Limited Edition? Star Wars Hoth Echo Base #7879

Basta · November 2012

I did a bit of searching but couldn't find the answer, my question Is, what makes the Hoth Eco Base a "Limited Edition".

I believe it is a TRU exclusive, but there are other Exclusives and they are not limited edition.

Is it just marketing, or is it limited to a number of sets produced or is there something else special about it?

Joseph · November 2012

As far as I know, it's just marketing that some of the exclusives (mainly TRU) get; not limited numbers or anything.

Oldfan · November 2012

^Agreed; generally, stores like TRU and Target get one set in each wave of the Star Wars line (and sometimes other themes) to sell exclusively in their stores. Well, sort of; those sets are always available at Lego Shop Online, of course.

Bandit · November 2012

^^ Well, just the fact they are only sold at one retailer vs. all of them likely makes them much more limited in the number of sets produced and sold. So I think they *are* 'limited' compared to other sets, but not so much that they're ever hard to find during their production run or anything...

cloaked7 · November 2012

Sadly, I don't think it means much of anything. I don't know if it still is, but I know that initially Luke's Landspeeder was 'Limited Edition'. I think it's been out for 3 years now. Errrr... not so limited, is it?

madforLEGO · November 2012

I think 7754 was also supposed to be limited, or special edition. At least 'limited edition' was on my box

cloaked7 said:
Sadly, I don't think it means much of anything. I don't know if it still is, but I know that initially Luke's Landspeeder was 'Limited Edition'. I think it's been out for 3 years now. Errrr... not so limited, is it?

Well technically limited edition means production will stop at some point... unless it has a XXX of 1000 on it you cannot always expect it to be 'rare'

BoiseState · November 2012

The Orc Forge says "Hard to Find" on it.

andhe · November 2012

BoiseState said:
The Orc Forge says "Hard to Find" on it.

Calling something 'Hard to find' as soon as it is released really gets me annoyed. I know it's all marketing, but making something 'hard to find' (it's not that hard, I can find it on [email protected] if I really wanted) seems to go against the whole idea of actually producing things TO SELL THEM.

Basta · November 2012

madforLEGO said:
Well technically limited edition means production will stop at some point... unless it has a XXX of 1000 on it you cannot always expect it to be 'rare'

This was the kind I thing I was expecting, that they may have a limited production run, or something. As currently there are a bunch of Exclusives and from what I see none of those have Limited Edition written on the box.

It would just be nice that if Lego are going to release a set and call it a Limited Edition, that they actually had a small write up online as to what it is that makes it limited. If there is nothing limited about it don't call it such.

LegoFanTexas · November 2012

andhe said:

BoiseState said:
The Orc Forge says "Hard to Find" on it.
Calling something 'Hard to find' as soon as it is released really gets me annoyed. I know it's all marketing, but making something 'hard to find' (it's not that hard, I can find it on [email protected] if I really wanted) seems to go against the whole idea of actually producing things TO SELL THEM.

I agree, but that isn't what hard to find means to LEGO.

It means that it is a store exclusive, or that it is only at select online stores like Amazon.

Luke's Landspeeder is hard to find because it is a Walmart exclusive, you can only get it from Walmart or LEGO direct.

turtle1173 · November 2012

It's "hard to find" a Walmart exclusive at TRU ;-)

richo · November 2012

I agree on some of the points above. I think it's also confusing to the casual buyer what the difference is between 'hard to find' and 'exclusive', not to mention the limited & special edition sets.
I guess we maybe need to except that these are just labels applied to distribution channels. Whilst 'hard to find' to us in literal terms might mean something else, it's very different in this case.

Oldfan · November 2012

^This. "Hard to find" means either exclusively availalbe at the Lego stores or LEGO online, or through maybe one or two more distribution channels.

rocao · November 2012

"Limited Edition" and "Special Edition": sets that LEGO contracts to make available exclusively at one big box retailer and not the others. This makes the nomenclature technically correct. LEGO stores and [email protected] are exempt and will also sell the set. These labels adorn the box. It's interesting to note that the labels are consistent for any given retailer. TRU always uses "Limited Edition" while Walmart and Target use "Special Edition". In previous years, Walmart and Target had different graphics, but it looks like the switch to the yellow stripe on the side of the box has resulted in them being the same.

Because they're only being offered at one retailer, the set is produced in a lesser quantity than would be the case if it were not exclusive. However, the production amount is still influenced by other factors, such as the size of the set and the length of the production run. There's every reason to believe that 8092 Luke's Landspeeder -- a Walmart "special edition" -- which has been available for nearly three years now, was produced in greater quantity than other sets that aren't "limited".

"Limited Edition", numbered: These are the truly limited production sets that are given numbers, i.e. 92 of 10,000. Famous examples of these numbered sets are original runs of UCS Millennium Falcon, Santa Fe Super Chief, Comic-Con and Toy Fair exclusives. TLG has announced very loudly when a set is numbered in production (they've even numbered posters recently), so there really shouldn't be any mistaking these from the "Limited Edition" sets at TRU. I think we can hold LEGO true to the fact that the boxed sets are limited in number as stated, but it is worth noting that the "1 of 10,000" Gold Chrome C3PO actually had more than 10,000 produced: http://www.bricksetforum.com/discussion/comment/11079/#Comment_11079

"Exclusive": A label used for sets that are available only through LEGO retail (LEGO stores, [email protected]) initially. Eventually (I'm not sure if there is an exact timeframe) most of the sets are sold at other retailers. The Modular Building series and UCS Star Wars sets would be the most known examples here.

"Hard to find": A label used by LBR that seems to encompass any and all of the above. It also has been randomly applied to generally available sets in the past, usually close to their retirement. LBR has recently introduced the "retiring soon" label, which may shore up the apparent randomness of "hard to find" if they are now categorically identified as being "limited", "special", "exclusive", or "retiring soon".

Limited Edition? Star Wars Hoth Echo Base #7879

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