I picked up a lot of rope lights last year at Target in the "After-Christmas" sales, paid about 3 bucks for an 18-foot section.
I use the cold green plate nightlights, they use essentially no power but they grow dim after a while.
I haven't used the rope light for my christmas stuff, this year I lent them to a friend. I got the rope light to light our community pool for a pool party, because I can leave them up for the summer -- I got red, white, and blue to be festive.
I used some rope light to light my lego table, but I found the total light output, even with 36 feet of rope attached to the shelf above the table, wasn't really enough to light it up for working. It would have been fine for a display. (My Lego Table is two 8-foot folding tables stacked on top of each other, so the rope light is installed to the underside of the upper table, which then is a shelf for storing completed models).
Anyway, I'm excited now about getting some of those LED spotlights -- I didn't realise how inexpensive they were getting.
I hope to start replacing my christmas lights with the LED lights in the next 5 years as my current "Energy Saving" lights reach the end of their "useful life" meaning all the bulbs lose their color and turn into shades of clear. The LED lights are still too expensive, but they are getting much cheaper year to year.
Have you noticed the flashlight conversion units for LED? They cost about $18 for the Maglights. Seems a bit high to me.