Re-release of Taj Mahal confirmed?

martyn

The following video from Lego just appeared in my facebook news:

https://www.facebook.com/6665038402/videos/10155187795083403/

paul_merton

Given that the original release wasn't #10256, it looks likely!

LostInTranslation

Wonder if this "resurrected from the vault" thing is going to become a regular occurrence? 

Legopants

Very exciting news! At last an opportunity to get one at a (hopefully) reasonable price :-)

Bumblepants

Interesting turn of events to say the least. It was one thing to re-do popular Star Wars sets but this is another thing entirely.

theLEGOman

2 big set re-releases in one year, is the new CEO looking to lower the value of peoples collections inbetween firing loads of people :o.

Mr_Hobbles

Interesting line of dialogue by Jamie in that video - "It's not for me, it's for the fans! They've been requesting re-releases for years!"

The phrasing "re-releases" suggesting more old sets to be re-released in the near future? Likely depending on how well this Taj Mahal does.

The interesting thing is that unlike the 75192 UCS Falcon, this is not a complete redesign. This is literally just printing a new, updated box for the old set and throwing in a brick separator (What I assume to be the one extra piece).

Adzbadboy

The production on this video is phenomenal!

Legopants

Legopants said:

Very exciting news! At last an opportunity to get one at a (hopefully) reasonable price :-)

€330 isn't too bad :-)

mmozzano

https://shop.lego.com/en-GB/Taj-Mahal-10256?CMP=SOC-TajMahalAnnouncement

Legopants

https://shop.lego.com/de-DE/TajMahal

Mr_Hobbles

I feel bad for the guy in marketplace who's been trying to flog his boxed Taj Mahal and kept reducing the price. He's gonna have a mega hard time now.

Legopants

^ Best get it on eBay quick before the re-release becomes common knowledge! ;-D

alaskaguy

This is AWESOME!!! I'm getting one for my kid TO BUILD.

These guys on Amazon offering sets for $5000 can suck it.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B002EEP3NY/ref=dp_olp_new_mbc?ie=UTF8&condition=new

Astrobricks

$370 on US [email protected]

samiam391

Just to make sure we’re all 100% clear here, it’s definitely being rereleased.

Just received the following email:

alaskaguy

I got the same email (:

vwong19

Let’s see how the market reacts to this news.

Legopants

https://www.ebay.de/itm/LEGO-Sculptures-Taj-Mahal-Neuauflage-des-10189-Sets-Originalverpackt-Set-10256/152765996196?hash=item2391901ca4:g:u~YAAOSwnTdZ90N~

Wow - that was quick! Posted at today at 16:25 - An eBay seller over here wants 1069.99 EUR for a set which hasn't even been released yet and will have an RRP of 330 EUR. That's quite a markup! Well done, that man!

vwong19

The reissue of this set does nothing for me, but it does set an interesting precedent towards more reissues and collector confidence and perceived value.

The reissue only hurts collectors and not so much resellers. Resellers must have sold these off years ago to collectors. Now collectors have a set that is likely not worth a much... perhaps they don’t care.

Renny

Mr_Hobbles said:

I feel bad for the guy in marketplace who's been trying to flog his boxed Taj Mahal and kept reducing the price. He's gonna have a mega hard time now.

Yes, his listing will definitely take a big hit but I'm sure there will be collectors out there that still want the original set number. Bad timing.  Curious now with the recent re-releases it seems everything is fair game again.  Great news for those that missed the boat on these big, iconic sets. 

Ayliffe

...so does the new one come with a David Beckham minifigure or

CCC

theLEGOman said:

2 big set re-releases in one year, is the new CEO looking to lower the value of peoples collections inbetween firing loads of people :o.

I guess if he is in the job for five years or so it makes sense. Short term gain by selling these (no design costs, no advertising needed) but longer term problems that people don't use big LEGO sets as investment, which will hit future sales. But who cares about longer term problems, when you can make money in the short term. It is like short-term parliaments, think about now and forget later.

It is a shame if they don't update based on new parts from the past decade.

Of course, reselling will still go on but just shift to short stocks and quick flips instead.

Paperballpark

I have pretty much zero interest in this.

Legoboy

^ Yet, here you are.  ;)

CCC

Paperballpark said:

I have pretty much zero interest in this.

