Lego Star Wars Tie Fighter 75095 Coming May 2 in US

The new Tie Fighter 75095

Before i started collecting lego, i had been a vintage star wars fan for a long time. Tie fighters & pilots is one of my favourite character in the Star Wars legacy.

Here are some of my collection pictures. Vintage Star wars Kenner Tie Fighters from 1983.

Lego & Vintage Tie Fighters

meeting the classic figure (from 1983)

Recently I had less time on lego blogging due to work commitment. A week ago, i received the tie fighter pilot purchased from ebay, just adding an extra figure to a team of vintage tie fighters. I thought it will be cool to have a picture of this 2 figures.

Star Wars Millennium Falcon Lego or Vintage?

The New Star Wars Millennium Falcon 7965 (SGD 329.90)
nice, but out of budget :P

I always thought that spending on classic vintage toys is a much more expensive hobby as compared to buying toys off the shelves at retail. The time, energy & luck in getting the vintage piece is certainly 100 times more challenging than just buying a toy off the shelf. Now this new Lego SW (plus all license products) are over-rated and definitely overpriced.

the new minifigures

it all began in 1979....

This picture was taken back in 2006, when i aquired the 1979 Star Wars Millennium Falcon Spaceship MIB (including cardboard inserts), figures are not included. It cost less than the new Lego MF (factor in inflation & price today), even if i were to include the 6 loose perfect mint condition figures. The R2-D2 can easily be more than USD 20, a 1979 Luke will not be less than USD 25. A C9.5 Ben around USD 25. The six figures are valued between USD 100 - 120. For vintage stuff, the price is constant and had appreciated over the years.

This photo had been used by dozens on the internet even appearing in youtube clips, gathered more than 5,000 pageviews on flickr. (5.8k views when i checked today). A 1979 rare almost perfect box MF, more than 30 years old.

my photostream

In terms of collection value, i knew lego cannot be compared with others. Lego is for fun and play. But the real value of lego (in terms of price) is certainly not there, it is not worth that in my opinion. Price is always determined by actual demand and how rare an item is, and whether someone is willing to pay the price. Spending $300... i'm skipping this.

Comparing Lego prices with other toys

Warcraft 3 Mountain King (dwarf). The 2 lego dwarf cost more than the mountain king (slight inflation), bought at a local sale for SGD10 (just a few years ago). Currently, you can't buy 2 lego dwarf at SGD 10. The mountain king weights 500g, 1/2 kg of plastic.

No point discussing behind my back, lego dwarves

Recent purchase of 5 legacy saga legends snowtrooper
(one of the best detailed action figure over the years)
The cost of 5 snowtoopers (including postage) is about the same price i paid for a box of Lego 8084 Snowtrooper battle pack.

The face behind the mask...
Cost of 1 saga hoth trooper = 1 lego hoth trooper

1980 vintage star wars German YPS hoth trooper (one of the rare variant) together with the lego figure, the german figure with description was first posted on my flickr album in 2007.
the lego figure will never reach the price of the vintage figure, it's quantity & history.

Been posting on lego for quite sometime, my other toys are looking forward for some exposure too. Lately, i have been looking at the current lego prices, it is easy to agree that lego prices has been increasing every year.

When a product gets more popular (higher demand), the market price don't drop with the increasing demand, but it just increases together with the market demand, this is the case for lego. This is profit maximization, however for consumers there is a way to control this.

i'm comparing action figures with lego minifigures, some of you might not agree with it.

post your comments below.

AFA Graded Lego?

Legoland 6030 Catapult USD 175 (exclude postage)

Legoland 6621 Fire Truck USD 145 (exlude postage) 85 NM+

Some serious toy collector likes to send some of the rare or nice item and get it graded by AFA. Others prefer to buy AFA items. I have seen lots of vintage star wars moc graded by AFA, plus all sort of action figures (mint on cards) and boxed toys. But for lego, this is the first time i came across them, currently on ebay.

The problem with AFA graded items is that in humid countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, the item might get moldy, at the end of the day there might be the need to crack open the case to protect the toy from further damage. The toy is always more precious than the case or grading itself. For me i don't go for AFA or display my collectable toys, but carefully stored them inside cupboards & dark places (not expose to sunlight).

