The Air Show for 20 Dollars!!

Like everybody, I've got tons of needs, lots of wants, and never enough money. I have to pay off the credit card from the car breaking down, save money for the next time the car breaks down, save for a down payment on a new car (have you noticed my car sucks), and that isn't including paying the bills and Christmas.

I really want the Lego Air Show set, but its 80 dollars, so I was thinking about how to do it for less. (Currently on Amazon its actually 36% off and only 57 dollars.)   

As you can see, it has several planes, pilots, and even a little ground crew. Its a fun set but can be a bit pricey.  I wouldn't be a ninja unless I knew some ways to get a plane and a pilot for less. 

I have a coupon for Shopminig.com and they have a good selection so I went there. But you can also use whatever you have around the house. They actually sent me the wrong torso piece (which they promised to fix) so I found a nice torso that I already had around the house.  I found a great girly head and leather helmet. These are both pieces that you have around the house. If you can't find a leather flight helmet (I like the retro look), you can use any racing or space helmet. Both the city and space themes offer plenty.   Then I found nice legs that had some patches and a holster. Again, you should have plenty of legs around the house and you can mix and match until you find something that looks great to you.  

Of course, after you do this, you should add an element that doesn't cost any money at all. You can come up with a good story that really makes this a beloved figure.  I'm going for a local stunt pilot that makes a living dusting crops, but she has tons of talent and wants more out of life. (If that sounds like the beginning of the Rocketeer you'd be correct.) The gun and the heavy flying jacket is because she is up in the north and only has a few bullets to scare away wolves. I wanted a women because I still have way more guy Legos than girls, and I can sell my daughter that this is Amelia Earhart.

That covers the figures but now you need the plane and the airfield. The plane is pretty easy. There is a very good one on sale from Amazon for 15 dollars. The Creator series has many low cost sets and this one has many great reviews. I've built it and I can say that its a great value and a solid plane. Its very sturdy and allows you to fly it through the air (making engine sounds of course) and it even has some retractable landing gear and propellers that spin. 

I'm still working out the rest of this, but its not too tough. A garage for the plane isn't too tough to build. You need some four by four bricks to make some pillars, then some long thin pieces to go across the roof. Though the plan is pretty big so maybe I'll get creative and put it between stacks of dvds.  (Of course, the British pilot Alan Copham landed in a remote village in India. The villagers were mobbing the plane so the maharajah put his elephants around it!! Try that with your kids!!!) The runway can be any flat part of your floor or table. Or you can get some reusable tape. 

So there you have it. For about 25 dollars you can have the basic version of an 80 dollars set! You don't have as many pilots or a landing crew, but you should have a great pilot and plan.  The only debate is, will you show it to your child before Christmas or not?

(As usual, make sure to follow me on facebook! I post flash sales and notices regarding good deals several times a week.) Good luck Ninjas!  

Shop Minifig Site Review!!

If you’ve been following my site, you know that I’ve really enjoyed the contests held at the newly opening Shop Minifigs.  As I said on facebook (make sure to like my page to stay current!), I had a tough time at first seeing if this site is legitimate.  I was lucky enough to win one of their daily giveaways, and I received some free samples, and I’m impressed that it is offering official Lego products.

Minifigure Selection

They have a good selection of authentic figures which reinforces that idea, and the owner promises more to come.  I see good classic figures from the 80s, and at least one seems earlier than that.  I also saw products that cover the spectrum of Lego figures all the way to the modern day and peices from the blind bag series. I just did a post where I said how hard it was to get Halloween and Disney minifigures, the site offers both for good prices. I also noticed a few Christmas figures from the Advent Calendars. The site is particularly strong in Harry Potter and Star Wars figures.

Prices

The price is consistent with the aftermarket for official Lego brands. I paid about 15 dollars, for example, for an Indiana Jones after my daughter fell in love with the ride from Disenyland. Those are hard to find because the most recent set was from almost ten years ago.  Most of the Indiana Jones figures comes with additional accessories, so you could say the price of 14.95 to 19.95 (depending on which one you get) on shop minifig is competitive. The price of the figures depends on great deal on its availability and demand. I saw some for 6.95 (hello Star Wars Imperial Guard), and one as high as 49.95 ( good bye Darth Malgus.)  But most range between the very good range of 8 and 15 dollars. 

