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Sales figures for Individual sets

Werewolf_pooWerewolf_poo Member Posts: 71
in Buying & Selling Topics
i was just wondering if Lego publish figures for how well each set sells or even how many sets they produce for each set. I find this kind of thing quite interesting but cannot find anything so far.

please move this if in the wrong section

Comments

  • ecmo47ecmo47 Member Posts: 2,101
    That info would be a closely guarded secret! It sure would make Lego investing a lot easier to know which sets/series were good sellers and which were duds.
  • Werewolf_pooWerewolf_poo Member Posts: 71
    Ahh I suppose it would, never really thought of it like that. Would just be nice to know. Shame there's always someone trying to make a quick buck out of everything 
  • andheandhe Member Posts: 4,001
    Not just resellers, but competing brands.

    That doesn't stop them trying to outright rip-off TLG's market research though. An example would be the plethora of 'girl' building bricks (some with almost identical figures to Lego Friends) that appeared after the release and seeming financial success of the Lego Friends line (even if it had its critics).
    madforLEGO
  • BumblepantsBumblepants Member Posts: 7,729
    They have mentioned their 10 best sellers in past annual reports. Police stations have typically been on there and I recall the friends dolphin cruiser made the list the first year of its run
    andhekiki180703Werewolf_poo
  • CCCCCC Member Posts: 20,556
    They used to publish the how many left data for S@H, which was useful to compare online sales of set vs set.
  • tamamahmtamamahm Member Posts: 1,987
    Well, we know that the top five sellers for the year were 
    Elsa's castle.
    Millenium Falcom
    ??police station?? I think, but might be wrong...
    EV3 
    Friends Hotel.

    We also know that 1/3 of their sales came from Star Wars and Frozen.
    We know that generally 60% of their yearly sales come from newly released products. 

    I think that is about all we know. 
    Werewolf_pookiki180703
  • SumoLegoSumoLego Member Posts: 15,241
    Announcing particular sets being a 'top-5 seller' without disclosing the number of sets sold or number of sets produced doesn't provide much (or any) insight.

    If you produced 1,800,000 police station sets and sold 1,250,000, that may be a 'top-5 seller', but not necessarily successful if 550,000 are sitting in inventory at the end of the year.
    madforLEGOkiki180703
  • FauchFauch Member Posts: 2,711
    that's lego. use the pieces to make next year's police station
  • SumoLegoSumoLego Member Posts: 15,241
    ^ (Not if they're already in the packaging or sitting in retailers' warehouses.)

    And I'm sure they readjust their production schedules based on inventory.
  • TigerMothTigerMoth Member Posts: 2,343
    Werewolf_poo said:
    i was just wondering if Lego publish figures for how well each set sells or even how many sets they produce for each set. I find this kind of thing quite interesting but cannot find anything so far.
    If you want an order of magnitude, the all-time best seller set was supposed to be "Mindstorms". I've put it in quotes because it seems to depend on the source as to what it actually means. That was a few years ago, and the meaning has, of course changed, but you were looking at something slightly in excess of a million sets.

    There were 20,000 copies of the limited edition #41999. Presumably most other commercially available sets are somewhere between the two.
  • tamamahmtamamahm Member Posts: 1,987
    SumoLego said:
    Announcing particular sets being a 'top-5 seller' without disclosing the number of sets sold or number of sets produced doesn't provide much (or any) insight.

    If you produced 1,800,000 police station sets and sold 1,250,000, that may be a 'top-5 seller', but not necessarily successful if 550,000 are sitting in inventory at the end of the year.
    Agreed, it does not tell if a set is selling to their expectations. It does not tell the profit off that particular set. It does give one data point, though, and with Lego, it seems the best we can do is collect what few data points they give and try to figure out things from there. Even then, we are always going to be missing data. 

    For me, the fascinating data point was that 1/3 sales were from Star Wars and Frozen. Now, obviously it does not state percentage breakdown between those two, but for Frozen to be mentioned in that same statement as Star Wars, indicates to me it was not simply a small 5% share of that 1/3, especially when Elsa's castle was the pie top seller. Much of the year there was only one continually hard to find Frozen set, before a few were released in December....it does make me go hmmm, as to how huge the Frozen sales were. 


  • FauchFauch Member Posts: 2,711
    and there were like 50-100 star wars sets available at retail and 2 or 3 frozen ones
  • TigerMothTigerMoth Member Posts: 2,343
    The grouping is presumably because they're both Disney.
    SumoLego
  • mustang69mustang69 Member Posts: 544
    I'm not really familiar with how retail works but aren't sets that are ordered by retailers already paid for, at least as far at Lego is concerned? Then it would be up to that retailer to sell it to make their money back?
    SumoLego
  • Werewolf_pooWerewolf_poo Member Posts: 71
    TigerMoth said:
    Werewolf_poo said:
    i was just wondering if Lego publish figures for how well each set sells or even how many sets they produce for each set. I find this kind of thing quite interesting but cannot find anything so far.
    If you want an order of magnitude, the all-time best seller set was supposed to be "Mindstorms".
    I found that Q&A after a quick google, it was from way back in 2008 though. Some of the answers were very vague and rehearsed it seem. Be nice to get a true insight into the workings of Lego.
  • ryjayryjay Member Posts: 1,006
    When we talk top sellers, are we talking dollar sales or unit sales?
  • SumoLegoSumoLego Member Posts: 15,241
    TigerMoth said:
    The grouping is presumably because they're both Disney.
    And my guess is to spin the idea of 'balance' between the themes.  I would posit that the percentage breakdown is probably 98% to 2%.
  • SumoLegoSumoLego Member Posts: 15,241
    edited March 2016
    ryjay said:
    When we talk top sellers, are we talking dollar sales or unit sales?
    That is one of the mysteries... and because Lego is privately owned, we will never know!

