Release date of LEGO Friends theme?

avoiceoreason

Oh, forgot to mention, the boxes are...well...different.

You can kind of see from the pic above that the edges on the larger boxes are rounded, or curved at the outer edges. The curve is only on the top edge, not the bottom edge, and I assume is to make it "softer" and it does have some ergonomic impact when you're holding it.

The small box doesn't have the physical curves, but does have them printed on the package.

Jenni

Yay! No need to brave Target today then. Glad it worked out :).

sidersdd

Fail - at one of my Targets. They have them, but they are marked not to sell yet, and indicated they would get "in trouble" if they sold them early.

On a related note, they had about 30 of the Pharoah's Quest Scorpion Pyramid sets. They were in a section marked at 30% off or more - although these were actually only marked down 15%. I'm hoping they go on deep discount on Dec 26. The rest of the LEGO aisle was extremely bare.

streeker

@sidersdd, can you try another Target? If you get another denial, here's what you can do: whip out the cutest photo of your little girl, say, "She built a house made of packing peanuts --packing peanuts!", make them feel bad, remind them that it's Christmas, vow to secrecy if you have to, and hopefully you'll be on your merry way with a set or two to put under the tree. Keep us posted.

jagdjh

I struck out today too. The Target I visited had them in the back but said that they may have to pay a fine if they are caught selling items earlier than the 'street' date. They mentioned that selling an electronics item early can bring a $35,000 fine. I jokingly said that I wouldn't tell anyone (repeatedly) but it didn't get me anywhere.

Sandro

Hmm, we had a second Target location help us out with another set today (3936 Emma's Design Studio). The girl at customer service said that since it wasn't a book, movie, or video game it wouldn't be a problem selling it early.

I did have to do some electronic eschatology to come up with a DPCI for that set.

3936 Emma's Design Studio (DPCI: 086-02-0138) $9.99

I also *suspect* that 3931 Emma's Splash Pool is DPCI: 086-02-0066, but I have NOT confirmed this one.

Don't ask how I came up with these numbers, it wasn't pretty.

BrickDancer

Just left the local Target and the girl at Guest Services helped a lot. They didn't have it "in the back" per se but was at an off-site warehouse. Gave her the DPCI numbers and she found 3 of them. She placed an order for delivery to the store and pick up for tonight or tomorrow. How's that for service at Target? A+

avoiceoreason

Yes, definitely a YMMV on this one, but like @sandro, the lady at my customer service said that as long as it wasn't a book or a movie she didn't have a problem with it. Good luck to all trying to find them!

sidersdd

Strike 2 - tried another Target. They weren't sure why the sets weren't on the shelves but assumed it was due to some sort of street date restriction. They did seem willing to help me out but said they had no way to find it in their back room because it wasn't appearing in their other system. No prob. Hopefully I can sweet talk the LEGO store manager to sell me one tomorrow - as long as she won't get in trouble.

Sandro

Just to be clear, I've been using the link @sidersdd posted on page 1 to check that my local stores have the sets in stock before I go there. All my local stores seem to have them in the back, and they have not had a problem getting them out as long as I had the DPCI number.

WIthout the number they had no luck with finding sets by searching their system, the DPCI numbers were required for them to be able to retrieve them from inventory.

sidersdd

Yep, all my stores show them in stock. They are able to find that they have the sets when I ask them to look up the DPCI. They apparently have a different system for finding where to locate the item.

sidersdd

Strike 3 - tried another Target. Was real close this time. They had pulled one of the sets from the back storeroom and were bringing it up. A manager intercepted and said they couldn't sell them yet. Doh! I have one more Target to try.

georgebjones

@sidersdd - same story here. 4 Targets, all saying in stock, none out on the shelves, no kind Target employees willing or able to find them in the back.

georgebjones

@sandro, if you post a pic of the barcode, anyone can hold the pic (on a phone, for example) up to a price scanner and it will give you the DPCI number.

avoiceoreason

Sorry you guys aren't having luck. I will say that my first attempt was with an employee on the floor. I watched him put the DPCI's in his scanner gun and none of them came up. He looked around the store room as well and he said he couldn't find them.

I then went to one of the price checker kiosks and typed in the DPCI's myself and they all came up as aisle=no, stockroom=yes. So I then went to customer service and told the wonderfully nice lady that I had checked on-line and it said these items were available in the store, and that I checked the price checkers and it also said they were in the stockroom. She called to the back, gave them the DPCI numbers and someone brought them up promptly.

Maybe I was just lucky on my first try. Who knows. You could always also try to tell them that you know they are on the shelves in some other Targets if they are concerned over the "not until" sticker.

Good luck everyone!

sidersdd

Yep, I tried the "... on the shelves at other Targets..." and was given the "... well each Target is different." One lady even went on some tangent about how Girl Scout cookies are sold in the spring in Chicago but in the fall in Indianapolis. Uhhhh... ok.

georgebjones

At Target number 5, I got one employee to call back to the stockroom. They said they have an offsite warehouse and they are bringing them over tonight. She is setting them aside for me and i will go back there tomorrow morning and get them. (crosses fingers). My girls will be so happy to get these.

sidersdd

Target #4 for me was a strikeout. They brought the shipping box all the way up to the service desk and had it open. But there was a manager there helping another customer with a dispute over an air mattress return, who looked up and saw the "do not sell" label on the box and squashed the idea. Getting closer.

sidersdd

Target #5 - Fail. But I have a lead. Will explain later. The chase is on!

