Subject:
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Re: Technic in Israel?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.loc.il
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Date:
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Fri, 16 Nov 2001 01:27:09 GMT
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Viewed:
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3085 times
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Hi Aviv!
Welcome! It's nice to finally hear of someone with a similar mania [1] here in
Israel (and in Jerusalem, no less! I live in Mevaseret).
What made you decide to order the RIS set from Australia?
I went through a different route - first I got addicted to Technic after
picking up an old <set:8880> I saw on Han Toys on discount and only after
I was deep into Technic I ordered a RIS 1.5 set from the states.
I have no idea why they don't import Mindstorms sets to Israel, but I'm sure
it's strongly connected to the reason they don't import the UCS sets (like
<set:7181> & <set:7191>), barely import the big Technic sets (I saw just one
<set:8458> and no <set:8457>) and charge OUTRAGEOUS amounts of money for
anything with the LEGO logo on it.
In almost all of the cases it's cheaper to pay someone abroad to ship a set to
Israel [2] than to buy it over here.
I see no reason for LEGO to cost 2-3 times more here in Israel than it does in
the states. The shipping from Denmark shouldn't be different and the costumes
for toys is only 17%.
O.K., enough complaining, I'm already used to buying my LEGO abroad and have
it shipped over here. I mainly use eBay [3]. DYA [4] and BusyBee [5] also
ship to Israel.
I was pleasantly surprised the new <set:8466> wasn't something like 1200 NIS
like <set:8448> or <set:8458> were. I was able to get it for 689 NIS which is
still very expensive, but at least makes you think twice before you order it
at the regular price from the states. It's a great set by the way and I highly
recommend it. If you see it in Han Toys for 800 NIS ask for their discount
card and get a 14% discount. (20%, but you have to pay 50 NIS for the card)
Good Technic is hard to come by these days (Don't get me started on
Bionicles...)
If you want more motors and don't want to pay 300 NIS for <set:8735> you can
either search for it on eBay (always a couple for sale there) or search for
bigger sets that have a motor and more useful Technic pieces.
<set:8479> has one new style motor, two touch sensors and a great selection of
beams and gears.
<set:8480> has one old style motor and one micro motor and is an amazing set
for all Technic lovers (a heavy contender for the greatest Technic set ever)
<set:8485> is the winner with three(!) old style motors, a control center and
an amazing selection of all the useful Technic pieces (tons of beams, gears
and even flex cables), but it usually goes for a lot of money on eBay.
DYA has <set:8482> for 70.00$ that has a new style motor, some useful stuff
and the cybermaster brick which is a simple version of the RCX. It has a RF
connection to the computer instead of the IR link the RCX has.
About shipping, there is also an option to buy a POB on the states through a
company that handles the POB and ships the things you order to that POB to
Israel (for a hefty fee, naturally). Last time I checked, though, they had no
office in Jerusalem so I would have had to go to Tel Aviv to get my packages
which is a major setback of course.
Hope that helps, Don't hesitate to ask for clarifications, it's nice to know
I'm not alone here in Israel!
- David
[1] Technic & Mindstorms
[2] and pay extra for:
a. the profit of the extra middleman
b. shipping
c. costumes
d. exchange rate
e. transferring funds abroad (paypal, bidpay, western union all have their
fees)
[3] <http://www.ebay.com/>
eBay LEGO Technic:
<http://listings.ebay.com/aw/plistings/list/all/category19012/index.html>
eBay LEGO MindStorms:
<http://listings.ebay.com/aw/plistings/list/all/category19005/index.html>
[4] <http://www.dya-shopping.com/en/home.html>
[5] <http://www.busybeetoys.co.uk/> Be advised that the shipping from the
UK is unbelievable. I bought <set:8462> [6] from BusyBee for 39.00 GBP and
paid 40.00 GBP for shipping (!!!)
Shipping from France (DYA) is much more reasonable.
[6] A good pneumatic set - you should definitely try some pneumatics sometime,
people did some amazing stuff with RIS & pneumatics!
In lugnet.loc.il, Aviv Hurvitz writes:
> Hi all.
>
> I've recently bought the Mindstorms RIS and it is so much fun. I'm spending
> hours and hours on this thing, and it seems to be the last toy I'll ever
> need.
>
> Unfortunately, it turns out that "im haochel ba hate'avon", as the Hebrew
> proverb
> says. My latest ideas need more beams, more motors, more more more...
>
> Anyway, I searched for technic pieces in Jerusalem but all I saw are very
> simple models or the Bionicle thingys.
>
> Question is: does anyone know of a good place to buy LEGO, especially
> technic? Do you know of a good way to have it shipped from abroad?
>
> Thanks,
> Aviv
>
> BTW, if you were wondering, I had my Mindstorms shipped from Australia. I've
> been told that Lego has formally decided not to sell it in Israel. Can
> anyone suggest an explanation for this?
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Technic in Israel?
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| Hi David. Thank you so much for your post. It is very informative. You mentioned many sets so this serves as a nice little introduction to good sets that are out there. I'll certainly look them up before I go on this next shopping round. (...) (...) (23 years ago, 19-Nov-01, to lugnet.loc.il)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Technic in Israel?
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| Hi all. I've recently bought the Mindstorms RIS and it is so much fun. I'm spending hours and hours on this thing, and it seems to be the last toy I'll ever need. Unfortunately, it turns out that "im haochel ba hate'avon", as the Hebrew proverb (...) (23 years ago, 15-Nov-01, to lugnet.loc.il)
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