Of course, in absolute dollars, the prices here are a bit higher than I normally recommend for savings ninjas. If you have lots of kids and want a minifigure for each or maybe a small construction set with figures, I highly recommend the starter sets or the army builder sets.  Those are great at giving you a little bit of everything, something to build, and a good number of figures at a great price. But if your child really wants that one figure this is pretty much your only way to get them. If the set is still currently available, you will thank shop minifigs for saving you the trouble of buying a 40 dollar product just for the Rocket Raccoon it contained.  This is a true story from Christmas a few years ago. I enjoy the Groot, Nebula (the evil blue chick),  but I really just wanted the Rocket, and almost the entire set is in a plastic ziplock bag in my garage.  I wish I had a site like this back then. Yes I probably would have paid a price for just one figure that seemed too high, but it would have been far less than paying 40 just to get that one figure in a set you didn’t want.   

Parts

The site also has a strong collection of minifigure parts.  This is a great way to build your own figures. The prices range between 1.50 and 4.50, with some outlying parts that are even more. You can end up building your own figure for usually about 5 to 9 dollars each,(and they have a grand prize that will give you 1000 pieces!), or you can just grab some extra heads to spice up the minifigs you already have.  If you are like me, you probably have lots of parts and figures in storage, so you don’t have to pay for entirely new ones, but you could grab a few selected heads and torsos to spice things up.  I'm looking at the nice racing jackets and cool leg pieces to make my own Road Warrior minifigure at a fraction of the price. Unlike the Lego store build stations, which are limited to whatever they get supplied with, the variations and parts he has are prodigious!  My daughter would kill me for this, but I almost forgot to mention the good collection of animals as well.  I was impressed by the breadth of the collection as there are some here that I haven’t seen at other sites around the web. The prices here are the best part of the site. Most are just a few dollars or less, and they are excellent add ons if you’re already buying several 10 dollar minifigures anyway. 

Shipping

They have a great shipping policy too.  It’s free for orders of 25 or more, with a bonus figure received at 50. And he charges standard shipping rates.  (It was 3.47 for my sample order, which is the rate the post office charges me when I sell on Ebay.)  Though of course, you should always double check. If you are like me, you plan your purchases so you only have to do it once and you get free shipping. And the site includes a no hassle refund if you are upset.

Bottom Line

Overall the site can be a bit pricey in absolute dollars, but it still has a good deal of value for the saving ninjas.  It can help you find that one piece you really want for your child,  or maybe one that adult fans want to add to their special collection, and give you some good heads, torsos, or animal parts to spice of your collection. I highly recommend you check it Shop Minifigs, and at least enter the daily give aways and the grand prize. Good luck ninjas!   

Make Your Own Under the Sea Adventure

Hey everybody! I hope you are doing good out there. Me and my daughter recently made a pretty cool set.  The Lego Deep Sea Exploration Set sells for 120 dollars!  Yet me and my daughter made something very similar, and turned it into Ariel's Under Sea Adventure using minifigures and random pieces that we already had on hand!!!   This post will help show you how to make a really fun undersea adventure for Ariel or your scuba divers for nothing more than whats in storage and a few dollars.

The Main Piece: 

The place to start is with a sunken ship.  Luckily we had a good bulky piece in storage from an 80s era pirate set.

As you can see, the ship is not in good shape. Its almost 30 years old, so I've lost the instructions and most of the pieces for it, including the sail.  (Which is a shame because these old sets appreciate in value more than gold.) But you are trying to recreate a wreck, it actually works better when you are missing some of the pieces. If you don't have any pirate ships from the 80s, you can try a few things. Possible builds include a partial castle, shell formations, or trying your own ship. Remember, the less perfect it looks the better! You can also borrow some of your plants to act as sea weed. Going from the left to right in my picture you see a red bush, bamboo, a leaf, and some green bushes.  These add some good flavor to the ship and were just some random pieces we had from other sets.  

The Figures:

You see some minfigures as well. If you aren't an avid mini figure collector like me it can get a bit more tricky but its still doable.  As the name implies, a good place to start is the under water starter set. Its only 8.50 on Amazon right now.  The deep water version comes with some scuba divers and a little submarine as well as some plants and a shark.  

