Tell me about it!
I have spent about 3.3k on Lego in 2 short months since my return to this hobby 

I've been taxed for toys before. The actual way they calculate is

10% of total value, where the value = price of toy + freight charges + 1% of price of toy (insurance)

Note that the freight charges are NOT what you paid, but according to a table that they have (which has ridiculous rates) It varies based on where the shipment came from and the weight as well.

The toy (action figures) I ordered had freight charges of RM 384, whereas the actual shipping I paid for them was only RM 70 after conversion.

Malaysia boleh...

I guess its their (Kastams) way of circumventing the fact that people tend to ask seller to under-declare the value of the items that get shipped (which was not the case in mine) My shipment was  from Blizzard (the game company that produced WoW and Starcraft) so under-declaring was not an option to begin with.

my huge box that just arrived yesterday didn't get taxed 

For box sets, more than 2/3 of the content is air so volumetric weight comes into play most of the time rather than the actual weight if you ship with boxes. So very costly.

If you can debox, you can try ship with flat-rate boxes (in the case of USPS). A medium USPS Priority Mail International (PMI) flat-rate box cost about USD45, comes with tracking and delivered to you like a registered mail. It allows up to 20lbs and should be able to fit about 2000 pcs.
You can potentially fit 20 or more small box sets (70-80 pcs) and more if you discard the instructions.
The catch is that you will have to find someone who is willing to do this for you.

some calculations:

1 small SW sets is retailed at RM80 here and USD12+(RM40) in US (in US, can usually get free local shipping)
If you buy 20 sets.

RM1600 in Malaysia,
or
RM800 + USD45 shipping (RM140) = RM940

Of course with TRU's Star Card, you can get RM60+ vouchers and perhaps some Credit Card points/cashback.

Still there is quite some saving.

My 2 sen.

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Added on December 19, 2012, 7:57 pmHmmm... I have a killer deal for the 79003 Unexpected Gathering...
Should I pull the trigger? Not a fan yet of the whole Middle Earth yarn...

still killer price haiz....