Sure but the sea cow is also nearly 3000 pieces. Every theme seems to have one $200+ serious collector set these days. I have the tower of orthanc and haunted house and diagonal alley premium sets.
As far as cost - there are always sales. Wait. TRU will do 20% off sales on every theme multiple times as the year goes on. They sometimes mark sets up from msrp so be careful. Better, amazon.ca now stocks lego. Brickset.com has an amazon discount watch page.
http://brickset.com/buy/vendor-amazo...unt/country-ca
They do some deep discounts. Just have to be quick about it but lots of regular decent sales. Chapters/indigo has a decent lego selection and will do good sales periodically too.
I only really buy lego full price on the months the lego store/site has some really good freebie. Next month is a martian manhunter minifig on purchases over $75. Or little things like holiday sets. Otherwise I wait for the twice a year 'double VIP points' specials at lego to make it more worthwhile. Then use my points to get a solid discount on a large exclusive set.
Those are my lego savings tips. I buy a lot and very little is full price. I was able to get all four Jabba sets from the past year for around $250-75. Normal retail for jabbas palace, sailbarge, skiff and rancor pit is $405 before tax!
We don't get the sales or msrp Americans do on lego but don't pay full price. ^^
