Predictions on Discontinuing Sets and their Secondary Market Value

prevere · July 2016

wagnerml2 said:

Bought 10 EN on clearance at $60 per pop. Just sold the last one a few months back for $450. Easily one of my best purchases.

That was a good choice. Back then, the Medieval Market Village seemed just as good of a buy at $70-$80 discounted.

wagnerml2 · July 2016

@cloaked7 - I'm sure I recounted this several times in this thread, but I had a Falcon in my hands, at the checkout being chided on by my brother and then chickened out at what my wife would think. 10 years later she would be happy if one of my purchases was JUST $500!

Dougout · July 2016

Do Lego sets retire anymore or no?

prevere · July 2016

Something's gotta give with all these new launches coming...

tallblocktoo · July 2016

Seems some of the larger Creator sets are hanging on forever! Starting out just a year ago everyone warned of impending retirements of some of the modulars so needless to say I bought any that were available at retail. Not sorry I did but here they still are readily available.

SumoLego · July 2016

Dougout said:

Do Lego sets retire anymore or no?

Apparently, not. They skip retirement and death and go right to zombie resurrection in China.

That's where it started in 'World War Z'...

https://youtu.be/vv3srTr9ZhQ

(A truly ironic turn would be MepidBlox producing non-licenced Walking Death zombies.)

madforLEGO · July 2016

tallblocktoo said:

Seems some of the larger Creator sets are hanging on forever! Starting out just a year ago everyone warned of impending retirements of some of the modulars so needless to say I bought any that were available at retail. Not sorry I did but here they still are readily available.

Well here in the states there are no discounts, so you really only buy them at retail. As for buying them all, I think it is quite clear which are more likely to be retired and which are not. Then again LEGO seems to be keeping them all available which is a bit suprising, but maybe with there increases in factories they can afford to do this now. Will be interesting to see how many sets are consistantly out of stock on backorder when the holidays roll around.

bp10030 · July 2016

Not all of these sets were buyable at the shown prices because they were already sold out but it looks nice in 2016:

US:

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5015319/uploads/editor/zq/d3n3fui2b4ok.png

german:

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5015319/uploads/editor/5d/9sbwcl8e0d7o.png

William_Townsley · July 2016

That 2014 Tumbler was defiantly a bargain

LandmarksWorld · July 2016

What about 10234 SOH? Has it reached its end of life?

SumoLego · July 2016

^^ My 'Add to Cart' button doesn't work.

HugeYellowBrick · July 2016

You saved screenshots?

Recce · July 2016

I'll bet the German site suddenly had a huge increase in traffic and the site admin was wondering why...

Pitfall69 · July 2016

Please support @Legoboy in his quest to raise money for Thames Hospice. Check out his Chairity Thread and join in on all the fun :)

http://bricksetforum.com/discussion/24121/charity-raffle-1-entry-7-days-to-go/p1

I appreciate your support for James :)

herbyderby · July 2016

It sounds like I came out of my dark ages right when the sales ended. Maybe a lot of people did, and that is why the sales ended? Certainly the Lego Movie was a factor--Benny's spaceship reminded me of my Classic Space days. But as far as this thread goes, it seems like lack of sales should be more than offset by increased overall interest in Lego, at least in the long run.

Dougout · July 2016

^Yea, I think once enough AFOLS came into the market, they decided the sales were unnecessary. I only got back into Lego for a year or two before they dropped the sales.

However, IMO, they seem to be getting away from AFOL Lego sets and just going with super expensive kids toys. I certainly am not interested in the Disney castle or the new batman set. The hellicarrier, porsche, Big Ben, and Airjitzu also don't interest me either.

If they keep it up, I may not even be buying many of the new sets and definitely not investing any into the aftermarket. I guess it's for the best. Lego is really expensive and it would be nice to free up some storage space.

TheOriginalSimonB · July 2016

^If you are that short of space feel free to send sets my way until you can move again.

