10222 Winter village Post is alleged to have been retired?

MrBerre

Just read in a forum that apparently it was confirmed that 10222 Winter village Post has been discontinued.

http://neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=47763679&postcount=7050

On a related note, the staff did confirm that Winter Post Office is officially retired.

piratemania7

Noooooooooooooooooooo!



Good thing I got mine in 2011. I was excited for the cottage to come out, still MIB. I may leave it for a while and see what comes out this year.

Paperballpark

I was in the Manchester store this morning, and a very nice member of staff confirmed to me that it had been discontinued at the same time as the Bakery. Cue me on the internet this afternoon ordering one from the Spanish Amazon site.

piratemania7

there ya go! Since getting into the modular theme I have learned, if I want it, get it. even if it is two years away, eventually it will either be impossible to get or impossible to afford. I have all the winter village sets thus far and plan on continuing that trend.

y2josh

I'd take this with a grain of salt, as it's very unlikely that the Post Office won't be back in October.

cheshirecat

Me too, would be very easy for a (saturday) shop assistant (especially in the Manchester store) to assume that an expected temporary exit until October is actually a permanent exit.

Just to clarify, I wasn't saying anything bad about Manchester or the Manchester store and their employees - just that its the fist year of trading still so they probably don't know about the WV sets not being available through Spring/Summer.

Paperballpark

It wasn't a Sales Assistant I was walking to , it was the Assistant Manager. She said that both that and the Bakery had been discontinued after Christmas, which squares with them both being in the post-xmas sale (which did worry me at the time).

We talked for a bit about a few other things as well, and let's just say I'm pretty damn certain she knew what she was talking about.

brickvine

I received the post office for a Christmas present this year and left it in its box so I could assemble it next year to go with my bakery and cottage. Now I'm thinking about how the value of an in-box post office may rise... but no, I want a cute winter village for myself!

Pitfall69

^That's why I always buy a copy for myself and if I am fortunate to find another one on sale, I will buy more.

It just seems odd the Post Office would be gone the same time as the Bakery. The only thing I can think of is the Post Office was not as good as the Bakery and maybe it wasn't a strong seller and decided to put more into the Cottage and the next one.

Paperballpark

Pitfall69 said:

It just seems odd the Post Office would be gone the same time as the Bakery.

That's why I dismissed it being on sale after xmas as not meaning anything. The lass I spoke to at the shop didn't have any idea why it was gone at the same time as the bakery either, just that it was.

Legoboy

Paperballpark said:

She said that both that and the Bakery had been discontinued after Christmas, which squares with them both being in the post-xmas sale (which did worry me at the time).

I recall the Post Office was in the post-xmas sales the same it was released ie. 2011. It was in the UK anyway. 10% off or something.

Don't therefore assume a Winter Village set is being discontinued just because it's been reduced. They could well have just been making sure they didn't have to store those unsold for a further 9 months without a sale.

Poochy

^ Winter Village Cottage was reduced 30% at some locations (including SoCal), and I'm pretty sure it will be back next year :).

Paperballpark

^^ so why wasn't the Cottage in the xmas sale too?

Plus, I'm not assuming. A senior Lego Store member of staff has told me that it's been discontinued. Not 'it might have been' or 'it possibly is', but that it actually has been discontinued. That's good enough for me.

Waits until October to be proved right. :)

Matthew

^ With all respect, what does a member of store staff, regardless of seniority know about it. As I'm sure @bluemoose can tell you, many store staff make comments about EOL products, and they are rarely right!

Paperballpark

^ oh I agree with your last comment. I've had a member of store staff (a different one) tell me in the past that she was waiting for Winter Toy Shop to come back next year because she wanted to get it. She clearly didn't have a clue what she was talking about. The lady I spoke to today however, clearly did know what she was talking about (this is based on my conversation with her about other things), hence my certainty.

But it's obvious that some people aren't going to be convinced, so I'm going to stop trying now. I however, am erring on the side of caution, and have bought one online today (for less than RRP). If it does come back in October I will apologise in this very thread.

If it doesn't, I will merely point out here and now that it is still available right now on the Spanish Amazon for about £1 less than RRP, including postage.

Legoboy

Paperballpark said:

^^ so why wasn't the Cottage in the xmas sale too?

Plus, I'm not assuming. A senior Lego Store member of staff has told me that it's been discontinued. Not 'it might have been' or 'it possibly is', but that it actually has been discontinued. That's good enough for me.

Waits until October to be proved right. :)

I have no idea why it wasn't in the sale. Maybe they didn't have several thousand copies of the set lying about - I really don't know?!

