ABP Alert - Prince of Persia Desert Attack 50% Off

Hot on the heels of yesterday's discount on the LEGO Toy Story Army Men, Amazon now has the Prince of Persia Desert Attack set listed for $5.49 USD, a 50% savings!

Ostrich Race and the Space Police Smash 'N Grab sets are also listed at 50% off, but the minifig potential is lower. Nevertheless, a fantastic deal.

You will want to hurry. Amazon raised the prices on the Army Men set the same day it went on sale, so these offers may not last for long.

Thanks to Toys N Bricks for the news.

ABP Alert - Deep Discounts on Prince of Persia at Amazon

More evidence that LEGO Prince of Persia didn't rock the sales charts...

Amazon currently has several PoP sets at deep discounts and part of their BOGO 50% page. Not only that , FBTB reports that free shipping is available, regardless of the total value of your order (standard shipping 3 to 5 days).

LEGO's loss can be your gain, as PoP featured lots of great minifig parts and weapons. You won't see discounts like this again for some time. Check it out when you get a chance.

(Via FBTB.net)

Quick Hits: Shopping News

It seems like every year retailers push the Christmas shopping season up more and more. If Halloween isn't careful, they might start playing 'Silver Bells' in October. Christmas also means that retailers are competing for your dollars, and this year is no exception. I've already begun to see the 20/30/40% sales on LEGO, as well as the infamous BOGOs. I'm certain Amazon will start having their 'gold box' daily deals any minute now. So what is a thrifty parent or collector to do? I'm going to do something a little 'unorthodox' here. I'm going to recommend you visit other LEGO sites...

Although the command center is staffed with my minifig minions, I'm the only purveyor of news on the site (not counting Cygnetron). It's for this reason that I just can't compete with the legions of forum members who post every little sale they come across. With that said, I would recommend checking in regularly with Toys N Bricks and FBTB.net for sales in North America, Brickset for deals in the UK, and Bricks Down Under in Australia. I'm certain there are other regional sites and blogs that cover your area, but I've found 99.9% of the sales and deals come through these sites. I will continue to mention certain pieces relevant to the LEGO minifigure universe, but some of these deals can pop up fast and go out faster than I can keep up with. Also, check in with these sites directly, as RSS feeds can be delayed. So much so that certain deals may be gone by the time you see them in your feed. Now, speaking of minifig related deals...

Toys R Us (US) re-released the LEGO Star Wars Chrome Stormtrooper polybag last night...and they were promptly snatched up online (see what I mean!) The website currently lists them as being in stores, but won't do a store location search for you. Listed at $2.99 USD, this may be one of your last chances to pick one of these puppies up.

Toys N Bricks is reporting that Wal-Mart (US) is putting LEGO Prince of Persia sets on clearance. Some fantastic figures and accessories for the collector or customizer. Some discounts have placed the Desert Attack set as low as $3.00 USD! The catch? Wal-Mart must apply some scientific algorithm to determine how to price clearance items. The deals vary from store to store, but at such deep discounts, it's worth a quick trip. Thanks to Toys N Bricks for the news.

I've mentioned over the past couple days that FireStar Toys has some new product in stock including the new Hazel Fantasy custom accessories, LEGO Harry Potter minifigs, and even a new Dr. Who custom. This is currently the only place where you can pick up new Hazel Fantasy product, although they should be available soon through the Amazing Armory website and United Armory. UK based FireStar does ship internationally so there are no issues there. If you needed yet another reason to check them out, you can use coupon/voucher code 'KV882256' to get an additional 10% off your order now through January 2011.

Even LEGO.com is getting in the Christmas spirit! They continue to offer double VIP points and free shipping or orders above $99 USD through December 14th. I also noticed that you can receive an extra bonus of 50 VIP points when you buy the LEGO Kingdoms King's Castle before November 12th. So head on over to the the LEGO Holiday Gift Shop today. Do remember that an order that originates from the site earns us a small commission, which we will use to help extend services and bring new content. Just click on the banner at the top of the page or the link above.

That's all for now. Happy Holidays and let the LEGO sales and deals season begin...

Cygnet

Minister of Information

Ugly Duck Command Center

Minifig Nation

TRU Buy 2 Get 1 Free Starts Today (US)

As first seen on Toys N Bricks, Toys R Us stores in the US are offering a 'buy 2, get 1 free' offer on all LEGO sets (excluding Star Wars and tubs). I personally went to my local TRU to do a little army building. The $11.99 sets like the Prince of Persia Desert Attack or the Toy Story Army Men on Patrol are always good for army building, while aiming for a little diversity.

The potential savings are 33% on each item, but only if you buy sets of equal value.

