Real LEGO for $0.30. Thank You TJMaxx

For those that read my blog but don't know, my wife and I had our first child this May (which should explain my relative absence from the blog since that time).  In fact, I haven't had much time (or money) to do a whole lot with LEGO...but now that my little guy is starting to sleep just a bit better, I'm hoping to be able to carve out a few minutes here and there to devote to my many hobbies, LEGO included.

Today's post is a bit different in that I wanted to share a cheap LEGO find that I landed at TJMaxx. Now, I actually hate going into TJMaxx (it's like a giant yard sale).  Sure, there are bargains to be had...but usually only for items that you normally would never buy. 

And yes, I fell for TJMaxx's tricks.

You see, I bought three packs of LEGO Nexo Knights Nexo Powers blind bags.  This purchase was made despite me owning exactly zero Nexo Knights sets.  Why would I buy them then? 

Well, they were 30 cents each. 

I don't know what is in each pack, but thirty cents for 10 official LEGO pieces was a good enough deal for me to take a gamble.  And so, let's dig in!

Pack 1:

Inside the main blind bag, you get a small clear plastic bag plus a "base" piece that's surprisingly large.  After opening up the plastic bag, I have to admit that I'm quite pleased with my purchase already!

The gray side clips and blue 2x2 tile are both super useful pieces.  The trans orange bumper piece isn't as useful for me, but it's a rather unique piece within my collection so I'll take it.  The real star of the show, however, is the printed shield tiles!

I bought the pack knowing from the cover that you would get shields, but I was expecting them to be stickered pieces (yuck)!  Instead, all the shields are printed - and they are quite nice.  I am already thinking of possible places within my custom LEGO city where I can incorporate some of the pieces.  The green medical looking shield, in particular, may end up in my custom hospital if I can figure out how to make the colors work!

The pack also came with a checklist of sorts for all of the different printed shield options that are out there.  By my count, there are 35 of them.  I have no idea if some are rarer than others (and frankly, I don't care given that I'm unlikely to find cheap packs of this stuff again). 

That said, with two more blind packs remaining I'd love to get the following:
1 desired shield already acquired, cool!

So.  How did I make out?  Let's rip into the next pack now.

Pack 2:

Well, the good news is that I got another one of the ones I wanted - that blue LEGO piece shield is pretty sweet.  I can probably find a use for the green welding mask as well as the white chain piece.  The piranha plant shield and the cheese wedge shield will take some more creativity however!

Pack 3:

Pack 3 was fairly close in contents to Pack 1 - but the two "new" shields were both ones that I wanted (I didn't circle the bow/arrow shield in my image above but I do like it) so I'll still consider this a solid win!

I mean, for 90 cents total this was a lot of fun even if I don't understand NEXO Knights stuff at all.  I look forward to fitting some of these tiles into my layout and custom builds - a fun challenge for sure (and more printed pieces are always appreciated in the city)!

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