BTHodgeman

@sidersdd - good luck. I haven't seen these at any of my local Targets yet.

Brent

sidersdd

Target #6 - Fail. I'm calling it quits. I thought this one would be it. At Target #5 the lady was convinced that if it was "legos" then they were sold out. I asked if she wasn't sure they were in the backroom. She swore all "legos" were sold out. Their shelves were pretty bare, but I knew the Friends sets were in the back. Oh well. So she suggested checking other stores. She brought up the inventory on the other stores. All had 16 in-stock - including the store I was at, which should have been a clue to her, but she said the inventory is not always updated. Uhhhh.... ok. Anyway, there was one store which had an inventory of 11, instead of 16 like the others. I figured this meant it had them out early and was selling them.

I raced to store #6. Checked all the shelves. Nothing. In speaking with one of the associates there he was convinced the product was "recalled" and shipped back to LEGO. Ugh. I give up. You win Target/TLG.

georgebjones

I failed also. I went to the fifth target tonight and the nice lady that said she was getting some from the warehouse must have failed. They couldn't find what she had set aside, when I asked customer service to look up the DPCI, they came back with recall on all of them. :(

I think some higher ups at Target got wind that some of their stores were selling these early and put the recall flag in there so the registers would not ring them up.

Blue1dot

I found one at my Target this morning and when the cashier rang it up a message displayed "do not sell this item!" The manager took it away and told me it was recalled. I said no it wasn't, it's a brand new line. He said it was recalled because of small parts, choking hazard and would not sell it to me.

dougts

^ small parts/choking hazard?!?!?!? Hilarious, that pretty much describes every LEGO set made. In any case, Target clearly heard from LEGO, and put out the directive to stop sales immediately. I'm sure the small parts/choking thing is just a standard recall code that they slapped on the item to prevent the sales at registers.

LEGO is CLEARLY managing the rollout of this them much more rigidly than usual. You know Toys R Us has these things - they always get new LEGO items first. The were obviously told by LEGO under no circumstances were they to sell these ahead of the big PR/Marketing campaign they plan to have around the New Year.

Jenni

*Sigh* so my daughter told me tonight that the only thing that would make this the best Christmas ever was if she was given a Friends set.

I told her that @avoiceofreason tricked the Target people and so they took all the Friends Lego away :)

I'm pretty sure that after she opens the Village Toy Shop, Village Post Office, Log Cabin, MVR and Hillside House she'll find some consolation, the Target Lego gift card to use to buy them in January might help too. But really, she couldn't decide this last week?

Blue1dot

Wow Jenni, that's a really nice list for Christmas, I bet your daughter will think you are the best mom in the world! Have a Merry Christmas everyone

Jenni

@blue1dot while not denying that she's a spoiled only child, only the village stuff is from us. My family is in Australia so I get to shop for them too.

However if the Cafe Corner doesn't make me the best wife in the world ....

Happy Christmas to everyone too.

sidersdd

It's a Christmas miracle. The package from @streeker, from France, arrived with Emma's Splash Pool in it! Actually I think it may have arrived earlier in the week. I had a pile of packages from Bricklink orders that I went through tonight, and discovered streeker's package amongst it. Thank you so much streeker! My kid should be thrilled tomorrow morning.

Jenni

^ That is fantastic. I'm so glad. Have a wonderful Christmas.

streeker

Sniff! You're making this old bag blubber.

@Sidersdd, very relieved that there's a happy ending after all. A merry Christmas to you and your family!

Yellowcastle

^ All this is why we started this forum. Merry Christmas to all. :o)

Coolsplash

@streeker, send you a message for LEGO Friends, please respond :) Merry Christmas.

Matthew

(UK) FYI, although there isn't a link from the LEGO Shop page at Argos, this link is public:

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/ArgosPromo3/includeName/LEGO-friends-shop.htm?jspStoreDir=argos&catalogId=1500002901&SearchCmdImpl2RequestFilter.messages={}&langId=-1&[email protected]01deecf&searchTerms=LEGO+FRIENDS&S[email protected]521daecf&storeId=10001&ddkey=Search

Jenni

@DKissinger I know I thanked you for the DPCI numbers but I feel the need to do so again. In the five Targets we've been to this week (Sunday to Sunday) we still have not seen Friends on the shelves. Without those numbers I would have a very disappointed little girl. However with them I've made three of those Targets dig sets out for her this week (gift card purchase, reward for amazingly good behavior under trying circumstances, and saved allowance purchase). So again, thank you!

DKissinger

@jenni you are welcome and i am happy your daughter is enjoying them. I am surprised the targets you visited did not have any out since they should have been out officially for a week now.

Jenni

That's what I keep telling them. Around here they just don't seem to have recovered from Christmas.

I hope Lego hasn't started that advertising campaign yet, or else there could be a whole lot of unhappy grade school girls around here.