General LEGO Thread

[Fuzz]

Ya, I have a kitten. She would not be much help during construction or for the lifespan of that thing! Pretty cool though.

[KTrain]

I was at Chinook on the release day. There was a line-up of 5 or 6 people. I later saw one guy walking out of the mall with 5 of them.

[photon]

Originally Posted by KTrain

I was at Chinook on the release day. There was a line-up of 5 or 6 people. I later saw one guy walking out of the mall with 5 of them.

They're all on eBay likely. Seems to be going for $270-$300 or so.

[burn_this_city]

Got my Saturn V on Monday, a buddy was at Chinook and snagged one for each of us.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Originally Posted by photon

They're all on eBay likely. Seems to be going for $270-$300 or so.

I hate to beat a dead horse here, because I've posted about this multiple times in the past, but I sincerely hope the Lego market collapses like trading cards and comic books and these people are left holding thousands of dollars worth of sets they can't sell. I hope it equally affects Lego directly for encouraging this type of behaviour in an attempt to drive up demand for their products. I don't want them to go out of business, just rethink their business plan and practices.

[HockeyIlliterate]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

I hate to beat a dead horse here, because I've posted about this multiple times in the past, but I sincerely hope the Lego market collapses like trading cards and comic books and these people are left holding thousands of dollars worth of sets they can't sell. I hope it equally affects Lego directly for encouraging this type of behaviour in an attempt to drive up demand for their products. I don't want them to go out of business, just rethink their business plan and practices.

In your view, what specific practices should Lego change?

[FireGilbert]

There are plenty of Lego sets on Ebay being sold at below retail. The Star Wars Assault on Hoth is an example. It received poor reviews and those that bought up a large number of sets were forced to drop the price.

Sure some people are making money off new or hard to find sets but I would hardly consider this a lucrative business that is damaging to the brand.

[photon]

It does make it annoying to get a set you missed out on and it happens to be really popular though; they could easily make more if the demand is there. I've missed sets that I'd want before just because I wasn't actively following everything that was being released.

They should do re-runs of old sets every so often as well, they have the thing were people vote for new sets, have another one where people vote for a new run of an old set.

My kid loves space, if I'd gotten on the computer any later on the day it came out I might have missed the LEGO Saturn V completely (or paid 100% premium). My kid would love the LEGO Hayabusa but again it's like $1 a piece, over $300 for a 369 piece set. Or the Mission to Mars set. A rerun of those sets would be awesome. But it would make the collectors unhappy because it would kill the value of their sets.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

I hope this Saturn V set has a bigger production run and being sold out now isn't an indication it'll be sold out forever, just that production as of now can't meet demand.

I feel like they've been getting a bit better at not shorting runs just to please scalpers but it's that uncertainty that helps drive demand. If Lego would just come out and say they'll produce until it stops selling, then people who actually want to own these would buy, not just scummy scalpers who put them straight on eBay.

They definitely should open up some legacy sets for production. It's frustrating that it seems as though they are catering to scalpers and intentionally squeezing supply to drive up short term demand. Everyone knows they'll underproduce which leads people to buying 5 or 10 sets at a time.

I would literally give them hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars but they won't let me because they don't want to anger a bunch of scalpers who bought up all the supply to screw me over. They are for sure enabling this type of behaviour. It sucks.

[WhiteTiger]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

I hope this Saturn V set has a bigger production run and being sold out now isn't an indication it'll be sold out forever, just that production as of now can't meet demand.

I feel like they've been getting a bit better at not shorting runs just to please scalpers but it's that uncertainty that helps drive demand. If Lego would just come out and say they'll produce until it stops selling, then people who actually want to own these would buy, not just scummy scalpers who put them straight on eBay.

They definitely should open up some legacy sets for production. It's frustrating that it seems as though they are catering to scalpers and intentionally squeezing supply to drive up short term demand. Everyone knows they'll underproduce which leads people to buying 5 or 10 sets at a time.

I would literally give them hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars but they won't let me because they don't want to anger a bunch of scalpers who bought up all the supply to screw me over. They are for sure enabling this type of behaviour. It sucks.

Same here. I'd even be cool with them putting "Second Run" or "x year run" on a re-run of the box of something. I'd love to get my hands on the I.S.D...but not at least 1 grand worth of want-to-own.

[Fuzz]

They should re-release the highest priced set on the second hand market. Keep doing that and serve the demand for the most sought after, and drive down the highest prices.

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

I hope this Saturn V set has a bigger production run and being sold out now isn't an indication it'll be sold out forever, just that production as of now can't meet demand.

I feel like they've been getting a bit better at not shorting runs just to please scalpers but it's that uncertainty that helps drive demand. If Lego would just come out and say they'll produce until it stops selling, then people who actually want to own these would buy, not just scummy scalpers who put them straight on eBay.

