The One That Got Away: Biggest Non-Purchase Regret

rocao

the only way I'm going to build one is to buy all the parts for it!! (I'm about 80% complete).

Wow! You're building 10179 up from parts? Do you know how much it has cost you thus far?

creature

I regret not buying the Taj Mahal, I really wanted it because it is the largest set available, but by the time I had the money it wasn't available any more :(

I'm going to LEGOLAND Windsor next week and I really hope I can get one over there :)
If not, I'll have to wait for some set with 6000 pieces :)

Post edited by @Matthew -05/04/11 20.49 GMT - Reason for Edit: Grammar

drdavewatford

i regret not buying the Taj Mahal, i really wanted itbecause it is the largest set available but by the time i had the money it wasn't available anymore:(
i'm going to LEGOLAND Windsor next week and i really hope i can get one over there :)
if not, ill have to wait for some set with 6000 pieces :)

You won't find a Taj Mahal to buy at LEGOLAND Windsor - sorry. I suggest you take out a loan and resign yourself to eBay....!

rocao

^ Or you can try an emotional plea to this fellow, whom doesn't recognize the set to be anything more than the sum of its parts :
http://www.bricksetforum.com/discussion/comment/2400/#Comment_2400

bluemoose

Oy! I resemble the remark.

Crankin

Ha!

stagus

I've only been collecting for about a year but I am not happy about missing the online Lego shop clearance about Xmas time......is there any way of knowing when that will happen? I have the Greengrocer bought full price but would have bought more when it was on clearance but was sold out when I was casually browsing.

Is it true the Death Star is about to be cut?

rocao

As far as I know, 10185 Green Grocer was sold out well before the clearance sale. The website showed the reduction, but it was never in stock

Yellowcastle

That's my recollection as well

atkinsar

^ ah yes the phantom sale! I do wonder whether they did have some for sale, but LEGO employees get first dibs on the sale items, and that's why some items are out of stock by the time the public get to know about them.

Brickmaster47

I never bought the original Star Wars Clone Turbo Tank from 2005, the one with the light-up minifig... I was young then, and instead of saving (I could have afforded it in a couple of weeks) I instead just bought a number of smaller sets... now, looking at online prices for the set that go over the $400 mark, I'm hurting...!

brickupdate

@stagus Amazon has the Death Star listed as "discontinued by the manufacturer" and several AFOL's have reported LEGO employees telling them that LEGO has produced their last run of the set. No idea how many sets that means LEGO made. I'm assuming that it will be gone by mid-Fall. Amazon had 400+ of them in stock as of a week ago. I recently pulled the trigger and bought one. $400 is a ton of money, but I know that this set will shoot up in price on the secondary market once it's officially retired.

rocao

^ Where do you see it listed as discontinued? Can you provide a link?

mkoesel

^^^

Yikes, then I better call and get them to send me the missing parts from mine. My copy came with not one but two extra bags of one bag-type, and lacked another bag entirely. Due to this, I've never been able to complete the entire first floor of the set.

rocao

^ I haven't opened mine, and wasn't really planning to anytime soon due to it being queued behind other sets, but hearing this has me nervours.

Also, I saw two people mention in another thread that they were missing pieces from UCS Millennium Falcon.

Is there something about the manner of how these big UCS sets are packaged that increases the likelihood of missing parts (aside from the fact that there are more parts, obviously)?

Matthew

I wasn't even a Star Wars fan until 2 weeks ago... I feel I really ought to have this set but don't have the cash to fork out :-(

fox171171

I almost missed the UCS Falcon. Wanted it for the longest time. Then it was gone. Found one on eBay, got it for a little less than it would have cost to get it from Lego. The guy left the receipt in it, he got it for (I think) CDN$179. He said he helped set up a LEGO store and they had big discounts.

I did miss the UCS Y-Wing. See it from time to time on eBay. Usually missing pieces, or crazy high price.

May miss the UCS Lambda-class shuttle next!

mirandir

My biggest regret is to not save up some cash to buy a Green Grocer. Now it's pretty much to late... :(

1265

My biggest regret was taken many years off from collection and enjoying the brick. Only within the last year or two that I've taken a renewed interest in the hobby. Those years wasted has cost me dearly in getting those sets I've missed out on.

Iwantmorelegos

Jawa Sandcrawler...wish I would have bought it. Cloud City I sometimes wish I would have bought, but I can live without that one.

Yellowcastle

^ I haven't opened mine, and wasn't really planning to anytime soon due to it being queued behind other sets, but hearing this has me nervours. Also, I saw two people mention in another thread that they were missing pieces from UCS Millennium Falcon.

