Chinese New Year 80101

SumoLego

Cymbeline said:

Thanks, @Jern92!

Yes, indeed!

PJ76uk

According to tracking the parcel is in the country, just waiting for local delivery. Eagerly awaiting it! Many thanks once again @Jern92 !

PJ76uk

*Knock on the door* "Dare I hope, could it really be?"
*Opens door* "Yes! It's a parcel, for me and I am only expecting one thing..."



*Quickly opens parcel* "Now to rearrange my daily plans to include some build time..."



Many, many thanks to @Jern92 for taking the time to do this, very reasonably priced postage to the UK too.

Jern92

Wow that was unexpectedly fast! Hope you enjoy the build as much as I did! :-)

PJ76uk

Aye it was quicker than I expected, was checking tracking daily to follow its progress here!

Couldn't wait to get started on it, enjoyed the build immensely and definitely need to BL an extra Pig Costumed Minifig!

Muftak1

Many thanks @Jern92 for doing this. I'll be keeping all fingers crossed

msanders

Thanks to @Jern92 I received my Chinese New Year dinner set last week. I really enjoyed the build! So happy to get it so a massive THANKS! 

Unfortunately, the Dragon set is out of stock but he offered to send this one now. Cross fingers the Dragon Dance set comes back!

Ray1204

msanders said:

Thanks to @Jern92 I received my Chinese New Year dinner set last week. I really enjoyed the build! So happy to get it so a massive THANKS! 

Unfortunately, the Dragon set is out of stock but he offered to send this one now. Cross fingers the Dragon Dance set comes back!

Dragon dance back up on Amazon jp.

madforLEGO

Thanks @Ray1204 for the heads up on the #80102! I managed to get an order in at the Amazon price, hopefully the order goes through as I notice they are not available again.

Ray1204

madforLEGO said:

Thanks @Ray1204 for the heads up on the #80102! I managed to get an order in at the Amazon price, hopefully the order goes through as I notice they are not available again.

It should go through as they are restocking, I’m still waiting for a restock of 80101 so my previous order on Jan 10th will ship which is still on back order.

msanders

Very frustrating because like some others I ordered 80102 and after 3 weeks waiting they cancelled because no more stock was coming back. Missed this one above as well

maniac

JKBrickworks has published his MOD to #80102 Dragon Dance with instructions and parts list on his website.

Here's the video for it.

CCC

That is a really good way of overcoming the 90 degree problem. I'm going to steal that method!

SumoLego

How is JKBrickworks not able to get an 'official' copy of the set?

TheFew

What is the most cost effective way of getting the dragon dance in the UK?

DeMontes

SumoLego said:

How is JKBrickworks not able to get an 'official' copy of the set?

Maybe he didn't want to have to pay extra for importing it either from an online store or secondary market...

DeMontes

TheFew said:

What is the most cost effective way of getting the dragon dance in the UK?

There are some HK sellers on BL and postage without the box is pretty good to the UK from HK.

CCC

DeMontes said:

SumoLego said:

How is JKBrickworks not able to get an 'official' copy of the set?

Maybe he didn't want to have to pay extra for importing it either from an online store or secondary market...

Especially as he was modding it anyway, so exchanging a number of parts.

SumoLego

DeMontes said:

SumoLego said:

How is JKBrickworks not able to get an 'official' copy of the set?

Maybe he didn't want to have to pay extra for importing it either from an online store or secondary market...

Bah.  That's too easy.  And financially responsible!

Ray1204

My 80101 got cancelled on amazon jp. If anyone here can help me get the set, please let me know.

AustinPowers

Baby_Yoda said:

@madforLEGO Also worth noting that North America and Europe aren't exactly short of regional exclusives... just nothing as distinct and unusual as these.

Not exactly short on exclusives?

Could you remind me of any set that is/has been region exclusive to Europe?

Can't think of any at the moment, other than some boring minifigs like the German soccer or UK Olympics team that really are of very niche interest and certainly don't compare to these Chinese sets.

Plus, afaik China has had region exclusive "Year of the ..." sets for several years in a row now, not to mention all those US exclusive sets like everything SDCC, or those great last sets of the Ultra Agents theme like that fantastic HQ boat set.

