The truly awesome new set, 10220 Volkswagen T1 Camper Van, is now available in the LEGO® Shop for shipping to Australia. It’s priced at $169.99 (with a limit of 5 per customer). However, be aware that postage will set you back $35 for standard or $80 for express.
The red 1962 T1 Camper includes features such as the ‘V’ shape three-way colour split at the front, rounded roof and window frames, opening ‘splittie’ safari front window, opening doors, and of course, the instantly recognisable pop-up roof.
It’s most likely that, as with other LEGO® Exclusives, it will turn up in a major local retailer later in the year.
Here’s an interesting video from LEGO® about the design of this set.
Any chance of free shipping coming up? (The US and UK have it until the end of the month.)
Perhaps for the pre-Christmas shopping season?
^ Fingers crossed.
Is it just me, or is AU$170 a great price for such a fantastic exclusive set?
Why do we pay so much more for our lego? The packaging is universal and you can fit a HEAP of leego into a shipping container. Then to top it off we pay high delivery chargers, when it comes out of Sydney!!!
Yeah $170 is a good price for the set. But then we are lugged with a $35 delivery fee. Just rude. Lego needs to ship free to oz.
lego needs to get real on its pricing. i can understand a small increase in price for the shipping to oz than to the usa but we get shafted on rrp. sure the usa is a bigger market but so what. it cost X to make a set they Y to ship to the country of destination. the retailer adds on Z and that should be the rrp. if anything lego should have lower/same price on their direct website so we can buy direct from them and cut out the retailer.
Actually the shipping is even more of a joke because if you buy goods from any major UK retailer the rate is capped at 20-30 pounds per DHL Express shipment – no matter how big – and can go as low as 10. Standard shipping through other stores can be even less.
If most major retailers in the UK can charge between GBP10-30 for DHL Express I refuse to pay 100AUD for LEGO’s mediocre and crush-happy service. LEGO is a major worldwide business so don’t tell me they can’t negotiate their rate down with DHL either!
I used to buy loads from S@H but now I wouldn’t bother.The shipping rates are just a slap in the face over the already inflated RRPs.
Maybe we should try to start a campaign for fairer prices for Oz? I can get multiple lego items shipped from the US cheaper than a single Lego item from their online store…
Never buy from local retail except when dramatic on sale.
Just bought a 8110 from Amazon france and its only 140 euro includ postage! Madness price. Should have bought two but that was the last one.
Most of the AFOL groups around the country generally place group shop @ home orders and share the the shipping cost amongst the partipicpants.
With the group orders how are the Lego VIP points divide up.
how can they justify the 170.00 price whilst its 120 in the states thats a premium of 40% and that doesnt include the extra 35 or 80 dollars for postage
VIP poits or cheaper postage the choice is yours, however the VIP points would be held by one person and used on the next order or orders and allocated based on points accululated on the past order or orders.
Aahhhh bless! The week isn’t complete in the online Aussie Lego community until someone complains about our retail pricing!
Newsflash peops: almost *everything* in retail is cheaper in the US than here. It’s not like TLG are out of step with the rest of the retail sector!
Btw im sure Australians have a higher minimum wage than the US- twice the amount? Someone correct me if I’m wrong. (US have compulsory tipping there too) also they don’t get universal healthcare like we do. They may be getting ‘cheaper’ Lego but they have to pay in other ways that we may take for granted. Aussies have a higher standard if living as well.
LEGO – it’s a luxury item, not a need. It wouldn’t make financial sense for TLG to reduce their prices in aust to match the US – were too small of a group for them to do that.
Oh and staying on topic – I impulsively bought 2 campervans this week which now I regret. Heh :p
Maybe we should have a little more moderation from our moderator and a little less flaming.
Yes, apologies for my tone in the earlier post if it caused offense. However, a post with an exasperated tone does not equate to ‘flaming’.
Constant re-hashings of pricing gets nobody anywhere.
If you are bent on bringing this up, make a thread about it (to my recollection there was one a while ago) – there is no need to “Lego bash” on a news item reporting a set release.
Thanks Ruby, I agree 100%. It seems we have the same discussion every time a new LEGO set or theme gets released. That’s what the forum (and amazon.fr) is for.