For the poor unfortunate souls we used a ghoul, ghost, and a zombie pirate from the Halloween minifigure line. This is no longer active, so its a bit expensive, about 6 dollars per figure, if you get them online.  You might try anything scary or spooky that you already have on hand.  The old castle sets from the 90s, for example, included a glow in the dark ghost.  At the end of the day you can always just turn the heads around for any lost or zombie figures.  The blank face can be surprisingly effective, even on a ginger bread man!!!  

The Ariel and Ursula figures are also a bit tricky.  Those are from the Disney Minifigure line. It was wildly popular earlier this summer and are now sold out. (Though I did hear Lego might release more because of the new ginormous Disney Castle. If that is the case, they are only 4 dollars. Find a Ninja to make sure you get what you want!)  They are pretty cool so they might be worth grabbing on Amazon or Ebay for more.  Currently, they sell for about 10 dollars each on Amazon. You might just want to try this Lego Junior Set.  

As you can see, you get a ton of items for only 15 dollars and I've seen it on sale at Walmart for 12!  It includes a slightly different Ariel than the Disney minifigure line, plus Flounder. (I think anyway, its been awhile since I've seen the movie, so I'm a bit iffy on the names!)  You also receive an oyster, a dolphin, and a little mini house and sea cart.  If you don't want to go that route, you can use any princess figure.  I'm sure your daughter has one that she thinks is cute. Anything with a luscious hair piece, in pink, or wearing a bathing suit would work!  Though given the value of this junior set, it might be worth springing for the 15 dollars. 

The final piece is her bodyguard, Aquaman!! He is currently selling for about 7 dollars (plus free shipping on Ebay.)  Of course, when you start to buy all these specialized minifigures it can get expensive. So you might just want to grab anything that looks good for the sea. You can get a pirate figure and put a net or trident in his hand. You might keep an eye out for the Justice League movie and see if there is a good value set including him.  You don't totally need a bodyguard for Ariel. But being a guy, I had to spice up my daughter's set a bit.  

There you go.  The amount of money you spent is totally up to you.  Most of the set can be made based on whats in your storage. You only need about 100 pieces for the sunken castle or ship, some foliage pieces, a princessy figure, and some scary figures with their heads turned around. You can go a bit deeper and make the Lego Junior or Starter Set the main draw for your child, (mine loves when she gets something at the store) and then build the entire under water adventure when you get home.  You might also get some specialized figures depending on how much you want to spend, or if the Disney minifigures are available again. This could be your Christmas strategy. A way to have a 100 dollar set while spending a fraction of that amount. Whatever you end up doing, at the end of the day you are looking at hours of fun spent with your child, a great under water adventure set you can look at, and you've spent 20 dollars or less!! That's being a Lego Ninja!!  

Good luck ninjas, and remember to check my facebook page often! I don't create many posts because I'm too busy building Legos! But I give short updates concerning sales and deals rather often. There is a new minifigure site opening, and I've already won a free figure, and there are at least ten more giveaways tomorrow.  

Good Value Sets

Greetings. Before I get into the great value sets out there, please let me add a reminder. If you only read this blog you might be disappointed in my output. Please make sure to like and follow me on facebook, where I regularly post updates to amazing sales.  This post is a brief rundown of sets that might not be on sale, but provide you great value.

Starter Sets

These are little sets that introduce or "start" on a theme. They include 4 minifigures (sometimes three) a vehicle and another small build-able item. For example, the space starter set includes an astronaut, two technicians, and a female scientist.  The technician is driving a space vehicle, and the scientist is behind a console. You get all of these items for only ten dollars! Just for the minifigures that comes to 2.50 per figure, plus you get several vehicles or items to build. Many of them are on sale so they become an even better value! You can find swamp police, demolition, and under water starter sets that give you a good number of figures and things to build for a very small price. On top of that, many of your kids will lose pieces or get confused trying to build larger sets anyway. Save your pocket book the trouble and go with the starter set instead.