Aleydita

AustinPowers said:

Baby_Yoda said:

@madforLEGO Also worth noting that North America and Europe aren't exactly short of regional exclusives... just nothing as distinct and unusual as these.

...

Can't think of any at the moment, other than some boring minifigs like the German soccer or UK Olympics team that really are of very niche interest and certainly don't compare to these Chinese sets.

...

Think you have things the wrong way around. The Olympics have world-wide appeal, whilst Chinese New Year is very much an Asian thing. Sure, there are Chinese and other Asians who celebrate this festival all over the world, but not in the kind of numbers that warrants selling the set worldwide imo. Those of us liking this set from afar are AFOLS, most often the Lego fans with the biggest wallets, sure, but if your wallet is big enough you could/would have bought it and suffered the import duty/etc.

Clearly these were limited availability from the very beginning, and with Lego's production schedules firmed up many months in advance, it was apparently always going to be that way. A wider release may simply not have been possible, even were it desired, so the only alternative to a regional release was maybe to not release them at all.

AFAIK, most regional sets have - until now - been small promotional items like Lester, the Statue of Liberty, etc. Other than the early CUUSOO (speeling?) sets and other Japan-only releases like Kabaya and those weird paper sets.

sid3windr

msanders said:

Very frustrating because like some others I ordered 80102 and after 3 weeks waiting they cancelled because no more stock was coming back. Missed this one above as well

This! Frustrating indeed. Not that it'll help but I might have a chat with Amazon CS about that...

CCC

They weren't an Olympic set, they were strictly a Team GB set. There is a difference, Team GB were only allowed to market things using the olympic rings if it is connected with Team GB. They were not allowed to do "The Olympics" and have other Olympic associations badges or anything. So the minifigures were all in Team GB outfits.

I imagine the Chinese New Year sets would have sold pretty well in the west. Many kids seem to celebrate it or know of it, whether at school or through Scouts, etc. It is much better known now than when I was a kid.

Plus in London, Leicester Sq is so close to Chinatown that they would have hit the tourist market visting Chinatown too.

Jern92

AustinPowers said:

Baby_Yoda said:

@madforLEGO Also worth noting that North America and Europe aren't exactly short of regional exclusives... just nothing as distinct and unusual as these.

Not exactly short on exclusives?

Could you remind me of any set that is/has been region exclusive to Europe?

Can't think of any at the moment, other than some boring minifigs like the German soccer or UK Olympics team that really are of very niche interest and certainly don't compare to these Chinese sets.

Plus, afaik China has had region exclusive "Year of the ..." sets for several years in a row now, not to mention all those US exclusive sets like everything SDCC, or those great last sets of the Ultra Agents theme like that fantastic HQ boat set.

Other than during the past 4-5 years, plenty of Lego sets hardly ever make it to the Asian market, partly due to a lack of stores, and it was mostly resellers bringing them in at massively inflated prices. Then the whole Lego craze started and we started getting our own stores, but even then we never got any of the free GWP items in those first few years. While they weren't 'Exclusive' as such, they were still pretty much completely unavailable to us, making it frustrating to try and complete collections.

Then there are SDCC sets, polybags (the HP polybag never came to my country), Lego books/magazines with limited edition minifigures, stuff that are limited to particular countries (I'm looking at you, Lester minifigure!). If you're looking purely at the term 'Exclusive' then yeah there really isn't much, but if you think of it in terms of availability for purchase, you guys have had it much better than us for a long time. With the CNY sets, I think most of you finally understand exactly how we in Asia have been feeling all this time. It's always been unfair, and it will probably always be unless Lego starts selling the exact same products everywhere.

SumoLego

Jern92 said:

UPDATE: Sets shipped out to @Russell844 , @SumoLego , @PJ76uk , and @msanders.

Recieved - and very, very, very much appreciated!

Baby_Yoda

AustinPowers said:

Baby_Yoda said:

@madforLEGO Also worth noting that North America and Europe aren't exactly short of regional exclusives... just nothing as distinct and unusual as these.

Not exactly short on exclusives?

Could you remind me of any set that is/has been region exclusive to Europe?

Can't think of any at the moment, other than some boring minifigs like the German soccer or UK Olympics team that really are of very niche interest and certainly don't compare to these Chinese sets.

