Wednesday, 1 December 2010

Unexpected Pleasures

There are few LEGO-related pleasures that can top the arrival of an order of pristine new LEGO sets from the LEGO online store, but one of those is when you open the sturdy packing crate and discover Free Stuff alongside the sets you ordered. If it's Unexpected Free Stuff it's better still. I contemplated on this yesterday when my latest order came through from LEGO shop@home. It was only a couple of discounted magnet sets (the rest of my order will follow in due course), but nestling alongside my bargain Pirates and Atlantis figures in the padded envelope was the item below (click to enlarge):


OK, so it's 'only' a poster, but it's a limited edition poster - number 62,919 out of 109,000 (!) - and it's a timely reminder that on 1st January 2011 I'll be able to get my eager hands on the new Harry Potter Diagon Alley set. It was also totally unexpected, and I do love Unexpected Free Stuff.

It occurred to me that I seem to have had quite a few freebies with my LEGO online orders over the past couple of years. Probably my favourite is the little guy below :


Admittedly he was Expected Free Stuff rather than Unexpected Free Stuff, but given that I was around and building LEGO in 1978 when the classic and much loved LEGO Space theme was born, he's still close to my heart. He arrived in a poly bag with my online order of the superb Shuttle Adventure set earlier this year. For anyone out there heartbroken at missing out on him, there may be a solution other than showering an eBay scalper with your hard-earned cash - I was in a LEGO brand store last weekend (Milton Keynes) and found the Spaceman Magnet on sale for £4.99, so if you're anywhere near a brand store you might want to have a look on the off-chance that they have some in stock. I unfortunately couldn't find him on sale at the LEGO online store when I checked yesterday, however.
Set 10213 Shuttle Adventure - any excuse for a picture of this cracking set
Talking of figures, the guy below arrived with an order in the Summer of 2009. Another welcome addition to my growing LEGO family, and who can resist a shiny minifig ? Admittedly he's hanging off a keychain, but I'll forgive him that. This item was in fact also available in the LEGO brand stores and online for £2.95, but still nice to get him for free, even if his hands are flesh coloured rather than gold.....


As a LEGO Star Wars fan and collector, I was also quite taken with the poster below (click to enlarge) which arrived free with an online order for Cad Bane's Speeder in September of this year. It contains images of every single LEGO Star Wars minifig produced during the 10 years of the LEGO Star Wars franchise, and you really can't argue with that - nice !
Another poster freebie (thanks to The Brothers Brick for the image)
My award for the strangest freebie in recent memory has to go to the item below, which arrived totally unannounced with an online order earlier this year.


I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, but I have to admit to being a tad non-plussed when a Duplo brick with a picture of Max the LEGO Club mascot came tumbling out of the box along with my order. Still, given that it was both Free and Unexpected I'm certainly not complaining.

There is of course no such thing as a free lunch - unlike the other regular supplier of LEGO to my front door (Amazon), LEGO generally charge for delivery - but Free Stuff certainly softens the blow of those delivery charges..... Has anyone had any other cool Free Stuff with their LEGO online orders ?
Posted by drdavewatford

10 comments:

  1. Martin1/12/10

    Wow - jealous! Would love to have gotten the white space minifig or the Star Wars poster. I too have received the golden mini figure key ring though and a couple of sets of brick magnets a few years back...

    ReplyDelete
  2. drdavewatford2/12/10

    @Martin, I hear you, but look on the bright side - I shudder to think how much I spent on online orders while accumulating all those freebies !

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  3. Stux2/12/10

    I got the Duplo Max brick too...

    I don't mind, its in my 1 yr old Daughters Duplo tub now, and she loves it :)

    She's a member of the lego club, always assumed that's why we recieved it

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  4. Matthew2/12/10

    I ordered 1 brick separator and got sent 2 recently! And did you know that if you send a letter to customer service instead of emailing you get a free keyring! My most recent one was a Atlantis manta warrior. About your poster: I ordered on 31 October to get double VIP points but it's my Christmas present so I haven't opened it yet. When did you order: do you thing I'll have a HP poster?
    Please can you reply via email on Brickset as I'll
    never remember to check back here.
    Matthew

    ReplyDelete
  5. Martin8/12/10

    I also received a limited edtion Harry Potter poster like the one above, today in my latest Lego order, it's number 76,772!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Martin18/12/10

    Sorry to post yet another comment here but...

    I have just received one of those White Boba Fett minifig and Star Wars book galatic gift boxes through the post today.

    I'm soooo happy!! (It's numbered 166 of 20000)

    ReplyDelete
  7. drdavewatford19/12/10

    You're a lucky man, Martin ! Has anyone outside the U.S. been similarly blessed ?

    ReplyDelete
  8. Martin19/12/10

    I sure am!

    Forgot to add - I'm from the UK

    ReplyDelete
  9. drdavewatford19/12/10

    That's good to hear - I thought only folks in the U.S. were getting these ! Have you been spending thousands at LEGO shop@home, or do you think it was just blind luck that you got selected to receive the white Boba Fett ?

    ReplyDelete
  10. Martin19/12/10

    Probably a bit of both! I've bought a copy of every Star Wars set produced so that probably helped my cause (although not all from LEGO shop@home) as well as other sets for myself and children. I will add that for the past five years I've shopped exclusively from the Lego website.

    ReplyDelete

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