One other interesting item of note, the Toy Story poly bag set Alien Spaceship was on sale for $3.99. If you were looking to stock up on Little Green Men, then you could get one free for every two you buy!

The sale goes through next Saturday (9/25). Check TRU.com or call your local store for details.

(Via Toys N Bricks)

Disney Store Online - Prince of Persia 35% Off (US)

Toys N Bricks has announced that Disney Store Online is offering LEGO Prince of Persia sets for 35% off and up in the US. If you spend $50 or more there's free shipping with the code 'SHIPFIFTY'. The site is atrocious to navigate, so I've included the links to the individual sets below:

• Desert Attack
• Ostrich Race
• Battle of Alamut
• Quest Against Time

Do note that the Disney Store's starting prices are already marked up over MSRP, so judge for yourself the overall value associated with this deal.

I am also to understand that the UK site is offering up to 50% off! So if you are in the UK, it's definitely worth a look.

(Via Toys N Bricks)

Omicron Declares Mortal Kombat!

Omicron of ChocoBrick Customs has created a new series custom minifigures based on the Mortal Kombat video game franchise. Each figure is great, but the stand out for me was this rendition of Goro.

Omi used a dremel tool to drill a second set of arm holes in the torso. Although Goro's legs come courtesy of a Slave Leia figure, he's all man up top (Dastan specificially). Colonel Dovchenko from Indiana Jones provides the noggin. Finally the hairpiece is a BrickForge original. The ponytail should be available soon on their store.

(Via ChocoBrick's Customs' Flickr stream)

ABP Alert: LEGO Prince of Persia Clearance (US)

Toys N Bricks is reporting that both Wal-Mart and Target are conducting in-store clearances on select LEGO sets of 30% to 50% off original prices. One particular collection to be on the watch for are the LEGO Prince of Persia sets.

Prince of Persia (PoP) was well received by the AFOL community, but due to a lackluster box office in the US (although I heard it did quite well overseas) we may see some deep discounts leading up to the holidays.

Sets like 7569, Desert Attack, and 7570, Ostrich Race, had some great minifig parts, weapons, and animals ready for customization. These sets were already affordable, but with these additional discounts, there may be real 'army building potential' here.

You may want to call your local store to see if they still have items in stock and how low the discounts are in your area before venturing out.

You can also see the other sets being discounted by clicking through the link below.

(UPDATE 8/20: I personally went to my local Target and Wal-Mart last night, but didn't see any LEGO PoP on clearance. There were several LEGO Star Wars items on sale at Target, however. My Wal-Mart appeared to be re-setting their planograms and there were LEGO items on clearance. You'll have to hunt them out - the items I found were in the Lawn & Garden area!)

(Via Toys N Bricks)

Cap'n Jack Sparrow Minifig at Comic Con

Ace at FBTB.net posted this pic from the LEGO booth at San Diego Comic Con.

Cap'n Jack Sparrow was hiding in a Prince of Persia display, riding a camel.

This has a ring of truth to it as the Pirates of the Caribbean 4 teaser trailer premiered at the Comic Con panel of Tron Legacy.

I might have preferred to see a couple of official LEGO light cycles instead, but this is a close second.

(Via FBTB.net)

Question: What Elves Stand 6footFour?

Answer: These Elven Heroes.

Elves never received the official LEGO treatment when Castle dipped it's toes into the fantasy realm last year.

A mix of Forestmen, Atlantis, Kingdoms, and Prince of Persia, these warriors are 'kewl'.

The Dagger of Time is really making the rounds in the elvish arsenal these days. It actually does bear a resemblance to the BrickForge Elven Blade (albeit shorter). I also love the treatment on the staff. I really wish TLG could be a little bit more inventive with their magical equipment. A 4L bar can only take you so far...

(Via 6footFour's Flickr stream)

Zaras: The Forged Angel

I've been reading the graphic novel Final Crisis written by genius and madman Grant Morrison. In the chapter titled "To Be Continued", the theme of balance between the Ultimate Good and Ultimate Evil is explored.

Meet Zaras the equal number to Xaelus. Morgan uses a combination of parts from Space Police to Prince of Persia to the vending machine toys down the street. Let's start our tour from the top!

The head is a combination of a Space Police III Skull Twin helmet (part 85945) overlaid a hood ornament (part bb462) from the new Lunar Limo set.

The torso is from Nizam (pop010) from PoP, albeit with a quick arm and hand change.

The shoulder pads (part 88295) were owned by a little old Hassansin who only wore them to church on Sundays. The Dagger of Time is his weapon of choice. Finally only the most fashionable of fallen angels would be seen in this season's claw slippers (part 88811).