As has been posted a number of times within the forum recently, don't take information provided by store staff as gospel. Rarely is it true. They might think it is and as such pass on the information in good faith, but more often than not accurate at all and it just doesn't pan out the way the rumour they heard was said to. It is for shop-starting rumours like this that resellers have several dozen copies of the Fire Brigade and Death Star under their beds. That said, I cannot disprove the rumour, but for now I'm going to take it with a pinch of @y2josh's salt. :-)

Matthew

Legoboy said:

...but for now I'm going to take it with a pinch of @y2josh's salt. :-)

actually, he's just taking it with a grain of salt. I know I anyway will be taking it with the entire salt cellar...

HarryPotterLover

Im keeping my Cottage, Bakery, and Post Office up year round :D
But anyway I expected that it would only be the bakery it came out a year before Post Office. Sorry to those who couldnt get it :( its probably my favorite WV

Farmer_John

I'm not really buying it either (pardon the pun)...I think the Winter Village Post Office will have another year before it's gone. So far, the three seasons and done has been correct and I just don't see it changing. Perhaps they only want two WV sets available at a time? Could be I guess...

Interestingly enough, I remember the WVPO being listed by Amazon as having an RRP of $59.99 instead of $69.99 after Christmas in March 2012, which I thought was odd (and probably a mistake). They then knocked $5 off to make it $54.99 (which was over 20% off). It was too good a deal to pass up and I grabbed a couple. I don't know if it has ever been that low anywhere else or not... It's not my favorite (the Toy Shop is), but it does add a nice touch.

madforLEGO

If true, Im Glad I got a couple of Winter cottages at the LEGO store today for 70... BUT I would say this is most likely BUNK.
Cottage just came out, and Post office was only out for 1 year so far. Heck the Bakery could feasibly come back.

I just would say that apparently people have not learned to stop listening to LEGO staff and LEGO customer service because if you ask 10 different people at LEGO about a set EOL'ing you will get 10 different answers IMO

yys4u

Maybe the Winter Cottage didn't sell well because customers had cheaper alternatives for Winter sets, and maybe TLG decided if they only had one option for a Winter set, it would help sales, thus deciding to discontinue the Post Office? I hope this isn't true as I have yet to pick up the post office as well...

TheLoneTensor

Any talk of patterns really doesn't amount to much, because as we've seen, Lego changes a perceived pattern at the drop of a hat. My gut tells me that the PO won't be back, and Amazon.es is your last hope for a non-crappy price.

My extended thoughts are that if there is ever a set you really want (to build, not necessarily to resell), and that set goes on sale for 25% or more, you should pull the trigger.

MrBerre

tensor said:

My gut tells me that the PO won't be back, and Amazon.es is your last hope for a non-crappy price.

I'm usually all for requiring data and not believing rumours, but for some reason this one just seems to be right. Sure, you could argue there's a pattern, but in the end I don't see LEGO keeping a set alive that is underperforming. Yes, we don't know that 10222 isn't selling well, but neither are there assurances that it will be back for Christmas 2013. I think it is rather telling that on eBay prices for this set are still near RRP, whereas other Winter Village sets are easily 50% and more above RRP.

richo

I reckon it will be back this winter, as it follows the previous pattern, but I guess there is no guarantee, so anybody really wants to be sure, they should get one asap.

indigobox

They had about 8 of these in Liverpool LEGO store today going out at £44.99 I think.

Paperballpark

I prefer not to go to Liverpool. ;)

madforLEGO

LEGO really needs to look at the pricing of these sets... I mean there are still stock of the Cottage on sale for 70 at some LEGO stores, same last year with the POs, as I picked up a bunch for 55 (I think), and Bakeries the year before that... I think LEGO is in a pickle, you either only make x to ensure that you do not have overstock, which will help those trying to simply make a buck happy, but anger those trying to get one and find out they are gone, OR you make a ton of them and make almost everyone happy BUT run into an issue of having them after Christmas and discounting them heavily to sell them.
I will say while the Cottage is nice, at 100 bucks I cannot see many people buying a ton of them.

So it will be interesting to see if LEGO continues the line.. I really like the line though, just have a hard time justifying what they are asking for for rpp on these sets.

TheLoneTensor

I really love the cottage. It looks great (inside-snow notwithstanding), has some great pieces, lots of "things" to play with, a ton of minifigs and has a great ppp.

That said, I think Lego made a mistake ramping this up to the $100 mark, because I think going from $50-ish to $100 turned the cute, annual, affordable snow scenes into a more-serious investment. They should have foregone two or all of the three extra things/minifigs (igloo, workshop, plow) and stayed around $60. Maybe sell those extra things as little winter "booster packs," not unlike #3300014.

Anyway, that's why I think they had too much stock, because they priced the set out of the market of general-appeal and too far into AFOL-only appeal.

TheLoneTensor

Oh, one more thing, and this is 100% speculation on my part, but I think it's very likely you might not even see the Winter Village Cottage next Xmas. I'm well aware of shelf/storage space issues for retailers, but it doesn't make sense to me that they would discount a set 30% across the company, and then have it come back into full production later. Has this ever been done before, even for a holiday set?

