Limited Releases

[rogue27]

Dear Lego,

Do you spread the holiday spirit by helping adults price gouge children?

If a set is limited, please restrict quantities for S&H orders. You know the big orders are just being marked up for resale on bricklink.

[MarioDAlessio]

I agree, that dwarfs mine keeps dissapearing from SAH.

Mario

[Athos]

Do you spread the holiday spirit by helping adults price gouge children?

That's kind of harsh criticism...

Steve

[rogue27]

Do you spread the holiday spirit by helping adults price gouge children?

That's kind of harsh criticism...

Steve

Harsh? Paying double for a set that was released a few months ago is harsh. Making people pay $100 for a $50 gift is harsh. TLC knew this would happen and they did nothing to prevent it. In fact, they encouraged this outcome by producing so few.

LEGO restricted orders on the Maersk Sealiner due to it's limited nature. Why not with this set? Also, why do most toys get overstocked in California and understocked in the Midwest? I'm not even sure my Target ever stocked it. I go there weekly to look at LEGO and board games, and I've never seen it. There's no label on any of the shelves. The toy manager says they've never heard of it. There isn't another Target for 200 miles.

I guess I wasn't paying attention closely enough. I thought it was just a new set, or it was "hard to find" like Siskund's Blacksmith shop was "hard to find". Meaning, it's only available direct, but will be stocked for a couple years. I had no idea this set was going to completely vanish like that and I am quite displeased. Was this common knowledge?

[Asterios]

Do you spread the holiday spirit by helping adults price gouge children?

That's kind of harsh criticism...

Steve

Harsh? Paying double for a set that was released a few months ago is harsh. Making people pay $100 for a $50 gift is harsh. TLC knew this would happen and they did nothing to prevent it. In fact, they encouraged this outcome by producing so few.

LEGO restricted orders on the Maersk Sealiner due to it's limited nature. Why not with this set? Also, why do most toys get overstocked in California and understocked in the Midwest? I'm not even sure my Target ever stocked it. I go there weekly to look at LEGO and board games, and I've never seen it. There's no label on any of the shelves. The toy manager says they've never heard of it. There isn't another Target for 200 miles.

I guess I wasn't paying attention closely enough. I thought it was just a new set, or it was "hard to find" like Siskund's Blacksmith shop was "hard to find". Meaning, it's only available direct, but will be stocked for a couple years. I had no idea this set was going to completely vanish like that and I am quite displeased. Was this common knowledge?

well according to a LEGO Rep who posted here it is supposed to return in Feb.

[rogue27]

If that's true, then it's not limited. In which case this thread is clearly about some other limited release that may or may not be released at some point in time.

[davee123]

Paying double for a set that was released a few months ago is harsh. Making people pay $100 for a $50 gift is harsh.

Well, Lego isn't making anyone pay anything. If it's worth it to you, pay it. If it's not, don't. Or buy early and pay MSRP. Or risk that it'll stick around and hope for clearance prices.

TLC knew this would happen and they did nothing to prevent it. In fact, they encouraged this outcome by producing so few.

I don't think Lego *knew* it was going to happen, but I'm sure they figured it was a potential outcome. I believe the whole point of this set coming out now was to hype up the line and to test-market the set for the upcoming 2008 run. This way, they can have a better idea of how well it's going to sell and they can plan future production runs accordingly.

But part of it, yes, is to create a market demand for it. They followed the same philosophy with the numbered Santa Fe's and Millenium Falcon's. And the same "collector" mentality went into the chrome C-3P0 hunt.

LEGO restricted orders on the Maersk Sealiner due to it's limited nature. Why not with this set?

That I don't know, but it's probably because this set wasn't limited or available in the same way. It was released at Target stores, unlike other things that typically get restricted orders, like the UCS MF, Maersk Sealiner, etc. Most likely, they DIDN'T think this set was going to be as popular or as collectable as those other sets, so they didn't restrict it. And what do you know? People gobbled it up, so as a result (assuming that's really the case), they'll probably make the 2008 runs larger than they otherwise would have, expecting higher demand.

Also, why do most toys get overstocked in California and understocked in the Midwest? I'm not even sure my Target ever stocked it.

Well, that's the midwest, not Lego. Or, more appropriately, Target. Or Wal*Mart or TRU if you're talking about Lego in general.

Lego is often seen as a high-end, expensive toy for kids. It typically does well (in the US) in the densely populated coasts. In particular, New England is where Lego sales are the highest in the US (I don't know how that statistic is derived, possibly per capita). But generally, Lego is seen as too expensive for kids in the midwest, and I know I've heard it commented on as being some sort of hoity-toity toy by lower income families. Since incomes are generally higher on the east and west coasts, you'll likely see Lego become more popular in those regions. Similarly, I'd guess that it does better in more urban than rural areas.

It's all about demographics. Target didn't stock the set in your area, probably because they wanted to make sure the sets got sold, and there's a better chance of them doing that on the east or west coast.