Plus, afaik China has had region exclusive "Year of the ..." sets for several years in a row now, not to mention all those US exclusive sets like everything SDCC, or those great last sets of the Ultra Agents theme like that fantastic HQ boat set.

@Jern92 hit the nail on the head. It's not so much sets that are explicitly exclusive to Europe, but the stuff Europe gets that never sees the light of day in Australia. From individual sets like polybags and Brickheadz to entire themes like FORMA, we've missed out on a fair bit. Of course, there's always the secondary market, but Lego is already expensive here as it is, and don't give me that "higher wages" crap. Even these Chinese New Year sets only showed up at about half a dozen stores for maybe a week overall before disappearing again.

But I suppose the grass is always greener on the other side...

CCC

Baby_Yoda said:

AustinPowers said:

Baby_Yoda said:

@madforLEGO Also worth noting that North America and Europe aren't exactly short of regional exclusives... just nothing as distinct and unusual as these.

Not exactly short on exclusives?

Could you remind me of any set that is/has been region exclusive to Europe?

Can't think of any at the moment, other than some boring minifigs like the German soccer or UK Olympics team that really are of very niche interest and certainly don't compare to these Chinese sets.

Plus, afaik China has had region exclusive "Year of the ..." sets for several years in a row now, not to mention all those US exclusive sets like everything SDCC, or those great last sets of the Ultra Agents theme like that fantastic HQ boat set.

@Jern92 hit the nail on the head. It's not so much sets that are explicitly exclusive to Europe, but the stuff Europe gets that never sees the light of day in Australia. From individual sets like polybags and Brickheadz to entire themes like FORMA, we've missed out on a fair bit. Of course, there's always the secondary market, but Lego is already expensive here as it is, and don't give me that "higher wages" crap. Even these Chinese New Year sets only showed up at about half a dozen stores for maybe a week overall before disappearing again.

But I suppose the grass is always greener on the other side...

FORMA is hardly an entire theme. It was one set, sold through crowd funding rather than official retail channels, with a few different skins. If they are trying something different out, it makes sense to try it in regions where there are expected buyers (so USA and EU) and restricting it to a single language (English) so they don't have lots of translation costs for a trial phase (so UK not whole EU).

I guess polybags are promlematic as they are not regular retail sets, but used for different things in different. In the UK we used to get loads with newspapers, but after all the complaints that they were with The Sun, then the complaints that they were with The Mail, they have dried up. So we had them as promos when others could buy them. Whereas now we can buy some, but I rarely see that many.

Russell844

Super thanks to @Jern92 for my sets!

maniac

maniac said:

JKBrickworks has published his MOD to #80102 Dragon Dance with instructions and parts list on his website.

Here's the video for it.

<snip>

JKBrickworks has gone even further with #80102 Dragon Dance.

Now the dragon moves in a spiral...

https://www.facebook.com/JKBrickworks/videos/412434632835459 (Facebook account NOT needed to view this.)

Baby_Yoda

CCC said:
FORMA is hardly an entire theme. It was one set, sold through crowd funding rather than official retail channels, with a few different skins. If they are trying something different out, it makes sense to try it in regions where there are expected buyers (so USA and EU) and restricting it to a single language (English) so they don't have lots of translation costs for a trial phase (so UK not whole EU).

I guess polybags are promlematic as they are not regular retail sets, but used for different things in different. In the UK we used to get loads with newspapers, but after all the complaints that they were with The Sun, then the complaints that they were with The Mail, they have dried up. So we had them as promos when others could buy them. Whereas now we can buy some, but I rarely see that many.

All of that is correct. However, it doesn't change the fact that Europe gets plenty of things Australia misses out on. Yes, it is perfectly justifiable to exclude Australia from purchasing FORMA, but the cause does not lessen the effect.
For another example, Overwatch sets are only physically available in two stores in the entire country (Legoland Discovery Centre and Dreamworld). That's justifiable because they are niche sets competing for limited shelf space, so Lego decided to make them online exclusives. Furthermore, we won't see TLM2 sets for another month or so. This is because they are designed to coincide with the film's release here, which in turn is supposed to coincide with school holidays. Both very good reasons for us missing out, but we still miss out. It's nobody's fault that this happens, but it still happens.
My point is that it is equally as justifiable for the Chinese New Year sets to be limited to Australasia. Yes, Europe and America miss out here, but it's not because TLG are blithering idiots or because they're the root of all evil. It's because CNY just isn't celebrated nearly as much there (granted, the same could be said of Australia, but the sets were barely available here anyway). So don't go ranting at some poor customer service employee because you had to pay $20 extra for shipping. There's nothing they can or will do. Inequality? Sure. Inequity? Not at all.

