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Speculation on the upcoming Death Star
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Comments
I'm sure LEGO hides behind that as costs for LEGO rising even if facts get in the way of that. I'm sure some of the shoddy QA is also due to manufacturing techniques using less plastic to try to get the most out of what they buy/use. Finally, regardless of what prices may have done in the relative short term, I'm guessing plastic, especially that made out of petroleum products is only going to rise as oil is a finite resource.
In whose lifetime? Oil is a finite resource. However, as we get smarter and technology improves, the amount of oil that we can sensibly access is effectively increasing.
TLG also hope to be able to switch from using oil-based plastics by 2030. Presumably, it will be absolutely essential to do so, and therefore will justify further price increases.
Not much could cause a rapid increase to occur again. Now, there are reports of companies trying to create oil and petroleum, bu then you also have global effects of burning fossil fuels, and limited recycling of existing products like some plastics. Im guessing that LEGO will try to move to a plastic produced out of corn, but the question then because how much will it effect the quality of the product.
Doom-and-gloom merchants stick to old estimates. However, technology moves forwards and we make increasing use of other resources so those old figure are no longer valid. It doesn't stop people using them.
They already are. They're investing DKK 1 billion in research at their Sustainable Materials Centre.
Let's see $5 to start with, and then a minimum of the magic 27%...
Oops! Nearly forgot. We'll also have 27% off what we buy with the savings.
NO!
and hell NO!
just NO!
the star wars mark up. is just mad.
it not so bad on the smaller sets.
as it only add's what £5 to £15.
but on big sets. like this death star set. it has added what £80? more?
and that mark up come down to it's "Star wars theme" Tag!
going by the price of the old death star the mark up was not that bad some years back.
i question who pulled it? was it LEGO or Disney?
the old DS set was priced under the old agreement with "lucas films"
i think it save to say that now disney have that right. is why it had a price jump this BIG!
I also wonder what their pension schemes were like in the past, given what has happened with other large european / UK companies over the past ten years. It seems that a not insignificant amount of today's prices go to fund past decisions too.
Current prices for any business are not just based on their perceived costs today, they are based on future directions and past decisions too.
https://www.lego.com/en-us/aboutus/lego-group/annual-report
Their unfunded obligations amount to 55m DKK.
(disclaimer: I am not an actuary, nor have read the report in detail)
People expect to pay more for retired sets. And even so, after-market price is generally based on supply and demand whereas RRP for current sets is based on LEGO's market strategies, sales expectations, desired profits, licensing fees, etc.
There are two very simple reasons why prices for things like LEGO sets are increased when the costs haven't - because they can, and because we've been conditioned to expect it. With the latter, we've been used to higher rates of inflation that has justified general price increases; when inflation drops, we still expect the increases.
If they lost 10% of buyers by increasing a price from $450 to $500, they are still better off (the revenue is the same, but production/transport/storage/etc costs lower).
2. We ought to be more careful about broad statements about TLG based on this one set. The Marvel sets have become pretty brilliant, the Elves are beautiful and the Ninjago have had some great brick-built dragon designs. The Prison Island was an interesting concept and the Friends stuff has had some brilliant sets (in design and eye-watering bright pink-ness). So to just blast TLG for this set is myopic.
3. The fact that many persons still buy non-sale, non-exclusive sets at TRU (and other toys, too) to the point that the company still exists is an example of the fact that most folks aren't price savvy and so will not care/notice that a) the Death Star retired at all; b) that it is $100 dollars more than it used to be. How many persons go out and see how much their Honda Odyssey minivan was costing new on the models over the three years previous before they consider the price of the current one? Not very many. Most folks are oblivious to this stuff because it is not their hobby.
4. As an owner of #10188 I am sad that this is the same set, like I was with the WV Toy Shop. But I am also happy for those who missed it to get a chance to buy what was a decent set. So I am not too bummed about it. Plenty of interesting LEGO sets to purchase yet, and I am hopeful that this year's big SW sets are a fluke and next year's will be back to the brilliance we have come to expect.
#10188 came to an end when they already knew that they were going to re-release virtually the same set. It was also something that was easier to miss because the price meant that would gather the funds over time.
It's possible that they always intended to re-release the Toy Shop, but I doubt it. If anything, it seems more likely that some bright spark had the idea of using it to see whether a re-release was likely to be successful, almost as a trial for something a lot more expensive like the Death Star.
As for the Death Star, the main reason for re-releasing it mainly boils down to "because they wanted to charge more". At least with the toy shop there were a couple of visible changes at first glance, unlike with this where I've already mistaken it for the old one several times.
"10188 is still selling after 8 years, but we are making less profit on it now because 8 years of inflation has driven up costs. We need to raise the price to get the profit margin back in line with current sets. A $50 bump will cover inflation today, but $100 bump covers inflation for the next few years. 10188 is already selling regularly for over $500 on the aftermarket, so it should be a fine price for a minor update.
We need a new item number, because nobody ever wants to see a price increase. 10188 has been highly praised since release, so we should not mess it up, but we do need a few modifications to have a shot at selling the updated version to people who already bought 10188. But only minor changes - if it's not broken, don't fix it. And changing the item number will make it marginally more difficult to research prices as 10188 is dropped from retail sites. Fan sites will have the data, but most customers don't even know those sites exist.
We've already developed new versions of most of the minifigures, so we should include those in the update. Some people feel compelled to have every version of every minifigure, so updating them will capture a few more sales to people who bought 10188 and otherwise would pass up the updated release. Keep the originals in production for the 2017 Star Wars 40th Anniversary Limited Edition Collector's Series. A lot of Star Wars fans will buy anything with a Star Wars logo on it, especially if we throw in enough adjectives that imply exclusivity or rarity."
I agree with @datsunrobbie. We'll never know what was really discusses, but this seems very logical and likely. 10188 was doing well and available for a long time, but that's also the problem; it was doing well and available for a long time.
Plus updating the minifigures and replacing a handful of out of production parts probably lowered their costs and streamlined productivity logistics.
There's development costs in making the new minifigures, which may get distributed over multiple sets in the future, but is currently only an expense for the new Death Star. I was unaware that there were out-of-production parts removed in favor of parts used in other current sets - what parts got swapped out, and what were they replaced with?
An increase in electricity prices would actually benefit TLG - they own part of the Borkum Riffgrund windfarm in the North Sea.
They make production staff in high-wage countries redundant, and move the work to low-wage ones.
Hmm...
also that's economy and dominant economic theories are even more undebatable than natural laws, no matter how much they clash with actual facts.
If we learned anything from the TFA sets, it's that: Explosions = Sales
(It's true because I wrote it on the internet.)
As far as other costs mentioned on the thread, developmental costs are not the same as developmental value that lego may charge as value added to each set.
Also, I wonder if the licensing fee increases with the MSRP. I've kinda always figured the Star Wars license to be about 20-25% the cost
It will likely continue to sell well (even at a higher price) as there are new fans coming into buying LEGO every day, especially Star Wars fans. Will it sell to the people that have the original? Not likely. Did LEGO have those people in mind when updating the DS? No, not likely as they know how many bought the set that obviously did not have it before and it appears they are happy with those numbers.