It’s interesting that the pricing debate arose on the subject of this particular set. This set’s pricing actually feels downright reasonable by Australian standards; it’s not like we’re talking about $700 for a massive lump of grey. The shipping costs feel sort of like a tip over the edge, sure, but…
The other thing to remember on pricing, we have a really small population and its spread out compared to the US, I am in no way justifying the prices, but its almost fair to say that our prices arent really high it’s more that the US prices are cheap. You then look at the population and it becomes something they can price cheaper. On this set, this is a pick up for Xmas set for me, its just too cool not to get one
fair point. i just object to having to ship from overseas to get anywhere near a decent price which in turn means an Australian reseller has lost a sale. The use of the word flaming was a little on the dramatic side!
Of course once you know how cheaply someone else is able to buy the set from overseas, it makes you feel ripped off. I feel the same way. I get a similar feeling when watching Top Gear and seeing the prices of European sportscars! But unfortunately that’s the way it is – and always has been – you blame the Internet for increased awareness (and your ability to get sets at a cheaper price than here – ignorance is bliss…).
Sometimes you’ll be able to get a great price from an o/s online retailer (i.e. The QAR from The Hut at ~$90aud) but those bargains are few and far between.
As for all Lego Exclusive sets, you won’t be able to get them from non-S@H overseas online retailers, which is a pity. Therefore, I have found that for most Exclusive sets that end up being retailed in Aus, you’re actually almost better off waiting for in-store %off sales unless it’s for a high end set like the SSD/Death Star playset. Smaller exclusive sets like The Pet Shop and The VW Campervan will most likely be better off purchased over here when there’s a sale rather than from places like Bricklink/eBay, where you’re likely to pay above RRP plus the high shipping rate and sometimes plus the 4% paypal fee (Bricklink). Previous examples of this situation include The Tower Bridge, Modular Fire Station and Imperial Flagship, which were all offered here during sales times at competitive prices. The only time you’re really going to make a killing is if you’re over there in person and can bring it back with you.
Factor in the current drop in the Aussie dollar and the numbers are even more persuasive for purchasing from here – if you’re prepared to be patient and wait for the lag-time between S@H availability and in-store release.
As for the Aussie dollar – don’t forget that two and a bit years ago we were sitting on 80c – the price comparisons didn’t look as good then. Our current global economy is unstable, and you can’t expect TLG to chop and change their retail prices according to xe.com’s daily rates.
In regards to Aussie retailer loyalty, I guess I have none. I feel no obligation to be a loyal purchaser from publicly listed conglomerates like DJs/Myer/Wesfarmers; anyone who has set up an online Lego store in Australia has done so with the full knowledge of the state of play; and there aren’t many ‘Mom and Pop’ toy retailers out there (whom I doubt would have much loyalty to me in any case). I figure I give enough to the Australian economy in terms of income tax, stamp duty, GST, capital gains tax, the looming carbon tax bla bla bla without ever having received anything back, so I don’t need to pay more than I have to for my Lego!
A lot of the small Aussie sellers out there buy extra then flog their extras off on eBay at inflated prices in order to pay for their sets – good luck to them, but I certainly won’t be buying anything from them, and personally it’s not worth my time doing the same. But if that’s something that you’d consider doing then that’s one way to off-set the higher cost of buying Lego and having it shipped here.
That said, Aussie retailers both online and in-store do sometimes offer sets at prices that are really competitive (see above re: Exclusive sets, and e.g. Outer Rim’s great initial pricing of the Star Wars Advent Calendar). Shopforme.com also offers really good prices on select sets. As does fishpond (though I wouldn’t trust them as far as I could throw them). And despite eBay mainly being a home for people to stupidly outbid each other and pay more than something is worth, you can occasionally still find things at good prices, particularly on more common sets (although unfortunately for me the sets I like tend to be higher-end more exclusive sets so it’s more difficult to find those ‘bargains’).
But to finish somewhat more on topic to this initial post (so much for moving this to the forum…
) – the price difference on the Campervan really isn’t that much compared to a lot of other sets, even in a % comparison. My advice: have a little patience and wait for it to be released in store (as the VW Beetle was) – you won’t have to pay for the high shipping cost and you can buy from an Aussie retailer if that is a positive thing for you. It’s only a $50 difference – actually less given our current exchange rate, and if you luck out and get it during a sale then the price difference will be negligible. If you want to have this discussion about this issue this isn’t the set to do it about – save it for the Super Star Destroyer!
*luck in that is…
Only in Australia though…….apparently to ‘luck out’ means the opposite elsewhere:
http://www.ockle.org/blog/2007/06/27/lucked-out
But now I’m waaaay off topic. Can’t wait to get that Combi !