Son wants a $400 Lego set

[C.Ann]

THANKS everyone for the awesome input. Yes, last year the kids got a Wii. THey hardly play with it. He does play with legos - a lot! He is 7 and has a great imagination. There really isn't a "big" gift for this year. They don't need bikes, or any kind of electronics, so this would be the BIG thing.
Yes, I do have the money, but that is a BIG chunk to part with on ONE gift. Guess I will talk it over with DH and see what he thinks. We are thinking about getting a guitar for DD 9, so that would be their "big" things this year.

Promise us one thing? If you decide to get it, try your best to convince him that he's "probably" not going to get it - keep asking him for other alternatives..

I know - it's sneaky - but imagine the look on his face Christmas morning.. Priceless!!!!!

 

[Pigeon]

If money were no object, if I had the bank accounts of Bill Gates and Warren Buffet combined, I still wouldn't spend $400 on a Lego set. That's just nuts. I'd rather spend a reasonable amount of money on Legos and donate the rest to a worthy cost. A $400 Lego set is an obscene waste of money.

A few years back, I signed up to buy a present for a kid from a needy family sponsored by my kids' elementary school. The kid's request was for a specific Lego set. Now, I like Legos and think they are a great toy--way better than the electronic crud that passes for toys these days.

When I got to Toys Backwards R Us and found the set, I about had an aneurism. The Lego set in question was $140. I wouldn't spend that much on a Lego set for my own kids. I did buy a smaller set from the same line that was about $40, which was still a lot, imo.

 

[leagirl12]

At his age no I would not....when he is old enough for it..YES! It has an age of 14+ and I think I would wait till he was a little older so he could actually put it together. My DS loves Legos and we have spent a fortune but I have no regrets because Legos are one of those things he has never outgrown and always enjoys putting together. But I have made the mistake in the past of buying the ones he was not old enough for and he ended up not liking them or playing with them at all because he was so frustrated with not being able to put them together. Some of the sets can get very intricate and require you to be a little older. I think this is one of them!

I would encourage him to ask Santa for ones that are closer to his age and save that one for Santa to bring when he is a little older.

 

[torinsmom]

Promise us one thing? If you decide to get it, try your best to convince him that he's "probably" not going to get it - keep asking him for other alternatives..

I know - it's sneaky - but imagine the look on his face Christmas morning.. Priceless!!!!!

Yes, do this! The year the Wii came out, I think DS was 13. I prepared him for the fact that the Wii was hard to find and he would probably have to wait until after Christmas. I bought one off Craigslist from a nice lady who only charged me $50 over retail and hid it well. When Christmas morning came, my son opened a Gamestop gift card that had $250 written on it, with a note that we would get one as soon as we could find them in stock. I saved the Wii for last and he was soooo surprised! Of course, I had to break it to him that the Gamestop GC was only worth $25, LOL.

 

[scrapquitler]

Promise us one thing? If you decide to get it, try your best to convince him that he's "probably" not going to get it - keep asking him for other alternatives..

I know - it's sneaky - but imagine the look on his face Christmas morning.. Priceless!!!!!

Exactly. I'd probably buy it, and spend the next six weeks going "Ha! are you kidding me? You must be nuts, there's NO WAY I'd ever buy that!"

 

[hopemax]

I plugged some numbers into one of those inflation calculator websites. I figured out that $400 today would have been about $200 in 1984. Why 1984? That's the year I got the Barbie Dream House for Christmas. I wish I knew what the MSRP of it was, but I knew it wasn't cheap. EDIT: I found a 1982 Sears Wish Book that said it sold for $99.99 or about ~$220 today).

My DH was big into LEGO in 1984 (actually, he still is, he has a LEGO room in our basement. He has all his childhood sets, and many, many, many more. He has an engineering background, so building LEGO is still up his alley). The big Castle set that year sold for $52.75, or just over $100 today.

There is a big jump from $100 to $400, but if your kid is a good kid, takes reasonable care of his toys, and understands that BIG gifts like this don't come around every year, and you have the money...

The only thing that would stop me is your son's age. DH gets the Main Street building sets that sell for $149 (Fire Station, Emporium, etc). These things take both of us all day to put together. At 7, a set that big, may just lead to a lot of frustration.

 

[SAHDad]

I would have a hard time saying no. A couple of trips ago, we were at the Lego store in downtown Disney, and they had one of those. It was marked down drastically (40% maybe?) because the box was trashed, but they assured me that the pieces and instructions were all still there.

I foolishly chose not to get it - I should have, even though it probably would have meant tossing some of my clothes or buying another suitcase. I kick myself for that about once a week.

DS is 6, almost 7 now - he's into Lego in a big way, and while he wants that, he wants pretty much anything Lego. Star Wars, Harry Potter, Space Cops, general bricks - you name it, DS likes it.

 

[ilovejack02]

I dont know if I am quite ready to send that much on one set.

DS8 of course told me he wanted the Death Star , along with EVERYTHING else in the catalog.

As of now he still rips up all his sets , which I am fine with because he rebuilds different things all day long.

If I am going to spend that much on one set he better put it together and it better last forever LOL.

I bought him all of the Harry Potter sets for Xmas except the 129.00 Hogwarts school I am debating on it, but think I will see if he keeps the other sets together and if he does I will get him Hogwarts, after the Holidays.