CCC · July 2016

Dougout said:

^Yea, I think once enough AFOLS came into the market, they decided the sales were unnecessary. I only got back into Lego for a year or two before they dropped the sales.

However, IMO, they seem to be getting away from AFOL Lego sets and just going with super expensive kids toys. I certainly am not interested in the Disney castle or the new batman set. The hellicarrier, porsche, Big Ben, and Airjitzu also don't interest me either.

If they keep it up, I may not even be buying many of the new sets and definitely not investing any into the aftermarket. I guess it's for the best. Lego is really expensive and it would be nice to free up some storage space.

Whether you like them or not, the Porsche and Big Ben seem aimed more at adults than kids to me.

Dougout · July 2016

^Those two maybe, but the rest? No.

Can you really say that Lego isn't trying to move away from AFOL sets? I think we determined this since the Sandcrawler set came out.

SprinkleOtter · July 2016

So adults can't like minifigures in sets? There is no denying that Temple of Airjitzu and the new Disney castle are AFOL sets. And the new VW. And the UCS TIE Fighter. Or UCS Slave I.

CCC · July 2016

Dougout said:

^Those two maybe, but the rest? No.

Can you really say that Lego isn't trying to move away from AFOL sets? I think we determined this since the Sandcrawler set came out.

Did they discontinue modulars? Or architecture? They are aimed at older ages. A couple of UCS SW sets have been more play than display, but do those really indicate that LEGO are moving away from AFOL sets?

bandit778 · July 2016

Is it worth buying up bionicle sets now they have finished so I can be ahead of the game when the parts are needed for the next limited edition set - like the shields on the Bat-Pod or should I spend my money more wisely and buy more tickets for @Legoboy 's charity raffle - http://bricksetforum.com/discussion/24121/charity-raffle-1-entry-7-days-to-go#latest which only has a few days left to enter and the tickets are only £1?

Aanchir · July 2016

SprinkleOtter said:

So adults can't like minifigures in sets? There is no denying that Temple of Airjitzu and the new Disney castle are AFOL sets. And the new VW. And the UCS TIE Fighter. Or UCS Slave I.

It might actually be interesting to learn what the breakdown is of AFOLs vs. TFOLs vs. KFOLs for sets like Temple of Airjitzu, Medieval Market Village, Kingdoms Joust, and Haunted House. After all, all four of these sets can be considered direct extensions of more KFOL-oriented play themes (with their target age ranges basically picking up where the age ranges of the KFOL-oriented sets leave off). So their buyers might easily skew younger than, say, Creator Expert sets. But they still offer around the same building level as Creator Expert sets with the same recommended age range.

CCC said:

Dougout said:

^Those two maybe, but the rest? No.

Can you really say that Lego isn't trying to move away from AFOL sets? I think we determined this since the Sandcrawler set came out.

Did they discontinue modulars? Or architecture? They are aimed at older ages. A couple of UCS SW sets have been more play than display, but do those really indicate that LEGO are moving away from AFOL sets?

For that matter, there were plenty of D2C Star Wars sets with more of an emphasis on play prior to the Sandcrawler. Examples: #10123, #10144, #10178, #10188, #10195, #10198, #10236. They generally weren't branded on their boxes as "UCS", but then again, neither were many previous UCS sets like #10129 and #10175. In terms of box art they were labeled the same as other Star Wars sets from those years. What changed with the Sandcrawler is that LEGO started branding all these D2C Star Wars sets, play-oriented and display-oriented alike, as "UCS", with a new seal and a distinct style of box art.

Incidentally, this coincided with a shift in set numbering: previously, all D2C Star Wars sets were numbered in the 10000 range, whereas starting with the Sandcrawler, they were numbered in the 75000 that had been reserved for Star Wars sets when normal retail sets switched to five-digit set numbers. So the branding change may have been to better help people discern the difference between LEGO exclusives and other high-end Star Wars sets just from looking at the boxes, since the numbers would no longer help them with that.