    The thing with sales figures is that even in publicly traded companies, the numbers can be manipulated.  Frankly, Lego could just make everything up.
  • CCCCCC Member Posts: 20,556
    The interesting thing about the SW and Frozen claim is that it is SW and Frozen, not SW and Disney Princess. I wonder if that tells you something about how big the Frozen sales are compared to the rest of Disney. And if so, are we going to get a new Frozen set every six months ...
    catwrangler
  • BumblepantsBumblepants Member Posts: 7,729
    ^Frozen 2 will surely see a massive line whenever it comes out. Hopefully no sound bricks will be included
    Pitfall69flord
  • catwranglercatwrangler Member Posts: 1,895
    Bumblepants said:
    ^Frozen 2 will surely see a massive line whenever it comes out. Hopefully no sound bricks will be included
    "Let it go, let it go, let the battery run down!"
    BumblepantsSprinkleOtter
  • tamamahmtamamahm Member Posts: 1,987
    CCC said:
    The interesting thing about the SW and Frozen claim is that it is SW and Frozen, not SW and Disney Princess. I wonder if that tells you something about how big the Frozen sales are compared to the rest of Disney. And if so, are we going to get a new Frozen set every six months ...

    TigerMoth said:
    The grouping is presumably because they're both Disney.

    Right. Lego did not have to mention Frozen. Lego has an entire Princess line that could have been mentioned and it wasn't. Keep in mind too, Lego could have stated fStar Wars and Marvel, and they didn't say that either, which if he was just grouping items because they were Disney, he would not have left out Marvel. The Frozen Castle was their top seller, and it was specifically mentioned in that 1/3 statement. I do not think including it was an accident or sheerly because they were grouping Dismey items together, or Princess/Marvel should have been mentioned. 

    Considering the top two individual sellers were Frozen and Star Wars, I do not think the statement is not too much of a surprise, and I could argue they were grouped together in the 1/3 statement for that reason. I could see a company looking at their top sellers and seeing how many sales those lines brought in compared to their other themes. Of course, key to note... Large difference between number of sales and revenue... But Lego would not be the first to have a Frozen impact. A year ago American Girl was claiming that their sales were down due to Frozen.
  • DadsAFOLDadsAFOL Member Posts: 617
    Here are the 2015 top 10 sellers (based on DKK value)
    1. #41062 Elsa's Sparkling Ice Castle
    2. #75105 Millennium Falcon
    3. #60047 Police Station
    4. #31313 Mindstorms EV3
    5. #41101 Heartlake Grand Hotel
    6. #42043 MBZ Arocs
    7. #41106 Pop Star Tour Bus
    8. #21116 Crafting Box
    9. #21113 The Cave
    10. #70738 Destiny's Bounty 

    Since this is based on value, the $100+ sets dominate the list.  Elsa's is the exception to that rule, but it was also available since late December 2014 so had a full 12 months of sales.  Compare to Millennium Falcon that wasn't released until Force Friday 9/9 and only had ~4 months of 2015 sales.
  • BumblepantsBumblepants Member Posts: 7,729
    Impressive the police station ranks so high while being in its second year and competing with the swamp police station at the same time.
  • CCCCCC Member Posts: 20,556
    Also that SW has only one entry. Clearly one popular SW set.

    Whereas Friends is up there twice, as is Minecraft.


  • FauchFauch Member Posts: 2,711
    interestingly the destiny bounty has been 30% off in lots of place for several months.
  • madforLEGOmadforLEGO Member Posts: 10,836
    edited March 2016
    Bumblepants said:
    Impressive the police station ranks so high while being in its second year and competing with the swamp police station at the same time.
    I was just thinking about police stations for LEGO actually. I recall one of my cherished LEGO town sets I had was the #6384 police station. Not sure if it is a modern day 'good guy' western ideal (at least in the US), or other reasons (maybe a kid just wants to ensure his LEGO city is well protected) but Police stations are likely always going to be good sellers.
    As for it selling well despite the swamp police theme.. not sure how well that sub theme is doing. I like the park ranger type uniforms they have but otherwise unimpressed. For 10 dollars more you get far more building in the regular police station (and it fits with most city themes) than in the Swamp police HQ IMO.
  • SumoLegoSumoLego Member Posts: 15,241
    Civilians buy police stations, helicopters, landspeeders and lighthouses.
    madforLEGO
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