And since the coasts are generally the ones who get the larger shipments, that's why you'll notice that they're the ones who get *overstocked*. It's not that they overstock things intentionally, it's just that if you're going to see large amounts of overstock, it's just more likely to occurr where there's a lot of stock to start with.

I guess I wasn't paying attention closely enough. I thought it was just a new set, or it was "hard to find" like Siskund's Blacksmith shop was "hard to find". Meaning, it's only available direct, but will be stocked for a couple years. I had no idea this set was going to completely vanish like that and I am quite displeased. Was this common knowledge?

I'm not sure it was common knowledge. It says "limited edition" on the box, but I don't know if it says that on the website anywhere (I'm guessing not). I also think the set will still be part of the 2008 line, so it *should* be back sometime next year, presumably without the "limited edition" label.

DaveE

[Athos]

Do you spread the holiday spirit by helping adults price gouge children?

That's kind of harsh criticism...

Steve

Harsh? Paying double for a set that was released a few months ago is harsh. Making people pay $100 for a $50 gift is harsh.

I don't think that part is harsh. I think its harsh blaming Lego for the scalpers actions. I also think I heard the set will be appearing at retail again with the rest of the line and the limited release only applied to a limited early release.

Steve

[rogue27]

That's kind of harsh criticism...

Steve

Harsh? Paying double for a set that was released a few months ago is harsh. Making people pay $100 for a $50 gift is harsh.

I don't think that part is harsh. I think its harsh blaming Lego for the scalpers actions. I also think I heard the set will be appearing at retail again with the rest of the line and the limited release only applied to a limited early release.

Steve

LEGO made the set limited enough to give scalpers an opportunity to mark it up to ridiculous levels. Lego allowed it to be distributed by a retailer that is not in all areas and which apparently doesn't stock products proportionally. The lopsided distribution and limited release created the the supply constraints which allowed scalpers to charge what they're charging. Meanwhile, the unrestricted orders on S@H allowed scalpers to buy out the inventory and artificially increase the scarcity of the set.

Also, what's different about the non-limited release coming next year? In the past I believe a Target exclusive castle set have extra figs compared to the regular release.

Anyway, I want LEGO to be a toy that can be collected. Not a collector's item that can be played with.

[natelite]

i think on the box it said special edition, not limited edition. so it's quite likely to come back in spring. the hoth base is the real limited set here. my lego store has some on tuesday (i called to check), but was gone by saturday. i couldn't quite go there (before) closing time on weekdays...how sad. :-/

[wunztwice]

Just to add my two-pence worth:

I'm not a huge fan of super-limited set releases. The idea of a limited run of a product might generate a lot of commotion, and try to generate faster returns on a product, but over the long run wouldn't LEGO end up earning more on a good set if it were not a limited run situation? It makes sense to keep a good set going.

I don't understand how many times it's the good sets (by that I mean the sets we AFOLs REALLY like, but sell to kids well too) to be limited anyways?

It must cost money to produce even limited sets, so why not try and turn that into a longer run and get an even larger return on the sets?

(This is to say nothing of whether or not any of the above listed sets are special/limited editions...)

Anyways, those sere just some of my questions. Maybe they can be passed on to LEGO via ambassador?

[Peppermint Pig]

I never got a chance to purchase the Dwarf Mine, but I'd still like to get one. As some have claimed, the set will be back in circulation, which would be nice if this happens. I hope letter keychains come back as well... but there's no guarantee there.

It's disappointing when sets are scarce, but you're not FORCED to buy them from vendors on BrickLink. Are some of them opportunists? Perhaps, but if Lego products are in such high demand, one would expect that Lego itself would be able to provide longer set runs and/or lower prices. Is Lego doing this? Not that I'm aware of!!

The biggest concern that I have is the loss of quality parts and color accuracy that's been going on since Lego outsourced their production. It takes gall to claim dark grey, grey, and brown colors were 'wrong', then replacing them with a new formula, only to now see irregularity in the quality of production. Lego, your parts are noticeably cheaper looking, and your prices really haven't changed for the better either.

[LORD DOOM]

Just to add my two-pence worth:

I'm not a huge fan of super-limited set releases. The idea of a limited run of a product might generate a lot of commotion, and try to generate faster returns on a product, but over the long run wouldn't LEGO end up earning more on a good set if it were not a limited run situation? It makes sense to keep a good set going.

I don't understand how many times it's the good sets (by that I mean the sets we AFOLs REALLY like, but sell to kids well too) to be limited anyways?

It must cost money to produce even limited sets, so why not try and turn that into a longer run and get an even larger return on the sets?

(This is to say nothing of whether or not any of the above listed sets are special/limited editions...)

Anyways, those sere just some of my questions. Maybe they can be passed on to LEGO via ambassador?

I bet the reason they don't do that is that they fear they may lose consumer interest if they don't keep their product catalog fresh and innovative.

I agree with you though Wunz, it would be nice to see sets available for longer periods of time.

I would really like to see the goods sets just STAY in production. But that's never gonna happen. X/

[JPinoy]

It's a new set... why jump to the conclusion that its "limited"? That label is just for marketing purposes anyway.