I'm getting more and more worried about this as I'm easily 100 sets behind in building including all modulars and UCS Falcon..

mackrel

I thought of another one. One time on ebay a person had listed a set in a regular box as the Imperial Star Ship 6211. But there was one problem. It had a UCS plaque. It sold for something like $121. To this day I don't understand why I didn't increase my bid.

rocao

@Yellowcastle: You have all the modulars and you haven't build a single one yet?

Yellowcastle

@rocao - Not a bleeping one. :o(. I've somehow transmogrified into just a collector. But now that I have a Lego room, I'm near ready to begin phase 1 of my Lego city. Here's hoping my modulars have all their pieces! :o). Since the falcon is not on the near agenda, just going to trust it's complete, I guess.

dmm32552

Pretty much every major retired Star Wars set. So frustrating that I gave up on collecting them to focus on other themes like Harry Potter & Indiana Jones because these are themes I can still complete (or complete enough to my liking -- I dont get the older versions of sets that have been/are being updated).

madforLEGO

Buying more 10190 Market Street sets (but judging by the demand on those Id say I was not the only one)
Buying Batman Arkham Asylums when TRU could not get rid of them even on sale.
Buying more Cafe Corners at Walmart.com when they were $120

madforLEGO

@Yellowcastle: You have all the modulars and you haven't build a single one yet?

Nor have I, I am in an apartment now and do not want to build something only to have to dismantle it (I learned that lesson with the 10184 Town plan) But I know better than to NOT buy one when they are available from Lego as I would just need to pay double when they sell out..

LuciusMalfoy7

My biggest regret... Would probably have to be the rest of the Batman theme. I got two sets, I believe, the Batcave and the Two-Face/Batmobile set, and then I was done. Sad, huh? I'm also very, very sad I didn't get the Agents sub. Its the only set I didn't get. I went to Target with the intent to treat myself and complete my collection. A week earlier it had been in stock. Then, suddenly it wasn't.

LegoCity750

A couple months ago , I was at TRU and I saw the 6754 Creator Family Home, and now its retired. I still wonder why i didn't buy it

drdavewatford

So what is it about retired sets that makes them more desirable than current ones ?!

A set sits on the shop shelf for months or even years without being bought. Then it's retired, and within hours people beat themselves up about not buying it and then shell out twice the MRSP to get it on eBay...... Freud would have a field day.

Legoboy

^ It's human nature to want what you can't have. My personality unfortunately, as with most of you I suspect, WILL have what it wants and thus pushes the prices up quickly once it's not easily available.

brickmatic

^^ I also think people want the set, but then hold off on the purchase because of cost and figure they'll be able to buy it soon in the future. Then the set is retired and people scramble to get the set they waited too long on getting.

Darkknight

LEGO City Harbor (7994). I would really like to have a couple of these for my LEGO train layout. I really didn't think LEGO would retire the set so quickly. Hopefully Lego will make a Maersk version to complement the new Maersk Train.

madforLEGO

LEGO City Harbor (7994). I would really like to have a couple of these for my LEGO train layout. I really didn't think LEGO would retire the set so quickly. Hopefully Lego will make a Maersk version to complement the new Maersk Train.

They have a new harbor set, though not as large, coming out soon.

gamermic

golden c3po!!!

princedraven

golden c3po!!!

Why on earth is this sooo expensive? I understand its limited to 10000, but isnt that the same with the White Boba?

meyerc13

I think it is because there wasn't a white Boba in the movie, but there was definitely a gold c3po.

atkinsar

^^ I think there were more like 20,000 White Boba's, there were 10,000 set aside for Europe alone.

thebrickster

mine was not getting the discovery-nasa sets

Erinlyn80

Batman! My son was too little for Legos then but if I'd had a crystal ball to know how much we'd love playing the game and how expensive the sets would get after the fact.

I was talking to some Lego employees at the MOA store and they said the Batman line really didn't do that well when the movie was out it was a disappointing line for Lego but I think what made it popular is the video game totally rocks. But since lego no longer has a contract with the comic company that owns Batman its unlikely we will see Batman legos again unless they re-acquire the contract. I was able to find a set of 4 minifigures that were formerly keychains for my son for $20 so that was an alright deal vs $20 for just Batman but its a bummer.

