In addition you get free parking. If you already paid for parking, ask for a refund and they will give you back $12! In addition, you get 20% off at all Legoland restaurants and 10% off at shops. It saved us a bundle even if we never go back. If you do get a pass, you will get special offers throughout the year that may include an additional ticket for a friend at another time. For more information on Legoland passes, see its FAQ page.

If you get a one-day ticket and wish you had got a two-day ticket or a membership pass, check with guest services before you leave and you may be able to apply the price of your ticket toward the other ticket or pass.

Check for a Local Legoland Promotional Deal. If you live in Southern California or have friends and family who do, watch for promotional deals. Sometimes Legoland will partner with another business such as a restaurant to give out buy-one-get-one coupons for Legoland California.

Check for San Diego Savings Deals on Legoland. Many San Diego area tourist websites offer Legoland discount tickets and Legoland vacation packages along with other San Diego tourist sites.

Check for Costco Legoland Deals. If you belong to Costco, check out its latest deal for buying discount Legoland California tickets. Costco often has great deals on Legoland. You can find these at any Southern California Costco.

Do a Keyword Search for “Legoland” and “Coupon.” You can often find a deal for $8 off per ticket or sometimes more. Do a search on Twitter as well.

Use Auto Club Legoland Discount. Be sure to show your Auto Club card if you buy tickets at the gate at Legoland because you get a discount. Check the AAA site. Often it is 10% off.

Use an Airline Legoland Discount. if someone in your family works for a commercial airline, they can get a discount on up to six tickets. Check the website for latest offer, but it has bee 20% off.

Use a Military Legoland Discount. Active military get a discount at Legoland. Check the website, but it has been 10%.

Consider a Legoland Hopper Ticket. Legoland recently added the Sea Life Aquarium right next door, which requires separate admission. In June 2010, the world’s first Lego-themed water park will open at Legoland California, covering an area of 5.5 acres and featuring everything from waterslides to an area where guests can build their own raft. If you think you want to visit the water park or aquarium as well as the original Legoland, check out special deals for “Hopper” tickets that allow you to do more than one park for a discount.

Save on Food at Legoland. If you don’t want to spend a fortune on food, you can bring a picnic. However, you will have to eat it on the grassy area outside the park. Remember that annual pass holders get a discount at all restaurants in the park . . . just remember to show the card.  It is easy to forget. Check out the kids meals . . . they are usually a better deal.

Don’t Waste Time at Legoland. Nobody wants to pay for waiting in lines. Lines for popular Legoland attractions can get long and you can end up waiting more than an hour in line. Try to avoid going to Legoland on the most popular days. Try to go to the most popular attractions first before the lines get too long. Bring a phone or ipod or other little game to entertain yourself while waiting in line. Wear comfortable shoes.

Review the Legoland Site. Before making your plans or purchasing tickets, be sure to review the Legoland website. It shows all the rides and attractions so you can get an idea of how to plan your day or days at the park. It also gives you the height restrictions on rides.

Don’t Buy a Poncho at Legoland. If you want to go on the water rides, consider bringing  a plastic trash bag to put over your clothes. The park sells cheap ponchos, but bring your own. In hot weather little kids sometimes bring swimsuits to play in water. Throw swimsuits in and have the kids change in a restroom. They will have a blast at the water sites.

Be Careful of the Souvenirs You Buy at Legoland. You can buy tons of different Lego sets and other Lego products in the park. But if you are traveling on a plane to get home, skip the big sets. You can buy them in a store near you or order online from Amazon or Lego.com. You do not want to have to deal with getting big packages through security or packing them.

Click for current sales and Deals on Legos on Amazon

If Time is More Important Than Money. This post is about saving money at Legoland . . . but if you are flush with cash and hate waiting in line, you may want to consider the secret Legoland wristband: you pay twice as much for admission, but it lets you cut in line!

You won’t find a lot of promotion about the wristband on the website or even at the ticket kiosk.
The website does have a short paragraph on it:

Premium Play Pass (Front of Line Privilege)
The Premium Play Pass is available at $150 for adults and $130 for children and includes one-day admission to LEGOLAND® California and SEA LIFE™ Aquarium, front-of-line privileges and reserved seating at our shows. These passes are available in a limited quantity on a first-come, first-served basis at our outside Guest Services window. Advance reservations are not possible.

I learned about the Legoland wristband in a Los Angeles Times article.
According to the article:

Compared to other amusement parks, Legoland’s line-skipping program is admirably low-key, said theme park aficionado Robert Niles, editor of Theme Park Insider.

It’s like a secret entrance for the well-heeled crowd.

To be honest, if you go to Legoland on a busy day, chances are you will end up waiting in lines that last an hour or more. So try to go on a less popular day, or maybe check out the orange wristband deal. But remember, the wristbands are limited, so get there early.