sid3windr

^ Just to make it absolutely clear: Europe was also excluded from FORMA. :-(

madforLEGO

Sorry, for the apparently limited number of these sets made, they could have made a more and allotted some for the US and European markets. I think LEGO, and some people here, underestimate how many people of Chinese descent are in the US/Europe. There are 'Chinatowns' (Chinese enclaves) in almost every major city. Never mind all the expats that work in technical jobs here in the US who are not in those areas. I'm sure other parts of the world are the same way. Who knows, with LEGO's track record of understanding culture, maybe someone in Billund is thinking that 'Only Asian people would want this New Year set so we will only make them for that region and not anywhere else".

These are not just a standard LEGO set with a Chinese marketing label slapped on them celebrating the New Year. They are both really interesting sets and very detailed with unique parts and printing; possible not to be seen in any other sets. Something that many would want to buy regardless of region, and maybe even would may spread cultural identity and exposure of the Chinese new year celebrations to other parts of the world that do not see these events normally.

Finally, LEGO could fix this in a heartbeat. First, well make a bunch to roll out to other countries, past the new year I know, but at least they would be available. heck make them available only online with a limit of 1 or 2 each. As for future promotions, Simply take surveys all over the globe asking what sets would be in demand (i.e. would you, being in the US/Europe, want these unique and interesting sets celebrating Chinese new year?) (would you in Australia want this promo for the US)?

Or this could also be fixed if LEGO stores in all countries could be able to order a set from anywhere in the world regardless of 'exclusivity'. 'Welcome to LEGO store in Chicago.. Oh, you want to get one of those #80101 sets? Come over to the register and we can order one for you'

SumoLego

Baby_Yoda said:
Inequality? Sure. Inequity? Not at all.

This is where I would post a Braveheart meme.

SumoLego

madforLEGO said:

Who knows, with LEGO's track record of understanding culture, maybe someone in Billund is thinking that 'Only Asian people would want this New Year set so we will only make them for that region and not anywhere else".

I'm not sure where LEGO has been culturally tone-deaf, and what sort of impact that would have on set design and distribution. 

I look at this from a supply-chain perspective.  If the sets are produced in Asia for that market and have an Asian theme or are (as their marketing people would anticipate) of particular interest to that market, I'm not sure why other markets would expect access to that product.  

The greater issue I see is whether this is a test for more specialization in each regional market.  If, for instance, World of Warcraft is 100x more popular in Asia, would LEGO pursue licensing with Blizzard and make sets exclusive to the Asian market?  Is that more profitable than globally universal sets?

Will consumers in each regional market purchase more Police Stations that 'better' reflect architecture or uniforms in their market?  (I can't imagine having to chase modulars unique to their markets!)

And I'm not talking about ethnically themed LEGO, but more neutral/objective differences in regions.

ReesesPieces

At the end of the day, Lego is a business and all the decisions are made according to how much $$$ they can make.  Sometimes their decisions are wrong but they are never out to screw anyone or region over by denying them a set.  They have their people that looked at some numbers and decided that these sets won't sell enough in the other regions to take up production or space of other items that do sell.  In the end, it is all about business sense.  

historyman

I really want to get the dragon dance set. I’ve found it on BrickLink but I’m really confused about how much the overall cost with postage will be. Would anyone help me to understand? Postage to UK. If the price was right I would get the house set too. 

historyman

^ eBay seems to be about £210 for the pair of sets delivered. Is this a fair price? Will BrickLink be better? 

Baby_Yoda

sid3windr said:

^ Just to make it absolutely clear: Europe was also excluded from FORMA. :-(

Good point, but it was available in the UK, at the very least.

madforLEGO said:

Sorry, for the apparently limited number of these sets made, they could have made a more and allotted some for the US and European markets.