I also ordered all the holiday small sets and the advent calender. Once again it is another Lego Christmas at our house.

 

[LisaR]

While I haven't bought my son that particular set, I just got done wrapping three Lego sets for him for this Christmas and they total $400. Honestly, I don't mind at all. I feel they are very educational and my son loves them. He puts them together and then he makes stop motion movies using the sets.

 

[ChrisFL]

While I haven't bought my son that particular set, I just got done wrapping three Lego sets for him for this Christmas and they total $400. Honestly, I don't mind at all. I feel they are very educational and my son loves them. He puts them together and then he makes stop motion movies using the sets.

kewl

 

[dislaney]

Yes I probably would buy it.

 

[ChrisFL]

Although in some ways I prefer the old lego days when there werent' as many kits you just build with custom pieces (kinda ruins the idea of lego for me,but whatever)...they really are one of the most useful toys for education.

I kept my lego collection until about 2 years ago...and I'm 32 now! Being inspired by the "Earthquake" attraction at Universal when it first opened, I made my own scale model city out of lego and "destroyed" it in an earthquake (on top of a trampoline)....good fun...though I didn't videotape it

 

[poohbear227]

You could get it on Ebay for a bargain $299!!

http://cgi.ebay.com/Lego-Star-Wars-...ultDomain_0&hash=item3f04abb96f#ht_500wt_1156

 

[Carlyzmom]

Promise us one thing? If you decide to get it, try your best to convince him that he's "probably" not going to get it - keep asking him for other alternatives..

I know - it's sneaky - but imagine the look on his face Christmas morning.. Priceless!!!!!

I absolutely love this idea!! I will do that if we decide to get it!

 

[Carlyzmom]

If money were no object, if I had the bank accounts of Bill Gates and Warren Buffet combined, I still wouldn't spend $400 on a Lego set. That's just nuts. I'd rather spend a reasonable amount of money on Legos and donate the rest to a worthy cost. A $400 Lego set is an obscene waste of money.

A few years back, I signed up to buy a present for a kid from a needy family sponsored by my kids' elementary school. The kid's request was for a specific Lego set. Now, I like Legos and think they are a great toy--way better than the electronic crud that passes for toys these days.

When I got to Toys Backwards R Us and found the set, I about had an aneurism. The Lego set in question was $140. I wouldn't spend that much on a Lego set for my own kids. I did buy a smaller set from the same line that was about $40, which was still a lot, imo.

Please don't assume that if I spend $400 on Legos that I won't donate to a worthy cause. We do a lot of giving - we are HUGE Dave Ramsey fans!

One fun thing we do every year is go to IHOP or Waffle House once or twice before Christmas and give our waitress a big fat tip - $50 to $100. We usually talk to them and find a single mom that could really use it. We think it is a great lesson to do with our kids. They look forward to it every year!

 

[Carlyzmom]

You could get it on Ebay for a bargain $299!!

http://cgi.ebay.com/Lego-Star-Wars-...ultDomain_0&hash=item3f04abb96f#ht_500wt_1156

THANKS!! I put a "watch" on it!!

 

[quentina]

Would this be completely insane? It's the Lego Star Wars Death Star set. It's $399.99. He REALLY wants it! He asked for it for his birthday, but I don't spend that much on birthdays. I just don't know if it is responsible to spend that much on ONE toy!! But he sure would FREAK out of he got it! What would you do?

P.S. He did tell me that he was going to ask Santa for it too!

I would see if they have it an AC moore and use the coupon that comes in the paper....we get it Wednesday and it is 40 or 50% off. This is how I buy all expensive logos, K-nex and Thomas stuff.

 

[PRmamiDEdos]

Would this be completely insane? It's the Lego Star Wars Death Star set. It's $399.99. He REALLY wants it! He asked for it for his birthday, but I don't spend that much on birthdays. I just don't know if it is responsible to spend that much on ONE toy!! But he sure would FREAK out of he got it! What would you do?

P.S. He did tell me that he was going to ask Santa for it too!

DS LOVES Legos and has been begging us AND Santa for this set. He's told that neither of us can afford it. He has been saving any money he gets towards it.

 

[brenalexacamp]

Get it if you can- My son will be 20 next month and Legs were his LIFE! He had to hve every set in every theme- He played with those things forever! And they stayed on my kitchen table all set up for weeks! We even had the lywook in his room to put them all on- nope- the kitchen table and I could hear him pretending forever! Priceless!! Now when we went to the Lego store in August- Downtown and everything was color sorted- I wqas like "Nick, this looks like your room!" When it came time to put them away we color coded everything into bins. This way when he was 16 and wanted to make a set-he got the directions and all he needed was to fish through the bins to get the colored bricks and then build

This is a kid that had to save every box an wrapper for everything too!

Out of all the toys I have left- Legos, Hotwheels, Fisher Price fliptrack Railroad, GI Joe's, the metal Thomas and friends trains.

He's going to be 21 next month and I am thinking od surprising him with something Lego-for fun. His keychain for his car is a Lego- I saw a little kid with Lego sneakers the other day- his mom let me take a picture to send to my son- I told him they made them in a size 13- dd he want me to pick them up for him-

 

[C.Ann]

Lego's are also one of those things that you're never really "too" old for.. Heck, if DGD had some I would be more than happy to build things with her - LOL..

Anyone remember when Lincoln Logs first became popular? I loved those things!