I've been hitting up the local Fred Meyers (a big retail store in the western states) because I got a $25 gift card for Christmas, and Fred Meyers always has LEGO Bricks.

Sometimes.

Anyway, none of the stores are very close to the school, so I've been experimenting with the bus system, taking new routes into new places (AKA, not University District. I've lived here for more than two years and I still don't know the Seattle area that well outside the campus) And so far, I've been hitting empty shelves. Its like they don't care about Lego anymore. There's a bunch of other building brands (lots of MegaBlock Halo stuff) but only a few rather expensive sets. The Indy Boat chase, for example. Even though I want that, it's still a little pricey for me, and there wasn't any thing else cheaper that I wanted (granted, there was a impulse Duplo buy, but no, just no) I've been hoping they'd restock soon, but nothing. I guess Lego just sold very well (which also explains why there's so much MegaBlock stuff left... who wants that?)

I charted a route to a new store yesterday, because a "Buy 2, Get 1 Free" add in the newspaper caught my eye. And, voila, they have sets! Well, not many; I was kind of looking for the impulse buys to the new themes, like Toy Story or City, but no go. However, they had a full set of Bionicle Stars, so I picked up three, paid for only two, and spent money on none of them because my gift card covered it all.

One other thing of interest... there was a Baranus for nearly 50% off, which was a cool price. But I saw Baranus at BrickCon ( :annoyed2: ) and I decided I wanted to spend my money elsewhere. (Granted, I did buy the Stars instead, but I'm doing this out of product loyalty, since they're the last ones coming out for a while.)

Anyway, I should start writing some set reviews for the blog, since I have 5 of the stars (including Tahu, and enough gold armor to cover most of him) So yeah, I may have pictures in this blog soon.