It is expensive to posted to AFA, after grading they will send it back, the postage incurred plus service charges are costly. On display, owners will tell others they own an AFA graded item (usually cost USD 100 or more to get it graded). Kind of silly to me (you don't need someone to tell you that you own a mint item), you can save money to expand your collection or just buy a protective plastic case to protect it.

Personally, I don't think lego fans are into AFA stuff.

* NM means near mint.
there are 65, 70, 75, 80, 85, the best is probably 90 (almost direct from factory with minimum handling)

Post your comments below, like to hear some feedbacks from readers:)

It's A Trap!

Way before serious lego collection for the last 3 years, I was a lifelong vintage star wars collector (Kenner). My collection includes MIB, carded figures, vehicles, playsets, action figures and others. This year I even started collecting some of the animated cartoon cels of Ewoks (pictures shown on my main blog)

Here is a picture of Lego Admiral Ackbar together with the original vintage star wars figures from Return of the Jedi 1983.

In case you wonder what is it all about, here is the classic scene from the movie: It's A Trap!



And why is it so popular?

Dragon Knight

The Dragon Slayer Knight

Received this purchase today. Picked up 3 loose figures from UK a week ago, at a very good price (sometimes there are something you cannot miss). Well, this got to be one of the coolest knight helmet and shield (the first time to own one). For the body torso, it shows a dragon (more like a lizard), have no idea where which particular set has this body torso.

Dragon Slayer on horseback on his way to slay some dragons (probably get killed). Used one of the red horse headgear

The 3 loose mixed knights, an additional wolfpack figure with shield. The black torso on the left is actually a vintage pirate captain torso, it is not shown in the seller's picture.

Check 21 Sept post on my friend's Dragon Knight Cavalry

Dragon Knight Army

Lego Insane Black Falcon Army

This picture shows the commitment of a lego collector who amassed such a huge army. He called it the Insane Black Falcon Army. If each black falcon knight is to cost a minimum of 5 dollars (black falcon shield & body torso don't come cheap, I'm sure it is more), we can easily estimate the cost here. The large crossbows at the side provided depth for this offensive force.

Lego builds profit, market share in first half

COPENHAGEN

LEGO, Europe's biggest toymaker boosted profit and market share in the first half of the year, helped by sales of Star Wars and Lego City building-block sets and the introduction of new board games.

Net income jumped 64 per cent to 1.12 billion kroner (S$256 million) in the first six months, up from 684 million kroner for the same period last year, the Billund Denmark-based company said yesterday in a statement.

Revenue rose 34 per cent to 5.86 billion kroner, from 4.37 billion kroner, extending a growth streak that began in 2004.

The group said all its markets "recorded double-digit growth rates in its sales" during the period, including key markets such as the United States and Eastern Europe.

Classic product lines like Lego City, Lego Star Wars, Lego Technic and Lego Duplo generated the largest sales.

The compnay said that it increased its share of the global toy market to 5 per cent in the period as the market expanded by about 2 per cent.

That compares with Lego's 4.8 per cent market share for the whole of last year, and 3.6 per cent in 2008.

Lego said it has had a "positive reception" for the introduction of new board games such as Minotaurus that compete with products by market leader Hasbro.

The group's chief executive, Mr Joergen Vid Knudstorp, said yesterday that he was satisfied with the result.

"All our markets can report strong growth," he said in the statement.

"We are moving into our peak season when our market releases will include a number of brand new Lego Harry Potter products," he added.

Lego, which estimates that children spend five billion hours a year playing with its multi-coloured bricks, has bought licences from movie-makers including Lucasfilm and Walt Disney.

Meanwhile, Hasbro, based in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, in the United States, reported on July 19 that second-quarter revenue declined by 7 per cent.

The family-owned Lego does not release quarterly figures.

BLOOMBERG, AP


With the huge increase in sales, I guess lego price is just going up, the price is already markup by about 5-10% this year.

We had already sense the strong buying of lego in Singapore this year compared to previous years, it seems more and more people are jumping into lego. The speed at which lego is sold at the recent sales proved that the demand is getting stronger. Check my 20 Aug post.

As a vintage star wars collector, I don't collect Lego Star Wars now, as it is just too pricey in my opinion.. and true Star Wars collector will go into the original 80s vintage stuff, this is where the value lies.

Anyway...just have fun brickin'. I will make a post on the shipment I received last night.