Army Builders

These are sets that are good for collectors that want to build an army. They include 4 minifigures, a catalpault, and some sort of flags or display. I bought the Legends of Chima items awhile ago. Of course, if you get several of these sets you would have an army ready to go. But even on their own, at between 6 and 12 dollars, you can get a nice little army. There are Star Wars Battle Packs that have the same items and become a very nice addition to your collection for very little cost. If you are a parent with multiple children these are a good chance to give each child their own figure.

Lego Creator

These are a line of Legos that let you build cute creatures, buildings, or machines.  They usually have a good price to piece ratio. Ten cents per piece is a pretty good standard and many of the licensed sets are way over this standard, while the creators are usually under it. On top of that, you can build three different items with same pieces, and get instructions for each.  My favorites are the very cute animal series.  I bought a dragon set that has 220 pieces. At the ten cent per price point we would expect it to be about 22 dollars. But I bought it for 15, and its on sale for 12!!! (Free shipping and a dollar credit if you choose the no rush option with prime.)  Thats almost an astounding 5 cents per piece, and you can also build a scorpion or snake. They have a cute dog and duck set, as well as bird and iguana set that are sets your kids will really like.

Time Your Purchase

The final item is to time your purchase.  If you want to spend money you should make it count. Use a credit card to get you points.  On Amazon use your prime shipping to give yourself a credit on other purchases. At Toys R Us, take advantage of their buy one get one sales. At the Lego Store make sure you are a VIP member. That lets you get a 5 dollar coupon for every 100 dollars you spend. On top of that, they have double points periods, which earns you 5 dollars for every 50 you spend, and they regularly have add on freebies. I spent 35 dollars last month, for example, and got a free Ninjago figure that I wouldn't have gotten if I bought it at another time.   And at Walmart you should be using your Savings Catcher to get and spend free money!

Part of being a ninja isn't simply the amount of money you spend or don't spend. But its also creating value with the money you do spend.  You can make wise purchases to get the most enjoyment with the money you do spend, and make that dollar stretch as far as you can take it. Good luck Ninjas!

Home Made Advent Calendar

Greetings ninjas!  I just got done making an advent calendar for my daughter.  It might sound a bit daunting to make one, but it was not as hard or expensive as I thought. Here are a few ideas to remember:

Lots of Minifigures:
It might seem tough to come with 24 separate gifts, but minifigures are a good place to start.  The Double Decker couch is a great value for that.  You get 5 of them, all main characters from the movie, and you get the couch and a small car. Its even on sale right now too!  You might also try the Batman and Angry Kitty set. This is also on sale. You get three minifigures, including a Batman and Uni Kitty variant, plus a micro manager for less than ten dollars. If you break them up into one small present per day, that's respectively 7 or 4 days worth of presents.

Some people don't like fake me outs, but your kids won't notice and they are a good way to expand your options for a small amount of money. For example, you can find a set of 24 DC and Marvel comic Lego (like) figures for 16 dollars. You might also try the build your own minifigure station at the Lego Store.  This lets you build three minifigures for 9.99. The advantage of this is that you can build something rather specialized.

Of course, you can't forget to check yard sales! I found the 5 minifigures below for a very good price. I paid 10 dollars for all of those figures, when just one Pharaoh is worth that price on Ebay!

  

Storage: 

Most families have a giant pile of Legos in storage.  The first option is to build something with that useless pile, and present that as a gift. Or you can take a bunch of pieces you think are good for building and make them a present.  You might also do a combination of both and in the picture you can see I made a snow flake stand for Anna.  I then took it apart slightly and then bagged it.  This option doesn't cost you any money, just a bit of time!

If you're not that creative don't worry, I'm not either, you might try to find instructions and sets online.  I found a very good reindeer and I could tell my daughter its Sven. The free montly Lego magazine has some instructions. This months' included a Christmas tree and basic reindeer.

Themed Candy:  

You'll also notice the picture includes some rock candy that looks like ice. I thought it was a great treat to go with all of her Legos.  I found a bag of rock candy online for about 5 dollars. This was a great low cost purchase and it ended up being 3 days worth of presents.  Of course, if you aren't that creative you can get some molds at a very good price. Then you can make jello, chocolate, and crayons in the shape of Lego men or bricks. 