SumoLego · August 2016

SprinkleOtter said:

So adults can't like minifigures in sets? There is no denying that Temple of Airjitzu and the new Disney castle are AFOL sets. And the new VW. And the UCS TIE Fighter. Or UCS Slave I.

I like minifigures!

SprinkleOtter · August 2016

SumoLego said:

SprinkleOtter said:

So adults can't like minifigures in sets? There is no denying that Temple of Airjitzu and the new Disney castle are AFOL sets. And the new VW. And the UCS TIE Fighter. Or UCS Slave I.

I like minifigures!

But there is still the argument if AFOLs are "adults." I'm not sure @Pitfall69 would pass that test. ;)

Dougout · August 2016

SprinkleOtter said:

So adults can't like minifigures in sets? There is no denying that Temple of Airjitzu and the new Disney castle are AFOL sets. And the new VW. And the UCS TIE Fighter. Or UCS Slave I.

You can like minifigures. I never have. Waste of space and $$$ IMO.

However, I am explicitly denying the Disney castle, the 80s batman set, and Airjitzu the right to be considered solely an AFOL set. You can lump them in kids/TFOL/AFOL sets, but not just AFOL. AFOL sets are like TB, SOH, or the modulars. They can have figs in them too like the Simpsons sets. #10179 is the perfect example of an AFOL set: massive, intricate, and interesting enough to bring an adult into the store upon seeing it.

I would never walk into the Lego store if I saw the Disney Castle. Never. I wouldn't even think it was a real set, just a makeshift showpiece. I like DisneyWORLD. Disney is okay, but they have a big problem. That is the girls grow up dreaming about being princesses and what not, but the boys mostly move on.

You can tell they tailored this to suit girls vs boys (which is perfectly fine, so butt out SJWs). $350? No thanks, I'll wait at least two years before I maybe think about getting one copy right as it retires. Shame too, it looks like a decent set. The only thing they forgot was an alligator.

CCC · August 2016

^ How do you define AFOL and just AFOL sets? As I know 14-15 year olds that have asked for and built modulars. So are they just AFOL sets?

Yodalicious · August 2016

^ My 4-year-old loves Parisian Restaurant and begged me to build it when he saw the box in our closet. Now, he plays with it frequently.

tamamahm · August 2016

Dougout said:
I would never walk into the Lego store if I saw the Disney Castle. Never. I wouldn't even think it was a real set, just a makeshift showpiece. I like DisneyWORLD. Disney is okay, but they have a big problem. That is the girls grow up dreaming about being princesses and what not, but the boys mostly move on.

You can tell they tailored this to suit girls vs boys (which is perfectly fine, so butt out SJWs). $350? No thanks, I'll wait at least two years before I maybe think about getting one copy right as it retires. Shame too, it looks like a decent set. The only thing they forgot was an alligator.

Uh...huh?
A makeshift showpiece and not a real set? Tailored to suit girls?
How is this not a real set? Most AFOL sets are showpieces. TB is a showpiece. It is one I have zero interest in and would not walk into a store for, but I can still acknowledge it as a set targeted at AFOLs set. This is no different. It is as architecturally thought out as something like TB. While it is detailed inside like a modular, it is not a playset. One could easily argue the Modulars are far more targeted to kids than this castle is. As it is, I have had 2/3 of my kids request various Modulars over the years because they do see those as play sets. I do not see how one can declare Modulars AFOL sets, but not something like this castle which is clearly targeted at AFOLs. I also do not see how this particular set is specifically tailored to suit girls. Disney fans, sure. Fans of architecture. Sure.

catwrangler · August 2016

I reckon that a lot of the time, AFOLs feel we have to enforce a definition of a set (is it for adults or kids, is it an official UCS or not) in order to justify our own taste. That said, sometimes it can be argued that TLG might be shooting for two markets - I can believe that some parents will spent £270(?) on that Disney castle), for instance, just as I can believe that it'll sell like hotcakes to adults who want it as a display piece...