(Via Morgan190's Flickr stream)

EclipseGrafx is Working It Out

EclipseGrafx is workin' it out with this custom vignette which is a mix of Prince of Persia's Dastan (hair, head, and torso) and a couple of arch bricks (part 6005) capped off with a 1x2 tile (part 3069) to represent bent legs.

Wondering where the dumb bells came from?

"I gave my son the skater from the minifig collectibles last night and when he went for the wheels he asked me if they were for working out... hence the birth of the work out dude here."

Grab a mix of the skate wheels and the new bar bell forthcoming with the Series 2 Weightlifter, and you have a strong start toward that gym vignette you've been dying to build.

(Via EclipseGrafx Flickr stream)

Are You Not Entertained?

Sir Nadroj salutes those about to die with this killer historical MOC. These custom gladiators are a great mash-up of various LEGO themes like Kingdoms, Atlantis, Indiana Jones, and Prince of Persia.

If you click through to Jordan's Flickr stream you'll also see a great Emperor minifig giving the thumbs down symbol flanked by two Roman guards...not to mention the fantastic Colosseum vignette!

(Via Sir Nadroj's Flickr stream)

Prince of Persia Tanks at US Box Office

The film Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time debuted this past Friday in the US and ended the Memorial Day weekend with a paltry $30 million box office take. Dastan and company faced the fourth and latest Shrek film in its second week and the debut of Sex In The City 2, which may have pulled away some of the female viewers who would have liked to see Jake shirtless (I mean there's a shirtless minifigure for goodness sake!) Combine this with a confused and lackluster marketing campaign in the US and its easy to see why this $200 million film, didn't draw the masses. I've not seen much in the way of international box office numbers, but news reports from the UK would suggest the film is faltering there too.

So what does this mean for LEGO Prince of Persia? It's hard to tell at this point. Adult fans, and the European AFOL's especially, appear to enjoy the sets for the new building elements and unique minifigures. Eurobricks dedicated an entire month to the theme.

Recent numbers by TLG suggest that AFOLs only account for 5% of total sales. Without a strong film to further drive sales among the other 95%, however, we may see sets in the discount bins sooner rather than later. Good news for the cash strapped fan of LEGO, but potentially bad for the future of Disney licensed sets.

Although no other Disney sets have been announced outside of Toy Story 3, I think many were hoping for the potential of additional themes from future film franchises like Tron Legacy. Without other strong licensed themes to counteract the Star Wars juggernaut, it only increases LEGO's reliance on the folks from Skywalker Ranch.

We will also have to see how this impacts TLG's overall business performance this quarter. Many news stories have come out recently stating that LEGO was betting big on the theme, but with other items also launching in the April/May/June time frame (Toy Story 3, Collectible Minifigures, unlicensed LEGO themes) the potential impact may be softened in the end. Nevertheless, poor performance here will likely affect future decisions at the company.

LEGO Prince of Persia Maxifigures on Jimmy Kimmel

A couple of nights ago, Jake Gyllenhaal was on the US late night show Jimmy Kimmel Live. The video below is the second half of the interview. If you stick around until the 2:50 mark (sorry my YouTube skills prevent me from jumping you right there), you'll see a Prince of Persia "maxifig" of Prince Dastan. If you keep watching until the end, you'll see another surprise.

I'm certain the maxifig was produced for the show, but wouldn't it be great if TLG produced a whole series of these for themes like Star Wars?

LEGO Business Update: May 2010

The Bloomberg Businessweek website published a report on LEGO's performance to date.

A few of the highlights include the following:

• CEO Joergen Vig Knudstorp claimed, "The American consumer has returned". The US continues to be a key market for LEGO, generating nearly a third of its sales currently with projections that it will comprise 40% of TLG sales by 2015.
• TLG hopes to double US market share to 8% by 2015, but faces challenges in some US regions.
• Economic instability in the European Union has TLG concerned. The value of the euro dropping relative to the US dollar is another key reason for focusing on the US market.
• LEGO has high hopes for the US release of their board games and the Prince of Persia line.

More details in the article which you can read here.

BrickTW Week: Weapons Review

We start off our BrickTW reviews by looking at the varied assortment of bows, swords, and spears provided by this custom house.

BrickTW has eight weapon styles available. The items pictured here are from their Eastern War collection in "Jade Wizard" color.

Starting from the top and moving clockwise we have the Dragon Cross Spear, Flame Style Bow, Seven Stars Broadsword, Bloody Broadsword, Dark Hell Halberd, Slaughter Broadsword, Revolution Broadsword, and the Saint Sword.

One of my personal favorites from this collection are the scimitars or broadswords. With the recent release of the LEGO Prince of Persia sets, you have many opportunities to create your own Arabian Nights. Imagine substituting this with one of these bad boys.