Wait until you do an extremely large MOC that needs a load of white parts (instead of tan).

kiki180703

I bricklinked this last year for about the double of the price... Had I known it would've been rerealeased I wouldn't have done it. Oh well..

stevemack

Isn’t this really boring to build I seem to remember reading?

teal93mr2

My personal opinion is that it will definitely hurt the reseller market.  Based on the bricklink data post above, only 26 units old and new sold!  I feel like most people that want that set currently have it.  Of course there will always be folks who crave "the original" set but I would venture to guess that 90% of folks will not mind having the reissue.

ricecake

This would have been on my want list, but after having a less-than-ideal time when I visited the Taj Mahal back in February, I am content with Bricklinking the JK Brickworks version (plus the much smaller size will be easier to display).

alaskaguy

Paperballpark said:

I have pretty much zero interest in this.

I have already marked the date on my calendar as a reminder to buy.

It's too bad Lego will not just let you pay RIGHT NOW and ship it to you whenever it is released. If they did, I would have given them my credit card # by now (:

GeordiePaul

Won't be buying it but I'm very happy for those of you who missed out the first time around and can enjoy the build without paying ridiculous after market prices. Crossing fingers for an updated Market Street, Cafe Corner and Green Grocer. I definitely WOULD be interested in seeing those three sets released after missing out on them during my Dark Ages.

GeordiePaul

I'm also very amused by the people commenting on the main page in response to this rerelease by saying things along the lines of 'So Lego are just repeating old sets now? Why don't they make some new/original sets?' totally ignoring all of the actual new/original sets that they're continuing to produce. And all it took was a Taj Mahal and UCS MF rerelease to bring out the complainers :-)

BobaFett27

Come on, Eiffel Tower! 

sonsofsceva

@GeordiePaul ; Agreed about the remake complaints. There is lots of original content made by TLG. Also, one look at the City (and, in general, Star Wars) set roster over the years tells you that TLG has no problem with remakes/redesigns if it will be a seller. And most folks are, I think, happy with that.

Fauch

compared to pictures of the real thing, it would have benefitted from a redesign. the 1 * 6 * 2 arches could have been replaced by two 1 * 3 * 2 half arches.
the smaller domes could be made with dome pieces, the top spires could be gold or dark tan...

bea

I'm happy to see this re-released but the more I think about it, the more disappointed I get that it is an exact duplicate rather than an updated, modernized version. I'm don't own the original set but I'm not sure if I want to spend so much on an old design. I bet if it were designed today, the set would look much more impressive.

alaskaguy

I don't own the original set but I'm not sure if I want to spend so much on an old design.

Isn't the whole basis of the "collector market" that people talk so much about "protecting", and supposedly of supreme importance, just people spending a lot of money on old designs?

If people are willing to spend $1500 or whatever on an old design that originally sold for $300 (or whatever), seems like Lego would do well to pocket some of that cash for itself with a re-release - and make would-be buyers quite happy in the process.

oldtodd33

This guy is in for a surprise. https://www.ebay.com/itm/New-The-Tag-Mahal-Compatible-with-Lego-10189-Sealed/263128100483?hash=item3d43a82e83:g:OAEAAOSwH1NZhp9o

bea

alaskaguy said:

I don't own the original set but I'm not sure if I want to spend so much on an old design.

Isn't the whole basis of the "collector market" that people talk so much about "protecting", and supposedly of supreme importance, just people spending a lot of money on old designs?

If people are willing to spend $1500 or whatever on an old design that originally sold for $300 (or whatever), seems like Lego would do well to pocket some of that cash for itself with a re-release - and make would-be buyers quite happy in the process.

I'm sure there are "collectors" that are willing to spend $1.5K on an old set. I'm not one of those people. I'm commenting on the value of this release to me personally and from that point of view, I'd much rather have a more modern model of the Taj Mahal than an old, blocky design.

I appreciate how much lego design has evolved and improved over time. I like how much more detailed and imaginative today's buildings are. I really don't want the same old design from 10 years ago. I want to see what the designers can do with that concept today.

chrisalddin

yes i like to have this set. so i can say i have this set.
no i dont think it good enough for me to buy this set at that price, other set's come 1st.
it done look like a build ware you do the same thing over and over again.
i am happy to see a re-release. maybe lego well set up a system ware we can Vote for a set to be re-release.

alaskaguy

bea said:

I'm sure there are "collectors" that are willing to spend $1.5K on an old set. I'm not one of those people. I'm commenting on the value of this release to me personally and from that point of view, I'd much rather have a more modern model of the Taj Mahal than an old, blocky design.

I appreciate how much lego design has evolved and improved over time. I like how much more detailed and imaginative today's buildings are. I really don't want the same old design from 10 years ago. I want to see what the designers can do with that concept today.