I hope you find these tips helpful. Let me know in comments section below if you have any other tips for visiting Legoland to add.

If you want to learn more about Legoland, check out the book below.

Believe it or not, you can get free songs for your ipod from Amazon. You might download some to listen to while you wait in line. Check out link below.

Related posts:
Lego adds new Toy Story sets
Lego Rock Band Review
New Harry Potter Lego Sets Coming
Review of a Great Surf Camp near San Diego

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New Harry Potter Lego Sets Coming

Rumor has it that a half dozen new Harry Potter Lego sets will be coming later this year (2010). We have not seen any Harry Potter sets in the Lego store in a long while, which is shame especially because the Harry Potter sets were one of the few themes that appealed to girls as well as boys. My daughter has a couple of them. Some of the new sets may be mostly be re-working of prior models, but at least it is something on the shelves.

4736 Dobby’s Release

4737 Quidditch Lesson

4738 Hagrid’s Hut

4840 The Burrows

4841 Hogwart’s Express

4842 Hogwart’s Castle

If you hear anything more about the new Harry Potter Lego sets let me know.  Meanwhile, although Harry Potter Lego sets are tough to find in stores, Amazon has a diverse selection.

If you ever buy Harry Potter Legos, or any other Legos for that matter, keep the pieces together and try to keep the box. I’ve found these sets retain their value. If you grow tired of them, you can often sell them for more than you paid (if the set is complete). I’ve never re-sold though, cause they are just too fun, and they are timeless. The kind of toy you can hand down to the next generation.

Related posts:
Lego adds new Toy Story sets
Lego Rock Band Review
How to get the Best Deals on Legoland California

Cute winter village scene at Lego.com!

Toy Story Legos Review: Fun that Retains Value in More Ways Than One!

Legos are my all-time favorite toy. My sons loves them. And I do not even mind spending a small fortune on them. Legos are well made: they fit together perfectly, rarely break, and last forever. Legos inspire creativity, and more than that, they make kids think. I am always amazed at how my son uses pieces from different sets to engineer something totally new.

On a recent trip to the Big Shop in Legoland I was surprised to see a new genre of Lego sets based on an all-time fav kid movie: Toy Story! How cool is that? Classic Toy Story characters like Woody, Buzz, Jesse and Bullseye, and Stinky Peet, and even the little green army men and Zurg are now minifigs! If you are a Toy Story fan, you are gonna fall in love with them.

Introducing new Toy Story Legos is yet another smart move by Lego Company, which has  flourished despite a down economy. According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, Lego has had a sharp revival: in  the first half of 2009, while “jittery consumers sent global toy sales down 5%, Lego increased its sales 23%.”

Another thing I like about Lego toys is that if you keep a set in good condition and keep the box, the toy retains its value.  I learned that when my son wanted Star Wars Lego sets that were no longer in stores . . . and found you could get them on Ebay or a number of specialized Lego re-sell sites, but you would have to pay sometimes double or more the original price.  Even a rare minifigure alone without the rest of the set could go for $50 or more.

Like Star Wars, the 1995 Pixar movie Toy Story is a timeless classic loved by both kids and adults with sequels.  So I would expect that the original Toy Story Legos sets may someday be collector’s items.  Hmmm.  Maybe these aren’t toys, but fun investments?

Some collectors buy two sets: one for play, and one for the closet to be brought out at a later date and sold.  Hey, isn’t selling old toys in original boxes a part of the whole Toy Story theme?

Toy Story 2 came out in 1999 to even bigger success than the original. Toy Story 3 is scheduled to be released in June, 2010.  So I bet more Lego Toy Story sets will be out in time for the movie’s release.

If you have a kid who likes Toy Story, check out the new Toy Story Legos, and if you want one of the original sets, I would act sooner rather than later.  You don’t want to pay more on Ebay because you waited.

Another cool thing about the new Lego sets is that the instructions can be found online at lego.com. Now that we have Toy Story Lego sets, I wonder if Legos will show up in the next Toy Story movie. If you get a Toy Story Lego set, let me know what you think of it.

My favorite of the new sets is Toy Story Woody’s Round Up Lego Set 7594 as it has Woody, Jesse and Bulleye (the horse) as well as Stinky Pete.  Plus it has a gold mine wired with dynamite, a jail, a sheriff’s office, a safe, and a catapult trap in the sidewalk.

Toy Story Woody and Buzz Rescue Lego set 7590 has both Woody and Buzz Lightyear. There’s also a car with pull-back motor.

Toy Story Army Men on Patrol 7595 has little green army men minifigure that are too cute.

Lego has put out 6 sets so far, and more may be on the way. All are available on Amazon and some purchases may qualify for free shipping.

You can also find these sets at toy stores, the Lego Store, or Lego.com.

Related posts:
Lego Rock Band Review

New Harry Potter Lego Sets Coming

Best deals on Legoland California

Great book series for boys: Review of Percy Jackson Series

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Lego Rock Band Review

Legos, rock music, and video gaming, what more could you ask?