I wish I'd been able to purchase the modular sets that have retired already and the carousel but I didn't have the spare money retail price i certainly don't have it at the market up collector price. Oh well right?

sinfanti

I also came out of my dark ages a little too late to get some great sets. But I really regret not getting the UCS Falcon when it was on clearance. I was on the fence and when I decided to get it at the end of the sale it was gone. Snooze and lose, I suppose. I also would have liked to get a Cafe Corner and Green Grocer. Oh well. My money was tied up in making a modified #4999 wind turbine from parts (taller tower, less visible studs and rechargeable battery).

Istokg

For me it was not buying the stack of 10 7740 Intercity Train Sets back in 1985 in Germany. But I wasn't going to spend that much money.

So I would rather dwell on my favorite purchase... 35 of the 760 (USA set number, elsewhere it was 384) London Bus Sets back in 1979 for $7.65 each at several of the same named toy stores throughout metro Detroit. It gave me 840 classic LEGO windows to build with! :)

xowainx

Mine is 7676 Republic Gunship.. I decided to purchase Home One instead, and while I love that set, I had plenty more time to get it, where as 7676 went off the shelves a few months later.. I know it's a real long shot, but if anyone in the UK/EU could sell me one, figs or no figs, it would make my year.

rocao

For me it was not buying the stack of 10 7740 Intercity Train Sets back in 1985 in Germany. But I wasn't going to spend that much money.

@Istokg: They had already been retired at that point, though, correct? Do you remember the asking price?

wander099

My biggest regret is not getting the technique droideka when it came out. I was still young then and had trouble saving my allowance, so I could never afford it despite desperately wanting it and my parents never bought it for me...

I also regret temporarily stopping collecting Lego during high school and missing out on so many cool sets, but that is another story.

Istokg

For me it was not buying the stack of 10 7740 Intercity Train Sets back in 1985 in Germany. But I wasn't going to spend that much money.

@Istokg: They had already been retired at that point, though, correct? Do you remember the asking price?

I don't remember exactly... but I believe it was something like DM 150,-

And 'retired' is a rather interesting term for a lot of sets in Europe... yes TLG no longer produced them... but in much of continental Europe some items stayed on store shelves for decades (I bought a pair of MISB 396 Thatcher Perkins in 1993 in Germany, and they were retired in the late 70s).

Here in the USA... if it doesn't fly off the shelves in a matter of months... it's off to the sales bin...

But in the small "mom and pop" toy stores of continental Europe (can't speak for the UK)... items were there for a looooong time. What brought me out of my Dark Ages in 1979 were a pair of continental European 214 1-10 Retailer Windows/Doors boxes (750 classic windows/doors) sitting on a German bookstore shelf for almost 20 years. I bought the pair for $40.

Sadly, those small independent toy/gift stores selling LEGO are a dying breed... and have been so for quite a while...

Cheers,
Gary Istok

niallskie

Pretty much the entire batman theme for me, and slightly more recently, I wish I'd picked up 10184 Town Plan.

I was not much into lego when I ran into a bunch of Batman Sets at a local ROSS here in Portland, Oregon and got me sets 7780, 7781, 7782, 7784 and 7888 but did not get 7783 and 7785. I really didn't know why i did not get those sets and now the price is off the roof, so there is some big regrets on that. Then when I started to collect lego, Corner Cafe is still in the store that time, i even remember it on clearance, and now that the only Modular set I am missing.

chertik

For me it would probably be the early UCS Star Wars sets - the Blockade Runner, Tie Interceptor, and the X-wing Fighter. I was a poor student at the time they came out, and food and shelter commanded greater attention :)

SapmiSatan

Oh, you know, just 7782 The Batwing: The Joker's Aerial Assault in store in the summer of 2008... Obviously there are lots of other sets I would have liked to buy, but never did, but this one... I don't think I had the cash for it there and then, but I should have gone back with one of my parents, so that I could have bought it of them... But no, I just picked up my second copy of the Indy Motorcycle Chase and left... The next time I went back to that store it was, of course, gone.

Crackseed

I have a few, but the sets that come to mind that I missed right as I hit my Dark Ages, during it and emerged that I really want which cost a good chunk now are:

UCS Star Destroyer
UCS TIE Interceptor
Star Wars 6969 Republic Gunship
Ice Planet 2002 Deep Freeze Defender
Space Police II Galactic Mediator
Blacktron Message Intercept Base

Ahh - curses! I really could have had the Deep Freeze easily if I had just sunk in and bought it back when it was current stuff. Oh well. Missing the awesome UCS sets like the ISD and TIE Interceptor really bums me out - and damn that Republic Gunship is pricey for a set of it's size!