I doubt it. If it were a good idea for them to do that, they would have done that. Lego aren't perfect at reading the market, but they're sure as hell better than anyone here.

madforLEGO said:

I think LEGO, and some people here, underestimate how many people of Chinese descent are in the US/Europe.

I don't think descent is relevant. A huge portion of Australians are descended from Europeans - does that mean they should have sold Team GB down here?

madforLEGO said:

There are 'Chinatowns' (Chinese enclaves) in almost every major city.

Yes, that can be said of many major cities in the West, not just the US.

madforLEGO said:

Who knows, with LEGO's track record of understanding culture, maybe someone in Billund is thinking that 'Only Asian people would want this New Year set so we will only make them for that region and not anywhere else".

What's wrong with that thinking? It makes perfect sense. The only places where CNY is widely celebrated are in Asia, so Lego decided to save on delivery and production costs by limiting it only to those regions where it'd be as popular as they like.

madforLEGO said:

These are not just a standard LEGO set with a Chinese marketing label slapped on them celebrating the New Year. They are both really interesting sets and very detailed with unique parts and printing; possible not to be seen in any other sets.

That is true, and many Lego fans might care about that, but you need remember that we're rarely the target audience. Random adults that haven't picked up a brick in years aren't going to go, "Wowee, look at that exotic printed tile!"

madforLEGO said:

Finally, LEGO could fix this in a heartbeat. First, well make a bunch to roll out to other countries, past the new year I know, but at least they would be available. heck make them available only online with a limit of 1 or 2 each. As for future promotions, Simply take surveys all over the globe asking what sets would be in demand (i.e. would you, being in the US/Europe, want these unique and interesting sets celebrating Chinese new year?) (would you in Australia want this promo for the US)?

"In a heartbeat"? "Simply"? They can't just effortlessly change their marketing strategy. Lego allocate production of sets based on how much of that set they want to produce. It's why, for example, when the MilF went out of stock straight away, they couldn't just do another run overnight. The production of some obscure City set would be overwhelmingly bigger than either of these, and it'd take a lot of mucking around to elevate the latter to meet the former.

madforLEGO said:

Or this could also be fixed if LEGO stores in all countries could be able to order a set from anywhere in the world regardless of 'exclusivity'. 'Welcome to LEGO store in Chicago.. Oh, you want to get one of those #80101 sets? Come over to the register and we can order one for you'

This would actually be a good idea. However, I'd imagine the reason it's not already done has to do with blurring the lines between "exclusive" and "worldwide". A store could simply order twenty exclusive polybags from the other side of the world and sell them for triple the RRP each. Not to mention, it wouldn't help in a lot of scenarios, such as in Australia where we don't actually have any brand stores.

HugeYellowBrick

Perhaps next Chinese New Year will see the sets available worldwide. Few changes would be required. Or not, depending on this years sales.

ReesesPieces

Definitely a possibility.  The same thing happened with the Lunar new year/zodiac gift with purchase animals.  It started as Asia only but has been brought over to the west the past couple years.  The sales affected by the zodiac pig as well as the sales of the lunar new year brickheadz might also factor into whether such lunar new year sets become available to the westerners.  

iso3200

historyman said:

^ eBay seems to be about £210 for the pair of sets delivered. Is this a fair price? Will BrickLink be better? 

I hope this helps others so I thought it worth the post.

When buying from outside you'll need to factor in VAT and collection fees and import duty if applicable.

Sometimes, things will slip through customs without being checked and there'll be no extra fees to pay, but that's when you're lucky. In the past I've had big boxes slip through with nothing to pay, and yet a small box of polybags, about £50 in value ended up with fees to pay. Not sure how that works. Seems a bit random.

All the cheapest offerings on eBay are from abroad. Read the listings carefully as it's not always apparent. Also there's some LEPIN doing the rounds on there.

For foreign sellers on eBay shipping direct to the UK, if both sets together including postage came to £210 you can expect the below figures if it gets stopped by UK Customs. This is also based on the seller declaring their original costs of around £120 on the paperwork.