They definitely should open up some legacy sets for production. It's frustrating that it seems as though they are catering to scalpers and intentionally squeezing supply to drive up short term demand. Everyone knows they'll underproduce which leads people to buying 5 or 10 sets at a time.

I would literally give them hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars but they won't let me because they don't want to anger a bunch of scalpers who bought up all the supply to screw me over. They are for sure enabling this type of behaviour. It sucks.

They do it because the scarcity makes people buy now, and buy more. Less people would rush down and buy a $100+ building toy on release day if they knew they could get it later, and some of them wouldn't end up buying it. If they had 75 of those rockets in the Calgary store, plus online, they are making thousands of these. It's silly, and if they are making thousands eventually this will collapse.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Originally Posted by bizaro86

They do it because the scarcity makes people buy now, and buy more. Less people would rush down and buy a $100+ building toy on release day if they knew they could get it later, and some of them wouldn't end up buying it. If they had 75 of those rockets in the Calgary store, plus online, they are making thousands of these. It's silly, and if they are making thousands eventually this will collapse.

Could you seriously imagine if apple only made a few million iPhones to drive up scalper prices and create fake scarcity? Their stock price would plummet at the incredibly moronic decision. They produce tens of millions of phones to meet market demand.

I have a hard time believing Lego would rather sell 25 rockets on day 1 instead of 75 rockets over the course of a month.

But like I said, it seems as though they haven't been choking supply over the long term like they used to. If they can benefit from the hype short term but still satisfy all buyers long term, I've got no issue with that. I understand there are probably limits on initial production runs, which drives up short term scarcity and demand, just like iPhones. But just like the newest iPhone, I don't need the Saturn V this week. But if it never comes back into stock because they are intentionally shorting supply long term to create fake scarcity then they're idiots.

It's a bit of a weird position because I don't hate Lego. I just hate they don't seem to want my money. I'm willing to give them a very sceptical benefit of the doubt for now and trust that they want my money and just can't meet the current demand. But given how they've done this in the past, I'm not holding my breath.

As for classic sets, maybe they want to reproduce dozens of sets, specifically licensed ones, but no longer own the licensing rights. But given how much they seem to cater to scalpers, it is difficult to not be suspicious that they have made a conscious decision to drive the secondary market demand for the sake of making Lego a status product.

And if they truly believe they are better off shorting production because the only way they'll sell their sets is to create fake demand, then they are royally screwed as a company long term. The bubble always bursts. First the scalpers will get screwed and when they stop buying, Lego will be too.

[HockeyIlliterate]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

And if they truly believe they are better off shorting production because the only way they'll sell their sets is to create fake demand, then they are royally screwed as a company long term. The bubble always bursts. First the scalpers will get screwed and when they stop buying, Lego will be too.

Lego has two main problems:

1) 3-D printing; and

2) The fact that their product, which has been produced for one set, is completely interchangeable with its product which has been produced for another, completely different, set.

The 3-D printing problem is, at the moment, a more long-term problem for Lego.

But the inherent interchangeability of Lego has always been something that Lego has tried to work around (hence the releasing of "new" sets, which---for the most part---are just reworkings and reconfigurations of previous sets, but in new colors or slightly different variations).

Which is why I'm not really understanding the scalping argument or the shorting of production argument. You can essentially buy any set(s) or bag(s) of Lego and recombine them into anything else---including the set that you can no longer purchase on the open market. That's the beauty of Lego.

Sure, there may be a few rare or no longer made parts, or colors of parts that are no longer in circulation, that may complicate your build, but you can work around that.

I mean....the Saturn V set was initially someone's creation, using parts that they found in general circulation. So why do you need to specifically buy the official Lego Saturn V set to essentially build the same product?

I agree that it might be nice to get the bound instruction book and all the parts in one box and from one, quick purchase...but there are other ways to create the Lego set that you want.

[KTrain]

This one has me excited:

[socalwingfan]

Just a heads up - Saturn V rocket is in stock on Lego.com - ordered mine this AM

[LanceUppercut]

Does anyone have any tips on how to obtain larger quantities of train track without having to take out a second mortgage on the house?

[underGRADFlame]

Originally Posted by LanceUppercut

Does anyone have any tips on how to obtain larger quantities of train track without having to take out a second mortgage on the house?

Aliexpress?

[Sr. Mints]

Originally Posted by LanceUppercut

Does anyone have any tips on how to obtain larger quantities of train track without having to take out a second mortgage on the house?

The old kind, or new flexible track?

If it's the old 9V stuff: pray (although that hasn't worked out very well for me.)

[Regulator75]

The image below has leaked on reddit and shows the LEGO Star Wars UCS Millennium Falcon set number 75192. Interested fans can expect the price point on this to be around $800 USD.

It will be the largest Lego set to date, at a whopping 7541 pieces.