Accessorize: 

If you read this blog regularly, you already know I love to pimp out my Legos. Along with your boxes of old Legos pieces you probably have a bunch of boring, faded minifigures from the 80s. You can buy some cool accessories that turn them into a Viking, Roman, gladiator (pictured above), space marine, or desperado.  Brick Forge is having a great sale on blind bags right now. You can get 10 minifigure parts in a bag that normally costs 3 dollars.  With the buy one get one free you get 20 parts for 3 dollars. (Plus a few dollars for shipping.) Its kind of blind luck on what you get, but you should get a good variety of pieces to spice up several of your Lego men. For comparison, buying the swords, armor, and helmet for that gladiator costs about 5 dollars on its own. So its a great deal.    

I also found a nice head of Anubis on Ebay. It was only 2 dollars, combined with some weapons and shipping I only spent about 8 dollars to get a very unique Lego. I used one of the torsos and feet from the evil foot soldiers in Guardians of the Galaxy and now its going to be one of the awesome parts of her collection. It goes really good with the Pharaoh I already have, and the Egyptian Queen I got as well. (My daughter is really liking Egyptian themed items right now. I blame Scooby Doo.) 

Here you'll see the final product, where I have a Pharaoh, Cleopatra, and Anubis ready for wrapping: 

Deals!!! 

As always, pay attention to deals.  I regularly highlight them on this blog.  One of the best I found was the old Mixel series that went on sale for one dollar!!!! This was an insane deal and I literally grabbed as much as I could carry.  For the calendar I mostly used Series 4 flying blue creatures. Keeping with the Frozen theme as much as possible I sold it to my daughter as Elsa's flying monkeys.  (She loves Wicked too so I thought she would understand it.) 

Use your Christmas Purchases: 

This method is somewhat different from finding good deals. This lets you buy your purchases like normal. Then you can divide up the pieces from the purchase.  Most 40 dollar sets have about 400 pieces and 5 minifigures. You can give them the minifigures once per day, and divide the pieces into small chunks.  Your child then builds whatever they can using the pieces they have and try to guess what the final product is.  Then on the last day you give them the instructions and they can see how well they guessed and then build the product as intended.  

So there you have it.  The normal advent calendars cost between 30 and 40 dollars (or even more if you wait until the end of November.) With some time, effort, and careful planning you can easily produce a calendar and all 24 gifts for far less than that. It will mean even more since you made the gifts very thoughtfully.  Of course, it will also be way more special. I showed my daughter that last picture and she was practically giddy.  As always, like me on facebook to receive the latest updates. Good luck ninjas!! 

37% Off Guardians of the Galaxy

Greetings ninjas! I just discussed how you can get good deals if you are willing to wait a little bit.  The Guardian of the Galaxy sets are over a year old but they're being retired and now they're on sale.


 

You have some options here. The biggest set is 26% off. You get the Milano space ship, plus Star Lord, Drax, Gomora, and Ronan.  That is 4 main characters plus an extra evil foot soldier, and you get two space ships.

The next set is Nowhere escape. I already paid full price for this one (I was still earning my ninja stars back then) but now its 10 dollars or 26% off!. The real draw for this one of course is the Rocket Raccoon and Groot figures.  Unless you got the small polybag, the Rocket Raccoon figure is very hard to get! You also get Nebula (or the evil blue chick as I call her) and a foot soldier. It might not seem like it, but that little flying ship is actually pretty cool. It has nice colors and sticker prints.  I thought it was a bit overprice at 39.99, but 29 is a good value.

I'll likely buy the last set. Its normally 19.99 but its 37% off and selling for 12.59 right now!  This is about the same cost as many army builder sets. Here you would get Star Lord and both a good guy and bad guy foot soldier.  Three minifigures and two small space ships is a pretty good value for this set.

This is a great chance to get your kids some cool discounted sets for Christmas!  Mine loves Chris Pratt, so now I'll be able to get her another one of his Lego figures. (Emmett from the Lego Movie and his Jurassic World character are the other two!!) As usual, with Amazon you get some other perks as well. With Amazon prime you get free shipping. And this is way before Christmas so you can safely choose no rush shipping and get a dollar credit on ebooks and music.

Good luck ninjas! As always, like me on facebook to stay updated with the most current news.  For example, today there are two free Lego events!!