£210 Cost

£24 VAT (20% of £120)

£12 Collection Fee from Parcel Force (this would still be £12 even if you only bought 80102 as a single)

**Collection Fee may be higher. DHL collection fee is £25 I believe

Import duty is only payable on imports over £135. The fee on plastic contruction toys is 4.7%. At £120 you shouldn't be paying this, but if they open the box and find a receipt in there for £210 then they might.

If it slips through then all well and good, £210 is not bad. If you clobber all the fees then you may as well have bought from a UK seller.

Bricklink is much the same, and you can PM different sellers for the shipping costs prior to purchase _ but asking them to declare lower values on the customs forms is a big no-no. Some will debox the sets for you which might save a bit on post too (but the boxes are very nice on these). Most Bricklink sellers will add 5% fees for Paypal too.

If you want your boxes to be good, then bear in mind these do have to travel a long way and not every seller packs as well as another.

Here's my experience from buying 2 x 80102 from Korea to the UK a few weeks ago when prices were a bit lower:-

2 sets @ $78 each = $156

Shipping = $47 (7 day)

Plus 5% Paypal totalled $213.15

Then with Paypal conversion I ended up paying £171.78

Now that sounds fine - if it wasn't stopped at UK Customs, but it was.

I paid £24 VAT ($156 was declared as import value)

Then £12 to Parcel Force

So £207.78, or £103.89 per set.

I'll likely sell one at a modest markup to help finance the other as it cost me more than I'd hoped. The boxes are in superb condition too.

Flipside is that I bought 80101 and 80102 on another transaction from elsewhere, and that didn't get stopped. Go figure.....

Hope that helps.

iso3200

iso3200 said:

Sometimes, things will slip through customs without being checked and there'll be no extra fees to pay, but that's when you're lucky. In the past I've had big boxes slip through with nothing to pay, and yet a small box of polybags, about £50 in value ended up with fees to pay. Not sure how that works. Seems a bit random.

Quoting my own post, I meant the randomness of sizes being stopped - not the value. Technically, importing anything over £15 to the UK is subject to VAT (and collection fees) unless it's a gift, where the threshold is £35

luckyruss

^^ Thanks - this is a really useful summary.  I had a similar experience with shipping to UK from Singapore; paid a bit more on the postage but got the two sets separately.  One was picked up for a fee and the other wasn’t, so ended up with £12 + the VAT on one set.  Total all in must have been about the same.

(I hoped I would get them for under £100 each but it was close.  Maybe I will keep telling myself that ...!)

iso3200

@historyman Further analysis as I'm at a loose end...

Certainly interesting looking at pricing on Bricklink. The first #80101 I bought was only £58 unit cost. The lowest is now £72

The #80102 I bought were £60.89, the lowest is now £72.66 so unless more stocks arrive I'm guessing the only way is up for these.

At time of writing, using Bricklink Store The Rabbit Hole in Hong Kong (which I am no way affiliated with or have ever used) would give these costs for 1 x 80102

£72.67 (unit cost)

£24 Shipping ($32 on their terms page)

£4.83 (5% Paypal Fee)

Total £101.50 (plus Paypal conversion fee)

So definitely cheaper than buying from Bricklink EU

HOWEVER.....

If it's stopped by customs, which in my experience is 50/50 you'll get:-

£12 Collection Fee

£14.54 Vat (20% of £72.67)

Add it all together and you'll have a total of £128.04.

Compare that to Bricklink and eBay UK prices and they're similar.

The question is, do you feel lucky?

PM me if you want any further help.

DeMontes

If it's stopped by customs, which in my experience is 50/50 you'll get:-

Not that I am advocating wriggling out of fees but naturally the reason certain items are stopped is generally dependent on what is written on the item/declared value. 

(Edited to removed the huge accidental quote)

iso3200

^Yes, I'd certainly agree with that - but I've always been surprised how many items come through untouched even when the paperwork is higher than the £15 UK threshold and marked as commercial goods. Not complaining..... but it's not logical.

Gooker1

I'm trying to score the pair for at most $225 shipped but that's becoming harder. :/

brickedin

Thanks for all the above @iso3200 I thought I could do without these but having seen the mods on the dragon dance I have defo been sucked in.......

PoMoPink

My Bricklink parcel (one of each set) from Malaysia has arrived at my parents' house this morning, reportedly in good condition and with no demand from customs. Can't get round there for a couple of days to check it out though :)