CCC · August 2016

Most of my sets are probably kids sets. There is no need to justify liking toys.

Dougout · August 2016

Honestly @tamamahm, no offense, but I think you may be smoking something. It has Tinkerbell, a Miney and Mickey couple, and a Donald and Daisy couple. It's a fact girls like playing with dolls and most like the idea of couples (also, it IS a playset, sorry). Like I said, girls don't grow out of Disney. This set is a girls set and for $350, wow.

I have a young cousin that has all the modulars. Do I think of them as a kids set? No, I'm fairly sure when Jamie brought the idea of modulars to Lego he was encouraging them to go after a more adult market. If you want to group every single AFOL set into an AFOL/TFOL/kid set than fine. For me, I don't believe Pokemon is more than a kid's thing, or that My Little Pony is anything but a girls show. I also don't assume a kid's toy becomes an adult toy if one adult decides to play with his kids stuff for a little bit. It doesn't automatically change it's demographics as soon as an adult touches a toy. Toys have to be designed to interest a significant amount of adults before it can be declared an adult toy or an AFOL Lego set.

Of course I'm not the one shilling here. I'm not trying to blur gender lines or put men in girls bathrooms or feminize the youth in order to commodify girls even more. I'm not the one trying to brainwash ppl into thinking girls can have penises and boys can have vaginas. I'm not the one desperately avoiding being called a bigot and offer my wife up as a penance for all my white guilt. I actually have a pair of balls and a set of beliefs that I stand up for. Maybe that is just the difference between me and some others here. No offence.

tamamahm · August 2016

Just because someone says no offense, does not mean it is not offensive. I have no idea what on earth that last paragraph has to do with Lego or what purpose it has on this forum.

The Disneyland castle is a very iconic architectural symbol. Disney is something that is not simply loved by girls, but people of both genders throughout the world enjoy. The modulars can be taken apart by floors, has a wide variety of internal accessories, and brick bank has play features. In addition it comes with
a large number of dolls to play with.
The Disney castle has far fewer characters than most AFOL sets and especially modulars. The internals are done to give details to celebrate various animation compared to creating playable rooms. I find it laughable that one calls this a playset and ignores the fact that the modulars, which in ways are glorified doll houses, are considered the realm of only AFOLs.

Considering the crazy number of adult collectors (male and female) that went for Disney minifigs, it is pretty obvious there is a large adult interest in Disney.

bandit778 · August 2016

Any set , with the right circumstances can be beneficial to a wide variety of Lego fans.
Display pieces can be made of almost any set with a bit of imagination and some extra bricks (many people have built minifig displays) whilst the majority of sets can also be played with (with a few exceptions of course, SOH doesn't have a lot of scope for play featues).

The whole point to Lego is that if it isn't what you want it to be, rebuild it so it is.

Dougout · August 2016

Don't worry @tamamahm I find 99% of your posts laughable. Keep shilling away creep. And if you took a minute to read my posts instead of spewing out nonsense, you would realize that I actually did say my cousin has all modulars and they aren't only for AFOLS.

Now plz find something else to do as I value nearly everything you say at 0%, have lots of work to do today, and would rather not have you comment on everything I say. Maybe find a day job IDK.

Shib · August 2016

So, when is the new Death Star retiring? ;-)

Yodalicious · August 2016

Brickset Forum
"Come for the Death Star retirement rumors, stay for the...whoa...hey there...well that escalated quickly."

Aanchir · August 2016

Dougout said:

Honestly @tamamahm, no offense, but I think you may be smoking something. It has Tinkerbell, a Miney and Mickey couple, and a Donald and Daisy couple. It's a fact girls like playing with dolls and most like the idea of couples (also, it IS a playset, sorry). Like I said, girls don't grow out of Disney. This set is a girls set and for $350, wow.