The new Lego Rock Band videogame works with your existing Rock Band instruments. In the minifig version of the rock band, those cute little Lego minifigs rock out with you as you strum along on your guitar, beat the drum or sing as notes fall down from the top of the screen. The game features an eclectic list of songs, a charming story and loads of fun gameplay. You can play on your own or with up to three friends.

Lego Rock Band is kid friendly, and even includes a super-easy mode for younger players. You can turn off the kick pedal for drummers for beginners or even play a shorter version of any track. The 45 songs are fun, but you cannot expand Lego Rock Band’s catalog through the Music Store, nor does the game have an online play element. My kids have been playing this since Christmas, and they love it. One thing I like: the songs are good, so I do not even mind them playing it loud.

The minifig characters charm, just like they do in other Lego video games.

Well worth the money.

The game runs about $50, but you need to buy instruments separately. If you do not already have instruments, you might buy Rock Band 2 Bundle. Although this special edition is in short supply, Amazon does have it in stock for about $140 for the Wii version. You might also consider Beatles Rock Band Bundle, although that is pricier.

Amazon sells Rock Band 2 as just the game or as a special bundle. Check out the Amazon link below, then choose your platform and then and choose “special” to order the bundle. I would order it soon as it is sold out in most stores now and may sell out on Amazon as well.

Related posts:
How to Save Money at Legoland
New Toy Story Legos: review
Jedi Apprentice Book Series Review

Just Out: A Must-Have Book for Every Star Wars Lego Fan!

This book is sure to become a collector’s item . . . and it comes with a special mini-figure!

Just out in time for the holidays is a new visual dictionary of Star Wars Lego. My son’s room is filled with Star Wars Legos sets, and he is going to love this book when he unwraps it.  The book has lush photos of all the Star Wars sets and mini-figures.

I got mine at the Lego Store the day it came out and was very impressed. The store had promotional games and even people dressed up in top-notch clone trooper costumes. Not everyone is lucky enough to have a Lego Store nearby, but it also at bookstores, Lego.com and Amazon. If you know a kid who loves Star Wars Legos, get this book and get your holiday shopping done early. The book is reasonably priced as well.

The book comes with a cool mini figure. The mini figure and the book itself are bound to become collector’s items.

Product Description
In true DK style, LEGO® Star Wars ™: The Visual Dictionary elucidates, illuminates, and
excites even the most discerning LEGO Group, Star Wars™, and minifigure fans around the
world.. Darth Vader, Boba Fett, Yoda, Luke Skywalker, and more are brought to life with
dozens of little-known facts and hundreds of photos, as are accessories, vehicles, weapons,
and even the Death Star! Learn about the history, manufacture, and construction of the
minifigures of the Star Wars galaxy, and come away a LEGO® Jedi Master.

Product Details

* Reading level: Ages 4-8
* Hardcover: 96 pages
* Publisher: DK Publishing (October 5, 2009)
* Language: English
* ISBN-10: 0756655293
* ISBN-13: 978-0756655297
* Product Dimensions: 11.9 x 10 x 0.9 inches

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Stunning book, Love it!, October 7, 2009
By L. A. REED
Very nice hardback book with lots of stunning pictures of what else? Star Wars Legos!

We are big fans of Legos in general and this book did not disappoint. It came with a bonus Luke Skywalker mini-figure. As with all DK books, you get great pictures, thorough descriptions, and just a generally enjoyable book to collect or read.

I bought 2 copies of this book, one to read, and one to collect.

The only thing that bothered me a (very tiny) little bit was how the Luke Skywalker mini-fig was packaged. At first glance it looks like a much thicker book, but about half of the thickness is a spacer placed inside the book to make room for the mini-fig, so it lays flush with the front cover. I posted some pictures on the main item page if you want to see what I mean. Nothing that I would knock a star off for though.

Overall, we are VERY happy with this book. Great price for a quality book that will not disappoint young and old!

4.0 out of 5 stars Great for Lego Star Wars Fans and Collectors, October 7, 2009
By Wendy Woudstra “PublishingCentral.com” (Ontario, Canada) -
My son adores Lego, and the Star Wars sets in particular. When this book arrived in our mailbox, he was gone for hours, hiding in his room poring over all the sets he has, the sets he wants, the sets he missed out on, the evolution of the various mini-figures, everything else included in this volume. While this book would NOT be appreciated by someone who isn’t a die-hard fan of the LEGO series, for those who collect, play with, and love the sets, it’s a great book at a great price.

The only problem with the book is that it will be out of date as soon as next season’s Lego Star Wars sets are announced.

On a final note, I didn’t realize when I ordered that it also came with a unique minifig, which is already selling on Ebay for more than the discounted price of the book.

Related post: Darth Maul Picking His Nose