Fair enough.  People have different perspectives.  Other than the very simple-to-build 31054 set (71 pieces, $4.59, Target) I built for my one year old the other day, I've not built a Lego set (following instructions) since...I dunno, the Galaxy Explorer (set 497) was a new release (1979). By the standards I'm familiar with, everything looks great, including the TM. There are so many more pieces!! There's a specialized piece for EVERYTHING these days!

The sets I am buying today will sit in the closet for 5-10-12 years, until my kid is old enough to have them.  That being the case, for my purposes, there's probably not a lot of difference between a TM designed 10 years ago and a TM designed today. By the time my kid gets it, both will be pretty old compared to what's on the shelf at that time (:

chrisalddin said:

maybe lego well set up a system ware we can Vote for a set to be re-release.

Now that's a novel idea (:

Fauch

alaskaguy said:
there's probably not a lot of difference between a TM designed 10 years ago and a TM designed today.

Obviously.

alaskaguy said:
By the time my kid gets it, both will be pretty old compared to what's on the shelf at that time (:

well, it looks old compared to what we have today, but in 10 years, sets will not necessarily look better than today. remember a lot of designs got worse at the end of the 90's, beginning of 2000.

SumoLego

GeordiePaul said:

I'm also very amused by the people commenting on the main page in response to this rerelease...

And the 700 other original sets that were released...

CCC

alaskaguy said:

I don't own the original set but I'm not sure if I want to spend so much on an old design.

Isn't the whole basis of the "collector market" that people talk so much about "protecting", and supposedly of supreme importance, just people spending a lot of money on old designs?

If people are willing to spend $1500 or whatever on an old design that originally sold for $300 (or whatever), seems like Lego would do well to pocket some of that cash for itself with a re-release - and make would-be buyers quite happy in the process.

It depends why they are buying the old set. Some will be buying to build, some buying to preserve the set as a collectable.

This set is almost the worst of both worlds - a new set (new number, differentiated from the old) with an old design. They could have done a new set with a new design or re-release the old design as the old set (same set number, box, etc). The former would be beneficial to people wanting to build a modern set, the latter for new collectors wanting the old set.

Shib

One thing I’m finding quite amusing is the amount of “the new boss must be after quick cash” comments. LEGO’s production schedules are worked out a long way in advance, even without the normal design time there’s no way this could have been decided under the new management.

SumoLego

Shib said:

One thing I’m finding quite amusing is the amount of “the new boss must be after quick cash” comments.

You're ruining everyone's aggresively ignorant snap-criticism that lacks any thoughtful basis, with no historical insight.

Although, I did see the new CEO selling Lester polybags out of a hot dog stand in Tulsa, Oklahoma for $24.99 each. 

So, maybe there's some truth to those ridiculous statements.

(There is no truth to my ridiculous statement about Lester polybags being sold in Tulsa from a hot dog stand.)

danstraindepot

I don't own the original.  However I don't like the future of my LEGO 'Investment'.  This type of move will probably push me to a new hobby, and sell off some of my (way too much) LEGO collection.  However I am happy for the people that want it.  That being said a redesign would have been much more exciting.  As has been mentioned the UCS Falcon, at least has some great new features (and I do have the original of that).

Aanchir

I think I have to disagree with a lot of the comments about there being a better solution for the domes. As can be seen with the R2D2 and BB-8 sculptures, brick-built domes are still the best solution for even a dome with a simple, spherical shape, let alone a more complex one. Existing pieces can suffice for domes at specific sizes, but that’s unlikely to work here. And creating a new piece specifically for this set would not only be contrary to what people expect from a Creator Expert set, but would also take away what are probably the most interesting parts of this set’s building experience.

As an owner of the previous version who would’ve been unlikely to buy a new one in any event, the change I would’ve actually liked to see would have been making the Bright Yellow spires Warm Gold instead.

Fauch

https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=88293#T=S&O={"iconly":0}
wouldn't that work for the middle size domes?

for small ones, the 4x4 dome doesn't allow to add a spire, but some rock or egg pieces do
https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=30286#T=S&O={"iconly":0}
still probably too irregular

Aanchir

Fauch said:

https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=88293#T=S&O={"iconly":0}
wouldn't that work for the middle size domes?

for small ones, the 4x4 dome doesn't allow to add a spire, but some rock or egg pieces do
https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=30286#T=S&O={"iconly":0}
still probably too irregular

The mid-size domes on the real Taj Mahal are pointed on the top, rather than flat on the top like the 3x3 quarter domes. And at this scale those domes have to be closer to 7x7 rather than 6x6 in order to match the width of the supports underneath. Even the medium domes on the set are somewhat narrower than they should be at the base, but the studs help add to the perceived width.