I have a young cousin that has all the modulars. Do I think of them as a kids set? No, I'm fairly sure when Jamie brought the idea of modulars to Lego he was encouraging them to go after a more adult market. If you want to group every single AFOL set into an AFOL/TFOL/kid set than fine. For me, I don't believe Pokemon is more than a kid's thing, or that My Little Pony is anything but a girls show. I also don't assume a kid's toy becomes an adult toy if one adult decides to play with his kids stuff for a little bit. It doesn't automatically change it's demographics as soon as an adult touches a toy. Toys have to be designed to interest a significant amount of adults before it can be declared an adult toy or an AFOL Lego set.

Of course I'm not the one shilling here. I'm not trying to blur gender lines or put men in girls bathrooms or feminize the youth in order to commodify girls even more. I'm not the one trying to brainwash ppl into thinking girls can have penises and boys can have vaginas. I'm not the one desperately avoiding being called a bigot and offer my wife up as a penance for all my white guilt. I actually have a pair of balls and a set of beliefs that I stand up for. Maybe that is just the difference between me and some others here. No offence.

Wow. This post got more and more irrational and intolerant the further down I got. You could have just left it with the first and second paragraphs and you would have looked ignorant, but not necessarily prejudiced. But you had to go off on a weird, rambling, hateful tirade that would be right at home in some paranoid extremist screed.

Seriously, people like you are the reason I often have a hard time recommending the Brickset forums to other people. There are a lot of really sensible, respectful, mature people here. And then there's people like you who are too clueless to see why going off on a disgusting rant like yours is a problem.

And now you're directly attacking Tamamahm, who has said nothing hurtful towards you and who from my experience is a better person than you'll ever be. I'm trying to keep my emotions in check (since I'm an grown-up and this is a grown-up website), but the Brickset Forums would really be a better place if you weren't poisoning the place with your vulgar and hateful attitude.

Bricklover18 · August 2016

I'm guessing 2025.

Lego_Star · August 2016

I have a prediction or two:

(1) Someone is going to have their pick of all these prizes (and possibly more) when their £1 winning raffle ticket is picked out first on Friday night.

(2) And on Saturday night, and very likely Sunday too, all the remaining prizes will be drawn and won. 63 more and still more are being added.

The question is, will it be you?

Ticket sales must close August 4th. Check it out. Support @Legoboy walk 100km. Be part of the awesome brickset community saying "up yours" to cancer.

Don't like my post, but please click here instead: http://bricksetforum.com/discussion/24121/3-days-to-go-charity-fundraiser/p1

A rare thing for me but I'm "reselling" (read reposting) this awesome montage of the prizes donated so far, created by @TheOneVeyronian. Stay Calm, Don't Like, but buy some raffle tickets instead. :o)

http://bricksetforum.com/discussion/24121/3-days-to-go-charity-fundraiser/p1

SprinkleOtter · August 2016

Lego_Star said:

I have a prediction or two:

(1) Someone is going to have their pick of all these prizes (and possibly more) when their £1 winning raffle ticket is picked out first on Friday night.

(2) And on Saturday night, and very likely Sunday too, all the remaining prizes will be drawn and won. 63 more and still more are being added.

The question is, will it be you?

Ticket sales must close August 4th. Check it out. Support @Legoboy walk 100km. Be part of the awesome brickset community saying "up yours" to cancer.

Don't like my post, but please click here instead: http://bricksetforum.com/discussion/24121/3-days-to-go-charity-fundraiser/p1
A rare thing for me but I'm "reselling" (read reposting) this awesome montage created by @TheOneVeyronian. Stay Calm, Don't Like, but buy some raffle tickets instead. :o)

http://bricksetforum.com/discussion/24121/3-days-to-go-charity-fundraiser/p1

And luckey #64 gets... Assault on Hoth! ;)

bandit778 · August 2016

@Lego_Star
Sorry for the 'like',couldn't help myself.

tamamahm · August 2016

@Aanchir Thanks. Wow is right.