I think if you want to get one, you might consider calling a Lego store and have one shipped to you now. Even with shipping, it'll still be a good deal less than RRP, and could save you tears of frustration come November.

madforLEGO

It occurred with the Toy Shoppe Bakery and the PO I believe.. of not 30%, it was close.
I think LEGO does understand that they wqill have overflow, and really the only reason they have them by the LEGO store by me is because other stores had too many.. I think they had sold out their lot before Christmas..
So Id like to see them stay, but ultimately it is up to LEGO

EKSam

I purchased the Post Office and Village bakery for around 55$ and 43$ plus tax respectively after Christmas 2011, similarly purchased the Winter Cottage for 70$ + tax during the Feb2013 monthly mini build event. I had been to the local Lego store a week prior to the purchase and they didn't have any in stock. Needless to say I bought it at 70$, they had 4 on the shelf and hearing me exclaim about the price the remaining 3 flew off the shelf:-). The cashier mentioned they got the winter cottage from another store.
Going by the past experience with the winter village series, I am skeptical about the Post Office retiring. Having said that, if you want the set and its available at a good price one should go ahead and buy it. All the winter village sets are beautiful.

dougts

LEGO's big mistake with the cottage wasn't necessarily over or under production, or one of pricing eve - it was the fact that they shipped an enormous quantity to all the stores, and didn't keep enough in MS for Shop at home. Shop At Home was sold out of cottages from about December 5th until mid-January. how many sales did they lose out on in that time, while thousands of these sets sat in store stockrooms across the country?

They were so concerned with making sure the retail stores had ample stock, they completely shot themselves in the foot for online orders. It also seems they don't do a good job of predicting which stores are going to move more product than others, as some stores apparently still have these, while other stores ran out around December 20.

rchadd

really?

Thanos75

Last week while on a road trip to Ohio I stopped at my first LEGO store ever.They had 6 sets of #10229 for $69 and 6 sets of #10222 for $55. I bought two of each.

MCNwakeboard

I could believe that the post office isn't coming back. The first winter set had a short life (winter train) and had to be discounted heavily to sell. The winter toy shop was an outstanding set and Lego produced a second edition the next year after it sold out well before Christmas during its first year. The subsequent sets didn't sell out as quickly (or supply equaled demand) for one reason or another so TLG could just be adjusting back to a one-year cycle. I was surprised that the winter village sold out so quickly for [email protected] while the stores still have stock. I have my copy of the winter post office and don't plan to pick up extras.

tom4086

Now that the Winter Village Cottage is on sale at UK [email protected], this really could be the end of the Winter line completely, maybe the Post Office did secretly retire!

Paperballpark

#10229 Winter Village Cottage isn't being discontinued, just reduced to help clear a bit of stock.

Grogall

Well, I doubt that WVC nor WVP will be discontinued, we had the same argument when WTS was not available after its first year. I'm sure we will see both again when Winter Village Market is released in October! But heck what do I know?

rchadd

i think the post office is the weakest set - so maybe it is not selling so well. lucky i got it in the AFOL sale the other week (should have bought a few more!)

rchadd

sure it will turn up in october (need to give people choice to get started if they missed the previous ones)... hmmm unless there will be 2 new ones at xmas?

CCC

As this is all allegation and widening to multiple sets, shouldn't it just get merged with the main thread.

http://www.bricksetforum.com/discussion/1958/predictions-on-discontinuing-sets-and-their-secondary-market-value#latest

cheshirecat

@Grogall - Winter Village Market, tell more...

Paperballpark

^ that's what I was thinking! A market sounds like it could be very nice and fit in well with the current range.

CCC

Maybe a German style travelling market that we seem to get so often these days. It would mean more lederhosen guys with plenty of sausages and pretzels.

rchadd

I would like a Winter Village Farm with an old fashioned tractor.

Si_UKNZ

Dont really need a market since we have MMV

asmodai

At the UCS X-wing designer video, on the beggining you can see one of the movie "things" is for Winter Marker (the one held by Astrid at 0:05)

Paperballpark

^ Do you have a screenshot of that? I can't seem to pause the video at the right place (although I don't doubt you!)

TheLoneTensor

CCC said:

As this is all allegation and widening to multiple sets, shouldn't it just get merged with the main thread.

http://www.bricksetforum.com/discussion/1958/predictions-on-discontinuing-sets-and-their-secondary-market-value#latest

It would be nice if every discussion even mentioning retirement didn't get plowed into the same monster clearinghouse thread.

legobigbloke

^^^ & ^^ Astrid holds a clapperboard (black thing with chalk marks on it) and it definitely says Winter Market.

Legoboy

Si_Dorking_Surrey_UK said:

Dont really need a market since we have MMV

Like it or not, it's coming! Priced somewhere between the cost of a Post Office and the Cottage - £80 or so. Will consist of the iconic carousel with market stalls around it.

But like @Grogall says, "But heck what do I know?"