How to save 40% at the Lego Store

Greetings ninjas! Christmas is coming up very soon and I thought I should talk strategy. It might seem odd to discuss Christmas in October, but there are several important deals right now, that might it vital to discuss this early.  What follows if a short guide in how to maximize your money during the Christmas season.

Double Points: 

I mentioned earlier how you can start to rack up coupons during double points months.  The Lego store offers a VIP card that gives you a 5 dollar coupon for every 100 dollars you spend.  During double points months, you get a 5 dollar coupon for every 50 dollars you spend. That might not sound like a high amount, but Legos can add up quickly. One of my favorites is the Temple of Arijitzu. It costs 200 dollars. If I bought that during the double points months that give me 20 dollars of coupons!! Double points ends this month on the 14^th!

Add ons:

On top of that, if you are going to spend that kind of money, you should shop during the special holiday promotions.  Last year I got a great Elf Workshop when I bought 99 dollars or more of products.  This year they have an adorable red train.  Again, if you have multiple kids, or even one kid that wants a mid priced set, you can easily reach 100 dollars.  If you are spending that money anyway you can time it so you also get a great Christmas themed item.  This item is only available from the 13^th of October to the 13^th of November.  So you’ll want to shop on the 13^th or 14^th of October so you get double points and the holiday train!!  

Investment Items:

Maybe you don’t have any big ticket items on your list. You can still buy advent calendars in October and resell them around Thanksgiving. (Don't tell the Lego store employees you plan on doing that. They don't like it.) Most people don’t realize until its too late that advent calendars sell out by late October so there is a good market for these. The Star Wars version is particularly popular.  Last year me and my daughter got a great Darth Vader with red trim and a red cape, as well as an R2D2 dressed like a Christmas tree. These are great for your kids, but they also make great investment items.  Last year right around Thanksgiving (right before the advent month starts) they were selling for about 10-20 dollars higher than their sticker price. (Last year's LEGO Star Wars Advent Calendar 75056 is selling for almost double its original price).  So you can purchase a calendar in October, get the free holiday train set , and double vip points for the purchase, and then turn around a month later and recoup all of your money and even make a little profit.  To a lesser extant you can do this with the minifigures as well. These are highly specialized figures that come in blind bags and cost 4 dollars each. If you need to reach 100 dollars to get the promo you can buy a few of these and open them to see what they are, and then resell them. If you're ambitious might also like to keep them for a home made advent calendar.  On top of that, they are Halloween themed. So if you decide to keep them you get some cool monster themed Legos you can pull out every year.

Adding it up:

In short, you can easily get the holiday promotion and rack up coupons without spending that much money.  The Star Wars Advent Calendar is 40 dollars, your families Christmas presents are another 40 dollars, and you get 5 minifigures for 20 dollars which gets you up to 100 dollars, plus tax that would be about 107 dollars.

But if you sell back the advent calendar for a small profit (about 50 dollars would be a safe assumption) and two of the minifigures you don’t want (at cost) you’ll get around 58 dollars back. You will also get 10 dollars in coupons for purchasing during a double points period.  And you’ll get a train set worth 15 dollars. If you don’t sell the train set that means you got 67 dollars (115 for the total worth of your products, minus the 48 dollars at cost of the products you sold back) of Lego products for only spending about 39 dollars!!!! (107 dollars spent minus the 58 you sold them for and 10 dollars of coupons)  That is close to 40% off!!!!! 

Plus, you’ll be getting money into your account right around the start of December which is always nice for buying some more presents or those lousy fundraisers your kids have. I don’t know if you’re like me, but getting extra money into account feels like new money, even if you’re just getting back what you just spent.  So it’s a nice psychological boost when you need it. 

You’ll have to do a little bit of work.  Though making a trip to the store, selling on ebay, and dropping off a package aren’t terribly difficult actions.  And if you’re reading this blog you likely have the motivation to save money and see the effort as very worth it.  You can get some Christmas presents, a nice Christmas Lego you can use year after year, some Halloween Legos you can use year after year, you get some coupons for more Legos, and you can help somebody out who is panicking about an advent calendar at the start of December. And you can do all of this for 40% off at a total cost of 39 dollars and some time spent!  Ninja level achieved!  As always, make sure to follow me on facebook for the most current updates.  For example, there is a free giveaway at Toys R Us this Saturday.