Dougout said:

Don't worry @tamamahm I find 99% of your posts laughable. Keep shilling away creep. And if you took a minute to read my posts instead of spewing out nonsense, you would realize that I actually did say my cousin has all modulars and they aren't only for AFOLS.

Now plz find something else to do as I value nearly everything you say at 0%, have lots of work to do today, and would rather not have you comment on everything I say. Maybe find a day job IDK.

This is a forum, so sure, I can comment on what I care to and when I care to, especially when someone is directly attacking me, and breaking multiple rules on conduct.

If you read your comments, you would note you did state Modulars as an explicit example as an AFOL set, nor was I the only one to notice that.
However, I am explicitly denying the Disney castle, the 80s batman set, and Airjitzu the right to be considered solely an AFOL set. You can lump them in kids/TFOL/AFOL sets, but not just AFOL. AFOL sets are like TB, SOH, or the modulars.

Lego_Star · August 2016

SprinkleOtter said:

Lego_Star said:

I have a prediction or two:

(1) Someone is going to have their pick of all these prizes (and possibly more) when their £1 winning raffle ticket is picked out first on Friday night.

(2) And on Saturday night, and very likely Sunday too, all the remaining prizes will be drawn and won. 63 more and still more are being added.

The question is, will it be you?

Ticket sales must close August 4th. Check it out. Support @Legoboy walk 100km. Be part of the awesome brickset community saying "up yours" to cancer.

Don't like my post, but please click here instead: http://bricksetforum.com/discussion/24121/3-days-to-go-charity-fundraiser/p1
A rare thing for me but I'm "reselling" (read reposting) this awesome montage created by @TheOneVeyronian. Stay Calm, Don't Like, but buy some raffle tickets instead. :o)

http://bricksetforum.com/discussion/24121/3-days-to-go-charity-fundraiser/p1

And luckey #64 gets... Assault on Hoth! ;)

It's a random draw so unless the 1st drawn chooses AOH, then any of the remaining tickets drawn could be the lucky winner of that set. Still for anyone with a need to complete their SW collection, winning it for a £1 would be pretty cool. £1 for a Taun Taun anyone? ;o)
Soooo looking forward to the tension, the drama and the fun that is going to be bricksetforum on sat and sun night!
http://bricksetforum.com/discussion/24121/3-days-to-go-charity-fundraiser/p1

SumoLego · August 2016

Yodalicious said:

Brickset Forum
"Come for the Death Star retirement rumors, stay for the...whoa...hey there...well that escalated quickly."

So, I have a Helicarrier, a GBHQ and intend on buying a Castle in August - what does this say about my gender identity?

I hope, absolutely nothing.

TheLoneTensor · August 2016

Really, is it necessary to quote the entire huge-image post from the guy who quoted a huge-image post from a huge-image post?

SprinkleOtter · August 2016

^ If you;re referring to my post, it wouldn't let me delete it.

Yodalicious · August 2016

SumoLego said:

Yodalicious said:

Brickset Forum
"Come for the Death Star retirement rumors, stay for the...whoa...hey there...well that escalated quickly."

So, I have a Helicarrier, a GBHQ and intend on buying a Castle in August - what does this say about my gender identity?

I hope, absolutely nothing.

It says you prefer Marvel to DC, Disney to Universal, and that you ain't afraid of no ghosts. But no, nothing about your gender identity.

Dougout · August 2016

@Aanchir You are the same kid I argued with 2 years ago about how Lego has a hand in feminizing boys. Your opinion is invalid to me. Seriously though, bronies like you are the reason I don't recommend this site to anyone. Mature? Grown up? Wow, okay. It's too bad too, you seem like you would be intelligent if you weren't so brainwashed.

@tamamahm You started not me. IMO modulars are explicitly AFOL sets. Doesn't mean kids won't buy them or can't have them. Like I've already told you with examples just because someone from outside a target demographic plays with something, doesn't automatically erase the fact that that item is MOSTLY marketed towards a different demographic.