All of the products I received from BrickTW seemed to be made of good quality plastic. There were no noticeable defects and I had no qualms about product breakage. All weapons fit well in a minifig hand, with no signs of slippage.

There are also a wide variety of colors available in solids, trans-color, and chromed variants.

Prep your minifigure army to cut down the competition. Visit their website or their BrickLink store today.

(Back to the BrickTW Product Review Guide)

BrickLink Report: May 2010

As you may or may not know the Ugly Duckling started as a store on BrickLink in 2010. We aim to specialize in LEGO minifigures and try to stand apart by including the accessories (guns, lightsabers, etc.) that come with the figures.

As part of these efforts, I've started to keep a record of some statistics from the catalog. Please do not take information I share here as 'advice' on what to buy or sell on BrickLink. Like many things on this blog, I just do it in the spirit of fun. Also keep in mind, aside from hosting my store I have no other personal or professional relationship with the folks at BrickLink, fine people that they are.

Every month I will highlight a few interesting tidbits and factoids that I've found during the process. These facts only hold true for minifigures released in 2010.

With old business out of the way, let's see what happened in April...

• The minifigure bought most often (based on quantity) in April 2010 continues to be the plain Green Army Man from set 7595. Quantity sold? 588. Could soldier fever be on the wane? The amount sold is down about 28% from March.
  
• The number two spot this month was held by a four legged fig, namely the pigs from set 7684. 429 sold in April alone. This is up 112% from the previous month.
  
• Barriss Offee dethroned the TIE Defender pilot as the minifig with the highest average price (paid) in April 2010 at $16.92 USD.
• Who are the top three 'most wanted' minifigs in at the beginning of April? Toy Story Alien (90), Atlantis Squid Warrior (76), and Star Wars Barris Offee (72). If you throw minifig scale animals into the mix then you have to include pigs (88) and ostriches (63).
  

Other interesting facts...

• We've now had three buyers of the white Boba Fett minifigure with sale prices ranging from $500 to $600 USD. I really hope for these folks sake that LEGO doesn't produce these in higher quantities later this year.
  
• As we mentioned previously, 429 minifigure-scale pigs were sold in April at an average price of $3.62 USD. The Persian horse was the next closest animal in terms of quantities sold at 263 units.
• Prince of Persia rolls through its first full month of sales. Dastan continues to be the most sold minifigure from the line with 179 units. Seso has the highest average price of the line at $7.57.
• What's interesting about Prince of Persia is that the average price of many figures dropped by 30%. No exclusive sets and a quickly dropped magnet set may have been a factor.
  
• The Collectible Minifigures were released in May and started to be sold on BrickLink. Although it's too early to report on prices, we can state that the top three wanted minifigures are The Robot (38), The Zombie (35), and The Demolition Dummy (24).
  

Next month we'll have info on Toy Story 3 and the first month of Collectible Minifigure sales. See you then...

You Will Believe A Man of Steel Can Fly

Although not speaking of Kal-El, son of Jor-El, this man of steel is ready to take to the sky.

Morgan190 has been rather busy of late, posting several new custom minifigures on Flickr.

Xaelus uses BrickForge vambraces and Prince of Persia Hassansin claws and shoulder pads on the feet.

The cutlass appears to be standard minfigure issue (part 2530), while the helmet looks like part 2446 with the chin guard cut, but something seems 'strange' about it.

The silver part jutting out of Xaelus' chest and the wings? No idea, but they might be action figure parts.

Now that I think about it, Xaelus has a passing resemblance to Casey Jones from TMNT!

(Picture from Morgan190s Flickr stream)

When You Need a Brain Out in a Hurry

Karf Oohlu has a new vignette on his Flickr stream depicting Dr. Toth and his assistant I-GOR helping to relieve some poor soul of his troubled mind.

The doctor's chair incorporates some of the accessories from the recent Prince of Persia sets.

Other mentionables include the use of Agents villain Break Jaw in the role of I-GOR, and what appears to be a BrickTW cape on the good doctor.

As always it wouldn't be a Karf creation without an healthy injection of humor directly into the brain stem...

"...THOTH! THOTH!...I thought it said TOOTH...wondered why the dental chair looked so odddnnNNNOOO!!!..."

Prince of Persia Brickfilm...Blah, Blah, Blah

Given that this will likely be an internet phenomenon and we often cover happenings in the brickfilm community, I feel that I must post this clip from MTV.com.

I also feel I have to say, "It's not all that good". Don't get me wrong. This is far superior to anything I could ever muster, but it really has the feel of something cobbled together at the last minute. I especially hope that TLG didn't have a hand in this.

Nevertheless, it's LEGO, it's brickfilm, and it's Prince of Persia. Let's just leave it at that...